Tag Archives: Metaphysics

All Things Together in Christ

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All of this is so that in the Fullness of Time He would:

Reconcile and gather all things together in Christ

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—” (Colossians 1:19–22, NKJV)

“having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him” (Ephesians 1:9–10, NKJV).

“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18–19, NKJV).

The goal and purpose as stated in these passages is that God has purposed in eternity past that everything will be reconciled back to the Son of God. We live in a fallen world, and mankind is in rebellion against God. There’s been a separation. But God is going to bring it all back eventually. Every knee will ultimately bow to Christ. Christ is to be all in all.

Put an end to all rule and authority

“Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24, NKJV).

All other competing powers will be brought under His control.

Destroy death, the last enemy

“The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26, NKJV).

Show the exceeding riches of His grace and display the manifold wisdom of God.

God’s plan from eternity past is that His Son and the people He has redeemed will be a display for all creation to see. It will display how great and inexhaustible the wisdom of God are and how amazing His grace is that He would take rebellious treasonous subjects and transform them by His love and grace into His sons and daughters, adopted into His family and made co-heirs with His Son Jesus Christ.

“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7, NKJV).

“To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10, NKJV).

Jesus Christ will reign forever and ever with His bride, the Church

“And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth”” (Revelation 5:9–10, NKJV).

“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”” (Revelation 11:15, NKJV).

“There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5, NKJV).

God will be all in all and will dwell with His people

“Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28, NKJV).

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3, NKJV).

The mission will have been accomplished. God will have demonstrated His glory and the centrality and supremacy of His Son by creating and sustaining all things through Him, showing His grace by reconciling sinful people to Himself, by demonstrating His justice by not overlooking sin but punishing it in Christ, and ultimately reconciling everything together to Himself so that God Himself will dwell forever with His people.

Link to video on youtube: https://youtu.be/7979yF2hm6s

Jesus’ Successful Mission

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Because of Christ’s Successful Mission, God has

Highly exalted Him.  We read in Philippians that because of Jesus’ obedience “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9, NKJV). In his letter to the Ephesians Paul explains it this way: “He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:20–21, NKJV).

Jesus Christs has been placed in a position of great glory at God’s right hand, and this is far above all other authorities that exist in the universe. The author of the book of Hebrews explains it this way:

“You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:7–9, NKJV).

Jesus Christ is the God-man. But never forget that He is a man with a human glorified body. He is the first person to receive his glorified body and He has His place in heaven as our forerunner. He is the guarantee that all of those that belong to Him through faith will also have their place in heaven with Him. He is our anchor behind the veil.

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:19–20, NKJV).

In the Old Testament the temple has a veil separating the two parts. The part behind the veil where God was could not be entered by anyone except the High Priest and then only once a year. That veil ripped in two from top to bottom on the day Christ was crucified. The earthly temple was a model of what is in heaven. This passage in Hebrews tells us that the way is now open. Jesus Christ is already there as our forerunner and our anchor behind the veil. All who belong to Him will have their place with Him in a glorified body some day.

Christ is central and supreme because He is the One who obtained eternal redemption for us through His sacrifice on the cross and is now seated as sovereign in heaven, and every knee will bow before Him (Philippians 2:10).

Link to video on youtube: https://youtu.be/7979yF2hm6s

God Has Made Christ Supreme

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God Has…

Made Him heir of all things. “[God] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2, NKJV).

God has made Jesus Christ the inheritor of all things. Take a moment and consider what is included in the “all things.” All nature?  Yes. Every planet? Yes. Every galaxy? Yes. Every person? Yes.

In Ephesians 1:18, Paul prays that as believers our eyes would be opened to “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” (Ephesians 1:18, NKJV). This is not Christ as our inheritance. This is Christians as His inheritance. Christians are part of the all things that Jesus has inherited from God the Father. And as long as we are stretching our faith, let’s consider the fact that God has announced that His people are joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).

God has given Him Authority. “As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2, NKJV).

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18, NKJV).

God has made Him head of the Church “And He is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18, NKJV).

Jesus Christ has been given all authority over everything in the universe, and in a special sense, He is head of the Church, because the Church is His body. He is present in the Church everywhere the true church is found, and He is its head. No pastor, bishop, or pope can claim that position.

God has made Him the judge. “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22, NKJV).

“And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:27, NKJV).

It’s interesting to note that the Father judges no one. The authority to judge every one of us has been given to the Son. Every one of us will stand before Him one day and be judged. We will be judged by a peer, if you will, another human. The Man Christ Jesus. Paul told the Athenians, “But [God] now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead”” (Acts 17:30–31, NKJV).

When will this judgment take place? The book of Hebrews tells us: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27, AV).

