Who You Are In Christ, Riches of Divine Grace

43 Riches of Divine Grace. I think we're at number 11 today, right? We kind of lose count of all this. And just kind of parenthetically, as I've kind of looked at where we've been and where we're going, there's a tremendous amount of redundancy in these lessons. And in a sense, that could be, quote, boring, unquote, but in a sense, it's uplifting. because of the truth of the Word of God really severs any redundancy. I mean it ultimately is a reinforcement of the importance of the doctrinal foundation of our faith.

And so let's continue to look at the principles of who we are in Christ as exemplified by Schaeffer's 33 Riches of Divine Grace. Now what do you think about when you think about being made acceptable to God? Well, if you look at the Greek, it could be to make charming, or did you look at yourself as charming before?

Anyway, lovely or agreeable. Okay, that fits to some extent. To peruse with grace and compass with favor. I kind of like that one. That's kind of poetic, isn't it? To peruse with grace and compass with favor. honor with blessings. So all of these things are Greek translations of acceptable or being made acceptable to God.

So that presumes that we're not acceptable in some way as we are, right? I mean, if we're being made acceptable, this is passive, right? There's kind of nothing we're doing here to be made acceptable. I mean, we can try to make ourselves charming and lovely, and agreeable. We can try to make ourselves ultimately favorable or we can bless ourselves and present ourselves blessed or buffed before God. But this is passive.

We're being made acceptable to God. So presumably we're not acceptable as we are. Everybody agree with that one? Why not? This is Christianity 101. Yes. It's a good place to start. It's a good place to end, too. Okay, so where did that sin nature come from? Good old Adam.

Was Adam righteous before God? I would tend to disagree. Why would I disagree? Was Adam righteous? Thank you, Rod. Adam was innocent, and I think it's important to distinguish these two things. Being innocent is without guilt, but it's not righteous. But we're made righteous and acceptable. A whole different ballgame. We are more favorable to God than Adam. Adam was his creation. We're his creation. There's nothing different between us and Adam. But Adam was innocent, not righteous.

Very important. And remember, could Adam have sinned? He did. So in a sense, we can blame everything on him, right? The world doesn't like this at all, do they? The idea that because of what Adam did so many years ago, we've inherited that nature. Oh, the world hates that. Oh, the intellectual particularly hates that concept. Yeah, because we're all good, basically. Isn't that right? That's what the world thinks, that we're all basically good. Nicely then, honey. Oh, yeah. But then there's the worldview, right? And the world view is they hate this concept.

The concept that we've been in fact born into a sin nature and are unacceptable to God in that nature. And what else does the world view the relationship to God as being acceptable? Presumably if you look at the polls what some 90% of people believe in God or 95% I mean it's a huge majority of our citizenry in the United States believes in God. So if they find the Adam nature being inherited is not acceptable, what is their view of their relationship to God?

I'm just throwing that off the wall. It's a large percentage. Alright. And what is their view of their relationship to God then? I'm saying the world can think they're acceptable to God. I mean, the surveys, what is it like 60% of Americans are Christians? I mean, it's something like that. I mean, do you believe that number? 60%? What is the basis of that being Christian all about? includes Mormons, includes Christian scientists perhaps at part. Yeah, Roger.

It's sort of like, well, if I do something good, why wouldn't God give me credit for that? And I think many of us were there at one point in our life, weren't we? I got saved at age 30. I was clearly, in fact, I denied God for a long time when I was in college. Yeah, there's a God, but my behavior is going to be making me acceptable. I just buried a brother who, as far as I know, was unsaved.

And he had this concept that he'd done good things in the world system in terms of meeting the needs of many students in his educational career. as a teacher, as an administrator, as a college dean of admissions. He'd helped so many people in so many ways. And by the way, he wasn't cocky about this. He's a fairly humble man, actually. But he believed that that was his relationship to God, having done good things. And that's the world view.

