Latest / Reformed Thinking / Constrained by the Crucified and Risen Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

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Constrained by the Crucified and Risen Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-15) · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about getting a medical
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diagnosis, there is this clear exectation of recision, like
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engineering, right? You break your arm, the X-ray
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shows that jagged white line on the screen.
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The doctor just oints en at it and says there it is, right?
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Broken or not broken? Yeah, it is clean, it is visible
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and honestly it is very comforting.
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We like things to be visible like that.
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We like things to be categorized.
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We can formulate a, you know, a five step plan to fix them.
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Oh definitely. We love a system.
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But then you look at the modern landscape of spirituality,
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psychology, and just the human condition in general, and
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suddenly that X-ray machine is completely busted.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is entirely
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murky. Think about it, you live in a
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modern world that constantly demands you find yourself.
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The overarching message of our culture is that you must be the
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absolute master of your own destiny.
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You are the captain of your soul.
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So naturally we want an X-ray that just shows us how to fix
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our self esteem, how to optimize our mourning habits, how to
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manifest our best possible lives.
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Right. We basically want a religion
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that operates like a high end life coach.
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Precisely, but the text we are looking at today asserts the
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absolute opposite of all those cultural assumptions.
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O Welcome to reformed thinking. Today's Deep Dive investigates 2
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rigorous theological treatises analyzing the words of the
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Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
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Specifically, we're looking at verses 14 and 15.
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And the argument laid out here is staggering.
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It asserts that true Christian existence means your right to
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self rule has been utterly legally executed.
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Executed, yeah. And far from being a tragedy,
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you are now happily constrained by someone else.
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That tension between self rule and absolute submission is the
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core issue here. It presents a reality the
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natural human mind furiously rebels against.
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Because it sounds entirely restrictive to modern ears.
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It does. So our goal for this
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conversation is to trace Paul's logic from the historical event
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of the cross all the way to the total conquering of human
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autonomy. We are going to demonstrate from
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these treatises that the Gospel as presented in these specific
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verses is not a tool for self improvement.
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It's not a life hack. No, it is a hostile takeover by
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a resurrected King. Paul is setting up a legal,
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objective reality here. The substitutionary death of
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Christ on behalf of His chosen people executes the old self.
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It puts a definitive end to the tyrannical rule of self
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preservation. And that action binds the elect
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to an entirely new Christ centered existence.
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Yeah, the objective finished work of Christ acts as an
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inescapable force. It shuts down all options for a
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self-directed life. But to comprehend this, we
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really have to grasp the mechanics of substitution, the
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nature of federal headship, and the total claim of the
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resurrected monarch over every faculty of the redeemed
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individual. OK, let's slow down and unpack
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this piece by piece because it really grasps why Paul's message
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was so radical, I mean, and why it still is today.
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We have to look at who he was talking to.
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We need to reconstruct the environment.
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But he do. Context is everything here.
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Right, We aren't talking about a quiet, contemplative monastery
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full of monks taking vows of silence.
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He was writing to the city of Corinth around 8055 or 56 and
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from the historical data in the text we reviewed, this place was
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a hyper competitive, flesh driven atmosphere.
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It actually bears a striking resemblance to a modern bustling
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metropolis it. Really does.
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Can you paint a picture for us? What would it actually look,
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smell and feel like to walk the streets of Corinth back then?
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Well, physically, Corinth was strategically positioned on a
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narrow isthmus. It was the strip of land
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connecting mainland Greece with the Peloponnese Peninsula, and
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this specific geography gave the city control over 2 massive
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harbors. You had Lingayon on the
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Corinthian Gulf facing West toward Italy, and Suncrea on the
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Saronic Gulf facing east toward Asia.
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Because of this layout, it was an absolute juggernaut of a
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commercial hub. Ancient merchants were terrified
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of sailing around the treacherous southern coast of
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Greece. Because of the weather.
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Yeah, shipwrecks were incredibly common down there.
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So instead they would literally drag their cargo ships across
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the land bridge on a paved stone trackway.
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It was called the Dilcos. Wait, they dragged the actual
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ships across the land? They did.
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Consequently, the city was perpetually flooded with a
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transient population, sailors, traders, Friedman hucksters and
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wandering philosophers from every corner of the Roman
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Empire. We're constantly moving through
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the streets. So it was basically the ancient
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equivalent of an airport terminal mixed with Wall Street.
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Just constant motion, money changing hands and a massive
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clash of cultures. That is a highly accurate
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comparison. And because of that massive
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influx of wealth, it was a culture defined by gross
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materialism, intense status seeking, and just relentless
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social display. Very much like today.
