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Posts Tagged ‘God-man’

Free Grace

Posted in Baptist Catechism, Blessing, Faith, General, Gospel, Grace, Joy, Person of Jesus, Salvation, Sanctification, Work of Jesus, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I rejoice that the transcendent, all powerful, sovereign, Creator of all things condescended to pour out His free grace upon an undeserving, rebellious sinner like me (1). I rejoice that his free grace (2) gifted me with eternal life (3), every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places while here on earth (4), all that I need for life and godliness (5), a growing knowledge of Him (6), and the ongoing sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to completion (7).

Grace was free but not cheap. That sounds like a contradiction, but to clarify, grace was free to the recipients but very costly for “…Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (8) Not only did He leave the throne of God to die on a cross, our Redeemer “became flesh, and dwelt among us.” (9) His condescension included permanently taking on the nature of a man and temporarily taking on flesh, for “much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.” (10) “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (11)

Question 24: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the condition of sin and misery?
Answer: God, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, having chosen a people to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the condition of sin and misery, and to bring them into a condition of salvation, by a Redeemer.
Ephesians 1:3-4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Romans 5:21; 8:29-30; 9:11-12; 11:5-7; Acts 13:48; Jeremiah 31:33.

Question 25: Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
Answer: The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person, forever.
Galatians 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:5; 3:16; John 1:14; Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9.

  1. Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 11:33; Job 42:2, Numbers 11:23; Psalm 115:3; John 1:14, Psalm 103:7; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:23, Jeremiah 17:9, Nehemiah 9:26
  2. Ephesians 2:8-9, John 4:10
  3. Romans 6:23
  4. Ephesians 1:3
  5. 2 Peter 1:3
  6. 2 Peter 3:17-18
  7. Philippians 1:6, 1 Corinthians 6:11
  8. Hebrews 12:2
  9. John 1:14
  10. Romans 5:15
  11. 1 Timothy 2:5

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Jesus and His Disciples

Posted in Doctrine, Education, General, God Thoughts, Influence, tagged , , , on November 24, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I was so happy for and with my Sunday School Class this morning. I had come up with three lists that I thought would fortify their young faith. The first was evidences from the Scripture that Jesus is a man. The class gave me all seven of them. Some of the answers were synonyms for the words I had listed. This was not a review of a list we had recently gone over. This resulted from several months of emphasizing that Jesus is fully God and fully man. Could you come up with seven evidences from Scripture that Jesus is man like my 10-12 year olds did? Here is our list: 1) born 2) baptized 3) hungry 4) tempted 5) slept 6) bled, and 7) died. 

Our lesson today was about Jesus calling the disciples. It is amazing the trust that two disciples of John the Baptist had in him that they immediately followed Jesus when John identified Him as “the Lamb of God”. Andrew was one of those disciples, and when he found his brother Simon, he told him that “we have found the Messiah”. That is quite a statement for someone he had just met on recommendation of someone he trusted. But as Jesus told Nathaniel soon afterwards, “you will see greater things than this”, meaning the insight Jesus had into Nathaniel’s every move was “small potatoes” compared to the miracles he would see later. Their enthusiastic, new faith would be transformed into life-long, martyrdom faith. 

So, if these men were being called to be disciples, what is a disciple anyway? In that culture spiritual teachers would have a following of those who wanted to learn the teacher’s life and insights.* I asked my students to tell me 7 things that disciples do (They actually listed 8, but I forgot to write down the last one. before I left. And again, some of their responses were synonyms of mine): 1) follow 2) believe 3) learn from 4) obey 5) copy 6) tell (share, testify), and 7) represent.

By the time He got James and John on board** and Matthew hosting his friends to meet Jesus, we didn’t have time for my other list: Scriptural Evidences of Jesus as God. I’m glad I didn’t. It would be too much for one week, but we will talk about it soon. And here it is: 1) virgin birth 2) testimony of man (John the Baptist, Nathaniel, Peter, Thomas, etc.) 3) testimony of God 4) commanded nature 5) healed diseases 6) sinless, and 7) rose from the dead.

My hope is that the truth of God’s Word will sink in deeply so that the false doctrines of the world will not later drown their faith. It is so good to see them want to know truth.

*It is a far better way to teach and learn than we generally do today. Apprentices in a trade who constantly shadow a mentor/boss learn this way, but so much of what we pass off for education is assembly line, mass production. Eli Whitney’s interchangeable parts work great for reproducing gun barrels and stocks, but for critically thinking, problem-solvers, saturated in truth, not so much. On the other hand, for basic rote learning to put tools in the toolbox, it works fairly well if the toolboxes are willing.

**Really it should be “off board”, since they were on board when Jesus called them, mending nets with their father Zeb.

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Myrela

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Overflows from the Heart

"But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart…" Matthew 15:18

CreatorWorship

Pointing to the One who made, saved, and sustains