Ethos,Pathos,Logos – The Image of God

Bust of Aristotle. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek bronze original by Lysippos from 330 BC; the alabaster mantle is a modern addition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

God created man in His image.

Aristotle identified three primary areas of influence and response that comprise the mind, heart, and soul of mankind.

He called them Ethos, Pathos, and logos.

God is sovereign and all Powerful- this is Ethos

God is the author of wisdom and is all knowing- this is Logos

God is Love and so loved the world He gave His Son – this is Pathos

The Psalms puts it this way;

Psalms 139:1-4 “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways. For there  is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.”

God knows us, understands us, comprehends us altogether because He loves us.

His pathos brought His ethos and logos to our rescue.

His pathos / love bridged the gap between us and God through Christ.

God wants our love as well.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6)

The most remarkable thing about what God requires from us is that He gave all of himself for us in Christ first.

He expressed all His ethos, pathos, and logos for our benefit through the cross.

Is God not worthy of all our love in return?

The Virgin Birth – Christianity Has a Divine Founder Who Is Fully God and Fully Man – Jesus Christ.

The Virgin Birth – Christianity Has a Divine Founder Who Is Fully God and Fully Man- Jesus Christ. 

Whose Son Is the Christ?

(From The Bible) Matthew 22:40-46

^” While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

 ‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    “Sit at my right hand
until I put your enemies
    under your feet.”

 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.”

 

Simply put….

 God didn’t make another God. Jesus is God as fully man and fully God. 

The Holy Spirit of God made life happen in the virgin, Mary’s womb.

God can do anything as big as He wants.

Even if His ways are bigger than our minds can grasp.

 Thats why its called faith….

 

What a Loving God We Serve!

 

 

“Under no conceivable circumstances shall the covenant fail; the Lord who made it cannot change, Jesus who sealed it cannot die, the love which dictated it cannot cease, the power which executes it cannot decay, and the truth which guarantees it cannot be questioned. In the eternal provisions of that covenant of peace, which is sure to all the seed, we may rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. My brethren, do you believe this? If you do you ought to be as happy as the angels are. Our lot is supremely blessed. What a loving God we serve, and what great things has he spoken concerning us.” (From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13,14)

Revisiting the Trinity

Isaiah 9:6 ” For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

” Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”Isaiah 7:14
This verse is repeated and explained in Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus Christ.

” The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him, “Immanuel”,( which means, “God with us”). Matthew 1:23

These cannot be explained any other way, the child was the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.

We are called to child like faith,
That is because God can do anything,
He created all the laws of the universe, yet He only lived under those laws when He came to rescue us.
Because He loved us.
The rest of the time He lives above the laws of the universe, where time does not even exist, for He created time.

I also maintain a domain as a hub for my WordPress blog.
http://www.godcamedown.com

Here is how I see the trinity, (I use the flower known as the Trillium to illustrate.) Followed by this brief explanation.

People often struggle with the idea of the trinity. How can God be a man and a Spirit and God all at the same time?
The answer is easier when we remember He is God. Nothing is too hard for God. He fills all of the universe at the same time, knows all of our thoughts continually, sees perfectly in total darkness. Still His power is no less.
When God had a son he did not create another God. God inhabited flesh and bones. Why? Because He is Holy and Just. A man would have to atone for the sins of mankind. But no man was the perfect offering required for sacrifice. God loved us so much that He personally came to endure the hardships of life and still be able to love His enemies. He allowed them to kill Him on a Roman cross. He bore our punishment and endured our shame because He loved us. Then three days later He overcame the grave to prove He can do the same thing for all who believe in Him as Lord and Savior.

If we refuse to accept Christ as Savior because none of this makes sence then we have misunderstood what faith is. God lives above reason and can do anything,… including all that we would call absurd.

Reason is not how we come to know God, but by faith. Romans 1:17 “The just shall walk by faith.”

Let me leave you with this final word from Hebrews 4:2 of the Bible. It helped transform my life from being unable to rest on what the Bible says by reason and illustrates the necessity of faith,
and speaks of those who perished outside the promised land for lack of faith.

