I suppose for the sake of clarity it would be good to mention two things. First, that I believe that while the word "trinity" doesn't appear in the canon of scripture, we can in fact discern three distinct members of our one God in the Bible. So...God is, one nature in three persons. Second, I see the Bible as inerrant, and therefore authoritative regarding matters of the faith[1].
Simply put, God's covenant of redemption (also called the "Pactum Salutis") is a foundational structure to his covenant of grace. Meaning that God had determined a plan for salvation according to his own counsel prior to the Creation. Within this plan we see each member of the trinity operating in distinct ways. We see that God the Father declares the Covenant; God the Son procures (delivers & ratifies) the covenant, and God the Holy Spirit seals or applies the covenant[2]. When considering this, we have to remember that the distinct members of the trinity are equals. We certainly can perceive differing functions between the Father, Son, and Spirit, but that difference does not point to a hierarchy, but the perfect dependency that exists within the Trinity. I could say more on that note, but I don't think it will serve anything except to muddy the waters.
It's interesting to scrutinize the ways we perceive the Creation. Often times I fall into the trap of somehow thinking that the incarnation of Jesus was decided in a dispensational way. That God's covenant with Abraham didn't pan out, so he sent the Israelites into slavery in Egypt to "teach them a lesson". That the Mosaic Law was God's way of giving humanity another crack at salvation. When we messed that up, he sent the Son incarnate to give us yet another shot. Thankfully, none of that is true. When we consider the eternal nature of the Pactum Salutis one if it's major implications is that the Old Testament Covenants and the Mosaic Law serve to establish our salvation through faith in Christ alone. According to the dispensational way of thinking, the ministry of Jesus is like a parachute. A pulling of the cosmic e-brake to keep the vehicle (us) from careening over a bridge. According to the Pactum Salutis Jesus is more like a music note that resolves the discordant tones that came before it.
Next week I'll go into more depth about how the Trinitarian roles play out in scripture.
1.Subtitles for Jeremy! I mention these things because I will undoubtedly refer to the distinct members of the trinity & their role in our salvation. I brought up the nature of scripture because I will be drawing out of it to under-gird my statements.
2. It is important to note, that while the Father's declaration occurs "outside of time" the functions of the Son and the Holy Spirit are seen in and throughout history as evidence of the Father's declaration.
A blog for the Reformed Campus Fellowship
Friday, June 24, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Summer Stuff
Alright....forgive me for being a horrible blogger. Here's the deal, without having a direct "teaching" to do I need some other way to provide a sense of purpose and structure to my studies (and guarantee that I pursue them). So...enter the summer theology blogs! Every week I am going to publish a theologically driven blog. It could get interesting since I don't have the abilities to include footnotes on here, and there's no way I'm going to type them all out completely.....so the scripture proofs will be included in parenthesis. But they wont be exhaustive by any means. Feel free to chime in for discussion purposes or question asking...so long as we don't have any comment duels or rants.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Spring Quarter
Hey Everybody,
Just writing to let you all know what's going on this quarter with RCF, and share some requests for prayer with you. This quarter we're going to study the Parables of Jesus as found in Luke's Gospel, and in addition to the regular Bible study we're adding a Friday Night Film Discussion. We'll be discussing one movie per month, and this quarter we're going to watch "Get Low" on April 22nd. and "The Social Network" on May 13th. We'll be showing the movies @ 6:30ish in the same room we have our Bible study in (Chapman 307). Becky and I have been praying about how to reach a wider group of people, and this seemed to be the way for us to go.
As far as prayer requests are concerned, I'm sure that most of you have heard that Becky is pregnant, and we're expecting in September, so prayer for her and the kiddo's health, and our finances would be much appreciated!
On a more serious note. Becky's father, Stu Mendelson, had a severe stroke last Saturday morning. He and Sue are up in Portland at OHSU. Please pray for rest and healing for them both. Sue is handling the ordeal quite well, and Becky and I have been blessed to see her faith and resilience displayed under pressure. She's incredible. Stu ain't doing too bad either. He's talking and moving about a little bit, but we're still waiting to see if voluntary movement returns to his left side.
