Christian Holiness Journal | Page 17 | a record of struggle and victory to know the mind of Christ

One God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

September 6, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

I have received, in the past few weeks, several emails and phone messages asking exactly what we believe at Christian Holiness Daily. So we have decided to spend the next two weeks examining exactly what we believe. Yesterday I gave an overview of eight significant doctrines that, put together, constitute our holiness doctrine. Today we take a closer look at the first of those – we believe in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In Old Testament Judaism there is no commandment more important than these: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” and “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” There is but one true God, Yahweh. He is one. Which begs the question, if He is one, what do Christians mean when they speak of the Trinity.

Person of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

First, the word Trinity is not found anywhere in the Bible, but the concept of the Trinity is found throughout Scripture. In Genesis 1, we see the Spirit of God move upon the waters. Later, David pleas with God not to take His Holy Spirit from him (Psalms 51:11-13). Isaiah writes in 63:10 that the Nation of Israel grieved the Holy Spirit and made God their enemy. In 48:16, Isaiah announces that he is endowed with the Holy Spirit.

The Person of Jesus in the Old Testament

We see God appear as a man to Abraham. This, according to many theologians, is a a theophany, pre-incarnation visit of Jesus on earth. Psalms 33:4-7 (ESV) personifies the Word of God:

For the word of the Lord is upright,

and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;

he puts the deeps in storehouses.

The Apostle John makes it clear that the Word is Jesus.

Indeed, when three men who appear to Abraham, one of them is Jesus. The visit is considered by many as a foreshadowing of the entire Trinity.

Some believe that passages where the name of the Lord is repeated three times, like Numbers 6:24-26, is an indication of the Trinity.

The Trinity in Second Temple Judaism?

With so much evidence of the Trinity to be found in the Old Testament, why was there no theology of a Trinity to be found in Judaism? In fact, according to Dr. Michael Heiser, by the Second Temple Period, many Jews believed that Yahweh was actually Two in One, Yahweh Above and Yahweh Below, or God in Heaven and God who appears in the form of man. There was, apparently, no thought given to the Spirit of God as a distinct person.

The Trinity in the New Testament

In the New Testament, we see the Trinity manifested at the baptism of Jesus. Jesus, fully God and fully man, is in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit descends on Him like a dove. The Father’s voice is heard to say, “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.”

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, we read the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Not only does Jesus name all three members of the Trinity here, but He implies the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 1:18, Christ calls Himself the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End.

Again, John, who earlier named Jesus as the Word of God, teaches (in 1 John 5:6-10) about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here are His words:

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony.

John, however, was not the only apostle to develop the idea of the Trinity. Paul takes it for granted as he closes 2 Corinthians (13:14).

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

How May Three be One?

It is difficult to understand how three may be one. A pastor I met recently believes that there are not 3 persons in one, rather he believes that the one God shows Himself in three distinct ways. This pastor – and the denomination to which he belongs – is in the minority of Christians. Most Christians believe that God is both three distinct people in one, all at the same time.

Yet, if that be true, how are we, mere humans, supposed to understand it? I don’t know that we are. Maybe the Trinity is a faith thing. As a child, I fully accepted the various illustrations of the Trinity, as three sides of a triangle, if the lobes of a leaf of clover, as – to paraphrase C.S. Lewis – faces on a cube, yet none of them are adequate to explain the profound beauty and complexity of our God and the way in which He had chosen to reveal Himself to His creation.

As an adult and a prolific reader, I can better relate to the Trinity as I can to the imaginative alien creations of science fiction novelists, but that too leaves me with inadequate understanding. That, though, may be a little sacrilegious.

So it is by faith that we – or I – accept that God is three in one, knowing that it is through faith in Jesus Christ, Who proclaimed that He and the Father are One, that we find salvation. Through the mercy of God we are saved and one day, when we see Him gave to face, we may understand who God is.

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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.

What We Believe

September 5, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

There is in the Western World a great falling away of Christians. Fewer people claim to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. At the same time, there is a rise in spiritualism. It is, it seems, easier to find people who believe that man was planted on this earth by space aliens than created by God. It is easier to find believers in ghosts haunting an old building than someone who believes in a biblical hell. It is easier to find someone who believes that all well-intentioned religions lead to eternal life than it is to find someone who believes that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. So, we begin a 10-part series called, What We Believe on Christian Holiness Daily.

We believe in one God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe in divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures as found in their original form in the Old and New Testaments and that they contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.
We believe that man is born with a fallen nature and is, therefore, inclined to evil and that continually.
We believe that the final impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.
We believe that Christ’s atonement for sin is universal and freely given to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Those who are saved are free from condemnation and dominion of sin and death.
We believe that believers are to be sanctified wholly subsequent to salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ.
We believe the Holy Spirit bears witness to justification by faith and to the sanctification of believers.
We believe in the return of our Lord, the resurrection of the dead, final judgement, hell, a new heaven and new earth.

Each of these core beliefs stand on their own two feet with a foundation of Scripture. And we will, over the next couple weeks, discuss each of them in some detail on Christian Holiness Daily.

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To Be Like Jesus

September 3, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

When a person accepts Christ as Savior and Lord they can expect that He will desire to live intimately with them, taking up residence in the heart, communicating and communing with every minute of the day. We are speaking of the things new believers can expect on Christian Holiness Daily.

Genesis takes a hard rap these days, as does much of the Old Testament. Much of it is perceived as mythology and a great deal is considered retelling of older tales. Few in this post-truth world consider Genesis as inspired by God. I do.

Genesis tells us that God created humans in His own image (Genesis 1:26-28). It tells us that we were given dominion over all animals, that we were to have dominion over the world. God created us to be His imagers. In other words, God created man so that we could represent Him, rule for Him, rule with Him, and model His behavior. We were not to be Gods; we were to be like God.

From the fall of mankind to the birth of Christ one rarely sees a human who is like God, for until Jesus was born, no one had been perfect. That is not to say that no one modeled a bit of His behavior or acted somewhat like God. Abraham was found worthy of fathering God’s children, but was hardly God-like. Isaiah spoke to and for God. Elijah and Elisha performed miraculous deeds through the power of God. David sought the heart of God. Moses, though, may be the only man short of Christ who best imaged God, but even he fell far short of God’s glory.

When Moses stretched out his hands, God moved, and when his hands rested, so did God. Moses was so like God they some readers – unfamiliar with the Bible or unfamiliar with theology – may be left wondering if God worked through Moses or if Mode worked through God.

Now, the term imager may be unfamiliar to many of you. I don’t know who coined the term but Dr. Michael Heiser does a great job explaining it in his book, The Unseen Realm. An imager of God is one who carries out the mission of “divine image-bearing.”

This commission, he continues, is given to men and women. It is what makes us unique from other created beings. There is something about us that makes us like God. It is not an incremental likeness; it was bestowed upon us at creation.

When Man fell in the Garden of Eden, he lost much of what it meant to carry the image of God. He lost all that was good and pure and holy. He lost life eternal. We lost the place of glory of ruling with Him.

Once we accept Jesus as our Savior part of what was lost is restored, in that God lives within our heart and works through us.

Here is an old hymn that many of you may remember.

Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,

Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. – Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897.

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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.