Category: Who is God?

The 7 Signs (Miracles) of Jesus – Video Series

In John’s Gospel (his biography of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection) he records 7 signs. At Oak Road Lutheran Church in Lilburn, GA, we recently had a Bible study series in our Exploring the Faith Class that studied and discussed various parables and miracles of Jesus of Nazareth. Part of that series was looking at the 7 signs recorded by John. Below are links to videos that summarize most of the information and applications from these studies. I added a video making a case for there being more than 7 signs in John’s Gospel!

The First Sign – Turning Water into Wine

The Second Sign – The Healing of the Official’s Son

The Third Sign – The Healing of a Paralyzed Man

The Fourth Sign – The Feeding of the 5,000

The Fifth Sign – Walking on Water

The Sixth Sign – Healing the Blind Man

The Seventh Sign – Raising Lazarus from the Dead

Jesus Performed More Than Seven Signs In John’s Gospel

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment

The Triune Lord – From Scripture Alone

The Triune Lord

Natural Knowledge is the general revelation of God that is available to all through what God has created.  It reveals that God exists and demonstrates for us his divine attributes. 

Revealed Knowledge is the special revelation of God that reveals that reveals who God is, what he expects of us, and what he has done for us.   This revelation is found in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth and the words of the Bible. 

From the words of the Bible and through the revelation of God through the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God is revealed to be Triune; in other words, the one true God is Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. 

The Doctrine of the Trinity teaches that there is only one God and he exists in three distinct persons.

There is only one God. 

Deuteronomy 6:4 – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Isaiah 44:6-9 – “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. 7 Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.8 Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”

1 Corinthians 8:4 – “There is no God but one.”

But doesn’t the Bible indicate that there are other gods? 

Exodus 20:3 – “You shall have no other gods before me.”

But what does the Bible say about these other gods? 

Jeremiah 2:11 – “Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.”

Jeremiah 10:5 – “Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 – “Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

These so-called gods are no-gods! 

God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

All three persons of the Trinity were revealed in Jesus’ baptism. 

Matthew 3:16-17 – “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

There are three persons, yet only one name in which disciples are baptized. 

Matthew 28:19 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The three persons of the Trinity are named together in Paul’s closing benediction to the Church of Corinth. 

2 Corinthians 13:14 – “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”


The Father is called God in Scripture.

Ephesians 4:4-6 – “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Romans 1:7 – “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Jesus is called God in Scripture.

Romans 9:4-5 – “They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”

John 1:1-3, 14 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 5:16-18 – “And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

Colossians 1:15-20 – “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

The Holy Spirit is called God in Scripture.

1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19 – “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?… Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”

Acts 5:3-4 – “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Summary of the Doctrine of the Trinity

Scripture reveals that there is one God, yet in Scripture we also see that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.  All three persons are equally and fully divine. This teaching is called the Doctrine of the Trinity (three in unity). 

To express the oneness of the Trinity the Church has adopted the language of substance, essence, or nature.  God is one in substance (deity or divinity).  All three persons share in this one divine substance.  Again, each person is equally and fully God. 

To express the threeness of the Trinity the Church has adopted the language of persons.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not different Gods.  Instead they are distinct and separately identifiable individuals each with their own conscious and relational personhood. 

There is one God (one divine substance/essence/nature) in three persons. 

The language can be confusing or complicated to discern at times because God can at times be used to refer to the Trinity and other times be used to refer to the Father. 

Why does this matter?

The one true God is the Triune Lord.  To worship any other God is to worship a false God. 

The one true God is the Triune Lord.  To confess any other God is to speak a lie. 

God has revealed himself as the Triune Lord. To know God is to know the Triune Lord. 

Salvation matters.  The Triune Lord saves people from sin, death, and the Devil.  All three persons of the Trinity work in our salvation.  The Father sent the Son into the World.  The human nature of the Son was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.  The Father told the Son what to speak and to do during the Son’s earthly ministry.  The Holy Spirit empowered the Son during his earthly ministry.  The Son died for the sins of mankind.  The Father accepted the Son’s sacrifice as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.  All three persons were at work in the resurrection of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit works faith in the hearts of men so that they might believe and receive the benefits of the Son’s saving work. 

The Trinity is necessary in prayer, since we pray to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Of course, prayers can also be addressed to each person or to all three persons at the same time. 

All three persons are Eternal.

Exodus 3:14 – “God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Psalm 90:2 – “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Revelation 22:13 – “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

All three persons are Omnipotent (All-Powerful).

Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”

Luke 1:37 – “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

All three persons are Omnipresent (Ever-Present).

Jeremiah 23:24 – “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?”

Psalm 139:7-12 – “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?”

All three persons are Omniscient (All-Knowing).

1 John 3:20 – “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

All three persons are Love. 

1 John 4:8 – “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

All three persons are Good. 

Psalm 92:15 – ““The LORD is upright; He is my Rock, and in Him there is no unrighteousness.”

Mark 10:18 – “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Andy Wrasman1 Comment

10 Key Characteristics of God’s Kingship from the Psalms

Psalms 29, 47, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, and 99 are Royal Psalms that speak to the kingship of God.   These eight psalms reveal and emphasize ten key characteristics of God’s kingship: 1.) God is Lord over all the waters; 2.) God is Lord over all the earth; 3.) God is Lord over all the nations; 4.) God is Lord over all gods; 5.) God has a coming judgement over all; 6.) God is just and righteous in his coming judgement; 7.) God’s enemies will face God’s wrath at his coming judgement; 8.) God’s people will receive his peace, strength, blessing, and protection; 9.) God has worked the salvation of his people; and 10.) The proper response to the royal reign of God is for all to praise him.

Over the waters

First, we see that God is Lord over all.  This is seen in Psalm 29:3: “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.” He is over the waters, because he made them.  As their creator, he owns them.  (Psalm 95:5) Psalm 93:3 depicts flooding waters in anthropomorphic terms, referring to the raging floods and lifting up their voices, their roaring voices. Psalm 93:4 however proclaims that the Lord is higher in might than the raging flood waters, exclaiming that God is “Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea.”  Going back to Psalm 29, verse 10 states, “The Lord is enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.”  The flood is the Flood of Genesis 6-9. This shows that God is sovereign in judgement against evil.  Despite the destruction that comes from the raging waters – the Lord sits enthroned over the flood.

Over all the earth

Second, God is Lord over all the earth.  Psalm 47:2 calls God “a great king over all the earth.” Later in the psalm, in verse 7, this kingship is repeated with the words, “God is the King of all the earth.”  The most intimidating land feature due to its sheer height and difficulty to cross is likely the mountains of the earth, yet before the Lord, Psalm 97:5 says, “The mountains melt like wax before the Lord.”  In the same way that God is Lord over the waters due to his status as their creator, so too the Lord is over the earth because “his hands formed the dry land” (Psalm 95:5).

Over the nations 

Third, God is Lord over all the nations.  Psalm 47:8-9 says, “God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne.  The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.”  Just as the waters and the lands belong to God, Palm 47:10 reveals that “the kings of the earth belong to God” too.  Though these psalms do not state it, it’s clear from the rest of Scripture that the kings and the nobles of the nations belong to God – in fact all people belong to God – because God is the creator of us all; we are all his creatures.  Though in many times and in many places the rulers of this world wield much power and authority over the lives of their subjects, Psalm 99:2 makes it clear that the Lord “is exalted over all the nations.”

Over the gods

                Fourth, God is Lord over all gods.  In this world, there are many gods that even kings will bow down to and submit their authority.  Above the waters, above the mountains, there are the heavens, where in various ways the gods of men have been envisioned to dwell – sometimes more often perceived to be present in a spiritual realm animating our physical realm or dwelling in another dimension outside our senses, yet able to impact our plain of existence.  These gods however are “worthless idols” according to Psalm 96:5, because “the Lord made the heavens.”  He is above all that we can conceive and above all the idols that men fear, love, and trust above God: careers, love, money, family, comfort, pleasures, entertainment, food, success, power, sex, and fame, and the list could go on and on.  God is Lord over all these so-called gods, because as Psalm 95:3 proclaims, “The Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods.”

