Great Doctrines of Salvation
Craig Kaes · Feb 7, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261548415

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

When I was going through my undergraduate degree, one of them being in philosophy, I read a lot of smart people. My favorite smart person to the end was pretty devout and vocal atheist, was Bertrand Russell. And he went through and did some brilliant work in mathematics, symbolic logic, all sorts of smart disciplines.

And one of the things that struck me at the time, and still sticks with me, One of his projects was called Principia Mathematica. Principia Mathematica was this idea that he viewed mathematics as having all of this inherent truth. Of course, the truth is not inherent in mathematics, but that's a conversation for a different day. But he viewed mathematics as having all this truth, and he was in the business of philosophizing, and he wanted to be able to get the truth from mathematics over into philosophy.

And so he spent all of this time proving 1 plus 1 equals 2. And so 432 pages later, he's got 1 plus 1 equals 2. We're really cooking. And it kept building up the system, building up the system, and then somebody came to him with what later is known as Russell's Paradox, which is a somewhat subtle mathematical argument, but basically it took everything that he was trying to do and just sort of flushed it down the toilet.

And so he kept trying to bolster it up and bolster it up, and he was reminded of the Hindu tale about, well, what's the earth resting on? Well, the earth is resting on an elephant. It's like, OK, but what's the elephant standing on? Well, the elephant's standing on a turtle. All right, but what's the turtle standing on? Here he's trying to bolster up his argument. Turtle's on another turtle. And he realized at some point, it's turtles all the way down. So this was not the foundation of truth, and it really kind of rocked his world. He did some interesting mathematics, but of course he never got the truth from mathematics into philosophy. All right, so that's story number one. Story number two is about one of our Sunday school kids, two-year-old girl.

Do you guys know? Well, she's three now, but little Abby. Um, okay, well, she shows up to her mom with, you know, red staining on her cheeks right here. So her mom's pretty confident. Okay, she's eaten some berries, and there's some good berries around in the yard, and there's some bad berries around in the yard. So mom's concerned, all right? Abby, I need to know what berries you ate. Where did you find these berries? Abby's not really being forthcoming because maybe she wasn't supposed to eat any berries at all. Abby, this is very important. I need to know the truth. Tell me the truth. And Abby says, the truth is in the Bible. So we're going to spend a lot of time in the Bible this morning. Because that's where we find truth.

So, did you guys get a list of different words for redemption? No, okay. So, we've got our question. There are several words meaning redemption. What's the basic understanding of the word? You have that? Okay. Well, it turns out there are a whole bunch of different words that are all related to redemption.

And we're going to spend a ton of time this morning looking at those individual words because it's going to build a foundation on which we can have the rest of this discussion. We can go through and answer the questions. So we're going to spend what's going to seem like forever in question number one. And then we're going to pick up steam and get going. If we don't finish today, then we'll finish next week, and that's OK. All right.

So did anybody look up agora, agorazo, any of these words? Do we have references to those? I'm just trying to understand the basic understanding here. In Matthew 23, the word agora is translated marketplace. Okay. So what I think I want to do is go through a number of different words. We'll look at agaradzo, which has that same root word, agar. We'll look at agaradzo, And then we're going to look at a number of different words for ransom and payment and other words for redemption. And hopefully we'll come to understand the consistency across all of them.

Before we jump into it, I was just curious. I looked up in Merriam-Webster's to see what the English meaning of redeem is and was absolutely shocked. I expected to see something completely secular and ended up getting very happily surprised. The number two definition of redeem is to free from what distresses or harms, to free from captivity by payment of ransom, to extricate from or help to overcome something detrimental, to release from blame or debt, and here's the great one, to free from the consequences of sin.

Yeah, right there in Merriam-Webster. That was kind of cool and surprising. What copyright date? You know, I looked online, so I would say current. Recent. Yes, very current. Nod 1693. Okay, so let us start by looking at agaradzo. So agaradzo is one of the basic words used. It simply means to be purchased or bought. And this is, you know, I'd go into the store and I'd buy something that's agaradzo.

So let's look at three verses, and we're going to have so many verses to look up. in this class period, because where is the truth? The Bible. The truth is in the Bible. Alright. So, I think we'll just start at the front row and start going back. So, starting with you, why don't you look up 1 Corinthians 6.20, 1 Corinthians 7.23, and 2 Peter 2.1. For you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Okay, so we've been bought and this is just simple purchase. Okay. You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men. Okay, so again, we were bought. That's nice.

