Application of Christ's Activity

Introduction: The Great Contrasts of Ephesians 2

0:03 I would encourage you to turn in your own Bibles to the epistle that has already been referred to this morning, the letter of the Apostle to the Ephesian church, Ephesians, and our attention will again be focused upon chapter 2. I shall read the first ten verses. And you did he make alive when you were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace had he been saved, and raised us up together with him, and made us to sit together with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness

1:28 toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace. Have ye been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God aforeprepared that we should walk in them.

God as the Author and Motive of Transformation

1:57 As you have been often reminded, those of you who frequent this place of worship on the Lord's Day morning, in our studies of this second chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we are concerned with two great contrasts that the Apostle gives us in these verses. Verses 1 to 10 is the before and after of the individual Ephesian Christian. What each of them was by nature, verses 1 to 3, what each of them had become by grace, verses 4 to 10. And then in verses 11 to the end of the chapter, there is the contrast between what they were as a collective body of Gentiles before the coming of the gospel, before the operations of grace, they were without hope, they were without God, they were strangers from God's visible covenant people, Israel, but now in Christ Jesus they've been nigh, been brought nigh by the blood of Christ. They have been incorporated into that one living temple, the church of Jesus Christ in which there is neither Jew nor Gentile. And having considered in some detail the frightening and yet gruesome and accurate description

3:21 of what men are by nature in the first three verses, we are considering together the wonderful contrast of what men become by grace in the latter verses of that first chapter. In the first paragraph we have seen thus far that the author of this great transformation is God himself and God alone. The apostle is very careful to underscore this aspect of this great contrast. Having described man as dead, that's his true condition.

3:55 Having described him as bound by lust and the devil and his own sin, and that is his true walk. Having described him as in a state of wrath, under the anger of God, for that is his true position, he begins the contrast with those words, but God, pointing all of our attention to the fact that the author of the transformation is God himself. He is the subject of all of the active verbs. It is he who has quickened us, he who has raised us, he who has made us to sit in heaven in heavenly places.

4:34 He, this same living God, is the agent in the passive verbs. By grace ye have been saved, something has happened to you. Who is the agent of those passive verbs? It is this same God.

4:50 And he is the God called in verse 10, the author of this new creation. We are his workmanship, and so the apostle from every perspective is careful to underscore this great truth, that if dead, bound, guilty sinners ever come out of that condition, into a place of spiritual life in place of death, into a place of liberty in the place of bondage, into a position of acceptance in contrast to wrath, it will not be because they came into touch with professional religion, it will not be because they came under the manipulative influences. of professional religionists, clergymen, and the rest, it will be because Almighty God has personally and powerfully touched them by His grace. God is the author of the transformation. Sitting here this morning, if you are yet in verses 1 to 3, dead in your sins, bound by the world, the devil in your own flesh, I say kindly, but I say emphatically, there is no hope for you apart from a direct, powerful work of the living God Himself upon your own spirit and within your own life.

6:14 You must get beyond the church in its external, visible form. You must get beyond having dealings with words and notions and preachers and the people of God. You must have direct, personal dealings. You must have direct, personal dealings with the living God Himself.

6:32 And then we consider together the motive that moved this great God to effect this transformation. And the Apostle says the motive is to be found in these two concepts. It was great love and it was rich mercy. If this God who is holy and just is to do anything other than damn the children of wrath, then He must be moved by something.

6:59 Something more than justice and righteousness. There must come into play the activity of His mercy and His love. But because we are great sinners, there must be the operations of great love and of rich mercy. And now we are presently considering the third line of the Apostle's thought, namely, the method God employs in this transformation.

The Divine Method: Christ-Centered Grace

7:26 If He alone is the author. If mercy and love are the motives, what is the divine method in quickening dead sinners, in forgiving guilty sinners, in liberating bound sinners? And we have seen that the divine method in general is to be found in the emphases of the Apostle in this paragraph. It is a method in which the person and work of Christ are central.

7:53 Four times our blessed Lord is mentioned. It is a method in which the biblical notion of grace is dominant. Three times the word grace is mentioned. And it is a method in which the reality and pervasiveness of the change is evident.

