God the Son His Substitutionary Death
Roger Henderson · Sep 8, 2002
Major Bible Themes (2002-03), No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262247167839

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

And I guess one of the things I was just thinking about, if someone could kind of tell me, give me a common definition of substitution. It's not hard. I mean, it doesn't have to be a biblical definition. If someone says like today, go ahead. Right, exactly. That's the common definition. If you guys are into football and you're watching the Broncos today and if they put in... Ask Ryan who they put in place of Greasy. I don't know. Anyway, whatever. There could be a substitute. Somebody replacing him, taking his place.

What we're going to find as we look at the Lord Jesus, we're going to find that he is our substitute. He has taken our place. that we rightly deserve, and God rightly deserves to judge us. And we're going to see that His death on the cross was taking our place.

So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. So, you know, this is sort of the word of where we are in God the Son. And I have this little timeline thing that I kind of like. And this kind of backtracks a little bit where we've been the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago we looked at his pre-existence, and we looked at several aspects of his pre-existence.

We looked in the eternity past where he was with the Father, and there was this wonderful fellowship between the Father and the Son, you know, in John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

So we saw this wonderful fellowship and embassy that between the Father and the Son. And then we looked at creation. We looked at the fact that all things came into being by Him. And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And then we looked at the third aspect of His pre-existence was His pre-incarnate appearances. When He appeared in physical form.

And those are just tremendous where he appears and tells people things that they couldn't know. And what's amazing is they recognize him as being God. Like what Hagar said, I've been in the presence of God and I'm still living. I mean, how can that be? So that was kind of the pre-existence we looked at.

And then last week, Hal covered the Incarnation. And that God came in the flesh, the God-man, the Lord Jesus came in the flesh. and he was fully man and fully God. And then, does someone remember last week when Hal got toward the end of his presenting that he basically talked about the purpose for God becoming a man? Does someone remember from last week what purpose There is a general purpose that God has overall, but then there is a specific purpose that he talked about in terms of the Lord Jesus becoming a man. Does anyone remember about that?

Very good, excellent. So overall, God wants to be glorified in all that he does. Specifically, he wants to share his glory. If you think about what has happened since the fall, God could no longer share his glory with man. That fellowship was broken. And with the death of the Lord Jesus, that has been restored. And if you think about it, it's been restored even beyond that. The relationship that Adam had with God in the garden doesn't compare with the relationship that we have with him right now. Because it says in Scripture, we're seated with him in the heavenlies.

We have this intimate relationship. We also have our are all sinful nature there too. So there's that battle going on. But we have a wonderful realm of fellowship with the Father and the Son. Okay, so that kind of gets us up to today. And today we're going to look at His death on the cross. And this is just a quote out of, I think it's Luke.

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. And Christ, you think about through his ministry, he was looking, he set his face as a flint toward Calvary. He knew his purpose. He knew what he had come to do. And he wasn't deviated in that, he wasn't swayed in that in any fashion. Okay, so let's look at, kind of go on. Okay.

Now, if you notice in Chapter 9, if you look through Chapter 9, Dr. Schaeffer has six accomplishments, six aspects or accomplishments with the death of Christ. If you look at that, and I have some of them up here highlighted, and then also if you read some of his other writings, his Systematic Theology, he actually expands that His list expands to 14, and I'm sure you probably could, depending on how you categorized it, you could make the list even larger. So what I tried to do, I thought about, well, we could go through each six of those, and I started looking at the different lists and saying, well, what are the key elements that we want to look at here in the death of Christ? So I kind of, this is my view, but maybe you want to include some other ones that I've left out, and certainly look at the book and read through it. So these are the four that I'd like to cover today.

The assurance of God's love for a sinful man. I mean, this is just the tremendous verses that we'll look at there. His redemption or ransom for the sinner. And we'll see there that man is under a just condemnation. And then we're going to see the... Actually, I kind of reversed the order a little bit. We're going to look at the judgment or condemnation of the sin nature. And then basically the substitute bearing the penalty of the sinner.

