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Providence Secured by the Cross Forgiveness Justification and Obedient Perseverance · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. We are really glad you're here
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today. Yeah, absolutely.
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So I want you to imagine walking a razor thin tightrope, and this
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tightrope is suspended over like a bottomless Canyon.
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Oh wow, that is a terrifying mental image right off the bat,
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right? It really is.
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And you're holding this very long balancing pole.
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Now, if you lean just an inch too far to the left and you drop
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the weight on that side, you fall completely off the rope,
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right down into crushing despair.
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But if you lean just an inch to the right, letting that other
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side drop, you fall into arrogant presumption.
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Right, spareless walk. Very much so.
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And today we are looking at a stack of sources that say this
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tightrope is well, it's pretty much what the Christian life
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looks like every single day it. Really is.
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I am thrilled to have you, the listener, sitting right here
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with us today. Pull up a chair as the third
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person in the room for our conversation.
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We are doing a deep dive into a fascinating collection of
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theological texts that analyze the mechanics of divine
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Providence, justification, and obedience.
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Yeah, we are heavily focused on the book of Romans.
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Specifically chapter 8, right? Yes, chapter 8 and also the book
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of First Corinthians chapter 5. Right.
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And we are examining the believers life here.
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The mission of this specific deep dive is to answer 1 central
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pressing question. And that question is how does
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God get his redeemed children home from conversion to glory
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without making them lazy or causing them to despair?
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OK, let's unpack this. We are looking at texts that
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describe the Christian pilgrimage as walking between
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two very distinct cliffs. We are indeed.
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And you know, those two cliffs represent two of the most
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persistent errors in church history.
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So on one side of this narrow path, you have the Cliff of
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despair. You can kind of think of this as
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legalism. OK, legalism.
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Right. This is a mindset that looks
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solely at the strict holiness of God's law.
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And the person looking at that law, well, they realize the
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total impossibility of keeping it perfectly precisely, so they
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just collapse under the weight of the guilt.
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The legalist attempts to obey so that God might, you know,
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finally accept them. They turn obedience into a
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ladder. A ladder they can never
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successfully climb. Yeah, a ladder with endless
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rungs. And the psychological toll of
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this is immense. You wake up every day wondering
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if you've done enough or repented enough.
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Or felt sorry enough to maintain your standing right?
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Like am I sad enough about my sin today?
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Yes. And on the other side of the
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path you have the Cliff of presumption.
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Antinomianism. Right Antinomianism, which
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literally means being against the law.
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Antinomos. This mindset looks only at the
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grace of God. So the person concludes that,
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well, since God accepts the believer, obedience is optional.
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They use grace as a license for SIN.
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Yeah, they view the cross as the sort of divine permission slip
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to live however, their flesh desires.
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And human nature naturally gravitates toward these two
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errors because the natural mind, it really stumbles at a specific
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paradox. What paradox is that?
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It's the reality that God issues incredibly strict commands to
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His people, commands to strive, to endure, to put sin to death.
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But simultaneously, He decrees that He alone is the decisive
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influence working within us to bring about that very obedience.
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That is a tough one to wrap the mind around.
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It is, and to understand why this requires such careful
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attention, we have to look at the historical backdrop.
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Let us look at Rome in AD 57. OK, AD 57.
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The Church in Rome existed right in the epicenter of Pagan
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imperial authority and Greco Roman debauchery.
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Yeah, I mean, the culture was totally saturated in idol
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worship, brutal blood sports, rampant immorality.
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Right. And inside the church, you had
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Jewish believers leaning toward works righteousness.
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They wanted to add the Mosaic law, you know, dietary
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restrictions and circumcision to the finished work of Christ.
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Basically leaning hard toward that Cliff of legalism, yes.
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Meanwhile, looking at the Corinthian context, in First
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Corinthians 5 you had Gentile believers leaning toward the
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opposite extreme. Corinth was a notoriously
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wealthy and wicked port city, right?