8:11 He speaks of quickening, of resurrection, of heavenly session, of being a new creation, of being saved, being delivered. Vigorous, powerful, graphic words which are all pointing to this one great principle that the Bible is a method in which the biblical notion of grace is dominant. The transformation is real and pervasive and must of necessity be evident. But now more specifically, in answer to the question, what is the divine method, we have come to a pause with these three verbs in which the Apostle gives us a detailed description of God's method in quickening dead sinners.

8:48 And those are the words in verses 5 and 6. He made us alive together with Christ. Raised us up together with Him. And made us to sit together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

9:08 Granted God's method is one in which Christ is central. But precisely how is He central? Granted His method is one in which the concept of grace is dominant. But precisely how does grace operate?

9:26 It's a method in which the change, is pervasive and evident but precisely how does God work to make that pervasive change that change that cannot be ignored either in the life of the one in whom it has occurred or to those who behold the one thus touched by the grace of God well Paul's answer is God's method specifically is this co-quickening with Christ this co-raising with Christ and this co-seating with Christ strange words words that baffle us words that seem to elude us as to their precise meaning and so we are laboring in these days to grasp in some way with the help of the spirit the thought of the apostle for this is not an isolated notion this concept of being quickened with Christ seated with Christ raised with Christ is found scattered through out the New Testament particularly in the epistles of the apostle Paul we find it in Romans 6 Romans 5 Colossians 2 Colossians 3 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 Galatians chapter 2 Galatians chapter 6 somehow God in grace deals with dead bound guilty sinners in a

Axiom 1: Christ's Representative, Substitutionary, Soteric Activity

10:51 way that involves nothing less than quickening with Christ being raised with Christ and being seated with Christ and our concern then in the past weeks has been to zero in upon that concept and to seek by God's grace to have an intelligent scriptural notion of that to which the apostle is referring and I have suggested that the best way to do this at least in terms of my present understanding is to lay hold of several axes several axes principles postulates several statements of spiritual philosophy ginny the letter Caroris He now can speak the carer's eyes a few words depend on the Kristen once they were wont do you tell about the Davids and why sadly please the become enough to confine the method that he had used at one time as a Biden did again notice some ground he said everyone was that bring together the apostles thought in these verses these things that are like the bottom part of the iceberg that are out of sight when we simply look at the tip of the iceberg the phrase quickened with Christ seated with Christ raised with Christ etc behind those concepts are these solid principles of God's dealings with his people we've only considered one postulate this morning we'll consider a second and because we have so many visitors I've given a bit more lengthy review than normal and the postulate the axiom we considered our last time was this all the transpires in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ or all that transpired past tense bore the distinct

12:18 nature of representative substitutionary soteric activity and you are visiting said you mean you actually read upon people's minds a mouthful like that and hope that it will identify them yes I did I plead guilty but we spent 45 minutes seeking to lay open that concept when we behold the life of Jesus Christ is recorded in the Gospels we must understand that we are not only beholding the facts of the man Christ Jesus the incarnate God so that the things that it said of him are true as valid history, but we must understand that all that transpired in that life history bore the distinct nature of representative, substitutionary, soteric activity. That is, what he did, he did in our place. What he did, he did on our behalf. What he did, he did for our deliverance. He is our representative acting on our behalf. He is our substitute

Axiom 2: Application of Christ's Work in Sinner's Salvation

13:30 acting in our room instead, and he is doing all of this to save us, to deliver us. Therefore, from his baptism onward, when he enters in officially and formally into this identification with the people whom he came to save, all of the activities of our Lord, are representative, substitutionary, and soteric in their nature. Now we come to the second axiom this morning, and I shall follow the same pattern as with the last. I shall state it, then lay it open, expound it, and then secondly we'll consider the scriptural evidence for this axiom, and then thirdly seek to derive some practical applications. All right? Axiom number two. All that transpired in that life history bore the distinct nature of that life history. That is, all that

14:23 transpires in the realized salvation of a sinner. See, we've moved from Christ now to the sinner. All that transpires in the realized salvation of a sinner bears the distinct nature of an application of some specific aspect of Christ's saving work. Now let me explain what I mean by the axiom. It's like the number kids, five thirteenths. You can't reduce it.