Coming to Judge

Fifth, God has a coming judgment over all.  Both Psalm 96:13 and Psalm 98:9 reveal that “he comes to judge the earth.”  As before his judgment upon all the earth and flesh came through the Flood, this coming judgment will descend through fire.  Psalm 97:3-5 depicts this judgment and its totality as follows: “Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.  His lightenings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.  The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.”

righteous judgement

Sixth, God is righteous and just in his coming judgment.  Though to us it might seem as unjust for God to allow evil to persist in our day and age, and we likely even think that his coming judgment is too harsh when it does come – for God to scorch all his enemies and to cause even the mountains to melt seems a bit extreme – we should be reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah that parallel the language of these Royal Psalms of God’s kingship: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).  Above all is the Lord and his coming judgment will come “with equity,” “in righteousness,” and “in faithfulness” (Psalm 96:10,13).  This is the type of judgment we should expect from God, when we grasp the reality of Psalm 97:2 that “righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.”  Psalm 99:4 tells us this nature of his coming judgment, as well, “The King is mighty, he loves justice— you have established equity; in Jacob you have done what is just and right.”

God's Enemies Get Smacked

Seventh, God’s enemies will face God’s wrath at his coming judgement.  In support of this description of what to expect from God’s kingship, I’ve already quoted Psalm 97:3 that declares, “Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.”  This psalm gives insight into who these adversaries are; they are all of those who do not worship him as Lord of all.  Psalm 97:7 warns, “All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!”

Peace

Eighth, God’s people will receive his peace, strength, blessing, and protection. Psalm 29:11 says, “May the Lord give strength to his people!  May the Lord bless his people with peace!”  Psalm 95:6-7 remind us of previous points of God’s kingship, that he is our maker and God, and as such, we are given the comforting image that “his people we are occupants of his pasture.”  Being the people of his pasture, we have the Lord’s blessing and protection, and in response Psalm 99:3 tells us the response of his people: “Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O Lord.”

Cross_Chasm_300
“Chasm” by Danny Martinez – This image appears in my book, Contradict – They Can’t All Be True.

Ninth, God has worked the salvation of his people.  Psalm 98:1-3 give the good news that the salvation of God’s people is not contingent upon themselves, their own personally earned merits of righteousness before the righteous king who is enthroned above all, but God himself has worked their salvation:

Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.  The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.  He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

As God’s people sitting on the right-side of the timeline of Jesus of Nazareth’s death and resurrection, we understand that Jesus is the right hand of the Lord who has worked this salvation:

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

Praise

Tenth, the proper response to the royal reign of God is for all to praise him.  Psalm 47:1 gives the following exhortation: “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!”  The Psalm also exhorts, “Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! (verses 6 and 7).  Psalm 95:7 gives the following invitation: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” Finally, Psalm 98:4 exclaims, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.” 

These Royal Psalms of God’s kingship make it abundantly clear that the Lord is over all things – all other gods are worthless!  God alone made everything that exists.  His creation is not able to be moved.  The proper response of creation is to worship the Creator.  Those who don’t will be judged – they will be moved (removed) by their Creator.

All glory and laud be to the Lord, our King, forever, and ever.  Amen.

Please visit my website, Contradict Movement, for more resources and products that can be used as evangelistic conversation starters. 

Andy Wrasman13 Comments

3 Forms of the Word of God

The word of God comes to us in three forms: the personal word, the spoken word, and the written word. This article will explain what each form is and what God accomplishes through each form of the word.

