Titus 1:1-2 - God's Nature

Titus 1:1-2 "This truth gives them the confidence of eternal life, which God promised them before the world began - and he cannot lie." (NLT)
Philippians 2:6-8 "He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death - his death on the cross." (TEV)

I used to have to discussions with my wife on whether the Lord saw a situation as being either this way or that.....or whether He looked at a situation as having varying degrees of interpretation. We would discuss this back and forth and I'd suggest what I thought were some pretty convincing arguments for the latter position - the Lord sees varying degrees of interpretation in situations because these situations were honeycombed with ambiguity.

I would pride myself on the logic of my position and I defended it pretty strongly.........my wife was equally as convinced that her interpretation was the correct one.

These discussions took place before I was actively and regularly reading God's Word.........and with my reading over time my position changed. This change was because of what Paul writes above in addition to countless other scriptures.

God's nature simply will not permit certain things...........He cannot lie.........He is always just...........what He promises, He delivers on....if I ask for forgiveness, He forgives...........sin is sin to the Lord not sickness, not poor character, not bad genes. All of this leads me to believe now that God is one way or the other on issues..........there is no in-between.

But the Lord knew the way of the flesh was not going to be easy on us.............so He became one of us to show us how living a Godly life was done.............He gave up all He had, as Paul says in Philippians above, and "took the nature of a servant"........."He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death." His whole life was a template of how living a Christian life was done..........and it is pretty straightforward I must say.

And as I read on in His Word.......my thinking is becoming less and less ambiguous and much more concrete.....it *is* "this way or that".

Love in Jesus,

Jim

---------------------------------------

"But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." (1 Corinthians 12:18 NASB)

"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission."

---

This devotional was originally posted on CCI-Devo - Daily Group Devotionals on April 17, 2004 in post #529. It was written by Jim Ross, a former United Pentecostal Church member, who attends Christian Challenge International, the sponsor of the devotional group. The devotional is the copyright of Jim Ross and is reprinted on this site by permission.

Page added April 14, 2006

---