14:54 You can't reduce it anymore. My children recently have been having some of those exercises where you reduce fractions, and you have to get them down to their irreducible number. Well, you can't reduce five thirteenths anymore. No number you can divide into both of them evenly. Well, this axiom is down to five thirteenths. I can't exclude a word. I've cut out all the frills and the filler, and it's going to have to be that long because it's down to five thirteenths or three elevenths, and we can't reduce it anymore. Let me give it to you again.

15:24 All that transpires in the realized salvation of a sinner bears the distinct nature of an application of some specific aspect of Christ's saving activity. How can the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2 bring into such intimate association the quickening, raising, and seeding of Christ, and the actual salvation of Ephesian sinners, years after Christ was quickened, seeded, and raised? It's obvious that these words, quickened, raised, and seeded, are words which have their primary meaning in the life of Jesus Christ. It was the dead form of the Son of God that was quickened in Joseph's tomb. It was that living, resurrected Lord who was raised and came out of that tomb. It was this resurrected Lord who went back to the tomb of Jesus Christ. It was the resurrected Lord who went back to the tomb of

16:26 Jesus Christ. It was the resurrected Lord who went back to the right hand of the Father as the Apostle saw him go, recorded in Acts chapter 1. How then can the Apostle Paul bring into such intimate association the actual salvation of the Ephesians and the quickening, raising, and seeding of Jesus Christ? Well, you see, this axiom helps explain that very question, or helps give the answer to it.

16:55 Everything that Jesus Christ has done in the life of Jesus Christ, and everything that he has done in the life of Jesus Christ, transpires in the realized salvation of a sinner. We're not talking now with God's purposes for the sinner which are rooted in eternity. We're not embarrassed to speak of that, but that's simply not the focus of our concern in Ephesians 2. It was in Ephesians 1 verses 4 and 5, chosen in him before the foundation of the world, predestined unto sonship long before we had any being.

17:24 But here in Ephesians 2, we are talking about that which actually occurs in the life history of dead, bound, guilty, wrath-deserving sinners. We're talking about real-life people at Ephesus who were dead, who were bound, and who were in a state of wrath, but wonder of wonders, they're now alive. They're now liberated. They are now accepted.

17:52 We're talking about real-life sinners here at Trinity Church. This morning, upstairs, downstairs in the overflow room, we're talking about people who were once spiritually dead, who were once bound by the God of this world, who once did walk according to the course of this world, who were children of wrath. Our concern then with this second axiom is what actually transpires in the realized salvation of the sinner. When the dead sinner gets life, when the bound sinner gets liberty, and when the guilty sinner finds favor and acceptance. That's the focus of our concern in this second axiom.

18:33 Hence, I've put it this way. All that transpires in the realized salvation of the sinner, alright, the next phrase, bears the distinct nature of an application of some specific aspect of Christ's saving activity. You see, the question before us is, is this. What regulates the manner in which God deals with men when he saves them by his grace?

19:04 When he works as a judge dealing with their legal problems, their guilt? When he works as a physician dealing with their personal needs, their bondage, and their death? What pattern does God follow? What is the logic that lies behind the way God works? Well, the answer is in our axiom.

19:24 Everything he does for that sinner, whether considering God's work as a judge dealing with his legal problems, or God's work as a physician dealing with his moral, his personal, his ethical problems, everything he does in that sinner bears the distinct nature of an application to that sinner of some aspect of Christ's soteric activity. You see what we're doing? If everything he does for that sinner bears the distinct nature of an application to that sinner everything that Jesus did was done as representative and substitute with a view to saving sinners, then when God actually takes the sinner in hand to save him, he's going to make good in him that which Christ did for him as representative and as him as substitute. So you see, what Christ did as representative and substitute in order to save becomes the pattern by which the salvation is actually applied. So that when God takes the sinner in hand to save him, he's not going to work contrary to what the representative and the substitute did in order to save him. He will work consistent with all that the substitute and the representative did on their behalf. You see, that's why the apostle can say, you were quickened together

