Radio Broadcast Tuesday 11/15/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P26 (11-15-22)

God Redeemed Us Back to Himself Through Jesus Christ

~ “There’s a world of difference between covering your garbage and having it taken away. It’s a world of difference to those two. And so these people were in a holding pattern. It was called Paradise. Paradise had changed three different times, first of all, is in the Garden of Eden, then it was a place called some place in the lower regions of the earth. And then Jesus led captive captive after he went into Paradise, and announced that it has finished and he led them captive captive. It says he led them into the presence of God. Why? Well, it’s all finished now. So in other In other words, Jesus took away the sins of the entire world back to Adam, as well as forward to eternity. That’s a pretty good, that’s a pretty good slice of people. Yeah. And so we have to realize that that that was that was an act that was done by God. It couldn’t be done by another man. A man can’t pay a ransom for a man only God can pay ransom. So God became a man and that his blood was the only thing precious enough to go back to the very beginning of mankind, take away all of their sins, take away all of the sins forward to eternity, so that he could buy us up out of our bondage out of our spiritual death, and bring us in to the kingdom of the Son in whom he loves, in whom we have what redemption, that forgiveness of sins. So he died, it says, as a ransom to set them free from sins committed under the first covenant.“

Listen in to today’s lesson with more in-depth teaching, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Law & Grace, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store.

Jesus asked how does God love and accept us? And how does he expect us to live the Christian life? To answer those questions, this insightful study explores a vital issue at the heart of the Christian experience, the biblical relationship between law and grace, understanding their role in our relationship to God will bring joy, freedom and spontaneity to your Christian life. Now, let’s take A Closer Look at Law & Grace.

Bob George 0:40
So Adam was created totally complete, totally perfect in Christ, totally alive and all things. And when he sinned, he died spiritually, the Spirit of God departing from him, leaving him in a condition that is totally contrary to what man was to be. But man is a spiritual being. He was created in the image of God spiritually alive. And that spiritually alive human being was contained in a body of human flesh. And that there’s the miracle God living in a man not making man God, but God living in a man does not make me God. I am any more than applesauce in a jar makes the jar applesauce. It’s a jar of applesauce, but the jar is a jar and will never be anything but a jar, you don’t sit down and eat a jar and say good applesauce. If you try to eat the jar, it’s gonna kill you if it’s glass. So a jar is a jar. So you and I are a human being in dwelt by God. God designed it that way. That’s a marvelous thing to think about. And when Adam was created, he was created complete that way. When he died, the Spirit of God departed from Adam leaving him spiritually dead. He was his human spirit was not dead dead, in other words, dead to the world is very much alive to the only thing that he had now, and that was the world, but it was dead to what vacated him, and that was God. And all of us are born in Adam, identically as he became, dead. And so we had to be rescued. So you and I were not bought with anything except the blood of the Lamb. And that’s what it says we, we were, we were redeemed from that empty way of life that was handed down to us, we inherited that death. But we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish, or defect. Now, again, it says that in that condition, and I want us to visualize for a moment, a cross that is right in the center of a timeline. And if you go back, if you’re looking at that cross, as it’s written on paper, you go back to the left, and bring that timeline, or bring a circle down to that timeline. And that’s to Adam. And then you go to the right and bring that circle over to eternity. And that is all of us born this side of the cross. Now Christ redeemed us and redeemed them in identically the same way through the precious blood of Christ Jesus. It the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin. So that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now, before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.

