Pastor-teacher Don Hargrove

Faith Bible Church

Sunday, July 5, 2009

http://fbcweb.org/Audio.html   

 

1 John  2:28

 

GOD’S PROBLEM SOLVING DEVICE #10:

OCCUPATION WITH JESUS CHRIST

Part 50:  THE HYPOSTATIC UNION: 1 PERSON

WITH 2 NATURES & 

SUFFERING IN THE PLAN OF GOD

 (Messiah & A.C. #231)

 

A.     The Hypostatic Union:  One Person with two natures, Philip 2:7.

             

            1.    The Orthodox doctrine as distilled by Chalcedon in 451.

                        a.  The humanity of Christ.                

                        b.  The deity of Christ.

                        c.   The union of the two natures in one person.

                        d.   False views of the hypostatic union lead to all kinds of monstrosities.  

                        e.   In order to move into a deeper understanding and appreciation of the God-man we need to understand the two extremes as represented by two different schools of thought: the Alexandria Logos school and the Antiochene Jesus school 

                        f.   The eternal Logos was the archetypal man in that He eternally possessed every property sufficient to make up a human soul (SC, freewill, mentality).                           

                        g.   The only thing that the eternal Logos lacked in being a complete human nature was a human body which He assumed in the incarnation & thus by the virtue of adding flesh he took on everything necessary to have a complete human nature. 

                        h.   During the incarnation the Logos allowed only those aspects of His person to be part of the waking consciousness of Christ which were compatible with typical human experience; He only allowed those aspects related to humanity to be conscious. 

                        i.    The divine aspects of Jesus’ omniscience person/mind were largely subliminal during the incarnation.   

                        j.    Scripture teaches that Christ has one volition – furthermore,  volition is an attribute of Person and not nature. 

                        k.  God, the Eternal Second Member of the Trinity, the Logos, suffered as He lived through the human nature of Jesus Christ  - for what is predicated of one nature is predicated of the Person, Philip 2:5-8; Heb 5:8.

                        l.    There can be no true appreciation and worship of Christ as the Celebrity of the Universe let alone OWC apart from have a correct understanding of the HU.

                        m.  All cults have one thing in common:  a distorted view of JC.

                        n.   The world’s rejection of the true Christ will culminate with the acceptance of the Anti-Christ, Rev 11:7-10; 13:1-8; 2 Thess 2:5-12.

                        o.   As the stage continues to be set for the world acceptance of the Antichrist it is critical that each believer prepare himself spiritually through the WOG.

             

            2.    Human analogy of the hypostatic union: man is 1 person with 2 natures 

                         a.   Person:  SC possessor of all attributes of soul and body. 

                         b.   Nature: refers to essence which possesses properties. 

                         c.   Hypostatic union of body and soul in one person in human beings.    

 

B.   Suffering in the Plan of God, Philip 2:5-11.

            1.   God’s plan for your life includes blessings and sufferings both of which are designed to move you into greater blessedness and blessings, Philip 1:29.

            2.   Satan also has a plan for your life that includes suffering and “blessings,”    Mt 4:1-6; 2 Tim 4:10; 1 Pt 5:8; 1 Jn 2:15-17.  

            3.     God’s sufferings and blessings are always designed for our good and to move us into the greater grace blessings whereas Satan’s sufferings and “blessings” are always designed to get us away from the SL and to discredit us before God, the angels, and the world.  

            4.  It is imperative for every believer to understand the 5 categories of suffering and make the necessary adjustments: 2 are punitive and deserved; 3 are undeserved and designed for the most fantastic blessings. 

                        #1 – VR – deserved, Gal 6:7; Hos 8:7

                        #2 – Carnality – deserved:  failure to live in fellowship.

                        #3  - Suffering in immaturity designed to advance the believer in spiritual maturity and doctrinal orientation - the only place of true strength, stability, and true blessedness, Js 1:2-4.

                         #4  -  Suffering in maturity to advance the believe into greater grace blessings and greater doctrinal orientation for even greater happiness, 2 Cor 12:7-10.

                        #5 -  Special suffering designed to advance the believer into the greatest doctrinal orientation as a supergrace believer who will be honored for all of eternity for his witness in the A.C (cf. Job, the Apostle John). 

            5.  Only in the infallible Word of God can we discover the cause, purpose, power, and meaning of all human suffering. 

            6.  All suffering is designed to remove some form of arrogance from our lives, cf. Exodus generation, 2 Cor 12:7-10.

            7.  All suffering is designed to get us to focus more on the grace of God.

            8.   God is far more interested in us handling the sufferings through His Word and His grace than in us simply praying away our problems or simply praying for more strength. 

 

C.    Suffering is designed to so orient you to the grace of God that you gain complete victory over the 5 major tests of life, 2 Cor 12:7-10.

             #1:  Victory over helpless situations, “weaknesses.”  

             #2:  Victory over all people testing, “insults.” 

             #3:   Victory over thought testing, “distresses.”

             #4:  Victory over unfair treatment, “persecutions.”

             #5:  Victory over disaster testing, “difficulties.”