Children of God, Part 2: Being Adopted into God's Family

This series of posts was developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on November 6, 2011.

As we have seen, belief, that is faith, in Jesus is the only means by which we become children of God. There are some verses that go into more detail as to the process, if you will, by which that happens.

Romans 8:12-17; Galatians 4:1-7; and Ephesians 1:3-6

In Romans 8, verse 14, we’re told that those that the Spirit leads are sons of God, and that the Spirit testifies that we are children of God, and thus heirs with Christ, and will be glorified with Him.

It is by the spirit that we are adopted into God’s family. Adoption here has the idea of “being placed as an adult son.” As soon as we are born into God’s family by the Spirit, we are also made “adult sons,” and as such we can draw on the spiritual wealth of God because we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

In Galatians, we see a similar passage. In verse 5 of chapter 4 we see that Jesus came, became God in the flesh, in order that He might redeem us from under the Law, so that we could receive adoption as sons. And we see again that the Spirit testifies, cries out in our hearts, “Abba! Father!” We are no longer slaves but sons and heirs.  As Wiersbe note’s “we enter God’s family by regeneration [being born again], but we enjoy God’s family by adoption.”[1]

In Ephesians, we see that our adoption as sons comes through Jesus Christ and our adoption is to Him as well, and it was done this way according to God’s good pleasure.

Before we move on, I think that it is important to understand what we mean when we use the word “adoption.” In the Roman world, there were two types of adoption. One was where a man and those under his authority (his family and household) were adopted into another family, and ceased to be considered a separate entity, but rather part of their adopted family. The second type was where a man or a boy was adopted by another. He no longer belonged to his biological father’s household and he legally became the child of his adopter. A will was often drawn up as part of this adoption ceremony. Adoption was connected with not just the legal and familial status of the adoptee, but also with inheritance rights. In applying this system to us, God is the authority over His adopted children and we find our identity in Him. [2]

Notes:
[1] Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament Volumes 1. Colorado Spring: Cook Communications Ministries, 2001. p 705

[2] "Adoption in the Roman World." Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. p.1849.

Books Consulted:
Archaeological Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003.

McGee, J. Vernon. Ephesians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 47. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Galatians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 46. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Thru the Bible: Volume IV: Matthew through Romans. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament Volumes 1 and 2. Colorado Spring: Cook Communications Ministries, 2001.

Children of God, Part 1: Becoming a Child of God

This series of posts was developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on November 6, 2011.

Introduction:

The doctrines of our faith, right teaching, are essential to the believer’s life. They inform our thoughts and behaviors. They help keep us in the “love of God” (Jude 20-21). They have given us a foundation upon which we can understand God, and ourselves, better. Right teaching also enables us to live our lives in a manner that is pleasing to God. Some topics tend to be more what I call “high theology.” Other topics are much more personal: such as “who are we?” Those who believe in Jesus as their Lord are called several different things in Scripture. One such name for believers is “the children of God,” and that is what we’re going to take a look at over the next few posts.

Becoming a Child of God:

Our first Scripture passage we’re going to look at is John 1:11-13.

Verse 12 says that as many as received Him [that is Jesus, the Light of the world], He [Jesus] gave the right [that is, the authority] to become children of God. – Receiving here is believing in His name. And this is not accomplished by any natural means, nor under our own power, but it is rather by the power of God that we are born of God. In John 3, we see that we have to be “born again” to enter God’s kingdom. And this birth is accomplished by the Holy Spirit (3:8).

Verse 11 shows us that there were those who rejected Jesus. The difference between them and those who are the “children of God” is that the ones who are born of God have received Jesus (that is welcomed and accepted Jesus) and believed in Him, not just as a teacher or a miracle worker, but rather as the Son of God, the one whom reconciles men to Himself, to God.

Paul echoes this in his letter to the Galatians (Galatians 3:26).

We see here that Christians are sons of God only through faith in Jesus. Jesus being the “only begotten” Son of God (John 3:16), is the Eternal Son. He has always been with God and is Himself God (John 1:1). It is amazing that we can be considered sons of God, along with Jesus Christ. And how does this take place? Through faith, that is by means of faith, by believing in Jesus Christ, as we saw in John 1:12. If we have placed our faith in Jesus, we are sons of God.

