Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - In Adam only or In Christ?
Every day we experience what it means to be in Adam; sweat, hardship, sin, pain, sickness, etc. But are we experiencing what it means to be in Christ? This takes some energy on our part, not works to justify our faith, but thoughtful faith in Christ as we trust Him and rely upon Him. Here's the point, we should be thinking about who Christ fully is and then trusting in Him more since we understand Him and His work even better.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.
Speaker 2:And so that's the point of Matthew 1, is to recount Joseph's genealogy, and by the time you get to the end of it, you see Coniah and you say well then, whoever comes in this line cannot exercise throne rights. But the next section is about how Jesus could acquire those throne rights without being the natural-born son of Joseph.
Speaker 1:Life itself is a distraction. Every day, there are things for us to do, from cleaning and cooking and taking care of others going to work. Life is just demanding. There are many, many things that we need to be accomplishing all the time. And yet, if you are listening to this podcast, if you attend church on a regular basis, you have chosen to separate yourself out from that distraction and learn about God, to focus in on Him for a time at least, and this is a positive thing. It's too easy to get distracted and forget about the glorious works of Christ. For us, today's lesson is all about that glorious and majestic work that Christ did, but he only could do it because of who he is. In him is fully God and fully man. God, the Father, god, the Son, god, the Holy Spirit. Their divine attributes are wrapped up in this God-man, jesus Christ, and to delve deeply into it, to think about it, to consider it, is a worthy, worthy task.
Speaker 2:So let's listen today and fully understand, if we can what it means for Jesus to be fully God and fully man, and the majestic thing that that implies in our lives. Last week we dealt with the prophetic necessity. In other words, is it necessary really to believe in the virgin birth? Well, because of prophecy. It is because if we believe in the Bible and that God can see the future and foretell the future, then we believe that the certain prophecies that relate to the virgin birth had to be fulfilled, and thereby we believe in the virgin birth. But this week we're going to work on the legal necessity, the legal necessity for the virgin birth, and I would like to bring this up so I can show you a not a creed, but something like a creed that was developed during the early church history. So the legal necessity of the virgin birth. Now, this statement is basically a very carefully worded statement that was developed early in church history to describe who Jesus Christ is, and so I've underlined five words, because these are the five words that are critical to the statement. Articulating who Jesus Christ is is not a simple task. Early in church history, there were many variations and distortions of these five points, so that's why the statement is made so specifically it's to guard and protect the orthodox understanding of the person of Christ. So who is Jesus Christ? He is undiminished deity, meaning 100% God right. United with true humanity, meaning he's 100% man, human body, human spirit. He is a human soul united in one person, not two people, but he's just one person, without confusion, meaning no blending between the two natures, the divine nature and the human nature, nor separation. The two are not separated. The two natures are not separated, they're not mixed or blended, but they're not separated either. They're simply united in one person. And this is forever Meaning. Once the incarnation took place, the virgin conception and virgin birth, you have the incarnation and you have Emmanuel right, you have God with us and he's a true human and he will forever be like that. In other words, when you, let's say, you were like Stephen in the book of Acts, acts chapter 7, he's martyred and it says he saw the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father on the Father's throne. What do you mean? He saw the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father on the Father's throne. What do you mean he saw him standing? We mean he saw God as man in the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do I mean when I say the day that we are raptured, we will be caught up together and we will meet the Lord in the air. I mean that you will see the Lord Jesus Christ in a human body, a resurrected human body. That's what you will see, okay, because he is in this condition, once incarnate, forever. Okay. So, but those are the five points that you will see repeatedly come out in these lessons as we deal with the birth of the king.
Speaker 2:Okay, now, as I mentioned last week, I will deal with three aspects of each event. We've got the four events I'll talk about are his birth, his life, his death and his resurrection. So the birth of the king, the life of the king, the death of the king and the resurrection of the king, and that will cover basically everything in the Gospels, right, as it relates to him specifically. So, as we do this and we look at each of those events, each of those four events, I will talk about the event itself. Then what we will do is we will talk about the response to the event. In other words, how did men respond to that event? How did they respond to the virgin birth? How did they respond to his life, how did they respond to his death, how did they respond to his resurrection? And lastly, we will deal with the proper response to the event. What is the proper response? How should men respond to that event?
Speaker 2:The reason I'm doing this is because of a statement Jesus made in Matthew 16, where he has his disciples, his apostles, there, and he says who do people say that I am? That's asking the question what do people think about me? And they say well, some say you're Jeremiah, others one of the prophets, so and so and so forth. But then he turns to them and he says but who do you say that I am? And Peter gives his famous answer thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, right. And the Lord says blessed are you, simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven, right. So there is a response of men to Christ and then there's a proper response of men to Christ. And everybody is faced with this question who is Jesus Christ? Who do you say that he is? And so when we go to the world and we talk to people in the world, we can always ask them this question who do you think Jesus Christ is? What do you think of Jesus Christ? And that answer that they give you back is very telling, isn't it? And so this is what he asked, and this is the same type of question we can ask, and so it's very important to cover these aspects as we look at each event.