20:54 with Christ. You were raised with Christ. You were seated with Christ. Why? Was Jesus Christ quickened in Joseph's tomb? Yes. Was he raised? Yes. Was he seated? Yes. But he did not do those things as a private person. How did he do them? He did them as what? Representative of his people. He did them as the substitute of his people. He did them for the deliverance of his people. Therefore, when God is about to apply the virtue of Christ's work, how does he do it? He does it in a way that perfectly parallels the activity of the representative and the substitute. He quickens them. He raises them. He seats them. And it's as though time is shrunk, and time is of no consequence. May I say it reverently? It's as though the sinner is lashed to the Son of God in Joseph's tomb, so that when he's quickened, the sinner's quickened. When the Savior is raised, the sinner is lashed to the Son of God in Joseph's tomb.

Distinguishing 'With Christ' from 'By Christ' or 'On Account of Christ'

21:54 So that when he's quickened, the sinner's quickened. When the Savior is raised, the sinner is seated. And it's only as we grasp that intimate connection between the work of Christ as substitute and as representative that we'll begin to make sense of the Apostle's words. For notice, Paul does not say, we are quickened, raised and seated by Christ. Now, that would be a truth, a wonderful truth. That Jesus Christ is the agent in this world. What we In our salvation. But he doesn't say we're quickened, raised, and seated by Christ, does he?

22:31 He says we're quickened together with Christ. We are raised together with Christ, and we're seated together with Christ. I didn't put those words there. The Holy Ghost did.

22:43 My job would be a lot easier if it simply said by Christ. And I would simply point you to the power and virtue of Christ as the exalted head of the mediatorial kingdom doing his work in gathering his sheep home to himself. And that would be great preaching material and wonderfully easy in terms of exegesis. But that isn't what the Holy Ghost has said.

23:07 He gave the Apostle Paul the notion of making these compound words, bringing together Christ's quickening and our quickening. Notice it does not merely say quickened, raised, and seated on account of Christ. Now that would be relatively easy to grasp. The only reason any sinner is quickened, any sinner gets spiritual life, any sinner is raised up to liberty in Christ, is because of the virtue of Christ's death.

23:35 And that's a wonderful scriptural truth. That everything we have as believers is on account of Christ, his merit, his work. But that isn't what the text says. It says we're raised with him.

23:49 We're seated with him. I didn't put it there. The Holy Ghost did. Nor does it merely say, although this is a wonderful truth, we are quickened, raised, and seated as was Christ.

24:04 In other words, that there is a parallel between what God did to Christ and what he did to us. And I'm ashamed that many commentators are content with that interpretation. It does not say, and you being dead, he hath quickened as he quickened Christ. There is a construction in the Greek language that would have made that very, very easy.

24:25 He could have used the kathos, even as an equal sign, even as God was the one who quickened Christ, so God quickened you. But that is not what the text says. And that's why the onus is on the preacher. When he says he believes that every word is inspired of the Holy Ghost.

24:49 How do we make sense of all of this? Well, you've got to get this second part of the axiom. Everything God does in that sinner bears the distinct nature of an application of some, a specific aspect of Christ's saving activity. When the lifeless body of the Lord Jesus lay in Joseph's tomb, that body was quickened with divine power.

25:15 That body was raised. And in that body he went back and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. But I affirm again, he was not quickened, he was not raised, he was not seated as a private person. Simply to vindicate his own personal claims.

25:36 Simply to declare him to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection Romans 1-4. But he was quickened, he was raised and seated as representative, as substitute. And so intimate is the bond between Christ and his people, that when he applies their salvation, it is nothing less than a being quickened together with him. Raised with him, seated with him, as though time did not exist.

Scriptural Evidence: Dying to the Law with Christ

26:04 That's the only way I know to express it. As though time did not exist. Now, having explained the axiom, and left some of you, I'm sure, in hopeless confusion, just hang in there, will you? I want now, in the second place, briefly to demonstrate the scripturalness of this notion in some specific ways.

