Remember!When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.
May I say that I hope you and all your family enjoyed a God-Blessed, restful and joyful Thanksgiving!
Now, where was I last Tuesday? Oh, yes, as I put it together from scripture, dear tour companion, thinking on Justice as fashioned by Will in the Godhead resulted in a process thatprogresses from one thing to another. Most notably, each issue cluster (such as those described in Blog #57) would have an individualized process and progression.
For example, for Justice to be served in the Godhead concerning the “crime and punishment” cluster, God Wills that there be a certain process through a progression of events largely like this:
The tenets and operations of Justice within the Godhead would be characterized by:
Consensus.
A definition of justice.
A method to process issues of justice.
A measure of compliance or non-compliance with Justice.
A system of accountability.
A judge (The Father, initially, until the 2nd Coming of Jesus).
A decision by the judge.
A judgment handed down by the judge.
Judgment consisting either of condemnation, exoneration or forgiveness (expressed in the Son at the 1st Coming).
Sentencing decided by the judge.
Sentencing consisting either of clemency, pardon and restitution (accomplished in the 1st Coming of Christ Jesus), or penalty and punishment.
Execution of the sentence (by the power of Holy Spirit).
Timing of the execution of the sentence in context with the Godhead’s Plans and Purposes.
Remember!When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.
God’s Will covers everything, of course, dear tour companion, everything but everything.
Based on the certain implications of Blog #54, The Answer, and equally certain significance of the Godhead in all things (described in Blog #55: The Sweep of God’s Thinking); I found that an abundance of derivatives naturally flow from certainties of this kind. Things such as . . .
God’s Will is more inclusive than usually realized.
For example, God wanted community, so He made community in the Godhead.
God wanted life in the Creation, so He breathed life into it.
What God wants to happen, happens—in His own good time.
In a nutshell, in the Godhead, Will becomes the tie that binds, that is, it becomes the agent of definition, accountability and control of all elements of the soul of the Godhead—of the mind, of the emotions, and yet to come, of the personality and the Life of the soul. In other words, God’s Will determines all things within the Godhead and in existence, and He determines it (wills it) pre-Creation (We keep coming back to this truth, don’t we?).
So, it pays to dwell on these things of the Godhead and His Will, things such as the emergence of the concept of Justice in the Godhead that we toured in Blog #52, #45.
There are more dynamics to the Justice System established by the Godhead’s Will other than the “crime and punishment” cluster alone. There is the moral law with moral imperatives cluster, the good versus evil cluster, the law and order cluster, the sin (lawlessness) versus righteousness cluster, there is the personal law versus public law cluster, the guilt versus innocence cluster, the accusations (with heavy disapproval of false accusations) versus evidence cluster, the condemnation versus forgiveness cluster, the ingratitude versus appreciation cluster, the 7 deadly sins versus the cardinal virtues cluster and so on. God’s will for Justice has a huge part in everything in existence, be it the Godhead itself or the Creation.
The tenets and operations of the Justice System in the Godhead can be explored in depth in the Old Testament. As an overview, Vine’s points to this system in the word study of the verb to judge, and the noun, judgment (page 125-126). According to Vine’s, the Hebrew verb, sapat, Strong’s #8199, means . . .
“to judge, deliver, rule. . . . this root has a judicial sense.
Sapat refers to the activity of a third party who sits over two parties at odds with one another. This third party hears their cases against one another and decides where the right is and what to do about it—he functions as both judge and jury. . .
Sapat also speaks of the accomplishing of a sentence. Both this concept and those of hearing the case and rendering a decision are seen in Genesis 18:25, where Abraham speaks of ‘the Judge [literally, “One who judges”] of all the earth.’ In 1 Samuel 3:13 the emphasis is solely on ‘delivering’ the sentence: ‘For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth . . .’
Sapat can be used not only of an act of deliverance, but of a process whereby order and law are maintained within a group.’
As a noun, Hebrew, mispat, Strong’s #4941, ‘judgment . . . This word has two main senses, the first deals with the act of sitting as a judge, hearing a case, and rendering a proper verdict. Ecclesiastes 12:14 is one such occurrence: ‘ For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
The noun s’patim refers to ‘acts of judgment.’ One of the 16 occurrences is in Numbers 33:4: ‘For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the Lord had smitten among them, upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments.’”
