Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at The Finality of The Cross P37 (11-01-21)
The Fullness of the Gospel; The Finality of the Cross; The Reality of the Resurrection; Christ In You Your Only Hope of Glory
Join Bob as he teaches through this lesson on The Finality of the Cross. We will not understand the reality of the resurrection if we do not understand the finality of the cross. The scriptures bears that out in so many ways. Let us review about this warning of unbelief, that you see to it that you do not fall away from the truth. But you cannot fall away from what you have never come to. So what do we need to see as truth, to rely on and give our hearts to?
Colossians 1:3-4
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
I heard about the reliance you have come to on Him. You will note that he did not say because we have heard of your dedication to your denomination. Or I was just thanking God for you because I heard how faithful you are to your church attendance. He said He is thanking God for you because of your trust, faith and reliance in Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:3-4
and of the love you have for all God’s people –
He is thanking God for three things that are mentioned in the book of Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 13:13
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
It is not faith in me and what I am doing. That is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why he is commending them. There is going to be love for God and the saints. And there is going to be hope. But the greatest of these is love. The reason for that is because love is evidence of your faith and hope in Christ Jesus. It is not go love and you will have faith and hope. That is what faith and hope produce, is love. He is saying to them that he has heard of their faith in Christ Jesus, and then of your love for all of the saints.
Colossians 1:5-8
5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
The gospel is not something man made up. The gospel is the true message that came to you from Christ Jesus. There is a difference between hearing the gospel and understanding the gospel and hearing and understanding the gospel in all its truth. We could have a partial gospel. He says that you are going to hear the gospel bearing fruit in your life only when you understand the gospel in all of its truth.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
I certainly understood the gospel for many years in regard to how you get saved, and that is about all I did was tell people how to get saved, but I did not understand the gospel in all of its truth. What people told me I was with was bearing fruit was leading people to Christ. So I was bearing fruit, but what no one told me was about being miserable inside. The fruit of the Spirit is not fruit of evangelism. The fruit of evangelism comes from the fruit of the Spirit if it comes from God’s vantage point but it can also be done in the flesh. Only the fruit of the Spirit can be produced by Jesus. That is not something I do. It is something He must produce. So when talking about bearing fruit and growing in grace, growing in our Christian life, it is only when we come to understand the grace of God in all of its fullness.
Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[Habbakuk 2:4]
The gospel is a gospel of righteousness. In the gospel is that Christ is going to impute righteousness to you. That is powerful. Now I can stop working for what He has already given me. In order to give me righteousness I had to be cleansed of all unrighteousness. That is not done continually and ongoing. It was done once at a cross, cleansed of all unrighteousness in order to be indwelt by Him and His righteousness. That is the beginning of understanding that sparks spiritual growth in you and me. Leave righteousness out of the gospel and all you have is forgiveness and that is all you will ever talk about and all you will experience. There is no power in knowing you are just forgiven. The Jews knew they were forgiven the very day they left the day of atonement. If there was power in that why did they go back?
We talked about the warnings of God toward unbelief. There is a seriousness to not trusting the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Until man receives the gift of God, which is life, he remains dead. That is serious. Until such a time a person comes, not to some kind of a surface understanding of Christ, but to true salvation. True salvation comes when a person comes to the end of himself. I say that for this reason. I am not trying to cast doubt in regard to a person’s salvation. For we know that is the way we came or didn’t. I want to allow people to get an understanding and come to grips with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we talked about, it is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes the gospel.
Romans 1:17
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[Habbakuk 2:4]
In this gospel is a righteousness from God that was revealed. You have to go back to who Jesus was presenting this gospel to. And to whom the apostles were giving the gospel to. First of all it was to the Jew. Did the Jew have a problem at getting forgiven? No. You have the atonement to do that. A provision was made for the Jew to get forgiven. Was there any power in that? If there was any power in that why would they have to go back and do it again? The problem with what the Jew understood and what religion understood in that regard was that there was power in just getting forgiveness. Now, there is relief in getting forgiven. No question about that. But the power to live is not in being forgiven. That has to be another transaction.
So the problem with the Jew was not that I do not know how to get forgiven. The problem with the Jew was I do not know how to become righteous so I will come up with ideas of my own to be righteous. So obedience to the law became my way to become righteous. So not only will I obey the ten God gave me but I will make up some 630 more to be sure I am righteous. Then out comes verbiage of Christ that none are righteousness, not even one.
