Tag: holy spirit

The Holy Spirit: The Word and Wisdom of God

I believe the holy Spirit is the Word and truth of God which is for us the regenerative presence and Wisdom of Yahweh God, the Father.

Core of the Bible podcast #108 – The Holy Spirit: The Word and Wisdom of God

In today’s episode, we are continuing our doctrinal topics on the nature of God and I’ll be discussing my views of the Holy Spirit; who he is and what he does. To be honest, I think in our modern reading of Scripture we make this a more difficult topic than it needs to be. It really isn’t a  difficult or mystical thing to understand the role of the Spirit of God. Since the Father is God and he is holy and he is spirit, I believe that the holy Spirit of Scripture is the very Spirit of Yahweh, God.

John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

God’s Spirit is his creative and life-giving presence in this world.

Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

The Spirit of God is life itself; without life and without God’s Spirit, nothing would exist.

Genesis 2:7 Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Job 34:14-15 “If He should determine to do so, If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath, All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.”

I believe God’s Word is a manifestation of his Spirit.

John 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God.

The Word of God has been linked to the Wisdom of God, personified in the Proverbs and also within the ancient near Eastern writings of the Apocrypha. Just as your words are an outward manifestation of your inner thoughts and ideas, so is God’s Word for him. When he speaks, it is his Spirit that has been symbolically personified as the creative and guiding wisdom of the universe. A good example of this type of literature device is represented in the eighth chapter of Proverbs, where this personified Wisdom is foundational to all that exists and underlies the very life of God himself.

Proverbs 8:35 – “For the one who finds me [Wisdom] finds life and obtains favor from Yahweh…”

This same creative aspect of God’s Word is also represented in the Psalms:

Psalm 33:8-9 – Let the whole earth fear Yahweh; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.  For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.

Throughout the Bible, we also see how God’s will and purpose is made known by his Word through his prophets.

Ezekiel 11:5 – Then the Spirit of Yahweh fell upon me, and He said to me, “Say, ‘Thus says Yahweh…'”

2 Samuel 23:1-2 – Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, The man who was raised on high declares, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel, “The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.

2 Peter 1:20-21 – But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

God’s Word is represented as truth.

Psalm 119:160 – The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.

John 17:17 – “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

I believe the holy Spirit is the Word and truth of God which is for us the regenerative presence and Wisdom of Yahweh God, the Father. He reveals to individuals the true understanding of his spoken and written Word, setting them apart for his purpose and will, and motivating faithful actions of believers. Through his Spirit and Word of truth, God convicts of sin, regenerates individuals causing them to be born again or from above, and sets them apart from the world for his purpose. 

1 Peter 1:23 – for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 – For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe.

Through his Spirit, God also attests to the truth of his word and validates the authority of his messengers. Through the consistency of the witness of the Spirit of God, along with our conscience and reasoning, we are enabled to discern truth from falsehood.

Romans 8:16: – “The Spirit itself [i.e, the truth of God], bears witness together with our spirit [our own reasoning] that we are children of God;”

As God continually acts through his Spirit and Word, we are transformed into children of God and the spiritual image of Yeshua, empowered to become effective witnesses to Yeshua and the gospel message of the Kingdom, filling our hearts with love for all men, and moving us to practice godliness.

Timeline of God’s holy Spirit

The workings of the Spirit of God encompass a past, present, and future aspect as recorded from the perspective of the writers of the Scriptures. It is important for us to recognize this internal timeline of the Bible to correctly understand the ongoing influence of God’s holy Spirit today.

The very beginning of the Bible relates how God, through his Spirit, has always been present in the workings of this world.

Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

In the past God provided his Spirit for specific individuals and purposes.

Numbers 11:14, 16-17 [Moses speaking] “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. … Yahweh therefore said to Moses, “Gather for Me seventy men from the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their officers and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. “Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit which is upon you [Moses], and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone.

Judges 6:34 So the Spirit of Yahweh came upon Gideon; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him.

1 Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon David from that day forward…

2 Chronicles 20:14 Then in the midst of the assembly the Spirit of Yahweh came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah…

Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of Yahweh GOD is upon me, Because Yahweh has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners…

2 Peter 1:21: For not, by will of man, was prophecy brought in, at any time, but, as, by Holy Spirit, they were borne along, men spoke from God.”

Throughout Israel’s troubled history, the Spirit was also prophesied to be provided more abundantly at some future point.

Ezekiel 36:24-27 “For I will take you [Israel] from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Joel 2:28-29 “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

In just a moment, we will review the work of God’s Spirit as our timeline moves into the era of the New Testament writings, and the culmination of all that God was preparing to do among his people.

Into the New Testament writings

From the opening pages of the New Testament era, we see how the Spirit of God was intimately intertwined within the life and ministry of Yeshua. The prophecies of the pouring out of the Spirit of God spoken about by the prophets hundreds of years earlier were to begin with the miraculous event of the birth of the Messiah, the Anointed One of God.

Matthew 1:18-21 – The birth of Yeshua Messiah came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.  But after he had considered these things, an angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. “She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua, because he will save his people from their sins.”

At the beginning of the public ministry of Yeshua, John the baptizer relates the confirmation of Yeshua’s anointing with the Spirit of God:

John 1:32-34 – And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him. “I didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending and resting on ​– ​he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

It was this anointing, or immersion, into the Spirit of God that provided Yeshua with the title “Christ” or “Messiah,” the Anointed One. Everything Yeshua taught and did was provided through his anointing by the Spirit of God. As we saw in our last discussion of Yeshua as the Messiah, the Bible clearly outlines how Yeshua’s teaching and works were accomplished by the Spirit of God working through him.

Acts 2:22 – “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Yeshua of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know.

Acts 10:37-38 – “You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached: how God anointed Yeshua of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

Yeshua himself claimed that the things he taught and the works he did was because of the power of Yahweh God, the Father, working through him:

John 12:49 – For I have not spoken from my own authority, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak.

John 14:10 – “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works.

Returning to the prophecies of Ezekiel and Joel, in the teachings of Yeshua, the “pouring out” of the Spirit, or the enabling and regenerative power of God, was very close and about to take place.

John 7:38-39 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.’

John 15:26-27 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Within six weeks of the death and resurrection of Messiah, the Bible records that the pouring out of the Spirit occurred at that time.

Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost [Shavuot, or Weeks] had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues [languages], as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

The apostles recognized that this event was the confirmed fulfillment of that past prophecy of Joel.

Acts 2:14-17 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…'” 

This was also the fulfillment of “the promise:”

Luke 24:49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Acts 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

Through the rest of the New Testament writings up until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the writers spoke of the holy Spirit being collectively present with believers at that time.

Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 3:4-5  By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

Further, this pouring out of the Spirit collectively provided for many powerful workings of God throughout the body of believers as confirming signs to the nation of Israel that Yeshua was the “prophet who was to come” whom Moses had spoken of. The apostle Paul called these “gifts” of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:4-11 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

These “gifts of the Spirit” were specifically given by God for the validation and rapid spreading of God’s Word and truth in those days.

Acts 8:5-6, 12-13 – Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Messiah to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs [attesting miracles] which he was performing. … But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Yeshua Messiah, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 – and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, the inspired records had fulfilled their purpose and ceased being written, having completed the story of God’s work among his people, Israel. This has been demonstrated historically in that no new scripture has been written since that first century generation two thousand years ago.

Likewise, the miraculous signs were provided as demonstrations primarily for non-believingIsrael. These signs testified to the truth of the Word of God through the apostles, that Israel’s promised Messiah had come, and that God’s Kingdom was being implemented within their generation. With the fulfillment of all things in the destruction of Jerusalem, the miraculous sign gifts were completed in that generation, the last days of the nation of Israel.

In his famous treatise on the supremacy of love, the apostle Paul spoke of how there would be a time where miraculous spiritual gifts would no longer be necessary, because the love of God would rise to prominence as the Kingdom was to become established.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10, 13 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; and whenever that which is perfect [completeness] may come, then that which is in part shall become entirely idle…Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love ​– ​but the greatest of these is love.

The fullness of the Kingdom of God, represented by the prophetic New Jerusalem, would be a Kingdom based on the supremacy of this love that Paul spoke of. This Kingdom could only become a reality through the destruction of its earthly and corrupt counterpart in that generation. I believe the New Jerusalem is “that which is perfect,” spoken of by the apostle Paul. It was a New Jerusalem, since the Old Jerusalem, in bondage to its traditions and idolatry, had become worthless and dead and was therefore destroyed. The new Kingdom, being a spiritual reality, would never cease, and it continues to grow to this day in completeness until it fills the earth.

The work of the Spirit today and into the future

Now, since God is eternal and his Kingdom is eternal, enduring characteristics of being influenced by the Spirit of God (fruit of the Spirit) that were present then will continue to be present for all time. As people continue to enter the Kingdom and learn about God through his Word and truth, he continues to bring people to new life by his Spirit through faith in Messiah Yeshua. They are then empowered by his Spirit to demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control; all of the out-workings of the Spirit of God through his people today. I believe these are the “gifts” that believers have to offer the world today: positive spiritual influences that God uses to draw all people to himself.

