Well, I am just delighted to talk with you today more about the effects of the gospel on your life. If you are an evangelical or if you've been in Protestant world for any length of time, you've come to understand what the gospel is to some degree. There is the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you were to be asked what the gospel is today, chances are you could give a relatively sound answer, something along the lines that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone. And you would be absolutely accurate in saying that. Some of you might say that Jesus died for my sins and that I can't save myself, he had to do it, and I believe in his finished work. Something along those lines. And again, you would be absolutely correct The problem is that over the last 500 years, we have so concentrated on the doctrine of justification, and to some degree rightly so. I mean, after all, and at the time of the Reformation, at the time of Luther's pounding the 95 theses in the wall at Wittenberg, the door of the church there, That was the issue. How is it that a lost sinner, powerless to save his or herself, can be saved? On what basis? Is it your own works of righteousness, as was the issue in the first century? Or is it on the basis of the sacraments of the church? the cradle to grave sacramental works of the Church on your behalf, by which you participate. In the final analysis, you are saved through the sacraments of the Church with Christ's help, or is it by grace alone, through faith alone? And what the Reformation rightly recovered was the truth of the Gospel that we are saved by grace alone, regeneration precedes faith, faith itself being the gift of God, and we are then united with Christ in his finished work so that his righteousness becomes our righteousness before God. What I want to talk with you today, though, about is how stopping short of the transformation that God desires for you is to stop short of believing the gospel. What I mean is that we can subscribe to predestination calling, we can get these things absolutely right. And most good Protestants do. Those in the Reformed world, particularly, are very clear about the nature of predestination, about the nature of election, and they praise God for it, and so do I. And we with a Reformed background also understand the calling, that the calling is of God. We don't evoke a calling. God calls us while we are yet sinners. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and he calls us while we are powerless. His intervention, His work of gracious regeneration must precede our coming to Christ. John chapter 6 tells us that, right? That no one can come to me, said Jesus, unless the Father draws him. So we have our ducks lined up properly, if you will, on predestination. We have those same check marks on calling lined up really well. And we have the doctrine of justification soundly put in a biblical context. I realize today, too, that there are those who don't. I mean, there are still those who are running around believing that they're saved because they chose by their own free will to believe Jesus and that Jesus responded to them, the Holy Spirit responded to them, making that choice by causing them to be born again. I won't get into that today, but that in itself is not the gospel. That is not the gospel. And so these people who really believe that they are saved because of their prior action to which God responded, have not heard the gospel. I don't know what they're believing. Now, some of them may be saved, but it's in spite of their theology. God remains sovereign, right? He saves whom he will, even those who have yet to come to a proper understanding of the very thing that they profess to believe. But what I want to emphasize today is that apart from the moral transformation into the image of Jesus Christ, we have something less than the whole counsel of God. Let me say that again. Apart from the moral transformation into Christ's image, and thought, word, and deed, we are growing, ever increasing conformity into Christ's likeness in how we think, how we express our emotions, or express our convictions, how we live, how we pray, how we treat others, how we love. Apart from that transformation, We have yet to fully embrace the whole counsel of God and thus the whole gospel. So I'm not taking away anything from justification. I am thoroughly Protestant. Robustly Protestant on the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. The fact that regeneration precedes saving faith has been a major factor me staying sane in the spiritual battles that I have dealt with through in the last 25 or 30 years if I were dependent upon myself at all for my initial justification I was sunk the evidence was clear and that that too was a work of grace but we can't just stop there because God doesn't stop there Now, the Book of Romans was the major text for Luther and became so for Calvin and others. The Book of Romans is like the operating manual for the Reformation. Let me just refer back to that a little bit here. Romans 3.21 is probably one of the most important verses in our understanding of justification. He says this, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I'll go on and finish Paul's thought here. whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over sins previously committed, for the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. That is our text. If you are a Protestant, that is your foundational text. Now, we rejoice in that. Chapter 5 goes on to say, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also And this is where we start to fall short, because Paul doesn't stop with, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse 2 he goes on, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in the hope of the glory of God. Sometimes in our efforts to proof text our previous understandings, even if those understandings are correct biblically, we fail to read the entire context. And this is one of those cases, Romans chapter 5, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exult in the hope of the glory of God. The order of salvation is predestination that leads to calling, that leads to justification, that leads to glory. and that glory comes about as a result of us being transformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. It's our moral transformation into the image of Christ that is our ground for assurance that we are saved, not our view on justification. Now, I know that's gonna shock some of you, but it's only because