God has sent Him on a mission. The Word, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity was sent on a mission arranged in eternity past. This mission basically was to come to this earth as a human being, live among us, be tempted in every way like we are without sinning, be illegally convicted and executed as punishment for our sins and then to be resurrected to return to His position in glory from where He had come. This time He returns as a conquering King who has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10, NKJV).

He testified that He had come to give life abundantly (John 10:10) and to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).

Summarizing then what we have covered under this heading, we have learned that God has made Christ the heir of all things, given Him authority over everything which includes His responsibility to judge, and God has sent Him on a mission to rescue people from their sins and the penalty that comes from sin.

We can see therefore how central and supreme Jesus Christ is to everything God has done and is doing in the world.

Link to video on youtube: https://youtu.be/7979yF2hm6s

God With Us

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The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us

The argument I am trying to make in this series of articles is that Jesus Christ, the God-man, is the core of all knowledge, all science, our very being, and He is the Supreme ruler of all things. As we read in the gospel of John chapter one verse 14, John tells us that the Word became flesh and lived among us. The Word is the second person of the Trinity. Earlier in the first chapter of John he wrote that in the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So now we see that the Word becomes flesh; this thing called the Word becomes human, takes on a body and comes here! We know this person as Jesus Christ. There are several passages of scripture that I would like us to look at, and I’m going to quote them verbatim so that you can see what the scripture is claiming.

“He [speaking of Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15, NKJV)

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,” (Colossians 1:19, NKJV)

“in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3, NKJV)

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;” (Colossians 2:9, NKJV)

“[God] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:2–3, NKJV)

According to Colossians and Hebrews, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. The writer to the Hebrews says He is the express image of God. In other words, He is the exact impression of God. Just like we might make a stamp and impress an image onto a block of clay, Jesus Christ is the impress stamp, the image of God the Father. These verses further tell us that all the fullness of the godhead dwelt in Jesus Christ bodily. That means that when Jesus was walking around on this earth getting his feet dusty, He was the embodiment of the entirety of the godhead. In addition to that, Paul wrote to the Colossians that all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be found in Jesus Christ himself. The word all leaves nothing out. Every bit of wisdom that exists in the universe has its origin in Jesus Christ. All the knowledge of science, chemistry , astronomy, psychology, sociology, and so forth, are rooted in Christ. Any wisdom that there is in the universe has its source in Jesus Christ. This is why His being is central and supreme.

There can be nothing said of someone that is more profound and an acknowledgment of the supremacy of that one and the centrality of that one than to say that He is the creator of all things, the entirety of God almighty is contained in Him, and that  all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge dwell in Him.

In the Beginning

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The purpose of this series of articles is to demonstrate the centrality and supremacy of Christ as given to us in the Scriptures. The first part of this series I’m calling “In the Beginning.” The first verse in the Bible tells us, “In the beginning God …” Obviously this means that in the beginning, God was there before anything else existed. In John 1:1 the Bible tells us “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” Before anything else existed, God was there, as was the Word, and the Bible says that the Word was God. We also know from Genesis 1:2 that the Holy Spirit was also present at creation hovering over the waters. These verses lay the foundation for the Christian worldview and philosophy. We are going to discover that “The Word” is none other than the Son of God and the man Jesus Christ, and He is the center of everything.

What we can see from this is that the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present at creation. In John 17:24, Jesus testifies that God the Father loved Him before the foundation of the world. Earlier in that same chapter Jesus looks forward to the day when He will share again in the glory He had with the Father before the world began. What we know, then, is that within the Trinity there was love, communication, and glory before anything else had been created. Should we be surprised then that we as human beings, who have been created in the image of God, have personalities that include love and communication as part of our nature?

These truths lay the foundation for what comes next. In Genesis 1:1 we learn that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In John 1:1-3 we learn that the Word, that was in the beginning with God, and was God, created all things, and there’s nothing that’s been created that He did not create. Therefore, as we look around, everything we see around us has been created by the Word, the Son of God. Furthermore, according to John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

“He (speaking of Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” (Colossians 1:15–17, NKJV)

“[God] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:2–3, NKJV)

What do we learn from these passages? Jesus Christ the Son of God created all things including thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. We further learn that He made everything for Himself. Just as we sometimes create artwork or a piece of furniture for our own use and enjoyment, Jesus Christ did the same with all of creation. In addition, we learn that He holds everything together. Why is it important to consider the centrality and supremacy of Christ? Because He is the foundation of all of creation, and He supports and holds it together for His own pleasure and glory.

