The Holy Spirit

Posted by Branden Earp on August 5, 2014
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tumblr_n0fm0fCvJt1qbhp9xo1_1280One of the most misunderstood doctrines found within the Bible is who, or what, the Holy Spirit is. Some churches, that you never want to step foot in again nor bring a friend to, think that the Holy Spirit even causes a person to roll around on the ground and bark like a dog or burst out in uncontrollable laughter for hours. Some even bust out flags and try to wave him around like he’s something they can control. Other than looking completely silly, unfortunately most of these churches have no idea what a Biblical concept of the Holy Spirit looks like and usually place an abnormal amount of attention focusing on the Spirt over the other parts of the Trinity (Jesus and God the Father).

So what exactly is the Holy Spirit? Is it a force that roams around the earth and just creeps people out or is he a full member and person of the Trinity? In theology, the study of the Spirit is known as Pneumatology. In short, the Holy Spirit is a person who is God, who’s primary work in the world is to show the active presence of God in the world, mostly through the church and in the lives of Christians.

Firstly, the Holy Spirit is God and is a a full member of the Trinity. He’s not a side show that makes people do weird stuff, but should be worshiped as God. He is also a person in nature; which is why such personal attributes describe him, such as one that can be grieved, resisted, quenched and outraged. He is found within the Bible as early as the first chapter of the Bible when the creation of the earth is being described, and typically was a sign of bringing blessing through out the Bible. He is also a promise or guarantee for Christians that they will one day persevere until the end and make it to heaven, because God himself is the one preserving them.

The third member of the Trinity is also called the HOLY Spirt for a reason, one of his works is that he purifies or makes holy. He convicts us of sin or wrong that we do, washes us ultimately of sin when we are converted and become a Christian, and day by day helps us become more like Christ as our sinful patterns are put to death through him.

The Spirt also empowers Christians through out their life, which is both seen in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. While Jesus was still on this earth, he told his disciples that it was good that he left (be crucified), because he would send the Holy Spirt to us, who would actually dwell inside of Christians and would make himself evident in their lives through the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). The most powerful outpouring of the Spirit is seen at Pentecost in Acts 2 when he is sent and falls on believers as they are praying with several thousand becoming believers later that day.

Finally, the Holy Spirt guides us just as he guided Jesus during his life, was the one filling and guiding the writers of the Bible as they penned their respective books, bears witness that we are God’s children, gives us words to speak and intercedes for us in prayer when we don’t know what to say, unifies the church through gifting and will one day raise up Christians in resurrected bodies once they die.

It is truly amazing how much God wants to be directly involved in our lives and have a relationship with us because of what Jesus did. He did not leave us alone in this life, but gave us fellow Christians to walk besides and his Spirit to guide us. Sometime today, thank God that he did not leave us alone in this world, but even gave us his very own Spirit to guide and direct us in our everyday lives.

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The Resurrection

Posted by Branden Earp on August 1, 2014
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What does the historicity of Jesus rising from death three days after being crucified have to do with us today? The apostle Paul, when writing in the New Testament states, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your [Christians’] faith is in vain.” Why would it be so crucial that if Jesus did not rise from death than it would negate the faith of billions around the world?

The answer is that a dead God is no God at all. This is one of the crucial distinctions that sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. Apart them never claiming to actually be god, Siddhartha Gautama Buda, Krishna, Muhammad, Laozi, Confucius, Pythagoras, Mozi, Epicurus and Zeno of Citium are still buried in the ground. In fact, millions of people around the world travel across the globe to visit their graves and pay respect to the founder of their respective religions. Christians, on the other hand, have speculations as to where Jesus’ borrowed grave might have been, but no one really knows for sure because he was only buried in it for three days.

Only 20 years after Jesus physically rose from death and ascended into heaven, Paul wrote to the very people who were still alive after the Son of God was executed. Paul says, “Then he [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive..”. It was just an understood fact that he had risen from the dead and walked around on earth for 40 days. No one questioned that it had happened because you could just walk up to someone on the street and talk about their conversation that they had with Jesus post death.

For us, the resurrection also has great significance for how we live our lives today. If you are a Christian, it shows what exactly will happen to you when you die one day. One moment you will close your eyes, and the next you will be resurrected to new life in the presence of God Almighty. 2 Corinthians 4.14 says, “… knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” Just as Jesus rose, so too will we follow in his footsteps and rise.

