The series of First and Second Peter is going on at church.  Its only on its second week but the content in the introduction alone is worth checking out.  Listen to the MP3’s, or subscribe to the podcast, here.

One of the common points of division in the body of Christ, from my own experience, has been theological extrapolation. Calvinists don’t get along with Arminians because of the extrapolation from what is written in the Bible. Don’t get me wrong, logic is important, but it isn’t the be-all, end-all of hermeneutics. You see, if you have only some of the facts, content, culture, history, language understanding and you start to form doctrines you can come up with some errant ideas because you have started to fill in the ‘blanks’ [even if they weren't blank, but you didn't study] with something else that you have brought about by deduction. When you have some ideas that work for you, it is probably a great idea to pursue discussions with mature believers and seek out wisdom. Homogeny isn’t always the most important thing (truth is!), but others who have studied a topic may be able to point you towards some verses that will help you in your studies and find a fuller understanding of what the scriptures say on a subject.  Homogeny can also be dangerous because a whole group has agreed on something but not looked into it.  That being said, discussion with other believers is critical.

When you study God’s word there is a term for inserting your own meanings into a text, its called eisegesis (pronounced like ice o’ Jesus, which is probably what Martha was getting when she complained about Mary listening).  It is important to know what the scriptures say and to apply consistent hermeneutics for this very reason.  If you look at a text and are forcing your own modern context and ideas on the text, you’re not learning from God’s word, you’re changing it.  That’s not extrapolation, but its not useful time with the Bible.

I taught on Mormonism this weekend at church.  The recording is up on the Holly Hills Bible Church site.

The title of this post is not quite a double-entendre.  The concept that I was thinking about was that God is all powerful and is limited only in the positive sense of His character.  That is to say that He cannot do evil things, but He can love with his pure, infinite, perfect love.  However, the ‘Nothing is too great for you to do,’ part of this title is actually the crux of the issue: we, as humans, want to do a whole lot.  Doing nothing kills us.  Which is a good thing.  God wants us to rest in Him, but instead we often want to be active and eager about doing something.

Is doing nothing too great for you?  If God’s word tells us to rest in Him, His works, His plan, and trust Him to conform us to the image of His Son, why do we find that rest to be such a challenge?  Is it because we want to prove something?  Do we want to prove God’s done something in us?  If so, the rest should be our reaction, the world does something as a reaction, our reaction to God’s powerful work in us should be doing nothing of the flesh and resting in our relationship with the Holy Spirit.  This doesn’t mean we won’t ever appear to be doing things outwardly, but it does mean that we’ll be doing things because inwardly the Holy Spirit has prompted us.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we will be doing good works that God has planned ahead for us to do.  Those are sure-fire winners.  Guaranteed gold for the rewards crowns we can look forward to heaven.  It means that I don’t have to sit around wondering if I’ll do those things, I can ’sit around’, instead, resting.  Nothing is too great for me to do in the flesh, but the only thing I should be doing in the flesh if I’m walking in the direction and constant relationship of the Holy Spirit.  Because those works are not too great for God!

As I’ve grown in my walk with the Lord there are a list of concepts that I have found to be revolutionary and rooting in my walk:

1. Identificaion Truths
2. Positional Truths
3. Abiding
4. Hermeneutics
5. Understanding of Covenants and Dispensations

Identification Truths
This is the concept that is presented strongly in Romans 6 and various other places confirm and expound on the idea that we were identified with Christ in His crucification, death, burial and resurrection. We were identified with Christ and so we therefore are not slaves to sin. We still will sin due to our bodies being strapped to the sin nature but that is why Paul writes that we should reckon our bodies dead. Instead of focusing on the flesh we should set our minds on the things above (Colossians 3:1-3).

Positional Truths
This is the concept that my position is in Christ. Right now I’m hidden with Christ (Colossians 3 again) and no matter what I do in this human body I am baptized into Christ and cannot be seperated from Him. My relationship with Christ should be consuming and not my keeping track of my condition. My condition is what I’m experiencing now on the earth. My position is perfect in Christ due to my identification with Him, but my condition can at times not match my position. However, as we walk in fellowship with Christ we will have our condition match our position. This is the process of sanctification, there is no hindrance to our sanctification we will be conformed to the image of Christ, even if we have ‘Jonah’ moments where we walk in the flesh and try to walk away. Ephesians 2:10 says that God has good works planned for us, which means that even if he needs to bring about a large fish to relocate us, get a donkey to talk to us, or bring us to the bottom of things in our condition, He is sanctifying our lives and conforming us to the image of Christ!

Abiding in Christ
Instead of trying to figure out what righteousness looks like in a to-do list fashion we should be focusing on our relationship with Christ. This guarantees us a righteous walk and that we will exceed any set of rules or laws that we may be able to construct. Instead of trying to live down to laws, which only put us into bondage, we need to abide in Christ (see John 15) and this will produce the fruit of Christ in our lives. Don’t get distracted by junk that you can do, but instead be focused on Christ who will do pure and rewardable things in your life!

Hermeneutics
This is a consistent and methodical approach to reading and understanding scripture. Inconsistancy in interpretation is one of the major reasons that there are differences in believer’s theology (that’s a rather obvious statement, sorry). Paul tells us that we need to be united in our doctrine and I think that one of the big issues that I see today in the church is that we don’t recognize that the author of scripture (the Holy Spirit) had one intended meaning for what He inspired through the human writers. I have written about hermeneutics before, you can read it here.

Understanding of Covenants and Dispensations
Understanding the major sections of scripture and the agreements God made with mankind helped me get a feel for the plan of God for the world. Understanding the Noahic covenant was critical in grasping God’s plan for grace, capital punishment, God’s provision for eating meat, and God’s faithfulness in not destroying the world with another flood. Then you learn about Abraham’s covenant, which is really God’s covenant with himself to Abraham and his descendents. After that you learn about God’s covenant with Israel, God’s covenant with David and then the New Covenant in Jeremiah. Grasping these covenants, seeing who they relate to, when they relate to and how they fit into the timeline of scripture is awesome and something I suggest every believer study and grow in.

From there you can grow in many, many areas because of God’s word being so amazing, but those things really helped me grasp my relationship with God and helped me understand the Bible more wholely. Reading scripture (or listening) and understanding what your reading makes it easier to grow as well as discern when others are teaching law or mis-understanding God’s word because you know what it means with certainty because you have a consistent method and a broader knowledge of the Bible.

Resting in Him,

Randy Peterman