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Enduring by Remembering Christ, Scripture, and the Imperfect Witness of History · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. I'm so glad you could join us
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  today. We're doing a deep dive into
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  something that, well, it touches all of us eventually.
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  Yeah, absolutely. It is one of those unavoidable
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  topics. Right.
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  So usually when you think about constructing a massive structure
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  like say a skyscraper stretching into the clouds, or maybe a
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  suspension bridge over massive river, you expect solid
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  unyielding ground beneath it. You have to dig down to the
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  bedrock. Yes.
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  You dig down, you pour the concrete, the base sets, and you
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  start building upward with complete confidence.
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  You know the ground will hold the weight.
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  Because if it doesn't, the whole thing comes down.
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  Right. But then you step into the
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  reality of intense human affliction.
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  You face the kind of crushing pressure that tests the soul.
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  And that can look like so many different things.
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  Oh. For sure, it could be a
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  terrifying medical diagnosis, or the betrayal of a close friend,
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  or maybe just a slow, agonizing season of grief, and suddenly
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  you look down and realize you might be building your entire
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  life on shifting sand. It is a terrifying realization.
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  It really is. You have to ask yourself, how do
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  you stand firm when the pressure of life feels entirely
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  overwhelming? Are the famous historical heroes
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  of the Christian faith enough to keep you going?
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  Or is there a much stronger bedrock required to survive the
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  storm? Yes.
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  So today we are bringing you a deep dive into the true roots of
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  Christian steadfastness and perseverance, and we are basing
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  our conversation on the theological reflections of
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  Doctor John Piper. That tension, you know, between
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  building on sand versus building on bedrock, that is the core
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  issue we are going to investigate today.
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  It is a huge topic. Where do we even start?
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  Well, to give you an idea of where this conversation is
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  heading, we are going to look at several distinct layers.
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  We will start by evaluating the flawed, though helpful records
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  of historical figures that so many people look to for
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  inspiration. The famous guys.
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  Right, the famous heroes. Then we will look at the
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  flawless standard of Scripture, focusing specifically on the
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  Apostle Paul's instruction in Romans chapter 15, verse 4.
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  OK, sounds good. After that, we need to contrast
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  the secular obsession with the process of life.
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  You know, the daily grind against the Christian guarantee
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  of the destination. Oh, that is a huge clash right
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  there. It really is.
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  And finally, in the end, we will identify Christ Himself as the
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  supreme ground and goal of all perseverance.
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  Awesome. So let us start with those
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  historical figures. The source material spends a lot
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  of time looking at 3 specific men from history.
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  Yes, John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce.
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  These are massive figures in Christian history.
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  I mean Newton was a former slave trader who became a pastor and
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  wrote the him Amazing Grace. A literal textbook redemption
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  story. Right.
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  And then Charles Simeon faced decades of bitter opposition to
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  Cambridge. I read the people literally
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  locked the Pew doors so his congregation could not sit down
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  during the service. Yeah, just intense, relentless
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  local hostility. And then you have Wilberforce,
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  who spent his entire political life fighting to abolish the
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  African slave trade in the British Empire.
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  People constantly look up to these men when they think about
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  holding fast under trial. It is super common.
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  It seems natural to read their biographies and think, well, if
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  they could survive all of that, I can survive my Tuesday morning
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  staff meeting. Yeah, that is the temptation,
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  isn't it? And they absolutely faced severe
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  trials. But placing them in their
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  precise historical context is critical for understanding this
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  perspective. How so?
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  Well, these men lived in the 18th and 19th centuries in Great
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  Britain. This was a specific era marked
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  by the Evangelical revival and the massive expansion of the
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  British Empire. So they were doing pretty well,
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  societally speaking. Right.
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  They lived in a secure, prospering, modernizing world.
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  They were entirely insulated from the violent physical
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  martyrdom of the early Church Fathers, or, you know, the
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  reformers of the 16th century. That is a big difference.
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  It is a massive difference. They did not face the threat of
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  being thrown to the wild animals in the Coliseum, nor did they
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  face the threat of burning at the stake by a hostile monarch.
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  So they had a safety net in a way.
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  Socially and physically, yes, they lived in relative comfort
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  compared to many believers throughout history and even
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  compared to many believers around the world today who face
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  severe physical persecution. Understanding this historical
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  setting prevents us from turning these men into flawless idols.
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  Precisely. But I understand they did not
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  face lions. They still suffered immensely
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  though, right? I mean, Simeon was ostracized
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  for years, Wilberforce suffered from severe physical ailments
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  and massive political defeats. He was sick constantly, yeah.
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  And Newton had to live with the horrors of his past.
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  So if these men are considered heroes of the faith, who held
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  the line, why does the author feel ambivalent about their
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  biographies? That word sticks out, doesn't
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  it? It really does.
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  I read that word ambivalent in the material and it caught me
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  off guard. Why should we feel ambivalent
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  about reading the life story of someone who fought the slave
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  trade? Well, the ambivalence does not
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  come from a lack of respect for their achievements.
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  The author respects them highly, but it stems from a theological
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  concept called total depravity along with the reality of human
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  finitude. OK, total depravity.
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  Let us unpack that for a moment, because it sounds like a very
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  severe term. It does sound harsh, but it does
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  not mean that every human being is as evil as they could
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  possibly be. Like everyone is a serial
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  killer. Right.
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  No, that is not what it means. Rather, it means that the stain
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  of the fall, the reality of human sin, has touched and
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  corrupted every single faculty of a person.
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  So their mind, their will, their emotions and their actions.
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  Yes, all of it. Think of it like putting a
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  single drop of dark ink into a clear glass of water.
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  Oh wow, yeah, the whole glass gets tinted.
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  Exactly. Or well, precisely that because
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  of this, every human account, no matter how inspiring, is
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  stained. It is culturally narrow.
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  I see. So when we read a biography of
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  Newton or Simeon, you're seeing a heavily edited, fragmented
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  picture. You are No historian or
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  biographer, no matter how skilled they are, can gather the
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  whole weight of a person's suffering.
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  So you're saying we only get the highlight reel or even the low
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  light reel, but never the full truth of their internal
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  struggles? Yes, they cannot document the
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  secret history of grace in a person's soul, or those quiet
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  moments of massive doubt and failure.
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  At 3:00 in the morning we see only fragments.
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  Which makes sense. Only God sees the whole picture.
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  Right. And the text insists that we
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  must distrust the proud tone of modern biographies that claim to
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  have the final definitive word on any historical figure.
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  All human witnesses are finite creatures.
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  It's blind spots. Huge blind spots, their personal
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  sins, their biases, and the assumptions of their British
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  imperial culture all intrude on their testimony.
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  Therefore, a biography of Charles Simeon cannot be the
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  ultimate anchor for your soul when your own life falls apart.
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  That makes a lot of sense. I like to think of human history
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  like a cracked provincial telescope.
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  Oh, I like that. Yeah, if you were trying to
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  study the stars, a telescope is a fantastic tool.
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  You're very glad to have it, sure.
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  But if the glass inside that telescope is flawed, smudged
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  with dirt, and very narrow in its focus, you cannot rely on
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  the glass itself. You have to look through the
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  flawed glass to see the creator of the stars.
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  Right. The goal isn't to stare at the
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  glass. Yes, if you focus all your
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  attention on the cracked lens, studying the smudges and the
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  limitations of the telescope, you miss the blinding majesty of
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  the Galaxy it is pointing toward.
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  You cannot build your life on the telescope.
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  That analogy captures the dynamic perfectly.
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  The telescope is ministerial. It assists you, but it is not
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  authoritative. It is a.
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  Tool, not the foundation, yes. The writings of men, the
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  biographies of great leaders are fallible.
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  They can point you in the right direction, but they cannot
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  sustain you when the pressure is truly crushing.
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  So if human history is a cracked lens, then the believer must
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  find an unblemished infinite resource somewhere else.
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  And that is where the conversation has to shift.
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  We have to move away from the imperfect records of men and
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  turn toward the divine revelation of Scripture.
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  Which brings us directly into the classroom of the Old
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  Testament and specifically the context of Romans chapter 15,
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  verse 4. Yes, the Apostle Paul wrote
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  these words to the church at Rome, and that was a
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  congregation uniquely composed of both Jewish and Gentile
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  believers. Let us set the scene for that
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  church because it was not a calm, peaceful Sunday school
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  environment. Far from it.
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  That church was under immense pressure from every side.
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  I mean, they were dealing with the external threat of living in
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  the capital of a Pagan empire, but they're also tearing each
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  other apart internally over massive cultural differences.