Alright, I think that's it...be sure to watch your mailbox for a newsletter.....
Thanks!
Matt and Becky
Just writing to let you all know what's going on this quarter with RCF, and share some requests for prayer with you. This quarter we're going to study the Parables of Jesus as found in Luke's Gospel, and in addition to the regular Bible study we're adding a Friday Night Film Discussion. We'll be discussing one movie per month, and this quarter we're going to watch "Get Low" on April 22nd. and "The Social Network" on May 13th. We'll be showing the movies @ 6:30ish in the same room we have our Bible study in (Chapman 307). Becky and I have been praying about how to reach a wider group of people, and this seemed to be the way for us to go.
As far as prayer requests are concerned, I'm sure that most of you have heard that Becky is pregnant, and we're expecting in September, so prayer for her and the kiddo's health, and our finances would be much appreciated!
On a more serious note. Becky's father, Stu Mendelson, had a severe stroke last Saturday morning. He and Sue are up in Portland at OHSU. Please pray for rest and healing for them both. Sue is handling the ordeal quite well, and Becky and I have been blessed to see her faith and resilience displayed under pressure. She's incredible. Stu ain't doing too bad either. He's talking and moving about a little bit, but we're still waiting to see if voluntary movement returns to his left side.
Alright, I think that's it...be sure to watch your mailbox for a newsletter.....
Thanks!
Matt and Becky
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Romans 5: Reconciled and Reborn!
Chapters 5 of Paul's epistle to the Romans provided by Bible Gateway
So, this will be interesting because I intend to keep this blog pretty short. I'm trying to achieve what I originally intended for this blog, and to do so I have some catching up to do. That being said, I'm not going to go into detail on the text right now, but rather to a bit of a drive through and point to things for you guys (whomever you may be) to ponder over as you read these chapters on your own. For the sake of context, the thing I want to reiterate regarding Romans 1-4 is that Paul goes to great lengths to show the Roman church that man, in his fallen state, is either ignorant (at best) or unwilling (at worst) to pursue God through holiness. The prevailing notion, then, was to take on good deeds as a means of pleasing God. For his argument, Paul built a straw man using the case of Abraham. Abraham being understood has having received justification(imputed righteousness) from God. He then tears the straw man down by pointing out when, and in what way that justification was applied to him. Simply put, Abraham was credited with righteousness through his belief in God's covenant with him prior to his circumcision. The conclusion aptly drawn that that episode is that justification before God is not to be achieved by human effort or endeavor. Right....deep breath, and on to Romans 5.
Being justified as we are before God (through faith), we are also reconciled to him; enjoying the full benefits of a restored relationship. No longer being objects of wrath, we can dare to hope towards Glory. For the Christian, then, even the things that ought to bring death to our souls (suffering and the like) paradoxically do the opposite [5:3-5]. Rather than our suffering bearing fruit to death, it bears fruit to life for the believer. Pay close attention to v.5. The very fact that we can gain Godly character through suffering ought to produce extreme hope for glory in our hearts. And, as Paul says can not disappoint us because it is a hope in salvation according to the counsel, and will of our Omnipotent eternal God. Overwhelmed yet? Because there's more.
