BLOG 100! GOD AND SIN
Our God is a self-revealing God. When we say that, we mean that all we can know about him is what he reveals to us. We also understand that he desires to reveal himself to us because he gains glory by doing so. God is so great that he is beyond human comprehension. We cannot know all there is to know about God. Thus, theologians frequently use the word inscrutable to describe God. We cannot find out things about God on our own and with our own strength. He must reveal what he wants us to understand about him.However, we should be careful about saying too easily, “That is beyond our understanding. We just can’t understand God!” The Bible reveals things to us about God that make us uncomfortable and we seek to avoid the discomfort by running to the “God is inscrutable” comments. I have encountered these situations many, many times.
Recently, we were in a Bible study and we stumbled into the problem of evil. Now that’s a subject I usually like to avoid at all costs. It is difficult! It is complex! It does bring about a level of discomfort. The questions about the problem of evil set our skin crawling. “Is God sovereign over sin?” “Does God ordain sin or just allow it?” “Is there a difference between God knowing we are going to sin and God’s will?” “Did God plan for Adam to sin?” Whew! Discomfort is flashing all over my computer screen!
Genesis 45 and the story of Joseph and his brothers. When all is said and done and Joseph reveals himself to his brothers he says, Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. (Genesis 45:5, 7, 8)
Joseph understands that what his brothers did to him was God’s plan for saving lives and preserving a remnant. The brothers did not send him to Egypt. God did! Selling Joseph into slavery was part of God’s plan! Putting Joseph into Egypt was God’s will!
Did the brothers sin against Joseph? Yes, without a doubt. Are they personally responsible for their sin? Yes. Does God hate sin? Yes. Did God plan for the brothers to sin against Joseph and against him in order to bring about his own glory? It sure looks that way! Does that mean God sinned or forced the brothers to sin? Absolutely not.
I come to this conclusion: God ordains the sin of men in order to bring glory to himself. (Don’t forget that God ordained the sin of those who crucified Jesus! Acts 4:27, 28) At the same time, God remains perfectly holy. Men are still held accountable for their sin. We don’t have to run to “inscrutable.” These things are all clearly taught in the Bible as I read it.
Now, how God manages his sovereignty and our responsibility does seem inscrutable to me!
posted by Shiloh Guy @ Saturday, January 24, 2009
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THE UNITY OF GOD
"The glory that you gave me, I have given, to be one, as we are one. I in them, and you in me to be perfect in Unity, for the world to get from you sent me, and that you loved them as I too have loved you "(John 17,22-23)
Unity is one of the most valuable and beautiful ideas which are highlighted in the Scriptures. Appears implicit in the moment of creation when God begins to order selection, beauty, diversity, and life to things. Because the creation reflects the Unity of God.
Even the participation of the Triune God reflected Unit, when God uses the plural word "make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gn.1, 26). But the Unity of God is the one element that permeates so also in the man that he is "image of God" (Gn.1, 27). That is, does that image fit the man to be in unity with God, that God speaks to this subject and to God.
But God added a second unit in the form of a man and a bookshop in this loneliness. God created women to be both close to varon "one flesh" (Gn.2, 24). In this way there was a paradise in the perfect unity of man with God and of man with his wife (his neighbor).
Perhaps for this reason it is emphasized that the Lord Jesus as the great commandment to love God and love of neighbor (Matthew 22,36-40). The tragedy begins when these two types of unit were desecrated following the fall of man in sin. And because of sin by the idea of "unity" turns off the conscience of man. From here, the history of humanity is darkened in a series of events that make the man on a destroyer of all forms of unity. Despite the darkness that gripped humanity, God irradio again the idea of unity in some people such as Noah, Moses, Josue, David, Elias, and so on. However, obscurantism prevalecia more in the heart of man. But God had already devised a way in which the unit is made permanent, and did so with the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in human history. So that the Lord Jesus becomes an example of "Unity incarnate," the example of the true man of God united in perfect shape. Jesus is the light of unity that could remove the humanity from the darkness. But as the Unity of God aims to link back to men with their Creator, the unit has been, is and always will be the subject of relentless attack spiritual and earthly forces that oppose it. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered these attacks. His death apparently seems to be the triumph of the opposing forces on the Unity of God, but the resurrection of the Lord Jesus speaks more to the defeat of these forces and the resurrection of the Unit. From here the Unity of God begins to take effect on the fragile minds of men guided by the Holy Spirit, and takes its group with the appearance of the Church of Christ. Finally, the apocalypse describes the ultimate triumph of the Unity of God over all the opposing forces, and the exaltation of that unit that has always existed in eternity: God and the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). It also presents the final work of God on the conscience of man to forge unity in the idea of permanently improved over humanity (the sons of God).
No doubt that anything exists, the unit is the most glorious God who has witnessed the man because the unit is not only an idea but an attribute of God and that He would like to share with their sons.
I don't know Pastor Luis Delgado and he doesn't know me. He is a pastor in Lima, Peru. He did not comment on my post. Rather, he put up one of his own posts from his own blog. I suspect he was fishing and found me.
So I went to look at his blog and I would recommend any readers of The Shiloh Guy to do the same for several reasons.
It is interesting to see what people from other countries think of the United States. Luis obviously has a rather negative view of our country and our churches. He is certain that God is punishing the arrogance of the American church and states it very clearly.
It is also interesting to see how culture tends to effect the interpretation of scripture. You can see from Luis' perspective how he reads it differently from us.
His comments on unity are thought provoking. The church is one. We know that. We have enough trouble trying to become one with one another here in the USA; how will we ever become one with churches in Peru and around the world? We have a lot of work to do to break down the walls of separation within the kingdom of God!
Go ahead! Check out Luis' blog! It's a great transcultural experience and may get you thinking about things you've not considered before. I'll be going back there again, to be sure!
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