What Is The Gospel? | Theocast

The Question of What the Gospel Is

Hi, this is Justin. Today on Theocast, John and I are going to seek to answer a simple question, what is the gospel? If you are out there and you're listening to this episode and you are discouraged, you're confused, you're disheartened, you're afraid that you might not finally make it and that you might be one of those individuals that on the last day, Jesus looks at you and says, depart from me, I never knew you.

If you were to think, if somebody asked me, what is the gospel? And you don't know how to answer that question without saying something about yourself, this episode is for you. We hope it encourages your soul.

We hope that you're comforted in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is mighty and able to save. He's done everything. That's what we're gonna talk about today. So we're gonna leave it with you. May you be encouraged in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are excited to announce we have a brand new podcast available called The Kingsmen Podcast. It's where we are reclaiming biblical manhood by training and equipping men for the work of the kingdom. You can find it anywhere you download a podcast.

You can also watch it on YouTube. We have new episodes that come out every Monday. Welcome to Theocast, encouraging weary pilgrims to rest in Christ, conversations about the Christian life from a confessional, reformed and pastoral perspective.

We are here at Theocast aiming to clarify the gospel and reclaim the purpose of the kingdom of Christ. And your hosts today are John Moffat, who is pastor of Grace Reformed Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee, sitting right here to my left.

He can, there it was, reached out and touched me. And I'm Justin Perdue, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina, which is where we sit tonight, John. That's right. We are spending time together.

That's right. Here in Western North Carolina. We have enjoyed the outdoors. We've had a full day. Yeah, even got a walk in. Beautiful day here. Yeah, we've enjoyed a number of things. Amen. We've talked about a lot.

We've talked things in circles at points. And now we're ready to record another episode. That's right, that's right. So this one is a basic one. Yeah. And yeah, we could almost call this another gospel episode.

We've been accused. No, we haven't. But maybe we even, in our own minds, are okay to be one-trick ponies. Yeah. As long as that trick is Christ and the right division of law and gospel. I want to proclaim nothing among you except for.

Christ and him crucified. Yeah, I'll walk on Paul's footprints on that one. I think the apostle was on to something. I think he was. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, now, if we were to, anytime Justin and I record a podcast, we do try and speak to a specific audience of people we're thinking about.

And in this one, I would say someone who has heard the gospel and they can't seem to make up from down as far as, is it some of my works or some of Christ's works? What is sola fide main? And the experience they have when thinking of the gospel does not bring rest, but anxiety.

Yeah. Doesn't bring hope, but seems like it exhausts them. And when they think about the future, they don't have joy, they have anxiety. A way I might put it is they've heard the gospel, and I'm using those air quotes, in a way that is thoroughly confusing.

Yeah. And in a way sounds inherently contradictory because on the one hand, there's a lot of talk about Jesus and what he did. But then on the other hand, there's a lot of talk about me and what I need to do.

So which is it? That's right. That's right. And that confusion can rob people of peace and joy and hope can make people far less effective in the church. Things we talk about pretty regularly. That's right.

So we're going to have a basic conversation and I trust a sincere, and I hope in good ways, lively one about what the gospel is. Try to remove some of that confusion and make it sound rather than cluttered and even schizophrenic, make it clear.

I think we have three points we wrote down that we were trying to summarize it in its simplest form. As any good sermon would have. That's right. I tried to get three I's. An intro and a conclusion with three points in the middle, baby.

That's right. Here we go. When we think about the gospel, you'll notice in each one of these points, we're going to show you the difference between grace and works, law and gospel. Yeah. Because we do get a lot of collapsing of the two.

Yeah. And so our hope is to show you the clarity of the offense of the gospel, because it does offend prideful human beings. And then for the weak, it brings a balm of hope. Yeah. And I might like to expound upon what you said, the contrast between grace and merit.

That's right. Contrast between fate and works. That's right. Contrast between law and gospel. Right. And those things matter. They really do. Because as you walk the road of Sola Fide, Satan tries very hard.

Which for the people out there that don't know, Latin means faith alone. Faith alone. As you walk the road of faith alone, Satan strategically very much pulls your eyes off of Christ. Of course. And puts it back on you.

Of course. And so we'll start with the first one, which is the forgiveness of sins, which I think most people understand. Jesus died on the cross to forgive my sins. Right. And I think we have to dive deep into the nuances of that.

