Latest / Reformed Thinking / Do Not Lose Heart: Present Affliction and Eternal Glory (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

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Do Not Lose Heart: Present Affliction and Eternal Glory (2 Corinthians 4:16–18) · Reformed Thinking

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Every single year, the world spends, well, billions of
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dollars on this frantic, doomed mission.
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Oh yeah, absolute billions. Right, we are talking about the
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massive anti aging industry. I mean, from specialized diets
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to cosmetic surgeries and, you know, experimental cellular
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therapies. And just endless regimens of
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supplements too. Yeah, people are obsessed with
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trying to stop the clock. Yeah, we want to arrest the
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inevitable breakdown of the physical body.
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Because our modern culture operates on this relentless
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pragmatism, right? Spot on.
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It suggests that if something hurts, it must be bad.
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And if a physical trial cannot be bypassed, well then your
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faith or your methodology has somehow failed.
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You, which is a heavy burden to carry.
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It really is welcome to Reformed thinking.
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I am your host and sitting across from me as our resident
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expert. Today we are undertaking A
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rigorous theological examination of the Apostle Paul's second
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letter to the Corinthians. Specifically, chapter 4, verses
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16 through 18. And we are basing our analysis
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on 2 highly detailed scholarly sources provided for us today.
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The 1st is a theological paper titled Do Not Lose Heart.
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And the second is an analytical work called The Gravity of
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Grace. The mission of this deep dive
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into the source material is pretty singular.
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We want to understand how a believer survives physical decay
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and heavy affliction through the precise lens of Reformed
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theology. So we have to ask, how do you
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handle the harsh, unavoidable reality that your body is
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breaking down? Right.
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Think of it like this. Imagine a classic car sitting in
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a driveway. To the naked eye, it is
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completely rusting on the outside.
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Paint peeling, dented fenders, the whole.
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Thing Yeah, the transmission is failing, and it looks absolutely
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ready for the scrap yard. But under the hood, hidden from
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plain sight, a master mechanic is quietly installing a brand
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new high performance engine. I love that analogy.
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That is the Christian condition in a nutshell.
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The outside is rusting away, but a miraculous internal renovation
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is happening at the very same time.
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And that analogy sets up our discussion perfectly, because to
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grasp the reality of that internal renovation, we first
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have to look honestly at the rest.
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We really do. We have to face the theological
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reality of our failing bodies without flinching or, you know,
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looking away. So looking at Section 1, the
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text begins in verse 16 with a blunt, undeniable observation.
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It says, though, our outer man is wasting away.
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Yeah, the Greek verb used there for wasting away is diatherity.
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Diatherity OK, break that down for.
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Us Well, it is a present passive indicative verb in Greek grammar
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that signifies A continuous, relentless process of
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destruction and corruption. Wow, okay, And what does the
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indicative mood tell us there? The indicative mood means this
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is a statement of absolute objective fact.
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It is not some hypothetical scenario.
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Right, it is not saying if your outer man wastes away.
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No, not at all. And the present tense means it
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is happening right now continuously.
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And you said it is passive, right?
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Yeah. What does the passive voice add
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to that? The passive voice means it is
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happening to you. You are the recipient of the
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action, and you are entirely unable to stop it.
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So this is not just a sudden accident or a temporary
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biological set back. No, it is the steady,
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unavoidable deterioration of the physical body due to the fall of
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Adam, the outer man. Our physical frames, our earthly
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status, our natural strength is under a sovereign decree of
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decay. And to understand this through
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the framework of the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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specifically Chapter 5, which covers Providence, we have to
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recognize something crucial. Right that this physical wasting
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is not a biological accident. Yeah, God is not sitting in
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heaven wringing his hands, watching your body age as if it
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were outside of His sovereign control.
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Not at all. This decay is actively
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orchestrated by a sovereign God. The Westminster Divine's
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understood that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, yet in
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such a way that He is not the author of sin.
