Well, good morning. Thank you for coming back for the Sunday school session, the Bible study session. I want you to feel free to stop me to ask questions. If you have something, some contribution you'd like to make, that'll be good. Our subject, of course, still is the Word of God, and that will be our authority, and that's what we're trying to understand. But the format here will be just a little bit different than the sermon format. And so I do want you to feel free to ask questions and make a contribution if you would like to make an observation about something. Our goal is to deal basically with the first five verses of Galatians 1. And let's ask the Lord to help us as we look at this text. Our Father, we thank you that you have left us your word that we might know even now those things that were revealed to the apostles. that you gave to them in execution of your promise that the Spirit would take the things of Christ and show them to us through the apostolic ministry. And now that that has been done, has been recorded, and that we have these things that we can read and we can discern and we can study, we pray that your Spirit would open our hearts to embrace them to benefit from them, that we might turn from those things that hinder us in our following You, and that we might see more clearly the glory of the Christ whom we follow. We pray that You would do that even as we study this portion of Your Word this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. The Book of Galatians was written very early in the ministry of the Apostle Paul. It probably was written before the council in Jerusalem that was dealt with in Acts 15. If it had been written after that, then probably Paul would have referred to it at some time because the issue that he's dealing with here, at least one of the major issues he's dealing with here, is the place of the ceremonial law in the life of the Christian. What about the ceremonial law? And particularly as the ceremonial law is set forth in this rite of circumcision. And we know that the council at Jerusalem dealt with the fact that there were some among the brethren who believed that the Gentiles could not come into a knowledge of the Messiah unless they were first of all introduced into the covenant people, the people of Israel, by circumcision. They had no right to embrace the Messiah unless they had come into that covenant people. So part of what Paul is arguing here, he's arguing against that view. If the council at Jerusalem already had taken place, then he would simply at some point refer to the letter. that had come from James to these churches. So we see what Paul is doing here in the book of Galatians is he is arguing the case for the reality of what Christ has done as being one born under the law in Galatians 4. He was born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons and that we might receive the spirit of his son who comes into our heart whereby we cry, Abba, Father. So he is dealing with that issue. And one of the ways that the people who were arguing for the necessity of continuing this ceremonial law was to discredit Paul's apostleship. If they could discredit his apostleship, then they could argue that he simply is making this up out of human authority, that he does not have divine warrant for this because clearly he's going against the revelation we have in the Old Testament. And so Paul's argument here is to show Christ's relationship both to the moral law and to the ceremonial law, and to say that the one is done for because he has fulfilled it in his person and introduced a new people of God that are not established by ceremonial law and particularly not by circumcision, but also he has borne the curse of the moral law so that it no longer holds us under its curse. And in arguing that, he has to defend his apostleship and defend the idea that he has been commissioned by Christ as an apostle to the Gentiles and that as the apostle to the Gentiles, he himself has received special revelation. His ministry is not opposed to the intent of the law, but is set forth as a fulfillment of it. So it's within that context that we have this introduction, and Paul sets forth basically each issue not 100%, not saturated, but he sets forth in principle each issue that he's going to deal with throughout the book of Galatians. So let's read these verses and then come back and see what they're talking about. Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age. according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And then in verse six, of course, Paul doesn't waste any time in getting to the main point of this epistle. I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. So if they turn to a different gospel, it is no gospel at all. If they embrace that different gospel, if they continue in it, then it demonstrates that indeed they had never received the true gospel in the beginning. So he wants to argue this case throughout this book in order to establish them in the faith and their purity of their trust in Christ alone. All right, so the first thing I want us to see in this is that as Paul introduces the book and introduces himself again to them, he refers to his position as having authority. In fact, we speak about Paul in terms of the greatest authority, not that he has it himself, but in the commission that he has as an apostle. Note how he says it. an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead." Well, he relates his authority, first of