God – Page 7 – What Does This Mean?

Son of Man

Encore Post: Jesus does not use the title Son of God to refer to himself, even though we use it all the time for him. Instead, he most often uses the title the Son of Man. Yet, it is rarely used by anyone other than Jesus. In the Old Testament, God calls Ezekiel “Son of Man.” and Daniel talks about a vision of the Messiah, who would be “like a son of man.” (Daniel 7:13-14) Likely Jesus is claiming this prophecy with his favorite title.

Yet in this title, Christians see more. The Eternal Son of God, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Messiah is not ashamed to become one of us. He takes not only our nature, born in our form, but calls himself our brother, made like us in every way. (Hebrews 2:16-17) He experienced every temptation that we do, except he did not sin. God does not consider this physical world, our bodies or lives inferior, as if only the spirit matters. After all, he made it and called it “very good.” (Genesis 1:31)

More than that, even after he died for our sins, Jesus did not shed his body the way we discard our clothes after a hard day of work. He rose again after three days, keeping the wounds that were the price of our salvation and still lives as one Lord Jesus Christ, both Son of God and Son of Man to this day and forever.

The title, Son of Man, also reminds us that the Almighty and Everlasting God, whom we can never fully understand, does not live far away from us at a distance, but comes to us in a way we can understand. God in his glory we cannot grasp, but God in the person of the man Jesus Christ, we can understand. (John 1:18). He is God-with-us, and even though he is at the right hand of God in Heaven, is with us until the end of time itself — and beyond. (Matthew 28:18-20) He comes to us even more so in the Lord’s Supper, where he gives us his body with bread and his blood with wine to eat and to drink. That is why we thank and praise God that he is our Lord — Son of God and Son of Man.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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©2018-2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

The Peace of God Sets Watch over our Hearts

Encore Post: Television, the internet, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other technologies are a blessing a curse. News — and rumors — spread around the world at the speed of light. Even though we live in the safest, most prosperous and healthiest time in the history of the world, the flow of news and fake news makes us think we live in the most dangerous times of all. In the United States, young adults of the millennial generation are increasingly worried about their finances, health and safety. Although we are instantly able to connect with almost everyone we have ever known, they report that they are lonelier than ever before.

Christians are not exceptions to this pattern. Yet God gives us ways to cope with the worries of this world. Although we have troubles in this world, we do not need to be afraid. Jesus gives us his peace. (John 14:27) St. Paul tells us how the peace of God sets a watch over our hearts and minds. This peace is ours because Jesus made peace between us and God when he died for our sins on the cross. He broke down the barrier between us once and for all. Now nothing can separate us from the love of God. We will live with God forever.

How do we cope with all the uncertainties of life that cause us to worry? Jesus advises us to focus on the kingdom of God and his righteousness. God will take care of the rest. He provides food and clothing, house and home and everything we need. Yes, the evil of this world will complicate our lives. But Jesus will be with us until the end of time itself.

St. Paul tells us how we can do this. He told us to pray about everything, thanking God for all his blessings and bringing our requests to him. Being thankful helps us to reset our perspective. Life is not about being a victim, but about receiving the many gifts God gives us. We know that he hears our every prayer, that he loves us and will work everything to serve for our good. Knowing these things brings the peace of God to us. Like soldiers on watch over their camp at night, this peace protects our hearts from despair and focuses our mind on the tasks God has called us to do in this life by his grace.

Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana

©2019-2021 Robert E. Smith. All rights reserved. Permission granted to copy, share and display freely for non-commercial purposes. Direct all other rights and permissions inquiries to cosmithb@gmail.com

One God in Three Persons

Encore Post: “In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” These words are very familiar to us — especially those of us who grew up in a Christian Church. They are ancient, too. Jesus gave them to his apostles just before he ascended into Heaven. (Matthew 28:19) As simple as they are, they contain a riddle — a mystery as theologians call it. The word “name” is singular, but three persons have that name. As we have seen before, this should not surprise us. God is our creator and we are his creatures. Sooner or later, we are not going to understand him. So, Christians have come to the conclusion that we should accept the way God describes himself in the Bible and not try to put it all together when we discover it doesn’t make sense to us.

