1689 London Baptist Confession (part 16)

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Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we look to your word this morning, to see the importance of his work, of his life, of his condescension coming into this earth and voluntarily submitting to your will and doing all things that were pleasing to you, the things that we don't do, the things that we constantly failed to keep in your law, how he kept it perfectly, and then went to the cross, submitting all the way up to death on a cross.
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Father, we praise you for that. We praise you for the perfection of his work and for the eternal aspects of his work.
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Lord, bless each one here as we look to your word in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we started looking at the person of Christ last week, his characteristics we talked about.
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We even talked about how he had a soul. I think that might've, you know, the reasons he had to have a soul, how that might've caught some of you a little off guard.
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We talked about his physical appearance, his physical body, the nature of being a human, somewhat familiar territory.
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Now we're going to talk about his two natures a little bit more.
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The Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith, which is what we've been studying for the last 66 weeks.
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No, 66 pages of notes. Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, one person with two natures.
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Here's how the Confession of Faith describes that. The Son of God, the second person in the
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Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the
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Father's glory, of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he hath made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin, being conceived by the
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Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, and the power of the
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Most High overshadowing her. And so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the scriptures, so that two whole perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very
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God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.
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I think that's pretty clear. So now we're gonna discuss it. What would happen if you mixed the humanity and the deity of Christ?
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His human nature and his divine nature, what would happen if you mix the two? Okay, Christine says you'd be limiting the divine somehow.
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Yeah, other ideas, thoughts? You mix the two natures. You have a, yes,
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Anthony, you would be half and half. Okay, but why half and half?
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It could be 65, 35. Okay, he would definitely be an inferior member of the Trinity, Janet.
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Okay, it would damage our identification with him as our mediator, right, as our high priest.
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Yes, Becky. Okay, it could cause confusion because, well, if he's like us, then aren't we like him?
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And so isn't there some kind of divine part of us? I think those are all valid things.
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But here's the thrust of the lesson here, which we'll get into more, but Waldron makes the point that if you mix the two natures, you wind up with a third nature, right?
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So there can't be, and the statement of faith can't be any more clear. There is no, what do they say, no conversion.
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I like that. Composition or confusion, right? No part of the divine becomes human.
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No part of the human becomes divine. So there are these two persons in, or one person with two natures.
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Okay. Also the sinlessness, talking about the person of Christ, the sinlessness of Christ was just said, he was subject to the effects of the curse in his humanity.
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Let's read Romans 8, verse 3. Romans 8, verse 3.
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Subject to the effects of the curse. Who would read
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Romans 8, 3? Go ahead, Anthony. Okay, so in the likeness of sinful flesh, meaning he had just a regular human body.
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So he's subject to all the things that we discussed last week, even gravity, but he's subject to the futility of things of this world.
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Scripture also tells us that he was tempted in every way, like we are, yet he never succumbed to it. It's perfect in word, thought, and deed.
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Everything that we failed to do, or that we're commanded to do and we fail. Let's talk about some heretical errors that are committed in trying to reconcile the mysteries of Jesus.
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Because again, if we mix the two natures, we wind up with a third nature. So here are some of the ways that theologians through the ages tried to sort this out.
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One is called docetism or docetism. These are the
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Gnostics, and they just denied his humanity, right? He only appeared to be man.
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He didn't actually have a physical body, and therefore he only appeared to die on the cross. What's the problem with that?
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Well, he actually did die on the cross, and if he only appeared to die, then we have a problem, because there's no sacrifice for sin, and therefore we're still in our sins.
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There's also Arianism. Somebody should be able to define Arianism, because we have
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Arianists who come to our homes fairly often. Arianism, what's that?
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Watchtower would be one of them, yeah, because they deny his deity by claiming he was a created being.
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The Watchtower says he's the Archangel Michael. The Mormons say he's a, there was a time he never existed, whatever else they want to say.
