Christ's new creation life is now ours (Lesson 11)

Okay, so you got to question nine last time? Did you finish nine or are you just getting to it? I think we have finished. Have you finished nine? Yes, I have done twelve. Let's see here. Seven, eight, nine, four. I don't know about you, but John 17 is one of those increasingly cool chapters that you can't read enough.

So, question 10 in verse 24, what will Christ not be satisfied with until what happens? One of the quotes that I use in the questions that I give you, John 14-2, John 14, 2 and 3 says, The Lord says, In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. It seems that, like in verse 24 here, Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me and thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.

Doesn't it seem to you that the Lord Jesus won't be satisfied unless we're in his company and beholding his glory? What I find interesting about that One of the things that you find out in John 17, when you're kind of looking over the Lord's shoulder and listening to what he's saying to the Father, you discover some of his motives. You discover things that seem to be important to him, and important to him regarding you and me. To think that the Lord Jesus Christ has an agenda and that he just wouldn't be satisfied unless we were with him and we were beholding his glory seems a little far-fetched that first we're more interested in being good Christians, right?

Do you think he would do that? I mean in the sense that I keep thinking about Hal Malloy when I think about this verse and others. There's another guy from our Tuesday group that went home to be with the Lord. We found out about it last week. He went home in July. He's one of those guys that would disappear for a month or two and think he was on vacation or be sick or something. This time he disappeared and went home.

And what he and Hal are doing right now is beholding the glory of the Lord. That's what they're up to. Because that's what Christ wants them to do. And he wants them with him. I think that really changes your perspective on how long you're going to be here and why you're here. And there isn't any delay when your job is done, because the Lord desires to have you with him as soon as he can get you there by finishing up whatever you're going to do here. So it changes the perspective on, gee, am I missing anything that God called me to do, or am I going to do a couple of more that maybe will add to what? How can you add to being in the company of the Lord Jesus, beholding his glory? What can you add to that? I don't think anything.

So why there? Why there? Why is it important that the focus being a realtor location is really important? Why there? Why not at Holly Hills? Well, because it would be the full, nothing is clouded. That's right, that's the location, that's the location where the manifestation of the fullness of the glory of God is in Christ, right? So that's where it is. Now, connect the dots, how do we behold his glory now? If he's there and we're here, how do we see it? Through the Word. Through what agency?

It's the Spirit of God's job to reveal the glorified Christ to the believer. That's his main purpose. So much of contemporary Christianity puts things on the Holy Spirit that are either not his role or minor issues, the number one thing that he is up to is revealing the glory of the Lord Jesus to the believer where Christ is, there. Because that's where the manifestation of the glory is. So many times we think, well, he's got to come here into my environment and my circumstances. His role is, through the word, is to take us there, so we can behold his glory there. Now that's kind of over the top, isn't it? Do you really believe in your heart that's what God is doing? What the Spirit of God is up to? The direction and the purpose and the energy of the God of the universe, do you really think he's doing that? No? Yeah? No? I think so. As you grow, you become more.

I guess, aware that this isn't our home. I think that's what more, it's kind of a transformation to knowing that this isn't our citizenship. This isn't. I don't know, you begin to long more for the heavenly things or where he's at. I think that's in growth. You kind of transition from bringing him here to seeing him there. I think that's part of the spiritual growth and the conformity. I think that's right. I think that's really important. You can discover in your own spiritual growth and you start to become a little bit, to some degree, heavenly minded. You're interested in the things of Christ and where he is.

And that has a converse effect on the things of the earth. It's like, well, such and such used to be really important. Well, it's not as important as it used to be because something has replaced it. and something of greater value has come in and replaced whatever seemed to be the value.

Donna has an insurance client and they had their Christmas party last night. It's very interesting. how some guy, one of the owners of the company, read something about earthly values. At the end of it, you know how those things go. Donna looks at me and I look at her.

But what it points out is that without this understanding, your value system is here. It's here. And most contemporary Christianity tries to make that the focus, that it's here. And that's what the law does, it keeps you here. Where in fact, what God would have you do, and his whole intent, is to become heavenly focus now. The view is a lot better from there. My house, Stanford, and I have this in my house, up on the wall, in the stairwell, there's a cross in there and it says, keep looking down for your life is hidden with Christ and God. You have to look from the perspective where God says you are.

