Can Humans Be Perfect As Well?

 

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If Jesus Christ the human was perfect, why didn’t God make other humans perfect as well?

Karl Broberg

·

Updated Wed

Blogger/Bible teacher (10+ yrs), researcher, life coach

1. Jesus was God, that’s the only reason He was perfect and without sin and incapable of it.
2. Jesus was also human, but the perfect one because of His virgin birth.
3. Man was originally without sin (innocent, not perfect), but Adam and Eve chose to sin when given the free choice—that’s history.
4. Since Adam, we inherit Adam’s sin nature (original sin) and are born sinners, and in sin.
5. Even if we didn’t inherit a sin nature, we would still sin—we’d do as Adam did because we are in Adam as the head of the race (we’re human).
6. Believers in Christ will be restored to being without sin in heaven—ultimate sanctification and freedom from sin’s power and presence.
7. Unbelievers who refuse repentance will be judged and punished in hell.

The foregoing is orthodox Christian doctrine and not subject to debate.

NB: Perfect implies one cannot get worse because one is perfect and incapable of it, and one cannot improve for the better because one is already perfect. God is perfect in all ways, not just in His ways or works, but His entity and essence. God cannot create a perfect being, because that being would be God. He cannot create another God. “He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse.” (St. Anselm of Canterbury).

Perfect Being Theology: a view of God formulated by Anselm of Canterbury that define God as “the greatest possible being” and “that than which none greater can be conceived.” That is, everything that it is better to be than not to be! God is something that we never could’ve imagined! “As for God, His ways is perfect,” Psalm 18:30; 2 Sam. 22;:31.

I am referring to St. Anselm of Canterbury, who defined the perfection of God that way. When I refer to Christ as perfect, I am contrasting Him with men, not the other members of the Godhead who are all coequal, coeternal, and coexistent, what is true of Jesus is also true of the Father, for they are One. God cannot improve for the better because He is already perfect and being perfect, cannot become less so—He needs no improvement. The perfection of Jesus means He was the perfect baby, perfect boy, perfect young man, perfect man: The perfect God-man. The phrase “No one is perfect!” doesn’t apply to Christ, the Perfect One to emulate as our role model in all things: the great Exemplar

Why Was The Book Of Ecclesiastes Written?

 To show that all in life is “vanity” or in vain, meaningless, and incomprehensible without knowing God and doing His commands. “Fear God and keep His commands, this is the whole duty of man,” as the conclusion, that’s all there is to life! (cf. Eccl. 12:13). The book has a preachy tone and attributes its origin to “the preacher.” This man had tried every known venture in life there is in search of happiness. Thus, the book is also quite philosophical and even cynical of life.

Solomon was probably in his declining years or mid-life crisis and had tried virtually everything to find fulfillment in life to no avail. It was a warning to others not to do likewise and hopefully, the reader can learn from his mistakes, the author had become a philosophe: do as I say, not as I do! He had learned the hard way in the school of hard knocks despite his wisdom, proving the wise can be foolish too.

If we can find fulfillment and meaning in our work and obedience to God we can in the will of God. “God in heaven assigns each man’s work” (cf. John 3:21, NLT). God has a destiny and plan for us and our times are in His hands (cf. Job 23:14 Psalm 31:15; Jer. 29:11). Jesus prayed: “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do,” (cf. John 17:4, NIV). When King David died, it was said, “he had done God’s purpose,” (cf. Acts 13:36).

How Do You Prove God Exists To The Ethics Community?

 

How can we prove to the ethics community that God exists?

1. For ethics to exist there must be an objective standard of good/evil or right/ wrong.
2. Plato called God the Supreme Good because we measure all goodness by Him—He is the ultimate standard of perfection.
3. There must be someone to make the standards as the final arbiter of justice.
4. For justice to exist, there must be due punishment (even in an afterlife) for wrongdoers and reward for just; otherwise, evildoers can escape justice.
5. Even if God doesn’t exist, we must live as if He does for society to be possible, or to shun hell as consequences if wrong as some restraint on society and evil.
6. “If there is no God, then, all things are permissible” (Dostoevsky) and the law of the jungle, or that might makes right, is its logical conclusion.
7. If there is no justice, there’s no incentive to ethics; each man for himself.
8. The main purpose of government is to reward do-goodery and punish wrongdoers.
9. God instituted government to keep the peace and ensure justice.
10. God is the only solution to the dilemma of why we have ethics and the incentive

