Receive him for love's sake

Q: What does the Bible say about the concept of surety?

The concept of surety in the Bible is primarily exemplified in the actions of Judah for Benjamin, as well as in the role of Jesus Christ as our eternal surety. In the Bible, the concept of surety is portrayed through various figures, notably in Judah's plea for Benjamin in Genesis 44. Judah stood before Joseph, stating he would take responsibility for Benjamin's safety, effectively becoming his surety. This act foreshadows the ultimate surety, Jesus Christ, who intercedes for His people before God, ensuring their acceptance. Hebrews 7 explains how Jesus, as our high priest, embodies this role perfectly, having no beginning or end, and offering Himself as the complete and final sacrifice. Therefore, the biblical concept of surety is deeply rooted in the intercessory work of Christ, who takes our place, bearing our sins.

Q: Why is understanding Christ as our surety important for Christians?

Understanding Christ as our surety is crucial as it provides assurance of our salvation and reflects the depth of God's mercy and justice. Recognizing Christ as our surety is vital for Christians because it encapsulates the core of our faith: our complete dependence on His righteousness and sacrifice for salvation. Just as Judah acted as surety for Benjamin, Jesus stands in our place, fulfilling the demands of justice while simultaneously extending mercy. This reflection of God's character illustrates that salvation is not based on our merits, but solely on Christ's atoning work. Romans 8:34 states that Christ intercedes for us, which assures us that we are secured in His grace. This understanding provides deep comfort, especially in facing our guilt and sin, as we know that Jesus' perfect obedience is credited to us.

Q: How do we know that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for our salvation?

Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our salvation as it fulfills God's justice and expresses His mercy, ensuring eternal redemption for His people. We know Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for our salvation because it is grounded in both God's justice and mercy. Scriptures like Isaiah 53 highlight how it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, indicating the necessity of Christ’s suffering for the atonement of sin. This aligns with Hebrews 9:12, where it states that Christ entered the holy place once for all and secured eternal redemption. Additionally, 1 Peter 1:18-19 reinforces that we were redeemed not with perishable things but with the precious blood of Christ. His resurrection serves as the pinnacle confirmation of this sufficiency, demonstrating that God's wrath against sin has been fully satisfied, thus sealing the promise of salvation for those He has chosen.

There's some text of scripture that we mention over and over throughout the years, and I hope that as dear as they are to us, and even more dear, they would be dear to you, that you would have them in your thoughts as you live your life, and as you approach the Lord, and as you think of His character, and as you think of His His glory, and as you think of your needs, and as you think of your soul.

This is one of those texts of scripture. Now, it turns out that this is really a background text, so I'm not going to go through this text line by line. But it's important that we see the background of this because God has given us this historical account. Such a movingly, I can't think of another place in scripture more moving than this one. As Brad said, especially if you have brothers and sisters and you know the conflicts that arise and the forgiveness that Joseph showed. And all through this, it's incredible.

So we'll only mention a few things from this text of scripture, but I want you to turn to Philemon. Philemon is where we have been the last two Sundays. And this concept, this truth of surety is, you don't even really need a definition of it because God has given us this definition right here in this text.

If you remember back in chapter 43 of Genesis, Judah had given the news to his father Jacob that Joseph in Egypt. He didn't know it was Joseph, but he said the governor required that if they were to come again to get food, his little brother, Benjamin, would have to be with them. And you remember the grief that caused Jacob. He just couldn't think of parting with Benjamin.

And that's when Judah approached his father, Jacob, and he said in chapter 43 that Judah said to Israel, his father, send the lad with me. And we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever.

You see the personal identification of Judah with Benjamin for his father. The tension here is multifaceted, but primarily it's the love Jacob had for Benjamin. It said, where Brad just read in verse 30 of chapter 44, he said, his life, Jacob's life, is bound up in the lad's life, in Benjamin's life. And so that shows you how closely knit together how intimately the relation was between Jacob and Benjamin.

