The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible therefore, presents the Lord Jesus Christ as altogether God and altogether man/human. The perfect mediator between God and mankind because the Lord Jesus Christ partakes fully of the nature of both.
The work of atonement or redemption for the human race which the Lord Jesus Christ completed by His death on the Cross, refers to the 'finished' work, or 'accomplished' or 'fulfilled' in accordance with the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. This work is so perfect in itself that it requires neither repetition nor addition, and because of this work, the Lord Jesus Christ is called "Savior of the world."
The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards John, John the Baptist said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is the One I spoke of when I said: A man is coming after me who ranks before me because He existed before me. - John 1:29-30 -
When Jesus heard that the Pharisees........... 'What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?' - Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:
'If you only knew what God is offering
and who it is that is saying to you:
Give me a drink,
you would have been the one to ask,
and He would have given you living water.'
'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered 'and the well is deep: how could you get this living water? Are you a greater man than our father Jacob/Israel who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?' Jesus replied:
'Whoever drinks this water
will get thirsty again;
but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give
will never be thirsty again:
the water that I give
will turn into a spring inside him/her, welling up to eternal life.'
'Sir,' said the woman 'give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty............ Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, 'Rabbi, do have something to eat'; but He said, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.' So the disciples asked one another, 'Has someone been bringing Jesus food?' But Jesus said:
'My food
is to do the will of the one Who sent Me,
and to complete His work.
Have you not got a saying:
Four months and then the harvest?
Well, I tell you:
Look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest!
Already the reaper is being paid his/her wages,
already he/she is bringing in the grain for eternal life,
and thus sower and reaper rejoice together.
For here the proverb holds good:
one sows, another reaps;
I sent you to reap
a harvest you had not worked for.
Others worked for it;
and you have come into the rewards of their trouble.'
Many Samaritans of that town had believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman's testimony....... Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard Him ourselves and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ really is the "Saviour of the world." - John 4:1-42 - John chapter 6 - John 7:37-39 -
Since Jesus Christ partakes in the nature of both God and humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ occupies a unique status with regard to them. The Lord Jesus Christ represents humanity to God, the Father. Thus, God is both 'Lawgiver' and 'Judge'; the Lord Jesus Christ represents Him. The human family has put itself in the position of the lawbreaker.; and Christ Jesus has voluntarily undertaken to represent us.
The Judge has made Himself one with the guilty in order to bear our guilt. It is ordinarily out of the question for one person to bear the guilt of others. But when the one person is the representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing the guilt of those whom He represents, the case and phenomenon is totally different.
In the hour of Jesus death, Christ Jesus offered His life to God on behalf of mankind. The perfect life which Jesus offered was acceptable to God. The salvation secured through the giving up of that life is God's free gift to mankind in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When the situation is viewed in terms of a law court, one might speak of the accused party as being acquitted. But the term preferred in the New Testament, especially in the Apostle/Saint Paul's epistles or writings, is the more positive word 'Justified.' Apostle Paul goes on to the limit of daring in speaking of God as "Him who justifies the sinners or ungodly." God can be so described because "Jesus Christ died for the ungodly and sinners,"
So far then we have seen that, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God's glory. But that is not all we can boast about; we can boast about our sufferings.
These sufferings bring patience, as we know, and patience brings perseverance, and perseverance brings hope, and hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us. We were still helpless when at His appointed moment the Lord Jesus Christ died for sinful men/women.
It is not easy to die even for a good man/woman - though of course for someone really worthy, a man/woman might be prepared to die - but what proves that God loves us is that Jesus Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Having died to make us righteous, is it likely that He would now fail to save us from God's anger?
When we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, we were still enemies; now that we have been reconciled, surely we may count on being saved by the life of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Not merely because we have been reconciled but because we are filled with joyful trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation. - Romans 5:1-11 -
Let me put this another way: an heir, even if he/she has actually inherited everything, is no different from a slave for as long as he/she remains a child. He/She is under the control of guardians and administrators until he/she reaches the age fixed by his/her father.