26:25 And as I attempt to do so, you lift up your heart to the Holy Spirit and ask him to give light. For we're treading, treading in areas where only the Spirit can give us understanding. Now, this concept, if it's valid, we should expect to find it in other places, since Scripture is its own infallible interpreter, and I believe we can. Let me ask you a personal question this morning.

26:52 As you sit here this morning, are you still in Ephesians 1, verse 3, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest? That is, those who by nature, because of our involvement in the sin of Adam, because of our involvement in our own personal sins, are exposed to divine wrath. As you sit here this morning, is a canopy of divine wrath hanging over your head? You say, no, Pastor Martin, by the grace of God, I sit here under a canopy of divine mercy and grace.

27:31 I know that my sins are blotted out. I know that my sins are blotted out. I know that they are forgiven. I know that the law can never track me down and condemn me.

27:39 All right, my friend, if that's your confession, let me press another question on your conscience. How do you know the law will never track you down? Have you ever taken seriously what God's law is? If I may personify God's law into a person, that law comes to you and says, have you violated my just and holy demands?

27:59 What would you answer to the law if he asked you that question? Would you dare say, oh, no, no, I haven't kept all of your demands? Anyone here who's simply honest with the probings of your own conscience will say, no, Mr. Law, I have violated your righteous and holy demands.

28:15 Then suppose he says with a frown upon his brow, do you know that I have a mandate from the God who has made me to execute all who violate my righteous and holy demands? And all the living God has put in my hands are instruments of execution. There are no pardons. There are no statements of clemency.

28:39 I have a mandate from the Almighty to track down with holy vengeance all who violate my standards and not to leave them till I've slain them. For is not that the teaching of the Scriptures? The wages of sin is death. The law knows no mercy.

29:00 That's why Paul says, the law worketh wrath. And that's all. Now, my friend, if you've sinned, how do you know the law in your case will not demand your death? And that death is the righteous anger of God, separation from the God who made you, to lie beneath the pangs of that separation and divine abandonment, which is the hell of hells.

29:24 Depart from me ye cursed. How do you know that the law will not track you down? You say, well, I've been released from the law. How have you been released?

29:35 Well, you quote Galatians 3.13 to me. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. You say, when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, he was dying as my representative.

29:53 He took the curse of that law upon himself and so swallowed it up that there is no curse for me. And if that's your answer, that's true and wonderful, but it doesn't go far enough. For listen, listen. He not only died for me.

30:08 Listen to the words of the apostle in Galatians 2.19 and 20. And turn to this parallel passage for a moment. Galatians 2.19 and 20.

30:17 For I through the law died unto the law that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ. Now what is all this double talk? I through the law died unto the law.

30:40 I have been crucified with Christ. What's he saying? Is he referring to some kind of a super mystical experience? No, no, my friend.

30:51 He's simply stating what I have tried to put in the axiom. All that Christ did in his saving activity, he did as substitute, as representative, and when God applies his salvation to the sinner, he does so by bringing to bear upon the sinner some aspect of the saving work of Christ. What is Paul saying? I through the law died to the law.

31:19 What's he saying? Listen to him in Romans 6. Keep the question there. Let's underscore the question with several more portions of the word of God.

31:28 Romans chapter 6. Beginning with verse 3. Are ye ignorant that all we who are baptized into the Holy Spirit are baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized not into a death like his, but into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

31:57 Verse 7. For he that hath died is justified from sin. Verse 8. But if we died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him.

32:08 Chapter 7 verse 6. But now having been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held. Second Corinthians 5.14.

32:20 The love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all, therefore all died. What is the apostle saying? O dear child of God, lay hold of it. May the Spirit enable us to grasp it.

32:34 This is what he's saying. When the law stands before us, before me in all the frightening terror of its holy visage, and its hands or his hands are loaded with the instruments of divine execution, and the law says I must track you down to death. I cannot leave your trail. I cannot abandon the purpose and mandate of the Father.

32:58 I must track you down and track you down until I sling you. How do I know the law will not track me down and land me in hell? Because of this wonderful truth, that when Jesus Christ died, he died as representative for me. He died as substitute as me.

