Jesus Christ - High king of heaven: theological and pastoral perspectives on the person and work of Jesus

2018 by JOHN F. MACARTHUR

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations in the Preface and chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 21, and 23 are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations in chapters 1, 2, 3, 10, 12, 18, 19, 20, and 22 are taken from the English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations in chapter 17 are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. HCSB is a federally registered trademark of Holman Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-0-8024-1809-8

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S everal years ago, I was asked to write a book on my favorite passage of Scripture. But picking a favorite text is difficult since whichever verse Im preaching on is my favorite. When pressed further to the wall to offer a short book on one verse, I chose the verse that most clearly defines sanctification. Election and justification are past. Glorification is future. Between our justification and glorification is the lifelong work of God in us, separating us from sin and increasing our Christlikeness. This is sanctification and it is the present work of God in every believer until we reach glory. The verse that best reveals this work of the Holy Spirit is 2 Corinthians 3:18: We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Spirit the Lord.

We are not under the shadowy, veiled, fading character of the Mosaic covenant. We live under the new covenant, inaugurated by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The light has shone, and our veils removed. The mystery of the old covenant is now revealed in Christ. As we gaze into the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ from Matthew to Revelation, we have a clear vision of the glory of God reflected in His face. Scripture says we are being transformed continuously and incrementally into that glory by the Holy Spirit. That is the heart and soul of what it means to being sanctified. As you look into the majesty of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the fullness of Christ fills your mind and captivates your soul, and the Spirit of God uses the reality of that understanding to shape you into His image. The more you know Christ, the more you reflect Him. So, knowing Christ is critical to our existence as Christians.

Everything about Him is beyond human explanation. Everything about Him is startling and astonishing and shocking and amazing. Everything about Him fills me with wonder. He is the most magnificent, the most beautiful, the noblest, and the most wonderful person that one could ever know about, let alone know personally. I am forever riveted by every detail about Jesus Christ. That becomes the purpose of all Bible study, the goal of all preaching, and the power of all Christian living.

As I look back at my life and all the years of study and tens of thousands of hours of going through Scripture, I have found that whether Im writing books or preparing sermons, writing notes for a study Bible or a theology, all of my efforts to understand Gods Word do not end with that understanding. My goal has never been to know the facts of the Bible. Thats not the end; thats only the means to an end. I want to know Christ. Paul said, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Phil. 3:8). It is the joy of my life to count everything as loss for the sake of knowing Christ in Scripture. The more I study the Bible, the more glorious Christ is to me. The more I understand Jesus Christ, the fuller my love, obedience, worship, and service are to Him.

The objective of Scripture is to reveal God and the Lord Jesus Christ so that you may be swept away. Such power has the revelation of our Lord that the believer should experience what the hymnwriter called being lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Sanctification is not about knowing the Bible. Rather, its about knowing Christ. Lack of understanding about Christ cripples worship, and no amount of music and no amount of mood-inducing theatrics can produce true worship because it rises only out of an overwhelming attraction to Christ.

There is no way that I could ever have pursued the knowledge of Christ the way I have in the ministry were I not committed to biblical exposition. The joy of digging deeply into every text is not for the sake of sermons, but to pursue the knowledge of God through the glorious revelation of Christ. It is really not preaching sermons that attracts me to the ministry. Its about the pursuit of the knowledge and fullness of Christ.