Freed from sin we live resting in God's Grace (Lesson 12)

OK. How far did I get last time? You know, Peggy. No, not this time. Was it nine or ten? I think it's eight because I'm using two different colors. I only have one color for me. OK. I'm trying to set the stage here to do a little preamble. Last week we kind of got moved over into the responsibility end. We're not there yet. We're talking only position until we get to verse 11. So I want you to concentrate until we get to 11 regarding the position and the grace that the Spirit of God is teaching us now.

Because if the grace isn't in place, then you don't get the responsibility part, right? Do you understand that? The grace has to be there first, because grace is the thing that motivates believers to reply to and respond to what God would have us do. So the grace has got to be there.

So as we're going through these verses, these are incredibly gracious verses, because they are They are God telling us what he has done about this whole issue of sin. S-I-N. So you said 7 or 8? 7. Which means we are in verse 8. Romans 6, 8. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. My question in 7 was, why does verse 8 say that we are to believe we shall also be living with him?

In other words, up to this time, we've talked a little bit about resurrection life, but not a lot. And the point here is that there's a positive side to all of this. There's the death side and there's a resurrection side. And the resurrection side and the death side are both learned together. A lot of people think, well I'm learning the death side now, I'm going to learn the life side. No, you learn them together. They're learned together. Death under the old man, life in Christ. You don't, oh I'm dying, dying, dying this week and next week I'll be alive, alive, alive. No, you learn them together. A couple of quotes, one from F.D. Meyer.

Whosoever has died with Christ is now also of the belief that his life, i.e. the positive, active side of his moral being and nature, shall be in fellowship of life with the exalted Christ. That is, shall be able to be nothing else than this. Isn't that a cool statement? That we would be nothing else than alive in Christ. Rotherham said, if you were jointly died with Christ, we believe that you also would jointly live with him. And Coinbearer says that if you have shared his death, We believe that we should also share his life.

And I can't overemphasize enough. I don't think that it's both sides of the equation all the time. Now, there may be a time when you're the focus is on death to the old man because he's very active. But that death isn't. I say God didn't crucify us and just leave us. And he doesn't, in our understanding, he just doesn't work on the death side and leave you there.

The resurrection side replaces all of that and that is what comes in and causes us to live positionally in Christ. Does that make sense? So, question eight. What is the reason given for this assurance that we shall keep on sharing his risen life? And the answer is in verse nine.

I thought it was only me. Thank you. I'm sitting downstairs this morning going over this thing. And I thought I had this in the wrong place. I should be in verse four, right? I've shoveled too much snow in the last two days. Okay, that's all right. Verse four.

Actually, it's the same message. Therefore, we were buried with him in baptism, by baptism unto death. that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we should walk in newness of life. Should walk in newness of life, the word means to grow together. What do you think the source and energy of this walk is?

All right. That's the question, right? Back on track. Hard for me to be ahead of myself. So what does it mean? What do you think is the source and energy of this walk? Well, certainly not us. Okay, that's a given. And there is a source and there is an energy. What is it? Our union, our identity with Christ. Well, that's the mechanics, but what's the source?

Well, Christ. It's the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which you don't find out until Romans 8. But he is the source of the life. Paul the Apostle said, for me to live is Christ. See that? For me to live is Christ. It's not for me to live Christ is helping me. It's not that. We talked a lot here about the whole idea of identification is union.

Now, it's interesting, you can say, well, I used to be united to my old man, my old sin nature, and so when I sinned it was his fault, right? I can blame him because it's my sin nature that's doing the sinning, isn't that right? It's sin that's in me. If that's true then could you say the same thing about walking in the spirit that you don't have any responsibility? No. When you have union with Christ, resurrected Christ, the relationship is such that the responsibility is fulfilled by you. Through the work of the spirit, through you. That's how it happens.

And we're to walk in this newness of life. Now, I said last week, what's the noun in newness of life? Is it life? Is the life that's new? In that sentence, what's the noun? Everybody know what a noun is? A noun is the subject of the sentence. What are we talking about? If we said we should walk in newness of life, which is the noun?

Newness or life? Newness. Why newness? Life isn't the now. Life describes the newness. Why newness? Because he's trying to describe coming into a new state of being. It isn't just ordinary life, it's a brand new creation. It's entire newness that we live in. And the descriptive word of newness is life. It isn't the descriptive word of life is newness. The life isn't new. Everything is new. The creation is new. You don't find that out in Romans, but that's really what it is. If anybody be in Christ, what's the deal? He's a new creation. He has more than just new life. He's an entirely new creation. Question 9, verse 6, knowing can mean coming to know or you should know. How do you come to know these facts? What facts do you come to know? Somebody read verse 6.

