Principles of the Kingdom of God - Kenneth B. Alexander BSL, JD, Deacon

Скачать книгу

John 20:28), the vast majority of cases refer to the God revealed in the history of Israel and in the person of Jesus. Thus, ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ is a frequent designation (e.g., Rom. 15:6).

      Lord: In the OT, the chief title and representative name for God was the individual and personal name ‘Yahweh,’ translated kyrios (Gk., ‘Lord’) in the LXX and ‘the LORD‘ by several English versions. This name was used by OT authors more than 6,000 times, compared to about 2,500 times for elohim, ‘God.’ The NT continues to use ‘Lord’ for God (about 100 times), primarily in quotations from the LXX (e.g., Mark 1:3; 12:11; Acts 2:34) and in set phrases such as ‘hand of the Lord’ (Luke 1:66). The vast majority of the 719 occurrences of kyrios (‘Lord’) in the NT refer to Jesus, however, usually as the exalted Christ (e.g., Acts 2:36; John 20:28). Thus, the two most common OT names for deity, ‘God’ and ‘Lord,’ are used in the NT not only for God but also (though rarely in the case of the word ‘God’) for Jesus as the exalted Lord of the church’s faith. A much less common word for ‘Lord’ in the LXX, despotēs (Gk., ‘lord,’ ‘sovereign,’ ‘master’) is also used in the NT both for God (Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; Rev. 6:10) and for Christ (Jude 4; 2 Pet. 2:1).

      Father: Jesus referred to God as Father as the preeminent part of the Holy Trinity. He said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes” (John 5:19-21)

      ‘The God of the Fathers’: This significant OT title for God, as well as the more particular phrase of the same meaning, ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,’ is found in the NT only in two Gospels (Mark 12:26; Matt. 22:32) and in the book of Acts. As in the OT, it emphasizes the continuity of Israel and that the God of present experience is the same as the God revealed to the ancient patriarchs. Luke-Acts, which is especially interested in pointing out this continuity, thus uses the title four times (Acts 3:13; 5:30; 7:32; 22:14). In Paul and the literature dependent upon him, this title is replaced by ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 11:31; Eph. 1:3, 17; Col. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3). Again the Father is emphasized.

      The Almighty: The LXX had translated two of the Hebrew expressions for God in the OT, which probably meant ‘God, the one of the mountains’ (RSV: ‘God Almighty’) and ‘Yahweh of Hosts,’ with the more philosophical and formal pantokratōr (Gk., ‘Almighty’).

      Alpha and Omega: These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and thus represent God as the Beginning and the End, the source and goal of all creation, and thus the only God. The phrase itself is not found in the OT, but the basic formula from which it is derived is found in Isa. 44:6 and 48:12. In the NT, only the author of Revelation uses this name for God (1:8; 21:6); he also applies it explicitly to Jesus Christ (22:13; cf. 1:17; 2:8).

      The Holy One: This OT title for God, especially in Isaiah, explicitly refers to God only once in the NT (Rev. 16:5). It is used of Jesus in Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34; and John 6:69. In 1 John 2:20, the reference may be either to God or to the exalted Christ.

      God, which will be used herein as the name for the Almighty, is a three-part spirit being (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Each part has a separate function but with all the parts being completely ONE in the carrying out of their business. As we have seen above, Jesus did only those things which He saw his Father do. Jesus was the actual representation of the Father on the earth. All the power used by Christ came from the Father the creator of the heavens and the earth. Jesus made this clear: “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves” (John 14:7-11).

      The first evidence in the Bible that God is a multi faceted being comes in Genesis where God said: “Then God said, “Let Us make  man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26). The emphasis is on the “US”. Like God, man is also a three-fold being-Spirit, soul and body. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

      The Father

      He is the so-called first person of the trinity of God. He is the creator. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead (Galatians 1:1). He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:3). 1 Corinthians 8:6 says of the Father: "there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him" (creation is from the Father but made for the Son). The Father knows all things (1 Peter 1:2). He has and bestows glory (2 Peter 1:17). We relate to God the Father through the Son (Colossians 3:17). "every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11).

      Perhaps it is easier to understand this first person of the trinity as a Father of a family. There is also the Adoptive Fatherhood. This is the redeeming relationship that belongs to all believers, and in the context of redemption it is viewed from two aspects: that of their standing in Christ, and that of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in them. This relationship to the Father is basic for all believers, as Paul reminds the Galatians: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith” (Gal. 3:26). In this living union with Christ they are adopted into the family of God, and they become subjects of the regenerative work of the Spirit that bestows upon them the nature of children of God the Father. Because of their new standing (justification) and their relationship (adoption) to God the Father in Christ, they become partakers of the divine nature and are born into the family of God.

      John made this clear in the opening chapter of his gospel: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right (authority) to become children of God - children born, not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God' (John. 1:12, 13). And so they are granted all the privileges that belong to that filial relationship: if a child, then heirs is the sequence (Rom. 8:17).

      God is the perfect Father. It is under this relationship of Father to Son that brings out the tenderness aspects of God's character: his love, his faithfulness and his watchful care. It also brings out the responsibility of our having to show God the reverence, the trust and the loving obedience that children owe to a father. However intimate, rich and warm-hearted his love, God remains God, majestic, amazing and awesome. But He can also manifest qualities of anger, jealousy and destruction.

      He disciplines us for our own good. Hebrews chapter 12:4-11 puts it this way: "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES." (Hebrews 12:5-6).

      “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with

Скачать книгу