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So your aging process, your physical ailments, and your
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bodily breakdown function as a furnace of divine Providence.
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A. Furnace that is a heavy image.
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What is the function of that furnace?
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God uses this furnace to purge the elect of their dross, to
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strip away human self-reliance, and to force a total, absolute
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dependence on Christ. Well, that brings us to a severe
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clash with modern religious trends, doesn't it?
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Oh, absolutely. Our sources draw a sharp polemic
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here against the prosperity gospel.
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And the broader seeker sensitive movement too.
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Those movements peddle a false man centered narrative.
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They really do. They suggest that God's favor
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guarantees physical vitality, perfect health, and material
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wealth in this present age. Right.
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Our sources point out that they teach a theology of glory rather
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than a theology of the cross. They assert that if you have
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enough faith, your outer man will flourish and you will live
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your best life right now. But this biblical text shatters
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that self idolatry completely. I mean, think about the human
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author of this text. The Apostle Paul was battered,
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beaten, aging and physically declining.
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Yeah, he suffered from a thorn in the flesh.
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He was imprisoned and he was frequently deprived of basic
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necessities. Yet he was squarely in the
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center of God's will. The wasting away of the outer
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man is the expected baseline for the Christian living in a fallen
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world. But this raises A challenging
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question for you, the listener. It is a question we really must
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wrestle with, honestly. Right.
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If God is a loving Father to his elect, why subject them to this
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relentless, painful physical decay?
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Why not just grant them perfect health from the moment of their
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conversion until the moment they reach glory?
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Exactly. I mean precisely.
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If he has the sovereign ability to heal every disease and he
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loves his children, the ongoing presence of physical suffering
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seems contradictory to his goodness.
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At least to the natural human mind, yes.
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If I am justified and adopted into God's family, why is my
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body still breaking down just like the bodies of those who
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hate God? So how do our sources answer
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that? Well, to answer that, we must
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look directly to Christ. The sources provide a vital
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Christological connection here. Right, looking at the prophet
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Isaiah. Yes, in chapter 52, verse 14,
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Isaiah tells us that Christ's outer man was marred beyond
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human semblance. His physical body was crushed,
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and not just by the natural ageing process or the physical
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instruments of Roman torture. No, it was crushed by the
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Father's wrath, poured out on the cross for the sins of his
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people. So Christ suffered the ultimate
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deterioration of the outer man. And because believers are in
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union with Christ, our physical decay and our earthly
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afflictions are fundamentally altered in their nature.
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OK, alter how? Because they still hurt just as
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much. They do.
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But for the unbeliever, physical decay is a harbinger of penal
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condemnation. It is the first taste of eternal
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death. A warning of the judgment to
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come, yes. But for the believer, because
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Christ exhausted the punitive wrath of God on the cross, our
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physical decay is no longer penal.
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That is a staggering reality. God is not punishing you when
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your joints fail or when a medical scan brings bad news.
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No, it is now fatherly discipline.
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It is a participation in his sufferings.
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Our sources know that God uses the cracking of the clay jar to
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let the light of the gospel shine out to a watching world.
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The physical deterioration is the divinely appointed prelude
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to spiritual weightiness. Your failing strength is the
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precise instrument God uses to dismantle your reliance on the
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flesh. Right, because when you're
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physical abilities are stripped away, you can no longer boast in
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your own competence. You are left with nothing but
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the grace of God, which is precisely where He intends for
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you to be. Yeah, but if the story ended
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with our bodies relentlessly wasting away, it would be pure
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tragedy. It would just be a long,
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painful, nihilistic March to the grave.
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We would be completely justified and despairing.
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Thankfully, it does not end there.
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The second-half of verse 16 introduces A miraculous counter
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reality. A reality that changes the
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entire trajectory of human existence.
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The text continues, yet our inner man is being renewed day
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by day. The Greek verb used here for
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being renewed is anakinutai. Anakinutai, Our sources point
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out that this is a pretty rare word in the New Testament,
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right? Yes, and grammatically it is a
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divine passive. A divine passive.
