Reformed Academy Update / Union with Christ and Sanctification

[Music] welcome to christ the center your weekly conversation of reformed theology i believe this is episode 716 my name is camden busey i'm here in gray's lake illinois uh if you're watching the video you'll see we have a little bit different of a setup on the side table and i have with me here in studio ryan noah serves as a executive assistant here reform forum and helps a tremendous amount with reformed academy welcome ryan it's good to see you thank you camden good to be in studio and yeah studio with you because normally when i'm in studio you're out of town doing the work of the evangelist uh even out of the country so it's a pleasure yeah well i'm glad to be back it's been uh i've been back for a couple weeks now but as you heard in the last episode we uh well doug claussen and i were out of the country we were in colombia doing some work through opc foreign missions and i was teaching two courses there uh in different cities one on roman catholicism and uh looking at the reformation roman catholicism and the reformation today kind of looking at the history but then also comparing and contrasting the theology of post-vatican ii roman catholicism with that of um you know confessional reformed orthodoxy and then the second course i taught was on lamentations habakkuk and zephaniah and that's based on a bible study book i wrote with crossway i think i'm out of copies of that here so i need to reorder that so that we're going to have them in the store uh but uh if you'd like to hear a little bit of the material from the roman catholicism course you can find that on episode 715 and jim cassidy and i discussed that and talked a bit about the effects of modernism on roman catholicism and american presbyterianism because there are some parallel tracks there so if you're interested in hearing you know from the 18 1879 in catholicism leading all the way up to eventually what happened in 1962 to 1965 it's it's interesting i think as an historian just to compare these parallel tracks and see how modernism impacted both churches and what the churches did about it just the short thesis catholicism kind of solved solved the problem of modernism uh with vatican ii which some people you know see the imprint of carl rauner and the new theology and other folks there large on that it basically uh almost kind of universalized catholicism in terms of its the church's relationship to the world and then uh mainline american presbyterianism at least solved the problem of modernism by turning to bart and we see the effects of that in the confession of 1967 but today we're not going to be talking about catholicism directly we'll come back around to that at the reform forum conference i'm working on a lecture on 20th century catholicism and nature and grace and how that relates to the deeper protestant conception as expounded by gerhardis vos our subject matter for that conference is the covenant of works so if you're interested in attending visit us online at reformedforum.org conference for information we're down in flugerville texas which is just outside of austin should be a wonderful time but we've got big big news this week as this episode is released on september 17 2021 we will be releasing a new course on reformed academy of course taught by lane tipton entitled union with christ the benefits of his suffering and glory so we're going to drop that course we've been working on it for quite some time i think five months ago was or thereabouts when lane recorded it here in studio and uh took me long enough to um to uh edit it and get it all ready video wise but uh ryan why don't you tell us what we've been doing sure and uh where this course is the work that you've done over the last couple weeks and the the people that have been helping with it and then we'll situate this course within the larger context of reformed academy and perhaps talk about that in the future of our of our initiatives there sure yeah well this course uh union with christ the the benefits of his suffering and glory is all about uh redemption accomplished and applied and it takes its it takes its its pedagogical uh jumping off our starting point with question and answer 30 of the westminster shoulder catechism all about how uh how the spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by christ and he applies the redemption purchased by christ by working faith in us and uniting us to christ in effectual calling and so the course is ten lessons and it begins with redemption accomplished and then ends with uh redemption applied by the spirit in that faith union with christ and unpacks how we receive all the benefits of of christ's work namely his justification and sanctification and adoption and all the all the benefits that accompany and flow from those and over the past few weeks uh what i've been doing is building the course in our reformed academy uh so i've i've been making the quizzes yeah watching the lectures and and you know looking for for questions that will um be geared towards comprehension so that you can track with us and make sure you're understanding the material um and also helping folks to stay on the rails you know because there are certain things that we we especially want to guard against theologically and want to make sure that our students have the proper knowledge about so that's what i've been doing and um i've been working also already with some of our our friends that speak other languages and are helping us to correct and review and edit the subtitles that we've already had done in spanish and we also have in simplified chinese and so we're just thrilled about that yeah those are a big emphases at the moment not only getting as many courses recorded on specific and important topics that are under-treated or underserved in the community we realize there are a lot of reformed groups that produce educational material we love that we don't want to compete we don't view it that way at all but we're looking at our specific strengths and abilities and opportunities and trying to develop courses that fit those gaps that fill a hole so to speak and so this is a unique course union with christ the benefits of his suffering and glory it's very uh reformed forum-esque insofar as we follow in the in the tradition of vos and van till and um the redemptive historical theologians such as vos klein gaffen and you know that whole strand that's what we do you know if if you've been hanging around reform forum for any amount of time you know that's our that's our thing and um so we're trying to contribute in a way that is in accord with our strengths and uh also in accord with our our great desire to present every person mature in christ but we view the way to do um that the church is able to do what paul says in colossians 1 28 is specifically through uh an inculcation and cultivation of the mindset of the deeper protestant conception something that vos talked about this understanding that man is created in natural religious fellowship with god and with um the the promise of moving beyond the state in which he was created and in innocency which was very good but moving on to the consummate state of glory and uh beatific vision in in the new heavens and the new earth that is critical so we're everything we're doing is trying to push toward that main thesis that main vision that understanding of the christian life as we're pilgrims now moving through the wilderness toward that final end which is achieved now after the fallen to sin only through the person the life death and resurrection of jesus christ so uh this course is all about that how we are united to that christ who secures that salvation for us and brings us to indeed he's already accomplished it but now the application of that salvation is being worked out in us by the spirit this is the course it's available now as as you're listening to this on reformedforum.org and before we talk more specifically about the the um the specifics of reformed academy which is a portion of the of the website all at reformedforum.org um we do have also some updates some of you been getting emails about this course foundations of covenant theology also by lane tipton this is a wonderful book on it's a biblical theological study of genesis 1-3 you may remember years ago just a few years ago we had a special seminar down in wimberley texas and lane taught this material and we recorded it and it turned out excellently and we've formulated and fashioned that into a course that is now also available on reformed academy for free you can watch you could sign up for a free account and you could take the course and it'll track your progress and everything all entirely for free other than the exchange of an email address you don't even have to give us a real one we want you to give us a real email address but if you're really private and don't want us to know who you are whatever you can give us a fake one and it'll still work you don't have to send us a scan of your driver's license or anything like that so we uh after a while we're able to formulate all of the lecture material and to uh have it edited and produced into this wonderful little paperback book uh we've sold i don't know 800 of these so far that's right um now we also have this which is a little usb thumb drive usb 3. i p we paid extra to get a really fast one these are 64 gigabytes um they come and they're less than half full but you're getting all the videos uh