Lord, thank you for the day you've given to us. Thank you for the beauty of it. Your fingerprints are all over everything that we see. And yet on days like this, those fingerprints are more, it seems spectacular or more evident or we're more aware of them. But we do thank you for the beauty of the day and of the reminders in this kind of beauty. Reminders of the fact that you are yourself, the God of supreme beauty and loveliness, and that when your people worship you, they worship a God who is beyond their capacities for comprehension in his beauty and glory. And yet, O Lord, you condescend to give us tastes of that glory and beauty. And we thank you for that. And you're a God of order and a God of purpose and a God of design. And we thank you for that as well. And we thank you that it's been your purpose and your design to make us your own, to make us your sons and daughters, a treasured possession, a people in whom you delight and the people who more and more because of your grace do delight in you. Grant us your spirit as we meet this morning and as we talk about the truth of your word, help things to come into focus for us. And as they do, again, may our hearts be greatly encouraged. Thank you that you hear us when we pray. Thank you that you give good gifts always to your children. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, we're in chapter 7 and 8. We'll get just for the sake of folks who are coming in. This is the last time I'm going to say this. I left my notes at home. I walked out of the house out my folder and so we're going to try and wing this thing a little bit this morning. One of the things that I wanted to do in this, just by way of introduction, is keep before us the relationships that exist among these various chapters. There's an order to this confession and I think as you just kind of take a step back from it, you can see that order as it unfolds. And again, we just kind of rehearse the contents. What's chapter 1 of the confession about the scriptures? And the scriptures is the only infallible rule in matters of faith and practice or the only appropriate place for us to start in consideration of truth. Now, obviously, there are some various ways, both inductive and deductive, that we employ in getting to the place where scripture becomes our starting point. But we understand the scriptures are the final court of appeal and matters of truth, that what's true about God? What's true about us? What's true about this world in which we live? Some of you know that I've been meeting with some guys on Thursday in a little new Bible study, and it's interesting, the first time we met, I'd asked them to read the Gospel of John.
So we came to our first meeting and it just became evident, real evident, that we couldn't even start with the Gospel of John. We couldn't even begin with the Gospel because there are so many questions that both of these guys had about the nature of truth. I can't read the Bible because I got all these questions about Jesus. Now, on the one hand, you read the Gospels in order to get answers to the questions, but we're kind of a step removed with these guys. And when we met the second time, we did this sort of interesting exercise, which was really initiated by one of the guys, just starting to talk about all of the things that he believed, you know. I mean, he said he believed that there was a being, said that the only way that she could account for the existence of the world was in terms of this being who was great enough to have created everything that exists. So I learned to talk for about 15 minutes and we wrote up on the board all kind of attributes about this being, you know, that he's eternal, that he's infinite. Those are the words that were used. He's clearly got us a being that exists. I mean, you don't be hard to imagine a being that doesn't exist being responsible for things that do, you know. There are people who believe that, but so we go through this exercise and I put my marker down and I looked right at him and I said, now how do you know that what you believe is true? How do you know that? On what basis do you make these assertions about this being? Who is this and that and the other thing? And where we are, as we begin the confession, is with this conviction that the scriptures are the source of our information about the God who is there. That's how we answer the question, how do you know? Now again, there are lots of things that could be said about how we get to the place where we have that conviction, but that's our conviction that the scriptures are the starting place, the only infallible rule in matters of faith and practice, what we're to believe and how we're to live. Now what follows that? What's chapter 2 about God? Naturally, that makes sense, doesn't it? That's what we're concerned about. What's chapter 3 about? Did the cre? What's chapter 4 about? Creation. What's chapter 5 about? Providence. You see the pattern, the order that there is to this? You begin with the scriptures, then you talk about God, then you talk about God's plan, then you talk about what God has done to execute His plan, then you talk about what God does to maintain
what He has created. What's chapter 6? The fall, chapter 7 of the covenant, the purpose of which is to remedy the effects of the fall. And chapter 8 is of Christ, the mediator of the covenant. You begin to see that there are relationships, there's a flow and there's an order to this thing, and that's what the confession is seeking to do. It's seeking to set before us in systematic fashion, in an orderly fashion, the teaching of scripture. And it's real important to keep, as you look at one of the parts, it's real important to keep the parts connected to the whole, to keep the big picture before you all the time. Now again, for just a couple of minutes by way of introduction here, we want to talk about the covenant and its relationship to the mediator of the covenant. Now, I think last week, you talked about the fact, didn't you talk about the covenant last week? I talked to Bob and he said you talked about the covenant last week. So you all remember talking about the covenant last week. People understand that they're used different terms to describe the covenants, but just generally, to kind of get us to this point of departure, you can think in terms of two covenants. One of the covenants is sometimes called the covenant of works, right?
