LMD Week 17 Notes (Grudem 9-14)

Character (Attributes) of God

Gruden 11 Incommunicable attributes - less shared by God to us

Independence (self existence)

God is qualitatively different; he needs nothing.

Acts 17:24–25 “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Yet, we are meaningful to Him because he created us and has determined that we would be meaningful; we can glorify God and bring God joy.

Isaiah 43:6-7 “I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.””

Isaiah 62:3–5 “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”

P 192 “To be significant to God is to be significant in the most ultimate sense. No greater personal significance can be imagined.”

Unchangeableness - not in every way but in being and perfections/character/attributes

Character doesn’t change; he is good and gives good gifts

James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”

Patience, mercy, long-suffering doesn’t change

Malachi 3:6 ““For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.”

Unchanging purposes

Psalm 33:11 “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.”

Isaiah 46:9–11 “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”

Unchanging PROMISES

Numbers 23:19 “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”

Does God change his mind? p194

God responds different to different situations P195.

Jonah 3:10 “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.”

Depending on a situation his present attitude changes

But his long term purposes never change

Process theology - that God is changing and adding to himself. WRONG.

They have mistaken the concept of immutability and think God can’t act in the world or respond to different situations.

They feel insignificant. But God can be pleased by us! He makes us significant.

God is infinite but also personal. He talks to us! He loves us!

Impassibility

God cannot be hurt or changed from external forces.

But God can be grieved or rejoice or angry. He can feel emotions to situations but he is never surprised.

Eternity

Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”

Jude 25 “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

God does speak of “before time” so it’s not a contradiction.

It is impossible however that there was an infinitely long past time. P201

p201 God does view past as past but with all clarity. All time, with all clarity.

Psalm 90:4 “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.”

P202 He also sees the future just as vividly. This page says God predicts the future but I don’t think that’s accurate.

We will always exist in time. So when we die and resurrect all the way into eternity we will be in time P205.

Omnipresence - he is in every space, fully, and not partially. Yet he can act differently in different places - present to bless or not present to bless.

Unity

THE TRINITY (Grudem 14)

OT Evidence for Trinity

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””

Genesis 3:22 “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—””

Genesis 11:7 “Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.””

Isaiah 6:8 “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.””

Plurality of God - but in the OT we still don’t know how many

Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

YHWH (LORD) says to King David’s Adonai (Lord) - “God the Father said to God the Son” (distinct persons).

Elohim = Hebrew for God

Isaiah 48:16 “Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.”

Spirit is a distinct person from the Lord God and Jesus (the servant of the Lord) p272

“Angel of the Lord” sometimes refers to God and sometimes a created angel.

Genesis 16:13 “So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.””

To Hagar regarding the birth of Ishmael

NT Evidence for Trinity

Matthew 3:16–17 “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.””

3 distinct activities being performed by the Trinity persons: Holy Spirit descending from heaven and empowering Jesus for ministry, Jesus being baptized, God the Father speaks.

Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

All on the same level

Alex said NAME is SINGULAR!

1 Corinthians 12:4–6 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”

God = Greek Theos

Lord = Greek Kyrios

Spirit = Greek Pneuma

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.”

All present and distinct again

Ephesians 4:4–6 “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father

1 John 5:7–8“For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.”

KJV, based off of unreliable Greek manuscripts from 14th century - KJV should not be a trinity verse. These are the evidences/witnesses of Jesus coming in flesh.

The Father is NOT the Son and the Son is NOT the Spirit! They are distinct persons as stated.

However, this verse is puzzling: 2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Even though the word Jehovah (which is Hebrew YHWY - God of the OT) is NOT used (Kyrios is used), it can be argued that the verse is saying that the Holy Spirit is Jehovah even though the different word for lord is used.

