Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Redemption

Incidentally, do we always need to pray in Jesus' name? What's interesting is a great many passages would point to that. Jesus says, if you ask this in my name, and there are just lots of passages that point to that. And what do you mean by in His name? In Jesus' name, right? So use those words.

So then the question is, what does it mean? And so what does a name mean? Is it name dropping? Is it a magic formula? In other words, what you're really doing is not just name dropping or using a magic word. When you use the word name, taking it from the cultural understanding, this has to do with all of who a person is and what they've done and are doing. So it's bigger than just dropping a name. So, anyway, that's something to ponder.

I won't go into that because we could pick up the rest of our time. Okay, so we are now looking at the word redemption. So the last two lessons, we said that one, an understanding of identification truths is essential for grasping the meaning of our unfathomable riches in Christ. The identification truths are the front door, so to speak, to everything that we have in Christ.

And by the way, just why would that be? Why would we say such a thing? Why are the identification truths that important? It's who we are in Christ? Yes, it's who we are in Christ. It is who we are in Christ and by the way, so was the thief on the cross ever in Christ?

No, why not? Jesus had not died. Jesus had not died, buried, resurrected, you know. The church had not begun the day of Pentecost, right? So he is, in that sense, an Old Testament saint is a term that's often used. Yes? I wonder if there's anything to ask you.

When Christ died on the cross, he was a man, and he had blood in his veins, and he could die. Yes, physically he could die. When he died on that cross, he died of his own volition. Yes he did, and that's a very important point. He was not a martyred victim. He voluntarily gave up his spirit. Very important point. He would not have died. He had surrendered. Yeah, I mean, this was very willful for him to have been crucified. It wasn't a, boy, look what circumstance I found myself in, right? So it was very willful, and it was very willful that he died. He didn't say, well, gee, I've lost enough blood now, or I just, you know, my heart quit ticking. But he said, I give up my spirit. He gave up his spirit. He didn't just lose it. And why else?

Why else are the identification truths essential to our understanding of the unfathomable riches? I think if we don't understand that, we'll strive in our own strength to live like Christ did. Yes, so one thing, this is entirely by grace. Gary, would you please give us a definition of grace? You have merited and liberated blessings of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Yes, okay? And so it's got to be that.

This is not some Calvinist grace where grace is something God forces on you, right? This is the Calvinist perspective on things where, you know, it's irresistible grace in the tulip, right? The eye and tulip. No, it's not something that God forces on you. We have to understand grace for what it is biblically. And we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

With what exceptions? None. So that tells you where this earth, atmospheric heavens, heavens, where God dwells and the angels reside and sent from? Where is that? Where are our blessings? In the heavenlies, the third heaven, right? And personally, where are our blessings? Personally, our blessings are in the heavenlies, in Christ.

They're in His person. And that's every spiritual blessing. here is in Christ. So that's why we say the identification truths, summarized by being in Christ, the identification truths are the front door to all of our unfathomable riches, to every spiritual blessing. No exceptions. Now, can God bless you here? Sure, God can provide other blessings of different kinds, but in terms of the blessings that Paul's talking about, spiritual blessings, they're in the heavenly places in Christ. In every single one.

No exceptions. So that's, as we look through it, this is key. Second one, in Christ we are redeemed and forgiven so as to be justified. So one of the points we made is you don't get justified, declared righteous, without being redeemed and forgiven, and you don't get redeemed and forgiven unless you are in Christ.

In Him, Ephesians 1.7.

In Him, Colossians 1.14. No forgiveness. no redemption, unless you're in Him. And this is the true teaching. But, so that's the negative statement.

The positive statement is, if you're in Him, which you got by what? By working hard at it? Are you there 70% and you're working on the rest of it? It is entirely every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ, done veal. That's it. What about the verse that says, as he is, so you are in the world. It's like an essence of existence. As he exists, so you exist in the world. I'm just thinking of the words that we're using here in understanding in the heavenlies.

