Firbush Retreats Firbush retreats are organized and led by Robert T. Walker. Firbush retreats are designed to make the best theology accessible to as many people as possible and especially those not trained in theology and often not familiar with routine technical terms. They combine times of worship and prayer with reflection on a theme related to Torrance theology. For more information see https://tftorrance.org/firbush. ----------- Nov 11, 2015 Firbush Retreat Fall 2015 David J. Torrance, "Ephesians 1: A Theological Commentary" https://tftorrance.org/firbushF2015 The audio recording for this presentation is available on the Firbush Retreat section of the website for the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship. The following AI transcript is too rough to rely upon, but perhaps useful for word searches and time-stamps. It is unretouched; if anyone wishes to listen to it and clean it up we will be happy to post an improved version (contact the webmasters). We invite speakers to send us slides for their talks, which we will post alongside the audios and transcripts. If any speaker wishes to have their talk removed from the website, just let us know and we'll take down both the audio and the transcript. ------------ 00:00-00:07 I'm going to give you a couple of handouts. 00:07-00:14 When I began looking at this... 00:14-00:23 When I began looking at this, 00:23-00:28 I was using the NIV, which is what I normally use for my own 00:28-00:34 for my own devotions, not really because I think it's the best, 00:34-00:38 it just happens to be the one that I've been using and I'm used to using it. 00:38-00:46 But I found at several points I was quite frustrated looking at that 00:46-00:50 and so rather rashly and maybe arrogantly, I don't know, 00:50-01:02 but I have attempted to give you not all my own rendering of the passage, 01:02-01:08 but you'll have a rendering on... 01:08-01:11 Now that's the double-sided sheet 01:11-01:20 and it really runs from Ephesians 1 through to Ephesians 2 and verse 10. 01:20-01:32 My thinking about that is that you can't really get the sense of some of chapter 1 01:32-01:36 that we actually need to read on and you need to read the whole book in fact, 01:36-01:39 but we don't have time for that. 01:39-01:46 The other handout is Ephesians 1 and 2, themes worth noting. 01:46-01:48 These are intended as pointers. 01:48-01:51 I'm going to say some things about these. 01:51-01:55 There are many other themes worth noting. 01:55-02:01 I have chosen these really in the context of Gospel preaching and evangelism. 02:01-02:04 People often ask, "How do we preach this? How do we talk about this? 02:04-02:09 What does it mean in terms of our evangelism?" 02:09-02:14 So that's really what I was hoping to... 02:14-02:20 That was the way I was hoping that I could manage to guide our thoughts this evening. 02:20-02:25 Before we go on, why don't we pray? 02:25-02:34 Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word to us, for the Scriptures, 02:34-02:39 for the wonderful message, the wonderful themes, 02:39-02:49 and so all-encompassing themes for the world, but deeply personal for each of us. 02:49-02:51 Father, this has come from you in your heart. 02:51-02:53 You've given it to us in Christ. 02:53-02:58 Lord, we ask that you would fill us with your Spirit. 02:58-03:07 Lord, that as we share together, that we may recognize and hear your voice. 03:07-03:14 Find you, Lord Jesus, coming to us fresh, clothed in the power of the Gospel. 03:14-03:15 So bless this time, we pray. 03:15-03:20 We give it into your hands for your glory and need your name. 03:20-03:21 Amen. 03:21-03:26 Amen. 03:26-03:35 And then really to run through this, this is the Ephesians Chapter 1 rendering, 03:35-03:41 and make some comments as we go along. 03:41-03:44 I'm not getting into the questions about... 03:44-03:48 There are some questions about, "Did Paul really write this or did he not?" 03:48-03:52 I think he did, and we can ask him when we get to heaven. 