Nonintentional Sin

 The opposite of intentional sin is forced sin. No one can say, “The devil made me do it!’ God forces no one to sin. We are free moral agents. But all sin is willing in that we voluntarily choose to do it by a free act of our volition. But the difference with believers is that they really don’t want to sin, though they do by weakness: “Now I do what I do not want, I am no longer doing it, but it is sin living in me,” (cf. Romans 7:19). “And I do what I do not want to do, and I agree with the law that it is good, … what a wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (cf. Romans 7:16,24). “If I do that which I would not….” (cf. Romans 7:16).

After salvation, a person has a new power over sin (“Sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace,” cf. Romans 6:14) and is not the slave of sin but is still a sinner (He’s a justified sinner according to Gal. 2:17—both sinner and saved). But God doesn’t hold our sins against us (cf. Psalm 32:1)! There is no condemnation for those in Christ (cf. Romans 8:1) and also God doesn’t deal with us as our sins deserve (cf. Psalm 103:10).

But we must not become antinomians (lawless libertines) and disregard God’s law of morality but we will fall short, for “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That is, you can experience God’s love, even taste of the Spirit of grace and of heavenly things and still not be saved! (cf. Heb. 6:4–5, 9). There are many so-called signs of salvation that don’t necessarily mean salvation or redemption has taken place (partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasted of the heavenly gift and of the word of God, etc. from Heb. 6:4–6).

But note that even King David prayed not to be led into “presumptuous sins” (cf. Psalm 19:13). We must not take advantage of the grace of God nor frustrate it (cf. Gal. 2:21). Note Psalm 119:133; Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you….” It is called the doctrine of perfectionism or entire sanctification that teaches one can reach a point of unintentional sin as a believer before entering glory in heaven, which I would label a false teaching though not a heresy, which is generally not accepted.

God Is Just And His Justice Will Not Sleep

God is the most just and holy too—more than mankind. But He must reconcile His justice and holiness with His love and mercy. He says, “I will have mercy to whom I will have mercy.” (cf. Romans 9:15). If you give mercifully to a charity, you are not obliged to give to all and if you don’t it doesn’t mean you are unmerciful. What does mercy mean but not getting what you do deserve—man deserves condemnation for his sin.

If God were obliged to be merciful to all and save all, it wouldn’t be mercy but justice. If a judge is merciful to all it isn’t even mercy, but overlooking justice. God could not claim to be just if He didn’t judge sin. God is in the position where He must protect His holiness and justice reputations too.

But God has provided a way of salvation from damnation through Christ and it’s his choice to accept it or not. A way to bring justice, mercy, and holiness all into play. The matter is so serious to God that it cost Him the death of His Son on the cross. And God is so holy that sin offends Him and He cannot even look at it—that’s why He did something. But this doesn’t mean God enjoys sending people to hell, it is uncomfortable to Him too. For God takes no pleasure in anyone’s death and He doesn’t willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

Three things we can be assured of: God is unjust to no one; God tempers His justice with mercy; no one need to face the justice of God. Justice is giving what’s due, if no one gets their due, then there’s no justice. But God has good reason to forgive our sin and justify us because of Christ. We escape our just desserts in Christ.

We should ask ourselves: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (cf. Gen. 18:25). We must only challenge ourselves; If we really feel sorry for people headed to hell, we ought all the more feel obliged to preach the good news to them and lead them to salvation not criticize God; God is our Judge, we are not His judge. It is God who gave us the ability to discern good and evil with a conscience but we must acknowledge Him as the moral center of the universe, not us.

Absence Of Evidence

 

Is it true that an absence of evidence is not evidence of absence when regarding the existence of God?

Karl Broberg

·

Updated 3h ago

Blogger on worldview

It is true in general, much more regarding the existence of God. Just because you cannot prove God, doesn’t preclude His existence. But the principle applies much more in metaphysical matters than the physical. You cannot prove some premise is untrue just by stating there is no evidence, but you can refuse to believe it. Note that evidence isn’t always certain or conclusive but one goes in the direction of the evidence no matter where it leads with an open mind.