Is that way over there or is it here as well? Well, so here's what we'll be going through with all this, right? So are you here or are you there? Are you here or are you there? In his perspective, aren't we both? Yeah, in terms of our position, in terms of our position, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, with what exceptions? At the same time, as you live here, is Christ in you? Yes. So the answer is positionally, both. Both are true. Christ is present here. Yes. So then technically you could say, because we are in Christ, So you'd add, because we are, these things are possible. Yes.

And so, here's Christ, John 15, between the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemane, abide in me, command, and I in you. And both of those are condition, because every time you see an urging or a commandment, an urging or a commandment, it is always based upon the position you already have. So, in the context of the word picture that Christ gave. This has to do with the vine and the branches.

Okay, so let's look at the next one. Related words redeemed, redeemed and redemption were part of a family of words related to slavery as it was practiced in biblical times. The inset below introduces some of those biblical words that were used in relationship to slavery. So you got this on the first page on the left-hand side. So I'll just read them quickly.

One is bought, agorazo, from Agora was a marketplace. So here's the Apostle Paul. He is in Philippi, and they haul him into the Agora, which is the marketplace. Redeemed, ex agorazo, which we'll be looking at here, is the first one and that's, X means what? Out, out of, so bought out of the market, the slave market, and the next one is redeemed, and redeemed as we'll be looking at is the idea of to ransom. Ransom with the idea of a ransom is to pay a ransom so that someone has gotten out of a condition of captivity or slavery. And then next redemption, apolutrosis is that word for ransom but apo means from.

And so we're talking about that. Next are some other words that we won't be going into detail today. One is captive, syllogogail. It means to kidnap, capture by pirates or thugs. This is where, in Colossians, he uses that, Colossians 2.8, don't let them kidnap you, with philosophy. Next is captive, which is a military capture. So the one above there, Sulugogeo, that captive is to kidnap by pirates or thugs. The next word, Aikmalotizo, is a military capture. So he uses that one as well.

Next, freed, which is also in other places actually just translated justified. And then finally, the word for master. So those are some words used in the slave terminology that we'll be looking at here. All right, so this one, to achieve biblical clarity, will be explore more deeply the biblical use of the word redeem or redeemed or redemption. variations on those words. Redeemed, Greek, is exaggerato, this is the one to buy out of the slave market.

So it's used in Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

By the way, I'm glad you came in because I've been thinking all week about something. Your friends who are Reformed, do they insist that we're under some element of law? Christ redeemed us from the law, and we'll be looking at even more of that. Several words here that talk about no longer being under law, and the typical Reform thing is to still put us under some portion of it. Some of them will vary on how they say that. The bottom line is the usual way of saying it is something on the order of, oh, we're still under law except for the penalties. We're still under law except not the ceremonial law. But they'll basically keep trying to get law back in the picture.

But you don't find that in scripture. That flatly contradicts scripture to try to sliver in and here's one of them, to buy out of the market. Have you ever heard of a slave that's only two-thirds of the way out? Oh, I'm buying you out of the market, but, you know, it's like half. You're still half in.

No, that's not going to work. And as a matter of fact, nobody's going to make a deal like that, right? Yes. Maybe I paid the first 70%, you're going to pay the last 30%. Yeah, it's up to you to do the other part. It's on your shoulders. No. The bottom line is it doesn't fly and there's a bunch of reasons why it doesn't.

Yes. Okay, so from the curse of the law, does that indicate that the law is a curse or that the law If you didn't follow it, you were... The law brings a curse. Right. Okay? The law brings a curse. So it's not necessarily saying that you are redeemed from the law, but from the result of the law. Now, so this specific wording says the curse of the law, so that's the outcome. Right.

Now, there are other statements that are more clear about, you know, you died to the law and things like that. This one particularly says you've been bought out from the slave market with regards to the law and try to figure out how do I do that in some percentage. Oh, this part of the law but not the other? He never makes that argument.

You've got to do like a lot of Calvinism, you've got to insert it to the text and add to the Bible. By the way, look at the last chapter of Revelation and see what that looks like. I was reading Galatians this morning, verse 10 it says, curses everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to preform them. So how many points of the law can you get out of?