Let’s think about these ideas in a different way. In the beginning all that existed was a 3-person God who existed in a spiritual form, that is, He did not have a body. And yet there was communication and love among the members of this Trinity. At some point before time began, this triune God decided to create the universe. All of the atoms and molecules that make up our universe, our world , and our bodies, were created out of nothing through the Word of this God. And what John tells us in John chapter one is that this Word, that created all things, is God himself, and that He is currently holding all things together. If that’s not amazing to you, I don’t know what it would take to amaze you!

I think what we need to do as Christians is to try to put aside the conception of these things as being religion or religious teaching. The Bible is saying, and we as Christians believe, that these statements are actually true. This truth is at the core of all science and all history and, in fact, all knowledge. There actually is a God who exists in three persons, and who created all things by His word. I would go so far as to say that if you do not believe this to be true, then it is likely that you are not actually a Christian, because these statements in the Bible, are the foundation and the core of all the rest that follows.

Link to video on youtube: https://youtu.be/7979yF2hm6s

Part 3 — Who Then Can Be Saved?

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So far in my musings about the meaning and purpose of life, I have tried to show that there is a God who exists and that he is greater than all that we can imagine, and he created and owns everything and doesn’t need our advice and counsel to figure out how to run the world. The second thing we looked at is the Bible’s teaching that God’s purpose for all he does is for his glory. We were created by him in his image in order to reflect his glory and majesty, and when we get side-tracked from that we lose our focus and find ourselves without meaning and purpose.

Within ourselves we know that something is not right with the world, or even with ourselves for that matter. We have a sense of the kind of love that should pervade human society, and yet that love is woefully missing. There are some glimmers of it, but there are an awful lot of dark places. This is true on a global scale, and it is true within our own circle of family and friends. Things often seem pleasant and people seem happy, but there is a lot of friction, discontent, abuse, and anger around. We know this is true and we know it should be better than it is.

In addition to interpersonal and international frictions, it seems as though nature is messed up. In many ways nature is beautiful, but even there we see death, violence and a sort of unsettledness both in the living world and in non-living aspects of the world such as weather and geological instability. How are we to explain this? Atheists and naturalists have their ways, but to me these are not satisfactory.

The Bible’s explanation is that God gave one specific negative command. Human beings, in the person of the first man, Adam, disobeyed God’s command and rebelled against the creator and owner. As a result, he brought the curse of death upon the whole human race and upon creation itself. The Bible says that the whole creation groans (Romans 8:22). We as people groan because we are plagued with sickness and decaying bodies. We groan because making our living is not easy. Nature resists our attempts to grow food and to build a decent life for ourselves. We find rust and decay affecting virtually everything we make, and it takes work to keep things in good repair and working order.

When God cursed us, he told us that disobedience would cause death. And that is what we see all around us.  As time went on God gave us more and more commandments in order to show us his character and to allow us to see just how far from his path we have wandered. Through the ten commandments and other moral instructions given in the Bible, God shows us where the line is, and we can see clearly how far we’ve fallen, and how impossible it is to live the way God designed us to live. Sometimes we look at commandments as overbearing and authoritarian, but God is the one who designed us along with the rest of the world. He is the one who knows how these bodies, minds and spirits work best. His commands are to provide a way of living that works best. Ultimately, we find that we can’t live by those standards even if we try. We don’t have it within us to comply. That too is part of the consequences of our fallen nature. We don’t really want to live like God wants us to. We don’t want God to be telling us what to do. We want our independence.

God tells us in Romans 1:18 and following that the crux of the problem is that even though we know God is there and that he is powerful, we naturally do not give him the glory that he is due and we are not thankful to him for all that he has provided. We just assume we have a right to everything. We end up worshipping and serving created things, such as ourselves, or the stuff we can own, more than we worship God. This leads to sins of every kind that Paul lists for us in this passage. The chapter ends with these sobering words, “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

This is where many people jump ship. They say, “I just can’t believe that being disobedient to my parents, or living in sexually immoral ways, or being selfish is worthy of the death penalty.” The neat thing about living in America is that we are free to believe anything we want, and no one else can dictate our conscience to us. We can live in the ways described here and believe that we are just fine. We’re allowed to do that.  The thing we need to ask ourselves is whether all of this is OK with the God who is actually there. God is either like he is described in the Bible or he is not. At some point each of us has to come to grips with the possibility, and I would say reality, that God actually does have standards, and that he actually does care how we live, and that he actually does impose the death penalty on those who fall short of his standards.

Having said that, though, we need to resist the temptation to think that it is those other people who have the death penalty on them while we walk free. You see, the argument Paul is trying to make in the book of Romans is that every single person is guilty. In fact, in the next verse after citing the death penalty, he makes this statement. “Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” Romans 2:1. I used to think this verse was not true of me. I would look at people who were doing terrible things and judge them and congratulate myself for not being like that. But this verse tells me quite clearly that I do the same things. Jesus, for example, tells us that to be angry is like murder in God’s eyes. Lusting after a woman is like committing adultery. The standard is very high, and I have fallen short. The death penalty looms.

