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Considered Righteous: Justification (#KnowMore Part 6)

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Hey hey! Welcome back to the next part of our series #KnowMore. Part 6! Wow, I am glad we have made it this far, and it is my hope that we all are growing in the knowledge of these truths.

The beauty of the Gospel is that it is simple enough for a child to understand, yet has some aspects of it that defy our own logical ways of thinking and predetermined paths of reason. All it takes is faith in God to impart the wisdom to understand and accept the truths as they are. It is difficult trying to fit the round truths and teachings of God into our square shaped ideals and thought patterns; what can be done is to allow God Himself to shape our minds and hearts to then allow these truths to fit into our daily lives.

We looked at regeneration last week, the first of three guest posts in this series. We saw how God takes our hearts that are dead to sin and makes them alive through His Son, Jesus Christ. In no way are we able to quicken ourselves to acceptance; rather, we are given new life to be able to believe in Him and walk in His ways.

Today is the second post, done by a very good friend of mine. He has expressed the need to remain anonymous, and as a gesture of my respect for him, I will keep his identity unknown. It is his desire that God be glorified in his post, and not him as the writer, which is something I really commend him for.

He has been instrumental in my walk with Christ, and has helped me return to God’s word regarding my own sinful state and my continual need for Jesus’s strength. I pray this post on justification will be of great help to you.

Blessed Are Those Whose Lawless Deeds Are Forgiven, And Whose Sins Are Covered; Blessed Is The Man Against Whom The Lord Will Not Count His Sin.

The doctrine of justification has caused tremendous controversy in the history of Christianity. It provoked the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, where the reformers stood for the Biblical truth that justification is by faith alone.

It addresses the most serious plight of fallen human beings-their exposure to the justice of a holy God. The truth of the matter is that God is just, and we are not. David, in Psalms 130:3, prays, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand?”

In fact, none could stand. “None is righteous, no not one…no one seeks after God…no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12, ESV). Most of us would think that when we work hard enough to be good people, then we could survive when we appear at the judgement seat of the righteous God. That we could earn our merit before God is a great myth, and the truth is that we are debtors who cannot pay our debts.

The implication is that only another could pay the debt for us. Only God could pay the debt in our stead. Having paid the debt, He would be just, in justifying us. But what really is justification?

We consider this in parts: the nature of justification, the basis of justification, the means of justification and the result of justification.

The nature of justification is that it is an instantaneous legal act, and not an actual impartation or infusion of righteousness. God declares sinners as just before His sight, while yet, they continue to sin. It describes what God declares about the sinner, and not what He does to change the believer (but indeed, He does something to change them). Romans 8:33-34 contrasts “bringing a charge/condemning” with the justifying work of God. Just as bringing a charge is a declaration of judgement according to some standard, so is justification.

Is then God unjust when he declares sinful men righteous in His sight? Certainly not! Paul explains in Romans 3 that He upholds His justice when He declares sinful men righteous.What, then, is the basis of God declaring sinners as just? The answer is that sinful men are “justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:24-25 ESV).

This is to say that the righteousness of any man is not from himself. Rather, it is an imputed righteousness from Christ. Moreover, it is to say that Christ took upon Himself the sins of the elect. For the sake of the elect, God “made Him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV).

In upholding His justice, God punished for all the sins of the elect, and Christ bore this punishment on Himself, being the propitiation-appeasement of God’s righteous wrath due to sin.

The implication of the basis of justification is that Christ’s work on the cross must be applied, for any man to be justified. By what means are the works of Christ be imputed to anyone? Scripture consistently shows that the works of Christ are received by faith. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28 ESV). Paul says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from anything we do, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:8-9 ESV).

Faith looks outward, to receive the free gifts from heaven, pure and undeserved as they are. “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”-truly, the wages of all works is death because they are sinful-“And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5 ESV).

The result of justification will be that the believer will bear fruit. They will seek to obey the master who has bought them at a price, because they love Him. John rightly says that “we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3 ESV). A believer will not continue to make a practice of sinning, because the God who justifies them also tunes their hearts to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. It is not to claim that they will be without sin, but that they will continue to grow in sanctification.