Because when you don't, as the Bible says, the great accuser comes in and finds ways to put your sin back on your slate. Right. Put your sin back on you. So I'll start with the first one, Justin, and then I'll hand it over to you.

We love the concept of a clean slate. Like here's all of the list of the sins and waste in which you have failed and continue to fail. And praise God, he came and he wiped them away. It's like, I will no longer accuse those of you.

All of your past and present sins, they are gone. You know, praise God. You've now been set free from them. You no longer have to be addicted to alcohol or to drugs or pornography or whatever it is. You know, that is the goodness of the gospel.

He set you free from your debt. But what's the negative part? Well, it's that you now need to change. And don't mess up. Don't mess up. That's right. Don't be like you used to. And if you don't change, if you are ending up kind of being like you used to be.

Right. Then you should be concerned. That's right. In, you know, the way we were thinking through the clarity of this, which I love gospel conversations. And as I was thinking about it, it's like, all right, here's the slate by which the great accuser and God, you know, the accuser uses it, but God is the one who keeps track of all of our sins.

And what I've, I love the picture. He says, where your sins have been tracked, they are tossed into the deepest parts of the sea, not to be found. They're separated as far as the East is from the West.

So it's not that he gives you a clean slate. It's that the slate no longer exists. It's removed permanently. So I'm going to start with this. Let's talk about us for a second. So this is not the gospel directly, but I think this will shed more light on forgiveness and how much forgiveness is needed.

We're worse than we think we are. Let's say that. That's right. We obviously flatter ourselves as human beings. We tend to think we're better than we are, but the reality of the situation, biblically speaking, is that we have never kept a command that the Lord has given us, really kept it.

So Jesus in his earthly ministry does this all the time. The best sermon on the law ever preached, Sermon on the Mount, he makes it very clear that no one has ever really kept the law. Because keeping the law means not just some kind of external conformity.

It means at the level of the heart, at a spiritual level, you've got to keep it. No one's ever done it. That's important. So we've broken all of God's commands. We've never really kept a single one of them.

We got to start with that. And really, have I broken all of them? Yes, it's what the scripture says. If you, the one who says do not murder also says do not commit adultery. If you've broken one part of the law, you're guilty of breaking the entire thing.

This is how it works. Let's just start with the greatest commandment. You don't even need to move past that. I agree. Martin Luther used to say that. We're not all sixth commandment breakers. We haven't all killed someone.

But we've all failed to keep the first one. That's right. Love God above all things. Every moment of every day. We have not done that. So we're worse than we think we are. We have broken all of God's commands.

We've never really kept a single one of them. And all of us, even once we are converted, even once we become Christians, we are still inclined toward all evil. That's right. So when you begin to talk about forgiveness of sins, you better have a gospel and a forgiveness that will overcome all of that.

That's right. Right? And so, let's say this too. A lot of times, the way that the gospel and the forgiveness of sins is presented is you need to change. You need to forsake your sin. You need to do something and then come to Christ.

And you need to change and forsake in order to come to it. Put the bottle down. Put the needle down. Quit messing around with your girlfriend or your boyfriend or whatever you're doing and come to Christ.

And they justify that by saying repent. Right. The Bible literally says this. I mean, how do you counteract that, Justin? The Bible says repent. So you're teaching a non-repentance gospel? Not true at all.

Repentance, biblically speaking, at the most fundamental level is a change of mind and it is an agreement with God about our sin and it is a siding with Him against it. But it does not, repentance does not mean that I literally change myself in order to be fit to come to Christ.

That's right. What I am seeing is that what God says about me in His law is true. That's right. That what He requires, I have not done and that I am in need of forgiveness because I'm a miserable offender.

And so when I agree with Him about that, I am casting myself upon another who has taken my sin upon himself and has endured the entire curse of the law that my sin deserves. And so in agreeing with God and siding with Him like that, that is repentance.

That's right. Right? So we're not saying that repentance is insignificant. That's right. That's right. So what you're saying is that repentance really is I am agreeing with God at the level of my offense, whereas often as humans, we don't.

I'm not that bad. No, that's wrong. You have to change your mind about that. Number two, how to deal with one's sins is not done by transaction. I do my part, He gives me forgiveness. And number three would be, because we always do three-point sermons, right?

Sure. Number three would be what happens to sin once Christ has finally dealt with it, right? And these are all important and go ahead. No, I think that it's important that we understand that in order to receive the forgiveness that is offered to us freely in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is nothing that we need to do in order to receive it.

