GLORY

The central theme of the Bible is the Glory of God, His gracious self-revelation of the beauty, majesty and excellence of the infinite perfections of His eternal being, in the creation (Psalm 19:1-6) and ultimately revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ  (John 1:14-18) (Philippians 2:5-11).  The glory of God speaks of His infinite worthiness to be known, loved, trusted, worshiped and obeyed with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength.  God reveals Himself as a triune being existing as one God, comprised of three divine persons; God the Father – God the Son – God the Holy Spirit, (2 Corinthians 13:14), equal in glory, power and authority, who are self-existent, self-sufficient, self-determining, infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, infinitely joyful; who exist together in an eternal love relationship and are infinitely happy within that relationship.  

God values above all else – finds His greatest joy, greatest pleasure and greatest satisfaction in His own Glory (Isaiah 42:8). There is none more blessed/happy, nor more fulfilled – nor more satisfied than God is in God (1 Timothy 1:11).

The Bible begins with God speaking into existence the heavens (universe) which would be the theater of His glory; and the earth – the stage in which God would begin to reveal His infinite beauty, wisdom, power and grace. (Genesis 1) (Psalm 19:1-6)

The earth would be filled with awesome wonders of nature – majestic mountains – pristine rivers – colorful forests and gardens filled with unique forms of animal and plant life – vast oceans teaming with innumerable forms of sea life – starlit skies filled throughout the day with colorful birds of all sorts – all proclaimed by God to be good; all graciously provided by God for man to rule over, protect and fully and freely enjoy under God’s loving authority (Genesis 1:28).   

Thus, God would create man and women in His image and likeness so that He could manifest/display His glory in us, to us and through us, for our eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction in relationship with Him. (Isaiah 43:7) (Psalm 8) (Psalm 16:11).

God institutes marriage between the man and the women as the relationship through which each would find great joy and delight in one another, second only to the joy and delight they would have in knowing and loving and being loved by God (Genesis 2:23-24). They would enjoy both emotional and physical intimacy with one another, and through that intimacy experience the overwhelming delight of bringing forth children, filling the earth with image bearers of God. (Genesis 1:27-28)

The ultimate image bearer of God’s glory would be Jesus Christ, God the Son (Hebrews 1:1-4) (2 Corinthians 4:16).  The promise of and need for His coming (Genesis 3:15) (Luke 1:26-35)  would be the overriding theme of the Old Testament, and the fulfilment of that promise the overriding theme of the New Testament, as 2000 years ago Jesus come into a world where the glorious image of God in man had been marred and corrupted by sin (Romans 3:23) (Romans 1:21-23), to restore that image in all who would repent of their sin and believe on His name (2 Corinthians 3:18) (1 John 3:1-3).

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The glory of God’s Kingdom, and more importantly the glory of God as King, wherein He sovereignly rules over all of the nations of the earth (Daniel 4:34-35), are dominant themes woven throughout the Old and New Testaments.   (Psalm 47:1-7)  (1 Chronicles 29:10-13) (Mark 1:14-15) (Matthew 13:44-46) (1 Timothy 1:17)

This includes themes related to mankind’s rebellion against God’s rule (Psalm 2:1-3), Jesus Christ’s conquering of that rebellion (Revelation 19:11-16) and His establishment of a glorious eternal Kingdom of perfect righteousness, peace and joy for all who enter it. (Isaiah 9:6-7) (Romans 14:17) (Revelation 21).

 RIGHTEOUSNESS  

Righteousness describes God’s intrinsic moral character, His commitment and conformity to the highest good which is His own glory (Psalm 145:17).  He will always act in accordance with that which magnifies and upholds the infinite worth and perfection of His eternal being within His relationship with man and requires that man do the same.  God’s laws and commandments are expressions of His righteousness, given to uphold his glory and secure our eternal good.

Mankind was created upright or righteous, having a nature and character in conformity with God’s (Ecclesiastes 7:29).   As such. our thoughts, words, desires, affections and deeds would be in conformity with God’s. 

We are told however, that mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve, rejected God’s righteousness, chose to go our own way, establishing a righteousness of our own, maligning and belittling God’s glory in pursuit of our own,  In doing so we became in the eyes of God unrighteous, and thus subject to His righteous judgement – death; being cut off from the glorious life with God for which man was created and subjected to His wrath (Romans 1:18-24).  The consequences of this are seen throughout Biblical history as well as in human history and are elaborated on in the Justice/Judgement section.   

The good news however, is that the theme of God’s saving righteousness, what the Bible refers to as justification, is the essential theme of the Bible, a righteousness achieved and demonstrated in the person and work of Jesus Christ and granted as a gracious gift to all who put their faith in Him. 

