Lesson 34b

Well, I'm picking up on Courtney's last lesson. See, we're on lesson 34, chapter 8, 22 through 25. Get that up on my phone here. Someone read those verses for us, 22 through 25. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits, we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Now in this hope we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience. In the same way, the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. I guess that was one more verse. That's okay. We may get to it today. We'll see. So I'll pick it up with question number 6 on lesson 34. Question. What does it mean that we have the first fruits of the Spirit? What are first fruits? What does it mean, Aidan? School it's. School it's? Alright, we're not going to answer the question.

I'll set the scene. We're new creatures in Christ. Where's our citizenship? Heaven. Alright. Our position is in Christ, sharing in His given life. Right now. Agreed? Our walk is here though. It is here. We are delivered from sin and law and all the worldly things. So that's the first thing. Second thing. We have the presence of the Spirit within us. First fruits. Why?

Why is it the first fruits? The presence of this indwelling Spirit in you is a first fruit. First fruit to what? What is a first fruit? I always think of a first fruit as the best of the crop. When the Israelites brought in the first fruits, it was the first harvest of whatever they harvested. And it was the best of them.

Would that be the faith? It's definitely obtained by faith. A non-meritorious faith. What are these verses talking about? We look at the fullness of this here. Christ. There's a lot of groaning. Right? There's mentions of creation. And then right there in verse 23 it says, and not only this, but also we ourselves having the firstfruits of the Spirit. And then he talks about we also are groaning. I asked Vern about this verse, and he said, of course it's a reference to the firstfruits initially given to the Jews in Exodus, and he says Paul used the feast of the firstfruits in 1 Corinthians 15 with Christ as the firstfruits of the resurrection. But in the larger picture, first fruits is used in the New Testament to picture the beginning of something as a promise of the rest.

And he goes on to say that Paul's use of the first fruits of the spirits in Romans 8.23 fits with the Holy Spirit given as a promise of everything else to come, which Paul makes reference to in the rest of Romans 8.18-25, and he also references What do you guys think about that? Does that make sense?

Pretty cool. The footnote in my Bible says, Christians have only the first fruits, the pledge of more to come in our salvation. Well, that coincides with exactly what Joanne was saying. Yep. A down payment. Pardon? Have a down payment. It's the beginning of the full payout. What's the full payout? The promise. Okay, what's the promise?

Glorified with new bodies. Redemption body. Redemption body. Exactly. We have the presence of the Spirit within us as first fruits of our coming full inheritance. We could also maybe call it a coining. It's that initial promise of more to come. Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. Isn't our promises absolute facts? They are absolute facts. How do you know that? Hope. Alright, we're going to get there, for sure. I call it a spiritual down payment, but is it just a down payment with no benefit right now? It's a guarantee right now. It's a guarantee? Yeah. Is there any benefits with that? Benefits? Yeah. What are they?

A walk in the spirit. is one. There's a bunch, I think. There are a bunch. Everything that's true of us in Christ, right now. It gives us the peace. It definitely gives us the peace. To be able to behold the Lord. All the blessings he lists in Ephesians 1. It's interesting that Paul kind of contrasts here. He says, you have the first fruits. the pledge, the promise of all that's to come.

But then he goes right next to that, he contrasts it with the groaning, right? But we are also in a state of groaning. We talk pretty regularly about walking in the Spirit and walking by faith and all the benefits that come with that, but here he talks about the state of groaning that we're in. And he relates that groaning to the way that the creation is also groaning. And what are they groaning for? Remember we talked about the fact that creation is a slave to corruption. The moment man fell, it was designed to glorify God and now it cannot. It can't glorify the Lord.

It was a suitable environment originally, but it's eagerly, and we make that adjustment, oddly over the course of a couple of lessons. We definitely wanted to remove anxious and use the word eagerly. I think it's a better translation of the word. It's eagerly waiting and longing. We could also say groaning for the glorification of you. Eagerly waiting. That's the proof of our hope, isn't it? That's where we're going with it, absolutely. Yep.

