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Love Proven by Obedience (John 14:15) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. So I want to start today's deep
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dive with a number that is, frankly pretty staggering.
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Yeah, it real caught me off guard when I read it in the
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source material. Right, so the number is 53%.
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According to a 2025 Cultural Research Center study, 53% of
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self identified Christians believe that doing good things
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earns a place in heaven. I mean, just think about that
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for a second. More than half.
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Yeah, if you walk into an average church on a Sunday
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morning, look around the pews and you know more than half the
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people sitting there think their own moral efforts are purchasing
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their salvation. It is wild, especially when you
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consider the history of the Protestant Reformation.
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We supposedly have all this theological clarity right at our
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fingertips. Well, yeah.
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And yet this statistic exposes a massive, I mean just a
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fundamental confusion about how grace and works actually relate
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to each other. It really does.
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It shows a huge disconnect in the modern church.
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Usually when we talked about a medical diagnosis, there is a
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certain expectation of precision.
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Like you break your arm, the X-ray shows that jagged white
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line and the doctor just points and says there it is.
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Right, it is binary broken or not broken.
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Exactly. It is clean.
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We like things to be visible and categorized neatly without any
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ambiguity. But then you step into the world
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of human theology, specifically how we diagnose the state of a
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person's soul, and suddenly that X-ray machine seems completely
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busted. Oh yeah, the diagnostic
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landscape gets incredibly murky very fast.
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So that is our mission for today.
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We are taking a deep dive into an intensive examination of a
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single highly significant sentence from the Gospel of
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John. John 14.15.
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If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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That is the one. Our goal today is to unpack 2
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specific theological articles that really dissect this verse.
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We want to analyze how they connect Christian affection with
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tangible, everyday obedience. Because this really touches on
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the very definition of what it means to be a follower of
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Christ. The sources we are looking at
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outline the central tension that has, you know, plagued the
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church for two millennia. It is the human tendency to
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separate God's grace from God's holiness.
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Precisely. And when we separate those two
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things, the authors argue, we fall into one of two very
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dangerous ditches. On one side you have legalism.
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Which is the error captured by that 53% statistic we mentioned.
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Yeah, exactly. People are trying to earn
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salvation through their own moral efforts.
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They view God as this harsh taskmaster, and they think they
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have to balance the scales of justice with their good deeds.
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Right. And then on the other side of
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the road you have the opposite ditch, you have antinomianism.
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Which is a big seminary word. Yeah, so for you listening who
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might not use that term everyday anti means against and no Moss
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means law. So it is the error of claiming
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you possess salvation and grace while living in active,
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unrepentant rebellion against God's commands.
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It is this idea that because grace is free, the law no longer
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matters at all. Right.
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And the source material makes it clear that both of these errors
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completely fail to grasp the actual biblical relationship
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between loving Christ and obeying Christ.
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So to understand how John 14.15 solves this tension, the
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analysis actually takes us away from modern statistics.
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It places us directly into the ancient setting we.
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Really have to understand the environment where these words
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were first spoken. Yeah, we are in the Upper Room
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in Jerusalem. It is the occasion of the
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Passover meal. And this is the very eve of the
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crucifixion. The shadow of the cross is
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falling so heavily over this room.
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Outside, Jerusalem is just packed with Passover pilgrims
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and the Roman Empire as maintaining this iron grip on
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Judea. Plus, the Jewish religious
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establishment is actively conspiring to kill Jesus.
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So I want you, the listener, to try and put yourself in that
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room for a second. Imagine your greatest mentor,
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your leader, your absolute closest friend.
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The person you gave up everything for.
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Right. You left your fishing Nets, your
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tax booths, your families. You followed this guy for three
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years and suddenly during dinner he announces he is leaving.
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And on top of that, you find out one of your inner circle has
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just turned a traitor. Yeah, Judas Iscariot has
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literally just walked out into the night to betray him.
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The emotional atmosphere in that room has to be pure dread, like
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the ground is completely shifting underneath their feet.
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And the ground is shifting in multiple ways.