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Okay, so interesting in terms of principles, in order for the believer to be spiritually savvy, what's the first thing that's got to happen? He's got to know something, right? Isn't that the first thing?

You've got to know. If you don't know, then you don't have any object for your faith. So Paul says, knowing this, What are you supposed to know here? And there's an assumption here that you're learning it but that you should already know it too. This is not something that's big news. Highly spiritual people only get this. Every Christian knows this. What is it that you're supposed to know? No. Think about that. Don't say that. It's very subtle.

That your old man has been crucified. So what does crucified mean? Maybe put it this way. The Lord Jesus was made sin for us, right? What that means is that Your sin nature and my sin nature, the thing that we are, or you were in Adam's sin, was identified with him. Just like we're identified now with the resurrected Christ, he was identified on the cross with sin. Stuck to him. So that as God viewed him now, viewed him as sin.

So when he dies, what happens? What's the word death mean? Separation. What separates from what? What about the relationship between the Lord Jesus and sin? What happened there? Christ separated from sin. He separated from sin when he died. Where were you? You were in him. Because verse 3 says we were baptized into his death, right? So here we are in him, he's made sin, because we're in him, and then he dies under sin, what happens to you? So do you. Sin nature died? No. Who died? You did. You got separated. You see that? Nothing ceased to exist in that sense, you were just separated. So knowing that your old man was crucified or this separation took place, and what's the reason given why it was done?

That the body of sin might be destroyed. Okay, what's the body of sin? It's in nature. The total sin issue. And when King James uses the word destroyed, we bring it back to done away with, which is okay. Mine has a little, it says rendered inoperative. That's a much better way to look at it. It's rendered inoperative. Now think about this.

And this is one of those great truths that Hal was really good at teaching because he was an engineer, electrical type. He said so that the body of sin might be taken offline, that the switch would be disengaged. It doesn't mean that the sin nature went anywhere, it means that you got separated. And if you got separated from the sin nature, then what does it do? to the sin nature.

It doesn't destroy it, like the word the King James, but it does take it offline. It does render it inoperable. The store is closed, so to speak. So it can't be producing what it wants to produce, which is sin. So God's remedy for your sin nature and my sin nature is not to destroy you and not to destroy the sin nature. His remedy is to disconnect you from it. even though it's still active within you. Now, what's the problem if you buy the theology that it got eradicated? What's the problem with that? Other than the fact that the word doesn't teach that, but what's the problem? What's the problem with it? If that's your view?

I mean there's a lot of them. If you say the sin nature was obliterated, Then why are we still sinning? Then how come you're still sinning? The one nature guys say, well, it's because I have these memories and habits and ultimately it's Satan's fault, you know. And here's another problem.

The word specifically says that I have been crucified to the world, to Satan, right? And to the law. Did the law, Satan and the world go somewhere? Did they get obliterated? No they didn't. So the same phraseology about my position to the world, to Satan, to the law is exactly the same relationship I had to sin. None of those went anywhere so neither did sin. I just got separated from it through the death of Christ. So the last part of the verse is so that I would no longer do what?

Be a slave. Be a slave to sin. Oh, you Americans, you have a tough time with this one, because you don't understand what slavery is. You don't realize that when you were attached to that sin nature, you thought, because the Constitution told you, that you were free. And you were making all these wonderful decisions about your future and your destiny, right? No, wrong. The sin nature controls you, you're in slavery, and if it says go left, you go left.

How much freedom does a non-believer have? Do you have a free will? No, but he is free. You know what he is free to do? Pick between this sin and that sin. That is as far as it goes. So when you are identified with Christ's death on the cross and this separation takes place, now you are really free. See that? You're really free. The sin nature is still doing its dance. Anybody read Watch from These Normal Christian Life? It's a good book. I recommend it. He makes a great analogy.

He said it's like an old sailing ship in which the captain of the ship is a tyrant and there's a mutiny and they get rid of him as captain and they tie him up to the mast just because they want to keep an eye on him, right? A big storm hits the ship and jumping around all over the place and the captain is yelling orders to everybody. And as people run by him they hear his voice and they're used to his voice. And there's a tendency to obey him because they're used to him being the captain. But he isn't the captain anymore.

