Arius: more of a heretic than I thought he was...

Last year in church history we heard about a number of heretics in the early church.

Our lecturer was really great at helping to be sympathetic to them.  That is, to listen carefully to what they say, weigh it carefully, not react to hastily to them, and to see the good things in what they were trying to do.

Arius was a a guy who said that 'there was a time when the Son was not'.  Well today I've been reading a bit of Arius' work for myself.  This is an excerpt in Athanasius' work where he quotes Arius at length.

Moreover he has dared to say, that ‘the Word is not the very God;’ ‘though He is called God, yet He is not very God,’ but ‘by participation of grace, He, as others, is God only in name.’ And, whereas all beings are foreign and different from God in essence, so too is ‘the Word alien and unlike in all things to the Father’s essence and propriety,’ but belongs to things originated and created, and is one of these. Afterwards, as though he had succeeded to the devil’s recklessness, he has stated in his Thalia, that ‘even to the Son the Father is invisible,’ and ‘the Word cannot perfectly and exactly either see or know His own Father;’ but even what He knows and what He sees, He knows and sees ‘in proportion to His own measure,’ as we also know according to our own power. For the Son, too, he says, not only knows not the Father exactly, for He fails in comprehension, but ‘He knows not even His own essence;’—and that ‘the essences of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, are separate in nature, and estranged, and disconnected, and alien, and without participation of each other;’ and, in his own words, ‘utterly unlike from each other in essence and glory, unto infinity.’ 

Cited by Athanisius in Discourses Against the Arians (1.2.6)

I'm struggling to be positive...

Thankfully we can have confidence that Jesus - the Word - is truly God and as such, truly reveals the Father to us.

John 1:1-2

 1 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.

John 1:18

18 No one has ever seen God; the only One, who is God,  who is at the Father's side,  he has made him known.

John 14:9

The one who has seen Me has seen the Father.

It is finished

This is the text for my sermon on Thursday (for women's chapel)

John 19 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

 31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness-his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth-that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”


Brilliant stuff!

Now if only my sermon was finished just like Jesus' work is finished...

Jesus, the ultimate thirst quencher

I remember there used to be ads on TV for Solo softdrink.  It was claimed that it was a fantastic thirst quencher.  But after reading John 4 today, I reckon Jesus gives Solo a run for its money.

John recounts the day when Jesus was travelling through the region of Samaria.  Jesus got pretty tired in the middle of the day, so he took a breather when he got to a well.  A woman from the town came to get some water, and he said, "Can I have some water please?"  Amazingly, he then turns this around, and says, "If you knew who I was, you'd ask me for some water." 

She is gobsmacked.  'Who is this Jewish guy who is talking to me?'  (Jews and Samaritans didn't normally have anything to do with each other)  And, 'is he nuts?!  How is he going to get this water?  He doesn't even have a bucket!'

But Jesus continues, "if you drink the water from this well, you will get thirsty again.  But whoever drinks the water I give them will never ever thirst again.  For the water I will give them will become like a well inside them which wells up into eternal life (v14)."

As I was translating the Greek text of v14 I was struck by the emphatic nature of it.  Whoever comes to Jesus will never ever thirst again.  The strongest possible negation is used.  It also adds another bit at the end 'eternally'/'into the ages/eternity'.  I think it's used as another way to reinforce the strength of the never ever thirst again; that is, not even at any time in all of eternity.

Jesus is the ultimate thirst quencher.  He is the one who will quench your thirst so that you will never be thirsty again.  Far from being just about physical thirst, Jesus is talking about life itself.  Water is life.  The water he gives them will give them life.  Not just life for the here and now, but life lasting eternally.

Jesus is the life giver.  The one who comes to him will get eternal life.  He will never turn them away.  They will never thirst again. 

Tonight I've been thinking a lot about a dear sister who is walking a really tough road right now.  I pray that she will cling to Jesus and keep trusting in him to provide for her, both now and in the future.

But I also pray for me, that in my comfortableness I will still come to Jesus.  That I wouldn't become complacent with the goodness of life at present, but that I would still come to Jesus for the true water and life which satisfies and lasts.