Now, I want us to now go over to Hebrews nine, and I want to look at that passage for a minute with you. He did not enter Christ did not enter heaven after completing his work, it says, by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the Most Holy Place once and for all, by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption, and that’s for us. For this reason, Christ is a mediator of a New Covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised look at this folks eternal inheritance. Now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from sins committed under the first covenant. Now you have two words here, folks that we’re dealing with, we’re dealing with a ransom and that ransom is a payment in order to redeem people out of their present condition out of their captivity. Now let me give you a couple of examples. If you were kidnapped, held against your will, or stolen from the hospital. So in other words born into the arms of somebody that you did not belong to. And the people, the parents went out and looked for you and looked for you and look for you, and finally found you, and there was a blackmail scheme that said, if you send me $100,000, I’ll give you your child. And the people pay $100,000, and the people leave the child, and you get the child back what has happened, you paid a ransom for something that was already yours. Right. He paid a ransom for it, it was already yours, somebody took it from you, and you paid a ransom to get them back. You freed that person from their captivity, so that they could live where they belong. And that’s to you. All men, in essence, when God created man, his intention was that all of his creation belongs to him. But there is a sense in which they were stolen from him by the schemes of Satan himself. When he caused Adam to fall and thinking, Man, I know that the wages of sin is death, Satan knew that because he had already experienced it when he fell. I know what that is. And I’m gonna mess up all of God’s creation, if he thinks he’s going to punish me this way. You wait to see what I do the rest of his creation. And man, the very moment that Adam fell in the wages of sin is death. And he also knew that people would be propagated through birth, he had us. He absolutely right, he did what he was after brother, he has messed up God’s kingdom, he thought. So in essence, he had God’s possession. And we were held captives. But it says, All of us were held a prisoner of sin, we were kept it. Now that who was captive? All of those before the cross, all of us after the cross until we accept a redemption. And so in essence, when the Old Testament saints died, those who had a gone with the promise of Abraham by faith in the coming Messiah, they were saved by faith not spiritually regenerated as we are today. And I’ll get into that for a moment that they were saved by faith. And they were in a holding pattern, a waiting for that final payment to be made. It’s kind of like being saved on a credit card, you get the furniture, you can enjoy it. But the payments gonna have to be made at a later date.

As we were talking about that, those that were, in essence saved prior to the cross. After they died, they were in a holding pattern because the final price had not been paid. The blood of bulls and goats, as an example, as we’ve talked about, called atonement, had covered their sins, as a result of their violation under the law had covered them, but they could not take them away. So when something is covered, it’s only covered somebody can still jerk the cover off of them. So in essence, those that forgiveness was not complete. And that’s what it says that the a sacrificial system that had number one had to keep going on and on and on being done over and over and over again, could never make perfect or complete those who draw near to worship. Because it’s never finished. And also, it’s only covered, it’s not taken away. There’s a world of difference between covering your garbage and having it taken away. It’s a world of difference to those two. And so these people were in a holding pattern. It was called Paradise. Paradise had changed three different times, first of all, is in the Garden of Eden, then it was a place called some place in the lower regions of the earth. And then Jesus led captive captive after he went into Paradise, and announced that it has finished and he led them captive captive. It says he led them into the presence of God. Why? Well, it’s all finished now. So in other In other words, Jesus took away the sins of the entire world back to Adam, as well as forward to eternity. That’s a pretty good, that’s a pretty good slice of people. Yeah. And so we have to realize that that that was that was an act that was done by God. It couldn’t be done by another man. A man can’t pay a ransom for a man only God can pay ransom. So God became a man and that his blood was the only thing precious enough to go back to the very beginning of mankind, take away all of their sins, take away all of the sins forward to eternity, so that he could buy us up out of our bondage out of our spiritual death, and bring us in to the kingdom of the Son in whom he loves, in whom we have what redemption, that forgiveness of sins. So he died, it says, as a ransom to set them free from sins committed under the first covenant.

Let me give you another little example of that. If my understanding is correct as to what a pawn shop is all about, let’s say as an example, that your parents had given you an invaluable gift, let’s say a living watch, a marvelous thing, and it was a gift from your parents. And you came down to a point where someone said, Listen, if you could just have $100, you’d be just like your parents, man, you’d be like God, if you just have $100. To say, I don’t know how to get $100 said, I got an idea, turn your watch in the pawnshop. And so I in essence, sell my birthright for a pot of soup. And I go to the pawn shop, and I take my wristwatch off, and I hand it to the pawn shop owner. And he gives me $100. Now according to the rules, as I understand it, of a pawn shop, that they’re under obligation to hold that watch in their possession for a specific period of time before they can offer it to the public for sale, otherwise, you have an opportunity to go back into that pawn shop, let’s say the limits 30 days, within 30 days and do what redeem your watch, buy it back, right. And so you come back and you say, and all of a sudden, you start thinking about this, because all of a sudden, you got this $100 in your hand, and your watch is gone. And it was a phenomenal gift from your parents, it was worth a lot more than that. $100 and, and here, you’re sitting there with the emptiness of this $100 in your hand, and you say, man, I’ve got to, I gotta get that watch back. And so you go back into the pawn shop, you’ve already spent your $100 But you went out and worked to make some more and you went back in, in your own effort to redeem now that watch and you go and say I want to get my watch back guy says fine, that’d be $5,000. He said, I got 100 You gave me 100 for it. I want to redeem it back for what I paid for it. Oh, no. He said you can’t get it back for what you paid for. It’s too expensive. It’s worth 5000 Because you see, the pawnshop owner is looking at the value of the watch. And the watch is worth 5000 He only gave him 100. But it’s worth something more. And the guy says, I can’t get it back. I can’t get it back. And all of a sudden the parents come along the one who had gave it to him to begin with and said Son, where’s your watch? I said, Dad, I turned it in. I sold it. I just poof did away. I sold it for a lousy $100 What’s it going to take to get it back? That take 5000 and the folks go in and pay the pawnshop $5,000 In order to redeem back a gift that they had given to their son. That’s what Jesus did for you and me.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Bob, George Ministries offers nine in-depth Bible study guides, please visit shop.BobGeorge.net to find the Bible study books, along with many helpful materials to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now, with our Classic Christianity Radio program.