The first thing we observe is that the Bible is very clear. There is only one God. Here Jews and Muslims agree. But the Scriptures are also clear. At every turn in the New Testament, Jesus is called God and the Holy Spirit is called God. The church from the second century on used the word Trinity to describe it. For Jews and Muslims, this is blasphemy.

So, we believe that God is one, but that three persons are God. With the Bible, reject any view that tries to solve the riddle by saying there are three gods, that one or another are not God or turns god into one being with three states. We are content to marvel at our Creator and love him as he is.

Love

Encore Post: In American culture, love is everywhere. It is a constant theme of movies, TV programs, stories, songs, poetry and even commercials! At Valentine’s Day especially, images of couples planning romantic moments are everywhere. At some point in the dating life of many lovers, men and women obsess over whether they should tell their dates that they love them.

But the English word love is more than that. We love our pets, our favorite food, good weather, our sports teams, our friends, freedom and truth — just about everything. The Greek language of the New Testament uses several words to cover it all. φιλέω (phileo) is the love and affection between friends. ἔρος (Eros) is sexual love that is obsessed with another and is not satisfied until it gets what it wants. ἀγαπάω is a love that sacrifices for the good of the one it loves. (See 1 Corinthians 13) ἀγαπάω is the word the New Testament uses for God’s love and the love God wants us to show to him and our neighbors.

God loved us before he made the world. (Ephesians 1:4-5) He loved us so much that he sacrificed his only Son to save us. (John 3:16-17) Because he first loved us, we love him and want to please him. He commands us to love him and our neighbors. Jesus tells us that the whole of God’s law is to love God and our neighbors as ourselves. (Matthew 22:37-40) In a very real sense, our love is itself God’s gift to us. While our love in this world is not perfect, God’s love for us is perfect. It lasts forever and conquers even death.

Our God, our Help in Ages Past…

Encore Post: The reign of Anne, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, was a peaceful time for Isaac Watts and his fellow Reformed believers. Her Anglican policy of tolerance made her a very popular monarch. When she died, great anxiety spread. It was possible that the Catholic Stewart family would try to claim the throne, even after Lutheran Elector George of Hanover was crowned King George I. Only the passage of time calmed frayed nerves.

Isaac Watts was intent on improving the worship of Reformed congregations by paraphrasing Psalms so that Christians could sing the Psalms from the perspective of faith in Christ Jesus. He cast Psalm 90 as a collect for times of uncertainty. “Our God our Help in Ages Past” reminds us of what God has done for us in the past, especially by the suffering and death of Christ for our salvation, and what he will do for us in the future, when he returns in glory. The middle stanzas contrast the temporary nature of life in this world with the eternity of God, his promises and his love. The final stanza asks that God would guard us now and be our eternal place of rest.

One of the most beloved hymns in English hymnody, the song is popular for the opening of a school year, Remembrance Day in Canada and New Year’s Day in many churches. The tune most associated with it, St. Anne, imitates the tolling of bells as they mark the passage of time.

The original text is as follows:

1 Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

2 Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.

3 Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth receiv’d her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

4 Thy word commands our flesh to dust,
“Return, ye sons of men:”
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

5 A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

6 The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by thy flood,
And lost in following years.

7 Time like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its Sons away;
They fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

8 Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleas’d with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ’tis night.

9 Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

It’s a Good Friday For You

With yesterday we looked at how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, how He humbled himself to the place of servant even though He was the master, and the one who deserved to be served. He served His disciples last night attempting to prepare them for the greater service and humiliation of the very Son of God going to the cross for the sin of the world.

To suffering the Lamb goes. And all this He does willingly out of His great an amazing love for you. No sin too great no sin too small. All sins are dealt with on this day once and for all. The wrath for all the sin of the world is poured out on this one Man, the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Poured out on Him instead of you. And He loves you so much that He would rather take upon Himself the punishment than see you languish under the eternal condemnation of the Law. It’s a Good Friday for you.

Last night we heard how the Lord’s love is continual and perpetual. He loves His own until the end. And today my dear friends in Christ Jesus, this love is made even more manifest for you. Behold the very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the One who takes your sin away. He is the one who pours out his blood for you and for your salvation. God became man for this very day, to serve you in this way. It’s a Good Friday for you.

