A Quote from Athanasius

"...No, repentance could not meet the case. What-or rather Who was it that was needed for such grace and such recall as we required? Who, save the Word of God Himself, Who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? His part it was, and His alone, both to bring again the corruptible to incorruption and to maintain for the Father His consistency of character with all. For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father."

~St. Athanasius On the Incarnation pg.33

Incarnating our Faith

Adam was our chief representative. When he fell into the bondage of sin, so did all of the human race. In this state, we began to turn away from God. We started worshiping false gods, and we suppressed the truth about the one true God, until we had lost our apprehension of Him. Romans 1:21 says: “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

The only way that we can be brought to the light, is by the almighty hand of God, who regenerates us and frees us from the bondage that sin had upon us (2 Cor. 1:21-22). Since man was evil, God had to renew His image in man. Through the Incarnation and death of Jesus Christ, we were cleansed from our sin and made new!

We are now commanded to incarnate our faith, just like Jesus incarnated his body. We are to be a city set on a hill & a light for all nations. Our faith should reflect upon who we are. When people see us, they shouldn't just see us, but they should see Christ shining through us. In everything that we do, it should always bring glory to God!


-Destiny

Understanding the Incarnation

How can we know that we are understanding the truth of God and the Incarnation in our lives?

We can show we understand by living a Christian life. We are called to be a city set on a hill & a light for all nations. We have been justified through Christ's death on the cross. We are being sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit now. And we will one day be glorified with God the Father.

Right now, we are being made sanctified. We are living the Christian life. To show we truly understand the Incarnation, we must have a completely different attitude towards sin. We should entirely reject it. We are saints. Maybe not the best of saints. But we are saints living for Christ. We are called to be a living sacrifice.

Not only should we live the Christian life, but we are also commanded by Jesus to spread the gospel. We are told to share our Faith with others. We are called to do this. We have a living hope and should live a life that glorifies the Father above. Even in times of suffering, we must remember that we can share in Christ's sufferings and will, likewise, be resurrected with Him. What have we to fear? God is with us. Who can come against us? We have a living hope. This life is not ALL that we have.

The Incarnation

How do we know that we truly comprehend and understand the whole truth about the incarnation?

Firstly, every thing we believe must be internally present and externally proved. Jesus said that by their fruits you shall know them. If we believe that theft is unethical than we should not steal. I it pure hypocrisy to say we are compassionate Christians whilst we refuse to stop and see if the old lady on the side of the road needs help.
That said let us define what the "whole truth" about the incarnation is.
When God created the world He did it through speaking the word, and in the beginning the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and descended to the earth it had created for to redeem the object of it's grace. Christ was fully man and fully God. This is called the "hypostatic union". It is the conjunction of the immortal God and the mortal body of a man.
If we are to"incarnate"our thoughts into practical application then we must ask forgiveness of Christ our mediator, have faith in his power to regenerate us and work out our salvation through faith in good works(which we are now able to do thanks to the incarnation).

-Alex

Saint Augustine - Confessions

Recently, we have been reading through St. Augustine's Confessions. It is just an amazing book. There are so many golden nuggets in this book. Here are just a few quotes.

"But you are the life of souls, the life of lives. You live, O life of my soul, because you are life itself, immutable." -Book III

"[M]en are so blind, that they even take pride in their blindness." -Book III

"Entrust to Him whatever you have, for all that you have is from Him. Now, at last, tired of being misled, entrust to the Truth all that the Truth has given to you and nothing will be lost. All that is withered in you will be made to thrive again. All your sickness will be healed. Your mortal body will be refashioned and renewed and firmly bound to you, and when it dies it will not drag you with it to the grave, but will endure and abide with you before God, who abides and endures for ever." -Book IV

"O God, you who are so high above us and yet so close, hidden and yet always present, you have not parts, some greater and some smaller. You are everywhere, and everywhere you are entire. Nowhere are you limited by space. You have not the shape of a body like ours. Yet you made man in your own likeness, and man is plainly in space from head to foot." -Book VI

-David

Interpreting the bible-

7 Criteria's for the common person to interpret the word of God:

1. You must be born again-

• 1 Cor 2:14 "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
• If you're not born again, then the actual truths in the bible will remain a mystery to you. An unregenerate person may have an interpretation of the bible, but most likely it'll be the wrong one.

