During this endeavor, I became increasingly aware of the privilege God has given me to be one of the pastors of Summit Church. One of the great joys of my life is serving at Summit with some of the most dedicated, godly men and women I have ever known.
INTRODUCTION
God's main concern was what was missing in the leaders and in their leadership over the people. The task of the teacher is to establish faithfully, through study of God's Word and.
The Doctrines of Humanity and Sin
Looking at the atonement, the discussion focused on the cause of the atonement (the love and justice of God), the necessity of the atonement and the nature of the atonement (the active and passive obedience of Christ for us). The first goal of the project was to help the class participants grow in their intimacy with God. On the pre-class survey, 43.1 percent of the participants answered that they pursue God through prayer.
THEOLOGY SESSION 1
Knowledge of the gospel
Sophaita comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17) Man must either read the gospel message in the Bible for himself or hear it from another person. Even those believers who came to salvation in the old covenant did so by believing the words of God who promised a Savior to come.27 (Wayne Grudem) 2. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Knowledge of God’s will
Special Revelation: God's words addressed to specific people, such as the words of the Bible, the words of the OT prophets and NT apostles, and the words of God spoken in personal speeches, such as at Mount Sinai and at the baptism of Jesus. The Scriptures contained all the words of God that His people wanted at every stage of redemption history, and now contain everything we need God to tell us for salvation, to trust Him perfectly and obey Him perfectly.30. And because it reveals God and His ways, it requires a careful, prayerful reading that situates passages within the grand story of God's creation, our fall, Christ's.
THEOLOGY SESSION 2
How can a correct understanding of the existence and knowability of God strengthen our missionary activity? The Incommunicable Attributes of God (Attributes God does not share) INDEPENDENCE (self-existent and self-sufficient) 8. How can a correct understanding of the incommunicable attributes of God strengthen our intimacy with him?
THEOLOGY SESSION 3
God is Three Persons
The personality of each member of the Trinity means that each person has a distinct center of consciousness. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. How can a proper understanding of the 3 Persons of the Trinity strengthen our intimacy with God.
Each Person is Fully God (The Deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit)
He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. How a proper understanding of the perfect divinity of each Person of the Trinity can strengthen our intimacy with God. How a proper understanding of the full divinity of each Person of the Trinity can strengthen our missionary activity.
There is One God (Monotheism)
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you. God is triune; there are three persons within the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together; the Father who intends salvation, the Son who ensures it and the Spirit who applies it.16 (J. I. Packer). When God designed the great and glorious work of restoring fallen man and saving sinners to the praise of the glory of his grace, he in his infinite wisdom appointed two great means for it: The one was to give his Son for them, and the other was the one who gave his Spirit to them.
THEOLOGY SESSION 4
GOD CREATED THE WORLD OUT OF NOTHING (ex nihilo)
1 Corinthians 8:6 but there is for us one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist. To say that He created 'out of nothing' is to confess the mystery, not explain it.6 (J. I. Packer).
THE UNIVERSE GOD CREATED WAS CALLED “VERY GOOD”
If the Creation was a singular exercise of divine energy which brought the world into being, a continued exercise of the same energy is provided whereby the Creator, according to his own will, (a) sustains all creatures, (b) involves himself Total. events, and (c) directs all things to their appointed end.14 (J. I. Packer). 12James Montgomery Boice, “God's Providence,” accessed July 3, 2015, http://www.the-highway.com/providence_Boice.html. By preserving all things He has created, God also causes them to preserve the qualities with which He created them.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined
- Inanimate Creation
- Animals
- Seemingly “Random” or “Chance” events
- The Affairs of Nations
- All Aspects of Our Lives
How a right understanding of the cooperative aspect of God's providence can strengthen our intimacy with him. How a right understanding of the governing aspect of God's providence can strengthen our intimacy with him. How can a right understanding of the governing aspect of God's providence strengthen our missionary activity.
