Which Side of the Cross- Finish Lesson 4 and Start of Lesson 5
JD McCulley · Feb 26, 2017
Which Side of the Cross, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926549136114

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, last week I got a little crazy with the whiteboard. But we covered quite a bit. It was an interesting set of questions. We looked at the first five of the ten, or eleven rather. And we've been looking at, of course for those of you that maybe weren't here, Lesson 4. We finished the first five questions. And so we're looking at Romans chapter 5, 12 through 21. That's what we've been covering. And just by way of a quick review, the first question, how did the sin nature enter into the world? We talked about the fact that you don't become a sinner after the first sin.

You're born that way. That's actually who you are in Adam. Then we looked at question number two and just recognized that Adam, as the head of the human race, took all of humanity into the position of death. So in Adam, all die. There's no choice there. Question 3, why do you think God did not impute sin before there was a law?

So that's where we got all this writing on the board up here. We talked about the fact that there was a period of time in Adam where there was one law, and that one law was do not eat of the tree. that you surely die. There was a consequence with that. And so Adam lived under law.

It was just one law. When he chose to break that law and sin entered the world, we said that sin was brought, death is its consequence, and we introduced the term transgression. There only can be a transgression where there is law. That word is unique in the sense that we drew up what we would call a ledger. There is an accounting for that sin. Where there is a law, there is an accounting for sin.

Where there is no law, there is no accounting for sin, in that way. Sin still has its consequences, sin still exists, and death still reigns, however there is no, what we call, transgression without law. And so he said that after Adam, being that there was only that law, and between Adam and Moses, where Moses received the 613 laws, there was no transgression, because there was no account for sin in the same way that the law accounts for sin. So under Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and so forth, we have no law, the sin not taken into account, yet sin still reigns and death still reigns as well.

Does that make sense? There just was not transgression. When we get to Moses, we see that transgression is in fact kept in a much greater way. In fact, man was not worried about the one law, there were 613 that were governing men at that point in time. So that was the point of question number three. We went through that for quite a while to explain that.

Question four, why does the word say that death reigned from Moses to Adam? And that's Paul's point in chapter 5 there, in these verses, is that yes, there was transgression, but be sure that from Adam to Moses, death reigned. And why do we say death reigned? Simply because there was no one that escaped the consequences of death.

And I even asked, and it was Jonathan and Dora, who have been missionaries all over the world, I said, have you ever been to a country where you haven't seen a synagogue? And they said, no, that's absolutely going to happen in any culture, in any people group all over the world, you'll find death reigns. And we use that term in a kingly sense, so it's a sovereign reigning over.

So that brings us to question number five, where we finished out, for the most part, the discussion of the phrase, is a figure of him to come? So we started building out this figure of Adam, and we said on this side of the cross we have Adam, he is the federal head or representative man, we introduced that term, the federal head, and said that he is a type, Christ is a type of the one And so we said, if Adam represents death and transgression, that all die through Adam, and that death comes spiritually, it comes physically, and it comes eternally, what we might call a second death, and that because of that, all children under Adam are children of wrath, what is Christ a type of? And if that is Adam, if that is what Adam represents, what is Christ a type of? Because it says that he is a figure of him Christ is the figure of him to come.

So what was the portion that we decided was the figure? Remember? The federal headship side of it, right? Definitely wasn't a figure of Adam in this way, because he represents a whole different set. offerings to man, okay, as opposed to what Adam brought to man. So he is a type in that he is like Adam as a federal head. He represents, he's a representative man. So that's where we got the first Adam and then the last Adam.

So we said the type of one to come only applies to this area, that federal headship. So the term federal is We use this word indicating the action of one for all in a represented matter or for the consequences of such action. It just means he's representing and taking action for all those underneath him.

Question number six. Is everybody good so far? I just wanted to cover, since half of you guys were maybe not with us last week, so I thought we might do a little review there. Number six, why is the offense of one unlike the gift of the other? Well, that's really where we get into filling this blank in, right? Why are they not the same? What's different?

So we're covering verse 15. Let's read that, verse 15. But the free gift, that's why we titled this bubble free gift under Christ here, but the free gift is not like the transgression, for if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more to the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to the many. So what are the contrasts there? Let's look at verse 16 as well, while I'm into flubbing flubbing.