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That grammatical detail changes everything about how we view the
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Christian life. It really does.
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It means the believer does not generate this renewal.
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You are not the active agent making yourself new through
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sheer willpower or moral exertion.
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No, the Holy Spirit does it to you.
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You are the recipient of the action.
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Let's think back to a medical setting.
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Picture a patient lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip
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inserted into their arm. OK, Yeah.
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That patient does not manufacture the life saving
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medicine inside their own veins. They lack the biological ability
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to cure themselves. They just simply receive the
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life giving fluid supplied steadily by an outside source.
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Exactly. The believer is on a divine 5V
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Drake. The Holy Spirit is supplying the
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grace, the strength, and the spiritual vitality from the
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outside in. You are completely dependent on
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the Great Physician to pump new life into your inner man while
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the outer man deteriorates. And our sources mentioned that
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this divine passive draws incredibly sharp theological
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boundaries. Oh, very sharp.
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The sources use this verb to distinguish Reformed orthodoxy
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from several opposing views that have historically caused immense
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confusion in the Church. Let's walk through those first.
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It stands squarely against Arminianism, correct?
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Yes, Armenian theology proposes a synergistic view of salvation
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and sanctification. Suggesting that spiritual life
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depends heavily on human cooperation.
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Right on the believer holding on tightly enough to God or
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maintaining their justification through free will.
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But the passive voice of AN refutes that burden.
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God does the renewing. The believer receives it.
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Your spiritual survival does not depend on the strength of your
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group on God, but on the strength of His grip on you.
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That is such a comfort. 2nd the sources show this pushes back
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against Roman Catholicism. Yes, applying Westminster
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Confession Chapter 11, which addresses justification.
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We understand from the confession that this internal
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renewal is the evidence of justification, not the ground of
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it. Because Rome teaches at the
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Council of Trent that an internal infusion of grace makes
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a person inherently righteous. And that this internal renewal
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becomes the basis upon which God declares them just.
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Right, but the Reformed biblical view is that justification is a
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declarative legal act. Solely on the imputed alien
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righteousness of Christ received by faith alone.
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So the inward renewal we see in this verse is the necessary,
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inevitable fruit of already being justified.
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It is sanctification following justification.
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God declares you righteous in the courtroom of heaven based on
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Christ's work, and then the Holy Spirit begins the lifelong
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internal hospital work of renewing your inner man.
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The sources draw third contrast here too, this time against
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mysticism and certain charismatic teachings.
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Right, because the text says this renewal happens day by day.
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That specific phrase refutes the theology of a second blessing.
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Or a singular ecstatic crisis experience that permanently
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elevates the believer to a higher plane of spiritual
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existence where they no longer struggle.
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Following the thought of the great Puritan theologian John
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Owen, the sources maintain that the Holy Spirit works this daily
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renewal through the ordinary means of grace.
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We are talking about the reading and preaching to the Word, the
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discipline of prayer and the administration of the
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sacraments. Baptism in the Lord's Supper?
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Yes, this aligns with a cessationist view.
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Where we do not look for novel extra biblical revelations or
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miraculous Apostolic healings to sustain our faith.
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We look to the steady, ordinary provision Goddess instituted in
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his church. So to speak directly to the
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weary listener, you do not need to manufacture a week's worth of
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strength for a week's worth of trials.
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No, you really don't when you wake up facing a daunting
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medical diagnosis or chronic pain or relational heartbreak.
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You do not have to muster the emotional energy to survive the
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next 10 years. God supplies the daily manna of
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the spirits, renewing grace for today alone.
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The renewal is meted out in daily increments.
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You only need the grace for this specific trial of today, and the
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text guarantees that the Holy Spirit is actively presently
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supplying it to your inner man. And that internal renovation
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enables the believer to endure the suffering of the outer man.
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But it forces us to ask another, heavier question.
