Mercy

Posted on September 19, 2019 by

I see the news of abortionist Ulrich George Klopfer keeping the remains of thousands of aborted babies in his home as some sort of trophies and I can’t seem to think anything but to plead to Jesus Christ for mercy.

Lord have mercy.  Have mercy on us all.
 
If you’ve ever read the book of Revelation there is a passage in chapter 8 that refers to there being “silence in heaven for about half an hour” after the Lamb (Jesus) opens the seventh seal, as a part of his righteous wrath against all sin and ungodliness.
 
Frankly, it’s terrifying.
 
In the midst of all the horrors that are taking place on earth as the Lord rightly judges his creation for sin, there is silence in heaven.  I don’t know that I understand correctly why there is silence but right or wrong it’s always been my faith that it’s simply a sign of solemn sober mindedness about the gravity of the things which are about to take place.  It gives a weight to the wrath of the Lamb that I’m not sure anything else could.  All the heavenly host stand in silent awe of the wrath that Jesus Christ himself is about to release on the world because of sin.
 
There is nothing hidden from his sight.  He sees everything.  And he detest sin.  He specifically detest the shedding of innocent blood and he will not let these things go unpunished.  When Jesus Christ returns he will be bringing his recompense (repayment) with him and it will be a fearfully awesome thing.
 
And so I pray to the Lord, “Lord please have mercy.  Have mercy on us all Lord.  Have mercy on the abortionist, have mercy on those who have had abortions, have mercy on me a sinner who because of my own rebellion toward you I partook in sexual sins that lead to the greater sins of abortion and the shedding of innocent blood.  Lord please have mercy on us all.  Lord shelter us from the wrath that is coming.”
 
If you’re reading this I want you to know that the wrath of the Lamb is a very real thing.  It is coming and it will be so awfully terrible  I just want to be honest with you.  These sins we’ve committed will not go unpunished, they will be dealt with by a righteous and holy God who detest sin and will put a complete and utter end to it.
 
But there is good news.  There is shelter for you from this approaching judgement, from the wrath that is to come, and that shelter is Jesus Christ himself.
 
When Jesus Christ was crucified the full wrath of God the Father toward sin was poured out on him full force.  Nothing was withheld from him.  All the righteous and glorious anger that God has toward sin was totally and completely placed on Jesus as he suffered on the cross.  The full weight and penalty for the sins of all mankind were born by the Son on the cross.  The chastisement that was rightfully mine and yours, was placed on Him.
 
And so now there is a chance for you.  There is a way out from the wrath that is to come.
 
You must trust in Jesus.
 
You must believe in his life, death and resurrection for the remission (forgiveness) of your sin.  If you do this, if you repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ he will spare you from his wrath that is to come.
 
Know that He is patient, He is kind, He is long suffering and steadfast in his love.  He will forgive you of your sin.  No matter how long your list of transgressions is the Lord will wipe the slate completely clean.  He requires nothing of you but repentance and belief.  He does not ask you to get your act together and even if you thought you could it wouldn’t be acceptable to him anyway.
 
He wants your faith.  Trust him.  Secure yourself in Jesus.  Accept the free gift of salvation from your sin that he now offers you.  Hide yourself in the cleft of the Rock who is to judge the world.  Believe that while you were yet a sinner God demonstrated his love for you in this, that Christ died for you.
 
While the wrath of the Father against sin has been satisfied in the cross of Christ, know that the wrath of the Lamb is to come.  Jesus is now offering to you his own broken body and shed blood as a covering for your sin.  A shelter from the wrath to come.

But know this.  For those who do not clothe themselves in the blood of the Lamb there is unspeakable wrath still coming for you.  The King is coming and he is bringing his recompense for sin with him but before his does he has offered terms for peace.  They are very, very generous terms.  Repent of (change your mind concerning) your sin and trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ to be your only shelter from the righteous wrath of God toward sin.
 