That's like the sin nature. You've been separated from it, but every time the storm hits, you're listening. It's like when the music starts, how come my feet are moving? They shouldn't be moving, but they are. Because I'm so used to the music. You see that?

But the point is that God says, no wait, you know this. that your old man was crucified. And the reason that I did that was so that you would no longer serve sin. That sin and all of its activity would be taken offline. Other than being in Christ, is there any greater news that a believer can receive? I don't think so. I don't think so.

Because God now has explained to us not only that he has resolved the penalty for our sins, But he has solved the other big issue, which is the strength of sin, the power of sin. And he did it by crucifying me. Identifying me with the death of Christ. When he died, I died. When he got separated from sin, so did I. Now, I like to say this a lot, we're supposed to walk by faith?

That's a good one to believe right there. That's a really good one. You know, to believe just those facts. Because that's all they are, facts, right? Are they true? Does it matter whether you experience this as being true in your life or not? No, these are positional facts. These are true no matter how you relate to them. They're true. You did, your old man was crucified. Absolutely tremendous news, I think.

I asked the question tend to describe your old man. You know what? You don't need to be spending any time with him. He's got his own desires, less ambitions, hopes, judgments. And you're all very familiar with your old man. You don't need to be educated about him.

It's like. When John was born and Donna was convinced that he was the only kid that ever hit the planet without a sin nature, right? Except for the Lord Jesus. You know what happened? John proved her wrong. You know why? Because he's got the nature. Does the old man being crucified mean that he's obliterated, eradicated, gone forever? We talked about that. Question 12. Have you counted yourself so incorrigibly bad that it has to have to be crucified? What do you think? Have you ever thought about that? That you count yourself so bad that God did the right thing about you. What do you think? I think that's one of the hallmarks of a growing believer is they come to realize, you know, they become joyful in their heart that God really did do the right thing.

He didn't fix me up. He isn't making me better. No matter how many spiritual push-ups I do, I'm not getting any better. So what has he done? He crucified me and thank you Lord, that was the right thing to do. The realization of that I think is part of spiritual growth. Otherwise we really try to be better than we were yesterday in the flesh. Can the flesh act and do good things? What do you think? It depends on who's viewpoint. From human viewpoint yes your flesh can do good things. Not from your viewpoint. But from your positional viewpoint no. No it can't. And that's what I mean.

What's the biggest problem in contemporary Christianity? We're going to have a vote. What do you think it is? What's the biggest problem in most churches, including this one? This is uncriticized, it's just an observation. What is it? What do you think it is? The badness of all the Christians? What is it?

I think it's like, you think you're helping God out by living the Christian life. Anybody else? You know what mine is. Romans 6, 6 and the crucifix. Trying to fix up the old man. That's right. Everybody tries to fix up the old man. I think the biggest problem in Christianity is the goodness of the Christian. I really do. Because we're all so good. We're just really good. God is really helping us to be better. That's our biggest problem.

Well if we were so good how come we needed to be crucified? So you think well gee I want to avoid as best I can any acquaintanceship with the badness of my sin nature but I have had some experience. But how about running into your own goodness and realizing that that got crucified and needs to be crucified too. Because, what did God do? Go back to the Garden of Eden. Remember when we were talking about the two trees? What's the one tree that Adam is? It's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not almost bad stuff and really bad stuff. It's good and evil. And most Christians, when they get saved, they take this little trip from the evil branches over to the good ones. Who did the Lord Jesus say he was?

The tree of life. That's a different existence altogether. And for believers, to realize that they need to get out of that tree, take a little trip down the garden and get up in the tree of life is a real revelation to them. Because their sin nature will convince them they're good in that wrong tree. I read, I pray, I believe, I study, I write checks, I do a lot of good stuff. That's okay. Wrong source. And so don't be surprised as you grow spiritually that someday you take a look at something you thought was kind of pretty good in your life but because your sin nature was the motivator of it, it spoiled it. Because the resurrected life of Christ is totally sacrificial. It takes no credit. No credit at all. You don't get any, sorry. And only the sin nature wants that credit.

Have you ever experienced that? I experienced that a lot. When you're a teacher like me, sometimes somebody will come up and say, oh man, what a great job you did. And what happens inside? Huh? I'm good. No I'm not. No I'm not. I mean, in anything you do, somebody comes up at your appointment and says, oh boy, you really did well today. Who's the first one to slap you on the back? You are! That's Adam. That's sin.