Of course, I still believe a miraculous event is still a possibility, since God never changes. However, I believe any genuine miraculous event will ALWAYS point people to the truth and majesty of God himself as revealed previously in the Bible, and will not validate any false individual or reveal some new teaching contradictory to what has already been brought to conclusion through the completing of Israel’s story in the first century. 

Additionally, I believe God’s Spirit is still actively working through the everlasting Word and truth, God’s eternal Torah, constantly providing a corroborating witness for all generations for all time. This regenerating presence of his Spirit is shaping and molding hearts of people for the continual building up of his kingdom on earth for eternity.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 – All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Galatians 5:22-25: “But, the fruit of the Spirit [the empowering word and truth of God], is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, graciousness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such things as these, there is no law. And, they who are of Messiah Yeshua, have crucified the flesh, with its susceptibilities and covetings. If we live by Spirit [the empowering word and truth of God], by Spirit [the empowering word and truth of God], let us also walk.”

Summary

I believe the Spirit of God is a term used to describe how Yahweh God actively interacts within our human environment, whether through creation, revelation (wisdom), regeneration, sanctification (setting apart) and through empowerment. The Spirit of God is Yahweh himself, and his influence in this world.

Ultimately, I believe the core principles of the Bible, the basics of the eternal torah or Word of God, are the result of God’s Spirit. The Ten Commandments were spoken to Moses and ancient Israel and substantiated through the principles of the Sermon on the Mount taught by Yeshua, speaking everything the Father commanded him to teach. I believe these two pivotal episodes in the Bible, besides the Creation itself, represent the most profound work of God’s Spirit in this world.

The Spirit of God therefore separates (or sanctifies) his people to seek first the Kingdom and then empowers them to do so with vigilance. The Spirit of God creates in his people a love for himself with all of the heart, mind, and strength, trusting him for everything. And the fruit of that same Spirit prompts them to love others with integrity, forgiveness, and compassion.

Throughout Scripture, the Spirit of God is always associated with life, whether physical or spiritual. The life of God is what gives us existence and ability, and as the Creator of all, he manifests his Spirit as he sees fit. This life we have, whether physical or spiritual, is not our own, but a dynamic that comes from the hand of God for his purpose. Since everything we are is from him, I believe we should remain faithful to all he asks of us through the expression of his Spirit through us, and we should seek to faithfully emulate him in all of our ways.

Well, I hope that there were possibly some perspectives in the discussion today that provided you with some new insights for your own further study and review. Next time, I would like to provide a look at the biblical festival of Shavuot, also known as Weeks or Pentecost. This is a natural segue seeing as how we have been discussing the Spirit of God, and how, at the recording of this podcast, this is the season of Shavuot in the year 2023. Throughout our doctrinal discussions over the next year, I hope to cover all of the biblical holidays as well, so I hope you are able to join me in this continuing journey.

Remember, there is also a Core of the Bible virtual study group that is hosted through the Marco Polo video chat app. It is designed to discuss the topics that we cover each week and to help people with responses to questions that may come up. If you are interested in joining the discussion, simply download the free Marco Polo app and email me a request to join the group at coreofthebible@gmail.com. I will be happy to send you a link to join the virtual Bible study group. You can also feel free to email me any of your thoughts or comments at that email, as well.

Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God

The name and title of Yeshua describe who he is and his purpose within the plan of God.

Core of the Bible podcast #107 – Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God

In today’s episode, we will be talking about Yeshua as the human Messiah, the Son of God. You may recall from our last episode how I discussed the nature of Yahweh as the one true God, the Father, sole Creator and Maintainer of all that exists. He is the supreme authority of all people. He alone possesses inherent immortality, and has always existed.

When it comes to understanding who Yeshua is, we need to exercise care with a lot of time-honored Christian tradition that has built up over the centuries to see if we can peel back some of these layers of orthodoxy to reveal what the Bible actually says about this individual who has come  to be known as Jesus Christ.

So let’s start with his name. In modern vernacular, Jesus Christ has come to be used as a sort of first and last name for Yeshua instead of what it really is, a title of who he is. His “name” literally means that he is God’s deliverer, the anointed one of God.

Jesus is the English version of the Greek name Iesous, which in itself is a version of the Hebrew name Yeshua. However, if we were to take the name Yeshua and bring it straight over into English, it would not be Jesus, but it would be Joshua. Now the name Yeshua in Hebrew is not only a personal identifier, but also carries the meaning behind the name. In this case, the name Yeshua means “salvation or deliverance of God.” In fact, there are occasions in the Hebrew text where the word is used for just that purpose, and not as a proper name of an individual.

For me, that carries great weight. It was the name that Mary and Joseph were commanded to name him, and I believe we should be using, as well. That name was given to him to demonstrate his purpose, and we should always keep the purpose that God has in mind. Yeshua is the deliverance of God.

What’s a Messiah?

Throughout Scripture, there is mention of Yeshua as the Messiah.

John 20:31 – But these are written so that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Acts 2:36 – “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Yeshua, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

Acts 5:42 – Every day in the temple, and in various homes, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Acts 9:22 – But Saul grew stronger and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Yeshua is the Messiah.

For us to have an understanding of this term, we need to look at some of the original Hebrew texts that use this phrase. The title of Messiah is based on the Hebrew mashiach, meaning anointed. In New Testament Greek, the word for anointed is christos, which is where we get the English derivative Christ.

To be anointed is to have oil of anointing, typically olive oil, smeared or poured over one’s head as an identifier of kingly leadership.

1 Samuel 10:1 – Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it out on Saul’s head, kissed him, and said, “Hasn’t Yahweh anointed you ruler over his inheritance?”

2 Kings 9:1-3 – The prophet Elisha called one of the sons of the prophets and said, “Tuck your mantle under your belt, take this flask of oil with you, and go to Ramoth-gilead. “When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Go in, get him away from his colleagues, and take him to an inner room. Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, ‘This is what Yahweh says: “I anoint you king over Israel.”‘…

The oil of anointing can also be an identifier of religious leadership. For example, the priests of the tabernacle were anointed for the purpose of separation unto God in the ministering of the sacrificial and intercessory rites:

Exodus 29:21 – “Take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle them on Aaron and his garments, as well as on his sons and their garments. So he and his garments will be holy, as well as his sons and their garments.

In a metaphorical or prophetic sense, to be anointed is also God’s stamp of approval as a human leader that he has selected for a specific purpose. This purpose can be a religious one, or as an acknowledgement of political empowerment. God’s anointed one can be anyone he has chosen for a specific leadership purpose, including a non-Jewish world leader like Cyrus:

Isaiah 45:1: “Thus saith Yahweh to his anointed [literally, his Messiah], to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;”

In the spiritual sense, the anointing carries with it the idea of being empowered by the Spirit of God himself, as if enveloped within or overcome by his Spirit.

Judges 6:34 – The Spirit of Yahweh enveloped Gideon, and he blew the ram’s horn and the Abiezrites rallied behind him.

1 Samuel 10:10 – When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. Then the Spirit of God came powerfully on him, and he prophesied along with them.

1 Samuel 16:13 –  So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed [David] in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of Yahweh came powerfully on David from that day forward…

Of course, Yeshua is identified by John the baptizer as being the anointed one of God, immersed and enveloped with the Spirit of God.

John 1:31-34 – “I didn’t know him, but I came baptizing with water so he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him. I didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending and resting on ​– ​he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

Acts 10:37-38 – [Peter speaking] “You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached: “how God anointed Yeshua of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

As can be seen, God’s anointed ones or messiahs have been numerous and characteristically fulfill a role as a priest (as an intercessor or mediator) or prophet, or as a ruler. They are all humans through whom God accomplishes his specific purpose. It is through his empowerment that they have been able to achieve what he has desired. So, for someone to be considered a Messiah, an intercessor, ruler, deliverer of God, they must be a human being who has been selected and identified by God for a specific purpose. This is the role that the ultimate Messiah, Yeshua, had been destined for since birth.

The Son of God

Scripture clearly describes Yeshua not only as the Messiah who had been prophesied to deliver his people, but as the son of God, both as a title of unsurpassed honor and as a human born miraculously into existence of a virgin mother.

Luke 1:31-35 [Gabriel speaking] “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

Matthew 1:18-21 Now the birth of Yeshua Messiah was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of Yahweh appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people from their sins.”

There is no indication in the Bible that Yeshua pre-existed his birth, except in the eternal mind and plan of God.