we've been taught the other way around. We've been taught that, well, you know, it's how you feel about justification, how you believe about justification that is the mark of a true Christian. And that is, to the degree, as far as it goes, that's true. But it doesn't go far enough. Listen, as we go to Romans chapter eight, Let me just give you this context here. He says again in verse 28, and we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. He doesn't say everything's going to be good. He just says that everything that happens will be used to bring about a good purpose. What is that purpose? For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. It's like the first fruits of a tree, the bear's fruit. There's one that comes out and then the rest of them. these whom he predestined he also called those whom he also called he justified and those whom he also justified he also glorified now that's the order so we go back now that's the that's the pathway in Romans the Romans road as we used to call it Romans 12 therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship, because you are justified. because of the prior work of grace on your life, because you are now reconciled with God, united to his son, standing as his adopted child in the father's household. You are a member of the new humanity of which Christ is the firstborn from among the dead. Therefore, he says, verse two, and do not be conformed to this world. That's the problem. If we stop short of the moral transformation that is the promise of the new covenant of the spirit of life in Christ, we will, by default, take our ball and go home back to the world. We will be carrying a doctrine of justification that is wholly biblical, but we will look more like the world than we do Christ. Isn't that the case today? Isn't it common today? that the average Christian is something less than morally perfect in Christ's image. Now, I'm not suggesting that we ever get there in this lifetime, but if you're not seeing progress in your life, then you've come short of the gospel. Now we are the children of God, 1 John 3. Yet it has not yet been fully revealed as to what we shall be So those things are held in tension now we are children of God after the image and model of Jesus and We're working his life out in us So that we look more and more like him daily In our conduct in our thinking in our speech in But if we just stop at justification and say, that's the gospel, then we are actually repudiating the power of the gospel. We are stopping short of embracing the fullness of the whole counsel of God. And we will, by default, go back to some kind of relationship with the world. Now we may stay relatively moral people, We may avoid the grosser moral sins, but that's not necessarily what God's called us to. God's called us at all, of course, to avoid the moral grosser sins, but it's because we're walking like Jesus, not because we're gritting our teeth and white-knuckling it. So if we don't embrace the moral transformation that is promised in the New Covenant so that we are becoming more like Jesus, Every day we'll have a natural default to being conformed to the world. Why else would Paul have to tell us not to do this? This is the Christian imperative, by the way. And do not be conformed to this world, to this age. You don't belong to this age. You belong to the age to come that's being played out even now in the present. Salvation is an eschatological salvation. Please hear me. Please, please continue to listen. Your salvation is God's promise of an eschatological renewal and deliverance that has been brought forward into human history through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. So all that God has promised you on that final day Secured by Christ and it's the Spirit's work even in the moment even today in this current age To be working that out in you Even though yet it will be fully not yet be fully realized until he returns for us But let us begin right let us go on Do not be conformed to this world, but listen carefully now be transformed by the renewing of your mind. How you think. We have the mind of Christ, we're told. How we think. We don't think like this age. We don't belong to this age. We belong to the age to come. And we are to live out the values of the age to come, not this current age. Not this present age. And as we start changing our thinking, and that's what I'm hoping to produce in you to some degree today in this brief little talk, is at least the consideration that you have to change your thinking as a Christian, and to go on, to move forward, to move beyond just the satisfaction of knowing that you're justified by grace through faith, and move on to the appropriation of what Christ has secured for you by his death and resurrection. Move on into what he meant when he said on that final night with the disciples, when he said, during the Lord's Supper, this is the cup of the new covenant. Do this in remembrance of me. but we are to be transformed then by the renewing of our minds so that, there's the purpose clause, the Greek purpose clause, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So we are called not only to justification, beloved, We are called also to walk in Christ likeness, ever increasing conformity to Christ in his likeness. That's the great call, that's the great imperative, and that is the great privilege for every child of God. Listen, the storyline of redemptive history centers on two figures, Adam and Jesus. And every person that's ever lived is presently living or ever will live before the end day is either in Adam or in Christ. And what I'm telling you today is that if you are in Christ, you ought to look like it to some degree. And that isn't, that isn't legalism. That isn't some kind of moralism. That is the promise of the new covenant, a new heart, a new mind. God places the spirit within you and causes you to walk in his ways. Turn with me now and we'll close with this 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. And what has happened is that since the Reformation we have so focused on on what was the urgent crisis in 1517, as if that crisis could never be resolved. And I get it, to some degree, every generation has to fight that battle. Every generation has to fight the battle over how it is a sinner is reconciled with the just and holy God. But we must never stop there, because God doesn't stop there. Now, Paul is talking to his beloved Corinthians in the second chapter of 2 Corinthians, third chapter, excuse me, 2 