Reckoning that Counts
Mike Doyle · Feb 20, 2005
Reckoning That Counts, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826232173804

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, if you've noticed, we've gone Romans 6, 7, and 8. Reckoning. Now, Romans 6 has to do with what? What issue? There's some new faces here, so you guys that look familiar to me better have some answers. Yeah, the principle of sin, S-I-N, the sin nature and its power and how God has dealt with sin, S-I-N, in his power. We're not talking about sins, we're talking about the sin nature, the thing that produces sin. Okay? Romans 7, what's it about? Struggle with what? What particular issue?

Law. Not only mosaic law, but any law system. And I've been reading some other stuff about law lately that's really interesting in terms of, we are so prone to legalism in our life, thinking that if we just obey, that things will improve. When in fact, the Bible clearly teaches in Paul's epistles What was the reason that the law came in? To show us our sin? Yeah, to make sin abound. So, you know, typically of how spiritually savvy we are, we take the very thing that makes sin abound and we line up with it and think, oh, this is the way I'm going to grow spiritually. Well, you are going to grow spiritually, but it's going to be this way rather than this way if you're messing with the law.

Now we get to Romans 8. What's Romans 8 about? Realistically, I've always thought that the book of Romans is Christianity 101. This is the survey course on what Christianity really is. The Christian life is not discussed until Romans 8. Everything up to Romans 8 is how you get to the Christian life. Your sins are paid for, right? The sin nature is dealt with, and the power of the sin nature is dealt with, and your relationship to the law is dealt with. Now we're going to talk about how the life is lived. That's what Romans 8 is about. So, first true or false question is, to live the Christian life, we reject our own resources and walk in reliance upon the spirit of life. True or false? You only have two answers, so give me one. False or true? It's true. Sure.

It's important, I think, to understand, who is the Christian life? It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So do you think you can imitate his life? You can't, if you study it and learn all the rules, you can't imitate it. No, you can't. No, we had an interesting little discussion about this a couple of weeks ago. Because somebody said, you know, that, a minute ago, and then we, you know, people go about trying to imitate the life that Christ lived on earth and love your neighbor and all those things. Right.

And aside from like mega charismatic movements, you know, we would never, We think that we can heal people and we can cast out demons and do all those things on our own. That's something that God has to do. We pray for healing, we pray for God to do all those things. And yet, the other things that we think are achievable, we try to do those. Right, we do. Yes, we do. I don't know. I mean, it's just that the parallel is kind of interesting because there are clearly things that we would say, oh, there's no way we can do that in our power. Right. You know. Right. And and other things we think, oh, yeah, not bad.

Well, and the other thing that really is a problem until I think we grow some are the commands in Paul's epistle. Clearly, you know, here's here's what you do. But as Vern has been teaching us, there are logical commands rather than moral ones. Understand the difference? A moral command is like a law. If you do this, I will bless you, if you don't do it, you're going to get hammered.

A logical command is an instruction to live a way that's already part of what you are. It's like going home and telling your dog to bark. Does your dog know how to bark? Why? Why does he know? Because it's his life. So the principle is life, not imitation. You see that? Okay. Now, tell me what the spirit of life is.

Romans 8.2 says there's a spirit of life in Christ Jesus. What is the spirit of life?

This is more than a two-word answer. No yes or no here. Actually, it is a two-word answer. It is the Holy Spirit. See, the deal is that the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit is the life. And He is going to live the life of Christ through you. See?

Now, it doesn't mean that you're going to sit in the stands and be a spectator. Through you means that you're intimately involved in every step of it all the way. But life is one of those things that's indigenous in the species. You understand what I mean by that?

Why are you a sinner? Or why were you a sinner? Because sin was indigenous in the Adamic species. Right? You sin because you, you committed sins because you were a sinner. That's what your nature was. Well now, you're a new creature in Christ. You have a new nature, a new life, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The activities that's indigenous with that life are holiness, love, righteousness, peace, all of those things.

Now, did, when you were Five years old, did you all go to sinning academy? How did you learn how to sin? You just did it. How do you learn to live the Christian life? Somebody gave you the rules, right? How do you learn to live the Christian life? You have it, right? Do you have the life of Christ or not? Do you have it? Yeah, positionally, you're resurrected in Christ, you're seated in the Beloved in the Heavens. You have all of His life.