Accept the King’s terms.  They are so incredibly good.  Don’t harden your heart toward him.  If you hear the Lord calling you now, repent and believe.  Don’t tarry.  Believe today.  Trust on the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
“Lord I pray that you would have mercy on anyone who would read this and believe the good news of Jesus Christ.  Lord you are so kind, so merciful.  Long suffering and stead fast in your love.  Bring glory to your name Jesus.  Have mercy on us all, rebels though we are.  Grant us ears to hear your voice, grant us repentant hearts and minds about our sin, grace us with a changed mind that acknowledges our sin before you and joyfully accepts the free gift of salvation from our sin by the shed blood of the Lamb.  Lord have mercy, have mercy on us all.”
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The Word of God, Part 1

Posted on May 13, 2019 by

1 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. 4 In him was life,[a] and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:1-5

When we use or hear the term “the Word of God” spoken what do we understand that to mean?  Typically, when someone mentions the “Word of God” they are making a reference to the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.  But is that what John was referencing in the first chapter of his gospel?  In a word, no.

It’s plain to even a casual reader and it’s orthodoxy to understand “The Word of God” John references in the above text is not the Bible, but Jesus.  (See John 1:14-17)

So then is it wrong to call the Bible the “word of God”?   Or is Jesus the Bible?  Or is the Bible God?  Well, no, to all three questions.  The Bible is the “word of God”, Jesus is not the Bible nor is the Bible God but both are the “word” of God.

Confused?  That’s okay, you’re in good company.

So what is the “Word of God”, what is it not and how do we know one from the other?  To understand what the “Word of God” is we’re going to need to really clearly define some things and have a talk about semantics.

Semantics is simply a study of languages, words, and what those words mean.  But before we can talk about the meaning of some of these word we first need to understand the differences between the words we read in our English Bibles and the Bible (the New Testament at least) as it was written in its original language, Greek.

Before we do that though, I want you to take a minute, stop reading and pray.  Talk to the Lord.  Ask him to speak to you, ask him to reveal to you the truth of what may or may not be said in this article.  Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate your understanding so that by the Spirit you may receive understanding in spiritual things.  Remember, “the flesh is no help at all.”  If you go at this spiritual subject as an intellectual endeavor, a pursuit of the flesh, I suspect you will greatly struggle with it.  However, if the Holy Spirit leads you I believe He will lead you and teach you perfectly, in perfect accordance with the Scriptures, that you might have the mind of Christ and know truth from error.  So take a minute and pray.  Really, just stop, and talk to the Lord for a bit and then we’ll pick this up again.

Great, so now that we’ve talked to the Lord and asked him to teach us, I believe he will, I hope you do too.  So back to Greek and English.

Look, I’m not a Greek scholar or even an English one, but I don’t need to be to understand and explain some of the things I’m going to share here.

If you’ve ever studied a foreign language from your own native tongue what you’ll quickly realize is that while most words have a perfect translation in another language, meaning a word for word match, there are many words or expressions that simply don’t have a perfect translation, there’s not a match across the languages of what the word is attempting to describe.

For instance, “blue” in English is “azul” in Spanish.  They mean the exact same thing.  They mean a very specific color and there is no disagreement between the two words.

On the contrary there are words in Spanish that tend to have more nuance than their translation in English.  Consider “Te amo” and “Te querio”.  Both translate into English as “I love you” and while they do mean this, they actually have very specific nuances that if the two words were used inappropriately, the hearer might get the wrong idea.  “Te querio” is more casual and typically used for friends and family while “Te amo” is more serious and romantic and typically intended for one’s spouse or romantic interest.

Even within the same language words can have very different meanings.  In English, “football” means a particular sport in England where players use their feet to kick a round ball into a net to score points and a totally different thing in America where players throw an oblong ball and catch and run with it across a goal line in order to score points.

