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Is God’s Grace Really Free, or Does It Cost Me Everything?


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00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Well, the grace of God is absolutely free.
00:00:07.000 | And it will also cost you everything.
00:00:10.000 | And balancing this out is a trick.
00:00:12.000 | As we hear in today's question from a young preacher named Ryan,
00:00:16.000 | a leader who listens to the podcast.
00:00:18.000 | Ryan writes in, Pastor John says this, "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:21.000 | I'm stumped as to how to preach two truths.
00:00:23.000 | One, people cannot work to be saved.
00:00:26.000 | Christ did all the work for them and now they must trust in him.
00:00:30.000 | Number two, I want them to realize following Jesus is costly
00:00:34.000 | and not an easy path of self-indulgence.
00:00:37.000 | Can you give me any hopes for explaining that Christ is both free,
00:00:41.000 | as Isaiah 55, 1 says, and will also cost us everything,
00:00:45.000 | like the treasure in the field in Matthew 13, 44?"
00:00:49.000 | Pastor John, what would you say to Ryan?
00:00:52.000 | I very much enjoyed thinking about this question.
00:00:56.000 | And I'm eager to say what I've been thinking
00:01:01.000 | because I think it sheds a lot of light on the nature of salvation.
00:01:06.000 | So here's what I need to do.
00:01:08.000 | Just to make things more precise, I'm going to rephrase the question.
00:01:16.000 | And you'll see why.
00:01:18.000 | When Ryan says Christ is free and yet costs everything,
00:01:25.000 | the word Christ there is shorthand, I think,
00:01:30.000 | for enjoying God through Christ as our all-satisfying friend forever.
00:01:37.000 | Enjoying God through Christ as our all-satisfying friend forever.
00:01:44.000 | That's what we get when we get Christ.
00:01:47.000 | That's what Christ offers to say you get Christ or you come to Christ.
00:01:52.000 | That's what you come to.
00:01:53.000 | You come to God through Christ and find your all-satisfying friend forever.
00:02:01.000 | So the paradox that Ryan is concerned about would go like this.
00:02:05.000 | Enjoying God through Christ as our all-satisfying friend forever
00:02:10.000 | is free and costs you everything.
00:02:14.000 | Now, with that paraphrase, I think we can explain the paradox.
00:02:21.000 | There are two massive obstacles that have to be overcome
00:02:28.000 | before I can enjoy God through Christ as my all-satisfying friend forever.
00:02:34.000 | The first obstacle is called legal.
00:02:37.000 | It's a legal one, namely that God outside of Christ is not my friend.
00:02:42.000 | He's my enemy, holy, just, righteous judge who sees me as a guilty sinner.
00:02:49.000 | That is the main obstacle that has to be overcome, God's just and holy wrath.
00:02:56.000 | He's not my friend.
00:02:58.000 | If I get brought into his presence, I get incinerated.
00:03:01.000 | I don't get happy.
00:03:03.000 | The second obstacle we could call emotional or moral.
00:03:07.000 | First one's legal.
00:03:08.000 | This one is emotional, namely,
00:03:10.000 | I don't find God all-satisfying.
00:03:13.000 | Thank you very much.
00:03:14.000 | I don't see him as beautiful or supremely desirable in my natural state.
00:03:19.000 | In fact, I prefer other things for my satisfaction.
00:03:23.000 | I have exchanged the glory of God for images and other things.
00:03:27.000 | Those are the two obstacles that have to be overcome
00:03:33.000 | if I'm going to enjoy God through Christ as my all-satisfying friend forever.
00:03:39.000 | Overcoming one would make him my friend.
00:03:42.000 | Overcoming the other would make him all-satisfying.
00:03:46.000 | Maybe you can see now where this is leading.
00:03:49.000 | God takes the initiative to overcome both of these obstacles
00:03:56.000 | so that we can enjoy him through Christ as an all-satisfying friend forever.
00:04:03.000 | He does it first by the work of justification
00:04:06.000 | and second by the work of sanctification.
00:04:10.000 | In justification, God pays the debt of our sin through the blood of Christ
00:04:18.000 | and cancels our guilt and satisfies his holy wrath against sin
00:04:23.000 | and imputes to us the righteousness of Christ
00:04:26.000 | so that now God is totally for us, totally merciful to us.
00:04:33.000 | He is our friend forever.
00:04:36.000 | You can see it in texts like Galatians 3.13.
00:04:39.000 | Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse.
00:04:45.000 | The curse of God landed on Jesus and not on us.
00:04:49.000 | Or Isaiah 53.5.
00:04:52.000 | He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities.
00:04:58.000 | The crushing of God's just penal wrath fell on Jesus so that it doesn't fall on us.
00:05:07.000 | Or Romans 8.3.
00:05:09.000 | God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do,
00:05:12.000 | sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.
00:05:16.000 | He, key words, condemned sin in the flesh.
00:05:21.000 | Our sin condemned in Jesus' flesh
00:05:24.000 | so there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
00:05:29.000 | God is for us forever.
00:05:31.000 | He is our friend and our father and our protector and our provider.
00:05:35.000 | Everything from now on will work for our good.
00:05:39.000 | So the first obstacle is removed to enjoying God through Christ
00:05:46.000 | as our all-satisfying friend forever.
00:05:48.000 | He is our friend forever because of what Christ achieved for his elect.