33:21 And, O Christian, we must not only hear in the cry of the Son of God, my God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me? Not only must we hear his voice crying out as the representative, the child of God, that was your voice. Your abandonment occurred in your substitute. You were in the hands of the law.

33:49 And when you were in the hands of the law, the law showed no mercy, for it had no pardons in its hands. It had no warrant for clemency. It said, guilty sinner, exposed to death, I will track you to death. And the abandonment of the Son of God was my abandonment, so that the law can make no just demands upon me.

34:14 For what does faith do? Faith brings me into union with Christ. And the moment I am joined to Christ, what happens? All the virtue of his representative, soteric activity becomes mine.

34:31 His abandonment becomes my abandonment at the cross. And just as surely as Paul says, having died to sin once for all, death hath no more dominion over him. When the law has dumped its slain victims at its feet, the law is done with the victim. And thank God, the law is done with me in its condemning power.

34:58 It left me slain at the cross in the person of my substitute. I, through the law, died to the law. When did I die to it? When the law executed me in the person of my substitute.

35:14 I have been crucified with Christ. How? When by faith I was joined to him. That which he did in my stead now becomes mine in my experience.

35:28 Oh, what a blessed thing to face the law in all the frightening holy terror of his angry visage and say to him, I do not fear you. I have no hopes that your character will change, that law will turn to mercy, that you will undergo a metamorphosis, and from your back pocket will be brought a great packet of pardons and a great decree of clemency. No, I say to him, O holy law of God, I know that your character is fixed and fixed for eternity. I know that you have no mandate but to slay.

36:05 But I know that you took full vengeance upon my substitute. And I was in him when he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I died to all your claims of vindictive justice. You cannot touch me.

36:27 Christian, that's the gospel. That's the gospel. You say, well, why didn't Paul in Ephesians 2 say then, And you did he crucify with Christ. You did he raise with Christ.

The Certainty of Resurrection and Glorification

36:40 Well, you see he had been using the analogy that we are dead in our trespasses and sins and if he were to introduce the concept of dying with Christ, there it would have been a mixing of things that would have been hard to sort out. But he's not at all reluctant in other places to say that the virtue of Christ's saving act does not begin with his resurrection or his quickening. But when he died, we died with him. And the moment we are baptized into Christ, that is placed into union with Christ, it's as though time shrinks and we're there upon that cross.

37:15 We die in our substitute. We're there in the tomb. And we come out with our substitute. That's why Paul says, We are planted together in the likeness of his death that we should also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

37:28 And dear child of God, he's gone back. And we've gone there too and it's only a little matter of time. You see, God can shrink the time from both ends. He can shrink the time backwards and say, Here you are in year 2000.

37:44 You were crucified with my son back there in AD 30. And he can say, You've been glorified with my son out there in AD 19 or 2000 or 3000, whenever it is. God says, I shrink the time. Everything that happened to him has happened to his people.

38:02 That's why Paul can say in Romans 8, Whom he justified, then he also glorified. It's already done. Well, it ain't done. Well, it is.

38:09 Well, it ain't or it is? Well, it is, but it ain't. Is it? Well, what is it?

38:14 Ah, do you see why he says in Colossians 3, If then ye have been raised together with Christ, seek those things above, for your life is what? Hid with Christ in God. It's there now. It's hidden.

38:29 The world doesn't know it. But the moment there's the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, and Jesus comes, he says, then we'll be manifested with him in glory. It'll be evident to the whole moral universe that when Jesus was raised up to the place of honor, we were raised with him. It's just only a little matter of time before it becomes evident.

38:47 That's the teaching. And why is this so? Because everything that we do and everything that God does in the realized salvation of the sinner bears the distinct nature of an application of some specific aspect of the saving work of Jesus Christ. Oh, Christian, do you at least begin to grasp it with a pinky?

Practical Implication 1: Maintaining Historical Reality of Christ's Work

39:10 Do you see the glory of it, the wonder of it? And time will not permit this morning to develop it. Maybe the Lord willing next week. I had three more lines of scriptural argument, but I want to conclude with some practical application.