2. You must work at it-

• 2 Tim 2:15 "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
• It takes time, effort and work to interpret the bible correctly.
• Minimal time and effort=minimal understanding -  Maximum time and effort=maximum understanding -

3. You must want it-

• 1 Peter 2:2 "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.."
• A baby desire milk. We may give him other things, such as toys, warm cloths... etc. but he will always desire milk! We are God's children, and should want and desire to know the truth just as babies desire milk. If we do not have that desire, we must ask and pray for it.

4. You must be holy-

• 1 Peter 2:1 "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking."
• We must constantly be reading the word. The lack of reading the word is not because the word is not exciting, but rather because you are not excited about reading it, therefor creating a sin.

5. You must have no idols-

• Ezekiel 14:4 "Therefor speak to them, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Everyone of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols."
• Sin has the ability to guard godly men of the truth.
• You must learn how to interpret the scripture, because even preachers, and Sunday school teachers can have wrong interpretations of it [Acts 17:11]
• God will give us what we want [our idols] just in order to show us that we "don't need them!"

6. You must be Spirit-Controlled-

• 1 John 2:26-27 "These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."
• Some people interpret 1 John 2 to say that "the spirit guides them in all truth and they don't need teachers, and don't need to study the word of God and learn how to interpret it." But, they themselves are interpreting this passage wrongly by saying that. In this passage Paul is "teaching" the first century church that they need to be careful of gnostic teachers, he is not saying that they shouldn't listen to any teachers at all [after all, Paul was a teacher]. He also wasn't saying that all you need is the spirit abiding in you and you will know all truth. Paul was simply saying that you must be controlled by the spirit and confided by the boundary's set by the scripture. The spirit and the word go hand in hand!

7. You must be a person of fervent prayer-

• Eph 1:15-18 "Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: 17 that the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of you understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints."
• Paul was even praying for understanding. He was an apostle of Christ, he wrote many of the books of the bible, and yet he prayed for understanding and for those whom he was writing to. How much  more then should we be praying!?!
• "There's no true prayer without the study of the word of God, and there's no true study of the word of God without prayer." -R.A. Torrey
• Prayer is vital for good bible studies! Psalms 119:145 says "My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word." 

-Destiny

Quote: R.C. Sproul

“I dream of a new reformation, a reformation that is not simply a renewal of life but a new vision of life: a vision that yields new forms and structures in society and culture. As long as Christians restrict their Christianity to a religion, a faith that is compartmentalized and isolated from life, they can have revival but never, ever reformation. We need to hear and do the Word of God in all of our lives.”

~R.C. Sproul

Stay Tuned!

Yes, next week we all are starting The Holiness of God. It should be very exciting. I will try and keep you up to date on what we are reading and learning. And if you didn't see my last post, we are finishing Omnibus I in two weeks. So keep an eye on this blog. So long. Over & out.

-David A. Kruse

Is the idea that one sin is as bad as another biblical?

To answer this question we must go to scripture and reason it out. James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." In this passage James is telling us that if we break the law, even in just a small thing, we are accountable for as if we had broken all of the law.

Although this is true, it is not necessarily saying that all sins should be looked at on the same level. Some sins are worse then others. But, even in one small sin it is an offense to God and His law. To break the law is to disobey the law-giver. Every man is born with a sinful nature, we have inherited it from Adam. Sin, no matter how big or small, can lead us away from God. Only one tiny sin is able to condemn us to hell.

However, God has send His son Jesus to die for us. Through His death our sins are forgiven. No matter how small or large our sins are, Jesus took them upon Himself and payed the punishment. We need to now repent of our sins, believe in God and walk a Christian life.



-Destiny