03:52-03:57 And I remember Artie Kendall, I was discussing with him once, 03:57-04:01 and he was telling about Hebrews, and he said, "Well, if Paul didn't write it, 04:01-04:05 well, I'd like to ask him why he didn't." 04:05-04:15 Anyway, Paul, an apostle, sent one of Jesus Christ through the will of God 04:15-04:20 to the saints being in Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus. 04:20-04:29 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 04:29-04:39 Then he turns and the next section from 3 down to 11 is all one sentence in Greek, 04:39-04:44 and there's big questions about how are we meant to divide this up, 04:44-04:49 how are you meant to put the phrases all together. 04:49-04:56 So this is really my understanding of it, but it begins with this blessing, 04:56-04:59 as a typical Hebrew blessing. 04:59-05:03 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 05:03-05:10 the Having blessed us in every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, 05:10-05:16 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world 05:16-05:22 for our being holy and unblemished before him in love. 05:22-05:26 Maybe I should have said one or two of these bits will seem slightly awkward, 05:26-05:31 but that's because I've tried to stick quite closely really to what the Greeks are saying. 05:31-05:37 But we note in this that everything is, you know, he's going to unpack later, 05:37-05:40 everything is the Father's initiative. 05:40-05:48 The blessing is towards the Father, 05:48-05:52 and there's this recognition that it's the Father who has blessed us 05:52-05:56 in every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 05:56-05:58 It's the Father who chose us, 05:58-06:06 and he chose us for our being holy and unblemished before him in love. 06:06-06:10 These words in love you'll sometimes see in different translations 06:10-06:14 are appended to the next bit, 06:14-06:19 but it's our standing in love, holy and unblemished, 06:19-06:23 that the love goes with that earlier bit. 06:23-06:27 Having foreordained us, predestined us, 06:27-06:29 and there are three things that he says, 06:29-06:34 to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ, 06:34-06:37 "Having foreordained us to himself, 06:37-06:40 according to the good pleasure of his will, 06:40-06:44 and having foreordained us to the praise of the glory of his grace, 06:44-06:51 which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved." 06:51-06:55 I put these three phrases in parallel, 06:55-06:58 but they actually build on each other, 06:58-07:03 so you could put it in a slightly different way. 07:03-07:07 This phrase, "begraced us with grace," 07:07-07:12 is an attempt to translate what is otherwise given as freely bestowed. 07:12-07:17 I got that phrase from Marcus Barr, 07:17-07:20 a person I think is a lovely phrase, 07:20-07:23 because what we find reading through this 07:23-07:26 is that there are words just tumbling out of Paul, 07:26-07:30 one upon another and superlative upon superlative, 07:30-07:39 and there are almost paragraphs within paragraphs. 07:39-07:43 "But we were foreordained before the creation of the world 07:43-07:47 to the adoption of Christ, so the adoption of sons, 07:47-07:50 foreordained for himself, 07:50-07:56 and to the praise of the glory of his grace." 07:56-08:02 The "beloved" is a messianic title, 08:02-08:08 and in the beloved, in whom we possess, 08:08-08:12 and first of all he says, "the redemption," 08:12-08:17 and I've put other words, "deliverance, freedom through his blood," 08:17-08:23 and the blood is not simply about the blood of sacrifice for sin, 08:23-08:28 it's the offering up of the life to the Father 08:28-08:32 that were delivered through that positive action. 08:32-08:38 We possess, in whom, in the beloved, we possess the forgiveness, 08:38-08:42 and I put "release, remission of the trespasses," 08:42-08:45 and in brackets, "lapse his faults." 08:45-08:51 The reason I put that is because he's not using the legal term, 08:51-08:56 he's not using a legal term to talk about sin. 08:56-09:00 He's speaking largely to gentiles who never had the law, 09:00-09:06 and so in that sense, the normal language about sin 09:06-09:12 that he might use in a Jewish context 09:12-09:17 doesn't connect in the same way. 09:17-09:20 He will later, as we'll see as we go on to the next chapter, 09:20-09:24 he will talk about the lapses and the sins, 09:24-09:26 but here he just mentions the lapses. 