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  Rome was the epicenter of the known world.
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  It was filled with complex social layers, ethnic tensions,
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  religious pluralism and just rampant moral corruption.
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  Tough place to plant a church. Very tough.
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  And inside the Roman Church, you had Jewish believers who had
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  grown up strictly adhering to Old Testament dietary laws,
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  Sabbath observances and ritual purity.
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  They had centuries of tradition. Right.
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  And sitting right next to them in the gathering were Gentile
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  believers who had been saved out of paganism.
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  And those Gentiles felt absolutely no obligation to
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  those ancient Jewish customs. So you have.
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  Bacon eaters and non bacon eaters trying to share a
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  fellowship meal. Basically, yes.
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  And this created intense, bitter disputes the group Paul calls
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  the strong. We're tempted to flaunt their
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  freedom and look down on the others.
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  While the group he calls the weak, we're tempted to judge and
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  condemn the strong. The church was a pressure cooker
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  of clashing consciences. And right in the middle of that
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  pressure cooker, Paul writes Romans 15, verse four.
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  He tells them that the former writings, meaning the Old
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  Testament Scriptures, were written for their instruction.
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  That is a wild claim for a divided room.
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  It is. It is so common today for
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  believers to treat the Old Testament like a dusty Museum of
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  antiquities. You walk in, you look at David's
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  slingshot or Moses's staff behind a pane of glass, you
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  admire the historical artifacts, and then you leave the museum to
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  go live your modern life. That is a very modern habit,
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  viewing it as just a historical record.
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  But Paul completely rejects that museum mindset.
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  He treats the Old Testament as a present day classroom where the
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  living God is actively instructing his household.
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  He tells this divided church that those ancient texts were
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  not preserved for curiosity or nostalgia or academic display.
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  So what are they for? They provide a spirit intended
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  treasury designed specifically to help a multi ethnic divided
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  church learn how to practice cruciform love.
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  Cruciform love, meaning love shaped like the cross.
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  Yes, love that takes the shape of the cross, characterized by
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  self sacrifice and bearing with one another.
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  The curriculum of that Old Testament classroom is endurance
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  and encouragement. In the source text, investigates
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  the specific Greek word for perseverance used in this
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  passage, right? It does.
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  The word is hoopamoni. We really need to break this
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  word down because it is entirely different from the way the
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  modern world thinks about endurance.
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  Let us unpack that. Because when I hear perseverance
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  or endurance, I immediately picture a Stoic philosopher.
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  Just a blank face accepting the pain.
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  Yeah, I picture someone gritting their teeth, suppressing their
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  emotions and just accepting a terrible fate because they
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  cannot change it. The whole British stiff upper
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  lip mentality. How is Hoopamona different from
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  that? Well, Stoicism is a passive,
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  fatalistic resignation to your circumstances.
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  It is deciding that the universe is unfeeling, so you must become
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  unfeeling to survive it. Which is pretty bleak.
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  Extremely bleak, but Hoopamone is the exact opposite.
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  It is a muscular, active, unrelenting, holding up under
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  massive, crushing pressure. So it is not passive at all.
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  Not even a little. Think of a powerlifter at the
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  very bottom bottom of a heavy squat.
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  Oh that is a great image. Right.
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  The weight across their shoulders is enormous.
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  They are not passively accepting the weight.
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  Every muscle is firing actively pushing back against the
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  downward force to stand back up. They are fighting the weight.
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  Yes, Hoopa Moni is the spiritual equivalent of that.
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  It is the steady capacity to remain under severe trial
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  without apostasy, without falling into bitterness and
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  without surrendering. It is a grace cultivated
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  steadfastness. Exactly.
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  I mean spot on. It is where the believer remains
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  beneath God's providential burden without throwing off
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  obedience or accusing God of doing evil.
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  But wait, hold on. If you are going to exert that
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  kind of massive muscular spiritual effort to hold up a
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  crushing weight, there has to be a reason.
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  No powerlifter gets under a massive bar just for the fun of
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  being crushed. They do it to win a competition
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  or to build strength for a specific goal.
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  So what is all this muscular effort directed toward?
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  And this brings us to a massive clash with modern culture.
