God's Perfect Character

Video

Summary

This lesson, we are going to be talking about God’s perfect character, and what that means in terms of His motives.

Timestamps

0:000:00 - Intro and outline
01:4001:40 - Introduction: God’s perfect character
 08:0708:07 - Q: Why are we told to be perfect like God in Matthew 5:48 if we can never live up to that standard?
 11:5711:57 - Q: What does it mean for Noah to be called “perfect in his generations”?
15:5415:54 - God is Good
29:5629:56 - God is Holy
43:2243:22 - God is Faithful and True
56:5156:51 - God is Sovereign
01:18:4201:18:42 - God is Love
01:34:0001:34:00 - God is Just
 01:53:1201:53:12 - “How is it just for unbelievers to face infinite, eternal punishment for finite sins?”
02:17:1802:17:18 - God is Life
 02:23:4302:23:43 - Contrasting eternal life and eternal death
02:32:5002:32:50 - Summary and outro

Content

(Derived from https://ichthys.com/1Theo.htm)

Introduction: God’s perfect character

God is perfect in His character, irreproachable and blameless in every possible way.

When firmly grasped, God’s perfection—perfection in every way and according to any conceivable true standard—is a clarifying concept, illuminating His motives. God’s perfect character will never be less than the highest, the best, and the purest that the human mind can comprehend.

Why are we told to be perfect like God in Matthew 5:48 if we can never live up to that standard?

What does it mean for Noah to be called “perfect in his generations”?

As in Genesis 6:9—if you’d like, here’s an interlinear for the verse.

God is Good

God’s character is good (Hebrew tov: טוב); it is the antithesis of evil. So how does goodness respond to sinful man? In His goodness, God always has our best interests at heart. Therefore His desire for us to be free from evil and devoted to good is genuine. Even though we are sinful and by nature unworthy of His blessing, in His goodness God has nevertheless found a gracious way to redeem us from sin without compromising His character, namely, by giving us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.

God is Holy

God’s character is holy (Hebrew qadosh: קדוש); it is completely separate from evil. So how does holiness respond to sinful man? In His holiness, God can never compromise His perfect standards for any reason. Therefore His commitment to condemning evil and rewarding good is inviolable. But even though we are sinful and by nature deserving of His judgment, in His holiness God has nevertheless found a merciful way to justify us in spite of our sin without violating His character, namely, by judging His Son, Jesus Christ in our place.

God is Faithful and True

God’s character is faithful and true (Hebrew: omen, emeth: אמת ,אמון); it is actively opposed to evil. So how do truth and faithfulness respond to sinful man? In His faithfulness and truth, God is entirely reliable and trustworthy in all that He promises to us and does for us. Therefore His veracity and dependability in offering us a way through Jesus Christ to escape the evil of death and embrace the good of eternal life are beyond reproach. So even though we are sinful and by nature objects of His wrath, in His faithfulness and truth God has nevertheless found a way to make peace between Himself and us and to remove the enmity between Himself and us, caused by our sins, without corrupting His character, namely, by reconciling us to Himself through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

God is Sovereign

Sovereignty comes from God’s perfect character. No one else has a legitimate right to rule over the universe. He is the absolute sovereign within His own creation, and therefore the one Person to whom all honor is due. Sovereignty thus speaks to God’s moral authority and right to order the universe however He chooses.

From the standpoint of His transcendence of the moral universe, He is sovereign by virtue of His goodness, holiness and truth (essential qualities independent of His creation). From the standpoint of His supremacy within the moral universe, He is sovereign by virtue of His love, justice, and life (qualities applying to His creation which correspond to goodness, holiness and truth).

Only God is qualified to be the ultimate judge of the morally accountable creatures He has created, and thus to hold them responsible for their actions. As de facto ruler of the universe (through His infinite nature) and de jure ruler of the universe (through His perfect character):

God possesses the sovereign authority to demonstrate love to His sinful creatures out of His own goodness

Not ignoring their sins, as evil suggests He should, but paying for them Himself by the death on the cross of His Son, Jesus Christ, in their place (redemption). We call the result of this act of His sovereignty grace (Hebrew chen: חן; Greek charis: χάρις).

God possesses the sovereign authority to administer justice to His sinful creatures out of His holiness

Not abandoning them to their sins, as evil suggests He must, but forgiving them Himself on the basis of the death on the cross of His Son, Jesus Christ, in their place (justification). We call the result of this act of His sovereignty mercy (Hebrew chesed: חסד; Greek eleos: ἔλεος).

God possesses the sovereign authority to give life to His sinful creatures out of His truth and faithfulness

Not allowing them to die in their sins, as evil suggests He will, but reconciling them to Himself through the death on the cross of His Son, Jesus Christ, in their place (reconciliation). We call the result of this act of His sovereignty peace (Hebrew shalom: שלום; Greek eirene: εἰρήνη).

Summary: God’s sovereignty in action

Essential Quality	Manifesting in creation as	Action God takes	God’s sovereign attitude towards us	Result
Goodness	Love	Paying for sin	Grace	Redemption
Holiness	Justice	Forgiving sin	Mercy	Justification
Truth	Life	Reconciling sinful man to Himself	Peace	Reconciliation

In this—God’s full plan for saving sinful man—absolutely everything relies upon the cross, the blood of Jesus Christ. One particularly memorable way I have heard it described is that “God’s Mercy and Justice intersect in the cross.”

God is Love

Having love for His creatures, is a natural consequence of God’s goodness. Out of the intrinsic goodness of His character, God loves us with a perfect love, desiring to help us in our sinful state. However, He does not overlook His holiness and justice in the process and forgive our sin without consequence (as evil suggests He should). Therefore God had to find a way to reach out to us in love without compromising His character, and did so through the gift and sacrifice of His only Son on our behalf. Grace is the biblical name for God’s policy of lovingly redeeming us from our sins through Jesus Christ. We accept and receive God’s gracious offer of love and redemption by accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

God is Just

Demanding justice for His creatures is a natural consequence of God’s holiness. Out of the intrinsic holiness of His character, God must deal with us in perfect justice, righteously condemning us in our sinful state. However, He does not overlook His goodness and love in the process and abandon us to our sins (as evil suggests He will). For God found a way to treat us as righteous without compromising His character, and did so through the gift and sacrifice of His only Son on our behalf. Mercy is the biblical name for God’s policy of justly forgiving us on the basis of the death of Jesus Christ. We accept and receive God’s merciful offer of justification by accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

“How is it just for unbelievers to face infinite, eternal punishment for finite sins?”

This question’s wording presupposes something that is simply not true: that unbelievers face eternal punishment in hell for personal sins they commit in this life.

As we go over in the video, hell exists not to punish unbelievers for their sins—as if they could somehow pay for or atone for them—but only because of unbelief (“blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”). That hell is not punishment for sins but the consequence of unbelief—of wanting to spend eternity apart from God—is a rather fundamental point about the nature of hell, but is nonetheless widely misunderstood.

Jesus paid for all human sin upon the cross, and, moreover, imperfect human beings are not even worthy sacrifices. That is, we could not pay for our sin even if we wanted to; we are not qualified since we are tainted and marred by sin. Only Christ—the true, blameless Lamb of God—can take away the sins of the world with His blood, and He already did so upon the cross some 2,000 years ago.

If God punished unbelievers for their sins in hell after Christ already took the judgement for said sins, the sins would be judged twice (“double jeopardy”)—obviously incompatible with justice. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that falsely believing that human beings are punished for their sins in hell is no less than a rejection of the efficacy of Jesus’ payment for all human sin upon the cross (or perhaps the Father’s acceptance of Jesus’ work). If you believe in unlimited atonement and so-called penal substitutionary atonement (both true things that are clearly taught in scripture), then the purpose (telos) of hell cannot be the punishment of human sins. It is simply theologically unworkable.

To pull us back to the present question:

The grace of the cross is positively scandalous:
 That God would judge His own Son for human sin,
 Even for the most gross and reprehensible sins of humanity.

That unbelievers refuse to accept Christ’s payment for them is tragic:
 That God’s love will go unreciprocated,
 Despite Him laying down His life for their salvation.

But that unbelievers accuse God of injustice is ironic:
 That they scorn the God that loves them so much,
 Who has already saved them from their punishment,
 By taking it upon His own shoulders.

When unbelievers say it is not just for them to face infinite, eternal punishment for finite sins, they miss the fact that God already judged Jesus for all their sins upon the cross, and that people in hell are not there to punish them for their sins, but because they chose unbelief and separation from God. God has, out of His unfathomable grace, spared them the true consequences of their sins—Jesus bore these consequences instead, even for the most vile and unrepentant of unbelievers. Nevertheless, He will let all those creatures who choose of their own will to live apart from Him have their wish. And an eternity apart from God—who is everything good—will be utterly miserable.

The point is that hell is not miserable on account of punishment for sins committed, but miserable on account of separation from God.

God is Life

Saving the lives of His creatures is a natural consequence of God’s truth and faithfulness. Out of the intrinsic veracity and trustworthiness of His character, God honors His gracious and merciful promise to restore us to Himself and thereby to eternal life, delivering us from the condemnation of death accruing to us in our sinful state. In doing so, however, He has not failed to resolve the competing demands of His goodness and love on the one hand, with those of His holiness and justice on the other (as evil suggests He must). For God has found a way in accordance with His character to eliminate the wall of sin and consequent wrath which separates us from Him, and has done so through the gift and sacrifice of His only Son on our behalf (He died that we might have life). Peace is the biblical name for God’s life-giving policy of reconciling us to Himself on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ. We accept and receive God’s offer of life, peace, and reconciliation by accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Contrasting eternal life and eternal death

