Participants: David Asscherick, James Rafferty, Jeffrey Rosario, Ty Gibson
Series Code: TT
Program Code: TT000024
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00:01 [Music]
00:11 [Music] 00:20 --At this juncture of our conversation, there are two key 00:23 passages that are representative of Paul's theology, and we just 00:28 wanna walk through them, we just wanna break down, hopefully we 00:32 can get through both of them because they're deep, they're 00:34 beautiful, but we just wanna look at Romans chapter 4 and 00:39 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 00:40 So, who wants to begin? 00:41 Let's go to Romans 4. 00:43 --We're starting with Romans 4. 00:44 --Who's gonna start walking us through it? 00:45 --I can start reading verse 1. 00:46 --Yeah, let's just kinda walk through it. 00:49 --Verse 1, Jeffery. 00:50 --Just read a few and then see where it goes. 00:53 What then... 00:56 --Okay, stop right there, no I'm just kidding, I'm kidding. 01:02 --What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found 01:08 according to the flesh? 01:09 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast 01:13 about, but not before God. 01:16 For what does the scripture say? 01:18 Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for 01:22 righteousness. 01:23 --Okay, that's a good place, I think. 01:25 --I love the tone already. 01:27 --Well, it's so natural for him to begin to talk about Abraham 01:32 just to sort of start the larger context here of Romans, 1, 2, 01:36 and 3 is largely a, it's kind of how we started the whole thing. 01:40 We started our whole thing looking at the darkness and 01:44 bleakness and blackness of the condition of humanity separated 01:47 from God, and that's largely Paul in 1, 2, and 3, that's a 01:52 good simplification, but that's what he's done. 01:54 So, then, even for Paul, when it comes time to start telling the 01:58 good news, where does he go? 02:00 He goes to Abraham. 02:01 That's what we said. 02:03 When we were in Genesis, we went from 3 to 11 and we said, Moses, 02:06 he's racing to get to what he considers to be the point. 02:10 And so Paul here, he's kind of painted the darkness, you can 02:13 see almost this would be a simple way of saying it, that 02:16 Paul's Genesis 3-11 is his Romans 1, 2, 3. 02:21 The dark condition of man separated from God and separated 02:26 from one another. 02:27 And so he says, okay, well, what about Abraham, where's Abraham 02:29 in this? 02:31 And he immediately gravitates right to the text that, for him, 02:33 is absolutely central to the whole story of scripture. 02:39 And that is that God made a covenant with Abraham and 02:44 Abraham believed that God would do what he said he would do. 02:47 I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that, 02:48 I'm gonna do that. 02:49 Go ahead. 02:50 --Which was based on Abraham believing that God is the kind 02:54 of God that God introduced himself to be to Abraham, right? 02:57 Not just God will do what he says he will do, but God is a 03:00 particular kind of God, he's a covenant keeping God. 03:06 He's faithful, he follows through, he's consistent, he's 03:09 reliable, this is the kind of God Abraham is seeing and so 03:14 this arouses confidence, it arouses faith. 03:18 His faith isn't something that he manufactures, it's not an act 03:22 of sheer willpower, he sees something in this, God's 03:26 interactions with him, as Jeffery's been emphasizing, God 03:29 responds, God acts in a certain way. 03:33 And that history gives a premise for faith to build upon. 03:40 --Do you guys, just really quick, do you guys remember the 03:42 statement where Paul says, in Galatians 3:8 that God preached 03:46 the gospel to Abraham. 03:49 I love that. 03:50 So, wait, wait, wait, the gospel is in the New Testament. 03:52 --Of course. 03:54 When it says that Paul preached the gospel of Abraham, I am very 03:56 much of the mind that that took place over the whole course of 04:00 their interaction relationship. 04:01 But largely during that very moment, when he said, get the 04:05 pieces, cut them in two, and then he fell asleep and he had 04:08 that nightmare, and we think, well, wait a minute, the 04:11 gospel's a nightmare? 04:13 The gospel's good news. 04:14 Well, yeah, it is for you. 04:16 The gospel's great news, for you, but it was a nightmare for 04:19 Jesus in the garden and on the cross. 04:21 That's why it was a horror in a great darkness. 04:24 So, when you're saying it was the kind of God that he was, 04:27 Abraham understood full well when those pieces were cut and 04:31 he saw that smoking oven and that burning torch passing 04:34 through, he knew that God was committing himself to the death, 04:38 to this covenantal integrity, to keeping his covenant. 04:42 So, Paul says, what about Abraham, what about this guy? 04:45 If Abraham was recommended to God, if Abraham was just a 04:50 really special guy because of what he did, then he could 04:54 boast. 04:55 He says, but that's not what scripture says, what scripture 04:58 says is that God made him a bunch of promises and Abraham 05:01 said, I think you're just exactly the kind of being, the 05:05 kind of God who will do everything that you say you'll 05:08 do. 05:09 He believed it. 05:11 --He can't really take much credit for that. 05:12 --Much? 05:13 [Laughter] 05:17 --All you're doing is saying, okay. 05:19 So, there's no boasting in saying, okay. 05:23 --Is it important to say okay? 05:25 --Absolutely. 05:26 --Of course. 05:27 --He literally says that boasting is excluded by virtue 05:30 of the fact that God is good to follow through with his promise 05:35 and that's what constitutes the righteousness that Abraham is 05:40 experiencing. 05:43 --What you just said. 05:44 --That's where we're going. 05:45 --It's exactly what he's saying. 05:47 Then he would be able to boast, but he can't boast. 05:50 --Because it's the equivalent of saying, duh. 05:56 --Come along with us Jeffery, come with us. 05:58 --Okay, can I read the next couple? 05:59 --Of course, of course. 06:02 I'm just gonna read from 5-8. 06:05 I like being the reader. 06:06 --And I like you being the reader, too, you're a good 06:09 reader. 06:10 --Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, 06:15 but as dead. 06:17 --Okay, don't read any further than that right now. 06:19 --We've got two things that are being held in contrast to one 06:21 another here, grace and debt. 06:24 And so, if it was something that God was obligated to respond to 06:31 Abraham with favor, with blessing, with promise, because 06:36 there's something in Abraham that solicits that response from 06:40 God, then basically, it's just an economic exchange. 06:43 --That's right, it's wages. 06:45 --And God is in debt to the man. 06:47 But God's the one taking the initiative, God's the one who's 06:51 putting on display a faithful, covenantal love that elicits the 06:57 response from the man, so it's grace. 07:01 --Read on. 07:03 --Verse 5, but to him who does not work, but believes on him 07:08 who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for 07:13 righteousness. 07:15 Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom 07:19 God imputes righteousness, apart from works. 07:25 Then he quotes, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are 07:29 forgiven and whose sins are covered. 07:31 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. 07:37 --Okay, we come right up against a term here that is central to 07:43 Paul's understanding of what's happening in the person of 07:47 Jesus, and that is the word justifies there in verse 5, he 07:51 says, but to him who does not work, but believes on him who 07:56 justifies, the ungodly, his faith is accounted for 07:58 righteousness. 