Bob George 13:50
Man had been given everything, he had been given life, the Garden of Eden, he had been given an everything and everybody says oh, that was Adam. Well, there’s no difference between you and me had we’d been back there would have been eaten the apple tree or whatever else it was on the tree. So he gave everything man turned it in, in order to think that he was going to be like God and found out that he was naked. And so here he had sold in essence, his inheritance for a pot of soup. And the one who gave him eternal life, went back and bought that life back for him from Satan, and bought it back and gave it back to the person who had given it away. So you and I came into this earth dead and God redeemed us He bought us out of our slavery and gave us back our life and restored man to his true humanity. Because God’s creation was meant by God to be alive spiritually not dead, man forfeited. that life, and he went and bought it back and gave it back to us in our redemption in Christ Jesus. Now again, any man made illustration will fall short in some aspects. But it’s just an illustration of what God did for you and me at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Now that’s why on the next page and Romans 8, one through two, it says Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why isn’t there any condemnation? Well, it’s tells you because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life, has set me free from the law of sin and death. Every one of us once again was held prisoner by our own condition, we were a prisoner of sin. And we were held prisoners by the law that kept us prisoners of sin and death. We were locked up until his face should be revealed. But now that man has stepped out of Adam, into Christ, Christ has stepped out of heaven into us. We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness bought out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of the Son that he loves. And so that’s what redemption is all about, bought back in order to set us free to give back, bought back to give back, bought us back in order to give us back to us what we had lost an Adam that being the Spirit of God living in us. So now there’s no condemnation, why? Well, what was the condemnation of God for sin? death. And that’s why there is no more death for you and me, because the law, the Spirit of life, and that Spirit of life came from the Living One, Jesus Christ. The law kills it says, but the Spirit gives life we were set free by the Spirit of life, from the law of sin and death.

Galatians four, four through seven, but when the time had fully come, in other words, just in time, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law buy them back, how come so that we might perceive full rights as sons. In other words, he bought us back, we didn’t belong to Satan. That was never our intent, we belong to him through our death. But it was not God’s intent for us to belong to him. So he bought us out of His Kingdom and brought us into his own, so that we could now be what he intended us to be His children. Because you are now sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit that calls out Abba, Father, so you’re no longer a slave, but a son. And since you’re a son, God has made you also an heir. What does a loving father do if he not only prepares to provide for his family here on Earth? But a loving Father who is able to do so is also thinking about providing for his family after he’s no longer on this earth? In other words, what do you do after you die? Why would anyone buy life insurance? Unless they wanted to provide for someone else after their death? Life insurance ian’r foinf ro do you any good when you’re dead. You know, you don’t get the insurance company to pay you off and put it in the casket and bury it. It’s for other people. So the reason people have life insurance is so that something is left for their heirs after they’re gone. Now you and I have been made an heir with Jesus Christ, in other words, where his son, and as a son, in essence were named in his will. Now the beauty of God’s will is that because of the new well, a New Covenant that we’re under today, that that went into effect on our behalf when he died. In other words, were the heir of that. And so right now, I have redemption. Right now I have forgiveness of sins. Right now I have all of these other things that that we study theologically. Now, one of these days, when I am dead, I am going to enjoy the fullness of my inheritance, and that is to be conformed totally into the image of God, who’s my Father.