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Oh. Absolutely famous for the Temple
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of Aphrodite and inside that Corinthian church, believers
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were boasting in this supposed freedom while harboring gross
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incestuous immorality within their congregation.
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Wow, so both groups were falling off the cliffs, just on opposite
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sides. You know, the tightrope analogy
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really frames the stakes here. You need the balancing pole
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weighted evenly on both sides. If you drop the weight of God's
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holy standard, you fall into presumption and license.
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But if you drop the weight of God's grace and finished work,
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you fall into despair and legalism.
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You need the structural integrity of both to stay on the
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path. You really do.
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But looking at the paradox you just described, I have a major
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question. OK, let's hear it.
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If God predestined the whole thing from before the world
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began, and if He is the decisive influence guaranteeing that the
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believer makes it to glory, why did Paul write such terrifying
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warnings to the Roman church? That is the big question.
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Right, because why tell them that if they live according to
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the flesh, they will die if the outcome is already totally
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secured? It sounds like telling a
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passenger on a locked train that they better steer well or they
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will crash. This raises an important
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question about the mechanics of divine Providence.
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The natural assumption is that if an outcome is guaranteed by
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God, then warnings are unnecessary.
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Or, you know, perhaps even a bit of a charade.
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Like play, acting. Right, but the texts clarify
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that warnings are the very means God uses to preserve his people.
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Oh, interesting. God ordains not only the final
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destination, but also the precise means by which his
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children will arrive there. When Paul writes that living
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according to the flesh leads to death, he is stating a spiritual
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law of physics. He is aiming his Apostolic
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authority at the Roman Church to obliterate the false security of
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those who presumed upon grace. To like a wake up call.
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Yes, the warning is designed to send a shockwave of holy terror
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through the congregation. It awakens anyone asleep in the
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delusion of cheap grace. Wow.
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And for the true believer, the warning functions as a divine
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instrument. The Holy Spirit uses the
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terrifying reality of the unmortified life to awaken
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vigilance and prompt the believer to run back to Christ.
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Wait, really? Yes.
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So you are telling me the warning isn't just God being
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dramatic, it is actually the physical mechanism he uses to
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keep us safe? That's it.
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The warning is the actual guardrail keeping the car on the
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road. That shifts how we read these
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letters entirely. It completely reframes it, yeah.
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And this takes us straight into the literary structure of Paul's
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letters, which the sources point out as a master class in divine
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logic. They introduce this concept of
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the grammar of grace. Yes, the.
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Grammar of grace. This is crucial.
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Specifically, the rule is that the indicatives must always
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precede the imperatives. In everyday language, an
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indicative is just a statement of fact.
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It tells you who you are in Christ.
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It tells you what has already been accomplished.
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And an imperative is a command. Right.
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It tells you what you must do. Now.
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We are hardwired as humans to think in transactions, right?
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We think if I do the imperative, if I work hard and obey, then I
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will achieve the indicative, I will become a good person.
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But Paul flips that. Yes, the text to rest that Paul
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completely flips. This justification is the root
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and obedience is the fruit. When we look closely at Romans
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8, the entire chapter begins with a courtroom verdict in
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verse one. There is therefore now no
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condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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It does not start with a list of tasks.
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It starts with an objective sentence.
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And that objective sentence changes the entire universe for
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the believer. How so?
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Well, the assertion no condemnation is a forensic
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reality. It is the language of the
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courtroom. The judge has banged the gavel
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and declared the defendant entirely free from the penal
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wrath of the law. The texts highlight that this is
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an objective sentence, not a subjective feeling.
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Your feelings will lie to you on a daily basis.
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Oh yeah. Every single day.
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The declaration of no condemnation does not mean the
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believer will never feel accused by their own conscience or that
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they never need to confess their daily sins.
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It means the final damning verdict has been permanently
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removed, not because the believer sanctification is
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flawless, but because they are in Christ Jesus.
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That is amazing. Every single charge that condemn
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the Sinner has been fully answered.
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This forensic reality is the indicative foundation.