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What is the actual purpose of that suffering?
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Right. Is it just a meaningless
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obstacle course we have to survive until die?
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Is God just testing our patience?
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The sources transition us into the divine mathematics of verse
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17. To answer that, the text says,
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for this light momentary affliction is preparing for us
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an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.
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We have extreme, almost jarring contrast set up here.
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On one side of the Ledger you have affliction, on the other
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you have glory. The affliction is described as
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light and momentary. The glory is described as a
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weight and eternal. To grasp the sheer magnitude of
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this, we have to look at the underlying vocabulary Paul wrote
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in Greek using the word doxa for glory.
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But as a Jewish Pharisee extensively trained in the
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Hebrew Scriptures, his conceptual mindset was rooted in
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the Hebrew word kabod. Kabod, that literally means
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heaviness or substance, right? In the ancient Near East, a
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wealthy man was said to be heavy with gold and livestock.
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So affliction is a lifron, which means a featherweight.
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And glory is Barros, a massive, crushing gravity of beauty and
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holiness. The things you suffer now are on
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the scale, but the glory that is coming is a boulder of infinite
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density that completely shatters the scale.
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The contrast is staggering, but the most crucial word in that
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verse might be the verb describing what the suffering is
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actually doing. The text says the affliction is
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preparing or producing for us an eternal weight of glory.
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The Greek verb is catargazetai. It is a present middle
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indicative. This teaches us that suffering
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is not a passive hurdle you trip over.
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It is not a random cosmic accident or a glitch in the
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universe. No.
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Suffering is an active agent that God uses to forge and
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produce the glory. The suffering is doing work.
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It is productive in the sovereign Providence of God.
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The very things that seem to be destroying the outer man are
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actively manufacturing the glory that the inner man will inherit.
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It is as if the suffering itself is the hammer on the anvil
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shaping your soul. But I have to push back on this
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language because calling affliction light and momentary
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could send incredibly dismissive.
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I completely agree, it could even sound offensive to a
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listener dealing with severe trauma.
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If someone is listening to this right now who is battling
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terminal cancer or living with chronic debilitating nerve pain
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every single day or. Grieving the devastating sudden
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loss of a child. Right.
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How do we read this text without trivializing their very real
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tears? Calling the loss of a child a
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featherweight sounds almost cruel on its face.
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How do we reconcile the horrific pain of this fallen world with
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the words of this text? Our sources handle that pushback
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by clarifying the nature of the comparison through a
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Christological proclamation. Affliction is only light by
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comparison to the staggering, excessive nature of the coming
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glory. The Apostle Paul was not a man
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sitting in an ivory tower writing philosophical
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platitudes. As we noted earlier, he was
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stoned, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, starved and
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imprisoned in dark, freezing dungeons.
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He knew immense physical and emotional agony.
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He is not saying the suffering does not hurt.
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He is not promoting A stoic denial of pain.
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He is saying that when you place the heaviest, most agonizing
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burdens of this life on one side of a divine scale.
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And the eternal substantive reality of God's unmediated
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presence on the other side. The glory is so massive that it
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launches the suffering into the air like a feather.
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But the calculus only works, and this is vital for understanding
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Reformed theology because of substitutionary atonement.
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This brings us to the crucial distinction between law and
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gospel. Christ bore the truly infinite
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weight of God's punitive wrath on the cross.
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He absorbed the full penalty for the sins of the elect.
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Therefore, the trials believers face are completely stripped of
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divine wrath. The law shows that we actually
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deserve the crushing weight of God's judgment.
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For our rebellion, we deserve eternal affliction.
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But the gospel announces that because Christ took that weight
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of judgment in our place, we receive the weight of glory.
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If you are in Christ, your suffering is never a punishment.