So the point is, words have meaning.  And sometimes that meaning is “lost in translation”.  So it is with the word “word” in English Bibles.  The English word “word” simply isn’t sufficient to explain the nuance between the Greek words “logos” or “rhema” for which the English word “word” is used in English Bibles. 

So when a person refers to the Bible, they’re referring to the Holy Scriptures.  Well the Greeks had a word for the the “Scriptures” or the “Holy Writ” as it’s sometimes called.  And the Greek word they used was “graphe”, which is the same Greek word we get the English words “write” or “written” from.  “Graphe” in the Greek means a “a document, the Holy writ, Scripture”.  And that’s all that it means.  That’s the words plain meaning and it doesn’t have another meaning.

Most English Bible readers have no knowledge of the Greek word “graphe”.  And did you know that the Greek word “graphe” is never (not once) translated into the English word “word” in any Bible?  Ever.  The “graphe” in Greek is always translated into English Bibles as the “Scriptures”.  Take a look for yourself here.

So when we call the Bible the “word” we do something that not even the Bible itself does!  The Bible never refers to itself as the “word” but always as the “scriptures” (the “graphe”).

But does that mean the Bible isn’t the “word of God”?  Well, no.  The Bible is absolutely the “word of God” but what we mean when we say that is that the Bible is a collection of writings that God himself spoke/wrote through human authors by divine inspiration. (2 Peter 1:20-21)  So the Bible is certainly the “word of God”, it’s absolutely God’s words that he spoke and that he had his servants write, perfectly I might add, as his own personal testimony concerning himself and his creation.  So the Bible can be correctly understood to be the word of God.  It’s God’s own testimony, that’s why we call it the Old Testament and the New Testament.  God, in his own words, is testifying here and his testimony is true, it is holy and it should be believed by anyone who would read it.

So what am I getting at?  Well my point is this.  There is still much confusion when most Christians use the term “the word of God.”  Most of the time they’re using it to refer to the Bible when they really should be using it to refer to something else, namely, Jesus Christ or the indwelling voice of the Holy Spirit.

In short, what I’m saying is that the “Logos”, the “rhema” and the “graphe” are different words and they have very different meanings and because of the limitations of the English language we have really departed from a correct understanding of what’s being said in the Bible about both the Bible and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and these misunderstanding have incredibly important implications in the life and practice of any who would love and follow Jesus Christ as a disciple.

You’ll notice that whenever I write on this blog I try to use very specific language or words when referring to a particular thing.  I rarely use the word Bible and most often refer to it as the Bible itself does as the “Scriptures”.  My hope is to avoid this confusion that so much of Christendom has entered about this subject.

Personally I think it would be beneficial if Bible translators would simply stop using the English word “word” for the Greek words “logos” and “rhema” because even those two word have different nuances.  So going forward I’ll simple refer to the “logos” as the logos and the “rhema” as the rhema and the “graphe” as the scriptures.

Below are the definitions of these three words according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.  As you’ll see for yourself, the three words each have different meanings, that’s why there’s three of them!  Ha!

“Logos” – Strong’s Word G3056 – “λόγος lógos, log’-os; from G3004; something said (including the thought); by implication, a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension, a computation; specially, (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ):—account, cause, communication, × concerning, doctrine, fame, × have to do, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, reason, + reckon, remove, say(-ing), shew, × speaker, speech, talk, thing, + none of these things move me, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.

While the “logos” is an incredibly deep word with multiple entendre it can be best understood to mean “the Divine Expression” or God expressed as he’s chosen to reveal himself to his creation.  Simply, the person, God the Son, Jesus Christ.

“Rhema” – Strong’s Word G4483 – ῥῆμα rhēma, hray’-mah; from G4483; an utterance (individually, collectively or specially),; by implication, a matter or topic (especially of narration, command or dispute); with a negative naught whatever:—+ evil, + nothing, saying, word.

Likewise, “rhema” is a word with deep meaning but it can more simply be understood to mean “an utterance, that which is uttered by a living voice“.

