Matt Slick Live - Basic Christian Doctrine

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Matt Slick discusses Basic Christian Doctrine, originally airing on November 25, 2013. For more information on Christian Doctrine visit: http://carm.org/christian-doctrine For more information on Matt Slick Live visit: http://carm.org/radio

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Hey everybody, how are you doing? Hey, it's a nice Monday and it is the 25th of November.
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Guess what I'm going to be doing? Teaching on basic Christian theology. Got a lot of stuff here.
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Stay tuned. This is Matt Slick Live with your host,
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Matt Slick. My hero. Founder of karm .org, the Christian apologetics research minister.
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Call now with your questions. Bible questions, God questions, hard questions. Toll free across the nation, 877 -207 -2276.
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That's 877 -207 -2276. No fluff, straight answers. And now your full contact theologian.
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Here's Matt Slick. All right everybody, how you doing out there? Hey, it's a nice November 25th, 2013 day.
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And hey, this year's flying by, isn't it? Well, guess what? What I plan to be doing today is teaching on Christian theology.
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And I want to just kind of make a couple announcements, pray, and get right into it to just teach. Won't be taking calls while I'm doing this.
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Next week, I plan to do something on Jehovah's Witnesses. I've never done anything really on Jehovah's Witnesses, but I will, you know,
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Lord willing, do that. All right, got my notes here. Let's see, I got, I got like 12 pages of notes.
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What I'm going to do is kind of read through them a little bit and expound. And the reason is because what
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I want to do is be able to produce a, you know, a YouTube video that'll have the scriptures up there with them so people can just watch, listen, and it'll be there.
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And if you just want to listen via MP3, you know, without the visual, then, you know, the scriptures will be referenced as well.
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So that's what I'm doing. I want you to understand that it's coming from the word of God, not from just a, you know, some slickism.
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We're not interested in slickisms, unless it's things like slick and quick, or I'm great, you know, things like that.
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Those are slickisms. And my wife's rolling her eyeballs right now, and her, you know, she's, because I know she'll listen to me.
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Hey, love, how you doing? And so I was talking about her today, and I was talking to somebody.
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Had to do a, you know, some official something on the phone, and they needed to put her on something, so they had to talk to me.
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And then the guy said, dude, do you get permission? I go, yeah, if I don't, I get an arm hit. And he was laughing.
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He goes, yeah, I know how that is. So I think women really rule the world by arm hits.
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That's what I'm thinking. Because, and the look. Arm hits and the look.
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You know, whack, and then stare. It was like, okay, what do you want? It's okay, that's all right, you know. All right, that's kind of inane and persiflage, isn't it?
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Hey, look up that, that's a new word, persiflage. Look up inane and then the word persiflage.
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See, I'm giving new vocabulary, it's good. All right, now, so no calls.
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Hey, folks, if you wanna support this ministry, I would ask that what you do, go to karm .org,
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C -A -R -M dot O -R -G, just go to the karm .org website if you would, and please consider supporting us with $5 a month.
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You can go to the donate thing and just sign up if you would, donate $5.
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You'll notice there's no commercials in this show. We just kind of go. And for a lot of people, that's inundation of information.
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Hey, there's a slickism. The inundation of information. I like that.
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Okay, why don't we get into this? That way Leanne, the producer, doesn't have to do anything. She can go back to sleep.
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Oh, what was that look? Yeah, I said she's asleep. Yeah, she's a lazy girl, she doesn't do anything here.
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She's just collecting nothing. Okay, it's another look. Yeah, I'm getting myself in trouble. No, she's busy.
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She works hard, she's a lot, she does a lot. Sometimes. Another look, I'm in trouble. Okay, I think I'll kind of quit while I'm not too far ahead.
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All right, kind of hard to get in the mood. I don't know what it's, coffee, hold on.
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Oh yeah, that's good. Actually it's not, I made it myself. Pretty bad. Wash it down with some water.
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Get myself going here. I'll be going through the pages, going through the information and let's get it going.
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All right. Okay. All right, this is a teaching on basic Christian theology and for those of you who will be listening to this via MP3 or whatever recording, feel free to copy it and distribute it freely.
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I would ask you don't alter it and that you consider it to be something, excuse me, valuable from the
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Lord. Please feel free to distribute it, give it away, no charge. And here we go.
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All right, what I wanna do here is teach on the basics of the Christian faith. Now each topic
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I go into a lot more detail, but I'm not going to. What I wanna do is get an overview. There's gonna be a lot of scripture here.
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I'll be reading a lot of scripture, giving a lot of references. So if that sounds good to you, listen away.
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All right, now the Bible teaches what's called monotheism. This is one of the basic doctrines of the
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Christian faith. There is only one God in all existence and in all places and in all times.
