Separated By God: You Are More Than Conquerors

As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long;

     we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (cf. Psalm 44:22).

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors

through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that

neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities

nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing,

shall be able to separate us from the love of God

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:36–39

            John so aptly points out that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was born into this world taking on mortal flesh. By doing so then God through Jesus Christ imbues the children of God with His holy innocence and the simplicity of the oneness we have with the Father and which is manifested in us. As Jesus manifested in us we come under the vehemence of this world who in their hearts hate the fact that there is a God and that this God came to earth and by means of His Son gives salvation to all who believe. Think on this fact: God come to earth born of the Virgin Mary and the Son of God is born into every saint. This was by the direct act of God and then I as a child of God exercise the right of a child. Having this right allows me to always be face to face with my Father. Whatever the circumstances of life are; we have the ability to be in constant contact with the Father. We must identify ourselves this way but we so often refuse or attempt other methods to approach the Father when it is simple enough. How? Allow God to get His way in you realizing and allow yourself changed into the image of His Son and that His Son is getting hold of you? Too much, clamor these days. Too much worldly, and New Age thinking in our Churches. This allows the culture of this world driving our worship: and for what? We so often continue to put to death the Son of God. We leave no room for quiet holy communion with the Father. As we learn just how the Logos, the Word is and that He is the Only Begotten Son of God, God’s Wisdom clothed in flesh so that the purpose of God will be completed by His death; are we drawn to Him, or is this world with all its glamour pulling us away?

            A reminder: This voice that issues from God has an outward effect and yet His voice remains in His heart. Just as your voice does for it enters the air and remains in your heart and at the same time as entered into the hearing and mind of another. Just as the Word took on visible flesh and became publicly in view, the entire Word remains in the Father’s heart, although the whole is by the same flesh no less transmitted to us. So the Word is completely in the Father and completely in the flesh, flowing as a river, as a conduit reaching and an overflowing river crossing all the orders, as mentioned in the opening Scripture, and reaching down to our flesh. We must not neglect this fact: Along with the name and substance of flesh we must come to understand the rational soul. The Word of God did not assume flesh with the soul as some heretics; i.e., Appolinarians suppose, for He did come to save that what was lost: “for the Son of Man has come to seed and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). The whole of man lost, the entire man, both, in body and soul. In man the body was moribund, and in his soul already dead, both being eternally damned. So, how could the whole man be saved? The Word became complete man of flesh with a rational soul. If God took on flesh only and not the soul, where did he plant his foundations? Only our rational spirit is spacious enough for that. Only as we are acquainted with the rational are we able to perceive what we see with the mind and be able to perceive with the soul. Therefore, the Word assumed flesh and by doing so did not omit anything as a special exception to Himself, that is, He did not omit the rational soul. We who hope in the incarnation, the Incarnate Word have this hope secured that God did not by some other means secure salvation for His children. The Word fulfills having a rational soul the Scripture by God the Father when He gave utterance to the good Word: “My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are faire than the sons of men; grace is poured upon Your lips; therefore ‘go9d ahs blessed you forever”(Psalm 45:1–2). Luke quoting from Isaiah 52:10 states: “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6). God became man and dwelt among us: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, he glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

            Through all things from His way to us, from the invisible to the visible he has come to us. He came in all reality of our flesh, in all the laws of human nature, He dwelt among us. Does this not raise the hair on the back of your neck to think that God so loved you that He came, Himself, the Son of God, His Wisdom, to save you? Nothing, nothing in this world or any other world whether of angels or any other creature can separate us from the love of God.

Now I know that the LORD

            Saves His anointed;

He will answer him from His

            Holy heaven with the

Saving strength of His right hand.

                        Psalm 20:6

God has joy in your strength

Richard L. Crumb

Why Praise God?

Praise the LORD from the heavens;

Praise Him in the heights!

Praise Him, all His angels;

Praise Him, all His hosts!

Praise Him, sun and moon;

Praise Him, all you stars of light!

