Dale Partridge - Two VITAL Truths of the Christian Faith - Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 In this episode of Real Christianity, we learn two vital truths.

00:00:03.000 First, how our faith is connected to the faith of Abraham.

00:00:05.960 And second, how our faith hinges on the resurrection of Christ.

00:00:09.100 Get ready, all that and more coming up right now.

00:00:10.800 welcome to real christianity my name is dale partridge now as you know this show is an audio

00:00:32.960 and video ministry of relearn.org where our mission is to bring the church back to the bible

00:00:38.980 I need to make an important announcement today.

00:00:41.420 This will be the last message 0.68

00:00:43.980 on the book of Romans on real Christianity

00:00:46.340 because we are launching a new podcast

00:00:49.300 from our local church

00:00:50.360 called Sermons of Kingsway Bible Church.

00:00:53.520 Here you'll be able to find

00:00:54.840 and hear a recording of my Sunday sermons

00:00:57.300 where I'll continue this Roman series

00:00:59.240 from chapter five all the way till the end of the book.

00:01:02.080 And as for real Christianity, 0.91

00:01:03.380 I'll be getting back to the topical shows 0.94

00:01:05.480 with practical biblical wisdom

00:01:07.020 for your everyday life. So I hope you're excited about that. On that note, let's go ahead and dive

00:01:12.360 into this last episode on Ephesians, on Romans chapter four. We're going to be dealing with

00:01:19.020 verses 22 through 25, ending this wonderful chapter from this great book.

00:01:30.160 I wanted to give you guys a little bit of the geography. I try to do this in every episode,

00:01:34.740 offering a geography of where we've been, where we are, and where we're going. I think it's

00:01:40.340 important for Christians to understand the book of Romans and the outline of the book

00:01:45.440 so that they can find the appropriate sections that they might need when they're forming their

00:01:51.420 doctrine and theology. Section one of the book is Romans 1.1 through 1.18. This is the prologue of

00:01:59.420 the book. And this is where Paul is establishing his apostolic authority and his desire to be with

00:02:04.420 the church in Rome. He gives the premise of the book, which is found, which is verse 16 and 17,

00:02:10.580 for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who

00:02:14.840 believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed

00:02:19.200 from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous one will live by faith. So that's

00:02:25.240 section one. Section two is the long section that we probably had maybe 10 or 15 episodes,

00:02:31.280 which is Romans chapter one, verses 18,

00:02:34.420 all the way through 320 or 321.

00:02:37.820 And that was the declaration of the universal law of God,

00:02:41.540 that the moral law has jurisdiction, 0.78

00:02:43.460 not just over the Jews who had possession of the law, 0.87

00:02:46.280 but also of the Gentiles 0.67

00:02:47.800 who did not have the possession of the law,

00:02:49.820 and that all would be guilty before the law,

00:02:52.200 and that all would need to be justified,

00:02:54.620 not by works of the law, but by faith in Christ.

00:02:57.920 This was the great section on the Reformation doctrine

00:03:00.040 of sola fide, right? Saved by faith alone. Section three, which is what we're at now, 0.67

00:03:07.980 is from Romans chapter three, verses 21, all the way into the middle of chapter five, about 521.

00:03:15.320 And this is a defense that's a multi-angle and multi-dimensional defense of the claims that you

00:03:20.960 see in section two. So he's talking about the great reformation doctrine of saved by grace alone,

00:03:27.280 and through faith alone and Christ alone.

00:03:29.520 And he's really defending that doctrine of justification

00:03:32.480 by faith alone in section three.

00:03:34.680 And the way he does that is through this multi-dimensional

00:03:37.400 angle of defending the New Testament proclamations

00:03:40.880 by the testimony of the Old Testament

00:03:42.880 through Abraham, through David.

00:03:45.180 And this is what we've seen here in chapter four.

00:03:48.460 We observed last episode, Paul's rationale

00:03:52.220 for why God's promises to Abraham must be embraced

00:03:56.580 exclusively by faith and not by works of the law.

00:04:01.740 In essence, we're seeing these promises through the law

00:04:05.940 and works, they're unattainable.

00:04:07.880 There's really two paths that you can receive

00:04:10.940 the substance of the promise to Abraham.

00:04:12.680 It's law and works or it's grace and faith.

00:04:17.260 And they are diametrically opposed to one another.

00:04:20.020 And we're seeing that Paul is saying,

00:04:22.780 you cannot receive these through this path of works and law.

00:04:27.340 You must receive these through grace and faith.

00:04:30.600 And we know this because we can't uphold the law,

00:04:34.140 rendering that pathway impossible for us to receive

00:04:37.540 the substance of those promises

00:04:39.000 because we can't keep the law.

00:04:40.480 We failed to meet the demands of that path.

00:04:45.100 And so if the promises are to be realized,

00:04:47.100 they have to be guaranteed to come about by God's grace

00:04:51.360 because we've already failed in not upholding the law.

00:04:54.860 And these are now not dependent upon man,

00:04:57.740 but dependent upon God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

00:05:01.120 So Paul said in verses 416,

00:05:03.680 that is why it depends on faith

00:05:06.480 in order that the promise may rest on grace

00:05:09.160 and be guaranteed to all his offspring.

00:05:12.200 And so Paul goes on to demonstrate

00:05:14.840 how the faith of Abraham is to be an encouragement

00:05:17.700 to every single Christian.

00:05:20.240 That is that Abraham is our father in the faith

00:05:22.480 and as his children,

00:05:24.580 we have the same faith of our father, Abraham.

00:05:27.480 In the second half of 416,

00:05:29.440 it says that the promise will be guaranteed

00:05:31.540 to not only those that are the adherents of the law,

00:05:36.440 but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham,

00:05:41.540 who is the father of us all.

00:05:42.660 That's an important passage, right?

00:05:44.720 Who shares the faith of Abraham.

00:05:46.820 We live in a time where we have such an individualized

00:05:50.080 view of faith. You have your faith. I have my faith. But scripture doesn't teach that

00:05:56.720 we have individualized faith. It teaches that we have the same faith. We all have been given the

00:06:03.840 gift of saving faith, but at varying degrees. That is that all Christians have the same substance

00:06:11.200 of faith. We all have Christ as the founder and finisher of our faith, according to Hebrews,

00:06:16.800 but we have a distinct measure of that faith.

00:06:20.600 2 Peter 1.1 opens the letter by saying,

00:06:23.840 quote, to those who have received a faith equal to ours

00:06:28.960 by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

00:06:32.840 So this is an amazing statement.

00:06:34.300 We all have a faith that's equal to one another

00:06:37.380 in the sense of what it can accomplish.

00:06:39.480 But again, we have different measures of faith

00:06:41.420 given to some have weaker faith

00:06:43.440 and some have stronger faith.

00:06:45.180 But because all Christians share in the same saving faith,

00:06:47.460 we can expect to have the same ability

00:06:49.860 by exercising that faith as Abraham did

00:06:53.940 to take God at his word.

00:06:56.880 And so in the same way Abraham trusted God

00:06:59.340 regarding the seemingly impossible promises

00:07:02.300 that were given to him in Genesis,

00:07:04.840 we can trust God regarding the seemingly impossible promises

00:07:07.900 that are given to us.

00:07:09.500 And so when we look at our own wickedness

00:07:12.020 and we doubt that God can actually forgive us

00:07:14.940 and justify us and give us the righteousness of Christ,

00:07:17.540 we can actually look to Abraham and know

00:07:20.340 if it was possible with his faith,

00:07:22.940 then it's possible with our faith.

00:07:25.380 You know, when we doubt that being absent from the body

00:07:28.180 is being present from the Lord,

00:07:29.660 we can look to Abraham and see if his faith

00:07:33.220 was strong enough to believe these impossible promises 0.71

00:07:36.260 about a nation coming from a barren woman's womb, 0.99

00:07:38.760 then we can believe we have the same substance of faith.

00:07:42.480 We can trust the same way that Abraham trusts.

00:07:45.900 We can take God at his word.

00:07:48.140 Ultimately, the faith of Abraham

00:07:50.740 in the face of, again, what seemed impossible at the time

00:07:55.180 is an example of the level of supernatural trust

00:07:58.180 that's available through us

00:07:59.720 when God gives us the gift of saving faith.

00:08:01.860 And it's accomplished by God's good pleasure upon us

00:08:06.800 that we have such capacity to believe him

00:08:09.540 and take him at his word.

00:08:10.880 And this is obviously not on our own.

