Biblical Anthropology - Intro: Why Study This Stuff? Uh, What Stuff?

Okay, we have this course in Biblical Anthropology and Biblical Counseling, and the idea is we're going to go through one quarter of Biblical Anthropology. We won't be looking at any old bones, and I won't be putting on any strange tribal outfits, okay? And you'll be happy for that. No nose piercings or bones through the nose or anything like that. So, anyway, what we'll be looking at here is biblical anthropology which is a fancier term for what does the Bible say about man. Now, we will actually be going light or even in some cases not covering some things that would ordinarily be covered and we'll be going a little heavier on some other things.

Why? It's because we're aiming with this towards biblical counseling. We'll have two quarters of biblical counseling And I'm going to jump ahead a little bit in this respect. Why two quarters on biblical counseling and what's that going to include? And if I'm not going to be a counselor, why is that important for me to understand? A few different things. One is every single believer, in order to be biblical, has to understand biblical counseling. Every single one. And why? Because scripture has an immense amount to say about it. Most often unrecognized.

So that's one thing. The other thing is when we talk about something that we would call more formal counseling, knowing what's biblical and what isn't is extremely valuable. There's a lot that's presented out there that isn't truly biblical. Even some of it that has that title, biblical counseling, is not truly biblical. So it's important for the sake of discernment. But we want to lay some good solid biblical groundwork that's actually going to be very practical and very useful. And that's with this, what does the Bible say about man? And by that, by the way, we don't just mean the males. It means mankind. So in fact, it applies to every single one of us. Every single one of us is impacted by this. All right.

Let's take a look at you got on the front inside there. This is our preliminary table of contents. The reason I call it preliminary is we haven't got page numbers on it. We're developing the. curriculum as we go, and so we don't have page numbers on it. We will, in the end, give you two things that aren't on here. One is the page numbers for every section. The other thing is a listing of the items that are in the appendix, things that we'll supplement the usual material with. So that's why at the end we'll replace this and give you one that's got the full listing of pages and contents. Let's page through into the Next one that has page one introduction. Why study this stuff? What stuff? We're real technical there, aren't we? Stuff.

One thing is, what is biblical anthropology? And just to kind of hit it quickly, the study of man is in mankind, not just the males. It's taken from the Greek word anthropos, which shows up in the New Testament again and again. The study of mankind from the human and secular viewpoint includes cultural and physical anthropology.

By the way, there are variation in terms depending on, I want to say, the secular study of those things varies. It's different here in the United States than what they call it in Britain. Britain calls it differently than what they do on the rest of the European continent. There's various things like that.

In general, physical anthropology, certainly they study human fossils, but how about forensic anthropology as a part of that? You get in a criminal case and whose bones are these? And is this male, female, how old? Do they have any medical conditions? Do the bones reveal anything about the crime or about the person, etc.?

So that's physical anthropology. There are other aspects of physical anthropology that could be included in there. Cultural anthropology is dealing with both present and past cultures and looking at the cultural aspects. And the truth is, while both of those are real interesting, we're not going to be looking at a whole lot of either one of them. What we're going to be looking at is anthropology from a biblical standpoint.

What does God, who is the one who created human beings, and we're of course in Genesis looking at that more closely, what does God say about who we are, who we have been, and who we've been made to be. What does God say about what's the difference between a believer and an unbeliever? Ever heard the term old man, new man, old nature, new nature, sin nature? What are all those?

We'll be taking a look at that. And then, biblical anthropology is a study of what the Bible says about mankind since all of God's word is God's uniquely inspired message to human beings. What the Bible has to say is a very special message. Let's put it this way. If you take human beings out of the whole creation picture, what is there of the Bible?