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  Yes, the source material talks about the teleology of Christian
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  perseverance, the idea that the destination is what matters, not
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  the trip. And honestly, the text is
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  incredibly harsh toward the secular romanticism of our
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  current culture. The clash is severe.
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  The secular philosophy of our current age constantly bombards
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  you with the idea that the process is the prize.
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  It is the climb, right? Right.
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  You hear it in commencement speeches, you read it in modern
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  poetry, and it is the bedrock of therapeutic spirituality.
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  The mantra is always it is about the trip, not the destination.
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  But the source text exposes this idea as a bloodless, joyless
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  heresy. Does it argues that those who
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  glorify the present process, those who say the journey is all
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  that matters, simply have not tasted what Christians have
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  tasted regarding the promises of God?
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  I have to play devil's advocate here because I think a lot of
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  listeners would vigorously defend the idea of enjoying the
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  process. Sure, it sounds nice on a
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  greeting card. Doesn't the daily mundane
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  process of life have immense value?
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  Think about the small things. Drinking a good cup of coffee on
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  a quiet morning. Watching your kids play in the
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  yard. Enjoying a good meal with
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  friends. Those are all good gifts.
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  So why is the text so hostile to prioritizing those present
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  experiences? It almost sounds like we're
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  supposed to be miserable right now, grit our teeth and just
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  wait to die so we can go to heaven.
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  That is a fair push back, but the text is not suggesting that
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  a good cup of coffee or a meal with friends lacks value.
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  It is clarifying a matter of sequence and wait.
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  OK, sequence and wait. Explain that.
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  The daily process only has true, lasting value because the
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  destination is guaranteed. Let us test the secular
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  philosophy under pressure. The trip is what matters.
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  Sounds beautiful when you are young, healthy and successful.
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  When the trip is fun, basically. Right.
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  But what happens when the trip involves a terminal cancer
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  diagnosis? What happens when the trip
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  involves the tragic loss of a child or living in a war zone?
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  Oh man, yeah. If the process is the prize,
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  then for millions of suffering people the prize is sheer agony.
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  That is a heavy thought. If the hope of the destination
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  is vain, the joy of the present manages completely when
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  suffering arrived. That puts it in a completely
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  different light when the trip turns into a nightmare.
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  Telling someone to enjoy the ride is actually cruel.
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  It is incredibly cruel. You need to know that the
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  nightmare has an end and that the end is glorious.
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  Yes, the source brings in the Apostle Paul's words in
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  Philippians chapter one, verse 21.
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  For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is game.
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  And it also cites Romans chapter 8 verse 18, which states that
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  the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
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  with the glory that is to be revealed.
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  Christian striving is entirely teleological.
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  That means it is aimed at a definitive, guaranteed end.
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  Think of an Archer firing an arrow.
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  The flight of the arrow matters, but only because it is heading
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  toward a target. Without the target, it is just
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  flying aimlessly until it drops into the dirt.
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  Yes, the Calvary Rd. is a path of suffering, blood and tears,
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  but it is bearable exclusively because of the absolute
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  certainty of the coming resurrection.
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  The world praises the struggle for its own sake, but Scripture
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  tells you to press toward the mark for the prize.
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  And when people lose sight of that target, when they lose
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  sight of the resurrection and the glory of Christ, they start
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  panicking. Because the pressure of life
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  comes down, the process becomes painful, and because they do not
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  have a guaranteed destination, they grab onto anything nearby
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  to stay afloat. They desperately need an anchor
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  so they grab false ones. Exactly.
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  And the source material outlines several false anchors,
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  counterfeit theologies that the modern church reaches for when
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  the pressure hits. Let us spend some time breaking
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  these down, because they are incredibly common.
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  They are everywhere. The first one is pragmatism.
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  Let's talk about that. Pragmatism is the belief that
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  the church survives and thrives by employing whatever methods
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  attract the largest crowds or produce the most immediate,
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  visible results. It looks at the culture and asks
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  what works right now to get people in the door.
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  Yes, it treats the church like a corporate business.
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  If a specific doctrine offends people and lowers attendance,
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  the pragmatist will soften or remove that doctrine to maintain
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  the numbers. Which is a disaster under
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  pressure. A total disaster under pressure.
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  Pragmatism fails because it relies entirely on consumer
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  approval. When the culture turns hostile
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  toward Christianity, the crowds will leave and the pragmatic
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  church will collapse because it has no roots and eternal truth.
