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The Sovereign Syntax: Antanaclasis in the English Bible and the Depravity of the Human Mind · Reformed Thinking

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So what if I told you that the English language, the very
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vocabulary you use every single day, is actually actively lying
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to you about the nature of reality?
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Oh wow, that is a pretty massive claim to start with.
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Right. I mean, you wake up, you go to
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work, you try to build a good life for yourself.
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Yeah, standard daily routine. And you use these everyday
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words, words like life and death and wisdom and judgment, to
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describe your existence. Sure, we use them all the time
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without really thinking about them.
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Yeah, you think you know what those words mean.
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You carry around this, this mental dictionary, and it's
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built by your physical senses, your cultural upbringing, and,
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well, your personal desires. Makes sense.
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We define things by what we can see and feel.
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But what if the definitions you hold in your head are not just
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incomplete, but they are actively blinding you to the
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truth? Blinding us?
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How so? Well, what if the words you use
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to define your security are actually constructing a prison?
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Welcome to reformed thinking. It is so great to be here for
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this conversation. Today we're taking a deep dive
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into the very structure of biblical language.
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We're looking closely at how the Holy Spirit communicates
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objective heavenly truth to the human mind.
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Yes, and it's a fascinating subject.
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We are focusing on this incredible rhetorical device
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found in the English Bible, and it's called antinaclesis.
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Anaglassis It sounds intimidating, but the concept is
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actually brilliant. It really is.
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To define it plainly, antinaclesis is.
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It's the repetition of a single word in a sentence, but with a
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radical, staggering shift in meaning between the 1st and 2nd
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use. A total shift in meaning.
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And our mission for this deep dive is highly specific.
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Look, this is not about spotting clever puns or, you know, poetic
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flair in the text. Right, we are definitely not
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treating the Bible as just some ancient piece of literature to
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be admired for its artistic style.
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Absolutely not. Instead, our goal is to examine
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how the Holy Spirit uses the structure of language itself to
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completely arrest the human heart.
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It really is an arrest. It stops you in your tracks.
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We are going to look at how this specific linguistic pivot
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exposes our natural inability to grasp heavenly truths on our
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own. Yes, it acts as a sovereign
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ambush on our carnal perceptions.
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It forces us to reckon with the reality of God's absolute
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authority over our thoughts. A sovereign ambush.
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I love that phrasing. We are going to look at the
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mechanics of this device, the history of how it survived in
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our English translations, and the massive theological weight
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it carries when Jesus Christ himself uses it to redefine
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human existence. That is a crucial distinction to
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establish right at the start. To understand this sovereign
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ambush, we really have to clarify what Antonac Glasses is
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and, perhaps more significantly, what it is not.
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Yeah, because there are a lot of rhetorical devices in the text,
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right? Tons of them.
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The biblical text uses many rhetorical devices and it is
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incredibly easy to confuse them if you are not reading
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carefully. So what are some things people
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confuse it with? Well, for instance, this device
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is completely different from Polyton.
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Polytoton, what is that? Polyptoton occurs when words
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from the same root appear in different grammatical forms.
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So like saying to judge a righteous judgement.
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OK, I see verb to noun. Right there, the root concept
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remains static even if the grammatical function changes
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from a verb to a noun. It is also completely different
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from paranomasia. Paranormasia.
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That's a mouthful. It is Paranormasia is
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essentially a play on words based on similar sounds.
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Oh, like a pun. Yeah, we might call that a pun
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in modern English, and those are usually designed for amusement
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or wit. Which is definitely not what
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we're talking about here. Not at all.
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Furthermore, it is not anaphora which is simply starting
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successive clauses with the identical word for structural
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emphasis. Like saying blessed are the
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poor, blessed are the meek. Precisely.
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Antonacassus requires something far more demanding of the
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reader. It demands A semantic pivot.
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A semantic pivot, So the meaning has to change.
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Yes, the ear hears a familiar term twice, but the mind is
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forced to reckon with a massive difference in definition.
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And it always moves in a certain direction, right?
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Always. The shift always moves in a
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specific direction. It moves from the lower to the
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higher. Lower to higher break that down
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for me. It transitions from the literal
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to the figurative, for the bodily to the spiritual, from
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the earthly to the heavenly, or from the false to the true.
