God’s Word: Unlike the Movies

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16,17

I am not a theologian (in the sense of a formal education), pastor, elder or deacon. I am just an old, retired guy whom God the Father bestowed great mercy and kindness through His Son the Lord Jesus, and Who sealed me in His Spirit about six months ago (see Ephesians 1:13). I desire the same for you; not to be old of course, but to know God’s tender mercies in having full assurance of your faith and the forgiveness of sin.

In the scene that Matthew 3:16-17 presents, what caught my attention was that God was present in His three distinct persons: (1) God the Father, who spoke from heaven; (2) Jesus, and (3) the Holy Spirit, who descended from heaven as a dove. While I have believed the doctrine of the Trinity since my youth, I know that over the centuries the existence of a triune God has led to considerable debate. In A.D. 381, the Council of Constantinople approved the Nicene Creed to refute the teaching of a priest named Arius who believed that God created Jesus before the beginning of time. He taught that Jesus was divine, as God was divine, but they were not of the same essence.  In 1647, the English completed the Westminster Confession of Faith, and in The Larger Catechism, the reformers referenced this passage in Matthew in their answer to the question, “How many persons are there in the Godhead?” Of course, the answer was three: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Recently, I have been meditating on why the writers of the Bible used specific words; such as  referring to “God;” “God the Father;” “Jesus;” “Jesus Christ” in another; and yet elsewhere, the “Holy Spirit” (along with various combinations of these names of God in many other passages.) We find the same is true in the Old Testament names of Jehovah; e.g. El Shaddai, Adonai, Elohim. Why are such distinctions important? There is only one God, correct? (Deuteronomy 6:4)  Do we really need these? For example, in Ephesians 2:18, Paul wrote, “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.” Why didn’t Paul simply write: we have access to God? The question, of course, is rhetorical. I believe I know. As with everything in God’s creation, there is a wonderful design and purpose, and that includes the Scriptures. The heavens are evenly balanced between a multitude of stars, planets and constellations; the gravitational pull of our sun, moon and the earth, sets the length of time and tide. The intricacies of our human bodies; our shape and substance; human intercourse and procreation  goes far beyond what Darwin envisioned in his idea of our evolution through the replication of a simple, single cell. The working together of our heart, mind and body; with its voluntary and involuntary operations; our feet and hands, eyes and ears; all working together with an efficiency and economy that goes beyond expression.

All that God  created is displayed with a remarkable and wondrous demonstration of His attributes; His wisdom, intellect, power, and might. It is foolish to think that God did not equally imbue such design into the writing of the Scriptures; each word and reference specifically chosen and recorded by God and inspired; each doctrine stated without contradiction or confusion, which alone should tell us that men, left to their own, could not have written. As for those who look for reasons not to believe, God foreknew those scoffers. He left just enough for them to question so that He would later expose them to their folly. However, for those who saw that distant star and followed it? You too are wise men.

Moreover unlike the movie that is produced after the novel is released and the movie disappoints, the Bible will not disappoint. God’s production follows exactly the Script(ures) from beginning to end. All of the actors are necessary to be understood in their respective roles; yes, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; with the best supporting actors of Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Saul of Tarsus, and Mary Magdalene. All references to a man’s heart, mind, spirit and soul are purposeful and deliberate so that we can dissect the spiritual nature of man as God’s creation and find the blemishes that Adam imposed on us with his fall. Each and every miracle performed by the prophets, Jesus and his apostles was a demonstration of Christ’s Deity and interaction with us through the Holy Spirit. All of the Old and New Testament laws, sayings, parables, stories and lessons were given to us for God to reveal the greatness of His love, the depths of our depravity, and the price paid through our Lord’s obedience and death on the Cross.

God’s Word, unlike the movies, is currently playing in many millions of theatres locally and world wide. May the Holy Spirit, by the will of God the Father, apply this truth this day to your innermost theatre: your heart and mind.