6:6-10 Identification Truths

OK, well, as I was saying before, you guys gave me the opportunity to kind of choose what I I thought was significant in Romans. So I, I kind of pondered a while and then I, for me, the most significant part of Romans is identification truths. And I basically have a few charts here. I took advantage of some house charts. And so that would just be good to kind of step through. some of these truths and I wanted to start like in Romans 5 and we've covered this before. I looked back at what was covered previously and we've covered parts of this before.

Hopefully this will be remind us. I think it's just marvelous. And so many people don't ever discover these truths. They may read through this section of Scripture and it never sinks in. And I'm so thankful that I'm with a body of believers that it has made a difference and it is making a difference.

And so this is a section that forms the basis of what we count upon day by day. We count upon what's already been accomplished for us And also, this section also describes where we came from in terms of Adam, and our relationship to Adam, and also our relationship to Christ, and what we can count upon. Okay, so let's just go ahead here. The first part, actually, maybe before we start, we should probably read this section of the scripture, starting in Romans 5.

If I could ask for a volunteer to read Romans 5. 17. I'm sorry. I have 19. No, I should be. I should be 17, 17 through 21 and then six through 10. Well, okay, starting Romans, that says wrong, it should be 17. Romans 5, 17 through 21, and then Romans 6, I didn't say it right, did I? Oh, okay. 1 through 10, right? I'll be fine here. I'll go ahead and do it. Okay, thank you.

For by the transgression of the one, death reigns through the one. Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation of all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of man to all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous. The law came in so that the transgression would increase. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

May it never be, how shall we who died to sin still live in him? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.

For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in likeness to his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. For the life that he lives, he lives to God.

Thanks, Randy. That's great. So actually, I just like to kind of, you know, go through each of these sections here. And then there's a summary. At the end of Chapter 5, I have a summary. And there's a summary at the end of 1 through 10. And obviously, in 45 minutes here, we're not going to cover the depths of all this.

But hopefully, I found as going back through this again, it's always good to go back over it again, even though we've been back over it many times. I was kind of thinking, you know, Mike's been over this section. innumerable times, housing over innumerable times, so I'm not sure I'm going to add a whole lot. Hopefully I can remember a good part of what was said before, and hopefully, you know, just a quality remembrance of a lot of these things.

So I kind of color-coded this first section here. We have the two men here. We have Adam and Christ, and I color-coded the one speaking of Adam in red and the one speaking of Christ in blue. I mean, I don't know, just to make it, just so you can see the contrast.

So it starts off for by the one, for if by the transgression of one, death reigned through the one. So, you know, in the context here, if you read through here, the one is speaking of Adam, the transgression, and notice that it's, and I'm kind of not real careful sometimes, notice that it's, singular transgression, the singular transgression of the one, death reign through the one.

Sometimes I'm kind of sloppy and I'll look at that and I'll say, in my mind, I'll say, well, that's plural. And it's really not. Actually, it could be translated to transgress. I'm sorry, trespass, rather. It's basically a false step, a blunder, a falling away is another term.

So this transgression of the one, Adam, death reigned, and actually I added some, it's helpful if you go and start looking through some of these clauses here, the subject and the verb. So death is reigning, death reigned, through the one, and this word reigned is the idea to reign as a king, And it's used various times in scripture. It's used of Christ reigning. It's spoken of in Luke about him reigning in his future kingdom. And it's death reigning as king. So death is doing something. Death is reigning as king. And it was through the One, through Adam, through Adam's act.

And actually, the thing about death reigning, that kind of struck me, and I've looked at this before, Christ talked about the dead. And I want to show you a couple of passages here that I think are interesting. He talks about the dead in the sense, without saying it, let me just look here first.

Let's look at Matthew chapter 22. And what I'm trying to show here is about how death is reigning and how that's a reality. Death is reigning in our world today for all those who have not trusted Christ. So Matthew 8. Matthew 8. Can I get someone to read 21 and 22 in Matthew 8? And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. I think that's a very... Sorry, Margaret. I feel bad about making you... She lost her voice? I'm glad I've lost my voice, but it hasn't stopped me from talking. Okay. All right. That's good. Okay. Well, you know, it's really interesting here.