Now before we came of age we were as good as slaves to the elementary principles of this world, but when the appointed time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born of a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted sons and daughters. The proof that you are sons and daughters is that God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, 'Abba, Father', and it is this that makes you a son and daughter, then He has made you heir.
Once you were ignorant of God, and enslaved to 'gods' who are not really gods at all; but now that you have come to acknowledge God - or rather, now that God acknowledged you - how can you want to go back to elemental things like these, that can do nothing, and be their slaves? You and your special days and months and seasons and years! You make me feel I have wasted my time with you. - Galatians 4:1-11 -
Page 10
Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
In a similar way, Jesus settled the question of divorce by an appeal to the original marriage ordinance. Since husband and wife were made one by the Creator's [God's] decree, The Lord Jesus Christ pointed out, divorce was an attempt to undo the work of God. If the law later allowed for divorce in certain situations, that was a concession to human being's inability to keep God's commandment.
The Lord Jesus Christ actually injected 'New Life' into the ethical principals of the Law of Moses. But He did NOT impose a new set of laws that could be enforced by external sanctions. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ prescribed a 'Way of Life' for His faithful, believers and followers. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, and in the Old Testament:
God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.'
God created man in the image of Himself
in the image of God He created him,
male and female He created them. - Gen. 1:26-27 -
Yahweh God built the rib He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
'This as last is bone from my bones,
and flesh from my flesh!
This is to be called woman,
for this was taken from man.'
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body. - Gen. 2:22-24 -
The Question About Divorce In The New Testament
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test Him they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on pretext whatever?' Jesus Christ answered, 'Have you not read that the Creator's [God's] from the beginning made them male and female and that He said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.' - Matt. 19:3-6 -
They [Pharisees] said to Him, 'Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?' - Deut. 24:1-4 - 'It is because you were so unteachable' He said 'that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife - I am not speaking of fornication - and marries another, is guilty of adultery.' - Matt. 19:7-9 -
'The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.' - Mark 10:1-12 -
Now for the questions about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman; but since sex is always a danger, let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband must give his wife what she has the right to expect, and so too the wife to the husband.The wife has no rights over her own body; it is the husband who has them. In the same way, the husband has no rights over his body; the wife has them.
Do not refuse each other except by mutual consent, and then only for an agreed time, to leave yourselves free for prayer; then come together again in case Satan [creature] should take advantage of your weakness to tempt you. This is a suggestion, not a rule: I should like everyone to be like me, but everybody has his own particular gifts from God, one with a gift for one thing and another with a gift for the opposite. - 1 Cor. 7:1-7 -
For the married I have something to say, and this is not from me but from the Lord: a wife must not leave her husband - or if she does leave him, she must either remain unmarried or else make it up with her husband - nor must a husband send his wife away. - 1 Cor. 7:10-11 -
You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ Jesus; do you think I can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Never! As you know, a man who goes with a prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one flesh. But anyone who is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ is one spirit with Him.
Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body; but to fornicate is to sin against your own body. Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received Him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is, why you should use your body for the glory of God. - 1 Cor. 6:15-20 -
The Morals Of The Home
Give way to one another in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as the Lord Jesus Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to the Lord Jesus Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.
Husbands should love their wives just as the Lord Jesus Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for the Church, to make the Church holy. The Lord Jesus Christ made her [Church] clean by washing her [Church] in water with a form of words, so that when He took her to Himself she would be glorious with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.
In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way the Lord Jesus Christ treats the Church, because it is His body - and we are its living parts.
For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body.
This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband. - Eph. 5:21-33 -
Since the Law could punish a person for breaking the 'Ten Commandments'. Jesus Christ was careful to point out that the 'Judgment' is God's, not man's. But Jesus maintained that the act itself was the outcome of a person's internal thought and action.