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OK, I follow you. Now if we pivot to 1st
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Corinthians 5.7, we see the imperative built directly on top
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of a similar indicative. Paul commands the church to
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cleanse out the old leaven that is the imperative.
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But we have to look at the specific Greek syntax the source
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provides to understand the logic.
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Here Paul tells them to cleanse out the leaven because you
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really are unleavened. Wait, he tells them.
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They already are. Yes, the Greek word there is
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azamoy. Unleavened bread was the strict
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requirement for the Jewish Passover.
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Paul does not say cleanse out the leaven so that you might
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become unleavened. He bases the command on an
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accomplished fact. OK, this is wild.
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And the reason they are already unleavened is found in the next
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clause. For Christ, our Passover lamb
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has been sacrificed. So it points back to Christ.
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Yes, and the verb used for sacrifice is an aorist passive
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indicative verb. OK, let's break that down for
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people who don't know Greek. Aorist points to a singular
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completed event in the past. Passive means the action was
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done for them completely outside of their own effort, and
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indicative means it is a concrete fact.
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The substitutionary atonement of Christ is the finished
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historical reality that renders the believer perfectly righteous
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in the courtroom of God. OK, but I have a push back here.
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Go for it. If a church is actively
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tolerating blatant sin, which the Corinthian church was doing,
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they were actually boasting about tolerating gross
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immorality, right? Yes, they were.
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How can Paul look at them and say they really are unleavened?
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Doesn't that sound like a legal fiction?
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I mean, if they are full of the leaven of sin in their behavior,
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calling them unleavened seems almost contradictory to reality.
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I see what you mean. If my bank account is at 0 and
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the bank manager hands me a statement saying I am a
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millionaire, that is a fiction. Unless real money came from
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somewhere, you know. Well, it sounds like a
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contradiction only if we confuse the basis of our standing before
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God with our daily behavior. The sources answer this by
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detailing the theological concept of extra no's.
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Extra No. 'S yes, which is Latin for
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outside of ourselves it refers to an alien righteousness.
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Alien meaning foreign to us, not from us.
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Exactly. Going back to your bank account
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analogy, it is not a fiction if an actual billionaire walked
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into the bank and irrevocably transfer their entire fortune
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into your empty account. The funds are real, but they
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came from outside of you. When Paul looks at the
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Corinthian believers and declares them positionally
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unleavened, he is looking entirely at the finished
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obedience of Jesus Christ imputed to their account.
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That makes total sense. The believers standing before
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the throne of God is 100% based on Christ's accomplished work,
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completely outside of their own performance.
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The law's demands were perfectly met by Christ, and His
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righteousness is reckoned to the believer by faith alone.
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So it's an actual legal transfer.
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Right. So it is not a legal fiction, it
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is a legal reality based on a valid substitution.
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Christ truly took their sin and they truly received His
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righteousness. Therefore, when Paul commands
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them to cleanse out the leaven, he is saying, become in your
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daily practice what you already are in your judicial standing.
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Oh wow. So you do not cleanse out sin to
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become accepted. You cleanse out sin because you
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are already perfectly accepted based on an alien righteousness.
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A spot. Here's where it gets really
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interesting, because we have to talk about how that substitution
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actually work. Yes, we do.
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OK, so we have this perfect legal standing, but practically
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speaking, we still have a corrupt human nature.
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The law exposes that corruption, but why can't the law fix it?
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Good question. Moving into Romans 8.3, the
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discussion covers what the law could not accomplish.
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The texts say that the law was weakened by the flesh.
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I love the analogy for the source material.
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Here the mirror analogy. Yeah, the law is like a mirror.
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A mirror reflects light to show you the dirt on your face.
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It is incredibly accurate. Very accurate.
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But if you take the mirror off the wall and rub it on your face
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to clean off the dirt, you will only end up cutting yourself and
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making a bigger mess. You cannot use the mirror to
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wash your face, right? The Law can identify sin, it can
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expose sin, and it can even aggravate sin by revealing our
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rebellion against it. It prescribes righteousness
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perfectly, but it possesses absolutely zero capacity to
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rescue a Sinner because human nature, the flesh, is too
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corrupt to obey it. So God had to do what the Law
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could not do. That is correct, and God did
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this by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
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The theological precision required here is striking.