You cannot prove a universal negative according to logicians. You cannot deny the existence of love because you have never experienced it. Physically, there is no evidence of aliens—we have no tangible proof (though there may be legal evidence of testimony or witness), but that doesn’t prove they don’t exist. To prove a universal negative, you have to know everything and be everywhere at once. Only God knows that.

But in law, one must prove beyond a reasonable doubt for something to be considered true (absence of evidence holds water and sometimes the jury is still out), in historic matters, truth depends upon documents and corroboration, and in scientific matters, something must be repeatable, demonstrable, measurable, or observable in the real physical and natural world.

But if we are to make a claim and want to have credence, we must present evidence and plead the facts, if they are on our side. To some skeptics, there is never enough evidence for God’s existence, even though there is some (scientific, philosophic, historic), but no proof. God expects us to take a leap of faith. Proof and evidence differ. God will not force us to believe against our wills. God desires us to come to Him by faith not head first. But He respects our brains and doesn’t expect us to kiss them goodbye: “Come now let us reason together, says the LORD,” (cf. Isaiah 1:18).

Proving God Exists

 

How do you prove God exists? How can something totally undetectable be proven to exist? Is it impossible?

Right, you cannot prove God exists beyond a shadow of a doubt or with “smoking gun” evidence. The metaphysical cannot be proven by the physical: God isn’t audible, visible, nor tangible and you cannot put Him into a test tube or under laboratory experiments. You cannot measure a pound of love nor a foot of justice either, yet you believe in them. But many things are undetectable, yet we believe in them because of their effects; like not seeing the wind but seeing what it can do or believing in the sun because you can see everything else. It’s that way with God; He opens our eyes; we see what God does! He changes lives for one thing.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t evidence, such as scientific, historic, and experiential, legal, even philosophical—both subjective and objective. You cannot disprove God’s existence either: no one can prove a universal negative—ask a logician. You have the choice to make a decision based on faith according to the evidence you are willing to accept, according to your bias; i.e., confirmation bias says we only accept what we tend to agree with as true.

Note that all knowledge is contingent and based on faith. Everyone accepts something that cannot be proven to base their faith on, even if it’s science, one puts all his faith in the scientific method without any reference to God, the supernatural, or the metaphysical in the equation. But the point of God is that He challenges you to test Him and take the leap of faith and you will find out: “Taste and see that the LORD is good.” Thus, both sides of the equation involve “people of faith.”

Faith is the gift of God (cf. Eph. 2:8) which He gives us, while Jesus said that anyone willing to do God’s will can also know for sure (cf. John 7:17). Just because we cannot prove God to someone else we have properly basic belief, like knowing anything that cannot be proven; thus we can “believe through grace,” (cf. Acts 18:27).

A Glimpse Of The Shekinah

Before Christ ascended, only Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the inner circle of James, John, and Peter had had a glimpse of the glory of God at the Transfiguration as far as the Bible says, but it was also partially viewed at the Ascension.  But the doctrine of the Ascension is very neglected in churches (though 1 Tim. 3:16 mentions it as a central confession of the church) but it is also hidden in the glory of God.  Jesus doesn't just reflect the glory of God like the moon reflects the light of the sun, but is the glory of God.  He temporarily set it aside and hid it during His humiliation when He emptied Himself on earth but when His work was done, He took His rightful place at the right hand of the Father--the place of authority for all authority had been given Him.  This was akin to a coronation in heaven and His homecoming.

Jesus, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, would have jurisdiction over all spiritual, human, and governmental authority.  He then authorized the Holy Spirit to equip the saints for evangelization at the outpouring on Pentecost.  Also, there He would be our Mediator, Daysman, Go-between, and Middleman between us and God. Jesus is our Savior in many aspects:  as the dying Christ, He saved us from the penalty of sin; as the living Christ in heaven, from the power of sin, and from the presence of sin, as the coming Son.

Yes, Jesus promised to come again and the angels told the disciple to stop staring into heaven but to resume the work of God on earth expanding the kingdom through the preaching of the good news. He would return physically, locally, and personally for His own. The disciples would be enabled by the filing of the Spirit and would be better off than if Jesus had remained with them because of the indwelling Spirit.  They were never to feel abandoned or alone, for Jesus promised to be with them to the end of the age and never to leave them nor forsake them.  This makes possible an intimate relationship with the Almighty and possible to continually walk in the Spirit.