The title 'Son of Man' was Jesus' favorite way of referring to Himself. Jesus applied this title to Himself in a general way and as the one Who exercised exceptional authority, that is, authority delegated to Him by God. Jesus spoke of His authority as the Son of Man at the end time. He also stated to the high priest and other members of the supreme court of Israel. For instances:
The Coming Of The Son Of Man
But in those days, after that time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too He will send the angels to gather His chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven. - Mark 13:24-27 -
The high priest then stood up before the whole assembly and put this question to Jesus, 'Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?' But Jesus was silent and made no answer at all. The high priest put a second question to Him, 'Are you the Christ' [Messiah or The Anointed One] he said 'the Son of the Blessed One?' "I am" said Jesus 'and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.' - Mark 14:60-62 -
Thus, "Jesus is Lord" is the ultimate Christian creed. A Christian, therefore, is a person who confesses "Jesus is Lord." or "Jesus as Lord."
Now my dear brothers and sisters, I want to clear up a wrong impression about spiritual gifts. You remember that, when you were pagans, whenever you felt irresistibly drawn, it was toward dumb idols? It is for that reason I want you to understand that on the one hand no one can be speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit and say, 'Curse Jesus' and on the other hand, no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" unless he/she is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. - 1Cor. 11:1-3 -
However, after Jesus resurrection and exaltation, Jesus was given the title "Lord" in its full, Christological sense. The title "Lord" in the Christological sense must have be given to Jesus Christ before the Church moved out into the Gentile world. The evidence for this is the invocation "MARAN ATHA"
If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse on him/her. "Maran atha." - 1 Cor. 16:22 -
The Apostle/Saint Paul, writing to a Gentile speaking world, assumed that its faithful, believers, and followers were familiar with this Aramaic phrase. It was an early Christian title for Christ Jesus, which was taken over untranslated. It bears witness to the fact that from the earliest days of the Church, the One who had been exalted as "Lord" was expected to return as "Lord." Amen!
In the Old Testament, the God of Israel denies to any other being the right to receive the worship which belongs to Him alone. But in the New Testament, God readily shares that worship with the humiliated and exalted Jesus, His only begotten Son, born of the Virgin Mary. More than that, God, the Father, shares His own name with Jesus. That is, when human beings honor and worship 'Jesus as Lord,' God is glorified.
The 'name which is above every name' is the title Lord, in the highest sense that it can bear. The words echo prophet Isaiah, where the God of Israel swears:
'By my own self I swear it;
what comes from my mouth is truth,
a word irrevocable:
before me every knee shall bend,
by me every tongue shall swear,
saying, "
"From Yahweh God alone
come victory and strength."
To Him shall come, ashamed,
all who raged against Him.
Victorious and glorious through Yahweh shall be
all the descendants of Israel.' - Isaiah 45:23-25 -
In your minds, you must be the same as Christ Jesus:
His state was divine,
yet He did not cling
to His equality with God
but emptied Himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
He was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised Jesus high
and gave Jesus the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. - Phil. 2:5-11 -
Thus, it is not surprising that Jesus Christ occasionally is called God in the New Testament. Apostle/Saint Thomas convinced that the risen Christ Jesus stood before him, abandoned his doubts and human understanding with the confession: "My Lord and my God!"
'Peace be with you' Jesus said. Then Jesus spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here: look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.' Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him:
'You believe because you can see Me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.' - John 20:27-29 -
Page 9
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
The Lord Jesus Christ actually injected 'New Life' into the ethical principals of the Law of Moses. But He did NOT impose a new set of laws that could be enforced by external sanctions. In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ prescribed a 'Way of Life' for His faithful, believers and followers. The Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, and in the Old Testament:
God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.'
God created man in the image of Himself
in the image of God He created him,
male and female He created them. - Gen. 1:26-27 -
Yahweh God built the rib He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
'This as last is bone from my bones,
and flesh from my flesh!
This is to be called woman,
for this was taken from man.'
