Ep 999 | Jase Challenges Zach to a Boxing Match & Why Being Self-Righteous Isn’t Righteous
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Because Americans lose when politicians choose. Learn more at GuardYourCard.com. I am unashamed. What about you? Looking for some boxing gloves. Welcome back to Unashamed. We've already begun. We were sparring just before we came on air, which is the way Jace likes it, because he's already said he likes to argue. Well, when I heard the maybe you shouldn't call our audience simple-minded...

That's what Maddie said. That's a good thing.

I'm in that camp. I defended you. I said, Matty, he always says, like me. So he's not saying anybody's unlike him. And then I made the comment that Jace loves Acts 4, but he forgot about Acts 17. He said, you know where I got that from was a little place called Acts. And you said, well, Acts 4, but you forgot about Acts 17.

I said this before. It's not either or. It's both and. We got some intellectuals. I view Paul's dissertation in Acts 17 as pretty simple. He basically answered how we got here, what we're doing here, and what's next.

on the earth in the bullet down version you're correct but in the thank you way he gave it was pretty uh pretty philosophical but we don't really know the full conversation you know that he was i mean it probably was an interesting moment when he's up there on mars hill with the brightest minds in the world at the time and then the apostle paul walks in and just i mean really does levy one of the greatest

defenses of the Christian faith ever written. And it's clever because he observes all of their objects of worship and sees the one that says to an unknown God. And that's so clever the way he says, I'm going to tell you about that one, the way you don't know. It was pretty smooth how he did it. You know what he did when he saw it in my mind? What's that? He went, hmm.

That's what I would have done. Unknown. Let me explain this to you. Had you guys, when you've been thinking about a lesson or some way you want to approach something or a conversation, it's just like that. You see something that's just, and you go, hmm. And then all of a sudden, we're off and running because the idea sparks. That's the way it usually works when you share. I did that 92 times last night.

92 times I went, hmm. What were you doing last night? What I did was I was reading where we're at in Colossians 2, and I thought all of a sudden he starts getting into the arguments that this group of people was inviting into their minds, which was basically something more than Jesus.

I mean, you just think we've been talking about Colossians for what, weeks now? Yep. I mean, I don't know if I've ever noticed another letter with a focus of Jesus is it. I mean, we use the word supreme. Yeah. He's the head of the body. I mean, just all these kind of things have really...

I mean, they've moved me how he's just saying the same thing. He's our wisdom. He's our knowledge. He's like a treasure box. It's like the Jesus treasure box. And then all of a sudden, because you know they're hearing these, what is verse 8 maybe say in your translation, but the deceptive philosophies based on human traditions and based on the principles of the world. So after he kind of goes through this,

your participation with him in baptism there in 11, 12, and this, you've been given fullness. You died with him. I mean, it's just like you're in him. He then kind of takes on some of the little details about these philosophies. So, so what I did was,

I thought, you know, how do you wrap this up? Because I really don't like the idea of getting into all the philosophies as far as like, I mean, today, I don't think in modern America, being tempted to go into Judaism is not a big problem. Would you agree? Yeah, you're probably not seeing a lot of people. Zach's hesitating. Zach's hesitating on how to answer that. Now, I will say this before you comment. I do think...

that finding some system where it's involving your own righteousness or your own intelligence is a problem. But in their context, it was, I mean, we were fresh off of this, Jesus being the fulfillment of the Jewish system. And they were having a hard time recognizing that, especially that he became a man. He humbled himself.

But we, by our nature, we want to figure it out. We want to be in something. There's some knowledge out there that we miss that's by our own involvement somehow or another. We're going to figure this out. So to get back to my 92 times, I went to the first time righteousness is mentioned in the New Testament, which it was at Jesus' baptism when he said. Yeah, the first red letters in Matthew.

He's baptized. Yep. And he receives God's spirit. And then it says this was to fulfill all righteousness. Well, I looked up the Greek word for that and it's mentioned 92 times. And I read every verse in the New Testament after that. And after every time I read it, I went, hmm.