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Exodus 20, verses three through six says, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
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You shall not worship them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
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Now we can see that there is a curse here associated. If you don't serve the true and living
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God, there's gonna be a curse to the descendants. That's very interesting because God is laying a foundational principle here.
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We have monotheism. You have no other gods before me. Now some people will say, well, that's monolatry in that there's many gods, but you only serve and worship one and usually in monolatry, it's one at a time.
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Henotheism is a teaching that there's many gods, but you only serve and worship one. Well, let's knock that out of the ballpark.
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You see, look, Isaiah 43, 10 says this. You are my witnesses, declares the
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Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen in order that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.
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Before me, there was no God formed and there will be none after me. Now there are those who would say, well, wait a minute.
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That just means of this planet. Well, that's not what it says. It says that there's no
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God formed before him. There will be none formed after him. Check this out in Isaiah 44, verse six.
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Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last.
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And there is no God besides me. Isaiah 44, eight says, do not tremble and do not be afraid.
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Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any
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God besides me? Or is there any other rock I know of none? Now I've had people tell me, particularly the
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Mormons, say, well, that just means of this world. And I say, well, look, let me ask you a question. If God wanted to say that there's only one
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God in all existence, how should he word that according to you? And what's really interesting is, they don't give me any answers.
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They don't say things like, well, he should say there's only one God in all existence in all place and all time. Well, then
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I would say, well, what about our dimensions? This is exactly what the scripture says, Isaiah 43, 10, 44, six, 44, eight.
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There aren't any other gods. This is monotheism. If you believe in more than one
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God, then you're not a Christian. But if you believe more than one God exists, you're not a Christian. Sorry, you're not.
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All right, let's take a look at who God is. We know there's only one God, that's monotheism. Now who is God? Well, Isaiah 6, 3 says that God is holy.
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We see in 1 John 4, verses eight through 10 that God is loving. We see in Psalm 7, verse 11 that God is righteous.
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We see in 1 John 3, 20 that God knows all things. We see in Jeremiah 32, verses 17 and 27, we see that God is all powerful.
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In Psalm 90, verse two and in 1 Timothy 1, 17, we see that God is eternal.
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In Psalm 139, verses seven through 12, we see that God is everywhere.
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In 1 Kings 8, 27, we see that God is without limit. And another verse for that is
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Jeremiah 23, 23 and verses 24. We also see, now this is important, that God is non -contingent.
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That's Isaiah 44, 24. Now why do I mention this non -contingency? It's a real simple and important teaching.
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Contingency means that something is dependent upon something else. God is not dependent upon anything else for his own existence.
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He's non -contingent. He's always been, Psalm 90, verse two says. He's always been.
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From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. If that's the case, then he does not depend on anything else because he's always existed.
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This non -contingency is very, very important. See, he created the universe.
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He brought it into existence. And therefore, the universe is contingent upon him.
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His contingency rests upon God's creative work, not the other way around. Nothing, or excuse me,
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God is not contingent in any relationship to anything. He is completely independent.
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Now this is very, very, very important. You've gotta understand this because this has ramifications into other areas of theology.
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God is eternally self -sustaining, self -sufficient, all right? It also would mean that God's choices for what he does in history are not contingent upon man's choices.
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Otherwise, God's decisions are based upon what man would do. Now if that's the case, before he created the universe, he would have to, so to speak, look into the future to see who would do what and then make his decisions based on what he would see them do.
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But that would mean he was contingent. His decisions were contingent upon them.
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And so we have a problem here. God is non -contingent. I could go into this in a lot more detail, but sufficient for now is the fact that he's non -contingent.
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Now, what I wanna do is talk about what's called the communicable attributes and the incommunicable attributes of God.
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The communicable attributes of God mean those attributes that belong to God that can be communicated to us, that we can participate in.
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Now, there's incommunicable attributes and communicable attributes. So let's look at the communicable ones.
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Excuse me, the incommunicable, my bad. The incommunicable attributes of God, his immutability.
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What that means is God does not change. He has always been God, Psalm 90, verse two says.
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And also you can go to Malachi 3 .6 and Hebrews 13 .8.
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And it says in these verses that God has always existed. He's unchanging. That's called immutability.
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Now, he's also infinite. And what that means is that he is without measure. He's without limit.
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He's without duration in that he has to abide by time.
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He's infinite. There are no constraints upon him from the outside. He is completely self -sufficient and non -contingent, as I mentioned earlier, and he's infinite.
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And we can go to Genesis 21 .33 for that. And also we could look at Deuteronomy 33, verse 27.
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And Isaiah 40, verse 28, all right. So God also has omnipotence.
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That means he is capable of performing anything he desires. So we can see that in Psalm 33, verse nine.
