Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Related to God through propitiation

In the last several weeks, we've said, one, an understanding of the identification truths is essential to grasping the meaning of our unfathomable riches in Christ. There have been several different write-ups about our unfathomable riches. Schaeffer did one that was fairly detailed.

Hanson Keithley III. Both Mike and I have communicated with him. He's home with the Lord, so is his wife. I've communicated with both of them. But he simplified the list, and then Nancy, before Hampton Keithley went home, Nancy got permission to simplify it some more. And that's the one we're usually publishing here, is the one where Nancy got permission from Hampton Keithley, you got permission from Schaefer. So anyway. But with that and several others by, for example, Arnold Fruchtenbaum and George Zeller of Middletown Bible Church, different ones, have put together these summaries of our unfathomable riches.

What's different here is we're making, in Christ, and showing that our identification with Christ is the entry The basis on which we say that is we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. How many of them? Every. So we in the body of Christ, starting from Acts 2 to the day of the rapture, and I hope we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So it's the front entrance and the necessary prerequisite to all of our spiritual blessings. So that's why we're going through it with that understanding.

Next, in Christ we have redemption and forgiveness so as to be justified. So one of the other points that we're making that haven't necessarily been pointed out in some of these previous very excellent listings, so I'm not speaking ill of them at all, they've just been outstanding. But the additional point we're making is that these unfathomable riches have a sequence, at least in how they're presented and logically. Is anybody redeemed and forgiven if they're not in Christ? No. In Him, we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And so this is Ephesians 1.7, Colossians 1.14.

Or I could put together the next part of that sequence in Romans 3.24. We're going to be going over that in a matter of weeks here. We are justified through the redemption.

Exact same Greek word as in Ephesians 1.7, Colossians 1.14. through the redemption that we have in Christ.

So it's very clear, does anybody get to be in Christ as an unbeliever? Doesn't happen. So those who believe, and only those who believe, this is the church age, from Acts 2 to the rapture, only those who believe are in Christ Jesus. and therefore have the redemption and forgiveness of sins, which makes God able to say, put down the gavel, so to speak, and say, declared righteous. God does the declaring.

Are we fundamentally righteous? No. We've been forgiven and redeemed, and therefore God can declare us fundamentally righteous. And today we're going to go over Why God can declare us fundamentally righteous? How could we possibly be forgiven and redeemed? That's today's lesson. Yes?

I understand why it says, by God, but why does it also say, and before God? Is that because it's an announcement or something? Yes, that's an excellent question. Why by and before? So think of this. God declares us righteous. He does the declaring. Do I declare people righteous? Nah. Not happening. So it's not up to me to go around declaring anybody righteous. Why not? First of all, I can't pronounce myself righteous. Because God, who is fundamentally righteous, has to be the one who does it. Only he can do it. I can't do it for myself.

It's like I can pull up on the bottoms of my shoes as hard as I want. I'm not flying. I'm not floating. It's not happening. I cannot do it and none of the rest of us can do it. It doesn't matter how hard I try or how good everybody else thinks I am. It's not going to cut it because only God can do the declaring. So, that's part one. But the next thing is, God declares us righteous before God. And so this is, and we'll explain the difference there, why I make that distinction.

The word justified is in Romans and in Galatians. the exact same word for justified that is used in the book of James. And people really get that mixed up. You're justified in James by what? Works. Why is it, are Paul and James at each other's throats, just ready to choke each other? because Paul says it is not by works that I'm justified and James says it's by works that I'm justified. Are they just mad as hornets at each other and choking each other in an intense biblical argument that when they get together in Jerusalem they're just they're in a screaming fit with each other. Is that what's happening? No. As a matter of fact what we'll see in Acts 21 and what we'll see what we saw already in Acts 15 Jerusalem Council, there is absolutely no disagreement whatsoever evident between Paul and James.