The proof that his hope does not fail us lies in the very conditions under which we receive it. Look at vv. 6-11. Jesus did not become incarnate for our sake once we had ordered our lives better. The very opposite is true. When Jesus took on flesh he arrived in an Israel at the height of it's whorish-ness. There were two lovers present to Israel in the time of Jesus. The first being Rome; and the second being their own righteousness. Here's what I mean by that...in order to survive as a nation Israel had to subject it's leadership under the puppet work of Caesar and the empire. There probably wasn't a very clean division between Roman and Jewish culture. Moreover, the popular religious notion at the time was Pharisaical. To put it bluntly: the Jews loved the law more than they loved God who gave it to them. They thought that, if they were righteous enough God would restore their national Sovereignty. A lot like how a little kid will kiss up to get candy from their parents. Under those socio-religious condition God became incarnate to his covenant people, and allowed them to murder him.....for their own salvation. Not only that, but his sacrifice was not applied only to those present, the son of God being an eternal member of the trinity died with the burden of all man's sin for all time. Not only were his contemporaries atoned for, but also those who preceded him, and followed after him. For all of us, it's as if we were standing right there. If Jesus Christ can willing, and ably bear that burden for us; is there any sin from which he is unable or unwilling to redeem? Paul's answer is no.
But how exactly does this work? We still dwell in the world, we still [even after the elaborate display of Christ's life, ministry, death and resurrection] sin in our minds, and actions. To sum up the rest of chapter five we are forced to look at the truth of God's Covenantal relationship to us. That being said, Paul takes on our lives as sons of Adam. Up until the moment of our salvation in Christ, we stood condemned with the imputed sin of Adam on our account. The fact that you and I sin today is the fruit of Adam's transgression. Being our progenitor (First man, or representative) his decision in the garden was effected for all of us. Sin filled the gap in between us and God after Adam ate the fruit. That is why the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus and John 3 is so important. Salvation is not attainable by doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way. Because, altruistic though we may very well be, we still bore Adam's unrighteousness on our shoulders. Which is only proven by the fact that you and I sin, and by the fact that in several years all of us will die. The reality of the penalty proves the reality of the problem.
Praise God though! In his life and ministry, and in his death and resurrection Christ became our progenitor. He became our Adam. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is referred to as his "passive obedience". Meaning he received the penalty of our sin during his crucifixion. His life and ministry is referred to as "active obedience" because during his ministry Christ actively restored righteousness for our sake. Hence the baptism at the hands of John, and the temptation in the wilderness. Everything that Jesus went through on Earth, we went through so that it would be attributed to us by the Holy Spirit through his (Christ's) death and resurrection. Simply put, we have the heart of Jesus Christ imputed to us.
So, this will be interesting because I intend to keep this blog pretty short. I'm trying to achieve what I originally intended for this blog, and to do so I have some catching up to do. That being said, I'm not going to go into detail on the text right now, but rather to a bit of a drive through and point to things for you guys (whomever you may be) to ponder over as you read these chapters on your own. For the sake of context, the thing I want to reiterate regarding Romans 1-4 is that Paul goes to great lengths to show the Roman church that man, in his fallen state, is either ignorant (at best) or unwilling (at worst) to pursue God through holiness. The prevailing notion, then, was to take on good deeds as a means of pleasing God. For his argument, Paul built a straw man using the case of Abraham. Abraham being understood has having received justification(imputed righteousness) from God. He then tears the straw man down by pointing out when, and in what way that justification was applied to him. Simply put, Abraham was credited with righteousness through his belief in God's covenant with him prior to his circumcision. The conclusion aptly drawn that that episode is that justification before God is not to be achieved by human effort or endeavor. Right....deep breath, and on to Romans 5.
Being justified as we are before God (through faith), we are also reconciled to him; enjoying the full benefits of a restored relationship. No longer being objects of wrath, we can dare to hope towards Glory. For the Christian, then, even the things that ought to bring death to our souls (suffering and the like) paradoxically do the opposite [5:3-5]. Rather than our suffering bearing fruit to death, it bears fruit to life for the believer. Pay close attention to v.5. The very fact that we can gain Godly character through suffering ought to produce extreme hope for glory in our hearts. And, as Paul says can not disappoint us because it is a hope in salvation according to the counsel, and will of our Omnipotent eternal God. Overwhelmed yet? Because there's more.