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Made Anew: Regeneration (#KnowMore Part 5)

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Hey there people! Glad you’re back for more knowledge from the Word. Congrats for making it to half of this series! I hope you have been growing more as you learn about what God’s plan for us is; to reconcile each and every one of us back to Himself for His glory.

Last week, we saw how Jesus Himself is God in flesh, died on the cross as an atonement for our sin, and therefore being the just God He is, His wrath is appeased against sin and mercy is effected towards us who do not even deserve it.

You might be wondering, what next? If I have come to the realisation of my sinfulness, and have fully trusted in Jesus as the one who paid it all for me with His sacrifice, there has to be a continuation in this story, which will ultimately work for God’s glory and my good as well as of those around me.

The three guest posts in this series seek to answer the question, What changes happen in my life after I have believed in Jesus through faith?

Today’s post was written by my friend Frederick. His way of life; semper reformanda. Always being reformed and made more into the image of Christ by the Word. His mission; to help people see the beauty of God’s Word, and how it is indeed profitable in equipping us for every good work. Did I mention he’s a multi-instrumentalist? You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram , and probably buy him some coffee.

At this point, I (gracefully) bow out, and introduce our speaker for the day.

∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴

A certain man had a very old car lying in his backyard (okay, Kenya hakuna nyumba nyingi ziko na backyard…). Hopeful of using the car again, he approached a mechanic and asked him to make the car move again. The mechanic assessed the car – it was in a very bad condition; no engine (perhaps stolen by some gang in the hood), no seats, no transmission system. The mechanic asked the man if he could go with it to his station to see whether he could restore it to a better state, at least. After about two weeks, the mechanic returned the car to the man, driving it into his compound – proper paintjob, beautiful wheels, na kahewa. The man was startled – he never would have thought that the mechanic could have taken such a short time, and as well restore it to that standard; the car was now fit to be used on any type of road.

From the analogy above, we see that the mechanic was able to “bring” the car “back to life”, or in other words, “make it anew”. This is what regeneration looks like; God’s regenerative work is even much greater as compared to this analogy.

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Let us go to the Scriptures to find the truths concerning what regeneration is, how it occurs and to whom it is granted to.

Man is dead (dead man walking, literally…)

From first principles, man is born spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1; Titus 3:3), and his actions and thoughts are naturally inclined towards sin. This is as a result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and ate the fruit they were instructed not to eat (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12). Sin then corrupted the very being of man, so that the heart of man has since become desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). Apostle Paul even continues to mention that the mind set on the flesh cannot submit to God’s law (Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 2:14). Because of this, God’s wrath is upon all sin (and the sinner, too) (Ps. 7:11; Rom. 1:18).

Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3)

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Pharisees were strict followers of the Law, and most did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Nicodemus, however, believed that Christ was a teacher from God (v. 2) because of the signs He did (John 2:23). In this narrative, Jesus talks about being ‘born again’ – regeneration. He begins by saying that unless one is born again (other translations say ‘born from above’), he cannot see the kingdom of God (v. 3). This is a response to Nicodemus’ statement in the previous verse. The idea of a new birth was out of the ordinary to Nicodemus, having thought of it in a physical sense (v. 4). But Jesus moves on to clarify what it means to be born again – it is to be ‘born of water and the Spirit’ (v. 5). Being born of water signifies cleansing, and being born of the Spirit implies newness that leads to obedience (cf. Ezek. 36:25-27).

Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)

After the Holy Spirit had descended on some and they spoke in other tongues, people were amazed that they could each hear in his own native language (v. 8), but others said that they were drunk (v. 13). Apostle Peter proceeds to speak, saying that they were not drunk, but rather that the Scriptures were fulfilled (or came to pass) as the prophets had foretold. Peter delivers a sermon about Jesus – His death, resurrection and promise of the Holy Spirit which was manifested in that sign (v. 33, 37). This made the people (those who were listening to the sermon) respond – they were cut to the heart (v. 37). The phrase ‘cut to the heart’ implies that they got deeply convicted (of their sin), and led them to ask the question, “…what shall we do?”