Verse 16, the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned, for on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression, resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions, resulting in justification. So there's some comparisons here about the gifts. So what do we know about the free gift? How is it not like what Adam brought by way of transgression? Life. What was that? Life. There's life? What else? What's the difference in what is being given by way of the federal headship of each? So the free gift is not like the transgression, so how is that so? What does Paul say here?

So here, many die. Right? That's the consequence. Many die. We talked about that already a little bit. It also says in 15, that many died, much more, and that's a key term we're going to look at in a minute, did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to many. So we have grace abounding to many. Right?

So, the fact that God the Creator, His grace by Christ abounds beyond the sin of the creature Adam. So there's a vast difference in degree, or the amount of what is offered here. Here, Adam offers one transgression which results to many dying. Here, Christ's grace abounds all the much more to every single man who is experiencing the result of Adam's one choice. So the magnitude, the degree of which the free gift versus the transgression is so much greater.

Does that make sense? There's a huge contrast that Paul's wanting us to take note of. Yeah, one little decision here, and it required an abounding grace of God to send his only son to solve the problem on our behalf. In fact, you can see from this very moment that Adam chose to represent man through death as a consequence God is dealing from that point forward in grace to solve for that problem.

It took him one second to eat from that tree and here we have the entire history of the Bible itself dealing with that one transgression through grace. And yes, grace hadn't come the very moment... sorry, grace abounds even greater as we get into the New Testament, but what was gracious about what the Lord did without him in the garden?

Let him live. And he let him still eat. Now he had a toil for it, but there was still provision, there was life, and he did provide a way out, didn't he? He did. He still provided a solution even though it was a picture of what was to come. God was dealing in grace and continued to deal in grace through just one very simple decision to sin and introduce that to every human being. God's grace abounded at that very moment in that garden and it started and continued on even until today. It's far greater grace.

But what about verse 16? You have one sin of Adam, and here you have taking on, taking many sins, right? So Adam, as a feral, he only had one sin that was a part of the condemnation here. But as a result of that condemnation, Christ had to take on the sins of the entire world.

So there's also a totally different kind of result, or a kind of operation that's taking place here. Here you have one to the many, and you have one to the grace of bounding. So Paul is trying to make that distinction about the two federal heads. He's wanting you to be very clear about, yeah, Yeah, he's a federal head, but that doesn't mean by any way, stretch, or form he carried out federal headship out in the way that Christ did.

Far greater. Far more wonderful. Far more impacting. Does that make sense? Yeah. Alright, research. I cannot see the number. Question 7. In verse 16, how many came under the judgment to condemnation? It's all. Yeah, it's all, man. In fact, we established that last week with the question, in Adam all die.

1 Corinthians 15.22. Right? That was an easy one. I think that might be verse 18. Was it? I couldn't find it. Are we talking about the 1 Corinthians package? Are you talking about the number 7?

Yeah, because that verse doesn't actually speak to the all men dying, does it? I would actually put verse 18 there as well. Because verse 18 says, so then, as through one transgression there result in condemnation to all men. That's just what we're looking for there. Because that condemnation being mentioned in verse 16, obviously in the context that applies to all, right? Alright, number eight. By the way, who's up after me? Are you up after me? Mike. Mike is? Okay. Just making sure we might get there today. So, what's that? He said he was ready. At least yesterday.

So, we've already talked about death reigning, meaning it's a sovereign ruling over. But what does it mean as a principle? How do you define death reigning as a principle? Separation? Absolutely. We talked about that a little bit last week. We said, as a reigning principle, sin is a reigning principle through death. and death means separation, so the reigning principle of death means that you will be, without Christ's free gift, you will be separated from God spiritually, you will be separated from your body physically, and the second death, without God's gift, could be separated from God eternally. So this is a reigning principle without salvation. So what does a principle mean? talked about that quite a bit in the Law of Grace series several years ago with Vern. What does the principle mean?

Does it operate in the system? Okay, yeah. We could define it as how a thing functions or how it operates, right? And so whether it was through Adam, during the time of Adam, underneath the One Law, or where there was no law, and even under Moses, The principle of sin reigned throughout all of those time periods and continues to. It's the way things work. This is the way it works. You die in these three ways. It's the way it is. Because that's what happened under Adam and continues to happen today, although now there is an escape plan.