Yeah, and then the second covenant, right? What's so funny? What? Oh good, good. Thank you. All right. Good. Good. That was your cue. You need cue cards. You need bright lights. What do you need? applause, you know, all right? The covenant works and the covenant of grace, okay? But I think Bob last week pointed out to you, to what does the covenant of works refer? The covenant with whom? With Adam, okay? To what does the covenant of grace refer? The covenant with whom? With Christ, the second Adam, okay? Each had a people, each represented that people. Adam represents the whole race and by his fall, the whole race is plunged into death, okay? Christ represents as the second Adam, a race, and that race is the people whom the Father had given him before the foundation of the world, okay? But I think Bob pointed out to you last week that both of these covenants involve what? Grace and works, okay? And so better language, perhaps, could be the covenant of creation, which is a gracious covenant. It's an expression of God's grace that he would create. He doesn't need to. You remember we talked about the being of God, how God exists, try personally, Father Son and Holy Spirit, how there is perfect communion, perfect fellowship, perfect delight, they are ordered, they are beautiful, they don't need anybody. The covenant of creation is a gracious covenant. It is a condescension on God's part to be involved in that and all of the promises associated with that are gracious as well, right? And that covenant also requires works. It requires an obedience, okay? Well, the covenant of redemption, did you use these terms last week Bob?
Creation, creation and redemption, I'm not trying to improve on anything, okay? So the covenant of creation, the covenant of redemption are both covenants involving grace and works or obedience, okay? Did owe down here, okay? Does that make sense? This is awfully important, okay? Offering important. And I would say, you know, you just think about this. Obviously, particularly, the covenant of redemption has application to us because we're those who suffer the effects of the disobedience of Adam in the covenant of creation. But now we enjoy all of the benefits of the obedience of the second Adam. See, the first Adam fail, this is what Paul talks about in Romans 5, which is sort of the locus classicus, the proof text for this relationship between Adam and Christ the second Adam. It really is warm in here, isn't it? We're going to have to, maybe we could,
thank you sir. Okay, let me have you look at that for just a second, all right? Romans 5, verse 12, okay, Romans 5, 12 and following. This is Paul, the context here, boy, and again, you know, sometimes context is everything. I mean, things just, boy, they just kind of fall into place when you see the part in terms of the whole. And the context here is, the large context is Paul's exposition or explanation of the gospel. Romans is the most systematic, comprehensive exposition of the gospel. You'll find any place in the Bible. Paul hasn't been to Rome, he wants to go to Rome before he gets to Rome, he wants to tell the Christians who are in Rome what he understands about the gospel. Okay, that's what he's doing in this letter. And he begins with sin, its pervasiveness, and its universality. It touches Jew and Gentile alike. Okay, that's the universality of it. Its pervasiveness, he describes in chapter 3 verses 9 and following. We list those verses from the Old Testament. And he says, their throats are like open graves and you know, the poison of vipers is under their tongues. There's no fear of God. But you know, they're just this vile, despicable, black-hearted scum paraphrase. Okay, and if you elaborate on that. And then, and then in right there toward the end of chapter 3, is this just powerful, powerful, and so pregnant statement of the substitutionary work of Christ, chapter 321 through the end, where Christ is described as a propitiatory sacrifice. That involves the ideas of substitution, it involves the ideas of turning away the wrath of God, okay, in the place of sinners. There's a little preposition. You can see it in the text. In behalf of, it's one word in the Greek. In behalf of or four sinners, Christ does this. So there's the substitutionary notion there. So you have sin, then you have the work of Christ, and then in chapter 4, you have Abram as a model of the justified person, the symbol of the justified person. Abram believed God and it was credited him for righteousness. So this salvation that is offered to us is received in the same way that Abram received it. God spoke, he believed it, and God credited to him for righteousness. What does it take to become a Christian? All it takes is for a person to hear the word of God, believe that what it says is true, accept that by faith, okay, and