00:08:13.720 It's by the help of the Holy Spirit,

00:08:15.520 helping us and supporting us to believe the truths

00:08:19.200 and promises of God according to scripture.

00:08:21.580 Now, it's not about you intrinsically increasing your faith either.

00:08:25.320 So when we want stronger faith,

00:08:27.280 you don't go and muster up stronger faith.

00:08:29.440 No, it's a prayer that you ask the Lord,

00:08:31.980 oh, Father, please strengthen my faith.

00:08:34.540 Give me more faith.

00:08:35.700 help me have more faith. It was the premise of Abraham's trust in God that we ended last week's

00:08:44.660 sermon. So today we're going to see the effect of that faith on both Abraham, but also our standing

00:08:52.220 as New Testament Christians before God. So I'm going to read Romans chapter four, all the way

00:08:59.000 from 16 through 25. It's a decent chunk of scripture, but it's going to give us the context

00:09:05.100 that we need for this passage.

00:09:08.000 It says, that is why it depends on faith

00:09:10.320 in order that the promise may rest on grace

00:09:12.820 and be guaranteed to all his offspring,

00:09:15.140 not only to the adherent of the law,

00:09:16.740 but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham,

00:09:19.500 who is the father of us all.

00:09:21.540 As it is written,

00:09:22.960 I have made you the father of many nations

00:09:25.100 in the presence of God, whom he believed,

00:09:27.880 who gives life to the dead and calls into existence

00:09:30.560 the things that do not exist.

00:09:32.600 In hope, he believed against hope

00:09:34.480 that he should become the father of many nations

00:09:36.980 as he had been told, so shall your offspring be.

00:09:40.740 He did not weaken in faith

00:09:42.120 when he considered his own body,

00:09:43.960 which was as good as dead

00:09:45.140 since he was about a hundred years old,

00:09:47.140 or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

00:09:50.440 No unbelief made him waver

00:09:52.140 concerning the promises of God,

00:09:53.660 but he grew strong in his faith

00:09:55.600 as he gave glory to God,

00:09:58.140 fully convinced that God was able to do

00:10:00.720 what he had promised.

00:10:02.080 And this is our passage today, 22.

00:10:04.480 Therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness.

00:10:09.660 Now, not for his sake only was it written

00:10:12.280 that it was credited to him,

00:10:14.000 but also for our sake to whom it will be credited

00:10:17.800 as those who believe in him

00:10:19.760 who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

00:10:22.260 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions

00:10:25.660 and was raised because of our justification.

00:10:28.900 Okay, long passage of scripture,

00:10:30.560 but beautiful doctrine and theology

00:10:32.900 that we need to get through.

00:10:33.740 Starting off in verse 22, it says,

00:10:35.860 therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness.

00:10:39.560 So God displays here the degree of potency of the faith,

00:10:43.920 which he gifts Abraham.

00:10:45.760 It is a faith that is able to receive the impossible.

00:10:49.840 So Abraham is not made righteous by his faith.

00:10:53.260 You have to understand this is an important distinction

00:10:55.080 in what we call soteriology.

00:10:58.060 It's the study of salvation.

00:11:00.620 No, he receives the righteousness of God through faith or by faith.

00:11:06.200 Robert Haldane says, quote,

00:11:09.060 faith is the hand of the soul that puts on the righteousness of the Savior, end quote.

00:11:15.880 It's the righteousness of Christ that satisfies the demands of the law.

00:11:19.980 That's what makes us righteous.

00:11:21.920 But faith is the means.

00:11:24.620 It's imputed to us through the channel of faith.

00:11:27.640 So when God gives a person saving faith,

00:11:29.780 he gives them not only the ability to take God at his word,

00:11:32.800 but he also gives them the means

00:11:34.860 to receive the righteousness of Christ through that faith.

00:11:39.460 Then Paul adds in verse 23, he says,

00:11:41.620 now not for his sake only was it written

00:11:44.600 that it was credited to him,

00:11:46.740 but for our sake also to whom it will be credited

00:11:50.560 as those who believe in him

00:11:52.640 who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

00:11:55.560 So Abraham's conversion becomes the first biblical example

00:12:00.520 or biblically recorded moment of justification by faith alone.

00:12:06.480 Now, this doesn't mean that people like Noah or Seth

00:12:09.400 weren't also justified by faith alone.

