This episode closes out detailing the positive encounter with God's law that believers should ideally experience. Many unfortunately rarely get beyond the first encounter with God's law, which brings conviction and crisis as they grapple with the demands of God on their lives. While the psalmist clearly wrestled with God's law, ultimately resulting in confession and repentance, the vast majority of his descriptions are very positive. The psalmist describes the law as his delight (v. 77) as he anticipates discovering "wonderful things" in God's law.(18) The psalmist at one point is starving for God's law (v. 20) and considers the Law his food. Christ Himself noted that "His food" was to do the will of the Father. (John 4:34) Such expressions underscore the path to true fulfillment. When we cultivate our longing for God and His law/His will, we discover that this second encounter with God and His Law/will results in incomparable satisfaction.
Biblical repentance goes deeper than you might think
This episode goes deeper into the depth of spiritual death in which all mankind participates. Spiritual death does not simply refer to outward transgressions, but also describes the spiritual state of the inner man that produced them. Paul says in Colossians 2:13 that we were "dead in our trespasses AND the uncircumcision of our flesh," indicating that spiritual death is descriptive of both the acts themselves (dead works) and the one who is uncircumcised in the flesh. So when one repents of dead works, he also has a change of mind about the self that produced them characterized by death. The solution to spiritual deadness is the circumcision of Christ, the supernatural cutting away of the flesh in regeneration.
Identity Politics Rooted in Idolatry
This episode provides the grand Biblical narrative of mankind's problem: mankind was originally called to rule on God's behalf based on the image of God in man, but because of the fall, has exchanged the truth of God for a lie, being consumed by idolatrous worship of himself and his own desires. Identity politics' exaltation of secondary characteristics into primary ones (race, class, sex, etc.) is a natural bi-product of the Great Exchange, in which unregenerate man exchanges the truth of God for a lie, an image in the form of corruptible man. The Biblical solution to mankind's problem centers on the remaking of mankind into the image of Christ.
Identity Politics and the Bible: addressing symptoms vs. universal sin
This episode tackles the deficient view of sin in identity politics, where the depravity of human nature is not addressed. Identity politics focuses on symptoms of oppression without dealing with the sinful root of universal human depravity .