Christ talks about, you know, He's referring, from what I can tell in here, he's referring to the unsaved. Let the dead bury their dead. That's really kind of like, you know, death is reigning. It's not just an imagination. You know, Christ said it here, let the dead bury the dead. Boy, you go around to your neighbors and your friends and you said, you know, you're the dead. That would be kind of, whoa, I'm the dead?

But then also it tells us in Ephesians more about this, kind of looking back for believers. In Ephesians chapter 2, it tells us more. about the dead and how that's where we were Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 4 and 5 Bob, you wouldn't mind reading that. I have a Margaret to read that. God is rich in mercy for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together when Christ by grace are you saved.

So we were dead. That's where we came from. We were dead. We were called the dead. So the fact that this says that death reigned through the one, that's absolutely... Scripture declares it, and not just this passage, but many others. Death reigns through the One, through Adam. And then there's a contrast, and the rest is much more. Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So in this section, we're going to see a contrast between the One, the One Man in Adam, and the One Man, Jesus Christ. Again, I tried to put in subject. In this case, it was a little bit harder because you had this thing within the parentheses. From what I can tell, it's a prepositional phrase. And it's really the subject of that clause.

And it's those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign. That's believers. That characterizes those wonderful descriptors. Those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through Jesus Christ. So that's a marked contrast to the ones in Adam that are reigning in death. Death is reigning as king in their lives.

Yeah, okay, it's coming and going okay, all right, I guess we just keep going Okay, so so the contrast here is that those who receive the abundance of grace in this word abundance is exceeding measure and is actually a Verse here that And I'll just read it in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, talking about the exceeding, it's abundant, it's exceeding, 2 Corinthians chapter 8. It kind of starts in the middle of a thought, 8.2 it says, that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy, same word here, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowing in wealth of their liberality. So this is the abundance, the abundance of grace. We've been having classes on focusing on grace. Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift, and the word gift here is actually better translated free gift, the free gift of righteousness.

And that's kind of spoken of in Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. I'll just read that too. It says, in verse 4-7, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So every believer is described by these terms. Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign as king in life through the one Jesus Christ. Alright, so let's go on.

So that's verse 17. And it's quite obvious that the reigning here is the same word in the Greek. So you're either reigning in death as an unbeliever, death is reigning as a result of Adam, or you're reigning in life through Jesus Christ. Okay, then 18.

So then as through So then, as through one transgression, singular again, there resulted condemnation to all men. So as a result of this one transgression, there resulted condemnation. And condemnation is to give judgment, to pass sentence upon. So sentence was passed upon All men.

And that word all is that word pos in the Greek. It means there's none excluded. So no man was able to escape this condemnation. And it's anthropos, men and women. So there's not one that escaped that condemnation. So we all come from that being condemned.

And then the contrast, even so, one act of righteousness that resulted in justification of life to all men. And here, this idea of justification to be declared righteous. So condemnation was a result of Adam's transgression, and the one act of righteousness resulted in this justification of life to all. You might, you know, that all, you think, well, what does that all mean? Let's look at 1 John, chapter 2. If I get someone to read 1 John 2 verses 1 and 2. So I think what it says justification of life to all men. I believe it's the same word.

Speaking of the fact that Christ has propitiated the sins of the world. That's not the issue. The issue is, do you accept that? Do you believe that? He has provided that for all men. That one act of righteousness accomplishes that. His propitiation, his satisfaction, The sin issue is satisfied. The question is, do you believe in the one who satisfied the sin issue? So the 19. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.

So it's interesting here what we're going to see here. We're going to see a contrast here between disobedience and obedience. This is kind of interesting, because it kind of came back across one of the words we saw last week. So this word, disobedience, what's interesting is, it's a refusing to hear. It's a refusing to hear. Let me just show you. I kind of came across this. I'm going to take you back to an Old Testament verse, but I think it kind of speaks well of this refusal to hear. Jeremiah chapter 11. Jeremiah chapter 11 and verse 10. Actually, let's go back to verse 9. I'll just read this then.

Then the Lord said to me, a conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestor, who refuse to hear my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel, the house of Judah, have broken my covenants, which I made with their fathers." So, this really kind of struck me. Who refuse to hear my words. So that's what, if you think about it, in the garden, what did they do? God gave his word out. Don't eat from that. Don't do that.

