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April 3 - April 10, 2020
Chalcedon also warns that we should be careful to preserve the “distinction of the natures” so that they are “by no means taken away by the union.”
Gregory of Nazianzus has said, Christ is “passible in His Flesh, Impassible in His Godhead.”
“Pay careful attention . . . to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own
blood” (Acts 20:28),
“None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the L...
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For if the Son of God experienced suffering in his divine nature, he would no longer be experiencing human suffering in an authentic and genuine human manner, but instead he would be experiencing “human suffering” in a divine manner
which would then be neither genuinely nor authentically human. If the Son of God experienced suffering in his divine nature, then it would be God suffering as God in a man. But the incarnation, which demands that the Son of God actually exists as a man and not just dwells in a man, equally demands that the Son of God suffers as a man and not just suffers in a man. Thus to replace the phrase “the Impassible suffers” with “the Passible suffers” immediately purges the suffering of all incarnational significance. . . . This is what humankind is crying out to hear, not that God experiences, in a
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Thomas Aquinas said, “Not even in the hypostatic union is the Word of God or the divine nature comprehended by the human nature. Although the divine nature was wholly united to the human nature in the one Person of the Son, nevertheless the whole power of the divinity was not, as it were, circumscribed.”
A suffering God is a God we start to feel sorry for, not a God we seek help from or take refuge in.
In the end, only a God who does not suffer can accomplish redemption for
a suffering humanity. Only one who is impassible can become incarnate as the suffering servant. And only one whose love depends on no one can offer grace that is free of charge.
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth. . . . They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure. PSALM 102:25–28
Before Abraham was, I am. JESUS, IN JOHN 8:58
He always is.
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. (90:1–2)
You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. (90:3–6)
“The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth” (40:28).
No parts, no change, no time.
If no one else gives God life, then our God has life in and of himself. He is independently eternal.
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Ps. 16:11)
The reason God can offer us joy that cannot rust or fade away is that he himself is the one we enjoy.
Augustine prays, “You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made
us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”57
John Piper has spent a lifetime proclaiming this truth. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
“What is the chief and highest end of man? Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.”
S. Lewis, our “Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that I will seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD. (Ps. 27:4)
I will fear no evil, for you are with me. PSALM 23:4 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). MATTHEW 1:23
God does not have a body.
“Watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure” (Deut. 4:15–16).
First, by omnipresence we do not mean that God simply stretches himself out.
“As no place can be without God, so no place can compass and contain him.”16
Second, by omnipresence we do not mean there is any mixture between God and his creation.
The “finite and infinite cannot be joined.”
If our infinite God is omnipresent, then his power is extensive, his kingdom rule pervasive, and his sovereignty comprehensive.
If God’s “eternity renders him King alway[s], so his immensity renders him King everywhere.”25
Charnock’s summary is right on target: “He departs from us when he leaves us to the frowns of his justice; he comes to us when he encircles us in the arms of his mercy; but he was equally present with us in both dispensations, in regard of his essence.”31
Authority: “He is present with all things by his authority, because all things are subject to him.” Power: He is present “by his power, because all things are sustained by him.” Knowledge: He is present “by his knowledge, because all things are naked before him.”34
Omnipresence, when tied to providence, sets the Christian God apart from the deistic God.
“God is in everything in a general way by his presence, power and substance, but we say that he is in some things in a more intimate way by grace.”
His “essential presence maintains our beings,” observes Charnock, “but his gracious presence confers and continues a happiness.”
A “new spirit I will put within you” (36:26). “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (36:27). The Lord also promises through the prophet Joel, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” and “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (2:28).
“became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14).
“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (1:16). Moses gave us law, but Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, “became flesh and dwelt among us” in order to give us “grace and truth” (1:14).
“for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (1:20). The child’s name, the angel says, will be Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins” (1:21).
Isaiah 7:14 to be exact: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. (Matt. 1:23a)
“God with us” ...
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Here is the essence of the gospel; here is the nucleu...
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“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3).
