The Atonement - Adult SS - Lesson 2: The Cross of the Atonement

[0:00] And so we've seen Christ is our substitutionary sacrifice who, if you see our diagram, if this is the problem of the world, we are a broken relationship with God, it's because of three things, death, wrath, and a fractured relationship.

[0:19] And Christ, as sacrifice, took our debt, our sin, our guilt, all on him on the cross, and he purchased for us redemption, a ransom, he paid that debt.

[0:32] And on the cross, he bears God's wrath, it's diverted away from that sin, it all falls onto Christ on the cross. And so he achieves propitiation, which means it appeases God's wrath, satisfies God.

[0:45] And so he reconciles us back to God. This is how you repair the relationship between man and God. This is how you bring sinners back.

[0:57] You need the cross, you need atonement. And this is what we mean by atonement, it involves these three things, right? You can say that these are the ingredients, the aspects to atonement.

[1:09] Through the cross, we are at one with God. And we saw last week who Christ died for. We saw that he died for his people.

[1:22] So he had a specific people attached to his belt. So think of Adam and Christ, think of our two giant series. Christ was wearing a belt when he died, figuratively.

[1:33] And on his belt, he was carrying all the people that the Father had given him. So his death actually does something. It doesn't just potentially pay for sins in general.

[1:46] It's up for grabs, like a medicine box, take it or leave it. It's not that. No, on the cross, an actual payment occurs. Because that's what it is. A sacrifice is a payment. And it's a payment for specific sins of a specific people.

[2:01] And if you're wanting more on that, if you went here last week, I've got a recording. I can send it to you. We're going to be getting everything up on the website soon. I've been saying that for about a year now. We are going to be getting up everything on the website soon.

[2:11] But if you want a recording of that, let me know. And there's just so much that we could be diving into about the cross. And so over the next half term and next, we're going to be thinking about lots of things.

[2:22] What Christ was experiencing when he bore the wrath of God? What happened to the Trinity on the cross? Was there a break? Short answer, no, there wasn't a break.

[2:34] But we'll find out why. If Christ is God, how can he die? So think about his divinity as well as all this. And we're going to think about God's character, how God can be loving and angry at the same time.

[2:47] So lots of important things. But today, I want us to think, what does the cross have to do with the life of Jesus? Okay, so we know the cross, his death, is key to atonement, bringing us back to God.

[3:04] But what about the rest of Jesus' life? So his birth, his ministry. What about the whole 33 years before the cross? What does that have to do with the atonement?

[3:17] Or we could phrase the question like this. If this is so key to salvation, if this is what brings us back to God, why didn't Christ just appear on earth and just die straight away?

[3:27] Go straight to the cross. Why all his life beforehand? What does atonement have to do with his life? Well, I want us to see today, Christ's death, it's actually connected with his whole life that came before it.

[3:42] From the cradle to the cross, it's all connected and necessary for atonement. And in fact, his whole life, not only the cross, was Christ securing atonement for us and bringing us back to God.

[4:01] And to see this, we need to see what ties all of that together. What ties his life and death together? We need to see all of Christ's life, but climatically at his death, was all one big state, one big period of humiliation.

[4:21] And that's where I want us to be in today, Christ's humiliation. That's my first point. Christ's humiliation, he was made lower than the angels. So in order to see how Christ's life and death and all his safe and working fact is all connected, we need to understand that there are two states or two stages, two periods of Christ's life.

[4:43] And I want you to figure out what they are in scripture. So break out into groups, look at these verses and answer these questions. How many states are there in Christ's life and his work?

[4:57] And what characterizes these states? It shouldn't take you too long, you'll get the gist after a few. But just have a look, I'll give you a couple of minutes for that. Thank you.

[5:51] Thank you. Thank you.

[6:22] Thank you.

[6:52] Thank you. Give you another minute.

[7:05] Thank you. Thank you.

[7:37] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

[7:54] Let's bring it back together. We'll have a look at Philippians 2 a little bit closer. So don't worry if you didn't get onto that. I won't pick on anyone. So I hope you could see a pattern in all these passages.

[8:07] So can you see that the Bible, even Jesus himself, speaks of different states or stages to Christ's life? And how many are there? I hope you saw a pattern.

[8:18] There are two. So there is a state, first of all, of being low. So he's described as lower than the angels, right? And in that state, Christ is rejected.

[8:32] It's a state of suffering. It is a state of offering humble service, Philippians 2. There is obedience. And so it is this lowly state.

[8:44] And you can sum this up as this is a state of humiliation. So humiliation, humbleness, lowliness, suffering. And that is followed.

[8:55] It always comes in a pair, doesn't it? That is followed by a reversal of that state. It's a state of glory and honor. So Christ speaks of himself being in a state of suffering and then entering into a state of glory.

[9:11] Or in Philippians, Paul says God has exalted that humble Christ. So a state of exaltation is the other half to this.

[9:22] And this is how theologians have described Christ's life and work. You can really split it up into two states. And it's split into the state of humiliation and exaltation.

[9:36] So have a look at the Westminster Shorter Catechism. So we'll dive into scripture to see how we get here. But just have a look at how it summarizes this. Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?

[9:48] The first state. What's the answer? Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born and that in a low condition made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God and the cursed death of the cross in being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time.

[10:07] So that's the first state. And then wherein consists Christ's exaltation. Christ's exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up to heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

[10:25] So do you see two states Christ has entered into? First of all, into a lowly state of humiliation and suffering. And then resurrection, ascension, glory, a state of exaltation.

[10:40] Glorified before God. Reigning above everything. And so you can think of it like this. This is Christ's life and work summed up.

[10:51] So think of it like this. The son of God, as God, has always existed in eternity in his divine nature.

[11:03] OK, so that's the son of God. Perfectly dwelling in heaven since the creation of the heavens and eternally existing before that. So perfectly dwelling in heaven and he will continue to be forever and ever.

[11:19] Right. So that's why the dotted line continues. OK. But in time, he then something happens to the person of the son.

[11:30] He then takes a form of a servant in time on earth. So that's the language of Philippians. He humbles himself by taking on a human nature.

[11:44] So the word, the eternal word becomes flesh here on earth. And the son of God in his human nature. What what is that life like?

[11:56] What is that state and that condition like he enters into? Well, it's a state of humiliation on earth. So this is in time on earth down here.

[12:09] Whilst also, let's just clarify, whilst also still being in his divine nature, according to his divine nature, eternally the son of God as God in all glory. OK. So we are talking about his incarnation.

[12:21] Let's just clarify here. Incarnation. Time. OK.

[12:33] That's what we do. OK. And so that state is a state of humiliation as soon as he arrives here on earth.

[12:46] And then he entered into a state of exaltation. At some point, we're going to clarify when all this is. But then he entered the state of exaltation. Glorified, sat at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

[13:01] Exalted, honoured. And just for now, I want us to focus on this state of humiliation. OK. So have a look. When did this state start? Look at Philippians 2.7.

[13:13] He humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant. By being born in the likeness of men. So when did this state begin?

[13:26] It's at birth. In the manger. In the cradle. OK. It links that it's him when he takes on his human nature.

[13:40] Or we should really say at his conception. Right. That's when he took on a human nature. As soon as that human nature begins in Mary's womb, instantly he enters a state of humiliation.

[13:55] He takes that form of a servant, even as he's that little zygote. But I'm drawing the cradle there. I hope you know what I mean by cradle. That includes the womb as well. But I'm hard to draw a fetus.

[14:05] Right. And so that's when it begins. What and what does this state build up to? What is the end climactic point of this state?

[14:15] Well, look at Philippians 2.8. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Even death on a cross.

[14:27] The end point, the climax of this state is the cross. So it begins in the cradle, his state of humiliation, and then it climaxes on the cross.

[14:45] And what did the state of humiliation involve? What's going on in this state? Is it just these two points? And that's it. That's his humiliation. No. His humiliation involves everything in between as well.

[14:59] So it's from the cradle all the way to and including the cross. And so you can see that in the language of Philippians.

[15:15] It's all the way to the point of death. Right. And what does that involve? This state of humiliation. Well, we'll see this more in a bit in scripture.