So somehow during the conversation that we're fixing to have,

I will try to bring out the spirit of what I discovered and what that means. And your first time was Matthew three. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think that when you read the context of Colossians two, and there's this temptation to go into these, yeah, like into a system. Um, it's, I would also argue that they're misinterpreting what the, what it initially was in the beginning, uh, which we'll get into that in a second. But I was, when you were talking about the systems that we developed to try to

I forgot how you said it. I was thinking of this T.S. Eliot quote who said they constantly try to escape

from the darkness outside and within by dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. But the man that is will shadow the man that pretends to be. And T.S. Eliot wrote that in The Rock. And it really is kind of what's happening here in this passage in Colossians 2 is that they're trying to find this system

that's going to make them whole and they don't realize that there is no system that's going to make you whole only the person of jesus can make you whole and even the thing that they thought was a system which was the law the old testament judaism of the past that all that was was that was a signpost that was leading to a destination that's found in christ the substance however is found in christ i think that to your point earlier when you said when you're reading through this how

This passage is so overwhelmingly Christ-centric. It reminds me of when we were kids or if you ever try to teach a Sunday school class.

And you got a bunch of five-year-old, six-year-old kids in there. And no matter what question you ask, it's like someone's going to answer Jesus. It's like always kind of the right answer, but you're like, yes, but. Oh, it's always the right answer. It's always, but it goes back to that. I mean, we laugh at that when we're making fun of the kids. Like, yes, that is the answer. But I mean, outside of Jesus, and you try to, because you're trying to get them in a dialogue, but Colossians 2 says,

seems to be returning to this fundamental idea that the answer is always Jesus. No, you're right. Zach, I taught junior high for 12 years, 12 years Bible class. And I would ask questions, you know, how'd you get on the earth? Crickets. I'm like, somebody give me an answer. So I would, you know, eventually somebody at some point would just say Jesus. Cause I was just ridiculing them for not having the boldness to answer simple questions.

And I'm like, that's always right. You will always receive a little hand clap. And so as it took 10 or 12 years for them to finally say, when in doubt, just say Jesus and we'll unite.

And I'm so glad you said what you said, because we are in, I thought we were going to do some boxing today, but nope. We agree 100% on this. It's early, Jace. It's early. We may do a little boxing, but let's. Well, let me do a little bit of a reset just for the audience to get us back here into this text, because I'll give you a little bit of overview. We started out with Paul's introduction in prayer, which is 1, 1 through 14.

And then we talked about this song, uh, to the Colossians. And basically Jason's outline was Christ creates, recreates rescues and redeems. That was 15 through 23. I didn't even know I did that out. You did that. I was taking notes. What was it again? Let me write that down. He creates, recreates rescues and redeems. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Which is right there in that text, which is, and that was just such an intense, beautiful song slash, you know, uh,

homage to Jesus. Then there was his ministry, which I called a labor of love. And that was one 24 through two six. And that's kind of where he is talking about how his relationship is with them. And you're right. It doesn't take long before he goes back to Jesus. And now we're kind of into what I call his message, which is kind of the heart of, of what he is talking to them about. And that's going to be two six all the way through four. And this first part we talk about, talked about Jesus is Lord.

In six through 12, actually six through 15 that we looked at here in this text, and it really just showed the power. I did want to mention one thing that I don't think I mentioned before, but I was noticing this when I was going back through it last night. The word for in verse 15, he said, having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them.

by the cross. And I had, I had missed that word triumphing. And so I looked it up. It's only used one other time. And we did reference this text. I don't know if it was with that word. No, I brought that up. I know where it is. Yeah. He leads us in triumphal procession. Yeah. We did a podcast about that. Okay, good. I couldn't remember if we did or didn't, but I just thought that was so good. And when I looked up, Jase, that idea that's to the Corinthians, he was giving them this picture of,

of the Roman triumph, you know, where you had everybody in this long parade and you had, and at the end of it, you had the general and the army, but in mixed in with that, you had the priest. It had the incense that were putting out the smell.

As this whole big triumphal process was coming, which was the picture that was presented in the Corinthians, you know, we are the aroma of life, but we're death to others. And so it was, it was a great, the Romans were trying to show that, Hey, to the Roman empire, this is it. You're with the right group. We're triumphing, we're winning, but everybody else in the world,

It was a fearful expectation of who they were. And so I thought it was a beautiful picture of the idea that when we see Christ for who he is, man, we see triumph. And really, to me, when we get into these next few verses, it's kind of like people having to learn how to live forgiven.

And I think it's a big issue for people to really accept that and to live it. And I've always said forgiveness is such a heart of this. That's why he goes into it here about everything being taken away at the cross and the law. You guys were talking about legalism. Mysticism comes into this and some other things. But the idea is to live forgiven means I have to trust that I really am forgiven.

