NT Framework - Evil Not Required

Humanity is not inexplicably bound up with evil in order to produce choice and service of God.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Now let's transition a little bit to some application
.
Look at the cross from twopoints of view.
Okay, we can look at the crossfrom two points of view.
We can look from the unbelieverOut in the world.
We can look from a believer'sside.
What do they see when they lookat it From an unbeliever's
point of view?
He looks at the cross and Jesusis being confronted with it
like going to the cross.

(00:31):
Does he want to go to the cross?
And the question is, as youread the Gospels, if you're
looking at it from their pointof view, what choice is Jesus
going to make relative to thecross?
Well, from an unbelievingstandpoint, you know.
You just don don't know,because you can't know what
people are going to do In theirmindset about the plan or
history, in the unbelievingmindset of history, the basic

(00:55):
idea of history for anunbeliever is that anything can
happen, the future is open andwe are writing the future.
This is their way of thinking.
No destinies are set, there'sno plan, it's just anything can
happen.
Okay, so from their point ofview, I don't know what Jesus is

(01:17):
going to do.
Okay, the future is open tohuman choices and anything can
happen.
Okay, history is just a roll ofthe dice.
Okay, everything's chance.
There's no certainty?
Okay, that's one way of lookingat the situation in the Gospels
.
It's the way of looking at itfrom an unbeliever's point of
view.
But what if we look at it fromthe believer's point of view,
from our point of view?
What's going to happen?

(01:37):
I mean, what choice is Jesusgoing to make?
Well, we, well, we know whatchoice he's going to make, don't
we?
Is that because we're sobrilliant?
No, it's because god has a planand he's revealed the plan to
us in the bible.
So, okay, good.
So the future is planned by godin our point of, in our
thinking.
And the cross, of course, ispart of the plan, right, it's

(02:01):
always been a part of the plan.
The book of Revelation says hewas slain before the foundation
of the world.
Meaning what Meaning?
It's part of the plan, right?
So history is what?
History is not open, it's notroll of the dice, not, anything
can happen.
History is the unfolding of theplan of God.
So we'd say, well, from ourpoint of view, it's certain,

(02:26):
there's certainty of the futureand certainty, of course, of the
cross.
Christ would always do what theFather wanted him to do.
So that's very interesting thatnow we're going to move into
talking about this a little bitmore.
Let's apply a few, make a fewpoints of application.
How does this impeccability,this idea that Christ in his

(02:48):
divine nature was not able tosin, in his human nature is able
not to sin, so there's apossibility introduced there and
being tempted there, but as aperson he's not able to sin.
What applications does thishave to our thinking and living?
First of all, thinking it helpsresolve the problem of evil.
Or, first of all, thinking ithelps resolve the problem of
evil, or part of the problem ofevil, it doesn't solve it.

(03:09):
I just say it helps resolve it.
Okay, what's the problem of evil?
Well, part of the problem ofevil is this If God knew that
man would sin, right, why didn'the stop it?
We've all probably wonderedthat.
Why is the book of Genesis, youknow, laid out the way it is?

(03:32):
You know, he creates these twopeople in his image and then he
puts this trilogy of knowledge,of good and evil and it's kind
of like, why did you put thatthere, you know?
And so we might wrestle withthat about why God did it, who
we were going to eat, why did heput it there, so forth.
So part of the problem is well,how is God good if he's doing

(03:57):
that, you know?
And now that evil exists, howis he all powerful?
If he's all powerful, whydoesn't he remove evil?
Why doesn't he get rid of it?
Now some people think that theanswer to this question that's
what the A stands for answer Ifhe's all-powerful, why doesn't
he remove evil?
Why doesn't he get rid of it?
Now, some people think that theanswer to this question that's
what the A stands for answer isthis that God had to permit evil
in order to preserve genuinehuman choice.
If he hadn't permitted evil,there couldn't be real human

(04:19):
choice.
In other words, he permittedevil so there could be genuine
humanity.
That's one of the answers.
I'm not saying I agree with thatanswer by any means.
In fact, I disagree with itBecause I think Jesus Christ is
the rebuttal to that.
That's what the R stands forrebuttal.
Jesus was a genuine human right, he had genuine human choice

(04:41):
and guess what?
He didn't do evil.
So then it's not necessary tohave evil in the world in order
to preserve genuine human choice, because Jesus Christ is the
rebuttal of that argument.
Did Jesus need to sin in orderto prove that he's not a robot,
in other words, another way ofthinking about it.

(05:02):
Some people think well, I mean,god could have created us like
robots and that would have keptevil from coming in the world.
But was Jesus Christ a robot?
No, he had choice.
He had choice and he's genuinehumanity, so there can be human
choice without evil.

(05:23):
By the way, every one of us isgoing to get a resurrection body
.
Right, you're going to get aresurrection body.
You're a believer in the LordJesus Christ.
One day, you're going to get aresurrection body.
Right, you're going to get aresurrection body.
You're a believer in the LordJesus Christ.
One day, you're going to get aresurrection body.
Will you have genuine freechoice, or human choice, in the
resurrection?
I know it's scary, isn't it?
It's an interesting question tothink through.

(05:43):
Well, yeah, because it's a partof genuine humanity that we
have choices.
Well, yeah, because it's a partof genuine humanity that we
have choices, but there won't beany possibility of evil in that
world, will there?
So, again, this is anotherrefutation of the idea that you
have to have evil in order tohave genuine human choice.

(06:03):
That's simply not the case.
Based on the hypostatic unionof Christ based on the
projection of us in ourresurrection bodies.
We'll have real human choice inthe new heavens and new earth
and the resurrection, and yetyou'll never choose to sin.
That is implying somethingabout his impeccability and how

(06:27):
it ties into us.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in

(06:54):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.