None. The bottom line is, James says if you've broken one, you've broken them all. Galatians says that if you volunteer for one, you volunteer for them all. If you as much as get circumcised, one point of the law, and good luck doing that ladies, but if you as much as get circumcised, you signed up for the whole thing. So the law is not a separable part in any definition. James says you broke one, you broke the whole thing.

It's kind of like a A window that's been tempered, take a hammer to the corner. What happens to the window? The whole thing comes apart and all you did was tap one corner. The law is like that. James says you break one, you've broken the whole thing. Paul says you sign up for one, you've signed up for the whole thing. How dare you think that you're going to break it apart and make it some easy thing to do? How arrogant for somebody to think they can do that. Yeah.

So this is the same as Romans 8.1. That's what Paul's saying there. That there is no condemnation. Yep. Whereas with the law there was always condemnation. Romans 7. How many laws did Paul struggle with in Romans 7? Starting with verse 7. How many laws?

Covetousness. One. One of the ten. That's it. How did he do? Not so good. And what was the problem? What most Reformed guys, by the way, the earlier Reformed guys believed the believer had a sin nature. It's in the Heidelberg Catechism. Starting You know, about a century ago, they began to sort of soften on that. And post-World War II, there's been a flood to say that Christians don't have a sin nature. But historically, the Reform guys all said that the believer has a sin nature. It has only been in just my lifetime, basically, post-World War II, that there's been a flood, a sweeping flood among the Reform folks that we don't have, we believers don't have a sin nature.

So, that's a Johnny come lately, I just made it up. Okay, so now we have Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, and that's a very good observation, Stan. There are other places that make other kinds of statements, but this specific verse is talking about the curse of the law, okay? Not the law itself, but the curse of the law. Here's the next one, Galatians 4, 3, and 5. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, notice it doesn't say Mary, Mary is last mentioned by name in Acts chapter 1, not after that. Here is the one reference, born of a woman, but not by name, born under the law, so that he might redeem ex-agorazzo, those who are under the law. And by the way, to buy out of the market, those who are under the law, do you get 50% out from under the law? Do you get two-thirds out from under the law? Do you get out from just part of it? You're either bought out of the market.

I mean, no slave owner is going to sell a percentage of their slave partially free. It doesn't happen. You're going to pay the whole price or nothing. You're going to get the whole slave or no slave at all. You just don't do it any other way. It's unheard of. might redeem, buy out from the market, those who are under the law. There's no percentages, there's no partial deals, there's no fractions, none of that.

Those who are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And that's another one we're going to go through here. Adoption of sons. That's often misunderstood, and most frequently, the full impact of that, by the way, adoption of sons is just one word in Greek, right? The full impact of that is most often overlooked. Okay, but that's another Sunday. A word of similar meaning, lutro, means the idea of ransom. So that's to buy out of captivity or slavery. When you think of paying a ransom, what do you think of?

Kidnapping. Yeah, we often think in our term of a kidnap and somebody's, you know, they want twelve million dollars or twelve dollars, whatever figure they ask for. But usually they want some kind of money or some action done. You know, I'm going to kidnap your kid or wife or whatever. And until you pay this or do this or don't do that, I'm going to, you know, hold them. And so this word means to ransom, only rather than a kidnapping idea, it was used in a slave context. So to buy out of captivity or slavery.

Yes. So it's kind of like the Emancipation Proclamation? Yes. Yeah, well the proclamation was that they're free, right? But this is actually doing it, right? So here's Titus 2, 11 through 14 is one of them, and I've quoted the whole context so that we get that.

For the grace of God has appeared, and by the way, who is the grace of God? Christ. So you say Christ is the grace of God. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. So does that mean everybody gets saved? They can. So what it says is, that's one of the things that says, against the Calvinists, Christ died for all. He brought salvation to all men, but it is effective only for those who believe. That's it.

So everybody is savable, contrary to the Calvinist doctrine, everybody is savable because Christ died for the whole world, 1st John 2.2, and he brought salvation to all men, not just all men of the elect, instructing us to deny ungodliness. Who's us? Is that everybody on the planet?