Now, see if we can make the transition. Question 12, can you make a connection between what Christ is praying for here and what Paul is describing in Romans 6, 1-6. What the Lord Jesus is talking about here is a oneness with him where he is. Now, what Romans 6 tells us is what? The Lord Jesus in 17 says, here's Father, here's what I want to happen.

Here's what I want to do. Here's what I want you to do. I want them to be with me where I am. I want them to behold my glory. I want them to be one with me as I am one with you. So the Father says, okay, let's do that. So God has the mechanics of how he did it. And that's the link between John 17 and Romans 6, 1-6.

Romans 6.1-6 is how he's going to do it, or how he did do it, mechanically. The steps that he took to accomplish what Christ has asked for in John 17. Does that make sense to you?

And that's the whole purpose of the course, is identification. Because when the Lord Jesus says, Father that they may be one, with me as I am with you. He could have said, Father, that they may be identified with me as I am with you, that they may be just as I am with you. Identification has everything to do with oneness in Christ. That's the reason.

First of all, it was something that Christ wanted for every one of us, and now we're going to spend some time in discussing exactly how God did it, how did he pull it off, even though we were still here on the planet. So the first question I ask in Lesson 11 is, from a worldly viewpoint, what does burial prove? Are you with me? So we're going to study and spend some time starting at six for today. Maybe it seemed a little incongruous to go from Romans 6, 1-3 and then back to 17 and now back to 6.4.

But 6.4 says, Therefore we were buried with him by baptism. You know what, I'm going to read down through 1-6.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in them. Know ye not that as many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death, therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." So a couple of weeks ago when we were in 1-3, we talked about being baptized into Christ's death and that's the point in which we are identified with him and why.

Why that particular time? If you draw a timeline and you want to point to the very instant that we were identified or placed into Christ, it would be at the point of his death. Why? Why there? Why not before the cross or when he's suffering or at Gethsemane or I don't know? He took us on, took on our sin and death means separation, so he is separated from all of the Adamic sin natures and that's why we go in at that point. Now the next verse says, therefore we were buried with him in baptism into death.

So, you know, kind of a mundane question, but from a worldly viewpoint, what does burial prove has taken place? Bury live people, bury the dead ones. So, death and burial go together. The interesting thing about burial is that it's the last act between man and earth. That's the last thing that happens. After that there's nothing. So it proves that this death is real. That it really happened.

And that your death with Christ really happened because not only were you crucified with him, died with him, but you got buried with him too. It wouldn't make sense if he died and he got buried and you didn't. So the severing, the separation takes place. So what's God's object or aim in our being identified with Christ in this burial? What's his aim? Why would he do it? Well, his physical death is proved by burial and spiritual death. I mean that type of death, the death of the sin nature of the old man. It sets forth this incredible fact that we, I've used this term before, that Christ is a federal head of a race, that we federally died with him.

Early on when we started out in Genesis and we went through the like begets like kind of a thing, that we are what we are because we're all from Adam and we're like him because and his history is our history. Once you are identified with Christ, then your history changes. You no longer have a history in Adam. Now your history is whatever is true of Christ is true of you.

So, if your federal head died unto sin, then what happened to you? You died unto sin. You see that? Because you were in your federal head when that happened, just like you were in Adam when he sinned. It's the same principle. You see that? It's a principle that God put in place in Genesis, in the Garden of Eden. I don't care what the environmentalists say or the evolutionists say, you don't ever see flying pigs. You just don't see them. They're dreaming that they're out there someplace, but birds are birds, and human beings are human beings, and sinners are sinners.

Well, sons of God are sons of God, because their history is now Christ's history. That's why I think that God's aim and object to identify us with the burial of Christ was to show that that separation from Adam for all believers is a real thing. It really did happen. Now, I know what you're thinking. The last time I sinned, you couldn't prove to me that I died. So what's it come down to? Your experience or God's word? What does it come down to? It comes down to God's word, doesn't it? If he says you died, then you died.

And it doesn't matter how you feel about it. It's true. I say this a lot, you know, people say to me, well, you know, it took me a while to believe the gospel that Christ died for my sins. You know, and then I'm eternally secure and then it's all based on something somebody else did. And so I'm pretty settled down on that now. And I've been told that I'm to walk by faith. What am I supposed to believe? Well, this is a good one.

