Latest / Reformed Thinking / Losing Life to Save It: The Call of Christ (Mark 8:34-35)

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Losing Life to Save It: The Call of Christ (Mark 8:34-35) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. I was.
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I was actually thinking the other day about the autonomic
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nervous system. Oh, yeah, Yeah.
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Like when you accidentally touch a hot stove, your hand just
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pulls back. It happens before your conscious
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brain even registers the pain, you know.
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Right, that physical reaction happens in a fraction of a
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second. Spot on.
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The instinct to protect yourself, to shield your
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physical body from harm, is wired into the very fiber of
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your biology. You do not have to teach a child
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to pull their hand away from a fire.
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The flesh acts to save the flesh.
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It is the absolute core of biological survival.
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I mean, every living Organism is programmed by nature to preserve
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its own life at all costs. The biological drive to avoid
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pain, to secure resources, and to extend physical life, well,
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it dictates almost all human behavior on a natural level,
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right? But what if that specific
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instinct, the very mechanism of self preservation, is the actual
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mechanism of eternal self destruction?
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Oh wow, that is a heavy thought. It is, and that is our mission
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for you. Today we are doing a deep dive
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into two rigorous theological treatises focused on a single
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passage of Scripture, specifically Mark chapter 8,
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verses 34 and 35. Which is a brilliant text to
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unpack. Yeah, so our goal today is to
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strip away all the modern, comfortable assumptions about
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Christianity. We are looking directly at the
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absolute terms of discipleship laid out by Jesus Christ.
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He lays out three distinct requirements in this text,
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denying oneself, taking U the cross, and following him.
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The stakes resented in these texts could not be higher.
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We are looking at a strict binary choice here.
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OK, lay that out for us. Well, you were faced with a
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decision between coddling the flesh for brief earthly season
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or executing the ego for eternity.
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Wow, executing the ego. Yeah, I am really looking
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forward to unpacking the heavy theology, the Greek syntax
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present in these sources, because these verses, they
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present a terrifying clash between the demands of a
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sovereign Savior and the desires of the natural human heart.
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The text requires a total abdication of autonomy.
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And we need to set the scene to understand the gravity of that
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demand, because the geography of this text is staggering all on
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its own. Oh, the location is crucial.
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Right. Jesus was not sitting in a
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quiet, reverent synagogue in Jerusalem when he delivered
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these terms. He was at the base of Mount
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Hermon, specifically in a region called Caesarea Philippi A.
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Very specific, very intentional backdrop, yeah.
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If you were standing in Caesarea Philippi in the 1st century, you
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were standing in the epicenter of Pagan worship.
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Picture standing in the middle of a modern metropolis like
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Times Square. That is a great analogy.
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Right, but instead of giant digital billboards advertising
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soda and cars, you have massive monuments advertising rival
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gods. The sensory overload of idolatry
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would have been everywhere. The physical landscape of this
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location highlights the theological tension perfectly.
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The sources detailed the geography to show how
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confrontational Jesus was. Being like he was picking a
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fight. In a way, yes.
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Built directly into the massive red rock face of Mount Roman was
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a sprawling shrine to the Greek nature God Pan.
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Just carved right into the rock. Yeah, it was a cave complex
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historically known as the Gates of Hades, where dark Pagan
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rituals were conducted continuously.
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The cult of Pan was associated with chaos, nature and panic,
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which is actually where we get the word panic today.
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Wait, really? The word panic comes from the
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God Pan. Yes, precisely because his
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presence was supposed to induce sudden fear.
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And right next to that dark cave, looming over the entire
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city, was a massive white marble temple built by Herod Phillip.
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The contrast there must have been wild.
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Well, for sure. And that white marble temple was
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erected for one specific purpose, to declare the Roman
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Emperor Caesar Augustus as a literal deity.
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So you have the shadow of the Roman Empire and the cult of
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Greek mythology hanging over this entire conversation.
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Everywhere you looked. The visual contrast is stunning.
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You have Jesus, an itinerant rabbi from Nazareth, standing in
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front of the blinding white marble of Roman imperial might
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and the bloodstained gratos of Greek mythology.
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Yeah, a seemingly powerless rabbi against the two biggest
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cultural forces of the ancient world.
