April 29, 2018 Robert T. Walker, "The Cross's Judgement means Resurrection Joy" https://tftorrance.org/firbush 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. ------------ 00:00-00:15 The 29th of April 2018. The topic is "The Cross's Judgement means resurrection joy". 00:15-00:26 We have read from Psalm 90 and a few verses from John 12, 13 and 16 about the glory of 00:26-00:36 the cross and the meaning of the cross. Also in John 20 Jesus is appearing to his disciples 00:36-00:47 in the upper room. In the Old Testament judgement has a dual meaning. It basically means putting 00:47-00:59 things right or restoring things. The book of Judges is the book of the saviours of Israel, 00:59-01:11 the ones who rescued Israel from their enemies and then judged the people. But in putting 01:11-01:20 things right obviously you have to undo things that are wrong. The negative side of judgement 01:20-01:28 is undoing the wrong and condemning the wrong. But the primary force, the whole intention 01:28-01:38 of that is to put things back to where they should be. It's restoration. We get very striking 01:38-01:47 examples of that in some of the Psalms. For example, Psalm 98. 01:47-01:58 "Make a joyful noise before the king, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills 01:58-02:05 it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills 02:05-02:11 sing for joy together before the Lord, for He comes to rule the earth. He will judge 02:11-02:25 the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity." Or Psalm 96. Then again with 02:25-02:31 the coming of God. "Then shall all the trees of the woods sing for joy before the Lord, 02:31-02:38 for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples 02:38-02:48 with His truth." So the fact that God is coming to judge is a matter of tremendous joy because 02:48-02:53 it means He is going to put things right. No longer will there be injustice and murder 02:53-03:05 and poverty and oppression. There will be peace in the land. So judgment has essentially 03:05-03:21 two meanings. When we think about the cross, both of these come very much into play. For 03:21-03:30 example, in the reading that we read in John 16, Jesus speaks about "when the Spirit 03:30-03:38 comes He will convince the world of sin and righteousness and judgment." And judgment 03:38-03:46 because the ruler of this world is judged. That's the powers of evil. They are going 03:46-04:06 to be judged and overcome. Jesus says, "Do not fear, for I have overcome the world." 04:06-04:15 This is before the cross and He is talking about some of the trials and persecutions 04:15-04:24 that are going to come. But He says, "Don't be afraid, I have overcome the world." So 04:24-04:31 Jesus views the cross as the great victory over evil. Where the prince of the world will 04:31-04:45 be dethroned, evil will be robbed of its power, its basic power. But judgment is also very 04:45-04:52 much a positive thing. It's restoring things to what they should be. When we look at Psalm 04:52-05:05 90, this was a psalm that the great scour theologian John Macleod Campbell always had 05:05-05:19 read to him on his birthday. It may seem rather gloomy because it's all about what a short 05:19-05:33 life span we have and how all our years are consumed by God's anger. It starts by saying 05:33-05:43 that God is from everlasting to everlasting. But you turn man back to the dust and you 05:43-05:53 say turn back, you're children of dust. Why is that? Obviously it's because we have sinned. 05:53-06:03 He sweeps us away, we're like a dream. Like grass which is renewed in the morning, it 06:03-06:09 flourishes and in the evening it fades and withers. Verse 7, "We are consumed by your 06:09-06:18 anger, by your wrath we are overwhelmed." Again the wrath of God is a sign of hope. 06:18-06:27 Again it's because God will not put up with evil and injustice and sin. The wrath of God 06:27-06:37 is the absolute no of God. It's his opposition to God. It's not wrath in the sense of human 06:37-06:50 wrath. But it's wrath in the sense of he will not put up with what is wrong. "Through all 06:50-07:01 our days" verse 9 "pass away under your wrath." The cross is very much the fulfilment of the 07:01-07:13 wrath of God. The cross is Christ coming to take what we are on himself. That means to 07:13-07:23 take our sin and our sinful human nature and that automatically means death. In Genesis 07:23-07:28 man was told that if we try to eat of the knowledge of the tree in good and evil we 07:28-07:39 would die. That's because death is suicide. So sin is suicide. It's literally suicide. 07:39-07:43 Because we've been brought into being out of nothing, we have no inherent being of our 07:43-07:52 own, we depend entirely on God for our very existence. And yet God in his unbelievable 07:52-08:05 love has made us as real to stand over against him with our own reality and freedom and will. 08:05-08:12 So we're once completely dependent on God and yet we have a kind of semi-independence. 08:12-08:26 We have a reality. But it's our dependence on God that gives us life. So to cut that 08:26-08:37 cord is literally suicide. And that was the temptation, the great lie of the devil in 08:37-08:46 the beginning. You can be like God, you don't need to be a creature. You can be like God. 08:46-08:59 And so man was deceived. And that was a deception which affected our very most innermost being. 