It doesn't exist. It never would have gotten written and there wouldn't have been any way to write it to or read it. Right? So, it's important. It's a critical item. God's Word gives us perspectives about mankind that we could not get from any other source. We could not get it from any other source. That's why we have scripture written to us. It's things that we could not know if God had not revealed it. Science can't get there, neither physical nor cultural. Anthropology is going to answer these things. Now, since the Bible has a very great deal to say about mankind, biblical anthropology is potentially a very large topic.

We have a specific direction that I mentioned earlier we're looking for. We're examining what the Bible says about mankind in order to build up the body of Christ and as a key part of a foundation for learning about biblical counseling. So what we're doing is we're laying the foundation for biblical counseling and getting an understanding of what the Bible says in that direction, particularly focused on that. So looking at the focus of our study, topics, etc. We're going to be looking towards what does God's Word say about mankind for the purpose of being able to carry out biblical counseling. So let's look at the topics we're going to cover. What we're going to do is do a brief overview of all the topics we're going to cover over these next 12 weeks after this.

Now, we have there made in God's image, male and female. Of course, we're studying some of that in the Genesis elective right now, right? But the primary insights for this part of our study will be from Genesis chapters 1 and 2, although there will be others. The specific passage in Genesis 1 and 2 will be 126 through 31 and 2, 4 through 25. Those are the primary verses. We're going to be looking at five key truths there. God has specific design and intent for mankind. Why is that important, by the way? Why is it important that God has specific design and intent for mankind?

It's not just a clockwork orange. Can you explain what that clockwork orange thing means for us? Isn't it the idea that God set things in motion to just let go? Yeah, the idea that God just created and just sort of, hey, that was an interesting experiment and kind of got bored and walked off, right?

And why else? Why is it important that God had a specific design intent and why should we know about it? Yeah, we're a part of it. It's greatly impacting our lives. God specifically had something in mind. And He didn't just show up at the Garden of Eden and say, I wonder what we can do. Did that turn out? Yeah, Carol? Ah, yes, very good.

We can trust everything He says. If I have a cultural anthropologist come up to me and he says, well, we've gone through and analyzed all the different religions and you just got one of them and it's monotheism. And, you know, just one of the various ones. And yours is no different from the other. Whatever that person says is not necessarily trustworthy. This is God's word. You're right. We can trust what he says.

Yeah, Jeremy? Well, if he has a plan for us, then there's going to be problems if we're not following that plan. Ah, yes. Yeah, what's the plan? Yeah, that matters big time. Yeah, what are we doing here? You know, what's going on? If you have any major project that you see, let's say we recently went through this T-Rex thing. Suppose there was no plan. Guys just running around doing stuff. What's that concrete wall doing in the middle of the freeway? Yeah, it could be just plain nuts.

So yeah, God had a plan. He had something in mind at the outset. And the fall, Adam's sin, did not thwart the plan. God's purpose was not thwarted. Alright, now, let's go through the rest of the bullets. God made mankind in his image and likeness, male and female.

God directly gave Adam life and a separate action from the animals. That's something we've seen here in Genesis chapter 2. Separate action from the animals. Not any connection whatsoever. Biological, life, anything. Completely separate creation. Even the woman created separately from the man. Point four, God made male and female separately and each was made in a different way. Point five, God has a specific intent for the relationship between the man and the woman.

So I think this is a key thing. What a surprise to discover, oh, the creator of everything has something in mind. Seems like it would make real good sense to know what that is, right? Yeah, very definitely. One of the things we'll also be looking at and also looking at on Sunday morning on the main service is the fall. Separation and everything that goes with it.

What did God say to Adam? Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because you're allergic to it or you'll get hives. What's the problem? Because you'll die. And what did He mean by that? You will die. In the day that you eat of it, you will die. So there's a death that took place right then and there. And that's a separation between God and man. The rest of the consequences of that became apparent later. But the death took place right then and there, that day. The separation. So we'll be looking at what that means. How is a person saved and what is salvation? What does it mean when somebody says, I'm saved? What does that mean? What does the Bible say that that involves? What's required? It means eternal life.

