Reckoning our identity correctly (Lesson 13)

OK. We were. We're in less than 12. That's I remember. And we were about, I think, a question seven or eight. So I am. These these questions are going down through Romans chapter six. In Romans chapter 6, the beginning, or the first presentation of what we know as the identification truths, that we were united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. And verse 8, I'm going to say it this way. Romans 6, 1 through 10 are totally positional truths.

Do you understand what I mean by that? In other words, they are facts that are true of every believer positionally. These are true of you as God sees you, as you are in Christ. Now they may or may not be true of you conditionally in your everyday existence, may or may not be demonstrated, but they are true of every believer whether they know them or not. whether they believe them or not, whether they walk in them or not, they're true. And the only reason we know that is why? Because God says it's so. He just told us.

So everybody in this room, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been crucified with Christ, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated in Him in the heavenlies right now. That's reality. That's what's true of you. And so as we go down through these ten verses, There's just an expose of what God says is true, and the beginning of an understanding of, well, if I was crucified with Christ, then there's lots of residual things that are true of me because of that.

In other words, if Saddam Hussein was hanged on Friday, Fact. He isn't here anymore. Why? Because he was hanged. Fact. I was crucified with Christ. There's things true of me now because that happened. And so as you go down now through 7, 8, 9, and 10, there are residual truths about us because of the fact that we were crucified.

So verse 8 says, now, if we be dead with Christ, We believe that we shall also live with Him. First part of the statement, is it true? Are you dead with Christ? So if that's true, then what does the verse say is going to happen? That you're going to live with Him. We believe that we shall also live with Him. Does that mean that if you don't believe you don't get to live with Him? What do you think? So you can be dead with Christ, but if you don't believe that you died with him, you don't get to live with him, right? Nonsense. You're dead with him, you're also alive in him. Paul's saying if A is true, we believe that the residual B is also true. That if I died with him, I'm not left in the middle, I'm also going to live with him. And going to live with him is now. Now. I don't know if I'm making that... So this is an if-then statement, right? Yeah, if-then. If this is true, then this is true.

If it snows really hard in southeast Colorado, Peggy's parents aren't going to get out. If that happens, then this is going to be the result. If I died with Christ, what's the result? I believe that I'm going to live with Him. Because I am. My believing doesn't make it true. It's just logical that I would be because I died. Because if I died with Christ, I don't end up somewhere between death and life. Stuck. Do you understand that? Because once the death takes place, then there's resurrection. They both happen at the same time.

So, does verse 8 then tell us that we should take for granted that we died with Christ? Did you just take that for granted? How many think you should? How many think you shouldn't? How could you be so presumptuous with God? Most of you are so chicken you won't raise your hand.

You should take it for granted because it's true. First class condition. What's that? First class condition. It's true, so take it for granted. And you know, God isn't saying, gee, you're being presumptuous by taking it for granted. What he's saying is, yeah, this happened. You can take this for granted. And why does verse 8 say that we are to believe we shall also be living with him? Why does it say that? I've already told you.

Come on, somebody feed it back to me. Well, it's like an old geometry proof. Where you go from, if this is true, then this is true, then this is true, then this is true, then this is true. So it's a logical progression. Yeah. It's like if you've ever studied philosophy, you learn to do these things called syllogisms. Is that what they are? If A is true and B is true, then C has to be true. You know, if two is true, two is a number two and you add it to the second one, two, then four has to be the conclusion. Is that a syllogism?

So what makes the fulfillment of John 8.51?

John 8.51 was verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my word, he shall never see death possible. Do you know why I put that in there? If a man keep my word, he will never see death.

What's he talking about? Does that mean of all you guys? Think you're going to make it without dying? Physically dying? Better ask my lawyer about that. What does it mean? You'll never see death. What's the word death mean? Separation. OK. It's the velocity. You'll never see death. Separation from one thing to another. Separate what? You from who? From God.

You're never going to see that. You may experience physical death, you know, maybe we all get lucky and next Wednesday we'll get raptured, but you may experience physical death, but even in that you're never going to see separation between you and God. Never.