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How so? Well, Christ truly assumed
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humanity to represent us. He did not merely appear human
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in a phantom like state. He took on true human flesh with
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real fatigue, real hunger, real sweat and true mortality.
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He. Got tired, he wept.
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Yes, However, he did this without the sinful corruption
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that infects every descendant of Adam.
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He had no original sin. He came near enough to represent
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us fully, but remained pure enough to redeem us.
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Wow. This brings us to the
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Christological fulfillment of the law, specifically the
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distinction between the active and passive obedience of Christ.
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OK, active and passive obedience.
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Both are absolutely necessary for our salvation.
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Right. Yes, absolutely necessary.
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His passive obedience refers to His willing submission to the
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agonizing death on the cross. Bearing the unmitigated wrath of
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God is the true Passover lamb. He paid the penalty for sin.
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That's the passive part. Right, but taking away our guilt
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only brings our account to 0A. Blank slate does not provide the
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positive righteousness the law demands to enter heaven.
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You. Don't just need 0 debt, you need
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a positive balance. Exactly that is where his active
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obedience comes in. Christ lived a flawless life of
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perfect submission to the law of God.
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He loved the Lord His God with all his heart, soul, mind and
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strength every single second of His earthly life.
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He never once slipped up. Never.
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He achieved the perfect righteousness that is then
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imputed to the believer. Because of this, grace is not
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divine indulgence. It's not God just looking the
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other way. No, God did not simply ignore
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sin or sweep it under the road as if it did not matter.
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He condemned it in the flesh of Christ at the cross.
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The sources call this holy mercy.
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Holy mercy. God's purpose to save his elect
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never competes with His justice. Rather, it satisfies His justice
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completely in Christ. That concept of holy mercy
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changes the whole landscape. It means the believer's security
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isn't based on God lowering his standards, but on Christ meeting
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those standards perfectly. And that brings us to the
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decisive transfer that happens to the believer, the contrast in
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Romans 8 between the flesh and the Spirit.
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This contrast defines the believers completely new
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identity and the new realm they inhabit.
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We see this play out in Romans 8.9 where it says you however
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are not in the flesh but in the spirit.
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I want you, the listener, to consider how viewing your own
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struggles through this specific lens changes things.
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If you understand that your core identity is no longer in the
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flesh but in the spirit, it completely shifts your posture
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towards your own failures. It really.
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Does you stop saying, well that's just who I am?
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I can't help it. You start saying that is what I
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was, but this is who I am now in Christ.
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Yes, and we must clarify A crucial misconception regarding
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the Word flesh. Oh, this is a big one.
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When Paul uses the term flesh in this context, he does not mean
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the physical material body is inherently bad.
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In the ancient Greco Roman world, philosophers often taught
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that matter was evil and only the spirit was good.
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Right, like Gnosticism. Yes, Christianity rejects that
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God created the physical body and called it good.
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Rather, flesh refers to fallen human nature under the absolute
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dominion of sin. It is the rebellious software
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running on the human hardware. That's a great way to put a
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rebellious software. Thanks.
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The mind of the flesh is hostile to God.
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It does not submit to God's law, and more terrifyingly, it is
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completely unable to do so. The natural person is not
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morally neutral. Their desires are enslaved to
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rebellion against God. So they literally can't obey.
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Right, so when Romans 8.9 says you however are not in the flesh
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but in the Spirit, this is a massive statement of identity.
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It marks a decisive transfer of realms.
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The Spirit is not a second blessing reserved for an elite
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tier of super Christians. Possessing the Spirit is the
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very mark of belonging to Christ.
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If you do not have the Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to
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Him. It's all or nothing.
