The Importance of Theology and Doctrine

We came to saving faith by the message of the cross not because we were convinced by wisdom, but by the Spirit of God and the message of the cross. However we were not saved just for the sake of being saved. Our relationship with God was reconciled. Reconciliation means more than just salvation but a continued relationship with our maker. We started these classes to supplement our faith with virtue and knowledge.

Virtue: behavior showing high moral standards

And I, when I came to you, brothers,  did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. - 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1Corinthians2:1-16&version=ESV

And so we have been on this journey to, like the Bible says, Increase in the knowledge of the Lord through Systematic Theology. 

And we began with the study of God himself Theology Proper

Knowledge of God

God Incomprehensible: It's funny we start with the study of God by saying that God is incomprehensible. But what we mean by that is not that we can't know anything about God but that we cannot comprehend God in his fullness. The finite cannot contain the infinite. An illustration I found helpful is the illustration of an 8oz glass. The glass is like our minds; it can only contain so much. You can pour an infinite amount of water into the glass however the glass can only hold 8 oz. So it is with God and us. All of God and all of his greatness can't possibly be contained in our knowledge. However that doesn't mean that what we do know of God is meaningless. I used the example of a scientist. A scientist will not tell you that they know all there is to know in their field of study, however they will not tell you that what they have learned is useless or meaningless, nor will they won't give up on their  research of whatever particular study because there will always be something to learn.

Because God is so big His word is written to us in a way that theologians call 

Anthropomorphism:The Bible is all anthropomorphic in that God communicates through all of scriptures to humans in a way we can understand. Whether it's through imagery like heaven is my throne and Earth is my footstool to express his rulership, power and Grandeur or through his son to demonstrate his righteousness in all that he does. 

God like John Calvin said "God in his graciousness and mercy condescends to lisp for our benefit." In other words God speaks to us on our terms and in our language. Just as a parent might do when talking to an infant. We call it baby talk, and yet something meaningful is communicated. Jesus is the ultimate example of the anthropomorphic expression of God to Humans. 

The Attributes of God

   Communicable and Incommunicable

Communicable(shared) and Incommunicable (non shared)

Communicable attributes of God:

Attributes which God transmits to His creation. 

Genesis 1:26 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.”

27 So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.

When we use the word communicate we are referring to transferring information from one person to another. It can take different forms be it written, body and sign language, speech, or even facial expressions. However the word communicate can also be used when we refer to transmitting something to others. When theologians talk about God's communicable attributes they are talking about the attributes of God which are transmitted to human beings. Because God used himself as the example by which he made us, we share some attributes with God.

Genesis 5:1-2

This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 

It's interesting to me that theologians use a word that means transferring  information to talk about the attributes of God that people share with him considering that all genetics is a study of the code or information that exists in all life.

We Are told in school in the news and nearly everywhere that we are the product of random chances and evolution which somehow out of all creatures made it to what we are today, what we actually see and witness is a world displaying exactly what we read in the scriptures. No other creature in this world displays intelligence, creativity, love, justice, relationship, emotion, character, wisdom, community, thought, the ability to do science, as well as the ability to take all that is good and pervert it for evil. All of that is what we actually see take place in the world and in humans just as the word of God tells us. People were created by God and unlike everything else he made he drew out of himself, to form us into a people who would resemble Him.    This knowledge of God's communicable attributes is evidence that the Scriptures are true. We can observe that in all of creation there aren't any creatures that are like mankind. The popular philosophy that all that is 

Incommunicable Attributes

Attributes which are exclusively Gods

It's important to note however that only God has the power to create in this way. To create something out of nothing (ex nihilo) is an attribute of God that we do not share. These attributes which God does not transfer to creation are called incommunicable attributes. 

Only God can be all powerful, eternal, all knowing, all good, unchanging, everpresent, self existing, sovereign

God has no author, no dependence, nor is he self created. God simply is

Like He told Moses in Ex 3:14 “I Am Who I Am” 

These incommunicable attributes are exclusive to God. The world and everything in it is the product of God, He is our source, and we can see his attributes or his character in the goodness of everything he has made.

The Trinity

One In Essence

Three in Person

To begin with the Trinity we have to understand that the Trinity is a Triunity, meaning God is One Being, united, One essence, one God. Deuteronomy 6:4-10 says

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9

The Bible makes it clear there are no other Gods but the God of the Bible. Yet God in the NT has also spoken of himself as Triune in his nature meaning there are three persons in the Godhead. The word essence comes from the Greek “ousios' ' meaning (being or substance). He has revealed himself as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sharing one essence. Now why would God, in his triune nature, not reveal that about himself in the OT?

RC Sproul said there was “no greater threat to Israel than the corruption that came from pursuing false idols.” We see that play out in history. One reason why God did not reveal his triune nature is because of the focus he wanted the people of Israel to have on his uniqueness. Unlike the nations around them who had many false gods, God is God alone and they should worship him as such. Israel and all people had a heart bent toward idolatry. God first laid the foundation that He is one God before revealing that He is 3 in person.

What we see in the Bible is that God gradually reveals more and more about himself. There's a progression of revelation of who God is as we read through the Bible. (imagine reading through the Bible for the first time.) First we read God as Creator of the heavens and earth and by the time we reach Revelation we have a deeper understanding of God revealed through the Son.

1 There is only one true God, (there is usually no debate about this)

2 The True God exists in three Persons

3 Each of the three Persons is distinct from the other two

The Trinity is a tri-unity meaning the persons of the trinity do not exist apart from one another.yet they are each distinct and divine. The Father is divine, the Son is divine, and the Holy Spirit is divine but the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Son or the Father. And God has always been this way. 