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Wow. OK, so it's an elevation of the
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word? Yes, and the first use lulls the
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carnal mind into a false sense of comprehension, and then the
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second use shatters that comprehension entirely.
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That is wild. You read the first half of the
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sentence and you just nod along, thinking you grasp the concept
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based on your earthly experience.
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Right, because you know what the word means.
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Right then, the second-half of the sentence hits you using the
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identical word, and you suddenly realize your earthly dictionary
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is entirely inadequate to comprehend the things of God.
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It really is a shock to the system.
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I want you to imagine. Imagine a door hinge.
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OK, a door hinge. The first use of the word opens
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the door to the ordinary St. you walk down every day.
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The familiar St. Yeah, it's familiar.
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It is grounded in your physical reality, and you know what to
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expect. The concrete is hard, the sky is
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blue, the traffic is loud. You're comfortable there.
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Exactly, but the second use of the word swings that exact same
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door wide open into a royal sanctuary, entirely bypassing
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your expectations. I love that analogy.
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It's the same door, but a completely different
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destination. You thought you were stepping
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onto the pavement, but suddenly you were standing on holy
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ground, surrounded by realities you could never have
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anticipated. That is such a vivid way to
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picture. It now here is where I struggle
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with this concept and where I think a lot of people might get
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tripped up. OK, what's the hang up?
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If our natural minds, they're so stubbornly focused on that
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physical St., how does a linguistic shift force us to
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look at the sanctuary? That is the big question.
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It just seems like playing word games with someone who was
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already confused. I mean, we are so prone to
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literal earthly thinking. We are entirely bound by it,
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yes. So what is the mechanism that
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takes a mind resolutely fixed on the dirt and compels it to
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reckon with the throne room of God?
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Are we just hoping the reader is clever enough to figure out the
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Riddle? We are.
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Certainly not relying on human cleverness.
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And that brings us to the core theological application of this
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device. OK, Lay.
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It on me. The mechanism is not persuasion.
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The mechanism is total disruption.
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Disruption. Yes, this device directly
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confronts the total depravity of the human intellect.
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Total. Depravity.
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That's a heavy concept, it. Is but it's vital here in our
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natural state, apart from sovereign grace, the intellect
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is broken, right? We don't just think wrong
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thoughts. The tool we use to think is
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flawed, yes. The natural man interprets all
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things through a temporal, self-centered lens.
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We think we understand what life is, what death is, what freedom
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is, because we define those terms exclusively by our
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physical senses and our earthly experiences.
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We measure. Everything by our own yardstick
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and that. Yardstick is broken yeah, we
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sample from the noetic effects of the fall, which is a
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theological way of saying our minds are darkened by sin the.
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Noetic effects. Let's unpack that word.
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Sure. The Greek word noose refers to
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the mind or the intellect. When humanity fell in the
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garden, the intellect fell too. So.
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Our brains didn't escape the fall.
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Nothing escaped. We possess an absolute inability
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to discern the things of the Spirit of God on our own.
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Absolute inability. We literally cannot do it.
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We. Cannot we do not just have a
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slight misunderstanding of God? We are actively hostile to his
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truth that. Is a tough pill for the modern
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mind to swallow it. Is but antenna classes shatters
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this self-sufficiency. How?
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Does it do that when? God takes a word we think we
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have mastered and then turns it in the second-half of the
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sentence to mean something entirely spiritual.
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He exposes our blindness and. Traps us in our own vocabulary,
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he proves. That we cannot reason our way to
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the truth using our corrupted tools.
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We require sovereign illumination to understand the
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second-half of the sentence, so the.
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Natural man reads it and just gets confused.
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Yes. The natural mind reads the
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repeated word and stumbles, viewing it as nonsense or a
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contradiction, while the regenerate mind, aided by the
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spirit, sees the heavenly reality.
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So it's. Almost like a diagnostic test,
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it is. A perfect diagnostic tool, the
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linguistic shift reveals whether a person has the eyes to see or
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remains trapped in their carnal understanding to.
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See this clearly? We really have to look at the
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very words on the page, specifically in our English
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translations. English.