Number nine, what does reigning in life mean? This is the contrast. creates a contrast between the federal headship of Adam and the federal headship of Christ. He talks about the greatness of what Christ brought compared to the smallness of what Adam did in terms of his one to many and grace abounding. And now he does another contrast between death reigning and here, as a result of Christ's free gift, we have life reigning in life. What does this mean? What verse are we looking at here?

17. I'll read it for you. For if by the transgression of the one death reigns, that's Adam, through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Will reign in life.

Let's talk about it. What do you think that means? I'll give you some hints. First of all, this is the same word, reigning, It has that same sovereignty ruling over kind of effect to it that it had for the death as well. So here, it's a sovereign reigning of life. What does that look like for us? Who is it for? Who is that for? Who's reigning in life?

Yeah. Who receives the abundance and grace of the gift of righteousness? Have you done that as a believer? Have you received the gift of righteousness? Yeah, absolutely. Through Christ's death on the cross, His burial, His resurrection, and you're appropriating that in faith, you became a receiver of this abundance of grace, and it says that you'll reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

Are you reigning today? No. You're not reigning today? No. What are you doing? You're going to have to go over that statement. Okay, it says in verse 17 that basically if you receive the gift of salvation, of righteousness, you will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Well, I'm reigning. You're reigning. What are you doing? I'm thinking Jesus is reigning through me. That's what I think.

Okay, so you've got to change mine? Okay, so we're talking about believers here. We're talking about the fact that we reign as kings through Jesus Christ, right? We will reign as kings in Jesus Christ physically at some point, won't we? Actually, Revelation 1-6 says that we are reigning as believers with Him.

And we will, Revelation 22.1, or 25 rather, we will reign with Him in the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem. So, there is a future physical reign as we reign with the Lord Jesus, but you're right. You are reigning right now as the Lord reigns through you.

And I thought about this, I thought about having someone, having another believer look at one of us and say, man, they're reigning in life as the Lord is reigning through them. That is something that you can see. We may not say it that way, but I have heard so many times after coming to Holly Hills, that Hal Malloy just kind of exuded the love of the Lord Jesus. And things of this nature have come out about Hal. He reigned with the Lord Jesus. The Lord was reigning with him. You could see it in every decision that he was making. People have spoken of Hal like that to me.

I did not know him. But they recognized that he was reigning in life because Christ was reigning with him. I think that's just really neat that there'll be those in our lives that may recognize the same types of thing. I think that would be quite a humble thing to experience, wouldn't it?

Yeah. Cool. Verse 10. So there's a lot of much mores in here. You know what I mean? Much mores? So we go back even before the verses that we've been looking at, and we start with verse 9. There's the first much more, and it says, "...much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him." And he goes in, in verse 10, he has a much more, then verse 15 and verse 17. So let's look at the first one.

First of all, what does the much more mean? What is he saying? I think in verse 9, he's saying, look, God's done the harder thing here. So much more. So, every time the much more is mentioned, it's building the magnitude of what's happened here. Much more, much more, much more. You know, here, this is one thing took away took away our life and gave us death, now much more, much more, much more. Verse 9, God's done the harder thing in having to shed his blood and provide salvation and righteousness through the Lord Jesus.

Verse 10, much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life. So, here's this idea of being reconciled. What about verse 15? What does it say? Much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound unto many. So, again, that grace, much more. And then finally, verse 17. For if by the trespass of the one death reigned as king through the one, much more those accepting the abundance of grace, just like we read, will reign.

So, if we're taking this passage and thinking about what we've learned from last week and today, what is established? This class is called Which Side of the Cross of Mylon. How do you feel that Romans chapter 5 and these specific verses have helped us understand the answer to this question a little bit better? What do we know, what should we be firmly established in based on the passages we've looked at so far? of Christ's gift to us. We know there's much more on this side of the cross, don't we?

And we've learned a lot about what Adam's role, his federal headship, what sin did, what the consequences of sin, and how sin brought death and death reigned on all. So we should be firmly established at this stage, I would think, about what these two federal heads represent and what they bring to the table, so to speak, right? We should not have a lot of questions about what each of these two men bring in terms of their federal headship.

So why is it important that we see that God has changed for the believer which federal head he sees you under? Why is that important for you? My whole salvation is wrapped up in it. Your whole salvation is wrapped up in how God sees you through the federal men, right? It's a big deal. Absolutely is.

God's not dealing with us as we are in Christ, and no longer deals with us as being associated with Adam. So God is now dealing with us in this way, and no longer dealing with us in this way. Are there those that we know that are being dealt with in this way? Yeah, if you know an unbeliever, this is where they're at.