Indeed, the Spirit is the one who brings about the new birth by convicting (John 16:8-9) the sinner of their sin (state of rebellion against God); and the only thing man does (in response) is to repent and be baptized (v. 38), having been changed by God.

Recipients of this New Birth

Regeneration is for whoever believes; “The wind blows where it wishes…” (John 3:8; cf. John 3:16). Whereas this is true, the new birth is for those whom God foreknew – those whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain (Rom. 8:29; Rev. 13:8) – His chosen people. The elect (the chosen ones) are the recipients of the new birth – they are from (and will come from) every tongue on earth according to God’s sovereign choice (Rom. 9-11). Nobody knows those whom God has chosen for Himself – and therefore, ours is to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Matt. 28:18-20), and God will change the hearts of those whom He chose (Eph. 1:3-6, 11-12).

At the point of regeneration, a Christian is given the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14) to help him/her to follow Christ in obedience (Col. 3:5-17). God has also provided to us a community of other believers to aid us walk in obedience to Him – the church, whose head is Christ (Col. 1:18; Heb. 3:12-14, 10:19-25).

Conclusion

No one is righteous, and no one seeks for God (Eph. 3:9-12). Only God can draw one to Christ (John 6:44). But whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:12-13) after hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:14-17). O sinner, your sin calls on God to pour His holy wrath on you; only Christ can take away your sin by faith in him. He is the perfect, sinless Lamb of God who died in place of mere mortals to bear the wrath of God on their behalf, only if they believe (1 John 2:2). Believe in Him, and He will make you a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). O Christian, shall we take the Gospel to the unreached? Shall we respond to God’s great love upon us and care to share the good news to the poor?

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:3-7 ESV

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Overwhelming Sacrifice (#KnowMore Part 4)

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Hi there!

So glad you have passed by to continue in the growth of knowing more about who God is and what He has in store for us all. I might not always get to say this, but I really do appreciate each and every one of you for reading, sharing and desiring to know more about the wonderful God who is our friend and redeemer. I am thankful to God that He is continually showing you and I His grace and will for us through His word, and I hope it will go on even beyond this series as you cultivate a personal walk with Him.

On Monday, we looked at the person of Christ, His life story and His purpose on earth. He claimed to be God in flesh, to show us that it was possible to fully obey the commands of God in order to be considered as holy before Him. It’s only a lawgiver, we saw, who can attain the law he gives. He claimed to be the Messiah, the one foretold about by the prophets to be a conquering King who would lead the nation of Israel to a glorious future of peace and prosperity, but the form He took instead of a servant was quite the opposite.

Today, we will gain further insight at what exactly He came to conquer, and how He ultimately defeated it. I hinted at it in the second part of this series, Holy, Just and Merciful. God Himself becomes the one who takes our place, and His justice is upheld while His mercy is upheld. Let’s take a deeper look.

What exactly is sin? The Hebrew word translated as sin is khata, which means to fail, or miss a set mark. Our core purpose, why we were created, was to seek to obey God in a fulfilling, trusting relationship with Him, because He knew what was good for us, and what would cause us harm. That was the set goal, the mark we were to always uphold. So, when we rebelled and decided to determine on our own what was good and evil, we failed; we sinned.

That’s where all the problems we see today started; our attempt to define what was good in our own eyes usually meant that we sought, and still seek, that which benefits us more than what will benefit those around us and give God the glory. Most of the time, they end up being things that fracture our relationships, cause grief and pain and eventually, in the extreme case, death. In Genesis 4, Cain is seen to be very angry when God showing favour to his brother Abel’s sacrifice than his own, he allowed khata, the failure to meet God’s standard of what was wrong and right, to overtake his reason and purpose to glorify God by showing respect for life, and ended up killing Abel.

So, with all the wrong done, God’s justice had to be upheld, right? When He spared the lives of Adam and Eve, He killed animals on their behalf. So, symbolically, the shedding of an innocent animal’s blood represented the death of that animal on the person’s behalf. It was as if the animal took on the sinfulness, the failure of the person to meet God’s standards and commands, and is punished on the behalf of the person (in this case, death is the punishment). The animal commonly used by the Israelites was a lamb.

