The Setting

The Centrality and Setting of the Atonement

0:08 In our initial study of this glorious theme of the atonement of Christ, what I attempted to do last night was simply to bring into sharp focus the centrality of the doctrine of the atonement in biblical revelation. And our survey of the biblical data led us to the conclusion that the doctrine of the atonement is nothing less than the very nerve center, the heart, the very watershed, and the center of gravity of all that God has revealed in Holy Scripture. And perhaps the most brief and simple way in which I can summarize the conclusion of our study is to read those few steps. Sentences again from Gardner Spring. Every truth in the Bible brings us at last to the cross.

1:15 And the cross carries us back to every truth in the Bible so that the sum and substance of all truth is most impressively proved, illustrated, and enforced by Christ and Him crucified. A right conception of what is included in the cross ensures a right conception of every important doctrine contained in the Bible. This is the hinge on which the whole system turns and the great truth by which alone any and all truths can be understood. Now having established the system, the centrality of the doctrine of the atonement in biblical revelation, we come to examine this morning what I am calling the setting of the atonement in biblical revelation. The setting of the atonement in biblical revelation. Now as surely as the diamond in the engagement ring possessed by the starry-eyed bride-to-be

2:34 has a setting apart from which she could not display that token of commitment, so likewise the doctrine of the atonement comes to us in a setting without which its many-faceted glory, if appreciated at all, will never be appreciated to the extent that it ought to be appreciated and will be appreciated, when we see it set within the prongs of other biblical doctrines and fixed upon the ring of the entire revelation of the word of God. In other words, to change the imagery, the biblical doctrine of the atonement does not come to us hanging upon a sky hook, but rather to change the imagery again, the biblical doctrine, the doctrine of the atonement comes to us embedded in the reinforced concrete of other fundamental biblical truths. To use another analogy, the biblical doctrine of the atonement, just as my hand, stands in organic living relationship to other revelations of God's mind and will.

4:01 And if I cut my hand off from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, from the object, to which it is attached, I sever it from the source of life and it very quickly becomes nothing but a dead and lifeless appendage. So with the doctrine of the atonement, it comes to us not in terms of the manipulations of the theologians, but in terms of biblical revelation itself with living, throbbing blood vessels between it and other doctrines. Living, sentient nerves between it and other doctrines. And any consideration of the doctrine of the atonement that does not attempt to set it in its own native biblical context at best will be a truncated and distorted view of that grand and glorious doctrine. Hugh Martin in his classic work on the atonement of the atonement clearly understood this and in his opening statements of discussing the doctrine of the atonement says this, it is extremely unwise for defenders of the faith to discuss any scriptural doctrine and particularly to profess to do so fully and exhaustively

5:28 outside of any greater category to which the doctrine presents properly and natively belongs. For by doing so, that is, taking the biblical doctrine out of its native setting and discussing it in isolation from that setting, they place that doctrine in a position of unnecessary danger and assign to themselves a greater difficulty in defending it than scripture assigns to them. They rob the doctrine of the illustration and they rob it of the protection which the higher and broader biblical categories afford. They deprive it of the benefit of scriptural considerations in the light of which their defense might be comparatively easy and would be found indeed presented to their hand. And by the isolated position to which they have consigned it, they give advantages to the enemies of that doctrine which the abler and more acute of their number are not slow to seize. Putting that in the most plain, simple Americanese, I know how to put it. Take the doctrine of the atonement out of the setting of its own God-given embattlements

The Archery Target Analogy and the Outer Ring: God and Man

6:55 and you leave it exposed to all of its enemies or to change the imagery, set the doctrine of the atonement in a vast wasteland and you leave it a doctrine that is not nourished and appreciated in terms of all of the wonderful plants with which God himself has surrounded it. And so what I propose to do this morning is to give you the setting of the atonement in biblical revelation under the extended imagery of an archery target. And if I could have brought one with me on the airplane, I would have done so. But I want you to imagine with me, if you will please, that there is standing behind me and to the right of me and to your left, a large archery target with about a six-foot circumference. And if you've seen an archery target, and I'm sure most, if not all of you have, you know that at the center of that target is what we call the bullseye. That's the thing that the archer aims at and tries to hit with his arrows. And then from that center, the bullseye, there are concentric circles, that is circles which have precisely the same center as the bullseye and they go out one circle,

8:23 two, three, and four. And I want you to consider with me, and I'm not sure precisely how many are found on an official archer's target, but for our theological target this morning, we have the bullseye surrounded by four concentric circles which constitute from the Word of God. And I want to emphasize that. This is not an artificial construction of the theologian, but from the Word of God itself, these four concentric circles which comprise the divine setting of the world.