Praise Him, you heavens of Heavens,

and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the LORD,

for He commanded and they were created.

He also established them forever and ever;

He made a decree which shall not pass away.

Psalm 148:1–6

            God as stated by the above Scripture to have created and John writes the Logos who created: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). This is an important matter for it is said by those two verses that there is a propriety that exists between both God and the Logos by saying one person is with another. But how? What agreement exists between the two? What is the love mediating between them? We can answer this question by noting that: “All things were made through Him,” and this accomplished by the love of each for the other, that love is the Holy Spirit. If you are asked: “Who has made all things? “ Your answer is simple: God! If it is asked: how? Through the Logos, the word, Jesus Christ. Why did God, the Logos create? Because God is Good! Through the Godhead, Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all things were made through Him.

            God is worthy of all praise and of all adoration for by Him and by means of His Son Jesus Christ all things were made that was made. Look around and see the beauty of the things that were made, lift your eyes to the heavens and see the wonder of the universe displayed. The closest star some four light years away. Light travels 186,000 miles a second and there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year which makes this star to be 126,144,000 miles from earth and we can see it and those farther away. How big then is the universe? I don’t know1 How big is God? What will eternity be like if we have no time, no death, and could travel the universe? God has made those things that are visible and invisible. When we contemplate all this our desire is of wonder and God is exulted, His Son is exulted, and the Holy Spirit is exulted, for by God, the Godhead, the Trinity all things exist and all things exist for His pleasure and we too have great pleasure in what God has done. All things given to man a sense of wonder and God revealed to exist by those things that He created. Think on this: God spoke and with the talent of an artist through His Word, the Wisdom of God mighty and beautiful things were made, and again simply by His command. All angels, hosts, moon, sun, stars, and things that are therein give Him praise. Are you praising Him too? God spoke and there was light, He spoke and there was firmament, and the waters, and the birds of the air, the animals, and all herbs of the ground, the seed, and the fruit tree, all by His spoken word. These things made by His Word, the Logos, who is the Only Begotten Son of God. This by speaking although it was not by speaking with elemental sound or corporeal voice for God is a Spirit, but by that kind of speaking with which your soul, which He made in His own image, frames noiseless language whenever it will….

            “And the Word became flesh….” (John 1:14a). Men such as Cerinthus, a Gnostic and other such antichrists who has heard this conjunction: “and” for it returns us to verse one that the Logos, that which become flesh who was in the beginning, with God, and is God and that all things were made through Him, therefore the “and” refers us back to that first verse. Looking back into this antiquity of time and see the nobleness of God who came to live as man. The One who took on the flesh of man, to suffer as a man, to die as a man, so that His children would have the plague of sin that so encumbered them, keeping them far from Him, not only made all things, He saves His children. Are you one of His children? The word did not change into flesh, this is not what is to be considered, unless you believe that Jesus Christ is nothing more than another god as do the Mormons and others, even Jehovah Witnesses claim that Jesus Christ was a created being. To say that the Logos changed into flesh then you are speaking heresy and it removes faith. The word was not changed into flesh, but by assuming flesh he condescended to fleshly things. Therefore the Word, the Wisdom of God who as with God, who is God became flesh just as when you speak you can correctly say, “The word which was in my soul has become vocal.”

            Many see the visible things that exist and yet do not desire God, or, they have so construed a god due to the mysteriousness of the universe and those things created so that they have a god, but this is not a God who saves for salvation does not come by seeing created things: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew god, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:20–21).

            May your eyes be opened to see not only the wonder of creation made by the Word, Jesus Christ. May this realization that God created you, and has come to give you eternal life. Enjoy what God has done and live for Him.

Oh, give things to the LORD,

            For He is good!

For His mercy endures forever.

                        Psalm 136:1

Lift your heart and soul to Him: Your Savior

Richard L. Crumb

The Trinity: Is Jesus God The Same Subtance As The Father?

