Dale Partridge - October 07, 2020


Real Christianity #114： How to Have a Greater Appreciation For Your Salvation


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Length

23 minutes

Words per minute

151.47862

Word count

3,560

Sentence count

209

Harmful content

Toxicity

4

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Hate speech

3

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Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, where each week
00:00:13.120 I offer 15-20 minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions. This is a 100% listener
00:00:20.600 supported audio ministry of ReLearn.org. And for those who don't know, our mission
00:00:26.400 at relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary Christians to plant biblical confessional and
00:00:32.800 missional house churches for more information just visit relearn.org forward slash house
00:00:39.280 all right so do you cry when you meditate on the gospel does God's love captivate you and
00:00:47.620 fill every free second of your day do you ever feel that your passion for Christ seems so
00:00:55.900 small in comparison to others? Do you want to have that awe and wonder of the gospel
00:01:03.400 that we see in so many preachers and evangelists? Well, we're going to be discussing this and more,
00:01:09.980 but before we begin, I just want to make one quick announcement. As you guys know, we have
00:01:15.440 a handful of companion ministries here at relearn.org to support our greater ministry,
00:01:22.160 meaning that we have a few other ministry products that we have, and people support our
00:01:29.100 ministry by buying these products. One of them is standinvictory.org, which is a program on
00:01:34.920 breaking free from pornography according to the gospel. Another one is ultimatemarriage.com,
00:01:41.220 and Ultimate Marriage is a six-week marriage training program that's built on biblical
00:01:47.240 principles. It's my wife and I, Veronica. We are talking about the mission of marriage,
00:01:54.520 the theology behind marriage, the biblical roles of marriage, the money, sex, the children,
00:02:02.300 all these elements, these difficult parts of marriage. And we talk about them through a
00:02:07.580 biblical lens. And we also have broken this down into a really great six-week program where it's
00:02:13.600 six videos. It's got six little worksheets to do as a couple. You can do it in a small group. You
00:02:19.340 can do it as just a one-on-one, just you and your spouse. But it's a great program. It's been $199
00:02:25.260 for the last two years. And we have just slashed the price in half because we wanted to make it
00:02:31.620 more accessible to people in our community. So it's $99. And that really helps our ministry.
00:02:39.900 and it's a great way to help your marriage.
00:02:42.300 So go ahead and check out ultimatemarriage.com
00:02:44.940 if you want to work on your marriage proactively
00:02:47.340 or if you need some help in your marriage,
00:02:50.680 it's a great resource to get you started.
00:02:52.500 Again, that's ultimatemarriage.com.
00:02:54.880 Today's question comes in from Tracy in Tempe, Arizona,
00:02:58.360 and she asks,
00:03:00.320 I'm struggling to understand the awe and wonder of the gospel. 1.00
00:03:05.420 I've seen Christians who just think about the gospel 0.99
00:03:08.320 and they begin to weep.
00:03:10.280 I've seen Christians who break out in celebration when they hear someone is converted.
00:03:15.440 To be honest, I don't feel all that emotional about it.
00:03:18.800 I love Christ.
00:03:20.080 I came to Christ as a young girl.
00:03:22.140 I'm incredibly thankful for his forgiveness, but I feel like I'm not seeing what other
00:03:27.340 people see.
00:03:28.720 Can you help me?
00:03:30.700 Okay, Tracy, this is actually a very vulnerable question, so thank you for that.
00:03:35.500 I think many, many Christians struggle with this very thing.
00:03:41.640 You guys may have noticed the title of this podcast episode is
00:03:47.500 How to Have a Greater Appreciation for Your Salvation.
00:03:52.160 And I really do believe that you're not alone in this desire, Tracy.
00:03:58.560 And I can also confidently say that Jesus wants you to have that awe and wonder regarding the gospel.
00:04:06.340 He wants you to see his grace and your salvation in all of its glory.
00:04:12.760 The Bible actually offers a specific passage of scripture that deals with this exact issue.
00:04:19.620 It's Ephesians 2, 1 through 9.
00:04:22.900 And at the time that this epistle was written, the church at Ephesus, and everywhere else for that matter,
00:04:29.500 didn't have an accurate understanding of how fallen they were, how great their rescuer was,
00:04:37.040 and how amazing the gift of salvation truly was for them.
00:04:42.040 Now, Paul addresses this letter in chapter 1, verse 1, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus.
00:04:52.080 So one thing I want to point out is that this means that despite their understanding of how great the gospel was, how great the grace they received was, they were still saved.
00:05:03.980 Basically, your understanding of all the inner mechanics of the gospel are not required for salvation.
00:05:12.220 You are saved by faith alone in Christ alone.
00:05:15.940 But nevertheless, the Holy Spirit, by the hand of Paul,
00:05:19.580 saw it fit to reveal to the church through this letter to the Ephesians
00:05:25.300 how great our salvation truly is.
00:05:28.300 And before I read the text, I just want to make something very clear.
