THE ROLE OF THE TRINITY IN HUMAN REDEMPTION

 II Cor. 1:21-22 ... "He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge."

      In these two verses Paul refers to the Holy Trinity as God (the Father), Christ (the Son), and the Spirit (the Holy Spirit). Although he never gives a detailed theological explanation of the Trinity, Paul frequently mentions Them and indicates some of their related functions. In this epistle (13:14) he states that God loves us, that He manifests this love to us as grace through Christ, and that by the Holy Spirit  He has communion with us. In the above quoted text the apostle is content to show that the Holy Three work together in the purpose to save mankind from sin. In the original text Paul uses four participles, translated into English as verbs, to describe Their activity in the great work of human redemption.

      First, Paul states that God establishes us in Christ. The word used here was a legal term from the business profession indicating a binding guarantee of a sale. That is, it obligated the seller to sell at the agreed price and the buyer to come up with the money to purchase it. The idea is that God has bound Himself to redeem man at the cost of Jesus' blood. When anyone wishes to repent and obey the gospel, God always follows through on His commitment to redeem that soul. He never reneges, but is always ready and willing to follow through on His guarantee. It says in I Tim. 2:4 that God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Jesus affirmed God's commitment to save the penitent when (Jno. 6:37) He declared, "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."

      Second, Paul says that we have been anointed by God. In the Mosaic period, when a priest or a king was commissioned to his office, he went through a ceremony of being anointed. Jesus, who was commissioned to be the eternal King and eternal High Priest, is often referred to as the Anointed. Both Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) mean "anointed." The reference to Christians as being "anointed" is quite unusual; the only other application of this term to them in the New Testament is in I Jno. 2:20 and 27. When a person is baptized into Christ, he receives the "gift of the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2:38). This gift is his anointing to life and service in the Lord. Therefore, our being anointed is to Jesus, the Anointed One, as Christian is to Christ. God has honored us with a spiritual distinction resembling that of His Son's.

      Third, Paul declares that God has sealed us. In ancient times, and to some extent at present, seals were employed to three purposes:  to preserve, to designate ownership, and to authenticate the contents of something. Thus, a seal was put on a jar lid to preserve its quality; a seal was stamped on an item to identify who possessed it; and a seal was put on a document to signify the truth of its contents. The Holy Spirit is the Christian's seal, (Eph. 4:30), a seal which is placed upon us at baptism, (Acts 2:38). The Spirit seals us to preserve us as God's people, to proclaim we belong to God, and to authenticate us as sons of God.

      Fourth, Paul states that God gives us the Spirit as an earnest. The word thus translated was another legal term from the business community. It indicated a deposit, or first installment, in the purchase of something. We still employ the word that way when we speak of "earnest money," a payment made on property to assure we will fully complete the purchase in time. God's gift of the Spirit to dwell within us is His "earnest payment" to declare He will fully claim our souls. We are assured in Rom. 8:11 that by the Holy Spirit, who has shared our Christian lives with us, we will be raised in the resurrection. In that great act God will complete the wonderful transaction of eternally redeeming our souls.

PRESCRIPTION FOR SPIRITUAL HEALTH

 I Cor. 16:13-14 ... "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."

      With economy of words the apostle Paul gave the Corinthian Christians this inspired prescription for their spiritual health. With only 13 words in English, and but 7 in the original Greek, he specified four things they had to do to maintain their Christian identity. Corinth stood at the crossroads of traffic between the western and eastern sides of the Roman empire. Commerce passed through the city in constant and heavy volume, and as always so did sin of every kind. The city became so notorious  for its variety and intensity of wickedness that the phrase "to Corinthianize" was coined to describe it. It was perhaps harder to resist the demoralizing influences there than in most cities, so the church in Corinth faced greater dangers than congregations elsewhere. The sins that Paul dealt with in this epistle emphasize this. Thus, as he was about to end his message to them, he felt it necessary to urge them to accept this brief, compact, but very effective formula, one that is no less effective or applicable to us today.