LOVE (Mercy and Grace)  

The Bible reveals to us that God is love (1 John 4:16); that imbedded in His very nature and character is the infinite capacity to joyfully commit Himself to the highest good of another – to the eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction of the beloved at whatever the cost.  Thus, the glory of God’s love, and his glorious expressions of that love, –grace and mercy – permeate the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. 

Because His love is inherent to His very being (1 John 4:8, Exodus 34:5-7), it is a Holy, infinite, eternal, immutable and all satisfying love.  It is expressed most gloriously within the love relationship that has existed between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit throughout eternity, with each divine person acting only to bring joy, pleasure and delight to one another in ways we cannot begin to conceive of or imagine (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Thus, as beings created in the image and likeness of God, it would be the love of God for us (Jeremiah 31:3) and our love for God and one another (Mark 12:30-31) in which we would find our greatest joy, our greatest pleasure, our eternal satisfaction (Psalm 90:14), just like God. 

God defines for us how love for Him (John 14:15-24), and love for others (1 Corinthians 13) will express itself in this world, resulting in human flourishing and our individual happiness through relationship with God and one another.

God demonstrates His love in creating for man a world filled with innumerable expressions of His infinite goodness (James 1:16-17) for man to freely enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17) under God’s loving authority.  This is referred to in the Bible as grace. The term grace, as used in the Bible, represents how God freely and joyfully displays His goodness, wisdom and power in and through His creation, for mankind’s eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction in relationship with Him and one another.  It could be argued that God’s ultimate purpose in creation was for displaying the glory of His grace (Ephesians 1:3-6).

While grace is God’s free expression of His goodness toward us which we can do nothing to earn or deserve, mercy is God’s free expression of His goodness to those in misery, who justly deserve that misery, a misery that will continue throughout eternity in Hell (Matthew 23:33).  And the Bible reveals that this misery is deserved by the whole human race (Romans 3:23) who beginning with Adam and Eve, have been unwilling to love God and neighbor, nor trust in God’s love as God designed and requires men created in His image to do (.    However, we are told in Psalm 145:8-9 , as well as numerous other passages in the Bible (Ephesians 2:4) (Micah 7:18) (Psalm 136), that mercy – translated in some passages as loving kindness, is not something God has to summon up as if it were foreign to His nature as it is to ours, but that it is His very nature to be merciful. 

Despite our deserving nothing but misery and sorrow as objects of God’s wrath and judgement, God daily displays His grace and mercy, His compassion and loving kindnesses to those in this world who are at enmity with God and one another; wherein even in the midst of our blatant sin and rebellion, He provides us with many good things, relationships and experiences to enjoy.  We are told in Romans 2:4, that God does so with the objective of leading us to repent of our sin, that we may experience the ultimate and eternal expression of His  love and grace as it is revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:8) (Titus 3:3-7)(Ephesians 2:4-9), who in the ultimate expression of God’s grace and love, provides a means, the only means for man to escape the eternal misery we have earned and to be reconciled and restored to the glorious grace-centered life with God for which we were created (John 3:16) (Romans 6:23), wherein we will enjoy the infinite, unfailing love of God forever (John 17:22-26)

REBELLION/SIN   

The Bible reveals God as King (Psalm 47:7); the sovereign ruler of His creation who has the absolute right, ability and unbounded freedom to act as He chooses, to do all that pleases Him, being accountable to nor dependent upon anyone (Daniel 4:34-35). It is this status that both Satan and Adam and every man and women since has coveted and attempted to usurp from God and is thus the root of all sin. 

Sin is a theme that permeates the whole Bible, and a condition that permeates all of mankind. (Romans 3:23).  Sin, though expressed in a number of ways is essentially the rejection of God’s purpose for and rule over our lives. It is displayed most clearly in our transgressions of His righteous laws and commandments (1 John 3:4).   

The Bible teaches that everyone born into this world is born with a nature – a bent or propensity toward sin (Psalm 51:5), and that all of us chose to act on that bent (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Thus, we are sinners both by nature and by choice. 

This nature was passed down to us by Adam, the first man to reject God’s rule over and purposes his life (Romans 5:12) and thus the first to transgress the law of God (1 John 3:4).

Although sin entered the human race through Adam; the true author of sin, the first created being to rebel against God’s rule over and purpose for creating him and who persuaded Adam and Eve to do the same, was an angel. He is identified by a number of different names or references throughout the Bible.  He is called the Serpent in Genesis 3. He is Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12-14 and the covering cherub in Ezekiel 28:14-17.  Jesus refers to him in John 8:44 as the devil, the father of all lies, a murderer from the beginning referring to his role in bringing sin and the consequence of sin, death, into the world of man.

As a spiritual being, he continues, through spiritual stealth, to deceive and influence the hearts of men to oppose God’s rule over their lives. He is referred to by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:2  as the prince of the power of the air (the spiritual world around us) who works unseen on the minds and in the lives of those who have chosen a life of disobedience to God.  In Ephesians 6:11 he is referred again to as the devil, the one who commands a spiritual army of other rebellious angels who operate behind the scenes of human history with a threefold purpose; to suppress the knowledge of the truth of the glory of the one true God, to influence and promote mankind’s rebellion, hostility and indifference toward God. and to lull mankind into a false sense of being in control of our lives and our destiny. 

In 1 John 5:18-19 he is referred to as the wicked one, in whom the whole world lies under his influence.  And finally, in Revelation 12 he is referred to as the dragon – symbolizing a being of great power – that power being his ability to deceive the whole world.  He is also identified in this passage as the serpent in the Garden of Eden as well as the devil and Satan, revealing that they are all one in the same being. 

This Bible is not clear as to exactly why God has allowed this evil being, He calls Satan and his rebel companions to continue their influence in this world.  However, we do know that God is in absolute control of whatever they do (Job 1 and Job 2).  We also know that Jesus came into this world to destroy the devils works (1 John 3:8) and will one day sentence him and all who believed his lies throughout their lives to what the Bible refers to as the “Lake of Fire,” a place of everlasting punishment for their sin.

The severity of sin lies in the fact that it is contrary to the glory of God and to the happiness of man and wellbeing of man in relationship to God (Romans 1:18-32). 

The Bible makes it abundantly clear from Genesis Chapter 2 right on through Revelation Chapter 22 that God is Holy, righteous and just – morally perfect and thus He hates and condemns sin.  Every thought, word and deed that is contrary to His righteous nature and character, every purpose of men or angels that opposes His, provokes in Him a righteous indignation (Psalm 7:11).  We learn as we study the Bible that sin, in its every expression, form and degree is cosmic treason, rebellion against the King of the universe (Psalm 2:1-3).  It is experienced by God as vile and detestable and infinitely offensive – the supreme contradiction of His holy and righteous nature and character, and as such worthy of the severest of penalties God can impose on men and angels (Psalm 9:17).

 JUSTICE/JUDGEMENT

The Bible, in revealing God as the sovereign ruler of His creation, reveals that He rules according to the wise counsel of His will (Ephesians 1:11) to uphold and fulfill His purpose in creation (Isaiah 43:7), namely the display of His glory for the highest good of mankind. 

God has the right and responsibility to define what that good is, and how mankind is to live in relationship to Him and one another to achieve and sustain that good.

To this end God wisely instills laws in nature, as well as moral laws that are consistent with His righteous nature and character, essential to ensuring and securing the eternal joy of His people, while upholding and magnifying His glory.

To provide men the maximum freedom for enjoying Him and all creation, while ensuring a just and orderly Kingdom, God establishes a just penalty for those who reject and rebel against His rule and order, namely death, the forfeiture of the glorious life with God for which man was created (Ezekiel 18:20), and confinement to an eternal prison the Bible refers to as Hell. 

From the beginning God warned Adam and Eve that the penalty for sin would be death (Genesis 2:17).  Adam and Eve in defying God’s one commandment brought the judgement of death upon themselves, as well as the whole human race.  Adam and Ever are cut off from the presence of God and the glorious life with him for which they were created, what is referred to by theologians as spiritual death.  Their bodies become mortal and they will subsequently experience physical death, as will all who proceed from them.   

From that point on God, in judgement, gives mankind over to the corrupting power of sin in our bodies (pain, disease, disability) as well as our hearts and minds. Romans 1:18-34 reveals that in judgement for man’s unrighteous living, God has given mankind over to disordered desires, vile passions and a reprobate mind, which results in sin being multiplied and the corrupting consequences of sin filling the earth.  This is evidenced in the unjust and chaotic societies we establish that exclude God and thus bring His wrath and judgement upon themselves (See Genesis 6 and Genesis 19) 

God’s giving us over to our sin in judgement is displayed personally in our selfishness and pride, our covetousness and lust for wealth and power, which ultimately leads to hatred, prejudice, violence, crime, and war.  It is displayed daily in our lust for and pursuit of things, relationships and activities that could never satisfy the deepest needs and desires of our hearts, and which ultimately lead to further corruption.

All of nature has been impacted by man’s sin as God in judgement has cursed the earth (Genesis 3:17-19) with plagues, famines, dangerous animals, and natural disasters. All that God created for man’s benefit and enjoyment will turn against man, just as man has turned against God.