Galatians 2:21
21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Romans 3:9-11
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
Telling people that if your righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of God. The Pharisees as far as man was concerned, there was no equal.
Matthew 5:20
20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
That is what Paul testified.
Philippians 3:4-6
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
God comes along and says that does not count for anything. That is bad news to them as it is to people today, for those trying to find righteousness before God on their own efforts is not good news. In fact, it makes such a person angry, saying to them that what you are doing is not making you righteous before God. It is only what God did. There is no power in self-righteousness. There is condemnation in self-righteousness. There is judgmental spirit in self-righteousness. There is no love in self-righteousness. God said that three things remain; faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. There is no love in self-righteousness. How can I love you when I am judging you? You cannot do that.
Romans 1:16-17
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”[Habbakuk 2:4]
We are talking about the fact that there is more to salvation than just getting forgiven. Thank God or this cross we are talking about. But it is the finality of the cross that enables you and me to get in contact with the reality of true righteousness, which is right standing before God, which has nothing to do with what I am doing but everything with what God is doing. That is why we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That is the story of going to the banquet (Matthew 22:1-14).
Matthew 22:1-14
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off – one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
People were going in with their own clothes. He said “kick them out”. They had to put on His robes, the robes of the righteousness of Christ. The only ones going into the kingdom of heaven are those who put on His clothes. It does not matter what clothes you wear, Nieman Marcus or whatever, they are not good enough. You have to be clothed with Christ’ righteousness.
When Paul was saying their faith is growing ever since they heard the gospel in all of its fullness. We have been presenting to people a half gospel. We have been presenting a gospel that has nothing to do except forgiveness and expect power in the fact that I am a forgiven sinner. As good news as that is, there is no power in it. Until we see that I am a set apart saint, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, a joint heir with the one who made me His friend and His child. To see all of the ramifications that have come from an imputation of a life living in me, not just an event of forgiveness for me, but as a life living in me. So, you see life is a gift. Forgiveness was a provision. I accept His provision of forgiveness in order to receive His gift of life.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In order to accept that life, forgiveness had to take place for it to be eternal. The provision of forgiveness is what enables you and me to receive His gift of His life and then it says that in that life we have the forgiveness that was provided at the cross. So you have a provision and a gift.
Hebrews 2:1
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
The reason for the warnings in the scripture, to be careful what you have heard is so you do not drift away. It is because in this process of coming to understand Him and all of His fullness, if we just have a gospel we are not there yet. We have not come to grips with our own wretchedness in order to accept His righteousness. We do not come to Christ just for forgiveness because there is no forgiveness just in forgiveness. That is His provision. But His gift, the gift of God, is in His life. It is a person. Salvation is in Christ, not in just what He did, but in His personhood, coming to live within you. In the process of getting there, and religion can help or hinder you, but whatever it might be, it says pay more attention to what you are hearing.
Matthew 4:9
9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
He obviously saw you had ears, but listen. You are not hearing. Do not stop with just forgiveness. Go on to the life that He came to offer us. That will have no meaning until we do what the scripture says, to believe in the one who was sent.
John 6:29
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
We come to Christ, and there is another point in our life we come to, and that is the point that I come to present yourself. It is not something we do in order to accomplish something. It is something we do because God already accomplished something.
Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
When we understand the fullness of forgiveness and the imputation of His life, there is nothing else for me to do accept this is all of you and none of me. He says, “Yes”. “Well, what is there left to do?” “Present yourself to the one who has done it all.” In an attitude of surrender, we are able to say, “Lord Jesus, you have done it all. You are my friend. You have provided for me. You have given me the gift of life, your life living in me my only hope of glory, so I present myself to you to be who you are, God in me.”
That is an act of a person’s will, but it is not an act of I will do this in order. You do this because you understood the gospel in all of its fullness. That is why we say again and again these things, is to help people see the gospel in all of its fullness, not a partial, but full.
Hebrews 2:1-3
1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
Romans 14:23
everything that does not come from faith is sin.
In that passage in Hebrews 10:26-27, people get so confused on it because they think of sin as the filthy five, the nasty nine, or the dirty dozen.