“Graphe” – Strong’s Word G1124 – γραφή graphḗ, graf-ay’; from G1125; a document, i.e. holy Writ (or its contents or a statement in it):—scripture.

Finally, we see the Greek word “graphe” means “scripture” in English.  So the Bible.  So the word the Bible uses for the Bible is “graphe” and that word is never transliterated as the English word “word” in any English Bible.  Ever.  The “graphe” is always, correctly I would say, translated as the “scripture”.

In summary, the “logos” is the Divine Expression, Jesus Christ, the “rhema” is a thing uttered by a living voice (typically used in reference to the Holy Spirit speaking) and the “graphe” is the Holy Scripture, ie the Bible.

Now, why does all this matter?  Why are these semantics significant?  As I said above, because of this confusion most Christians unknowingly err when they use the term “the Word of God” and apply it to the Bible and not Jesus Christ or the utterance of the Holy Spirit and this is a very serious problem as it manifests itself in a whole host of problems in the life and practice of most believers.

My concern here is not semantics but rather the reality that so many Christians have unknowingly replaced the living Word (logos) of God, Jesus Christ, with his testimony the Holy Scriptures/Bible (graphe) and this is a tragedy.

We’ve replaced the living God with his letter.  The man with his testimony.  And so, instead of truly abiding in Jesus, the living Word of God, we are looking for the life only He can provide in a dead letter, the Holy Scriptures.

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our[a] hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.[b]

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. – 2 Corinthians 3:1-6

We’ve become like the Jews who sought to kill Jesus in John, chapter 5.

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. – John 5:39-40

The life of Christ can’t be found in the Scriptures apart from the illumination of the Holy Spirit.  We MUST head his voice (rhema) to have his life (logos), then and only then, will the Bible (graphe) benefit us in any real way.

Come back for Part 2 of “The Word of God, Part 2” as I hope to go into some examples of how all of this applies in the way many of us read and understand the Scriptures and therefore live out our faith in Christ.

Grace and peace to you in Jesus name.

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Hear Him…

Posted on April 26, 2019 by

Stop what you’re doing.

Walk outdoors and take a look around. See the trees, the birds, the flora and fauna that’s all around you.

Let your eye rest on the first thing that captures your gaze. Meditate on that and then… listen.

Hear the still small voice of the Lord.

He speaks and he grants ears to hear his Word.

Do you hear Him? What hath the Lord said to you today?

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Signs and Wisdom or the Folly of the Cross?

Posted on April 9, 2019 by
Do you need a sign? Something to prove to you that Jesus Christ is Lord?
 
Do you want wisdom? Perhaps a persuasive argument to convince you that Jesus is worth believing in and following?
 
You’ve already received both.
 
Repent and believe the good news of Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the remission of sin.
 
“18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
 
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
 
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
 
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Hear and believe…

Posted on April 6, 2019 by

The Law of the Lord Is Perfect

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

19 The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above[a] proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice[b] goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5     which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect,[c]
    reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
    making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
    enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
    enduring forever;
the rules[d] of the Lord are true,
    and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
    and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
    in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can discern his errors?
    Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
    let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
    and innocent of great transgression.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
    be acceptable in your sight,
    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19

Father, we love you.

We worship you for your deeds are mighty and bold and full of wonder and majesty.

Father, there is none like you.

You alone cause the sun to shine, to pour forth its power, that the trees might stretch out their branches and the grass of the field bear the fruit of spring.

We have heard your voice and believed your Word.

Indeed, the heavens declare your glory.

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The Treasure of Our Faith

Posted on March 29, 2019 by

In John 6 Jesus proclaims He is the bread of LIFE.

   44 I am that bread of LIFE.

   45 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

   51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is m flesh, which I will give for the LIFE of the world.

Later in John 14:6

   . . . I AM the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE.

By the witness of these two verses, among many others, we reckon Jesus proclaiming that HE (the Divine person and very God) is THE WHO. . . of LIFE.