James has justified, every time he uses it, before men, before other people. Doesn't he use the words you see often? Yes, and that's the thing. If you look carefully, both Paul and James will give a clue to their use of the language. James, you see is one of the ways in which he talks about this is before other people. So let's take it for instance. So here's Verne. Verne blew it big time. How can I possibly be declared righteous? Christ paid for Verne's sin. Paid for and the payment was made effective and applied because of the lead. The lead is four and a half.

Now, after I became a believer, did I ever sin again? Yup. Pick me, pick me. Just because I became a believer doesn't mean I don't sin anymore. And by the way, there are Christians who think that you can get to some place where you don't do that anymore. Good luck with that. But being declared righteous is God's doing, and it's before God on the basis of what Christ has done and accomplished. And my belief, that's it.

Now, I can do something in front of other people. The other people would look at it and say, oh, what Fern did, oh, that's terrible. Am I justified before other people? Am I declared righteous before others? No. That's what James is looking at. This is hypocrisy. This is inconsistency. It doesn't mean you're not declared righteous and justified before God. But before other people, in front of other people, and in the view of other people, I may do something that is not justifiable. I cannot declare it righteous, it is hypocritical.

That's what James is about. James is looking for consistency in outward expression that other people can say, yeah, that's a righteous guy. If I do something unrighteous as a believer, Others will look at it and say, Vernon, that's not righteous. I'll say, yeah, yeah, you're right.

But, does that change God's declaration of me that I'm righteous? It does not. And, do I somehow get my, if I sin and blow it, and everybody knows I blow it, right? If I sin and blow it and everyone knows I blow it, does God then say, well, sorry, that declaration you made, that's no good. It's not true, is it?

We have an advocate and a high priest before the Father. Do unbelievers have an advocate and a high priest before the Father? No. And it's because of ongoing sin. Satan is what he is, the continuing accuser. But Christ is our continuing advocate and high priest.

So others, even other believers, may look at me and say, Vern, what you're doing is not righteous. But it's still covered in heaven. Before God, that sin is dealt with. Even though other people might say, Vern, that was bad what you just did. what you just said, even though I might look at it and say, well, that was bad, what I just did. So that's before other people.

I will not be declared righteous before other people if I do things that are wrong and hypocritical. Before God, it's a done deal. and what I do wrong, even once I become a believer and am declared righteous before God, by God, that's one use of justified, declared righteous, and that's what you see in Galatians and Romans.

In James we're talking about before men, how will other men see it, and even how will the believers see it. So James is urging for believers for believers, for consistency in their living before other believers, and so that there is not disturbance within the body of Christ because of how I live. My standing in the commission is never affected. That's what Paul writes about in Galatians and Romans. James is talking about my behavior before other people, which may be justified, declared righteous by others, or they may look at it and say, uh-uh, that was really bad, right? Does that help, Sam?

Very much. Let's go on to the next one. Having been justified, declared righteous by and before God, we who believe and are therefore in Christ are under no condemnation. How much? Until 12, and then boy it's coming. Or is Christ pacing the floor of heaven and saying, I cannot wait until Verne gets here, I'm going to chew him up one side and down the other, I'm going to scorch that guy. What a jerk. So is that what Christ is anxious to do? No. He says at the last chapter of Revelation, I'm coming and my reward is with me. He's looking for how can I maximize the reward to the saints.

So, should we be terrified and fearful of the day that he comes? No. We should live in respect for it, and recognizing it for what it is, but not going about just shaking and saying, oh no, I'm afraid when I stand before Christ that it's going to be an ugly day.

I'm just sitting here thinking what a simple explanation for words, before God, before men, and how simple that is in my mind to helping me understand and not get confused every time somebody mentions something. And also the idea, of course you know you're secure, we've been taught that, but those words, just like reinforces the comfort of being secure in Christ. And what a motivator. Knowing that we are secure. This before God and before men is a very important thing.

People will be asked, do you think you're good enough to go to heaven? It's judged by whom? Before whom? Very important question. When Nancy and I were going to college, one of the journalists, I don't know if they were Christian or not, one of the journalists went around and did a poll around the campus and asked the students, do you think you're good enough to go to heaven?

