Tag: Doctrine of God

Quotes from Church History continued...

JOHN OWEN

Genesis 3
… a revelation was made of a distinct person in the Deity, who in a peculiar manner did manage all the concernments of the church after the entrance of sin. (Works, vol 18, 216)

He by whom all things were made, and by whom all were to be renewed that were to be brought again unto God, did in an especial and glorious manner appear unto our first parents, as he in whom this whole dispensation centred, and unto whom it was committed.  And as, after the promise given, he appeared ‘in human form’ to instruct the Church in the mystery of his future incarnation, and under the name of Angel, to shadow out his office as sent unto it and employed in it by the Father; so here, before the promise, he discovered his distinct glorious person, as the eternal Voice of the Father. (ibid, p220)

Genesis 18
Neither is there any ground for the late exposition of this and the like places, namely, that a created angel representing the person of God doth speak and act in his name, and is called Jehovah; an invention to evade the appearances of the Son of God under the old testament, contrary to the sense of all antiquity, nor is any reason or instance produced to make it good. (ibid, 225)

Genesis 19:24
…in this place it is Moses that speaketh of the Lord, and he had no occasion to repeat ‘The LORD’ were it not to intimate the distinct persons unto whom that name, denoting the nature and self-existence of God, was proper; one whereof then appeared on the earth, the other manifesting his glorious presence in heaven…  There is therefore in this place an appearance of God in human shape, and that of one distinct person in the Godhead, who now represented himself unto Abraham in the form and shape wherein he would dwell amongst men, when of his seed he would be ‘made flesh’.  This was one signal means whereby Abraham saw his day and rejoiced; which Himself lays upon His pre-existence unto His incarnation, and not upon the promise of His coming, John 8:56, 58. (ibid, 225)

Genesis 32:24-30
From what hath been spoken, it is evident that he who appeared unto Jacob, with whom he earnestly wrestled, by tears and supplications was God; and because he was sent as the angel of God, it must be some distinct person in the Deity condescending unto that office; and appearing in the form of a man, he represented his future assumption of our human nature.  And by all this did God instruct the church in the mystery of the person of the Messiah, and who it was that they were to look for in the blessing of the promised Seed. (ibid, 225)

Exodus 3:1-6
He is expressly called an “Angel” Exod. 3:2 – namely, the Angel of the covenant, the great Angel of the presence of God, in whom was the name and nature of God.  And he thus appeared that the Church might know and consider who it was that was to work out their spiritual and eternal salvation, whereof that deliverance which then he would effect was a type and pledge.  Aben Ezra would have the Angel mentioned verse 2, to be another from him who is called ‘God’, verse 6: but the text will not give countenance unto any such distinction, but speaks of one and the same person throughout without any alteration; and this was no other but the Son of God. (ibid, 225)

That the faith of all believers, from the foundation of the world, had a respect unto him [Christ], I shall afterwards demonstrate; and to deny it, is to renounce both the Old Testament and the New. (Christologia, VIII)

From the giving of that promise [Genesis 3:15] the faith of the whole church was fixed on him whom God would send in our nature, to redeem and save them. Other way of acceptance with him there was none provided, none declared, but only by faith in this promise. The design of God in this promise--which was to reveal and propose the only way which in his wisdom and grace he had prepared for the deliverance of mankind from the state of sin and apostasy whereinto they were cast, with the nature of the faith and obedience of the church will not admit of any other way of salvation, but only faith in him who was thus promised to be a saviour. (ibid)

JONATHAN EDWARDS
From ‘A History of the Work of Redemption’

When we read in sacred history what God did, from time to time, towards His Church and people, and how He revealed Himself to them, we are to understand it especially of the Second Person of the Trinity. When we read of God appearing after the fall, in some visible form, we are ordinarily, if not universally, to understand it of the Second Person of the Trinity... John 1:18. He is therefore called the image of the invisible God - Col 1:15 - intimating that though God the Father be invisible, yet Christ is His image or representation, by which He is seen.

It is now revealed to Abraham, not only that Christ should come; but that he should be his seed; and promised, that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him.

