You may turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, this morning we considered verses 13 and 14. Specifically verse 13, we considered the nature of the curse. Those who are not in Christ are currently under the curse of the law.
It is a universal curse, it is a just curse, and it is a terrifying curse. We then consider the nature of the Redeemer. He became a curse, just like John 1 tells us that he became, or the word became flesh. and dwelt among us, just as we learn in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, that though he was rich, yet he became poor. Christ became something so that we could be freed from the curse of the law.
And in this instance, Paul tells us that he became a curse. Also, he is our substitute. He did this for us, and the primary means by which he freed us from the curse of the law is that he hung on a tree or he was crucified at Calvary. Well, this evening we're going to consider the nature of redemption.
The nature of redemption, several blessings, several observations concerning Christ buying us back or redeeming us from the slave market of sin. I'll just read verses 10 to 14 to remind us of the context in which we are looking. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith.
Yet the law is not of faith, that the man who does them shall live by them. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Amen.
Let us pray. Father, we thank you that we get to reflect now on this doctrine of redemption. We thank you that you have made us partakers of this blessing, not because of our works of the law as we read here, but solely by your grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that he became a curse for us.
Thank you for his life and his death and his resurrection. And thank you for his current session at your right hand. We pray even now we would know the power of your spirit, and that we would receive encouragement as we consider this biblical doctrine concerning redemption. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, certainly there are several things that we could say about redemption in terms of the biblical teaching, but I just want to look at four this evening, and then I want to close with some practical applications of the whole.
Redemption Is Covenantal
First of all, redemption is covenantal in nature. The word covenant means an agreement between two or more persons. As it is used biblically, it is that agreement made by God to save his people by Jesus Christ. Generally, theologians speak of two covenants.
They speak of the covenant of redemption, which is that covenant made between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to save a people from their sins, and then the covenant of grace. which is the historical application of that promise to save sinners. Now why is this important? Because throughout this context, we see our relationship not only to Jesus Christ, but to Abraham. This is why we're Reformed Baptists.
This is why we believe in Reformed theology. because Reformed theology teaches the centrality of covenant thinking. And this is steeped, or the Bible is replete with this theme in terms of God's covenantal dealings. Notice in verse 14, as those who have been redeemed by Christ, we read that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus. Going back to verses 8 and 9 in this chapter, notice in verse, we'll go back to verse 7, Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all the nations shall be blessed. So then, those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. We are part of a comprehensive plan. We're not a plan B.
We're not an afterthought in the mind of God. In fact, notice the scripture here in verse 8. Paul says, "...and the scripture." He is speaking primarily in this place of the book of Genesis. Foreseeing, not thinking, you know, that they might not.
No, it's foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by saying, preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand. If you neglect Genesis, you're neglecting gospel. That's one of the outflowing doctrines or applications of covenant theology. We have a whole Bible which reflects the thinking of a whole God to save a whole people by Jesus Christ the Lord.
We are part of a comprehensive plan. And it's good for us to see that. It is good for us because I think it promotes worship, it promotes praise, it promotes adoration, and it promotes camaraderie with our brothers in the Old Testament. There is a disdain or a disrespect for the Old Testament in much of evangelical and even in reform circles today.
But when we see that we're right there with Abraham, we ought to esteem the documents that record the life and ministry of Abraham. God's blessing upon the Gentiles is a fulfillment of the gospel preached in Genesis 12, Genesis 15, and Genesis 17. Another reason why we ought to include the Old with the New Testament when we engage in evangelism. Because if you look at the New Testament, it's like looking through a keyhole.
It's great, what you see is beautiful and marvelous, but when you open that door, you get a perspective that sort of blows your mind. It blows you away with how expansive and how wondrous it is. And that's what the whole Bible does in terms of promoting the Lord Jesus Christ. The language that is used in this section echoes the promise made to Abraham.
The doctrine is very simple. Those who believe in Jesus Christ, notice that verse 29 of Galatians 3, are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Now this flushes itself out practically in church life, ecclesiology, baptism, various things like that, which we won't develop here, but suffice it to say that this presents to us the plan of God in its comprehensive nature. It is good to focus on one tree when you're in the forest.
