Pillar 3: The Gospel continued-- Jesus is God

2 things before I begin brothers and sisters.  1.  I prayed about this Christmas.  I prayed that God would provide all that we needed.  And He did!  Praise the Lord!  God forgive me for worrying.    2.  If any of you went out and brought extra water, generators, guns, dry foods, in case the end was near, please repent.  Jesus is clear.  No man knows the day.  Therefore the only thing we can expect is that whichever day is predicted as the end, it will not be that day; because God is not a liar.  Some of you will catch that later.

In our previous post, we looked at the Gospel in a nutshell.  However, it is much deeper than it appears.  It is the most beautiful tale of sacrifice and love ever told.  But, in my haste to present the gospel, I neglected to discuss two other very important pillars of our faith.  Again, before one can truly understand and believe in the Gospel, they must believe in the infallibility of scripture (next post) and the deity of Jesus Christ.

I'm not here to pick a fight.  Some will feel as if I'm doing just that, and they will feel that way for a reason.  Here is the the statement that draws the line in the dirt.  Jesus Christ is God.  Either people are going to believe that, or they are not.  If they do not believe that, then there is not a whole lot we can do except pray for them.  We must pray that God reveals Himself to them, and that Christian sowers continue to plant seeds.    
Otherwise, if one denies the deity of Christ, then they cannot enter into his kingdom (Heaven).  How would it look if I went to live in someones home, and I refused to acknowledge that person as the owner?

If you ask anyone who Jesus was, you will get many different answers.  However, the historical record of Jesus is the Bible.  Regardless of what people believe about Jesus; we have to examine what Jesus said about himself.  Jesus said the following things concerning his deity:

John 8:24

New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁴ Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

John 10:30-33

New King James Version (NKJV)

³⁰ I and My Father are one.
³¹ Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. ³² Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
³³ The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

John 14:9-11

New King James Version (NKJV)

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’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Matthew 1:23

New King James Version (NKJV)

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

John 20:28

New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁸ And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Acts 20:28

New King James Version (NKJV)

²⁸ Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God^[a] which He purchased with His own blood.


Those are just a few.  There are many more.  We see here that Jesus was more than a mere prophet.  He was more than just a teacher of the law.  He was much more than just a moral leader.  In fact, many of his teachings went against the morals and cultural norms of his day.  But in his own words Jesus has said that He  is God.  

Either is Jesus is God, or he was just plain crazy.  The way he presented Himself was as a complete package.  There was no option to break it up and buy just the pieces we like.  Either we believe it all or we don't. 

Watch/Listen to C.S. Lewis as he explains the deity of Christ:

Pillar 3: The Gospel

This, in my opinion, should be 1.  However, in order to comprehend this one, we must first have an understanding of our depravity, and election.  If you have missed those two posts go back and read them first. 

The Gospel, in the most simple terms I can use is that God created man.  Man rebelled against God and broke God's law.  God, being a just judge (just judges must punish) has an obligation to apply the law to Man and execute the law.  The wages of our rebellion (sin) is death.  Death is hell.  God must send Man to hell for breaking the law.  God, being good, gracious, and merciful, built a loophole into the law.  He never said who had to die--he just said that death is the punishment for transgressing the law.  So God became flesh and came to earth.  He lived a sinless life, never breaking the law.  He then offered himself as a sacrifice to die in our place so that the punishment we deserve is satisfied, and we are no longer bound by the law.  All we have to do is believe in Jesus (the God-Man), and repent of our sins, and we shall be saved from the punishment we deserve because Jesus died in our place.  That is the Gospel, or Good news in a nutshell.  There is a lot more to the story, and it is all beautiful and perfect.

If you prefer the Gospel presented more artistically, check out the video.  He does a great job explaining it.

Pillars of the Faith 2: Election

No, not the Barack v. Mitt election silly.  I'm talking about the doctrine of the Christian faith that says because of Adam we are completely depraved, totally wretched, and would not seek a Holy God if he did not call us to do so first.  That is the Doctrine of Election, and it is the center of much controversy. 

I believe the doctrine of election is soooooo controversial because our limited human understanding of it causes us to think that God, by not electing everyone,  has doomed many people to hell by simply not calling them to His grace.  Is that not a hard way to view God?  Especially when we know for a fact that far better people than us may not be called. 

To those who think that way, and I am one of them sometimes, I will quote Issaiah 55:

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

Concerning the doctrine of election and everything else, who are we to question God?  Who are we to judge God?  The scripture is clear, God calls whom he wants to call, and he does not have to answer to us for it.  God calls who he will.  What we have to understand is that without God calling us, we would never seek Him.  We would continue in our rebellion, even unto death and hell. 