Thus you see how much more fully the covenant of grace was revealed and confirmed in Abraham’s time than ever it had been before; by means of which Abraham seems to have had a clear view of Christ, the great Redeemer, and the future things that were to be accomplished by him.

The main subjects of these songs were the glorious things of the gospel; as is evident by the interpretation that is often put upon them in the New Testament: for there is no one book of the Old Testament that is so often quoted in the New, as the book of Psalms. … here Christ is spoken of by his ancestor David abundantly, in multitudes of songs, speaking of his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, his satisfaction, intercession; his prophetical, kingly, and priestly office; his glorious benefits in this life and that which is to come; his union with the church, and the blessedness of the church in him; the calling of the Gentiles and the future glory of the church near the end of the world, and Christ’s coming to the final judgment.  All these things, and many more, concerning Christ and his redemption, are abundantly spoken of in the book of Psalms.

Next post...

Quotes from Church History continued...

MARTIN LUTHER

All the promises of God lead back to the first promise concerning Christ of Genesis 3:15.  The faith of the fathers in the Old Testament era, and our faith in the New Testament are one and the same faith in Christ Jesus…  The faith of the fathers was directed at Christ…  Time does not change the object of true faith, or the Holy Spirit.  There has always been and always will be one mind, one impression, one faith concerning Christ among true believers whether they live in times past, now, or in times to come. (Luther’s Commentary, Gal 3:6-7)

JOHN CALVIN

John Calvin’s three essentials to be borne in mind when reading the OT:

“First, we hold that earthly prosperity and happiness did not constitute the goal set before the Jews to which they were to aspire... Secondly, the covenant by which they were bound to the Lord was supported, not by their own merits, but solely by the mercy of the God who called them.  Thirdly, they had and knew Christ as Mediator, through whom they were joined to God and were to share in His promises.” (II.10.2).

“Holy men of old knew God only by beholding Him in His Son as in a mirror.  When I say this, I mean that God has never manifested Himself to men in any other way than through the Son, that is, His sole wisdom, light and truth.  From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others drank all that they had of heavenly teaching.  From the same fountain, all the prophets have also drawn every heavenly oracle that they have given forth. (IV.8.5)

For Christ not only speaks of his own age, but comprehends all ages when he says: ‘This is eternal life, to know the Father to be the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent’ [John 17:3]… From this it follows that no worship has ever pleased God except that which looked to Christ. (II.6.1)

Even the Old Covenant declared that there is no faith in the gracious God apart from the Mediator…  The law plainly and openly taught believers to seek salvation nowhere else than in the atonement that Christ alone carries out.  I am only saying that the blessed and happy state of the church always had its foundation in the person of Christ…  So, then, the original adoption of the chosen people depended upon the Mediator’s grace.  Even if in Moses’ writings this was not yet expressed in clear words, still it sufficiently appears that it was commonly known to all the godly.  For before a king had been established over the people, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, describing the happiness of the godly, already says in her song: “God will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his Messiah” [1 Samuel 2:10]…  Therefore David proclaims: “Jehovah is the strength of his people, the saving power of his Christ” [Psalm 28:8]… From this it is now clear enough that, since God cannot without the Mediator be propitious towards the human race, under the law Christ was always set before the holy fathers as the end [objectum] to which they should direct their faith.(II.6.2)

The hope of all the godly has ever reposed in Christ alone.(II.6.3)

Faith in God is faith in Christ.  God willed that the Jews should be so instructed by these prophecies that they might turn their eyes directly to Christ in order to seek deliverance…  apart from Christ the saving knowledge of God does not stand.  From the beginning of the world he had consequently been set before all the elect that they should look upon him and put their trust in him…  God is comprehended in Christ alone… So today the Turks, although they proclaim at the top of their lungs that the Creator of heaven and earth is God, still, while repudiating Christ, substitute an idol in place of the true God. (II.6.4)

The fathers, when they wished to behold God, always turned their eyes to Christ.  I mean not only that they beheld God in his eternal Logos [sermone], but also they attended with their whole mind and the whole affection of their heart to the promised manifestation of Christ. (Commentary, John 1:18)

There is no other way in which God can be known but through Christ, who is the image and pattern of his substance…  Although Jews, Turks, and other infidels boast that they worship God the Creator of heaven and earth, yet they worship an imaginary God: however obstinate they may be, they follow vague and uncertain opinions instead of truth; they grope in the dark and worship their own imagination instead of God. In short, outside of Christ, all religion is deceitful and transitory and every kind of worship ought to be abhorred and condemned. (Commentary, Isaiah 25:9)

Next post - Quotes from John Owen and Jonathan Edwards...

