WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.720 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:41.680 Mahler. 00:00:41.680 --> 00:00:44.160 And I'm still woe. 00:00:44.160 --> 00:00:48.480 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to continue the two-part series that 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:51.920 we began last week on the image of God. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.680 The first episode that we did last week, we were specifically focused 00:00:55.680 --> 00:01:01.040 on the image of God as it relates to that concept from 00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:03.360 scripture that applies to every man. 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:06.640 From the moment of conception, every man has the image of God 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:09.280 in the sense that we discussed last week. 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:11.440 Part of the reason we did two episodes, not only because we 00:01:11.440 --> 00:01:14.560 didn't do a four hour episode, is that this week we're going 00:01:14.560 --> 00:01:17.200 to be talking about one where that is not true at all. 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:20.320 The image of God as we're discussing this week, which is also 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:23.360 the same term as used in scripture to talk about two different 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:26.480 things. This week we're talking about the image of God as it 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:30.320 relates exclusively to the regenerate Christian. 00:01:30.320 --> 00:01:34.240 What that means is that anyone who is not a believer does 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:36.080 not have the image of God. 00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:39.760 And part of the reason we segregated them is that that's completely 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:42.320 contradictory to the what we said last week, except we're talking about 00:01:42.320 --> 00:01:46.080 two different things Scripture uses the same term, so we're gonna use 00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:46.880 the same term. 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:50.400 So by segregating them, we're just gonna say believers have the image 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:52.960 of God, unbelievers don't have the image of God. 00:01:52.960 --> 00:01:56.240 It's not contradicting last week because we're talking about something else. 00:01:56.240 --> 00:01:59.360 It's related, and we'll talk about how it's related, but it's two 00:01:59.360 --> 00:02:00.320 distinct things. 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:03.440 So I'm giving this caveat up front because we're not going to 00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:06.240 have a bunch of excuses throughout the episode, oh, and by the 00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:08.880 way, here's the asterisk, and it's not really the blah blah blah. 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:12.560 No. Unless someone is regenerate, they do not have the image of 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:14.640 God. That's what we're talking about this week. 00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:19.040 So definitionally, obviously, it's got to be something fundamentally different. 00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:23.600 Another way of talking about it is the sanctified Christian life. 00:02:23.600 --> 00:02:26.800 Really, what we're talking about is okay, you're Christian now what? 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:30.000 That sounds familiar if you've listened to most of our episodes. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.320 That's kind of the purpose of Stone Choir. 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:34.880 We're not talking about how to be saved. 00:02:34.880 --> 00:02:38.080 We are talking about once you are saved, how to be. 00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:39.840 Because that's important. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:40.960 That's in scripture. 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:43.680 That's what God is giving us as believers. 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:45.280 You have been sanctified by God. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:48.080 You have been redeemed by God, you've been You've been justified as 00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:50.240 a believer, given the gift of faith. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:51.280 Okay, now what? 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:51.920 Are you done? 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:52.640 Is that it? 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:55.280 You've been baptized and so okay, just go on, keep doing what 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:55.840 you're doing. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:03:00.160 No. And someone who is new to the faith understands that intrinsically, 00:03:00.160 --> 00:03:02.400 like, okay, I'm a Christian now what? 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:05.200 I know that I was doing things before that I didn't even 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:05.920 know were wrong. 00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:08.800 Or I knew and I didn't care, 'cause why should I care? 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:10.960 Sure it was wrong, but who am I wronging? 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.600 You know, if you do something that's bad for you, you're only 00:03:13.600 --> 00:03:14.240 hurting yourself. 00:03:14.320 --> 00:03:16.000 Yeah, That's the libertarian ethos. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:17.680 So what's the big deal? 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:20.480 Once you realize that you have a creator and you have an 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:24.000 owner, then the things that we do to ourselves that are harmful, 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.480 those things that are sins, we understand why. 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:30.320 We understand why it was actually damning that we did something even 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:32.400 if no one else was involved. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:37.840 And so the regenerate man who has been justified by faith 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:42.720 receives the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 00:03:42.720 --> 00:03:45.680 As we've talked about before, it's not really how Christians speak of 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:48.640 it. When we talk about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we 00:03:48.640 --> 00:03:52.400 don't think of it in terms of possession, like demonic possession. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:53.360 And it's not. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:55.120 I'm not comparing the two. 00:03:55.120 --> 00:03:59.360 But there's a similarity in that when someone is demon possessed, they 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:01.040 have to some degree lost control. 00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:02.400 They're acting evilly. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:06.800 Evil is acting through them and maybe they're not participants at all. 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.120 It's an evil twisted that's horrifying. 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.200 Like it's the root of horror. 00:04:11.200 --> 00:04:14.560 You know, a lot of horror movies use some aspect of that. 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:16.960 The indwelling of the Holy Spirit for a Christian is nothing of 00:04:16.960 --> 00:04:18.240 the sort. 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:22.160 We do have the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost inside of 00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:23.440 us as believers. 00:04:23.440 --> 00:04:25.200 We receive that through baptism. 00:04:25.200 --> 00:04:28.480 We receive that through the gift of faith that comes by hearing. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:30.000 And what do you hear when you're baptized? 00:04:30.080 --> 00:04:30.960 You hear the word of God. 00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:32.480 So it's the same picture. 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:35.440 Baptism and hearing the word of God are the same thing. 00:04:35.440 --> 00:04:37.360 That's why baptism has its power. 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:40.960 We did a whole episode on that to explain the Lutheran understanding, 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:45.040 but it's more broadly the historic Christian understanding of how faith comes 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:49.600 about. When a Christian has the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, we're 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:52.560 not possessed, we're not being operated remotely by God. 00:04:52.560 --> 00:04:56.720 We don't lose control of our faculties or our bodies, but we 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:56.880 are 00:04:57.840 --> 00:05:01.600 enlightened and sanctified by God's word progressively. 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:04.240 And that's one of the things, it's one of the fights that 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:09.360 occurred during the Reformation is that disagreements about exactly what happened and 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:13.520 when it happened and how it happened caused some very different theological 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:16.880 conclusions. And so a lot of ink was spilled in the Reformation 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.680 arguing against some of the papist positions on how we're saved, you 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:23.040 know, soteriology. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:25.840 How are we justified before God? 00:05:25.840 --> 00:05:28.000 And so, you know, one of the reasons Corey and I have 00:05:28.080 --> 00:05:30.720 argued about this subject for a couple of years now before we 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:34.400 could even do this episode, because the Lutheran confessions only talk about 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:35.920 what we're talking about today. 00:05:35.920 --> 00:05:38.960 They only talk about the image of God, which is only present 00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:42.880 in regenerate man, meaning every unbeliever doesn't have the image of God, 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:44.800 now as we're talking about it this week. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:48.480 And we had to argue privately because Cory came to the Lutheran 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:49.920 understanding of Christianity as an adult. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:53.680 I was raised Lutheran, so I didn't know the things that he 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:56.320 knew when he read the Book of Concord because I didn't care. 00:05:56.320 --> 00:05:59.120 I was raised from a little kid to believe, you know, basically 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:01.920 the Luther's explanation of the first commandment. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.640 We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things in 00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:10.160 scriptures where God reveals the particularity of his plan for the world. 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:14.080 And so as you know, the cradle Lutheran is the superficial one 00:06:14.080 --> 00:06:16.720 who didn't read the confessions, I didn't I didn't have to subscribe 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:17.520 to anything. 00:06:17.520 --> 00:06:20.080 I didn't make some big declaration one day and say, I'm a 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:22.400 Lutheran now because I accede to all of this. 00:06:22.400 --> 00:06:23.760 It was just given to me. 00:06:23.760 --> 00:06:26.240 And so the fact for me that the things that we said 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:29.760 last week weren't present in the Book of Concord didn't matter. 00:06:29.760 --> 00:06:33.280 Like it's the Bible says everyone is made in the image of 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:35.920 God, and the Bible says that no one is made in the 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.720 image of God until they receive it through faith. 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:40.000 And it means two different things. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.440 It's inconvenient that the same term is used, but once you understand 00:06:44.160 --> 00:06:47.040 that this is all the product of the fall, this is all 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:49.680 the fact that Adam had both. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.360 There was no confusion in Adam. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.400 And there's no confusion in the person of Christ. 00:06:54.400 --> 00:06:58.240 And those were the only two perfect men who have ever existed. 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:02.960 Everyone else, including Adam himself after the fall, then lost the image 00:07:02.960 --> 00:07:03.600 of God. 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.280 Not the first one, not last week's image, but this week's image 00:07:07.280 --> 00:07:13.680 was lost through the fall and then progressively restored through faith. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:18.000 But the progression of sanctification is never perfected in this life. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:21.360 So you know, one of the things that's important, especially for someone 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:24.560 who's coming new to the faith, or someone, you know, like me 00:07:24.640 --> 00:07:27.520 who was raised I've been Christian my whole life 'cause I was 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.000 my parents were Christian, so I was raised that way. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.880 So there's never for me a period of time where I wasn't. 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:36.640 And that means that men like me are in a particularly precarious 00:07:36.640 --> 00:07:40.240 position because we assume that's just how it is. 00:07:40.240 --> 00:07:43.680 And when you assume your faith, when it doesn't mean anything to 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.640 you other than, well, thanks, God, you know, thanks for baptizing me 00:07:46.640 --> 00:07:47.760 and giving me these gifts. 00:07:47.760 --> 00:07:48.320 That's great. 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:50.800 Now I'm gonna go and do a bunch of other stuff. 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.600 It's very easy to ignore the sanctification part. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:56.240 It's very easy to ignore, okay, I'm a Christian now. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.240 What? There are still rules. 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.320 And so those of you who are newer to the faith are 00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:03.920 really blessed in a way that you lived a period of darkness 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:07.200 where you know better than I do how bad things can get 00:08:07.200 --> 00:08:08.560 when you don't have God. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:11.120 And so you do not take for granted the gift that you've 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:11.840 been given. 00:08:11.840 --> 00:08:14.720 And having received the gift of faith as a young adult or 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:18.720 as an adult, you understand, okay, I'm a Christian now, what really 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:19.680 means something. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:24.000 Because you're leaving behind maybe things that I in some cases wouldn't 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.280 have done in other cases I did knowingly, which is much worse. 00:08:27.280 --> 00:08:29.600 You know, I knew things were bad and I did them anyway. 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.640 That's a very different kind of wicked than someone who is being 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:35.040 wicked when they didn't know any better. 00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:41.760 Through the process of sanctification, which involves study of scripture, prayer, fasting, 00:08:41.760 --> 00:08:46.640 meditation, proper meditation, on God's word, not on your navel. 00:08:46.640 --> 00:08:50.000 We talked about that in the very Eastern less Orthodox episode. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:52.960 Just thinking about what does God want from us? 00:08:52.960 --> 00:08:54.880 What does he say in Scripture? 00:08:54.880 --> 00:08:58.000 What do God's teachers in this life teach? 00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:58.960 Are they right? 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.040 Are they saying the things that God says? 00:09:01.040 --> 00:09:03.440 When God says something in Scripture and then a man comes along 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:07.200 and says something else right after him, then we're all put in 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.200 a precarious position where we gotta pick one. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:10.480 That shouldn't be the case. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:13.760 The teachers in the church should be saying what God said right 00:09:13.760 --> 00:09:14.720 after he said it. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:19.440 You ever seen a submarine movie like Red October or Crimson Tide? 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:22.240 That's how orders are given on a naval ship. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:25.200 The captain gives an order, the first officer repeats it, or the 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:28.240 executive officer repeats it, and then it goes on down the rank 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.120 to whomever needs actually execute the order. 00:09:31.120 --> 00:09:34.240 But one man says it and the next man repeats it exactly. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:36.240 There's no argument, there's no debate. 00:09:36.400 --> 00:09:38.480 Captain says it, everyone else follows. 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:40.640 And they repeat exactly what's said. 00:09:40.640 --> 00:09:42.960 Christianity should behave that way. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.600 Scripture should be the captain speaking. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:47.040 We're talking about God here. 00:09:47.040 --> 00:09:49.680 When God speaks, there should be no back talk. 00:09:49.680 --> 00:09:52.880 And so the challenge that we have in the world is that 00:09:52.880 --> 00:09:54.560 there's confusion about things. 00:09:54.560 --> 00:09:57.200 That example falls apart when you're talking about free will, which is 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:02.160 part of what this is, because the sanctification of man involves us 00:10:02.160 --> 00:10:07.440 cooperating with the Holy Ghost to do better, to sin less, to 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.440 avoid to consciously avoid sinning when we think about it. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.520 It's sinful to want to sin or to contemplate sinning, but then 00:10:15.520 --> 00:10:17.840 to turn away from it is sanctification. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:18.800 That is not sin. 00:10:18.800 --> 00:10:19.760 You flee from it. 00:10:19.760 --> 00:10:24.240 Even though your sinful flesh is still drawn towards whatever bad thing 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.200 gets you, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit means that you can 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:28.240 turn from that. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.320 And that is us cooperating with God. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:34.160 And it does not violate justification to say that because we're already 00:10:34.160 --> 00:10:39.200 justified. We're justified at the cross by Christ's perfect life. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:42.240 When we stand before the judgment throne, we're not going to stand 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:45.120 there holding all of our good works up to God and say, 00:10:45.120 --> 00:10:46.960 look at all the good stuff I did. 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:51.520 We are going to be cloaked in Christ's righteousness, his imputed righteousness 00:10:51.680 --> 00:10:53.120 from his perfect life. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.720 And that is what is credited to us for our salvation. 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:00.480 So it's crucial to be redundant in so many episodes when we 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:06.400 talk about these things because particularly those of the Protestant persuasion really 00:11:06.400 --> 00:11:10.480 don't understand that you can just set aside this justification stuff and 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:12.480 talk about the rest of the Christian life. 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:15.040 You can make clear to someone, I'm not saying you can save 00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:18.000 yourself and then have a serious conversation about what the Christian life 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:18.720 looks like. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.120 That is what the image of God means today. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:24.400 What does it mean to conform ourselves to the image of God? 00:11:24.400 --> 00:11:27.040 And it's solely by God's grace that we're able to. 00:11:27.040 --> 00:11:29.200 There's no power in man to be able to do this. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:31.680 It is solely the gift of faith that makes any of this 00:11:31.680 --> 00:11:34.480 possible. So we're gonna have a number of passages in scripture that 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:37.120 we refer to today and we'll talk about some of the various 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:41.280 confessions, but fundamentally, the image of God as we're speaking about it 00:11:41.280 --> 00:11:47.760 today is very specifically the reconforming of our fallen sinful nature in 00:11:47.760 --> 00:11:50.880 the image of God as his gift to us. 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:54.480 With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are able to cooperate 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:58.400 with God and to sinless, never to stop sinning perfectly. 00:11:58.400 --> 00:12:02.240 We cannot become perfect, as I mean as some other denominations get 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:06.320 wrong, and it's a terrible, wicked lie to tell a man he 00:12:06.320 --> 00:12:10.640 can ever stop sinning completely because that sets up a situation where 00:12:10.800 --> 00:12:13.120 well maybe I can be so good I don't need God anymore. 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:14.560 Look how great I am God. 00:12:14.560 --> 00:12:15.440 And it's impossible. 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:16.560 You can't do it. 00:12:16.560 --> 00:12:20.480 It should be a goal to which we all strive, but we 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.880 should understand that it's only achievable in death in our resurrection. 00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:27.840 And so we do the best we can in this life. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:28.880 And that is what this is. 00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:32.960 This is best effort until God perfects us in the resurrection. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:34.800 Before the fall, everything is perfect. 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:38.000 There's after the fall, there's this huge mess that God is piecing 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:40.480 back together in time and in creation. 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:42.720 And then on judgment day, everything will be perfect. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:45.760 We're in the in-between time now. 00:12:45.760 --> 00:12:49.200 And so for us, the recreation of the image of God in 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:53.120 the regenerate man, again, it's just the Christian life. 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:56.400 But it's important to focus on it as scripture does because 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:00.800 Once you understand what the image of God means in this sense, 00:13:00.800 --> 00:13:02.880 you understand how horrific sin is. 00:13:02.880 --> 00:13:06.000 When you look at all the various things that are enumerated in 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.680 scripture that we all commit, sins that we commit in our hearts 00:13:09.680 --> 00:13:11.280 and with our lips and with our hands 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:15.840 we realize that we're not being conformed to the image of God. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:19.840 God says don't do that and He does it as chastisement and 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:22.480 we shouldn't receive it and become dejected. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.640 We should fall on Christ for his mercy and know that we 00:13:26.640 --> 00:13:31.680 receive it and then get back up with God's help and do 00:13:31.680 --> 00:13:35.360 better. Not do the thing that we know we shouldn't do That's 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:36.880 it. That's sanctification. 00:13:36.880 --> 00:13:38.240 That is the Christian life. 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:41.680 And that is the image of God as it's regenerated in us. 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:47.760 Last week I mentioned specifically the tripartite division of man, which of 00:13:47.760 --> 00:13:52.160 course, again, to remind you is body, mind, and soul. 00:13:52.160 --> 00:13:53.920 When we speak of 00:13:54.880 --> 00:13:59.360 original sin and original righteousness, which will be part of this, and 00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:04.800 we speak of this restoration in sanctification, we are primarily dealing with 00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:07.040 the mind and the soul. 00:14:07.040 --> 00:14:11.200 The body isn't as directly involved in this because, of course, as 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.400 we have noted many times before, and as all of you well 00:14:14.400 --> 00:14:21.600 know, when you convert to Christianity, it doesn't make missing limbs regrow. 00:14:21.600 --> 00:14:26.160 The body is not restored to a state of perfection through the 00:14:26.160 --> 00:14:27.360 process of sanctification. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:30.720 Yes, God may very well heal some things, and he does do 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:33.840 that when he decides to do that. 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:37.520 But that is not part of the deal as it were. 00:14:37.520 --> 00:14:42.720 The body is not restored, the consequences, the physical consequences of sin 00:14:42.880 --> 00:14:47.280 are not undone by justification, by conversion. 00:14:47.280 --> 00:14:52.000 And so we're dealing primarily with the mind and the soul. 00:14:52.400 --> 00:14:56.960 But to turn briefly to the passage from the Book of Concord, 00:14:56.960 --> 00:15:03.120 as Woe mentioned, the one most salient line is from the Apology, 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:06.080 in this case Article two, which is on original sin. 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.840 Because of course when we're dealing with this image of God in 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:14.880 man, and we're dealing with the loss, the corruption of that image, 00:15:14.880 --> 00:15:17.920 we are dealing with original sin. 00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:23.440 And so that line from the apology is that soul is not 00:15:23.520 --> 00:15:27.440 therefore in the image of God, in which God is not at 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.120 all times. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:33.600 Now that is a quote from the book of Concord, from specifically 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:37.840 the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, but it's actually a quote from 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:42.160 Ambrose. And for those who don't know, Ambrose is traditionally considered one 00:15:42.160 --> 00:15:45.120 of the doctors of the Church, and and he is one of 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:50.240 the men who was partly responsible for the conversion of Augustine to 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:55.600 Christianity, a very important man, a serious, solid theologian in the history 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:57.120 of the Church. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:00.320 That is a quote from his writings. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:05.760 And this is to contrast what happens to man, what happened to 00:16:05.760 --> 00:16:10.160 man in the fall, and that is the loss of the image 00:16:10.160 --> 00:16:11.040 of God. 00:16:11.040 --> 00:16:15.440 Now, of course, we contrasted that last week, as Well already mentioned, 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.000 and so we're not dealing with those issues in this episode. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:23.120 We're dealing rather with the consequences of original sin and the undoing 00:16:23.680 --> 00:16:29.360 of those consequences through the process of sanctification. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:34.320 To expand on that issue of original sin and how that plays 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:37.680 into the image of God in God in man. 00:16:37.680 --> 00:16:43.120 There are really two ways in which that plays out with regard 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:47.280 to original righteousness and the loss of that in the fall. 00:16:47.280 --> 00:16:50.080 Again to read from the Book of Concord, this time from the 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:54.160 Formula of Concord, which goes into more detail. 00:16:54.160 --> 00:16:57.200 I'm going to start in the middle of this particular section, but 00:16:57.200 --> 00:16:59.120 I will link it in the show notes so you can read 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:01.680 the entire article if you're so inclined. 00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:07.280 Secondly, that is an entire want or lack of the concreated hereditary 00:17:07.280 --> 00:17:10.960 righteousness in paradise, or of God's image. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:14.480 And so to make sure it's clear what was just said there, 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:21.520 God's image, the image of God in man, is concreated hereditary righteousness, 00:17:21.520 --> 00:17:26.400 which is to say in contrast to original sin which has corrupted 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:30.800 our nature, and do note carefully it is corrupted our nature not 00:17:30.800 --> 00:17:34.880 replaced, because Satan cannot create. 00:17:34.880 --> 00:17:41.680 Satan can corrupt, and so the corruption of sin is original sin. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:45.920 It is not a substance to use the technical philosophical term. 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:48.000 It is not a thing in itself. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.520 It is rather a corruption of an existing thing. 00:17:51.520 --> 00:17:55.920 Because God created the nature of man, that is God's good creation. 00:17:56.320 --> 00:17:59.520 in so far as it is still God's good creation and not 00:17:59.520 --> 00:18:04.720 corrupted by original sin, that which remains uncorrupted in man, it is 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:08.160 still good, because it is God's creation. 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:11.120 The corruption is original sin. 00:18:11.120 --> 00:18:14.960 But to continue reading the paragraph here, according to which man was 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:19.920 originally created in truth, holiness, and righteousness, and at the same time 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:24.480 an inability and unfitness for all things of God. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:28.640 The definition of original sin takes away from the unrenewed nature, the 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:34.240 gifts, the power, and all activity for beginning and effecting anything in 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:36.560 spiritual things. 00:18:36.560 --> 00:18:41.840 And of course, this is simply the standard Christian definition of what 00:18:41.840 --> 00:18:45.760 it means to be dead in our sins and trespasses. 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:49.680 Scripture does not speak of us as dead lightly or for no 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:54.080 reason. When it says that we are dead in sin and trespass, 00:18:54.080 --> 00:18:56.640 it means we cannot save ourselves. 00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:00.480 We cannot make a decision for God, we cannot decide to believe, 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:04.160 we cannot decide to turn from our sins and believe. 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:06.160 It is God's work. 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:09.600 Justification is wholly God's work. 00:19:09.600 --> 00:19:12.800 Sanctification is synergistic. 00:19:12.800 --> 00:19:18.000 We cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:21.280 And that is why it is important to keep those two distinct, 00:19:21.280 --> 00:19:22.080 to separate them. 00:19:22.080 --> 00:19:23.520 They are not the same. 00:19:23.520 --> 00:19:26.320 Justification is monergistic. 00:19:26.320 --> 00:19:28.560 God alone is the actor. 00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:31.280 Sanctification is synergistic. 00:19:31.280 --> 00:19:36.880 We cooperate, having been renewed already, in justification. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:38.880 The next paragraph. 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:43.760 That original sin in human nature is not only this entire absence 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.200 of all good in spiritual divine things, but that, instead of the 00:19:49.200 --> 00:19:53.200 lost image of God and man, it is at the same time 00:19:53.200 --> 00:20:00.160 also a deep, wicked, horrible, fathomless, inscrutable, and unspeakable corruption of the 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:05.200 entire nature and all its powers, especially of the highest principal powers 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:09.760 of the soul, in the understanding, heart and will, so that now, 00:20:09.760 --> 00:20:15.360 since the fall, man inherits an inborn wicked disposition, an inward impurity 00:20:15.360 --> 00:20:18.720 of heart, evil lust and propensity. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:21.120 I'll leave off the reading there, and again there will be a 00:20:21.120 --> 00:20:24.080 link in the show notes for the entire article. 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:29.040 In essence here, the way to think of this is to contrast 00:20:29.040 --> 00:20:32.720 original sin and original righteousness. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:35.440 This is particularly with regard to the soul, of course, but it 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:39.520 also touches on the mind, because again the mind sort of straddles 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:40.880 the body and the soul. 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:44.480 It's sort of the connection between the Between the two. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:49.200 The attributes that we have are matters of the mind and the 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:52.240 soul, primarily, as we're discussing them in this episode. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:58.800 And so in original righteousness, we had those perfectly with regard to 00:20:58.800 --> 00:21:00.720 what God intended for us. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:03.680 Again, remember what I went over last week with regard to the 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:05.680 different kinds of perfection. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:09.200 We're speaking here of course of the relative kind, the perfection with 00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:11.440 regard to the creature. 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:14.640 And so there is a perfect version of you that exists in 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:16.880 the mind of God. 