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And in the middle of this idolatrous Times Square, he
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demands exclusive allegiance. But to grasp why his words were
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so shocking to the crowd, we need to look at the political
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and messianic climate of the Jewish people at that time.
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That is a huge piece of the puzzle.
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Right. What were the people actually
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expecting from a Messiah in that historical moment?
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Well, the Jewish expectation in the 1st century was heavily
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nationalistic. You have to remember they were
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living under the crushing weight of the Roman occupation.
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It wasn't just a philosophical disagreement.
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They were in occupied territory. Spawn on the Jewish people faced
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oppressive taxation, military garrisons in their holy cities,
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and the constant threat of state violence.
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What they wanted was a geopolitical military commander.
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Someone to kick the Romans out. Yeah, they expected a conquering
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king who would March into Jerusalem, overthrow the Roman
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authorities, execute the repressive tax collectors, and
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usher in an era of physical, earthly prosperity for the
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nation of Israel. So their focus was entirely
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horizontal, earthly. Yes, they wanted a deliverer who
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would fix their immediate political problems without
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addressing their internal spiritual corruption.
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They were looking for a military coup, not a spiritual sacrifice.
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Jesus shatters those nationalistic expectations
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entirely. He makes it clear that the path
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to the Kingdom requires suffering, not a violent
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political revolution. A total paradigm shift.
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And he uses a word that would have sent a chill down the spine
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of everyone listening. He tells them they must take up
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their cross. Which is such a heavy phrase.
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Now, looking around today, modernity has completely
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sanitized the cross. People wear it as gold jewelry,
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you know. Yeah, or you see it as has a
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nice logo on a T-shirt. Right, we see it used in
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pleasant church architecture, but can you clarify how a 1st
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century audience standing in the shadow of Caesar's temple would
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have heard the Greek word staros?
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They would have heard it with unmitigated horror.
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The cross was not an abstract theological symbol to them.
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It was a literal instrument of state terror.
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State terror that changes the tone completely.
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It does, and that is a crucial historical reality to keep in
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mind. The Roman Empire used
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crucifixion specifically for public humiliation and agonizing
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physical torture. And it wasn't just for anyone,
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right? No.
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Roman citizens were legally exempt from it.
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It was a punishment reserved exclusively for slaves,
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insurrectionists and the lowest class of criminals.
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So it was designed to be as degrading as possible.
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Entirely. The whole process was designed
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to strip a human being of all dignity.
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The physical act of carrying it had a very specific meaning
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under Roman law. What did that look like?
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The condemned man was forced to carry the crossbeam, known as
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the Petibulum through the public streets to his execution site.
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And the weight of that beam, plus the physical trauma of the
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scourging that happened beforehand, I mean, it made it a
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spectacle of total defeat. Yes, total physical and
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psychological domination. The sight of a man carrying that
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heavy wooden beam was a public demonstration that the Roman
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Empire had totally conquered his will.
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He was a dead man walking stripped of all rights, dignity
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and autonomy. So.
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Hearing Jesus say this before he was even crucified himself,
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well, it would have been a shocking provocation.
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It must have sounded insane to them.
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It probably did. He was telling the crowd that
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following him meant identifying with the despised, the condemned
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and the executed. He is demanding that they
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willingly adopt the status of a condemned traitor in the eyes of
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the world. He was asking them to embrace
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the ultimate symbol of shame. That severe reality check moves
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us right into the literary context of the Gospel of Mark,
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because this doesn't just happen in a vacuum.
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This specific discourse happens at a major turning point in the
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narrative. The timing is critical here.
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It occurs right after Peter makes his famous confession
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saying to Jesus, you are the Christ.
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Right, the highest point of recognition up to that moment.
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And what is fascinating here is how the narrative is structured.
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Right before Peter makes this confession, Mark records the
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healing of the blind man at Bethsaida.
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Ah. Yes, the two stage miracle.
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Right, this is that unusual 2 stage healing.
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Jesus prays for the man, and at first the man says he sees
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people walking around, but they look like trees.
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Then Jesus touches his eyes a second time, and he sees
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clearly. Which is so unique in the
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Gospels. It is.
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So how do the sources connect that we're healing to what is
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happening with Peter? Well, the sources argue that
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this two stage miracle functions as an enacted parable of Peter's
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own spiritual sight. Oh, like a physical illustration
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of a spiritual. Reality.