It also shows our justification, or having been legally made right with God. If you have faith in Jesus and believe that he lived a perfect life on your behalf, was killed and raised to new life, you have peace that your sin was buried with him in the ground and is not remembered by God anymore. In my own life, I find myself wanting to ask for forgiveness for stuff I did months or even years ago. Of course God knows all things, but in a sense when you continually come to God with sins you did in the past that have already been forgiven of by Jesus, no matter how heinous, God in effect replies, “What are you talking about? I don’t remember that!” Psalm 103.12 says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. So we can have peace that the past is the past, our sins are completely forgive, and then move forward to what is ahead in life.

Finally, because of the resurrection we can look forward to what our physical bodies will be like in heaven. The Bible says that we will not decay or get old, we will have physical attractiveness and stunning beauty, and we will also have incredible strength. Imagine what this means for those who have been handicapped their whole life or those who suffer with chronic pain. Maybe this is not too far of a stretch and you suffer with this yourself. Well, there is coming a day when all things will return to what they were originally created to be and all things will be made right.

The very last book of the Bible, when speaking of what heaven will be like upon our resurrection states, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, either shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” How great a day that will be!

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The Atonement

Posted by Branden Earp on July 28, 2014
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CruicifixionPROVOST1524When Christians talk about being “saved” what exactly does that mean and how do we gain this salvation? The very heart of Christianity boils down to the doctrine of the atonement, or what Jesus did in his life and death to earn our salvation for us.

Some theologians will say that Jesus’ death was not necessary and that there could have been many other ways for our salvation to be secured, but this simply is not true. The night before he was executed, Jesus even prayed to God the Father asking if there was another way, and there are numerous other verses that attest to him not only having to to die, but the way that it happened was according to the definite plan of God. There simply was not another way.

So how exactly does one man dying a horrible death by being nailed to a tree and dying from asphyxiation pay for our sins? 2 Corinthians 5.21 sums it up best when it says, “For our sake he [God the Father] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is called Substitutionary Atonement. Jesus lived a perfect life without sin, dying a death that he did not deserve, on behalf and as a substitute for all those who would put their faith in and believe in Jesus as the only way to heaven.

Many people underestimate exactly how painful this was for him to do. I mean people die all the time for causes that they believe in or for a loved one, what make this so special? The thing is, the physical agony that he suffered was nothing compared to the pain that he bore taking our sin upon himself.

When Jesus hung there, the only perfect and blameless man that ever lived took upon himself the evil that is the antithesis of his very nature. The prophet Isaiah, prophesying about Jesus’ death 500 years before Jesus was ever born, says that God the Father laid on him all of our sins at once when he was crucified, and that it was even his will to crush his own Son out of love for us. Imagine how awful you feel after having done a wrong against another person, or the guilt you have after having cheated on a significant other or stealing something. Jesus took on that feeling billions of times over all at once, after never once having felt that in his life. On top of that, all his friends left him in his last hour, he was beaten to a bloody pulp before carrying his cross on his raw back, he had a crown of thorn spikes driven into his skull, was naked and shamed, spit upon and had his beard pulled out, and the union that he had with the Trinity for eternity past was momentarily severed.

This was all to satisfy the justice that was needed for our sins. After all, a good God would not be good if there was not justice given for the wrong done in this world. And at the end of the day, justice will be completely served to each individual person, whether it be the pain that was bore on the cross by Jesus for the sins of those who would believe in him or sadly it will be paid by those who refuse to receive the grace of God by suffering an eternity of anguish in a physical place called hell.

When Jesus died on the cross he was thinking about each individual person who’s sins he was dying for and truly showed us what true love ultimately looks like. John 15.13 says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

 

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The Deity of Jesus

Posted by Branden Earp on May 22, 2014
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In the last blog post we saw the humanity of Jesus, but the Bible also teaches that Jesus as God is both fully man and also fully God or fully divine in one person. Even though no one has fully comprehended this doctrine, there are a substantial number of verses in the Bible that point to this.