And I'm wondering, this 60% of America that's Christian or whatever, that number could be incorrect one way or the other, but it's an approximation. Most people believe there are Christians who live in this country. You wonder. Bud, yes. Yeah, I was just... before I come to know the Lord and my Savior, I saw God is there. I was at church, and I had a great Easter and Christmas, just like all the Christians do. You know, all that stuff. Go bug. I knew God was up there. He's kind of a rough father. A rough father. A rough father and... Tough love, right? He's not there when he's at it. He's at it each day. And maybe that's what's good about the buddy.

So I had no assurances I could ever get to heaven until the figures of God of uncertainty and domination that believe in that type of God. Until I was in heaven above the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the salvation. That's some of the concepts of the world.

I think a lot of people out there, God's up there, a big bully up there, watching all of us go. Now you're doing alright today, that's fine. Well, I'll get you tomorrow and burn you to the ground and knock you out of the Sabbath. I've done so much. Bud, thanks for sharing that. I think that is the concept that many people exemplify in their belief of being acceptable to God. Are there works adequate to meet God's threshold of works that are necessary to have a relationship with Him?

That's not the Bible I read, and that's not the Bible we teach here at Holly Hills. So let's begin with Ephesians 1, 5, and 6. This is a critical verse that kind of leads us into the topic of being acceptable to God. There are many verses we're going to share and look at in more detail today, but this is a nice one that kind of sets the stage for what follows.

Having predestinated us unto the adoption, notice this, adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. Ooh, wow, powerful. According to the good pleasure of his will, you think about that a lot? I mean, his good pleasure. Bless you. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. So what's this acceptance based on according to Ephesians 1, 5, and 6? Look at the verse. the principle of adoption, the good pleasure of his will, and the praise of the glory of his grace.

My goodness. Is that you? Okay, Stan. You want to go ahead and have a conversation? Okay. We'll try not to listen, but we will. Actually, we'll be listening in. So my only response to this verse is amazing, isn't it? There's nothing here that we're doing to be made acceptable of God. It's after the good pleasure of His will.

We're accepted and adopted as kids. We all know people that have adopted, those become legally their responsibility. You adopt children, they're your children. Legally and morally, they're your children. And so, in effect, this is an act of God being made acceptable to him by the process of adoption through Jesus Christ, according to his good pleasure and to the praise of his glory. Wow, that's just awesome. I mean, what else can be said? So what are the components of this acceptance? So let's kind of look at this in the rest of our lesson here today.

And I'm using Chafer as an outline here in terms of the five points that he's made. And we're going to, I think, build on them a bit, each one of them along the way. So the first is the process of being made righteous. And this is, I think, one of the, certainly in my opinion, one of the most powerful verses in the Word of God. And this is, I mean, that's my own opinion. You can take this or leave it as you want. You've got to at least accept it. It's in the Word. But this is imputed righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5 to 1, I love the verse.

For he hath made him, the Lord Jesus Christ, sin for us. Ooh, wow. I mean, notice this doesn't say he had made him to die for our sins. I mean, yes, he did that. But to think that God made Christ sin for us, ooh, I mean, that really cuts it at its source. Remember that Adam nature we've all inherited? That's what we're talking about here. He had made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Goodness gracious, is there anything that can really be added to that? And again, as I said earlier, in my opinion, this is one of the most important verses in the Word of God. I mean, they're all important. This one really hits the nail on the head. What does the verse really say? And what I suggest that we do, let's pick it apart word by word.

For he, who's he? God hath made, what verb tense? hath made, active or passive? Active. Made whom? Him. Christ. To be is implied. Sin. Again, we talked just briefly a minute ago about sin. What are you thinking about here? Made sin. What is sin? Is it sins? What are our sins a representative of? or exemplary. What do we call that? What nature is that? It's the sin nature, right?

So out of Adam's falling from innocence to make a wrong decision in the garden. Actually, I'm going to blame Eve as much as I am Adam here. The point is, we don't inherit the Eve nature, right? We inherit the Adam nature. We've got to stay biblical here. I can think of an opinion only.