Ephesians 3:8-9, 11 To me [Paul], the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the nations the unfathomable riches of Messiah, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; … This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Messiah Yeshua our Lord,

1 Peter 1:20 For He [Messiah] was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you

God was prophesied to be his Father:

Psalm 2:7-8 “I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

That God would be his Father is also a theme in the Psalms, where the Messiah is prophetically identified with David, the ideal King of Israel:

Psalm 89:20-29 “I have found David My servant; With My holy oil I have anointed him, With whom My hand will be established; My arm also will strengthen him. The enemy will not deceive him, Nor the son of wickedness afflict him. But I shall crush his adversaries before him, And strike those who hate him. My faithfulness and My lovingkindness will be with him, And in My name his horn will be exalted. I shall also set his hand on the sea And his right hand on the rivers. He will cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.’ I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth. My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. So I will establish his descendants forever And his throne as the days of heaven.”

We have seen so far that God’s messiahs have been humans selected by God for specific purposes. And yet, there has been prophecy regarding a very specific anointed prophet and king, one who would be known as God’s own Son. Beyond the religious implications, this title of Son of God was also a title of world rulers, and in the time of Yeshua, it was the title of the emperor of Rome himself.

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The Son of God as political ruler

Throughout ancient history, and even into some contemporary times, it has been a common practice across many cultures to have the supreme leader of the society referred to as divine, or a son of heaven, or son of God. So for the title son of God to be applied to Yeshua was not just a statement of his physical heritage, but it had subversive political overtones during the first century, as well. To claim that anyone besides the Roman emperor was a son of God was to imply that someone was a rival power to the emperor. 

For the early believers, claiming that Yeshua is Lord, the son of God, was equivalent to defying the authority of the Roman emperor, who was also called Lord, son of God (or son of the Divine). It was an act punishable by death. This was the cause of much of the persecution that early believers faced. 

Mark begins his narrative with the statement that Yeshua is the Messiah, the son of God:

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Yeshua Messiah, the Son of God.

Unclean spirits also declared he was the son of God:

Matthew 8:29 And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

Mark 3:11 Whenever the unclean spirits saw Him, they would fall down before Him and shout, “You are the Son of God!”

Luke 4:41 Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But rebuking them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Messiah.

The angel Gabriel declared he would be called the son of God before he was born:

Luke 1:35 The angel answered and said to her, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.

A repentant centurion witnessing the crucifixion declared him as the son of God:

Mar 15:39 When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Martha, the sister of Mary and Lazarus (all three of whom were very close friends of Yeshua) declared he was the son of God:

John 11:27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, [even] He who comes into the world.”

The religious leaders knew that this was a common understanding of who he was, and accused him of this during his questioning:

Matthew 26:63-64 But Yeshua kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, “I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Yeshua said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Luke 22:70 And they all said, “Are You the Son of God, then?” And He said to them, “You have said it.”

John 19:7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.”

John the baptizer, the disciples Nathanael and John, the apostle Paul, along with Silvanus and Timothy all declare Yeshua as the son of God:

John 1:34 “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

John 1:49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”

John 20:31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

2 Corinthians 1:19 For the Son of God, Messiah Yeshua, who was preached among you by us–by me and Silvanus and Timothy–was not yes and no, but is yes in Him.

1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

While Yeshua preferred to refer to himself as the son of man, in his teaching he was constantly referring to God as a heavenly father figure for all people, but more specifically, his own unique father:

John 8:54 Yeshua answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’;

John 20:17 Yeshua said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'”

From these references, it is abundantly clear throughout the Scriptures that Yeshua was known as the son of God. This term not only described his miraculous physical heritage, but carried with it the subversive political overtones, as well.

This demonstrates that being represented as God’s son, he cannot actually be God himself. In the trinitarian view, “Jesus” is not just the Son of God, but through centuries of theological discussion he has become God the Son, a phrase which exists nowhere in the Bible. As we have seen, names and titles are important, and the Hebrew understanding of the name Yeshua is “deliverance of God” and Messiah means “anointed one.” The concept of an Incarnation, God becoming a man, is so foreign to the Hebrew culture and the complete texture of the Bible that it defies description. In pagan mythology, gods can take on human form and perform miraculous works, but the Bible never claims that about Yeshua.

In Peter’s preaching, he being one of the closest disciples to Yeshua, proclaimed how it was God working through an obedient human Messiah that he was able to accomplish the works that he did.

Acts 10:37-38 – “You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached: how God anointed Yeshua of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him.

Peter proclaims God was with him through the anointing of his holy Spirit, not that he was God. Paul also proclaims Yeshua’s humanity as the perfect counterpoint to the humanity of Adam:

Romans 5:17 – Since by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man [Adam], how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Yeshua Messiah.

Yeshua himself claimed that the things he taught and the works he did was because of the power of Yahweh God, the Father, working through him:

John 12:49 – For I have not spoken from my own authority, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak.

John 14:10 – “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works.

Look, I recognize that in this short time I cannot exhaustively provide the depth of the understanding of the human Messiah, but I am hoping that what we have covered here today begins to open up some areas of theological thinking that are admittedly difficult to summarize when so much tradition has been built up around it. Only a truly ancient Hebraic mindset, which no one shares today, including myself, can begin to understand the meaning of texts that have become muddled through modern Western thinking and anchored in medieval orthodoxy. However, I do believe that we can approximate that type of thinking when we begin to recognize the significance of the name of Yeshua as the deliverer of God, the title of Messiah as the Anointed One of God, and his uniqueness as the Son of God.

I believe it is when we begin to re-define terms related to philosophical theories about God that we begin to stray further from the language and meaning of the Bible. Over the centuries, the theology surrounding who God is and the nature of the Father, Son, and Spirit of God have become mired in the conjecture and imagination of men who try to use Greek philosophical terms like homeostasis, hypostases, homoousion, and ousia in attempts to describe what the nature of a trinitarian God is, but they all fall short of the simplicity of the Bible language.

In the Bible, Yeshua is revealed as the Son of God, in both the context of a miraculous birth and in his unique role as God’s deliverer and savior, his ultimate human Messiah. This places Yeshua at the center and the culmination of the Bible narrative becoming the exemplary human ideal in relation to his self-sacrificial service to God and to others.

This is why the principles of his Sermon on the Mount have such resonance with believers, even until this day, thousands of years later. He spoke of the Kingdom, a Kingdom based on the structure of the Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality, a realm where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. These believers would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as he did, and they would operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

As God’s unique Son, he was not God himself, but because of his faithful obedience even unto death, God resurrected him and exalted him to a position of honor and glory, that those who honor Yeshua would be honoring the Father God himself.

Summary:

The Messiah I follow was a man miraculously born of a virgin, divinely named as Yeshua, the deliverance or salvation of God.  I believe he was anointed and empowered with the Word or Spirit of God at his water baptism, and raised again after death by the power of God. Although unique because of his birth, because he was human he lived a life of temptation, suffering and trial, and overcame all by trusting in his (and our) God, the Father. As a man trusting in God, he has become our example of faithful obedience. Because of his faithfulness, he was raised by God to immortality, and exalted to the highest place of  honor that no one else can attain. As prophesied, he has been granted an exalted position to rule all of God’s Creation in the eternal kingdom of God, as God’s metaphorical “right hand,” in deference only to God who, through him, judges all and rules all in all. Because of his faithfulness, God the Father has ordained that he is to receive the same honor as God himself.

At the time the New Testament writings were made, to express faith in Yeshua as the Messiah, true son of God was to reject the authority of the emperor by expressing total allegiance to Yeshua. Still today, it is through acknowledging his sonship (his unique human status and authority) and expressing total allegiance to him as Lord that we also obtain new life:

John 3:18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 20:31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Yeshua is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

1 John 5:5, 12-13 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Yeshua is the Son of God? … He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

It is only through the example of Yeshua’s self-sacrificial obedience that we can also become the fully obedient humans that God desires us to be.

These are the things that I believe about Yeshua as the Messiah, the Son of God. While much of this may be different than you may have heard or been taught before, I hope there are some nuggets of wisdom that you may want to ponder further in your own studies. Next time, I would like to move on to the topic of the Spirit of God to explore the biblical basis of the work and role of the Spirit in the life of believers.

Remember, there is a Core of the Bible virtual study group that is hosted through the Marco Polo video chat app. It is designed to discuss the topics that we cover each week and to help people with responses to questions that may come up. If you are interested in joining the discussion, simply download the free Marco Polo app and email me a request to join the group at coreofthebible@gmail.com. I will be happy to send you a link to join the virtual Bible study group. You can also feel free to email me any of your thoughts or comments there, as well.

The Bible: A Divine Revelation

What is the Bible and what does it say about itself?

Core of the Bible podcast #104 – The Bible: A Divine Revelation

Today, we will be looking at the Bible itself and what some of the historic creeds have stated about the nature of the Scriptures. I will also be sharing some of my own views on the Bible and aspects of these creedal positions. Before we end today, I would also like to discuss how these positions influence the core Bible principles we discuss here each week.

So I’d like to begin by describing my view of the Bible and its purpose.

The word Bible comes from the Greek “ta biblia” meaning “the books”. It is a collection of books that have been written over a period of one and a half millennia. They were written by a variety of Hebrew people primarily to and about the Hebrew people during various stages of their history as a nation, from approximately 1,500 BC to the 60’s AD.

