You In Christ and Christ in You

All right. First thing I want you to do is get out your pencils and go to the lesson title. The answer. Lesson twenty five, which is cross that out. Put lesson twenty six there, which is. After the questions that I handed out last week for which start with the first question, what do you do with the thought? What do the following verses tell us about our position? That should be a lesson. Twenty six. OK. Why? No. Last week's lesson over there. When you say I handed them out. I don't have the other one. It's the one that I handed out that has the attachment to it. That's the one I want you to mark.

Twenty six on the top of it. OK, this is I'm down to one. I hope. All right. Just to repeat myself on the top of that page, right. Twenty six or it says twenty five. I have an extra if anybody needs one. OK. So in the real lesson, twenty five. How far did you get last week? But, you know, I think eight now. Yeah, that's what I think, too. Circled eight. OK.

What we have. What we've moved to. We've now got to talk a little bit about the principle of position. And what did we say? What's the best synonym for the word position? So word source. Everything you have in your position is going to be based on the source that it came from. And the source, the two positions that human beings occupy is a position in Adam or a position in Christ. And so we talked about the location of the believer's position is in Christ.

And we're going to continue to talk about that over the next couple of lessons because it's really important that we understand what your position is. And so question six, does your position require a corresponding walk consistent with the position? Absolutely, yes, it does. Are the capabilities required for this life and walk built into us? What did we say? Remember? Answer, the capabilities are not built into us, but what is there to enable us to live the life?

It's the Holy Spirit. So, we have been given, God has proposed an impossible rule of life, but he has provided the spirit in which to live. Now, in the following verses, the character of the requirement imposed. And so the first verse that I put is 2 Corinthians 5 10. I spent the entire day yesterday up on my roof with Phil. We're getting a new roof this week and I had to put some passes up there and helping Phil is exhausting.

That was really good what you said so far anyway. You like that, huh? Well, you weren't here last week, so... That's right. That's right. Okay. Question 8 is to describe the distinctions between law and grace. Is that what you had? Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. What are they? There is no teaching of the position of Christ. Say that again? I should have brought my thing. There is no teaching of the position of Christ.

That's right. What I'm after is why is grace on this side and law on this side, why are they unlike? Why are they different? The first one I put down is they impose a separate rule of life. And in their character they're either wholly legal or wholly gracious. And the reason I came up with that is that we must understand, I hope, that you cannot live a mostly gracious life with just a little bit of law thrown in. Because once you stick your toe into the river of law, you're totally in it up to your neck. So we either function under the principle totally of grace or totally of law. It's not a combination. If you're abiding in grace and you accept one element of law, you're totally in it.

The second one is they are unlike because these systems are opposite, in these systems, opposite orders or rules between human obligation and divine blessing. Under the law there is human obligation, right? Was there anything given by God under the law system to cause them to live in it? Was there any enablement? No, it was just a rule of life given to the Jews in themselves and they were told to live it based on their own effort.

In the grace system we have obligation but we've been given a divine blessing and a divine source in order to carry it out. And by obligation I don't mean that if you fail you lose grace. Maybe responsibility is a better word. The last one I have, they're unlike because the requirements of these systems of divine will differ with corresponding revelations concerning the enablement provided each. In other words, the law principle depends on the energy of the flesh, while the grace principle depends on the power of the indwelling spirit." I hope that was fairly clear. Question 9.

What two words, and I put in parenthesis phrase, Does scripture use to clearly define the essential fact concerning the believer? It's used 130 times in the New Testament. This is a phrase, two words that clearly define the essential facts, the essential fact concerning the Christian. What do you think those two words are?

In Christ. Yeah, in Christ. Good for you. that you'll see it as in Him, in Christ, in the Beloved. I'll give you a chafer quote. There is probably no word of scripture which more clearly defines the essential fact concerning a Christian than the phrase in Christ. And as a Christian is the most important fact of all creation. There has never been a word uttered which was so far reaching in its implication or which is fraught with greater meaning to humanity than the phrase, in Christ. Now, why is it such a... Why would Chafer say that it's that important of a phrase?

Because we throw it around. Because I think we are the righteousness of God in Christ. We are the righteousness of God in Christ? Okay. Expand on that a little bit. in Christ. What does that mean? In terms of... Maybe ask it this way, if you're in Christ, who aren't you in? Self.

