August 15, 2005

• Friday Bible Study Notes July 15, 2005 Taught by Pastor Don

  
  

  Someone asked about the Righteousness of Christ. What I love about our Bible studies is that they are so open to questions from the people attending. And Pastor Don can answer any question put to him right on the spot. My goal is to learn the Bible that well, and I have much to learn in that regard.

  
  

  Pastor Don said you have to know who Christ is and what righteousness is.

  
  

  Phil 2: 5-11 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, and at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

  
  

  Christ – is preincarnate, who existed from the beginning John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

  
  

  Christ was there from before the creation of the earth. Jesus the Christ does not exist until after Mary. Pastor Don said that if you don’t understand that, you will have a hard time understanding the trinity.

  
  

  The Word-Spirit existed but Jesus was not in the body of a man until after Mary.

  
  

  The I AM is THE SON OF MAN, born of a woman and the Holy Ghost. His human experience was a human experience.

  
  

  He MADE HIMSELF, the Word of God made himself into humanity.

  
  

  When we glorify Jesus Christ the MAN, we miss the point of His coming as a vessel of the Holy Spirit, he could yield Himself to glorify God.

  
  

  Galatians 3:3-5 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain–if indeed it was in vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?–

  
  

  Jesus did miracles not because of the law, but by the hearing of faith. Jesus was full of truth and faith and grace.

  
  

  Galatians 3:6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (That quote comes from Genesis 15:6)

  
  

  When Jesus was fully human, a man, he had to get righteousness the same way we do, by faith. (Heather’s note, this was a challenging Bible study for me, but we have to remember that Christ was tempted in all the ways we were, he overcame his temptations as a full man, not as God, so that we can know that we too can, with the help of God, overcome temptations.)

  
  

  Christ had to learn higher and higher and higher and greater and greater degrees of faith. When fully man, Jesus did not let anyone worship him, and he directed all Glory to God, it wasn’t until after he was resurrected that he accepted worship (Thomas who after putting his hands into the wounds said, My Lord and My God – Jesus permitted that).

  
  

  Satan, with his lies, tries to get us to see Jesus of Nazareth as fully God and convince us that we can’t do what Jesus did in terms of healings and teaching, resisting temptation, and helping others.

  
  

  Just like Jesus, we have to believe and by faith the work is done.

  
  

  Galatians 3:7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Remember Jesus’ family tree, he was descended from the sons of Abraham.

  
  

  Galatians 3:13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” Pastor Don asked us, how could Christ become a curse for us if He wasn’t a man?

  
  

  *****Galatians 3:14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Through Christ Jesus we learn how to do this, without Christ showing us how, and guiding us, we would never be able to do this verse.

  
  

  Galatians 3:23-27 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

  
  

  When you put on Christ, you put on a victorious man. To put on Christ as a man is to beat the devil. Christ came out of the grave and says that the success He had he bequeaths to us. Jesus beat the law as a man, so therefore we don’t have to sin.

  
  

  Why are the temptations of Christ called temptations? If He wasn’t fully human, they wouldn’t be temptations. As God Christ could have anything He wanted, and it wouldn’t be a temptation.

  
  

  Galatians 4:1-7 Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

  
  

  The Church believes we are foster children, not fully God’s children. Christ was willing to die for us, so that we could become heirs to the throne.

  
  

  The only pain permitted as a child of God to come to us is self-inflicted pain. (Heather’s note- if we deliberately choose to sin, we bring pain on ourselves). The devil can only persecute us, that is his only weapon. He cannot defeat us for Christ has defeated him.

  
  

  Gal 4:7 – (above) we are the heirs of God, through Christ. We have the righteousness of Christ that established a new covenant for us.

  
  

  Ephesian 1:3-10 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

  
  

  What we have to do: Eph. 1:12 that we who first trusted in Christ shoould be to the praise of His glory. When we trust Christ, our work is to Christ’s glory.

  
  

  Eph 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

  
  

  We gain these blessings IN CHRIST. And Christ gave us the Holy Spirit to remind us of what Christ has done, and to guide our steps.

  
  

  I will continue this later, it was a long study, but gave me much food for thought. Jim needs the computer.

  
  

  Heather

  
  

   

  • 10:55 am
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