Messiah – La Vista Church of Christ https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms Sat, 06 Dec 2025 21:01:03 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cropped-LaVistaBanner-Copy-1-32x32.png Messiah – La Vista Church of Christ https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms 32 32 157465916 Only God’s Righteousness Is in View? https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/only-gods-righteousness-is-in-view/ Fri, 11 Oct 2024 03:44:32 +0000 https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/?p=70275

by Terry Wane Benton

We need to be careful about what we swallow from preachers and teachers. Search the Scriptures to find out what is so (Acts 17:11). An example of a concern in this regard is in the words of a brother who says that the difference between the Old Law and the New Law is that under the Old “We’re keeping a resume of your righteousness” and says in contrast that under the New Law, “only God’s righteousness is in view.” That is not really the difference between the Old and the New. To clarify what he meant, he said, “Not my record, not my ups and downs.” I don’t think that gives better biblical clarity. It seems like a page out of Calvinism where God is perceived to take no account of our sins, failures, acts of kindness, or good deeds -- “nothing” but God’s righteousness. If that were so, it would mean automatically that we are “once-saved-always-saved” because God sees only His own righteousness covering all of our unrighteousness, including failures in belief. He has to see our faith or lack of faith and what we do or don’t do with that faith. This is very dangerous thinking, and it opens the door to take it further than the brother may have intended. If God looks at me and “only God’s righteousness is in view,” then the logical conclusion is that I can never fall from grace because only God’s righteousness is in view, not by turning back into sin or a lack of faith. What started this preacher down that lane of thought is a heavy influence of Calvinism and not biblical exegesis.

In essence, to be consistent with “only God’s righteousness is in view” and “not my record,” then God’s righteousness would keep God from seeing Simon’s sin after baptism (Acts 8:18-22). Peter would have told Simon, “It’s a good thing that only God’s righteousness is in view” and “It’s a good thing that your record of sinful attitude and bitterness is not in view.” Peter did not hold to the same viewpoint as our brother, and we hope we can get our brethren back on the biblical track. Where was “only God’s righteousness is in view” in this matter of baptized Simon’s life of new sin? Was this an “up and down” in Simon’s life that God could not see or would not see? God wants those who want Him to cleanse their filth to be dedicated to not jumping back into the filth, and He is watching and taking note of whether we are reckless about practicing righteousness or if we are dedicated to becoming servants of righteousness.

Here is what God is interested in seeing: He wants to see us “presenting yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). Who do you “present yourselves” (Romans 6:16) to obey? If you present yourselves to “obey sin” or “of obedience to righteousness,” that is your status, and that is what God sees. God doesn’t see Himself cleaning us up and then putting on blinders, never to see what we do with that gift of forgiveness. If you want forgiveness and a clean outfit, you must be dedicated to keeping the garment you put on as white and clean as possible for as long as possible. God sees if you intend to be reckless and play with mud puddles. Who do you present yourself to? Sin? Or “Obedience to righteousness?” God always holds that truth in view. He never pretends not to see the truth. So, “my record” and “my presentation” to obedience is very much a part of whether I can be counted righteous. Now, without Jesus’ blood, I can never be clean, but Jesus does not clean us up, and that cleansing becomes a license to “continue in sin that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1-6). In God’s view, there is a clear view of my sins and my dedication to righteousness in obedience and obedient activity.

The real difference between the Old Testament and the New is faith in the coming Savior versus faith in the arrived and named Savior. No one was ever justified by law or law-keeping because that is out the door by sinning and violating the Law. If you have violated the Law, you can’t be justified by the Law (Romans 3:20). Abraham was not justified by Law. He was justified by faith in the coming (from his vantage point) Savior (still unnamed), while we are justified by faith in the arrived and named Savior, Jesus Christ. There was never justification by law or perfect law-keeping. King David had the Law of Moses, but works of the Law never justified him. He was justified by faith in the coming Savior, while we are justified by faith in the arrived and named Savior, Jesus Christ. Romans 4 presents Abraham and David to make this point. That is the fundamental difference between the two testaments. The first was law in preparation for the coming Savior, and the second was law built on the fact and provisions that He has arrived and been identified.