On Monday, we mentioned a cousin of Mary called Elizabeth, who in her old age gave birth to a man
whose purpose was to show people their hearts needed redemption, a new birth, that could only be offered by a greater sacrifice than that of sheep or goats. His name was John the Baptist, and when he was baptising people in the Jordan River, he saw Jesus coming and proclaimed;

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

John 1:29 ESV

The lamb, of course, was a common animal used in atonement (taking the place of a sinner deserving death); however, it would usually be used to take away the sin of one person, or at most, a few other people. But a Lamb who takes away the sin of every single person on the earth? That must be a really different kind of atonement. How was it then possible for one person to be able to take the failures of everyone upon Himself?

Jesus claimed to be God, who made His dwelling among us, and took on a body like ours, along with all it’s weaknesses and impediments. Yet, He still remained obedient to God, and show love to those around Him in service, healing of bodily and spiritual brokenness and raising the dead to life. He was sinless; He attained every standard set by Himself without breaking even one. Thus, it was right that He took upon Himself the sin of every person who had ever failed to meet God’s requirement, like a lamb who had not done any of the wrongs committed by humans.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:7-8 ESV

That’s the thing that makes Jesus’ sacrifice so overwhelming; He being so perfect and free of any sin took the place of we who had every right to be punished and pay the ultimate price for our wrongs.

Nowhere else do we see such; the Creator reaching out to redeem His own creation to Himself, for His glory and their own good. It’s mind-blowing, earth-bending and soul-shattering to even think about it.

Next week begins the guest posts from three of my friends. It feels good to take a breather and offer
you a new angle.

We will begin with regeneration; what is that? Well, let’s wait and see. Technically, you wait and see, because I already have 😝😝.

Grace ✌️

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Christ the Redeemer (#KnowMore Part 3)

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Hey, hey! Welcome back, guys! Hoping you had an amazing weekend. Here’s to a brand-new week! And, apparently, a brand-new month. I swear September was like 2 hours; just whizzed past like Roadrunner. Still, we thank God for His goodness throughout the month, and it is my prayer that He will safely guide us through October.

I gave a week’s pause on this series to organise some other things going on outside of the blog, and now that it’s all good, I pray it will be consistent as promised. Every Monday and Thursday will have a new part posted.

If this is your first read on this blog, feel right at home. We have been doing a series called Know More, which seeks to help us understand more about God, His plan for us, and our role in all this. It is my hope that through all this, we will (definitely) know more, be guided more by the Word, and effectively reach out more by sharing this wonderful story of the God who is there.

In past weeks, we have been looking at God’s attributes; that which He has revealed to be true about Himself in Scripture. We saw his holiness as His primary attribute, which is, all His other attributes are set apart (distinct only to Himself) and infinitely perfect. We looked at His righteousness, how all He does is good, and His justice in having to punish that which is wrong. Lastly, we saw His mercy, in that He punished sin as His justice demanded, but we who were the offenders did not receive the punishment meted out.

Today, we take a closer look at the Person of God who took our place. On Thursday, we will delve deeper into how the substitution was carried out, hoping God will enable me to do so clearly.

Let’s begin!

We all have to agree that the person who has had most influence on culture and worldview is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. Books have been written about Him, countless forums held to discuss who He is and what He was, and many other forms of media, including plays and films, which have all tried to answer the question; who is this man who, in a span of three years, was able to completely shake up the world, have a third of the current global population follow His teachings, and literally be the central figure who splits time into two eras (BC and AD)?

It would be good to note, as we have been doing, that any of our attempts to try and explain Him as we know (or think we know) would ultimately fall short of what He has been revealed to be in the Bible. Let’s look at His life story as outlined in the first four books of the New Testament, known as the Gospels, with an emphasis on that written by Luke.