We're going to look at those four aspects And, you know, some of the things on your handout, I kind of listed the six items that are covered in the text. And we're going to kind of skip over, and there's tremendous propitiation, which is number three in the textbook. Or, you know, that God has been propitiated or satisfied, He was totally satisfied with His Son.

You know, in 1 John 2.2 it says, Lost in here. Can someone quote from the first John 2 2? My mind just went blank. And it said, he is a terrible. Why don't you go ahead and read it, Bonnie.

Yeah. And he himself is the perfect nation for our sins, and not for our own sins, but also for So we're going to not address that directly, but actually we'll see that kind of indirectly as we go through here. And then also reconciliation, the bringing together of God and man. And once again, the Lord Jesus is the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. We're not going to look at that directly. So I just want to kind of tell you where we're going to head here. Okay, so let's go ahead and look at the first one, the assurance of God's love for the sinner.

I'm going to start with the most familiar verse in the Bible, John 3.16. As we go through here, we're going to notice in these four verses we're going to cover that we're going to see in each of the verses that this word that, this conjunction that, is kind of a link that God loved the world and he did something about it. He gave His Son. So we're going to see that as we go through, that this word, conjunction, that kind of links what God, His love, and then His action. And in all cases, it's going to be that His Son was sent to Calvary.

But there's kind of a little bit different, as we go through these verses, a little bit different aspect in each one. And actually, I think in the bottom, in the notes here, on the bottom of the page, I'm a real fan of, you may have noticed this already, I'm a real fan of the Weiss translation.

I just really, I've come to really love that and the reason I like it, I'll just, you know, I'm not trying to sell the Weiss translation. The Bible says, well, you know, at church they want me to buy a Weiss translation, but it's helped me tremendously. If you take the time to look up some of the words in the original language, it kind of puts them together and brings those ideas together. So I just really have come to really, it's really helpful for me personally.

Volunteer to read John three sixteen from the week's translation on the paper here. Just go ahead. OK, now it is a little bit older translation, so some of the wording is going to be a little bit, you know, may not modern English necessarily. But anyway, well, this is.

The manner in which God loved the world, or somebody said that he greatly loved the world. And he proved that by sending, and you know, it says in the, like in my time, the only begotten son, and you think of people taking that, I think, off in tangents and gotten, well, let's see, that has to do with time and God has many sons and they've gone off in all kinds of different tangents, but if you look at Look at the original language, you'll see it's talking about his uniqueness, and Weeks brings that out. But the word Jesus was uniquely, he's a unique one, he's one of a kind, there's no other like him. The uniquely begotten one.

Okay, so that's the first verse. Okay, the second one is Romans 5, 8. And again, we have this conjunction in the middle there. It says, but God demonstrated his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So again, you know, you think about God's work.

He's not waiting, or He did not wait, and is not waiting, for man to improve himself, to get better. You know, in our minds, I've heard people tell me this, and I can think in my own life, well, I'm going to get around to reading the Bible, but my life is a mess now, and I've got to get it together first, and then I'll then I'll be accepted, then I'll be okay, I'll think about God, I'll consider Him. Well, God didn't think that way at all, and it's wonderful He didn't.

He knows where we're at, He understands us. And it says that He demonstrated, or actually it's the idea of to show clearly, to show clearly or prove clearly His love toward us. That while we were sinners, while we were in a state of separation from Him, He died for us. So that's another kind of a building block of understanding the love that he's shown us. So we've seen that he loved the world and he gave his son. He's demonstrated to his love that while we were sinners, he died for us.

And I can remember when I first started reading scripture, someone said, well, you know about John 3.16.

Don't forget about 1 John 3.16. That's another verse you ought to know too. And it says, We know love by this. How do we know love? How do we know love? That he laid down his life for us. And I think I also have that. No, I didn't do that one. That's the one I left out. I went through. I thought I had that in the weeks, but I didn't copy that one down.

But this is how we know love. That he laid down his life or he basically laid it down. He placed it. He put it down. And this idea that as we come to understand how he laid down his life, and we're going to see the aspects of that, we're going to understand his love better.