And it's really quite simple. It's really quite simple. I said before, at age four and a half, I was coming home from church and I was asking my parents, I remember the car we were in and where we were and everything. How do you become a Christian? They told me, wait. So I woke my mom up that night and said, I've waited long enough. And by the way, that's what she remembers too. So it's real interesting. So there was this insistence and here I was at four and a half and she was able to, here are the simple things. And I could believe that and so I'm saved because of that.

What makes up a human being saved or unsaved? A physical or cultural anthropologist cannot in any way discern the difference between you as a believer and the unbeliever. Has no way to determine what that is other than to look at some kind of categorization of oh he was of this religion or that one. and had this practice or something, but no way to determine spiritually what the difference is between a believer and an unbeliever. Scripture is the only place we can get the truth on that. And that's a really good thing to know the difference about. What is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever? biological causes for religion.

Oh yeah, that's genetic, right? Yeah. It's just interesting because they're coming at it from only a biological standpoint. Like you said, they don't see the spiritual difference. It's just we're an animal and everything can be described by genetics or physiology or something like that. Yeah, there is a huge, huge difference in worldviews.

And I wish a lot more Christians were headed off, like, especially to college and things like that. Or even if you're looking through National Geographic and looking at the Discovery Channel. A lot more Christians need to understand that thing that you just talked about.

The distinction between what the secular scientist's viewpoint is and what the viewpoint of scripture is. And the difference is not because science has proven a whole bunch and the Bible is a bunch of hooey. The difference is in unverifiable presuppositions. Things that are assumed before you ever do any scientific study that can never be verified independently. So, lo and behold, they start off with a viewpoint that doesn't include God, and voila! We conclude we have a viewpoint that doesn't include God. How is this a genius, right?

So, yeah, the reality is that human beings always have to operate with assumptions. And no matter how sophisticated we get, there are always assumptions that cannot be verified. Always. Logic has assumptions that can't be verified. And by the way, why do we use logic? Can we prove it? No!

Human beings are by nature creatures who must have something assumed. I'll just put it this way, the ideal way to get those assumptions is from the one who created us. The one who denies that we've been created just has to assume because it's self-evident. Or, we will assume. But frequently doesn't even recognize the assumptions they make.

We'll be looking at some of the terms that come up in scripture. The body, the flesh. What is meant by those words? Mind, intellect, emotions, heart, will, and soul. We use the word heart and what it is really is a figure of speech that comes from this organ that pumps the blood.

But scripture also uses some other anatomical terms for the inner part of a human being that we rarely use. We would not know quite what to do if we said Jesus came into my kidneys. Yet that's a biblical term. We would not quite know what to do if we say, Jesus came into my intestines. And yet that is a term that scripture uses for the inner part of the human being.

We've adopted this one called the heart. And we tend to stick with that. The others kind of make us scratch our heads at least. Be careful what you scratch. Okay. We'll be taking a look at what scripture says about these terms and what these mean. Okay. So far so good. You're with me. Oh, well that's a miracle. Okay.

How many different kinds of people are there? That's one thing. If we look at things from a worldly standpoint, how many different kinds of people are there from a worldly standpoint? How would the world slice and dice that question? How many different kinds of people are there? Probably racially. One of them is racially, looking at different racial groups within the human species, if you will. That would be one way to slice and dice, so to speak. How about others? Ethnically. And ethnically can relate to racially, but also be something different. Ethnically begins to include not just the plain genetic background, but also begins to look at cultural aspects. So yeah, ethnically.

How else can we divide people up? Pardon? By gender, yes. One of the things we'll be looking at both here and in the Genesis study is sociologists say that we've now got 11 genders here in the United States. When you start counting up all the different, you know, people who wish they were that and people who have had an operation to wish they would, they were this and that people who wish they were this and that and then change back. And anyway, it's it's confusing. So 11 genders now in the United States is what the current count. I don't know. Who knows? They may even invent something. But scripture has something very specific to say about that.