A young lady, a virgin called Mary, lived in a quaint little town in Judea called Nazareth. She was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph of the lineage of the great King David, and I bet she, just like any other young woman awaiting marriage, was looking forward to finally settling down and having a family of her own. She, being a Jew and brought up in their ways and culture, was hopeful of a day when the one promised by God to deliver them would appear. Judea at the time was under Roman occupation, and many of the people clung to the promise of this conquering King given in Isaiah 9:6-7;

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV

One day, as Mary was probably going about her own business, she received a visitor who greeted her in a very strange manner;

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”

Luke 1:28 ESV

Favoured one, she must have wondered. The visitor, who was an angel sent by God, then went on to assure her not to be afraid, for she had been chosen by God to be the one who would give birth to the foretold Promised One that she and her people had been hoping for; this son she would bear was to be called Jesus.

Well, Mary must have been quite disturbed to hear all this, and wondered how she would bear a child and yet was still a virgin. The angel told her that she would be overshadowed by the Spirit of God – the same Spirit that was present at creation and formed the world out of nothing. No human intervention was present, and thus the child born would be sinless, without the genome of Adam’s sinfulness transferred to Him.

The same power of God that would make this seemingly impossible thing come to pass had already done the same thing to Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, who, though advanced in age and considered barren, was already six months pregnant with a son who would later become the man to prepare the way for Mary’s own son.

It all might sound like a plot worthy of a bestseller, but it did happen as foretold, and God Himself came into the world as prophesied, not as a mighty King the Jews were expecting, but as a baby, helpless and crying, born in a stable because there was no room to stay in at the city of Bethlehem, where His parents had gone to be present for a census. A very humble way to enter the world He had created, and even more humbling to have to grow up as one of the people He had created.

What was the purpose of all this? Remember, we saw the Israelites had to constantly give sacrifices for their sin, or choose to follow each and every one of the 613 laws prescribed by God, with obedience from the heart, in order to be considered right before Him. Evidently, we couldn’t, and still can’t.

Only a lawgiver can spell out what they can attain.

God requires holiness in order to approach Him because He himself is holy. God therefore came down and took up our form and body to show us that it is possible to live a sinless, holy life of complete obedience to Him as He intended at the beginning.

So, His work as promised was not to lead Israel into a glorious triumph over the Romans and their oppressors. It was to redeem them and all of mankind from an even greater oppressor; sin and their own wicked desires and ways.

On Thursday, we will look at how exactly He carried out His redeeming work, and of equal importance get into a clearer understanding of what this word ‘sin’ is. Keep praying that this will impact us in our walk with God as we strive to know Him more.

Have an amazing week ahead.

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Holy, Just, Merciful (#KnowMore Part 2.2)

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Welcome to this last instalment of the second part of #KnowMore. Yesterday, we looked at the holiness of God, and saw why it is His primary attribute. As the great writer Arthur W. Pink says,

As His power is the strength of them [His attributes], so His holiness is the beauty of them; as all would be weak without almightiness to back them, so all would be uncomely without holiness to adorn them.

In our journey of trying to find out how to have a relationship with the God of glory, we realise that there is one thing that is stopping us from doing so; our own sinful state. I realise a question may have arisen from yesterday’s post; what is sin? Why is God the supreme authority to declare what is right and what is wrong? Is there a punishment for any wrong done?

In today’s post, we seek to shed more light on these questions, in the hope that they will illuminate
the parts in our lives we have to, literally, sever from in order to have a relationship with God.

I’ll take you back to a Sunday School favourite; the creation story. As outlined in Genesis 1, God made all we see from a formless void all by the word of His mouth. The echoing phrase, ‘Let there be’ was heard all across the universe, and what He declared to be was made. On the sixth day of creation, the phrase changes.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26 ESV

He made man (that’s you and me) in His image and likeness. Out of the soil of the earth, He created us and breathed the breath of life into our nostrils (Genesis 2:7). It’s amazing that He made the stars, planets, fish and birds by the word of His mouth, but He made the human race with His hands. It gives me chills just thinking about it, like how cool is that! He measured out the universe, and made us with His hands. After all was done, He looked around and saw that it was good (Genesis 1:31); actually, it was very good.

This is where I will bring in the term righteous, with flourish.

Righteous

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term righteous, applied to God, is the perfection and holiness of His nature. It is His having exact rectitude (rightness of principle or practice; exact conformity to the truth); essentially, He is blameless and without error.