.

This is part of a series on the consciously Messianic faith of the OT.

Here are quotations OT from some of the heavy-weights in church history.  In this post we'll look at Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.  Next post we'll look at Luther and Calvin, then finally John Owen and Jonathan Edwards.  I've been very selective, not wanting these posts to go on too long.  There are more at my site.  And check out Dev's collection of Justin quotes here.

JUSTIN MARTYR

Jesus, as we have already shown, while He was with them, said, “No one knoweth the Father, but the Son; nor the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Son will reveal Him.” The Jews, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the universe who spake to Moses, though He who spake to him was indeed the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. And of old He appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin, according to the counsel of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe on Him, He endured both to be set at nought and to suffer, that by dying and rising again He might conquer death.
(First Apology, chapter LXIII)

And where it has been said, ‘O God, give Thy judgment to the king,’ since Solomon was king, you say that the Psalm refers to him, although the words of the Psalm expressly proclaim that reference is made to the everlasting King, i.e., to Christ. For Christ is King, and Priest, and God, and Lord, and Angel, and Man, and Captain, and Stone, and a Son born, and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting kingdom: so I prove from all the Scriptures (i.e. the OT). (Dialogue with Trypho XXXIV)

IRENAEUS

The Holy Ghost, Throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, Made Mention of No Other God or Lord, Save Him Who is the True God. Therefore neither would the Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the apostles, have ever named as God, definitely and absolutely, him who was not God, unless he were truly God; nor would they have named any one in his own person Lord, except God the Father ruling over all, and His Son who has received dominion from His Father over all creation, as this passage has it: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” Here the [Scripture] represents to us the Father addressing the Son; He who gave Him the inheritance of the heathen, and subjected to Him all His enemies. Since, therefore, the Father is truly Lord, and the Son truly Lord, the Holy Spirit has fitly designated them by the title of Lord. And again, referring to the destruction of the Sodomites, the Scripture says, “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.” For it here points out that the Son, who had also been talking with Abraham, had received power to judge the Sodomites for their wickedness.  (Against All Heresies, III.6.1)

With regard to Christ, the law and the prophets and the evangelists have proclaimed that He was born of a virgin, that He suffered upon a beam of wood, and that He appeared from the dead; that He also ascended to the heavens, and was glorified by the Father, and is the Eternal King; that He is the perfect Intelligence, the Word of God, who was begotten before the light; that He was the Founder of the universe, along with it (light), and the Maker of man; that He is All in all: Patriarch among the patriarchs; Law in the laws; Chief Priest among priests; Ruler among kings; the Prophet among prophets; the Angel among angels; the Man among men; Son in the Father; God in God; King to all eternity. For it is He who sailed [in the ark] along with Noah, and who guided Abraham; who was bound along with Isaac, and was a Wanderer with Jacob; the Shepherd of those who are saved, and the Bridegroom of the Church; the Chief also of the cherubim, the Prince of the angelic powers; God of God; Son of the Father; Jesus Christ; King for ever and ever. Amen. (Fragment LIII)

Next post - Quotes from Luther and Calvin...

.