As J. Vernon McGee so aptly said, “…neither your prayers, your fundamental separation, your gifts, nor your baptism will ever make you a son of God. Only faith in Christ can make you a son of God.” [1]

We'll take a look at what it means to be adopted into God's family next time.

Notes:

[1] - McGee, J. Vernon. Galatians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 46. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991, p 64.

Books Consulted:

Bickel, Bruce and Stan Jantz. John: Encountering Christ in a Life-Changing Way. Christianity 101 Bible Studies. Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2003.

Comfort, Philip W. and Wendell C. Hawley. Opening John’s Gospel and Epistles. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2003

McGee, J. Vernon. Galatians. Through the Bible Commentary Series: The Epistles. Vol. 46. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991.

McGee, J. Vernon. Thru the Bible: Volume IV: Matthew through Romans. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983.

Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament Volumes 1. Colorado Spring: Cook Communications Ministries, 2001.

Scripture: The Very Word of God, Part 3.2

This is the last in a series of posts that was originally developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on August 28, 2011.

There is a point to the Bible. Why did God speak? What was His purpose?

2 Timothy 3:17 tells us that God’s word is useful for the purpose that “the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” This means that the Bible provides everything that the believer needs to live a fruitful life, well pleasing to God. Adequate and equipped mean roughly the same thing: being fitted and complete; outfitted as for an expedition.

Romans 16:25-26 says that God is able to establish, that is strengthen and prop up, the believer according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Scriptures of the prophets, and God’s commands, “leading to obedience of faith.” This means that as we study the Bible, God is able to use that to strengthen our walk and our faith in Him, and as we do so, we become more and more obedient in our faith, submitting ourselves willingly to the truth.

Romans 15:4 says that “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” The Bible teaches us and promises to us hope. We can have an expectation, a trust, that God will fulfill His promises: For salvation through Jesus Christ and for eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Scripture instructs, it equips, it leads to obedience, it gives us hope. But more importantly, the Scriptures points to Christ. Jesus says in Luke 24:44-47:

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

The Old Testament pointed to a coming Christ, a future Redeemer. The Gospels record the life and ministry and teachings of Jesus who is the Christ. The rest of the New Testament provides us instruction on how to live out and grow in our faith as well as encouragement and hope for the future.

What can we take a away from all of this?

Because the Bible is the very word of God, it should not be treated lightly. It can be trusted because it is true. Since God’s word is everlasting, its truths are applicable for all humanity, for all time. Because the Bible is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness, we can use it to instruct and lift ourselves and each other up, being confronted and convicted of the state of our faith, having our lives straightened out by the very breath of God, and being provided with all that we need to live a godly life. It equips us, it strengthens our faith to obedience, and it gives us hope. The Bible points to Jesus Christ: our Savior, our Lord, and our Redeemer.

In closing, here is Psalm 19:7-11:

The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than god, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them there is a great reward.

Scripture: The Very Word of God, Part 3.1

This series of posts was originally developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on August 28, 2011.
What does Bible say about itself?

In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul writes to Timothy that “All Scripture is inspired by God…” The Greek word that is translated “inspired” is the word theopneustos – literally, God-breathed. What does this mean? This means that all Scripture (at this time, the Old Testament as the New was still being written – although Peter would later equate Paul’s writings with Scripture [2 Peter 3:15-16]) was breathed out, or spoken, by God. The writers of the various books were not merely “inspired” to write the books, nor were the words merely inspiring to read. Rather the Scriptures were the product of God’s creative breath; that is, it is the very Word of God. As such, God is the author of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

But the books of the Bible were written by men, right? Yes. How can it be that both God and man wrote the Bible?

