Month: September 2009

Hello everyone. Welcome back to our Trinitarian commentary here at Deeper Waters. We are right now in the epistle to the Philippians and looking at the great hymn in chapter 2. It is often called the kenotic passage, although by this, I do not mean that I believe in what is known as the kenotic heresy, the idea that Jesus forsook his deity while he was on Earth. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at 2:6b. Let’s go to the text.

Did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

Keep in mind in all of this that our passage has been focusing on the nature of Christ and how he is to be our example. We are to esteem others as better than ourselves and the basis for doing such is to look at what Christ did. He was one who came for the suffering of others. Note that he is not saying we are better than he is in doing so. We certainly are not. Instead, he is seeking our greater good. He is taking upon himself the evil in the world selflessly so that we might be saved.

What does this passage tell us about the nature of Jesus? It tells us first off that he had equality with God. Again, we see an implicit understanding that God refers to God the Father. There was already room for a Trinitarian idea even if that hadn’t been fully conceptualized yet at this point. The Jewish system of the day was open to the possibility of the divine nature of God including more than one person. This is something anyone should be open to as well. It is a strange idea that we assume that when we come to God, he must be one person. He can do anything at all that is not a contradiction, but yet, he cannot be more than one person. Now in saying that, I do not mean to say that he chooses to exist in three persons. He has always existed in three persons by necessity of his nature.

When Jesus is seen in relation to the Father, he is seen as an equal in his nature. We know this for certain because of the usage of the word form in the prior passage. It means that Jesus was in his very nature God. Yet we are also told that he did not consider that equality as something to be grasped. What does this mean?

The grasping means more of a clinging. This means that Jesus was not holding on to his deity as an excuse to avoid the incarnation and not come to bring about the salvation of man. He did not see being deity as a reason to not come to Earth and bring about the salvation of man. Instead, he took upon a position that would be lowering. This is a concept that we will explore further as we go through this beautiful passage.

It does not mean he gave up his deity. That would imply he was not God on Earth, which the texts as we have seen show he was. Theologians debate exactly what it was that Jesus forsook, because he did forsake something. I would argue that Jesus forsook a sort of divine prerogative. He came and in many ways played by the rules unless his very mission necessitated that he act in a different manner. Of course, this is a point that we can debate, but we must not say that Jesus forsook deity or ever lacked deity.

Tomorrow, we shall look at verse 7.

Hello everyone! Welcome to Deeper Waters again! I am really looking forward to this next part of our Trinitarian blog. We are going to be going through the Philippian hymn in chapter 2 of that book and this is such a powerful place to go to demonstrate the deity of Christ. I was so excited that for one brief post I skipped over Ephesians to get to this one. Well we’ve taken care of that now. Tonight, we’re going to start in Philippians 2:6, but we’re not even going to read the whole verse. Instead, we’re going to read just the first part of that verse.

⁶Who, being in very nature God

I was actually on a chat program once where someone made the remark that Jesus could not be God because if you are equal to something, you cannot be that thing. He referred to that as simple logic.

Bluntly, I call that simple stupidity.

Paul here is also telling the Philippian church about unity. Now disunity was not a major problem in the church, although we do see signs of it in Philippians 4 where one member is urged to help two others to get along. Philippians by and large is a church that Paul highly commends and is very pleased with.

It will also be helpful for our purposes through this study to keep in mind that Philippians is one that the scholars will grant you is Pauline. This passage in the middle is believed to be an early Christian hymn. It could have been written by Paul himself for all we know. However, it was a hymn and it indicates a high Christology at an early point in church history.

Let’s look at this however. It’s not a shock that the early church was called to follow the example of Christ. This was in the context of esteeming others as better than yourselves. Notice this. Christ did seek the good of those who were less than him. How do we know this?

The passage tells us that he was in the very nature of God. The word is morphe and it refers to the form of something, the nature of it. What he is telling us is that the nature of God was that which was found in the nature of Christ.

As we go through this passage, we’ll deal with the kenotic idea that Jesus forsook his deity, a belief that no Trinitarian can hold. However, let us look at the very beginning of this passage for now. Paul states that Jesus existed in the very nature of God.

Is there an argument for this? No. What does that tell you? It tells you that this was something that was well-established and self-evident to the early church. It would be like thinking you had to explain to a Muslim that Muhammad was a prophet. (It is not a position I hold of course.) They already believe that by virtue of being a Muslim.