Any other ways that we could divide people up like, pardon? Yes, there's really you look at it by almost every different characteristic and you're on to a good point. You could start doing, essentially when I went through business school, they did market segmentation and graphics and you could divide people up by all kinds of things. From a human standpoint, it's possible to make a lot of divisions.

What we'll be looking at is these three bullets that you see here. These are spiritual categories recognized substantially in the New Testament letters and particularly the letters of Paul. We've got the unsaved or natural person, saved but fleshly and unspiritual, and saved and spiritual. So we've taken a look at what's the difference there. So there's the three categories of people in our current time. As you look at those, any of those cause you to scratch your head or wonder or come up with some thoughts? Three different kinds of people. Wow. We don't even need to study it. You know all the answers. No questions? Well, let's move on then, since you understand it all.

We'll be looking at 1 Corinthians and Galatians to clarify what those distinctions are. Those two books are some of the primary ones that are going to be able to give us the differences in definition between those three kinds of people, biblically speaking. We'll be looking, and this is going to be hitting the high spots, two weeks on the identification truths. Why would we study the identification truths? To know who we are, yeah. Extremely critical that we know who we are. When we move on next into biblical counseling, one of the things that these identification truths will do, here's a great dividing line, a chasm between the secular kinds of counseling and biblical counseling. In secular counseling, there is often a fair amount of emphasis on a person's personal history. What did you experience? What did you feel like? What did your mother say to you or not say to you? What did your dad do? All these things. And the world gets intensely interested in those things.

The reason why the identification truths are phenomenally good news is that our history as believers is not centered on what our mom and dad did or didn't do, or some other family member or friend did or didn't do, but centered on what Christ did in our history in Him.

We have a replaced history. And this is a phenomenal difference when you get into biblical counseling. because whereas worldly counseling is focused on the past and has very few answers for the future. Nancy and I will do frequently marriage counseling together and one of the things that is a wonderful thing that we have to tell people is we'll tell them it's not that we're not interested in your history, we'd be interested in hearing different things, but the truth is that your history in Christ is hugely, vastly more important, and especially since it's all good news from here on out. Someone who's trying to deal with their past only has the, how do I reshuffle the problem approach. For us as believers, there's no reshuffling of the problem.

As a matter of fact, there's an outright recognition You can't fix it and don't try because it's the new history that you have in Christ. That's unfathomably good news. And from here on out, it all just gets better. It's wonderful news to be able to share with people. You are not weighed down by your history.

But one of the analogies that I frequently use with people when we talk about the typical secular therapeutic approach which deals with your past is a lot of times people want to go, you know, dig up the past. Okay, let's talk about this for the fifth time, you know, what happened to you or what didn't happen to you. But I usually use the figures of speech.

So you want to go slogging through the sewers of your life. Years ago, I worked on a project that was funded by the EPA, looking at leakage and infiltration in the sewers of the city of Ukiah. Of course, you know what that required. down into the sewers and put in all kinds of measuring equipment and run cameras up the sewer lines and things of that sort. It wasn't particularly great, especially around lunchtime. But the thing is, if you look at it, what does the world ask you to do? The world asks you to go slog through those old sewers.

Believe me, there's some really gucky, yucky stuff there. Biblically speaking, the Bible is not unrealistic. The Bible recognizes, oh, there's a lot of sewage and yuck back in there. But the hope for the future, because we've been identified with Christ and now share his history. And by the way, it's a certain hope, not an I hope so hope. That is wonderful news to share. And it makes biblical counseling worlds apart. And I'm not exaggerating. Worlds apart. from the secular viewpoint where all I can do is try to manipulate your thinking about your past.

All right, now, as we go through there, there's the five identification truths. Each one of them has an importance in biblical counseling. Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating in the heavenlies. All five of those are critical and essential and marvelous truths to be able to share with people as we sit down with them. Now, the next thing, old man, new man, old nature, new nature, will.

