Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Abominable Nature of Sin and the Glory of Grace (Romans 3:25–26) | John Owen

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The Abominable Nature of Sin and the Glory of Grace (Romans 3:25–26) | John Owen · Reformed Thinking

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When someone damages your property, your immediate
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instinct is to demand restitution.
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Oh, for sure. I mean, if a stranger keys your
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car in a parking lot, or you know, lies about your character
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to a mutual friend, an internal alarm just goes off in your.
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Mind yeah, you want those scales balanced.
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Right. You want the offender to be held
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accountable for the damage they caused, and that reaction is
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totally universal. We all have this baseline
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expectation of fairness. We do.
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But what happens when the offense is committed against the
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creator of the universe? Like if a crime against a finite
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human demands A finite penalty, how does infinite justice react
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to a cosmic rebellion? That is the big.
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Question It really is, so welcome to Reform Thinking, a
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deep dive into historical and theological source material to
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figure out what the text is saying, why the author said it,
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and you know how it applies to you today.
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Glad to be here for this one. Yeah, our source text for this
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discussion is the concluding section of John Owens rigorous
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theological work Dissertation on Divine Justice.
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And to really grasp what John Owen is doing in this text, we
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kind of have to look at the world he inhabited.
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Yeah, set the stage for us. So Owen was writing in the 17th
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century, specifically publishing this work in 1653.
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He was the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University and he lived
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right through the English Civil War.
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Which was incredibly chaotic. To say the least, I mean he
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watched an earthly monarch, King Charles the First, be executed
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for treason against the people. Wow.
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Yeah, so when Owen writes about authority and rebellion and
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justice, he is not writing from some safe ivory tower.
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Right. It is very real to him.
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Very real. He lived in a society fractured
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by questions of who has the right to rule and what happens
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when that rule is violated. That context is huge.
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It is. He basically operates in this
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text like a seasoned physician dealing with a terminal disease.
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OK, I like that comparison. Yeah, he looks at the human
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condition, he identifies A lethal spiritual pathology, and
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then he details the only known cure.
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And if you gloss over the severity of his diagnosis, you
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will never appreciate the precision of the cure.
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And we really have to start right where Owen starts, which
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is with a pretty startling and unvarnished description of sin.
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Yeah, he does not hold back. Not at all.
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Modern culture has really sanitized the concept of sin.
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Oh, totally. We treat it as a temporary lapse
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in judgement or a minor character flaw or, you know,
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maybe just a psychological coping mechanism.
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We use really soft language. Yeah, we call them missteps.
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Right. Missteps or blind spots.
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But Owen completely shatters that modern sanitization.
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He uses incredibly visceral language.
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Yes, he does. He calls sin a cancorous ulcer
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of nature. That's pretty gross.
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It is, and he refers to it as the prolific parent of miseries.
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Wow. Yeah, he traces the origin of
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all suffering back to this single source.
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He notes that sin is the reason angels were cast out of heaven,
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and the earth itself operates under a curse.
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And that vocabulary is very intentional.
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You know, throughout the history of philosophy, particularly
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going back to thinkers like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas,
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there was this prevalent idea that evil is simply a privation
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of good. Meaning a lack of something.
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Right, it was defined as a lack. The way darkness is just the
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absence of light, or a shadow is just the blocking of the sun.
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So it is passive. Yeah, passive.
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And while Owen would agree with the metaphysics of that in this
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text, he stresses that from the human side, sin operates as a
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hostile, aggressive force. It's not just a passive failure
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to meet a standard. Not at all.
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He writes that sin earnestly wishes him not to be God.
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That is a terrifying concept. It really is.
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Sin is an active attempt to unseat the ruler of the
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universe, he says. It engages in a mortal war with
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all the attributes of God. And that reframes the entire
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discussion for you as a listener.
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If sin is a mortal war, then every lie, every act of theft,
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and every moment of arrogance is not just breaking some localized
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rule, it is ontological rebellion.
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In historical legal terms, we have this concept of Lee's
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Majesty, which basically means a crime against the Crown.