As we see the wonderful richness of his death on the cross. If you think about it, his death on the cross is a pivotal event in all of scripture and in all of history. Because that is what has put man able to have a relationship with God. Until that's happened, and actually the Old Testament looks forward to that, and that they'll be a savior to come and lay down his life for us. So all of history is around that one event.

Okay, let's look at the next one. 1 John 4.9. And let's see, could someone else offer to read on the handout here, Louise's translation for that one? Harry? And this was clearly shown in the love of God that I took. So his son, when he grew to that man, God sent off into the world a mission for those that were near him. Thank you.

So, it's interesting this, and Luis doesn't seem to bring it out as clearly, and here's where kind of, you know, every help isn't, this word manifest, if you have time to To look that up, like in one of your concordances and some of the helps, that word manifest is this idea, and it's this word phaneruo. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right, but it's to reveal or to expose. And there's kind of a picture version of that word manifest.

What did God do? It's like a cookie jar or some kind of jar that has a lid on it, and you want to see what's inside. by sending His Son off into the world. He opened that up. He allowed us to see. He allowed us to see His love by opening up or taking the lid off, removing it, so we could look in and say, look at that, look at what the Savior has done for me.

So we see that by God sending or sending off His Son into the world. So this is the four verses that I kind of I'm sure there are many more. This talks about the assurance of God's love toward the sinner. That's one aspect of his death on Calvary. It proved that. The second aspect that we're going to look at this morning is this redemption or ransom.

And what I've done here, you'll notice in the book if you look at it or if you look at it later on, you'll see that actually in this chapter he went through and kind of mentioned a lot of the original words in the Greek. And I think it's helpful. I know some people It depends upon where you come from, but some people, I think it's really helpful. And I like to go back and look at the original word, even though I'm not a real Greek student, but there are enough helps out there that you can do it. And so I've tried to kind of list the Greek word, the English words that are used, and I have the New American Standard. I think they're pretty close in most translations. And then the definition and verses where they appear.

But before we start, I just get a little bit ahead of myself here. The question comes up, why, and maybe this is one of these questions that's kind of rhetorical, why does God need to ransom or redeem the unbeliever? Let me tell you a story that kind of sets the stage. I'll tell you about myself. And it's interesting, Hal and I have a similar story about leading up to our conversion. I can remember a time period in my life when I said, well, let's see.

I know about God. I hadn't read the Bible very much. I know about God. You know, I'm doing the best I can. I'm a pretty honest kind of guy. You know, I work hard. I go to work every day. I'm doing the best I can. And you know, I don't think I can do any better. I'm doing the best I can. And God's going to have to accept that.

That was my view. Did I have the right view? And maybe you have an experience like that too. Somebody want to... Did I have the right view? And it links in with this. It links in to how you see yourself. And I'm convinced that if an unbeliever could really see himself as God sees him, he would say, wow, this is not so good. And that's, you know, I thought, well, I'm doing the best I can. What more can anyone ask of me? That was my view. So what's the key or the aspect of where man is that he needs to see? And it's linked in with redemption. I'm probably making this too hard. OK. Excellent. Good. OK. Well, along that line, let's see here. Do I have this?

If we turn to page five of the notes, Can someone read for me John 3.18? Okay.

So, in this verse, I think the answer to my... If I had a Bible at that time when I was telling God that this is all I can do, if I read this verse, I think that I might have... In the second sentence it says, he who is not believing, a believer, that was me, has been judged already. As a result, is under judgment, because he has not put his trust in the name of the uniquely begotten Son of God." So, man... Unbelieving man is not neutral.

I wish Hal was here. Hal told the story. I've heard him tell about this. He worked in Los Angeles. And we worked together. I didn't work with him in Los Angeles. He was aircraft company. And there was a believer there who had a Bible study. And Hal was of the mind, well, I'm going to walk the line. I'm not going to believe. I'm not going to unbelieve. I'll just walk in the middle. Hey, it sounds pretty good. I'll just walk in the middle. But then this Christian brother showed him this verse. And he said, whoa, I'm not in the middle. I'm in trouble.