Luther pionting to Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be God and that his exemplary life, his miracles, his teachings, his death, burial, and resurrection all serve as credentials to verify” those claims. Jesus also affirmed the accepted text of Scripture among his people, the Jews, to contain eternal life and proclaimed that their words testify about him.  He also promised that when he returned to his Father in heaven, he would send the Spirit of Truth to his apostles who would remind them of everything he had taught them.  Because Jesus of Nazareth is God in the flesh, we can trust that he knows best what words, spoken or written, accurately reveal who he is, what he expects of humanity, and what he has done for us – what words are from him and what words are ultimately his words of revelation.  This is why the Church has trusted Jesus at his word, recognizing that the Bible (the Hebrew Scriptures of Jesus’ day and the New Testament texts that originated from within the apostolic circle) is God’s written word of divine revelation – written so that we might believe Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing in him we might have life in his name.

What I have described is wholly unique to Christianity.  In no other religion has God become a human being to personally speak to his creation and save his people from death.  Jesus, the Son of God, sent by God the Father, born of the virgin Mary, was God’s deputy.  He was given authority to speak on his Father’s behalf (authorization) and he spoke all that he had received from his Father to speak (superintendence).  If people saw Jesus, they saw the Father, if they heard Jesus, they heard the Father, because Jesus is the personal word of God.  With his words, Jesus spoke the truth of God and proclaimed the forgiveness of sins in his ministry of reconciliation to restore creation back into a right relationship with God.

The ministry of reconciliation continued with Jesus’ apostles, who he deputized to teach everything he had taught them.  As stated previously, Jesus promised that the Spirit of Truth would remind them of everything he had taught them.  This means that we can trust that the words they spoke were all that Jesus had taught them and that the words they proclaimed were true and forgave sins, just as Jesus’ words were and did.  The Apostles were therefore speaking the word of God. The apostles deputized other believers into this ministry of reconciliation, giving the Church the authority to teach what Jesus taught according to the witness they gave and to forgive sins in continuity with the proclamation of the Gospel (good news of Jesus Christ) they declared.

From within the apostolic circle, arose certain written texts that were typically written at the request of those who heard the apostolic message and wanted their words in writing, to preserve the teachings of the apostles, or to serve as reminders of what was spoken in person.  Because these texts were the written form of what the apostle’s spoke on the authority of Jesus, the personal word of God, and because they arose from within the apostolic circle (either from apostles themselves or people who wrote based on the directly received spoken word of the apostles), the Church came to recognize these texts to be the definitive versions of the apostolic proclamations in written form. The collection of these texts is the New Testament Canon; this written form of God’s word is the revelation of God that guides and norms the Church’s spoken proclamations of God’s word today.

In summary, three forms of God’s word have been presented: the personal word of God, the spoken word of God, and the written word of God.  The personal word of God is Jesus as God’s word to us.  The spoken word of God is the proclamation of God’s word to us through the prophets, apostles, pastors, teachers – all Christians – in preaching, evangelism, and through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren.  This form of God’s word is the “means of grace” word; it is the spoken form that has “causative authority” to create faith, as Scripture clearly states that faith comes from hearing.  In that last sentence, the function of the written form of God’s word was at work.  Scripture has “normative authority” to be the rule and guiding principle for all of God’s spoken word and it is the definitive standard by which all teachers’ and preachers’ words are to be judged.  Put another way, the written form of God’s word is the norming norm and the spoken form of God’s word is the normed norm.

In conclusion, these three forms are to be distinguished, but not separated.  Jesus is the personal word that gave the apostles the words they spoke and later wrote.  In the 21st century, we read the revelation of God in the written form, which serves the spoken word that proclaims God’s commands and promises, which delivers the personal word – all for our salvation and the restoration of God’s creation.

Credit: This article is largely based on class notes from Professor Nafzger’s lecture entitled, “The Word of the God of Word” given on Sept. 24th, 2018 at Concordia Seminary and the class discussion of the lecture on Sept. 27th, especially the use of the deputizing language and the descriptions of the type of of authority attributed to the spoken and written form of God’s word.

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment

The Story of Everything

With the siren of a ram’s horn, the heavenly bodies are shaken and stars fall as the atmosphere is ripped open and rolled up like a scroll.  Bursting through the hole in the sky rides the Word of God on a white horse… riding on the clouds, leading his entire angel-army. All the dead from ages before are raised from their graves, and even the sea gives up its dead.  All of humanity is brought before the one on the white horse, the one who has King of Kings and Lord of Lords written on his robe and thigh.  They all bow down before him and confess that he is Jesus the Lord, and their confession gives glory to God the Father.  Jesus has mounds of books, books that give an account of each man’s life.  This is the day of reckoning.  This must be the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning.