Speaker 2:Last week, as we talked to the virgin birth, I started to inch into a doctrine that is complicated, and that's what I said. When you deal with the Lord Jesus Christ, you're now dealing with very complicated doctrine. That's why we spent so much time in the Old Testament, so we could build the categories, because the Old Testament is preparing us for the Messiah and the New Testament, and if you don't have the Old Testament, you can't understand who he is in the New Testament. It'd be like going to first grade and the first thing they put in front of you is calculus, so you do not have the building blocks to do calculus in first grade. You have to go through adding and subtracting, multiplication, division, algebra and so forth to work your way up to this advanced mathematics, and the same thing is true with the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to have the basic categories from the Old Testament in order to be ready to understand who he is.
Speaker 2:This doctrine that is very complicated is called the hypostatic union, communion. It's complicated because of this he's a unique person. There's no one who has ever come into the human race who's like him and there will never be another person who comes into the human race like him. He is totally unique. He's not on display here and now, so we cannot go and analyze what it is to be God and man in one person, so he's not a subject of empirical scientific investigation right now. What we have left behind is the record of this in the prophecies of the Old Testament and in the fulfillments of those prophecies in the New Testament, fourfold gospel. So it's called hypostatic union and this is the concept of the union of God and man in one person. Very difficult, okay, but we've already covered some of the basic categories.
Speaker 2:As we studied the event of creation, right, we learned who God is. We learned who man is, and that helps us understand, then, who the God-man is right. So if you take all the attributes of God and you put a list of them over here, I usually just use the acronym Sergei Louis right, sovereign, righteous, just loving, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable, eternal. There's other things, but this is a basic list, sergei Louis. And then you go to another column. You list everything that man is. God is sovereign. Man has choice. God is loving. Man has love. It's derivative love, but we have love. His is infinite, ours is finite. God is righteous and just. Man has conscience. Conscience answers to the righteousness and justice. We have a concept for what's right and wrong, and our conscience judges. It's justice, right. It says that's right, that's wrong, and so forth, and so on. You can go through every attribute of God. You can find a finite analog to that in man.
Speaker 2:What I'm saying in the hypostatic union, what orthodoxy is saying, is that Jesus Christ has all the attributes of God and he has all the attributes of man In one person. Though, and these two natures, the divine nature and the human nature, they're not fused together in a sense of like, mixing or blending, but neither are they separate. So they're connected, and I'll draw a picture of that later in what we call the creator-creature distinction, because he's both. He's the creator, right, he's also a creature. So this is obviously, from the get-go, complicated, just trying to think about these things, but hopefully we have a firm base. Every cult distorts the proper articulation of the hypostatic union in one way or another, and later we will look at all these distortions. But you could take something just off the hand like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witness, and these groups do not believe in the Trinity, they do not believe in the deity of Christ. They believe he's a god, but he's not the god, to be technical, and so they're not orthodox in the area of Trinity or in the area of the hypostatic union. These are all confused, and so that's why I mean what I'm saying is an example of every cult distorting how the hypostatic union is to be articulated.
Speaker 2:There are three reasons again for the virgin birth. We've already discovered the prophetic reasons Genesis 3.15, the first announcement of good news. There is a hint at the virgin birth because of the woman's seed. But women don't have seed, men have seed, and so there's a hint here in the strange wording of a virgin birth, isaiah 7.14,. That's the one that's famous right, it's the prophecy Isaiah makes in the days of Ahaz that behold, a virgin will be with child and she shall bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. So a prophecy of the virgin birth. Matthew picks that up in Matthew 1, and he quotes Isaiah 7.14, explaining the events that happened with Joseph and Mary. Also, jeremiah 22, 28-30,.
Speaker 2:The curse on the line of Coniah that comes from David. That's a setup for a virgin birth, because that line, from David and went through Solomon, eventually through Coniah, was the kingly line. They had throne rights, and someone asked a brief question earlier to clarify something here that that line carries the throne rights even though that line was cursed at the days of Coniah. So even descendants of Coniah who followed still had the throne rights, but they could not exercise them. That's what the prophecy in Jeremiah 22 excludes. They could not prosper sitting on the throne, meaning they could not sit on the throne and exercise the throne rights, but they did have them. So Joseph did have those throne rights, but he could not. If he was the father of Jesus, the biological, natural father, then Jesus would be disqualified. And so that's the point of Matthew 1, is to recount Joseph's genealogy, and by the time you get to the end of it you see Coniah and you say well then, whoever comes in this line cannot exercise throne rights.
Speaker 2:But the next section is about how Jesus could acquire those throne rights without being the natural-born son of Joseph? And the answer is that the Holy Spirit placed the child in her right and then Joseph went ahead and married her, and I made a big point of the angel insisting no, joseph, marry her, you need to marry Mary, because he had the throne rights and to give them to him he had to adopt, which would mean he needs to marry her, and then he could legally adopt Jesus and thereby transfer the throne rights. And the great thing about it is because Jesus isn't his natural son, he actually qualifies to exercise the right, he can actually sit on the throne and he can reign and rule, and so that's a setup for the virgin birth there in Jeremiah 22. And, of course, luke 3,. We looked at Mary's genealogy, too, a little bit and just to quick review the idea there is it says the son of, supposedly the son of Joseph. See, it uses that word supposedly because he wasn't the son of Joseph, wasn't he Not naturally, at least Today, we want to go to the legal reasons for the virgin birth.