And that's exactly what God's Word is for, to show us where we're at, to show us that we're not in the middle, that we're under judgment. And then hence, if we're under judgment, then redemption or ransom It's what we need. I mean, if this doesn't happen, we're... So that's the connection that I want to kind of make, that between the fact that we see ourselves as the unbeliever and believer, after we understand that and have accepted the Savior, we understand that we're not in a neutral position. We were under God's judgment. Okay. Go ahead. Excellent, yeah.

Right, and that's the other thing is some people, well as you know, I can get to God many ways, you know, there's a little bit of truth. Here's another thing is, you know, a little bit of truth and this group sounds kind of good, this group sounds kind of good, that group sounds kind of good, and they all have, well they're all little pieces of truth and we just We just bring it all together and then you put those all together and it's all wonderful. Well, no, it's not that way at all.

There's only one, there's only uniquely begotten Son of God that is able to redeem man, to purchase him out of the slave market of sin. And that's what's so wonderful about these Greek words here. We're going to see this picture of this marketplace and we're going to see that we were on sale, so to speak, and God came and purchased us. He took us out of that place.

Okay, let's see. One more thing before we... I was going to ask... I'm just trying to set the stage for these words. One other aspect is, how did we... How did an unbeliever... How did he become a sinner? I've got an important question to ask. Or did he become a sinner? Was there ever a time when an unbeliever wasn't a sinner? What's the mechanism? What's that? And his parent is? And his parent is?

Excellent. OK. And there's another thing that I think that people have a tough time with. And I was in the same boat, too. My oldest son, Mark, I've told this story probably more times than my wife will shoot me again here, but a hundred times I'll tell this story. But my oldest son, Mark, was just hours old. And my mind, well, here, let's say my son's going to come out neutral. Once again, I was in this whole neutral thing, you know, he's come out neutral.

I saw he was stubborn. He wouldn't feed right, and the nurse was trying to feed him. He didn't want to do it. He was stubborn. I said, he can't be stubborn. I know he's got to be neutral. I know that's true. The Lord really helped a lot. The Lord said, wait a minute, how can he be stubborn? He's only a couple of hours old. Stubbornness is learned.

I know that. So anyway, you kind of see where I'm heading. It's so important to understand that were sinners by our birth and by our relation to our ancestor, you know, Adam. And it comes, you know, there's no person that comes in neutral in this world. Everyone, an accused little baby, it's hard. You tell a mother, you've got a little baby here, but you know it doesn't take very long, right?

You know, they exhibit their heritage pretty quickly. Okay, all right, so I've been belaboring this point, you know, 20, we'll get there eventually. Okay, so the first word, and actually, help me out here, I'm going to pronounce some of these Greek words, and if you can pronounce them better than me, I think it's agaradzo, something like that. The English word is bought or purchased, and the idea is to buy in the marketplace. And like I said, the picture is this marketplace where Things are for sale. And so let's look at a verse that kind of talks about that.

And I don't have all these verses in the notes, but if someone could offer to read in 1 Corinthians 6.20. Thank you, thank you. So you've been bought or purchased with a price. So this is this word, to buy out of the marketplace.

And we're going to see a whole bunch of different words and some verses will maybe be more descriptive of what's happening and some will not. And this one is, and I listed several in there. But I just kind of wanted to show you, as we go through this, each of the different words here. In fact, I want to add one as we get toward the end. So let's look at the next word here. The next word is just a derivative of the first word. And it adds the idea that it's ex agarazzo, to redeem or deliver. And this adds the idea.

The first one is to buy in the marketplace. The second one means that That item is no longer for sale. It's like you could buy something and then resell it. Well, this word has the idea that it's no longer – it's been permanently taken off the market. It's no longer for sale. I think I actually have this one on the handout.

Could someone offer to read Galatians at the bottom of page 5 here, Galatians 3.13? I'm going to wear you guys out today. I'm sorry.

