Equip: God the Son

Notes

Last week we began our equip class talking Theology Proper.

Do you remember the primary way we are to think of God?

Father.

Life-giving

John 5:26 NIV

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

Love

1 John 4:7–8 NIV

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Jn 4

What is the object of God’s love. Who did God love prior to creation?

Mark 1:11 NIV

11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

John 17:24 NIV

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

2 Peter 1:17 NIV

17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

The Son is always the object of the Father’s love. The Father is the love-er and the son is the love-ed. This is the doctrine of the eternal generation.

Creation is in him and through him and for him. Rm 11.36

Why is this so important?

1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV

30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Hebrews 1:10 NIV

10 He also says, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

Union with Christ

Colossians 1:17 NIV

17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

We are in Christ

Christ is in Us

Hoekema says that we should see union with Christ “extending all the way from eternity to eternity.” He outlines his material in this way:

The roots of union with Christ are in divine election ().

The basis of union with Christ is the redemptive work of Christ.

The actual union with Christ is established with God’s people in time.

Under the third point, he shows eight ways that salvation, from beginning to end, is in Christ:

We are initially united with Christ in regeneration (, )

We appropriate and continue to live out of this union through faith (; ).

We are justified in union with Christ (; ; ).

We are sanctified through union with Christ (; ; ; ).

We persevere in the life of faith in union with Christ (; ).

We are even said to die in Christ (; ; ).

We shall be raised with Christ (; ).

We shall be eternally glorified with Christ (; ).

And here’s a helpful quote from Sinclair Ferguson (in Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification [IVP, 1989], 58), explaining in a nutshell why union with Christ is the foundation for sanctification:

If we are united to Christ, then we are united to him at all points of his activity on our behalf.

We share in his death (we were baptized into his death),

in his resurrection (we are resurrected with Christ),

in his ascension (we have been raised with him),

in his heavenly session (we sit with him in heavenly places,

so that our life is hidden with Christ in God), and we will share in his promised return (when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also will appear with him in glory) (; ; ).

The true nature of love

Heart of repentance

Unity