Class Notes: 6/25/2014

Mark 10:38-39; Doctrine of the cup part 2; Doctrine of retroactive positional truth part 1


In our study of Mark we are in Mark 10:38; where Jesus asks James and John if they are able to drink the cup and be baptized with His baptism. We have taken up a study of the doctrine of baptism and the doctrine of the cup.

We saw that baptism means identification and last time we had just started into the study of the doctrine of the cup so we will back up and review before moving ahead in our study.

This brings us to a brief discussion of " the baptism of the cup" that Jesus is discussing with James and John. The first use of the word "cup" is in reference to the cross. Matt 20:22; Mark 10:38; Matt 26:39;

This is because "the cup" contained the sins of the world and Jesus Christ who was sinless would be judged for all the sins of the word by God the Father. Isaiah 53:4-6; 2Cor 5:21;

Christ drank the cup. John 18:11; Drinking from the cup is a picture of His receiving the judgment of God for sin because sin violates God's perfect integrity. Sin violates His holiness or His perfect righteousness and justice.

God's judgment was placed on Jesus when He drank "the cup" aka when He bore the sins of the world on the cross.

God's judgment is against sin but the sins were poured out upon Christ. He drank the entire cup (He bore the sins of the entire world 1John 2:2;) therefore the Father's judgment was poured out upon Him.

In the process, God the Father rejected human good for future judgments that will occur at the evaluation of the believer after the exit resurrection (1Cor 3:12-15;) and at the great white throne after the millennium for the unbeliever. Rev 20:11-15;

Every individual has the option of choosing human good or divine good. Human good is the individual's good works that are performed under the power of the OSN. Jesus' work on the cross is divine good.

If one rejects divine good (Christ's work) they stand before God only upon their own merit (human good).

Anyone standing exclusively upon human good (unbelievers) will have a cup containing the judgment of God that they will drink. But always remember no one is judged for their sins they are judged only for their production of human good and evil.

Active voice: Jesus deliberately drank from the cup from the volition of His perfect true humanity. Passive voice: Jesus Christ received the judgment for our sins in his true humanity from God the Father.

So the alternative every person has is to accept Christ drinking the cup in your place on the cross, Rom 5:8; or accept the judgment of God on yourself at the great whit throne. If you reject Jesus and the cross the only alternative is God's judgment. John 3:18,36;

We either let Christ drink God's judgment in our place, or we drink it ourselves.

Mark 10:39; "They say unto him, we are able." It is likely that John was the smartest of the disciples, and yet his answer indicates just how ignorant he is of what is about to happen.

In the future under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit John's knowledge of doctrine will be incredible but at this point he still just doesn't get it. This was a clear indication that they did not understand the nature of the cross, and the fact that Jesus was the only one who was qualified to go to the cross.

The disciples can and will appropriate this grace by faith alone but they cannot participate in what it takes to make this grace possible and neither can we. Remember grace is all that God is free to do for mankind because of what Jesus did on the cross.

We appropriate but we cannot participate. Participation is the cross; we simply appropriate what He did by grace through faith alone. This is why believing in Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. Acts 4:10-12;

We cannot participate in it but we can appropriate it by simply believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 16:31; Rom 4:3; and receive God's grace by faith alone.

Jesus goes on to say " The cup the I drink you shall drink and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized."

James would become the first church age martyr Acts 12:2; and John would be imprisoned on the island of Patmos because of God's word Rev 1:9; but the major identification that they would have with Jesus would be their positional identification that every church age believer receives from the baptism of the Holy spirit.

This brings us to our identification with Christ and a discussion of the doctrine of retroactive positional truth.

Retroactive positional truth is identification with Christ in His two deaths and burial that God performs in the mechanics of the baptism of the Spirit at the moment a person believes in Jesus Christ.

This identification with Christ in His death includes both His spiritual death and physical death.

The spiritual death of Christ on the cross is related to the judicial imputation of all personal sins. This is the basis of our salvation. This is efficacious substitutionary atonement.

However, the experiential emphasis of retroactive positional truth is on our human good and evil that were not imputed to Christ on the cross.

In the spiritual death of Christ, both human good and evil were rejected from judgment by the justice of God. They were also separated out from Christ's efficacious sacrifice.

When we are identified with Christ, we have also positionally rejected and been separated away from the production of human good and evil.

The Intensification of human good results in evil because the mental attitude sins of arrogance and emotion are often parlayed into evil.

Evil destroys the moral fiber of a people, so that they become unwilling to stand for or fight for truth and freedom. This is how a nation is destroyed from within before it is destroyed from without. This is what is presently happening in the USA.

Since freedom only comes from truth John 8:32; when people reject truth an unintended consequence of that choice is that they also reject freedom.

When freedom that provides the establishment protection against human good and sin, and doctrine that provides the spiritual protection against human good and sin, are rejected then sin and human good are parlayed into evil.

While Christ was being judged for sins He simultaneously rejected human good and evil as the solution to the problem between God and man.

Human good and evil are the policies of Satan and the function of the old sin nature that rules the life of the spiritually dead natural person.

© Copyright 2024, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.