09:26-09:43 It's release from the fallings away from him. 09:43-09:44 So let's read that again. 09:44-09:47 "The forgiveness of the trespasses, 09:47-09:51 according to the riches of his grace which he lavished unto us 09:51-09:53 in all wisdom and insight, 09:53-09:56 having made known to us the secret of his will, 09:56-09:59 according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him, 09:59-10:02 for the administration of the fullness of the times, 10:02-10:06 to gather up all things under one head in Christ, 10:06-10:14 things in the heavens and things upon the earth, in him." 10:14-10:19 "The beloved in whom we possess redemption, forgiveness, 10:19-10:24 in whom also we have been allotted an inheritance, 10:24-10:28 having been foreordained according to the purpose 10:28-10:32 of the working all things according to the counsel of his will." 10:32-10:33 That's a mouthful. 10:33-10:37 So the purpose of the one working all things 10:37-10:38 according to the counsel of his will, 10:38-10:41 "For I have been to the praise of his glory, 10:41-10:45 the ones having first trusted in Christ." 10:45-10:48 It seems to me here that there's a recognition 10:48-10:57 that they are only the beginning of an enormous movement. 10:57-10:59 But then in parallel to that, 10:59-11:02 and I'm going to pick up on this verse later, 11:02-11:05 "In whom also you," in other words, 11:05-11:09 "in the beloved you also, having heard the word of truth, 11:09-11:10 the gospel of your salvation, 11:10-11:15 in whom also having believed you were sealed, 11:15-11:17 marked by stamp of ownership, 11:17-11:19 with the Holy Spirit of promise, 11:19-11:23 who is a pledge, a deposit, a down payment 11:23-11:25 of our inheritance, 11:25-11:29 inheritance to redemption of the acquired possession, 11:29-11:30 to praise of his glory." 11:30-11:33 Now that is difficult to read, 11:33-11:36 but it's difficult really to translate. 11:36-11:42 Should that be understood in terms of the future, 11:42-11:44 in terms of the completion of all things, 11:44-11:51 or is it that you were sealed into the redemption 11:51-11:57 and into the praise of his glory? 11:57-12:03 Because of this, I also, having heard of the faith 12:03-12:07 in the Lord Jesus among you and your love towards all the sedates, 12:07-12:09 do not cease giving thanks for you, 12:09-12:12 making remembrance in my prayers, 12:12-12:14 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 12:14-12:15 the Father of glory, 12:15-12:18 may give to you a spirit of wisdom 12:18-12:22 and revelation in true knowledge of him, 12:22-12:24 the eyes of your heart being enlightened 12:24-12:31 in order for you to know what is the hope of his calling, 12:31-12:35 what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. 12:35-12:38 You see again these superlatives pouring out, 12:38-12:45 "His inheritance in us, which we have received in him, 12:45-12:46 and so that you may know, 12:46-12:49 your eyes of your heart being enlightened, 12:49-12:53 what is the surpassing greatness of his power." 12:53-12:57 Now, I put in brackets an uberabundant mega dynamite. 12:57-13:03 Now, you shouldn't take that too seriously. 13:03-13:12 The Greek words are huperbalon, megithos, dunamios, 13:12-13:19 and the German word uber comes from the huper. 13:19-13:24 We get our word mega, okay, that comes from the megithos, 13:24-13:27 and the dunamios, well, we get the word dynamite. 13:27-13:31 But he's trying to encapsulate something here 13:31-13:35 about the power of God, 13:35-13:40 and that's why I've resorted to this language. 13:40-13:44 Having spoken about God's purpose and his plan, 13:44-13:46 what's come from the Father, 13:46-13:50 his prayer is that their eyes are open to see it, 13:50-13:51 the eyes of their heart. 13:51-13:54 They can actually really see this in the depths of their being. 13:54-14:00 Where it's going, the riches of the glory of the inheritance 14:00-14:02 that has their name on it, 14:02-14:11 and the astonishing power which has abounded to them or into them. 14:11-14:16 "What is the surpassing greatness of his power and to us, the believing. 