Tag Archive | Bible study

Son of God and Son of Man

© Wendy Clark, December 2021

Son of God

Hannah, my youngest, my late-in-life child, born after I had cancer and chemo, after we stepped out to adopt unsuccessfully twice, after many miscarriages, after I surrendered to God saying, “If I’m not going to have any more children, I’m okay with that, God,” that child–has always been beautiful, loved by pretty much everyone she spends time with, smart, funny, and unusually profound. Even when she was little, sometimes we would be sitting in a room full of adults, and Hannah would say something that would be so interesting, that the room would go silent, and everyone would turn in her direction. Here’s one memory of that, related to Christmas.

Hannah must have been no older than about four, and our homeschool group was making manger scenes. Hannah made three baby Jesus figures for her manger scene. I said, “Hannah, you know there was only one baby Jesus, right?” She said, “Yes, Mom, I know that, but there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three in one, and I didn’t know how else to show that.”

If you’ve missed that somewhere along the way, don’t miss it this Christmas, that Jesus is God made visible to us. “Son of God” doesn’t describe an act of God the Father, birthing or creating Jesus, but the intimate relationship that God the Father shares with Jesus. Look at how the writer of Hebrews explains this:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:1-3).

Jesus is “the exact representation” of God the Father, the best way for us to see what God is like. God the Father, made the universe through Jesus the Son. Jesus was present at creation and participated in creation. The Apostle John explains this just before he begins to write the account of Jesus’ ministry. It is important to John, who lived and traveled with Jesus, that you understand who Jesus really is.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1-3, NIV). “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, NIV).

The “Word” in the Greek means “the expression, the utterance that flowed out of God’s mouth.” Jesus is God and pours out of God. Think about that for a few minutes. When God spoke the universe into existence, Jesus was that expression, the words that flowed out of his mouth. The Holy Spirit is described as the very breath that God breathed, so that when God breathed life into Adam, that life was by the Spirit of God.

God and his Word and his Breath–three in one–perhaps beyond our ability to understand.

Maybe it’s easier for us to comprehend the relationship of father to son and the spirit that moves between them, connecting them and making them one, and yet all three also separate and distinct in their identities and their roles. The Bible makes it clear that there are three separate persons–with a shared will, perspective, and purpose–separate and distinct from each other, and at the same time, completely unified.

Many have tried to explain this. Maybe it’s like an egg that has a shell, a white part, and a yolk and is still all one egg. Maybe it is like water than can be water and steam and ice and still be essentially the same thing. These descriptions fall short of what the Bible teaches about God as three in one.

Jesus doesn’t explain how this works; he simply states that it is. Every time Jesus says “I AM,” He uses the expression that God uses when he speaks to Moses and Moses asks for God’s name.

Moses said to God, ‘Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

God said to Moses, “I AM who I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ (Exodus 3:13-14).

What did God just say to Moses? God’s name translates to something like this: I am the one who has always existed and who will always exist. I exist in myself, by myself. There is no other like me.

Jesus uses this same expression of God’s name to describe himself, which is why the Jewish leaders become so enraged against him and also why it is impossible to view Jesus as simply a good man; good men don’t go around claiming to be God.

Here are seven of these statements just from the testimony of the Apostle John. In each of these statements Jesus identifies himself as God, I AM GOD who is . . .

“I AM the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)

“I AM the light of the world.” (John 8:12)

“I AM the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7,9)

“I AM the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25)

“I AM the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14)

“I AM the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

“I AM the true vine.” (John 15:1, 5)

Jesus also says, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), and those who oppose him pick up stones to try to stone him to death and “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

If you have never heard that Jesus actually taught that he himself is God and the Son of God, not just a prophet of God or a good man sent by God . . .

If you were taught that Jesus was just a man . . .

If you’ve never really thought about Jesus much at all . . .