9:03 And I want you to consider the doctrine of the atonement. We'll start with the outer circle and move in, obviously having four points to our study this morning. First of all, then, as we move towards the bullseye, which God willing, we'll examine tomorrow morning with a magnifying glass. We're going to take a large magnifying glass and hold it over the bullseye so we can all examine the substance of the atonement.

9:33 But today, no magnifying glass. From that distance, all of us can see the six-foot target and we're going to start with the outer ring and work inward and stop short at the bullseye. God willing, tomorrow morning in the first hour, we examine the bullseye. All right, first of all, then, the outer ring in our target is what I am calling the doctrine of God in relationship to the truth and the true position and condition of man.

10:08 The doctrine of God in relationship to the true position and condition of man. You and I will have little appreciation for the biblical doctrine of the atonement unless we have some intelligent, spiritually wrought convictions about the character of God and the position and character of man. It is the biblical doctrine of the nature and character of God which alone enables us to understand the necessity and the nature of the atonement. In other words, the atonement is precisely what it is because God is precisely who He is. And if we alter in one degree who the God of the Bible is, there will be an inevitable pressure to alter to many degrees what the atonement of the Bible is. Now, the God of Scripture is revealed to us as essentially and fundamentally and unchangeably as a God of the Bible. And if we alter to the God of the Bible as a God of burning and spotless purity

11:38 and holiness, of Him it is said our God is a consuming fire. So holy is our God that cherubim who have never known the stain of sin cannot look directly upon the burning countenance of God but veil their faces and cry one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty. But He is not only revealed as a God of burning spotless holiness but as a God of strict and inflexible justice. The Scripture says of Him He will by no means clear the guilty. He will by no means under any circumstance under any pressure He will by no means clear the guilty. He is not only a God of burning and spotless holiness but a God of strict and inflexible justice. But then He is also revealed as a God of absolute and unrivaled sovereignty.

12:59 Of Him the Psalmist could declare our God is in the heavens, He has done whatsoever He has pleased. Again, He does according to His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth and there is none who can stay His hand. That is, when God would reach out His hand to do something, none can place a hand upon God's hand and say, wait a minute God, what are you doing? None can stay His hand or even say to Him, what are you doing?

13:37 And yet this God of burning holiness, inflexible justice and absolute sovereignty is also revealed in Scripture as the God of free and sovereign love of whom it is said God is love and the God who dares to say I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have mercy. Now follow closely. If your God is not that God, then the atonement will make no sense to you and whenever individuals or groups of individuals or churches or religious movements have drifted away from these fundamental conceptions of the nature and character of God, that which He is inherently, essentially, fundamentally, fundamentally, and unchangeably, it has only been a matter of time before the biblical doctrine of the atonement has suffered tremendous erosion, distortion, and then ultimately open, blasphemous denial. If we take away these realities and turn God into some kind of an amorphous glob of unprincipled sentiment and unwholesome, holy gush,

15:07 Gethsemane with its sweat drops of blood and Golgotha with its shrouded heavens and its horrible cry of abandonment are at best very moving but unexplainable enigmas and at worst, they constitute a cruel joke of a blind and impotent and unprincipled deity, who can do nothing while the Lord of Glory is immolated upon a Roman gibbet. No, the atonement is God's answer to the seemingly unanswerable question, how can God remain God and sinners be anything other than damned? The atonement is the divine answer. To that burning question, to put it in the language of the apostle in Romans 3.26, how can God be just and still justify sinners?

16:22 And it is the doctrine of God, this God, in relationship to the position and condition of man that constitutes that outer ring of the setting of the world. of the world. of the world. of the world.

16:37 of the world. of the world. of the world. of the atonement.

Man's Position and Condition Before God

16:38 And having briefly directed your attention to the heart of the doctrine of God, what does the scripture tell us about the position and condition of man in relationship to that God? Well, the teaching of the Bible is clear. Man was created as a unique image bearer of God. Unlike the cows and the beast of the field, he was not only made with a moral consciousness, but with moral accountability to God.

