Musings on the Baptism of Christ

Of all the times that the Holy Spirit is mentioned or appears in the Gospels one occasion struck me as odd. It’s not what happened that was strange, but what didn’t happen. What I want to write about is the account of Christ’s baptism. It wasn’t the reaction of the people at the moment of His baptism that was peculiar, but their reaction to Him afterwards that I want to explore.

When Christ was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist the scriptures say in Matthew that “after Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased’ ” Mark says that “He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him…”. My question is this: Why didn’t Israel recognize at this moment that Christ was God’s anointed, their messiah? It would make sense, historically speaking, that the Holy Spirit’s falling on Christ would garner some sort of reaction. They should have remembered the accounts of Saul and David, when the Holy Spirit entered into them, granting them the authority to lead Israel. Or at least they would remember Moses, who had the Spirit, in order that He could lead the people out of Egypt.

On top of several extraordinarily important historical events, which would have been burned into their minds since they were children, they had the prophets. Who told of a day when the Lord would put in them His Spirit, which would cause them to walk in His statutes, and they would be careful to observe His ordinances. All of Israel clung to the hope of a day when He would heal and save them. They knew that there was a man coming, the Lords anointed, that would save and lead them to righteousness. Not to mention the prophesy of John the Baptist in Isaiah, which is obviously fulfilled before Christ comes to Him to be baptized.

As I read the baptism accounts in Matthew and Mark I noticed that they were recorded from an omniscient view. For example, Matthew said after Christ came out of the water he saw the heavens open up and the spirit descend on him. So it was Christ that saw the spirit, not Matthew or any of the disciples (they were still fishing or being shady tax collectors), so it was reasonable to believe that nobody else saw it. Which may get them off the hook, right? If they couldn’t see it then there is no way that any connections could have been made at that moment. After reading Luke’s account I realized that couldn’t have been the case. Luke will say that “the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove…” there isn’t a mention of Christ seeing it, as in Matthew and Mark. Which leads me believe that Luke wants us to understand that all could see it, not just Christ.

It is further confirmation of our stupidity that such a clear affirmation of the Messiah could be completely missed. Throughout the Old Testament God consistently uses the Holy Spirit to empower his servants to carry out His will, and it was no different with Christ. So one would assume that at the moment the Holy Spirit fell on Christ there would have been a national recognition of Christ as the promised one of God, His Son.  Now, if all would have repented at the moment the Holy Spirit fell on Christ and turned to Him, He wouldn’t have been killed, which would have left us without a Savior. So I see it as God’s sovereign ordinance that those that were present at His baptism missed the connection, than many might be saved through His death and resurrection.

 

 This was a short paper for my systematic class. I enjoyed writing it so I decided to share. Later on. 

Look down, below, or under this post, whichever you like.

Dispensation as I used it is defined as the giving or dispensing of something. Kind of like a soap dispenser, but instead of dispensing soap He (God) dispenses Grace. I’m not claiming that I believe in dispensationalism, (I don’t think I spelled that right) to be completely honest I don’t know enough about it to solidly defend my position. Maybe I ought to study it…K, later. Brent 

