Quickened or Made Alive

This is 12.8, so we're going to look at Quickened or Made Alive. And this is one of these truths that Chafer includes in his list, but it's actually part of a bigger section. He's gone through and organized these Witches of God's Grace into 33. But if you look at the organization, this particular one is one within itself, but he has it as a larger category. So we'll look at that in just a second. So on chart 2, I just went back and pulled up the chart that talks about how he came up with these riches of God's grace. Well, obviously it's from scripture. But what got him going was he looked at this passage in Hebrews. I'll just read the second paragraph here.

He says, The significant phrase, the things that accompany salvation, Hebrews 6.9, may be interpreted as referring to those mighty positions and possessions which are wrought instantaneously and simultaneously by God at the instant an individual exercises saving faith."

So you know, this is something we talk about a lot here at Holly Hills about who we are in Christ, what our possessions, what we have, our position, all those words we use. But these are just wonderful truths that the Lord really wants us to hang on to, to be up front in our heart and our minds to understand the riches that we have. We're very rich and wealthy people, but the cares of this world kind of, you know, can change our focus. We can say, well, I got these concerns over here, or it's great that I got all these in heavenly, but how about these things over here? So we tend to get distracted. And the Lord tells us to keep our focus on Him, keep our focus on what we have in our Savior. That's the way we're to live the Christian life. And that's why his writings, Jeffers' writings on the riches of God's grace are so beneficial. So I went back and did a little bit of a review of that. He has six things in describing those riches.

First of all, they're not experience. You don't experience You might say I experience God's love, but you experience it many times through others, right? You experience His love through others. And all the multitude of things that God describes in His Word, they're not experience. They're not progressive, as He points out.

God is gracious and He gives every single believer who's put their faith and trust in Him the total package. We get them all. We may not understand them, but we have them all. They are not related to our human merits. Number three, we don't by some work, by believing harder so to speak, or praying harder or whatever it might be, we don't gain more of these possessions. We have them all.

They're eternal in character because God's eternal, right? He doesn't offer us life for 10 more years. Imagine if He said, OK, believe in me, I'll give you life for 10 more years. You'd say, hmm, is that a good deal? I'm hurting now. 10 more years of this life? Maybe not. He offers us eternal life, and actually a new body, and so many other wonderful things. So His character is eternal, therefore His gifts are eternal.

And they're known only through God's Word. You're not going to find these. You won't find them in the paper or on the internet. Well, maybe you will. I shouldn't say that. But maybe you won't find them as accurately and succinctly as they are in scripture. And again, the 6th of May is a bit of a repeat. They're not produced by man, but through God alone. God has produced these riches through His Son, the Lord Jesus.

Roger. Yes, go ahead. Just a comment on those last two points. I know. It's huge. Just a warning. Okay, that's good. I know I talk to different people. My son's involved in a, you know, his church seems to be pretty good. It's actually, I didn't realize it was connected with a Baptist group. I thought it was, you know, a lot of the mainline denominations, I'm kind of getting off track here, have gone off and they'll have these offshoots. They won't be called Baptist, they'll be called something else.

His is called Summit. Summit Church. It's in downtown Denver. And he's an elder there. That's right, he is an elder. I guess he is. An elder there doesn't mean necessarily what it means. He's an elder. And he actually teaches occasionally, which is kind of cool. It's neat to see your son. You go watch your son. It's really great. We're very proud of him.

But they see things differently in many areas. But they're believers, as best I can tell. They haven't got into spiritual formation, which I haven't heard it from them. I don't know what spiritual formation is. Just in a real summation way, it's not new that there's more than the scriptures can be learned by simple meditation and what they're using as a word is in the Bible. Discipleship. You've got like ten things that you do in order to be a disciple. And if you do those things you will become spiritually mature. You will be like Christ and you will radiate Him.

And they don't believe in the depravity of man. They believe that man is inherently good. the deception of Satan all over again. As God said, That isn't true. You won't die. That's the lie that's coming out today. But in a form that says you can be good by this number 6 by producing discipleship yourself.