Speaker 2:The background of this is the sin problem, or is it sin problems plural? 99% of the time, when we talk about sin, what we're talking about is personal sin. What we're talking about is personal sin Lying, thinking, covetous thoughts, doing something sinful it's all personal sin. The Bible actually has three categories of sin, however, only one of which is personal sin. Now we already know again about the doctrine of sin because we studied it in the Old Testament event of the fall, so it's already been introduced. It's not a new concept for us, but it is setting up the problems that the Lord Jesus Christ has to somehow avoid. I mean, if he has sin personal or either of the two other categories of sin then does he qualify to pay for our sin? No, because he then falls under the condemnation of sin and he needs someone to die for him, okay, and pay his sin penalty. So you've got three categories of sin or sin problems that he has to overcome, and the virgin birth is linked to these as part of the solution for how he did not come under any of the penalty of sin related to these three categories.
Speaker 2:So another doctrine that's behind this is who God is, particularly that God is righteous and just right, because if there's no standard of righteousness, then you can't have a doctrine of sin. You cannot define sin, because sin is defined as being something contrary to God's righteousness right. So without a God there, there's no such thing as sin, it's just mistakes, I guess. But sin is basically entirely rooted on the concept that God is righteous and we already know about God. So we, we've got God, we've got sin. And now we come to. The problem is that's how does the one born of a virgin, how is he avoiding these sin issues? So the three categories are imputed sin, inherited sin and personal sin and personal sin. Those are the three categories imputed, inherited and personal. So let's talk a little bit about imputed sin and go to some important passages. The legal reckoning of sin. This is what imputed sin is. It's the legal reckoning of sin to those who participated in the sin of Adam, though not in the likeness of Adam. Now, this is the, and we'll go to Romans 5.12. So let's go to Romans 5.12.
Speaker 2:This is the first objection you'll hear whenever you tell somebody well, you're a sinner in Adam and they'll say well, I didn't eat the fruit, I didn't do that, it's not my fault, it's his fault. I've had people say to me before you know, get mad at him, you know, for doing that, you know, and stuff like that. It's like well, the divine answer for that is if you were Adam you would have eaten. So you know, people can say forever why did he do that? But the reality is, if you were him, you would have done the same thing. Okay, romans 5, verse 12 is what's called a theological watershed. People have been discussing this for centuries and centuries.
Speaker 2:This section, and particularly this verse, notice our participation in the sin of Adam, though not in the likeness of Adam, in other words, meaning you weren't physically there and your wife wasn't there handing you a piece of fruit, saying eat this, but you did participate in it. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world, who was the one man? Adam? Sin entered into the world and death through sin. So death spread to all men. Why? Because all sin. You say, but but I didn't, I didn't sin like adam did. Well, verse uh 14 admits that says nevertheless, death reigned from adam until moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of adam. But somehow we did participate in sin, in Adam, and that's obviously a reference to eating the fruit that the Lord said not to eat of.
Speaker 2:Right Now I'll say a few things about this one man. His name is we always say Adam originally Ish, right, right, ish and asha. Man and woman, adam adamah. His name means man, okay, um. But when I say man, let me ask you a question am I referring to one person or am I referring to more than one person? It could be either way, it depends on the context, because man can be a word that's referenced to mankind and that's a biblically rooted word mankind because God created different kinds. So you have mankind, okay, and am I excluding women there? No, any more than if I said alligator kind, I would be excluding female alligators. No, you're talking about a specific kind that incorporates both the male and the female side of these kinds. So his name means man, but it also means mankind, adamah. And he is both one man, but guess what? At the time he was also all of mankind, was he not? So it's set up peculiarly, on purpose. So we see the solidarity of the human race in the one man who is mankind, that is Adam.
Speaker 2:Where did Eve come from? Came out of the side of Adam, taken out of him. The woman is made from the man. Is that theologically significant? Did he make the giraffes that way? Did he make mice that way? Did he make dogs that way? That way? Did he make mice? That way? Did he make dogs that way? No, he didn't make one dog and then make another dog out of that dog to make the female counterpart.