So, we're also in a state of groaning, not yet partakers of glory, though expecting and awaiting it. And we're doing that with the creation as well, both animate and inanimate. So, the four-legged creatures as well as the rocks and the trees, right? We are kept in an unredeemed body, not fitted for heaven yet.

So you're given the pledge of the spirit. You've got the indwelling spirit. It's the first fruit. But, you're in an unredeemed body. Where is it headed? To the dust you'll return, right? We're headed back to the dirt with this thing. So, we're growing along with creation Because we're waiting for bodily redemption. You may not realize it, but your body is groaning for your redemption. That's kind of a weird thought, right? But that's what Paul says. Thoughts? Yes, do you have a thought? It's better to look at it that way than just to think it's because of old age. That is true.

Is there scripture about that, like 1 Corinthians 15, after the Gospel? I don't have my Bible with me. Well, why did you come to church without a Bible? Because there's a bunch here. Well, go grab one. I was going to. And then read us what you're talking about. We'll wait for you. Oh, no. Go ahead.

To answer the question, what does it mean that we have the first fruits of the Spirit? I think the answer is, it means that we have the down payment for the promises of all that is to come. And in this context, it has to do with the full bodily redemption that is yet future for all of us, right now.

This puts a really interesting perspective. There's been a lot of dads and granddads that have passed away in our realm. There's three that we know of in this week. And when you think about what your body is longing for, and the whole creation is longing for, and you put some of this in perspective, and especially as we get into the hope that we're moving into, it changes the way we look at that transition. And it is a transition for us. It's not an end. I had a coworker I walked up on, and it wasn't in the conversation, but I just I heard him talking to several other co-workers and he said, you know, I am, I am scared to death of death. Like I, death just really, I don't want to die.

And I wasn't in the conversation, so I didn't have a place in it. But I thought to myself, you know, how fearful and anxious and frustrated I would be about living a life without knowing what was next. I would literally have no hope. And to think about those that we all love dearly and know that don't have this hope of their bodily redemption, and they don't have the benefits and the joys of walking with the indwelling spirit, those first fruits, how just frustrating and sad it would be to think about living in that existence, right?

But that's not the intention. That's not the Lord's intention at all. So question number seven. Why are we not satisfied with our bodies now? We don't really talk about our bodies very often. I remember when Vern used to talk about it, he'd always grab his forearm. I don't know why this part of his body was the key example, but I'll grab my ear.

They are. How are they corrupted? By sin. And they're deteriorating. Yeah. They are. We know that our body belongs to the Lord. Agreed? It does belong to Him. It's called a temple. But it's not yet redeemed. So your body is longing and yearning for that day that it will be placed in a position of complete and total sonship. S-O-N, ship. Right? And glory. That's where you're headed. Are we placed in sonship in our spirit right now? The sonship? Our Heavenly Father? Yes. We are. It isn't. It's not in that. It's not in that same sonship before the Lord. So it groans, and it longs, and it yearns to be redeemed. Mike Yetta.

1 Corinthians 15-20. and on. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died." Definitely relates. His resurrection as a firstfruit gives the possibility of His spirit being our first fruit. Does that make sense? When you're given the indwelling Holy Spirit, have you been resurrected? Yes. Newness of life? Not bodily. Not bodily. And that would be the first fruits of what? The rapture? It's the redemption of your body. Right? The glorification of your body.

This thing is not fitted for heaven. It's not going to make it. Do what you want with it, in terms of, I mean, I can go work out, I can do all the things, be as healthy as I possibly can, or not, but at the end of the day, this thing's not going with me. It's just not going. It's not meant for heaven, right?

So, till the day that our body is glorified, this We can't live in a body that's satisfied. It's not present in the family yet, right? Because when you receive that glorification body, you will have that full adoption that is being talked about here. And we'll talk about that in a little bit.

But question number eight says, is it the Christian viewpoint to want to be, let's just get out of here. I want to be out of this thing. Because we don't want to be attached to the corrupt and dying body anymore. Is that our position? No. Paul said, whether I be in the body or in the spirit, he preferred that he be, the people preferred that he would be in the body. And he also, for the help of the So we just learned that our spirit does groan, and it can't be satisfied in this body. We desire heaven, but our Christian hope is not disembodiment, like what you're saying, or simply going to heaven. Why?