Paul writes the following in his epistle to Rome:

9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, 7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” 8 This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants. 9 For this is what the promise declared: “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.” 10 Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac – 11 even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) – 12 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” 13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being – to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special

It is important for us to understand this so we don't begin to glory in our decisions for Christ.  Certainly the decisions for Christ are the best decisions we could have ever made.   But, when we begin to congratulate ourselves for believing in Christ, and repenting of our sins, then we are giving credit to the wrong party.  God gets the glory for every true conversion because it was He who called us to Him, and he did it before we could commit our first sin. 

So, Brothers and Sisters, let us all rejoice that we have been called.  Let us give honor and thanks to the one who called us.  But let us also remember that in our flesh we are totally deprived, and it took a Holy God to call us to recieve His grace. 

Jesus says in the Book of John:

43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[a] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”




I hope it is clear now how the Doctrine of Total Depravity and the Doctrine of Election are linked together.  God calls us out of our Total Depravity through his Election process.  He draws us to him.  Election allows us open our hearts to the truth of the Gospel.  When we are in the flesh our hearts are hard and we are so attuned to our wickedness and the wickedness in the world that we cannot comprehend the Gospel.  When God draws us, those obstacles are removed.

How then do we have the ability to choose our destiny either in Christ, or in the world?  Next week Brothers and Sisters we will discuss Free will.  Stay tuned. 

Pillars of the Faith 1: Total Depravity

Ok, I know some of ya'll are going to call me on this, because I said I would expound on the Gospel in the last Blog entry; but it occurred to me that before the Gospel, there must be conviction, or a deeply held belief.  We'll get into what that conviction is later.

One of the issues I have with our churches is that they teach the Bible, but they do not teach doctrine, or history, or church history.  Thus we have churches full of passionate Christians who cannot really explain what they are passionate about.  The music is amazing, the preaching is exciting, but many mature Christians are still drinking spiritual milk despite the fact that they may be ready for meat.  (Mature Christians will get that reference).  I am not condemning anyone or any church.  I am simply pointing out what I believe to be a fatal flaw in our Black churches. 

Thus, in a effort to review for myself, and educate others, it is a good exercise to talk about these Christian doctrines that every Christian should have a working knowledge of.  A doctrine is a standardization of beliefs. 

Using my experience as a guide for understanding true conversion, I will attempt to frame the doctrine of total depravity, and make a case for why we have to understand that doctrine as it relates to ourselves in order to truly receive the gift of Salvation. 

Long introduction right?  What is Total Depravity?  Total Depravity is the idea that men are born as slaves to sin and as such we cannot choose to follow God, or believe in Calvary, apart from God's grace.

Many of you are saying, duhhhhh, I knew that already.  It is my hope that you did know that already.  But let's dig deeper into the application and implication of this doctrine.

I actually like the example on Wikipedia.  Imagine a glass of water with a few drops of poison added.  Most of the mixture is water, but it is unfit for consumption because of the poison.  The doctrine of Total Depravity is like that.  Man is born into evil, capable of evil, corrupt and selfish.  Man's first and driving instinct is to serve himself.  Those are the drops of poison.  Man is also capable of great compassion, incredible bravery, amazing intellect, and incredible feats of strength and ingenuity.  That is the water. 

Because the poison is thoroughly mixed in the water, man is seen by God as corrupt, because God is Holy.  Even if man does good, it is viewed by God as evil because even our good deeds are self-centered acts of indulgence.  I would submit to you that even when we are working in the church we are working toward something selfish----the Bible speaks of crowns in heaven, and treasures in heaven.  The bottom line is that no one operates out of a pure love for God, thus all of our motives and works are filthy rags before a Holy God. 

We cannot separate the water from the poison.  Even when we do good, we sin.  Let's look at some scriptures to support this:

  Genesis 6:5: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."


Genesis 8:21: "And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

Job 15:14: What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?

Job 25:4-6: How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? 5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; 6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!"


Psalms 51:5: "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

John 8:34: "Jesus answered them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.'"


You see, there is no shortage of scriptures telling us how wretched we are. 

One more point and then I'll stop.  If we are so horrible (and we are) why do go around trying to make ourselves look and appear to be so 'blessed' so 'righteous' when the Bible clearly says we are not?  Why do try to work on our 'self-esteem' so much or put so much confidence in ourselves? The Bible clearly tells us that we are 'worms.'  Is it because we don't really apply the Bible to our lives.  Is it because we only want to believe part of the Bible? Whatever it is, when Christians really understand the doctrine of Total Depravity then we humble ourselves before a Holy God and beg Him for forgiveness, and thank Him for his grace and mercy.  We wouldn't spend so much time thinking about ourselves.  How much attention should we pay a worm? 

In the next post, I want to look at how Total Depravity relates to the doctrine of Election and the Gospel (I hope I get to the Gospel).