And it sounds like number 1 and 2 also. It's sending out a warning. It is all over the place. The crusade navigators are full of it. It's just all over. Yeah, Marilyn, we're using the handout today because I forgot my thumb drive. Sorry. And I have an extra handout if you run out.

Yeah, and I agree, actually. And we're very aware that I know Mike has a niece that's kind of been exposed to that and he's talked with her a lot. We have a good friend in Canada that wrote to us about it. Her church has been taken over by it. That's sad, really sad. Let's look at slide number four.

In Schaeffer's numbering system, he has an area called Children of God. He has five aspects of the Children of God. I put down some paragraphs. I'd like just to read about what he calls the children of God. Actually, what Andrew taught last week is actually the first one being born again is the first one under children of God. So he's kind of lumped these spiritual truths about how are we children of God. So it says to be born anew by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit into a relationship in which God, the first person, becomes legitimate father and the saved become legitimate children.

When you start talking about that, it just sounds impossible. How can I, the creature, be God's child? It just doesn't compute in the human sense. But that's what God declares, and that's what is so wonderful about true Christianity and true knowing who God is. The second paragraph says, To be born of God with every right and title belonging to the position and heir of God and joint heirs with Christ, passes the range of human understanding. And then lastly, it says varied terms, and that's what we're going to look at, varied terms are used in the New Testament to identify this new birth. Each of these are distinct in itself and revealing.

So turn to the chart number five. And 5, that's the list that we presented, or part of the list, starting with... Actually, this is kind of just the second one where we start with Roman numeral 6 through Roman numeral 8. So we're in the section called Children of God.

And Andrew did Born Again. I'm going to do Quickender Made Alive today. And then Bob is going to do A New Creation. And that will be the last in this year. So this is part of Chaffer's section number eight. But you could argue, and I would argue, that these five are equally riches that we have. Being born again is a riches, being made alive is a rich, being sons of, and so on. Each one. So you could multiply his 33 riches and get a lot bigger number. And some people have. OK, so let's kind of just jump right into it. So let's turn to look at page number six.

And six, there's actually two verses that use this. There's actually three verses. If you're a King James person, you'll see this was made alive. You'll see made alive show up actually in three verses. But one of the verses, the very bottom of the page, is really not in the best manuscripts. It's in italics in the King James.

That's Ephesians 2.1 where it says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." So most of the newer translations, New American Standard and others, just have, and you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

So the two verses that contain this phrase here, made alive together with, and it's either with Christ or with him, are Ephesians 2.5 and Colossians 2.13. And they are very similar. I'm just going to read them again.

Ephesians 2.5 says, Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

And then Colossians 2.13 says, When you were dead in your transgressions, then it kind of adds an additional point, and the uncircumcision of your flesh He made you alive together, now it's with Him, referring to Christ, having forgiven us all our transgressions. So, these are the two verses we're going to look at the rest of the time, because they contain our word, and it's a compound word, we're going to see that shortly here. Made alive together with. So let's look at the next page, number 7. So I kind of broke it down. This comes across good when you have an overhead because I can bring in each of the ones individually, right? So we get them all in one fell swoop here.

So in the left-hand column we have, as an unbeliever, this shows our state. What makes it significant about being made alive with, with Him or with Christ, is the fact where we start from. If you went out in the streets of Denver today, and you started telling people they were dead, they would look at you kind of strange. They would say, what do you mean? I'm alive. I can walk. I can talk. I can think. I can do all kinds of things. But God sees them as dead. They're dead spiritually. So that's how these verses start off. And it says, This is speaking to believers, but it's talking about that you were dead.

We were dead in our transgressions in Ephesians 2.5 and down in 2.13 it says, you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

And on the right hand side we have what's happened when you put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. So what's wonderful, He made us alive He just didn't do that. I mean, that would be wonderful enough, but He made us alive with Him, or with Christ. And that is so special, so significant, that we're made alive, and we're made alive to be in this relationship with the God of the universe, with our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And then I kind of add some additional little comments in 2.5.

