Our Triune Salvation #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. Well, let's go back to Ephesians 1 and see that there's a second aspect of this, this wonderful triune work of our salvation, and it's the work of God the Son, that God the Son saves us, the Lord Jesus Christ saves us. And turning back to Ephesians chapter 1 in verse 7, you see the apostle Paul transition from talking specifically and directly about God the Father to speaking about the Son, the essence of God.

S-O-N, Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pick it up at verse 6 as Paul wraps up his discussion about God the Father. He says, To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. The Beloved being a term for Christ. And now here in verse 7, he starts to expand upon, he starts to expand his praise as it pertains to the work of God the Son.

The work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. In verse 7 it says, In him we have redemption through his blood. Through his blood tells us and is an indication to us that he's now talking about the second member of the Trinity. He's talking about God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because it was the Lord Jesus Christ who shed his blood on the cross for our salvation. It was not God the Father who became flesh. It was not God the Spirit who became flesh. It was God the Son who became flesh on our behalf. And it was God the Son who offered up his life on the cross for us. And so what we see here is that God the Son has saved us through his blood. Look again at verse 7. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. And he goes on to say that all things everywhere will find their final culmination, the outworking of their purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 9 and 10. It says, He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him, that is in Christ, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times. That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In him, that is in Christ also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. So you see the focus on Christ in this section of this chapter.

And we considered Christ's redemptive work just a few messages ago, Christ's work for us. We said that in his life, Jesus Christ rendered perfect obedience to God's law. In his death, he paid the full price of sin on our behalf.

So that in Christ, we have a Savior who has accomplished everything necessary to recognize and reconcile us to a holy God. He rendered full obedience to the law of God, which we never could have done. We were fallen, we have sinned, and to break one commandment is to break them all because of the unified nature of the law of God. And so we were hopelessly lost, and lost in sin, and under the judgment of the law of God, having not kept it as God requires.

For Matthew 5.48 says, The Father in heaven is perfect. We therefore lacked the obedience to his law that's necessary to enter into heaven. Christ came and lived a perfect life of obedience to that law, and now those who believe in Christ receive the benefit of that. He represented us in his obedience, and that obedience is imputed to us when we believe in Christ. So that God accepts us for the sake of his son, when we come to Christ in faith, that obedience is credited to our account. In like manner in his death, he paid the curse of the law. He satisfied the curse.

He became a curse for us, Galatians says. He bore our sins in his body on the cross, 1 Peter chapter 2 says. And so that we see that in Christ, we have the second member of the Trinity in human flesh, living out on the cross. On earth, the full obedience to the law as a man, offering up his perfect life as a sacrifice to God to pay for our sins, and we see the glory of the Trinity on display, that Jesus Christ secured our redemption in his blood and in his obedient life.

What a wonder that is. This is what God the Son has done for us. He says this. It's a rather extended quote, but it's worth hearing in full as he speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity.

He says this. He said, Christ paid the penalty of our sins, not in part, but the whole. All of us are hell-deserving sinners, but in our stead he endured the agony of hell in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross.

When Christ was hanging on the cross, darkness enveloped the whole land, and him too. God was hiding his face from him. Aware of that fact, Christ cried out with a loud voice, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That cry was one of hellish agony. When Christ uttered it, all the waves and the billows of the divine wrath against sin rolled over his head and crushed his soul. He was at the very bottom of the bottomless pit, and only thus could he atone in full for the sins of his people, end quote. So we look back at the first four verses of our text, verses three through six, and we see that God the Father chose us and adopted us, and we marvel and we praise him for the glory of his grace for doing that for us. We look at verses seven through twelve, and we see that we have redemption in Christ, redemption through his blood.

