Ben Brinkerhoff - Class 2: Reconciliation of God’s Righteousness

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Okay, so I was asking my wife, and by the way, those of you who are not married yet, that's a good idea. Ask your wife. I was asking my wife. I said, when you were young, what were the things that you were struggling with and you were trying to understand and you were just going, I don't really get it, you know?

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   Now, one of the things I had to understand was what I talked about yesterday, which was false atonement, which is the way that we all try to cover our sins with someone else's sins. Hey, if you've hurt me, I get to hurt you, and it's even, right? And I'm not seeking forgiveness because actually you deserved it.

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   And I'm not really forgiving you for what you've done either, right? I had to get my head around that. That was my thing. I had to get my head around. I asked my wife, well, what did you have to get your head around when you were a teenager? What were you struggling with? And this is what she told me.

4. 0:57

   This is Alyssa's words. She said, Ben, the thing I couldn't understand is what's the big deal about sin? Why is it such a big deal? Now, me, I didn't struggle with that because I always figured I was such a big sinner, right? And I didn't, I kind of, I actually knew intuitively what the big deal about sin was.

5. 1:33

   It made sense to me, but it didn't make any sense to her. So I said, okay, well, what I'm going to try to do is before we try to get our head around what God's going to do about sin, or why God's going to help us overcome sin, or any of those things that we might want to know about sin, that to her, it was quite helpful to say, well, what's the big deal about sin anyways?

6. 1:55

   What's the problem? And I think intuitively we say, well, I can see, you know, listen, if I shove you, you don't like that. You may tell me not. You might do it again, right? You know, and at some point you're going to react and it's going to be funny. No, it's not. You're just being patient. That's great.

7. 2:10

   Right. But, you know what I'm saying? Like, I could get that, like, I hurt you and you, I can get, understand that. That doesn't have any problem with me. I think my wife could get that too.

8. 2:20

   But beyond that, and we could just maybe, I am sorry. I'm sorry. You know, we can reconcile, we can understand that. That's kind of intuitive, right, Kyle? Right. But maybe in a more global sense, on a larger scale sense, what's the big deal about sin? That's what she was having trouble getting her head around.

9. 2:38

   So I thought maybe we spend some time trying to answer that. Okay. But in order to answer what the big deal about sin is, I have to then ask the question, well, who makes sin sin? Who is your God? God. Now, that sounds, maybe like a, that sounds a silly question. Of course, most of you are going to be saying, because you're at Bible school, you know, that Yahweh is your God.

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    But you know what? I don't think it's that easy of a question. You see, what your God is, is the thing that tells you what's right and what's wrong. Okay? And society has a lot of options for this. Like, listen, when I was younger, I thought it was perfectly acceptable to try to hit my sisters.

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    To me, that was right. Right? To me, that was right. And to some of you probably seeing here, you're probably thinking to yourself, hey, it's still right. You know?

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    The tunnels are all laughing. I don't know what's that about. You know? Tell me. Right? So I thought that, but my parents told me that was wrong. And they had the authority to back up their decision. So, you know, what makes right right? You know, when I'm young, this is what made right and wrong right and wrong for me.

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    Right? Is that I had done something wrong, and mom and dad, or mom or dad, told me, listen, you can't do that. And I'm going to back it up, and I have the authority to establish and to tell you what is right and what is wrong. Okay, that's fine. Though that's one idea of someone who has authority.

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    Right? Someone has the idea to define what is right and what is wrong. But there's other options. Right? Some people might even consider, you know, the laws of the land. This is the Congress building in Washington, D.C. They spend all their time trying to define for society what is right and what is wrong.

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    And so, and they can enforce that. And if they say something's wrong, even if I think it's right, I could be arrested, or I could be punished, or I could be fined, or any number of things. Because actually, they have the authority to back up that decision about what's right and wrong. One of the reasons we don't vote, one of the reasons we don't run for government office, is because we don't agree with that system of defining right and wrong, because it contradicts the Bible.

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    Right? But this is another way of defining what is right and what is wrong. So, for me to get my head around what's the big deal about sin, I've got to define, I've got to tell me, well, who's deciding who that is?

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    Okay? Okay? So, the Bible is going to describe whoever you think of as God as the thing that you worship and serve. Okay? So, whoever you think is God, whoever you define as God, that is going to be the thing that you worship and serve. And the verse that's going to tell us that is in Romans 1, verse 25, where it's talking about those people called the unrighteous, right, as Romans defines it.