Video/audio transcript

0:000:00 - all right so right now we are going to be picking up with the next lesson in our series here on Bible basics part one
0:070:07 - theology proper talking about God’s perfect character so in the last lesson
0:120:12 - we were examining God’s infinite nature and what that tells us about his abilities and now we’re going to be
0:170:17 - picking up examining God’s perfect character and how that can help us understand his motives and so here are
0:250:25 - the things that we are going to be going through in this lesson we’re going to start out with an introduction of what
0:300:30 - it means for God to have perfect character kind of talking a little bit about the word perfect uh the Greek word
0:360:36 - as it shows up in Matthew 548 then we’re going to be talking about how God is good and holy and faithful and true um
0:440:44 - these uh very similar to when we were talking about God’s nature being essential characteristics of God that
0:490:49 - then manifest in the universe as love Justice and life um and so in the same
0:560:56 - way that we kind of had the section in the last lesson uh talking about how God is unique serving as a bridge between
1:031:03 - the essential characteristics of God and how they manifest in creation we’re going to have that same sort of
1:081:08 - structure here with this section on how God is Sovereign um in fact this is even a bit more fleshed out than the God is
1:151:15 - unique section from the last one and so you’ll see what I mean when we get there this will probably be one of the larger
1:201:20 - subsections in our examination of things in this study talking about um how God’s
1:271:27 - goodness Holiness and faithfulness and Truth manifest in terms of Love Justice and life and what that means in terms of
1:331:33 - God’s Sovereign control of all creation so these are the things that we are going to be talking about here in this
1:421:42 - lesson all right so the first thing that we are going to be doing here to introduce the topic of this lesson is
1:491:49 - talking about God’s perfect character which is irreplaceable and blameless and every way and so this is the verse here
1:571:57 - uh that we pull up uh to kind of introduce the topic Matthew 5: 48 says
2:032:03 - that you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect and the
2:082:08 - vocabulary here is the Greek word toos um so this is an adjective um and a
2:142:14 - little bit more than an English perhaps this word has the sense of completion of fullness of lacking nothing and so when
2:212:21 - we think of perfect in English um I don’t know if we necessarily have all those same connotations that go along
2:272:27 - with it but toos in Greek has this idea of something that has been uh fully
2:332:33 - accomplished something that has been done realized it’s at its end so to
2:382:38 - speak it is brought to completion and that is the quotative sense of this of
2:432:43 - this word meaning perfect here in Greek and so that is what God is um so when
2:492:49 - grasped God’s Perfection is perfection in every way and according to any conceivable true standard um and as we
2:562:56 - say this is going to help us understand God’s motives um as a moral agent God’s
3:023:02 - perfect character will never be less than the highest the best and the purest that the human mind can comprehend um to
3:083:08 - the nth degree and so just as God’s nature is infinite so too is his
3:133:13 - character uh unimpeachable he is perfect in the superlative sense of every
3:193:19 - positive moral characteristic and that is what we are going to be examining as we move forward uh talking about some of
3:263:26 - his characteristics of of goodness uh wow I’m forgetting them off the top of
3:323:32 - my head of goodness and then his Justice faithfulness and Truth moving into the
3:373:37 - applied characteristics as well so a do you have anything you want to say just about the idea of perfection in general
3:443:44 - as it applies to God um I would say uh as a sort of uh
3:523:52 - contextualization uh of of this discussion so far it is this um that uh
4:004:00 - uh in in discussing theology we’re asking the
4:054:05 - question why should we trust
4:104:10 - God that is um that is that is a okay let me see if
4:174:17 - I can get into it just a little bit hopefully you won’t see the minute um the subject of the Bible is really God
4:244:24 - and his plan which of course is centered around the Lord Jesus Christ so so uh
4:314:31 - what we are seeking to do is to is to get to know why we we are right to place
4:394:39 - our trust in God at least the one that’s revealed in the
4:444:44 - Bible and why that one is the right God because just like Paul says there are gods and Lords many but we know that
4:524:52 - there is only one God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ so when we are looking
5:005:00 - at um theology the study of God we’re looking at who first of all what is he
5:075:07 - and in fact those two components what is he and who is he are really um two parts
5:165:16 - of one whole what is a thing made of and what does a thing do so what is God’s
5:235:23 - nature what what is he at his core and what does he do as a rule these
5:335:33 - are the two things that tell us what a thing is and who who a person is so when
5:405:40 - we studied God is unique we were learning how he is deity how he is that which is that
5:505:50 - thing that separate from everything else that exists now when we’re looking at his character we’re coming to
5:575:57 - see this is also why he does different things than every
6:036:03 - everything else that exists so we discovering God as a person in his own
6:106:10 - right and his Perfection is a necessary part of that discussion because it tells
6:156:15 - us this is why we can trust him we know his abilities now we know his
6:256:25 - character so that’s um that’s what I would say about that
6:306:30 - it’s a it’s it’s a question of keeping our eyes on what on what the context is what we’re trying to uh um get to know
6:396:39 - so that we are confirmed in trusting the Lord as we come to discover what his
6:466:46 - plan is and are plac in that plan right and I think that’s why the
6:516:51 - focus on this section um as the study mentions is Illuminating God’s motives
6:576:57 - why does God operate in the way which he does and what is the reason behind it um
7:037:03 - you know what are his plans as it regards us as moral creatures in the universe um so again not so much what
7:117:11 - can he do because as we’ve established God can do anything within material creation but why God does the things he
7:197:19 - does especially as we’ll see in coming slides here as we go through this lesson
7:257:25 - especially as it relates to redeeming mankind um God’s relationship to us as Humanity the ways in which he has saved
7:327:32 - us from the just consequences of our sins through the sacrifice of his son on the cross um that is what we get at it
7:407:40 - when we talk about well why does God do what he does um what is his plan for
7:457:45 - Redemptive human history of mankind um so we will elaborate on all of this more
7:517:51 - as we go but for the first several slides we will be focusing on um God’s essential characteristics of goodness
7:587:58 - holy Hess and faithfulness and truth so I misspoke early it was Holiness not justice justice is the applied one but
8:048:04 - that is where we will pick up to begin this discussion in this lesson all right so we had a question here about
8:128:12 - basically why does this verse in Matthew Chapter 5 tell us to be perfect like god
8:178:17 - is perfect if we have absolutely no ability to live up to that standard um
8:238:23 - we cannot be perfect in the same way that God is right we said God is unique in his abilities he’s also unique in his
8:308:30 - moral perfection uh so I always view this as a standard um so we are supposed
8:368:36 - to be dead to sin as Christians that doesn’t mean that we are completely free from the grip of sin um so when we say
8:448:44 - uh when the Bible says that we are to be perfect this is what our goal should be
8:508:50 - um we shouldn’t make excuses for oursel we should not try to draw a line in the
8:558:55 - sand and say uh you know no further God this is as far as I will go this is as
9:009:00 - much as I’m willing to sacrifice but we need to press forward towards the standard that is complete Perfection
9:069:06 - because that is what God is um that is what we should strive to be um so um I
9:149:14 - don’t see a contradiction inherently in that being the standard that’s set for us even though we’ll never meet it
9:209:20 - because God knows that that’s why he sent his only son to die for us to make up that distance between us um the
9:279:27 - distance that just to be clear is there inherently we could not even if we were
9:329:32 - perfect which no human being can be because of the sin nature um uh this gets into a false Doctrine called
9:399:39 - pelagianism uh even one of us you know were we to quote unquote live a perfect
9:449:44 - life which is impossible we still have this distance between us and God a do you want to uh clarify this verse at all
9:539:53 - if you were talking you muted can you hear me yeah I can hear you now
10:0010:00 - okay um I don’t know if if it’s just a network issues on my end you keep
10:0710:07 - breaking up um but if you can hear me let me say this like you said and
10:1410:14 - another way that Prof Robert actually puts this matter of Matthew 5:48 is that
10:2110:21 - um it’s a job description so it’s like this is what you should be
10:2610:26 - doing and if you’re not doing it right then you try to do it better you know
10:3110:31 - it’s your job description it it doesn’t mean that we could possibly be that perfect uh Perfection is a gift that the
10:3910:39 - Lord is going to give to us but our responsibility is
10:4610:46 - to push toward it so it’s like working out just how the scripture say work out
10:5110:51 - your salvation with fear and trembling so we are we we we are like him in in
10:5910:59 - the sense since we have been born again we have the seed of God in us we are his
11:0811:08 - children carrying his DNA so to speak so we should act like it is what this place
11:1411:14 - is saying so we’re not supposed to um think in terms of first of all that we
11:2011:20 - can be be that perfect by our efforts no that’s not what it’s saying at all and
11:2711:27 - second of all that um we are somehow because there are people who hold that view too we are
11:3411:34 - perfect simply because we are children of God no we will be made perfect we’re
11:4011:40 - looking forward to that but the lord requires us to live like people who are
11:4711:47 - aiming to be perfect so um in other words as long as we are not perfect we
11:5411:54 - have work to do that’s it that’s the way we should be thinking about our lives um
11:5911:59 - then regarding Noah exactly as uh Lisa said
12:0812:08 - um that was that was speaking to his Humanity he was not an
12:1512:15 - Neel he was perfect a perfect human being like a true human being not
12:2112:21 - tainted in any way by the uh manipulations and uh what not of um the
12:3012:30 - uh the rebel Angels at the time that’s what that was speaking to it wasn’t speaking to his character
12:3712:37 - or well yeah it wasn’t speaking to his character where it spoke to his character was where it said that um he
12:4312:43 - was upright or something of that sort I don’t remember the exact phrase used um
12:5012:50 - so uh that was speaking to his Humanity we have evidence of the fact that he
12:5612:56 - certainly was not perfect in character with the wine thing you know of course
13:0113:01 - not that he was a drunk but then we should remember that Perfection is not that you do everything right when you’re
13:0713:07 - cognizant of it it is that even when you’re not cognizant of it you’re doing the right thing so you can’t be wrong
13:1613:16 - you can’t do the wrong thing unconscious of that the Perfection of Jesus Christ
13:2213:22 - is how that was the Perfection of God is like is how that was so the fact that you didn’t know that something was wrong
13:2813:28 - does not absolve you of guilt so likewise the fact that he did not know that he was
13:3613:36 - about to get drunk when he planted a vineard and you know made juice from it
13:4213:42 - and and had the juice and didn’t know it was going to do all of that to him his
13:4813:48 - only proof that he was just like us like every other human being flawed in his
13:5513:55 - character because he was flawed in his knowledge so um I just it wasn’t speaking this
14:0114:01 - character not that we want to get too caught up in the grammar and things this is the Hebrew here my Hebrew is a lot
14:0714:07 - rer than my Greek is um I did have a year of it in college but my Greek was much better because I had four years of that um so we have a prepositional
14:1414:14 - phrase here um this is this word here in Hebrew Hebrew is read right to left of
14:1914:19 - course so uh this is a masculine plural form uh that means over here if you want
14:2414:24 - to look at the Lexicon uh I think you could get away translating either of
14:3014:30 - like sort of times he was a man perfect in his times or his Generations um that
14:3614:36 - KJV is quite literal um over here we see that KJV and KJV translate this as
14:4214:42 - perfect in his generations and like aie has been clarifying this is with regards
14:4714:47 - to the fact that he was uh not of one of the Bloodlines of the Nephilim um he had
14:5514:55 - uh he and his forefathers you know to be fair it’s not just him had kept themselves uh set apart and pure in the
15:0315:03 - corruption that was racing through the world at his time and that is more or less what we should take this uh to be
15:1015:10 - what the text is getting at blameless or perfect in his Generations is getting at that sense not that Noah was an immoral
15:1815:18 - person but that it wasn’t drawing some sort of distinction between his perfect morality versus US normal humans but
15:2515:25 - that it was specifically getting towards that um I don’t know if that helps at all or
15:3015:30 - just makes it more confusing but uh anything to add there Audi or is that how we can close off these questions oh
15:3915:39 - no I think uh that’s that’s the wrap on that I think we can move on to the discussion now okay great well we will
15:4615:46 - pick up then um moving on towards those characteristics like we said we’re gonna do the first time picking up with God is
15:5615:56 - good so on the first first of these characteristics of God describing his
16:0116:01 - perfect character we’re going to be talking about how God is good now before I pick up here I’m going to note that uh
16:0816:08 - Dr lugan buil in the study since these paragraphs are coming out of the study has a few key vocabulary words that will
16:1416:14 - keep coming back up so we talked about goodness Holiness faithful and true
16:1916:19 - right those are essential characteristics of God part of his perfect character that will come to
16:2416:24 - manifest in creation um as love Justice and let me see love Justice and life um
16:3416:34 - and alongside those things we know that um the kind of mindset that God has
16:4016:40 - towards us corresponding to his goodness is Grace corresponding to his Justice is
16:4616:46 - Mercy and corresponding to his life the life that he has through reconcil
16:5116:51 - reconciling us to him is peace and so uh before we get too far ahead of ourselves
16:5716:57 - I do have a table uh that we’ll get through partway through this lesson that kind of maps all this out to kind of
17:0217:02 - help keep it straight but you’ll notice that certain words here are kind of bolded or sorry uh italicized uh in the
17:0917:09 - text of these and this again is done so on the study itself uh you know I just made the slides pulling from the study
17:1517:15 - and that’s because Dr Lil is trying to get us to follow these patterns um of how these words relate to each other uh
17:2217:22 - as as to how they relate towards uh God’s character and his uh sort of his
17:2917:29 - um attitude towards us as sinful humanity and so uh starting out here um
17:3417:34 - I know that was a bit of a a rambly introduction uh here specifically we’re talking about how God is good and so the
17:4117:41 - Hebrew word for good is Tove here Tove and it is the antithesis of evil um so
17:4717:47 - I’m GNA go ahead and just read this paragraph um uh this part of the study I will say has almost a very poetic bent
17:5317:53 - to it I think part of that is just Dr Lille has taken care to arrange the paragraph
17:5917:59 - so such that they’re very parallel to each other um so they they share a similar sentence structure in terms of
18:0518:05 - how he organizes the terms and the concepts and you’ll certainly see that when we get to uh the summary section of
18:1118:11 - this there’s a uh a grouping of how he he words it that really comes off very poetic um but in these paragraphs even
18:1818:18 - here you’ll get this sense of The Wider scale behind the characteristics of God
18:2418:24 - that we’re talking about um and this is why I kind of made the point that we’re specifically looking at God’s character
18:3018:30 - to help illuminate why he takes the actions he does with respect to us as Humanity um God’s attitude towards us as
18:3618:36 - sinful man um so I’m gonna go ahead and I will probably just read these uh as the way as we go through again uh keep
18:4318:43 - in mind that the italicized words we will link those back up as important vocabulary here um as we make sense of
18:5118:51 - the sovereignty of God and how he uh acts in the universe but going to go ahead and read this paragraph here so so
18:5818:58 - it says so how does goodness respond to sinful man in his goodness God always
19:0419:04 - has our best interests his heart therefore his desire for us to be free from Evil and devoted to good is genuine
19:1219:12 - even though we are sinful and by Nature Unworthy of his Blessing in his goodness God has nevertheless found a gracious
19:1819:18 - way to redeem us from sin without compromising his character namely by giving us the gift of his son Jesus
19:2619:26 - Christ now as we go and we look at the other characteristics of God you’ll keep seeing uh kind of this closing remark
19:3419:34 - come up over and over again God has resolved all of the sort of uh the
19:4219:42 - manifestations of his character what his character demands of him in terms of love and Justice uh through the cross of
19:4819:48 - Jesus Christ it was the move that the devil never saw coming uh the the move
19:5319:53 - that completely won the game in a victory that cannot be turned back so Jesus Christ defeated sin and death once
20:0020:00 - for all on the cross I mean it is the central turning point of human history where God won the battle not that there
20:0720:07 - was any chance that he would ever lose but it was the action that God took that
20:1320:13 - completely changed everything uh for his relationship with humankind and so that
20:1920:19 - is how uh you know for this slide specifically that is how we are seeing God’s goodness uh this action that he
20:2620:26 - took on our behalf a gracious way to redeem us but as you’ll see um as I’ve kind of been harping on here this will
20:3220:32 - come up over and over again the cross is the action uh through which we can see
20:3720:37 - God’s character working in his plan to redeem Humanity so opening this discussion aie
20:4420:44 - do you have more things you want to say on the goodness of God I I just thought of uh James one
20:5220:52 - where it said God is light and um uh there is
20:5920:59 - no not there is no shadow of turning with him I think there’s um there’s no
21:0421:04 - Darkness at all in him so I think that uh that is one of the things that
21:1021:10 - Professor Robert is trying is is looking to get at with that section um so I I
21:1621:16 - will say also that um yeah let me see if if I will find that that
21:2321:23 - is I think it’s earlier in the chapter yes okay there there is no shifting
21:3021:30 - Shadow mhm okay with him there is no shifting Shadow but there’s another place where
21:3521:35 - it says God is light and uh you might be thinking of John the Gospel of John is
21:4121:41 - that possible oh yeah you’re right first John one right or first
21:4721:47 - John John the Gospel of John chapter one talks about how the light came into the world I think I know what you’re talking
21:5221:52 - about have to I’ll have to look for the passage um I was thinking it was James chapter one
21:5921:59 - um God is light and uh there is no Darkness at all in him is first John it
22:0522:05 - is first John one picking up at verse five yeah yeah correct so in him there
22:1122:11 - is no Darkness at all so I think I see where Professor Robert is going or
22:1722:17 - looking to you know get to with uh what he’s saying there but every time that
22:2622:26 - I’ve thought of discussing um the character of God I find
22:3122:31 - myself uh wanting to speak from the perspective that God is love and then
22:3722:37 - unfolding the characteristics of love you know um first uh 1 Corinthians 13
22:4422:44 - where it says Love Is This Love is that and all of that because I I feel like um in exploring
22:5122:51 - that we will come to probably when I say Fuller appreciation
22:5822:58 - of what Professor Robert is trying to say there uh I I think um Lisa captured
23:0423:04 - it correctly when she said that um theology is a bit dense because it it
23:1023:10 - packs so much into so uh little really and if you come at God’s character from
23:1923:19 - from the fact that he is love a lot of things will begin get to unfold I will say we will we will get
23:2523:25 - there um that is one of the the applied goodness in creation um yeah it is a
23:3123:31 - slide in this lesson but uh it is five or six in the future at this point yeah I the
23:3923:39 - uh how he structured it basically is what I would change is what I’m saying I