That brief phrase, through his blood, is a shorthand reference from what our brother R.B. Kuyper was explaining in fuller depth, that in the shedding of his blood on the cross, the second person of the Trinity accomplished what was necessary. At the pain of great self-sacrifice, at the pain of the wrath that you and I deserved, enduring it as our substitute, he accomplished a full atonement for us that satisfied the righteous wrath of God against sinners like you and me. This is what Christ did for us in his blood, in that great act of self-sacrifice, in those hellish hours on the cross where the Father turned his face away and the full fury of infinite judgment was poured out upon his infinite soul. We see what God the Son has done for us. God the Father chose us before the beginning of time.

Wow, the wonder of that just causes us to burst forth in praise. Look at what God the Son did, and you burst forth in another aspect, another dimension of praise to the triune God directed specifically to that second member of the Trinity who did this for us. And so Jesus Christ, God the Son, is the head of our salvation. He represented us. He did for us in our place what we could not have done ourselves. And it was in the Lord Jesus Christ that God chose us.

He saw us. He determined that the benefit of everything that Christ did would apply to us. And so all the benefits of salvation are received through the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you receive Christ by faith, all of that wonder of who he is is graciously applied to your account, and God accepts you in the Beloved. God accepts you in Christ. God forgives all of your sins for the sake of the sufferings of his Son. God receives you into heaven based on the perfection of his Son. And that's the benefit that we have in Christ.

You see, my friends, you see why there could be no boasting by anyone, by any true Christian, why God gets all of the glory. God chose us for this before we had done anything good or bad. Christ did this for us, and did this for us 2,000 years ago before we had done anything good or bad. Christ was carrying this out so that the purpose of God was at play, the redemption, the accomplished redemption of Christ on the cross was in play before you had even been born, before your parents had been born, your grandparents.

Go back multiple, multiple generations and you realize how certain the purposes of God were, how the outworking of human history as it applies to you could only have had one destination, because it was the purpose of God the Father and God the Son that you would be saved. To the praise of the glory of his grace, amen. These are the wonderful aspects of our salvation.

But I want to remind you of something. We're getting lost in wonder, love, and praise in response to these things. As you follow through everything that Scripture says about these things, you realize that the majesty of the triune work of God in our salvation simply cannot be exhausted. We can describe things, we can point to the Scriptures that describe it, but the implications of it and the fullness of it is far beyond anything that we could express in a 60-minute message like this.

We'll spend all of eternity growing in our understanding and then the depth of appreciation and praise of the majesty of all of these things that mean for us. But my point here for this particular moment is to make this point, that while Christ accomplished our redemption at the cross and made it certain by his shed blood, it is for you to understand that he is still working to save us, in a sense. And what we mean by that is that Christ now represents us at the right hand of God, having ascended into heaven where he represents us before God and intercedes for us on an ongoing basis to secure the ongoing continuance of our salvation.

He has not left us to our own devices. It's not that he paid for our sins and then left us to work it out alone by ourselves. No, we have a brother in heaven, as I like to say. The Lord Jesus Christ is our brother. We are sons of God and he is our elder brother. And our elder brother who loves us, who represents us, whom we are united with, our elder brother is in heaven now representing us and securing the continuance of our salvation on our behalf before his father's throne.

Again quoting from R.B. Kuyper, he said, and I quote, let no one think that when Jesus breathed his last on the cross, he ceased from his work as savior. It must be said emphatically that he did nothing of the kind, meaning that in no way did Christ cease his work for us. Continuing the quote now, the resurrected and ascended Christ continues his saving work and will continue it until all the redeemed shall have entered through the gates into the celestial city, end quote. Magnificent work of Christ, magnificent savior.

And as you start to plumb the depths of what this means, it just means so much, beloved. It means that our earthly lives are just a small, insignificant token of the greater purpose for which we were created. We will be in heaven forever. And this 70-year window of time that, give or take, that we experience here on earth is merely preparatory for the outcome of our salvation, which God planned for us before the beginning of time. And that 70-year window of time is just a sliver of the purposes for which Christ saved us and the outcome in the celestial city that we will experience with him.