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Text is a marvel to study in this regard.
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When? You read your English Bible.
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You encounter these striking repetitions.
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But a critical question arises from the sources we are
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evaluating today. OK.
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What's the question does? This device belong exclusively
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to the original Hebrew and Greek, or is it a product of the
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English translation process that?
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Is a very common question and a fair 1.
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It is I mean, we know that we read a translated text.
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We are not all scholars reading coin Greek or ancient Hebrew
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over our morning coffee. Most.
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Of us, definitely, aren't we? Rely on the English text, and we
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need to understand how much of this rhetorical force is tied to
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the decisions made by translators centuries ago,
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right? So is this divine inspiration we
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are looking at, or is it just the stylistic preference of a
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group of scholars in 17th century England who decided to
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keep repeating certain words? The history of our English
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translations provides a fascinating answer to that
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question, and it proves how God's Providence extends even to
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the translation process. Providence.
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In translation I like that if. We look back at the translation
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history, particularly the King James Version and subsequent
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formal equivalence translations. We see a deliberate, reverent
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choice. What?
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Did they choose to do those? Early translators prioritized
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lexical consistency over what modern writers call elegant
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variation. Elegant.
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Variation, yes. If you take a modern composition
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class today, secular writers are taught never to use the
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identical word twice close together right you.
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Get points taken off for being repetitive it.
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Is considered poor style a sign of a limited vocabulary?
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You're supposed to consult a thesaurus and find a synonym to
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keep the prose fresh. But the English Bible doesn't do
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that. The.
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English Bible thoroughly rejects that rule.
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The translators understood that they were handling the very
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words of God, not writing a novel.
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They. Weren't trying to win a literary
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prize, no. When a word was repeated in the
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original text, or when a repeated concept demanded it to
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show the semantic pivot, the translators faithfully retain
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the repetition. In English they.
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Kept the awkwardness, if you will, because the awkwardness
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was the point exactly. Well, yes, precisely.
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Now, liberal theology and higher criticism often dismiss these
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linguistic shifts entirely. How?
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Do they explain it? They.
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View them as nothing more than human literary evolution,
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assuming that ancient authors were simply developing clever
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rhetorical tricks to engage their audiences so.
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They just reduce it to ancient marketing tactics.
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Pretty. Much they stripped the text of
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its to mine origin. Against that skeptical view, we
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assert the objective truth of plenary verbal inspiration.
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Plenary verbal inspiration. Every single word matter.
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Every. Grammatical construction.
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Every single word choice in the original manuscripts is a divine
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strategy. God.
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Is a master communicator he. Is God speaks in the language of
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men using the vocabulary of the ancient Near East or the Greco
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Roman world, but he absolutely refuses to be restricted by our
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definitions. He.
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Uses our words, but he doesn't play by our dictionary rules,
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right? He superintended the original
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writing, ensuring the words recorded were his words, and His
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Providence extends to how these vital distinctions are preserved
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in faithful English translations.
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I. Really want you to consider how
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a translated text can still carry this immense divine weight
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it's. Incredible to think about we.
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Often think of translation as moving data from a spreadsheet
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in one language to a spreadsheet in another, as if it is a purely
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mathematical equation, a simple. One to one swap but.
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Translation is not neutral data transfer.
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The rhythm, the recurrence of terms and the resonance of the
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language matter immensely to the meaning of the text.
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The. Music of the language matters.
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Yes, the music matters. When the translators chose to
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keep the repetition, they preserved the acoustic and
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intellectual shock of the original text.
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They preserved the hinge if they.
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Had changed the word, the whole effect would be lost.
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Exactly. If they had used a synonym for
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the second-half of the sentence, the ambush would be ruined.
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The reader would assume a new topic was being introduced,
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rather than their definition of the current topic being
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overthrown. Now, moving from the theory of
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translation into the actual text, we find the most striking,
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shocking example of this device coming from the mouth of Christ
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himself. This is.
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Where it gets really intense, I. Will read Matthew chapter 8
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verse 22. A disciple asks Jesus for
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permission to go and bury his father.
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Very. Reasonable request in that
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culture. Very.