So sin really is the nature and that's the source of all sin. So although sins have been forgiven, here we're told that we're ultimately made righteous because of sin being crucified. That's important. Sin for whom? Who's us? The whole world? For us. Is this in context the whole world? Is the whole world made righteous? Thank you. Okay. Yes, all sins for eternity have been paid for. We can go to 1st John to document that. We don't need to. But only those who believe, and we're going to return to that this morning, are in fact in reality experiencing this truth. Who knew no sin? Who knew no sin? Alright. And who might be made the righteousness of God? We. Who's we? Again, the believer, the church. Righteousness of whom? Acceptable to God. And what's the vehicle? In Him.

I think if you In my opinion, again, my opinion, but this verse is so substantial that if in fact, you know, in someone who's interested in your faith, that this verse allows you plenty of room to discuss all the truths of the Bible in one verse. Because sins come out of the sin nature.

And ultimately, taking someone through this methodically like we just did, in even more grace and more detail, ultimately can be very informative. Impute. Now, it's kind of interesting. Impute's kind of a soft term at times in the Greek. I mean, to reckon, in my opinion, risk reckoning kind of sounds a little weaker than impute. to count, to compute, to calculate, to count over, but the imputation of righteousness is really to counting it as true, is really what we need to believe here. So when we're imputed or made righteous, we in fact count it or reckon it to be true, and it reflects really the fact of what God has said more than an opinion or a supposition. Reckon to me sometimes seems a little weak as a term in the way we use it in our own colloquial language.

But in the scripture, this term reflects the fact that that righteousness has been imputed on each and every one of us who believe. Alright, remember that the lesson today is acceptable to God by Christ. The second teaching point today is sanctified positionally. Now that sounds like another language when you're talking to an unbeliever.

So let's, in fact, take a look at this. So my challenge to the class is how would you explain sanctified positionally in simple terms to someone who knew nothing about it? Don't look at the notes to follow. Just think about this for a second. Remember, once I think I did, I held the notes until the end. Alright, let's go through this together.

The term sanctified or Hagazio means to be set apart, consecrated or made holy. I think the world system would look at it more to be made holy. But actually the better translation is to kind of be set apart. So, in a sense, we're made holy in context because if we're made righteous, we're made holy by God's imputation of that righteousness upon us. So being sanctified is kind of a special privilege that we've been consecrated, made holy, set apart by God.

And here, positionally versus conditionally. Now, why is this important? Remember, we're studying being sanctified positionally here. Well, we can't reach it. Good. OK. It's unequivocal and sustaining. Bud? Reassuring. Reassuring. We just did the trigger first John 1 time. Ooh. And what's 1 John 1? Thank you. Perfect. So comforting, bud, isn't it?

If you look at the book for the epistle of 1 John, I think I think we've got to be very, very well-founded in Pauline truth to go to the book of 1 John. Because if you go through the book of 1 John, you see things like, if any man believe in God, he doesn't sin. And in the same book, if we confess our sin, I mean, the issue is a foundation based on acceptance. and 2nd Corinthians 529, and he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That kind of foundation is necessary to go into the first epistle of John. You go into 1st John without that understanding, you're going to be confused.

And you know the way the liberal theologian would explain this would be this. Oh, if I sin, we're talking about then what's implied is a life that's got kind of a certain amount of sin in it, right? Give me a break. a certain amount of sin. I mean, that gets back to the world's acceptance before God, isn't it? How are your works doing? Is today a good day, bud, or is it not such a good day in terms of the way God views you? No, it means in Christ we sin not. The new nature, fully positionally sanctified, is a nature that has no sin.

And that's that assurance we get, Carol. I mean, it's so wonderful and so neat to reflect. I would suggest that most places that are meeting this morning would tend to have that view. They might give lip service to the grace principle for the life, but in fact they're operating under Old Testament rule. Okay, good, thanks for bringing that up. Now here's an interesting context to think about sanctification positionally, and it relates to being in Christ. John 17, 19 says, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

What's John 17 talking about? Everybody remember what John 17 is? This is his prayer for us. And boy, you know, every time I go back and read John 17 again, I just get touched in a new way and uplifted in a new way to think that he had the foresight to think about you and me today. And John 17 is a great place to personalize. Get yourself into John 17, because he's talking about you.