23:4523:45 - find myself wanting to do that but I’ve not explored it as fully as I want to yet suffice to say that when he’s
23:5223:52 - talking about God’s goodness and talking about the antithesis the fact that it is
23:5723:57 - the antithesis of evil um this this uh uh reading in 1 John 1 um is very very
24:0824:08 - much what it reminds me of the idea that we’re still we’re still saying this that
24:1524:15 - God is different than um Satan
24:2124:21 - than I wouldn’t say just the universe because he made the universe to be good and then it got corrupted because of the
24:2724:27 - reion of Satan and uh all other creatures that agreed to um join him in
24:3324:33 - his Rebellion but the idea here is God is not just good in that um he he
24:4524:45 - is not evil he is good in the sense that he cannot be
24:5124:51 - evil that he is good so that you define good by him and
25:0025:00 - everything that is not him everything that does not derive
25:0525:05 - from him is evil so something of that sort is what we’re looking at when when
25:1125:11 - when um Professor Robert matches good and evil in this way that he actually
25:1725:17 - says God God is good and he says it is that is the antithesis of evil he’s
25:2425:24 - saying that there is no way to find evil in God which is something that is
25:2925:29 - speaking to the satanic Rebellion when Satan imputed God’s character with the
25:3625:36 - accusations he made and he did the same thing with Adam and Eve when he said you
25:4225:42 - will not surely die God is just trying to prevent you from becoming like him he’s trying to keep something from you
25:4925:49 - he wants it all for himself so to speak now this is essentially
25:5625:56 - attacking God’s character and saying it is not what it is but God cannot be
26:0226:02 - corrupted at all in any way he it’s impossible to corrupt him is
26:0826:08 - the idea of his being the antithesis of evil it is not possible at any point to
26:1526:15 - find evil in God so when when that question has arisen in in apologetics um is something
26:2326:23 - good because God decreed it or did God decree something because it is good
26:2826:28 - the answer to that really is if God says it or if God does it then
26:3626:36 - it is good that’s it yeah well because this to
26:4126:41 - me he is all good I I think it’s another one of those things where we what Audi
26:4726:47 - is is getting into is one of those apologetics questions um I is this not ether froze dilemma is that what it’s
26:5426:54 - called um I think you hard named youth
26:5926:59 - fro am I right or right yeah look at that um well we
27:0727:07 - don’t need to get into this I I’ve heard this before um you know is uh whatever um it looks like it came
27:1527:15 - up initially with Socrates or you know Socrates via Plato um but the whole
27:2027:20 - point is uh God is UN Alena good right good by definition uh the metric upon
27:2727:27 - which evil is defined comes through God’s goodness um so for us in
27:3327:33 - practice uh this is another one of those things where uh sometimes we might be tempted to put God in a box again and
27:4027:40 - say well how can we say God is good when there is suffering in the world or given
27:4627:46 - this this kind of very obviously horrific thing on the face of it well how can we have a good loving God you
27:5327:53 - know and we’ll get into this more as we unpack uh other aspects of God’s charactera character but how can we
27:5927:59 - believe that if this happens um that is a very common doubt um that people have
28:0628:06 - when it comes to the character of God um I don’t see the purpose in this suffering or in this evil in the world
28:1328:13 - um and so how can we say God is good you know that is the sort of challenge that comes up but it it kind of we are once
28:2128:21 - again when we do that we aren’t appreciating how big God is and how
28:2628:26 - small our own perspective is in this um you know it’s sort of like uh a a child
28:3128:31 - will say that um you know letting them eat lots of candy is good right it makes them happy but we know as adults that
28:3928:39 - the thing that comes after eating an entire bag full of candies and upset stomach um that is the sort of shift in
28:4628:46 - perspective that I’m getting at here um so we could very easily get off topic of talking about a whole bunch of aspects
28:5328:53 - of of all of this but you know I think as we go we will continue to clarify more about some of the aspects of God’s
29:0029:00 - character um and how we have to keep that perspective always in our heads about how much bigger God is than our
29:0729:07 - own perspective um and some of that just involves the faith on our part to trust
29:1229:12 - that even at the times when we don’t understand our default position needs to be to trust in God’s character rather
29:1929:19 - than doubting it or feeling that it can’t possibly be so um because no
29:2529:25 - matter what sometimes we may be pressured to feel by our emotions leading us astray we need to have that
29:3129:31 - sure confidence that God’s character is perfect uh the Bible tells us so right
29:3629:36 - right here Matthew 548 what we talked about and if the Bible tells us that then we need to trust that even when we
29:4229:42 - have a hard time understanding it um that could be a tricky lesson for us but that is certainly the standard to which we are called so I think that’s where
29:5029:50 - we’ll wrap our initial discussion here on God being good and we will pick up next with God being holy
30:0030:00 - all right so the next aspect of God’s perfect character that we are going to be discussing is God’s holiness and so
30:0730:07 - just as before Dr Lugo gives us the Hebrew word here uh Holiness here is
30:1330:13 - kados um again Hebrew readed right to left um so when we say God is Holy he is
30:1930:19 - completely separate from Evil he set apart so what this Hebrew word means the Greek word equivalent is hos I don’t
30:2730:27 - have that up on the oops I don’t have that up on the screen here but uh equivalent word in Greek as well and so
30:3330:33 - holiness means being completely set apart and separate from Evil so again I said I was going to be reading these
30:3830:38 - paragraphs getting that kind of poetic tilt to it and again notice the italicized word here here being merciful
30:4530:45 - and that’s what corresponds to God’s holiness So reading this paragraph we say so how does holiness respond to
30:5230:52 - sinful man in his Holiness God can never compromise his perfect standard for any
30:5730:57 - reason therefore his commitment to condemning evil and rewarding good is inviolable but even though we are sinful
31:0431:04 - and by Nature deserving of his judgment in his Holiness God has nevertheless found a merciful way to justify us in
31:1131:11 - spite of our sin without violating his character namely by judging his son Jesus Christ in our place so I said that
31:2031:20 - this uh ending refrain was going to come up time and again that the solution to
31:2531:25 - all of these apparent contradictions how God relates to sinful man are solved uh through the cross through his Judgment
31:3231:32 - of his son Jesus Christ to take the place uh for the uh payment of our sins
31:3831:38 - um and so this uh with regards to his Holiness God could not let sin go unpunished but in his Mercy Jesus Christ
31:4631:46 - stood in the gap between us and he took the punishment on our behalf on that is
31:5231:52 - Mercy uh satisfying the Holiness that’s part of God’s character um also his
31:5831:58 - goodness um his love for us so um do you
32:0332:03 - have thoughts you want to say on Holiness yeah sure
32:0832:08 - um so when I don’t know if anyone else has thought about this but the feeling I
32:1532:15 - had um the first time that I was going through Bible basics and I came to God
32:2132:21 - is good and then God is Holy was I’m not sure I see the difference I mean
32:2732:27 - God is good God is Holy and then you go on to say first of all the the statement
32:3432:34 - he made with God is good is um it is the God’s character is good it is the
32:4032:40 - antithesis of evil and then he says God’s character is Holy it is completely
32:4732:47 - separate from Evil so it’s like I mean didn’t you just say the same thing
32:5332:53 - in two different ways right so why why do you need to talk about God’s holiness
32:5832:58 - as a separate thing from God’s goodness in the first instance we’re
33:0333:03 - talking about how nothing that is evil comes from God
33:1033:10 - at all like this evil by by very by by
33:1633:16 - its very definition is an opposition to God so God cannot do evil there is no
33:2333:23 - possibility that if anything is evil it has its roots or origins in God this is
33:2933:29 - very important in our walk with the Lord because I mean when you get to a
33:3633:36 - certain stage and not too far into your walk with the Lord you do you do start to see that it makes no sense to ascribe
33:4433:44 - certain things to the Lord because they simply can’t be him he simply can’t be
33:5033:50 - like that um but Holiness is that there’s a
33:5733:57 - subtle difference here and the subtle difference is not just that nothing evil
34:0234:02 - can come from the Lord but that if it is
34:1034:10 - evil it has nothing to do with God so
34:1534:15 - it’s not just that it does not come from him but he is utterly separated from it
34:2234:22 - and the separation is not is not a small one it’s a wide
34:2834:28 - golf so when you see
34:3334:33 - goodness or something that looks good but does not derive from God and it is
34:4034:40 - actually evil the better you know the Lord the easier it is for you to tell that that thing is not it has nothing to
34:4734:47 - do with god so let’s talk about that in job it says that
34:5334:53 - he he found fault with his holy ones now that’s a very big
35:0135:01 - statement to make because Satan was so smart that it felt like his evil looked
35:0735:07 - like good he could get away with what he was doing because God couldn’t condemn it but God still found fault with it and
35:1535:15 - a lot of times in our own minds this is how sin actually seduces us we come to
35:2135:21 - think that we can we can understand a certain thing as being well not so bad
35:2735:27 - or well even good it’s we don’t have a
35:3435:34 - problem as we are right now people who have been training in the scriptures for
35:4035:40 - so long now in in Discerning that certain things
35:4735:47 - are just not God we don’t have a problem Discerning
35:5335:53 - that but look at the world around us there are those who are you might think
36:0036:00 - of them as being mischievous when they say certain
36:0636:06 - things but you you you might not actually see that they really do believe the things they’re
36:1236:12 - saying some people really do believe that one of the most popular
36:1836:18 - issues in the world today the LGBT thing is approved by God and they have
36:2436:24 - intricate involved arguments to persuade themselves and other people that this is
36:3136:31 - not really separate from God’s holy standard they they find it in consonance
36:3836:38 - with God himself and yet there’s a wide Gulf that
36:4436:44 - cannot be bridged between where they stand and where God is and the reason they can’t
36:5236:52 - see that is because they don’t know God’s character to be holy
36:5836:58 - okay so that’s one aspect of it that there is this massive separation between God and all that is evil the other thing
37:0537:05 - about it too is because God is Holy there is no reconciliation between God
37:1237:12 - and all that is evil so as we said with his goodness everything that is evil
37:1737:17 - stands in opposition to who God is and what God is about everything that God
37:2237:22 - does stands in opposition to all that is evil now we see that everything that God
37:2937:29 - does or is about is separate like it you cannot find it in any agreement with
37:3637:36 - things that are evil okay now this also means that every time there is evil
37:4437:44 - being done it there is a condemnation already a Divine condemnation on that thing
37:5237:52 - there is no possibility of reconciling it to God this is also why um
37:5837:58 - those well in Psalm it actually says evil shall not dwell with God there is no possibility of God coexisting with
38:0638:06 - that so that might raise a question for us which we have actually touched on uh
38:1238:12 - in our discussions at some point how then does God interact with the world filled as it is with evil
38:2038:20 - there’s such a separation between him and evil that there cannot be any
38:2638:26 - reconciliation right up to the point that even before evil existed there was
38:3238:32 - something there was a need for a cherub that covered a cherub that made a
38:3838:38 - difference between who God is and what God is about and all that is not what God is about and even after the fall
38:4638:46 - after Satan’s rebellion and after uh well after after Satan’s Rebellion after
38:5238:52 - man’s fall we still see that there was a cherub or cherubim now that guarded the
38:5938:59 - way to God and said essentially now that you are stained you cannot come close to
39:0439:04 - me so how then is God operating in an
39:0939:09 - evil world today so this this is a question we will
39:1639:16 - explore a little bit but we get we get a clue in what
39:2139:21 - um Roberts says when he says in his Holiness God has nevertheless found a merciful way to justify us now if you go
39:2939:29 - to First John again chapter one it says that he that he he is faithful and just
39:3539:35 - to forgive us so there is Justice a righteousness a
39:4239:42 - goodness in the Lord actually forgiving Sinners when remember again there is no
39:4839:48 - reconciliation between God and anything that is evil so now we are getting a
39:5439:54 - hint at a mass mive miracle in God that
39:5939:59 - makes it possible for him to forgive sin us so again I will say that the way that Professor Robert actually structure this
40:0540:05 - discussion of theology is to make this point of the miracle of Jesus Christ for
40:1140:11 - us I would structure it differently but I but the point here is he’s he’s
40:1640:16 - driving at telling us Jesus is the point and Jesus is the miracle that would make
40:2240:22 - it possible for a God who is utterly holy completely sep from everything that
40:2740:27 - is evil to reconcile Sinners to himself that’s the miracle sure I mean I
40:3440:34 - I definitely pointed that out that is the theme that is continually cycled back to in how he structures these
40:4140:41 - statements on God’s character it’s all about turning us back to see how the cross is the thing that reconciles all
40:4840:48 - these aspects of God’s character now I will say uh we probably don’t need to spend too much more time talking about
40:5440:54 - how can a holy God dwell among uh you know sin because we definitely spent time talking about that with
41:0041:00 - regards to light and Glory that was a couple uh a couple lessons back at this
41:0541:05 - point but um one other thing to mention AI kind of brought up this idea of uh
41:1041:10 - well if God is the antithesis of evil and we say his Holiness means he’s completely separate from Evil what’s the
41:1641:16 - distinction um at risk of oversimplifying uh I think it would go something like God cannot sin because he
41:2341:23 - is good but God cannot tolerate sin because he is Holy um so not so much his
41:3041:30 - sin but the sin of other beings um Holiness has an intolerance for the sin
41:3641:36 - the presence of sin in a way that simply not sinning oneself is somewhat different um so that’s how I view God’s
41:4341:43 - holiness bril and that’s also what ties us all the way back to like Audi said
41:4941:49 - the cross of Jesus Christ being a miracle right how we reconcile God’s
41:5441:54 - holiness with sinful creatures is nothing short of miraculous it is the
41:5941:59 - very thing that saves us uh that gives us our life here in the world is that
42:0542:05 - God condemned Jesus Christ in our place and we need to view that and again I certainly there are you know there’s
42:1142:11 - almost an infinite uh degree of ways to structure things to go about talking about who God is what his character is
42:1842:18 - but like Audi said the way in which this particular structure is structured this particular study is structured is trying
42:2542:25 - to draw emphasis that uh the cross of Jesus Christ is what reconciles these
42:3142:31 - aspects of God’s character um so uh I don’t have too much more to say
42:3642:36 - I think we have covered this one well um that is what makes Holiness um you know a distinct characteristic of God and I
42:4342:43 - would say almost arguably the characteristic of God that poses the greatest challenge to us as sinful human
42:4942:49 - beings right um you know yeah we we we have this huge Gulf like you’ve been
42:5542:55 - saying between between us and God um this is the aspect of God’s character that challenges our right to Salvation
43:0343:03 - um and that’s why the cross of Jesus Christ is such blessed good news for us
43:0943:09 - um that God is the one who bridged that Gulf through his son yeah all right well I think that is
43:1643:16 - where we will wrap on Holiness and next we will be picking up with how God is
43:2143:21 - faithful and true all right so picking up with the
43:2843:28 - next aspect of God’s character God being faithful and true so we have two Hebrew
43:3443:34 - words here remember Hebrews right to left but this here is Omen and Emet
43:3943:39 - these are other fundamental aspects of God’s character so God’s character is
43:4543:45 - faithful and true it is actively opposed to evil um so God cannot sin God cannot
43:5143:51 - tolerate sin God actively opposes sin and evil um God being faithful and true
43:5843:58 - uh you know truth and lies um aie brought this up when uh he he brought up first John chapter 1 talking about light
44:0444:04 - and darkness uh good and evil light and darkness truth and lies these are all
44:1044:10 - binary distinctions and God is uh good and light and Truth as opposed to evil
44:1644:16 - and darkness and lies um and so all of these are just ways in which we can
44:2244:22 - conceptualize God’s character and his relationship to the world so uh just as for the last two going to go ahead and
44:2844:28 - read this paragraph and note again how it always turns back to thinking in
44:3344:33 - terms of Jesus Christ and the cross as the solution to reconciling us to God um
44:3944:39 - so this paragraph says so how do truth and faithfulness respond to sinful man
44:4444:44 - in his faithfulness and Truth God is entirely reliable and trustworthy in all that he promises to us and does for us
44:5244:52 - therefore his veracity and dependability in offering us a way through Jesus Jesus Christ to escape the evil of death and
44:5844:58 - embrace the good of eternal life are Beyond reproach so even though we are sinful and by nature objects of his
45:0545:05 - wrath in his faithfulness and Truth God has nevertheless found a way to make peace between himself and us and to
45:1245:12 - remove the enity between himself and US caused by our sins without corrupting
45:1745:17 - his character namely by reconciling us to himself through the death of his son Jesus Christ so um God and and this kind
45:2645:26 - of gets also to what AI said last time uh 1 John chter 1:9 says that God is
45:3245:32 - faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and all unrighteousness right um it’s on the
45:3845:38 - basis of the blood of Christ that God can do that but he has promised us
45:4445:44 - Redemption he promised Adam and Eve Redemption right after the fall Genesis chapter 3 um I can’t remember if it’s
45:5145:51 - verse 15 I think it’s verse 17 let me see how good my memory is the Proto evangelium
45:5745:57 - um no yeah no okay not 17 my memory is not
46:0346:03 - that great definitely Genesis chapter 3 though after the curse probably it’s
46:0946:09 - it’s 21 it’s 21 um and the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife
46:1446:14 - and clothes and this so-called Proto evangelium the First Gospel that we have here God promises Adam and Eve
46:2146:21 - Redemption salvation right the shedding of blood for the Forgiveness of sins as symbolized by the animals um you know
46:2846:28 - this uh the the blood sacrifice necessary to fulfill his justice as
46:3446:34 - we’ll get to his applied Holiness in creation but this is what we mean by God
46:3946:39 - being faithful and true to forgive us of our sins and all un righteousness is that through Jesus Christ God is Not
46:4546:45 - only able to but it is just it is uh you know according to his faithfulness and
46:5146:51 - truth that he can forgive us of our sins because Jesus Christ has TR truly paid for it all um and again this is just
46:5846:58 - where we get a sense of the scale of the Cross of what it represents as the solution to our problems as Humanity to
47:0547:05 - the sin and death problem to our that yawning Chasm between us and God is that
47:1247:12 - God has actually done so much already in sending his son to die for us that it is
47:1947:19 - the right thing to do to forgive us it is in line with his character it is in
47:2547:25 - line with truth to forgive us of our sins because Jesus Christ paid for them that should blow our minds a little bit
47:3247:32 - right because we know that we sin every day and yet the Bible tells us that God
47:3847:38 - is just in forgiving us on the basis of his cross it is in character with you
47:4347:43 - know him being the god of Truth to forgive us of our sins um that blows my
47:4947:49 - mind um so are there things you want to say on these aspects of God’s character
47:5547:55 - Audi yeah I I really like the way you’re putting it I think it’s very simple and
48:0148:01 - very succinct um I I want to stretch the bit the faithful and true thing is
48:0948:09 - specifically addressing the satanic Rebellion so uh like I said the approach