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The theological commentary points out this critical,
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redemptive historical shift that is happening at this precise
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moment. Break that down for us.
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Well, Jesus is speaking to Jewish disciples who were raised
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entirely under the dispensation of the Mosaic Law.
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Their whole framework for relating to God was mediated
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through the Temple, the Levitical priesthood, the Torah.
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Right, that was their entire world.
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Yeah, but Jesus is actively preparing them for a new era,
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the church age or the dispensation of grace.
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Jesus is essentially replacing the authority of Yahweh as
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delivered through Moses with his own direct authority.
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OK, so let's pause and unpack this.
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Why give this specific command right at this terrifying moment?
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Like if you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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It feels, well, it feels like a very heavy demand to drop on
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guys who are currently terrified and weeping.
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It does seem harsh at first glance, but the text suggests
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that the disciples desperately needed a new paradigm for
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relating to Christ. Because they could not
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physically follow him anymore. Spot on up until this night.
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They express their devotion by physically following him from
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town to town. They listen to his teaching in
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person. They watched him perform
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miracles. But that was ending, and their
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devotion was about to be tested in terrifying ways, the sources
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note. They would face intense
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persecution, they would be dragged before the Sanhedrin,
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thrown in prison, and many would face martyrdom.
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Wow. Yes, sentimental tears and
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emotional declarations are not going to sustain you before an
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execution or sword. Exactly.
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Think about Peter. He emotionally declared he would
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die for Jesus and then what he denied him hours later.
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Emotional zeal is really fragile.
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So they needed a supernaturally driven obedience.
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Yes, Jesus is giving them a lifeline here.
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He is providing a new mechanism to maintain communion with Him
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after His ascension. That reframes the verse
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entirely. It is not some cold demand.
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It is an anchor. The emotional shock of his
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departure required a tether, something solid for them to hold
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onto. Right.
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And having established that historical tension, the source
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material moves to the literary placement of the verse within
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the Gospel of John. Because the surrounding
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sentences really define the meaning here, right?
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Absolutely. We are looking at what scholars
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call the farewell discourse that covers John 13 through 17.
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So looking at the immediate context, the verse is right
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before our focus text involve Jesus washing the disciples feet
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and then he gives them the new commandment to love one another
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in John 13.34. Yeah, that sets the stage.
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But wait, I have a major push back here.
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Great. Playing devil's advocate for the
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listener, if we read the verses right before John 14.1, Team
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Jesus promises to answer prayers in a very sweeping way.
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Right, and verses 13 and 14. Yeah, he says.
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Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.
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And then immediately after that massive promise, he demands
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obedience. I mean, doesn't this sound like
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a transaction? Like IO burnt your rules so you
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grant my wishes? I am so glad you brought that up
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because it is a common misunderstanding.
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The exegesis dismantles that transactional view by explaining
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the literary structure. Scholars refer to this specific
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arrangement as a textual sandwich.
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A textual sandwich I. Love it.
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It is a great visual. Verse 15 is the hinge or the
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meat of the sandwich. In verses 13 and 14, Jesus
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offers unlimited access to the throne of grace through prayer.
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OK, then you have verse 15, the call to loving obedience, and
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then immediately following in verses 16 and 17, Jesus promises
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the Holy Spirit calling him the Helper.
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Oh, I see. Yeah.
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The analysis argues forcefully that you cannot preach or even
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understand verse 15 without verse 16.
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Obedience is wedged directly between prevailing prayer and
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the Holy Spirit's enablement. So the placement means we're not
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supposed to just drum up this obedience through our own
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willpower. Not at all.
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Because if you isolate verse 15, you just get pure legalism.
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You get a cold, unyielding in command that you have to somehow
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execute in your own strength. Precisely.
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But placed within the sandwich, you see that the obedience
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Christ requires is entirely surrounded by divine provision.
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We pray to the Father, the Spirit enables the heart, and
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then we obey the Son. That is beautiful.
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And the sources also point out a literary device called an
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inclusio, right? Yes, an inclusio.