Contradiction vs Paradox

Essence & Personhood

 If we're honest God being one, while also being 3 distinct persons is foreign to our understanding. 

Our Experience Tells Us:

In our experience 1 being is 1 person.  How can 1 be 3 and 3 be 1. We have to come to terms with the fact that God is not like a man and is limited like we are.  

Critics say the Trinity is a contradiction. 

It is true that the trinity is a mystery but it is not a contradiction. A contradiction would be that God is only one God and is at the same time Three Gods or that God is one being and three beings, or that God is one person and three persons. 

The Trinity is a Paradox not a contradiction. A paradox is something that when placed along something else appears to be a contradiction until you closely look at it. We cannot conceive of how one being can be contained in three persons and still be one being. We don't have the reference or the capacity for it, and yet by faith we must believe it because that's what He has said about Himself through the writers of the New Testament. 

“ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14

• Acts 20:28- 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with HIS OWN blood.

Jesus' ministry and the ministry of the Holy Spirit would make it impossible to deny that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the New Testament writers wanted to be careful not to exalt Christ as deity they would have avoided the confusion and clearly stated it. They definitely would have not written down Jesus using the divine name of God in John 8:58

“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

 The New Testament clearly exalts The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the divine sovereign being of God shared among the three Persons.

The Will of God

The Will of God is more complicated than the will of people. It's also not limited like ours. The only limits to God's will are the ones which he sets for himself. He does what he pleases without consent from anyone or anything.  Isaiah 46:10: “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” In other words God's will is not shaped by any outside influence or force, however a believer's long life goal is to align and shape our will, with the will of God. 

To quote from the book EAT “Those who earnestly want to live in obedience to Him desire to know what God wants them to do. "  which matches up with what Jesus said 

John 14:15

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

The will of God that has to do with his commands, principles and precepts is called the Preceptive will of God. This precepts is what Romans 12 tells us to continually renew our minds with and to apply with our bodies and action

Romans 12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

There is also the will of God that we are not meant to know until it takes place. This will is called the Decretive will of God,  also known as his sovereign and hidden will, the determinate forecounsel of God, and absolute will of God. 

This will of God is called theses things because God decrees that certain things happen and they are not revealed to us until they take place. God governs in the counsel of His own will and needs no advice or help in it. God's sovereignly brings to pass whatever he wills.  When God decrees sovereignly that something should come to pass, it must indeed come to pass.  2 examples that I gave during the this lesson were the crucifixion and the rebirth or regeneration of the believer. These things happened because of the determinate forecounsel or decretive will of God.

Because God is the sovereign, all powerful ruler over everything nothing happens unless he does not will it, at the very least he allows it or he commands it. But nothing is out of the scope of God's control. 

Acts 4:23-28

23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,

    and the peoples plot in vain?

26 The kings of the earth set themselves,

    and the rulers were gathered together,

    against the Lord and against his Anointed’—

27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 

It was the decreed will of God that he would redeem his people with a sacrifice he would provide, the blood of the Son was the ransom, and although it was at the hands of evil men, it was God's hands and plan,

Isaiah 53:10

English Standard Version

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

    he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

This leads us into the Providence of God

Providence

The sovereignty of God is the power and authority of God over all things, God is in command of everything in heaven, and every square inch of this universe. 

Isaiah 46:10: “[I declare] the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” 

He is King over all and he decrees as He sees fit. 

When we talk about the providence of God it is God putting into action that which He decreed. 

In other words he provides what is needed for what he has decreed. Or another way to put it is that ”he sees to it”  that what He in His power and authority commands (sovereignty) takes place. 

The Jewish people understood this,

When Isaac saw that his father Abraham had no animal for the sacrifice on the mountain and he asked him about it, Abraham's response was 

“God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering my son” Gen 22:7

In other words, “ God will see to it.” 

Jesus not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God

Matthew 4:4

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus knew that it was the providence of God, God's provision in all the details, that sustained Him, and not only him all of creation. 

Q & A 27

Q. What do you understand
by the providence of God?

A. The almighty and ever present power of God by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.

The fulfillment of God's promises are found in Christ Jesus, not only in the sacrifice which Abraham spoke of but all future promises

2 Corinthians 1:20

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

God doesn't give empty promises or has good intentions but can't deliver, When the Word says his promises are yes and amen in Jesus he also, in his Providence, sees to it, he delivers. 

Yes to All Gods Promises and More (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/yes-to-all-gods-promises-and-more)

Being “in Christ Jesus” is a stupendous reality. It is breathtaking what it means to be in Christ. United to Christ. Bound to Christ.

If you are “in Christ” listen to what it means for you:

1. In Christ Jesus you have been seated in the heavenly places even while he lived on earth. Ephesians 2:6, “[God] raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

2. In Christ Jesus all the promises of God are Yes for you. Second Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ].”

3. In Christ Jesus you are being sanctified and made holy. First Corinthians 1:2, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.”

4. In Christ Jesus everything you really needed will be supplied. Philippians 4:19, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

5. In Christ Jesus the peace of God will guard your heart and mind. Philippians 4:7, “The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

6. In Christ Jesus you have eternal life. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

7. And in Christ Jesus you will be raised from the dead at the coming of the Lord. First Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” All those united to Adam in the first humanity die. All those united to Christ in the new humanity rise to live again!

Prayer:

Pray that this knowledge of God bear fruit, have an effect on us 

Colossians 1:10

so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God