[15:26] But look how the shorter catechism summarizes it. So what's involved in this state of humiliation? It means being born into this sinful world in a low condition.

[15:42] Christ, when he took on a human nature, when he was born into this world, he wasn't an invulnerable superhero that floated three feet off the ground and he found this life easy.

[15:52] No. Jesus had a frail, vulnerable humanity. So he could suffer. He could get thirsty and hungry and agonize and feel the pains of this world.

[16:08] He could die. And in that life, he underwent all the miseries of this world. He lived in and amongst just the miserable curse of this world.

[16:19] He breathed in a fallen atmosphere. Which, of course, is all under the wrath of God, isn't it? All of this world is under the wrath of God. And then, of course, he experienced the curse of this world climactically in his death.

[16:38] The most cursed death of all. The death of a cross. And this, this is what connects all his life and his death.

[16:50] It is all one big connected state of suffering, of humiliation. And so when we say Christ suffered for us and bore God's wrath and bore the curse for us to bring us back to God, as we've just seen.

[17:08] Yes, we do mean the cross. But it also includes everything that builds up to it. So all of this, all of this, his whole life, including the cross, is a state of humiliation.

[17:24] And this was Christ's suffering for us to bring us atonement. Someone's used the illustration. It's loosely connected, but it's helpful.

[17:35] It's a bit like, well, Christ pays the debt on the cross. So think of paying a debt. That if Christ was paying the debt for our sin at the cross, you can think, during his life, he was paying the debt constantly in Mary's womb.

[17:52] He was constantly paying it every second of his life. From Mary's womb onward, he was bearing that debt and paying for it. And he's constantly kind of paying into the bank throughout his life.

[18:04] But the cross is kind of like the final big payment. So all the payments are needed. They're all necessary. They're all related.

[18:14] But the cross is kind of the final boom, climactic payment. Or if you kind of had an atonement graph. Let's try and graph this. An atonement graph.

[18:28] Let's do it like this. So again, an atonement graph. Sorry if you can't see this. Time here. Atonement or payment redemption.

[18:40] So he's constantly paying it. And it's a cross boom. That's where he gives the final payment, climactically. But to understand why all this fits together.

[18:54] We need to understand that this whole state isn't just kind of suffering in general. No, this whole state is Christ being made under the law.

[19:08] So do you see what the catechism says? Christ's humiliation consists in being made under the law. That's from Galatians 4. Paul preached on it a few weeks ago. So Galatians 4.4.

[19:20] But when the fullness of time had come. When the timing was just right in God's plan. God sent forth his son. Born of a woman. You see? Beginning of humiliation.

[19:31] Born of a woman. And how was he born? He was born under the law. To redeem those. Redemption language. To redeem those who were under the law.

[19:41] So when Christ came from heaven. And took on a human nature. He was born. And conceived and born. And he was born.

[19:53] Under the law. To born. Under.

[20:05] The law. Okay. So his whole life. That's weighing above him. And born under the law. It means. Born under all that God's law demands.

[20:16] Okay. Born under the law. It means born under all that God's law demands. And. Kind of. Centrally. It has the mosaic law in focus here. But. But we can expand it to all God's law really.

[20:29] Because the mosaic law is connected to all that God demands. Of humanity. So humans. Are by nature. As sinners. We are. Automatically born.

[20:41] With obligations to God. Right. Which simply means. We aren't. Just existing here. Neutrally. We are accountable to God.

[20:52] We are moral creatures. Accountable. Accountable to him. We live in his world. And so just. By nature. In the fabric of reality. We are just.

[21:03] Under his rules. And accountable to him. And so. You see that with Adam. Just like Adam. God requires us. To live in a. In a certain way.

[21:13] To live. Perfectly. Before him. That's what he wants from his creatures. Perfect. Absolute. Perfect. Obedience to him. That's his law.

[21:24] Right. Everyone is born. Under that obligation. And if you break it. Like Adam. You also face a penalty. A consequence.

[21:35] A punishment. For Adam. It was. What we see it. It's death. Cursed. Suffering. That's the consequence. The penalty. Of breaking the law.

