Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Sanctified Sword of Ridicule: Diasyrmus in the English Bible and the Defense of Truth

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The Sanctified Sword of Ridicule: Diasyrmus in the English Bible and the Defense of Truth · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome to another session of Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm your host and I'm really glad to be sitting down once
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  again to dig through some some pretty challenging theological
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  sources. It's good to be here and we do
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  have quite a stack today. This is going to be a
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  substantial 1. It definitely is, and to you,
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  the learner, welcome back. We are looking at 2 concepts
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  today that, well, if you just saw them on paper, you'd think
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  they belong in completely different conversations.
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  Yeah, they really do seem to be from different worlds.
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  In one hand, we've got sources about the most, you know,
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  intimate parts of our faith, Love, freedom, our union with
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  Christ. And on the other hand.
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  We have a study on spiritual warfare, mockery, and a
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  rhetorical tool with the pretty intense name Diasermis.
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  It sounds like trying to mix a lullaby with a battle cry, but
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  that's really the core of what we're getting into today.
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  We're trying to figure out this tension that I think every
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  single believer feels. The classic status versus state
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  problem. Exactly.
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  So here's the question we're wrestling with.
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  How can it be that the Bible says a Christian is completely
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  dead to sin? Like past tense, it's done.
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  And yet I still lost my temper this morning.
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  Right. How can I be dead to something
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  that feels so alive inside me? And then the flip side of that,
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  which is where the mockery comes in, is, if we're supposed to be
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  people of grace and love, is it ever OK for a Christian to mock
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  someone or something? That's the one that really rubs
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  against the grain of modern culture.
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  We're told constantly, you know, be nice, be affirming, find
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  common ground. But this forces we're looking at
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  today are going to suggest that sometimes being nice in that way
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  is actually a failure to love properly.
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  So to get at this, we have two main documents we're working
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  from. The first is a deep exegetical
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  dive titled The Gospel of Emancipation, and it just tears
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  apart Romans chapter 6, specifically verses 4 through 7.
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  And the second one. The second one is a paper with a
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  title. I just love the sanctified sword
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  of ridicule. It's a great title.
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  It's a study on the biblical use of that word diasermis, and our
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  mission really is to show how these two things are not just
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  compatible, but actually depend on each other.
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  So you need to understand your freedom in Christ to escape sins
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  power. Right, but you also need to know
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  how to wield this sort of ridicule to fight off the modern
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  idols that want to drag you right back into slavery.
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  And just so you, the listener, know where we're coming from,
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  our framework for this whole discussion is that of Protestant
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  Christians who hold the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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  Yeah, we're standing on that historic reformed ground.
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  That's our anchor. All right, let's get into it.
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  Section one of our sources, the definitive rupture.
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  We're opening up the gospel of emancipation and we're in Romans
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  6. Specifically verse 4.
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  But you can't really get verse 4 until you understand the the
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  scandalous question Paul has just addressed in the first
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  couple of verses. Context is absolutely key here.
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  Paul knows how the human mind works.
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  He's anticipating a huge objection.
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  He is. He's just spent 5 chapters
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  explaining this incredible overwhelming grace of God.
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  And so the logical but sinful question is.
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  If my sin just gives God more opportunity to show off his
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  grace, shouldn't I just keep sinning sin more so grace can
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  abound more? It's the antinomian argument
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  anti against Nomas law. The logic is so twisted but so
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  seductive. It basically says let's give God
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  a bigger canvas to paint his grace on.
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  Right. And most preachers, when faced
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  with that, we just bring down the hammer.
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  They'd say don't do that, it's against the rules.
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  Here are 10 reasons why. But Paul doesn't do that.
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  His immediate reaction is just horror, by no means.
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  But his argument isn't a new command.
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  It's not another rule. He points them back to a fact, a
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  historical event. He asks them.
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  Don't you know? Yeah, don't you know what
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  happened to you? It's what the source calls the
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  anchor question. What is the fundamental fact
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  that must be believed? And the fact is, the reason you
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  can't go on living in Finn isn't just because it's a bad idea.