And the reason is why. I was included in his death, burial, and now I'm resurrected in him. My union is with Christ. There will never be separation. Never. Can't be. If there was a way for us to get separated from Christ, what would it be? Logically, how would that possibly happen? You'd have to go back to the cross, die, and then get buried, get back up on the cross. You'd have to reverse the process and go backwards that way and to where he was before the cross. And then you weren't united with him. Do you think that's ever going to happen? So, the point is, is that never seeing death, there's never going to be separation between you and God, ever. Ever.

What does it mean for death to not any longer have dominion over Christ? Now we're at verse 9, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more, death has no more dominion over him. What's the word dominion mean? Rule. Absolute rule. So, is death a thing that has dominion over persons?

Remember in chapter 5 that sin reigned unto death? That the whole world operates under this umbrella of dominion which is called death, separation from God. Now Christ entered into that because he was made sin for us, right? And he was under the dominion of sin. And so when you're under the dominion of sin, what happens to you? You die. He died. But then he was resurrected. Now what? What's happened between him and his relationship to death? He's now totally set apart from it. Totally set apart from it. So, what does that make you? Totally set apart from it.

Because now, you know, we have spent all of this time trying to get across the idea that whatever was true of Adam, the first guy, and everybody that came from him, Say it another way. Whatever's true of Adam is true of all those that come from him. Right? If you're united to Christ now, whatever's true of him has to be true of you if you're united to him.

And you are. You see that? So if death doesn't have any dominion over Christ anymore, guess what? What's your relationship to it? It has no dominion over you anymore. Now you may live like it does, but you're living in a false world. Do you see that? You're not living in reality.

Have you ever had this thought in your mind that sinning is an aberration for a Christian? It's totally uncharacteristic for a Christian to sin. It's spiritual insanity. because you're resurrected in Christ. Do you see that? It isn't that, oh gee, I'm a sinner and I've done a bunch of bad stuff. No. Because you're united with the resurrected Christ, to do something that's inconsistent with who he is, is insanity. You're crazy. Do you see that?

It's inconsistent with the resurrected life of Christ to function in any other manner other than the way Christ lives. Because you're united to him. It's just like a man who's in Adam to function in a holy basis. He can't do that. Why? Because he's in Adam. He doesn't have the life. Like I had in my, just the symbolic one of that, Christ left his burial clothes in the grave, whereas Lazarus came out with his burial clothes, or the burial wraps. He left it never to be done again, or die again.

That's a great point. And then in Revelation 118, he is alive forevermore. So if we're identified with him, he is alive forevermore. There is no death ever again. If we're identified with him, the same is true of us. So, that's just a great point. Did everybody pick up on that?

That Lazarus, when he came forth, came with the grave clothes wrapped around him. But Christ didn't. He left all those clothes in the grave. Because he totally separated himself from all that Adam was about. The next question is, did sin die? How many think it did? How many think it didn't die? So what happened? If it didn't die, who died? Me. I died. I got separated from it. It doesn't mean that it went anywhere. It's still, you know, alive and kicking and living in New York City. But I'm dead to it.

I hesitated even putting that question in there, but because of the one nature theology that's around today, that question probably has to be asked every time, because there's an awful lot of Christians today who begin to enter in on these identification truths, and they do it on the basis that the sin nature died.

But nowhere in these verses can you find that it says that. It says that Christ died unto sin, and that I died unto sin, but nowhere does it say that sin died, or put it another way, that sin was eradicated, ceases to be. Because if that's true, let's say it's true, or let's say that they're right, maybe is a better way to say it, then why do I sin? And if I do sin, what's the source of it?

They're going to say, well, it's memories, habits, you know. Well, the other question I have for him then, it's the Word of God teaches specifically that because of my union with Christ and His death, I've been separated from the law, I've been separated from the world, I've been separated from Satan, and I've been separated from sin.