[21:45] And this wasn't just for Adam. That this is passed on to. All of humanity. Guilty humanity. Is by nature. Born. Under the law. So we are all.

[21:57] Existing. Here. By nature. Existing. Right.

[22:08] That's all humanity. By nature. So life under the sun. Is life under the law. And so that means two things for us.

[22:21] There are two demands. Upon. And two requirements. Upon humanity. Firstly. We must perfectly. Obey God's law.

[22:32] So never sin. Right. Fulfill the ten commandments. Perfectly. Love God. And love our neighbour. Absolutely. Perfectly. We can kind of. Summarize. When we say the law.

[22:43] We can summarize it like this. One dimension is. Obey. So kind of. Positively. Positively. Obey. Do the ten commandments.

[22:54] But we don't. Do that as sinners. Do we? We fail terribly. We have. Broken the law.

[23:05] And so there is another demand. From that law. We must face. The consequences. We must. Suffer. So think of Genesis 3. We are thrown out of the garden.

[23:18] Curse. Misery. Pain. And ultimately death. That these are all the consequences. Of the law. So. Under the law.

[23:29] It also means. In a negative sense. Suffer. Right. The penalty. The consequence. And this is what humanity.

[23:40] Is trapped under. We are trapped. In this life. Under the law. Constantly needing to obey. But we're constantly. Breaking. And so we're constantly.

[23:51] Faced with the demand. To suffer. Face God's wrath. Now. In this miserable life. And. On judgment day. And so.

[24:02] All of this. It's actually related. To our need. For atonement. So. We have. Do you remember. The sin debt. Let's. Let's have a quick look. So remember.

[24:13] We have a sin debt. Over our heads. Right. And God's wrath. Is falling on us. Because we have that sin debt. The penalty. Is facing God's wrath. And so.

[24:25] This is actually all connected. Is it. We have a sin debt. Over us. Because. Because. We have broken God's law. We.

[24:40] We have that. Because we broke down the law. And the penalty. We have. For that. Is. God's wrath. Right.

[24:51] That is. That is. That is. The negative consequence. That's the negative consequence.

[25:02] Of suffering. So. We have the debt. Because we have it obeyed. And therefore. We must suffer. Therefore. We have the wrath. And so.

[25:13] Think about. What Christ. Entered into. What did. The son of God do. He humbled himself, took on human flesh, a human nature, and entered under the law and became one of us.

[25:37] This ties together his whole state of humiliation from birth until the cross. And so when you think of it this way, right, so this is what Christ's state of humiliation is all about.

[25:51] This is what he came to live under. And when you think of it this way, it ties it all together. And you can actually sum up all that Christ did is this. All that Christ did was obedience.

[26:05] So all of this, it's all obedience, all his work.

[26:18] And that obedience, obedience to the law, it involves positively doing the law. Remember, there are kind of like two things required.

[26:30] Positively doing the law, i.e. not sinning. And it involves suffering that penalty. And so, just like here and here, obedience requires, so those are the two demands of the law, obedience requires, I mean, to those who demand, obey and sub.

[26:56] That's what we mean by obedience. And that's the case even if you're under English law, all right? Okay, let's come back away from the diagram. Think about England, right? If you're under English law, you have two demands upon you.

[27:10] You can obey by following the law positively, not murdering, right? Being a good citizen. And if you break the law, you must obey it by following what the law demands.

[27:26] So if you then do murder, you've got to face the punishment. Take the prison sentence. You've got to obey the law by doing that. There are two demands from the law.

[27:38] And that's what Christ did in his state of humiliation. As soon as he comes into this world, he comes under the law and says, I'm going to become one of you, stand alongside you.

[27:51] And actually, I'm going to represent you and I'm going to obey for you. And I'm going to take all of this law, all the penalty for you. And I'm going to suffer instead of you.

[28:03] And so he atones by obeying both demands. And if he obeys all of this law, remember, if it's all connected to this law and then that's all taken off us, what happens?

[28:22] Atonement. And this obedience, this is all summed up, his work is summed up by obedience to this law. And it all climaxes at the cross.

[28:33] Think of the chart. And I know this might be a lot to take in. This looks like drawings of a conspiracy theorist, right? But I know it's a lot to take in.