Yet when Jesus, the Truth, stood before Pilate, the Truth said, in John 18:

37 Pilate, therefore, said unto HIM, Art THOU a king, then? Jesus answered. Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for the cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the TRUTH.  Everyone that is of the TRUTH HEARETH MY VOICE.

   38  Pilate saith unto him, WHAT is truth?. . .

When Jesus testified in John 6:45 that Your fathers did eat manna . . . and are dead. He referred to the account in the Old Testament in Exodus 16:15

And when the children of Israel SAW it, they said one to another, It is manna, for they knew not WHAT it was.  And Moses SAID unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

According to Strong’s Concordance manna means ‘WHAT IS IT’?

Both Pilate and the children of Israel were concerned with WHAT they were seeing, rather than the WHO that was speaking.

So we are back in the garden, again.  For we find we are dealing with the Tree of Knowledge (WHAT) of good and evil and the Tree of Life (Jesus, the speaking WHO), guarded by a flaming sword of fire.  The fruit of one leads to death in our efforts to be like God, the other requires a death/cross that leads to eternal resurrected LIFE by faith in Christ Jesus.

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The Trinity, Graven Images and the Holy Scriptures

Posted on March 21, 2019 by

Trinitarian Distinctions and Why they Matter

In the first three centuries of the church there was probably no greater doctrinal argument than that over the “substance” of Christ as he related to the Father. Trinitarians argued that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, while three separate persons were all a part of the same substance or essence, something called “homoousios”.

Arianism as it was called argued that God was not Triune but that the Son was “begotten” of the Father and thus the Son and the Holy Spirit were all of their own individual substance or essence or “heteroousios”. Therefore Jesus Christ was a created being and not eternally God.

Around the same time another theological camp came forth called Semi-Arianism that would agree with Arianism that the Son was not “of the same substance” (homoousios) or the Father but they would go on to say that the Son was of a “of a similar substance” (homoiousios). So similar but still different.

In time, Arianism and it’s brother Semi-Arianism would assume the label of heresy and Trinitarianism would win the day becoming orthodoxy.

What’s the significance of this? Well the significance I’d like to point out is that distinctions matter. Even very particular distinctions. The Trinity is a great mystery. The human mind isn’t capable of fully understanding the paradoxical nature of the Triune God. All we’re capable of knowing are the things we do know. Namely, God is one in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son nor the Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father nor the Son. God is the uncreated reality of Truth. This is what we can know about God’s nature. How this is possible we can not understand, nonetheless it is so.

These distinction are of great significance. If we don’t acknowledge them then we don’t acknowledge God for who his is or has revealed himself to be. We’ve in effect, created a false god, one that does not exist and we have profaned the true living God in ascribing to his nature things that he himself does not reveal to us as pertaining to his character.

Distinctions, even the most minute, have very serious implications, especially as they pertain to the nature and being of the Holy Trinity.

Graven Images

In Exodus 20 the Lord God spoke to his people laying out for them what would come to be known as the Decalogue or Ten Commandments.  In verse 4 God says the following:

“4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” – Exodus 20:4-5

Essentially, God has told his people that they shall not make any idols for themselves, nor shall they worship them.  Not ANY likeness of ANY thing.  Nothing.  The Triune God is alone to be worshiped.  And while the Israelites didn’t know God to be Triune at the time, nevertheless he is and was and will always be Triune.

So nothing but God was to be considered God or worshiped as God.

The Scriptures

So what’s this got to do with the Holy Scriptures?  If you’ll read my Theological Distinctions page you’ll see my view on the Scriptures.  I have much more I’d like to share on this website about the Scriptures but for now, know this: that the Scriptures are the testimony of God.

They are what God has said about himself and his creation.  They are true.  They should be believed.  In fact, if one does not believe what they say, then Jesus says they will not believe his words (John 5:46-47).  Jesus himself gives an inescapable weight and significance to the Holy Scriptures.  They are, after all, his own testimony about himself and his creation, it stands to reason that Christ would place such a weight on his own words.

