The Benefits of Calvary Everlasting Life — William MacDonald

This morning we were speaking about the wonder of Calvary and what happens there, the wonder of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the wonder of his work there on the cross, and then we were considering the people for whom he did it.

I think most of us had the impression, it's just too much for us to take in, isn't it? We need a new vocabulary. The human vocabulary, Webster's Dictionary, is really not adequate to tell it forth the way it should be told, and the greatest powers of eloquence are not sufficient to describe it.

This afternoon, first of all, we'd like to come to that fourth question. Not only who he is, what he did for us, the blessings that have flowed from that work of his on Calvary's cross, we've really been humbled when we consider our own insignificance, our own worthlessness, and our own sinfulness, and now we should really be awestruck when we contemplate the marvelous benefits, the grace that has flowed to us as a result of his death, burial, and resurrection.

Salvation from Hell and Eternal Judgment

It's wonderful when we think of salvation, and I think many think of the first thing they think of when they think of salvation is that he saved us from hell. Well, that's really wonderful, isn't it? I remember Mr. Sheldrake saying years ago, any time I get discouraged, I just thank God I'm not in hell.

That's where I ought to be. Well, that's good, that's good, that's a cure for, you don't have to go to a psychiatrist for that, do you? Just thank the Lord that you're not in hell, that's where we really should be.

Hell is the same as the lake of fire in the scripture. It's a sulfurous fire, it's unquenchable and everlasting. And incidentally, the Lord Jesus is the one that spoke most about it, isn't he? I tell you this, if there's no hell, there's no heaven either, because it's the same Savior who spoke about others.

The Lord Jesus said, Where there are worms, dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And that speaks of the eternal torment of those who are in hell. Hell means the separation from God in the blackness of darkness forever.

I don't want that, do you? Hell is a place, I think one of the worst things about hell is the place where there is no love. Can you think of that? A place where there is no love. And really, if the Lord Jesus didn't do anything else but to save us from hell, that would be cause for endless thanksgiving, wouldn't it?

Judicial and Parental Forgiveness

But it's only one fraction of the dividends that have come to us. He did more. He forgave us all our sins. I think that's wonderful. You know what's driving most people up the wall today is guilt. I think it's just marvelous to know that when I come to the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance and in faith, God gives me judicial forgiveness of all my sins.

He cannot find a single sin with which to punish me with eternal death. The old Believer's Hymnbook had a verse that said, Reach my blessed Savior first, take him from God's esteem, prove Jesus bears one spot of sin, and tell me I'm unclean.

That's the confidence that you can have when you're in Christ. This is really wonderful, to know my sins have been forgiven. It's guilt that's driving people to the counselors today, to the psychologists and to the psychiatrists, but it doesn't have to be that guilt.

I can come, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive judicial forgiveness of sins. God the Judge completely clears the record. Of course, there's also parental forgiveness of sins in the New Testament, isn't there?

That means that when I, as a Believer, sin, I come to the Lord and I confess my sin. It's good for us to remember that a Believer receives judicial forgiveness of sin when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is a sinner. A sinner receives judicial forgiveness of sins when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. A Christian receives parental forgiveness of sins when he confesses his sins. First John 1 .9, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Assurance Grounded in the Word of God

One of the problems that many Christians have is appropriating God's forgiveness. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, I mean, they say, I confess my sin to the Lord, but I don't feel forgiven. Well, first of all, I red-tag that word, feel.

I tell you, that word, feel, doesn't have very much place in my Christianity. I don't go by my feelings, I go by the word of God. And I don't care whether I feel forgiven or not, I am forgiven, and I appropriate that fact.

I had an interesting little experience recently talking to a young lad, and he was very close to the kingdom, you could tell by talking to him, and I said, now look, I want to tell you something. When you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior, the bells don't necessarily ring, the lights don't necessarily go on, you don't necessarily feel shivers in your nervous system.

I was trying to get him to depend on the word of God for assurance of salvation, not on his feelings, not on his experiences, and you know that dear fellow a little while later, he bowed his head and received the Lord Jesus as his Savior, and a couple of minutes later, he said to me, want to know something?