48:1648:16 - that I would have taken or that I still want to explore for myself is more from
48:2348:23 - you know God’s character independent of the satanic Rebellion but
48:2848:28 - this is in the context of our experience as sinful creatures who need Redemption and all of that which is very critical
48:3648:36 - because the Cross of Christ is really the whole point okay so when he speaks
48:4248:42 - to faithful and true this is actually a challenge to the satanic Rebellion which
48:4848:48 - essentially said God is Not faithful and he is not true he clearly is keeping
48:5448:54 - things from us things that are good for us he doesn’t want any competition so he’s keeping the best things for himself
49:0249:02 - um so this this is what um Satan essentially did imping God’s character
49:0949:09 - and this this is the nature of sin so if anyone has a question what is sin sin is
49:1549:15 - always imping God’s character and seeking to take things from him that he
49:2249:22 - has not given because we believe we have a right to them and God is denying us of
49:2949:29 - them so um when it speaks to faithful when we when we talk of God’s
49:3649:36 - character being faithful and true it is that he can be relied
49:4449:44 - on he can be trusted and this is critical to our walk
49:4949:49 - with the Lord especially in a world such as ours remembering again that the whole
49:5449:54 - point of sin is is that God cannot be relied on so in a world where we are
50:0050:00 - facing the pressures that essentially tell us why listen to him why don’t you
50:0650:06 - do what you what you want because after all you can’t trust him to be seeking
50:1250:12 - out what is best for you now the response of the Bible to that is he gave
50:1750:17 - his son for your sin and think about
50:2350:23 - it um when we take into account what you’ve just said Stephen how God delivered us through the
50:3050:30 - sacrifice of Jesus Christ it’s amazing it’s amazing
50:3750:37 - how someone who cannot tolerate sin someone who has no truck with sin he
50:4450:44 - himself cannot do anything evil and cannot tolerate it can still forgive
50:5150:51 - people who do in order for him to forgive people who do he has to do something
50:5950:59 - incredible something that Satan could not have known about because there was no occasion for that thing to ever arise
51:0551:05 - that God would create a
51:1151:11 - sacrifice in order to make it possible for the one who cannot tolerate
51:1751:17 - evil to restore to friendship with himself people who are
51:2351:23 - evil that’s a tri if we have any question as to God’s faithfulness and to
51:2951:29 - his truth that is the answer to it and that’s how we can get through the
51:3451:34 - hardships of this life and the tribulations that will come always thinking just like Paul said if he gave
51:4151:41 - us his son how will how how will he not together with him give us all things so
51:4851:48 - that is the Touchstone of think think of this contrast you brought this up I think this is a good
51:5451:54 - example uh contrast the Serpent’s accusation imputing the character of God
51:5951:59 - you must not eat from any tree in the garden right up here with God’s promise
52:0552:05 - of redemption right verse 21 yes God promises them salvation through the
52:1052:10 - animal skins Satan says God’s not trustworthy why would God tell you you can’t eat from that tree right he
52:1752:17 - implies something with that that’s not a neutral question that is a leading question saying yeah you know God doing
52:2552:25 - this is in some way making him not looking out for your best for your ultimate good whereas in fact God
52:3252:32 - promises Redemption and you have to just keep in mind think about the thousands of years in between Adam and Christ
52:3952:39 - right 4,000 gber take right um and and when you think about that 4,000 years
52:4752:47 - was this promise there I mean you think about Abraham right we’re talking about God’s faithfulness and Truth God tells
52:5352:53 - Abraham he will have an heir and through that air you know the his descendants would be like the grains of sand upon
53:0053:00 - the beach shore right Abraham had to wait decades for that son of promise
53:0753:07 - right for the son of the Covenant and this idea that we have here
53:1253:12 - of God demonstrating his faithfulness despite the odds how about Noah too while we’re on the topic of waiting um
53:1953:19 - what hundreds of years right Noah built the ark 120 Am I Wrong um I don’t know I
53:2553:25 - have to go look but decades upon decades Noah was trusting God and God
53:3153:31 - was faithful right um but notice in all these instances people many people the
53:3853:38 - world in fact says that God is not um Satan says God is not scoffers in the
53:4353:43 - world say God is Not faithful um and sometimes like Abraham and Sarah having
53:4953:49 - doubt sometimes we doubt it as well we doubt that God is really faithful um that he’ll really come through for us us
53:5753:57 - so you know just as with the other things if we doubt that God is good on account of evil well if we doubt that
54:0354:03 - God is faithful because we haven’t seen Deliverance up until this day like AI said just think about what that will
54:0954:09 - mean uh when the tribulation comes Upon Us in the world if God has already given us his son while we were yet
54:1654:16 - sinners what are we afraid of you know why why don’t we trust God a little bit more than we do um this is not to say
54:2454:24 - that this is easy stuff we’re talking about here uh trusting that God is faithful and true even in the face of
54:3054:30 - immense suffering that is no easy thing that takes you know an immense amount of
54:3654:36 - spiritual growth and character to Bear up under those tests and trust that even when we don’t see the point of Escape
54:4354:43 - that like 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us um you know he will not test us past what we can bear but he will always
54:5054:50 - provide an out a way for us to uh never never be put pushed past what we can
54:5654:56 - actually handle um so it all comes down to Faith um it all comes down to our
55:0155:01 - trust in the character of God that when the Bible teaches that God is faithful and true and we can trust his promises
55:0755:07 - that we actually believe that um and uh you know this is um I’m trying to think
55:1455:14 - about the best way to phrase it maybe one of those things where uh especially if you grew up in church you kind of know the church answer to this question
55:2055:20 - uh yeah yeah God is good God is holy God is faithful
55:2555:25 - but if you believe that it changes how you live your life it changes your relationship and you
55:3255:32 - don’t doubt God because why would you doubt God if you actually believe that he was completely faithful um and so I
55:3855:38 - this I’m saying this as a challenge to myself as a challenge to all of us as we think about this is that when we say
55:4455:44 - that we believe that God is good that God is Holy that God is faithful and true if we believe those things
55:5155:51 - shouldn’t it change how we act shouldn’t it change how we view God in our heads um
55:5755:57 - we should give him the benefit of the doubt every single time there’s no instance in which we have just occasion
56:0556:05 - to actually doubt god um so obviously kind of harping on the obvious here boy
56:1056:10 - that was bit repetitious should say that what I’m saying should not be controversial we all know this but
56:1756:17 - living it is a lot harder than just knowing it um so I won’t ramble more
56:2356:23 - there um very important concept for us here to trust God’s faithfulness because
56:2956:29 - he was faithful in delivering us from our sin as he promised how much more so will he not Del Deliver Us from
56:3456:34 - everything else all the obstacles that come before us in life so uh I think
56:4156:41 - that’s where we’ll end this one and we will pick up in the next section talking about God’s sovereignty um as it applies
56:4856:48 - to his moral rulership of the
56:5356:53 - universe so now we’re going to talk kind of about the bridge section here in our study of God’s character so just like
57:0057:00 - when how we were studying God’s infinite nature uh we kind of tied um God’s essential characteristics to how they
57:0757:07 - manifest in creation uh through his uniqueness no one is like God in the universe we’re going to do a very
57:1457:14 - similar thing here with respect to God’s perfect character discussing how all of
57:1957:19 - how all of the characteristics that we’ve been talking about in terms of his goodness his Holiness his faithfulness and Truth manifest in the universe um
57:2757:27 - and so we are going to in so doing that be talking about God’s sovereignty um
57:3357:33 - and so I’ll read from the slide here a little bit we’re going to go through several slides here in this one um
57:3857:38 - talking about how all of these things kind of Link together and give us that uh that full picture of God’s Redemptive
57:4557:45 - plan for human history which as we’ve noted a couple times here has been the way that Dr Lil has structured um this
57:5257:52 - study of God theology proper at least this initial section on God’s nature and
57:5757:57 - character so sovereignty um kind of a long word here sovereignty comes from
58:0358:03 - God’s perfect character so just how on account of his uniqueness we said that no one else God is Du all the honor and
58:1058:10 - the glory because no one else is like him in the universe well no one else has a legitimate right to rule over the
58:1658:16 - universe and that’s what we mean by God being Sovereign he is the absolute Sovereign within his own creation and
58:2258:22 - therefore the one person to whom all honor is due sovereignty thus speaks to God’s moral Authority and right to order
58:2958:29 - the universe however he chooses so if God is the defao ruler of the Universe on account of his abilities that no one
58:3758:37 - uh no one else is omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent well it’s
58:4258:42 - because of his moral Authority that God is the deure ruler of the universe
58:4758:47 - because no one else has the right to judge moral creatures in the way that God does from the standpoint of his
58:5458:54 - Transcendence of the moral Universe God is Sovereign by virtue of his goodness his Holiness and his truth essential
59:0059:00 - qualities independent of his creation those are the things we’ve just talked about and here’s where we get the bridge
59:0659:06 - uh to the next things that we’re going to be discussing so those were the things that were his essential qualities
59:1259:12 - independent of his creation but from the standpoint of his Supremacy within the moral Universe God is Sovereign by
59:1959:19 - virtue of his love his Justice and life qualities applying to his creation which
59:2459:24 - Corr respond to goodness Holiness and Truth um so this is very similar to how we had discussion in the first series
59:3259:32 - how these things were linked together except now we’re talking about God’s sovereignty his moral Authority and right to order the universe from a moral
59:4059:40 - standpoint only God is qualified to be the ultimate judge of the morally accountable creatures he has created so
59:4759:47 - that’s us that’s Angels creatures with Free Will and thus to hold them responsible for their actions as day
59:5459:54 - fact of the riverse the de facto ruler of the universe through his perfect
59:5959:59 - nature and dejur ruler of the universe through his perfect character God can do
1:00:051:00:05 - these things and so that’s the next several slides that we’re going to talk about this is why I said all of this stuff all part of one cohesive whole so
1:00:121:00:12 - because God is the de facto and deur ruler of the universe through his perfect nature and his perfect character
1:00:181:00:18 - God can God possesses The Sovereign authority to demonstrate love to his
1:00:231:00:23 - sinful creatures out of his own goodness and so these slides are going to be showing you that relationship between
1:00:291:00:29 - these essential qualities of God and these qualities working themselves out in creation so here we have um God
1:00:371:00:37 - demonstrating love out of his goodness next we’re GNA have Justice coming from Holiness and after that life coming from
1:00:431:00:43 - truth and faithfulness but this first one God possesses The Sovereign authority to demonstrate love to his
1:00:491:00:49 - sinful creatures out of his goodness not ignoring their sins as evil
1:00:551:00:55 - suggests he should but paying for them himself by the death on the cross of his son Jesus Christ in their place this
1:01:021:01:02 - process what we just said there paying for the sins through the death of his son on the cross that’s called
1:01:081:01:08 - Redemption so we call the result of this act of his sovereignty Grace we are
1:01:131:01:13 - saved by grace through faith that’s commonly how you’ll hear it uh Hebrew word for this word is so that’s a a very
1:01:211:01:21 - difficult character for us as English speakers to pronounce um and the Hebrew true word here is Cardis um starting
1:01:271:01:27 - with a Kai um so Grace is the God’s
1:01:321:01:32 - attitude God’s Sovereign attitude towards man as a demonstration of his goodness and his love for us next one
1:01:401:01:40 - God possesses you know again God being the de facto deur ruler of the Universe
1:01:461:01:46 - um as the deao deur ruler of the universe God possesses The Sovereign authority to administer Justice to his
1:01:531:01:53 - sinful creatures out of his Holiness so not abandoning them to their sins as evil suggests he must but forgiving them
1:02:011:02:01 - himself on the basis of the death on the cross of his son Jesus Christ in their place so uh before we said that paying
1:02:091:02:09 - for our sins on the cross through the death of Christ was Redemption here we’re saying that forgiving our sins
1:02:161:02:16 - based on the death of Christ on the cross is called justification um these are important words in terms of what we
1:02:231:02:23 - would call atonement theory in terms of this progression of how God Saves
1:02:281:02:28 - mankind um so we call the result of this act of his sovereignty Mercy um again
1:02:341:02:34 - Hebrew word here and Greek is alos um important sort of technical theological
1:02:411:02:41 - vocabulary all over the place here um God forgives us and that is
1:02:471:02:47 - justification forgiving us on the basis of the blood of his son and God doesn’t
1:02:531:02:53 - have to forgive us that’s what makes this Mercy is that in no way did God have to send his son to forgive us out
1:02:581:02:58 - of our sins uh to get us out of our sins he did that because of his Mercy right
1:03:041:03:04 - he paid for our sins uh as an act of Grace he forgives of forgives us of our
1:03:091:03:09 - sins as an act of mercy and that leads us to this third one that as de facto and de Jer a ruler of the universe God
1:03:171:03:17 - possesses The Sovereign authority to give life to his sinful creatures out of his truth and his
1:03:231:03:23 - faithfulness not allowing his creatures to die in their sins as evil suggests he
1:03:281:03:28 - will but reconciling them to himself through the the death on the cross of his son Jesus Christ in their place this
1:03:351:03:35 - is what we call reconciliation we are reconciled to the father through the blood of Christ we call the result of
1:03:421:03:42 - this act of his sovereignty peace again Hebrew word and Greek word probably heard this one before Hebrew word is
1:03:491:03:49 - Shalom peace and the Greek word is a um and so these are all of these things
1:03:581:03:58 - speak of God’s Redemptive purpose in human history redeeming us to himself despite what evil says so if you compare
1:04:051:04:05 - across um these three slides making all of these points in sequential order here
1:04:101:04:10 - evil suggests that God should ignore their sins but instead God paid for them
1:04:161:04:16 - evil suggests that God should abandon us to our sins but God forgave us instead
1:04:221:04:22 - and evil suggests that God should allow us to die in our sins but instead God
1:04:271:04:27 - reconciled us to him um and so this is the powerful story of redemption that
1:04:321:04:32 - God has wrought throughout history this is why the cross of Jesus Christ was
1:04:371:04:37 - that winning move that we’ve been talking about in fact this is the very reason why human history is playing out
1:04:431:04:43 - as it is and that point that I just made is where a lot of Bible teaching on the subject they fail to make that
1:04:491:04:49 - connection they fail to realize that human history is a response resp to Satan’s Rebellion that God has created
1:04:571:04:57 - us in order to demonstrate that in fact sinful creatures can be reconciled to
1:05:021:05:02 - him despite what the angel said despite Satan’s PR platform saying God wouldn’t be able to do this that is exactly what
1:05:091:05:09 - God is doing and that is the reason why humans were created along with being created to demonstrate the glory of God
1:05:151:05:15 - but you know that’s sort of the the normal catechism answer but this is the wider meaning to human history all right
1:05:231:05:23 - so obious a lot to unpack there a lot to keep straight in our heads hence handy table right so we have been talking
1:05:301:05:30 - about God’s essential qualities manifesting in creation as certain things right so I’ve kind of titled this
1:05:361:05:36 - slide as God’s sovereignty in action um lots of technical terms here so God’s
1:05:421:05:42 - goodness manifests in his creation as love for us and through that love for us
1:05:481:05:48 - God has paid for human sin uh this is coming out of his sovereign attitude of
1:05:551:05:55 - Grace and results in our Redemption right so a lot there going to go ahead and go through this table and
1:06:011:06:01 - we may spend some time unpacking this as we go but God’s essential quality of Holiness manifests in Creation in his
1:06:081:06:08 - perfect Justice and the action God takes based on his Justice is Forgiven human
1:06:131:06:13 - sin um based on his attitude towards us of Mercy leading to our
1:06:201:06:20 - justification um so that is scratching out our sin in the legal record as it
1:06:251:06:25 - were that’s what justification is as to his essential quality of Truth this
1:06:311:06:31 - manifests in creation through god-given life um the action God takes is
1:06:361:06:36 - reconciling sinful man to himself out of his Sovereign attitude towards us of
1:06:421:06:42 - Peace resulting in our reconciliation with him so in all of these things you can
1:06:481:06:48 - see that God’s full plan for saving sinful man absolutely everything in this plan relies upon the cross the blood of
1:06:561:06:56 - Jesus Christ um so I actually really like this way phrasing it I don’t even remember where I came across this I
1:07:011:07:01 - think it was like when I was younger a kid maybe 10 12 um I’ve heard it phrased this way that God’s mercy and Justice
1:07:081:07:08 - intersect in the cross right the cross is everything as it relates to saving
1:07:141:07:14 - mankind out of our sins um so uh we may need to go through this a couple times I
1:07:191:07:19 - mean I sure had to uh make sure that I squinted at it and and got it all straight in the words in our head um and
1:07:271:07:27 - you know obviously these things that we’re talking about Redemption justification reconciliation um these are parts of
1:07:331:07:33 - that process that we go through as Christian and how we relate to God what God has done for us in a theological
1:07:391:07:39 - sense so um all sorts of places where we could take this but I know I’ve talked
1:07:451:07:45 - for a good few minutes here this is how we see God’s
1:07:501:07:50 - sovereignty uh play out in the universe God in sovereign in control of all events that happen but in particular we
1:07:571:07:57 - see God working uh for us for our Salvation uh through the sacrificing of
1:08:031:08:03 - his son Jesus Christ that we might be saved that we might be uh redeemed
1:08:091:08:09 - Justified um and reconciled to him not only now in time but also eternally
1:08:151:08:15 - forever more um so uh aie uh I’ll turn it over to you um
1:08:221:08:22 - what do you want to say um about all of this that we’ve gone through is there anything that jumps out at you uh that
1:08:271:08:27 - we kind of haven’t already covered here so um the satanic rebellion was a
1:08:331:08:33 - challenge to God’s right to rule that was what it was it was Satan
1:08:391:08:39 - saying I get why why don’t I get to be God too why don’t I get to rule over
1:08:451:08:45 - creation myself as well and um what Professor Robert presents is is an
1:08:511:08:51 - argument for Why God has has the right to rule he says that that right is a
1:08:571:08:57 - moral one and that it is rooted in God’s character and he goes on to explain how
1:09:031:09:03 - God’s how to argue how God’s character qualifies him to
1:09:081:09:08 - rule so that is a very solid argument and it actually is just as you said and
1:09:161:09:16 - as exis continues to unfold um in all of its studies
1:09:211:09:21 - that it it it is the point of human
1:09:271:09:27 - history human history is God’s argument for his right to
1:09:341:09:34 - rule in fact that is what First Corinthians 15 essentially says and then
1:09:401:09:40 - comes the end when he will hand over the kingdom to the father so the idea here is in the
1:09:471:09:47 - end all Rebellion is squashed all enemies are removed and God gets to
1:09:531:09:53 - exercise his full rights without any opposition to rule over the creation
1:09:591:09:59 - that he made I tend to think about God’s sovereignty in a in a
1:10:061:10:06 - multi-dimensional way on the one hand he has the right to rule creation because he made it I mean even if he was even if
1:10:151:10:15 - it were possible and it is not even if it were possible that to think of God’s character as anything but good he has