If you or I were to give our testimony concerning ourselves I’d assume we’d certainly want what we had said to be believed by those to whom it was given.  So it appears it is the same for the Lord.  His testimony, the Holy Scriptures, matter to him a great deal.

Another Distinction

When considering the nature of the Triune God and his Holy Scriptures yet another distinction must be made in order to properly understand what God has revealed to us about his very nature.  And that distinction is this: the Holy Scriptures are not the Triune God, nor is the Triune God the Holy Scriptures.

Remember, our God is Triune.  He is THREE persons, ONE God.  God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Holy Scriptures are not the Father, nor the Son nor are they the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Scriptures are the testimony of the Triune God but they are not themselves the Triune God.  The Holy Scriptures are no more God the Son than the Holy Spirit is the Father.  Our God is Triune not Quadriune; he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he is NOT Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Holy Scriptures.  These distinctions matter.

Remember the great theological debate of early church history.  The issue at hand was the substance or essense of God.  Both Trinitarians and Arians believed that the Father was God, the Son was God and the Spirit was God.  On this important note they all agreed.  The absolutely critical component of their disagreement was the question as to whether or not the three persons of God shared the same “substance” or “essence”.   Trinitarians said yes.  Arians said no.  And the question at hand was of profound consequence.

So it is with the Scriptures.  There must be a clear distinction between the Triune God and his testimony, the Holy Scriptures.  If there is not a distinction, then the logical implication is that the Triune God IS the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Scriptures ARE God.  And this is heresy.

Why is it heresy?  It’s heresy because in effect, if we do not make a distinction between the Triune God and the Holy Scriptures we have made them one and the same, they are essentially the same substance or have the same essence or homoousios as it were.  So just as the argument over Trinitarianism vs Arianism was a discussion of whether or not the Father, Son and Spirit shared the same substance, so we see the same implications are at play if we say that the Father, Son, Spirit and Scriptures are of the same substance.  There MUST be a distinction between the Triune God and his testimony, the Holy Scriptures.   If there is not, then we’re saying that the uncreated God is now a created thing, his testimony.  We’re saying He is a tangible thing, a book of writings (however accurate and truthful they may be) and this is directly contrary to what the Scriptures themselves teach about the nature of God and the Scriptures.

Some Illustrations

In order to better explain what I mean perhaps a few illustrations would help.  If a person goes to court and gives a testimony concerning themselves they are speaking forth a new thing, something that didn’t exist before they were sitting on the stand now exists as they speak forth their testimony.  In effect their testimony is a new creation.  It is a created thing.  What didn’t exist before they took the stand, now exists in their sharing their testimony.  Whatsmore, no one would assume that the physical record or transcript that the court reporter created of the person’s testimony would actually physically become the person on the witness stand.  That’s absurd.  The person on the stand doesn’t become a physical transcript after giving their testimony.  No, the person remains who they are and now a new thing, a thing separate from their being is created, a testimony.

The written record of the persons testimony is simply that, a written record.  Assuming the witness told the truth and the court reporter accurately recorded the testimony given then the written record of that testimony is accurate, it is true, it is to be believed.  Further, no one in their right mind would now assume that the physical transcript that the court reporter drafted would now become in essense and substance the same thing as the person on the stand giving they’re testimony.  No, this defies all reason.

So it is with our Triune God and his testimony the Holy Scriptures.  Our Triune God is uncreated.  His testimony is created.  Our Triune God tells the truth and his prophets have accurate transcribed his testimony according to the power and direction of the Holy Spirit and therefore the written record of his testimony, the Holy Scriptures are accurate, true and should be believed.  But God’s testimony has not become God.  To say it has means that God is no longer uncreated and eternally existent.  No, the Holy Scriptures are simply God’s testimony concerning himself and the revelation of his glory in all creation.  Thus, why they are called the Old TESTAMENT and the New TESTAMENT.  They are testimonies.  They are God’s own testimony concerning himself and his creation.  They are true and they should be believed.  However, they are not God himself.