Consider this particular conversation that Jesus has with his disciples:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16:13-17, NIV)

Jesus refers to himself as the “Son of Man” and then commends Peter for recognizing that he is also the Messiah and the “Son of God.”

If you aren’t sure about all of this or even if you are sure but haven’t given it much thought lately, I encourage you to take some time before Christmas day and read through the Gospel of John, the Apostle John’s account of his encounter with the Son of Man/ Son of God.

As you read, ask and answer these questions: What does Jesus say about himself? What does he do? What does he ask his followers to do? If all of this is true, what implications does it have for my life?

Next time . . . more about the Son of Man.

At the Proper Time

Nov22

© Wendy Anne Clark, 2020

So often have I heard Believers say that they do not read the Old Testament because it is “too troubling” or too confusing. So often I have heard those who do not believe in the God of the Bible refer to God in the Old Testament as full of wrath and vengeance, seeking to annihilate sinners.

How they have misread and misunderstood God and what He reveals about Himself in the Old Testament! How they have missed the great mercy and grace of God revealed throughout the entire Scriptures!

For the past couple of years I have been studying the different books of the prophets. Currently, I am working through the book of Ezekiel. Here’s what I have been learning over the past couple of years:

God’s wrath is the pouring out of His perfect justice in response to sin. God’s wrath is the right and appropriate response of holiness to unholiness, and we all long for it. We want God to pour out His wrath. We want the world to be set right. We want justice and truth and everything that is wrong and deceitful and manipulated and twisted to be dealt with and corrected.

One big problem we have, though, is that we are all sinners. When God’s wrath is finally and fully poured out on all of mankind, in our natural state, we will all be destroyed. So, for now, God is withholding His wrath.

People get mad about that sometimes. Why does God allow evil to exist and the wicked to prosper? Why doesn’t He just wipe it all out right now? If God were truly loving and truly powerful, surely He would do just that, wipe out evil and make things perfect, right now.

But if we would take the time to read the Old Testament and to look for what God teaches about Himself, about humanity, about sin, about justice and judgment and wrath and mercy, we would have a better understanding of why an all-loving, perfectly wise, and all-powerful God, holds back His wrath, for now.

God’s perfect and divine wrath is balanced by His perfect and divine love, which results in His mercy and grace, perfectly poured out. And all of God’s attributes are perfectly intertwined so that “at just the right time” everything that is supposed to happen, happens, just as it is meant to happen.

In the book of Ezekiel, God tells the prophet Ezekiel that He is going to release His wrath against the evil and sin of His own priests and prophets as well as their enemies. The right time has come. This is something that absolutely will be; this is not something they will escape. The sword is coming their way, and there will be widespread destruction and suffering. And yet, in chapter 33, God says that if the people will appoint a watchman to be on the lookout for the coming sword of judgment, and that if the watchman will see and sound the trumpet of warning, and if the people heed the warning and turn from their iniquity, they will escape the judgment and be saved.

If anyone fails to heed the warning, his own destruction will be on his own head. But if the watchman fails to give the warning, all of the people will die in their iniquity, but the watchman will bear responsibility for their destruction.

So much to think about here, but one point for today is that God, even though He has pronounced coming judgment and is getting ready to pour out His wrath, still invites people to turn and receive mercy and be saved.

This indeed is the heart of God throughout all of Scripture. God is longing to show mercy and is giving us every opportunity to turn to Him and receive it.

When God sees Cain’s murderous heart, He points Cain in the direction of escape and deliverance. Cain ignores the warning, and yet God still cares for Cain and shows concern for him.

When the world becomes completely evil, God chooses Noah to warn the people of the coming judgment and to build a place of protection that is offered as a way of escape and deliverance. Noah and his family go into that place of protection and are saved. No one else responds to the warning. Everyone else perishes.

When God gets ready to pour out His wrath on Sodom and Gomorrah, He agrees to hold back His wrath on the account of even a few righteous people living there. When none is found, God provides a warning and a way of escape for Lot and his family, but only those who heed the warning and are obedient are saved.