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Yeah. High treason, yeah.
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In ancient kingdoms, if you assaulted A fellow peasant, you
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might pay a fine, but if you struck the king, you were
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executed. The severity of the crime was
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dictated by the status the person offended.
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Spot on. And Owen is applying that legal
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logic to the cosmos. Sin is high treason against the
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infinite sovereign. I am kind of thinking of this
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like a severe autoimmune disease.
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OK, unpack that. Well, a mild allergy is an
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overreaction to pollen, right? It is a glitch in the system,
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but a systemic autoimmune disease turns the body's own
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defense mechanisms into a weapon against the host.
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Oh, that is a great way to put it.
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Its goal is to attack the vital organs until the host is
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destroyed. Sin literally wants to destroy
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the host. That autoimmune analogy captures
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the internal destruction perfectly because Owen makes it
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clear that God created all things for his own glory,
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meaning the creation was designed to reflect the
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character of the Creator, right? And sin acts as the pathogen
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that severs that dependent, reflective relationship.
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The text provides A sobering list of what sin turns things
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into. Yeah, the list is intense.
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It is, Owen notes, that sin transformed angels into devils.
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It turned paradise into a wasteland.
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And perhaps most chillingly, he writes that sin has rendered man
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an enemy to himself, hateful to God, his own destroyer, and a
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wolf to others. A wolf to others.
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That specific phrase actually echoes the philosopher Thomas
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Hobbes. Oh, interesting.
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Yeah, Hobbes was a contemporary of Owen, and he famously wrote
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about the state of nature being a war of all against all, where
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man is a wolf to man. Owen is diagnosing the same
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social breakdown but attributing it to a theological root.
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Yeah, the sociological observation is the same, but the
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diagnosis is totally different. Owen is pointing out that
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without the restraint of divine grace, humans basically consume
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one another. We do.
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Just look at the news. Yeah, look at any century of
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human history, including our own.
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Right now we see endless cycles of warfare, economic
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exploitation and relational betrayal.
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People use one another for their own gain.
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We step on our neighbors to elevate our own status.
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Recisely and Owen shows that sin does not just fracture our
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vertical relationship with God, it causes a total horizontal or
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relational breakdown. The cosmos is bleeding because
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of this cankerous ulcer. Then Owen just unleashes this
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rapid fire barrage of nouns to describe sin in respect to the
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creature. It is overwhelming.
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Let's hear it. He calls it folly, madness,
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fury, blindness, hardness, darkness, stupor, giddiness,
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torpor, turpitude, uncleanness, nastiness, a stain, a spot, an
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apostasy, degeneracy, a wandering from the mark, a
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disease, a languor, destruction and death.
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Wow, I know it feels as though he is systematically exhausting
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the English language to prevent the reader from finding any
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loophole or excuse. That is exactly what he is
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doing. He piles those descriptors high
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to breakdown our natural defense mechanisms.
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Because we love our defense mechanisms.
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Oh, human beings are incredibly adept at self justification.
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We always have an excuse. We claim our circumstances were
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difficult, or we were provoked, or we had good intentions.
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We always have a reason why our sin is the exception.
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Yes, and Owen acts as the prosecuting attorney here,
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laying out a mountain of evidence that strips away every
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possible defense. He forces the reader to confront
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the reality that this rebellion is absolute poison.
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And once he establishes that Sin is this aggressive, hostile coup
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attempt against the Creator, he forces a logical pivot in the
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text. Right, he moves to the response.
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Yeah, if God is entirely good and perfectly just, how must he
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respond to a pathogen that is destroying his creation and
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attempting to assassinate his character?
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And that pivot brings us to the core of Owen's thesis, which is
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the concept of vindicatory justice.
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If sin is cosmic treason, what is the required reaction from
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the throne? And this is where it gets highly
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theological. It does.
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This is where Owen makes a massive contribution to
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theological thought, because in his day there were competing
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views on the nature of God's justice.
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Yeah, who are the main groups he was arguing against?
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Well, you have the Sicinians, a group Owen fiercely opposed.
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They argued that God's justice was merely a free act of his
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will. Meaning what?
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Meaning they believed God could forgive sin by a simple decree,
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the same way a human creditor can just decide to forgive a
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financial debt. Like saying don't worry about
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it, we are good. Right.
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And then you had Hugo Grotius, who promoted the governmental
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theory of atonement. I have heard of that one.
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Yeah, Gracias argued that God is like a moral governor, and he
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punishes sin just to maintain order in the universe and deter
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future crime. So it is more about public
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relations and keeping people in line.
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And Owen rejects both of those views completely.
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He argues for something much more inherent to who God is,
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right? Yes, he does.
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Owen argues that vindicatory justice is natural and essential
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to God. It exists as a habit inherent in
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the divine essence. So it is not just a policy.
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No, it is not a policy he enacted.
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It is not a switch he can flip on and off depending on his
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mood. It is an inseparable part of his
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identity, much like his omniscience.
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God cannot choose to be ignorant, and God cannot choose
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to be unjust. OK, I can hear a modern
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objection forming right now from someone listening.
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Let's hear someone might say, well, if God is all powerful,
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why can't he just exercise mercy without demanding a penalty?
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Like if I'm a parent and my child disobeys me, I can
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discipline them, or I can simply wrap my arms around them and say
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I forgive you, right? I don't demand that my child
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suffer a penalty before Ioffer my love.
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So why is the creator of the universe constrained by this
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rigid legal demand? Does that make God's law more
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powerful than God himself? That is a very common pushback,
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but that objection assumes that human forgiveness and divine
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forgiveness operate on the same mechanics.
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Which they don't. No.
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When you, as a parent or a friend, forgive a private
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offense, you are a flawed individual waiving your personal
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right to retaliation. Because I am not the ultimate
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judge of the universe. Right.
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You are not the moral lawgiver whose very nature dictates the
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standard of all goodness. Owen points out that God created
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all things for his own glory. He has a natural, absolute right
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to preserve that glory. And sin attacks that directly.
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Yes, because sin is a direct affront to His Holiness and an
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attempt to rob him of his honor. He must avenge the injury to
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remain God. To remain God.
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That is a heavy statement. It is.
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If he were to look at high treason and say, oh, it does not
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matter, he would be validating the lie of sin.
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He would be declaring that His Holiness is not worth
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protecting. Which would mean he is not
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perfectly holy. Right.
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He would cease to be just and therefore cease to be God.
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And Owen uses a massive historical event as the ultimate
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proof for this argument, doesn't he?
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He does. The cross is the center of
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gravity for his entire thesis. Owen argues that if God could
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simply recede from his right, if he could just easily forgive
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without a penalty by an act of his free will, then the
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crucifixion of Jesus Christ makes absolutely no sense.
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It would be totally unnecessary. Totally, if a verbal pardon was
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an option, there would be zero reason for the Father of Mercies
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to severely punish his most holy Son, right?
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Why would God subject Christ to the physical torture, the public
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humiliation, the spiritual agony and the shedding of blood if a
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simple decree of amnesty would have solved the problem?
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The narrative of the Garden of Gethsemane reinforces this
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brilliantly, I think. Oh absolutely.
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You have Jesus sweating drops of blood and he prays Father.
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If it is possible, let this cup pass for me.
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He is asking for another way. Yeah, he is asking if there is
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any other way to achieve the salvation of humanity without
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drinking the cup of divine wrath, and the silence from
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heaven is definite. It was not possible.
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Right. If God could have forgiven sin
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by Fiat, you would have answered that prayer and canceled the
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crucifixion. The cross proves that justice is
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an unbending requirement. Owen writes he would not be God
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if he did not avenge by the punishment of the guilty his own
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injury. That is a stark reality.
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It is, and the class is not an example of cosmic child abuse,
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as some modern critics have crudely claimed.
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Yeah, you hear that phrase thrown around a lot.
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You do, but it is a fundamental misunderstanding.