I think it's one of those ones, the barometer I always think of too, is if when I'm doing something, if I think it's just going to make God smile a little bit more. If I just do this, God will be happy with me because I get totally the wrong motive. Or that if I do something, God will reward me for it or whatever. That's purely selfish, even though I think I'm doing it for the Lord. If it's anything that will merit, it's wrong. There's this thing in Christianity called merit mentality.

How many of you, and I don't want to put you on the spot, but how many of you have done something in your Christian life in order to increase your standing with God? Or to get a little bit more blessing today than you had yesterday? You ever had those thoughts? Yeah, me too, all the time. What's the problem with that? Is there anything you can do to increase your standing? Why not? Because it's all been done. All your standing in Christ, Christ Jesus is the fullness of God. And what does it say you are? You're complete in Him. So what can you add to that?

But the sin nature will convince you on the good side of the tree That, oh, you know, I haven't thought about the Lord as much today as I should have. I cut the quiet time short by 15 seconds and, oh, you know, I've got to crank 15 more seconds tomorrow. God will really be happy with me if I do. And I'm going to feel a lot better. What's the problem with that?

Why do you do anything as a believer that's Spirit motivated? It's based on the grace that you already have. what God has already done. When you're reading Romans 6, are you doing something? How many Christians have you ever run into and say, hey, how's it going? And they say, I'm trying to die to myself. You ever heard that? What's the problem with that?

You're either dead or you're not. It wasn't your death that caused anything. It was Christ's death that did everything. And you got included in it by his grace alone, right? So what do you contribute? Zippo, not a thing. Because your pleasingness to God is based on Christ, not you. The thing that gets confused in here is then, what does it mean to live the Christian life or whatever. I guess when you take this, a lot of people take this and say, I just sit in a room and do nothing.

The flip side is spiritual growth and maturity is just being who you are in Christ. It's like you said, Christ didn't wake up every day and go, well I've got to do this and the reason for this is because it was who he was and that's the Christian life and the spiritual maturity is being who you are in Christ. a merit base, it's just who you are in Christ. As you become more aware of the growth in Christ, it's who you are. It's not something you have to think about or whatever. It's just who you are. That's what you do in your Christian life. It's who you are in Christ.

It's based on God's grace. The thing about God's grace, we were studying God's grace on Tuesday, and the definition we arrived at was that God's grace is unlimited, unmerited, blessings from God based solely on the adequate work of Christ. So if you can't add anything to it, and it's totally unlimited, the more you use it, the more there is, And it's never based on anything you did. And once you sort of enter into grace, you get into the river, so to speak, of grace, what do you do?

You just take it. You just use it. You receive it. That's all you do. And what can you do once you even entertain the thought that you're going to help out the grace, you're out of it. See that? You're out of it. And what a motivator it is. As God's grace overwhelms you, and then he comes to you and says, I would like you to do A. Are you going to think it over? I don't think so. The grace is the thing that motivates us because what God has given us and what he continues to do with us is so overwhelming we couldn't, of our own actions, live up to anything that he's already done already anyway.

That's the hard thing. Yet we think, and you have to come to this realization that this merit mentality I have was part of this crucifixion. The old man is the one who thinks merit is merit based. That guy got crucified. Merit based isn't what I'm about anymore. I'm about living in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. That's it.

Chester Macaulay says grace is the greatest motivator in the world and I can certainly see why he says that. When a lost person comes to understand the grace of God presented to him about his salvation, what motivates him to respond? It's the grace that does it. It's the goodness of God's heart that leads a man to repentance. You see that? It's grace. A believer who is struggling with the power of his sin nature, and the Spirit shows him this, and he sees the grace, is he going to have any trouble responding to that? Not at all, because he sees the grace.

The last question I have there is, why wouldn't dying to yourself be appropriate in the light of this verse? A lot of dying to yourself fanatics hang their hat on 1 Corinthians 15. where Paul said, I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. So what the viewpoint is, it kind of comes from the Romish church that I'm dying daily to sin. So what is the great message of 1 Corinthians 15? That I already died. I've already been buried and I've already been resurrected.

So if you look at 30, when Paul is talking about he stands in Jeopardy every hour and that kind of thing, what is he talking about there? He's not talking about an inward struggle with sin in these verses. He's talking about the jeopardy he finds himself in, in terms of the outward pressure upon him because he preaches the gospel. His life is in jeopardy every single day. You see that?