      First, he told them to be on the alert.  The context indicates the reference is to the presence of temptation. One thinks immediately of Jesus' warning in Mat. 26:41, "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter not into temptation." Vigilance often signals the presence of temptation in the way just ahead. Then it may be possible to take a detour so that it is not necessary to encounter it. If one cannot avoid the forward path, he can at least prepare himself to resist it. We are told in Pro. 22:3 that "the prudent sees the evil and hides himself; but the naive go on, and are punished for it."

     Second, Paul urged them to stand firm in the faith. It is indeed by faith that Christians are able to hold their integrity against the pressure of evil. When faith grows weak, the individual becomes like a twig at the mercy of every eddy and current in a stream. Those whose faith is weak are described in Eph. 4:14 as being "tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming."

     Third, the Corinthians were told to act like men. The Christian life is designed to bring converts from the stage of spiritual childhood to the advanced level of spiritual maturity. Earlier (13:11), Paul had told them, "When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things." There comes a time in our Christian development when childish attitudes and behavior should be a thing of the past and when mature attitudes formed through experience in the gospel cause us to "act like men."

     Fourth, Paul counseled them to be strong. This is a capacity which does not come to a disciple overnight any more than bodily strength comes to an athlete in one or two workouts. The power to resist temptation to refute false doctrine and to perform deeds of service to the glory of God comes by degrees through persistent effort. In Eph. 6:10 we are told to be "strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." The key words here are "in the Lord" and "in His strength."Alone, we have no power to endure and progress in the Christian life, but "in the strength of His might" we have access to all we need to make steady and sure progress. Paul put it well when he said to the Philippians, "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." In his own strength he could do little, but through the power of Christ he could do "all things." And so it is with all Christians.

AFTER DEATH, WHAT THEN?

I Cor. 15:19 ... "If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied."

      "After death, what then?" is a question that has been asked by men since we first began to live on this planet. Various answers have been given, answers which to a large extent determine the character of the lives of those who accept them. This writer once toured the ruins of the ancient Phoenician city of Gebaal, presently Byblos in Lebanon. The native guide pointed out the area of the oldest habitation, which dated back before 3000 B.C. There, he said, archaeologists in the 1930s excavated the tombs of hundreds of people who had been buried in large clay jars. Interestingly, the bodies had been placed in the fetal position, obviously indicating that it was believed they would be born into another life in some other world. In every culture on earth people have strongly believed that death does not end human existence, but life, or some part of it, continues in a dimension of time and space different from that here.

      In more recent times the growing skepticism of human wisdom has adopted the view that death means annihilation. Human existence is believed to be confined to the period between birth and death. To defend this view it is pointed out that no one who has actually died has come back from death to testify that another life awaits the human soul. Furthermore, they say, there is no scientific evidence that anything answering to a "soul" departs a body at death to fly away to some other world. Robert Ingersoll, the famous 19th Century atheist, expressed the view in these words: "Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the  only answer is the echo of a wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word."

      The central tenet of the Christian religion is that life indeed continues beyond death. The entire fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians presents, explains, and defends this conviction with zeal and solid conviction. Our text (above) declares that "if we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most to be pitied." Many people think that death terminates one's existence, and accepting that postulate, go on with life as best they can. Their ambition usually is to crowd as much meaning and pleasure into their daily activities as they can, thinking it to be the most they can do with their life. Christian doctrine, however, urges people to adopt its view and follow it by holding out the incentive of life after death in a state that far exceeds earthly life in both quality and longevity. If this teaching is a delusion, the product of overactive imaginations, then Christians certainly are "of all men most to be pitied." For by denying themselves the meaning and pleasure that this world offers, they are forfeiting all that humans are ever able to achieve. If the central issue of Christian faith is based on delusion, then either the God who foisted it upon us is indeed heartless, or else He does not exist, and the view is of human origin.