14:16-14:20 Believing according to the working of the power of his might." 14:20-14:22 And again, you have this phrase, 14:22-14:25 "The energy of the dominion of his great strength." 14:25-14:28 These are superlatives, "which he worked in Christ, 14:28-14:31 having raised him out from the dead 14:31-14:34 and having set him at his right hand in the heavenlies, 14:34-14:38 above every principality and authority and power and dominion, 14:38-14:42 and every name being named, you name it, 14:42-14:45 not only in this age but in the coming one, 14:45-14:47 and having put all things unto his feet, 14:47-14:51 and having given him to be head over all things." 14:51-14:56 Now I've put this here so that you can read this. 14:56-14:58 Going back to 18, "The eyes of your heart being enlightened 14:58-15:02 in order for you to know the hope, the riches, 15:02-15:04 the surpassing greatness of his power, 15:04-15:07 for us the believing, the church." 15:07-15:10 In other words, this is for the church, 15:10-15:13 which is his body, the fullness of the one, 15:13-15:15 filling all in all. 15:15-15:17 "But you, being dead in your trespasses, 15:17-15:20 in your lapses, your faults and sins," 15:20-15:22 and he uses that more legal term now, 15:22-15:26 "in which you used to walk according to the world 15:26-15:28 and according to the ruler of the power of the air, 15:28-15:32 the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience, 15:32-15:34 among whom we in fact we all once lived 15:34-15:36 in the cravings of our flesh, 15:36-15:38 doing the wishes of the flesh and of the mind." 15:38-15:40 And we could note the mind. 15:40-15:45 "And being by nature children of wrath like the rest, 15:45-15:49 but God being rich in mercy because of the great love of his 15:49-15:51 with which he has loved us, 15:51-15:54 even when we were dead in our trespasses, 15:54-15:56 made us alive with Christ," 15:56-15:58 you see, it's by grace you've been saved, 15:58-16:00 "and raised us up together and seated us together 16:00-16:03 in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus." 16:03-16:05 That's raised us up together with him, 16:05-16:09 "in order that he might display in the coming ages 16:09-16:11 the surpassing riches of his grace," 16:11-16:13 again, I've just put this, 16:13-16:16 "uberabundant wealth of his undeserved generosity 16:16-16:19 in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 16:19-16:22 For by grace you are saved through faith," 16:22-16:24 and this faith is not from yourselves, 16:24-16:26 it's the gift of God, 16:26-16:29 it's not of works so that no one can boast. 16:29-16:32 We are God's workmanship, 16:32-16:35 created in Christ Jesus for good works, 16:35-16:37 which God in advance prepared 16:37-16:39 in order that we should walk in them, 16:39-16:42 in other words, as our way of life. 16:42-16:45 And when you come to 10 and he says this, 16:45-16:48 "created in Jesus Christ for good works, 16:48-16:50 prepared in advance for us," 16:50-16:56 that actually connects us right back to verse 3 of chapter 1. 16:56-16:59 "He chose us in him before the foundation of the world 16:59-17:06 for our being holy and unblemished before him in love." 17:06-17:14 Let me turn to the next handout 17:14-17:20 and just run through some of my thoughts here. 17:20-17:28 When I read chapter 1 and verse 13 in the NIV, 17:28-17:29 it put it like this, 17:29-17:34 "You also were included in Christ when," 17:34-17:36 it introduces a time element, 17:36-17:38 "when you heard the word of truth, 17:38-17:39 the gospel of your salvation, 17:39-17:41 and then having believed, 17:41-17:43 you were marked in him with a seal," 17:43-17:47 the promised Holy Spirit. 