The proof that his hope does not fail us lies in the very conditions under which we receive it. Look at vv. 6-11. Jesus did not become incarnate for our sake once we had ordered our lives better. The very opposite is true. When Jesus took on flesh he arrived in an Israel at the height of it's whorish-ness. There were two lovers present to Israel in the time of Jesus. The first being Rome; and the second being their own righteousness. Here's what I mean by that...in order to survive as a nation Israel had to subject it's leadership under the puppet work of Caesar and the empire. There probably wasn't a very clean division between Roman and Jewish culture. Moreover, the popular religious notion at the time was Pharisaical. To put it bluntly: the Jews loved the law more than they loved God who gave it to them. They thought that, if they were righteous enough God would restore their national Sovereignty. A lot like how a little kid will kiss up to get candy from their parents. Under those socio-religious condition God became incarnate to his covenant people, and allowed them to murder him.....for their own salvation. Not only that, but his sacrifice was not applied only to those present, the son of God being an eternal member of the trinity died with the burden of all man's sin for all time. Not only were his contemporaries atoned for, but also those who preceded him, and followed after him. For all of us, it's as if we were standing right there. If Jesus Christ can willing, and ably bear that burden for us; is there any sin from which he is unable or unwilling to redeem? Paul's answer is no.
But how exactly does this work? We still dwell in the world, we still [even after the elaborate display of Christ's life, ministry, death and resurrection] sin in our minds, and actions. To sum up the rest of chapter five we are forced to look at the truth of God's Covenantal relationship to us. That being said, Paul takes on our lives as sons of Adam. Up until the moment of our salvation in Christ, we stood condemned with the imputed sin of Adam on our account. The fact that you and I sin today is the fruit of Adam's transgression. Being our progenitor (First man, or representative) his decision in the garden was effected for all of us. Sin filled the gap in between us and God after Adam ate the fruit. That is why the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus and John 3 is so important. Salvation is not attainable by doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way. Because, altruistic though we may very well be, we still bore Adam's unrighteousness on our shoulders. Which is only proven by the fact that you and I sin, and by the fact that in several years all of us will die. The reality of the penalty proves the reality of the problem.
Praise God though! In his life and ministry, and in his death and resurrection Christ became our progenitor. He became our Adam. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is referred to as his "passive obedience". Meaning he received the penalty of our sin during his crucifixion. His life and ministry is referred to as "active obedience" because during his ministry Christ actively restored righteousness for our sake. Hence the baptism at the hands of John, and the temptation in the wilderness. Everything that Jesus went through on Earth, we went through so that it would be attributed to us by the Holy Spirit through his (Christ's) death and resurrection. Simply put, we have the heart of Jesus Christ imputed to us.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Yet Another Update
Hey All,
Sorry for the period of silence that has lapsed since my last post....I'm actually considering creating a header that perpetually apologizes for how rarely I update the wall. It seems like it enters my mind to post, and then the schedule of the day hi-jacks my attention. I suppose it's better to put off internet posting to meet with people, than putting off meetings for the sake of writing a blog. T he downside of that is that for the past month I've gone home feeling as if I had forgotten to do something.....
In any case, I just wanted to drop in and say hello, and correct some information from my last posting. Unfortunately Becky's sinus surgery has been postponed for awhile so we are a ways off from being able to remedy that situation. I'll post more concrete news on here, as soon as I have it.
In the arena of good news, it seems like God has smiled on our desire for a new car......our little Honda has done us pretty good since we bought it two years ago. But we've been wanting to get a 4-door just in case we need to give people rides to things like RCF and such...and it seems like we're about to get a newer 4dr VW Golf. Which is uber-awesome (that's a technical German term to describe our exact sentiments).... Anywho, we are both thankful for your prayers and encouragements. Please keep praying for Becky's sinuses to correct themselves, that the car offer works out, and for God to grant RCF favor on the University of Oregon campus.
Thanks for reading my sporadic, rambling posting.
Matt,
Reformed Campus Fellowship.
Sorry for the period of silence that has lapsed since my last post....I'm actually considering creating a header that perpetually apologizes for how rarely I update the wall. It seems like it enters my mind to post, and then the schedule of the day hi-jacks my attention. I suppose it's better to put off internet posting to meet with people, than putting off meetings for the sake of writing a blog. T he downside of that is that for the past month I've gone home feeling as if I had forgotten to do something.....
In any case, I just wanted to drop in and say hello, and correct some information from my last posting. Unfortunately Becky's sinus surgery has been postponed for awhile so we are a ways off from being able to remedy that situation. I'll post more concrete news on here, as soon as I have it.
In the arena of good news, it seems like God has smiled on our desire for a new car......our little Honda has done us pretty good since we bought it two years ago. But we've been wanting to get a 4-door just in case we need to give people rides to things like RCF and such...and it seems like we're about to get a newer 4dr VW Golf. Which is uber-awesome (that's a technical German term to describe our exact sentiments).... Anywho, we are both thankful for your prayers and encouragements. Please keep praying for Becky's sinuses to correct themselves, that the car offer works out, and for God to grant RCF favor on the University of Oregon campus.
Thanks for reading my sporadic, rambling posting.
Matt,
Reformed Campus Fellowship.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Personal Update
Hey all,
As many of you have probably heard. Becky has been having chronic sinus congestion, coupled with asthma symptoms for over a year now. Shortly after we moved to Eugene and Becky recovered from pneumonia she started to experience the symptoms that she's been struggling with for a while now. We've been to several doctors, ranging from general clinics to naturapaths and allergists. Yesterday we made a drive up to OHSU Oregon Sinus department to get a second opinion on surgical options to correct the issues that Becky has been suffering from.
Long story short, after several rounds of antibiotics and prednisone we've determined that surgery is the only option that is likely to correct what is going wrong in Becky's sinuses. OHSU has offered us financial assistance that covers 80% of her treatment, and it seems like this isn't going to go away on it's own. So...all that to say, we will probably take her in for endoscopic surgery sometime in February. Please keep us in your prayers as we call to schedule the necessary appointments and arrange our lives to make this happen. But more than that, please pray that this would work. Becky didn't have any issue until some rather interesting interactions with aspirin, so we're hoping that corrective surgery will ease the strain on her sinuses, and relieve her asthma symptoms. I'll post more details as soon as I find them out. Thanks for reading, and praying for us and our ministry to the University of Oregon.
Matt
~Reformed Campus Fellowship.
As many of you have probably heard. Becky has been having chronic sinus congestion, coupled with asthma symptoms for over a year now. Shortly after we moved to Eugene and Becky recovered from pneumonia she started to experience the symptoms that she's been struggling with for a while now. We've been to several doctors, ranging from general clinics to naturapaths and allergists. Yesterday we made a drive up to OHSU Oregon Sinus department to get a second opinion on surgical options to correct the issues that Becky has been suffering from.
Long story short, after several rounds of antibiotics and prednisone we've determined that surgery is the only option that is likely to correct what is going wrong in Becky's sinuses. OHSU has offered us financial assistance that covers 80% of her treatment, and it seems like this isn't going to go away on it's own. So...all that to say, we will probably take her in for endoscopic surgery sometime in February. Please keep us in your prayers as we call to schedule the necessary appointments and arrange our lives to make this happen. But more than that, please pray that this would work. Becky didn't have any issue until some rather interesting interactions with aspirin, so we're hoping that corrective surgery will ease the strain on her sinuses, and relieve her asthma symptoms. I'll post more details as soon as I find them out. Thanks for reading, and praying for us and our ministry to the University of Oregon.
Matt
~Reformed Campus Fellowship.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
BCS Championship
Alright....so we didn't win last night, but you've really go to hand it to the Ducks. Those boys held on to the last second, and kept their cool while being roughed around by Auburn's massive team. Not to mention Casey Matthew's impressive hit on Cam Newton.
There's always next year.
GO DUCKS!
There's always next year.
GO DUCKS!
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