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  It's because you can't. That person, the one who lived
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  in sin, is dead. You die to it.
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  This is the core concept right here, union with Christ.
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  And I want to really press on this because I think for so many
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  of us, that phrase sounds like poetry.
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  It sounds like a nice metaphor. Like I'm on Team Jesus or he's
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  with me in spirit. Exactly.
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  But the source material is emphatic.
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  This is not a metaphor. Absolutely not.
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  It is a forensic, legal, historical reality, and the text
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  gives us this very specific Greek term senatophomen.
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  Senatophomen OK, break that down for.
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  Us. It means we were buried with.
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  But the grammar here is just so critical.
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  It's an aorist passive verb. OK, that sounds technical.
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  Why does aorist passive matter to someone listening to this
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  right now who's struggling with their sin?
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  It matters more than anything. Passive means it was done to
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  you. This wasn't your project.
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  You didn't bury yourself. God did this to you, and aorist
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  points to a specific completed action in the past.
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  It's done. Finished.
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  So it's not something I'm trying to do, it's something that has
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  been done. Yes, the source uses a really
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  stark analogy. The old man that's your old
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  identity in Adam wasn't just wounded.
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  He wasn't sent to counseling or put on probation.
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  He was executed. And then buried.
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  It's that final. If you think your old self is
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  just, you know, sick, you'll try to give it medicine.
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  If you know it's dead, you hold a funeral.
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  And that funeral in the text is connected to baptism.
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  Verse 4 says we were buried therefore with him by baptism
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  into death. Right now, again, holding to our
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  confessional standard here, we need to be very precise.
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  We are not saying the water itself is magic.
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  No, this is not the Roman Catholic view of baptismal
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  regeneration, where the act of baptism itself washes the soul.
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  We have to distinguish the sign from the thing it signifies.
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  So the water doesn't save you. The water doesn't save you.
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  Christ saves you. But in the Reformed view,
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  baptism is what we call a visible word.
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  It's a seal on the promise. Think of the water as a grave.
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  Liquid grave. Exactly.
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  When a person is immersed, it's a powerful physical picture of a
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  burial. And here's the insight from the
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  source that I found. So freeing A corpse doesn't
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  answer to the law. Walk me through that.
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  What do you mean by that? OK, imagine a man he owes
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  $1,000,000 in debt. He's wanted for several crimes.
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  The law has claims on him, the bank has claims on him.
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  Everyone is hunting for him. But then he dies.
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  The chase is over. It has to be the sheriff can't
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  show up at the cemetery and arrest a corpse.
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  The bank can't garnish the wages of a dead man.
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  His death satisfies all. Claims all the debts are
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  cancelled. They're wiped clean by his
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  death. The source were using references
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  Charles Spurgeon on this and he can so vividly he said a buried
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  man is done with the world. The old slave master can come to
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  the graveside, he can crack his whip and shout orders all day
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  long, but the slave in the ground doesn't hear him.
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  He's free. That's such a powerful image.
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  It's completely reframes the struggle.
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  It's not that I'm trying to out muscle the slave master every
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  day. No, it's that the slave master
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  is yelling at an empty grave where I used to be.
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  I'm in a different country now, under a different king.
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  You've changed jurisdictions. You are legally untouchable by
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  the old regime. So we're dead, we're buried, but
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  we don't stay in the grave. Obviously the second-half of
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  verse 4 says so that just as Christ was raised from the dead
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  by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of
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  life. And this is the great purpose
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  clause. This is the So what of our
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  salvation? The source calls this the telos,
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  the ultimate goal. We weren't just rescued from
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  hell. We were rescued for a new way of
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  walking. And the word for newness here is
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  specific, isn't it? Kaino Toti.
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  Yes, Kaino toti, this is fascinating.
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  In Greek, you have a word for new.
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  That just means recent, chronologically new, like a new
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  model of a car. It's just a fresher version of
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  the old thing. My life 2 point O right?
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  But Kano Toti means new in quality, unprecedented,
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  something that has never existed before.
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  So it's not me, but better. It's a different kind of me
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  entirely. It's a different species of
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  life. It's the life of the age to come
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  breaking into the present. It's not a software update for
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  your old self, It's a completely new operating system.
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  The source material connects this to what we call the third
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  use of the law. Can you break that down for the
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  listener? Sure.
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  So the reformers talked about the law of God having three
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  functions. The first use is a mirror.
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  It shows you your sin and your need for a Savior.
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  It drives you to Christ. The second use.
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  The second use is civil. It restrains evil in society.
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  It's the fence that keeps the animals from completely
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  destroying the field. Think speed limits.
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  OK. And the third use is for the
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  believer. Yes, this is key.
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  Once you're in Christ, you're no longer under the law's
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  condemnation. So the law stops being a
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  terrifying judge and starts being a friendly guide.
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  I've heard the analogy of a cop versus a coach.
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  That's a great way to put it. The law as a cop in your
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  rearview mirror is terrifying. But the law as a coach with a
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  playbook helps you win the game. It shows you how to live out
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  this new life. And understanding this, the
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  source says, protects us from 2 huge errors.
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  Two ditches on either side of the road, Moralism on one side,
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  mysticism on the other. Is trying to do the right things
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  without the new nature. Right, It's trying to staple
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  apples onto a dead tree branch. It's all external behavior
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  modification without an internal change of heart.
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  It's exhausting and it fails. And mysticism.
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  Mysticism is the opposite error. It's waiting for a feeling,
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  waiting for a spiritual ZAP or a second blessing before you obey.
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  It's passive. But the text doesn't say feel in
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  newness of life. It says.
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  Walk. Walking is active.
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  It's mundane. Left foot, right foot.
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  It's habitual. It implies action, effort,
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  movement. This is the hands part of our
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  faith. You don't wait to feel alive to
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  start walking. You walk because you are alive.
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  OK, so we have this new life and we're called to walk in it.
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  But this is where I think for a lot of us, the anxiety creeps
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  back in. This is great, but can I mess it
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  up? Can I fall out of this union if
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  I stumble too much? That is the fear, isn't it?
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  And that's why verse 5 is so critical.
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  This is Section 3 and our sources, the organic guarantee.
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  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
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  shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
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  Certainly is a very strong. Word.
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  It's an ironclad promise, but the real treasure here is the
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  Greek word for united it's symphotoid.
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  Symphotoid that sounds biological.
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  It is. It literally means planted
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  together or grown together. The image is organic.
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  It's about two plants whose roots have become so entwined
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  you can't tell where one begins and the other ends.
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  More like a graft. A graft is the perfect picture.
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  You take a branch from one tree and you graft it into another.
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  Over time, the tissues fuse. The very life, the SAP of the
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  vine flows into the branch. They become one Organism.
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  You can't separate them without killing the branch.
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  You can't, and that's Paul's point.
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  Our union with Christ isn't mechanical like 2 bricks glued
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  together. It's organic.
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  We are planted in Him. The source material argues this
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  is a direct reputation of Arminianism.
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  It is the idea that you can be saved and then lose your
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  salvation. Paul's logic here is almost
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  mathematical. It's a conditional statement.
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  If A is true, then B is certainly true.
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  If we have been united in his death.
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  Which is a past completed arist tense fact.
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  Then we shall be united in his resurrection.
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  It's an inevitable consequence. The future reality is guaranteed
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  by the past reality. This is the whole doctrine of
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  the perseverance of the Saints from the Westminster Confession.
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  And the comfort there is that my security doesn't depend on my
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  grip on Christ. Not at all.
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  It depends on the fact that the Father, the Divine Gardener, is
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  the one who planted you. Your security rests in his grip
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  on you. That is a massive relief for the
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  weary Christian, but it still brings us back to the struggle.
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  If I'm dead, buried, planted, secure, why is sin still a thing
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  for me? Why do I still feel these urges?