That's right. Faith is an open hand. That's right. Right? That receives from Christ these benefits. That's right. And you can't separate Christ from His benefits. That's right. Well, even so, I gave three points of repentance, but Justin, according to scripture, I can't even do those three points of repentance.

Of course not. Because I am dead in my trespasses and sin. I'm blind. I'm not spiritually alive. Right. These are important because I would say that repentance, which we would say is an amazing fruit of the gospel, is not the gospel.

It's not. No. Right? And the reason I have to mention this is that often people say, unless you repent of your sins, you cannot have forgiveness of your sins. How do you respond to that? Amen. So I try not to trample on point two, but I don't know how to talk about this apart from saying what I'm going to say.

So I've already said I'm agreeing with God in terms of what He has said about my sinfulness. So I am a sinner. I understand that God is holy. I understand that the standard of His law is something that is perfect and good and holy and just, and I have not met it.

So there's that. I acknowledge that I am in need of a righteousness that I do not have. And so then I agree with the Lord about His plan of redemption and how I can have forgiveness, how I can have righteousness, given that I am a corrupt human being who has broken all the commands of the law and has never kept one.

That's right. And so what is that way? That's right. He says, do not, you can't work for it, right? You cannot earn it. You will not merit this. You will receive it from me, right? And I think that even when we talk about repentance in this way, we could get into these things.

The Lord God Almighty, by His sovereign grace, causes us to be alive and unites us to the Lord Jesus. Galatians 1, where Paul says that the Lord was pleased to reveal His Son to me. That's right. Well, when you see Him, when He's revealed to you, you don't know everything, but you know, I need Him.

I need, and He is the only one who can atone for my sins. He is the only one who can achieve righteousness as a human being that can then be counted to me. That's right. And I am running and I'm casting myself on Him in faith.

And in that regard, brother, I think that when we try to pull faith and repentance apart, sometimes we do a disservice to that. That's right. Because faith incorporates repentance in that sense, right?

That's right. Because I am agreeing with God. I'm siding with God. I am trusting Christ who is God's plan of salvation. That's right. Yeah. That's right. So to say though, and this leads us into the second point, to say that that is the gospel, the forgiveness of sins would be a half gospel or a one-quarters gospel.

Can I say something? Yeah. Yeah, I think in most churches, and I am not trying to be arrogant or condescending. I am not trying to impugn my brothers and sisters. No, we're bringing relief to the person who feels like they're crazy.

Like, man, am I crazy here that I'm only hearing this? Who has only heard that the gospel is, Jesus died for your sins. With all due respect, you are cutting the work of Christ in half at best. That's right.

At best, because he did far more than just die and endure the curse of the law so that we might be forgiven. That's right. As magnificent as that is, he did more than that. He lived for us. That's right.

Can I jump in here? That's like a guy who breaks the law, jumps into the water, and is drowning. And you say, you know what? I forgive you for what you have done. In order for you to be safe, you must get back into the boat now.

Yeah. And they can't, because why? They're drowning. Yeah, exactly. Or the person's drowning, and you just throw them the life raft. That's right. Like, they literally are going under, and you're gonna say, well, you need to grab hold of it.

When in reality, the presentation in the scriptures is that we are drowning. I mean, we're actually dead. I was gonna say, they're dead at the bottom of the ocean. We're at the bottom of the body of water, and the Lord reaches down with His arm that, by the way, is not short to save, and He rips us up from the depths of death, and gives us life, and unites us to His Son.

That's gospel. That's right, and so it's bad news that someone says, I forgive you for drowning and dying because of your disobedience. Now, if you get back in the boat, you will be saved. We're saying the good news is Christ proved.

Grabbed you and put you in the boat. He did the work you could not do. You could not swim from the bottom to the top. You could not crawl in, and He proved it perfectly on you. This is what we call, technically, imputed or imparted, given over to you on the behalf of the works, the obedience of righteousness, that's right.

So He did more than just die for our sins. That's absolutely right. He lived for us. What do we mean? Well, not only is it the fact that we have broken the law, and we've never kept a commandment, right?

God requires actual, perfect, perpetual obedience if we're gonna dwell with Him, and we have not done that, obviously. Lifelong, lifelong obedience. Perpetual, personal, yeah, perfect obedience, right?

And we have not rendered it. We need it. Christ did achieve it. That's right. And He says this many times in His earthly ministry. When He's baptized by John, He says, it's appropriate. I know that John's wigging out, John the Baptist, because, bro, I shouldn't baptize you.