Or Adam, and all that Adam brings to the table. So once you have, as Miles Stanford used to say, God has changed his man you need to change your man, he's gone from Adam to Christ. And now he looks upon humanity as through Christ only and not through Adam, because Adam was the first representative man or the head of the human race and everybody that came from Adam was like Adam. So now Christ is the new representative man and what it means to be in him means that you have all of the characteristics, all of the acceptability and all of the privileges that Christ has. before God. So in Christ is, if you're not in Christ, you're a ghost.

Maybe put it that way. So being in Christ is in terms of, I'm a realtor. Location is really important to me. Right? The three most important things in a real estate deal is location, location, and location. What's the most important thing about Christianity? It's location. It's where you are. You're in Christ. And so as we study the Word of God and as you move through your Christian life, the reason you study the Word of God is to find out more about Christ. And when you read about Him, you're reading about you because you're in Him. You see that? All spiritual life and growth is based upon the principle of position. What is the believer's position? Can you read that again? All spiritual life and growth is based upon the principle of position. What is the believer's position?

Through physical birth we entered the human family, didn't we? And so we had a position and we had a source derived from those characteristics. Rylan was born a year ago. He came into the human family and the source of who he is was from his parents, from their parents and back all the way to Adam. He is who he is. He shows up with a sin nature, has all the propensities to sin, is in need of salvation.

So once you have a position, guess what happens from there? You begin to produce what the source of your position is. You've heard me say before, when did you become a sinner? You became a sinner when Adam sinned, because that was your source. That was your position.

So when you're, hence the term born again, born into the risen Lord Jesus, He now is your source. He's now the source of the Christian life. In Him we are positioned before God the Father forever. And he only sees us there, he doesn't see us in Adam anymore.

Acts 17.28 says we live and move and have our being in Christ. For we are his workmanship created, are born anew in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2.10. Our Father in redeeming and receiving us raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Okay? So, there's a principle, a comprehensive, what is, when you hear me use the word principle, what am I, what do I mean by that? How would you define the word principle? A fundamental rule or law which always works the same way. about the principle of position, we have to be aware of the fact that it's a comprehensive and fundamental law that always works the same way. Always. It never changes.

I can say that I can. Any of you who study the sciences and I say, what's it? We call it the law of gravity. What's the principle of gravity? It is a comprehensive or fundamental law that operates the same every time. Right. So, gravity is in place and it's a principle. Spiritual position is in place and it's a principle and it functions and operates the same way every time. So, the principle of position, the position is the place that we have and the source or origin of that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any questions about that? So the next question is, what is meant by your position? How would you answer that? If I said, what's your position? Who are you in Christ? How would you respond? Could you say it's our standing? It's a standing before God? Okay. So that, we can say, yeah, I have a standing before God, me standing there before God, what is it? What do I have? What Christ is. So now think about this for a minute. Is it my standing before God? Whose standing before God is it? And why do I have it? What's that?

Because he died for us and we are in Christ? Because we're in him. Do you understand that? It's important to understand that we have nothing that wasn't first Christ. And he doesn't impute that standing to us. You with me with that? He doesn't impute it to us.

He puts us in Christ. Remember we talked two weeks ago about what it meant to have the righteousness of God in Christ? That he doesn't give us his righteousness. He puts us in Christ and we stand before the Father in Christ's righteousness and relationship. So we don't have anything outside of Him.

Is that okay? I mean, I know we think dualistically, you know, we think you and me, right? But in John 17, the Lord prayed that we might be one as they are one, that we might be one in Christ. So being one in Christ is not dualism, it's unity. Does that make sense? Okay. Alright. Describe some of the elements of your position. What's it based on? I would say it's based on grace. Another element is the source of the Christian life.

It's based solely on facts and not promises. Okay with that? It's based solely on facts. It's not based on promises. Why do I say it that way? We're always looking for a promise. What's your position based on? Is it based on a promise? It's based on reality right now. It's based on something that's true of you right now. It's not based on something that's going to be true. It's based on something that's true of you right now.

It's perfect. Which means there's nothing to be added to it. It's established in the Father's presence at the cross. And that's how God sees me. It's immutable. You know what that word means? It means it's unchangeable. You can't change it. It is the object of our faith. And to sum it all up, it is in fact the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And oh, it's the same for every believer. Your position is not different than mine. We all have the same.