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:21.440 Through the process of sanctification, and through of course the ongoing process 00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:26.960 of heading Godward in eternity, you are becoming the perfect creature God 00:21:27.280 --> 00:21:30.560 intended you to be, God made you to be. 00:21:30.560 --> 00:21:34.560 You are not currently that, because in this life, of course, we 00:21:34.560 --> 00:21:36.560 exist in a fallen state. 00:21:36.560 --> 00:21:41.440 And as well already mentioned, the process of sanctification is not completed 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:42.800 in this life. 00:21:42.800 --> 00:21:46.560 The process of sanctification is, in fact, a process 00:21:47.600 --> 00:21:49.840 It is an ongoing matter. 00:21:49.840 --> 00:21:51.920 You are moving toward God. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:55.680 You are moving toward what God want, what He wanted and wants 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:00.080 you to be, but you will not arrive at that destination in 00:22:00.080 --> 00:22:01.360 this life. 00:22:02.320 --> 00:22:04.720 Yes, you are getting better. 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:09.840 For instance, some besetting sins and things like that should fall away 00:22:09.840 --> 00:22:13.840 through the process of sanctification when you're spending that time in God's 00:22:13.840 --> 00:22:17.360 Word, when you're spending that time praying, when you are meditating in 00:22:17.360 --> 00:22:22.720 the Christian sense on God's Word, these are things that will help 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:27.040 you to overcome sin, will help you to put to death the 00:22:27.040 --> 00:22:32.400 wickedness of the flesh, those desires to sin, concupiscence. 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:36.480 As well already mentioned, that will not be something that is perfect 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:37.120 in this life. 00:22:37.120 --> 00:22:39.280 It will not be complete in this life. 00:22:39.280 --> 00:22:43.120 And And so you will never be sinless as long as you 00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:49.280 are living on this earth in this body. 00:22:49.280 --> 00:22:53.440 Because that perfection takes place at the resurrection. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:56.720 When God completely renews you. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:22:59.680 And so one of the reasons that we will condemn in the 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:04.880 strongest terms any false theology that teaches that you can attain perfection 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:09.760 in this life is that that sets people up for despair. 00:23:09.760 --> 00:23:12.560 Because if you are told that you can be perfect in this 00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:15.120 life, and then you look at the state of your life, which 00:23:15.120 --> 00:23:20.480 is most certainly not going to be perfect, that is occasion for 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:25.120 despair because you will be comparing yourself to an impossible standard. 00:23:25.120 --> 00:23:28.640 That's not to say that the standard is not perfection, because of 00:23:28.640 --> 00:23:31.120 course the standard is perfection. 00:23:31.120 --> 00:23:35.760 But it has to be undertaken and understood within the context of 00:23:35.760 --> 00:23:39.920 it being impossible in this life. 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:43.200 You are a sinner in this life because you are tainted by 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:44.640 original sin. 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:47.120 That is not wholly removed 00:23:48.080 --> 00:23:54.080 with regard to the fallen nature of man in this life. 00:23:54.080 --> 00:23:57.200 That is not to say, and I know that some of the 00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:01.120 Roman Catholic listeners will have perked up at that particular point because 00:24:01.120 --> 00:24:03.280 this is a sort of point of debate 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:08.240 that the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church had historically, although 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:10.640 we really come to the same conclusion. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:13.440 And perhaps it's a slightly technical point. 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:17.120 But what I am saying, and what the Lutherans were saying at 00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:22.480 the time, is not that God does not justify you and restore 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:27.280 you in baptism or whenever he gives you faith, however that happens, 00:24:27.280 --> 00:24:31.920 whatever means are used to give you faith, the means of grace. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:37.440 Rather it is that the fallen nature of man remains fallen in 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:38.640 this life. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:44.800 Original sin, once you are justified, is not counted against you. 00:24:44.800 --> 00:24:47.280 That is the point of justification. 00:24:47.280 --> 00:24:51.040 The point of justification is that your sins are not counted against 00:24:51.040 --> 00:24:57.040 you on account of Christ, on account of his perfect life, suffering, 00:24:57.040 --> 00:24:58.880 death, resurrection. 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:00.800 Your sins are not counted against you. 00:25:00.800 --> 00:25:04.160 You are legally justified in God's court. 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:08.000 You are declared not guilty on account of Christ. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:13.360 However, in this life, the fallen nature remains because that is not 00:25:13.360 --> 00:25:14.720 fully restored. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:18.320 And so for instance, with regard to the body, you will still 00:25:18.320 --> 00:25:22.560 get sick, you will still die, with regard to the mind, your 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:27.360 faculties are impaired, because they are not what God intended them to 00:25:27.360 --> 00:25:32.160 be, because of the consequences of original sin, because again, man is 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:37.520 tripartite and each part is affected by original sin by the fall. 00:25:37.520 --> 00:25:43.520 With regard to the soul, that original righteousness being in the perfect 00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:48.800 image of God, we no longer have that in our fallen state. 00:25:48.800 --> 00:25:53.120 And so that is why we have concupiscence, the desire to sin. 00:25:53.120 --> 00:25:55.200 That is with regard, of course to the course to the soul 00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:57.360 and the mind as well. 00:25:57.360 --> 00:25:59.280 But that remains in this life. 00:25:59.280 --> 00:26:04.480 The process of sanctification, again, and this warrants repeating, the process of 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:08.720 sanctification will start to put to death the sinfulness that is in 00:26:09.360 --> 00:26:15.600 your flesh, the concupiscence, that desire to sin, the Holy Spirit will 00:26:15.600 --> 00:26:19.520 slowly tamp that down and put it to death in you. 00:26:19.520 --> 00:26:20.400 That is what it means 00:26:21.360 --> 00:26:27.920 to live the Christian life in this particular area we're discussing today. 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:31.920 That is what it means to be sanctified, to cooperate with the 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.560 Holy Spirit in his work. 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:41.440 So it's not to say that justification is ongoing. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:47.120 It's not to say that justification doesn't deal with or handle original 00:26:47.120 --> 00:26:48.880 sin. Rather it is to recognize 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:55.120 that the consequences, not the legal consequences, of being damned to hell 00:26:55.120 --> 00:27:00.480 for eternity, but rather the consequences of the loss of original righteousness, 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:04.320 the corruption of the image of God in man, those things remain 00:27:04.320 --> 00:27:06.240 in this life. 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:10.800 Slowly through the process of sanctification, those things are improved. 00:27:10.800 --> 00:27:15.440 But they are completed, they are perfected only at the resurrection, not 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:16.720 in this life. 00:27:16.800 --> 00:27:21.600 And every Christian should be praying daily for precisely that. 00:27:21.600 --> 00:27:26.560 You personally should pray to God to increase your faith and to 00:27:26.560 --> 00:27:31.040 give you the strength through the Holy Spirit to resist the temptation 00:27:31.040 --> 00:27:35.200 of the devil and to turn away from the sin that comes 00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:36.240 upon you. 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.080 Everyone has something that gets them. 00:27:40.080 --> 00:27:44.960 Something that is a natural desire, a wicked desire, that isn't going 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:46.160 to be common to all men. 00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:51.280 The list is common, but different men are subject to different sins 00:27:51.520 --> 00:27:53.120 in different degrees. 00:27:53.120 --> 00:27:55.360 What I mean by that is that, you know, I don't really 00:27:55.360 --> 00:27:56.640 have any addictions. 00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:00.000 The things that I enjoy I can never have again not care. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.480 I am basically free from envy when I see something that someone 00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:08.160 else has that I don't have, I am completely happy for them. 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:10.160 And when I say that, I'm not saying I'm free from sin. 00:28:10.160 --> 00:28:12.400 I'm horrible in all all sorts of other ways. 00:28:12.400 --> 00:28:14.160 But I don't struggle with those things. 00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:17.280 Maybe you struggle with envy, but you don't struggle with the things 00:28:17.280 --> 00:28:18.000 that I do. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:22.400 Whatever your personal struggle is, whatever sin is the one that you 00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:25.920 have to constantly fight, pray to God for relief. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:29.360 Pray to God for the strength to resist the devil and he 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:30.560 will give it to you. 00:28:30.560 --> 00:28:32.240 It will take time. 00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:33.120 It will take years. 00:28:33.120 --> 00:28:34.960 It will take the rest of your life. 00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:38.000 But the more you pray for it and the more you focus 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:41.520 on it, the greater the rewards from God will be for whatever 00:28:41.520 --> 00:28:42.160 that is. 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:45.280 And that's going to pay dividends in every other aspect of your 00:28:45.280 --> 00:28:48.160 life. It's what God wants for us. 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:51.760 The reading material, the homework for this, I'm just gonna say after 00:28:51.760 --> 00:28:54.960 you're done listening, go read the book of Colossians. 00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:56.080 Just read the whole thing. 00:28:56.080 --> 00:28:59.840 It's not entirely about this, but once you understand the image of 00:28:59.840 --> 00:29:03.120 God as it's being restored in the sanctified man, you're gonna find 00:29:03.120 --> 00:29:06.480 that it's it's really everywhere in the New Testament, especially. 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:09.600 I'm gonna read a couple passages here that kind of make the 00:29:09.600 --> 00:29:13.120 point that I made in my intro that tie last week to 00:29:13.120 --> 00:29:15.200 this week in Christ. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.760 This is from Colossians one. 00:29:17.760 --> 00:29:21.280 Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of 00:29:21.840 --> 00:29:25.280 all creation, for by him all things were created, in heaven and 00:29:25.280 --> 00:29:29.520 on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or 00:29:29.520 --> 00:29:33.920 authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:37.760 is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and 00:29:37.760 --> 00:29:40.400 he is the head of the body, the church, he is the 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:44.640 beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:48.560 preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to 00:29:48.560 --> 00:29:53.200 dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:56.960 earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. 00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:01.120 And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil 00:30:01.120 --> 00:30:05.040 deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his 00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:09.760 death, in order to present you holy and blameless, and above reproach 00:30:09.760 --> 00:30:14.240 before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:17.920 not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which 00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:21.520 has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, 00:30:21.520 --> 00:30:23.840 Paul, became a minister. 00:30:23.840 --> 00:30:26.880 So what is being written here, what God is saying in Scripture 00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:31.360 is that when Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God, 00:30:31.360 --> 00:30:36.320 lived the perfect life, he fulfilled all the demands of the law 00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:41.120 by being that which we should have been, had we not been 00:30:41.120 --> 00:30:43.680 the product of the fall through Adam. 00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:47.200 We inherit Adam's sin, which is why we have to be adopted 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:48.960 again as sons of God. 00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:52.640 Adam was a son of God in the garden And he ceased 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.120 to be a son of God by his sin. 00:30:55.120 --> 00:31:00.800 Everything that's happened since the incarnation, the birth, death, and resurrection of 00:31:00.800 --> 00:31:04.800 Christ, all of this is so that the image of God can 00:31:04.800 --> 00:31:06.960 be restored in man. 00:31:06.960 --> 00:31:10.320 And in the rest of Colossians and in numerous other places in 00:31:10.320 --> 00:31:14.480 Scripture, we get lists of sins, and we get lists of fruits 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:17.920 of the Spirit, things that are properties of God. 00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:22.080 And we talked in other episodes about, you know, one, the indivisibility 00:31:22.080 --> 00:31:22.400 of God. 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:25.600 And so it's imperfect for us to talk about properties because God 00:31:25.840 --> 00:31:29.360 is one, but we can't understand that. 00:31:29.360 --> 00:31:31.280 We can't fit God in our minds. 00:31:31.280 --> 00:31:34.480 And so our language kind of falls apart when we try to 00:31:34.800 --> 00:31:38.880 say things precisely, it's always going to be somewhat imperfect. 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:42.880 But the fruits of the Spirit are examples of things that the 00:31:42.880 --> 00:31:46.400 indwelling of the Holy Ghost produces in us. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:51.200 And they're the opposite of the evil that is our human nature. 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.680 This is from Colossians three. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:56.320 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. 00:31:56.320 --> 00:32:02.800 Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. 00:32:02.800 --> 00:32:05.680 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 00:32:05.680 --> 00:32:09.040 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them, 00:32:09.040 --> 00:32:13.600 but now you must put them all away anger, wrath, malice, slander, 00:32:13.600 --> 00:32:15.680 and obscene talk from your mouth. 00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:18.720 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off 00:32:18.720 --> 00:32:21.760 the old self with its practices, and have put on the new 00:32:21.760 --> 00:32:25.840 self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its 00:32:25.840 --> 00:32:29.280 creator. So see there, that is the very image of God that 00:32:29.280 --> 00:32:30.480 we're talking about. 00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:33.520 We are putting off the old self, we are putting away the 00:32:33.520 --> 00:32:37.440 sinful practices, some of which we already knew were wrong before we 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:39.440 were regenerate and we did 'em anyway. 00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:42.640 And some only a Christian is going to understand why certain things 00:32:42.640 --> 00:32:45.280 are even sins or what sin means. 00:32:45.280 --> 00:32:47.360 What does God's will mean? 00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:49.440 It doesn't mean anything to someone who's not a Christian. 00:32:49.520 --> 00:32:51.440 Like, if you don't believe you have a creator, then you have 00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:51.920 no duty. 00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:53.040 It's like, whatever. 00:32:53.040 --> 00:32:55.840 I'm gonna try to be nice and you know, kind of align 00:32:55.840 --> 00:33:00.240 to some mythical standard, but you don't know where it comes from. 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:02.160 Once the Christian life is confirmed 00:33:03.040 --> 00:33:06.880 and reoriented towards you having a creator and you having duties as 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:11.040 a result of that, again, not to save yourself, we never want 00:33:11.040 --> 00:33:14.480 anyone, no one can possibly listen to Stone Choir and think you 00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:15.680 can save yourself. 00:33:15.680 --> 00:33:17.200 You just you can't. 00:33:17.200 --> 00:33:20.480 But at the same time, once you're saved, okay, what do I 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:21.280 do, God? 00:33:21.280 --> 00:33:23.280 Thank you for everything you've done. 00:33:23.280 --> 00:33:24.320 I'm in it. 00:33:24.320 --> 00:33:25.200 Help me. 00:33:25.200 --> 00:33:27.520 Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. 00:33:27.520 --> 00:33:29.920 That's a description of sanctification. 