Another example of what I mean.  Most of us carry around some form of identification.  Why?  What’s it for?  Well essentially, it’s a testimony.  Our driver’s license or a passport is a basically a testimony that we give so that we can verify we are who we say we are.

My passport will say that my name is Kyle McDaniel, it will show that I have brown hair and brown eyes, it will say that I’m roughly 6’1″ tall and 210 pounds.  It should accurately record my physical address and testify that I am a citizen of the United States of America.  All of these things are true, they should be believed by anyone who takes a look at my passport and they are believed by immigration officials who use it to verify my claim that I’m Kyle McDaniel and I’m an American citizen and should there for be granted admittance into the United States.

However, I am not my passport.  Nor is my passport me.  The passport is my testimony concerning myself.  That’s it.  If I committed a crime and the authorities sought to apprehend me and they happened to find my passport does any rational person believe they would have “me” in custody?  Ha!  Of course not.  I’m not a passport, I’m a human being.

The same can be said about our Triune God and his testimony the Holy Scriptures.  God is not the Bible, nor is the Bible God.

Not to belabor this point but for further illustration the map is not the territory, it’s an accurate, true and believable testimony concerning the territory being traversed.  The recipe is not the meal, it’s an accurate, true and believable testimony about how to cook the meal but it’s not the meal itself.

I hope these illustrations provide some help in demonstrating the point I’m trying to make.

Why does this matter?  Part 1

So why does this distinction matter?  Well it matters for multiple reasons but primarily because this distinction ensures that we understand accurately who God has revealed himself to be; who he is and what he is not.

“29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” – Acts 17:29

“28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.” – Isaiah 40:28

“8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Revelation 1:8

Our God is not a created being.  He is the uncreated, eternally existent reality of Truth.  The Holy Scriptures however are his testimony, a thing created by him and spoken forth before the foundations of world itself were lain.  Nevertheless they are still a created thing.  Therefore it is of the utmost importance that we do not call the Holy Scriptures God for in doing so we make a created thing to be the uncreated God.

Back to Graven Images…

Now that we’ve established that our Triune God is uncreated and that his testimony, the Holy Scriptures are a created thing, perhaps Exodus 20 will bring on new significance.

So what is a “graven image” anyway?  The Hebrew word used in Exodus for “graven” is “pecel” which means “an idol, a carved (graven) image” and comes from the Hebrew root word, “pacal” which means “to carve, whether wood or stone, to grave or hew”.

Essentially, a graven image is anything, ANY thing, that is carved or shaped by human hands and worshiped as an idol, as if it were a god.

When the prophets wrote the Holy Scriptures under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit they did so by engraving (that is writing) God’s testimony on a physical thing, whether it was stone or animal skins or parchment or whatever else.

If we say that there is no distinction between the Triune God and his testimony, the Holy Scriptures then in effect we have said that the graven image crafted by human hands is God and shares his very substance or essence and is therefore worthy of worship.

We’ve violated the second commandment.

We’ve crafted an image, a graven image, that we now worship as God.  This is idolatry.

Again, Exodus 20 clearly states;

“4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of ANY THING that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” – Exodus 20:4-5

I want to be crystal clear with what I am and am not saying here.  I am not saying that God had men create a graven image or an idol when he had them transcribe the Holy Scriptures.  Nor am I saying that the Holy Scriptures, because they were transcribed by men, were a creation of man.  Absolutely not.  The Scriptures were written by God himself even before they were transcribed by the prophets.  (See Galatians 3) The Holy Scriptures are God written, they are good, they are true, they are Holy.

What I am saying here is that when men treat the Scriptures as though they are God, they wrongly attribute to both God and the Scriptures characteristics that neither God nor the Scriptures themselves ever testify to.  When the Scriptures are made to be God, which they are not, idolatry is committed.

