The Revd Christopher Jones Salisbury A seraph is one of the several kinds of supernatural beings somewhat like angels which attend on God, such as are described in Isaiah 6. Features Keeping art and soul together. The Dave Walker Guide to the Church. Time out: Low-flying angels. St Gargoyle's. Crossword No. More events. Top Comment. Job of the Week. Head of Church Engagement.
Church Growth Officer 0. Diocesan Secretary. Principal and Executive Director. Find more jobs. Most Popular Past Week. Jordan Peterson describes his difficulties with Christianity. Angela Tilby: The Ordinariate could heal old wounds. The next two lines answer rather negatively. The seraphim - six-winged fiery angels - are perhaps among the most glorious created beings; Isaiah 6 depicts the seraphim perpetually flying around God's throne and proclaiming his holiness, and I think it safe to say that on each flight, they discover something new about God.
And yet even the firstborn seraph - the oldest created being who's spent the most time in God's intimate presence, forever learning about God through ages past - would try in vain to "sound the depths of love divine".
Even that firstborn seraph, we sing with Wesley, cannot reach the bottomless depths of God's love. The phrase "sound the depths" derives from the old practice of using a plumb line to measure the depth of water; even this firstborn seraph would be helpless to, with all his might, sink a weight to the bottom of God's love. It's bottomless; there can be no sounding the depths of God's love. And that's the beauty. The self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ shows us that God's very nature and eternal being are characterized by love; and it shows us that, though we're to live eternally, we will never, ever reach the point at which we can rightly say, "Well, we've at last got God's love figured out now.
Turns out he loves us exactly yea much and no more. Glad that's finally settled. We, like the firstborn seraph, will never reach that point; there is no such point.
God's love is endless, and we will be forever lost in it - or, phrased better yet, forever found in it. Just as the seraphim endlessly cry "Holy, holy, holy" with the freshness of infinite discovery, so too might we rightly spend all of eternity by crying out - with ever-increasing excitement and freshness and newness:.
Heaven and earth are awash in his endless glory. What a terrific post! Only yesterday did I discover verse two. Verse five, too, was new to me, and equally striking. Your exposition of verse 2 is incisive and edifying. Thank you. Just as the seraphim endlessly cry "Holy, holy, holy" with the freshness of infinite discovery, so too might we rightly spend all of eternity by crying out - with ever-increasing excitement and freshness and newness: "Loving, Loving, Loving is Yahweh, the God of Hosts!
Instead, we should say that this was Christ's crucifixion. When we are sharing the truth concerning the crucifixion, we need to take steps like that of a stairway. We should not jump from the top of a building to the ground floor. This is to commit suicide. Instead, we must have a stairway. Without His Divine Trinity, God could not have moved in the crucifixion. Who can crucify God? Yet Charles Wesley said in one of his hymns: "Amazing love! The Immortal dies! Charles Wesley said that God died for him and that the Immortal One died.
This means that He who cannot die, died for us. No one could crucify God if He remained in His divinity, but Christ as the manifestation of God in the flesh was crucified. The Divine Trinity is involved here. The crucifixion of Christ was the death in which God moved in man. God moved in another's crucifixion, but this other One is the embodiment of God.
The first One moved in the second One's death, and the second One is the embodiment of the first One. This is the stairway we need to understand the crucifixion. All proper Christians admit that they were redeemed by Christ's paying the price for them. Christ died and shed His blood for us.
He died on the cross as our replacement. The Bible tells us that God decided to crucify Christ Isa. If Christ had not died as our replacement, then God would have become unrighteous in crucifying Christ, because Christ is the only person who is absolutely righteous and just. One of Charles Wesley's hymns says, "Amazing love! The just God-man died for the unjust sinners 1 Pet.
One just God-man died for many unjust sinners. Such a vicarious death is judicial. God redeemed us judicially by the blood of Christ.
To redeem, in a sense, is to purchase. When you purchase something, you have to pay the price. God's redemption is a kind of purchase. God purchased us sinners judicially by paying Christ's blood as the price on the cross. Also, Christ was crucified on the cross for us, and He was on the cross for six hours. In the first three hours, Christ was persecuted by men for doing God's will; in the last three hours, He was judged by God for the accomplishment of our redemption.
It was during this time that God counted Him as our suffering substitute for sin Isa. Hence, darkness came over all the land Matt. God forsook Him because of our sin. Economically, God was judging Him as a sinner and the judging God left Him economically. Essentially, however, He was dying on the cross as the Triune God-man. This is why Charles Wesley in one of his hymns Hymns, says, "Amazing love! Actually, however, that was not God dying, but God passing through death.
More than two centuries ago, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn that speaks of God dying for us. In this hymn Wesley says:. In this hymn Wesley goes on to say, "'Tis mystery all! Charles Wesley saw the vision concerning this and declared in his hymn that God died for us. The God who died for us is not the God before incarnation. Prior to incarnation, God certainly did not have blood, and He could not have died for us.
It was after the incarnation, in which God was mingled with humanity, that He died for us. Through incarnation, our God, the Creator, the eternal One, Jehovah, became mingled with man. As a result, He was no longer only God—He became a God-man. As the God-man, He surely had blood and was able to die for us. Paul said in Acts that the blood that Christ shed on the cross was God's own blood. God bought, purchased, the church with His own blood, so the church is so dear, so beloved, in the feeling of God and in the eyes of God.
This was the word spoken by Paul to the elders of Ephesus. He was impressing the elders from Ephesus that they should love the church, considering the church very dear and beloved as God does. The church is so dear and beloved to God in His feeling, so He purchased the church with His own blood. The Bible in Acts says that the divine God has human blood.
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