There are several theories of inspiration that one can hold to and still be considered “orthodox,” that is, in right belief. The five are listed as follows:[4]

1)      Dictation theory – This view holds that God literally dictated each word of the Bible to the individual writer. The human author in this view was merely God’s pen, having no conscious thought or will what was being written.
2)      Plenary concept – This view mainly emphasizes that all of Scripture is fully-inspired.
3)      Verbal view – This view holds that not just the ideas or truths are inspired, but that every word was inspired by God.
4)      Verbal-plenary view – This view is a combination of two and three. It combats a false view that divine inspiration was limited to certain parts of the Bible by emphasizing the divine inspiration of the whole Bible. This is the view held by most evangelicals.
5)      Dynamic view – This view has that the Holy Spirit controlled the process of the writing of the Scriptures, but each writer’s own style, vocabulary, etc., remained intact. This view takes into consideration both divine and human authorship, with an emphasis on the human.

And since we believe that God is the ultimate author of the Bible, we also hold that the Bible is authoritative and true. In John 17:17, Jesus is praying to God the Father, and says this: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” Jesus himself points out that God’s word is true. In Psalm 119:140, 160, the writer says “Your word is very pure” and “The sum of Your word is truth.” Because God’s word is true and pure, we believe that the Scriptures are “inerrant.”By this we mean that we can trust the Scriptures absolutely, and not be led astray theologically, historically, geographically, or scientifically. Inerrancy does not demand dictation, or that the writers be sinless or have absolute knowledge in every field. It does not require that the New Testament quote the Old Testament word for word. It does not mean that the writers cannot use figures of speech, metaphors, or even that they all follow the same writing style and grammar. It does not mean that genealogies and chronologies have to be precise (Jewish tendency was for symmetry as opposed to accuracy). It does not require that parallel telling of the same events be exactly the same. Nor does it demand that translations or copies be inerrant. [5]

Because the Bible is true and is God’s very own word, it is useful to the believer. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” By teaching, we mean that Scripture shows right instruction and doctrine; those things which are true. By reproof, we mean that Scripture will provide evidence, proof, or conviction of sin in our lives, of wrong living, and of wrong teaching. By correction, we mean that Scripture points out how to get right; it shows us how set straight our lives so that they might be pleasing to God. By training in righteousness, we mean that the Bible provides us with teaching on how to become more spiritually mature, to become more Christ-like, as we strive to “be imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1).

How is the Bible able to be so useful to the believer? Hebrews 4:12 states that “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The words recorded in the Bible are not just words. They are the very voice of God. They are living words.  As Wiersbe says in his commentary:

“The Word exposes our hearts; and then, if we trust God, the Word enables our hearts to obey God and claim His promises. This is why each believer should be diligent to apply himself to hear and heed God’s Word. In the Word we see God, and we also see how God sees us. We see ourselves as we really are. This experience enables us to be honest with God, to trust His will, and to obey Him." [6]

Another characteristic of the Bible according to itself is that it is eternal. Isaiah 40:8 says that “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” Psalm 119:160 says that “every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” Jesus, as recorded in Luke 21:33, said ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.” God’s word is eternal. It is not bound by time or place. It was relevant in the Old Testament when it says “Thus saith the Lord.” It was relevant in the New Testament when Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John recorded Jesus saying, “I say to you.” It was relevant 500 years ago. It is relevant today. It will be relevant tomorrow, and on into the future.

Next: we'll continue to see what the Bible says about itself, more specifically, the purpose of Scripture. And we'll have some concluding thoughts.

NOTES:

[4] Much of this was developed from notes from my hermeneutics class, with reference to Klein, Blomberg, and Hubbard's An Introduction to Biblical Interpretation.
[5] http://www.swbts.edu/index.cfm?pageid=1723
[6] Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, New Testament, V. 2, p. 289

Scripture: The Very Word of God, Part 2

This series of posts was originally developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on August 28, 2011.