In the first few centuries, and even today, there have been many errors as to what this exactly means.Was he really just God and looked like a man as Apollinaris taught? Or possibly he was really two distinct persons entirely but in one body as Nestorian said? The last major error in the church was called Monophysitism, which says that Jesus did have one nature, but it was just a mixture of divine and human, with the divine being much more powerful.

The church in 451 AD responded with what is called the Chalcedonian Creed:

“We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the unity, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ; as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.”

This creed basically states that Jesus is in fact truly God and truly man in one person and also one of the three members of the Trinity. The reason why Jesus being both completely man and also completely God is so crucial is because this is the only means of us gaining our salvation. Jesus, in being completely man, has conquered every temptation that we have or will ever go through and thus is now able to mediate for us in heaven because he knows exactly what it is like to be human. On the other side, Jesus being completely God is necessary, because each of us is guilty of sin that bears an eternal consequence. Only an eternal being, Jesus Christ, could suffer the punishment for sin and take our guilt upon himself when he was crucified on the cross.

This was an incredible act of humility for the Creator of all things to come to earth as a baby and go through the pain and sorrow that we all experience each day because of sin. This is also known as the Kenosis theory, which comes from Philippians 2.6-8, which states, “who, though he [Jesus] was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” This incredible verse states that Jesus gave up his privilege in heaven, but not any of his attributes, to become a man just like us. 

Thank God this week that even though he is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe he humbled himself by becoming a man so that we could have the opportunity to have eternal life through him. 

 

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The Humanity of Jesus

Posted by Branden Earp on May 18, 2014
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ImageWho exactly is Jesus and how can one person really atone for the sins of the world? A lot of people have died for a cause or for people that they love, what make Jesus so much different? Well, Christianity and the Bible teaches that there is a huge difference, and it is that Jesus Christ is fully man and also fully God and thus makes him the only way to enter back into a right relationship with God. I know this sounds crazy, I mean 100% plus 100% equals 200% not one entity, but this is the mystery of the incarnation. 

After Adam and Eve sinned and brought death into the world, God had promised to send a way of salvation to us and restore mankind’s relationship with him. This person would be known as the Messiah and would ultimately reconcile God and his people by atoning and bearing their sins. 2,000 years ago, this man was miraculously born of a virgin and grew up just as you or I did, yet without sin. He cried just like us, learned obedience, was a normal guy working a blue collar job, and went through all of the pain and difficulties that we do each and every day. 

The difference between Jesus and ourselves is that this person was God incarnate, or literally God in human flesh and was tempted in every way that we are yet he committed no sin or ever did anything wrong. It is extremely important that God became a man, so that he can be our substitute, an example for us to follow in life, and a sympathetic high priest that can mediate between us and God the Father. He can do this because as God he obeyed the law perfectly on our behalf, and when he died on the cross he bore our sins and gave us his perfect righteousness. Theologians call this “substitutionary atonement” and is best summed up in 2 Corinthians 5.21, which states, “For our sake he [God the Father] mad him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we [Christians] might become the righteousness of God.”

This is amazing! The reason why there is grace and forgiveness for Christians today is because Jesus, as a man, lived his life perfectly so that if we place our faith in him we can also have eternal life as we were once created to have so long ago. When you are having difficulties in life and struggling with things, pray and ask Jesus how he conquered the same problems that you have and ask him to give you the strength to do the same. And if you do screw up, (which we all will) there is grace because he lived his life perfectly and to the fullest.

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Covenants

Posted by Branden Earp on April 28, 2014
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ImageWhat exactly are the covenants found within the Bible and why are they there? The most familiar covenant found today is the one between a man and his wife in marriage. When the pastor asks those to be married to repeat, “forever or for worse… to love and to cherish ‘till death do us part,” this is covenant language. Contractual language would be, “you do this and I’ll do this for you.” But covenant language is much more permanent. You in effect are saying, “We are making this covenant, and even if things go south and you do not hold up your end of the bargain I will still fulfill my end.” This is the exact way that the new covenant is made within the Bible.

The word covenant is actually where we get the word “testament” from, such as the Old Testament and New Testament sections of the Bible. The five covenants found within the Bible are times when God is telling his people the terms of their relationship and how he will interact with them. The first covenant was made with Adam and Eve, and was a covenant of works. This was then followed by four covenants of grace made throughout the rest of the Bible: covenants made with Abraham, Moses, David and finally the new covenant made with Jesus Christ.