all, in a negative way, that his speaking is not just something that he has received from men. He wasn't elected to this position by a majority vote of a church somewhere. He was not appointed by some other apostle even to accompany them. His authority is not a human authority. It did not arise out of any human appointing him to it, electing him to it. He was not taught it by any human, but his commission comes from God, and his learning the message that he preached comes from God. It is not from men. He did not immediately consult with men. But he says later in verse 16, when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, that we know the event in which that happened on the road to Damascus and how Ananias came to him and the scales fell from his eyes, he was baptized, he called him by his grace. was pleased to reveal his son to me." Now this can be translated either to me or in me. I've heard an excellent sermon by John Piper one time where he argued strongly that this was pleased to reveal his son in me. And he talked about however when we come to the gospel it has to do with the revelation of Christ Himself in us by the Holy Spirit. And that certainly is a truth and we see it in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 set forth very potently there. But I think that the ESV translation here is right, was pleased to reveal His Son to me Because he says in verse 16, or verse 15, called me by his grace. That's where he refers to the effectual call. That's where he refers to the fact that he was arrested on that road to Damascus. He saw the glory of Christ. He heard the words of Christ. His heart was changed. He came to know that Jesus indeed was the Christ. This had to do with an opening of the eyes. And at the conference this week, I'm going to preach on the passage where Paul uses a little bit of his personal testimony as a manifestation of the confidence we can have in the preaching of the gospel, the confidence we can have in preaching the truth, because he says there in 2 Corinthians 4 that this light shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And he's talking there about he, as the chief of sinners, was called by the grace of Christ and that light shone in his heart. And so this is the calling that he received. He called me by his grace and then he says, was pleased to reveal his Son to me. Now this is the revelation that he had when he went away for a brief time to Arabia, then he came back to Damascus and it was there that he began to preach and it says that he was proving, he went to the synagogue and he was proving from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. And so there was a complete turnaround in the understanding that Paul had of who Christ was before he rejected any idea that he could have been the Messiah. Now, after having this revelation, this time of being set apart, this time in Arabia, and then the fellowship with the people at Damascus, and then he began to preach this, he's saying that he revealed his Son to me. So this is a claim of revelation as to the centrality of Christ to the Gospel. Why it is that Christ was not an imposter, To claim Christ as Messiah is not a way that gives us legitimacy to accuse these people of heresy, but indeed, this is the truth. Christ is the one who completes all the prophets. Christ is the one who fulfills all of the different offices that we have in Israel as prophet, priest, and king. So he revealed his son to me, and the purpose of revealing his son to me was that I might preach him among the Gentiles. And he says, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I was sent away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus. And so he's expanding this claim that he makes here in the first verse. It is not from men nor through man. His apostleship came because of God himself. And so he says negatively, not from men nor through man. In fact, he indicates that he was so consistent with this that even another apostle who was called by grace and who was set forth as an apostle became intimidated at one point by fellowship he was having with the Gentiles when these Judaizers came and they began to make their presence known. In chapter 2, he talks about how he opposed Peter to his face and showed that he was conducting himself in a manner that was not worthy of the gospel. He was not accusing Peter of heresy. He was not accusing him of preaching another gospel. He was accusing him of having conducted himself by withdrawing himself from the Gentiles in order not to offend these Judaizers that were coming. And though it was not a heresy, Paul thought it was inconsistent conduct that would give leverage to the Judaizers. And so he sets this forth in all honesty, but with great boldness, that he was more consistent with Peter in the way he conducted himself according to this gospel. So his convictions on this were not from men. It didn't come through men. He was not taught it by men. But then he does say it was through Jesus Christ and God the Father. Now, this does not mean that he is excluding the work of the Spirit from this. We know that from Paul's letters that he has much to say about the work of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit in Revelation. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 2, he says that what eye has not seen and ear has not heard nor has entered into the heart of man, these things God has revealed to us by His Spirit. And so he has much to say about the work of the Spirit in revelation, the work of the Spirit in calling. It is clear in the work of the Spirit that he talks about when he says Christ ascended, he gave gifts to men, that he says some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastor-teachers. So the gift to the church of apostles came in the Ascension. One of the purposes of the Ascension, as Jesus said, He was going back. Unless I go back, the Comforter will not come. But if I go back, I will send the Comforter to you. And so the Comforter comes. The Comforter reveals these things. The Comforter takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. And this was particularly the calling of the apostles. So Paul is referring to himself when he talks about this gift that Christ gave to the church. He gave some to be apostles. He never relented at all from this claim that he was appointed as an apostle. He was one of those that was personally sent with this message. And so when he says, through Jesus Christ, I think he means that in two ways. One, in general, in his ascension, in his determination to give all of these gifts to the church, one of the gifts he gave was apostles, and Paul could very well add, and that includes me. And so in the ascension, this was what Christ's determination was. But then the apostles also received a special commission. from Christ himself. The twelve or the eleven received the commission while Christ was on earth and told them to wait for the gift of the Spirit there in Jerusalem. When the Spirit came, then of course they began their ministry, they began preaching with power, the Spirit converted thousands of people. But then later, as he says, like one born out of due time, Christ appeared to me and then Christ commissioned him. And so, in general, as a gift that Christ gave to the church, apostles were given. He says, I'm fit in that category. And then, just like those other apostles who were commissioned during pre-resurrection and then given specific instructions post-resurrection as to what they should do in going to the world, making disciples, and then right after the ascension, told to wait in Jerusalem until the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then they began their ministry. Then he says, but me, like one born out of due time, he appeared to me also. And so it was at that time that he was appointed by Jesus Christ as an apostle. He told Ananias, I will show him what great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Yes, yes, question. Yeah, well, I don't think he went to Arabia for three years. What it says is, I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. And then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas. But he began, after he went to Arabia for perhaps a few months or so, he came back to Damascus and immediately in Damascus he begins to preach in the synagogue. But that is really an excellent question, because you remember how Paul argues in his letters. He will say, as it is written, and then he'll have a passage of scripture from the Old Testament, and he'll apply it to Christ. And then his applications of these things are, the interpretive grid that he received by direct revelation as to how all that he knew from the Old Testament relates to Christ. Before he was converted, everything in the Old Testament as far as he was concerned convinced him that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ. He had to relearn the total movement of the Old Testament. When he saw it in Christ, then it was something that made sense to him. So that time in Arabia was a time in which he was being trained. He was having to think through. He was receiving revelation, but it was not the kind of revelation that would be separated from his knowledge of the Old Testament. He had to learn to argue his case from the Old Testament. And that's exactly what he does when he goes into the synagogue. He was proving to them from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. And he says in 2 Corinthians, notice that he says at the end of chapter 3, In verse 15, it says, yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, and I think he's referring to the entire Old Testament there. He's just using Moses as a metonymy for the entire Old Testament. Whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But notice this language now. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now there, he's not talking about the effectual calling there that brings a person to faith in Christ. It's involved in it. But what he's talking about there is when one comes to see that Christ indeed is the Savior, the veil that keeps us from understanding Moses is removed. Then it begins to make sense. The words of Moses about a prophet who would come. The words to David about a son that would sit on his throne forever. The words of Isaiah that he would bear our sins and so forth. All of these things, when one comes to Christ, the veil is removed. And I think that's what happened to Paul when he was converted, Christ converted him, he comes to see that Christ is his only hope, but then he has to restudy the Old Testament. He's got to learn to see that, and then that added to the particular things that are revealed to him. As he says here in Galatians 1, that I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. And so the revelation of Jesus Christ involves a new... a clarified and detailed way of explaining what had been prophesied before, but it must be built upon what already was received