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And Isaiah 40, verse 28. And Isaiah 46 .10. He is able to do anything he wants.
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Now, some people say, well, what, can God make a rock so big he can't pick it up? Well, no, he can't.
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He cannot do the logically impossible because logic and the necessary preconditions for intelligibility rest in the very mind, the essence and transcendency of God.
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We won't get into that. I could do a whole show on that. But God can only do that which is consistent with his nature.
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So for example, he cannot sin. He cannot lie, Titus 1, verse two says. So whatever
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God desires to do will always be consistent with his nature and he can always do whatever he wants to do.
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He can. Unlike us, we cannot perform everything we want to do. If I want to fly by flapping my arms,
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I can want it all I can, but it's not gonna happen. I don't have omnipotence.
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Another quality that God has is omnipresence, omnipresence.
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God is in all places and in all times and all dimensions simultaneously. Nothing in the universe exists outside of the presence of God.
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You can go to Psalm 139, verses seven through 12 and Jeremiah 23, verse 24.
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This is important. Omnipresence, omnipotence, and now the third one, omniscience.
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That means God has perfect, complete knowledge. He never learns, nor does he ever forget.
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He knows all things that exist and all things that could have existed. God cannot grow in knowledge, understanding, or wisdom.
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Now you can find those verses that substantiate that in Romans 16, 27, Hebrews 4, 13, and of course, first John 3, 20.
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So we see that the incommunicable attributes of God, these attributes that belong to God alone, immutability, infinitude, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, these are qualities that belong to God.
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They are part of his nature. They cannot be communicated to us. We don't possess the ability to be unchangeable.
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We are not infinite. We do not have all power. We do not have all presence. We are not all -knowing.
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So God alone possesses those attributes. However, there are what's called communicable attributes of God.
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The communicable attributes of God. For example, and there's many, but I'm only gonna go through four. Goodness, God is good.
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Well, we can also be good, though not in a perfect way, the way
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God is. So his goodness can be communicated to us also.
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God has knowledge. Now where he knows all things, we can know things in a partial way.
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Now it's not omniscience that's communicated to us. It's just the attribute of knowledge. In other words, he knows things, we can know things, though not perfectly.
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God is love, 1 John 4, 8 says. And we can love, but not perfectly.
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We do not express love perfectly like God does. I know that for sure. I've tried for a few seconds.
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It's pretty tough. But God is pure and he's perfect. Now, God is also truthful.
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Truth is a quality where the statements properly reflect actuality as well as morality.
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God is always truthful. But we are not. We can be truthful, but we're not always truthful.
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Where God would manifest his, what are called communicable attributes, perfectly all the time, we never manifest them perfectly all the time.
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We manifest them imperfectly, but we can share in the attributes of God.
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Why? Because, as it says in Genesis 1, 26, we are made in the image of God.
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The image of God. So we exist as a reflection of God's character, as God's essence, not in the sense of us being divine.
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We are not divine, we're not gonna be gods. That's not gonna happen. But where we are made in his image, we can be rational.
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We can think, we can love, we can hate, we can experience, just as God does.
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And so that's what it means to be made in the image of God by expressing and experiencing the communicable attributes of God.
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All right. So we also find out that God is a trinity.
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Now, the word trinity itself does not appear in the Bible, but the word trinity is a theological term used to denote the
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Christian doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct persons,
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of the persons is distinct from the other, yet they are all identical in essence.
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In other words, each is fully divine in nature, but each is not the totality of the other persons of the trinity.
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Each has a will, each loves, each says, I and you, when they're speaking, and me and my and you and yours.
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They exhibit what we call the characteristics of personhood. The Father is not the same person as the
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Son, who is not the same person as the Holy Spirit, who is not the same person as the Father. Each is divine, yet there are not three gods, but one
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God. There are three individual subsistences. Let me try that word again, subsistences, or three persons as we like to call them.
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Let's take a look at three verses that hint at the trinity. Matthew 28, 19, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians 13, 14, the grace of the
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Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. First Peter 1, 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the
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Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus and be sprinkled with his blood.
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May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. All right, so here's a question
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I often ask people who are critical of the doctrine of the trinity. They'll say the trinity is not biblical because the word's not found.
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Well, a word doesn't have to exist in the Bible for the concept to be taught. The fool has said in his heart there is no
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God. Proverbs says, well, that's the concept of atheism. Well, the word atheism is not in the
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Bible, but the concept is taught. Neither is the word monotheism, the idea that there's only one
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God in all existence, in all places, at all time. But just because the word isn't there doesn't mean the concept isn't there.
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So how is the doctrine of the trinity arrived at? Well, it's arrived at systematically. What that means is we look at the whole of scripture, not just one verse, not just two verses, but the whole of scripture, and we see various things.
