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God’s One and Only Son

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“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NLT

The Adventist Biblical Research Institute agrees with the modern translations of “one and only” instead of  “only begotten.” Hebrews 1:1-14 make it clear that Jesus was God. He was not given life, He is the Life Giver.

Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. John 11:25 NLT

Just as 1 John 4:8 does not tell us that God has love but rather is love, so Jesus does not say that He was given life, but rather that He is life. 

In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. -Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 530.

While Hebrews 2:1-18 explains the complete humanity of the Son of God, Hebrews 1:1-14 explains the complete divinity of the Son of God. While Jesus is God the Son, who never originated but always existed as far back as eternity goes, Ty Gibson suggests in His book, The Sonship of Christ, that while He was always God the Son, that the term “Son of God’ explains His humanity more than His divinity. For example, Adam was the first one who was called the son of God.

Adam was the son of God. Luke 3:38 NLT 

Adam was created to be the son of God and to be the representative for this earth. Job 1:6 talks about when the “sons of God” came to present themselves before God. Adam was to be this earth’s representative as the son of God for this earth. However we read where Satan shows up at this meeting, as Adam surrendered this right to Satan when he sinned. So we see that Adam was the son of God, and there are other sons of God representing their worlds. By the way Hebrews 1:2 mentions that Christ made the worlds. The word “worlds” refers to inhabited planets, while uninhabited planets are simply called planets. In Job 1:6 the sons of God came from these other worlds. 

So in John 3:16 Where it says, “only begotten Son” or “one and only son” it is not referring to God the son ever being born. Neither is it saying that there are not other sons of God, because we have just seen that there are. So what does it mean by “one and only son?” Hebrews  11 gives us a clue.

Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, Hebrews 11:17 NLT 

Wait a minute? Was Isaac Abraham’s only son? No! So why is this saying that Isaac was Abraham’s only son? 

The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise. Galatians 4:22-23 NLT 

Isaac was called Abraham’s only son because Isaac was the promised son. Now we know why John 3:16 says He gave His only begotten or one and only son. It is not insinuating that God the Son was ever created or given life by the Father. Christ had life that came from being God Himself. His life was original, unborrowed and underived.  The term “Only begotten” or “one and only Son” means that Jesus Christ is the promised Son to redeem mankind and take the right that Adam surrendered in being the representative of the world. 

Adam was the original son of God, who because of sin surrendered the right to represent this world before God. Meanwhile Satan claimed that right and in Job 1:6-11 accused the inhabitants of the earth. But Jesus, the promised One, lived a perfect life and died our death on the cross, and has now won the right to represent us before the Father. Instead of accusing us, He is representing and defending us! 

 He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24 NLT 

Since Jesus Christ is the promised Son to replace Adam as our representative, not only is He representing us and defending us, saving and redeeming us, but we are also already seated in heaven with Him!

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6 NLT 

Amen!(1)

The post God’s One and Only Son appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/gods-one-and-only-son/

Thursday: Today I Have Begotten You

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Hebrews 1:5 reports the following words of the Father to Jesus: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You” (NKJV). What does it mean that Jesus was “begotten,” and when did this happen? Does not this show that Jesus was somehow created by God sometime way in the past, as many believe?

Read Hebrews 1:5; 2 Samuel 7:12-14; Psalm 2:7; and Luke 1:31-32. What promise to David did Paul in Hebrews apply to Jesus?

Jesus was begotten in the sense that He was installed, or “adopted,” by God as the promised ruler, the son of David. The concept of the divine adoption of the ruler was common in the Greco-Roman world and the east. It gave the ruler legitimacy and power over the land.

God promised to David, however, that his Son would be the true legitimate ruler of the nations. He would “adopt” David’s son as His own Son.

The Second Coming

Image © Review & Herald Publishing at Goodsalt.com

Through this process the Davidic King would become God’s protégé and His heir. The covenant is fulfilled in Jesus as the Son of David. God would defeat His enemies and give Him the nations as His inheritance (Psalm 89:27; Psalm 2:7-8).

As we can read in Romans 1:3-4, and Acts 13:32-33, Jesus was publicly revealed as God’s Son. Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration were moments when God identified and announced Jesus as His Son (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5).

Yet, according to the New Testament, Jesus became the “Son of God with power” when He was resurrected and seated at the right hand of God. It was at that moment that God fulfilled His promise to David that his son would be adopted as God’s own Son and His throne over the nations would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:12-14).

Thus, Caesar (symbol of Rome) was not the legitimate “son of god,” ruler of the nations. Instead, Jesus Christ was. The “begetting” of Jesus refers to the beginning of Jesus’ rule over the nations, and not to the beginning of His existence, because Jesus had always existed. There was never a time when Jesus did not exist, because He is God.