as the Word of God. And so I think he received both training and special revelation. And that's the reason that he went to Arabia, was there for a while to rethink these things, he was taught by Christ how to view this, and then he begins to go and argue the case in the synagogues. I don't think so. I think that would be against his claim that he was through Jesus Christ and his statement up there that by a revelation of Jesus Christ. And so it was a special operation of Jesus Christ through the Spirit so that he could begin to understand the entire Old Testament. I mean, he even refers back to Creason, the same God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's constantly referring to Old Testament passages and giving them Christological interpretations. And so I think that's an important question. It's an important thing for us to realize that there's a continuity in Revelation. There's a continuity between what has already been revealed in the Old Testament and how that is fulfilled in Christ. This is not a radical disjunction. It is a radical fulfillment and it's a new covenant, but there's a continuity between what the Old Testament says and who Christ is, how he relates himself to Scripture, and then how the apostles further explain his ministry in light of Scripture. And that's why Paul needed this time in order to rethink that. And if you see it also, if you look at Philippians chapter 3, he says, I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh, verse 4. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Now each one of those things are things he thought was right according to his understanding of the Old Testament. Yeah, we know that circumcision, according to his own argument, doesn't make him a part of the people of God. He argues this in Romans 2. He argues it right here at the first of Philippians 3. We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God. So he's already telling us he had to retrain himself. But formally, as he looked at all of these things, all these things he thought qualified him as the premier person of God. I mean, he was of the tribe of the first king, came from Benjamin, and he was named after him. That's all. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He wasn't a proselyte that had come in. There were generations. He can go back. You talk about genealogies. He talks later about vain genealogies and all this. Well, he was one of those who did it. He was a genealogist. I'm a Hebrew of the Hebrews. as to the law of Pharisee, the strict interpretation. In fact, he used his position as a Pharisee to split the Pharisees from the Sadducees, you remember, in the book of Acts. He says, I know what they're arguing about, and so he points to something he agreed with in the Pharisees. I'm on trial for the resurrection of the dead. And the Pharisees say, oh, yeah, well, maybe an angel has talked to him or something like this. This is the resurrection of the dead. So he knew the precise points at which the theology was important as to zeal, the persecutor of the church. I mean, he was so convinced that Jesus was not the Christ that he was willing to persecute people who believed he was. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. Well, he knows that's not the case now, but then he did. He held that same view the Pharisees did. He thought he was fulfilling the law even by all those things, those hedges that they had built around it. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I suffer the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him and so forth." Well, a part of that, he had to retrain himself from all of these things and he was convinced. Right, it wasn't. He went through a period of having a reorientation of his mind and understanding of the scripture, relating it all to Christ. But at the same time, it was being filtered through revelation that he had that was not inconsistent with the old covenant, but was that which expanded it into its true meaning. Yeah, great question. Thank you for asking that. OK, yes. to teach the Gentiles. And so he would have to have that revelation that the Old Testament pointed to Christ as opposed to pointing to the Messiah that he had thought hadn't come yet in order to teach. You have to know in order to teach. And so he would have to see clearly that the Old Testament did point, in fact, to Christ. Yes, absolutely. And an important part of that for the Gentiles had to do with the, if you look carefully at how Paul preached at the Areopagus in Athens, the references he makes to the Old Testament, to creation, and to God leaving a witness, and so forth. Paul was a good apologist. He knew that you couldn't preach Christ as if He has just come on the scene and there was no preparation for Him and that He just sort of appears out of the blue and also all of a sudden He's making these claims about He's God and He's man and forgiveness of sins come. Where does this come from? Is there any evidentiary kind of context Even though only the Spirit makes us to believe, the Spirit doesn't make us irrational. He doesn't take us out of the fabric of the way the man usually operates in order to come to views of truth. And so Paul, when he speaks unto the Gentiles, does show that God has been preparing the world for this from the very beginning. So there's a doctrine of creation they have to understand. There's a doctrine of prophecy. There's a doctrine of preparation of sin, and then of preparation for Christ. And then