Thus, we end today’s musings with the conundrum that God’s standards are so high and so strict, that we find everyone in the world is guilty before their creator and are under the just condemnation of God. Who then can be saved?

What is Life all About? Part 2

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What am I doing here?  That’s the question many people struggle with. What is my purpose in life? Isn’t there some overarching plan that would explain where I fit in?

The answer is yes. There is a plan, a design, and purpose. The purpose and plan is that the Almighty God who created all things, did so for his own enjoyment and glory. He wants us as rational creatures to also delight in that creation, to praise him for it, and to enjoy it with him. He made us in his image, and part of that image is that we ourselves are creative, thinking, and enjoying individuals. God delights in relationship and he wants us to delight in it as well.

God has always existed in three persons and even before creation, the three persons of the God-head had fellowship, communication, and love between them. When they said, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26) they wanted to extend that love and fellowship with a particular part of the creation, namely human beings.

Everything God does is ultimately for his glory. In Psalms 4:2 God asks, “How long, O you sons of men, Will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness, and seek falsehood?”

Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

Isaiah 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

All the way through the Bible God does things for the sake of his glory and for his great name’s sake.

At this point some may think, “That’s what I don’t like about God. He is focused on himself, and seems to go around trying to prove how great he is.”

The problem with this kind of thinking is that if it were a man making these claims it would definitely be egotistical and self-serving. But here’s the point: God was and is all in all. Before he created, there was nothing but him. He made creation for himself. We show a small part of God’s image when we create something for our enjoyment. And when we make something like a piece of artwork, it is for us to enjoy and for others to enjoy with us. Now suppose this piece of artwork somehow had a mind of its own and said that it didn’t want to look as it does, or it doesn’t want to be hung where you decided to hang it, or it didn’t want to be sold for the price you had agreed to. Wouldn’t it be ludicrous for a man-made project to try to dictate its own character and value? This is exactly what God thinks about our reasoning.

In Romans 9:20, God asks, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’”

So my point today, is that we need to remember that all of this is not about us. When we’re asking the question as to why we are here or what is the meaning of life, we need to remember that the meaning at its core is that we are here for God’s glory and everything we do and say is meant to exalt him and make him look good to others. If we’re running around looking for ways to have the focus shift to ourselves, we will be sorely disappointed and find life to be ultimately meaningless. But if we look for ways to exalt him and demonstrate his greatness to others, we will find meaning and fulfillment in life.

What is Life All About? — Start with God!

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When we begin to try to figure out what life is all about and where we fit, we always need to start with the Bible. What does it say about God, the universe, and us? The Bible starts with God – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I believe that we won’t have a true perspective of who we are as people and what our predicament is, until we consider who God is and what he is like. The Bible presents that for us throughout its pages. So let’s look at that a little bit. What is God like?

In Job chapter 38, God responds to Job’s questioning by basically asking, “Who are you to try to counsel me?” God goes on to ask Job where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth. He wonders if Job knows how the planets work or how the sea stays within its bounds or how light and darkness work and on and on it goes. God created everything there is and he owns it all. In the poetic language of Isaiah 40, God says that he has measured the waters of the earth in the hollow of his hand. He says that the nations to him are like a drop in the bucket.

So throughout the Bible we have God presented to us as an all-powerful, all-knowing spirit who has always existed. He is the one who created all that we see around us. He is described as a being who is actually a person in the sense that he thinks, creates, knows, and communicates. In other words, he has a personality, and is not just a force.

This God does not need our counsel or advice. We live at His discretion. Paul told the Athenians that God has given us life and breath and all things. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not dwell in temples made with hands. He doesn’t need anything since he is the one who has provided everything we have. He is the one who has made all people from one blood and has determined their preappointed times and boundaries for their existence on the earth. See Acts 17 beginning with verse 24 for the complete account of this discussion.

The thing I want us to think about today is the fact that we often go around defining everything the way we want it to be and flaunt our opinions as though they were significant in the whole scheme of things. Bring up any topic related to religion or morality and you will get countless opinions. Sentences start something like this, “My God would never …. !”  “It wouldn’t be loving for God to….”  “God would never forbid such-n-such because he wants us to be happy and to be self-fulfilled.

I think it would be wise for us to take our many thoughts and opinions and submit them to evaluation by God’s own statements of the way things are. We can wish all we want to have the God of our own creation, but that’s actually not possible. We need to live in the real universe with the God who is really there, not in some imaginary place where there is a god of our own invention.