Second Peter 2.1. But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord, who brought them and bring them on themselves swift destruction. So even denying the Lord who bought them. So again, they were purchased.

So, if I go into a store and I buy something, who owns that something? I do. Okay, so we are barred. If I charged it, then the bank comes in, right? So I just went and bought a house, but I didn't really buy a house. The bank bought the house, using me as an intermediary. But in this case, the Lord bought us with a price. Okay, so the consequence would be that we're owned by God, and we should be able to see that if we look in the Bible. Alright? So let's see if we are in fact owned by God.

So, Romans 6.18 and 6.21 and 22.

Okay, Romans 6.18.

And having been freed from sin, you become slaves of righteousness. Okay, so we are slaves of righteousness in 621 and 622. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome of eternal life. So we are enslaved to God. So, sure enough, God bought us, God gets us.

So that's pretty straightforward. The next word that we want to look at is ekagorazo. In Greek, you can take a preposition, take that preposition, stick it on the front of a word, and make it stronger. So we're starting out with our word agarazo, which means to buy. And we're sticking this little preposition on the front that means ek. Ek is out of. So if I walk out of this room, that's ek. I'm getting out of here. So ek agarazo means to buy out of.

The most typical usage of the word was in the slave trade. And it means you're bought out of the market with an eye toward your freedom. never to go back into the slave market. It's a very strong word. The first one is, God buys us, God owns us. The next one is, God buys us and removes us from the junk that we were in. The question is, if we're being bought out of somewhere, What are we being, with an eye toward our freedom, what are we being freed from? Sin and the repercussions of it, or this world, or...

I'd say probably all of that, and we'll look at two verses for this one, which would be Galatians 3.13 and Galatians 4.5.

Galatians 3.13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who goes on the street. Okay, and 4.5? To redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons. Okay, so the redeemed in these two verses is the stronger form of redeemed. We're being bought out of the market. And so, what are we being removed from? So, in 3.13, we're being removed from the curse of the law.

In 4.5, we are being removed from being under the law. interesting sort of Greek geek observation in 3.13. We take this word, ak, and we stick it onto the verb, and that makes it stronger. Now we're being bought out of.

But what's really cool about Galatians 3.13 is they take this word, ak, and put it onto the beginning, so we're being bought out of. Then the author, Paul, takes another act and sticks it immediately after the verb. So, reading from the Greek, it would be, Christ bought us out of, out from the curse of the law. So this is us getting completely removed from the curse of the law.

Okay, here's a question for you. Why would the law be a curse? Wasn't the law given by God? Interesting. It's impossible. Right. So why would God give us something that we can't fulfill? So we would understand. Yeah. So in Galatians, we learn that the law was given to us as a schoolteacher so that we could learn that, you know, we've got no shot at this. In Romans, it's taught us that the law was given to us so that sin may abound. Well, that sounds really gross. Why would we want sin to abound? Again, so that we would understand our need for a savior to be removed from that system. So, there are schools of thought in Christianity that now that we have the Holy Spirit, we can keep the law and that this is what we ought to be doing.

What Galatians 3.13 says is that we have been removed out from out from the curse of the law. That says that this is something that is not part of our system whatsoever. We're completely removed from it. And that is redemption.

Question. You said that God gave us these laws. I thought it was the exact opposite. I thought the Jews asked for these laws. That is correct. The Jews, and this has actually been really typical of God's interaction with us, where the Jews, or we, and we'll look at Romans 1 a little later on, say, I really want this. God says, that's not the system that I put into place.

I really want it. Okay. I'll give that to you. It's like when they asked for a cane. That's exactly the situation. We want a king. OK, do you not recognize that I am that for you? No, we want a human being who's walking around on this earth. OK, have salt. See how you like that. This is the same sort of situation. Just tell us what to do. OK, here, have 613 laws. Good luck with those.

So definitely a curse, definitely given by God when asked. If we are being bought, then there's some sort of price that needs to be paid to acquire that. So we move on to Lutron, which is the ransom paid. And let's see Matthew 20, 28, and Mark 10, 45. So the question is, if we were bought, then it must have been at a price. So what's the price? Matthew 20, 28?

Yes. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for men. Remarkably consistent, isn't it? So, the Son of Man is in fact a ransom. So, what do we get out of it? Craig, I don't like the son of man term there because the reason it works is because he was the son of God.

That's why he was the only one who could be sacrificed. Yes and no. So the reason why it worked, and now we're jumping well ahead in the questions here. In order to redeem us, God had to become man. So Christ had to come as man. The issue is that in our sin, death had to occur for that sin, and it didn't have to be just general death.