Jesus comes and does that. So it's set within this long framework, even to the Gentiles, as you pointed out. So I think that's another reason we see that there is the necessity of an orientation. OK, yeah. All right, so that's the greatest authority. He comes not from men. It comes through Jesus Christ. And God the Father appointed him to this in order that the glories of Christ, his Son, would be set forth. And he particularly points to the absoluteness of the authority of God the Father by adding this phrase, who raised him from the dead. So the authority has come not from men but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who approved Jesus Christ as the real Messiah and as having fulfilled all the promises and as having abolished death by raising him from the dead. And so his appointment from God the Father, he sort of clinches it with that phrase, who raised him from the dead. So that relates both. to the credibility of his message about Jesus Christ, and to the authority that he has as an apostle, because he was appointed by Jesus Christ and God the Father, and God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. This is the God who speaks and the dead are raised. This is the God who created all of life, and this is the God who has the power over death. And so that's where his apostleship comes from. So that section we would call the greatest authority. Paul acclaims his authority as the apostle. Now, just how important an apostle was, we see throughout. The apostles were people who preached authoritatively, preached on the basis of their knowledge of Scripture and as amplified and clarified and extended through divine revelation concerning Christ. And this is the foundation upon which a church is built. If you look at Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. And then in chapter 3, he says, how the mystery was made known to me, or verse 2, assuming you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I've written briefly. When you read this, meaning the letter that he wrote is the same as his speaking under revelation, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to the sons of men in generations, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." Now, so this revelation, that continuity that we've talked about, how things that were not made known have now been made known on the basis of the prior revelation, but this claim for revelation from the apostles was very important. as it was also for the prophets, the New Testament prophets, but I'm not going to get into that right now. I think I'm going to preach some of that on Monday night. So this claim to be an apostle was tremendously important. This is what gave him authority. This is the reason you can write this letter to the Galatians and tell them that if you believe anything other than what I preached, that's not a gospel, that's wrong. He wasn't saying, you know, well, we can negotiate this, we can talk, we can have a little dialogue together, maybe we can come to meet in the middle. He says, no, what I preach to you is the gospel. Even if I come back and preach to you another gospel, let me be anathema. The gospel I preached to you when I was first with you, that's the gospel. So he's claiming this by divine revelation. Or the second point I want to make out of this introduction is that he commends to them the most pervasive blessings. In verse 3, grace to you and peace from, and again, God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you in peace. When he refers to grace, I think he's referring both to the covenant of grace, the eternal reality that God from the foundation of the world had established grace as a principle by which he would bring a people to himself. In 2 Timothy, he told Timothy not to be afraid, but to join him in suffering, for the gospel by the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And so when he says grace to you, he refers at least to the reality that there was a determination within God to give grace to certain people. And he is telling these Galatians, grace to you, this covenant of grace. If you have actually received Christ as Savior, if you have believed the gospel, this has happened because there was a determination before the foundation of the world to draw you in by grace. A second thing he means by it is the actual experience of grace. There's a determination to give grace in the covenant of redemption, and then there's what we might call the existential reality of the experience of grace when a person hears the gospel, sees Christ set forth clearly in the gospel, is persuaded of his own sin and that Christ is the only one who can save him, and he trusts in that. God gives him a heart by which he no longer rebels against it, which he no longer sees it as something that's an imposition on his life, but he sees it as his only hope, and so he trusts in Christ. And that existential moment of grace is something that Paul has in mind there too. If you have had that moment of grace, and what he's implying is What I'm going to argue throughout this is something that is absolutely dependent upon grace. If you do not have grace, you will not believe what I'm writing, because grace always points us to Christ and the exclusive rights of Christ as King, as Prophet, Priest, and King, and Savior. And it's His righteousness alone by which we can be justified before God, and His death alone is that which removes the curse from us. If you believe that, then that means you've been