This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body. - Gen. 2:22-24 -
The Question About Divorce In The New Testament
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test Him they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on pretext whatever?' Jesus Christ answered, 'Have you not read that the Creator's [God's] from the beginning made them male and female and that He said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.' - Matt. 19:3-6 -
They [Pharisees] said to Him, 'Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?' - Deut. 24:1-4 - 'It is because you were so unteachable' He said 'that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife - I am not speaking of fornication - and marries another, is guilty of adultery.' - Matt. 19:7-9 -
'The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.' - Mark 10:1-12 -
Now for the questions about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman; but since sex is always a danger, let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband must give his wife what she has the right to expect, and so too the wife to the husband.The wife has no rights over her own body; it is the husband who has them. In the same way, the husband has no rights over his body; the wife has them.
Do not refuse each other except by mutual consent, and then only for an agreed time, to leave yourselves free for prayer; then come together again in case Satan [creature] should take advantage of your weakness to tempt you. This is a suggestion, not a rule: I should like everyone to be like me, but everybody has his own particular gifts from God, one with a gift for one thing and another with a gift for the opposite. - 1 Cor. 7:1-7 -
For the married I have something to say, and this is not from me but from the Lord: a wife must not leave her husband - or if she does leave him, she must either remain unmarried or else make it up with her husband - nor must a husband send his wife away. - 1 Cor. 7:10-11 -
You know, surely, that your bodies are members making up the body of Christ Jesus; do you think I can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Never! As you know, a man who goes with a prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one flesh. But anyone who is joined to the Lord Jesus Christ is one spirit with Him.
Keep away from fornication. All the other sins are committed outside the body; but to fornicate is to sin against your own body. Your body, you know, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you since you received Him from God. You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is, why you should use your body for the glory of God. - 1 Cor. 6:15-20 -
The Morals Of The Home
Give way to one another in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as the Lord Jesus Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to the Lord Jesus Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.
Husbands should love their wives just as the Lord Jesus Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for the Church, to make the Church holy. The Lord Jesus Christ made her [Church] clean by washing her [Church] in water with a form of words, so that when He took her to Himself she would be glorious with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.
In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way the Lord Jesus Christ treats the Church, because it is His body - and we are its living parts.
For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body.
This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband. - Eph. 5:21-33 -
Since the Law could punish a person for breaking the 'Ten Commandments'. Jesus Christ was careful to point out that the 'Judgment' is God's, not man's. But Jesus maintained that the act itself was the outcome of a person's internal thought and action.
The title 'Son of Man' was Jesus' favorite way of referring to Himself. Jesus applied this title to Himself in a general way and as the one Who exercised exceptional authority, that is, authority delegated to Him by God. Jesus spoke of His authority as the Son of Man at the end time. He also stated to the high priest and other members of the supreme court of Israel. For instances:
The Coming Of The Son Of Man
But in those days, after that time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; then too He will send the angels to gather His chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of heaven. - Mark 13:24-27 -
The high priest then stood up before the whole assembly and put this question to Jesus, 'Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?' But Jesus was silent and made no answer at all. The high priest put a second question to Him, 'Are you the Christ' [Messiah or The Anointed One] he said 'the Son of the Blessed One?' "I am" said Jesus 'and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.' - Mark 14:60-62 -
Thus, "Jesus is Lord" is the ultimate Christian creed. A Christian, therefore, is a person who confesses "Jesus is Lord." or "Jesus as Lord."
Now my dear brothers and sisters, I want to clear up a wrong impression about spiritual gifts. You remember that, when you were pagans, whenever you felt irresistibly drawn, it was toward dumb idols? It is for that reason I want you to understand that on the one hand no one can be speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit and say, 'Curse Jesus' and on the other hand, no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" unless he/she is under the influence of the Holy Spirit. - 1Cor. 11:1-3 -
However, after Jesus resurrection and exaltation, Jesus was given the title "Lord" in its full, Christological sense. The title "Lord" in the Christological sense must have be given to Jesus Christ before the Church moved out into the Gentile world. The evidence for this is the invocation "MARAN ATHA"
If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse on him/her. "Maran atha." - 1 Cor. 16:22 -
The Apostle/Saint Paul, writing to a Gentile speaking world, assumed that its faithful, believers, and followers were familiar with this Aramaic phrase. It was an early Christian title for Christ Jesus, which was taken over untranslated. It bears witness to the fact that from the earliest days of the Church, the One who had been exalted as "Lord" was expected to return as "Lord." Amen!