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    The unrighteous, or the ungodly, changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator. Okay? So, whoever is your God is something you're going to worship and you're going to serve. Okay? And according to Romans, according to Romans, you have two choices on who are you going to worship and serve.

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    Two choices. Choice number one is the creator. Choice number two is the creature. And that's the word that stands for the thing that was created.

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    It's a little bit philosophic right now. I get it. All right? But just hang on with me, okay? Right? So, you have two choices of who you worship and serve. You can worship and serve the creator.

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    Or you can worship and serve the thing that was created. Okay. So, what's the big deal about sin? All right? Well, tell me. Looking at this verse, right? Ask yourself a question. Who changed the truth of God into a lie?

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    Any guys? Austin, do you have an idea? No? Nathan, do you have an idea? Josh, do you have an idea? This table is striking out big time right here, right? Right in the middle. Well, I mean, there's a lot of different church groups that would have. There's scientists that have. Right? Think earlier.

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    Who changed the truth of God into a lie? The serpent. The serpent. Yeah, turn over to Genesis chapter 3. We're trying to get our sense about what's the big deal about sin. Sin.

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    In order to define what the big deal about sin is, I actually have to define or understand who decides that sin is sin. Whoever decides that sin is sin is the one in charge, is my God. And the Bible says that's the thing I'm going to worship and serve. And the Bible's going to give me two options.

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    My option number one is the creator. The option number two is the thing that was created. And the Bible's saying all this started, this whole thing started when the truth of God was turned into a lie. And what was the lie? The lie was from the serpent, you shall not surely die. Okay, that was a lie.

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    Now, who remembers then, in the process of the serpent telling this lie, what was the very next thing that the serpent said? Because that's, it all hinges on that. The next thing the serpent said after the lie.

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    Yeah. Good. For you shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

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    Okay? That is very, very important, young people. So there's two things you can worship and serve. You can worship and serve the creator, but there's an alternative. And the alternative is you can worship and serve the thing that was created.

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    And so essentially, there's two options. You can serve God, or you can be God. That sounds pretty big, doesn't it? Sounds pretty philosophic. You're thinking to yourself, ah, I don't think I'm God. And you know, I have friends at school, and they don't think they're God either. But I'm going to challenge that, okay?

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    Just let me push on that a little bit. All right? We're going to push on that one. Because what does it mean to be God, according to this phrase?

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    Tell me. Knowing good and evil. What does it mean to know good and evil? Okay. To have something you define as right or wrong. Kate, do you want to add to that? Well, it's kind of that, like you said, you're the one who's setting the morals. Exactly.

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    So there's two options of the thing that can define, or set, or identify what is right or wrong. There's these two alternatives. There's God. God thinks he knows what right and wrong is. We all agree with that? But there's an alternative. There's a lie. And the alternative is that, no, no, you can be like God.

33. 11:50

    You can decide for yourself what is good and what is evil. Yeah? I just think it's pretty cool if you look at the first verse and looking at what we looked at yesterday where it's, for God does know, so it's implying that God has levied a hurt against Adam and Eve by not letting them know that bit of information about the tree.

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    And so from that, they can use that to justify, level it out, the sin of evil fruit. Yeah. Hey, you know, you didn't let me know. Right? So, you know, listen, I can justify this. So now, so now they could both, so now there's an alternative. There's an alternative about who is God.

35. 12:36

    Okay? So, let's go back to Romans then. Romans chapter 1 is a commentary on Genesis chapter 3. Okay? If you ever want to know what Genesis chapter 3 is talking about, you read Romans 1. Because Romans 1, Paul is commenting on Genesis 3. So, that's why I'm linking these two things up. Again, all I'm trying to do, guys, is answer this question.

36. 13:00

    What is the big deal about sin? Okay? That's all I'm trying to do. So, Romans chapter 1 verses 21 and 23. Now, I want you to think about Adam and Eve as I read this. Okay? Because I think this is really talking essentially about Adam and Eve and about their children. Because that when they, thinking Adam and Eve, knew God, we all agree that Adam and Eve knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagination.

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    nations. Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. So, Adam and Eve knew God, but doing so, they didn't glorify Him as God. Instead, they chose to worship and serve the creature. They decided to worship and serve what they thought was right and wrong, rather than what God thought was right and wrong.

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    because what did the serpent promise when they ate the fruit? Knowledge. Knowledge of good and evil. Yep. And when, when, when she picked up the fruit, she said, oh, it's good to eat. Right? I'm sure it tastes good. It looks good. And what else does this thing do? What else? What else did Eve say this thing did?