The Hebrew Bible is generally what would be called by Christians the “Old Testament”. In Hebraic communities, it is known by the acronym TNK, or Tanakh. TNK stands for the Hebrew words Torah (Instruction), Nevi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings).

Here is a broad outline of the categories of books contained within the whole Bible:

Beginning with the Tanakh, the Torah (Law or Instruction) is considered to include primarily the first five books of the Bible, and they are attributed to Moses. They describe the beginnings and the establishment of the nation of Israel and its religious system of worship. These books provide a foundation for the rest of the Bible story to be contextually understood and built upon.

The Nevi’im or prophetic books were largely written as urgings to God’s people to return to the right ways of God when they had gone astray, and described the hope for future reconciliation.

The Ketuvim or Writings include the historical books explaining the origins and out-workings of the physical kingdom of Israel, and the rise and fall of various Hebrew leaders. Through these stories we learn of God’s faithfulness and justice with his people and with those of the nations surrounding them. The Ketuvim also include other poetic writings which describe God’s wisdom and care for his people through elaborate word pictures, hymns of praise and worship, and proverbs.

Now as we move from the Tanakh into the “New Testament” writings, we also move from Hebrew documents into Greek. The New Testament or Apostolic Writings is a collection of books written in Greek in the early first century by the followers of Yeshua. Some believe these also may have been originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. These books relate stories and instruction regarding the life of Yeshua (the Gospels) and the lives and experiences of those who would form new communities based on his teachings (Acts and the letters to the various congregations). They include historical narratives, correspondence between communities, and a form of Hebrew literature known as apocalyptic prophecy (the book of Revelation). They are all filled with references to and quotes from the Tanakh and its stories.

Different groups today will categorize the books of the Bible in different ways, and some will include different books here and there. The important thing to remember, however, is that within these pages, I believe God has revealed his mind and purposes for the benefit of his creation.

Okay, so that’s my perspective on what the Bible is. As we consider the writings in the Bible, it is important to keep in mind that these books are a collection of ancient middle-eastern writings that cover a wide variety of literary styles and are not all literal “newspaper accounts” of God’s dealings with men. They were not written specifically to us in our present day. They were written to the Hebrew people in a context appropriate for their moment in the history and culture of that nation. However, even though they were not written to us, we can say they were written for us, that is, for our benefit. Through these writings we are privileged to see how God has chosen to express himself and work with and among those whom he has chosen to do so. Understanding this distinction is one of the most important aspects of coming to know what the Bible narrative is really all about.

With that background, if we take all of these books as collectively telling a cohesive story, let’s see what the Bible books have to say about themselves.

  • 2 Peter 1:20-21 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

This statement, attributed to the apostle Peter, demonstrates how the books of the Bible, and here specifically speaking primarily about the Tanakh, claims to be divinely inspired. Believers in Messiah will typically include the New Testament writings within this category of divinely inspired writings, since they are completing the narrative of the Tanakh.

Besides considering the writings to be inspired, the Bible also teaches God has chosen to reveal himself through nature, the people of Israel, and most significantly through his Son, Yeshua.

In regard to the natural revelation of God in nature, the psalmist writes:

  • Psalm19:1-4  The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world…

The apostle Paul also used the creation as a basis of his speech to the Greeks assembled in Athens:

  • Acts 17:22-27 So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. “For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all [people] life and breath and all things; and He made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined [their] appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us…

The Scriptures also portray God specifically revealing himself and His will for men to and through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel.  

  • 1 Kings 8:53 “For You have separated them [Israel] from all the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, as You spoke through Moses Your servant, when You brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O Lord Yawheh.”
  • 2 Kings 17:13-14 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in Yahweh their God.
  • Nehemiah 9:30 “However, You bore with them [Israel] for many years, And admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, Yet they would not give ear. Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

Finally, the Bible claims that the ultimate revelation of God has been through his Son, Yeshua:

  • Hebrews 1:1-2 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things…
  • John 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Yeshua, Messiah.
  • John 14:6 Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
  • 1 John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

The Bible therefore claims to reveal God in nature, Israel, and most significantly, through his Messiah, Yeshua. It is in this sense that I believe the Bible to be a divine revelation.

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Now let’s take a look at some of the creedal descriptions of various organizations and denominations. All denominations and faith traditions within the Christian tradition understand that if we desire to have a biblical worldview, then we need to recognize some basics about these documents that shape our faith.

Here are a few examples of some random organizations that I pulled up in a quick search for “Statements of Faith”:

  • National Association of Evangelicals: “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.”
  • BasicChristian.org: “We believe the Holy Bible is God’s word Personally spoken by God for mankind for the purpose of revealing who He is and it is without error in all issues to which it speaks.”
  • Chicago Statement on Biblical Application: “We affirm that this God can be known through His revelation of Himself in His inerrant written Word.”
  • Church of God in Christ: “We believe the Bible to be the inspired and only infallible written Word of God.”
  • Torchbearers International: “The Bible is, in its entirety, the revelation of God for mankind, inspired by the Holy Spirit.”
  • Simplyscripture.org: “We believe the Bible to be the only revealed, pure, complete and preserved Word of God throughout all the ages. Scripture is solely contained within the 66 books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. We believe the Scriptures to be the inerrant, infallible, unchangeable Word of God and is the final authority for all matters of faith and practice.”

Okay, so you get the idea. Among the list of qualities about the Bible, it is considered by churches and para-church organizations to be revelatory, inspired, inerrant, infallible. So let’s define some of these qualities for a better understanding of what they are saying, and then I will add some comments about my own perspective on each of these qualities.

First of all is the idea that the Bible is REVELATORY: God has revealed himself in the Bible and he can be known through his workings as related within its pages.

I don’t disagree with this, other than different groups may define what God has revealed about himself differently from one another. I would simply say that God, who is unknowable outside of his own revelation of himself, desires his people to honor and represent him, living according to the principles his kingdom. I would also include the fact that nature itself is a form of God’s revelation of his power and majesty. And while general principles about God can be deduced from nature, it is only in the written revelation of the Bible where the specifics of God’s desires for mankind are revealed.

Secondly, these creeds say that the Bible is INSPIRED:  The writers of the Bible were inspired by God or the spirit of God to convey what he wanted to communicate.

Based on  my previous statement about God being unknowable, then it follows that those who would write about the nature and workings of God would necessarily have to be inspired to do so. This type of inspiration is typically recognized as God working through the various authors of the Bible to communicate. Again, many different groups define this inspiration differently, whether being immersed in God‘s spirit, or receiving ideas and wisdom from God and writing it out in their own way. Even Jewish thinkers throughout the centuries have had varying opinions about levels of inspiration for the various writings.  In my mind, I am simply content to recognize  God‘s influence over those who wrote the actual texts to ensure his will would be made known.

Thirdly, these creeds assert that the Bible is INERRANT. Now the specifics of inerrancy are typically defined further by the organization, but in general, it means the Bible is 100% without error. However, this is usually qualified by saying inerrancy was only in the original written documents, not necessarily the many manuscripts we have today. This qualifier is necessary because, quite honestly, there are errors in the manuscripts that we use for Bible versions that we have today. There are spelling differentials, numerical differences in some generations or years of a king’s reign, and some insertions into the text from later hands.

However, for me, this makes for a more robust understanding of the reality of just how old these documents really are. If we had perfectly preserved autograph documents from the original authors there would be more questions as to how something could be so perfectly preserved when everything else in the natural world of antiquity has been diminished. Therefore, they would more likely be considered forgeries of some type. In reality, the Bible can’t win with this type of logic. Either it’s too perfect, or not perfect enough.

The reason these minor grammatical areas do not pose a problem for me is that through tireless research they have been identified, and we know where they are and how little they impact the overall message of the Bible as a whole. So stating that the Bible is inerrant is kind of not true unless it is defined further. For me, to say the Bible is inerrant is difficult to do. Even to say that the original written documents had no errors is a stretch, because they no longer exist anywhere. Therefore that is a statement that cannot be validated.

Lastly, we come to the topic of the Bible being INFALLIBLE. This theological term simply means the Bible is considered unable to be wrong on the topics it covers.

Again, I don’t necessarily have a problem with this concept in theory, because I do believe the Bible contains the word of God, but infallibility isn’t something practical and  readily understandable to the general person. Infallibility is a theological term that for me connotes a high religious supremacy of some type. This is not untrue about the Bible. But with the concept of infallibility comes judgments of infallibility about practice based on fallible interpretations of these ancient texts, and this is why I try to avoid this type of terminology.

I believe it is simpler to say I believe the Bible is true primarily because Yeshua believed in what the Scriptures said. Since I am a follower of Yeshua, then it makes sense that I would also place the same level of regard on the Scriptures as being God’s word as he did. He repeatedly referred to the authority of Scripture by saying “it is written” and then quoting it, and by using the argument that “Scripture cannot be broken” when making an argument with the religious leaders. Since he trusted the writings as authoritative and reliable, then I also do. To me, this is the crux of the issue: not inerrancy and infallibility but reliability. I want to know the textual basis of my worldview and belief system is reliable.