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Very much. They also hosted the Ismian
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Games every two years. These were massive athletic and
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rhetorical competitions dedicated to the cult of
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Poseidon. They were second only to the
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Olympics and prestige. Yeah, winners receive crowns of
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pine or celery. But more significantly, they won
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immense social capital. The whole city was geared toward
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competition. Furthermore, towering 1000 feet
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above the city was the Acro Corinth.
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What was that? It was this monolithic rock
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fortress housing the notorious Temple of Aphrodite which
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heavily influenced the moral climate of the city.
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The entire society prized rhetorical elegance, visual
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prestige, visible wealth, and ruthless personal self promotion
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above all else. So into this Vanity Fair walks
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the Apostle Paul, and he is trying to establish a church.
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But he's not the only voice there.
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The material introduces this group of antagonists that Paul
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sarcastically labels the Super apostles.
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Let's talk about these guys. Who were they and how are they
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managing to turn the Corinthian church against Paul?
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These super apostles were counter missionaries.
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They arrived in Corinth specifically to challenge Paul's
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authority and essentially hijack the congregation.
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They showed up armed with glowing letters of
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recommendation from influential people, basically brandishing
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their ancient academic credentials.
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They constantly boasted of their pure Hebrew heritage, framing
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themselves as the true insiders. So they looks good on paper.
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They looked great on paper, but their primary weapon was their
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claim to possess magnificent spiritual experiences.
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They boasted of ecstatic visions, miraculous displays,
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and direct, spectacular communications from the divine.
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So it was very flashy theology. Yes, they operated with a
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theology of glory. They argued that true divine
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favor equates to visible success, rhetorical brilliance,
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and financial prosperity. They looked at the wealth of
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Corinth and adapted their message to fit the culture
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perfectly. As such, they demanded heavy
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monetary compensation from the Corinthians.
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Really. They charged for it.
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Oh yeah, They were effectively selling their spiritual
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authority, which the culture actually respected.
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People in Corinth assumed that if you charged a high fee for
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your teaching, you must be a premium commodity.
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And I imagine Paul did not fit that premium commodity mold at
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all. He was the exact opposite, and
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they ruthlessly attacked him for it.
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They mocked his unimpressive physical appearance.
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They ridiculed his lack of professional rhetorical Polish.
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Paul deliberately did not speak like the trained theatrical
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sophists they admired. He kept it simple.
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Most viciously, though, they pointed to Paul's frequent
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beatings, his imprisonments, his shipwrecks and his poverty as
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absolute proof that he lacked God's blessing.
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Wow, they weaponized his suffering against them.
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They did. They argued that a true apostle,
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a man genuinely favored by God, would never suffer so miserably.
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They even went so far as to call Paul mad or beside himself for
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his radical devotion and his willing embrace of public
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humiliation. Let's translate this into our
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current cultural currency because the analogy is almost
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too perfect. Think about these super apostles
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as modern day social media influencers or prosperity
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preachers. We all know the type.
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They operate out of mega studios with millions dollar lighting
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rigs, they wear tailored designer suits, they casually
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post photos from the tarmac standing next to private jets,
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and they equate visible wealth and slick aesthetic presentation
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with divine blessing. Their entire brand is built on
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presenting A flawless, victorious, highly optimized
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life. And the algorithm rewards that.
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Right. The algorithm rewards their
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aesthetic perfection, and the audience assumes that because
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they have millions of followers, a massive compound, and immense
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wealth, God must be endorsing their message.
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Then you look at Paul. He is small, likely physically
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scarred from being stoned and whipped.
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He works third shift, making tents out of rough leather with
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his bare hands, just to fund his own by vocational ministry.
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Right, he's a blue collar worker.
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Yeah, he is completely lacking in any sort of public relations
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strategy. By every metric the culture
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values, he looks like a massive failure.
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So here is my question for you. If the culture back then
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evaluates leaders based on visible status and rhetorical
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Polish, just like our culture does now, how does Paul mount a
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defense without just stooping to their level and bragging about
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his own resume? How does he prove his authority
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without playing their game? He completely changes the
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parameters of the debate. Paul's defense against the
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charge of madness or failure is not to list his intellectual
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achievements, his pedigree, or his follower count, so to speak.
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Instead, he reveals the inescapable force controlling
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his every move. OK, this brings us to the first
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clause of verse 14 where he states, for the love of Christ
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constrains us. He is telling the Corinthians, I
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am not driven by the things that drive your super apostles.
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I am not driven by a desire for cash, for applause, for social
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status or for a comfortable life.
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Now, when we hear the phrase the love of Christ, our modern minds
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immediately go to a very sentimental place.
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We think of our own warm, fuzzy feelings toward Jesus.
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We think about singing a slow worship song and feeling a
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subjective rush of emotion. Right.
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But the treatises we are studying insist we have to look
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at the Greek grammar here to understand what Paul is actually
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saying, because it is not about our feelings at all.