17:47-17:50 The whole impression being that you were not included 17:50-17:53 until you heard 17:53-17:54 and it's only once you believed 17:54-18:01 that you were marked in him with a seal. 18:01-18:06 Well, actually when I look at the verse 18:06-18:15 and you might want to turn to that other sheet 13, 18:15-18:18 we have in verse 7 and 11, 18:18-18:20 we talk about the Beloved in whom we possess 18:20-18:23 and in whom also we have been allotted an inheritance, 18:23-18:24 verse 11, 18:24-18:27 and it's exactly the same sentence structure, 18:27-18:33 "in whom also you," 18:33-18:35 and it seems to me that the thought there is that 18:35-18:39 in him you heard, 18:39-18:42 he was the preacher. 18:42-18:44 It was he who was speaking, 18:44-18:47 in whom you believed. 18:47-18:54 It's not that our faith is actually his faith. 18:54-18:56 So what I've got here is that 18:56-18:57 Christ is the preacher, 18:57-19:00 and you see this coming out later on in the book 19:00-19:03 where Paul talks about Christ preaching 19:03-19:08 to those far off and those nearby. 19:08-19:18 In chapter 4 and verse 21, 19:18-19:21 it speaks there of Christ having taught, 19:21-19:25 you having heard and Christ having taught. 19:25-19:30 And why I think this is important for us is that 19:30-19:32 I think it's crucial we understand the gospel of Christ 19:32-19:36 is not our gospel about him. 19:36-19:41 It's not the church's gospel. 19:41-19:45 It is, we could say, Christ's gospel. 19:45-19:47 It's the gospel of Jesus. 19:47-19:50 It's what he preached. 19:50-19:53 But even then when you ask that question 19:53-19:55 and you look at how he responded 19:55-19:57 when he was challenged in the gospels, 19:57-20:01 he said, "I'm only giving you what the Father has given me to say. 20:01-20:04 I'm only saying what I've seen and heard." 20:04-20:08 And we find this passage in John 17, 20:08-20:12 his great high priestly prayer, 20:12-20:20 where he's in the prayer, 20:20-20:25 "I gave them the words, the rema, the spoken words, 20:25-20:30 'You gave me,' and they accepted them." 20:30-20:31 I gave them what you gave. 20:31-20:40 It's the Father's gospel. 20:40-20:45 There is a temptation in the church to try and get behind 20:45-20:49 what is considered to be the church's gospel 20:49-20:53 to find the authentic Jesus and the authentic gospel. 20:53-20:56 Well, the church never claimed, it seems to me, 20:56-21:00 to be preaching a gospel about Jesus. 21:00-21:04 They were claiming to preach what Jesus preached. 21:04-21:07 So even when Paul uses that phrase, "my gospel," 21:07-21:10 that's really what he's meaning. 21:10-21:18 That the word, the logos, comes to us with words, 21:18-21:20 and we can never separate those. 21:20-21:24 The Church of Scotland, there's a wing within the Church of Scotland 21:24-21:28 that wants to interpret the church's constitution 21:28-21:34 to try and find the word of God contained within scripture. 21:34-21:36 And it separates. 21:36-21:40 But it seems to me as soon as you separate 21:40-21:45 that you do something into the word of God, 21:45-21:49 that you cannot have the word, sorry, 21:49-21:51 you cannot sit loose to the words 21:51-21:54 without losing something of the word. 21:54-21:56 Third thing there is that Christ is the believer. 21:56-22:00 It is his faith, and if you've been at these conferences, 22:00-22:03 then you know that we've talked about this, 22:03-22:06 and he refers to that again later. 22:06-22:09 I've given a reference, 3.12, but we read in our passage 22:09-22:15 when he says, "This gift of faith is not of yourselves." 22:15-22:20 But the faith is therefore not just his believing, 22:20-22:22 it is what he believed. 22:22-22:24 We're trying to believe what he believed. 22:24-22:30 We're being called up into his faith. 22:30-22:36 In 1 Corinthians he says, "We have the mind of Christ." 22:36-22:38 He doesn't say, "Have the mind of Christ." 22:38-22:39 He says, "We have it." 22:39-22:43 But of course we're then learning to think his thoughts, 22:43-22:49 as we read earlier, "Growing up into him who is the head." 22:49-22:53 What we're seeking to do, and in fact we are doing by his grace, 22:53-22:57 is to believe what he believed. 22:57-23:00 Christ is the content of the message, 23:00-23:05 but he is the messenger. 23:05-23:11 He preaches in words, and the words are important. 23:11-23:13 He has a faith that we are called up into, 23:13-23:17 which is imparted to us by the Spirit. 23:17-23:20 But we are seeking to believe what he believed. 