Dr. Joel Beeke, President of the seminary, gave the opening message. His text, fittingly, was what theologians call the “proto-evangel” or the first gospel promise uttered by the Creator after His creatures sinned against Him: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:15)
Dr. Beeke characterized Genesis 3 in several ways, calling it the Bible’s BLACK chapter, in that it explains mankind’s fall into sin, God’s curse, and the pall of judgment that hangs over us all because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion. It is also the Bible’s RED chapter, in that it explains that blood atonement will always be necessary to cover and wash away sin’s guilt, by describing the divine act of clothing His guilty creatures with the skins of slaughtered animals, in place of their own faulty act of making aprons out of dead leaves. Finally, Genesis 3 is especially the Bible’s WHITE chapter, giving the gracious hope of salvation in the 15th verse, the proto-evangel.
The surprising point Dr. Beeke brings out of this text, to me, was mentioning the fact that it begins with God’s promise to BRING ENMITY between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman! We are used to the concept of God bringing love and peace into the world, but how often do we see him as a bringer of ANIMOSITY or HOSTILITY, for that is what ENMITY means? His first gospel promise is to make enemies out of the serpent and the woman, between the serpent’s children and the children of the woman.
Understandably we might ask HOW this could happen, since Adam and Eve had just joined the devil’s team in their rebellion against God. And that is just the point. Humanly speaking, we love being on Satan’s team and doing the will of the world, flesh and devil. But God was pledging Himself to someday and somehow SPLIT UP this happy, sinful family!
The Seed of the woman would come in the future to crush the serpent’s head, a person the serpent would have no power to kill in the long run. The serpent’s ultimate ENEMY would ensure that His people’s hatred would no longer be directed toward their Maker, but toward their TRUE enemy. For the new birth given to believers in Jesus Christ always brings with it a hatred of and hostility toward all sin and unholiness. If I fail to feel this holy hatred toward sin, especially the remaining sin in ME, I must question whether I might not truly be saved…
Even as the serpent’s descendents nip at our heels and seek to slow us down in the Christian race, the worst they can do is bruise God’s children. Like Saul of Tarsus, they are merely “kicking at the goads.” Beeke goes on to observe that the Church’s most blessed times in history have always been those when we faced the fiercest conflicts. In fact, the Lord is in control ultimately over all of Satan’s attacks, even in orchestrating the death of Christ on the cross. And our God only uses Satanic attacks against us, to empty us of our dependence on fleshly strength and make room for more of Christ!
Dr. Michael Barrett has been teaching Old Testament at the college and seminary levels for many, many years. His address at the conference concerned the Old Testament’s Day of Atonement and how it points us to the perfect Mediator who came in the person of Jesus Christ. Dr. Barrett’s excitement about the images of Christ depicted by the object lessons in the O.T. is very infectious, to the extent that I went and purchased one of his books entitled Beginning with Moses: Finding Christ in the Old Testament.
Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, was important for many reasons. It was a day of sober reflection, sorrow for sin, and the pursuit of God’s mercy. The holiness or “set-apart-ness” of the priest who represented the people before God’s throne, represented by the ark of the covenant, was paramount on this one day of the year. Even though the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, showed the people that God was dwelling in their midst, those consecrated buildings also demonstrated the separation of God from sin, and the need of a go-between, a mediator. For only a set-apart class of people could minister in the structure of the tent of meeting, and only the one high priest could actually enter the “throneroom” of God Himself, and only once each year.
Dr. Barrett also emphasized that Aaron’s high-priestly garments had to be ritually removed from him before he entered the Holy of Holies. He wore only a simple linen garment for that journey into God’s immediate presence. This undressing symbolized the humiliation of the Messiah who was to come among men, stripped of His glorious heavenly garments, and clothed in human flesh in order to represent His people before the God they had offended by their sin. This was a clear image of the ultimate High Priest, the Seed of the woman who would finally do away with sin and free His people from their spiritual enemies.
Yom Kippur also teaches us that sinners can only approach God on the basis of a Sinless Sacrifice. The two goats used in this salvation drama each had a unique role to play. The slain animal had its blood drained into a bowl, to be carried past the veil and into the Most Holy Place. This goat had to have no defects – a perfect, sinless sacrifice, again depicting the Savior who was to come. Its blood was sprinkled onto the lid of the ark of the covenant, also known as the “mercy seat.”
Inside that ark were the Ten Commandments – the Law which insists that the guilty must die for their sin. So long as that Law was covered by the mercy seat, the guilty would be safe. But the blood of their substitute must be applied there every year. The other goat was used as the scapegoat, onto which the priest would transfer the sins of the people, after which the animal was driven away and out into the wild. This depicted the removal of our guilt through confession, repentance and forgiveness – what theologians call EXPIATION.