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  The next false anchor is liberal theology.
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  And we're not talking about political liberalism here,
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  right? We're talking about theological
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  liberalism. Very different things.
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  This is the attempt to edit the Bible to fit the changing times.
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  The liberal theologian looks at the supernatural claims of
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  scripture, like the virgin birth, the miracles, or the
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  bodily resurrection of Jesus, and says modern scientific
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  people cannot believe this anymore.
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  We need to strip away the supernatural elements and just
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  keep the moral teachings of Jesus.
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  And why does that fail when you are facing a crushing trial?
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  Because a God that you edit and create in your own image has no
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  capacity to rescue you. Spot on.
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  If you strip away the supernatural strength of God to
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  make the Bible more palatable to modern academics, you are left
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  with a weak humanistic philosophy.
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  It has no teeth. None, when you are standing by
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  the grave of a loved 1A moral teacher who stayed dead in a
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  tomb cannot offer you any hope. You need the miraculous,
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  supernatural, bodily resurrection of Christ to
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  guarantee your own future resurrection.
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  Liberal theology cuts the anchor line to the miraculous, leaving
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  you totally adrift. Which brings us to the third
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  counterfeit, which is the prosperity gospel.
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  Oh, this one is huge. This is the theology that
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  promises perfect health, immense financial wealth, and a life
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  free of suffering right now if you just have enough faith.
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  It is so popular but so destructive.
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  I like to compare the prosperity gospel to a very strong medical
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  painkiller. If you break your leg, a
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  painkiller will make you feel fantastic for a few hours.
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  It masks the symptoms completely.
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  But it does absolutely nothing to heal the broken bone.
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  Yes, the prosperity gospel acts the same way.
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  It pumps people full of positive thinking and promises of sudden
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  wealth. But what happens when the
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  painkiller wears off? What happens when the believer
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  gets sick and does not get healed or loses their job and
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  goes bankrupt? That is when the damage really
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  shows. When the reality of suffering
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  breaks through the illusion, the prosperity gospel turns into a
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  mechanism of condemnation. Because it blames the victim.
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  Yes, because it teaches that suffering is a result of a lack
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  of faith. The person who is sick or poor
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  is told that it is their own fault, they just did not believe
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  hard enough. That is heartbreaking.
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  It is. It utterly denies the biblical
• 19:44
  reality that God uses suffering to shape his children.
• 19:47
  Instead of providing steadfastness under trial, it
• 19:50
  produces despair and guilt. And we have the 4th counterfeit,
• 19:53
  which is mysticism. This one is more subtle.
• 19:56
  It is this is the tendency to seek private subjective
• 19:59
  impressions, feelings, or secret revelations outside the written
• 20:02
  Word of God. Like looking for a sign and
• 20:04
  everything. Exactly.
• 20:06
  A person facing a hard decision does not look at what the Bible
• 20:09
  commands. Instead, they wait for a feeling
• 20:12
  in their chest or a random sign in the sky to tell them what to
• 20:15
  do. Mysticism is dangerous because
• 20:17
  human emotions and subjective impressions are incredibly
• 20:20
  volatile. They change based on your
• 20:22
  circumstances, your physical health, or even what you had for
• 20:25
  breakfast. So true, I get a little cranky
• 20:27
  if I skip lunch. Right.
• 20:29
  If your anchor is a subjective feeling that God is near, what
• 20:32
  do you do when the crushing pressure of life causes you to
• 20:35
  feel completely? Abandoned.
• 20:37
  The feeling disappears. It does.
• 20:39
  The written word of God is objective.
• 20:41
  It remains true regardless of how you feel on any given
• 20:44
  Tuesday. That objective reality is key.
• 20:46
  Yes, and the primary theological error uniting all these
• 20:50
  counterfeits? Pragmatism, liberalism,
• 20:52
  prosperity, theology, and mysticism is the assumption that
• 20:55
  human endurance relies on the self.
• 20:57
  It all points back to human effort.
• 20:59
  It is an Armenian concept that places the burden of
• 21:02
  perseverance squarely on human shoulders.
• 21:05
  It looks to the finite creature for strength rather than looking
• 21:08
  to the infinite creator. Now we need to pause here for a
• 21:11
  moment, because the source material extends this critique
• 21:15
  into modern political and sociological ideologies.