in hd they look great they have good audio uh we have accompanying mp3 files so if you just want the audio want to load that up on an ipod or something like or do people have ipods anymore on your phone or burn them off to cd and take them with you and listen to them in your car whatever then you can do that we also have the subtitle files which are just specially formatted text files so if you're using a player like vlc media player which i use on mac or you can get it on windows it's open source when you open a video file you can point it to a corresponding subtitle file and we have all the subtitles captions in english but then subtitles in spanish and simplified chinese so you can follow along in another language there as well as the pdf handouts all of that is pre-loaded onto a usb drive so if you're interested in this course you can now buy the book on its own you can buy the usb drive on its own you could buy the two together in a bundle and save a few dollars on our website or what i recommend you can buy the all-in-one course pack which has 10 copies of the paperback book and a copy uh one usb drive with the whole course pre-loaded onto it excuse me so this is kind of a a plan for us moving forward where our goal is to record a course to make it available for free on reformed academy to anyone around the world to get it translated into as many languages as possible and feasible and that makes sense you know as many speakers and that we have relationships with people in foreign mission fields who speak that language then to have a companion book that is tailored toward not only the individual reader but would have discussion questions and would be formatted in a way that would be useful for adult sunday school or study groups and then also to have you know the usb drives to make it even easier for people to lead a group that's going through this particular course so this is the first kind of complete package of what we pray will be many many to come so we have six courses in reformed academy uh i think this is the sixth complete one and then there's a seventh coming or is it the fifth complete one and then the sixth coming this is uh we have one in the westminster shore yeah we have westminster shorter catechism two on covenant theology um and then we have oh man until yeah the van till's uh two courses on van tilt so we have five this will be the sixth and then uh lord willing i know we have our conference coming up and a lot going on but lord willing will have the completed westminster shorter catechism really not the completion of an already existence that's right okay because right now we just have questions one through 38 which which incidentally or providentially would be great to study as a compliment to dr tipton's lane uh dr tipton's union with christ course yes in that there's really a catechetical design built into the union with christ course that that begins with question 23 about how christ executes the offices of you know prophet priest and king in the estate of humiliation and exaltation and goes all the way up to the benefits that we receive from christ uh when we pass into glory right so that'd be a terrific course to uh to look at hand in hand you know when when he opens up question 30 see what dr cassidy says about it in in his course yes and also check out some of the resources that we've recommended in reformed academy as supplements whether it's williamson or right boss etc that's great that's great um one more reminder we're going to put uh the final lecture for this course at the end of this episode uh we've already included the first lecture of this course in a previous episode of christ the center a few weeks ago i'll put a link to that in the episode description as well but just a reminder to everyone uh for all of these episodes i put chapter markers into the id3 tag of the audio so if you are using apple podcasts or as i do an app like pocket casts or any you know modern updated podcast player you should be able to view all the chapters in each podcast episode and then skip around so if you want to skip ahead to the lecture right now and you can uh also these chapter markers are included in the youtube videos so if you're watching this on youtube or listening and got something else going on in the background you can go and either on the timeline click among the different chapters or in the episode description you'll be able to see a table of contents with time codes and you can click on those so now i've mentioned this several times but if you uh if you're interested in hearing us talk about reformed academy more generally thank you we love talking about our work and would love to hear from you but if you're not interested in this these details um then skip ahead to the lecture if you'd like but just i want to remind everyone that we take the time to make those chapter markers so use them um and not a lot of podcasts do that because it's it's annoying it's time-consuming for you you mean yeah but there's a labor of love there's there's great benefit down the road and i it also helps me in in the creation of the the video highlights and stuff like that so there are some synergies here but let's talk about the process here of of creating a course because i think some people might be interested to hear a little behind the scenes how this works and um and then uh perhaps we can parlay that into talking more the bigger picture about you know the road map and the vision that we have for reformed academy which and then we'll that'll allow us to let people know how they might be able to help us achieve that yeah vision for the future absolutely well one thing that you mentioned that was that was important camden is that we don't just come up with our ideas for reform forum or reformed academy courses out of the blue or or even necessarily based on what what's interesting to us at the moment right but really in terms of what local churches in the states and around the world are telling us would be helpful for the gathering and the perfecting of the saints and so that's why we focused on on the catechism and our covenant theology and and you know van till's work as well right so this stuff doesn't exist right people want it right how many times have i heard from people people in in even a brother in colombia who keeps telling me we need van till in spanish yeah and how what a joy it is to be able to say brother we have uh two full courses yeah with subtitles and lord willing accompanying books yeah you know to come yes in spanish even correct um so that's a joy so we're trying to serve the church very intentionally in in the uh the work that we're doing in our reformed academy how it happens is uh in terms of um we record the course we bring them in here uh to reform forum studio or office and um after that you take a a ton of time to uh to edit the uh the videos and chop them up i watch them first and i give you all the time codes and say this is where you need to put a break here and i yeah i come up with the uh it's not as simple as these no it's not you know because the the lecture notes that we receive are not not always formatted in a way for producing video that's true that's true yes and sometimes the notes are don't exist sometimes they don't exist yeah and with with someone whom the lord has just tremendously gifted in this way he could have a lecture that doesn't follow the notes at all yeah you know but he just knows the material yeah it just comes it's tremendous so um after we get all the videos chopped up then we go into uh kind of the course building stage in our uh learn dash software for our reformed academy and we should say this is this is integrated into our website so we use wordpress as our content management system and then we use a plugin called learndash which extends the functionality of wordpress so people are able to take a course inside wordpress you can log in with a free account you could create an account and then log in and then see all of our courses and then you can register right and what's it look like there when people register like what describe it well yeah when people register you're you're immediately uh given full and free access to to all of our courses there's no additional payments or anything involved and you're brought to uh our course page where you can see all of our offerings with with uh small descriptions you're able to to download our course materials and you're able to begin that process of of guided instruction step by step on your own time right on your own time yeah working your way through the course um and then you're also able to at at offerings as the lord provides um to to go deeper by joining a cohort that will accompany um one or more of the courses we've already given uh offered two cohorts in the past and we're we're following that um uh our fellowship in reformed apologetics right which is all about van till's trinity vantill's theology and his apologetics and uh lord willing we'll have more of those to come yes that's an eight or or more week course in which we'll meet uh weekly after having watched uh the the video uh for that that lesson and also done uh in some cases a large amount of reading from from primary and secondary sources and then we gather with the instructor to have a uh you know a a structured discussion not a free-for-all but one in which which students are really able to to interact face to face and to to get their questions answered or to float new ideas or to talk about