Ages upon ages and eons of eons going forward, and when we've been there 10,000 years, we'll have no less time to praise him than when we first began. You see, beloved, you see how that changes our perspective on our earthly lives and on our earthly trials? These are passing, momentary light afflictions, 2 Corinthians 4 says, that is preparing us for a greater weight of eternal glory that far surpasses it all by comparison. That's the significance of this for us in our earthly lives. And the significance for us as we contemplate God in his triune glory is we see God the Father has saved us, God the Son has saved us, and therefore we are and we will be a people for the praise of his glory. Well, what about the Holy Spirit then?

Brings us to our third point for this morning. God the Holy Spirit saves us. God the Father saves us, we saw that Ephesians 1, 3 through 6.

God the Son saves us, Ephesians 1, 7 through 12. And now in the final two verses of our text, we see the work of the Holy Spirit in saving us as well. And what the Holy Spirit uniquely did was he applied redemption to our hearts. The work of redemption was accomplished by Jesus Christ. Now in time, during the course of our lives, the Holy Spirit applies it to our hearts to ensure that we enter into the benefits of everything that Christ purchased for us at the cross.

Look at verses 13 and 14 with me. In verse 13, it says, in him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. The Holy Spirit brought the gospel with power to your heart and opened your blinded eyes. He unstopped your deaf ears.

He loosened your mute tongue. The Holy Spirit came and opened your eyes and gave you understanding so that you would be able to believe in Christ. This was a prior work of the Holy Spirit. And now the Spirit of God, this passage teaches us in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 3 and other places, Romans 8, teaching us that the Spirit of God now indwells us. The Spirit of God indwells us and has made has made us a new creation and the Spirit of God is dwelling within us and has taken possession of our souls. What this text here in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13 and 14 is saying, when it says that the Spirit is a pledge of our inheritance, it says that the Spirit has come to us and indwells us. And this is like a down payment from God that the salvation that he has started in us will certainly be brought to completion and the Spirit of God within us is the guarantee of the purpose of God that this will certainly take place. It reminds us of Philippians chapter 1 verse 6.

Let's turn there as it's just a chapter or two to the right in your Bible. In chapter 1 verse 6 of Philippians, the writer says, the Apostle Paul says, I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. The fact that the Holy Spirit has come to us is a promise from God that he will complete that work. The Spirit will not abandon us. The Spirit, as it were, will bear us like on his wings to bring us to the final destination of heaven that God chose us for before the beginning of time. And so the Spirit of God regenerated us. John chapter 3, you know, the Spirit blows where he wishes. You must be born again.

You do not have the power to bring yourself to life. The Spirit of God is the one who brings us to life. The Spirit of God is the one who unites us to Christ by faith. And the Spirit of God is the one who applies all of these benefits of salvation to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And, friend, you need to understand this, that without that work of the Spirit, you never would have believed in Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 40, you're unwilling to believe. The Spirit of God has to come and make us willing, has to change our hearts, has to take away that heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.

And all of that is beyond human power to accomplish. Well, in the course of life, in the course, in the window, in the span of our time, somewhere in time, the Spirit of God does that and works that out in believers so that they are fully united to Christ, enter into that redemptive work on the cross in fulfillment of the purpose of God, which he established before the foundation of the world. And that's the work of the Spirit in our salvation.

So we see this triune work of God, this triune work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And now the Spirit of God is at work in us, conforming us to Christ. Look at Romans chapter 8 as we reach near the end of our time here this morning together. Let's look at Romans chapter 8 verses 9 and 11, and it kind of summarizes the other things that I've been saying in the past few minutes.

And actually, let's just keep going back and back at this rate. I'm going to be back in like Exodus, but we'll just go back a few verses further. In Romans chapter 8 verse 7, it says, the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Here saying that the unsaved man in his natural ability is so hostile to God that he would not be saved, and that he is so spiritually lost that he is not able to submit himself to the Word of God.