Did all of those die? Seems to me Satan's still kicking. Certainly all you have to do is turn on the TV and the world's rocking all the time. It didn't die. The point is that we died to it. We are separated, positionally in Christ, from all of those things.

And that's a very important point because then you have a rational way in which to deal with The fact that the old man, that sin nature, even though it didn't die, you died too, it still is powerful and still is trying to manifest or express itself through you.

Those of you who have ever read Watchman Nee's Normal Christian Life, you read that book, it has that example of the ship captain in there who was, there was a mutiny and he was deposed and they tied him up to the mast in the ship. And now the ship is under command of a new captain. They get into a storm and the old captain tied up to the mast is yelling orders to all the guys what to do and people run by and hear his voice and want to respond to him because they're so used to it. But he's not the captain anymore.

The same thing is going on in Iraq right now. There are people that still listen to what Saddam Hussein has to say. Listened during the trial was you know he kept saying I'm still you know the head of Iraq. No you're not oh Yes, I am well your sin nature is going to say to you. I still have dominion over you And let me prove it to you You know and what's your reaction to that?

No, I know you don't Know you don't because she died okay, I So, does God intend to change the old man? Does he intend to fix it up? Make it look better? Put a little holy water on it? You're dead to it, so why would you mess with it? So the last question in Lesson 12 is, if God is done with your sin, how come you're not? Think about that question. If God is finished with your sin, how come you're not finished with it? You want a partner? You want a partner? You want a real simple answer? You don't believe God. That's the answer. If He's done with it, how come you're not? And the reason is, is you don't believe Him.

Because you say to Him, well, boy, the sin nature raised its ugly head, and in me, that fleshly thing in me, I got tempted, and boy, I went for it big time. And so what's the question in your mind? Well, if all you're telling me is true, how come I'm sinning? You know, when the music started, why were my feet moving? So which is it?

Is God telling us the truth, or isn't He? If He has done with sin, why aren't we done with it? It's a real simple question, but it goes to the core of what faith is all about. Do you believe what God says, or don't you? Now, second question. If you believe what God said, will you be rescued from the temptation?

I think you can count it true. You can count it true? Does that mean you're rescued? I think that's the only way you are rescued. The reason I'm pushing on this point is because, to repeat myself, these facts are so tremendous and stupendous and gracious that they are the doorway and the key opening of living resurrectedly. That's the word. But you have to believe God, in spite of everything that goes against what these verses tell us. Like it or not, you just take them at his word. You see that? That's really important, I think, for believers. If you've never struggled with sin, then you're in the wrong class. Go somewhere else.

Because this is an issue that every growing Christian struggles with. Okay, I know these facts, and that's the first thing I'm supposed to do as a believer is know something. Because I've got to know what I'm supposed to believe. So here's ten verses of credible facts. Now that I know them, what am I supposed to do with them? I'm supposed to believe them.

Now, does that automatically mean, oh, I'm delivered, right? I'm living resurrectedly, not going to sin anymore. What do you think? Is your faith strong enough in the beginning to rescue you from the power of the sin nature? What do you think? No. Anybody say yes? No, because it isn't dependent on your faith. It's dependent on what God did.

We're going to talk about this. I'm setting up for what we're going to talk about next. So let's go to Lesson 13. First question is, now we arrive at our part in God's plan for freedom from the power of the sin nature, what does the word reckoning, verse 11, mean? Let's do both questions.

The second question, is reckoning a command? Does God say, OK boys, I'm giving you a command? Is reckoning yourself and being dead unto sin and alive unto God, is that a command? Yes. Absolutely it's a command. Not a suggestion. Not a recommendation. It's a command. Okay? So if it's a command, who's it a command to? To the believer. So what does reckon mean? Just believe?

If God wanted to say here, believe, wouldn't he have used the word believe? Wouldn't he have used that word? But he didn't. He used the word lechizomai, which means to reckon. So what's the difference? He doesn't say here just believe me. He says reckon it to be so. So what's the word reckon mean?