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Precisely. Peter sees enough to confess
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that Jesus is the Christ, but his vision is still severely
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blurred. He only possesses partial sight,
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just like the man who saw people looking like trees.
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So he knows the title, but not what it means.
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Yeah, he sees the Messiah, but he envisions a Messiah of glory
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without the suffering. He accurately identifies the
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person, but completely misunderstands the mission.
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We see that blurred vision immediately too, right after
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Peter calls him the Christ Jesus predicts his own suffering and
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death, and Peter actually pulls Jesus aside and rebukes them.
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Which? Takes a lot of nerve.
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Right. Can we just pause for a second
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and look at how socially embarrassing this must have been
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for Peter? I mean, he literally just got
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the Gold Star in front of the whole class for saying you are
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the Christ and five seconds later he is being publicly
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called Satan. The whiplash there is
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incredible. It really is the severity of
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Jesus's response saying get behind me Satan.
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Well, it exposes the character of Peter's mindset.
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Because it wasn't just a simple misunderstanding, no.
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Peter represents the natural human instinct.
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He desires A victorious Messiah without the humiliation.
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He wants the benefits of the Kingdom without the pain of
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rejection. He wants a crown without a
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corpse. Spot on.
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When Jesus associates that desire with Satan, he is making
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a massive theological statement. Which is what?
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That any theology that separates the crown from the cross is
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fundamentally opposed to God. Peter was trying to dictate
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terms to the Sovereign Lord, acting as a stumbling block to
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the divine decree. So trying to bypass the
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suffering is actually a satanic impulse, according to the text.
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Yes, because it rejects God's ordained method of redemption.
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That structural arrangement in Mark's Gospel tells a story all
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on its own, because right after this severe call to die in
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chapter 8, Mark places the transfiguration in Chapter 9.
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The contrast is brilliant. Right in the Transfiguration, a
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select few disciples are given a blinding glimpse of Christ's
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eschatological glory. Let me break down that word
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eschatological for anyone who might not be familiar with it.
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Good idea. It refers to the end times, or
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the ultimate final state of things.
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So they get to see Jesus in his final, glorious divine state.
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But Mark places that vision of glory strictly after the severe
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call to the cross. The narrative structure proves
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the theological point here. The vision of future glory only
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comes after the call to present suffering.
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You can't flip the order. Right.
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The path to exaltation must pass through humiliation.
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There is no shortcut. You cannot bypass the execution
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stake to get to the mountain of Transfiguration.
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Here is where the specific wording gets fascinating.
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Let's look at the grammar of execution in verse 34.
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The language here is so precise. Jesus doesn't just pull his 12
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disciples into a private room to give them this heavy message.
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He calls the crowd together with his disciples.
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Everyone gets to hear it. Yeah, the universal nature of
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this summons is critical. Jesus issues a blanket
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statement. If anyone would come after me,
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it makes me think of a corporate scenario.
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Imagine ACEO calling the elite board of directors and the entry
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level interns into the exact same room, looking at all of
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them and giving them the exact same job requirement.
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There is no two tiered system. That is a solid comparison.
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This phrase, if anyone, completely obliterates the
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modern concept of what some call carnal Christians.
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This idea that a person can accept Jesus as savior for fire
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insurance to avoid hell, but not submit to him as loyal.
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The text leaves zero room for that distinction.
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The requirements for a basic follower are identical to those
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of the closest apostle. And those requirements are laid
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out in 3 consecutive imperative. Right.
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The first imperative is let him deny himself.
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I want to focus on that phrase deny himself because I think we
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misuse it today. Often people think denying
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yourself just means giving up a bad habit like fasting from
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chocolate for a month. Or maybe just cultivating low
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self esteem and saying I'm not that great.
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Yeah, it becomes just a superficial lifestyle tweak.
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Right, but the Greek syntax reveals a much more violent
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demand. The verb used for deny is a par
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neomi. It is an intensive compound form
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of the word. It means to utterly disown or to
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sever all connection with. You're hitting on the core of
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the linguistic contrast. The author of the Gospel could
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have used the Greek word hypico, which means to yield.
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OK, yielding implies giving way, but you are still you.
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Right. Or he could have used
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Patharcheo, which means to obey rules.