And you feel very, very tuned in to the Lord Jesus Christ. So what it says here is that for our sakes, He sanctified himself. Now that sanctification is his sanctification on the cross, set apart for God's purpose and also the fact that positionally he sanctified by the truth of who he was.

He was crucified, buried, resident in this life and positioned at the right hand, Colossians 1.3 truth. We should seek that positional sanctification where he is. So it's his being set apart on our behalf that allows us to be positionally sanctified. Notice again the sequence of sanctification. His sanctification by God, Calvary and beyond, Calvary and beyond, and then ultimately reflect again on imputation. That our righteousness is based on that sanctification. So is there any change? Now I want an answer here. Is there any change in the intrinsic value of those or that thing or whatever that sanctifies? What's your thought?

I think I would be stronger than that. All right. Let's look at this in a case-in-point situation. Let's turn our Bibles to Matthew 23, 17 to 23. And this makes a nice point, I think. And Caleb, when you get that, could you read that for us, please? Now this is Christ talking to the Pharisees. Go ahead, Joe. Okay, what verse? 17 to 23. Use bulls and blind men, which is more important.

The bulls are the temple that sanctifies the church. And whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing. But whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is offering it. You blind me, which is more important, the offering or the altar that can't be offered. Therefore, you can swear and swear, swear both by the altar and by everything on it. There's nothing swearing by the altar. No one swears by the altar. No one swears by the altar.

When you be sweared by heaven, and sweared both by the children of God, and by the Holy Spirit, woe to you, tithe your heads, you hypocrites! For you tithe this, and will, and can, and will be, after the burden of heaven upon you will be lost. Blessed are the merciful, and the faithful. But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. All right, so why did we look at this section of the gospel?

The question is, does the altar, the gold, or the temple have any intrinsic value in its own right? I mean, some piece of gold, some altar, I mean, it's a piece of gold. It's an altar. It's a manly construction. Yes, God sanctified that for his own purpose.

But is the intrinsic value of that item changed at all? And I think the answer is no, it's not. I mean it's the fact that God himself, it's kind of like the believer. Our intrinsic value before him is really of no value, it's the work. of His that has value. And that's the position of truth.

1 Corinthians 1.30, But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So again, it's God's positionally sanctifying us that has value.

It's not us intrinsically. With exception of the fact that we are His creation. Keep in mind, God has created all man to be brought unto Himself. So all of man does not get brought unto himself by our lack of faith. But in fact, our value before God is only because we're his creations who have been put positionally sanctified in the Lord Jesus Christ because he's declared it to be based on our faith. So we have no intrinsic value before God in our own right.

All right. Next, perfected forever. So again, acceptable God, thus far we're made righteous. Secondly, we're sanctified positionally. We're perfected forever. And Carol's kind of noted this. Perfected is to carry through completely, to accomplish, to finish, to bring to an end. perhaps most best translated completed rather than perfected. Perfect takes on a little bit different interpretation from the human perspective. God has completely dealt with this issue in this process of bringing us unto himself. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

Okay. Let's nail down here a little bit. Notice the continuing theme here of those who have been sanctified. We've kind of just dealt with that, being positionally sanctified. And now we're looking at it in context of being perfected forever, not just for a short period of time.

And for how long? Forever. And remember the topic before us, the 33 riches of divine grace. I mean, we sometimes get separated from the this class of who we are in Christ, and these are the riches, the 33 riches of divine grace as Schaeffer has outlined, and this all fits into the nice security that we have eternally. Any thoughts about perfected forever? We could kind of look at eternal life and what it's all about here, but I'm not going to take the time to do that. All right. Made, accepted, and the beloved.

Let's look again at Ephesians 1, 5, and 6, which we began the class with today. Having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Seems like that gets a bit repetitive here in terms of being one of the components of being acceptable and also the title of the class today. Again, it's not of us, but of him, to his own good pleasure through the Lord Jesus Christ. But God's acceptance is conditional. And what's the condition? Not too tough, is it? Although the old nature has a way of kind of... kind of hanging us out there without much belief. We're going to spend here a few minutes on this verse. John 14, 6.