Speaker 2:But he does this with mankind, and people brush over this as if this is somehow not significant. But this is entirely significant. She is part of and descended from, essentially Adam, so that the whole human race, because she becomes the mother of all living, right, when she's renamed Eve, that name means mother of all living she becomes the female head, so to speak, of the whole human race. But she stems from Adam, so that all humans were somehow in Adam, including Eve, right? That's why a statement like Romans 5.12 is very important. Just as through one man, sin entered into the world we all know that's Adam Death through sin also entered, and so death spread to all men. Why? Because all sinned. Well, how did we sin? By our participation, because we were in him. There is one individual from whom all individuals in this entire world let's just say it, red and yellow, black and white, whatever skin shades come from, there is one human race, so to speak. In that sense, right, there's not different human races. We're all descended from one individual, adam. Do you know what that means? That means the entirety of the gene pool of the entire human race was in him and any variation, diversity that we see amongst ourselves was in him originally. The capacity for whatever various traits that we might have of course in him originally unfallen, so there wouldn't be any problems. But now fallen. So there are, of course, genetic issues, including all the DNA that made up Eve. Okay, this corporate solidarity of the human race, so that when he sinned, we all sinned.
Speaker 2:People say that's not fair. Okay, but God was setting something up that is described in the rest of this chapter. If we all fall in the one man Adam, then we can all be saved in the one man, jesus Christ. God was setting it up theologically and a lot of people say well, I'm not religious, yeah, but the whole situation has been set up theologically. It doesn't matter if you're religious or not, that's irrelevant. You are a descendant of Adam, so that you can be saved in the one man Jesus Christ of Adam, so that you can be saved in the one man Jesus Christ. So you can say it's not fair, but the flip side of that is no salvation. So God decided to set it up this way so he could bring about salvation.
Speaker 2:So the problem here, of course, is that we have this concept of imputed sin. It says even verse 13, for until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there's no law. Imputed sin, that's the category here. Okay, before the law, people still died. Okay, nevertheless, death reigned from adam until moses, even over those who had not sinned, in the likeness of the offense of adam.
Speaker 2:Who is a type of him who was to come, that is, of course, christ. Right, he was a type of christ. So, um, the adam christ issue. And the problem is then that we have this thing called imputed sin, and the issue it's a legal reckoning, it's a declaring us to be sinners without ever having personally sinned in the likeness of Adam. And again, you're all sensing I don't feel that's fair. But remember, if you'd been in his shoes, you would have, a, done the same thing and B you know the setup for the salvation in the one man, christ wouldn't have been there. So God has arranged things this way for a purpose. Now that's a problem. It becomes a problem in the question well, how does Jesus avoid this? How does he avoid being imputed the sin of Adam. Well, there's a couple of possible solutions. We know that he avoids it, possibly due to the overshadowing work of the Father at the virgin conception.
Speaker 2:Look at Luke 1.35. Luke 1.35. Luke 1.35. Luke was very interested in the birth. He actually we think it seems that he actually interviewed Mary personally because he knows what was going on in her heart. He writes what was going on in her heart. How would you write what's going on in someone's heart unless A, of course, the Holy Spirit could have told you? But it says in Luke 1, 1-4 that he's researched these things very carefully. So it seems that he actually interviewed her and she told him what was going on. So this is a very important account.
Speaker 2:In Luke 1, 35, we read the angel answered and said to Mary the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. There's two members of the Trinity here who are involved. It's not just the Holy Spirit, it's the Holy Spirit will come upon you. True, and we know from Matthew 1 that the Holy Spirit is the one who conceived the child in Mary. But the Father is also involved here. It says the power of the Most High will overshadow you. This word overshadow, which all of us have read, this word, this word means to interpose a barrier between something so as to make a shadow. So I mean, we've all stood between the sun and you know something behind us, and it casts a shadow. We, I mean we've all stood between the sun and you know something behind us and it casts a shadow. We are the barrier at that point that's causing less light to fall directly behind us than around us, so you can see a shadow. Whatever this work is of the Father could have been. This overshadowing work, this barrier work could have been involved in making sure no imputation of Adam's sin was imputed to Christ. So we don't have all the answers here. I'm just pointing out that somehow he has to avoid imputed sin.
Speaker 2:Now let's go to another category, and there's more information that relates to this. Some people call this the spiritual necessity, but I just continued it under legal, the inherited sin problem. So we've got imputed sin, imputed sin. I want to repeat something about that. The imputed sin is directly from Adam to you, directly from Adam to me, directly from Adam to Noah, directly from Adam to David, directly from Adam to any member of the human race. So it's not generational, it's just direct. It's a direct link from each of us to Adam.
Speaker 2:Now, this one's different. This is called inherited sin and it's transmitted indirectly and it goes from Adam to each generation, generation from Adam all the way down to her own day. So from parent to offspring, parent to offspring, parent to offspring. So this one is passed on and it's passed on at conception, psalm 51, 5, where David says in sin my mother conceived me. Remember, in sin, my mother conceived me.
Speaker 2:He's not talking about sin that was imputed to him from Adam. He's talking about coming from his mother to him, so direct from parent to offspring. So this is what results in what we call the sin, nature or the Bible typically calls the flesh. All human beings have the flesh. What the flesh is is it's an inclination to sin, it's a disposition toward sin, toward personal sin. So it's not personal sin, but it's the root of personal sin, it's a disposition toward sinning. It's what Paul is describing in Romans 7 when he's talking about the thing I don't want to do, I do, but the thing I hate I do. What is it in me that wants to do this or that. If I want to do evil, there's something in me that's wanting to do that and that's what he's talking about the flesh or the sin nature. Okay, so this is what we call inherited sin. You got this from your mom and your pop.
