Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Eternal Life Was Manifested as the Word Titus 1:1–4, Part 8

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Eternal Life Was Manifested as the Word Titus 1:1–4, Part 8 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is Session eight on Titus one one to four
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Paul a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: for the sake of the faith of God's elect and
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the truth which accords with Godliness upon the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: hope of eternal life, which God who never lies, promised
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: before the times of the ages. Here's where we pick
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: it up today and at the proper time manifested. So
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the object I mean, the subject of what's being manifested.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I guess you could say the object God is the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: manifestor here what's being manifested the hope of eternal life.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: That's the antecedent of which the hope of eternal life,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: which God who never lies, promised, and which He at
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the proper time manifested. So eternal life is manifested. And
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: now the most perplexing thing about this text, and I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: gave it a very literal translation to preserve the perplexity
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that all the Greek scholars wrestle with and just want
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you to be able to wrestle with it too, is
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that there's no in here Like doesn't say in his word.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It's just comma his word. The eternal life, which God
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: manifested comma his word through the preaching with which I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. So, Father,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: as we try to understand this section right here, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: how the Word of God relates to the hope of
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: eternal life or eternal life, that you would protect us
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: from reading in anything we shouldn't or leaving out any
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: glorious reality that we shouldn't leave out. I pray this
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: in Jesus' name, Amen. So the hope of eternal life
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: was promised before the times of the ages and was
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: manifested his word through the preaching with which I have
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: been entrusted. And of course, if you know the Gospel
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: of John, you're tempted to say, wow, that's Jesus be
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: or the epistle John maybe puts it. You know, in
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the beginning it was the Word, and the Word was
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: with God, and the Word was God. That's the Gospel
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: John one one. But here's the first two verses of
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: John's epistle, that which was from the beginning, which we
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: we have looked upon and have touched with our hands.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Concerning the Word of life, the life was made manifest
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: same word and we have seen it and testify to it,
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  Speaker 1: and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: the Father and was made manifest to us. So there's
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a word of life, and it is eternal life. And
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: we know from the Gospel that behind this life is
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Christ himself, the second person of the Trinity, who was
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: God and was with God. And therefore we might be
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: tempted to say, Paul is the same vision of eternal life.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Here is the word, namely Jesus. In the beginning was
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: among us. Now that's certainly possible, And my guess is
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: that the deepest reality would say, yes, there is a
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: common root. But let's not read into Paul what is
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: spoken in John just because there's a quick reminder in
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: our own heads with this word. There are other possibilities here.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: For example, what about let me go here to one
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  Speaker 1: Timothy six 't thirty. First, if anyone teaches a different
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: our Lord Jesus Christ words of our Lord, and the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: teaching that of course with God, and is so in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the pastoral letters that we're studying for since Io, Timothy
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and Titus, Paul has this term words of the Lord
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  Speaker 1: Jesus that we need to know. So the words not
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: just word of the Lord, that would be the Gospel probably,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: but words of the Lord sound like words that Jesus spoke. Now,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: what did the Gospel say about words that Jesus spoke?
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Here's John six. It is the spirit who gives life.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: The flesh is of no help at all. The words
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: that I have spoken too, you are spirit and life.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: The words are life. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: whom should we go? You have the words of eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: So since Paul has a vision in the pastoral letters
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of the words of the Lord, and the words of
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: the Lord are eternal life, then perhaps when he says
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: eternal life has been manifested his word, he doesn't mean Christ,
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  Speaker 1: the eternal Lawgoss or the eternal second person of the Trinity.
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  Speaker 1: He means the words of Christ. The Word of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: that is life. Life was revealed by the Word through
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  Speaker 1: the preaching with which I have been trusted by the
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  Speaker 1: command of God, our Savior. So Paul's preaching of the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Gospel is a word that is the Word of life,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: and Paul himself has that kind of understanding or phraseology.