Believers, instructing us who are believers to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. The present age is the present evil age, as he said earlier in the same book, and it's from the time that Adam sinned until the time when Christ comes again. That's the present age, the present evil age, right? This age. the present age looking for the blessed hope and appearing which is what?

Is that Christ's second coming or the rapture? Are we looking for the second coming or are we looking for the rapture? The rapture. Is that the blessed hope part of those two? Yes, this is the blessed hope and my blessed hope is that Christ will come today and I won't even get to finish this lesson. I'd be happy with that. If Christ comes today, that would be the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.

That is a special Greek construction that says, Great God and Savior Jesus Christ, or one and the same. Christ is deity. There are about 80 places in the New Testament that have this construction, and many of those, including this one, point to Christ as deity.

Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us, for us to redeem, to ransom us from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Zealous means hot. Are you hot for good deeds? But this is that word, lutro, redeem, to ransom us from every lawless deed. So that's another use of this word. So ransom us is not simply ransom us to change ownership, but ransom us from all the consequences. Because if we're slaves to sin, what are we going to be doing? Sinning, right? And so we're being ransomed, bought out from being slaves to sin. Here's where Peter uses the same word. 1 Peter 1, 17-19, if you address his father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

So should you just go around being scared to death all the time and just chattering and shaking and paranoid and can't sleep? But what does this mean? Some of us have no problem with can't sleep, right? So what does this mean? I can tell you're a Christian, you're just scared to death all the time. Is that what it means? It means ultimate respect. That's what it means. It doesn't mean that I go around just trembling and constantly fearful and with angst, high anxiety. That's not what it means. But rather, In ultimate respect, during your time of stay on earth... How long are you going to be on this earth? Forever? No, you've got a time of stay. So, it's just longer than others. Anyway, so we've got that.

Knowing that you were not redeemed, this is that word rooted in the perishable things like gold and silver from your futile way of life, So can you pay some money to get somebody out of purgatory? No. Were you ransomed with gold and silver? Was it incompletely done so that you need to continue praying for people who have died and pay extra money? The Catholics worked that up and it came from an Egyptian practice.

And that is according to Cardinal Newman. Cardinal. Catholic. Cardinal Newman. It's admittedly an Egyptian practice where they got it. And you pay money. Indulgences. And because they amped that up during earlier centuries, especially getting St. Peter's built, they told people, you pay enough money, it doesn't matter what sins you commit, you won't go to purgatory. As long as you pay enough money.

Buy yourself out? No. First of all, he's done with the redeeming, isn't he? Secondly, gold and silver isn't going to fix anything. And what is more valuable than the gold and the silver? The precious blood of Christ. That buys something that no gold and silver of any amount We'll pay for it.

Right? From your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers. How's that for an inheritance? Hey, I got this great inheritance. It's all futile. Right? It's all worthless, useless stuff. Isn't that a great inheritance? But with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. What was required of the lambs that were sacrificed at the temple? Perfection. Unblemished and spotless, right? You can't come in and say, hey, I've got a really bargained deal on this lamb because it's got a scar on its forehead, you know? Not going to do that. No bargains. You're going to pay full price and no scars, right?

Unblemished and spotless, more so than the lambs, right? The blood of Christ. Finally, the verses that contain the Greek word apolutrosis is the third word that we talked about. Convey being fully redeemed and ransomed, implying permanence. Full on. In other words, the reality is nobody does a partial ransom anyway. So apolutrosis means ransom from, and that emphasizes the idea that it's completely done and permanently done. So here are the verses that contain that word here, and we've brought them up previously for a different purpose. And that is Romans 3, 21 through 26, and I give that as the context for Romans 3, 24.

So it says, But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all those who believe. is that with some of the law, portions of the law, a little bit of law, or just 23%, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through trying your best. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who work really hard at it.

Faith, belief. What else can you do? Can you do anything to add to that? It's faith and belief. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." And by the way, we often use that as an evangelistic tool. But what did he just talk about? Faith and believing, right? So this includes and especially focuses upon believers. Have you sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?