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  Why do I fail? And that is the question that
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  brings us to verses 6 and seven, Section 4 in the sources, the
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  death of the dictator. Verse 6 talks about our old self
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  being crucified with him in order that the body of sin might
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  be brought to nothing. What is this body of sin?
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  The source is clear. This doesn't mean our physical
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  bodies are evil. The body of sin refers to sin as
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  an organized power structure, a ruling principle.
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  OK. And the Greek word for what
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  happens to it is katargia, though.
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  Yes, Katargia and translation struggle with this word.
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  Brought to nothing is OK, but it more literally means rendered
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  inoperative, unemployed, or stripped of its power.
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  Unemployed. I like that.
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  The source uses an analogy here that for me was a complete game
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  changer in understanding this. It's the dictator analogy.
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  Look at Let's hear it. Imagine a country that has been
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  ruled for 40 years by a brutal, ruthless dictator.
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  His picture is everywhere. His spies are everywhere.
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  His voice is on the radio. The people live in constant fear
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  of him. I'm with you.
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  Then one day, a liberating army storms the capital.
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  They capture the dictator. They depose him, strip him of
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  all his rank and authority, and throw him into a solitary
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  confinement cell and a maximum security prison.
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  He is powerless. OK, so he's locked up.
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  The war is won. The war is won, but here's the
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  question that defines the Christian life from inside his
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  cell. Does the dictator stop shouting?
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  No way. He's probably screaming orders
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  at the guards, demanding his thrown back, yelling threats.
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  Exactly, he's screaming. I am your rightful ruler.
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  Obey me. You still belong to me.
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  That noise, that shouting from the prison cell, that is
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  indwelling sin. Still there?
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  It's loud. It's very loud, it's demanding,
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  but, and this is everything, does he have any legal authority
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  to enforce a single one of those commands?
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  None whatsoever. He's a prisoner.
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  He has no army, no police, no power.
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  He's just a loudmouth in a box. That is the state of sin in a
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  believer. It is a deposed dictator.
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  It can bluff, it can threaten, it can lie, it can try to
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  intimidate you. But it has zero legal authority
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  over you. You serve a new king now.
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  So when I give into temptation, I am essentially choosing to
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  obey the orders of a powerless prisoner who I don't even work
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  for anymore. You're falling for the
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  propaganda of a defeated regime. You're believing the bluff.
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  And the source notes that this distinction is what saves us
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  from the era of perfectionism. Right.
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  The perfectionist view says the dictator is not just in prison,
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  but he's dead and silent. That's just not the experience
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  of any honest Christian. We still hear the shouting.
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  The Reformed view rooted in this text, says he's not annihilated
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  yet, but he is rendered inoperative.
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  He's in the cell, weakened and mortified, as the confession
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  says. Then we give verse 7, which
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  feels like the final nail in the coffin for one who has died has
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  been set free from sin. And that translation is a little
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  soft. The Greek is actually stronger.
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  It says one who has died has been justified from sin.
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  The word is didikaishtai. Justified.
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  That's a legal courtroom term. It's pure courtroom language.
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  Think about it. In any legal system, death is
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  the ultimate payment of a debt to society.
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  If a man is condemned to death and executed, the law is
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  satisfied. You can't prosecute a corpse.
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  Double jeopardy doesn't apply. His death has justified him from
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  all further claims of the law. So Paul is saying that because
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  we in Christ, the law looks as his case closed, penalty paid in
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  full. Yes, sins legal claim on you has
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  been fully and finally satisfied by the death of your
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  representative Jesus Christ. So let's make this super
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  practical. How does knowing this change my
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  actual fight with sin on a daily basis?
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  It changes your entire posture in the fight.
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  You are no longer fighting for victory, you are fighting from a
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  victory that has already been won.
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  That's the paradigm shift. It is the whole thing.
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  If you're fighting for victory, you're filled with anxiety.
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  Am I doing enough? Have I messed up too badly?
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  Is God angry with me? But if you fight from victory,
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  you stand on the finished work of Christ.