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It is a bracketing technique used by ancient writers to frame
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a sensual thought. So how does Jesus use it here?
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Well, he repeats this theme a few verses later in John 14.21.
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He says whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he
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it is who loves me. And he states it again in verse
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23. If anyone loves me, he will keep
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my word. So he just keeps hammering the
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same point. Yeah, this repetition proves
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that love is the driving engine of Christian duty.
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It is the core theme John is communicating in this entire
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section. OK, so with that literary
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structure clear, the authors take us into the original Greek
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grammar, and I have to say, this is where it gets incredibly
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fascinating. Oh, absolutely.
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The Greek grammar here is so precise.
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Yeah, the sources show how a single verb tense completely
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destroys the concept of workspace salvation.
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Let's break it down. The Greek structure here is what
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grammarians call a third class conditional sentence.
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OK, stick with us here folks. What does that mean?
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It features a Protesis, which is the if clause establishing a
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condition, and then an Apidosis which is the then clause
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establishing the necessary result.
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So if you love me is the condition.
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Right, and you will keep my commandments is the result.
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This dictates A strict unbreakable cause and effect
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relationship. The love must come first.
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Wow, so the text does not say if you keep my commandments then I
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will love you. Exactly.
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The syntax close in One Direction only.
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It moves from internal affection to external action.
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But we need to define the word love used here because Greek is
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famously precise with its vocabulary for love.
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We have words for romantic love, familial love, brotherly
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affection. Which one is Jesus using in this
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critical sentence? The verb here is agapow.
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The commentary clarifies that this is not filio.
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Filio being like brotherly, affectionate fondness, right?
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Like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.
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Yeah, exactly. Agapow is different.
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It is a volitional, self sacrificing dedication.
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It is a love of the will. A love of the will.
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I like that phrasing. It is a love that seeks the
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absolute best for its object, even at great personal cost.
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This is a covenantal attachment to the Son of God.
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It is not just a passing emotional feeling or, you know,
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a warm shiver during a worship song.
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Now the. Sources bring up a textual
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variant that changes how we read the entire second-half of the
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verse. When scholars examine the
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ancient manuscripts of the Gospel of John, there is a
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variation in the Greek. Yes, this is a crucial insight.
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The later Byzantine manuscripts use the Greek word teresate,
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that is an imperative command. It translates to an aggressive
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keep, as in if you love me, keep my commandments.
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Right, it reads like an order. But the older, more reliable
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Alexandrian manuscripts like Papyrus 66 and Codex Sinaticus,
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they use the word Teresate with an E that is a future active
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indicative tense. It translates to.
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You will keep. And this is a massive
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theological distinction. The difference between an
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imperative and an indicative is the difference between a demand
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and a statement of fact. Let me use a medical analogy to
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make this clear for the listener.
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Think about the difference between a doctor standing over a
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patient in a hospital bed and yelling a command.
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Breathe. Right.
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An imperative. Versus a doctor stating A
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biological fact to the family in the waiting room.
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If your loved one is alive, they will breathe.
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That is such a helpful way to look at.
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It right One is an order attempting to force an action,
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the other is just a statement of reality describing the natural
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result of life. That analogy perfectly captures
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the exegesis. The future active indicative
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means the verse is a prophetic statement of fact.
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Genuine volitional love for Christ inevitably and naturally
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produces the fruit of obedience. So Jesus is declaring a
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spiritual certainty, yes. If the root of agape love is
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present in the heart, the future fruit of obedience will
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undeniably follow. We also need to define that word
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keep. What does it mean to keep a
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commandment in this context? Because my mind immediately goes
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to keeping the speed limit, which is just begrudging
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compliant so I do not get a ticket.
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Yeah, we tend to think of it as just following the rules so we
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don't get in trouble, but the Greek word is tario.
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Tario OK. The sources define this by
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looking at extra biblical literature of the Greco Roman
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world. Therio is commonly used to
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describe a warden carefully guarding a prisoner or a steward
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meticulously protecting a priceless treasure.
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Oh wow, so it is active. Very active.