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We see, for example, that the Father is called God. That's in Philippians 1, verse 2.
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We see that the Son is called God, John 1, 1, in verse 14, in Colossians 2, 9, and the
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Holy Spirit is also called God in Acts chapter 5, verses 3 and 4. We see that the
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Father is called the Creator, Isaiah 64, 8. We see that the Son is also called the
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Creator, John 1, 3, and also Colossians 1, verses 15 and 17, and the
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Holy Spirit is called the Creator, Job 33, 4, and verse 26, chapter 26, verse 13.
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We see that the Father is everywhere, 1 Kings 8, 27, that the Son is also everywhere,
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Matthew 28, 20, and the Holy Spirit is also everywhere, Psalm 139, verses 7 through 10.
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The Father is all -knowing, 1 John 3, 20. The Son is all -knowing, John 16, 30, and 21, verse 17.
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We see that the Holy Spirit is all -knowing, 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 and 11. The Father's called the life -giver,
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Genesis 2, 7, and John 5, 21. The Son is also called the life -giver,
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John 1, 3, and John 5, 21. The Holy Spirit's called the life -giver in 2
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Corinthians 3, verses six and eight. The Father's called eternal, Psalm 90, verse two.
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The Son is eternal, Micah 5, verses one and two. The Holy Spirit is eternal, Romans 8, 11,
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Hebrews 9, 14. The Father has a will, Luke 22, 42, and the
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Son has a will, Luke 22, 42, as does the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, 11.
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The Father speaks, Matthew 3, 17, and Luke 9, 25. The Son speaks,
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Luke 5, 20 and 7, 48. The Holy Spirit speaks, that's
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Acts 29, 11, 12, and 13, verse two. And finally, the
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Father loves, John 3, 16, the Son loves, Ephesians 5, 25, and the
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Holy Spirit loves, Romans 15, 30. So what do we do, and there's many more like this.
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We see that the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are each called God. We see that they each share attributes of being creator, of being everywhere, of all -knowing, of being eternal, having a will, speaking, loving, et cetera.
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These are truths that we find in Scripture. And since we also know that the Bible said there's only one
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God, and the Father speaks to the Son, the Son speaks to the Father, the Holy Spirit speaks, one sends the other, things like this, then we call them three distinct persons.
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We use the term person because, well, it's just what we do, person. Signifying attributes of personhood, self -awareness and the awareness of others, having a will, being able to love, and things like that.
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The Father does this, the Son does this, the Holy Spirit does that, so therefore, we say that God is a trinity of persons, the
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Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we have, in the doctrine of the Trinity, we have what's called the ontological trinity.
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And all that is, big fancy term for the view that the three persons within the
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Godhead are all equal in nature, essence, and attributes. Each member of the
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Trinity is equal in omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, holiness, et cetera. It means that they share the divine nature, the
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Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the ontological trinity, from the word ontos in Greek, nature or essence.
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We also see what's called the economic trinity. Now, the economic trinity, that's a term that comes from the
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Greek word oikonomikos, which means relating to an arrangement of activities.
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Well, what we see here is that each of the person in the Godhead has, apparently, different roles.
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The Father sent the Son, that's John 6 .44. The Son came down from heaven not to do
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His own will, but the will of the Father who sent Him, John 6 .38.
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The Father gave the Son, John 3 .16, who is the only begotten, John 3 .16,
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to perform the redemptive work, 2 Corinthians 5 .21 and 1 Peter 2 .24. The Father and the
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Son send the Holy Spirit. The Father, who chose us before the foundation of the world,
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Ephesians 1 .4, predestined us, that's Ephesians 1 .5 and Romans 8 .29, and gave the elect to the
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Son, John 6 .39. So we see this is called the economic trinity.
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In other words, the Father sent the Son, but the Son did not send the Father. The Father and the Son send the
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Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit did not send the Father and the Son. Only the Son became incarnate, not the
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Father and not the Holy Spirit. We call this the economic trinity, in that they relate one to another differently, and there's a relationship, and we see this manifested in the doctrine of the trinity.
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All right, so let's move ahead now to the deity of Christ, the person of Jesus.
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Jesus is God in flesh. He has two natures. He's both divine and human.
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That means he is God and man. So let's look at the scriptures that support this.
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John 1 .1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
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God. John 1 .14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
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Father, full of grace and truth. So clearly, John 1 .1 and verse 14 says that Jesus Christ is
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God in flesh. That's what it says. John 8 .58 is where Jesus says, truly, truly,
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I say to you, before Abraham was born, or before Abraham was, I am.
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Now, that's really interesting because they wanted to kill him. They picked up stone to throw at him when he said this, and he hid himself.