These are some terms that are used among Christians. Why are these terms used? Because they're in the Bible, right? So, they're not going to be terms that we just invent, but they'll be terms that are used repeatedly in the Bible and particularly, not always, but particularly, in the New Testament, especially the New Testament letters. So we'll be looking at those terms and getting an understanding of what are those. And why would it be valuable for us to learn about what these terms mean?

What's the significance of that? Yeah, so we understand what the Bible says. Yeah, good point. And why else? Not to diminish that point, but why else? Ah, they're often confused. Often confused. Some of the points of confusion are, among Christians, and I speak in kind of general terms, some of the points of confusion are things like this. Confusion between what is the old man and the old nature.

Or, Have you ever heard this denial? Oh, Christians don't have a sin nature. Never heard that one. So there is that. Or even, I've got to try to die to myself today. What? All those kinds of things are very commonly mixed up and confused in scripture among believers about scripture. And the reality is that scripture is not unclear about these things. But getting clarity is the first step towards our being able to deal with things. It's tough to deal with the sin nature if you deny that it exists. It is difficult to deal with, okay, I'm a new creature in Christ. How can I keep having all this stuff show up? Where does that come from? So it's important for us to recognize, what does scripture say? And what's the truth here?

And not to have fog or ambiguity. Ever drive down the road and have some experience, whether suddenly or gradually, come about where you'd realize, you know, I can't see through my windshield very well? The lack of clarity is disturbing, isn't it? Especially if you're going 60 miles an hour.

And so what we want to do is we want to have a clear view of what's ahead of us. And scripture lays that out. So we just want to look at that with clarity, get some distinction here on what we've got. Okay. Now, questions, thoughts, comments? Man. I think we need to change subjects. Everybody knows everything already. Yeah, good question. Why will it take nine months?

How many books of the Bible address in some way who we are as human beings? How many books of the Bible address that in some way? I've got 66 books and I think you could probably say every one of them does. Some more than others, but all of them address that issue of who we are as human beings in one way.

But that's only the biblical anthropology part of it. We're talking about two-thirds of this class, two out of the three-quarters, being biblical counseling. One of the reasons why this thing's going to take the nine months is that A lot of what is under the category of biblical counseling is not recognized as such.

One of the examples that I'll bring up, and we'll study this in more detail, you ever read in the New Testament where particularly Paul, he's not the only one who does it, but particularly Paul says, I urge this, I urge you brethren by the mercies of God, Romans 12.1.

That Greek word there is parakaleo. It means to call alongside. It is the word that basically communicates biblically, counselor. I counsel you. I counsel you. So to come alongside as a counselor and to counsel. Parakaleo is one of those words. And one of the things I mentioned earlier, that biblical counseling is really something that every believer is called to do. And we'll see the details on that. But right alongside that is other words.

Let's take for instance Colossians 1.28. In fact, you got your Bibles? Grab your Bible.

Let's turn to Colossians 1.28.

Colossians 1.28 says, we proclaim Him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. Now what do you notice about that verse? What jumps out at you?

Every man, three times. And by the way, that word man is anthropos, not just the andros, the males. It's anthropos. Every single human being. We proclaim him, and it's triple. Everyone. So one is every single believer is involved in this. And male and female is not a distinction there. And it's triple emphasized.

Boy, I mean, this isn't a long verse, but man, he really harps on that. So that's one thing. Admonishing. You see that one? That's a word we're going to look at a little more closely when we get there. It means to place in the mind. Counseling. A lot of people will say, some people need counseling, I don't need counseling. Paul says everyone. Everyone. And part of our problem is the definition of what is counseling.

But this word here, admonish, we think admonishing, we usually see some kind of action that's thought towards, I'm going to draw this person towards some different thinking or behavior. But the word specifically means to place in the mind. And this isn't the only place that he uses it. And notice that it applies to every single human being.