And so many people struggle with that because it's always about I'm not doing enough or I've done too much that I can't be released from and all these different ideas. So that kind of catches us up to get us back to 16, which is kind of where we've been waiting to dive into.

Hi friends, it's Liz, host of the Liz Wheeler Show here on The Blaze. Our motto is challenge everything. And we're effective. When Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer mocked Christians, we got her to apologize. When we held Speaker Johnson's feet to the fire on transgender bathrooms, he changed his tune. We're making a difference. Plus, we also give you a peek behind the curtains at the juicy political gossip and how it actually impacts policy. I invite you to subscribe and be a change agent with us.

That's Liz Wheeler Show everywhere you find your podcast. If I can simplify that a little bit, I went down the same trail that you just went down. But the second Corinthians 2 passage, you know, it has this interesting passage.

in verse 15, it says, after he says he leads us in triumphal procession in Christ. Right. Which Colossians 2 is talking about specifically how you get in Christ. Correct. Well, 15 says, for we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved. So I kind of looked at that Colossians 2 statement

And the danger of just going verse by verse is sometimes you miss the overall theme of what he's saying. So what I would like to do is there's a couple of, before you get into these arguments of trying to find some other system or some other knowledge or mysteries in the world outside of Jesus, and he's going to get into that in chapter 2, 16, 17.

all the way to the beginning of chapter 3. But he makes a couple references that goes in with what happened when we've been given fullness in Christ, when we had this old self cut off. And so I wanted to just read a couple of these. So in verse 19, when he said, when you allow other systems or other lines of thinking to

that is based on somebody else's right way of doing something rather than Jesus. He makes this reference in 19. It says he has lost connection with the head. Well, that was a statement that he had already addressed about the supremacy of Christ in verse 18 of chapter one. Remember he is the head of the body, the church.

So even going back to that verse, we are the aroma of Christ. I just thought, what does your head do? And I wrote down this list. You just think about it. It thinks. I mean, that's where your brain is. It's the brain center. So obviously decisions are being made. You have desires. It speaks. It hears or listens. It sees. It's looking.

It eats, it drinks. Well, when you start kind of breaking this down, if Jesus is our head, I mean, he's pretty much the nourishment center, the guide center for the body. I mean, that's pretty well the entire function of the body is dependent on the head. That's why I think if you look at it like that, and when he gets to

verse 20 of chapter two, it says, since you died with Christ. Well, he's going back to what happened when you offered yourselves to him through this act in baptism, you're offering yourself and it says, Christ cut away your old self. But now he's referring it

to as you died with him. So I kind of had a thought that I wrote down, which basically means whatever's true of Christ, it's now true of you. Well, that's a big statement when you kind of think about what that looks like practically. I mean, you are literally in Christ.

So you think, well, what's he doing now? He's at the right hand of God, exalted. Well, what's he doing there? Well, he's representing the body, which is us. I mean, how intimate is this? Well, we have the spirit of Christ in us. So what are we doing?

We're representing his righteousness, which is why I'm going to go back to these righteousness references. And if I could just read one more. So one of those 92 references to righteousness was in 1 Corinthians 1. And you remember the context? Some of these people were putting their faith in the people who were baptizing them.

And so he brings up this argument in 1 Corinthians 1, because they had said some were baptized by somebody and then somebody else. But he says in verse 17, for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom. You remember that. Lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Because if you were putting your faith in some other human besides Jesus, you would obviously...

would be in danger of losing connection to the head. So watch what he says, though, when he gets down to verse, let's read 28 of chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are.

So that no one may boast before him because that's the underlying message of what he's saying. If you're finding some other philosophy or some kind of thinking or some kind of system, then now you're boasting instead of boasting in truth.

the head, which is Christ. So verse 30 says, it is because of him that you are, and here's that phrase again, in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom for God. And watch what that means. That is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast on the Lord.

Do you see my point? Yeah. My point is you have everything right is wrapped up in Jesus. And once your old self is cut off, you die, you become the righteousness of God, which sounds familiar. You remember second Corinthians five, when he's like be reconciled to God for God made him that had no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.

So it's basically like, just think of when Peter preached the first sermon. What did he do? He introduced Jesus as the Son of God to the Jews that were standing there. And they're like, he's the Messiah. He's Lord. He's Christ. He died. He was buried. He was resurrected. He's poured out his spirit, what you see in here. They said, what do we do? He said, repent, be baptized, every one of you.

In the name of Jesus, for the forgiveness of sins, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So now you get the spirit of him. So 3,000 of them respond. Well, what happened in that moment? 3,000 people died. Their old self became part of the new creation. And now we have 3,000 Jesuses. We had one 3,000. Well, you go back from that time till now.

God's plan has produced literally millions of functioning Jesuses through that transformation process. Well, think about it, Jase. I like where you're going with that. And to continue your analogy, what good is a head? And I'm talking about in a physical sense, a human sense. What good is a head without a body?

In other words, if you just only had the head, you wouldn't have a functional use for what you're created for. So there's a cartoon that is out there. It's like an adult cartoon, and it has all these people with heads in a jar. It's supposed to be the year 3000, and they cut their heads off, and they were able to bring them back, but they're just sitting in jars, and they're talking, and it's people you know. It's Richard Nixon. It's just for jokes and for the crowd.

But I thought, what good is a head, even if it can talk, if it can think, if it can make decisions, but without a body to carry out what you're designed to do? Because only with arms can you wrap your arms around somebody and give them a hug. Only with feet can you go someplace and minister to other people. And so I love the idea that that becomes the connection of the

of the body to the head. And that's us. Just think how hard it is to get a group of people together, which all these verses about we're all members of one body. We don't have the same exact function. And remember the first Corinthians 12. He's like, if we were all in here, what would that be? Well, that wouldn't work. But if even just thinking of football setting, if the team, you know, we all have different jobs. I mean, Missy's famous line, every time a kicker gets up, it's like, do your best.

job, you know, cause there's one head, you know, we're a team, but if you have people on the team, that's playing for the other team, if their head was some other team,

Well, we got a problem. You know, they had rather the other team win. And so when you put that back to practicality with Jesus, that's why I'm just always miffed when I'll say statements like, let's unite on Jesus and go from there. Because I'm getting it from ideas like that. He is the head center. There's our wisdom. In his case, in the case of Jesus being the head though, he is actually self-sufficient. So

Our participation in the body with him as head, he doesn't need us in order to be sufficient in himself, but we are created as an overflow of his love. And when you lose connection with his triune nature is the thing. And I think the application in Colossians 2, I think it's very practical of why. He kind of lays out this case of why being disconnected from the head will not work. Because his argument in Colossians 2, 16 through 19 is essentially that

That when you focus on the shadow of the things to come, this is the language here, you don't realize the substance actually belongs to Christ. Let's read the text here in Colossians 2, 16 through 19, and I'll make, I think, what's a pretty powerful point here. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath.

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and the worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up,

without reason by his sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. And so you read that, you think there's like, I love this, this one phrase in here, this one word, asceticism. How do you say that? Asceticism. And I think about what does that word mean? I went and looked it up. Um,

And there's several different ways to define what that means. But one is, it's that they would apply all of these strict rules to their lives, denying themselves of certain foods or certain pleasures. And it had the appearance of godliness. It had the appearance of worship, but it was only on the surface. And the argument, and oh, by the way, he couples that with this idea of the worship of angels. And I think what the NIV says is,

Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen. So you'll hear all these stories about these encounters. I kind of interpret this with some of the hyper charismatic movement. And you'll hear like these incredible stories of of these experiences. But his argument here is, is that that kind of focus, if that if you put all your emphasis on the shadow of the things instead of the substance, which belongs to Christ, you're going to lack any real restraint whatsoever.

in the sensual indulgence of the flesh. You're not going to be able to withhold and withstand and actually say no. And so this word asceticism, another definition of it that I found, which I thought was great, was art for art's sake. At some point in culture, art became art for art's sake. And I think that's what's going on here when you

When you lose connection with the head, then we're going to be righteous for the sake of righteousness. We're going to be holy for the sake of holiness. But this is all pointing us to a person. It's all pointing us to Christ. And the reason why it ends in a sensual lack of restraint and the sensual indulgences, the reason why it ends in that when you try to will these things away and only do these things

by what their appearance is. The writer says here, Paul says it's actually an act of self-imposed worship. That's what it actually is. It's saying, look at me. I've been able to conjure this up for myself, and I've been able to accomplish righteousness in my own ability, as opposed to know my righteousness. Being right with God is not something that I'm able to conjure up on the surface. He's not interested in

in this piety that is only an outward obedience. What he's looking for is a real obedience and obedience to the heart that actually is the transformation of the heart. And that's how you begin to smell like Jesus. That's where that aroma of Christ comes from. The verse that that Jace mentioned, it also says in there, we don't peddle God's word. What draws people in is that we are brothers of sincerity.