In the Old Testament, the God of Israel denies to any other being the right to receive the worship which belongs to Him alone. But in the New Testament, God readily shares that worship with the humiliated and exalted Jesus, His only begotten Son, born of the Virgin Mary. More than that, God, the Father, shares His own name with Jesus. That is, when human beings honor and worship 'Jesus as Lord,' God is glorified.
The 'name which is above every name' is the title Lord, in the highest sense that it can bear. The words echo prophet Isaiah, where the God of Israel swears:
'By my own self I swear it;
what comes from my mouth is truth,
a word irrevocable:
before me every knee shall bend,
by me every tongue shall swear,
saying, "
"From Yahweh God alone
come victory and strength."
To Him shall come, ashamed,
all who raged against Him.
Victorious and glorious through Yahweh shall be
all the descendants of Israel.' - Isaiah 45:23-25 -
In your minds, you must be the same as Christ Jesus:
His state was divine,
yet He did not cling
to His equality with God
but emptied Himself
to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as men are;
and being as all men are,
He was humbler yet,
even to accepting death,
death on a cross.
But God raised Jesus high
and gave Jesus the name
which is above all other names
so that all beings
in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld,
should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
and that every tongue should acclaim
Jesus Christ as Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. - Phil. 2:5-11 -
Thus, it is not surprising that Jesus Christ occasionally is called God in the New Testament. Apostle/Saint Thomas convinced that the risen Christ Jesus stood before him, abandoned his doubts and human understanding with the confession: "My Lord and my God!"
'Peace be with you' Jesus said. Then Jesus spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here: look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.' Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him:
'You believe because you can see Me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.' - John 20:27-29 -
Page 9
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Indeed, Jesus is fully human and fully divine, and true man and true God. The only Begotten Son of God. Son of the living God, born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus began His ministry when He sought baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. The descent of the dove as Jesus came up of the water was a sign that Jesus was the One anointed by the Spirit of God as the 'Servant-Messiah' of His people. - Is. 11:1-2; 42:1; 61:1 -
A voice from heaven or the Almighty God, the Father declared, "You are my My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased. This clearly indicated that Jesus was Israel's/Jacob's anointed King, destined to fulfill His kingship as the Servant of the Lord described centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah.
God's mighty acts and the prophetic word interacting with each other continues throughout the course of scriptural/biblical history. The prophets were God's primary messenger in the Old Testament times. The teachings of many of these messengers are preserved in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.
In the New Testament writings, revelation and response came together in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the one hand, Jesus was God's perfect revelation of Himself - He was divine Word in human form. The Lord Jesus Christ works of mercy and power portrayed God in action and His teaching expressed the mind of God.
Just as God originally inspired the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, He has used this means to preserve His Word for future generations. But behind the writing lay periods of time when these revelations and messages were circulated in spoken form, that is, Oral Tradition. The events and stories of the patriarchs were passed from generation by word of mouth before they were fixed in writing. Narratives of the life and ministry of Christ Jesus were repeated orally for two or three decades before they were given literally form.
The New Testament presents the record of Jesus' life, teachings, words and deeds, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and the Ascension; a narrative of the beginning of the Christian Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit; and the story of the extension of the Gospel and the planting of the Church during the following generation. It also contains the written teachings of Jesus' apostles and other early Christians who applied the principles of the Lord Jesus Christ doctrine and redemptive work to their lives.
Early Christians continued to accept the Old Testament, and they could interpret the Old Testament in the light of Jesus' deeds and words if they had a reliable record of them. So, alongside Moses and the prophets, they had these early writings about the Lord Jesus Christ, and letters or epistles from the Apostles, who had living together and known the Lord Jesus Christ in flesh.