Right? Here's what's cool. We've got a whole new history now. Right? When we're on this side of the cross, meaning that we've accepted the free gift of salvation, we get a whole new history. And that whole new history is wrapped up in that federal headship of Christ. Right? This allows us to reign today in life. as Christ reigns through you, right? It's pretty cool stuff. I like Romans.

It's tough sometimes to get through some of the comparisons and the magnitudes that Paul draws on some of these gifts and the consequences of things, but I think that it's very, very clear that all of who you were in Adam is no longer who you are. There's no way I can say I'm a little bit of Adam and a little bit of Christ federally. You can only be one or the other. So if you're confused and you've got some misunderstanding about who you are in Adam, you bring that over into the federal headship of Christ, you've got a really significant problem according to Paul. Because the contrasts are so great and so massively different. You can't bring Adam into the federal headship of Christ.

I think the key in all this and why the kind of purpose of the class we decided we live on is how do we live? Do we live as we are still an atom? Or, as many people, I think many believers, even though they're saved, I think live on the other side trying to polish up that guy, make him better. He's acceptable. Now we're empowered in Adam to do, you know, all the things in Scripture. And the key is, again, the identification, which is in Romans 6, which is how do we get from the left side to the right side of that diagram. But the key is, how are we living?

Are we living the purpose of which I do live on? thinking about Adam and are going to polish him up and there's some good in him that we really can help God out with or do or live through Adam and there's nothing. As we see in all the first part of Romans, there is nothing good in Adam and when we come here we see the distinct difference between that.

Adam's side of the cross and Christ's side. And when you think about it, it's lunacy or crazy to try and live on the other side of the cross. Why would we do that? And it's only that the old man is trying to draw us back into that side of the cross. We have grace, which is unmerited, unlimited blessings. That's the side of the cross we actually, positionally live on. But the world tells you that you can go back and polish up Adam.

Exactly. And like I said, you go to most Christian bookstores and it's, you know, what's the latest program? You know, it's a program to do it. You know, we've been through all those, you know, the purpose-driven life and prayer of J-Biz, you know, all these things, you know, J.I. Packer, you know, knowing God and all these different things.

They all focus on the Adamic side of the cross and how you fix that up. It's all over. And of course, the old man is loving every bit of that and trying to drag you to that side of the cross. But positionally, we live on the other side of the cross and that's under grace. And again, grace is so misunderstood too.

Yeah, in fact, we're going to have so many upcoming lessons that are going to establish the contrast between law and death on this side and the grace and the life that we have on this side. And those are going to be, because the way Paul compares the two men here, he makes very sure that the distinctions are so drastic in terms of who they are. Paul does, in other passages, a massive amount of work to differentiate the difference between law and grace. And so we're going to look at how those contrast so greatly as well.

You can't drag a little bit of law into grace either. Just like you can't drag a little Adam into Christ's federal headship. They don't fit. And that's what we're establishing through the course of this class. And even on Tuesday nights, we just started the Law of Grace series again that Vern did. We're reteaching that.

It's a totally different world in terms of the way that law works and the way that death reigns as a principle. These worlds are massively different. You mentioned the term operating system. These are two different operating systems. I'm going to let those guys teach on those things, or myself when we get to them, but just as a point to think through. These contrasts start right here with the federal headship and they move forward with the principles that govern that reign. Does that make sense? And we're going to get into those principles as well. I think it goes back to the emphasis.

Tracks on the facts and whatever, you know. Knowledge first. But then it always comes back to faith. Do you believe what is true about you? And the more I study faith, that's really... It all comes down to that. Do you believe what he says is true about you?

And we have unbelief. Well, that's too good. What do you mean we can't live in grace, where we can't work for it, or we do something, or service, or whatever? And it all comes back to the faith aspect of it. Law of grace, all these things, true. But eventually it comes down to do you believe it? the root of it all. And do you believe what the scripture tells is true about you right now? Yeah. Do you believe you've got a little bit of Adam's federal headship still running? Running through your blood? Or do you not?

What does Paul say? I'll leave the class at that. Any questions before I look for Mike? So I know a lot of what we're doing at this point will be somewhat repetitious, but I think it's important that it is. How many of you read The Hungry Heart? Did you read it this morning about how important it is to know that you really did die with Christ, how important that is? So that's why it seems like we might be going a little slow here, but we'll get on.