When Paul wrote to this church, he appealed to what they already knew. They already knew that Jesus was fully God which means that we can place this in the line of the early Christian teachings. What does this reveal to us then? From the very beginning, the message had been that Jesus is God. This was not a later development in the church. This is fact that has been going from that time on.

Tomorrow, we shall continue this wonderful passage.

Hello everyone. Welcome to Deeper Waters again. We’re in the middle of what’s been called our Trinity commentary. What we’re doing is going through the Bible and studying many texts relevant to the Trinity. Naturally, this isn’t exhaustive. I would recommend going to your local library or bookstore or Amazon for more books on the topic if you’re interested. We’re in the Pauline epistles now and in Ephesians 5. We’re looking at verse 14 tonight, but we’re going to start at verse 8.

⁸For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. ¹³But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
“Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Paul is talking again about righteous living. Much of the last half of Ephesians is applicational while the last half is doctrinal. On a side note, I believe our sermons should be the same way in church services. I believe we should start with the doctrine and basis for our beliefs and then move on to the application.

The contrast is between light and darkness, which was a common motif. It’s one we find in the gospels often, particularly you may recall from the prologue of John. It was a point the evangelist made in John 3. The light is equated with what is good and righteous, which is fitting since God is described as light in the Old Testament.

But what of this last part? Paul is quoting something here for he says that there is a saying that is said. It does not correspond to anything in the Old Testament explicitly so most likely, we are dealing with an early Christian hymn here and one made to Christ! Is there any evidence that this took place?

Yes!

Here is how Pliny the Younger described it in a letter to the emperor:

They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so.

Hymnology was an important part of Christian worship and they did sing hymns to Christ. Of course, Pliny describes this in the language of his pagan worldview, but the point is still the same. Note also the parts of the hymn. We will wake. We will rise. The light of Christ will shine. The waking refers to turning from sin. The resurrection refers not to physical resurrection in this case but spiritual, coming from the deadness of sin, which indicates that this could have been a baptismal hymn, and the light shining refers to the righteousness of Christ.

So what do we have? We have a hymn to Christ where he is seen as the reason Christians turn from sin. Their resurrection is based on a ritual that depicts his death and resurrection in identifying with him, and his light is said to shine on them.

Do we have language of deity for Christ? It’d be difficult to call it anything else.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another Deeper Waters blog. As you should know by now if you’ve been reading regularly, we’ve been going through the doctrine of the Trinity. We’re in the Pauline epistles now and we’re in the book of Ephesians. We’ve spent much of the time covering the deity of Christ, but all good Trinitarians know that you need the deity of the Holy Spirit as well. For that, we have the 30th verse of the fourth chapter of the book. Let’s take a look at it now.

³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

I’m well familiar with this phrase. We had a preacher at our church preach three sermons on this verse and we kept hearing the phrase about grieving the Holy Spirit of God. He’s a great guy and a good preacher, but after that time, I thought I’d scream if I heard that phrase again.

Well I guess I’ll have to scream at myself now.

Paul is talking about righteous living and self-control. All of these are aspects of the Christian life in which we are to live as members of the body building one another up to holiness so that all can attain to the fullness of Christ.

When we do sin however, it grieves the Holy Spirit of God who sealed us. Why? He is grieved because he is doing his part to present us before the Father and here in response to the work that he has done on our behalf, we are returning to our old sinful ways. In essence, we are saying we do not want to be a part of that body. We do not want to live like redeemed people.

Now I don’t comment on secondary issues, but I will say that I do not believe anyone is saying that one sin means that the Holy Spirit goes away and lets you be on your own. No one think in saying this that I’m saying that if you commit one sin, then the Holy Spirit will remove himself from you.

Notice that we grieve the Holy Spirit. The point is that you do not grieve a force, as the Witnesses teach the Holy Spirit is. You grieve a person. The Holy Spirit has emotions in a divine sense. I say in a divine sense due to my view on the impassibility of God and that he does not experience emotions the way we do.

It is also our sin that does this and this is done for every Christian. Every Christian is warned that their sin grieves the Spirit of God. This isn’t an isolated and individual case and we have no reason to believe that Paul could only say this to the Ephesian church and no other church. Every Christian around the world can grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

We Christians today are in the same position and we should see our sin so seriously. We take it as a light matter when it really grieves the heart of God that in all that he did to deliever us from the bondage to that sin, we so often are the proverbial dogs that return to our vomit.

Today and into the future Christian, remember that a recognition of who God is also implies a recognition of the holiness he values. Don’t grieve the Spirit.