what is that word? You're a sinner. Jesus wasn't. He died for sinners, receive him. You know, I mean, it's not rocket science. It's a very, very simple why it takes a whole new testament to explain it to people has to do with us, not with the simplicity of the gospel, okay, has to do with our foolishness and unbelief and all of that kind of stuff, okay, and that's where, that's where Paul is. Now, when he comes to chapter 5, he says, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and he begins to unpack the benefits of this justification or the salvation that we've received. And right in the middle of that, that fifth chapter beginning at verse 12, he refers to Adam and Christ being the second Adam, all right, Bob, I'm sorry again. He also appears to be Lord Jesus Christ in the second, third chapter of the Romans and he goes back to the Lord Jesus Christ. Good point, yeah. But he's thinking of God and he goes, so the following that we have to go back to, yeah, great, yeah, that's great. That's where Paul makes his appeal as he presents the gospel. He appeals to the same scriptures as your point, okay, all right? So, so you see where we're now, we're talking about doctrine of justification. That's what Paul's great concern is. They're really the nature of salvation. That's that's what he's what he's talking about. And he's unpacking this and explaining it, does makes, you know, some points and observations in verses 6 to 11. And then verse 12, then verse 12, that's all right, it's, it's got it. It's got it. That was the plan. Got clearly God's plan. You know, Jim, in that a great illustration, our plans always fail. God's plans always succeed. There we go. Okay, see, therefore just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sin. Okay, there's Adam. He is the one man. Death came into the world because of the sin of Adam and spread to all men. But then Paul says, and this is, this is one of those, one of those mysterious teachings in the scriptures, he links us, death came through the sin of one man, spread to all men and spread to all men because all sinned. Okay, all sinned in Adam. Okay, we're all present in Adam. The whole, the whole of the race is present in Adam somehow. Okay, and Adam as the representative, the head, the federal head of the whole race and us being in his loins, sort of the language of scripture, Adam sinned and we all sinned in him and because of that sin, sinned spreads to the whole of humankind, all of mankind. Okay, so David then would say you don't, you don't become sinners because you sinned, right, you sinned because you're a sinner. Psalm 51, in sin did my mother conceive me. Okay, that's the environment into which I'm born and that's the effect of the fall. Okay, then verse, jump down a little bit to verse 18, therefore as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Listen, this is, I mean, this is the kind of thing you want to walk out of here saying, this is unbelievable. You know, just because of the sin of one man, you know, I've told you that little story about Annie when she fell in tore up her knees. She was roller skating in the driveway and she got a wheel caught in the crack in the cement and she fell in tore up her knees, you know, sitting in the kitchen and she goes flying by on her roller skates. The next thing I hear is this, and this child's crying, you know, screaming. So I rush outside and I pick her up and she really, she's got little pebbles and everything in her knees, you know, and I'm thinking this is going to be fun. We're going to go in the house and try and clean this stuff out. So I took her into the bathroom, set her on the countertop at the rain tree house, put her on the countertop, got out the washcloth. I'm starting to clean this stuff out of her knees and she looks up at me with these big crocodile tears coming down from her eyes and says, Dad, if Adam hadn't sinned, this wouldn't have happened. Right? I mean, all of it, all of it results from this. The pain, the anguish, all of that stuff, and the threat of judgment. But listen to this. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. Whereas by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. See, it doesn't, it doesn't hang on you at all. It doesn't hang on you. It hangs on the work of the one man Jesus who by his righteousness has secured life for all of his people. So you have then Christ, the second Adam, securing life for his people. Now, what I want to do is try and set this in the context of the relationship of the covenant that God has made and this mediator, I talked about the covenant. This is the covenant of creation and this is the covenant of redemption. And these covenants are the expression, if you look at Hebrews 13 verses 20 and 21, there's a phrase in here that we want to pay some attention to.
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you, what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. It's that phrase in Hebrews 13 through the blood of the everlasting covenant that ties all of this together, the covenant of creation, the covenant of redemption, all of the different, the confession talks about the different administrations of this covenant, right? What are the different administrations of this covenant? What are the different different administrations of this covenant of grace or covenant of redemption? Covenant with Adam, Noah, next, Abram, next, you're mumbling. Moses, next, David, next, Christ, okay? All of this is an expression of this everlasting covenant. That Hebrews talks about, okay? All of this, all of this is an expression of the covenant which the father made with the son before the foundation of the world to secure a people for themselves, okay? And the mediator then is the one who comes to effect or to accomplish in behalf of that people their salvation, okay? Let me have you look. Again, I'm sorry, I don't have my notes, so I'm going to take me a minute to find this, but it's in the first, it's on page 69 of the Williamson text, if you've got that, it's the first section of chapter 8 regarding Christ, okay? So you have chapter 7 that talks about the covenant, right? And then you have chapter 8 which talks about the mediator of that covenant, and what we want to do is establish sort of alluded to, but want to establish the connection between these two. Section 1, it pleased God in his eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten Son to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, priest, and king, the head and savior of his church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world, unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified, okay? Now there's some important phrases here, the first one corresponds to this in God's eternal counsel, isn't that the word, purpose, God's eternal purpose, okay? That again takes you back, that takes you back to us to a time before Genesis 1-1. Okay? And then at the end of this section, we're going to come back to the prophet, priest, king, stuff in just a minute. Then at the end of this section, he did from all eternity give a people, okay? Look at John 17, if you would, verses 1-5. Again, context. The context here is that this is the last prayer of Jesus for his disciples, what we commonly call the high priestly prayer, and it comes right after Jesus's last discourse, his last conversation, his last teaching time with his disciples, and as he brings that time together or to an end, he then prays for his disciples, and then immediately after this, then he is arrested and arraigned and tried and judged and then executed. So this is what's on Christ's mind as it comes to the end of his teaching ministry and before his passion. This is what he's thinking about. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on earth, I have finished the work which you have given me to do, and now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, the glory which I had with you before the world was.