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  You hear the dictator shouting from his cell when you look at
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  that temptation and you say be quiet.
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  You have no authority here. My king already won this war.
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  That really destroys the whole idea of pragmatism, doesn't it?
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  The idea that we just need better habits or a new self help
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  book to manage our sin. You don't manage a deposed
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  dictator. You ignore him.
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  You reckon him to be what he is, powerless and defeated.
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  You starve him of your attention.
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  OK, so the gospel of emancipation has established
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  this incredible truth. We are legally free.
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  The dictators in jail. The old boss is fired.
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  But here's the problem. The world is full of other would
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  be bosses. Other gods, bad ideas, false
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  philosophies that are constantly trying to enslave us all over.
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  Again. And that is the absolute perfect
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  transition to our second source. It connects seamlessly.
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  Section 5. The sanctified sort of ridicule.
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  Because the question that naturally follows from Romans 6
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  is this. If we are truly and legally
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  free, if we are secure children of the true king, why on earth
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  do we tolerate false gods? Why do we treat poisonous
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  theology with such politeness and respect?
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  This is where the source brings in that term diasermis.
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  Diasermis. It's a classical rhetorical
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  term, and it basically means to tear an opponent's argument to
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  pieces by showing how utterly foolish and absurd it is.
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  It's mockery, but for a very specific surgical purpose.
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  This is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable.
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  We live in the age of nice. The highest virtue in our
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  culture seems to be inclusivity and affirmation.
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  Don't offend, don't judge. But the source argues that
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  biblically, mockery isn't just about being mean.
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  It's a form of theological surgery.
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  We have to get over this modern secular idea of Jesus as this
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  gentle, soft spoken teacher who never said a harsh.
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  Word. We really do.
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  He called the most respected religious leaders of his day
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  whitewashed tombs. Think about that.
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  Beautiful on the outside, but inside you're full of death and
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  rotting bones. That is not nice.
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  That is devastating. He called King Herod that fox.
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  So let's look at a case study from the Old Testament to see
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  this in action. Section 6.
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  Elijah versus the Prophets of Baal in First Kings 18 A.
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  Classic Sunday school story, but we usually strip out the most
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  shocking parts. The reality is raw and brutal.
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  What's the context? What's happening in Israel?
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  It's total national apostasy. King Ahab and Jezebel have led
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  the nation into Baal worship, but it's not even that they've
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  fully rejected Yahweh. It's worse.
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  It's syncretism. They're trying to have it both
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  ways, blending the worship of the true God with a Pagan
• 18:31
  fertility cult. They're violating the 1st and
• 18:33
  2nd commandments of the Mosaic covenant.
• 18:34
  Grossly so. Elijah, this lone prophet,
• 18:37
  challenges them to a spiritual showdown on Mount Carmel.
• 18:41
  You've got 450 prophets of Baal on one side and Elijah on the
• 18:44
  other. And the prophets of Baal go
• 18:46
  first. They're crying out, dancing,
• 18:48
  working themselves into a frenzy.
• 18:49
  For hours, and eventually they start cutting themselves with
• 18:52
  swords and lances, trying to get their God to pay attention and
• 18:55
  send fire from heaven. And in the middle of all this,
• 18:57
  Elijah starts to mock them. The Hebrew word is hath all.
• 19:01
  He begins to taunt them. He doesn't just say.
• 19:03
  I believe you're mistaken in your theological
• 19:05
  presuppositions. Not even close, he shouts.
• 19:08
  Cry louder. Surely he is a God.
• 19:10
  Perhaps he is in deep thought, or he is busy, or he is on a
• 19:14
  journey. And then comes the line that we
• 19:16
  usually gloss over the bathroom taunt.
• 19:19
  Yeah, let's go there. The source highlights that the
• 19:22
  Hebrew euphemism translated as relieving himself is exactly
• 19:26
  what it sounds like. He's saying maybe Bale can't
• 19:28
  answer because he's on the toilet.
