Seminar 1 Midterm Essay 18/09/2019

Badilla, Zephres V.
1-F
“In his goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal himself and to make known to us the
hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh,
man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the father and come to share in the divine
nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God
(see Col. 1:15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of his love speaks to men as friends (see
Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that he may invite and
take them into fellowship with himself.”
In the first letter, it shows that God decided to reveal himself and made known to us the
mystery of his will, which was hid from all ages, but is now made manifest. God, unveil himself,
guided us, through words and events, letting the people feel his divine providence and manifesting
his hidden mysteries which is always in connection with knowledge and purpose, letting the people
understand what his will is, however, reason can apprehend, when revealed, that which it cannot
discover but seldom or never can it comprehend it perfectly. In the letter the hidden purpose also
known as mystery is declared to be accordant to the good pleasure of God’s will. In this seems to
be implied that though in some sense we can know it, yet in its fulness the knowledge will be
passed, interpreting it in our own cognizance under the guidance and purpose of God’s will, and
all of that is through Jesus Christ, where man might have a chance with the Holy Spirit to share
with God’s divine nature.
In the second passage of the letter, “The invisible God”, this clause pointed out the
description for an “image”, in the bible image pertains to the real and essential embodiment, as
distinguished from mere likeness. Thus, the question what the image of god is, St. Paul calls man
as the image and glory of god, yet indirectly, when is man said to be made after the image of god,
who then, or what, is the image of god, after which man is created. St. Paul answers such question
that Christ is the image of god, the bible also points out that Christ is the express image of His
person, to signify the visible drawn image, and the word “person” this points out to the
substance or essence. One might recall in the Theological studies “the Word” was called the
eternal “image of God”, the whole idea of the word “image,” and to its use in the New Testament
one may point out in the bible to this passage in Lord’s own words in John 1:8, “No man hath seen
God at any time, the only begotten Son”, “who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed
Him.” In anticipation of the future revelation, Christ, even as pre-existent, is called “The image of
the invisible God.”
In the second passage of the letter that “out of the abundance of his love speaks to men as
friends and lives among them, so that he may invite and take them into fellowship with himself.”
Through revelation, the image of God as an invisible God manifested through the image of Jesus
Christ, that Jesus Christ is the image of god, and his actions and words are the will and word of
God and through Jesus Christ we are being invited into a fellowship with God himself. This
passage shows an intimacy not only that God revealed himself with greater clearness than to any
other but also with greater expressions of kindness than to any other. He spoke not as someone
like a king to his subject, but as a man to his friend, whom he loves, whom he cares and spoke like
a bosom friend, in this passage one could depict that God is welcoming man in his covenant, a
fellowship between God and man, and this all are possible through Jesus Christ his son.