It wouldn't have been good for an angel to die. That wouldn't have satisfied the offense. It wouldn't be enough for a dog to die. That wouldn't be enough. What was required was that a man die. And so Jesus coming as Son of Man was required in order to redeem us. So we'll circle around all the way over to there. But it was absolutely necessary that Jesus come as man. in order to die. What was also required is that he not have it coming to him. So I can't stand in and say, okay, God, for the human race, go ahead, kill me. My death will be a nice substitutionary death. I can't do that because I've got it coming to me. I deserve death. What was required was that somebody who didn't have it coming, somebody who didn't deserve it, could then pay the penalty for us. And again, because he was a spotless lamb, that is how he was able to redeem us. Again, we'll come around to that as we get almost to the end of the questions. But good point. So, motrosis is a word that we're going to pick up, which is a noun, and it's what we get out of the deal. And so let's see.

Hebrews 9.12. And Bruce, just so you know, I was looking at Calvin when I said that. All right.

Hebrews 9.12.

And that's in the letter. goats and cows, but through his own blood he entered the holy place, once and for all having obtained eternal redemption." Okay, so what we get out of the deal is we get to enter in with him, right? And so the holy place, do we know where that is?

With God. So we get to go into the Holy of Holies. We get to go where nobody got to go before, except once a year under very special circumstances. That's where we get to hang out. And the image that I always have when I picture the Holy of Holies is probably vastly different than the Jewish folks had way back when, which is we get to go right in there, hop up on God's lap. say, Abba Father, and it's because we've been pulled out of this curse of the law. We've been pulled out of this sinful state. And we now have this position where we get to hang with God, which is just absolutely amazing.

So that's what we get out of the redemption. There's another word for this thing that we get, which is apollutrosis. So again, we're getting into Greek geek. Lutrosus is the word, and we've got a little preposition, apa, on. We stick that with it. And we get to be released out of on payment of ransom.

And so to see what that looks like, Bruce, we can look at Romans 3.24 and Monique, Colossians 1.13 and 14. Romans 324, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Oh, Colossians 1, 13 and 14. 13 and 14 you said? I did.

No, he rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sin. Okay, so we pick up a few wonderful things from these two verses. Number one, what do we get out of redemption? We get justified as a gift by his grace. So we're now in, I'm in Mike's class, so I should say, all right, so what does justification mean? Being righteous? Yeah. So we're in a right standing with God now. As a gift, by his grace. And the other one is, we've been rescued from the domain of darkness, transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son. So our standing has certainly improved by a great deal.

But we also get a little more insight into what redemption might mean, into redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so if you were to diagram this out, you would actually have an equal sign between redemption and forgiveness. So these are, in the sentence, they're equivalent terms. So we've learned something about redemption. It's forgiveness of sins. All right, there was one other word that I wanted to look at, which is utropo. And for that, let's look at Titus 2, 11 through 14.

I'm kind of new, so this might take me a while. That's okay. All the keys are together. All the books that begin with A. So this is by far the oldest crowd I have taught in ages. And I tend to work more with the four and five-year-olds. So it's pretty typical. It takes us a while to find the right spot in the Bible. OK. I have it. OK. My Bible might be a little different.

For the grace of God, his unmerited favor and blessing has come forward for the deliverance from sin and the eternal salvation for all mankind. It has trained us to reject and renounce all ungodliness and worldly desires to live discreet, upright, devout lives in this present world. Awaiting and looking for our the blessed hope, even his glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. And 14, give himself on our behalf that he might redeem us, purchase our freedom from all iniquity and purify for himself a people eager and enthusiastic about living a life that is good and filled with beneficial deeds.

Okay. That had a lot of extra content around it. But it makes a lot of that clear. The key one is in verse 14, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for himself the people of his own possession, zealous for good deeds. This captures all of these different meanings of agorazo and and all of these other terms, where he redeemed us from every lawless deed, so we've been pulled out, and he's purified for himself people of his own possession, so he possesses us, he owns us, he bought us, that makes a lot of sense, right? So it sort of brings it all together. So, now that we've spent 35 minutes looking at different words for redeem, What's the basic understanding of the word agar?

You said that it had to do with a marketplace. Well, I just noticed that it was translated. Agora was translated marketplace. OK. So this goes along with ec agorazo, when you're buying back from the slave marketplace with an eye toward freedom and not being put back in it. So that's how marketplace ends up being very relevant.