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It implies watchful care, preservation, and diligent
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observance. It means you do not treat the
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words of Christ as negotiable ideals or burdensome intrusions.
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You guard them fiercely. Yes, you protect them from
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compromise. You treat them like gold.
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OK, so having taken this deep dive into ancient Greek grammar,
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the source material brings these ancient realities directly into
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the modern church. The texts actually use this
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verse to launch a heavy critique of current theological trends.
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They really do. They draw some very sharp battle
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lines regarding human nature. Let's get into that.
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What are the specific theological concepts they pull
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from this? Well, the analysis highlights
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several specific reformed concepts embedded in this text.
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The 1st is Total depravity. OK, total depravity.
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Drawing on Romans 8.7, the argument is that humans in their
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natural fallen state are hostile to God and possess an absolute
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inability to naturally love Christ.
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So the natural mind does not submit to God's law, and
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actually it cannot do so, right? Because of this total depravity,
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if someone truly loves Jesus with that volitional agapea
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love, it requires A monarchistic work.
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Let's clarify that for the listener.
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Monarchistic means a work done by one party alone, as opposed
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to synergistic, which would be a cooperative effort between two
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parties. Correct.
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The text insists on a monarchistic work of
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regeneration by the Holy Spirit. God has to remove the heart of
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stone and replace it with a heart of flesh.
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A human cannot generate this Agapal love on their own by
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sheer willpower. No, it is impossible.
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It must be a supernatural gift granted by God.
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And this leads directly to the author's attack on what they
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call the carnal Christian doctrine.
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A lot of people call this easy believism.
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Right, which is highly prevalent today.
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It is the popular idea that you can accept Jesus as Savior to
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secure your afterlife, getting your ticket to heaven while
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permanently rejecting Him as Lord over your daily life.
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The logic of John 14.1 day makes that completely impossible.
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Yeah. If you love him, you will keep
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his commandments. If you do not keep his
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commandments, you do not love him.
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The two realities are fused together.
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And the sources clearly articulate the Reformed
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distinction between justification and sanctification
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here. That is a vital distinction.
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Let's lay that out. So just is the legal declaration
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that a Sinner is righteous before God.
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This is achieved by faith alone, entirely apart from works.
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Right. But the faith that justifies is
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never alone. Exactly.
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It always inevitably produces works of sanctification.
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Obedience is the visible evidence of salvation, not the
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root cause of it. The authors actually bring in
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some heavy hitters from church history to back this up.
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There is this sharp quote from Charles Spurgeon, the famous
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19th century preacher. He said there's no repentance
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where a man can talk lightly of sin.
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Man, that cuts right to the heart of it.
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It really does. You can't claim to love the
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Savior while casually indulging in what put him on the cross.
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The text also references Jonathan Edwards and his famous
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work, A Treatise concerning Religious Affections.
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Oh yeah, Edwards is huge on this topic.
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Edwards argued that true grace always manifests in holy
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practice. He warned against relying on
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subjective feelings or emotional experiences.
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For Edwards, you cannot have the invisible root of affection
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without the highly visible fruit of submission.
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So these historical figures demonstrate that the modern
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concept of a Christian who lives in perpetual unrepentant
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rebellion, that is a total theological invention.
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It just does not exist within the biblical framework.
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No, it is a complete contradiction of terms.
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I want to pause here, though, and address the psychological
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weight of this text. I am thinking about you, the
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listener right now. Because if the standard is
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unbroken obedience, if we are supposed to be like wardens
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fiercely guarding a treasure, then everyone fails.
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We absolutely do. We all break the commandments,
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we all lose our temper, we harbor pride, we fall short
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daily. If the X-ray is broken or not
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broken, then it seems like we are all broken.
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Does this mean if I sin today I never really loved Jesus?
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This first could easily become a crushing weight of guilt.
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And that is a very real, very pastoral concern.
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But the theological analysis anticipates that exact fear.
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It provides a massive theological relief by connecting
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this verse to the person of Christ himself.
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How so? The argument rests on the
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reality that Jesus is the ultimate law keeper.