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    Yep. But she uses a specific, specific word. You guys know what the word is? Yep. Wise. Didn't she? She said that, right? Do you think, do you think just maybe that that's where that's coming from? Think there's a link there perhaps? A Bible echo? So professing themselves to be wise is meant to be in contrast with glorifying not as God.

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    You guys see that that's a contrast. When I profess to be wise myself, when I think I know what's good and evil, I think I know what's right and wrong, you can't tell me what to do. Right? That is the equivalent of professing to be wise. Those things are held in contrast with one another.

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    Does that make any sense? Okay? I'm talking about some real foundation stuff, right? Okay. So, what was the result then? Okay, so God says, fine, you think you're wise. Alright? So what's the consequence? What came from that? Well, Romans chapter 1 tells us what the consequence or what proceeded or what came as a result of them thinking they were wise.

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    And we read there in verse 28 of Romans 1, and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Okay, I need to unpack that because I think just on the surface that verse may not say a lot to you.

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    Probably says a lot if you just unpack it a little bit. So let's do that. Alright. So it says, and even they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. What that really means is they did not like to acknowledge God. Do you ever have someone who's giving you the rules but you don't want to acknowledge them?

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    What do you do? Right? Kind of like leave your head a little bit and I'm just going to look out the window and I'm going to really look like I'm not paying attention. As a parent, you understand exactly what that's like. Okay? Okay, so they didn't want to acknowledge God. So God says, I'm going to give them over to a reprobate mind.

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    Well, what is a reprobate mind? Okay, reprobate is a word I don't use at all but it is a kind of meaningful word. It means God gave them a mind that failed the test.

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    Okay, God gave them up to a mind that failed the test, a mind that fails the test. Okay, so Paul's going to tell us later in Romans 1 what it really means that man has failed the test. Okay? And the definition of man failing the test is that men are going to do things which are not convenient.

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    Well, what does that mean? Okay, so convenient. You guys may know something about nature, maybe because you like it a lot or maybe because you've watched some programs about nature. But you know, animals are in the wild, right? And animals need to eat and they need to reproduce and all those other things are necessary for their survival.

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    And so what happens is that, let's say you have a wild buck and it wants to mate with the doe and if there's another animal that is trying to mate with that doe, the buck will charge it and use its horns and drive it away, right? Until the other animals realize it's lost the contest.

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    Okay? But the buck won't kill that other animal, right? The buck only wants to eat as much food as it needs in its territory. It's not trying to control all the territory so that no other bucks can eat it. So what happens in nature is that animals have instincts too. They have instincts to reproduce.

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    They have instincts to, you know, to eat and to drink. But animals do those things which are convenient. They only do as much as they need in order to survive. Okay, does that make sense? So in that sense, animals also have instincts but they have instincts which are convenient. They don't go the extra mile to like kill that buck that's challenging me because, you know, because I want to kill him, right?

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    It's like, you know, as long as I've won the contest for the female, the contest is over. And so Paul's saying, Joanne, when God gave us up to a reprobate mind, a mildly fail of the test, our nature is so bad that we're doing things that we sin even when it's inconvenient to sin.

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    Let me explain that again. Paul says that our nature is unrighteous, we fornicate, it's full of wickedness and covetousness and maliciousness and envy and murder and debate and deceit and malignity. Like, we sin and inconvenience. We sin even when it's inconvenient. We go out of our way to sin. We extend ourselves to sin.

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    We try hard to sin. It's not about survival. It's not about having enough food. It's not about having ability to reproduce. No, no, no, no, no. We are going out of our way to sin. Which is the only way you can really get these ideas of covetousness and maliciousness and envy and murder and deceit and malignity.

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    So we have a mind that Paul says fails the test. So what's happened in the garden is we said, you know, I'm wise. I'm not going to acknowledge God. I think I know what's right or wrong. I think I know what's good and evil. I don't need God's version of it. He's not the authority.

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    He can't tell me what to do. I'm going to do what I want to do. And Paul says, okay. So God gave them over to a mind. A mind that failed the test. How do we know it failed the test? Because not only does that mind sin, but it sins inconveniently. It goes out of its way to sin.

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    Next verse in Romans 1 verse 30 says that men became haters of God. God's not going to tell me what to do. It's despiteful and proud and boasters and inventors of evil things.

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    Now, it's a little bit odd way of saying it, but I'll just kind of put it out there. does anyone here have a mind that invents evil things?