How does it get worked out? The Holy Spirit does it. What does He do? How does He do it? Twist your arm. How does he do it? He has used the tyranny of your sin nature to get you ready to grow. He's used the bondage of the law to get you to grow. But the actual growth process takes place another way. How does it happen? It's grace. We grow in grace. The new life functions in the realm of grace, in the environment of grace. Grace is not a commodity. It's a reigning principle. We live in grace. And it does function there. But how does it happen? How do you, as an individual, for one minute next week manifest the life of Christ? How does that happen?

That's right. See, the life you have in you, there's this, we've talked a lot about when we went through the principle of position, what your position was and what it contains and what's there. The issue is, is to get that position to be manifested in your condition, your everyday walking around experience. And the issue, it comes down to beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. intimacy, and a walk with Him. And that becomes the issue. And that's what Romans 8 begins to talk about. That there's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus.

Okay? Where are you? In Christ. I'm a realtor. I like location. Big. You know? Where things are really important to me. So you're in Christ. There's a new spirit of the spirit of life in Christ. Jesus has already set me free From this from the law of sin and death, so I'm free Okay, and so I have this position and then I begin to learn that as I study the Word of God what's really going on is I'm beginning to behold him and There's a process of conformity to his image that goes on as I behold him in the word And the life begins to show up in my activities, in my environment, in my everyday action. And my focus is on him, not on me. The problem with law is that it keeps you focused on you. Because you're always checking to see how you're doing, right? Did I do this all right or that all right? But the natural mind looks at that scenario and thinks, oh, that can't be right.

It means that I have nothing to do and it sounds pretty apathetic to me. I can't be walking around beholding Jesus, I've got a job. I've got to go to work in the morning. The Holy Spirit's job is to reveal Christ to the believer 24-7. That's the direction we're moving in.

Now, the very purpose of reckoning is that we may live in the wonderful and practical realm of life in the Lord Jesus. True or false? Absolutely true. The very reason that you reckon is to reckon on these wonderful, overwhelming truths that they're true of you. Reckoning is a personal thing. I can't reckon for David. I can only reckon for me. Not enough Christians are seeking to live for the Lord on the basis of the principle of love. Now, before you answer, it's a trick question. True or false? True or false? How many say false? How many say true? How many are too chicken to raise their hand? It is false. Why is it false? What do you think?

Put it this way, can a characteristic of the life be the motivator of the life? No, it's got to be the life itself. The motivation is life. Do you see that? The life of the Lord Jesus, one of the characteristics of it, probably the very core of it is love, but it functions based on the fact that it is life, not that it loves. It does love, but that's not the reason. That's not the motive. See that? As Myles says, our love is far too weak and vacillating for such an undertaking.

Self will see to that. The motive has to be life, which is really cool because what happens is that if the motive were love, then it's on me to do it. If the motive is life, whose life is it? It's his life. My job is to believe and reckon. His job is to manifest.

See that? There is only one true and adequate motivating power for living the Christian life, and that is the very life of the Lord Jesus, ministered within by the Spirit of life Himself. We are expected with the Lord's help to live the Christian life. Yay? Nay? How many think yeah? How many say no? No chance? Okay, yeah, that's right, it's false. But don't you, have you ever thought that? Absolutely you did.

I mean, we all do as young believers. We think, all I need, it's like John, he's asking the Lord's help big time this morning, to get through this guitar thing, right? He was asking him for help for all kinds of things this morning. So you only learn that... It's false because God doesn't expect us to live the life He doesn't want us to live. That's a good question. It's interesting. Lewis Barry Chafer said, that God has called us to live a life that's totally impossible for us to live, but he expects us to do it. So where does that leave you? Where does that leave you? Yeah, absolutely. It leaves you dependent. So you learn the facts, and you trust and reckon and believe the facts. You're dependent.

Either God is telling you the truth, and he's going to do what he says he's going to do, or he's the biggest liar you ever ran into. I mean, that's what it comes down to. Either God is right in telling me the truth, or he's not. He says that my Holy Spirit is going to live the life of my son through you.

