Union With Christ, Part 2

Driving home: The question before us is this, did Jesus Christ die for all men indiscriminately and distributively, or did he die for some men specifically and exclusively?

Martin uses the example of the two spellings of 'holistic' (with or without 'W') to illustrate his point about the word's meaning and his careful use of it, emphasizing the dictionary definition of an integrated whole.

The approach to this question is not the proof-text method, our approach, but the holistic method. And I don't know why, but in the dictionary you'll find that wholistic can be spelled with the W or without it. H-O-L-I-S-T-I-C or W-H-O-L-I-S-T-I-C, whatever else it is in there. Don't try to spell whole without the W.

1:18 - 1:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, defending the cross of Christ from accusations of injustice.

Martin quotes Hugh Martin's observation about the two-fold strand of emphasis in the gospel records regarding Christ's trial: His outward appearance as a guilty criminal versus the constant declarations of His innocence. This illustrates how God was giving an object lesson of Christ being legally guilty (bearing sin) yet personally innocent, making sense of His cry of abandonment.

that just about blew my mind when I read it. He said if you ever noticed how in the gospel records there is this two-fold strand of emphasis from the moment of Christ's arraignment or the moment of his capture in the garden when they came with swords and staves to take hold of him and took him to Pilate and Herod and back to Pilate and the rest. There is this two-fold strand. There is on the one hand the constant and at times almost mysterious declaration of his innocence and at the same time the constant affirmation of his guiltiness.

16:12 - 16:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second experimental implication is that union with Christ provides a firm foundation for future expectations, particularly in facing death and judgment. Martin emphasizes that…

Martin uses the analogy of passing the 40th birthday and moving up in the ranks of those facing death, comparing it to soldiers in a Civil War battle seeing their comrades fall. This illustrates the increasing personal confrontation with mortality and the need for a solid foundation for future expectation.

to think seriously about death and that is not wrong I think it is psychologically impossible for a young man to think too often about death or too frequently because or unless God puts him in circumstances where he has been chronically ill and death has come by very very frequently and so I am not trying to make you morbid but there is something about passing that 40th birthday and you realize if I have my three score and ten plus my extra ten half of it is gone and I tell you that hits you and you feel it right down here it is gone gone it is gone it is gone gone and I tell you when you feel...

35:34 - 36:19 Read in full sermon