A gracEmail subscriber's 26-year-old son believes that whatever Scripture teaches is true but suggests to his mom that the Bible is not "black and white" that Jesus was born of a virgin. The young man's mother considers this to be a foundational doctrine and asks for my assistance. * * * Both Matthew and Luke affirm as sober narrative that Jesus was conceived in Mary's virgin womb by the direct power of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18-25; Lk. 1:26-38). Inspiration aside, this is significant testimony. Matthew was a tax-man used to paying attention to detail. Luke was a physician who understood … [Read more...]
INCARNATE DEITY
A gracEmail subscriber from England writes: "Edward, can you give us just one scriptural verse that adds to the fact of Jesus' virginal birth (from Mary's womb), the 'fact' that Jesus is deity, i.e., that he pre-existed his human birth when the ONE true God (John 17:3; 1 Cor 8:6) became his literal father?" * * * Three scriptural affirmations come quickly to mind. "In the beginning," John's Gospel begins, "was the Word (Logos) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The "beginning" here is at least as early as Creation, for the Word was God's agent in that process (v. … [Read more...]
CHRIST IN THE PSALMS (2)
Psalm 118:22-23 foretells Jesus' rejection by others, as it portrays the rejected building stone which God selects and uses as the cornerstone for his Temple (Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11-12; Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:4-8). Psalm 16:7-11 expresses the faith of a righteous man that God will have the final word over death, and it is fulfilled in Jesus' resurrection from the dead (Acts 2:31-32; 13:34-37). Although the New Testament does not make the point, Jesus' ascension and entry into heaven then fulfill the scene portrayed in Psalm 24:7-10, which is the reward of the godly life described in Psalm … [Read more...]
CHRIST IN THE PSALMS (1)
New Testament authors quote the Book of Psalms more than any other Old Testament book except Isaiah (Deuteronomy has third place), echoing at least 101 of its 150 individual Psalms. Small wonder that Jesus taught his disciples about himself from the Psalms (Luke 24:27, 44-45). If we read the Psalms as Jesus' disciples did, with the Savior in our minds, we will see even more "fulfillments" in Jesus which are not quoted in the New Testament. Read Psalms 1 or 23, for example, and notice how Jesus best personifies these portrayals of God's faithful.servant on the earth. The imagery of "Son of … [Read more...]
CHRIST IN THE PROPHETS
Someone has said that the New Testament is the Old Testament plus Jesus. Jesus "fulfilled" the Prophets' inspired predictions, but he also filled full the highest prophetic dreams, ideals, aspirations and hopes. For example, the virgin Mary conceives a son (Isa. 7:14 in Greek), who is born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2-5). Jesus is born to be the consolation of Israel and a light to the nations (Isa. 42:6). The infant Jesus escapes from Herod, then returns from Egypt (Hosea 11:1). Bethlehem's infants are slaughtered amidst great weeping (Jer. 31:15). Thirty years later, John announces in the … [Read more...]
GOD EVEN KNOWS OUR NAMES
It is Sunday, November 17, 1996, approximately 4:20 in the evening. I have taught and preached this weekend at a little church in the southern Arizona desert, and the Tucson traffic has almost made me miss the plane home. I rush to check in at the American Airline ticket counter, then run -- as fast as my stubby, out-of-shape body can travel -- to the departure gate marked "Dallas." I appear to be about the last person boarding. I find my aisle seat on the two-passenger side and fasten in. The flight is about 2-1/2 hours to Dallas, where I will change planes for a 45-minute jump down to … [Read more...]
GOD, NOT FATALISM
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "Sometimes I feel like God is playing a giant game in which we are just the pieces. He already knows how my life will turn out. Why does it matter if I struggle to be close to him or to serve him? Does prayer really change things, or is everything predetermined?" * * * According to the Bible, God is sovereign and humans are also responsible. Of course, we cannot grasp both ideas simultaneously any more than we can view all sides of a globe at the same time. But it doesn't really matter that we can't resolve the tension because we are not God and he has not … [Read more...]
GOD IS IN CONTROL
I was blessed by the worship service this weekend at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Houston, where I was completing five Sundays of Bible teaching, and I wanted to share some of that blessing with you. Both Scripture readings reminded us that we are less in control than we like to think, and that there are powers beyond our human ability to manage or to resist. In Romans 6:16-23, Paul observes that we all serve something or someone. Either we yield our lives to God or we place ourselves in the service of sin. We need a new heart spiritually and we cannot provide it for ourselves. By … [Read more...]
REJECTING GOD’S LOVE
A gracEmail subscriber, having read in previous gracEmails that Jesus made peace between God and the entire world, asks whether anyone can reject God's love and the reconciliation resulting from it. * * * The gospel is the good news of our salvation (Eph. 1:13). It is the announcement that God has "made peace" with every human being who will ever live, through the blood of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:19-20). In the life and death of Jesus Christ, God was "reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). From the work of Jesus Christ "there resulted life to all" (Rom. 5:18). The Creator has issued a … [Read more...]
GOD’S LOVE EXPERIENCED
God loved human beings so much that he gave his one-and-only Son to bring our alienated world back to himself (John 3:16). That Son, whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth, also loved us so much that he laid down his life to restore us to healthy relationship with the Father (John 10:17-18). By his life and death, Jesus brought into being an objective reality that did not exist before -- a state of friendship between God and the estranged world. The gospel (which means a "happy announcement") is the good news of this restored relationship between the Creator and his human creatures everywhere. Just … [Read more...]