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The cross is the outworking of a justice so pure that it cannot
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ignore rebellion, coupled with a love so intense that it is
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willing to absorb the penalty itself.
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The judge of all the earth must do right.
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So, because God's justice is an absolute attribute that cannot
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be bypassed or suspended, humanity is left in a terrifying
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predicament. We really are.
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We owe a debt of infinite proportions because we have
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offended an infinite being, and we owe it to a judge who cannot
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dismiss. Which naturally drives the human
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conscience into a state of absolute panic.
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It does, and that realization brings us to the total futility
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of human atonement and religious appeasement.
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When the reality of divine justice actually dawns on the
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human mind, the immediate reaction is terror.
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Owen quotes the book of Hebrews which states plainly it is a
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fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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And it should be fearful, yeah. When a person recognizes their
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own guilt and the unbending nature of the judge, they
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frantically attempt to balance the scales themselves.
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Owen points to the frantic questions posed in the Book of
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Micah, which I think is so illustrative of this.
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That text is incredible. The escalation in that biblical
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text perfectly captures the psychology of a guilty
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conscience. The prophet writes.
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Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before
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the high God? Shall I come before him with
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burnt offerings with calves of a year old?
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So it starts with a reasonable sacrifice.
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Like a calf? Yeah.
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But then the panic sets in. Will the Lord be pleased with
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thousands of Rams or with 10 thousands of rivers of oil?
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It escalates rapidly. And then it reaches this
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horrifying peak. Shall I give my first born for
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my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
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You can literally hear the internal hiscaria.
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The person is offering increasingly absurd, massive
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payments. They start with a calf, then
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they move to thousands of Rams, then rivers of oil, and finally
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they offer the ultimate horrifying sacrifice, the murder
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of their own child to pay for their soul.
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Owen analyzes the dark psychology behind human
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religion. In that passage, he argues that
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humans are driven by a vain superstition and a fundamental
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ignorance of the justice of God. We know inherently that we are
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guilty. Yeah, the conscience testifies
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against us, so we attempt to appease the deity through
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arduous expense and sometimes gratesque sacrifices.
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And that mention of sacrificing a first born is not hyperbole.
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No. Historically, the worship of
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Molech and other ancient Near Eastern deities involved literal
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infant sacrifice. Parents would place their
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children into the burning bronze arms of an idol.
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It is unthinkable. But Owen notes that people were
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so agitated by the internal furies of judgement that they
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would commit atrocities just to try and buy off the anger of the
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divine. It is the ultimate display of
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bankruptcy. I think about this like a
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massive corporation trying to settle $100 billion antitrust
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lawsuit. OK, I like where this is going.
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Yeah, imagine their legal team walks into the federal court and
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offers the judge a handful of arcade price tickets.
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That would not go over well. It is a fundamental category
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error. To the person handing over the
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tickets, it feels like a transaction.
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They are making an effort, but to the judge it has absolutely
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no currency, right? The debt is monetary and the
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payment offered is worthless paper.
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In the same way, human religious efforts, no matter how extreme,
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hold no currency in the courtroom of infinite holiness.
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The currency is entirely wrong. God is not looking for our
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meager attempts at righteousness, which the prophet
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Isaiah calls filthy rags. Owen points out that God cannot
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disregard His Holiness for the sake of hostile conspirators.
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Our efforts are just totally. Bankrupt here.
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Completely bankrupt, the psalmist writes.
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The redemption of the soul is precious and ceaseth forever.
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No amount of human effort can bridge the infinite gap.
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And we obviously do not sacrifice Rams or pour out
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rivers of oil in the modern world.
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We certainly do not advocate throwing infants into fires.
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No, thankfully. But the human drive to appease a
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guilty conscience has not disappeared at all.
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It is just secularized. Oh, absolutely.
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What does that look like today? We see people today engaging in
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exhausting purity spirals on social media, trying to publicly
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atone for their privilege or past mistakes.
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Yeah, cancel culture has a very religious undertone to it.