a recipient of grace. You've been a recipient of grace before the foundation of the world and the determination of God. And existentially, by the preaching of the gospel, you've been brought to that moment of grace. And so this is not just a throwaway language. It's not just, howdy, how are you doing today? This is something in which Paul is setting forth theologically loaded terms for them in order to predispose their understanding that they are dependent upon an action of God that will bring them to Christ and Christ alone. And if they capitulate to ceremonial works, then that shows that they are throwing away grace. He argues that later in the work. If you allow yourself to be circumcised, then you're separated from Christ. So this is not just throwaway language, this is something in which he's preparing them to hear his argument. You have grace, grace to you, you have grace eternally determined by God, existentially received upon the hearing of the gospel, if you believe what I'm going to tell you. Then the next word he says is peace. Peace from God the Father. It's a reconciling work. I think peace is the word that he uses for the entire result of what Christ has done. died upon the cross. When He died, He made peace through the blood of His cross. We are reconciled by the work of God. We are reconciled in His body in which He shed His blood on the cross. He has removed the enmity that was between us and God. And when He removes the enmity by His reconciling work, then God pours out on us the work of the Spirit by which we are brought to faith and so forth. And so this word peace is a word that refers to the reconciling power of the death of Christ. So grace and peace to you from God the Father, because it is within the councils of eternity that this covenant of redemption flows, as it were, from God the Father, to which there is a perfect and intrinsic agreement on the part of God the Son and God the Spirit. in which these people were given to Christ and He did not lose any of them. He praised for them in John 17. And so this grace and peace in that sense comes from God the Father. But then it is executed in history by Jesus Christ. It flows out of the love of God the Father in eternity. It is executed out of the Son's love for the Father and love for His people in time when He bore our sin in His own body on the tree. historically affected by what Jesus Christ did. So when he says, grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, again, he is introducing them to substantial aspects of the argument that he's going to be presenting throughout the book of Galatians. And if we will pay attention to this kind of language, then we can see the richness of how Paul is so flooded with these realities, how his mind is so absorbed with these things that this great economy of language that he uses with such confidence and with such beauty contains within it these marvelous truths. that summarize for us the gracious and reconciling action of God for his people. So we see the most pervasive blessings. The next point I want us to see, any questions about that aspect of it? The third one then is the most radical accomplishment. the most radical accomplishment from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Notice this language. This fourth verse, this is just almost more than a person can absorb. Look at this. Who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. He gave himself in eternity, as it were. Spurgeon, when he talks about the eternal covenant, he will say quite often, these things go beyond us. And there's no human language that can ever attempt actually to uncover all the realities and the relationships. But in order for us to understand it, we must put it in the form of a dialogue. And you must understand that the dialogue I'm going to present It's transcended by the reality of it, but it helps us perceive it in this way. So in the eternal covenant of redemption, the Father says, I take it upon myself to elect a people and to provide all the means by which they will be drawn to myself and I appoint you, my son, to go and work these things out. And the son says, I accept your assignment to go and work these things out in time and space for the people that you have given me. And I will promise them the Spirit to come and to bring within their own souls the reality of these things. And the Spirit says, I accept this assignment to take all the things of Christ and to show them and so forth. So He divides it up that way. And so we have these almost shorthand references to this eternal covenant in many places in Scripture. But one of the places in which the Son gives Himself is in that eternal covenant. So when the Father assigns Him this, the Son immediately, in eternity, gives Himself. He gives Himself. He is committed to this in eternity. And then He gives Himself in the virgin birth. When the Spirit came upon Mary to impregnate her with the human nature, immediately there is, he assumes into himself that human nature. The text in Luke 1.35 says, the Holy Spirit shall come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. so that that holy thing to be born of you, that holy thing that is conceived in you, shall be called the Son of God." Now, there are two things that are happening there. One is the Holy Spirit comes upon her and impregnates her with a full human nature, though she is a virgin. And at that precise moment, as the Holy Spirit is doing that work, the Father, the power of the Most