I hope this isn't too common, I hope this isn't irreverent, but the basic sentiment, the core sentiment here for Jesus is, the work is done, now I want to go home. The work is done, now I want to go home. Now, Jesus says, I have finished the work that you've given me to do, he says that in verse four. Let's first of all understand that statement. We need to understand that Jesus' thinking is speaking actually in a future sort of way. He hasn't yet died on the cross, right? He hasn't yet been raised, he hasn't yet ascended, he has not yet been seated at the right hand of the Father. But as far as he's concerned, the work is finished, and the reason we can say that is because the work of Christ is all of a peace, it's one work, any part of which, if missing, invalidates all of the other parts. Again, the idea that the part has to be connected to the whole, if the life of Christ, if his life of obedience is finished, but he doesn't die of what benefit is his life of obedience. None. If Christ dies, but doesn't live a life of obedience of what benefit is his death. None. If Christ dies, but is not raised of what benefit are his life and his death. You see, this stuff all hangs together. So Jesus is speaking in terms of accomplishment, saying to the Father, praying to the Father's acknowledging that the work is done, okay? That's that's peace one. Verse two,
you have given him authority over all flesh so that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him, okay? Why is Christ given authority? Well, first of all, how much authority does Christ have? He possesses all authority. Why does Christ lay down his life? Is he the victim of a world out of control? Is he simply the person who's at the wrong place, at the wrong time, in the machinations of Jews and Romans? No. He possesses all authority and he lays down his life in accordance with the purpose of the Father, okay? He says, I haven't come to do my will. I've come to do the will of him who sent me. And God has given him and trusted to him all authority so that he is able to accomplish the purpose of his Father, okay? He possesses all authority. He's not a victim in this thing. This whole thing is by design, all right? So he possesses all authority. Who's given him that authority? The Father, okay? And for what reason has the Father given him that authority? Verse two, what does it say? He's given him authority over all flesh for what reason? In order to secure and confer eternal life, okay? In order to secure and confer eternal life upon whom? All the Father has given him,
okay? You see, you see what's in Jesus' mind. You see what's in his heart as he comes to the end of his ministry and as he contemplates his own passion? He's cognizant of the fact that he's going home and he's cognizant of the fact that he has accomplished this mission that the Father has given him, the mission of securing eternal life so as to confer eternal life upon his people, the people whom the Father had given him before the foundation of the world, okay? Yeah, Ken?
Question, is there any significance to the fact that Christ is speaking in the third person? So you've given him rather than you have given me, it changes to the second person in verse five, verse four, I'd have to think about that. I don't know, okay? Now, again, here's, so that is what is in Christ's mind as it comes to the end of his life and ministry. His awareness, his cognizance of having fulfilled the Father's purpose for the people whom the Father had given him before the foundation of the world and having done that, his longing is to return to glory. His desire is to go home, to be at home with the Father, there to rule and reign and to govern, continuing to possess all authority, there to rule and reign and govern in behalf of his people, okay? So again, I want to make this connection between the covenant and the mediator because the connection is this, before the foundation of the world, and this is John 17 and its Ephesians 1, before the foundation of the world, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, the three persons of the Trinity covenant together to secure redemption for a people, before the foundation of the world, the Father gives a people to the Son, okay? He gives a people to the Son, the idea that there is a specific numberable people who are the objects of redemption is all over the Bible. It's there in typical fashion, in a prophetic foreshadowing way, in Israel, the nation, a nation in bondage in Egypt, and a nation which a deliverer Moses, who himself is a type of the Christ to come, who a deliverer Moses comes to redeem, when Moses comes to Egypt, he comes for Israel, right? He doesn't come for Egypt, he comes for Israel, he comes to be God's deliverer, redeeming Israel from her hard service and her bondage in Egypt. That picture that is there in typological or prophetic fashion of Israel and Moses is fulfilled in Christ, who comes having been commissioned and empowered by the Father, who comes to redeem a particular people and deliver that particular people through his life of obedience, his death, resurrection, his ascension, now his rule and reign. Okay? So again, the order of things, the covenant is established before the foundation of the world, and in the fullness of time, after you have all of these prophetic foreshadowings in the old testament, in the fullness of time, Christ comes as the mediator of that covenant to accomplish what the Father and the Son had agreed he would accomplish before the foundation of the world. That is securing redemption for a specific people, who the Father had given to