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You are hitting on a crucial grammatical distinction.
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The phrase in the original text is agape to Christu.
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The scholars unpacking this text classify it as a subjective
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genitive. Wait, hold on.
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A subjective genitive? Give that to me in plain
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English. We aren't all Greek grammarians.
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Are you saying Paul is talking about an action Jesus performs,
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not an emotion? Paul.
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Feels. Yes, that is spot on.
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Let's break it down. An objective genitive would mean
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Paul is talking about his love for Christ, his own internal
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emotional affection directed toward Jesus as the object.
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If that were the case, Paul would be saying, my intense love
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for Jesus is what keeps me going.
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But a subjective genitive means Christ is the subject performing
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the action. It is Christ's love for Paul.
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But extension, it is Christ's sovereign electing love for His
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chosen people decreed from eternity past.
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Paul is not talking about the believers weak, fickle,
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fluctuating affection. I mean our love for God wanes
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when we get tired, hungry, or discouraged.
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Paul is pointing to an objective historical reality, the love
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that Christ demonstrated in a specific historical action.
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That makes a massive difference, because if my ministry or my
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Christian life is fueled by my love for Jesus, the moment I
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have a bad week, the whole engine stalls out.
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But if the engine is his love for me, it doesn't matter how
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tired I am. And that love does something
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very specific to Paul. English translation says it
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constrains us, but reading through the research on the
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Greek verb here, it seems like the English word constrain is
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way too polite. What is the word and how do
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people in the 1st century actually use it in everyday
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language? The Greek verb is syneke,
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derived from the root word syneco.
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This is a highly specific, intense word.
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To get the full picture, we have to look at its secular use in
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Greco Roman literature. The historian Polybius utilized
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this exact verb to describe a military maneuver.
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A military maneuver, Yeah. He used it to describe an army
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being hemmed in by an enemy force in a narrow mountain pass.
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Picture of phalanx of soldiers compressed together in a ravine
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with steep cliffs on either side.
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Oh wow. There is no possibility of
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retreat, no room to break formation, and no alternate
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route. You can only move in One
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Direction. Additionally, the ancient
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medical writer Galen used syndicate to describe a severe
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physical disease or a raging fever that entirely grips a
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patient's body, taking total control of their physical
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faculties. It's not a gentle nudge.
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Not at all. It carries the idea of holding
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together, compressing, gripping tightly or completely
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dominating. A disease, an army closing.
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And I'll be honest, if we are hemmed in like an army trapped
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in a narrow Canyon, doesn't that make the Christian life sound
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terribly claustrophobic? You can sound that way, yes.
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Is this some sort of divine micromanagement?
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It sounds like we are losing our free will and being forced into
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a tunnel against our wishes. That doesn't sound like the
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freedom we hear so much about in church.
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I understand why it sounds that way to the modern ear, but we
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have to contrast syneke with other Greek words Paul could
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have chosen but deliberately avoided.
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Like what? Well, he did not use anikazai,
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which denotes external coercion or physical violence to force
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someone against their will. He also avoided biasitai, which
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implies forced entry violation or raw compulsion.
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Syneke operates differently. How so?
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It acts as a protective, unyielding wall.
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Christ's love acts as a barrier that shuts down all alternate
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routes of self advancement, leaving the believer with a
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single restricted track of absolute devotion.
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It is not claustrophobic micromanagement.
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It is a rescue operation. Explain that how is being
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trapped in a Canyon a rescue operation?
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Well, to the unregenerate mind, having endless options to pursue
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fleshly desires feels like freedom.
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We think freedom is the ability to do whatever we want whenever
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we want, but the theological reality argues that this
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supposed freedom is actually a cruel tyranny.
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Because we just make terrible choices.
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Right. We are slaves to our own
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scattered, destructive and contradictory desires.
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If left to our own open-ended choices, we will consistently
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choose things that destroy us. The love of Christ hems us in.
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It arrests us by grace. It closes off the destructive
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paths so that living for anything other than the glory of
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Christ becomes an impossibility. I see.
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It is the only true freedom because it binds us to the very
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purpose for which we were created.
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You are not being forced against your regenerated will.
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Your will has been renewed so that you now gladly run down the
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only path that leads to life, protected by the walls of His
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love on either side. I see.
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It's like a parent putting up guardrails on a steep mountain
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Rd. The child might complain that
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they can't drive their toy car off the Cliff, feeling
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restricted, but the restriction is the only thing keeping them
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alive. That is a perfect way to look at
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it. So what does this all mean for
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how Paul makes his daily decisions?
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Because this intense, gripping, constraining love might sound
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like a mystical, purely emotional experience.
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Like he is just caught up in a spiritual trance, just floating
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along on a vibe. Which is what his opponents were
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doing. Right.