The Bible uses the Hebrew tsaddik’ in the Old Testament, and the Greek dikaíos in the New Testament to mention God’s righteousness. Both convey the rightness, correctness or moral excellence of God. Therefore, like His other attributes, it is inherent to His nature; it is essential to Him.

Since morality is a part of His righteousness, His justice is an integral, almost similar, part of His righteousness. The Bible scarcely distinguishes the righteousness of God from His justice.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

Psalms 89:14 ESV

Seeing that holiness is His primary attribute, it is right to conclude that His righteousness and justice
are holy (infinitely set apart from all others). His idea of justice is not like ours; His idea of righteousness is way above what we think of ours.

But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

Isaiah 5:16 ESV

Back to the creation story. After creating man (Adam and Eve), He placed them in this glorious garden where they had all they needed, plus having an intimate, personal relationship with their Creator. There was one rule, however; not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was at the middle of the garden. Why did He do so? By telling them not to eat of that fruit, He gave a command from His nature as one of moral excellence, knowing what was right and had to be done, and any wrong doing must be punished. The punishment for disobeying this command was death, some kind of separation.

We all know how the story goes. Through the trickery of the deceiver, Satan, man disobeyed God and ate of the fruit. God, being just, had to punish them for their wrong. He had prescribed death as the punishment. First, there was a spiritual death, a separation of man’s spirit from God (remember
we saw that God is spirit, John 4:23-24). Man was stained with the wrong he had committed, and God, in His holiness, could not continue to have an association with Him.

There also had to be a physical death, a separation from the body given; as a result, blood had to be
shed as payment for the wrong done.

and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9:22b ESV

Adam and Eve had to die in order for the justice of God to be upheld; their wickedness and wrong had to be forever blotted out from His presence. Here is where things take a dramatic turn.

God made skins for them to cover their nakedness of which they were ashamed of. The question is; did the animals He skinned keep on walking about, skinless and… oh, the image alone! I think not.

They had to die in order to be skinned. Had His justice been delivered? Yes; there had to be a death in order to uphold it. But Adam and Eve did not pay it themselves. The animals, innocent of the wrong done by man, paid the price for them.

Let’s look at His mercy, which ties all this up.

Mercy

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mercy as ‘compassion or forbearance shown especially to an
offender or to one subject to one’s power’. More than 300 times in the Bible is God’s mercy toward
His people directly addressed. David describes Him thus,

The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Psalms 145:8 ESV

The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament is rachûm, which directly translates to ‘compassionate, full of mercy’. He forgives those who have done Him wrong instead of punishing them. This seems to contradict with His justice; how then is His justice upheld?

In the case of Adam and Eve, the animals took their place and died so that they could live. As history went on, Adam’s sons and descendants realised that the only way they could be cleansed from the sin of their father was by the death of animals. The animals would pay for their sins, and God’s mercy would shine upon them, and His justice would be upheld.

In the light of all this, we may ask, ‘why then are there no more animals being offered up as a means for God’s justice to be upheld?’ And rightly so. Why are we no longer having to slaughter bulls and sheep every day to have their blood pay for the wrongs we do daily?

The answer is as glorious as it is shocking;

Did that surprise you? It sure did the same for me when I learnt about it for the first time, and still continues to baffle me even as I prepare to share some background info on it with you guys on Monday. He is the just God who justifies the sinner, and effects His mercy upon Him.

Have an amazing weekend.

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Holy, Just, Merciful (#KnowMore Part 2.1)

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Welcome back, dear reader. I am hoping your week has thus far been good and full of God’s goodness. I have been doing great, in between researching for this post and contemplating on an aspect only people wearing glasses can relate to.

All that aside, it’s great to have you here, and I am deeply humbled that you are along this journey of knowledge with me. Taking it one step at a time is important in having to understand and grow in the knowledge of these truths.

On Monday, we had a small glimpse at who God is. You can read it here if you haven’t yet. We established, from Scripture, that He is unchangeable, the creator of everything we see, and is not like us; He is infinitely higher and greater than we can ever be (this attribute is called transcendence).