potential avenues for original research or how they might apply this in their local churches really to bring the whole so what question uh to bear in a group of like-minded students that want to serve the lord and want to sit under faithful teaching yes yeah this has been a very effective way for us to extend the on-demand portion the the what we're doing through reformed academy is is in many ways on-demand global education but they're it's not you know obviously there are better ways and more advanced ways to educate you can't always do it at scale but for those people who want to go deeper and have the ability and the time we offer these cohorts and we're looking to offer find more ways to educate and to connect people with other people who want to learn to other students and to encourage um growth in this way obviously within the context of local churches we never want anyone to be you know some sort of rogue student who's who's doing something outside the context of their church or their churches disapproving of it or unaware of it whatever that's never our intention we never want us to um replace christian education in the home and in the local church and even in the regional church through or through denominations but to supplement that with like-minded churches either churches that are in nate park or the icrc those are our those are ecumenical relations there okay so we're looking to expand and to do more in terms of christian education in this route as much as possible to make things free and accessible to all but that requires that we would record these courses try to get them translated and then build them out so let's let's get to the details what does it look now after having just finished building this course out how can uh you know how how do we do this and what does it look like and you know who what types of people are helping so that people get a sense of all the labor that went into this free course that's available for them online right um in terms of in terms of other laborers that we that we partner with um we've we've looked to for our initial uh translations or our initial subtitles uh rev.com yeah we use a service it's a right a service where um you have certified native speakers who are able to very quickly uh i'm talking one or two day turnaround oh they did the entire course uh in one day i i put the order in for all 51 videos um in the morning and by the evening they were complete right in english spanish and chinese formatted integrated and available uh through our our vimeo account right it was amazing yeah but that's not enough so we use that it's an amazing service we love it it's relatively affordable uh it's super fast what is most important is that we also have now the technological means to update them and then it automatically syncs back to our vimeo account which is where our videos are hosted so it's extremely convenient and integrated but what do we do now that we have translations and subtitles that are provided by people who may or may not understand our subject matter right that's where i'll go back in and look at the english subtitles just to make sure that everything is everything is good um even the best years and and we're talking native speakers here these are not you know esl students that are translating this um sometimes you make a mistake let me let me give you one or you might be from new jersey right and you can't talk correctly right right we have rammers and we have one teacher like dad who's a let's fan and folks know him yeah but but in our case because because camden and we'd you'd want to do this in any calling uh seek to be found faithful in in in the lord's eyes yes but particularly when we're dealing with with matters of of life and death and and and we are coming alongside the church that has the keys of the kingdom we want to make sure that we're communicating what is faithful and radically consistent with scripture and so sometimes there'll be you know an innocent error of the ear where the uh the the person might say adam was created immutable right instead of instead of mutable it says well we don't no that's that's not right and so we'll go back in and make that correction sure a lot of times um uh you'll have native speakers that that catch every word but they might be unfamiliar with our our niche of reformed theology and so they've never heard of hermann bavink or van till yeah and they might spell that any one of five different ways yeah right or or no you know that this is this is a proper noun here because it's the title of a book rather than just yes a description a description so then we uh we get all that fixed in english and then we employ many different volunteers i shouldn't still employ they're volunteers we have many people that come alongside us and help and we've had many many offers so we're trying to to stick as much as possible with people with whom we're familiar and specifically with people we're not only familiar with them but also with their church context and whatnot but there are many times in which things might be grammatically correct they might be syntactically correct but they're not correct for the ecclesiastical context right one example we brought up before but this comes up a lot is what word do we use for covenant in different languages and you might have something that's absolutely correct and one example is there's a great difference in in latin america on the word that you use in the reformed churches that i've been in and when i visited colombia they use pacto all the time i don't know offhand what the the translation is for the or what the other alternative is i'm slipping my mind because we use pacto but the other version might be um much more common with i might be getting this all mixed up but there there is a word that is used as syntactically and grammatically correct but it is more identified with roman catholic theology now you need to have wisdom in terms of where and when to try to overcome false understandings of concepts merely through the use of a word and when it makes sense to just use a different word that doesn't have the baggage right that's the nature of theological interpretation i mean bible translators have been dealing with this for centuries so these are some of the challenges that we need to address and that we seek to work through but we're always seeking to do it with native speakers who are familiar with the theology but more importantly also connected with um you know indigenous churches uh with whom we uh you know naypark and icrc churches but specifically our board members uh have interaction this is where the work of douglas claussen comes in so significantly he's a board member but he's also uh the associate general secretary for foreign missions for the opc so he has a lot of hands-on and boots on the ground experience with people in fields and if he doesn't he knows somebody that does and so we as a para church are seeking to support the church but also to come alongside the church and perhaps other para-church organizations who have expertise in certain domains we're not foreign missionaries we engage in the assistance of and in a lot of activities that help in foreign missions and in christian education in foreign fields but reform forum is not trying to cultivate and maintain a specific you know missionary relationships and ecumenical relationships in the field right that's that's the work of the church properly speaking not or get or or uh you know or organism instituted but uh you know we have people involved at reform forum who do these sorts of things in terms of their calling as ministers specifically working in and through the church so it's not an either or you know there's some overlap there right but that's how we conceptualize those things and it's been going well we you you have a lot of contact with people through email and and through the phone and are hearing wonderful things from people i just when i was down at columbia somebody came up to me and says uh you work with ryan right oh yes praise the lord yeah i do and you know so you you beat me uh you had already digitally met and you didn't interact runner and then you went there and yeah no you know we've we've had occasion a number of times camden just to uh just to just to give god praise and to be drawn to doxology for reformed academy and because it's a case in point that he is bringing people to us that we haven't necessarily sought out no and we do not know and so i receive emails from folks and i love i try to do my best to respond in a timely manner yeah about how this is this is encourage them in their knowledge of christ or help them understand the covenants better or has has taken them from from this one error into a more biblical understanding and people from all different countries and so that's that's the work of the holy spirit who is is gathering and perfecting his people and insofar as we do anything good at all it is the work of god's grace causing us to toil with all our energy for the sake of jesus glory um so it's it's been a real joy just to uh just to see how big the body of christ is and how how much bigger god's vision is for bringing the riches of the reformed faith to the whole world than than ours is i know it just oh that was one of the greatest benefits to me personally how the lord blessed me in my trip to colombia just to to see with my eyes and hear with my ears a testimony to his grace in the lives of these people and sometimes you can think okay