All of sinful mankind is deserving not only of God’s temporal judgement in this world, but ultimately of His eternal judgement in Hell (Romans 3:9-18).

Thankfully, although God is righteous and just in His condemnation of men and women for their sin against Him, He is at the same time gracious and merciful (Exodus 34:5-7).  And we see his grace and mercy displayed daily throughout human history in the good things He gives us to enjoy, and in His promise of a redeemer, a savior through whom God will graciously provide a just means  for men and women to be forgiven of their sin and rebellion, and restored  to the glorious relationship with God for which we were created.  That means will be by God the Son, Jesus Christ coming into the world, not to judge, but to take upon Himself, as a man, the judgement deserved by all who will repent of their sin and entrust their lives to Him (Isaiah 53).    

FAITH

The Bible speaks abundantly in both the Old and New Testaments of the necessity and centrality of faith in our relationship with God. The New Testament book of Hebrews (Hebrews 11) provides both a biblical definition of faith as well as illustrations of those in the Old Testament who lived by faith. Hebrews 11:7, tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”  So, what is the faith that pleases God; faith that is necessary for us to be forgiven and accepted by God? We are told in that same passage that it is a faith that believes that God is the infinitely glorious being He has revealed Himself to be and that He is good; a rewarder of those who diligently pursue Him as the object of their deepest love and source of their greatest joy.

Jesus commands us to “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22), and we are told that our failure to do so is sin, which brings us under that judgement of God (Romans 14:23). We can only escape that judgement by having faith in God’s most glorious expression of His grace and love, namely in the justifying work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to restore us to peace with God, and to reconcile us to the glorious relationship with God for which we were created (Romans 3:21- 30) (Romans 4) (Roman 5:1).  Such faith is given by God as a gift. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

We are told that all who have been justified by faith in Jesus will live their lives by faith (Hebrews 10:38-39), trusting in God’s love, obeying His commands as evidence of our faith and resting in His exceeding great and precious promises in adverse times and circumstances.

 REPENTANCE 

Throughout the Bible we read of God’s call to repentance, for men to turn from their sin and rebellion and trust in His goodness and grace (Acts 17:30-31). This call to repentance is first made by God to Cain before he murdered his brother Abel. It was made to the people of Noah’s day prior to the flood and through the prophets of the Old Testament to a rebellious Israel. In the New Testament, John the Baptist, the Apostles of Jesus and most importantly Jesus Himself, all call for men to repent and be restored, through faith in Jesus, to the glorious life with God for which we were created (Acts 3:19-21). 

When the Bible talks about repentance it is not just talking about being sorrowful for our offenses against a Holy God and then promising not to continue in them (although it includes that). True repentance requires that we turn from our self-centered/man-centered/world-centered lifestyle; to a lifestyle that is centered on God and His Kingdom, wherein knowing and loving and being loved by God becomes more important to us than anything else in this world; wherein knowing and doing His will becomes a delight and not a duty; wherein our heart embraces Him alone as  the object of our deepest love and the source of our greatest joy.

REDEMPTION

During Biblical times, the term redemption or to redeem referred to the purchase of someone out of slavery for the purpose of giving them freedom. In the Bible it refers to God purchasing, men and women out of slavery to sin and from sin’s eternal consequences; people from every ethnic group, language and nation (Revelation 5:9-14), a people free to serve Him willingly and gladly.

God’s plan of redemption was His eternal plan to display and magnify the glory of His grace in providing a just means – the only means – by which sinful men, women and children can be freely forgiven of their sins, rescued from an eternity in Hell, restored to spiritual life and reconciled to the glorious relationship with God for which we were created (Ephesians 1:7-10).

It is a plan put into action by God immediately after Adam’s sin wherein God promises the “seed of the women”, a cryptic reference to Jesus, who would come into this world to redeem man from the consequences of our Adam’s sin, while destroying Satan’s ability to deceive man any longer.  This plan of redemption is increasingly revealed throughout the Old Testament through the writings of Moses and the prophets.   

God establishes a relationship with a man named Abraham through whom the promise of redemption begins to take form. It is through Abraham’s offspring that the promised “seed” would come. Years later, God establishes a relationship with a nation of Abraham’s offspring which God would call Israel. God graciously initiates this relationship with Israel by supernaturally redeeming them from 400 years of slavery to Egypt, and then establishing them in a land He previously promised to Abraham and his descendants. God establishes a covenant with Israel wherein He will dwell with them in the land and bless them above all the nations of the earth as the nation through which He will reveal Himself to all the world and reconcile the other nations to Himself.  He would do this by sending the promised “seed” through whom He will not only redeem Israel, but also all believing men and women from all the nations of the earth. 