Now as for the New Testament writings which were penned after Messiah, a primary reason I believe these books are also trustworthy as inspired records is due to the evidence of recurring patterns and consistent themes throughout all of the writings. Many of the patterns and themes begun in the Tanakh are carried over to fulfillment in the writings of the New Testament.

TanakhNew Testament
Paradise lostParadise regained
Scattering of God’s people due to disobedienceReconciliation and return provided for
Seeking of God’s Anointed leader (Messiah)Messiah realized in Yeshua
Natural principles of instructionSpiritual principles based on the natural
Hope for God’s future kingdomGod’s kingdom a present reality

These types of parallels is what makes the Bible such a cohesive whole, and is the joy of those who study it deeply.

I believe it was God‘s good design to entrust the bulk of his communication with the Jewish people who were extremely faithful in maintaining his revealed word. Even in the past one hundred years, this has been evidenced by documents discovered among the dead sea scrolls which were much earlier than previous manuscripts texts available to us. These earlier documents showed remarkable consistency with manuscripts generated centuries later.

So for my own creedal position on this issue, I want to make it clear that I do believe the Bible, as a repository of the witness of God about himself to mankind, is a reliable collection of books in which the truth of God is found. I have come to recognize that even though there are legitimate textual questions about specific biblical passages, the Bible is still trustworthy, and maybe even more authentic because of them.

So if I was to make a declaratory statement regarding the Bible, it would be something like this:

  • I believe that complete message of the Bible points to the faithfulness of God with his people Israel, culminating in the person and ministry of the Lord Yeshua.
  • Through God’s holy Spirit and his Word, the Bible, God desires to lead people to faith in Yeshua and to guide them in a life of faithful obedience to his will.
  • I accept the entire Bible as authoritatively testifying to the nature, work, and wisdom of God. These are the Scriptures or sacred writings concerning God’s revelation of himself to mankind. 
  • God’s purpose in these revelations has been an exhibition of his own glory and the establishment of his Kingdom on the earth.

In summary, the broad statements of my own understanding and faith concerning the Bible are:

  • The Bible is the authoritative revelation of God for us, for the purpose of establishing his Kingdom on the earth.
  • It was not written to us in this 21st century, but it was written for us, for our benefit.
  • I believe it’s a stretch to say the Bible is inerrant, and it’s equally vague to claim infallibility where poor interpretive principles are usually apparent; however, I also believe the intent behind those claims of inerrancy and infallibility are made with the intent to honor God.
  • I do believe the Bible is absolutely reliable and contains the Word of God for people today. Indications of its reliability are found in its recurring themes and patterns.

It is because of the Bible’s reliability we can see the broad basis for the importance of understanding its core principles which I believe God has revealed through the Ten Commandments and the principles of the Sermon on the Mount:

  • Separate yourself to seek first the Kingdom with vigilance.
  • Love God with all of your heart, mind, and strength, trusting him for everything.
  • And love others as yourself with integrity, forgiveness, and compassion.

Next week, closely aligned with this topic of the Bible, we will take on the concept of the Eternal Torah.

Remember, if you are interested in joining the Core of the Bible virtual Bible study, simply download the free Marco Polo app and email me a request to join the group at coreofthebible@gmail.com. I will be happy to send you a link to join the virtual Bible study group.

A renewed heart will abide within the Kingdom law

The Ten Commandments are intended to be the guidance of our actions through the transforming of our hearts.

Core of the Bible podcast #86 – A renewed heart will abide within the Kingdom law

Today we will be looking at the topic of the kingdom, and how the commands of the kingdom charter, the Ten Commandments, are intended to be the guidance of our actions through the transforming of our hearts.

Matthew 5:21-22 – “You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment.’ But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of the fire of Gehenna.”

Within the natural or physical kingdom of God of ancient Israel, it was necessary to establish rules and safeguards for the population. For a private individual to purposely take the life of another for personal reasons was forbidden, and an offense for which the natural judgment of capital punishment was necessitated for the good of the community.

However, Yeshua uses this basic tenet of the kingdom charter, the Ten Commandments, as a way of elevating the principle to include any intended act of unrighteous anger toward another. In one sense, just as some thought is necessary before an action, any act of murder begins with unrighteous anger towards another. By highlighting and restricting the offense of the emotion, the act will not be carried out. Therefore, to prevent murder, one must eliminate the unrighteous anger behind the action.

Stated another way, as Yeshua points out, the judgment that an individual could face by committing murder could equally be leveled by God against the emotion. The action starts there, so the ultimate judgment would apply there, as well.

This would have been a revolutionary way for Yeshua to be confronting the Jewish leaders with their own practices, and he knew it would have a condemning effect; that was the point. They were so focused on practicing the letter of the law that they were violating just about every intent of it.

For example, Yeshua confronted them many times on the hypocrisy of their actions, and how, as the recognized leaders within the wider Jewish community, they should have been setting the proper standards as leaders of integrity and faithfulness. Instead, they had become corrupted by their positions of authority, and mostly used their influence for personal agendas.

Matthew 23:23-24 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law ​– ​justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel!”

In a parallel passage in the gospel of Luke, Yeshua continues his rant against the religious establishment.

Luke 11:46, 52 – Then he said: “Woe also to you experts in the law! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, and yet you yourselves don’t touch these burdens with one of your fingers. … Woe to you experts in the law! You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn’t go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in.”

These are only excerpts from the denunciations that Yeshua levels against the leaders. However, these hypocritical actions highlighted by Yeshua can be summarized within one specific charge that he expresses by using two successive examples for repeated emphasis.

Matthew 23:25-28 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside of it may also become clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

In the context of all that Yeshua condemned the leaders for, this primary condemnation has to do with the appearance on outside versus the reality on the inside. They had been focused on the outward cleanliness of the cup and dish, but the insides were still dirty. Tombs can look beautiful on the outside, but the reality on the inside is that they are full of corrupted bodies and bones. This is the same principle we have been exploring from his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5: 21-22 – “You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment.’ But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…”

According to Yeshua here, the true intent of the command not to murder is to reach to the emotion underlying the act. By condemning the inner emotion, the outward act is eliminated, and the command is enhanced. In essence, Yeshua is saying, “While everyone knows that murder subjects you to judgment, I tell you, in God’s eyes, the same applies to unchecked emotions. Therefore, do not call someone a fool or an idiot or be unrighteously angry with anyone.”

While this teaching may have seemed revolutionary at the time, it would only have been so because of the leaders’ disregard of the full instruction of Torah or God’s Word on this matter. This principle was taught in the Psalms and Proverbs.

  • Psalm 37:8 – Cease from anger and abandon wrath; Do not get upset; it leads only to evildoing.
  • Proverbs 14:16-17 – A wise person is cautious and turns from evil, but a fool is easily angered and is careless. A quick-tempered person acts foolishly, and one who schemes is hated.

As the teachings of Yeshua were passed on to his disciples and the message of God’s kingdom spread, the disciples carried with them the teaching of God’s Word as exemplified by the teachings of Messiah. John captured this same principle in his first epistle.

  • 1 John 2:9, 11 – “The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. … But the one who hates his brother or sister is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he’s going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
  • 1 John 3:15 – “Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
  • 1 John 4:20 – “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

John speaks to this issue by pointing to the consequences of inner hatred of others: darkness, murder, lying, not demonstrating love of God. These are all the negative aspects of a life that is lived with only an outward appearance of religiosity but not being sincerely lived from the heart motives underneath. This is what Yeshua condemned the Jewish leaders for, and what we stand condemned of if we also are hypocritical in our faith. The final result of these actions and motives is only judgment and death.

So far, we have looked at the judgment not only of actions but of the motives behind those actions. In a moment, we will look at the opposite of judgment and death, the life and blessings that can be the result of the renewed heart in the life of a believer.

If judgment is the result of the combination of the emotion and the action, then conversely, a blessing can be inferred from the inverse emotion and action combination. For example, if the command is to not murder or even be angry with anyone, and if we do the opposite by not being unrighteously angry with anyone at any time and instead safeguard the lives and interests of others, this will result in a blessing both for them and for us. The action flows from the intention and inner emotion, and when the inner intent is good, the actions will be good. This is how Yeshua taught that a tree (its inner goodness or badness) will be known (demonstrated) by its fruit (its actions).

Paul goes a little deeper into this process and provides the reasoning why inner bitterness should not be a part of the believer’s life.

Ephesians 4:31-32 – “Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Messiah.”

If we have truly been forgiven in Messiah, then our hearts should reflect that newness because of the recognition of God’s forgiveness in our lives. Paul refers to this characteristic as the “new man” or the “new self.”

  • 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, they are a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
  • Ephesians 4:20-24 – “But that is not how you came to know Messiah, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Yeshua, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”
  • Colossians 3:8-10 – “But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.”