00:12:13.040 We know that all Old Testament saints and New Testament saints,

00:12:15.760 that God saves everyone by grace through faith.

00:12:19.820 It's simply that we see that this is the first documented instance

00:12:23.420 in the scripture that we see righteousness being credited by faith. But this documentation of

00:12:29.240 salvation by faith alone was not written only for Abraham's sake, but also for our sake. We know

00:12:35.560 Romans 15, four, it's a beautiful passage of scripture that says, quote, for whatever was

00:12:40.500 written in earlier times was written for our instruction so that through perseverance and

00:12:46.780 the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope, end quote. Secondly, Paul wants to

00:12:52.500 make it clear that Abraham is not the only one who would be made righteous through his faith,

00:12:59.100 but that all who have faith in Christ would also be made righteous. This is extending to

00:13:06.860 everyone that essentially trusts in the savior will have an Abraham-like faith. So Galatians 3, 0.51

00:13:14.000 7 through 9 says, quote, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham

00:13:20.420 And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

00:13:25.340 preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying,

00:13:28.360 in you shall all the nations be blessed.

00:13:31.440 So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham,

00:13:36.400 the man of faith, end quote.

00:13:38.780 In other words, what he's saying here is that the gift of righteousness

00:13:42.580 through faith is not an exclusive privilege of Abraham.

00:13:45.440 this is a gracious gift that's given to all people

00:13:49.600 and a gracious gift that's given to all of God's people.

00:13:53.020 So more than that, he's telling us

00:13:54.740 that the promise will transcend national boundaries.

00:13:58.900 This isn't something that's going to be limited

00:14:00.260 to the nation state of Israel,

00:14:03.880 but we're going to have a spiritual family

00:14:06.840 is what that passage was talking about.

00:14:09.320 People that have faith from around the world

00:14:11.480 of every tribe, nation, and tongue

00:14:12.960 under the common banner of faith in Christ.

00:14:16.140 Now take note of the qualifier that Paul uses

00:14:18.960 at the end of 4.24 that says,

00:14:21.940 quote, who believe in him,

00:14:23.320 who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, end quote.

00:14:28.060 Now he doesn't simply say that those who believe in Christ,

00:14:32.420 he actually says something unique and different.

00:14:35.380 Now he pinpoints a belief in God

00:14:37.820 who raised Jesus from the dead.

00:14:41.820 What does that mean?

00:14:42.620 Do we have to have faith in God?

00:14:44.860 Do we have to have faith in Christ?

00:14:46.480 Is it really sola fide in the sense that we're saved by faith alone in Christ alone?

00:14:50.940 What does it mean here?

00:14:52.320 It's not saying that we must only believe in God,

00:14:55.520 but in God, the raiser of Jesus Christ.

00:14:59.360 That's what the text is really saying here.

00:15:01.180 It's implying this belief in the Godhead of the gospel.

00:15:06.320 And so 2 Corinthians 5.19 says,

00:15:09.240 in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, end quote. In other words, you can't

00:15:16.720 divide faith in God from faith in Christ. It's a Trinitarian gospel that we have here.

00:15:24.800 We have a Trinitarian God and a Trinitarian gospel. And so this is just accentuating

00:15:30.280 a different portion of the gospel is that we have God the Father, we have God the Son,

00:15:36.180 God, the Holy Spirit, all playing unique roles in the Trinitarian gospel and the redemption of

00:15:40.900 God's people. But we need to also believe in God, the raiser of Jesus Christ, our Lord from the dead.

00:15:47.580 So Paul continues in verse 25 by bringing further identification to Jesus. He says,

00:15:53.800 he who was delivered over for our transgressions and raised for our justification. Now this passage,

00:16:00.720 One, it's a very famous passage of scripture,

00:16:03.440 but it echoes Luke's recording of Peter's sermon

00:16:06.500 in Acts 2.23 that says,

00:16:10.540 quote, this Jesus delivered up

00:16:12.940 according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,

00:16:16.280 you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

00:16:20.080 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death

00:16:23.400 because it was not possible for him to be held by it,

00:16:26.200 end quote.

00:16:27.240 Acts 4.27 through 28 says,

00:16:30.360 So here we see this profound reality that Christ was delivered over for our transgressions

00:16:53.640 by the predetermined plan of God.

