Jesus is God-sized – God is Jesus-shaped

Preached on John 1:1-2 this morning (audio here).
My last two points were this:
Jesus is God-sized
and
God is Jesus-shaped
 
I wonder whether much of our evangelism is aimed at persuading people of point number one.  And I wonder whether that emphasis, if divorced from the second point, is quite dangerous.
Here’s what I mean – when we tell an [...]

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Christ our Fountain of Blessing

“We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ (Acts 4:12). We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is of him (1 Corinthians 1:30). If we [...]

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Schori: Not too hung up on the mechanism

From Stand Firm in Faith
Any number of things madden me about this:
1. If Jesus is a ‘mechanism’ for Schori – she ain’t a sister.  She’s just not.  If Jesus is incidental to the identity of ‘God’ she’s got the wrong god.
2. Apparently Schori looks to fruits of the Spirit in religious [...]

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Thawed out Thursdays

The dumb thing about blogging is that you’re always burying your old stuff with whatever nonsense occured to you in the shower that morning.  Almost 500 posts on it occurs to me that newer is not necessarily better and, apart from Bobby, I’m not sure how many of you were following the blog from the [...]

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John Owen – Communion with God

John Owen’s masterpiece On Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost was written at a time when Socinianism (a form of Unitarianism) was infiltrating England.   Their belief (as expressed in the Racovian Catechism) was that Jesus was essential for salvation.  He was manifestly predicted and prophesied in the OT.  The Hebrew Scriptures were indeed a word [...]

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The literal IS the christocentric

I recently re-read Nathan Pitchford’s excellent short article on the reformers’ hermeneutic.
His basic point is that Sola Scriptura always leads to Solus Christus.  The literal reading simply is the christocentric reading.
For Luther, the grammatical-historical hermeneutic was simply the interpretation of scripture that “drives home Christ.” As he once expressed it, “He who would read the [...]

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Calvin on Christ in OT

The excellent Marc Lloyd has posted the juciest quotation on Christ the Mediator of all revelation.  It’s from Ronald Wallace’s book Calvin’s Doctrine of Word and Sacrament.  Here he is summarizing Calvin’s view especially of christocentric revelation in the OT.
The Mediator of all revelation between God and man in the Old Testament is the Word of God, the second [...]

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The Question is God: The Answer is Jesus

Michael Spencer absolutely nails this one.  Go and read the whole thing here.  Here are some highlights:
“Anything that one imagines of God apart from Christ is only useless thinking and vain idolatry.”- Martin Luther
…
…It truly breaks my heart to hear, see or read anyone who is a Christian approaching the subject of God, God’s will, [...]

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Christ the Truth

So then, Christ, the Image of the invisible God must be our starting point if we want to know God.  We can’t begin with reason, we can’t begin with religion, we can’t begin with creation.  It is simply not the case that these things provide us with a sub-Christian starting point to which can be added Christian [...]

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Jesus at the centre

Two quotes from the blogosphere this week.  One on the Psalter, one on christology.  The common link – they both put Jesus at the centre:
From Psalterium
Psalms 1 and 2 were not read as two disparate Torah and royal psalms respectively in the final redaction of the Psalter; rather, both depict the ideal Joshua-like warrior and [...]

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Jesus in the New Testament

These are a few scattered thoughts prompted by my recent mini-series on parables.
We all know Jesus’ rebuke regarding Old Testament understanding – John 5:39ff.  Yet I’m sure a rebuke remains for our appreciation of the New:
You diligently study the New Testament thinking that now you’re breathing the free air of apostolic Christianity and therefore, definitionally, have [...]

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Jesus is the same

The other night I was talking to someone about my latest hobby horse (personality types).  To my shame I found myself using the past tense about Jesus. 
Now there are many appropriate ways of doing that: e.g. “Christ died for sins, once for all.”  But when we’re talking about Christ’s character, how horrible to find yourself describing Him merely [...]

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Trinity Re-Post 1

Off on holiday now for 9 days.  Some frivolity is about to be posted automatically by the blog.  If you want something more theological to chew on, here’s a few older posts on the trinity issues that have been coming up recently.
.
God is not revealed in His Twin
This should be very obvious, but we easily [...]

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Jesus is LORD – not Son of LORD. Some clarifications

Dave K has asked some excellent questions of my last post on this issue.  Here they are in full.  Afterwards is my attempt to address them. 
I’ve been musing on this post over the last day. This is what I have been wondering:
This is clearly right, in many passages NT writers read Jesus in OT passages [...]

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Jesus is LORD – not Son of LORD

Just a brief point about my recent posts on the tribal deity of Israel (here, here and here).  
In those posts I assumed that the LORD of the burning bush was the very One who became incarnate of the virgin Mary.  Just to say, that wasn’t sloppy grammar or fuzzy thinking (I don’t think!).  To many of you [...]

