UNDERSTANDING SCRIPTURE

PART TWO

In our quest to understand Scripture we must first understand the Author of Scripture. For the purpose of this study we will seek answers to our need of understanding from Scripture itself. Certain specific truths about God will be of great value to our understanding of who God is.

First in 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 we understand that:

  1. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, [God is the author of Scripture]
  2. and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, [There is a specific purpose for Scripture]
  3. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. [Scripture is to benefit mankind]

Second we understand from Titus 1:1-3 and Numbers 23:19 that:

  1. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which is according to godliness, [Understanding Scripture requires faith in the Author]
  1. in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, [God cannot lie]
  2. but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me[Paul] according to the commandment of God our Savior; [Mark 16:15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.]

    4. "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

     5. Numbers 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not   do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

 

Third we understand from Hebrews 4:1-3 that:

1. For the word of God is living and powerful,

2. and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and

spirit, and of joints and marrow,

3. and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

4. And there is no creature hidden from His sight,

5. but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give

account.

 

Fourth we understand that from a few other passages:

Scripture that verifies there is one true and living God.

  • Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers?
  • Deuteronomy 4:39 "Therefore know this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD Himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
  • 1 Kings 8:60 "that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other.
  • Isaiah 45:22 "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
  • Mark 12:32 So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.
  • Romans 3:29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,

30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

  • 1st Corinthians 8:5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),

6 yet for us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

  • Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,

James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe -- and tremble!

 

Fifth we understand from the following verses that God is Eternal:

 

1. Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, 'Destroy!'

        2. Colossians 1:17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

        3. Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who  is to come, the Almighty."

John 21:25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, <1>I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

Heb 1:1-14

God as the Trinity: One God, three persons.

The one God has worked in various ways. Primarily, God the Father has revealed Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is exactly like God.

Jesus as God:

  • John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
  • Collisions 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
  • Hebrews 1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
  • John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.

30 "I and My Father are one."

  • John 17:22 "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
  • 1 John 5:7 For there are three who bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

(Just to mention a few verses)

Jesus is the supreme revelation of God, completing and surpassing all other revelation God gave. He was the agent in creation, which He continues to sustain. See note on John 1:1-18. He has inheritance rights on the universe. He radiates God's glory, so that to see Him is to see God. Compare Exodus 33:18-23. He is the exact representation (Greek charakter) or the engraving or stamp of God. To see Jesus is to see the innermost being of God. His death fulfilled the intention of the Jewish sacrificial system and purified us from our sins. He is the reigning King over the universe, superior to the angels as shown by Old Testament messianic passages.

The Holy Spirit as God:

  • Acts 5:3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 "While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."
  • 1st Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Matthew 3:16-17 Then Jesus, when He had been baptized, came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

This may well be the first passage in the Bible that points us definitely to a trinitarian understanding of God. No doctrinal teaching is more difficult for the human mind to understand than the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, that one God is known to us in three Persons. It is easy to become unitarian on the one hand, emphasizing the deity and unity of God the Father while playing down the separate divine character of the Holy Spirit and the Son. It is difficult for us not to so emphasize the separate deity of the three Persons--Father, Son, Holy Spirit--that we separate them into three distinct deities. This is called tritheism, belief in three Gods. The trinitarian understanding of God is more of a conclusion that we draw after careful biblical study than a direct statement of Scripture itself. No passage of Scripture discusses or explains the oneness and the threeness of God. Our doctrine of the Trinity is our attempt to do justice to the clear teaching of Scripture: on the one hand, there is only one God; on the other hand, Scripture recognizes three Persons as divine--God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The voice of God from heaven speaks of the love that He has for His Son who is now on earth, while the Spirit of God comes down as the expression or bond of that love.

Armed with this brief understanding of the Author of Scripture we will begin part three of our seeking to understand Scripture in part three of this study.