Hebrews 10:26-27
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
But what sin is according to Jesus is unbelief in Him. What that is saying is, “Do not say you did it all but then go back and trust someone else to do something.” That is not belief. You cannot be brought back to repentance because you have never been brought to repentance. You never changed your mind. If you truly changed your mind there is no other place to go. If I truly believe Christ did it all, why would I go some place else to get my sins forgiven if I believed He has forgiven them? Why would I keep asking Him and begging Him to do something if I believe that He has already done it? The issue is not in what you are doing. The issue is in what you are believing. In other words, true action is going to follow true belief. What did He say this gospel was?
From first to last, it is by faith in what? A righteousness from God that has been revealed. What is the righteousness of God that has been revealed? You do not have any but I will give it to you. That is the good news of the gospel. If that is true and I believe it then will I be striving to get what I already have? Am I going to be begging to get what I have already received? That is ridiculous. That is all I can do is what He says, “Faith from first to last”, to walk from that statement on by faith in the completed work of the living loving Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
What is this message of reconciliation? That God was reconciling the world unto Himself in Christ not counting people’s sins against them. And He has committed to us, you and me, not just the apostles, this ministry of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore [I beg you] you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God has reconciled you unto Himself through Christ. Therefore, be reconciled to God through Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him [in His resurrected life] we might become the righteousness of God.
The power of the gospel, the completeness of the gospel, the righteousness of God, the power of God is in the fact that God gave you His righteousness.
This passage starts out saying all this is from God. Who initiated reconciliation? You or Him? If He initiated reconciliation, do you think God could accomplish that in its entirety or was it just partial? When God makes something does He make a half moon, a half sun, or a half of anything. No, when God does something He does it totally. He is not like us who leaves a job half done. He does all of it. God initiated reconciliation, and therefore, because it was God who initiated, God was going to be the provider of it. He had all the necessary qualifications to do it completely, not partially. In response then to the fact God is not counting sins against us, and has reconciled us to Himself through Christ, what does Paul implore us to do on Christ’s behalf? This is amazing! God has given us life for us and then begs us to accept it. Is that not amazing? He called us sheep because we are dumb. He has to beg us to accept what He did on a cross for us. All I want you to do is to be reconciled, to believe it.
God desires all men to be reconciled to Himself. Sin is what keeps us from drawing near to God, that sin is what had to be dealt with once and for all. Sin is what caused man to fall, making him dead. It is very difficult for a dead man to communicate with a living man. It is very difficult for a dead man’s spirit to communicate with the living God. The way for a dead man spiritually to be able to communicate with the living God, God is not going to be dead, so He is going to make you and me alive. That is what salvation is, the life of God living in us. In order to give us that kind of life, He had to deal with what killed man to begin with, sin. That had to be dealt with, not over and over again like atonement, but done once and for all for all people. That is what He did at the cross. Reconciliation happened at the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s sins against them. A
In order to do what? To offer life, called eternal life to any man, woman, boy or girl who would turn to Him and merely believe Him, trust Him.
Colossians 1:19-20
19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
This is making peace with God. Sin was judged. There was verdict. Guilty There was a punishment. Death. Christ took it all. Therefore, making peace between God and man.
Romans 5:1
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
When talking about Romans 5:1, being justified is talking more than just being reconciled. Reconciliation is what took place in regard to the sin issue. That was the clearing of the deck. Justification certainly involved reconciliation, taking care of the sin issue, but it involves the receiving and the acceptance of that reconciliation, which is only in the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. Being justified by faith is the realization that I am justified. It is much more than what people say, “Just as if I have never sinned.” That is certainly a part of being justified. That is the reconciliation part. But there is far more than I have not sinned but that I have understood the gospel in its fullness, that God gave me, imputed to me, His righteousness. I am in right standing before God.
When I understand that I am in right standing before God, not because of what I do or do not do but because of what He did, I have peace. How can you help not having peace when you understand you have right standing before God? How can you not have peace when you think you are out of fellowship every time you sin? There is no peace in that. That is theological garbage we had been taught, especially in recent years, saying that we are either out of relationship or out of fellowship because of what you do. There is no peace in that. That is being justified by what I do. Is there any place in the bible that says you are justified by what you do? Of course not! We are justified by what He did. That is why I have peace. If I do not have peace it is because I have forgotten that I have been justified by faith.
2 Peter 1:5-9
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
In essence I have begun to pick up the theology that I am justified by what I do. If justification to most of us does not mean just in my relationship. It means in my fellowship too. To be justified before God means I am in total right standing before God, but it is not because I am out of fellowship with God because I just sinned. That annihilates the teaching of justification by faith.