Jesus provided the basis of justification, His precious blood (Romans 3:22-26). Obedient faith has always been required to benefit from His blood. The blood of Jesus is applied to our account when our faith presents ourselves as “instruments of righteousness.” His forgiveness is never license to sin. God sees when we may be trying to get the guilt off while still determined to “continue in sin.” Forgiveness requires a determined partnership with God to live the right way. We have to become people ready to commit (present yourselves) to the practice of clean and righteous living with “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 6:17-18; 16:25). That is the whole idea of repentance. You haven’t repented or died to sin if you want forgiveness with no determination to commit to righteousness. There is no automatic coverage without a commitment. So, don’t get drawn into a false assurance that God only sees His righteousness. When Simon sinned after faith and baptism, God saw it. When Peter sinned in Galatians 2, Paul knew that God saw that too, and God sees when we are in the gall of bitterness, and He sees when we preach another gospel. That is concerning when brethren believe that if they have some faith, "only the righteousness of God will be in view.” That is playing around with some very dangerous concepts to hold and share with others. Beware of such false teaching and teachers!

Now, it is absolutely wonderful that we can have the righteousness of God, not merely our own achieved level. God’s righteousness involves cleansing a sinner through forgiveness based on Jesus’ blood. 3000 sinners were made right on Pentecost. They did not stand right by their own achievements of law-keeping. They had “remission of sins” when, by faith, they repented and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:36-41). They were made right with God and celebrating, but it was not apart from repentance and baptism. It was not apart from presenting themselves to be instruments of righteousness because justification is not a matter of God not seeing the truth anymore, putting on blinders, but of His wonderful grace offering us a way to get clean and have what we need to clean up all along when we mess up from time to time. He expects us to repent and ask for the cleansing agency of His blood as needed (I John 1:7-9; 2:1-3). That is a wonderful and precious advantage to have! True grace is not cheap grace, and we must not cheapen it with such ill-advised perspectives.

]]> 70275 How would the Jews know that Psalms 110 is talking about the Messiah? https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/how-would-the-jews-know-that-psalms-110-is-talking-about-the-messiah/ Sat, 07 Sep 2024 20:33:13 +0000 https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/?p=69689

Question:

Hello Jeffrey,

I hope you're doing well by the grace of God.

I have a question about Psalm 110:1, "The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."

When Jesus quoted this in Matthew 22:45, he pointed out that David called the Messiah Lord. Please tell me where in Psalm 110 we can understand David talking about the Messiah.

God bless you so much,

Answer:

No passage in the Old Testament fully describes the Messiah and what will happen to him. Instead, we find hints about him scattered throughout the Old Testament.

"Messiah" means the "Anointed One." In Psalms 2, David talks about the reign of the Lord's Anointed (Psalms 2:2). He will reign as king from the holy mountain (Psalms 2:6). He will reign over all the nations (Psalms 2:8). He will be God's Son and is to be worship (Psalms 2:11-12), which hints at the Messiah's deity.

Psalms 132:17-18 indicates that God's anointed would descend from David.

The latter part of Psalms 110 reads similarly to Psalms 2, but the ruler is to be also a priest after the order of Melchizedek (Psalms 110:4). So while Psalms 110 is understood to be about the same Messiah, the difficult part for the Jews was understanding how a descendant of David, sitting on David's throne, could be greater than David, which is why Jesus pointed out this verse. The Jews refused to consider that the Messiah could be both human and deity at the same time.

]]> 69689 Exploring the Nature of God in the Old Testament https://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/exploring-the-nature-of-god-in-the-old-testament/ Sun, 10 Jul 2005 20:23:25 +0000 http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/cms/?p=2963

Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-6

 

I.          The nature of God is admittedly both a large subject and a difficult one

             A.         Large because the God who holds the universe in his hand would be greater than mortal man bound to a single world - Isaiah 40:12-17

             B.         Difficult because all we know of God is what God has chosen to tell us. There can be no independent analysis. Instead we must pick up clues that God has given us and examine them.

             C.         If polytheism were true, we would expect:

                          1.          Each god would have a distinctive name

                          2.          Each god would have the characteristics of deity and be addressed as divine

                          3.          We would see the various gods interact

                          4.          There would not be exclusive claims to deity

                          5.          There would be allowances to worship multiple gods

             D.         If Unitarianism were true, we would expect:

                          1.          Strong statements regarding the exclusive deity of God

                          2.          No other would manifest the characteristics of deity

                          3.          Manifestations of God, or literary devices, would not interact with God

                          4.          Worship of anything other than God would be prohibited

             E.         If Trinitarianism were true, we would expect:

                          1.          Strong statements regarding the exclusive deity of God, but with terms ambiguous enough to allow a composite unit

                          2.          There would be multiple agents that would be called God

                          3.          The divine agents would interact with other divine agents

                          4.          The composite unit called God would forbid worship of false gods

                          5.          Each divine agent would be worshiped as God

                          6.          Because of the unity, there would be times when you couldn’t tell which agent was doing the work

                          7.          Different passages might attribute the same work to different agents since they function as a unit

II.         God is One - Deuteronomy 6:4-5

             A.         Many read this passage and have decided that God is a single entity or being. Yet many passages in the New Testament give us the strong impression that God is composed of three beings.

