This week, Dr. John Snyder is joined by Acey Floyd again to continue discussing the Christian’s union with Jesus Christ. If Jesus were only our kinsman redeemer, high priest, and propitiation, that would be more than anything we could dream of. But Scripture goes further and tells us He is also our elder brother. We are joint heirs with Him. This is a reality that, if we were told it by a preacher, we would say he was going too far. But we can read those very words in Hebrews 12.
So what does this relationship with Christ have to do with adoption, and what effect does adoption have on our Christian lives? Everything. Adoption is how we can be certain that our relationship with God isn’t based on our merits or on our progressive sanctification. Our relationship with Him is as certain as His relationship to Jesus. Even though Jesus is begotten and not adopted, the Father is still pleased to call us His children. That will never change because it is based on Himself and upon the work of Jesus Christ.
We have mentioned this book throughout this series, but if you have not gotten a copy of John Murray’s “Redemption Accomplished and Applied,” let us encourage you to find a copy and read it. Then read it again. Then read it again. It has been a tremendous blessing to us, and we believe it will be a help to you as well.
Show Notes:
Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray
John 1:12-13
Galatian 4:6
Romans 8:15-17
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Even the sweetest commands from our King are still commands. We may be tempted to view commands such as “Do not kill” as more weighty than the command “Look unto Christ.” But both are spoken from the same authority, God himself. Therefore, they are worthy of the same attention, effort, and obedience.
For the next few weeks, we will be discussing the command to look unto Jesus. There are several passages that state this command, each in a different way. But it is a theme of both the Old and the New Testaments. For this week’s episode, Dr. John Snyder and Teddy James are getting help from a journal entry written in 1773 by John Newton. Many of you will know Newton as the author of “Amazing Grace,” among other hymns. But the particular journal entry we are resourcing in this week’s episode reads:
This is the Ninth New Years day I have seen in this place. I have reason to say, The Lord crowneth every year with his goodness. The entrance of this finds me and my _ [dear Mary] in health and peace. I am still favoured with strength, and with some liberty for my public work and hope the Lord is still pleased to work by me, for the edification of his people already called, and the awakening of sinners. As to myself, It is given me to trust in the Lord Jesus for life and salvation – I know he is both willing and able to save. Upon him as an All-sufficient Saviour and upon his word of promise I build my hope, believing that he will not suffer me to be put to shame. My exercise of grace is faint, my consolations small, my heart is full of evil, my chief sensible burdens are, a wild ungoverned imagination, and a strange sinful backwardness to reading the Scriptures, and, to secret prayer. These have been my complaints for many years, and I have no less cause of complaint than formerly. But my eye and my heart is to Jesus. His I am, him I desire to serve, to him I this day would devote and surrender myself anew. O Lord, accept, support, protect, teach, comfort and bless me. Be thou my Arm, my Eye, my Joy and my Salvation. Mortify the power of sin, and increase the image of thy holiness in my heart. Anoint me with fresh oil, make me humble, faithful, diligent and obedient. Let me in all things attend to thy word as my rule, to thy glory as my end, and depend upon thy power and promise for safety and success. I am now in the 49th year of my age, and may expect in the course of a few years at most to go whence I shall no more return, nor have I a certainty of continuing here a single year or even a month or a day. May thy grace keep me always waiting till my appointed change shall come, and when the summons shall come may I be enabled to rejoice in thee, as the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.
For the rest of this podcast series, we will be getting help from the first few chapters of Looking Unto Jesus by Isaac Ambrose. This 17th-century book was written after a prolonged illness and has been helping Christians gaze at the surpassing beauty of Jesus Christ for over 400 years.
Looking Unto Jesus was out of print for some time, but we were happy to find it available for sale again. We were so happy, in fact, that we bought two copies to give away at the end of this series. If you would like to be entered to win a copy, you can join the Media Gratiae email list. Our email subscribers get two emails a week: the first is a devotional thought from trustworthy writers and sometimes our own studies, and the other email highlights the podcast content we are publishing that week. If you are interested, you can sign up here:
https://www.mediagratiae.org/the-whole-counsel-giveaway
Show Notes:
Sign up to win a copy of Looking Unto Jesus here: https://www.heritagebooks.org/products/looking-unto-jesus-ambrose.html
See our previous episodes where we mentioned Looking Unto Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLiw_Xqa08
Want to listen to The Whole Counsel on the go? Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast app: https://www.mediagratiae.org/podcasts
You can get The Whole Counsel a day early on the Media Gratiae App: https://subsplash.com/mediagratiae/app

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.Part I (00:13 – 10:17)A Big Win for Life in Florida, For Now: State Moves to Enact 6-Week Abortion Ban, But Will It Be Overturned by a Pro-Abortion Constitutional Amendment in November?Part II (10:17 – 16:25)Your Position on Abortion is Tied to Your Position on LBGTQ Issues — Just Take It from the Words of Planned Parenthood’s President and Commentators at CNNPart III (16:25 – 20:20)No, Adultery is Never a Laughing Matter: Massive Moral Shift Reveals Sad State of Marriage in Our SocietyAttention, New York Adulterers: Your Sin May Soon No Longer Be a Crime by The New York Times (Erin Nolan)Part IV (20:20 – 25:47)More Evidence of a Society Losing Its Mind: Why Washington’s New Law Enacting Protections for Sex Workers is Doomed to FailA Look at Washington State’s ‘Strippers’ Bill of Rights’ by The New York Times (Aimee Ortiz)Sign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.