May 6, 2018 Robert T. Walker, "The Judgment of the Cross Revealed in Resurrection" 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. ------------ 00:00-00:13 6th May 2018. The topic is the judgment of the cross revealed in resurrection. We read 00:13-00:30 from John 12, 1 Corinthians 15 and from the end of 2 Corinthians 5. The judgment of the 00:30-00:42 cross revealed in the resurrection. As we saw last week in Hebrew the word judge has 00:42-00:48 two very different meanings although they are linked. Primarily to judge means to put 00:48-00:57 right and so Psalm 96 and 98 are great examples of the joy about God because He is coming 00:57-01:04 to judge the earth. The joy because it means He is going to put everything right, overcome 01:04-01:14 injustice and restore us to what we ought to be. In the very act of doing that obviously 01:14-01:22 there is a negative judgment on what is wrong. In order to put things right you inevitably 01:22-01:30 have to undo what is wrong and condemn what is wrong. The same basic thing is in the New 01:30-01:42 Testament but the Greek word has not quite the same link, it is not the same word that 01:42-01:48 has the same meanings. So the word for judgment is normally the word for krino and that is 01:48-02:00 the negative side of judgment. In the passage we read in John that is the meaning where 02:00-02:07 Jesus says looking to the cross "now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler 02:07-02:20 of this world be cast out". We all know the story of the Garden of Gethsemane where 02:20-02:32 Jesus prays by Himself and as Luke says He is so anxious and troubled that the sweat 02:32-02:40 drops off His face like great drops of blood and He prays "Father if it is possible let 02:40-02:53 this hour pass from me". Here in John 12.27 He says "now is my soul troubled". He has 02:53-03:02 already said before that, verse 23 chapter 12 "the hour has come for the Son of Man to 03:02-03:13 be glorified". He uses the analogy of a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies 03:13-03:23 and it is only if it dies that it can spring up into new life and bear fruit. He knows 03:23-03:33 He is going to die but He speaks of it as His glorification and He knows exactly what 03:33-03:41 it is going to mean. He has known all the way along that from the history of Israel 03:41-03:53 that the prophets were mostly all killed for declaring the word of God and He knew that 03:53-03:58 would be even more true of Him because He was shining the light of God into the hearts 03:58-04:07 of people as never before and they couldn't escape. He spoke with authority as no other 04:07-04:14 person has ever spoken and so He says "my soul is troubled, I am deeply troubled". So 04:14-04:22 when I say "Father save me from this hour", no, for this very purpose I have come to this 04:22-04:36 hour and He prays "Father glorify Your name". So He says "go ahead, go ahead with the cross, 04:36-04:45 testify my name". So He speaks of the cross as His being glorified and the way He speaks 04:45-04:51 of the cross is incredible. When we look at the cross we think it's judgement, it's an 04:51-04:58 innocent man being put to death, which it was, that he is suffering, he had no choice. 04:58-05:05 That is the opposite of the truth. He deliberately forced the issue, he knew there was no other 05:05-05:15 way that he had to shine the light of God into the innermost heart of man and the only 05:15-05:24 possible response, human response, is either to have a total repentance or to attempt to 05:24-05:31 put the light out. There is no other way. Even the disciples who accepted Jesus as a 05:31-05:40 light, they forsook Him and fled. This is part of the mystery of human being and the 05:40-05:46 mystery of the cross and of atonement and of what sin is. Sin is so deep that we are 05:46-05:58 not even aware of what it is in its depths. Even for the disciples who accepted Him, knew 05:58-06:06 He was the Messiah, they all had to forsake Him and leave Him and He was going to be standing 06:06-06:19 alone against all the powers of evil and die an agonising death on the cross, agonising 06:19-06:27 physically. And yet the real pain and torment was not at all the physical one, it's the 06:27-06:40 meaning of death. Death is the extinction of life, of enjoyment of this wonderful good 06:40-06:47 world of the light of God, the truth and love of the Father. It's the reality of sin coming 06:47-06:58 home to roost and it's going out into the darkness forever. That means death forever. 06:58-07:13 In the day you sin you'll die. He knows that that is what it involves but this is His glorification. 07:13-07:35 How is it His glorification? How can Jesus by His death undo our sin and our death? How 07:35-07:45 is it possible? How could God not have done it some other way? If we think back a little 07:45-07:50 bit to the whole meaning of creation, the whole meaning of creation out of nothing is 07:50-07:58 that there was literally nothing apart from God and then God brings creation into being 07:58-08:11 by His word and that's an unbelievable action. God is the supreme eternal reality but He 08:11-08:19 brings into being another reality alongside Him. If we think of the vastness of the universe, 08:19-08:30 the uncomprehendable sheer size and complexity and wonder of the universe, God brings that 08:30-08:38 into being alongside Him. Obviously God doesn't have size like that but if the universe is 08:38-08:48 that in its majesty and in its reality, in the goodness of its reality, then how much 08:48-08:58 more unbelievably superb is God? God brings into being a reality which is out of nothing. 