number one we're hovering around 3 000 students at reformed academy praise the lord we don't care about numbers but we're thankful that people are coming you know we're just seeking to be faithful the lord's given us this opportunity and and um these resources in terms of our time and opportunity and our knowledge and whatnot to share that with people who would like to to learn and praise the lord that he's you know seems to be bringing about a certain type of harvest it's not the final harvest that's not what i'm saying but a certain type of harvest in terms of the um the increasing knowledge and awareness and the deepening understanding that people have of their lord and savior but when we're when we here are working in illinois and um working on a computer a lot you know you don't always connect the numbers and the you know the the completed lessons that people are doing online you don't connect it conceptually and in your heart with actual people's lives right they're there there are real people at the other end of these digital transactions in the sense of you know clicking and receiving and that kind of thing but to go uh well one to discuss and talk with people through email is one thing to talk with amount of phones another to go there in person and hear how the materials we've been putting online have been helpful to people it just changes your your at least for me it enlarged my my vision and my scope of my awareness of what the lord was doing and it's very humbling because it also shrinks us as we ought to be shrunk right and helps us to uh see the greatness and the glory of the lord and what he's doing and how we are privileged every single person in christ is privileged in one way shape or form to be a part of this body and to perform the the function that the lord has called us to perform as a member of that body and he gives us the grace a unique measured a unique measure of his varied grace to accomplish the work that he set before us you know first peter but we could also think of ephesians 2 all of these passages which talk about our role in the body that way so man it's just you know from my perspective we just want to do more work we're seeing what the lord has been doing we would love to record more and more courses we have a whole road map of 89 courses we could add more but we have people geared up and capable of teaching these courses it's not like we're looking around now oh well we need a course on x y and z and who in the world could we ever have or we don't need to send people off to get educated to teach these things it's like we're locked and loaded i mean we've got a magazine that is full yeah full clip focal it's ready to go and uh what do we do we need um to schedule them we need to bring them into the studio we need to record them we need to get edit those recordings we need to do so with the view of the church in mind that we're recording the courses that the church needs and not just things that are peculiar interests to us but that are that are demanded by the church that no one else is doing such things and then we need to get them translated right now in terms of resources we have all the right now at least by god's grace we have all the all the um the teachers that we need at the moment uh we're not lacking in that we have all the equipment that we need the lord has been gracious to provide us funds and we've used that to to purchase a lot of audio video equipment none of it's ostentatious but it's all very good and we're able to do high quality stuff you know at least within my limits of my abilities as a cinematographer but it's getting better you know it's getting better it's top-notch brother well there's room to room to improve there's always room to grow we're not we believe in the fourfold state of man there's always room to grow maybe a little hard i'm harder on myself than others but you when you're intimately involved in something you know you see all the flaws yeah um where do we go from there we need more time we can't buy time um but um expanding people's roles and having more people help out assists in in uh in the time aspect because then you know if we have other people to do different types of work that i can focus on the next thing or developing my own courses for example can free you up to do other type of work um this is something we need assistance in and and uh translation you know we need we need help in terms largely just in terms of finances in order to fund these projects right now we're not lacking for people to do the work or to help at the moment but the more courses we teach that that bill starts to increase i mean we're talking three dollars a minute for spanish at least five dollars a minute for chinese we would like to add other languages it would be useful for global theological education portuguese french maybe hindu arabic you know we're trying to focus on those areas where we have established church relationships in the mission field so that's why we focused on spanish and chinese and we do we do have arab which is available as well we do for my covenant theology course which is great yeah but we don't have um many established fields in in the in the middle eastern world the ironic speaking community so it's a little bit more of a challenge for us to get those specific translations and whatnot but that's true we're going where the lord is is uh indicated that um that there's need and interest and there's no lack of interest among the people in latin america oh right in china china i mean it's just like you can't do enough it's like you know we'll produce a course like oh finally here here's this new course and then like the next day what else you got i finished it right but yeah if if our listeners have a particular burden for something or see even in their local church i'm thinking about um how we how we arrived at the arabic subtitles of course yeah that was that was due to a specific a whole mission concern yeah of an individual yeah i i have i have this this blessing from the lord financially i want to i want to invest here for this specific purpose and it happened we may praise the lord so insofar as you are you know moved by the spirit and your heart is stirred let us know how we can we can help uh serve the church in in your area right so uh before getting to the last lecture of the union with christ course here tacked on uh here's the ask and i've got two um you know other than the other things in terms of you know sign up get an account take a course in reformed academy if you've never been in there log in it's free there'll be links you can watch the videos enjoy it we hope you learned something we know you will if you take the time to to uh invest uh you know in yourself so to speak in your theological education but i'm going to ask two specific things number one please tell us the courses that you want to to to learn to see exist if you are desirous of learning something and you believe that our specific gifts and abilities at reform forum will help accomplish that let us know and we'll prioritize courses that are in demand that the church is asking for uh whether those courses be on aspects of systematic theology apologetics evangelism church history new testament old testament biblical theology you name it you let us know we have a road map of 89 courses that we're geared up and ready to begin working through but um we would love to hear if there are additional courses that need to be added to that list but more importantly what order to put them in and uh trying to capitalize on what is of most importance right now so we you and i talk about prioritizing and all this sorts of all these sorts of things and we're definitely in the position where we're not making decisions among good things and bad things to do we're not even making decisions about good things and other good things to do you know we have to make the decision because you only have so much time and opportunity between the best thing the excellent things and other things that are really good things but right they're not the excellent thing yeah and uh are we at liberty to to say what what is coming next in the sure what what course we hope to uh well we don't yeah that i don't know maybe just a topic that's fine i'm just so excited about it and and you know listeners have have demanded it yeah so we we do have another course that lord willing will be recording in in december uh that will be unlike in terms of in terms of the topic any of the courses we've uh done hitherto for yes we certainly we we want to flesh out of a vast array of courses that have massive impact on people's daily lives as well so in light of that you know you mentioned evangelism apologetics that it certainly has a lot of practical aspect but issues of of of worship and personal piety things like that um you know we're certainly interested and open to cultivating so if you if you have some desire or has particular interests or requests please submit those an easy way to do that is by sending an email to mail at reformedforum.org ryan checks that faithfully and he will get back to you but the other ask in addition to that is support us financially uh in addition to prayer we need that pray for the people the students that this would be effective and useful and that the lord would would uh would bless the efforts here but we also ask that you would partake in our mission and vision by partnering with us and you can visit us at reformedforum.org donate and uh you can