Speaker 2:This actually explains some of the more difficult passages in the Bible, like in the law given to Israel. It talks about the sin of the fathers passing on to the second and third generation. Remember that You're like why, why? Well, this doesn't sound fair. You know that the sin of the father now three or four generations. They had to pay for the sin of the father.
Speaker 2:The way that we are supposed to understand that is that parents pass on their sin tendencies to their offspring and those children tend to fall into the same types of sin patterns as their parents. Think of, I don't know, david's family, king David. He kind of had a little problem with women, right, and what happened with Solomon, his son? It was exacerbated because the mother Bathsheba, she also had that problem. So so do you see?
Speaker 2:It's not saying the kids pay for the sins of the parents. It's saying the kids, if they continue in the same sin patterns as their parents, which is the general tendency. They will pay for the sins in the same ways that the fathers paid for their sins, because you don't pay for anybody else's sins, it's your own. But you can get sin tendencies. This is why it's important in child training, raising children, to first of all recognize your own sin patterns and your wife or husband to recognize their sin patterns and that way you can look for them in your children. So when you see them crop up, you say whoa and you try to put the brakes on those, because you're trying to train the next generation to not have the same sin struggles that you had. Okay, so this is the concept of inherited sin. Ultimately, it does trace all the way back to Adam, but it goes through each generation.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you receive this in nature of flesh at conception. This is why children naturally sin. It's not hard for them to learn to say no, go clean your room. No, or just not do it. It's because they have a sin inclination or disposition, and this is your opportunity to show them that they have this sin disposition or flesh and that they need salvation. Right, they need salvation Now.
Speaker 2:Jesus avoids this. Again. This is something he has to avoid. So he avoids this at the conception by the work of the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 1.20, where the angel describes to Joseph go ahead and marry her. The child that is in her has been placed there by the Holy Spirit. So he avoids. You can see easily in this example how he avoids that. The Holy Spirit avoided that. Spirit avoided that.
Speaker 2:Now the last category. Oh, I didn't cover this part, part A. Another possibility is that Jesus avoids this because the transmission is direct through the male only. So there's two possibilities for this, or maybe they can even be combined. So another possibility is Jesus avoided this because of the transmission being directly through the male. This is hinted at in Hebrews 7, 1 through 10. So let's take a look at Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7, 1 through 10. And again, some of this is hard. I know this is hard, so if you can't follow all of it, that's okay.
Speaker 2:Oh, the section on Melchizedek and the priesthood, and we'll just start in verse 4. This is where Abraham and tithes were made to Melchizedek. Now observe how great this man was, to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choice of spoils. Now Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, who was a priest-king patriarch, gave a tenth of the choices spoils. Now, abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, who was a priest king back in the days of Abraham, and those, indeed, of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office, have commandment in the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from the brethren, so you know the people, the 12 tribes. They would give a tenth to the Levites as the priests, although these are descended from Abraham. But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them, that's Melchizedek, collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater.
Speaker 2:In this case, mortal men receive tithes, but in that case one receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. And here it is, so to speak, through Abraham. Even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes Because you know the Jews, they paid tithes to the tribe of Levi, right? But in this case he says Levi even paid tithes, through Abraham, to Melchizedek, who lived a long time before he lived. You say, how could Levi pay tithes to someone when Levi wasn't even born yet, he wasn't even alive, he wasn't even, so to speak, in the human race? Well, verse 10 explains, for he was still in the loins of his father, abraham, when Melchizedek met him.
Speaker 2:This is showing that somehow we participate in the actions of those who come before us. Why? Because we are in them. We are in their loins in the same way that you and I are in Adam. Okay, so, as difficult as it may be to understand and we have DNA to help, today we have DNA. I mean, everybody can see that their DNA makeup comes from people who came before them. So in that sense, you were in them, right. So that kind of does help us.
Speaker 2:They didn't know about that. God just told them. You know, you're in the loins of someone, therefore you're in them and you somehow participate in whatever it is that they did, in this case giving tithes. So somehow Jesus avoided this right. Perhaps it's because he's born of Mary alone and these actions are only transmitted through the Father. Okay, possibly the text does say he would be the seed of the woman. It does not say he would be the seed of the man and he's not the descendant of Joseph. Naturally is he, because the Holy Spirit resolved that part. So maybe both A and B combine here to resolve how Jesus avoided inherited sin and having, you know, a sinful nature or flesh, okay, but he certainly did have to avoid it. If he didn't, he's got a sin problem. This is all leading up to understanding salvation, by the way, and what you're actually being saved from. Without this, you really don't understand. Well, you understand, but you just don't have a fuller understanding.