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Yes, the Holy Spirit liberates the believer from the governing
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authority of the flesh and brings them into the governing
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authority of life and peace. Lead to an obvious tension.
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OK, what's that? If the transfer is already
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complete, right? If we are definitively in the
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Spirit and no longer in the flesh, why do believers still
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feel the pull of the flesh so intensely?
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Why is the daily experience of the Christian life so often
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characterized by a grueling, exhausting fight against desires
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we supposedly left behind? It feels like we moved to a new
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country, but the old dictator keeps calling our phone and
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demanding taxes. I love that analogy.
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That tension is exactly why Paul transitions to the fierce
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mandate of Romans 8.14. Which brings us to the
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executioner's duty. The executioner's duty.
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Yes, the text reads. If by the spirit you put to
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death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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The believer is no longer in the realm of the flesh, but they
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still inhabit a mortal body that has been habituated to sin.
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The presence of the flesh remains, even though it's ruling
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authority has been broken. Right, the authority is gone,
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but the habits are there. Yes, we have to dissect the verb
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Paul uses here for put to death, which is the not to.
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The grammar here is vital. It is in the present active
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indicative form. OK, what does that mean
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practically? This means Paul is commanding A
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continuous, daily, relentless execution.
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It is not a one time event that happens at conversion.
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It is a lifelong habit of identifying the remnants of the
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flesh and actively slaying. Them slaying them, that's
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intense language. It is the Puritan theologian
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John Owen summarized this perfectly when he said be
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killing sin or it will be killing you.
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The Christian life is a battlefield and the believer is
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called to be the executioner of their own pride, lust and
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idolatry. But the agency of this
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mortification is the key. The grammar insists the action
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is done by the Spirit using the Greek word numati.
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By the Spirit. Yes, this points to the
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theological reality of monarchistic regeneration
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leading to synergistic sanctification.
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Let us break those terms down. Please do.
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Monarchistic comes from 2 words, mono meaning 1 and ergon meaning
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work one working. Monarchistic regeneration means
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God alone acts to give us new spiritual life when we were
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spiritually dead. So God does 100% of the work in
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bringing us to life. Yes, but synergistic means
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working together. Synergistic sanctification means
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that in our daily growth and holiness, we must act, we must
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fight, we must cut off temptation.
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Yet we do so entirely in dependence on the Spirit's
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energy. I picture this like wielding a
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heavy broadsword in medieval battle.
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The Believer is explicitly commanded to pick up the sword,
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to swing the sword, and to execute their own lusts, pride,
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and idolatry. You cannot just sit on the
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battlefield, close your eyes and wait for the enemy to
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spontaneously combust, right? Right, you have to fight.
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I'll have to swing the weapon, but the sword is incredibly
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heavy. The daily battle causes immense
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fatigue. Your arms get tired and you want
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to drop the weapon, but the spirit is the muscle fibers and
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the oxygen in your lungs making the swing possible.
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That's a great picture. Without the Spirit, the sword is
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too heavy to lift, but without your act of swinging, the enemy
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doesn't get struck. You're doing the actual
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fighting, but the strength to fight is entirely supplied by
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God. What's fascinating here is the
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underlying logic of this warfare.
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You can only successfully kill a sin that has already been
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pardoned. Wait, say that again.
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You can only kill a sin that has already been pardoned.
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If you are fighting your sin in order to earn acceptance from
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God, you are engaging in a project of self justification.
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You are trying to pay off an infinite debt with your own
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effort, which leads right back to the Cliff of despair we
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discussed earlier. Yeah, the legalism Cliff.
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Right. But fighting sin because you are
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already bought, already freed, and already justified.
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That is the obedience of faith. You fight not as a condemned
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slave trying to earn freedom, but as a fully accepted heir
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acting out your new family identity.
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Which flows seamlessly into Romans 8.1 teen, where the
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concept transitions from this fierce executioner to an adopted
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child. It does.
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The text says for all who are led by the Spirit of God are
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sons of God. That is such a comforting shift
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in tone from the battlefield to the.