Yep, me too. I'm right there with you. Being justified, declared righteous, because I really deserve it. You deserve a break today. Justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. This is the fully buying out. Fully redeemed and ransomed.

And where is it? It's kind of for people who hang around Jesus? For people who try really hard to be like Jesus? For people who would like to be like Jesus? No. Which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. What is propitiation besides putting a lot of pitch on things?

Satisfaction of anger and wrath. So, satisfaction of God's full, just and moral and holy character. Now, so Christ died on the cross and he died on the cross for the elect? It doesn't say that, does it? Christ died on the cross and paid the price for salvation for all men, paid the price for the whole world. That's what the Bible teaches.

Paid the price, effective for those who believe. Effective for those who believe. And so God is satisfied by Christ's payment. And let's ask this question. Why would Christ pay the price for people who would never believe? Did God know they would never believe? Yeah. He did. In advance.

Romans 3.25 up there, it says, this was to demonstrate his righteousness. So to demonstrate his sending Christ, right? To die on the cross.

So this, everything that you see above there, that God did, was to demonstrate His righteousness. Now often I say, wait a minute, God's righteousness, but also think about that, to demonstrate His righteousness, this doesn't demonstrate His mercy? This doesn't demonstrate His grace? Why does it demonstrate His righteousness? Because he's confronting sin. Yes, so God is not just saying, kind of shrugging his shoulders about sin. He's not just saying, I'm not going to be as uptight about it as I used to be.

But rather, God's absolute and total holiness and righteousness and justice were dealt with here. So that's what it's talking about. So, you have God's absolute and total holiness and righteousness and justice. They are demonstrated by what? Full payment. God's having Christ die on the cross completely for all sin. God is completely and totally satisfied with regards to Christ's payment.

And if he's totally just, then the dying would be for everybody. Because he couldn't leave somebody out of there, he wouldn't be totally just. At least John MacArthur, I'm thinking most Calvinists have a problem with Jesus dying for people who are going to hell. They say, or at least John says, that his death was not effectual for all of them. It wasn't effective.

That's great according to man's reasoning, but according to the Bible, God's reasoning, Yeah, I think we always have to go back to what does God's Word say, not what kind of logical system and little principles and constructs I can concoct. We can concoct all sorts of things. That's not what God is doing. God is revealing what's true. Right? Yeah. We kind of talked about that last week. I think that's the double jeopardy. Yes.

Because he died for our sins, and then we're all going to die for their sins if they are stuck in their sins. This is our penal system. What's the difference between our penal system and the way God works? Is our penal system, the laws, or any of our judges absolutely and infinitely holy and righteous? You've got sinning judges and sinning policemen. You know, bring in a sinner. So you've got a problem anytime you try to insert a human legal system as some principle that I'm going to use to override what the Bible says. That's a problem. Yup.

It's not going to fly. God has revealed how he does things to the extent that he wishes to reveal that, and to the extent that he can. Are our ways the same as God's ways? No. Our ways are not higher or even equal to or anywhere close to God's ways. So that's part one.

So we have with this, what does scripture say? What does scripture say? And we need to go to that not to What kind of human thinking can I throw into this? What kind of human legal principles can I bring to bear? Where does God say, I operate according to human legal principles? Not. Yes.

God is demonstrating His righteousness. When unbelievers appear before Him, they'll have nothing to say. But in His grace, He's demonstrating over time, and mercy, and the opportunity for many people to come to faith. When people show up at the White Throne Judgment, are they going to be able to say, Yeah, but, you know, are you going to be able to hire a really good lawyer and get off? Jesus.

Yeah, I mean, there's nothing you can do. It's one thing about, you know, right now we've got people, here's, recently here's O.J. Simpson admitting to things, you know, from years past that, you know, he got away with. But, but, is that going to happen during the millennial kingdom?

Nobody's going to get away. There's no technicalities. You don't get off because some policeman goofed. How do you deal with a courtroom where the judge knows everything? You can't. You can't manipulate it. You can't get off on a technicality. You can't say, well, I'm going to make sure they don't know this. You can't hide evidence. You can't shred papers. There's nothing you can do. to get away from a totally omniscient, omnipotent God.

