Posts

Showing posts with the label I am

I AM

Image
God’s answer to Moses was unmistakably clear, taken quite literally, and without any of the emendation, ingenious substitution, or imaginative imposition that have frequently been heaped upon it “ʾEhyeh, ʾasher ʾehyeh,” God says, “I AM the One Who Always Is.” This response is anticipated by God’s emphatic “I AM” in 3:12 and echoed by his statement to Moses for Israel at the end of 3:14, “I AM has sent me forth to you.” More literally still, the answer of 3:14 is “I AM that I AM,” or even “I AM always I AM.” ʾEhyeh occurs once in 3:12, and three times in 3:14, and becomes the basis for the revelation of the tetragram YHWH, a name generally transliterated “Yahweh,” in 3:15. Durham, J. (1990). Exodus (pp. 23–24). Zondervan Academic.

What is the holiness of God?

Image
The title "Holy One of God" means that Jesus is infinitely and absolutely holy, fully and perfectly divine. He is transcendent and majestic. He came down from above to save sinners, yet He is set-apart from sinners in that He is completely sinless, without any moral blemish, perfect in all of His ways. His being is holy. His character is holy. His mind is holy. His motives are holy. His words are holy. His actions are holy. His ways are holy. His judgments are holy. From the top of His head to the bottom of His feet, every inch, every ounce, the totality, the sum and the substance of the second person of the Godhead is equally holy with God the Father. What is the holiness of God? First, it has to do with "apart-ness" or "other-ness."  The idea of holiness speaks to the profound difference between Him and us. Holiness encompasses His transcendent majesty, His august superiority. He is distinctly set apart from us. As one infinitely above u...

God came to us - we didn't go to God

Image
God also said to Moses , “Say to the Israelites , ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” EXODUS 3:15  www.hopecollege.com Today, a person’s name is merely an identifying label, like a number, which could be changed without loss. Bible names, however, have their background in the widespread tradition that personal names give information, describing in some way who people are.  The Old Testament constantly celebrates the fact that God has made his name known to Israel , and the psalms direct praise to God’s name over and over (Pss. 8:1; 113:1–3, 145:1–2, 148:5, 13). “Name” here means God himself as he has revealed himself by word and deed. At the heart of this self-revelation is the name by which he authorized Israel to invoke him—Yahweh as modern scholars write it, Jehovah as it used to be r...

who created the World?

Image
For by him all things were created. [Col. 1:16a] The word for God in Genesis 1:1 and the Old Testament is elohim, the plural of the Hebrew el. The verb create is singular, however, so we cannot translate the verse, “the gods created.” Rather, the plural elohim refers to a singular Being. Because elohim is used, however, many expositors have believed this a cloaked reference to the Trinity. The Bible makes it clear that all three Persons of the Godhead were involved in creation, so it is felt that the use of a plural word here and elsewhere in the Old Testament hints at the tri-unity of God. We cannot be dogmatic about this, however, since in Hebrew the plural form is often a plural of majesty, as when a king uses we to refer to himself. Christians often believe that creation was the work exclusively of the Father, that redemption was accomplished only through the activities of the Son Jesus Christ, and sanctification is the work of the Spirit alone. Actually, all three Persons are...

Let there be light

Image
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. [Gen. 1:3] As God works with the raw material of creation, he first separates darkness from light. Notice that the Bible does not give us a mechanical description of how this light was produced. Rather, the focus is on the “divine fiat” that called it into being by the power of God’s word. The word fiat comes from the Latin phrase meaning “Let there be.” God speaks and things happen. Verse 3 clearly affirms the authority of God. The word authority is built on the word author. God, as Author of all things, has authority over all things. Only God has the power of being within himself. Only God can declare anything into existence. The great “I Am” is the Author who speaks. Here we begin to understand God’s power in creating all things. Theologians say the world was created ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” They also say ex nihilo, nihil fit: “out of nothing, nothing comes.” The modern secular view of the origin of the universe hold...