WHO ARE YOU LORD?

If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything Motto of the Fountain of Life

Dear brethren, how we answer  that question, “Who Are You Lord?” indicates how we interpret the Gospel.  Those who say the Lord is the Great Judge, who hates unrighteousness, will preach avoidance of sin to keep out of hell.  While those who say the Lord is the Sweet Savior who loves righteousness, will preach the practice of good works to get into heaven.  These are very broad brush generalizations used to illustrate that how see the Lord strongly forms what we think the Bible says.  So, is He angry or loving, wrathful or merciful, judgmental or gracious?  Who is He?  How do we know?  What lens do we choose to reveal the bible?  Let’s take a moment now to pray for discernment.

KNOWING GOD (A GOD DIVIDED?)

Theology has often followed the lead of Augustine and

Thomas Aquinas and has identified God through His Divine

ontology, or His essence or nature.  His essence is

studied and understood by His attributes such as knowledge

and power.  Augustine would take these human concepts and

magnify them unto perfection and reverse-engineer them

into God’s essence.  Our human knowledge becomes God’s

divine omniscience, our power becomes His omnipotence.  If

He is perfectly good, by definition He cannot sin.  If He

has eternal life, by definition He cannot die.  His divine

holiness is seen as a perfect moral goodness.

This view limits our relationship with God because it

restricts Him to utter otherness from us.  It makes Him an

abstract God divorced from the events of history.  Yes,

Jesus is seen as God atoning, but the Father is seen as

God demanding atonement.  This creates tension if not

separation in God within Himself, one loving, and one

angry.  Many theologies take their primary understanding

of who God is through His Divine nature that is His

ontology.  His essence is understood through the lens of

Greek Philosophy.  The difficulty is that no matter how

well intentioned, it is impossible for an imperfect agent

to perfectly understand perfection.  Therefore, using His

attributes as the lens, we can, at best see Him through a

glass dimly.

We all bring intellectual baggage to the bible and those

bags are layered with our inclinations and preferences.

 Our inclinations are formed by society, politics, gender,

economics, ethnicity and yes, even religion. How can we

peel away these layers and learn what the bible says?  Is

there a key to unlock all this baggage?  Brethren, the

good news is YES.  There is a key.  The key is to view the

bible through the lens of who is Jesus Christ.

A wonderful key scripture is given by Jesus Himself in

Luke 24:27-29 and 44-45.  After the resurrection Jesus

walked with Cleopas and his friend.  “And beginning at

Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all

the scriptures the things concerning Himself.”  Several

hours later Jesus appeared to the eleven.  “And He said

unto them, ‘These are the words which I spake unto you,

while I was yet with you, that all things must be

fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in

the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me.’”  Jesus

is in the Old and the New Testaments.  This is a very

important fact in knowing Who Are You Lord.  Jesus was and

is involved with life and living and He acted in history.

 We know God by what He does.  What He does is who He is.

 Consider here a very free rendering of John 14:8-10:  God

is what He does.

Grace Communion International (GCI) studies God through

His self-revelation through the Word of God through His

actions in history.  We know Him from what He did and

does.  The living Word is Jesus and we see clearly His

activity.  What does God do?  In the New Testament Jesus

is born of woman, He acts with power.  He preaches the

gospel to the poor and deliverance to the captives and the

acceptable year of the Lord.  He heals the brokenhearted,

heals the blind and gives liberty to the bruised (Luke

4:18).  John shows His many acts of love.  Paul refers to

His many acts of love.  What God does, God is.  God is

love.  (1 John 4:16.)

In the Old Testament, the LORD acts with power.  In

Genesis He creates.  He gives law in Exodus and judgment

in the Prophets.  His judgments are given in love.

 Humanly speaking, those judgments seem harsh and angry,

especially toward Samaria and Jerusalem.  Therefore, many

see the God of the Old Testament as different from the God

of the New Testament.  This view of God is incorrect.  God

is not separate or divided one testament from the next,

one covenant from the next.  The God of the Old Testament

is the God of the New.  Hear, O Israel:  The LORD our God

is one LORD.  (Deuteronomy 6:4).  Jesus Christ, the same,

yesterday, today and forever.”  (Hebrews 13:8)

KNOWING GOD (A GOD UNITED)

Regarding this divided identity approach to God,

Theologian John McKenna said during an interview on

“You’re Included” with GCI Theologian Dr. Mike Feazell,

“…it is not an accurate picture of the way He is, in

Himself; it’s not an accurate picture of the way He is in

His acts in history with Himself.  McKenna contends that

there is a continuity in the I AM of the burning bush, the

I AM of the Incarnation, and the I AM of the Holy Trinity.

 He continues, “There’s no separation, but deep and

profound integration of the dogma of the church, with the

biblical speaking of God, with the biblical theologies.

 You can’t have a separation – biblical theology over

here, and church theology over there – which has occurred

in our time, and because of it a lot of people ask this

kind of question, ‘What’s the relationship between the God

of the Old Testament, the God of the new Testament, and

the God of the church?”

Along that line Feazell made this comment: “And by ‘God of

the church,’ it seems there are two kinds…when we talk

about the church and God, there’s one approach we take as

preachers when we’re preaching to a congregation, or when

we’re pastors – we talk about God as being graceful or

full of grace, and forgiving, and patient, and loving and

helping people through crises and so on, encouraging them

to know that God is with them.  And yet when we go to find

a definition for God and we look in the creed of we look

in classical theology, to some degree, we find words like

omnipotent, omnipresent, and all-powerful, and all-knowing

– and we lay out this list as if that’s what God is.  But

when we are experiencing God in day-to-day life, we want

to preach about a God who’s more like Christ, and so it’s

like there are two ideas of God going on.”