1:10:221:10:22 - the right to rule because made it well just almost think of it like intellectual property rights right you
1:10:291:10:29 - know exact we have that God can remix and modify because he’s the one who created it yes yeah so there is that
1:10:371:10:37 - right of ownership on the one half but the Bible goes beyond that which is
1:10:431:10:43 - actually you know it’s like when when God said to Israel in
1:10:481:10:48 - Mali um how did he put it that it’s in Malachi 1 but I’ll paraphrase the idea
1:10:551:10:55 - is this that even a donkey knows its master and will give due respect to his
1:11:011:11:01 - to its master and um a father has uh
1:11:071:11:07 - respect that is due to him so does a governor if I’m a father where is my
1:11:121:11:12 - respect I don’t get anything you you don’t treat me with any respect given my
1:11:181:11:18 - role my place in your life you wouldn’t be a nation unless I made you one that’s
1:11:241:11:24 - what he was saying to them and more than once in the prophets he told them your
1:11:291:11:29 - father was an araman was a Syrian and I I made him I took him out
1:11:351:11:35 - of Syria and made him into a great nation so basically I have the right to
1:11:421:11:42 - make demands of you because you exist because of me that’s the right of
1:11:481:11:48 - ownership and if anything were God that thing would have that right over the
1:11:531:11:53 - creation that it makes but beyond that the argument that um exus is particular focused on is the
1:12:001:12:00 - moral argument which is essentially this that God’s character is
1:12:061:12:06 - good and that he is he is loving he is perfect he does not do any wrong so
1:12:141:12:14 - everything that Satan has accused him up has been proven to be false see God
1:12:231:12:23 - cannot abide evil and he does not do evil and he reconciles the the evil
1:12:301:12:30 - person to himself if the if the evil person is willing to repent all of that is to say what better can you get who
1:12:381:12:38 - has your best interest at heart other than me in other words you are safest
1:12:441:12:44 - and Most Blessed under my wings this is the second argument on the
1:12:501:12:50 - one hand I have the right to rule over you because I made you on the other hand I have the right to
1:12:561:12:56 - rule over you because nobody wants better things for you than I do and nobody can provide those things better
1:13:021:13:02 - than I can like I am it for you if you’re ever going to have anything good
1:13:091:13:09 - it’s going to come from me that’s the second argument now that second argument is more important from the excess point
1:13:171:13:17 - of you because this is a fight um of free will we have to make a willing
1:13:231:13:23 - choice if we reject God’s right of ownership that’s fine he doesn’t rule
1:13:281:13:28 - over us for eternity but then we don’t end up in anything good for all eternity we are stuck in the Lake of Fire in the
1:13:341:13:34 - place of misery but that for that reason the main focus here is the moral
1:13:411:13:41 - right given the chance to make an existence for yourself rather than to
1:13:481:13:48 - accept one that I make for you do you do any better and we live in a world where
1:13:541:13:54 - again and again the answer to that is no that we don’t do better by ourselves we don’t do better away from God’s mercies
1:14:011:14:01 - and his Graces so we see that God’s right to
1:14:061:14:06 - rule is rooted in the Perfection of his character the true sacrificial nature of
1:14:121:14:12 - his love for us that he is willing to give the most to give
1:14:181:14:18 - everything even when we are in a position of enmity against him
1:14:231:14:23 - that is the Seal of his sovereignty the right he has to rule over us and that
1:14:291:14:29 - ends all of the satanic Rebellion it puts paid to all of Satan’s arguments because it
1:14:351:14:35 - says if you rule over yourself you don’t make anything better I can’t make bad
1:14:411:14:41 - things I can’t make an evil world I cannot and I can’t tolerate one and on
1:14:471:14:47 - top of that even if you have made an evil world I can reconcile you to myself
1:14:521:14:52 - and give you a perfect world I don’t think anything in the satanic rebellion
1:14:581:14:58 - in all the lies that we have b as human beings can stand up to this that’s the argument that exis is actually making
1:15:041:15:04 - now when we think of this in terms of sovereignty um in terms of the uh what we call de facto deur uh Authority that
1:15:141:15:14 - God has you might also sort of think of it like this if you view God’s abilities
1:15:191:15:19 - um in the same way you might view like an apex predator like a tiger right a tiger has might might makes right sort
1:15:261:15:26 - of thing right a tiger is the ruler of the Jungle simply because there is no one stronger than him right but a king
1:15:341:15:34 - is not necessarily a king because he’s the strongest right there might be
1:15:391:15:39 - Warriors or military leaders who have more military mind right or Scholars who
1:15:451:15:45 - have more intellectual Cloud a king is a the leader of a country at least
1:15:521:15:52 - throughout history right not that we have King so much anymore but you know let me let me go with my parallel okay
1:15:571:15:57 - um so a king is the king of a country not maybe because he is the strongest or the smartest but because he carries the
1:16:051:16:05 - scepter of rulership right um and when we think of in the Bible Jesus you know
1:16:111:16:11 - uh subduing the nations with a rod of iron making them the foot stol of
1:16:161:16:16 - God God is King of the universe by existential Fiat because he is the one
1:16:221:16:22 - with ownership right as we’ve talked about the one who has this uh not just
1:16:281:16:28 - because of strength but because of moral Authority um that is a level above just
1:16:351:16:35 - being the strongest that is having what we would call the moral right to control
1:16:421:16:42 - what goes on in his Universe in the same way that a homeowner for example might have the moral right to control what
1:16:481:16:48 - goes on in his home right or the citizens of a country
1:16:531:16:53 - having the right to self-determine what goes on in their country you see where I’m going with this right the universe
1:17:001:17:00 - is Gods to control by moral right um not just because he’s the strongest and he
1:17:051:17:05 - can impose his will upon others but because he has the right to do it um
1:17:111:17:11 - that’s God’s sovereignty yeah all right well uh you know
1:17:161:17:16 - obviously more to talk about in all of this um we will as you’ll see again uh as we turn to some of the uh what we
1:17:221:17:22 - would call as the characteristics of God manifesting in creation his love his Justice and his life here um we will
1:17:291:17:29 - once again uh see the essential qualities his goodness his Holiness and his truth as well as his Sovereign
1:17:351:17:35 - attitude towards us in grace mercy and peace all these things will recur as we talk about um how God manifests his
1:17:421:17:42 - goodness and his Holiness and his truth in creation um so those will be the
1:17:471:17:47 - topics that we turn to um in the next slides here um but this will kind of conclude the discussion that we’ve had
1:17:541:17:54 - here about God’s sovereignty so God is unique um on account of his infinite nature um his abilities that no other
1:18:021:18:02 - can match and God is Sovereign on account of his moral perfection he has the right by existential Fiat to order
1:18:081:18:08 - the universe as he sees fit because he is The Sovereign deure ruler of it these
1:18:141:18:14 - things together explain why God is due all obedience and honor and Glory
1:18:201:18:20 - because he is the ruler of the universe um both by nature and by character um he
1:18:271:18:27 - is the one that is in complete control of everything so we will pick up more as I say with these aspects of Love Justice
1:18:351:18:35 - and life on these parts of God’s characters they manifest in creation uh as we keep on going through the next
1:18:411:18:41 - slides in this lesson here all right so the first point that
1:18:481:18:48 - we are going to be going over now is how God is love and so this is kind of the
1:18:531:18:53 - manifestation of his essential quality of goodness as it relates to Creation
1:18:581:18:58 - for us in the universe and in the next couple sections we’ll also be talking about how his Holiness manifests Justice
1:19:051:19:05 - and his truth manifest his life uh but here talking first about how his goodness manifests his love I’m going to
1:19:121:19:12 - kind of read the paragraph This is again straight from the study on ichus here and then uh kind of go from there to
1:19:171:19:17 - elaborate on that so ikus says having love for his creatures is natural
1:19:231:19:23 - consequence of God’s goodness out of the intrinsic goodness of his character God loves us with a perfect love Desiring to
1:19:301:19:30 - help us in our sinful State however he does not Overlook his Holiness and Justice in the process and forgive our
1:19:361:19:36 - sin without consequence as evil suggests he should therefore God had to find a
1:19:411:19:41 - way to reach out to us in Love Without compromising his character and did so through the gift and sacrifice of his
1:19:471:19:47 - only son on our behalf um so this is very parallel to what we had been talking about uh in the last section uh
1:19:561:19:56 - talking uh kind of in this summary of God’s sovereignty and his Sovereign plan for human history as he redeems Humanity
1:20:041:20:04 - out of our sinfulness we talked about this this was this slide talking about how uh God possesses The Sovereign
1:20:101:20:10 - authority to demonstrate love out of his goodness uh so this should sound familiar is what I’m saying um because
1:20:161:20:16 - we just talked about that actually but um this is the same thing that we’ve been saying is that everything for us
1:20:231:20:23 - centers on the cross uh it is the inflection point in all of human history
1:20:281:20:28 - that that single winning move where death Was Defeated once for all and God does this out of his love for us so not
1:20:351:20:35 - contradicting his Justice he reached out to us in love through the sacrifice of his son that we might be saved um also
1:20:421:20:42 - building on that theological vocabulary we say that Grace is the biblical name for God’s policy of lovingly redeeming
1:20:491:20:49 - us from our sins through Jesus Christ um so this is his his loving kindness you
1:20:541:20:54 - may also see older translations like the KJV use that a bit wordy for us perhaps
1:20:591:20:59 - in Modern English but this idea of God’s good will his grace his attitude of
1:21:051:21:05 - Grace towards humanity is shown in this so we accept and receive God’s gracious offer of love and Redemption by
1:21:121:21:12 - accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior um so for Evangelical Christians this is nothing
1:21:181:21:18 - new right we have salvation by grace through faith not by works um but we accept God’s love in fact we reciprocate
1:21:261:21:26 - God’s love only by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior U by believing in
1:21:311:21:31 - him that is uh our act as Christians by which we demonstrate to God that we love him back um so that’s where we’ll start
1:21:391:21:39 - here um I should also say that there’s an interesting verse uh I think it’s in 1 John chapter 4 it talks about how God
1:21:461:21:46 - is love like uh I don’t know we don’t want to get bogged down in the philosophy of this but um you know that
1:21:531:21:53 - basically because God is love we need to love one another just how God loves us so there’s a lot of uh what I would call
1:22:011:22:01 - practical application that comes across from this point um the Bible in a couple places uh uses God’s sacrifice for us is
1:22:091:22:09 - this ought to be defining motivation for us to lay down our lives for each other uh the Brethren our brothers and sisters
1:22:161:22:16 - in the church uh because we ought to follow God’s example um so that’s where
1:22:221:22:22 - all open us I mean we could certainly go through more of this passage here in 1 John chapter 4 but because God is love
1:22:281:22:28 - so also we must love one another um uh you know in fact this is basically
1:22:331:22:33 - verbatim word for word what we just went over in that paragraph from the study was that in this love God was made
1:22:381:22:38 - manifest among us through his kind of through his attitude of Grace that he sent his only son that we might live
1:22:441:22:44 - through him um uh very traditional formulation of the Gospel itself so
1:22:491:22:49 - Audie do you have anything you want to pick up uh based on what we’re talking about here specifically with regard to
1:22:551:22:55 - how God is love um yeah uh I I want to
1:23:021:23:02 - say that first of all um like you said everything is
1:23:091:23:09 - centered around the cross of Jesus Christ and uh thought that that has uh
1:23:151:23:15 - caused me to um try to make sense of is why like what does what does that mean
1:23:231:23:23 - um we know from First Corinthians 15 that the goal of everything that’s happening in the universe in creation is
1:23:301:23:30 - that ultimately the kingdom will be turned over to the father we also know that what started all the rock the the
1:23:381:23:38 - rockus in in creation was that Satan aspired to God’s throne and wanted
1:23:451:23:45 - to well commit a to take over the universe from the Lord we know that that
1:23:511:23:51 - was happening so the whole thing really is about the fact that God is the rightful King of the universe and um I I
1:23:581:23:58 - believe I mentioned last Saturday that um um God has the right to rule by by
1:24:051:24:05 - right of creation he owns creation but Satan essentially did not challenge that
1:24:101:24:10 - R he did not challenge that r on the basis of like well um You Don’t Own
1:24:171:24:17 - creation because you made it he challenged it more on the on the basis
1:24:231:24:23 - of you don’t love creation enough to Merit ruling over it because after all
1:24:311:24:31 - creation um comprises as well creatures that have a free will that is they have
1:24:381:24:38 - the ability to respond to God’s Authority either in submission or in
1:24:441:24:44 - Rebellion um so basically was like just because you made me does not give you
1:24:511:24:51 - the right to rule over me was essentially what he was saying and when he went on his um on his uh uh campaign
1:25:011:25:01 - to win the hearts and minds of his fellow angels of course we know that he
1:25:061:25:06 - made Arguments for Why God was not really acting in their best interest he
1:25:111:25:11 - had denied them of an actual physical body and probably restricted them in some other ways who knows what arguments
1:25:181:25:18 - he made but the ex disposition of course is that he was particularly driving at the fact that Angels lacked physical
1:25:241:25:24 - bodies that makes sense judging by what we saw in Jesus’s Ministry how he often
1:25:311:25:31 - had to deal with throwing demons out of the bodies of human beings
1:25:371:25:37 - so the the what is at the root of creature Rebellion is this this feeling
1:25:431:25:43 - like God is not acting in my best interest he doesn’t love me enough to
1:25:481:25:48 - give me what I need to have or what is right for me to have he is denying me of
1:25:561:25:56 - things that are good for me to have so it is actually the love of God that is being called into
1:26:021:26:02 - question if I am being denied something I want then God’s love is
1:26:091:26:09 - either not there or it is insufficient and if God does not love me as I need to
1:26:161:26:16 - be loved why should I obey him why should I submit to him because I will just live in
1:26:221:26:22 - misery so why Jesus’s cross is at the
1:26:281:26:28 - center of everything is that it is the perfect the ultimate demonstration of
1:26:331:26:33 - God’s love for his creation because here is the thing there is no greater love that it
1:26:391:26:39 - is possible for any creature to show than just as you have just pointed
1:26:451:26:45 - out laying down your life for those who are your
1:26:501:26:50 - friends no no man can do better than that but God want went miles better than
1:26:591:26:59 - that Jesus laid down his life for his enemies for his father’s
1:27:041:27:04 - enemies for those who if if they had the ability to do it they would drive God
1:27:111:27:11 - out of his creation they would even kill God if that were a thing that was was even possible that’s what they tried to
1:27:161:27:16 - do with Jesus Christ anyway we can’t do it we are God’s
1:27:231:27:23 - avowed enemies and his response to our enmity against him is to offer a
1:27:311:27:31 - sacrifice to reconcile us back to him to forgive his enemies that’s the
1:27:381:27:38 - biggest thing in the universe nobody can do it and that put the light to
1:27:441:27:44 - everything Satan has said about God whether to his fellow to his fellow Angels or to or to human
1:27:501:27:50 - beings at the root of everything sin is God is denying me of something that is good for me to have so he cannot truly
1:27:571:27:57 - love me or his love for me is insufficient now we have seen that he has gone well beyond anything we could
1:28:051:28:05 - possibly ask for by saying even though you have spited me and wronged me and
1:28:121:28:12 - destroyed my creation and even though you deserve the worst from
1:28:171:28:17 - me I am offering you an opportunity to come back into my family and here’s the
1:28:221:28:22 - thing Jesus gave us an excellent example of this an excellent demonstration of this when he talked about the parable of
1:28:291:28:29 - the of the prodal son The Prodigal Son returned recognizing that he had no
1:28:351:28:35 - rights anymore in his father’s house he did not ask to be restored to sunship he
1:28:411:28:41 - said make me one of your servants one of these slaves of yours because after all they they their tummies are always full
1:28:481:28:48 - they may not be looking forward to any um inheritance anymore more but at least I will have a full tummy and I will have
1:28:561:28:56 - gainful work that is worth doing this is the position that
1:29:011:29:01 - we could hope for we had no right to even hope for that much and yet what God
1:29:071:29:07 - did was not just bring us back as
1:29:121:29:12 - creatures in his Universe he brought us back as his sons not just his sons but
1:29:201:29:20 - coair with Christ so the cross of Jesus Christ is very well and truly the point
1:29:261:29:26 - because it demonstrates exactly the love that God has for his creation so that
1:29:321:29:32 - now the argument for God’s right to rule is both that yes he made the universe
1:29:371:29:37 - and is entitled to it because it is his creation but now for the Free Will
1:29:431:29:43 - creatures in it who have the right to respond to him either willingly or to
1:29:501:29:50 - reject him now he tells them I have the moral right to rule over you because nobody wants
1:29:571:29:57 - better for you than I do that’s uh I know when we uh talked
1:30:031:30:03 - about this in the last section we brought up I think maybe we didn’t I don’t know if we didn’t we should I’ll
1:30:091:30:09 - bring up the the parallel of parents um so we know that the Bible speaks of how we are to honor and obey our parents and
1:30:171:30:17 - part of that is because our parents want what’s best for us they have this right
1:30:221:30:22 - to govern so long as we live under their roof uh to govern our actions as their children because of their care for us
1:30:291:30:29 - they have been entrusted uh with our well-being and of course nobody is uh
1:30:371:30:37 - more in control of the universe in God you know who who holds the lives of all
1:30:421:30:42 - of his creatures in his hands you know so while human parents may have the lives of their children in their hands
1:30:481:30:48 - so to speak I you know up to a certain extent and uh perhaps even public servants so we might think elected
1:30:541:30:54 - officials uh perhaps fancy themselves as having the lives of their constituents in their hands well God has the lives of
1:31:021:31:02 - everyone in the universe and his right Angel and and uh human being alike um so
1:31:081:31:08 - one other thing I I just thought this verse in Romans is always such a powerful verse you know talking about how God died for us while we were yet
1:31:151:31:15 - sinners right um this is love you know I I was thinking there’s a verse in the gospels too uh Echoes this about uh you
1:31:231:31:23 - know for a good person someone might possibly Dare To Die maybe or maybe it’s only here in Romans anyway point being
1:31:291:31:29 - um this is self-sacrificing love and Par Parable The Prodigal son’s actually really interesting in context when we
1:31:351:31:35 - talk about love as well because part of love the love that we’re supposed to have as Christians is we’re supposed to
1:31:411:31:41 - celebrate like how God celebrates when Sinners repent um and I think very often our tendency as humans is not to throw
1:31:481:31:48 - the party for the repentant sinner but be like the older brothers that says but look at me I have sacrificed so much why
1:31:541:31:54 - are we celebrating for him look at look at all I’ve done right what about me
1:32:001:32:00 - that pride and ego get in the way right so even though what we’re celebrating is someone coming from Death to life we say
1:32:061:32:06 - but what about all my hard work where’s my recognition um but God’s love wants
1:32:121:32:12 - what is actually best for all of us um and I don’t want to get too off too off
1:32:171:32:17 - topic here because I’m sure we could ramble for a while but you know Greek has all these different words for love you may have come across a teaching that
1:32:241:32:24 - that hits on this a bit too uh so the form of divine love typically in view when we talk about how God is love this