Now when all the people had been baptized and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are My Son, the Beloved; My favour rests on you." - Luke 3:21-22 -
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness, being tempted there by the devil for forty days. During that time Jesus ate nothing and at the end He was hungry. Then the devil said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf." But Jesus replied, "Sacred Scripture says: Man does not live on bread alone."
Then leading Jesus to a height, the devil showed Him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and said to Him, "I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, for it has been committed to me and I give it to anyone I choose. Worship me, then, and it shall all be yours." But Jesus answered the devil, "Sacred Scripture says:
You must worship the Lord your God,
and serve Him alone."
Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and made Him stand on the parapet of the Temple. "If you are the Son of God", the devil said to Jesus "throw yourself down from here, for Sacred Scripture says:
God/He will put His angels in charge of you
to guard you,
and again:
They will hold you up on their hands
in case you hurt your foot against a stone."
But Jesus answered the devil, "It has been said:
You must not put the Lord your God to the test."
Having exhausted all these ways of tempting Jesus, the devil left Him, to return at the appointed time. - Luke 4:1-13 -
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in Him, returned to Galilee; and His reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised Him. - Luke 4:14-15 -
Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God was accompanied by works of mercy and power, including the healing of the sick, and those who were demon possessed. When demons and evils spirit were cast out, this proved the superior strength of the kingdom of God. Indeed, these works proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God.
For a time, Jesus' healing aroused great popular enthusiasm throughout Galilee. But the religious leaders; Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and teachers found much of the Lord Jesus Christ activity disturbing because He refused to be bound by their religious ideas. Jesus Christ insisted on understanding and applying the law of God in the light of its original intention, and not according to the popular interpretation of the religious establishment.
The Lord Jesus Christ believed that healing people and helping people in great needs, that is, in the midst of dying, did not profane the 'Sabbath Day' or 'The Sabbath' but honor it, because it was established by God for the rest and relief of human beings.
Now one Sabbath Jesus Christ happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and His disciples were picking ears of corns, rubbing them in their hands and eating them. Some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?' Jesus answered them, 'So you have not read what king David did when he and his followers were hungry - how he went into the house of God, took the loaves of offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which is only the priests are allowed to eat?'
And the Lord Jesus Christ said to them: "The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath." - Luke 6:1-5 -
Now on another Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. The Scribes and the Pharisees were watching Jesus to see if He would cure a man on the Sabbath, hoping to find something to use against Him. But Jesus knew their thoughts; and He said to the man with the withered hand, "Stand up! Come out into the middle." And he came out and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, "I put it to you: is it against the law on a Sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy life?" Then Jesus looked round at them all and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He did so, and his hand was better. But they were furious, and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus. - Luke 6:6-11 -
In His interpretation of specific commandments, Jesus Christ did not use the methods of the Jewish rabbis. Jesus dared to criticize their rulings which had been handed down by word of mouth through successive generations of Scribes. Jesus even declared that these interpretations sometimes obscured the original purpose of the commandments.
The Lord Jesus Christ declared that a commandment was most faithfully obeyed when God's purpose in giving it was fulfilled. His treatment of "The Sabbath" law is an example of this approach.
In a similar way, Jesus............
Page 8
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
A voice from heaven or the Almighty God, the Father declared, "You are my My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased. This clearly indicated that Jesus was Israel's/Jacob's anointed King, destined to fulfill His kingship as the Servant of the Lord described centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah.
God's mighty acts and the prophetic word interacting with each other continues throughout the course of scriptural/biblical history. The prophets were God's primary messenger in the Old Testament times. The teachings of many of these messengers are preserved in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible.
In the New Testament writings, revelation and response came together in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the one hand, Jesus was God's perfect revelation of Himself - He was divine Word in human form. The Lord Jesus Christ works of mercy and power portrayed God in action and His teaching expressed the mind of God.
Just as God originally inspired the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible, He has used this means to preserve His Word for future generations. But behind the writing lay periods of time when these revelations and messages were circulated in spoken form, that is, Oral Tradition. The events and stories of the patriarchs were passed from generation by word of mouth before they were fixed in writing. Narratives of the life and ministry of Christ Jesus were repeated orally for two or three decades before they were given literally form.