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Okay, so that's another false theory about him. Apollinarianism denies his full humanity and claims he had no human soul or mind.
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So that would be an error. As we said, he couldn't have experienced many of the things that he did if he did not have a soul.
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Uticanianism, it's easy for me to say. Okay, Christ's natures were so thoroughly combined, in a sense scrambled together, that the result was that Christ was not really truly able to relate to us as humans.
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So we have, again, that idea of a third nature, that's wrong. All attempts to explain away the divine human tension result in heresy.
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Why do people, or why did they, why have they, why still do they, try to resolve the tension between Jesus Christ being fully human and fully divine?
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Why do people spend so much time trying to do that? Charlie, I'm glad you just didn't leave us with the analog.
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There's no analog in nature. We'd all be going, what is he talking about? There's nothing, there's no one that we can compare
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Jesus to. We don't have any other example of someone being fully something and fully something else, because, you know, mathematics would tell us that 100 % plus 100 % probably doesn't equal 100%, right?
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He's fully God, fully man, and yet one.
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So why did God become man? Because he had to atone for our sins.
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And why was the atonement necessary? Waldron says this, he says it was necessary because God chose to save in this way, and in this way only, right?
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This is the only way that we can be forgiven for our sins. Let's look at Hebrews verses two, or I'm sorry, chapter two, verses six to 10.
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Hebrews two, verses six to 10. And when somebody has that, if they would just raise their hand.
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Yeah, go ahead, Pauline. Now it's interesting because we would not think, thank you, Pauline, we would not think of putting it this way, that it is fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist,
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God, in bringing many sins to glory should make the founder of their salvation, that is to say Christ, perfect through suffering.
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We don't typically think, well, that's fitting, that's right, that's good. But also notice back in verse nine, it says that, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.
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Christ died for everyone. This was God's plan from the beginning. And we know that even from reading Ephesians chapter one, verses three to 14, we see that before the foundation of the world, this was
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God's plan that we might become perfect in Christ. Okay, secondly, the atonement reflects
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God's character. Talking about the atonement, and we'll be talking about a great deal. The atonement reflects
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God's character. We're gonna get into the nature and the extent of the atonement in a minute, but let's look at Romans 3 .26.
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Romans 3 .26, the atonement shows us God's character. We're gonna see an attribute of God here.
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Romans 3 .26, would somebody read that please? Okay, so it tells us something about the nature of God.
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It tells us that he is righteous, right?
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It also shows that he is just. His righteousness and his justice are both shown in that.
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How is the righteousness of God shown in the death of Jesus Christ? The righteousness of God.
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Ah, there we go, right? Because sin is so offensive to God, right?
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It is an offense against him and he cannot abide it. So in order for any one to come into his presence, they have to be washed, they have to be made right.
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Their sins have to be propitiated. The penalty for their sins has to be paid.
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And so in that sense, the righteousness is shown, but also the justice, sin must be punished.
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Sin has to be punished. Waldron says this, he says, "'It was not
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Pilate or the Jews or Satan who killed Christ.
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"'It was God, it was divine justice.' We know that it was both, right? In Acts, Peter preaches and he says, you know, you nailed
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Jesus to the tree, but it was God who foreordained it.
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So it's both. How does the atonement deal with the demands of God's justice?
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Waldron says it propitiates. God to propitiate means to placate, pacify, appease, or conciliate.
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So, I mean, from that, if we understand that God's wrath was propitiated, then we understand that he was angry to begin with, right?
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How do we know that God is angry with sinners? Does the Bible tell us that? What's that?
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He killed a bunch of them. Well, I mean, if you wanna know, you wanna know how angry
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God can get with sinners, you know, all you have to do is look at what? The ironically paraded around rainbow, right?
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Because that's a reminder of the ultimate in time so far that we've seen, example of God's anger where he destroys everybody, but Noah and his family.
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And then we have the rainbow as a sign of the covenant that he made with Noah.