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Reasonable. But Jesus replies, Follow me and
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let the dead bury their dead. That.
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Single verse is a masterful and terrifying use of Antonacus.
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Terrifying is the right word we need.
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To parse the two uses of the word dead, which translates the
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Greek word necras OK. Let's breakdown Necras in.
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That brief sentence, Christ, completely upends the human
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understanding of existence. How?
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So the. First use of the word refers to
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the spiritually unregenerate. OK, the first dead.
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Yes, these are people who are physically walking around,
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breathing, talking, participating in society and
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engaging in religious rituals, yet they are completely
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alienated from the life of God They.
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Look alive, but they are gone. They possess physical animation,
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but they are spiritually lifeless and.
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The second, use the second. Use of the word refers to
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literal corpses, the physical bodies needing burial in a tomb.
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Let. The dead bury their dead.
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It's chilling. Christ connects these two
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realities in a single sentence to establish a staggering
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theological truth about human nature, which.
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Connects to what we were saying earlier about the will, right?
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Yes, this connects directly to the doctrine of the total
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inability of the human will as. Outlined in the Westminster
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Confession, Yes. Man has lost all ability of
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willed to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.
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Christ uses this rhetorical pivot to diagnose our precise
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state. He.
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Diagnosis The actual condition the.
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Natural unregenerate person is not a seeker trying to find God,
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nor are they a spiritually sick person needing a little bit of
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medicine. They aren't just.
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Slightly. I'll no.
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The unregenerate are spiritual corpses performing religious and
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social rituals for other physical corpses.
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Wow. That is a heavy, heavy reality
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it. Is a stunning indictment of the
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entire human enterprise of apart from sovereign grace.
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It strips away all the dignity we try to assign to our earthly
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activities when they are divorced from the glory of God.
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You. Can think of it like a doctor
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delivering a terminal diagnosis to a patient A.
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Terminal diagnosis, yeah. Imagine you walk into a clinic
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convinced you just have a minor cold.
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You're. Hoping for a quick fix, right?
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You talk about your symptoms casually, expecting a quick
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prescription so you can get back to your busy life, but the.
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Doctor knows the truth, the. Doctor looks at your charts and
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uses your own vocabulary to breakthrough your wall of the.
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Pivot the. Doctor says you feel fine
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because your cells are growing, but that growth is actually
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death. Oh, that is a punch to the gut
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it. Creates a holy shock.
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Jesus does not validate the disciples worldly priorities.
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Not at all, the disciple thought.
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Honoring A deceased relative with a culturally appropriate
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burial was the absolute highest moral duty imaginable it.
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Was the respectable thing to do. It was expected of him, Christ.
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Uses the word dead to breakthrough that
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respectability, creating a massive cognitive dissonance.
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He. Shatters the cultural norm.
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Jesus is telling the man that his entire framework for
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deciding what is vital and what is urgent is fundamentally
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broken. The.
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Framework itself is dead if. Christ completely redefines what
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it means to be dead, turning a physical absolute into a
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spiritual diagnosis. He also completely rewires our
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understanding of life and self preservation.
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He. Flips it completely upside down
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it. Means our instincts about what
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keeps us safe are probably leading us straight into the
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grave. He.
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Absolutely does Rewire it. And we see this redefinition of
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life brilliantly executed in Matthew chapter 16, verse 25.
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Oh. This is a famous one.
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Christ. Says Whosoever will save his
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life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for
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my sake shall find it the. Paradox of the Christian life
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here. The word life pivots massively
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between two distinct Greek concepts, though they are
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translated with the same English word 2.
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Greek concepts in one English word.
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What's the first one? The first.
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Concept is BIOS referring to bodily survival, reputation,
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financial security and earthly existence.
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BIOS. Like biology?
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Exactly. This is where we get the English
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word biology. It is the sum total of our
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earthly days and resources. OK.
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So saving your BIOS, what's the second concept?
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The second concept is Zoe, which is true eternal existence under
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the Lordship of Christ, the uncreated life of God Himself.
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Zoe So whoever will save his BIOS will lose his Zoe, Yes.
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When a person tries to save their BIOS, clinging to their
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earthly security, their comfort and their social standing, they
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forfeit their Zoe, their eternal soul that.