00:33:29.920 --> 00:33:32.720 It's not saying, okay, well you're perfect now, you you've nailed it, 00:33:32.720 --> 00:33:34.160 you're baptized, you're done. 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:38.640 It's saying, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, help take away the 00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:41.520 things that I shouldn't be doing, help to sanctify me in this 00:33:41.520 --> 00:33:45.760 life, so that my spirit, my words, my actions are conformed to 00:33:45.760 --> 00:33:47.600 the image of God. 00:33:47.600 --> 00:33:49.920 We talked a little bit last week and we were talking about 00:33:49.920 --> 00:33:52.480 the other sense of the image of God, which every man possesses 00:33:53.120 --> 00:33:55.440 by virtue of being created. 00:33:55.760 --> 00:33:58.960 This is a a point that I made on X last week. 00:33:58.960 --> 00:34:02.400 I think that Christian preachers should maybe think a little bit harder 00:34:02.400 --> 00:34:07.920 about the fact that every single man is created not as a 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:13.520 Christian. And then after having created man, God makes some men Christians. 00:34:13.520 --> 00:34:16.880 Now, election is a part of that, but even just the order 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:19.680 of operations there, a it's a product of the fall. 00:34:19.680 --> 00:34:21.600 That was not the way it was supposed to be. 00:34:21.600 --> 00:34:25.040 That what I just described where you're created a fallen man and 00:34:25.040 --> 00:34:29.040 then you were renewed through the Holy Spirit wasn't the case with 00:34:29.040 --> 00:34:31.600 Adam. It wasn't the case with Christ. 00:34:31.600 --> 00:34:35.360 Those are the exceptions to everything else that's fallen. 00:34:35.360 --> 00:34:38.080 The only thing that we know is the fall. 00:34:38.080 --> 00:34:42.880 Nevertheless, even in the fall, God didn't begin by making Christians. 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:46.640 God began by making man, and then he makes man Christian. 00:34:46.640 --> 00:34:50.560 And the reason that this emphasis, I think, is vital is particularly 00:34:50.560 --> 00:34:52.880 for Christian preaching, which we're not doing. 00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:54.000 We're not preachers. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:54.720 We're teachers. 00:34:54.720 --> 00:34:56.320 We're talking about these things. 00:34:56.320 --> 00:34:59.840 But I want to see the preaching in churches conform to what's 00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:04.000 in scripture and not run away from these things where there's some 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:08.320 sharp edges that we've been doing harm by not paying attention to 00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:11.920 them. Part of the reason I think that so much Christian preaching 00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:16.720 today can't handle creation is because all the emphasis has been on 00:35:16.720 --> 00:35:18.640 justification for centuries. 00:35:18.640 --> 00:35:20.400 How are we justified before God? 00:35:20.400 --> 00:35:21.120 How are we saved? 00:35:21.120 --> 00:35:22.000 And it's vital. 00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:23.920 that's a crucial part of the gospel. 00:35:24.640 --> 00:35:28.640 And again, crucial and crucified have the same root word. 00:35:28.640 --> 00:35:31.920 Anytime I use crucial, it is always in view of the cross. 00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:34.960 It's not merely a word used for emphasis. 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:36.560 The point is that it's absolutely crucial 00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:42.160 that we not forget God made us men and then he made 00:35:42.160 --> 00:35:43.680 us Christians. 00:35:43.680 --> 00:35:47.200 The preacher who can deal with both can handle all the various 00:35:47.200 --> 00:35:50.080 political problems that come up in the world today. 00:35:50.080 --> 00:35:52.800 Because he understands that God made all these men. 00:35:52.800 --> 00:35:54.880 God made every man. 00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:58.640 And not all of them come out Christian. 00:35:58.640 --> 00:36:02.160 As Christians, we have a duty to share the gospel with everyone 00:36:02.160 --> 00:36:05.440 that we can but we also have to face the fact that 00:36:05.440 --> 00:36:07.360 God is making men, period. 00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:10.640 The man comes first, and then the faith is given, because that 00:36:10.640 --> 00:36:13.440 is the two different images of God we're dealing with. 00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:17.120 Last week's image of God is creation, this week's image of God 00:36:17.200 --> 00:36:17.280 is 00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:21.040 sanctification. It's after justification. 00:36:21.040 --> 00:36:26.160 It is the subset of men who are elect unto salvation. 00:36:26.160 --> 00:36:30.160 So as you're reading through scripture, just whenever you stumble across those 00:36:30.160 --> 00:36:34.960 paragraphs, Paul has some very lengthy and weighty sentences and paragraphs, and 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.600 they're frequently just long lists of either again, sins or fruits of 00:36:39.600 --> 00:36:42.320 the spirit that are the opposite of those sins. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:46.400 When you see those, know that those are talking about the restored 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:47.120 image of God. 00:36:47.120 --> 00:36:49.120 Those are talking about sanctification. 00:36:49.120 --> 00:36:50.560 And take them seriously. 00:36:50.560 --> 00:36:53.200 Every time I read through one of those lists, I find myself 00:36:53.200 --> 00:36:54.640 failing left and right. 00:36:54.640 --> 00:36:57.120 Some things, you know, there a couple of things like yeah, I 00:36:57.120 --> 00:36:58.240 don't really have a problem with that. 00:36:58.240 --> 00:37:01.120 And it's not just arrogance, it's not a blind spot. 00:37:01.120 --> 00:37:05.760 I'm thankful for the things that Satan can't tempt me with. 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:08.720 But there's a bunch of other stuff that I'm not excited about. 00:37:08.720 --> 00:37:13.600 I'm like, yeah, I God had to save me for this stuff. 00:37:13.600 --> 00:37:14.640 We all have that. 00:37:14.640 --> 00:37:18.400 And so when we see that in scripture, pause, pray. 00:37:18.400 --> 00:37:19.920 Yeah, maybe just say the Lord's Prayer. 00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:20.320 Be thankful 00:37:21.280 --> 00:37:24.640 in the moment that you see your sins, that when you look 00:37:24.640 --> 00:37:29.520 to the cross and see Christ's body hanging there, naked and dead, 00:37:29.520 --> 00:37:32.880 humiliated for you, it's how much he loved you when you were 00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:34.640 doing all that stuff. 00:37:34.640 --> 00:37:36.080 That's the gospel. 00:37:36.080 --> 00:37:39.920 God loved us so much that all these lists of horrible things, 00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:43.520 that's why he died, to save us from the punishment, from the 00:37:43.520 --> 00:37:46.960 legal consequences of that stuff. 00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:50.560 The price had to be paid and only Christ could pay it. 00:37:50.560 --> 00:37:54.480 Now that we know that, what can we possibly do but try 00:37:54.480 --> 00:37:58.320 to conform ourselves to God's will, knowing it's going to be imperfect? 00:37:58.320 --> 00:38:02.080 It's an imperfect comparison, but it's kinda like getting in shape, you 00:38:02.080 --> 00:38:04.480 know, eating better, working out more. 00:38:04.480 --> 00:38:07.840 You're never going to have the perfect body or the perfect diet, 00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:09.200 but you can improve. 00:38:09.200 --> 00:38:12.480 You can eat fewer calories, you can eat a bit less garbage 00:38:12.560 --> 00:38:15.760 and a bit more of something that's actually beneficial. 00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:19.680 You can do certain motions that you don't involve just clicking a 00:38:19.680 --> 00:38:22.080 mouse. Maybe they involve moving something heavy. 00:38:22.080 --> 00:38:23.520 You can improve. 00:38:23.520 --> 00:38:26.240 It's a point that I sometimes make to people who aren't believers 00:38:26.320 --> 00:38:31.200 to illustrate that the obedience to God and the conformity to how 00:38:31.200 --> 00:38:33.200 God has created creation 00:38:34.320 --> 00:38:37.760 works the same in every realm, whether it's the spiritual or it's 00:38:37.760 --> 00:38:41.440 the physical, there are rules baked into creation and when we violate 00:38:41.440 --> 00:38:42.800 them, things get worse. 00:38:42.800 --> 00:38:44.720 The punishment's baked right in. 00:38:44.720 --> 00:38:48.080 If you eat crap, if you eat too much, which is usually 00:38:48.080 --> 00:38:51.280 the problem, you can eat so called healthy food, but if you're 00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:54.560 eating four thousand calories a day, you're gonna be fat. 00:38:54.560 --> 00:38:56.960 Very few people are burning that many calories. 00:38:56.960 --> 00:38:59.120 If you're working out a lot, it's a completely different matter. 00:38:59.120 --> 00:39:00.880 You understand how to deal with that. 00:39:00.880 --> 00:39:03.680 If you never move, if you never exercise, your body will act. 00:39:04.560 --> 00:39:08.320 Our bodies are built up by the resistance against the things that 00:39:08.320 --> 00:39:09.360 we struggle doing. 00:39:09.360 --> 00:39:12.880 When you struggle doing something physically, your body gets bigger, so you 00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:14.560 don't struggle as much next time. 00:39:14.560 --> 00:39:17.520 It's an allegory for the process of sanctification. 00:39:17.680 --> 00:39:19.520 It improves over time. 00:39:19.520 --> 00:39:22.800 By trying to do the thing, you get better at doing it. 00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:27.440 This pattern plays out everywhere in creation because that's how God made 00:39:27.440 --> 00:39:30.160 things. And sanctification's a part of that. 00:39:30.160 --> 00:39:33.280 Now, we don't know what the world would have been like absent 00:39:33.280 --> 00:39:35.200 the fall with regard to sanctification. 00:39:35.200 --> 00:39:38.880 We do know that Adam and Eve were somewhat infants in terms 00:39:38.880 --> 00:39:39.920 of what they knew. 00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:43.520 You know, it's obvious that man was created even in perfection to 00:39:43.520 --> 00:39:48.320 learn. So I think that you know sanctification is not learning. 00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:51.840 It's the pursuit of godly living. 00:39:51.840 --> 00:39:53.920 But part of that is absolutely learning. 00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:58.640 Understanding scripture, understanding God's will properly is a is a vital part 00:39:58.640 --> 00:39:58.960 of it. 00:39:58.960 --> 00:40:01.680 You can't follow the rules if you don't know what they are. 00:40:01.680 --> 00:40:04.640 You know, and when we talk about rules and obedience, it's not 00:40:04.640 --> 00:40:06.080 to be a burden. 00:40:06.080 --> 00:40:08.640 It's not to be, oh here's this list of things you have 00:40:08.640 --> 00:40:10.720 to do or you're going to be in trouble with God. 00:40:10.720 --> 00:40:13.120 That's not the Christian attitude towards those things. 00:40:13.120 --> 00:40:15.760 So it's not the the attitude that we bring when we talk 00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:16.560 about them. 00:40:16.560 --> 00:40:20.320 But it's important to reflect that when you read through Colossians or 00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:22.960 any other book, you're gonna find lists of sins. 00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:26.240 You're gonna finding lists of things we should be doing instead, examples 00:40:26.240 --> 00:40:28.160 of things that we should be doing instead. 00:40:28.160 --> 00:40:29.840 And we should aspire to that. 00:40:29.840 --> 00:40:32.880 And aspiration is more than just, oh gosh, I wish I were 00:40:32.880 --> 00:40:33.600 like that. 00:40:33.600 --> 00:40:36.480 It needs to be I need to do better. 00:40:36.480 --> 00:40:37.600 This is what God expects of me. 00:40:37.600 --> 00:40:39.360 This is what God is telling me. 00:40:39.360 --> 00:40:40.480 I need to do that. 00:40:40.480 --> 00:40:41.440 Whatever it is. 00:40:41.440 --> 00:40:43.760 Maybe you got some stuff nailed and you got some other stuff 00:40:43.760 --> 00:40:44.720 that you're weak on. 00:40:44.720 --> 00:40:45.600 Focus on it. 00:40:45.600 --> 00:40:48.000 And again, as I said earlier, pray. 00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:51.920 Pray for the specific thing that you need help with and God 00:40:51.920 --> 00:40:53.360 will answer that prayer. 00:40:53.360 --> 00:40:56.240 Can you imagine any prayer that God would rather hear from you 00:40:56.240 --> 00:40:57.200 than that? 00:40:57.200 --> 00:41:01.280 Lord, help my unbelief, help me serve you better, help me be 00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:04.720 better as you want me to be, that's gratitude. 00:41:04.720 --> 00:41:06.560 And it can't come from a place of terror. 00:41:06.560 --> 00:41:08.880 It can't come from a place of God, if I don't do 00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:10.400 this, I know you're gonna damn me. 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:12.560 That's never the case. 00:41:12.560 --> 00:41:15.520 We have to be redundant when we're talking about these things. 00:41:15.520 --> 00:41:20.320 We don't want anyone ever to feel like there's this impossible goal 00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:21.440 that's been set. 00:41:21.440 --> 00:41:25.280 The impossible goal was fulfilled on the cross. 00:41:25.280 --> 00:41:28.000 Jesus lived the life that was impossible for you. 00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:29.920 So you don't need to worry about that. 00:41:29.920 --> 00:41:32.640 You don't need to worry about living up to God's perfection. 00:41:32.640 --> 00:41:33.440 He did that. 00:41:33.440 --> 00:41:36.880 And that is imputed to us as righteousness. 00:41:36.880 --> 00:41:40.880 When we stand before the judgment throne, we will be judged by 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:43.360 those actions, by Christ's actions. 00:41:43.360 --> 00:41:44.160 So then what? 00:41:44.160 --> 00:41:45.040 You're Christian? 00:41:45.040 --> 00:41:46.080 What do you do? 00:41:46.080 --> 00:41:48.240 You don't just sit back and not care. 00:41:48.240 --> 00:41:50.880 Sanctification involves work. 00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.520 I think that's one of the problems that we don't hear much 00:41:53.520 --> 00:41:57.360 of this in good Christian preaching today because this is work. 00:41:57.360 --> 00:41:59.760 This is stuff you have to do for God. 00:41:59.760 --> 00:42:04.800 And especially Protestants just have a horrific allergic reaction to that because 00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:07.280 it sounds like works righteousness. 00:42:07.760 --> 00:42:11.120 Gonna belabor the point once again, you cannot possibly think we're talking 00:42:11.120 --> 00:42:12.480 about works righteousness. 00:42:12.480 --> 00:42:13.840 None of this can save you. 00:42:13.840 --> 00:42:15.440 You're already saved. 00:42:15.440 --> 00:42:19.440 The process of sanctification, the process of putting to death that which 00:42:19.440 --> 00:42:23.200 is earthly in you is conforming to the image of God. 00:42:23.200 --> 00:42:25.840 That's the image of God we're talking about this week. 00:42:25.840 --> 00:42:27.120 This is a blessing. 00:42:27.120 --> 00:42:31.760 It's something to be thankful for, it's something to aspire to properly. 00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:33.680 Just as you know, you look at someone who's in better shape 00:42:34.080 --> 00:42:37.040 than you and you aspire to look like that, to be fit, 00:42:37.040 --> 00:42:39.680 to feel better like that, and then you have to do the 00:42:39.680 --> 00:42:42.160 work. And when you do the work, you will. 00:42:42.160 --> 00:42:45.680 You may not be again, these are imperfect comparisons because you may 00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:48.400 see someone who's very fit, it doesn't matter if you get as 00:42:48.400 --> 00:42:48.960 fit as them. 00:42:48.960 --> 00:42:50.480 You just need to improve. 00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:54.080 That's not the case when we're talking about the moral law. 00:42:54.080 --> 00:42:56.240 We should be as perfect as Christ. 00:42:56.240 --> 00:42:59.280 And we must know that that is an impossible standard. 00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:01.360 That's not a cause for despair. 00:43:01.360 --> 00:43:05.920 But as Christians with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we absolutely 00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:08.800 have the choice, moment by moment and day by day, to say, 00:43:08.800 --> 00:43:10.480 no, I'm not going to do that. 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:14.480 Even if something disgusting crosses your mind, something evil pops up into 00:43:14.480 --> 00:43:17.200 your head, something that maybe you would have done yesterday or you 00:43:17.200 --> 00:43:21.280 maybe did last year, and something in your head, whether it's your 00:43:21.280 --> 00:43:24.480 own spirit or it's some demon whispering in your ear, says, Hey, 00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:25.920 you should do that again. 00:43:25.920 --> 00:43:29.440 You have the ability to say no, to turn away from it 00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:33.200 in disgust, and to say that is that sin is no longer 00:43:33.200 --> 00:43:37.440 me. It's what my flesh desires, but it is not what my 00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:41.040 spirit conforms to, because I belong to God. 00:43:41.040 --> 00:43:42.480 And then you choose. 00:43:42.480 --> 00:43:46.480 And whether it's conscious or unconscious, you are choosing in many cases. 00:43:46.480 --> 00:43:50.560 And the hard part is that these things become habits in both 00:43:50.560 --> 00:43:55.200 directions. Before we have Christ, the habits are mostly going to be 00:43:55.200 --> 00:43:58.480 bad, similar to not knowing anything about nutrition. 00:43:58.480 --> 00:44:00.320 You're just going to eat whatever's tasty. 00:44:00.320 --> 00:44:01.840 Once you learn a little bit, you understand 00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:05.360 the harm you can potentially do to your body by what you 00:44:05.360 --> 00:44:09.600 ingest and how much you ingest, then you understand the rules differently. 00:44:09.600 --> 00:44:10.800 Like, well, I can't do that. 00:44:10.800 --> 00:44:13.040 Even though I enjoyed it, even though I thought it was fine. 00:44:13.040 --> 00:44:16.320 Now that I know what it's doing, I can't do that anymore. 00:44:16.320 --> 00:44:19.680 If you can tame your body in that way, you can tame 00:44:19.680 --> 00:44:21.440 your moral life as well. 00:44:21.440 --> 00:44:24.560 Because it's thoughts, it's actions, it's words. 