00:05:33.140 Those who understand the weight of this text,
00:05:36.140 not just in their mind, but I would say in the seat of their heart,
00:05:40.480 those people who can really grasp this are those people who weep when they meditate on the gospel
00:05:51.340 if you like tracy want to stand in awe of god's amazing grace you want to have shouts of praises
00:06:01.100 of joy and worship to christ and revel in the wonder of your salvation then you must understand
00:06:08.080 this passage of scripture. So I'm going to read this to you, and then I'm going to explain it
00:06:14.300 briefly, because we could spend hours on this, but explain briefly what I'm trying to get across,
00:06:20.820 and hopefully that will help jumpstart this process for those of you who are looking
00:06:25.940 for a greater appreciation for your salvation. So let's read Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through
00:06:33.000 9. I'm going to be reading in the ESV. It says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in
00:06:39.720 which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power
00:06:45.580 of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived
00:06:51.600 in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
00:06:57.060 nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great
00:07:04.320 love with which he had loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together
00:07:09.740 with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him
00:07:16.600 in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable
00:07:22.360 riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved
00:07:28.640 through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that
00:07:35.960 no one may boast. Okay. I once heard one of my professors, Brian Bedebock, Dr. Brian Bedebock
00:07:45.120 at the Master's Seminary, offer probably the best metaphor for this section of scripture
00:07:51.160 that I've ever heard. And it really helps illustrate what this text is trying to teach.
00:07:57.500 Because I know it's hard to hear that and go, okay, that was a lot of scripture.
00:08:00.960 What's really being said here? Well, first it's broken up really into two parts,
00:08:06.540 how bad we were and how great God is. And so I'm going to break it down in this phrase
00:08:13.320 that Dr. Bedebach had used that I think will help give you a general understanding of where
00:08:18.820 we're going to go today. This is probably almost a word-for-word quote. It's from memory.
00:08:25.540 When you are rescued from danger, the greater the danger you are rescued from, the more grateful
00:08:32.580 you will be for the rescuer. Okay, I'm going to say that one more time. I want you to pay attention.
00:08:37.780 When you're rescued from danger, the greater the danger that you're rescued from,
00:08:42.900 the more grateful you will be to your rescuer. So let me give you two stories that I think will
00:08:48.700 help illustrate what I'm trying to talk about here. The first story is, imagine if you were
00:08:57.200 in a burning building and you were on the seventh floor and you couldn't escape. You're surrounded
00:09:03.120 by flames and the only door out is engulfed in fire. The smoke gets so bad that you eventually
00:09:10.140 just pass out. But a firefighter wrapped in a flame retardant suit runs up the stairs,
00:09:16.040 finds you unconscious, wraps you in a fire-resistant blanket, and carries you down the stairs.
00:09:21.920 And as he's coming down to the last flight of stairs, about to get close to the lobby,
00:09:25.180 he hands you off to another firefighter to carry you out. And as you escape,
00:09:30.380 the building collapses and kills the man that rescued you. Okay, that's story number one.
00:09:37.340 Story number two, imagine that you're outside in your backyard and you're trying to get a tan
00:09:44.600 And your neighbor walks by and says, ma'am, your back is looking a little red.
00:09:50.520 You might want to put some sunscreen on.
00:09:53.260 Ultimately, he saved you from a sunburn that might have been quite painful.
00:09:58.520 So which of these two rescuers will you be more grateful for?
00:10:04.700 Which of these two men would you honor more and respect more, the firefighter or the neighbor?
00:10:11.700 Well, we obviously know the answer is the firefighter who gave up his life in an extremely dangerous circumstance to save your life.
00:10:19.700 And that's really what this passage in Ephesians is trying to do.
00:10:25.240 Paul is offering us, as Christians, the context of our saving story.
00:10:33.300 This section of scripture really could be just titled, What Really Happened When You Were Saved.
00:10:39.800 Right. As humans, we have like we just have this tendency to not see how incredibly blessed we are, meaning that we have to realize that self-love is blinding.
00:10:58.720 And while we may think that prior to Christ, we were just struggling through life or that
00:11:05.800 we just needed a little help to get back on the right track, that's not what this passage
00:11:11.280 is saying here.
00:11:12.800 This passage is teaching that you weren't just sick or struggling.
00:11:17.580 You were catastrophically dead.
00:11:20.280 You weren't following your own plan and your own dreams.
00:11:24.160 you were following the course of this world and you were following the prince of this world that's 1.00
00:11:29.700 satan uh you were like a corpse laying in your own feces and vomit and you were just picked up 0.97
