Reply To: Knowing God, Chapters 5 & 6

[Nayara Jordan]

A bit late here; catching up! Great to read everyone’s thoughts.

In chapter 5, I appreciated the reframing of the incarnation, resurrection and atonement through the lens of Jesus’ divinity. If we can acknowledge Jesus’ divinity, the miracle of incarnation, resurrection and atonement may not be as difficult to grasp.

I was also fascinated by the description of how Jesus’ divine capacities were restrained during his earthly ministry. I really liked this quote: “the God-man did not know independently, any more than he acted independently. Just as he did not do all that he could have done, because certain things were not his Father’s will, so he did not consciously know all that he might have known, but only what the Father willed him to know. His knowing, like the rest of his activity, was bounded by his Father‘s will. And therefore the reason why he was ignorant of, for instance, the day of his return was not that he had given up the power to know all things at the incarnation, but that the father had not willed that he should have this particular piece of knowledge while on earth, prior to his passion.” I can only pray and strive to be this locked in to the Father’s will!

Lastly, I loved chapter 6 because I love learning and reading about and communing with the Holy Spirit. Today’s sermon in 1 Corinthians 15 covered the “what if” of the resurrection as Paul has us ponder what would happen if the resurrection never happened. This chapter instead has us ponder, what if the Holy Spirit didn’t exist? To think that without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel is a scary thought. But I praise God for what is! And pray that God through the Holy Spirit would continue to guide us as we read and learn more about the Father, Son and Spirit.