Lesson 5, first question. Contrast obedience versus disobedience. What do you think? I'll read something to you from a guy named Wong. It gives a rendering of a startling accuracy concerning disobedience and obedience. Verse 19 of chapter 5 of Romans. Somebody read verse 19. For the sin of one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. Even so, for the obedience of one man, the many will be made righteous. So the one is disobedient. Give me another synonym for disobedience. Maybe make it easier.

What does the word obedience mean? It means to listen under. Okay? It doesn't mean to get busy and prove that you're paying attention. It just means to listen under. So that being the definition, what would you say the disobedience is? I don't know. It's really tough. What does listen under mean? Oh, good question. What does listen under mean? That's a great question. I've been trying to tell Donna about this our whole married life. So what does listen under mean?

Obey. It means hearing. Yeah, well, that's defining the word with the word, but it means to hear and it means to be submissive to what you've heard. Isn't it also an acknowledging that there's value in what's being said? Exactly right. And you decide that you're going to submit yourself to what you're learning.

Listening under. So when admonition in the word of God for children to obey their parents, what is the word really saying? You need to listen to your parents and you need to listen under them. To be taught by them. Taught is very good. It's part of it. So disobedience is the essence or the refusal to hearken, to listen. Where obedience is bowing of the ear, submissively listening. See that? In our society, we're taught in contemporary society that we are the source of everything.

That my God is me. So I don't have to listen to you. I only have to listen to me. But here comes the God of the universe in his grace and he says, listen to me. Listen to what I have to say. And when you hear it, get yourself under it. Comply with it. just by assenting. So how do you comply with what God says? You believe what God tells you. It's real simple. You just believe Him.

So, the Lord's death on the cross was an act of obedience. He obeyed. He and the Father worked out this deal called the Eternal Covenant and He said, okay, if you want me to become a man and die for the sins of the world, I'll do it. And the father said, if you do that, I will raise you up again. So he became obedient or listened under all the way to the cross, to death. The death of the cross.

Could Adam have obeyed? Yes, he could have. How would Adam have obeyed when he was tempted? How would he have obeyed? He said no. No? What would he know? He would say no. Oh, he could say no. And why would he say no? Because he was told not to eat it. Yeah, he was told not to eat it. And I'm sure that God was careful to instruct him as to what his role is. I mean, he's given dominion over the creation.

But it becomes, like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, what made that sin so severe? What made it so bad? There's only one law. Well, it was because he didn't believe in God. The lack of faith is what did it. He didn't take God at his word and he looked at, it doesn't say why, he gave him whatever the fruit was and he ate it. So under a different set of circumstances he might not have eaten it? I don't think so. I think he would have. Who did he rely on? It appears like he relied on his wife's offering rather than God.

And don't we all have circumstances in our life where we think, well, this circumstance is overwhelming to me and I'm going to have to listen under to it when God, what He says is totally opposite. And you say, no, you trust me no matter what. And we're all victims of that. I do it all the time. I have to talk to Courtney once in a while.

This man says it can't be too strongly emphasized that Christ's life before the cross, his active obedience as it is called, is not in any sense counted to us for righteousness. Do you understand what he's saying there? Here's the point. Christ is listening under the Father. He becomes a man. He listens to the Father. He said, I only do what I see my Father doing.

I never do anything on myself. I think we could learn a lesson from that. But that obedience is not the reason that he was righteous. And it's not the reason that we're made righteous. What is the reason? What is the reason? He was a Christian. No. What is the reason? Faith? Faith in God's Word. Faith in what? What did Christ do? Because if his life would have been exemplary, and we believe that he was actively obeying the Father, and we said, okay, well, I believe he was actively obeying the Father, and God said, okay, well, then I'll count that to you for righteousness. What was left out? What didn't you get? You didn't get the cross. You've got to have the cross. You've got to have that incident. That's the issue. The cross is the issue. It's always going to be the issue. So, you okay with that?

So was the law given to the first Adam or the last Adam? The law? The law. Not to the first Adam. Is it 19 or 20 that talks about the law? It says the law. The law came in by... I mean in your notebook. What's that? The law like the mosaic law. So when you have a definite article in front of the word law, what are you talking about? The mosaic law. Talking about the mosaic law. And how did the mosaic law come in? It was given by God. Just given by God. So, was the law given to either the first Adam or the last Adam?