00:05:54.000 | That is what Jesus bought.
00:05:56.000 | Now, what about the second obstacle?
00:05:59.000 | The natural mind is hostile to God.
00:06:03.000 | He may have overcome his hostility toward us on the cross, but what about ours?
00:06:10.000 | The natural mind is hostile to God.
00:06:13.000 | It does not submit to God's law.
00:06:15.000 | It cannot.
00:06:16.000 | Romans 8.7.
00:06:17.000 | We have exchanged the glory of God for other things.
00:06:20.000 | We do not by nature enjoy God.
00:06:23.000 | We enjoy his gifts, not him.
00:06:25.000 | So if we are to enjoy God through Christ as our all-satisfying friend forever,
00:06:33.000 | God is going to have to do a second great miraculous redeeming work.
00:06:40.000 | He will have to take out of us the heart of stone that hates God
00:06:44.000 | and put into us the heart of flesh that loves God, delights in God,
00:06:48.000 | is satisfied in God, treasures God above all things.
00:06:51.000 | He's going to have to radically change our emotions and our moral preferences.
00:06:57.000 | And that's precisely what he promised to do in the new covenant,
00:07:02.000 | Ezekiel 11, Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31,
00:07:07.000 | and this new covenant of taking out the heart of stone,
00:07:10.000 | putting in the heart of flesh, causing us to have new affections for God.
00:07:14.000 | Jesus bought that when he shed his blood, according to Luke 22.20.
00:07:19.000 | This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
00:07:23.000 | So God moves in by his spirit.
00:07:26.000 | Once he has died for us, he moves in by his spirit,
00:07:30.000 | lays hold on us and causes us to be born again, to believe.
00:07:36.000 | And he takes out the heart of stone.
00:07:38.000 | He puts in the heart of flesh.
00:07:40.000 | He opens our eyes to see the beauty of God in Christ
00:07:43.000 | as more desirable than anything in the world.
00:07:46.000 | And he overcomes this second obstacle,
00:07:50.000 | namely our preference for other things in the hardness of our heart.
00:07:55.000 | So now we got justification, making us friends with God forever
00:08:01.000 | by removing his enmity and his wrath and justice.
00:08:04.000 | And we got sanctification, taking out the heart of stone
00:08:08.000 | and making us find him all satisfying forever.
00:08:13.000 | How does that resolve Ryan's perceived contradiction or paradox?
00:08:19.000 | The treasure of having God as our friend, not our enemy,
00:08:26.000 | and of having him as all satisfying rather than boring.
00:08:31.000 | That treasure, the all satisfying friendship of God in Christ forever
00:08:36.000 | is totally free, bought for us by the blood of Christ.
00:08:44.000 | No one can buy the friendship of God.
00:08:48.000 | No one can buy a new heart that delights in God.
00:08:54.000 | You can't buy it.
00:08:56.000 | It has been bought by the blood of Jesus.
00:09:01.000 | It is free for the having.
00:09:02.000 | It's free, more specifically, it is free for the enjoying,
00:09:08.000 | which simply means that to be saved,
00:09:13.000 | that is to enjoy God through Christ as my all satisfying friend,
00:09:20.000 | I have to enjoy him above all things.
00:09:24.000 | Not less than food or sex or family or fame, not equal with them.
00:09:31.000 | I have to enjoy him above those things.
00:09:34.000 | He has to be that sweet and precious.
00:09:36.000 | He has to be my treasure.
00:09:38.000 | If I don't enjoy him, he will not be all satisfying to me.
00:09:44.000 | And that is all Jesus meant when he said, Matthew 13, 44,
00:09:50.000 | "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field,
00:09:56.000 | an all satisfying treasure, which a man found covered up,"
00:10:01.000 | and then here's the key phrase, "in his joy."
00:10:06.000 | He now finds this treasure supremely satisfying.
00:10:12.000 | In his joy, he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.
00:10:17.000 | The point of that parable is not that we pay for what Jesus already paid for.
00:10:24.000 | The point of that parable is that we now prefer the kingdom over everything in this world.
00:10:34.000 | And because we do, and because he gave his life as a ransom for us,
00:10:39.000 | we now will enjoy God through Christ as our all satisfying friend forever.
00:10:49.000 | That is gold on the affections.
00:10:52.000 | Pastor John, thank you.
00:10:53.000 | And Ryan, thank you for the question.
00:10:55.000 | We always appreciate questions coming in from leaders,
00:10:58.000 | and we get to three of those questions a week, so we can't get to a lot of them,
00:11:02.000 | but please continue to send your questions to us.
00:11:04.000 | We publish three times a week,
00:11:06.000 | and you can subscribe to our audio feeds, search our episode archive,
00:11:09.000 | and even reach us by email with a leadership question that you may be facing in your ministry.
00:11:14.000 | You can do all of that through our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:11:21.000 | Well, we have a question from a listener,
00:11:24.000 | and they want to know if the wedding date is set for a couple,
00:11:28.000 | is physical intimacy now permissible?
00:11:32.000 | Why or why not?
00:11:34.000 | Well, Pastor John is going to make his case from Scripture,
00:11:37.000 | and that's how we will start next week.
00:11:40.000 | I am your host, Tony Reinke, and we will see you on Monday.
00:11:43.000 | [End of Audio]
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