Our God does not change. The assurance of God’s immutability gives us as His children a stable confidence in an unstable world. No matter who is in the White House, God is on the throne! No matter how formidable the sea to cross ...
Our God does not change. The assurance of God’s immutability gives us as His children a stable confidence in an unstable world. No matter who is in the White House, God is on the throne! No matter how formidable the sea to cross or the stronghold to conquer, God Who brings us forth in freedom is the same Who empowers us to stand firm for His glory.
The Colossae church was plagued by Gnostic false teachers who belittled the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and denied His eternal sonship. They asserted the preeminence of human reason above divine revelation, and claimed that they had a secret key to knowledge, hence their name “Gnostics.” In minimizing Christ and promoting themselves, these false teachers had the audacity to deny that Jesus was fully divine. Some said that His deity came upon Him only at His baptism. Others took the other extreme and denied the full humanity of Christ, asserting that He was merely an apparition, without a genuine body of flesh.
Not only did John assert that Jesus is the self-existent Maker of all things, he asserted in Hebraic contrasting form (the literary device of saying the same thing the opposite way) that nothing can exist without Him! No other reality exists in all the universe that can have any being apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, the first Cause.
When we say that Jehovah is “self-existent,” we are implying that the God of the Bible does not need to prove or explain His existence. In the witness of the prophets, the Lord often undergirds His statements, not with evidence nor with logic, but with a self-sufficient statement of the presuppositional authority of His Word: “for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 40:5 and Micah 4:4).
The Lord answered Moses with an assertion of His own self-existence. “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). God’s response must have come as a shock to Moses. God did not explain Himself. He did not set about to prove His existence by rational arguments. On the surface, the statement seems to repel inquiry and to have an air of aloofness, giving distance between the Israelites and God. Let’s take a moment to look a little deeper and consider the grammatical form of God’s revelation of Himself.
The incarnation of the Lord Jesus is the central event of human history. When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating far more than a babe born in Bethlehem. We are rejoicing in the fact that God came down to earth as our Emmanuel. Jesus is “God with us.” The Apostle Paul celebrates this fact in one of the most unusual verses in his epistles.
The wondrous mystery of the Triune God was on full display in the unique miracle of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the archangel Gabriel brought news to a young maiden named Mary in the village of Nazareth, the messenger of Jehovah gave witness to the wonder of the Trinity. This special birth is unique in all of human history.
In this Messianic prophecy, God the Father is speaking of “my servant,” the One Whom He also calls “mine elect.” In this same prophecy, the coming Messiah is proclaimed as the One “in whom my soul delighteth.” The direct fulfillment of this very passage was at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. At that moment, God the Father announced, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Although the subject of this first sentence is plural, Elohim, the verb created is given in the masculine singular form. This God of the Bible, the Creator of all things, is one; but the One is also three Persons—three, but also one. What would seem to be a grammatical mistake is actually a statement of profound Trinitarian truth.
In laying aside the things of the past, we often think of our sins and failures. But it is not just our failures we must forget; we must also forget our successes! We dare not glory in our accomplishments or even our spiritual attainments. What are you seeking? Are you clinging to your past successes? Or, are you discouraged by your past failures? Do the distractions of “things on the earth” pull your affection away from Christ? If any of these situations are so, learn with Paul to forget those things which are behind!
One of the central doctrines of orthodox Christianity is the Trinity. The Godhead is three in person. The Godhead is one in essence. It is important to recognize that in making the statement, “I and my Father are one,” Jesus was not denying the Trinity, nor giving credence at all to the twin heresies of unitarianism or modalism.
The world has tried in vain to establish a one-world government. The prophet Zechariah declared, “And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9). Unity is an attribute of God. He is one, and His name is One. Thus, it follows that God brings unity to all that He governs.
The Hebrew word Elohim, generally translated “God” in the Bible, is plural in its grammatical number. This plurality reflects the divine Trinity—that one God exists in three Persons. In Genesis 1:26, the plural number is used when Elohim spoke: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
In many cultures, a shepherd drives his sheep in front of him. But in ancient Israel and still today among the Bedouin communities of the Middle East, a shepherd leads his sheep, going before them. He never asks them to go anywhere that he himself has not gone before them. What does this mean for you? Our Lord Jesus will never drive you into the unknown. Everywhere He leads you, He goes before you! The place where He is leading you may certainly be a place that is unknown to you, but it is not unknown to Him. He leads from the front. He knows what lies beyond the valley. You can follow His voice without question or hesitation.
What makes the difference between these seemingly contradictory texts? Why would Paul turn from saying that there is none that doeth good and then give such a high commendation of goodness in the lives of the Roman believers? The difference is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Goodness is included in the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in both Galatians 5:22 and Ephesians 5:9.
Of course, it is easy to rest in His goodness when Jesus is giving us exactly what we want! When the deaf man was made to hear and the dumb was made to speak, it was easy to proclaim with amazement that Jesus did all things well. But when Fanny Crosby was blinded as a very young child due to an improper application of a mustard poultice to her eyes, how much more difficult it must have been for her to write “Jesus doeth all things well”! Yet, seeing by faith beyond her circumstances, she was able to proclaim the truth of God’s goodness in doing all things well.
God’s eternal attribute of perfect goodness is what should be proclaimed (as opposed to our “goodness”). In Jeremiah 31:14, God Himself uses the term “my goodness” to describe how His children should be satisfied with His perfections: “And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.”
“God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” This simple prayer is the first one that many children are taught to say in their formative years. Some may casually dismiss this prayer as trite and obvious, but the profound Biblical truth that it contains should be firmly rooted in the heart of every child of God. Over and over in the Book of Psalms, we read a statement of praise that ascribes the quality of goodness to Jehovah.
The etymology of our departing word goodbye has morphed from the parting benediction “God be with ye.” If you quickly repeat “God be with ye” faster and faster, you can easily see how goodbye became the abbreviated form of this parting phrase.
In essence, every time we say goodbye, we should be aware that we are actually saying “God be with you.” We are expressing the hope and trust that God’s abiding presence would attend our loved ones until we meet again. Rightly understood and appreciated, every goodbye we give is a reminder of God’s omnipresence!
No longer under any of the limitations He had placed Himself under while on earth, Jesus is able to be with all believers simultaneously. He is the omnipresent Lord! Wherever you are in the world, when you assemble with like-minded believers, Jesus will be there to fulfill His gracious promise: “There am I in the midst of them.” And whenever you are alone, remember His promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).