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are continuing our study in the doctrine of the Trinity. I’ve been pleased to hear a lot of you are appreciating this and seeing it as practically a commentary. If anyone does get to use an argument like this with success against a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon or Arian of another brand, then please contact me here and let me know! I’d love to hear about it! Tonight however, we’re going to continue our study in the book of Ephesians. We’re in chapter 4 still and we’re going to be looking at verses 7-13:

⁷But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.” ⁹(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? ¹⁰He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) ¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹²to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up ¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Notice at the start who is apportioning the grace. It is Christ. Right at the beginning of this part we have a high Christology in that grace, the forgiveness that was seen coming from YHWH, is seen to come through Christ.

Paul quotes the Psalm to speak of Christ’s victory over evil and how he came and conquered the forces of darkness and set free the children of God. There is much debate about what all is going on in this passage. My take on it is that he descended into death and then ascended bodily back into Heaven.

Notice how high he ascends however. Christ ascends so much so that he fills the universe! Paul is giving omnipresence to Christ. What does that tell us about Paul’s Christology? Plenty. It lets us know that Paul was including Jesus within the divine identity by giving him attributes only applicable to YHWH.

The purpose of all of this was to equip the saints for service. He has given them the ability to go forth and to do his work. The goal has been to build up his body, the church. What a view of Christ we have here! He is ascended on high filling the universe and we are the ones behind doing his work as his body. We are reminded of how Acts 1 talks of all Jesus began to do and teach among the people when Jesus left in that same chapter. We are the continuation.

What is the goal? We all reach fullness in the Son of God. We are to become like Christ. It is to be understood that we are not to be ontologically like Christ. We are to be like him in moral nature but we will never partake of the divine essence.

But isn’t that enough good news? Because Christ is who he is, we will be who we were meant to be someday.

Hello everyone. I really enjoyed the question Dan asked to the last post so I wanted to address it more fully. For those who do not know what I am speaking of, the question was in response to my stance on the Trinity being essential for salvation. That was not called into question. What was asked was in response to the idea that some deny the Trinity explicitly and I do not have any basis for saying that they are saved, although I also affirmed that one does not need to have an explicit understanding of the Trinity in order to have salvation. So, I’m asked, what about those who are in the body of Christ but do not have a correct understanding of the Trinity?

This is an important question because we live in an age where the church is by and large ignorant of Christian doctrine. Until around a decade ago when I learned about apologetics, I would have been just as ignorant in many ways. I had fortunately read my Bible all my life, but I was unaware of the depth that really lay in my hands as I read it and that there was so much involved in my Christian faith.

So when I speak, I do not mean to be condemning of every Christian out there. Few of them know of this field simply because they have been shown it. Instead, they have received a watered-down faith. It has been reduced to simply how one behaves. Christianity is about being a good person. There’s no doubt that Christians are to be good people, but Christ did not come to make us good people. As Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias has said, “Christ did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people live.”

My stance is that such people are saved who simply have innocently a false view of the Trinity. I fear that if you asked most in the church today to describe the Trinity, they would give you a modalistic interpretation, such as the illustration of  “Well, I am a father, a son and a husband.” The problem is that you have one person who is playing three different roles, which is not what the doctrine of the Trinity teaches. The doctrine teaches that there are three persons who are all fully God and yet there is one God.

A sure way to find out is to give a correct understanding of the Trinity. Now we can expect some questions at first. This shouldn’t bother us. Instead, it should please us. Why?  Because they are asking questions! We as Christians do not want believers to just question the worldview of unbelievers, but of other believers as well. One reason the church is the way it is is because the goal of seeking truth has died and the best way to seek truth is to ask questions. All Christians should be in the habit of asking good questions.

Of course, we should be teaching doctrine as well and when the church comes to see the doctrine of the Trinity and take it more seriously, I believe that will be when we will begin to see a revolution within the church. We must become a people of truth once again serving the triune God.

Hello everyone. Tonight, we’re going to resume our study of the doctrine of the Trinity. We’re in the Pauline epistles now and we’ve got the first four behind us. Right now, we’re in Ephesians 4. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at the first six verses with an emphasis on the last verse.

¹As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ²Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Paul is making a plea for unity in the church, something that I think we all agree is definitely needed. However, why are we to have unity? Unity is to be for the right reasons. The Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim to have unity, but then it’d be easy to have unity if you simply considered all people who disagreed with you to be non-Mormons or non-Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Christians are allowed some leeway in their freedom to believe. You must believe some things to be a Christian, but you don’t have to believe everything correctly. You don’t have to have the correct eschatology or soteriology or view on charismata or the age of the Earth. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek to have the correct views, but they are non-essentials. As long as you don’t deny essentials, you are fine.

