Tag: God’s

for we walk by faith, not by sight . . .[1] It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the »invisible« things of God as though they were clearly »perceptible in those things which have actually happened« (Rom. 1:20; cf. 1 Cor 1:21-25), he deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross. A theology of glory calls evil good and good…

God is love. Unfortunately, for some, this entails an inherent Marcionism. Simplistically, this entails the notion that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God we encounter in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. Often people cannot imagine how the “God of war and wrath” in the Old Testament could ever correspond with the God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant. But I would simply say that without the God of the Old Testament the God of the New Testament makes absolutely no sense. Jesus came as the Prophet, Priest, King (triplex…

When reflecting on the Holy Trinity, given the reality that it is as they say mysterium Trinitatis, I think it is best to recognize this doxological reality and allow that to shape the way the Christian wades into this Holy of Holies. Epiphanius once wrote: God is one, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit . . . true enhypostatic Father, and true enhypostatic Son, and true enhypostatic Holy Spirit, three Persons, one Godhead, one being, one glory, one God. In thinking of God you conceive of the Trinity, but without confusing in…

Christ’s atonement is limited to Christ’s vicarious humanity for the world. As the ‘firstborn from the dead’ He is the second and greater Adam, wherein all of humanity, from Christ’s elect humanity, comes to have the capacity, in echo of Christ’s Yes and Amen for us, to say Yes and Amen by the Spirit, to the Father. Christ is God’s unconditionally elect human for the world, and it is in His humanity that we come to have the capacity to truly be human; insofar that the entailments of what it means to be genuinely human is to be in right…

Photo credit, Mikhail Shankov circa. 1995 John 14: 7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My…

We are Easter people who believe in the resurrection hope of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we have hope beyond the grave. We know that death is not the end. In Christ’s death, there is life, and we have hope in that new life. In this world there are places we see glimpses of this resurrection hope of Jesus. In New Orleans, there is a Lutheran congregation shining this resurrection hope of Jesus in their community. Founded in 1888, Bethlehem is a remarkable church with a rich history of service that goes deep into the community. Bethlehem is a beacon…

As I have been rereading TF Torrance’s The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons, I came across a passage that struck me as a sort of theological-exegetical gloss of Romans 8:31-39. Torrance is often accused of not doing any biblical-exegetical work; but I would counter, that in his role as a Christian Dogmatist his work is saturated in the thematics that allow Scripture to say what it does about God and His works. I would contend that, Torrance, as a Christian Dogmatist, par excellence, has Scriptural themes and their reality in Christ, pervading all of his writings. What…

As is well established by now, I have struggled with reading Karl Barth because of his unrepentant lifestyle. But the reality, which is also well noted by many, is many of our most cherished Protestant and otherwise theologians from the past were also sinners; even to the point of dying in unrepentance. For me what’s really at issue is mining the past, from wherever it comes, insofar that that past can help illuminate, imaginate, and faithfully bear witness to King Jesus and the triune God. The scholastics Reformed had a way of doing what they called ‘reverential exposition.’ They would…

Εἰρήνην διώκετε μετὰ πάντων, καὶ τὸν ἁγιασμόν, οὗ χωρὶς οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸν κύριον, Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord . . . Hebrews 12:14   ὄψεται (lexeme: ὁράω), translated in the NKJV above as ‘will see’ is in the future tense third person middle indicative. I have a theological-exegetical theory: P1. Divine holiness and peace are required in order to have vision and knowledge of God. P2. Knowledge and vision of God are eschatological realities available now and for eternity to come. P3. Only Jesus Christ for us has divine holiness and peace to…

The Eunomians, following the Arians (and Arius) maintained that there was a time when the Son was not. In other words, they maintained that the Logos of God was a creature; an exalted creature, but a creature nonetheless. So, when we see Jesus, we don’t actually see the Father in the face of the Son, we only see an exalted emissary of the singular (monadic) God of pure being. In a similar line of heresy, known as adoptionism, the Ebionites maintained that Jesus was just a man, already existent, that God adopted for His purposes to be His prophet. TF…