It was amazing. Something like 80% of the people thought they were above average. Now you work out the math on that. Above average righteousness. And by the way, who cares whether you're above average or not? Because it's before whom does that matter? Before God, how many are righteous enough to go to heaven? None? Nada? All we like sheep have gone astray? None of us. None of us is getting through heaven's gates on our own righteousness. Not happening. Never, ever, no way.

So when people answer that question, they're usually saying, how am I righteous before men? And they compare themselves to other people. Not a good idea, because that's not the basis on which anyone is getting into heaven. even if you don't have your math quite squared away, where 80% of the people think that they're above average. OK, so now let's look down here. Having explored the words above, we now come to the word propitiation. How many of you have been propitiated this week?

It's a word we never use, is it? It might have to do with some sticky gummy stuff that comes out of a pine tree. So it's a word we just almost never use. I'd just about say for most people, they've never used it in their lives, out in the culture. So it's a word that has to be explained. Because out in the culture, it has no definition whatsoever.

So we could read propitiation and it could be blah blah blah, right? Because that's about what it means to most people. And they try to fit it into something about pitch. Maybe it has to do with music, or maybe it has to do with sticky trees, or who knows. So it's a word that is important for us to understand. And so what do we have? Right after the bold propitiation, the satisfaction of God's character of infinite, that's got to be understood, infinite holiness, righteousness, and justice. It is not relative holiness and righteousness and justice. This is where people get lost, don't they? Oh, I'm better than that guy. That guy's a murderer. This guy over here, he did that in X, Y, and Z. But I'm certainly better off than that guy. No, it doesn't help.

So compared to God's infinite holiness, righteousness, and justice, we just don't cut it. By the satisfaction of God's character, God is free to express then His grace and love towards us, things that are an infinite aspect of God's personhood, God's eternal character. And then He can establish a relationship with us, propitiation is included in the following New Testament passages. It's not a common word even in the New Testament. Now here, it is an uncommon, almost unheard of word in the common culture. Even among Christians, we rarely use it. Only in the New Testament is it only used a few times. Yes?

It's interesting too, because you're saying the good things of God's character, which is holiness, righteousness, and justice. But I always heard that propitiation was the satisfaction of God's thumos, or God's anger, which I guess anger is a resultant of the fact that he is just and righteous and sovereign. Yes, and so that's an important thing to get clear. You bring up a good point.

People can get those confused. Why would God be anxious or anger? Why would God express anger, have anger, have wrath, as it's often expressed? Why would God have wrath? Because he's righteous. Because he is holy and righteous and just, and until he is satisfied, Until he is propitiated, until he is satisfied of his holy character, his attitude towards sin is what?

Anger. Wrath. God can't just kind of relax about it and say, you know, sin, it just doesn't bother me as much as it used to. And if you satisfy the anger, then the love is able to be The love is an expression. God's grace and mercy are positive expressions of his character. Unless God's holiness and righteousness and justice, which are infinite, are satisfied, sin will always have the outcome wrath.

Which is separation. Yes, and that's an exact point. It's not that people sometimes say, well, God can't look upon sin. Well, that's not true. You can find verses in both the Old and New Testaments. By the way, He searches the hearts. And you can find verses that say the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit searches the heart of human beings. Does that mean He looks upon sin? Yep.

Sin is not God's kryptonite. All of a sudden, God just melts and becomes powerless and runs away scared and out of control. He doesn't do that because of sin. Sin doesn't do that to him. All of a sudden, God is powerless because he saw sin. No, that's not true. God's response to sin cannot be apathetic. God's response to sin can't be just a little, eh, oh well, boys will be boys. Burns will be burns, right? Yes. So for Christianity, it's truly a word that's only used between God and Jesus. Yes, and so this is key. So think about this. Let's put ourselves in the spot here. Here's God.

Here is mankind, starting with Adam and all the way to the rest of us, like a zipper, right? all the way to the rest of us, sin. Was Adam born in sin? No. He acted to be sinful such that the rest of us are born in sin. And that's the way it is all the way down the line for every single human being on the planet, period. Born in sin.