All right. So now we're done with question number one. So number two, at creation, whom did the whole human race belong to? God. Okay. But he put Adam in charge. Okay, I buy that too. But we didn't belong to Adam, we belonged to God. Right, right. Adam was our federal head. That's correct. We were in Adam. So if I'm going to say the whole human race belonged to God.

That's why it's a buyback. How would I go about establishing that to be true? I beat this into the children over and over and over and over again. Where do we find truth? He created everything. Okay. I agree. He created it all. But where do we find truth? In the Bible. Truth is in the Bible. All right. So for number two, we're going to go to the Psalms. And I guess we'll start back over here. Psalms 24-1. And you choose Psalms 89-11. I'm headed back to you for Psalms 103. What was the name again? It was Psalms 24-1. 24-1? Correct. The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. Is that written after the fall? What? Psalms. Was it written after the fall?

Uh, yeah. Interesting. All right. I may be getting a call from Mike this week over this. What's my address in Psalms? Your address is 8911. I kind of lumped you two together. The heavens are yours. The earth also is yours. The world in all its fullness, you have founded them. Okay. And NASB, that's the world and all it contains. You have founded them. And again, Psalms were written after the fall? Oh yes. Alright. Psalms 103.

Know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us. and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Okay, so God owns us, right? And so at creation, whom did the whole human race belong to? God, right? He created us, we're his, absolutely.

When Adam sinned, did God lose ownership to the Adamic human race? How many, all right, so I'm in Mike's class. How many people say yes, God lost ownership? Say that again, I didn't get it. The question is, number three, when Adam sinned, did God lose ownership to the Adamic human race? How many say yes? We've got two yeses. How many say no?

We've got a bunch of nos, but we still have some chickens in here. All right. I think Psalms is really clear and it's after the fall. God did not lose ownership. So now we've got, and this may be one, so Mike, is in Hawaii this week and he's probably going to be listening to this in about an hour. And I may be getting a call from him this week at which point. We may have to talk next week. I did listen to his lesson from three years ago and and he and I do not see entirely eye-to-eye on this and So let that be a huge caveat that an elder in our church is taking a different position on this So he's going to talk to me this week and I'll present back to you next week, but Where do we find truth?

The truth is in the Bible. Okay, what is the Bible saying? The Bible is saying the earth is the Lord and all it contains. The world and all it contains and we are his people and this is after the fall. So I don't think it's an issue of ownership. So does God still own the unbeliever? I think yes. Okay, so what has happened and why does he need to buy that unbeliever back?

Because there is a ransom that needs to be paid. And to see that, let's look at a couple of verses. So let's start with Romans 7, 14. And then we'll go to Romans 1, 25. Because there is something that's definitely going on. If ownership is not the issue, it's something very similar. Romans what? 7.14. Do you want anybody to read it? How about you? Since you're there. Well we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Okay, so, and my translation is, but I am a flesh sold into bondage to sin. So if I'm sold, does somebody now own me? that seems contrary to Psalms.

So Romans 1.25, Trish.

Romans 1.25? Yes. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Okay.

And Acts 26. 15 through 18. This is Paul recounting his first interaction with the Lord. And I said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you to minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also the things which I will appear to you, rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open your eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, and they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.

Okay, so what we've got out of Romans 7, 14 is that we are sold into sin. So there's some transaction that's occurred. So what I was trying to understand, if there's been some selling, who's doing the buying, who's doing the selling, what transaction's actually taking place? I think that that's borne out pretty well in Romans 125, where we exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.

So God did not sell us. God, the rightful owner, did not sell us. We sold ourselves. And how did we sell ourselves? We exchanged the truth of God for a lie. And in so doing, Adam took the whole human race with him. Alright? So, now, Adam has sold himself into sin. We, with him, have been sold into sin. The question is, who's the new owner? Who's taken possession of us?

Sin. Adam. I'm sorry? Adam. Adam is definitely our federal head and what that means is that what Adam does, as Adam does, so do we. We go with him, right? And so he decided to sell himself into the bondage of sin. We with him, we in him. But now, who is the possessor?

And I think that that's borne out in Acts 26.18, which is why Erin was reading that. Saying that we need to turn from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God. So, the word dominion there is exousia, which is authority. So Satan is in authority of the unbeliever all all the unbeliever can do is follow whatever Satan says right and which is very consistent with Romans 1 25 where They're worshiping the creature rather than the Creator Okay, so is it an issue of ownership?

I don't think so. I think that we sold ourselves and into the bondage of sin, which then made us unsuitable to God. And so now we cannot be in God's presence. Did he give up ownership of us? No. He still owns everything in the entire world, but we're in a position where we can no longer be with him. And to solve that problem, he has to buy us back. Okay? So, Is that clear? The analogy that I use is kind of like this. So, Erin, you and Trish own Connor outright. He is yours. Yes? No. More or less, for the time being. I know. Our checkbook says we own him. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, you pay the money for him at the hospital. You've made an investment at this point. And perhaps 18, 19, 20, somewhere in there, you'll give him his freedom. But for now, you own him, right? OK. So I decide to come and kidnap Connor, and I take him somewhere. And he's now away from you. Did you stop owning him? He's in my possession. I've got him. You're going to have to pay me something to get him back. Right? But you didn't give up ownership of him. Is that clear? Alright. So, that's what we'll go with and we'll see if Mike gives me a call this week. I have a question. Yes.

So, did you come and kidnap him or did he decide that he's going to leave and go live with somebody else. Well, all analogies break down at some point. I believe that what actually happened with us is more what you're describing. But I use the kidnap one to make my point.

So in reality, Connor has sold himself into bondage. So Connor has decided, you know what? I'd really like $100. So Craig, I'll go with you if you give me $100. That's cool. So I give Connor a hundred bucks and now I'm going to try to exchange him with his parents for a couple hundred. I'd like to make a profit.

But you didn't give title to him. I did not get title to him. No, absolutely not. And if we look in the Psalms, Satan did not get title to man. If we look in Job, Satan did not get title to man. It's just that sin effectively takes us away from God. That's right. Because in dying, you will surely die. So if you take up the fruit and eat in dying, you will surely die. And death is separation.

So what did man get out of it? So Connor got a hundred bucks in this analogy. So what did man get out of the deal? What did he sell himself for? Sin and death? Doesn't sound like a good deal. We're not always real bright. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

He did a little better in the deal than that. What he got out of the deal was some tasty fruit that he thought was going to make him like God. Yeah, and that was a very admirable thing to want. Actually, as far as he was concerned, that was the only thing better. He didn't know the consequences. Do you think he wanted to be better than God, to make the decision? No, equal. He got the $100. He was more like a little kid feeling left out, rather than being admirable. Well, I mean, he admired God. God had all these abilities and qualities that were faultless, you know. So I think it was a jealousy thing. And he was told by Satan that he would be like God. Yes.

So I don't think we can go back and know for sure what was in the heart and the mind of Adam at that time. I can say that for myself in that circumstance, I can't see myself saying, while God rocks, I really want to be just like him and be as kind and as sweet. I can see myself saying, wow, he knows a lot of stuff and he's really powerful, I'd love to have that. I don't see the motivations being quite as pure for Adam as you may.

Yeah, I don't either. So the sin actually could have occurred before the fruit, but based on envy or jealousy? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That was the first spell that we have? Okay, well maybe we'll hit number four and then we'll have plenty of material to cover next week. Okay, under what principle does the act of one man accrue to all his descendants? The principle of kind produces kind because when Adam sinned then all of his progeny would be sinners. I like that. I like the way that you phrase that.

The key words that we're looking for are federal headship, right? Start in Genesis and end in Revelations, you're not going to see the words Federal Headship stuck together. This is a concept that we've decided to name Federal Headship, but it does show up in the Bible, kind gives birth to kind, and we'll look at just a couple references. so that we can see the principle.

So, the first one that we'll look at is Romans 5.12, and I've kind of lost track of where we are. I think we're on... April. And then we're also going to look at Hebrews 7, 9 and 10. Okay.

Romans 5.12, Therefore, justice through one man's sin entered into the world, and death through sin. So death spread to all men, because all have sinned. Okay, so Adam sinned, but all sinned. And so this is the principle of federal headship, that as our head, when Adam chose to sin, not we all got the raw end of the stick. No, we all did it in him.

And then the second place where it's really obvious is Hebrews 7, 9, and 10. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tent, paid the his ancestor. Okay, so this is going back into Old Testament times. Melchizedek, being a priest, was paid tithes. Levi, who did not directly pay those tithes, is said to have paid those tithes because he did so in the loins of his father who paid those tithes. So again, what can be said of And an early member of the race can be said of a latter member of the race because of the principle of federal headship.

With that being the second bell, I think we'll close. And stay tuned for next week. I may be taking everything I said today back. Lord, thanks so much for this time that we've had to look at your Word to see what is true. Thank you for the redemption, for taking us out of that marketplace, for freeing us from that sin, so that we could be with you and sit on your lap in the Holy of Holies. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.