Blessings: of Who Christ is, of Who We Are In Christ

We're looking at the Book of Romans, and we're looking at the first 17 verses. And as we look at these first 17 verses, we've titled this, The Righteousness of God Revealed. And in these first 17 verses, What I think is incredible as you go through these first 17 verses is that when you start from verse 18 over down through chapter 3 in verse 20. It talks about God's condemnation on the world. But in these first 17 verses, he comes at believers with all of the blessings that we have.

Blessings to Paul, blessings about who Christ is, blessings about who we are in Christ, And it is just phenomenal that he sets this epistle out and reveals to us the blessings that we have. Okay, last week what we did is we looked at the blessings to Paul. that he's a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he uses the word doulos. He's a bond slave.

And a bond slave is one that has been born into slavery. And the only way you can get out of that slavery is by death. The way he got to be a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was born into that slavery by his second birth. And the way he can get out of that slavery is by death. Question, can he ever get out of that slavery? Answer, no, because Christ would have to die and Christ cannot die anymore. So that's the only way to get out of that slavery. He's a called apostle. God appointed him and in God's sovereignty and God's grace appointed Paul as an apostle. He separated him unto the gospel.

The blessings, and then it goes on to talk about the blessings of the gospel, that we saw that God promised the gospel beforehand through the prophets in the scriptures. And we looked at just one passage in Isaiah, chapter 61, where that gospel was promised. And we saw that the Gospel is centered on God's Son.

It uses that little preposition peri. It's the Gospel peri concerning His Son, peri, perimeter, and it's all about His Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the center of that. Then, in verse 4, it talks about the blessings in terms of who Christ is. And it has different terminologies for the Lord Jesus Christ. One was that he's God's son. When it talks about God's son, usually it's emphasizing his deity.

And then it says, Jesus Christ the Lord. Well, Jesus is His name, as we looked at last week, and it means Savior. It comes from Yeshua in the Hebrew. He is the Christ. We saw that His name isn't Jesus Christ, like Bob Eccle or Hal Molloy. His name is Jesus, who is the Christ. And He is the Messiah. He is the Anointed One. He's our Lord. He talks about His authority. the fact that all authority was given to him that's in heaven and in earth. We saw that he's the seed of David, which spoke about his humanity.

And then the last thing in verse 4, it says he's declared the Son of God. Now we didn't cover that, so we're going to look at that this morning, if all of this works. So, it says in verse 4, and let's look at it. In verse 4, "...and declared to be the Son of God with power." I'll tell you what, let's go through and let's just read from verse 1 on.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared the Son of God with power. according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, among whom you also are called of Jesus Christ. To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, go back at verse 4 and it's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ.

He's declared to be the Son of God with power. So the emphasis here on the Son of God is the emphasis on power. We're going to see that that power is the power of resurrection. But there are three things Three terms that are used when it says that he's declared the Son of God, it says, in power, a little prepositional phrase, in power, another prepositional phrase, out of the resurrection from the dead, and the third prepositional phrase is according to a spirit of holiness.

The question is, okay, when it says in power, what does it mean? Well, first of all, If we look at the word declared, hereizo in the Greek, means to mark out or determine or point or declare. And if you look at the English transliteration, you can see that we get our word horizon from that. And the horizon marks out the distinction between the land and the sky.

So he's declared the son of God. So the question is, how did God mark out or declare Jesus Christ as his eternal son? Well, first of all, it's in power, it's out of the resurrection, and it's according to a spirit of holiness. Well, we're having some technical difficulties here. When it talks about declared in power, the word is dunamis, and it's talking about the mighty and miraculous power of God, God's power. Here's the question.

How is God's mighty power demonstrated through the Lord Jesus Christ? Think about the Lord Jesus Christ From birth through death, how has God's power demonstrated in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or through the Lord Jesus Christ? There are lots of miracles following this.

OK. He performed lots of miracles. Miracles where he raised people from the dead, even. OK. How about his birth? Go back to his birth. Was that miraculous? Born of a virgin? Through his ministry, he performed many, many miracles, including raising people from the dead. Now, the thing is, what is the greatest demonstration of God's power through the Lord Jesus Christ? The greatest demonstration of that power is what's pointed out here. is by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, that He came out of the dead. He was raised out from the dead.