Speaker 2:Lastly, we have the category of personal sin, and this is easy, right, everybody knows what this is. It's something contrary to the character of God in thought, word or deed. It separates us from God, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's a personal sin passage because it says for all have sinned. Okay, so we're in trouble. But we're in trouble not just because of personal sin. We're also in trouble because of our imputed sin. We're in trouble because of inherited sin. Christ has to avoid all three. Jesus avoids personal sin by being filled by the Spirit.
Speaker 2:In the temptations Remember it says the Spirit took him out and he was full of the spirit. In luke 4 says he was full of the spirit when the temptations took place. Hebrews 218. Well, we're in hebrews, so let's look at 218. Just flip back a couple pages 218, and then we'll look at 415.
Speaker 2:This sets up the possibility that he could actually be tempted. Okay, he's a true human. Okay, but he could be tempted, as we are meaning or indicating that he has to live the Christian life in his human nature. So how did he do it? Did he borrow his divine attributes? No 2.18 says for since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. Have you ever been tempted? Please don't raise your hand, we already know. No use wasting those calories. We've all been tempted. Was he tempted? Some people are very reticent to answer this in the affirmative, but the text says he was tempted. Yeah, let's look at 4.15, right, 4.15. 4.15.
Speaker 2:For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we, yet without sin. And some people say, well, I bet he wasn't tempted in this exact scenario. It's talking about the three avenues of sin which 1 John discusses the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. By the way, all three of those are present in the garden in Genesis 3. The lust of the eyes Look at this fruit. It looks like it can make someone wise and it goes through this whole scenario. So the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the boastful pride of life looks like it can make someone wise and it goes through this whole scenario. So the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, boastful pride of life. He is tempted in all these avenues. That's the point, so that, as 2.18 said, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. In other words, he knows what you're going through when you're tempted.
Speaker 2:Yet he did not sin, right 4.15. He was without sin, no personal sin. So that's how he avoided the personal sin. He did it by being filled by the Spirit. We can look at Luke 4 and show how he was filled by the Spirit throughout the temptations. By the way, there were not just three, temptations were there, it says, for 40 days in the wilderness he was tempted and then, when he became hungry, satan came. And then you read the three temptations. Those were the last three of a series that went on for 40 days and they were the most opportune moment because he was at that point after his 40-day fast and in his most difficult situation in life. So it was as the text says, it was an opportune time. And after he passes the three, it says the devil then went away to wait for another opportunity, another opportune time. So he knows when we're weak. Okay, he knows it's an opportune time to come into our lives and to tempt us, just as he did with Christ. But Christ avoided it. Okay, so he avoids all three.
Speaker 2:Now there are some implications for this. Let's just talk about some of these. These are very interesting and they're very important for the hypostatic union, that doctrine of God and man in one person. So, first of all, jesus is a true human, born of Mary. She actually contributed DNA to Jesus, but not just DNA. It was Davidic DNA, because she's also of the house of David, interestingly. So what this means, then, is that Mary was not an incubator. What do I mean by that? This is a doctrine that's been I've seen it in publications by ICR. I've seen it in Roman Catholic publications. It's the idea that the Holy Spirit provided everything and Mary provided nothing.
Speaker 2:Now, if that is the case, then Jesus is separated from the human race that you and I are a part of. He is not a part of the same human race. He's a separate human race that's not going to work for simply one fact he has to be of the Davidic lineage. That's this human race. So she did have to contribute DNA to Jesus. She's not just an incubator in the sense that the Holy Spirit just created Jesus, this baby, and put this baby in her. No, he somehow utilized her genetic material so that the baby is a true human, of the seed of David that stems all the way back to the seed of the woman in Genesis. It has to be this way for him to have a link to this actual human race. If not, he's a separate human race and that would mean that his death is for another human race and not this human race. Okay, logically, that's what it means. So this is necessary so he can die for the human race, our human race. If Mary is an incubator, jesus is not connected to this human race, only to Mary herself, perhaps, and he could not have died for the human race. Only to Mary herself, perhaps, and he could have not have died for the human race, possibly just Mary. This is just logically trying to think about the implication. But it's Mary's connection to the human race, our human race, that was passed on to Jesus in his DNA, that connects him to us and makes the situation for salvation a setup for us.
Speaker 2:Another implication Jesus is impeccable. I remember when my third grade teacher wrote this on a spelling test that I took. I'm sure she was trying to teach me a new word in third grade. When I had to go look up impeccable, I was like what does that mean? Well, this is a theological term and let's discuss a little bit about it.
Speaker 2:Jesus has two natures, okay, one, divine, he's God. Other, he's man, emmanuel. It's all captured in Emmanuel, right, it's all there. He's God and he's man, but he's only one person, he's not two people. That's hard to understand. But did you have two people die for you on the cross? That's an easy way to understand it. No, you didn't have two people die for you on the cross, you just had one person die for your cross. Okay, so you can see that as a truth.
Speaker 2:His divine nature was not able to sin. Now look at point three and let's contrast these two points In verse. Number two his divine nature, not able to sin. Number three his human nature was able not to sin. What's the difference? What's the difference between not able to sin and able not to sin? There's a word order right. In the first one, I've got not able. In the second one, I've got able, not okay.
