Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, & Redemption

Q: What does the Bible say about wisdom in Christ?

The Bible states that Christ is made unto us wisdom, teaching us true understanding and discernment. In 1 Corinthians 1:30, we see that Christ is made unto us wisdom, highlighting the truth that knowing Christ is the ultimate source of wisdom. This wisdom is not merely intellectual but spiritual, allowing believers to understand God’s will and nature deeply. Through Him, believers are equipped with the ability to discern spiritual truths, for without Him, the natural man cannot grasp the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). Thus, our wisdom is altogether dependent on our relationship with Christ, who reveals God and teaches us how to live in accordance with His truth.

Q: How do we know righteousness in Christ is true?

Righteousness in Christ is true because we are justified by His obedience, not our own works. The doctrine of righteousness is fundamentally about our standing before God. Romans 5:18 articulates that through the righteousness of one man, Christ, many are made righteous. This righteousness does not come from our own actions or decisions but is imputed to us from Christ’s perfect obedience to the law during His earthly life. As noted in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made Christ to be sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is a legal standing, whereby believers are declared righteous in God's sight, based on Christ's atoning work rather than their own merit, assuring us of our acceptance before God.

Q: Why is sanctification important for Christians?

Sanctification is crucial as it denotes our separation from sin and union with Christ in a holy life. Sanctification, as discussed in 1 Corinthians 1:30, is the work of God whereby He makes believers holy through their union with Christ. This process is not a result of human effort but a divine act in which Christ is made unto us sanctification. It signifies that through faith in Christ, believers are given a new nature that does not sin and are being transformed into the image of Christ. Furthermore, as 1 John 3 emphasizes, those born of God cannot continue in sin, which reinforces the transformative aspect of sanctification. Sanctification is, therefore, essential as it reflects the believer's salvation and ongoing growth in holiness, aligning with God’s character.

Q: What does redemption mean in the context of the Gospel?

Redemption signifies complete deliverance from sin through Christ's sacrifice. In the context of the Gospel, redemption refers to the total and complete deliverance from sin and its consequences through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As outlined in 1 Corinthians 1:30 and further elaborated in Romans 8:22, redemption encompasses not only the forgiveness of sins but also the final transformation of our bodies at Christ’s return. This comprehensive view of redemption assures believers that they are not only freed from the power of sin now but will also experience glorification in the future. Thus, redemption reflects the fullness of salvation brought about by Christ's work, ensuring that believers will ultimately be free from all forms of bondage to sin.