• 19:30
  He is in the middle of this national crisis with the fate of
• 19:33
  the Covenant people on the line. The prophet of God suggests
• 19:37
  their deity is indisposed because of basic bodily
• 19:40
  functions. It seems so crude.
• 19:42
  Why would the Holy Spirit inspire that to be in Scripture?
• 19:45
  Because it's theological dynamite.
• 19:46
  It's not just a clever insult. Elijah is exposing the
• 19:49
  ontological nothingness of the idol.
• 19:51
  He's revealing it's absurdity. Think about it.
• 19:54
  A God who is limited by space. A God who has to travel.
• 19:58
  A God with a digestive system. That's no God at all.
• 20:01
  That's just a magnified version of a human.
• 20:03
  It's a joke. He's using ridicule to shatter
• 20:06
  the people's confidence in this false God.
• 20:08
  He's showing them that the thing they are terrified of, the thing
• 20:11
  they are mutilating themselves for, is a pathetic fiction.
• 20:15
  He. Wasn't interested in interfaith
• 20:17
  dialogue with the prophets of Baal.
• 20:19
  No, he didn't respect their sincerely held beliefs.
• 20:23
  He exposed their beliefs as lethal foolishness, the source
• 20:28
  says. The purpose of the mockery was
• 20:29
  to prepare the people for the indicative, the extract of God.
• 20:33
  You have to make the idol look ridiculous before they're ready
• 20:35
  to see the glory of the true God.
• 20:37
  Exactly. You clear away the rubble of the
• 20:39
  false temple before you can show them the true one.
• 20:42
  The fire of God is all the more stunning when it falls on the
• 20:44
  ashes of a mocked and defeated idol.
• 20:46
  I can hear the objection though. OK, fine.
• 20:48
  That's the Old Testament. Elijah was a Wildman.
• 20:50
  The New Testament is different. It's all about gentle persuasion
• 20:54
  and love. And that's a fair question.
• 20:55
  Which brings us directly to 7 the Apostle Paul versus the
• 20:59
  Judaizers in Galatians chapter 5.
• 21:01
  Paul, the apostle of grace and love.
• 21:04
  Surely he's not going to engage in this kind of sharp rhetoric.
• 21:07
  Let's see, Paul is dealing with a group of false teachers, the
• 21:10
  Judaizers, and they're telling the Galatian Christians that
• 21:14
  faith in Jesus isn't quite enough.
• 21:16
  You need Jesus plus circumcision.
• 21:19
  So they're adding a work of the flesh to the finished work of
• 21:21
  Christ. Precisely, they are attacking
• 21:23
  the gospel at its very root, and after chapters of careful
• 21:27
  theological argument, Paul's holy frustration boils over in
• 21:31
  Galatians 5, verse 12 and. What does he say?
• 21:34
  He says. I wish those who unsettle you
• 21:36
  would emasculate themselves. Whoa.
• 21:38
  That is, that's shocking. It's absolutely shocking.
• 21:42
  The Greek word is apocoptu. It means to cut off completely,
• 21:45
  he is saying. I wish they would just castrate
• 21:47
  themselves. Why would an apostle use
• 21:49
  language that strong, that visceral?
• 21:51
  Because it's a brilliant, devastating piece of diasermis.
• 21:54
  It's a reductio ad absurdum. The Judaizers are obsessed with
• 21:58
  a little bit of cutting. They think cutting off the
• 22:00
  foreskin makes a man right with God.
• 22:02
  So Paul takes their own logic and pushes it to its grotesque
• 22:06
  conclusion. He says, Oh, you think cutting
• 22:08
  human flesh is what pleases God? You think your religious self
• 22:12
  effort is what it's all about? Don't be so timid.
• 22:14
  Why stop with the foreskin? If you really want to impress
• 22:16
  God with your knives, go all the way.
• 22:19
  And he's referencing something they would have understood,
• 22:20
  right? Yes, the source points out that
• 22:23
  in that region of Galatia, the Pagan cult of the goddess Cybil
• 22:27
  was very prominent, and the priests of Cybil in their
• 22:30
  ecstatic worship would castrate themselves.
