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Who is God and who are we in him?

Life & Love, Who is God?

The Great Dance — Longing for Home

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Great Dance Book

I have been reading C. Baxter Kruger’s book, The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited and I don’t know but it seems like I have already read his book. Maybe because I’ve heard him in video interviews, heard him personally in a conference in 2007 in the US, and I have read many of his short articles through the years. Or maybe, I’ve already read excerpts of this book somewhere—quoted by others. I got this book as a gift from my daughter which surprised me to my delight.

I’m almost done with the book and I’m reading that part where Baxter talks about the reality of our being in union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Being in union with the Triune God is our reality—our home. Deep inside us we yearn for home. Aligning ourselves with this reality gives us joy. To deviate from this truth is to experience sorrow and pain.

The Great Dance and Our Union with God

Knowing, embracing, believing the truth about our union with God through Christ gives us peace, joy and happiness. To be away from home, to be separated and lost in a big city as Baxter experienced when he was a young boy, is to experience fear, anxiety, sorrow and pain.

We belong to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are in union with our God. This is the truth. This is our reality. That is why we long for home. And it pains us to be away from home. If we are not in reality in union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then it wouldn’t matter at all if we’re apart from them. We wouldn’t be hurt. We won’t be longing for home. But the fact is, we all long to be home. This is evidence we are in union with our loving God. We were created for adoption into the inner circle of the life and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—to be part of that great banquet, that great dance throughout eternity.

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  • Longing to be Home
Life & Love, Who is God?

Will God Really Forgive Me?

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Over a week or so ago, a plumber was at home to fix a plumbing fixture. The landlady normally calls for him to fix whatever problems we may have with our rented apartment.

After he had checked the plumbing problem, I was surprised that he lingered a little bit more and was not in a hurry to leave our home. I thought that was a bit odd and I was getting a bit impatient as we both stood at the door engaging in conversation. I was hoping he would leave soon ’cause I had other things to do. I was “busy” hahaha!

Will God Forgive Me of My Past Sins

But then he asked, “Pastor, will God really forgive me of my past sins?” That surprised me because I thought he didn’t know that I was once a full-time pastor. Word gets out fast in the neighborhood I would suppose. He asked me about forgiveness. Anyway, to make a long story short, I assured him that God loves him and that all his past sins have already been forgiven. He need not worry about it. The burden of trying to appease an angry God surely was on his mind. I told him that God loves him so much and that his sins were already forgiven. He felt so relieved to have been given such an assurance. He said his past sins bothered him for many years knowing that he really did something that was really, really bad. He wasn’t sure about God’s forgiveness. Will God forgive him? Will he not enter heaven? These thoughts bothered him.

I saw the joy on his face very much relieved having been given the assurance that God has really forgiven him of his past sins. He finally went out the door very much a happy man knowing what God’s forgiveness truly is all about. I was joyful myself that God has used me in such an unexpected way to share the good news to a man who was conscience-stricken all his life because of his past sins. His face brimmed with joy as he walked out the door.

Truly, knowing the truth does make a man free—free of guilt, sin and shame. Free of living a fearful life wondering all his life if he could enter heaven. God through Jesus Christ gives us the assurance. God loves us and he has already forgiven us. Through Christ, it’s already a reality. The only question that remains is, will you accept this love and forgiveness from a loving God or will you reject it? Will you repent and believe this good news? I’d say receive God’s love and grace and enjoy life and love with the Triune God forever more.

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Who is God?

Three Views on Calvinism

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Double Predestination

John Calvin, Calvinism
John Calvin

Those who embrace this view believe that salvation is the eternal choice of God for some selected people only—not for all. Some will go to hell and some will go to heaven according to God’s choice from the very start. An individual has no freedom of choice. It has been decided upon a long time ago by God from the very creation of the world who are going to be damned and who are going to be saved. God’s sovereignty is the basis and foundation of this theology.

This is the view taught by Theodore Beza who took over from John Calvin. This view is also called “high federal Calvinism.”

Double/Post-lapsarian View

The second Calvinistic view is that of John Calvin himself. For Calvin, God anticipated the Fall—seeing that there will be some who will be saved and some who won’t be saved. For Calvin, damnation made no sense whatsoever. Calvin believed the character of God is that God is Redeemer. God wants to save all. That is God’s will. This view is called “double/post-lapsarian” (the Fall) view. Calvin will not and cannot explain why there is sin and evil. He will not and cannot explain why some will be damned. He cautions everyone not to explain away evil. It’s a “surd.” It’s absurd.

Theodore Beza who took over from Calvin, “made sense” of Calvin’s view by teaching “double predestination”—making everything neat and logical, a perfect system. According to Beza, God is equally predisposed to bless and to damn. For Calvin, he cannot explain reprobation and damnation.

Soft or Single Predestination or Dutch Calvinism

For this view, God wills the salvation of some but he allows the damnation of others. God has willed to save some. This is called God’s positive or active will. God has not predestined anyone for damnation. By failing to act on the non-elect—God does not do anything—they are damned. This is called passive will. God is primarily active but secondarily passive.

