Substitutionary Death and Imputed Righteousness

killed an animal and covered them with the skin of that animal instead. Substituting the death of the animal for their death. They should have died, the animal died instead. That's a substitution. And we believe that animal was a lamb because in Genesis 4, the next chapter, Abel became a shepherd to offer the firstling of the flock and the fat portion as a substitute for sin or an offering for sin. And we know the Bible calls him a prophet, and the Spirit of Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus Christ. And the prophets, according to Peter, foresaw or inquired into the sufferings of the Christ and the glories to follow. And the seed of the woman had already been promised who would crush Satan's head. And with that, there was this idea of substitution. At the same time God made that promise, he covered them with skins after killing an animal right in front of them. So it was very powerful because that was the first time they saw death. And until he killed that animal, based on his own word, they thought they were going to die. So the death of that animal was substituted for their life. And they were able to continue living, and their nakedness was covered by the skin of the animal. Substitution. This is important because a lot of people don't believe in substitution or atonement. And yet, if you don't believe it, you don't have a way to be saved. And it is by believing it that you are saved. So it is that important. The word substitution is not a biblical word. The concept is there. And he says, by popular usage, the word atonement has been pressed into the service of trying to come up with a word that covers everything the death of Christ implies. And it's not enough. One reason is because atonement is not a New Testament word. Atonement was in the Old Testament, and it meant to cover their sins. He says, this word does not appear in the original text in the New Testament as it was used in the Old Testament only to cover sin. However, the word atonement does indicate the method, God's method of dealing with sin before the cross. In the Old Testament, while requiring no more than a symbolic animal sacrifice for the remission of sins and winking at sin, God was acting in perfect righteousness since he was awaiting the one coming, his own lamb who would no way pass over or cover sin, but who would take it away forever. So what's he saying? He's saying, look, atonement in the Old Testament meant to cover. Okay. And there was a sacrifice that was a picture. It was symbolic only. Now they knew this as we'll see, the prophets knew that the sufferings were tied up with the promise of the seed. It was he that would suffer and die. Don't listen to the hyper dispensationalists who tell you that people believed that those animal sacrifices dealt with their sin. No, those sins were only covered and God was winking at those sins and tolerating them. And that's in Romans 3.25. Somebody asked me about this the other day, but it says, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. Now that's the word really, instead of atonement, we have propitiation through faith in his blood. Okay. God has set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission or tolerance of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. And somebody asked me about that the other day, they said, well, someone was telling me that he only forgave our past sins. And if we, we had to deal with our present sins or not saved, well, this actually, uh, is not talking about that. This is talking about before the cross, there was a covering provided by man as a substitute that foretold of Christ who would really pay the price. And that covering served as a symbol. It didn't actually take away sins, but God forbeared the sins. He tolerated them and was righteous in doing so because eventually the lamb would come who would take away the sins of the whole world, past, present, and future. Um, and he says, winking at sin, and that's an ax where Paul says, uh, he was preaching the gospel and he said, and times of this ignorance, God winked at the different sins, but now commands everyone everywhere to repent, uh, because he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he's ordained, where he's given assurance unto all men and that he raised him from the dead. So he's saying he used to wink at mankind's sins and tolerate them. And there was this substitutionary covering you could believe in, but now the man has come, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the seed of the woman, seed of Abraham, seed of David, the one to whom all the promises that God ever made to man fall on. He's the heir and he's the representative of the human race. He's the, he is the one who has the ability first because he's the representative and he has all the titles to all the covenants God made with man, all the promises, uh, to represent man in dealings with God. And then as the righteous one who sin not, he was in a position to lay down his life as a substitute for everybody. And because he did that, he gained the right or purchased the right to judge mankind, to just do whatever he wants with mankind. He owns the human race. He bought it, which we'll see. He can dispose of it. He can save it. He can throw it in the fire, whatever he wants. Okay. But he did that not to condemn mankind, but to save us. And we see that in John where he says, God sent his own son in the world. Not that the world would be condemned, but that the world might be saved through him. So he's the rightful judge, but he's the propitiation for all the sins and he's the substitute. And he is the one that God's committed all judgment to. And so now you either believe in him or reject him and are saved or damned based on that. Let's get back to the, I gotta figure out how to navigate this. Okay. Sorry. Be patient with me. Okay. How do I get back to the library? Ah, I guess I just do that. So now he says he required, so he's talking about how he just required a symbolic animal sacrifice for the remission or the covering or the toleration or the winking at sin. But he was acting in perfect righteousness in tolerating those sins because the man was coming who would pay the price. And that man is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Next day, John sees Jesus coming to him. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Again, all these verses will eventually be in the description for you to look at. Okay. In attempting to consider the full value of the death of Christ, I can actually talk about the value of the death of Christ. And it gets pretty deep, several different points. We should distinguish or we should, we should meditate on, I should say the death of Christ assures us of the love of God towards the sinner. This is the first thing, the value of his death shows us God's love. Um, John three 16, we know God's a love the world that he gave his only begotten son. Whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. Right? Then Romans five, eight changed my life, but God commends his own love towards us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now I used to look at my life and how I felt and my past and how much I had and how much I lost, how much I suffered and how much I gained and compared to other people and say, this is the evidence of how much God loves me. And it was terrible. I didn't believe God loved me. Why? Because I was looking at myself and not at what God points to, to commend his love when he wants to communicate his love to you and fill your heart with the knowledge of his love. He doesn't tell you to look at yourself or your situation, blessings come and go. Paul said, I've learned to be content. I can abase, I get a bound. I can be in prison. I can suffer things that you can't even imagine. And yet I know nothing can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ. Why could he say that? Because his knowledge was based, knowledge of God's love was rooted in where God had commended his love, which is in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you want to know God's love for you, you have to look away from yourself and look to the cross of Christ. The death of Christ is God's communication about his righteousness, but his love for you. That's where he's spoken about his love. There is no knowledge of God's love apart from the cross of Christ, because that's where God's communicated it. That's where God dealt with us and we needed to be dealt with. And there's no, you know, John talks about, or is it James who says, you know, what good does it tell someone to be blessed and be warm and not give him clothes? God accomplished a work to demonstrate his love for us. He gave his only begotten son to death and his son gave himself up for us as a substitution for the penalty for our sins. And that was not because God was angry at us, but because God loved us. So God is not pictured as wrathful and a vengeful in the cross of Christ. He is pictured as loving us. He was just wrathful and vengeful. He just wanted to suffer the consequences of our sin. But instead he gave us his son and he says, if you want to know my love, you have to look away from yourself and your situation and blessings and not blessing and physical health and not physical health and the ups and downs of this life and how other people are doing. And look at the cross of Christ. That's where I've come into my love. And it's while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Not while we were sorry. Not while we were trying to persuade God to forgive us. Not while we were vowing to do better and trying harder. No. While we were strong in our sin, ungodly, justly condemned, proud of our sins. Before I was saved, I was proud of my sins. I had a whole lifestyle of sin and I was proud of it. And I wanted people to be proud of it with me. I was a strong sinner and Christ, God commended his love. And that while I was a sinner, Christ died for me. He didn't die for me once I became good. He died for me and commended his love to me and said, I love you while I was a sinner. Something to meditate on. First John 3.16, hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid his life down for us. And then John 1, John 4, 9 in this was manifested the love of God towards us, because God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. How do I know God's love? I have to look at the cross. Nowhere else. That's really important that you look away from yourself and look at the word of God and what it says about the love of God. And where does he point us to? He points us to the cross. And that again is true all the way through the scriptures. Where is the first occurrence of the word love? If you look it up in your Bible, you'll see that it's in Genesis 22, I think 21, where God says to Abraham, take Isaac, your only son, who you love and sacrifice him to me. This was the promise seed. And this wasn't his only son, by the way, because Ishmael was his son too, but God didn't recognize Ishmael. And this wording is very specific because doesn't it sound like God's soul of the world that he gave his only begotten son. He said, take your son whom you love and make him an offering. And so Isaac gathered, Abraham gathered Isaac, who by the way was around maybe 33, who followed him obediently for a three-day journey. And he's carrying the wood and the fire. And he said, father, we have, he said, father. And he said, here I am, son, really interesting exchange. He says, we have the wood and we have the fire, but where's the offering? Where's the burnt offering? He knew it was an offering for sin. He knew it was an offering for God. They were an offer. And Abraham said, God will provide himself an offering. So Abraham pointed to substitution. Okay. And then we know that when Abraham was ready to raise the knife to kill Isaac, who represented all the promises of God and Hebrews 11 says, he believed that Isaac would have to be raised from the dead because God could not lie. He promised him all these things. So he believed in, he, he believed in resurrection. Interesting. Interesting. And he knew Isaac was either a forerunner, either this Christ or the forerunner of the Christ, the seed that was promised, the seed of Abraham. He's sacrificing him. And at the last minute, the angel, the word of the Lord appears to him and says, don't do it. And he looks up and there's a ram caught in a thicket by its head. Now the ram is the substitute and that ram was substituted for Isaac. Now the ram caught in the thicket by its horns really reminds me, of course, of the crown of thorns on Jesus' head. His head was caught in a thicket. A thicket is a thorn bush. And he is the lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. This is the first instance of the word love in the Bible, in this beautiful picture of the father offering his son as a substitute. And when God put the ram in its place, in the place of Isaac, Abraham named the Mount Jehovah-Jireh, which means God will provide. And said, in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be seen, which again is a prophetic utterance. And 2000 years later on that same mountain, Moriah, God offered his son and commended his love. And that he offered his only begotten son as a substitute for our sins. And Abraham knew that. Okay. The spirit of prophecy. Abraham was a prophet. God told Pharaoh that Abraham was a prophet, which means again, he had the testimony. He inquired concerning the sufferings of the Christ and the glories to follow. The seed of Abraham would eventually, the descendant of Isaac is Christ, would be the substitute for the sins and the propitiation. And that is the demonstration of God's love. And the first use of a word in the Bible governs its definition throughout the Bible typically. So this is how God defined love from the very beginning of Genesis. When you talk about love, its first use is in this story that perfectly illustrates the offering of Christ for our sins. How do I know God loves me? Okay. It is not look at myself and my feelings. Look how warm my heart feels. How many dreams did I get? Did I get a gift? Is he using me? No, it is. While I was a sinner, Christ died for me. That's how God commends his love. That's how he wants us to think of it. And it's as you think about things the way God wants you to think about them based on his definitions, that the spirit comes in to bear witness and fill your heart and fill your heart with the taste of those things you're meditating on. It's so important to think about things the way God does. And that's why you want to take these verses and write them down in a notebook and memorize them and meditate on them. Okay. Now this is a fairly academic study, but I'm trying to fill it in a little with some heart stuff, you know? Okay. So then he says, now the death of Christ assures us that the love of God towards the sinner, remember we're talking about the value of Christ's death. What's its first point? It manifests God, it demonstrates God's love towards us. And then he says, naturally a reflex influence or moral appeal through this truth upon the life of everyone who receives it. Okay. Here's two verses. Well, let's just look at this one. Second Corinthians 5.15. And he died for all that they, which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but he, which died for them and rose again. Doesn't that sound like a demand? Well, it's not. Okay. It is a appeal. And the new Testament, when you get to the epistles, which are the writings to the churches, what you have are not so many commandments, but as appeals, they appeal to you based on something that's already true based on God's love for you. Based on the fact that Christ died for us, we live into him. And this is something, an appeal. It's, it's the appeal to a new nature. This is not something that is told to believers. I'm sorry. Unbelievers, unbelievers have nothing in them that corresponds to something like this. You tell an Lord shipper tells the unbeliever Christ died for you. And therefore you owe him your life and you better give it to him. And the unbeliever being an entity of God, enemy of God, hostile towards God, unable to be subject to God says, I can't do that, nor will I. Okay. But a believer has been regenerated and has Christ living in him and has a new nature and he doesn't need an outward command to give himself to God. He needs an appeal that's based on something God has done for him. This is the way it works. God appeals to us based on what he has done. He has given Christ for us and it's in manifesting his love for us in Christ to our hearts and bringing us into the knowledge of that love, that there's an appeal that we would live on to him. And that appeal is not outward. Like, please give yourself to Jesus because you owe him. No, it's a response from your new nature that happens automatically. The appeals that are based on Christ's work come out of his own, that are fulfilled by his own life in us. This is really deep and I know how time to really develop it here. But I used to read that second Corinthians, you know, he died for all that they who live should not live to themselves, but to him that rose again after he died for them. Yeah, you're right. I should give myself to Jesus. And of course I would find that I couldn't because now I'm on the flesh. And when I'm in the flesh, the law of sin says, no, I ain't living to Jesus. You're kidding me. But when I'm in the spirit, I'm not looking at the command to give myself to Jesus. I'm giving, I'm looking at what is this appeal based on? He died.