00:44:24.560 --> 00:44:26.160 It's us in the world. 00:44:26.160 --> 00:44:28.080 We're gonna be an image of something. 00:44:28.080 --> 00:44:32.080 Either we act as the sanctified image of God or we act 00:44:32.080 --> 00:44:36.320 as the image of fallen man, which is basically being Satan's hands 00:44:36.320 --> 00:44:37.120 in the world. 00:44:37.120 --> 00:44:38.800 And those are the only two choices. 00:44:38.800 --> 00:44:40.480 There's no third player on the board. 00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:42.640 There's no neutral position. 00:44:42.640 --> 00:44:45.200 And that's why it's important to actually talk about these things and 00:44:45.200 --> 00:44:48.560 not pretend just for the sake of not confusing anyone about works 00:44:48.720 --> 00:44:51.520 righteousness. Protestants have to get over that. 00:44:51.520 --> 00:44:53.680 If you think you can save yourself, you're a fool. 00:44:54.560 --> 00:44:55.920 Truth is not in you. 00:44:55.920 --> 00:44:58.240 You can't get that from the Bible, and you can't get that 00:44:58.240 --> 00:45:00.160 from what we say here. 00:45:00.160 --> 00:45:05.200 But once we know what God wants, then it becomes very simple 00:45:05.200 --> 00:45:08.320 in terms of understanding what we must do. 00:45:08.320 --> 00:45:09.520 The hard part is doing it. 00:45:09.520 --> 00:45:12.560 There's like it's easy to understand nutrition and exercise. 00:45:12.560 --> 00:45:14.000 The hard part is doing it. 00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:17.280 The benefit is from doing it, not from just thinking about it. 00:45:17.280 --> 00:45:21.280 They're imperfect examples, but they're also still very good examples because it's 00:45:21.280 --> 00:45:25.120 the doing that produces the fruit, the not eating. 00:45:25.120 --> 00:45:28.720 You know, personally, I can pork up if I'm lazy about my 00:45:28.720 --> 00:45:32.560 shopping. If I don't buy things that I'm gonna pig out on, 00:45:32.560 --> 00:45:33.920 I'm fine at home. 00:45:33.920 --> 00:45:37.040 I have to exercise self control when I'm walking around the grocery 00:45:37.040 --> 00:45:39.040 store. Once I get home, I'm fine. 00:45:39.040 --> 00:45:43.520 But the self-control for me is the avoiding certain aisles entirely, or 00:45:43.680 --> 00:45:46.800 you know, swooping in getting one thing knowing it's going to be 00:45:46.800 --> 00:45:48.800 a treat, and then when I'm out of that, it's going to 00:45:48.800 --> 00:45:51.040 be a couple weeks before I have it again. 00:45:51.040 --> 00:45:53.840 Once we understand that we have to resist and we have to 00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:57.040 pay attention and we have to be diligent, we're on the path 00:45:57.040 --> 00:46:00.400 of sanctification to being conformed to the image of God. 00:46:00.400 --> 00:46:02.960 We'll never get there, but it's still joyous. 00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:05.520 It just like it's joyous to you know to go down a 00:46:05.520 --> 00:46:09.040 belt size to be able to get to your next level of 00:46:09.040 --> 00:46:10.320 physical fitness. 00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:12.960 You couldn't do something one day and the next day you're able 00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:13.600 to do it. 00:46:13.600 --> 00:46:16.320 It's something to be celebrated. 00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:18.640 You're never perfect, and that's okay. 00:46:18.640 --> 00:46:24.080 God does not demand perfection for the sake of salvation, but he 00:46:24.080 --> 00:46:26.960 shows us that here's what you shouldn't do. 00:46:26.960 --> 00:46:28.880 Here's the list of things you shouldn't do. 00:46:28.880 --> 00:46:30.480 And the list isn't even exhaustive. 00:46:30.480 --> 00:46:33.440 It just shows what the image of God actually looks like. 00:46:33.440 --> 00:46:35.840 You can infer from all the things in scripture. 00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:37.200 Here's a big list of sins. 00:46:37.200 --> 00:46:40.960 You can infer a dozen other things that fit somewhere between the 00:46:40.960 --> 00:46:43.520 lines. So it's not like it's a menu. 00:46:43.520 --> 00:46:44.640 Sin is not a menu. 00:46:44.640 --> 00:46:47.440 There's always some new creative way to do something terrible. 00:46:47.440 --> 00:46:49.680 Satan's really good at that, and so are we. 00:46:49.680 --> 00:46:51.680 We don't even need Satan's help to come up with new ways 00:46:51.600 --> 00:46:53.360 to be terrible. 00:46:53.360 --> 00:46:57.360 When we study scripture, when we conform our spirit to the image 00:46:57.360 --> 00:47:01.040 of God by just remembering, I get to choose. 00:47:01.040 --> 00:47:03.520 The unregenerate man doesn't get to choose. 00:47:03.520 --> 00:47:07.040 Someone who's not a Christian can't choose to be Christian. 00:47:07.040 --> 00:47:12.400 There's no free will involved to get over the hump of justification. 00:47:12.400 --> 00:47:14.480 For the regenerate man there is. 00:47:14.480 --> 00:47:17.440 You choose every morning to get out of bed when the alarm 00:47:17.440 --> 00:47:18.400 clock goes off. 00:47:18.560 --> 00:47:22.320 Whether or not you eat too much, exercise, whatever good things you're 00:47:22.320 --> 00:47:23.760 doing, you choose. 00:47:23.760 --> 00:47:26.640 It may not be something that you see as a conscious choice, 00:47:26.640 --> 00:47:27.520 but it is. 00:47:27.520 --> 00:47:30.480 At some level, it is a choice that you're making, even if 00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:34.320 the the choice was made years ago by forming a habit. 00:47:34.320 --> 00:47:38.320 And so as we reflect on scriptures, we study and we meditate 00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:41.760 on God's word, we will find more places where you need to 00:47:41.760 --> 00:47:43.600 reevaluate your life. 00:47:43.600 --> 00:47:46.640 Something that was a habit that you realize you need to break 00:47:46.640 --> 00:47:48.880 that habit and substitute a new habit. 00:47:48.880 --> 00:47:50.320 That's sanctification. 00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:51.760 Just setting it aside. 00:47:51.760 --> 00:47:54.720 I was doing something I didn't even know was wrong. 00:47:54.720 --> 00:47:58.880 Now that I know that it's not godly, I'm gonna do better. 00:47:58.880 --> 00:48:02.240 You know, the what would Jesus do and the Christ like tropes 00:48:02.240 --> 00:48:06.240 that become annoying because they're used for the wrong purposes, and some 00:48:06.240 --> 00:48:07.680 level they're true. 00:48:07.680 --> 00:48:10.880 You have a choice as a Christian not to do some heinous 00:48:11.040 --> 00:48:13.200 crap. You have a choice. 00:48:13.200 --> 00:48:15.920 You have a choice to do good things. 00:48:15.920 --> 00:48:19.760 And it's okay for Christians to talk in these terms as long 00:48:19.760 --> 00:48:22.400 as we understand that we're not saving ourselves. 00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:24.000 We're not impressing God. 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:27.200 We're not justifying ourselves for eternity. 00:48:27.200 --> 00:48:29.440 We're just doing what he wants us to do because he told 00:48:29.440 --> 00:48:30.480 us what to do. 00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:33.120 It's really simple. 00:48:33.200 --> 00:48:33.440 You 00:48:33.440 --> 00:48:37.520 may have noticed that thus far we have not given a list 00:48:37.520 --> 00:48:43.280 of things that constitute the image of God in man. 00:48:43.280 --> 00:48:47.120 And perhaps disappointingly for some of you we are not going to 00:48:47.120 --> 00:48:50.240 do that Now I'm going to push back a little bit on 00:48:50.240 --> 00:48:53.840 that, perhaps being disappointing, because I do not think that it should 00:48:53.840 --> 00:48:58.880 be. For those of you who are familiar with some of the 00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:03.200 historical theology in this particular area, you may you may have in 00:49:03.200 --> 00:49:08.080 mind any of the various ways in which different theologians have formulated 00:49:08.400 --> 00:49:11.520 what constitutes the image of God in man. 00:49:11.520 --> 00:49:15.120 And so you may think of perhaps the substantive view, we could 00:49:15.120 --> 00:49:20.960 call it for Augustine and Aquinas, which deals with man's intellect, his 00:49:20.960 --> 00:49:24.160 various capacities, free will. 00:49:24.160 --> 00:49:27.760 If you are of the reformed persuasion, you may think more of 00:49:27.760 --> 00:49:34.880 the Dominion view, the relationship of man to creation, as ruling over 00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:39.200 creation, being a steward, but certainly a steward in a position of 00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:45.040 authority, because we are, of course, God's image in creation, his icon. 00:49:45.040 --> 00:49:49.120 You may think of the teleological view, the end of man, which 00:49:49.120 --> 00:49:52.640 you can think of the last chapter of Ecclesiastes for that. 00:49:52.640 --> 00:49:56.160 Or any of a number of other ones. 00:49:56.160 --> 00:50:00.560 We are not going to resolve all of that as it were. 00:50:00.560 --> 00:50:04.640 And the reason for that is that all of these things are 00:50:04.640 --> 00:50:08.560 aspects of the image of God in man. 00:50:08.560 --> 00:50:13.600 Again, man is tripartite, and so different aspects are going to relate 00:50:13.600 --> 00:50:18.000 to the different parts of man in different ways. 00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:22.160 Original righteousness is mostly a matter of the soul, but also a 00:50:22.160 --> 00:50:23.920 matter of the mind. 00:50:23.920 --> 00:50:27.360 Some of the other aspects may be more related to the body, 00:50:27.360 --> 00:50:30.560 or more related to the mind exclusively. 00:50:30.560 --> 00:50:33.520 These things vary. 00:50:33.520 --> 00:50:40.160 However, this is not a matter of simply enumerating or listing the 00:50:40.160 --> 00:50:46.640 various attributes of man that are related to relative to God in 00:50:46.640 --> 00:50:49.200 some way. 00:50:49.200 --> 00:50:56.240 We've previously spoken about different infinites, how there are smaller infinites 00:50:56.240 --> 00:51:00.480 and larger infinites, which seems like an insane thing to say, quite 00:51:00.480 --> 00:51:04.000 frankly, but it's not, and it's real. 00:51:04.000 --> 00:51:10.000 Because a countable infinite, for instance, the real numbers, one, two, three, 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:15.040 on and to infinity, are different from the most obvious example being 00:51:15.040 --> 00:51:21.600 the absolute infinite, the infinite of infinites, which would be God. 00:51:21.600 --> 00:51:26.880 God being absolutely infinite is in a different category. 00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:28.720 He is a different thing. 00:51:28.720 --> 00:51:33.040 It's not different in degree, it's different in kind from the other 00:51:33.200 --> 00:51:36.240 limited, as it were, infinites. 00:51:37.760 --> 00:51:43.200 Man's attributes are not infinite, but they are more in the category 00:51:43.200 --> 00:51:46.240 of the limited, the countable infinite. 00:51:46.240 --> 00:51:50.640 In the sense of they relate to the absolute infinite, but they 00:51:50.640 --> 00:51:52.880 are a lesser form of it. 00:51:52.880 --> 00:51:57.760 To put that another way, perhaps more clearly, all of the various 00:51:57.760 --> 00:52:02.960 attributes of God, which are of course infinite, perhaps in their number, 00:52:02.960 --> 00:52:06.960 but certainly infinite in their degree, in their scope, in their quantity, 00:52:06.960 --> 00:52:09.600 as it were. 00:52:09.600 --> 00:52:14.560 Man reflects those as God's image in creation, but we reflect them 00:52:14.560 --> 00:52:16.320 in a limited way. 00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:22.320 We have our own again version of perfection, that relative perfection, with 00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:25.520 regard to these things. 00:52:25.520 --> 00:52:30.320 Because there is a standard, there is a perfect version of us 00:52:31.520 --> 00:52:33.920 toward which God is pulling us. 00:52:33.920 --> 00:52:38.320 Hopefully we are cooperating now in sanctification as we should be, but 00:52:38.320 --> 00:52:40.240 God is bringing us up to that perfect standard. 00:52:40.880 --> 00:52:45.120 that perfect image of us that He has in mind. 00:52:45.120 --> 00:52:48.160 Because of course the perfect version of us exists in the mind 00:52:48.160 --> 00:52:53.120 of God, as does the perfect version of all things. 00:52:53.280 --> 00:52:59.440 But our attributes The various aspects of man that constitute the image 00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:03.920 of God in man are all reflections of those attributes of God, 00:53:03.920 --> 00:53:06.000 those perfections of God. 00:53:06.000 --> 00:53:09.680 For us their attributes, for God their perfections, because he of course 00:53:09.840 --> 00:53:12.480 has the ultimate version of it. 00:53:12.480 --> 00:53:20.080 To give a concrete example, God is omnipotent, man is capable, 00:53:20.080 --> 00:53:23.840 you could say potent in that sense of the term. 00:53:23.840 --> 00:53:26.000 Man is not capable of all things. 00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:28.000 Man cannot do all things. 00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:31.840 But man can do many things, because in so far as we 00:53:31.840 --> 00:53:36.480 have that attribute of being capable, it is a reflection of God's 00:53:36.480 --> 00:53:40.960 omnipotence, God's ability to do all things. 00:53:40.960 --> 00:53:46.160 Similarly, God is omniscient, God knows all things. 00:53:46.160 --> 00:53:48.160 Man is knowledgeable. 00:53:48.160 --> 00:53:51.040 Man knows a limited subset of things. 00:53:51.040 --> 00:53:55.120 Some men know very many things, some know relatively few. 00:53:55.120 --> 00:53:59.040 But in so far as we have that capacity for knowledge it 00:53:59.040 --> 00:54:01.920 is part of the image of God in man because it is 00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:06.160 a reflection of the perfection in God that is omniscience. 00:54:06.160 --> 00:54:10.800 And we could go through this for dozens or potentially more, as 00:54:10.800 --> 00:54:12.880 many of the various different aspects. 00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:16.800 Aspects of God as we can bring to mind. 00:54:16.800 --> 00:54:21.040 As Will mentioned, as human beings we have to deal with this 00:54:21.040 --> 00:54:23.920 by breaking it into pieces. 00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:27.280 Because we cannot understand God as He is. 00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:30.480 That should be obvious. 00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:33.360 God is the infinite. 00:54:33.360 --> 00:54:36.800 The finite cannot understand the infinite. 00:54:36.800 --> 00:54:40.800 Because if you could understand the infinite, you would be the infinite. 00:54:40.800 --> 00:54:43.840 And so only God knows the mind of God. 00:54:43.840 --> 00:54:47.440 Only God understands God fully. 00:54:47.440 --> 00:54:53.600 We, as creatures, limited creatures, understand God insofar as He has revealed 00:54:53.600 --> 00:54:58.000 Himself to us, and in so far as we ourselves reflect Him 00:54:58.240 --> 00:55:01.360 with regard to these various aspects, attributes. 00:55:01.360 --> 00:55:05.520 Whatever term you want to use, these things are basically interchangeable. 00:55:06.560 --> 00:55:10.640 And so with regard to the image of God in man, this 00:55:10.640 --> 00:55:14.240 isn't a limited sort of thing where you can just produce a 00:55:14.240 --> 00:55:18.560 list and then say, these twelve things, these forty-eight things, however many 00:55:18.560 --> 00:55:24.000 it happens to be, these constitute the image of God in man. 00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:28.560 Rather think of it with regard to sort of the metaphysical aspect 00:55:28.800 --> 00:55:31.840 we went over in the previous episode. 00:55:31.840 --> 00:55:33.920 What is man? 00:55:34.400 --> 00:55:37.440 Think about the term image of God. 00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:39.520 We are an image of God. 00:55:39.520 --> 00:55:41.520 We image God in creation. 00:55:41.520 --> 00:55:46.000 We image God because after a fashion what we're doing is reflecting 00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:49.600 God. And so that isn't just a matter of 00:55:50.480 --> 00:55:55.280 these attributes, this particular list that's drawn up by a particular theologian 00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:57.280 at a particular time. 00:55:57.280 --> 00:56:00.480 Rather Rather it is something more holistic. 00:56:00.480 --> 00:56:05.200 It is more a recognition and a comprehension of the totality of 00:56:05.200 --> 00:56:09.920 what it means to be man, and man with regard and so 00:56:09.920 --> 00:56:12.240 sort of the relational view, but with regard to God 00:56:13.600 --> 00:56:16.880 because we are that reflection of God in creation. 00:56:16.880 --> 00:56:20.800 And so trying to draw up any sort of finite list will 00:56:20.800 --> 00:56:22.400 always fall short. 00:56:22.400 --> 00:56:25.440 It doesn't mean that those finite lists are not helpful. 00:56:25.440 --> 00:56:31.680 They are very helpful at times, because explaining, as Aquinas does, that 00:56:31.920 --> 00:56:37.120 man's intellectual capacity and his free will are part of the image 00:56:37.120 --> 00:56:39.840 of God in man, is very useful. 00:56:39.840 --> 00:56:43.280 That is sound theology, it is useful for the Christian to read 00:56:43.280 --> 00:56:46.240 that, it is useful to meditate on that, because that is part 00:56:46.240 --> 00:56:49.920 of what it means to be an image of God. 00:56:49.920 --> 00:56:51.680 But it is not the sum of it. 00:56:51.680 --> 00:56:53.760 It is not the total of it. 00:56:53.760 --> 00:56:59.280 Because we are a lesser in the absolute sense, not in a 00:56:59.280 --> 00:57:04.320 pejorative sense, certainly, we are a lesser version of God in creation 00:57:04.400 --> 00:57:07.680 because we are his image, we are his icon, and so we 00:57:07.680 --> 00:57:12.080 are reflecting, we are echoing back that infinite image that is God 00:57:12.160 --> 00:57:13.840 That is God. 00:57:13.840 --> 00:57:18.080 And so again you cannot sum up the image of God in 00:57:18.080 --> 00:57:23.360 man with any particular finite, any particular concrete list. 00:57:23.360 --> 00:57:25.920 It is always going to exceed that. 00:57:25.920 --> 00:57:29.520 And that's why we're not resolving what some may think, well there's 00:57:29.520 --> 00:57:33.040 a disagreement here because this theologian said that and this one said 00:57:33.040 --> 00:57:37.920 that. We're not necessarily disagreeing with any of the sound theologians, of 00:57:37.920 --> 00:57:38.160 course. 00:57:39.280 --> 00:57:43.120 What we're saying is that this is greater than the sum of 00:57:43.120 --> 00:57:44.560 those things. 00:57:44.560 --> 00:57:50.240 The image of God in man is the very nature of man. 00:57:50.240 --> 00:57:53.360 Which of course it may seem like we're playing around there with 00:57:53.360 --> 00:57:54.640 a tautology. 00:57:54.640 --> 00:57:57.040 And to some degree, yes, because that is the way we have 00:57:57.040 --> 00:57:59.040 to speak of these things. 