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Which, ironically, is what the Super apostles were claiming to
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have. Yeah, but Paul immediately
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anchors this constraint in cold, hard intellectual logic.
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Yes, the constraint of Christ's love is not a mindless mystical
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impulse, is not a blind leap into the dark, Paul writes.
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Because we thus judge. The Greek phrase centers on the
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word crinantus. And what does that word mean in
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this context? Let's avoid the DRY textbook
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definitions and talk about the action behind it.
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Sure, Crinantus is a legal, intellectual term.
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It points to a settled, definitive, rational evaluation
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of theological truth. Picture a judge in a courtroom.
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OK, I am picturing the judge. The judge has listened to the
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testimonies, examined the forensic evidence, weighed the
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facts against the law, and finally brought down the gavel
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to declare a binding, unchangeable verdict.
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That is is what Paul is doing. So it is a calculated
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conclusion. Yes.
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His radical lifestyle, his willingness to suffer beatings,
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his by vocational labor, his absolute devotion.
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None of it is a spontaneous emotional reaction.
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All of it is fueled by this cognitive deduction.
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True devotion requires heavy doctrinal reasoning.
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His affections are disciplined by objective truth.
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I want to pause here because this is huge.
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We have to look at how modern religious movements often get
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this entirely backward. Based on the material we are
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reviewing, there is a stark, jarring contrast between Paul's
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cognitive doctrine driven devotion and what we see in a
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lot of contemporary church setting.
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Oh absolutely. Take the seeker sensitive
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movement for example. In many of those environments,
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the entire architecture of the Sunday service is designed to
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manufacture emotional highs and prioritize psychological
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comfort. It is very heavily engineered.
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Yeah, the dim lighting, the specific chord progressions
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played on the keyboard, underneath the pastor's voice,
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the therapeutic self help rhetoric, it is all engineered
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to make the attendee feel good about themselves without
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demanding any rigorous intellectual engagement with
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historical theology. That is a very accurate
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assessment of the modern landscape.
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The goal in those environments is often to bypass the intellect
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to achieve a desired emotional state.
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The material also critiques the charismatic movement on similar
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grounds. In those circles, there is often
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a heavy reliance on subjective mystical experiences, claims of
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continuing tongues, and supposedly new extra biblical
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revelations. Which goes back to the Super
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Apostles. Right.
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The underlying assumption is that to be truly spiritual, you
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have to turn off your brain. You have to bypass the intellect
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and operate purely on feeling or direct mystical downloads.
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But Paul is saying the exact opposite.
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His heart burns with passion specifically because his mind
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has been captured by the objective logic of a historical
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event. Right.
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It's not that he lacks emotion, it's that his emotion is the
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caboose and the intellect is the engine.
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The engine pulls the train. That is it.
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A church moved solely by atmosphere or manufactured
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emotion might be excited for a season, but it will not endure
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suffering when real persecution or tragedy hits.
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The fog machine and the chord progressions offer no solid
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ground. They just evaporate.
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Yeah, a church constrained by objective truth will stand firm.
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We must also situate this specific verse within its
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broader literary context. In Second Corinthians chapter 5,
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Paul places the statement about constraining love right between
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two massive theological realities.
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Where are they? Just a few verses prior, in
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verses 10 and 11, he speaks of the fear of the judgement seat
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of Christ, knowing that all must appear before Him to give an
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account. OK, then, just after our passage
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in verses 16 through 21, he details the cosmic reality of
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the new creation and the ministry of reconciliation.
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The fear of God and the love of Christ work together
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simultaneously. So they balance each other out.
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Yes, the fear of future judgment guards against triviality and
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casual, flippant religion. The constraint of Christ's love
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guards against cold, legalistic formalism.
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The intellect grasps both of these realities, and the
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necessary result is a life completely poured out for the
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Gospel. OK, so if his radical
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controversial life is fueled by a logical courtroom style
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deduction, what is the specific historical truth Paul has
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logically deduced? What is the verdict he handed
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down with the gavel? It is the legal transaction of
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the cross. Right, he writes that as one
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died for all, then we're all dead and.
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This brings us to the very root of reformed soteriology, the
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concepts of substitutionary atonement and federal
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representation. Paul states that one died for
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all. The Greek preposition used here
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is hyper, which means in the place of or on behalf of the
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theological treatises stress heavily that Christ's death was
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not an exemplary. Death.
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Let's clarify that. What do you mean by exemplary?
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Well, an exemplary death is when someone dies as a martyr to
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inspire others to live better lives.
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Think of a political dissident standing in front of a tank, or
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someone dying for a noble cause. Like a hero.
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Yeah, when a martyr dies, the people watching might feel
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motivated. They might feel a surge of
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courage, but they do not legally die with the martyr.
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Their legal status remains unchanged.
