Broken Redemptive Living
Notes
Transcript
Broken Redemptive Living
Broken Redemptive Living
Kevin James: Gone Fishing
Kevin James recognizes everyone is broken.
Kevin James misses the real solution. He speaks of us having a little light inside of us that can sometimes go out. I think what he sees is that man is created in God’s image and is capable of doing good things like showing compassion and being generous.
What Kevin James misses, in my opinion, is that fixing humanity’s brokenness is not about willpower, but being empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Our only hope for redemption (freed from the slavery of sin-from the flesh), reconciliation (reconciled to God and each other), and restoration (conformed into the image of Jesus) is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
What is redemption?
Redeemer, Redemption: Latin root meaning “to buy back,” thus meaning the liberation of any possession, object, or person, usually by payment of a ransom. In Greek the root word means “to loose” and so to free. The term is used of freeing from chains, slavery, or prison. In the theological context, the term “redemption” indicates a freeing from the slavery of sin, the ransom or price paid for freedom. This thought is indicated in the Gospels, which speak of Christ who came “to give his life as a ransom for many”
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.”
“We are redeemed from the curse of the law, from the slave market of sin, from the clutches of the hostile elemental spirits.” Timothy George
Now that you are a new creation in Christ, an adopted son or daughter, how do you live out your redemption?
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
By faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ you have been bought with a price, redeemed. The old is gone and the new has come. You are a new creation. You’ve crucified the old you and have been born again as a sin or daughter of the Father.
The New American Commentary: Galatians (2) The Incident at Antioch (2:11–21)
Being crucified with Christ implies a radical transformation within the believer.
Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit, now lives inside of enabling you to live in the same manner he lives. You can now approach God’s throne of grace in prayer. You can now crucify the desires and passions of the flesh (Galatians 5:24) and submit to the sanctifying work of the Spirit. As a Christian, your life should now reflect a Christ-like resurrected life.
Paul quickly reminds us that we live in an already not yet tension. By faith we live a new redeemed resurrected life, as if the Kingdom of God has come. And yet, by faith we must live because we have not yet already arrived. As we live in this mortal flesh we still have the desires of the flesh to deal with.
I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Cooperating with the Spirit empowers you to faithfully and joyfully live out your redemption.
Why do I say the word “cooperate”?
Paul commands the Galatians to walk by the Spirit. As a matter of fact he says it four times in chapter 5.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.
In 5:25b, the phrase “follow the Spirit” means to “keep in step with the Spirit.”
In the New Testament, to “walk” is a metaphor for how one lives or behaves in a specified manner. For example
Jesus answered, “The light will be with you only a little longer. Walk while you have the light so that darkness doesn’t overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn’t know where he’s going.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light —
And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
“To walk by the Spirit is to go where the Spirit is going, to listen to His voice, to discern His will, and to follow His guidance.” Timothy George ie to cooperate with Him.
To faithfully and joyfully live out your redemption, you need to:
Cooperate with the Spirit by warring against the flesh (Gal 5:17)
Cooperate with the Spirit by warring against the flesh (Gal 5:17)
For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.
The Battle is For Your Heart’s Desire
The word “desires” conveys a strong craving or lust. The flesh craves what the Spirit hates and the Spirit craves what the flesh hates. They are at complete odds with each other. Paul says they oppose each other.
The kind of opposition Paul speaks of is in the same vein as the anti-Christ and God as seen in
Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God.
That is the kind of tension between the works of your flesh and the Spirit. Your works of flesh are Satanic and at war with God’s works. The outcome is “you don’t do what you want.” Paul understands the tension well in Romans 7:15-23.
For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law. But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
Paul says there is a war waging against the law of his mind. He does no merely mean to single out his thoughts as the problem. Paul has more in mind when he says mind.
Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
What you need to understand about the heart is
The New American Commentary: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (5) The Fourth Exhortation: A Father’s Plea (4:1–27)
“Heart,” here as always, refers not to the physical organ but to the mind and even the whole personality of the individual.
Paul understands the dynamic nature of your heart
But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.
Jesus taught the same idea
For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
In the same vein
The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.
But as for those whose hearts pursue their desire for detestable things and practices, I will bring their actions down on their own heads.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.
A good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
Your heart is dynamic in that it responds to thoughts, affections, and actions. Broken hearts will have thoughts of anger, sexually immoral thoughts, envious thoughts, that will lead to feeling hatred, lust, and jealousy, which will lead to murder, adultery, and theft.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Your heart is broken. You think broken things. You feel broken feelings. You do broken acts of sin toward God and toward your neighbor. And its not limited to the home and the community, but it seeps into the church.
Paul tells us to crucify the flesh.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Cooperating with the Spirit will crucify the works of the flesh. Crucify: to slaughter, kill, slain. This is the war. You war against the flesh by cooperating with the Spirit to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. The victory is the fruit of the Spirit.
Cooperate with the Spirit to Live Out our Redemption (Galatians 5:22-26)
Cooperate with the Spirit to Live Out our Redemption (Galatians 5:22-26)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
The Christians understand brokenness but do not desire to live in it. We have put our hope of Jesus to redeem us, reconcile us, and restore us to God and each other. We fight to live out our redemption. Remember what redemption is: being set free from the slavery of sin, the curse of the law, and the hostile forces of Satan. Jesus has set us free to not live in our brokenness, the works of the flesh, but to live in Christ experiencing the fruits of the Spirit.
What does Redemptive Living look like?
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
I live by faith.
Cooperating with the Spirit empowers you to faithfully and joyfully live out your redemption.