The author of the sermon letter to the Hebrews speaks of our Lord going to the cross with joy. He saw the joy that would come from his sacrifice on the cross. He saw the joy of your salvation. You and the world being welcomed back into the Father’s embrace. Christ our Lord cries out on the cross, in agony and pain, but he carries it through to the end. Until your salvation is accomplished. Then like he said, he laid down his life on his own accord. He gave up his spirit and said, “It is finished.”

The great high priest, the God Man Jesus came with his body and offered it as the once and for all sacrifice for sins. This He does to fulfill all righteousness and all the words of the prophets. God with us from the womb unto the tomb. He endured it all and did it with joy because He knew what His sacrifice would win: your salvation. It’s a Good Friday for you.

Know His love, feel His embrace. See how He loves His own. How he nurtures and takes care of His bride. He lays down His life. By His stripes we are healed. He drinks the cup put before Him and fills that cup now with His own blood that we might have His life in us. And have it abundantly at that. It’s a Good Friday for you.

The cross that was a barren thing, a couple pieces of dead wood nailed together are now the place where life is given to you freely. It is your tree of life. You have your life because of the Life that hangs on the tree. He pours out His blood, and gives it you. Come and receive your life from His cross. Eat of his flesh and drink of his blood for these you have His love and His life now in you. It’s a Good Friday is for you.

See the Love of God in the Suffering Servant, your Lord Jesus, who set Himself like flint to go to the cross for you and your salvation, loving you unto the end. He has done it. The battle done. And you have life and have it abundantly for his sake.

Look to the cross and rejoice for the One who was long promised to come, has come. He has shown Himself by His self-sacrificial love, and He still showers us with His love and mercy via the preaching of His Word and Administration of His Sacraments. Sing the praise of Him who died upon the cross. And look to the cross for all mercy. Live in its shadow. By that, I mean to say come often to where the gifts of the Christ’s cross are given to you. Come then to the altar and have your eyes be fixed on Jesus on the cross. Baptism and Christ’s Supper only have their power by the event of the cross. By these Sacraments you are brought to the cross, and your eyes oriented on Christ’s sacrifice and love for you. It’s a Good Friday for you.

In the account of St. John 13 from last night, Jesus told His disciples where He was going the disciples could not come at first. He is speaking about the cross. He is speaking about his death. He must confront and battle Satan and death and defeat them for us. And by His death He conquers death once and for all. Death is swallowed up. Death took a bite of the wrong guy for He has power over death. And so now you do not need to fear death but rather look to the cross and our Lord’s passion. The cross takes the terror of death away. For your sins are taken away for the sake of Him who died for you loving you unto the end. It’s a Good Friday for you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

Nicene Creed Article 1

In the first post for this series on the Nicene Creed, I tried to give a very brief sketch of the historical landscape and context out of which the Nicene Creed came. The Church was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and heretical teachings concerning the Trinity were being espoused, particularly, against the Person of the Son. If you are looking at the sheer numbers of the words written for each article, the 2nd article has nearly doubled when compared to the Apostles’ Creed (130 – 71).

So when we compare the first article of Nicene Creed to the Apostles’ Creed there is very few differences. Nothing in the substance has changed, but now in Nicene Creed, the authors took great pains to explain that EVERYTHING, all things visible and even the invisible, were made by God the Father Almighty. If the Apostles’ Creed did not already make it clear saying God the Father Almighty was maker of heaven and earth, the Nicene Creed makes the claim of God being the Creator all visible and invisible air tight.

You also should note the opening phrase, I believe in One God. This takes us all the way back to the words of Deuteronomy 6:4. The Nicene Creed confesses the truth of the Triune Monotheistic God. Another way to put is how the Athanasian Creed says it, “We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.”

In the later Athanasian Creed the first article concerning creation did not even need to be addressed because of how sufficiently the Nicene Creed deals with it. But we must also take a moment and appreciate that the Nicene Creed does not paint itself in a corner to say that God the Father Almighty was the only Person working in creation. In the second article, we confess in line with Scripture that the Son also was active in creation, when we confess “by whom all things were made.” Also in the third article we confess in line with Scripture that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life. Creation then is a Trinitarian act in and of itself. All Three Persons work in concert with one another to create all things visible and invisible.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
St. Peter’s Lutheran Church
La Grange, MO

One Flesh in Two Persons: Marriage

Encore Post: For six days, God had been creating the world. He spoke and light appeared, earth took form, land appeared out of the great sea. The sun, moon and stars shown in the sky. Plants grew on the ground, fish swam in the sea and animals roamed the earth.