[28:45] But actually, in some ways, it just simplifies things. There is infinite depth towards it. But just think, what Christ is doing in all that he's doing, life and death, thoughts, works, deeds, everything, he's obeying.

[29:00] And this might be a lot to take in. But I want us to keep thinking about this, okay? I want us to keep thinking about obedience. And I want us to see Christ's obedience.

[29:11] It's both a matter of his life and his death. I hope we can already see that, but I want to dive into that a bit more. Okay? Second point, Christ's obedience, a matter of life and death. So, we've seen, you can sum it up as obedience, right?

[29:26] All that he's done, his whole mission. What does Jesus say, John 6? For I have come down from heaven, into a state of humiliation, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

[29:40] Obedience. This is how you can sum up the state of humiliation. And, in fact, all is atoning work. It's obedience. And just to clarify, we're not saying here, we're not doing kind of anything different, or saying something different to what we've already thought about, in terms of kind of the wrath coming down.

[29:59] No. This is just kind of another angle to think about the atonement, kind of a way to tie everything together. But it's really just saying, we're just saying more of the same thing.

[30:11] And you can say this obedience we've seen has two dimensions. You can say he has, this obedience involves active and passive obedience.

[30:24] Okay? So the positive active and the negative passive. This is how theologians have often called it. So this positive and that negative, it's often called active obedience of Christ.

[30:41] And the passive obedience of Christ. I'm just giving it new names. And so I just want to think about the passive obedience for a second.

[30:54] So passive obedience, it means his suffering. So it means obeying the demands of the law, the penalty, the consequences. And the word passive, it's used not meaning that Jesus was inactive in all of this.

[31:09] Right? We use passive to mean, like, not involved, a bit inactive. No, passive, it comes from the Latin passio. Right? Passio means sufferings. And that's why you might hear the cross called Jesus's passion.

[31:24] Have you heard of that before? The passion of the Christ. Right? The word passions there, it's not used meaning kind of enthusiastic. You know, the enthusiasm of the Christ.

[31:35] No, it's talking about his sufferings, passio, sufferings of the Christ. So, what is Christ's humiliation?

[31:45] It was him coming under the law and entering a state of obedience. Passive obedience being one aspect. And what did that involve?

[31:57] What sufferings did Christ experience in this state? Let's just kind of just have a little breather and just reflect on the life of Christ.

[32:09] Just think about the Gospels. He was constantly surrounded by sin and evil and fallenness.

[32:20] He was constantly breathing that air. The first breath he took as a baby, it was breathing fallen air. And we even see from his very birth, there was even no place for him in the inn.

[32:35] So, he was placed in a manger. He had nowhere to live when he grew up. The foxes had holes, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head. And how was he treated?

[32:48] He was rejected by his own town and threatened to be pushed off a cliff. He went over, he wept over his friend's death, Lazarus.

[33:01] He stood at gravesides. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was tempted and targeted by the devil himself.

[33:13] He was persecuted all his life. Herod tried to kill him as a baby. And then the Pharisees plotted his murder. He lived with the constant and increasing realization that he will one day face the wrath of God on the cross.

[33:32] It was this looming dread over him his whole life. And you even see the peak of that intensity when he collapses in the Garden of Eden, in the Garden of Gethsemane.

[33:45] And then, of course, what does his life climax to? He faces the full force of God's wrath and curse on the cross.

[33:56] You could say when the word took on flesh, he immediately stepped into darkness. The darkness of humiliation.

[34:07] He joined us under the law and his whole life was him suffering that punishment, not for his sins. He had no sin.

[34:18] It was ours. It was all God's wrath that should be on us because of our law breaking. And this is his passive obedience.

[34:28] And the Heidelberg Catechism, it sums this up well. It asks, this section can ask about the Apostles' Creed. And it asks what it means by Christ suffered in the Apostles' Creed.

[34:42] And look at question 37. What do you understand by the word suffered? That during his whole life on earth, but especially at the end, Christ sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race.

[34:57] This he did in order that by his suffering as the only atoning sacrifice, he might deliver us body and soul from eternal condemnation and gain for us God's grace, righteousness and eternal life.