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It does. We see extreme performative
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philanthropy where people hope their massive charitable
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donations will outweigh their private greed or corporate
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exploitation. Trying to buy indulgences.
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Basically yes. And we see people punishing
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themselves with obsessive perfectionism, trying to build
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an airtight resume of moral superiority to present to the
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world. We are still trying to hand
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arcade tickets to the judge. And those modern equivalents are
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just as futile. We exhaust ourselves trying to
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balance the scales, hoping that if we just feel bad enough or if
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we do enough good deeds, God or the universe or society will
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accept our misery as payment. But Owen's conclusion is
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absolute. It is God will not accept
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sacrifice or offering or burnt offerings for sin from the hands
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of the guilty. None of our modern attempts to
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be good enough possess the currency required by infinite
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justice. Which leaves the listener
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completely empty handed. You are standing before the
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judge, The evidence of your cosmic treason is documented and
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undeniable, the penalty is eternal, and your pockets are
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completely empty. It is objectively hopeless.
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But this is the exact moment Owen introduces the staggering
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pivot. In the text, he writes that a
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remedy was quickly provided and a city of refuge opened its
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gates. Owen points out that there is
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only 1 logical way out of this dilemma, he writes, unless the
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judge himself shall provide a lamb for a burnt offering.
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And there it is. That is the historical reality
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of the Christian Gospel. The judge who demands absolute,
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unbending justice steps down from the bench, takes on human
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flesh and provides the payment himself.
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Let's talk about the mechanics of that, because Owen explains
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this transaction, known theologically as penal
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substitutionary atonement, very precisely, yes.
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The mechanics are vital. God steps in to solve the
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impossible problems. He takes his holy, harmless Son
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and makes him into sin and a curse to absorb the punishment
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of the broken law. And this is not a random act of
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violence. It operates on the principle of
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federal headship. Explain that for the listener.
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So just as Adam acted as the representative head of humanity,
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bringing sin and death into the world, Christ acts as the second
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Adam. He is the new representative
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head for his people. A legal substitute, right?
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Owen says that God, the Judge and Ruler of all, thoroughly
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examined the hearts, breasts, ways, and lives of us all.
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He collected whatever was contrary to His law, whatever
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was improper, unjust and impure. All the hidden things.
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Every bit of it. He gathered all the malice, the
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deceit, the arrogance, and the hidden shame that provoked his
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justice. He took all of that guilt,
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imputed it to the Redeemer, and condemned it in His flesh.
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And that theological concept of imputation is fascinating.
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Here it is an accounting term. God takes the mass of debt from
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our Ledger and transfers it to Christ's Ledger.
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But Christ, being infinite in his divine nature, is capable of
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absorbing an infinite penalty in a finite amount of time on the
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cross. He drinks the Cup of Wrath down
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to the dregs until the cup is completely empty.
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And the law is fully upheld, the penalty is completely paid, the
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judge remains perfectly just because the crime was punished,
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and yet the guilty party goes free.
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It is the only mechanism where God could remain blessed forever
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while saving sinners who would otherwise perish forever.
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Paul says in Romans that God is both just and the justifier, the
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one who has faith in Jesus. Yes, but Owen includes a highly
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specific caveat here that we cannot miss.
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What is that? He argues that this objective
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historical remedy is entirely useless to a subjective
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individual without the specific internal work of the Holy
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Spirit. He writes that the Spirit must
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convince the heart of sin, righteousness and judgment.
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I really want to examine why that internal conviction is
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required. I mean, if the debt was legally
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paid on the cross 2000 years ago, why isn't it sufficient for
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someone to simply read the historical data, look at the
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theological arguments, and give intellectual assent?
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Just agree with the facts. Yeah, why does Owen insist on
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this internal breaking of the horror?
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Because intellectual assent does not cure a hostile disposition,
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Owen argues that without a bitter sense of sin, deep
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humiliation, contrition, dejection of heart, and a
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genuine self hatred for one's rebellion, you cannot possibly
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appreciate or receive the remedy.
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You have to know you are sick. Exactly.
