Class Outline:

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

 

Pagan’s believed in gods far stronger, wiser, and wealthier than themselves but these gods were still like themselves; petty, jealous (not in God’s way), unfaithful, limited, led by impulse, lustful, partial, etc. Our God is the One God. The One Lord is the only Lord. He and only He is to be worshipped and followed, and He is unique.

 

God declares very often that there is “no other.”

 

ISA 45:5

“I am the Lord, and there is no other;

Besides Me there is no God.”

 

ISA 45:6

“That there is no one besides Me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,”

 

ISA 45:14

“Surely, God is with you, and there is none else,

No other God.”

 

ISA 45:21-22

“Who has long since declared it?

Is it not I, the Lord?

And there is no other God besides Me,

A righteous God and a Savior;

There is none except Me.

22 Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.”

 

The context of Isaiah 45 is God calling Cyrus, king of Persia, to conquer Babylon and subsequently release the Jews from captivity. God used the enemy of His people to free His people. No one does things the way that God does.

 

EPH 4:4-6

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

 

Jesus Christ is the center of all things. He is Savior and Lord. We are to believe in Him for salvation and then serve Him as Lord.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ’s present authority is over the church and the universe.

 

That authority obviously isn’t carried out by force. The unbeliever is free to reject Him and the believer is free to reject His complete authority over them. Yet, rejection by the world and the church does not change His position at the right hand of God.

 

Those who recognize Him as the one Lord obey and follow Him and Him alone, swearing loyalty to Him, and considering Him faithful to entrust their souls to.

 

We do His will by His might and truth. We must follow Him as Lord and we must remember that we are not obeying in our own power or in any way “on our own.”

 

We must see Him for who He is and be reminded of His position and ours every day.

 

Titles for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The Last Adam and the new creation.

 

The new humanity, no longer in Adam (sin and death), has a Head, a Lord in Jesus Christ.

 

The church is to cleave to Christ as a wife cleaves to her husband. Eph 5 states that the wife is to be in subjection to the husband, and so the church is to be in subjection to Christ. By right of who He is and who believers are in relation to Him, we have to obey Him.

 

Eph 5 tells us that Jesus Christ as the Husband loves the church and that He will present her to the Father in all her glory, spotless and clean. The church is to subject herself to Him.

 

One might object that many believers don’t subject themselves to Him, but that doesn’t change the relationship, nor its reality. It is like the unity of the body. If there is one body, one Spirit, one hope of calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one Father of all, then we are surely unified, but the visible church doesn’t live that reality for many reasons that are petty. Believers who don’t live with a mind towards complete obedience to the Lord for the reason that He is Lord, are simply bad sons, ignorant brides, acting fleshly, like mere men, yet still it doesn’t change their position or Jesus’ Lordship.

 

The direction of the body by Christ is, therefore, not an arbitrary and unreasonable lordship over the church, but rather a loving direction to its members for whom He died.

 

So then, the analogy of the human body is a perfect one. Just as the human body is utterly dependent upon the human mind to direct it into coherent action, not only to attain any desirable end but also to minister to itself, as well as to restrict itself, so Christ directs His body, and the members in turn are completely dependent upon Him to do anything good; intelligently good. An effective member of the body of Christ must submit himself to the direction of Christ, the omniscient Head, or else he will become a useless member, paralyzed, if you will.

 

The love of Christ for His church is that of a Husband for His wife.

 

EPH 5:28-30

28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body.

 

Nourishes - ektrepho = to nurture, to rear (as children)

Cherishes - thalpo = to keep warm (as birds covering their young with their wings)

 

The authority and direction of Jesus for His body is one of rearing and nursing children to maturity, to see life and live life as He did. Leading and directing is done in love and patience, showing us every aspect of His making us and leading us so that we are overwhelmed with it all and love to follow Him by choice and not grudgingly.

 

These words reveal the heart of Christ for His own.

 

The body is knit together like bones in a body are connected by joints and it grows like a living organism, always under the authority of the head.

 

COL 2:18-19

Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind [Gnostic heresy], 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

 

1CO 3:1

neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.

 

This is the reality that God sees. Sadly, ignorant and selfish believers don’t live in this reality. They often say that such things as supernatural power and divine love and perfect unity isn’t the real world, but that conclusion is a deception. What they call the real world is a temporary experiment. The eternal things are the real things.

 

The growth would mean new converts as well as spiritual growth of the members. That growth flows through Christ. All of what we need to live His life flows from Him, hence it is imperative that we keep our eyes upon Him.

 

Common to the concept of headship is the thought of being Lord with the power to direct the body. Power flows from Christ.

 

Power = Work/Time

Work = Force x Distance

 

According to the physical laws of God’s universe, running in place, or pushing very hard against a boulder and not moving it, is not work. If distance is zero then work is zero.

 

Christ describes a life-span in cubits, a unit of distance, for God often uses the word “walk” to describe our lives.

 

Power is work done divided by how long it takes you to do the work. This is why you’re more tired if you run up a flight of stairs than if you walked up.

 

The Lord’s power is needed to do His work over the time that we have the opportunity to do it.

 

As one member of the body of Christ is strengthened, it results in other members also being strengthened since we encourage, serve, and assist one another, and more members are added who are in need of instruction in this stupendous reality of one body and one Lord.

 

The strength of the body ultimately comes from Christ, the Head.

 

PHI 4:10-13

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

 

It is one thing to acknowledge that strength comes from Jesus Christ, but it is another to know how that strength comes and determine within yourself that you will have it.

 

Paul states that Christ strengthened him in his own service, and that power worked mightily in him. He does not give a ritual or procedure to switch the power on.