Tilling and Planting

Tag: God’s Nature

  • Trinity Trilogy – God The Son

    Trinity Trilogy – God The Son

    Intro

    Welcome to the second part of the Trinity Trilogy! In this part of the trilogy, I will be going over the second member of the Trinity: God the Son. In part one (check it out here if you missed it), I stuck with the more general name ‘God’ for God the Father – even though I could have chosen one of a number of distinct names. However, for God the Son, I am going to use His more common name of Jesus.

    Who is Jesus?

    Similar to the question “Who is God?”, the question “Who is Jesus?” will get you different answers. Some say he was a great teacher. Others say a prophet. Some people claim he was a fraud. Still others make the claim that he was – and is – the Son of God. How we answer this question reveals where our faith in God lies and reveals a lot more about our worldview. For the rest of this post, I explore the Biblical claims made about Jesus.

    As the title indicates, Jesus is the second member of the Trinity – as God the Son. That title – God the Son – indicates two key parts about Jesus’ identity: 1) He is the Son of God; and 2) He is God. I explore these two parts first before examining some other parts of His identity.

    Jesus is God’s Son

    The gospels quote Jesus claiming, or giving Himself, many names and titles. One of the most prominent ones is His claim to be the Son of God. In many of His prayers, He refers to God as “Father.” In one His most famous prayers in John 17, He says, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” And on the cross, Jesus prayed “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34 NIV). The word Jesus uses for Father is “Abba” which denotes a deeply intimate relationship – the equivalent word in English would be “Daddy”. The Jews had an understanding of their people as the children of God, but they wouldn’t have used such an intimate word for their relationship with Him. Jesus’ use of it was radical indeed. Which indicates how close God and Jesus were.

    And it wasn’t a one-way relationship either; during His baptism, God declares that Jesus is “My Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17 NIV). And towards the end of His earthly ministry, when Jesus transfigured before Peter, James, and John, God spoke again and commanded that they listen to His Son. And later in Colossians 1:13 (NIV) Paul writes, “For he [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”

    Jesus is God

    Not only does Jesus make these claims about being the Son of God, but He also claims equality with God. And not just equality of status or standing – like two CEOs of different companies – but claims to be God.

    Jesus’ Claims

    Many people say that Jesus never once claimed to be God. That He would have been appalled at being elevated to godhood after His death. But this is just not true. All throughout His ministry, Jesus makes repeated claims to be God. Sure, maybe He doesn’t say the English phrase “I am God” but he sure does say things that make the religious leaders ready to stone Him for that very thing. For example, John 10:33 (NIV), “‘We are not stoning you for any good work,’ they replied, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’” The Jews recognized what Jesus was saying and called Him out on it. And Jesus didn’t correct them. In fact, He doubled down on it later in this conversation.

    The I Am

    More than once throughout the gospels, Jesus uses a term that is translated as “I am” in English. Perhaps the best-known instance of this is in John 8:58 “‘Very truly I tell you,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’” (NIV). And like the other passage I mentioned, the Jews caught His meaning and tried to stone Jesus. Why? We miss it in English, but that phrase “I am” – which seems grammatically incorrect in Jesus’ statement – is actually the name God gave to Moses when Moses asked whom he should say sent him. “God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I am has sent me to you.”‘” (Exodus 3:14 NIV). Jesus used a very holy and specific name of God to refer to Himself. If that’s not claiming to be God, I don’t know what is.

    If Jesus never intended to claim to be God, and the Jews merely misunderstood Him, all Jesus would’ve had to do is say, “I’m not claiming to be God. You misunderstand me. Here’s what I meant.” And everyone would have been happy, and no one would’ve tried to crucify Jesus. But Jesus didn’t do that. He consistently doubled down and selected words and phrases (such as “I am”) to announce His deity. This served to antagonize the Jews – which resulted in the religious leaders pushing for His execution.

    Jesus is the Lamb of God

    Animal sacrifice was one of the key things that God instituted through Moses and the Law. All the various sacrifices were designated for forgiving sins and ritual cleansings. And the first animal sacrificed for the Israelite nation was the lamb. While still in Egypt, God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to kill a lamb and to put the blood on their doorposts so that the Angel of death would pass over their homes and not kill the firstborn child (see Exodus 11-12). This would become known as the first Passover – a holiday celebrated by the Jewish nation to this day. The Passover lamb was one of the most important sacrifices that the priests performed.