00:16:57.080 And like the book of Job,

00:16:58.340 this teaches us that God has sovereign control

00:17:00.920 over our lives, over all things,

00:17:04.300 including the wicked actions of men.

00:17:07.540 And he is not the cause of those wicked actions,

00:17:12.360 but permits them to occur in a way

00:17:14.040 that works all things together for the good of his people.

00:17:18.300 Now, this means that Herod, Pontius Pilate, 0.81

00:17:20.760 the Gentiles and all the people of Israel

00:17:22.880 had gathered together against Jesus,

00:17:24.760 but they did so according to God's predestined plan for the gospel.

00:17:30.020 And so this should remind you that nothing happens outside of God's control.

00:17:34.880 And this should give us hope and rest and peace.

00:17:37.540 And even in the darkest moments of our life,

00:17:40.560 God is working out his purposes for the good of his people,

00:17:42.940 to the glory of his name.

00:17:44.120 And we know this because when our life is getting difficult,

00:17:49.140 we know that God will use absolutely every bit of it.

00:17:53.800 There's no evil thing that can happen to you

00:17:56.400 that God has not approved or permitted to occur

00:18:00.240 because he is sovereign over the entire world.

00:18:03.820 But God turns our trials into triumphs.

00:18:07.100 He turns our suffering really into strength

00:18:11.060 that actually happens through sanctification.

00:18:14.580 Now, these are difficult things to deal with.

00:18:18.020 I remember a story from John MacArthur

00:18:19.280 that his wife had gotten a terrible car accident

00:18:23.000 and broke her neck.

00:18:26.080 And he ran in to the hospital

00:18:28.900 and his son said, there's been an accident.

00:18:32.740 And John MacArthur said to his son,

00:18:35.280 son, there is no accidents, keep praying.

00:18:38.360 And can we take our theology of a sovereign God

00:18:44.180 into those very difficult moments?

00:18:47.340 Just yesterday, there was a shooting at a school in Nashville at a Presbyterian school, Christian school.

00:18:56.060 I believe the pastor of the Presbyterian church that it was connected to, his daughter was killed there.

00:19:02.900 And these are the moments that we have to take very seriously.

00:19:07.260 We have to be anchored now into the promises and truths of God.

00:19:11.660 Because when those things come, when those moments of death and tragedy come, we will be anchored down into the promises of God.

00:19:21.120 It doesn't mean that we don't have absolute tragic mourning.

00:19:25.420 It doesn't mean that we don't weep.

00:19:27.520 It doesn't mean that we don't even have questions.

00:19:30.660 But it does mean that we will be anchored down to Christ, even in the most treacherous storms.

00:19:36.580 And that's why it's important because if God can use the murder of his son for the greatest good of all humanity, then God can use all the tragedies in our life for the good of our own sanctification and also for the church.

00:19:53.940 It's a difficult concept to grasp and there are many theological implications around it, but it's something to be thinking about.

00:20:00.780 Now, it's difficult for Gentiles to understand the theological significance of this verse because we often miss how Christ is fulfilling the Old Covenant sacrificial system that's being seen here in the text.

00:20:18.400 Christ was handed over by God in the same way that Isaac was handed over by Abraham.

00:20:24.280 But unlike the son of Abraham, the son of God was actually slaughtered. 0.67

00:20:28.140 his slaughter was that of the perfect spotless lamb

00:20:33.380 whose blood was sprinkled on the altar 0.92

00:20:35.800 to atone for the sins of his people.

00:20:37.520 And so there's lots of old covenant imagery

00:20:40.820 that's very important.

00:20:42.060 Hebrews 9, 12 says of Jesus,

00:20:45.080 quote, he entered once for all into the holy places,

00:20:48.200 not by means of the blood of goats and calves,

00:20:51.300 but by means of his own blood,

00:20:53.920 thus securing an eternal redemption, end quote.

00:20:57.640 First Peter 1, 18 through 19 says,

00:21:00.640 quote, knowing that you were ransomed

00:21:01.920 from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,

00:21:04.700 not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

00:21:08.260 but with the precious blood of Christ,

00:21:11.080 like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

00:21:16.120 But Christ, the best part about this

00:21:18.120 is that Christ did not stay dead.

00:21:20.520 He did not, he bled for us and he died for us,

00:21:22.740 but he did not stay dead.

00:21:23.920 The text says, quote,

00:21:25.360 but he was raised by God for our justification.

00:21:29.360 Paul wants us to see how our justification hinges

00:21:32.920 upon the resurrection of Jesus.

00:21:35.560 Now, because the wages of sin is death,

00:21:38.600 if Christ stayed dead, it would have been evidence

00:21:41.500 that Christ had sin of his own to pay for.

00:21:45.220 Essentially that he was dying at the expense of his own sin.

00:21:48.020 Christ died for our sins.

00:21:49.740 He did not die for his sins.

00:21:51.480 And because the wages of sin is death

00:21:53.380 and Christ had no sin.

00:21:55.500 Christ could not stay dead

00:21:56.800 and therefore had to be resurrected.

00:21:58.920 And he was essentially vindicated or exonerated

00:22:03.240 for his, essentially stating by God the Father,

00:22:08.860 validating that he was a sinless and perfect sacrifice,

00:22:11.740 the spotless lamb without sin,

00:22:14.620 and that his death essentially was unjust.

00:22:17.160 And so Christ died again for the sins of his people,

00:22:20.040 not for his own sins.

00:22:21.200 This is also what made it possible

00:22:23.200 for the resurrection to occur.

00:22:25.200 It's also connected to the reality that Jesus was born,

00:22:30.680 not of Joseph, but born of the Virgin Mary

00:22:34.580 by the spirit of God.

00:22:35.720 He was not born of the seed of Adam,

00:22:39.080 that that original sin had came down through man

00:22:42.820 and everybody's born with sin and that's why everybody dies.

00:22:46.800 But Christ was not born of man,

00:22:48.460 but born of the spirit of God,

00:22:50.060 making him sinless from birth, 0.73

00:22:52.380 which allows him to live perfectly as the second Adam 0.95

00:22:56.320 who had no sin, unlike the first Adam

00:22:59.620 and was able to keep the law perfectly 0.67

00:23:01.460 and die without sin

00:23:03.120 and validating his sinlessness through the resurrection.

00:23:06.500 So there's lots of theological content

00:23:08.220 that's connected there.

00:23:09.880 But more than that, through his resurrection and ascension,

00:23:12.120 he now makes intercession for us, for our transgressions.

00:23:17.000 Isaiah 53, 12 says,

00:23:19.160 Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, 1.00

00:23:22.020 and he shall divide the spoil with the strong

00:23:24.140 because he poured out his soul to death

00:23:26.160 and was numbered with the transgressors.

00:23:28.820 Yet he bore the sin of many

00:23:31.120 and makes intercession for the transgressors.

00:23:35.000 End quote.

00:23:35.620 Romans 8, 34 says,

00:23:37.560 quote,

00:23:37.900 Who is to condemn?

00:23:39.100 Christ Jesus is the one who died.

00:23:40.740 More than that, who was raised?

00:23:43.100 Who is at the right hand of God?

00:23:45.660 Who indeed is interceding for us?

00:23:47.820 End quote.

00:23:48.180 Hebrews 7 25 says, consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God

00:23:56.020 through him since he always lives to make intercession for them, end quote. So ultimately,

00:24:02.260 the resurrection of Christ presents Jesus as our high priest who ascended to heaven and sits at

00:24:09.980 the right hand of the throne of God the Father, where he's eternally alive, making intercession

00:24:17.080 for the sins of his people through his own blood.

00:24:21.000 And so this is an amazing image and visual

00:24:24.840 that we need to understand. 1.00

00:24:26.700 It's difficult, again, as Gentiles, 1.00

00:24:28.460 not having a Hebrew structure 1.00

00:24:30.440 or maybe a rich comprehension of the sacrificial system

00:24:33.460 that was laid out in the old covenant.

00:24:35.300 Charles Hodge sums up this verse really well

00:24:38.520 when he says, quote,

00:24:40.200 Christ was delivered for our offenses

00:24:42.320 and raised again for our justification.

00:24:45.100 The immediate design of the death of Christ

00:24:47.420 was to make satisfaction for our sins.

00:24:49.880 And the immediate design of his resurrection

00:24:52.040 was to secure our justification.

00:24:54.440 He was treated as a lawbreaker

00:24:55.960 that we might be treated as righteous, end quote.