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If either of those words were used, it would imply that the
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core self remains intact, just operating under a new management
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system. Like getting a new boss but you
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keep your job. Yes, the ego would still sit on
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the throne just taking better advice, but instead the chosen
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word of parneumi demands the total liquidation of self
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ownership. It is a complete abdication of
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the self. So it's not just denying
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yourself something, it's denying yourself.
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A total repudiation of your own identity as the ruler of your
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life. And ironically, it is the exact
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same word used later in the Gospel when Peter denies knowing
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Jesus in the high priest's courtyard.
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Peter swears he has no association with Jesus.
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He utterly disowns him. Yeah, so Jesus is commanding the
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disciple to take that same vehement denial and turn it
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inward against their own ego. Utterly disowning yourself.
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It is a brutal command to the natural mind.
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That leads right into the 2nd and 3rd imperatives.
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Take up His cross and follow me. There is a shift in the verb
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tenses here that changes how we understand the command.
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The tense shift is highly revealing.
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Take Up His Cross is written as an A orist imperative.
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What does that mean for the listener who doesn't know Greek?
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Well, in Greek grammar, an A orist imperative notes a
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definitive once for all enlistment.
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It is a decisive break from old loyalties and a public
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identification with a condemned status.
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So it's not something you do over and over again.
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The taking up the cross is the initiation.
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You pick up the execution stake and there is no turning back.
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It is a singular altering event. But then the third command
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follow me, shifts to a present imperative.
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And the present imperative signifies continuous, habitual
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action. It describes an ongoing,
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lifelong March behind the commander.
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You definitively take up the cross and then you continuously
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walk. Now one of the texts applies A
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strict theological constraint to this idea of following.
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It speaks from a cessationist perspective.
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Yes, that is a key lens for understanding this specific
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source. For those who aren't familiar
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with that term, cessationism is the theological view that the
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miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, like speaking in
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tongues, prophetic visions, or direct audible revelations from
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God, ceased with the end of the Apostolic age and the completion
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of the New Testament. Right, so the Canon of scripture
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is closed. Yeah, so from this perspective,
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following Christ does not mean looking for mystical signs,
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subjective feelings, or extra biblical revelations.
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According to this framework, following Christ means
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submitting your mind and will to the completed written word of
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God. Not chasing a feeling.
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Definitely not. Yeah, it asserts that
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discipleship is defined by the objective standard of Scripture,
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not shifting human emotions or waiting for a voice from the
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clouds to tell you where to walk.
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It grounds the believer in the text.
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It requires A submission to the text as the final authority on
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all matters of faith and practice.
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Following is not a mystical trance.
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It is a rigid obedience to the revealed commands of Scripture.
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So what does this all mean when we get to verse 35?
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This is where Jesus introduces the ultimate Ledger of saving
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versus losing. The logic he uses here is
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inescapable. He uses a terrifying logic to
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backup his commands. Attempting to save your life
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guarantees you lose it. It makes me think of an
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autoimmune disease. Oh, how so?
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Well, your immune system is designed to protect your body,
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to save it from harm, right? But in an autoimmune disease,
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that very mechanism of protection becomes confused.
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It turns inward and starts attacking healthy cells.
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The very system trying to save the body becomes the exact thing
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that destroys the host. The human instinct for self
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preservation works the same way spiritually.
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That analogy captures the mechanical reality of verse 35
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perfectly. The protective mechanism
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destroys the host. To understand how Jesus
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constructs this argument, we need to map out the chiastic
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structure he uses. A chiasmus is a literary device
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where concepts are repeated in reverse order.
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Right, like a BB prime a prime. Let's map that out so the
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listener can see the architecture of the argument.
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This pressure goes like this. Point A for whoever would save
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his life. Point B will lose it.
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OK, so save equals lose. Right then the pivot to point B
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prime. But whoever loses his life for
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my sake and the gospels and finally point A prime will save.
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It this X shaped structure places the ultimate weight on
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the contrast between losing and saving.
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And the hinge of this entire argument rests on the Greek word
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psyche. Which is translated as life or
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soul depending on your English Bible.