So as you notice in these verses, we'll see the idea of the payment or the ransom, but we see also other things that relate. What's tremendous about Scripture is that you'll look at a verse for one particular aspect, And as you look at that verse of that aspect, you'll see other aspects that are added in there. And this verse, you know, is no exception. It talks about that this is part of his substitutionary. He became a curse for us, on behalf of us. So, this adds the additional idea of substitution in there as well. Christ delivered us by payment of a ransom. The price was paid. It was sufficient. God was satisfied. And we were taken out and removed from that marketplace of sin. The next one is to redeem.

You can see part of the problem here. In your English Bible, you're not going to notice some of the differences between these words. Sometimes are the same word. So that's why it's worth sometimes to take the time to look up. You can know there's several aids out there to do this. Some if you're familiar with a strong numbering system, they try to number the Greek words. You can look at look for that to try to decide what the original word is. So there's plenty of aids out there to do that.

And this one is to to let loose or set free. And. Let me just go ahead and I'll read this one. The one I want to read is in 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 18 says, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished, spotless, the blood of Christ. So this verse tells us that we were released or loosed. And it wasn't just perishable kind of items, it was with imperishable kind of items. And it was with, when it says the precious blood, actually could be translated costly blood, the costly blood as of a lamb unblemished, spotless, the blood of Christ.

I'd like to add maybe one more in here that I thought was good, and this kind of uses the word ransomed in it, and sometimes it's a derivative of this word lutru, it's actually I didn't list it, but let's look at Matthew chapter 20. So I'll go ahead and read this one again here. Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28. Matthew 20, 28.

It says, Just as a son of man did not come to serve, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So sometimes actually the word ransom, so ransom is a good biblical word. Like, you know, the word substitute is really not used directly. The idea is there. But ransom occasionally is used in scripture, and this is an example, and it's a derivative of one of these Greek words that we just looked at. So I kind of wanted to mention that. OK, so let's look at the last one down here. And this is another apocryphal redemption, a releasing for a ransom upon payment.

And that one occurs in Ephesians chapter 1. In Ephesians 1, verse 7, it says, So it's something that we have. This redemption is something that we are to count upon because it talks about... Ephesians is just a tremendous book. So many times in here it talks about, it'll use the phrase in him, and this is one of the cases where it has in him, and this is something that we have in our Savior, that we have redemption, and it's a permanent possession. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to his riches. Okay. I was going to move on to the next area. Any thoughts or observations you wanted to, about these or other things? Well, it's not. OK. OK. This next next area here, in terms of Christ's death, I think for me has been just just wonderful. This differentiation we're going to look at here. and his judgment or condemnation of our sinful nature, our nature from Adam.

We're coming to understand that. And here at Holly Hills, it's been taught for many years and I'm going to be covering some things that a lot of people have heard before, but hopefully this will be helpful if you haven't thought of this before. So, the illustration that I'm using here is not my illustration. I mean, I've heard people talk about this actually. Dr. Schaefer uses this in some of his writings as well.

It's a picture of a tree, and on this tree you have this fruit, and the fruit represents man's personal sins. Each one could be a sin, some trespass against God. And the roots, which supply all the nutrients, the roots are what allow the tree to live, energize the tree. So in this kind of comparison, the fruits are our personal sins, and the root is the source of those sins, and the source of those sins is our sinful nature.

So, it's important to see this contrast, and as you go through Scripture, as you look at the words, to see whether it is addressing what Christ has done for our personal sins, or is it addressing what He has done in terms of our nature from Adam. I want to look at both of these, and then I want to look a little, you know, maybe hone in a little bit more on the sin nature as well.

So the first one is the one that I think that most people, as a believer, in fact, I'm not sure you can become a believer without understanding this one. The fact that Christ died for our sins, and notice, I have a question here, it's for our sins. So the question is, when it says our sins, Is Christ's death limited to our sins, being the believer's sins? This is a question that has divided people historically a lot.

Good, excellent. In fact, actually, we looked at that before in 1 John 2. that he himself is a propitiation for our sins, not for our sins only. But here's another important thing to observe is that God so many times is personal about it. He personally is talking to us.