07:59 It's important to recognize that in the concept, in the picture 08:04 of this covenant theme, and I've mentioned this before, but I 08:06 wanna say it again, that implicit in all of scripture is 08:10 a law court, that's a backdrop for what's happening here. 08:14 There is a legal dimension to what's taking place, and in this 08:18 particular instance, justifies, or righteous, means that there 08:24 is a standard, an agreed to standard, and in this case, 08:26 that's the covenantal agreement between God and Abraham. 08:29 And God has said, I will be amenable to that standard. 08:34 Right, so there's a line, I've drawn a line here on my paper. 08:36 God says, okay, I agree to that, and then Abraham, on the other 08:39 side says, okay, I also agree to that, right? 08:42 So, this is the agreed to standard. 08:45 If you and I, say Jeffery sues me, okay, and he sues me because 08:50 I've broken the law, whatever it is, I stole something of yours, 08:53 or I defrauded you or something, and let's say James is the 08:56 judge. 08:57 Okay, so, here's what happens. 08:58 We're going to go, and we're gonna make our cases. 09:01 You make your case, I make my case. 09:03 Okay, and let's just say that James finds, in your favor. 09:06 --Always. 09:07 --Okay, so he finds in Jeffery's favor. 09:09 The language that would be used there is that you are justified. 09:15 In other words, you have been declared in the right according 09:18 to the legal conflict that we're having here. 09:21 --Declared innocent. 09:23 --Declared innocent. 09:24 Declared in harmony with, you are found and I am not found. 09:29 In other words, one of us, we can't both be right if we're at 09:31 a conflict, right? 09:32 So, when the word justifies is used here, it assumes within the 09:36 very context that there is a sense in which man not amenable 09:42 to the standard of God's covenant, that something has 09:44 gone amiss, that there's a conflict here. 09:46 --There's a reason to be in court, so to speak. 09:48 There's a reason for a case. 09:49 --Exactly, and that God will make us amenable, he will 09:54 declare us innocent to that standard by virtue of something 09:57 that he does. 09:59 It says, he who justifies the ungodly, but to him who does not 10:05 work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith 10:08 is accounted as righteous. 10:11 And then he cites David as a good instance of that. 10:13 God does not impute or put to you the guilt that is yours. 10:20 --And we know that it's there if you just loop back to chapter 3 10:24 verse 19, we have the law court language that is used here, 10:28 verse 19, now we know that whatever the law says, it says 10:32 to those that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped 10:37 and all the world, universal, every man, woman, and child, may 10:40 become guilty before God. 10:43 So, that's the setting, Jeffery, you were saying, so there's a 10:47 reason to go to court. 10:48 Well, verse 19 of chapter 3 is the reason to go to court. 10:52 --Not just Abraham but us as the offspring of Abraham. 10:56 --But here's the scandal of the thing, here's the amazing thing, 10:59 in verse 19 of chapter 3, we're guilty before God and then he 11:05 turns around in chapter 4 and the very ones, that by all 11:09 rights, should be condemned are justified, it's astounding. 11:14 --He's gonna develop his argument as to how that's legal. 11:18 How's that fair? 11:19 How is God able to do that? 11:21 Is there some mechanism by which, in other words, I like 11:24 the language that you've used in the past, Ty, is this just a 11:26 legal fiction? 11:27 Is God saying, okay, we'll just pretend you didn't do that, 11:30 we'll pretend that didn't happen. 11:32 Or is there some greater mechanism that allows God to be 11:35 as scripture would say, both just and the justifier. 11:40 So, he's working toward that. 11:43 --It's more than a mechanism, it's an essential nature, it's 11:46 an essential character, it is the righteousness of God. 11:50 It is who he is that makes it possible for him to relate to us 11:54 the way he relates to us. 11:56 --I understand that, of course, but what I was gonna say is that 12:00 without the death of Jesus, this is a tricky thing I'm gonna say 12:05 here, but without the death of Jesus, that's what I mean by 12:08 mechanism, that God in Christ does something that enables him 12:12 to declare us both righteous, to be just and the justifier. 12:17 --Otherwise, he'd be lying. 12:19 --That's my point. 12:20 --He can't let us off the hook as if nothing happened, that 12:22 would be a lie. 12:23 --That's where I was gonna go, and the reason I was gonna go 12:25 there, even though I said, well, maybe we'll wait on this is 12:27 because Paul has already gone there. 12:28 We are in Romans chapter 4, but if you just go back to Romans 3, 12:33 just a couple verses, really, Romans 3, and if you look here, 12:36 and I'm gonna read this from the New International Version of the 12:40 bible. 12:41 Romans 3 verses 24 and 25, and the reason is because it's so 12:45 powerful, actually 25 and 26, and here's what it says, talking 12:49 about Christ, God presented him, Christ, as a sacrifice of 12:52 atonement through faith and his blood, he did this to 12:55 demonstrated his justice because in his forbearance, he had left 13:00 the sins committed beforehand unpunished. 13:03 He did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time so 13:07 as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith 13:11 in Jesus. 13:12 --Everything is good about that except that justice is not the 13:16 best word there. 13:17 I mean, I've actually done quite a little bit of reading on this, 13:20 and everything else there is great, but the NIV really almost 13:25 universally, not completely, but often translates righteousness 13:29 as justice because they're so inclined toward the 13:32 substitutionary perspective. 13:34 Where, the word is righteousness, in other words, 13:37 if you just read it like this, to demonstrate his 13:39 righteousness, and then in verse 26, to present at this time his 13:42 righteousness. 13:44 --King James. 13:45 --Exactly, in New King James as well. 13:47 Not just his justice in the sense of rule. 13:50 --Executing justice. 13:51 --But his goodness. 13:52 They're not antithetical. 13:55 --But it gives more meaning when you put righteousness in there 13:58 than justice. 13:59 Gotcha. 14:00 --Okay. 14:01 --The point is there. 14:02 --Absolutely. 14:03 --You got the point. 14:04 So, you're saying it's the, and that's implied when Paul quotes 14:06 in the verses here, Paul quotes from David in Psalm 32, because 14:10 in Psalm 32, you have this word blessed is the man whose sins 14:13 are forgiven, and that word forgiven in Psalm 32 is nasa, 14:16 it's the same word that is used in Isaiah 53, when it talks 14:20 about Christ has born our sorrows, has born our... 14:25 --Carry away, to carry away. 14:26 --To carry up, to take up, to carry away. 14:28 So, the reason why we, why Abraham, why all of us have this 14:32 experience is because of the event of Calvary. 14:36 --Because of what Christ did. 14:38 --What God has done in Christ. 14:39 And I love that your translation says, there, blessed are those 14:41 whose... 14:42 --What does King James say? 14:44 --It says, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven. 14:46 --Iniquities are forgiven. 14:48 I love New King James here, whose lawless deeds, in other 14:50 words, violations of God's covenant law. 14:54 --And what's the next phrase, whose what? 14:55 --Whose sins are covered. 