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06/08/2017

Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV)
4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”

In order to understand Habakkuk’s statement we must first explore the topic of righteousness. What is righteousness? What does the bible have to say about righteousness? Can any righteousness be attributed to man? How does one become righteous? These questions are essential to the topic. Unless we have a biblical understanding of what righteousness is we will never appreciate why the righteous lives by faith.
So what is righteousness? The simplest answer to that question is that righteousness is meeting the required standard, or hitting the mark. A good example of this is the quality control process in clothing. When a piece of clothing is manufactured it must conform to the set standard in sizing, pattern, and materiel quality among other things. If however the stitching is off or if the pattern was cut or sewn wrong, or any number of things, the piece is rejected and it ends up in some bargain outlet like Gabriel brothers.
Now let’s try to transfer that to a Biblical understanding. Imagine a pair of jeans. The designer has decided that this is the perfect pair of jeans. Only jeans that match his pair of jeans exactly are acceptable. It can’t be just a good facsimile, it must match down to the individual threads. It must perfectly conform to the standard in order to be acceptable. It is hard to imagine him ever producing a second pair of Jeans isn’t it. The biblical concept of righteousness is even harder to attain than that. In order to be considered righteous before God we must perfectly conform to God’s standard, which is his own righteous action. It’s not enough to conform but we must perfectly conform. Since God is the very definition of perfection what hope is there that we might conform to that? We would have a better chance at finding that other pair of jeans.
So knowing what we know about the biblical concept of righteousness our third question seems to have answered itself. Man in his own right can never be righteous before God. Many people find that troubling and indeed more people should find it troubling that they have fallen short of the standard of God. The clearest proof of this is in the book of Romans, in the first three chapters the Apostle Paul basically lays out the charges against all humanity and the culmination of those charges can be understood in this one verse Romans 3:10-11 (ESV) 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God." Now you may wish to dismiss this as hyperbole but that is not the intent of the passage, these verses are to lay bare the heart of man in as literal a way as possible. You may say to yourself “I know a couple, and they are wonderful people.” And that may be true as far as people go, maybe they are wonderful. We were as humans created in the image of God and though marred and imperfect we still reflect that image. Because of this we can all express to some extent love, justice, moral action, faithfulness, and a host of other emotional and intellectual actions but not perfectly. We cannot meet the standard perfectly, even if we did once, what does it matter; it must be done every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, for our entire lives. Never once could we falter or stumble in the slightest.
So what then are we left with out hope? No, may it never be! For the scripture reads “the righteous shall live by his faith.” If this is so, and it is, man must then be able to attain a righteousness before God. But how? The answer is simple “Abraham Believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”(Romans 4:3) Because of Abraham's faith in what God had revealed to him he was counted as righteous before God apart from any works or deeds he may have done. We too are called to faith or belief in what God has revealed to us in scripture. Namely we are to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) ”16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
And by that belief or faith we are accounted righteous, as Abraham was accounted righteous. Paul again in Romans puts it this way “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (10:9,10)”
There is a critical link then, between faith and righteousness. Faith is not only the means or channel that brings us salvation (we are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:8) but also causes us to be righteous before God. The righteous then must live by faith, because it is faith alone that counts a man as righteous and brings life itself.

05/05/2017

William Komelski
The weight of Glory:
This semester I have had basic language tools and have been studying 4 words in two bible passages; two from the New Testament, two from the Old.
Micah 7:20 Thou wilt give truth to Jacob and unchanging love to Abraham, which Thou didst swear to our forefathers from the days of old.
John 1:14 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The two from the New Testament are χάρις (grace) and ἀλήθεια (truth). The two words from the Old Testament are אמת ʾěměṯ (truth) and חסב ḥěʹ·sěḏ (unchanging Love).
God’s truth is unchanging and in both the Old and New Testament, it points to not just the information about who he is (which is academic) but the tangible reality of how he expresses himself in and to His creation over time. This is why ʾěměṯ is often translated as faithfulness or loyalty, Abraham plainly understood God’s truth in this way, and accordingly put his faith in the truth that God had revealed to him.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac; and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; 18 it was he to whom it was said, “IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.” 19 He considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead; from which he also received him back as a type (Hebrews 11:17-19).

Abraham knew that God’s word was true, because he had experienced the truth of it; he was then able, by faith, to offer his son.
Although God’s truth has not changed he has progressively revealed it throughout history. Beginning with the walks he took with Adam and Eve in the garden, and leading to His ultimate revelation of Himself to man in the person of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Christ was so complete that John Spoke of it this way; “18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” The word ἐξηγέομαι (the Greek verb translated as explained) is in the middle voice, in and of himself, Jesus’ very nature was an expression of God. ἐξηγέομαι is in the aorist tense so that we know that Christs expression of God is a fully complete action, he is the final expression of God to man. Christ in the fullest sense has made God known to us. This expression is so complete that Jesus said to Philip in John 14:9 “He who has seen Me has seen the Father…”
Though God’s gracious nature has not changed many fail to see it in the Old Testament. It can however be found in His חסב ḥěʹ·sěḏ (unchanging Love). It is translated in various ways throughout the bible it may be accurately rendered as faithful love, loyal love, loyalty, lovingkindness, or even faithfulness. The Septuagint (The popular Greek Translation of the Old Testament used at and before the time of Christ) translated it as mercy. But it is more than all of these, the sum of its parts are greater than its whole. When you encounter the word ḥěʹ·sěḏ, it should rightly bring to mind all of the manifold glories and wonders expressed in the incomprehensible mercy of our Creator LORD God and King. In Psalm 136, the psalmist strains to express this idea with the continued refrain of “His lovingkindness is everlasting.” God’s ḥěʹ·sěḏ then, finds its ultimate expression in Jesus Christ, from whom we have received “grace upon grace.”(John 1:16)
Indeed the grace of God has been so lavishly poured out on us in Christ, that Paul states, no matter the abundance of sin, God’s grace in Christ super abounds to meet the need (Romans 5:20, 21). So then no man need fear that his sin is too great because the grace of God through Christ abounds over all, trampling down the sin of man destroying the record of transgression of all who believe.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Because of these studies, I believe I am beginning to understand, what Jesus meant when he said “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it.”(Matthew 16:24, 25). It is not as some may suppose that we need to bear the burdens of our lives daily, Jesus said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The burdens that we carry we are supposed to lay down at His feet daily. When we do this we begin to see that they are not trials or tribulations but markers on the path that point ever to His Glory. I used to understand this passage to mean that I must die to myself daily. Though that is the result I struggled with the method of how to accomplish it until I realized that I was confusing the end with the means. God’s law (His truth)is such that it has crucified me (rightfully placed me under a judgement of death) for my sins, but his grace is such that he has allowed my sins to be nailed to the cross of Christ instead, so that I can fully say, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20) That is the first part we deny ourselves. The second part is harder, we pick up our cross. We look upon our cross its frame groaning under the terrible weight of our just punishment, tremblingly we place our hand upon that which was meant for us; fearfully we begin to lift this burden, that daily we add to, only to find that it has no weight at all for us; its structure leaves not even a trace of a mark on our clothing, and we look up and find that it is He, who is bearing this burden for us. So then, we begin to understand the awful and wonderful weight of God’s Glory, Displayed in His Son Jesus Christ; full of Grace and Truth.
It is this cross we must bear daily, it is in this we find the Joy of God’s lovingkindness towards us, and it is in His grace we find peace from striving with the law. In that grace we then find a new law, the Law of Grace, that shepherds us by the power of the Holy Spirit, and guides us daily ever closer to the precepts of God’s eternal truths.

06/02/2016

Words and music to Elliott Park's song The Soldier and the Oak

06/01/2016

Introduction to Genesis
Genesis 1:1 (ESV)
1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis the idea of beginnings. Why are we all here? It is a question that everyone has had to answer. Are we just the result of our genetics and society? Can our lives and the meaning of everything be summed up in some natural lottery? Is the sum really greater than the whole of its parts, is there something more to life than what we can observe? Do we have a larger purpose than simply existing and working to thrive at our own personal agendas? Is there a greater calling for humanity or is this all there is? These things are at the heart of Genesis.
It seems that the philosophical issues surrounding Genesis are so often addressed without coming to any resolution; all that is left in the end are more questions. For many people even the word genesis is only used to describe theoretical concepts, it is rarely used to describe a physical event. For example, one would most likely not hear “The genesis of the marathon is at Broad Street and the end is at Pike.” we do not talk about origins in realistic terms, a more likely sentence would be “The genesis of the modern assembly line can be attributed to the genius of the man Henry Ford.” The Book of Genesis is the same way it has become conceptualized, and because of this, there is a risk to the reader of losing the full impact.
A concept or idea no matter how powerful loses its ability to affect the world if it is not grounded in reality and put in to action. One of the main purposes of the Genesis account it to provide the reader with a context for how the world came to be. The traditional Hebrew title to the book (taken from the first word of the first sentence) was simply “(In) Beginning” it could even be translated as “At the Start” it is very real and very practical title. There is nothing wrong with thinking about the philosophical and theological aspects, but you must eventually come to the realization that it was a concrete process also, it actually happened at specific point in time.
What it comes down to is this: was the beginning of all things an act of creation, or did it just happen one day for no particular reason. For the Christian as well as many theists (that is a person who believes in some type of higher power) the beginning came with a creation. It is important then before considering any theological, philosophical, or experimental truths to firmly grasp the reality that there was an actual beginning to things. There was a cause, a moment when there was nothing and then, there was something. There was a time when God spoke and the universe came in to existence. God the eternal; the uncaused one; the one who said to Mosses “I am that I am” (Exodus 3:14). That can be a confusing statement but the short explanation is this; when God said “I am that I am.” the intent was that He (God) is the only self-existent, necessary being in the universe; everything and everyone else are contingent upon Him. He is the only one in existence that needs no one else, and is necessary for everything else to exist. When studying the book of Genesis and contemplating the history of creation it is important to remain centered on this point. It is not about humanity in the sense of our importance in the universe, but rather, about God and what he has done. By his word, one moment there was nothing, and then there was the universe. There is meaning to our lives because an incomprehensible eternal all powerful wonderful God, chose to create us. Our lives have meaning because this God (the God of Creation) has an ideal plan and purpose for each of us, he does not force it upon us (as some would say) but rather freely offers it to all.

--William Komelski

05/22/2016

Hi, Welcome to my page Ask a Bible Student. My name is Will Komelski I am a Christian theology student in Lawrence county Ohio. The reason that I have created this page is to give people a place to discuss topics and ask questions that they may not necessarily be comfortable asking in person. I certainly will not have all the answers, but I will answer any questions to the best of my ability. As I move forward with this page I will attempt to post one new article every Saturday; I may also post answers to questions that I receive throughout the week.

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