1:32:311:32:31 - love we’re supposed to show to one another within the body of Christ and even show to the world is is the Greek
1:32:361:32:36 - word for it is agape um and it’s typically described as divine unconditional love um Love without
1:32:431:32:43 - strings attached so to speak and that is the sort of love whereby we love our enemies um there’s also sto that’s kind
1:32:511:32:51 - kind of like the love between parents and children familial love um filia it’s
1:32:571:32:57 - not actually used directly in the New Testament like the Greek word for that isn’t a fet which is a a verb that comes
1:33:051:33:05 - up a bit more um and then there’s also AOS which is the um uh you know sexual
1:33:111:33:11 - passion um and so these are all translated in English with the same word but specifically what we’re talking
1:33:171:33:17 - about when we say God is love is that God is a he is this unconditional Divine
1:33:231:33:23 - love that wants the best for everyone and that’s why he sent his son to die for us and take our sins upon his
1:33:311:33:31 - shoulders um to save us uh again out of this policy of Grace that he has towards
1:33:361:33:36 - us acting in what is actually our best interest um redeeming us right that’s
1:33:411:33:41 - the theological term here buying uh us out of sin that’s what redeeming is we
1:33:471:33:47 - have been redeemed as slaves to sin um so all very good points anything else
1:33:531:33:53 - you want to say before we go on to the next one no I I think we can go on okay
1:34:021:34:02 - great so now we’re going to be talking about how God is just and so uh God
1:34:081:34:08 - lovingly redeemed us out of our bondage to sin uh but God is also just and the
1:34:141:34:14 - thing that should blow our minds about this a little bit is that when God forgives us on the basis of his Mercy
1:34:201:34:20 - because he sent his son to die Justice is being rendered this isn’t
1:34:251:34:25 - like God is somehow overlooking our sin is that Jesus paid for it um the debt
1:34:311:34:31 - has been paid the accounts have been settled uh I think sometimes maybe we get uh I don’t know quite how the right
1:34:381:34:38 - way to describe this might be but maybe we don’t we don’t feel that as impactfully as we ought that when when
1:34:461:34:46 - Jesus was on the cross he paid for that sin uh this uh in other words our forgiveness had a price that came with
1:34:521:34:52 - it it wasn’t uh just with an arbitrary wave of the hand that God forgives the far forgives forgives us of our sin boy
1:35:011:35:01 - hard hard to say I guess um and so that’s kind of what we’re getting at here when we talk about God’s justice so
1:35:071:35:07 - I’m gonna go ahead and read again coming right out of the study here on ikus so it says demanding Justice for his
1:35:131:35:13 - creatures is a natural consequence of God’s holiness so holiness is that essential characteristic of God we’ve
1:35:191:35:19 - been talking about before his need to be separate from sin um so out of the
1:35:241:35:24 - intrinsic Holiness of his character God must must that’s a mandatory must deal
1:35:301:35:30 - with us in perfect Justice righteously condemning us in our sinful State however he does not Overlook his
1:35:361:35:36 - goodness and his love in the process and abandon us to our sins as evil suggests he will for God found a way to treat us
1:35:431:35:43 - as righteous without compromising his character and did so through the gift and sacrifice of his only son on our
1:35:491:35:49 - behalf there’s that turning everything back to the cross again that’s been that central theme here as it should be right
1:35:551:35:55 - when we discuss everything in the plan of God um so God didn’t compromise his goodness and his love here because he
1:36:021:36:02 - forgave us but he did so justly he did so uh in concordance with Justice
1:36:091:36:09 - because Jesus actually paid the cost for our sins so again with the technical
1:36:141:36:14 - vocabulary Mercy is the biblical name for God’s policy of justly I going to
1:36:201:36:20 - keep emphasizing that just forgiving us on the basis of the death of Jesus Christ we accept and receive God’s
1:36:261:36:26 - merciful offer of justification by accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior um so uh this kind
1:36:331:36:33 - of pulls to mind a a kind of a reasonably famous verse here in 1 John
1:36:381:36:38 - chapter one that talks about um how God is actually just to forgive us our sins
1:36:431:36:43 - when we confess here if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from
1:36:491:36:49 - all unrighteousness um I don’t want to just keep harping on the same thing but what we’re talking about
1:36:551:36:55 - is important um because uh I I think sometimes uh it’s easy in uh our modern
1:37:031:37:03 - times where we talk about how God is love um God is forgiveness we think
1:37:081:37:08 - about all these things as maybe God just doesn’t take sin seriously uh you know maybe he can just kind of wave his hand
1:37:141:37:14 - and make it go away or whatever but that really isn’t how we ought to think about it because sin is a deadly sin leads to
1:37:211:37:21 - death it’s what the Bible says the wages of sin are death and it is really serious stuff because sin separates us
1:37:271:37:27 - from God and absent the blood of Christ that we know redeems us we would be dead in our sins eternally dead in our sins
1:37:351:37:35 - and so it’s only because Jesus paid for that that God is able to justly forgive us of our sins um and so uh you know we
1:37:441:37:44 - might think of this as paying our debt on our behalf if sin puts us in debt then a just judge wouldn’t let that debt
1:37:521:37:52 - be forgiven without cause and Jesus uh the his payment for our sins upon the
1:37:581:37:58 - cross is that just cause that allows for the Forgiveness of our sins um that’s kind of the emphasis here on God’s
1:38:051:38:05 - justice and this is why we should keep emphasizing uh how almost
1:38:121:38:12 - um word’s escaping me here it’s just kind of how astounding the crosses in terms of what it reconciles what it
1:38:181:38:18 - means for God’s love and his Mercy um and his justice to all be upheld by the
1:38:251:38:25 - sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf um is because God did all of this acting out of love but it also doesn’t violate
1:38:321:38:32 - his his Justice it does not violate the need for uh sin to be paid for uh in
1:38:391:38:39 - order to be uh kind of the record set straight uh the the books balanced so to
1:38:451:38:45 - speak um and again just to reemphasize that point that the only way in which
1:38:511:38:51 - our personal Ledger of sins and failures can be reset is to be washed personally
1:38:571:38:57 - in the blood of Christ and that only happens by us accepting and receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior um
1:39:041:39:04 - so uh that’s how uh you know we accept God’s Redemption his payment on our behalf that is how we are forgiven God
1:39:111:39:11 - can only forgive us his Justice only allows him to forgive us if we are
1:39:171:39:17 - covered in the blood of Christ if we have accepted his payment otherwise he cannot pay for our sin um he cannot
1:39:241:39:24 - save those who are unwilling to be saved because his Justice simply doesn’t allow it um so this is what we kind of are
1:39:311:39:31 - talking about when we say that God is just um and his Justice will not be denied um you know that’s something we
1:39:371:39:37 - also get coming into uh the accounts of Revelation when Jesus returns in glory I
1:39:431:39:43 - think this is like Revelation chapter 19 picking up at like verses 11 see how good my memory is revelation
1:39:501:39:50 - 19 uh yeah so Heaven opens Jesus returns
1:39:571:39:57 - and then hap then Armageddon happens right he completely Slaughters the enemies of wickedness so um that is the
1:40:041:40:04 - Just Desserts of sinful unrepentant sinfulness and so we can be thankful to
1:40:101:40:10 - God that through the cross he’s given us this way to avoid that fate um and that
1:40:151:40:15 - is by submitting ourselves to God receiving his forgiveness on the basis of the death of his son
1:40:221:40:22 - so a you have things to add here yeah
1:40:281:40:28 - um do I really have much to add is just his Justice is
1:40:331:40:33 - um um that’s one of the things that Satan uh attacked as well we we will
1:40:391:40:39 - notice that Satan was not interested in attacking God’s nature that is what he
1:40:471:40:47 - is in terms of his abilities in terms terms of his power uh as God he was he
1:40:561:40:56 - was attacking God on the basis of his character that is what he attacked was
1:41:011:41:01 - God’s character he doesn’t love us enough to give us the things that are
1:41:061:41:06 - right for us to have he’s denying us of things that are good for us to have and
1:41:121:41:12 - um if we do something about it he is not
1:41:181:41:18 - just because if he acts Injustice he’s going to violate something in his
1:41:251:41:25 - character so he has to either tolerate sin which means he is not just or else
1:41:321:41:32 - he will be forced to do something that is actually uh in violation of that love
1:41:391:41:39 - which will sort sort of um prove his point that God didn’t love them all that
1:41:441:41:44 - much so if God tolerates sin he’s not just if he um go goes after them and
1:41:521:41:52 - punishes them for what they have done then he demonstrates that he really didn’t love them he didn’t want them to
1:41:581:41:58 - have what was good for them to have um so God’s justice is important and I
1:42:051:42:05 - think the the most important thing to note about Justice when we’re talking in
1:42:101:42:10 - reference to kingship and in reference to rulership is that Justice underpins
1:42:171:42:17 - security if you don’t if imagine in the home for example if children start to
1:42:231:42:23 - feel like um their parents don’t they play
1:42:301:42:30 - favorites if so and so does this he doesn’t get the same thing that
1:42:371:42:37 - everybody else gets so if he’s mischievous the parents ignore the Mischief but if someone else is
1:42:431:42:43 - mischievous the person gets the weight of all punishment dropped on them um
1:42:511:42:51 - this person gets all the nice things the other person so we know what that does in the home it creates resentment and
1:42:571:42:57 - and stuff this is where Justice actually matters because it it underpins the
1:43:041:43:04 - peace the harmony the security in a system so if God is Not Just then God
1:43:121:43:12 - does not have the right to rule over moral creatures that’s it and we feel the same
1:43:181:43:18 - way about the Kings we have right now wherever whether it’s a president or it’s a governor or it’s a mayor or like
1:43:251:43:25 - we have here local government chairman or whatever it is we expect fairness because without it we live in constant
1:43:341:43:34 - misery so if God is not going to address
1:43:391:43:39 - himself to sin rightly that means if sin is committed it has to be
1:43:461:43:46 - punished and if someone does right the person should be rewarded if he does not
1:43:511:43:51 - do that that’s a moral argument for his loss of the right to rule over moral
1:43:581:43:58 - creatures yeah so of course where where I I I come at
1:44:041:44:04 - the argument a bit differently is that I don’t really make a difference between Justice and love I I I see God’s justice
1:44:101:44:10 - as a demonstration of his love because if you love the people over whom
1:44:161:44:16 - you rule you want to make sure they’re at peace with each other and at peace
1:44:211:44:21 - with you which means everyone gets what is their their due what is right right
1:44:271:44:27 - for them to have what is rightful for them to have so um the sense in which I
1:44:331:44:33 - would come at it is is something along the lines of
1:44:401:44:40 - because God is just he does not deny us
1:44:451:44:45 - of anything that is right for us to have he is absolutely fair to to all his
1:44:501:44:50 - moral creatures you might have heard in fact um earlier today I was watching a
1:44:571:44:57 - video um a discussion a debate between Alex o Conor uh also called The Cosmic
1:45:051:45:05 - skeptic um uh on YouTube and Twitter uh
1:45:101:45:10 - with Dr Jonathan M maachi or something I don’t remember his son his soname too
1:45:171:45:17 - well so part of that debate was along the lines this was this was the argument
1:45:221:45:22 - that Alex made Alex is an atheist it was like it seems that where you born
1:45:301:45:30 - determines exactly what your disposition to God will be because this country is
1:45:371:45:37 - skewed this way that country is skewed that way and it’s like well so it means I’m predisposed to be a Christian just
1:45:431:45:43 - because of where I born and that seems to be a mark on God you just you gave me
1:45:491:45:49 - a raw deal and if you gave me a raw deal exactly how are you worthy of my
1:45:561:45:56 - submitting to your Authority so again the question of justice is still addressing the fact that God um either
1:46:041:46:04 - has or does not have the right to rule over us as moral creatures this is exactly the nature of the relationship
1:46:121:46:12 - we have with God it’s always a question of what we think of his right to rule over us some people come at that
1:46:191:46:19 - argument from thep Ive of wisdom as well um well uh if we are smart enough to do
1:46:251:46:25 - this and that and that and we don’t need God to do it for us then why do we need him to rule over us you know but in this
1:46:311:46:31 - particular case we’re focused on Justice and the perspective of the Bible on that
1:46:381:46:38 - is everybody gets their due which which is when you read Ecclesiastes which is
1:46:441:46:44 - probably the one book of the Bible that addresses the unbeliever although it’s
1:46:501:46:50 - it’s actually more focused everything in the Bible is focused on the believer really and um even even Ecclesiastes is
1:46:571:46:57 - telling the believer this is what life really is about so don’t waste your time pursuing this and that and the other but
1:47:041:47:04 - the unbeliever should be able to relate very strongly with what um Ecclesiastes
1:47:091:47:09 - says and at the end of it it says that God will reward everything that’s done so that’s also speaking to the justice
1:47:171:47:17 - of God and we see the same thing in Revelation and even in the gospels where
1:47:221:47:22 - Jesus keeps promising that he is returning with his reward in his hand so
1:47:271:47:27 - the whole idea here is God saying look what you get is what is fair to you this
1:47:351:47:35 - is the truth whether it is a matter of the experiences we are having in this life the way our own tests have been
1:47:421:47:42 - structured I don’t get tested the way anybody else is tested and nobody else
1:47:471:47:47 - other people get tested in the way that I would will never be tested because I’m
1:47:521:47:52 - different and God addresses me as me he doesn’t address me as if I was someone
1:47:581:47:58 - else that’s Justice and how does he deal with sin same thing across the board
1:48:061:48:06 - Satan wanted to you know have his cake and eat it too we can do this and get
1:48:121:48:12 - away with it because God is not going to violate his love for us by carrying out
1:48:181:48:18 - his Justice against us but in fact love demands Justice that’s
1:48:241:48:24 - the thing and and like like the Bible says he corrupted his wisdom with his
1:48:291:48:29 - own wickedness so when his heart was um grew arrogant against God he became
1:48:341:48:34 - incapable of seeing precisely how his wisdom had become foolishness if God
1:48:421:48:42 - loves he’s going to be just now um when we sin there has to be Justice against
1:48:491:48:49 - that sin but because God loves us he provides a way for us to be rescued from that
1:48:561:48:56 - judgment but that means he has to place something between his Justice and us so
1:49:031:49:03 - that his Justice is s is satisfied and we are spared and that
1:49:101:49:10 - again is where the Cross of Christ comes in so we see that in all every time we
1:49:161:49:16 - talk about God’s character for us believers of course for the Angels by
1:49:231:49:23 - extension we see that God’s character is fully fully expressed and fully taught
1:49:311:49:31 - to us through the sacrifice of Jesus because without that sacrifice God could
1:49:381:49:38 - not carry out his Justice against sin and still Save The Sinner so yeah yes I
1:49:461:49:46 - think one thing to just elaborate on here a couple points is that first of all God’s justice is in stark contrast
1:49:531:49:53 - to what the world calls Justice Audi brought up a couple examples here of how God uh judges us perfectly at the
1:49:591:49:59 - individual level which is something that human Justice systems cannot do at least completely properly I mean we can do our
1:50:051:50:05 - best um but even if our rulers are imperfect in their application of
1:50:101:50:10 - justice so for example they might favor the rich and Powerful uh that has been a characterization of so-called Justice
1:50:181:50:18 - systems throughout all history is well if you enough money and power you can kind of wiggle your way out of
1:50:241:50:24 - consequences under the law right not so with God though um so that’s one point in God’s justice when we say God is just
1:50:311:50:31 - we mean it um in all circumstances part of this comes with God being all
1:50:371:50:37 - powerful is that God has the capability to enforce Justice um so uh you might
1:50:431:50:43 - have heard of of people called enforcers in gains right uh this is not a label we
1:50:491:50:49 - would apply to God per se but um God has the ab the ability he has the power to
1:50:561:50:56 - carry that sword to ensure that Justice is Meed out effectively um and this is
1:51:031:51:03 - no small thing because um if the other guy has a bigger stick than you how are
1:51:081:51:08 - you going to hold him to Justice right um but God will God wins in the end you know we’ve mentioned this Revelation
1:51:141:51:14 - chapter 19 when Jesus returns the world will face God’s righteous judgment and
1:51:191:51:19 - no one will able to stand against God um so that’s one important Point another thing so AI had mentioned kind of about
1:51:251:51:25 - how a lot of the satanic rebellion was the skepticism that God really loves uh
1:51:301:51:30 - because if God loved us why wouldn’t he give us these things that we think we want right that are good for us in our
1:51:351:51:35 - opinion um well people doubt God too you know another reason why people uh have
1:51:421:51:42 - shall we say less than uh uh happy thoughts about God or you know Desiring
1:51:481:51:48 - to go after him is that they view God as fundamentally unfair um so you brought up that point about well what happens if
1:51:551:51:55 - you’re born in such and such culture such and such life circumstances doesn’t that put you to disadvantage right I
1:52:001:52:00 - brought up on the screen when you’re talking about that I brought up Romans 1 famous passage about natural Revelation
1:52:061:52:06 - which we’ve talked about says that everybody knows that God exists from that which has been created so truly people are without excuse to begin with
1:52:121:52:12 - but even in those circumstances in which people are born uh maybe into a
1:52:181:52:18 - household with less money less education less opportunity God knows all these
1:52:231:52:23 - things and because he perfectly knows our circumstances Justice will be perfect um so I all of this I you know
1:52:311:52:31 - kind of preaching into the choir I’m assuming but when we say God is just we are talking from a kind of divine
1:52:371:52:37 - theological point of view in a way that human Justice systems cannot match um
1:52:431:52:43 - and uh this is kind of what we mean when this entire lesson we’re going through is about God’s perfect character um
1:52:501:52:50 - human systems that are you know some sort of attempted mirror on uh uh God’s
1:52:561:52:56 - moral Divine Law God’s justice are only imperfect representations um but God’s
1:53:021:53:02 - justice is actually complete so uh any any more thoughts there or shall we go
1:53:091:53:09 - on to the next one yeah I believe we can I actually I have a something to bring
1:53:151:53:15 - up regarding that so I recently um was speaking to a
1:53:221:53:22 - friend of mine and W witnessing to her and um she’s an unbeliever so she
1:53:281:53:28 - brought up God’s justice and basically what she said was
1:53:341:53:34 - um she didn’t under she didn’t understand and she’s being perfectly honest like I believe I believe in her
1:53:401:53:40 - when she said that she’s like I really don’t understand when people say Jesus died on the cross for my sins I don’t
1:53:471:53:47 - she says I don’t understand what that means so I tried to explain it to her um but she basically her argument
1:53:551:53:55 - was why should I even be punished eternally for sins that I commit when
1:54:011:54:01 - I’m like I only live to be like 80 years old or 90 years old why should I be condemned eternally for like when my
1:54:091:54:09 - lifespan is only you know tiny compared to Eternity so her
1:54:151:54:15 - her so she said from the very get-go God is unjust because I because I
1:54:211:54:21 - deserve hell why should I accept Christ’s sacrifice why should even accept God’s offer of forgiveness
1:54:281:54:28 - for a punish that I don’t deserve in the first place it’s not necessarily I’m good enough to get into heaven it’s like
1:54:351:54:35 - I’m not bad enough to go H the idea kind of different the idea here being that
1:54:411:54:41 - temporal actions have eternal consequences and that is the the point of attack is that correct yes correct
1:54:491:54:49 - all all right aie you want to you want to take a step at this one first I mean I certainly have thoughts but uh you can go first I’ll follow okay so
1:54:581:54:58 - I mean fundamentally with regards to this one of the things to understand is that God is eternal perfect right that’s