It's an accounting term. That means that you have gone through all the numbers, every single one, you've scrutinized them, and you've come to a conclusion that the numbers are right, you know? The bank said I had $15.12 left in my account. I went through all of the debits and all of the credits, and you know what? The bank's right. I have $15 and whatever in the bank. I've reconciled my account.

So why does he use this word here? Why does he say reckon? Well, maybe put it this way. What does he expect the believer to have done by the time he gets here? Balanced the checkbook. Gone through every single item. Investigated it thoroughly. And every believer should know these facts, that they are true of him.

So that's why he uses the word reckon. You see that? Again, these are not suggestions, and they're not pious platitudes. These are truths about the believer, every single believer, and the reason he uses the word reckon is because he knows that reckoning is a more powerful word, I think, than faith, and it is the reckoning that practically frees the believer from the power of sin. Are you with me on that? Reckon is a very interesting word. It's a much different word, I think, than faith.

You can believe this, you know, you can believe that God laid this out to me and I believe it's true, but reckoning makes it true to you, maybe is the way to say it. You see that? And there are legions of believers that have reckoned on their salvation, they really do believe and reckon on the fact that Christ paid the penalty for their sins, and that they're not going to face them, the penalty of their sins, and they're going to go to heaven when they die.

And they're persuaded about that. But they're not persuaded about this. They're not persuaded about this. They may not even know it. But if they're presented with it, I mean, I don't know if it's the same experience I have, I've presented these truths to a lot of Christians who look at them and reject them. Can't be true.

Next time you run into a guy who's a quote-unquote one-naturist, sit down with him and go through these first ten verses of Romans 6 and see if he believes like you believe. And if he doesn't believe, if a believer, a Christian, says that the old sin nature died, right? Is he ever going to be free from sin? If he reckons that the sin nature died, will he live freely from the sin, the power of the sin nature? A lot of people are shaking their heads no. That will give him power. If you don't believe correctly, that's what gives him his power. That's another reason why the word reckoning is used here, because the precision of the facts are really important. You see that?

The precision of them, because what are we, in verse 11, what are we asked to do, or commanded to do? We're to reckon ourselves indeed dead unto sin. Okay? And we're to reckon ourselves alive unto God. The word was in the present mental imperative and all that. Its imperative is to command, but this is one of the ones. It's the logical imperative that Vern talks about. If you act as who you are, you will. If you believe it's not a moral one, then anything you do will get you this. This is the logical one, if you consider yourself You act as who you are in Christ. This is what you do. That's cool. Let me ask you a question here.

What's grace have to do with all of this? What role does grace play in this? Or does it? Maybe it doesn't. What do you think? Well, we certainly didn't deserve anything. that he did, so everything that he did and everything that results from that is grace. No, no, that's good. But what I'm after is this, that the logical imperatives are really, really important, but if you don't see the grace in there, logic isn't the answer. Understand what I mean by that?

What motivates a believer to reckon? What motivates him to do that? Because God said so? What motivates him? To me, that's the key question. What motivates him to reckon? What motivates a person to believe God? What motivates a non-believer to believe in the person and work of Christ for salvation? What motivates him? The Holy Spirit does, but what is the substance of the motivation to the believer? It isn't the Holy Spirit behind the scenes doing this. What is the thing that makes a person, a non-believer go for Christ, a believer go for these? What is the thing in there that makes them go?

I'm here to tell you it's grace. Grace is the thing, because if you as a believer Through the work of the Spirit, begin to understand that this sin nature is powerful and that the only remedy for it and the one God provided is crucifixion. And the grace that's involved in that, that's what motivates you.

It's a command, but it's a command what? To the person who lives in grace, to the person who abides in Christ. It's not a command to somebody walking in the flesh Oh yeah, you want to be gracious so you're going to believe this. No, no. This is a command, an imperative, that is directed solely to the believer who functions in grace.

Does that make sense? Do I need to expand on that? Well, I'm just thinking here that it's a lot like what you said earlier in the class was love. That he first loved us, so we love him, and it's this kind of a circle. And the grace statement is true in here too, where without the grace, Yeah, without the grace none of this would even be here. I want to make this really clear so as we go through the rest of these verses in Romans 6 that we understand that this entire package is of grace.