Sovereign Dispensation

I’ve recently found myself in several conversations where reformed theology is brought up, which often leads into very long talks about a very difficult doctrine.  I spent a good three years wrestling with Reformed Theology, namely Romans 9. I didn’t understand how God could save some and not others. Frankly, it angered me, and there were some very dark moments of my faith which I hope never to return to. But as I wrestled with election I clung to one Truth, God is good and all He does is good. This, I believe, helped me cling to Christ as I traversed a valley in my journey with Christ. However, that isn’t really what I want to talk about. To recount my dealings with election would take much more time and space than I can allot, and I imagine it would be more than you would want to read.   What I do want to talk about is what I believe is the foundation of election. The ramifications of Reformed Theology could be discussed for days. Questions such as: Did God make me eat or did I decide to eat? Did I turn the light off or did God make me turn the light off? Did I move to Fort Worth because I desired to or did God make me? Such questions are irrelevant, not because they are unimportant but because we will never know the answer to them. It is impossible to know whether or not God makes me do this or that, so we shouldn’t spend too much time pouring over questions that can’t be answered. Salvation is a different thing all together. Colossians will say that we have been “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” “And you who were dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven our trespasses…” God is the moving, acting force behind our salvation, Christ will say that we cannot come to Him unless the Father has called him. So it isn’t up to us, in fact, if it were up to us we would stay dead. We can’t make ourselves alive when we are dead, nor can we claim we are free when we are slaves to sin. If God didn’t intervene we would stay as we were, “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds”. From the moment we are born we are at war with God, our soul rages against Him, and we can’t love Someone we naturally hate. He must woo us and open our eyes to our sin, when He does we are able to see Him clearly and then we can run. Then we can humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and ask for forgiveness, but not until then. So it’s not “up to the man that wills or runs, but on God who has mercy”.  The whole point is this, all Glory must be given to Christ. I cannot take any credit for my salvation, not even the faith that it took to believe on Christ, the faith was a gift. Why I am chosen I cannot say, there is nothing in me that is deserving of Grace. There is nothing in any of us that deserves Grace. All men that have been covered by the blood of Christ must give all glory to Him. Not because they think they should, or because that is what a Christian does. We must give all glory to God simply because we did nothing for our salvation, it was an absolutely free gift that we cannot take any credit for. The only posture we can take is that of complete reverence, knowing that we have a greater love in Christ than could ever be imagined. The scriptures place all power in the hands of God, including the power to save and the power to judge. Reformed Theology aims to place all glory and honor where it ought to be, on the Throne of Christ. To take any glory for ourselves is a scary and foolish thing to do. 

Old Testament Summary

There are many things in life that can be categorized as difficult, hard, challenging, or nary impossible. There are many romantic things that could be placed in such a category, finding true love, being a good man, not consistently looking like an idiot; or, as luck would have it, summing up two thousand years of redemptive history in a single page, such will be the thesis of the following ditty.

So, basically what happened was this, Adam and Eve eat fruit that they weren’t supposed to, which, consequently got them kicked out of the Garden and introduced to a horrible state of mind called shame, resulting from their sin. A few years down the road they have some kids, Cain and Abel. By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice to God than Cain and Cain kills him because of it. Many years pass and humanity gets itself into a horrible mess, God gets angry and tells Noah build and ark and put his family and two of each animal into it, then kills everybody with a flood.

After the water subsided and life got back to normal or fathers decided to build a tower to God. This proved to be a horrible idea. God stooped down to see what they were up to, decided it wasn’t a great idea and made everybody speak different languages. For the next several years life was a bit confusing for everybody until they could sort themselves out. After the confusion dissipated a bit God called Abraham out of Ur to make a people for himself. He and Lot left Ur to make their way to Egypt, as the Lord had commanded. While they journeyed together they amassed a great amount of possessions and animals, the land could no longer support both of them so they split up. Abraham allowed Lot to decide where he wanted to go, and he chose land by Sodom. Soon after the Lord rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorah, then turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt.

The next major event is the potential sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Fortunately, the Lord sent an angel to stop him then provided a ram for the sacrifice. Later on Isaac marries Rachael and Leah, wrestles with God, has his name changed to Israel and has 12 sons that become the twelve tribes of Judah. One of the twelve sons, Joseph, has a rough time of it. He has a dream that says his brothers will bow down to him, he makes the mistake of telling them and they through him into cistern and leave him for dead. Soon after they change their minds and sell him into slavery where he eventually becomes pharaoh’s right hand man.

Several years pass, and by several I mean about four hundred, and we find Israel enslaved in Egypt, happy day. God sends Moses to lead them out of slavery, which he does, they then spend the next forty years wandering around the desert. During which God gives them the Ten Commandments. Once God lets them into the promised land they foolishly ask for a king, once again, bad call on their part. God gives them Saul, he makes some bad decisions, the Lord decided he doesn’t want him to be king anymore and raises up David. David kills Goliath while he was on a cheese run, and begins his unlikely rise to become king. It doesn’t take Saul long become jealous of David’s military exploits, which sends David on a run through the desert. After some time in the desert he assembles up the Mighty Thirty and takes the throne soon after. After some time in the palace he gets lazy, doesn’t go to war and sleeps with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheeba. During his time on the throne he writes a bunch of poetry called the Psalms.