The ascension was to have such an impact as to be the inspiration and motivation to spread the gospel and to give them reason to believe in heaven and that Jesus really was given all authority.  Before this Jews may have believed in an afterlife or the resurrection but had no special reason or motive to do so.  They had seen a glimpse of Jesus' glory and it should've ignited them to go on even unto death for the sake of the Name. Heaven is now a reality and a purpose to live on, not pie in the sky.  We will behold the Beatific Vision and be satisfied with the glory of God in glory.

Especially having Jesus as our intercessor would be an encouragement when they fell short of God's will and needed restoration to God's will.  Hebrews 7:25 says that if we do sin we have an advocate and 1 Tim. 2:5 says that there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ.  We are to be comforted that there is now no condemnation for all who are in Christ (cf. Romans 8:1) and to know that we shall never come into judgment (cf. John 5:24). "Who is that condemns?  (cf. Romans 8:34). We are much better off having Jesus at God's right hand looking out for us and being our Advocate with the Father when we fall short and sin.

In sum, what is the point?  We are not to live in the past or on go on in some spiritual ecstasy or religious and existential experience, but to go on and live in faith and to look forward to our hope in heaven with new and renewed motivation and inspiration that all of us will see the coming of Christ in His kingdom and rise to meet Him in the air--this glimpse of glory should give us a taste for the real thing in its fulness, in other words, look forward not backward.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Here Comes The Judge!

"... Listen! God is doubtless punishing you far less than you deserve!" (cf. Job 11:6, NLT). 
"... Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?" (cf. Gen. 18:25, NLT).
"He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us as we deserve," (cf. Psalm 103:10, NLT).  
"For it is appointed unto men to die once, and after this the judgment," (cf. Heb. 9:27).
"God repays us according to what we've done," (cf. Psalm 62:12).
"Who will render to every man according to his deeds," (cf. Romans 2:6).
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad," (cf. 2 Cor. 5:10, NIV). 

"Achievements are eventually surpassed, records are broken, reputations face, tributes are forgotten, trophies trashed," (Rick Warren).  Remember, only what's done for Christ will last! 


Jesus is "coming to judge the living and the dead," according to the creeds.  We must not put God in a box and forget that He's our Judge as well as our Savior.  But take courage believers we shall not come into judgment and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We shall not be judged for our salvation but only for our reward's worthiness.  Jesus may regard our motives or our intent and goals.  Now, judgment is repugnant to us but sin is repugnant to God. He must mete out justice to all sinners.   At the Great White Throne judgment mentioned in  Revelation 20:11ff (which saints are exempt) God gives sinners their due but no more than strict justice will necessitate and require, for God is unjust to no one.

But toward us, He never judges us (cf. John 5:24; Romans 8:1) and we never come into condemnation, and not according as our sins deserve or we expect (cf. Psalm 103:10). The Bible says He metes out justice with mercy or He tempers His justice with mercy (cf. Hab. 3:2)!  But God is unjust to no one and no one can accuse Him of injustice.  There is such a thing as non-justice but not injustice with God.  Mercy and grace are matters of non-justice but are not injustice.  In salvation, God doesn't give us what we do deserve (mercy) and gives us what we don't deserve (grace).  We escape the justice of God!

We are not to be like those who know not God and have no hope in the world as the lost (cf. Eph. 2:12'; 1 Thess. 4:13) but to live in hope and expectation of reward for our labor in the Lord which shall not be in vain, but God has a purpose for it to His glory. We have escaped the wrath to come and knowing the terror of the Lord (cf. 2 Cor. 5:11) we ought to be sober-minded and not overlook or downplay the seriousness of sin, to be sober-minded.   Jesus died for our sins and they were paid for with the precious blood spilled on our behalf.

When we realize this,  we become filled with an eternal debt of gratitude and develop the right mindset to serve God with holy fear and take a serious attitude against sin with low tolerance. The more we realize we have been forgiven, the more that who is forgiven much loves much, we are, and the more willing to serve God. We can be thankful that our salvation is a done deal and we can anticipate meeting our Lord in the air. If we have been wronged, Jesus will make it right!  This is a motivation for good works and helps us to fix our eyes on Jesus. (cf. Heb. 12:2).