They disobeyed. They were disobedient. They did not hear his word. And as a result of that, many were made sinners. And this is in the passive voice. There was no choice. When that happened, one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. And it's a heiress indicative passive. Past point fact. Many were made sinners.

Roger? Yes. Who were the ones that weren't mentioned? Many. I wonder why that says many rather than all. Okay, that's a good question. That's a good question. As Hal would say, I'll throw it out to you. I'm not sure, to tell you the truth. I actually didn't look at that aspect. I think that, obviously, based upon what we've been reading, none got by that, you know, Anyway, I don't know. I don't know why it's phrased that way. Doesn't the modifier the indicate the many? The many. Versus the one. OK, well, that's true. Versus one. OK. OK, that's good. Yeah, you point out it says the one man and the many. OK. The many includes all. It has to. I mean, there's no go ahead.

One of the things I find most fascinating when you look at this issue of the one and the many is that it's often proposed, well, what if somebody does something and they want to make one exception? If they can find one exception, then your whole rule is blown. And so there is a striving in the world to find the one exception. They're absolutely possessed by the search. Well, that's basically our fallen nature. We've got to find that one. We've got to find that one thing.

Did God really say that? That must have been the time He didn't really say that. Go ahead, Bob. Well, I think it would be an internal conflict to have verse 19 say, so that it's through one transgression. all men were brought into condemnation, all men.

I know. The many were made sinners. I mean, the many must mean all these old men, right? Right, right. It's really just an article that modifies this huge class of humankind, right? Let me just see. The many being made righteous, I mean, you haven't gotten there yet, but that's, I think, worthy of maybe another comment. Right, okay.

Everybody. Well, it turns out it's the same. It's the same Greek word in both cases. So. Anyway, well, not out there yet. Go ahead and get there. Not that I have a lot more insight, but we'll see. Let's see here. We have to go back and do this whole book again. No, no, no. OK. Yeah. All right. So actually.

The subject is the many in that phrase. The many were made sinners. And then we have the next phrase. Even so, through the obedience of one, the many were... Very similar parallel in the original language. Very similar matching. The many were made sinners. The many were made righteous. Now here's what's cool.

I kind of got off on obedience-disobedience. So I kind of took a different tact. This obedience word showed up last week. Remember last week we talked about obedience? What did we talk about last week? Somebody remember about obedience last week? It was a phrase that we had. If you weren't here, it's going to be kind of tough. Obedience of faith, remember that? And it was to hear under. So this is what I thought was really cool.

These people refused to hear, so even through the obedience, he heard under. You know, that Christ listened to his... I mean, it seems, you know, God is not going to be inconsistent with God, but the disobedience versus obedience is a matter of hearing, to hear under. Disobedience is to hear under. The disobedience is to refuse to hear.

So that's kind of what excited me. The many part I didn't focus too much on. The many were made righteous. But you've got to flip back and look at 19. No, I agree. Absolutely. It can't be inconsistent. 19... So it says that because of the act of righteousness of one, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, there resulted justification of life to all men. Right. And it was all-inclusive then. And so now the term many is being used. How would you switch? It wouldn't be logical to have 18 and 18 wouldn't match with 19.

Well the fact that Christ's righteousness is not particular, it's to all men. Exactly. for justification. He's provided righteousness unto all men. When 18 you have all were condemned, all were made righteous. And then in 19 you have many were made sinners, many will be made righteous. So it's consistent. But I mean, some people would claim the way to interpret that is all matters saved.

Yeah, I know. And hence that's why I wanted to go to 1 John 2 to show that indeed Christ has paid for the sins, but the issue between man and God is who is Christ. Do you believe that he did that? The death of Christ on the cross was effective to pay for all sins. That's the thing that's so powerful about that. Absolutely. That's so powerful. So you say to a person, God has already acted. What's your response to that? I mean, that's what's so wonderful about that.

It's not continuing to point, well, I'll get a little bit better. No, you don't need to get better. You need to believe what's been said. You need to hear under what's been said. Here's another interesting point. The phraseology here, the word made, were made, and will be made, is the idea to appoint to a position.

I thought this was kind of powerful, that through one man's disobedience, sinners are appointed to that position as sinners. I mean, thanks a lot. You get to be, I'm a sinner. What's wonderful is you're appointed to a position as being righteous when you trust in Christ. So both that idea of made is to be appointed to a position. You're positioned in Adam as a sinner. You're positioned in Christ as righteous.