There are other truths we didn’t expound on, but are critical in knowing and understanding who He is; eternal (He was from the beginning, and will be after the end), spirit (He doesn’t have a physical body like ours, thus He cannot be represented by an image, seen in Deuteronomy 4:15-19), and infinite (He cannot be contained by anything, stopped by anything, or made unknown of anything, Jeremiah 23:24).

Today, we will look at holiness. It being rather broad and of great importance, I shall split this part into two (particulate theory of matter). The following post will cover His justice and mercy. Let’s get this rolling, shall we?

Holiness

What comes to mind when you hear the word holy? I bet it’s this; a man or woman dressed in long flowing robes with hands constantly folded in prayer. Or that guy who doesn’t drink or smoke, or that girl who dresses modestly. Oh, and all three are always found in a church setting.

Sadly, that isn’t what holiness is. Secondly, we ought to remember that it’s God we are talking about, and He is not like us, so using human examples will, in one way or another, ultimately fall short. The only way we can define how God is holy is through His word.

Holiness is used as a term to mean two things; set apart and free from sin or blemish. When we say
God is holy, it means He is absolutely free from any trace of stain or of sin.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5 ESV

In addition, He is holy in that He is set apart and distinct from all His creation and any other thing. The word used for holy in the Old Testament is ‘qodesh’ and that in the New Testament is ‘hagios’. Both carry the connotation of something that is separate, set apart, and purity of the highest degree.

In Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, we see a term used only twice in the Bible to describe our God.

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Isaiah 6:3 ESV

The seraphim (angels of light ministering before Him) fly back and forth, singing this anthem aloud and with unanimity. The same song is sung by the four living creatures in Revelation 4.

In the Hebrew language, repetition is used as an emphatic (I hope my English there is correct).

For example, in many of Jesus’ teachings, He says ‘truly, truly I say to you,’ to emphasise on the truth of the matter. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes says ‘vanity of vanities, all is vanity’ to lend emphasis to how the pursuit of happiness in earthly things is a worthless pursuit.

However, the term holy here has been used not twice, but three times.

If you’re like me, the first ‘holy’ will have you like, ‘yeah, that’s true’.

The second one, ‘ok, not just an ordinary kind of holy, but a greater one’.

The third, ‘hold up. Are you talking about a holiness that is greater than even the greater one I can think of?’ Drops mic. Booom!

The fact that it is used thrice indicates how absolute and infinite His holiness is. Nowhere else do we see another attribute given such emphasis as holiness is.

In addition, His works, titles and all things associated with Him are designated as holy. His name is holy.

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

Isaiah 57:15a ESV

David called His temple holy (Psalm 5:7) because it was where He dwelt, whether in heaven or on earth.

This can lead to one conclusion. If the angels are in awe of God’s mercy, they would cry out ‘merciful, merciful, merciful is the Lord’. We don’t see it, however. Neither is love, or wrath, or kindness. All things associated with Him are designated as holy.

If holiness is given such emphasis, it means it must be His primary attribute, and rightly so. If His power were not a holy power, it would be a terror to us. Were His love not tempered by holiness, it would be permissive even to what is evidently sinful. Indeed, our God is a holy God.

This must have an implication to us having a relationship with Him. How can we have fellowship with a holy God?

We have seen that one meaning of holiness is ‘free from any trace of stain or sin; pure’. Is our condition pure? In our natural state, are we free from sin and darkness?

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23 ESV

We all have no purity, in fact, we are polluted through and through.

In the earlier passage of Isaiah we mentioned, after beholding the glory of God and hearing the angels declare Him thrice holy, Isaiah cried out,

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:5 ESV

Hearing the angels declare God as holy, holy, holy, when they themselves were considered such pure and holy creatures by Isaiah must have broken him down as such. He recognised his own state before God, having spoken evil from an unclean heart that had stained his lips, dwelling among a people who lived and breathed wickedness.

We cannot, in our polluted state, have a relationship with the God of utmost purity and blamelessness. What makes the matter grave is that God cannot tolerate sin, and cannot even look upon it.

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,

Habakkuk 1:13a. ESV

He being of utmost power, thus, has to deal with it, and remove it from before Him. Where does that
place us?

In tomorrow’s post, which will wrap up these three attributes of God by looking at His justice (tied to His righteousness) and His mercy.