You should baptize me. Jesus says, no, it's appropriate that we do this. Why? So that all righteousness might be fulfilled. I came not to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it, He says, right? And then the apostles pick up on this hugely, that the righteousness of Christ is counted to us.

That's right. So in Adam, let's talk about that. Adam represented us all. When Adam sinned, his sin and his guilt is counted to us. And the same is true in the gospel, that though we are guilty and vile and helpless, sinful, the righteousness of Christ is counted to us by faith.

So that just as Adam represented us all in the garden and he fell, Christ is the representative of everyone who trusts in Him. And so everything that's His is ours, and that includes and begins with His righteousness.

That's right. So God, if I may, at the end of it all, God will declare us just because Christ is just. That's right. He will declare us righteous because Christ is righteous. That's right. Yeah, and this is why Paul says the gospel is so offensive, because within the human nature, within the fallen human nature, and it's not only within us, but Satan breeds it in us, that there is a sense of self that must be involved.

You can't just say, God forgave you of your sins, and there's nothing else required for you to do. But that's exactly what faith alone means. Paul says it this way. The way that you began, which is by faith in Christ's forgiveness, is the way that you continue.

And the way you'll finish. That's right, because now you're putting faith in God's forgiveness of your sins and the required obedience for the rest of your life. And so I love how, this is a wonderful image when he says you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

The story of the good, not the good Samaritan, but the prodigal son. The son comes home, immediately receives the forgiveness of his father. I have forgiven you. And then what does he put on his son? The works of his own hand.

He put his robe and his ring and a meal. He's like, all of the benefits of my own hand, I now am going to give to you. What did the older brother get upset about? How do you give him what he did not earn?

That's the offense of the God. That's why Jesus gave that. And he was saying, you're the older brother. You think you deserve this and you don't. You didn't earn it. The father has given it to you. Yeah, so when it comes to the imputed righteousness of Christ, what we need to understand is that at the moment we are united to Christ by faith, at the moment we trust him, all of the righteousness that God will ever require is given to us.

What could ever be asked of us beyond the righteousness that Christ achieved? And it is as though, I may say all this at the end to kind of put a bow on this conversation like at the end of our episode today, but it is as though we were as perfectly obedient as Christ was.

We don't think in these terms because we get very concerned as Christians because we look at our lives and we see that we don't meet the test. We read the scriptures and we were like, man, I ain't done this for five minutes of my life, right?

And how in the world am I going to stand before the Lord with any kind of confidence and not absolutely terrified? We are haunted by these thoughts. Whenever we look at ourselves, we have no reason to think that we could ever be saved.

And we need to be reminded constantly that all of the righteousness that we'll ever need has been given to us and that God will be satisfied to pronounce us just because we are seen in his son. And so what this means for us is that when we pursue obedience, we are not chasing after something that we don't already have, right?

We are actually pursuing obedience from a place of being given everything that we ever need. And that's a paradigm shift. If you're new to Theocast, we have a free ebook available for you called Faith Versus Faithfulness, A Primer on Rest.

And if you've struggled with legalism, a lack of assurance, or simply want to know what it means to live by faith alone, we wrote this little book to provide a simple answer from a reformed confessional perspective.

You can get your free copy at theocast .org slash primer. How many times in the New Testament do they explain this idea, like all of the righteousness of Christ that's required is given to you therefore?

Exactly. And the therefore is the response out of what you've received, not to receive. Right, because an objection that's immediately gonna be raised is like, well, guys, we do need to live transformed lives, amen.

It is good to do good works. We should pursue obedience. We agree with all of that. The question is, how do you do it? And we don't, it's not this whole thing. You're forgiven of your sins. You've been given the righteousness of Christ.

Now don't mess it up. That's not how it's done. It's like the gospel is absent of adoption. If you think about it, it's like, look, I know you messed up as a child and I forgive you, but it's like, no, the offense is he says, now you're my child, which means you receive the benefits of my home because of birth, of a new birth, a rebirth.

And that's really hard for us because we're like, no, no, you have to earn that. And it's like, has any of your children had to earn your love? No, they were born into it. We are born into, by God's rebirth, we are born into the favor and righteousness.

It's a part of the gift. No, amen. And my kids are still relatively young, but I tell them all the time, I mean, several things. I'll tell them I love them, that I'm very happy to be their dad. And then I tell them often that there is nothing that they will ever do that would ever mean that they no longer have my last name.