And that's the way it'll be in the White Throne Judgment. Absolute truth. No human legal principles included. You show me a Bible verse that says human legal principles will somehow be allowed in salvation or a final judgment. Show me a verse. I think not.

It goes a lot with your statement that from beginning to end, the isms know how God does things, and I think that that doesn't make sense in our logic, and so we're going to try to fit it in there. So you've got Calvinism, which of course even has spectrums within it, right? Calvinism You've got Arminianism, which also has spectrums within it. And by the way, I'm not sure Calvin was a Calvinist, and I'm not sure Arminius was an Arminian. But anyway, so you've got that.

And then more recently, the revelation of open theism, where God doesn't know the future except the future that he's already established, and God changes. And all three of those are attempts to try to put God into, oh, I understand how God does things. They're all three humanistic. As a matter of fact, all three of them are in total agreement that I as a human being can understand how God does everything. How arrogant. How arrogant. Calvinism, Arminianism, Opentheism, all profoundly arrogant and all profoundly unbiblical.

Yes? This section here begins with now, at this moment, verse 21, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. And I looked that up, it's perfect, it means it's been done. Yeah, and actually this translation says has been, which is probably a better, and it even says has been completely and totally manifested. And so, we're without excuse if we have any other system. Yeah, and it's not being manifested, it's not, I've got 90% of it, nope. It's been done.

Here's Ephesians 1, 7-8, in him we have the, and I put in the because there's a definite article in the Greek, redemption, this is the apollutrosis, completely redeemed out, through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses, the trespasses of us, so it's again that definite article. By the way, in the Greek, when it says our this or our that or my, the structure of it is more, it's a little more awkward, but the trespasses of us. And so here you have the definite article, which is a little hard to put into English as smoothly, but the trespasses of us, okay, specifically those, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, dot dot dot.

Colossians 3.14, a very similar message, where He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have, again, the redemption, apostatrosis, the complete ransoming, total ransoming, full ransoming, and buying out, the forgiveness of sins. And the forgiveness of sins, by the way, it's not because God just somehow, you know, hey, I'm not as uptight about sins as I used to be. He's not just saying, ah, boys will be boys and burns will be burns, you know. Both aspects of sin are covered in those two verses. Trespasses and missing the mark. Yeah. Trespasses, Ephesians. Missing the mark, Colossians. In the end, both of those definitions get covered. We have a complete and full buying out, full ransoming, all the way done. You don't have to finish it up or work at it.

And how did we do that? All we did was belief, and we are in Him. In Him we have redemption, in Him we have, by the way, that means possession, right? In Him we have the possession, in Him we have the forgiveness and the ransoming, such that God says, that's it. And by the way, the in Him is all His doing, right?

Then God can consistent with his righteous character, consistent with his justice, put the gavel down, so to speak, and say, declare righteous. Then God can do that. Consistent with his character. God doesn't just come up and say or declare righteous.

Because forgiveness and redemption in him is a prerequisite, absolute prerequisite. for being declared righteous. We're forgiven. We're redeemed. We're in Him. The price has been completely and entirely paid. All we did was believe. God says, that's it. I'll do the rest. And you don't have to super-believe, too. Lordship Salvation, by the way, Calvin really, really did not believe in Lordship Salvation. He did not. He says, anybody who believes that is not saved.

He was extreme. He was intense. He says, if your focus is on your fruit, you're not saved, you need to focus on Christ. Calvin was exceedingly strong against Lordship Salvation. Just so you know. What did he say? You believe with your focus on Christ. If you're looking for fruits, he says, you're in trouble. So, John MacArthur needs to sit down and have a conversation with John Calvin.

Oh, I'm sure it will happen eventually. So, okay, here we go. Last paragraph. The believer on the basis of faith is placed in Christ. Position. It's not variable. It's not reversible. We add nothing to it but belief. Being in Christ's position, the believer is forgiven of the debt of sins by Christ's payment of them. He's already paid the debt for everyone.