And as you look at the resurrection, it's God's fulfillment of His eternal purpose, or His eternal covenant. Remember His eternal covenant, back in eternity past. The Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father, made a covenant, made an agreement. And the Lord Jesus Christ agreed to shed his blood for the sins of the world.

This is before creation. God knew that man would sin. And so God had a plan. So when Adam sinned, God wasn't biting his fingernails and saying, what are we going to do now? God had a plan and God's plan was in place before the foundation of the world. The plan was the eternal covenant that God the Son would shed his blood for the sins of the world and the Father would do what?

Raise him up. So that was the eternal covenant that the Father would raise him up. Raising up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead was the greatest demonstration of God's power. Now, I'm going to make a statement and see if you think it's accurate. There has been no one that has been raised from the dead except the Lord Jesus Christ. True or untrue? Okay, excellent, Oshka.

So, Lazarus was raised from the dead. Better terminology, he was restored back to life. Resurrection, true resurrection, is when we're talking about being raised and having a glorified body. a body that is sown in corruption, raised in corruption. As you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it describes the resurrection. So no one has been raised from the dead except the Lord Jesus Christ. The power it took to raise him from the dead with a glorified body is the greatest demonstration of power there is. That power is greater than the power it it took for God creating this world and universe. And the point is this, that by the resurrection of the dead, we know that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God.

And there is no other way that we truly know that he's the Son of God, because there have been a lot of men that have come and said, I'm going to give my life for the sins of the world, and I'm going to shed my blood for the sins of the world. Many have done that. There have been many men that have come and performed great miracles, right? I mean, think of when Moses went down into Egypt, and here's Moses doing all these miracles, and Pharaoh calls over his magicians and they duplicate many of these miracles. So it's not just due to miracles that are performed, but it's the resurrection of the dead.

Now, let me ask this. When it says, according to the spirit of holiness, what's it talking about? Is it talking about the Holy Spirit? What I think it's doing, go back to verse 3, where it says, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord was made of the seed of David, look at the little prepositional phrase there, according to the what? Flesh. So it's telling us, it's giving us a comparison that according to the Spirit is contrasted with according to the flesh.

So he was according to a spirit of holiness, the fact that his very spirit was holy. So the reference is not to the Holy Spirit, but to the spirit of Christ as the seat of divine nature, belonging to his person as God is spirit, divine nature of Christ is spirit. And John chapter 4 tells us that God is a spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's a spirit. He has the spirit of God. And the characteristics of his spirit is holiness. Because he's the spirit of God, then he's going to manifest that in holiness.

To go on, as we look at verses five through seven, there's these five blessings with respect to who we are in Christ. And as you look at verse five, it says, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name.

So, we received Grace and Apostleship. What does that mean? This little word, by, means, it's a word, dia, which means through. So it's through whom, or through Christ, that we receive grace and apostleship. And God the Father is the source of that, and Jesus Christ is the instrumentality. It's through Christ. We received, it's something that we received, aorist tense, it's a fact. We received, race and apostleship.

Now, let me ask the question, who's the we? Now, if I told you something, that this word apostleship is only used for the Twelve and Paul. It's the only time it's ever used, and it's not used for believers. Now, who's the we? Okay, it could be the Twelve plus Paul, right? However, in the context, Let me ask the question, have we received grace? So are we included in the ones receiving grace in addition to the apostles?

What's interesting is this is a tough little passage in terms of understanding who the we are. Remember, I think last week we talked about apostleship, or not apostleship, but apostles, that there's the narrow definition of apostle, the twelve plus Paul, and then there's a broad definition of apostle. Barnabas was included as an apostle, and there's a whole bunch of names in the New Testament that are called apostles, but they're not in the strict sense the ones who saw the risen Lord who was given the authority as an apostle. So think about this.

Who are the we? And as we go through this, we'll hopefully answer it. So there's no question that we have received grace, God's unmerited favor. And it's a gift to all believers, right? And as we look at scripture, there's a beautiful passage in Romans chapter 5 and verse 2, which talks about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has led us into grace.