Wonderful, wonderful things to count upon and to believe. This whole section is all about here are these wonderful truths that we have and then we get to 611 and we're to count upon them. We're to be accountants. You know, that's why it's good to go. This is our ledger here today. This is our ledger of our Christian life. We're counting upon all these wonderful truths, and we're making note of each one, and counting upon each one of these, that they're true of us.

So the word made, in both cases, is passive? It's passive, yes, in both cases. Word made. There was no choice. I mean, it's obvious. There was no choice in that. And actually, once you trust Christ, there's no choice. You're made righteous. There's not another opportunity. And that's what's wonderful about that.

Have a little dancing music here? Okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Well, okay. The first one is a Passpoint fact. It's aorist. At a point in time, one man's discipline, at a point in time, we're made sinners. This is future. Future tense. And that makes sense, right? As we trust Christ, we are made righteous. There's no blanket righteousness. We are made righteous as we trust in the second one's future.

But again, 19b clearly indicates that that option is there for everyone, right? Right. You mean 18B, right? Right. No, that's fine. No, I agree. It's available for all men. So the issue is Christ's act was not particular for any individual. He didn't do it just for the elite or whatever. He did it for... Because of his obedience, the many will be made righteousness, or the many that meet the conditions of that act of his righteousness.

That's good. That's good. Randy wants to? Well, to build on that, and I think this is what you're trying to emphasize, Bob, is that this is a federal headship. OK. That is represented federally all of the people. That's good. Christ represented federally all of the believers. That's a good point. Actually, and maybe the many actually fits in more with that. Well, don't you think, too, if it meant that everyone is saved, it would say that many are made righteous, as opposed to will be made righteous.

Right, right. Yeah, and that was Gail's point. It's the same, we've got a problem here. If it says this is Eris, or is present right now, and it says they will be, it's a future possibility. No, that's good. That's very good. I think that's really cool. It's a passive, and you're appointed to that position. We're wonderfully appointed to being righteous, not because of anything in ourselves, all because of the one Christ Jesus. All right.

Now, here's another astounding, more astounding things. The law came in so that the transgressions would increase. Things are bad enough, right? We have to remember who asked for the law. All right. I mean, and you look in the Old Testament, if I read my right, it says they asked for the law. Right. Right. So I would suggest we're asking for the rules, too. I mean, right. Well, it says what happened here. The law came in and that's the idea to come alongside. So it came alongside. But not in a good sense. It came alongside to say, hey, Look at this, look at that. It gave you a measuring stick.

And pretty soon, look at all my transgressions. They just overwhelm you. So that transgressions would increase. But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. And actually, they're kind of comparative here. This is, on the one hand, sin abounded, and then on the other hand, grace super-abounded. So whatever as a result of the law... So God provided, even though they wanted the law, He provided His grace that could overcome that. So it wasn't like, well, okay, the law is going to compound this and you're going to be hopelessly... No, His grace super-abounded that, even though the law came in and made it worse, or highlighted it and focused it, and they said, oh, look, I have even more than I ever thought of. And don't you think that principle still prevails for the believer?

Sure, sure. In terms of? Well, just in terms of 1 John 1 or 2, 1 and 2, right? Right. I mean, that doesn't give you a license to sin. God forbid. No, absolutely. We all fall short, right? Adam shows up a lot, at least he does in my life. Right, absolutely. And the fact that where that sin, that sin nature, that sin act, the deed, ultimately occurs, grace even abounds even more. The believer is already placed in a position of preference, right? Right. I see your point. That's the wonderful thing about grace.

That's a wonderful thing just to have your head immersed in grace. How can it be that God would cover this? And tomorrow's occurrences, and the next day, and the next day, and it goes on. Those are already covered, already super abounding over And that's a concept that we really in our human intelligence can't understand.

Right. Well, it's interesting. The other thing is it takes a focus off the individual minutia that don't get, you know, you talk with people sometimes and they're all wrapped up in their sins. I mean, they're all, boy, believers too. And they're so wrapped up in that they can't focus on Christ because they're so wrapped up in these sins. Well, this is freeing. It super abounds my sins. So he doesn't want us, not that sins aren't important, but he doesn't want us to be focused there. He wants to be focused on him. And that's a wonderful part of this whole section. Go ahead.

