+ The Good Life

Making Christ Known in the Dominican Republic

 

Who is Jesus - Essential Tenet

The prebyterty of San Diego publishes a document outlining the essential tenets of the Reformed faith. Here's what they say about JESUS CHRIST:

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human. In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the

eternal Son of God uniquely entered human history and became a real human

being. He is truly the Word of God (John 1:1-3)—that is, the perfect and

culminating expression of God’s mind and heart, of God’s will and character—

present in the intimate fellowship of the Holy Trinity from eternity and fully

engaged with the Father in the work of creation and redemption.

Becoming human, Jesus was “all of God in a human body” (Colossians 1:19) and

“God with us” (Matthew 1:23)—a living tabernacle of God’s holy presence, “full of

grace and truth” (John 1:14-18). His divine-human identity is corroborated by the

true witness of scripture—in his divine conception and virgin birth, in God’s own

testimony concerning Jesus, in Jesus’ supernatural works of healing and

deliverance, in his obedience to the point of sacrificial death, and in his bodily

resurrection from the dead, ascension, and exaltation. He is now Lord over

everything in creation.

The early church in the creeds of Nicea and Chalcedon accurately interpreted and

expressed the apostolic testimony concerning Jesus—fully God and fully human.

The significance of this is: in Christ we are dealing with God himself; in Christ we

have a human being who truly represents us.

Jesus Christ is God’s only Mediator between God and humankind and God’s

unique agent for the salvation of the world. He is also the perfect expression of what

humanity was designed to be. In his complete obedience, he became the

representative Human Being, a second Adam, modeling for us human life and

offering to God on our behalf human life that is rightly in God’s image—reflecting

God’s glory in a wholly submitted life of steadfast love and righteousness.

This same Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, as attested in scripture, is to

be the center of the Christian Church’s proclamation, worship, discipleship, and

mission. As we eagerly and prayerfully anticipate that “he will come again to judge

the living and the dead” and to establish God’s righteous kingdom in fullness and

perfection, we say, “Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Scripture

Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:31-35; John 1:1-3, 14-18; Romans 5:18-19; 2 Corinthians 5:19;

Colossians 1:15-20; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 1:1-3; 1 John 4:2-4

Confessions

Nicene Creed 1.1-1.2

Westminster Confession of Faith 6.044

Confession of 1967 9.07-9.08

Brief Statement of Faith 10.2

What Is Not Affirmed

Any doctrine—

• that affirms the deity but not the full humanity of Christ, or the humanity but not

Christ’s full deity (as, for example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses do);

• that asserts that Jesus was an inspired or extraordinary or holy man, but was

merely human in nature and not the incarnation in history of the eternal Son of

God;

• that attempts to supplement the authoritative revelation of the Old and New

Testament scriptures concerning Jesus Christ and proposes a corrected or revised

revelation of Jesus (as, for example, the Book of Mormon and Mormon teaching

do);

• that discounts or discredits as untrue or as myth all or portions of the New

Testament record concerning Jesus

• that does not affirm as biblical and true the death of Christ as the central saving

act of our Christian faith, or

• that asserts that Jesus is merely one example, however noteworthy, of a divinely

approved or divinely enlightened life;

• that asserts that Jesus is one Mediator between God and humankind among other

religious options or among other spiritual or enlightened teachers or mediators;

• that contends that the Jesus Christ attested by scripture is essentially and

significantly different from the historic Jesus of Nazareth;

• that misrepresents Jesus’ mission in terms compatible with pantheism or as a

message of human self-fulfillment and divine self-realization, that God is one

being with the world or that human beings are essentially divine, and that all

religious truth is harmonious and convergent.

• that detracts from Jesus’ supreme authority over every human authority, over the

church, and over our individual moral lives.

 

An engaging love story

I just heard a heartwarming love story on NPR.  I don't like schmaltziness, but this was real and very touching.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/02/14/146717078/a-brother-and-sister-get-married-and-later-their-son-tweets-it?sc=emaf

Understanding Bullying from my friend Ian in Manasquan

Here are very thoughtful reflections on Bullying from my friend Ian.

On Being Human -Essential Tenets

The prebyterty of San Diego publishes a document outlining the essential tenets of the Reformed faith. Here's what they say about humanity:

HUMANITY—ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUSNESS AND FALL INTO SIN

Human beings were created by God in God’s own image—in true righteousness and

holiness—to know, love, and obey God and be righteous stewards of the creation.

Our earliest forebears, instead of acknowledging, worshiping, and obeying God,

became disobedient sinners and brought sin and death upon themselves and all

creation.

There is now a radical brokenness and corruption in human nature that is the result

of and results in sin. Sin is rebellion against God. No human effort can fully resolve

or redeem this defect. Sin is destructive, contagious, parasitical, polluting, disabling.

Human beings are sinners by nature, by influence, by choice, by action.

While there is an inalienable glory and nobility to human beings because they are

God’s image bearers, this image is now broken and distorted, and even our best and

noblest actions are contaminated by sin. Every part of our human being—our

personality, intellect, emotions, will, motives, virtues, and actions—is corrupted by

sin. The human will, originally free and righteous, is now crippled and defective.

As a result, human beings are in bondage to sin and subject to God’s holy judgment.

Without God’s intervening grace and salvation, they are lost and condemned.

Scripture

Genesis 1:26-27; Psalms 51:5, 143:2; Jeremiah 17:9

Matthew 15:19-20; Romans 3:10-23; 5:18-19; 7:18-23; 8:7; Ephesians 2:1-3

Confessions

Scots Confession 3.03

Heidelberg Catechism 4.005, 4.006, 4.010

Larger Catechism 7.135, 7.137

Confession of 1967 9.12-13

Brief Statement of Faith 10.3

What Is Not Affirmed

• The notion that human nature is basically good and self-redeemable through good

effort, discipline, improved environment, etc.

• The notion that man’s defective nature is the result of heredity or environment to

such a degree that human beings are not morally responsible for their nature or

behavior.

• The notion that God is the author of sin or that sin is part of his original plan to

educate and improve humankind.