Becoming Whole Sermon Notes Week 4
Notes:
From Preaching Meeting
Thoughts
Scripture:
Isa 53
Isa 53 Broken down
Application: (Isa 53:1)
He enters into our story: He experiences the pain that we do. (Isa 53:2-3)
Broken that we might be made whole.
He carried our sorrow/suffering
Substitutionary Atonement
He suffered silently, innocently like a Lamb
Words
the punishment for our peace (wholeness)
We are healed is a poetic way of describing restoration, the return to a state of well-being (see also 57:18–19). This expression is similar in meaning to made us whole.
Our rebellion caused him to be pierced,
our sins led to his being crushed.
He suffered so that we might be made whole,
his bruises gave us healing.
This punishment was designed for the purpose of securing our peace, implying that peace was achieved with God because the just punishment he required was suffered by the Servant
by his wounds we are healed
The second benefit that accrued to the Israelite speakers was healing (rāpāʾ) “on account of, by means of” the Servant’s suffering. The term “healing” is used in 19:22 to describe both the physical (from a plague) and spiritual restoration (they will turn to the Lord and he will respond) of a nation.
Since the problems in 53:5 are rebellious acts and iniquities, it appears that the healing relates primarily to the healing of the people’s spiritual relationship to God, though a more holistic eschatological interpretation would include both spiritual and physical healing.
What happened to us?
Grudem
1. Predestined
2. Calling
Effective calling is an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the gospel, in which he summons people to himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith.
3. Regeneration (Born Again, Made Alive, New Creation)
Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us.
As we will see later in this chapter, Scripture indicates that regeneration must come before we can respond to effective calling with saving faith
At least two passages suggest that God regenerates us at the same time as he speaks to us in effective calling: Peter says, “You have been born anew not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.… That word is the good news which was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:23, 25). And James says, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth” (James 1:18 NIV).
Effective calling is thus God the Father speaking powerfully to us and regeneration is God the Father and God the Holy Spirit working powerfully in us to make us alive.
These two things must have happened simultaneously as Peter was preaching the gospel to the household of Cornelius, for while he was still preaching “the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word” (Acts 10:44).
Scripture views regeneration as something that affects us as whole persons. Of course, our “spirits are alive” to God after regeneration (Rom. 8:10), but that is simply because we as whole persons are affected by regeneration.
for every part of us is affected by regeneration: “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
when God through the Holy Spirit, in an unseen, invisible way, awakens spiritual life within. The change will become evident over time in patterns of behavior and desires that are pleasing to God.
we have defined regeneration to be the act of God awakening spiritual life within us, bringing us from spiritual death to spiritual life. On this definition, it is natural to understand that regeneration comes before saving faith. It is in fact this work of God that gives us the spiritual ability to respond to God in faith.
As God addresses the effective call of the gospel to us, he regenerates us and we respond in faith and repentance to this call. So from our perspective it is hard to tell any difference in time, especially because regeneration is a spiritual work that we cannot perceive with our eyes or even understand with our minds.
This inward act of regeneration is described beautifully when Luke says of Lydia, “The Lord opened her heart to give heed to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). First the Lord opened her heart, then she was able to give heed to Paul’s preaching and to respond in faith.
4. Conversion
Conversion is our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.
The word conversion itself means “turning—here it represents a spiritual turn, a turning from sin to Christ. The turning from sin is called repentance and the turning to Christ is called faith.
- Faith
Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.
The word trust is closer to the biblical idea, since we are familiar with trusting persons in everyday life.
- Repentance
Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.
Repentance, like faith, is an intellectual understanding (that sin is wrong), an emotional approval of the teachings of Scripture regarding sin (a sorrow for sin and a hatred of it), and a personal decision to turn from it (a renouncing of sin and a decision of the will to forsake it and lead a life of obedience to Christ instead
Summary thus far:
In the previous chapters we talked about the gospel call (in which God calls us to trust in Christ for salvation), regeneration (in which God imparts new spiritual life to us), and conversion (in which we respond to the gospel call in repentance for sin and faith in Christ for salvation). But what about the guilt of our sin? The gospel call invited us to trust in Christ for forgiveness of sins. Regeneration made it possible for us to respond to that invitation. In conversion we did respond, trusting in Christ for forgiveness of sins.