Covenant with Adam and Eve

This was a covenant of works. God had made Adam and Eve to live in perfect relationship with him, but they were not to eat of the fruit of one particular tree. There were several promises of blessing including having a multitude of descendants, and also unhindered fellowship with God. But Adam transgressed the covenant, and thus God promised to send his Son to rescue the us in the future. 

Abrahamic Covenant

This is the fist of the covenants of grace, and through faith. The promise of all of the covenants of grace is eternal life by obedience to God by faith. The sign of these covenants in the Old Testament is circumcision, while the sign of the covenant in the New Testament is baptism. The Abrahamic Covenant was made in about 2,000 BC and promises Abraham a great nation of descendants that would be God’s people as well as blessing upon those who bless him. The condition of this covenant was faith in God and for Abraham to walk before him blamelessly, and the sign was circumcision.

Mosaic Covenant

The covenant made with Moses was around 1,440 BC and promised Moses that he would be their God and that they would be his people. The conditions were the laws given to Moses as well as the sacrifices that looked forward to the perfect Sacrifice, Jesus Christ. The sign of this covenant were the tablets that had the 10 Commandments written on them that were stored in the Arc of the Covenant. 

Davidic Covenant 

The covenant made with David was made around 1,000 BC. This covenant renewed God’s covenant with Abraham and promised to build him a kingship that Jesus would ultimately come through. The problem, however, with each of these covenants was us. There were laws to obey, but we as sinful humans could never perfectly obey these laws. So they looked forward to a coming Savior and a new covenant that God had promised them. 

Covenant with Jesus Christ

This promised covenant was looking forward to Jesus Christ. God has placed his laws in our minds and in our hearts, and the condition is to simply have faith in Jesus as our Lord and repent of our sins. The promise is that he will be our God and give us eternal life with him. And when we do sin (which we all do), there is grace because Jesus lived a perfect life on our behalf. He is the mediator of the new covenant for us and we should not think to go back to the old laws, which would be slavery. Jesus did what Adam in the first covenant could not, and gives this grace to us. So this week, thank God that he provided a way for us to be in right relationship with him through Jesus’ perfect life, death and resurrection through the new covenant.

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Sin

Posted by Branden Earp on April 27, 2014
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ImageWhat exactly is sin, and what happens when I sin? Are people basically good to begin with, or are we flawed from the beginning? Hamartiology is a branch of theology that studies the totality of what sin is. A basic definition is that sin is any breaking of God’s law in thought, act or nature. Many like to see it as “missing the mark” between what God has shown us in the Bible
and what happens in our everyday lives.

Jesus actually taught that we are accountable for even the motives of our hearts and the very thoughts that we think against others. A sin of act would be anything against God’s moral laws, which are most famously known as being summed up in the 10 commandments. The Scriptures also teach that even by our very nature we are born into sin and are enemies of God. If you think about it, you don’t have to teach children to be bad, it just happens naturally. The hard part is teaching them the right thing to do. 

Sin originally came when satan chose to rebel against God and first appeared here on earth when the devil tempted Adam and Eve to want to be like God in the Garden of Eden. Ever since then, death has entered into the world and put a break in our relationship with God known as sin. The Bible also teaches that we have all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that there is none righteous who walks on this earth. The Bible then goes on to say that the punishment or the wages of sin is spiritual death away from God and his people.

But we also know that each of us has sinned many many times each day. So what do we do? Well, this was the very reason why Jesus Christ came into the world to die for our sins… it was the only way to be restored into right relationship with God. Apart from Jesus saving us from our sins we cannot please God, but once a person places their faith in Jesus and becomes a Christian, there is no longer condemnation for their sin. Jesus absorbed all of the wrath that was destined for us on the cross and gave us his perfect righteousness from his sinless life on earth.

Romans 5.18-19 says, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” This basically says that when the sinless God, Jesus Christ came to earth and died, he made a way to make us justified, or legally clean in God’s eyes from all of the sin that we have. No longer are Christians under the curse of Adam’s sin, but are a child of God and eternally free from their sin.This week, take a few minutes and thank God that he made a way for our sin to be wiped away and for us to have the perfect righteousness of Jesus because of what he did here on earth.

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