08:58-09:05 There's nothing there. He makes it out of nothing. So this reality, the creation, we 09:05-09:11 have nothing to keep ourselves in being. We are totally dependent on the creative act 09:11-09:18 of God. We're brought into being, we continue to be completely dependent on Him. We have 09:18-09:27 no inherent reality the way God is inherently real and yet we exist alongside Him and that 09:27-09:35 is the thing that the secular world just cannot understand. They cannot understand and we 09:35-09:44 all find it hard to believe that if God is real, we too can be real. Because automatically 09:44-09:55 the secular mind thinks God is a threat. If God is real, then we can't be real. People 09:55-10:04 think that if science is real and a natural causation is true, then that means there's 10:04-10:14 no need for God. But that's not the way it works, it's both. Everything is held in being 10:14-10:22 by God and yet it has its own reality. So the creation depends entirely on God for its 10:22-10:30 being. It's very being. As creatures we are not God. We are creaturely. We'll never be 10:30-10:36 God. Creation will never be God. But we have our own distinctive reality. One which is 10:36-10:43 dependent on God. It's that double thing that makes us what we are. Completely dependent 10:43-10:52 on God and yet with our own very real relative, not complete freedom, but relative freedom. 10:52-11:04 We can never have complete freedom. But relative freedom and independence. Man and woman were 11:04-11:11 made to have freedom and enjoyment in God's good creation as creatures. The whole story 11:11-11:19 of the Fall is that they are tempted into trying to become God and that God's motives 11:19-11:32 in wanting them not to know what evil is are wrong. In the nature of the case evil is an 11:32-11:42 attack on what is good. God's creation is good. Evil only exists as a parasite, as an 11:42-11:50 attack on what is good. Evil is essentially irrational. It's the attempt to destroy what's 11:50-11:57 good. We cannot explain why there is evil. If we could explain it, it would be rational, 11:57-12:03 but it's not. Evil is inherently irrational. Basically it's nothingness. It's the power 12:03-12:13 of a lie, the power of nothingness. Adam and Eve are deceived into thinking that they can 12:13-12:21 become like God. They don't need to be a creature. They attempt to become like God. They attempt 12:21-12:33 to overthrow their dependence on God and to become God, to become fully independent. Sin 12:33-12:39 is cutting a life line with their very being, the one who holds them to being. As we saw 12:39-12:51 last week sin is literally suicide. Sin is a basic warping and fundamental twisting of 12:51-12:57 the absolute central roots of our whole human being. We are twisted through and through. 12:57-13:08 It doesn't mean we are now as bad as we can be because God in His mercy delays its slow 13:08-13:16 process of decay and going down to death. Essentially every part of us has gone wrong 13:16-13:26 and we have cut the life line. God in His mercy delays His full judgment against sin 13:26-13:32 and evil. If He had judged it then that would have been the end of creation, the end of 13:32-13:45 us, the end of the world. He delays His judgment until He can take it on Himself. Only God 13:45-14:02 can undo sin and death. Only God can face up to the whole meaning of evil. But why did 14:02-14:11 He have to become man? Why could He not just undo it or like wave a wand? I think there 14:11-14:26 are two main reasons. One is that God always loves what He has once made. He is faithful. 14:26-14:33 He loves us even though we are sinned, we are going down to death. He loves us. He doesn't 14:33-14:39 just want to wipe us out and start afresh. He wants to restore us. How can He restore 14:39-14:51 us if our whole mindset is set against Him? We think He is hostile to us. He doesn't really 14:51-15:02 like us. He tries to keep things from us that we should have. We paint ugly stripes on God's 15:02-15:13 face, that we read our own motives and project them onto God's face. We make ourselves appear 15:13-15:25 more righteous than God. How is God to win us from the very centre of our beings and 15:25-15:34 undo our sin? The only possible way is for Him Himself to take on Himself what we are 15:34-15:40 in His entirety. Mind, body and soul. Even to the point of taking on Himself our very 15:40-15:49 sin and our twisted mind. Paul refers to that in the passage in 2 Corinthians 5. God made 15:49-15:59 him who knew no sin to become sin. In a way we can't say how He does this but Christ actually 15:59-16:07 takes on Himself our sin and our death. He shares our cry of God forsaken us. "My God, 16:07-16:16 my God, why have you forsaken me?" Of course God hadn't forsaken Him. Christ held onto 16:16-16:23 God at the cross as God held onto Him. But He takes on Himself our cry of God forsaken 16:23-16:36 us. God penetrates into exactly what we are in order to take it on Himself and undo it. 16:36-16:45 So He has to become what we are in order to do that. One of the greatest of the early 16:45-16:58 fathers saw Gregory Nazianzus. He had a famous phrase that "What the unassumed is unredeemed. 