When the right time has come for God to respond to the great evil of Nineveh, He sends Jonah to warn the people of the coming judgment. Jonah does not want to deliver this warning, and later we learn that he does not want the people to heed the warning and be saved. He wants to be the watchman who doesn’t sound the trumpet.

Eventually, Jonah does as God commands, and he warns the people that they have forty days until God’s wrath will be poured out on their sin. Here’s what happens next:

“The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’“

Did you catch that? There was mass repentance in Nineveh. The king even declared a time of fasting and repentance for all of the people and even the animals.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.” (Jonah 3:5-10)

How can anyone reading this account think that God is longing to pour out His wrath and miss that God is actually longing to pour out His mercy?

What this account reveals is that God’s wrath is the appropriate response to sin and that there comes a time when it must be poured out unless . . . unless the people will respond and repent–turn to the Lord and turn away from their sin. And God sends a warning, a watchman to sound the trumpet and show the way of deliverance. If the people heed the warning, they will be saved.

We discover that Jonah knew this about God, and like many of us, Jonah wanted judgment for his enemies but mercy for himself.

“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’” (Jonah 4:1-3)

When someone asks why God allows evil to exist in the world, why He doesn’t wipe the evil people out, destroy them on the spot, I want to look at that person and say, “Because He’s not ready to give up on you just yet.” That is the truth that many are not willing to face.

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, ‘Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:3-4)

But what people fail to perceive is that we are living in a temporary situation, a time where God is waiting, holding back, actively NOT pouring out His wrath because of His great love for us.

God’s wrath poured out means that everyone who is not in the place of protection and provision that God has provided, will perish. But because of God’s great love, He has mercifully provided a place of protection and provision, and He invites all people to come and be saved.

For Noah and his family and anyone who would have listened, it was to be sheltered in the ark.

For Lot, it was a town nearby that God did not destroy, but allowed Lot and his family to flee to for safety.

For those living today it is the protection that is given to us by salvation provided through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. All who are in Christ Jesus will be saved. Those who are trying to make their own way or provide for their own salvation will be lost.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)

There is a right and proper time that will come when God will pour out His wrath, God’s perfect justice will deal with all wickedness and evil, and sin and evil will no longer have a place in the world.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”
(2 Peter 3:8–13)

In the meantime, we are to be the watchmen on the wall, warn people of what is coming, and point them in the direction of Jesus, that they might be saved. We are to live in such a way that when we warn people, they will take the warning seriously, not like Lot’s extended family, who heard Lot’s warning, but stayed where they were and were destroyed. We are to live as God’s people, dearly loved by God, basking in His great mercy and grace, and we are to love the people around us and invite them to come and experience God’s great and perfect mercy and grace.

Justice will come when the time is right.

Do Not Be Afraid

Jun13

Fear and Hope. Though sometimes it seems like they sneak up and overtake us, we have a lot more control over fear and hope than we often realize.

I can drive out fear by looking forward in hope, and I can squeeze out hope by feeding present fear. In any moment of my life I can shift my focus and perspective and change my whole attitude about my current situation from one of fear or discouragement or despair, to one of hope.

So simple, but not so easy. The shift takes focus, intention, effort, and often practice and repetition.

Examining my fear or my discouragement can be a big help in shifting to hope because both fear and hope are intricately interwoven with trust and faith.

For example, if I am fearful about my finances, I can take a look at what I am trusting to keep my finances in order and consider how trustworthy that source is. Am I trusting my own ability to work and earn and save and make good decisions? Am I trusting a bank or financial institution to manage my money well and give me a reliable check each month? Am I trusting the government to be generous and reliable and faithful in providing for my needs? How reliable are each of these sources?

I can avoid a certain amount of fear by shifting the source of my trust to something or someone more stable and trustworthy. I might divide my assets and look for my fiances to come from a variety of sources. I might come up with strategies and make plans that help me to manage the money that I have better. These are not bad ideas.

