My view of preaching is that the preacher’s job is to obtain from God a phrase by means of Scripture, maintain it up earlier than God’s folks, level them to it, and say, “Look!” He then opens it with connections to Scripture and life, and exults over it in such a approach that, by God’s grace, the hearers will probably be drawn into the enjoyment of it and obedience to it, in order that the infinite greatness and wonder and value of Christ is likely to be manifest in our lives. If a preacher will not be exulting over the realities revealed in his textual content, he’s not preaching.
Due to this fact, preaching is a cheerful enterprise. As a result of even when the textual content is a tough phrase that devastates the hearers (and my textual content will not be a tough phrase), the preacher connects the exhausting phrase with the gracious phrase and the hopeful phrase, and he catches them as they fall. So, in the long run, all preaching is a cheerful enterprise. Generally it’s a toe-tapping completely happy enterprise, and typically it’s a tearful completely happy enterprise. We preach excellent news. We preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Whether or not exhausting or comfy, we herald excellent news, and we do it by exulting over the goodness of the excellent news. If there isn’t any expository exultation, there isn’t any preaching.
All of that’s partially to say thanks. I owe you a debt of thanks for giving me the privilege of exulting over this phrase with you. Many of the pleasure of expository exultation is owing to the greatness of the excellent news. However a few of it’s owing to the sweetness of the fellowship. There may be pleasure within the exultation. There may be extra pleasure within the shared exultation. And my expertise has been that to evangelise among the many folks of Sovereign Grace offers an unusually candy fellowship of exultation. So, thanks, Bob, and all of you for inviting me.
My completely happy assigned theme is “Union with Christ and the Guarantees of God,” and my textual content is 2 Corinthians 1:20, which says, “For all the guarantees of God discover their Sure in him.”
There you’ve got all three items of my theme: “all the guarantees of God,” “in him” (union with Christ), and each are related with “Sure.” In Christ, all the guarantees of God are affirmed, not denied. It’s sure, not no. In Christ, all the guarantees of God are secured, assured. For all of you who’re in Christ, each promise of God will come true. That’s our textual content. And it’s, as you’ll be able to see, spectacular.
Journey Plans and the Guarantees of God
Earlier than we dig in, there’s one noncentral commentary from the context that I don’t need you to overlook as a result of it’s so pastorally important. Paul explains his scenario beginning in 2 Corinthians 1:15. He says, “I needed to return to you first,” that means journey over from Ephesus to Corinth throughout the Aegean Sea, “so that you just may need a second expertise of grace,” that means the grace of a second go to when he comes again from Macedonia, the place he intends to go after he visits them. He explains now in 2 Corinthians 1:16, “I needed to go to you on my solution to Macedonia [probably Philippi or Thessalonica], and to return again to you from Macedonia and have you ever ship me on my solution to Judea.”
Now, that didn’t occur. He explains why in 2 Corinthians 1:23: “It was to spare you that I avoided coming once more to Corinth.” However Paul’s adversaries at Corinth, in all probability the “false apostles” that he refers to in 2 Corinthians 11:13, who have been difficult his authority, have been throughout this. And so they have been accusing him of vacillating. They have been saying, “He’s fickle. He’s unreliable. He’s a hypocrite. He speaks out of either side of his mouth. He says one factor and does one other factor. He says he’s planning to return — he’s not planning to return. He says sure, however beneath it’s a no. And this is the one you need to comply with as an apostle?”
Paul responds to this criticism in 2 Corinthians 1:17–18:
Was I vacillating once I needed to do that? Do I make my plans in accordance with the flesh, able to say “Sure, sure” and “No, no” on the similar time? As absolutely as God is trustworthy, our phrase to you has not been Sure and No.
In different phrases, “I’m not a hypocrite. I imply what I say. I don’t tamper with the reality like that.” Now, right here is the superb factor. Up by means of 2 Corinthians 1:18, Paul is coping with an atypical form of scenario. He instructed them his journey plans. A brand new scenario arose, and it precipitated a change. Individuals who don’t like him are making it right into a failure of integrity, and Paul is responding to this sort of criticism. That’s simply an on a regular basis scenario that all of us take care of every so often.