Ok, here are 10 11 reasons this matters.  (Dev's reminded me of an absolutely crucial one). I'm not going to spend very long elucidating any of them.  I'm sure they'll become rants of their own in future posts:

Why it's important to see the Hebrew Scriptures as already and inherently a messianically focussed trinitarian revelation:

1. To make sense of the OT text.  I'm not sure how many passages I've quoted in the last 7 posts, maybe 40?  More?  I really don't think I've been monkeying around with the texts, but I do think that these passages get a serious stream-roller treatment when people read them as uni-Personal passages. Let's release ourselves from a basically unitarian hermeneutic of the OT because when you take these texts seriously they burst such arbitrary bonds
2. Identifying Christ in Scripture is pretty fundamental!  To fail to correctly identify Christ in Scripture is a spiritual error, and a serious one at that.
3. Christ is not simply the best Word of God.  He is not the ultimate revelation of God or the seal of a series of improving revelations of God.  He is the one Word and Wisdom and Image and Way and Truth of God.  The OT is a fundamental test case about whether we believe this, or whether Christ is just the 'cherry on the cake.'
4. We refocus on the main point of the incarnation - not new information but salvation!
5. The Old and New Testaments really belong together.  And they don't belong together simply because both are revelations of "grace".  I hope to post on this in the future but proclaiming "grace alone" without such grace being the natural outcome of "Christ alone" empties grace of its gospel character.
6. What is Faith?  Key question. If we are to emulate father Abraham's faith are we simply to emulate the fact that he was trusting?  Isn't the Object of faith the decisive issue? We stand shoulder to shoulder with Abraham, Moses and Isaiah not because we are all believers per se but believers in the Christ.
7. Jewish evangelism!  We do not tell the Jew that they’re basically right about their interpretation of the Scriptures but please allow us to add a meaning Moses had no idea about.  If they believed Moses they'd believe in Jesus for he wrote about Jesus.
8. Other religions.  Let us block off entirely the claim that other religions can know God apart from Christ.  It's not unusual in debates on that issue for people to claim "Of course it's possible to know God apart from Christ - OT Israel was in just that position."  No they weren't!  There never has been a revelation of God apart from Christ.
9. The Trinity really is the foundational truth about God.  It is not a nuance to be added to a simple doctrine of the one God as taught by Moses and the Prophets.  All revelation of God has always been trinitarian.
10. Personal distinctions in the Trinity go all the way down. By this I mean that Christ's difference to the Father is not simply a function of the incarnation.  Often times people see the differences between Jesus and His Father as only the result of Jesus having taken flesh.  And it is a very simple step from there to a Nestorianism that says the human nature of the Son is separate from the divine nature.  But no, prior to incarnation the Sent One from the LORD is a distinct Person who nonetheless has the Father's Name dwelling in Him (Exodus 23:21).  It has always been ok for the Divine Servant to be distinct from the LORD, we don't need to assign all differences we see in Jesus to His human nature.
11. Here's a crucial one from Dev: "Refocusing Scripture on Jesus rather than on self. Therefore living for Him and not using Him to get on with my own life."  If the law is about you - what kind of Christian life will you lead?  If Psalm 15 is about you, how will you cope?  If David slaying Goliath is a type of your battles - what's the moral?  But if the law describes Christ and His righteousness... If Psalm 15 is about Him... If David is Christ defeating the head of the house of the wicked and winning victory for the people of God... then we are put in our right place.  We confess "I am not the righteous one described in the law, but a sinner."  "I am not the Blameless One, but I have taken refuge in Him."  "I am not the victorious King, but He has won my victory for me."  (I may have misconstrued Dev's point horribly - sorry about that, but that's where my rant has led me.)

There are others but 10 11 is a nice round number.  I'm sure others can add more.  What say you?

Next post...

.

Might be worth a little mini-post on Psalms.

It would be tempting to highlight "particularly Messianic" Psalms and say "There, see, Jesus is spoken of here and there in the psalter."  But I'm not sure that's right.  I once told a friend I was helping preach through an 8 week series called "Jesus in the Psalms".  He said "Right, so you'll get through Psalms 1-8, when are you going to do the other 142??"  I was chastened!  That's absolutely right.  It's not like Messianic Psalms form a sub-division of the psalter: like there's imprecatory Psalms, Psalms of lament and messianic Psalms.  You'd never think of having the 'God Psalms' as a sub-category! Christ is not a sub-category of Christian revelation or experience.