16:58-17:06 What Christ hasn't taken on Himself and become can't be saved." That was in the context 17:06-17:16 that was Christ fully…how human was Christ with a human body? Did it have a real human 17:16-17:27 mind or did the Logos take part of the human mind? Did it have a real human soul? Gregory 17:27-17:36 Nazianzus reasoned that if he had a human body but not a human mind, then the human 17:36-17:41 mind is not being saved. If he had a human mind but not a human soul, then the human 17:41-17:49 soul is not being saved. So for what we are to be saved, God in Christ has to take on 17:49-17:56 every single part of what we are. So He assumes a human body, human mind, human soul, human 17:56-18:06 thinking, everything, all that we are, He takes on Himself in order to undo it. 18:06-18:15 But the other thing I think is that there is something about "we are made to be real 18:15-18:28 in front of God, to stand on our own feet and be responsible". To me there is a basic 18:28-18:36 instinct that we are responsible and we ought to put it right. That is the basic principle 18:36-18:45 of justice all over the world. In some societies if somebody kills your brother, you have to 18:45-18:50 kill their brother. It is the basic principle of justice. You are honour bound to kill the 18:50-19:02 other person because we are responsible. There is something right about that. It is the principle 19:02-19:11 that we are responsible and we are due to make amends for the wrong that we have done. 19:11-19:31 Obviously we cannot. But God does that for us. He actually steps into our place and takes 19:31-19:39 on everything that we are. He takes on our sinful nature and offers up our response, 19:39-19:47 takes on Himself the judgment due to us in our sin and our death and offers up to God 19:47-19:59 in its place a life of perfect trust and joy and peace and belief. He does that as man. 19:59-20:12 This is God doing it but the key thing is that He is doing it as man. Even for God that 20:12-20:20 is not easy. The whole temptations in the wilderness were the devil trying to tempt 20:20-20:32 Christ not to be man. He used His power as God to get out of being man. Christ has come 20:32-20:38 and it is only God who can do this. He has become man, become real man. But as man He 20:38-20:51 has to stand on His own feet for every other human being in trust in God. He has to do 20:51-21:01 it as man not as God. It is God doing it but He has to do it as God as man doing it. Doing 21:01-21:16 it as man in faith in God and taking our sin and death on Himself. Outwardly the cross 21:16-21:25 is a disaster and Christ has been put to death. Underneath the cedars we can see that this 21:25-21:42 is God Himself coming to undo sin and death. To take the guilt and sin and hatred and bottomless 21:42-21:52 evil behind sin on Himself, on His very self. As T.F. Torrance says, God hazards His very 21:52-22:05 being on the cross. This is God as a single man standing in for every other single human 22:05-22:18 being, man, woman, child and single handedly in faith, dying under His own judgment, under 22:18-22:29 the judgment of God, knowing what sin and death means and yet dying in faith and dying 22:29-22:42 sinlessly. Death has no hold over Him. Death can only hold those who have sinned. In death 22:42-22:56 He dies and He commends His soul to God. This is all the powers of evil, all the powers 22:56-23:08 of darkness arranged against Him. He conquers and He dies in faith and that is the victory, 23:08-23:16 the victory of the cross is that He holds on to God in hell itself as God holds on to 23:16-23:26 Him and dies in faith. That is the glory of God, that God loves us so much, He loves us 23:26-23:34 more than He loves Himself and He dies for us, He dies for His friends. That is the glory 23:34-23:42 of the cross, the ultimate majesty of God, suffering for those who don't deserve it. 23:42-23:49 And so the resurrection is the only possible outcome of the cross. The victory had already 23:49-23:59 been won on the cross but the manifestation of the victory is delayed for three days, 23:59-24:06 partly so that it becomes clear that He really had died, partly because the human body begins 24:06-24:16 to stink after three days. If He had just risen immediately people might have said He 24:16-24:30 wasn't really dead. So He rises on the third day and when He rises His death is the end 24:30-24:36 of the old creation. He has become a part of the creation, a physical part of the physical 24:36-24:47 creation. He has become the central figure in creation and His death is the death essentially 24:47-24:58 in Him of the whole universe. Obviously the whole universe hasn't changed in one degree, 24:58-25:12 it's still going on, but because Christ somehow acts for the whole of mankind, sums up the 25:12-25:20 whole universe in Himself, inside Himself, when He died that was the death of the whole 25:20-25:27 universe and the death of all of us. So as Paul says in 2 Kings 5, "One person has died 25:27-25:36 therefore all have died". When He rose from the dead He is the firstfruits of the dead, 25:36-25:42 He is the beginning of the new creation. In 2 Kings 5 Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ 25:42-25:54 they are a new creation". The new creation has begun inside the person of Christ and 25:54-26:02 when our eyes are opened to see and begin to know and understand that, then we too begin 26:02-26:15 to share in the new creation. The judgment of the cross is revealed in the resurrection. 26:15-26:31 Let us pray. We pray O God that you will stretch our minds and our heads so that we can begin 26:31-26:41 to get our heads round all this stuff, begin to see how it all hangs together and the depth 26:41-26:49 and the wisdom of what you accomplished on the cross and manifested in the resurrection. 26:49-26:52 In Jesus' name, Amen.