14:57 But just the idea that there's a standard here. 15:00 God's covenant and the law which is the outworking of that 15:05 covenantal connection that God made with Abraham and his 15:07 descendants, and we are in violation of that. 15:10 --So, he doesn't remove the standard in order to save us, he 15:13 becomes the justifier while still being just to his own. 15:18 --It's powerful, and I think about this. 15:20 This is really something that impacted me early in my teenage 15:23 years, again, I have a lot of experiences from my teenage 15:26 years. 15:28 So, I was working in a hospital and I had a boss, Scott , who, 15:29 he was, really wasn't close to him in one sense, but 15:34 in another sense, you know, he was someone I looked up to. 15:37 I respected him. 15:38 And one day, back in my partying days, one day, I didn't come 15:42 into work. 15:43 You know, I was, and when you don't come into work, you know, 15:45 call in to work, guess what happens. 15:47 You get fired, you get fired. 15:49 So, I went in the next day simply to be told I was fired 15:53 and get my stuff and leave, and when I got in there, my 15:55 supervisor said, Scott wants to see you in his office. 15:59 And I said, well, why? 16:00 I said, I know I'm fired, I'm just gonna get my stuff. 16:03 So, I went ahead and went into his office and it was really an 16:07 embarrassing moment, I really didn't even wanna see him, I 16:09 didn't wanna, you know. 16:10 And I said, hey, you know, and he said how's it going, 16:14 and basically just hung my head, and didn't have anything 16:18 to say, and he said, you know, why didn't you show up 16:22 yesterday, and I told him, you know, I was partying, and I 16:24 didn't wake up, and I know it's my bad and I understand the 16:27 situation, I just had a friend who was fired for 16:29 that very same reason. 16:30 --From the same place? 16:32 --Yeah, that I had roomed with. 16:34 And he said to me, he said, Jim, that's what I went by back then. 16:40 He said, Jim, he said, we're not gonna fire you. 16:45 I was, it was incredulous to me, we're not gonna count your 16:48 iniquities against you, we're not gonna fire you. 16:50 And I'll tell you what, the impact of that manifestation of 16:55 grace, I so respected Scott from that day forward and so worked 17:02 and did my best and wanted to just live up to that, you know 17:08 what I'm saying? 17:09 To the way that he treated me so that I could become everything 17:12 that he seemed to be imposing upon me, not imposing upon me. 17:16 --Did he basically say, I'm just curious, like, you're a valuable 17:19 employee, we just really want, did he give any reason? 17:21 Or did he just say, we're not gonna do it? 17:22 --No, he just, there was this unspoken, he knew where I was at 17:27 that time, he knew my background, he knew that this 17:30 was it. 17:31 --You made a mistake. 17:32 --That I made a mistake, and this was it for me, I was on my 17:33 own, I was a teenager, on my own, this was all I had, there 17:35 was nothing else, who knows where I could've gone, and I 17:38 remember, after I left, I remember meeting him on the 17:41 street. 17:42 Even, he even talked to me before I left and he said, there 17:44 was just this atmosphere around him of I believe in you, that's 17:50 what it was, I believe in you. 17:51 --Those are powerful words. 17:52 --They're powerful. 17:53 And that atmosphere is a powerful atmosphere, and it 17:56 impacted me. 17:57 --And we're getting to that, right once we get to the second 17:59 half of this chapter, we get into some of those concepts. 18:02 --And that's what we're seeing here in the gospel, God is 18:04 exercising faith toward us. 18:06 He believes in us, he sees in us something that we don't even see 18:10 in ourselves. 18:11 --Well, the potential that he sees is a realized fact in 18:17 Christ. 18:18 So, the objective reality of the holy history of Jesus Christ 18:24 that is fully complete, right there for the whole universe to 18:28 see, God the Father looks at Christ and says, yeah, that is 18:34 all of their potential through association with Christ. 18:39 It's a powerful vote of confidence. 18:42 We have to take a break, but we'll continue through Romans 4 18:46 in just a moment. 18:49 [Music] 18:54 --Hi, I'm Ty Gibson, welcome to digma.com. 18:57 I am so excited about this website because you're about to 19:00 discover a powerful new way to share life transforming messages 19:05 and videos with your family, friends, and anybody else on the 19:09 planet who has access to a computer. 19:12 Digma is a Greek word. 19:14 It basically means, to show or to reveal something by means of 19:18 a pattern or an example of some kind. 19:20 It's the second half of the word, paradigma, from which we 19:24 get the English word, paradigm, as in paradigm shift. 19:29 And so, what you're going to find at digma.com is a growing 19:31 library of short videos and transcripts dealing with 19:35 paradigms and fundamental questions. 19:38 What's the meaning of life? 19:40 What is our origin and destiny as human beings? 19:44 What happens when we die? 19:46 Does God exist or are we alone in this vast universe? 19:51 Why is there so much evil and suffering in our world? 19:55 An estimated 70% of Americans have a computer right in their 20:00 home and stay in touch with their family and friends by 20:03 email, and more than 400 million people are active on Facebook, 20:08 and 5 million new users are signing up every week. 20:13 We are literally in the midst of a communications revolution of 20:18 massive proportion. 20:20 This is granting the gospel direct and easy access to 20:25 millions upon millions of homes and hearts, and that's what 20:30 digma.com is all about. 20:33 It's a tool for leading our family and friends on an 20:36 exciting paradigm shift by revealing the truth of God's 20:40 creating power and his incredibly beautiful character 20:45 in contrast to our world's popular misconceptions about who 20:50 God is. 20:52 [Music] 21:04 --Alright, here we go, boys, straight through Romans 21:05 chapter 4. 21:06 We left off before the break at verse 8, was it? 21:09 --We finished 7 and 8. 21:10 --Alright, and Jeffery, you're walking us through. 21:12 --Verse 9, does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised 21:17 only, or upon the uncircumcised also? 21:21 For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for 21:25 righteousness. 21:26 Well, how then was it accounted? 21:28 While he was circumcised or uncircumcised? 21:32 Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. 21:35 --Maybe we should just stop there for just a moment, because 21:38 verse 11's gonna get a little technical. 21:39 You can summarize what he's saying in 9 and 10 fairly 21:42 simply. 21:44 He's using circumcision here as a, he's just talking about the 21:48 Jews. 21:49 In other words, does the blessedness of the forgiveness 21:52 of sins and being in a right relationship with God come only 21:54 to those who have, what he's gonna call in a moment, the sign 21:58 of the covenant? 21:59 Right, he's asking that question. 22:01 --And the uncircumcised would be gentiles. 22:03 --And so, he's gonna ask the question, we said, we just said 22:07 a moment ago that Abraham believed God and it was 22:09 accounted to him for righteousness. 22:10 He says, so here's my question, when was it accounted? 22:14 How then was it accounted? 22:15 Before or after he had the sign of the covenant? 22:18 --That's good reasoning. 22:19 --It's beautiful logic. 