Christ our Life - Session 4

This is the fourth of four messages Doug gave in his interviews with GeorgeAnn Hughes in her podcast, The ByteShow.
Here are my notes:
o Doug explains the illustration Jesus gave of the grain of wheat that needs to go into the ground and die – and how that applied to Jesus – and how it applies to us.
o One thing I noticed, especially in this fourth interview, is the weakness Doug must have been dealing with, especially in the beginning. But he gets more and more animated as we listen, so full of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, he can hardly hold back his exuberance and enthusiasm as he goes from one end of the Bible to the other, and back and forth countless times, making his point. I think this series was one of the very first he did with GeorgeAnn Hughes, so this was a new outreach opportunity for him to teach. Up to this point it was primarily to our small assembly he taught face-to-face.
o “Unless there’s a death to who we are by nature, who we are by natural birth, then that germ that is within us as divine life, it cannot come to full fruition and fulfill the purpose for which God has redeemed us.”
o Notice Doug doesn’t preach sermons. He was a Bible teacher, not a preacher. These are Bible studies, not homilies and stories to entertain the listeners. He took the stewardship God gave him very seriously for over 40 years. There were few times I can remember coming out from a bible study and thinking, “Wow, wasn’t that a wonderful message.” – however, there were some I still remember that I did come away with as such.
o Doug corrects the error taught that it was Jesus’ physical blood that saves us – Jesus offered Himself – His soul – His Person was the offering for sin. It’s His soul that was made sin. The antitype of the blood is the soul. Jesus’ blood on the cross was the type – Jesus’ soul was the antitype, that which is what the blood points to. Similarly, ‘the lamb of God’ is the type; Jesus as the sacrificial lamb is the antitype, the fulfillment of the type.
o “All three Persons (of the Godhead) are completely interdependent for the self-revelation and the self-realization of each Member, and all three Members make up one Godhead and share the same essence. But for that essence to function in a personal way, there’s a tri-unity, and that tri-unity is an interdependence – a consubstantiality – a co-essentiality.”
o Doug explains the difference between two Greek words, morphē and schema, both translated ‘form’ or ‘appearance’. What has helped me understand the difference: morphē is like a Hersey’s Kiss – what you see on the outside is what is on the inside; schema is like an M&M, what you see on the outside is not representative of what’s on the inside. They’re both candy, but not the same. Think of that when you hear Doug teaching on Philippians 2, Jesus ever existing in the form (morphē) of God (verse 6), taking the form (morphē) of a bondslave, was found in the appearance (schema) as a man (verse 8).
o “The Father is wholly and completely dependent upon the Son for His self-revelation; the Son is wholly and completely dependent upon the Father for His self-realization; and the Holy Spirit is likewise wholly dependent upon the Father and the Son for who He is as the revealer of God in our lives and in our hearts.” (Chaw on that for a spell… - wow!)
o “Every Theophany in the Old Testament is in reality a Christophany, a manifestation of Jesus Christ in His preincarnate form.”
o “How many people have heard this, ‘Family is above all!’ Well Jesus puts a sword right through that. Family is not number one.” As Jesus did not come to bring peace, He came to bring a sword – and that at times it is against family, soul and blood ties and attachments. Loving our family is subservient to loving the Lord our God.
o Doug challenges our willingness to be not only born-again believers in Jesus, but to be His disciples. There’s a cost for that.
o In confronting those who like to listen to cross-less messages by preachers who make you feel good, “If you’re offended – you need to be offended.”
o We need to have a surrendered soul daily to be a disciple of Jesus.
o “If we’re going to know Christ as our life, we have to know how the life of The Disciple, Christ, functions as humanity.”
o How do we gain Christ? We have to lose our soul-life… “so that soul-life through death as a grain of wheat might come out into resurrection life-union with the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Resources recommended: The Forgotten Father by Thomas Smail
The Giving Gift by Thomas Smail
The Mystery of Godliness by Maj. W. Ian Thomas
The Complete Green Letters by Miles J. Stanford
Bone of His Bone by F. J. Huegel

www.dougriggs.org
www.bookministry.org