You probably heard it said that death is the great equalizer, and of course, death is inevitable for all of us, regardless of wealth. power, intelligence, or influence, But today on Truth for Life, Aleister Begg explains why death doesn't actually level the playing field, as so many claim. Yeah. The Bible explains that our natural state. is spiritual.
Death. The idea that pervades our culture is that somehow or another we live in a middle ground in between life and death, between truth and error, and so on. And it is up to us to decide along the way which of these places we want to spend our time and give our energies. As if somehow or another we live in some quasi state of equivocation.
So we have the option, this one or that one? No, says the Bible. No. We are on a broad road that leads to destruction. And there is a road that leads to life.
And the pathway from the broad one to the narrow one is through a person. That person is Jesus. He stands at the crossroads, inviting us to honor him. to believe him. to hear him.
and to trust him. That's why in chapter three Jesus is making clear in the truly truly. You must be born again. You're in need of regeneration. You're in we're in need not of doing something but of having something done.
That the work of regeneration is not something that we do to put ourselves in a place with God, but it is something that God has miraculously done in Jesus in order to reconcile us to Himself.
Now, when you go forward into the epistles, this comes across clearly. Ephesians chapter 2. And you were dead, he says, in your trespasses and in your sins. We're all dead men, as the walking dead. Dead in your trespasses and your sins.
You read on, but God, who is rich in mercy, According to the great love with which He has loved us, made us alive together with Christ. That the second person of the Trinity has united himself with humanity in the incarnation. And in the miracle of regeneration, We are united with Christ, in Christ. We are not simply people that have become religious and decided to follow Jesus. We are in Jesus.
If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. What is the new? It is the reality of the Spirit of God filling the life of one who has been made a child of God. And that is why we have a hope of a resurrection.
Because we are united with him in his death, in order that we might be united with him in his resurrection. I mean, it is ontologically impossible for a person who is in Christ. to be lost for eternity. Why? Because Jesus isn't lost for eternity.
That's what he's saying here. Colossians 2:13, and you who were dead, God made. you alive together with him. You and I weren't made alive in abstraction. We were made alive by being united with Christ.
This is all the now, though you will see. This is all now. We're still only in verse 25. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here. Everyone who hears and believes.
Ah, that's all you have to do, believe. That's easy, says somebody. In fact, you hear this all the time. Oh, the problem is easy believism. Do you think believing is easy?
I'll tell you what's easy. Fasting. I'll tell you what's easy. giving to the needy. I'll tell you what's easy.
Going on a pilgrimage. Walking in the woods. Thinking Deep thoughts. I'll tell you what's easy. Going to Rome.
and claiming The scala sancta. The marble steps. Hold that. It's pretty easy. But to believe?
No, by nature we don't believe. In fact, and this isn't this is not in in our In our program, really, but look at verse 44. If you have five open before you, Jesus is going to go on and say. Along the same lines to these folks. How can you believe?
How can you believe? You can do a lot of things. But how can you believe? When you receive glory from one another, And do not seek the glory that comes from the only. God.
Don't think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you. That would be Moses, on whom you, as the great prophet, have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me I say to my Jewish friends, yeah, you believe the first five books of the Bible, apparently, but if you really believe them, Then you would honor Christ.
Because Moses is a forerunner pointing to Jesus. But if you do not believe his writings, How will you believe my words? The authority of heaven is in the scriptures. You see, I think it's J.C. Ryle who says this, and I thought it was a wonderful sentence.
I wrote it down, I forgot to wrote right against it, who said it.
So we're giving it to the late bishop. He says to enter Christ school. We've come as penitents. and become his believing scholars. to enter Christ's school.
We come. on our knees. Getting into a good school around here. You have to fill in a form. You have to explain who your grandpa was, your mother was.
How many times you've run 100 meters in under 10 seconds, how you were in the debating school, you were a fine fellow and a terrific girl, and so on. And eventually, everybody can say, My, my, what a wonderful thing that you've been accepted into the school. We like that kind of thing. That's what I'm saying. Go on a pilgrimage, climb the steps, do whatever you want to do, do all.
That's not the basis of acceptance. The basis of acceptance is: I need you. I believe in you. I believe that you are. who you said you are.