Notice that the scapegoat cannot be released without the sacrificial one being slain in place of the guilty sinners. This again points us to how Christ fulfilled the dual requirements of the law: He bore the guilt of His sinful people to the cross and took it outside the city, bearing our curse and setting us free by His perfect sacrifice. The goat being put to death in the place of the guilty ones, acted as the PROPITIATION for the people, turning away the wrath of a just and holy God. Both propitiation and expiation are acts of divine GRACE, granting God’s mercy while maintaining His perfect justice. And because our sinless Substitute was raised from the dead, His atoning blood, wherever it is applied by faith, brings salvation, and the promise of sins forgiven forever!
Dr. Jonathan Gibson is an associate professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary. His message at the conference concerned “The Christ of Grace” and was based on the Savior’s words from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Without the Christ of grace, there’d have been no grace of Christ to give you and me. John wrote that the Word made flesh came among us, “full of grace and truth.” Amy Carmichael likened Jesus to a cup of sweet water. “When the cup is jolted, only sweet water is jolted out of it.” And the passion of Jesus, His mistreatment, sleepless night of prayer, humiliation, beating, scourging, dragging the cross to Calvary, and finally, His being nailed to the tree, were the worst joltings imaginable.
Dr. Gibson referred to Christ’s prayer as an Inspired Prayer, as it was based on the Scriptures themselves. Specifically, He fulfilled Isaiah 53:12, “For He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” Although all that He was experiencing was at the hands of brutal, sinful mockers and murderers, Jesus prayed for His enemies. That their crime would not be held against them in the final judgment.
And that crime, Dr. Gibson pointed out, was an Incalculable Crime. “They know not what they do,” wasn’t a phrase that excused them from the guilt of what they were doing. But it meant that the WEIGHT and SEVERITY of this crime was beyond their ability to reason. They could not claim any such thing as INVINCIBLE ignorance, as it’s defined by the Catholic church. For they surely ought to have known who Jesus was by virtue of His character, His miracles and His teachings. Peter would later preach to the Jews: “I know that you did it out of ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:17-18). They did it out of an ignorance they ought to have overcome. A willful ignorance, used by the Lord to fulfill His redemption promise.
Jesus’ prayer also speaks of an Indestructible Relationship. When Jesus cried out on the cross later, “My God! Why have You forsaken Me?” that feeling of forsakenness was certainly experienced by Christ as to His human nature, which was vicariously bearing the sins of His people. Dr. Gibson taught that “Heaven was at no point emptied of the presence of God the Son.” As Athanasius the great church father said, “The Word was not entirely circumscribed by the physical body of Christ.” The Father was never unleashing His anger at the Divine Son, otherwise He would never have listened to this prayer for forgiveness. There could not have been any “cross-purposes” among the Godhead even when Christ hung there on the cross.
The message also mentioned an Incredible Substitution. Only Christ could have prayed this prayer, for, even as He asked forgiveness for His enemies, He was paying the price FOR that forgiveness by shedding His own blood. His suffering was substituted for ours, and even for a literal man the Bible names as Barabbas, which means “son of a father.” All of us, as sons of our father Adam, needed a substitute to pay for our sins – the ultimate “Son of the Father.”
Jesus’ prayer was also an Indistinct Prayer. The words “them” and “they” are unspecific, implying that they are a universal plea for those who are willfully ignorant, but still condemned. All guilty sinners who are willing, can “crawl into that THEM,” and be forgiven of their sins. And, finally, Jesus was praying an Invincible Prayer. It became effectively answered when the Jews cried out in Acts 2, “Men and Brethren, what shall we do?” Their hearts were cut to the quick at Peter’s preaching and the Holy Spirit’s regenerating power. Thousands were added to the fledgling church as a direct answer to the Savior’s gracious prayer from the cross. This was truly the Christ of Grace!
Dr. Adriaan Neele is vice president of Puritan Seminary. He lectured on the subject of “Saving Grace: Regeneration and Faith.” Using the familiar passage Eph. 2:1-10, Dr. Neele asked us the question: “Has God’s grace changed me?...and Do I cherish it as God’s GIFT?” God’s grace, he told us, is both necessary and transformative. The passage in Ephesians mentions the past, the present, and the future. It addresses us personally: “YOU are saved.” And it shows what you are saved FROM, saved BY, and saved FOR.
Verses 1-3 remind believers of what we once were, what we have been saved FROM, and call for humility, in that we who have been saved, were no better than anyone else. We all began as “children of wrath.” Under the divine curse because of our sin. Verses 4-6 begin with that wonderful phrase: “BUT GOD…” The one who had us under His curse, rightfully so, is also one who is “rich in mercy” and motivated by a “great love” to make dead sinners ALIVE together with Christ! This passage outlines both our desperate sin-cursed PAST, and our living PRESENT, thanks to a gracious, merciful, loving Savior God. We are, even now, raised up and seated with our risen Savior in the heavenly places. 3 times Paul uses that great word: TOGETHER.
Verse 7 begins with “That…” which points to a reason for what came before. We have been joined savingly to Christ THAT God might show the exceeding riches of His grace “in the ages to come.” In the FUTURE, God has planned for us who are joined to Christ to become prized exhibits of His grace in the kindness He showed to us in Christ Jesus. God will put us on display for HIS glory, in effect, BOASTING about the exceeding riches of His grace. And the passage goes on to show one and all that it is ONLY God who deserves to boast of our salvation:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We had no power to enter into union with Jesus Christ. It was God who had to perform a divine work of creation in us so that we would joyfully believe in Christ, and through that gift of faith, be eternally joined to Him. This is what we are saved BY.
And finally, verse 10 tells what we’ve been saved FOR: we are His “works of art,” Dr. Neele said, called to “do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic, 6:8). Through our good works we are to be witnesses to the world “that they might see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). This is both a passive and active ministry, for God planned beforehand that we’d be assigned these works (passive), “that we should walk in them” (active). So the grace that called us, and the faith that saves us, go on to energize our obedience. And our transformed lives are to find their source in Christ, all for the Father’s eternal GLORY!
I’m going to end this lesson with my notes from Dr. David McWilliams’ message: “A Miracle of Grace: Justification.” His main text was Romans 3:19-31. How can a person become right with God, if human righteousness is required to line up perfectly with His? This passage begins by summing up Paul’s argument that the entire world stands guilty before our Maker. In His divine courtroom not a man or woman or child dares to open his or her mouth. Do we see this truth as clearly in our own hearts, McWilliams asks, as we see it in the pages of the Bible? This is the problem with much of the Bible’s truth: we fail to make it personally apply to us. Perfect righteousness is what our King and Judge requires from each of us, but what none of us is able to provide. The Law of God reveals our sin to us, but cannot save those who fail to fully obey it!
Secondly, Dr. McWilliams taught that God Himself provided the righteousness that we, in our sin, could not. God could not merely set His perfect law aside. His holy standard for us HAD to be fully met, or else NO ONE could have ever been saved. And praise Him, verse 22 reveals that there is a justifying righteousness given freely TO all and ON all who trust in Jesus Christ. This is a righteousness for us that is APART FROM the law. A righteousness revealed in the gospel, a righteousness IMPUTED to believers by grace and through faith.
This justifying righteousness given to believing sinners, is justifying GRACE, given FREELY through the redemption “that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood (Christ’s blood shed on the cross)” – vv 24-25. This gracious, freely given righteousness was provided in a way that was consistent with God’s own character. Amazingly, it was the same principle that CONDEMNED guilty sinners, that God used to SAVE them!
Four elements of this miracle of justification are in view here: a. The offense, b. The estrangement from God, c. The offender’s debt, and d. The substitutionary sacrifice. God Himself created the reality that made substitutionary atonement possible through Jesus Christ. O.T. were forgiven based on their anticipation of Christ’s sacrifice. Their history and their rituals taught them that God could not unilaterally pardon their sin debt. He could only re-direct the punishment his justice required. And when we see what Jesus suffered, we learn that the claims of justice were NEVER set aside! Those claims were met through the blood of our Substitute.
The sins of Jesus Christ’s followers have been paid for just as thoroughly as if we’d paid for them in Hell for all eternity. Jesus bore our legal obligations, and fully paid our debt, so that we would be saved freely by God’s grace. His life was taken – His death was required – because our sin was an attack on our Creator, the giver of life. It is a poisonous and deceiving doctrine of atonement – the modern idea that Christ’s atonement can leave out the concepts of substitution and propitiatory sacrifice. Without those truths, we are left without the hope of divine forgiveness. Jesus God’s Son died and shed His blood in our place so that God could forgive us.
As we learned when we discussed the Day of Atonement, God’s grace in salvation rests on both propitiation and expiation. To stand before the Holy One justly, clothed in perfect righteousness, our alienation from God and His just wrath had to be turned aside. Because our perfect Substitute was sinlessly righteous, those who are joined to Him by faith are graciously forgiven, by the righteous Judge who “looks on Him, and pardons me.” God’s grace of salvation allowed our sinful record to be put to death along with Jesus on that cross, so that God would remember it against us NO MORE!
The Grace of our Salvation is certainly a miraculous exchange. A plan of supernatural genius conceived and agreed upon in eternity past by the eternal Three-in-One. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made it possible for their people to sing through all eternity, “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me!”
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