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Some further leads on Christology

Further to the previous two posts (here and here), I just came across these two quotes from ‘Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective’ edited by Fred Sanders and Klaus Issler:
“Chalcedon already provides us with Christology in trinitarian perspective, and makes no sense without presupposing the Trinity.” (p15)
“At the center of the open space marked out by the boundaries [...]

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Christology and hermeneutics

It’s common to see a link between christology and our approach to the bible.  There are limits to this but also benefits.  Our approach to both Christ and the bible requires us to encounter something fully human which nonetheless is the Word of God.  Christology can therefore teach us a great deal about how the [...]

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Nicea comes before Chalcedon

Here’s a christological motto to live by: Nicea comes before Chalcedon.
What do I mean by this?  I’m glad you asked.
It’s common in christological debates to begin by thinking of the Council of Chalcedon, 451 AD (btw I’m not guaranteeing the quality/accuracy of the wikipedia links).  There a two-nature christology was hammered out in which
We confess that [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 14

The End?
Ok time to bring these thoughts to a close (for now).
For links to the 14 posts in this series go here.
For the full text of the 14 posts go here.
Let me finish with a plea from the heart of true doctrine…  Jesus is the Word of God.  He is not the best Word.  He is [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 13

Ok, let’s continue with this issue of the NT’s handling of the Old. 
If we take the reformation cry of sola Scriptura at all seriously we must allow the Bible to interpret the Bible. Historical-grammatical hermeneutics, archaeology, even the most careful exegesis conducted by the best scholarship must all bow to God’s own word.  He determines [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 12

By the way, I’m collecting all the posts in this series into one page – Christ in OT.
Now I’d like to share one more reason why I think this stuff matters . It’s this:
When we see that the OT is already a witness to Christ before and even without the NT then we see that [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 11

Quotes from Church History continued…

JOHN OWEN
 
 
Genesis 3
… a revelation was made of a distinct person in the Deity, who in a peculiar manner did manage all the concernments of the church after the entrance of sin. (Works, vol 18, 216)
 
He by whom all things were made, and by whom all were to be renewed that [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 10

Quotes from Church History continued…
 
 

MARTIN LUTHER
 

All the promises of God lead back to the first promise concerning Christ of Genesis 3:15.  The faith of the fathers in the Old Testament era, and our faith in the New Testament are one and the same faith in Christ Jesus…  The faith of the fathers was directed at [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 9

Here are some now updated quotations about Christ in the OT from heavy-weights in church history.  In this post we’ll look at Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.  Next post we’ll look at Luther and Calvin, then finally John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.  I’ve been very selective, not wanting these posts to go on too long.  There are [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 8

Ok, here are 10 11 reasons this matters.  (Dev’s reminded me of an absolutely crucial one).  I’m not going to spend very long elucidating any of them.  I’m sure they’ll become rants of their own in future posts:
 
Why it’s important to see the Hebrew Scriptures as already and inherently a messianically focussed trinitarian revelation:
 

To make sense [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 7

Might be worth a little mini-post on Psalms.
It would be tempting to highlight “particularly Messianic” Psalms and say “There, see, Jesus is spoken of here and there in the psalter.”  But I’m not sure that’s right.  I once told a friend I was helping preach through an 8 week series called “Jesus in the Psalms”.  He said [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 6

Ok lets look at a few more key OT passages. 
Here’s a favourite of a friend of mine who uses it on Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Genesis 19:24
Then the LORD rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of the heavens.
This even works in the New World Translation:
Then Jehovah made it rain sulphur and [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 4

The Angel of the LORD continued…
One more post on the Angel, then we’ll look at some other multiple-LORD passages.
Check out Judges 6:11-24:
11 The Angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 3

The Angel of the LORD continued…
 
Let’s look at the Angel in action in Genesis and Exodus.
 
 
His first appearance is to the Egyptian, Hagar:
 

Then the Angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The Angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 2

Who is the Angel of the LORD?
In my last post I laid out my intention to show from the Old Testament that Christ has always been the one Mediator between God and man. 
I find the easiest place to start in these discussions is with the Angel of the LORD.  If a person cannot see [...]

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Christ in the Old Testament 1

When we confess that Jesus is our Substitute most people mean this:
Jesus stands in our place – living the life we should have lived, dying the death we should have died
I wonder though how many also have this understanding of Jesus’ substitution:
He sits on the bench for the first half before the Coach brings Him [...]

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Worthy is the Lamb

I’m preaching on Revelation 5 on Sunday.  Really looking forward to it.  I’ve taken the opportunity to read Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon on Christ as the Lion and the Lamb: “The Excellency of Christ.”  In it his thesis is that the Lion-ness and Lamb-ness of Jesus represent…
“…an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ.”
I [...]

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Let Jesus be Jesus.

Ok, so the last post put forward church life as an analogy of trinitarian life.  More specifically:
‘Differently gifted members of one priesthood’ is analagous to ‘Differently gifted Persons in one Godhead.’
Once this is seen, then we can all breathe a sigh of relief and just let Jesus be Jesus. 
What do I mean by that?  Well [...]

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