After David’s reign things really go down hill for Israel, they get a bunch of evil kings that lead them into all sorts of idolatry, and eventual exile in Babylon for 70 years. After the 70 years were up God brought the remnant back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. After the temple is rebuilt God doesn’t speak for nearly four hundred years. Enter, John the Baptist. 

 I had to write a summary of the OT in one page for Systematic Theology class.  Thought it would be fun to post it. Have a good day.

An attempt

This was an attempt at some sort of poetry… 

Clean and white, with a handle big enough for a four fingered grasp. I set it on the table, wood and porcelin meet, their aquaintance ackowledged by a solid thud. My mind turns to wise men, men of renown sitting at a beaten oak table. Battered and bruised, the hard oak full of old life and memories.The men drink from the same cup as I. Their stories and laughter fill the room, killing the cold that tries to cut through. The warmth of a life well lived swirls in and around every nook and cranny. I look back at my cup, on a clean table, waiting for the scars of life to come.

Young pride

Psalm 46:10  ”cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted among the earth.” There is a reality that men, young men especially, are arrogant. We just are, there is no way to get around it. In some way, no matter how Godly, there is a special place in man’s heart that a black, wicked root of arrogance grows. The funny thing is we all know where it’s at, and if you don’t then chances are your pride is blinding you from seeing it. For whatever reason, and there can many, we hang out there and cling to it. For some, for me at least, it could be fear, or anxiety that keeps us there. For others it could be a genuine belief that they are better than everybody else, and they like to hold their talents or money or social position, or whatever it is they pride themselves in over other peoples heads; I have been in this camp as well. The sad thing, the stupid thing, is that we make most of our major life decisions when we are the most arrogant, which is usually around the early twenties. The problem with this is we are old enough to think we know everything, yet young enough not to know that we don’t have a clue what we are doing. Fun little paradox there. Life is really good about beating the trash out of us, and as frustrating as that sounds, its good. Why? Because life is where we are sanctified, when life happens and stuff falls apart that we can’t fix, we’re forced to deal with the fact that we’re stupid and need help. And when we realize that we are stupid, and need help, we are put in this beautiful place called humility. The beautiful thing about humility is that God is no longer opposing our pride, His humbling work is through we can have real communion with the One that our soul longs for. The longer that we live, the more life beats the crap out of us. As life rages against us our stupidity is made known, then we are truly able to cease striving, and know that He is God. He is Lord over all, He is wholly good, wholly wise and blameless in everything He does. Under such a mighty God the only choice we have is to stand in reverence. Men, we have got to stop walking through life thinking we know everything and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Why? Because He cares for us. Therefore we can cast all our anxieties on Him, we can let them be known and rest in the beauty of His peace. Whether we do this or not there are two realities in life that we have to deal with. The first being that we are broken, finite beings. It stands to reason that an imperfect, finite person can’t possibly know all things. So why act like we do? The second being that God will be exalted among the nations. We can walk around with a huge ego all we want, but the truth is that we will be humbled sooner or later. I imagine it would be better for us if it were sooner rather than later. So my plea is this, quit being stupid. I include myself in this, in fact this blog may be written completely to myself. But we are young and dumb, there’s no getting around it, may we find older men to run the race with, men that will call us out and correct us in love. I imagine the rough parts of life will be easier to get through if we walk through it with humility, most of all we will walk with our Lord closer. And thats the whole deal, to walk with Christ and enjoy Him. Let us run the race set out for us, and may we do it with a child-like dependence on our Father. Brent 