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The world doesn't like this one either, does it? There's got to be many ways to God. Every way is to God. It doesn't matter how you go. You take this path, that path. Oh yes, all that matters is your sincerity. How sincere you are.

You have to see Vern's little video clip. He pushed out quotes. I did do that. It was on YouTube. It was about someone came to a person in the hospital and was telling them they were dying. It doesn't matter what you believe. The guy said, I want a real pastor to tell me about what's really going to happen to me. I don't want this gobbledygook. The person leaves at the end of the clip. This was on some kind of doctor show. Was this a brawl? It was. And Bird had, wow, this is pretty good.

But you know you go to these, I was just again at my brother's funeral and I mean I was reminded by the way the guy that did the service was a born again believer and I was uplifted by that the fact that the God had brought forth somebody who at least could minister to me. He reminded me, ìBob, what makes you think youíre so smart? Do you think you can ultimately make the decision for your brotherís future?î and I was humbled and said, ìNo, I canít. God is God.

Maybe my brother came to the Lord somehow near the end that I had no knowledge of.î As far as we knew, there were hardly any other believers there except our children, but the world likes warm fuzzies about somebody being at peace with all their relatives in some happy place, and I just didnít have that sense of encouragement about where my brother was right now. but we like warm fuzzies and so the world system, these people that believe there's any path anyway ultimately get benefited by psychology 101 played out in kinds of events like again Marcy, her husband now dead, fatally wounded or fatally injured in a motor vehicle accident. What hope does the world have? said what the family wanted to hear, the other family wanted to hear, which was, there still is a hope. Of course, there was no indication to anyone. And everyone there, we have to probably think most of these people were not losers.

You know, it was always, we're praying for you. Well, who are they praying to? I just wanted to ask that sometimes. You know, who are you praying to? They all said, we're praying for you. That meant nothing to those people. I mean, it was sort of silly. Because they have no one to pray to. I mean, who are they praying to?

This, you know, God? Well, remember, almost all Americans believe in God, right? There are very few that say they don't believe in any God, so. Right. Some kind of higher power? Higher power. I think that a lot of people believe there's something up there, there's something this person can pray for. I wanted to ask, what do you think of praying to the tree or to the sun?

The answer is right there in the verse. It doesn't say no one comes to God except you. He's saying no one comes to the Father. So he's talking about his Father and the relationship, the intimacy that you have when you come to Christ. Is that the same God now? Can this be narrowly interpreted that we close our prayers in Christ and that's all that this relates to?

I mean that's true too, but you have to believe. Dear God, thank you for supper in Christ's name we pray, amen. No, but you have to believe in who he is. and your way to the Father is only through Christ and He sees us only through Him and then it's standing. Otherwise it doesn't work.

Don't forget what we've already studied in terms of the imputation of His righteousness upon us, right? I mean, so this is extenuating as you want it to be. It applies to each and every aspect of our relationship to God the Father. It's all through Him. So does the Muslim worship the same God? Remember when David Solomon was here a month or two ago and discussed some of these issues? Is that the same God? I think the president, didn't he say that we all pray to the same God?

I mean, Stan. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what I learned so much from David Solomon was kind of the history of Muhammad, who he really was, what he stood for, and that's scary if you think about that. That's certainly part of the component and is so often tied up in other faiths such as Mormonism, the kind of sexual perversion that relates to the leadership. It's really just a sad sequence of events. But anyway, there is a qualification for us being accepted in the beloved or acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, and that's believing. Nobody comes to that position except through Christ Jesus.

I'm going the wrong direction, aren't I? All right. I think what I did was switch something around here. Anyway, made meet is the next thing that Schaeffer has suggested. It's kind of a weird term, made meet. So let's look at that in terms of what that represents in terms of being acceptable to God by Christ.

Colossians 1.12 says, giving thanks unto the Father which made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

Who has another version? Go ahead. Has qualified us? Right. So to qualify, to make sufficient, to render fit. So making meat means to have all the attributes that are necessary to be sufficient before God. So here God has made us partakers of the inheritance. He's made that possible for us. And he's equipped us with adequate power to perform the duties that God has been brought before us. Now what are these duties? if we believe that that's an accurate translation, to equip one with adequate power to perform the duties of one, meaning the same one. To equip one means us to do the duties that God has called us to. Well, let's get simplified.