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Is a terrifying exchange rate we.
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See a similar structural pivot in First Corinthians chapter 3,
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verse 18, where the apostle Hall commands a person to become a
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fool in order to become wise, foolish.
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To become wise, Paul. Pivots the concept of wisdom
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entirely away from worldly prestige, academic credentials,
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and societal approval, pointing it directly toward God's
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standard of truth because. To the world, the cross is
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nonsense by. The world standard trusting A
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crucified Carpenter for your eternal salvation is
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foolishness, but by God's standard, that worldly wisdom is
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actual blindness, and true wisdom requires abandoning the
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intellect of the age. These texts completely dismantle
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the entire foundation of the prosperity gospel.
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Oh. Without question, they destroy
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it that. False teaching, which has
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infected so much of modern religion, limits words like
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blessing and life to carnal material accumulation.
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They are. Stuck in the first half of the
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sentence. They are obsessed with BIOS it.
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Assumes that if you have health, a large bank account, and
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societal influence, you possess life.
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It defines the favor of God using the vocabulary of a Pagan
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empire. A Pagan.
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Empire is a good way to put it, but.
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God takes the vocabulary of the culture, the very words we use
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to describe success, and twist them back to show that human
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wisdom is actual blindness. He turns.
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Their own weapons against them, the.
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Prosperity gospel tells you to save your life, maximize it,
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invest it in temporal pleasures, and demand that God bless your
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earthly Kingdom and. Christ says the opposite.
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Christ. Tells you that doing so
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guarantees your destruction. But I have a pointed question
18:50
here, and this is where I think the skeptic would push back
18:52
hard. OK, let's hear the skeptics push
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back. Why does God use our corrupted
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words at all? That's a fair question to ask,
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if human. Language is so attached to the
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dirt. If words like life and wisdom
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are so easily hijacked by our fleshly desires, why does God
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not just give us an entirely new heavenly vocabulary?
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Why? Use the broken tool, yeah.
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Why not use words we cannot possibly misunderstand?
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Instead of employing terms that require this intense semantic
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pivot, it feels like we are being set up to fail.
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That is an excellent question, and it gets to the heart of how
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God interacts with fallen humanity.
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How does? He interact with us.
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The reason God uses our existing vocabulary is because of the
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principle of redemptive reversal.
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Redemptive reversal. Tell me more about that.
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Scripture intentionally meets people precisely where they are
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linguistically, not to validate their position, but to conquer
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it to. Conquer.
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Yes. If God gave us a purely alien
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heavenly vocabulary, we would have no point of reference to
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understand our own guilt. We would dismiss the revelation
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as irrelevant noise like. He was speaking a language we
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literally didn't have a dictionary for, right?
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By taking the words we already use, words like life, wisdom,
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and death, and redefining them, God strips away our false
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security using the very tools we built to defend ourselves, He.
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Dismantles the house using our own hammer that's.
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It he is confronting the idols of the human heart head on, we
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make an idol out of earthly life.
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So Christ takes the word life and shatters our idol with it
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so. It's an attack on our idolatry.
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It is a. Polemical strategy.
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It shows that God claims total sovereignty not just over our
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souls, but over our dictionaries.
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He. Owns the dictionary he owns.
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The language and he reclaims it to judge the Sinner and comfort
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the elect by forcing the pivot, he demands that we bring our
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entire intellectual framework into submission to his word.
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These. Redefinitions also correct our
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behavior, specifically how we apply God's law to others.
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Practical application is huge here it.
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Is one thing to redefine abstract concepts like life and
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death in a theological discussion, but Antonaclisis
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also forces us to rethink our daily conduct and our moral
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evaluations on a practical level.
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How? We interact with the people
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around us. A perfect.
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Example of this is found in John Chapter 7 verse 24.
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Jesus says judge not according to the appearance, but judge
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righteous judgment. In that single command, we see
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the stark contrast between two entirely different types of
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judging, distinguished by the pivot in the word itself.
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Two types of judging. Let's look at the first one.
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The first. Type of judging, which Christ
21:29
actively forbids, is condemnatory and superficial.