I said, what? He said, the bells did ring. I thought that was very good. The bells did ring, but he's basing his assurance of salvation on the word of God, that's why the bells rang. A little while later, I had a letter from him, and he enclosed kind of a comic strip, it was a comic strip of a sheep having a near-death experience, and the sheep was saying, the grass really is greener.

And he was telling me that things have changed since he trusted the Lord, and the grass really is greener on this side of the fence. Well, that's wonderful, the forgiveness of our sins. Who can ever describe the peace that comes from knowing that God has put my sins behind his back, as far as the east is from the west, and he'll remember them no more.

When the Bible says that God will remember my sins no more, that doesn't mean he has a poor memory, but it means he can't find any sins for which to punish me with eternal death, buried in the sea of his forgetfulness, as far as the east is from the west.

I think that's wonderful. He could have stopped there, that would have been wonderful. He could have stopped just saving us from hell, he could have stopped just forgiving our sins. He didn't do that.

Eternal Life as the Life of God

He gave us eternal life. Eternal life. Well, when we think of eternal life, we tend to think of life that's unending, but that's not a good definition of eternal life, because even unsaved people have life that's unending.

They're going to live forever. Eternal life is not only everlasting life, but it's a quality of life. And what it really means is that when you're saved, you receive the life of God. Staggering, isn't it?

In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ himself comes and dwells in you. And that's what explains the marvelous transformation that takes place in a person's life when he or she is saved. You can't explain it in any other way.

It's absolutely marvelous. And here's a fellow and he's been on drugs, he's been on liquor, he's in trouble with the police, they've caught him for breaking and entering, he's a madman at the wheel, and his life is speckled with immorality, too.

And he gets saved, and his life is transformed. And the things that once he loved, he hated, the things that once he loved, he hates now, and vice versa. And it's easy for him to talk about Jesus now.

It's easy for him to go up and talk to people about the Lord. It makes a change. He has everlasting life, so it makes a change. He has the life of God in him. You can't explain it, really, in any other way.

And the next thing you know, that fellow hears the call of God and he goes down to the mission field. The mission field? Yeah, the mission field. Two years ago, he wouldn't have gone to the mission field.

Goes now. He's glad to be able to serve the Lord in that way. That isn't all. As long as we're in our sins, we have no right to enter in God's presence. But you know, now that we're saved, we have access.

Paul says in Romans 5, we have access into that grace where we stand. We're in a marvelous position of favor with God, and we can go right into the presence of the Lord anytime by faith. Isn't that wonderful?

You can't do that down at the White House, can you? You can't get into the White House, a lot of places you can't get into in life. But I tell you, it's marvelous to have access into the presence of the Supreme Ruler of the universe.

That's exactly what ours is when we trust the Lord Jesus, all because we're in Christ. We have the same access to God the Father that the Christ of God has. God sees my favor, then he sees me accepted in the Beloved and free.

In the Beloved, accepted and free. This is marvelous to me. We're as near to God and as dear to God as his own beloved Son is. Who could have ever devised such a way of salvation, such fruit coming from salvation?

Only the great heart of our God. Only he could have ever conceived such a miracle of grace. And this is what he did. It was bought for us at tremendous price, the blood of Christ. In ourselves, we're not fit for heaven.

Imputed Righteousness and Fitness for Heaven

We're not fit for heaven. But you know, when we're saved, God clothes us with his own righteousness. Get that. He has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Do you know what that means? It means if you're saved, you can look up into the face of God and you can say, Oh God, positionally, I thank you. I'm as righteous as you are. It sounds like heresy, doesn't it?

It's not heresy. We're clothed with the righteousness of God. Our practical righteousness might be something different again, but positionally, we stand in that position of favor with God, clothed with his righteousness and made fit for heaven through the merit of Christ.

I'm so grateful for that truth today. It's not my merit that makes me fit for heaven, the merit of the Lord Jesus. And he'll always have those merits before his father. And then we become members of God's family.

Adoption into God’s Family

This is marvelous. I think we don't realize that going through life, we don't realize what a wonderful thing that is. Not the members of a family of royalty, not the members of some wealthy business baron, members of the family.