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Correct. The word psyche is used 14 times
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in Mark's Gospel, and Jesus uses it here with a dual semantic
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force. What do you mean by dual
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semantic force? Well, in the first half of the
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verse when he talks about the person trying to save their
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psyche, he is referring to earthly physical existence and
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comfort. Like their biological life and
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reputation. Yes, but in the second-half of
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the verse, the meaning points to the eternal spiritual soul.
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Ah, I see. So the one who hoards their
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physical comfort and earthly reputation is actually
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eternalizing their own ruin. That is the tragic irony.
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By trying to secure their physical psyche, they destroy
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their eternal psyche. The self cannot be its own
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savior. The more tightly a human grasps
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their earthly life as the ultimate possession, the more
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certainly they forfeit their eternal soul.
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That is the inescapable reality of this Ledger.
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You cannot cheat the spiritual physics of this text.
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But there is a vital qualifier in this verse that separates
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Christian discipleship from sheer fanaticism.
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Jesus says Whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels
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will save it. That qualifier is everything.
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That distinction is massive. Suffering for the sake of
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vanity, political ideology or a false religion yields absolutely
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nothing. Right.
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It is not the mere act of suffering that saves a person.
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Like asceticism, just punishing your body to show how
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disciplined you are does not earn you favor with God.
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No, monks beating themselves in a monastery doesn't buy
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salvation. It is only losing your life for
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the specific person of Jesus Christ and His specific message
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that secures salvation. You are identifying A crucial
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boundary line. There are many martyrs for false
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causes throughout history. Suffering itself has no
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propitiatory value. Propitiatory, meaning it doesn't
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satisfy God's justice. Correct.
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The object of the devotion determines the eternal outcome.
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Wait, hold on. I need to push back here.
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Go for it. If I have to lose my life and
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carry a literal or metaphorical cross in order to be saved,
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doesn't that completely destroy the Protestant idea of being
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saved by grace alone? It sounds like it on the
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surface, yes. Right, because if I'm sweating
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under a heavy piece of wood that sounds exactly like I'm earning
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my way into heaven through my own suffering.
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I am doing the work. Where am I getting this wrong?
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It is a common misreading to view this passage as a new form
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of works righteousness, but to read it that way is to fall into
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the trap of moralism. So how do we avoid that trap?
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We must understand the Christ connection here.
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Jesus never commands a path that he has not personally walked.
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Jesus is the supreme crossbearer.
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The believer's cross does not atone for sin.
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Let's break that down, because the distinction between our
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cross and His cross changes everything.
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The texts rely heavily on the Reformed concepts of Christ's
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active and passive obedience to explain this.
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Yes, those categories are vital here.
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For the listener, Christ's active obedience refers to the
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fact that he lived a completely sinless life, perfectly
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fulfilling all the righteous demands of God's moral law on
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behalf of his people. He earned the positive
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righteousness required for heaven.
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He kept the law we broke. Right.
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And his passive obedience refers to his willingness to bear the
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full penalty of sin. Absorbing divine wrath on the
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cross, He paid the negative debt.
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Only the blood of Christ propitiates or satisfies the
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wrath of God the believer. Self denial does not buy heaven.
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So what is the point of our cross then?
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Rather, the believers cross bearing is the inevitable fruit
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of justification. It is the grateful response of a
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redeemed captive. We aren't trying to bribe the
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judge. No, we carry our cross not to
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appease an angry judge, but because we are entirely
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dependent on the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
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We are tracking the footsteps of the Deliverer who already
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purchased our freedom. So the suffering does not 'cause
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salvation, it is the evidence of a salvation already secured.
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Precisely. The root is grace, the fruit is
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cross bearing. That completely flips the
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script. We aren't suffering to earn
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grace. We are suffering because grace
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has radically altered our allegiance.
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The focus moves from merit to inevitable consequence.
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Yes, we act because we have been acted upon by the Holy Spirit.
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A vital clarification. The cross we carry is a cross of
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discipleship, not a cross of atonement.
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That is the perfect way to summarize it.
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And that allegiance had very real consequences for the
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original audience. Let's look at the historical
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pressures Mark's readers were facing.
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The context for the original readers is just.
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Brutal. If Mark was writing to believers
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in Rome, they were living through nightmare scenarios.
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Let's talk about the specific political climate of Rome during
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the Naronian persecutions to understand what these words
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meant to them. The historical context is
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terrifying, Mark Original readers were likely facing the
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intense persecution under the Roman emperor Nero in the
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midfirst century. This was around 8064.
