BAKUNZI BYIZA Naomie

22/177BTH/C
DOCTRINE OF THE GOD AND THE BIBLE: SUMMARY

Chapter 4: THE ONLY TRUE GOD

In this chapter, The only true God the author shows us that To strip Christ of
His divinity leaves us with a Savior that is not sufficient. It is not possible that
we trust our salvation to another created being who is bound by time and space.
It is not in agreement with God’s command “to have no other God’s before me
and then discover that every knee will bow before Jesus of Nazareth, another
created being, whose name will somehow be above all other names phil2:8-11
Without the doctrine of the Trinity the Gospel and its claims begin to unravel.
As we seek to understand and live in the midst of the truths of the Trinity, we
benefit in two ways. First of all, the object of our worship becomes much
clearer. Because there is only one true God “we should have no other gods
before Him.” We should worship no one or nothing else Because there is only
one true God “We should love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all
our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength.
We should worship God and Him alone with an undistracted, full-devoted love.
Secondly, because He is in three persons, we receive all the blessings that a
Father brings to their children. In Christ, we are forgiven and invited to draw
near to a God who loves us unconditionally. In the Spirit, we are empowered to
live the Christian life and to never again be separated from God.
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in
heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may
grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you
being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all
the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the
love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God.
Because there is only one true God, we should have no other gods before Him.
We should worship no one or nothing else (Exodus 20:3). Because there is only
one true God, we should love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all
our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength (Mark 12:30).

Chapter 5: God incarnate

Incarnation, the central Christian doctrine that God became flesh, that God
assumed a human nature and became a man in the form of Jesus Christ the Son
of God and the second person of the Trinity.
Christ was truly God and truly man. The doctrine maintains that the divine and
human natures of Jesus do not exist beside one another in an unconnected way
but rather are joined in him in a personal unity that has traditionally been
referred to as the hypostatic union. The union of the two natures has not resulted
in their diminution or mixture; rather, the identity of each is believed to have
been preserved.

In this chapter, the author discusses what it means to believe that Jesus is God
Incarnate and yet also fully man, the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit, the
truth of the Bible, the need for and nature of propitiation, what the Bible means
by adoption, how God guides us, why we still have trials if we know Him and
He loves us
A central doctrine of the Christian faith affirms that God took human form in
the body of Christ. In other words, God was 'incarnated' in human flesh. This
doctrine is based on the fundamental paradox that because God was incarnated
in Christ, Christ was both fully human and fully God at the same time
The development of a more refined theology of the Incarnation resulted from
the response of the early church to various misinterpretations concerning the
question of the divinity of Jesus and the relationship of the divine and human
natures of Jesus.
Chapter 6: He shall testify
In the Old Testament, God’s word and God’s Spirit are parallel figures. God’s
word is his almighty speech; God’s Spirit is his almighty breath. Both phrases
convey the thought of his power in action. By the word of the Lord were the
heavens made, their starry host by the breath spirit of his mouth.
The Father will send the Spirit, says our Lord, in my name that is, as Christ’s
deputy, doing Christ’s will and acting as his representative and with his
authority
Just as Jesus had come in his Father’s name acting as the Father’s agent,
speaking the Father’s words and bearing witness throughout to the One whose
emissary he was, so the Spirit would come in Jesus’ name, to act in the world as
the agent and witness of Jesus. The Son is subject to the father, for the son is
sent by the father in his (the father’s) name. The Spirit is subject to the Father,
for the Spirit is sent by the Father in the Son’s name. The Spirit is subject to the
Son as well as to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Son as well as by the
Father.
the person and work of the Holy Spirit are largely ignored. The doctrine of the
Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of Christian doctrines. Comparatively few seem to
be interested in it. It is an extraordinary thing that those who profess to care so
much about Christ should know and care so little about the Holy Spirit…
But many Christians have really no idea what difference it would make if there
were no Holy Spirit in the world
How can we justify neglecting the ministry of Christ’s appointed agent in this
way? Is it, not a hollow fraud to say that we Honor Christ when we ignore, and
by ignoring dishonour, the One whom Christ has sent to us as his deputy, to
take his place for them .