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But also we would see places like Psalm 5 where it talks about how
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God hates the sin, but loves the sinner, or he hates the sinner.
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In Psalm 5, it says, for you are not a God who delights in weakness.
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Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes. You hate all evildoers.
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You destroy those who speak lies. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
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Not talking about sin, but actual sinners that he hates. Let's look at Hebrews 2 .17.
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Again, talking about Jesus, Hebrews 2 .17, would somebody read that please? Okay, really the final high priest, right?
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The last high priest, because he's the one who makes the ultimate propitiation.
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He's not sprinkling blood on, you know, the mercy seat or whatever.
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It's done. This isn't animal blood. This is the blood that ultimately will pay the price for the sins of everyone who will believe.
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Propitiating the wrath of God. The finished work of Jesus satisfies the wrath of God.
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Now, three misconceptions about propitiation and really about the nature of God.
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If God loves someone, does that mean his wrath is necessarily propitiated towards that person?
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And putting it another way, can God have any sort of love for men with whom he is angry?
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Putting it another way, can God have more than one emotion at a time?
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And the answer is yes. Let's look at Ephesians one for a moment.
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And if somebody would read four and five, Ephesians one, four and five. And notice what it says here.
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Go ahead, Ferdie. Okay, now this is just as basically a, what is it?
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12 verse doxology here, where Paul's just bursting out in praise as he thinks about the work of salvation, the triune
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God, father, son, and spirit. And right here in verses four and five, talking about the special affection that the father has for the elect says, in love he predestined us for adoption as sons, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
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Now flip over, look at chapter two, verse three. I want somebody to read that please.
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I can see everybody holding down their hands. They wanna fly up. They just won't. Before salvation, this is what every single
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Christian looked like, right? This is what we used to be. Living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.
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Well, what does that mean? Children of whose wrath? God's wrath. So at the same time, before the foundation of the earth, he set his affection on you.
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He decided to save you. He loved you with an everlasting love. And in time, before you got saved, you were a child of wrath.
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How could he do both? Because he's God and you're not. Now, the atonement doesn't change
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God's nature from being an angry God to being the
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God of love. He doesn't change. And his affection was always set on you.
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So he doesn't change in that way, but it doesn't change fundamentally his nature. Propitiation is not a loving son kind of calming down an angry father.
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That's not the way it is at all. Propitiation does not detract from God's love and mercy.
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The fact that he's angry or wrathful towards sin doesn't mean that he's not also a
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God of love and mercy. Instead, it shows how costly it is, that is to say his love and mercy, how costly it is, how determined it is, how glorious it is, and how secure it is.
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Waldron says this, he says, God will love even at the cost of his son, but he will not at the cost of his justice.
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In other words, his justice is not set aside so that he can love us. He must be just and loving at the same time.
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And that's accomplished through the propitiation. God's anger is propitiated and his justice satisfied by Christ's death.
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Christ satisfied God's justice by actually suffering in our place representatively and as a substitute bearing the penalty or punishment which
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God in his justice demanded of sinners. What happens in hell?
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What is it that people will undergo in hell? Unbelievers, torment, right?
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Suffering, the way Waldron describes it and we're gonna have to expand on it a little bit.
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He says, hell is the place where God utterly abandons sinners. What does he mean by that?
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Does he mean that God abandons them, leaves them entirely, they're just lonely, okay?
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I mean, he withdraws anything, any kind of benevolence or any kind of grace and all they get is the wrath of God.
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I saw another hand, I think. Yeah, there's no common grace.
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There's no grace whatsoever, right? They get the full unrestrained wrath of God forever.
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And here's the point. What happened to Jesus Christ on the cross?
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What did he experience? What did he say? He said, why have you forsaken me, right?
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So it's that experience of the wrath of God and the lack of the loving fellowship, even for that moment when he experienced that, he says, why have you forsaken me?