17:14 God did not say to any cow in the original creation, eat the wrong bush and you will die. But he did say to man in the day that you eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, dying you will surely die. Woven into the very fabric of man's distinctiveness as man is not only that he was made in the image of God, but he was made with moral accountability to God. And that accountability for Adam was the same as ours at certain levels, but it was utterly unique at another level. Adam was appointed as the representative head of the entire humanity. So that scripture speaks with unmistakable language, Romans 5, 12. Wherefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death passed upon all men for all sinned.

18:25 And when did they all sin? All sinned in Adam's first sin and fell with him in that transgression so that he would not be born again. And that's what Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 15, 22. As in Adam, all die.

18:45 And the scripture presents man as accountable to God in Adam, an accountability which is not negated when each of us is conceived and brought forth and begins to establish his own life history. As surely as we were accountable in Adam, our representative and federal head, we are accountable standing on the ground of our own life history. And the scripture describes us in that position as children of wrath, even as the rest, Ephesians 2, 3. It describes us as those who drink iniquity like water. It describes us as those who committing sin are the very bond slaves of sin. It describes us as creatures whose position is an unalterable accountability, an accountability that will come to its apex in the language of scripture when every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Romans 14 and verse 12.

20:05 And so if we are to be view man in any other light than in the position of an image bearer of God, fallen and condemned in Adam and yet still accountable to God, and if we view him in any other condition other than his condition of guilt, liability to divine punishment and anger, bondage and slavery to sin, if we view man in any other light, we are not viewing him according to reality. Man, woman, boy or girl, that's reality. And the atonement is not playing with myths and with shadows. The bloody sweat of Gethsemane, the cry of dereliction upon Golgotha was the sweat and the cry that grew out of the matrix of what really is, and what really is, is that God is essentially, eternally, unchangeably holy, essentially, eternally, unchangeably just, essentially eternal, unchangeably sovereign, essentially, eternally, unalterably a God of love who will have mercy

21:34 on whom he will have mercy, and man will have mercy. And man, from his very creation, is accountable to God. In that accountability, he has fallen into a state of guilt, and he is in a condition of bondage and slavery and liability to divine wrath. It can be demonstrated that whenever the church has in any way paired off those right angles of these offensive truths and denied the historical reality of the fall, the humbling extent of the power of sin in the human heart, the reality of man's accountability to God, the certainty of man's liability to the wrath of God, the atonement has, by degrees, faded into the background, undergone tragic alterations, until what was left was ultimately something as far removed from biblical Christianity as night is removed from day. And so I assert in your hearing, if we would understand, if we would cherish, if we would have Christ crucified,

Exhortation: Preaching the Law and Wrath of God

23:02 the doctrine of the bull's eye precious to our hearts, we must forever feed our minds and souls upon that outer ring of its supportive truth, the doctrine of God in relationship to the position and condition of man. And before we move to the second ring, I want to bring a word of exhortation. If you were here last night, you know that I believe with all my heart that Christ crucified ought to be the dominant theme of all the world. I believe that Christ crucified ought to be the dominant theme of all the world.

23:38 I believe that Christ crucified ought to be the dominant theme of all the world. I believe that Jesus crucified ought to be the dominant theme of all of our preaching. But by that I do not mean that we are simply to parrot the name of Jesus in every sermon. I do not mean that we are not to preach the character of God in His holiness, the expression of that holiness as it comes to concrete manifestation in His changeless moral law.

24:04 I am not saying that we are not to preach the law of God in all of its length, length and breadth and searchingness. And there are multitudes in our day who under the guise of preaching of Christ despise any expositions of the law as legal preaching. People who have not yet gotten their boots out of the trammelings of the old mosaic economy. And I say of that what my brother said of so many other things, hogwash and rubbish.

24:35 When the Apostle Paul would take us to the bullseye in Romans 3.21 to Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, where does he begin? He begins with the wrath of God revealed from heaven, Romans 1.18.

24:58 And he carries the theme of divine wrath through to the 32nd verse of chapter 1, all the way through, chapter 2, all the way through to chapter 3 and verse 20, saying, we have now demonstrated that all the world is guilty before God. I have no sympathy with this preaching up of Christ, which is an incipient antinomianism that wants people to feel comfortable in their wretched state of rebellion against God.

25:39 The cross will be sweet when the reality of God's holiness and inflexible justice are terrifying.