I think it's one of the greatest honors that could ever come to anybody, a member of that family. No, no earthly honor could ever compare with this. By the new birth, we're children of God. And we're not only children of God, but we're sons of God.

And this refers to both brothers and sisters. We're sons of God. What does that mean? Well, it means we're not only children in the family, but God accepts us in the family as mature adult sons with all the privileges and responsibilities of sonship.

In the Old Testament, the people were treated like children under the law. The law said, do this, do this, now do this, now do this. Treated them like children. But that's all changed under grace. Under grace, we're adopted into the family.

The Spirit of God teaches us to say, Abba, Father, and we're mature adult children in the family. It's interesting, a Jew, really, a Jewish person never becomes a man until he's 40. Do you know that? I'm not talking about the Bar Mitzvah now.

Bar Mitzvah makes him a son of the covenant. But he never really becomes a man in Jewish reckoning until he's 40. And there are certain parts of the Bible that he must not, of his Bible, that he must not read.

He must not read the Song of Solomon. It's just too explicit for his, you know, that's what they say. I don't agree with it at all. But it's too explicit for his young, tender heart until he's 40. And he mustn't read Ezekiel chapter 1.

That Ezekiel chapter 1 is a tremendous vision of the glory of God, the throne car of God coming down. Do you know that? He mustn't read that. There's a fable told, or a story told, I guess it's in the fable of one Hebrew fellow that tried to read it and flames came out from the page and consumed him.

But you know, when you're saved, God doesn't say, now there are certain parts of this book that are restricted to you. He said, look, it's all yours. Enjoy. Isn't that wonderful? It's all ours. And that's what it means to be.

Heirs with Christ and the Believer’s Spiritual Wealth

It's one of the things that means to be a son of God, members of God's family. And because we're members of God's family, we're, we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Think about that for a moment.

We go over the scriptures too quickly, don't we think, what does it mean to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ? So it means it's all ours. Know what it means? And Paul says that, right?

He said, Corinthians, he says, all things are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God. Have you ever appropriated that verse for yourself? All things are yours. You know, I think sometimes we just go through life as diggers instead of realizing how tremendously wealthy we are.

I really believe that, you know, and you're going to laugh at me, but nevermind, it's true. Just the same. I think United Airlines operates for the children of God and other people get the benefit of it.

I think you're garbage service. It operates for Christians, but a lot of other people get dividends from it too, because it's all ours. All the wheels of industry are operating for God's people. All things are yours.

I go by and I see the farmers work out in the fields and I said, it's all mine and someday I'm going to come into possession of it. I taught that at Emmaus once and one of the fellows laughed out loud, dear guy, it struck him so funny.

Later, he went to Africa, the mission field, he wrote back and said, it's all true. He thought operating out there and it's great to appropriate these things by faith and we're going to come into the good of it all in a coming day.

Just imagine sinners saved by grace and inheritors of the divine treasury joint heirs with Jesus Christ. I tell you, there's no Cinderella story like that. Is there from rags to riches and not only that, but we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.

The Holy Spirit’s Indwelling and the Christian’s Body

This really staggers me when I think that this humble body, this body of my humiliation is actually the temple of the Holy Spirit. Who would ever have thought of such a thing that one of the persons of the Godhead actually dwells here.

It's staggering, isn't it? And it has a very practical meaning to it, too. Paul brings that out in 1 Corinthians 6, where he reminds the Corinthians, and you know what the Corinthians were like, he reminds them, and it has a message for us today, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 15.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her?

For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Notice the context has to do with what? Sexual immorality. What did he bring into the argument, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? What is he saying? Brace yourself, friends. He's saying, when you as a Christian are committing sexual immorality, what is the Holy Spirit doing?

Rather searching, isn't it? And you know, if we remembered that, sexual immorality wouldn't be a problem in our lives at all. Good thing for our dear young people to remember, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God.

Flee sexual immorality. It's really marvelous. We're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and he's there as a seal. He's with us as a seal. He is the seal. What does that mean? Well, the seal has two thoughts, at least in scripture, it's a mark of ownership.