These are the thee Calvinistic views. The Arminian view is a result and is a reaction or opposition to Theodore Beza’s version of Calvinism.

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Life & Love, Who is God?

Do You Blame Others?

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I just got this email today: “Please help me! i need to talk to someone im in a horrible condition and tried to suicide once. Please i need to talk to a psychologist as soon as possible. You may not hear of me anymore in like a week im definitely going to suicide if nobody helps.”

The Blame Game

In my more than two decades of being a pastor, I have encountered a few cases like this (not too many) where a person would think of committing suicide for various reasons that affect them heavily. These are all to be taken seriously when someone tells you they’re attempting to commit suicide. This email writer above was kind of threatening me, warning me, blaming me and telling me that it’s going to be my fault if he commits suicide if I didn’t respond to his email. I don’t even know him. Somehow he got hold of my email address. Of course, I emailed back because it was kind of serious but that was the end of it. I did not get a response from him and I have no idea what happened next.

But let me talk about blaming others.

On Blaming Others

Most people who practice this blame game (blaming others) are the types who easily gets offended. They don’t like it when things don’t go their way the way they want it or the way they have planned it. Their emotional immaturity is obvious to all but the person himself is oblivious to it. They have a hard time relating to other people. Whether at work, in school or in the church, they normally get into trouble with their fellow classmates, workmates or church mates. Relationships are easily ruined. It’s something that is a pattern for this kind of person but the person himself doesn’t know that he has this problem. This person doesn’t know that he has become an expert in “how to lose friends and antagonize people.”

Accusing Others

How about you? Do you sometimes play this blame game too? The truth is, we all can play this game too once in a while without us being aware of it. Do you blame others too for the things that go wrong in your life? “It’s your fault, not mine!” “You have made my life miserable so I’m going to make you miserable too!” That’s how we sometimes act. In this situation, nobody wins. Everyone gets hurt. Relationships are ruined. We all need to grow up out of it.

There is one accuser that I know of. He loves to blame others. He is the accuser of the brothers in the Bible. He accuses us and blames us before God. It’s Satan the devil (Revelation 12:9-10). He can influence our thinking without us knowing it. Let us guard our minds and hearts when we begin to blame others. Stop it! The more we blame others, the more miserable we become. It’s bad for our health.

Grow Up to Maturity

Blaming others is a sign of immaturity. Let’s all grow out of it. Let’s instead grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

Life & Love, Who is God?

Christ For Us in Every Respect

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“Christ in our place and Christ for us in every respect” —Thomas F. Torrance

Many of us who grew up in a Christian environment have been taught since childhood about Christ’s death on the cross. Every year during Holy Week, we hear about the story of Christ’s crucifixion. The atonement of Christ is something we know somewhat. But now that I’m older I thank the Lord for opening my eyes to see a broader and deeper view about the atoning work of Jesus Christ. According to theologian Thomas F. Torrance, “It is curious that evangelicals often link the substitutionary act of Christ only with his death, and not with his incarnate person and life—that is dynamite for them!”

Atonement of Christ

It is only now that I have come to realize that Christ’s atoning work does not only include his death on the cross. The atonement also includes his birth (incarnation), his life, his death (crucifixion), his burial, his resurrection and his ascension. In other words, Christ’s atoning work for all of humanity includes the total person of Jesus Christ who is both human and divine. As Torrance said, “Christ in our place and Christ for us in every respect.” Thanks be to the Lord for this understanding.

Christ For Us in Everything

The atonement involves all that the Lord has done and is doing even up to now as our substitute and representative for all of humanity. The atoning work of Christ did not only begin on the cross. It started even earlier when he was born in Bethlehem. In fact, the atonement began in the triune God’s mind when the Lamb was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).

While the death of Christ is very important, I now realize that something is missing if I only focus on the crucifixion and not on the total person of Jesus Christ. It is equally missing the point if I focus on the incarnation alone or maybe on Christ’s resurrection alone. I now have come to realize that I should look at the atonement of Jesus Christ as a whole, as one complete atoning work of the incarnate person Jesus Christ for all of humanity. It is always good to have a holistic view of salvation.

Christ is Our High Priest Right Now

Right now the Lord Jesus Christ is our High Priest who is busy interceding for me and for all of us. He is our only Mediator between God and man and we don’t need any other mediator whether it be saints or whoever. We only have one High Priest and Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). Through the Holy Spirit, God is busy leading us, guiding us, transforming us to become like Christ — until Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19). When the Lord Jesus comes back, our atonement with God will have been finally, completely and fully realized. This is the final fulfillment of our “at-one-ment” with the Lord when he returns. We shall see him face-to-face, and we will be with the Lord forever (1 John 3:1-2).

This is something I look forward to even as I am now enjoying atonement, reconciliation, union and communion, life and love with God the Father through Jesus Christ in the Spirit as his beloved child in Christ at the present time. Isn’t that great?! Hallelujah!

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Updated: 2/02/2020