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 - Evil Not Required
Humanity is not inexplicably bound up with evil in order to produce choice and service of God.
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 a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Now let's transition a little bit to some application. Look at the cross from two points of view. Okay, we can look at the cross from two points of view. We can look from the unbeliever Out in the world. We can look from a believer's side. What do they see when they look at it From an unbeliever's point of view? He looks at the cross and Jesus is being confronted with it like going to the cross. Does he want to go to the cross? And the question is, as you read the Gospels, if you're looking at it from their point of view, what choice is Jesus going to make relative to the cross? Well, from an unbelieving standpoint, you know. You just don don't know, because you can't know what people are going to do In their mindset about the plan or history, in the unbelieving mindset of history, the basic idea of history for an unbeliever is that anything can happen, the future is open and we are writing the future.
Speaker 2:This is their way of thinking. No destinies are set, there's no plan, it's just anything can happen. Okay, so from their point of view, I don't know what Jesus is going to do. Okay, the future is open to human choices and anything can happen. Okay, history is just a roll of the dice. Okay, everything's chance. There's no certainty? Okay, that's one way of looking at the situation in the Gospels. It's the way of looking at it from an unbeliever's point of view. But what if we look at it from the believer's point of view, from our point of view? What's going to happen? I mean, what choice is Jesus going to make? Well, we, well, we know what choice he's going to make, don't we? Is that because we're so brilliant? No, it's because god has a plan and he's revealed the plan to us in the bible. So, okay, good. So the future is planned by god in our point of, in our thinking. And the cross, of course, is part of the plan, right, it's always been a part of the plan. The book of Revelation says he was slain before the foundation of the world. Meaning what Meaning? It's part of the plan, right? So history is what? History is not open, it's not roll of the dice, not, anything can happen. History is the unfolding of the plan of God. So we'd say, well, from our point of view, it's certain, there's certainty of the future and certainty, of course, of the cross. Christ would always do what the Father wanted him to do. So that's very interesting that now we're going to move into talking about this a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Let's apply a few, make a few points of application. How does this impeccability, this idea that Christ in his divine nature was not able to sin, in his human nature is able not to sin, so there's a possibility introduced there and being tempted there, but as a person he's not able to sin. What applications does this have to our thinking and living? First of all, thinking it helps resolve the problem of evil. Or, first of all, thinking it helps resolve the problem of evil, or part of the problem of evil, it doesn't solve it. I just say it helps resolve it.
Speaker 2:Okay, what's the problem of evil? Well, part of the problem of evil is this If God knew that man would sin, right, why didn't he stop it? We've all probably wondered that. Why is the book of Genesis, you know, laid out the way it is? You know, he creates these two people in his image and then he puts this trilogy of knowledge, of good and evil and it's kind of like, why did you put that there, you know? And so we might wrestle with that about why God did it, who we were going to eat, why did he put it there, so forth. So part of the problem is well, how is God good if he's doing that, you know? And now that evil exists, how is he all powerful? If he's all powerful, why doesn't he remove evil? Why doesn't he get rid of it? Now some people think that the answer to this question that's what the A stands for answer If he's all-powerful, why doesn't he remove evil? Why doesn't he get rid of it? Now, some people think that the answer to this question that's what the A stands for answer is this that God had to permit evil in order to preserve genuine human choice. If he hadn't permitted evil, there couldn't be real human choice. In other words, he permitted evil so there could be genuine humanity. That's one of the answers.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying I agree with that answer by any means. In fact, I disagree with it Because I think Jesus Christ is the rebuttal to that. That's what the R stands for rebuttal. Jesus was a genuine human right, he had genuine human choice and guess what? He didn't do evil. So then it's not necessary to have evil in the world in order to preserve genuine human choice, because Jesus Christ is the rebuttal of that argument. Did Jesus need to sin in order to prove that he's not a robot, in other words, another way of thinking about it. Some people think well, I mean, god could have created us like robots and that would have kept evil from coming in the world. But was Jesus Christ a robot? No, he had choice. He had choice and he's genuine humanity, so there can be human choice without evil.
Speaker 2:By the way, every one of us is going to get a resurrection body. Right, you're going to get a resurrection body. You're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. One day, you're going to get a resurrection body. Right, you're going to get a resurrection body. You're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. One day, you're going to get a resurrection body. Will you have genuine free choice, or human choice, in the resurrection?
Speaker 2:I know it's scary, isn't it? It's an interesting question to think through. Well, yeah, because it's a part of genuine humanity that we have choices. Well, yeah, because it's a part of genuine humanity that we have choices, but there won't be any possibility of evil in that world, will there? So, again, this is another refutation of the idea that you have to have evil in order to have genuine human choice. That's simply not the case. Based on the hypostatic union of Christ based on the projection of us in our resurrection bodies. We'll have real human choice in the new heavens and new earth and the resurrection, and yet you'll never choose to sin. That is implying something about his impeccability and how it ties into us.
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.