How much sense does it make for someone to tell you that when Christ was crucified you were there? It makes no sense at all. There's nothing in your experience that would say, yeah, that's true. So what do you have to do? You have to trust the Lord has come to that. And it has to come to that. That has to be the issue. Was I really buried with him or this sinning that I am doing? How does that work? Both can't be true. So verse tells us to take a look at what? What does verse tell us it took to raise Christ from the dead? Let's talk about that a little bit. What is that? If the verse says it took the glory of God, the Father, to raise Christ from the dead, what is God's glory? How would you describe it?

The sum total of his essence. So it took the sum total of his essence, his attributes, to raise Christ from the dead. I've read several places where authors have said that this is the greatest demonstration of power ever. Even greater than creation. Much greater than creation. Because it's the beginning of a new creation and it's dealing with the sin issue in the old creation. So it took the entire glory of God, all of his attributes, to raise Christ from the dead. Probably important. The reason it took all of that was I think because the action was designed to fully glorify God and in order to do that the sum total of his glory must be in play when he does that.

As you think about it, how many people were around at the resurrection? Nobody. Who saw it? Who saw the resurrection? Any human beings see it? No. But then people began to see Christ, and there he was. It wasn't an event that was, they didn't have film at 11. It was an event that was really pretty quiet when you think about it. But here's a demonstration of the glory of God and nobody on the earth knows it even happened. until Mary is the first one that goes to the tomb and sees that it is empty. Isn't that something? So God can demonstrate the fullness of his power without us ever seeing it, if he so desires.

So it is a spiritual event as much or more than it is a physical one. The end of verse 4 says, He raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also Walk in newness of life. Describe newness of life. What is it? The Greek word is kynotos, and kynos means to come into a new state of being. Both newness and life are nouns, but newness is the subject here, not life.

This is one of the keys, and then all of our deification stuff again. This is where most of the teachings and most of the efforts are in the wrong direction. This is new life in Christ. It doesn't say a repaired Adam, a fixed up Adam, a better Adam. It's new, and new in kind. And that's where everybody goes wrong. It's not a new, better, fixed up Adam.

It's a completely new creature. Was there this kind of life around before? There was, but it was hidden in Christ. So now here's this thing, this newness of life. Newness in the sense that it's newness never been around before. Characteristics the same as the old life? How about characteristically of the pre-fall Adamic life? Understand the question? Kind of like that? No. Not anything like that.

God created Adam, how? He breathed into Adam and Adam became a living soul, right? Is that true of the Lord Jesus? That God breathed into Christ and he became a living soul? What is he? He's eternal. And he's a life-giving spirit. The first man Adam is earthly, of the earth. The second man Christ is, where is he from? He's from heaven.

So this newness of life is a brand new thing that is totally different in every aspect of any human life that was ever around before. Even Adam's life before the fall. So many Christians think about, well, we're really headed back towards Eden and we're going to be innocent and everything's going to be cool again. No, we're not. This newness of life The characteristics of it are even different. One of the basic characteristics of the Adamic life was based on the principle of good and evil. Is there any good and evil in this life?

Alright, I'll make it easy. It's all good. There's no evil. So does that mean that it's all good? What do you think? Trick question. Is it good? But you're no longer in this good and evil category or tree. You've moved over to... What do they call the other tree? The tree of life. So there isn't any good and evil anymore. It's life. And there's no contrast. There's no contrast.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ his resurrected life or any life of his? on a contrasting basis. He was better on Thursday than he was on Monday. He was more glorious Friday. No. This newness of life is a full-on glory of God 24-7. All the time. And there is no contrast in it. The fullness of God manifested in a human being is what it is. That's the life. And it isn't calibrated. It isn't 20% and I'm getting better. None of that. You're either full on or full off. You see that? And that's the way the life is.

And it's hard because we're such good and evil, calibrated, doing better kind of thinking people. to recognize that this newness of life is a whole new thing with a whole new set of principles. It functions totally different than anything we're used to. I guess the point in all this too to remember is position and condition. These are positional truths. I think there's spiritual growth, so there is a change, conformity to Christ. What we're talking about is positional truth.

I may be better in ten years as far as my spiritual growth, my identification with him manifesting. Obviously he didn't agree with me. What was that bubbling noise? Well, I don't agree with Courtney. We gathered that. I think it's possible. that you have that life immediately. You don't have to wait ten years for it. I think you have the life. It's just our spiritual growth, though, I think, you know, my conformity to Christ, I don't think is immediate. I'm obviously a living proof that that's not, that doesn't happen. No, I'll talk to you right after the class. You don't have to worry. She knows that. I'm fully confessing that. All right.

Well, you see, you see here in Romans six, Paul says in ten years from now, Courtney's going to be in this position. No, this is positional truth. That's what I'm saying. This is positionally true of me right now. Well, if we went a little further in six, which we will discover. Yeah. Discovery says he doesn't say anything about.

But it's positional truth. That's my whole point. It's position versus condition. These are positional truths. It's true of me right now. This is exactly true of me right now. And my point is that that can be true of you today. You don't have to wait ten years. Let me ask a question here.

Is newness of life a manner of living? No, it's not, is it? No, it's life. So when you're talking position, it's just life. If you want to talk condition, the issue is, is the manifestation of that life functioning through me or not. And it's not by degrees. It's not by degrees.

Now, when we get a little farther, we'll talk about Can a young believer, six months old, manifest the fullness of Christ? To his capacity he can. Because you either walk in the Spirit full on or you don't. But a guy like Hal Malloy walking in the Spirit manifests to a greater degree that fullness of life than a brand new believer would.

But it's still the fullness of the life. So it's not a manner of living, it's life. Do you see the difference? We think always in the manner of living. We always want to know how this is going to work out in the manner of living. And that's not the way this is. This is spiritual life that's full and complete in itself. And you have it all. If you grow spiritually, you're not getting more than you had last week. You see that? But that's what I'm saying. These are positional. This is true of me right now.

The first ten verses of Romans are nothing but position. When we get to condition we'll talk some more about that. And it's interesting that position always comes first. You've got to have a position in place before there's any exhortation from God that maybe based on all that I've done and all that you are, maybe this ought to show up. Maybe this ought to be what you're about in your life and you're walking around.

Doesn't part of it come back to the difference between a believer and how? It's just the fact that they don't know. It comes back to known reckoning. A new believer doesn't know everything like what Hal knew. It's just the fact that you have to know before you can believe. That's mainly just the difference. I mean, the physicians are saying, there's just a difference between, since they're new, they don't know all the truths. Yeah, I mean, the most ignorant young believer, all of this is true of him or her. There are principles in place here. One is that you've got to know.

You've got to know, because if you don't know, then you don't have an object for your faith. If you don't know, for instance, that this identification event took place, that you were crucified with Christ, you don't know that, then how can you believe it? And if you can't believe it, how can you walk in it? Now it doesn't mean that the life of Christ isn't going to be manifested through you to a degree, but it isn't going to be resurrected life in the sense of being able to deal with circumstances. But it's true of every believer position. You've got to know it, that's the first thing, and then you have to believe it. There are believers around that know some of these things and don't buy it. They just don't believe it.

And we'll talk, maybe not today, but next week, about those who think that the sin nature was eradicated, rather than you being separated from it, that it got wiped out. If that's your viewpoint, where are you going to grow spiritually? Because if that isn't the truth, and you believe it, what's going to happen?

Nothing. You can believe that Buddha Believe whatever you want, but nothing is going to conform you to the image of Christ other than beholding his glory because he is truth. So it's got to be clear, I think. So there's a knowing. Now, do you have a greater apprehension of truth as you go along? I think so. I think you do because you have greater capacity.

Probably the example of that would be the thief on the cross versus Paul. Both positionally with Christ, yes. But knowledge of Christ's word, there's a difference. And that's what happens in our life as we go. I mean, so to that degree, yes, there is a difference, a growth that is visible. I have viewed spiritual growth as capacity. That's the way I look at it. That you're expanded to contain more of Christ. I think your point is exactly true. Knowing, I mean, I may take 10 years, you may take a week. He's taken more than a week.

But I mean, you know, I confess that for 20 years of knowing a lot of facts, but not knowing a lot of these identification truths. I think the growth has started from knowing of these identification truths. So I had 20 years of, as I call it, the flat forehead. I mean, hitting my head on the wall and doing that.

But until knowing these things and reckoning, that's when I hope... The whole purpose of this class is so that a person like Don Well, no, and not take as long as a person like Ben did. Or Courtney. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I've got years on this. But Laura's right, it's the knowing and it may take 10 years or more or whatever for the These are positional. This is true of me, but my manifestation of that or my my knowledge and reckoning upon that may take years.

But Courtney, if you look at what the first four said, you know, it says we were buried with it. It's in that it's an event that happened now. That's both a positional truth and it could be a conditional truth. There's nothing there in these first 10 verses that says, well, you've got to be patient. Well, no, I think these are more. That's my point. I think these are more positional. In other words, if we had been taught these things at an earlier age.