What's God's response to that sinfulness? He did, but what is his response? You're correct. What is his response to the sinfulness? His wrath. If it were simply God's holiness and righteousness and justice, and that was it. No grace, no love, no mercy. holiness and righteousness and justice, God's response to sin would be wrath. And could it be anything else?

And separation, death, remember we said that God told Adam in the garden, the day that you eat of it, you will die dying. You're going to double die. So here is God Adam sins, and based on God's holiness and righteousness and justice, if it were for that alone, that would be the end.

But what did he do so that the outcome was not, well, these people are all toast. They're going to die, die. And I'm going to be wrathful towards all of them. Permanently, always, forever, that's it. They're going to live, life will be hard, then they'll die, and then we get worse.

Right? He satisfied his righteousness with Christ coming. But why did he do that? Why would he? Because after all, wrath is the response to sin. So why would he? I mean, you're correct. He satisfied it, but why would he do that? Well, because he wants fellowship. Why do we want fellowship with us?

And there isn't any between darkness and light. So you have to remove the separation. Have to remove the separation, have to remove the cause for wrath entirely. in order to do, and why would he be motivated to do that, and what would be the outcome from dealing with satisfying God's holiness and righteousness and justice? Joy and fellowship. Pardon? Joy and fellowship. Okay, so there is that, and? He's also loved.

Ah, so let's say here's John 3.16, right? Anybody heard of that verse? For God so loved the world. By the way, does he love the world system? No. But God so loved the world, and that includes who?

All of us. God so loved the world of all those people, individual people, that he gave voluntarily, his only begotten son, that all of these people in the world, whosoever of them believes, will not perish eternally. be in a continual state of unraveling separation, but will have everlasting life. Yes. OK.

So if the anger would not have been satisfied, it would have been like the Greek gods and the fact that they were always angry toward men. But since the anger has been satisfied, God's giving mankind the option to choose to be a believer or a non-believer. He draws, I understand that. But the choice still comes down to man, now that the anger has been satisfied. But if the anger wouldn't have been satisfied, then it would have been a foregone conclusion that we were all lost.

We're going to see in the Acts lesson, just right after this, Paul's going to tell the people who are unbelievers there in Athens. He's going to tell them I see that you are very religious. You even have an altar to the unknown God. And why? It's because they believe in all sorts of gods, and even there's the, we don't want to offend any god we might have overlooked, so we have an altar to the God whose name we haven't fared out yet.

And the problem is with the gods, let's look at it back to Ephesians 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Did the gods of Greek and Roman pantheons, did those gods bless anybody? Sometimes. Yeah, what they did is you could work to earn their favor, okay? But would those gods say, well I love these people so much I'm going to do things to earn their favor on my own?

So you have a God totally unlike any of the Greek and Roman pantheon, or the Egyptians, because they brought in Egyptians and ones from farther in the east and everything else. So you have that radical difference. So here's Paul writing to the believers at Ephesus who are raised in this pagan pantheon. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with a God's given blessing.

It just didn't happen, right? With every spiritual blessing, what? I was just hoping to get this or that, you know? Instead, this one does every spiritual blessing, and the blessings I'm looking for is right here. I'm on heavenly... I have no hope of... any spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, I just want some here.

I want to win this next battle without getting injured badly, and I want to have that guy's wife, and when I steal here in the next five minutes, I want to make sure I don't get caught. So I want the gods to be favorable to me, right? And by the way, there wasn't the slightest thought of a man being faithful to his wife, or anything of the sort. People would pray to lie better and steal better with the pagan guts. And it wasn't for anything in the heavenly places. That just was not even thought of as a possibility in Christ. No thought of that at all. There's nothing like it. And who chose us in Him?

Everything he's saying from one phrase to the next is a bombshell in terms of their pagan mindset. We read, you know, and he predestined us to the adoption of sons, and we kind of go, okay, that's cool. I like adoption, it's nice. Nancy and I have four adopted grandchildren.

And that's nice, but this adoption of sons meant an adoption in which you were forgiven every trespass, forgiven every debt, and then made to have a standing, the highest standing in the land that is possible. The adoption of sons process, the first five emperors became emperors by the adoption of sons process. Every single one of them, verse 5, Augustus all the way to Nero, including Claudius we'll be talking about briefly here today, all of them became emperors by the adoption of sons process and it completely took them out of their old family connections and gave them an entirely new family, completely wiped out any past debts or crimes, completely gone.

And it was brought about to be in a state of unbelievably high privilege. The entire Roman Senate had to vote in favor of the adoption of sons. It was done in a public ceremony before everybody, but at least seven witnesses had to sign on this thing. It was approved at the highest levels. So you can imagine somebody who's just been the poorest slave in Ephesus hearing we have the adoption of sons.

They'd say, whoa, wait a minute! I've got to stop and think about this, right? They're mind-blown at this. Especially, you know, the gods, they were just hoping the gods would have some kind of favor on them. One of the reasons why Paul was let out of the prison so easily and quickly, not only had the magistrates blown it in terms of Roman law, But if you had an earthquake, the people were all convinced you got to God's mad. Whatever we did today, this last day that brought about this earthquake in the middle of the night, whatever we did the previous day, the gods are angry with us. And so you can imagine everybody storming the magistrate's house. You get those guys out of there! Right? And they're furious with them. Because it figured that the gods will get angry at anything, and you never know.

But a God that loved you, a God that would be willing to pay the price and the penalty for you, and to bless you with every spiritual blessing, and to be merciful. Grace was a word that was used for doing a favor for a friend or a relative that you didn't expect anything in return. It was also a greeting. But the idea that your enemy would pay the price to reconcile everything and then just bless you beyond belief was just completely foreign.

Can you imagine that? They're reading Ephesians and by the time Paul gets down to verse 14, beginning the sentence at verse 3, these people, they're rocked. They're going, wow, stop a minute, let me soak this up. I'm going to read this thing over again. Really? Read it again?

Wow, what a mind-boggling thought. That the God of the universe would have a problem with me, because after all, was there such a thing as sins to the average pagan mind? Not really. But then to have that explained, here's a God who is infinitely holy and just, and the separation and the wrath, he just takes care of that, all at his own expense. That was completely mind-boggling to these people. They'd read Ephesians, get halfway through what we call the first chapter, and they're just stunned. They're practically trembling, shaking. A God like that? Wow! Who ever heard of such a thing?

So God Himself, because He loved us, this is John 3.16, God so loved the world, He loved and He gave.

Galatians 2.20, Jesus loved and He gave.

Ephesians 5.2, He loved and He gave.

Ephesians 5.25, He loved and He gave. Did He love? Did He give?

It's loved and gave in John 3.16, Galatians 2.20, Ephesians 5.2 and 5.25. It's loved and gave, the same words every single time in the same sequence. God is immensely consistent about that. By the way, so does God love you?

What's his response to that? He gives. John wrote it. Paul wrote it. The Bible is entirely consistent on that. God loved and He gave. And how many of the pagan deities loved and gave? Not happening. Loved and gave. And Roy brought up a point earlier, Hebrews 12, 2. The joy set before Him, He endured the cross. So love brought Him to the cross as a motivation, right? The joy brought Him beyond the cross as a motivation. But what that tells us is God was immensely motivated. to pay the price for you and for me.

Could you say that love includes handling anger so that you're not angry anymore? I don't know how to say that. Here's this wrath, and the wrath comes from infinite holiness and justice and righteousness. But God's love and grace and mercy completely overcame infinite holiness and righteousness and justice. But God couldn't just say, eh, I'm not so uptight about sins as I used to be. Instead, what do you get?