Now the problem I see is when you start talking about position and condition and you start laying out these principles, what does it expose within the Christian community? Ignorance about position. And tremendous ignorance about who Christ is. Because the focus is always on doing, rather than being. Once you find out you're being, you don't have to worry about the doing.

See that? That's why position is so important. The beholding and studying Christ is the most important thing you can do. Everything flows from that. We're always trying to work hard to prove to somebody, and usually ourselves, that we are Christians. No. It's who you already are. It's your position. Okay. Okay.

I hope this isn't too long worded, but I ended up this group of questions with a quote from Ephesians 1.4-13, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be, here's why He chose us, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

He predestinated us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will, not yours, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention, which He proposed in Him, with a view to the administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ heaven and things on the earth in him. Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestinated according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his own will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ or believe in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In him ye also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in him by the Holy Spirit of promise."

I don't think you can read those nine verses without being overwhelmed by what God has done in terms of where he has positioned you. And none of those things that I mentioned are hopeful. They're facts of our faith. They're true of every believer the moment he believes. You OK with that? Yeah. Could you tell me where that was? It's Ephesians 1, 4 through 13. And what you find, what you'll find. Maybe I'll say it this way, especially when you're reading Paul's epistles.

If you if you stop a minute and ask yourself the question, position? Or is he talking about a condition, meaning that something I would, some way I would behave based on my position? In other words, my condition. We haven't talked much about condition. How would you distinguish condition from position? Or as the Brethren used to call it, standing in state. How would you distinguish those two?

Something you have to do and something that is. Alright, is it something you have to do? Now think about this for a minute. If you get really conversant in your position in Christ, Ephesians 1, you really get proficient in those things, you really understand them and you rest in those principles of your position. Do you have to do anything about that to obtain them or maintain them?

No. But there is a corresponding life that's consistent with that position, isn't there? And that's where the Holy Spirit comes in. So, condition is your everyday walking around activity as a believer, and it varies. It can be up, down, sideways, but it's not like position that never changes. Your condition changes all the time. But the Spirit of God is working to get your condition to line up with your position.

You okay with that? You understand that principle? So when you understand that principle, it sort of helps as you go on in your Christian life to realize that as he works all things together to conform us to the image of Christ, you can see why. The image of Christ, my standing is in Christ and he's conforming me to what my position already is. Okay? Helmel always used to say there's no tragedies in the Christian life. Why not? Because it fits under the principle of he works all things together to carry out his main purpose which is to condition me into my position. Okay? Alright with that?

Mike, I so often think of my position as a new creation. Something that God has created that wasn't there before. That's right. So, as I'm being conformed to the image of Christ, is that what's being conformed? It's not my old self. Is it my soul? What's being conformed?

Oh, that's a great question. Does everybody understand the question? Don't you love her? She's the only honest person in the room. The rest of you guys are going, yeah. Figure that out. I said, what's being conformed? My soul, my old nature, or the new nature that God created when I was born, and born again, and fleshed into Christ. Which is His nature. Is that fair to say it that way? Yeah, I think so. I think we're made up of spirit, soul, and body. Right?

Human beings. I look at a human being as a spirit who has a soul that lives in a body. I don't look at a human being as a soul that has a spirit that lives in a body. I think essentially believers especially are spiritual beings because we're heavenly beings.

Now we have a soul which is mind, emotion and will which sort of can be the go-between between the material world we live in and comprehending spiritual things because when you were born again, all of those positional truths were true of you spiritually.

Your spirit has been recreated in Christ and has been given all the attributes of Christ. Your soul may or may not know about it. When you get a revelation, does it come to your soul or does it come to your spirit? It comes to your spirit. That's how God deals with us. You may get it in your spirit and instantly know that you have it, but it may take a long time for it to get sort of worked through your soul so you can verbalize it, understand it. You know, when you're reading the Word of God, you say, oh, I know what that's about. That explains it, kind of thing.

Your body is unredeemed. That's why we're going to get new ones. You don't get to check into the auto body shop and get the old body fixed up with a new paint job, new glass, new doorknobs. No. You get an entirely new body because your position is in Christ. We're heavenly beings and we need a body that's consistently heavenly. A body like the resurrected glorified Christ. When Christ was raised from the dead, he could walk through walls.

He could eat, but he didn't have to. And oh by the way, he didn't have any blood in the resurrected body, did he? How do you know that? Because he didn't have any scabs. Thomas could put his finger in the holes and put his hand in his side. The cool thing about that is that your resurrected body doesn't need blood to function. And why would you think Christ or God would demand a blood sacrifice then? Because the Old Testament says the life of the flesh is in the blood. See that? So with a spiritual body you don't need blood to function.