It's also good to take a helicopter and fly over the forest to get the panoramic view. It's good to study one New Testament book, but it's also good to get the whole teaching, the whole thrust of scripture, because you will see in it that there is a perfect mind with a perfect plan to save people perfectly through His perfect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And incidentally, if you look at Galatians 3 verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. This is very similar to what the men of Jerusalem were told on the day of Pentecost through the preaching of Peter.
Remember when he says, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. That is certainly the case.
The promise is to you. It is to your children. It is to all those who are far off, all the nations of the earth, that it is modified there, as many as the Lord our God will call. Those whom the Lord calls to himself by the preaching of the gospel, those who believe the truth, are those who are now Abraham's sons, or Abraham's seed, Abraham's sons and daughters, and they are then entitled to all of the blessings of the covenant of God's grace.
It's a wonderful thing. I encourage you to be students, not only of the New Testament, but to be students of the Old Testament. As Augustine said, the new is in the old concealed, and the old is in the new revealed. And we ought to be diligent students of both so that we can see God's plan to save His people from their sins.
Redemption Is Instantaneous
The second observation with reference to redemption is that it is instant. Sanctification is a lifelong thing. We are growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord. We are becoming, hopefully, more holy and more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
The language of John Newton, I'm not what I want to be, but I'm not what I once was. Justification is different. Justification happens the moment you believe. You don't grow in your justification, you don't get more justified.
It's not as if Abraham is really justified, and Paul is really justified, and we're just kind of justified. Though the moment a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he is saved. The moment a sinner lays hold of Christ in faith, that moment his sins are forgiven him.
Justification as Legal Declaration
Justification is a legal declaration. This was a big thing during the Protestant Reformation, and it ought to be a big thing with us. A legal, a forensic affair. God regarding sinners as if they had never sinned.
Not for any good in them, but because of what Jesus Christ has done. The moment you believe, you are saved. The moment you believe, you are justified. Paul preaching in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13 verses 38 and 39.
In Acts 13, he summarizes or he brings his sermon to a close. And he says in Acts 13, after tracing redemptive history essentially through Israel and how it came to the Lord Jesus Christ, he says in Acts 13, 36, for David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." The moment the sinner believes, the moment they're justified. We don't grow in this. We don't get better at this. We don't become more justified.
It is a one-time legal declaration made by God when you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Acts 16.31, Paul and Silas tell that Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Romans chapter 5 verse 1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are justified by faith, we have peace with God.
Romans chapter 10, Paul says how, on the one hand, how simple it is for a man, a woman, a boy or girl to be saved, to know the blessing of the gospel. Romans 10, verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Isn't that glorious? We're not out preaching some good works doctrine that says, okay, if you just try harder, you get better, you do more.
No. The moment you believe, you're saved. Remember the analogy that our Lord Jesus Christ used in John 3. It says, just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Remember what happened in the wilderness? A bunch of serpents bit Israelites, and they were holding their wounds and dying. and they were instructed to make a brazen serpent, lift it up in the wilderness, and all those who would look upon that would live. Just like that. You mean they wouldn't have to go and recover, and go hang out in the Bahamas, and nurture their wounds, and take a good medicine break, and engage in some—no, you look and you live.
That's the analogy that Jesus Christ gives. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. What's the implication? The implication is that when you look in faith, you live.
Not you look in faith and you might live. You look in faith and hopefully you'll live. But you look in faith and you live. I was talking to a buddy of mine recently in Romans chapter 5.
Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He was writing a thesis for Whitfield Seminary. Scott MacArthur, some of you probably know him.
But he said his thesis was on assurance tied to justification. What do we do? We tie our assurance to sanctification. Don't miss this.
I know these are theological terms, but listen, because they affect you. We tie our assurance, our comfort, our hope, our steadiness, we tie up our assurance, more often than not, in our sanctification. So that if we're reading our Bibles, we're going to church, we're doing what we're supposed to do, we have a lot of assurance. Right?
We neglect our Bibles, we don't go to church, not that I'm saying that's okay, I'm not saying that's okay, but then we think we're not saved. This whole thesis was, no, our
Assurance Tied to Justification
assurance is connected to our justification. We have comfort in Christ because of Christ, not because of us. That's the point of Romans 5.1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, justification, not sanctification, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not based on your performance. It's not based on your good works. It's not based on what you do or you don't do. Your peace with God is vitally connected to justification. to Christ's cross work, to Calvary, and to the redemption that He has engaged in on your behalf.
Brethren, please, this is where comfort lies, in the cross, not in your performance. This is where hope dwells, at Calvary, not in your performance. Now some, again, are probably saying, I don't know all this. In a couple years, when you're feeling down and you don't feel like you're a Christian, I'm going to ask you, why don't you feel like a Christian?
And you're going to say, because I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't. And I'm going to say, what did Jesus Christ do? That's what it's about. Jesus is called the author and the finisher of our salvation for a reason, because he really is.
Please read that, we all, yeah, of course he's our author, but he really is. He is the author, that means he initiated it, he started it, and he finishes it. And in the middle, he sustains it. Because as Paul says in Galatians 2.20, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
So you see, author, finisher, doer, all throughout. It's all about Christ. That's why this doctrine is so important. Romans chapter 10 verse 10, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
This is good news for ex-Roman Catholics, for those who are involved in Roman Catholicism. This is good news for people that live by guilt. Gospel forgiveness is given in Christ, not because of what you do. to earn. Joseph Hart, the hymn writer in the Gadsby hymnal, a collection of Baptist brothers that wrote some very excellent hymns.
He writes, The moment a sinner believes and trusts in his crucified God, his pardon at once receives. Redemption in full through his blood. It's at once. It's right now when you believe the gospel.
Redemption Is Complete
A third observation on the nature of redemption is that it's complete. When Paul says in Ephesians 1-3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Paul's telling the truth. Our salvation is complete. Our salvation is secure.
Well, actually, that's the next point. but it's complete. Just as our depravity is total, and the effects of sin are comprehensive, so is the redemption of Christ. What does 2 Corinthians 5.17 tell us about the... 2 Corinthians 5.17? We are new preachers in Christ Jesus.
But it will feel that way. I've got to tell you, I don't always feel that way either, but it's what the Bible says. It's amazing how all of us who say inspired, infallible, inerrant, don't always treat it that way. We are real new creatures.
The whole has been done. It is complete. Watts, in a hymn that we sing during the incarnation season or at the Christmas season, says, No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found.
Where do we learn that in the Bible? Romans chapter 8, the whole creation is in bondage, waiting for liberty. The sons of God will be liberated at the coming of Christ, at his second coming, but the point for us right now and right here is that when we are redeemed, it is complete. He doesn't redeem part of us and leave the rest of it up to ourselves.
If that is your view of redemption, you need to go learn afresh at Calvary. He redeems us completely. In fact, in Hebrews 7 at verse 25, it says, Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost. Isn't that great?
That's how our Jesus saves. He saves to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. It is a whole salvation. It is a complete salvation.
We are new creatures in Christ Jesus. All the old has passed away, and everything is new. So the scripture is, the idea is there, that this is what happened, live in light of it. We try to say, oh I've got to make this happen.
No, it's happened definitively because of what Jesus has done. You need to live in light of it. You need to conduct yourself like that.
Redemption Is Secure
And then the fourth observation is that it's secure. One of the things that has always been a debate in Christianity is whether a man can lose his salvation or not. That's the big dividing line in Calvinism and Arminianism. Of course, Arminians say, you can lose your salvation.
Calvinists teach, no, you can't lose your salvation. You know that that question deals not with the person. It deals with Christ and his ability. Because if we say that a man can lose his genuine salvation, well certainly it reflects on that man, he should have done better, but it ultimately reflects on the Savior.
Eternal security or perseverance of the saints is bound up first and foremost with Christ's work at Calvary. And the Bible knows nothing of a man being genuinely saved and losing his salvation. The Bible recognizes apostates. The Bible recognizes that there were some who went out from us, that they were not of us, for if they were of us, they wouldn't have gone out from us.
The Bible recognizes fake faith. The Bible recognizes what some call temporary faith, but when a man actually believes the gospel, he is saved never to be lost. That is the consistent teaching of the Bible. Jesus, in John 10, said that no one can pluck one of mine out of my father's hand.
It can't happen. You can't even do it. You can't unsave yourself. And then that declaration of Paul the Apostle in Romans chapter 8 at verses 29 and 30.
I'm sorry, verses 8, 29, and 30 for short. Notice in Romans 8, 29 and 30, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. There's no room in there for us to lose our salvation.
It's a golden chain of redemption, as some have called it. He foreknew, he predestined, he calls, he justifies, he glorifies, right? Now this is a bare-bones skeleton we would put between justification and glorification with the rest of the scripture. That's where our sanctification lies.
But even in that, we're not alone, as the Bible tells us. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do, for his good pleasure.
But then drop down to the very last two verses in Romans chapter 8. Paul says in verse 38, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." No way! Spurgeon commenting on a gospel, so-called, that teaches a man can lose his salvation. He says, such a gospel, I abhor.
And we ought to abhor it as well. because it reflects on the Savior, it reflects on Jesus, it reflects on the salvation that he accomplished. In Philippians 1.6, the Apostle says, being confident in this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Top Lady, the hymn writer, said, My name on the palms of his hands eternity will not erase. impressed on his heart it remains, in indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given.
More happy, but not more secure, the glorified spirits in heaven." Don't you love that? More happy, but not more secure. We're just as secure as those happy spirits in heaven right now. We trust and we believe when Christ is ours and we are his, we are as secure as those spirits of just men made perfect.
Well, brethren, again, those are just a few observations on a blessed passage of Holy Scripture.
Application
I want to close with three thoughts. First, the law and the believer. As we have been studying,
The Law and the Believer
the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good, but it was never meant to justify us. That's not why it was given. Abraham, again, is the paradigm, the example. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness.
The very proto-gospel in Genesis 3.15 presupposes the whole economy of God's grace and salvation by a champion. Let us praise the Savior. He sang this morning in number 127, who has hushed the law's loud thunder and has quenched Mount Sinai's flame. When we see the law of God, when we see our curse, when we see our breaking of it, it ought to lead us to appreciate and to adore the Lord Jesus Christ who has hushed the law's loud thunder and quenched Mount Sinai's flame.
And let us make sure we do not fall into the heresy of preaching salvation by law. Now, I doubt any of us are going to go out and say, look, you all need to believe and be circumcised in order to be saved. I don't think that's our temptation. But it may be you need to believe and you need to do this in order to be saved.
We may not even be that bold as to, you know, vocalize that, but we may in our culture, we may in our families, we may in our approach, send a message that contradicts the gospel of free grace. This is why when you look in the beginning portion of Galatians, you see Paul withstand Peter to his face. Do you ever think about that? I mean, Paul did not roll that way.
Peter at one time would eat with the Gentiles, but when certain people from James, that means from the Jerusalem church, would come, Peter would meet with the Gentiles. What's Paul doing? I withstood him to his face. Why?
Because the gospel is at stake here. You're going to make people think that acceptance with God is included and involved with Jewish customs. And that's wrong. Paul in 1 Corinthians said, I will become all things for all men, so that they might be saved.
But never compromising the grace of God. Never ever compromising the grace of God. And we need to be very careful. We as a church have a culture.
Whether we like it or not, every single church has a culture. Every single church dresses a certain way, they think a certain way, they do a certain way. That's fine. It's not wicked.
But we mustn't make that culture a part of salvation. Jesus Christ alone saves. Faith in Christ alone. Not faith in Christ alone plus the 1689 Confession.
Faith in Christ alone plus the New King James Bible. Faith in Christ alone plus whatever. This is a reality in our circles. If we're not careful, we can be guilty of the Galatian heresy.
It may not be circumcision, but it could be any number of things that we either spoken or unspoken attach as a condition for acceptance with God. This is a reality. A second observation.
The Spirit and Cessationism
Notice verse 14, Galatians 3. That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. I read something this week that concerned me. And it basically said that me, Jim Butler, didn't say me by name, called me an old Calvinist. basically said that Old Calvinism is afraid of the Holy Spirit.
Because Old Calvinists don't believe in tongue speaking and in prophesying and in some of the supernatural expressions of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because we don't affirm that those are continuing for today, somehow Old Calvinists are afraid of the Spirit. Brethren, let me just encourage you to fight against that accusation by making much of Jesus Christ, celebrating the Savior by all means, loving the law of God in its lawful uses, to be sure, and making much of God the Spirit. We are Spirit-filled Christians.
We have received the Holy Spirit. He is a person. He indwells us. He is our resident guide and aid.
The Bible is very clear on how we can commune with that spirit. Luke's Gospel, in Luke chapter 11, Jesus says that if you being wicked men love to give good gifts to your children, how much more will our Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to what? To those who ask. In your prayer life, ask God that you would know more of the power of His Spirit in your life.
In Acts 5.31, we read that Jesus gives repentance, and He gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Obey God for more of the influence of the Holy Spirit. And then in Ephesians 5, the apostle says, do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. What does it look like, according to Paul in Ephesians 5, to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Well, it will affect the way you talk. You will speak to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs. It will affect the way you worship. You'll be singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
It'll affect the way that you relate to one another. Ephesians chapter 5. The way that you relate to God. Verse 20.
Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it looks like. And then how we relate to one another. Submitting to one another in the fear of God.
So let not this accusation concerning Old Calvinism, which I don't believe is true to begin with, be hard-pressed to concede that Spurgeon was afraid of the Spirit, or that Paul was afraid of the Spirit, or that Isaiah was afraid of the Spirit, or Moses, or Jesus was afraid of the Spirit. I will not concede that whatsoever. That is out there. If you don't speak in tongues, if you don't believe in the supernatural expressions of the Spirit, then you must not believe in it at all.
Well, that's a false dichotomy. That's wrong. That ain't biblical.
Defining Cessationism
There is a biblical doctrine to be made for what's called, theologically, cessationism. That means, not that the Spirit has ceased, Not that his power is gone, not that his influence isn't felt, but that some of the more supernatural outworkings of the Spirit's power in the first century were due to the fact that the New Testament canon was not complete. Now that the New Testament canon is complete, we don't need to speak in tongues because we have the Word of God. We don't need to have a direct line to God in terms of a prophet because we have the written Word of God.
That's not to deny His presence, it's not to deny His power or His influence. It is not to say we don't pray that God will fill us more and more with the Spirit so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
The Law and the Unbeliever
And then finally, the law and the unbeliever. We need to use the law lawfully because sinners are under the curse of the law. And we need to tell them that. And we need to highlight for them those commandments that they have broken.
We need to point them, as Paul says, to that law that serves as a tutor. Verse 25. After faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. Let me just tell you something.
Sinners don't generally wake up one day and say, I want to find out what the Bible says, I want to read what it says, I want to learn about all my sin, and I just want to hear it. No, they don't do that. We need to shine as lights on a crooked and perverse generation. We need to hold forth the word of truth.
We need to take that word by the grace of God, and we need to be faithful witnesses and show men where they have sinned. Because if a man does not know he's a sinner, if a man does not know that he has violated the Holy God, he will never see his need for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the whole point of our Savior's statement. I did not come to call the righteous, the sinners, to repentance.
He doesn't mean there's a bunch of righteous people over there that don't need His redemption. He's talking about those who are self-sufficient, those who think that they're all right. called sinners. One of the means by which we convince man that they are indeed sinners is God's written rule. So we owe it to sinners to know the Bible, to know the lawful use of the law, to avoid pressing on sinners justification by law, but pressing on them the fact that they are guilty and need a Savior, even Jesus Christ.
Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the the teaching of Galatians, thank you for the teaching of Romans, for all of these epistles that we have touched on this evening, God. We thank you for that redemption that you have given us, and the covenantal context, and the fact that all those who believe on Jesus are sons and daughters of Abraham. How we thank you, Lord God, that we are connected to that father of faith because of his seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you as well, Father, for that that instantaneous, when a sinner believes, they are justified.
And the fact that it is secure, and that moth and rust cannot destroy, that no one can take it from us, and that no one can rip us out of the hand of an almighty God. We pray that you would fill each of us with your spirit, that you would go with each one of us now, that you would help us truly, God, to walk in a manner that is worthy of your gospel. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Scripture References
- Genesis 3:15; 12:1-3; 15:1-6; 17:1-8
- Luke 11:13
- John 1:14; 3:14-15; 10:28-29
- Acts 5:31; 13:36; 13:38-39; 16:31
- Romans 5:1; 8:22; 8:29-30; 8:38-39; 10:9; 10:10
- 1 Corinthians 9:22
- 2 Corinthians 5:17; 8:9
- Galatians 2:20; 3:7; 3:8-9; 3:10-14; 3:14; 3:25; 3:29
- Ephesians 1:3; 5:18; 5:19-21
- Philippians 1:6
- Hebrews 7:25