Really? And so what do you start doing? You start looking for it, and you never find it. Because your focus is to be on the Lord Jesus, not on how you're doing. So, no fair saying, well, gee, I can't do it. I think I'll quit. You're an unqualified failure. Okay, that's a given.

And actually, that's a really good thing. When you come to the point where you realize that you're an unqualified failure to live the Christian life, that's a real milestone. Because now, you'll stop working so hard and the Holy Spirit can get on with his job. We are free solely because of our redemption and position in the Lord Jesus apart from our present condition.

Pure or false? Let me say true. True. It's true. We are free because there's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. Miles made a point in the book about Romans 8.1. There's no condemnation for them. who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Did you read that part? Where he said that that's misplaced, and it is misplaced in the King James. It belongs at verse 4, not verse 1. If it were in verse 1, it would make condemnation depending on your walk. Right? That's what it would say. But your condemnation isn't dependent on how you walk, your condemnation or lack thereof is dependent solely on your position in Christ.

Anybody have a problem with that? I don't think so. So your position is everything. So, as we talked about four months ago, it's critical that we know what our position is. We need to know it, because you need to know what to believe. And I know that as we studied position, some of the information was overwhelming.

This couldn't be true of me. I'm a dirty dog. All of these things that God says that He's done to me, you know, in my position in His Son, and I'm accepted in the Beloved, and I've been crucified, buried, resurrected, raised and seated in the heavenlies, how could that all be true? Doesn't God pay attention to how I live my life on Tuesday? Well, sure He did. But your position is everything. Okay.

And Romans 8, fill in the blank. In Romans 8 is the what? What's it based on? The principle of life is life as ministered by the spirit of life. You okay with that? Okay. It is not only that what is done It is not, in parenthesis, only what is done for Christ will last, but rather, complete the sentence, what is done by Him, by Him. He's the Christian life. How many Christians are there? How many? That's right, there's one. Who is it? That's Christ. Where are you? You're in Him. Romans 6 is the, what? What's it deal with? The principle of sin. And it is the answer to its It's power, right?

Simply put, if you're dead, what sort of influence does it have on you anymore? If you're dead to it, it doesn't. Well, you know, if you're like me, though, as you learn that principle and you believe it and you start to grow, my question to God was, well, you know, if I'm dead, how come my feet start moving every time the music plays? How come every time I'm tempted, I seem to go for it?

What's the answer to that? I mean, realistically, if I go to God and say that to him, I understand what you're saying. Yet, every time the moose goes across the trail, I follow him. Right? Every time this temptation comes in my life, boy, I am really paying attention.

What's the problem with that? Where does the problem lie? Maybe is a better question. This wasn't in the chapter, this I'm making this up. What's the problem? That's exactly right. It's my weak faith and lack of reckoning. This is always going to happen, right? The music is always going to play. I mean, where do we live? We live in a wonderful world that's really spiritual, right?

Right, and the sin nature, you know, when it found out that you read Romans 6, it gave up, right? It said, oh, that Christian, why is that? We're not going to bother him anymore. Nonsense. As a matter of fact, it probably increased. So the issue boils down to Do you believe God when he tells you that you died unto sin, you were buried and resurrected, and do you reckon it to be who you are? Now, it takes time. That's why it takes time. But there comes the day that the moose goes across the trail and you don't even pay attention to him. And the music starts and it sounds strange to you because you're involved and focused somewhere else on the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the vine, we are... In our cells, we are being... Right, through the... Based upon what? Okay. Position and condition. Positionally, you're complete. Nothing to be added. But in your cells, you're being completed. How would you define the word completed? Yeah, what is perfection? Yeah, when Christ, when you could say with Christ, she's got all the standard answers. When you would say that Christ is perfected, what's, what is the issue where you're being perfected? What is a perfected man?

What would he be? What's that? Dependent, yeah, and blameless, yeah. Put it this way. Being perfected means that you are coming conditionally into the completeness of what you were designed to be. In other words, you are a son of God. You're a human being, but you're a son of God. And in your position, you're already perfected. But conditionally, what's going on? you're just growing into the perfection or the completeness of what the design originally was or is.