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This brings us to the crucial distinction between Christ's
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active obedience and his passive obedience.
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OK, let's breakdown the mechanics of those two terms.
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How does this actually work? Let's start with passive.
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Passive obedience refers to Jesus dying on the cross to pay
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the penalty for the failures and sins of his people.
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He passively received the wrath of God.
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OK, so he absorbed the punishment the law demanded for
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our disobedience. Right, But then you have active
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obedience. That refers to the fact that
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Jesus lived a completely perfect, sinless life of total
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submission to the law of God. From his birth all the way to
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his death. Yes, he actively kept every
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single commandment in thought, word and deed.
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So passive obedience removes our negative record.
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It takes us from a negative balance back to 0, but active
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obedience is what gives us the positive record of righteousness
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that. Is a great way to summarize it.
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It is like taking a final exam where you know you were going to
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fail, but the teacher steps in, takes the penalty for your wrong
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answers, which is the passive obedience, and then the teacher
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hands you their own test paper with a perfect score on it,
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writing your name at the top. That perfect score is the act of
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obedience. That is a brilliant way to
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visualize the concept of imputation.
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Imputation is the legal reckoning of Christ's perfect
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score to our account. OK, that makes sense.
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And the text portrays Christ fulfilling 3 specific roles
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here, prophet, priest and king. How do those tell him?
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Well, as prophet he speaks the law and reveals God's will
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perfectly. As King he demands loyalty and
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submission from his subjects, but as priest he atones for our
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failure to keep that. Law.
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So we love him and obey him because he first perfectly loved
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the Father and perfectly obeyed for us.
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Exactly. Our flawed, stumbling obedience
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is acceptable to God only because it is filtered through
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Christ perfection. The text also includes A brief
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note on the dispensational viewpoint regarding the Kingdom
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doesn't. It does.
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The authors argue that Christ rules spiritually now in the
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Church age, which is an eschatological anticipation of
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his physical millennial return. So when believers obey Christ
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today, they are manifesting the invisible Kingdom of God in a
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rebellious world. Right.
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Anticipating the day he returns to rule physically, the heavy
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burden of the law is lifted by the gospel.
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The command drives us to the gospel because we realize we
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cannot keep it perfectly. And then the gospel saves us and
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empowers us to return to the command with gratitude rather
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than terror. That is the beautiful cycle of
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grace and obedience. That brings us perfectly to the
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Practical application section of our deep dive.
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How does this theological framework reshape the daily life
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of the listener? The sources introduce a concept
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from Chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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It is called the third use of the law, or the tertious uses
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lidges. Right, so the reformers
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identified 3 uses of the moral law.
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The first use is just to restrain evil in society.
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Like basic civil laws against murder and theft.
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Yes, the second use is as a mirror.
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It shows us our sin and drives us to Christ for salvation.
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And the third use. The third use of the law teaches
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that while the law is no longer a covenant of works that
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condemns the believer to hell, it remains a perfect rule of
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life. It functions to guide our
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grateful obedience. So we do not look at the
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commandments out of a slavish fear of damnation.
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No, not at all. We look at them as a loving
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guide for how to please the Savior who already rescued us.
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Now at this point, we're going to outline the aggressive
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pushback the sources make against modern philosophies.
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And I want to be very clear here we are sharing the specific
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cultural critiques made by the source authors.
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For you listening, please know we are acting purely as neutral
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reporters of the texts contents here.
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We're not taking political sides, we are just outlining the
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arguments presented in our deep dive materials.
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Yes, it is vital to understand the author's perspective here,
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as they apply the theology very directly to modern cultural
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debates. So the texts argue forcefully
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against the social justice movement in critical race
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theory. The authors enabled these
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ideologies has alien laws. They call them false
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commandments of intersectionality and perpetual
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grievance. The analysis asserts that the
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world is trying to force Christians to keep secular
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commandments regarding equity and privilege rather than
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biblical commandments regarding holiness and forgiveness.
