Systematic Theology - Lesson 6: Creation and the Image of God (Imago Dei)

We're back to conclude this first part of our Christology lesson, now speaking specifically about what Christ did for us on the cross. We'll use the three words Paul uses in his letter to the Romans, chapter three. And then we'll move on to the conclusion, talking about the triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, we'll talk about the ascension.

We won't have time to talk about the resurrection, but I'll leave a video recommendation here. If you'd like to hear me speak on this subject, you can search on YouTube, okay? A video called "The Resurrection of the Son of God.

" And there you'll find a video with a biblical, historical, and theological perspective on the subject of Jesus' resurrection. Remember that for us, the resurrection of Christ is something literal. In fact, Christ resurrected in history, he resurrected from the dead, in flesh and blood.

Okay? We don't believe that Christ resurrected merely as a specter, as a spirit, or that the resurrection is just a feeling we experience in our hearts. We truly believe that just as Christ experienced death, so too did he experience resurrection at the hands of his God and Father, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

And you can hear me talking about this. From this message, the resurrection of the Son of God is practically a lesson. Okay, everyone?

I'm also going to ask our helpers here to leave this link available for you, so you can watch it if you wish. It's not part of our curriculum here, but I think it would be interesting, it would be beneficial for you if you dedicated some time later to watch this sermon, watch this lesson. People, whether you like it or not, we would need much more time and space here to explore various details of Christology, but certainly if you have been greatly blessed by this subject, you will not stop your studies here, okay?

You will continue studying. The idea of ​​this lesson is only to give you an introduction and not to exhaust the nuances of everything we can learn about the person and work of Jesus. Because that would be impossible, right?

He is God, so it would be impossible for us to grasp the entirety of Jesus' character in just six lessons. Okay? So I want to ask you to open with me.

We're going to spend a lot of time in this lesson on biblical exposition, on understanding the biblical text. So I ask that you open it with me, please, to Romans chapter 3. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 3.

I'm going to read it with you here in the New Living Translation. It's a Bible that I've been using a lot, a version that I've been using a lot and I've really liked its language. So, I'm going to ask you to follow along with the version you prefer, but I'm making it clear to you which version I'm using, okay?

Romans 3, from verse 21 onwards, says: "But now, according to what was promised in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, God has shown us how we are justified in his sight apart from the works of the law. " We are declared righteous before God because of faith or trust in Jesus Christ because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And this applies to all those who believe without any distinction.

So, we are righteous, justified before God by the trust we place in the faithfulness of the Son of God. And this makes no distinction. Paul says: "Why?

" Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Because all have sinned and fall short, another version would say, they have not reached the standard of God's glory. But he, God, in his grace, declares us righteous through Christ Jesus, who redeemed us from the punishment for our sins.

Then Paul goes on to say that God presented Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. The word in the NIV is the word propitiation. God presented Jesus as a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins with the blood he shed, thus showing his righteousness in favor of those who believe.

In the past, he restrained himself and did not punish the sins previously committed, because he planned to reveal his righteousness in the present time. In this way, God showed himself to be just, condemning sin, but also the justifier, declaring righteous the sinner who believes in Jesus Christ. The three words The words that normally appear here in the NVT (New Living Translation) don't appear because the language is very simple, it's quite accessible.

But when Paul says here that God redeemed us from the punishment for our sins, the word that usually appears is the word redemption. So there are three words that appear in this text regarding what Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary, okay? The word redemption appears, the word justification appears, and the word propitiation appears.

But before we explore these three words here, I need to tell you something very important about the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross of Calvary. Because we read in Matthew 27:45 that Jesus, while on the cross, said: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? " The Son of God was separated from the Father there on the cross of Calvary because of our sins.

I affirmed to you here in our lesson that God died on the cross for us. The Son of God, being true God and true man, gave himself on the cross of Calvary for our sins. And how can we understand this?

How can we understand Christ's death on the cross? And folks, this isn't difficult to understand. If I had a little chart here to draw, it might be even easier.

But let's think about the way, or our life experience. How do you and I know sin, how do we come to experience the fall and sin? So, the biblical text says that we, who were created in the image of God, sin, right?

We know God's will. We disobey God's will. And this disobedience to God's will leads us to the experience of sin, to the experience of separation, and consequently to the experience of death.

So, for us, the knowledge of sin, sin becomes part of our lives, of our common experience. In this way, we disobey. Disobedience leads us to sin, and sin leads to death, right?

James says in his letter that no one should say when tempted, "I am being tempted by God. " God tempts no one. On the contrary, God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

When someone is tempted, James says, it is by their own evil desire, being dragged away and enticed. The text says that temptation gives birth to sin, and sin, when consummated, leads to death. So that is our experience.

Disobedience plus sin, the consequence, death, spiritual death. And we have three deaths, right, that the biblical text makes clear to us. Spiritual death, which is this separation from the relationship with God; physical death, which comes as a consequence of spiritual death, because everything that exists receives life directly from God.

And because we broke with God, we broke with the source of life, then everything begins to die, even if this death cannot be perceived immediately, but the degradation appears clearly to us in the first pages of the biblical text, mainly from Genesis 1 to Genesis 11. And if we remain in spiritual death plus physical death, then the consequence is remaining in this state of death, what the Bible calls eternal death. It is remaining in a state of separation from God eternally.

What happens is that Christ dies. We see this. The Bible is very clear that Christ died on the cross.

His side was pierced, it was pierced so that it would be proven that Christ had indeed died there. His last, right, bag of blood that was there in his heart, when his side was pierced, the spear came, pierced, pierced his heart and then that blood gushed out with water and blood. And the centurion who was there, witnessing the death of the Lord Jesus, said, "Truly this was the Son of God.

" Jesus dies on the cross saying, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. " But the difference, my brothers and sisters, is that Christ experiences death not in disobedience, but in obedience. It is by obeying the Father's will that Christ is becoming sin for us.

Notice that the death Christ is dying is not his own death, it is our death. He is surrendering himself in death. In our place, the condemnation he is bearing is not his, it is ours.

He is simply completely obeying God's will and surrendering himself in separation out of obedience to the Father and out of love for us. Therefore, Even though Christ is there on the cross saying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? " The separation he is experiencing is not his own, it is our separation.

And it is precisely because of his obedience to the Father that he is being separated. God's wrath is coming upon him, the punishment, right? Darkness covers the earth and the full weight of sin falls upon the Son of God, right?

As Pastor Márcio Valadão would say, at that moment when Jesus is making himself a substitutionary sacrifice for us, the Father turns his back because he cannot watch his Son being crushed by his wrath on the cross of Calvary. In other words, Jesus on the cross was not a sinner. Nothing in the Son of God is altered while he is giving himself for us there on the cross.

People, we cannot think that Jesus is a sinner on the cross. He is not a sinner. He is becoming sin.

There is a great difference. Nothing in the holiness, purity, integrity, or character of the Lord is affected. He needs to be the holy and pure lamb of God, immaculate on the cross for us, because only then could our sins be forgiven.

Therefore, Christ is not a sinner. The word makes it very clear to us in 2 Corinthians 5:21, that he who knew no sin, God made him a sinner. God did not make him a sinner, because a sinner is a transgressor, is disobedient, is one who experiences death by his own will, by his disobedience.

And that is not the case with Christ. Christ is experiencing death in obedience to the Father's will. He is being separated from the Father by doing the Father's will.

He is obeying. Do you understand? And that's what ties the darkness in knots, right?

Because how can someone righteous surrender to death? Death had no power over Jesus. Death could not kill him.

Christ surrendered to death. That's why the reformers, right, and the Puritans said that the day of Christ's death was the day of death. Of death, because death could not hold him.

Death had no power over him, because death only has power over the condemned. But when Christ gives himself up in death, when he gives his life in death, he is a perfect sacrifice, he is pure, he is holy, he is dying in obedience, he is giving himself. The text is so clear that this separation of Christ is in obedience to the Father, that after, you know, completing his work and fully atoning for our sins on the cross, Jesus ends this moment saying: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

" So that it would be clear that at all times the Son of God, even while experiencing guilt, condemnation, even while experiencing the weight of our sins, even while experiencing the wrath of God in obedience, his life was entrusted to the Father's hands. He ends by saying: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. " How could he have this certainty that his spirit, his life, would be entrusted to God's hands if he did not have the awareness that he was holy, righteous before his Father?

So, we cannot look at Christ's death as if Christ were a sinner on the cross, but as if Christ were becoming sin. He took our condemnation , not his own. He took our sin, not his own.

And the biblical text says that he was then buried and remained in the tomb for three days. A question that students always ask me when I talk about this subject is: Zulato, did Jesus go to hell ? Did Jesus experience, right, this descent into hell?

And I usually tell my students that yes, Christ went to hell. But the question is: how can we understand this statement? It's not what we affirm, but with what content, right, we are filling in the statements we are making.

So, first of all, I want to remind you that the hell that the biblical text teaches us is very different from the one depicted in Dante Alighieri's work, OK? In other words, many people look at hell as if it were a place that is the headquarters of darkness, from where Satan is leading a revolt against God the Father, against the Lord Jesus Christ. And folks, that is very far from what the biblical text teaches about hell.

Hell, people, is not the place where Satan is leading a conspiracy. Right, against the Lord Jesus, against God the Father. No.

Hell is a place where Satan is judged, cast to experience condemnation. He doesn't go to hell to lead anything. He goes to hell to suffer.

He doesn't go to cause suffering. He goes to suffer with all those who are condemned along with him. Okay?

So, the Bible shows that the suffering of hell is not caused by Satan. The suffering of hell is caused precisely by separation from God. It is caused by the presence of God.

The suffering of hell is the experience of suffering in the hands, in the reality of the sinner; it comes from perceiving the eternal goodness of God, from which he will be eternally separated, eternally distant. So, if hell has to do with this separation, where did Christ go to hell, or in what way did Christ experience this suffering? And we could say, as John Calvin affirms in his work, the Institutes, that Christ went to hell on the cross of Calvary.

There he experienced suffering, separation. This physical hell where people are thrown, folks, is a place from which those who go can never return, because it's where the condemned, those who will remain in condemnation, are thrown, awaiting until they are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. In other words, according to what we learn in the sacred text, in John Calvin's Institutes, and also in Wen Gruden's systematic theology, Christ experiences the suffering of separation on the cross of Calvary.

There, he is separated from God. There, God's wrath comes upon him. So Christ experiences hell on the cross of Calvary.

This separation. And perhaps some of you might ask me: "Azulato, but what about that text in the first letter of Peter that says Jesus descended and preached to the spirits in prison? " And we could perhaps analyze some texts that seem to give this idea that Jesus descended into hell, right?

It creates the idea that Jesus descended into hell, fought with the devil there, and he won. Perhaps you've seen this in plays, right? And then Jesus freed, right?

All the Old Testament saints who were imprisoned. Folks, this is a very wrong understanding of the very doctrine of salvation. Romans chapter 1 tells me and you that from beginning to end the righteous are saved by faith.

As it is written, the righteous live by faith. Paul declares in Romans, chapter 4, that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. In other words, how were the Old Testament saints saved?

The Old Testament saints were saved because they believed in the promise that was to come, in the Messiah who was to come. As we are saved, we believe in the promise that has already come. That is, whether they or we, we are saved in the same way.

Salvation from beginning to end has always been through faith. As it is written, the righteous live by faith. That is, Abraham, Jacob, David, all were saved because they believed in what God had promised to do concerning their descendants.

Do you understand? So, my brothers and sisters, many times we have this wrong understanding, and then we create this whole narrative, this story. It seems beautiful, but it doesn't necessarily correspond with the teachings of the Holy Scriptures.

In fact, this text from First Peter says that Christ descended and preached to the spirits in prison who were condemned. The text doesn't say that Christ descended and preached to the saints, that Christ descended and preached to the righteous. No.

The text says that Christ descended and preached to the spirits in prison. That is, we read the text as if Jesus preached to the saints, preached to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, opened the mountain, and David came. But that's not what the text says.

And if Christ preached to the spirits in prison, what was the idea here? What is the principle? Do you understand me?

So, my brothers, I could analyze this text here and show you more clearly that, in fact, what the text is saying to me and to you is that Noah was a type of Christ in his world and that the spirit that acted in Christ also acted through Noah, enabling him to be a preacher of righteousness. And just as Christ was a witness to righteousness, so was Noah. And those who did not believe Noah's message are condemned, just as those who do not believe in Christ will be condemned.

There is a much easier way to interpret the text so that it sounds much more coherent with biblical theology as a whole. OK? Dear ones?

I would very much like to explore these issues in more detail, but I challenge you. If you happen to have doubts about this topic, and perhaps you have a different position or thought and you disagree with the way I am exploring this subject, I encourage you to read W. Gruden's systematic theology, because he works very appropriately on these topics, and there, for sure, these important questions that need answers, sometimes perhaps in more detail, will be answered for you.

And, of course, we also have our support where we can answer all your questions, so that you can have peace of mind, knowing that everything being taught here is based on and supported by the Holy Scriptures, OK? So, considering this work of Christ, the way Christ gives himself, the way God's death—it's not God being killed, but God giving himself for us in death so that we can be redeemed from condemnation— how can we now use these three words to help us understand a little more about what Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary? The first word Paul uses here, as I've already told you, is justification, justice.

God has done justice for us. We have been considered righteous before God. And how can we understand this word justification?

How can we understand this word justice? Within Reformed theology, the word justice was understood within the context of Roman law. So, you have a person who is condemned, the evidence of their crime is presented to them, and the judge's verdict is applied: they are condemned, they deserve death.

So, the defense attorney makes a proposal to the judge, and the proposal is: I will pay the penalty in his place. The defense attorney is innocent; he doesn't deserve the condemnation, but he proposes to die in the guilty party's place so that the guilty party can experience innocence, can experience the liberation he doesn't deserve. Reformed theologians would say that's what happened to us.

We were condemned; we had a written sentence of condemnation. And the verdict against us was that we deserved death. We had a condemning attorney, an accusing attorney against us, which was the devil, demanding our blood for our disobedience.

And God didn't turn a blind eye to our sin. We are not justified because God says, "No, it's okay. Let's sweep it under the rug, everything's fine.

" No, God makes the final decision and considers us guilty, he considers us condemned. But then our defense attorney takes our place; he dies for us. And justice, right, the innocence that is His is imputed to us.

It is placed upon us so that now we may be considered innocent and righteous before the judge. That is the first way we can understand the word justification. The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us.

We receive the ability to remain in God's presence without any feeling of guilt, fear, or inferiority, as if sin had never existed. Because the Father looks upon us now by the merits, by the merits of Christ Jesus. Amen.

But folks, the other way we can understand the word justice, justification, is to look at how this word is used in the context of the Old Testament. And often the word justice will appear there in the context of the Old Testament as a correspondent to the word salvation. When God says that He will do justice, we cannot confuse it with judgment, right?

Judgment is one thing, justice is another. When God says that He will do justice, it means that He will do what is right, He will do what is correct, right? God will put things in their place.

But it is true that in doing justice on earth, God needs to destroy what is unjust. God needs to annihilate what is out of place. But instead of God's justice resulting in our condemnation and complete destruction, Paul says that in doing justice, in fixing things, God, through the work of his Son, instead of destroying us, reconciled us.

Why? Because Christ gave himself for us on the cross of Calvary. So, instead of God leading us towards death, towards condemnation, Paul tells me and you that God does justice.

He fixes all things through the work and sacrifice of his Son. God is bringing the world back to himself through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The other word Paul uses here is the word redemption.

And this word redemption comes from the slave market, folks. When a slave was bought in the context of the Old Testament, the word used was the word redemption. You have a very beautiful story in the context of the Old Testament that talks about this in the book of Ruth, when Ruth is rescued, she is redeemed by Boaz.

And in the context of the Old Testament, we have laws that regulate how this redemption, this rescue, should be done. So, when someone had an unpayable debt, not just anyone could buy it. It was necessary that it be bought by a blood brother, a close relative, someone who had a blood tie, because it was expected that this person, by bond and by love, would treat them with kindness, with mercy.

We can also see this issue very clearly when we look at Joseph acquiring all of Egypt for Pharaoh. The biblical text says that after buying land, after buying possessions, after acquiring everything from the Egyptians, the Egyptians become slaves of Pharaoh. And what does Joseph do?

Instead of treating them with malice, the biblical text says that Joseph then returns the lands to them and tells them: "Look, you will keep 90% of what is yours and 10% you will return to Pharaoh to be stored in the granaries. " So, instead of being outraged and saying, "What a wicked man, how absurd, look what he's doing to us," the Egyptians celebrated Pharaoh's mercy because they had no right to anything. And yet, Pharaoh, through Joseph's administration, was giving them 90%, and they only had to repay 10%.

In other words, how did the redemption process work? Well, a close relative, knowing about a brother, a blood brother, someone close, who had an unpayable debt, would approach their creditor, the one who owned the debt, to do for their relative, for their blood brother, what they themselves could not do. It's more or less like that.

Let me imagine I had a debt of 1 billion dollars, and even if I worked my whole life, it would be impossible for me to pay it off. All my possessions could be seized, my family could be seized, and it still wouldn't be enough. I would have to work the rest of my life to pay off that debt and even then I wouldn't be able to.

But imagine that I have a blood brother, and this blood brother has a lot of money, billions and billions. And knowing my distress, he then presents himself to the person I owe and says: "Look, I want to pay Vinicius's debt. I want to pay Zulato's debt.

" And he goes and pays 1 billion dollars and he frees me from my debt, from the hand of this creditor. And then I ask you, am I free now? No, am I completely free?

No, because now, instead of being a slave to that person, I am a slave to my brother, but my brother will never treat me as a slave, because we are blood brothers. So, what did this brother do? He went to the city gate and he tore up the debt and he said to the people: "Look, my brother is free.

" "My brother is free. " But because of this act of love, because of this act of benevolence, I, embarrassed by this donation that my brother made for me in front of all the people at the city gate, I would pierce my ear and I would say to these people: "Look, I would have to serve my brother out of obligation, because he paid this debt for me. But your An act of love, right?

His surrender, his act of love for me leads me to decide that I don't want to serve him out of obligation, right? No, I don't need to do that, but I will still serve out of love, because of what he did for me. And then this servant pierced his ear and he became a servant of love because of what his brother, right, his master, had done for him.

Can you understand that this is exactly what Christ did for us? We were slaves to sin, to the world, to the devil. We had an unpayable debt that required our lives.

If we gave our lives, it would still be insufficient, right? We couldn't get it back, because it had to do with God's honor, it had to do with God's name. Because we sinned against the eternal, we had an eternal debt.

And our lives, however precious they may be, were not enough to pay the debt we incurred with God. So, the biblical text tells me and you that what we could not do, Christ did. Why?

Because he could give his precious life so that the honor of God might be restored, right? Revisited, restored, and we might then be freed. The sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross of Calvary, people, is not paid to Satan, it is paid to God the Father.

Our debt was to him. But Satan took advantage of our debt to God because of sin and accused us. But Christ Jesus pays our debt.

He restores the Father's honor, he pays for our access to the table, and now he takes our debt. But instead of taking our debt, coming before us and saying, "Look, now you have to serve me. You are obliged to serve me," the biblical text says that he tore up the written record of debt that was against us, it was torn, it was shredded, it was nailed to the cross.

And Jesus then disarmed the principalities and powers and put them to shame, triumphing over them on the cross of Calvary. So, Christ made redemption for us. And the last word we have here is the word atonement, the word propitiation, which also comes from the context of the Old Testament.

You know that the meeting place with God in the context of the Old Testament was called the tabernacle or the temple. And both had three parts, right? The outer court, the holy place, and the Holy of Holies.

And inside the Holy of Holies, you had an object called the ark of the covenant, which had two parts, a square box, a lid. On this lid you had two cherubim, and in the middle of the cherubim you had something called the mercy seat, where the blood of an innocent animal was brought before God and placed there so that God would cover the guilt of Israel through the sacrifice of an innocent one. The Bible says that Jesus made propitiation for us.

And here I recommend you read Paul's letter, right? Some will say the letter to the Hebrews, right? We don't know the author.

Some say it's the apostle Paul, perhaps one of Paul's disciples. But I recommend you read the letter to the Hebrews, because there we will learn that Christ is the priest, he is the temple, and he is the sacrifice. Christ gave himself for us on the cross of Calvary.

But what is interesting to think about regarding this issue of Christ's propitiation being a propitiatory sacrifice for us, his innocent blood being shed in our place, is that in the context of the Old Testament, we could only be sure that the high priest's offering had been received, that sins had been covered, and that the people could celebrate the peace offering, because the relationship with God had been restored from wrath to peace, and the people could be a blessing to themselves and to the nations of the earth. The people could only know this when the high priest returned alive. Do you remember?

On the night the high priest needed to enter to offer sacrifices for his sins and the sins of the people, biblical tradition says that many did not sleep for fear that by having a dream, they might have some kind of nocturnal emission, some kind of perverse, depraved dream, and they might die before God. Tradition says that a rope was tied to the high priest's ankle so that if the movement stopped, and the bells that were on the edge of his robe . .

. They would stop making noise, so people could pull him out, because nobody had the courage to go in and take his body out of there, because they were afraid of being struck down by God's holiness. But when the high priest returned alive, that was a certainty for the people.

The certainty that God had accepted the sacrifice, that the sins had been covered, that the people were no longer under wrath, but under peace. And now they could sit at the table, celebrate the peaceful meal, because they could be a blessing to themselves and a blessing also to the nations of the earth. I ask you, how do we know that the Lord's life was completely accepted by God the Father in all his life, in his death, in his sacrifice for us on the cross of Calvary?

We know this, my brothers, because the Son of God rose from the dead. We know this because the scripture tells me and you that death could not hold him. The tomb is empty.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Amen. I want to conclude this time we 've been discussing the work of Christ here, starting with these three words: justification, redemption, and propitiation or atonement.

And I want to speak to you very briefly about the ascension, which we are calling here the triumph of Christ. I want to remind you, we have two texts that support this moment. One is in Colossians, chapter 2, verses 13 to 15, where the apostle Paul says that we, who previously had a written record of debt against us, this written record of debt was nailed to Paul's cross.

And the Lord, then, exposed, he deposed principalities and powers, triumphing over them publicly through the cross of Calvary. And the other text that supports this moment is in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 14, if I'm not mistaken. Let me check here so I don't give you the wrong reference.

Second letter of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter two. Exactly. In chapter 2, starting from verse 14, Paul says: "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph and everywhere spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ, an aroma of life to the living and an aroma of death to the dead. " In these two texts, we have a very important word, especially within the context of the Roman Empire, which is the word triumph. And if you don't know what this word means, you can watch a movie called Covades or perhaps you can later visit Rome and see the Arch of Triumph that was given to General Titus.

I passed by that triumphal arch when I went to Rome. Or you can go to Paris and see the triumphal arch that was built there for Napoleon Bonaparte. But normally, what was a triumph?

The triumph was a celebration that the emperor offered to a Roman general for a great victory. So, when a general had a victory that seemed almost impossible, he was received triumphantly in the city of Rome. How did this celebration happen?

The emperor sent his chariot to the battlefield , pulled by white horses made of gold, and his crown so that the general could return from the battlefield in triumph. In the first part of the parade, right? The preparations for this parade involved, first of all, completely stripping the enemies, right?

So, the general needed to bring back to the capital, to the city of Rome, irrefutable proof of his victory. So, what did he do? He took the defeated armies.

They were stripped, completely naked, shamed, their strength taken away. And they then opened the triumphal procession. They opened the triumphal procession on the march back from the battlefield to home.

The first part of the parade, you know, the first presentation, the first section was the defeated armies. They entered first. And here I want to make an application for myself and for you.

Can you understand why problems are so often constantly before us? Because on our march back home from the battlefield, what opens up. .

. The triumphal parade is precisely our enemies. Except they are naked, defeated, ashamed, completely, right, stripped bare, they can't do anything about us.

In fact, the fact that they are there in front of us is proof that we are marching back home. It's more or less like Paul says in Romans, chapter 8, from verse 28 onwards, right? We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? And who will bring any charge against God's chosen people?

Is it not God who justifies you? Who then is the one who can condemn us? No one.

Christ Jesus who died for us. He is the one who rose again. He is the one who is at the right hand of God.

He is the one who intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Neither famine nor nakedness nor danger nor sword.

As it is written, “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. ” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For we are certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the people, nor power nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The second part of the parade was precisely the victorious army, folks. And this army was dressed in its parade armor. In Rome there were two armors, the armor for war and the armor for parade.

So the soldiers, you know, prepared themselves, putting on their parade armor. And the story goes that while both the defeated armies and the soldiers entered, flower petals were thrown over them, right? The people came out to the city gates to receive that triumphal procession, right?

The name of this procession, folks, is parousia. For those who know a little about the terms, parousia is the word the New Testament uses to talk about the return of Christ. Parousia, the people going out to meet their Lord, to receive that triumphal procession, throwing flower petals.

Imagine that scene, folks. The streets of the Roman Empire full of people, petals being thrown. Those people fought for them so that their lives would be spared in slavery.

Now, before them were the evidence, the defeated army, completely ashamed, weakened, stripped. Flower petals were thrown so that they would be received with honor. And as the soldiers marched over these petals and the defeated armies trampled them, the scent of the rose rose.

And this scent that rose for those who had conquered was the scent of life. The scent of life for those who are alive. That is, while we march triumphantly with our Lord, who conquered us for himself and is leading us, our lives exude the scent of life for those who are alive.

Whoever sees what Christ has done in us, is doing through us, and is also experiencing this same transformation, being led by Jesus, will look at us, will smell the scent of life. But if for the victorious the scent of the rose is the scent of life, for the defeated the scent of the rose was the scent of death, because that scent reminded them that they were in slavery and would remain so for the rest of their lives. Can you understand why the testimony of a Christian so often disturbs people?

Because when we exhale the fragrance of life, those who are alive smell life, but those who are dead remember death. The life exhaled through us resembles the shroud that many carry. And finally, then, came the victorious general, driven in the emperor's chariot, pulled by four white horses, made of gold, bearing upon his head the emperor's own crown.

His face was painted red, his His hands were painted red because it was believed that during this triumphal parade, the general represented the greatest Roman deity, the god Jupiter. And then he would enter shouting through the gates of Rome: "I have triumphed, I have triumphed! " It's true that at a certain point the soldiers began to say to him, "Look, don't glorify yourself because you are not God.

" But we don't need to say that to our Lord Jesus. Amen. He is God.

He is true God. He is true man. I want to finish by showing you this scene in the biblical text itself, because we have a psalm that shows this scene happening for us.

In fact, this chain of psalms, Psalm 22, Psalm 23, Psalm 24, are psalms that speak about the life of the Messiah. And look at this, folks. Psalm 24, from verse 1, says: "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it; the world is his, and all who live in it.

" Why? Because it was God who affirmed it, God who established it upon the depths of the oceans. It was He who established it.

So, God is the rightful owner of everything, because He is the creator of all things. And then we have a question, right? Who can ascend the mountain of the Lord?

God is the creator, and He creates so that we can have a relationship, right? But the question is: who can go to Jerusalem and present themselves before God? Who can be in the presence of the Lord to have a relationship with Him, with this God who is the creator of everything?

And here we have certain characteristics, right? It is necessary to have clean hands, it is necessary to have a pure heart, it is necessary not to have given one's soul to idols, nor to have sworn falsely. This person will receive God's blessing, and God will do justice in their favor.

And the text says that these are the ones who seek you, those who seek your presence, O God of Jacob. In other words, God is the creator, and God is looking for people to have a relationship with Him. But to have a relationship with Him, it is necessary to fulfill certain requirements.

And who can fulfill these requirements? The text says: "Look, this is how people who seek God are, but someone has to show up. " And then, folks, the text pauses and suddenly someone appears on the horizon.

The text says: "Open up, O gates of the city. " That is, someone is presenting themselves, someone worthy is presenting themselves to ascend to the city of the great God, to present themselves before the Creator and receive His blessing, because they meet these requirements. Heaven, folks, imagine, someone is arriving, someone is ascending, and the city gates are acclaimed.

Open up, O gates, open up, O ancient gates, so that the King of Glory may enter. Can you imagine this scene? Jesus returning, to present himself before his Father, his blood in his hands, right?

The perfect sacrifice that the biblical text speaks of in Hebrews chapter 8, 9, and 10, that he did not deliver it into a sanctuary made with human hands, but into the sanctuary that God himself built. And when He appears, right? The heavens are in an uproar, shouting, "Someone worthy, someone is appearing, someone fulfills the requirements, open up, O gates, open up, O ancient doors, so that the King of Glory may enter!

" And then someone asks: "Who is this King of Glory? Who is this King who deserves glory? " And then the heavens echo, right?

The psalmist echoes, "The Lord strong, mighty, the Lord invincible in battles. Open up, O gates, open up, O ancient doors, so that the King of Glory may enter! " Who is this King of Glory?

And the text says: "The Lord of hosts. He is the King of Glory. " So that's how it is, right?

We'll see later, and I challenge you all—I need to finish the class here— but afterwards I challenge you to read Revelation 2 and see how Revelation speaks about the glorious way Christ was received on high and sat down at the right hand of God the Father in honor, glory, and majesty. It is through this Christ, my brothers and sisters, that we are being led to manifest the fragrance of his knowledge, so that we may breathe life into the living, so that we may breathe, you know, the smell of death into the dead. Not that death leaves us, we breathe life, but for those who are dead, they smell the life in us and remember their own death.

I hope this class has greatly blessed you. We will continue in the next meeting. Speaking about soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, the doctrine that directly touches our lives, the way we are saved.

But I hope these topics of Christology have blessed you. God bless you. Until our next meeting, God willing.

Until then. M.