Why does this matter?  Part 2

This distinction matters for another reason.  It hinders us greatly from truly knowing God for who he is and having his resurrected life in Christ Jesus made manifest in us.  When we elevate the Holy Scriptures to a place they don’t belong, the place of God, then we begin to worship them as God when in reality we are worshiping an idol.  We forsake the living God for his testimony believing that his testimony, the Holy Scriptures, can give us the eternal life that is only found in Jesus by hearing his voice.  This is exactly what Jesus explained to the Jews in John 5.

The Jews were seeking to kill Jesus because he was making himself equal with God.  In verse 24 Jesus says,

“24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” – John 5:24-25

It is those who HEAR HIS VOICE that will have eternal life.

“39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” – John 5:39-47

The Jews sought the Holy Scriptures, God’s own testimony concerning himself, because they believed that by doing so they would have eternal life but Jesus says they didn’t come to him that they may have that life.  In saying these things Jesus has done three things:

  1. He makes a very clear and unequivocal distinction between himself and the Scriptures.  They came to the Scriptures but not to Christ.  If Christ and the Scriptures are not distinct from one another then this is not possible.  If Christ and the Scriptures are the same substance or essence then the Jews should have been coming to Jesus when they came to the Scriptures, yet Jesus clearly explains in very plain language this wasn’t the case.  Christ is not the Scriptures and the Scriptures are not Christ.  The distinction is crystal clear.
  2. He’s exposed the heart of the Jews, that they didn’t actually love God (v. 42), they loved the glory that came from another.  There hope was set on Moses, there hope was set on self perfection.  They believed that if they knew Moses writings (which are the Holy Scriptures) perfectly they believed that they would be perfect and acceptable to God.  But by works of the law shall no man shall be justified!
  3. He establishes the fact that the Scriptures do indeed bear witness about him.  The Scriptures as I’ve clearly stated before are God’s own testimony, they do bear witness about him and they are true and should be believed.  Not only that, but Jesus comes full circle to what he said in verses 24-25 about those who believe his words will have eternal life and says that if you don’t believe the writings of Moses (the Holy Scriptures) you won’t be able to believe his words.

So we see you can’t know God and have his eternal life by simply knowing the Holy Scriptures as the Jews did.  You must HEAR HIS VOICE.

In John 8:47 Jesus reiterates this point with crystal clarity:

“47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” – John 8:47

For The Letter Killeth…

In John 14 Jesus tells his disciples of the promised Holy Spirit and how he will teach us everything that Jesus said.

“26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” – John 14:26

So after the Holy Spirit comes he will now be the one who speaks to God’s people.  And the voice that Jesus said we had to hear in order to have eternal life, will be the voice of the Holy Spirit.

And the Apostle John encourages us in his epistle with this same message.

“24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us[a]—eternal life.” – 1 John 2:24-45

The current ministry of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to the life of a born again believer in Jesus Christ.  We MUST hear his voice in order to have the life of Jesus Christ.  We MUST.  And this is why the Jews who sought to kill Jesus didn’t have the eternal life they sought.  Because they didn’t hear the voice of the Spirit.

A final word on graven images.  The etymology of the English word graven is the past tense of grave, meaning “to bury”.  Perhaps this is not by accident as Paul so clearly taught us:

“3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our[a] hearts, to be known and read by all. 3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.[b]

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one[c] turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.17 Now the Lord[d] is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,[e] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.[f]For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” – 2 Corinthians 3

You can and should search the Scriptures.  They should be read, study and believed.  But know this; the letter, the Holy Scriptures in and of themselves will not give you the life you seek.  No amount of diligent study or theological acumen will birth the life of Christ in you.   Apart from the Holy Spirit the Holy Scriptures, like all idols and graven images will always lead to death.  The Holy Spirit must speak and we must hear his voice in order to have the life of Jesus Christ.

It is the Spirit that gives this life.

Grace and Peace to you in Jesus name.

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