Benjamin Dean, Author at Great Truths

Author: Benjamin Dean

Christ the Lord: Jesus’ Person and Kingdom

Part 2: Miracles and the Life He Brings

The Lord Jesus cannot be assessed apart from his miracles — indeed, he can only be properly understood by close attention to them. The Gospels of the New Testament are replete with accounts of Christ’s ‘mighty works’, and the Acts of the Apostles extends this testimony through repeated, smaller scale yet still astonishing miraculous deeds.

4. Identifying the doctrinal issues and implications in Genesis 1:1-25

The chapter’s opening expression, ‘In the beginning, God’ tells us that, before anything else existed, God was and always had been. Unlike everything else, God was before creation.

3. Understanding Genesis 1:1-25 in the context of the whole Bible

Having established God as the Sovereign Creator in Genesis 1, it is unsurprising that the rest of the Bible’s plotline builds on this foundational truth. Three of the principal ways in which it does so are set out below. Each passage of Scripture mentioned below is worth studying in more detail.

2. Identifying the main structure of Genesis 1:1-25

Genesis 1 is carefully structured as a piece of literature. Two main steps may be observed.

1. Assumptions we may bring to Genesis 1:1-25

Having moved permanently to Tahiti in 1895, the French artist, Paul Gauguin, painted his monumental work, D’ou Venons Nous/ Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous, which translates into English as: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

Genesis 1:1–25

God Our Sovereign Creator

Christ the Lord: Jesus’ Person and Kingdom

Part 1: The Person of the Gospel

Earlier we touched on the nature of the gospel at some length; it is worth pausing to register its heart again here, allowing the impression to settle afresh.

7. God’s Fellowship-Holiness

Personal, Relational, and Covenant-Making

The final and perhaps most surprising aspect of God's holiness is what we might call his ‘fellowship-holiness’ — the truth that God's holiness is not only a barrier to relationship but the foundation of it.

6. God’s Purity-Holiness

The Spotless Moral Character of God

When most people think of holiness, they think primarily of moral purity — and they are not wrong.

5. God’s Majesty-Holiness

Over Us and Above Us, Yet for Us

When Scripture speaks of God's holiness, it often does so in language that emphasizes his absolute majesty and transcendence. This is what we might call God's "majesty-holiness" — the aspect of his holiness that sets him infinitely above and beyond all creation. This divine majesty can seem intimidating, even terrifying. Yet paradoxically, it is precisely God's absolute transcendence that makes him able to help us in ways that no one else can.

4. God’s Identity-Holiness

The Holiness of the Holy Trinity

When Scripture declares ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty’ (Isa 6:3), it is not simply giving God a threefold emphasis for dramatic effect. Many biblical scholars have seen in this triple declaration a hint of the Trinity — the holiness of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God's holiness is not an abstract divine attribute but the perfect life of the triune God: three Persons in one essence, existing in eternal communion of love.

3. God’s Difference-Holiness

Not Like Us, Yet For Us

One of the most fundamental aspects of God's holiness is what we might call his ‘difference-holiness’ — the reality that God is wholly other than his creation, utterly unlike anything else that exists. This difference is not accidental or arbitrary; it is essential to who God is. And paradoxically, it is precisely because God is so utterly different from us that he can be so completely for us.

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Author: Benjamin Dean

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