Faith can answer God's demands
by pleading what my Lord has done. Turn with me, if you will,
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I had worked last night and today,
most of the day, on the brazen altar. But I believe the Lord's
given me another direction for your benefit. First Corinthians
chapter 1. If you can remember four words,
you'll remember the title and the text and the outline. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. First Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 30, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. And this is the reason God saves
sinners this way, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. If there were anything else involved
in the salvation of our souls, except that which Christ is made
to us and we are made to be in him by God's free grace, then
men would not glory in the Lord. Truly, as you hear men speak. As you observe the things going
on in religion, as you hear folks give what they call their testimony,
you find that men indeed glory in anything except the Lord,
because they presume that salvation has something to do with themselves,
something to do with what they are, with decisions they have
made, or works they have performed, or things that they have learned
by their great brilliance. The scriptures here declare,
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Let's look at
the text word by word. But what a wonderful word that
is in this place. The Apostle has just been declaring
to us how that God makes foolish the wisdom of the world. He makes
foolish the wisdom of the world, particularly the religious wisdom
of the world. The Jews desire a sign. Show us a sign. Show us some
wondrous thing. The Greeks seek after wisdom. Show us something new, something
profound, something deep. But God has made the wisdom of
this world foolishness through the simplicity that is in Christ
Jesus. The singleness that's in Christ. You see, the simplicity that's
in Christ Jesus is that singleness that he is. Salvation is just
one thing. The knowledge of God is just
one thing, and that one thing is Jesus Christ the Lord. He
is God's salvation. God has made foolish the wisdom
of this world, and he does this by bringing to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. By bringing the high and the
mighty down in their own minds and in their own esteem. By bringing
the mighty to nothing and by making the wise appear foolish
in their own eyes. And he does that by using such
things as you and me. Such insignificant, useless,
worthless pieces of human flesh as we are. He says, but of him,
of him are ye in Christ Jesus. Salvation is being in Christ. Eternal life is being in Christ. And if we are in Christ, we are
in him by the work of God Almighty. This is the work of God's wondrous
grace. He put us in his son. How can I begin to describe what
I want to declare? We are in Christ eternally. If we are made to be in Christ
in time, in the experience of grace, we are in him eternally
because God put us in him in everlasting election. We are
in him immutably. That is, our union with Christ
is a union that never varies. It never changes. It cannot be
added to. It cannot be taken from. We are
in Christ immutably. Whatever we were in Christ before
the world began, we are in Christ today and we will be in Christ
tomorrow. We are in Christ experimentally
when God the Holy Spirit gives us life and faith in Him. the fruit trees you have in your
yard. Now, I'm just telling you what other folks have told me.
I'm not an expert. The way you get these domesticated fruit
trees, these trees that have really sweet oranges and sweet
grapefruits and sweet apples and sweet peaches, is you take
two trees, one and another, one is cut original stock, can you
graft in another piece of a limb? You bind them together until
they two become one. And the grafted branch draws
all life from the branch from the original stock. And so these
two become one. In order to have this, you've
got to have two cuts. A cut in the original and a cut in the
one to be grafted. And that's what happens when
we are grafted into Christ. God, the Holy Spirit, takes the
sinner and wounds him by his grace and puts him in the Savior
who was wounded by divine justice. And we now draw life from him,
all the sap of life from him, so that the two are now one. We are in him, accepted in the
beloved. In him, blessed in him from eternity,
blessed in him in time, and blessed in him forever. Saved in him. Truly in him. John Kent wrote
a great hymn. I never get tired of reading
it, hearing it, or singing it. T'which Jesus and the chosen
race subsist a bond of sovereign grace, that hell with its infernal
train shall ne'er dissolve nor rend in vain. Hail sacred union,
firm and strong, how great the grace, how sweet the song, that
worms of flesh should ever be, one with incarnate deity, one
in the tomb when he arose, one when he triumphed over his foes,
one when in heaven he took his seat, while Sarah sang all hail's
defeat. This sacred union, forbids our
fears. For all he is or has is ours. With him, our head, we stand
or fall, our life, our surety, and our all. Now, look at what
the Spirit of God here tells us in 1 Corinthians 1.30. It
means to be in Christ. He is made of God unto us wisdom. Wisdom. Turn, if you will, to
Proverbs chapter 8. We are in Christ by the rich,
free grace and goodness of God who put us in him in sovereign
election before the world began. In him we were and are preserved. In him we were and are blessed
from everlasting. The secret, everlasting union
that's ours in Christ is made manifest in time when we're given
life and faith in Him and calls to believe on Him. But the union
is just as real from eternity as it is now that we believe
in Him and are one with Him experimentally. Our being in Christ is God's
work. It's not something That's the
result of our choice or our decision because we were wiser or nobler
or made better choices than others. It's not the result of something