God says, I will have Christ take upon himself the sins of the whole world. And he said of his son, I'm well pleased. I'm well pleased. Take upon the sins of the whole world. Matter of fact, here's John chapter 1. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away. He doesn't make them just disappear. He lifts them up off of us, the other half of that being that He bears them upon Himself. That's in Isaiah 53 and in Hebrews. He bears our sins, having lifted them up off of us, to take them upon Himself, voluntarily, because He loved us. And for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. and took those sins upon himself so that every single person who believes is then saved. God is completely satisfied by Christ's pain for every single sin. By the way, it was a bargain deal, 80%. Jesus had a special coupon that day for 75% of the sins to cover the whole thing. No, there wasn't a 25% off coupon or anything of the sort. Jesus paid full price. No bargain deals. God wasn't kind of winking.

There was total and absolute justice carried out so that God could offer his infinite grace and mercy to us. even wealth, riches of grace. You could look at these statements and say that they're just personification of God and trying to show God like man. which is what the Greeks had before Christ. Because they had no eyewitness, so to speak, of who God was. So when Paul writes these things about holiness, righteousness, justice, anger, love, and all these other things, he writes them in full knowledge because Jesus spoke of the Father in those terms, correct? But prior to Jesus, they really had They didn't really have anything. They had a few things in the Old Testament, but they really didn't have an eyewitness account of God.

Yeah, Jesus coming was not just a nice option. No. It wasn't just, hey that's a good touch God, you know, hey that was pretty cool. I mean, what a neat thing to do for you to come down and be with us. So it wasn't optional, okay? It wasn't just a nice touch, it wasn't a boy, that was a really kind gesture. That was really something for Jesus to put up with that. It was absolutely essential.

And everything before the cross pointed to that. Here these Jews are going around doing all these sacrifices and all sorts of different things. And they had sacrifices that are in the altar. They even had a scapegoat they let loose out in the desert. All kinds of things they did. And they sacrificed for all sorts of things. And just to make sure that everything was covered, then they'd have the Day of Atonement.

But the high priest would go in and just cover all the stuff that was kind of hung out and left over. Right? All these people, we know they add sacrifices for this and this and this, but in case they forgot something or overlooked something, here's the high priest, he goes in and does some more. But you better only do it on that one day, and you better go in and do it right. And it better be the right guy, or you guys are toast. Okay?

So all this big sacrificial system, and what does it do? It points to the real deal. It's symbolic and to point to the real deal. And so what do the Jews do? Here is God's Passover lamb, he walks into the temple courtyard, and we want to figure out how to get rid of it. As a matter of fact, figuring out how to get rid of the Passover sacrifice is going to be exactly what God wants to get done. Isn't that something?

So here they were doing things to picture what God would carry out in Christ. And their attempt to push it all out of the way, because they didn't believe Him, they didn't understand what was going on, carried out exactly what God had planned, what God had envisioned from centuries and millennia before. So here we have God's satisfaction, the satisfaction of God's holiness, righteousness, and justice, such that wrath could be taken out of the way. Completely.

Is God mad at you? Is God mad at you? What? Winnie, I've done terrible things. You sure God's not mad at me? It's really good, isn't it? Isn't it good? God's not mad at me. And by the way, how often and how many times has God punished me as a believer? Absolutely zero. There is therefore now no condemnation. Is God mostly satisfied? Slightly satisfied? More or less satisfied? More than satisfied. God is entirely, totally and completely Put it this way, 100% and put however many zeros you want behind the decimal point, satisfied.

The only reason that could happen is because of Jesus Christ. His coming was not optional. It wasn't just a nice touch. It wasn't the frosting on the cake. It was absolutely essential. God was satisfied and propitiated with regards to every single sin for every single person, whether they believed or not. By the way, that's not what they taught at the seminary where I went. They were Calvinists. Christ only died for the elect. But, but, as 1 John 2-2 puts it, God was propitiated, he was satisfied for our sins, not only ours, but for the sins of the whole world.

So what that says, is everybody on the planet going to be saved? No. Not happening. We know that's not the case. that not everyone on the planet could be saved, everybody is, by that measure, savable. Isn't that something? By that measure, in terms of Christ's payment for the sins of the whole world, everybody is savable. Is that efficient? For Christ to do that? Pay for sins?

