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Renewing Your Mind
The Glory of Christ
00:26:26
In John 17, Jesus prays for those whom the Father has given to Him. Who are these people? And what does this prayer teach us about the cross? From his sermon series in the gospel of John, today R.C. Sproul explains how Christ is glorified by His...
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The only reason I can give under heaven why I'm a Christian is because I'm the gift of the Father to the Son, not because anything I've ever done or could do.
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Our salvation is soli Deo Gloria. All the glory goes to God alone. Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thanks for joining us for the Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind, where each week we feature the preaching ministry of RC Sproul. We're currently in a series in the Gospel of John, and Dr. Sproul will begin looking at John 17 today. However, if you'd like to study all of John with RC Sproul as your pastoral and thoughtful guide, you can request a hardcover copy of his expositional commentary on John when you give a donation@renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast Show Notes. Well, if you have your Bible, turn to John 17 because here's Dr. Sproul.
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We're going to continue our study of the gospel according to St. John. This morning we begin chapter 17 and I will be reading verses one through five and so I would invite the congregation to stand for the reading of the Gospel. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory that I had with you before the world was and we come to the 17th chapter. The chapter is sometimes called the Chapter of the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, or alternately, the Intercessory Prayer of Jesus, where we from the distance of 2,000 years can eavesdrop, as it were, on this prayer that he makes for Himself, for His disciples, and for his church. But properly speaking, what it is is a farewell prayer. It concludes the farewell discourse that we have been studying and notice how the prayer begins. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he said, father, the hour has come. Now, if you've been listening to these sermons throughout the Gospel of John, we've been going almost two years now through it. Many, many times along the way we heard Jesus speak about his hour, and previous to this occasion in the upper room he had been saying My hour is not yet come. And I mentioned to you along the way that that hour had a double edge to it. It was both the hour of his abject humiliation and the hour of. Of his exaltation, because his glory comes through his shame. His is what Luther called the theologia crucis, a theology of the cross. And now Jesus is staring at the cross, and the hour is not remote any longer. It's not held safely at a distance, but it's now looming right in front of him. And he prays to the Father, and he says, father, the hour is here. First thing he does is he prays for himself. Glorify your son. That your Son also might glorify you. See, Jesus understood what most of us don't understand. If we seek our glory, we seek our glory at the expense of the glory of God. But when Christ asks the Father to glorify him, it's not at the expense of the Father, because the glorification of the Son is the glorification of the Father, as Paul declared at the end of that kenotic hymn in Philippians 2, that every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, what to the glory of God the Father. So that when the Son is exalted, when the Son is honored, when the Son is restored to the fullness of glory that he enjoyed with the Father from all eternity, that honors the Father as well, because the Father and the Son are one. And so when Jesus asks for his glory back, he's not asking selfishly for his own concern, but what he has in view is the completion of his mission that is at hand. He knows that he has to be lifted up on the cross for him to be lifted up in the sight of the angels. And so now he's saying, as he faces the morrow, father, glorify me. And in doing that, glorify yourself. Here it comes. As you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. Now, again, if you've been listening carefully to the Gospel of John throughout, we see this idea manifesting itself. And it'll come up again next week, God willing, if we make it to the next few verses, where Jesus frequently in the Gospel of John, talks about those whom the Father has given him. Now, before I comment on that, let me call attention to two signs or indicators. One is at the front of our church when you make the bend around the corner from Orange Avenue onto the road here to enter into the church. We have a sign out there that says St. Andrew's Chapel. You familiar with that sign? It says on that sign Reformed congregation. But you also notice that in the bulletin each week we include on the back page the solas of the Protestant Reformation. Sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola Christus, sola gratia, soli Deo Gloria. Well, this morning we're going to look briefly at sola gratia, that salvation is by grace alone. Now also by way of preparation, let me point out to you that there are many rival theologies that coexist in the Christian world in the 21st century. Even amongst so called evangelical Christians, there are various diverse and competing theologies. One of which is Reformed theology, which is at the very best a small minority report. Probably the overwhelming majority theology in the evangelical world today is a theology born in the 19th century and spread dramatically across this land at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century called dispensational theology. And dispensationalists have a habit of calling themselves four point Calvinists. You know, Reformed people call themselves Calvinists but dispensationalists say were four pointers. Now what are they saying when they say that? Well, they're referring back to the five points that were in such serious dispute early on in Holland in Reformed theology that called forth the Synod of Dordrecht in which the remonstrance were repudiated and the so called five points of Calvinism were reaffirmed by the Reformed Church. And those five points were then crystallized by the famous popular acrostic tulip T U L I P. Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints. That differs from the Arminian flower, which is the daisy. He loves me, he loves me not. But any case, the one point out of the five that dispensationalists struggle so seriously with is the L in tulip. And the L in the acrostic stands for limited atonement, which is so controversial. And I think part of the reason it's so controversial is because it is so widely misunderstood. I for one can't understand how anybody could hold to the other four points and deny the L. But limited atonement says this, that the atonement of Christ is limited to the elect, that Jesus did not atone for the sins of everybody in the world. Now sometimes it's called definite atonement or particular redemption. Now here's what the doctrine does not teach. It does not mean simply that not everybody gains the Benefits of the death of Christ. We have examinations for young men going into the ministry at the presbytery level. And invariably during these ordination exams, somebody will ask a student, do you believe in limited atonement? And the student will respond by saying, yes, I believe that the atonement of Christ is sufficient for all and efficient for some. Meaning the value of Christ's death on the cross was valuable enough to cover all of the sins of every person that ever lived. It is sufficient to cover your sins, but it is efficient. That is, it only works, or it only applies to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, that is that the cross works only for believers. Now, that definition only defines what we would call particularism rather than universalism. Doesn't get it all to the heart of this controversy, because the controversy of limited atonement or definite atonement has to do with God's purpose in the cross. It has to do with his eternal plan. And there are basically two different ways in which this is understood. One way is that from all eternity God had a desire to save as many people as possible out of a fallen human race. And so he conceived of a plan of redemption by which he would send His Son into the world as the sin bearer for fallen people. He would go to the cross, die on the cross for all who would at some point put their trust in Him. So that the plan was a provisional plan, that is, God was providing atonement for all who would take advantage of it, for all who indeed were would believe. Am I going too fast? And so the idea was that Jesus died potentially for everybody. But theoretically it was possible that the whole thing would be in vain, because it was theoretically possible that people who were dead in sin and trespasses, who wanted nothing to do with God, who weren't looking for a redeemer, that one. And all of these fallen people from this world of sin would reject the work of Jesus, and God's plan would be frustrated because nobody would take advantage of it. But this is the prevailing view in the Church today, that Jesus died for everybody, provisionally, that is, provided they have faith. And in the final analysis, whether it works depends on you or on me. Whereas the Reformed view comes at it a little differently. It says that God from all eternity devised a plan that was not a provisional plan. It was not a contingency plan. It was a Plan A with no Plan B to follow if it didn't work. And God decreed from all eternity to save a certain number of people out of fallen humanity whom the Bible over and over again, calls the elect who were chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world, and that from that plan of election, to work that plan out in history, he sent His Son into the world with the specific aim and the specific design to accomplish redemption for the elect, and that that is accomplished perfectly without a drop of the blood of Christ ever being wasted. The conclusion from that is that everyone whom the Father designed the atonement to effect their salvation is in fact saved through the atonement. Now, is that really that hard? I mean, the alternative to that it is that God doesn't know who's going to be saved. He crosses his fingers. And he have theologians today saying God saves as many people as he possibly can. Think about that. How many people can God save? How many people does he have the power to save? All of them? How many people does he have the authority to save? Cannot God intervene in everybody's life like he did in the apostle Paul, like He did in Abraham's life and anybody else's life, Slay them in the Spirit, bring them, kicking and screaming if necessary, into a saving relationship with Him? He certainly has the right to do that, and he has the power to do that, but he doesn't do that. Now, there's a certain sense in which Jesus dies for more than the Jewish nation. He dies for the world. But there's a specific perspective here that the New Testament gives that Jesus is laying down his life for his sheep, not just for people indiscriminately. And the way he describes that in John's Gospel is that he is laying down his life for the ones whom the Father gave Him. This is what he's praying about. You remember back in John 6. I mean, you're survivors from the sixth chapter of John. If you were in the congregation when we went through that strong teaching that John gave us back in the sixth chapter of this letter, where Jesus said, no one can come to me unless it's given to him by the Father. No one can come to me unless the Father and the Word there is compels him. And then he also said, all that the Father has given me, do what they come to me. So the point is that everyone whom the Father designs to come to His Son, they come and no one else. And so your salvation from start to finish rests upon the sovereign glory of God, who in his grace decided to have mercy on you, not because of anything he saw in you that demanded it, but for the love of the Son. The Father gives gifts to him. The only reason I can give under Heaven. Why I'm a Christian is because I'm the gift of the Father to the Son, not because anything I've ever done or could do. So again, we're asking the question, what was God's purpose? And God's purpose was to ensure the salvation of those whom he gives to His Son. That's why our election must always be understood biblically to be in Christ. I'm not elected as an isolated American preacher. I'm elected in Christ Jesus as one that the Father gave to him. And he makes it even more clear a little later on in the text when he says he's praying for those whom the Father has given him out of the world, he's not praying for everybody else. But you see, that goes so counter to the all inclusive spirit and mentality of American Christianity. It's not fair that God doesn't include everyone in the purview of these. Well, let's think for a moment that Christ did in fact give an atonement for all people and every sin that every person has ever committed. Would that cover the sin of unbelief? Yes. And so a person remains an unbeliever all their lives. A person never submits to Christ, dies in sin, as the Bible says. Now, could God, with any justice, possibly punish that person? Not if their sins have already been paid for. Not if their sins have already been satisfied by the atonement of Christ. And so here's where this rubber meets the road. You come to me and say, well, rc did Jesus die for me? You asked me that. Here's what I'm going to tell you. I don't know. I hope so. Are you a believer? Well, yes, I'm a believer. I said, well, then he died for you. And you say, but I don't know, I'm not a believer. And I said, well, I still don't know that he didn't die for you, because you may become a believer tomorrow. I know this, that he only dies for those who put their trust in Him. Now, if you want to argue about the eternal decrees of God and how this works out in the mind of God from all eternity, we can talk about that. That's what I've been doing this morning. But if you want to cut the Gordian knot and get down, put the cookies on the lowest shelf. The question is, do you or do you not put your trust in Christ and in Christ alone? If you can say yes to that, then you can sleep easy tonight knowing that Christ died for you. And what that means is, is that that atonement that he has made was perfect, complete and absolute. That has covered every single sin you have ever committed or ever will commit in this world. That's the benefit of having been given to Jesus by the Father.
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Soli Deo Gloria for the Christian Christ's atonement has covered every sin you have committed or ever will commit in this world. That was R.C. sproul preaching from John 17 on this Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind. Thanks for being with us. Did you know that we have a growing community of listeners over on our official renewing youg mind YouTube channel? Each day they listen and interact in the comments. Consider joining them and introducing yourself. Simply search for Renewing youg mind on YouTube and be sure to subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications and every time you comment or like one of the videos and it helps the algorithm push each day's episode to more people in more places. Another way to support Renewing youg Mind is through a donation. Your support fuels the production of this program and the global outreach of Ligonier Ministries, including the weekly Spanish edition of Renewing youg Mind. And when you donate at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight to thank you, we'll send you a copy of R.C. sproul's expositional commentary on John so that you can continue to study this beloved gospel line by line. Give your gift before this offer ends tonight at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast Show Notes. Thank you. In John 17, we get to read Jesus High priestly prayer. And just as we learned today that Jesus didn't die for every single individual, he doesn't pray for every single individual. So don't miss next week's sermon Sunday here on Renewing youg Mind.
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