2 Corinthians 3.6, who also hath made us ables. The only other use of this term qualify. So this made me and made ables, the same Greek term, it's made us ministers of the New Testament. not of the letter, notice this, but of the spirit.

For the letter kills and the spirit gives life. And if you go back to where we were at the beginning of the lesson today in terms of what's the worldview, the worldview is motivated by letter and law, not by grace and spirit. Believer or unbeliever, by the way, the worldview is ultimately led by the letter. and the spirit is denied in terms of the process by which ultimately these duties are performed.

So, remember always, there's no distinction between any of us. There's something, I think, on your nose, I think something got left out. Yeah, there it is. Okay. So, my question to the class, what's this ministry look like? This being made able or qualified to carry out the ministry or the duties of us as believers. What's the ministry look like? Laban, any thoughts? We're told that we're made able, or made meet, made capable of carrying out the ministry. And the ministries, according to the verse we just looked at, 2 Corinthians, is spirit-led, not the law-led ministry. So my question to Laban and to the class is, what's the ministry look like?

Stan's got his hand up, Laban. We'll let you think a little longer. Yes, Stan? And everyone presumably has a gift. I was just listening to McGee this week and he's, I mean, just finished up First Corinthians and so he's talking about, he thinks everybody has a gift and the gift is not just something that shows up like a light bulb going off, that ultimately you need to ultimately, by faith and work and the power of the Spirit, ultimately identify your gift and figure out what that is. It's also, you know, a lot of people, I mean, we've been to so many churches where unless you're a missionary, Unless you're going out to be a missionary, I mean, those people are kind of put on this pedestal. And then what about the rest of us slugs?

Do we not have a ministry? You know, that kind of thing. But I don't think you have to be a missionary or have to be a pastor. I mean, you're in a ministry every single day of your life. But before you comment, I just want to respond to Stan. I think the gift is part of the way the ministry is exemplified. But the gift is not the only part of the ministry, I think.

Yeah, bud. So it's just the qualifications of what you know about Christ and what he speaks, what you learn from knowing who he is, what he gives us. We speak on the ability to know, but we don't Forgive me for this. It's kind of like pornography. You know it when you see it.

I mean the life of Christ lived out a believer. The ministry can take multiple forms and be manifested in a multiplicity, almost an infinite number of ways. But it's a life lived out. It's not a series of tasks met by the power of the flesh. Well, the gifts are an exemplification of the power of the spirit in the life of the believer that ultimately feeds the truth of the gospel and brings glory to God. Okay, good point. Rush?

Well, I think what you're saying is, you know, if you focus on, well, I want to have the gift of evangelizing, or whatever it might be. You vote out, I want that gift. I'm going to, you know, you're focusing on the gift rather than focusing on the Lord. The gift, what comes out, you know, kind of automatically, it's sort of obvious, it should be somewhat obvious, what, you know, what abilities, what, you know, the Lord will direct you in those paths. I don't think you have to, I think one of the Maybe the version you talk about is we get. I don't mind one. I must be a loser. I can't mind my gift here. And McGee made that point. Don't look for your gift. Get into the word. Know the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that gift will ultimately be manifested in your life. And remember that he was concerned about the Corinthian church and focusing on the wrong gifts, right? And most of those have been left behind at this point. The healing, the gift of healing, and the gift of speaking in other languages and things like that. Carol. Oh, it's Amy, I guess. I'm sorry. I think our baby is just a reflection of God's spirit. Yeah. And our lives can find their gift and promise. Exactly.

Gift is given for His glory and ultimately it's something that we don't need to dwell on. I think it's one thing that we need to know we have gifts, but ultimately it's God to really energize those gifts and make them manifest within us. All right, so I have a point here to remember always there's no distinction between any of us who believe so that the church is always together in terms of being founded and made righteous in Christ Jesus. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there's no difference. There's no difference between any of us about this positional sanctification about having been made righteous about being made able and qualified, there's nothing that differs in any of us there. I think ultimately the way that's played out is what differs and I've kind of taken a reductionist view.