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Let's look at Galatians 3 .13. And even as all these kind of verses as we look at them, notice, you know,
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Paul wrote Galatians and notice he's writing to believers at Church of Galatia and notice the language and the way it says this.
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Galatians 3 .13, who has that? Go ahead, Will. Okay, so Christ redeemed us.
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Paul writing to believers, right? He didn't say Christ redeemed the whole world.
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He didn't go and purchase out of the marketplace every single person who would ever be born.
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He redeemed us believers. And we know that, why? Because he says from the curse of the law, right?
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We're under the burden of the law. We fall short of the standard. Christ redeems us from falling short of that standard.
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And then it says, well, how did he do that? By becoming a curse for us, by taking the penalty for us.
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For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. He was crucified, hung on a tree.
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Ephesians 5 .2 says this, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
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Now, when you see a fragrant offering, you know, right away you start thinking about cologne commercials, things like that. No, this is obviously says sacrifice to God.
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So this is a pleasing sacrifice. The picture would be, you know, of an animal sacrifice or something like that.
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But this is Jesus Christ giving himself for us, putting himself as it were on the altar.
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Now let's talk about the extent of the atonement. For whom did
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Christ die? And then I have this expanded version of what that means. Understanding the eternal design and purpose of the atonement is key to understanding its extent.
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For whom did Christ die? That's all you need to know. The wrong question, Waldron says, is for whose benefit did
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Christ die? Why would he call that the wrong question? For whose benefit did
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Christ die? It's a tough one.
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And unless you've had a lot of coffee this morning, you may not get this one. Yes, Charlie.
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Okay. That's a good answer. I like that one. I'm gonna email that one to Waldron. For whose benefit did
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Christ die? Charlie says for the father's benefit. Yes, true. For the son's benefit because of the covenant they had.
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But humanly speaking, who benefits from the death of Christ? What's that?
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The elect. Yes. Does anybody else benefit? Who else benefits?
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Yes. Trickle down theology is what we call it. No. No. Yes. I mean, isn't it true?
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Well, I mean, if you just look around the world, the places where there is typically the best governance are places that have been most impacted by Christianity, or at least some impact by Christianity.
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You look at the places that have been least impacted over the centuries, and those are typically the places where there's the worst governance.
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You could argue it a number of ways that people benefit from the influence of Christianity, even if they're not
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Christians. I mean, some would wanna argue against that, but I don't, that's not the point.
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Okay, so that's the wrong question. For whose benefit did Christ die? He says, here's another wrong question.
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He likes to give wrong questions. Is the atonement limited? Why is that the wrong question? This one's a little bit easier, but still might take a little bit of coffee.
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I don't know if Charlie's been tanking up this morning if he still has any coffee, any mojo left. Well, is the atonement limited?
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Okay, why is that the wrong question? Why should
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God save any? Well, is there, let's put it another way. Is there any Christian who doesn't limit the extent of the atonement?
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No. Okay, Arminians, that is to say those who hold tightly to the free will of man limit its efficacy, its effect by saying that man by his free will can limit the effects of the atonement.
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In other words, they would say that Jesus Christ died for all, all the sins of everybody who would ever be born.
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But it is applied only to those who believe. So someone by their own free will has to choose to believe and then the benefits of Christ's death are applied to them and their sins are forgiven.
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I think there are gonna be some issues with that and we'll see some of those. Calvinists limit its extent.
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So they, Arminians limit its, I would say, they limit its intent.
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In other words, they say it was intended for all mankind. But he says here they limit its efficacy, its effectiveness by saying that it's a matter of the person, the man, the woman, the child choosing of their own free will to believe and then the atonement's given to them.
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Calvinists say that it was never intended, never designed to apply to anyone other than those that were chosen by the
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Father. The question is whether it is limited in its extent or its efficacy.
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There is a group that says that it's not limited at all but those would be universalists. So they don't really count.
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The correct question, Waldron says, is in whose place did Christ substitute himself?
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In whose place did Christ substitute himself? Then he gives some proofs of particular redemption as he calls it.