[35:11] And this is just Philippians, isn't it? He became obedient to the penalty of the law. And he was for all his life constantly propitiating, redeeming, paying the penalty, reconciling.

[35:28] And he did that all the way up to the point of death, even death on a cross, the ultimate payment for law breaking. But life under the law, it also meant another aspect, active obedience.

[35:44] And by this, we mean positively following the law, doing the commandments. And so this means, I'll spend a bit less time on this, this means Jesus lived a perfect life.

[35:56] So he followed the Ten Commandments perfectly every day, fulfilled the Mosaic law, all the rituals. He was sinless in God's eyes, loved God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength.

[36:10] The Lord, the Father looks at his son and says, this is my beloved son. Not that he's just done nothing wrong. No, he is perfectly overflowing with righteousness.

[36:21] And again, we mustn't think that this is disconnected from his death. This is all part of his state of humiliation. And for two reasons, two important reasons.

[36:34] Firstly, his perfect life meant that when he was sacrificed on the cross, it was a perfect, sinless sacrifice. And only that can be good enough to substitute for us.

[36:49] You need a perfect lamb to pay for sin. And so one drop of sin in Jesus' life, 20 years before the cross, it would have ruined everything. He was obeying to be the perfect sacrifice on the cross.

[37:03] But secondly, even going to the cross was obeying God's will. So the mission from his father is that he should die.

[37:16] So remember Gethsemane, it was the father's will that he should drink the cup of wrath. And so Christ's active obedience, it's the same as his suffering. It starts from birth, from birth, from birth.

[37:29] And then the greatest act of obedience that requires a huge act of the will, boom, it's the cross. That was his greatest act of obedience.

[37:43] He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. And so can you see that the cross, it's connected to all of Jesus' life.

[37:55] It is all one big state of humiliation and so one big act of obedience with the cross at the climax. And so on the cross, Christ was fulfilling all that was required for us.

[38:09] Obedience and suffering. And this is what takes us out from under the law. Obedience, this is what takes us out from under the debt and the wrath and brings us atonement.

[38:23] It's his obedience. So Christ comes down, he becomes trapped with us, you could say. And then he takes us out of that darkness. I've mentioned the film Daylight before.

[38:38] Daylight, it's a 90s fun action film starring Sylvester Stallone. I began watching it on Friday night. It's even better than I remember. I used to watch it. It's just one of those random films you watch as a kid with your family.

[38:50] It was just always on TV and we used to watch it. And I love it. It's about a tunnel in New York, a tunnel that goes under the Hudson River and it collapses both sides. And so you have a load of people trapped in this dark tunnel under the Hudson River.

[39:05] And it's filling up with water and toxic gas. But they're all trapped under the tunnel and no one can get in except one guy. And he miraculously gets in.

[39:16] And the only way to get them out is for someone to come from the outside, Sylvester Stallone, to come into the tunnel, get trapped with them and then bring them out, out of the tunnel into daylight.

[39:32] And it's an amazing film. That's your homework. You've got to watch that. And it's an amazing film for lots of reasons. But it's great because that's just like the atonement. Christ comes down into the darkness, comes trapped under the law, suffers for us and brings us out the other side into daylight.

[39:55] And to finish, I want us to think about how he brings us into daylight. I want us to see how this is connected to his exaltation. Exaltation. And I'll just be one minute with this. So when does this state change?

[40:08] It's his resurrection, ascension. Resurrection. Ascension. And his enthronement in heaven.

[40:21] But what is the link between the two?

[40:33] Often we think, okay, Christ died. Oh, but don't forget, he also rose again. Right? And so we kind of added on. But what's the connection between the two?

[40:43] Why did he need to rise again? Well, look at Philippians 2, 8 and 9. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[40:55] Therefore, God has highly exalted him. It is because Christ was so obedient. It is because of the obedience of the cross. Therefore, God exalted him.

[41:08] So Christ's resurrection and enthronement. It's not just a, oh, it happens to be added on because that just works well for the story in salvation. No, it's a reward for his obedience.

[41:20] Hebrews 2, 9. He was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. So his payment on the cross not only settled our debt to zero, but his obedience was so valuable.