I think, as I said last week, I think Romans 6.6 is the most misunderstood one. As I was saying, he says grace.

I think Romans 6.6 is the most misunderstood. The crucified old man and this newness of life. That you don't realize that. I mean that's the whole point of this identification. That's what I'm saying. Once you get this, this is where growth starts. It is from this very point that you know that there is newness of life.

Rather than the old man and fixing him up. Which you know I did for 20 years. And once this, as I've expressed to Mike, I have more peace, more all this that he's told me I have now, because I reckon upon the knowledge of Romans 6. Well, all I'm saying is I don't want the young people in this room to have license to take as long as you did. Yeah, that you have to take 20 years. No, exactly right. The word doesn't say that you can't know this right now. No, I agree with you. For you young people, right now, you can have this. Let's add one more factor. How do you know spiritual truth? It's a huge factor.

And if you take a look at 2 Corinthians 3.18, the very last phrase is even as by the Spirit of God. The beholding of the glory of the Lord, reflected out of the Word, with unveiled face, is an exercise that the Spirit of God does.

It's His job. Now, no fair saying, well, I'm waiting. No, because that's what he likes to do. It's at the very top of his list. The problem I see with believers is that they don't think that that's what he's up to. In other words, when they open up their Bible and someone says, you know, the next time you open up your Bible, go in there to behold the glory of the Lord. So they open it up and they're looking. And they really don't expect and have the faith necessary to say, well you know what, God said it so, I'm going to spend some time in here. I expect the Holy Spirit to reveal the glory of Christ to me, right now.

Why not? Why not? You should expect him to, because that's what he said he's going to do. Or you can't take a step back and say, I'm looking. No, no. You have to take God at his full on word. What he says he has done and is going to do, practically he's going to do. But if you don't believe him, Hang out.

The great thing about the lack of faith for believers is, when you don't have it, that isn't the end. The Spirit of God never stops. And I think Ben's right in the sense that if you know these facts, and you know what the work of the Spirit is, and you know what's going down, why wouldn't you believe it? And when you believe it, all the pieces are in place for you to do what?

You hold the glory of the Lord. The great thing about Romans 6 is what it tells us succinctly and precisely is that all the barriers that were there between you and God are now gone. And they're gone because you were included in that death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. If they weren't gone, then you wouldn't, you know, we're just getting smoke and mirrors. But there isn't any step that God has left untendered, that would keep you from beholding the glory. Nothing. And it starts out with knowing. And not only do you know the facts, but you know the principles, and you know how God works.

That's correct. A lot of people, some people can know, and it takes more than a while for them to reckon and believe. Well, hey, you know, this is really true. I'm glad I know it. It's kind of cool stuff to know. It's like the day that I got saved, I remember these guys kept saying to me, do you know what we're saying to you? And I said, yeah, it's real clear to me. Do you believe it? I think I do. I think it's true. Do you believe it for you? I'm not sure about that.

You're telling me that if I believe that Christ died for my sins that he will save me for all eternity? I know the facts very clearly and I think they're true, but I'm not so sure they're true of me. Is the fact that you were included in Christ, you were baptized into his death and you were buried with him and resurrected with him, is that true of you personally? Did that really happen to you? Yeah. Did you buy it for you?

Or can't you ever stop thinking about Oh, that sin just comes back. Why would it be there if I was dead? How come I keep kicking the dog every time I see him? The music starts playing and my feet are moving. I don't understand that. If I'm dead, it shouldn't be happening. So what have you done? Instead of believing God, you're trusting your experience. That's the work of the Spirit to get you to the point where you say, Keep moving or not, I believe God. Anyway, we'll spend time, probably a couple of weeks, more on what I would call implementation. Now we're dealing with mostly facts. So, easy question.

Is there a difference between the resurrection of Christ and newness of life and the coming forth of Lazarus from the grave? What's the difference? It was a new kind of life. It was a pretty low life. Come back to the same old dance, right? Same old life. Not newness. Not new kind of life.

My heart goes out to Lazarus. If he's thinking clearly, he's got to be thinking, my goodness, I've got to go through this again. I've got to die again. I think that's why Jesus wept. So we can say that Christ was the firstborn. From the dead, that's where he came from, because that's where Lazarus was, even though he was raised back into death. And the first fruits of them that slept.

So if we're baptized into Christ's death, what involvement do we have with him when he's raised in newness of life? Do we have involvement with him? Or did he leave us someplace? He was going along in his death thing and he said, well, I haven't got room, Karen, you have to jump out.

Now, once you're united to Christ, then all of the events are true of you that are true of him. Do you see that? Just like those that are in Adam, all the events of Adam are true of all those that are in him. Do you see that? Because that's the way God set it up. And I think it's really cool.

When you first study being identified with Adam in Romans 5.12, and by one man sin entered the world and we all died and that kind of thing, you think well gee that isn't fair. Well okay, think about it what you want. But look at the principle, the same principle holds true once you get united to Christ. How fair is that? Not fair either.

But you get all that Christ is. because now you're united with him. It's a good thing God put that principle in place, because if he didn't, then it would depend on you. I think that's what a lot of believers want, that dependence on me. I grew up in a church and I've never heard these things until now and these things that we're learning are not things that most believers want to be true of them being identified with Christ, you know, sacrilegious, you know, you're putting yourself in this God position, I'll just hang out with Adam and it's like, but that's what his prayer was in John 17 that we would be the same with him so that we would have that close fellowship and it just seems to be most believers don't want that, they just don't I like this grace and the salvation and I get to go to heaven and that's a really great part, but my life here and the condition that I'm in, I don't want to live in that position.

Yeah, it's a scary thought to have someone tell you, you died. Yeah. And you know why it's scary? Because my free will is going to die with it. I'm not going to be able to decide anymore. All that I know myself to be, is that what died? The answer is yes. and there isn't any liberty in that. See the problem is that when you live in the flesh you are in bondage and you don't see liberty.

So the Lord comes along and begins to explain about liberty which is resurrected life and what does your old Adamic man want? He wants all the benefits but he still wants bondage under the guise of I got my rights. And so liberty is a very tough thing to arrive at and realize that wow, the cool thing about being resurrected with Christ is that I'm free. And I'm free to do the thing that I most desire to do and that desire comes from this new resurrected life and that's to serve God. The old man says, as long as I can stay active, I'll serve, I'll reckon, I'll believe, I'll do all of those things. But it's still about me. The new man resurrected in Christ is free from all of those impediments.

And does he have to really try hard to move ahead? No. The Lord Jesus doesn't have to try hard in the morning to decide whether he's going to glorify God today. It's part of the life. So the liberty, the freedom of resurrection I think is the hardest part to learn. Because initially you think well it's going to take away some from my identity and my free will like you had some and my ability to decide and choose and all of those cool things that the flesh thinks it ought to hang on to. where the new man, the resurrected man in Christ, freely wills for God's will.

That's what he's about. He's a free man, a really free man, because he can do the thing that he so desires to do. The man in the flesh can't. He's still trying really hard and he's not willing to give up that last little piece of what he thinks is self-identity. See that? What a subtle trapdoor that is. Self-identity. I'll believe as long as I can hang on to my self-identity. All right. A question.

First Corinthians 6.17, you don't have to turn to him, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. So you are joined unto the Lord, you are one spirit with him.

Philippians 3.20-21, for our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is your citizenship heavenly? Because you voted. And we're from him. That's a much better way to say it than there. Understand what I'm saying? You're from him. And whatever he is, you are. He's the heavenly man.

How many Christians do you talk to and start talking to them about their heavenly destiny and they're still looking for, you know, earthly castles and heaven and there's a place for self gratification. Because I have this newness of life, my whole existence for all eternity is going to be different than those Jewish guys. And it is, because of this newness of life. Is Christ going to What's Christ going to do for all eternity?

Make it easy. What's he going to do in the millennial kingdom? Ruin reign. What are you going to do? Whatever he's doing, that's what you're doing. Right? Because you're of him. So what is our identity with the sin nature in the whole sphere of the first Adamic life now? What's your identity with it? What's your relationship to it?

You don't have any. You don't have any. Is that a fact? That's true? Now this is where the rubber meets the road. That's why I keep bringing up, well the last time you sinned, you denied this truth. Didn't you? Didn't you? You see why sin is really called lack of faith? Because if this is true and you believe it, what are you sinning about? Because the real issue is if you died, it would be like us wanting to spend the afternoon with Hal Molloy. Why can't we? Why would you spend the afternoon with sin? Why would you? You are as separated from sin as Hal Molloy is from this planet.

Because that's what the word says. You see that? I see the faces, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, right. We got close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your truth and how we are so dependent on you to teach us really how separated we are and how united we are to your resurrected Son. And we thank you, we pray in his name. Amen.