Now, you will notice that verse 26 begins with four. Here's the logic of it, he says. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. This mystery again of the Trinity. Each member of the Trinity equal?
When the tasks are assigned, in the equality of their relationships. This life Is in his son. That's why the prologue begins. In him was life. and the life was the light of men.
Don't think for a moment. that somehow or another When you read that, That The Father has granted the Son. Um After the incarnation.
something that was not there before. In him was this life. And somehow or another language defeats us. In trying to imagine the counsels of eternity where the Father says, I'll do this, you do that, and the Holy Spirit will do this. I mean, it's almost too trivial to speak of it in those terms.
But nevertheless, that's what's going on.
Now we spend a long time on now, we need to get to then. Then. You say, it says an hour is coming. You say, yeah, I wish it would come a little sooner. Yeah.
Yeah, an hour is coming, someone says, I know, it's ten o'clock. All right. And he has given him authority, this is Jesus, to execute judgment because he is the Son. of man. Don't marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice.
Now we know that Jesus didn't come to condemn, but to bring salvation. Acts John chapter 3 and verse 17. He didn't come to condemn, but to bring salvation.
However, the Father has entrusted the responsibility of judgment to his Son, to the Lord Jesus. You remember back in the Old Testament when Abram is pleading to God for the city of Sodom. You read there in the middle of Genesis 18. the judge of all the earth. will do right.
God is the judge. of all the earth. He will always do what is right. And he has entrusted this judgment to his son. It's important that we realize that God is not indifferent.
to sin, to rebellion. That God is not indifferent to the issues of right and wrong. An indifferent God is the worst of all. concepts A God who has control but no interest in the well-being of that which he has made. A God who can pass easily over the atrocities of mankind.
Who will leave things just to run out, to play out whatever way they choose. No, what we discover in the Bible is very straightforward, and that is that one day, one day, evil. will actually be disposed of. One day evil will be disposed of. decisively, authoritatively, unequivocally disposed of.
And this of course hits right into the heart of contemporary thinking. Because Men and women Do not like to think of God as a judge.
Well, why would I have to answer to him? I mean, what does he have to say about this? C.S. Lewis addresses this in the problem of pain, and he says, the ancient man. Approached God.
as the accused person approaches the judge. Ancient man. comes to God as the judge. the man as the accused. For the modern man, and think about it, he's writing some long time before our present context, it's even more so.
For the modern man, the roles are reversed. He is the judge. God is in the dark. He's quite a kindly judge. If God should have a reasonable defence, For being the God who permits war, poverty, and disease.
He is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench. And God is in the dark.
Now you see, that is the natural response of humanity. And until you or I come to terms with the fact of our own sinfulness, Until you or I come to face the reality of our predicament before a holy God. Until I come to realize that my sinful, rebellious heart deserves to be punished. Until I realize that. I will never see that God is just.
in his judgments. Again, Lewis, listen, once we realize the enormity of the consequences of sin on ourselves and those we affect by our utter selfishness, we come to understand that judgment is an outgrowth of love. His wrath falls on sin. because it is so destructive. We deserve His wrath.
Until we come face to face with that, you can sing a month of Sundays the hymn that begins How Deep the Father's Love for Us, How Vast Beyond All Measure, and it will right out of your mouth and right over your head and into the stratosphere and mean absolutely nothing at all. But the day when I realized that That's the day. And what John is telling us is that this responsibility is given to Jesus because he is the Son of Man. Because he is the son of man. Verse 27.
He's given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.
Now let's go all the way back to Daniel chapter 7 when we were in the commons. And we made it through the first six chapters, and then we really struggled at chapter seven. But we were able to sing a song that came out of Daniel 7:13 and 14. Fourteen. And I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man.
And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. That all the peoples, the nations, the languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, it won't pass away. His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
Who is this about? Jesus He's the one. He's the Son of Man. He has dominion. The context in Daniel 7 is that the court of heaven is seated and the books are opened.
And in that context of judgment, one steps forward, the Son of Man. And that's what John is referencing here. And all those who are in their tombs will hear his voice. If you underline, you should underline that and then just go and walk twice round the building. And all Not some.
