Video
Summary
In this lesson, we are going to be summarizing what we’ve done in the last several lessons, sort of pulling it all together. This will then conclude our discussion of the Essence of God: both His infinite nature, and His perfect character.
Timestamps
0:000:00 - Intro and outline
00:5100:51 - A reminder of what we’ve been going over
05:5005:50 - An overview in words
08:0308:03 - An overview in picture form
Content
(Derived from https://ichthys.com/1Theo.htm)
A reminder of what we’ve been going over
We have been talking about the essence of God: His infinite nature and His perfect character.
An overview in words
God’s goodness overflows with love, providing grace for sinful Man:
though evil says a loving God can’t condemn,
He did condemn His Son that we might live,
redeeming us in love with the blood of Christ.
God’s holiness overflows in justice, offering mercy to sinful Man:
though evil says a just God can’t forgive,
He did forgive us, by condemning His own Son,
making us righteous through the blood of Christ.
God’s faithfulness and truth overflow in life, producing peace with God for sinful Man:
though evil says that a God of integrity can’t restore us,
He did make peace between us through His Son,
reconciling us to Himself and granting us eternal life on the basis of the blood of Christ.
An overview in picture form
Video/audio transcript
0:000:00 - all right guys so this lesson we are
0:020:02 - going to be summarizing much of what
0:050:05 - we’ve talked about here with reference
0:060:06 - to the essence of God going back through
0:090:09 - the various lessons that we have made so
0:120:12 - the introduction and then talking about
0:140:14 - the infinite nature of God and then
0:150:15 - talking about the perfect character of
0:170:17 - God and pulling it all together in
0:200:20 - perhaps a more digestible summary form
0:230:23 - here in this last lesson for this
0:240:24 - section on the essence of God so this is
0:280:28 - going to be the structure of what we
0:310:31 - talk about in this lesson first we’re
0:330:33 - going to go back over some of what we’ve
0:340:34 - already talked about then we’re going to
0:370:37 - kind of P all together in an overview in
0:400:40 - words almost coming out poetically here
0:420:42 - and then we’re going to have a picture
0:440:44 - form this more less a chart that kind of
0:470:47 - pulls together all of the various
0:480:48 - characteristics that we’ve been talking
0:530:53 - about so to go over what we have been
0:560:56 - talking about the last little bit we’re
0:580:58 - just going to go ahead and review the
0:590:59 - out lines for the lessons that we’ve
1:011:01 - already done in discussion of the
1:031:03 - essence of God so the very first thing
1:061:06 - that we talked about with the essence of
1:071:07 - God was we were just introducing the
1:091:09 - concept we were talking about how the
1:121:12 - essence of God is being he is The Great
1:141:14 - I Am it is in God’s very nature to exist
1:181:18 - and then we talked about the respondence
1:201:20 - of God so God is light and that light
1:241:24 - gets at the sense of his unapproachable
1:261:26 - ility uh just how you can’t stare
1:281:28 - directly at the Sun and how glory is
1:311:31 - that manifestation of his of his glory
1:341:34 - in the world um so sorry the glory is
1:361:36 - the manifestation kind of of that light
1:391:39 - in the world so God operating through
1:421:42 - christophanies that came up a bit um and
1:451:45 - how we see God’s glory manifested in the
1:471:47 - world uh very much as uh we can see
1:511:51 - sunlight um so this these as kind of
1:531:53 - metaphors to explain the resplendence of
1:561:56 - God and then we talked a little bit at
1:581:58 - the end about how there are are various
2:012:01 - philosophical positions that people
2:022:02 - debate in regards to things like Essence
2:052:05 - and nature and substance and forms and
2:082:08 - philosophers have these words and how we
2:112:11 - are going to mostly be limiting
2:122:12 - ourselves to discussing the essence of
2:142:14 - God in terms of what the Bible itself
2:162:16 - actually says and so we’re not going to
2:182:18 - necessarily get into the weeds of all
2:192:19 - that um so this was the introduction of
2:232:23 - some of the things we talked about in uh
2:252:25 - this first lesson in this particular
2:262:26 - part of the study and then next we moved
2:282:28 - on to talking about God’s infinite
2:302:30 - nature and so in this we talked about
2:332:33 - God’s abilities uh kind of what he can
2:362:36 - do and what uh his status as this unique
2:402:40 - being in the universe is so we started
2:422:42 - out uh talking about how God is
2:452:45 - spiritual God is eternal and God is
2:472:47 - immeasurable in a spatial sense and all
2:492:49 - of these things which are what we would
2:522:52 - call Essential characteristics of God
2:542:54 - independent from creation make God
2:562:56 - unique um and so this was the kind of
