Bulletin Articles
Pen Points 14
Christ’s Lordship and the Word
The recognition of the Lordship of Jesus Christ is integrally linked to His word as recorded in Scripture: “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day” (John 12:48).
The only way we know the words of Jesus is by the recorded testimony of the Spirit. We cannot discern this according to what we may feel, for feelings are fickle and selfish, and we are taught to deny self (Luke 9:23). The question we continually face, then, is this: Will I keep Scripture as primary in my thinking and decision-making or will I operate autonomously to determine my own standard of authority? This lies at the heart of the feelings-v-Scripture, the tradition-v-Scripture, and the personal experience-v-Scripture debates. Is Scripture primary or secondary?
Bear in mind that any appeal to the Holy Spirit must be tempered by what the Holy Spirit has revealed, for, again, we are asking whether we accept Scripture as the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Personal claim and feelings do not prove anything relative to what the Spirit actually does. I do not deny the working of the Spirit, but I do deny that the Spirit would contradict Himself or operate in some vague, proof-less arena of feeling-based claims, for “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:8).
Jesus is the Word who gave His word, ensured His word, and by the Spirit recorded His word that we might know Him. Therefore, “Let God be true though every one were a liar.”
He’s Coming Again
Jesus did not have to prove that he was human. That was evident on its face from the time he was born. Jesus never got himself into trouble over claims about being human. However, he did have to prove to people that he was divine (from their perspective), and it was because of his divine claims that he was killed. As the high priest at the time demanded, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Matt 26:63).
Both his humanity and deity are vital for our understanding of who Jesus is and what he did on our behalf. He came in the flesh as a man to die for our sins, yet remember that he is the Word made flesh, and the Word is God (John 1:1-18). There is to be no diminishing of either his humanity or deity.
This is difficult for us to grasp, but that makes it no less the truth. The divine Messiah, the Son of God and Son of Man (also a messianic title, Dan 7:13-14), came to us that we might come to him.
He came in the flesh.
He continues with us now.
He’s coming again.
A New Creation
Christ died “so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” Therefore, writes Paul, “from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor 5:15-17).
As a child of God, you are a new creation. This connects back to Genesis 1 where God took what was formless and void and shaped it into something useful and good. We are now meant to live for Him and fulfill His purposes for us. Because we are a new creation in Christ, we are not to look at the world through the eyes of flesh but rather of faith and the Spirit. If we do this, we can help bring others to the Lord so that they, too, may be reconciled to Him.
As a new creation, we also look forward to something even greater: a new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet 3:11-13; Rev 21:1-4). This is indeed heaven wherein God will once again dwell with His people and the creation cycle will be complete. From the creation that has been corrupted by sin to a new creation remade in the image of Christ to a new creation fit for eternity, we share in the greatest of all blessings. Let us, then, be a blessing to others.