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Now, what was he doing? Well, a lot of people, and I'm one of them, agree that what he was doing was referencing
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Exodus 3 .14, and Moses is talking to God. And Moses asks
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God, well, what's your name? And God said to Moses, I am who I am.
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And he said, thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you.
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Now, this is significant because when we go to John 8 .24, this is what
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Jesus says. I said, therefore, to you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.
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Now, that's significant. You have to believe that Jesus Christ is God in flesh.
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If you deny that, you can't be a Christian. This is important theology. This is important doctrine.
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Now, we can continue in Hebrews 1 .8. It says, but of the son, he says, that's the father speaking, but of the son, he says, your throne,
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O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is a scepter of his kingdom.
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So what that's saying, because God the Father's speaking, and he's speaking of the son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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That's a quote from Psalm 45, verse six, which says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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Is Jesus God in flesh? Absolutely. Now, when we look at 1 John, or chapter four, verses two and three, it says this.
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This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge
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Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now even is already in the world.
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So if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is God in flesh, that he's come in the flesh, then you're in the spirit of the
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Antichrist. Serious stuff, isn't it? Now, we have this doctrine concerning Jesus.
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It's called the hypostatic union. Big, fancy, theological term, the hypostatic union.
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And what it means is that Jesus has two natures. He's both divine and human, or God and man.
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So we see, for example, that he is worshiped. That's Matthew 2, 2 -11, in 1433, 28 -9.
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We see that Jesus is worshiped, and also you can go to Hebrews 1 -6. But he also worshiped
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God the Father. That's basically, take a look at John 17. He's called
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God in John 20 -28. That's where Thomas, doubting Thomas, says, my Lord and my
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God, he called Jesus God. And in Hebrews 1 -8, we just read, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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So he's called God, but he's also called man in Mark 15 -39 and John 19 -5.
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He was called the Son of God in Mark 1 -1, but he's also called the Son of Man in John 9, 35 -37.
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He's prayed to in Acts 7 -59, yet he prayed to the Father again in John 17.
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He is sinless, that's 1 Peter 2 -22 in Hebrews 4 -15, but yet he was also tempted,
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Matthew 4, verse one. He knows all things, John 21 -17, yet he grew in wisdom,
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Luke 2 -52. He gives eternal life, John 10 -28, yet he also died,
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Romans 5 -8. All the fullness of deity dwells in him, Colossians 2 -9, yet he has a body of flesh and bones,
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Luke 24 -39. So we call this the hypostatic union.
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In the one person of Jesus are two distinct natures. In the one person of Jesus are two distinct natures, the divine and the human.
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Now there's a further doctrine that is important here called the communicatio idiomatum. Now that's a fancy Latin theological term that means the communication of the properties.
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It's a real simple doctrine. All it means is that the attributes of both the divine and the human nature are ascribed to the single person of Jesus.
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This means that the man Jesus could lay claim to the glory he had with the
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Father before the world was made, as he says in John 17 -5. He could claim that he descended from heaven, as John 3 -13 says.
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He could also claim to be on the present, as he did in Matthew 28 -20.
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All these are divine qualities that are claimed by Jesus.
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But we also know that Jesus was a man who thirsted and who walked.
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Now no one doubts those. He was there, he was definitely human. So the attributes of humanity and divinity were both claimed by Jesus.
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And this is important. You see, as a man, Jesus was able to offer a sacrifice on behalf of men.
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As being God, divine, he was able to offer a sacrifice that was able to satisfy
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God the Father. So he had to be both God and man in order to offer a sacrifice on behalf of men to God.
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So you see, look at it this way. Jesus was both God and man on the cross.
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But only the human nature died because divinity cannot die. How then was the sacrifice of divine value?
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Well, the Communicatio Idiomatum answers it. The doctrine of the communication of the properties.
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In other words, the properties of divinity and humanity were both claimed by the person of Jesus.
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Therefore, the person, when he died on the cross, was of divine value. This is really important doctrine.
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Now, the Bible is about Jesus, John 5 -39. The prophets prophesied about Jesus, Acts 10 -43.
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The Father bore witness of Jesus, John 5 -37 and John 8 -18.
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The Holy Spirit bore witness of Jesus, John 15 -26. The works
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Jesus did bore witness of himself, John 5 -36, John 10 -25.
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The multitudes bore witness of Jesus, John 12 -17. And Jesus bore witness of himself,
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John 14 -6 and John 18 -6. Let me tell you, if any group, organization, church, whatever it might be, does not bear witness of Jesus, does not point to Christ, they're not of God.
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The Father bears witness of him. The Holy Spirit bears witness of him. The prophets, the scriptures, Jesus, they bear witness of Jesus.
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If they say, no, you need to find our true church or our true organization in order to find salvation, they're not bearing witness of Christ.