Remember!When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.
Quotes I feel compelled to share just keep popping up this week—like this one:
By academic freedom I understand the right to search for truth and to publish and teach what one holds to be true. This right implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.—Albert Einstein—
Everything I blog is cut from the stuff of this quote from Albert Einstein. It is how I think, in spades (a Bridge term). Einstein uses the word duty. That word has always resonated with me.
Do you remember this quote?
So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can!—Ralph Waldo Emerson—
The Einstein quote is a new one to me. I first saw the Emerson quote in Prep School. Like striking the C note on a piano tunes my voice, the word duty always tunes my being. I love the idea of duty. Everything I am rallies around it. It is through the word duty that I first appreciatively approached the term accountability. Accountability is an honorable thing, dear tour companion. I respect accountability (a form of owning up to the truth, you know) and those who practice holding themselves accountable.
It’s the least one can do, I think—to embrace accountability. It’s amazing how many people disagree with me on that idea. Yet I try to be a 100% practitioner of personal accountability and when I succeed (which is not 100% of the time, and I refuse to admit what the probable true percent of success I achieve is; though I will admit the actual percent is gravely less than 100), I have found the results amazingly profitable in my understanding of the boundaries ofliberty.
Giving credit where credit isdue is one huge aspect of the accountability I regularly discipline myself to practice. I truly enjoy the accomplishments of other people and admire them for their abilities. I’m not perfect at this, but am no slacker either.
God, as author of all things, wills accountability be a part of our lives as it is a part of the life of the Godhead, and especially wills giving credit where credit is due (authors know to give credit where credit is due, dear reader).
Accountability promotes respect as an act of the will as the critical foundation of attitudes and behaviors, making it akin to agape love, love as an act of the will.
The Godhead wills respect for the persons of the Godhead and for all persons.
Isaiah 17:7 And in that day a man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.”( Hebrew Verb, rââh, Strong’s #7200, [ have] respect)
James 2:1-9 Beware of Personal Favoritism (Gr. Verb, epiblepo, Strongs # 1914, to have respect of persons, [verse 3] NKJV)
Remember!When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.
To appreciate the sweep of God’s thinking and the relevance of His Will, gentle reader, one must dwell on certain things.
For instance, I love this description of the Godhead by one of the comment contributors in theSpirit-Filled Life Bible in response to this question: “What does the Bible say about the Trinity? (2 Corinthians 13:14)”:
“The Trinity is one of the great theological mysteries. There are some who think that because we believe in monotheism, one God, we cannot accept the concept of the Trinity. Yet the Bible teaches that the Godhead consists of three divine Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—each fully God, each showing fully the divine nature (Luke 3:21, 22).
The Father is the fountainhead of the Trinity, the Creator, the first cause. He is the primary thought, the concept of all that has been and will be created. Jesus said, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working’ (John 5:17).
The Son is the ‘Logos’ or expressionof God—the ‘only begotten’ of the Father—and He Himself is God. Further, as God incarnate, He reveals the Father to us (John 14:9). The Son of God is both the agent of creation and mankind’s only Redeemer.
The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, proceeds from the Father and is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son. He inspired the Scriptures, empowers God’s people, and convicts the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8).
All three Persons of the Godhead are eternal. The Father exists and has existed forever. With Him always existed His expression, the Son. Always the Father loved the Son, and the Son loved and served the Father. From that relationship of love exists the Spirit of God, who is eternal and has existed forever. The Father did not exist first, then later the Son, and still later the Spirit. They all three have existed from before there was anything that could begin—three distinct Persons all functioning as One. Upon the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, all three Persons in the Trinity were present and active. The Father spoke from heaven, the Son was fulfilling all righteousness, and the Spirit descended upon the Son like a dove (Matthew 3:16,17).
From Mr. Robertson’s description, one can easily appreciate that the Godhead is the be-all and end-all of all things. What He says, goes (if you please).