you can donate there online we're working very hard to get a better system up very soon before the end of the year at least i have a phone call coming up to get this migration but we're working to move to a new system which will allow people to donate more easily through the web but also to have a donor portal where you may sign up for a monthly gift and manage your gift right now you can do monthly gifts but you have to if you need it altered you need to discontinue it or you want to change the frequency or the amount or the payment method you have to contact us through email and it's we hate that it's lamentable it's lamentable we love talking to people but we want to make this as easy and convenient for you as possible so we're working to get there so pray for us in that regard but if you'd just love to talk to us you'll have to talk to me on the phone talk to ryan on the phone and and work out you know to hear more about what we have planned and the details that we have in store for reformed academy we would love to talk to you but um we want to think with a big vision we don't want to place limits on what the lord might do or what you our listeners and viewers might do as part of our extended community uh but it's not as if we're grasping around trying to figure out you know a plan for the future we we realize that the lord is blessing these efforts significantly that there are many people around the world who want more of these resources the problem for us is not trying to figure out what to do it's just doing the work that's already on the table i i don't want to sound i guess too uh it's not mechanistic or just to but that that's that's what's before us so people ask me how can we pray for you or what are the challenges before you were reformed for them it's just being able to do the work that we know is a good idea to do right we just don't have the throughput we don't we have the knowledge the ability the desire the interest we have the proof of the market or the audience that they want what we have is just we cannot do it fast enough that's in the lord's hands right you know we're finite people and can only do so much we'd love to do more but the way to do more is either you know just you know the lord needs to provide more people more finances whatever so if that is on your heart if you're listening to this and you say wow that sounds really neat what they're doing or i'd like to be part of that or even if you just want to hear more you call us up or send us an email we'll schedule a time you want to come by we'll show you around there's not much to see but we'll show you a lot of books yeah and pray for us and and if you have an idea if you're listening to this and say man i wonder if these guys have thought about this or oh this is there's this glaring gap in what they're thinking about call us up and let us know we will we'd love to hear it and uh our mission here at reformed forum is to assist the church in her call to present every person mature in christ so if you're curious and interested in that um then we are too so we'd love to partner with you on that front so now without any more talking we'll take you over to the last lecture we've done the alpha now we're going to do the omega on this course and this is lane tipton teaching the final complete lecture from the new course union with christ the benefits of his suffering and glory we come now to union with christ and sanctification and if we're thinking in terms of union and the distinct and inseparable benefits of that union justification adoption we come now to sanctification which is a work of god and the shorter catechism 35 and then its amplification in westminster larger catechism number 75 together with a treatment of romans 6 1-12 will guide us in our understanding of the nature of sanctification as dying to sin and rising to god in new life shorter catechism 35 sanctification is the work of god's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man in the image of god and enabled more and more to die to sin and live to righteousness sanctification unlike justification and adoption which are acts of god sanctification is a work of god something that in the language of the shorter catechism renews enables a once for all and ongoing death to sin and a once for all an ongoing living unto god in righteousness but the larger catechism amplifies this quite significantly and quite helpfully and brings to bear the application of the death of jesus and the resurrection of jesus to the believer in union with christ sanctification according to 75 is a work of god's grace whereby they whom god hath before the foundation of the world chosen to be holy chosen to be renewed are in time through the powerful operation of his spirit applying the death symbolized by the cross and the resurrection symbolized by that upward arrow through the powerful operation of the spirit applying the death and the resurrection of christ unto them are renewed in their whole man after the image of god having the seeds of repentance unto life and all of their saving grace is put in their hearts and those graces so stirred up increased and strengthened as they more and more die unto sin and rise unto newness of life it's especially in the larger catechism that the death and resurrection of christ the efficacy of his two estates are applied to the believer so sanctification is a work of the holy spirit in union with christ and the spirit sanctifies especially and concretely as he applies the death and the resurrection of jesus christ to believers in union with christ now what we need to say here will take a bit more time to develop than our discussion of justification and adoption but here's what we need to begin to understand what is sequential in the life experience of jesus christ the movement from the estate of humiliation death on a cross to his resurrection and ascension on the third day and then 40 days after the third day he sends what is sequential in the life experience of jesus is applied distinctly inseparably and simultaneously to the believer by the holy spirit so the two estates of christ his death and resurrection which are sequential in time are applied at the same time to the believer in sanctification and so if we can look at this benefit here i don't want to confuse this too much but this benefit of redemption the efficacy of jesus death and resurrection are applied at the same time to the believer in sanctification the larger catechism helps us begin to see that in sanctification the holy spirit through the gospel works a death to sin and a life to god in the believer in union with christ we cannot think of sanctification in other words apart from a participation in the spirit by faith in the death and resurrection of jesus christ the believer dies to sin and lives to god in union with jesus christ this is work mysteriously and supernaturally by the power of the spirit so that his supernatural and sovereign power works death and sin and life to god at the same time in the one united to christ now rather than presenting this material in terms of discrete proof texts in the bible i want to spend some time reflecting on a central text that makes this clear romans 6 1-12 and so in justification it was romans 5. in adoption it was romans 8. for sanctification it will be romans 6 with a special emphasis on verses 5 and 10 through 11 i have to be selective we can't work through the whole text equally romans 6 1-12 supplies in my estimate the classic text that speaks of sanctification in terms of a participation in the death and resurrection of jesus christ through the spirit's agency working through the word we'll have to be selective as we look at this but here's the first line of development pardon me it's romans 6 6 here not romans 6 5. romans 6 6. here's the first thesis romans 5 12-21 which we've looked at supplies the immediate context for romans 6 6 and the crucifixion of our old man in christ the crucifixion of our old man in christ that text reads romans 6 6 our old man was crucified together with him so that the power of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be slaves to sin now as you remember romans 5 12-21 talks about adam in his federal and representative headship and there are three things to remember that frame the meaning of romans 6 6 with its background being romans 5 12-21 first paul presents an immediate conjunction between the sin of adam and the death of all romans 5 15 by the trespass of one the many died 5 15 is a key text paul's argument is that adam's trespass implicates all he represents in death second there's an immediate conjunction between the sin of adam and the condemnation of all which we saw earlier romans 5 16 the judgment was from one unto condemnation third notice the immediate conjunction between adam's sin and the sin of all in adam's fall all sinned in him and fell with him romans 5 12. now the point in context is that paul conceives of humanity in adam as we saw in our doctrine of justification in federal and representative categories what adam affected in his sin death and condemnation included all he represented so that there's an immediate conjunction between his sin and the sin of all his death and the death of all his condemnation and the condemnation of all and that provides precisely the frame of reference for romans 6 6. paul's statement in romans 6 6 is about the crucifixion of christ in relation to his elect united to the first adam in his sin death and condemnation