    In John 1:29 (NIV), John the Baptist proclaimed, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” when he saw Jesus walking toward him. And that last portion “who takes away the sin of the world” is the key to understanding why Jesus is the Lamb of God. In Leviticus, we see all sorts of sacrifices required of Israel. Many were for purification or peace offerings, but others were sin offerings. And in Hebrews 9:22, the author states that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (NIV). So, in order to cleanse the world of sin, there needed to be a sacrifice. And Jesus was that perfect sacrifice who bore our sins upon Him on the cross. The Bible states that no one took His life, but that He gave it as a willing sacrifice.

    Jesus is sometimes referred to as the Passover Lamb, because He died during the Passover. One of the amazing things about the Jewish holidays defined by God in the Old Testament is that each foreshadows God’s ultimate plan through Jesus (But that’s another post).

    Jesus is the Coming King

    As the promised Messiah, Jesus’ work would not be complete if He did not come back and reign as the King of kings and Lord of lords here on the earth. The Jews expected the Messiah as a conquering king. There are several prophecies in the Old Testament about the Messiah being a king. One such passage is found in Daniel 7:14 (NIV), “He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” One of the reasons the Jews didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah is because He didn’t fulfill the conquering king role from the Old Testament. And there is some truth to it. Jesus hasn’t yet fulfilled all the prophecies of the Messiah. But He will.

    Acts 1:11 (NIV), “‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’” Two angels promised the disciples that Jesus would return in the clouds – which Daniel promised the Messiah would descend from. Jesus promised in John 14 that He would return for His people (the church). And we see starting in Revelation 19:11 and through the end of the book, Jesus’ return, His thousand-year reign, and a new heaven and new earth culminating in the eternal reign of Jesus and the saints with him. There will be no more death, no more pain, no more sin, and there will be joy, peace, harmony, and a restoration of Eden. Amen! Come Lord Jesus, come!

    Wrapping Up

    I hope and pray this watered and nurtured your faith in who Jesus is. Or maybe it gave you additional points or Bible references for these different topics. Whatever you got out of it, I pray it helps you in your faith journey. I couldn’t cover everything under the sun for who Jesus is, but I do believe I adequately covered some of the most important parts of His identity.

    Well, that’s all for this post. Join me next time for part three of The Trinity Trilogy – God The Holy Spirit.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Trinity Trilogy – God The Father

    Trinity Trilogy – God The Father

    Intro

    Welcome to The Trinity Trilogy. In this series, I aim to discuss who each person of the Trinity is in three separate posts – one per member. I can only do so much in a single blog post per member of the Godhead, so none of them will be comprehensive. As an aside, I recognize that the concept of the Trinity is deserving of its own post and will explore that after the trilogy. But for this first post of the trilogy, I will be examining the first member of the Trinity, God the Father.

    Who is God?

    Asking the question “Who is God?” will get you a myriad of answers. It’s not easy to explain who He is, not when He is beyond our comprehension – existing outside of time and space will do that. But I am going to do my best to lay out a few of the most pertinent attributes of God in this post.

    God is Creator

    One of the most important attributes of God, is that God is the creator of the universe. The universe did not come into existence accidentally, planets did not randomly form, and plants, animals, and humans did not evolve from simpler live forms. Genesis chapters 1-2 make it clear that God created everything – the stars, the Earth, the plants, animals, and mankind. If we ignore this important part of who God is, then we might as well forget about the rest. If God didn’t create everything as Genesis states, then we can’t trust the rest of the Bible and we should find a different religion.

    Why would I say something that strongly? Simple. 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV) says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” Since Genesis is a part of Scripture, it was God-breathed. In other words, God inspired the words that were written down. So, if God did not in fact create the universe in the manner that Genesis describes, that would either make God a liar or non-existent. In either case, the Bible would no longer be trustworthy. Which makes Christianity a worthless religion.

    So, assuming the Bible is trustworthy, is Genesis the only Biblical reference to God being the creator? Nope. To list just a couple: Revelation 4:11 (NIV) states, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” and Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV) declares, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Doing an internet search will yield many more.

    Shameless Plugs (Gasp!)

    I don’t have the time or space to go over the massive amount of evidence that exists to support the creation of the universe by God, and I encourage you to do your own research. A couple of fantastic documentaries I encourage you to check out are Is Genesis History? and TrueU (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the creators nor am I going to get paid if you visit these sites and buy anything. I am also not responsible for the amount of time and money you put into those).

    God is Good

    “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” Psalm 145:9 (NIV). The Lord is a good God. The Bible states that there is no darkness in Him. He is pure light and love. Our God is a God we can trust to give us good gifts. Many of the polytheistic religions of the ancient world had gods that would punish people for seemingly no reason. In those days, people trembled in fear of displeasing them and would assume that whenever something went wrong in their lives, it was a punishment from one of their gods. The Lord, Jehovah, is not like that. We do not have to be afraid of Him. For He loves us with an everlasting love.

    If you’re looking for verses about how good God is, the Psalms are a fantastic place to start. I opened this section with a Psalm and here’s another one: Psalm 145:7 (NIV) “They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” But don’t worry, for those of you who prefer diversity, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34 (NIV). And for those who live in the New Testament more often, “No one is good – except God alone.” Mark 10:18b (NIV).

    Similar to the last section, I could go on with the number of verses that talk about God’s goodness. Instead, I will make brief mention about the importance of God’s goodness. God’s goodness is the reason we have the option of salvation and having a relationship with the creator of the universe. It’s because of that goodness that humanity is still around – instead of being wiped out and replaced. Without His goodness, we would have legitimate reason to be worried about the future.

    God is Sovereign

    “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” Psalm 103:19 (NIV). God created the universe. And He continues to rule it. The Lord sits on His throne above the universe and there is none like Him and none who can challenge Him. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” Daniel 4:35 (NIV). The Bible is clear that God reigns and can do whatever He wants, when He wants. It’s impossible to challenge His sovereignty.

    Now, the sovereignty of God leaves many people confused. People question how a good God, if He is truly sovereign, could allow evil in the world. And the main reason I think people question this is because they don’t have a solid understanding of what sovereignty is. To put it simply, sovereignty does not mean that everything that God desires to happen will happen. The Bible states that God desires “everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV) yet this isn’t happening. People die every day without repenting. What His sovereignty does mean is that, regardless of what happens, His plans will ultimately come to pass (see Isaiah 46:9-10).

    A quick analogy, the monarchs of old Europe were sovereign over their kingdoms. But not all their subjects obeyed the laws or did what the monarch would’ve like them to. Criminals ran around doing as they pleased disregarding what the king desired. It’s the same with God and our world. God is sovereign over all, but not everyone chooses to live their lives by His standards or do what He desires them to.

    God is Father

    The Almighty, holy, all-powerful God chooses to relate to us as a Father does to his children. However, He is the perfect father as no earthly father can be. James 1:17 (NIV), “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” What’s great about this verse is that it demonstrates a couple different attributes. It serves as a reminder that God gives good and perfect gifts – this relates to the earlier point of God is Good. And it also shows us that God is a Father. However, it doesn’t state that He is our father. But that’s okay! You can find other verses that state that more clearly. Such as “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8, NIV).

    Some might say that the previous verse is from Isaiah and referencing the Jewish people. And that’s true. However, as Christians (even us Gentiles), we are grafted in (Romans 11:11-24), so this verse applies to us as well. But if you need further evidence that God is our Father, look at Ephesians 4:6, “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (NIV, emphasis mine). God is everyone’s Father. And He loves us as His dear children.

    ‘Father’ is not a Trivial Aspect of God

    This is a very important part of God. He dearly loves us and wants the absolute best for us. So much so, that He gave His only Son up to death in order to have a relationship with us. So, we could spend eternity with Him (see John 3:16). This means that we can trust Him to give us good things and to do right by us. Matthew 7:11 (NIV) states, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” His loving Fatherhood coupled with His goodness means that we don’t have to worry about receiving bad things from Him, e.g. sickness, injury, identity theft, bankruptcy, etc. These things are a result of living in a fallen world with a real enemy looking to destroy our lives.

    God’s gifts to His children are more along the lines of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. In addition to these (called the Fruit of the Spirit), He gives a variety of Spiritual gifts that He calls us to use to minister to others – both within the church and outside the church. Only a good and loving Father would do that.

    Wrapping Up

    As stated at the beginning, this isn’t comprehensive by any means. The vastness of who God is can’t be measured in one post. The Trinity Trilogy merely plants the seeds for those who are seeking. And to water and nurture the seeds for others who are more mature. If this stirs you to dig deeper into the Word of God or gives you greater confidence in who God is, then I have done my job (Did you like the plant metaphors? There’s a reason I called the blog Tilling and Planting).

    Well, that’s all for this post. Join me next time for part two of The Trinity Trilogy – God The Son.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!