Do you see that? so that you are totally conformed to the image of Christ. That's what perfection is. It isn't attaching merit badges and accomplishments. It's not that. It's Christ himself. So that he is the perfect one and your life is engineered by the Holy Spirit to conform you to his very image, who is the perfect man, the glorified man. I know you don't think of yourself as being glorified, but you are being. If you read Romans 8, the word glorified is in the heiress tense. It isn't in the future tense. You are glorified.

Now, what it takes years to learn thoroughly is that the The all part is the tough part. It takes years to learn that He doesn't need our help. He ministers the whole life. Romans 7 is the struggle that has to do with what? The principle of law and brings us into bondage. Look at the two main things, the two main struggles in a Christian's life as he grows. One is the power of the sin nature, and two is the law. And I think the most devastating of the two is the law, because we won't leave it alone.

We always want somebody to tell us what to do. We want some little marker where we know that if we can live up to that or obey that, we're going to be okay. And when someone comes along and says, oh, by the way, the whole principle of law is out the window when it comes to the Christian life, you feel naked. Because you don't have any mile markers. It's like driving down the road in eastern Colorado. There's nothing there. You have to go 40 miles to the next mile sign. You trust you're on the right road. And when you live in grace, you don't need mile markers.

The Lord Jesus doesn't get up in the morning and say, hey look, what am I going to do today to glorify my Father? I wonder what are the five things I need to do today to glorify my Father. Does He? Why doesn't He? He just lives and He glorifies the Father. What's that? He just lives and He glorifies the Father. That's right. He just lives. And his life always glorifies God. Always. It never doesn't do that. You see that? You have that same life.

It's such a weird thing what happens with the law and then law in general. I was just reading something that a friend of mine wrote and I'm kind of struggling with it a little bit. this person talks about the law a lot, and that it makes us conscious of sin, and so that brings us to Christ. And so it's like there is this use of the law, but yet it's not been given up either. Because it's looked at as kind of a tool. A valuable tool. Yeah, that's right.

Well, if there's not the understanding of he that is dead is freed from the law, if there isn't that understanding, yeah, it does serve that purpose early on, but the real issue is being free from it. But if you're talking to non-believers, is that really a tool? Well, yes, that's what God did, but is that really a tool, an evangelism tool? You know, it's interesting, from my viewpoint, there's only one issue you ever talk to a non-believer about, and that's whether they're saved or not.

All of this other stuff is later. There's predestination. Non-believers love to engage in the discussion of predestination or something that the whole issue is, is their salvation and their standing before God. That there's no other issue. Do you believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus or don't you? There's no other discussion. Because until they do believe, they don't have the capacity to understand anything else.

See? So that's the whole issue. You know, a discussion with a non-believer about whether the law is appropriate or not is, you know, superfluous, I think. Why do it? The issue is, where are you in terms of your standing before a holy God? That's the whole issue. Are you going to die in your sins or not?

I know, I'm just saying, from a worldly standpoint, that seems to be the logic, is we've got to show them that they're a sinner, we've got to show them that the law is right, and then show them that they're a sinner, and then we've used this tool all along, and then we're going to say, never mind, but when it's used as a tool in the beginning, then it's not really that they're even pointing them to Christ, they're just continuing to point them to themselves. I know, I'm just saying that it seems like that's the logic that's being used.

Well, I guess I'm just also thinking about what this friend wrote and how there's such an emphasis on the Mosaic Law, you know, and how it condemns us and that leads us to Christ. Well, I think it did then, but not in the time period where we are now, because Christ came to fulfill the law. And so, he didn't abolish the law, so it's good to keep in mind.

But by fulfilling the law, then when you're talking to non-believers, instead of bringing them to the law and how they don't follow the law, it's understanding who God is and how they don't match up to Christ's character. And that's where we're falling and separated from God. And so I said, the law being what separates us, it's who we are and our character and our sin. But that we're not measuring ourselves up to the law, but who God is. Sin is the issue, is it not? For a non-believer. And sin doesn't mean you really violated the law. What sin is, is you're short of the mark. You know? Your sinfulness means that you have missed the mark. Did you break a law?

Probably. But the issue is, God has a requirement. All men in Adam have an obligation to God. They're the responsible men. Are they not? Because every man in Adam sinned, and because he sinned, he has a problem with God. And the problem is to resolve his responsibility as a sinner, right? Does a natural man have a responsibility before God? He does. If he didn't, he couldn't be condemned, right? So he has a responsibility. And what's the responsibility God puts on him? What does he require? That he believe in the person and work of his son. That's it. Faith is a requirement, not obeying the law. Faith is the requirement. And what's interesting is when a non-believer exercises initial faith in the person and work of Christ, does he do it as a non-believer?

Answer, yes, he does. Does he fulfill God's requirement for him in the natural man? Yes, he does. But then what happens to him immediately, positionally? He gets crucified, doesn't he? He gets baptized into Christ's death. He's buried, resurrected. He's a new creature in Christ. Now all of Adam is gone. before God. How responsible is the new man resurrected in Christ? What responsibility does he have before God? Nothing. Zero. Why? Because all of his responsibilities have been met in Christ. All of them. All of them. Now, I know you guys want something to do, but I'm sorry. Your responsibilities have already been met by Christ.

You know it seems to me that the non-believers I run into though aren't wallowing in their sin so much. No. I'm a good person. Yes, that's right. And that the conviction for true sin comes after salvation. I mean, I personally bawled for a month. Well, it does.

You then realize how far from the Lord you were. Salvation is definitely a work of the Holy Spirit. He has to be the one who is the catalyst in the person's heart that they come to the understanding. they come to the understanding that they are separated from God. That they're sinners. Because you're right.

Go down to the NBA All-Star game and ask all those guys down there who make 10 million bucks a year, how's it going? You know you're separated from God? Well, I got 40 million in the bank, what do I care? And then go outside to the guy who's serving Pepsi on the corner, he'll give you the same answer.

He's fine. But if the Holy Spirit interacts on a person, I didn't meet the Lord until I was 35. I thought I was pretty cool until then. And it got real clear to me, I'm in trouble here. I really am in trouble here. It wasn't, oh gee, it was kind of like, wow, before God I am really toast. And don't you think the Holy Spirit is often used as a crisis? Yeah, it does.

And then if they know a Christian, they will call. Well, a non-believer told me that I should have lunch with a guy he knew was a believer because he knew that guy had the answer for my life. And that guy, the non-believer, still hasn't come to Christ. So I called him up and I said, so-and-so says you got the answer. Let's have lunch. And he did. He had the answer.

We escape condemnation through our eternal position and not our what? Okay, present condition. So we have exchanged the what? For the position of life. Okay, all right. All right, let's how much time we got? Okay, let's match these up. By the Spirit we live. Where's that come from?

Romans 8.10, by the Spirit we grow. That was a harder one. What's that? Yeah, that's exactly San Corinthians 318, because the last phrase is even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. Process of elimination. Well, listen, four weeks ago, I gave him there was one was a two was B, three was C. How easy does that get?

So, 2 Corinthians 3.18 has been for years my favorite verse in the Bible because it explains how growth happens. Beholding as in a mirror, here's the mirror, the glory of the Lord. I am, with an unveiled face, transformed, transfigured into the very image of Christ from glory to glory. Not from the old man to the new man, from one stage of glory to another stage of glory.

There's a continual conformity going on. What am I doing when that process is going on? I'm beholding Him. So it seems to me that beholding Him is really important for spiritual growth, don't you think? It got real important to me when I saw it. I thought, hey, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. Hey, there's a law I can obey.

Beholding Him in the Word of God. So tonight when you open up your Bible to read it, forget about memorization. Go in there to behold Christ. Just to fellowship with Him. And then the last part of that verse is, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's the Holy Spirit who does the whole thing.

You're doing the beholding. You've got the cool job. I mean, when God says to you, look, I'm going to conform you to the image of my Son. And you know what you get to do in the process? You get to behold my Son. That is really cool, I think. I mean, is there anything you'd rather do? Well, you might want to go to Greek class on Saturday.

By the Spirit we shall be raised. Where's that one from? And by the Spirit we are sealed. Which one was that? For me to live is Christ. Is there any phrase that describes a Christian life better than that? For me to live is Christ. Really a cool phrase. That's from where? 121, right. In my flesh dwells no good thing.

Romans 7.18. They that are after the flesh cannot please God. After the flesh doesn't mean you're acting fleshly, it means you come from flesh. Can't please God. The fruit of the Spirit is. Okay. Alright, now you get to talk.

Explain the dual application of the truths of Romans 8.1 and 2. You know what 8.1 and 2 are? 8.1 and 2 is there's no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus.

And 8.2 is for the principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.

So explain the dual application of what that is. I know. Okay. One of you explain half. What's that? What's that? That's fine. That's fine. It's position and condition. And this is really condition. As you go through Romans 7, the person in Romans 7 is struggling with the power of sin because he's trying to use legal means in which to live the Christian life and can't accomplish it. And he ends up with this cool little phrase, Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? from the body of his death, right?

And then he says, immediately, I thank God through Jesus Christ. And lots of people think that the, I shouldn't say lots of people, some might think is a better way to say it, that the next phrase is the Christian life. Romans 7, is it 24? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Now watch this next part.

So then, with the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Is that the Christian life? Serving the law of God with your mind, is that the Christian life? Some think it is, but it's not. Romans 8, 1 succinctly puts you in Christ. Those that are in Christ are not condemned. If you're there, you're fine. Put it that way.

Then Romans 8 says, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Is that different than, in my mind I serve the law of God? Are we talking, is the law of God and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus the same thing?

How many think it is? How many think it isn't? The rest of you are chickens. Alright, here's my question. Is the law of God in Romans 7.25 the same thing as in verse 8.2, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus? Are those two the same thing? No. Right. They're not the same thing. Because the law of God in 25 is the do's and don'ts. I'm sorry? It's what God requires.

It's the law. But in Romans 8-2, the law there, I like to translate that word, instead of law, I use the word principle. The principle. of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. What's the difference between a law and a principle? Come on, you ought to have this down. I ask this almost every week. A principle is the way a thing operates or functions, right? It's not a statute.

It's like the principle of gravity. It functions the same way all the time. The principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, he functions the same way all the time. And the first thing he does, he has already made you free from the law of sin and death. So it's his life that makes you free. It's the principle of that life by which you are free. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, that's alright.

So, we are saved from the condemnation of sin because of his reconciliation. We're delivered from the power of sin because of what? His life. His life is what delivers us from the power of sin. See that? Like it or not, you have a life that is superior to all other life. and it's the very life of the Son of God.

How does Romans 5.10 express the same duality, in other words, the same principle?

Romans 5.10 says, For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain now that we are reconciled that we shall be saved or daily delivered from sin's dominion through his resurrection life. Same principle? Your daily deliverance from the principle of sin is through the resurrection life of Christ.

That's where it is. So the whole issue of Romans 8 reckoning, and actually he only covered the first few verses. But the whole issue is the issue of life. Is that not? And so now starting in Romans 8 is the beginning of your life as a Christian. Or put it another way, it's the beginning of what life in Christ is like. And so as he expands now, going forward from Romans 8, you will find that all of Paul's epistles from now on are based on several principles.

They're all written from the viewpoint that the believer has been crucified, buried, resurrected, and seated in Christ right now. He assumes that that information is true. Now, he repeats it a few times, but he assumes it's true. And he writes to believers who are resurrected, who have this life. And so the discussion is based, and the instruction is always based on, your position in Christ. You see that? From now on. He never goes back and refers to you as being before the cross. Now everything is after the cross. Your position in Christ. The life that you have. And as He gives you instruction now in all the other epistles, it all has to do with instructing you about how this life functions and operates. How else would you know? Would you know just instinctively, spiritual instinct, how the life of Christ functions? No, you need to know how it does, how it goes. Right?

So in all of the rest of his epistles, he will lay out a positional doctrine about how and what you are, and then he will ask you to stay in it. Won't he? Galatians says, stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has made you free. Stay right where you are. Don't move. Ephesians says the same thing. Stay where you are.

Colossians says, since you be risen with Christ, give in fact. Now that you're risen, here's what you do. You seek those things which are above. Would you have known to do that if he hadn't told you? I don't think so. For Christ is at the right hand of God. Set your heart and your mind to affections on things above and not on things of the earth. And he gives you the reason why. Why? Because as far as this world is concerned, you're already dead. That's the reason. So you're free. You're free to behold Christ and be conformed to his image.