25:52 And when those realities are terrifying, the cross will become precious and sweet to us.

The Second Ring: The General Doctrine of Salvation

26:03 But now we've got to move in on our target to the second circle. The setting of the atonement is not, not only God's character in relationship to man's position and condition, but in the second place, the doctrine of the atonement comes to us in a setting that I am calling the general doctrine of salvation. The general doctrine of salvation. You see, the doctrine of the atonement is a doctrine of salvation.

26:40 doctrine of one of God's mighty activities in rescuing hell-deserving sinners. And it is an activity of the Lord Jesus that fit perfectly, dovetailed beautifully with an overall scheme of salvation that is embedded in eternity in the heart, mind, and will of the triune God. And as Hugh Martin wisely said, since the atonement, the bullseye, is part of the general doctrine of salvation, we must never discuss the atonement in isolation from the larger category within which it comes to us. And so very briefly, let me remind you of what that general doctrine of salvation is according to the Bible. It has three distinct categories. Number one, it is planned in eternity. Christ is designated

27:51 in Revelation 13.8 as the Lamb slain from the creation of the world. You see, it's not systematic theology that drives us here. It's one of the descriptions of our blessed Savior.

28:09 He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Lamb slain. That's the bullseye. But we are told He's slain from the foundation of the world. In other words, His slaying has no meaning if you merely view it in terms of the first century in Palestine. You must see it in the light of eternity. Again, in 1 Peter 1, 18 through 20, the Apostle Peter points us in the same direction. And with the same perspective, 1 Peter 1 in verse 19, verse 18, knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. There's the bullseye, the atonement, even the blood of Christ, who was foreknown indeed before the Father. The foundation of the world. It is blood that has a relationship to something before the

29:19 foundation of the world. Again, when Peter is preaching to show you that this is not just the ramblings of a theological mind. When Peter is preaching and accusing his hearers of slaying the Lord Jesus, what does he tell them in Acts 2 and verse 23? Listen to the language. Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, by the hand of lawless men, did crucify and slay. The atonement, he was crucified and slain, but Peter says, everything you did was but the fulfillment of God's predetermined plan. He took them to that second circle. The salvation of God as planned in eternity.

30:20 But not only is this purpose underscored with reference to our Savior, but with reference to all he came to save. For they are described in Ephesians 1-4 as those who having been blessed with him in all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies were chosen. In him before the foundation of the world. Surely, my dear listeners, these verses and others set before us the amazing fact that with reference to the atonement, there were nothing less than inter-trinitarian commitments, engagements, and designs from all eternity. The atonement has its time. It is not the large amount of squabbles or impassioned gratifying to the world. Spontaneous applying of the highest那麼 and the eternal and the ultimate, is knocking for theanie, meaning quickness orims.

31:33 For�od even in his immolated form upon the cross, its taproots are embedded in eternity, when God conceived and willed to save a people through the blood of a Redeemer. But then the second dimension of this general doctrine of salvation is this. It is not only planned in eternity but it is placed on occultation during the availability or temporary life. He knit His bride up since the että in two lights. Your wife under waves that shall not burn His familys with magnets or star batteries, and His kuhts on the help of circumstance. He did. He took them to His divine presence blithareth as what we eat hear. The atonement Eternity, it was accomplished in the life history of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

31:50 It was accomplished in the life history of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. When he was formally presented in his adulthood, it was in his capacity as the representative of sinners. For his formal introduction did not come riding into Jerusalem upon a white charger, nor did his formal introduction come at the temple where he was heralded as a great prophet. His formal introduction came there in the muddy waters of Jordan, where men had been coming from all over Judea to a sinner's ordinance, baptized of John into the Jordan, and confessing their sins. And now he comes to a sinner's ordinance in the companionship of sinners. And the thought seems so incongruous that John says, Forbid it! I should not be baptizing you, but I should be baptized of you.

32:56 And Jesus said, Suffer it now, for so it becomes to fulfill all righteousness. In my first formal appearance before men, it must be plain what I've come to do. I've come to stand in solidarity with sinners. I've come to identify myself with sinners.

33:17 And later on he uses the very term of baptism as a description of his death upon the cross. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and I am constrained until it be accomplished. And so to assert that his formal identification, and formal introduction to men, is in terms of a sinner's ordinance to declare what he's come to do, again is not an artificial conclusion. Careful exegesis presses it upon us.

