GREETINGS!

The purpose of this blog is to share my passion for the truth of God and the truth of His Word. Sound or healthy doctrine can only be known and understood if the sovereignty and holiness of God is passionately pursued in order to know Him as He reveals Himself and then to make Him known in the same fashion. Or, better yet, a right view of God results in a right knowledge of His holy Word.

One of my goals is to attempt to stir up Christian unity among my kinsmen of the Faith. When the phrase "church division" is mentioned, the first thing many think of is that of racism or classism. While these are imporatant issues and will be addressed by yours truly, the more important form of unity/disunity among saints is that which pertains to doctrine. If the church of Jesus the Christ were more unified in how we understand Him and Scripture, then all other forms of disunity and discord would be quite minimal or nonexistent. It is my prayer that many of my kinsmen (of all races) would develop a healthy fear of God (or increase the one they already possess) and then begin to tread carefully through the Word in understanding the truth as He means and not what we want to get out of it.

Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpretation, specifically Biblical. We must gather a proper way to interpret and understand scripture that destroys our opinions and allows us to submit to the Author and know "the deep things of God" (1 Corinthians 2:10). We must not continue to "piecemeal" the Scriptures by bouncing around the pages, skipping over important elements and drawing quick conclusions that only give us limited knowledge, or worse, false knowledge that can give birth to false doctrine. The church (Greek "ecclesia" or called out ones) is supposed to be "the pillar and buttress (support) of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15) How can we be that when we are so divided on our Lord's one-true Word? How can we be a light to the world for truth when many of us are in the dark on what we believe?

Theology is not just for the pulpit. It is not just for clergy. It is for anyone who has received the righteousness of the Lord Jesus the Christ. We are to grow in His grace and not just be the recipients of it (2 Peter 3:15-18). This blog is theology in layman's terms!

Please be sure to read the articles from the earliest posts to the most recent as some of them are written in the form of a series.

2.18.2008

The NAME of the WORD

Ok, so far we know that according to John 1:1-3 that the Word was in the beginning, with God, was God and was the cause of all that exists. That's good information, but that's not all there is to know. We're privileged to know just exactly Who this Word is. If we continue to read the chapter it's revealed that this Word came into the world (v. 9) and enlightened everyone.

"The true light, which enlightened everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him." (vv. 9-10)

Verse 11 goes on to point out that the Word

"...came to his own, and his own people did not receive him."

By "his own people" it means the people of Israel which I will explain in more detail in a later post. This is pretty sad, but it's a fulfillment of ancient prophecy as foretold by the prophet Isaiah, who spoke of the Word concerning his coming and mission in chapter 53, verse 3:

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and aquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

Verse 12 continues on a higher note:

"But, to all who did receive him, who believe in HIS NAME, he gave the right to become children of God."

In order to believe in HIS NAME, we have to find out what this NAME is, right?

On a side note, names are highly significant in the Bible. A name was always given to describe the character of the person or, most definitely, the purpose to which God was using that person for His sovereign plan.

Verse 14 informs us that the WORD, even though preexisted in eternity past (from our finite perspective), came to physically exist in this world:

"And the Word 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."

Verse 16: "And from HIS fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."

The apostle writes to say that the Word is also referred to as having a direct relation to God the Father by identifying Him as "the only Son." John the Baptist is said to have borne witness about Him (v.15) and is quoted from verse 30: "This was He of Whom I said, 'He Who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.'" Before me speaks not only of His position (rank or superiority) but also of His pre-existence, or better yet, eternal existence – something else that will be address further in a future post.

Following verse 16 which speaks of our receiving grace from His fullness, we are then told specifically from Whom this grace comes from in verse 17:

"For the law came through Moses; grace and truth came through JESUS CHRIST."

Came through WHO??? There is no argument or rebuttal that can deny that the name of the Word is JESUS. The name which is defined by His earthly purpose, told to us in Matthew 1:21:

"...and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."

The name JESUS means "God saves." (Hebrew "Yeshua" | Greek "Iesous")

While this all may read like basic elementary school teaching, I'm doing this because it's amazing how many of "us" miss this truth that is so foundational to what we believe about Who we believe in and follow. There are also many "outside of us" who deny the person of Jesus and will go so far as to say that the Bible has been distorted and it has been the responsibility of their faith/sect/denomination to "correct" the so-called errors of the original writings and historical teachings, particularly on subjects like this one.

The Bible has more to unfold on this subject. Stay tuned... sooner this time ;-).

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