However, Israel will never fulfill their part of the covenant, witnessing to God’s greatness, goodness and the glory of His grace to the world around them.  Instead they were drawn away from the gracious relationship God had established with them by the false gods and religions of those nations. Despite experiencing God’s supernatural protection and provision; despite His abundant material blessings; despite massive displays of His patience, mercy and grace in the midst of their rebellious behaviors;  despite prophetic warnings to repent or experience God’s judgement; and despite experiencing the severity of that judgement in being removed from the promised land; Israel, as a nation, never obeys God.  

This sets the stage for the entry into human history of the promised “seed”, Jesus Christ, God the Son, who will take on the form of man (Philippians 2:5-8) )through His perfectly obedient life, His sacrificial atoning death on a Roman cross (1 Peter 2:24) and His miraculous resurrection (Luke 24:6-7), accomplish everything necessary to redeem sinful men and women from the Hell they justly deserve and reconcile them to the glorious relationship with God for which they were  created.  God will declare to be righteous, worthy of inclusion in God’s forever family, all who repent of their sin and entrust their lives to Jesus as savior and submit to Him as Lord (Romans 3:21-25).  This will be the ultimate expression of God’s grace, the defining act of God’s love (Romans 5:8).

REGENERATION  

Man being spiritually dead in our sin and rebellion, will not (John 5:40) and thus cannot come to God in repentance unless God does something to restore us to spiritual life (Ephesians 2:1-6)

Thus, Jesus tells us that we “must be born again” (John 3:3-8) – regenerated – graciously restored to spiritual life through the work of God the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus would send after His resurrection. When one is “born again” the Holy Spirit enters the heart of that person to convict them of their sin and their need for a savior – revealing to them Jesus as that Savior, and granting them the faith to entrust their lives to Him.  At the same time, the Holy Spirit immediately creates in those who will become God’s people, a new heart, with new affections, desires and longings that are centered on God as the object of their deepest love and source of their greatest joy.  (Ezekiel 36:24-27).

 RESTORATION/RESURRECTION 

Upon our being “born again”, or “born of God” (John 1:10-13) we begin to enter into a process of being fully restored to the glorious relationship with God for which we were created; a process the Bible refers to as “sanctification”(2 Thessalonians 2:13).  Those who have been born again are both responsible for and enabled by the Holy Spirit to renew their minds to God’s truth as it is revealed in the Bible (Romans 12:2).  Through this process of “sanctification”, we are progressively restored to the righteous nature and character of God as it is revealed in Jesus Christ. Thus, we are to continue to pursue a relationship with God through the study of His word, through prayer, and through regularly gathering with the “people of God” to help and encourage one another in our efforts to live for the glory of God.   

As we progress in sanctification, our thoughts become increasingly consistent with God’s thoughts; our desires increasingly consistent with God’s desires; our affections increasingly consistent with God’s affections; our priorities increasingly consistent with God’s priorities, and our will increasingly submitted to God’s will. 

Upon our physical death, our spirit goes to be with God, while our dead bodies go into the grave.  Upon our death we are immediately welcomed by Jesus into Heaven and are instantly transformed into the fullness of Christ likeness in our nature and character (1 John 3:2). From that point forward, we will remain forever in the glorious presence of God, free from sin and all of its consequences and free from any temptation to sin; enjoying God and one another in ways we cannot conceive of or imagine while in this world (2 Corinthians 5:7-8) (1 Corinthians 2:9).

At the time of Jesus’ second coming, which could occur at any moment (Matthew 24:44), He will judge this present evil world, consigning Satan and all who have followed him in his rebellion against God, to an eternity in what the Bible refers to as the “Lake of Fire”(Revelation 20:11-15).  The entire physical creation (Romans 8:19-22) will at that time be restored to the beauty and perfection in which it was created, including man, as at that time our physical bodies will be reunited with our spirit in the perfection of being God intended (Philippians 3:20-21).

The restored creation is referred to in the Old Testament book of Isaiah and in the New Testament book of Revelation as the “new heavens and new earth.”  There, people from every age of human history and every nation, ethnic group and language, who in faith had entrusted  their lives to God the Son, Jesus Christ, while in this world, will reside forever with Him as well as with God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and the holy angels.  They will once again, by the grace of God, perfectly image the righteousness of God  (1 Corinthians 15:50-54) and thus there will be no sin, no suffering, no death; only fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore in the unmediated presence of our great and gracious Savior who, along with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, will be the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy – forever. (Revelation 21) (Revelation 22)