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Yes, 8064. Nero famously blamed Christians
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for the Great Fire of Rome to deflect blame from himself.
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Because Christians refused to participate in the imperial cult
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and worship the emperor, they were already viewed with intense
22:48
suspicion. They were called haters of
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mankind, I think. Exactly because they wouldn't
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join the civic Pagan festivals, they were seen as antisocial and
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dangerous. They were an easy scapegoat for
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the fire. And the punishments were not
23:00
just swift executions. The cruelty was theatrical.
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It was entertainment for the masses.
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Believers were subjected to unspeakable horrors.
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The historical records detail how they were covered in the
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skins of wild beasts and torn apart by dogs in the arena.
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The sheer brutality of it is hard to comprehend.
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They were smeared with pitch, tied to poles and lit on fire to
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serve as human torches in the imperial gardens while Nero rode
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through the crowds in his chariot.
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The psychological toll on the early church would have been
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immense. Every day carried the threat of
23:34
violent death. So when they read the words take
23:36
up your cross, it wasn't a metaphor about having a
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difficult boss or a flat tire. Not at all.
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The cross was literal. This text provided the
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theological steel necessary for martyrdom.
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It proved to those early Roman Christians that their intense
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suffering was not a historical accident.
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It wasn't a glitch in the system.
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Right. It was not a sign that God had
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abandoned them or that the Roman gods were stronger.
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It was the specific calling of their savior.
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The path of loss was the honest path of life.
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If this exacted such a physical toll on believers in Nero's
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Rome, what does this death of the ego actually look like for
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someone listening to this in traffic on a Tuesday morning?
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That is the real application question.
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Most listeners today aren't facing literal crucifixion, but
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the texts bring up some stark statistics regarding the year
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2026, noting A dramatic increase in global hostility toward
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biblical Christianity. The argument is that believers,
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even in Western nations, are facing systematic
24:33
marginalization for holding to biblical convictions.
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The cost of public confession is rising.
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The texts argue that the cultural pressure to abandon
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historical Christian orthodoxy is stronger now than it has been
24:45
in centuries. The state might not be lighting
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Christians on fire, but the societal mechanisms for
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punishing dissenting views are highly effective.
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The second text gets highly specific about modern cultural
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trends. Now, to be clear to you, the
24:57
listener, we are impartially conveying the author's stance
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here without taking political sides, but it is fascinating to
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see how the source applies Mark 8 to contemporary debates.
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It really pulls no punches in its cultural critique.
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No, it doesn't. The text outlines A strict
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rejection of several modern frameworks specifically
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targeting secular social justice, critical race theory,
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seeker sensitive church, pragmatism, and the prosperity
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gospel. A wide range of targets.
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But instead of just listing these, we need to unpack the
25:26
mechanics. How exactly do these modern
25:29
frameworks function mechanically as a rejection of the cross
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according to the source? The argument posits that these
25:35
modern frameworks elevate carnal desires, victimhood, or group
25:40
identity over the total submission of the individual to
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the Lordship of Christ. OK, let's break those down one
25:46
by one. Let us look at the prosperity
25:47
gospel first. Well, the prosperity gospel
25:49
mechanically alters the Christian message by promising a
25:52
crown without a cross. It skips Friday and go straight
25:55
to Sunday. Yes.
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It appeals directly to physical greed, health, and earthly
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wealth. It tells the ego that God exists
26:03
to fulfill the ego's desires. Which is the complete reversal
26:06
of denying the self. It is feeding the self.
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It tells the self it deserves more.
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Right. The prosperity gospel feeds the
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very autoimmune disease we talked about earlier.
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It strengthens the flesh instead of killing it.
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And what about seeker sensitive pragmatism?
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How does that mechanically alter the reading of the text to
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protect the modern ego? Seeker sensitive pragmatism
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operates on the premise that the church gathering should be
26:30
designed to be as attractive and inoffensive as possible to the
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natural unregenerate mind. Make everyone feel comfortable.
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Yes, and mechanically it removes the offense of the cross.
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By avoiding topics like sin, wrath, and the demand for
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absolute surrender, it attempts to lower the cost of
26:47
discipleship. It tries to negotiate terms with
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the natural heart. Whereas Jesus refused to
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negotiate, he demanded the death of the ego.