All you need to do to live the life and that's by the way the ministry is the life and all we need to do to live the life is belief. And if you think about that, I mean, we come to this very important question. How are you doing with this aspect of your salvation? Remember, to be saved is to having been saved. That's really what we've talked about today, being made acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. He hath made him who knew no sin. to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We were saved at some time in the past in history, and Calvary is at that time, and we have now believed on a certain date. For me, July 14, 1978, I came to a saving relationship.

You may not have a perfect date in mind, but I did. And so at that point, then I believed and became confident and really substantially ingrained in the truth that my sins had been forgiven. And shortly thereafter, I kind of realized the third tense of the verb, the future tense, and then I'm good forever, right? So when I'm dying, I'm going to be with him forever more.

But we all wear shoes and we walk and breathe here every day, don't we? and it's the second aspect of a Christian life wherein grace is profoundly capable for each and every one of us. All right. Well, I mean, we all have certain abilities. Did you remember gym class when, I mean, many in this room, not everybody in this room.

I mean, you know, you saw kids who just could, I mean, no matter how hard they try, they just didn't have any physical skill set at all. I mean, and if you think about, you know, what's that program you guys watch sometimes that, you know? American Idol. I mean if you see some of the I guess some of the early phases of American Idol there are people that don't do too well out there with their voice, right?

If you think about looks, we all inherit what we look like. You can modify that to some extent. I think some people work hard to modify it negatively and you can modify it maybe very positively. There are certain things, ultimately talents, physical appearance, athletic skills, skills in music, all that that will clearly distinguish one from the other. But here, I mean, we're not talking about talents here.

We're talking about living the Christian life. And what is the belief? The second aspect, I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. What's this I'm being saved all about in terms of living this life out? Process of growth. Well, it's growth, but what's the principle? What, Bill? Well, no, the future is secure. We're good there. But this constant business of living the Christian life, being saved, is in fact what principle? What's our belief in? What do we believe in?

Learning about him is becoming more and more intimate with him. And the more intimate we are with him, the more his life is seen in us. Is that an intellectual study? All right, we can study all we want about the personal Lord Jesus Christ and try harder to be like him. That's not the animated life. The animated life is one realizing that by God's great grace, if we believe in the principle of our lives being transformed, we become increasingly conformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The process is confirmation by our active faith that what God said is true. We believe what God said is true about our sins being forgiven. We believe what God said is true about our eternal security. Why do we stop so short of believing what he said about living the life through us by act of faith?

Actually, these 33 riches of God's grace aren't the plow field. That's a set of truths that will allow us to walk by faith through our Christian life, day by day, as we see these wonderful truths and say, I'm sealed with Christ in heaven, we go through these 33 riches, we don't have to make them into a law, but as we remember them and count upon them, we don't try to strive, I need to be more acceptable to Christ.

No, you already are, you can stop worrying about that, and you can, you know, an act of faith is, I believe you Lord, I'm acceptable, I don't have to go down that path of trying to do some good work to become acceptable, I'm there, I thank you Lord for that, and I go on And remember, the first part of all of Paul's epistles are foundational doctrine as to who we are in Christ. The second part of Paul's epistles often are what that life looks like. It's not what we have to do, it's who we are. And once you know who you are, then what you do is evidence of who you are. Don't put a metric at a yardstick to your walk in Christ. That's a very human way to measure your performance. live a life above. See yourself positioned and live by faith that God's in the business of conforming you on a day-to-day basis. Father, great truths here today. It's maybe difficult, maybe easy to get up here and teach it. Living the life is a much greater challenge, but you've really made it very simple. You've accepted us in the beloved.

And because of that acceptance, we're fully and comfortably positioned in his righteousness. Imputed upon us, we live by faith and we trust that what you've said about us is really true. Now the life lives and it lives because there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. For the Spirit has given us life, and that life is to reflect the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lift us up, keep us positioned above, and live a life by faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.