• 22:34
  So Paul is saying if you add your works to the gospel, you're
• 22:37
  not becoming a better Christian. He's saying you're becoming a
• 22:40
  Pagan. You're no different from the
• 22:42
  eunuch priests of a false goddess.
• 22:44
  It is a brutal, unforgettable image designed to show them that
• 22:48
  adding anything to Christ is to abandon Christ for paganism.
• 22:51
  It guards the doctrine of justification by faith alone
• 22:54
  with the ferocity of a guard dog.
• 22:56
  It does. It defends Chapter 11 of the
• 22:58
  Westminster Confession. If you add to Christ, you
• 23:01
  subtract Christ. There is no middle ground.
• 23:04
  So he mocks legalism by showing that it's logical end is self
• 23:08
  mutilation and paganism. And notice the motivation.
• 23:12
  He's not just being angry. He's doing this out of fierce,
• 23:15
  protective love for the flock. This is the guarding the flock
• 23:18
  point from the source. A Good Shepherd has a staff.
• 23:21
  One end has a gentle crook to guide the sheep, but the other
• 23:24
  end is a blunt instrument to fight off the wolves.
• 23:28
  You cannot claim to love the sheep if you are endlessly
• 23:31
  polite to the wolves that are trying to devour them.
• 23:33
  OK, so let's bring this into our world.
• 23:36
  Section 8 Wielding the sword. Today we don't have profits of
• 23:40
  bell on every street corner or Judaizers in the same way.
• 23:43
  Not in the same exact form, no, But the underlying idols are
• 23:47
  still very much with us. The source gives a few examples
• 23:50
  of modern targets for sanctified ridicule.
• 23:52
  So. Who are the profits of Bell in
• 23:54
  the 21st century? Well, one target is seeker
• 23:56
  sensitive pragmatism. This is the church growth
• 23:59
  philosophy that essentially turns the worship service into a
• 24:02
  slickly produced show designed to entertain consumers.
• 24:05
  It prioritizes marketing over the means of grace.
• 24:08
  Right treats God like a product and unbelievers like customers
• 24:12
  whose needs must be met. The mockery here is to show the
• 24:16
  absurdity of a God who needs a fog machine and a rock band to
• 24:20
  be considered relevant. What's another one?
• 24:21
  The prosperity gospel. This is a huge one.
• 24:24
  The idea that God is a cosmic slot machine and seed faith is
• 24:27
  the coin you put in to get health and wealth out.
• 24:30
  That you can bribe God. Exactly, and the source says we
• 24:33
  shouldn't just debate this with spreadsheets, we should use
• 24:35
  diasermis. We should ask what kind of
• 24:37
  pathetic weak God it can be manipulated by a check.
• 24:41
  If I can buy a blessing from your God, then he's not the
• 24:43
  sovereign of the universe, he's a corrupt politician who can be
• 24:46
  bought off. You're exposing the idol as
• 24:48
  being small and silly. You're breaking the spell.
• 24:51
  Yeah. And a third area is secular
• 24:53
  philosophy that creeps into the church.
• 24:55
  Things like critical race theory or sexual ethics that are based
• 24:58
  entirely on subjective feelings rather than God's created order.
• 25:03
  So how do we wield this sword without just becoming cynical
• 25:07
  and mean online? That's the crucial question.
• 25:10
  It must be sanctified ridicule, the source says.
• 25:13
  We use plain and pastoral language.
• 25:16
  The goal isn't to own somebody in an argument.
• 25:19
  The goal is to liberate people from absurd and dangerous ideas.
• 25:23
  It addresses the head by demanding theological clarity.
• 25:26
  And it addresses the heart by breaking the emotional spell of
• 25:29
  the idol. Idolatry is mesmerizing.
• 25:31
  It captivates people. And sometimes the only way to
• 25:34
  break that trance is with the shock of laughter to help them
• 25:37
  see that the emperor they're worshipping has no clothes.