23:20-23:24 The second area is the questions of human responsiveness, 23:24-23:27 and I've got quite a lot on this, 23:27-23:33 and maybe I shouldn't really say everything. 23:33-23:36 It seems to me there's a double movement in the Spirit, 23:36-23:41 which corresponds to what James Torrance often referred to 23:41-23:46 as the God-man-word and the man-God-word movements in Christ. 23:46-23:52 What JB used to do to illustrate this was a hug. 23:52-23:56 The person comes to you, but then the arms go out, 23:56-24:02 and they draw you in. 24:02-24:08 The person hugging is doing the double thing. 24:08-24:13 He used that as a way to try and get us to understand 24:13-24:17 that God in Christ comes to us, 24:17-24:21 but he also provides for us from the human side. 24:21-24:26 He is 100% God, 100% man. 24:26-24:37 But we see that also in the movement of the Spirit. 24:37-24:41 In our speaking, the Spirit presents Christ, 24:41-24:43 but also in the hearing, 24:43-24:52 he enables the faithful response of Christ to the Father in the believer, 24:52-24:58 and the response to the Father's Gospel, 24:58-25:01 which has an implication that in our preaching and our evangelism, 25:01-25:03 we should expect a response, 25:03-25:06 because if the Spirit is in what we're saying, 25:06-25:11 then the Spirit will be upon the people that we're speaking to, 25:11-25:13 that we don't have one without the other. 25:13-25:16 Whether they respond or not is a different matter, 25:16-25:18 in the sense of they do what, 25:18-25:28 the Spirit will be upon them. 25:28-25:33 What that really suggests to me is that people, 25:33-25:35 if they are to reject the Gospel, 25:35-25:38 they have to do a double thing. 25:38-25:42 They have to resist the Spirit that comes to them, 25:42-25:45 presenting Christ, 25:45-25:51 but they also have to suppress the work of the Spirit within. 25:51-25:54 Because in that double movement, 25:54-25:59 we find the giving of the Spirit, 25:59-26:02 or the infilling of the Spirit spoken of in two ways. 26:02-26:06 One is where the Spirit comes upon the disciples, 26:06-26:08 but you equally get the other phrases, 26:08-26:10 like in John, where Jesus says, 26:10-26:20 "Out of his belly will flow rivers of life given water." 26:20-26:28 Our responsiveness is both a genuine human response to Christ, 26:28-26:34 but it's not an independent human response apart from Christ. 26:34-26:37 And Paul uses, I think, 26:37-26:40 the middle voice to try and express this, 26:40-26:42 and maybe I could say something about that. 26:42-26:55 When we use our verbs, 26:55-27:00 we either express them in the active voice or the passive voice. 27:00-27:01 That's all we have in English. 27:01-27:05 But Greek has a middle voice. 27:05-27:10 And it's very difficult to translate that, 27:10-27:13 and scholars debate how to translate it, 27:13-27:22 and really what its significance might be. 27:22-27:25 It would be used perhaps in an, 27:25-27:28 if you want to say, "I wash myself," 27:28-27:34 where I am the active agent, 27:34-27:38 but I'm also the passive recipient. 27:38-27:42 It's both, because I am washing myself. 27:42-27:45 I'm the one being washed. 27:45-27:49 But it seems to me that Paul also uses the middle voice 27:49-27:53 to express what is a difficult thing for us to get our head around, 27:53-27:59 which is that our response is a genuinely human response, 27:59-28:11 but it's not an independent response apart from Christ. 28:11-28:18 And the examples really that you find later in Ephesians 28:18-28:30 is that when he talks about putting on the new man, 28:30-28:33 or having put off the old man, 28:33-28:36 or being renewed in the spirit or your mind, 28:36-28:43 or he comes at the end in chapter 6 to the armor of Christ, 28:43-28:46 most of the verbs are in the middle voice. 28:46-28:49 They're in the aorist tense and the middle voice. 28:49-28:54 Something has been done which you're now getting into. 28:54-28:58 And the kind of example that I have in mind 28:58-29:01 as a way into thinking about this 29:01-29:05 is trying to get a child dressed after a bath 29:05-29:08 or a child dressed in the morning. 