This is key stuff. It's not just, okay, those people need counseling because they had X, Y, and Z happen to them. Or they didn't do this and that and the other thing. Or boy, they're messed up. But no, this word, which is a counseling word, is for every man, every man, every man. Nobody's off the list. So here's this word, admonishing. Teaching every man with all wisdom, Why all wisdom? Why didn't he just drop that off and just say some kind of wisdom or a little bit of? What's all wisdom? Pardon?

The Lord. Okay, alright. The whole counsel of God. Good point. The whole counsel of God. The reality is, not only is this truth for every human being who is saved here, Not only is it truth for every human being, but it is also the whole range of truth, all wisdom, the whole counsel of God, as Vani pointed out. It's not simply there's a certain portion of the Christian church population that needs some counseling because they've got some problems. No. This is every single believer with all wisdom. Question, how many of you have all wisdom so far? The reality is this isn't just some process we get done in five minutes. As a matter of fact, nine months, well, maybe.

It seemed like we could use another light on here, the lights right over on this side because this side got dark and I noticed it's overcast out. Over on the other side, can you flip those other two? No, not that one, not that, this one over here. Those two if you could flip those, thank you. Okay, thanks. So that we may present.

Now, every man complete in Christ. What is this complete in Christ? You got parts missing? If you're in Christ, is there not already a completeness? Haven't we been completed in Him? What's this talking about? Yeah, Tom? The conditional completeness, there is a process that is by condition, but this is a final presenting. If you look at it, in terms of our position in Christ, who we are in Christ, that is complete and done. There isn't anything that's going to change about that.

That's why Paul could write to these people at Ephesus. By the way, later on in his letter he's going to tell them to stop stealing, quit lying. So it's not like these people have it all together. But he's going to tell them right at the outset, before he even begins to address anything. As a matter of fact, he's going to take several chapters before he even gives them anything to do.

And he's going to say, Let's be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places done deal in Christ Jesus. So you are complete in Christ in your position, but the working out of that in our daily lives is still an ongoing process, daily condition, but it has a goal. It has a goal. There is an end towards which it is directed.

And all this that he talks about in Colossians 1.28, this placing in the mind, this teaching, all wisdom, all those things are directed so that each believer grows into the completeness they already have. This word complete is sometimes translated as mature. Yes. Which doesn't happen in the body? Ah, okay. I'm glad you asked.

Let's turn to Ephesians 4, verse 14. We'll start with verse 11, just because I like to. Verse 11, and He gave, and this is Christ gave, by the way, and He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. And by the way, that He gave as Christ, these are a gift to the body. Isn't that interesting? A gift to the body. And what are they doing? There's a purpose in this. It isn't just here's a gift. What am I going to do with this?

But verse 12, for the equipping of the saints, so that those saints then are able to carry out the work of the service to the building up of the body of Christ until, so here's the until, why? Until is pointing to the direction, the ultimate direction, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and by the way the definite articles are there in the Greek, the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, by the way that's the same word that's complete, to a mature man to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Then here's the answer to your question, verse 14.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. And by the way, being tossed by waves and carried about by every wind, is that something Paul knew about?

Yeah, shipwrecks and things like that. Yeah, he knew what that was about. So he had experienced the physical equivalent. He's saying here's the doctrinal equivalent. Here's the doctrinal equivalent. Basically, it describes a ship that's turning around and tossing back and forth. Really good on the innards. That's the doctrinal condition when this doesn't happen. He's saying what we're headed for is not this.

But he shifts from the nautical, that is the ship analogy, into the next one, by the trickery of men. This word trickery is cubea. It means trick dice. And by the way, we've got trick dice from the New Testament era. Do you know where we found them? Jerusalem. Yeah, trick dice have been found from the first century in Jerusalem. Cubaeus, it's our word cube, comes from that. So dice trickery. Slicky dicky dice, throw on these things and throw on the trick dice.