By the way, does He know who's going to believe and who isn't? Yes, as a matter of fact, think about it, if you're in Christ as a believer, He doesn't do that with unbelievers, so He knew in advance every single one who would believe and who would not believe. And only those who believe are identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seed. Identification is only true for those who will come to believe, but he did it entirely on the basis of knowing in advance who's going to believe, who isn't. He even chose you before the foundation of the world, before he said, let there be light. How did he choose you?

In him. If that doesn't blow your circuits, I don't know why not. So we didn't get to all the paper, but we've talked about really all the subjects. Yes, I read between the lines and beyond the lines. But the question I have at the end, which is one worth our taking the time to talk about, and that is the title of this paper says what about propitiation? The title on the inside and on the footer.

Related to God through propitiation. And so because of God is completely satisfied, we now are related to God. But the question is, how are we related to God? How are we related to God? We are sons. Okay. We are sons. We are sons, and what else? We are a new creation in Christ. So one is we are in Christ, so that's location, but it's personal, not just real estate, right? So we're in Christ, but what else? And we're sons. We're reconciled, and so we'll talk about that. Because of propitiation, God being satisfied was the doorway for these other relationships. But what else besides sons?

We're brothers of Christ. Can you imagine that? You know, people think, oh, I mean, there are a whole bunch of people that think they're Christians or call themselves Christians. They think, well, heaven sakes, you know, I'm not sure if God's listening, but if I say so many things to Mary, you know, so many times, then she'll pass the good word along. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay? I have this Abba, Papa run into his lap and jump and scream. relationship with the Father, who is satisfied.

So we talk about being sons, also the word children, similarly put in there, and we'll talk about what that means. We have, as we mentioned earlier, the adoption of sons, which by the way is not exactly the same thing. The adoption of sons, are we done? So we're brothers. We have the adoption of sons. We're sons, which isn't the same thing. Also children. And so all of those are true.

But you know, it was really interesting. I enjoy studying genealogy type things and discovering, oh gee, I have relatives who fought on both sides of the Civil War. But the ones I'm most closely related to fought on the Union side. And then I look back there and I have a relative, Marquis de Lafayette, apparently a distant relative back there. And I had a relative who was one of the pilgrims who came and bought the third ship after the Mayflower. I go back through there and there's all this relationship.

But we would be able to do genealogical studies when we get to heaven to find out who the grandkids are and the great grandkids and the great uncles and all that. It's going to be a lot easier. It's going to be real simple because does God have any grandchildren? No. Does God have any grandnieces? No. So what's amazing, why can we say that? God has no grandchildren. God has no grandnieces. There's certainly not any great-greats. There's no grandchildren. There's no great-great-grandchildren. There's no grandnieces. In fact, there's no uncles.

Right? What's that? There's no nephews. I mean, the whole family tree thing, you know, I have this little chart about, you know, once removed and twice removed and, you know, second and third and, you know, what all that means. Heavens. About enough to fry your circuits. But, there's none of that, spiritually speaking.

We're either Christ's brothers or we're not at all. You are Christ's brothers as a believer in Christ. And you have the adoption of sons. And you are sons, which means something different. And you're children. And we're going to look at all that. And we have it because of why? What do you see in the title? Through the propitiation.

Because God was entirely and completely satisfied and it couldn't happen otherwise. Because unless God was entirely and completely satisfied by Christ's payment on the cross for every single one of our sins, none of that would happen. Here we have no condemnation. And we're going to find out adoption of sons means Yeah, you absolutely have no condemnation whatsoever. None at all.

Hmm, this is pretty amazing. Let's pray, okay? Thank you, Lord, for the amazing, wonderful, marvelous, eternally astounding things that you've revealed here for us. What an amazing gateway we walk through when we see, oh, we're in Him, and look at all the things that that means forever. And Lord, we are indeed astounded, and we can imagine how very much the ones who would read Paul's letters and listen to him teaching would likewise be amazed and astounded beyond imagination just at their acceptance before you and your immense love, the great love that you love us. Thank you for that, Lord. We just look forward to forever with you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.