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Superficial judging it. Is an evaluation based on the
21:35
flesh, on outward appearances, on societal status, and on
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hypocritical self righteousness looking.
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Down your nose at someone, right?
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It is the kind of judgement that elevates the self by tearing
21:45
down another based on arbitrary human made standards.
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And what's? The second type, the.
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Second type of judging, which Christ absolutely commands in
21:53
the second-half of the sentence, is discerning, principled
21:56
obedience based on the objective truth of God's Word.
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Righteous. Judgment.
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Systematically, we link this directly to the third use of
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God's moral law in the life of the believer, the. 3rd use of
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the law. Let's give some context for that
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to. Provide context theologians
22:13
speak of three uses of the law. The first use is a mirror
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showing us our sin and driving us to Christ.
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The. Mirror shows the dirt on our
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face, Yes. The second use is a curb
22:24
restraining evil in society through the threat of punishment
22:27
keeping. The car on the road.
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Exactly the third use is a guide showing the regenerate believer
22:33
how to live in a way that pleases God.
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The. Guide for our gratitude this.
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Antonaclis operates beautifully in that third use.
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It protects the church from 2. Massive opposing errors 2.
22:43
Big ditches on either side of the road, the.
22:45
First error is antinomianism, which claims we should have no
22:49
moral evaluation at all because we are under grace.
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Arguing that love means ignoring sin then.
22:54
Anything goes correct? The second error is legalism,
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which relies on carnal rule based evaluation to earn favor
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or establish superiority. The.
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Pharisees. Through this antonacolysis,
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Christ clarifies that we are freed from the bondage of sin,
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not so we can do whatever we want and refuse to evaluate
23:13
anything, but so we can become slaves to righteousness,
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exercising holy discernment. I.
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Really want you to think about how often you hear people quote
23:21
the phrase judge not. It is everywhere in.
23:24
Our current cultural climate. It is probably one of the most
23:27
frequently quoted and catastrophically misquoted
23:30
fragments of Scripture people. Love those two words they.
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Use it out of context constantly to avoid accountability for
23:36
their actions They. Weaponize it they.
23:38
Wield it as a shield against any moral scrutiny, suggesting that
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the highest Christian virtue is total tolerance of every
23:45
behavior, which is. Absolutely not what Christ is
23:47
saying, but notice. How the immediate repetition of
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the word judge in the second-half of the sentence
23:51
completely destroys that excuse the.
23:53
Pivot wrecks their argument. Christ.
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Does not give us permission to abandon discernment.
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He demands careful, sanctified discernment.
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He. Commands it he.
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Uses the word judge first to obliterate our hypocritical
24:09
appearance. Based standards acting as the
24:11
mirror that condemns our pride. Shattering the false judgement.
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Then he uses the identical word to bind our consciences to His
24:19
holy standard, acting as the guide for our conduct.
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The. 3rd Use of the law if. You stop reading after judge
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not. You have manufactured a God of
24:29
your own imagination. You've just.
24:30
Created an idol that lets you do whatever you want.
24:32
This. Demand for clear discernment
24:34
extends far beyond our personal morality or interpersonal
24:37
conflicts, it goes. All the way down to the
24:38
foundation it. Extends into the very structure
24:41
of God's covenant with His people, defining who actually
24:43
belongs to Him and how salvation is accomplished.
24:46
This. Is where we must zoom out and
24:48
look at the macro literary context of scripture, the.
24:51
Big picture these. Instances of Antonacus are not
24:54
isolated proverbs scattered randomly through the text.
24:58
They are structural load bearing walls in the theology of the
25:01
Bible. Load bearing walls.
25:03
If you take them out, the whole thing collapses.
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Let us. Look at Romans Chapter 9 verse
25:07
6. The Apostle Paul writes they are
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not all Israel, which are of Israel.
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Israel and Israel in. This passage, the pivot in the
25:16
word Israel, is the absolute key to understanding the doctrine of
25:21
sovereign, unconditional election.
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Unconditional election. Break that pivot down 1st.