• 25:40
  So let's tie these two big threads together.
• 25:42
  Section 9. Synthesis How does our union
• 25:46
  with Christ in Romans 6 connect with this call to wield the
• 25:49
  sword of ridicule? There are two sides of the same
• 25:51
  coin of freedom. It's because we know the true
• 25:53
  King that we can and must laugh at the pretenders to the throne.
• 25:57
  If you're truly emancipated from the dictator.
• 25:59
  If you're really dead to sin's regime, as Romans 6 says.
• 26:03
  Then you shouldn't just disagree with the old regime's
• 26:05
  propaganda, you should find it laughable.
• 26:07
  That's it. Our security in Christ gives us
• 26:09
  the courage to mock the idols. Our freedom from the law's
• 26:12
  condemnation allows us to stand up and say that Prosperity God
• 26:16
  is a joke, that seeker sensitive God is a powerless invention,
• 26:19
  that God of expressive individualism is a tyrant.
• 26:23
  We can laugh at them because we know they're nothing, just as
• 26:26
  Elijah knew Bell was nothing. OK, let's break this down into a
• 26:29
  final head, heart and hands for the listener.
• 26:31
  Good idea for the head. The doctrinal part.
• 26:34
  You must believe in what theologians called definitive
• 26:36
  sanctification. The old man is dead.
• 26:39
  It's a finished fact and you must understand justification as
• 26:43
  a settled legal reality. You are not on probation, you
• 26:46
  are declared righteous. OK, that's the head.
• 26:48
  What about the heart? Our affections.
• 26:50
  For the heart you must learn to love the freedom Christ bought
• 26:53
  for you, hate the slavery of the idols, feel a hope filled
• 26:56
  urgency to live out this new life, and crucially, reject
• 27:00
  mysticism. Don't base your assurance on
• 27:03
  your fickle feelings, base it on the covenantal assurance of
• 27:06
  God's promises. Rest in the fact that you are
• 27:09
  some fitway planted in Him. And finally, the hands are
• 27:12
  practice. Grateful obedience.
• 27:14
  That's the third use of the law in action.
• 27:18
  Because we are free, we now joyfully walk in the newness of
• 27:21
  life. We participate eagerly in the
• 27:24
  means of grace, the preaching of the Word, the sacraments,
• 27:27
  prayer. And the source makes a special
• 27:29
  point about the Lord's Supper. Yes, we should see it not just
• 27:32
  as a memorial, but as a visible word of our union.
• 27:36
  It's the victory feast of the new Kingdom.
• 27:38
  We are eating at the King's table while the old defeated
• 27:41
  dictator rots in his cell. This has been an incredibly rich
• 27:45
  deep dive. Let's try to bring it all
• 27:46
  together in a final summary. Sounds good.
• 27:48
  At the end of the day, we are legally, forensically and
• 27:51
  spiritually dead to the reign of sin.
• 27:53
  That is the gospel of emancipation from Roman Sauls.
• 27:56
  And because we are free citizens of a new and better Kingdom, we
• 27:59
  are therefore free to laugh at the powerless, absurd idols of
• 28:02
  this age. It all comes down to the
• 28:04
  indicative. What Christ has done, powerfully
• 28:07
  fueling the imperative, what we now do.
• 28:09
  His victory becomes our confidence.
• 28:11
  So a final provocative thought for you, the learner, to take
• 28:15
  with you. If you're truly dead to the old
• 28:17
  regime, if the old you was genuinely executed and buried
• 28:21
  with Christ, then why do you still pick up the phone when the
• 28:24
  dead dictator calls from his prison cell?
• 28:27
  Why do you entertain his commands for even a second?
• 28:30
  And on the other side, are you brave enough to laugh at the
• 28:32
  idols the world worships? Or are you too afraid of being
• 28:35
  called intolerant or mean? That is the question we all have
• 28:39
  to live with. Thank you for joining us on this
• 28:41
  deep dive. This has been reformed thinking.