Now the next step in the process of applying redemption to us is that God must respond to our faith and do what he promised, that is, actually declare our sins to be forgiven. This must be a legal declaration concerning our relationship to God’s laws, stating that we are completely forgiven and no longer liable to punishment.
5. Justification
Just what is justification? We may define it as follows: Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.
Regeneration is an act of God in us; justification is a judgment of God with respect to us. The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge. The surgeon, when he removes an inward cancer, does something in us. That is not what a judge does—he gives a verdict regarding our judicial status. If we are innocent he declares accordingly.
Romans and tells what is true of those who have been justified by faith: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). In this sense those who are justified have no penalty to pay for sin. This means that we are not subject to any charge of guilt or p 725 condemnation: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn?” (Rom. 8:33–34).
- Forgiveness
This first aspect of justification, in which God declares that our sins are forgiven
- Imputation (Christ’s Righteousness)
Therefore the second aspect of justification is that God must declare us not to be merely neutral in his sight but actually to be righteous in his sight.
The second aspect of God’s declaration in justification, then, is that we have the merits of perfect righteousness before him.
When we say that God imputes Christ’s righteousness to us it means that God thinks of Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, or regards it as belonging to us.
Adam & Christ: Imputation
First, when Adam sinned, his guilt was imputed to us; God the Father viewed it as belonging to us, and therefore it did. Second, when Christ suffered and died for our sins, our sin was imputed to Christ; God thought of it as belonging to him, and he paid the penalty for it. Now in the doctrine of justification we see imputation for the third time. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us, and therefore God thinks of it as belonging to us. It is not our own righteousness but Christ’s righteousness that is freely given to us.
6. Adoption
In regeneration God gives us new spiritual life within. In justification God gives us right legal standing before him. But in adoption God makes us members of his family. Therefore, the biblical teaching on adoption focuses much more on the personal relationships that salvation gives us with God and with his people
Adoption is an act of God whereby he makes us members of his family.
But the New Testament never connects adoption with regeneration: indeed, the idea of adoption is opposite to the idea of being born into a family!
But adoption has to do with our relationship with God as our Father, and in adoption we are given many of the greatest blessings that we will know for all eternity.
Privileges of Adoption
One of the greatest privileges of our adoption is being able to speak to God and relate to him as a good and loving Father.
Certainly it is true that God is our Creator, our judge, our Lord and Master, our teacher, our provider and protector, and the one who by his providential care sustains our existence. But the role that is most intimate, and the role that conveys the highest privileges of fellowship with God for eternity, is his role as our heavenly Father.
Rather, the prayer for forgiveness of sins each day is a prayer that God’s fatherly relationship with us, which has been disrupted by sin that displeased him, be restored, and that he relate to us once again as a Father who delights in his children whom he loves. The prayer, “Forgive us our sins,” therefore, is one in which we are relating not to God as eternal judge of the universe, but to God as a Father. It is a prayer in which we wish to restore the open fellowship with our Father that has been broken because of sin (see also 1 John 1:9; 3:19–22).
7. Sanctification (Transformation)
Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.
8. Glorification
Glorification is the final step in the application of redemption. It will happen when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died, and reunites them with their souls, and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like his own.
9. Union with Christ
1. We are in Christ.
2. Christ is in us.
3. We are like Christ.
4. We are with Christ.
From God’s counsels in eternity past before the world was created, to our fellowship with God in heaven in eternity future, and including every aspect of our relationship with God in this life—all has occurred in union with Christ. So in one sense the entire study of the application of redemption could be included in this subject.
Union with Christ is a phrase used to summarize several different relationships between believers and Christ, through which Christians receive every benefit of salvation. These relationships include the fact that we are in Christ, Christ is in us, we are like Christ, and we are with Christ.
Yet it is still a very personal presence, in which we work together with Christ (2 Cor. 6:1), we know him (Phil. 3:8, 10), we are p 847 comforted by him (2 Thess. 2:16–17), we are taught by him (Matt. 11:29), and we live our whole lives in his presence (2 Cor. 2:10; 1 Tim. 5:21; 6:13–14; 2 Tim. 4:1).
These additional relationships are not blurred into a distinctionless, mystical ecstasy, however. Both now and in eternity we relate to the Father in his distinct role as our heavenly Father, to the Son in his distinct role as our Savior and Lord, and to the Holy Spirit in his distinct role as the Spirit who empowers us and continually applies to us all the benefits of our salvation.