Do you understand what I mean? It has to be, it couldn't be any other way. And that the practical motivation of the believer to respond to God's commands is by grace alone. It's not by any other method. As an example, if I'm a believer and I'm coming down through these verses and I get to the command and I don't get any of the grace, You know, it's kind of cool information.

God says here, you need to reckon. You say, Oh, here's something for me to do. And in the next verse, we're going to present. And so I do that. Because God commanded me to do it. I've acted legally. I have not acted in grace. Do you see that? Because I'm trying to affect something or appropriate something to me by my adding something to it, my reckoning or my presenting.

Where the man who functions in grace, when the command comes, does he have a choice in the sense that would he choose against what God asks him to do in grace? Would he? What do you think? If he did, he would be operating outside of grace. If he complies with God's command, which is to reckon, he's complying, operating in grace. Does that make sense?

So the Spirit of God is at work here and moving, and what is he doing? He is teaching us every moment about what grace is, and the fact that it's a living environment that we function in. We function only in grace. We do not function outside of grace, positionally. If you're going to walk in the Spirit, you're functioning in grace. You're not functioning outside of it. Does that make sense? And grace means what? Everything's coming towards you and all you're doing is receiving.

And if everything's coming towards you in such a manner that it's unlimited and it's unmerited, and God says, I want you to reckon, what are you going to do? You're going to reckon. It's the thing that, because it agrees with God and you agree with Him because you're functioning in the resurrected life. Christ doesn't make these decisions about whether He's going to glorify God today or tomorrow or maybe this afternoon.

It's what His life is and you're in the life and you're commanded to receive the grace is really what's happening. So what do you do? You receive it. Does that let you off the hook in terms of responsibility? No. Not an inch. It's so easy to take the commands of God and make them legal, and say they're gracious, but we've made them legal, rather than living graciously. When God says to us, I want you to reckon yourself, I'm commanding you to reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God. Is that a little angst there? What do you think? Oh, cool, now it's something for me to do. Is that what this is about? What is it? It's a position.

If God says, look, I've given you some things to do, to function by faith, right? You don't get any credit for that, because it's the one thing, you know, Romans 4 says it's by faith, that it might be of grace. You function in grace by faith. Does that make sense? So there's no credit. The credit is all in what God has done. But you get to abide in it by faith. Do you see that? So this is conditional? Yes.

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, looking to the Greek geek, the present, present, middle, imperative. Which is kind of cool. The present means it's continuous, incomplete action. So then we're to keep doing this. You know, it's not something once and done.

Then the other, which is the interesting part, I think, is the middle voice of what you're saying. The middle voice is the subject participates in it. Participates, yeah. It's not the cause. Participation, you know, as far as grace goes, our participation in that. The subject is our part to believe. Is that the subject's participation in this? I mean, grace and all the things you say, you know, trying to put in what you said, how the subject participates in this.

Is that due to...? It's due to the grace. It's due to the grace. Yeah, but I mean, grace is nothing of what we do. So the part that we do is just belief, isn't it? Again, the reckoning part is just belief that the subject we are to consider ourselves. That's our part. Yeah, and what's interesting about that is that if you see it from a gracious standpoint, you recognize that this whole thing has to be of God. That it's a totally dependent thing on my part. Yeah, I like the present part of it. It's continuous. All the time. All the time. Moment by moment. Bang, bang, bang.

It's not once that we're done and we walk out of it. Now if you think about it, just these 10 verses now into 11 verses are incredibly gracious, are they not? Would you have ever come up with this plan? Would you ever come up with a plan that wiped you out? Never happened. Never happened. You would never come up with a plan that was gracious. Never. It would always be a performance-based, merit-based system.

All you have to do is look at the societies of the world from the beginning of time, from ancient societies to the Aztecs to the Mayans. What did they do? It was always something that they did that would cause God to look at them graciously. Where God's plan is, is that He energizes and projects all of the grace and solves all of the problems and then comes to you and says, How would you like to enter in? Okay. Do you believe I did it? And you live that way.

If you live within the realm of grace, Romans 6.14, which we won't get there, you're not under law, you're under grace, you live in this system of grace, and you understand that grace is a thing that is overwhelming, unlimited, and unmerited. and it's coming at you way more than you can take in, and your whole job is just to use it, then you recognize there's nothing for you to take credit for. The joy is the receiving. What a gracious God that he would just do such a thing and that he would allow me to enter into it just by reckoning.

How cool is that? Could you resist that kind of grace? I don't think so. I don't think so. But if you don't understand the grace, you'll resist it, and you'll try to figure an angle where you're going to get credit for it. Or you can go to God and say, now look, I reckon, your turn.

A couple of things. I was reading out of The Hungry Heart this morning, by Macintosh. He's talking about crucifixion, death, burial of the sinner. the entire displacement of the old system, of things belonging to their first Adam position, in a word, their perfect identification with the risen and ascended Lord." And Andrew Murray is talking about the contrast between old and new, and he talks about resurrection life. He says, "...the other, where he is known and welcomed as our life in heaven, who, in the power of an endless life, leads us to find our home in the holiest of the Father's presence."

Thursday night, and we're getting close to... You tell a class in Hebrews, by the way, God says that you're to boldly get up, enter into the Holy of Holies, sit down and stay there forever. You got enough faith for that one? You got enough reckoning for that one? And I get to go into the Holy of Holies, sit down, and I never leave. Never. That's my home. Well, you guys want to bang on responsibility.

You got faith for that one? What gives you the boldness to do that is the grace of God. And the boldness here for a believer to enter into and abide in, dead unto sin and alive unto God, is based on God's grace towards you. You see that? We've already covered question three.

Question four is, is Romans 6.11 a matter of feelings or facts? What do you think? How does it feel? Put a microphone in your face and say, how do you feel about it? Is it fact or feeling? It's only fact. The feelings might follow, but they don't verify the facts.

Two words that signify death in this passage. The word for dead, necrosis, in verse 11, does not refer to the act or process of dying, but to the state or effect produced by death. Is that clear? The other word, which I can't pronounce, signifies the act and occurs in verses 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10, and is used when Christ's dying or our dying with or in Him is set forth. Which word best describes our relationship to sin? Which one? Come on, Conrad, somebody answer. Necros. Necros. Good job. Why? Why does it best describe it? Because it's an accomplished fact. That's right. It's an accomplished fact. It's a done deal.

Question six, do you think there's any other way to establish your soul in rest than this declaration from God? You're going to look for another way. Sure, you're going to try to get an old man to look better. Is there any other way to be established in this world? No, there isn't. I'm still far and trying to find a way.

But it's interesting how The subtlety of the temptation to the believer, to the believer's old man, you know, we think, well, I'm being tempted to commit some capital crime. No, no. The temptation is to do exactly what Mike is talking about, to find another way. To enter in, to energize yourself, to try to make me better. to not believe God about these things. That's why acceptance is so important, because unless you are thoroughly convinced God is at peace with you, you can't grow. How do you get convinced? How do you get convinced? Or how do you convince yourself? No way. How do you get convinced?

The Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, what tool does He use? The Word. The Word of God. That's how you get convinced. And you're reading through the Word of God in these verses and the Spirit of God is doing what? He's persuading you that this is true of you. This just isn't a bunch of religious platitudes and, boy, if you can get all this down and feed it back, you're going to sound really spiritual. No, no. This is true of you.

See, the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and applies it to you via the cross. You hear this comment all the time, that the cross of Christ is continually being applied to your old man by the Spirit of God on a conditional basis. To do what? To render your old man inoperative.

So it won't manifest itself through you. So, you know, the question is, if God has done the sin, how come you're not? Why would you ever enter into the exercise of trying to make yourself better? Why would you ever do that? If this is true, it makes no sense to go there. You see that? It makes no sense at all. And on the back side, it doesn't give you license to be an idiot.

The grace of God is the thing that has freed you from the dominion of sin and put you in a position where you can rest in your new master, who is Christ himself, in which you're totally free. Free to do what? Whatever you think. No, free to worship him, and to rest, and to abide, and to walk. That's freedom.

When God says we are to obey Him, what does He mean? What does He mean? I want you to do 45 spiritual push-ups. Obey me. What does He mean when He says you should obey me? That's right. That's what He says. When God, as a Christian, You're exhorted by God or commanded by God to obey Him. What He's saying to you is, you believe Me.

And the best chapter that you want to read in the Bible about that is Hebrews 11. Except for one person, all of those people are Old Testament saints. It's amazing what God accomplished because those people believed Him. It's amazing. And they're not even Christ. Act as who we are, new creatures in Christ. That's who we are. The obeying is who we are in Christ. And I want to re-emphasize that point, because all the logical imperatives, as Berne calls them, are all the commands of the New Testament. Who are they commanded to? If the believer is made up of these two natures, Old man, new man, who do the commands to? Only the new man.

That's right. You know, it's interesting, God does not have anything to do with your old man anymore. Why wouldn't he? He's done. He's done. He's not even concerned. The work of Christ is so complete that it's over. Over these last months as I've watched this with limited interest, this trial of Saddam Hussein, it struck me. He's like the old sin nature. He's been deposed, he's in jail, and they're having a trial, and he's the only guy that doesn't get it. My sin nature is the only guy that didn't get it. It's still trying to function like I wasn't crucified. Do you see that?

So, based on the command in verse 11, what would you say is the very essence of a holy walk? The key word is holy. What's the word holy mean? Set apart. Kind of like that death thing. What's the key to a holy walk, a set apart walk? Faith, reckoning. Faith, reckoning. And it's based solely on what God has done by grace.

And I know you, because you're just like me. You read the stuff and say, OK, I'm going to believe in Reckon now, OK, God, I'm waiting for you to make things all warm and fuzzy. Right? What if it doesn't get warm and fuzzy? You usually don't. And we're such experienced, verifiable people, you know. I mean, we even stand up in front of class and say, well, my experience is da da da da da.

And if it goes against the Word of God, that's tough. The Word of God can't be right. My experience must be right. Now, facts are facts. My faith in the facts will produce an intimacy with Christ and an experience. But the facts never change. And your faith is based solely on what God tells you. Now, I will say this. Christianity is not an abstract religion when we have a whole bunch of tenets that we're to believe in and that's the end of it. The Word of God goes from objective fact to love and affection with a person. So as you grow and believe God, what happens is that this intimacy with Christ is being developed by the Holy Spirit so you can say, I know Christ. I know him personally and intimately.

And you talk about grace. The fact that the God of the universe has set it up so that you can have intimacy with him on his level because you have been separated from the creation that was not on his level and that turned away from him and he has recreated you and resurrected you in himself Why did he do that? He did it so that we could have intimate fellowship with him. That fellowship is part of the deal. We function by faith, but as we grow on the resurrected side, we're just not growing and the merit badge on resurrection is getting longer. It's this intimacy with the Son of God. The fact that we know Christ. As you grow in the knowledge and grace, both of those things, in Christ, and He comes to you and says, here's what I want you to do. Are you going to say, let me think it over? Or maybe I can and maybe I can't.

Do you see how important intimacy with Christ is? Because it's like somebody in your life, your spouse that you love, and over time what happens? There's an intimacy developed just by being around each other, hanging around, knowing each other, that kind of thing. And imagine a developing relationship with the God of the universe on that same basis.

Imagine what that would be like. Well, you don't have to imagine. That's what it is. That's what reckoning affords a believer. This intimacy with Christ is something that is a privilege that is so gracious you can't think about it very long. It's overdone.

To be an actual offspring and a son of God. Dear Father, how we thank you for your son and the position that we have in him and all that you do to cause us to grow in him. and to rest in him and behold his glory. Thank you, Father. We pray in your son's name. Amen.