22:20 It's gonna pop right here in a second, because if it was 22:23 before, it was before he anything about it, therefore, it 22:26 must have been, it must have had nothing to do with him doing it. 22:30 --We should say, too, especially with the case of Romans, these 22:34 are undoubtedly the sermons that Paul preached dozens or probably 22:38 hundreds of times in the various cities that he was travelling 22:41 to, and so, when Paul is writing here, or having his friend write 22:46 for him, whatever the case may have been, he anticipates, he 22:49 knows what the objections are gonna be, he knows the Jewish 22:52 way of thinking, and so, he is so methodical and careful and 22:56 intentional, he's just walking through, you can feel, as it 22:59 were, the noose tightening, or the, you can just feel it on an 23:04 old way of thinking, say, I got a question for you. 23:06 We said that Abraham was, because a Jew would 23:09 automatically wanna say, a first century Jew would say, well, 23:11 let's talk about Abraham, what about Abraham, say, okay, let's 23:13 talk about Abraham. 23:14 What should we say about Abraham our father, concerning the 23:16 flesh? 23:17 And then he just starts to tighten the knot. 23:19 --But what, to me, what's fascinating is that he doesn't 23:22 base his gospel message on any new thing as you're saying. 23:27 He says, okay, let's go look at the scripture. 23:29 Let's look at your scriptures. 23:31 --Abraham was accounted righteous before he was 23:33 circumcised, and while the noose is tightening for those who are 23:38 parochial as Jews and elitist, at the same time, imagine how 23:43 the gentiles are hearing this. 23:44 If Paul is preaching this from city to city and gentiles are 23:47 hearing him preach, this is opening a door to them. 23:51 What in the world? 23:53 Because all we've known is rejection and marginalized, 23:57 we're pushed to the edges, there's no way God is for them 24:01 and not for us, that's the message that's been coming 24:04 through, and then suddenly, wait, this guy is saying that 24:08 it's for us, too? 24:09 --And like you said of Jesus, no wonder they tried to kill him. 24:12 He was saying some revolutionary things. 24:14 --Okay, so now, 11, you should probably read just 11 and 12, 24:18 because that then is gonna take some unpacking. 24:21 --And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the 24:26 righteousness of the faith which he had while still 24:29 uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who 24:35 believe, though they are uncircumcised, that 24:39 righteousness might be imputed to them also. 24:42 And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the 24:46 circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which 24:53 our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. 24:59 That is, I love the fact here that before the sign was given, 25:05 so in other words, they took the sign, they replaced the reality 25:11 of the thing with the sign, not realizing that the circumcision 25:15 was just a sign of the thing. 25:18 --One pointed to the other. 25:20 --And they flipped it. 25:21 --Circumcision was indicative of something else. 25:24 It wasn't in itself a means to the end. 25:28 --It was a sign. 25:29 --It was a sign of something that he says, Abraham already 25:32 had before the thing, the physical thing took place. 25:37 --And this is just, just think about the chronology of Genesis. 25:40 God appears to Abram, says, get out of your country, makes a 25:43 covenant with him in 12, 13, 14, and 15, okay, so that's just, we 25:47 can do the math, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 is the experience with 25:52 Ishmael and Hagar, 17 is circumcision. 25:56 So, what comes first? 25:57 Circumcision or covenant? 25:58 That's Paul's whole point, what comes first? 26:01 Was he circumcised? 26:03 And God said, now that you are ready, well done, I will 26:07 establish my covenant with you. 26:08 He says, actually, on the contrary, he had already 26:10 established a covenant, and circumcision was a sign that he 26:13 had tried to do for God what God was going to do for him. 26:17 Remember, we talked about that, it wasn't just randomly snipping 26:19 things off, it was cutting this particular thing off because 26:22 that's the thing that Abraham was trying to use. 26:24 --That's where he thought his potency, his power resided. 26:27 --Exactly, and so, in the... 26:30 --It's simple chronology, in other words. 26:32 --Here's a crucially important point, not only for us here, but 26:35 especially for our viewers, when Paul here says, this is a sign, 26:39 a seal of the righteousness that he had, a sign of righteousness. 26:44 In Genesis 17, it's called a sign of the covenant. 26:48 Paul's not playing fast and loose here with language, he's 26:53 saying righteousness but it's really covenant, he's saying 26:54 covenant, it's really righteousness. 26:55 These are one in the same. 26:56 --One in the same thing. 26:57 --These are one in the same thing, and he's gonna be 26:58 driving, driving, driving to this point, which is crucial to 27:01 all of Romans, that is for the Jew and the Greek, it's for the 27:04 Jew and the Greek, it's for the Jew and the Greek. 27:06 And here, I think he's making two major points, number one, 27:09 he's talking about access to God on the basis of faith, faith in 27:12 the goodness of God and what Christ has done. 27:14 But number 2, the universal connectivity that God has with 27:18 not just the Jews that are circumcised, but with the 27:21 gentiles as well. 27:23 He's driving at these 2 major points. 27:25 --That's exactly what I was gonna say, because it says, in 27:27 this way, verse 11, he might be the father of all those who 27:29 believe, though they are uncircumcised. 27:32 --The father of all who believe. 27:35 --Which is so bizarre because the sign of circumcision became 27:39 this exclusive thing when the whole point was to include, to 27:44 be a sign of those who believe even though they're 27:47 uncircumcised. 27:48 --And at this point, it becomes obsolete, it's completely 27:52 unnecessary now because the thing that it indicated has 27:56 become reality in Christ. 27:58 --Yeah, that's right. 28:00 --So, where are we? 28:01 --We're in 13. 28:03 --We're in verse 13? 28:05 --Yeah, 4:13. 28:06 --For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not 28:09 to Abraham or to his seed through the law. 28:13 --To his descendants. 28:14 --But through the righteousness of faith. 28:16 --There it is, through the, this is so important, the fact that 28:21 God would do in Abraham and through Abraham something that 28:24 would bless all the nations of the earth was not something that 28:27 he did by his works, by something that he did. 28:32 It was the thing that God called, God promised, God 28:35 covenanted and Abraham believed. 28:39 That's his point. 28:40 --And God fulfilled. 28:41 --And God fulfilled. 28:42 --The child, Isaac, was the child of promise, and God, by 28:45 his own miraculous intervention, yeah, so the point, again, is 28:54 that God is the active agent in the entire process and Abraham's 29:00 role is to see God for who God is for what God is doing and by 29:06 faith, to apprehend those facts. 29:08 --To believe it. 29:09 --It's the same point over and over again. 29:10 Just different angles. 29:11 I'm gonna go, verse 14? 29:13 --Verse 14, yeah, let's just go right through. 29:14 --For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made 29:18 void, and the promise made of no effect because the law brings 29:24 about wrath, for where there is no law, there is no 29:27 transgression. 29:29 Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace 29:33 so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only 29:38 to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the 29:43 faith of Abraham who is the father of us all. 29:47 --He's used that word now, father, at least twice in this 29:50 chapter. 