But sincerity can only happen. And that's what Christ smells like. He smells real. That's the whole point here. This is reality. This is where the substance is at. This is how we're brothers of sincerity. This is how we take on the aroma of Christ. It's not through outward pious obedience that's only meant to project to the world and signal that we have virtue. Christ says, I'm not interested in that. I want in your heart. I want to live inside you, and I want to transform you through

So that you will become a particular type of person. And you say, what kind of person is that? He says, like me, I want you to become like me. Well, I love your description too, Zach, of the sort of the selfish end where this mindset takes you because it does become all about you. And I think one of the reasons why Paul was warning the Colossians so much about this idea of asceticism is that what you saw, we now have the luxury of looking back over 2000 years of history and

And when you look back, particularly in the Middle Ages and even some up to recent history, you see people trying to build these enclaves and these monasteries where it was just going there to practice this asceticism. So in other words, the connection was it was solely on me.

And in these places, there was a lot of self-torture on the body and all these different things. It was exactly what he's mentioning here that you don't want to be tied up in because the body has a function on earth. And that function is to be, you know, not just vertical, but horizontal. It's supposed to impact people. We were on the trip somewhere in Europe and we went up to this place that was a monastery. And I thought, oh, here we go. And it was beautiful. It was old. It had been there a long time. But I was impressed.

because the people that were there were all doing ministry all across this valley that was below them. And I thought, well, at least they get the idea right that we just don't live up here in the monastery and never impact the people that are around us. And so I thought that's some sense of at least they got something in Jesus. Yeah, that's good. Well, but you got to remember the backdrop of the Colossians where they were under Roman rule.

And Nero, who was emperor at this time, he actually, his dying words, you remember what he said when he was dying? What an artist the world has lost in me. I mean, he made art. Self-delusion much? Well, that's what I mean. I mean, when Zach was saying that, I was like, well, what does your art look like? And I tell people all the time because, you know, they look at the Bible as a rule book or whatever.

going to church as the end of Christianity instead of just a place to get encouraged and to be Jesus out in the world. I mean, think about when you get to the end of Hebrews, when he was like, Jesus suffered outside the camp. Let's go to him, bearing the disgrace he bore. And we studied Hebrews, but I mean, what's he trying to say there? Jesus was more in the world, right?

And when you look at Jesus's life over and over and over and over again, then you look at your life because you're, you're supposed that you have the spirit of him in you. So in Galatians chapter three and verse 21, it says, is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. Cause here, I mean, this whole letter was about, okay, let's have Jesus, uh,

and the promise that marks you a Jew, which was circumcision, the physical circumcision that, you know, we talked about that a little bit. But then Paul says, for if a law had been given that could impart life, now here's this word again, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. Righteousness didn't come by the law because humans are not right enough

We just all fail. You can't manage it. So that's why he says, but the scripture declares the whole world is a prisoner of sin. So that what was promised being given through faith in Christ Jesus might be given to those who believe. But a lot like Colossians, he then, when he gets to Galatians 3, 26, he says, you're all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

He brings up baptism again. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. You've clothed yourself with Christ. And then he goes through, it doesn't matter Jew, Greek, slave, nor free, male nor female, you all belong. I mean, I like that phrase. You all belong to Christ. So when he gets to chapter four and verse six, he says, because you are sons, you put on Christ, you belong to Christ.

It's not your righteousness that is a factor anymore. Look what he says here. God sent the spirit of his son, the same son that you are now in, into our hearts. This pattern repeats itself over and over, which is why I kept saying, hmm, I'd like to do one more in Romans. You remember Romans 1?

which is, you know, our podcast came from this, that says, verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for the salvation. That was the one who read that one. Or 17 says, for in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed. Well, what is the gospel? The gospel is Jesus and who he is. I mean, there's your righteousness. So when you get to Romans 6,

And he says, well, in verse 1, shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? He says, no, we died to sin. Same phrase that's used in Colossians 2 when it says we died to the basic principles of the world. How can we live in it any longer? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized in his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism.

Same kind of jargon that's used in Colossians 2. But when he gets to verse 11, this is where this same concept comes up. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Well, if you just, before I continue to read and read Colossians 2,

When he says in verse 13, when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. Look, when we get to chapter 3 and verse 1 of Colossians, you know what the first verse says? Since you've been raised with Christ. What's he talking about? Well, I think this Romans 6 explains it in verse 12 of chapter 6.

Therefore, don't let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. You know why? Because desires comes from your head, and now you have a new head. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. Well, here you have this same body illustration. But rather, offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

So you kind of see where I'm going with this, that when we had our argument about baptism and trying to figure out how to say what baptism is, because Jesus is what saves you. So the argument comes in, well, how do you describe baptism? Well, here in Romans 6, he's basically saying it is an offering.

Of yourself. It's not a work. I would say this, too, that what you're hitting on there is the issue of what was missing with these people in Colossians 2. Because it sounds similar at first, because it's like Colossians 2, the whole idea of asceticism is to deny yourself, right? It's a spiritual practice of self-denial, which when you read

It's kind of like, yeah, you put the death, the misdeeds of the body, you know, and it seems similar, but the big missing part of all of it is being

but rather that were those two words are, are all that make all the difference, but rather offer. So what they were doing is they're trying to just cut everything away. And they're saying, it's all about self-denial. And it's just like, we're not going to end. Like we got to kill desire, self-denial. That's how we prove ourselves to this God. As we, we show that we have the willpower and we can actually conquer this by denying ourselves and, and, and killing the flesh, uh,

But what he says is that doesn't work. They lack any restraint in indulging in the sinful flesh. They are very sensuous in their mind. So it's kind of this weird thing. And the reason why is because they leave it at just self-denial and they don't move to offering your bodies to him. So that offering yourself up

Romans 12 says, as Romans 12 says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. So what Colossians is pointing us to is you find your substance not in the denial, but it's what the denial then leads you to, which is the life in Christ, which is the language of Romans 6.

The language of Romans 6 is not a one-time, boom, did it, done. It's a continual thing that you're continuing. That's why the resurrection is so important in connecting with not just the death and the burial of Christ, but also, what does it say? We've been raised with Christ so that we may live a new life. And so I think it's that fuller picture of,

of the gospel that you cannot get through just self-denial alone. And you can't get just self-denial alone when you root whatever you're doing in the head, which is Jesus Christ, where the substance is found. And the reason why it can't end there

It's because Jesus didn't end there. Jesus came out of the grave. Jesus now is active. Jesus is alive. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and mediates for us. He's moving. Yes, His work on the cross was finished, but He's not finished. He's continuing to move forward to bring life to the church and through the church. And so,

I think that's what is at the core of this whole teaching. They were focused on, give me the surface level part of this. And they missed that. They just focused on the shadow, never saw the real substance. Well, and just think about it. They continue to take, everything you just described takes you back to law.

That somehow something else can be the thing that's going to save you. And it won't. I love it, Jace, because you read that Romans 1, 16, 17, which is our theme verse for the podcast. In that last phrase, he says, and the righteous will live by faith in the last part of verse 17, which is what I was talking about, that unforgiven living. I mean, that forgiven living that we have and living by faith. And what's interesting is Paul quotes that phrase from Habakkuk.

back under law, back before anybody even, they were just pointing to the Messiah. So even then it showed you that Jesus was the way, even way back then. And so the aesthetics are going to try to take it forward, but it really just circles them back to a law and a system of works that will not work.

Yeah, even the law, though, that's what's so funny about the context of this is even the law itself, like it wasn't that the law was bad. I mean, Romans 7, the law's good. The problem is that when you look at the law as the end of it and the beginning of it and it terminates on itself, then if you don't understand that the law itself is a shadow or actually a foreshadowing, the law itself is a signpost.

It's this way. How do I get to Dallas? I'm on I-20, and there's a sign that says Dallas this way, 220 miles, whatever it says. That's a signpost. And if I get there on that sign on my way to Dallas, and I just sit there, I'm a man. And the whole family, we're going to Dallas to see some friends. But we stop at that signpost, and that's it. We focus in, and that's where we end. We never get to Dallas. That signpost is important.

Because if it wasn't there, I may not know how to get to Dallas. But the point is the destination of where are we going. The signpost is pointing us to where we're going. The law, the Sabbath, the new moon celebrations, the festivals, all of that good stuff.

But but but their signposts pointing us to the destination. So what's the destination of the law? What was it pointing to? What was the destination of the prophets? What was the destination of the temple? What was the destiny? All those were signposts. But what were they pointing to? And the answer is they weren't pointing to a what they were pointing to a who, namely Jesus Christ, in whom all reality is found. And now in him, that's hope. That's the whole book of Hebrews, by the way. All of it.

It all pointed back to him. And that's the thing. Don't get stuck on the signposts. Use them for what they are, signposts, but end up in the direction and the destination, which is Jesus. Which he is the righteousness of God, to Jay's point. Well, yeah, I was going to double down on that. So after he was baptized and he said, I did this so all righteousness...

would be fulfilled. When he started the Beatitudes on the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5 of Matthew in verse 6, he said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Well, after everything I've read, which is at one of the 92 there, I now realize he was talking about himself.

You just think about it. He has become for us the righteousness of God. Then he says in verse 10, I mean, it makes more sense when you do this little game I'm playing here. Look at verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.

It's not because you went out and did something right. Look, when you declare Jesus as Lord, I will guarantee one fact. Oh, you're fixing to be persecuted. That's his point. And I know that's true because even when he introduced the kingdom, when he got to chapter six in verse, where's that? 33, I think. I mean, watch how this reads. This is crazy.

It says, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. It was in the context of don't be worried about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink or what you're going to wear, which is now we're in the book of Colossians. And these people are worried about what they're going to eat, what they're going to wear, how many days they're going to celebrate, which we're all to Zach's point.

These were special celebrations of the coming king. Well, you're celebrating the coming king and he's here. And so that you fast forward that to America and people have arguments about observing days and all. And it's like, oh, no, you've missed the whole point. Jesus came 2000 years ago. We're good. Let's let's celebrate his presence. So I wanted to read you another one. Titus three.

Same thought, but this is interesting. It says in verse 4 of Titus 3, but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

It's this same idea of a new creation receiving his spirit. And it's not because of righteous things we've done because he is our righteousness. I want to read you another one. And you mentioned Hebrews. I mean, this was incredible. In Hebrews chapter seven, which is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible, but I had missed one key point.

In chapter 7 and verse 2, he says Abraham, he was talking about Abraham and this idea that Jesus came in the order of Melchizedek. You'll have to go look up our Hebrews podcast to get the specifics on that. But watch what it says in verse 2. It says, first, his name means king of righteousness.

That's what Melchizedek's name meant. Then also King of Salem, which means King of Peace. But when he gets down to verse 15, it says, and what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry, but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.

which was a shadow. So, so my point is if people heard that story, they could be like, Oh, we need to find out who Melchizedek is and follow him. No, he was a shadow of the king of righteousness coming to earth, which is God in the human body who was declared not only the righteousness of God, but also eternal king because he's imperishable and indestructible. So I just think it's fascinating that,

If you look that up and figure out what this is about, it's all looked at through the eyes of Jesus. There's nothing better you're ever going to come up with. There's no deeper water out there. There's no something I've missed out.

And so a good thing to do, since we're almost out of time, is to read the Gospels over and over and over and look at how Jesus operated, how he paused, how he asked questions, how he thought, who he took on, what he did, the plan, his character, his humility, and then say, does my life look anything like this? Because what we're claiming is the spirit of him in us. We died.

Even though if somebody just walked up and saw somebody getting baptized, they would think, huh, that seems like a stupid thing to do, especially in the wintertime.

But it starts in your mind and you read the gospels. And even though it's in a book that becomes real in your mind. And once it becomes real in your mind that you die, you have God's spirit and you're totally dependent on his righteousness and his spirit from that day forward. Then it starts moving to your heart.

Then there's a passion and an assurance. And then it moves out into the way you operate. And then you're having the same types of conversations, taking on the same worldly powers that Jesus was. And you have, in essence, through God's power, changed.

and grace, mercy become Jesus on earth. No, that's good. We are out of time. I will say this, Chase, to show you why you never want to follow the shadow. Melchizedek, if you go back and read in Genesis 14, when you run up on him, it seems like a footnote.

In the story of Abraham that nobody would even recognize, but the Hebrew writer shows us that's the way God works. When the realities come in, we see shadows become real. And in Jesus, that's what happens. So we'll, uh, we'll pick this up next time. We've got a very special episode coming up next time.

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