33:54 And when John points to him there by the Jordan, if people did not get the message from his actions, John interprets the actions and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who is even now bearing the sin of the world. John 1 and verse 29. He came from heaven to do the will of his Father. And what was the will of his Father?

34:23 In passages such as John 12, 27 to 33, Hebrews 10, 4 to 10, time will not permit us to read them, but the heart of those passages is this. The self-consciousness, the consciousness of our Redeemer, that he came from heaven to lay down his life for sinners. He was conscious that in his own life history, the salvation of men was to be effected. It was to be accomplished in the life history of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God.

35:03 And so conscious was he of this fact, you'll remember that, the Gospel writer tells us, that after those awesome, mysterious hours of darkness, when the soul of our Lord drank in the pangs of hell, at the end of that time in a manner that is not revealed to us, the Father conveyed to the soul of the Son that the last dark drop of his anger against sin had been exhausted. And the Scripture tells us, he cried, not he mumbled or he whispered, but he cried with a loud and pleased, and it remains accomplished. He used the perfect tense, which points to action accomplished at a given point, and the fruit of that action abiding into the future. He didn't say, I am finished. This was no cry that the end had come, as far as his earthly pilgrimage.

36:22 It was the cry of triumph that he had accomplished redemption. It was accomplished. And whatever the atonement is, let us never contemplate its nature, its extent, its objects, its fruit. Let us never put them out, magnifying glass upon the bull's eye, unless we contemplate this second outer ring, the general doctrine of salvation, which clearly is this.

37:00 Salvation was purposed in eternity. It was accomplished in the life history of the Son of God. And to validate the affirmation of Jesus, it is finished. God took his own index finger and plunged it through that four-inch thick veil in the temple, and he split it from top to bottom.

37:27 That was God's Amen to Christ Tetelestai. It is finished. Amen, says the Father, and he splits the veil. We then must view the doctrine of the atonement in the light of that general doctrine of salvation, purposed in eternity, accomplished in the life history of Jesus, but thirdly, applied by the Spirit in the personal history of every sinner for whom it was purposed and purchased.

38:09 Applied by the Spirit in the personal history of each sinner for whom it was purposed and for whom it was accomplished. There's a beautiful statement of this again in Hebrews chapter 10. Turn to it for a moment. I'll have to quote so many of the texts from memory in the interest of time, but I do want you to see this passage.

38:39 In Hebrews 10, the opening verses already alluded to, we have the closest thing to what we might call Jesus' parting words when he left heaven. Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Hebrews 10, 7. And in the following verses he says that it is through this will that we are sanctified through the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all.

39:07 Verse 14. By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. There's the accomplishment of redemption in the life history of Jesus. But then notice how the author moves right on to the application of that redemption in the life history of the people of God.

39:29 The Holy Spirit bears witness to us, for after that he saith, This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws on their hearts, and upon their minds also will I write them. Then saith he, Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

39:57 Do you see the close conjunction between salvation accomplished in the life history of Jesus and salvation applied in the life history of all for whom he died? In fulfillment of the Father's purpose they will surely in fallacy be given a new heart and their sins will be completely blotted out. This is why Paul could write to the Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians 2.13 God be thanked that he has chosen you from the beginning unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth where unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. There you have in a nutshell this general doctrine of salvation purposed in eternity purchased and accomplished in the life history of Jesus applied in the life history of every sinner for whom it was intended in that sinner's space time history. Now let me say in summary

The Third Ring: The Person and Position of Jesus Christ

41:21 before we move to the third circle if we would have a well grounded understanding and an appreciation of the biblical doctrine of the atonement we must not view it atomistically. We must not view it in isolation from other categories of truth. We must view that glorious doctrine in the light of the doctrine of God in relationship to the position and condition of man. We must view it secondly in the light of the general doctrine of salvation but thirdly we're moving closer to the bull's eye now we must view it in the light of the doctrine of the person and position of Jesus Christ. We must view it in the light of the doctrine of the person and position of Jesus Christ. Now it's obvious to all who have any acquaintance with the word of God that the atonement is inseparably connected with a person identified in scripture as Jesus of Nazareth and with the work that he was consciously performing on behalf of others. You remember his high priestly prayer?