29:52 The father of us all, and up here in 11, he spoke about him 29:55 being, or in 12, the father of the uncircumcised. 29:58 And he's using here those that are of the law and those who 30:03 believe like Abraham, again, that's just another distinction 30:06 in the same way that it was circumcised, uncircumcised, for 30:09 the Jew who has access to God's written law, codified law, and 30:15 the gentile who didn't. 30:16 And he's saying, you're it, for the Jew, you're in because you 30:20 are connected to Abraham, particularly if you have the 30:23 faith of Abraham. 30:25 And to the non-Jew he says, same. 30:26 He's the father of us all. 30:28 --Because it's a matter of relation to God, it's not a 30:33 matter of genetics. 30:36 --That's right. 30:37 --So, Abraham is the template, if you will, of what it looks 30:42 like to relate to God as God really is, and to put utter and 30:47 complete confidence in God by virtue of who God is. 30:52 And that's accessible to literally anyone. 30:56 --There's another thing that we have to say here, and you quoted 30:58 not this session, James, but in the past you took us, and I'm 31:01 sure we'll end up there again, to Galatians 3 where Paul says 31:05 that if you're Abraham's seed then you're Christ's and you're 31:10 heirs, and he goes on to say there's not Jew or Greek, 31:11 there's not male or female, there's not slave or free, for 31:14 Paul there was, the gospel was not just about your personal 31:18 walk with God and your personal walk with God as if something 31:20 this magnificent and awesome could be internalized and 31:26 isolated from the larger reality that God is connecting people to 31:29 people, not just individuals in their own private, internal 31:32 relationship to God. 31:33 He's like, no, there's, he's the father of us all, you just see 31:37 the pastoral, godly heart of Paul longing to see, in this 31:42 particular case, in the immediate context, the church at 31:44 Rome reconnected both Jew and gentile. 31:49 There's a history there, there's a context there that we don't 31:51 have to go into. 31:52 --Small clarification, I've never taken you there, Jeffery's 31:54 the one who's taking us to Galatians a couple times. 31:56 I can see why you thought it was me, because we look so much 31:59 alike. 32:00 --So similar. 32:02 --Actually, it was myself, and I don't look anything like either 32:08 one of them. 32:09 --It was somebody. 32:12 --It was both of you. 32:13 --The next verse. 32:14 --Verse 17. 32:15 --This is my favorite. 32:16 --No, no, no, this is my favorite in this chapter. 32:19 --To me, this is the part in the chapter, I think. 32:20 --I think you should arm wrestle. 32:21 You're on appropriate sides of the table. 32:23 --Verse 17 is your favorite? 32:25 --Verse 17. 32:26 As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in 32:32 the presence of him whom he believed. 32:36 God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do 32:42 not exist as though they did. 32:46 To me, that's the text right there. 32:49 --That's the phrase from which we draw the title that we're 32:52 giving to this conversation. 32:54 And that is righteous before the fact. 32:58 Now, one of two things is happening here, when it says 33:01 that God calls those things which do not exist as though 33:05 they do, either God's lying, he's creating a fiction that 33:10 he's believing himself and hoping we'll believe, or God is 33:16 relating in a way that is consistent with covenant 33:22 faithfulness. 33:24 Do you see what I'm saying? 33:25 In what sense would God call those things which do not exist 33:29 as though they do exist. 33:32 Well, the context, as we've just read, is righteousness. 33:35 So, we can put it this way. 33:36 God is calling us righteous even though we're not, but not for 33:43 the purpose of grounding us in unrighteousness, not for the 33:47 purpose of justifying or condoning unrighteousness, but 33:52 for the very purpose of arousing in us a response to him that is 33:59 consistent with the response we see in Abraham. 34:01 --Like what happened with Scott on my job. 34:04 --Absolutely. 34:05 --I didn't deserve, there was no way that I should've maintained 34:07 that job, but he treated me as though there was nothing that I 34:12 did that I could just continue to work there. 34:14 And that called me up to that, caused me to want to live out. 34:19 --It's an act of faith. 34:22 --He spoke that reality into you. 34:24 It's so powerful how the gospel speaks a reality into us and 34:31 then we become that reality. 34:33 For example, do you remember the proverb, I think it's Proverbs 34:38 chapter 27, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. 34:40 So, basically, your frame of mind, who you perceive yourself 34:47 to be, that's who you will become. 34:49 So, all of these beautiful promises where God tells us what 34:53 we will be before we are, he is speaking that reality into us. 34:57 Check this out, so, in my life, there's been, in the last 2 35:00 years, my wife and I have been ministering to this young lady 35:05 and it's young lady, a young teenager who's struggling 35:09 through life, trying to figure things out through rebellion and 35:12 so forth, and it's so profound when somebody is struggling 35:16 academically, somebody is struggling socially, somebody's 35:20 struggling just in and of themselves to relate to their 35:23 family and everything. 35:24 And my wife told me, you know what, instead of speaking 35:27 negativity, instead of always speaking down, let's do the 35:31 opposite, let's just turn the tables, let's confuse this 35:34 teenager, and let's speak up. 35:38 You can do this. 35:40 No, you can do this, no, you're the type of person that can do 35:43 this, you have what it takes. 35:44 You see what I'm saying? 35:46 I'm telling you, academically, it's just, ping. 35:48 --What you're describing, Jeffery, is the identity shaping 35:53 power of fatherhood or parenting. 35:56 The child that is raised by a father or a mother that is 36:02 speaking to the child of negativity and failure, 36:07 magnifying their failures, you're stupid, you'll never 36:10 amount to anything, I can't believe you would do that kind 36:12 of thing, the child begins to have that vision of himself or 36:17 herself, and precipitously, that person, that child's life begins 36:21 to reflect what the parent has prophesied over them. 36:26 --They will fulfill that prophecy. 36:27 --Yeah. 36:29 Reverse it, though, if you speak success over a child, if you 36:31 prophecy, so to speak, I'm using the word loosely there, if you 36:35 say to the child, you're incredible, I love you, you're 36:38 gonna amount to something great, you're the kind of person that 36:40 doesn't lie, I expect from you the best. 36:44 Then the child begins to aspire to the thing, to the vision, as 36:48 it were, so fatherhood, motherhood is a scripting 36:52 process, so to speak. 36:53 And that's what we have taking place in scripture. 36:55 A story is being written, a new biography. 36:59 The Jews are thinking, biology. 37:02 Jesus is thinking biography. 37:04 That's the difference here. 37:06 --That's a great way of saying it. 37:07 --Yeah, Jesus is rewriting the history of Israel, and he's 37:11 inviting anybody to identify with that history. 37:14 So, when the text says that God calls those things which do not 37:18 exist as if they do, there's a sense in which it's directly 37:22 parallel to back up in verse 7 and I exercise a great deal of 37:26 self-control not to mention this back when we read verse 7, but 37:29 God covers our sins. 37:33 Covers? 