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Particular redemption, in other words, that Christ redeemed a specific group that he always intended to redeem a specific group.
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The atonement is Jesus bearing the curse of sin on behalf of sinners. Since he bore my sin,
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Waldron says, can I be punished for it? In other words, the Arminian would say that Jesus could die for your sins but if you refuse to believe, then you're gonna be punished for your sins.
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So Jesus was punished for your sins and then because you refuse to believe, you're gonna be punished for your sins.
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Waldron says this, he says, did God in Christ actually redeem, reconcile and propitiate his anger against us on the cross?
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And the answer is yes. Let's look at a few verses and see if they leave open the possibility of an atonement without a specific purpose.
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Let's look at, let's turn to John 10 first. John 10 and would somebody read verses, only verse 15 and then verse 26.
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John 10, verse 15 and then verse 26. I mean, so they're part of my flock.
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So there you have it. The idea that the sheep, he's laying down his life for the sheep.
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Well, if you wanna say that everyone's a sheep and then the sheep either choose to believe or reject, you can do that but you can't do it based on anything in that verse and you'll see that there are other verses that are similar, they're very similar.
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Let's look at John 15 verses 13 and 14.
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And again, it's interesting because, this thing that some call Calvinism, you look at it and you go, well,
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Jesus was pretty, he was pretty narrow in the way he applied these things.
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Jesus says, greater love has no one than this that someone laid down his life for his friends.
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You are my friends if you do what I command you. Didn't lay down his life for everyone, he laid down his life for his friends, his sheep.
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We could go to John 6, I'm not gonna go there right now. Let's look at Ephesians 5 .25.
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Familiar, especially if you've been to a wedding, a
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Christian wedding, a wedding that I've done because this is one of my favorite things to do.
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I love this whole passage here because I love to talk about wives submitting to their husbands and watching all the unbelieving women just kind of get mad and lean forward in their seats and get ready to rush me, gonna knock me down.
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Then we get to Ephesians 5 .25, which balances things out nicely if it's done right in a
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Christian marriage. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for the whole world.
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No, for her, for the church. Why? That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.
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It's amazing to think that is the result of the finished work of Christ, right? And you'll notice, and you'll notice in most of the verses, almost all of the verses,
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I can't really think of one where it talks about certainly not the free will of man, but about our salvation or the finished work of Christ being dependent upon our choice.
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I mean, that's an amazing thing, right? Let's just think about this for a moment, going back to Ephesians 1. Before the foundations of the world,
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God chooses a people for himself. In time, Jesus dies for those people.
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And then those people that the God, God the Father chose and that Jesus Christ died for refuse to believe and therefore go to hell.
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God the Father's plan thwarted. Jesus Christ's death made void.
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The Holy Spirit left going, I wish I could do something, I just can't. It makes a farce of the sovereignty of God.
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It makes a farce of the plan of God and is unbiblical. It's just unbiblical.
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What about the choices people make? People do make choices, but you can't link the finished work of Jesus Christ with free will choices.
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Well, I mean, I suppose you could. You know, we all remember the famous story of Saul on the road to...
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Oh, wait, that wasn't free will, was it? Okay. There are no free will choices that reject the sovereignty of God.
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No human being is greater than God. And that's essentially what we're saying.
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Can a human will resist the will of the almighty God? And the answer is no. The atonement does not make salvation possible.
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It secures it and listen, it guarantees it. Let's look at Romans 8. These are familiar verses, but impactful.
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It's not a bad thing that God is sovereign. You know, I mean, when you listen to Pastor Mike say, you know, if you could lose your salvation, you would, or you did, you know, it's already gone, right?
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We are in the Father's hands, right? We're in Christ's hands.
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He says, nobody can take them out of the Father's hands. Nobody can take them out of my hands.
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And that includes us. Romans 8, 28 is not just a verse that we should turn to when the chips are down, when times are difficult, although it's very helpful.