Ephesians 1, 6 says, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us and the beloved. And it's talking about the work of Christ in making us righteous. When his grace is shown, he's glorified. And it's liberating to realize that he has been declared righteous and holy in all of this. He has been identified with Christ. We can stop worrying about the sin as a non-glorifying part of our lives and instead just focus on Him. It brings liberty. It does, absolutely.

And that's what this whole section is about. We're to have these, as an accountant, we're to have these truths in our hearts, in our minds. And we tend to get off on the, you know, I know myself, if something happens, I do something I shouldn't have done. I get focused on that for a time period. And it's hard to back away.

You say, well, boy, if I only had done this, I only had done that. And you're in that loop. And that loop is, well, I've only done this, only done that. Right. And the concept or conclusion you make, I need to try harder not to do that. Exactly. Exactly.

But if you've been around for a while, you realize that never seems to work. I mean, the extra reminders never seem to work. I especially find that true on personal relationships. I mean, it is tough. I can have thousands of sticky notes, it wouldn't make any difference. Those thousands of sticky notes are not going to help me to to be a better husband. That will not do it. Trusting Christ will, and walking with him. The sticky notes are not going to help. Somebody asked me about, do you have a honeydew list? And I said, my list is beyond measure. I said, I've forgotten more of the honeydews. My wife is just very gracious. So anyway, I carry on here too much. Go ahead and enjoy the Broncos game video. Exactly. There you go. So actually, this is just this parallel nature. Sin is the subject. Increase grace and mercy, you know, so it just kind of goes along with that.

So now 21 So as so that as sin reigned in death, so sin is reigning and death is King Even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life in Jesus Christ So this is just kind of like almost like the summary of this whole section, you know sin was reigning in death and Grace reigns in righteousness to eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord through Jesus Christ our Lord Okay, so let's we're not going to get too far And how did a fabulous job here on his little summary and actually it's neat You know if you go through all the all the little bits and pieces when you read the summary you say Look at all the ones he it just goes right down the line. So let's just kind of walk through it So we have the one man Adam and the one man Christ. So we have the one offense, disobedience, not hearing under, the one righteous act, obedience to hear under, and the results. Spiritual death reigned through Adam upon all men.

In contrast to that, the believer reigns through Christ, the one receiving grace and righteousness. And then the second one, condemnation, And he kind of defines what it is, to give judgment against and pass sentence upon, and the penalty is death. And then there's no condemnation for the believer, the free gift of righteousness under justification of life. God imputes Christ's life to us, his righteousness.

Many were made sinners, and here's the, many were made sinners, many made righteous. The law reveals and highlights sin. This comparison here, God's grace and the believer's walk. I wasn't quite sure about that comparison. Second from the bottom, the sin nature superabounded in sin and God's grace exceedingly superabounded in forgiveness. We can't out-sin God's grace.

And then lastly, when the sin nature reigns, The result is spiritual death. When Christ reigns through righteousness, the result is eternal life, living His life through us. And it may be, I did some cut and paste, and maybe I didn't do my cut and paste all good in that one there, I don't understand exactly. I mean, when you look at the nature of reigning, it's a dictator, the law. Exactly. And reveals and highlights the sin, whereas when grace dictates your life, God's grace rate. Good. Okay. That's good. All righty. Okay.

So now we kind of start in. And if you start going this way, you'll notice that this question makes more sense if you've been reading the previous sections, because it comes along and it says, what shall we say then? Or literally, what shall we conclude? So what's the conclusion of this? And so the sin nature would say, hey, we can continue to sin and grace can increase.

All right. That's what a lot of churches think, because you have this trust in the Lord and you're not working on it all the time. They do say that. But how can you do that? You'll just keep I have a relative that said exactly that to me. He said, if you don't have that law there, or something, you're going to do exactly that.

You're going to continue to sin. It's going to get worse. And Paul says, he's going to say, this is illogical. The next statement he's going to say is, it's illogical for this to be true. And actually that word continue is that word abide. It's a form of abide. It's epimeno, to abide. So, are we to abide? Actually, it's the sin nature. Are we to abide? Hang out with the sin nature? That's kind of an unpleasant thought. Is that to be our home? And basically the response in two is, some have God forbid, may it never be. May it never occur.