Now Father, Son and Holy Spirit conferred and said let us make man just like us. And so he made us – male and female. He planted a garden, came down and formed Adam (His name means “ground, soil” in Hebrew) from the soil and breathed life into him. But something still was not quite right. Adam was alone.

So God brought all the animals to him. He named them all one by one. While they were good, something just was not right. Dogs and Cats just didn’t do it. So God made woman from his own bones. Now at last man was just like God – two persons in one flesh. Adam called her woman — she-man and named her Eve–life, because she would be the mother of all people. God’s creation was finally complete. He had made marriage and the family. This was very good.

This perfect image of God, holy like him and the closest human beings have to understanding the nature of God, was ruined by sin and its consequences. When people make themselves the center of the universe there is no room for a god or another. Now sin tempts us to look everywhere for pleasure than in the very good gifts God has given to us. As we turn our hearts from our beloved and the Beloved, they grown cold and unfeeling.

This is why God condemns adultery, pornography, same sex relationships and acts, pre-marital sex, sexual assault, rape and all other seeking of desire outside of the love of one man and woman, united in marriage for a lifetime. It divides what God himself has joined together and marrs the image he placed in us. It destroys the image of the marriage of Christ to the Church and obscures the work he has done for us.

But when we were lost, unfaithful to God our husband, Jesus came and sought us to be his holy bride, with his own blood he bought us and for our life he died. When he found us, he washed us, cleansed us in baptism, so that he could present us as his radiant bride. One the last day, he will come for us, and bring us to the wedding and the marriage reception that lasts forever.

Adopted as Sons

Encore Post: A child is born in ancient Rome. The baby is carefully cleaned and tenderly wrapped. She is brought to the father of the family (pater familias) and set at his feet. The household watches to see what the father will do. If he picks up the child and says, “this is my son,” the baby will be an heir in the family, even if the mother is a slave. If he turns and walks a way, the child will be set outside in the street, exposed to the fates and not a part of the family. By this and similar legal proceedings, a free Roman could adopt anyone he wishes and grant all the rights and privileges due to his children to that person. In Greek, the word is υἱοθεσία (huiothesia, the placing as a son, the adoption as a son)

Because he loves us, God arranged for us to be adopted as his sons (Ephesians 1:4-5). At just the right time, the Father sent his Son, to be born of the Virgin Mary, to redeem us by his sinless life, suffering, death on the cross and resurrection, so that we might be adopted as his sons in our baptism. He then sent his Holy Spirit into our hearts, so that now we can call him “Abba” — “Daddy.” (Galatians 4:4-7) The Holy Spirit testified to all of this. Now, since we are God’s heirs — heirs with Christ, we share in his sufferings in order to share in his glory. (Romans 8:15-17) We await the final adoption decree, the resurrection of our bodies at the end of time. (Romans 8:23)

Jesus is Lord

Encore Post: Christians are a confessing people. That should not surprise anyone. After all, Jesus told us we would be his witnesses in every part of the world. He directed us to make disciples from every people, going to them, baptizing them and teaching them everything he taught us. (Matthew 28:16-20)

From the very beginning, Christians have spoken together short summaries of what they believed. Several of these are in the New Testament itself. The most important is the sentence, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

The Jewish people did not speak the name of God — Yahweh. Instead, they said, “my Lord.” When Christians confessed that Jesus was Lord, they were implying he is God. When they called Jesus Lord, the were echoing the Christmas angel, who told the shepherds he was “a savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) When Christians call Jesus Lord, they do so by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3) When we confess Jesus as Lord, we do what all people will confess on the Last Day. (Philippians 2:10-11)

As Roman persecutors were to discover, this confession was so precious to Christians, that they would rather die than call anyone else Lord. When called upon to burn incense on an altar dedicated to Caesar as a god, saying Caesar is Lord, they refused. They counted it a blessing to suffer and die as a martyr — a witness for their Lord.

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