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Now These Three Remain (#KnowMore Part 10)

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Welcome to the final post of this series! We have had the privilege of looking through Scripture to see what God has declared to be true about Himself, our own wrongdoings that have caused a separation from Him, and what He did through the Person of His Son, Jesus, to reconcile us back to Himself. We glimpsed at the effects of salvation, that is, regeneration, sanctification and justification, and the work of the Holy Spirit as our counsellor and comforter in our new life.

Previously, we saw how God is one, but exists as three distinct, co-equal Persons. Today, we look at three gifts of the Holy Spirit which ‘remain’. This will hopefully be the wrapping on the entire series, as it presents what our future expectations are, while giving reflection to all that we have seen earlier.

When we looked at the role of the Holy Spirit, I might have missed mentioning an important work He does in us. He grants to each believer a gift that enables each of us to be an ambassador to the world, glorifying His name and showing His grace. 1st Corinthians 12 outlines these gifts; prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, mercy, word of wisdom, faith, healing, working of miracles, distinguishing of spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of these tongues, and helps. Some of these gifts were temporary signs to aid in the apostles’ ministry and are no longer dispensed today; many others are still present with us that aid in promoting the teaching and interpretation of the truth.

The Corinthians to whom the letter was addressed were having problems with these gifts they were granted; they categorised some gifts as ‘better’ than others, therefore the church was in great disarray, with speakers of various languages (tongues), prophecy and other attention-getting gifts given the highest esteem and others with seemingly ‘lesser’ gifts like mercy were disregarded. Paul wrote to remind them (and us) that we are all one in Christ, and each one has been granted a different gift that helps build us all up in the preaching of the Gospel. As the eye needs the ear, so does one with the gift of giving need a person with the gift of teaching to build each other up.

Paul then concludes the chapter with these words;

To the Corinthians, this might have seemed like a revelation to some gift greater than those which were seen as great. Higher gifts than prophecy, miracle working and healing? What could they be? What follows in chapter 13 is one of the most beautiful discourses in the Bible, one that leads us back to what we would call foundational. Let’s look at the first, which is

Love

Paul begins the 13th chapter by showing how all the esteemed gifts, if applied without love, become meaningless. He then goes on to say what love is; patient, kind, never arrogant nor rude nor boastful. He then states that love is eternal; all the others such as prophecy, knowledge and tongues will cease and pass away, but love at the end will remain.

Love will last forever, indeed, as it is a part of God’s nature (1 John 4:16). We saw how the Trinity exists in a community of love, making us see even more clearly this God who is love in full. But what exactly is love? Is it just the feeling of a knotted stomach when you see your crush? Or is it the rush of blood to your cheeks when you see an irresistibly cute kitten or puppy?

The word used to speak about love in this passage is the Greek word agape. It is a word that describes an action, not a feeling; going out of one’s way to seek the wellbeing of another without expecting anything in return. The best evidence of this agape love is shown in Romans 5;

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

While we were rebellious to God’s plan for us, and defining good and evil for ourselves and causing a great mess of things, God demonstrated His love for us by giving of Himself to die in our place, face the wrath reserved for us and be the ultimate atoning sacrifice. For a good person, one would dare to die, but for the ultimately good, sinless Person to die in the place of the wicked shows just how great this love God has for us is. Therefore, what is our part?

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:11 ESV

If God could show so much care for our own salvation by sending His Son, what more could be expected of us rather than to show the same kind of love to those around us? That is what Paul was encouraging the church at Corinth to do; instead of seeking for a gift that glorifies them, desire to love as God did so that the preaching of the Gospel would be evident.

Thus, love remains, because it is who God is, and because it is through self-sacrificial, others-focused love is God’s nature shown, enabling the Gospel to be greatly effective.

Ok, now two more remain, so let’s first take a look at

Faith

This is a belief in, trust in and devotion to God. Faith is belief in the one true God of the Bible without actually seeing Him. It is important because without faith, we have no place with Him and makes it impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is a gift from God, meaning we can do nothing on our part to earn it or deserve it (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is this faith granted to us that causes our sinful hearts to realize that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, made flesh and dwelt among us in order to die and take our sins upon Himself. It is this faith that, to say the least, saves us. That is why it is so much a precious gift to every believer everywhere.