1:55:051:55:05 - one of the things we understand about God’s perfect character so to take that Romans one passage that we brought up um
1:55:121:55:12 - you know basically we the reason why um and I think probably the root of this
1:55:181:55:18 - misunderstanding is that hell is not to punish us right unfortunately this has
1:55:231:55:23 - permeated cultural understanding of hell for a very long time you know I I’d say even among Evangelical Christians among
1:55:291:55:29 - people who take the Bible seriously take inherency inspiration seriously a lot of people still think that God sends people
1:55:351:55:35 - to hell to punish them the only reason you are sent to hell um Jesus paid for
1:55:421:55:42 - the sin of all on the cross right there’s this teaching in theology uh so-called Double Jeopardy right if God
1:55:481:55:48 - judged Jesus for sins then if God judges people for those sins in Hell well the
1:55:541:55:54 - sins are being judged twice you see um and the misunderstanding here is that
1:55:591:55:59 - human beings are not qualified to pay for sin um this is why the Bible goes on and on about Jesus being the lamb
1:56:061:56:06 - without blemish a perfect sacrifice that’s why he had to be fully God yet fully man to pay for our sin Jesus is
1:56:131:56:13 - the only person who has ever lived and ever will live who could pay for sin who was qualified to pay for sin human
1:56:201:56:20 - beings are not qualified to pay for sin because we are ourselves stained we are
1:56:251:56:25 - in like unworthy sacrifices but more to this question specifically if you don’t
1:56:311:56:31 - view hell any longer as a way to punish human beings hell is simply the lack of
1:56:381:56:38 - acceptance of Jesus Christ the lack of this Redemption for sin then um I just I
1:56:451:56:45 - I feel like pun the punishment angle really gets in a gets in the way of people appreciating this point right when the Bible says that the only sin
1:56:521:56:52 - that cannot be forgiven is unbelief or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which of course I this takes to be unbelief um
1:57:001:57:00 - that is people end up in hell because of that right because they choose not to accept God’s uh God’s offering his olive
1:57:081:57:08 - branch of forgiveness um so I don’t know if maybe if I’m not
1:57:141:57:14 - getting to the underlying root cause of temporal versus eternity but this kind of explains why human beings can’t pay
1:57:201:57:20 - for their sin aside from Jesus Christ um I mean you want to clarify it all I
1:57:261:57:26 - mean ises that help or do we need to talk more about well I think the whole okay so like she’s coming from a very
1:57:331:57:33 - just to give you a background on her she’s um really ended Theos gnosticism where she she like when she I
1:57:401:57:40 - was explained to her about Adam and Eve and how like death came into the world from sin and her perspective is well
1:57:471:57:47 - Adam and Eve were were perfect and they needed to sin in order to grow and become like God so she’s got this like
1:57:551:57:55 - like not like this view where sin is not you need sin to grow like she will never
1:58:001:58:00 - grow or be Sanctified unless well unless she makes mistakes and learns from them
1:58:051:58:05 - yeah and don’t agree but right I know like I know but like I think she’s
1:58:111:58:11 - viewing like I can see her perspective like if you’re a like a regular human
1:58:161:58:16 - being and you’ve never raped someone murdered someone like if I mean you sin but you’ve never really really hurt
1:58:231:58:23 - someone I can see where someone is like why you know other than like maybe Cara like oh I kind of like I was mean to
1:58:301:58:30 - this person today so then maybe someone’s mean to me three days later why should I why do I need someone to
1:58:361:58:36 - die for me that that that’s like why how are my sins so bad that I commit on this
1:58:421:58:42 - you know on this planet while I’m here so bad that I need someone to actually like be put to death for me that I think
1:58:491:58:49 - that’s where she’s coming from yeah I I when my niece um one of my
1:58:571:58:57 - nieces my brother’s children when they were here with with us uh we were having
1:59:021:59:02 - prayer session um one of our um morning prayer sessions and
1:59:081:59:08 - I I was trying to make a point and I asked whether I was asking each of them um do
1:59:161:59:16 - you have you ever sinned have you ever done anything wrong because I wanted to explain something about the cross and my
1:59:241:59:24 - niece my brother’s oldest daughter actually said no she’ never done anything wrong and I was like I mean
1:59:311:59:31 - she’s six so but I was so I mean I don’t I don’t think I had heard that in a long
1:59:381:59:38 - time that there was anyone who actually thought I’ve never done anything wrong I thought that was quite amazing to hear
1:59:451:59:45 - from anybody right but um some some people really just don’t count the big
1:59:521:59:52 - things like as long as I’m not doing yeah the Small Things They don’t count the small things so as long as I’m not
1:59:581:59:58 - doing some of those big things I’ve never raped never killed basically never murdered anyone
2:00:042:00:04 - and I’ve never um committed robbery if I pilfered it’s just pilfering it’s not
2:00:102:00:10 - that big of a deal if I told a white lie was just telling a white light it’s not like I actually went out there and and
2:00:172:00:17 - defamed someone or sland someone or something like that so if it’s all these
2:00:222:00:22 - small things well everybody does it can’t be that bad it’s not bad it’s just it’s just part of life and I mean I can
2:00:302:00:30 - imagine someone thinking that way but I don’t think I have come across anyone recently that has actually said it
2:00:382:00:38 - except for my six-year-old niece which was pretty interesting and when people
2:00:432:00:43 - say that if they would ever say it to my face I would tell them
2:00:512:00:51 - yeah if you were the one judging like if you were the lawgiver the law maker then
2:00:592:00:59 - I would say you have a point because you define what is right and wrong but since
2:01:042:01:04 - you’re not the one defining it and you’re the one responding to the definition yeah I don’t think I’m going
2:01:102:01:10 - to take your word for it that’s just the fact of it the Bible is actually pretty clear that God
2:01:162:01:16 - himself this is job that God found fault
2:01:212:01:21 - with his holy ones referring to the angels and that some that was something that didn’t register very well with me
2:01:262:01:26 - until I think it was even probably within the past few weeks that the thing that the import of that statement hit me
2:01:332:01:33 - which was essentially this Satan was smart enough that what he crafted seemed
2:01:392:01:39 - to be full proof that no one could find fault with it not even God that was the
2:01:452:01:45 - idea that God could not accuse him of sin in what he had just done he had
2:01:502:01:50 - basically essentially trapped God in a logical contradiction so how was God going to
2:01:562:01:56 - accuse him of sin that’s what he thought he had accomplished and that’s the arrogance of
2:02:032:02:03 - sin I I think one thing I want to Pivot to when we talk about this too is there’s the implicit assumption here
2:02:092:02:09 - that this punishment for like basically punishment fitting the crime is unjust
2:02:142:02:14 - um if you view that as a presupposition um this kind of comes into the Audie and I had briefly touched on this I don’t
2:02:202:02:20 - remember exactly when in our discussion of these things basically something good because God said it’s good or is does
2:02:282:02:28 - God just happen to conform to I don’t know goodness and Justice floating about there this in philosophy this is called
2:02:342:02:34 - the uer a dilemma um basically is it good and just because God wills it or does God will it because it’s good and
2:02:392:02:39 - just I I don’t you know for a lot of the time I think this is a pedantic distinction uh in practice however with
2:02:462:02:46 - regards to this question basically the Bible is pretty clear I pulled up this
2:02:512:02:51 - this verse here Romans chapter 6 saying that the wages of sin is death that’s very clear in Genesis chapter uh the
2:02:582:02:58 - early chapters of Genesis that um the the price for sin is death right um
2:03:032:03:03 - through through sin death came into the world sort of thing Romans chapter 5 talks about this as well contrasting how
2:03:092:03:09 - death came into the world through Adam with how reconciliation and uh I I can
2:03:152:03:15 - go pull up the context in Romans chapter 5 but how basically Jesus does what came through Adam right and and uh the many
2:03:222:03:22 - are saved through the actions of the one in Jesus um so where I’m going with all of this is that the Bible pretty clearly
2:03:292:03:29 - and unequivocally teaches that you know the the consequences of sin is death and
2:03:362:03:36 - separation from God um and so if someone comes to us and says well that’s
2:03:422:03:42 - unjust on where are they getting their their standard of Justice from right um
2:03:492:03:49 - you know basically because of the Bible teaches this and see this is one of those things where um it can be tricky
2:03:552:03:55 - to be convincing in an apologetic fashion in an intellectual fashion to someone who doesn’t want to believe um
2:04:012:04:01 - so if you say how this argument would work for us as a Christian probably goes something like the Bible clearly teaches
2:04:072:04:07 - that uh the consequences of sin is death um so not just physical death but spiritual death separation from God
2:04:132:04:13 - leading to Eternal and or second death is what we would call it um that’s the consequence of sin right and we all sin
2:04:202:04:20 - Romans 3:23 says that James 3:2 says that therefore absent uh accepting Jesus
2:04:262:04:26 - Christ as our Lord and savior that is the Eternal Destiny of all of us because all of us sin that’s the consequences of
2:04:322:04:32 - sin um where people get hung up is they say well murder is a quote unquote worse sin than white lies or something like
2:04:402:04:40 - that but fundamentally the the sin that we speak of here all of that has this
2:04:452:04:45 - consequence of separating us from God um and so for people who believe the Bible
2:04:522:04:52 - the verses I just quoted get you right there right but for people who don’t believe the Bible it’s going to seem
2:04:582:04:58 - like so much nonsense because they’re not looking with eyes of Faith they don’t have that spiritual perspective um
2:05:062:05:06 - so a rejection of God and it’s it’s kind of like if if you want to eat at my
2:05:112:05:11 - dinner table you’re going to have to take your shoes off and come into my house and sit down and if you don’t
2:05:172:05:17 - choose to do that take your shoes off you oh that’s not fair I want to eat with my shoes on then you know I’m not
2:05:242:05:24 - going to let you at my dinner table and it’s the same thing it’s a just rejection of the person of God it and
2:05:312:05:31 - them deciding know I’m going to do it my way which is fun with me go eat wherever you want but you’re not gonna eat a my
2:05:362:05:36 - tape that’s how God is looking at that’s an amazing analogy actually that’s like a really good
2:05:422:05:42 - analogy well if you want no part in God if you say you want no part in God and everything good comes through God I mean
2:05:492:05:49 - we believe that as Christians it’s self- selected right but where I’m going with
2:05:542:05:54 - this sometimes is it’s really tricky this is why it’s a spiritual gift apologetics is a spiritual gift how do
2:06:002:06:00 - we craft these things in a way that’s Winsome for the gospel without alienating our audience but we yet we’re
2:06:072:06:07 - not compromising on the truth and I don’t know I like I will confess you know even though I think Dr lugan Bill
2:06:142:06:14 - is actually rather Adept at it when he does engage in what I would term apolog and I don’t consider myself completely
2:06:202:06:20 - terrible at it either it’s just not where my strength is so I can give you the biblical argument I I laid out kind
2:06:272:06:27 - just back of the napkin sort of argument that I just gave you but when it comes to someone who will just reject that out
2:06:332:06:33 - of hand and say well I I just I don’t like I don’t believe that right I don’t
2:06:392:06:39 - have your assumptions I I I’m not willing to just listen to what the Bible says how do you convince them that what
2:06:452:06:45 - we’re talking about is just uh that God has the moral Authority that’s what we’ve been talking about in his
2:06:512:06:51 - sovereignty that this is how he structured the Justice in the universe
2:06:562:06:56 - that sinning against an infinitely uh just and holy God leads to Eternal
2:07:012:07:01 - consequences if someone doubts the justice of that what can you say to them
2:07:072:07:07 - in an apologetics context I mean good question off the top of my head I can’t give you an answer that I that I would
2:07:132:07:13 - assume they would find convincing and I think it’s important to note that they might not find anything convincing this
2:07:182:07:18 - point right right you know because something that I thought of too like like and I thought I kind of thought of
2:07:242:07:24 - this after the fact after I talked to her like maybe if I talk to her again I’ll bring it up but you know we we do
2:07:302:07:30 - live forever too like God doesn’t destroy us we don’t go to Oblivion we do
2:07:352:07:35 - like God created us to be forever so yeah so when we do sin it’s not yeah we
2:07:422:07:42 - we sinned while we were on this Earth but it’s still like kind of like an ET
2:07:472:07:47 - not eternal being sinning but I mean I mean I could see that part of it and then also like
2:07:542:07:54 - you see all the evil in the world and you see where sin leads like the wickedness of men and then I don’t know
2:08:002:08:00 - about you guys but when I sin like when I like yell at my mom and dad or lose my temper or something I can see like I can
2:08:072:08:07 - feel that emotion in me and I can see how like if it wasn’t checked how it
2:08:132:08:13 - could eventually turn into that wickedness and yeah and all of us too like you have no idea how much Holy
2:08:202:08:20 - Spirit restraint is on our lives like like the difference between a person who you know grew up in a loving family who
2:08:272:08:27 - like maybe when they get angry at their parents like you know nothing bad happens whereas maybe a difference
2:08:322:08:32 - between a person who had abusive parents like really abusive parents they get angry at their parents they might end up
2:08:382:08:38 - killing or hurting their parents like something like that where so yeah like
2:08:442:08:44 - even though we like it seems like we make we do small sins that don’t have a big consequence like those small sins
2:08:502:08:50 - and just that act of sinning the evilness is like in there you know what I’m saying like it’s yeah well and this
2:08:572:08:57 - is why this is why I was trying to emphasize that when you take the punishment equation out of hell because
2:09:032:09:03 - fundamentally the only reason why people go to hell is not because of sin it’s because right they reject Christ’s uh
2:09:102:09:10 - off you know God’s offer of Salvation suddenly this my sins are less bad than
2:09:152:09:15 - that other person’s sins goes completely out the window because that’s not why anyone Goes to Hell right yeah now I
2:09:202:09:20 - will say that I can’t speak for other Christians it’s uncomfortable when you
2:09:262:09:26 - when we teach about the scandalousness of Grace right the whole if Hitler repented would he have gone to heaven
2:09:312:09:31 - sort of thing biblically speaking salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ look at Paul who
2:09:372:09:37 - persecuted the early church I’m sure there were people in the early church who were not happy with God in God’s uh
2:09:432:09:43 - justice you know they probably put Justice in scare quotes who were offended by by the fact that God chose
2:09:492:09:49 - to use Paul as the Apostle of the Gentiles right the one who had persecuted the church um but you know
2:09:582:09:58 - we’re getting right back to you know every single person is uh worthy of that
2:10:052:10:05 - condemnation right and so this idea that we want people who uh you know committed
2:10:122:10:12 - all these really terrible things in life to be punished more I mean people that computes in
2:10:182:10:18 - terms of people’s justice but this is this is when we say Jesus died for the sins of the world it is what makes that
2:10:252:10:25 - so scandalous um is that absolutely no one deserves that that sort of redemption um go
2:10:332:10:33 - ahead yeah I I mean um what you said uh
2:10:392:10:39 - there was something you said I wanted to get in on but I think something else was overtaken it if anyone is really
2:10:452:10:45 - measuring themselves against other people I would okay yeah it was what you said about
2:10:512:10:51 - Paul um that was it and I think that was a very very good uh point to make even
2:11:002:11:00 - ananas who was sent by the Lord to give Paul the gospel was reluctant to go
2:11:072:11:07 - because of how unfair he felt it was this is the man who’s been murdering us
2:11:132:11:13 - and you want me to go and preach life to him so that he will be saved yeah that
2:11:212:11:21 - doesn’t seem fair and we might remember was the same position that Jona
2:11:272:11:27 - took so um but you see each of these
2:11:332:11:33 - things whether it’s the it’s the question of how we think our own sins stack up against what what really
2:11:402:11:40 - matters in terms of what must be called sin and how we stack up against other
2:11:462:11:46 - people it’s still missing the point point we’re making ourselves the definition of the law we are saying if I
2:11:542:11:54 - think it’s bad then it’s bad if I don’t think it’s bad then it’s not bad what
2:12:012:12:01 - how how does that compute in our minds in the eyes of the Lord the
2:12:072:12:07 - smallest sin is no different than the greatest sin that’s it and the reason we don’t
2:12:142:12:14 - get that is that we don’t know what sin is where God is
2:12:212:12:21 - concerned sin is a rejection of his right to rule and exist as
2:12:292:12:29 - God it’s a rejection of him of his own very self if he were a creature like us sin
2:12:362:12:36 - would be murdering him because it it denies the essence of his
2:12:422:12:42 - being sin is not just something that um like it’s not not cosmetic at all it’s a
2:12:492:12:49 - cosmic failure we look at it as a small thing but it is actually an infraction of an
2:12:572:12:57 - infinite Justice we have violated the justice of an infinite God which means
2:13:032:13:03 - we have done something that is infinite in its very nature but because we are confined in this state where we know our
2:13:102:13:10 - lives are measured in days that take by and we are we are the the the effect of
2:13:182:13:18 - the things we do don’t seem to Ripple that far it’s like why is it that big of a deal but it’s not about us it’s about
2:13:262:13:26 - the person that says do not do or that said do that’s the person that’s the
2:13:332:13:33 - that’s the standard of Justice that’s the person we are measuring against and when we did something that violated his
2:13:412:13:41 - Justice that thing is measured by his Justice not by us so there is no small
2:13:472:13:47 - sin in the the eyes of the Lord if the only sin that was ever committed in
2:13:522:13:52 - human history was one small white lie it would have still taken the cross of
2:13:592:13:59 - Jesus Christ to save the person who committed it even if that’s the only thing they ever
2:14:052:14:05 - did so there is there is no small sin in the eyes of the Lord whether it’s big or
2:14:112:14:11 - small is only measured by us in terms of how it affects those around us and that
2:14:172:14:17 - is a very small measure really it’s about consequences you know this is why this is such a tricky I pulled up uh on
2:14:242:14:24 - the screen by the way the ichus has a we will get to it if we continue doing um
2:14:302:14:30 - Bible basics you know hom mariology the study of sin there’s a lot to it right I’m not saying oh you have to go read
2:14:362:14:36 - 500 pages otherwise you don’t really understand sin but the point we’re making here is that this is a worthy
2:14:432:14:43 - conversation to have um about what is sin um what are the effects of it how does it separate us from God how does
2:14:502:14:50 - God forgive sin the mechanics of it um all of that um but I will say and again
2:14:562:14:56 - I I tried to emphasize this earlier even if what we’re saying doesn’t come off as
2:15:012:15:01 - uh convincing to people that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t say it um you know so
2:15:072:15:07 - uh there there may be this tendency to feel like we have to win arguments it’s not about winning arguments it’s about sharing the truth right and when we say
2:15:162:15:16 - that uh when we sin against a a perfect infinite just God it
2:15:212:15:21 - has infinite consequences and someone scoffs and said well why I don’t
2:15:262:15:26 - understand that I don’t get that that doesn’t seem fair to me it’s not our job to change their mind per se we present
2:15:332:15:33 - what the Bible teaches and then we let the chips fall where they may I mean obviously some people are called to
2:15:392:15:39 - engage more or less than others but um I I I think we’ve covered a good bit
2:15:442:15:44 - of ground here I don’t know you tell us Abby are there more facets to this you want to go over or um not right now I
2:15:512:15:51 - mean there’s there’s a lot we talked about so many things we talked a long time but um I’ll bring up
2:15:582:15:58 - more things later okay great yeah you guys did a good job on this so this is one of those challenges to God’s justice