Here's what I wrote, the reference to law here shows that Paul has justification from guilt and it does not show our state of sinfulness in view. The law entered alongside not in this connection to reveal sinfulness but that the trespass of law, the act of law breaking, might abound. And I don't think we really appreciate why the law was given in these verses. The law was given for one reason. What was it? So we'd know we were sinning. What's the verse say? The law was given... would abound.

Don't you find it interesting that God devises a plan, and I've thought of it this way a lot. All of us, most of us like to go camping, and there's nothing more fun than a campfire, right? And the kids love it with the marshmallows and the s'mores and all that, right? So God says that campfire is thin, and I want you to put it out.

And we say, and he says, I'm going to give you the law to do it. But what the law represents is gasoline. So you pour gasoline on the fire, what happens? Poof! Right? That's what the law did to sin. It came in alongside and it caused sin to go nuts. Well then it made people aware that they were sinning. It defined sin, there's no question it did.

But it's like the test for the two-year-old. How the law works, you're two years old, I put this down and I say, don't touch that. What are they going to do? That's a good example. The law comes to us as adults and says, and we figure out a way to do it. If it's not even in our mind, we wouldn't even consider it. But if the law says, You can't do that if you have this desire to do it.

Now some of you are really spiritual and I know you've passed way past that. But that's what the law was for. And why would God do it that way? Why would he institute a system, the Mosaic Law, that actually caused the Jews to sin more? And not only that, to inflame. Why would he do it? I mean, it seems like this isn't a fair game here. And He's really causing me as a human being to be worse than I was before. Need? To need Him? To need Him. Because He's the Savior, not the law. He's the Savior.

And He's going to go to the cross and He's going to deal with the entire sin issue from a grace standpoint. Do you see that? So is your guilt gone? Yeah. Is your penalty for sins gone? Yeah. Who did it? He did it. If law was in place, who would take care of your guilt and your sins? You would. You would be left with the responsibility to do it. The law was not given to either man. What does the verse say? What did the law come in alongside? The law came in alongside the sin nature. Do you see that? After sin had been there for 2,500 years before the law was, and you know the verse we were talking about earlier in this context that people were dying from Adam to Moses even though they didn't sin by breaking the law?

They were still dying. Why? Why were they dying? There were still graves. Why? Because Adam sinned. Adam sinned. You have a sin nature. And the nature is the thing that's the problem. And what God is going to do through giving the law is expose that nature for what it really is. 2,500 years of man's existence from Adam to Moses. No law. But everybody's still dying. They can go to God and say, I didn't have this list of rules and I didn't break any of them, why am I dying? Because I have a sin nature. The sin nature is condemned. The sin nature will not listen under or comply with God. It can't do it. So, after sin had been there 2500 years, the vain, self-confident Israel might see God's standard for those in the first Adam and promising to obey it fail and thus no sin in order that grace might overflow.

So how is God going to demonstrate to you and me that grace is an overpowering, overflowing system? How is he going to do it? The first thing he's going to do is, like Joe said, he's going to use the law to create the need. Because the thing that brings people to Christ, not only for salvation, but also for spiritual growth, is that they can't stop. And the harder they try, the worse it gets. And so I've been going at this thing, and not only am I losing a little bit, I'm losing a lot more now than I did before. So what does that set it up for?

It sets up God to bring grace into the picture. Or he says, my system of grace will eliminate this whole entire thing of law keeping. It will wipe it out. And grace will become, as we'll learn in the section of grace that we'll study, grace is the most powerful motivator ever. Way more than the law is. Way more. Motivation of grace is when you begin to see God's grace. that it's abounding towards us and we're in it. It overwhelms us to the point where we can, by faith, just listen under. We let God be God and we let Him do what He says He's going to do and grace flows. And He never looks at me and says, you've got to perform.

Not anymore. Not anymore. You don't know that, though, until you know what happened here to not only Christ, but to you and me. What happened here? And that's what we're working up to. Was that the second buzzer? Yes, sir. Okay. So, I got two questions done. Pretty good, huh? Yeah.

Father, how we thank you for I guess just who you are, and that you are so careful to demonstrate to us that you have resolved the issues when it comes to our relationship to you, that we are seated in the Beloved and the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're totally acceptable in Him, and you've done it all. And so we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray in His precious name. Amen.