__________________________________________________________________

In the beginning, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were.  All three had always been, were never created, nor made, none were before the other in time or majesty.  All three are eternal, all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing, and all-good: one God.  By very nature they are love, existing in a community of love to one another.  It is out of their love and out of nothing that they together chose to create all things, visible and invisible, seen and unseen.  Humanity was the crown of their creation, being made last and in the image, likeness, of God.  God declared all that he had made to be very good… but there was war in heaven.

One of God’s heavenly beings, an angel named Satan rebelled against God his Creator in a mutiny.  Epic fail. Satan and his followers were cast out of heaven.  Losing the battle to God and his faithful angel-army, Satan turned to ravage humanity, the ones made in the image of the God he hates.  Possessing a serpent, Satan approached the first two humans in their garden home created for them by God.  The serpent deceived them into rebelling against God’s command given to them, and Adam and Eve, the parents of humanity, acted on that deception – high treason – they too thought they could take God’s rightful place of authority and power over all.

No one is above the Triune Lord.  God cursed the serpent, cursed Eve, cursed the man, cursed all of his creation, even the cute furry animals.  God damned it all!

He is a just God, a God of order.  He must punish insurrection, evil.

Yet, the Lord is by nature love.  The same love by which he created is the same love that compels him to exonerate and restore his creation.  In his knowledge of all things, The Triune Lord knew his creation would reject him and he knew what it would cost him to make all things new, but he chose to create anyways.

When cursing the serpent, God gave the promise that Eve’s offspring would deliver a death blow to his head – putting an end to Satan, his followers, and the aftermath of their rebellion.  God doesn’t forget his promises, even when man forgets and rejects not only God’s promises but God himself.

Evicted from the garden home God had given them, Adam and Eve bore children made in their likeness. One of their sons, Cain, killed his brother Abel in a fit of jealousy that God had rejected his sacrifice of offering but had found Abel’s sacrifice to be pleasing.  Cain’s descendants followed in the path of Cain with his sixth generation grandchild, Lamech, killing a man and rejecting God’s plan of marriage, taking two wives instead of one.  The line of Adam and Eve’s son Seth however, remained faithful to the Lord, for a time, until they too rejected God.  In time, only Noah remained from Seth’s line as the only man to be righteous through walking with God.

For mankind’s utter rejection of him, God destroyed all the world through water, sparing Noah, his sons, their wives, and two of each kind of creature.

Despite the salvation given to Noah’s family, men still rejected God.  Yet out of God’s love and his faithfulness, he continued to keep his promise to Eve.  He chose Abraham, a descendent of Noah, to be the father of his people, a great nation with a promised land, the man from whom the offspring would crush Satan.  God chose him despite the fact that Abraham had rejected him to worship other gods!  Abraham after being chosen by God rejected his idols and has faith in the one true Lord.  His descendants followed the Lord too, for a time, until they found themselves enslaved in Egypt… there they forgot the God of Abraham their forefather and they worshiped the gods of their masters.

Despite their rejection of him, God kept his promises.  God chose a man named Moses to lead his people out of captivity. Through many miraculous plagues against his people’s captors, Moses helped lead them to be free men again.  They didn’t approve of where God took them from Egypt, a wilderness badland with no food or water.  They wished they were back in captivity to the Egyptians.  They rejected God.  God saw to it that the old generation that escaped Egypt wouldn’t enter into his promised land, as they died off during the time he led them through the wasteland for forty years.