00:11:37.420 by like a flash flood and you were floating down a black river of sewage that just eventually 0.98
00:11:44.640 turned into a waterfall that fell into the mouth of a volcano okay this was your way this was your
00:11:52.300 identity. You, you weren't a good person. You were a son or daughter of disobedience. You weren't 0.70
00:11:59.040 righteous. You were a child of God's wrath. Okay. In other words, what this is teaching us is you
00:12:05.480 weren't rescued from a sunburn. You were rescued from eternal fire. Okay. But then in verse four,
00:12:13.200 uh, after that first, this first three verses, which we'll read it again here in a minute,
00:12:19.000 They gave us that context there of how bad we were.
00:12:23.660 But then in verse four, we hear what is likely two of the most amazing words in the Bible.
00:12:31.040 It says, but God.
00:12:33.420 Okay, Paul just gets done delivering this gruesome and sobering account of what is likely to all of us when we hear it,
00:12:43.160 an absolutely tragic understanding of our state prior to knowing Christ.
00:12:50.480 And then he transitions from the bad news to the good news.
00:12:55.400 And again, what makes the good news so good is that there's bad news.
00:12:59.880 And that was the bad news.
00:13:01.700 And he'd makes this transition with two words, but God.
00:13:06.440 And I want to read that entire passage of scripture.
00:13:08.580 So you can kind of listen this time with a little bit of context.
00:13:12.780 So I'm going to read chapter 2, verses 1 through 9 one more time.
00:13:16.320 It says,
00:13:16.760 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,
00:13:22.720 following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,
00:13:27.480 the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience,
00:13:31.480 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
00:13:35.800 carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,
00:13:38.200 and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
00:13:44.180 But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us,
00:13:50.040 even when we were dead in our trespasses,
00:13:52.500 made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved,
00:13:56.920 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
00:14:02.740 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness
00:14:10.280 toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your
00:14:18.020 own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Okay, the only
00:14:25.620 proper response to this passage when you comprehend it is just to fall down and lay on your face and
00:14:33.600 let the words, all glory be to God, all glory be to God, all glory be to God, fall off your lips
00:14:38.060 until you can no longer speak. Okay, I just think about the words that are in Romans 12, 1 that
00:14:44.620 says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a
00:14:50.860 living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
00:14:58.540 Okay, this text shows us the great danger and the great rescuer.
00:15:05.660 The only response that is proper is worship.
00:15:11.420 It's worship.
00:15:13.740 It's reveling in the glory and the majesty and just the gratitude of the work that has been accomplished in your life by Christ.
00:15:25.300 And I want to make one point really clear because we don't have a lot of time.
00:15:29.080 I want to make one point very clear.
00:15:31.640 The text doesn't care if you came to Christ as a five-year-old child or as a 50-year-old convicted murderer.
00:15:39.680 Your story of redemption is the same.
00:15:42.220 Okay, verse three says,
00:15:43.240 Among whom all we once lived in the passions of our flesh, all of us.
00:15:47.960 And at the very end, it says,
00:15:49.000 And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
00:15:53.700 Okay, you were both the child and the convicted murderer.
00:15:57.980 You're both dead in your trespasses and sins.
00:16:01.080 You were both in bondage to the course of this world and under the leadership of Satan.
00:16:06.620 Okay, you were both ruled by the lusts of your flesh and your mind.
00:16:09.980 and you were both deserving of everlasting fire.
00:16:13.580 Okay, too often, I just hear this too often,
00:16:15.520 that people have a low view of God
00:16:18.220 and a low view of the grace of God
00:16:20.300 because they don't believe that they were really that bad
00:16:22.920 prior to receiving the gospel.
00:16:24.420 But that's just simply not true.
00:16:25.900 The Bible teaches us that we were all born into sin
00:16:28.820 and that sin is not just an act, but it's also a condition.
00:16:32.440 It's a spiritual disease that leads to death,
00:16:35.680 not just the first physical death, but also spiritual death.
00:16:39.400 And only the stripes of Christ can bring us healing, right?
00:16:43.380 We've heard that verse.
00:16:45.540 By his stripes, we are healed.
00:16:47.060 We are healed from the disease of sin.
00:16:49.900 And what I'm trying to tell you here that's so critical is this.
00:16:54.860 In a sense, we all have the same testimony.
00:16:58.960 All of us have the same testimony.
00:17:00.700 Sure, the murderer and the rapist and the Pharisee may have an easier understanding of the gravity of God's forgiveness.
00:17:06.520 but the eight-year-old boy is equally condemned if he has not put his faith in Christ.
00:17:12.620 Okay, your testimony is the same as my testimony. There's some varying differences, but at the end
00:17:20.740 of the day, we are both part of this community of people that Paul talks about in the first