Speaker 2:So, um, theologians have used this terminology to make a different emphasis in the first one, line two divine nature not able. Emphasize, it's impossible. I mean he's god as god, is god going to sin? No, it's not able, it's not possible for god to sin, not able to sin. Now, human nature, we would say his human nature, was something like adams when adam was first created, right, and he was able not to sin. Right. But placing able before not emphasizes the ability and the possibility.
Speaker 2:So these are both true in this one person, in his divine nature, though, not able to sin, and that's what we mean by impeccable. That word impeccable means not able. That's what we mean by impeccable. That word impeccable means not able, okay, but human nature, able, not. That word is described by the theological term peccable, impeccable, impeccable. So in his divine nature he's impeccable, In his human nature he's peccable. But remember, he's only one person. So by the end of this point five, you see, as a person, as one person, a total person, he's impeccable.
Speaker 2:This is actually kind of a fantastic thing in the temptations, because of course he's tempted to sin. Right, we know that. We can read it right out of Hebrews 4.15. We just read it. But in another sense it's interesting because as you watch him get tempted, you also watch that it was the Holy Spirit who took him out there.
Speaker 2:What was the Holy Spirit doing, taking him out there where he knew this was all going to transpire? It was to show his imperviousness to sin. It was to show that as a person because his human nature is, let's just say, connected to his divine nature he's not going to sin. It'd be like in the military you have a ship that's impervious to all the enemy's weapons. You take your ship out and then you ride into the midst of all your enemies and they start firing on your ship. But your ship? Why did you take the ship out there? To show your enemies that it was impervious. It could be shelled but it could never be sunk. And that's what's going on in the temptations is the Holy Spirit literally takes him out into the devil's playground and says take your best shot, go for it. After 40 days of no food, take your best shot, go for it. The Holy Spirit was taking the fight to Satan. It's not the other way. It's not Satan taking the fight to Jesus. It's the Holy Spirit taking the fight to him and saying go for it, because he's impervious to sin as a person. That's the last line. So you've got the peccability, you've got the impeccability, the peccability here. 3a, that's what makes it possible that he be tempted. If he's not really a true human like you and I, he couldn't be tempted like you and I, and that means that when you're tempted, he cannot sympathize with you because he doesn't know what it's like to be tempted as we are Now.
Speaker 2:I just bordered on saying something that may sound heretical to you. He didn't know what it's like to be tempted. You say well, he's omniscient as God Doesn't? He know everything. Do you see why this gets so complicated so quickly? I mean, if you're serious, if you're not, you're like yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, and you just move on.
Speaker 2:But when I define omniscience and you've probably been around me when I did I define it very carefully by saying God can know all things possible for him to know. Why do I say that? Example does God know what it's like to kick a soccer ball? Well, is he a physical being? No, you can say that he's not physical. Is he he's spirit. So does he know what it's like to kick a soccer ball?
Speaker 2:I would say theoretically, abstractly, he knows. Experientially, I would say he doesn't know, because these types of knowledge are different. I can know how to build a bridge, but if I've never done it I don't know how to do it experientially. These are different types of knowledge and it's okay. That's why, in the Christian way of life, I say people, young people, they go to seminary, they learn all this stuff. They know it all theoretically, but they don't know how to live the Christian life. They've never had enough opportunities to apply what they've learned in the world to actually see if they know it experientially. Do you know how the Christian life works? Well, theoretically, I've got it up here I need to walk by the Spirit, right. But if you haven't been thrown the circumstance where you need to use that skill, whatever the skill is, you don't know it experientially. In the same way you know it's okay to say God does not know what pizza tastes like because God doesn't eat pizza. God does not know what pizza tastes like Because God doesn't eat pizza. See, does God know what it's like to sin? Theoretically, but no, not experientially, because he's never sinned. So there are different types of knowledge, and that's what I'm pointing out here.
Speaker 2:With the Lord, jesus Christ and his divine nature. Okay, he's tempted in all things as we, though really he really really was, and that means he knows what it's like for you to be tempted and he can come to our aid. And that is an absolutely critical point to understand about our God. He's that personal. The other thing that impeccability sets up point B on here is it explains why Jesus was full of the Spirit during the temptations and why he used Scripture to overcome the temptations. In other words, how are we supposed to live the Christian life? We're supposed to be full of the Spirit and we're supposed to use Scripture. Isn't that what Jesus did in his temptations? It says he was full of the Spirit and we're supposed to use Scripture. Isn't that what Jesus did in his temptations? It says he was full of the Spirit and then he uses Scripture. He quotes Scripture In all three temptations. He quotes Scripture. What are we supposed to be learning here? Not some self-help guide, not some self-esteem booster book, not some psychology, secular psychology. We're supposed to be learning the Word of God.
Speaker 2:Look at, let me see if I can bring up this passage Isaiah. Is it 50, verse 4? Look at Isaiah 50, verse 4. I want to show you something remarkable.