he says knowing this and i'll amplify this just a bit knowing this that our old man in adam was crucified with christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed and that we might no longer be slaves to sin first paul's reference here to our old man is a reference to all of god's people who sinned in and fell with adam in his first transgression it's a corporate phrase designed to include all of god's elect who send in and fell with adam herman ritterbas in his wonderful book entitled paul an outline of his theology says this we have to understand the old man not in the first place in the sense of the believer's life experience or the ordo salutus but in the history of redemption that is to say it is a matter here not of a change that comes about in the way of faith and conversion in the life of the individual christian but of that which took place in christ once and in which his people had part in him in the corporate sense this is at least the obvious meaning of romans 6 6 our old man was crucified with christ that is on golgotha the old man the old mode of existence of sin was then judged and cursed thus to speak of the old man being crucified together with christ is parallel to speaking of our old man sinning and falling with adam and in adam in adam we send and fell in christ that old man in adam was crucified together with christ just as our old man was constituted in sin death and condemnation so our old man in christ has been crucified the bond between christ and his church christ and his covenant people is historical and representative just as is the relation between adam and those he represents the death of christ is a covenantal event that has direct significance for his church his people those for whom he died and so paul's description of the old man is that our old man corporately has been crucified with christ not only was christ crucified for his elect but the elect are crucified with christ this is what makes definite atonement effective the old man in adam fallen and condemned is crucified together with christ and there are two results of this the first the body of sin might be brought to nothing the body of sin if understood properly pertains to everything associated with the old order in adam it is an objective order a state of affairs dominated by sin in which we once participated in our union with adam but that old man that body of sin has been put away it has been rendered null and void so that secondly sin would no longer have dominion over us our old man is crucified with christ so that our sanctification our death to sin is not rooted first and foremost in any experience in our lives it is rooted in the objective accomplishment of redemption in the crucifixion of jesus christ so that we would no longer be slaves of sin to put it in dogmatic categories the death of christ destroys the total depravity and total inability that makes sinners dead in sin it does so objectively as a function of his suffering just as we became slaves of sin due to our covenantal solidarity with adam so we have been freed from the dominion of sin by christ putting our old man to death in his death and resurrection now given that that's the case our first point here is that romans 6 6 brings into view what was once for all accomplished by christ in his estate of humiliation this is amplifying what we talked about earlier regarding the accomplishment of redemption and given the doctrine of sanctification and given the teaching of romans 6 we have to review that and and situate sanctification in this way now here's the question how does what happened once and for all in christ's crucifixion come to benefit us the church in union with him by the spirit and through faith well the second text that's going to be controlling for us is romans 6 10 through 11. as i said earlier romans 6 6 and romans 6 10 through 11 will be controlling for our understanding here it is in fact i think the most biblical direct biblical proof text for the language of larger catechism 75. the death he died he died to sin once and for all but the life he lives he lives to god in the same way count yourselves dead to sin and alive to god in christ jesus now romans 6 10 we're going to start with romans 6 10 is a single sentence summary of the two estates of jesus christ his earthly estate of suffering and death and his heavenly estate of glory and life 6 10 a the first half of 6 10 defines that earthly estate as a death that he died to sin christ's entire earthly ministry was a life of returning to god by being dead to sin the death he died is a comprehensive description of his earthly ministry using its climax on the cross as a point of reference so while his death on the cross is the climax of his death to sin that death is organically related to his obedience throughout his earthly ministry jesus knew no sin second corinthians 5 21 satan had no claim on him john 14 30. the entire earthly ministry of christ was a dying to sin in the sense that he never lived to it never participated in it never in thought or word or deed committed sin he knew no sin and his entire life was a comprehensive dying to it but paul is specific in 6 10 that the death he died was a death to sin and that brings into view his death on the cross paul doesn't speak in a progressive sense in 10a he speaks in a once for all sense and he clearly brings into view once and for all jesus death on the cross he says that death was with reference to sin sin as a comprehensive reality that dominates this eon his death on the cross was his translation out of the visible earthly realm of sin and so the death that he died on the cross 10 b was a death to sin in this present visible eon he was sinless in his person he was representative in his work and the death he died to sin was the death of a sinless sin bearing substitute he remained under its power for three days and it was a once for all death to sin to a sinful eon it is a death that will never be repeated again now romans 6 10 b the death he died he died to sin but the life he lives he lives to god this is his second estate his estate of exaltation romans 6 10 b says that the life of jesus as raised and ascended is that he lives to god jesus christ having perfectly returned to god in death has now been raised and returned to god in imperishable life-giving power he has been raised romans 6 4 to walk in newness of life as raised and especially as ascended he has reached the fullness of life that was held out to adam under the covenant of works he lives in heaven to intercede for his church as a minister and servant of the new covenant he sits on the throne of the majesty in heaven and he lives to god as we said in our adoption segment acts 2 28 he has come to know the paths of life and has been filled with the pleasure of god at his right hand he died to sin throughout his earthly ministry climaxing and death on a cross and this life to god is now his translation into heaven hebrews 9 24 and 8 1-2 and acts 2 32-35 to remind of what we covered earlier the point of analogy then in verse 11 is a point of analogy for believers in union with christ in verse 11. verse 6 jesus verse 11 believers in union with jesus in a similar way consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to god in christ jesus here's where that point i made earlier needs to be pushed believers in union with christ are being returned to god as dead to sin but alive to god in union with christ for christ the dying to sin and living to god was an historical movement a change of estate a before and after in his life experience he died to sin remained under the power of death for three days and then was raised to new life three days later and forty days after that ascended up into heaven where he sits at the right hand of god in the power of an indestructible life and now the point is that both of these both the efficacy of jesus death and the efficacy of jesus resurrection are applied to those united to him distinctly inseparably and simultaneously simultaneously distinctly inseparably and simultaneously believers have died to sin and are alive to god in union with jesus christ in union with christ in his death the spirit works conformity to jesus earthly suffering and disenfranchises the believer from this fallen earthly order the power of christ's death at work in you is that you are conformed to his obedient suffering and disenfranchised from this present earthly order of sin and death the death that jesus died to sin is that which the spirit applies to the believer but in union with christ in his resurrection the spirit works conformity to jesus joyful comfort in heaven and enfranchises into heaven where christ is an order marked by righteousness and life not sin and death the life that jesus lives to god in heaven is applied by the spirit to believers instead of walking in sins and trespasses they walk in newness of life and they know the comfort and the glory of christ but how does the death and resurrection of jesus his suffering and his glory bear on those being sanctified well let's speak first of union with christ in his death remembering that it's inseparable from union with christ in his life but let's talk specifically and concretely what union with christ in his death involves we can say this to begin it is by his cross that you are delivered from this present evil age and conform to jesus righteousness and suffering first deliverance from this age galatians 1 4 says this that jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age so when we're talking about the application of jesus cross romans 6 10 galatians 1 4 says that by this cross we are being delivered out of this age and into the age to come galatians 1 4 the death that jesus died to sin involved his being delivered out of this present evil age and paul says that jesus gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age the cross of jesus christ as presented in luke 9 31 when he's speaking to moses and elijah the cross of jesus christ begins an exodus out of jerusalem when jesus spoke on the mount of transfiguration to moses and elijah of the exodus out of jerusalem he was thinking first of his cross and then of his glory and the movement of that exodus out of jerusalem was that he would go the way of the cross and be delivered over to death and remain under its power for a time and as he was on the cross he spoke to the thief and said to the thief on the cross today he will be with me in paradise the exodus is out of this age and in to the age to come out of the fallen earthly realm and into the heavenly realm of paradise the cross is not only a wrath propitiating cross romans 5 9 it's not only a sin expiating cross hebrews 9 26 it's not only a church reconciling cross colossians 1 21 and a redemption securing cross galatians 3 23 but the cross disenfranchises you from this present evil age in an exodus-like deliverance out of this evil age just as the blood of the passover lamb delivered out of egypt so the blood of jesus delivers out of this present evil age as you are being delivered out of this age you are strangers and exiles first peter 2 11 and 12. when you by spirit-gifted faith embrace jesus you are disenfranchised as you are being delivered from this present evil age but secondly closely related to this as the spirit applies the efficacy of the cross to you disenfranchises you from this age and begins delivering you out of this present evil age the spirit through the cross through the efficacy of jesus death at the same time conforms you to his righteousness and suffering paul can say in philippians 3 10 and this builds on our first corinthians 1 9 text paul can say that he wants to know the fellowship of his suffering as he is being conformed to his death in union with christ christ not only saves you by his cross forgives your sin satisfies wrath but that cross leaves its impress on you through the supernatural agency of the spirit that conforms you to the christ of the cross and it produces the spirit he produces a bond and fellowship marked by suffering for righteousness sake and being conformed to the death of jesus in his obedience to god you are being returned to god in obedience and suffering as the spirit applies to you the efficacy of the death of jesus a death that not only occasions a dying to sin but a deliverance out of this world in a fellowship of suffering with christ supernatural spirit forged union produces this in the church so the cross of christ as the spirit applies to you the efficacy of union with christ the cross of christ initiates for you a fellowship of suffering a deliverance from this present evil age that romans 6 11 can say is a death to sin a dying to sin but not only does the spirit apply to you the church the efficacy of jesus death romans 6 11 a but the efficacy of his resurrection life his life to god 6 11 b so not only is the death of jesus applied 6 11 a but the resurrection life that is also applied to you in your union with jesus christ let me give you a text that brings into view what that means first peter 1 3 through 5 blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ according to his great mercy he has given us he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead into an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by god's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time please see this first the connection between the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead and causing the church to be born again to a living hope peter reasons from the resurrection of the dead to the initial expression of new life a living hope in union with jesus christ jesus resurrection from the dead is a first fruits one great resurrection harvest not only at the end of the age but at the beginning of the age his resurrection carries with it the enlivening that is given in new birth the principle of new life in union with him the new birth is an organic function an inevitable redemptive fruition of jesus resurrection as first fruits to tie this to romans 6 11 jesus resurrection life to god is the life that finds expression when believers are caused to be made alive in him and with him we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of jesus christ from the dead as the spirit applies to us the efficacy of his life as raised never to die again the actual resurrection life of christ by the spirit is at work in the church and second annexed to that organically associated to that new birth is entrance into a kingdom that cannot perish spoil or fade reserved in heaven for you so when you're talking about first peter three uh one three through five it is a movement not only of being delivered out of this present evil age but being delivered into heaven itself into the kingdom of heaven death delivers you out of resurrection delivers you into the world to come death out of this world resurrection into the world to come when you are joined to christ you are born again the principle of new life is implanted and as jesus teaches in the new birth you see and enter the kingdom of god peter amplifies jesus teaching that the new birth is quite literally into the kingdom of heaven heaven according to paul is the invisible heaven colossians 1 16 it's the things above where christ is seated colossians 3 2 and 1 16. heaven is the dwelling made without hands hebrews 9 12 the heavenly reality after which the tabernacle was a pat was patterned hebrews 8 5. heaven is the invisible temple dwelling of god created in the absolute beginning genesis 1 1 and populated with angels nehemiah 9 6. it is the location of mount zion the city of god the heavenly jerusalem hebrews 12 22 heaven is what meredith klein refers to as the upper register the realm of the spirit metopolis the city above therefore as christ was translated into heaven after his resurrection so in romans 6 11 be as you are dead to sin you are now alive to god having entered into heaven by faith in christ let me put it this way as god enlivens so he translates as he renews so he transitions and the movement is from earth to heaven it is a translational act paul even reasons listen in colossians 3 1-2 directly from being raised together with christ by faith colossians 2 12 colossians 3 1-2 he reasons directly from being raised with christ through faith to seeking those things above where christ is if you are raised with christ paul says seek those things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god heaven is where christ is where christ is seated those things above are set in direct and antithetical contrast the ta'ano is set directly in contrast to epi taste gas the things on earth and the believer has died to the things on earth 3 3 when christ is revealed in glory the glory of heaven you will be revealed with him colossians 3 4 you have died to the earthly things you are alive to heavenly things resurrection life initiated in the new birth and brought to expression in sanctification translates you into the kingdom of heaven so that you seek that place where christ is you are instantly when united to christ please hear this instantly disenfranchised from this present evil age constituted a pilgrim and a stranger in the language of hebrews 13 13 13-14 as long as you are on earth you are exiles and strangers in this world as you seek the city and kingdom to come hebrews 13 14 colossians 3 2 so to summarize this the death of christ delivers you from this present evil age conforms you to his suffering and death and at the same time the resurrection of christ translates you into the age to come and confers upon you an imperishable kingdom and enables a new walk in resurrection life both of these things the efficacy of jesus death and the efficacy of jesus resurrection are de applied distinctly inseparably and simultaneously in union with christ now let me try to clarify this a bit more this reality in romans 6 11 being dead to sin and alive to god in christ jesus is what we want to call this being dead to sin alive to god an irreversible condition right it's a work not an act so it's a condition not of being dead but being alive not being a slave to sin but being a slave to righteousness not being not walking in sins and trespasses but walking in new life walking in good works colossians 2 10. it is an irreversible condition dead to sin alive to god at the same time in union with christ just as christ died to sin and is alive to god and that is true in such a way that the death he died he died once and for all so also you in christ jesus have died to sin and are alive to god it is an irreversible john murray calls it definitive sanctification in an essay in his collected writings he puts it this way it is just because we cannot allow for any reversal or repetition of christ's death on the tree that we cannot allow for any compromise on the doctrine that every believer has died to sin and no longer lives under its dominion hence the decisive and definitive entrance upon newness of life in the case of every believer is required by the fact that the resurrection of christ was decisive and definitive i like to put it for the believer trying to clarify or expand on murray's language it is an irreversible condition wrought in the believer by virtue of union with christ by faith by decisive and definitive murray wants us to grasp in light of romans 6 1-12 that there is a once for all an irreversible condition entered into at the time point of union with christ sanctification inaugurates a once for all and an irreversible condition what does that mean for your christian life well this dynamic arises resurrection life manifests itself in fellowship with god that is characterized both by a once for all decisive death to sin and life to god and a present ongoing dying to sin and living to god there is a death and a life once for all there is a dying and a living that is ongoing both of these mark this irreversible condition a once for all death to sin and life to god and an ongoing dying to sin and living to god in sanctification then there is both an irreversible condition brought about and an ongoing growth initiated they go together sanctification in terms of its inception is a definitive once for all translation from the estate of sin and misery into the estate of grace as you die to sin and live to god but sanctification in terms of its continuation is an ongoing and increasing dying to sin and living to god as the believer continues in the estate of grace putting it this way helps you understand that he who began a good work in you irreversible condition promises to carry it through to completion until the day of christ jesus progressive growth philippians 1 6 there is both a once for all death and life inaugurated the definitive aspect of sanctification there is also an ongoing dying to sin and living to god what we could call progressive sanctification and so there is definitive dimension and a progressive dimension to your sanctification to this irreversible condition of new life as you are dying to sin paul makes this explicit in romans 6 12 and 18 the progressive character listen to what he says he says that or to to frame it that irreversible condition by no means undermines the commandment to resist sin but presupposes it romans 6 12 in light of all that's been said in romans 6 10 and 11 what does paul say let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions the irreversible condition of 6 11 carries with it an ongoing obligation an ongoing pursuit not to let sin reign in your mortal bodies paul could be paraphrased to say since you are dead to sin in christ irreversible condition continue to be dead to sin and do not let sin reign in your body ongoing pursuit the definitive and the progressive sweetly comply but the priority rests on the irreversible condition of being dead to sin and alive to god since any ongoing progress presupposes such to be the case to be joined to christ in the likeness of his death and resurrection entails the compliance with the commandment of god not to let sin reign romans 6 18 makes this clear we've been freed from sin and made servants of god in christ both richard gaffin and hermann ritterboss speak of what we have described in terms borrowed from grammar the indicative is the irreversible condition of being dead to sin alive to god in union with christ the imperative is the ongoing pursuit of death to sin and life to god in faith and obedience to god's commandments john murray's famous language of definitive and progressive sanctification is making the same point both of these ways of speaking are helpful and let me simply help you recognize this that there is an interweaving in the scriptures of the indicative and the imperative of the definitive and irreversible condition and the ongoing pursuit galatians 5 25 if we live in the spirit let us walk by the spirit ephesians 5 8 you are light in the lord walk as children of the light first corinthians 5 7 clean out the old leaven that you may be a new batch of dough even as you are unleavened sanctification is the work of god and sanctification engages the believer at every point the ongoing pursuit without the irreversible condition is moralism and the irreversible condition without the ongoing pursuit is antinomianism now here's the point that needs to be made this sanctification that is worked in you is one hundred percent the sovereign work of god's grace and just for that reason it involves a 100 spirit enabled pursuit of every christian initiated sustained and consummated by the grace of god i'll leave you with this reflection sanctification is something pursued in the fellowship of the church jesus christ calls you to be sanctified by sitting under the means of grace the preaching of the word of god the administration of the sacraments prayer fellowship with the saints these are means that god has given that impart grace to you in the worship of god in the body of christ and as you pursue sanctification as you die to sin and live to god as you are being delivered out of this present evil age and delivered into the age to come as the death and resurrection of jesus christ are being applied to you your life is to be defined in terms of worship with those being thus delivered and thus translated this union with christ as i said earlier brings benefits of justification adoption and sanctification that aid you in your worship and the worship that you must pursue is the corporate worship of god with the body of christ each lord's day morning and evening where the rhythm of those sanctified is regulated by the worship of the living and true god as the one body of christ the benefits of union serve not only communion with christ but the church's worship of the living and true god there are other benefits that we could discuss there are other facets of redemption applied we could consider but what this course is designed to do is give you an overview of redemption accomplished redemption applied in light of the teaching of the shorter catechism and its summary and expansion in portions of the larger catechism you will not be free from sin and temptation in this age but what definitive and progressive sanctification guarantees for you is that you will continue more and more to die to sin and live to god in righteousness and the struggle against sin that you experience at every point in this age is a struggle that will result in victory progressively daily and consummately when you are finally and fully delivered from sin in its entirety in the age to come when you are glorified that concludes this study and i pray the lord will use this to aid you in your worship of god through your union and communion with christ and the benefits of redemption that are given to you so that you might be a worshiper of the self-contained immutable and all-glorious triune god well we hope you enjoyed that final lecture from lane tipton and union with christ the benefits of his suffering and glory the course is available now online for free entirely at reformedforum.org you go there you'll see at the top of the page there's a there's a menu one of the options is academy and you can hover over that and either go right to the academy page and browse what we have you can also go to the courses part of the menu and find this course take it so if you're interested in that please if you don't have an account already register for a free account register for the course take the course but also then go forth and tell other people about it maybe you want to do this in terms of a sunday school and we have a companion book in the works it's going to take some time but we'll also eventually have a little usb drive and we'll be able to package that with the companion book all in a book package just as we've done for this foundations of covenant theology course am i missing anything ryan no i don't think so i just can't wait for the course to launch i've told so many people about it and we have churches that are even one may already be using the curriculum and and so yes i just i just can't wait for for people to uh to dig in and to to drink deeply oh yeah from the word of god and um yeah this is none of this is is inaccessible to the typical church sometimes people think of what we do here we talk about some hard stuff sometimes but i i think if you just you dip in and you take one of these courses it might be a little bit more advanced than what you're used to but it's not inaccessible to anybody who's attending a confessional church uh any any high schooler or adult but i think you're going to find that it's it's a different pace like it's a different type of thing and we love that we think that's a good thing that this isn't your typical cut and dry you know sunday school material whatnot this is some this is rich but you'll learn you'll grow and i think it'll open your mind and your heart to uh to new vistas and new aspects of of understanding your bible and understanding how the lord relates to you as one of his people so this is just the beginning so hopefully we'll get to more of that down the road again we're online at reformedforum.org you can contact us at mail at reformedforum.org website also has a phone number you can get us on twitter other places so we're available for you there but we do want to thank you for listening and we hope you join us again next time on christ the center you

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Length: 100min 26sec (6026 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021