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Christ's death was not a tragic accident or just a dramatic
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display of dedication. It was a legal substitutionary
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transaction. I want to make sure we really
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grasp the mechanics of this because it is staggering.
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Let's build an analogy. Think about a legal
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representative in a high stakes scenario.
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Imagine an ambassador sent to negotiate a binding treaty on
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behalf of a nation. OK, two nations are at war and
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the conflict is devastating. The ambassador goes to the rival
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capital. He signs a document of
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surrender, pays reparations, and signs a new Treaty of
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allegiance. The moment that ambassador's pen
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hits the paper, the status of every single citizen in his home
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nation is legally altered instantly.
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A citizen might be asleep in their bed hundreds of miles
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away. They might wake up the next
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morning feeling exactly the same as they did the day before.
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They might not even know the treaty was signed yet.
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But legally, objectively, their reality has changed.
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The war is over. Their citizenship requirements
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have changed. What the representative does
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automatically and unavoidably alters the status of those they
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represent, regardless of the citizens feelings or awareness
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at that exact moment. That analogy perfectly captures
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the theology of the second atom, which is the framework Paul is
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operating within. We have to look back to the
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covenant of works in the Garden of Eden to understand this.
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Take us back to Eden. Under that original covenant,
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the first Adam acted as our federal representative.
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He underwent a period of probation.
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When he broke the law of God. He failed as our representative.
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His failure plunged all of his posterity, the entire human race
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descending from him by ordinary generation into ruin, sin, and
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death. Because he represented us
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legally, his fall was our fall. His guilt was imputed to us.
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Which is why humans are born with a sinful nature.
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We don't just become sinners when we tell our first lie at
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age 3. We are born legally guilty and
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corrupt because our representative failed.
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Correct. Now, under the covenant of
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grace, Christ steps into history as the second Adam.
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He is the perfect federal head of his chosen people.
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He succeeds everywhere. The first Adam failed.
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Through His active obedience, He perfectly fulfills all the
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righteous requirements of the law.
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He lived the life we couldn't live.
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And through his passive obedience, his suffering and
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death, he pays the debt incurred by our sin.
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The logic of federal representation is ironclad.
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When a representative dies, those they represent die with
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them. That is why Paul can logically
22:38
conclude then we're all dead. Or, as more accurate modern
22:42
translations render it therefore all died.
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So it's a corporate death. Yes, the death of the One acts
22:47
as the corporate execution of all whom he represented.
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The Old covenant order of sin, condemnation and self rule was
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put to death on that cross in a definitive legal transaction.
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And the treatises we are examining are very careful to
23:00
draw some hard theological lines in the sand here.
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They explicitly refute alternative views that
23:06
misinterpret this transaction. We have to discuss these because
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how you view this transaction literally changes your entire
23:13
religion. They meticulously refute 2 major
23:16
alternative theological systems. First, they reject the Armenian
23:20
view of a universal hypothetical atonement.
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Let's define that. What does Arminianism teach
23:26
about the cross? Arminianism teaches that Christ
23:28
died for every individual human being who has ever lived.
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However, they believe His death only made salvation possible in
23:35
that system. The cross itself does not
23:37
actually save anyone outright. It merely opens a door, removes
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A barrier, and leaves the final deciding factor entirely up to
23:44
human free will. So it's a potential salvation,
23:46
not an actual one. Yes, but let's apply Paul's
23:48
logic to that system. If Paul's logic holds, if one
23:51
died for all, therefore all died, then applying all to every
23:54
human would mean every human universally died the sin and is
23:57
saved. That is universalism, a concept
24:00
the Scriptures clearly and repeatedly reject.
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Right, the Bible does not teach everyone goes to heaven.
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Exactly. Therefore, the All in this text
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refers specifically to the Elect, those given to the Son by
24:10
the Father from before the foundation of the world.
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OK, so if Jesus pays for a sin, that sin is paid for.
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It cannot be punished twice, once on the cross and once in
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hell. Therefore, he must have died
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specifically to actually secure the salvation of a specific
24:26
people. What is the second view the text
24:29
refutes? The second is the Roman Catholic
24:31
view of legalistic moralism. In that framework, justification
24:35
is viewed as a lifelong cooperative process.
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It is fueled by infused grace received through the sacraments,
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where human effort and merit must combine with Christ's
24:45
sacrifice to eventually achieve justification.
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So it's a team effort in that view.
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Basically, but against both the Armenian and the Catholic views,
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the text affirms definite atonement.
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Christ actually, objectively and fully secured the salvation of
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His sheep. His death was an actual
24:59
corporate execution of the old self for His elect, securing
25:03
their redemption and right standing before God without any
25:05
reliance whatsoever on human cooperation or potential.