Faith remains. How so? When we are finally resurrected and given new bodies that are uncorrupted, and finally see Jesus, does our faith in Him then stop? Not at all; in fact, it will be greater than it was while we were on earth. Seeing that all we had fully believed to be true revealed clearly before us will strengthen our trust in Him.

Our trust in Him will remain, even when the other gifts of splendour will be in distant memory. The apostle Peter beautifully says;

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV

Hope

Hope can be defined as the assurance that something good that will happen, as well as the state of anticipation in the outcome of this assurance. Biblical hope isn’t shaky, like I hope so, but rather has a sure foundation. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, meaning that both are closely knit together. Before we look at the tie between them, let’s look closely at what hope is.

When we say have hope, it means there is something we confidently expect and wait for, even though we cannot yet see it. Just like faith, hope is a great gift that is essential to our walk as Christians. We have our hope placed in God’s promises and Jesus’ words. We place our trust in Jesus’ promise of return (John 14:3), and we then hope to be reunited with Him (John 14:19); this is therefore our ‘blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13).

Hope is built upon faith. We trust in Jesus’ promises (faith) and are confident that they will come to pass, even though we can’t see them just yet (hope). To illustrate this further, I can give an example. Growing up, our parents would often promise to take us out for lunch the following day, or to a place where we could have the time of our lives. We then naturally trusted their words and believed that we would be taken out (faith) while at the same time filled with expectation of the promise being delivered (hope).

Hope is then a wonderful gift, but how does it remain? When our blessed hope, Jesus, appears, does it mean that our expectations, now come into fruition, will no longer exist? In the eternal state, our expectation of even greater things will continue. We will be drawn into the glories of God deeper and further, and as He is infinite, there is so much more to expect from Him that our hope cannot die. Hope remains grounded in the eternity of God, and the greater adventure that awaits us when we finally meet Him.

Faith, hope and love remain, both here on earth and when we are reunited with Christ. But, Paul says, the greatest of these is love. And rightly so.

Faith is wonderful, but how can we place our trust and belief in God if we do not love Him? Hope is glorious, but how can we expect His future return if we have not placed it in our trust in Him? Love is what crowns our hope and faith in God.

As we conclude this series, seeing as how much God loved us, and has thus granted us these gifts to show His goodness and grace, my prayer for all you who have followed till the end is this;

That’s it! The core of Christianity, by the help of the Holy Spirit, laid out in ten parts. This far we have come, much further still we have to go. If by any means this series has impacted you, big or small, we thank God for giving you the insight needed.

I’ll make a postscript in my next post, mainly because I’ve run out of white page. So, until then, may God keep you and sustain you. Peace.

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Three in One (#KnowMore Part 9)

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The penultimate post! I never thought this day would come, but now it has. And what a journey it’s been, getting to look at what Christianity at its core is; God redeeming man back to Himself. We don’t see this in other belief systems, which set up a means for man to restore His broken relationship with God through works and ‘good’ deeds. Yet this is where their fatal flaw is; whatever we offer as ‘good’ is stained with our wrong and sin, and God can’t accept that. Only when we approach Him clothed in the rightness of Christ are we pronounced right in His eyes, and He then causes us to produce the same good works, but out of a heart of obedience. That’s the message of the Bible in a nutshell.

I bet as we were going through the series, one thing must have been really been your mind is, Hold
up, are you talking about three gods, like God (the OG, the Supreme Creator), Jesus and the Holy
Spirit? And how is Jesus God? How is the Spirit God? How are they all God?

Not to worry, you are actually grappling a question that has baffled people for centuries, one that every person everywhere has in one way or another asked themselves. I claim no special knowledge to this, except for what God has revealed through Scripture, so let’s look at the Christian doctrine of God’s triune (fancy word for three-in-one) nature.