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It is the chisel in the hand of a loving Father, sculpting you
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for an eternal inheritance. So if our trials are actively
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producing this massive weight of glory, we need to know how to
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fix our minds on it when the physical pain is literally
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screaming for our attention. It is one thing to know this
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theology in a classroom, It is another to live it on a Tuesday
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morning when your body is failing and the medical bills
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are piling up. We must change how we see
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reality. That leads us to the final verse
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in this section, verse 18. The text says as we look not to
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the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
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The verb here is an active Greek participle scopanton.
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We get the English word scope from it, like a telescope or a
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sniper scope. Right.
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This is not a casual passing glance.
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It requires A concentrated, scrutinizing focus.
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You have to lock onto the unseen reality with deliberate intent.
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It is an epistemology, a way of knowing and perceiving truth
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that defies the secular mindset. The secular world says seeing is
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believing. If I cannot touch it, measure it
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or put it in a test tube, it is not real.
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But the biblical text reverses that entirely.
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The text argues that the things you can touch and see are
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actually the least permanent things in existence.
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The sources explain this reversal by contrasting the
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nature of the scene and the unseen.
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The visible world, the things you can see and touch right now,
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is described with the Greek word pskayra.
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That means it is for a season, it is transient, it is a passing
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stage play. Your bank account, your physical
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health, your social standing, the political landscape, the
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house you live in, all of it is proscarity.
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It is vapor, it is here today and gone tomorrow, but the
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unseen world is Hyginia. It is eternal and it is highly
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concrete. The unseen world includes the
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resurrected, glorified body of Jesus Christ, currently seated
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at the right hand of the Father. It includes his active High
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Priestly intercession for you at this very moment.
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It includes the New Covenant promises sealed by His blood,
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which can never be broken. Following the specific content
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detailed in the second source, we also see a distinct
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dispensational hope presented here.
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Yes, the source highlights that the Church possesses A distinct
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heavenly calling. Unlike the nation of Israel in
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the Old Testament, which was given specific promises of an
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earthly geopolitical Kingdom with physical borders and
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agricultural prosperity. The Church is a heavenly people.
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Believers are looking for the imminent pre tribulation
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translation of the Saints. Often referred to as the
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Rapture, where the church is caught up in the clouds to meet
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the Lord in the air. This specific blessed hope
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steers believers away from the trap of trying to build earthly
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utopias it. Acts as a guardrail against
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investing all our energy into social justice movements.
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Dominionism or political pragmatism meant to create
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heaven on earth. The focus is fixed firmly on the
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imminent return of Christ, pulling the believers gaze away
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from the transient stage play. And locking it on to the eternal
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reality of our heavenly citizenship.
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To maintain that focus on the unseen, we have to rely on the
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means of grace. Tying right back into
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Westminster Confession, Chapter 1, which outlines the doctrine
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of Holy Scripture. We do not look at the unseen
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world through subjective inner lights.
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We do not sit in silence waiting for a mystical prompting, an
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emotional shiver, or a novel revelation like the theology of
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the Quakers or modern enthusiasts suggests.
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We use the objective divine telescope of Scripture.
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The written Word of God is the instrument that brings the
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unseen Christ into focus. Think of an airline pilots
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flying a massive commercial jet through a thick, blinding fog or
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a violent thunderstorm. If that pilot looks out the
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window at the scene world, they will suffer from spatial
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disorientation. The shifting clouds and the lack
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of a horizon will cause severe Vertigo.
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They will not know up from down. They will panic and they will
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invariably crash the plane into the ground.
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To survive, the pilot must force themselves to look away from the
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window, ignore the confusing sensations in their own body,
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and fix their gaze entirely on the instrument panel inside the
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cockpit. That instrument panel
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objectively reports the true, unseen reality of their
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altitude, their speed and their heading.
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The Word of God is your instrument panel.
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When the thick fog of physical decay, emotional trauma, and
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suffering rolls in, looking at your visible circumstances will
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cause you to crash into despair. You must fix your gaze on the
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Scriptures which report the true eternal reality of your secure
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standing in Christ, regardless of what the fog looks like.