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You have to understand the fatal nature of your disease before
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you will ever submit to the medicine.
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It makes sense. Like if a surgeon walks up to me
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while I'm feeling perfectly healthy and offers me a painful,
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invasive, and expensive open heart surgery, I'm going to
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reject it immediately. You would think the guy is a
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lunatic. I really would.
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But if that same surgeon shows me the MRI, points out the
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massive arterial blockage, and convinces me that I have less
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than 48 hours to live without intervention, my entire
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disposition changes. You do not just tolerate the
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surgery. No, I beg for.
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It and the Holy Spirit is the one who provides the spiritual
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MRI. He breaks through our natural
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denial, strips away our self justification, and shows us the
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actual state of our soul. Shows us the blockage.
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Yes, he reveals that we are the hostile conspirators Owen
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described in the first section. The text mentions the necessity
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of self indignation and revenge. That sounds harsh to modern
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ears. It does, but it just means you
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stop acting as your own defense attorney.
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You start making excuses for the pathogen inside you.
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You agree with the judge's verdict about your own heart.
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And when that deep conviction occurs and you suddenly see the
22:01
part in being offered freely, the relief is unimaginable.
22:04
You transition from being a hostile rebel awaiting execution
22:07
to a pardoned child standing in the courtroom.
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And that transition alters everything about how you view
22:13
the Savior, which leads us to a stunning historical illustration
22:16
that Owen includes to demonstrate the focus of true
22:20
affection. Yeah, Owen turns to a beautiful
22:22
narrative from antiquity to illustrate the believers
22:24
response to this substitution. He recounts the story of
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Tigranes, the son of the king of Armenia, and Cyrus the Great,
22:32
the Persian monarch. It is a great story.
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It goes like this. Cyrus has conquered the region
22:37
and captured the Armenian royal family.
22:39
They are standing before him, facing either immediate
22:42
execution or a lifetime of slavery.
22:44
High stakes. Very, and to Grainy steps
22:47
forward and pleads for his wife. He looks at Cyrus and declares
22:50
that he would gladly purchase his wife's liberty at the price
22:53
of his own life. Offering to die on the spot.
22:56
Right, if Cyrus will let her go free.
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And Cyrus is so struck by this display of nobility that he
23:00
actually grants them their freedom.
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A rare moment of mercy in the ancient world.
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For sure, afterward, the Armenians are safely talking
23:09
among themselves, and they are all praising Cyrus.
23:12
Some are admiring his tactical wisdom, others are extolling his
23:15
mercy, his royal virtues, his incredible power.
23:18
Understandably, yeah. But Tigranes turns to his wife
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and asks her what she most admired in The Illustrious Hero
23:25
Cyrus, and she gives an answer that stops the conversation.
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What does she say? She says my thoughts were not
23:32
turned upon him. Tigranes is stunned.
23:36
He asks upon whom? Then she replies upon him.
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Who said that he would redeem me from slavery at the expense of
23:42
his life? She wasn't looking at Cyrus at
23:44
all. She was staring exclusively at
23:46
her husband, the man who had just offered his neck to the
23:49
executioner for her. It is a phenomenal narrative and
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Owen uses it to argue from the lesser to the greater.
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He connects this deeply emotional story directly to the
23:58
believer's relationship with Christ.
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It's a perfect parallel. If Tugranis's wife was utterly
24:02
captivated by a man who merely offered his life but did not
24:06
actually have to die, how much more should Christians be
24:09
captivated by the one who actually drank the cup of
24:11
horror, sweat and agony on the cross?
24:14
Tugranis made a noble offer, but Christ made the agonizing
24:18
physical payment. Right.
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This reframes the entire concept of Christian obedience for me.
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So much of modern religion is viewed as a sterile list of
24:27
rules. Do this, don't do that.
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It feels like legalistic box checking to avoid punishment.
24:33
A very exhausting way to live. It is, but Owen takes obedience
24:38
entirely out of the realm of legalism and places it firmly in
24:41
the realm of overwhelming gratitude.