29:08-29:12 You're not saying, "There's Christ. Go and put him on. 29:12-29:15 There's the armor. Go and put it on." 29:15-29:18 Or in any way that you say to the child, 29:18-29:21 "There are your clothes." 29:21-29:24 You're putting the clothes on the child, 29:24-29:27 but the child is getting into what you're doing. 29:27-29:32 Now, that doesn't really encapsulate everything that is happening here, 29:32-29:41 but the agent of the action is God, not us. 29:41-29:49 But yet there is a genuine human response on our part. 29:49-29:54 I've raised questions too about the context of redemption. 29:54-30:00 Paul gives a fairly grim estimation of our human situation, 30:00-30:03 which we find in chapter 2. 30:03-30:05 "Dead in your trespasses." 30:05-30:09 He talks about walking according to the world or the world age. 30:09-30:16 He talks about the world age, 30:16-30:19 according to the ruler of the power of the air, 30:19-30:24 and the way that is a phrase only ever used in Ephesians. 30:24-30:31 And it encapsulates -- it is hard to know how to translate that, 30:31-30:36 but the atmosphere, the mood of the age. 30:36-30:43 You could maybe use the German phrase, "zeitgeist." 30:43-30:45 He talks about principalities and powers, 30:45-30:47 and the question is how do we speak of these things? 30:47-30:57 He talks about the flesh and being directed in our behavior 30:57-31:01 simply by its passions and by our own ideas, 31:01-31:04 about being by nature children of wrath. 31:04-31:07 Why do I think this is important? 31:07-31:10 It relates partly to something that Andrew touched upon 31:10-31:11 in terms of apologetics. 31:11-31:16 I think apologetics is crucial, 31:16-31:21 but I think sometimes our evangelism is in danger of being 31:21-31:27 almost displaced by apologetics. 31:27-31:32 The question is how do we speak of Christ and the atonement 31:32-31:35 in a culture which is basically a victim culture, 31:35-31:38 where people see themselves as victims 31:38-31:46 crying out for justice and for vindication? 31:46-31:50 Where the question in people's minds is not 31:50-31:55 how can I be justified before a righteous God, 31:55-31:59 but how can God justify himself to me, 31:59-32:06 or justify himself to an innocent suffering world? 32:06-32:10 And it's reversed the whole question. 32:10-32:15 So that the whole question of theodicy 32:15-32:25 can perhaps be in danger of displacing theology. 32:25-32:32 If we don't talk about the enemy and the situation, 32:32-32:35 and I know that's going to be difficult for folk in our culture 32:35-32:37 to begin to think about, 32:37-32:39 but if we don't talk about it, 32:39-32:44 then there's just God enough and God gets the blame. 32:44-32:51 And the whole question is how do you justify God? 32:51-32:55 And that's what they want to know. 32:55-32:59 There's a story of two boys walking home from church 32:59-33:02 after hearing a strong sermon about the devil, 33:02-33:04 and one turns to the other and says, 33:04-33:06 "What do you make of all this Satan stuff?" 33:06-33:09 And the other says, "I don't know, it'll probably be like Santa. 33:09-33:12 It'll just turn out to be your dad." 33:12-33:23 And if we don't have some grasp or say something of that, 33:23-33:26 then the enemy is God. 33:26-33:29 There's a woman I remember preaching 33:29-33:32 and she was talking about death 33:32-33:35 and how after a parent may die, 33:35-33:38 people will say all manner of different things to their children. 33:38-33:41 And as a minister, I don't know what to do sometimes. 33:41-33:49 I cringe. 33:49-33:53 And they'll make out that God wanted them in heaven 33:53-33:56 or He wants them in the clouds with the angels. 33:56-34:00 And I remember some things you have to tell them the truth. 34:00-34:03 Death took your daddy. 34:03-34:07 And Jesus took your daddy from death. 34:07-34:11 You see what I'm trying to say there? 34:11-34:17 That the enemy, if we don't talk about the real enemy, 34:17-34:21 then the enemy becomes God. 34:21-34:24 I've got more to say, but I think probably that's enough. 34:24-34:27 We're in danger of not talking about anything unless I end here.