He couldn't bear the thought of him being away from him. As Judah expressed it to Joseph there, he says, if Benjamin doesn't return, then my father will die. I will bring his gray hairs down to the grave with sorrow. And so that is intended to heighten our awareness and raise our sensitivities to the close relationship Jacob had to Benjamin, and especially to find in Judah's plea our own salvation. He was pleading for his life. He was actually pleading for Benjamin's life and for the life of his brothers. But he was pleading also for his father. He was pleading for his father because Benjamin and his father were bound together in life.

And so you can see that Judah is pleading for everyone here, but Benjamin is the focus of his plea. And he pleads to Joseph, and Joseph is in the role of governor. But unbeknownst to Judah and to his brothers, it was Joseph who was the governor. And if you remember the background here, Joseph was very sympathetic to the case. because his own brothers had wickedly sold him into slavery. And they had betrayed him to his enemies. They had given him up to be a slave to his enemies. And he had been taken to Egypt and treated as a slave. He was a slave and put in prison, falsely accused.

And all these things were that came upon Joseph, came upon him for the sake of his brothers who brought him into Egypt by their wickedness. And that realization then was right there in the heart of Joseph. And so here was Judah standing before Joseph pleading for Benjamin. And you know, Joseph, we would think, would be so angry at his brothers.

He would never have forgiven them for what they did to him. And yet he did forgive them, but they just didn't know it yet. And they admitted that we don't have any way to answer you. We cannot clear ourselves of this sin. God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Certainly there was nothing they could plead.

They couldn't deny they were guilty, even though in the matter of the cup, it seemed like they were. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. What they had done to Joseph was the real sin. And the cup just represented that. And so they knew they couldn't, by their own arguments, deliver themselves from this guilt and from the condemnation that Joseph, as Pharaoh, could bring upon them.

And they were doomed. and they had no way out. They were stuck, guilty, standing before their judge, and he was angry with them. They knew that because they had taken his cup, his silver cup, that cup by which he divineth or is able to know things even as God would know things. So in his role then, they were facing him as strict justice, and his judgment was about to fall upon them.

And that's when Judah interposes himself and approaches Joseph. Now there's nothing, I can't imagine how Joseph could, to restrain himself, could maintain his composure. Because here in Judah, who had been part of those who delivered him up, now he sees a surety, someone who's pleading for the lives of his brothers.

And this is exactly what God had revealed to him, that he was there by their wickedness, yet it was for their lives God brought him there. It was for the life of Pharaoh, his family, all of Egypt, but especially his own family's life, his father's life, and all their subsequent generations. So Joseph saw this. He had the wisdom from God to see this.

And so Judah's pleas moved Joseph even more because he was pleading as his brother, who had sold him to slavery, now in the role of surety. And he could hear those pleas now. Judah was saying to him all that he said to him in this argument. And the argument is powerful, extremely powerful. And Charles Spurgeon brings this out in a sermon and I thank God for that sermon because it clarifies the significance of this argument that Judah brings. First of all, he did not plead their innocence. He did not plead their innocence.

Secondly, he began with his father. He pleaded his father's love for Benjamin, the relationship between Benjamin and his father. Judah said to Joseph, I am here for my father. I'm a surety for Benjamin to my father. It was his father's will that he was there. And it was for his father's sake, because of his love for his son, Benjamin. And so Judah begins that way, pleading his father's love. Then he also adds his engagements with his father as surety. And we know that the Lord Jesus Christ eternally engaged with his father for his people as our surety.

And then we find in Judah's plea also the explanation of what a surety is. As a surety, he said, take me instead of the lad. He would fulfill the role of surety to his father for his brother Benjamin by answering every demand on his brother with himself. He substituted himself in the place of his brother Benjamin to obtain his release and also the release of his brothers.

Take me, let him go free. Go free up to his father again with his brothers. And so this, of course, broke Joseph's heart. It broke his heart. He was on board. He completely agreed. He completely agreed with Judah's plea. This was consistent with all of the wisdom, all of the justice, all of the mercy of someone who rules in absolute authority as God. This is consistent with God. This plea was perfect.

And so it obtained a release. That background now is what is behind the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Philemon. And we've gone through this in the beginning of the letter. And I want to bring your attention to the details of it here as we go through this again today. But before I do that, I want to review with you what we know about these things from the gospel. I've entitled today's message, Receive Him as Me for Love's Sake, because that's what Paul writes in this letter to Philemon.

