Only for the Obedience of Christ

The point: Learn the discipline of excluding every other consideration when dealing with guilt, and fill your mind with Christ and Christ alone at that moment.

When occupied with mortification - cutting off a right hand and plucking out a right eye - you are occupied with your hand and your eye. Martin corrects the idea that 'just think of Christ' is the answer to every problem; it is the answer only when dealing with guilt.

When we are concerned with other questions, such as the mortification, the putting to death of remaining sin, how to beat, as it were, the life out of certain lusts, how to subdue certain passions, there are many facets of Christian duty and responsibility which involve our being occupied with something other than Christ. We must be occupied with other concerns if we are biblical in our thinking. And anyone who tells you that the only answer for every dimension of the Christian life is to be occupied with Christ is spouting nonsense. When you're occupied with cutting off a right hand and pluck...

17:18 - 18:14 Read in full sermon

The point: Distinguish the moment for mortification from the moment for justification; do not reach for the wrong truth at the wrong time.

When the mind is oppressed with guilt, many believers reach for truths about mortification instead of for Christ's righteousness. They use the right medicine on the wrong disease and remain unwell, because justification and sanctification treat different ailments.

And when you bring that over into the light of 1 Corinthians chapter 1, you have the apostle saying, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us righteousness, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You see, no little part of beginning to come to stability in the Christian life is learning what truths of the Bible ought to be the focus of your consciousness and of your spiritual activity at what particular point in your spiritual pilgrimage. And the problem with many believers is when the mind is oppressed with guilt, they take up the truths de...

20:37 - 21:30 Read in full sermon

The point: When conscience accuses you, submerge yourself in Christ's obedience and plead: 'Lord, I hide in the obedience of your Son.'

The acting of faith is to come to God and say, 'I hide in the obedience of your Son. I submerge myself in His perfect obedience.' Being in Him, the Father can say of the sinner what He said of the Son: 'My son in whom I am well pleased.'

The ground of my justification is the perfect obedience of Christ alone. He could say, I do always the things that please my Father. The Father could say from heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And the acting of faith for a believer then is to come to God and say, O God, I acknowledge my sin. I acknowledge my disobedience. But you have said of your Son, in Him I am well pleased. And Lord, I hide in the obedience of your Son. I, as it were, submerge myself in His perfect obedience, so that being in Him, you can say of me, my Son in whom I am well pleased. The ground of ou...

27:27 - 28:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God cannot deny Himself. He cannot express His love in a way that suspends or violates His justice and His holiness. He would cease to be God.

Christ does not turn away God's wrath by changing something in God but by swallowing up the unmingled wrath and anger of God in his own agony and death. Full satisfaction is the ground on which love cuts a channel for salvation consistent with justice.

Satisfaction. That is, he turns away the wrath of God by swallowing up the wrath of God in his own agony and in his own death. He does not turn it away by changing something in God, but by being the recipient of the unmingled wrath and anger of God against the sins of his people.

30:47 - 31:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God cannot deny Himself. He cannot express His love in a way that suspends or violates His justice and His holiness. He would cease to be God.

When Adam sinned, he ran from God. So every guilty conscience experiences an aversion to the very God whose fellowship it was made for. Only a conscience at peace through Christ's satisfaction can return to God.

Be ye reconciled to God. Now on what basis can the apostle plead that sinners be reconciled to God? That they return to God? You see, as long as the conscience is filled with the sense of guilt, there is an aversion to God. Isn't that your experience? When the conscience is filled with guilt, there is an aversion to God. Isn't that what happened to Adam? When he sinned, he runs from God.

31:43 - 32:10 Read in full sermon

The old writers distinguished Christ's active obedience (fulfilling the law's precepts in His life) from His passive obedience (bearing the law's penalty in His death). Martin explains the terminology, noting that modern writers rightly observe Christ was never more active than when He died.

and perfect satisfaction of Christ. Now, some of you in your reading have come across the terms the active and the passive obedience of Christ. Well, some of the old writers were simply trying to bring these things together and to show, you see, that Christ's obedience in life, that obedience rendered to God in terms of His law, that that positive obedience is is reckoned ours because He is the representative, the surety, the substitute of His people. And by the passive obedience, they meant that which He suffered upon the cross when He rendered satisfaction to God's law. Now, more modern writ...

34:36 - 35:31 Read in full sermon