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So the corporate execution of the cross was not just a
25:11
transaction to save people from hell so they could go on living
25:14
however they wanted on earth. It had a specific non negotiable
25:18
target and that target was the death of human autonomy.
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This brings us to the gileological goal in verse 15.
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What was the purpose of this execution?
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Verse 15 reads so that those who live might no longer live for
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themselves. The phrase so that indicates the
25:35
purposeful design of redemption. Christ did not die a random
25:39
death, nor did he die just to give us a second chance to try
25:42
harder. He died with a specific
25:44
objective. And what is that objective?
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Well, the text uses a negative prohibition with the word maketi
25:50
meaning no longer, and it uses a dative of advantage with the
25:53
word hutua meaning for their own benefit.
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Let's ground that in daily life. What does it look like to live
25:58
for your own benefit? The natural unregenerate life is
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entirely self-directed. We seek our own benefit and
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everything we seek, our own glory, our own comfort, our own
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financial security, our own reputation.
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Even our seemingly altruistic acts are often tainted by a
26:13
desire to be seen as good people.
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The design of the Atonement was to eradicate that self-directed
26:19
idolatry. The substitutionary death was
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the execution of the self sovereign individual.
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You no longer have the right to wake up and say, what do I want
26:27
to do with my life today? And then Paul pivots to the
26:29
positive reality. We do not just die to self and
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float in a vacuum. We aren't just empty vessels
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staring at a wall, the second-half of the verse says,
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but for him who died and was raised in their place.
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This connects perfectly to Christ's dual office as priest
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and king. Precisely as our great high
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priest, he offered the perfect sacrifice.
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He shed his own blood to satisfy divine justice and reconcile us
26:53
to God. But the Gospel does not end with
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a dead substitute hanging on a cross.
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By rising from the dead, he ascends his king.
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He is the sovereign monarch over his purchased possession.
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The resurrection establishes his living, continuous, unyielding
27:08
claim over his people. You do not belong to yourself
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because you were bought with a price by a priest and you now
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live on the absolute monarchy of a resurrected.
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King. This absolutely shatters a
27:17
modern fallacy that is so prevalent today, the idea of
27:20
carnal Christianity. This is the belief that someone
27:23
can pray a sinner's prayer, accept Jesus as their Savior to
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get their fire insurance and stay out of hell, but completely
27:29
reject His absolute monarchy over their daily choices.
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Right, they want the benefits without the submission.
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Yeah, they want the pardon from the judge, but they want to keep
27:38
the deed to their own life. They want to be the CEO of their
27:41
existence and just keep Jesus on retainer as a consultant.
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They call when things get tough. The sources we're studying argue
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this is a complete impossibility.
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It is entirely impossible. The very mechanism that saves
27:52
you from hell is the exact same mechanism that executes your
27:55
autonomy. You cannot have one without the
27:57
other. To claim the benefits of
27:59
Christ's death while refusing the claim of His Lordship is to
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entirely misunderstand Paul's gospel.
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You cannot slice Jesus in half. You cannot take Jesus as Savior
28:09
and reject Jesus the Lord. The grace that justifies is the
28:12
exact same grace that trains the redeemed to deny ungodliness and
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live for the king. It is an inseparable package.
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I know the material also touches on the dispensational framework
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regarding this lordship. Can you briefly touch on that,
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keeping it accessible for someone who might not be a
28:28
seminary graduate? Sure, the texts point out that
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this resurrected Lordship is currently realized in the
28:34
Church, which is His spiritual body made-up of both Jews and
28:38
Gentiles who believe. However, this is distinct from
28:42
ethnic Israel's future national restoration.
28:45
Why is that distinction necessary?
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Recognizing this distinction guards against replacement
28:50
theology, which incorrectly assumes the church has entirely
28:53
replaced Israel. In all of God's prophetic
28:55
promises. Christ rules His Church now as
28:58
Head and Lord, but He will also fulfill his literal national
29:02
promises to Israel in the future.
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Let's shift gears a bit. This massive concept of a
29:07
representative dying and rising to claim a people is not just
29:10
some new theology Paul invented on the spot to win an argument
29:14
with this super apostles in Corinth.
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This is the climax of the entire biblical narrative.
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Absolutely. We have to look at the Old
29:20
Testament background to see how deep these roots go.
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The substitutionary logic of 2nd Corinthians 5.14 to 15 is the
29:27
fulfillment of the ancient sacrificial system established
29:31
centuries prior. Consider the Passover lamb in
29:34
the Book of Exodus. Right, the first Passover.
29:36
The blood of the lamb applied to the doorpost of the house
29:39
shielded the inhabitants from the judgement of God passing
29:42
through Egypt. Or look at the Day of Atonement
29:45
in Leviticus 16. Walk us through that.
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What actually happened on the Day of Atonement?