The money is in the account. Everybody gets a check. It's only those who sign it, turn it in at the door. who get the benefit of it. Imagine getting a check, just to give you some enormous outrageous number, four trillion dollars and tearing it up. Imagine a check that would pay off all your enormous, unfathomable debt. Lots of money that you owe. One check, the money is in the account. Can you imagine tearing up the check? Pulling out a cigarette lighter and just torching it. Can you imagine that? Doesn't make any sense at all, does it? No. It's spiritual insanity.

Being in Christ's position, a believer is redeemed, fully bought out from slavery to sin. And no going backwards. This thing has a one-way valve on it. It doesn't go back the other way. on the basis of those things which come from being in Christ, our position, God can and does declare the believer righteous. Is there anything squishy about this? Is there anything grayscale? Eh, I'm kind of sordid in Christ. I'm working at it. There isn't, is there? It's belief. It's completely clear.

And it's belief very similar to the trust that you're placing in your pews when you sit there. And by the way, is this floor sitting on the ground? You're counting on these pews and the structure that keeps us from hitting the fellowship hall floor. Why? You're trusting it. So that's all. You're putting your trust in it. And so you took a seat. If I told everybody, you know, hey, you guys, you can have a seat, you can trust the floor, but everybody stands by the back door, what are you doing? You're not trusting it, right? But in fact, you came right in, and you sat down, and that's the kind of belief we're talking about.

I put my trust in Christ for salvation. God says, that's it. That's all I wanted. I'll take it from there. I'll take the saving and the blessing with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places from there. All you did was believe. That's fine. As far as the living done here, you're fired. You're done with that too. Christ is in charge and he's going to take care of it. You don't have to worry about that.

Back to Titus 2.11 through 14.

Titus 2.11 is step 1, that's what you're talking about, which is what Christ appeared for the salvation of all men. But 12 is actually step 2, is it not? So the grace of God appeared to bring salvation to all men, and so far what good does that do you? forgives your sin, redeems you. It's everything on God's part, right?

Salvation. And then instructing us, who are us? Us are the ones who believe. The ones who believe. So he brought the salvation to everybody, but starting with verse 12, now we're talking to those who have already believed. Right? Right. So he enables the believer to do these things?

Yeah, as a matter of fact, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age. How much of that has he delegated for you to do? None. Absolutely none. As a matter of fact, let's put it this way, God never delegates anything to us. He just doesn't. There's nothing in our position, there's nothing in what He hasn't done, there's nothing in the way He has done anything that delegates anything to us. And that's why you didn't just faint, you were crucified in the perfect tense.

Hey, Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified, perfect tense, completed past action, ongoing results on into the future, implied permanence, with Christ. It's all done. And that's to absolutely assure that we understand that nothing has been delegated to us.

Okay, that word instructing actually means training. That's correct. So we do have a part in that. So let's look at this. Our training is what? If I've been crucified, what am I being trained for? Life in Christ. I'm being trained for Him to do it. I'm being trained so that, because that's the next part of Galatians 2. It's no longer I who do the living, God didn't delegate any of it to me.

And God says, OK, I start off by crucifying you. You're out of here. You're fired. Not only fired, you're dead. So here is not only a debt paid certificate, but a death certificate. You're out of here, because living here is not your job. Not your job, not mine.

God never delegated anything to us. By the way, that's part of the problem with the whole reform picture. God's not delegating anything to us. Nothing. You've been crucified with Christ. Perfect tense. Completed past action. I don't do the living here. Not my job. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Since we have noses pressing up against the glass, and before we get smudges all over the window, let's pray. Thank you, Lord, that it's all you're doing. Thank you, Lord, that you have accomplished it all. Everything that we're looking at here that is in you, all the blessings, everything is your accomplishment.

All we did was believe. And we didn't super believe. We didn't believe with some intent where we're looking at our fruit afterwards. We believed in the same sense that we put our trust and confidence in you for salvation and nothing more. and you did the rest. Thank you for that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.