Speaker 2:This is a prophecy about the Messiah that probably very few Protestants know about. This is a prophecy in Isaiah's day about the Messiah Isaiah 50, verse 4. It's a messianic prophecy. So this would be true of the one who is the Messiah, that is, jesus. Right 700 years in advance.
Speaker 2:This prophecy was given about the Messiah. The Lord God has given me that's the Messiah the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. So we'd all ask the question well, how did the Lord God give the Messiah a tongue of disciples? How did he know how to sustain weary individuals with a word? Right here the next phrase he awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord God has opened my ear. I was not disobedient, I did not turn back. I gave my back to those who strike me my cheeks, to those who pluck out the beard, okay, and so on. What happened every single morning of the Lord Jesus Christ's life as a little boy in the house of Joseph and Mary Father awoke him every morning and taught him. Taught him personally, discipled him, taught him personally, discipled him. You say but he's God.
Speaker 2:What does the Messiah have to? How does Jesus have to learn the Bible? Yes, he did it. In the same way we have to do it. You still have to learn the word of God. If he had to. How much more, of course, do we need to If we're to be successful disciples, if we're to manage temptations as him see, because he did not get to cheat folks.
Speaker 2:You have only one difference with him you have imputed sin, you have inherited sin, you have sin. This is your problem. Okay, that's the only difference. Outside of that, there's no difference. He had to meet the temptations, exact same way you have to. It would be the same way that Adam had to originally. In a sense right, because Adam is created perfect. There's no problem with Adam. Right, adam's very good, no sin. Then the temptations come right and he falls. But the Lord Jesus Christ didn't fall, and that's the whole point. That's the whole point. This is why I say he's a really unique person, but in this sense, he shares this with us. He shows us how to live the Christian way of life. Okay, so he had to learn. Luke 2.52 confirms that too.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. I'll say something crazy. Let's say you never commit a personal sin, can you go to heaven then? Nope, nope, because you still got inherited sin. You still got imputed sin. Those haven't been dealt with. Just because you didn't personally sin doesn't mean you don't have these other types of sin. So you're still under condemnation. So both imputed sin and inherited sin condemn us and separate us from God.
Speaker 2:Now many people say you need to repent, you need to believe, and this is what you have to do to go to heaven or whatever. And usually by repent, what they mean is you need to turn from your sin. Isn't that right? Don't you read this? I read this in like tract after tract, blog after blog, facebook post after Facebook post, blah, blah, blah blah. You have to repent, meaning they'll say you have to turn from your sin. You know why that's not going to work. You can turn from personal sin, but let me ask you a question. Can you turn from imputed sin? It's a legal declaration against you. How can you turn from that? It's a court decision. Can you turn from your inherited sin? It's what you got from your mom and dad. How are you going to turn from that? It's who you are in your flesh. It's not a subject of repentance. You can't turn from it. The only thing you can repent of is personal sin.
Speaker 2:This is why I say it's short-sighted to not really understand why the Bible is so insistent that faith, and sometimes repentance, is used as a synonym of faith. And I'm not going into big detail here, but if you look at the book of Acts you'll see, like Acts 2.38, it says Peter says repent and Acts 2.44, it says they believe. So in that passage they're being used as synonyms. They're not two separate acts. Okay, like repent, and repent doesn't mean turn anyway. Repent means to change your mind, have a change of thinking. Does that happen when you believe in Christ? Do you have a change of mind? Well, yeah, you couldn't believe in him if you didn't have a change of mind about him. So these two go together if repentance is to be involved.
Speaker 2:But this idea of turning from sin I'm trying to show how that falls short of the benchmark. It only relates to personal sin. It does not relate to imputed or inherited sin. Even if someone says well, sin, it does not relate to imputed or inherited sin. Even if someone says, well, I turn from my sin. Are they going to go to heaven? Absolutely not. The reason is because they're still under the condemnation of the imputed and inherited sin, and that's not what. Those are not subjects of repentance.
Speaker 2:What you need to do to go to heaven is just what Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, and it always should be right there Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved Over and out. Why? Why is that the over and out message? That is the over and out message because Jesus Christ is the one who did everything. He's the one who's born of a virgin, so he's the only one that possibly qualifies. He's the one who was tempted in all things his way, and yet without sin, and therefore he's the only one who qualifies right. He's the only one who avoided the imputed, inherited and personal sin then, so he's the only one who can possibly please God. Right Is promising God you're going to turn from your sin, going to please God. No, jesus Christ is the only one and he's the only way, and that's why he said it.
Speaker 2:I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father, but right through me, he is the way, the hadass, the path and our only thing to do is to believe in him is to believe in him. Is it becoming super clear to you now why I am so insistent on just believing in him? And believe means to place your confidence in a reliable object. Is he reliable? Do you believe that he's a reliable object? Do you believe that he can actually pay the sin penalty of the entire world? Because if you believe that it's personally true for yourself that he paid for all your sin and he's a confident, reliable object for you, because if you believe that is personally true for yourself, that he paid for all your sin and he's a confident, reliable object for you, he says you have everlasting life and if he said it, god said it. If God said it, that's the end of it. It's true.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.