In a house the writer used to visit the following question hung on one of the walls, “Can God?” and underneath for the answer, “See Genesis 1:1—Rev. 22:21,” comprising the whole Bible. We might well give a similar answer if asked what we believe. But for convenience sake the following truths “most surely believed among us” (Lk. 1:1) are selected for brief consideration. This does not claim to be a creed or authoritative pronouncement, but a brief statement of some important scriptural truths.
The Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures
If we had no divine record, we could not know what to believe. The Bible claims to be such. It not only contains the Word of God; it is the Word of God.
Our Lord sets His seal on the Old Testament Scriptures by quoting them in every part (Mt. 4:4); by ascribing them to the Holy Spirit (Mt. 22:43, rv); by referring to them as His final court of appeal—“The Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35); by unhesitatingly accepting their whole record, including miraculous incidents (Mt. 12:40-41; Lk. 17:26-32 etc.); by affirming that “till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass… till all be fulfilled” (Mt. 5:18); by confirming them all after His resurrection (Lk. 24:44).
The apostles do the same. “Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21, rv) “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16), which, though primarily referring to the Old Testament includes, I believe, that body of truth already nearing completion, the New Testament (see 2 Pet. 3:16; 1 Tim. 5:18), which the Lord had pre-authenticated by the promise of the Spirit.
The marvellous unity of Scripture—their accuracy, universality, permanence, prophetic foresight and spiritual power can only be explained by divine origin.
The Creatorship of God
The Bible makes much of this all through. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), and it is “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God” (Heb. 11:3).
This was carried out by the agency of the Son, “All things were made by Him” (Jn. 1:3) and “for Him” (Col. 1:16), with the cooperation of the Spirit (Gen. 1:2).
Man did not evolve. God said, “Let us make man” (v. 26); then we read, “So God created man in His own image” (v. 27); then in chapter 2:7, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Man was thus constituted a being to exist as long as God, either in harmony with Him which is eternal life, or in separation from Him, which is eternal death.
The Fall of Man
Thus man was created a moral agent, capable of communion with his Maker, and in moral responsibility to Him. A test was therefore necessary. God laid one down, of the simplest kind. Disobedience would entail death. Application of the test was, for inscrutable reasons, permitted to Satan—a personal, angelic being, probably by original creation the highest of all God’s creatures (Ezek. 28:11-17), himself already fallen. Man fell and died that very day.
What then is death? Not primarily physical dissolution, which had to be ensured later by exclusion from the tree of life, but a mysterious moral change—a great gulf had yawned between man and his Creator; he was afraid of Him and hid from Him. This is spiritual death, not non-existence but wrong-existence. “Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned” (Rom. 5:12, rv).
The whole race has existed in this death-condition ever since. When a sinner believes in Christ he passes “from death unto life” (Jn. 5:24). As the result of their fall, man and woman came under certain governmental disabilities, and the ground was cursed for their sake.
Atonement by Blood
How could man get back to God? He could not if he would; he would not if he could. But even were his will won, that would not suffice. Satisfaction is due to God, as the righteous Law-Giver, for sin’s guilt; its defilement must be removed; the sinner must he raised from death to life. A full atonement must be made, and God alone could make it. Were one sin passed over without this, God’s throne would totter to its base. God’s holiness demanded it; God’s love provided it,
The day man fell God called him to account, but also spoke of “the seed of the woman” who would bruise the serpent’s head, but be bruised in so doing—a first hint of Calvary. The way of approach by a slain victim was revealed; of this “by faith” Abel availed himself (Heb. 11:4), as all his co-believers since.
The Levitical sacrifices and the Messianic psalms and prophecies point forward to this. In them we read of Jehovah’s servant, “led as a Lamb to the slaughter”—pierced, forsaken, wounded, bruised, under the weight of sins not His own.
The Gospels describe the historical fulfillment of all this. God in the Person of His Son, made flesh, must then be raised from the dead, if one sin was to be put away or one sinner brought to God. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).
The Atonement of Christ was indispensable, voluntary, once for all, infinite in value, sufficient for all, efficient for those who believe God. He “will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Thus a bona fide offer of salvation is proclaimed to every creature. Those who believe were chosen “in Him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).
The Incarnation of Christ
But how could the seed of the woman bruise the serpent’s head, who had overcome the woman? Later God reveals the mystery: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14), so the seed would also be divine, One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2). Accordingly, “when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman” (Gal. 4:4). In order to die for our sins, the “Word became flesh” (Jn. 1:14), for “forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same” (Heb. 2:14).
A divine Person, the Eternal Son, entered into manhood, taking in addition to His divine nature a perfect, spotless humanity—spirit, soul, and body; able thus to enter into all the experiences proper to such a condition, but who neither did nor knew sin.
This miraculous birth was announced first by Gabriel to Mary (Lk. 1:35), and then to Joseph (Mt. 1:20), in which was fulfilled the promised sign; the babe Jesus was “God with us.” And when we consider the life of that blessed babe, we ask by what other way than the virgin birth could it have begun (1 Cor. 15:47).
The Resurrection of Christ
The resurrection of Christ was foretold in the Old Testament (Ps. 16:10), and by Himself (Mt. 16:21). It is proved by (1) the precautions taken by our Lord’s enemies against an “engineered” resurrection. The sealed stone represented the moral authority of the Roman Empire, to guard its material power. Anyone who can believe that the whole guard, at the risk of their lives, went simultaneously to sleep when on sentry duty, or knew what happened when they were asleep ought to be able to believe the miracle of the resurrection; (2) the terror-stricken witness of the soldiers. They would sooner have died than leave their post on any ordinary pretext; (3) the testimony of those who saw Him alive, singly and in companies, one of which comprised 500 brethren. He was heard, seen, handled, and conversed with by those who knew Him best, and they were convinced it was their Lord, and His body the very one they had seen nailed to the cross, though under new conditions.
And what was its effect? It turned them from doubters into believers, from mourners into worshippers, turned the Roman Empire upside down, and eventually turned millions to the Lord,
As regards the event, there are three alternatives:
1. The disciples were deceivers. This supposes the Lord had only swooned and they pretended He had come to life. But this does not account for His appearance in full vigor only three days after being crucified and transfixed with a spear.
2. The disciples were deceived. The theory is they saw what they were fanatically expecting to see. It was an hallucination, but this is all individual, not collective, experience. There is another trifling flaw in the explanation: They were not expecting their Master to rise again.
3. Christ really rose. Otherwise Christianity would never have begun, nor the name of Christ be known today. His resurrection proves the present justification of believers (Rom. 4:25), their future resurrection (2 Cor. 4:14), the judgment of the ungodly (Acts 17:31), who will be all raised for this (Jn. 5:29), a thousand years later (Rev. 20:5).
May reaffirming these truths strengthen our resolve to build our lives on these foundation stones.
Written by Wm. Hoste