And it tells why. It gives a rationale for why The first statement, we shouldn't continue in sin, because it makes this wonderful statement, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? If we're dead to it, if we're separated from it, why would you want to go back under it? Why would you want to go back there? And we know that there's a temptation process, and we are tempted to go back, but it doesn't make sense for us that Christ died to separate us, and why would we want to go back there and live in it again? It doesn't make sense.

But I think that verse importantly reflects this is to the passages that follow. It's going to set the stage. There's nothing that's said before then that doesn't say that, gee, if grace so much more abounds, if sin abounded, why wouldn't I? Paul's posing the question now that he's going to address it. Exactly. That's a good point. So if you just stopped here, you could say I'm not convinced intellectually of the argument. Right. But there's more to come, right? There's more to come, yes. OK. OK. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?

This is one of these ones that I'm so thankful that I've been associated with Holly Hills and with Hal and Mike for all these years. I remember reading that and having no clue what that even meant. I had no clue in the world what that verse even had, any concept of that verse. I thought, well, it's about water baptism. What's going on here? I don't know. explanation of what baptized me, to immerse.

In speaking of a union between you and Christ, that I did to be baptized or immersed into Christ, and the tense has it, it's a point fact. You're baptized in, but you're not taken out. One time I shared with, before I came here, we had a baptismal service. So as I explained it, in house on this too, you have the blue dye and that kind of stuff. Well, I said the right way is that you immerse it and you never take it out. So when you go up here to be baptized, I don't want you guys coming up. If you're going to really represent what happened, it's an immersion into Christ and never coming back out again. To me, that's so powerful. But it's just so wonderful that baptism, that being placed into Christ, is an irreversible process. And that's something that I want to hang on to moment by moment. When I see that temptation come along, when I do succumb to the temptation, I can say, wait a minute. Who am I in union with? You know, what's going on here? I shouldn't be there.

We need to remind everybody that the HHBC icon. Exactly. Exactly. Thank you very much. And that tells. And that was how we got into PowerPoint. He kind of discovered PowerPoint about seven, eight years ago. Oh, boy. He made his little icon up and it just you're so excited about that. Great icon. That's kind of kept it. And I thought it was really neat. So that's no, I agree. So there's something more to know.

You're to know this. We were baptized into Christ Jesus, and there's two parts here. You're baptized into the person of Christ. You know, Hal, for many years you'll talk about the two parts, the person and the work. It took me the longest time. I was kind of dense, kind of slow. What's he talking about? Where does he get the person and the work?

Well, this verse tells you. You're baptized into the person of Christ, and you're baptized into The work, or his death, that's a work. If you think about it, his death was a work. So there's two aspects to that baptism. The person and the work of Christ. It's absolutely scriptural what's being said there. I'm baptized into Christ, into his work on the cross, into his death.

Yeah, go ahead. Okay. That's good. Okay. Okay. Right. Okay. Now, I see what you're saying. That's good. That's good. Right. His act to accomplish that, to to have our identity be the case. That's good. That's very good. Something I was going to say this. Well, I was trying to get the sense of that. We stay in the identity.

Right, you don't leave that. Well, I can't be unidentified with Christ. Well, you can't do that. Just like Christ didn't stay in sin. He went through that. Good point, good point. Thank you. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. And basically, the wonderful thing, if you carefully look through here, that buried is actually co-buried. So once again, this union with Christ is just emphasized over and over and over again. Therefore, we've been co-buried with him through baptism into death.

And let's see what else. And so that is typically a way of saying, a purpose that, as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. And that newness is new in quality, a new quality life, not like the life from Adam. It's a brand new quality life. It's Christ's life.

And Hal will kind of pick up on that when we get to the summary. We're going to have to hurry. Okay? For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly be, certainly shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

So there's kind of this likeness or resemblance and that have, let's see here, The have become is this idea to come into a new state of being. It's that word, the Greek ginomai, to come into a new state of being. And actually, this if could be a sense in view of the fact. For in view of the fact that we have come into a new state of being with him in the likeness of his death, we certainly will also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Right. I have a choice. But I think what it really means is, related to five, we now are enabled to. I might walk if I choose to walk in the likeness of life, which is walking in Adam here. But this gives us full opportunity to walk in Christ.

Because of the positional truth, given the likeness of his death, we're also made equally like in his resurrection. Yeah, I know that some of these ones in here that seem like they're, you know, are really expressing that, you know, that crisis provide all that we need. We have, we are positioned in him and, you know, we can, we can stay there. We may, you know, but we have that position and that's, that's critical. Well, again, is it a choice or is it a life? Right. Right. Right. Remember that? We've been through there a few times.

Read this, and you see the life of Christ. You see all these different words describing our relation to His life, and that we're in His life, and He's in us. Verse after verse. And then six, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we no longer will be slaves to sin. There are just so many wonderful things in here. This is just weeks and weeks of good stuff.

The old self was crucified, put on a cross with him. In order that, with the purpose that, the body of sin, which seems to be the, seems possibly to contain, it's a whole enchilada, if you will, and might be done away with. I didn't want to say that. No, I'm not hungry. Might be done away with is better put in idle, rendered offline, put in neutral. So it's not eradicated, it's put in idle.

And that's a mechanism, so now God has accomplished that, so that we don't have to be slaves, we don't have to be serving sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. And this is a past, you know, we have died. He who died is like the subject there. He who died is freed from sin.

And that's a permanent condition. It's actually the perfect tense. We are permanently freed from sin. Once again, position, position, position. We are permanently freed from sin. That doesn't mean we can't sin, but in our position, we're freed from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin. Once for all, for the life that he lives, he lives to God.

So let's just go ahead and do the summary. Baptized, immersed, placed into union, into the person of Christ. baptized, immersed, identification into the work of Christ. I think this is kind of Roy's point, which is well taken. Here are the works of Christ, if you will.

His death, He died, we died. His burial, He was buried, we were buried. Into His resurrection, He was raised, we were raised. We have newness of life, new in quality, We have Christ's life. And that's, as Baba said, that's our focus. That's where our focus should be. Our old man was crucified, put to death. We are separated from our old man. Our old man, the body of sin, is rendered inoperative, put in idle, taken offline, or out of gear. We are free from our sin nature. We need not be slaves of our sin nature.

For me, this section was life-changing. It came over, I'm sure with most of you, it came over years. You read through that, we went through it in 40 minutes here. So many wonderful times. What was neat was that... We do it, you know, you come back to it again, you see more wonderful things and more wonderful things. And I think each of us can testify here. We've been here long enough. We're so blessed by having gone through this carefully and diligently and asking questions over and over.

And so, so that's why I wanted to pick this for the last one in Romans, because I think, you know. All right. Any last thoughts or questions? It's just sad to me how shocking this was to me after being a believer for so long that I was around about 23 when I first was introduced to this concept. I speak the same way. I was a believer and I... This is all... Where was I? I never saw my Bible before.

Praise the Lord. The thing is growing up from 4 to 23 is 19 years of... Especially being a teenager, where your hormones are wild and crazy, and you have nothing to battle that with in the long run. You just beat yourself up emotionally, and if I feel guilty long enough, maybe God will have me back, because I don't understand my identification with Christ. And God wants us to be free.

He wants us to, you know... Do I have one more slide? I don't think so. That's it. We are free to live with Christ. If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed. I may have that quote exactly right. you know, this wonderful freedom that we have in Him. And then, you know, verse 11 is, now reckon yourselves dead to sin, and then you act upon that.

This is your part, finally, okay? Now, my part is to be a good accountant, and to know that, and believe it, and trust it. I believe it's true and trust him. And, you know, so it's, it's marvelous. Well, it's, it's been great. I've only, go ahead. I'm sorry. I wanted to say probably for everybody that we thank you and Bob and Randy and dear Hal for the teaching of this. And Jim too. Thanks, Jim. Yeah, no, that's great. It's, you know, it's been great. No, thanks.

You guys too. And I, my, my privilege, I got in only halfway through or toward the end here. You know, Carol, it's a book we could start again right now. I know. That's true. The teacher's in the class, I hope. No, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thanks. It's been great for me.

Let's close in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you, Father, for your marvelous grace, Father, displayed in what you've accomplished on Calvary, Lord. How you've placed us in your Son, Lord, and never to be taken out, Lord. And we can count upon that, Father. and walk in newness of life, Lord, in Christ's life. We thank you for that. We ask it in His name. Amen.