00:57:59.040 --> 00:58:04.400 Because again, when you're dealing with infinites, you can't possibly, regardless of 00:58:04.400 --> 00:58:08.560 how much time you are given, list all of the things under 00:58:08.560 --> 00:58:09.840 that umbrella. 00:58:09.840 --> 00:58:13.440 And so the image of God in man is the attributes of 00:58:13.440 --> 00:58:17.520 man, it is the free will, it is the intellectual capacity, it 00:58:17.520 --> 00:58:22.160 is the dominion of man, being a steward, being the head of 00:58:22.160 --> 00:58:25.920 creation, particularly with regard to Adam, of course, as he is the 00:58:25.920 --> 00:58:27.920 federal head of the human race. 00:58:27.920 --> 00:58:31.680 It is the relational aspect, the way in which man relates to 00:58:31.680 --> 00:58:37.520 God, being his image in creation, reflecting him to the creation itself. 00:58:37.520 --> 00:58:40.080 It is the teleological sense. 00:58:40.080 --> 00:58:45.440 It is man's purpose, the end for which man was created in 00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:49.680 creation. And that's not just as I said before, that last chapter 00:58:49.680 --> 00:58:54.960 of Ecclesiastes, which is fear God and keep his commandments, of course, 00:58:54.960 --> 00:58:58.160 but it is all of those things for which God has created 00:58:58.160 --> 00:59:01.600 us, because those are part of what it means to be that 00:59:01.600 --> 00:59:03.840 image in creation. 00:59:03.840 --> 00:59:08.960 The end of man's existence is not simply the worship of God 00:59:09.200 --> 00:59:14.560 in the sense of worship most men mean when they use it. 00:59:14.560 --> 00:59:21.280 Rather, the teleological sense, the end of man, is the worship of 00:59:21.280 --> 00:59:26.640 God in the most broad sense possible, because we worship God every 00:59:26.640 --> 00:59:30.560 time we do the things for which God made us, and do 00:59:30.560 --> 00:59:32.800 them with thanks to God. 00:59:32.800 --> 00:59:38.000 And so for instance, when you enjoy food, as a Christian, when 00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:40.720 you enjoy your food and you should certainly pray before your meal 00:59:40.800 --> 00:59:45.280 and perhaps after as well, but that is worship of God. 00:59:45.280 --> 00:59:48.800 You are enjoying a good gift of God and God as a 00:59:48.800 --> 00:59:52.560 son of God, because of course we're talking about Christians, those who 00:59:52.560 --> 00:59:57.120 have been justified, those who have faith, those whose works are pleasing 00:59:57.120 --> 00:59:58.560 to God. 00:59:58.560 --> 01:00:02.080 Because of course, as we've mentioned in previous episodes, but I'll repeat 01:00:02.080 --> 01:00:08.560 it here, the reason that those who are not believers are not 01:00:08.560 --> 01:00:12.560 pleasing to God, the reason they have no good works, is that 01:00:12.560 --> 01:00:16.320 the status of the person doing the works matters. 01:00:16.320 --> 01:00:20.560 It is not sufficient for the work itself to be good. 01:00:20.560 --> 01:00:24.960 If you are not regenerate, if you are not a Christian, feeding 01:00:24.960 --> 01:00:28.080 the hungry does not does not count for you. 01:00:28.080 --> 01:00:32.400 Clothing the homeless does not count for you. 01:00:32.400 --> 01:00:37.360 None of these things that are objectively good works count for you 01:00:37.360 --> 01:00:40.240 as a good work because you are not in Christ. 01:00:40.240 --> 01:00:44.080 And so everything you do is sin. 01:00:44.080 --> 01:00:47.840 But if you are a Christian, the things that seem like just 01:00:47.840 --> 01:00:51.840 a routine part of your daily life that don't seem like a 01:00:51.840 --> 01:00:56.560 particularly good work, it's not that there's some exceptional good work. 01:00:56.560 --> 01:01:01.120 Rather it is that everything you do, as a Christian, that is 01:01:01.200 --> 01:01:05.120 of course not sin, is good in the eyes of God, is 01:01:05.120 --> 01:01:08.960 pleasing to God, because you are doing the things for which you 01:01:08.960 --> 01:01:12.080 were created, the things you were created to do. 01:01:12.080 --> 01:01:16.480 And so again, enjoying a meal can be worship of God. 01:01:16.480 --> 01:01:19.680 Because think of what Scripture says with regard to part of the 01:01:19.680 --> 01:01:23.840 meaning of life it basically says eat, drink, and be merry. 01:01:23.840 --> 01:01:27.360 Go read Ecclesiastes if you do not believe me. 01:01:27.360 --> 01:01:30.160 And so it comes down to whether or not you are in 01:01:30.160 --> 01:01:33.840 Christ with regard to whether or not these things are good, whether 01:01:33.840 --> 01:01:37.040 they are counted to you as good or as sin. 01:01:37.040 --> 01:01:40.560 If you are in Christ they're good, if you're not in Christ, 01:01:40.560 --> 01:01:44.160 it doesn't matter how good they seem to the world, it doesn't 01:01:44.080 --> 01:01:47.840 even matter how good they are objectively according to moral standards. 01:01:48.800 --> 01:01:51.280 They are not counted to you. 01:01:51.280 --> 01:01:55.680 Does that mean that it's irrelevant what you do if you are 01:01:55.680 --> 01:01:56.640 an atheist? 01:01:56.640 --> 01:02:00.160 No. Because some parts of hell are worse than others. 01:02:00.160 --> 01:02:05.920 If you spend your life murdering people, committing all sorts of grievous 01:02:06.080 --> 01:02:09.920 injuries and harm, you are going to have a worse eternity than 01:02:09.920 --> 01:02:14.000 if you spend your life doing things that are objectively morally good, 01:02:14.000 --> 01:02:16.240 but they will not save you. 01:02:16.240 --> 01:02:21.360 As we've been very clear in many episodes, in practically every episode, 01:02:21.360 --> 01:02:23.680 you cannot save yourself. 01:02:23.680 --> 01:02:27.520 You are justified by Christ alone. 01:02:27.520 --> 01:02:31.200 And so it doesn't matter how many good works you have if 01:02:31.200 --> 01:02:35.360 you're not in Christ, they do not benefit you, except in so 01:02:35.360 --> 01:02:38.000 far as your eternity will not be worse. 01:02:38.880 --> 01:02:42.000 If you are a Christian, they are counted to you as good 01:02:42.000 --> 01:02:45.440 works, which is a wonderful thing for Christians. 01:02:45.440 --> 01:02:48.640 Our sin is not counted to us on account of Christ, our 01:02:48.880 --> 01:02:51.760 good works are counted to us again on account of Christ of 01:02:51.920 --> 01:02:56.640 Christ. And so to be an image of God, you have to 01:02:56.640 --> 01:03:02.320 think of it as this holistic whole, this approach to really we're 01:03:02.320 --> 01:03:05.040 speaking of a gestalt again to use a term that I have 01:03:05.040 --> 01:03:08.400 used now in a number of episodes. 01:03:08.400 --> 01:03:13.680 We are more than just some list of attributes or abilities or 01:03:13.680 --> 01:03:17.840 characteristics or whatever it happens it happens to be, whichever focus a 01:03:17.840 --> 01:03:24.400 particular theologian takes, we are greater than that, and that sum, that 01:03:24.400 --> 01:03:29.040 is in fact greater than the mere sum, is what it means 01:03:29.040 --> 01:03:31.200 to be in the image of God. 01:03:31.200 --> 01:03:34.800 And so we aren't going to resolve the supposed conflict because there 01:03:34.800 --> 01:03:37.040 is no supposed conflict. 01:03:37.040 --> 01:03:40.480 It's not a matter of just saying, I'm these thirteen things and 01:03:40.480 --> 01:03:41.520 nothing else. 01:03:41.520 --> 01:03:44.880 No, you are an image of God, you are a reflection in 01:03:44.880 --> 01:03:47.280 creation of the Creator Himself. 01:03:47.280 --> 01:03:51.440 You are a reflection, you are an icon of the infinite. 01:03:51.440 --> 01:03:56.480 And no list is ever going to encompass that'd 01:03:56.480 --> 01:04:00.080 like to give a couple more passages from the New Testament that 01:04:00.080 --> 01:04:04.240 will emphasize just how often this pattern of referring to the image 01:04:04.240 --> 01:04:06.960 of God and then talking about these things is. 01:04:07.040 --> 01:04:09.920 Because once you think about it, you're going to find it all 01:04:09.920 --> 01:04:11.120 over the place. 01:04:11.120 --> 01:04:14.800 And I think an important part of the emphasis for this episode 01:04:14.800 --> 01:04:18.400 is that this is not simply, well, here's a bunch of stuff 01:04:18.400 --> 01:04:20.160 you have to do for God. 01:04:20.160 --> 01:04:22.400 This is God's promise to us. 01:04:22.400 --> 01:04:27.520 When we're past justification, when we're talking about sanctification, this is also 01:04:27.520 --> 01:04:29.520 something that God does for us. 01:04:29.520 --> 01:04:32.640 The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is something that God is doing 01:04:32.640 --> 01:04:33.360 for you. 01:04:33.360 --> 01:04:36.720 Making it possible is something that God is doing. 01:04:36.720 --> 01:04:38.240 And our cooperation 01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:42.320 doesn't diminish God's work in it. 01:04:42.320 --> 01:04:45.120 It just means that we have to show up to. 01:04:45.120 --> 01:04:48.800 I think if you take the focus of God has given me 01:04:48.800 --> 01:04:54.000 the blessing of sanctification, of regenerating his image in me as a 01:04:54.000 --> 01:04:58.160 blessing, rather than as not that it's not a duty, but it's 01:04:58.160 --> 01:04:59.360 just as a gift. 01:04:59.360 --> 01:05:02.160 The fact that God has made this possible, that you don't have 01:05:02.160 --> 01:05:05.680 to die and be resurrected in order to be better. 01:05:05.680 --> 01:05:09.760 Yeah, I think that's something that sometimes comes up in Christian preaching 01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:11.920 where we're like, well, we're stuck here. 01:05:11.920 --> 01:05:15.840 We're after the fall, so we're all sinful, but we're for the 01:05:15.840 --> 01:05:19.920 resurrection of the dead, so we can't be perfect. 01:05:20.560 --> 01:05:21.680 I guess all bets are off. 01:05:21.680 --> 01:05:24.480 Like, you know, just I try to be good, sorta, but it 01:05:24.480 --> 01:05:29.040 doesn't really matter and it it's it's nebulous and there's no there's 01:05:28.960 --> 01:05:30.320 no there there. 01:05:30.320 --> 01:05:34.720 There's no recognition of the blessing that we have of being told 01:05:34.720 --> 01:05:37.760 by God what the Christian life looks like. 01:05:37.920 --> 01:05:40.720 I think it's one of the huge things that's missing from Christian 01:05:41.200 --> 01:05:43.920 preaching, but it's not missing from the Bible. 01:05:43.920 --> 01:05:46.720 If you never heard anybody talk and you just read the Bible, 01:05:46.720 --> 01:05:48.160 you would get all this stuff. 01:05:48.160 --> 01:05:50.960 So here's a passage from Ephesians four. 01:05:50.960 --> 01:05:54.400 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must 01:05:54.400 --> 01:05:57.680 no longer walk as the nations do in the futility of their 01:05:57.680 --> 01:06:02.320 minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of 01:06:02.320 --> 01:06:05.120 God, because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their 01:06:05.440 --> 01:06:06.880 hardness of heart. 01:06:06.880 --> 01:06:10.800 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy 01:06:10.800 --> 01:06:13.840 to practice every kind of impurity, but that is not the way 01:06:13.840 --> 01:06:17.040 you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were 01:06:17.040 --> 01:06:20.400 taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off 01:06:20.400 --> 01:06:24.000 your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and 01:06:24.000 --> 01:06:27.920 is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit 01:06:27.920 --> 01:06:31.760 of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after 01:06:31.760 --> 01:06:36.080 the likeness of God in the true righteousness and holiness. 01:06:36.080 --> 01:06:39.280 It is God's blessing that these things are revealed to us, and 01:06:39.280 --> 01:06:43.120 it's God's blessing that it's possible for us to be renewed in 01:06:43.120 --> 01:06:44.800 the image of God. 01:06:44.800 --> 01:06:47.840 So although we talk about this as a duty, that doesn't make 01:06:47.840 --> 01:06:52.240 it a burden any more than you know eating better should be 01:06:52.240 --> 01:06:53.040 a burden. 01:06:53.040 --> 01:06:55.680 Maybe it seems like a bit of a nuisance at first, but 01:06:55.680 --> 01:06:58.720 once you create the new habit, it's not a burden anymore, it's 01:06:58.640 --> 01:07:00.560 just the new habit, and it's a better habit. 01:07:00.560 --> 01:07:03.920 It's a habit that it pays dividends, it bears good fruit. 01:07:03.920 --> 01:07:07.920 Another passage from Second Corinthians three says very similar things to what's 01:07:07.920 --> 01:07:09.120 in Ephesians four. 01:07:09.200 --> 01:07:12.960 I'm repeating this just to emphasize, once you're listening for the image 01:07:12.960 --> 01:07:17.200 of God being recreated in man, you'll find that this pattern plays 01:07:17.200 --> 01:07:18.560 out all over the place. 01:07:18.560 --> 01:07:20.960 It's not just one place, it's everywhere. 01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:23.360 Again, this is the Christian life. 01:07:23.360 --> 01:07:26.800 Scripture talks about the Christian life having a tenor. 01:07:26.800 --> 01:07:28.240 It has commands. 01:07:28.240 --> 01:07:31.440 It has things that we shouldn't do and things that we should 01:07:31.440 --> 01:07:32.560 begin doing. 01:07:32.560 --> 01:07:35.280 And as Corey said, there's not going to be a rote list 01:07:35.280 --> 01:07:38.240 of here's a punch list you go down and you know once 01:07:38.240 --> 01:07:40.400 you've checked all the boxes you can take off. 01:07:40.560 --> 01:07:43.120 We're not talking about an airplane here. 01:07:43.120 --> 01:07:47.280 The principle of understanding who God is and what he wants from 01:07:47.280 --> 01:07:50.240 us means that in every situation you're gonna be able to act 01:07:50.240 --> 01:07:55.280 wisely. In every situation a Christian should know what not to do. 01:07:55.280 --> 01:07:58.480 Now, you don't just automatically get that by being baptized. 01:07:58.480 --> 01:08:00.640 You don't get that by owning a Bible. 01:08:00.640 --> 01:08:03.280 You have to study, you have to consider, you have to pray 01:08:03.280 --> 01:08:03.840 for it. 01:08:03.840 --> 01:08:06.720 And it takes time and it takes development. 01:08:06.720 --> 01:08:10.960 I think that's part of this is that it's crucial in Christian 01:08:10.960 --> 01:08:14.880 theology to emphasize that God is doing things so that we don't 01:08:14.880 --> 01:08:19.760 take credit and then try to make ourselves gods by acting as 01:08:19.760 --> 01:08:21.200 equals with him. 01:08:21.200 --> 01:08:25.360 It's crucial that all these things are seen as being received as 01:08:25.360 --> 01:08:30.400 gifts. At the same time, if everything is always received as a 01:08:30.400 --> 01:08:34.880 gift and there's no participation by man in any sense, again, we're 01:08:34.800 --> 01:08:38.960 not intruding on justification here, but there is participation in the Christian 01:08:38.960 --> 01:08:43.200 life. When that is missing from Christian preaching, what you end up 01:08:43.200 --> 01:08:46.560 with is something that we see frankly play out all the time 01:08:46.560 --> 01:08:50.880 online, especially where new converts who are new to the faith who 01:08:50.880 --> 01:08:54.400 don't know anything, and that's not an insult, that's not criticism, that's 01:08:54.320 --> 01:08:55.520 how anything works. 01:08:55.520 --> 01:08:58.320 Whatever it is, if you you show up for a new job, 01:08:58.320 --> 01:09:00.560 you're going to be as bad at that job as you will 01:09:00.560 --> 01:09:02.960 ever be because you don't know all the stuff that you're going 01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:05.200 to know after you've been there for 20 years. 01:09:05.200 --> 01:09:10.000 Experience gives benefit of wisdom, of knowledge. 01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:13.040 You know what to do after you've done it for a while. 01:09:13.040 --> 01:09:15.120 And this is true for the Christian life as well. 01:09:15.120 --> 01:09:16.880 And that's part of what this is about. 01:09:16.880 --> 01:09:19.840 It's true of the Christian life that when you're new to it, 01:09:19.840 --> 01:09:22.160 you're not going to be as good at it as you are 01:09:22.160 --> 01:09:23.520 later. And that shouldn't 01:09:24.480 --> 01:09:26.560 say about Christianity, because it's true of everything. 01:09:26.560 --> 01:09:28.720 It's true of literally everything. 01:09:28.720 --> 01:09:31.280 You're going to be better after you've done it a bunch. 01:09:31.280 --> 01:09:32.240 Whatever it is. 01:09:32.240 --> 01:09:34.640 And that's part of why creating bad habits is so deadly. 01:09:35.200 --> 01:09:37.520 If you live a life of sin, you're gonna get better at 01:09:37.520 --> 01:09:38.320 that too. 01:09:38.320 --> 01:09:43.120 You will make yourself a master of optimized sinfulness. 01:09:43.120 --> 01:09:46.720 You see many lives, maybe yours in the past, have been like 01:09:46.720 --> 01:09:51.200 that. So the pattern and the habit that we form is going 01:09:51.200 --> 01:09:54.880 to conform whatever the outcome is going to be, for good or 01:09:54.880 --> 01:10:00.240 evil. In second Corinthians three, God says, Since we have such a 01:10:00.240 --> 01:10:03.440 hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who had put on 01:10:03.440 --> 01:10:06.800 a veil over his face, so that the Israelites might not gaze 01:10:06.800 --> 01:10:09.440 at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 01:10:09.440 --> 01:10:11.920 But their minds were hardened. 01:10:11.920 --> 01:10:14.880 For to this day when they read the old covenant that same 01:10:14.880 --> 01:10:19.520 veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:23.040 Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over 01:10:23.040 --> 01:10:23.680 their hearts. 01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:27.520 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 01:10:27.520 --> 01:10:30.080 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit is the 01:10:30.080 --> 01:10:32.400 Lord is, there is freedom. 01:10:32.400 --> 01:10:35.200 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the 01:10:35.200 --> 01:10:39.360 Lord is there is freedom, and we all, with unveiled face, beholding 01:10:39.360 --> 01:10:43.840 the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image 01:10:43.840 --> 01:10:46.480 from one degree of glory to another. 01:10:46.480 --> 01:10:49.600 For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 01:10:49.600 --> 01:10:52.720 I want to emphasize that this is about God giving us a 01:10:52.720 --> 01:10:56.320 gift. I don't want anyone to come away from this episode feeling 01:10:56.320 --> 01:10:59.760 dejected that man, I got a bunch more stuff to do. 01:10:59.760 --> 01:11:03.520 We should all be reinvigorated by knowing that God has given us 01:11:03.520 --> 01:11:07.280 the gift of sanctification, that it's actually possible and He's doing it 01:11:07.280 --> 01:11:08.800 and working it in us. 01:11:08.800 --> 01:11:12.400 And the fact that there's cooperation, like, okay, well, you're gonna do 01:11:12.400 --> 01:11:16.080 something, you know, presumably every one of us has gotten out of 01:11:16.080 --> 01:11:19.360 bed today to do something, whether you slept in a little or 01:11:19.360 --> 01:11:22.480 you got up early, you have to get up, you gotta do 01:11:22.480 --> 01:11:27.760 something. The conscious will, the conscious act is always going to manifest 01:11:27.760 --> 01:11:30.640 somehow. So what's it going to be? 01:11:30.640 --> 01:11:32.560 Is it going to be more godlike or is it going to 01:11:32.560 --> 01:11:33.600 be less godlike? 