Bible Commentary

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Acts 17:30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, 31because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.”

The Gospel is not merely an offer, it is a command of God. All men, everywhere, are obligated to repent and believe in Jesus. The Apostles did not preach "just try Jesus out." They preached that repentance and faith are necessary to avoid God's righteous judgment. Moreover, they were not concerned with providing evidence for the resurrection. Rather, the resurrection itself is the evidence that God has given to all that He has fixed a day in which He will judge the whole world by the Man Jesus Christ. Just as God is self-attesting, so too is His Word, not needing any external vindication for its own veracity. The problem never has been that God is mute, but that men are deaf.

32 Now when they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.”

The Greeks sneered at resurrection, because in their philosophy, they drew a hard line between the material and the spiritual. They were trying to escape the body. But the Christian religion teaches both, first a spiritual resurrection, then a bodily resurrection.

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Isaiah 14:13 But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

This is the Word of God telling us the inner thoughts and heartfelt desires of the devil. The five 'I wills'. All of them communicate the desire to be like God. Incidentally, the Church of Satan's motto is 'Do as thou wilt.' I can think of some Christian denominations that, in their extolling of man's free will, would receive a hearty amen from avowed Satanists.

Notice the contrast between this and the words of Jesus.

Luke 22:41And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me, yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

Biblically, slavery to God is a good thing, not bad. But our 21st century, Western ears burn when they hear that someone else, even God, is in control of our lives. For those who have faith in God and His goodness, there is no greater news. For those placing their faith in something else, namely themselves, that comes across as very bad news.

The Bible presents two ways. The first way is a life of humility, submission to God's plan, and trusting in His Word even when it doesn't appeal to us. It is the way of life. The second way is a life of pride, self-determination, and doing what's right in your own eyes. It is the way of death.

God is God and we are not.

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Titus 1:1 Paul, a slave of God and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s elect and the full knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity, 3but at the proper time manifested His word in preaching, with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior.

In one of his first Socratic dialogues, Euthyphro, Plato asks the question: Does God will something because it is good, in and of itself, or is something good simply because God wills it? I believe the Biblical answer, the correct answer, is the latter, that something can only be good if God wills it.

The problem with the first answer is that it makes a distinction between God and goodness. As if there is a standard of goodness that not only we have to live up to, but that even God has to live up to as well. This is how many pagan religions understood their gods, but the God of the Bible remains unique. Rather, goodness flows from God's own nature. God cannot be evil in anything He does because He is goodness itself. This is why it is written that God cannot lie, and that He cannot deny Himself. Profane men find this to make God arbitrary, not knowing that they are being arbitrary with God in the first answer.

John 3:19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed. 21But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.

Augustine properly recognized evil as a privation of God's goodness. Evil does not have an ontological existence, it is the lack of God's goodness, in the same way that darkness is the lack of light. White light is made up of all of the colors, and darkness lacks any color. These instances of evil, all sin, are privations of God's goodness. For men who love the darkness rather than the Light, there is an absence of God in them. For men who love the Light, the truth is that his good deeds are done by God, for it is not possible to do good apart from God. When I deny that we are justified by works, what I am really denying is that we can be good unto ourselves. When I affirm the imputation of Christ's righteousness, I am affirming that the only way to be good is to be in God.

Jude 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only son, 18to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR SEED SHALL BE CALLED.” 19He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he also received him back.

Verse 19 is one of the most amazing passages of Scripture to me. It reveals something very key about how Paul understands the Old Testament. Under Law comes a sense of obligation. Under obligation comes a sense of begrudging obedience. This is how most people understand Abraham offering up Isaac, that he did it out of a sense of begrudging obedience. We do this because we project our own feelings about God's Law onto Abraham.

But Abraham is made up of more faith. Abraham was able to pass God's test, not because he believed it was up to himself to satisfy God's command and fulfill it out of begrudging obligation or duty, but because he had faith in God and considered that God would be able to raise Isaac from the dead. He knew God would never go back on His promise, that through Isaac, his seed will be called.

We, too, must have the same faith as Abraham. We must not see God's commands as burdensome like the Pharisees did. We must recognize that if we are in Christ by faith, we are free to do God's commands and carry out His righteousness.

1 John 5:2 By this, we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the overcoming that has overcome the world—our faith.

When God's commands begin to feel burdensome, stop relying on your sense of obligation and instead place your faith in Him "who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."

 

[GodfatherPartTwo]

Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not counted according to grace, but according to what is due.

The one who works receives the wage that is due to them. If God judges us according to our works, we will go to hell. If we believe otherwise, it is because we think too little of our own sinfulness and too little of His holiness.

5 But to the one who does not work, but believes upon Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness

Since we cannot make ourselves righteous by our own works, the only way for us to become righteous is to place our faith in Him who is able to make us righteous. He does not justify the godly but the ungodly. Salvation is not a meritocracy.

6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8 BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

The 8th verse is key. God will not count your sins against you if you are in Christ by faith, because your sins have already been counted to Christ on the cross.

9 Therefore, is this blessing on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “FAITH WAS COUNTED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 10How then was it counted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised

Both Jews and Gentiles are made righteous in this same way; by faith alone in Christ alone. Even if baptism is the new circumcision, Abraham was justified by faith alone even before he was circumcised, and we too were justified before our baptism by faith alone.