We will see why He is the highest moral authority, and how he deals with sinfulness and wrong. I pray that as we go along, we will keep growing in knowledge of Him and His plan for us.

Who God Is (#KnowMore Part 1)

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Hey there. So glad you have been able to take time to pass by and make the first step in this journey with me. I am very excited (I wish you could see me jump up and down with joy) to be able to share this with you guys. The impact such a study has had on me and relationship with God is life-changing; as we forge on, I pray that you will let the truths of God’s word make a difference in your life.

After much consideration, I saw it best to be doing two posts on #KnowMore a week; Monday and Thursday. That way, we will all be able to keep in step with what God has in store for us as revealed in Scripture. Plus, it’s a good way to keep me on my toes and refresh my knowledge of these things.

I have a bit of amazing news too. I have been able to talk to my guest writers, who I know are planning something really awesome for us all to learn from and be edified through. I would ask that you keep them in prayer as they finish up their contributions, and that it won’t be for their glory, but to God alone.

We’ll kick off this ten-part (you heard me right) series with a verse some of us know from childhood. The very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1;

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

There most probably has been this very simple question that may have bubbled to the surface many times in your life; who is God?

It seems really innocuous at first, but take a step back and ask yourself again; who is God? What is
He? Where did He come from?

We have looked for answers to these questions, either consciously or not, from ages ago. I often
look at some really simple things, like the flight of birds, the rising of the sun, the way the wind blows through the trees, and I find that they operate almost perfectly, like clockwork. It cannot cross my mind how a giant galactic explosion can be credited to creating such order and neatness.

From ancient times, people have always looked up to the sky, seen the stars and the shifting planets, and wondered, ‘Where did all this come from?’ However, instead of further pondering more behind the question, they turned to adoring and worshipping these created things and not the one who created them. We, who have been further enlightened, can definitively state that there has to be something, chiefly a Someone, who actually had to sit down and make all these things we see. The question still remains, where did He come from?

The Bible, which happens to our sole and sure source of wisdom and knowledge that leads to salvation and laying a foundation about understanding who God is, does a very interesting thing; it doesn’t attempt to prove God’s existence, rather assumes He existed before the very beginning.
When Moses writes in Genesis 1 that He made the heavens and the earth, that means He was there before even they were formed. The fact of His existence has been made manifest and clear to all mankind, and is even present in our consciences.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal
power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

Romans 1:20 ESV

A thought may come, that if He is then the one who, like us, can make a variety of things, then He is
like us. He is not like us,

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 ESV

The sky and the heavens are eternally above the earth. Even at the top of magnificently high features like the Himalayas, guess what? There’s still the sky above you. That is how His ways, thoughts and way of thinking are above ours. We cannot even get close to His patterns of thought even in our greatest wisdom.

Well, if someone can have such great creative power, and have exceedingly great thoughts, there is
a possibility of erraticism, being as shifting and changing like the wind. However, we have
established that He is not like us, thus He is unchangeable.

You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.

Hebrews 1:10-12 ESV

As clothes are changed, so will that which He has
created change. They will fade away after standing
the test of time, but He remains just as He is and has always been.

I could go on and on, giving more examples from the Bible of who God has shown Himself to be.

What’s the point of all this, anyway? Why would He, the Supreme Creator, unchanging and perfect One, decide to make these attributes about Himself known to us through His word? There must be a reason to why He has done all this; an explanation to why He has chosen to reveal all this to us.

I can give a simple allusion to aid in answering why; I wouldn’t have the friends I already do if I hadn’t shown some aspects about myself. The fact that I opened up to them to see who I am made it easier for them to create a relationship with me.

Similarly, God wants us to enter a loving, communal relationship with Him, which is why He has allowed for us to know about Him, and He has made Himself known through His word.

This Thursday, we’ll look at three more attributes of His nature as revealed through the Bible, and what role they play in having a relationship with Him.

It is my hope and prayer that you have gained some little more knowledge about who God fundamentally is. The comment section is alive and well;
if you have a question, anything to say; feel free to drop it in the box below.

Grace and peace to you all.

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