But shame on you anyway. Slacker.
Anyway, we began with theology proper because in order to have a proper understanding of other biblical doctrines, we have to begin with proper understanding of who God is. We begin with God and work down toward man, not the other way around. If we begin with man and try to come up with who or what we think God is, we often end up with a very distorted view of God because we want to mold Him to our standards and not ourselves to His. His standards define what sin is and it is He that created us to live a certain way. When we fail to live up to that standard, we sin. At first, mankind sinned in ignorance, but when the Law was revealed in it's entirety, sin became even more abundant because man's knowledge of what he was doing increased exponentially (Romans 7:7-13). As long as a person remains reprobate, their sin is ever-present before God. This is one of the reasons that sin is punished eternally. Not only that, but even in Hell, it's not like man is going to stop sinning. If God restrains man's evil in the world now and man continues to rebel, how much worse will it be when that restraint is fully removed? Even in Hell mankind will continue to sin, incurring even further judgement.
So, given the bleak outlook for humanity, what hope is there of avoiding eternal damnation and judgement from God? If, as I've explained in the previous videos, that God's standard is perfect obedience but sin prevents us from doing that in any way shape or form, what possible remedy could there be? This of course is where the doctrines of Christology and soteriology come into play. Christ, as the second person of the Trinity (something explained in more detail in the video) took on human form, submitted Himself to death, and lived a sinless life in total dependence on the Father for all that He needed. Though I cite it in the video, allow me to cite it here as well:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow , of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 NASB2020)
Christ did not become human at the loss of His divine nature. He added a human nature onto His own and became the God-man for us. Furthermore, He did not lose any of His divine attributes or abilities. However, He did lay aside the voluntary use of them so that He could experience life as a man and live in complete submission to the Father as a way to demonstrate to us what that looks like. Even with His example we fail all the time. Fortunately, His righteousness is credited to us (Romans 4:5-8). Instead of having an infinite debt of sin, Christ's atonement not only forgives the debt we had incurred, but it also provides an infinite credit on our account that can never be wiped away. This isn't just a statement that we can do nothing to erase that credit, but it even goes further than that. It cannot be wiped away because God will not wipe it off of our account. There is a perfect union between all three members of the Trinity to save God's elect and that none will ever be lost (John 6:36-40, 44). It is impossible for us to be separated from the righteousness and love of Christ (Romans 8:38-39) because it would be a violation of God's will and character to do so. Now, this doesn't mean we are instantly perfect. Far from it. We simply have Christ's righteousness covering us so that we can be pleasing to God. Martin Luther provides the analogy of a snow-covered dunghill. Think of a stretch of farmland where animals have been pooping all season and the farmer collects the dung into a pile to use for fertilizer. Not quite the rosiest thing to come across. However, when the first heavy snowfall hits (for those like me who live in the South, this is one of those phenomena you may have to do a google search on or watch on YouTube...but not before you watch my video, of course) it covers everything in a perfect blanket of white, hiding all that is unpleasant. This is precisely what Christ's righteousness does. It covers our sin. We're still a giant pile of crap underneath all of that, but at least God doesn't look at that any more. Now, throughout our lives God works to change us from a steaming turd into gold, but that's a process that takes a long time and will never fully be completed in this life. Only when we die and are raised to eternal life are we glorified and fully freed from the power and presence of sin (2 Corinthians 5:1-5). Until then, we will continue to struggle with sin just as Paul describes in the latter half of Romans 7, but we are still God's adopted children and heirs to eternity with Christ.
Now, even with that we have to be careful. We must always be willing to examine ourselves to make sure that we truly are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). Perhaps one of the best ways to do this is by examining the end of Galatians 5 which outlines the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) and the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). If however we discover that there is no fruit, then that is a major red flag that we do not abide in Christ and are not truly joined to Him (John 15:1-6). There should always be evidence of salvation. If there is none, then our faith is dead (James 2:14-26). While it is true that we are saved through faith alone (Sola Fide) by grace alone (Sola Gratia), that does not mean that we can live however we wish without consequence. If there is no fruit, there is no life.
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