39:23 It would be wrong to just leave this hanging. What are the implications of this great truth? Finding expression in these two axioms that I've laid before you. Well, let me show you some of the practical implications in closing this morning.

39:39 Number one, do you see the necessity of maintaining at any price the factual historical reality of all that pertains to the activity of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels? Do you see why we're such sticklers for what the Bible says about His virgin conception? Do you see why we're such sticklers about what the Bible says concerning His miracles, concerning His death as being a true death, not alone at the hands of Roman soldiers, but at the hands of His Holy Father? Do you see why we're such sticklers about maintaining that it was a literal, physical, bodily resurrection from the dead?

40:20 Because what He did had the distinct nature of substitutionary, representative, soteric activity. Take away that activity! You've taken away my salvation! That's why Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 12 to verse 19, he says, If Christ be not raised, what are the implications?

40:44 You are yet in your sins. So the Father accepted the payment. How do we know that the law did not leave Him dead as it were upon that cross as a final monument to His own guilt? Because the Scripture says the Father raised Him, listen, not for His justification, but for whose?

41:06 He was raised again for our justification, for we were in Him. And the Father's raising of the Son not only justified the Son in the sense that it declared the acceptableness of His offering, it justified us on whose behalf He was acting. And that's why we must maintain the integrity of the Son, the integrity of the Gospel records, for if we give up the historicity of any facet of the life of Christ, we're giving up our salvation. And therefore we need a baptism of holy intolerance against all smooth-talking theologians who would tell us the issue is not history, it's the Spirit of Jesus. It's the Jesus idea. Away with the Jesus idea! When I see Mr. Lawman at my back

42:01 and he's got his hand on the scruff of my neck and says, I've got you, sinner, and my mandate from God is to kill you, I want something more than a Jesus idea to hold up in his face. I want to say, Mr. Law, on a bloody Roman gibbet in space and time, if you were there, you could have gotten your fingers wet with his blood. He died, and all of your demands were exhausted in him.

42:29 I dare to face you clothed in my blessings, as his substitute. How do I know my body's ever going to come out of the grave? Is it because I have some wonderful, wispy notions that the spirit of Easter is the spirit of the blooming spring, when the death of winter gives way to the inevitable forces of the life of the new year? Hogwash.

42:59 My friend, listen. You start fair-facing death realistically, and realize in spite of all the efforts of the mortician, that beautifully painted face of that loved one's in a few short months will be eaten with the worms, and so will mine. What hope do I have that the grave will ever give me up? Ah, it's because there was a real grave in Palestine that held the real body of a real man, and that grave was vacated.

43:29 And when he came forth, what does the Scripture say? He was the first fruits of them that sleep. Could Christ's body have come out, his physical body, and have left one pinky behind? No, sir.

43:44 That whole body in the integrity of its physical unity came forth. He'll not leave one pinky of his mystical body behind. Hallelujah. Not one pinky!

43:54 If I'm in him, my resurrection is as certain as his. Child of God, with the coming of gray hairs and creaky bones, and all the other evidences that the years are taking their toll. The attitude of the Christian is not to ignore death, not to try to cover up its signs, though there's nothing wrong, I guess, with a little paint and a little Clairol and a little of other things. Ah, but my friend, listen.

44:24 You can't hide it forever. Can't hide it forever. Death is tracking us down. But what a wonderful thing to know.

44:34 The sting of death has been removed. And what is that sting? That death is the ultimate end of the law's rights. The sting of death is sin.

44:43 The strength of sin is the law. But where was its strength broken? When my substitute upon the cross broke its power. I, through the law, died to the law.

44:54 Now what is death for a Christian? It's just a discipline in the hands of God to call him up higher. It's become a fatherly discipline. It's no longer a legal administration of terror.

45:06 And Christian, as I face death, I want something more than the lovely spirit of the spring and Easter and all that other business. I want to know that an actual tomb was vacated. With a real body! And that what he did pledged what God will do with me.