Ephesians 2.5, by grace you have been saved. It's a grace operation. And then down to 2.13, having forgiven us all our transgressions. So that's kind of a, I like it because it kind of put it in columns and kind of helps you to kind of focus on it. So let me just see here. where we came from. We're going to start out with the first part of the verse.

I'm going to use Colossians 2.13. So I went back, actually we had studied that maybe six months ago, back earlier in Colossians. So I went back and looked at the charts and updated them a little bit. So on chart number eight we have the verse again.

When you were dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh. So let's just look at that for a bit. So this little phrase here, when you were dead, is literally you being dead. This being, this word being, is this word Amy in the Greek. It's a state in which someone or something continuously exists. And this is pretty hard to swallow. This is what you have to go out and convince the people on the street. You continuously exist. in a state of death or separation. In a couple of points, you as an unbeliever were constantly in a state of death or separation from God. And death here is an adjective, it describes your condition.

And what's interesting is, and let's just look at this, could someone turn to Matthew 8 and read 19 through 22? Matthew 8, 19 through 22. Then a scribe came and said to him, Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, The foxes have holes and birds in the air and have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, permit me to first go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, Follow me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead. The last part of the Yeah, Margaret, I have an extra one if you guys need one. There's no overhead today. Oh, no, that's okay. Oh, I guess I do need one. It's all good. What's interesting is that last part is really telling.

Do you think the people at the time realized what he was saying? He says, follow me, allow the dead to bury their own dead. Boy, that is a biting statement. What do you mean, the dead to bury their own dead? But that's the state every unbeliever is in. He's part of the category that Christ called the dead. It's repeated in the other Gospels. If you look at Luke and the other Gospels, it's repeated there as well. So it's significant. At one time I actually traced it out even more, and I couldn't find my notes on that, but it's pretty damning. It's pretty in your face. Let the dead bury the dead. So a person outside of Jesus Christ is called by our Savior, the dead. He is separated. He is separated from God. And there are many other verses that talk about this separation. It's not a pretty picture. So that's why it's wonderful when we come to realize that we've been made alive when we put our faith and trust in Him.

And then actually, earlier in Ephesians, in Ephesians 2.1 it says, And you were dead in your transgressions and your sins. Okay, so let's go to chart number 9. Okay, so let's look at the next little part of the phrase, you were dead, and it says in, in your transgressions. So transgressions here, you'll see transgressions and sins used in scripture a lot.

They're close in meaning. Transgressions is a fault, a lapse, an error, a mistake, a wrongdoing. sins, or are usually harmatia, to miss the mark. So it's very close in their meaning. And then Weiss had a little paragraph I liked, so I put it in my chart here.

It said, that is, death spoken of was spiritual death, a death involving wrongdoing, transgressions. They were physically alive while walking around in a state of spiritual death, devoid of the life of God, and activated totally by their depraved nature. So boy, that describes what Paul's telling us here. And what the Lord's telling us too. They're dead. They're spiritually dead to God.

Well, and I feel like when you talk about transgression, it's like in motion, or it's something you're actively doing, as opposed to passive, in a sense. Okay, okay. And there's actually another part. I've forgotten. Let's see. Well, sins are to miss the mark.

And transgressions, and I've just forgotten, is transgressions when we see there's a law or whatever that you violated, like a commandment basically? Isn't that right? Transgressions is, here's the line, don't cross it, and we walk over it. Exactly, thank you. So that's a sin. So if you have like a stop sign. So if you transgress the stop sign, whereas sins, you're missing God's mark.

You try to do good. It's the absolute righteousness of God. I always liked our brother Hal's picture. For those of you who don't remember it, he had a bull's eye. And the center was God's absolute righteousness. Sins are when you miss the mark. You miss his absolute righteousness.

Transgressions are, as Roy said, is when you transgress. We do it all the time. We transgress something. You know, you transgress this law or whatever. And sometimes we do it and, you know, Maybe we shouldn't do it. Sometimes we think, well, it's okay. I mean, the speed limit's a tough one. I would say, if I had to confess every time I addressed the speed limit, I would... It would be a tough one.