Only Jesus is qualified to judge because of His perfect life and that He fulfilled the Law, the perfect standard of conduct.  He is the true qualified Mediator as being both God and man.  He was tempted in all ways as we are but without sin (cf. Heb. 4:15).   Jesus alone is worthy and we can find comfort in this that our Savior will also evaluate our works.  Too many believers say that all they want is justice!  But if God rendered the verdict due them they'd be in hell!  We are never exhorted to become successful in life because that is up to God whether He chooses to bless us or not; it's our place to be faithful and to serve with all our heart, soul, and mind.

We are simply instruments of glory or vessels of honor as Paul said in Romans 15:18, "I venture not to speak of but Christ has accomplished through me."  No one will boast in God's presence for we are saved by grace from beginning to end. But our faith is tested in the fire to see if it's genuine, saving faith.  Jesus doesn't chide for failure but for lack of love or lack of faithfulness.  Our faith must be measured in faithfulness and the two cannot be divorced.  We won't be condemned for failure but our works will be tried in the fire to see how they last and are worthy of reward at the Bema of Christ.

If we take a dim or lax view of judgment, it's because we don't have the right view of sin (sin isn't a bad enough word for it).   God cannot tolerate sin, period, no ifs, and's, or buts.  Sin is loathsome and repugnant in God's eyes and cannot be in God's presence and must be judged. We must hate sin to love judgment of it (even hate our own sins!); the two cannot be together no more than matter and antimatter and God cannot even look upon it. But the judgment is passed to the Son because Jesus has walked a mile in our moccasins and relates to the human condition as becoming a man Himself.

We are never to hope for the condemnation of God's enemies (at one time we were)  but realize God's true nature as Jonah found out after he had preached successfully to Nineveh and they repented and he was in a funk about it but he later confessed:  "I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster," (cf. Jonah 4:2).    I'm sure Jonah would concur:  "Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways," (cf. Romans 11:33).

God must exist for there to be justice! There is righteous indignation with God at evil:  "... their foot shall slide in due time, the day of their calamity is at hand," (cf. Deut. 32:35). But we have escaped the wrath to come!    We hope for justice in the afterlife because we don't always see it in the world we live in, but God is maximizing good and minimizing evil according to Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.  Justice has as standard and is punitive:  Justice has a standard:  Jesus; perfect nature and life; Justice has a punishment:  hell.

There is only one way to escape the coming wrath of God: accepting the grace of God shed on the cross by His Son in faith.   In the meantime, during the age of grace and of the church, we are not to lose patience or falter at the condition of the world affairs, for justice delayed is not justice denied in God's eternal mindset and frame of reference; His justice will not tarry!  In due time, justice will prevail!  Habukkuk lamented to God that justice is always the loser, but he later realized God's wisdom and had a change of heart (cf. Hab. 1:4; 3:18) 

At the Bema (the Tribunal or Judgment Seat of Christ), there are three certain proclamations of our Lord:  affirmation "Good job!  Well done!" promotion:  "You shall be in charge of  more..."  and celebration: "Enter into the joy of the LORD."  All this as we share the Shiknah of God hidden before but now revealed to us.  Our labor in the Lord is not in vain (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58).  Paul said that the most important thing is that he finishes the mission Christ gave him (cf. Acts 20:24)   At the final audit of our life, might we all say, "Mission accomplished!"  It was said of King David that he had completed all God's will (cf. Acts 13:33). 

CAVEATS: Of whom much is given, much is required (cf. Luke  12:48)!  We don't want to be like Amaziah, who did what was right, yet not with a pure heart (cf. 2 Chron. 25:2). God judges the heart and soul of man (cf. 2 Chron. 16:9; Prov. 15:3; Prov. 21:2).  Likewise, we are not to judge according to appearance but with righteous judgment and to judge nothing before the time (cf. John 7:24; 1 Cor. 4:7).

As for His judgments:  He is too deep to understand, to wise to make a mistake, and too kind to be cruel.  God is the Lawgiver who is also the Judge and He is theonomous and autonomous; He is self-ruling by virtue of being God and Judge; He rules by His Law which isn't arbitrary, capricious, or whimsical like man's,  but according to the rule of Law, His law, that is.  Therefore:  "Prepare to meet thy God," (cf. Amos 4:12).

In sum, God will judge the nations:  "But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream," (cf. Amos 5:24, NIV); however, we shall not come into judgment and cannot be condemned (cf. John 5:24; Romans 8:1).
  Soli Deo Gloria!