37:34 Covers our sins? 37:36 Why would he cover our sins? 37:37 That sounds like a cover up. 37:40 No, he covers our sins in the sense that love covers sin. 37:45 He's relating to us as if we're innocent and righteous in order 37:50 to generate and produce innocence and righteousness in 37:55 us. 37:57 --That is a significant gospel truth, I think, and so much more 38:03 of that needs to be preached in our churches, in our homes, this 38:07 idea that if the sinner would simply believe what God says, 38:13 the sinner will become the fulfillment of that prophecy. 38:15 --Follows right believing. 38:18 A later place in Romans, Paul calls the scriptures, the Old 38:22 Testament scriptures the word of faith. 38:24 Well, who's word is it? 38:27 It's God's word. 38:29 The bible, the Old Testament specifically is a collection of 38:32 promises and declarations in the form of songs and prophecies and 38:36 enacted history. 38:38 The Old Testament is a series of promises and declarations that 38:43 God is speaking over us in order to give us something to aspire 38:49 to. 38:50 It's an amazing thing. 38:51 He's faithing, as it were, righteousness into existence. 38:54 --I gotta share this verse. 38:55 --Okay, go, because I got something I wanna share, too. 38:57 --You share first. 38:58 --Mine will be very quick. 39:00 When the woman was caught in adultery, we often quote and 39:02 say, go and sin no more. 39:05 But what Jesus said first is, neither do I condemn you. 39:09 I think higher of you. 39:12 Now, go and live the belief that I have in you, the expectation 39:17 that I have of you. 39:19 And that's the 10 commandments. 39:20 We often say, you will not, you will not, you will not, you will 39:23 not, right, but what it's actually, and we say shall not, 39:26 but it's actually, it's you won't. 39:28 --It's a promise. 39:30 --You won't and you won't and you won't and you won't, and 39:32 those 10 commandments in Exodus 20 were spoken to a delivered 39:36 people. 39:37 Not, you're on probation, let's see how it works out and come 39:42 and talk to me, which is his point here about circumcision. 39:44 He wasn't like, hey, go get circumcised, then come talk to 39:45 me. 39:46 You do a little something, I'll do a little something, it's 39:48 economic, as you said. 39:49 He says, no, you're delivered, and you're not only delivered 39:51 from Egypt geographically, you're delivered from that way 39:55 of living, and you won't and you won't and you won't, and you 39:57 won't, and when that is spoken over them, it creates. 40:02 --This is the gospel. 40:03 --They're prophetic figurations. 40:04 --The last thing I wanna say is, if it's powerful when a father 40:07 speaks over a child, if that's powerful, when a mother speaks 40:10 over a daughter, when a father speaks over a son, if that's 40:12 powerful, when a friend speaks to a friend and faiths them, 40:15 says, I know you can, what is it when God speaks? 40:18 Because God's word creates the thing that it says. 40:21 --It depends on your vision of God and that's why the whole 40:23 storyline is set in Satan's attempt to misrepresent and 40:30 distort our picture of God so that our picture of God becomes 40:34 insignificant and even less than perhaps the words that would 40:39 come from other human beings. 40:40 --I don't know if we have enough time to unpack this. 40:42 --We have to take a break, we're obligated to take a break, but 40:45 we're coming right back into this. 40:47 Truth is not merely a list of theological facts, but rather 40:52 the revelation of God's beautiful love in Jesus Christ. 40:55 Truth Link is a series of bible study guides that magnify God's 40:59 love as the center of every bible doctrine. 41:02 To receive your free copy of lesson one, call 877-585-1111, 41:10 or write to Light Bearers 37457 Jasper Lowell Road, 41:13 Jasper, Oregon 97438. 41:15 Once again, to receive your free copy of Truth Link, lesson one, 41:20 call 877-585-1111, or write to Light Bearers 41:26 37457 Jasper Lowell Road, Jasper, Oregon 97438. 41:33 --A number of years ago, I had an experience that really 41:37 illustrated to me the dynamics of the gospel that we're just 41:41 fleshing out here in Romans chapter 4. 41:43 I was away on a trip, actually, Sue was with me, and we had a 41:47 new car, it was the first time we had ever had a new car, we 41:52 were actually paying monthly payments on it. 41:53 We owed most of the money on this car. 41:55 --I hate having car payments. 41:56 --Yeah, so do I, and I don't have one now, and I'm really 42:00 happy about that, but I'll tell you what, I had one then and it 42:01 was really significant. 42:03 We're away on a trip and I get a call from my secretary, she 42:08 says, I've got some bad news for you, sit down. 42:12 Okay, what's the bad news? 42:15 I won't say the name, a young man whom I love dearly, a young 42:19 man without a driver's license, without insurance to cover him, 42:23 and without permission had taken our new car that we owed most of 42:29 the money on for a drive up our country road and totaled the 42:34 thing. 42:36 Bent the frame, the thing was completely totaled and we still 42:40 owed. 42:41 --He was alright? 42:42 --Yeah, he was alright, and the girl that he had with him was 42:44 alright. 42:45 --He was showing off. 42:46 --So, okay, well, all right, thanks for telling me, we get 42:50 home, long story short, we're at our house, the car's in the 42:54 driveway, they towed it there, it's there in the driveway 42:58 completely wrecked and a day or two after we get home, we hear 43:03 this weak, guilty knock on the door, and I mean, we're 43:08 thinking, and I'm thinking, I'm gonna have some fun with this. 43:11 So, I go to the door, and I open, and there he's standing 43:13 there, and I say, oh, how's it going? 43:15 He can't even get eye contact with me. 43:19 His entire body language is communicating a sense of guilt 43:22 and he's overwhelmed. 43:24 I invite him in, he sits down, Sue and I are sitting across 43:27 from him and we're just silent. 43:28 So, what's up? 43:31 Well, I guess that you know that, you've seen. 43:33 Oh, yeah, we've seen. 43:35 Well, I took your car, and I know I didn't have permission 43:39 and I'm really sorry, and there's just all this guilt and 43:45 he explains the whole thing and then he's got a plan. 43:48 But I'm gonna quit school and I'm gonna get a job and I'm 43:51 gonna sign all my paychecks over to you for the rest of my life. 43:54 I'm so sorry. 43:55 He is so remorseful he doesn't know what to do and we, in so 44:01 many words, say to him, listen, we can deal with this, you 44:07 can't. 44:09 We can take care of this, you can't take, we don't want you to 44:13 quit your job, we don't want you to sign your paychecks over, we 44:17 can deal with this. 44:21 In so many words, without saying the words, you're off the hook, 44:24 you're forgiven. 44:25 Your sin's covered. 44:26 We're regarding you as righteous even though we know you're as 44:29 guilty as the day is long. 44:31 And I'm tempted, because I'm carnal, and I'm thinking in my 44:34 mind, paychecks signed over for life? 44:36 This actually sounds good. 44:38 I said, Sue, can we go for this? 44:41 She goes, no, she knows me. 44:42 And so, this kid goes from our house and he doesn't know how to 44:48 process this. 44:50 Fast forward, we have a beautiful relationship, a number 44:54 of years pass by, he has a driver's license now, we have a 44:57 different car, and somebody needs to go and make a Costco 45:00 run for the ministry for an event that we're doing. 