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    I'm the only sinner. Okay, a couple boys are sinners, but no girls. Right? Oh, the Kiwis are sinners. That's good. Right? Does anyone have a mind that invents evil things? Have you ever caught yourself thinking about something and you kind of came to and you said, I cannot believe I was just thinking that?

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    Ever find your mind almost silently, secretly plotting to do something evil? And you're thinking to yourself, you know, I don't know where that thought came from, but that thought is scaring me a little bit that my mind was going down this track of how we can get away with doing something evil. Okay?

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    So, when God gave us up, when we said, no, no, I'm wise, God gave us up to this mind. And this mind is a mind that actually at its heart hates God. Why? It wants to be God. It's spiteful and proud. It boasts. It's a mind that invents evil things. Okay?

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    So, if you believe that you're God and if you follow your own wisdom, then that is the mind of your God. The world doesn't want the God of the Bible. It doesn't glorify Him. It doesn't thank Him. It doesn't acknowledge Him in Paul's words because man believes he knows for himself what is good and evil.

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    Of course, men don't call themselves God. Of course. Of course they don't. But they do obey their opinions and their inclinations and their desires. Do I have you at least at that? Do you agree that men obey obey their opinions, their inclinations, and their desires and their passions? Do I at least have you there?

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    Do you think that men do obey their own desires, inclinations, and passions? Okay? So in biblical language, they worship and serve the God of their mind, the God of their lusts, the God of their desires, and the God of their passions. that is who men worship and serve because they think at the heart of it.

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    Men think what? What do men think at the very heart? They think I'm right. God's not going to tell me what to do. So if your mind invents evil things, then I guess you have to ask yourself the question, just following the text here in Romans 1, just following the text, right? If our mind has invented evil things, then we have to ask ourselves the question, has our mind failed the test?

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    has your mind failed the test? And then following again Paul's argument here in Romans 1, is your mind God to you? Do you guys see one coming from here?

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    Do you see where this is coming from? Because it is useless to talk about atonement. It's useless until you got this. Because if you still think that you're right, God's not going to tell you what to do. I haven't done anything wrong. I profess to be wise.

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    If you're in that spot, then nothing I'm going to say is going to have any meaning. there's a famous verse in the Bible. Jews think it's so famous that they actually hang it on their door and they'll write it and they'll put it right between their eyelids.

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    It's called the Shema in Hebrew. Does anyone know what this verse is? You do. Yes, Melissa Young? Can you just say that louder, Melissa?

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    Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord. Or Yahweh thy God is one Yahweh. Okay? Well, do you know how the average teenager thinks? Right? Not when I'm around. Okay? So there's a question here of authority is what I'm trying to get at. There's a question here of authority. Okay? So even if metaphorically, even if in metaphor, you think that you are the authority,

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    then separation from God and others is inevitable. Let me just pause because that's actually kind of a big concept. If you think I'm in charge, I'm the authority, I know what's right and wrong, I'm wise, no one can tell me anything, then separation from God and separation from others is inevitable. Right? And reconciliation then, according to how the Bible defines it, is impossible.

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    impossible. So, next question. How does God propose to reconcile us? Okay? If this is true, if that natural way of men's thinking that has been in the world since the garden, when men thought they were God and professed to be wise, if that thinking is in the world and is in you, and that thinking causes separation from God and causes separation from others, if that is true, right, and I hope I've defined for you it is true, and if you want the reprobate mind to be your God, I can't help you because that's your decision, but if that's true and that's in you and that's in me, how does God then propose to reconcile us, if that's true, within us?

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    Because God's only going to be one God. How does this whole thing end, by the way? Does everyone know how this whole thing ends? How does the Bible describe the whole thing ends? And God shall be? Well, he's not going to be all in all with you if you're God.

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    Because there's only one God. Right? So how is God then going to reconcile us? All right, so let's look a little bit earlier in Romans. Romans 1, verse 16, where Paul says about the process that is going to lead to reconciliation. Paul says in Romans 1, verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

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    So the gospel, the gospel seems to have this power of God to save. So what is in the gospel, what is in the gospel such that it has the power of God to save? What, is it just a bunch of ideas? Is that it? Is it just a bunch of things I have to learn and I take a test and they ask me questions and I answer them and I get wet and then that's it?

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    Is that it? Really? Honestly? Come on. Is that what this is about? What is the gospel such that it has the power to save? Well, Paul's going to tell us.

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    For therein, that means for therein, that is, in the gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. So how, if this is true, that the gospel has the power to save and the gospel has the power to save because it reveals and contains the righteousness of God, how important then is the righteousness of God?