God is faithful to his people.  The rag-tag band of Abraham’s descendants that didn’t rebel in the wilderness finally entered into the promised land, acquiring it as God helped them drive out the nations that were in their land.  The seven-nation army couldn’t hold them back.  God was their king, but once again, his people chose to reject him, asking that he give them a king like all the other nations had a king.  They got their king, and like most men, he rejected God.  The succeeding king, King David, was of the lineage of the promise and he was chosen by God to have a descendent who would sit on a never-ending throne ruling over all the nations, the Son of David, the one to crush the serpent’s head.  Most people thought that David’s son who ascended the throne after his death, Solomon, who had built a permanent house for the Lord, and who was the wisest man to walk the earth, would be the son to rule forever, to end the wickedness in the land, but Solomon was just a man.  He had rejected God throughout his life, keeping many wives and idols in the land of God’s people, and so he died as all men do.

After Solomon’s death, the promised land to Abraham was split in two as Solomon’s descendants fought for power and authority over God’s people… power and authority over God’s people through the schemes of wanton men? Another rejection of God. Many of the kings of both kingdoms were perverse, worshipping other gods and leading the people to do so too.  Due to their rejection of the one true Lord, the God of angel-armies pulled back his hand of protection, even stirring enemy nations up against his whoring people as punishment for their idolatry.  Without God’s shelter, both kingdoms fall, the house of the Lord that Solomon built was decimated, and God’s chosen people found themselves once again slaves in a land not their own.  Among the exiled descendants of Abraham, a remnant remained faithful to God, having the same faith as Abraham.

Centuries passed.  God’s chosen people are still under foreign rule, far from being a great nation as God had promised.  But finally, during the time of Emperor Augustus of the Roman Empire, Eve’s promised offspring was born.  Unlike David’s son Solomon, this Son of David, is not a mere man; he is the eternal Word of God, born of God’s chosen theotokos, the virgin Mary.  The Son of God assumed a human nature.  His name is Jesus for he will save his chosen people.  He chose to save us by becoming one of us, The Son of God was so human that he even sucked at his mother’s breast for his body’s sustenance.  Yet the Son of God was also fully God, from his birth, heaven’s messengers delivered the good news of his life’s trajectory.  The shepherds who met these messengers accepted Jesus for who he truly is upon finding him.  Throughout his time with us many individuals received him as the promised savior against Satan and they were given the right to not just be called God’s people, but God’s children, loved by him.

Jesus claimed to be God again and again, publicly.  He performed many miraculous signs, publicly.  He taught with a wisdom that must be from God alone.  Many of God’s people wanted him to be their king, the one who would set his people free from all pain, suffering, and death, a greater escape than what Moses had enacted, a never-ending peace with a forever-ruling king.  Others denied his miracles, claiming that Jesus was acting by the power of Satan, not God.  In the end, Jesus wasn’t doing what they thought he should do: be the one-man army of God to overthrow their Roman captors – this was their promised land after all, not Rome’s.  His people rejected him, his closest followers and friends deserted him, and he was killed under Roman rule by crucifixion because of his people’s claim that he was the King of the Jews, an act of insurrection against the Roman Empire.  This is what he promised would happen, yet he also foretold that the grave would not hold him down.

Jesus’ death was the serpent’s strike at the heel of Eve’s offspring.

Jesus’ crushing blow of that serpent the devil came when no one thought it was possible; the Father raised his only eternally begotten Son bodily from the dead on the third day, just as Jesus had foretold it would happen.

Jesus’ exemplary life, his miracles, his teachings, his death, burial, and resurrection all serve as credentials to verify his title, the Son of God, the eternal Word of God.  After his resurrection, Jesus shared the story of everything to his closest followers and explained how he had to die and rise for the salvation of mankind and restoration of his creation.  Then Jesus left them, but he promised to return for them and all of his people.  His people are not those who were born of a particular bloodline, as many of Abraham’s descendants had thought.  They are all of those who received him, who called upon his name for salvation, who did not reject him, who returned from their ways to God’s way for the washing away of their evil, so that the image of God might one day be restored in each and every single one of them. They are those who God has chosen.

Repent and be washed into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of all your sins.

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Jesus is coming, and hell is coming with him.

For those who have rejected him, his return is the beginning of the end.

For those he has chosen, his return is the end of the beginning.

Andy WrasmanLeave a comment