There is an indication here of the total depravity of man, totally unable to save himself. This is where the Spirit of God comes in, and the Spirit of God accomplishes for us that which we are not able to do on our own. Romans chapter 8 verse 9 says, however, by way of contrast, however you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is not in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Verse 11, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. The Spirit of God dwells in us. He works to conform us to the image of Christ. He influences our desires. He illumines our mind to understand Scripture. And he works and shapes us and provokes in us attitudes and desires that conform us increasingly over time to the image of the one who loved us and gave himself up for us. That's the work of the Spirit of God powerfully working in the heart of you who are Christians. It may seem by your perception at times that it's a very weak and uncertain work as you go through times of indifference, you go through times of doubt, you go through times of disobedience.

You see from a human perspective your own weakness. This is where it's so important for us to remember the nature of the triune work of God in our salvation. That even though you and I stumble along the way, God is powerfully at work carrying out the purpose of God the Father for which Christ Jesus himself died to and rose again to attain and that the Spirit of God is working. He lets us feel our infirmities.

He lets us stumble for a time so that we would see our weakness and learn to depend upon him more, that we would have less confidence in self and more confidence in Christ. The point here for this morning is this, is that the Holy Spirit is powerfully working out the salvation for which Christ died for you. He is powerfully at work even if you do not see it.

He is powerfully at work even if you do not feel it. He is a silent shepherd carrying you safely to the destination that God appointed for you in his electing work on your behalf. And so, my friend, our salvation is certain because of the work of the triune God.

And I just invite you to step back and to consider what we said here from God's Word this morning to see the dazzling, stupendous nature of the work of God in your salvation. The Father chose us in Christ before time began. The Son came into the world and redeemed us at the cross and now continues representing us before the Father in heaven. The Spirit of God applied this work of Christ to our hearts and brought new life to us where death had reigned beforehand and he applied that redemption to us. So the Father loved us and sent his Son. The Son loved us and gave himself for us. The Spirit loved us and applied redemption to our hearts. The work of the trinity in your salvation. We say with the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 15, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. My friend, if you're not in Christ, I would just remind you that Christ calls you to come, that you see that in Christ there has been, God has appointed a completely sufficient redeemer for sinners like you.

That Christ has accomplished a full atonement and that he calls you to himself. You need no other argument. You need no other savior.

You need no other works. You simply need to come to Christ who accomplished this great salvation for sinners just like you. And if you would receive Christ, all of these things of which I've been speaking here this morning can belong to you. Christ is willing to save you right now. God in his triune majesty, God in his triune glory has appointed a salvation like this for everyone who would come humbly to his Son.

And that salvation can be yours if you would believe in Christ. Why would you delay? Why would you delay? Why would you turn away?

Why would you be indifferent to such royal majesties as these? Oh my friend, in light of the great triune work of God, I call you, Christ calls you to come to himself with the promise that the one who comes to me, Christ says, he will certainly never cast away. Glory to God to the praise of the glory of his grace. We say these things and commend them by the Holy Spirit to the outworking of them in your heart today.

Let's pray together, shall we? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one we give you praise for the riches that we inherit, heart and soul and voice we raise. We praise you, our Father, for our salvation. We praise you, Lord Jesus, for our salvation. We praise you, indwelling spirit, for our salvation. We thank you that we see how unconquerable your work must be, how certain the outcome of our salvation must be if each member of the Trinity in a unified purpose and in a unified essence has worked to do this on our behalf.

We can't plumb the depths of these things, Father. We simply receive them from your word. We thank you for them and ask you to seal them to our hearts that you would find in us a people that is most responsive to praise you for the glory of your grace. In Jesus' name, we pray.

Amen. Well, thank you, Bill. And just before we close, my friends, I just want to let you know that this podcast is made possible for you by the generous support of many friends of our ministry.

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Know that our love and prayers are with you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.