High, the Father also is up on her, and in the relationship between Father and Son, which we call eternal generation, the Son is eternal Son, the Father eternally generates the Son, so the power of the Most High is upon her, which means that this Son of God, who is eternally the Son of God, forms the personhood of this One that is incarnated, of this One that is in Mary, so that at the moment of conception, that thing that is conceived is called the Son of God. Personhood is that eternal personhood of the Son of God. The full human nature is the result of the work of the Spirit. And so the Son gives Himself to this full humanity by incredibly in his eternal sonship, in his infinite ineffable being, submits himself to a process in which that person will be nurtured within the womb of a virgin for nine months, will be born And the one who is infinite absorbs to himself one that is finite. The one who is immutable absorbs to himself one that will be tested and will have to be perfected. The one who is immortal commits himself in his person to die. The one who is the resurrection himself commits himself to a grave from which he has to be resurrected by the power of the Spirit and by the power of the Father and by his own power to take his life back to himself. He gave Himself. This is an amazing thing what happens in the Incarnation when we talk about Christ gave Himself. And all of this is necessary. He gave Himself for our sins in the Eternal Covenant. He gave Himself for our sins in the Incarnation. He gave Himself for our sins in His living this life in which He was tempted, in which He was ridiculed, in which he was rejected by his own, he gave himself for our sins in that he gave himself for our sins in the trial, he gave himself for our sins when he was on the cross, and particularly he gave himself for our sins at that moment because that is the point that was beyond the testing earlier in which the test of the wrath of God was upon him. And He suffered and bled and died physically in an excruciating way because those who go to hell will go to hell in their body and they will suffer in their bodies also. So if Christ is to suffer for us, there must be an excruciating manner in which He suffers physically for us as He experiences the wrath of God. And he suffered in his soul. His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. In his soul he recognized that the Father had abandoned him in all common mercies, not even the common mercies that humans experience were upon Christ. And he says, God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But this is not a question of doubt. This is a prayer for a demonstration. Why? Show the reasons why you have abandoned me at this moment. And the centurion says, sure, this was the Son of God. The graves are open in Jerusalem and some come forth and the veil of the temple is rent from top to bottom. That was the demonstration that God the Father gives as to why the Son was abandoned on the cross. He gave himself. And so he gave himself for our sins. Now, he could give himself as a teacher, he could give himself as an example. There are a lot of things he could do that would fall short of the most intense giving of himself, which was that moment in which he becomes the propitiation for our sins. So he gave himself. And he did this to deliver us from this present evil age. Again, there are at least two ways in which he delivers us in the present evil age. The course of this world no longer dominates the life of those who know Christ. Formerly, we walked according to the course of this world. Formerly, we walked according to the prince of the power of the air. We've been rescued from that, this present evil age. The prince of the power of the air that, in a sense, governs this present evil age, taking advantage of the fallen of men to keep them in rebellion against God. Our own propensity to walk according to the course of this world is changed, has been changed in us. Christ sends His Spirit by which those things are changed. Those that are born again of God, though Satan is going around like a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour, nevertheless, we have the confidence according to 1 John, that the evil one does not touch us. The evil one does not in any sense have a claim on us. We know the whole world lies in the arms of the evil one, but the one that is born of God, the evil one does not touch him. So we've been rescued from this present evil age. And this is according to, notice again, according to the will of our God and Father. We cannot present, even though Christ dies under the wrath of the Father, we cannot present this as if God is giving us something unwillingly because now the Son has done something and the Father can have nothing else against us. And so, oh, drats, I don't get to condemn them because the Son has done this. That's not the way it is. He was sent by the Father for this very purpose. God commends His love toward us. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And so this happened according to the will. of our God and Father. So this is the most radical accomplishment has occurred and it is this message that the Apostle Paul preaches. And then the final point here is it is for the greatest purpose. Verse 5, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. As I mentioned somewhat in the sermon out of Hebrews, where Christ is the one who expresses the glory of God. He has expressed the image of his person, the radiance of his glory. It is particularly in this work of salvation that we see the glory of God. There's a writing that Jonathan Edwards has, very unambitious in its title, says, the end for which God created the world. Why did God create the world? And basically, it's simple. He created the world for his own glory. But then he argues through 80 very long, tightly reasoned pages as to why that is the only reason the world could have been created was to demonstrate the glory of God on the one hand. And that is the only way in which God's glory could be manifest is through the kind of world that was created and what has actually happened in the world. And so he goes into what he calls are the, oops, excuse me, over balanced myself. in which he calls manifestations of his nature that have the possibility of demonstration. There are certain things about his nature that have the possibility of demonstration but cannot be demonstrated apart from the circumstances in which they are called for. So, for example, loving kindness. Within the eternal existence of the Trinity, is there any necessity for loving-kindness among the Trinity? There is love. Love is the principle of all of unity, and love is that which characterizes it, but this is intrinsic. There is no idea in which a superior can show loving-kindness to an inferior. within the Trinity. Mercy. Is there any instance in which mercy can be shown within the Trinity? No, there's no need for mercy within any of the persons of the Trinity. They are all equal in glory, equal in righteousness, equal in holiness. No need for mercy. So how will this thing that has the possibility of manifestation, mercy, be shown? There has to be a world in which there are objects that can be objects of mercy and so forth with many of the attributes of God. And so when we see Paul saying this here, that is what he has in mind, that this redemptive work he gave himself for our sins to deliver us to the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. And all those aspects of His glory, all those aspects of His nature, all those attributes will expand in their wonder, expand in their glory and in their beauty throughout eternity. As we adore the Lamb, as we adore the Father, as we adore the Spirit, all of these things that He has done for us will take on ever more splendid aspects of our knowledge as we see them and as they expand so that indeed the idea of to whom be glory forever and ever will really be true. There will never be a moment in eternity in which we have grasped every aspect of the glory of God but will be constantly learning and constantly filled with joy over that expanding manifestation of the one who is infinitely glorious. And he has done it precisely within this event that Paul is talking about here, the gospel that he preached. when Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age. All right, any final questions? Yes? All right, think about this in relationship to Philippians 2. You know what I'm talking about, Philippians 2? Let this man be in you which also was in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God, meaning though his actual being was God, he emptied himself, took upon himself the form of a servant. In being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the death, the death of the cross. Only on rare occasions did he show the glory and the power of his deity. It was resident within him. but he always conducted himself, he appeared as a man. There are points at which it became clear that he is God. He walked on the water, he healed lepers, he forgave sins, which only God can do. He called God his Father. As the Pharisees knew very well the kind of language he was using, he was making himself equal with God. But he emptied himself of the devastating power of that glory in order to submit himself to servanthood. So you're right. If he had manifest all the potential and the radiance of his glory in the womb of Mary, there wouldn't be Mary, mother of God, and so forth. So this is a part of the humiliation of Christ, as we call it. He does not, it's impossible for him to empty himself of any of the essential attributes of deity. He was still God. What he emptied himself of was the external manifestation of its glory. That's right. Versus the essential realities of who he was. Good question. All right, thank you very much, Dean. All right, let's have prayer be dismissed. Wow, that's a lot of stuff in that. Amen. Thanks be to God. Let's bow in prayer. Father, thank you for watching over and caring for us and for helping us to think through some very important things. good information, but Lord, it's not just we can increase our brain power, but that we can be humble and draw closer to you. We stand amazed at this one who came into the world, whose glory was veiled, who set aside the prerogatives of deity and humbled himself in becoming a man. Oh, what a Redeemer we have. This is beyond us. We cannot fully grasp and understand it. It'll take eternity for that to take place. But we're thankful for some insights and learning and grasping and seeing these things. It does amaze us how you reoriented the mind and thinking of Saul of Tarsus when he was converted. and how He began to put all those things in the Old Testament together. And we have that revelation now in the New Covenant Scriptures. Oh, a blessed people we are. Now, bless this day, Lord, and the remainder of it, that we might live for Christ. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.