42:46 He came as recorded in John 17 to the last hours of his life and he could say, Father, I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. I have given eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. Now the great question is this what is there about this person and his position that qualifies him to procure salvation for others? What is so unique about him as a person what is so unique about his position that he can act to procure redemption for a multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe and tongue and nation? Well you see this brings us immediately to the doctrine of the person and the position of Jesus Christ. The suitability and worth of the atonement is directly related to the nature of the one who makes the atonement. In other words, the atonement does what it does because Jesus, Jesus is who he is.

44:14 And the writer to the Hebrews would not dare to begin to open up what Jesus does as Savior until he began with telling us who he is in his person. God who spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets in many ways by bits and pieces hath in these last days spoken unto us in the Son, whom he appointed heir of all things by whom also we made the world who being the very outshining of his glory and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had purified our sins. He says nothing about atonement until he points to the unique nature of the one who makes the atonement. He is the very outshining of deity for he is deity. He upholds all by the word of omnipotent power because he is omnipotent God. Philippians chapter 2 that rich passage on the atonement Christ becoming obedient unto death even the death of the cross it begins by saying being in the very form of God thought it not a thing to be selfishly retained

45:44 to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking, taking not relinquishing a thing but taking here is God not ceasing to be God this is not God relinquishing something of his Godhood it is God the form of a servant and in that form he lived his life of obedience even unto death the death of the cross you see all debates with people over the deity of Christ are fruitless until they have some felt pangs of their own wretched sinnerhood talk to a man, a woman, a boy or a girl who does not feel the power of the chains of sin biting into his own inner heart and upon the tables of his own soul talk of Jesus being God to someone who has never trembled at the thought of meeting an infinitely holy God laden with a multitude of sins and you are wasting your breath but let someone begin to feel the pangs the falterness

47:12 of the bondage of sin let him begin to tremble before the awesome specter of the eye of God in the day of judgment searching every thought and motive and intent of the heart and measuring it by the standard of his own inflexible law and he now begins to know if help will ever come to me it must come from a hand that is divine I must have a savior who's God God break my chains God worth enough that his doings even his grandest doing which was his dying can be of infinite worth to blot out not only the mountain of my iniquities but of all who put their trust in him you see the doctrine of the uniqueness of the person of Christ as true God and true man is not a theological debate it's a matter of life sinful man being what he is the eternal God

48:39 there was no way for God to save consistent with his righteousness and holiness but to enflesh his own son in the dark damp hidden depths of a little virgin's womb oh the mystery in a womb fed by an umbilical cord coming forth in blood and cries of birth pangs we romanticize the birth of Jesus but I tell you the cry and the groans and the blood of birth when we apply them to deity is sheer nonsense unless our sin is such that nothing other than that could meet our need blessed be God for an enfleshed God to be our redeemer but it's not only his person dear friends it's his unique position and whatever he did in the work of atonement will never be truly appreciated unless we understand that that unique person who is true God and true man joined in the one person in the inseparable

50:05 but joined forever identifiable separate but two natures one person forever we must understand that he had a unique position and you know what that position was according to first Corinthians 15 he is the second Adam the first Adam had a unique position we referred to it a half an hour ago dealing with circle number one Adam was not only an individual culpable for his own sin he stood in a representative capacity by the appointment of God he was the head of the first humanity I like to think of the whole human race piggybacked on Adam's shoulders and when Adam stood before that tree the whole human race piggybacked on his shoulders had Adam resisted the temptation and not sinned we would have stood in uprightness with him but when he took that fruit and fell we fell in him and with him and his fall was our fall but thank God when Jesus came the new humanity was piggybacked on him God in his own sovereign purpose appointed his son the representative man of a new humanity that great multitude whom he chose in eternity for nothing good in them

51:33 nothing foreseen in them but according to the good pleasure of his will he piggybacked them all upon his son and he said to his son my son if you will perfectly keep my law your obedience will be reckoned to them because I've piggybacked them all on you and in that obedience if you will carry that obedience to its culmination and be willing to take all of the liabilities of those whom I've piggybacked upon you I will punish you in their room instead I will punish them in you as you are punished on their behalf you see the uniqueness of his position as the second Adam the last Adam the second man from heaven he is the great representative head of his people and by whatever terminology we describe that we must understand it or we will never have a rich appreciation of the doctrine of the atonement and we'll never be able to appreciate or to defend the precious doctrine of the definite intent of the atonement for you see the Bible makes plain that Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus Christ in dying died not as a private person according to Romans 6 when he died