      This idea, however, can be reversed. If the Christian view is correct, then what about the person who believes his existence ends at death? After the confusion of the death event has passed, and the deceased discovers he is still existent and conscious in another world, what then? He lived his life for the moment with no reference to an afterlife, but now he "wakes up" in a very real afterlife for which he made no preparation. To this writer it seems far wiser to believe that death is a transition of life than its termination. If death ends all, I feel I have missed nothing, for I believe the temperate Christian life is far better than the one devoted to sensual and psychological pleasures. If death does transfer one's spirit into another world, for which preparation by the Gospel is necessary, then the unbeliever is the one who is in a wretched condition from which there is no possibility of recovery.

TRUE AND ACCEPTABLE WORSHIP

I Cor. 14:15 ... "What is the outcome then? I shall pray with the spirit, and I shall pray with the mind also; I shall sing with the spirit, and I shall sing with the mind also."

      One of the supernatural gifts conferred upon certain members in the church in Corinth was the ability to speak in tongues. The purpose of this gift was to bridge the language gap, so that a Christian preacher or teacher could readily convey the gospel message to someone in his own language. That is, the "tongues" were languages then spoken by nations or ethnic groups somewhere on earth. The gift of tongues was the ability from God to speak in those languages without the long, difficult process of learning them. It was not what it is often taken today to be, an incoherent babble expressed by someone in a highly emotional state.

      To a great extent the members in Corinth were abusing this gift. Rather than use it to its intended purpose, they were making vain and proud displays of it in their worship services. In this chapter Paul rebuked them for this excess and pointed them toward the proper, controlled use. He limited those who spoke in tongues at a given assembly to two or three, and then in succession, (v.27). Furthermore, no one could speak in tongues unless someone who could interpret was present, so that the audience would know what was being said, (vs.27-28). The net result of the tongues, as with all other gifts, was to be the edification of the church, (v.5), through a full understanding of what was being taught, (v.19). This would be accomplished only when "all things (were) done properly and in an orderly manner," (v.40).

      It is in this context that Paul makes the statement in I Cor. 14:15. In fact, he is repeating the word of Christ in Jno. 4:24, "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." To worship God "in spirit" is the opposite of worshiping Him in a merely physical way. In Acts 17:24-25 the apostle declared that God "does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands." The attempt to worship God with manual activity is vain.  The object of worship is to praise, glorify, and please God, and only He knows what will do that.  It is not human prerogative to employ any manual activity because it seems good, majestic and beautiful in sight or sound.  Christian worship must be restricted to what the New Testament reveals to us the early Christians did as they were instructed by the inspired apostles.  This is what it means to worship God "in truth."  There are five activities of worship revealed in the New Testament: singing (Eph. 5:19), praying (I Tim. 2:1), observing the Lord's Supper (I Cor. 11:23-29), monetary offering (I Cor. 16:2), and preaching / teaching (II Tim.4:2). In this brief article there is not sufficient space to cover all the particulars about how we are to sing, pray, observe the Lord's Supper, give, and preach / teach.

      In I Cor. 14:15, however, Paul emphasizes them with special reference to singing and praying. In the case of each the worshiper must engage with "understanding" and with "spirit." These terms relate to Jesus' requirements of "in truth" and "in spirit" in Jno. 4:24. They require us to respond to the plan of worship specified by God with a keen mind focused upon what we are doing and why we are doing it. It is possible to perform these acts of worship, which we have reduced to a routine through long repetition, with no conscious thought involved. One can sing "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" without missing a word or note, and never once think about the crucifixion of our Lord. One may eat the Lord's Supper while he mentally reviews yesterday's football game. Worship performed by habit, without meditation and discernment, is vain because it is not "in spirit" or "with understanding." How much of our worship is vain? How much affronts God rather than praises, petitions, and pleases Him? True and acceptable worship demands mental discipline which comes only through determination, concentration, and the awareness that God is real and always present. 

THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE

I Cor. 13:13 ... "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

      When Paul preached the gospel in Corinth and founded a congregation there, he conferred by the laying on of hands the gift of the Holy Spirit to certain brethren. The purpose of these miraculous abilities was to confirm the spoken word as truth from God, (Heb. 2:3-4). Rather than use these wonderful abilities unto this exalted purpose, however, these people abused them by making vain displays of them and by competing with one another in using them. The problem was so serious that the apostle devoted a considerable portion of this epistle (chapters 12-14) to the effort to rectify it. He introduced the subject in 12:1 with the statement, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." After warning against the vain use of these gifts as a decisive factor in their fellowship, he said in v.31,"But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way." There is a gift available to all Christians that is "more excellent" than being able to speak in tongues, heal the sick, interpret mysteries, etc. It does not require the laying on of apostolic hands, but only a heart that is good because it has established open communion with God. It is the Gift of Love.  Paul devotes the thirteenth chapter to love, comparing it to other valued abilities (1-3), analyzing it (4-7), and emphasizing its eternal nature (6-13).

      The Corinthians esteemed the abilities to speak eloquently, understand mysteries, and perform miracles. In reality, however, without love to motivate and guide them, they became vain and useless. Even to give up one's life, if it were not an act of loving loyalty to God, is a waste of life. When light is passed through a prism, it separates it into its basic components: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. When the light of love is passed through the inspired intellect of Paul, it also is separated into its essential parts: patience, kindness, benevolence, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, self-control, pure-mindedness, compassion, resilience, optimism and endurance. The period of supernatural gifts was quickly drawing to an end, because "the perfect" (the full revelation of the gospel, confirmed and recorded in Scripture) was in progress of being completed. In fact, by the end of that century the twenty-seven books of the New Testament had been written and disseminated to the churches. The miraculous powers, so coveted and abused by the Corinthians, were then and forevermore no longer needed.

      But love remains! In comparison to all other spiritual qualities and endowments it is far superior. It is greater than faith, which by many is exalted as the most basic element in man's relationship with God. Love is also greater than hope, the "anchor of the soul," (Heb. 6:19), by which "we have been saved," (Rom. 8:24). Faith and hope are indispensable factors in our journey toward God, but they are, after all, designed for the journey itself rather than the destination. Of hope we are told in Rom. 8:24, "But hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees?" Hope keeps the Christian moving along the right road toward heaven, but once heaven is seen, the hope is irrelevant. Of faith we read in Heb. 11:1, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." It also relates to the future, blessed state which we cannot now see. When we arrive at God's throne, the end goal of faith will be reached, and faith will no longer be needed. Love, however, will survive the transition from the material to the spiritual world. "God is love," (I Jno. 4:8), and He already inhabits heaven. Those who are allowed to enter in and dwell in His presence will both receive and return pure love.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INDIVIDUAL

I Cor. 12:15-16 ... "If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.'"

      The church is the body of Christ, (Eph. 1:22-23). As a body is composed of many members that are controlled and coordinated by the head, so is the church. It is a spiritual body composed of many members who are under the control of Christ. Since the church in Corinth was divided over many issues, Paul compared the human body to the spiritual body of the church to discourage the division and rebuild the unity of the church. In the first chapter of First Corinthians he emphasized that Christ alone is the head of this body and that the choice of certain men as leaders of competing parties was entirely out of order. Here in the twelfth chapter he faces the issue of their fragmentation because of differing spiritual gifts. Paul had conferred the power of the Holy Spirit upon certain to enable them to perform miracles. These people unfortunately began to misuse these gifts. Rather than employ them as the means of confirming the truth of the gospel, they made a vain display of them. Those with the more spectacular abilities began to think themselves superior to those whose abilities did not make such a show. And those with the less spectacular abilities began to think themselves inferior to those whose abilities attracted great attention and admiration. Confusion and chaos began to reign over the Corinthian church.

