Sunday 7 August 2016

Lesson 1 - THE CENTRALITY OF GOD IN CHRIST


Have you ever wondered why, in interpreting the 13 letters of the apostle Paul, different people have drawn different conclusions about what exactly was on the apostles’ mind? To adequately answer this question, we need to first determine what is most important in the apostle's thinking? The first priority is to inductively determine the centre of Paul's thought. Many different themes have been taken as the Pauline centre. Justification, reconciliation, 'being in Christ', salvation history and the imminent apocalyptic triumph of God are examples of such themes. All these themes do portray specific areas of Pauline theology but they cannot be used as the centre of Paul's thought primarily because they express the work and promises of God rather than His person. These themes concern what God does rather than who He is. Take for example the theme of justification. If justification is used as the centre of Paul's thought, we will be elevating the gift of righteousness above the person who gave the gift. Taking justification as the Pauline centre will suppress other parts of the Pauline gospel. The only theme that can be taken as the centre of Paul's thought that adequately covers all aspects of the Pauline gospel can only be the person of God himself. Pauline theology, therefore, revolves around the centrality of God in Christ.

The centrality of God in Christ can be inductively derived from looking at the following
passages/verses.


  1. God and Christ

Rom 11:36
"For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever Amen.”

1 Corinthians 8:6
"yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from Whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”

Colossians 1: 16
"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”

  1. The gospel of God in Christ

Galatians 2: 20
"l have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 3: 26
"You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,”

1 Corinthians 2: 1-5
"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as l
proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For l resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 So that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”

  1. Unity and Living for Christ

Phil 1: 20-21
"20 I eagerly expect and hope that i will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Phil 1: 27
"Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then,
whether i come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, l will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.”

Phil 3: 7-11
"7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, l consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose l have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

  1. Pre-eminence of Christ

Colossians 1: 19-20
"19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

  1. Righteous living

Colossians 3: 17
"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

1 Corinthians 10: 31
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

  1. Salvation History

Ephesians 1:3-6
"3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in the accordance with his please and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”

1 Corinthians 8:6
“yet for us there is butane God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”

Questions

  1. Why is it important to determine the centre of Paul's thought?

  1. What is the difference between the ’righteous living’ of a Christian and that of a Buddhist?

When a Buddhist do good works, it is impossible to bring glory to God. His righteous living cannot glorify God because he does not know him. The righteous Christian living at the end of the day brings glory to God. A Buddhist can be good but cannot be godly. A Buddhist can qualify Commandments 5 to 10 but not Commandments 1 to 4.

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Last week we talked about God, there's us and then the blessings. Everything that God has done for us. We worked on what was in the centre of Paul's teaching and study. Often we take the blessings as the centre and that's where we went wrong. There is a trend of thought, and it's something we want to address. A lot of things happened in the 80s. It was something cultural and sociological. The interpretation of the gospel was affected by the civil rights movements and the hippies era.

You will find at the end of the 80s, the positive thinking gospel came out. After that, we have the faith movement or the faith gospel. Then came health and wealth, which is the prosperity gospel. Now we have the gospel of grace. These are some things we must bear in mind. The early church was not an ideal church. What's happening now was also some of things that happened in the early church.

When the Kingdom of God expands, it will not expand without opposition from without and within. The devil won't leave you alone. We often get into leadership because there is a need and we are approached. But in leadership you realised it's not so easy and you get to face the opposition. The early church was much like that. And that's normal. The devil is hard at work and the heart of men is full of wickedness.

Positive thinking movement had only verses that's supporting positive thinking with those verses in red. All these biblical themes cannot be the centre except God himself. The centrality of Paul's thinking is Christ. Does the Pauline Letters teach that the centre is Christ? If you make a statement without biblical support, it will just be a personal statement. Today we have to look into the Bible and see what is on Paul's mind.

The ideal thing is to go book by book. That is what we call an inductive study. I gave you the statement that the centre of Paul's teaching is God.

Why do we say that Paul's centre is God himself?

Romans 11:36
For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things, to him be the glory forever! Amen.

From
Through
To

In everything that is written, Paul is saying that it is from God, and what is maintained and sustained is through God and to him is the glory. For Paul, it is the person of God and his glory that occupies his mind. It not only apply to Paul but also many of the writers of the NT and OT.

1 Corinthians 8:6
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came, and for whom we live; and there is but  one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things came, and through whom we live.

From whom and for whom and through whom.

God in Christ. Paul's centre is not just God but God in Christ. Many of the Pauline Letters actually exalt Jesus.  Paul's centre is the person of God and his glory.

In the letters to the Colossians you will find they are situational letters to address specific problems. At the Colossians there was the Colossian Heresy. There was some teaching on ceremonialism. There were certain types of rules to obey. It's what we call ritualism and it was required for your salvation. There was also ascetism and also secret knowledge including angel worship. These are called the Colossian Heresy or an early form of Gnosticism.

Colossians 1:15-16
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

This addressed the angel worship.

Colossians 1:18-20
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Reconciled in Christ
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

That the fullness of God is in Christ.

These verses help you pick Paul's mind. And you see him as a man that when he sees the problems in the church, the Holy Spirit hovers over him as he writes to address these problems.

The second one I want to work on is the gospel. What exactly is the gospel?

The Galatian Heresy is different from the Colossians. There were Judaizers (Jewish Christians) who are teaching that to be saved, a person needs to believe in Christ, e=which is perfectly fine and also to follow certain OT rites. (eg Circumcision).