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Use of Israel refers to the spiritual remnant, the elect
25:31
whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world,
25:34
the. True spiritual people of God
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the. Second use refers to physical
25:39
descent, the ethnic nation bounded by geography and
25:41
genealogy, the. Physical descendants of Abraham
25:44
Paul. Uses the repetition to
25:46
distinguish those who simply have the outward sign of the
25:49
covenant from those who have the inward reality of regenerating
25:52
grace. So.
25:53
Just being born into the right family isn't enough being.
25:56
A physical descendant of Abraham having the outward religious
25:59
markers does not guarantee spiritual salvation and.
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We see this structural logic in the Gospels too, right we?
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See the same structural logic concerning salvation in John
26:08
chapter 3. Jesus and Nicodemus, yes.
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Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of being born again using a Greek
26:15
word that immediately pivots to mean from above.
26:18
Nicodemus completely misses the pivot.
26:21
Nicodemus is trapped in the physical understanding, asking
26:24
how a man can re enter his mother's womb.
26:26
He's. Stuck on the earthly definition?
26:29
Jesus then speaks of the wind blowing where it wishes and
26:32
pivots the identical Greek word numa to describe the sovereign,
26:36
invisible working of the Spirit wind.
26:39
And spirit, same word, same. Word.
26:41
Massive shift in reality if you. Look closely at the exegetical
26:44
mechanics of texts like these. You see how the syntax actually
26:48
works on the reader's brain. It is a.
26:49
Brilliant linguistic maneuver the.
26:51
Repetition forces the reader to move from observing a physical
26:54
sign to applying a divine action.
26:57
Moving. From the earth to heaven, it.
26:59
Makes me think of the prophet Jeremiah looking at the almond
27:02
branch in the Old Testament. Oh, the.
27:04
Almond branch. That's a great illustration the.
27:06
Hebrew word for almond is shaked, named because it is the
27:10
first tree to wake up in the spring.
27:12
The. Waking tree God.
27:13
Asks Jeremiah what he sees and Jeremiah reports seeing the
27:17
branch. God then pivots to the word
27:19
shocked, saying he is watching over his word to perform it.
27:23
The. Physical waking points to the
27:25
divine watching the. Physical sign of the tree
27:28
awakening forces the mind to look at the divine action of
27:32
God's vigilance. It demands that your mind moves
27:34
to the higher reality it. Is like reading a massive legal
27:38
contract for a house or a business OK.
27:40
A legal contract you. Are reading along thinking you
27:43
understand the terms, the conditions and the liabilities
27:46
based on your local city laws. You feel confident you know
27:48
where you stand. You got.
27:49
Your local dictionary out. But halfway through the
27:52
document, the definitions of the term suddenly shift, moving the
27:55
entire agreement out of your local Municipal Court and into a
27:59
supreme heavenly jurisdiction. The rules.
28:01
Just changed entirely the. Contract remains completely
28:04
binding, but you suddenly realize you're dealing with a
28:06
sovereign king who dictates reality, not a local magistrate.
28:10
You can negotiate with that. Analogy of the contract shifting
28:14
jurisdiction is perfectly accurate to what the biblical
28:17
text achieves you. Just can't negotiate with it
28:19
when the. Definition shift.
28:21
Human autonomy is completely dismantled.
28:24
You cannot negotiate with a God who owns the very definitions of
28:28
the words you use to argue He. Owns the words who is.
28:31
At the center of all these massive linguistic and
28:33
redemptive shifts is Christ himself.
28:36
Christ. Is the shift Christ?
28:38
Is the ultimate shift in human history.
28:41
The Word made flesh is the living embodiment of this
28:44
rhetorical device. He.
28:46
Embodies the pivot he. Enters the earthly realm, taking
28:49
on human flesh, walking the physical streets, and fulfills
28:53
every earthly type and shadow by elevating it to a heavenly
28:56
reality, the. Physical, pointing to the
28:58
spiritual He is. The true temple.
29:00
He is the final lamb. He is the great High priest all.
29:03
The earthly terms find their true meaning in Him.
29:06
When we look at the distinction between law and gospel in these
29:09
texts, we see Christ's work clearly.
29:11
Law. And Gospel.
29:12
How does antoniaklysis relate to that the first?
29:15
Use of a repeated word often functions as the law.