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They're bearing witness of something else and they are false. All right, so what did
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Jesus do? Well, he was born, we know that, Matthew 1 -25. He was born and born of a virgin,
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Matthew 1 -25. And he grew, was under the law,
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Galatians 4 -4, clearly tells us he's made under the law and Hebrews 2 -9 says he was made for a little while lower than the angels.
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Well, he fulfilled the law perfectly and he never sinned. 1 Peter 2 -22 says that he committed no sin nor was any deceit found in his mouth.
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Now, this is important because in the Old Testament sacrificial system, Deuteronomy 17, verse one says, "'You shall not sacrifice to the
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Lord your God "'an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, "'for that is a detestable thing to the
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Lord your God.'" So in other words, the representation of the sacrifice in animals had to be perfect, had to be without blemish, without defect.
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If Jesus had had a sin nature or if he had been a sinner, then he would have been defective and the sacrifice would not be good.
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Jesus was a perfect and holy sacrifice and because he was, 1
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Peter 2 -24 says, and he himself bore our sin in his body on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his stripes or by his wounds, you were healed.
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In John 19 -30, it says this, therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
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Now, folks, this is critical. This is critical. When he said it is finished, the
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Greek word there is tetelestai. That word has been found at the bottom of some ancient tax receipts, ancient papyri tax receipts, handwritten in, signifying that a legal debt had been paid and so therefore, the legal debt had been canceled.
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We'll get to that in a minute. The point here is that it was finished on the cross. There are some teachers, so -called
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Bible teachers on TV who write books as well, saying that Jesus finished the atonement in hell and that he lost his divine nature, some teach that, and that he went to hell, suffered at the hands of Satan and finished the atoning work there, but that is not the case because Jesus said it was finished on the cross in John 19 -30.
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But some will say when he says in Matthew 27 -46, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They say that's when he stopped being
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God. It doesn't say he stopped being God. It doesn't say there that he stopped being the son of man.
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To say that, or excuse me, the son of God, to say that he stopped being the son of God, to say that he went to hell and finished the atonement in hell is flat out heresy.
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It's a downable doctrine because it denies the sufficiency of the cross. All such teachers who teach this should be defrocked and should be brought upon charges in their respective churches.
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The elders should bring them upon charges and rebuke them. This is serious teaching, but it's going on in the so -called
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Christian church today. When you know what the doctrine of truth is, it's easy to spot error.
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But if you don't know how to spot error, it's because you don't know what the truth is. Now, the cross is the place of our salvation because the cross is a place where Jesus atoned for our sins and made all who put their trust and their faith in what he had done on the cross acceptable to God the
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Father. If you put your faith and your trust in Christ, then you as a person are acceptable to God the
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Father. Check this out. Ephesians 2 .16 says that he might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enmity.
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He put to death the enmity. There was a problem between the Jews and the Gentiles, between those who follow the law and not
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God removed that on the cross. Check this out in Colossians 2 .14. This is a critical verse as well.
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Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, he's taken it out of the way.
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Having nailed it to the cross, that's Colossians 2 .14, the certificate of debt, the kairagraphon, the handwritten
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IOU of legal indebtedness was canceled on the cross. Not in hell, but on the cross.
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We see in Romans 5 .10, it says, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.
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Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. To be reconciled, to be made to put in relationship.
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Colossians 1 .22, you have been reconciled you, oh, excuse me, he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
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It was on the cross that he did this. In his fleshly body on the cross where he canceled the sin debt, where he canceled out the certificate of debt, where he made reconciliation, where he bore our sins in his body on the cross, 1
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Peter 2 .24, where he finished the atoning work, John 19 .30. That's what happened on the cross.
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Now, we know that he died on that cross, but he didn't stay dead, for he was resurrected.
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Now, Jesus says in John 2 .19 -21, he prophesied that his same body he died in would be resurrected.
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This is what it says in John 2 .19 -21. Jesus answered and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days
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I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said, it took 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days?
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But he was speaking of the temple of his body. So Jesus had prophesied that he would raise his body, his physical body would be raised.
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After the resurrection, Jesus appears to the disciples and he says, see my hands and my feet, that it is
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I myself, touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
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Now, that's Luke 24 .39, where he says that a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see that I have.
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Now, some will say flesh and blood, it cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but his blood was drained on the cross.
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He said flesh and bones here in Luke 24 .39. We can also go to John 20 .25
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-28. This is what it says here. The other disciples therefore were saying to him, this is
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Thomas, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side,
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I will not believe. And after eight days, again his disciples were inside and Thomas with them.
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Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you.
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Then he said to Thomas, reach here your finger and see my hands and reach here your hand and put it into my side and be not unbelieving, but believing.
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Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. In 1
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Corinthians 15 verses 41 -44 it says this. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.