And one of those essentials, of course, is the Trinity which we’re studying now. I recently had someone say to me, “Well some Christians study the Bible and they don’t believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.” There is no such thing. If they deny the Trinity, then I have no basis to call them Christian. Let it be known I’m not saying that they have to affirm the doctrine however. A small child saved does not have to quote the church creeds to be Christian, but I believe within that child’s salvation is an implicit knowledge of the Trinity that he has yet to study.

This unity also comes because there is one Lord. There is Jesus Christ. He is the Lord. Paul saying one Lord could very well be referring back to the Shema. To include Christ in the Shema as he did in 1 Cor. 8:6 would be to show that for Paul, Christ is within the divine identity. He is fully God.

Notice that this doesn’t detract from the deity of the Father either. Paul could say that Jesus is the one Lord and the Father is the one God. Both are terms of deity. The Lordship of Christ and the Father being God are both connected. Paul is using different terminology to distinguish the two, but he is not taking away from the deity of either.

Why the unity then? Because of the Trinity. The one Father and the one Son and the one Spirit are in a unity. Since the Trinity is in unity, then the church which is to represent YHWH on Earth also ought to be in unity.

Are we?

Hello everyone. Today we are going to take a break from our Trinity study to honor those who died 8 years ago right here on American soil. I never will forget that day. I was in Bible College in the chapel when we were getting ready to start a sermon and one of the other professors came in and said that one of the World Trade Center Towers had been hit by an airplane. Now you hear that at that time and you think “My! What a terrible accident! How could that happen?” We had the sermon then and after that, we were told that the other tower had been hit by a plane.

We all knew then it was no accident.

I remember us sitting in the lobby and just watching the news. We were waiting for the inevitable. Those towers were going to fall. We knew they were. When it happened, we were surprised and yet not surprised. We knew it was coming, but the stark reality that it had come finally came on us. We know now about people who jumped out of the 80th story rather than be burned alive in the inferno rising up.

You wonder about those people. Maybe a young man who had married in the past year left behind a lady who was already a widow in her 20’s. Maybe a pregnant mother and her unborn child died that day. Maybe a mother’s only son died that day and now she has no one to care for her in her old age. Maybe a young engaged woman died before she could celebrate marriage to an eager man.

Everyone who died was someone’s son or someone’s daughter. No one was an unknown. They were all known to someone even if not to the world. There are several gaping holes in peoples’ hearts still left behind. Many of us had checked immediately to see if those we knew in the area were okay. I was on Instant Messenger soon after the events talking to people I knew in the area and asking if they were okay.

May we never forget what happened that day. We cannot take the joy of living in this country for granted. This is one reason I keep an eye on what goes on politically in this country. I want this country to be a shining beacon. I believe this country started off great, with a foundation in trust in Almighty God. If we move from that foundation, which we are doing, I do not believe that our country can last, and I do not like the way I see my country going. I hope more people will rise up who will remember that day.

After all, while we remember the many who went to work and never came home, we also remember those who died but weren’t expected to die there that day. We remember the countless heroes. No doubt, some were in the towers. Some were willing to die so that others could get to safety. Several however were emergency officials who rushed into a blazing inferno of death only so they could save any who were trapped inside. They went in and many of them knew that they would never go home and see their loved ones again, but they went anyway.

We should honor such people. We should look at ourselves and see if we would be willing to pay the ultimate price or not. That’s what our founders did. They faced the greatest army in the world at the time and won because they believed in their God-given rights. Today, we face the enemy of Islamic terrorism. Today, we can stand up.

We Christians need to do this in the marketplace of ideas. Every Christian needs to know the basics of their faith. They need to know how to defend it. They need to know what difference it makes. They need to know how to articulate it. However, let us not forget the final agreement, they need to know how to live it.

Let’s also keep this in mind. We mourn the loss of 3,000 innocents who died that day, and we should. Let’s not forget that a bloodbath takes place here in America however every day, as women enter abortion clinics and more than 3,000 are murdered every day. How much longer will the silent holocaust go on? Only as long as we let it. We Christians have the truth. We have the majority. We just do not seem to have the action or the motivation. Innocent babies are dying every day. What more motivation do we need?

Today, and tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives, let us follow in the tradition of the heroes of 9/11, where we will be heroes for those who are dying. Of course, I am not advocating non-Christian means, but we must do something. We cannot stray far from God and think that we will survive.