And Jesus says this, you're an imperfect father. How much do you think your father could do this? I am a sinful man who is far, I mean, here's a problem we have. We often tend to think that God is far less merciful than we are.

Say it again. We often tend to think that God is far less merciful than we are. Because we twist his holiness and his righteousness to mean that he lacks mercy and grace and compassion. And that somehow, though we would never disown our own children, he's gonna disown us.

Not true, right? It's so crazy. And yeah, I agree. What a lie of Satan, how well he has done. Of course. So I want to reiterate this though, because why do we obey? How do we pursue obedience? Because we should.

We've said this many times, but it bears repeating. If this is the first time you've ever listened to Theocast, we pursue obedience in light of what Christ has already done for us. And the pursuit of righteousness in my living is a because of my union with Christ.

It's a because of what Christ has done. It's because I've been given a new name. It's because I've been given a new status. And so I now live this way. It is never so that. I never pursue obedience so that I might be a son of God.

I never pursue obedience so that I might be forgiven. I don't pursue obedience so that I might be counted righteous. I do it from that. That's right. Streams only flow one direction. They only flow downhill.

Pursuit of obedience only flows from salvation receipt. That's right. I mean, even when Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God, right? And he tells you, do not worry about what you wear, what you eat, what you drink.

This entire relationship with your father, he's like, all of that's been taken care of, which means you now have the freedom to not go and perform to gain. You have the freedom to go and give away that which you have received.

He turns everything upside down. You know, when I was in Romania, they have a lot of orphans there. And a lot of them survive by having, they get into crime syndicates and they go out and they steal and they bring it back.

And so they earn basically the favor of the boss and they earn the favor of like, this is how I'm gonna earn my food. And for that child to then be adopted and to receive, it would be hard for them. Like, wait a minute, I don't have to earn my stay at this house.

It's like, no, it's been gifted to you. Not only that, here is money, here is clothes, you will never want again. And that's a, so dear child, if you're hearing this, friend, brother, sister, we feel that weird pull within us.

It's like, no, no, I really think God requires me to do my part to remain in his family. And I don't know how else to say it, but that is a lie of Satan. So many passages in scripture would tell you the exact opposite of the truth, that you cannot, one, earn your right standing before God, number two, you cannot, I'm sorry, your forgiveness, and you can't earn the right standing.

We literally, I'll say this last thing, I'll send it over to you. When it stands, when Paul says in Ephesians, stand in the strength of the Lord, that's what he means. The work and the power of Christ is not, we stand there.

We don't stand in our own capacities to obey our own righteousness. We don't stand in our strength, we stand in the strength of the Lord. Amen. First, I have two comments. One, we all, whether we would admit it or not, once we've trusted Christ and say, okay, I'm forgiven, and maybe I even understand that I've been given his righteousness, but we think that we need to change and continue changing in order to stay forgiven and in order to stay covered in the righteousness of Christ.

And that we might not change enough, we might not do well enough, and then what will end up happening at the end of it all is we will forfeit that forgiveness and we will forfeit that righteousness that apparently was given to us through our union with Christ.

Faithfulness, yeah. That is the work of the enemy. If we despair, let me just say it this way, if we maybe, despair or lament, lament's a better word, or if we're grieved. Grieved, yeah. By a lack of obedience, a lack of fruit, a lack of faithfulness, what do we do?

I think that what we tend to do and what the enemy would have us do is to look at ourselves somehow. My question is, where do forgiveness and righteousness, where does faithfulness, where does repentance, where does a desire to obey, where does that come from?

Doesn't come from you. That's right. It comes from the Lord alone. So if you are grieved at a lack of repentance or grieved at a lack of obedience, you know you should do better. What's the remedy? Dear saint, it is not to take your eyes off Christ and look at you.

That's right. It is not to take your gaze off of Christ and fix it on yourself. I promise you that much, that to look to him always is the answer when we lack things because he is the only source of our sanctification and our transformation of life.

That's one thought. Two. Can I add a verse there? First Peter 1 .9. He gives them the hope of the gospel in verses three through five, gives them how they then obey out of that, and then if they're not obeying out of that, he goes, you have forgotten you've been cleansed.

He doesn't go back to their performance. He's like, look, if you're not doing the fruits of the Spirit, you forgot you're standing before your Father. And that's important to remember. It's like there is a rebuke, but the rebuke is where did your faith go?