When the inner desires and motive are captive to God’s will, it is then that the true intent of God’s commands will be fulfilled in our outward actions, resulting in blessing, not judgment. This was the whole goal of the new covenant of the kingdom that was spoken about by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

  • Jeremiah 31:33 – “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” ​– ​Yahweh’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
  • Ezekiel 36:26-27 – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.”

This new living heart of flesh has been God’s plan all along, and had only become corrupted into a heart of stone when the letter of the law was put above the spirit of it. The apostle Paul teaches this principle to the Corinthian congregation.

2 Corinthians 3:6 – “He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

Paul then goes on to list the supremacy of the law of the spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:7-8 – “Now if the ministry that brought death, engraved in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which faded, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?”

The Ten Commandments were engraved by the finger of God in stone. In Paul’s line of reasoning throughout his epistles, the commands themselves, while holy and good, stir up within us the opposite intent by inciting us to the very thing they are intended to avoid.

Romans 7:10-13 – “The commandment that was meant for life resulted in death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.”

The violation of any of the commands results in a type of death. We cannot truly serve God through only the letter of the law; this is what the Pharisees and scribes were guilty of. We saw this earlier in the passage in Matthew’s gospel.

Matthew 23:23-24 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law ​– ​justice, mercy, and faithfulness. These things should have been done without neglecting the others.”

They were so intent on being obedient to the physical law of tithing that they focused on the physical minutia and were oblivious to the larger intent behind those laws resulting in justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Instead of their obedience to the law resulting in life, their outward conformity without inward spiritual motivation resulted in only death.

Going back to Paul’s analogy with Moses and the Ten Commandments is that if the stone commandments were powerful enough to cause Moses’ face to physically shine with glory, albeit only temporarily, how much more will the application of the inner spiritual motives of those commands cause believers to shine even more gloriously for all eternity? This is the whole point of the law: to lead us to the new covenant of the kingdom in Messiah, in whom the fullness of the law through the Spirit of God, enabling those inner motives to truly conform to his will, is revealed. The law is not done away; as Paul writes, it is “holy and just and good.” But what I believe he is trying to convey is that the letter of the law, empty of the power of the Spirit of God, is what has faded away. In its place, through Messiah, is a renewed heart that is enabled to keep that same law through the empowerment of God’s Spirit. This is the message of Jeremiah and Ezekiel; this is the gospel of the kingdom!

We do well to keep in mind that the physical kingdom of ancient Israel was the template, the basis, for the universal and spiritual kingdom of God. As such, the principles in place then, such as the command not to murder, are still in force in the universal kingdom.

However, through the instruction of Yeshua within the gospel of the kingdom, he highlighted how they are enhanced further. This was the meaning and the promise of the law being placed on the heart of the believer within the universal kingdom. If the heart has been renewed, then no law will be violated. In effect, if all of the actions come from a renewed heart of righteousness, then the law will be kept perfectly.

This is the goal that Yeshua came to express. This was the intent of the gospel of the kingdom, and why it was considered good news! As believers, we have been freed from the condemnation and death of the natural law without the Spirit, because the law placed on our heart and empowered by the Spirit ensures we are acting with true motives and abiding within the instruction of God for all time.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

Maintaining integrity with God’s help

Psalm 141:4 – Incline not my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity; and let me not eat of their delicacies!

Throughout this psalm, the Psalmist pleads with Yahweh to assist him in maintaining the right course of action in his heart and in what he says at all times. He does not want to be swept away by the actions of the wicked and counted among them; in fact, he prays that their own wickedness would find them out!

Psalm 141:8-9 – But my eyes are toward thee, O Yahweh God; in thee I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! Keep me from the trap which they have laid for me, and from the snares of evildoers!

He pleads that he would not be defenseless against the lure of wickedness, or by any of the traps they may have set in his way. This hunger and passionate desire for integrity should be the heart cry of every believer.

The good news for believers today is that we do have a “defense system” against wickedness when we choose to abide in the Word of God: the holy Spirit of God himself.

1 John 2:26-27 – I write this to you about those who would deceive you; but the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that any one should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him.

1 John 3:24 – All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.

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If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.
Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.
Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com

Vigilance in worship

It takes effort, consistency, and sacrifice to worship God in a way that he desires.

It takes effort, consistency, and sacrifice to worship God in a way that he desires.

Worship today has come to mean many different things to different people. For most, worship is what happens every Sunday at the local church building from 10:30 am to noon. The style of worship varies; some prefer traditional hymns in a quiet, classical style from the European Middle Ages; for others, it is a celebratory party-like atmosphere with flashy performances and contemporary, upbeat tunes. In yet other congregations, it is complete silence, waiting for God’s Spirit to move upon someone to speak and provide insights from God’s holy perspective.

In the Bible, we see that worship encompassed many of these different expressions. The priesthood of Israel had specific and intentional responsibilities within the service of the Temple that had grown and morphed over time. While their primary sacrificial duties were laid down by Moses, as the temple was established in the days of David and Solomon, we find that other duties relative to music and singing became established within the realm of the priestly worship.

1 Chronicles 23:1-5 – When David was old and full of days, he installed his son Solomon as king over Israel. Then he gathered all the leaders of Israel, the priests, and the Levites. The Levites thirty years old or more were counted; the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand by headcount. “Of these,” David said, “twenty-four thousand are to be in charge of the work on Yahweh’s temple, six thousand are to be officers and judges, four thousand are to be gatekeepers, and four thousand are to praise Yahweh with the instruments that I have made for worship.”

These traditions carried on throughout the years and became part of the Israelite priestly and liturgical environment. However, with the destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D., the earthly priesthood and the liturgy of the temple worship were abolished. There were no more proscribed rites or ceremonies for the people of God in relation to liturgical worship.

Now, don’t think that I am saying it is somehow wrong or misguided to continue to create songs or sing together to honor and praise God; that is not the point. In fact, believers in Messiah have been encouraged by Paul to do so.

Ephesians 5:18-20 – …be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to Yahweh, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua Messiah…

Rather, I am describing something that goes beyond any type of liturgical and sometimes mechanical praise toward to God. Even though the second temple was still standing in Paul’s day, God had provided him insights into the future of his Kingdom and the coming age. Paul knew that God was working a spiritual work among his people that would far surpass any physical representation or temple service that God could provide.

When it came to describing the type of worship that was acceptable to God, Paul naturally grabbed hold of a principle taught by Yeshua about what true worship in the service of God looks like:

Romans 12:1 – Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.

The believers who were presenting themselves, body and spirit, to God were the ones who were honoring the true spirit of worship that God desires. Yeshua had taught this same principle.

John 4:23-24 – “But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth.”

Living a life of sacrifice means diligently and consistently laying down our own desires at the feet of God and seeking to accomplish his purpose in our life. This is the path of believers in abiding in him, walking according to his commandments above the demands of the culture around them. To love Yahweh your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, to truly do this, is to walk a sacrificial path of true worship that honors God and brings glory to his name. The new covenant is a martyr’s covenant; we must die to ourselves in order to live for him.

Matthew 16:24-25 – Then Yeshua said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

This is the heart of true worship: becoming a living sacrifice where every thought is captive to Messiah and every action is an action based on the love of God for all of his Creation. This is where true worship lies, not in the halls of music and self-performance, but in the quiet and determined attitude of self-sacrifice.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com

Trust that is rewarded

When we place our trust in him, God provides reassurances that provide peace and joy.

When we place our trust in him, God provides reassurances that provide peace and joy.

Psalm 119:125 – I am your servant; give me understanding so that I may know your decrees.

One of the challenging things about God’s Word is that it takes faith to understand it. People may resist committing to place their faith in God and in his Messiah because they don’t understand everything about God’s Word.

But the wisdom that comes from God is poured out only on those who are exhibiting faith in him. It’s as if God has provided enough information to bring us to himself, and yet he reserves the deeper understanding for those whom he knows are truly committed to him: his servants.

Yeshua taught a similar concept when the religious leaders refused to believe his teachings. They had assumed because he was a simple, unlearned man he could not be sharing the truth of the one true God. Yet, Yeshua challenged them with committing to accomplish the will of God, and his teaching would then become self-evident. That’s almost like a money-back guarantee in today’s marketing terminology.

John 7:15-17 – Then the Jews were amazed and said, “How is this man so learned, since he hasn’t been trained? ” Yeshua answered them, “My teaching isn’t mine but is from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.”

It’s as if God wants to make sure that we are serious about following him before providing us the ability to connect all the dots. The apostle Paul compared this to the contrast between a natural man and a spiritual man:

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 – “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

But once someone places their faith in God, he verifies for them the truth of his Word and his purposes. Through the eyes of his Spirit, the challenges to understanding his Word begin to melt away, and we can become more confident in our assertions as we continue to learn and study more about who he is, and how he has chosen to communicate with his creatures and operate within his Creation.

Psalm 119:140 – Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them.

As his servants, we come to realize how intertwined his influence is in all things, and we can rest assured that he has proven himself faithful time and time again. This is the joy that comes from faith in the God of the Bible and his Messiah.

Romans 15:13 – Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit.

