See to it that no one takes you captive
through hollow and deceptive philosophy,
which depends on human tradition and the
basic principles of this world rather than
on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity
lives in bodily form, and you have been
given fullness in Christ, Who is the head
over every power and authority.
(Colossians 2.8-10).
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!
We meet God in Jesus Christ because He is the Son of God.
We also know the purpose and place of man through Him,
because Jesus Christ is also the Son of Man. In fact this is
how He referred to Himself. He is Alpha and Omega, the
Creator Who came to redeem His creation. He is Immanuel,
God With Us. He is Lord of the universe, the hope of freedom
for mankind, Wonderful Counselor Everlasting Father the
Prince of Peace. The Father has given Him all authority and power
in heaven and on earth.
When we understand Jesus Christ as God and Man, we see the purpose
and high position of humanity:
“He is the sole expression of the glory of God and He is the perfect imprint
and very image of God’s nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and
propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering
Himself accomplished our cleansing our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt,
He sat down at the right hand of the divine majesty on high,
He Himself became as much superior to angels as the glorious Name which He
has inherited is different from and more excellent than theirs.
For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are My Son, today I have
begotten You? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son?
Moreover, when He brings the firstborn Son again into the habitable world, He
says, Let all the angels of God worship Him.
Referring to the angels He says, Who makes His angels winds and His ministering
servants flames of fire;
But as to the Son, He says to Him, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the
scepter of Your Kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness.
You have loved righteousness and You have hated lawlessness. Therefore God,
Your God has anointed You with the oil of exultant joy and gladness above and
beyond Your companions.
And, You, Lord, did lay the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the
heavens are the works of Your hands.”
(Hebrews 1.3-10).
Here we see the tremendous honor and heritage Jesus Christ has bestowed
on humanity by becoming one of us:
“For it was not to angels that God subjected the habitable world of the future,
of which we are speaking.
It has been solemnly and earnestly said in a certain place, What is man that
You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You graciously and helpfully
care for and visit and look after him?
For some little time You have ranked him lower than the angels; You have
crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of Your hands,
For You have put everything in subjection under his feet. Now in putting
everything in subjection to man, He left nothing outside of man’s control.
But at present we do not yet see all things subjected to man.
But we are able to see Jesus,Who was ranked lower than the angels for a
little while, crowned with glory and honor because of His having suffered
death, in order that by the grace of God to us sinners He might experience
death for every individual person.
For it was an act worthy of God and fitting to the divine nature that He,
for Whose sake and by Whom all things many sons into glory, should
make the Pioneer of their salvation perfect (should bring to maturity the
human experience necessary to be perfectly equipped for His office as
High Priest) through suffering.
For both He Who makes men holy and those who are sanctified all have one
Father. For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters;
For He says, I will declare Your (the Father’s) name to My brethren; in the
midst of the worshipping congregation I will sing hymns of praise to You.
And again He says, My trust and assured reliance and confident hope shall be
fixed in Him. And yet again, Here I am. I and the children whom God has
given Me.
Since, therefore, these children share in flesh and blood, He in a similar manner
partook of the same nature, that by going through death He might make of no
effect him who had the power of death- that is the devil-
And also that He might deliver and completely set free all those who through the
fear of death were held in bondage throughout the whole course of their lives.
For, as we all know Christ did not take hold of angels (the fallen angels, to give
them a helping hand), but He did take hold of (the fallen) descendants of Abraham
(to reach out to them a helping hand).
So it is evident that it was essential that He be made like His brethren in every
respect, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the
things related to God, to make atonement for the people’s sins.
For because He Himself has suffered in being tempted, He is able to run to the cry
of those who are being tempted.”
(Hebrews 2.5-18)
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!
TRUTH
The knowledge of the One True God totally
depends on God’s self revelation.
In every other field of study we depend
on our effort, exploration and education.
Our only source of correct information
about God is His Word Who became flesh
as Jesus Christ full of grace and truth, the
Unique Son of the Father, the Eternal I AM,
the way, the truth and the life.
THE LIFE
” The life was manifested and we have seen
and bear witness and declare to you that
eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested to us.” ( I. John 1.2).
THE WAY
He is the way and the truth. There is no
other way to access the Father and He
is the truth of God’s revelation full of glory.
THE TRUTH
Here is what Karl Barth says in Church Dogmatics:
” As a man among men He is a human Thou, and as
such distinct from all mere things. Now as a Thou,
man is not merely an existential determination of
the I, but the sum of all the objective reality of
the world”.
This is another way of saying that He is The Truth.
GOD BECAME A MAN IN JESUS CHRIST
Again continuing from where we left, Karl Barth says:
” And in Jesus Christ God becomes and is man, the
fellow- man of all men. As God He is not merely one
of many such fellow-men, nor is He merely the idea
of fellow-humanity. We are speaking of ” the Father’s Son,
by nature God.” He became and is man, the fellow-man of
all men; and therefore Thou, not merely in a simple, but in
a supremely objective reality, the human Thou, which as
such is also directly the Thou of the one eternal God.”
SINCE GOD IS WITH US (IMMANUEL)
THE WHOLE HUMAN SITUATION CHANGES
The fact that we just saw here changes the scope,
prospect and context of what it means to be human.
Again, Karl Barth continues:
” The fact is rather that God Himself, in His deep mercy
has taken upon Himself to exist also in human being
and essence in His Son, and therefore to become and be
a man, and therefore this incomparable Thou.