      To correct the problem, the apostle called their attention to the harmony that characterizes the human body. The foot does not isolate itself and deny its function to the body because it is not a hand. None of us would want to face life without our feet, even if we possessed remarkable dexterity with our hands. Neither does the ear pull apart from the body and refuse to do its work because it is not a hand. We consider deafness a serious handicap and highly value the vital contribution of hearing to our lives. Our physical bodies are a wonderful harmony of many parts which complement, depend on, and support each other. They experience no rivalry, jealousy, or rejection toward one another.

      This same harmony should prevail in the body of Christ. Each Christian is an individual member whose place and function should be respected, honored, and supported by all others. We all know, however, that we fall far short of this ideal in actual practice in the church. We exalt those who are usually in front of the congregation. We feel their work is superior and their places indispensable. This is all well and good until it begins to build the idea that those who are not inside this special circle are somewhat inferior. Many Christians may come to think they are no more than "fillers" in the congregation. They are of value only in filling up pews, tallying up attendance numbers, and performing the menial duties that, though necessary, attract no special attention and elicit little praise. We face a challenge in the church to correct this problem for the good of all. The gifted, extrovert Christian whose duties cause him continually to be seen and heard must be careful "not to think more highly of himself that he ought to think," (Rom. 12:3). He must always remind himself with humility that he is to be a servant to his ordinary brethren. The ungifted, more introvert Christ whose duties are not performed before hosts of eyes must not think he is worthless except to take up space on a pew and increase the numbers on a display board.  He must remember that he is important to God, who observes his efforts and uses their effects to accomplish great deeds to His glory.

THREE VITAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER

I Cor. 11:27 ... "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord."

      On the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus kept the Passover Feast with His apostles in an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. At a certain point in the ceremony Jesus took some unleavened bread, broke it and said, "This is My body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me." Then He took a cup of wine, and after He had sipped from it, He said, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." With these words Jesus established a memorial to His sacrificial death by which He atoned for the sins of all people. This solemn meal was established to be observed as an act of worship by Christians as long as time shall last, for in the verse previous to the text above, it is proclaimed that "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." Since the death of Jesus was uniquely important to God, as indeed it is also to us, we bear a grave responsibility to observe it in the manner which God approves. We must not be like the Corinthians who modified the ceremony to suit their own desires and vanity. In this passage we are shown three vital requirements set by God that we must be careful to meet lest we keep this holy feast "in an unworthy manner" and become "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."

      First, we must observe the Lord's Supper with a backward look. Nearly twenty centuries have passed since that day when Jesus was nailed to a cross, suspended in the air, and suffered excruciating pain for about six hours before He died. Time tends to obscure the meaning of events, and to many people now the death of Jesus is about as relevant as the death of Sekhemkhet, third pharoah of the Third Dynasty in 2643 B.C. This distant king's death has absolutely no bearing on anyone today, but the death of Jesus means everything to everyone! He died to pay the penalty of death that is due us for our sins. Had He not done so, we would each have to die for them ourselves. Every few years I review the history of the 170 pharoahs; most people, however, never do. But every day of the year I review Jesus death for me. And every Sunday Christians around the world come together in their congregations to look back 2,000 years to the day when a loving Lord died for them. For both when He blessed the holy bread and the holy cup, Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of Me." That is the backward look.

      Second,. we must observe the Lord's Supper with a forward look. According to I Cor. 11:26, when we keep this memorial, we "proclaim the Lord's death until He come." Our assemblies each Sunday for this observance proclaim to the community about us that the Lord we worship is going to return some day to terminate the world and summon all men unto judgment.

      Third, we must observe the Lord's Supper with an inward look." We must turn our attention inwardly upon our own heart to determine how far off from the image of Christ it happens to be. Our text does not demand that we be "worthy" to participate in this supper. If that were the case, no one could every take part. The essential idea in this command is for everyone to "examine himself" to discover the sin within him, sin that is removed only by the death of Jesus which we commemorate in this holy meal.