Then the LORD answered Job out of

the whirlwind, and said:

“Who is this who darkens counsel

by words without knowledge?

Now prepare yourself like a man;

I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

where were you when I laid the foundations

of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.”

Job 38:1–4

            The word we translate from the Hebrew, “LORD,” in this verse is the tetragrammaton, that is the letters that make up the national name of God, which carries with it the meaning of one who is self–existent, the Eternal One. The exact pronunciation is in debate as there are no vowel marks for those letters as there are for adonay. We can say Jehovah, Yahweh, and in any case if you understand each pronunciation is speaking of the Eternal, Self–Existent God. Jehovah (I will use that term) and said to have been the One who caused creation, the forming of the foundations of the earth. John 1:1 reiterates that the word was created and this by the Word, the Logos; therefore both are speaking of the same creator. The Word was in the beginning. Where was His locality? Read chapter 38 or Job and you will find that this creator revealed and we gradually perceive through those versed by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that His location was: “In the beginning.” John tells us in verse one of chapter one that; “the Word was with God.” By those words, we begin to have a glimmer of God, the Word, and their relationship. It is as if this glimmer is by the light of God’s arrows, and the shining of His spear: “the sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of Your arrows they went, at the shining of Your glittering spear” (Habakkuk 3:11). John hurls a glittering spear and shining arrow against those heretics who were claiming that Jesus Christ was someone other than what He was and is. Those blasphemies of malice that denied Jesus Christ existed before Mary, before His incarnation. There was and is today, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses that deny the Trinity, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Sprit are One. Mormons make each a god separate in person, and the Jehovah Witnesses not only make Jesus to be another god, they deny that the Holy Spirit is God. John makes this clear that the Word was with God, there is no doubt that Jesus who was in the beginning and with God is not some other creation by God, for there are no Scriptural references that Make Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah to have been created. For Jesus to be “with God,” then He holds the highest of honor, the highest in merit, and as John will reveal to us in his book, the greatest in Love. We need further clarification. For the Word to be with God is not as it is with a chain that is hung around a persons neck, for when a person hangs a necklace, even of great worth, gold, around his neck, that necklace of gold is not of the man’s substance. The Word was with God as wisdom is with a wise man, as with a mighty man: “But I have understanding as well as your; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these” (Job 12:3)? The rich man who has hung around his neck this necklace of gold is on him or in his pouch, but God’s Word is in His heart. Is this not what Job stated that in himself is where his understanding, wisdom lies, not outside of himself?

            The Word of God was truly with God. Is this not what John wrote? Yes! Then John adds: “and the Word was God’ (John 1:1c). Here John connects the Word Who was in the beginning, and with God to be God. John has borne witness that in substance lays two persons, God and the Word. The Sabellians or Modalists as with the Universal Pentecostal Church of God and the Apostolic Church believe that there is not a trinity, only God operating in different modes. The Arians, Jehovah Witnesses struggle with this article of faith as well as they make both God and the Word to be two separate beings. Jehovah Witnesses teach that the Father alone is God and creator and that the Son is a creature, albeit, mighty and surpassing. The truth that presented by John, this testimony in regards to God, and the Word, booms loudly, and clearly. To ignore that truth so clearly presented is because those who hold a different theology have departed from the truth: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron” (1Timothy 4:1–2). The consubstantiality of the Persons, the Father and the Word are acknowledge by John and we have his witness to this fact, and we have the contexts of Scripture to give witness to this fact: “and the Word was God” (John 1:1c).

            This one verse so beautifully embraces everything that John has expressed by those three propositions in verse one of his book: the Word was in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John did not say that the Word was “in” God, rather was “with God,” and by doing so John intended a greater matter concerning the Word. There is importance in John’s words and in this particular matter: therefore, I will address this in the next blogs.

And without controversy great

            Is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,

            Justified in the Spirit,

Seen by angels, preached among

            The Gentiles, believed on

In the world, Received up in glory.

                        1Timothy 3:16

You are to be His image

Richard L. Crumb