I think, well, let's see, just all of the cars are moving along pretty good. I have all these rationales that I could come up with. But can you imagine, can you imagine if we didn't have, let's say we just abolished All the rules and regulations, no stop signs, no speed. I just said, go for it. I mean, I know.

I'm thinking of that goofy cartoon motor meaning where you're just waiting on it instead of perching in. You know, it's impossible to see a space. And you're just waiting. You're looking for a big enough space. Stop. Well, that's never going to happen.

Somehow cartoon makes it happen. So, you know, it's good that we have traffic laws. It's good that our society, you know, we're seeing a time period where it seems like we're diverging exponentially away from laws. I mean, it's like we're just making the right turn and saying, you know, whatever. We have no politics here and I'll be here for... Anyway. But anyway, laws are good. Man needs laws.

There's chaos and God realizes that. But in our relationship with Him, we come to Him not on the basis of law, but on the basis of grace. So then the last part here says, the unbelievers are sinners in two ways. They are sinners by their transgressions or by their practice, because we are constantly transgressing something, and by their sin nature. We have a nature that is a fallen nature, and that is the source of our sins. Okay, so let's move down to the next part, which is the additional thing that I noticed before is the difference between the two passages in Ephesians and Galatians. This passage adds this additional factor, and the uncircumcision of your flesh. I didn't do a super job on this. I wasn't real satisfied with this chart.

What's he trying to tell us when he says the uncircumcision of your flesh? What's he trying to communicate here? He tells us that we're dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh. It's like something hasn't happened. What hasn't happened?

And you guys at Holly Hill should know this, I think you know it. You're stealing Adam and not him. Okay, well that's good, but there's something else I think he's pointing out here, and it's actually... You can't choose because whatever you choose is wrong anyway. Because it's not going to work.

Okay. Go ahead Roy, if you want to say something. I don't know if this is where you're going. Go ahead. There's a union as an unbeliever between us and the extended church. That's where I was going. It can't be broken. Exactly. It's the cross that did that. It cut us loose. Right. Well I'm sure you guys, you know, Remember, you know, Hal loved pictures. He just loved pictures.

And so he would have a picture, he would have a picture of a, he'd have Charlie or, what do you call him, Charlie, Sam, I don't know, he'd have a picture of a man. And he would show it, have a little box, and it would say, Sin Nature. For the unbeliever, he would have, you are, and he would use an engineering term, like we like to use, but there would be a, I won't use it because I don't want to, there would be a direct connection that couldn't be broken between this person, the very person themselves, and their sin nature.

They cannot act outside their sin nature. So that's what he's referring to there. They haven't been circumcised in terms of their sin nature. And for the believer, that connection has been broken. And we now have a choice. We can choose to walk by the Spirit, we can choose to walk with God, and we don't have to walk with the sin nature being in control.

So that's what's being said here. I kind of beat around the bush a little bit in my words here. So after looking at it, I said it's better if we just define what is the uncircumcision of your flesh talking about. And it's using words that you kind of think, well, are we talking about fleshly circumcision? It relates to that, but it's referring to this this circumcision made without hands as the verse in Colossians says. I'll just read that.

It says Colossians 2.11 and in him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands the removal of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So let me just talk about this.

This sort of sounds like something got removed I don't know why, this area is one of those areas, in terms of the sin, the translators, that word really means a putting off in a way, literally a putting off in a way. So the sin nature didn't exit the scene, so to speak, but our connection to Him was broken. And that's the key part, that's what's so vital in this passage in Colossians, and also in the Romans passage in chapter 6. One thing that's helped me a little bit is how we use the word cut off and then taken offline, not in control anymore. Exactly. And that there's a positive side to that. We now have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. He's online. Exactly, exactly. That's what's so wonderful.