If you enjoy these daily articles, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com

Making righteous choices everyday

Routine habits of integrity or wickedness can each pull us into established patterns, for better or worse

Core of the Bible podcast #80 – Making righteous choices every day

Today we will be looking at the topic of integrity, and how routine habits of integrity or wickedness can each pull us into established patterns, for better or worse. Those patterns then become the template of God’s judgment upon our lives.

Proverbs 13:6 – Righteousness keeps him who is upright in the way, and wickedness overthrows a sin offering.

Those who have integrity are often described with similar terms such as “upright” or “perfect.” This idea of perfection, though, is not as though one is completely without fault; it is more a concept of completeness, or wholeness.

Yeshua uses the phrase in a similar way when he encourages believers to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matt. 5:48). This is a Hebraic way of expressing that believers should be totally consistent in their lifestyle: their beliefs and what they say should match 100% with what their actions convey. This is wholeness, perfection, integrity.

In the proverb above, walking in righteousness is said to guard or “keep” one in the way of God. The more our lives demonstrate consistency in righteous actions, the simpler it is to stay on the correct path.

Psalm 25:10, 12-14, 21 – Yahweh leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands. … Who are those who fear Yahweh? He will show them the path they should choose. They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land. Yahweh is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. … May integrity and honesty protect me, for I put my hope in you.

Psalm 26:1-5 – Declare me innocent, O Yahweh, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in Yahweh without wavering. Put me on trial, Yahweh, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked.

Proverbs 11:3, 5 – Honesty guides good people; dishonesty destroys treacherous people. … The godly are directed by honesty; the wicked fall beneath their load of sin.

By contrast, when our lives are in disarray and when our actions are inconsistent, we struggle more to keep our focus where it needs to be. The wickedness of those who do not walk with integrity is said to “overthrow their sin offering.” This is a demonstration of how even the best of intentions can be counteracted by a pattern of inconsistent behavior or outright sinful rebellion.

Psalm 25:3 – No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others.

Psalm 140:9-11 – The chief of those who surround me, the perverseness of their lips covers them. They cause to fall on themselves burning coals, Into fire He [God] does cast them, Into deep pits — they arise not. A talkative man is not established in the earth, One of violence — evil hunts to overflowing.

Proverbs 1:29-32 – For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear Yahweh. They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. For simpletons turn away from me–to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.

Proverbs 5:22-23 – An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness.

Even in the light of the national sin of Israel that Jeremiah was recounting against them, the same principle applied:

Jeremiah 2:19 – Your wickedness will bring its own punishment. Your turning from me will shame you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to abandon Yahweh your God and not to fear him. I, the Lord, Yahweh of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!

In a moment, we will explore the logical outcomes of this biblical principle as it relates to the judgment of God and the outworking of sinful actions into the chaos of the world.

As we have seen in the foregoing verses, living a life of integrity or wickedness is a life of momentum. The weight of our everyday thoughts and actions drives a flywheel of consequence that can keep us headed in positive or negative directions based on patterns we are establishing in every decision.

Galatians 6:7-8 – Don’t be misled–you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

The Galatian congregation was challenged by Paul to recognize what it is they were planting with the types of lives they were choosing to lead. Whatever they planted would be the fruit that would come to bear when it reached maturity in the events that would unfold after the fact.

But this now raises a question, at least in my mind: if, as Paul says, we reap what we sow, how involved is God in the execution of that justice in one’s life? Does God arrange events and situations to challenge us or to justify us, or are those situations merely the outworking of natural consequence?

I think the answer may reveal itself in the wording of the question. What if the “natural consequence” is a law built into the very fabric of Creation, like the physical laws of gravity or light? We reap what we sow. We see that exhibited in the natural world as well; whatever seed is placed in the soil is what will come to fruition when it matures. What if, when someone experiences the fruit of their own doing, whether good or bad, this is what the Bible calls the “judgment of God,” or “God’s justice.” It would make sense, and still remain consistent with the bulk of Scripture as we have seen in all the instances quoted earlier.

And isn’t it still the judgment of God? For example, God warned Israel what would happen if they turned from him, and it came to pass. The judgment that fell upon that nation was decreed by God, but it was accomplished as a result of their own disobedience.

The personified Wisdom of Proverbs shares the same view:

Proverbs 1:29-32 – For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear Yahweh. They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes. For simpletons turn away from me–to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.

It’s as if God has pronounced a specific judgment on that individual, when in a practical sense, they have caused their own troubles as a result of their rejection or ignorance of his ways.

In bearing this principle into the New Testament writings, Yeshua also intimated the foregone judgment of those who make certain choices, especially in regard to those who chose to believe in him, and those who did not.

John 3:18 – “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”

John 5:24 – “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.”

And I guess this is where I am headed with the trajectory of this principle today. Why is it that the world is in the chaotic condition it is today? As humans, we argue and fight about every inane idea that happens to be trending on social media; we struggle against oppressive authorities; we try to garner support for whatever the cause du jour happens to be; we watch painfully as people brutalize one another over ideologies that are outdated or misapplied. Believers would say all of this is the result of sin, and that’s not an incorrect conclusion. However, I believe it is not from sin as the typical believer would characterize it.

The mainstream idea within Christianity would assert that sin, equated with the fallen nature of mankind, is the cause of the chaos world. Through the passages we have looked at today, and hundreds of others we haven’t, I would draw a slightly different conclusion.

Sin is indeed the cause of the issue, but I would characterize this sin as the act of not obeying the revealed will of God, not a predisposed nature of humans. This disobedience may be out of outright rebellion, having known the truth of God and simply choosing to ignore it (like national Israel), but it may also be the result of straight-up ignorance about what God expects of mankind as his creation. Whenever anyone, anywhere, knowingly or unknowingly, acts in opposition to the righteous commands of God, sin is the result. They have violated a “law” of nature. That’s what sin is: disobedience to his righteous command. And if sin has predetermined consequences as God has revealed, then that resulting sin sets in motion a chain of other actions and reactions that can further be guided by acting in alignment with God’s commands or in the absence of them. Every new branch in the moral decision-tree is a junction where righteousness can be reestablished, or sin can continue to progress into other areas.

I don’t believe man has a “sin-nature” other than it appears to be quality of man that, left to our own devices, we will always choose the path of least resistance to get whatever we want. Always. Just like water flowing down a mountain and around rocks and bluffs, the path of least resistance leads to the lake or ocean into which it empties. I believe that is a universal human principle that is experienced in every culture.

However, when a command of God is introduced into a potential situation, the ongoing human response can be to continue to follow the path of least resistance (now in blatant rebellion to the command, having heard and understood it) or to expend some sort of effort or restraint in attempting to follow the dictate of the command. The water must now flow uphill or turn another direction upon hitting the Rock. This is the crux of the human condition, and a deeper understanding of the chaos in the world.

The reason this principle can be so hidden from view is that each person is sinning or obedient to varying degrees, knowingly or unknowingly, and all of those various natural consequences are being borne out in overlapping, concentric circles throughout the entire world and as a result, causing chaos. Generally speaking, this is why it can be truly said that all of the chaos in the world is due to sin, or disobedience to God’s commands.

God’s judgment comes into play in the sense that he has made it abundantly clear through his Word and with the historical example of the nation of ancient Israel that he expects mankind to follow his commands, and he has also shared the consequences of not following his commands. His commands are the key.

1 John 5:3-4 – Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.

If you’ve listened to this podcast for any length of time, then you know I believe the Ten Commandments are the basis for all human conduct, and they are not burdensome. The teachings of Yeshua in the Sermon on the Mount which are built upon these commandments are also not burdensome. But they must be obeyed and lived out to be effective in bringing God’s light to this chaotic world.

When we recognize Yahweh God as the one true authority in the universe and make a conscious decision to abide by his Word, we will be empowered to do so by his Spirit guiding us.

Galatians 5:16, 22-25 – “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. … But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Messiah Yeshua have nailed the passions and desires of their flesh to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

This happens both inwardly and within the ongoing review of his Word, having our minds renewed to match the inward renewal of the new Creation that we have become in him.

Romans 12:2 – “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by renewing your minds. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “This means that anyone who belongs to Messiah has become a new creation. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

The Spirit of Messiah is a spirit of unswerving obedience to God. When we place our faith and our hope in Messiah, we fulfill the Word of God because that faith will keep us obedient to his commands and guide us on the correct paths.

When we are consistent in our actions and our speech, we establish patterns of righteousness that tend to keep us walking in the right way. Sin is less of a temptation and a distraction because we have established views and behaviors that we begin to thrive in. This encourages further righteous actions and as a result, we begin to exhibit larger measures of integrity in our interactions with others. Just like the water not flowing in the path of least resistance, the Spirit of God empowers us in new channels of right actions within which we begin to flow. The more we obey God’s commands, the more righteousness is injected into the rippling chaos of the world. As others see and experience the light of God, then further righteous choices are made which continue to radiate out in calming waves, as well. The goal of God is to have his instruction universally recognized and practiced on the earth, thereby making all things whole.