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Logical framework is rigorously structured, but it cannot remain
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in the realm of theory. No, it must land directly in the
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hands and heart of the listener. The sources provide a clear
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application framework broken down into the head, the heart
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and the hands. Starting with the head, you are
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called to a radical shift in your mental categories.
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You must cultivate intellectual honesty.
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Look in the mirror today and acknowledge the theological fact
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that your body is perishing. Reject the secular philosophy
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that limits reality to what can be touched, seen and measured.
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The secular world view demands that you fight aging at all
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costs and view physical decline as the ultimate unconquerable
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tragedy. Your mind must be renewed by the
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Word to see that the exact opposite is true.
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Your decay is the very context in which God is working His
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greatest grace. You must train your mind to view
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every ache, every Gray hair, and every physical limitation as a
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proof of the fall. But also as a guarantee that
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your inner man is being prepared for a glory that will make the
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present pain look like a feather.
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Moving from the head to the heart, this text directly
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challenges your affections. What do you actually love?
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If your affections are tied primarily to the seen world.
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If you are worshipping the idol of the perfect life or physical
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self actualization. Or accumulating transient
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wealth, or achieving a certain status in your career.
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You will be utterly crushed when those things inevitably fade.
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Because they will fade, your heart will break along with your
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body, because your treasure is entirely bound up in the
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prescara, the transient vapor. You are called to love the
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unseen Christ more than your own comfort.
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You must desire the eternal weight of glory more than you
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desire a pain free existence today.
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It requires a supernatural reordering of your desires,
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shifting your primary love from the fading gifts of the visible
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world to the eternal Giver Who dwells in the unseen.
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You must pray for the Holy Spirit to grant you an affection
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for heavenly things. So that when the earthly things
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are stripped away, your joy remains completely intact.
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Finally, we move to the hands. This is the call for grateful
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obedience. Which in reformed theology is
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known as the third use of the law.
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The law functions here not to condemn you because Christ bore
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the condemnation, but to guide the life of the justified
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believer in paths of righteousness.
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Because your inner man is being renewed day by day, you are
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actually capable of action. You are not meant to sit
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passively and wait to die in a state of pious apathy.
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You are called to active, faithful service in the midst of
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your weakness. For parents, this means training
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your children for the eternal state.
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Teaching them to value the unseen promises of God over
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achieving status, wealth or comfort in an earthly Kingdom.
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It means serving your local church, loving your neighbor,
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and pursuing personal holiness. Knowing that the strength for
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these tasks is supplied continuously by the Holy Spirit.
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You work out your salvation with fear and trembling, precisely
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because it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work
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for his good pleasure. Before we conclude, we must also
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deliver a stark factual warning from the text directly to the
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unbeliever. If you are listening to this and
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you are outside of Christ, if you have never repented and
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believed the gospel, you are experiencing the wasting away of
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the outer man without any of the inner renewal.
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You are a perishing vessel with no eternal treasure inside.
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Your body is aging, your strength is fading, and you have
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no divine passive at work in your soul.
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When your body finally fails, the suffering does not end, it
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becomes eternal. Without the substitutionary
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atonement of Christ applied to your account, you will bear the
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eternal crushing weight of your own sin under the just wrath of
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a holy God. The decay you see in the mirror
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right now is a warning siren of the judgement to come.
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Do not ignore it. Repent of your sins, turn away
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from your idolatry of the visible world, and look to the
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Savior who conquered death and offers eternal life to all who
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believe. We learned today that the
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visible world around you is essentially a painted backdrop
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on a stage that is about to be struck down.
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The scenery is temporary, the props are fading and the play is
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drawing to a rapid close. The things that are seen are
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passing away, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
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So as you go back to your job, your family, and your specific
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physical struggles today, wait, let me rephrase that.
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So as you head back to your job and face those struggles today,
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what unseen eternal reality are you going to build your life
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around before the curtain drops? Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into the source material on Reformed thinking.