08:59-09:15 We became rotten right to the core. And in his mercy, God, in Genesis it says "in the 09:15-09:22 day that you sin you'll die". Well obviously Adam and Eve didn't die literally that very 09:22-09:29 day. It means you'll begin to die, you'll start to go down into death and God in his 09:29-09:40 mercy keeps us alive but we are inevitably going down into the grave. And that is a sign 09:40-09:55 of the basic rupture between the lifeline which alone can keep us alive. So that sin 09:55-10:10 is literally suicide. And sin means death. And so when Christ becomes what we are, we 10:10-10:18 are that automatically means that really to fully become what we are he has to die. So 10:18-10:28 he takes on our mortal sinful nature. In the Bible flesh refers to the sin. The flesh is 10:28-10:37 of no avail. It's the spirit that gives life, the spirit of God. But John says that Christ 10:37-10:51 became flesh, the word became flesh. He doesn't say body but flesh. And so that Christ, part 10:51-11:00 of his becoming man was that he died. And his death is the fulfilment of the judgment 11:00-11:15 of God. It's God's absolute no against sin. It's not, it's the fulfilment of God's no 11:15-11:23 but it's also the inevitable consequence of our sin. In one sense God doesn't need to 11:23-11:31 fulfil the judgment because we have already judged ourselves by trying to pull out the 11:31-11:43 lifeline. We are going down into death and that is the judgment of sin and death. And 11:43-11:55 so that the cross means that the complete and utter opposition of God to sin is carried 11:55-12:11 out and that we as responsible beings, we too have to go through the inevitable consequences 12:11-12:26 of what we have done collectively as a human race. And that brings a real end to the sin. 12:26-12:41 It is put away. We die. Death is complete. So sin is not just bypassed or forgiven. It's 12:41-12:49 okay you can forget about it. The full judgment of God is carried out and that is absolutely 12:49-13:03 crucial because it means that when we are raised and at the cross there are two things 13:03-13:11 happening. One is outwardly Christ is dying and that's everything we have talked about 13:11-13:19 so far. He has taken on our sin, our human nature and so he dies. And so life is that 13:19-13:28 process but at the same time what we can't see under the surface is that in himself he 13:28-13:41 is converting our untruth and our unfaith and our lack of love back into what we should 13:41-13:52 be. He is offering up himself in perfect purity and truth and righteousness. And when he dies 13:52-14:02 he is at once experiencing our death which is due to us. The wages of sin is death but 14:02-14:12 at the same time in hell itself he is holding on to God as God is holding on to him. And 14:12-14:19 he is taking our cry of God forsakenness on himself but offering himself up to God in 14:19-14:29 faith into your hands I commend my spirit. And so that already in a real sense is the 14:29-14:36 resurrection. Obviously we cannot possibly say how these two things happen at the same 14:36-14:43 time but they do. He once takes on himself our death, the negative judgment of God, but 14:43-14:51 at the very same time God is fulfilling his positive judgment. He is putting things right. 14:51-15:00 Christ is putting our human nature right in himself and even while dying is offering up 15:00-15:13 himself, i.e. ourselves in him in love and joy and peace and righteousness and truth 15:13-15:22 to God. It is the conjunction of those two things that make for the absolute joy of the 15:22-15:32 resurrection. If we simply had death and then resurrection there would obviously be joy. 15:32-15:46 But how could we ever be sure that our sins had been fully put away, fully requited for, 15:46-15:58 we had fully been able to answer for them. We couldn't. It is the very fact that we are 15:58-16:06 judged and that the one who judges is the same one who forgives and who raises from 16:06-16:13 the dead. It is that conjunction that makes the joy of resurrection all the more joy. 16:13-16:32 I don't know if I would explain that. It is hard to put it completely into words but 16:32-16:45 the cross is the complete end of sin, the complete end of death. It is Christ dying 16:45-17:00 and that is real death and that is the end of our natural created life and that fulfills 17:00-17:09 the story of Genesis. But at the same time, in and through that, God raises us up again 17:09-17:16 through the life of Christ and it is those two things together that are the absolute 17:16-17:23 assurance and guarantee of forgiveness. The sin is really, really undone, put into the 17:23-17:36 past and conquered and in its place Christ has risen. So the cross is the triumph of 17:36-17:50 God. It is the very opposite of what it appears to be. He is taken on our death, Hebrews, 17:50-18:04 because the children die. Since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise 18:04-18:13 partook the same nature. Hebrews 2.14, that through death he might destroy him who is 18:13-18:20 the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death 18:20-18:27 were subject to life long bondage. Without being aware of it, the fear of death lies 18:27-18:35 behind all our lives. Every fear is ultimately the fear of death, the fear of not having 18:35-18:45 enough food or whatever ultimately is the fear of death. That affects all our lives. 18:45-18:55 But Christ has died once and for all and he has risen once and for all. When he rises, 18:55-19:03 that is a new creation. It is the same creation recreated but the first creation come to an 19:03-19:14 end and put to death because we committed suicide. But God in a sense held us back from 19:14-19:22 the full suicide until he himself could share it with us because it is only when he can 19:22-19:32 commit suicide and come out the other side. So it is difficult to try to tie it up in 19:32-19:42 so many words but we will leave it to discussion. Let's have a prayer. We pray, O God, the 19:42-19:52 light of your Spirit that we may see exactly how the cross and the resurrection dovetail 19:52-20:03 together and how the cross is your wisdom and your power in action, not foolishness 20:03-20:13 as it appears to be to the world but the very means of salvation. In Jesus' name we thank 20:13-20:14 and praise you. Amen. 20:14-20:15 All right.