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  • The Purpose of the Bible

    • 31 Mar 2011
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    The Bible itself is evidence of one of its main claims - that is, that the God who made the heavens, earth, and sea, and everything in them is a communicator who delights to reveal himself to wayward humans. We read in Hebrews 1:1-2, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe."

    These verses in Hebrews point to the culmination of biblical revelation in the eternal Son of God. This Son became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, forever uniting God and man in one person - 100 percent God and 100 percent man (John 1:14). The prophecies, promises, longings, and anticipations under the old covenant find their fulfillment, meaning, and culmination in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ."

    The purpose of the Bible, then, is "to make [a person] wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:15). the Bible is not an end in itself. As Jesus said to the religious experts in his day, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me" (John 5:39). So, under divine superintendence, the goal of the Bible is to bring its readers to receive the forgiveness of God in Christ and thus to possession of eternal life in relationship with the triune God (John 17:3).

    Robert L. Plummer from 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible
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  • The Mission of the Church

    • 16 Mar 2011
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    "The mission of the church is to go into the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples into churches, that they might worship and obey Jesus’ commands now and in eternity to the glory of God the Father."

    Greg Gilbert from What Is the Mission of the Church

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  • This Good News Of Salvation

    • 16 Mar 2011
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    Moved by His incomprehensible love for mankind, the Triune God was pleased not to abandon our rebellious and corrupt race to the misery and hell that it justly deserved, but to undertake to save a great multitude of human beings who had absolutely no claim on His mercy.

    In order to bring this plan into execution, the second Person of the Godhead, the Son, took unto himself a full human nature, becoming in all things like his brethren and sisters, sin excepted. Thus he became the Second Adam, the head of a new covenant, and he lived a life of perfect obedience to the Divine Law.

    Identifying with his own, he bore the penalty of human sin on the cross of Calvary, suffering in the place of the sinner, the just for the unjust, the holy Son of God for the guilty and corrupt children of man.

    By his death and resurrection he has provided the basis

    • for the reconciliation of God to humans and of humans to God;
    • for the propitiation of a righteous Trinity, justly angry at our sins;
    • for the redemption of a multitude of captives of sin whose liberty was secured at the great price of His own blood.

    He offered himself as an expiatory sacrifice sufficient to blot out the sins of the whole world and secured the utmost triumph over the enemies of our soul: sin, death, and Satan.

    Those who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ are thus to be absolved from the guilt of all their sins and are adorned with the perfect righteousness of Christ himself. In gratitude to him they are to live lives of obedience and service to their Savior and are increasingly renewed into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    This good news of salvation by grace through faith is to be proclaimed indiscriminately to mankind, that is to every man, woman, and child whom we can possibly reach.

    Roger Nicole (1915-2010)

    (via Justin Taylor)

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    I am a husband, a father, and a pastor at Grace Chapel. I also post here.

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