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” Hebrews 4:2

God bless you on your journey for truth, May you take God at His word by faith find rest and peace in Him.

The Trinity – Like the Beautiful Trillium

People often struggle with the idea of the trinity.

How can God be a man and a Spirit and God all at the same time?

The answer is easier when we remember He is God.

Nothing is too hard for God.

“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27

He fills all of the universe at the same time, knows all of our thoughts continually, sees perfectly in total darkness.

Still His power is not diminished.

When God had a son he did not create another God.

God inhabited flesh and bones.

Why?

Because He is Holy and Just.

A man would have to atone for the sins of mankind.

But no man was the perfect offering required for sacrifice.

God loved us so much that He personally came to endure the hardships of life and still be able to love His enemies.

He allowed them to kill Him on a Roman cross.

He bore our punishment and endured our shame because He loved us.

Then three days later He overcame the grave to prove He can do the same thing for all who believe in Him as Lord and Savior.

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25,26

Related articles

• Revisiting the Trinity (christcenteredteaching.wordpress.com)

God Was Manifested in the Flesh

” And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”1Timothy 3:161

 The above verse from the Bible states that Jesus is God revealed to mankind in Bodily Form.

Just to think the God of all that is , was, and shall be personally came down to Earth as Jesus, to be one of us and to make a way for us back into fellowship with Himself.

This amazing love and humility is also beyond comprehension.
Great is the mystery.

Related articles

• God Came Down! (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• Manifest in the Flesh (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)
• Jesus is Truly God and became Manifest in the Flesh (samuelatgilgal.wordpress.com)

Jesus Said He is the Great, “I AM”

John 8:58 “Very truly I tell you.” Jesus answered,” before Abraham was born, I AM “

This verse has twice as much truth that Jesus is God when taken with Exodus 3:14.
God also said He is,” I AM.”
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites:”I AM has sent me to you.”

TIme is one of the most explored and least understood realities of science today. Yet thousands of years ago God spoke of Himself in only the present/ eternal state. God’s name ,”I AM” evokes an image of timelessness. “I AM”, means God is always in the now. Time has no hold on the one who created time. God is always in the now. He is eternal.

The Jews who heard Jesus make this statement about Himself knew what He was saying, and they tried to stone Him because Jesus said of Himself, “I AM.”, (Verse 59).

The One and Only Son

 “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not parish but have everlasting life.”John 3:16 

God did not create another God when he had a son.

Jesus is the one and only son , but not a son in the sense of created by God, for he is God and is therefore eternal as is God.

He is the one and only son because…

God came down as man.

God humbled himself to became one of us in order to defeat sin by living a sinless life and then offer himself as a sacrifice worthy to take our punishment , by the crucifixion, death, and then to show he can defeat death by raising from the dead.

Christ did for us what we cannot do for ourselves so that he could offer freely to all who believe the free gift of eternal life to all who believe.

Humble is our God, in that he became one of us in order to save us.

God so loved the world. He was the one that sin offended and he is the one who satisfied the requirements for justice for the offense.

God became one of us in the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

He said , no man takes my life, but I freely lay it down.

Therefore, Christ’s death on the cross was the ultimate expression of humility, because it came from the highest place, the very throne of God himself.

Mankind is enslaved to pride, God is the master of humility.

Jesus living in our hearts is the answer.

Related articles

• Greater Love Has No Man Than This (christcenteredteaching.wordpress.com)
• Legalism, License, and The Love of God (christcenteredteaching.wordpress.com)

God Came Down

 

Jesus stated that He came down from the Father.

In this chapter Jesus repeats seven times that He came down from Heaven , and that He came to give us life as our Bread of Life.              

(John 6:33,38,41,42,48,50,51,58,62) 

Jesus uses the illustration of eating to explain faith and also bread to explain that He is the one who gives life saving nourishment to our starving souls for all who believe in Him as Savior.

