David Tao – Taoism track 6 language identified

It’s Indonesian with a mandarin accent.  She is saying “Come back my love, let’s not break up, thank you.”

It’s taken me almost 5 years to find that out.  What a day!

Hab 2:4, its meaning and use in Rom 1:17

A brief outline of what will be covered in this entry :

• Why is Hab 2:4 important
• What is the meaning of Hab 2:4 in all its occurences (original context, NT citations in Gal and Heb)
• How does the meaning of Hab 2:4 support and/or explain Imputed Righteousness by Faith?

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

Habakuk 2:4 is important because it is the support and explanation of the statement “the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” (Rom 1:17a) It is the primary evidence Paul uses to legitmate the claim that righteousness is interlinked with faith. Furthermore, to the exegete, it is the evidence we use to solidify the conclusion that the meaning of “the righteousness of God” in v.17a is Imputed Righteousness (A gift of God) and not Attributive Righteousness (A description of God).

Hab 2:4 is found 4 times in the Scriptures. Once in its original context, once in Romans 1:17, once in Galatians 3:1-12, and once in Hebrews 10:38. In the original context, God is telling Habakkuk to write down the prophecy that the Chaldeans will rise to strike Israel so that the Righteous man may see the writing, believe it and run. In Galatians 3:1-12, the quote is used to describe Justification by faith versus the Leviticus quote which describes Justification by Law. In Hebrews, the writer uses the quote to describe those who believe unto salvation in comparison to those who shrink back into destruction. So then the meaning of Hab 2:4 rephrased and in view of all its occurences is “The Righteous man, on the basis of his faith, shall gain his life”

Okay, so how does that meaning support Rom 1:17a? In other words, how is Imputed Righteousness explained by understanding that “the Righteous man on the basis of his faith shall live?”

These are the reasons why Hab 2:4 is a description of a Righteousness credited by faith.

1. Overlapping conditions
   1. The statement “But the righteous man shall live by faith” can be broken down into to conditions.
      1. The man with righteousness shall live
      2. The man with faith shall live
      3. two conditions share one result therefore the two are linked.
2. Grammatical parts
   1. The Main clause is “The Righteous Man shall live”
   2. The prepositional phrase is “By faith.”
   3. So then the primary condition for life is “Righteousness”
   4. the means by which that condition is met is “Faith.”
3. Contrast
   1. Rom 1:17 – The man who is righteous is given life
      1. The righteous man is righteous because of his faith
   2. Rom 1:18 – The man who is unrighteous is given wrath
      1. The unrighteous is unrighteous because of his unbelief 1:18-30

Conclusion

Essentially then, Hab 2:4 links faith to Righteousness in such a way that faith is the means by which Righteousness is attained. That in short is a description of Imputed Righteousness. So there you have it folks. A very brief explanation of the meaning of Hab 2:4 and its use in Rom 1:17.

day to day

it’s morning time.  I just had romans study yesterday.  Couldn’t stop thinking about it falling asleep and even when I woke up and in the shower it was the only thing on my mind.  Now I have work.  What a weird pair.

I think I’m going to write something here later about the meaning and use of Habakkuk 2:4 for all the confused Romans Returnees.

okay, going to work now.

from fathers to daughters

Just these past few days, I’ve watched a number of father-daughter exchanges. I went to Greg and Cami’s wedding and watched the father daughter dance. I hung out with Becca’s sisters (5 in all) and then met their dad. I went to church today and watched a father baptize his daughter. I feel like I witnessed another exchange sometime in the week but I can’t seem to recall it right now.

The point is, I really think one of the most moving things is the relationship between a father and his daughter. So lately I’ve been thinking of what it’d be like to have a daughter. What would I say to my daughter if I knew I was either going to go away for a long time or go meet the Lord. If she was still a kid, I’d try really hard to tell her the Gospel. But I don’t know if I’d make it simpler than it really is. I was standing in the elevator today and thinking maybe I’d say something like this:

“hey kiddo, listen close, we don’t have much time. You’re a sinner, you’ve done a lot of bad things, you’re not perfect, nobody is, you’re dad isn’t either. But God still loves you, loves me too. That’s why He told his son Jesus to take the punishment for both our sins by dying on the cross a long time ago. See? since Jesus paid for our sins we can live this life with Him watching over us and even after we die He’ll take us to a really beautiful place called Heaven. can you believe it? he paid for you, even when you hurt Him really bad all those times you stole, said mean things, were angry… That’s how much he cares. God made you, so He really loves you. More than anyone. More than your mom, more than me. But if you want to be with Him you need to let Him take you where He wants you to go. You need to trust Him. If you trust Him he will take care of you. He will take care of everything. If you love Him and run to Him, he will carry you. I won’t be here forever, neither will mom. But God will. And if you follow Him to the end, I promise I’ll meet you when you get there.”

it’s not perfect I know. It feels disconnected when you can’t explain things. But I think it’ll work. I’ll keep working on it and maybe when parenthood comes around I’ll be ready.

a few updates

• Working at National Forest Design M,W,F  and freelancing on T,Th
• Started preparing materials for Romans Returns Summer study, should be awesome, starts in a week
• Thinking about taking up a web design job for my dad soon at the end of Aug
• Heading out to Taipei in less than 2 months, there is some confusion with the school though…pray God works it out.
• Reading through Acts and dabbling in some extra-biblical lit.
• missing my smallgroupees
• Still content with the faithfulness and provision of God

“Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away, Giver of immortal gladness fill us with the Light of Day.” – VanDyke

stability

when everyone goes away, Lord you remain

and so does your word.