Matthew Henry wrote that when God called Himself I am That

I am, “He had made Himself known to Moses in the glory of

His self-existence.  Now (In Exodus 34:6) He makes Himself

known in the glory of His grace.”  In actuality the grace

of God in the Old and in the New, holds the two

testaments, the two covenants together.  We can understand

the relationship between the Old and the New through the

grace of God.  Grace is what God does.

God, in His freedom to be the Great I AM, has defined

Himself in His relationship with his people.  This

relationship is grace.  He defines Himself in Exodus 34:6.

 God chooses to be our God and He chooses Israel, and us,

to be His people.  This free choice is important.  God

makes a commitment by His will and His good pleasure.

 McKenna says, “God will not be who He is without us.”

 And He is gracious toward us.

THE LITTLE REVELATION

(Exodus 34:6)

Exodus 33:19:  “I will be gracious to whom I will be

gracious and merciful to whom I will show mercy.”  How

special was this people to whom God choose to be gracious

and merciful?  They had witnessed a succession of God’s

great works since Egypt.  At the point when Moses is

receiving the Ten Commandments from the great loving I AM,

they abandon the LORD and make a heartless golden calf.

 It is to this rebellious and ungrateful people that God

says “I will be your God and you will be My people.”

The love and commitment of God shine through when God

says, in so many words, “And here is how I will be your

God.”  Exodus 34:6:  “And the LORD passed by before him,

and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, The LORD God merciful and

gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and

truth.’”  In this Little Revelation these terms are

significant because God chooses them to establish Himself

in His relationship with this rebellious people, who

prefer a metal bovine over who He is.  Notice the

description:  Merciful – Gracious – Longsuffering – Good –

Truthful.  The five terms in Hebrew are rachum, hannun,

‘erek ‘appayim, hesed ve ‘emeth.

The Little Revelation shows how God chooses to be God with

His people.  And in the New Testament we can see that

Jesus is the same God, because the same terms flow from

Jesus.  Let’s look at them a bit more closely and find

similar references in the New Testament.

MERCIFUL:  Strong’s Concordance word #7349 – rachum

(rakh-oom’) – compassionate, merciful.  John McKenna

points out that, “Rechum is cognate with the Hebrew

‘womb.’  It has to do…with beginning.  You can’t begin

anything without the rechum of God.  He is the God who

gives birth.”  God’s compassion is likened to that of a

woman from conception through birth.  The sense of rachum

is that you’re talking about the attentive care it takes

to begin something that is of God.  The golden calf did

not possess rachum.  Jesus does.

Matthew 9:27:  “And when Jesus departed thence, two blind

men followed him, crying and saying, ‘Thou son of David,

have MERCY on us.’”

Titus 1:4:  “To Titus, mine own son after the common

faith:  Grace MERCY, and peace, from God the Father and

the Jesus Christ our Savior.”

GRACIOUS:  Strong’s #2587 – channun (khan-noon):  This is

favor. He favors what He has begun and He sustains it by

grace to finish it.  God favors what He has begun.

Romans 16:24:  “The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ be with

you.”

1 Peter 1:33:  “If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is

GRACIOUS.”

LONGSUFFERING:  Erek Aphayim - an idiom; “long of

nostrils” combining Strong’s #750 – erek, arek (aw-rake):

patient, slow (to anger) and Strong’s #639 – aph (af) –

the nose, the face; rapid breathing in passion.  It is

slow to anger in the sense of patience.  The idiom “long

of nostrils” conveys a more vivid meaning than patience.

 The idiom is set in an angry face with flared nostrils,

as when flared apart as far as possible before one

strikes.  God’s face is very, very slow to look this way.

The book of Hosea offers the vividness of God’s patience.

 Chapter 11:8-9:  God is proclaiming that His heart

recoils from His judgment.  From the King James:  God

promises, “I will not execute the fierceness of My anger.”

 God’s face will not contort in rage because he is patient

with his anger.

Revelation 1:9:  “I John, who also am your brother, and

companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and PATIENCE

of Jesus Christ…”

1 Timothy 1:16:  “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy,

that in me first, Jesus Christ might shew forth all

LONGSUFFERING…”  

GOODNESS:  Strong’s #2617 – checed or chesed (khehsed):

 piety toward God, beauty, favor, good deed, kindly,

merciful, pity, grace.

Matthew 19:16:  “And, behold, one come and said unto him,

‘GOOD Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have

eternal life?”

John 10:14:  “I am the GOOD shepherd…”

TRUTH:  Strong’s #571 – ‘emeth (eh’ meth):  stability,

certainty, truth, trustworthiness, faithful, right, sure.

 Faith cognate with amen, faith – truth – faithfulness.

John 14:6:  “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the TRUTH,

and the life.”

2 John 3:  “Grace be with you…from the Lord Jesus

Christ...in TRUTH and love.”

Checed and ‘emeth both are likened to God’s faithfulness

to what He has begun, to what He cares to sustain and to

that to which He is wisely patient.

These five qualities are how Israel experienced Jehovah.

 It is how we experience Jesus.  The God of the covenants

is the same God.  The Rock of Moses is the Rock of Paul (1

Corinthians 10:4).  The Savior of the Gospels is the

Savior of Hosea (Hosea 13:4).  The God of the Little

Revelation is Jesus.  God does what God is = LOVE.  All

His actions, be they mercy, wrath, judgment or abundant

blessings, flow from streams of love.  Brethren, it is

never God against us.  It is always God for us, God with

us, and God in us.  Friends, it is always Jesus for us,

Jesus with us, and Jesus in us.

Praise the name of Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega.  Amen

Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor

Fountain of Life

A Congregation of Grace Communion International