You go to certain countries and you see a certain dye on the sheep, and that color identifies that sheep as belonging to a certain shepherd, a certain owner. It's a mark of ownership. It's also a mark of security, isn't it?

You put the seal on letters they did, and on documents they still do today, the seal in wax on documents. The Holy Spirit is our seal. And not only that, he's the earnest for our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

So that means that as surely as you and I have the Holy Spirit of God, the whole inheritance is going to be ours. Some have likened the earnest of the Spirit to the engagement ring. What is the engagement ring?

It's something you're going to follow. Marriage is going to follow. And the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. It means that as sure as I have the Holy Spirit, the whole inheritance is going to be ours.

We don't receive all the benefits of our salvation the moment we're saved, do we? We don't receive our glorified bodies. We still get the flu. But it's all going to be ours, and the Holy Spirit is just the guarantee that that will actually take place.

The Church as Christ’s Body and Bride

Wonderful. God has devised all of this for people who are minuscule, frail, transient, and really not very nice. But when they come to the Lord Jesus, he has all this treasure for them. And then the Holy Spirit baptizes us as believers into the body of Christ.

The body of Christ. The body of Christ is the church made up of all true believers. It's the greatest society in the universe today. The greatest society in the universe today. And I want to tell you, it's no mean privilege to belong to the church.

No mean privilege. It's spoken of in such endearing terms. The church means more to God than the greatest empire in the world. Did you know that? I mean, the nations, as far as God is concerned, the nations are like a drop in the bucket.

You've emptied the bucket and there's still a drop there. You say, well, nada, nothing. But the church is spoken of as his body and his bride. Terms of real endearment. And the elders of a local fellowship mean more to God than the rulers of the world.

It's a greater honor to be an elder in an assembly in a church than to be the President of the United States. You say, why do you say that? Well, I go to my Bible in the New Testament, I see all the space that's devoted to being an elder.

And I don't find that to be how to be a good ruler, do you? I don't find that. So instead of saying to your little boy, eat your Cheerios and someday you may be President. Why don't you say eat your Cheerios and someday you may be an elder in a local assembly.

I mean, you'd have your values much more accurately if you said it that way. I say that church is the greatest fellowship on earth. Heavenly calling and heavenly destiny to be with him, like him forever and ever.

Prayer, Resurrection, and Eternal Glory

And then we talked last night about prayer, how we have constant access to God in prayer. Just consider what this means. In the normal ways of life and in crises times of life, we can shoot up that prayer to God, that extemporaneous prayer to God.

And know that we're heard and know that he moves into action for us. We can't do it with the kings of the earth, but we can do it with the king of kings. And then of course, we're destined to eternal glory in heaven.

I frankly can't find words to describe this, to think that this body of mine is going to be changed at the time of the rapture into a glorified body, just like the resurrected body of the Lord Jesus. That's wonderful, isn't it?

We're longing for that, aren't you? I am longing for that. At the time when you're going to take this body of my humiliation and just transform it into a body, just like the glorified body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What will that be like? What little body? It'll be a body that'll be no longer subject to sin, suffering, sickness, disease, or death. It'll be a body that has powers that our present bodies don't have.

How the Lord Jesus could come into a room completely enclosed. How he could move by thought from one place to another. I believe that's what it'll be like, our glorified bodies. I believe we'll be capable of exploring the universe.

I hope we will. I look up at the stars at night and I say, why did he make it so big? Why did he make so many? I think we're going to be exploring it some day. What will we learn? We'll learn the greatness of our God.

We'll have greater reason to praise and love and adore him for all eternity when we think of it all. It's a really marvelous and glorified body, and isn't it wonderful that the Lord Jesus will not be fully satisfied until he has us with him in our glorified condition in heaven?

This is grace, friends, grace from beginning to end. And of course, it's this incredible grace that caused Darby to pen those memorable words, and is it so? I shall be like thy son. Is this the grace that he from me has won, father of glory, thought beyond all thought in glory to his own blessed likeness brought?

Paul certainly had an inkling of this when he spoke of our present trials as being pinpricks compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. We look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen.