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For star differs from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.
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It is sown a perishable body. It is raised an imperishable body.
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It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
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It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
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So Jesus had prophesied his own physical resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 verses 41 -44,
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Paul tells us that that which is sown is also that which is raised from the dead.
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But it's raised in a glorified body. We see that in Luke 24 -39, Jesus retained the crucifixion wounds because he said, see my hands and my feet and touch me.
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Why point to the hands and feet? Because in Luke, excuse me, John 20, 25 -28, he told
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Thomas, put your hands into my side. Put your finger into my hands. Signifying he retained the crucifixion wounds.
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It was the body that he died in that was a resurrected body, but it was a glorified body.
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It had been raised in glory. Now, if you deny this, you cannot be a
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Christian. 1 Corinthians 15 -14 says, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, your faith also is vain.
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That's 1 Corinthians 15 -14. And three verses later, in 1 Corinthians 15 -17,
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Paul again says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you're still in your sins.
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To deny the physical resurrection is to deny that Jesus' work was a satisfactory offering to God the
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Father. It would mean that Jesus was corrupt and needed to stay in the grave. But he did not stay in the grave because his sacrifice was perfect.
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That's the resurrection of Christ. All right, now we need to turn our attention to salvation.
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Because that's important. Salvation means to be saved from something.
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In biblical theology, it means to be saved from the righteous judgment of God.
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So what are we saved from? God's judgment. Who we're saved from is
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God. Because he's the righteous judge and because we break his law. In Romans 3 -23, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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Isaiah 59 -2 says, sin separates us from God. Romans 6 -23 says that the wages of sin is death.
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Therefore, we need to be delivered from the separation that we're gonna have with God and the death that sin brings.
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In other words, we need to be saved from the righteous judgment of God. This judgment that is according to the law of God.
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But we have a problem. Because all of our righteous deeds are filthy rags before God, Isaiah 64 -6 says, that we have nothing to offer
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God that is not touched by sin. Therefore, nothing we can offer
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God is pure. This means we cannot fulfill the law of God. See, God is holy.
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That's what 1 Peter 1 -16 says. And all the sacrificial offerings to God must be without blemish.
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Deuteronomy 17 -1 again says, you shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect for that is a detestable thing to the
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Lord your God. This means that we cannot offer anything to God that is acceptable.
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This is why it must be God who atones for our sins, who takes on the legal penalty of our sin, which is death, per Romans 6 -23.
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Now the law is interesting. The law is a reflection of the character of God. When God spoke, let there be light, there was light.
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And he gives us out of what is in his heart. Matthew 12 -34 says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
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Well, he spoke and he gave us the law. Now you can find the law in Exodus 20, verses one through 17, for example.
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But not just there, we have the whole law, but we'll get to that. The law reveals our sin,
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Romans 3 -20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
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In Romans 3 -28 it says, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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Now justification means to be declared legally righteous in God's sight. We need to be justified according to the law.
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Now I need to add here, when it says we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law, well check this out.
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In Deuteronomy 6 -5 it says, and you shall love the
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Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. That's Deuteronomy 6 -5, but Jesus quoted that in Matthew 22, verse 37.
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Also we have in the Old Testament law, Leviticus 19 -18, which says, you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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I am the Lord. Now that's quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22 -39. So this is important, because Paul the
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Apostle says, we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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That means apart from loving God and loving your neighbor. It is not loving God and loving your neighbor that makes us justified before God.
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It's God's work in us. It's justification by faith.
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And because we're justified by faith and we're changed, made new creatures, that is why we then keep the law.
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Not to be saved, not to become saved, not to maintain our salvation. This is why it says in Romans 5 -1, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Not faith in works, but by faith. Ephesians 2 -8 -9 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast.
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In Galatians 5, verses two and four, three and four, excuse me, it says, behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision,
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Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law.
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You have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace.
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Now, what Paul is saying here, if the Galatians were to receive circumcision, circumcision represented keeping the law.
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If they were trying to please God by what they did, by their faith and their works and keeping the law in any way, shape or form, then they have been severed from Christ.
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Notice the pun, severing, circumcision. Paul's being very explicit and very clear.
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This is why he says in Galatians 2 -21, I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law, then
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Christ died needlessly. Now, Jesus himself teaches the same thing. Matthew 7 -22 and 23, many will say to me on that day, the day of judgment,
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Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?
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And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. On the day of judgment, these people who were damned were appealing to their faith and their works.
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They're prophesying, they're preaching or teaching, they're casting out demons and their miracles, and yet they're condemned.
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Jesus says in Luke 18, 9 -14, he says, and he also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.
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Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself,
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God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax gatherer.
