Taught by Grace

In this week's theology episode, we are going to look into the truth of God's providence. 

God’s providence is most vividly illustrated in the life of Joseph. If you view the story of Joseph with a human lens, you will see someone who endured many difficulties wrongfully. Let’s briefly recount his life as revealed in Genesis 37-50. Joseph’s life seemed to be a perpetual process of being done wrong. Whether it was his brothers, Potipher’s wife, the butler, or anyone else, Joseph knew what it meant to be abused and misused. However, God was at work in all of his circumstances.

Jeremiah Burroughs gives us a fitting application in his seminal work, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. In this excerpt, he writes on how knowing both God’s providence and wisdom will bring great comfort to the Christian. 

“A contented heart looks to God’s disposal, and submits to God’s disposal, that is, he sees the wisdom of God in everything. In his submission he sees his sovereignty, but what makes him take pleasure is God’s wisdom. The Lord knows how to order things better than I. The Lord sees further than I do; I only see things at present but the Lord sees a great while from now. And how do I know but that had it not been for this affliction, I should have been undone. I know that the love of God may as well stand with an afflicted condition as with a prosperous condition.”

Take heart in your afflictions. You can be encouraged in the greatest difficulties of your life because you know, not just that God is in control, but that God is good and He knows best. The providence of God should be like a river of peace flowing into the Christian’s life. For you and I may know that God is at work in every circumstance of life and that He knows best in all the circumstances of life.

In the beginning, there was God and in the beginning, God created everything. He did not take a hammer and nails and spend millennia building the world. He simply spoke and the world came into existence.

He spoke, and the light pierced the darkness.

He spoke, and the landmasses appeared from nothing.

He spoke, and everything came into being.

This week, we are going to behold the transcendent power of God in creating this world and everything in it. Though there is much to be expounded upon in these verses, I hope to just point out a few major themes to you that jump off of the pages of Scripture.

Jesus Christ has completely conquered death. We know that his death and resurrection guarantee the forgiveness of sins. However, what I want to remind you of in this episode is that it also guarantees our future resurrection from the grave. Jesus didn’t just redeem you spiritually, but His finished work will redeem and transform you physically as well!

We know that He did indeed rise from the grave and because He did, we do not remain in our sins. His resurrection guarantees that our salvation is true. However, His resurrection doesn’t just validate our faith in Him for salvation, but it also guarantees a future resurrection of all those who trust in Him.

In this week's episode, I begin a study through the foundational chapters of Genesis. There are many truths to be dove into about God, sin, salvation, and man in these chapters. 

The first of these that we will see in Genesis 1:1-2 is this, it all begins with God. If you can believe this, you will have no issue believing in a God who parted the Red Sea, crumbled the walls of Jericho, wrought many mighty wonders and supremely, came as a man to redeem us from our sins by living, dying, and rising from the dead! If you believe all of that, you must have a big view of God.

In other words, you must believe that God is God. That is it. That is what Genesis 1:1-2. It teaches the “Godness of God” to us, a term used by David Jackman. It fundamentally establishes that He is God alone. We must begin with God because everything begins with God, is sustained by God, and will be concluded by God. I want us to leave this episode having seen three fundamental truths about God and creation.

In this week’s episode, Matthew and I dive into how you can more effectively and actively share the Gospel. The Gospel is the greatest treasure, but it is not a treasure to be hidden away. Rather, we are to share it with anyone that we can! Matthew offers some helpful counsel about how you and I can do this better. 

I pray this conversation will challenge and encourage you to go out and proclaim the good news of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection!

What is the Gospel? 

What impact does the Gospel have on our lives? 

What are we to do with the Gospel? 

I was able to sit down with Matthew Hobbs and look into these questions. Over the next two weeks, we dive into the Gospel. We look at the Christian’s relationship to the Gospel and next week, how the Christian must share the Gospel. This week, we discussed the importance of the Christian’s relationship with the Gospel. Matthew answers the question “What is the Gospel?”. Then, before looking at cherishing the Gospel, Matthew emphasizes the absolute necessity of being born again. The episode concludes by dealing with the Christian’s relationship to the Gospel. As Matthew points out, the Gospel should have a manifest impact in our relationships with others, sin, and our hope for eternity.

The glorious message of the Christmas story is that the rich became poor so that the poor might be rich. It is the story of the invasion of God’s grace into a world marred by sin. It is the story of the sinless coming to redeem sinners. It is the story of God becoming a man to live, die, and rise from the grace to redeem fallen sinners. To make the poor rich.

There is no one as rich as Him, but we’re not made rich through His riches. No one has access to more land, more money, more food, more gifts, or more anything than Him, but we are not made rich through any of those things. We are not made rich by His riches, we are made rich through His poverty.

This passage points out two truths regarding Jesus Christ’s state. He was rich and He became poor. There was never a beginning to His richness, but there was a beginning to His poverty. He existed in infinite wealth and glory, but He condescended to exceeding poverty and lowliness. There is no comparison to His richness and there is no comparison to His poverty.