             B.         The Hebrew word for ‘one’ is ‘echad.’ The word can refer to a cardinal number, an order (such as first place), unity, uniqueness, or individual parts of a whole (each, every).

                          1.          In particular we need to acknowledge that echad can apply to a composite unity

                                       a.          Genesis 2:24 - a man and wife become one [echad] flesh.

                                       b.          Genesis 11:6 - The people were one [echad], so God divided them

                                       c.          Genesis 34:16 - By intermarrying, the Jacob’s descendants and the people of Shechem would become one [echad] people

                                       d.          Exodus 26:6, 11 - fifty clasps are used so that it can become one [ehad] tabernacle

                                       e.          Joshua 9:1-2 - Five nations fought the Israelites as one [echad] army

                                       f.          Joshua 10:42 - Joshua conquered Canaan in one [echad] stroke, though many battles were fought as listed prior. (Not on charts)

                                       g.          Exodus 24:3 - The people answered in one [echad] voice

                                       h.          II Samuel 2:25 - soldiers gathered into one [echad] unit

                                       i.           II Chronicles 5:12-13 - The singers sang with one [echad] voice to praise God

                          2.          Hence, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 does not rule out a composite unity view of God.

             C.         What is interesting is that there is another Hebrew word, yachiyd, which means “only one”(see Genesis 22:2) and this word was not used in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.

             D.         Statements to the uniqueness of God do not rule out that God could be a composite unity

                          1.          Deuteronomy 4:35 - There is no other God

                          2.          Isaiah 44:6 - God is the first and the last, there is no other

                          3.          Isaiah 45:5-6 - There is no other

III.        The word for God in Hebrew, elohim, is a plural noun

             A.         It is particularly interesting that using a plural noun for a god was not commonly done in other countries around Israel in their languages

             B.         There is a singular form of this word, eloah, that is found in the Bible – mostly in Job by Job’s friends in their reference to God – but the vast usage (over 2500 times) is by the word elohim.

             C.         Many explain this odd form as a “plural of majesty,” but oddly it is difficult to find other occurrences where this is done, other than with God.

             D.         What makes the plural noun stand out is that when used with the God of Israel the other words in the sentence (verbs and adjectives) are in the singular form. If it is applied to false gods, the other words are in matching plural forms.

             E.         The “us” passages

                          1.          Genesis 1:26-27 - Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ... So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

                          2.          Genesis 3:22 - Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us ...

                          3.          Genesis 11:7 - Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language ...

                          4.          Isaiah 6:8 - Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?"

             F.         One explanation given for these passages is God is speaking to the heavenly host.

                          1.          The problem is that others do not instruct or counsel God - Isaiah 40:13-14

                          2.          God does not give His glory to another - Isaiah 42:8

                          3.          Man is the glory of God - I Corinthians 11:7

                          4.          Man was made in the image of God - Genesis 5:1

IV.       Statements where God interacts with God

             A.         The Angel of the LORD

                          1.          Separate from God because God sent him - I Chronicles 21:15

                          2.          Genesis 16:7-13

                                       a.          The Angel of the LORD makes a promise in the first person, a promise normally only associated with God’s work - Genesis 16:10

                                       b.          The Angel of the LORD speaks of the LORD in third person - Genesis 16:11

                                       c.          The narrator stated the LORD spoke to her - Genesis 16:13

                                       d.          Hagar calls the one who spoke to her God - Genesis 16:13

                          3.          Genesis 21:12-18

                                       a.          God repeats the Angel of the LORD’s promise as His own promise - Genesis 21:12-13

                                       b.          The Angel of the LORD again repeats the promise as his own - Genesis 21:17-18

                                       c.          The Angel of the LORD refers to God in the third person - Genesis 21:17

                                       d.          The Angel of the LORD speaks from heaven. Why the need for a representative? - Genesis 21:17

                          4.          Genesis 22:11-18

                                       a.          God told Abraham to offer his son - Genesis 22:1-2

                                       b.          Yet the Angel of the LORD used the first person to say that Abraham did not withhold his son from him - Genesis 22:11-12

                                       c.          Yet later in the message delivered by the Angel of the LORD, Abraham is told that his son was not withheld from the LORD - Genesis 22:16

                                       d.          The Angel of the LORD speaks from heaven - Genesis 22:11, 15

                                       e.          The Angel of the LORD speaks of God in the third person - Genesis 22:12

