Why Do Bad Things Happen?
You recall how the story goes—God and Satan are having a discussion about a man named Job. He was a man of great character whom God had given much wealth and blessing. God commends Job, and Satan accuses Job, betting that Job would deny God if God would simply allow difficulty in Job’s life (1:7-12). God allows Satan to test Job, and Job loses all of his wealth, most of his family, and his health.
Job is, of course, unaware that he is being tested, and is deeply frustrated by his change of fortune. He feels that he has done nothing to deserve these tragedies, and he speaks out—essentially proclaiming his innocence and the unfairness of the situation. Thankfully, Job has three friends who come to the rescue. They all have the same message: this could only be happening to Job if he had done something wrong. They understood that God would not allow such things to happen to an innocent person.
Discussion
What Does "Son of God" Mean?
Read the series so far.
The New Testament is saturated with the title “Son of God.” So are our church documents, such as confessions, creeds and statements of faith. The church I used to Pastor, for example, had a statement of faith which read, “we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man.”
Christians from more Reformed backgrounds do not use “statements of faith”; they are explicitly confessional. Thus, we have the Second London Confession (1677) which affirms that “it pleased God in his eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus his only begotten Son.”1
As we journey further back in time, the Apostle’s Creed, for example, reads, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.” Notice the creed does not explain the title; it simply states as a matter of fact that Jesus is God’s “only Son.” The Nicene-Constantinople Creed does the same thing. “Also, we believe in one Lord; Jesus, Messiah, the unique Son of God.”2 The phrase here is τὸν uἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ; a phrase many Christians know better as “the only-begotten Son of God.”
Discussion
Do you think Jesus ever had a cold or was ill?
Although sin brings death and gave birth to sickness, did Jesus get sick, even though He was sinless? After all, He lived in a cursed environment? In addition, He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. It is not a sin to be sick, so was He tempted by sickness? Was that part of the kenosis? He not only took on the appearance of flesh, but “sinful flesh” (meaning He had no sin predisposition toward sin, but was vulunerable to all the human experiences that sinful people suffered) — Romans 8:3
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HCSB Revision to Launch
Body
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Jesus the Son of God (Mark 1:1b)
Read the series so far.
Jesus is the Messiah. He is also the Son of God.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1).
It’s another title. It describes something about who He is. In nerdy grammatical terms, it’s an appellation. Why is this title in the inspired Scripture? Well, on one level, it’s there because John Mark decided to put it there. On another level, however, it’s there because God wanted it to be there and the Holy Spirit moved Mark to include it. So, it’s probably a good idea to figure out what on earth it means, and to ponder what this title tells us about the Trinity.
Discussion