The Nature of the Bible:
What is the composition of the Bible? What “physically” makes the Bible the Bible?
The Bible generally accepted by most Protestants, including us Southern Baptists, is divided into two main parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament, with a total of sixty-six “books,” thirty-nine in the OT and twenty-seven in the NT. Other groups include a collection of works called the Apocrypha, but as Protestants do not hold that these books are a part of the canon.[3]

A “canon” is a rule of measurement, or in this case an authoritative list. Our belief is that the canon was not chosen by the church, but rather those books in our canon set themselves apart because of their spiritual authority.  The Old Testament is generally divided into three main sections: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Old Testament had definitely reached canonical status by the time of Jesus and the beginnings of Christianity. The canonicity of the New Testament was achieved by certain tests. The early church did not “choose” what books were to be in the NT, but rather applied a series of criteria to books that were already being used in the churches to determine a list of these authoritative books in order to keep out false teaching and error. The three criteria are:

    1)  Conformity to the “rule of faith” – that is Christian truth that was recognized as standard teaching in the churches. It was important to keep out false teaching so that believers would not be led astray in their beliefs.
    2)  Apostolicity – that is, were these books written by the apostles or people close to the apostles, such as Luke and Mark?
    3)  Widespread usage in the churches – Were these books widely and continually accepted and used by churches everywhere?

The books that we have in the New Testament fulfill all of these criteria, whereas other works, such as the Gnostic gospels – i.e the Gospels of Thomas, Mary, etc – do not. They were written years after the apostles and those directly in contact with the apostles had died. They were not accepted throughout the whole church, and they did not conform to what the apostles had taught and passed down. Therefore, they were not authoritative, and not to be included in the canon.

The Bible then is a collection of works written by different authors over a long period of time. To name just a few, there is Moses, David, Luke, Paul, and John. The Old Testament was written over several centuries. The New Testament was written within a period of about 60 to 70 years.  The books that make up the Bible also belong to different genres. By this we mean that some are histories, some are laws, some are poetry, some are letters (of encouragement and teaching), and some are prophecy. Some books contain multiple genres. Some critics of the Bible use this information to say that the Bible is merely a library of stories, written by different men at different times. Merely this and nothing more. However, we have to stand and say an emphatic “No, it’s not!”

We believe that there is a “metanarrative” – a big story – that runs throughout the Bible. There are several themes, all a part of “the bigger picture,” that says that Bible is one big story: the sinfulness of man, the holiness of God, the need for man to be redeemed, the coming of the Messiah (the Christ) and Redeemer, God’s activity in and love for the world.

The Scriptures themselves attest to this in its descriptions of itself. How does the Bible describe itself? We'll take a look at that next time.

NOTES:
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon    NOTE: I did not get my information in the lesson from this source, but I believe that it does a decent job of presenting you a little more information on canon and it does provide avenues for you to continue your search. Always remember, though, that you MUST take Wikipedia articles with a large grain of salt, and never rely on it as your only source. It's a good starting point, but you must always dig deeper! Much of this information on canon came from class notes, with reference to Carson and Moo's An Introduction to the New Testament.

Scripture: The Very Word of God, Part 1

This series of posts was originally developed as a Sunday School lesson that I taught on August 28, 2011.

Introduction:
A Gallup poll published in July 2011 recently asked just over 1000 people from all over the United States what they thought about the Bible. Three in ten responded that they believed the Bible to be the actual word of God. Forty-nine percent believed that the Bible is inspired by God but not all of it should be taken literally. Seventeen percent believed that the Bible is just a collection of stories and legends.[1]

Now there are some questions that we have to consider. And the answers to these questions should define what we believe about the Bible. The questions are these:

     1)      What do we believe as Southern Baptists?
     2)      What is the nature of the Bible?
     3)      What does the Bible have to say about itself?

Scripture: A Southern Baptist Perspective:
The Southern Baptist Convention has since 1925 has adopted as a statement of faith, a collection of beliefs and doctrines that define and lay out what we believe. The Baptist Faith and Message was updated in 1963, 1998, and 2000 in order to tackle new challenges to the faith based upon what the Bible has to say. As such, it appropriately sets forth a belief as to what Scripture is:

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.[2]

 
This view was developed based upon many different passages found throughout the Bible, each pointing to this end.

NOTES:
[1] http://www.gallup.com/poll/148427/Say-Bible-Literally.aspx

[2] http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp