Lesson #6 – Introduction – Feb. 8 – 15 I AM the Son of God

            Throughout the centuries there have been two foundational doctrines of the Christian faith that have received more criticism and attacks than any other tenets.  What do you think that they might be?  You would be correct if you said that they are the Deity of Christ and The Trinity.  When Jesus was here on earth, He most often referred to Himself as “the Son of Man”, but there were times when He had to make it abundantly clear to the Jews that He was also “God’s Son”.  The fact that this man, Jesus, claimed to be God, to be equal with God, to have the nature of God and to actually be one with His Father was the ultimate crime that caused His enemies to seek His death.  Little did they realize that in crucifying Him, they would enable Him to display His final and ultimate victory over sin and death.

            The great and historical Creeds, concisely expressed summaries of doctrine written in the early centuries after Christ’s death and resurrection, still help us today to articulate these Biblical truths.  The Athanasian Creed, written in the fifth century, declares that “We worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity. . .  For the person of the Father is one; of the Son, another; of the Holy Spirit, another.  But the divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one, the glory equal, the majesty equal.”  The creed goes on to succinctly express that there is one, eternal and infinite being and yet within one there are three  who are coeternal and coequal with each other.

            In 2007, William  P. Young, wrote a controversial short novel, called The Shack.  Very quickly this book rose to be #1 on the NY Times best seller list and remained there for more than 70 weeks.  While some people criticized the story for making what they felt to be sacred and holy into a less than believable and imaginary story about the interaction of the Three Persons of the Deity (the Trinity) with an individual man, thousands of others were blessed by coming to understand in a small way that what they believe about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, has enormous implications for real life.  

            It just might be that we have a clear need for both the intellectual expression of what we know to be true from the Word of God and the creative God-given stories which help us understand how our beliefs make a difference in the way we live every day. How would you say that believing that Jesus is truly God, the Savior of the world, will affect your behavior and choices today?

 

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