Faith alone does not save. It must be faith with works of some of the law.

Galatians 1:6-7
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Some translation calls it a different gospel. There's this word - the gospel of Christ.

Paul needed to address this because he was contending on the truth of the gospel of Christ. How does Paul answer them.

Galatians 5:1-6
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Paul contends for the centrality of Christ. That it is faith in Christ without the practice of the law like circumcision.

Galatians 3:26
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,

Gospel of Grace
Faith gospel
Prosperity gospel
Positive thinking gospel

These words like grace or faith is a theme of the gospel. There is no gospel of faith or grace and definitely no gospel of prosperity or positive thinking. There's only the gospel of Christ or God.

How do I know this? It is because I checked the bible. I used to go through the bible and concordance looking for specific words. Praise God for technology. Now I just search and all the verses comes out!

1 Corinthians 9:12
If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?
But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.

Romans 15:16
to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Except for Ephesians 6:15 that talks of the gospel of peace, but there is a reason for that. It is always the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ.

I had a conversation with a Christian who asked why is it that his non Christian friends are more successful in their business. He could not understand. To me his centre is the gospel of prosperity and his centre is not Christ.

Another talked about how he prayed so long and is still not healed. Then he said his faith is also less now because his prayers are not answered. That to me his centre is the gospel of faith and not God or Christ.

What do you think the apostle thinks about when he wakes up? How much money that he'll earn that day making his tents? I don't think so. I think this is what Paul thinks about when he wakes up.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

When he wakes up in the morning it is Jesus he is thinking of. This man is Christ-saturated. I'm a physic teacher ya, so I use the word saturation.

I want us to look at Heresy and Cults.

Jehovah Witness - Jesus was a created being
Mormons - the Bible is not complete
Oneness Movement - Jesus is God the Father
Moonies - the wife is the Holy Spirit

These are labelled as cults. They must be labelled heretical before they can be called cults. They must all get the person of Christ wrong.

There was a time I thought cults don't concern us until it happens to someone I know. Then I realised the danger of not being grounded.

Today we don't hear of so much of these cults. The game have changed. The problem we are facing today are the blessing gospels. Yet these gospels believe much of the same things we believe. The problem is when they actually tell you that you are saved through the blood of Christ, they put a full stop there. Their sermons will draw you to the blessings. They will tell you, you are saved, but after that they tell you their gospel of blessings and whether it's centred on Christ or not no longer matters.

Are they heretical? I do not want to use this word. I would use a diluted or distorted gospel. So the question is are you saved? If you are one of the cult, you are not saved. I formulated this. If it is this dilution of the gospel, you are at best a spiritual baby and at worst an unbeliever.

I do not know whether you are exalting Christ or exploiting Christ. Whether you wake up thinking about Jesus or money. If you have a church like that how do you measure spirituality. If times are good they will thrive. Their state is dependent on the financial state of the economy. But if the economy is in a downturn or if there are persecution, who will be found standing. They will probably be the first to cabut! The question is are you found standing if you are persecuted. That will qualify you of being more than a spiritual baby.

The devil or opposers of God will always recycle his tricks. They may at best be a victim and at worst a messenger of death.

The gospel is the gospel of God or the gospel of Christ.

Philippians 1:20-21
20 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

For Paul, Christ is the source and secret of Paul's continual joy, for in Paul's life, he found  all its meaning in Christ. His most precious possession is Christ.

What is one thing you cannot afford to lose? I have been listening to the hymn "It is well with my soul". The writer went through a lot, even his business failed. All things in our life, like our career or our wealth or health is not something we can anchor our life on. There are certain things that we hold close to our life. Some hold on to their careers, some their family, and some their health. Their world collapse when the things they hold close to disappears. Nothing can be a secure anchor except Christ who could be your security in life.

Look at the apostle Paul. His most precious possession is Christ. To live is Christ and to die is gain. A lot of people say they want to go to heaven. When I ask them why they want to go to heaven, they will say because there'll be no more tears, it's a nice place etc but if you ask Paul, he'll say it's because my Christ is there.

Everything he does revolves around the person of Jesus Christ. All of us as children of God will have that seed. How far we go along  our road will depend on us, how we magnify Christ in our life.

What about holiness?

1 Corinthians 10:31
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Paul did not pursue holiness for holiness sake but for the glory of God. It always revolve around Christ.

Why are Christians running on the spot? It all boils down to this.

The centre of Paul's life is God in Christ. Christ-saturation. Ask if this has been your focus? If you have not you would have been the same now as you have been before.

I want to talk about the word of God. The one thing that mark my Christian faith is the word of God. I have a certain biases and often it's through our experience.

I know someone in ministry that moved though the spirit. We are all ministers of God but we cannot be all. Some are called to be pastors, or evangelist, prophets or teachers. That's why we cannot be all. But whatever we do we have to be grounded in the word. The person today is moving in the spirit and when I talked to him, he says to me not to be a Pharisee. Does what we do concur with scripture? But he says the spirit of God has spoken to me, end of the story.

Whatever we do in ministry have to concur with the word of God and the Holy Spirit will never contradict the word of God. Theology will help you know about God. But it does not mean that you know God.

A person can know about God without knowing him. But a person cannot really know God without knowing about him.

The apostle is someone who knows about God, but more than that, he is someone who knows God.


There must be a head knowledge and a heart experience.

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