2:592:59 - bridging quality uh that takes us from
3:023:02 - these initial three to omnipotence
3:053:05 - omniscience and omnipresence which are
3:073:07 - how these things end up kind of
3:093:09 - manifesting in creation itself so
3:123:12 - because God is spiritual he’s omnipotent
3:143:14 - he can do whatever he pleases in the
3:163:16 - material realm because he’s Eternal God
3:193:19 - knows everything the end from the
3:213:21 - beginning and because he’s immeasurable
3:233:23 - he cannot be bound in a spatial sense he
3:253:25 - is omnipresent he is everywhere in the
3:283:28 - universe so again
3:303:30 - this uh this particular section uh this
3:333:33 - lesson in the study going over God’s
3:353:35 - infinite nature and how that kind of
3:373:37 - sheds light on his abilities and then
3:403:40 - finally we looked at God’s perfect
3:423:42 - character and how that kind of helps
3:443:44 - illuminate his motives and so for his
3:463:46 - perfect character we were looking at the
3:493:49 - essential qualities of God that God is
3:513:51 - good God is Holy and God is faithful and
3:533:53 - true and then our kind of bridge
3:563:56 - characteristic here was how God is
3:583:58 - Sovereign and so this was probably the
3:593:59 - longest section that we went over in
4:024:02 - these few lessons here talking about how
4:044:04 - God is deure a ruler of the Universe on
4:084:08 - account of being the Creator um so God
4:114:11 - possesses The Sovereign authority to
4:134:13 - demonstrate love out of his goodness to
4:164:16 - to administer Justice out of his
4:174:17 - Holiness and to give life out of his
4:204:20 - truth and faithfulness um and so we had
4:224:22 - a a handy chart um in this set of slides
4:254:25 - that kind of like pulled together um how
4:284:28 - all of this works in terms of what we
4:304:30 - might call a theological vocabulary of
4:334:33 - redemption um so these these words here
4:364:36 - Redemption justification and
4:384:38 - Reconciliation kind of describing this
4:404:40 - process of God’s saving sinful man and
4:434:43 - as we emphasize time and again
4:454:45 - absolutely everything in the plan of God
4:474:47 - for saving us hinges upon the cross in
4:494:49 - the blood of Jesus Christ um so this is
4:524:52 - what we were talking about with uh God’s
4:544:54 - perfect character and then uh we closed
4:574:57 - off talking about how these aspects
4:594:59 - manif EST in Creation in how God uh
5:025:02 - approaches sinful mankind so God’s
5:055:05 - goodness is worked out in love God’s
5:075:07 - holiness is worked out in Justice and
5:095:09 - God’s faithfulness and Truth is what
5:115:11 - gives us life in this world uh just as
5:145:14 - we have the metaphor of the water of the
5:165:16 - word in John chapter 4 um as well as
5:195:19 - Jesus saying that uh we must eat his
5:225:22 - flesh and drink his blood uh in John
5:245:24 - chapter 6 that’s what gives us life um
5:275:27 - so this is what we have been going over
5:295:29 - um the last several lessons here and all
5:325:32 - this is to help us describe God’s
5:355:35 - essence of who God is what it means for
5:385:38 - him to be God so this is what we have
5:405:40 - been talking about and now we’re going
5:425:42 - to turn to kind of pulling it all
5:445:44 - together uh maybe in a paragraph or two
5:465:46 - as well as in a chart to help us
5:485:48 - summarize everything that we have been
5:495:49 - talking
5:535:53 - about so this is the part of the study
5:565:56 - that ichus has that kind of pulls
5:585:58 - together all of these qualities of God
6:006:00 - that we have been talking about um
6:026:02 - especially this as it relates to kind of
6:046:04 - redeeming us as sinful man uh from our
6:076:07 - sins and so as I read this here you’ll
6:106:10 - notice that uh the paragraphs have kind
6:126:12 - of been set as start almost in verse
6:146:14 - form and that’s because the way that Dr
6:166:16 - lug M arranged this it sounds very much
6:186:18 - it has the parallelism uh so to speak of
6:216:21 - poetry I mean it sounds kind of like
6:246:24 - what you would slip into in some of the
6:256:25 - Psalms that sort of thing and it really
6:276:27 - is a very good description of how God
6:306:30 - has worked out our Redemption um so I’m
6:336:33 - just going to go ahead and read this um
6:356:35 - and then we’ll go look at after this
6:376:37 - we’ll go look at the chart the picture
6:406:40 - that kind of represents the same
6:416:41 - information but more in a table format
6:436:43 - but first we’re going to go ahead and
6:446:44 - read uh kind of the verbal
6:466:46 - representation of God’s Redemptive plan
6:496:49 - for us so God’s goodness overflows with
6:536:53 - love providing Grace for sinful man
6:566:56 - though evil says a loving God can’t
6:586:58 - condemn he did condemn his son that we
7:007:00 - might live redeeming Us in love with the
7:037:03 - blood of Christ God’s holiness overflows
7:067:06 - Injustice offering Mercy to sinful man