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The text views these movements as direct violations of the
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command to deny oneself. It is trying to make a dead man
27:01
walking feel comfortable. That brings us to the rejection
27:04
of secular social justice and critical race theory as
27:07
mentioned in the text. This is where the source gets
27:09
very analytical. The author argues that these
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ideological frameworks replace the biblical categories of sin
27:15
and redemption with secular categories of oppressor and
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oppressed based on group identity.
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Right. It shifts the fundamental
27:22
problem from internal rebellion against God to act external
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societal structures. It fundamentally shifts the
27:28
focus from individual repentance and submission to Christ toward
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endless human grievance and horizontal power struggles.
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It seeks earthly utopias rather than heavenly citizenship.
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The core issue the author identifies across all these
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modern movements is the preservation of autonomy.
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Autonomy is the idol. Whether it is through wealth,
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psychological comfort, or social ideology, the natural man wants
27:52
to retain control. But Mark 8 leaves no room for
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autonomy. Christ claims total jurisdiction
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over the believer's life. So if a believer rejects those
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modern frameworks, how do they practically apply this passage?
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The text utilizes the theological concept known as the
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third use of the law A. Classic reformed distinction.
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Wait, if there's a third use, what are the first two?
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We can't just skip to three. We need to define those first to
28:14
understand what we are talking about.
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A helpful clarification. In Reformed theology, the moral
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law of God has three distinct uses.
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The first use is pedagogical. Like a teacher.
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Yes, it acts as a mirror showing us our sin and driving us to
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Christ because we realize we cannot keep the law perfectly.
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It proves we are guilty. Right then, the second use is
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civil. It restrains the evil in society
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through the threat of punishment, keeping the world
28:41
from descending into total chaos.
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It restrains the outward actions of the unregenerate.
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OK, so the first use of the law shows us our need for a savior,
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and the second use keeps society from collapsing into total
28:53
anarchy. So what is the third use?
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The third use of the law views the biblical commands as an
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immutable rule of life for the justified believer.
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It guides the Christian in sanctification.
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Sanctification being the process of growing in holiness.
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Yes, sanctification is the ongoing progressive process
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where the Holy Spirit works in the believer to put sin to death
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and conform them to the image of Christ.
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So the law is a guide now, not a judge.
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The law no longer condemns the believer, but it instructs them
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on how to live in a way that pleases God.
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It provides the track for the train to run on.
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Practically, this passage, acting as the third use of the
29:29
law, requires the daily mortification of the flesh.
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John Owen talked a lot about mortification, killing, sin.
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It means you must actively deny the impulse to retaliate when
29:38
you are wronged. You must reject secret lusts.
29:41
You must refuse doctrinal compromise, even if holding to
29:45
the truth results in professional ruin or social
29:48
isolation. It is the daily execution of
29:51
your own pride. It is recognizing that the old
29:54
self constantly claims autonomy, and that claim must be violently
29:58
put to death every single day. It's not a one time prayer.
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You pray at an altar. No, the cross is not just a
30:03
historical event you look back at.
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It is the daily instrument of execution for your own sinful
30:08
flesh. You wake up, recognize the
30:11
demands of the ego, and you crucify them.
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The one thing that stands out most clearly from these rigorous
30:16
texts is that they leave zero room for neutrality.
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You cannot negotiate with these terms.
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There's no middle ground offered.
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You are faced with an absolute binary choice.
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Crucify the flesh now and live eternally, or coddle the flesh
30:30
now and face the eternal consequences of that self
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preservation. The Ledger is set by the divine
30:36
decree, the one who loses his life for the sake of Christ and
30:39
the gospel will find it secured forever.
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And trying to hedge your bets is a guaranteed loss.
30:44
The attempt to find a middle ground is the very definition of
30:48
losing your soul. I want to leave you with one
30:50
final thought to ponder, bringing us right back to the
30:52
autonomic nervous system we started with.
30:54
A great way to tie it all. Together, if biological self
30:57
preservation is the greatest, most powerful instinct of the
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natural human mind, what specifically in your daily
31:04
routine are you fiercely protecting right now that, in
31:07
the light of eternity, is already dead?
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Thank you for joining this session of Reformed thinking.
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We will catch you on the next deep dive.