But in the end, I will stop being fearful about my finances when I come to understand that God is the source of all provision for me. God is the one who gives me the ability to make wealth and blesses the work of my hands. God, in His Word, gives me principles of truth that I can apply to my finances. God promises that if I walk with Him and trust Him for provision, He is faithful to lead me and guide me and trustworthy to provide generously for all that I need.

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart ,and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will lead you on the straight path.”

Psalm 40:1-3
“I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him.”

The Bible says that the fear of the LORD is a wise kind of fear because we recognize who is really in charge and who is really the One powerful enough to handle all of our concerns with faithfulness, love, compassion . . . holiness.

And God is trustworthy not just with my fiances. The same is true for all areas of fear in my life. I can examine the fear and what it tells me about where my trust is and where I am putting my hope.

Am I afraid for my safety or the safety of those I love? Who or what am I trusting to keep us all safe? Am I afraid of failure? Who or what am I relying on to determine whether I fail or succeed? Am I fearful about my future? Who or what am I trusting to make a way for me?

Isaiah 41:10
“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Psalm 23:4
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

We all have the power to drive out fear and live in hope and peace. That power lies in the choices we make about where we will put our trust.

There are 365 verses in the Bible that say “Fear Not,” one for each day of the year.

One good step toward overcoming fear, anxiety, worry is to take one verse each day and read the context of the passage. If there is a story, read the whole story. Sometimes, you might find yourself reading the same story a few days in a row because God tells the same person to not be afraid several different times. What does that repetition tell us about God? About the person or people God is speaking to? What are the promises associated with not being afraid?

Genesis 15:1; 21:17; 26:24; 35:17; 43:23; 46:3; 50:19. 21

Exodus 14:13; 20:20

Leviticus 26:6

Numbers 6:24-26; 14:9; 21:34

Deuteronomy 1:17, 21, 29; 3:2, 22; 7:18; 20:1, 3; 20:3; 31:6, 8

Joshua 1:9; 8:1; 10:8, 25; 11:6

Judges 4:18; 6:23

I Samuel 4:20; 12:20; 22:23; 23:17; 28:13

II Samuel 9:7

I Kings 17:13

II Kings 1:15; 6:16; 19:6; 25:24

I Chronicles 22:13; 28:20

II Chronicles 20:15; 20:17; 32:7

Nehemiah 4:14

Job 5:21; 11:15; 21:9 .

Psalm 3:6; 4:8; 16:7-9; 23:4; 27:1, 3; 29:11; 46:2; 49:16; 56: 3-4, 11; 78:53; 91:5; 94:19; 118:6; 119:165

Proverbs 3:24-25

Ecclesiastes 11:10

Isaiah 7:4; 8:12; 10:24; 12:2; 17:2; 26:3; 35:4; 37:6; 40:9; 41:10, 13-14; 43:1, 5; 44:2, 8; 51:7; 54:4, 14

Jeremiah 1:8; 10:5; 17:8; 30:10; 40:9; 42:11; 46:27-28; 51:46

Lamentations 3:57

Ezekiel 3:9

Daniel 10:12, 19

Joel 2:21-22

Zephaniah 3:16

Haggai 2:5

Zechariah 8:13, 15

Malachi 3:5

Matthew 1:20: 6:25-34; 10:19, 26, 28, 31; 14:27; 17:7; 28:5, 10, 36

Mark 5:36; 6:50; 13:11

Luke 1:13, 30; 2:10; 5:10; 8:50; 12:4, 7, 11, 32

John 6:20; 12:15; 14:27; 16:33

Acts 18:9; 20:10; 27:24

Romans 5:1,

Hebrews 13:6

Philippians 4:6

I Peter 3:6, 14; 5:7

1 John 4:18

Revelation 1:17

Revelation 2:10

Joshua 1:9
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”