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Living room. It is a massive shift and we
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need to define what the spirits leading actually means in this
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context. Often, modern readers interpret
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being led by the Spirit as waiting for private impressions
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or mystical impulses regarding daily decisions.
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We're getting a feeling about what to eat for breakfast.
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Right. Or people think it means looking
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for a sign, like seeing a specific type of bird to decide
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whether to take a new job or who to marry.
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While God does grant wisdom, the leading Paul describes here is a
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holy governance away from the flesh and toward life.
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It's about character. Yes, it is the Spirit producing
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a holy trajectory in the believer's character.
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Sons resemble their father. They are disciplined by their
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father. They inherit what slaves could
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never earn. This brings assurance and
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sobriety together. The proof of sonship is not
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sinless perfection, but rather a spirit LED warfare against sin
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and a fundamentally new direction of life.
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And it anchors our hope in something concrete, because the
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Spirit dwells in the believer. The same God who raised Jesus
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will give life to our mortal bodies.
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This provides massive comfort. Huge comfort.
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If you are listening to this right now and you are aging, if
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your joints ache, if you are sick, or if you are just utterly
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exhausted from a decades long fight with temptation, the
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promise isn't present day ease its future bodily resurrection.
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The physical body, despite its current weakness and mortality,
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will be raised in glory. But looking around at a lot of
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modern teaching, I have to ask how does the specific hope of
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future bodily resurrection refute modern prosperity gospel
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teachings? Those movements seem to promise
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a very different outcome for faith.
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They do. The prosperity gospel
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fundamentally mislocates the promises of God.
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It attempts to pull the realities of future
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glorification into the present fallen age.
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It wants heaven right now. Exactly.
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It promises earthly ease, perfect physical health, and
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material wealth as the necessary proofs of faith right now.
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It tells people that if they have enough faith, they will not
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suffer. But Romans 8 contradicts.
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That entirely. Romans 8 teaches that believers
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currently inhabit mortal bodies. In a world subjected to
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futility, believers grown, creation groans, and we face
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real suffering. The proof of the Spirit's
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presence is not an exemption from physical decay or hardship.
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It is a guarantee of future resurrection.
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Because Christ was raised. Right, because Christ was raised
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as the first fruits, those united to Him will also be
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raised. This means a believer can endure
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sickness, poverty and persecution without concluding
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that God has abandoned them or that their faith has failed.
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The promise of resurrection gives the believer the endurance
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to suffer faithfully, knowing that their reward is not
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confined to this present age. That's a huge protection for the
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mind. It protects them from the
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devastating disillusionment that happens when a follower of the
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prosperity gospel receives, say, a terminal cancer diagnosis.
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That is a crucial distinction. Now, the source material applies
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these theological concepts to the modern evangelical landscape
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and cultural movements, and it's worth noting here and as your
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hosts, we are strictly looking at this through the lens of the
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author's theological argument. We are not taking a political
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stance ourselves. Right.
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We need to be very clear on that.
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We are impartially reporting on the content provided.
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Yes, making it clear that we are simply trying to convey the
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ideas contained in the original text without endorsing the
24:31
viewpoints. So the text offers two major
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critiques. The first critique is aimed at
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pragmatic, seeker sensitive movements.
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The source rejects these models because they lower the bar of
24:43
entry so far that they strip the gospel of its demand for
24:47
repentance. The argument is that this
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creates false converts who want the benefits of salvation like a
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ticket out of hell without any submission to Christ as Lord.
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That is the first critique presented in the material.
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The authors argue that offering a gospel without the demand to
25:03
put sin to death contradicts the clear warning of Romans 8.13.
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The warning we talked about earlier.
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Yes, if someone is told they can possessed Christ as Savior while
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remaining completely at peace with the flesh, they are being
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LED toward the Cliff of presumption.
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The source insists that the evidence of election and
25:19
justification is an ongoing war against the flesh.
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Any movement that minimizes this war is preaching A counterfeit
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comfort. OK.
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And what about the second critique?