Also, LORD and Lord used interchangeably here in Matthew and Isaiah

Matthew 3:3 “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ””

Kyrios (Adonai in Hebrew)

Isaiah 40:3 “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

YWHY (Jehovah in Greek)

Jesus is God

Titus 2:13 “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”

Holy Spirit is God

Acts 5:3–4 “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.””

Omnipresence In Psalm 139:7-8

Omniscience in 1 Cor 2:10-11

New Spiritual Life giving only God can do (born of God) John 3.

There is One God

There is only one being, not three Gods P281

They are one in essence, existing in 3 persons.

One in purpose as well

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 ““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

YWHY is one, The Trinity is one

1 Kings 8:60 “that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other.”

LOGOS - the Lord (YHWY) is singular but God (Elohim) is plural.

This means in my view that YHWY is the Trinity*** (from the reasoning that has been used by Alex in the lesson 18 regarding Genesis 1:1).

“There is no other” NOT “there are no others” = YHWY (singular) is the Trinity which is a singular God.

Isaiah 45:5–6 “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.”

Isaiah 45:21–22“Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”

there “is” no other god is singular, though god is plural.

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

In Greek, God is SINGULAR.

THE FUNCTIONS OF EACH PERSON

Primary activities for creation and redemption

Father spoke the creative words but the Son carried out the decrees (John 1:3)

Father planned redemption and sent Son into the world.

The Son died, not the Father, nor did the Spirit. P 293

Holy Spirit applies the redemption to us (after Christ ascended)

Holy Spirit regenerates us/gives us new spiritual life, to sanctify us and empower us for service.

The Holy Spirit brings to completion the work that has been planned by Father and begun by the Son.

The Father plans and directs the Son and Holy Spirit.

Jesus and the Spirit have subordinate roles to the Father though equal in deity.

1 Corinthians 15:28 “When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

The roles last forever.

MONOGENES - only begotten son” vs “only son” = one of a kind, unique son.

Grudem p294 used to not believe in the eternal generation (eternal begetting) of the Son. He actually amended this book to show the change.

Grudem goes on to explain that usually the meaning of the word MONOGENES is used to mean without siblings “only begotten” (Irons), not just “only”.

So he does believe now in ETERNAL GENERATION (BEGETTING)

We know Jesus was not created.

But we know somehow Jesus is FROM the Father.

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

***John 5:26 “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”

So ETERNAL GENERATION means the Father eternally communicates to the Son the divine essence.

But does this mean the Son is relying on the Father eternally for divinity?

OR the Father is the source of the personal distinctions between the persons of the Trinity.

p298 Grudem conceeds to not knowing the full mystery.

For God to be a real father he must have a son who is really from him.

Son coming from the Father never began, it always was and is - eternal. P297

***But what about Psalm 2:7 “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”

***And if Jesus had an physical glorified body and ascends to a real place and sitting at God’s right hand is not just symbolism, then does that mean that God the Father’s physical presence is manifested somewhere? If the spiritual realm is physical, and God is spirit, is he a physical being that just can’t be seen right now? If God is present equally in all points in space and is spirit, but spirit is physical but unseen right now, how can all this be reconciled?

The Father is unbegotten but the Son is begotten

***The Son is subordinate to the Father eternally, and the Spirit is subordinate to the Son and Father eternally, but this does not mean inferior.

p300-301 The distinctions of the trinity are in the ways they relate to each other and the trinity.

Ontological equality or equality in being but relational differences.

There is a directional order to there relationships in the Trinity (p303-305)

“The Father is never in any instance under the authority of the Son; the Father always has preeminence in authority and the Son carries it out.

The Father always has priority in the relationship

APPLICATION: Like the Trinity who’s persons are equal in deity, created beings man and woman are still equal in importance and honor can still submit as God’s order states, same with employers and employees, children to parents, church members to elders p105. WOW.

ONE WILL: But 3 different expressions of that one will p307

All works of God that are outside of Himself were all voluntarily done by Him and not necessary. So redemption and creation and Jesus acting in those ways in submission are not necessary. P 318