Onesimus was a slave. He belonged to Philemon. By civil laws, it was legal. And yet, Onesimus, probably in his youth as a slave, felt vindictive towards his master, and he left him. He probably, although it doesn't say, he probably did harm to Philemon in some way, maybe to his property, taking something from him.

Because in the letter of Philemon, in verse 19, Paul says, in verse 18 is, if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. I will repay it. So whatever Onesimus did to his master Philemon left a debt. And Paul said, I'll pay it. And so you can see then that the apostle is arguing as a surety to Philemon on that behalf of Onesimus. Onesimus, as I say, was a slave.

It was a legal relationship under the civil Roman law. even though in the biblical law it's not approved, it's not right, it's sinful to hold someone as a slave, yet in the civil law it was. And even in Old Testament times, a man may come into poverty and sell himself as a slave.

That wasn't the case here. Onesimus was a slave, he was a runaway, he was disobedient, and he did damage either financial or reputation or something to his master. He was a debtor. He had done wrong. He was outside the law. He was a fugitive. This is the one Paul pleads for in Philemon. He doesn't argue his innocence. Instead, he argues something much more moving than that, much more resonating to God's own character. He argues as his surety.

And so what I want to do here is at the outset, I want to give you Something that, I don't know, it seems like as we go from week to week, month to month, year to year, as we're together and as we think on the gospel, it seems like the gospel becomes clearer to me.

And it becomes more all comprehensive, meaning it encompasses all of our life, all of eternity. And so what we find in scripture, and this is not something that we've made up, we just read about it here. What we find in scripture, and it says this in Hebrews chapter seven, that the Lord Jesus Christ, who had no beginning of days, his life as son of God, no beginning of days, no end of life, no father, no mother, but as a son of God, he was made surety in the New Testament for his people.

So it obviously was a relationship established by God from eternity. And we see this in 1 Peter 1, verse 18 through 20, how the precious blood of Christ has redeemed us. And this was by the will of God. God ordained this from before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13, 8 also says Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. So what I'm about to say here is not made up. It's not out of a theology book. This is from scripture.

What we see is that what was in God's heart from eternity, from eternity, God's character, his purpose, his will, his mind, in his heart from eternity was also in the heart of his son from eternity. Remember John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, the wisdom, the mind of God, the logic of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, the eternal uncreated Word, was with God. and the Word was God. Face to face, that's what the words mean. Face to face, the Father and the Son from eternity, one mind, one in mind, one in heart, one in purpose, one in people, one in will, one in work, one in glory, one.

They have the same, they are in such agreement, they're one. and there's a fellowship, an intimate fellowship between the Father and the Son from eternity. This is in His heart from eternity. It's the same. Now, God the Father and God the Son in this eternal fellowship of the same mind and will, work, people, and glory, what was in God's heart from eternity in this fellowship? Well, we don't know. until the Word became flesh. He who was with the Father from eternity is now with us. Isn't that phenomenal? Isn't that incomprehensible? That the eternal Word came in flesh, in our nature.

And then it says what was in His heart. It says we beheld His glory, His beauty, His magnificence shining out of Him. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." God opens His heart in His Son, grace and truth. There's nothing more that attracts the beauty of God and the affections of his people out to him than this. From eternity, all that God was comes in time in his son.

And what was in God's heart from eternity was also fulfilled in creation. In time, Christ came. What was in his heart was revealed and promised in scripture before Christ came. And then what was revealed and promised in scripture had to be fulfilled in time when the Lord Jesus came, in history. What was in God's heart pleased the Father.

It became necessary. It says in Hebrews chapter two and verse 10, for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. This was God's heart. It became necessary. And this is why the world was created. This is what scripture foretold. This was God's promise.

So what pleased the father from eternity was necessary in the heart of Christ also. He spoke his father's word, but it wasn't like it wasn't his also, but he attributed to his father. So we would know this is the father's will. Judah pleaded his father's love.

And so what was necessary would surely come to pass. But Christ prayed for it. When He was on earth, He asked His Father to give Him, to enable Him to do what was in His heart to do and what was in His Father's heart to do in Scripture in order to fulfill it. He prayed according to this will that would be done. It was necessary, would be done in time. And of course, what he prayed was the delight of his father. This was his father's will. He prayed perfectly according to his heart. It was necessary that he balance the scales of justice in judgment in order that mercy, God's own mercy from his throne might flow to those eternally loved in Christ by God.

You see, these two things have to come together and it was necessary. This is the basis. This is the character of God, the basis of his rule, the delight of his heart, the work of Christ, the promise of his word. It was necessary, yet it had to be fulfilled in time and Christ prayed for it to be done.

Now. what Christ must do by His Father's will and the will of His Son. He prayed the Father to strengthen Him to do. He prayed His Father to save Him from the death He would suffer. He prayed the Father to receive Him and to receive Him with His people according to His Father's will. He prayed the will of God. He prayed God's heart. He pleaded according to God's love, mercy, and God's judgment.

Just like Judah. and he gave himself in sacrifice. Our sin, we committed it, we owed death the wages of sin. He, that sin was charged to him. If he owes you anything, put it on my account. That's the plea of the surety. And so our sin was imputed to him and his righteousness.

The obedience, the humility of Christ in doing these things was imputed to us as our righteousness. And God justified Him because of His obedience in that bloodshedding sacrifice of Himself. And He justified us in Him because that was God's will. And that was Christ's desire. And that was His prayer. And that's the reason He did it.

And so God raised him from the dead, having justified him. And because of that justification, he raised us also from the dead. So what was in God's heart from eternity was accomplished and finished in time. And eternal redemption at that time was obtained.

And Christ ascended in triumph, but it had to be revealed. It had to be made known. It must be declared. Christ must call his own. Those for whom he gave himself to God according to scripture and according to God's eternal delight and will, he must call them. His gospel had to go out. He had to reveal these things in his word, what he had done, what he had accomplished, what God's will was, God's own name and honor.

And so the Lord Jesus Christ from his sovereign throne after having accomplished this work, sends his gospel through his servants to declare it to his people. That's what Philemon is doing. It's a declaration of the surety's heart. And so he says in scripture, that those who hear this word and declare this word, yet, even though this is God's will, they pray to Christ to send the word and to make it effectual. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ prayed, Father, accomplish your will, glorify your name. Save me and save your people. So as Christ prayed that all the Father was pleased to do by Him would be done, so we pray that all Christ sent His gospel to accomplish would be done by Him for His glory.

Do you see the consistency? Do you see the follow through, how everything fits together? In the gospel, Christ's saving work of redemption and reconciliation is now declared. And it's repeated. It's reiterated. It's recalled to our mind and we're told to remember him. Remember him.

This is the subject of eternity. This is the work of God in time that was promised. This is the fulfillment of scripture. This is the message of our present age. This era in which we live, this is God's purpose to declare and proclaim this truth, this eternal truth, the eternal glorious achievements of his son in our salvation as our surety and now as our reigning king. This is the work of God in time. And this is the prayer and the memory of all who believe.

We live our lives as Paul was doing here in Philemon, holding in his mind the things we read about of Judah, Joseph, Jacob, Benjamin, all of his brothers, seeing in that the salvation of God's people by Christ to the glory and because of the love of his Father's heart.

And so what happens is we hold it in memory. It guides our lives. It shapes our attitudes. It makes us deny ourselves and think of others for the sake of Christ and his gospel, just like he did. And so this is the cause. What Christ has done is the cause of our confidence, the cause of our rejoicing and our peace and of enduring patience under every trial.

It's the reason for our eternal hope. It's the spring of our love to Christ and our love for His people. It's the way we worship the Father. It will be the theme of every song sung throughout eternity. Christ has secured our eternal reception into the presence of God in all of His glory. God, the Son, in our flesh, according to His grace and truth, has brought us, by the judgment, His mercy, accomplished in Himself, for us to bring us to God. Holy! Perfect! without blame before him in love. All right.

So I say all that so you can see the panoramic view of scripture and the work and will of God and how God, even though these things are necessary and certain, that they're brought about in time and they're prayed for and we look for them and we live by faith in the revelation of them and we know God and worship God in them.

All right, so I just want you to see that before we dive into some of this. So here in Philemon, we're going to pick it up at around verse. Six is where we were last time. Just let me remind this. The word communication here was koinonia. You remember that? Because there's this fellowship, as the word is often translated, this sharing, this mutual taking part of the whole truth of the gospel. We agree to these things, don't we?

Believers believe the same things. Therefore, we are One. Now we don't believe of our own mind, our own intellect, our own will. This is the gift of God. This faith is given to us and it's a result of the spirit of God joining us to Christ in spirit so that his word now is what we know and believe and love. This is what guides us, doesn't it? We think about it. We pray according to it. We long for the consummation of it. We hope because of it. Everything comes from this revelation God has given to us. And so this is koinonia. This is fellowship.

This is taking of a common faith, a common truth, the mind of God, in fellowship with God the Father and God the Son. And each of us taking part of this commonly know our own sin. We know sin, don't we? We know the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ. This is precious to us. And it's commonly precious. We all believe this. We've been persuaded of it. We rejoice in it. We find peace in it. We want nothing more than this. We come to God by what God has declared. This is that fellowship.

In each of our lives, this fellowship takes place between us and God through his word and in our minds and through prayer. There's this constant feeding upon the things of God that have been in his heart from eternity. It's like I have children and they're biologically related to me, but we don't have the same thoughts, do we? If we had the same thoughts, I mean, really, if we held consistently and believed the same things, that would actually be a deeper relationship than the biological one. That's exactly what's described when God says that the Father and the Son are one, and that we are one with them, that Christ is in us, and we're in Him, and we're in the Father, all this union, because of this common foundation. of God's own mind, the truth of God revealed in his word.

This is the way things are, and we've come to see it. We are agreeing with it. We believe it. We stand upon it. Rejoice and worship God for it. Now, this is what he's saying in verse 6, yes, the communication of thy faith, thy faith You believe the truth. We all believe the same things. We're fellow partakers, fellow sinners partaking of one savior, aren't we? And this has an impact on us.

We now have been received, having been received by Christ for his sake alone, having received us to the glory of God, because this was in God's heart now, As a surety, he received us back. And as God the Father delighted in this, he received us for Christ's sake. It's all about our surety. Now we realize what it means to be received for the sake of Christ, don't we?

And we receive one another for the same reason. We don't say, well, you're going to have to measure up to get my respect. Yeah, well, that proves you know nothing about how God receives you. You see, that part of us that thinks that way is contrary to God's own heart. And so he says that in verse six.

He says that the communication of thy faith, that fellowship you have in the gospel, the truth, that you hold so dearly may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing that is in you. You see, in order for Philemon's message, what he said, to have the effect of joy and comfort in those who heard him, they would have to see the consistency of it in the way he treated his slave, Onesimus. That's the acknowledging of every good thing that is in you. All right. Okay, so I wanna go on now and get to this. He says in verse seven, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. You know, there's nothing that makes Christ more precious to us, I don't believe, than this relation we have to him as surety.

When you stand before the judge and you have to give an answer for everything you've ever thought, said, and done, What do you think your temperament will be then? Absolute, stark terror. You won't have anything to defend yourself. You'll be like Joseph's brothers. Your mouth will be shut and you know you're guilty and there's judgment coming and you cannot avoid it. You cannot change the mind of your judge, can you?

What do you need? You need someone who is able to go to the judge and provide an account for you that's true, that's consistent with all of the uncompromising truth of the one who sits on the throne. You need that. And so you say, Lord, be my answer. Be my substitute. Advocate for me. Answer with yourself. The judge stepping from his throne, laying down his life, bringing that back to the judge, and in that judgment, it being received for those for whom he pleads. That's what you need. That's why this relationship to Christ as our surety is so precious to us. It's precious to God. It's precious to us. We're the recipients of it.

But it's a one-way street, isn't it? It's a one-way street. Did you know that salvation is a one-way street? Everything comes from God. He brings us. We don't drive to get to Him. He comes to us. And the way He comes is the way, the surety. He had to substitute himself in order to bring himself to us. He had to answer his own requirements in order to make it happen.

Look at Isaiah 53. I want you to see this. Isaiah 53. This is so powerful. And when we consider these things, what the Lord has done for us. Let me get there. I won't read the entire chapter, but I'll just read the end of Isaiah 53, beginning at verse 10. He says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. This is what the Lord says.

It seemed good to him. It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory. These people he had chosen in eternal love in Christ to bring them to glory. I'm gonna bring them to glory. This is the desire of his heart. It became necessary. It pleased the Lord therefore to bruise him. He has put him to grief. when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.

There's the judgment, there's the mercy, all bound up in one. The propitiation is both that mercy of God to us, judgment in answer to God, satisfaction. He shall see his seat. There's not going to be any failure. It wasn't done for nothing. It's absolutely impossible. Do you know there's nothing more impossible in all the world than that Christ would die for nothing without receiving what he died for?

He says, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. He died, but he rose and he eternally lives. And the pleasure of the Lord, this is what delights God, shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge, not ours, his, shall my righteous servant justify many. Do you see this? Do you see how powerful this is? It says in 1 John chapter two, that if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. That gives you comfort, doesn't it?

If Christ, by his wisdom, according to the will, the wisdom of God, the truth that God himself is, if he can present to God himself in sacrifice for us and bring us to God in the delight of all of God's perfections, then it has to be good, because he's Jesus Christ the righteous. So by my righteous servant, he shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities.

That's the way he did it. Therefore, will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because Listen to all these things enumerated. He has poured out His soul to death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He took their sin and was counted as them. And He bare the sin of many. He became guilty. and he bore their sin before God to take it away, and he made intercession for the transgressors. That's what the surety did. He bore our sins and made intercession, and God was pleased with that.

You see, this is scripture. Scripture is God's mind revealed. It's eternal, unchanging, unfailing. And so the Lord Jesus pleads for us. He died for us. He prays for us. He pleads his obedience. He pleads his blood. And he does those things that please the Father all the time. He finished his Father's work. It's finished, he cried. I have finished the work you gave me to do. He finished it for his people.

He said to his Father, I know you hear me always. That's our hope, isn't it? that Christ is heard. My prayers mean nothing. My prayers are full of sin. His prayers are perfect. By His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. He knows God's mind. Do you know the first thing it says in Romans 3 about our condition? There is none that understandeth. There's none that have the mind of God. None have a heart like God's heart. None have any insight into God's mind. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he knows the depth, the breadth, the length, the height, every particle, everything about God.

And he says, you hear me always. And this is what I'm praying for. Take me instead of them and let them go free. So I want you to think about that. This is the great joy and the consolation we have, isn't it? And so the Lord says this and it surprises us in Isaiah 62 verse 5.

He says, as a young man marries a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, is there anything else on earth that you could think of that's a greater joy. A bridegroom rejoicing over his bride. So shall thy God rejoice over thee. That's scripture. That's God's desire. And it's going to happen because Christ will not be disappointed.

So he says in verse eight, wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee being such in one as Paul the aged and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. You see, Paul had the authority of an apostle, a sent one of Christ.

He could have said, Philemon, this is what you need to do. Now do it, get busy. He didn't do that, did he? He comes to Philemon as an equal. In fact, he stoops to plead with him. He says, for love's sake, I rather beseech thee. And then he talks about himself because Philemon needs to hold some ideas in his mind before Paul expresses plainly what he's asking him to do. First, I'm Paul the agent. Second, now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He had been restricted. He had been in prison, but now he's in prison, perhaps again. His status had changed. He had been in prison. Maybe he was free. He's back in prison, and he's old.

We know what that's like. Prisons are not comfortable places. The beds are not comfortable. The food is not good. The climate is not fresh. The temperatures are not comfortable. The people are not happy. It's just not a good place. You don't have liberty. You're not free to do what you want to do. This was Paul's plight. How could the gospel succeed in such a case? He was utterly weak to perform what God had given him to do.

And though he has his authority, and he might think, now listen, I'm in prison. Get busy, Philemon, because I can't. That's not the way he says it. He says, for love's sake, I beseech you, being such a one as Paul the aged, now also a prisoner. I don't have liberty. You do, Philemon. I'm going to be speaking to you about one who also doesn't have liberty as your slave. He doesn't speak to Philemon as a slave, does he? You see, there's no obedience if there's no love.

That's just the way it works. The law requires heart obedience. Superficial obedience is disobedience. But only obedience that springs from love is true obedience. That's the love, and only one can provide that. When the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life.

So this is what Paul is doing. He's stirring this up. He's not coming to him demanding with commands. He's coming to him for love's sake. This is what motivated Paul. The gospel motivated Paul. He could not motivate others apart from what motivated him. Someone who has believed the gospel can't go about beating their servants in order to get them to do what they want because they know that doesn't work.

That's not the way the Lord treats me, so they're not gonna do that. And so he says, for love's sake. I'm aged, I'm a prisoner, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, for love's sake. Remember the Lord Jesus said, you heard that it's been said, love your neighbor, hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you. You see, the Lord Jesus doesn't just issue these commands like, this is what you guys need to do. He says what he did. He says what was in his heart. He says how he saved us. And then he says, follow me.

You see, you, you and I, According to Colossians chapter one, we're sometimes alienated, enemies in your mind by wicked works, just like Onesimus had been alienated from Philemon, and yet you were reconciled by God through the body of Christ's flesh, through his death, to present you to God, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. You see the motivation? Christ loved us, he has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God. This is the love that fulfills the law.

Let this mind be in you. Now, there's no way I'm gonna get through the rest of this, so I won't try to. But I want you to see this also about the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. His obedience was such obedience, that it was sufficient for all of his people for all eternity. That's incomprehensible, isn't it? In the law, if a man obeyed the law perfectly, continuously, without any failures, his life was merely prolonged. As long as he kept it, As long as he didn't fail one part of it, then he had life coming to him as long as he continued in that way.

But when the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished on the cross, he had at that time established, according to Daniel 9.24 and other places, everlasting righteousness for all of his people. He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

You see His sacrifice? An everlasting righteousness. You know why we're given everlasting life? Because we're given His everlasting righteousness. We did nothing for it. We were opposed to everything about God, had no understanding, alienated in our minds and by wicked works. And yet He has freely given to us the clothing of His Son whom He slew and killed and slaughtered in order to clothe us in this righteousness. Everlasting righteousness.

Never needs to be repeated because it was perfectly completed. It's done. It's finished. That's the obedience of Christ. Sufficient. All sufficient for all of His people for all eternity. And that's what we need to see here. This is what prompted Paul to say, for love's sake, for love's sake, I'm not going to command you. Consider Christ. Consider him. He accomplished these things. All right.

I better postpone the remainder of this to next time. But I want you to see this, and I'll try to pick it up here and we'll go forward. Because please hold in mind these things as we go into next week, because from Genesis chapter 44 and this chapter, we're going to get into, again, the heart of the gospel. We're going to reiterate it. We're going to repeat it. We're going to bring it to mind again. We're going to remember it.

And Lord willing, we'll take the Lord's Supper then to do as the Lord Jesus himself gave us this great privilege to take these elements in remembrance of him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your great mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy that rejoices against judgment because mercy provided all that delighted God in his perfect judgment. What great mercy there is in the propitiation, our Lord Jesus Christ and His shed blood. Lord, we are the ones guilty. We're the ones who are charged and condemned and rightly so.

We have no answer to give. We only have this promise from your word that those for whom Christ stands as surety and stood receive all from God as he receives. And his plea for us before the throne is not only to receive his blood, but to receive us as him. What a message this is. Lord, we long to believe it. We long to hear it, and we want to repeat it. We pray, Lord, that you'd give us this grace week by week, day by day, throughout our lives, and for all eternity. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Receive him for love's sake

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the concept of surety?

Why is understanding Christ as our surety important for Christians?

How do we know that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for our salvation?

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Receive him for love's sake

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the concept of surety?

Why is understanding Christ as our surety important for Christians?

How do we know that Christ's sacrifice was sufficient for our salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

Comments

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