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And the authors do not just stop at external cultural critiques,
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they also target specific movements within the church
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itself. Yeah, they launch critiques
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against liberal theology, which they say praises Jesus, ethics
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and moral teachings while denying his divine authority and
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physical resurrection. They also target seeker
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sensitive pragmatism, arguing it reduces Christianity to felt
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needs and consumerism. And they critique the prosperity
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gospel. They say it measures love for
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Christ by earthly financial comfort rather than faithful
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suffering obedience. Plus, they reject subjective
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mysticism. They define that as seeking
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fresh private revelations while neglecting the written objective
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commands of Scripture. The central argument tying all
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this together is that all of these movements substitute
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Christ's written authoritative commands for human inventions.
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Moving from the macro level to the micro, the texts offer very
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specific, practical directives for daily life as well.
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They argue that keeping Christ's commandments requires committing
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to a local church body. Yes, especially in a post
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pandemic world. The authors criticize the habit
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of just consuming online sermons.
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They argue you have to engage in local church discipline,
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participate in the sacraments, and offer physical service to
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one another. Furthermore, the sources apply
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this text directly to the home. They argue for biblical
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complementarianism in marriage, citing Ephesians 5.
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They state that a husband keeping Christ's commands will
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love his wife sacrificially, and a wife keeping Christ's commands
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will submit to her husband's leadership.
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Right. And according to the authors,
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rebelling against God's design for the home is a direct failure
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to keep the commandments of John 14.15.
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But, and this is so important, alongside these firm, unyielding
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directives, the sources provide a crucial pastoral balance.
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Thank goodness, because that list of directives can feel
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pretty heavy. It can.
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The authors understand that a tender conscience might feel
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terrified by this verse. A sincere person might look at
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their life, see their imperfect obedience, see their daily
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failures, and conclude they do not truly love Christ.
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So how do the authors comfort that person?
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The text makes a vital distinction between weakness and
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settled rebellion. OK, let's look at that.
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A hypocrite makes room for settled rebellion.
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They cherish their sin, they excuse it, and they defend it.
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Right, but a stumbling St. grieves their sin.
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They mourn their lack of perfect obedience.
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The authors point out that a dead heart does not mourn
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coldness toward Christ. That is such a huge point.
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Let me say that again for the listener.
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A dead heart does not mourn coldness toward Christ.
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If you are mourning your sin and desiring to obey Him more fully,
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that mourning is actually a sign of spiritual life.
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Exactly. The bruised Reed, as the text
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calls it, will not be broken by Christ.
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That is the comfort of the gospel.
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Our obedience is real, but it is not our Savior.
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Christ is our Savior. And the future active indicative
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guarantees that the fruit will be there, even if it is
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sometimes small or blighted by our remaining flesh.
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So to synthesize the massive ground we have covered today
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during this deep dive, true love for Christ is not a passing
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feeling. It is not a check box of
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religious duties to earn favor. No, it is a spirit empowered
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volitional submission to His word.
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The root is affection, the fruit is obedience.
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You cannot have one without the other.
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And that obedience is guaranteed by the future active indicative
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reality of the text, fueled by the Holy Spirit and covered by
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the perfect, active and passive obedience of Christ our Priest.
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It is a complete holistic view of the Christian life.
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I. Want to leave?
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Leave you with a final thought to ponder that builds on
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everything we've discussed today.
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If true love for Christ makes us fiercely guard His commandments
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like a warden guarding A priceless treasure, consider how
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you interact with the things you truly love in your daily life.
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Think about your hobbies, your family, your career, your
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financial investments. You make time for them, you
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protect them. You study them.
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You rearrange your schedule for them.
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Ask yourself, does your relationship to the words of
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Jesus look anything like the way you treat the earthly treasures
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you fiercely guard? We started this conversation by
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talking about diagnostic Muddy Waters and 53% of churchgoers
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believing they can earn their way to heaven.
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But John 14.1 Fan gives us a perfectly clear image.
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It shows us what a living, beating regenerate heart looks
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like. It certainly does.
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Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into the source
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material. Keep pursuing truth.