Did God Die On The Cross?

Luke 24:7 “Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”

I was at a bible conference last weekend and had made mention in the sermon that “It was not God who died on the cross but rather the Son of man” and two men at the conference approached me with questions about my statement and had insisted that God indeed did die on the cross. So the question is did God die on the cross? I say no, God cannot die. This is a question that can be only answered by a proper understanding of the “Incarnation of Christ” The word “incarnation” is like the word “rapture” neither one are biblical terms but they are both well defined in the scriptures. When I say that God did not die on the cross I certainly do not want to belittle the death of Christ at all and I do not. God is an eternal being and because of that very fact He cannot die nor can any part of Him die or else He would not be an eternal God. The word incarnation put simple is two completely separate natures in one body i.e. the Son of God and the Son of man. With this understanding we have the eternal Son of God in a human body known as the Son of man with two separate natures; however the two natures are not mixed or confounded. The Son of God was not born but rather the Son of man because the Son of God is eternal, The Son of God did not grow and learn because the Son of God is omniscient, just as the Son of God did not die He is eternal. One of these two men asked me what I was going to do with the scripture that read “God died” but after an extensive bible search I cannot find such a scripture. Ever search showed me that Christ died, or the Son of man died, but never God died or the Son of God died. My question is this why did Christ cry on the cross “…My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46. The word forsaken comes from the Greek word egkataleipō and means to leave behind in some place or to desert and we certainly know that God would never desert the Son of Man while on the cross so we must take the idea that there was a separation which means the word here means to leave behind in some place. With that being said I believe just before death deity had separated from humanity leaving the Son of man to die on the cross.

Some will say that this belittles the sacrifice and makes it insignificant but I must ask why? In the temptation was Satan tempting the Son of God or the Son of man? Satan is a fallen angel and knows God and knows God cannot be tempted so therefore he must have been tempting the Son of man. It does seem that Satan did not fully understand this man was the Son of God “And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.” Luke 4:3. While it is true that in one you have the other however the fact remains there were two separate natures in this one body. The Son of man was no less a redeeming sacrifice for our sins than the Son of God. The Son of man was the perfect sacrifice because He had lived a perfect life and by that I mean a sin free life and that alone makes Him a sufficient sacrifice.

These two men also quoted past theologians such as Calvin, Wesley, and etc. and I must say to a point all of these men all had some wonderful theology; however we must put in mind all of these were men of reformation meaning they were reformers of Catholicism and still carried a lot of Catholicism doctrine in their hearts and minds. As a Baptist I do not adhere to Catholicism in fact I do not find much that I do agree with them on, if anything. I also read and study a lot of these men but with a grain of salt. Let us remember they are just men, very smart men but not infallible. God was not born and God did not die, please do not allow ourselves to belittle God and make Him like ourselves.

We are His workmanship.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

This is a very wonderful verse that is most often overshadowed by the two verses preceding it, and that is a shame. There are three wonderful points made in this one verse, (1.) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, (2.) created in Christ Jesus unto good works, (3.) which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. All three of these points have a very glorious sovereign grace message to them that certainly should not be over looked but rather studied very deeply.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” The two main words here are “workmanship” – which means thing that is made, and “created” – which means the idea of the proprietorship of the manufacturer. With this being said we could read this part of verse 10 this way “for we are His creation and we were manufactured by God through the redemption of Jesus Christ His beloved Son. The reason so many today choose to over look or improperly define this verse is because it gives God all credit in mans salvation, and that is where it belongs. God is the very one who caused us to come to know Jesus Christ as our Saviour and therefore as believers we are His creation and not a creation of our own. We did not choose or cause our salvation to come about because the scripture is clear that we are manufactured Christians by the power of God in His dear Son. Also we need to recognize that the old creature was not recycled but rather we were made new in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” God could not use the old nature because it was totally depraved therefore He blessed us with a new one created by Him just for us.