This should then be our goal, as well. To make righteous choices every day means the expansion of the Kingdom of God into the world of chaos. This is the effect our faith can have when we choose to be obedient to the Creator of all and live by his standards established for all time.

1 Peter 1:23 – For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com

The ongoing battle against avoiding sin

Although believers are victorious in Messiah, the reality of living for him is a real conflict every day.

Although believers are victorious in Messiah, the reality of living for him is a real conflict every day.

Matthew 5:29 – “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna.

Yeshua is speaking here of the extreme vigilance with which we must guard our spiritual lives. While this example is exaggerated for emphasis, it demonstrates a spiritual principle that is a typical theme in God’s Word.

For example, in Proverbs, the father is advising his son on the dangers of being lured into complacency or led astray by the woman of bad character:

Proverbs 5:3-8 – Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable. So now, sons, listen to me, and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth. Keep your way far from her. Don’t go near the door of her house.

In the ongoing narrative of the opening chapters of Proverbs, the father then continues to urge his sons to avoid this type of woman.

Proverbs 7:24-27 – Now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words from my mouth. Don’t let your heart turn aside to her ways; don’t stray onto her paths. For she has brought many down to death; her victims are countless. Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.

This same warning is for their own good. It is a warning to remain faithful to Yahweh and to not be led astray by the deceptive nature of sin. In the Proverbs, this worldly sin is characterized by the woman of bad character.

The apostle Paul also warns believers of avoiding sinful practices, but he characterizes sin as the flesh.

Romans 8:12-14 – So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.

While Yeshua emphasized the avoidance of sin by removing body parts, Paul goes a step further and says the deeds of the body must be completely put to death in order for the spiritual life to thrive.

These are all different ways of saying the same thing: we must not be seduced by the attractiveness of sin (characterized by the woman). The first step is to avoid those ways all together. However, if we have begun down that road, we must immediately deprive ourselves of any aspect of our lives that has become compromised (exemplified by cutting off a hand or gouging out an eye). If that option has been surpassed, then we must completely “put to death the deeds of the body.” What all of these ideas are conveying is just how destructive sinful lifestyles are, and the seriousness with which sin must be dealt with in the believer’s life.

Many believers look at Paul’s statement of dying to the flesh as being descriptive of the repentant sinner coming to Messiah; the one-time commitment to die to oneself and live the new life in Messiah. However, this statement, as exhibited throughout the Scripture, is a metaphor for an ongoing and continual vigilance by which the believer must separate themself from the sin that is present each and every day. This is not a one-time event but a constant battle that every believer in Yahweh must maintain.

Paul says the believer has the ability through the Spirit of God to overcome these challenges, and to be led by the Spirit, and not by the flesh, is the true hallmark of those who are children of God. Vigilance in this battle means relying on God’s strength to overcome the woman of bad character or the flesh, what the apostle John calls “the world,” all of which can be overcome by our faith in Messiah.

1 John 5:3-5 – For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Yeshua is the Son of God?

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

We have an obligation to forgive others

We must extend the love and forgiveness of God that we have received to others.

Core of the Bible podcast #77 – We have an obligation to forgive others

Today we will be looking at the topic of forgiveness, and how a recognition of the depth of our forgiven state should motivate us to forgive others.

Colossians 3:13 – “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.”

Paul is here reminding the Colossian believers of an obligation they have to forgive anyone who offends them.

The faults that Paul mentions here in this verse speak of those who have complaints or blame to assign to another. In my experience, there will always be blame to assign to someone, and there will always be complaints about others. The exhortation that Paul gives for overcoming this blame and complaining attitude of others is that those who are to forgive need only to recognize how much God forgave them.

If we are honest about this kind of thinking, we have been in this same condition before God; grumblers and complainers, assigning blame to others. Like our natural parents Adam and Eve, we have looked for excuses as to why we have not obeyed God, and we have been quick to assign blame to another:

Genesis 3:11-13 – “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.” Then Yahweh God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

In our natural state prior to coming to faith in Messiah, if you’ll pardon the expression, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree. And yet, even in our new relationship with God, as we seek to grow the “new man” within us, sometimes those old tendencies rear their head and cause us to stumble.

Now, at this point, many believers may agree with this challenge of being led astray by our old, sinful tendencies and be reminded of Paul’s monologue in Romans seven. This is where he describes the challenges of overcoming the flesh to be obedient to the word of God. It’s a long quote, but worth reviewing in the context of our current discussion:

Romans 7:14-23 – For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

This passage has been used by many to justify the condition of sin in their lives, saying, “See, even the apostle Paul struggled with sin so much that he couldn’t always faithfully follow God’s law, even though he wanted to.”

Well, that is certainly how it appears by reading this passage in isolation. However, if we place it back into its context within the overall message of Romans, we may see that it is teaching something completely different. In a moment, we’ll take a look at what this passage looks like within the wider context of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

When we step back and take a wider view of Paul’s line of reasoning starting back in the beginning of chapter six of Romans, we can get a better perspective of where this line of reasoning goes, and how he illustrates various points along the way.

In the opening verses of chapter six, Paul writes, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

With this plain statement, we can already see how Paul is of the opinion that believers should not be continuing to struggle with sinful lifestyles. This is the opening salvo in the argument which follows, in which Paul attempts to show how believers are no longer subject to the sin they have become so used to.

In one of his first illustrations, he describes how the believer has in essence died with Messiah, and therefore should be living a new life.

Romans 6:11-12 – “So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Messiah Yeshua. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.”

He then uses the example of slavery, and declares how believers have been set free from the slavery of sin.

Romans 6:22 – “But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification ​– ​and the outcome is eternal life!”

In the beginning of chapter seven, he then uses an illustration from marriage, saying how death of one partner releases them from the bonds of marriage, and the survivor is free to marry another without committing adultery.

Romans 7:2 – “For example, a married woman is legally bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law regarding the husband.”

This is an illustration of moving from the letter of the law in Moses to the spirit of the law in Messiah.

He then even goes so far as to demonstrate how the very law of God itself, that which was intended for life, can produce death because of the sinful tendencies of the unregenerate human heart. That long passage in chapter seven which we have already reviewed is the continuation of that thought. It’s as if he is expressing the thoughts, not of a believer, but of an unregenerate Jew who is still attempting to hold to the law of God by their own merit, through their flesh.

But the culmination of all of these examples and illustrations comes in the triumphant exclamation of verses 24-25 of chapter seven: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Messiah Yeshua our Lord!”

He comes to the conclusion that God, through belief in Messiah, has the ability to overcome all of these challenges. He raises believers to life, sets them free from sin and marries them to a new husband!

Then, it’s as if Paul, taking one final look over his shoulder at all of the illustrations he has just made, re-states the problem of the one who is not born from above:

Romans 7:25 – “So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but the flesh, the law of sin.”

As the narrative then moves into the next chapter, his line of reasoning then ascends to the beautiful reality of the regenerate believer, one who has become born again through a vibrant faith in the Messiah:

Romans 8:1-5 – “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Messiah Yeshua, because the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.”

The answer to the problem of sin and the flesh, Paul says, is to live by the empowering of God’s Spirit. This should be the reality for the believer, not the see-saw of frustrated obedience in Romans chapter seven; no, that is the result of trying to serve God in the flesh and not through his indwelling Spirit.

This teaching on living by the Spirit actually dovetails perfectly with our current discussion regarding forgiveness of others, because when we are attempting to serve God in the flesh, we open ourselves to all of the negative connotations of worldly religion. Among other things, we can fall prey to a measure of hypocrisy, something hated by all and cautioned against by Messiah.

Matthew 6:14-15 – “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

When we refuse to forgive, it’s the flesh that is rising up because it has been offended by something that it does not approve of. That is the natural reaction of the natural person, the one who has not been regenerated by the Spirit of God. But it is hypocritical of us to be subject to the flesh and to remain unforgiving of others. Why? Because the admonition of Paul in Colossians 3:13 says because “the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” A literal rendering of this instruction would be “in the same manner or to the same degree that God has forgiven you, you should do in like fashion to others.”

When we tie this admonition to the realization of the believer’s new and empowering life in the Spirit, we can see how this instruction can be observed and followed in our lives today. Our flesh may recoil at the idea of forgiving someone who may not seem to deserve it, but the Spirit living inside us can empower us to provide that forgiveness anyway. This is not only a suggestion but an urgent command: “you must forgive others.”

This is how believers can be witnesses to those around them that they have been regenerated by the Spirit of God. This is how the kingdom of God continues to grow: through our faithful obedience to the commands of God, and through extending the love and forgiveness of God that we have received to others.

We have to remember that we have been disobedient before God in any number of ways that only we know within ourselves, yet somehow God was willing to overlook these rebellious faults and still call us to himself. If his same Spirit resides in us, then is it not reasonable that he wants to extend that same forgiveness through us?

With what measure and how much has God forgiven you? When we realize the depth of that forgiveness, it should reveal our ability, and our obligation, to forgive others in a new light.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.