You lost your faith in the thing that actually sustained you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Second thought. For all of us, and I think there are many of us, that we've trusted Christ, we've meant to trust him anyway, we mean to be Christians, we mean to live lives that would be honoring to God, and we're concerned that at the end of it all, when we stand before the Lord, our record is not gonna be good enough, and that when our record is somehow exposed, that we're gonna be undone.

Well, what if I were to tell you, or to ask you, let me ask it this way. Was Jesus, in the way that he lived his life, was he obedient enough? Yes, thankfully. And what if I were to tell you that when you stand before Christ, who is the judge, by the way, when you stand before him, that the very record of Jesus is the one that will be judged when you stand there?

That's right, point one, let's compare your lives. If I were to tell you that, that you would have the exact record of Christ, that that's gonna be yours. Like, when I show up, and it says Justin Perdue, and here's my report card, and my report card, and my works, and all those things, they're gonna be the record of Christ, and I'm gonna hold that out.

Is this good enough? We would say, yeah. And I would say to everyone, including ourselves, well, that's exactly what you've been given. That's right. So what are we worried about? That's right. Right, and I'm saying this to myself because I worry way too much.

That's right. About all these things. I mean, if you turn this into an economic status of like required money, put whatever number you want on there, but 100 trillion thousand, I don't know, whatever.

Make it, that's not a real number, but make a number that no one could ever achieve. And you could say, listen, God requires this, so you can either show up with Christ's account, which has that, or your account, which is actually minus the exact same amount.

Matthew 7, you know, 21 to 23, we've talked about these verses in the past, but I think these verses have haunted many a believer. That's right. Through history. That's right. When many who say to me, Lord, Lord, look at all these things that we, you know, did we not cast out demons in your name?

Did we not heal people in your name? Did we not do all these things in your name? And I'm gonna look at them and say, depart from me, I never knew you. And we have been told, many of us, you don't wanna be that person, do you?

No. And we're like, no. I mean, that's my greatest fear, is that I'm gonna be one of those people. An observation to offer, what is the confidence and what is the boast, what is the testimony of these individuals?

Did we not do this? Did we not do that? I think that those individuals are a great illustration of people who are trusting in a transformed life. That's right. They're people who are trusting in works done, it doesn't matter if they're done in Jesus' name.

That's right. If we are not trusting Christ alone, we have no hope, we have no reason to be confident. And if we are trusting Christ alone, we have no reason to fear. It's like Martin Luther said, when I look to myself, I have no reason to think that I could ever be saved.

When I look to Christ, I don't know how I could ever be lost. That's right. That's the good news. That's right. That Christ is sufficient in those ways. Yeah, I mean, quoting Ephesians there, Ephesians 3, 8, 9, or 2, 8, 9?

My brain's 2, 8, 9. It's late. It's a late pod tonight. When we think about it, often we think, oh yeah, forgiveness of sins so that no one may boast. But that's not what he means. He means the entirety of the hope of your future.

Your entire salvation. That's right. So when you stand before the Father on the last day and he's saying, well, why are you here? If you offer one sliver of your own righteousness, you literally have a reason to boast.

But if you hand over, as your illustration, the book of Christ's works and go, well Here they are. This is why I belong here. He's like, you have no reasons to boast. Because you're like, yeah, I boast in Jesus.

This is what Paul says. Let anyone boast, let them boast in the Lord. We will be saved, finally, and we will be declared just on the last day because of perfect righteousness earned. That's right. And Christ will have carried us the entire way.

That's right. He will have achieved it all. That's right. And dear, and this pod is not about obedience, and I will add this in here as we transition to this next section. Sometimes we're accused of antinomianism, and when it comes to the gospel, there is no law.

We are antinomian in that way. There is no law in the gospel. But we aren't saying, well, then live however you want, because that would then to tread underfoot, to stomp on, to ignore the beauty of what Christ is for us.

So go ahead. Well, he has become for us righteousness, like wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That's right. He's all of that. Right, and so because we've been delivered from sin, we don't want to return to sin.

Right. And I think every New Testament writer alludes to this concept to don't return back to the filth you were saved from. Sure, and what good was it doing for you anyway? That's right. Why would you go back to the thing that was your death sentence?

Why would you do that? That's right. And on the final thought on Matthew 7, because that's the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus concludes that sermon by encouraging people to build their house on the rock.