We talk about, I'm looking forward to the day that I'll be face to face with my Savior. Yes. We do. But is it the Christian attitude to sit here and say, I can't wait to get out of this thing. I just can't stand it. We walk around telling everybody, I'm on my way out of here and I can't wait until it happens. It's cool to walk in the spirit, man. I don't think that's the way God wants us to look at what we're here.

He has us here until he's ready for us. Yeah. Okay. For growth and for being transformed. How does God see us right now? Does He see us in our glorified, redeemed body because He's not bothered about time? That is so deep. And I'm the only teacher here. You guys are teachers too. You can answer that. Go ahead and answer that. How does God see you? Does He see you in your full redemption? and sonship in all the ways that it is going to be when we're glorified. Does he see you that way? He sees us in Christ. Whatever we are in Christ, that's what we are.

You talk about being face-to-face. Is that a first... I mean, this is an interesting question. And I don't know that I've contemplated it in this way. Time is very important for us. It's a tool. It's a creative tool, isn't it? Agreed? So time is a very effective tool that the Lord uses for our growth. Growth is something that is progressive. Sometimes not. Sometimes yes. Right? So time is definitely a tool that the Lord uses. He's eternal. So that would be like Time is truth. Time is faith. Time is... I don't know about that. I'm not sure.

I definitely think the Lord sees us complete. He sees us complete. But we don't see the Lord that way because of the body. And that's the only factor. And it is time that is the tool to conform us to the image of Christ, right? Conforming is a time-based process.

Sanctification. All the things that the Lord is doing in the life of the believer. Going back to some of the things that Vern taught years ago, that was such a great lesson. I don't know if you guys remember going through what's God doing in the life of the believer. Transforming, conforming, the differences of some of those things. All those things are time-based tools that the Lord uses. He sees us complete. But we are not complete, as of now. If you're sitting here today with me, right?

So, we're in a state of not only beholding the Lord, walking in the Spirit, because that's cool, man, but we're also in the body groaning. Yeah. We're groaning. So, we're asking ourselves, is it the position to just say, man, I can't wait to get out of here. And you mentioned, we're here, for the time that God has placed us to do the things that He has for us as we walk in the Spirit, right? So we know our citizenship is in Heaven. That's where we belong. That's where we're headed, and that's what this body can't provide for us, is that redemption, that glory, the glorification that we're looking forward to.

So we're in a state of growing, but in these verses It says, we patiently wait for our Savior. We're patiently waiting. When somebody ever had said, we wait with steadfast endurance in present sufferings, and that's Upamani, endurance, enduring under pressure. But we could be eagerly expecting what's coming. We could be eagerly expecting. But what is required with that eager expectation?

Patience. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in a minute. So would patience be a result of hope? Yeah, I think so. You can't be patient for something you're not hoping for. I mean, you've got a motorcycle. Let's get into that. No, I'm just saying, are you hoping for a motorcycle? You have a motorcycle, right?

So we'll talk about that in a minute. But, yeah, we patiently wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will fashion anew the body of our groaning, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. So here you are, with a groaning body, expecting something that produces hope, but it requires a patience. Can you produce that patience?

No. You can't. Why? Is that like getting life insurance if you drive a motorcycle? You do have life insurance. I'm not sure. But it's an analogy. It's interesting because in Genesis 2 God began with the body. He fashioned this thing. And it's not our attitude to dislike or want to be disembodied. I mean, God designed our body, but he designed it for an environment that at the time was suitable for dominion.

Remember? And what happened? The sin. The fall. And so he starts with a body that quickly gets corrupted, and how does he end? How does he end? With you. He presides the Savior. He presides the Savior, but what's the end of this time and this creation? Death. Yeah, and what do you get? Newness. Yeah. He starts with a body and he ends with a new body. You get redeemed. You get a redemption.