In fact, Hebrews 7:3 says that Jesus does not have “beginning of days nor end of life” (cf. Hebrews 13:8) because He is eternal. Thus, the idea of Jesus as God’s “only begotten son” is not dealing with the nature of Christ as deity but with His role in the plan of salvation. Through the incarnation, Christ fulfilled all the covenant promises.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Amen!(1)

The post Thursday: Today I Have Begotten You appeared first on Sabbath School Net.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/thursday-today-i-have-begotten-you/

Sentenced to Death for Blasphemy, Adventist Man in Pakistan Freed After Nearly 10 Years in Prison

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Sajjad Mashi Gill falsely accused of blasphemy in 2011. Gill spent nearly 10 years in prison before a court acquitted him due to insufficient evidence. Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors 2021 World Watch list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. 12 January 2022 | […] Source: https://atoday.org/sentenced-to-death-for-blasphemy-adventist-man-in-pakistan-freed-after-nearly-10-years-in-prison/

North Jamaica Conference Still Venerating Disgraced Ex-Pastor Burnett Robinson, Giving Him a Platform

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NJC President Karl Archer calls Burnett Robinson an inspiration and “a man mightily, mightily, mightily used by God in the advancement of His cause.” During an NJC interview, Robinson blames some women in his church for posting the video clip of him advocating for marital rape. Robinson said Greater New York Conference administrators “panicked and […] Source: https://atoday.org/north-jamaica-conference-still-venerating-disgraced-ex-pastor-burnett-robinson-giving-him-a-platform/

Leaven in Our Heart

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And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Luke 13:20, 21.
This parable illustrates the penetrating and assimilating power of the gospel, which is to fashion the church after the divine similitude by working on the hearts of the individual members. As the leaven operates on the meal, so the Holy Spirit operates on the human heart, absorbing all its capabilities and powers, bringing soul, body, and spirit into conformity to Christ.
In the parable the woman placed the leaven in the meal. It was necessary to supply a want. By this God would teach us that, of himself, man does not possess the properties of salvation. He cannot transform himself by the exercise of his will. The truth must be received into the heart. Thus the divine leaven does its work. By its transforming, vitalizing power it produces a change in the heart. New thoughts, new feelings, new purposes are awakened. The mind is changed, the faculties are set to work. Man is not supplied with new faculties, but the faculties he has are sanctified. The conscience hitherto dead is aroused. But man cannot make this change himself. It can be made only by the Holy Spirit. All who would be saved, high or low, rich or poor, must submit to the working of this power.
This truth is presented in Christ’s words to Nicodemus: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God…. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:3-8).
When our minds are controlled by the Spirit of God, we shall understand the lesson taught by the parable of the leaven. Those who open their hearts to receive the truth will realize that the Word of God is the great instrumentality in the transformation of character.—The Review and Herald, July 25, 1899
Ye Shall Receive Power p. 18
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Prayer Requests
—-E continues to need God’s leading. Please pray for her and her children. R
—-Prayers needed again for my father Randy who is still in the hospital, he’s very depressed and now battling Covid. He can only have one visitor for 1 hour a day. Louise
—-Please continue to pray for Sharon who had a stroke recently. Mike
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Dear Friends,
As a little girl, I would spend every evening with my grandfather, Edwin Harmon, as soon as he came home from work. I would beg for him to tell the same stories of his life. Sometimes he must have tired of repeating those familiar stories as occasionally he would tell me something new and different. One day in answer to my request for a story, he took a pad of paper and wrote something on it. Then he tore it off and threw it away. I thought that was very strange. He began to tell me a story that had happened to a friend of his in the early part of the last century. Then he took a soft lead pencil, tipped it to the side and began to color the paper softly. To my amazement, the message that my grandfather had written appeared.
When he had written a message on the pad of paper, the pressure of the pencil had affected the page underneath. That page, although seemly untouched, had taken on the impress of what was written above. When shaded lightly by the soft pencil, the message became clearly visible. Then he told me that if I ever needed to see what someone had written, I could do what he had just done.
He did not bring out any spiritual lesson in his story even though there is one. All that we do and say has an effect on those around us. In everything we are an example for good or for evil. In scientific studies, they have shown that a person takes on the characteristics of another after being around them for as little as ten minutes. That is something to ponder when we think of the friends we have, the programs we watch, the music we listen to. Paul gives us a rule with which to measure all we look at on TV, what we listen to on the radio, our words, and our associations with others, “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Phil 4:8 Peter adds, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:22-24
May we carefully guard the “avenues of the soul.” May we be “an example of the believers, in word, in conversation [conduct], in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” 1 Tim 4:12 May we so live that our words, our thoughts, our actions will affect those around us for the right, that they may be drawn to our Dear Saviour is my prayer.
Rose

Source: https://rosesdevotional.org/leaven-in-our-heart.html

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