53:02 all believers died in him and with him when he was buried they were buried in him and with him and when he came out of the tomb they came out in him and with him in principle and whenever the Holy Ghost applies salvation with power it is always in terms of making in the believer a vital dynamic the cross the burial and the open tomb so there is no such thing as a believer who does not walk in newness of life any more than there is a believer whose sins are not nailed to the cross and buried in his tomb we must understand his position and then finally we come now to that last circle that nestles right here right around the bull's eye that constitutes the setting of the atonement the character of God in relationship to the condition and position of men the general doctrine of salvation the doctrine of Christ person and position but now finally and here is where you are going to have to put your thinking caps on because this will be new ground for some but it is so vital and I confess to my shame I was a Christian many years

The Fourth Ring: Christ's Royal Priestly Work

54:29 before I began to have an appreciation of this truth and the ability to appreciate it is not a matter of intellectual capacity according to the writer to Hebrews it is a matter of spiritual maturity or spiritual dullness and here is that fourth circle the doctrine of Christ's royal priestly work the doctrine of Christ's royal priestly work the scriptures again are clear in affirming that what Jesus did in making an atonement he did in the official capacity of a high priest and now I do want you to open your Bibles to Hebrews as we look briefly at several key passages the doctrine of Christ priestly work is that circle which impinges on every side on the doctrine of the atonement what he did in making an atonement he did in a distinct capacity not only a unique position the representative man but a distinct office and capacity that of high priest Hebrews 2 and verse 17

55:52 wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God now notice to make propitiation remember we said last night propitiation, reconciliation, redemption all words that draw us to the atonement to make propitiation for the sins of the people he made propitiation in the capacity and role of a high priest chapter 3 and verse 1 wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the apostle and high priest of our confession even Jesus furthermore the writer to Hebrews makes it equally clear that he was appointed a high priest not after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek chapter 5 verses 6 and 10 as he said in another place you are a priest forever

57:16 after the order of Melchizedek verse 10 named of God a high priest after the order of Aaron after the order of Melchizedek chapter 7 verses 14 and 15 for it is evident that our Lord has sprung out of Judah as to which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priests and what we say is yet more abundantly evident if after the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has been made not after the law of a carnal commandment but after the power of God and the power of an endless life for it is witnessed of him thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek you see if I repeated myself as much as the writer does on this point you'd say poor Pastor Martin he's getting old in repeating himself God's trying to say something to us he's saying would you understand the work of my son then understand this he did his work in the position of a high priest after the order of Melchizedek and it's in his royal priestly work that we understand from Melchizedek the uniqueness of his position

58:42 Melchizedek according to Hebrews 7 1 and 2 joined the offices of king and of priest he was king of Salem as well as priest no priest in the Levitical system was ever to be a ruler he was forbidden to be a king the king and the priest were not to meet according to the Levitical system but God ordained in this strange Old Testament figure this man who was king of Salem and priest of God most high that we should understand that when Jesus makes the atonement for his people he will do so in the unique position of a priest and a king as we read in one of the later prophets he shall be a priest upon his throne and then Melchizedek also points to the uniqueness not only of his position king and priest but the uniqueness of his person this Melchizedek came out of nowhere went to nowhere and the writer says he had no beginning or end of days that is no recorded genealogy and this was a picture of Jesus Christ who is a priest after the order of Melchizedek who is the son of God who comes to his office in all the virtue of the eternity that is his as God

60:11 and he will bear that office into the eternity to come and what is the function and the activity of our Lord Jesus as priest well we learn from other passages in Hebrews he must first of all make satisfaction for sin we read in Hebrews 2.17 as high priest he made propitiation we read it again in Hebrews 7.26 and 9.13 and 14 but secondly he makes intercession based upon the sacrifice Hebrews 7.26 and 7 point to the sacrifice Hebrews 7.25 points to the intercession Hebrews 9.13 and 14 point to the satisfaction for sin in the sacrifice Hebrews 9.24 to the intercession based upon the sacrifice but then the high priest had a third activity he not only satisfied for sin in making an offering he not only presented that offering before God in intercession when the offering was accepted he came out of the holy place and with hands upraised he pronounced blessing upon the people for whom the sacrifice was made presented