Being an engineer, I loved all his pictures. I mean, I showed him the bodies. I don't know, pictures are not my thing. How about words, Roger? Pictures are, I like pictures. I like words. Sometimes, well, actually, she didn't like Hal's picture because she used that, actually, after we learned that truth. He used that in the Bible study. We were so excited about that. It's interesting. We learned that for the first time. We weren't actually attending Holly Hills. We were at a different church. We learned that truth.

Boy, this is just so wonderful. But, as you might guess, Peewee didn't beat our door down. Oh, you learned something really good. Tell me about that. Nope. We got sort of a lukewarm, well, you know, anyway. So I'm sure you guys have had similar experience. You tell something, you're all excited about something, you know, and well, anyway, that's just, you know, what's it?

Exactly. Give me a law. It's fine. Just give me a law. You do and I'll do it. I got sealed. So it's, uh, Anyway, so what's wonderful here, he's saying that he tells you you were dead in your transgressions and you were connected, if you will, to your sin nature. You were in deep doo-doo, as the kids say. My grandkids would say, you know, you're in big trouble. But then the wonderful part comes here.

All right, so let's turn the page here to... Okay, so now, I didn't like this chart, what I did in this chart either, so I totally redid it. Unfortunately, I didn't do it in the handout and I didn't do it in the overhead either. But this morning I got and I said, you know this chart is not doing what I want it to do. Charts are supposed to be helpful, right? To point you to the truth.

The definition part is fine, so let's just look at the definition. So the goal here today, what does he mean by made alive together with either Christ or with him. It's a phrase either way. So what does he mean by that? So the word is a compound Greek word. It's from sun, which means together with. And then the other word I have a tough time pronouncing. It's like zoo. Yeah, and then the poia, maybe? Anyway, I won't pronounce it. What's that? Poieto. Poieto? Zopoieto?

Anyway, and that's to make alive. So this word is a compound word combining together with and to make alive. So you flip it around, make it sound better, to make alive, together with. So that's a wonderful thing. We're not only made alive, but we're made alive with someone, and it's with our Savior. That's what's just really wonderful.

And the rest of the definition shows that to make alive, to quicken, to make alive, and typically you'll see that it talks about to make alive a quicken as being raised from the dead to life with Christ. So I went back and kind of looked at this a little bit more carefully and there's actually a bunch of neat verses that kind of, that use this, they actually, they don't use the, they use part of the word, they use the core of the word to make alive. So I kind of like to trace out some verses that talk about how God has made us alive. And He also made His Son alive, too, because His Son died on the cross. So it applies to our Savior, and it applies to us. So we are going to read some verses here.

So could someone read, turn to 1 Peter, we are going to start off with Christ, 1 Peter 3.18. Keep in mind, as we look at these, is He talking about spiritual life, physical life, or both?

1 Peter 3.18 Whoever gets there is welcome to read it. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Okay, so mine reads a little bit differently.

Okay, 1 Peter 3.18 OK, so I'll just read my version. It says, For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. So in this case, you can probably kind of guess. The word that's the core word here, the one I can't pronounce too well, is zupoeo. is the word made alive and actually Margaret has quickened and you'll see King James likes quickened I might share other translations quickened or made alive is what it will typically be translated as so so what do you think here it says Christ died for our sins once for all the just for the unjust in order that he might bring us to God having been put to death in the flesh and made alive in the spirit so Would you say that he's talking about the Savior here? Right? The last part. But made alive in the Spirit. So it says that the Savior, right? He died. And he was made alive. He was truly dead, right? But he was made alive.

And maybe I don't know if we can... And then if you read on 19. in which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits. Now it kind of goes into another topic here. Alright, so he certainly was made a lot, you know, I guess the question is, it's kind of mind-boggling that He was raised to life. He was physically dead. His body was dead. He was raised. The Holy Spirit did it. But did he need to be raised spiritually?

I don't know. I'm kind of pondering that. It doesn't seem like that. Roger, you know, because mine says he was quickened by the Spirit. Right, so it sounds like, yeah. As opposed to in the Spirit. Okay, okay, that would say physical. I guess I was trying to ask myself, and we're going to see a bunch of other passages here, is he talking about, in some passages it's a little bit clearer, he's talking about being raised physically to life, and some passages he's talking about being raised spiritually. I don't know, it means spiritually to me.

When Christ died on the cross, his death was for us as substitution, but also we died with him. That's true. And so there's a union, that's what's being talked about here. A good point. When he died, we died. When he died, we were there, dying with him. That's true, that's true. Such a glorious truth.

That is true. I think that's where you're going. Yep, that's where I'm going. And I'm kind of muddying the waters here a bit and trying to separate that from... That's alright. The text you're looking at in verse 18, if you look at it from that standpoint, being put to death in the flesh, be quickened by the Spirit, We were born again. Right, right. Certainly from our perspective I agree.

Well wouldn't the Greek describe that whether it's just him or it's us? Wouldn't the Greek actually say that it would Who's being put to death and who's being quickened by the cross? Well, I think as Roy was saying, it's talking about what transpired on the cross, right?

That's what it's focused on. And it's passive in both cases. It is passive, that's true. Death is passive and awakened by the Spirit is passive. Right. Both of them. Right. And we see that, you know, the whole concept of God dying kind of blows your mind. I mean, first of all, we're going to be talking about here on the Christmas program about God the Creator, right? And we learned it too. He holds all things together, right? Well, if He dies, I mean, from our perspective, doesn't everything just go kapoom, you know? So how does God, I'm asking things that don't have an answer necessarily, how can God die? Go ahead.

It was really when Jesus finally came to the end of his suffering for sick people's sins, he did say, it is finished. He may have had further action on his body, but because he was still just as much me in his God, but it sounds like in that one respect he did finish the work before he expired.

But there was a death in separation. There was a separation between the father and the son. Absolutely. And he cried out. He had a physical death. Right. There's no doubt. I mean if he didn't have a physical death then that's very important. There was a physical death. I guess I'm just Anyway, maybe I'll just leave that alone for now. But anyway, I think Roy is right.

We need to focus on the fact that this is a description of what transpired on the cross. And it applies to us. It's because we died with Him. And it says right here, we were made alive with Him. So it's crucial that we realize that means that we were made alive spiritually. So what does a spiritual formation do? How can it make you more spiritual than that?

Well, that's exactly the point. They must have missed that. They did. They absolutely did miss it. So let's look at some other verses. There's more verses that give us more detail. So now most of these are going to focus on, let's look at John 6.63.

John 6.63. Could someone read that verse? 6.63.

The flesh prophet of nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Okay. So here it says, and we kind of saw it the other way, it is the spirit, and actually we'll see this theme a lot. It's the Holy Spirit. He's the person of the Godhead that imparts life. And he imparts this life, spiritual life, Let's look at another one here. It's going to have a very similar kind of sound.

2 Corinthians 3.6. He has made us competent as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. We kind of see this theme through scripture. It's the Spirit that gives life. We saw that the Spirit was involved with our Savior. He's the one that was involved with our saviors coming to life.

And then there's another one in Galatians 3.21. Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be. For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. So this impart life is our word. We are kind of tracking through here, impart life. We also see that in giving life, all three persons of the Trinity are involved.

So let's look at John 5.21. This is one that is going to talk about the Son and life.

John 5.21. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. So that one is interesting, it mentions both the father, it shows that the father, just as the father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the son also gives life to whom he wishes.

It almost sounds like there is some kind of, he has his list or whatever, this doesn't imply that. Okay, let's see, is there anything else I wanted to say about this? Okay, there are actually a few more. I haven't finished on this. Let's look at Romans 8.11.

Romans 8.11. So pretty well, when we finish here, we'll pretty well have traced through most of the verses that use this zopia, made alive word.

Romans 8.11. The spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. It may help to look at John 19.