45:03 And it was so fun to just take my car keys, because he was 45:07 gonna make the run, but he didn't have a car that he could 45:09 take, and just dangled my keys in front of him, take mine, take 45:14 my car. 45:15 No, no, no, I could never drive your car. 45:18 This kid was radically impacted just by the relational 45:25 interaction of not being held accountable for what he did, but 45:30 here's the remarkable thing, we didn't cover the sin. 45:34 --The car was still totaled in your driveway. 45:36 --And we're still making the payments, but we didn't cover 45:39 the sin in order, or with the hope or with the desire or with 45:44 the aspiration that he'd do it again. 45:47 There was power in relating to him in that way that bonded us 45:53 on a level that was not possible by any other means. 45:57 What's happening in the gospel, remarkably, is God is not 46:02 calling us to account, not in order to justify or to condone 46:09 ongoing sin, he's not covering sin to perpetuate it, that's the 46:15 only way it can actually be overcome. 46:17 He's vanquishing evil by love and forgiveness, it's the most 46:23 powerful influence in the universe, you guys. 46:26 --You reminded me of the whole Romans 2:4, that the goodness of 46:30 God will lead you to repentance. 46:33 --That's awesome. 46:34 But so often when we hear, or too often, when we hear sermons 46:37 on repentance, it's not communicated that way, it's 46:42 communicated, hey, dude, you gotta get your act together, 46:44 because if not, you won't be saved. 46:46 You know, it's always, there's a black cloud hanging over and you 46:48 gotta get out from underneath that cloud rather than the way 46:50 that you're describing it, the way that Paul is describing it, 46:54 the way that Jesus articulated it. 46:56 I liked what you said in the last session, speaking, faithing 46:59 the person. 47:00 You know, using faith as a verb. 47:02 God is faithing us, he is saying, no, you're gonna do 47:06 this, I won't impute your trespasses to you. 47:08 I will cover your sins and you watch what happens. 47:12 --And that's empowering. 47:13 --Some people get nervous with this, you know, I've been 47:15 nervous with this because the tendency is to think that this 47:18 will automatically produce license to sin, but the fact is, 47:22 as James described in his experience with his employer 47:27 that didn't hold him accountable for his sin, and as I've 47:29 described in my experience with this young man, totaling in my 47:33 car, and as you've described in your relationship with this 47:35 young lady, the fact is that the grace of God is the only power 47:40 powerful enough to actually deal effectively with the sin problem 47:46 in our lives. 47:47 --Because it deals with the root. 47:48 The root is relational, it's love. 47:50 All that we can do, at best, is stop doing outwardly and 47:54 externally certain violations of the letter of the law. 47:58 So, what do we end up with when we have that? 48:00 We have the Pharisees in the New Testament, who are whitewashed 48:02 tombs on the outside, who are not outwardly, apparently 48:06 violating any legal code, but their hearts are not drawn to a 48:10 God of love, a God of goodness, a God of magnanimity. 48:13 It's the only, what you said is exactly correct, Ty, it's the 48:16 only thing. 48:18 If people have a nervousness about it, it's not a 48:20 scripturally rooted nervousness. 48:23 It's a carnal, worldly nervousness that says, well, the 48:27 only way to extract right behavior from somebody is to 48:29 threaten them. 48:30 I mean, really, that's what we do, we say, if you disobey the 48:34 laws of the land, you go to jail, and I'm not suggesting 48:37 that in a civil society, that's not appropriate, but God's 48:39 operating on a whole other level. 48:41 He's winning our hearts. 48:43 --And this is the very gospel that Paul is preaching in 2 48:46 Corinthians to the church in Corinth, and it's really 48:49 powerful, let's just look at these verses in 2 Corinthians 48:51 chapter 5. 48:52 --I'm glad you're taking us there, by the way, because we 48:54 said, at the beginning, there are 2 passages we wanna look at, 48:55 Romans 4 and 2 Corinthians 5. 48:58 --And we said in the close of the last program, James, we're 48:59 gonna come back to you and you can read these verses, so here 49:02 we are. 49:04 We wanna look at these verses because, not because it's new, 49:08 not because there's something here that we haven't already 49:11 started to look at, but because it's just reaffirming and 49:14 helping us to process more clearly this powerful truth. 49:19 I'm gonna start in verse 14, just because I'm not sure how 49:21 much time we're gonna have and how many verses we're gonna be 49:24 able to cover, but I wanna make a couple of points here as I go 49:27 through these verses. 49:28 2 Corinthians 5:14 and 15 and then just, right into 16 and see 49:36 the way that that applies. 49:37 For the love of Christ constrains us because this is 49:41 the way we judge, that if one died for all, then all died. 49:46 Now, that's the New King James Version. 49:49 In other words, Paul is saying here in verse 14, if Jesus 49:52 Christ actually died for everyone and if the reason he 49:57 died for everyone, and I'm just ad libbing here, is because he 49:59 died for their sins, as it says in Isaiah 53, he bore the sins 50:04 of the many, he bore the sins of all. 50:06 Okay, if he died for the sins of everyone, then everyone actually 50:10 died in Christ because all of those who have sinned and 50:14 deserve the penalty of death have had that penalty paid for 50:18 in Christ and therefore all of them have been in a sense, all 50:23 of their penalties have been taken care of in Jesus Christ. 50:26 Okay, now, he goes on, what that means is this, that he died for 50:31 all that they which live should not henceforth live for 50:36 themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. 50:40 Therefore, and this is the key for me, now, we can unpack this 50:43 more, we can go back to these verses, you guys can talk about 50:46 them, but there's one point that I wanna make, and I don't know 50:48 that I'll have an opportunity to make this point any further, 50:51 because you guys are just filled with all kinds of great stuff, 50:53 so I'm gonna take the opportunity right now, yes. 50:55 --The enthusiasm at the table is high. 50:58 --Henceforth, notice this, we know no man after the flesh. 51:05 I wanna stop right there. 51:06 When I see a person who is living according to the flesh 51:13 and acting according to the flesh, and doing things that are 51:17 according to the flesh, and what Paul means by that is they're 51:19 sinning, maybe they're sinning against me, they're sinning 51:21 against others, they're taking my car without permission and 51:24 they're wrecking it. 51:25 When I see a person like that, I don't treat them according to 51:29 the flesh, I judge that Christ has died for those sins that 51:34 they're committing, whatever those sins are. 51:36 And so, I don't treat them according to the flesh anymore. 51:39 Now, when he gets done saying this, he says, Christ died for 51:42 everyone, he's paid the price for everyone, so now, when I see 51:45 someone, I don't treat them according to flesh, this is what 51:47 he says, and this is just a new idea. 51:51 Verse 17, therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new 51:56 creature. 51:57 Now, I apply that to myself, first and foremost, if I'm in 52:00 Christ, I'm a new creature. 52:01 But the context of what he's saying here is this, if you are 52:06 in Christ, you are a new creature in the way that you 52:11 look at other people. 52:12 You don't look at other people anymore according to the flesh, 52:15 you don't treat them according to the flesh, and we're gonna 52:16 find that as he opens this up in the following verses, that's 52:21 what he means, that's the primary understanding. 