01:11:33.600 --> 01:11:35.280 Christians actually have a choice. 01:11:35.280 --> 01:11:38.880 We can choose to be more godlike, to do the things that 01:11:38.880 --> 01:11:40.960 God tells us, because He's given us that gift. 01:11:41.680 --> 01:11:45.600 And so don't please don't see these things as burdens. 01:11:45.600 --> 01:11:49.680 Even though it's the duty of the Christian, a burden is lifted 01:11:49.680 --> 01:11:51.760 because you actually know what you should do. 01:11:51.760 --> 01:11:54.240 And we've said before, one of the hardest things on anyone is 01:11:54.240 --> 01:11:56.960 not to know their place, not to know what they should be 01:11:56.960 --> 01:11:59.760 doing, not to know where they belong, not to know what their 01:11:59.760 --> 01:12:00.800 identity is. 01:12:00.800 --> 01:12:05.200 When someone's in that position, it's incredibly difficult and it's alienating to 01:12:05.200 --> 01:12:08.560 know, okay, this is who you are and this is what you 01:12:08.560 --> 01:12:12.800 do. That's one of the greatest blessings any man can ever receive. 01:12:12.800 --> 01:12:14.720 This is who you are, and this is what you need to 01:12:14.720 --> 01:12:15.520 do now. 01:12:15.520 --> 01:12:17.920 A good man is going to respond, like, okay, I'm going to 01:12:17.920 --> 01:12:18.960 do it the best I can. 01:12:18.960 --> 01:12:21.040 Whatever it is, I'm gonna deliver. 01:12:21.040 --> 01:12:24.000 If it's your boss, if it's in a relationship, it doesn't matter. 01:12:24.000 --> 01:12:26.720 Once you know what the rules are, you can do a better 01:12:26.720 --> 01:12:27.680 job at it. 01:12:27.680 --> 01:12:31.200 And then you put your nose to the grindstone and you deliver. 01:12:31.760 --> 01:12:33.520 That doesn't make it a burden. 01:12:33.520 --> 01:12:35.600 It's like, okay, I understand now. 01:12:35.600 --> 01:12:36.640 I didn't know before. 01:12:36.640 --> 01:12:37.280 I was lost. 01:12:37.280 --> 01:12:38.080 I was confused. 01:12:38.080 --> 01:12:39.040 Now I get it. 01:12:39.040 --> 01:12:42.960 God has said, here's what the Christian life looks like. 01:12:42.960 --> 01:12:45.280 It's not going to save you to do these things. 01:12:45.280 --> 01:12:46.080 God already saved you. 01:12:46.080 --> 01:12:48.080 It's in the rearview mirror. 01:12:48.080 --> 01:12:50.640 Now, we need to turn around to give thanks. 01:12:50.640 --> 01:12:52.880 We need to turn to the cross and give thanks for that 01:12:52.880 --> 01:12:56.800 sacrifice. We'll never say anything to belittle that. 01:12:56.800 --> 01:13:00.400 But you can't spend your whole life staring at the cross either. 01:13:00.400 --> 01:13:02.000 We have lives to live. 01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:03.520 We have Christian duties. 01:13:03.520 --> 01:13:06.320 We have good works, as Corey was saying, to share with others. 01:13:06.320 --> 01:13:10.160 We're God's hands and his mouth in the world. 01:13:10.160 --> 01:13:13.920 And that's why our actions need to be conformed to his image. 01:13:13.920 --> 01:13:17.600 When we act in a manner that isn't befitting God, it brings 01:13:17.600 --> 01:13:19.840 disrepute to the church. 01:13:19.840 --> 01:13:21.840 It's important that that not be the case. 01:13:21.840 --> 01:13:24.560 And we all fail to varying degrees, and we need to police 01:13:24.560 --> 01:13:27.120 ourselves and we need to help each other out as brothers and 01:13:27.120 --> 01:13:29.680 say, look, you need to get this thing right. 01:13:29.680 --> 01:13:31.440 No one delivers that perfectly. 01:13:31.440 --> 01:13:32.480 I certainly don't. 01:13:32.480 --> 01:13:35.120 That's not one of the things I'm I get right all the 01:13:35.120 --> 01:13:38.560 time, but I'm always cognizant of it because it's so important. 01:13:38.960 --> 01:13:42.240 Please remember as you're thinking about the image of God, looking through 01:13:42.240 --> 01:13:43.600 scripture, find it. 01:13:43.600 --> 01:13:45.040 Whatever passage you're reading. 01:13:45.040 --> 01:13:48.640 I've read from my three or four epistles now of Paul, you 01:13:48.640 --> 01:13:49.760 find it everywhere. 01:13:49.760 --> 01:13:52.000 And it's not that everything is image of God, image of God. 01:13:52.000 --> 01:13:54.240 We're not just delivering some new hermeneutic for scripture. 01:13:54.240 --> 01:13:55.840 It's not some decodering. 01:13:55.840 --> 01:13:59.200 It's just that once you understand that this is all about the 01:13:59.200 --> 01:14:01.360 Christian life, it's a little bit easier. 01:14:01.360 --> 01:14:05.440 You don't need a fancy, sophisticated theological term for this. 01:14:05.440 --> 01:14:09.760 It's literally just okay, I'm Christian, what's next? 01:14:09.760 --> 01:14:11.680 And God has told us what that is. 01:14:11.680 --> 01:14:13.280 That is sanctification. 01:14:13.280 --> 01:14:16.320 That is the image of God being restored in us through through 01:14:16.320 --> 01:14:21.120 the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, through attending church, through reading scripture, 01:14:21.120 --> 01:14:26.000 through discussing these things with Christian friends, especially those with greater wisdom 01:14:26.000 --> 01:14:30.480 than you and greater experience, teachers who are competent to actually 01:14:31.440 --> 01:14:34.000 say the same things that God said after him. 01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:36.720 Those are your resources, those are your blessings. 01:14:36.720 --> 01:14:38.800 One of our goals here is try to make sure that stone 01:14:38.960 --> 01:14:42.800 choir is a positive benefit in that space. 01:14:42.800 --> 01:14:45.440 The more time we spend on this stuff, the less time we 01:14:45.440 --> 01:14:46.640 have to get into trouble. 01:14:46.640 --> 01:14:48.400 You know, if nothing else. 01:14:48.880 --> 01:14:51.840 If you were not to get anything else out of reading scripture 01:14:51.920 --> 01:14:54.880 than it kept you out of trouble, it would be worth it. 01:14:54.880 --> 01:14:56.720 That's certainly not what happens. 01:14:56.720 --> 01:15:00.320 But again, this is about habit forming as much as anything. 01:15:00.320 --> 01:15:01.600 You're gonna have habits. 01:15:01.600 --> 01:15:02.480 You already do. 01:15:02.480 --> 01:15:03.600 We all have habits. 01:15:03.600 --> 01:15:05.520 Some of them are good, some of them are bad. 01:15:05.520 --> 01:15:08.160 When you evaluate you like, well, maybe I should do less of 01:15:08.560 --> 01:15:10.240 this or none of this. 01:15:10.240 --> 01:15:13.360 Maybe I can substitute it with a little bit more of this. 01:15:13.360 --> 01:15:15.920 Congratulations, that's sanctification. 01:15:15.920 --> 01:15:20.080 The image of God is being borne out in your life by 01:15:20.080 --> 01:15:22.720 simply considering what God desires for you. 01:15:22.880 --> 01:15:24.160 That's a blessing. 01:15:24.160 --> 01:15:27.680 It's a blessing to have gone from not knowing to knowing. 01:15:27.680 --> 01:15:31.600 And whenever teachers come along to say, hey, you didn't know you 01:15:31.600 --> 01:15:34.160 were getting something wrong, straighten up, do it right. 01:15:34.160 --> 01:15:35.680 Here's a good way. 01:15:35.680 --> 01:15:38.160 You should be thankful for that. 01:15:38.160 --> 01:15:41.360 There's so much ego that's bound up in realizing that we made 01:15:41.360 --> 01:15:44.560 a mistake that I think it's especially difficult for Christians and it 01:15:44.560 --> 01:15:45.440 shouldn't be. 01:15:45.440 --> 01:15:47.520 We of all the people in the world should know we are 01:15:47.520 --> 01:15:51.200 not free from sin, and that we make mistakes, we do things 01:15:51.200 --> 01:15:53.760 that are sinful that are contrary to God's will. 01:15:53.760 --> 01:15:57.360 When you find out that there's one more, be thankful for it. 01:15:57.360 --> 01:16:00.240 This should always be a source of thanksgiving and not of something 01:16:00.400 --> 01:16:03.600 Certainly despair, not even of not of drudgery. 01:16:03.600 --> 01:16:06.960 It's just okay, God has told me what to do. 01:16:06.960 --> 01:16:09.920 That's part of what makes scripture so precious. 01:16:10.000 --> 01:16:14.320 And we talk about the blessings of seeing God in creation, But 01:16:14.320 --> 01:16:17.440 he doesn't tell you in creation how to live, not the way 01:16:17.440 --> 01:16:19.200 he does in scripture. 01:16:19.200 --> 01:16:22.320 It's only in scripture that these things are revealed. 01:16:22.320 --> 01:16:24.400 And so it's a blessing. 01:16:24.400 --> 01:16:25.920 It's something to give thanks for. 01:16:25.920 --> 01:16:30.080 And the fact that you have homework after you learn about God, 01:16:30.080 --> 01:16:31.840 it needs to be a source of joy. 01:16:31.840 --> 01:16:33.440 That's also part of sanctification. 01:16:33.440 --> 01:16:36.400 It's like, oh man, I yeah, I'm I'm a Christian now. 01:16:36.400 --> 01:16:38.960 I got I gotta do a bunch of this this stuff. 01:16:38.960 --> 01:16:39.840 What a pain. 01:16:39.840 --> 01:16:43.600 No. It's a blessing to know what the rules are and to 01:16:43.600 --> 01:16:46.720 know who created you and who created the rules. 01:16:46.720 --> 01:16:47.040 And 01:16:47.920 --> 01:16:52.320 having been given the blessing of sanctification, that it's even possible for 01:16:52.320 --> 01:16:56.160 these things from Colossians and Ephesians and Second Corinthians and all the 01:16:56.160 --> 01:16:57.120 other books. 01:16:57.120 --> 01:17:00.640 The fact that it's even possible is a tremendous blessing. 01:17:00.640 --> 01:17:03.200 So please don't take away from this, oh man, this is a 01:17:03.200 --> 01:17:04.560 duty, it's a burden. 01:17:04.560 --> 01:17:05.360 It's not. 01:17:05.360 --> 01:17:07.520 It's a duty in the joyous sense. 01:17:07.520 --> 01:17:12.160 You know, when a soldier is doing his duty, there's some downsides, 01:17:12.160 --> 01:17:13.760 but there's honor in that. 01:17:13.760 --> 01:17:18.640 There's honor in serving in a way that gives glory up the 01:17:18.640 --> 01:17:23.040 ranks, to have served faithfully as we're called upon to do so 01:17:23.360 --> 01:17:24.560 is a blessing. 01:17:24.560 --> 01:17:26.800 That means everything's working. 01:17:26.800 --> 01:17:30.480 It's okay for Christian preaching to talk about these things to. 01:17:30.480 --> 01:17:31.920 Certainly can't flee from it. 01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:34.160 I've given just a few examples from scripture. 01:17:34.160 --> 01:17:35.040 There are a ton more. 01:17:35.040 --> 01:17:36.880 This is barely scratching the surface. 01:17:36.880 --> 01:17:39.600 You're gonna go find a bunch in the coming years as you're 01:17:39.600 --> 01:17:40.720 reading through scripture. 01:17:40.720 --> 01:17:43.760 You're gonna find things about the likeness and image of God all 01:17:43.760 --> 01:17:44.480 over the place. 01:17:44.480 --> 01:17:46.240 And it's always gonna be in this context. 01:17:46.240 --> 01:17:50.320 It's always going to be in the context of obedience to God. 01:17:50.320 --> 01:17:53.680 Obedience is not something that should be seen as a burden, even 01:17:53.680 --> 01:17:54.800 if it's a duty. 01:17:54.800 --> 01:17:56.720 Duty and burden are two different words. 01:17:56.720 --> 01:17:58.800 They have very different connotations. 01:17:59.040 --> 01:18:01.600 A duty is something that can be a blessing. 01:18:01.600 --> 01:18:03.440 A burden is always downside. 01:18:03.440 --> 01:18:07.360 It's something that weighs you down, something that's difficult. 01:18:07.840 --> 01:18:12.240 The duty of serving God faithfully is a blessing that we've been 01:18:12.240 --> 01:18:15.920 given. And so just remember that as you're reflecting on the image 01:18:15.920 --> 01:18:19.840 of God in your life, both as you were created in the 01:18:19.840 --> 01:18:22.160 image of God from last week, and as you're renewed 01:18:23.120 --> 01:18:28.880 after your baptism through sanctification, through the Christian life, that God is 01:18:28.880 --> 01:18:32.640 working through you for your benefit and for the benefit of others. 01:18:32.640 --> 01:18:35.120 Because all these good things don't end with us. 01:18:35.120 --> 01:18:38.160 They radiate outwards for good or ill. 01:18:38.160 --> 01:18:40.880 The habits you have, if they're good habits, they're gonna benefit those 01:18:40.880 --> 01:18:41.440 around you. 01:18:41.440 --> 01:18:43.840 The bad habits are gonna harm those around you. 01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:47.600 Talk to a number of people who have begun taking their faith 01:18:47.600 --> 01:18:49.760 more seriously and have become more focused on 01:18:50.880 --> 01:18:52.720 even just thinking about these things. 01:18:52.720 --> 01:18:56.320 And people in their lives have commented to them that they seem 01:18:56.320 --> 01:18:57.680 like better people. 01:18:57.680 --> 01:18:59.280 That's an inward change. 01:18:59.280 --> 01:19:02.720 It's an inward change given by God that manifests in ways that 01:19:02.720 --> 01:19:04.880 even people who aren't believers can notice. 01:19:04.880 --> 01:19:06.240 That's God working through you. 01:19:06.240 --> 01:19:07.360 That means it's working. 01:19:07.360 --> 01:19:09.040 It's something to be joyful for. 01:19:09.040 --> 01:19:11.680 So none of this should ever be a burden, even if it's 01:19:11.600 --> 01:19:12.240 a duty. 01:19:12.240 --> 01:19:15.440 This is God pouring out his blessings even when he's telling us 01:19:15.440 --> 01:19:19.440 what the rules are, because as Christians, we actually have the possibility 01:19:19.440 --> 01:19:20.640 to follow the rules. 01:19:20.640 --> 01:19:24.080 Not perfectly, but even just to know them is a blessing. 01:19:24.080 --> 01:19:27.040 To know that we've fallen short is a blessing because it Because 01:19:27.040 --> 01:19:30.160 it points us back towards the cross to know I don't have 01:19:30.160 --> 01:19:32.480 to worry about the fact that I've been imperfect. 01:19:32.480 --> 01:19:34.720 God took care of the perfect life. 01:19:34.720 --> 01:19:37.200 I don't have to worry about anything, but I do have to 01:19:37.200 --> 01:19:38.800 focus on obedience. 01:19:38.800 --> 01:19:40.800 It's a question of attitude. 01:19:40.800 --> 01:19:42.720 I think so much of this comes down to that. 01:19:42.720 --> 01:19:43.920 What is your attitude? 01:19:43.920 --> 01:19:47.200 Our attitude when we're talking about these things is never, I'm gonna 01:19:47.200 --> 01:19:49.760 pile up a bunch of good works so Jesus can say, yeah, 01:19:49.760 --> 01:19:51.360 you didn't even need my justification. 01:19:51.360 --> 01:19:53.040 You did a great job by yourself. 01:19:53.040 --> 01:19:55.680 No Christian would ever have that attitude. 01:19:55.840 --> 01:19:59.200 And the attitude shouldn't be, man, God is such a you know, 01:19:59.200 --> 01:20:02.320 this is so burdensome, got all these rules, and it's he's a 01:20:02.560 --> 01:20:05.200 taskmaster. There's nothing of the sort. 01:20:05.200 --> 01:20:07.040 God is our Father in heaven. 01:20:07.040 --> 01:20:08.960 He's telling us how to live. 01:20:08.960 --> 01:20:13.120 That's the greatest gift of love that has ever occurred. 01:20:13.120 --> 01:20:16.400 For you to know your place, to know what is expected, it's 01:20:16.320 --> 01:20:17.040 a blessing. 01:20:17.040 --> 01:20:19.600 And that's why people who hear these things rejoice. 01:20:19.600 --> 01:20:21.120 They're thankful for them. 01:20:21.120 --> 01:20:25.280 Christian preaching should sound more like some of these things, and people 01:20:25.280 --> 01:20:28.480 would give thanks and their lives would be transformed. 01:20:28.480 --> 01:20:32.800 When Christian preaching doesn't transform lives, how can you even call it 01:20:32.800 --> 01:20:33.840 Christian preaching? 01:20:33.840 --> 01:20:34.880 What is it? 01:20:34.880 --> 01:20:41.360 There's feeding and there's sustenance, but if nothing ever changes, something's wrong. 01:20:41.360 --> 01:20:44.800 That's part of the maturity of the Christian life is learning and 01:20:44.800 --> 01:20:48.880 growing. There are many places in scripture that talks about soft foods 01:20:48.880 --> 01:20:51.920 and milk versus solid foods and meat. 01:20:51.920 --> 01:20:56.400 Those comparisons are given because maturity in the faith is going to 01:20:56.400 --> 01:20:58.160 change what you can handle. 01:20:58.160 --> 01:21:01.280 There are certain things that you know, certain doctrines and certain emphases 01:21:01.440 --> 01:21:04.400 that you would never begin with if you were just introducing someone 01:21:04.400 --> 01:21:07.440 to the Christian faith, because they would get the wrong impression, even 01:21:07.440 --> 01:21:08.800 when it's true. 01:21:08.800 --> 01:21:11.680 So it's fine to parcel things out and to make sure that 01:21:11.680 --> 01:21:14.080 you have a structure to the way to the way ideas are 01:21:14.080 --> 01:21:18.560 presented. But at the end of the day, everything in scripture matters 01:21:18.640 --> 01:21:20.160 or it wouldn't be there. 01:21:20.160 --> 01:21:23.840 And so with that in mind, take it all seriously. 01:21:24.000 --> 01:21:26.880 In turn, everything that you think about can't be I gotta serve 01:21:26.880 --> 01:21:29.520 God and I gotta be faithful and I gotta do d duties 01:21:29.680 --> 01:21:32.480 and oh it's you know you end up getting frazzled. 01:21:32.480 --> 01:21:34.640 That's not the right attitude. 01:21:34.640 --> 01:21:37.040 It's a gift and it's a blessing that these things have been 01:21:37.040 --> 01:21:40.160 given to us for edification, they do edify us. 01:21:40.160 --> 01:21:43.840 So receive this knowledge with thanksgiving. 01:21:43.840 --> 01:21:46.880 And again, like it's not from us, it's from scriptures, just reading 01:21:46.880 --> 01:21:48.320 a bunch of passages. 01:21:48.320 --> 01:21:51.040 Read the Bible and you're gonna find it and pay attention. 01:21:51.040 --> 01:21:53.120 Pay attention to everything that's around it. 01:21:53.120 --> 01:21:56.240 If you see some passage that happens to match in the image 01:21:56.240 --> 01:21:58.560 of God, go back to the beginning of the book and read 01:21:58.560 --> 01:22:00.560 the whole book, even if you weren't planning on it. 01:22:00.560 --> 01:22:02.560 Most books in the Bible you can read in a few minutes. 01:22:02.560 --> 01:22:03.600 They're not that long that long. 01:22:03.600 --> 01:22:05.840 There are a few that'll take a while, so you can you 01:22:05.840 --> 01:22:08.080 know let you off the hook for Romans. 01:22:08.080 --> 01:22:11.840 But Colossians, read the whole thing after you're finished listening to this. 01:22:11.840 --> 01:22:15.840 It's not long and you're gonna find that God talks about this 01:22:15.840 --> 01:22:19.600 in this way all the time, Christians need to sound more like 01:22:19.600 --> 01:22:21.840 God when we're talking about the godly life. 01:22:21.840 --> 01:22:24.640 It's as simple as that. 01:22:24.640 --> 01:22:30.000 Some of you will have undoubtedly noticed that we often will note 01:22:30.000 --> 01:22:36.160 when we are repeating something in the same episode or across episodes. 01:22:36.160 --> 01:22:39.120 And I want to make clear that the reason we do that, 01:22:39.120 --> 01:22:45.200 well, the reasons we do that are not tantamount to an apology. 01:22:45.200 --> 01:22:49.360 We're not saying we know we already said this, sorry for saying 01:22:49.360 --> 01:22:55.680 it again, because of course, as we have previously noted, repetition is 01:22:55.680 --> 01:22:57.360 key to learning. 