29:18
Exposing our failure it. Exposes our dead, condemned
29:21
worldly state it shows us that our wisdom is foolishness, our
29:25
righteousness is filthy rags, and our life is actually a March
29:29
toward death it. Crushes our pride, but the.
29:32
Second, use functions as the gospel.
29:34
It describes the state from which Christ rescues his elect
29:38
the. Rescue He.
29:39
Fulfills the righteous judgment we could not achieve.
29:42
He is the true Israel, perfectly obeying the Father where the
29:45
physical nation failed He. Succeeds where we were dead, he.
29:48
Provides the Zoe, the eternal life that replaces our fleeting,
29:52
decaying BIOS. I ask you to examine your own
29:55
heart today, right where you were sitting or driving it.
29:57
Is a necessary self examination think.
29:59
About the words you use to build your life, to justify your
30:02
actions, and to measure your worth.
30:04
What? Dictionary are you using?
30:06
Are you? Clinging to the world's
30:07
definition of success, are you? Stuck on BIOS are.
30:10
You defining love by what society says.
30:13
It is a feeling that demands total validation of every
30:16
impulse. The carnal definition are.
30:18
You defining freedom as the ability to indulge your flesh
30:21
without consequence, avoiding anyone who might judge you.
30:25
Using the Bible out of context to protect your sin if.
30:28
You are. You are reading the first half
30:30
of the sentence and stubbornly ignoring the divine pivot.
30:33
You. Are missing the reality we.
30:35
Must call for a total rejection of those carnal definitions.
30:39
You must submit entirely to the reality provided by God's Word.
30:43
Total submission is the only rational response when?
30:46
You realize that your definitions are leading you
30:48
toward destruction. You have to let go of your white
30:51
knuckled grip on the temporal world and allow the Holy Spirit
30:54
to reform your understanding. It is a painful process, letting
30:58
your mental dictionary be torn apart, but it is the only path
31:02
to actual truth it. Hurts to have your framework
31:04
dismantled and when. The Holy Spirit does that
31:07
reforming work. It leaves the intellectual
31:09
scholar and the pragmatic worldly person entirely
31:13
humiliated. Humiliated.
31:14
Brought low the. Scholar cannot analyze his way
31:17
into the Kingdom of heaven by mastering the original
31:19
languages, and the pragmatist cannot work his way in by
31:23
optimizing his moral behavior. No one.
31:24
Gets to boast the. Brilliant philosopher and the
31:27
successful businessman are brought to the same level as the
31:29
beggar. They're left with no refuge
31:32
whatsoever in their own intellect, their own resources
31:35
or their own morality. They are.
31:36
Completely stripped the. Only refuge that remains is the
31:39
sovereign grace of the Savior Sovereign.
31:42
Grace. That is the only place left to
31:44
stand. This linguistic device proves
31:47
that God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our
31:50
thoughts as. The heavens are higher than the
31:52
earth. It humbles.
31:53
The pride of man and exalts the severe mercy of God, who
31:57
condescends to speak our language only to shatter our
32:00
illusions, and draws into His eternal truth.
32:03
Severe mercy. That is a beautiful way to
32:05
phrase it. To summarize our deep dive
32:07
today, the English Bible does not just convey abstract ideas
32:11
for us to ponder in a classroom, no.
32:12
It is active and alive it. Uses the very mechanics of
32:15
language to arrest the proud and give sight to the blind.
32:19
A. Sovereign ambush on the heart
32:20
the. Repetition of a word is not a
32:22
flaw in the translation, nor is it an ancient author lacking
32:26
vocabulary. It is a divine snare designed to
32:29
catch the conscience and force a verdict.
32:31
It. Forces you to decide which
32:33
reality you are going to live in I.
32:35
Want to leave you with a final thought to chew on as you go
32:38
about your day, somebody. To dwell on.
32:40
Look at the people around you. Look at the tasks on your
32:43
schedule and ask yourself this. What everyday, ordinary words in
32:48
your own life are you stubbornly defining by the world's
32:51
standards right now? What?
32:52
Words are holding you captive. What?
32:54
Words are simply waiting for the Holy Spirit to suddenly sharply
32:57
redefine for you, breaking your false security and opening your
33:01
eyes to a heavenly reality you never noticed before.