24:44
You aren't obeying because you were terrified of a tyrant with
24:46
a lightning bolt. You're obeying because you
24:47
cannot take your eyes off the person who stepped in front of
24:49
the firing squad for you. Owen quotes the Song of Solomon
24:53
calling the believer to be sick of love toward the deliverer.
24:56
Sincere obedience flows from infinite esteem.
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When you have thoroughly weighed the repulsive nature of your
25:02
sin, when you realize you were caught in the snares of death
25:05
and absolute destruction, and then you realize you escaped
25:08
entirely through His inexpressible mercy, your heart
25:12
changes. It has to change.
25:14
Owen argues that this divine truth is a spur to quicken you
25:17
to the practice of every virtue. It is a matter of proportion.
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How so? Well, if you think your sin was
25:24
small, your love for the Savior will be small.
25:27
You will treat Him like a life coach who gave you some good
25:29
advice. But if you see your sin, it's
25:31
cosmic treason that demanded infinite wrath.
25:34
Your love for the Redeemer becomes boundless.
25:37
I really want to ask the person listening to this to evaluate
25:40
where their gaze is fixed. Are you constantly looking at
25:43
your own performance, tracking your good deeds on a mental
25:46
spreadsheet, hoping your debits and credits balance out?
25:48
A lot of people live there. Yeah, are you looking around at
25:51
the virtues or the massive failures of other people
25:53
constantly comparing your moral standing to theirs?
25:56
Or are you, like the wife of Tigranes, staring exclusively at
26:00
the one who paid your ransom? Your focus dictates your
26:03
affection. It does.
26:05
If you stare at your own effort, the result is either pride or
26:09
despair. If you stare at the cross, the
26:11
natural output is intense love and joy.
26:15
And this intense personal affection for the Savior leads
26:18
to a much wider cosmic realization.
26:21
God's plan of substitution does not just save individual sinners
26:25
from hell. It brings unparalleled glory to
26:28
God's broader attributes. Right.
26:29
And Owen lands his argument by looking at the vindication of
26:32
God's wisdom and holiness. He shows that the atonement
26:35
magnifies God's infinite wisdom because God brings the greatest
26:39
honor out of the very thing that was meant to disgrace him.
26:42
Owen references Samson's Riddle from the Book of Judges.
26:45
Out of the Eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came
26:48
forth sweetness. He applies this ancient Riddle
26:51
to divine wisdom. He does.
26:52
God takes sin, the most antagonistic destructive force
26:56
in the universe, and uses it as the dark backdrop to display His
26:59
glorious grace. None but an infinitely wise God
27:02
could orchestrate that. It is the ultimate reversal.
27:05
Think of it like a biological antibody.
27:07
Oh, back to the medical analogies.
27:09
Yeah, an antibody does not just randomly fight a virus.
27:12
It studies the specific destructive code of the virus,
27:16
adapts to it, and uses the exact signature of the pathogen to
27:20
defeat it and provide lasting immunity to the body.
27:23
Yeah. It's brilliant.
27:24
God takes the rebellion of humanity, the malice of the
27:26
devil, the cowardice of Pilate, the injustice of the Roman
27:29
courts, and the betrayal of Judas, and he connects them all
27:33
together to accomplish the salvation of the world.
27:35
Owen points to the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis
27:38
to illustrate this macro reality on a micro scale.
27:41
The story of Joseph is the perfect blueprint for this
27:44
concept. Joseph's brothers hated him.
27:47
They impiously sold him into slavery.
27:50
It was a wicked, sinful act driven by pure jealousy.
27:53
Terrible betrayal. But God used that specific
27:56
captivity through many perplexed mazes and strange occurrences,
28:00
being thrown in the pit, being falsely accused in Potiphar's
28:03
house, languishing in the Egyptian prison to elevate
28:06
Joseph to the right hand of Pharaoh.
28:08
And from that seat, he saves the very brothers who sold him from
28:11
a global famine. What the brothers intended for
28:13
evil, God intended for good. Owen notes that it will forever
28:17
be esteemed a miracle of God's Providence.
