Thank you for joining me for today's episode of God, Law and Liberty. And as always, I'm your host, David Fowler. Now, before I get into today's episode, let me again remind you that I'll be quoting a number of Scripture verses. And I may or may not include the actual references to those verses. So if you would like to have a transcript of today's podcast that would include all those references, you can find it at SenatorFowler94.substac.com, SenatorFowler94.substac.com. And if you enter your email address, you can subscribe for free. And each Friday morning, you'll get a copy of the podcast and the transcript. Well, with that being said, today we come to a new application of what we've essentially been examining since last May. The first part of Romans 714. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. At that time, I said two things that I hope now make better sense, namely that a Christian view of law is metaphysical and covenantal. And I want to sum that up quickly today for those that haven't been with us over this period of time or may not remember those episodes. But then I want to add something that I think is very important to it. It was respect with respect to metaphysics that Jason Farley joined us a couple of weeks ago. His contribution helped us understand that there are two real objective dominions that are at enmity and war against each other. That of sin and of grace. And this helped us see that there are two kinds of people in this world, the unregenerate and the regenerate. With respect to the unregenerate, that remains only the image of God in the broad sense of persons that we looked at last week. Those with a soul, but it now consists of a disordered heart, darkened mind, and misdirected will. The unregenerate, though, freely exercised their will, but according to their fallen nature. Indeed, for them, the law of God becomes the strength of sin that is in them, making them subject to sin's dominion. That is, slaves to sin, 1 Corinthians 1556 in Romans 6.6 respectively. Now, they exist in one of two conditions. First, they may be free from righteousness and as a result have pleasure in unrighteousness. Romans 6.20 and 2 Thessalonians 2.12. Second, they may be miserable, as Paul was. Romans 7.9 through 10. But they don't yet know that the root of their misery, sin, is in them. For them, that law which was ordained to life, Romans 7.10, effectively becomes the law of sin and death. Romans 8.2 Now, with respect to the regenerate, the image of God as an atom that quickened his natural soul into a truly living one, has been created anew. This regeneration, or as John Owen said, the sanctification as the recreation of the image of God in the narrow sense, talked about last week, answers the need of the unregenerate that I expressed last May. Quote, what we need was expressed well by Ray Sutton in his book, That You May Prosper. Quote, what man needs is a restoration inside the covenant. And I continued, that restoration can only come from God's side by God. We can't restore what we broke because we are broken. We are under a cosmological curse. Now, by the will of the Father and by the person of Jesus Christ, through the new creating work of the Holy Spirit and fallen, sons and daughters of Adam, the promise of Jeremiah in chapter 31, verses 31 through 33 is realized. Quote, behold, the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This covenant shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people. Well, what is the personal content of this new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah? Well, I believe a summation of what Jeremiah said the Lord would do in connection with the law on the heart is found in 1 Timothy 1, 5-7. Quote, now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, that's IDLE, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. Now, I read these three attributes, love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith, as the predicate for what God commands or more literally, the charge that we have as the regenerate. Moreover, I see them as the restoration of Adam's nature as it was before his transgression and the predicates for what it means to quote, But God's work in the heart and conscience by faith must be worked out and it's that to which I want to turn and add to what we've previously considered. I believe Philippians 212 provides needed insight into what Paul meant by fulfilling the purpose of the commandment. Quote, wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, this cannot mean that we work out our salvation in an absolute sense, as pelagians of old thought and as the semi-pelagians of our day seem to think and we'll look more at that next week. But salvation in an absolute sense is the work of the Holy Spirit alone, the Spirit of Christ. Only He can recreate in us the image of God because Jesus is the image of God and the Son of God, the image of God. And it is from the recreation of the principle of habitual righteousness originally in the first man that each regenerate person begins to work out his or her own salvation from the new life-giving spirit of the second man, C. 1 Corinthians 15-45. In other words, recreating the image of God in persons is a work common to all the regenerate, but each regenerate person's own salvation is for a purpose in relation to the body of Christ as a whole. C. Ephesians 4-7 and verses 15-16. John Owen, citing Ephesians 4-7 writes, quote, unto his own estate and condition, his duty and his work, it's from the Holy Spirit, page 738. So for example, I believe there is a salvation that needs to be worked out for those who want to work toward the development of laws governing society and their advocacy. For that, I believe a certain distinct study of graces needs to be worked out. I began my work in politics 30 years ago without having sufficiently done so. Now, the apparent looseness of what Paul told Timothy might send shivers down the spine of some theonomist and some of those who consider themselves abortion abolitionists. It does read rather antinomian, which I understand to be a rejection of law itself for the Christian and Christian living. Antinomianism, as expressed by James Talleyoreko, has been and always will be a heresy. I fully appreciate with them that the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification and the development and maturation of Christ's body appears to us to have often been undermined by antinomianism. But we're also assured that heresies in the course of working out our salvation have a purpose, quote, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. First Corinthians 1119. A response by some theonomist and abortion abolitionists that what I've said is antinomian, or will lead to antinomianism, is one I once held to. I did so though because I didn't have a metaphysic, a cosmology, or an understanding of the law of God and the image of God sufficient for the days of philosophical nihilism in which we live. It is that deficiency that needed to be worked out before I began working in the sphere of law and public policy. And I'm going to begin looking at this concerned over antinomianism next week and I hope you'll join me.