[0:00] Well, tonight we are continuing our study through the great work of atonement that Christ has accomplished and our topic for this evening is, as you can see, satisfaction. We are going tonight to look at satisfaction and we will be focusing our minds on the words that we read from Romans chapter 3 from verse 20, they are on your hand out and on the sheet, for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption it is in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
[1:07] It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And as you all know, we use our five headings to work our way through this. What is satisfaction? Who is satisfied? Why is it necessary? How is it accomplished? And now what are the implications? What, who, why, how, now? So satisfaction, what do we mean? Well, the word satisfaction really speaks of the idea of being full. When we think of having a nice dinner, we are satisfied. And even the Bible uses it in those terms. The feeding of the 4000, Mark 8 verse 8, it says the eight and we're satisfied. The idea of completeness, fullness, everything is the way it should be. And so we have this idea that nothing is missing, nothing else is required. And it's a key word when it comes to understanding the atonement. And satisfaction is one of these words, one of the many words that we use in our theology that doesn't actually appear in the Bible in this context. The Bible does not use the word satisfaction to describe the atonement, but the concept of satisfaction is very, very evident from everything that Scripture says. Even Christ himself said it across, it is finished. These words alone convey the idea and the sense of satisfaction. And the rest of the New Testament backs that up. Hebrews 10, 12 says that when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. That whole verse speaks of satisfaction. It was a once for all offering. It has been offered in the past tense and now Christ as a result sits down as his work is complete. So we have this idea of a completeness and a fullness regarding the atoning work of Christ. And
[3:19] Donald MacLeod puts it very simply but very eloquently. He says that satisfaction means that on the cross Christ did all that was necessary. There is nothing left to do. And that's why satisfaction like covenant obedience that we looked at a couple of weeks ago, we can describe a sort of a summary term for the atonement. Remember we've been saying this that these ones here, sacrifice, propitiation, ransom, reconciliation, likewise the other way are all referring to fairly specific things. But by the time we get to these hectic, these parts, we are talking really about big statements that summarise the whole work of Christ. His whole work was a work of obedience as we saw. Obedient to the requirements of the law. Obedient to suffer the consequences of sin even to the point of death. And satisfaction is the same. Everything that we have here is pointing towards the completeness of Christ's work and the fact that satisfaction has been achieved. And of course that means that we absolutely cannot and do not need to add anything to Christ's work. And that seems so obvious. And it is obvious. Christ is a completed work. We don't need to add to it. But over the course of the Christian church there have been so many different add-ons that have found their way into the lives of
[4:54] Christians. Even at the very beginning, you had the church in Galatia who thought that they had to add circumcision to Christ's work. And other aspects of keeping the law have been added to Christ's work over time. Some people have added the sacraments to Christ's work. Some people have added a sort of special knowledge or special experience. Some people have added their own good works as essential to salvation. None of that is acceptable.
[5:23] None of that is necessary because they are all denying the truth of satisfaction. William Guthby from many hundred years ago said it very well. He says, nothing else will satisfy, nothing more is required. There is a wonderful completeness, a fullness to Christ's work.
[5:46] So this is basically what we're saying. Everything has been achieved. Nothing else has to be done. But if we are saying that, if satisfaction means that everything has been achieved, we have to ask the question, what constitutes the everything? What is it that needs to be achieved? And hopefully as we go through the rest of our questions, we'll see the answer to that.
[6:13] So what it is, it basically means everything that's done. Who does it apply to? Well, we can see to begin with that there are three parties involved in satisfaction. There's the one who needs to be satisfied. There's the one who makes the satisfaction and there are the ones who benefit from the satisfaction. And there's a paragraph in the Westminster Confession of Faith that identifies all of these for us because it says, the Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice on of himself, which he through the eternal spirit once offered up to God, have fully satisfied the justice of his father and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the father hath given unto him.
[7:05] So that answers all three of our questions because it tells us that it's the Lord Jesus who did it. He's accomplished. The Lord Jesus hath fully satisfied. He's the one who's done it.