• 21:18
  Yes, it takes the same theological lens and applies it
• 21:21
  to the modern culture wars. The text specifically names
• 21:24
  Marxist godless ideologies, critical race theory, and
• 21:28
  intersectionality. Now, I want to explicitly state
• 21:31
  to you, the listener, that we are neutrally reporting the
• 21:34
  author's theological stance on these topics.
• 21:37
  We are taking no sides on the political spectrum regarding
• 21:40
  critical race theory or Marxism. Right.
• 21:42
  Our goal is just to handle the source material accurately.
• 21:44
  We are simply explaining how the source text categorizes these
• 21:48
  frameworks. The text argues that true
• 21:51
  biblical justice must be grounded entirely in God's
• 21:54
  objective character and the Scriptures, not in secular
• 21:58
  sociological frameworks. That is correct.
• 22:00
  The author's point is to illustrate what happens when the
• 22:02
  Church detaches its ethics from the Scriptures and attempts to
• 22:05
  find its moral grounding in contemporary cultural theories.
• 22:08
  So it is about where the foundation lies.
• 22:10
  Yes. The argument is that any
• 22:13
  sociological framework, no matter how popular in the
• 22:16
  Academy, is a false anchor if it is not rooted in the flawless
• 22:19
  Word of God. The church must draw its
• 22:22
  definitions of justice, sin and reconciliation from biblical
• 22:26
  texts, not from secular philosophy.
• 22:28
  Let us reframe the analogy of the ship in the storm to
• 22:31
  understand how these anchors fail.
• 22:33
  Mechanically treating to survive a catastrophic life event using
• 22:37
  pragmatism, the prosperity gospel, or secular ideologies is
• 22:41
  like trying to survive a category 5 hurricane by tying
• 22:44
  your ship to a piece of floating driftwood.
• 22:46
  It. Might feel OK for a minute.
• 22:48
  Yeah, the driftwood might look buoyant, it might float
• 22:50
  alongside you on a calm day, but it has absolutely no connection
• 22:54
  to the solid sea bed below. When the massive waves come, the
• 22:57
  driftwood will just be tossed around with you and eventually
• 23:00
  it will pull you under. You need a real anchor.
• 23:02
  You have to anchor the heavy iron chain of your soul to the
• 23:04
  immovable seabed. And having stripped away the
• 23:07
  flawed historical heroes and these false cultural anchors,
• 23:10
  our conversation finally arise at that true seabed, which is
• 23:14
  Jesus Christ. Christ is the only foundation
• 23:16
  that can withstand the storm. The text points out its central
• 23:20
  thesis right here. The eternal reward that
• 23:23
  Christians are striving toward is not just a geographical place
• 23:27
  with streets of gold. Heaven isn't just an endless
• 23:30
  vacation. Right.
• 23:31
  Nor is it merely a release from physical pain.
• 23:34
  The reward is Christ Himself. The author references the Gospel
• 23:38
  of John chapter 17, verse 24, where Christ prays to the Father
• 23:42
  asking that believers will be with Him to see His glory.
• 23:45
  So the presence of Christ is the actual prize.
• 23:48
  Yes, the ultimate gain of death. The reason Paul can say to die
• 23:51
  is gain is the unmediated face to face presence of the Savior.
• 23:56
  Christ is not just the guide showing us how to endure, He is
• 23:59
  the goal of our endurance. I want to push back on something
• 24:02
  you just said, or at least ask for a deeper explanation.
• 24:05
  A lot of people look at Jesus and view him primarily as the
• 24:08
  ultimate heroic example of suffering.
• 24:10
  Which he is, but there is a danger there.
• 24:12
  They look at the cross and say wow, Jesus suffered so well.
• 24:17
  He did not complain, He forgave his enemies.
• 24:20
  I just need to copy his example when I go through hard times.
• 24:23
  Why is it dangerous to view Christ primarily as an example
• 24:27
  to imitate? Viewing Christ only as an
• 24:29
  example is dangerous because it leads directly to despair.
• 24:34
  This strikes at the very heart of the Law, gospel distinction,
• 24:37
  and the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone.