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  Speaker 1: You can see it here in Philippins two. You are
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: called to be children of God without blemish, in the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you
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  Speaker 1: shine as lights in the world, holding fast up word
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  Speaker 1: of life. So the word imparts eternal life. So I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: doubt that we should pour into this word here all
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  Speaker 1: the theology of the Gospel of John, even though in reality,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: deep behind the term eternal life and the relationship to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the preaching of the Word the Gospel, there is that
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: profound link between Christ the Word as he comes to
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  Speaker 1: be seen and known through the words of life. There's
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: one other text that is so amazing in its parallel
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to what we see here that I'm going to draw
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  Speaker 1: out the parallels and show how I think it confirms
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  Speaker 1: what we're seeing here, namely that eternal life was manifested
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  Speaker 1: through the preaching of the Word of the Gospel by
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: all people believing this word through the preaching will obtain
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: eternal life. Here's I forced this text on to the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: same slide with this one. This is two Timothy chapter one,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: verses nine to eleven right here. So let me read
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: this circle the key items then show you they're parallels here.
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  Speaker 1: It's when when you see something like this, you know
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Paul is thinking similarly here that he was here, which
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  Speaker 1: means this is gonna. This is gonna shed light on
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the meaning of this, and vice versa, for the sake
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: of the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the truth which accords with Godliness upon the hope of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: eternal life, the hope of eternal life, which God, who
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: never lies, promised before the times of the ages, and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: at the proper time manifested his word through the preaching
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: with which I have been entrusted. Every one of those
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: elements right there are here are in this section. Here
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: God saved us and called us to a holy calling,
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  Speaker 1: not because of our works, but because of his own
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  Speaker 1: purpose and grace. Now grace is going to be interpreted
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: here as bringing life and immortality to light. But I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna leave it grace now and say, the hope of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: eternal life promised before the ages, is what is meant
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  Speaker 1: by this grace here, which He gave us in Christ
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  Speaker 1: Jesus before the ages began, corresponds to before the ages began,
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  Speaker 1: and which now corresponds to the proper time has been manifested,
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  Speaker 1: corresponds to manifested through the appearing of our savior Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: to abolished light, death and brought life immortality to light.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, what was manifested here? He says, grace
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  Speaker 1: was manifested, but here he brought eternal life, immortality to light.
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  Speaker 1: So this grace here is this life, which is this life,
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  Speaker 1: eternal life through the Gospel, which corresponds to the preaching
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: of the Word which I was appointed a preacher. And
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: this appointment right here corresponds to I have been entrusted
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  Speaker 1: with the Gospel. And that's a big yellow mess, I know,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: but you can take it very slow, pause this and
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: work through for yourself every one of those parallels. What
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: it shows to me is this, we were right when
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: we got to this key point where it says the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: hope of eternal life was manifested Comma his word. And
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  Speaker 1: we didn't jump to the conclusion that word here equals
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Jesus or the eternal second person of the Trinity, but
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  Speaker 1: rather word preached by Paul. Now that seems to be
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  Speaker 1: confirmed here because he says manifested through the appearing of
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  Speaker 1: our savior, Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life
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  Speaker 1: in immortality to light through the Gospel. So the preaching
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  Speaker 1: of the Gospel of Christ, who in his dying abolished
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  Speaker 1: death is what's meant here by eternal life being manifested
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  Speaker 1: as the word. But one more thing. It is remarkable,
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  Speaker 1: isn't that he says, the grace, which is life immortality
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  Speaker 1: being brought to light. Grace was manifested through the appearing
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  Speaker 1: of Jesus. She attempted to say, eternal life was manifested
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  Speaker 1: through the appearing of Jesus. So I go full circle
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  Speaker 1: and say, well, even though we probably shouldn't read all
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  Speaker 1: of John's full blown theology of the eternal law goss
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  Speaker 1: as the second person of the Trinity into this, nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: Paul is sure suggestive when he says, this grace, this life, immortality,
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  Speaker 1: this eternal life was manifested by the appearing of a person,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. But even if it doesn't have the full
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  Speaker 1: blown effect of John's Gospel and John's epistle, Christ himself
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  Speaker 1: is the center of the preaching here and the gospel here, which,
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  Speaker 1: if we believe it, we have him, and having him
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  Speaker 1: have life forever,