The things that are seen are temporal. The things that are not seen are eternal. He spoke of an eternal weight of glory. It's marvelous, isn't it, the eternal weight of glory. And you know, having said this, we haven't even scratched the surface of the blessings that flow to us from Calvary.

Paul sums it all up when he says we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. But if we don't stop, this chapter would become a volume, it would become a library, wouldn't it?

It would really take a library to take it on. Now, the logical flow of thought from all that we've considered is total commitment to the Lord. Total commitment to the Lord. Dear friends, he put us here for a bigger business than to make money.

This is quite a thing. Recently, a couple of years ago, I was in Singapore. Dear, dear people, dear, dear Christians, that if you go to Singapore, there's one thing that really captures you. The quest for money.

The quest for money. Living as if that were the main thing. But that is not the main thing in life. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, for the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all, then all were dead, all died, and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again.

Christ didn't die for Bill McDonald so that Bill McDonald could live his life the way he wants to live it. He died for me so that henceforth I live the way he wants me to live. That's a big step, friends.

That's what we want to talk about. What is commitment? Well, I want to tell you the logic of all the things we've been considering leads us down a one-way street to that point of total commitment, to that point where I turn over complete control of my life to him.

That's the beginning of a life that makes history for God. In other words, when we're saved, it doesn't mean just that from then on we'll attend church regularly, put money in the collection, and pass out a few tracts from day to day.

It means more than that. Commitment is a definite, well-considered act where a person turns his life over to the Lord Jesus. You have in the Bible conversion and consecration, two different things. Conversion is when you trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior.

Consecration is when you turn your life over to him for service. They both should come at the same time, but they don't. Ideally they should come at the same time, but things aren't ideal always in life.

Paul’s Conversion and Consecration

In the life of the Apostle Paul, they came at the same time. He said first, Who art thou, Lord? He got his doctrines straight. Then he said, What will you have me to do? He turned his whole life over to the Lord at that moment.

That was good, on the road to Damascus. That's the way it should be. It isn't always the way it is. It's turning your life over to the Lord so he can do whatever he wants you to do. It's giving up your rag rights and yielding to his throne rights.

Surrendering Control to God

That's what it is. When I was in the Navy, we were losing a lot of planes in operational action. In Seattle, up in Alaska, planes would take off from a Navy base there, and they'd get up and the fog would come in.

And when the fog came, it came to stay. And oftentimes our pilots were up there overhead, and it was completely fogged in below. You couldn't see the airport, couldn't see anything. And too many of our fellows had to fly around until their fuel was gone, and they would just radio in so long and crash.

So the Navy started to work on a system known as Ground Control Approach, GCA. The idea was that they would be controlled from the control tower. On the aircraft carriers, they'd be controlled from the carrier.

And they developed this so that they would signal that fellow, and they would get him in a position where he was lined up with the landing deck of the carrier. And it was all computerized. And the ship would be lurching this way, you know, in the heavy sea, lurching back and forth.

But the plane would be brought into sync with every lurch of the ship. So that when the plane landed, it was landing in exactly the same position as the ship. And then they would tell him to come down.

They would tell him the rate at which to come down, the altitude, and all the rest. And then the man in the control tower would say, take your hands off the controls. The pilot would take his hands off the controls, and they'd bring him in by computer onto the deck of the carrier.

And dear young friends today, all Christians, but especially my dear young friends, God is saying to you, take your hands off the controls. I'll bring you in. I'll bring you in with a full cargo. I'll bring you in with a saved life as well as a saved soul.

Give up your own ambitions. Give up your own plans. Let me plan your life for you. I can do a better job than you can do. You know, it's an insult to the intelligence of God for me to direct my life the way I want to.

It's an insult to the intelligence of God. Commitment is abandoning all for the one who abandons all for us. In every life, there's a throne, and either Christ is on that throne or self is on the throne.

Commitment is when self is taken off the throne, and Christ is crowned King, the Lord of all. The poet said, Take me as I am, Lord, and make me all your own. Make my heart your palace and your royal throne.

I like that. Make my heart your palace and your royal throne. That's what commitment is. It's possible, I say again, to commit my life to the Lord Jesus for salvation and not commit it to him for service.