Romans 8.11, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Do you have life right now? Yes. Redemption life? No. Spiritually? No. Just not bodily? And that's what this whole thing is about. Yeah, we got the new mind. Yeah. It's new inside. It's not new on the out yet. He started there in Genesis 2. He's going to end there for you as well. A body fitted for the heavenlies. Right? For eternity. When the Spirit walks in us, it walks through Christ's mind. Or the mind is Christ? We have the mind of Christ.

Yeah. I mean, if that's what you're saying. So would that be a hope or a fact? That's a fact. Yeah, now. That's a present fact. Right. Yeah, that's a present fact. The only thing that you don't have that you will receive in heaven, aside from the very presence, like physical presence of God, is a new body. But we have a promise of that. We have the first fruits of the Spirit. You're exactly right. There's a promise, there's a pledge, and that's where we're headed. And because of that, even in our groaning, presently, we have a hope.

Right? So, can you let your heart also be set on this hope, that is future? We talk about our position and walking in our Conditionally walking in our position, right? But can you, by faith, have hope in this? Absolutely. And this changes the game. That's what I was talking about. Without this, where are you headed? Depression. Depression? Yeah, I think so. The boneyard. Well, there too. But until you get there, it's a whole lot of death until. I mean, you're separated, right?

So in verse 24, question number nine, in verse 24, what is the hope all about? I'll read 24. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? What's the hope all about? We've been talking about it, but we're gonna keep talking.

Future redemption of our body. Future redemption of our body. freedom from the presence of sin, have a position that is conditioned by that? That's three really good answers. You guys agree? But that's established on the fact that we have freedom from the power of sin. Yeah. Now, now we have. Can you say those things again? I'm taking notes. Can you say that again? Probably not.

Free from the presence of sin. Oh, presence of sin. Okay. Future bodily redemption. And there's a third one. Oh, when our position and condition will no longer be separate. And we're going to be delivered from the curse of the suffering caused by the fall. That suffering will be no more. I might add that just being in the physical presence of the Lord.

Well, again, this isn't a wishful thinking hope either. This is an absolute promise. I hope so. I really hope it's not bad. This is an absolute promise that we can depend upon. That's right. Those who respond by faith to that promise have hope, and I would call it a confident expectation of bodily redemption. In this context, it's bodily redemption. But what does that mean? What does your redemption mean? We're bought out of the slave market. Okay. And what does that result in?

A new body, but also a new mind, a new everything in Christ. You mentioned freedom. Freedom. Finally free to do whatever I want. Free to what? Free to do whatever God wants. Free from the body that we're presently in and free to serve Him in a new redemption glorified state, right? It's ultimate freedom. We talk about freedom a lot. This is the ultimate freedom we're talking about right here. This is liberty for all. Eternity. Right?

We read in Galatians 5.5, For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. What does that mean? We're waiting for the hope of righteousness. What is the hope of righteousness? Is that related to this verse, do you think?

Yeah. I think in a way, we get that if we believe also. Because we are the righteousness of God and Christ. So, we kind of have it already. You know what I'm saying? Perfect righteousness. Yeah. Without the presence of this in nature. There you go. And that's the only difference. This thing is the reason we continue to hope that we have a hope of righteousness. Okay? Francis, how do you think about your hope in the Lord? You don't know. I don't know how to answer you right now. That's okay.

I just want to make sure that I'm able to communicate what this is because we talk a lot about walking in the Spirit. We talk a lot about the sin nature. We talk a lot about being of the mind of who we are in Christ. But those things are extremely important But Paul's focus here is to give you hope.

Not necessarily to give you hope, but to make sure that you understand the hope that you have as a believer. That you are going to be redeemed. You have a hope of righteousness. What does righteousness mean? If Paul says we are waiting for the hope of righteousness, what does righteousness mean? We always do what's right. Okay.