                                       f.          The Angel of the LORD speaks of the LORD in the third person - Genesis 22:16

                          5.          Genesis 31:11-13

                                       a.          The Angel of God calls himself the God of Bethel - Genesis 31:13

                                       b.          The Angel of God said he received Jacob’s vow - Genesis 31:13

                                                    (1)        That vow was made to the LORD - Genesis 28:20-22

                          6.          Before continuing, there are two ways to consider what is going on

                                       a.          The Angel of the LORD is able to speak on behalf of God without always directly stating this is what he is doing. In other words, as a representative of God he is allowed to speak as if he is God

                                       b.          Or, Angel of the LORD means exactly what he states. At times he delivers messages from the LORD, but he also speaks of himself as the LORD because such is the case

                                       c.          As we continue, think about which is the view that best matches the statements.

                          7.          Genesis 48:15-16

                                       a.          Jacob speaks of “the God ..., the God ..., the Angel”

                          8.          Exodus 3:2-7

                                       a.          The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses - Exodus 3:2

                                       b.          The LORD saw Moses turn toward the bush - Exodus 3:4

                                       c.          God called to Moses from the midst of the bush - Exodus 3:4

                                       d.          The speaker from the midst of the bush identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Exodus 3:6

                                       e.          Moses was afraid to look upon God - Exodus 3:6

                          9.          Exodus 13:21-22; 14:19-20

                                       a.          Both the LORD and the Angel of the LORD are said to be in the pillar of cloud and fire

                          10.        Numbers 22:34-35, 38; 23:12

                                       a.          Balaam was told to only speak what the Angel of the LORD says to him Numbers 22:35

                                       b.          Balaam stated he could only speak what God put in his mouth - Numbers 22:38

                                       c.          Balaam stated he could only speak what the LORD put in his mouth - Numbers 23:12

                          11.        Judges 2:1-4

                                       a.          The Angel of the LORD speaks as if he were God

                          12.        Judges 6:12, 14

                                       a.          The Angel of the LORD appears to Gideon

                                       b.          The LORD turns toward Gideon

                          13.        Hosea 12:3-5

                                       a.          Jacob wrestled with God

                                       b.          The Angel of the LORD won

                                       c.          Jacob says he saw the face of God - Genesis 32:30

                                       d.          Jacob wanted to know the name of who wrestled with him. Hosea 12:5 reveals the name

             B.         The Spirit of God

                          1.          First mentioned, involved in the Creation - Genesis 1:1-2

                          2.          Independent of God

                                       a.          God puts His Spirit on the prophets - Numbers 11:29

                                       b.          God gives His Spirit to teach - Nehemiah 9:20

                                       c.          The Spirit can be taken away - Psalm 51:11

                                       d.          Distinctive - called the Spirit of God - Exodus 31:3; 35:31

                          3.          Not a thing, but has personality

                                       a.          Psalm 106:33 - Rebelled against

                                       b.          Psalm 143:10 - is good, leads

                                       c.          Isaiah 34:16 - Gathers

                                       d.          Isaiah 63:10 - Grieves

                                       e.          Isaiah 63:14 - Gives rest

                                       f.          Micah 2:7 - Becomes angry, or impatient

             C.         The Messiah

                          1.          Superior to any man or angel. Called mighty God and Eternal Father - Isaiah 9:6-7

                          2.          He preexisted eternally - Micah 5:2

                          3.          His reign will outlast the sun and moon - Psalm 72:5-7

                          4.          Zechariah 12:10

                                       a.          The LORD is speaking, see verse 1

                                       b.          The LORD will pour out a spirit of grace and supplication

                                       c.          The inhabitants of Jerusalem will look upon the LORD

                                       d.          The LORD was pierced by the inhabitants of Jerusalem

                                       e.          The people will mourn for HIM (switches to third person in mid-sentence)

                          5.          Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3-5

                                       a.          The LORD will send a messenger to prepare the way before the LORD - Malachi 3:1

                                       b.          The Lord will come to his temple

                                       c.          The Lord is the messenger of the covenant

                                       d.          Prepare the way for the LORD - Isaiah 40:3

                                       e.          Make a highway for God

V.         None of this is absolutely clear, especially if this was all that we had to work with

             A.         God speaks of sending “agents” who then are sometimes called God

                          1.          The Angel of the LORD appears to be mainly the external agent that people see.

                          2.          The Spirit of the LORD appears to be mainly the internal agent that instructs

             B.         These “agents” are separate from the LORD, yet address themselves as the LORD

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