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Chapter 3- God and Man

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Greshman Machen
Chapter 3: God and Man

In this chapter Machen expresses how the relationship between God and man ought to be compared to what it has become. As Machen explored in the last chapter God is not a thing to be felt but a person about whom objective truth can be known. There is also important truth to be known about the condition of man. These two things; knowing God and knowing man allows people to understand the gospel. 

Our first step is to know God. Machen suggests this can be done through knowing the person Jesus but also through creation, the law, the prophets and the Psalms. It is even possible that man's mind can come to the conclusion of God without working through the logic step by step. Sometimes our instinct is actually guided by valid arguments synthesized by our minds without us purposefully walking through them one by one. 

We come to know more about God through relationship with Him. That relationship is demonstrated as a Father to Child relationship. The problem is that liberalism has taken this imagery and applied it to all people. This is an issue because God is the creator of all people but He is not the Father of all people. People are welcomed to walk into the household of God which has been opened to all mankind because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Everyone is welcome to become part of His family but not all people do which means there is not a "universal fatherhood" of God to all people. The relationship of Father and child is reserved for those who have believed in Jesus and have come into the family of God. 

We need to recognize about ourselves that we are not part of God. God is distinct and set apart from His creation. The thing that sets us apart from God the most is our sin. According to Machen there was a loss of  "consciousness of sin" and its replacement is a belief in the goodness of mankind. This however, is not what Christianity is actually based on. At its core it is really the honest truth that man is sinful and only when we face that can we then take our sin to the cross of Christ. It is only the Spirit of God that can convict and we must admit our sin. Then it is by God's grace that we are offered salvation and are brought into His family. 

This knowledge of God, that He is seeking a relationship with us and the knowledge of ourselves, that we are sinful results in an embrace of the Christian message. By and through this knowledge we come to understand the gospel and then experience life change. 


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