An earthly body you do. Now, you have this position. I think spiritually you have it all. Your soul is the thing that's ignorant or isn't conformed. So I think what happens is that the believer, through the word of God, beholds the glory of the Lord and grows. His soul is being conformed to Christ. His mindset, his viewpoint, his taste, his value system is conformed to the very things that Christ is. That's what I think.

And we're going to spend a lot of time today and next week The paper I'm handing out for next week has no questions on it. It just has about 10 verses I want you to look up and see if you see a pattern in those verses. And we're going to talk about, next week, the whole class. We're going to talk about what this beholding thing is like, which will go a long way to answer your question. So, question one. What do the following verses tell us about our position?

1 Corinthians 15.22. Somebody read it. I assume you brought your Bibles. So also in Christ, I will be made alive. See, that's as good a verse as you'll find in the scriptures that talk about position. As in Adam, all die. So if you're positioned in Adam, guess what you are? You're dead. Death means what? Separation. You're separated from God. If you're in Christ, what's the deal there? You're alive. You're alive under God.

Ephesians 2.1, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. In Adam, in trespasses and sins, you're separated from God, you're dead.

Romans 5.17, listen to this, this is an interesting verse. For if by the transgression of one, who's that one? Who's the one that transgressed? Adam. Death reigned through the One. There's your position in Adam. His transgression, which was your transgression. Everybody in Adam, death reigns.

Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, watch this next part, will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Position is being in Christ. Reigning, we Americans don't know a lot about reigning, but reigning in life, the conformity means that you'll reign in life.

In other words, the resurrected life of Christ in which you're in will be the reigning principle of who you are. And as a young believer it's tough to fathom that because you're so used to sin winging. And question two is, what do the following verses tell us about the believer's position?

1 Corinthians 1.30. But by His doing, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So what it tells us is that because of our position in Christ, which was his doing by the way, you have, because of him, wisdom from God. And you have righteousness and sanctification and redemption. You've been set apart. You have been redeemed. All of those things are true because of your position in Christ.

Ephesians 2.5, and when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you are saved. So if you had to look at the key phrases, you could say, we were dead, he made us alive together with Christ, it is by grace that I have been saved. Now, this is the reason for the sheep. The next question is, review the attached sheet and discuss which ones of these are your position.

First one is in the eternal plan of God. Reconciled, redeemed, no condemnation, related to God through propitiation. You can either look up all the verses or you can go into the tape that we did a couple of years ago on these 34 things. It took us 34 weeks to get through them. Where is this tape? It's on the web.

Vitally joined together with Christ for judgment of the old self unto a new walk. We've been crucified with Christ. Is that true? Is your crucifixion with Christ a position or condition? It's a position, right? You died and sinned with Christ, position, right? You're buried with Christ, position. You're raised with Christ to walk in a new principle of life, position, right? You're dead to the law, is that a position?

Yeah, absolutely. You're delivered from the law, position, yeah. You're a child of God, position. Yeah. You're a new creation in Christ. Is that a position? Yeah. You've been regenerated. You've been adopted. Do you know what adoption means? What does adoption mean? And think of it from an ancient perspective.

How many of you, this is my best example, I hope some of you will, how many of you saw the movie Ben-Hur? How many have not seen the movie Ben-Hur? It's such a great movie. If it comes on TV, watch it. It was just on a couple of days ago, wasn't it? There's a couple of scenes where Ben-Hur, who's a Jewish man, gets sentenced to the gallows and he's on a ship where he's one of those guys chained up in the ship that they row in battle.

He's an oarsman. And he happens to be on the ship that the head of the Roman army is on. And they get in a battle, the ship's destroyed and he saves the life of the guy who is the head of the army. He's not a centurion, he's more than that, he's a general. And so that creates a relationship between Ben Hur and this Roman general and he can't figure out why why he was saved. Turns out though, he becomes so fond of Ben-Hur, who is a man probably in his thirties by this time, he formally adopts him as his big ceremony.

He makes him his son and he gives him all of his inheritance. And he gives him this ring that says to everybody in the Roman Empire, I'm Arius' son. And if he flashes this ring, everybody knows who he is. And not only that, he has access to all of the property and all of the riches that this general has.