Jesus also again shows us that he lived in eternity before His time on Earth when He states that He came down from Heaven.

” For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38)

They Will Call Him, “Immanuel “, Meaning,”God With Us.”

 

 

This is a prophecy about Jesus was written about 700 years before His birth. Jesus would be called,”Immanuel”, meaning,”God with us.”

” Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”Isaiah 7:14 

This verse is repeated and explained in Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 ” The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him, “Immanuel”,( which means, “God with us”). Matthew 1:23

God Came Down -The Greatest Expression of Humility Ever – Bible Passages That Support The Claim That Jesus is God

Whereas selfish pride is the downfall of mankind, God’s ultimate expression of humility has provided for our restoration.

God came down to us to save us.

This act of love and humility traveled the greatest distance anyone can imagine.

God came from the highest place in Heaven to Earth as the man Jesus Christ.

Then He died in our place and went to death for us.

He paid our debt when He sacrificed Himself for our sins by allowing Himself to be tortured, crucified and gave His perfect life for our imperfect lives.

He went to the grave, yet rose in victory over death three days later.

Jesus is now worthy to offer new life to all who believe in Him and ask Him by faith to save them.

John 8:58
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

“I am”, is the name God gave Moses when asked ,”they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”

Exodus 3:14
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

He is the Image of the Invisible God

Colossians 1:15-20

(speaking about Jesus)

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,…all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things consist.”verse 19, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

Jesus is the Same God the Prophet Isaiah Saw on His Throne in All His Glory

“Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.”

John 12:41 

Equal With God

Philippians 2:5-8

“who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.”

verse 8- ” And being found in appearance as a man,He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

He Who Has Seen Jesus Has Seen God

John 14:7-11

” If you would have known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him”.

“All the Fullness of the Godhead Bodily”

Colossians 2:9

“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

Our God and Mediator Are One in the Same, The Man Christ Jesus

1 Timothy 2:5,6

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

God Reconciling the World to Himself

2 Corinthians 5:19

“that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Jesus is the true God and Eternal Life

1 John 5:20

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

Christ Shared in God’s Glory Before Creation

John 17:5

“And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

“I and the Father are one”

John 10:30-38

” Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him,(vs.31)
…”you, a mere man claim to be God.”
(The Jews knew that there can only be one God,and to claim that you are God’s son is to claim to be God for there can only be one eternal, divine, all-powerful Holy God.)

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ did not earn the right to be God as a result good works and exaltation, as if being God was a position to be earned, for Jesus Christ is God.

Jesus Christ is God and always has been the same, always will be the same, yesterday today, and forever. (Eternal)

To Hate Jesus is to Hate God.

John 15:24

“If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.”

2 Corinthians 4:4

“;Christ, who is the image of God,“

“Christ came,who is over all, the eternally blessed God.” Romans 9:5

“He made the worlds.“

Hebrews 1:2

Hebrews 1:2-3

(Jesus),”who being the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power,when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,”

Hebrews 1:6

“Let all the angels of God worship Him.”

Hebrews 1:8

“But to the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,”

Hebrews 1:9

“Therefore God, your God has anointed you”…

Hebrews 2:8

“You have put all things under His feet.” ( Speaking of Jesus).

God Became One of Us in Order to Save Us.

Hebrews 2:14-18

(Speaking of Jesus from verse 9) , “He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is , the devil.” vs 17 ” Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people”
“For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”

Luke 10:18

” I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”(Jesus speaking to the Jews).

Who is Himself God

John 1:18

“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”
This verse says Jesus is God in two ways. First it states that Jesus is the one and only Son. This is also stated in John 3:16 where Jesus is called ,”One and Only Son.” God did not create another God because there can only be one All Powerful, All mighty, All Knowing , Most High God. So Jesus is the One and Only because, as this verse also clearly states,”…the one and only Son, who is himself God,”.

John 10:38

“...the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (Speaking of oneness).

The Jews in Christ’s day knew what Jesus was saying when He claimed to be one with the Father

John 10:30,33

” I and my Father are one.” vs 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied,”but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”