Now, earlier in 2 Corinthians, later in 2 Corinthians he talks about that death works in me so that there might be life in you. So the death of the cross is a principle that the spirit of God works into a believer for what purpose? So that you might feel better? No, so that you might be a fit vessel to communicate resurrected life to somebody else. Because if you communicate or try to communicate it out of the goodness of the old man, it's polluted. So there must be this working of the cross on a conditional basis, not positional, on a conditional basis in your life every day, so that there will be the reproduction of the resurrected life of Christ in others. You okay with that?

We're streaking on to the next group. Okay, question one, lesson twelve. Anybody got a twelve? Nobody wants a twelve? And I've also got a 13 up here too. Lesson 12, Romans 6.6-6.10. The first question I asked was, is the following statement true? If I did not die with Christ on the cross, I cannot be living in him. risen from the dead, but I'm still back in the old Adam at which I was born.

True or false? What do you think? True or false? Question confusing? I don't ask confusing questions. The answer is true. It is a true statement. If I did not die with Christ on the cross, if that's true, I can't be living with him risen from the dead. True? I can't be. But I'm still back in the old Adam in which I was born. True statement. Now, I'm going to say something else that's kind of a complicated statement. I'm trying to think of where I got this as a great statement.

Perhaps no more difficult task No task requiring such constant, diligent attention is assigned by God to the believer. It is a stupendous thing, this matter of taking note of and keeping in mind what goes so completely against consciousness that our old man was crucified. These words are addressed to faith, to faith only. Christ died once, once for all unto sin. He is not now dying continually. So I'm not told to do my own dime. If this is not true, if Romans 6 isn't true, then you have to conclude that I'm backing my old ad. Isn't that right? I mean, it's a fairly simple, logical statement.

Question two we've already talked about. Question 3, verse 7. In verse 7, what does being freed or justified from sin mean? Verse 7, let me read verse 7. For he that is dead is freed from sin. So what does freed mean? Yeah. There used to be this word justified. Some of your translations will say justified. I was reading someplace about a Scotland hundred years ago. Some guy committed a crime and he was executed. The paper read today. Joe Smith was justified. Wait a minute. What does that mean? Well, he that is freed is what? For he that is justified is free from sin. Joe was justified, he's free now. He died. So this is a very bold statement. If you're dead, you're free from sin.

Are you? What do you think? God telling you the truth? Or is this a smoke and mirrors deal? Is he telling you the truth? Did you really die to sin? What do you think? You're going to say, well if you would have said it, I better not say no. Did you really die? I mean that's a big question. The next time that sin is banging your door down, you have to ask that question. Did I die to this thing or did not? This verse says, he that is dead is free from sin. Statement, you're free. Music's playing, my feet are moving, am I free from sin? Yeah, I am, because I died.

So, what is your relationship to sin? Do you have one? Do you have a relationship to sin? Do you? Do you? Do you? Do you have a relationship to sin? Simple, yes or no. How many say yes I do? How many say no I don't? Nobody back here raised their hand. What is your relationship to sin? Do you consider death a relationship? Nope. You don't have one. You have no relationship to sin. None.

Now I know what you're thinking. The last time I sinned I had a lot of relationship with sin, right? What's the word of God say? You're free. You have no relationship to sin. Positionally. Understand what I mean by that? Which is fact? Position or condition? Always. So your condition never influences your position. Never.

You're free from sin no matter what you do, no matter how you think about it, no matter how you react to it. The word of God says that you're dead and because you're dead you're separated from sin. You're free. It doesn't matter what influence conditionally sin has upon you. The truth is you're dead to sin.

Is that gracious? Awesomely gracious. So does being justified or freed from sin mean sinless perfection in the believer? Yes or no? These are really easy questions. You only have one of two choices, yes or no. It does not mean that it is sinless perfection.

We can use John as an example. I prefer to look in the mirror. Going back on one, the freed part, back to the Greek part, it was a perfect passive indicative. Which again, the passive part always, what did you do? Nothing. That's the point I always like. There's nothing, you did nothing. It was all done to you. And perfect is what? Completed past? Let's say that again, the perfect tense is an action in the past with abiding results.

So one of the things that are worked out here in these verses is the position and conditional aspect of them. They're positionally true, but it doesn't, like I said before, it doesn't mean that the sin nature went anywhere. It's like he didn't get the word. You know what I mean? As a matter of fact, maybe he did get the word and he's trying to prove God wrong by upping the ante a little bit. And we still live in unredeemed bodies in a sinful world. And like James says, our temptation to sin comes from our own desires. That sin nature didn't go anywhere, but you're separated from it.

It's like believers are two nature people. You've got two entities or two lives functioning within you. It's like being a paranoid schizophrenic. That they're vying for control. The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. They are contrary one to another so I'm not able to do that which I would. But if I walk in the spirit, what happens? I can't fulfill the desires of the flesh.

The problem with the sin nature is it's got these desires to express itself through the body of the believer. And just because this crucifixion happened and the separation happened doesn't mean that it's going to stop being active. It's going to be just as active.

As a matter of fact, I think even more so. Because now that you kind of get it, you're going to be dangerous as a believer. Because now your viewpoint and your faith is focused on your death, burial and resurrection with Christ and now you're usable. So you're subject to a little bit more pressure I think than you were if you didn't know this information and you didn't believe it. You see that? So the sin nature is going to get ratcheted up and it's usually for believers in the good realm so that you'll do more good stuff, you get wrapped up in the works so you don't have to behold the glory of the Lord.

So the point is that God makes definitive statements about who we are, about what's happening, and we're not talking about the Methodist viewpoint of sinless perfection. Although positionally, are you a sinner anymore? If God says that you got separated from the sin nature, is this a true statement?

You can say, Mike Doyle, safe sinner. True statement? No. No. Mike Doyle, son of God. Not a sinner, positionally. Conditionally I might, and do, sin. The last person I happen to meet that is now sinlessly perfect is Hal Moley, because I ain't here anymore. Alright, verse 8 tells us, does verse 8 tell us to take for granted that we died with Christ? Does verse 8 tell us that? Are we to take it for granted that we died with Christ?

How many think, yeah we are. How many think, well that's a little presumptuous. What do you think? Yes you are. You are to take it for granted. That you died. That your old man was crucified. Yes I am. And I don't care how presumptuous it sounds. Is that if being since? It is since. It's a first class conditional phrase. It means it's since. So I can take it for granted. I can function based on the fact that I died. No matter what my experience is.

So why does verse 8 then, that believers shall also be living with him? Hey, I'm back to where we started. And I read that what Mayer said, whosoever has died with Christ is now also of the belief that his life, i.e. the positive active side of his moral being and nature, shall be a fellowship of life with the exalted Christ. Coimbra said if you share the death of Christ we believe that we shall also share his life. I think that one of the issues with believers who start to enter into these identification truths that they were crucified with Christ because they don't know any other life yet, they're waiting or they're thinking that's why the goodness part comes in. Resurrected life in Christ is a brand new thing. It's an entirely new thing that functions based on a whole new set of principles. It isn't good and evil now, it's holiness.

It isn't attempting to obtain acceptance, it's based on already being accepted. It isn't based on any sort of merit, it's based on receiving the grace that God has already provided. And the natural man will tell you, oh that's apathy. No it's not. The Lord Jesus runs the entire universe from a position of rest. And really the Christian life is to be lived from a position of rest, not anxiety, rest. And things get done spiritually by those who are at rest, not those who work really hard. Being at rest doesn't mean you don't toil anymore, you do.

As a matter of fact, Paul from the position of rest worked so hard for 32 years he wore his body out. Because spiritual activity, your material body isn't designed to be able to handle all the spiritual activity that God intends to do through you. Your body won't be able to keep up. You'll be spent. But you'll do it from a position of rest. Isn't that cool? No naps for you, buddy.

So what's the reason given for this assurance that we shall keep on sharing the risen life of Christ? The answer is in verse 9. Knowing that Christ having been raised from among the dead isn't going to die anymore. Death over him no longer has any dominion. Isn't that cool? The reason you know that you're going to live resurrectedly is because Death doesn't have any dominion over Christ anymore, which means it doesn't have any dominion over you. There is no dominion of death. When we were back in Romans 5, what did Adam's sin bring in? Death. Dominion. Slavery to you. Not anymore.

The declaration is that if there isn't any dominion of death over Christ, because there was, that's why he died, then there can't be any on you. So what makes the fulfillment of John 851? Verily, verily, I say unto you, you're going to have to wail next week. OK, your father, how we thank you for what you've already done. that you have included us in the death of your son, that we might be separated from the sin nature so that it could be put out of business, that we wouldn't serve sin anymore, that we would live only resurrected in your dear son. We pray in his name.