00:24:59.260 So this is good news.

00:25:00.280 This is the gospel.

00:25:01.320 This is some of the mechanics of the gospel.

00:25:03.860 So as we wrap up chapter four,

00:25:06.520 I kind of want to do a quick review.

00:25:07.600 We learned that God made four promises to Abraham.

00:25:10.780 And I want to review those for a second.

00:25:12.540 And he promised land, descendants, blessing, and protection.

00:25:17.120 And we learned that there were both physical manifestations

00:25:20.000 and spiritual manifestations of these promises.

00:25:23.620 In other words, the physical becomes the foreshadow to the spiritual.

00:25:27.500 And so I'm going to break that down just for a second.

00:25:29.220 We'll close it up.

00:25:30.060 Number one, there was this physical promise of the physical land that was Canaan.

00:25:35.940 And the spiritual land, as the spiritual promise side of it,

00:25:40.000 is the new heavens and the new earth.

00:25:42.540 which is to be inherited by the meek, 0.85

00:25:45.180 the meek will inherit the earth, we know that,

00:25:47.780 where we will reign with Christ forever on the earth,

00:25:51.840 which is a passage from Revelation.

00:25:53.880 And so this, again, this physical was,

00:25:55.800 there was a physical promise of land,

00:25:57.240 which is the land of Canaan, the promised land,

00:25:58.600 but there's also a spiritual manifestation,

00:26:00.580 which is the new heavens, the new earth.

00:26:02.780 There was physical descendants promised,

00:26:05.280 which were manifested in the birth of Isaac, Jacob,

00:26:09.500 the 12 sons of Israel.

00:26:11.180 but the spiritual descendants is the universal church of Jesus Christ,

00:26:16.220 those who are Abraham's children by faith.

00:26:18.960 The physical blessing was a nation acting as a witness to God's righteousness

00:26:24.460 throughout the world.

00:26:25.400 This is what Israel's role was throughout history.

00:26:28.100 The spiritual blessing was Christ who would bless people from every nation,

00:26:32.760 tribe, and tongue.

00:26:34.800 And the fourth thing is the physical protection was the perseverance and

00:26:39.380 preservation of Israel through many trials and tribulations, as we saw from Israel to

00:26:45.060 Babylon, to all the trials that happened throughout the Old Testament of God's people.

00:26:51.280 God continued to preserve his people to be the carriers of the gospel message that would come

00:26:56.260 through Christ. The spiritual protection is this security of the church by the persevering of

00:27:01.440 salvation, keeping those by being the founder and finisher of the faith of those who believe in

00:27:07.960 Jesus and have that same spiritual faith as their father, Abraham. So ultimately it was not the

00:27:15.880 physical blood descendants of Abraham who inherited the full substance of the promise

00:27:22.780 of Abraham, but the descendants of Abraham by faith. And that's us now not those really that.

00:27:30.680 So again, there's another distinction here. It's not those who had this physical circumcision,

00:27:34.640 but the spiritual circumcision of the heart.

00:27:37.080 It's not those who have the law written on stone,

00:27:39.680 but those who have the law written on their soul.

00:27:43.440 And so we need to see this again,

00:27:44.720 double dimension of these promises of Abraham

00:27:48.300 foreshadowed in the physical,

00:27:50.320 manifested in the spiritual,

00:27:51.420 as we can rest in Christ

00:27:54.080 and we can experience the full realization

00:27:55.840 of these great promises made to our father, Abraham.

00:27:59.620 So hopefully this was helpful

00:28:00.860 as we get through Romans chapter four.

00:28:03.840 My hope is that you guys can continue on

00:28:06.600 to listening to Romans chapter five

00:28:08.880 on our new podcast from our local church, Kingsway Bible.

00:28:13.880 And we would love to have you over there.

00:28:16.040 If you have not left a review for the show,

00:28:17.880 we'd love a review for Real Christianity.

00:28:20.760 You don't need to write anything.

00:28:22.000 You could just tap the stars,

00:28:23.140 but that really does help the exposure for our show.

00:28:25.900 On that note, my name is Dale Partridge.

00:28:27.500 This is Real Christianity, and we'll see you next time. 0.91

00:28:32.840 We'll be right back. 0.98

Dale Partridge - March 30, 2023

Two VITAL Truths of the Christian Faith - Dale Partridge

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