the Son to redeem before the foundation of the world. And I stress this because I stress it for two reasons, I stress it number one, because obviously this is right at the heart of what we believe the Bible teaches as reformed and Calvinistic believers. Okay? So I want you to know this and understand this. This all has to do with God and his sovereignty, in his mercy, and in his love choosing a people for himself and giving that people to Christ so that Christ in the fullness of time would come and deliver that people. Okay? That is at the heart of what we believe is reformed and Calvinistic Christians. But second, I want you to understand and I really want to press this, this is not the brainchild of John Calvin or St. Augustine. And these things, these ideas are not ideas, we should not think about these things, in the same way that you think about going to Morrison's cafeteria. Okay? You can go to the cafeteria and you can have meatloaf or you can have chicken. They're both there. You can have mashed potatoes, you can have potatoes are rotten. They're both there. We should not think about these things in this way. Calvinism and Armenianism are not things that you choose from in some cafeteria of theological ideas so that you can just kind of well, you know, that one sort of looks good to me so I think I'll choose it. I'm stressing this because this 17th chapter of John, these words are from the lips of Jesus. It is Jesus, if we can put it this way, it is Jesus who is the Calvinist. It is Jesus who is the Augustinean. It was Paul who was the Calvinist. It was Paul who was the Augustinean. In wrestling with these things, I want to make, I want to make real clear that we're wrestling with the teaching of scripture at this point. Okay? And need to come to terms with it. Now the third thing to say is, this stuff has enormous, pastoral, and spiritual application and benefit. Okay? Why do we spend time talking about this covenant made before the foundation of the world and the relationship of that covenant to the mediator? Why do we spend this time looking at Romans 5, the first atom and the second atom? We do it because it's there in the Bible. We do it because we believe it's true and we do it because we believe in the midst of all of the confusion and chaos and uncertainty and madness of life in this fallen world. We need some firm place to stand and the firm place to stand is the sovereign, electing, merciful love of God, manifest in this covenant and manifest in the mediator who comes to fulfill all of the terms of that covenant and secure salvation for his people. Okay? That's why we talk about this stuff. Folks, I mean, I can't get out of bed in the morning if there's one maverick molecule out there. If there is one thing that is outside the purview, outside the scope of the sovereign control of God, if there's one thing out there that isn't in a cord with the purpose of God, then everything is up for grabs. You see, everything is up for grabs and I frankly don't want to have to choose between Calvinism and Armenianism because I know where I'll go every time. I'll go over here. Even if it's wrong, I'll go over here because I can get up in the morning, but I can't get up in the morning. I can't get up in the morning if there's any uncertainty about who's in control and I certainly can't get up in the morning. If for just a second, I think that my salvation depends upon me is in any sense at any point rooted in who I am and what I think or my ability to believe or something like that. Okay? So again, that would be the third thing to say. There is a norm and I really do believe as you read the institutes and as you read, you can read Calvin's commentaries on Romans 8 and Ephesians 1, I am absolutely convinced that the reason God inspired Paul to write what he wrote in both of those places is because the people to whom he was writing needed comfort. They needed to be encouraged. They needed to know that they had been, they were and they would forever be the objects of God's love and affection, the objects of his saving purpose. Okay? All right, I'm going to stop there and ask if you want to make any comments or yeah, Stephen. Sure. I'm just wondering why Romans 5? Well, 5, yeah, 5. I'm looking at verse 16 and why he used the words he did. He said so then as through one transgression, there resulted condemnation to all men. Even so, 3, 1 act of righteousness, there resulted justification of light to all men. That all sounds off the other hall earlier in 18. It just seems like that would be a great argument for both universalism now. The question is, the question is how do you understand the relationship of the all men of verse 18 who receive condemnation to the all men of the latter part of the verse who received justification? How do we understand all? Okay? And is that an argument for universalism? I wish it were. I wish it were. I think as always, and this again goes back to chapter 1 of the confession of faith. As always, when a question arises in our minds about how we interpret a particular phrase or passage in scripture, where do we go to help us with that interpretation? Where do we go first? Yeah, we go to scripture. We seek to understand it in context, and then we go outside the immediate context to the context of the whole. If the Bible were not repeat with references of one kind or another, to a final judgment, to the separation of the sheep and the goats, and the visitation of wrath upon the goats and the visitation of blessing upon the sheep. If those kinds of things weren't there in the scriptures, then I'd be a universalist, and I'd go right to Romans 5, 18 to support my universalism. But clearly, there are those passages in scripture which correct the impulse that there would be for us to jump to universalism, and I think it's a very human sort of an impulse. Okay? I mean, the thought, anybody who's thought for more than a few seconds about about final judgment and the visitation of the wrath of God upon the unrepentant would find his heart racing from that, to find universalism somewhere, you know? But universalism is not taught in the scriptures. That's number one. Number two, how do we understand the all of Romans 5? Well, I think you can legitimately can understand it in the same way that you understand a passage like John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish to have everlasting life. How do we understand the world? Well, I think we understand it, and I think it's pretty easy to show this from the gospels and other places. You understand the world there in John 3, 16, as meaning people of all races, nationalities, ethnic groups across the ages without ethnic distinction, religious distinction, or any of those kinds of distinctions. Now, we're not Jews. We don't think as nationalistically and ethnically as the Jews did, but for the Jews to hear that God loved Gentiles was a pretty radical notion. And I think that's what's there in John 3, 16. I think that's what's here for Paul too. When he's talking about all, I think he's talking about the multitude of ethnic people groups that there are in the world, but I think he's also, I think there's another thing in this, so it's, all is across those ethnic kinds of lines, but I'm inclined to think that the all here is an indication of the size, or just the number of people that there are. The vastness, not only the diversity ethnically speaking, but the sheer vastness of this people for whom Christ has died. I mean, I think that's a suggestion that it's not just a small group of folks, but it's this virtually numberless people for whom Christ has died. So the first all in that verse you would say is the nine people, the second one they both are talking about all ethnic ideologies. Right. And they both, now clearly, the first one refers to all of mankind without exception. The second doesn't refer to that, but I think it does refer to this people where there's no ethnic distinction, and also a vast, vast number of people for whom Christ has died, which I think would be important in the context, because Paul has already, you know, in verses six and follow, he's said, you know, one person might die for another person if that person is a good person, you know. And there is this, you know, this sort of, well, I can imagine one person dying for one person, but how does one person die for more? than one person. And I think Paul is reinforcing that this vast and limitless benefit of the work of Christ, it touches countless numbers of people. That'd be my fun. Yeah.
Yeah. Paul, be careful. A lot of people are reading these words. Right. Holy spirit. Be careful. A lot of people are reading these words. Yeah. Okay. Now, I'm not a heretic of my critique Paul. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no, I know. And I mean, this is why, you know, this is why my library is lined with, with commentaries on these things, because it, it does take some time to get into this guy's head and figure out what he's saying. You know, I would draw all people to myself. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I don't know, but you wouldn't think so. Bob and then John or John. Maybe.
We got a quitter. I talked about that a little bit. John. I
know, whatever. We always recognize the contact. Yeah. We just understood it. And we're already And so, you don't have to squirm or feel fighting to use words, or to see words in descriptions that all are everybody or the world. Yeah. Of course, it's a different kind of that's the aspect of the picture. Why should I say that in Romans 5, 1, you know, it defines the super justified by things that he's with God, that's defined to justify the same thing.
Who so ever believes? Right.
Yeah. Yeah. We should. I should have the microphone back there. That's good. That's helpful. Yeah, and I mean, just quickly, Bob, in response to that, I think that's possible, but I don't really think that's what Paul is describing here. I don't think he's talking about the universal offer. I think he's talking about the benefits that accrue to those who are united to Christ by faith. And that clearly would not be the universality of mankind. But that's as my opinion. Okay, I think we need to stop. Any other comments? Frank, did I do anything that would get me kicked out of your class? All right, so remember, keep the parts connected to the whole because that is important. And remember, we really are, and the framers of the confession really did, wrestling with the teaching of scripture. It's, it's Jesus, we're trying to understand here. And then remember, third, when Jesus speaks, he speaks because he loves his people and because there is benefit for his people and the things that he says. Okay. Yeah, Betsy, did you all understand that? Good. I just, I got to go preach. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this time and for, thank you for your word and thank you, Jesus, for this glorious work, which you've done in behalf of your people. I pray for us as we come to worship that our hearts would be greatly encouraged. I pray that you'd speak to us, that you'd minister to us, that you'd visit us with your presence in the person of the Holy Spirit. This we ask in your name. Amen.