Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 1 Study # 6
July 15, 2012
Dayton, Texas
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Thesis:Redemption required redemption to provide motivation to do what is right.
Introduction:In our last study we focused upon the fact that God's provision of redemption required a Redeemer Whose qualifications included a real participation in "humanity" while maintaining a separation from the corrupt seed of Adam. In the introduction to that study we asked what good a redemption is that only frees human beings from the impact of Justice and does nothing about stopping the behavior that so antagonizes Justice. In was my point that Jesus, being "born of a woman", addresses the real participation in the humanity of the redeemed. This evening it is my contention that being "born under law" is God's answer to the motivation issue.
Before we go any further, however, let me say this clearly: the redemption provided us by the human born Son of God under law is still "in flux" as far as the impact that it makes upon us as the redeemed. In other words, what Jesus did is not yet our full experience. Paul alludes to this fact in Romans 8:23 where he pointedly says that we are "waiting for that element of 'adoption' that is tied to resurrection". Thus, the actions of the Redeemer are complete and completely effective, but the experience of that effectiveness by the redeemed is only partial until the fulness of the time for the Grand Plan to commence. That would mean, then, that the frank admission by the New Testament that believers are not yet properly motivated much of the time is simply another evidence that there are some things to come that have to come before we can expect each other to behave as we ought.
So, with that awareness before us, let us consider what being "born under law" meant when Paul made it a qualification of the Redeemer.
- I. The Larger Objective in View of Its Larger Objective.
- A. Redemption, according to Paul, is the objective of the "apostelizing" of the Son by the Father.
- B. But, he goes on to say that redemption had the objective of providing us with what he calls "the adoption of sons".
- C. But, he also already said that "the adoption of sons" was an event timed by the Father once the "tutoring" had done its job -- meaning that "adoption" also has an objective which Paul identified as the execution of the authority of "the lord of all".
- D. And the New Testament under Paul's leadership clearly teaches that the execution of authority by the sons of God is only going to be fully realized in the Coming Kingdom.
- E. All of this makes "redemption" an early, but powerful, step in the creation of the Kingdom of God.
- II. The Intended Impact of the Birth "Under Law".
- A. First, what does this actually mean?
- 1. All men are "born under law" (Paul's teaching in Romans 2), but Jesus was "born under Mosaic Law".
- 2. The likelihood is that Paul was presenting the Redeemer's qualifications under the most demanding setting.
- a. Most men are "born under law" in the sense that there is a partial expression of law in their natural understanding and the arbiter is their "conscience" (Romans 2:15).
- b. But those men who are "born under the Law of Moses" are born under the fullest expression of the righteousness of God and the arbiter is that Law, not what men may understand or sense from their consciences.
- c. In the setting of that Law stands the most stringent demand: an inalterable evaluation (Hebrews 2:2) that will be pursued upon the least significant actions (Matthew 12:36) unto the most hidden motives (Hebrews 4:12; Romans 2:16; and 1 Corinthians 4:5).
- B. Second, what does it mean to men?
- 1. According to 2 Peter 1:9, everyone who actively believes in the Redeemer will develop the character of that Redeemer.
- 2. According to 1 John 3:3, everyone who actively hopes in the Redeemer will develop the character of that Redeemer.
- 3. According to 1 John 4:19, everyone who believes in His love returns it.
- 4. According to 1 John 5:1, everyone who returns love to the Father also sheds love unto those born of the Father, and beyond.
- 5. Thus, it is Paul's understanding that faith in the Love-sponsored grace of God will lead to proper behavior -- making the impact of Redemption extend into the arena of motivation.
- a. Thus, the only "problem" is to be found in what I have called "active faith/hope".
- b. And Paul's solution to that "problem" is another "fulness of time" event in the Father's "apostelizing" of His Spirit (Galatians 4:6).
- c. At no stage of God's redemptive plan is that plan subjected to the "independent" actions of men: there is a reason that the most highly developed of the sons of God considered themselves such abject slaves of God so that they never did anything apart from His direction and His provision.