61:37 and accepted and the scripture says unto you that look for him Hebrews 9.28 shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation well in summary let me say it should be clear to anyone who's been thinking at all this morning that if we are to rightly view the atonement of Christ the categories of priestly activity must sink into our minds unaccustomed to them as we are God demands that we think and that we follow the track of scripture that we might appreciate and understand the work our Savior wrote on behalf of sinners as I conclude this morning I want to bring in the remaining three minutes a word of application first of all a word of qualification if someone should ask me this morning Pastor Martin are you saying that unless I have viewed the atonement the bull's eye with a self conscious understanding of these other categories of truth I've never really believed on Christ crucified may I say it as plainly as I know how no no a thousand times no

Application and Exhortation

63:04 the look upon Christ crucified that is unto life may be the most feeble look from the most uninstructed mind and heart but the mind and heart that has come to know the bitterness and the horror of its sin and knows that there's no answer in itself or other mortals and looks away from self to Jesus Christ as God's only answer to the dilemma of sin no matter how weak and uninstructed that look of faith may be if it is faith that goes out of self and on to Christ as given to us the God man who died for sinners you'll be saved with the same salvation that the most astute theologian on the face of the earth has ever experienced I am not saying you must understand these things to be saved that's my word of qualification but my word of exhortation is this if you would love your savior that love must not be merely emotional and ephemeral and somehow be pumped up when you sing one of your good old gospel favorites my Jesus I love thee love to Christ if it's to be the pure fire of true devotion

64:32 burns upon the altar of an enlightened understanding if you would love your savior come to know him come to know the beautiful harmony of his salvation study more and more the character of God and your own nature and position as an accountable sinner and the atonement will become more and more precious study and understand with ever increasing spiritual perception the beautiful harmony in this Trinitarian salvation purposed in eternity purchased in the life history of Christ applied in the life history of the sinner you will have a growing love for him who has provided and applied so great a salvation we must not know these things to be saved but if we would be stable if we would have true growing devotion to Christ we must grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then my word of exhortation to you who are unconverted is this have you heard about Christ again and said when in the world will that loud mouse shut up is that what some of you

65:57 have been thinking this morning when in the world so I can go to lunch my friend listen to me if you despise and count it boredom to hear of a bleeding Savior you won't count it boredom when you go to stand before him and he looks you in the eye and says I told you about my dying love I told you through a preacher sought to make plain your need I told you that your only way to be fit for heaven was through my son and your mind was full of the games of the afternoon full of the girls whose skirts you're gonna chase and God will say to you man you woman you young man young woman depart from me you cursed you despised my son I despise you don't you trifle with Christ crucified don't you trifle with him then I say to the dear people who attend upon ministries that try to take you deeper than the ABC's don't grow weary of your pastor's efforts to teach you don't grow weary and restless under a ministry that painstakingly attempts to expound the scriptures the day you grow weary

67:27 of a solid mind demanding expository ministry you're open to every wind of doctrine that will toss you to and fro and land you in spiritual shipwreck and then my final word of exhortation is to my preacher brethren my preacher brethren try to God to cultivate in you the gifts to preach systematic theology to your people you who have any knowledge know that I've done nothing but preach systematic theology this morning but I defy anyone to say it's been dry and lose until your own is aglow until you say with Ellie Hugh that my heart was like a bursting wineskin until there will be times as you take your people into the mysteries of God you feel that your own humanity will be consumed in the process and it's times like that that I say Lord if I've got to go take me now let me preach myself into a heart attack and go and see face to face what I'm so feebly trying to say through these lips

68:50 of clay do you see how vital the setting of the atonement is may we ponder and pray over these things and come prayerfully expectant that tomorrow when we put the magnifying glass on the bulls eye God will make Christ crucified precious to our hearts because we've taken the time to look at the target and see that grand accomplishment of Jesus in its God given setting let us pray holy righteous sovereign loving father we bow in worship and acknowledge that we have been privileged in this one hour to contemplate things that angels desire to look upon we will ravish our hearts fill them with gratitude for so great a salvation as has been purposed and purchased and is being applied in your infinite grace and in your saving power arrest the careless deal with those who have grown

70:17 indifferent spiritually slovenly and sloppy in their approach to the word stir up your servants to preach these truths with unction and power with life and with fervor oh sovereign God use your word in a thousand ways beyond what we could even ask or pray and to your name and to your name alone be praise and honor and glory through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen