Representitive, Substitutionary, Soteric, Activity

Paul's Concern for Maturation and the Method of Salvation in Ephesians 2

0:04 The Apostle Paul, the human father of the church at Ephesus, was deeply concerned for that body of believers, and his concern is wonderfully stated in the fourth chapter of his letter to that church, when he said that God had given special ministering gifts to the end that the people of God, I read now from chapter 4 of Ephesians and verse 14, that the people of God would no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ. And Paul's great concern was these. The maturation and the stabilizing of the people of God at Ephesus, and with this very goal in mind, he wrote this letter, not provoked by any particular presence of heresy, not by any critical moral problems such as we find in the church at Corinth or the church at Galatia and even the church at Colossae, but rather it was what we might call a mature follow-up epistle.

1:29 That had as its goal the building up of the saints of God in their understanding and therefore their appreciation of the great salvation that was theirs in Jesus Christ. And in this second chapter that we are presently studying, the apostle drives toward that goal that is before him, the stabilizing, the maturing of the people of God, by setting forth two tremendous contrasts. And the first is that the apostle drives toward that goal that is before him, the stabilizing, the maturing of the people of God, by setting forth two tremendous contrasts. The first contrast, as we've reminded you week by week, is that between what the Ephesians were by nature as individuals and what they had become by grace.

2:10 And the pivotal verse being, of course, verse 4, in which we move from the before picture to the after. And then the remainder of the chapter, verses 11 to 22, is a before and after picture of what the Ephesians were with reference to the visible community of God's people. And the second contrast is that the apostle drives toward that goal that is before him, the What they were collectively as ignorant Gentiles and what they now are collectively as members of the one true church of Jesus Christ. We've studied in great detail the before picture.

2:46 And the three words, the three frightening words that characterize that description are the words death as to their condition, bondage as to their practice, and comfort as to their condemnation or wrath as to their true position before God. And then in verse 4, the wonderful contrast begins to be unfolded. And we are directed in the first place to the exclusive author of this transformation, but God. It is God himself and God alone who affects the change.

3:23 We are then directed to the motive or the reason for which he affected that change and the opportunity to change. The apostle gives us these words, but God being rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. And the moving cause of that great deliverance is the great rich mercy and the great love of this sovereign God. And then from verse 5 to the end of the chapter, at the end of this paragraph, the apostle is giving us some information concerning the method which God has given us.

3:59 The method which God employed when in love and mercy he affected this transformation. So from the author to the motive, we move to the method of God in the transforming work of grace. And that method is one in which Jesus Christ is central. No fewer than four times he is mentioned in this paragraph.

4:22 It is a method in which the biblical notion of grace is dominant. Three times he mentions grace. The grace of God. And it is a method in which the evidence of a real change pervades the transformation.

4:37 New creation, quickened, raised, seated, unto good works, all of these concepts demonstrating that God's method is not to scratch the surface of dead, bound, guilty sinners, but to change them at the very root and center of their being and to constitute them, not only those who have a new standard. Not only those who are standing in a new position, but who themselves are made new creatures. Now, having looked at the general answer to the question, what is the divine method, we are now examining more particularly what the apostle tells us concerning the method of God in the salvation of dead sinners. And that method is set before us in these three strange compound verbs. We were made alive. We were made alive. We were made alive.

5:29 We were made alive. We were made alive. We were made alive. We were made alive together with Christ, verse 5, raised up together with him, and made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

5:42 Now, if we look on these words merely as synonyms for the power of God working in salvation, Paul might have well written something like this. But God, being rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, we were saved. But God, being rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead, we were saved. God, being rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, imparted life to us through the virtue of Christ who died, rose, and was seated.

6:08 Now, that would be a true statement. And the exposition and the opening up of his words would be relatively simple. But Paul did not say that we are saved by the power of God working in conjunction with the virtue of Christ's death, resurrection, and session. Rather, he says, we have been saved, for this is what it's all about, the little phrase in verse 5, we have been saved in a way that has involved our being quickened together with Christ.

6:44 And no honesty with that word can be had if we simply say we are quickened somehow by the virtue of Christ. We have life from the power of Christ. We have life rooted in what Christ did. No, no, it does not do justice to the strength of the word. We have been saved in a way that involves nothing less than our being quickened together with Christ. Furthermore, we've been saved in a way that involves nothing less than our being raised up together and seated together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And so our concern for the past several Lord's Days has been to examine this concept. Of salvation not only by Christ, which is a biblical truth, but salvation which is in Christ, which is a more profound truth of the word of God. And so what we did last Lord's

7:42 Day in attempting to open this up was simply to demonstrate that what the apostle gives us here is one of the rich veins of New Testament truth. That salvation in Jesus Christ is in reality salvation. Salvation by Christ is in reality salvation in Jesus Christ. And by looking at such passages as Colossians 2, Colossians 3, Romans 6, Galatians 2, and 2 Corinthians 5, we've demonstrated that this notion, this concept, this profound idea that the salvation of dead, bound, condemned sinners is in Christ.

Unveiling the Deeper Meaning: The Iceberg Analogy and the First Axiom

8:27 That salvation is effected by God in love and mercy in a way that involves an intimate life union with his Son is a dominant concept of the New Testament. Now in those five to six minutes we've brought together the main lines of truth that we've covered in several hours of exposition. Now having shown the predominance then of this concept, quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, seated with Christ. We address ourselves this morning to an opening up of that concept. When the apostle used these unusual words to describe the divine method, he was using them, if I may use the figure, in a way that could be likened to someone describing an iceberg by simply pointing to the tip that is above water. And when the apostle, in sort of an offhanded way, writes to the Ephesians and says, But God who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead, quickened us, raised us, and seated us with Christ, he was not giving us a full exposition of the concept bound up in those

9:41 words. There is a massive amount of biblical thought beneath the surface of the mere use of those words, which indeed forms the substance of their meaning. To change the figure, the apostle Paul said, Paul, when using these words, is pointing to some of the fruits of the divine method in salvation, but behind that fruit is the trunk and the branches and the root and the soil of other biblical concepts. And it is only because the apostle's mind was furnished with these submerged concepts, if we use the figure of the iceberg, only because there was the trunk and the branches of these concepts, to use the word, the trunk and the branches of these concepts, to use the word, the trunk and the branches of these concepts, to use the word, the trunk and the branches of these concepts, to use the word, the trunk and the Does he point us to a salvation that comes in this way? And so my concern, and as I've been wrestling with this thing for a number of weeks, trying to reduce it to its simple irreducible minimum, is to make an effort. And that's all I, that's all I'm doing. This is the first time I've been down this road, and I may stumble and get lost in the process, but together, in dependence upon the Spirit of God, perhaps we can do it.

10:57 we shall see, going back to the figure of last week, some sights along the way that will ravish our hearts. Now what I propose to do is to show that the meaning of these phrases, quickened with Christ, raised and seated with Christ, can only be understood if we understand what is beneath the tip of the iceberg, and we're going to split up the iceberg below the surface by means of several axioms. You know what axioms are in math? You kids will get your axioms. Those are fixed rules and principles that are always true when you're working out mathematical problems. They are axioms. They are principles. They are postulates, and I'm using those words as synonyms. They are a statement of biblical

11:47 concepts that must be grasped if we're to appreciate what we have in the world. Here in Ephesians chapter 2, if we're to appreciate what we find in Colossians 2, if we're to appreciate what we find in Romans 6 and 2 Corinthians 5 and Galatians 2 and Galatians 6, explicit statements of this same biblical concept. Now you say, Pastor, I'm already worn out just following your review and what you've said. My friend, gird up the loins of your mind, for as you've often been reminded in this place, the price of mental laziness is the price of mental laziness.

12:24 Laziness with God's truth is spiritual instability and spiritual immaturity. And if you want to confine yourself to immaturity and instability for the rest of your days, then just traffic in the surface of things. The human mind is never more in its proper element than when it is deeply exercised upon the truths of God that cluster around salvation in Jesus Christ. What greater exercise for the mind of a creature than that which focuses on the provisions of the Creator for that sinful creature. So gird up the loins of your mind and today think with me as we attack just the first axiom. And I'm only going to give you one, all right? And the axiom is this. All that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ bore the distinct nature of representative, substitutionary, soteric, activity. And you say, Pastor, you put me back to sleep again. Well, hang in there

13:32 and I hope you'll get awake. For I shall explain that axiom phrase by phrase. All that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ bore the distinct nature of representative, substitutionary, soteric activity. And you say, how in the world do you get to that from Ephesians 2? Well, look at the text.

14:00 Paul is saying everything that happened to us when we were dead, when we were bound, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, when we were under that frightening canopy of divine wrath and God intervened in rich mercy and great love to save us, it had distinct reference to what happened in a person called Jesus, the Christ of God. For quickening, resurrection, heavenly session are factors in his life history, not mine. And yet he says, my salvation is in some way bound up in those events in his life history. And I say you will make no sense of this passage unless this axiom of biblical truth is understood. All that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ, bore the distinct nature of representative, substitutionary, soteric activity. Now then, let me take that axiom apart phrase by phrase.

Defining 'Representative Activity' in Christ's Life

15:14 All that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what we read in the Gospels. When you pick up Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you read the record of the life of Jesus Christ, how are you to regard what that record sets forth? From his virgin conception to his natural birth, virgin conception, natural birth, brought forth amid the size and the birth pangs of a young virgin, through his agony in the garden, to his death upon the cross, to his triumph over the tomb, to the unfolding of his person in the clouds as he passes out of sight, how are we to look upon all of these events in the life history of the Lord Jesus Christ? As we behold his sinless life, his constant obedience to the Father, his agony and suffering, his triumph, his triumph over the grave, are we to regard it only as an objective, factual, accurate biography of the God-man Christ Jesus? Well, it is that.

16:37 The Gospel record is an accurate, objective, factual biography of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But is that all it is? Or do we really understand it if that is all we see? And the answer of the Word of God is no.

16:56 For all that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ bore the distinct nature of, and I've given you three words, representative, substitutionary, soteric activity. And I'm going to explain what they mean, and I hope you parents will quiz your kids, because if they aren't able to give you something of the meaning, it's not because the preacher used big words, it's because they weren't paying attention. All right? Representative.

17:26 From the moment of his conception, we are given to know that Jesus Christ has come forth to act on behalf of others. Matthew 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He has come forth to do something on the behalf of others.

17:53 Now, what does the word representative mean? Well, if you have a representative, a representative in the State Assembly of New Jersey, what does that representative do? Well, I'll tell you what he's supposed to do. He is supposed to reflect in the gathering together of the representatives from the various districts of New Jersey, the thinking, the feeling, the desires, the will of his constituents.

18:20 A certain district, 11th, 10th, 9th district, whatever it be, elects this man to represent them in the State Assembly, he is there on their behalf. He represents them. And if they communicate with him by filling out the forms he sends out to show their feeling on various public issues, or if they write letters to him, he is conscious, if he's a true public servant, that he acts on behalf of those constituents.

18:52 Now, the Scriptures teach that Jesus Christ is the representative of his people. He acts. He acts. He acts.

18:59 He acts. He acts on the behalf of his constituents. When in his conduct as Messiah, he lives, he dies, he is buried, he is raised, and he is seated, he is not acting as a private person. Romans 5, 12-19 is the pivotal passage to show that what he is doing is being regarded by God as done on behalf of a great multitude, the multitude, and many as we read in Romans 5 and verse 19.

19:35 Just as Adam stood as the representative of the human race, and in his fall we fell, God's dealings with us are triggered by his dealings with Adam, so the Apostle says there is this parallel. Jesus Christ stands as the representative of his people. And this is why the little preposition, and for you fellows, who are slugging away with your prepositions and your diphthongs and your verb endings, it's the little preposition huper. It's used again and again, especially with reference to the work of Jesus Christ.

20:13 Jesus Christ was conscious that the events in his life history bore the distinct nature of representative activity. Just as any man worthy of his position in the State Assembly or in Congress, in the House of Representatives, should be self-consciously aware that he acts on behalf of his constituents, so the Son of God incarnate was conscious that he was acting on behalf of those whom he represented. Look at his own words in Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22, verses 19 and 20.

21:03 Here is the institution of what we commonly call the Lord's Supper, Communion, the table of the Lord. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he break it and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given, huper, in the behalf of, in the place of, in the room instead of you. This do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you.

21:47 Now get the connection. My body for you. My blood for you. Our Lord was conscious that he was acting as the representative of his people.

22:05 His constituents are before him. And he says, I am about to have my body broken in death and my blood poured forth, but I am not acting. I am not acting for myself. I am acting on behalf of my constituents.

22:21 My blood for you. My body for you. Again in John chapter 15, we find this same self-consciousness in our Lord. Verse 13, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life, huper, on behalf of, in the place of, his friends.

22:49 And then again in John 17, 19, our Lord says, And for this cause, for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves may be sanctified in the truth. For their sakes I sanctify myself. That is, I consciously set myself apart for the work of oblation, the giving of myself up unto death, for their sakes. Same preposition.

23:17 On their behalf, in their room, and in their stead. Now what does this tell us? It tells us that all that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ bore the distinct nature of representative activity. Therefore as I read of His life of obedience, I must not only praise Him for the intrinsic glory and beauty that shines forth from His constant sensitivity to the will of the Father, I must not only stand back in amazement at one who partook of a true humanity and made in the likeness not of unfallen Adamic manhood, but made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without the taint of sin, but sinful flesh in the sense that it was flesh that knew weakness, it knew weariness. I am not only to admire Him for His perfect obedience to the will of the Father in a true humanity, perfect obedience in the face of opposition, I am not only to admire Him for that submissiveness to the Father's will that caused Him to give Himself up to the cruel death of the cross, as I read of that life of obedience, I must go beyond praising Him

24:44 for the glory that adheres to that life of obedience as an expression of His own intrinsic worth. Dear child of God, I must begin to think in these terms. He obeyed for me. That life of obedience was representative.

25:04 He was acting on behalf of His constituents. He is performing that life of obedience not only to the Father as the God-man, but on behalf of His people as the Messiah, as the Savior of His people. As I read of the agony of Gethsemane, as I see my blessed Lord sweating as it were great drops of blood, until there is that wholehearted embrace of the path of suffering and abandonment, I must not only stand back in amazement and wonder at the glory of His obedience, but I must stand back in wonder at the glory of His obedience, and I must say He is there, travailing in an agony of soul for me, on my behalf, in my room, in my stead. As I read on further in the Gospel records to the bitterness, to the shame, to the ignominy of the cross, I must not only admire His submissiveness, who, as the Lamb done before her shearers, is silent in the face of that suffering. I must not only admire His patience, but I must think consciously He is there for me, there in my place, there in my stead. When I read of the power and glory of His resurrection,

26:28 which was a marvelous vindication of all His claims, I must not only praise Him for what it is to Him, but I must think in terms of these categories of thought He came forth for me, on my behalf, in my stead. And when I read that as they beheld Him, the clouds covered Him and took Him from their sight, and He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, I must not only stand amazed at that welcome He received back to heaven, the glorious position that was afforded Him and the name given to Him. I must do that. But, Christian, you must go beyond that and say, He is there in my presence. He is there in my place. He is there on my behalf. He is there for me.

27:21 It is only as we think in these terms will the words of Ephesians 2 begin to make sense. Quicken together with Christ. Raised together and seated together with Christ. I must think of all that transpired in the life history of our Lord as bearing the distinct nature of representative activity.

Defining 'Substitutionary Activity' in Christ's Life

27:46 But I must go further and think of it in terms of substitutionary activity. That is, not only was He acting on my behalf, in my interest, as my representative, but He was that because He was my substitute. Now, you kids can tell me what a substitute is. When you have a substitute teacher, what happens?

28:09 Well, Miss Smith, who is your regular teacher, she isn't there. So what does the substitute do? She comes and stands behind the same desk to use the same lesson plans, to look out with the same glowing eyes at little boys that are throwing spitballs when they ought not to be, to teach the same material. What is she doing as a substitute teacher?

28:35 She is taking the precise place that your teacher would normally occupy. She is more than representing your teacher. She is a substitute to do on behalf of the absent teacher what the absent teacher would do if she were there. And you always put her to the test to see if that's really so.

28:57 And I can remember that was one of the constant patterns that hasn't changed because human nature has not changed. You always lean on the substitute teacher to see if you can get away with more than the regular teacher will let you get away with. So you haven't changed with all...

29:11 You know, your hair may be a little longer, fellas, and you girls, your skirts may be a little shorter, but down underneath it's the same old heart and the same old human nature. Well, that's what a substitute is, one who actually takes the place of another. Not mere representation, but substitution. What happens on a ball field?

29:31 Some guy's running downfield, doing some downfield blocking, and somebody cracks him from behind and gives him a click, a clip, and he wrenches his knee. You send in a substitute. You put someone in the precise place that he was on the play before. Maybe he lined up at a running back or he lined up at an offensive tackle position.

29:53 You put someone right in the precise place to do what? Precisely what the other fellow was to do. To block the same people when they call the same play, he is to stand in the room in the stead of another. That's the essence of substitution.

30:07 Now, the Scripture is careful to point out that our Lord Jesus Christ was not only the representative of his people, but he was in the strictest sense the substitute of his people. And another preposition is used to underscore this line of truth. We have not only the huper on the behalf of, but we have the anti. And wherever the preposition is not used to mean against, we talk about anti-Christ, against Christ, anti-this, it means invariably the concept of substitution.

30:44 Let's see how it's used in several normal secular usages. Turn to Matthew 2 and verse 22. Matthew 2 and verse 22. Speaking of the secular ruler, but when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judah, Judea, in the room of his father Herod.

31:18 Now that's the preposition used. To translate the one little preposition anti, they put in the room of. Herod was in the place of authority. Herod dies.

31:31 His throne is vacated. That authority is now exercised by someone who becomes his substitute, stands in the precise place of authority that Herod occupied to exert the rights attached to that throne of authority. Turn over, if you will, please, to Matthew. I'm sorry, Luke chapter 11 and verse 11.

31:54 Another very graphic use of this same preposition. Here our Lord is giving a lesson on prayer, encouraging us to believe that the father's heart is large toward his children. And he says in verse 11 of Luke 11, And of which of you that is a father shall his son ask a loaf, and he give him a stone or a fish, and he for a fish give him a serpent? There's the same preposition.

32:26 Here a son asks for fish. Will the father as a substitute for fish put a venomous serpent in his hands? That's the concept, you see, of substitution. One item in the place of another.

32:39 Now that's the preposition used by our Lord in that well-known text in Matthew 20, and I want you to turn to it. Because this brings us into the very heart and marrow of the doctrine of salvation as taught in Holy Scripture. In Matthew 20 and verse 28, Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom, ante, in the place of, in substitution of many. And here is something that goes beyond the mere concept of representation as glorious as it is, and he says that his one life shall be a substitute for the many. And at this point I want to read from one of the most perceptive and careful students of the word of God of a bygone generation who commenting on this very text says, In this instance and in every other where the preposition is not used to signify the word against, the notion of substitution

34:04 is the uniform and undoubted sense of the phraseology. The words used convey the idea that Christ gave himself as a substitute. He gave his soul in the room of others, and that this surrender of his life for others was further accepted or regarded as the price or ransom by which the deliverance was effected. It is not enough to say that the death of Christ was for the good of others in some vague, indefinite, undetermined sense, for that is not warranted either by the preposition used or by the sentence in which we find it.

34:43 If we would apprehend the thought of our Lord without offering violence to language, we must say that our Lord is speaking of vicarious, vicarious vicar, the Pope claims to be the vicar of Christ. He stands in the place of Christ, vicarious means in the place of, and allow that the Son of Man underwent death that belonged to others, submitted to the penal infliction that they deserved, and died in their room that they might be rescued from the punishment that was their due. So then, coming back to our axiom, we must, when we come to the Gospel records, not only behold the obedient life of our Lord, and learn to praise Him for that obedience, for what it was in itself, and admire it for its intrinsic beauty, but I must realize that even beyond its representative nature, He lived for me. I must learn to think of Him living and obeying as me, standing in the place of me. He stands in my stead, rendering to God all that the holy law of God demands, all that I fail to render,

36:08 so that when I hear the Father say, this is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased, it may sound blasphemous, but it's not, and anything less does not do warrant to the biblical truth. Listen. I must hear the Father saying that to me, in the person of my substitute. What?

36:30 The Father of heaven saying of the likes of me, this is my Son, my beloved, I am well pleased with Him? Ah, Paul says, I am fully accepted where? In the Beloved One. He obeyed, not only as my representative for me, but as my substitute.

36:50 He obeyed as me. And as I go through the Gospel history, I behold Him in the throes of the agony of Gethsemane, under the terrors of the Father's righteous anger upon Calvary. I hear the piercing cry, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And I can say, if I read that record with eyes illuminated by the data of Holy Scripture applied by the Spirit, I cried that cry in the person of my substitute.

37:22 I shall never be forced to cry again, for there is no condemnation to those who are in, Christ Jesus. In my place, not only on my behalf, in my place, condemned, He stood. And I say the wording of the Apostle in Ephesians 2 will be nonsense to us, unless we begin to grasp this great and profound Gospel mystery that all that our Lord did in His life history bore the distinct nature not only of substitutionary, not only representative, but substitutionary activity. His cries of abandonment were on my behalf. His absorbing the terrors of judgment was an absorption in my place. And blessed be God, His resurrection was mine, His ascension mine, His heavenly session mine.

38:27 And when the notion, the biblical concept of strict substitution begins to grip us, O dear child of God, no wonder, no wonder, one who understood this and wrote these very words could say, Who is He that condemned me? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God?

38:50 Who maketh intercession for us? No wonder, He can put the glorification of the church in the past tense. Who be justified? He glorified.

38:59 Why? Because in the person of the substitute it is done. And all time will do is be an extended commentary on the reality of that substitution. It was representative.

Defining 'Soteric Activity' and Christ's Messianic Office

39:15 It was substitutionary. But then thirdly, it was soteric activity. Now, what do we mean by the word soteric? Now you kids can really show off tomorrow in school and tell the teacher that you know a Greek word.

39:34 Okay? And that word is soter, which simply means savior. One of the wonderful terms applied to our Lord Jesus Christ. But the word savior comes to us with rich biblical connotations and it speaks primarily of a deliverer or a rescuer.

39:52 You remember in Israel, when Israel would be in bondage, God would raise up a savior, a deliverer, in the person of one of the judges, be it Jephthah or Samson or one of those other worthies. And so this term savior applies to our Lord Jesus in its fullest sense. Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save. The verb form.

40:16 He is our God and Savior. He is our Lord and Savior. And though there are three or four references in the New Testament which probably apply to the Father or to the entire Godhead for the most part, about twenty references, this term is used of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now why?

40:35 Well for the simple reason that all that He was and did had a view to the rescue of a people from sin and its consequences. Therefore we must regard His life, we must regard the events in the life history of the Lord Jesus as being representative, as being substitutionary to the end that they might be soteric, they might effect salvation for those whom He represented and for whom He was a substitute. And oh what a difference it begins to make when you begin to read the Gospel history in this light. To think of what He was and what He did as for me, as me, for my deliverance. And that's the heart of all I've been trying to say this morning. If you've got those three things, that's the heart of it. Jesus Christ is living, dying, conquering death and ascending for me, representative, as me, substitution, for my deliverance, soteric.

41:48 Or to change the phraseology, He is acting on my behalf, representative, in my stead, substitutionary, to rescue me, soteric. Now turn back to Ephesians 2, 5 and 6 and see if at least it begins to make more sense. Will you notice the title by which the Apostle describes the Lord Jesus in this context? Look carefully.

42:19 Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, hath quickened us together, and the 1901 edition says, with Christ, but the article is not translated. But there is an article there in the original. We were quickened together with or in the Christ. In other words, the Apostle is pointing us not so much to the word Christ as a title of the Lord Jesus, but he's pointing to the peculiar office of the Lord Jesus as the Christ of God.

43:04 You see the difference? When you say President, Ford, you know instinctively that the first word President has reference not so much to person but to office. Ford is name that has reference to person. Therefore all references to Mr. Nixon are now former President Nixon. When we read in a context like this that God has done something in the Christ, the attention is being focused not so much upon the person, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, but upon his function and office as the Christ. And as you've been told, times without number, that simply means the anointed one. But the moment you're in that orbit of thought of the Christ, and notice how he sustains it again, we have been raised to sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

44:05 We are to think of his peculiar function as the Messiah. And all of that messianic activity was engaged in for the deliverance of his people. He came forth as the servant of Jehovah to open the prison to those that are bound, to proclaim liberty to the captives. He becomes the suffering servant of Isaiah 52, 13 and all of chapter 53.

44:37 Why? Because there's a seed that he shall seed, that he shall deliver, whom he shall bring to spiritual birth. His functions as the Christ are the functions of the official representative and deliverer of his people. Now when you read the Gospel history, at what point does he publicly and visibly assume his stance as the Christ?

Christ's Baptism as His Official Entrance into Soteric Identity

45:03 At what point does he believe he shall become the anointed one? Where is your mind thinking? Is it thinking of his baptism? It should be.

45:17 It should be. This is not to say our Lord was devoid of the Spirit, for God giveth the Spirit to him not by measure, but for his official function and capacity. There was at his baptism this peculiar anointing of the Spirit, the Spirit coming upon him in the form of a dove, and that is rich with great biblical connotations. But we'll pass by it this morning simply to say that that peculiar anointing in which he was officially set apart for the official messianic functions finds a peculiar focus at his baptism.

45:55 Why his baptism? Has the baptism of Jesus perplexed you? It perplexed John. It was a baptism that was a ritual for sinners to come to the waters of John's baptism.

46:10 The purpose of John's baptism was to say, I am polluted with sin. I must repent of sin. It was called a baptism of repentance unto remission of sins. Sin oozes out of the pore of every facet of John's baptism.

46:28 So when he sees the spotless Lamb coming, he says, Lord, I cannot baptize you. This is a sinner's ordinance. I have need to be baptized of you, not the other way around. I am a sinner, but not you.

46:43 And what was Jesus' response? Suffer it now, for so it becometh us to fulfill all what? Righteousness. What is our Lord doing?

46:55 And I say that it's a thought that has overwhelmed me as I was cooked into it in new dimensions just this past week in reading Hugh Martin's profound treatise called The Abiding Presence. You know what our Lord was doing in his baptism? Listen. He was doing in reverse what happens to us in our baptism.

47:16 Our baptism is the visible sign of our incorporation into Jesus Christ. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body. And in the waters of baptism there is the symbolism, there is the sealing when entered in faith of that covenant commitment to Him, the entering in consciously to the bonds of identification with Christ. What was his baptism?

47:46 It was his official entrance into the identity that he bears to his people. And he says, I shall become one with them. I shall become the sinner in their stead. I shall take upon me the debts and the obligations that they owe.

48:08 What do we owe? We owe a life of perfect obedience to the law of God. He rendered that. We owe satisfaction to that broken law.

48:16 He rendered that. He entered into that identity with his own people. Why? Because the nature of all his life history was what?

48:30 Representative, substitutionary, and soteric. And it's when we begin to understand that that is beneath the surface of the little iceberg tip. Quickened, raised, seated, this is what lies beneath it. This is the conscious mentality of the apostle that causes him to give birth to such phrases that clear perception, all that transpired in the life history of the Lord Jesus Christ, partook of the nature of representative, substitutionary, soteric activity.

Pastoral Exhortation: Embrace the Gospel Mystery

49:10 And I would not be surprised at all if as I have labored to lay this truth out, there are some of you that probably would have been much more interested if I had stood here whistling Yankee Doodle or giving you the scores of your favorite football teams. Oh, my friend, listen. I pity you this morning because you've been able to be dull and lethargic and indifferent to that which causes angels, if I may use the figure, to fold their wings in breathless rummage and try to peek. into such great gospel mystery.

49:52 Oh, dear unconverted fellow, girl, man, woman, stranger amongst us today, frequenter of this place of worship, do you sit there perplexed and say, but do you mean, Pastor Martin, I've got to understand all that before I'm a Christian? No, a thousand times no. I've been in the way 22 years and I'm just beginning to scratch this whole vein of rich biblical truth. But blessed be God I was quickened to life 22 years ago.

50:27 I was raised, though I didn't know quite what that meant. I was seeded. And you don't need to understand these gospel mysteries in their great and broad dimensions as we've been trying to open them up this morning to be saved, my friend. Listen.

50:43 You read the first chapter of Ephesians. How do these Ephesians get quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, seeded with Christ? He said, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. My friend, you just need to embrace the word of the gospel.

51:01 And the word of the gospel is that God, against whom you've sinned and before whom you stand condemned, has sent forth his Son to be the Savior of sinners. And that Son has died and been buried and risen and sits in a place of enthroned might and power. And from that throne he bids you throw down your weapons of rebellion, that rebellious weapon of self-righteousness. I don't need such a Savior.

51:28 That weapon of determination to violate God's holy law and do your own thing your own way, my friend, stack arms and fall at the feet of this Savior and say, Lord Jesus, there is much I cannot fathom, but I do embrace the word of the promise. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and to save sinners. Lord, I know him that and I know you that and the testimony of your word I do embrace you.

51:59 And my friend, the scripture says embracing him you'll be saved. Dear child of God, thoughts such as these we say, Lord, that's too good to be true. My friend, that is not humility that backs off from a loving embrace of the provisions of God in Jesus Christ. That's the cursed sin of unbelief.

52:25 It is not humility that says that's too good to be true. That he not only represented me, acted on my behalf, but acted in my stead. That there is nothing I can do to perfect that righteousness that he has already wrought on my behalf. I must add to it something of my struggles, something of my agonizing, something of my prayers, something of my performance.

52:45 My friend, listen, that's not humility. It's wicked unbelief. It's wicked unbelief. The Father says of his beloved son, he said, I know you and I know you and I know you and I know you and I know you and in him I am well pleased and I am well pleased with sinners only if I behold them in him.

53:09 I am well pleased with sinners only if I behold them in him. The most devout, the most sincere, the most earnest, the most religious outside of Christ are a stench in my nostrils. Their best things, their righteousness's are as polluted garments. Some of you as the children of God, doubting limping halting two, four, six, You do not honor God by that limping and that halting in false humility That would add to the infinite merit of the representative The substitutionary, esoteric activity of the Son of God Venture upon him, venture wholly Let no other trust intrude Child of God, none walks so humbly As he who holds most firmly To God's gracious provisions in his own dear Unbelief is no handmaid to humility The rest of faith is Love so amazing, so divine Shall have my soul, my life, my heart Your conscience will continually torment you

54:36 With the inadequacies of your own performances That you try somehow to weave into the fabric of Christ's righteousness No wonder you're not useful as a Christian Who is the most useful Christian The one who assured that in his substitute and representative He is fully accepted before the Father Is Christ's free man to serve In the power of the Spirit and in the joy of the Holy Ghost And you who were dead He has quickened He has raised He has seated What does he mean? For whatever he meant Lying behind it was this great truth All that pertains to the Holy Spirit The life activity of our Lord Jesus Christ Bears the distinct nature Of representative Substitutionary Soteric activity God willing next week we'll take the second axiom And then the Lord willing the following week The third that will pull them all together And may we all be much in prayer That God himself Will open our eyes to behold his glory In the face of his own dear Son Let us pray