God Himself is in the world, earthly, conceivable and
visible, as He is this man. We have to do with God
Himself as we have to do with this man.
God Himself speaks when this man speaks in human
speech. God Himself acts and suffers when this man
speaks and suffers as a man. God Himself triumphs
when this One triumphs as a man. The human speaking
and acting and suffering and triumphing of this one man
directly concerns us all, and His history is our history
of salvation which changes the whole human situation,
just because God Himself is its human subject in His Son,
just because God Himself has assumed and made His own
our human nature and kind in His Son, just because God
Himself came into this world in His Son, and as one of us
” a guest this world of us He trod.” ”
THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES
As Karl Barth continues:
“And as and because the Holy Spirit is the coming of
Jesus Christ Himself, and His witness this disclosure
to men concerning themselves, He and His witness are
in fact the self revelation of Jesus Christ and as such
the basis of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
We have to realize that God’s own revealedness for us
is God’s own person and God’s own work.
All the comfort, all the power, all the truth of this
revealedness depends upon the fact that it is with God
that we are dealing.
All our understanding of this revealedness depends upon
the fact that we identify it with God Himself, ruling out all
other possibilities but God’s possibility. We have therefore to
realize that as the recipient of revelation man is brought
under God’s judgement. It is only because of this that he is
brought under God’s promise. It is only because of this that
God meets him as the One who intercedes for him, who
undertakes and directs his cause, who does not quench his
own ability and will and accomplishment but subordinates
it to His own, since man must always be subordinated to God,
if God’s glory is to triumph and man is to be helped.”
HUMAN FREEDOM VS DIVINE FREEDOM
Again continuing from above:
” We are to understand, therefore, that for God to be
revealed involves the dislodging of man from the
estimation of his own freedom, and his enrichment with
the freedom of the children of God. This negation, the
negation of man through God’s eternal grace and mercy, is
only the obverse of his position as a child of God, as a member
of the covenant between God and man. But this obviously means
that the negation of man cannot be put into effect any more than
his position as a child of God except through God’s own action.
Thus God’s possibility triumphs over the very imprisonment
in which we are involved, where we only fulfill our own
possibilities and only believe in our own possibilities.
The self-enclosed uniqueness of man, who only has and
knows his own freedom, is overarched and enclosed and
finally relativized through the uniqueness of God and His
freedom in which He is resolved to have fellowship with this
man and once and for all to be his Lord.”
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU LORD JESUS!
COMPLEX WISDOM
Also to enlighten all men
and explain to them the
plan behind the mystery
kept hidden through the
ages and concealed until
now in God who created
all things by Christ Jesus.
The purpose is that through
the church the complex,
wisdom of God with infinite,
many layered variety
and innumerable aspects
might now be revealed to
the angelic rulers and
authorities (principalities
and powers) in the heavenly
sphere.
(Ephesians 3.9 and 10).
POINTS FOR PRAISE
AND MEDITATION
1) The infinite riches of Christ
is proclaimed through the
announcement of the Gospel.
2) This is done in order to
enlighten humanity regarding
God’s plan of salvation.
3) This plan was kept secret
though multiple ages in the
mind of God who created
everything by Christ Jesus.
4) The reason for this is to
show principalities and
powers in the heavenly sphere
the extent of God’s complex
wisdom which is full of infinite
variety, intricacy and innumerable
aspects.
5) Although we are able to grasp it
at a very elementary level we know
this involves us, we are included and
an integral factor in His unfolding
plan. This verse gives us a glimpse
of the future universe in yet
untold,unimaginable splendor,
incredibly beautiful in scope.
The concepts and vocabulary
of Creation2.0 are yet to be
articulated and comprehended.
The human mind in its current
developmental stage is incapable
of conceptualizing Creation2.0
because this reality can be perceived
only through the Holy Spirit.
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU
LORD JESUS FOREVERMORE!
Of this Gospel I was made a minister
according to the gift of God’s free grace
which was bestowed on me by the exercise
of His power.
To me, though I am the very least of all the
saints, this grace was granted and graciously
entrusted, to proclaim to the Gentiles the
unlimited riches of Christ (unending, boundless,
fathomless, incalculable wealth which no human
could have discovered.
(Ephesians 3.7 and 8).
POINTS FOR PRAISE
1) The unlimited riches of Christ has
been revealed in the Gospel, the Best
News Ever.
2) This declaration to the world is made
possible by God’s power.
3) The unending, boundless, fathomless,
incalculable, inexhaustible wealth of Christ
could only be discovered and disclosed
by the announcement of the Gospel.
HALLELUJAH! THANK YOU JESUS
FOREVERMORE!
For He is Himself our peace, our bond
of unity and harmony. He has made
us both Jew and Gentile one body,
and has broken down, destroyed, abolished
the hostile dividing wall between us.
By abolishing in His own crucified flesh
the enmity caused by the Law with its decrees
and ordinances (which he annuled), that He
from the two might create in himself one
new human (one new quality of humanity out
of the two), so making peace.
(Ephesians 2.14 and 15).
POINTS FOR PRAISE AND MEDITATION
1) Jesus Christ is our peace.
He is the way, the truth and the life.
He is our wisdom. He is the resurrection
and the life. He is also our peace.
2) The wall of separation that existed
under the old covenant no longer
exists under the new covenant.
The barrier is no longer there.
Belief in Jesus Christ allows entering into
the covenant made possible by His
blood. This covenant is made with better,
much greater and everlasting promises.
HALLELUJAH! PRAISE THE LORD JESUS!