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The high priest would take two goats.
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One goat was slaughtered. It's blood was carried into the
29:54
Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat to appease God's
29:58
wrath against the sins of the nation.
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OK, so that deals with the wrath.
30:01
Yes, the other goat, the scapegoat, was kept alive.
30:05
The high priest would lay his hands on its head, symbolically
30:08
transferring the guilt of the people onto the animal.
30:10
And then it was driven out into the desolate wilderness,
30:13
carrying the sins away. Wow, these were shadows.
30:16
Ancient object lessons proving 2 unalterable realities.
30:20
First, that guilt required the shedding of blood, sin demands
30:24
death, and 2nd, that access to God required a substitute acting
30:27
in the place of the guilty. I think a lot of modern
30:30
believers struggle with this. If the Day of Atonement and all
30:33
those ancient bloody sacrifices were just shadows pointing to
30:37
this one moment on the cross, how should a modern believer
30:41
read those dense chapters in Leviticus?
30:43
Today, that is a great question because.
30:45
When someone is doing a Bible in a year reading plan and they hit
30:49
mid February and they are trudging through endless
30:51
descriptions of kidney fat and sprinkling blood, what should
30:54
they be looking for? They should look at those
30:56
chapters through the lens of the threefold office of Christ,
31:00
prophet, priest, and king. When you read of the blood on
31:04
the altar, you are seeing Christ the priest offering himself as
31:07
the perfect once for all sacrifice, a reality the blood
31:11
of bulls and goats could never fully accomplish.
31:13
Right? When you read the meticulous,
31:15
exacting laws of purity, you see Christ the Prophet who perfectly
31:19
reveals the holy standard of God.
31:21
And when you see the ordering of the camp, the positioning of the
31:24
tribes around the Tabernacle, you see Christ the King, who
31:27
organizes, rules and dwells in the midst of his redeemed
31:30
people. That makes those chapters so
31:32
much more vibrant. It's not just ancient butcher
31:35
instructions. It's a portrait of Jesus.
31:37
And the text also connects Paul's words to the prophet
31:40
Isaiah, right? Yes, specifically Isaiah 53.
31:43
Christ is the righteous suffering servant, who was
31:46
wounded for our transgressions, who was crushed for our
31:48
iniquities. The punishment that brought us
31:51
peace was upon Him. The Father did not just observe
31:55
human violence against Jesus and decide to turn it into a good
31:58
lesson after the fact. It wasn't an accident.
32:00
No, it was the eternal counsel and predetermined plan of God
32:04
for the Son to willingly substitute Himself to satisfy
32:07
divine justice and secure His sheep.
32:10
We have covered a massive amount of theological ground here, but
32:13
we must take this towering theological reality out of the
32:16
1st century, out of the academic realm, and drop it squarely into
32:20
the daily lives, the corporate church structures, and the
32:23
personal sufferings of the believers listening right now.
32:26
We have to apply it. Let's.
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Start with the corporate church. Based on everything we've
32:30
discussed about the cross executing human autonomy, the
32:33
text issues a strong critique regarding how we actually do
32:36
church today. A church focused on the self,
32:40
which is the antithesis of Paul's message, will inevitably
32:43
fracture. It will splinter over personal
32:45
preferences, stylistic disagreements and social
32:48
ambitions. It turns corporate worship into
32:51
a consumer performance. Give me an example of what that
32:53
looks like in a modern congregation.
32:55
Well, it looks like attendees sitting in the pews evaluating
32:59
the music, the lighting, and the preaching based entirely on how
33:02
it made them feel. Did I get anything out of that?
33:04
Was the pastor engaging enough? Was the music in my preferred
33:07
style? Like a Yelp review for Sunday
33:09
morning. Exactly.
33:10
The text demands corporate repentance from this mindset.
33:13
It requires a return to faithful, expository preaching.
33:17
The pulpit should confront the intellect and the conscience
33:20
with the objective text of Scripture, not coddle the ego.
33:24
It demands strict confessional commitments from elders to guard
33:27
against theological drift. And it requires a total
33:30
rejection of pragmatic, marketing driven strategies that
33:33
try to sell the gospel like a retail product.
33:36
The Church is a gathered body of executed and resurrected
33:39
individuals worshipping their monarch, not a retail outlet
33:43
distributing religious goods for consumers.
33:46
That is a tough pill to swallow for a culture obsessed with
33:49
church growth metrics, but it brings up a practical question
33:52
about how we pursue obedience. If we are not earning our
33:56
salvation through our works. And if the old self is dead, why
34:00
do we strive for holiness? Why try to be good?
34:03
The treatises point to the third use of the law.
34:05
Explain this concept for us. The theological framework of the
34:08
Reformation outlines 3 uses of the moral law.