“Created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” God not only made us anew in Christ Jesus but also manufactured us unto good works or for a purpose. God saved us all for a purpose to be used at His pleasure. Please remember by being the manufacture we are His to do as He pleases. It reminds us of a fabricator who takes a sheet of metal and makes something wonderful that he may use for his own pleasure or sell it and make more, God certainly does not want to sell His creation but rather chooses to use them as He wills. I think this is a good example; God saved a sinner and calls him into the ministry and then chooses to call him to pastor a church, God has just manufactured a Christian and a pastor at His own pleasure. He man use another sinner that has been manufactured as a song leader, prayer warrior, or maybe a Deacon, but whatever he is he is a creation of God for His own will. Isaiah 43:21 “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.”

“Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” The word “ordained” means to fit up in advance or to prepare afore. The word afore allows us to understand this was all done before, but before what? John 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” We were created before the foundation of the world to be whatever God had chosen us to be. Only in due time was God’s will brought about and also by Him and not by our choosing.

What is the Christian view of Global Warming?

Isaiah 44:6 - 8 "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. (7.) And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
(8.) Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”

We hear so much about today global warming and even some Christians have come to believe that there is such a thing; so what about it; is global warming fact or fiction as far as the bible is concerned? I wanted to look at this issue from a Christian prospective because as Christians we need to do what we can to protect the earth that God has allowed us to care for. With this being said please allow me to give you my opinion on this global warming issue. I do not believe we as human beings are destroying the earth with global warming. I believe like so many false concepts of the past global warming is a money making hoax. If we believe in the God of the bible then we must also have confidence in His sovereign will to follow through with those things ordained before the earth was ever created, and to do this we must believe that man cannot interfere with the plan that God has foreordained. If we listen to those who push the idea of global warming then we are rapidly destroying the earth by causing the heat temperature to rise, however this conclusion is reached it must be like the false concept of “carbon dating” to reach the age of the earth and if it is then it must be just as wrong. Now please allow me to point you to the word of God.

If we look at the bible we know without a doubt that if Jesus Christ was to return today the earth is guaranteed to exist at least another one thousand and seven years. We do know that immediately after the return of Jesus Christ (known as the second coming) there will be seven years of tribulation and immediately following those seven years there will be one thousand years the Lord Jesus Christ will reign on this earth plus the short time after that that the final conflict between God, Satan and those on the earth do battle and they (Satan and the ones on the earth) meet their doom. Revelation 20:7-8 "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, (8.) And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” This is the plan of God and cannot be changed no matter what anyone may say or do; therefore if the earth is warming then it has at least one thousand and seven years left. However, let’s also look at it from this standpoint; those who believe in the global warming theory say that the earth has warmed one degree, so what, the earth is going to be melted with fervent heat after these one thousand and seven years any way so what is one degree? 2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

It is my conclusion that global warming is a myth and we as Christians should treat it as such, because we need to depend on God and His sovereignty rather than a bunch of liberal ideas that separate us from trusting the Lord and His foreordained plan.

Where is God’s respect?

Malachi 1:6 "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you..."

God is no doubt speaking to the whole Nation of Israel here, because Israel was God’s Chosen son. This is not to be confused with God’s chosen people which are the elect of God. I have many times used the Nation if Israel as an example of what not to do, because when you view the bible as a whole Israel just did not show any reverence, love, or fear of God. Today she still has none of these things for God and therefore God has chosen not to use her in order to proclaim His word. However bad as it was and is for Israel, we as the chosen people of God have not done a very good job ourselves in these departments. Just look around at the people that call themselves Christians, and what you see is more or less heathens attempting to be Christians. We have Pastors sleeping with boys and girls, we have Pastors having same sex relationships with other men, we have we have church members going to nightclubs on Saturday night and to church on Sunday morning, we have adulterous relationships everywhere and all most everyone else using God’s name in vain as regular speech. We have Pastors that supports the President as he was having an adulterous relationship. We have Christians (as they call themselves) voting for people who support Gay’s and Gay marriage, these same “Christian voters” support a political party that is bound and determined to murder the unborn in the womb. Excuse me but I could just go on and on, but let’s look at it this way these very people have no respect for God or His beloved word. These very people will talk about their love for God, but I must ask how can you love God and support these things. I have had several of these people to tell me “I don’t support those things but the other ideas they have” well, I say look at Washington and tell me what is going on? Look at the heathens you have help to elect! Please tell me how this mess in Washington today glorifies God? This is the truth; you do not reverence God or His word, you attend churches that the Pastors and other church members could careless because they have no respect for God neither. These people and so called “Christians” have helped elect to office haters God and everything He is, they only quote scripture when they want to take it out of context and attempt to benefit their hellish ideas. Hate crimes legislation is still making its way through Congress against Pastor and churches as we speak, and you call yourself a Christian. This is a Christian thought for you; wait until judgment day and explain it to Jesus Christ, the One you helped persecute through His churches and Pastors.

