Redemption Applied

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 45:1, 16-17
• Hymn — O Father, You Are Sovereign (#233)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Westminster Larger Catechism — Question 30
• Hymn — Not What My Hands Have Done (#435)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Romans 8:26-30
• Apostles' Creed
• Sermon
• Hymn — Union with Thee (#448)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

Sermon Title: Redemption Applied

Scripture: Romans 8:26-30

I. The Communion of Saints

• A. The Greek word koinonia (fellowship) points to a specific, capital-F fellowship — not merely casual Christian friendship, but the gathered assembly of God's people in worship.

  1. Christ's most intimate language with his disciples in John 13–17 occurs in the context of the Lord's Supper; in John 15:15 he calls them friends.
  2. The Lord's Supper was called a "love feast" in the early church, uniting believers to Christ and to one another.

• B. Post-resurrection appearances tie the breaking of bread to the recognition of Christ's presence.

  1. The disciples on the Emmaus road recognize Christ when he breaks bread (Luke 24).
  2. Christ prepares breakfast for his disciples on the shore; the early Jerusalem church breaks bread together (Acts 2, Acts 20:7).
  3. 1 Corinthians 10 — the cup is a participation in Christ's blood; the bread a participation in his body; one bread, one people.

• C. The order of the Apostles' Creed is intentional: Holy Spirit → Church → individual salvation benefits, reflecting the Confession's teaching that there is no ordinary hope of salvation outside the church (WCF 25.2).

  1. Calvin frequently cited Cyprian: "The church is our mother."
  2. Just as tornadoes ordinarily pass through certain regions, God ordinarily feeds and grows his people through the church — the storehouse of the means of grace.
  3. Throughout Acts, individual salvation and membership in the church are inseparably correlated.

II. The Forgiveness of Sins

• A. The name Jesus means "he will save his people from their sins"; to confess faith in Jesus is to confess the forgiveness of sins.

• B. The guilt of sin is fully expunged at the cross — justification brings not only a clean slate but the positive, active righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer.

  1. J. Gresham Machen's reported dying words: "I thank God for the active obedience of Christ; without it there would be no hope."
  2. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

• C. Freedom from the guilt of sin is inseparably linked to freedom from the power of sin.

  1. Guilt enslaves — illustrated by the film Manchester by the Sea, in which a father consumed by guilt becomes a lifeless vessel, unable to receive forgiveness.
  2. Martin Luther's tireless gospel labor flowed directly from his experience of freedom from condemnation in Christ.
  3. Paul's apostolic energy similarly arose from being "drunk" on his freedom from guilt in Christ.

• D. The Roman Catholic doctrine of infused grace collapses justification and sanctification, making final justification dependent on one's cooperation with grace — a prison house the Reformers rightly rejected.

• E. Forgiveness proclaims: sin is no longer master; the believer is no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness — hearing Christ say, "Go and sin no more."

III. The Resurrection of the Body

• A. The creed explicitly denies the Gnostic heresy that Christ is Lord only of the spirit; Christ redeems body and soul.

• B. The Gospels repeatedly show Christ caring for the body as a confirming sign of his messiahship (Luke 7) — blind see, lame walk, lepers cleansed, deaf hear, dead raised.

• C. The Levitical law's treatment of bodily uncleanness establishes that physical death, not only spiritual death, is an offense before the living God; Christ becomes incarnate to redeem and glorify our bodies.

  1. 2 Corinthians 5:10 — each one will receive what is due for what he has done in the body.
  2. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 — the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; glorify God in your body.
  3. The Epicurean spirit — "what I do with my body does not matter as long as I am spiritual" — is anti-biblical and pervades contemporary culture.

• D. By faith Joseph directed that his bones be carried into Canaan (Hebrews 11:22) — he wanted his dead bones in the land of the living, where the God of life would meet his people.

• E. Believers are to treat their bodies not in light of the dust they will become, but in light of the resurrection glory they will become — united to Christ the firstfruits of the resurrection harvest.

IV. The Life Everlasting

• A. Life everlasting follows and is inseparable from the resurrection of the body; the eschaton is not a disembodied heaven but the resurrection of body and soul into the full presence of the triune God.

• B. Eternal life is not monotonous repetition (cf. Groundhog Day) but the inexhaustible riches of the triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — perpetually flooding over glorified creatures who can never reach the bottom of those riches.

• C. The life everlasting is pictured in Revelation 21–22 as beholding the glory of God and the Lamb without fear, trembling, or sin clouding the vision.

  1. Majestic things beheld from a distance — great waves, towering mountains, a lightning storm — become terrifying when one enters their midst.
  2. To behold the awesome, dread God and remain unmoved, thrilled rather than destroyed, is the promise of life everlasting for those in Christ.
  3. We will no longer see through a glass dimly or receive merely a breadcrumb and a small cup; we will behold his glory with no stain of sin in full crystal clarity.