[7:16] And the person that he's done it to is the Father. He has satisfied the justice of his father. And the end result of it all is that we, as those whom the father has given to him, are the ones who benefit. So we can say to begin with that God the Father needs to be satisfied. Christ has made satisfaction and we benefit. But we have to be a wee bit careful when we say that because we've got to be careful that we don't oversimplify things because when we say that the Father has to be satisfied and that Christ makes the satisfaction, we must make sure that we don't split the trinity up too much because Christ is one with his father. And that means that just as just as the father has a sense of justice, so too does the Son. And so too is sin incompatible with the Son just as it is incompatible with the
[8:17] Father. Sin is serious to the Son just as it is to the Father. And just as it was the case that Christ did the work, we have to remember that that was at the Father's initiative.
[8:29] He came sent by his Father. He came to accomplish the work that his Father gave him to do. And Paul sums it up brilliantly in 2 Corinthians 519 where it says that in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself. So although we can identify the specific roles of the Father and the Son, I want us to be careful that we make sure we remember the collectiveness in all of this. And notice too that the Spirit is not absent. The confession is careful to emphasize that, that it's through the empowering of the Spirit that Christ completed his work.
[9:05] And as we saw last week, it's the Holy Spirit that applies all the benefits to us and works in it. So in other words, what we can say is satisfaction is required by God, Father, Son and Spirit. Satisfaction is accomplished by God, Father, Son and Spirit. Where do we come in? We benefit. As we've said many times throughout this study, God is the one who accomplishes it. We are the ones who are the beneficiaries and that's why we marvel and marvel at his grace.
[9:48] So that's the who, but we're going to come back to the who in a minute because it applies to some of the other questions as well. So, no problem George, yes comment away.
[10:01] Does this note go back to the beginning of the world when God created the world and the future of the world? Yes, we do.
[10:26] George stood back when he created the world of the seventh day. He saw that the work was very neat.
[10:42] Yes, absolutely. That kind of, that sanitarian deep months through the whole thing. It is, yes, absolutely. That sort of working together. That's a very good point George. The Bible doesn't have a specific verse that says God is Father, Son and Spirit, but in the working, the out-working of everything that God does, it's clear that that's what we do with the, that's right. Absolutely. And it was like, let us make, let us make man and everything. It was that plural sense of it also. Yes, good.
[11:17] Absolutely. Yes, very true. So God as Father, Son and Spirit, like you said, just like in the work of creation, so too in the work of redemption. So why, why is satisfaction necessary? This is where we have to think a little bit more. Now this is related to the question that we just asked.
[11:35] We just answered the question as to who does it. As you said, God requires it. God accomplishes it specifically through his Son. We benefit. But when we ask why, we have to, you know, we come back to the who question because the basic answer to the question, why is satisfaction necessary is to say that satisfaction is necessary because God is who he is.
[12:02] Now this is fundamentally important. The fact that our understanding of the atonement and our understanding of satisfaction, the starting point for that is the fact that God is who he is.
[12:18] All of this comes back to the nature of God. When you talk about why satisfaction is necessary, lots of things can come to your mind because of sin, because of the mercy, because of justice.
[12:30] All these thoughts come to your mind and they're not wrong. But fundamentally, they will always end up terminating at the fact that God is who he is. This is related intrinsically to the nature of God. And we are reminded by this in the Bible, by all the times that it mentions God's name.
[12:53] When you think of God's name, you think of the phrase, I am who I am. Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel, they say to you, the God of your Father has sent me to you. And they ask, what is his name? What did I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent you.
[13:13] And this is foundational to what God does in terms of salvation. He is who he is. And that is why it is on the basis of his nature that we have any hope of salvation.
[13:29] That's why you have all these wonderful verses in the Bible that appeal to God's name. Psalm 23, he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Help us, O God, of our salvation, for the glory of your name.
[13:43] Deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake. The word in Ignatius, testify against us. Act, O Lord, for your name's sake. For our back sidings are many. We have sinned against you. You shall know that I am the Lord when I deal with you for my name's sake.
[14:01] Not according to your evil ways, not according to your club deeds, O house of Israel declares the Lord God. That wonderful phrase. I wish my pen was working, but it's not. For his name's sake. For is that re-is introducing a clause of reasons, like saying because.
[14:19] His name's sake. What is his name? His name is what we just read next. It is I am who I am. So that's basically saying he leads me in paths of righteousness because he is who he is.
[14:32] Deliver us and atone for our sins because you are who you are. The word in Ignatius, testify against us. Act, O Lord, because you are who you are.
[14:44] It's all coming back to the nature of God. Satisfaction is intrinsically related to the fact that God is who he is.
[14:56] So this is our story. Is that all the covenant that you go about God? Well, when it's talking about name, you know, you've got O Lord, that's Yahweh there, the capital, same there. And that will be the references in the others. The God's name in that sense is referring to, I would say Yahweh.
[15:17] So this is our starting point. And that's why I'm throwing it into our heads. God is who he is. Now, God is who he is. He always is who he is. Never changes. Never flinches. Never adjusts. Never anything. He is who he is.
[15:34] Therefore, in order for salvation to take place, God has got to act according to his nature. God is who he is. That means he always has to act according to his nature.
[15:49] He can't do anything that contradicts himself. He can't do anything that would undermine this name that he is who he is.
[16:00] And so God's nature is one of perfection. God is perfect. In fact, in a way, we can almost say that God's, this is bad, the language, the use of language, but you could say that God is beyond perfect in the sense that he is in his own category and his own level of perfection.
[16:19] Because that is exactly what we mean when we say that God is holy. The word holy means set apart. It means different. It means unique. And it tells us that God, as a holy God, is on another level altogether. He is who he is.
[16:37] And this is exactly what we mean when we talk about God being righteous. When you think of the word righteous, think of God's standards. And these standards are standards of utter and total perfection.
[16:49] God has this line of standards that he never breaks, that he never fails to meet. He always conforms to them. So when you say that God is holy, when you say that God is righteous, these are expressions of the fact that he is absolutely perfect.
[17:05] And so in order for God to be satisfied, he needs to conform to that perfection. And anything, any work of salvation that he undertakes will have to fit that, will have to conform to who he is.
[17:20] And this is what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter three. Romans three, especially these verses from verse 20 to 26, there are some of the verses that they're amazing, but they're almost too much to take in. They're so full. And there's so much being said, I sometimes find it hard to grasp it all because it's just, it's like you're just being just overwhelmed with incredible information about what God has done.
[17:51] So what is Paul saying here? Well, he's saying, first of all, that Christ's death is revealing the righteousness of God or the perfectness of God.
[18:02] It says it a few times, the righteousness of God has been manifested. This was to show God's righteousness. It was to show his righteousness. This is all taking us back to the fact that God is perfect. The cross is showing us who God is. It's demonstrating his perfect standard. It is revealing. It's manifesting his righteousness.
[18:31] God is acting in accordance with his perfection. Now, this is really important. I hope I make this clear. When people talk about satisfaction, sometimes people will say that God's justice must be satisfied.
[18:46] Christ died on the cross to satisfy divine justice. That's an absolutely valid statement. Some people say it, he died because of the law. So Christ had to satisfy the requirements of the law.
[19:01] Some people say he died, sometimes people say he died in order to restore God's honor, to satisfy God's honor. Sometimes it's said that he has to satisfy God's principles of moral governance. You've got all these different things being said. Which one is it?
[19:17] Which is it that needs to be satisfied? Is it his justice? Is it his law? Is it his honor? What is it? Well, the answer is all of them. Because when we're talking about satisfaction, we don't really mean that something particular like justice or mercy or anything like that has to be satisfied in and of itself.
[19:39] The key point is that God in himself, in all that he is, must be satisfied. God himself must be satisfied.
[19:51] Hopefully this will become clear when we look at a good quotation from John Stott. It's an excellent chapter on satisfaction in John Stott's book called The Cross of Christ. And he says, to say that God must satisfy himself means that he must be himself and act according to the perfection of his nature or name.
[20:11] That's what we've been trying to say. God is who he is. He's got to conform to that. The necessity of satisfaction for God, therefore, is not found in anything outside of himself, but within himself in his own immutable character.
[20:24] It is an inherent or an intrinsic necessity. What he's saying is the danger of saying that God has to satisfy his mercy or his law is given the impression that almost like God is under his own law, or that God is subject to his own mercy, or God is constrained by these things. And that's the wrong way to think of it. We can't think of God as under his law because the law is under God. It's God's law.
[20:52] And so John Stott is emphasizing a vital truth that the key reason why satisfaction is necessary is that God himself in his being, in his perfection has to be satisfied.
[21:08] God is perfect. Everything he does is perfect. Therefore, the work of salvation must satisfy every aspect of that perfection.
[21:20] So that's true. How does it all work? I hope it'll all come clear as we do this. Again, this is where Romans 3 is so helpful. It sets it out really, really well.
[21:32] So keep Romans 3 in front of you because I'm going to move on to the next slide. We're going to go through this passage and we're going to draw a diagram as we go, which I hope will explain everything reasonably clearly.
[21:47] Romans 3, we've read the moment of course, I don't need to read it again. So the first thing is, we've been saying that God is perfect. That's what Romans 3 is emphasizing that God has revealed his righteousness, his perfection. He is a level of conduct and morality that is absolutely uncompromising.
[22:09] He is who he is. It reminds us that there are things that God is, there are things that God isn't. And we are always perfectly warranted to say that there are things that God cannot do. He cannot lie. He cannot contradict himself. He cannot break his law. He is righteous. He cannot contradict himself. And his righteousness means that he's incompatible with unrighteousness.
[22:32] So that's the first thing Paul's saying. He's saying the righteousness of God has been manifested. God is righteous. But then we can ask the question, okay, how do we know what righteousness is? So if you know that God is righteous, how do we know the details of what that righteousness is?
[22:51] And Paul says, well, first of all, that was initially revealed to us through the law. He is saying that the law explains to us what God's righteousness is.
[23:03] And that makes perfect sense because the law tells us what's right and wrong. The law tells us what God likes and what he doesn't like. He tells us what is acceptable and unacceptable in the sight of God. And so the law tells us what God's righteousness is.
[23:21] And of course that has the dual effect whereby it also tells us, I don't know if that's going to work. I've seen my light flashing. I want my pen to work.
[23:32] The law tells us what God requires, but also that has the equal effect of telling us what sin is. It gives us a definition of sin. I've said it before, sin is everything that God isn't. And we always have to remember that our understanding of sin arises from our understanding of God.
[23:53] If we know what God is, then sin is everything that God isn't. That's why sin provokes a reaction from God. That's why he's incompatible with it. That's why he can only respond to it in terms of wrath and condemnation.
[24:05] Because if he didn't, he would be compromising himself, compromising his righteousness, and he would no longer be who he is. That's why Romans 1.18 says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
[24:24] In other words, it's saying the wrath of God is revealed against everything that is ungodlike. The wrath of God is revealed against ungodness. That's what sin is. That's why sin is so serious.
[24:36] So God is perfect. We see that perfection to some extent through the law. We then have to ask ourselves, how do we compare to that law? Because we have to then compare ourselves to that law.
[24:49] And it's a bit like a bridge between us and God. And of course, the result that we find is that we don't conform to it. We fail to keep God's command.
[25:02] We fall short of His glory, which is what Romans 3.20 says. The first verse from on your sheet. By the works of the law, no human being will be justified since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. It's by sinning that we know that we are sinners.
[25:20] Okay, so it shows us the law. This twofold purpose shows us God's perfection, shows us our imperfection. And the result of that means that as you know, there is this extreme polarity between God and man.
[25:34] The law perfectly reflects God, but we do not perfectly conform to the law, which means there's a breach in the connection between us and God. And the result is alienation and hostility. God cannot compromise on His perfection.
[25:52] And our imperfection cannot repair itself. This separation exists. So how does God respond to this predicament that we are in?
[26:05] Well, on the one hand, God's perfect nature requires Him to be just. God doesn't compromise. He has to be just.
[26:16] So justice is part of God's perfect nature. Justice in terms of the broken law means that there must be wrath. That makes perfect sense. We break God's law. He responds accordingly. That's what the nature of God requires.
[26:35] But on the other hand, God's perfect nature means that He wants to also be a justifier. He wants to be just in terms of what He's doing here, but He wants to be a justifier because He loves us.
[26:50] And He doesn't want us to be condemned. He doesn't want us to be lost. He wants our situation to be restored. And Paul speaks of this in Romans 3 in terms of forbearance.
[27:03] It's in verse 25. This is the show called Strait of the Divine from Forbearance. He had passed over former sins.
[27:16] And what God's nature is to be loving towards His creation. And that means that He wants to restore them from their position. And up until Christ came, there was a forbearance. Rather than an instant permanent condemnation of humanity, there was a divine forbearance, preserving people rather than immediately punishing their sins because His desire was that they would be saved.
[27:44] So what we have here in reality is that tension. Because on the one side, God wants to be just. I have my pen working out about just.
[27:57] And on the other side, He wants to be justifier. And these two are in tension with one another because if this one is satisfied, this one is unsatisfied.
[28:10] And the advice first is this one gets satisfied. This one becomes unsatisfied. And so the whole picture is unsatisfactory. It is not satisfactory to God.
[28:24] And this is why the law here is limited. This is why Romans chapter 8 was speaker for the law cannot do. The law is limited. It is hindered. Paul is emphasizing that law is incapable of saying as Romans 8.3.
[28:41] So we have this tension. We have this problem. God wants to be just. God wants to be justifier. He can't do both with just the law as the intermediary between himself and humanity.
[28:54] How is it going to be solved? Well, as Paul says, we need the righteousness of God to be revealed in a new way. And that's why he says in verse 21, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.
[29:13] God's righteousness, God's perfection has to be revealed in a new way. Not the law, something else. And of course, this was the plan all along. As Paul says, this was what the law and the prophets were bearing witness about.
[29:30] The fact that God planned a new and a better way whereby his righteousness would be revealed. And of course, that is through Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all to believe.
[29:49] And if you look at verse 24 and 25, you see that both sides of this diagram and this tension are fixed. Because it says on verse 24, they are justified by his grace as a gift.
[30:02] So the desire of this side of the diagram is met. And then it says in verse 25, that God could foretaste as a propitiation by his blood.
[30:13] This side of the diagram is met because they were punished with blood sins and turned away the wrath of God. Which is why in Christ, verse 26, beautifully tells us that God is just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[30:31] The tension is removed and everything that God required is accomplished. And the key point is that all of that is possible because of the absolute perfection of Christ.
[30:51] Satisfaction is achieved because of the absolute perfection of the Christ. The perfect God has revealed his perfect salvation through the perfection of his Savior.
[31:07] Because Christ is able to meet every point of tension in this diagram. Again, if I had my pen, I would be writing over it all. But Christ is God Himself, the one who is able to reach that standard that is beyond anything that we can do.
[31:21] Christ can reach that standard. As God himself said, in Mark 11, you are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. Christ can meet with God, where he is.
[31:32] Christ satisfies the problem of the law because as Paul says, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. As Paul says in Galatians, he fulfilled the law.
[31:45] Sorry, Romans, by 19, I'm getting ahead of myself here. One man's disobedience, the many who are made sinners. So by one man's obedience, the many who are made righteous. Christ deals with that.
[31:56] Christ deals with this because he takes on air flesh. As Galatians 4 says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, born here, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive adduction as sons.
[32:12] Christ, as we said, bore the wrath of God, dealt with that side of the diagram. We are united to him, so we are perfectly justified and loved as God's fellow children.
[32:23] We no longer face wrath, we no longer have to rely on forbearance. The wrath has turned away, the forbearance is forgiveness, and the perfect God and the perfect salvation has been perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ.
[32:39] It is all because of Christ. And so we see that every single area of tension between our predicament and God's desire for us is met by the finished and complete work of Jesus Christ.
[33:00] So now, what are the implications of that? Well, just two or three things very, very quickly. As we said, all the various aspects of God's being are justified, and I want to highlight three of them just for you to note.
[33:14] God's justice is satisfied. Now, this is incredibly important because it means that we are now under no liability for punishment.
[33:25] Now, how many of you think that you can be punished for your sin? You think you're saying, if I do something wrong, God will punish me. If I make a mistake, if I slip into sin, God is going to punish me.
[33:40] I can completely understand if you think that, but if you think like that, you are actually not being correct because we cannot be punished for sin.
[33:53] We can only be justised. It's important that we remember the difference. Christ, we cannot say that I've done something wrong. God's going to punish me. God has punished every one of our sins completely and fully on the cross.
[34:11] If we make a mistake, we may well be justised, but we must never and should never say that we are being punished because the justice has already been satisfied.
[34:22] And chastisement is wonderful because chastisement tells you that you are loved. That's the whole reason that God does it. So God's justice is satisfied. We are no longer under any penal liability.
[34:36] That's such a comfort if our sin weighs heavily on us. And at times our sin does weigh heavily on us. Or maybe you might meet people and their sin weighs heavily upon them.
[34:47] This doctrine of satisfaction tells us that everything has been done to remove the liability for our sins. God's justice is satisfied. God's law is also satisfied.
[35:00] That's why Paul says in Romans 8, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, so we were talking about earlier the limitations of the law, by sending his own son in the likeness of sin for flesh and for sin.
[35:19] He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
[35:30] Again, that's just one of the most wonderful passages in the Bible because it tells us that we are free from the condemnation of the law. This is again why it's so important that we don't slip into the tab of legalism.
[35:42] So easy for us to think that if we do this, if we do that, it'll make God happier. If we do this, if we do that, it'll make us more accepted by God. That's not true because it is God's finished work in Christ that makes us accepted.
[35:57] And so we do not in any way engage in legalism, but rather we obey the law out of thankfulness. We obey the law because we love the God who has saved us.
[36:10] There is no condemnation for any one of us in Christ. But most of all, I want to emphasize, you often hear the phrase, God's justice is satisfied. You often hear the phrase, God's law is satisfied.
[36:22] But what I want to emphasize to you more than anything else is that the doctrine of satisfaction tells us that God's love is satisfied.
[36:33] God's love is satisfied. This is why we have to have the two sides to the diagram. It's not just a question of God's justice. It's a question of God's love.
[36:46] God's love needs to be satisfied. God's love needs to be completed. And God's love for you means that he could not pass you by.
[37:02] God's love for you is a perfect love. That means he could not pass you by. He could not let you slip away.
[37:13] This is again why we have to think of God in terms of perfection. It takes us back to where we were. God is who he is. God is perfect. That means that his love is perfect.
[37:27] And this is telling us that without you, God's love is unsatisfied. Without you in his family, without you in his kingdom, without his spirit dwelling in your heart, for God there is something missing.
[37:47] God's love for you is part of the perfection of who he is. God is who he is and he loves you. That's where the Bible can speak of God's love in eternal terms.
[38:01] It talks of an everlasting love. And that's not just a ploy-arty language. That's telling us that everything, that part of what makes God God is the fact that he loves you.
[38:14] God's love is unsatisfied without you. And so it's amazing because it tells us that having you in his family is a source of satisfaction, perfect satisfaction to God.
[38:30] I mean, you think of how unsatisfactory we feel all the time. You think of how far short we feel we fall all the time. That God looks upon you as his people and his love is satisfied.
[38:48] God is who he is and because of what Christ has done, his love is satisfied. But this also reminds us that we should be satisfied as well.
[39:04] If God is satisfied, surely we should be as well. And that's really what faith is. We talk about faith. Faith is basically being satisfied with Christ.
[39:15] And this is a really, really, really important point because it reminds us that we must never have faith in our faith. If you know what I mean. It's very easy to think, I must have a strong faith.
[39:29] My faith must be better. I must have a greater experience. I must have what this person has. I haven't had that experience that somebody else has.
[39:40] I don't have the same testimony as somebody else. My faith isn't what it should be. All of that is nonsense. Because faith is not about our faith.
[39:54] Faith is about Christ. And we are simply satisfied in him. We simply rest on him. His provision is full.
[40:05] His work is complete. His salvation is perfect. And faith is just resting on him. It's not a question of our own faith, of whatever it is that we do.
[40:19] And that's just where our assurance lies. It shows us how complete our salvation is. Again, I keep saying this, but our feelings can so often deceive us.
[40:31] But the theological study of something like satisfaction reminds us of how complete our salvation is. Remember what we said at the very start, salvation means to be full. It means to be complete.
[40:42] That means that in regard to your salvation, it's full. The jar is full. The work is complete. That means that there is no place for any what ifs.
[40:55] How many times are we bippled by what ifs? What if I do this? What if I do that? What if that happens? What if this happens? What if that happens? There's no room for any what ifs in God's salvation because it's a full and a complete salvation.
[41:09] And what's even more wonderful is that there's no room for us to muck it up. Because so often we feel that we are going to do something that will spoil it. That we will do something to undermine their salvation.
[41:20] That we will give God every reason to not like us. The doctrine of satisfaction tells us that that can't happen. Because it's full. It's complete.
[41:31] It's perfect. So we rest on that. We find assurance on that. And above all else, we marvel at the personal work of Jesus Christ. And Paul sums it up perfectly that when we think of satisfaction, all we can say is, Far be it from me to boast except across other Lord Jesus Christ.
[41:53] We have nothing without Him. But with Him, we have the empty hand. Amen.