It's our sins. Christ died for our sins. It's our sins personally. People can say, yeah, there's a Savior out there and he's he's died globally and not ever see that that's for me personally. So that's one aspect of that. Okay. Okay, so let's look at the root, the sin nature for a bit. And actually here I put down, does someone have, let's see, like an NIV or an NIV translation? Anybody have an NIV?

Could you read Romans 6.10 in the NIV for us? I just want to show you something to observe here. Okay. Well, what I've noticed, and as you start looking at the words carefully, and like the NIV, I think in the New American Standard, they'll just have he died to sin. And I think it really doesn't, I think it detracts in a way from what the original says.

And actually, on the handout, I have it on page six of the handout, In Romans 6.10 it says, For the death he died, he died with respect to our sinful nature, once for all. But the life he lives, he lives with respect to God. So what you see is that in a lot of the newer translations they'll just render it, he died to sin. And it doesn't really, probably two issues.

One is the fact that it will just say to, it doesn't say with respect to. And the second one is the word sin singular. is really, when you see sin singular, that really can be translated, the sinful nature, and actually many times it will be the definite article, it will be the sin, referring to the sin nature. So as you go through scripture, you need to look, especially in Romans 6, 7, and 8, it's talking many times about the sinful nature. So you need, is it talking about the root of the problem, or is it talking about the fruit of the problem? distinctions are real important. Along that line, Rabbi would turn to 1 John 1.

If someone could volunteer to read 1 John 1.10. Now, after you read them, I have a question. The person that reads them doesn't have to ask the question, but someone would volunteer to read that.

Go ahead. Okay, so I guess the question I have for someone who would like to answer it is, what do you think, in verse 10, is he talking about the root of the problem or the fruit of the problem here? So this is someone that's making a claim about themselves and they're saying something. Are they talking about the fruit or the root of the issue? Good, good, excellent.

Now someone could read verse 8 for me. You know where I'm heading here. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not the truth. So what about this one? Is this the fruit of the root? Right, right. So here's just a very practical case where it's important to look at the word. It's talking about the root of the problem, the sin nature.

So this is a pretty incredible, actually verse 8 is a pretty, you know, With that in mind, it's a pretty incredible statement. In fact, actually, in the week Stephen brings home even more, if we say that we have no sin, it's actually saying that we have no root of sin. That's a pretty bold statement. We are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So that statement, if a person says that, that's denying that he has this nature that scripture says otherwise. that we all have this nature. God has done something about that nature and that's what I want to get to here. Well, some people have claimed that, right? I mean, we've heard people there. There are groups that say that they've come to a certain point in their life and they've kind of somehow moved up the mark and now they're up to, you know, they sin no more. I mean, some groups of believers will claim that or have claimed that.

I'm not sure. Well, actually, on page 6, I wrote down here in the Weist, it says, if we say that we have not sinned, so that's in the past, right? That's like you're saying, Bonnie. We have not sinned, and now we're in a state where we do not sin. Well, Weist makes it just incredibly, and that's an incredible statement.

And what does that mean for a Christian? Does it mean that person is not a Christian? I think it means he has a, you know, we're not agreeing with his word. What's interesting in the middle of this, you know, you have 1 John 1, 9, you know, that we're to, you know, that's actually a different issue, but it's talking about, you know, confessing or agreeing with him. And I wonder if it's not the idea of, you know, we're to agree that what his word is saying. His word doesn't say that.

It doesn't say that we have not sinned and are now in a state where we do not sin. Scripture doesn't teach that at all. The whole thrust of Scripture is that Christ has died and that he sent his Spirit, and God has a method for us to live the Christian life, and it's through the power of his Spirit. But it doesn't say that we do not sin. Sure, go ahead. That that's true. Yeah, well, actually, actually, the Galatians, I think the Galatians passage five. Let's look at Galatians just for a second. In Galatians chapter 5, it talks about this struggle, this battle. In Galatians 5, let's start at 16.

It says, by Isaiah, walk by the Spirit. and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. There are several words that are synonymous. Hal talked last week about the fact that flesh can mean positive or negative. And the negative aspect, it can refer many times to the sinful nature. But I say, walk by the Spirit and will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit. and the Spirit, I'm sorry, against the Spirit. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. So there's this battle between the flesh and the Spirit. And you're right. God's desire and His plan is for us to abide in the Spirit. It's to be in fellowship with Him, walking with Him, abiding with Him. In that condition we don't sin. He tells us that.

But what you're asking is, does this verse in 1 John... No, I kind of think, and I think that's, it's pointed out as being an error. That's not a correct view. It says, his word is not in us. Right. No. Right. That's true. No, I agree with that. I agree with that. And the question is, it is possible. Well, for. Yeah. Well, the question is, the question is, is that state.

Does the scripture teach that we somehow move up a ladder and at some point we're there? Or does it teach that there's a struggle? And God's desire is that your time... I've seen two things that... We're going to have to end here pretty soon. Two representations of growth in the Christian life. One would be like a stair-step.

You go up here and at this point you're... almost like 1 John 1.10, the incorrect statement.

The other aspect is that moment by moment, I think this is the more correct one, moment by moment the Lord asks us to trust and rest in Him. And He knows the weakness of our flesh. He knows that we're drawn away from that many times. But He desires to maximize that time, to make that consistently with Him. And there may be moments when we don't. And if you're like me, I know those moments. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Good. Good. That's good. But these are the false doctrine that this person says that good. Excellent. No, that's good. I think, you know, knowing the history of books and scripture is very, and actually that's, there was the Gnostics that were out there, and so that's a good, excellent point, excellent, and we need to put it in context. I think that's, it's making a statement about, this is, something that somebody is saying and it says his word is not in them. Okay, okay.

Well, let's see if we have an agreement here on that. So do you think, can we, am I correct in stating, you know, that we will not reach a sinless perfection? I mean, it says we can't. That's a false teaching. And then I think it's consistent with scripture is that God's desire for us is to maximize our time.

And he says it over and over again, just so many ways in Scripture. You know, walk, trust me. Think of the words. You know, trust me, walk with me, abide with me, exercise faith in what I've done. It's constantly showing us and appealing to us that we already have this wonderful place with our Savior. We're in Him, seated in Christ in the heavenlies. The appeal is that we remember that and we hang on to that and we focus upon that. And as we do that, we can live a life that is maximized in him, and that would be without sin.

But he doesn't exclude the possibility that we may at times fall, we may at times sin. And I know with you, in my life I realize that's the case. Many times I'll, my tongue get me in trouble real quickly. I'll say something just, somebody will say something and I'll come back and I'll say that wasn't right. I just, you know, and I realize it immediately. So I don't know if that's a thought, Marilyn.

OK. All right. So. All right. We're just out of time here. So actually, the last chart this quickly here. I listed just three verses that talk about is that speak of his substitution. aspects of that. And these are just tremendous. I'll just read a few here in the week's translation.

In John 10, 11 it says, I alone and the shepherd, the good one, the shepherd, the good one, lays down his life on behalf of and instead of the sheep. I just really liked, you know, the kind of bringing out the on behalf of instead of, that for our benefit and in our place, instead of. And then in Romans 5, 6 and 8 says, For when we were yet without strength in a strategic season, Christ instead of, and on behalf of, that same phrase again, of those who do not have reverence for God and are devoid of piety, died. So there's that statement about we didn't have anything of merit. And then verse 8, But God is constantly proving his own love to us, because while we were yet sinners, Christ died on behalf of us. And I might as well read the last one here.

In 1 Peter 3.18, Because Christ also died once for all in relation to sins, Notice sins, plural there. And just one on behalf of the unjust one, in order that he might provide you with an entrance, it's actually a kind of interesting way. Entree, it's a different, actually that's correct. Entrance into the presence of God, having, in fact, been put to death with respect to the flesh. All right.

Let's just go ahead and close then. Dear Father, we just thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this time, Father. We thank you for your love, for your goodness, Lord. Thank you that you're in control of all things, Father. We're thankful that you desire that we abide and walk with you, trust you for all that you've done. We ask it in your name. Amen.