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    in Romans, words derived from right or just appear, how many times do you think? How many times in Romans do you think words that derive from right or just appear? 16 chapters. Any guesses? 66 times. Do you know how many times the word salvation shows up in Romans? By contrast, any guesses? Four.

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    Four. So, so, I'm just giving you some idea that this idea of righteousness or justice is a key issue here. the key to understand how and why God saves us is contained in this idea of righteousness. All right? So, let me take you to one of those verses, probably the most important verse, the verse that Robert Roberts always turned into to talk about this.

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    Okay? The most important verses on this particular subject to describe to us how we are going to be saved by God's righteousness. By the way, that's very unintuitive for me. I never thought about God's righteousness as a thing that's saved. Do you know what I thought about God's righteousness in terms of? The thing that makes me guilty.

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    That was my intuition. I never thought about God's righteousness as this thing that saves. I thought it was this thing that condemns. You know, that was my intuition, right? But that's not true. We're told that we're saved by the gospel because it reveals to us God's righteousness. Well, where is that talked about?

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    So, turn with me to Romans chapter 3, verses 23 to 26. These are verses that are confusing at first, but we'll explain them. Romans chapter 3, verses 23 to 26. Again, we're trying to answer the question in general, how does God propose to reconcile us? That's the question at hand.

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    So, we read, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Okay? So, no one's going to get there because they're sinless. They've all sinned. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of Him that believes in Jesus.

83. 34:13

    And you think to yourself, oh, wait a minute, that's a lot of words and they're a little bit confusing and I'm a little bit confused and if you feel that way, that's okay. At least you're not the only one. Caden, you're not the only one either, you know? Right? Okay, so, let's just unpack this a little bit.

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    What's a propitiation? Think of a propitiation as a mercy seat. Now, year God came on the Day of Atonement to reconcile with His people over the issue of sin. So, what Paul is saying is that Christ is that place. Christ is the place at which God will reconcile with His people over the issue of sin because Christ declared God to be right.

85. 35:03

    God will reconcile with His people at Christ. He is the place of reconciliation. God will do that because Christ declared God to be right. In fact, this is kind of the key thing. To declare, I say this time, God's righteousness that God might be just or right and then the maker of righteousness of Him which believes in Jesus.

86. 35:37

    So, I don't know. We can see clearly that God saves via His righteousness. Is that point alone clear? Maybe the verse isn't clear, but is it clear at least that Scripture is clearly laying out that God saves via His righteousness being declared? Is that clear? That's obviously what's being said. We don't really know why, right?

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    But that's obviously what's being said here. Does everyone kind of get that? Fair enough? Okay. So, I just found this idea totally confusing. It's a hard concept to understand. So, here's the question. How did the life and death of Jesus declare God to be just or right? And why is reconciliation based on that principle?

88. 36:30

    See, it boggles my mind because here's what I intuitively think. And maybe this is what you intuitively think. I'm just going to guess for you because this is the way it was for me, right? You can see a stick man, that's as good as I can draw. Carolyn, I can't nearly do what you do, right?

89. 36:46

    So, this is how I saw it. Jesus was just. He should be saved. That's clear enough, right? I'm a sinner. I probably should die. Okay? That's probably clear enough for me. On that basis, how could Jesus' death be just? How could God be just to require it? And how could saving me be right?

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    Does anyone else follow that logic? that's exactly how I thought. Is this idea confusing? This is what I was thinking, right? If anyone's going to be saved, it should be Jesus. If anyone should die, it should be me. How is it that he's dying and I'm saved? That doesn't really make sense. And God, how is this any justice or righteousness in this whole system at all?

91. 37:35

    Okay? Okay, so now I'm going to summarize. To summarize where we are up to this point before I make a couple more points before the end of the day. Okay? So summary. So the problem with sin is that created humans want to have authority over the creator God. We think we're more wise than God.

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    Don't tell me what to do. The gospel saves because it shows and provides a process in which we acknowledge that God alone is just or right.

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    Romans 3 says the thing that demonstrates that God is just is the death of Jesus Christ in which we need to have faith. But to us, Jesus' death doesn't seem to be just at all and saving me because of it also doesn't seem just. That's our summary so far. I'm dying. All right.

94. 38:28

    I'm going to go a little bit faster. So in taking up this question, I'm going to take you to the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. The baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, Isaiah 40 verse 6, a voice said cry and he said, what shall I cry? This is John preaching in the wilderness.