And that's the real danger with all of these posts I've been writing.  I've been quoting specific passages in the OT to show that messianically-focussed trinitarian faith is plainly taught there.  But I don't want to give the impression that it's only in those passages.  Rather those passages are meant to show us the dynamics that are inherent to the whole of the Scriptures.

Think of the doctine of sola fide (faith alone) for instance.  There are a number of passages that we can readily turn up to demonstrate its truth.  And a paper on sola fide will spend time going through those specific passages, but not so as to prove that sola fide holds in those cases alone.  We look to the specific passages to show that this pattern holds for all God's dealings with man.  And it holds even for those parts of the Scripture which opponents may erroneously claim refutes it.  It's like this with solus Christus (Christ alone).  We look at the specifics to demonstrate a divine dynamic which holds for all Scripture.

So as we think about Christ in the Psalms we're not going to pick out messianic mentions here and there.  Instead we're going to look at Psalms 1 and 2 and see how these model for us what to expect in the rest of the Psalter.

Psalms 1 and 2 are often called the gateway to the Psalms.  They belong together for many reasons not least the "blessed"s at the beginning and end.  Just as with the Sermon on the Mount, the "blessed"s tell us exactly who is in on what's about to be discussed.  In the Sermon on the Mount, the "blessed"s tell us who's in the kingdom which Jesus describes.  In the Psalter, Psalms 1 and 2 tell us who's in on the worship of the living God.  And who is the blessed man??

Well He is an 'ish - a representative man.  In fact He is the Man.  This is an audacious claim.  (I rarely even claim to be a man!)  Verse 2 says He is a night-and-day Bible-meditator, which makes Him a king (cf Deut 17:18-20; Josh 1:8).  Verse 3, He is also like a tree (think 'Branch' or 'Root' or 'Vine' - kings are described like this).  Not only this but He can make others become prosperous (causative hiphil stem).

This one Man, this definitive Man, is contrasted in v4 to the many wicked. The Psalm does not begin by comparing righteous people to wicked people but rather The Righteous Man is contrasted with the wicked masses.  Then (presumably through the Man/Tree-of-Life causing many others to prosper like Him) we hear about other righteous ones (v5-6).

When we turn to Psalm 2 we see the Man given more names.  The LORD's King (v6) is here called "Anointed One" (Messiah, v2), and "Son" (v7).  Though He is raged against, He will be poured out on Zion (v6) and publicly vindicated by the Father (v7) before claiming universal rule. (v8-9)  All must love and take refuge in Him - both Judge and Saviour. (v10-12)

Here is the gateway to the Psalms.  We ought not to rush into the Psalter without stopping here and asking who is welcome in the Psalter.  And the answer is: "Blessed is the Man... and Blessed are all who take refuge in Him."  We must be rightly related to Christ to be welcome in the worship of the living God.  He, supremely, is the Scripture-meditating, righteous, flourishing, tree-of-life-like Worshipper.  But as Calvin comments on Psalm 22:22, He also is the heavenly choir-master who tunes our hearts to sing God's praises.

Now what implications does this have for how we read the rest of the Psalter?  Well one big help we have received in this, the gateway, is that we've been introduced to the four main characters in the Psalms.  Here we have:

(1)   the LORD;

(2)   the Christ, the Blessed Man;

(3)   The Righteous who take refuge in Him; and

(4)   The Wicked who oppose Him.

All the Psalms are about the interaction of these four groups.  In some, like Psalm 1, the Blessed Man is shown before the LORD and then the righteous and the wicked are contrasted.  In some, like Psalm 2, the righteous complain to the LORD about the wicked and then He reminds them about the Blessed Man, Christ.  In some we have simply the words of Christ.  In others we have the words of the LORD to Christ.  In some we simply have the words of sinners like us taking refuge in Him.  But all of the Psalms are about the inter-relation of these four groups.  And they all work together to speak to us of Christ. Let’s be alert to that as we read the Psalms, they are related to Christ.

Here's a sermon manuscript of mine on Psalms 1 and 2

And here's Mike Reeves on Psalm 1 and on Psalm 15 and on Psalms in general- brilliant stuff!

Next post I'll get down to the implications of all this.... (promises, promises...)

Next post...

.