• 24:41
  How does it lead to despair? If Christ is only a heroic
• 24:44
  example for you to imitate, his absolute perfection will
• 24:47
  completely crush you with guilt. Because I can never live up to
• 24:50
  that standard. Yes, you will look at his
• 24:53
  flawless obedience under the torture of the cross, and then
• 24:55
  you will look at your own complaining bitter heart when
• 24:57
  someone simply cuts you off in traffic, and you will realize
• 25:01
  you are entirely failing to match his example.
• 25:03
  Oh man that is so true. I failed the test in traffic
• 25:05
  alone. We all do.
• 25:06
  If Jesus is just a model, he is a condemning model.
• 25:10
  The text stresses that his endurance was substitutionary.
• 25:12
  Meaning he did it in our place. Yes, He did not just suffer to
• 25:17
  show us how it is done. He suffered in our place.
• 25:20
  We need to understand the concepts of active and passive
• 25:23
  obedience. Let's break those down, because
• 25:25
  those sound like serious seminary terms.
• 25:27
  Yeah. How do active and passive
• 25:29
  obedience actually work in practice?
• 25:31
  OK, think of humanity as standing in a courtroom,
• 25:33
  completely bankrupt and guilty of massive crimes against an
• 25:37
  infinite God. Not a good situation to be in,
• 25:40
  no. We owe a debt of perfect
• 25:43
  obedience that we cannot pay, and we owe a penalty for our
• 25:46
  rebellion. Christ's active obedience refers
• 25:49
  to His perfect, sinless life. The way he lived every day.
• 25:52
  Yes, every day of his life he perfectly obeyed God's law,
• 25:56
  earning the absolute righteousness that we failed to
• 25:58
  earn. He secured the perfect grade on
• 26:00
  the test we failed. So he got the A plus for us.
• 26:03
  Exactly. And his passive obedience refers
• 26:05
  to his willingness to suffer and die on the cross.
• 26:08
  On the cross, He passively received the punishment, the
• 26:11
  wrath of God that was due to us for our crimes.
• 26:14
  He paid the massive debt. So he earned the perfect record
• 26:17
  we needed and he paid the horrible penalty we owed.
• 26:20
  Yes, because he endured as a mediator satisfying divine
• 26:24
  justice. Believers endure from a position
• 26:27
  of total acceptance, not for acceptance.
• 26:30
  It is a massive distinction from acceptance.
• 26:33
  Not for it it. Changes everything.
• 26:35
  You are not striving under the pressure of life to earn your
• 26:38
  status as a child of God. You are striving because you
• 26:41
  have already been united to the sun by faith.
• 26:43
  The pressure is off in a sense. The crushing burden of having to
• 26:47
  earn your salvation or having to suffer perfectly has been
• 26:50
  entirely removed. That substitutionary reality is
• 26:53
  the only way a believer can find true, lasting hope when their
• 26:57
  own strength completely fails. That is a huge theological
• 27:00
  bedrock. But how does this immense
• 27:02
  reality change a normal Monday morning for you, the listener?
• 27:06
  How does this deep theology apply to the daily grind in the
• 27:08
  Pew? It.
• 27:09
  Brings it right down to earth. We are not just talking about
• 27:11
  facing execution for our faith. Most of us will never face a
• 27:14
  firing squad. The text provides a list of very
• 27:17
  ordinary, grueling burdens. The day-to-day stuff.
• 27:20
  Yeah, we are talking about chronic, nagging illnesses that
• 27:23
  never get better. We are talking about difficult,
• 27:26
  strained marriages that require daily patience.
• 27:29
  We are talking about the loneliness of singleness, the
• 27:32
  physical decay of aging, bitter congregational conflicts over
• 27:35
  trivial things, and the slow, agonizing mortification of your
• 27:40
  own persistent sins. Those ordinary burdens are
• 27:43
  precisely where Hoopa Mona is required.
• 27:46
  Steadfastness is required in the hidden prayer closet when you
• 27:49
  feel like God is not listening just as much as it is required
• 27:52
  in a tense elder meeting or sitting in a sterile hospital
• 27:55
  room waiting for test results. It is not just for the highlight
• 27:58
  reel moments. No, and the text assures the
• 28:01
  believer that God wastes absolutely none of these trials.
• 28:04
  That's so comforting. The command to hold firm meets
• 28:07
  us in the long, unglamorous obedience of forgiving the same
• 28:10
  offensive family member again and again.
• 28:12
  These ordinary daily pressures are the specific providential
• 28:16
  instruments God uses to forge tested character and
• 28:19
  indestructible hope within you. They are not accidents.
