In a time when much of the church is in doctrinal disarray, we would do well to recover the following teachings of Scripture:
1. The Sovereignty (and Awesomeness!) of God--Simply stated, to say that God is sovereign is to say that God, not man, is King of the universe. God is eternally self-existent and is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. But God is not only Creator, He is also the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent One who rules and reigns over all.
David emphasized the sovereignty and awesomeness of God when he prayed: "Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name" (1 Chronicles 29:10-13).
I think here of the words of the popular Christian chorus: "Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God!"
2. The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture--The Bible is the God-breathed, authoritative and self-authenticating Word of God. Although written by more than forty different authors in many different genres over a period of nearly fifteen hundred years, Scripture is, as J.I. Packer rightly points out,
"a single book with a single author--God the Holy Spirit--and a single theme--God the Son, and the Father's saving purposes which all revolve around him." The Bible--the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments--is truth and requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...."
3. The Trinity--What do Christians mean when speaking of the doctrine of the Trinity? The answer is succinctly and well stated by the Westminster Confession of Faith:
"In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." In other words, God not only exists but also coexists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; within God's unity there is triunity. Scriptural support for the deity of the Father is abundantly clear, as is evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ (see the next section). The Holy Spirit is also God, as attested by Acts 5:1-4 and other passages.
Furthermore, the New Testament mentions the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together more than one hundred times. See, for example, the following verses: Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19; Mark 12:36; John 3:34; Acts 10:38; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 1:13-14; etc. The biblical doctrine of the Trinity (one God in three Persons) must not be confused with such unbiblical teachings as tritheism (belief in three gods) and modalism (a belief that denies the eternal distinctions within the Godhead).
4. The Deity of Christ--There are many passages in the New Testament that refer specifically to the deity of Jesus. For example, John 1:1 says about Christ, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Hebrews 1:3 says,
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Philippians 2:6 speaks of Christ "...being in very nature God." In similar fashion, Colossians 2:9 says, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form...."
The New Testament also reveals in other ways that Jesus is God. He forgives sins (Mark 2:8-10); refers to the angels as
His angels (Matthew 24:31); speaks of judging the world (Matthew 25:31-46); and is considered worthy of worship (Hebrews 1:6). Away with the false teaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarians and others who deny the deity of Christ. Let us firmly embrace and trumpet the truth of the deity of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ!
5. The Virgin Birth of Christ--The Bible teaches in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. In his classic work
The Virgin Birth of Christ, J. Gresham Machen underscores the importance of the virgin birth in connection to humanity's redemption:
"But if we believe, as the Bible teaches, that all mankind are under an awful curse, then we shall rejoice in knowing that there entered into the sinful race from the outside One upon whom the curse did not rest save as He bore it for those whom He redeemed by His blood. How, except by the virgin birth, could our Saviour have lived a complete human life from the mother's womb, and yet have been from the very beginning no product of what had gone before, but a supernatural Person come into the world from the outside to redeem the sinful race?" 6. Original Sin--The Bible teaches that people are sinners by choice
and by nature. In this regard, many theologians speak of the doctrine of original sin, which refers to the state of sin that characterizes all human beings as a result of Adam's sin. David, for instance, spoke of being sinful from the time of conception. "Surely I was sinful at birth," he said, "sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). Likewise, in Psalm 58:3 we read, "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies." Jeremiah gave a stark description of the human condition when he said in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
The apostle Paul spoke of the sinful human condition in Ephesians 2:1-3 when he referred to people as spiritually dead (not just sick or wounded) apart from Christ. In fact, he said sinful human beings "were by nature objects of [God's] wrath." One should not take lightly the phrase "by nature." Paul made that statement because all human beings come into the world in a state of sin, having inherited the sinful condition that characterized fallen Adam (Romans 5:12).
7. The Substitutionary Atonement--Christ died for sinners. That statement is at the very heart of the Christian faith. And of course the primary symbol of Christianity is a cross. But what exactly does it mean to say that Christ died for sinners? The biblical concept that can help us understand Christ's death is atonement. According to Romans 3:25, "God presented him [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood...." One Bible scholar (Leon Morris) has rightly pointed out that that, "The atonement is the crucial doctrine of the faith. Unless we are right here it matters little, or it seems to me, what we are like elsewhere."
While there are many different theories of the atonement, the Bible clearly presents the atoning work of Jesus Christ in terms of substitution. All of the atoning sacrifices in the Old Testament have strong substitutionary overtones and point to Jesus Christ, who is the heart of the the Bible and the One to whom the Old Testament Law and prophets bear witness. Jesus was the perfect sacrificial victim--the Lamb of God--who died vicariously for sinners. In the words of Isaiah 53:6, "We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Elsewhere we are told, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). And in 1 Peter 3:18 we read, "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."
8. Salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone--Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God's free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, thereby justifies them in His sight. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Many people believe that all roads lead to God and that those who proclaim salvation through Christ alone are narrow-minded and intolerant. But the scriptural witness is clear: Jesus Christ is the only way to God; He is the only mediator between a holy, sinless God and unholy, sinful human beings (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).
9. The Bodily Resurrection of Christ--If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, we might as well close all churches and stop all evangelistic endeavors. "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still dead in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:17-20). The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus died, rose bodily from the dead and ascended into heaven where He now intercedes for the people of God.
10. The Second Coming of Christ--Although there is disagreement surrounding the timing of Christ's return, Bible-believing Christians of all traditions believe that Jesus Christ will come again. He will return to earth personally, visibly and bodily to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory" (Mark 13:26). The Lord is coming again. Are you ready for His return?!
--Deutero Q
# posted by Deutero Q @ 4:15 PM