So the guy that sentenced him to the gallows is a Roman soldier in Palestine. So he goes back to Palestine and gives a ring to a servant and says, go in and tell your boss that the son of Arius is here. Well, the guy can't wait to see him because he knows Arius is a big famous guy, but in the room, walks Ben-Hur. Now he would not have thought that a Jewish man would be the son of Arius, but he was because he was adopted.

So what ancient adoption means is that we have been placed in the position of the Son of God and we have been given all the rights and privileges and access to all the riches that Christ has. Not when you die, now. Right now. Okay? That's what ancient adoption means. We've been acceptable to God by Christ. We've made the righteousness of God. We've been sanctified. You know what sanctification means? What does it mean? It means to be set apart. So God took you out of Adam and set you apart for his own use. That's a position that you have. You've been perfected forever. What's the word perfection mean? That's defining a word with a word. Come on, what does perfection mean? If I said to you that this table, this chair right here is a perfect chair, what would I be saying about it?

Complete. That it was designed to be a certain way and that when it was finished it met all the requirements of the design. So when God recreates you in Christ, you meet all the requirements of the design. Who's the design? Christ himself. So you're perfect. You're not being made perfect, you already are positionally. You're accepted in the beloved. You're justified. Forgiven all trespass. Here's one of the ones I like. You're made close. You're delivered from the power of darkness. You're translated into the kingdom. You are a gift from God the Father to Christ.

How about that? That's really cool, isn't it? You've been circumcised in Christ. Do you know what circumcision means? From a Christian standpoint? It means that you've been put off the flesh. You've been crucified with Christ. You're partakers of the holy and royal priesthood. Did you know you were a priest? You know that? You're a priest after the order of Melchizedek. What does a priest do? In the Old Testament, what did a priest do? Went to God on behalf of others. So your job, and my job, is to be going to God on behalf of everybody else in the body of Christ. That's our job. And we're a royal priesthood. You know what a royal priesthood means? It means you're royalty. What does royalty mean? It means you're a member of the royal family.

You're a son of God. Chosen generation, you have access to God. Not only are you an inheritance, you are the inheritance. Do you understand that? You have a heavenly association, you're a heavenly citizen. You're the family household of God, you're light in the Lord, you're virtually united to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. You're blessed with the first fruits and the earnest of the Spirit. What does the first fruits have to do with anything?

Gail was talking about it a minute ago when she said we are members of the new creation. There's a new creation in existence that only believers get to see. Nobody else in the world sees it. We're the only ones that see it. The old creation was created by who? No, who created it? God did. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They created it, right? And so you can read about what he did in Genesis. What about the new creation? How did that come into being? What's that? Because of Christ? Because of Christ? What do you mean by because of Christ? How about the creation itself, this new creation? What is it?

We're filled with the Spirit. Okay, I'll say another one. Anybody know what I'm after? No, that's alright. Anybody know what I'm after? Are you talking about our identification with Christ? Yeah. The first creation was made by God. The new creation is God. The new creation is Christ himself. This whole concept of in Christ, he is the new creation. And we are the first fruits of it. You see that? Which is the new creation of Christ? Christ is himself. The person of Christ is the new creation. In him we live and breathe and have our being. You see that? It isn't a physical universe like we're used to. It's a spiritual creation in God himself. So all of these things are true of us because we're in Christ.

The first fruits in the Old Testament when the Jews came and did the first fruit offering, all it said was that the whole crop is going to be just like this first one that we're offering to you. In other words, if we offer the grapes to you, the first harvest of the grapes, the whole harvest is going to be just like this one. So we're the first fruits. And the whole harvest in the new creation will be just like this. We're glorified.

As a matter of fact, in Romans 8.30, you'll notice the term says that we are already glorified. It's in the Aorist tense. We're complete in Him. and we possess every spiritual blessing in the heavens.

Those are all positions that are true of each one of you. Now, I would say this. Take this sheet home and see if you can discover one thing on there that isn't true of you. Positionally now. Don't come back to me and say, yeah, but my experience is that it is. No. See if you can find one in there. And once you say, well I don't think that's true, then look up the verses associated with it and see if I'm wrong. Okay?

Because once you do that, then you have to come to the conclusion, oh, maybe it is true. And if you just, if there were just a handful of these, that your faith and focus was on, it would totally change your life. Totally change it. Because your focus would be off of whatever the circumstances are in your worldly existence, and on what your position is in Christ.