52:23 He doesn't mean, when you become a Christian, you are different, 52:27 he does mean that, that's implied. 52:28 --But you're different in a specific way. 52:30 --But the way that you're different, primarily is the way 52:33 that you look at other people. 52:34 --I could not agree more. 52:37 That is Paul's whole point in the entire passage of 52:38 2 Corinthians. 52:39 --Yes, that's the whole point. 52:40 And he summarizes that. 52:41 --We know that's the point because, as he goes on, he says 52:45 specifically down in verses 18 and 19 for example, now all 52:52 things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through 52:55 Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 52:59 that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to 53:04 himself, how? 53:06 By what means? 53:07 By what mechanism, David? 53:08 By not imputing their trespasses unto them and is committed to us 53:13 the word of reconciliation. 53:16 Now, then, because of this reconciliation that has 53:18 occurred, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were 53:22 pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be 53:27 reconciled to God. 53:29 It's incredible. 53:30 So, the way that God is relating, not only to us, but to 53:35 the whole world, is to not impute trespasses unto us, that 53:42 is, the whole world. 53:43 From God's side of the equation, he's reconciled, and so, he's 53:48 relating to us, back to Romans chapter 4, same idea here, he's 53:52 relating to us as if we're righteous ahead of the fact. 53:56 He's relating to us as if we're innocent ahead of our innocence, 54:02 while we're guilty. 54:03 --And Ty, and in verse, we just read it there, in verse 14 that 54:07 the love of Christ compels us, going back to the same point, 54:10 what is it that energizes us to action, the whole Romans 2:4 54:18 thing, the goodness of God leads us to repentance, the love of 54:20 God compels us. 54:22 So, you have all these themes that keep recurring. 54:24 --Let me show you something that I think is really profound, I 54:27 can show you part of it, but there is another part of it that 54:30 might be a little too much for the time that we have left, so 54:32 I'll give you what we can do and what we can't do, we might not 54:34 be able to. 54:36 But James's point, I think, is exactly on point that what Paul 54:40 is talking about here is not only a private, personal thing 54:42 that God is doing in my life, it's this universal thing that 54:47 God has done and then the fact that he is committed to us, the 54:50 word about that thing that he has done, and you see that Paul 54:54 does this in what I'll call the AB construct. 54:57 He first makes a statement of the universality of what God has 55:00 done, and then he makes a statement about what is now 55:03 given to you, and it's always a ministry to communicate that 55:06 universality. 55:07 So, watch, in 15, the A part, he died for all, which is just a 55:11 carryover from 14, he died for all, now, watch this. 55:13 That those who live should no longer live for themselves, but 55:17 for him who died for them and rose again. 55:21 So, he did this, so now we do this. 55:24 Okay, now look at 18. 55:25 All things are of God, who had reconciled to us, to himself 55:28 through Jesus Christ. 55:30 That's the thing that God has done. 55:31 Now watch, he has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. 55:35 Now, 19, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to 55:38 himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, that's what 55:41 God has done, now this, he's committed to us the word of 55:44 reconciliation. 55:45 Now, I know you all can take that. 55:46 But I think he's doing the same thing in verse 21, and I think 55:49 we sometimes misunderstand verse 21, we oversimplify it. 55:54 And it's little technical, but I want you to see the point. 55:57 Follow the same line of reasoning, just do the AB thing 56:00 that he's been doing, something that God does and then something 56:03 that we do, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, 56:08 that's the thing that God has done, now watch the part that we 56:09 do, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. 56:13 You say, what does that mean, how is that the thing that we 56:15 do? 56:16 Well, watch this, for me, I have to turn the page, look at the 56:20 very next thing that he says, there's no chapter break here, 56:23 we then, as workers together with him, also plead with you 56:28 not to receive the grace of God in vain and watch what he 56:30 quotes, in an acceptable time, I have heard you, in the day of 56:33 salvation, I have helped you, behold, now is the accepted 56:36 time, behold now is the day of salvation. 56:37 Guess where he's quoting. 56:39 He's quoting from Isaiah 49, now, let me just read you the 56:42 passage from which he's quoting, we were there already earlier, 56:46 --We were in Isaiah 42. 56:47 --Listen to this, Isaiah 49, look at this, Isaiah 49 verse 9, 56:51 in an acceptable time, I have heard you, in a day of 56:54 salvation, I've helped you, that's what he just quoted, I 56:56 will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to 57:03 restore the earth to cause them to inherit the desolate 57:04 heritages. 57:05 So, the thing, go back to verse 21. 57:07 --That's the ministry of reconciliation. 57:08 --That's the ministry of reconciliation. 57:09 --I see it. 57:10 --You see it, don't you? 57:11 So, when he says there in verse 21, he made him who knew no sin 57:14 to be sent for us, that's the thing that God did, so that we 57:17 could become God's, look at this, the righteousness of God, 57:20 we can become God's covenant faithfulness to the earth. 57:24 --That's what an ambassador is. 57:28 An ambassador is the highest representative from one 57:30 government to the next, government of heaven to the 57:32 government of the earth. 57:33 We are to represent what Christ is. 57:36 --What I love about what we're saying here is that, again, and 57:38 I know I've said this before, I wanna say it again, this is not 57:40 just some private, personal, internal thing. 57:42 It is that, but it's not only that. 57:45 It's something is happening on this level, and I think you're 57:48 exactly right, James, what he's saying is, what you see, that 57:51 person's not a black person, it's not a white person, it's 57:53 not a tattooed person, it's not a poor person, that's a person. 57:56 We don't regard anyone according to the flesh anymore, we can't 58:00 because we know what God has done for us. 58:02 --We relate to everybody according to their potential in 58:05 Christ. 58:06 --Based on what you said earlier, that the gospel is a 58:09 series of facts, historical data about the man Jesus. 58:15 We don't create that when we believe. 58:17 We access that and we say, hey, that wasn't just for Ty, that 58:20 wasn't just for Jeffery, that wasn't just for James, that was 58:22 for him and him and him and him and her and her and her and her, 58:24 and we become billboards, not just with our words, but with 58:29 our lives to communicate this, the love of God. 58:34 --We're essentially saying that the vertical downpour of God's 58:40 covenantal love upon us bleeds over into a horizontal 58:46 application of an expression of that same quality of covenantal 58:50 love in our acceptance of others. 58:52 That is extremely good news. 58:57 --It's challenging and it's good news. 58:59 --And it's good news. 59:01 --We have a new way of looking according to verse 17, we have a 59:03 new way of looking at the world. 59:05 --Hallelujah, that's what we need. 59:07 --Yes, we see people as they are in Christ. 59:09 [Music] |
Revised 2014-12-17