95. 38:46

    This is John's message. What shall I cry? All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof is as a flower of the field. I'm going to try now to describe you why Jesus died. Does anyone want to know why Jesus died? Is anyone curious about that? Because I was. Okay. Why did he die?

96. 39:03

    So John preached in the wilderness and said, all flesh is grass. Everyone get that? All flesh is grass. What does grass do? It decays and it dies and it withers. Okay. So Jesus' flesh was like John's. So what happened is that Jesus comes to John and John says, no Lord, I need to be baptized of thee.

97. 39:22

    And Jesus says something to John that's really interesting. He says to John, no John, suffer it so to be no so now, for it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness, us, me and you. But John was a sinner. But John was a sinner. Jesus wasn't a sinner. And Jesus said to John, suffer it so to be now, for it becometh us, you and me, to fulfill all righteousness.

98. 39:48

    So something about Jesus was identifying that day with John and says, John, I'm with you, us. Because Jesus' flesh was like grass too. It was suffering to decay and prone to every sin and temptation. Jesus' flesh, like John's, was like grass, decaying and dying and prone to every sin. And it was righteous to submit his flesh to baptism or ceremony of death and cleansing.

99. 40:17

    Okay. So Jesus has within him the same thing that we have in us. Right? And the same thing that we got from our parents in the garden. He has this desire himself to be God, himself to know what was right or wrong. He has this desire within himself to be wise and profess his own wisdom, to know what is good and to know what is evil and decide for himself what is good and what is evil and to contradict God and to say, no, God, I don't need to follow you.

100. 40:46

     I'm going to do what I want to do and I'm going to rebel and this desire to rebel and to be your own God and decide for yourself what to do and what is right and wrong. And that thing that you have in you that wants to do that, Daniel, I know you have it too.

101. 40:59

     Right? You look at me like you maybe don't, but I know you're not that cool. Right? Talk to your dad. Right? Right? He had that too. He had that too. And so what happened is in baptism, he said to John, John, all flesh is grass. And to fulfill God's righteousness, we need to put it to death.

102. 41:25

     But that inclination to rebel that our parents had is encoded into our flesh, our bodily nature, and is passed from Adam through his progeny to Jesus and from our fathers to us. Okay? Okay? Okay?

103. 41:47

     So why did Jesus have to die then? Well, Romans chapter six is going to tell us. Okay? Reading in Romans chapter six, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him. Okay? So we're talking about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're talking about our participation with it in baptism.

104. 42:13

     He said, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. That henceforth we should not serve sin. So the issue of what Jesus is doing on the cross is he was taking something called the body of sin, right? This thing that rebels against God, this thing that thinks it's God, this thing that thinks it knows what's right and wrong, this thing that doesn't want to be put under authority, this thing that professes to be wise, this thing the Bible is now calling the body of sin and he destroyed it.

105. 42:51

     He put that thing to death, that thing that he has in common with us, the thing that he in common with John, he put that to death because he rebelled against his father. Hebrews puts it this way, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also himself likewise took part of the same, took part of what?

106. 43:14

     Took part of flesh and blood like us, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. So when Jesus came out of the ground, out of the grave, he no longer had a desire to rebel, he no longer had a desire to sin, he no longer had a desire to assert his authority over his father, he no longer had to say, thy will, not mine be done.

107. 43:42

     All those things stayed in the grave, they died, and because those things died, the Bible said the devil was dead, the thing that has the power of death was dead, the devil, the body of sin, what Jesus destroyed is this,

108. 44:00

     and you have one of these, he destroyed this, and he had this in common with us, and this, and this, this mind, this reprobate mind, rebels against God because it wants to be God, and it had to be condemned.

109. 44:29

     Now, we die because of our sins, we all know that, but Jesus because he was sinless was the only one who could show that this is needed to die. Why does it need to die? Because it rebels against God, and if there's something in you, if there's something in you that thinks you're right, there's something in you that thinks this doesn't mean anything to me, identify that for what it is, because that is what is in you that Jesus took to the cross and killed and destroyed.

110. 45:01

     He destroyed that thing in you. That's what he put to death, because he had that feeling too. That's what had to be destroyed. So the point of this class, because I'm out of time now by five minutes, the point of this class is this. Do you believe that God is God?

111. 45:30

     Or do you think that you're God? Because atonement only makes sense when you see that God is destroying the thing in you that thinks you're God too. Why? Because God's going to be all in all. He's not going to be all in all with you if you're also God, because there is one God.

112. 45:55

     thanks, young people. Thank you.