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The second critique in the source material fiercely rejects
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critical race theory and woke ideology.
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The authors categorize these frameworks as a new secular
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legalism. A secular legalism?
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Yes. Their argument is that these
25:41
ideologies function like a secular religion.
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They impose perpetual guilt based on historical and systemic
25:47
factors, functioning sort of like a secular doctrine of
25:50
original sin, but they offer no possibility of atonement or
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ultimate forgiveness. Right, according to the source,
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you can never apologize enough and your debt is never cleared.
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Exactly in the view of the source, this functions as a
26:03
denial of the sufficiency of Christ's cross to reconcile
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people and definitively remove guilt.
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The text argues that just as the Judaizers in the 1st century
26:13
tried to add the Mosaic Law to Christ's work, these modern
26:16
frameworks try to add endless secular penance to cross work,
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placing people back under a system of relentless
26:21
condemnation. So what does this all mean for
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the person listening right now? How does the source summarize
26:26
the practical application of all this heavy theology?
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Well, it really boils down to a daily routine.
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Every single morning, a believer should wake up, acknowledge the
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remaining corruption, and consciously decide to slay the
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sins that put their Savior on the cross.
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And they do this using their blood bought promises as their
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primary weapon. Yes.
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When temptation comes, you fight the deceitful promise of sin
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with the superior promise of God's Word, resting entirely in
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the fact that you're standing before the judge is secure.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, it changes our entire
27:00
relationship with the law of God because Christ has completely
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fulfilled the righteous demands of the law on our behalf through
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His active obedience, the law no longer acts as a covenant of
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works that condemns us. It's been defanged, essentially.
27:14
Right. It has been stripped of its
27:15
penal condemning function for the believer.
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Instead, it now acts as a joyful rule of life.
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Theologians call this the Tertius Eussy Slagius.
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The third use of the law. Yes, let us clarify the three
27:26
uses. The first use of the law is to
27:28
restrain evil in society, like a bridle on a horse, OK.
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The second use is to act as a mirror, exposing our sin and
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driving us to Christ for salvation.
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The mirror analogy we used earlier.
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Yes. The third use, however, is for
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the Christian. We no longer look at God's
27:43
commands as a terrifying list of demands we must achieve to avoid
27:47
hell. The law is no longer a warden.
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So what is it? We look at the commands as the
27:52
family rules of the Father who has already adopted us.
27:54
We look at the law as a friendly guide, showing us how to please
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the God we love. We obey out of gratitude,
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energized by the Spirit, knowing that our inevitable failures
28:04
along the way are covered by the blood of the Passover lamb.
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That brings us full circle to the mission of our deep dive.
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Today we set out to ask, how does God get his redeemed
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children home from conversion to glory without making them lazy
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or causing them to despair? And the texts give us a clear
28:22
answer. Right.
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The answer the sources provide is that divine Providence is not
28:26
just a distant, abstract decree. It is a saving order established
28:30
in Christ and applied daily by the Spirit.
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Providence provides the absolute, unshakable security of
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justification which cures our despair.
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We do not have to earn our standing.
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We don't have to climb the ladder.
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Exactly, and Providence provides the necessary relentless energy
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of the Holy Spirit for daily obedience, which cures our
28:49
laziness. You are secure and therefore you
28:52
must fight. It's a beautiful balance.
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It really is. Before we sign off, I want to
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leave you, our listener, with a final thought to Mull over.
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Based on everything we discussed today, we talked about the
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absolute guarantee of your final arrival and glory.
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If your final arrival and glory was completely secured by Christ
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before you even began the fight, how does that absolute guarantee
29:12
alter the way you react to your very next moral failure?
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When you stumble tomorrow, does the certainty of your salvation
29:20
create complacency, prompting you to stay on the ground?
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Or does that exact certainty give you the immense courage
29:26
needed to stand back up, confess your sin, and strike back
29:29
against the darkness without fear of condemnation?
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Thank you so much for joining us for this deep dive.
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We will see you next time on Reformed Thinking.