It's possible for a Christian to be having his hands on the control and steering his plane the way he wants to do so. Commitment is denying self, taking up the cross daily and following him. It's losing one's life for Christ's sake and the gospel.

It's flinging one's soul and body down for God to plow them under. That's really what it is. When you desire Christ's will supremely and are willing to pay the price, whatever it might be, you are a committed Christian.

Unconditional Submission to Christ

And you know, this type of commitment to the Lord Jesus is unconditional, unconditional. There are certain words that are not found in the vocabulary of commitment. One is, for instance, not so, Lord.

You can't say that. You can't say not so, Lord. You can say not so. You can say, Lord. You can't say not so, Lord, because you're contradicting yourself, aren't you? You can say, I will follow you, but first let me go home.

Something like that. You have that in the last chapter of Luke 9, don't you? Those three eager beavers came to the Lord, and the first one said, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said, what?

He said, foxes uphold, birds of the air upnest, but the Son of Man is not where to lay his head. What does he mean by that? He means, are you willing to be homeless for me? Are you willing to forsake home for me?

It's a lot to hear of that young fellow, isn't it? Kind of sad. You see, there was a defect in his language. He said, me first, me first. And the second one was the same, too. I will follow you, but let me first.

Submission means his will in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, whether at home or overseas, whether single or married, whether known or unknown, whether a short life or a long one. Does this seem like a heavy load to lower on people?

Well, the heavy load is when you're trying to do it by yourself. The heavy load is when you're trying to do it in your own strength. What's really hard is trying to chart one's own course and doing one's own thing.

A 75-year-old woman said, I'm 75 and I have done nothing with my life. If we only realize that if we turn our lives over to the Lord, he will plan the best possible life that divine wisdom could conceive.

That's pretty good, isn't it? If I turn my life over to the Lord and let him choose the pathway, he would lead you to heights that would make reason dizzy and work. And the wonderful thing about it is he knows options that we don't know anything about.

We think that we have infinite wisdom and we know just exactly what is best. The Lord has options that we don't know anything about and would far exceed anything that we would ever plan. I want to tell you something, friends.

Biblical Examples of Wholehearted Commitment

If the Bible is right, those who are fully committed to Christ are the right ones. It's as simple as that. They're the ones who say, thou sweet beloved will of God, my anchor ground, my fortress hill, my spirit's silent fair abode, in thee I hide me and am still.

Thy beautiful, sweet will, my God, holds fast in its sublime embrace my captive will, a gladsome bird, prisoned in such a realm of grace. My captive will, a gladsome bird, prisoned in such a realm of grace.

Upon God's will I lay me down as child upon his mother's breast. No silken couch nor softest bed could ever give me such deep rest. Words by Gerhard Terstegen. So that's what God is calling to us. He's calling us to total commitment to him.

The Bible is a wonderful book, and there are threads that go all through the Bible, a lot of threads that go all through the Bible. For instance, Brother Art was speaking about the blood, the precious blood of Christ by which we are redeemed.

You get that bloodline all through the Bible. Somebody said, wherever you cut the Bible it bleeds, and it does. Wherever you cut the Bible it bleeds. Worship is a theme that goes all through the Bible, isn't it?

So does this subject of commitment to, it goes all through the Bible. Go way back to the time of Abraham. You find there that a man who is committed to the Lord must be prepared to give up the dearest thing in life.

That's what Abraham was, prepared to give up the dearest thing in life. If you could talk to Abraham today and say, how about it, Abraham, are you sorry for what you did? What would he say? I'll leave you to answer that question.

Then you come to other characters. You come to types of the Old Testament. You come to the type of the Hebrew slave. This guy hadn't been able to pay his bills. He sold himself into slavery in order to pay his bills.

But the law said he could get out at the end of seven years, God's kindly law, but he didn't have to. He could go over there to the door and have his lobe with his ear placed at the doorpost and have it pierced through with the awl, and he could say, I love my master, I will not go out free.

Why do you think that's in the Bible? It's in the Bible for me. It's in the Bible for you. I love my master, I will not go out free. And then you have that wonderful story of the burnt offering, which is very moving to me.