[41:34] It deserved a reward. It deserved glory. Christ's state of exaltation. It's the great therefore. Because of the cross and his humiliation, therefore, all glory to the son.

[41:49] And just remember, he does all this with his people on his belt. So he comes out of the tunnel into the daylight of glory and he brings all of us with us.

[42:05] With him. Resurrection, glory. And he brings us into God's presence. And so we are at one with God.

[42:17] Atonement. Maybe one minute for questions. Sorry, I know that was like drinking through a fire. Well done.

[42:29] Go on, Sam. So when God says, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Yeah. Does he say that of us? Yes, exactly.

[42:42] Well, in Christ, we can make distinctions, but yes, in Christ he is pleased with us because all that obedience, he's been perfectly obedient, he's been perfectly righteous.

[42:55] What does he do with that righteousness? Does that just stay to himself? No, he shares that with everyone on his belt. We are, if you remember the word, imputed with Christ's righteousness.

[43:07] So, can the father say, this is my beloved son? In a way, yes. But although, I don't know. If I sin, like, you know, I fall into sin and then I come for heaven father.

[43:23] Yeah. What should I think? You know what? Like, the father is, feed with me. Yeah. Like, that's hard to think, right?

[43:34] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, we're going to say, in our status before God, we are always his children.

[43:46] We are always forgiven. In one sense, he nipped. And forgiveness means our sins covered over. He never sees our sin because we're in his son. And because we are now, in our account, is all Christ's righteousness.

[43:59] That's what's in our bank, right? It's all Christ's righteousness. So, what does God see when he sees us? He sees Christ in his righteousness. But yes, we do still sin in his life.

[44:10] So, when we come to God with our sin, we are doing it with sin that's already been forgiven, already been covered. We are just kind of, in a sense, keeping a short account with God.

[44:23] It's not that God looks at us with condemnation of like, oh, no, you're back under the law now. You know, the obedience of the suffering, it's all being done by Christ.

[44:34] Is that where you're going, Sam? Yeah. Yeah. Kind of a good enough answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[44:45] Yeah. It's hard to think. But it's something we need to be reminded of. In fact, let's finish with, just look at Galatians 4. I don't have my Bible. That's my Bible. Where's Galatians 4?

[45:10] Galatians 4.4. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

[45:24] What are we now, my friend? We are sons in God's eyes. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

[45:35] And if a son, then an heir through God. Yeah. When we reflect on our own sin, our hearts may accuse us of all sorts of things, but this is what we need to remind ourselves of.

[45:48] Take our eyes off our own hearts, look at Christ, and realize, you know, we are sons in the Son. Yeah, go on, Toby, last one. So, just going to say, we are not still under the law, but you can't keep on killing people.

[46:03] Yeah. So, under the law in, good question. So, yeah, we can't keep on killing people, but are we under the law? I'm glad you said that to me.

[46:15] Are we under the law in the, basically, in the trapped sense? In the, this is now condemning us every second of every day.

[46:27] We are not under the law in that sense, but as creatures, of course, we are always obligated and accountable to God, but the law has become something different for us now.

[46:38] It's not this huge burden hanging over slaves. It is now a delight for God's sons to say, this is the righteousness of the Father, of our Father.

[46:50] This is how we're to live now. So, it's a map for us, rather than this condemning sentence over us. So, yes, we are under the law. All creatures, all creation is under the law in that sense.

[47:01] We're not under it in this sense. Does that make sense? Yeah. Great. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who took on flesh.

[47:19] Taking on the form of a servant. Who, for us and for our salvation, came under the law. Lord, who did everything for us.

[47:30] And Lord, we praise you for our saviour. And Lord, we do pray that we would know that we, in him, we are redeemed. We are sons of God. And for those of us struggling with sin, with sin in our lives, where that, those accusations, that that guilt can overpower the sight of what Christ has done for us.

[47:53] Lord, would you please give us peace and comfort knowing that Christ has fulfilled the law, that he is our righteousness. Would we know that we can stand before you with great confidence, knowing that we are loved as your children.

[48:07] In Jesus' name. Amen.