7:097:09 - though evil says a just God can’t
7:117:11 - forgive he did forgive us by condemning
7:137:13 - his own son making us righteous through
7:167:16 - the blood of Christ God’s faithfulness
7:187:18 - and Truth overflow in life producing
7:217:21 - peace with God for sinful man though
7:237:23 - evil says that a god of Integrity can’t
7:257:25 - restore us he did make peace between us
7:287:28 - through his son reconciling us to
7:307:30 - himself and granting us eternal life on
7:337:33 - the basis of the blood of Christ and so
7:357:35 - you’ll notice that just as before when
7:377:37 - we were going through uh all the
7:397:39 - mechanics of this in the character of
7:417:41 - God that absolutely everything here ties
7:447:44 - back to the blood of Christ um so his
7:477:47 - goodness overflowing in love Holiness
7:497:49 - overflows in Justice and faithfulness
7:517:51 - and Truth overflow in life and all of
7:537:53 - this happens um that Redemption the
7:557:55 - justification and the reconciliation all
7:587:58 - of that happens on the basis of the
8:008:00 - blood of Christ just as we have been
8:028:02 - talking about
8:068:06 - before all right so now that we’ve gone
8:098:09 - through the text representation of the
8:118:11 - summary here now we’re just going to go
8:138:13 - ahead and we’re going to try to pull it
8:148:14 - all together in the table here now
8:178:17 - you’ll note that this very much
8:198:19 - corresponds with how ichus has organized
8:218:21 - this initial part of the study talking
8:238:23 - about the essence of God and that this
8:258:25 - left column here uh organizes everything
8:288:28 - about God’s infinite nature and this
8:308:30 - right column organizes everything about
8:328:32 - his perfect character and you can see
8:348:34 - that the columns are split um into
8:378:37 - independent and applied and what we’re
8:398:39 - talking about here uh these are
8:418:41 - characteristics of God independent from
8:438:43 - creation and these are how those
8:458:45 - characteristics manifest within creation
8:488:48 - and even more specifically in regards to
8:518:51 - God’s relationship with Humanity uh here
8:538:53 - talking about his character um so the
8:568:56 - independent characteristics his
8:588:58 - spirituality his eternity and his
9:009:00 - immeasurability manifest as omnipotence
9:039:03 - omniscience and omnipresence and these
9:059:05 - things together make God completely
9:079:07 - unique uh there’s no one like him in the
9:109:10 - universe and his goodness and his
9:139:13 - Holiness and his truth manifest
9:149:14 - respectively as love Justice and life
9:179:17 - here in the universe and these things
9:199:19 - together make God Sovereign uh he holds
9:229:22 - the scepter of authority by existential
9:249:24 - Fiat he is the one to whom all honor and
9:279:27 - glory is due in the universe
9:299:29 - not just because he’s the biggest and
9:319:31 - the most powerful on account of his
9:339:33 - abilities but also because he is the
9:359:35 - creator he is the one who has the right
9:389:38 - to judge the Free Will decisions of his
9:419:41 - creatures and so all of these things
9:439:43 - together describe God’s Essence as we’ve
9:459:45 - been discussing it his infinite nature
9:479:47 - his perfect character which makes him
9:499:49 - unique and Sovereign and he is the one
9:519:51 - to whom all honor and glory is due uh
9:559:55 - kind of both dejur by his uniqueness by
9:589:58 - his his his power and his abilities and
10:0010:00 - also or sorry that was de facto by his
10:0310:03 - uniqueness and and his abilities and
10:0510:05 - also dejur on account of his status as
10:0810:08 - the Creator the one who has made us and
10:1010:10 - the one who has the actual authority to
10:1310:13 - rule over us as the moral Sovereign of
10:1610:16 - the universe so this is as I say a
10:1910:19 - summary of all that we have been talking
10:2110:21 - about here in this first section uh of
10:2310:23 - the study going over God’s Essence so in
10:2710:27 - closing us out aie do you have anything
10:2810:28 - else you want to say about anything
10:3010:30 - we’ve talked about any other points to
10:3210:32 - make to keep in mind uh before we move
10:3410:34 - on to the other things in the
10:3610:36 - study uh not really I think you’ve
10:3910:39 - covered everything quite
10:4110:41 - nicely yeah all right well with that we
10:4510:45 - will kind of wrap up this section and so
10:4710:47 - hopefully this this video here has just
10:4910:49 - been a bit of a review of all that’s
10:5110:51 - gone before maybe this is a good one to
10:5310:53 - come back to and review uh moving in the
10:5510:55 - future uh you know just kind of pulling
10:5710:57 - it all together but now we’re going to
10:5910:59 - turn our attention to the next section
11:0011:00 - in the study uh going over the doctrine
11:0311:03 - of the Trinity so that is where we will
11:0511:05 - pick up in our next lesson