Well Who are in their tombs will hear his voice. This is not now. This is then. Remember the first time an hour is coming and has now come? This An hour.
coming. The tomb of Lazarus in a few chapters is going to declare Jesus' power and authority over death itself. But only one person comes out. Presumably, just because he called his name. I like the idea that if he had just said, hey, come out, there would have been a huge resurrection of people all coming out.
God, goodness gracious, what's going on here?
So he says, Lazarus came out. And Lazarus came out. He came out to die once again. But here We will come out not to die once again. No.
We will come out.
Some to eternal life. and others only to face judgment. Let's make sure we understand this. All is not over when we die. There is no purgatory.
That's an invention. We have present tense passed from death to life in Christ. That is settled. We didn't deal with that. But the idea that is sort of present in everyday conversation.
Well, he was a bit of a rascal and so on, but you know All bets are off. When you're dead, everything All the All the toys go back in the box and everybody can have a nice time for eternity. That's a lie of the devil. It's a perfect lie. All is not over when we die.
Death is not the great equalizer. And so Jesus explains. Don't marvel at what I've just been saying. Think about this. An hour comes when all who are in their tombs will hear his voice, and they will come out.
Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. What is Jesus saying there? He's saying this, that our doings are an index of the condition of our hearts. It would be unbelievable if Jesus were now to introduce a doctrine of good works as a means of salvation after all that we've already done in the first four chapters. No, no.
Verse twenty four is the is the key to understanding verse twenty nine. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.
Well, what do we mean here? Jesus is not speaking here about the cause of salvation. but the evidences of salvation. Later on, the people ask him, what must we be doing to be doing the works of God? This is chapter six.
And Jesus says, this is the work of God. that you believe in him Who he has sent. that you believe in him. whom he has set. Jesus is inescapable.
Jesus is inescapable. We can escape him for a week. We can escape him. by running into all kinds of things. but he stands at the crossroads.
The prophet Amos. says to the people of his day, prepare to meet your God. The converted Jewish man Saul of Tarsus. says to the people in Athens, Prepare to meet the risen Christ. He has appointed a day when he will judge the world.
And he has given proof of this By raising Jesus. from the dead.
Well, you might be saying to yourself, I don't know quite what to do with this.
Well If you find yourself Saying honestly in your heart of hearts, I have never really reckoned on this. What you said about how easy it is to do those things, to make myself feel better about myself, or to make me think that by my religious activities I can. Improve my standing with a God who is perfect in His holiness.
Well, I say to you, listen now.
so that you will not be ashamed then. Listen for his voice now. Call. on him as the coming judge. to be your present.
Savior. Run from him now. And you will face him as judge then. Seek him now. And you will not come into judgment.
having passed from death into life. One of the commentaries that I have on my shelf is by a Scottish commentator, William Barclay. who I always say to young men, be very, very careful with Barclay. Because although he's good historically and he's good on the Greek text, sometimes he gets a little off the program. And so I decided to read him this week.
And in the course of these concluding verses, this is what he says. What Jesus is saying here is is we need to decide whether we're going to make ourselves fit or unfit for his presence. Oh, I said, what a dreadful word that is. That that would be the end of this talk.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let us all go out. and spend the next seven days Trying to make ourselves fit. for his presence. As if we could. As if we could stand before the bar of God's judgment.
and plead our own case. Argue in our own defense. No, don't do that. Let's just be like the man at the pool. I've got no one to help me.
No one has given me anything in this regard. And that then is what takes us to the cross of the Lord Jesus. Because there we understand that this is where wrath is the out. pouring of the magnificence of his love. That what we deserve is His judgment.
But because of the love with which he has loved us. Christ bears our punishment. Christ takes our place. And when that dawns, I think the answer really ought to be. that we are humbled by it.
that we lay down the arms. of our rebellion. And that we join with Him. and seeking to see others. Do the same.
Well May God so move in our hearts that we understand. their entry into his school, as Ryle sets. His entry. Impenitence. Mm Uh You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg.
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You ever wish you could see a miracle from Jesus?
Well, tomorrow we'll investigate an incident where Jesus worked within the natural world in a phenomenally supernatural way. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
