The Holy Gospel (HC 18-20)

1 Corinthians 1 “The Holy Gospel” September 23, 2007

Heidelberg 18-20

Last time we saw that the mediator must be a true and righteous man,

because only Adam’s heir could pay Adam’s debt.

He must be a true man because the justice of God requires

that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin.

He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner cannot pay for others.

And yet he must be true God because none of Adam’s heirs

could bear the weight of God’s wrath.

He must be true God so that by the power of his divine nature

he might bear in his human nature the burden of God’s wrath,

and might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life.

The only way that you can be saved is if the mediator is both fully man and fully God.

As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:19,

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,

not counting their trespasses against them,

and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

It is only if God himself comes in the flesh that sins can be forgiven

and we can be reconciled to God.

18. But who is that Mediator who at the same time is true God and a true and righteous man?

Our Lord Jesus Christ, “whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).

In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul is laying out the centrality of Christ in the church.

As the church in Corinth was increasingly divided into factions following different leaders,

Paul reminds them that none of these leaders are anything.

“Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1:13)

Human teachers are not worthy of such devotion!

Not Paul, not Apollos, not John Calvin, not the Westminster Assembly!

Everything that matters is found in Christ.

The whole of verse 30 reads,

He (that is, God) is the source of your life in Christ Jesus,

whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness

and sanctification and redemption.

This pretty much covers everything.

Your life is “in Christ Jesus.”

And so is everything else that matters!

Christ is your wisdom – apart from him you are a fool!

Christ is your righteousness – apart from him you are guilty!

Christ is your sanctification – apart from him you are unclean!

Christ is your redemption – apart from him you are still in your sins.

19. From where do you know this?

From where do you know what?

From where do you know that Christ is the Mediator who is both God and man?

From the holy gospel, which God himself first revealed in paradise.

Later, he had it proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets,

and foreshadowed by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law.

Finally, he had it fulfilled through his only Son.

So you know that Christ is the mediator who is both God and man

from the holy gospel, as revealed both in the Old and New Testaments.

God revealed the gospel in paradise (after the fall in Genesis 3).

He had it proclaimed by the patriarchs and prophets.

He foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and ceremonies.

In other words, the gospel was clearly proclaimed throughout the OT.

But it was proclaimed in advance.

Because it was only fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

But let’s take Paul’s four statements and see how they unfold in scripture.

Let’s see how Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,

through the lens of “the holy gospel.”

Christ Is Our Wisdom

Go back to Genesis 2:17.

God told Adam not to eat of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”

What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

In chapter 3 the serpent tells Eve that if she eats, she will not die,

but rather “your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil.”

Satan’s lies, like usual, are a mixture of truth and falsehood.

If they were “pure” lies, then they would be too obvious to be believed!

But Eve looks at the fruit and sees “that it was a delight to the eyes,

and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” (3:6)

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil appears to be a sacramental tree.

Adam is the Image of God, the Son of God,

and it would seem that he would have been permitted to eat of the tree

when he was ready.

Satan’s lie is to say, “you are now ready!”

The fall into sin is portrayed as a quest for wisdom that has gone astray.

Eve did not listen to the voice of God in her quest for wisdom.

Instead she has listened to the Serpent.

The first statement of the gospel, in Genesis 3:15, sets the trajectory for the future:

I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman,

and between your seed and her seed;

he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

The quest for wisdom is not over.

The seed of the woman must learn wisdom (the hard way),

while always tempted by the seed of the serpent.

You can see the wisdom of God revealed in the giving of the Law.

God is training his foolish son, teaching him his holy ways.

In 1 Kings 3:9, Solomon asks for wisdom so that he might rule over the people of God,

and Solomon asks,

“Give your servant an understanding mind to govern your people,

that I may discern between good and evil.”

Solomon will be given the knowledge of good and evil

in order to rule as the Son of David.

Knowing good and evil –

understanding the difference between the way of life and the way of death –

is at the very heart of the book of Proverbs.

In Proverbs 9, the Father says to his son:

Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.

She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table

She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places of the town,

Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!

To him who lacks sense she says,

Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways and live, and walk in the way of insight. (9:1-6)

Even as the original sin took the form of eating the wrong food

at the bidding of the wrong person,

so also the way of life consists of eating the right food

at the bidding of the right person.

The problem is that we keep choosing the wrong way.

Instead of listening to Lady Wisdom,

we turn aside into the house of Dame Folly, who also has prepared a feast.

She says to the simple young man who walks on his way,

Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

But he does not know that the dead are there,

that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. (9:17-18)

Every son is called to walk in the way of wisdom.

But we are fools.

It is only when one who himself was the Wisdom of God,

the eternal Word of God, became flesh that Folly would finally be defeated.

And so Jesus Christ has become for us Wisdom from God.

He has walked in the way of wisdom all his days.

And now we find wisdom as we sit at his feet.

Christ Is Our Righteousness

Paul also says that Christ is our righteousness.

Adam was created good.

He was innocent.

He was righteous in God’s sight.

When Adam sinned, we were plunged into an estate – a condition – of sin and misery.

The whole human race came under God’s just condemnation.

We’ve seen in past weeks how Adam’s original sin

resulted in the whole human race being brought under God’s wrath and curse.

We are all guilty.

We all stand condemned.

As Paul says in Romans 5:18,

“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men,

so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”

Christ is our righteousness.

This was clearly portrayed in the Old Testament by the sacrifices of the law,

and most clearly in the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement (Lev 16).

The high priest was to offer sacrifices for himself and his own house,

and then for all the people,

sprinkling the blood over the mercy seat,

because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel

and because of their transgressions, all their sins.

Sin created a barrier between man and God.

Only through an atoning sacrifice could sin be removed.

And yet the Day of Atonement came every year.

Sin was forgiven – and yet the sins of the people were never finally dealt with.

But because Jesus offered the once-for-all sacrifice that has finally dealt with sin,

he is our Righteousness.

We do not come before God in any other way than through

the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

We have no ground for boasting,

as Paul says in 1 Cor 1:31 “Therefore, as it is written,

‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”

Christ Is Our Sanctification

But Christ is also our sanctification.

He is the one who makes us holy.

He is the one who consecrates us, changes us, and makes us new.

Paul has addressed his epistle to the Corinthians in 1:2

“to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints…”

In that one brief statement, you have Paul’s whole doctrine of sanctification!

He speaks to “those sanctified in Christ Jesus.”

Not those “being” sanctified,

but those sanctified.

You are holy in Christ.

In justification you have been declared righteous –

that is a legal verdict declared in the courtroom of heaven.

In sanctification you have been made new –

that is a new reality that is yours in Christ.

The old man is dead, and you have been made new.

But you are also “called to be saints.”

Sanctification is a present reality.

It is also something that we are becoming.

We are becoming what God has made us to be in Christ.

And you see this prefigured in the holiness code of Israel.

We saw that the first part of Leviticus deals with the sacrificial system,

the foreshadowing of our justification;

but the rest of Leviticus deals with clean and unclean, holy and unholy.

Israel was supposed to be different –

distinct from the nations.

And the holiness code of Leviticus helped mark them as a holy nation.

For instance, Israel was told,

“You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed.” (19:19)

The nations are all mixed up – but Israel is to be pure.

These distinctions were to mark out Israel as different – as holy.

What Paul is saying to the Corinthians is that it is not the holiness code that makes you special.

It is Christ.

He is our sanctification – he is what makes us different.

This is one reason why I don’t spend a whole lot of time telling you to be “good.”

Every religion tells you to be good!

But only the gospel of Jesus Christ tells you that someone else is your goodness!

Because

Christ Is Our Redemption

We don’t have time to go into detail here,

but that’s okay because Andy will be taking care of that in Sunday school

as he talks about what redemption is all about in the book of Ruth.

But as John tells us in 1 John 2:2,

Jesus Christ the righteous “is the propitiation for our sins,

and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

Now we’ve seen a couple passages like this tonight:

We saw in Romans 5 that Paul says that as in Adam all die, so in Christ are all made alive

We now see in 1 John 2:2 that Jesus is the propitiation

“for the sins of the whole world.”

So it is only natural to wonder:

20. Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?

The key to this question is found in the “just as.”

Are all men saved by Christ “just as” they perished through Adam?

No. Only those are saved who by a true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.

After all, what does it mean that “all” are made alive in Christ?

Plainly there are some people who are never made alive in Christ,

but live in rebellion against God until the day they die.

Who are the “all” who are made alive in Christ?

The new humanity.

Just as the first humanity died in Adam,

so also the new humanity was made alive in Christ.

You see, there are two ways that scripture can speak about God’s purposes for the world:

one is that God is bringing judgment against the world and saving the elect out of it;

the other is that God is saving the world, and destroying the wicked out of it.

But either way, the result is the same.

Only those are saved who by a true faith are grafted in to Christ and accept all his benefits

I like this way of putting it,

because it puts the major emphasis in exactly the right place.

The only way you can be saved is if you believe in Jesus!

So let me ask you, O people of God: