In Christ - J. Dwight Pentecost

you're listening to dallas theological seminaries chapel podcast let's pray as we dedicate this hour to the lord father we love you today and we are grateful for the finished work of christ on the cross for the continuing work that he does on our behalf at your right hand as we were reminded this week as we expect his return in the future we're so grateful that you and your grace reached out to us brought us into a relationship with you through your son by the regenerating work of your spirit and we bask in that acceptance in the beloved one thank you for imputing to us the righteousness of christ so that we might be right with you and have fellowship a relationship that is sweet and joyful father we come to this hour and we are grateful we thank you for one who will speak to us for his whole life of dedication to you his ministry his example his teaching his love for you his love for your word thank you for the books that he has written the churches he has pastored the students he has mentored thank you for the friends that he has made and encouraged encourages so well along the way thank you for his ongoing ministry in Swiss tower as he lives with our students those couples and young people there thank you for enabling him to serve as long as he has here at DTS we love him and we love you because you have first loved us and one of the gifts that you've given to us is dr. Pentecost empower him and enable him in this hour we pray we ask it in Jesus name amen that's all the introduction I need to give him it's all he will let me give I figured if I did it in prayer he couldn't stop me dr. J Dwight Pentecost ever since the close of Chapel yesterday number of students have said I'm waiting to hear what your rejoinder to the speaker is going to be I was in the dilemma I did not know whether to be carnal and respond or demonstrate my spirituality by saying nothing I trust you are impressed if you were to evaluate theologians you would find some things upon which their entire system is based if you looked at Calvin you would say he's divine sovereignty if you looked at our mineus who say it's freedom of the will she looked at dr. Schaefer you would say unbounded grace if you were to look at the Apostle Paul's I think he would find his theology based on just two words in Christ in the New Testament more than 600 times more than 200 times that phrase in Christ in him in the beloved is we found and I want to look at that which was the basis of Paul's theology I remember dr. Schaeffer quoting an old hymn that was a favorite to him so dear so dear to God dearer I could not be for the love with which he loved his son such was his love for me so near so nearer to God nearer I could not be for in the person of his son I am as near as he Paul affirms in Ephesians one sake that were accepted in the beloved this means that by divine reckoning you and I were a participant in every experience that the Lord Jesus hand we were crucified with Christ we were resurrected with Christ we ascended with Christ and were seated at the right hand of the Father in glory Paul affirms is so clearly in Galatians 2:20 I have been and I'd like to expand the tents I was and consequently now I am one who was crucified with Christ that does not mean my crucifixion had anything to do with payment for sin for death of one under the curse could not satisfy the demands of God's holiness but because I was identified with him in death all of the righteousness that brought about his sacrifice could be set down to my account and becomes my present possession God never sees me apart from his son one of the great pretty British preachers of a past generation FB Meyer in one of his daily homilies put it this way all things that pertain to life and godliness await our appropriation all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus there is no conceivable grace or virtue no fabric of the Divine looms for the souls dress no ornament of heavenly jewelry for the souls adorning no weapons are celestial temper for the souls equipment no Saul salve or balm of divine comfort for the souls healing which is not ours in Jesus all things in Christ Paul is presuming that work of the Holy Spirit that is described in first Corinthians 12:13 by one spirit we're all baptized into one body now Paul does not go into the details there as what it means to be baptized into Christ but as Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 6 he gives us the details Christ had promised in John 14 and verse 17 that the spirit who had been with them would be in them he promised again in John 14 20 and you will be in me in John 14 23 he promised that not only the spirit and the son but the father himself would take up residence in the believer this is not something to set out to prove it is a special revelation to be accepted and responded to we're in dwelt by the triune God and all that the Sun is done is set down to our accountant Romans 6 and in verse 3 we have been joined by that baptizing word of the Spirit in the death of Jesus his act was an act of obedience to the Father from the time of the cradle the son was under a constant death threat and though attempts were made on his life it was noted that his hour had not yet come but as he observes the Passover and realizes that he is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world he embraces that role as a sacrificial lamb with joy because he's obedient to the father and now being joined to him in his death the obedience of Christ that gained God's approval of the righteousness of the son can be attributed to us it's the basis of our justification and as you have early learned in your theology justification does not mean God makes us righteousness but means that God declares us to be righteous a strong emphasis in the theology of dr. Schaefer was his emphasis on imputation you read the classic theologians of past years and will find only scant if any reference to the fact of imputation an imputation is a sovereign act of God in which God attributes on the basis of the work of Christ the righteousness that belong to Christ so that his righteousness becomes my righteousness and as they just holy God looks at me he can declare justified identification with Christ in his death liberate us from slavery to the world slavery from sin slavery to Satan we were born into this world as enslaved it was our nature to sin and we saved there's only one way a slave in Egypt whose life consisted of making bricks for Pharaoh could escape that bondage and that was through death death would liberate him there's only one way that you and I can be redeemed and set free from slavery to the world the flesh and the devil and that is to die God does not ask us to crucify ourselves that would be impossible self crucifixion would have been a physical impossibility it's something that had to be done to the one who's nailed to the cross you cannot crucify yourself but you can consent to the fact that you died with Christ you have that on the authority of God himself we were baptized into his death in 1930 a young lady about whom I know nothing civilus Martin wrote lyrics that Wendell loveless then joined to a melody in the beloved accepted a my risen ascended and seated on high saved from all sin through his infinite grace with a redeemed once accorded a place in the beloved how safe my retreat in the beloved accounted complete who can condemn me in him I am free Savior and keeper forever is he in the beloved I went to the tree there in his person by faith I may see infinite wrath rolling over his head infinite grace for ABAT died in my stead in him in the beloved his righteousness is set down to my account God has not asked me to explain it or understand it all you believe it as an accomplished fact so he says in Romans 11 count it to be true but beyond that is Romans 6 teaches not only was I crucified with Christ but when Christ was resurrected I was in him and was resurrected with him so that as Christ by resurrection was not limited to the physical sphere but entered into a new sphere so you and I by Co resurrection have entered a new sphere in which life is to be lived it is not me living it is Christ who lives in me who is living his life through me and the Christian life is the life of Christ lived out in the believer by the indwelling Christ and by the Holy Spirit who dwells within dr. Schaefer by initial training was a musician and floating around campus I've seen a rather small pamphlet that has printed the words and music of some of dr. Schafer's compositions and I found this one thou are calling me Lord Jesus as thy living witness here only by thy life within me can i any witness share thou are calling me Lord Jesus to be working one with thee only by thy life within me can there any service be thou art calling me Lord Jesus to prevailing power and prayer only by that life within me can i intercession share thou are calling me Lord Jesus to a Victor's holy life only by thy life within me is there conquest in the strife fill me Holy Spirit fill me all I filling would I need would I know I'm smallest of the vessels but I'm much can overflow Christ the resurrected one living his life through me because I have been resurrected with him and again as Paul writes in Ephesians he presents the glorious truth we not only were crucified now my work were we resurrected but that when he ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father we were in him and God sees us as already having reached our destiny and throned with Christ in glory you already doubts about your security how could you have any when God says I never see you apart from my son Ephesians verse 4 chapter 3 God who is rich in mercy for us his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin F made us alive together with Christ by grace by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Co crucifixion Co resurrection Co and throne Minh and from the Father's right hand while we labor through the maze that surrounds us in this cosmos our destiny has already been accomplished we're one with him the riches that belong to Christ are yours they are mine Jesus promised I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also in 1st Thessalonians 4 Paul describing that glorious transformation at the rapture says that he is coming to take us to himself the Bible never teaches that Christ is coming to take us to heaven heaven could be a very lonely empty place because he's not coming to take us to a place although I'm not suggesting heaven is not real but it's coming to take us to himself that is five Paul refers to believers as those who will complete Christ we can't conceive of anything less than total completeness but as the bridegroom is incomplete without his bride Christ's heart is yearning when all that we have in Christ will be actually our experience and will be realized and will be with him in glory Paul teaches the Colossians that when he comes will appear with him and the old translation say appear with him in glory that suggests glory is a place and I'm suggesting that Paul is telling us not where we'll be but the state in which will be found he that hath his hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure coke rusev I'd Co resurrected Cohen throne now awaiting that moment when we stand in the presence of the glorified one as sharing his glory our Father this is not something to wrestle with and try to explain in natural terms but a fact to be believed and you said counted to be true that this is how I see you and we praise you that you see us in your son and await the glory that will be revealed when he claims his own Jesus name I pray amen

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 10,815

Rating: 4.8904109 out of 5

Keywords: In Christ, Paul, theology, Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Dwight Pentecost

Id: uiTMYqN6gQk

Length: 32min 16sec (1936 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 16 2012