Is it 20? 22? I don't know. He dismissed his spirit when he died. Okay. Okay. That's good. Okay. That's good. What verse? In John 19, I think it's around verse 20, 22 somewhere, it says he dismissed his spirit. Yeah, it's a hard, you know, that interaction at his death. The interaction also, I think, is that Matthew, I'm not sure, but he, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

That's true. So there's that aspect of the spirits. departing his body, given to God to take care of, raising from the dead. Right. But all at the same time, holding all things together. And he's holding the world together at the same time. You blow a couple of circuits there doing that. The earth actually shook, didn't it? That's true. That's true. Okay, actually I have one more here.

Romans 4. Go back. Chapter 4. And verse 17. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believes, a God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Right. So he's a God who gives life to the dead. So that's this word we've kind of been tracing through. He made alive. And then we have, we're made alive together with.

So let's look at kind of a different, if you turn to, I'm just going to kind of skip the rest of this. So actually it's, as you know, this word is, it's the Aorist tense. So it's a, it's a This is a past point fact about every believer. It's reality and God has accomplished it. He made us alive together with His Son. Let's go over to chart 12.

Here is the Weiss translation of Romans 6.4. Another aspect of this is another phraseology that is used. On chart 12 it says, We were in tomb.

This is Romans 6.4.

We were entombed therefore with him, through the aforementioned placing into his death, in order that, or with a purpose that, just as there was raised up Christ out from amongst the dead ones, through the glory of the Father, thus also, as for us, in newness of life imparted, we may order our behavior. So he has several observations about this newness of life. He's kind of connecting newness of life and this made alive together with him. I had not thought about that, but I didn't see anything particularly wrong with that. So he has a couple of statements about that. Newness of life is a new life imparted through our identification with Christ and his resurrection.

As we pointed out, when Christ died, we died. When he was raised, we were raised, and so on. Our identification with Christ and His death broke the power of indwelling sin. Our identification with Him and His resurrection resulted in the impartation of divine life. This is what Paul has reference to when he says, we were made alive together with Him.

So he kind of links that up. He makes this that we were raised in newness so that we might walk in newness of life. made a life, that's a life, that's a resurrected life for to live. And I had a few more comments. Here's another guy I like that's not, starts with an M, Chafer, he's pretty amazing. Of course, all this stuff is his, we've just been talking about. So, some more thoughts about this.

One act of sovereign saving power, all who have believed were, at that moment, believing made alive with Christ. No subsequent achievement is implied. This is a fundamental aspect of salvation in both instantaneous and complete in its character. To have been made alive is an experience which is no less than the reception of the sharing of his resurrection life.

And it came to mind, so I added I know the verse really speaks to me. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So that is a made alive with Christ life we live. There are a couple of charts left here. Chart 14 finishes up the verse here. It talks about having forgiven us all our transgressions or trespasses rather. Having forgiven is the derivative of the word for grace, charis, to be so favored upon.

So we see in that that several verses here in Ephesians 4.32 and the Colossians passage, Colossians 3.13, it talks about forgiving each other and it's based upon the fact that we've been forgiven so that's that's the word that we're seeing here having been forgiven so we're to forgive because he has forgiven us and it it's repeated in Colossians 3 13 just as the Lord forgave you it says you're to forgive others and transgressions is the same word that we saw before And notice that we did the comparison between the two verses that in the Ephesians passage it finished with, by grace you have been saved. And it's interesting that having forgiven is connected with the gracious act of God in forgiving us.

And then lastly, there's this quote part of that Chafer had, I thought, the essential fact then that believers are now made alive with Christ involves no less a reality than that they are now sharing in the position and exaltation of the resurrected glorified Christ.

We share His life. So it's pretty amazing that we're not just made alive, we're made alive in this living union with Him, which is just It's incredible. And that's what we endeavor. If I think about something that we try to communicate, and Mike said I'll try to communicate it today, that when we're talking about the flesh versus the spirit, as we walk in the spirit, we have the opportunity to be in this wonderful place where we We walk with the Lord in his resurrected life. It's incredible.

And that's where we all want to be moment by moment. So Mike's going to talk more about the struggle today. So anyway, thanks for the help. So let's close. We thank you, Father. Thank you so much, Lord, for your wonderful blessings, Father, for your grace to us, Lord, for your care. In Christ's name, amen.