Editor’s Note: The AMI QT Devotionals for August 1-2 are provided by Jabez Yeo. Jabez, a graduate of University of Pennsylvania, is currently working in NYC and serving at TRPC-E. He hopes to become a missionary.
Devotional Thought for Today
Proverbs 10:17
He is on the path of life who heeds instruction, but he who ignores reproof goes astray.
You wouldn’t think that such a feel-good word like “adoption” could create a theological controversy, but it did in the early church. Proponents of this errant view called “adoptionism” explained that Jesus’ divinity consisted of His special relationship with God the Father, which only began at His baptism. By default, supporters of adoptionism denied the Trinity, as they placed Jesus above all men due to His elevation to sonship by the Father but below God due to His humanity and God’s absolute oneness.[1]
Thankfully, the work of the earliest theologians helped to combat adoptionism. Some pointed to verses such as Colossians 2:9 (“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form”) to establish that Jesus had both divine and human nature. Others, such as the theologian Irenaeus, used Romans 5 and other parts of Scripture to explain that without Christ’s full divinity and humanity, salvation is impossible. In light of these works, Pope Victor I, the first bishop of Rome, rightly and forcefully condemned adoptionism as a heresy.
Unfortunately, Victor I’s forceful personality created disunity at times. As mentioned in an earlier devotional, Victor I’s feud with the Quartodecimans (those who celebrated Easter on Passover instead of Sunday) led him to rashly excommunicate them from the church. It took other theologians such as Irenaeus who, despite agreeing with Victor I, urged him to withdraw his sentence to preserve unity. Thankfully, Victor I heeded their advice and the churches in Asia, where most of the Quatrodecimans resided, remained in communion with the Western church.[2]
Despite our good intentions, all of us, like Victor I, will eventually sin against others through our words or actions. When those times come, do we have people who can speak into our lives and instruct us in truth? Even if we do, do we have the humility to listen to them? Let’s pray that God will supply us with both godly advisors and the humility to listen to their wisdom.
Prayer: Lord, thank You for the gift of community, and that You yourself are the best representation of community as the Three-in-One, Father, Son and Spirit. Lord, help me to seek out godly men and women who can help me run this race with perseverance when I fall. Give me the humility to listen to You speaking through them, so that I can continue to fight the good fight. In Your Name I pray, Amen.
[1] Olson, Roger. The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform.
[2] http://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Victor-I
Bible Reading for Today: Psalm 127
Lunch Break Study
Read John 1:1-3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 8:56-8: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Questions to Consider
- Refute adoptionism based on John 1:1-3. (Note: The Greek word logos, translated as word, refers to Christ.)
- Refute adoptionism based on John 8:57-9. (Note: Recall that Abraham had lived about 2,000 years before the incarnation of Christ.)
- In your own words, describe the dual nature of Christ.
Notes
- John 1:1-3 makes three assertions about Christ: first, He existed before “the beginning”; second, He has always existed along with God the Father; third, He, in fact, is the Creator of everything.
- Accordingly, Jesus predates Abraham, even though the latter had lived 2,000 years earlier. The Jews clearly understood its implication: Jesus was claiming to be eternal.
- Jesus is fully man and fully God, equal to God the Father in divine essence and has always existed; He has no beginning.
Evening Reflection
In light of all that we have talked about—mainly, the eternality of Christ—it would be fitting to end this day with a brief worship. Let’s meditate on Psalm 95:6: “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!” Relate this to John 1:3 and think about why this psalm is appropriate in worshiping Christ.
In my parenting career, I have tried just about every tactic to get my children to listen to me: I have asked nicely; I have yelled; I have pleaded; I have threatened; I have bribed; I have punished; I have over-punished; I have shown grace; I have tried time-out; I have tried Korean time-out; I have spanked; I have counted 1-2-3; I have taken away privileges; I have banished them to rooms; I have banished them early to bed—the list goes on and on. And yet I find myself constantly having to repeat myself. It has gotten so bad that I find myself repeating even to my wife, simply because I am so used to having to say things multiple times before they are carried out: “Honey, could you get me some water? I would really like some water, please.” You know what I lack? I lack authority in my household. When I speak, no one trembles in fear of my power or instinctively obey because they know that I am correct and righteous.
When I was in my 20s, I laughed at men who told me they practiced yoga. Though I knew yoga was a great way to relieve stress— limber one’s body and strengthen the core—I couldn’t get over how feminized the practice had become. You go to any yoga class and the ratio of guys to girls is something like 8:1. Plus, everyone wears these tight clothes, and all the instructors seem either too crunchy or too spacey. It just wasn’t for me, so I mocked it. Then I hit my 30s and noticed how tight my muscles had become—meaning, I started pulling muscles when I over exerted myself. Long story short, I tried yoga, and I really felt a difference. Now before you start laughing at me, I am not very consistent and still a beginner–and I don’t own tights! But I like it and would probably benefit from making yoga a part of my weekly routine.