A lot of waiting

so much of life is spent waiting. We wait for the shower, we wait for the sink, we wait for the kitchen, we wait in our rooms, we wait by the door, we wait in the elevator, we wait on the curb, we wait in the car, we wait for the next IM, we wait for the next email, we wait for the call, we wait for food to heat up, we wait at the checkout, we wait to get our diplomas, we wait to get our job offers, we wait for that special someone to show up, we wait for our parents to finish what they’re doing, we wait for our siblings to pick us up, we wait for the year to pass and another to begin, we wait for our troubles to blow over, we wait and we wait. And yet for all that waiting, we enjoy so little of what we wait for.

I don’t if that’s a tragedy or just a lesson behind a veil. I sometimes wonder why God wrote our lives that way.

Heaven & the Joy of the Master

Now that my class is finally graduating from school, I can’t help but think about how we started it all out. My freshman year at UCLA changed my life. As I began to study theology for the first time, it made me love our Lord with a passion that I had never experienced before. And as I began to grow in my love for Christ, I could not help but grow in my anticipation of seeing Him. You see, as Jesus became the center of my life, I became enamored with the thought of seeing Him. The Lord whom I had loved from afar all this time, and whom I could see only in part, I so wanted to be with Him in person to see Him fully. This God-man, who was not only the King and Savior of mankind but my personal Savior and Lord.

And so as the year progressed this desire to see Jesus spread throughout our freshman class (specifically the guys I think). We were all about the return of Christ. The Parousia, the Great arrival of our King, the final consummation of life, love, creation, and salvation. We talked about it all the time, hanging out, at prayer meetings, at church, after fellowship, after sermons which touched on the topic. We talked about the rapture with relative consistency too, all of us feeling the imminence of Christ’s return. And since we talked about the rapture we talked also about how we would position ourselves in the rapture…hence, rapture positions. I still remember hearing the fire alarm in the dorms and thinking that the trumpet sound announcing the Rapture had sounded forth. Alas, it was just a lame dorm fire drill.

I think part of the reason people don’t really look forward to the Parousia is that they don’t understand Kingship very much anymore. Nobody thinks about honor, glory, and the greater realities that surround us like they used to in the past. But if you watched or read J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, you might have caught a glimpse of Kingship; of loftiness and honor. At the end of the last book of Lord of the Rings, there is a great coronation ceremony wherein Aragorn is finally crowned and recognized as King. Everybody, out of sheer reverence and love falls to their knees, commiting themselves to him. That’s just a glimpse of what our relationship to the Lord Jesus ought to look like. The God of all things, the King of all Kings. Jesus Christ, when he is finally recognized in His return as the glorious Lord of all, he will be marveled at among all who have believed. Every knee will bow. And it will be no wonder. The God who is too great to be seen, will through the Son be seen truly in all His glory and power. In that moment the word beauty will strain to describe Him. The beatitude says blessed are those who are in pure in heart for they shall see God. No kidding, it will be by far the greatest blessing of all time.

But what’s so great about seeing God? You could start by saying that our eyes were fashioned in order to apprehend the beauty and handiwork of God. When we see God, our eyes will be seeing what they were created to see. The most beautiful thing you have ever seen in your life, the landscape that took your breath away, the picture that caused your skin to tingle, the magnitude and meaningfulness of all these things are small fry compared to the infinite ocean of the beauty of God. And it will hit you like a tidal wave the size of an ocean.

Okay, then what’s so great about being with God? Do you really have to ask? You and I were made for One. Who is this One? It is not our best friend, not our wives, not our children. This One is our Maker. God made us for Himself. The only time you can say “I was made for this” legitimately is when you stand before God in the courts of Heaven and fall down to worship Him. You cannot stand before your bride at the altar and say “I was made for this”, you cannot share in the joy of brotherhood and say “I was made for this.” You cannot even find your perfect career and say “I was made for this.” You were made for one thing, that is to worship the Lord God in His presence for the rest of eternity’s days. And so the joy that you feel when you stand at the altar and make your wedding vows, when you hang out with your best friends or your little close-knit band of brothers, that feeling of fulfillment you get when you find yourself at work doing what you’ve always wanted to do…that’s just a preview of the feeling you’ll get when you stand next to God, and all of those things will immediately be outdone in the first second of standing with Him.

There’s of course a lot more that could be said concerning the return of Christ and its many joys. Its relation to sanctification, to the church, to Israel, to the plan of redemption. But in this brief entry, I just wanted to talk about why I think it’s so incredible, why I can’t help but get excited about it, why I love to use my imagination to engage in the possibilities of what Heaven may be like.

There is coming a day when we will all stand before the One for whom we were made. And He will give us the approval that our hearts were made to hear. “Well done, good and faithful servant.” No earthly father has ever said nor will ever say any words that will ever come close to these in their meaning, in their impact, in the sheer delight they cause their earthly sons. The words of our Heavenly Father will certainly bring a river of tears from our heart.

Furthermore, you ought to know that there is a Trintarian joy between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It has existed before the creation of the Universe, a holy celebration, a divine joy from eternity past, perfect in its expression and infinitely abundant, Emotionally and spiritually fulfilling even the infinite deep of God Himself.

When God finishes saying well done to us, his following words will be these, savor them with me. “Enter into the Joy of the Master.” That’s trinitarian joy to you baby.

So, I don’t know what that really means, but I’m willing to bet my life that it’s something good, really, reeeeeeeally good.