Corinthians. And he says, are we beginning to commend ourselves again or do we need some letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men. being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God. So he's speaking now with a new covenant language. We can look at Ezekiel 36, 24 for 37, Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34, and find this reference. not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts, such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are confident or adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant. not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." And then he goes on to talk about the contrast between the ministry of the letter the Mosaic Law, which kills, and the Ministry of the Spirit, and how much more surpassing glory is in the Ministry of the Spirit, the Ministry of the New Covenant of the Spirit. Every minister, every Christian, to some degree, is a minister of the New Covenant of the Spirit of Life, because the only alternative, beloved, is to be a minister of the letter that kills. What do we mean by that? That means that once we are in Christ, we start looking for the written moral code to be our guide to acquire righteousness, practical righteousness, instead of continuing to look to Jesus alone and the work of the Spirit in our life to conform us into His image. When you hear some of our Reformed brothers talk about how important it is that we use the Ten Commandments as the moral law, or the Ten Commandments, or point us back to the law as the rule of life for the Christian, we should tremble. Jesus is our rule of life. Amen? Yes, Jesus is our rule of life. He is God's standard. When Peter, James, and John went to the mountain, and Jesus was transfigured before them, Elijah and Moses appeared talking with the Lord, our transfigured Lord, And Peter didn't quite understand what God was doing at that point, so he got up and said, like many would say today as well, many Protestants would say today, this is a wonderful moment, let's build three tabernacles, one to the prophets, represented by Elijah, one to the law, represented by Moses, and one to you, Jesus, as you are represented in your transfigured self before us. Three tabernacles, let's capture this moment of glory. Well, the cloud descended, Peter, James, and John quaked, and a voice came from the cloud. And what did it say? This is my beloved son. Hear ye him. All of you, hear ye him. Emphatic, command, imperative. In other words, Peter, you have yet to understand that all the prophets and all the law are fulfilled in my son. He is the personification of my redemptive purpose in the world and humanity. We read the prophets, we read the law through the template, through the lens of the New Testament, as it's been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so Paul goes on then to talk about the surpassing glory of the ministry of the Spirit. And then he wraps it up. in verses 17 and 18 saying this, but now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. There's that word again, Romans 12 too. are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Let me say that again. But we all, with unveiled face, Moses wore a veil over his face because the glory that he had after seeing God on the mountain was fading. But the glory that we have in the New Covenant in the face of Jesus is not fading. And as we contemplate Jesus, as we behold Jesus, we are continuously transformed into His image. Transformed into the same image, the NIV reads, with ever-increasing glory. Just as from the Lord the Spirit. Glory awaits us. The glorification of the believer is a glorious doctrine. The glory that awaits us is unimaginable. But the New Testament teaches that we begin now to share in some of that glory. We begin now to experience some of that glory as we are progressively conformed into the image of God's Son. So that brings back to memory one more text, and so I would be remiss to not share that with you. He says in 1 Peter, And though you have not seen him, 1 Peter 1.8, and though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of what? Glory. Obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. He says here, though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible. And literally translated, glorified. As we contemplate and behold the image of Jesus in the Gospels, throughout the New Testament and indeed throughout all of Scripture. And the Spirit illuminates our minds and our hearts to the reality of who Jesus is. And we continuously behold Him. We are transformed into His image from glory to glory. And so we have that precious foretaste of glory not only the glorification, the promise of glorification, final glorification, which again is beyond anything that we can understand. It's going to be beyond our words, beyond our wildest imaginations. But even now, even today, as the moral image of Jesus in true righteousness and holiness takes hold of us, so that we are actually looking like Jesus more and more every day. We find that we are starting to live like Him. We share His worldview, we share His values, we share His love. Above all, we learn to love like Jesus. 1 John 4.17 tells us that the ground of our assurance is not that we hold to the proper doctrine of justification, as important as that is. 1 John 4.17 tells us that the ground of our assurance is that we are learning to walk like Jesus and to be as he is in the world. In other words, the context forces us to see that it is we're learning to love like Jesus loved. How did Jesus love? He loved in absolute perfect obedience to the Father's will. He lovingly obeyed the Father. and unconditionally loved in perfect selflessness, those around him. Sacrificial selflessness, those around him. That's the image into which we are being transformed. So that we too, like Jesus, lovingly obey the Father's known will. And we walk also in sacrificial selflessness towards others in true love. That's what you're called to. That's what it means to be a Christian. And that's what I want for you is to move forward and embrace the whole counsel of God and not stop short. because chances are everything you believe is true about the gospel as far as it goes. But the Bible is vividly clear, even to the point of warning us not to stop short of the glory of God. When the Lord makes these things continually real to us, may we learn to rejoice in His mercy and His grace, and in the fact that He has united us with His Son, so that we become more like Him every day.