Christ died for us. Now, I used to look at my life, and how I felt, and my past, and how much I had and how much I lost, how much I suffered and how much I gained, and compare it to other people, and say this is the evidence of how much God loves me. And it was terrible. I didn't believe God loved me. Why? Because I was looking at myself and not at what God points to to commend His love. When He wants to communicate His love to you and fill your heart with the knowledge of His love, He doesn't tell you to look at yourself or your situation. Blessings come and go. Paul said, I've learned to be content, I can abase, I can be in prison, I can suffer things that you can't even imagine, and yet I know nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ. Why could he say that? Because his knowledge was based, knowledge of God's love was rooted in where God had commended His love, which is in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If you want to know God's love for you, you have to look away from yourself and look to the cross of Christ. The death of Christ is God's communication about His righteousness but His love for you. That's where He's spoken about His love. There is no knowledge of God's love apart from the cross of Christ because that's where God's communicated it. That's where God dealt with us and we needed to be dealt with. And there's no, you know, John talks about, or is it James who says, you know, what good does it tell someone to be blessed and be warm and not give them clothes? God accomplished a work to demonstrate His love for us. He gave His only begotten Son to death and His Son gave Himself up for us as a substitution for the penalty for our sins. And that was not because God was angry at us, but because God loved us. So God is not pictured as wrathful and vengeful in the cross of Christ. He is pictured as loving us. He was just wrathful and vengeful, He just wanted to suffer the consequences of our sin. But instead He gave us His Son and He says, if you want to know my love, you have to look away from yourself and your situation and blessings and not blessing and physical health and not physical health and the ups and downs of this life and how other people are doing and look at the cross of Christ. That's where I've committed my love. And it's while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Not while we were sorry. Not while we were trying to persuade God to forgive us. Not while we were vowing to do better and trying harder. No, while we were strong in our sin, ungodly, justly condemned, proud of our sins. You know, before I was saved, I was proud of my sins. I had a whole lifestyle of sin and I was proud of it and I wanted people to be proud of it with me. I was a strong sinner and Christ, God commended His love.

Romans 5 is that it is one act of disobedience that brought sin onto all of us and death through sin and it is one act of obedience, which is the death of Christ, that righteousness and life reign now. So we're talking about one act, which is the death of Christ, not law keeping. If you don't want to talk about it, don't worry about it, it's not that big of a deal. I did some messages on it though, on vicarious law keeping, it can be a backdoor for legalism. If you think that Christ keeps the law rather than understanding that the law is the shadow and Christ is the reality, the law is just a shadow, Christ is the reality. The light casts the shadow, the shadow doesn't cast the light. He didn't come down to fulfill the law, he came to be the manifestation of Christ's righteousness, of God's righteousness, and Romans 3 says that he was the manifestation of God's righteousness apart from the law, though it was witnessed by the law and the prophets because the law is a shadow, but he is the reality. The death of Christ was a priestly mediation by which the world was reconciled to God. This is the fourth point. How valuable is it? It reconciled the whole world. Reconciliation results when enmity is removed and while it is never implied that the world's enmity towards God is removed, it is declared that a judicial state of the world is altered before God by the death of Christ that he is said to have reconciled the world to himself. Now that's 2 Corinthians 5 where it says God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting the trespasses against us. So what he's saying is the world still hates God and rejects him, and for that reason we'll head towards an ultimate judgment when it resists the bringing in of his kingdom. That kingdom will be destroyed that resists his kingdom when it comes, but God purchased the forgiveness of everyone's sins, and from his point of view, there's no sin that will keep you out of heaven if you believe in Jesus Christ. It's settled. He has reconciled the world to himself, and that also gave him the right to establish his kingdom in the world eventually, and to deal with mankind. So it was declared that the judicial state of the world is so altered before God by the death of Christ that he is said to have reconciled the world to himself. It's so complete and far-reaching is this provision that it is added in the scriptures that he is not now imputing their trespasses.

Well, now I do have to go on this trip, but I wanted to, make that clear why we object to this idea of imparted or infused righteousness versus imputed, which is an alien righteousness, which is God's righteousness, upon manifested in Christ and then credited to me even though I'm an ungodly sinner. And yes, I can be a sinner and still have Jesus.

father's inheritance and the saints. We are his treasure and he bought the whole field to gain the treasure. He didn't have the right to take us unless he purchased the whole of humanity and became the judge. See, he's the righteous judge and all judgment's been given to him, Jesus Christ, the man as the representative of the human race and as the head of the human race, and he bore the sins so that he wouldn't have to judge, but he could save those who believe and we're his treasure, we're his inheritance, and we're the father's inheritance being shepherded home by the captain of our salvation, who's bringing many sons into glory, but he took the sins on himself and purchased the whole field. That's the point. And that's the ransom price wasn't just my sins. It was everybody. So don't listen to the Calvinists who say, Oh, limited atonement means that he only died for the elect. No, he purchased everybody. And now he has the right to dispose with mankind or save mankind. And the, what he's done is he shut everybody up onto sin and said, now all you have to do is believe there's nothing left to do. I paid the price. You are all condemned justly, but I paid the price. All you have to do is believe. Um, okay. And he bore away our sins forever, forever. Okay. Um, John one 29, we know is, uh, behold the land of God that takes away the sins of the world. Isaiah 52, seven through 12. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet. He opened not his mouth. Now this is what Peter was quoting from in our last message. Um, he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people. He was stricken. He was made his grave with the wicked and with the rich and his death because he'd done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth yet. It pleased the Lord to blue bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. He will see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. My strictest servant, justify many for he will bear their iniquities. Now, and then therefore I will divide his portion with the great and divide the spoil of the strong because he's poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This is old Testament. You guys probably know it. Isaiah 53, it clearly tells us that God's righteous servant will give his soul as an offering for sin. He will be numbered with the transgressors. He will be put to death, cut off from the land of living and buried with the rich. Jesus fulfilled all of that and he'll be raised from the dead. Okay. And he will, the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand and he'll see the travail of his soul and they'll be satisfied and people will be saved and justified through the knowledge of him. That is a clear presentation of the gospel. Don't listen to the hyper-dispensationalists who tell you that the old Testament saints only believed in the blood and that's what saved them. The animal sacrifices actually saved them. No, they knew that those types, those sacrifices were a type, a picture of the one who was to come, the seed of the woman that was promised, who would bruise the head of the serpent, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David, who would be God's son and possess the kingdom, who, and then he was the one who would suffer and die and raise again and justify the people because he would suffer for their sins and through the knowledge of him, many would be justified. And then he would divide the spoil with them. That's, that's the gospel. That's what they believed in the old Testament. That's what the prophet saw. Okay. Um, let's see. What other verses here? Uh, yeah, it goes, okay. Um, first Corinthians five, seven purge out the, therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Now, what are we talking about? He took our sins. They bore them away forever. Purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. Now in the old Testament, Oh, for even as Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us, there was a sacrifice called the Passover, right? And after the Passover, which was when the children of Egypt, children of Israel were delivered from Egypt, they celebrated the Passover. There was seven days to be celebrated of unleavened bread, and there was no leaven to be found in their house. And that is a type of the Christian life where Christ is our unleavened bread. Leaven is anything other than Christ that's injected into the fellowship. It can be hypocrisy. It can be malice. It can be politics. It can be false doctrine. Uh, it can be false miracles and false prophecies and seducing spirits and idols, all that stuff is leavened. And Christianity has been thoroughly leavened, but through the sanctification of the word, the Lord is bringing us back to the feast of unleavened bread. We are unleavened, but he says, purge out therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened. So on the one hand we're unleavened and yet we need to purge out the leaven. And we've been talking about that in our second Corinthians study that we had to come out and be separate. There's a command to come out from that, which is unclean. And it's talking about religious uncleanness, a mixture of leaven in with the meal. No, you can't have a mixture. It's got to be Christ, Christ, Christ, and only Christ. And he, as the Passover purged our sins so that we could be unleavened. And now we're to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread in our Christian life and keep the feast and keep only Christ. And he's to be our satisfaction