we've done, some work we performed. It's not the result of our will
and our exercising our will to decide for Jesus. And it's certainly
not the result of us learning new doctrine and accepting new
doctrine. So that we now, with our new
doctrine, form a new principle by which to live. What absurdity. What nonsense. No, no. We are
in Christ by the work of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, please hear me. Please hear me. I know everybody
who stands in a pulpit like I am tonight. and opens this book
and claims to speak for God in any sense of conservative religion,
will say salvation is of the Lord. Everybody says it. Everybody
says it. And then they talk all works
and all will and all man. They make the whole of salvation
to be something that you do, something that you attain. Salvation
is God's work alone. And if you presume, if you dare
to imagine that you in some way contribute something to it, you
know nothing at all about it. Salvation is God's work, only
God's work. It's the purpose of God to make
this apparent. It is the purpose of God to force
everyone to acknowledge this. And everyone shall acknowledge
it. to Jesus Christ every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. And every person who experiences
God's grace, every person who knows what it is to be born of
God and taught of God gladly confesses with regard to himself
and with regard to all God's own salvation is of the Lord. Though we are foolish creatures
by nature, By virtue of this salvation, by virtue of our union
with Christ, Christ is made of God unto us wisdom. Now, what does that mean? Certainly,
it is he who gives us wisdom and understanding in all things
spiritual. No question about that. He is
the shining light that dispels darkness in our souls. Christ
is the wisdom that God has made to us objectively. I mean by
that, it is our highest wisdom to know him. Under the personification
of wisdom, he speaks here in Proverbs 8. He says in verse
35, he that findeth life, He that findeth me findeth life
and shall obtain the favor of the Lord. Now look what it says
concerning himself under this image as wisdom. Verse 12. I,
wisdom, dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. Wisdom here speaks not as an
idea, not as a thing, but as a person. I, wisdom, dwell with
prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. Verse 14,
counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me, kings reign and princes
decree justice. By me, princes rule and nobles,
even the judges of the earth, all of them, even the ones we
have elected here right now. I love them that love me, and
those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honor are
with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is
better than gold, yea, than fine gold, my revenue than choice
silver. I lead in the way of righteousness,
in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those
that love me to inherit substance. And I will feel their treasures.
Now, our Lord is not here telling us that he instructs men and
women and makes them wise so that they can gain power and
wealth and prestige. Not at all. He's telling us that
he comes and makes men wise spiritually and gives us spiritual treasure
because we know him. Verse 22, the Lord possessed
me. In the beginning of his way,
before his works of old, I was set up from everlasting. How
can this be? He's talking about himself as
a representative. He's talking about himself under
the personification of wisdom, not as God, the eternal son. He wasn't set up from everlasting.
But as our covenant head and surety, our mediator, he was
set up from everlasting. Read on. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, or ever the earth was, before ever the earth
was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth when there
were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were
settled, before the hills was I brought forth. While as yet
He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part
of the dust of the world, when He had prepared the heavens,
I was there. When He set a compass upon the
face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened
the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree
that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed
the foundations of the earth. Then was I by him as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him. Now, what's this? Rejoicing?
This is before ever the earth was made. This is before he made
the depths, before he caused the fountains to abound with
water, before the mountains were settled. Rejoicing in the habitable
part of his earth. How can this be? The earth wasn't
even made. Rejoicing in somebody for whom
the earth would be made. And my delights were with the
sons of men. Verse 35. For whoso findeth me,
findeth life. and shall obtain the favor of
the Lord. Christ is our wisdom in the sense
that it is our greatest wisdom to know him. It is ultimate wisdom
to know him. He is our wisdom in the sense
that he teaches us wisdom. He is our wisdom representatively.
It is he who stood for us before the world was in the council
chambers of eternity and spoke for us as our surety. It is he
who pledged himself to be our redeemer. It is he who, with
the father, made the scheme of redemption and grace. And he
still represents us and speaks for us as wisdom, as our advocate
in heaven, making intercession for us according to the will
of God, for he knows God's will. making intercession for his elect
according to the work that he finished, for he knows whom he
has redeemed and whom he's justified. And he is the revelation of God. I think more than anything else,
that's what John refers to here. As he is the word, so he is wisdom. By him, men now know God. By Him, God makes Himself known
to men. By Christ, we perceive who God
is, what God is, what God's like. We could not otherwise know Him.
We know Him because Christ has come and declared Him to us. And Christ is that one who gives
us wisdom. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. This
union with Christ makes the heaven-born soul truly wise. Truly wise. I hope this doesn't sound arrogant,
though I'm certain there's horrible pride in it. I'm not a brilliant
man academically. I'm not a brilliant man mentally. But I am a brilliant man in Christ. I know God. I know God. You understand that? I know what
the wise acres of the world are baffled trying to figure out.
I know God. I know God as He really is. I
know the revelation of God. I know the will of God. I know
the mind of God. For I have been given the mind
of Christ. Look at this, 1 Corinthians 2,
verse 14. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, for their foolishness to Him.
Neither can they know them, because they're spiritually discerned.
That is, they're only discerned in a spiritual manner. Only discerned
by the Spirit of God. Only discerned by something within. Only discerned by something in
you. called the Spirit of God, called
Christ Jesus the Lord. Not discerned by learning, not
discerned by education, not even discerned by the best teaching
men can do. I try to preach to you and teach
you line upon line, precept upon precept. I try to present messages
in a logical way. I work hard at writing out the
message of the gospel, giving it to you in every way I possibly
can. And when all said and done, the best I can do, if you learn
every word I speak and every word I write, you will have learned
nothing until you learn it from within. until God writes it on
your heart with the finger of His grace. It's spiritually discerned. Now watch this, verse 15. But
he that is spiritual, that's not talking about somebody who,
you know, kind of floats in the air and talks funny and acts
funny and you almost expect to see a halo around their head
and wings on their backs. That's not talking about that.
He that's spiritual, Rex Bartley, I'm looking in your eyes at one
who is spiritual. Larry Brown, spiritual. Shelby Fortner, spiritual. How
can that be? Born of the spirit. Born of the
spirit, not natural. Not just body and soul, but born
of the spirit. Now, spiritual. He that is spiritual
judgeth. The word is discerns all things. Yet he himself nobody can figure
out. No, he can't be judged of anybody.
Verse 16. For who has known the mind of
the Lord? That he may instruct him nobody. But we. Have. The mind. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom. So that having the mind of Christ,
we have spiritual knowledge and know all things. We have that
unction by which we know all things. We're taught of God.
Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness. Righteousness. It's common these
days to hear men use the words righteousness and holiness interchangeably. But that's a mistake. That's
a mistake. I often have said to show God's righteousness and
his holiness as though the two were the same. That's really
a mistake. As the words are used in the
scriptures, righteousness primarily, though it certainly does refer
to a person's character as he acts in this world at times,
Job defends his integrity and righteousness, but still primarily,
the word is a legal term. It speaks not of character, but
of conduct. It speaks of one who is right
at law, right in the eyes of the law, right before the law. Holiness speaks about one's character. It's not a legal term at all.
It's talking about character. Let me show you. I like to watch
Westerns and police stories. I like what's that criminal intent
Law and order thing, I like to watch that. And every now and
then I'll see a fellow who's on there, he gets in trouble
because he's a police officer and he shot somebody dead. Isn't
that shocking? And if there's an investigation
and he keeps his job and he goes back on duty, it's because they
have decided that the shooting was a righteous shooting. It was right before the law.
Righteousness primarily has to do with an act or acts or conduct. It's a righteous term before
the law so that it declares one. It is the declaration that one
is righteous before the law. It speaks of our justification
in Christ. The word of God makes it abundantly
clear that none are righteous before God by their own right. None are right before the law
by what we do. But rather, we are made righteous
in Christ and none have a right, holy character before God by
nature. But we are made holy, holiness,
sanctification in Christ Jesus, the Lord. If we have righteousness,
it is because God has made Christ unto us righteousness. Turn to
Romans chapter five. Let me show you how it's done.
Now, this is the doctrine of the gospel. The Son of God came into this
world in human flesh that he might magnify the law and make
it honorable as a representative man, as our surety, as our substitute,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, not for himself, but for his
people. God's demand is crystal clear. Listen to the scriptures. Walk before me and be thou perfect. Is that what he said to Abraham,
Genesis 17? It shall be perfect to be accepted. God will accept
no less than perfection. Nothing less. Perfect. Perfect. Be ye perfect, for I am perfect. Be ye holy, for I the Lord your
God am holy. The Lord Jesus Christ did what
none of us could do by any means at all. He walked before God
all the days of his humiliation in perfect obedience to God. As a representative man, just
like Adam in the garden, fell before God by his disobedience
as a representative man. Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Just
as we were made sinners by something done outside ourselves, we are
made righteous by something done outside ourselves. Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now notice at the beginning of
verse 13, there is a parentheses mark. And that parentheses continues
all the way through to the end of verse 17. Now, don't misunderstand
me. The parenthetical statements
are there by divine inspiration. The parenthetical statements
are inserted to explain what was stated before and what will
be stated afterwards. So you want to understand the
sentence? You pull the parenthetical statement
out and continue reading in verse 18. Read it like this. Romans
chapter 5, verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. And the sentence continues. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. What's that mean? For as
by one man's disobedience, Many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Wow. By one man's
disobedience. There's our father, Adam, represented
Mr. Jordan here and all who were
in Adam, everybody in the human race, everybody disobeyed God
in him and died in him. and are damned in Him. Everybody. There is a man figuratively here
representing another Adam, Christ Jesus the Lord. And everybody
represented by Him, all who are in Him, all God's elect, obey
God in Him. When He came and said, Lo, I
come to do thy will, oh my God, we obey God in Him. When he broke
his mother's womb and came doing his father's will, we obey God
in him. When he walked on this earth
and said, I must be about my father's business, we were doing
our father's business in him. When he walked before God submitting
himself, say not my will, thy will be done in all things, fulfilling
every jot and tittle of the law. We obey God in him, fulfilling
every jot and tittle of the law until at last he cried, it's
finished. and bowed his head and gave up
the ghost, having been obedient even unto death, finally completely
obeying God, subjecting himself to the will of his Father in
all things. We obeyed God in him, and when
he died, we died in him. Is that or is it not the very
language of Holy Scripture? I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not
I but Christ liveth in me in the life that I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith the faithful obedience of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me We are risen together
with Christ quicken together with Christ seated with him all
things in him so that Bobby by what he did we obey God and faith
meets every demand offering what our Lord has done. That's it.
That's it. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So real is this righteousness. So genuinely are we made the
righteousness of God in him. that he gives us his name Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. Christ Jesus gives us this righteousness
and it is rightfully ours. Oh, my soul, it is rightfully
ours because of the virtue of his obedience. He did this for
us, and He is a representative of infinite value, of infinite
worth, and our righteousness is ours by right because He earned
it for us. And for this righteousness, the
Lord God will reward us in everlasting life in the Day of Judgment. He calls us before the bar of
judgment, having performed for us everything necessary to bring
us into glory. And then he says, well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Imagine that. He did it. But he says to you, well done.
How come? Because you did it. really and
truly did it, insofar as the law is concerned, in the representative. This wondrous mystery is the
very first thing revealed in the gospel. Christ is our righteousness. We have no other. Profound as
it is, wondrous as it is, deep as it is, it is the very first
thing the sinner is taught when it comes to Christ in faith.
Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification. And sanctification. Again, God Almighty demands perfection. And what he demands, he performs. Everything he requires of his
own, He gives to His own. What God gives us in Christ is
perfection in these three ways. First, perfection requires perfect
obedience, as we've just seen. Christ was perfectly obedient,
and we're perfectly obedient in Him. Second, perfection requires
complete atonement. full satisfaction of justice,
so that the law and justice of God has no requirement against
you, no penalty to be met, no punishment yet to be executed. And Jesus Christ, by His shed
blood at Calvary, fully satisfied God's justice. God pulled out
his sword, Phil Simpson, and wet it in the blood of his son
and wore it out in his son and buried it in his son. And when
he did, he did it for you. Justice is satisfied, but something
else is required if we would be perfect. Something else is
required. Salvation is not just a theory. It's not just a principle. If
you enter glory, you've got to have a perfect nature. You got
to have a nature fit for glory, a perfect nature, one that does
not sin and cannot sin and never could and never shall. A perfect
nature. Whenever you think about the
things of God, don't limit yourself. Go just as far as your mind's
imagination can carry you in faith. And when you have reached
the end of faith's vast imagination, you haven't even begun to get
started knowing the depths of His grace. God Almighty makes
His people new creatures in Christ, giving them a perfect nature
in the new birth. the book of First John. When the scripture speaks here
of Christ being made unto us sanctification, several things
are obvious. One, sanctification is not a
work you do. That flies in the face of religion, doesn't it?
Sanctification is not, it's not God kind of getting you started
in the direction of holiness. And then you, you know, you flex
your muscles and you exercise real discipline and you don't
eat so much and you don't drink so much and you don't cuss so
much. And after a while, you quit cussing at all and you start
to talk real pretty and you behave right and you do right. And that's
good. That's good. But it sure don't
make you holy. And every child of God knows
it. Because you know there's not anything in you that's holy.
Nothing. Nothing about your nature. No
work of yours. Tell me. I'll stand the risk
of being disputed. Anybody here who's ever even
had a thought with which you'd like to stand before God. Just a thought. I'm not talking
about a word or a work. Just a thought. Just a thought. Give me this one thing and I'll
stand before God with this one pure, holy, perfect thought. One thing. Just one thing. In
your whole life. No, Pastor. No. How come? Because you can't do holiness. You can't do it. Doesn't lie
within the realm of possibility. But Christ comes in and he is
made of God unto you. Sanctification. You know what
that word is? Get your concordance when you
go home. Look it up. It is exactly the same word that's
translated elsewhere in scripture. Holiness. Holiness. In the new birth, God puts in
you a holy nature that cannot sin, that does not sin, that
will not sin, so that every believer lives with two distinct natures,
one constantly warring against the other, one despising the
other, flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. Let's see what the book says. First John chapter
three, verse five. You know that Christ was manifested
to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. That's some statement. Did we read, David, of Him are
ye in Christ Jesus? And in Him is no sin? In Him is no sin? then that we
that's in him has no sin. Oh brother, this is strange. It's not strange at all. He put
something new in you, made partakers of the divine nature. That holy
thing conceived in the virgin's womb by the Holy Spirit was Christ
the Lord in human flesh. And that holy thing conceived
in you and brought forth in you by God the Holy Spirit is Christ
in you the hope of glory. Read on. In him is no sin. Verse 6. Whosoever abideth in
him sinneth not. Now almost every
commentator you read will translate that this way. He doesn't habitually
sin. But that is not what the text
says. The text says, sinneth not. And it says it in Greek,
just like it does in English. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Paul said, it's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. You understand that? Two natures. Adam sins. Christ doesn't. Verse 7. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous. That new man, he's
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin, that
old man, he's of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested,
that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born
of God, look at this, doth not commit sin. Doesn't do it. For his sin remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin. There's a good reason for that.
He's born of God. He's born of God. If he's born
of God, he can't sin. If he sins, he's not born of
God. How much plainer could things be? Turn to Romans chapter 8. We live in this body of flesh,
but being born of God, we no longer live after the flesh and
in the flesh. Listen to Paul's doctrine here.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. To walk
after the Spirit is to walk by faith in Christ. That's what
it is to walk after the Spirit. Verse 5. They that walk after
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They love laws
and rules and orders, They love sacrifices and holy days and
ceremonies. But they that are after the spirit,
they mind the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded, to
worship God after the flesh, is death. But to be spiritually
minded, that's life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the spirit. We've been brought into a new
realm of existence called holiness, sanctification in the spirit
of God. For Christ is in us and we're
in him. Back at our text of him. Are
you in Christ, Jesus? who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I can just give
you the gloss. The word here, translated redemption,
means complete deliverance by a ransom. Complete deliverance
by a ransom. It is not speaking about our
redemption from eternity by Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, though that's included. It is not speaking of our our
redemption by Christ shed blood at Calvary, though that's certainly
included when he by his blood obtained eternal redemption for
us. It is not speaking of our redemption or deliverance and
regeneration by the new birth, by the power of God's grace,
though certainly that's included. This is talking about that redemption
spoken of in Romans chapter eight. If you still there, if you still
got your Bible mark there, Romans chapter eight, verse twenty two. For we. Know that the whole creation
grown and travail in pain together until now, and not only so, Not
only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of
the Spirit, this faith in Christ. Even we ourselves grow within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, that is to say, the redemption
of our body. Soon, soon, Christ will come
again in His glory to be admired in all his saints and in all
them that believe to be glorified in us. And when he does, these
bodies, these corrupt bodies, these bodies that soon will be
sown in the earth in corruption and will rot and go back to the
dust. These mortal bodies will be raised
in incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality and
we will stand together with Christ in the flesh glorious even as
he is glorious in the flesh one with him And this is how God saves sinners,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. I kept thinking,
how do I find the proper conclusion for this message? And when I
sat down and wrote out Amen, I didn't have it. And then Brother
Rex read 1 Peter chapter 5, and he got to verse 12. And the very
last sentence of verse 12, this is what I wanted to say. This
is the true grace of God wherein you stand. Oh, God, make it so
for you. Amen.

Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, & Redemption

What does the Bible say about wisdom in Christ?

How do we know righteousness in Christ is true?

Why is sanctification important for Christians?

What does redemption mean in the context of the Gospel?

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Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, & Redemption

What does the Bible say about wisdom in Christ?

How do we know righteousness in Christ is true?

Why is sanctification important for Christians?

What does redemption mean in the context of the Gospel?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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