works of faith: regeneration

Ps 51:9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

Acknowledgement of sins, and a desire for redemption.

Ps 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

A desire for purification and a spirit of determination.

Ps 51:11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.

A spirit of desperation and complete dependence on God.

Ps 51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Pleading for lost joy and a spirit of willingness and endurance.

goodness, gracious

As I was reading Acts today I read this:

Ac 11:24 He [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Upon reading it I immediately thought of this:

Mk 10:18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone."

I have a habit of thinking when I hear anyone being called "good" of Jesus saying that no one but God is good- which, by no means was he denying His own divinity, but in all aspects was seemingly nudging someone to think of the logical consequence of calling Jesus "good", if God alone is good. Otherwise, I think Jesus could have been clearer and said, "I'm not God, nor am I good."

Nevertheless, I thought of Mark 10:18 when I read this passage in Acts and started my mini investigation. My Greek translataion (thank you Pradis) shows that the word used in both passages is "αγαθοσ", or agathos, which means good. I plugged it into google and found a few Muslim websites that uses this example to argue against the divinity of Jesus, even though I think that the argument is not proper. It goes something like this:

a) no one but God is good.
b) Jesus denied being good.
c) Therefore Jesus is not God.

and this:

a) no one but God is good.
b) Barnabas is called good.
c) Therefore Barnabas is God!

The former falls apart because B is not apparent in the text. Jesus did not deny His goodness, he only questioned the man's own question. It's like someone approaching me and asking, "Are you Filipino?" and I respond, "Why do you call me Filipino? Aren't Filipinos short, brown, and handsome?" I am in no way denying my Philippine heritage, I'm only affirming that if I am, as the person is assuming I am, then I must be short, brown, AND handsome! And in so questioning that person, I hope to get him to admit that FACT on his own.

For the latter, we as Christians automatically see the absurdity of the syllogism from the conclusion C, but we still need to examine the premises.

Assuming that Scripture is inerrant in its teachings we learn from Romans 3:

Ro 3:10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
Ro 3:11 there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
Ro 3:12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”

There is no one who DOES good. In the doctrine of 'total depravity' we affirm from this that man, outside of God's grace, is unable to do any good deeds because everything not done in faith in God is sin (Romans 14). However, consider the following verses of Scripture:

Pr 12:2 A good man obtains favor from the LORD,
but the LORD condemns a crafty man.

Pr 14:14 The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways,
and the good man rewarded for his.

A good man obtains favor from the Lord (Note the words 'favor' and 'rewarded' are not defined in any material sense).

Lk 6:45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

This is tells me that GOOD MEN bring GOOD THINGS out of the GOOD STORED UP IN THEIR HEARTS. Therefore, a good heart is required for a so-called good man to do good things.

But where does that good stored up in his heart come from??

Ro 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Now the question of Barnabas. How is Barnabas good, if God alone is good? Well, hopefully the simple answer becomes simpler in light of the Scriptures that I've provided, so that any absurd argument using those passages against the divinity of Christ or the veracity of Scripture crumbles apart:

Ac 11:24 He [Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Conclusion: Barnabas was a good man because he was full of the Holy Spirit.

...Which, if true, then the Holy Spirit must be God, also, since God alone is good! Trinitarians, you're welcome :)

mind renewal

I decided to make a blog just for my thought meanderings on theology and Bible, as opposed to my every thoughts about life in general. I call this mind renewal, after the Greek anakainosis, which Paul uses in Romans 12:

2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I like this idea and I believe whole-heartedly that honest study of God's word and Spirit-led obedience results in this anakainosis of thinking, as much as addiction to drugs and formation of habits is real in both experience and the biochemical reactions happening in neurosynapses. So, by God's grace I hope to be able to do this and jot it all down in blog form. Hopefully, as time passes I can look back on this and see how God has changed my thinking, and therefore my being.

:)