or enjoyment. And so he is, that's part of the ransom price. His offering purchased the price for us to enjoy the feast. And we should be feasting. Our Christian life should be a feast of satisfaction in Christ at his table because he purchased that for us. That's not just in heaven. That's now, uh, Ephesians five, two, um, walk in love is Christ. Love for us loved us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice for God, a sweet smelling savor. And remember, uh, first Corinthian second Corinthians three said that we are, no two, sorry, we are a sweet fragrance or a sweet savor of Christ unto God. He's in us and the fragrance of his offering is the burnt offering. And it's a perpetual memorial before God, satisfying God completely. This is important. He, when he took the condemnation off of us, he also purchased God's pleasure. Of us. He put himself in our place as our substitute in a very thorough way. Not only did he take our sins away, but he became the sweet smelling savor, the burnt offering that pleased the father. And now that fragrance is going up from within us. So God draws near to us and smells Christ. That's the type is that he is attracted to us because we are, uh, perfumed with the sweet savor of Christ and we're unleavened and we are here enjoying him as our feast, that's what he's purchased. Not just the rolling back of sin, but actually reconciling us to God and bringing us into his presence in a way where he's pleased with us. And I've told you guys before that if you want to understand, if God loves you, you look at the cross, but if you want to understand, if God likes you, look at the burnt offering, the sweet savor that goes up. That's one of the aspects of the offering. There was the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and each of those represented different aspects of the death of Jesus Christ for us. And the burnt offering was the basis of all of it. And the burnt offerings was the blood was sprinkled on the altar seven times. And then the other sacrifices were accepted because the altar was made most holy because of the blood of the burnt offering and the burnt offering represents Christ as the one who is completely for the father, who pleases him in every way. Who loves him with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. Who's always into the bosom of the father and then whom the father is well-pleased. And he gives that as the basis. That life was offered up to the father as a substitute for your life. Okay. God does not deal with you on the basis of your life. He deals with you on the basis of a substitute that was given to you and to purchase the right to give that to you. He had to cut you out from the human race. And he couldn't do that until he bought the whole human race with his blood. Because he had to have the right to dispose of it and to cut off the old branch and bring you out and graft you into himself and then give you his life as your substitute in life to be a fragrance unto God. This is very deep and this is beyond the scope of this study, but I'm just going by inspiration, what I see from these verses, he was 912, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered into the holy place, having attained eternal redemption from the curse of the curse of the curse. Eternal redemption for us, verse 22, and all things by the law are purged with blood without the shedding of blood. There's no remission of sin. We know that. And then he has, at the end of the world has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. All this is speaking to the fact that his death put away sin forever and purchased and ransomed us, paid the price, took the condemnation off us and brought us into the presence of God. For as if we are Christ himself and gave us his life to be our substitute before God forever, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with incorruptible things, silver and gold from your vain conversation by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot who was for attained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory that your faith might be in God, your faith and hope, but the point is, this is the value of the blood of Christ. It is more precious than, uh, silver and gold that are anything corruptible. It's incorruptible. His blood is the life of the flesh is in the blood. The very eternal life of Christ was lived and tabernacled in human flesh. And that human flesh, which lived God and expressed God in humanity was then offered up as a gift to pay a price, to ransom us and purchase us and we're his now. And then that blood reconciled us to God, took away the condemnation and then secured the feast for us, the riches of God's household as the inheritance and secured us as the treasure that God bought the whole field for. And now get secured that we have a substitute, which is Christ himself living his life in us as a sweet saver, uh, going up to God. And that's why God likes us and loves us because of Christ. We smell like Christ to him and he purchased it. He purchased the whole human race with his blood to do all that. Okay. So we're talking about the value of his death. You've seen the value of his death. Um, okay. So the death of Christ is represented on his part as an act of obedience, which sinner, uh, to the law, which sinners have broken, which act is acceptable to God in their stead. Uh, this part, I don't know about that. Sounds a little like vicarious law keeping. I know his death was an act of obedience to the father, but I don't believe it was an obedient, uh, act of obedience to the law. I believe it was his obedience to the father, according to the everlasting covenant. And I think later Louis Barry Schaeffer would teach against vicarious law keeping. So I'm surprised that's in here unless I'm misreading it. Um, but here's the