28:20
And the cross is the ultimate cosmic fulfillment of that
28:23
pattern. Sin tried to murder God, but God
28:27
used the murder of His Son to execute sin.
28:30
It is a truly God like invention.
28:33
Owen writes that if anyone tried to describe this mystery of
28:36
divine wisdom, their language would be deficient and the eye
28:39
of their mind would be overpowered with light filled
28:42
with awe and astonishment. In addition to wisdom, Omen says
28:46
we must constantly contemplate the holiness of God in the
28:48
mirror of this truth. The cross proves that God is of
28:52
pure eyes than to behold evil. He is not sweep sin under the
28:55
rug. No, he does not turn a blind eye
28:58
to injustice to keep the peace. He deals with it severely and
29:01
comprehensively. And the practical result of
29:03
contemplating that holiness is personal alteration of life,
29:06
Owen says. It is so that we ourselves may
29:08
become more pure in heart and more holy in life, speech and
29:12
behavior. It changes how you act.
29:13
You cannot look at the agony of the cross, see the blood, see
29:16
how much God hates sin, and then go back to treating your own sin
29:20
casually. You want your life to mirror the
29:22
holiness of the God who went to such extreme lengths to save
29:26
you. It creates a beautiful
29:28
self-sustaining cycle in the life of the believer.
29:31
You see the horror of your sin. You see the absolute, unbending
29:35
justice of God. You see the complete futility of
29:38
your own religious efforts. Then you see the brilliant,
29:41
agonizing substitute provided by the judge.
29:43
Right. And you are overwhelmed with
29:45
gratitude like the wife of Tigranes.
29:47
And that gratitude compels you to live a life of purity,
29:50
honoring the wisdom and holiness of the Creator who rescued you.
29:54
So let's pull all of this theological framework together.
29:56
We have covered massive ground today.
29:58
We started by looking at the horrifying anti God nature of
30:01
sin, not as a mistake, but as the cosmic vandalism that
30:05
attempts to unseat the Creator. We looked at the absolute
30:08
requirement of divine justice, recognizing that God must punish
30:12
sin because he must remain true to his own righteous nature.
30:15
We saw the total failure of human religion, the arcade
30:19
tickets. We try to hand the judge to pay
30:21
an infinite debt. Then we examine the brilliant
30:23
mechanics of substitution, where the judge takes the penalty upon
30:27
himself. And we finished by seeing how
30:29
this demands our overwhelming love, awe, and a pursuit of
30:33
holiness. Connecting this directly to your
30:35
daily life is vital. Understanding this intense
30:38
theology isn't just for academics sitting in dusty
30:41
libraries reading 17th century Latin.
30:43
No, it is highly practical. It is the fuel for authentic
30:46
gratitude. When you understand the severity
30:49
of the justice you escaped, the minor inconveniences and
30:52
frustrations of your day pale in comparison to your joy.
30:56
If you know you have been pardoned from the executioner's
30:58
block, a flat tire on your way home does not ruin your life.
31:01
No, your baseline reality is 1 of staggering.
31:05
I want to leave you with a final challenge to Mull over as you go
31:08
about your day. We started by talking about your
31:10
instinct to demand justice when you were wronged by someone
31:13
else. Think about the people who have
31:15
offended you. Think about the debts you feel
31:18
others owe. You we all have those lists.
31:20
We do. But if God's justice is so
31:23
absolute, and His reaction to your cosmic rebellion was so
31:27
severe that it required the agony of the cross to resolve,
31:31
and if that infinite debt was absorbed and forgiven by the
31:33
Judge himself, how should that alter the way you react to the
31:37
offenses committed against you by others?
31:39
If the infinite debt was cancelled, what does that mean
31:42
for the small relational debts you are holding on to today?
31:45
That is a challenging thought. Thank you for joining this deep
31:47
dive on reformed thinking. Keep looking into the source
31:50
text, keep asking the hard questions, and let the truth
31:53
shape the way you live.