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I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get, but the tax gatherer standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift his eyes up to heaven but was beating his breast saying,
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God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
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What was going on? The tax gatherer was a believer in God. He did many good things and he did not do bad things and he was appealing to God and his own worthiness to be with God based on his faith and his works and he's condemned.
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What does Romans four verses one through five say? What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found?
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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
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For what does the scripture say? And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned him as righteousness.
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Now to the one who works, his way does not reckon as a favor, but what is due? But to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
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Folks, this is critical. It's not works, it's faith. We can't add anything to what
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Christ has done. It was finished on the cross. Notice what Paul says, but to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
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No works, just faith, that's faith alone. What did Jesus say about the tax gatherer?
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In Luke 18 verse 13, but the tax gatherer standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his breast saying,
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God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And in verse 14, Jesus says, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified.
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Why? He didn't appeal to anything, just the mercy of God. That's called salvation by grace through faith.
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And this leads us to what the gospel is. Look, the gospel is the good news, the euangelia, the gospel, that we do not have to keep the law in order to be saved from the righteous judgment of God.
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1 Corinthians 15, one through four says this. Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which
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I preached to you, which also you received and which also you stand by, which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which
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I preached to you unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what
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I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.
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That's the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He died for our sins is what it says in verse three of 1
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Corinthians 15. He bore our sin in his body on the cross, 1 Peter 2 .24 says.
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This is the gospel. He kept the law. He never sinned, 1 John, excuse me, 1
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Peter 2 .22. He never sinned. He did it perfectly. And so our sins were put upon him.
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That is 1 Peter 2 .24. And because of that, when we believe, we're justified by faith,
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Romans 5 .1. And we have a righteousness that is not our own.
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That's Philippians 3 .9. We have the righteousness that belongs to God that is given to us by faith.
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Having therefore been justified, been made right. Having therefore been justified by faith,
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Romans 5 .1 says. And Romans 3 .28 again. We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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This is the good news. This is the gospel. Jesus did everything. Jesus did it all.
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We don't have to do anything except receive by faith the work that God has done in the person of Christ on the cross where he finished the atoning work.
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This is the good news. But if you belong in a church or an organization that says you must maintain your salvation with God through your efforts and through your good works and you have a false gospel,
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Galatians 1 .8 and 9. But even though we or an angel from heaven should preach to a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
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As we have said before, so I say again now. If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you've received, let him be accursed.
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Verses eight and nine here in Galatians are a self -declarative statement that you must believe the gospel.
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Not a false gospel, but the gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Not the death, burial, resurrection, and you're keeping commandments, and you're going to church, and you're participating in the sacraments, and you happen to get baptized, or whatever else that someone might add in order for you to maintain your position with God.
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The gospel message, which is in its entirety, is that Jesus is God in flesh, who died for our sins, rose from the dead, and freely gives us the gift of eternal life to those who would believe, that we're justified by faith.
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Furthermore, it would not be possible to present the gospel properly without declaring that Jesus Christ is
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God in flesh. As it says in John 1 in verse 14. In John 10, 30 through 33.
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In John 20, 28. In Colossians 2, nine. In Philippians 2, five through eight.
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In Hebrews 1, verse eight. Within these verses, we have the essentials of the
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Christian faith, that Christ is God in flesh. That salvation is received by faith,
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John 1, 12. Romans 10, nine through 10. Romans 5, one.
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We know that salvation, our position with God, is by faith alone, in Christ alone.
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That's what Romans chapter four, verses one through five, is telling us. Therefore, it's by grace, by the unmerited favor of God.
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You see, the gospel message is that we don't have to keep the law.
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We don't have to be good enough, because we can't be good enough. The gospel message is that Jesus did everything that's necessary.
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Jesus, who's God in flesh. Jesus, who became one of us. Jesus, who fulfilled the law. Jesus, who never sinned.
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Jesus, who is perfect. Jesus, who offered a perfect, unblemished sacrifice to God the Father, who took the punishment due to us, and he is the one who died on the cross with the penalty of sin, and then rose from the dead three days later, and ascended into heaven.
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And because of what he has done, therefore, all of our hope, all of our love, all of our trust, all of our expectation, all of our safety, should be put in the work of Jesus Christ.
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Everything is on him. We should always look to him, and to him alone, by faith alone, what he has done alone.
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And if you do that, then you can be a Christian. You can be saved from the righteous judgment of a holy
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God. But, if you don't do that, if you believe there's many gods, or if you believe that you have to be keeping the law to be saved, then you're lost.
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Trust in Christ, and trust in him alone to be justified by faith alone in Christ alone.
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Romans chapter four, verses one through five. May the Lord bless you greatly. I hope this is a blessing to you as we have gone through the word of God on basic Christian doctrine.
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God bless. Goodbye. Want more?
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