THEOLOGY SESSION 5
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." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created them. 1 Corinthians 15:49 As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. For Christ is the perfect image. God and the result of the restoration process is that we are perfectly like Christ, we can speak of the image of God, which is not only our created plan but also our eschatological destiny.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned
1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them. Lord God, for years we have been walking in a state of spiritual amnesia, not knowing who we are, where we came from, or what our purpose in life is. Then Christ, through the work of the Holy Spirit, awakened us to our true purpose in life.
THEOLOGY SESSION 6
Salvation ultimately comes from the Lord
The primary reason for the virgin birth was that God's entry into human flesh could be by divine initiative. It is not by any human action or by any human initiative that salvation comes to us. The virgin birth marks Christ's origin from the human race, just as his end is marked by the resurrection.”5 (Sam Storms).
In Christ, there is a uniting of full deity and full humanity in one person
The virgin birth enables the true humanity of Christ without inherited sin 7 points to consider 6 (Sam Storms).
The virgin birth makes possible Christ’s true humanity without inherited sin 7 Points to Consider 6 (Sam Storms)
But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father
Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?
God’s justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others
- Eternity
- Omniscience
- Omnipresence
- Sovereignty
- Worthy of Worship
Christ Himself has taught it to us, and the Creed of the Holy Fathers has handed it down to us. The doctrine of the Incarnation holds that two different natures (divine and human) are united in one person: Jesus. After his earthly life, death and resurrection, Jesus did not get rid of the flesh and did not cease to be human.
THEOLOGY SESSION 7
What is your only comfort in life and in death? (Heidelberg Catechism) That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my
- The ransom to Satan theory: the ransom that Christ paid to redeem us was paid to Satan
- The moral influence theory: God did not require the payment of a penalty for sin, but Christ’s death was a way for God to show how much he loved
- The example theory: God did not require the payment of a penalty for sin, but Christ’s death provides an example for us on how we ought to trust and
Both God's love and justice were the ultimate cause of the atonement. The heart of the Gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is Christ's substitutionary sacrifice.27 (Charles Spurgeon). Government theory: the purpose of Christ's death was to demonstrate to God that his Laws had been broken.
THEOLOGY SESSION 8
God the Son
The Bible portrays the Son, Jesus, as the ultimate salvation through his obedient life and atoning death. 5.
God the Holy Spirit
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own
Election (God’s choice of people to be saved) 2. The gospel call (proclamation of the gospel)
Conversion (faith and repentance) 5. Justification (right legal standing)
Examples of Common Grace11 -- physical realm -- intellectual realm -- moral realm -- creative realm -- social realm -- religious realm. How a right understanding of the doctrine of common grace can strengthen our intimacy with God. We shall never be clearly convinced, as we ought to be, that our salvation proceeds from the fountain of God's free mercy until we come to know his eternal election, which.
Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we must always thank God for you, brothers beloved by God, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 1 Peter 1:1-2 For those who are chosen exiles from the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with the blood of his. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, that you may declare the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace
God's choice for the sinner, not the sinner's choice for Christ, is the ultimate cause of salvation.19 (David Steele & Curtis Thomas). To me it is one of the sweetest and most blessed truths in all of Revelation; and those who fear it are because they do not understand. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified.
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified
2 Timothy 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. At a time appointed and acceptable by God, those whom God has predestinated to life are, through His Word and Spirit, effectually called from the state of death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation through Jesus Christ. Men who are not chosen, even though they may be called by the preachers of the gospel to embrace salvation, and may be the subject of some common.
THEOLOGY SESSION 9
When God works in us, the will is changed under the sweet influence of the Spirit of God.7 (Martin Luther). There is much mystery about the working of the Spirit in our lives. Scripture brings repentance and faith together as different aspects of the one act of coming to Christ for salvation.25 (Wayne Grudem).
Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the
THEOLOGY SESSION 10
But doesn’t God do us an injustice by requiring in his law what we are unable to do?
They, however, provoked by the devil, in willful disobedience, deprived themselves, and yet, provoked by the devil, in willful disobedience, they deprived themselves and all their descendants of these gifts.
Does God permit such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished?
But isn’t God also merciful?