As we’re talking about our inheritance. We only have one inheritance and we really from God’s vantage point only have one identity. And folks, this is so important for you to understand and for me to understand is the fact that man is always searching for his identity. He’s searching to answer those questions that have been asked for man throughout time, who am I? What am I here for? What am I going? and that answer can only come from your Creator, it certainly can’t come from us or from somebody else or for from a philosopher, it has to come from your Creator. And God said, I created you to be my son, I created you to have a relationship, a loving relationship with Me, your Father. And because of that, and because of your fall, I came into this world, I didn’t have to do that. But I came into this world and took upon myself, your own humanity. And I walked on this earth, in your humanity, as God, in order to take that flesh of mine that was given to me by God, to a cross, and to die for you then so that you can live with me now. And I redeemed you, I bought you out of that slave market. The law held you captive, and the, and the wages of sin held you captive. And the law had to be enforce until it was fulfilled. And I came and fulfilled the law. I represented you man on this earth. And until man, some man was able to walk on this earth and perfect newness of life in perfect dependency upon his Father, fulfilling the law in its entirety, not a dot pf an “i” left to be done or a cross, of a “T.” I did that. And I represented all of mankind, just as Adam when he fell, represented all of mankind. And as Adam died, we all died as I came and died for you, took upon yourself experienced your spirit, your death as well. But Adam was never raised from the dead I was. God, then I was raised as God from the dead, so that that life that raised me from the dead can raise you from the dead, and therefore you can experience and eternal inheritance, which again, Bob was what we just were talking about. Back in the back in our other passage in Hebrews nine, that you and I have received a promised eternal inheritance and have obtained eternal redemption. Bob, I don’t understand to me, I do not understand how people have experienced this spiritual dyslexia, the way that we have. We have everything backwards. God says, you’ve obtained eternal redemption. And man says, no, no, no, we can lose our redemption. He didn’t buy us. In other words, he just bought a part of us back.

You know, it’s so ridiculous. He says, I have eternal redemption. He said, You have a promised eternal inheritance. Who promised that my inheritance was eternal? God. Well if God promised that my inheritance is eternal. My inheritance is eternal, that has nothing to do with me. It has to do with him, that my internal inheritance is not predicated on me and what I’m doing, it’s predicated on him and what he’s doing. It’s not, in other words, it’s not predicated on the object of the promise it’s predicated on the character of the one doing the promise, right. And that’s God. When God says, I have obtained and eternal redemption, that means I am bought back forever. Now, if I’m bought back forever, how can I be unbought? You get what I’m getting at? It’s not mine to turn back in anymore. I don’t belong to myself anymore. And I don’t belong to Satan anymore. I now belong to God. And God isn’t gonna let me turn myself in. It’s just, we just we take everything that God said and turn it around. We look at our we look at prayer. And it says that we can call out to Him Abba, Father, Daddy, Father. And it says, so that you’re no longer a slave but a son and since your son gods made you an heir, I belong to him. I’m a recipient of his inheritance. What’s that mean? All that God is he’s given to me. It says in a passage of scripture, that we have a high priest, one who is holy. And so what did he do through my identification with Christ? He made me holy, by that one offering He made forever perfect in the sight of God, all those who are the holy ones. He says, we have a high priest who is perfect. What do you do? He made me perfect. It’d be made me complete. It’s being made perfect doesn’t mean that, that I am perfect in my behavior, or even perfect in my thoughts, it means I have been made completed, the painting is over, it’s done, now take it and enjoy it. Everything that he is through my identification with him, he’s he’s given to me, I’m a, I’m a joint heir with Jesus Christ, it’s a marvelous thing to understand. So when you’re talking about faith, you see faith is walking by faith in what he has done. I can’t walk by faith, everybody’s trying to build their faith to get by faith big enough so that God will do what I want him to do. And he says, Man, you don’t even have faith enough to believe what I did for you. Why would you be wanting to do so give me to do something else? You don’t even believe what I’ve already done for you. You know, the people that are the most in there trying to get big faith don’t believe in eternal security. So here they’re calling God a liar in regard to their security as a believer, but then thinking they’re gonna get enough faith to game to do what they want them to do that spiritual dyslexia folks, it’s insanity. Faith isn’t I’m going to conjure up enough faith so that God will have to do what I want him to do. That is that isn’t faith. That’s presumption. And that’s all we have today. It it’s not faith at all. It’s a form of presumption. That is it is nothing but prideful presumption. Faith is resting in what he proclaimed when he pronounced you don’t stand there after a minister has pronounced you man and wife and say, I got enough faith to believe I’m married. I don’t it isn’t that I have enough faith to believe I’m married, I got enough faith to believe hopefully that this guy that pronounced me had the authority to do so. And if God is God, then He has the authority and the ability to pronounce me anything he wants to guilty or innocent. He chose to pronounce me innocent because of his Son. He chose to make a pronouncement about me, Bob, you are in Me, eternally.

Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity, with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord, find more information online at shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs, and bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.