However then in 2 Corinthians 1:19–20, Paul attaches that atypical scenario to a cluster of probably the most profound theological realities. Right here’s what he says:
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed amongst you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Sure and No, however in him it’s all the time Sure. For all the guarantees of God discover their Sure in him. That’s the reason it’s by means of him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
Now, if I did that in my pastoral ministry, right here’s what would occur. Somebody would say, “Good grief, Piper. Loosen up. We’re speaking about journey plans and some cranks within the church, and there you go speaking in regards to the Son of God, all the guarantees of God, union with Christ, and the glory of God. My goodness. That is overkill.” Now, my pastoral counsel is that you just patiently ignore these folks and graciously proceed to root your ministry, your journey plans, and all of the atypical issues of life in probably the most wonderful realities within the universe. There aren’t too many individuals on this planet who dwell this fashion and assume this fashion.
That’s the one commentary I needed you to see from the context. Be identified in your church as the one that is so God-besotted, so Bible-saturated, so Spirit-filled that individuals anticipate you to attach atypical life to wonderful realities — to God, Christ, cross, Spirit, guarantees, and glory.
Photos of an Inexhaustible Union
Now let’s go to 2 Corinthians 1:20. It says, “For all the guarantees of God discover their Sure in him.” What does “in him” imply? The way in which I might say it’s this. Beneath all our biblical efforts to conceptualize or image what this attachment to Jesus is like, there’s a actuality, a union, that’s unfathomable and inexpressible, which we are going to by no means exhaust with phrases or doctrines, however which the Bible provides expression to in some ways. Meaning there’s all the time extra beneath, however the revelations, the images, and the conceptions that the Bible does give of this actuality are indispensable and wonderful.
For instance, take into account simply briefly 5 such methods of expressing this inexhaustible union.
1. Known as into Fellowship
First, 1 Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is trustworthy, by whom you have been referred to as into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The purpose the place the union occurs is the effectual name of God. “These whom he predestined he additionally referred to as, and people whom he referred to as he additionally justified” (Romans 8:30). There’s a sovereign name that’s predestined and efficient in bringing into being a brand new actuality. We name it new delivery. We name it new creation. It’s the creation of religious life the place there was deadness, religious sight the place there was blindness, and religion the place there was riot. All of it occurs as a result of concurrently there comes into being a union with Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 1:9, the decision of God is described as a name into the koinōnian (“fellowship”) of his Son. It’s coming into participation within the Son, a sharing of life within the Son, a oneness with the Son.
2. Union of Life
Second, that union known as a union of life. Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ who’s your life seems, then you definately additionally will seem with him in glory.” The union is such that Christ is my life. In Galatians 2:20, Paul stated, “I’ve been crucified with Christ. It’s now not I who dwell, however Christ who lives in me.” The uniting is so profound that there’s a form of “now not I, however Christ.” But the verse goes on to say, “The life I now dwell within the flesh I dwell by religion within the Son of God, who liked me and gave himself for me.” The “I” that’s Christ is the “I” who trusts Christ. That’s our aware expertise of the unconscious, unfathomable “not I, however Christ.” So, this can be a union of life. He’s my life on this union.
3. Members of His Physique
Third, there’s the image of every Christian being one with Christ as members of his one physique. First Corinthians 12:12–13 says,
Simply because the physique is one and has many members, and all of the members of the physique, although many, are one physique, so it’s with Christ. For in a single Spirit we have been all baptized into one physique — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and all have been made to drink of 1 Spirit.
Christ will not be head of the physique right here. He’s the physique. And the physique is one — and each Christian an appendage. The hand is within the physique, and the physique is Christ. The foot is within the physique, and the physique is Christ. “The physique is one.” So, it’s a union of members in a physique, who’s Christ.
4. Members of His Household
Fourth, in adoption and new delivery, God brings us right into a household union the place we’re fellow heirs and have a single religious DNA. Romans 8:16–17 says, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we’re youngsters of God, and if youngsters, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.” The household union is such that we’re coheirs with the Son of God.
Peter explains in 1 Peter 1:23, “You have got been born once more, not of perishable seed [DNA] however of imperishable, by means of the dwelling and abiding phrase of God.” Paul concurs together with his reference in Galatians 4:29 to those that are “born in accordance with the Spirit.” The Spirit turns into the DNA that makes us not solely legally a part of the household by adoption, but in addition, by some unfathomable supernatural genetics, we’re one with Christ by the brand new delivery, with the identical religious DNA because the Son of God. So, this can be a union of household identification.
5. Counted Righteous
Fifth, I’ll point out another image of this inexhaustible union — specifically, the judicial expertise of union with Christ. The union turns into our righteousness. Philippians 3:8–9: “that I could . . . be discovered in him, not having a righteousness of my very own that comes from the regulation, however that which comes by means of religion in Christ, the righteousness from God that will depend on religion.” In union with Christ, a righteousness not our personal is ours.
In abstract, being in Christ means we’re referred to as into his fellowship. In that comradeship, Christ is our life. We’re one with him as members of his physique and one with him as members of his household. And in him we’re counted righteous together with his righteousness. All of this ends in 2 Corinthians 1:20: all the guarantees of God are sure for us in Christ. In his fellowship, in his life, in his physique, in his household, in his righteousness, all the things he has and ever could have is ours.
Each Promise Secured in Christ
“All the guarantees” means each good that God can conceive of is ours in Christ. First Corinthians 3:21–23 says, “So let nobody boast in males. For all issues are yours, whether or not Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or dying or the current or the longer term — all are yours, and you might be Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” That’s the identical as saying, “All the guarantees are Sure in him.” Romans 8:32 ties all the guarantees to Christ’s dying as the best way he secured them for all who’re in Christ: “He who didn’t spare his personal Son however gave him up for us all, how will he not additionally with him graciously give us all issues?” “Graciously give us all issues” is identical as saying, “All the guarantees are Sure in him.”
- No good factor does he withhold from those that are in Christ (Psalm 84:11).
- He’ll put his Spirit inside you and trigger you to stroll in his statutes in Christ (Ezekiel 36:27).
- Goodness and mercy will comply with you all the times of your life in Christ (Psalm 23:6).
- All the things will work collectively to your good in Christ (Romans 8:28).
- He won’t ever depart you nor forsake you in Christ (Hebrews 13:5).
- He’ll strengthen you, he’ll assist you to, and he’ll uphold you together with his righteous proper hand in Christ (Isaiah 41:10).
- He’ll end the work he started in you in Christ (Philippians 1:6).
- Nobody will be capable to snatch you out of his hand in Christ (John 10:27–29).
- He’ll increase you from the useless in Christ (Revelation 2:10).
- He’ll give away to you the trail of life so that you just discover your solution to God, in whose presence is fullness of pleasure and at whose proper hand there are pleasures perpetually in Christ (Psalm 16:11).
Why did Paul declare such a lavish reality in 2 Corinthians 1:20? As a result of he was preventing for his apostolic life and their religion, pleasure, and love, which he would defend by means of his personal religion, pleasure, love. His protection started in 2 Corinthians 1:18. Paul is saying, “It’s this faithfulness of God, this assure of the Holy Spirit, this union with Christ, and this success of all the guarantees that allows me to maintain on rejoicing by means of affliction in order that the overflow of my pleasure will probably be your pleasure. That’s how I like you. That’s how I pour out my life for you. I don’t manipulate, I don’t deceive, I don’t exploit you. I like you.”
Paul isn’t just defending himself; he’s inviting the Corinthians, and us, into this life within the guarantees of God — sustaining pleasure in affliction, overflowing in love for others. He says, “As absolutely as God is trustworthy, our phrase to you has not been Sure and No” (2 Corinthians 1:18). My life is constructed on the faithfulness of God to all his guarantees. He continues his protection in 2 Corinthians 1:22: “[He] put his seal on us and [gave] us his Spirit in our hearts as a assure.” He’s saying, “My life is constructed on God’s Holy Spirit seal that his guarantees stand.” Due to this fact, 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “All the guarantees of God discover their Sure in him.”
Pleasure in Affliction, Overflowing in Love
Let’s flip to see how Paul in the remainder of this letter strikes towards pleasure in affliction — sustained by guarantees, overflowing in love. He sounds the be aware instantly in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that that is the place he’s going: “[God] comforts us in all our affliction, in order that we might be able to consolation those that are in any affliction, with the consolation with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” That is consolation in affliction — pleasure in affliction — for the sake of affection.
Then there’s this superb assertion in 2 Corinthians 7:4: “I’m stuffed with consolation. In all our affliction, I’m overflowing with pleasure.” Lest we cross by the phrase affliction too evenly, hearken to his record of afflictions in 2 Corinthians 11:
Labors . . . imprisonments . . . numerous beatings, and infrequently close to dying. 5 occasions I obtained by the hands of the Jews the forty lashes much less one. 3 times I used to be crushed with rods. As soon as I used to be stoned. 3 times I used to be shipwrecked; an evening and a day I used to be adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, at risk from rivers, hazard from robbers, hazard from my very own folks, hazard from Gentiles, hazard within the metropolis, hazard within the wilderness, hazard at sea, hazard from false brothers; in toil and hardship, by means of many a sleepless night time, in starvation and thirst, typically with out meals, in chilly and publicity. (2 Corinthians 11:23–27)
Now, listed here are his phrases once more from 2 Corinthians 7:4: “I’m stuffed with consolation. In all our affliction, I’m overflowing with pleasure.”
He says it once more in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10. The Lord refused to remove his thorn within the flesh.
However he stated to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my energy is made excellent in weak point.” Due to this fact I’ll boast all of the extra gladly of my weaknesses, in order that the facility of Christ might relaxation upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I’m content material with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I’m weak, then I’m robust.
Gladness in calamities? Right here it’s once more in 2 Corinthians 12:15: “I’ll most gladly spend and be spent to your souls. If I like you extra, am I to be liked much less?” That is gladness in affliction, overflowing with love.
“In union with Christ, a righteousness not our personal is ours.”
Right here is another textual content on this level. Second Corinthians 13:9 says, “We’re glad once we are weak and you might be robust. Your restoration is what we pray for.” It’s gladness in weak point, overflowing in love. How on this planet did Paul keep such a lifetime of struggling with pleasure for many years? The reply is that this: “All the guarantees of God are Sure in Christ.” Right here’s the best way he expressed it in 2 Corinthians 4:16–18. How does he not lose coronary heart?
So we don’t lose coronary heart. Although our outer self is losing away, our internal self is being renewed day-to-day. For this mild momentary affliction is making ready for us an everlasting weight of glory past all comparability [that is a promise that is Yes in Christ Jesus], as we glance to not the issues which can be seen however to the issues which can be unseen. For the issues which can be seen are transient, however the issues which can be unseen are everlasting.
By religion, he appears to the unseen and banks his life on the promise that each one the afflictions taking place on this world usually are not meaningless however are making ready for him an everlasting weight of glory past all comparability. By this, he not solely survives however rejoices in all his affliction. Second Corinthians 7:4: “In all our affliction, I’m overflowing with pleasure.”
Our Glad Amen
With another clear, indeniable demonstration, he exhibits that this promise-sustained pleasure is the supply of affection. In 2 Corinthians 8:1–2, he describes how the Macedonians grew to become a mannequin of generosity for the Corinthians. Paul was accumulating cash for the poor in Jerusalem. Right here’s what occurred in Macedonia. In 2 Corinthians 8:8 he calls it “love.” This is likely one of the most superb texts within the Bible on the spring and energy of affection:
We would like you to know, brothers, in regards to the grace of God that has been given among the many church buildings of Macedonia, for in a extreme take a look at of affliction, their abundance of pleasure and their excessive poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their half. (2 Corinthians 8:1–2)
The place did this wealth of generosity (this love) come from? He says it’s the overflow of their abundance of pleasure. And how much pleasure was this? What have been they so glad about? It wasn’t the absence of affliction. It wasn’t the absence of poverty. Contextually, one reply is left from 2 Corinthians 8:1 — “the grace of God.” Paul says, “We would like you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the many church buildings of Macedonia” (2 Corinthians 8:1). That is the grace that claims to sinners, “Imagine on the Lord Jesus Christ, and all the guarantees of God are sure for you in Christ Jesus.” They believed, and regardless of affliction and poverty, their pleasure was so ample that it overflowed in like to the poor whom they didn’t even know.
Within the second half of two Corinthians 1:20, Paul brings all of it to a climax with these phrases: “That’s the reason [namely, because all the promises of God are Yes in Christ] it’s by means of him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” Amen is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew expression for sure. Amen! Actually! Certainly! Sure!
So, what’s Paul saying? He’s saying, “The response of my life (2 Corinthians 1:20) is not going to be a grumbling No to God’s guarantees. My life is not going to be a self-pitying, reclusive No to God’s guarantees. My life is not going to be a loveless No to God’s guarantees. My life, in all its afflictions, will probably be a radiant Sure to the guarantees of God. When God says Sure to me with all his guarantees, my response is Sure to him. I say, ‘Amen! Sure, they’re true. Sure, they’re sufficient. Sure, I’m content material. Sure, I’m glad to spend and be spent to your souls.’”
And from such a life — promise-sustained, overflowing in pleasure, poured out in love — Paul says God will get nice glory (2 Corinthians 1:20).