Practical Implication 2: Necessity of Vital Interest in Christ

45:26 That's the first implication. The necessity of maintaining at any cost the factual, historical reality of all that pertains to the life of Christ is recorded in the Gospel. And now the second implication should have already been made obvious, but I want to articulate it. Listen.

45:45 Do you see the absolute necessity of obtaining a vital interest in Jesus Christ? When I say vital interest, I'm using the word interest in its old, antiquated sense. Not an interest, oh yeah, I'm interested in sports, I'm interested in cars, I have a passing inclination to examine these...

46:03 No, no. A vital interest means a participation in, a union with! My friend, listen. If God is ever to do a thing in you to break the power of spiritual death, spiritual bondage, and pass over His wrath, it will be only because you and Christ have somehow become intimately related.

46:27 The only answer to death in sin, bondage by sin, and condemnation for sin, is to be quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, seated with Christ. Somehow, friend, you must come into a vital interest with Jesus Christ. So you better not give yourself any rest until you know that Christ in you has become one in the embrace of faith. The third great implication is to us as Christians, do you see the necessity of sustaining and attaining a growing knowledge of the work of Christ?

Practical Implication 3: Growing Knowledge of Christ's Work

47:10 Christian, as you grow more and more, one of the marks of your growth is you see more and more how wretched you are. That's not a sign you're going backwards. That's a sign you're going forward. It's blindness in sin that makes us oblivious to sin.

47:29 And once our eyes have been opened by the Holy Ghost, the more we grow in the Spirit, the more we see what we really are. Now, if that's true, then if there is not a parallel experience of seeing more and more who Christ is, you see what's going to happen? Your growth is going to lead you into legal bondage. Fears and doubts and lack of assurance.

47:57 As you say, how in the world can God be favorable to the likes of this creature? So, my dear Christian, listen. Peter stated it very simply. Grow in grace and in the what?

48:10 Knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Understand more and more of the implications of these axioms that I've made before you. Ponder these passages. Pray over them.

48:27 Pray them in until by faith it becomes a living principle of life. I died with Him. I was buried with Him. I was raised with Him.

48:37 And blessed be God, I am seated with Him. Now, does that negate the reality of the foul corruption that I still see within me? No. But it tells me it isn't always going to be that way.

48:52 For the hour is coming and we shall be like Him when we see Him as He is. This is what some of you Christians desperately need. As your pastors and elders, we cannot fault you in the area of being sensitive to your sins. We cannot fault you in the area of being honest about your sins.

49:14 But this is the place where we can find fault. You are not resting in all that Christ is. You're not withgrowing scriptural intelligence, grasping all that Christ is. God is not honored by the shriveling spirit of the servant.

49:39 He is honored by the filial delight of His sons and daughters who by the spirit of adoption cry out the Father. And then the fourth implication is do you see the certainty of the salvation of all on whose behalf He acted? You don't need to be a theologian to see that if those first two axioms are true, there's no such thing as a general, undefined, indefinite atonement. Anymore, there's a general, undefined, indefinite relationship of Christ and His people.

Practical Implication 4: Certainty of Salvation for the Elect

50:15 How intimate is that relationship? So intimate that we died with Him. And if anybody dies with Christ, he's released from the condemning power of the law. And if Christ died for all men, then you've got full-blown universal salvation and nothing short of it.

50:33 But He died for His people. I lay down my life for the sheep. Oh, the great implication of this truth, for the definiteness, the efficacy, the prevailing power of all the works of Jesus Christ. Well, I leave you now with that second axiom this morning.

50:52 Axiom number one. All that transpired in the life history of our Lord Jesus Christ bore the distinct nature of representative, substitutionary, soteric activity. What He did, He did for me. He did as me to deliver me.

51:14 Axiom number two. All that transpires in the realized salvation of the sinner bears the distinct nature of an application of some specific aspect of Christ's soteric work. And God willing, next week, axiom number three. That which binds together Christ's work as representative and substitute.

51:38 And my experience as sinner is vital union with the Son of God. And when we have the third axiom, I hope trust will see the thing in its wholeness and go on our way rejoicing. Let us pray.