I think everyone, at least at once in their lives, has felt like they have ruined their witness for Christ. Here are a few of mine: In college, my hall mate confronted me about things I allegedly said behind her back (to this day, I still deny it). At work, my boss called me out for goofing around when we had a project due (yup, I deserved that). And at my son’s soccer game, I showed up with a less than healthy snack and got in a huge fight with that overly involved soccer mom, who is also the president of the PTA (okay, this hasn’t happened yet, but I feel it coming soon). I confess that I may not be Christ’s best representative, and I’m not trying to come off sounding like Judgy McJudgerson, but here’s the deal: at least I’ve never had five wives and a sixth “roommate,” like this Samaritan woman (she had husbands, but you get the point).
In my neck of the woods, a dominant sports story occurred earlier this month when Kevin Durant announced that he was joining the Golden State Warriors for the 2016-17 NBA season. For those of you who are unfamiliar with basketball, Kevin Durant, who is in the discussion for being one of top three players in the world, joined a team that was five points away from winning back-to-back NBA championships. And this team already has four all-stars, one of which is Stephen Curry, who is also in the discussion for being one of the top three players in the world.
In a recent commercial promoting the low-light camera feature on the Samsung Galaxy S7, advertisers made the claim that, “All the best stuff happens in the dark.” They gave these examples: dancing happens in the dark, people are younger and better looking in the dark, food becomes more expensive and romantic in the dark, and my personal favorite, “If you are well below average-looking, your only chance of kissing an attractive person is in the dark.” Obviously, the commercial was meant to be comical, but it does hit on some truth; namely, that we enjoy the literal darkness because we can hide in it, and our imperfections are not as pronounced.
Editor’s Note: The AMI QT Devotionals from July 24 – 31 are provided by Pastor Yohan of Radiance Christian Church, San Francisco. Yohan graduated from University of Pennsylvania and Cairn University, where he studied theology. He is married to Mandie, and they have four children: Maggie, Jonathan, Abigail and Simon.
Several years ago, I was on a mission trip in Beijing. One of the activities we did during that trip was to go and share the gospel out on the streets. I speak no Mandarin or any other Chinese dialect, so I left the sharing up to the locals and missionaries. After one particularly engaging conversation that ended with a declined invitation to accept Christ, I asked the missionary with whom I was partnered what he said and how things ended. Basically, he told me he shared the Gospel and asked if the hearer wanted to accept—this person declined. So the missionary responded, “Thanks for listening; I believe in heaven and hell, and I hope to see you in heaven one day.”
In high school and college, I never had periods where I “fell away,” nor do I have fantastic stories of my BC (before Christ) days. Even in college, I didn’t drink, never went to frat parties, smoked or used drugs; and because girls were not that interested in me, I didn’t get into too much trouble there, either. I’m pleased to report that from my teenage years through my twenties—and even now—I was/am pretty boring. Of course, I didn’t start that way. I know it sounds silly, but even young kids can be bad, and that was me. Before my twelfth birthday, I had already been in multiple fights, busted for shoplifting (twice), and set the record for cumulative hours of detention at school (I’m not even sharing the stuff I’m truly ashamed of either). I didn’t know it at the time, but the trajectory of my life was pointing the wrong way. I truly believe that I was only a few years away from getting into drugs and a slew of bigger problems. Thankfully, the grace of God was (and is) upon me, as I moved to a different neighborhood, state, school, and eventually started going to church regularly. Every once in a while, I will search for some of my old teachers from elementary school on Facebook. I’d love to connect with them and tell them that I turned out all right—I’m sure they’d be shocked to learn that I am a pastor.
I used to lay in bed as a kid with my legs propped up on the wall. This was my thinking position. And I would spend hours just thinking about some of the weirdest things. When I would think about God, I would often pray, “God, if only You would show Yourself to me, then I wouldn’t struggle as much believing that You are real.” I think we’ve all prayed that prayer before. I have met countless number of people who have gone to amazing conferences and incredible mission trips, bringing back stories of how they had witnessed God’s unbelievable power at work. I, too, have had those experiences.
When you study the history of the Jewish people, you might be surprised to find that the often criticized group of the New Testament called the Pharisees had God-honoring intentions when they were first formed. During what is called the intertestamental times (in between the Old and New Testament) or the 400 years of silence, the Pharisees began as a group that sought to maintain the purity of the Jewish faith, while the Jewish people were scattered and under foreign oppression. However, by the time Jesus enters the scene in the New Testament, what started as good intentions soon became religious stubbornness.