This is a fact, there simply is very little respect for God today and truly never has been very much at all. The Lord asked “where is my honor”? “Where is your fear of me”? Well the truth is there simply is not much today. Most church services today are designed to please man rather than God and this is a disgrace to those in attendance. Where is the fear of God? Well there is not much of that to go around either. There better be a revival among some churches and their membership before Jesus returns or death takes us because once death has come then comes the judgment. The Lord asked Israel “where my honor is, and where is your fear of Me” and I must ask the same question because it doesn’t seem to be among some of those calling themselves Christians today. We better all wake up and respect God for what He truly is and not for what the secular world has made Him.

Only By Grace!

1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

This has to be one of my most favorite verses in the scripture; it is certainly one I love to quote a lot. So many times I reference this to the type of person Saul of Tarsus was before God blessed him with salvation; however God’s grace with Paul was much deeper than that, Paul’s entire Christian life was by the grace of God even the pain he endured in his death. Paul was indeed one whom had a constant reminder of his past life and could not ever thank God enough for the grace He showered on him the last few years of his life. We also beloved need to constantly remind ourselves of what we were before God’s grace was showered upon us at the time we were saved. While the deeds of Saul of Tarsus were great against the church at Jerusalem they were not any greater than ours before we were saved. We also were an enmity of the Lord before we were saved and had great sins against God. However, now that grace has come let us all put that behind us, but not so far behind us we forget that they existed. Beloved we need to also like Paul remind ourselves of what we were so that the grace of God becomes more and more sweet everyday. It is when we forget what we were that we forget what grace truly means to us. Everyday we need to pray the prayer of the publican in the story of the Pharisee and the publican in Luke 18:13 “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.” Why would the publican not lift his head to heaven? It was because he knew himself to be unworthy and ashamed to do so. You see so many today that are so much like the Pharisee who was arrogant in his prayer. Beloved what we need today is more humbled hearts among Christians just like the publican. Even though we have received the grace of God and He has given us the most glorious gift of salvation we have nothing to be proud of except the grace that God has given. The Lord reminds us in Psalms 34:18 “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” The word “contrite” means crushed which means we should have a crushed spirit in that we are all unworthy to lift our head to the Lord. Even in our justified state we still remain in sin and will until the day we are with the Lord. We still live in a state where there is nothing good in us except the grace of God and Jesus Christ. Beloved we have no right to be proud in our own right but rather continually thank God for His blessed Grace. We should never have the glorious honor of belonging to the family of God, we to as Paul proclaimed; are the chief of all sinners.

Paul also said “his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain”. Even though I may be the chief sinner I still am by the grace of God an Apostle and I will do every within the power God graciously gives me to advance His word and the gospel. Beloved I pray that the grace that God has given me also was not in vain. I pray that I pursue evil in this world with the word of God. I pray that the labor I do for the Lord is enough to show the Lord (as little as it maybe) that I am thankful for His grace, and that it was not in vain. Paul went on to say “but I laboured more abundantly than they all” not in an arrogant way but recognizing the short time he had to accomplish the task that God had given him to do. The rest of the Apostles had spent time with Jesus and learned from Him and labored with Him, but Paul had to learn quickly and that he did, but only as Paul put it “but the grace of God which was with me.” Everything about Paul’s Christian life was by the grace of God and so is it with us. Beloved we are only what we are by God’s amazing grace.