00:17:27.060 three verses of Ephesians chapter two. And so ultimately, Tracy, when you come to an accurate
00:17:33.880 understanding of your redemption story, not just in the mind, as I said earlier, but in the heart,
00:17:43.140 the natural response will be everlasting tears of joy. It'll be obedience, loyalty, gratitude,
00:17:52.100 love. In fact, I would guess that if any Christian could fully comprehend the greatness of God's
00:17:59.160 grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ, they would be so physically overwhelmed with joy
00:18:03.680 and love, that they could not even, they couldn't do anything but worship. I bet they would struggle
00:18:09.940 to sleep because of their inability to cognitively revel in the glory of God. They wouldn't be able
00:18:14.960 to do anything without the constant recognition of God's greatness. The only reason that we don't
00:18:24.160 react this way is because we don't comprehend this story fully. And unfortunately, God hasn't
00:18:31.960 chosen to give us that full understanding until we've been glorified with him. So comprehension
00:18:37.640 and revelation and illumination really become the crux of the matter. This is why you are writing
00:18:43.820 this question in Tracy. Your level of awe and wonder of God is a direct result of your understanding
00:18:52.820 of your salvation story. Okay. When we have an accurate view of God and his holiness and an
00:19:00.640 accurate view of ourselves, our depravity, and our unworthiness, Christ, who is the bridge between
00:19:07.200 God and man, will be lifted higher and higher and higher in our hearts. We will become more
00:19:15.560 and more passionate worshipers the more clearly we can see the beauty of God, the lowness of man,
00:19:22.840 and the bridge that got us there. We will become passionate evangelists when we see these things.
00:19:28.240 We will be obedient children when we see these things.
00:19:31.540 We will be great commission workers when we see these things.
00:19:35.780 We will be deeply devoted prayer warriors when we see these things.
00:19:40.080 We will be fervent students of scripture when we see these things.
00:19:44.520 We will be loving and gracious and merciful to those around us when we see these things.
00:19:50.260 We will be all these things because of him and what he did for us.
00:19:56.760 So this is it, Tracy.
00:20:00.080 This is it for anybody that's listening.
00:20:02.140 We need to constantly go,
00:20:04.720 Lord, give us, give me a clearer view of the gospel.
00:20:11.680 Don't let me attribute anything to me.
00:20:15.300 Show me your great glory.
00:20:17.580 Show me what you've done for me.
00:20:19.680 Show me who I was so that I can appreciate who I am now.
00:20:23.680 Show me why you did what you did.
00:20:26.180 Let me understand these things.
00:20:27.880 And the more clear you get there, the more revelation and illumination the Lord gives you,
00:20:34.620 your reaction will be awe.
00:20:37.800 It will be worship.
00:20:40.120 It will be wonder.
00:20:42.960 And that is the only way to have a greater appreciation for your salvation.
00:20:48.800 well as always guys i want to leave you with just a few resources that will help further
00:20:55.280 your journey and understanding the appreciation for your salvation and understanding your role
00:21:02.100 as a christian and how communicating this message to others would be edifying for the church you
00:21:08.680 can find this episode at relearn.org this is episode number 114 again it's titled how to
00:21:13.620 have a greater appreciation for your salvation the two resources i'm going to leave you this week
00:21:18.360 is actually, I found a message from my professor, Brian Bedebach, on this specific passage of
00:21:26.340 scripture, and it's titled, Grace That Is Greater Than All Our Sin. And it's on Ephesians 2, 1
00:21:33.480 through 3. I put a link to that available for you to watch on our website. And I also have an
00:21:41.180 article by R.C. Sproul titled, What Is Grace? And I believe that'll be a helpful article for you as
00:21:48.000 you're comprehending and trying to get a clear and more accurate understanding of what a biblical
00:21:53.580 definition of grace is. On that note, if you guys are regular listeners to this episode or to this
00:22:00.020 podcast, would you guys just do me a favor and leave a review? Your reviews are so encouraging
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00:22:15.620 and they are encouraging.
00:22:17.300 I do read every single one of the reviews
00:22:19.980 that come in as a written review.
00:22:22.900 And thank you guys for doing that.
00:22:24.020 Also, if you guys haven't yet,
00:22:25.840 consider following us on Instagram.
00:22:27.920 You can find us there.
00:22:28.980 You can also find me at Twitter.
00:22:31.280 It's just at Dale Partridge.
00:22:32.660 It's the only social media platform
00:22:34.480 that I'm really communicating on at this point.
00:22:38.320 And I do a little bit of writing there.
00:22:40.040 And so those are great spots to find us on the internet.
00:22:43.280 So hopefully this episode was edifying for you.
00:22:45.280 My name is Dale Partridge, and I will see you next week.
00:23:15.280 by visiting relearn.org forward slash house lastly do you have a theological question you would like
00:23:21.120 answered on the show submit your question at relearn.org forward slash question thanks for
00:23:26.660 joining us on this episode of real christianity we will see you next wednesday