34:11
The first use is pedagogical. It acts as a mirror to show us
34:15
our sin, prove we cannot save ourselves, and drive us to
34:17
Christ. OK, that makes sense.
34:19
The second use is civil. It restrains evil in broader
34:22
society through the threat of punishment.
34:25
But the third use of the law is normative for the believer.
34:28
It teaches that while the law cannot justify us, it cannot
34:31
save us. It remains the perfect objective
34:34
guide for how to please the God who has already saved us.
34:37
So it's the instruction manual for the new life.
34:39
That is, it Believers pursue precise obedience to God's
34:42
commands not to earn salvation, which is the definition of
34:45
legalism, but out of deep, overwhelming gratitude for the
34:49
sovereign grace that has already rescued them.
34:52
Because the love of Christ constrains us, we look to His
34:54
law to know how to direct our new resurrected lives in a way
34:58
that honors the King. Let's apply this to the listener
35:01
who is enduring hidden, grinding suffering.
35:04
Maybe someone is listening to this right now while dealing
35:06
with a chronic autoimmune illness, profound loneliness, or
35:10
unrewarded exhausting labor taking care of an aging parent.
35:14
Yeah, when the visible metrics of their life look like failure,
35:17
when they look a lot more like Paul being beaten than the Super
35:19
apostles flying first class, how does this text sustain them?
35:23
Well, Pauls entire Apostolic life was marked by extreme
35:26
affliction, constant misunderstanding, and severe
35:30
physical weakness. If he had measured God's love
35:33
for him by his earthly ease, his physical comfort, or his bank
35:36
account, he would have despaired entirely.
35:38
He would have quit. He would have The believer must
35:41
not measure Christ's love by their current circumstances.
35:44
The love of Christ is an objective historical reality
35:48
eternally demonstrated at the cross.
35:50
The Savior who died for them now lives for them.
35:53
Therefore, they can persevere in the dark seasons, they can
35:57
forgive costly wounds from others, and they can labor in
36:00
total obscurity, knowing that their life is legally hidden
36:03
with Christ. The risen King sees the hidden
36:05
labor. He sustains the weary sufferer,
36:08
and he will vindicate his faithful servants in the end.
36:11
This theology completely flips the script on modern therapy
36:14
culture. I want to point this out because
36:16
it is so pervasive. We're constantly bombarded with
36:19
messages, even from Christian counselors sometimes, about
36:21
setting boundaries, protecting your peace, manifesting your
36:24
truth, and centering yourself. Constantly.
36:26
The highest virtue in our culture is self-care and self
36:29
actualization. But the gospel steps in and says
36:33
no, you died. Your digital habits, your bank
36:37
account, your calendar, your body, they do not belong to you
36:40
anymore, right? They are not yours to center.
36:42
They belong to a risen king. You do not need to center
36:44
yourself. You need to be entirely
36:47
decentered, revolving entirely around the Son of God.
36:49
To live for self is actual slavery disguised as modern
36:53
freedom. To be constrained by Christ's
36:55
love to live entirely for him who died and rose again, is the
36:59
only true freedom. The world says find yourself.
37:02
Christ says lose your life for my sake and find it.
37:05
Let's summarize the massive progression we've covered Today.
37:08
We move from the hyper competitive of Pagan culture of
37:10
Corinth and the vain, money hungry boasting of the Super
37:13
apostles. We saw how Paul bypassed their
37:15
games and pointed to the unyielding, constraining wall of
37:18
Christ's sovereign love. We unpacked the rigorous
37:21
doctrinal logic of federal headship, where the legal
37:24
execution of the cross shatters human autonomy, and we arrived
37:28
at the absolute monarchy of the resurrected king who claims
37:31
every square inch of the believer's existence.
37:34
It is a totalizing reality that leaves absolutely no room for
37:37
neutrality. The old self is dead, the new
37:40
life is purchased, and the direction is permanently fixed
37:44
on the glory of the Redeemer. I want to leave you with a final
37:47
thought to Mull over as you go about your week.
37:49
This is something we haven't explicitly stated, but the
37:51
builds directly on everything we've discussed about the Greek
37:54
verb syneke. Yeah, if the love of Christ
37:57
truly operates as a restricting, unavoidable force, like an army
38:00
boxing you into a neural mountain pass to protect you,
38:03
could it be that your periods of intense spiritual wandering or
38:06
rebellion are actually the moments when that love is
38:09
actively keeping you from utterly destroying yourself?
38:11
That is a fascinating way to look at it.
38:13
Think about it, are the massive frustrations, the sudden career
38:17
failures, and the seemingly unfair closed doors in your life
38:20
actually the very walls of his constraining love that you're
38:24
stubbornly bumping your head against?
38:26
Thank you for taking this deep dive into the source material on
38:28
Reformed thinking.