And it says people are not doing the trick dice on you with the doctrine. And then the last thing that he shifts to there, but it's very similar, by the craftiness and deceitful scheming. People coming up with things that make people subject to their schemes. So he says those three things, the ship analogy, the trick dice analogy, and the person who's doing deceitful scheming, says you're not subject to that.

Okay? You're growing out of that. Now, to answer your question fully, if Colossians 128 doesn't happen, or we can even say it as a church body, verses 11 through 13 in Ephesians 4, if that doesn't happen, verse 14 is where we're headed. We stay there. A church body that is not being taught, that is not growing. And what's the direction and definition of that growth?

Christ. Christ. The knowledge of Him. So it's not just, we've got a lot of head knowledge. Personal knowledge of Him. That is what is going to keep us out of the trouble spelled out in verse 14. Yes, Wayne? David Solomon mentioned that last night. Yes, yeah. There's a fellow who spoke last night. We had invited him here and it was pretty good turnout for that. I think we're going to have recordings of that available, perhaps even on the net by this afternoon. We'll see. But David Solomon, who was a Christian from Egypt, now living here in the United States, but plenty of background with Muslim countries and Muslim people.

One of the things he pointed out, because the question was, how do we address these Muslim people? And he said, point them to Christ. Don't let them sidetrack you. Don't spend your time spinning your wheels arguing. Talk about Christ. And that was really cool to hear. Thanks.

Yes, Mark? Is it correct to say that even the carnal Christian will eventually be conformed to the image of Christ? Yeah, let's talk about that. We will be looking at Art's question in more detail, is will the carnal Christian ultimately be conformed to the image of Christ? The answer is yes, and how do we know that? He said so. Where does he say so?

Romans 8.28 and 29 is a key passage on that, that ultimately every single believer will be conformed to the image of Christ. It is far preferable that that process be happening now from God's standpoint.

But in the end, nobody walking through heaven's gates is going to end up going through some portion of eternity unconformed. Every believer will be conformed to the image of his son. Yeah, when we walk through heaven's gates, it is not a question of will you be conformed, it is not a question of will you be saved. There will be questions of what is the reward, and the reward is dependence upon Him. The reward is how much of His life showed through you. of dependence upon him, not how much do I do out of my own effort and strength.

But the conformity is not an issue. It's never an issue. Why then should I not say, well it doesn't matter what I do, I'm going to be conformed to the image of the sun. It doesn't matter what I do here. Why would I not say that? What would be out of fellowship with him? What's the problem with that? I'll still be conformed.

The person who walks in the flesh, and we'll see this in more detail, the person who walks in the flesh, even as a believer, and we're talking about the three kind of people, this is the person who is a believer, but not walking in the spirit, still experiences spiritual death. Not eternally, but in that moment, here and now. You can experience spiritual death. But still, what's the full answer?

Why, and that's a part of it, why should I not just say, well, I'm going to be conformed, how does it matter how I live? I think there's loss of reward. There is loss of reward, yeah. It impacts, I'll put it this way, it impacts the quality of your eternity. Yes? Yes. That's right. That's right. We are called not simply to look towards, OK, someday I'm going to have a new body and I'm going to be in heaven and I'm going to be with Jesus. It's not just a pie in the sky here and buy, you know, buy and buy.

But it is also a matter of enjoying those riches. Paul kept talking about riches of this grace. And let's put the word wealth in there. Wealth of this grace. Massive, unfathomable wealth now. Experiencing that now. Huge, huge difference. Right now. Key thing. We've run out of time. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for our time. We thank you as we look forward to the contents of this class.

It's not hypothetical. It's not purely intellectual. Although there's certainly things that need to be understood. But it, in fact, has to do with an intimate walk with you. It, in fact, has to do with who we are in you. And Lord, that matters forever. And we just thank you for our time together. Thank you for your precious word and for your precious son. In Jesus' name, Amen.