That's why he said in Colossians 3, since you be risen with Christ. Is that a position? Is it true? Okay, that's the position. Here comes the condition. Seek those things which are above, for Christ is at the right hand of God. Those seeking those things above only can be done by people who are risen with Christ. He says, set your mind and affection on things above and not on things of the earth. And then he tells you why. because you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God.

See that? He wouldn't ask you to do that if he hadn't already given you the position since you'd be risen with Christ. So you may look at that and say, well that's kind of foolish. No. It's perfect behavior for one who's risen with Christ. It's perfect.

He wouldn't give you that command if he didn't expect us to live it out. Yeah, but I backslide, so what do I do? You believe. Well, let's think about things that maybe I shouldn't put so much emphasis on. So. So it's it's a battle, really, with me. It's a. Is anybody in this room not having a battle? So did any of the bells go on? Yes. Okay, we'll get into this next part now. In John 17, and let's turn there, because we'll be there for a bit.

Verses 1, 4, and 5, what does the term glorify mean? And so, we're still sticking with position. Verse 1 says, Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven he said, The hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Verse 4. I have. I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Verse 5.

Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which we had, or which I had, with you before the world was. Before we can discuss, let me give you some background. One of the dictionaries I looked up said the definition of glorify or glory is fame, admiration, honor, given to somebody who does something important. Achievement, something that brings or confers admiration, praise or honor or fame. Praise of deity, praise and thanksgiving offered as an act of worship. awesome splendor, majesty or splendor, astounding beauty, heaven, even use the word halo. Lines, words for glory are dignity, dignities, glory, glorious, honor.

So, when the Lord Jesus says, glorify me, what does he mean? Especially when he says glorify me with the glory we had before the world began. What does he mean? He is talking to the honor and dignity. Honor and dignity? Okay. Plus other adjectives. Okay. I mean you can line up all the adjectives and say well what the adjectives do is equal the glory of God.

It's in his essence who he is. What you find out is that every aspect of God is glorious. There's nothing about him that isn't glorious. There's nothing about him that doesn't deserve my praise and worship. But the Lord Jesus here is asking God to glorify him.

I thought he was already God. Why would he ask? We should just give him all the honors so that we don't go to the side. But I thought he already had it. Isn't he God? Oh, we? No, this is Christ saying, glorify me. Who is he saying it to? To the Father. Does it have to do with being restored to his former glory that he had before the incarnation? Yes, so what happened in the incarnation? What did Christ do about his glory?

He gave it up. Put it aside. He set it aside. Pardon? He set it aside. Yeah. He put it aside. Why did he do that? Why do you think he did that? Didn't you think he'd keep a little in his pocket for special occasions? In case he got in a bind? Because I am so lost. What do you mean he put it aside? What did he put aside?

His intrinsic attributes of God. All of that glory, he parked it when he became a man. So when he walked in the room, he was like any other man. You couldn't tell by looking at him. that he was anything other than another man, right? All of his deity was put aside.

Now, he's asking God to glorify him as a man with the glory he had before. And the reason is because he finished the work that God sent him to do. So he's saying to God, to paraphrase, I am the first man who qualifies for your glory. See that? And it's because, not because I'm God, but because I did the work that you asked me to do.

So I want you to glorify me as a man. So now, seated in the heavenlies, is a human being that radiates and manifests the very glory of God himself. That's why he asked. when he's praying, he's a man, which means he's different now. Different how? In the fact that he is, after the resurrection, still a man. Yes he is. Which he was not before he set that aside and came to the earth. So, the glorification now, he's not really the same now in heaven that he was before he came to earth. No, he's the same. It's now he has chosen to occupy, to become a human.

He's 100% God. He's now a man too. I think Schaeffer calls it the hypostatic union between deity and humanity. He's 100% both of those things. That means that they joined to the point where you can't distinguish him. Christ now is Well, he's always been known as the Logos of God, the Word of God, the One of the Trinity in which you can come to know God through.

So his being a man is really an important issue for us. And this glory thing which we'll see. He was born to be the God-man also. Yes. But his deity was set aside. He made himself totally dependent on the Father. But he was sinless. Yes, he was. And the reason he was born sinless is because he didn't come from Adam. He came from God himself. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and the opportunity to study and find out more and more of who he is. What is glorious, Father, that we might behold him. Thank you. We pray in his precious name. Amen.