BIBLE BITS -- Psalms 50 and 51

When God created mankind, the Bible says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26).  Mankind is to be a reflection of God--knowing what God wants, desiring to do what God wants, and able to do what God wants.  God loves and blesses mankind with all he needs to live; mankind, in turn, lives to honor God and love others whom God has created.

But sinners have turned this on its head.  Rather than striving to be like God, sinners go our own way.  What's more, we presume that God is like us.  We have made God in our own image.  We assume that God's justice is our justice, that God's opinions match our opinions.  We assume that God likes what we like and that God hates what we hate.  And when God does not act according to our assessment of what is good and right, we convict God of being ignorant, inconsiderate, or incompetent.  

This sinful mindset has not escaped God's notice.  In Psalm 50, we read, "But to the wicked God says: 'What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers. You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son. These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you" (Psalm 50:16-21, emphasis added).

When we give heed to the word of God, we recognize just how unlike God we are.  It is not God who needs correction; he is pure and holy.  It is we who need redemption from our sinful rebellion and arrogance.  And then it is we who need to be corrected in our hearts, minds, and actions.  

The solution is found in the very next Psalm: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit" (Psalm 51:10-12).

Jesus Christ has purified us from all unrighteousness through holy baptism.  There, he cleanses us of all sin through his holy, precious blood.  There he applies to us the benefits of his sufferings, death, and resurrection.  He not only cleanses our status, but he converts our hearts to acknowledge that his word is good and right.  He gives us his Holy Spirit so that we conform to him.  This is how the image of God is being restored in us, to be perfected at the resurrection of the dead.

God is not like us.  God converts and transforms us to be like him.  This is our prayer, our goal, and our assurance by the working of the Holy Spirit.

BIBLE BITS -- Psalm 49

In the past, I had run into quite a few Jehovah's Witnesses.  They are rather slow to get to a confession which puts them outside the Christian Chruch.  They say that Jesus is NOT "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God" (Nicene Creed).  To deny that Jesus is God is to deny the Christian faith, as the Athanasian Creed also confesses very pointedly: "Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe faithfully the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man; God of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man of the substance of His mother, born in the world; Perfect God and perfect Man..."  Note: "It is necessary for everlasting salvation" to believe that Jesus is God.  

I don't expect Jehovah's Witnesses to acknowledge that these creeds are a correct confession of the Bible, especially when the Jehovah's Witnesses have their own unique translation of the Bible which conveniently (and falsely) "translates" verses to validate their false teachings.

I have found Psalm 49 to be especially helpful in this matter (though, to be honest, I don't know how the Jehovah's Witness translation handles this Psalm).  Psalm 49 states, "Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit" (Psalm 49:7-9)

Jehovah's Witnesses will confess that Jesus is a man, and even a perfect man.  They confess that Jesus is a creation of God, the first creation, but a creation nonetheless.  As a creation, they claim that Jesus is not eternal and, therefore, not true God.  If that were true, what does Psalm 49 teach?  It teaches that Jesus cannot be the Savior; for, no man can redeem the life of another.  If Jesus is merely a perfect man, he has earned his place in the kingdom of God.  Good for him.  But he does nothing for anyone else.  How could he if no man can ransom another?

But Psalm 49 goes on: "But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol" (Psalm 49:15).  If Jesus is the Savior who delivers us from the grave and from hell (both valid translations for "Sheol"), then he has to be God.  As true man, Jesus is the legitimate substitute for man.  As true God, Jesus' payment counts for everyone.  It is necessary for salvation for this to be true, and it is necessary for salvation to believe this.