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But this whole passage from 28 on, all the way to the end of the chapter, I think it's something you can read every day and just be encouraged by.
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I mean, if you read it every day for the rest of your life, you'd never go, yeah, I'm kind of tired of that.
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You know, can I read something about God not being sovereign, my salvation not being secure,
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Jesus Christ not having died for all my sins? Can I read something about, you know, things being dicey and exciting?
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Romans 8, 28 through 30. And we know that for those who love
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God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
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Verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
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And again, if you look at foreknew, you can look at that verb until the cows come home.
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And what you're not going to see is some kind of corridors of time view where God foreknows what you're going to do.
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He doesn't know events, although he knows all the events, he ordains them. He knows, and this verb has to do with people.
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He foreknows people, not events. He foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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In other words, this is his plan from the beginning. Verse 30, and those whom he predestined chose before the foundations of the world, he also called in time.
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And those whom he called in time, he also justified, declared righteous.
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And those whom he justified, those whom he declared righteous, he also glorified. In other words, the glorification heaven is used in a past tense here to emphasize its finality.
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It is done. If you are saved, if you are justified, declared righteous, then you are as good as in heaven right now, even though you don't feel like it.
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And he goes on to say how nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Well, this is good.
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And he says, nothing created, nothing seen or unseen. There's nothing that can separate you.
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Your sin can't separate you. Your free will can't separate you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
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This is encouraging, but it also speaks to the finished work of Christ. The efficacy of it, the permanence of it.
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Any thoughts or questions or free will objections here as we, is there anyone who would like to express their free will?
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Leap out of my hands. You can leap out of my hands, it's okay. Questions, thoughts? I'm watching that hand.
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Somebody was wriggling. I get kind of, okay. Let's briefly look at the idea of covenant as it pertains to the atonement.
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The covenant context of the atonement demands particular atonement.
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We've talked about what a covenant is. A covenant is where typically two parties, although in the
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Abrahamic covenant is not two parties, but two parties make a deal.
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The suzerain vassal treaty, the ruler and the subject make this deal together.
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And here's what they do. They cut these animals in half and they walk through this, I don't know, what would it be?
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These rows of dead animals. It makes me think of a church. You walk, come up here, are you cutting a covenant?
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I don't know. Anyway, they walk through these rows of dead animals with the idea that this is a contract between us.
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And if either one of us break it, may the same thing be done to us or whichever one of us breaks it as is done to these animals.
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In other words, may we be cut in half, may we be put to death. Now, if we think of salvation, our salvation as a covenant between, well, first of all, it's a covenant between the
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Trinity, right? This covenant of salvation, this covenant of, what's the word
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I'm looking for here? It's an eternal plan by them, right? That demands the death of Christ.
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And also it's a covenant between, as we'll see, we don't really have time to get into it, but what does
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Jesus call it? He says, this is the seal of the new covenant, right? What is the seal of the covenant?
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His blood, his death. Matthew 26, 28,
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I'll just give you a preview here and then we'll close. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
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It's a covenant. Jesus Christ shed his blood as part of this covenant.
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So when you enter into the covenant, when you're brought into the covenant, you can't be kicked out, but that covenant, the sacrifice which initiates that covenant has a direct purpose.
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It was always to redeem a specific people, not all mankind, because guess what?
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Not all of mankind is in the covenant. They're not all in the new covenant.
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They're not all part of God's eternal plan to save the elect.
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Well, we have to close, but let's pray. Father, thank you for the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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It is amazing to think how from eternity past, you planned our salvation.
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In time, you brought it to fruition through the finished work, the life, the death, the resurrection of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And then by your Spirit, you sealed us. Father, Son, and Spirit triune
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God working together to affect our salvation, your eternal plan.
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Lord, you keep us safe, even though sometimes we might not feel saved, we might not feel secure.
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But as the songwriter said, we are safe and secure from all alarms because we're in your hands.