01:22:57.360 --> 01:23:01.680 Repetition is key to committing things to memory. 01:23:01.680 --> 01:23:05.040 Repetition is very important. 01:23:05.040 --> 01:23:08.400 And so I want to close out this episode by going over 01:23:08.480 --> 01:23:12.480 by repeating a number of things that we have said in this 01:23:12.480 --> 01:23:16.000 episode and in previous episodes. 01:23:16.000 --> 01:23:21.280 With regard to man's will, with regard to man's free will, and 01:23:21.280 --> 01:23:23.440 I know that some of the reformed are going to wince at 01:23:24.080 --> 01:23:26.080 that phrase. 01:23:26.080 --> 01:23:29.760 But it is a doctrine that is in Scripture. 01:23:29.760 --> 01:23:35.440 With regard to man's free will, man does have the ability, even 01:23:35.440 --> 01:23:39.680 when not regenerate, to choose to do or not to do certain 01:23:39.680 --> 01:23:45.280 things. Man can stay his hand from murder, whether or not he 01:23:45.280 --> 01:23:46.560 is regenerate. 01:23:46.560 --> 01:23:47.440 He has a free will 01:23:48.560 --> 01:23:50.000 in that. 01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:54.720 On the other hand, with regard to man's bound will, and I 01:23:54.720 --> 01:23:58.400 know the Reformed will love that, and some others of you will 01:23:58.400 --> 01:24:05.920 not, with regard to man's bound will, in spiritual matters, the unregenerate 01:24:05.920 --> 01:24:08.000 man has no free will. 01:24:08.000 --> 01:24:14.320 Again, as Scripture says, he is dead in his sins and trespasses. 01:24:14.320 --> 01:24:16.400 Corpses do not act. 01:24:16.400 --> 01:24:20.400 And so the man who is dead, the man who is unregenerate, 01:24:20.400 --> 01:24:23.760 cannot act in spiritual matters. 01:24:23.760 --> 01:24:26.080 A helpful way to think of the distinction here 01:24:27.040 --> 01:24:31.440 is the traditional division of the Ten Commandments. 01:24:31.440 --> 01:24:34.480 You have the first table, which is one through three. 01:24:34.480 --> 01:24:37.040 I am of course using the traditional numbering. 01:24:37.040 --> 01:24:39.440 I will link to this in the show notes for those of 01:24:39.440 --> 01:24:42.480 you who unfamiliar with the numbering. 01:24:42.480 --> 01:24:47.680 But the first three commandments deal explicitly with the things of God. 01:24:47.680 --> 01:24:49.920 They are spiritual matters. 01:24:49.920 --> 01:24:53.120 Now of course this isn't black and white, it's not hard line 01:24:53.280 --> 01:24:58.560 because some commandments shade into others, there are positive and negative aspects 01:24:58.560 --> 01:25:03.440 of the commandments, but by and large the first table is spiritual 01:25:03.440 --> 01:25:08.160 matters. And with And with regard to those, the unregenerate man has 01:25:08.160 --> 01:25:09.920 no free will. 01:25:09.920 --> 01:25:15.840 The second table is with regard to earthly matters, matters affecting our 01:25:15.840 --> 01:25:22.880 neighbor. With regard to these, man has free will, because you can 01:25:22.960 --> 01:25:27.360 in fact honor your father and mother, whether you are regenerate or 01:25:27.360 --> 01:25:31.120 not. You can keep your hand from murder, whether you are regenerate 01:25:31.120 --> 01:25:36.000 or not, you can keep your hand from adultery, and theft. 01:25:36.000 --> 01:25:38.080 You can avoid covetousness. 01:25:38.080 --> 01:25:42.400 These are things that you can do, even before you are regenerate. 01:25:42.400 --> 01:25:45.840 But again they are not pleasing to God, because it is the 01:25:45.840 --> 01:25:50.000 status of the person, whether he is in Christ or not, that 01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:55.440 determines whether or not these objectively good things are pleasing to God, 01:25:55.440 --> 01:26:00.240 whether they are credited to you on account of Christ. 01:26:00.240 --> 01:26:06.320 This is one of those things that bears repeating virtually endlessly, because 01:26:06.320 --> 01:26:09.280 it is one of the core matters of the Christian faith. 01:26:09.280 --> 01:26:15.360 We're discussing really here justification, because if you are justified, then your 01:26:15.360 --> 01:26:16.960 good works are pleasing. 01:26:16.960 --> 01:26:20.320 If you are not justified, which is just a way of saying 01:26:20.320 --> 01:26:22.720 whether you believe or not, whether you have faith or not, whether 01:26:22.720 --> 01:26:26.800 you're a Christian or not, if you are not justified, nothing you 01:26:26.800 --> 01:26:31.200 do is pleasing to God because everything you do is sin in 01:26:31.200 --> 01:26:34.480 the words of Scripture. 01:26:34.480 --> 01:26:40.160 There's a particular paragraph from the large catechism that is directly on 01:26:40.160 --> 01:26:40.640 point here. 01:26:40.720 --> 01:26:44.560 I'm just going to read the paragraph because Luther puts it very 01:26:44.560 --> 01:26:47.680 well, as is so often the case. 01:26:47.840 --> 01:26:53.040 And what else are such supercilious, presumptuous saints, who are unwilling to 01:26:53.040 --> 01:26:57.680 read and study the catechism daily, doing than esteeming themselves much more 01:26:57.680 --> 01:27:02.960 learned than God Himself, with all his saints, angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, 01:27:02.960 --> 01:27:04.560 and all Christians. 01:27:04.560 --> 01:27:09.040 For inasmuch as God Himself is not ashamed to teach these things 01:27:09.040 --> 01:27:13.360 daily, as knowing nothing better to teach, and always keeps teaching the 01:27:13.360 --> 01:27:17.440 same thing, and does not take up anything new or different, and 01:27:17.440 --> 01:27:20.960 all the saints know nothing better or different to learn, and cannot 01:27:20.960 --> 01:27:24.640 finish learning this, are we not the finest of all fellows to 01:27:24.640 --> 01:27:27.840 imagine, if we have once read or heard it, that we know 01:27:27.840 --> 01:27:31.360 it all, and have no further need to read and learn, but 01:27:31.360 --> 01:27:36.000 can finish learning in one hour what God Himself cannot finish teaching, 01:27:36.000 --> 01:27:39.120 although He is engaged in teaching it from the beginning to the 01:27:39.120 --> 01:27:43.280 end of the world, and all prophets, together with all saints, have 01:27:43.280 --> 01:27:47.360 been occupied with learning it, and have ever remained pupils, and must 01:27:47.360 --> 01:27:50.720 continue to be such. 01:27:50.720 --> 01:27:53.680 Again repetition is how we learn. 01:27:53.680 --> 01:27:56.640 Repetition is how we commit things to memory. 01:27:56.640 --> 01:28:01.200 As Woe was saying, part of this is habit forming, because that 01:28:01.200 --> 01:28:03.600 is just how God made us. 01:28:03.600 --> 01:28:08.080 We are designed to form habits, and yes, there is insight from 01:28:08.080 --> 01:28:12.560 psychology and other fields of study with regard to habit formation. 01:28:12.560 --> 01:28:16.080 But ultimately it is just a matter of willing yourself to do 01:28:16.080 --> 01:28:18.160 it until it becomes a habit. 01:28:18.480 --> 01:28:23.600 With regard to the Christian faith, with regard to sanctification, that's a 01:28:23.600 --> 01:28:29.040 matter of daily prayer, daily study of God's Word, attending at least 01:28:29.040 --> 01:28:32.880 weekly services, all of these various things. 01:28:32.720 --> 01:28:34.960 And now it may sound like I'm just giving a list of 01:28:34.960 --> 01:28:38.320 commandments, thou shalt do X, Y, and Z. 01:28:38.320 --> 01:28:41.760 And to some degree, yes, that's true, because these are the things 01:28:41.760 --> 01:28:43.840 that God tells us to do. 01:28:43.840 --> 01:28:47.040 But he doesn't tell us to do them because they're 01:28:47.920 --> 01:28:50.240 difficult or burdensome. 01:28:50.240 --> 01:28:54.960 Yes, to draw that distinction again, these things are matters of duty, 01:28:54.960 --> 01:28:57.600 but they're not matters of burden. 01:28:57.600 --> 01:28:58.240 It is 01:28:59.120 --> 01:29:03.760 the highest, greatest honor to be an image of God. 01:29:03.760 --> 01:29:06.000 Think about what that means. 01:29:06.000 --> 01:29:11.280 You are an image in creation of the Creator Himself. 01:29:11.280 --> 01:29:15.200 What higher honor could he possibly afford you, other than of course 01:29:15.280 --> 01:29:19.040 having his son die for you to redeem you from your sins? 01:29:19.040 --> 01:29:21.040 That's not a burden. 01:29:21.040 --> 01:29:24.720 Duties flow from it, but that is a high honor. 01:29:24.720 --> 01:29:28.400 The same thing is true with regard to the Christian faith, with 01:29:28.400 --> 01:29:30.320 regard to the Christian walk. 01:29:30.320 --> 01:29:35.120 All of these things are benefits, they are blessings from God. 01:29:35.120 --> 01:29:38.000 It is a blessing to have God's Word and be able to 01:29:38.000 --> 01:29:38.720 read it. 01:29:38.720 --> 01:29:41.920 It is a blessing to be able to gather together with the 01:29:41.920 --> 01:29:46.320 saints and hear God's word, to hear the words of absolution, to 01:29:46.320 --> 01:29:48.080 partake of the sacrament. 01:29:48.080 --> 01:29:50.400 All of these things are blessings from God. 01:29:50.400 --> 01:29:55.440 We should not view them as burdens These are gifts from God 01:29:55.440 --> 01:29:59.360 our Father, and should be viewed as such. 01:29:59.360 --> 01:30:04.480 There's another distinction here that is a parallel distinction with duty and 01:30:04.480 --> 01:30:07.360 burden, and that would be work and labor. 01:30:07.680 --> 01:30:10.960 Scripture also draws this distinction. 01:30:10.960 --> 01:30:17.200 The fall turned man's work into labor this particular distinction, using very 01:30:17.200 --> 01:30:19.840 particular senses of these two terms. 01:30:20.560 --> 01:30:22.880 Man was made to work. 01:30:22.880 --> 01:30:25.440 Work is part of why God made us. 01:30:25.440 --> 01:30:27.680 It's one of the things He made us to do. 01:30:27.680 --> 01:30:30.560 It is where man finds his fulfillment. 01:30:30.560 --> 01:30:33.520 Without work, life becomes meaningless. 01:30:33.680 --> 01:30:37.040 No, I'm not saying in the economic or the capitalist sense of 01:30:37.040 --> 01:30:41.440 work. That's shading into labor in many cases. 01:30:41.440 --> 01:30:45.920 Rather, work is something God has given you to do, something He 01:30:45.920 --> 01:30:50.640 has given you the attributes, the ability, the capacity in order to 01:30:50.640 --> 01:30:54.960 do. That is part of what fulfills you in life. 01:30:54.960 --> 01:30:57.600 Man was made for work. 01:30:57.600 --> 01:31:03.120 Labor is a consequence of the fall, because labor is burdensome. 01:31:03.120 --> 01:31:08.400 And there's a reason that the pain that attends childbirth is called 01:31:08.400 --> 01:31:14.080 labor. Both man and woman were cursed with labor in the fall, 01:31:14.080 --> 01:31:16.800 in different senses of the term. 01:31:16.800 --> 01:31:21.280 But some overlap of course because woman's work after the fall is 01:31:21.280 --> 01:31:22.480 also laborious. 01:31:22.480 --> 01:31:26.240 It's not just men who were cursed with regard to that. 01:31:26.240 --> 01:31:28.480 There's a difference between those. 01:31:28.480 --> 01:31:31.040 Work and labor are not the same. 01:31:31.040 --> 01:31:34.560 The same is true with regard to duty and burden. 01:31:34.560 --> 01:31:37.920 The things we are speaking of with regard to being an image 01:31:37.920 --> 01:31:44.960 of God, with regard to cooperating with the Holy Spirit in sanctification, 01:31:44.960 --> 01:31:46.960 these things are duty. 01:31:46.960 --> 01:31:49.680 Again, they are also blessings, but they are duty. 01:31:49.680 --> 01:31:51.840 They are not burdensome. 01:31:51.840 --> 01:31:56.320 And they become more and more a duty and less and less 01:31:56.320 --> 01:32:00.000 a burden, if they start off seeming that way, as you as 01:32:00.000 --> 01:32:05.280 you progress in your Christian walk, as you progress in sanctification. 01:32:05.280 --> 01:32:09.440 Because at some point it simply becomes habit. 01:32:09.440 --> 01:32:12.160 It becomes part of your day that you wake up and you 01:32:12.160 --> 01:32:14.560 pray. You pray and then you go to bed. 01:32:14.560 --> 01:32:16.000 You pray before meals. 01:32:16.000 --> 01:32:17.600 You read God's Word. 01:32:17.600 --> 01:32:21.360 These things become a part of your life and they become a 01:32:21.360 --> 01:32:26.000 feedback loop because you are being sanctified by these acts and that 01:32:26.000 --> 01:32:31.120 sanctification makes it easier to continue doing those things. 01:32:31.120 --> 01:32:34.480 This is all part of the Christian life, and again, it is 01:32:34.480 --> 01:32:37.200 blessing. Think of what this actually is. 01:32:37.520 --> 01:32:40.400 Don't look at it as oh well I have to spend an 01:32:40.400 --> 01:32:44.400 hour reading scripture or if it's ten minutes however long it happens 01:32:44.400 --> 01:32:45.280 to be. 01:32:45.280 --> 01:32:49.360 Don't look at it as some burdensome thing on a checklist that 01:32:49.360 --> 01:32:50.480 you have to do. 01:32:50.480 --> 01:32:54.160 Rather look at it as the great honor and blessing that it 01:32:54.160 --> 01:32:59.040 is. You get to spend time with the Creator of the universe. 01:32:59.040 --> 01:33:03.120 And he's going to speak to you personally in that time. 01:33:03.120 --> 01:33:06.080 And you may think, well, it's just the word, it's written and 01:33:06.080 --> 01:33:08.000 it's the same for everyone. 01:33:08.000 --> 01:33:09.760 Yes and no. 01:33:09.760 --> 01:33:13.280 Yes, the same words appear on the page, and yes, it is 01:33:13.280 --> 01:33:17.280 the same for everyone, but no it's not the same for everyone, 01:33:17.280 --> 01:33:22.720 because for Christians who are indwelt by the Holy Ghost, he is 01:33:22.720 --> 01:33:24.080 going to speak to you. 01:33:24.080 --> 01:33:26.480 I'm not saying you're going to hear a voice in your head 01:33:26.640 --> 01:33:28.880 or you're going to hear a voice from the corner of the 01:33:28.880 --> 01:33:32.080 room or whatever it happens to you To be. 01:33:32.160 --> 01:33:36.240 But God promises to be in His Word and to be active 01:33:36.240 --> 01:33:40.160 in and through His Word, and He does that in Christians through 01:33:40.160 --> 01:33:42.880 the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 01:33:42.880 --> 01:33:45.600 And so God is going to speak to you personally when you 01:33:45.600 --> 01:33:47.120 do these things. 01:33:47.120 --> 01:33:50.400 That is one of the highest possible honors that could be afforded 01:33:50.400 --> 01:33:55.600 any creature, to have that sort of intimate personal relationship with the 01:33:55.600 --> 01:33:57.200 Creator of the universe. 01:33:57.360 --> 01:34:00.800 And as human beings we have the additional layer to that of 01:34:00.800 --> 01:34:05.600 being images of God, of imaging God in creation, of having these 01:34:05.600 --> 01:34:11.280 reflected attributes, these perfections that are present in God, that are present 01:34:11.280 --> 01:34:16.720 in us as aspects of being images of God. 01:34:16.720 --> 01:34:19.760 This is what it means to be a Christian, to have a 01:34:19.760 --> 01:34:22.320 Christian worldview, to participate in 01:34:23.280 --> 01:34:26.560 the Christian life, to have this walk with God. 01:34:26.560 --> 01:34:29.840 I know that some people don't particularly like that term because it's 01:34:29.840 --> 01:34:32.880 sort of been co opted in modern discourse. 01:34:32.880 --> 01:34:34.240 But it's correct. 01:34:34.240 --> 01:34:39.120 The apostles literally walked with Christ, that was their walk with God. 01:34:39.120 --> 01:34:43.920 For us here and now, our walk with God is prayer, and 01:34:43.920 --> 01:34:48.000 reading the scriptures, and fasting, all of the various things that are 01:34:48.000 --> 01:34:50.160 part of Christian praxis. 01:34:50.160 --> 01:34:53.120 It's important to get doctrine and theology right. 01:34:53.120 --> 01:34:56.880 This podcast is largely about doctrine and theology. 01:34:56.880 --> 01:35:01.200 It's about thinking about the Christian life, but it's also about exhorting 01:35:01.920 --> 01:35:06.480 you to behave as a Christian, to live the Christian life. 01:35:06.480 --> 01:35:10.640 And living the Christian life is a matter of praxis. 01:35:10.640 --> 01:35:14.160 So yes, it's important to understand what it means to be an 01:35:14.160 --> 01:35:15.360 image of God. 01:35:15.360 --> 01:35:16.800 It's not a list. 01:35:16.800 --> 01:35:18.480 It's reflecting God and creation. 01:35:18.480 --> 01:35:20.320 It's imaging God in creation. 01:35:20.320 --> 01:35:23.200 It's being in that relationship with God. 01:35:23.200 --> 01:35:28.480 It's all of these things that we mentioned in these two episodes. 01:35:28.480 --> 01:35:34.560 But you transform that into your Christian life, into these things that 01:35:34.560 --> 01:35:38.640 you do as a Christian, because they help you to grow. 01:35:38.640 --> 01:35:44.320 Because this is the process by which you are sanctified, because ultimately 01:35:44.320 --> 01:35:48.480 you are being conformed to that perfect image of God, which is 01:35:48.480 --> 01:35:52.160 Christ. That is the goal of the Christian life. 01:35:52.160 --> 01:35:55.440 The goal of the Christian life is to be the image of 01:35:55.440 --> 01:35:59.920 God that you were meant to be, to cooperate with the Holy 01:35:59.920 --> 01:36:04.960 Spirit in your sanctification that brings you in line with the perfect 01:36:04.960 --> 01:36:08.800 version of yourself that God that God has always wanted you to 01:36:08.800 --> 01:36:12.720 be, that He created you to be, to which He will restore 01:36:12.720 --> 01:36:14.560 you at the resurrection. 01:36:14.560 --> 01:36:18.240 These things will not be perfect in this life, because in this 01:36:18.240 --> 01:36:21.200 life the consequences of the fall remain. 01:36:21.440 --> 01:36:26.800 However, as Christians, we get to look forward to the last day, 01:36:26.800 --> 01:36:31.200 we get to look forward to the judgment, because unlike the goats, 01:36:31.200 --> 01:36:36.000 we will be told, Well done, good and faithful servant, and we 01:36:36.000 --> 01:36:40.160 will get to join the sheep at the right hand of God. 01:36:40.160 --> 01:36:41.920 That is the goal of the Christian life. 01:36:41.920 --> 01:36:43.840 That is the goal of all of this. 01:36:44.000 --> 01:36:48.880 It is living through a process of sanctification to reach the end 01:36:48.880 --> 01:36:53.760 goal, because the goal is to run the race successfully, to spend 01:36:53.760 --> 01:36:58.800 eternity becoming more and more what God wants us to be. 01:36:58.800 --> 01:37:02.880 Because this is an eternal process, not just a temporal, because we 01:37:02.880 --> 01:37:06.400 will forever be moving Godward in eternity. 01:37:06.400 --> 01:37:10.160 But there it will come without any burden, without any of the 01:37:10.480 --> 01:37:13.200 suffering and pain that takes place here. 01:37:13.200 --> 01:37:16.640 Because then we will be perfected, in the way that we cannot 01:37:16.640 --> 01:37:20.480 be in this life, because living in a fallen world, we are 01:37:20.480 --> 01:37:23.200 not perfect, we will not be perfected. 01:37:23.200 --> 01:37:27.600 But there, in the blink of an eye, we will once again 01:37:27.600 --> 01:37:30.400 be what God intended for us to be, what Adam was in 01:37:30.400 --> 01:37:32.000 the garden. 01:37:32.000 --> 01:37:33.760 That is the Christian life. 01:37:33.760 --> 01:37:36.240 That is what it means to be an image of God. 01:37:36.240 --> 01:37:41.040 That is sanctification, and all of it is good news.