Turning

So when I raced motocross one of my favorite things was cornering. I don’t know why, but long sweeping corners where the best. There’s just something about a long, fast, sketchy sweeper that makes you think you are going to yard sale any second that rules. Even better than that where big sand burms, the ones that you didn’t really even have to brake for, just downshift at the entrance and go through the whole thing wide open. Basically, the faster and scarier, the better. However, my love of scaring the crap out of myself on a weekly basis nearly killed me, so it would make sense to stop and pursue a safer hobby. And that’s when the spandex came in. The next best thing to motocross is riding a mountain bike, so, naturally I started riding mountain bikes. The cool thing is, trails have corners too. So I get to corner all I want without death knocking at my door. However, it isn’t without obstacles, namely, trees. I haven’t ridden many trails in past two years, due to the concrete jungle I lived in. All I ever rode in Houston was road, and riding in a straight line for hours doesn’t do much for bike handling skills, which became painfully obvious yesterday. I rode Boulder yesterday for the first time in a long time and had a blast. I felt really good, had some tunes goin’, life was great. Once my legs loosened up I picked up the pace and then it happened, I started bouncing through the woods like a pinball. Apparently, and this may be news to some of you, trees don’t get out of your way. The jerks expect you to avoid them while they just sit there!! So I spent the next hour and a half having this painful truth beat into me, literally. There are few that surprise me more than being stopped dead, in the middle of a corner, by a stupid tree. I mean, it really hurts, not just your shoulder, but everything. It’s a full body pain that kind of makes me want to vom, which is bad when I’m exhausted and want to vom anyway. So until I get used to turning again I guess I will spend the next few weeks having the crap kicked out of me by nature. Nature sucks. 

Creepy Tom Cruise Scientology video

Good grief. This man makes no sense, I don’t think he completes one thought during the entire video. 

Men, not Theology.

As I have grown in my faith, and walked through life with Christ I have noticed one thing; there is always sin to wrestle with. As frustrating as it is its true, how I wish that there would be a point in my walk, like say…today, when I didn’t wrestle, when my heart didn’t rage against Lord. Only if the Holy Spirit would sweep over me and grant me perfect clarity, keep me from sin, and make me perfectly happy in Christ, always. But that isn’t the way God has designed it, when I die I will see clearly, the sin that I wrestle with will fall away, never to be fought with again. Until then, I wrestle and fight for holiness, for understanding, and for wisdom. And here recently the thing I have struggled with the most is boiling men down to their theology. It’s amazing how quickly I can strip a man of his humanity, and systematically judge him based on his interpretations of the scriptures. Not that it is all bad, I think I ought to be able to discern a man’s beliefs about God and move towards correcting that which is false and reinforcing what is true. The scary thing is I can do it in a way that is not Christ exalting, and in wicked at it’s core. Funny how quickly theology can become corrupt…maybe funny isn’t the correct word, I think horrifying is. As I go through seminary and learn a lot of amazing things, it will be really easy to slip towards pride, good grief I pray Christ would save me from pride in understanding the Word. The interesting thing is, if I am proud in my understanding of scripture, I really don’t understand it at all. Because true understanding of the Scriptures would bring deep humility. So how do I right what is wrong in my soul? I plead with Christ to change me, to renew my mind, and I press towards love. Always. There should never be a moment in my life that isn’t grounded and rooted in love, the beautiful thing is that pride and love cannot dwell together. So if I truly love, and press in to love Christ and people daily, pride won’t rear its ugly head as often. Where one is, the other cannot be. So my prayer and hope for myself and brothers and sisters in the faith is this: “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 The whole reason for understanding scripture is to love and understand who God is. When our doctrine is rich and deep, life flows from that in a beautiful, Christ exalting way. And that is what we must fight for. The scriptures absolutely need to be discussed, examined, wrestled with and understood, but not for the sake of knowledge itself. Theology without Doxology is utter foolishness, and should be called out and corrected. Regardless of a man’s belief I ought to love Him, even if he infuriates me, I must press towards love. That is the goal of life, to love Christ and people. I pray that the Holy Spirit will break us, I pray that He will heal our junk and make us able to love.

Brian Reagan…this guy is awesome