verses, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, uh, to redeem those under the law, Philippians two, eight being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross, Romans five, 19 for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by one, the obedience of the one many shall be made righteous. Now the whole point in Romans five is that it is one act of disobedience that brought trans, uh, sin onto all of us and death through sin. And it is one act of obedience, which is the death of Christ that righteousness and life reign now. So we're talking about one act, which is the death of Christ, not a law keeping. Just, and if you don't want to talk about it, don't worry about it. It's, it's not that big of a deal. Um, I did some messages on it though, uh, on vicarious law keeping and it's, it's can be a backdoor for legalism. If you think that Christ keeps the law rather than understanding that the law is the shadow and Christ is the reality. The law is just a shadow. Christ is the reality. The light cast the shadow. The shadow doesn't cast the light. He didn't come down to fulfill the law. He came to be, uh, the manifestation of Christ's righteousness of God's righteousness and Romans three says that he was the manifestation of God's righteousness apart from the law, though it was witnessed by the law and the prophets because the law is a shadow, but he is the reality. Okay. Um, the death of Christ was a priestly mediation by which the world was reconciled to God. This is the fourth point. How valuable is it reconciled the whole world reconciliation results when entity is removed and while it is never implied that the world's entity towards God is removed. It is declared that a judicial state of the world is altered before God by the death of Christ that he has said to have reconciled the world to himself. Now that's second Corinthians five, where it says, uh, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting the trespasses against us. So what he's saying is that world still hates God and rejects him. And for that reason, we'll head towards an ultimate, uh, judgment when it resists the bringing in of his kingdom, that kingdom will be destroyed. That resists his kingdom when it comes, but God purchased the forgiveness of everyone's sins. And from his point of view, there's no sin that will keep you out of heaven. If you believe in Jesus Christ, it's settled. He has reconciled the world to himself. And that also gave him the right to establish his kingdom in the world eventually, right. And to deal with mankind. Um, so it was declared that the judicial state of the world is so altered before God, that the, by the death of Christ, that he said to have reconciled the world to himself, it's so complete and far reaching is this provision that it is added in the scriptures that he is not now imputing their trespasses to him. And that's that verse. Uh, all things are of God who have reconciled us by Jesus Christ to himself by Jesus Christ has given us the ministry of reconciliation to wait that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. So when you look at the world and you want to judge them for their sins, you got to realize that God is not judging them for their individual sins. He's judging because they don't believe in Christ. He's forgiven the sins, the sins are forgiven, but their sins are still on them if they're not in Christ. And then they will go to the judgment seat. It's kind of a mystery, but this forgiveness was rightfully purchased. And any of them who believes in Jesus Christ will have all their sins forgiven. So it's kind of a weird thing that Christians are so intent on moralizing the world and decrying the sins of the world when God, that's not God's consideration. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation and we are standing with him as his ambassadors saying, be reconciled to God. He's already reconciled you. He paid the price. He really did. He paid for each of their sins. The forgiveness has really been secured. They just need to receive it as a gift by believing. Ephesians 2.16, and he might reconcile both to God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. Colossians 2.20, therefore, if you'd be dead with Christ from the elements of the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances? I'm not sure how that's related. I think that's a misfire. Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish without you with the using after the commandments and ordinances of men, which things have a show of wisdom and humility, but are no value against the indulgence of the flesh. I don't see how that has anything to do with this concept that he reconciled the world to himself. Other than the, you know, if the, if the world has been reconciled to him that we're not under the law, but that seems to be a different point. Still, this is excellent. I mean, who am I to judge, you know? Okay. I think that that's as far as we can go today. Dang, I wanted to do this in two parts, but it's just so dense. The next thing we're gonna talk about is how the death of Christ removed all moral hindrances in the mind of God to the saving of sinners. And that's the big question. The devil asks, see, people say, how could God send good people to hell? But the devil is asking, how can God forgive people and be just and righteous? Look how sinful they are. And that's what we're getting into next message. I want to get my prescription and go home and watch the debate, which should be a circus where I said today to Greg Jackson, I said, this is, we're at the point where like Nero puts this horse in the Senate. I think tonight will just be a cartoon. I don't think there'll be any real politics happening and it's going to be probably one of the weirdest things we've ever seen, so I'm going to watch it just to see, have a very good evening and I'll talk to you later.