2:16:052:16:05 - that we think about um people I mean people have a hard time with it you know the problem of evil just generally
2:16:102:16:10 - speaking not even talking about uh the the this justice of sin or people’s perceived lack thereof but just you know
2:16:182:16:18 - why aren’t evil people punished more um you know how how can evil exist in the world if God is just Etc um people
2:16:272:16:27 - question God’s justice they have they doubt it and they because of that they say I can’t follow such a God right if
2:16:342:16:34 - God’s really like that then he’s not for me um it’s a very real issue in the
2:16:392:16:39 - church but again fundamentally we can only do our best presenting the truth as the Bible teaches it but we can’t force
2:16:462:16:46 - people to believe it um and so if people are determined in their minds to have such a low opinion of God and his
2:16:532:16:53 - Justice that they won’t even consider how some of these things might work or or how what the Bible says is actually
2:16:592:16:59 - true there’s not a lot we can do to make them do that um all right well good conversation so I
2:17:072:17:07 - think this is where we’ll cut our discussion of God being just and we’ll pick up with the last one in this
2:17:132:17:13 - particular lesson talking how God is life in just a moment here
2:17:212:17:21 - so finishing off uh kind of how God’s qualities manifest in creation we’re going to be talking about life now um
2:17:282:17:28 - this perhaps is one of the more abstract consequences here when we say that God’s
2:17:342:17:34 - truth leads to life sometimes people are like well I would seems like even people
2:17:412:17:41 - who are you know buying into lies are still alive right I think um part of
2:17:462:17:46 - what might help understand understand this is when we talk about uh spiritual truth right the truth about who Jesus is
2:17:522:17:52 - and what he did um Jesus says um you know he talking about uh the bread that
2:17:592:17:59 - comes down from heaven this is John chapter 6 Jesus as the bread of life this is what sustains us as Christians
2:18:062:18:06 - not even physical food I mean it’s a metaphor of course but you know the idea being that uh we man you know also when
2:18:142:18:14 - Jesus is tested uh Jesus quotes scripture saying man does not live on uh bread alone but upon every worth that
2:18:202:18:20 - comes from God um not paraphrasing but happens during the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness um this is what we
2:18:272:18:27 - mean by truth is what gives us life um you might also think of uh John chapter
2:18:322:18:32 - 4 uh with the woman at the Samaritan woman at the well I’m talking about living water that’s the truth that
2:18:392:18:39 - Springs up within us giving us life um this is all over the place in the Bible
2:18:462:18:46 - so as I say maybe it’s a little bit harder to wrap our heads around this one in particular when we say well how does
2:18:522:18:52 - truth give us life um in fact by just going from the Gospel of John here in John chapter 8 um uh truth will set you
2:19:002:19:00 - free there’s another another verse that talks about how um you will be free indeed right if you believe in the truth
2:19:062:19:06 - if you abide in the word of God the truth will set you free and uh truly how
2:19:122:19:12 - we think about this is that are we really living if our lives are in shackles and bondage right we don’t have
2:19:202:19:20 - real life we don’t have uh an actual appreciation for what living means until
2:19:252:19:25 - we submit ourselves to God and we do the things that he would have of us because that’s the only time when we are actually truly free as humans um so all
2:19:332:19:33 - of this to say this idea of uh the God is life and the life that he gives us
2:19:402:19:40 - being firmly cemented in uh God being truth right God being uh uh filled by uh
2:19:472:19:47 - truth and faithfulness this is God’s aspect of his character manifesting in
2:19:532:19:53 - True Life in this world right Freedom leaving on the words that come from God
2:19:592:19:59 - that speak to the life the Salvation that we have in Christ Jesus um as we talked about in John chapter 6 John
2:20:052:20:05 - chapter 4 um and other passages besides in the New Testament this is kind of what we’re talking about here so again
2:20:112:20:11 - going to read some of the ichus passages here um so uh I’ll read some of the
2:20:172:20:17 - paragraph and then we’ll go from there as we have the last couple of times so when we talk about God’s life we say
2:20:232:20:23 - saving the lives of his creatures is a natural consequence of God’s truth and faithfulness so out of the intrinsic
2:20:292:20:29 - veracity and trustworthiness of his character God honors his gracious and merciful promise to restore us to
2:20:352:20:35 - himself and thereby to eternal life delivering us from the condemnation of death accre to us in our sinful state so
2:20:422:20:42 - we say that he is faithful to that promise he made right recognize these words gracious corresponding to love and
2:20:492:20:49 - merciful corresponding to Justice when God promised to restore us to himself as
2:20:542:20:54 - he did Adam and Eve in the Proto evangelium that giving of animal skins
2:20:592:20:59 - to Adam and Eve in the garden at the end of Genesis chapter 3 God kept that promise he redeemed them from Death the
2:21:062:21:06 - consequence of their sin um right the condemnation of death occuring to us in
2:21:112:21:11 - our sinful State we just talked about this we spent a long time talking about how the consequences of sin or death
2:21:172:21:17 - even Eternal death and separation from God so in doing so he has not failed to
2:21:232:21:23 - resolve the competing demands of his goodness and love on the one hand with those of his Holiness and Justice on the
2:21:292:21:29 - other as evil suggests he must and again tying it back to the Cross we say that
2:21:342:21:34 - this is because God has found a way in accordance with his character to eliminate the wall of sin and consequent
2:21:412:21:41 - wrath which separates us from him he has taken down the barrier of Separation
2:21:472:21:47 - that separates Humanity from himself and he’s done so through the gift and sacrifice of his only son on our behalf
2:21:542:21:54 - meaning that Jesus died and was judged in our place that we might have life um
2:22:002:22:00 - and so peace that other technical term here Shalom IR in Greek peace is the
2:22:062:22:06 - biblical name for God’s life-giving policy of reconciling us to himself on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ we
2:22:132:22:13 - accept and receive God’s offer of Life peace and Reconciliation by accepting and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as
2:22:192:22:19 - our savior so no different than um how we receive forgiveness how we are
2:22:262:22:26 - justified by accepting Jesus Christ and how we receive God’s Redemption by
2:22:312:22:31 - accepting Jesus Christ so we are reconciled to God through our belief in
2:22:362:22:36 - Jesus Christ and what he did for us um so uh hopefully that’s a good enough
2:22:432:22:43 - introduction here to get us talking about the subject here um but this idea of our fullness of life that we have um
2:22:512:22:51 - I think you might uh consider the passages in Scripture that talk about peace and joy these are characteristics
2:22:572:22:57 - that we ought to possess as Christians uh that true life living in the power of
2:23:032:23:03 - the spirit that we ought to have by following Jesus Christ is that we ought to be set free from the shackles and the
2:23:092:23:09 - bondage that characterize those who are enslaved to sin because we have the Holy
2:23:152:23:15 - Spirit living within us that that springing up to us as a well of living water based upon the truth in the word
2:23:212:23:21 - of God that is what we mean by the life that God gives us that peace and
2:23:262:23:26 - Reconciliation to him that we have through his truth um so uh a you want to
2:23:332:23:33 - pick up from there yeah um get cut off yeah I think I
2:23:402:23:40 - started talking but I don’t hearing H yeah uh how about could you contrast
2:23:462:23:46 - life eternal life life with eternal death hear everyone but it doesn’t seem like you can hear can you hear me okay I
2:23:522:23:52 - can hear you now yeah so Lisa just asked a question uh didn’t mean it cut off what you were saying but it’s a good
2:23:582:23:58 - question so you want to say something and then we handle it or you want to just jump straight into the question
2:24:032:24:03 - uh well okay he seems to be having connection problems here Soh I tell you
2:24:102:24:10 - what aie um I’m G to go ahead and talk and answer Lisa’s question and uh if you
2:24:162:24:16 - can sort out the ction problems will certainly give you the mic at the earliest convenience so Lisa’s question
2:24:232:24:23 - here was um can we contrast life with spiritual life with spiritual death um I
2:24:292:24:29 - think kind of as it relates to what we’ve been talking about here uh fundamentally spiritual death
2:24:352:24:35 - corresponds with with lies it corresponds with not believing the truth
2:24:412:24:41 - of what Jesus has done for the world um and um I think this kind of gets back
2:24:462:24:46 - into what we were talking about with uh God’s forgiveness of our sins uh being just uh is that when God gives us life
2:24:552:24:55 - he does so um out of out of Truth out of his faithful promise to restore us to
2:25:012:25:01 - himself um he he he doesn’t do it just because he arbitrarily promises things but there’s weight behind the promises
2:25:082:25:08 - of God because of his character because he’s perfect and so when he promises to do something that thing is sure and
2:25:152:25:15 - certain it’s not like humans who can be kind of flaky sometimes when God says he’s going to do something God will do
2:25:212:25:21 - it and he does it not arbitrarily you know it’s not like he promised to do it and therefore he did it even though it’s
2:25:272:25:27 - not fair he did it on the basis of his sacrifice so okay Lisa’s question about
2:25:322:25:32 - contrasting this to spiritual death when we live um a life kind of infected by
2:25:382:25:38 - death infected by sin um you know our sin nature within us we are separate
2:25:442:25:44 - from God and part of this life that we’re talking about here is not uh people would take this and this is I
2:25:502:25:50 - don’t want to say just an English thing I I bet the connotation very across language but we are really talking about
2:25:562:25:56 - fullness of Life on that Hebrew word that we’re talking about here Shalom is more than just being alive it’s more
2:26:032:26:03 - than just consuming air in your lungs and eating food and sleeping and our bodily functions as humans it is like
2:26:102:26:10 - the idea of truly living of having that peace that reconciliation between us and
2:26:152:26:15 - God and when you think about it unbelievers who are dead in their sins are dead men walking they don’t have the
2:26:232:26:23 - quickening of the Holy Spirit to give meaning to their lives um I know I talked about this I have that other
2:26:292:26:29 - series up on my site going through uh sr4 Satan’s World System talking about
2:26:342:26:34 - the vanity of the world one of the benefits we have as Christians is that everything we do has Eternal meaning and
2:26:412:26:41 - purpose behind it we are working out the kingdom of God here in the world we are
2:26:472:26:47 - being used as instruments in the hands of the almighty and so everything we do has meaning and purpose um as contrasted
2:26:542:26:54 - to those who do not put their faith in Jesus Christ where for them they are
2:27:002:27:00 - already dead in their sins the things that they do are not contributing to God’s kingdom they don’t have peace with
2:27:062:27:06 - God they don’t have reconciliation they don’t have freedom in the truth I don’t know if I need to keep
2:27:122:27:12 - going on and elaborating at least that you can tell me if that’s good enough but um it is night and day difference um
2:27:192:27:19 - and I think It ultimately boils down to what we are talking about is not just
2:27:252:27:25 - you know breathing air and eating food we are talking about the spiritual aspect of this we are talking about
2:27:312:27:31 - truly being alive being connected and one with God through our belief do you
2:27:362:27:36 - do you see it I mean everybody talks about this but that that Matrix movie and the right peel I can’t remember if
2:27:422:27:42 - it’s the red peel or the blue peel or whatever you to see things more realistically
2:27:472:27:47 - you think it’s more something like that well uh so even Matrix aside this has been a thing in Philosophy for a long
2:27:532:27:53 - time and yes aie I could hear you um when you asked just now um uh there
2:27:592:27:59 - Plato’s allegory the cave talks about this um and the metaphor used there is actually light and darkness um also
2:28:062:28:06 - commonly comes up in scripture um the the binary contrasts here but
2:28:122:28:12 - um so is is that what we’re getting at yeah I mean you could view it that way for sure um like we are alive because of
2:28:212:28:21 - the truth we have right um so in Plato’s allegory of the cave this corresponds to
2:28:262:28:26 - not being chained in place looking at a cave wall but actually being out in the world where the there is actually light
2:28:332:28:33 - for us as Christians to use that metaphor that is us actually believing spiritual truth having our eyes opened
2:28:392:28:39 - and living in it as opposed to being chained in place in Satan’s World System
2:28:442:28:44 - um and that’s getting kind of back to the John 8 verse talking about how the truth sets us free is that we won’t live
2:28:522:28:52 - fully we will not have complete fullness of life without belief in Jesus Christ
2:28:582:28:58 - um can you guys hear me now yeah I can hear you so I don’t know how much you caught
2:29:052:29:05 - of what we were just talking about leis had asked a question uh comparing Spirit like the life we have spiritually with
2:29:122:29:12 - spiritual death um and so we were talking about that a little bit um okay so spiritual life and spiritual death um
2:29:202:29:20 - we know that uh that no we lost him again ah how sad
2:29:292:29:29 - um you can’t hear me well we couldn’t for a second um I mean you said
2:29:352:29:35 - spiritual life and spiritual death and then kind of cut off after that um and we can’t hear you now either um I I tell
2:29:432:29:43 - you what having connection issues um maybe maybe we’ll just keep going here
2:29:502:29:50 - sort this out Lisa have we have we addressed uh what you were asking more again yeah I do want to give Audi a
2:29:562:29:56 - chance to talk but it’s hard if it keeps cutting out um all right well I tell you
2:30:022:30:02 - what I’ll finish this off here it’s unfortunate that we’re having connection issues um but hello hello yeah we can we
2:30:102:30:10 - can hear you but I mean the last times you’ve you’ve been talking and then you’ve just cut out um yeah can’t hear
2:30:172:30:17 - you now if you’re talking yeah yeah something is wrong I don’t know okay um
2:30:222:30:22 - well we’ll finish off here um I think we have been through uh the greater part of
2:30:282:30:28 - what there is to say on this particular matter um so uh because of our
2:30:342:30:34 - understanding of the importance of spiritual truth to give meaning to our lives uh to truly let us walk as we
2:30:412:30:41 - ought in Freedom as Christians um again passages I like to support the concept of what we’re talking about John chapter
2:30:472:30:47 - 6 where Jesus talks about him being the bread of life John chapter 4 where we talk about uh the truth of the word of
2:30:542:30:54 - God being this this spring welling up to Living Water within us right I mean empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit
2:31:002:31:00 - of course um these are the things this is what we mean by life when we’re talking about life we’re talking about
2:31:062:31:06 - spiritual life about being made alive spiritually with God as opposed to spiritually Dead uh through our sin and
2:31:142:31:14 - not being uh kind of connected to god um so that is the concept of of what we
2:31:212:31:21 - have been talking about here with this idea of God is life because God wants that for all of his creatures even those
2:31:282:31:28 - right now who are not willing to turn to him he has given them that option to
2:31:332:31:33 - turn to him receive forgiveness for their sins on the basis of the blood of Christ and live these full lives doing
2:31:412:31:41 - that which he has prepared for them um you know something else uh comes to mind here is uh in Ephesians chapter 2 uh
2:31:482:31:48 - after right after the very famous verses to talk about us being saved by grace through faith we have verse 10 that says
2:31:552:31:55 - that we’ve been created in Christ Jesus to do good works uh which God prepared in advance for us to do we have jobs as
2:32:012:32:01 - Christians again this is getting back to that whole meaning we have a place that we fill in the body of Christ and that
2:32:082:32:08 - gives everything we do spiritual value um that’s kind of what we’re talking about by being alive and all of this um
2:32:162:32:16 - from top to bottom is it’s all about the truth of God um as contained in the Bible in Jesus The Living Word of God
2:32:232:32:23 - like John chapter 1 talks about um talks about how Jesus is the Divine logos um
2:32:292:32:29 - the word who became flesh and dwelt Among Us um
2:32:352:32:35 - so all right well certainly more we could say there but I think that’s where we will uh that’s where we will close
2:32:412:32:41 - out discussion on this section and uh we’ll return with the summary of what
2:32:462:32:46 - we’ve been talking about in this lesson in just a sec
2:32:522:32:52 - here all right so that’s where we are going to wrap up now uh this discussion that we’ve been in in this lesson
2:32:572:32:57 - talking about God’s perfect character so we started out by uh talking about this
2:33:032:33:03 - introduction uh or sorry in the introduction talking about God’s idea uh God’s moral perfection the idea that he
2:33:112:33:11 - is without flaw he is the greatest that human Minds can possibly comprehend he
2:33:162:33:16 - has moral perfection um in in a way that we’re supposed to emulate as Christians so Matthew 548 says that we’re supposed
2:33:232:33:23 - to be perfect just how our father in Heaven is perfect we talked about uh the Greek word teos there is the adjective
2:33:292:33:29 - meaning perfect and it has this sense of completion that maybe doesn’t come through as much in that English uh
2:33:362:33:36 - English word here that is the sense of perfect as being full and complete um
2:33:412:33:41 - and that is what God is in every moral uh sense um he is completely morally
2:33:472:33:47 - perfect um and in that that naturally leads into uh essential characteristics
2:33:522:33:52 - of God God is good um the antithesis of evil God is Holy he has to be must be
2:33:592:33:59 - separate from Evil we talked a little bit about how these things are actually kind of subtly different is that God
2:34:042:34:04 - being good in like an ontological sense is a bit different than him needing to be separate from Evil um you know having
2:34:112:34:11 - to condemn evil um we also talked about how God is faithful and true his promises are sure and certain and then
2:34:192:34:19 - we spent a good bit of time uh in the bridge section talking about how all of these things translate into God’s
2:34:242:34:24 - sovereignty as de jur ruler of the Universe um the one who on account of
2:34:302:34:30 - his moral perfection has the authority to judge moral creatures so that’s
2:34:352:34:35 - humans and angels in the universe for their actions so we made all these sub
2:34:402:34:40 - points here that God possesses The Sovereign authority to demonstrate love to his sinful creatures out of of his
2:34:462:34:46 - own goodness to administer Justice out of his Holiness and to give life out of
2:34:512:34:51 - his truth and faithfulness um and you know we had this a chart that went through all of these things mapped the
2:34:572:34:57 - essential characteristics of God to their manifestations and creation that process of redemption justification and
2:35:042:35:04 - Reconciliation that happens uh through the working out of his love Justice and life for us as sinful Humanity um and
2:35:132:35:13 - then we closed by elaborating a bit more uh on on these on these aspects of God’s
2:35:182:35:18 - character working themselves out in the universe how God is love God is just and God is life and what that means for us
2:35:252:35:25 - as Believers um and as time and again we’ve emphasized all of this hinges on
2:35:302:35:30 - centers around the cross of Jesus Christ so we accept God’s offer of Life peace
2:35:362:35:36 - and Reconciliation that’s here this last Slide by accepting receiving the Lord Jesus Christ in just the same way that
2:35:422:35:42 - we are Justified we receive forgiveness for our sins through accept acting Jesus as our Lord and savior and we are
2:35:482:35:48 - redeemed uh out of God’s gracious love for us by accepting him um by believing
2:35:542:35:54 - in him and so that’s where we’re going to end this lesson here um so talking
2:35:592:35:59 - here about God’s perfect character after we have already come and discussed God’s
2:36:042:36:04 - infinite nature and in the next lesson we’re going to just be summarizing uh all of the things we’ve talked about
2:36:102:36:10 - here uh in reference to God’s Divine Essence um and so that would include his
2:36:162:36:16 - infinite nature and his perfect character as we’ve gone over just kind of pulling it all together uh maybe in a
2:36:222:36:22 - more easily digestible summary uh that can be referenced later as kind of shorthand for all of the things that
2:36:282:36:28 - we’ve gone here that we’ve gone through here so that’s what we will pick up with uh next time