• 28:22
  The author also makes a strong call for corporate application.
• 28:26
  This is not just a solo endeavor.
• 28:29
  Churches must be schools of scriptural steadfastness, not
• 28:32
  theaters of religious consumption.
• 28:34
  That phrasing is convicting schools, not theaters.
• 28:38
  I think about how many churches today design their Sunday
• 28:41
  services to be a polished performance.
• 28:44
  The congregation sits in the dark like passive consumers,
• 28:48
  essentially grading the music and evaluating the sermon based
• 28:51
  on how entertained they. Were it turns believers into
• 28:54
  critics. Yes, exactly.
• 28:56
  But the text says the church is a classroom.
• 28:59
  Pastors must preach the whole council of God, the hard texts
• 29:02
  and the comforting texts, and church members must bear with
• 29:05
  one another because Christ has born with them.
• 29:07
  And the intended result of this corporate endurance is unified
• 29:10
  congregational worship. Romans 15 calls for believers to
• 29:13
  glorify God with one mind and one mouth.
• 29:16
  Which is a miracle, honestly. Think about how radical that is
• 29:18
  for a multi ethnic diverse group of people who naturally disagree
• 29:22
  on countless issues. Putting all those different
• 29:24
  people in one room. Right When a church is actively
• 29:27
  fed by the solid food of the Scriptures, when it collectively
• 29:30
  rejects the false anchors of pragmatic culture, and when it
• 29:33
  fixes its eyes exclusively on the substitutionary work of
• 29:36
  Christ, something amazing happens.
• 29:38
  The infighting stops. It does.
• 29:40
  The congregation stops fighting over trivial preferences, the
• 29:44
  strong believers stop weaponizing their theological
• 29:47
  knowledge to win arguments, and the weaker believers stop
• 29:50
  policing everyone else with suspicion.
• 29:52
  They actually look at Christ instead of each other.
• 29:54
  They worship together because the sheer mercy of God has
• 29:57
  leveled the playing field and gathered them all.
• 29:59
  Wow. OK, to summarize the main flow
• 30:01
  of everything we have covered today, we cannot rely on the
• 30:04
  flawed provincial records of men, no matter how great their
• 30:07
  historical achievements were. Newton, Simeon, and Wilberforce
• 30:11
  are wonderful examples, but their cracked biographies cannot
• 30:15
  save you. They are just tools pointing to
• 30:17
  the real savior. Right.
• 30:18
  We cannot rely on the false promises of modern culture,
• 30:21
  whether that is the illusion of the prosperity gospel, the
• 30:24
  shifting sands of secular ideologies, or the empty advice
• 30:27
  to just enjoy the process. Those will all fail under
• 30:31
  pressure. We must anchor our hope in the
• 30:33
  perfect Scriptures which point us entirely away from ourselves
• 30:37
  and toward the substitutionary work, the sovereign reign, and
• 30:40
  the eternal face to face presence of Jesus Christ.
• 30:43
  That is the bedrock. And as we conclude our analysis
• 30:47
  of this material, I want to leave you with a final concept
• 30:49
  to Mull over throughout your week.
• 30:51
  Let's hear it. Consider the possibility that
• 30:53
  the crushing pressures and trials you face today, the
• 30:56
  illnesses, the relational conflicts, the financial fears
• 31:00
  are not random interruptions to your life.
• 31:03
  What if they have a purpose? Yes.
• 31:05
  What if they are the precise province potential mechanisms
• 31:08
  designed by God to detach your affections from the fleeting
• 31:11
  comforts of this present age? Wow.
• 31:14
  What if God is using that pressure to break your reliance
• 31:16
  on the cracked telescopes in the floating driftwood, ensuring
• 31:20
  that your heart is fixed exclusively on the solid reality
• 31:22
  of the world to come? Going back to our opening
• 31:25
  thought, if you find yourself under that intense soul freshing
• 31:29
  pressure today, look at what you were standing on.
• 31:32
  If you were trusting in your own muscular effort or the false
• 31:35
  promises of the culture, you are building on sand.
• 31:38
  It will wash away. But through Christ and His
• 31:40
  flawless word, your foundation is set on solid rock.
• 31:44
  The ground will hold. Thank you for joining us on this
• 31:46
  deep dive on Reformed thinking.