First, we have to face the fact that it is impossible to perfectly and concisely explain what the triune nature of God is. This is because God is infinitely greater than we are or ever hope to be, and our limited thoughts cannot contain that which is infinite. However, God in His goodness has made it possible for us to understand some facts of the relationship of each of the three Persons in His nature. Simply put, God exists as three Persons who are co-existent and co-eternal, and the term used to attempt at describing this is called the Trinity, and is not found in Scripture, but the concept behind it is.

Let’s start from the ground up, known to unknown. We know that God is one, as seen in Deuteronomy 6:4

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

So, we’d naturally assume that the God at creation is one Person. But Genesis 1:26 says something peculiar;

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.

If God is one, then why is He referring to Himself as ‘us’? This gives us a glimpse into Him being God, but existing in distinct Persons He has revealed through Scripture. The ‘us’ here uses the Hebrew word Elohim, which is a plural pronoun and definitely allows for the argument of the Trinity. The term Person means “centre of self-consciousness”, meaning that each of these Persons has a mind, a will, emotions and the ability to communicate and perform an action.

Who are the members, then of this Trinity? According to Scripture, there are three; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3, we see the Holy Spirit descending on God the Son while the Father proclaims His pleasure in the Son. Each of them is distinct from one another.

Jesus said He’d speak to the Father about sending the
Holy Spirit as a helper, meaning He did not consider Himself to be God the Father or the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17). Also consider the times when Jesus spoke to the Father; He was speaking to another Person of the Trinity.

Before we drift to thinking that they are separate from each other, let’s remember that each of these maintains the essence of God; they are each equally God. The Father is God (Romans 1:7), the Son is God (Colossians 2:9), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). Again, these are not three different Gods. Yes, they are distinct, but they share the same essence that is God; eternal, all- knowing, all-powerful, infinite.

Throughout this series, we have seen the different ways in which these Persons work to bring about the salvation of man from death and the destructive effects of sin. The Father is the ultimate source of the universe, salvation and divine revelation. Jesus, who is the Son in sinless human form, is the agent through whom the Father accomplishes these things as evidenced in these words;

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16-17 ESV

The Holy Spirit is the Person through whom the Father dispenses divine revelation (John 16:12-15) and salvation (John 3:6) to the human race as we saw in the previous post.

Naturally, some analogies have come up with ways of attempting to explain the Trinity. One is using water, which exists as ice, liquid and vapour, but still is water at its essence. However, the problem with this arises in that these states are forms of water; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not forms of God, they are each God.

Another is the egg; it has a shell, a yolk and a white, all which form the egg. But each of these are parts of the egg; apart from each other, they are not the egg in themselves. The Trinity’s members are not parts of each other; they are, again, each God. Mind-bending, I know. Thankfully, The Bible Project (again!) has done an amazing video that attempts at explaining this concept that you can watch here.

Of what importance, then does this have for us as Christians? Does understanding the Trinity have any impact in our walk of salvation? It helps us understand that there is unity in diversity. Each of the members of this tri-unity are diverse in their works of carrying out our salvation, yet their individual works are carried out in complete unity. As Christians, it is a clarion call to us to put aside our differences and work together for the furtherance of this good news.

It is also important in that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always been in an eternal relationship of love. Therefore, love has been from the beginning. God didn’t have to create it as an expression of Himself, because it is as much a part of His nature as holiness, justice and mercy. God is love, and in Him being three Persons, we have this God who is love fully.

Ultimately, the fact that knowing God is the most important thing in the whole world makes the Trinity matter. If we have been called by this God who exists as three Persons, and baptized and commissioned in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then we ought not be ignorant of these realities.

We can try to fit all this in the box of our understanding, but God is, as we saw, infinitely above our ways and thoughts. All it takes is to believe that God is truth, and what He says is truth. If His word is what He says, then indeed He exists as the Trinity whose relationship we know about in part, but will know in greater fulness when He returns. For now, we can reflect on His greatness like Paul;

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”

Romans 11:33-34 ESV

This has been one of the most researched posts I’ve done for this series, and it was truly worth the effort if it has helped you, in a small way, get a deeper understanding and awe of the majesty and glory of God. May God grant you the faith to trust in His word and in His plans for each of us.

See you on Thursday as we wrap all this up. Grace.

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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 ✌️