And it says, he's led us into this grace in which we stand. And the stand is a military term. fact that we're entrenched in grace. And the word prosago, to lead into, is a very tender term. It's a term that's used of a father leading a little child. And so it gives a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ leading us into God's grace in which we stand, in which we're entrenched. Are we ever taken out? Never, never. Take a nap.

So now, and. If we look at the word and, which has the forcive and, and in particular, so we have received grace, and in particular, apostleship, referring to the special grace that was given to Paul of his apostleship. So, he's including us in this, but the apostleship is that special grace that was given to him. So when he says an Apostleship, he's talking about the special grace that was given to him. Does that make sense? So Apostleship is a specific mission or Apostleship and so as you take a look, At this term, apostole, in the New Testament, it's only used four times, and it's only used for the twelve apostles and Paul. And so it's used in a strict sense. those who saw the risen Christ, those who manifested the signs of apostles, those who could do miracles, raised people from the dead, Paul raised people from the dead, Peter raised someone from the dead, and those who God gave his authority.

In terms of that interpretation, I think what you've listed there in 2 Corinthians 12, 12 is worth noting. Okay. Because, I mean, this really, I think, is in the guise of the broad interpretation of apostleship. I mean, we studied this in 2 Corinthians, but remember verse 11, I've become a fool and boring. You have compelled me prior to have been commended by you.

For nothing am I behind the very cheapest apostle. though I be nothing, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, and in signs and wonders and mighty deeds." So there is an application of the apostleship being played out in the believer, right? Okay, and the question is whose apostleship? Well, but they're having the attributes of apostleship.

Okay, so in verse 11, if we go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, I am become a fool in glorying, you have compelled me for I ought to have been commended by you. For nothing am I behind the very chief apostles, though I be nothing. So he's comparing himself to the 12. Right? The comparison is Paul to the 12th.

And this is truly the signs of an apostle were wrought or manifested among you in all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds. So the only... So help me to understand. So the only ones... The only ones that could do those signs and mighty deeds were truly the Twelve and Paul.

Oh, I didn't realize I had the reference there. Okay, so Bob, are you thinking that that's believers or Paul? I don't know, that's the question. It looks like it's all Paul, you think. Yeah, it looks like in the context it's Paul. Weren't they questioning his apostleship at that point? Yeah, exactly.

Truly the signs of an apostle, here I am, I've been exhibiting the signs of an apostle. And there were false apostles among them, claiming that they were apostles. And he's saying, OK, if you want to understand what a true apostle looks like, then look at me.

And look at the signs and the wonders that God has performed through me. and you will not see those signs and wonders performed among any of these false apostles. They have never raised a person from the dead. They have never performed any of the miracles that I've performed.

Is that alright? So it goes on to say, by whom we receive grace and apostleship, and it's for obedience. And that little word for, as a little preposition ice, means unto. So it's unto obedience of faith. So this little preposition marks the object of why we received grace and Paul received this special grace of apostleship. It was unto, it had a purpose, it was unto, or in order to bring about, obedience. Question. What's obedience? Is it following the rules? It's an interesting word.

The verb form is hupo, mané. In the noun form, it's hupaka'e, and it just means a listening under. That's all it means. This comes from akuo, to hear or to listen. Hup, the little preposition, means under. So when you see the word obedience, it's never talking about following some specific set of rules and then you're going to be obedient. No, it's just talking about listening under.

So it's a listening under to the Lord via the Word of God. That's the way we are obedient. We listen under to the Lord via the Word of God. obedience is played out in our lives. But the thing is, it's obedience of faith. So, faith is the source. So, obedience proceeds out from faith. Faith comes first, obedience follows. So, it's not obedience and then faith. So, this is a genitive source of faith, and the source of obedience is faith.

So chronologically and logically, faith comes first, then obedience or yielding. So I drew a picture. Take a look. Here's God, whose source, Jesus Christ, is the instrumentality in providing grace and apostleship, and we said this apostleship is Paul's, to believers as we walk by faith. Then it's unto obedience or listening under the Word of God.

And then it talks about the fact that it's among all nations for his name. So that nations can see the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. And it's for a purpose, it's for His name. And so as the Lord Jesus Christ lives His life through us, it's for His name or for His glory. And when we talk about God's eternal purpose, one aspect of God's eternal purpose is that He would be glorified through us.

Right? That He would be glorified. And so, that's the picture. Okay. Any questions? It says, the next blessing or who we are in Christ, It says, we're called ones. And it says, you are called ones. And there's this verb here, an essence verb, a me to be. And an essence verb, this particular essence verb, talks about It's a status quo verb. It's the state in which we continuously exist. It's a status quo.

And the Lord Jesus used this about himself when they asked him the question. you know, who do you say you are? Or when he was talking about the fact that before Abraham was, what did he say? I am. Right? Ego e me. This is the verb he used. Status quo.

And how did they understand that? When he said, I am, how did the Jews understand that? What did they think he was saying? He was God. And what did they do as a result of him saying that? They picked up stones. They thought they were blaspheming God. He was blaspheming God and they were going to kill him because he said, so he said, the state which I continuously exist is I am God. I'm the eternal son of God. There's no question in terms of what he's saying. So it's a verb in terms of a state in which we continuously exist. And we exist as called ones. We are called ones. This is indicated as our position. And we're called ones of Jesus Christ. So he's the source of our being, a called one.

Well, we've got to throw this system out now. Some points I've put down in terms of call ones, call, and you could translate call as appointed, call or appointed ones. Notice this, it doesn't depend upon human acceptance or rejection. There was no acceptance on our part that we're going to be called ones.

It was the Lord Jesus Christ who was the source of our being called ones. Because we put our trust and faith in Christ, we're called. And it has nothing to do with human acceptance or rejection. And when it talks about called ones, Scripture talks about called ones, it's referring to only those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. It never ever refers to unbelievers.

We know from Ephesians 1 that we're called before the foundation of the world. How does that happen? How did that happen? How were we called before the foundation of the world? It's a tough question. And God's calling, as I indicate, is the fulfilling of His eternal purpose. His eternal purpose, right? was to declare His glory, to reveal it, to share His glory, and then to be glorified. And so when God called us, it's just part of His eternal purpose, which was an eternity past. So how were we called before the foundation of the world? Very tough question to answer, but if this works, another picture. Unfortunately, we don't have the overhead where you can block things out. So I've got to do this. If you can block this top part of the drawing out, okay?

In terms of God and His sovereignty and His grace and His love, and here's unbelieving mankind over here. God's love is demonstrated through the cross, and as a result, he is drawing all of mankind to himself. through the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's a, if you will, a general calling.

And so it's like a gate. When we get to heaven, our citizenship is there, but when we get there, there's No, there's not going to be a gate. But it's like a door. Whosoever will, whosoever will come. And the invitation, there's an invitation to all mankind. Now, when we put our trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we go through this gate And on the other side of it, this is what it looks like.

It says, chosen before the foundation of the world. And so, when it uses this word, elect or chosen, it's only talking about believers. Never talking about unbelievers. It never talks about unbelievers not being elected. So, there's the whole picture. on election. I've got a whole bunch of scripture verses here, and there's no way we're going to go through any of this.

The third point, in terms of who we are in Christ, we're beloved of God. The word beloved is agapetas, and agapetas refers to a tender and intimate relationship. And it's the same word that God the Father used towards the Lord Jesus Christ. So that when the Lord Jesus Christ was with John the Baptist, and he was being baptized, he came out of the water, and scripture says, a dove, or the Spirit of God, as a dove, lighted upon him. And there was a voice out from heaven that said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved son, my agapetas son, in whom I am well pleased. This is my son who I have this intimate relationship with, this tender and intimate relationship with.

Isn't it interesting that he uses this same word to us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would he do that? because of our identification with Christ. So we're identified with Christ. We're so identified with Christ, if Christ is his beloved, guess what? So are we. We are his beloved. And when he goes on to say, this is my beloved son in who I am well pleased, is he pleased with us? Why is he pleased with us? Because we're in Christ. We're identified with Christ.

So scripture doesn't talk about these are the things that we must do to please God. He's already pleased with us. Although Hebrews 11 and 6, just thinking about it, says, In terms of pleasing God, we can't please God except by faith. But without faith it is impossible to please Him. Without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Thank you. Here's a question. Conditional or positional? Hebrews 11. Go back to what I said concerning that we're in Christ and we're His beloved and God is pleased with us because we're in Christ. Positional or conditional? Positional. Hebrews 11.6, but without faith it's impossible to please God. Conditional or positional? You can't be in Christ if you don't have faith. Okay, if it's talking about believers in 11.6, if it's talking about believers, is it conditional or positional? I say conditional. Okay, second it. Alright, everybody, we have two...

God if you don't have faith. And if you have faith, you can't not please God. Exactly. So if you have the faith, you are pleasing God, because you are identified with Christ. But it says, but without faith. So if you don't believe, if you're not a believer... But can't we have faith without being a believer? Faith in what?

God. I mean, do we... I guess going back is faith again. No. Okay, but remember now, we're talking about pleasing God. Conditional, positional. Right? Right. That's exactly right. So in our walk, we need to be walking by faith in our walk. Right? We need to be walking by faith to please God. We cannot please God in our walk unless we're walking by faith. Right? But yet, positionally, God is pleased with us. Right? Nothing more that we have to do to please Him positionally. Okay.

So you're saying that this 6th, 11th 6th is conditional. Is that what you're saying? Because then it goes on to say, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So to me, that's talking about salvation. It's not separating condition and position there. That's talking about salvation.

Without the faith, the belief, But if we look at the total context in Hebrews 11, verse 1, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, etc. And then it goes on to give the hall of fame of faith, like in verse 4 by Faith Abel, in verse 5 by Faith Enoch.

And it goes on to verse six, without faith it's impossible to please him. And then in verse seven, by faith, Noah. And then in verse eight, by faith, Abraham and Sarah. So in the context in which verse six is written, it looks like it's in the context of believers, of those who were walking by faith. And it's just saying that without them walking by faith, it was impossible for them to please God. Could faith be associated with obedience of listening under? As we just said before, that faith is the source of obedience. Obedience proceeds out from faith. Right? Obedience proceeds out from faith.

Is it saying that, is it speaking of the conditional believer who, we're not always walking by faith, unfortunately? Is that what it's referring to? It appears to me that way, but... Homework assignment. I think this passage has really helped by reminding us that faith is so simply defined as believing what God has revealed. I mean, Enoch's faith was based on a whole different set of revelations than ours is based on, right? But based upon what was revealed. And that's true of the, you know... Of everyone, yeah. The epitome of the faith seekers. Yeah.

But if we, you know, the thing about, the problem with this is it gets legal a little bit if you think about pleasing God, right? So... I mean, which is not intended, I don't think. Are you pleasing God? You kind of got your checklist there. Could it be said that without faith it is impossible to please God, but we cannot displease Him? Because we've already in Christ and He's already pleased. But, you know, in our walk, Because of who we are. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Okay. Yeah. Okay. We're called saints. This is the same word that was used, kleitos, with Paul.

It's called apostle, or appointed apostle. A saint is a hagios one, or one who is set apart, or holy. That's all that saint means. And so when we talk about saints, Forget it. The point is that every believer is called or appointed by God as a saint. And oftentimes you talk to people where they say, oh no, I'm not a saint. My sin is too great and there's no way that I'm a saint. and being a saint is independent of one's sin, a believer's sin. Believers living in sin are still saints and that's proven to us in 1 Corinthians because the Corinthian church was in There's so much sin, but Paul addresses them as saints. And sainthood, as I point out, is not an attainment. So that you don't have to be a Mother Teresa to be a saint and accomplish a whole bunch of work before you're recognized by some counsel that you're a saint.

And it ends by saying grace and peace to you. And what's interesting is this, is that God's grace is always abundantly supplied, and His peace is always, moment by moment, abundantly supplied to us. And as Philippians 4 says, He provides it to guard, to protect our minds and our hearts. And we have that peace that surpasses all human understanding. Okay, let's close. Our Father, we are again just so thankful for revealing to us in just these few set of verses here in terms of your blessings to us, your blessings to us through Paul, your blessings to us through the Word of God, your blessings to us through who Christ is, your blessings to us in terms of as to who we are in Christ. And Father, as we look at that, we just see your matchless and marvelous grace, and we are just so thankful and praise you in Christ's name. Amen.