The New Testament presents the record of Jesus' life, teachings, words and deeds, Passion, Death, Resurrection, and the Ascension; a narrative of the beginning of the Christian Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit; and the story of the extension of the Gospel and the planting of the Church during the following generation. It also contains the written teachings of Jesus' apostles and other early Christians who applied the principles of the Lord Jesus Christ doctrine and redemptive work to their lives.
Early Christians continued to accept the Old Testament, and they could interpret the Old Testament in the light of Jesus' deeds and words if they had a reliable record of them. So, alongside Moses and the prophets, they had these early writings about the Lord Jesus Christ, and letters or epistles from the Apostles, who had living together and known the Lord Jesus Christ in flesh.
Now when all the people had been baptized and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are My Son, the Beloved; My favour rests on you." - Luke 3:21-22 -
Then leading Jesus to a height, the devil showed Him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and said to Him, "I will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms, for it has been committed to me and I give it to anyone I choose. Worship me, then, and it shall all be yours." But Jesus answered the devil, "Sacred Scripture says:
You must worship the Lord your God,
and serve Him alone."
Then the devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and made Him stand on the parapet of the Temple. "If you are the Son of God", the devil said to Jesus "throw yourself down from here, for Sacred Scripture says:
God/He will put His angels in charge of you
to guard you,
and again:
They will hold you up on their hands
in case you hurt your foot against a stone."
But Jesus answered the devil, "It has been said:
You must not put the Lord your God to the test."
Having exhausted all these ways of tempting Jesus, the devil left Him, to return at the appointed time. - Luke 4:1-13 -
Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in Him, returned to Galilee; and His reputation spread throughout the countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised Him. - Luke 4:14-15 -
Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God was accompanied by works of mercy and power, including the healing of the sick, and those who were demon possessed. When demons and evils spirit were cast out, this proved the superior strength of the kingdom of God. Indeed, these works proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God.
For a time, Jesus' healing aroused great popular enthusiasm throughout Galilee. But the religious leaders; Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes and teachers found much of the Lord Jesus Christ activity disturbing because He refused to be bound by their religious ideas. Jesus Christ insisted on understanding and applying the law of God in the light of its original intention, and not according to the popular interpretation of the religious establishment.
The Lord Jesus Christ believed that healing people and helping people in great needs, that is, in the midst of dying, did not profane the 'Sabbath Day' or 'The Sabbath' but honor it, because it was established by God for the rest and relief of human beings.
Now one Sabbath Jesus Christ happened to be taking a walk through the cornfields, and His disciples were picking ears of corns, rubbing them in their hands and eating them. Some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?' Jesus answered them, 'So you have not read what king David did when he and his followers were hungry - how he went into the house of God, took the loaves of offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which is only the priests are allowed to eat?'
And the Lord Jesus Christ said to them: "The Son of Man is master of the Sabbath." - Luke 6:1-5 -
Now on another Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. The Scribes and the Pharisees were watching Jesus to see if He would cure a man on the Sabbath, hoping to find something to use against Him. But Jesus knew their thoughts; and He said to the man with the withered hand, "Stand up! Come out into the middle." And he came out and stood there.
Then Jesus said to them, "I put it to you: is it against the law on a Sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy life?" Then Jesus looked round at them all and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He did so, and his hand was better. But they were furious, and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus. - Luke 6:6-11 -
In His interpretation of specific commandments, Jesus Christ did not use the methods of the Jewish rabbis. Jesus dared to criticize their rulings which had been handed down by word of mouth through successive generations of Scribes. Jesus even declared that these interpretations sometimes obscured the original purpose of the commandments.
The Lord Jesus Christ declared that a commandment was most faithfully obeyed when God's purpose in giving it was fulfilled. His treatment of "The Sabbath" law is an example of this approach.
In a similar way, Jesus............
Page 8
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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