It's not having this anymore, and being, as you mentioned, perfect righteousness. No longer dealing with the groaning of the body, co-groaning with the creation, because it groans too. You're in the perfect presence of the Lord, and in the state that we're in today, we're waiting for that. We're hopefully, confidently expecting that to be true of us. something that is true of us spiritually now, but will be completely true both physically and spiritually, however that works with the redemption body when we're removed from this planet, right? Does that make sense? We are the righteousness of God in Christ. We are. We're just not perfectly in that state until we are in our glorified body. It would be so nice not to be encumbered by the sin nature anymore and combating with the sin nature to try to do God's will. No more battles. Is faith going to be necessary in heaven? No. Love. Have you ever thought about that? Is faith necessary in heaven? Only love remains. Faith will be natural in heaven. It will be the natural state, right? to trust, you'll never have to doubt.

I don't know. It's just been, you know, death is something that all men in their natural states fear, right? It was never meant to be. It was never meant to be. It's an unnatural fear, right? I mean, it's an unnatural event in our lives that we were not designed to deal with. It's not a natural state. Yeah, it's not something that we were built to deal with. We can't cope with that reality in our natural state. But Paul's saying that because of the firstfruits of the Spirit, this changes that game for you. And yeah, it's a reality. It's a result of sin, but it changes the game for you. Right?

I don't know. We all are dealing with death and situations surrounding that all the time. And these verses, I think, just just really hammer down our attitude towards how all that works. You know, I will tell you that I, in my, probably in my flesh, yeah, definitely in my flesh, I sometimes not, I don't fear death in terms of how it affects me, but just not being with my family, right? That's a scary thought to me. And it could still bring tears to my eyes, but the moment you behold the word in this way and understand what he's saying here, it changes the way that you think about that. My family, they're believers, right? And so they get to share in the same hope that I have. And that is our attitude towards the end of this body. To view what we're placed inside in this time on earth, in the way that Paul's talking about it, changes the attitude towards death. Doesn't it? Do you agree? See what I'm saying?

The fantastic mind of Christ. The fantastic mind of Christ. We all feel like we have things to do and people we want to take care of, but we never want to forget that God is totally capable of taking care of those things, just like it's your family, you know. You'll take care of it.

We think we're indispensable, but we're not. Say that one more time. Did you guys hear that? I need to. We think we're indispensable, but we're not. The graveyard is filled with indispensable people. Is that the valley of dry bones? We're talking about the final step of our salvation, right? And it's in this anticipation we're talking about that we were saved.

That's what the verse says. obviously has not taken place. In verse 25 it says, but if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance, or in some translations, patience, we wait eagerly for it. Can we hope for what we already have? Can we hope for what we already have? They'd be foolish to. If we have it, why would we hope for it? But because we do not have, we hope for and eagerly anticipate. So there's a couple words here. The word weight and the word perseverance or patience in some of your translations. And you mentioned this already. But the word weight has the idea of this, it's a steadfast endurance.

So groaning patience. The body's groaning, it's longing, it's yearning. But you are not. I groaning. Yeah, like I said, the body is groaning and yearning to be redeemed, because everything else is already righteous. But because the sin nature, or the flesh, is attached to this thing, it's yearning to be redeemed. You're redeemed, spiritually, just not physically. So we're talking about the final step of salvation here.

And we're talking about the attitudes until that point in time that the Lord wants you to be focused on. And what are those attitudes? What are the trues? Let's call them not attitudes, let's call them trues. I said that the word wait, who likes to wait? Anybody? You like sitting in the waiting room? I'm good at it. Yeah? I was in the military. Hurry up and wait. You were in the military so you know how to wait. I could go about 18 hours. You could go about 18 hours? In line. In line? Oh, that is so funny. Random. Anybody? I'm generalizing.

Who likes to wait, really? But here Paul's saying, we wait. Your life on this earth is waiting, which means steadfast endurance. You're waiting. What are you waiting for? Glory. And in the meantime, as you wait, What does that mean? You're steadfast and enduring. And you're doing those things together. How do unbelievers wait? I don't. With no hope. No hope. Their only hope is death. But they can't see beyond beyond the next day, I think, you know, when we talk about unbelievers, I mean, remind ourselves that we've been there. What do you do? When you don't know? What's coming?

You cope, just go about your life and try to have fun, you cope with it. Okay, so maybe licentiousness is your coping mechanism. Maybe it's legalism. Maybe it's something like I'll either party till I die or I'm going to find some kind of system that I think is going to make me right with the universe. That when it all pans out at the end of the day, I'll have done more good than I've done bad.

But none of it works. You're anxious. That's why there's so many Xanax prescriptions. It's true. I've always said that the state of the unbeliever is like a pendulum. They're swinging between licentiousness and legalism, and they can't figure out which one satisfies their coping mechanism the best. Or which one is the right coping mechanism. But they just can't settle. There's never a peace. They may find a coping mechanism like meditation, or hiking to the top of a mountain, or whatever it is that brings them a physical peace, but they cannot find spiritual peace. The Bible tells us there's no such thing as neutrality.

You are conflicted with what you know about God to be true. Most, or a lot of people, think that environment, creation, is their spirituality. And Paul talks about that, trading the truth of the Creator for what? I started worshipping what? Creation.

There's nothing new under the sun. This is what they do, right? One time Alistair Begg was sitting in an airport talking to a gal who was a Buddhist, and she was telling him all about the Buddhist faith, and after an hour he said, you know, I am totally believing that your meditation makes you feel better, but it's not going to save you. It's not going to save you. No. Like I said, believers have something that unbelievers don't. We know that they are saved, but they also have some of the things that we're talking about in this verse.

They have the ability to hope for something yet future, but to do it with a steadfast endurance. That's where we are. Spiritually, we want to be thinking about who we are in Christ. Placing our mind on Christ, through His word, beholding Him. We want the Lord to do the living through us.

But in the meantime, of all that happening in our body, we are hoping for its redemption, and we are doing it with a steadfast endurance. There's another word here that says in the NASB or some other translations, perseverance or patience. And it literally means through endurance. So we are waiting or through steadfast endurance we are dealing with these present sufferings.

Right? The thing is, our hope is based on facts. And it's based on what God has promised. We don't have any doubts. We should not have any doubts about it. That's right. Who has a doubt every now and again? Do we believe what he's telling us? That's the question. Courtney says it a lot, but do you believe it?

Then we can rest. Then you can rest. That's the growth. This perseverance is not a angry type of like just pushing through. It's a restful patient endurance, a steadfast, restful, patient endurance through these present sufferings to the time that you have the full adoption of sons, which is all that's left is your redemption body. That's it. The glorification factor. That's it.

In verse 18 it says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. That's what we're talking about. Do you believe that? Because I have a struggle with that at times. Maybe the next time you suffer, pull out verse 18. But I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So the last question says to find biblical hope.

I think we've done a pretty good job of it so far. But what is hope in a general sense? Is it confidence? I definitely think, biblically speaking, it is. It's not the wishy-washy, and I really hope so. I really hope this is right. I always think of it as a confident longing. Longing? Yeah. But with confidence. For something worse? Something better. A future fact.

Do you hope for bad things to happen? No. Hope is something that is confidently longing for something better. The very fact that we have not seen our full redemption realized yet creates within us that grace which is so precious to God and that's called patience. So what does our future bodily redemption produce for us ultimately?

Glorification. It does. But you mentioned liberty. Freedom. The liberty of glory and creation will share this liberty with us. That's what we've been talking about here. This is liberty. This is freedom. Not only for us, but for our whole creation. For God's whole creation. In these verses we see two feelings towards creation. One is sympathy with the creation's suffering. The other is joy in the hope of sharing the liberty of glory, which is to come.

So how do we own these truths? Are they yours? Yes. Do you believe it? Yes. Alright. Pen drop. Let's pray. Father, how we thank you for the truths in Romans 8 here, and we just look forward to the way you're going to connect this with the way the Spirit groans with us, through us, in order to produce greater rest and opportunities for communication with you and intimacy with you.

We thank you for how you're just going to stitch this all together and make it even more personal. But we do thank you for the future liberty of our glorification. And Lord, while we wait, may we be steadfast, expectant, but patient. And we pray that we might rest in you, both physically and spiritually, until that day. It's in your name we pray. Amen.