Union With Christ, Part 1

Driving home: Now, since God always judges according to truth and reality, what relationship will constitute the just grounds of transferring all of the ill desert of the people to Christ, all of the ill desert of the people to Christ…

Martin quotes A.A. Hodge's 'The Atonement' to address objections to vicarious sacrifice, specifically the transfer of guilt and innocence, arguing that the divine administration operates on higher principles than human law, which do not contradict reason but transcend it.

And then the second great objection is it is not right for guilty people to be set free on the basis of the virtue of another. Just as you cannot transfer guilt from one party to another, you cannot transfer innocence from one party to another who is not innocent. Now, in taking up those two great objections to the Christian doctrine of justice, the vicarious sacrifice, Hodge, having ably disposed of those objections, then says, and I quote now a rather lengthy quote from Hodge, page 112 on to 113 in his Treatment of the Atonement in the book I recommended last week,

7:15 - 7:59 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And when he declares his people to be accepted with the righteousness of his son, he's not playing games. There is a valid transference of one to the other because a relationship has been established which makes that pos…

Hodge, quoting Turretin and Grotius, illustrates the principle of shared moral responsibility through three kinds of human union: natural (father/children), moral/political (king/son), and voluntary (friends/sponsor), to show how imputation can be justified.

it by no means conflicts with reason. And then Hodge goes on to show, quoting from Turretin, one of the older theologians, and Grotius, you'll find those names occurring in Reformed theological writing, that there are three kinds of union known to us which justify the imputation, because they are of such a nature that in the case of certain actions, the moral responsibility for the sin is common to all the parties involved. In other words, he's going to illustrate this principle in human experience. Natural, as between a father and his children, we find that in scripture, a father's sins

8:49 - 9:31 Read in full sermon

Driving home: So that any contemplation of the offering divorced from the seed on whose behalf the offering was made is a fractured contemplation of the death of Christ. We are separating what God has joined.

Martin explains the cultural context of Mary and Joseph's engagement, noting that they were considered married, to clarify the significance of Joseph's dilemma and the angel's message.

Mary and Joseph are engaged and engagement was a bit of a different nature then as now.

15:55 - 16:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin demonstrates the scriptural necessity of contemplating Christ's death in union with His people through four lines of evidence: prophetic announcements of His death (Isaiah…

Joseph's careful thought before acting, rather than making haste, is presented as an example of a godly man weighing his actions, illustrating the principle 'he that believeth shall not make haste'.

They were actually considered married though they did not live together and cohabit. He was espoused to Mary and during this time he discovers that she is with child and Joseph contemplates what his action should be and living under the old economy. He contemplates it in terms of the strictures of the ceremonial and civil laws of Israel. And while he's wrestling with what course of action is open to him, verse 2, 20 of Matthew 1, when he thought on these things, wonderful lesson about he that believeth shall not make haste.

16:05 - 16:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, love your wives, taking motivation and perspective from Christ's redemptive love for the church.

Martin uses the analogy of Moses teaching practical duties to Israel, always 'soaking the tap roots in redemption' (e.g., 'don't cut your beard... for God brought you out of Egypt'), to explain Paul's method in Ephesians 5 of grounding duties in redemptive realities.

the apostle Paul cannot teach the most practical duties without doing as Moses did when he taught practical duties to Israel, soaking the tap roots in redemption. You see, now here's the similarity. When Moses would say, do this, do this, do this, don't cut the corners of your beard, don't mix your cloth, for God brought you out of Egypt, you're his redeemed people. The duties given, peculiar to that circumstance, are always soaked in the tap roots of redemptive privilege.

24:37 - 25:08 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray that God will raise up theologians, preachers, writers, and poets to freshly express and beautifully embody these truths for our generation.

Martin shares his struggle to find fresh terminology for complex doctrines, admitting he often falls back on 'old masters' like Hodge, emphasizing that the 'thing which it reflects' is more important than the specific term.

Some of us are praying that God will raise up not only theologians and preachers, but writers and poets and everything else, so that these truths will be fresh, freshly expressed and beautifully embodied in the very thought patterns of our own generation, in the language forms of our own generation. So I'm at a loss. Maybe so much of my help has to come from bygone days that I just have to stick with traditional terminology, but the issue is not the terminology, but the thing which it reflects. And I think after wrestling with this and wondering what terms shall I use and writing down some and...

29:24 - 30:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins to expound the relationship of Christ to His people, categorizing it as a legal or federal union. He argues that Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 are indispensable for…

Martin recounts his personal journey away from Pelagianism, specifically through reading Finney's systematic theology, which he found to be rationalistic and dismissive of biblical passages like Romans 5, leading him to conclude that the Bible is the ultimate law of reason.

to two men, Adam and Christ. Now, if you have any question that this is the obvious meaning of the passage, read a commentator who denies that, and see what he tries to do with these passages. Now that's what drove me forever away from Pelagianism, back when I didn't know much about systematic theology. I don't know much now, but I knew much less then.

35:38 - 36:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not continue in sin, because your union with Christ makes continuance in sin utterly impossible.

Martin quotes an unnamed person who laments that in attempting to make things simple, modern preaching has made them simplistic and gone beyond the Bible, which was not made for those who wouldn't think, pray, and meditate.

his resurrection is mine the great point the apostle is making is that when Christ died such a relationship was established already with his people that when in time they come into the virtue of that all of the power and implications of that union will come to light in their life history but what happens in their life history is but the opening up of the womb of that which was secured here and that which secured it was the reality of his relationship to his people now much of that may be going over your head but think on it I don't know how to explain it in simpler terms as one man said this i...

58:41 - 59:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes by highlighting that Christ's union with His people was precious to Him, even in His suffering. He references Hebrews 12 and Psalm 22 to show that the 'joy set…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of the rare privilege of sitting among the congregation and doing 'absolutely nothing' during a service, which highlights his delight in simply receiving the Word, particularly when Psalm 22 was read.

It is that joy that sustains him as he faces the agony of the cross and goes through the baptism of his suffering. I found last Lord's Day sitting amongst the Lord's people only two times now in 14 years that I've had that privilege and I've been spoiled just to sit, not to have anything to do, not to lead in prayer. And apart from that little faux pas with the song where I had to get the tune, it would have been the service when I did absolutely nothing to my great delight. But as Mr. Clark read that passage

63:19 - 63:54 Read in full sermon