Unfathomable Riches of Christ - The Identification Truths: The Front Door - Part 4
Vern Peterman · Feb 18, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926198385895

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Let's ask this question. We've been talking about the identification truths as the front door to our unfathomable riches in Christ. So let's just ask a few questions just for thoughts here. One is, are the identification truths, as we talk about them, Do those only apply to people who are in the church, the body of Christ? How about the people in Israel? Did they have any identification truths that apply to them?

They would if they believed. Pardon? They would if they believed. Okay. And so they would if they believed. You're talking about like starting with the day of Pentecost, when the church began. Is that what you're saying? No, I believe in Christ. Okay, so belief in Christ. Well yeah, at Pentecost, if they believed, they would have been identified with Christ. Right, on the day of Pentecost, if they believed, they would have been identified with Christ. It was interesting, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says that the Jews in the cloud and the sea were baptized into Moses. So it's really interesting. There is an identification truth for them, but it's different.

How about who is in Adam? Everyone. Everyone born after Adam is in Adam, right? All the time? No. You say no. What happens? Well, if you are a believer, then you are in Christ. And that kind of wipes Adam out of the picture. But conditionally, everybody is, right? Say, conditionally, everybody is. I mean, that's our nature, our sin nature. OK. Would you say, then, as we are born, we are born in Adam? Yes. Is that right? OK.

So now we have another distinction or discernment. So there are some passages where we can find where we in the body of Christ are identified with Christ. And what have we said we're identified with Christ in what things? Five things. I've said I'm not really into tats, but if I ever were to do that I would get them on. Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. So those five things. And are any of those expressed just personally? Where an author of scripture just, you know, I this and I that. Personally and individually. What's that? Paul does and where does he say that?

Galatians 2.19-21 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. So he says, for through the law I died to the law.

Is he the only person that that's true about? So why did he write it that way? To personalize it for everyone. Personalize it. So this is one thing that's interesting. I was over in Africa and the guys Some of the guys were saying, well, how come Paul sits there and writes about himself? So is Paul just referring to himself here? So why would he put that, as you said, to personalize it so that as we read it, not that we look at it and say, well, Paul's the only one, but rather we're in a place of saying that Paul wrote that so that we too could personalize it for ourselves. So that we too could personalize it for ourselves. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. Isn't that kind of like saying, I've been through that too? You've been through that too.

So Paul says it, and he says it with the intent that we also can say it, right? But let's also ask another question. Do you remember being crucified with Christ? No. As a matter of fact, did Paul remember being crucified with Christ? No. So these were things revealed. He expressed it personally. Yeah, Pat?

So just for clarification, the identification truths don't, for believers, don't really kick in until after. incidents after Pentecost. So the birth and all those other things were not identified with that because identification truths don't really kick in until after Pentecost. Is that correct? Until the day of Pentecost, right? Those things that are expressed regarding the Apostle Paul, right? So it's one reason we don't find Jesus going around tell in the Gospels. You don't find Jesus going out and expressing these in quite the same way.

So you have situations like Galatians 2.19-21 where he expresses it personally with the intent, not only is it true of him, but the intent that we also can say the same thing personally.

So, for example, if I were to say, through the law, I, Vern, died to the law. Is that true? Right? Yes. And could you put your name in there just the same? Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what he said. Yeah. But how do we know that? Okay. How can you determine that? Okay, so one reason why we can determine that is that he says it elsewhere. He says it elsewhere in terms that are all-inclusive. For example, where else did he talk about being crucified with Christ? It's not just, I was crucified, but we were crucified. Romans chapter 6. So we see that. One is to look at other passages that express it as a truth together.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't your original question, does everybody have the unfathomable riches? Uh-huh. Identification is one of those. But how about righteousness? Is that one of them? So you could take Abraham was declared righteous. That's an unfathomable riches, isn't it? Yeah. So here's Abraham. He is declared righteous. He's declared righteous.

Is our righteousness conveyed the same way? No. So here's one of the interesting things that happens. We have things revealed about us. We don't necessarily have all the same level of information revealed about others who are saved. So here's Noah. Was Noah righteous? He was declared righteous. So here's Noah, righteous. Abraham, righteous. However, how it is made to be true isn't expressed the same way. How it's made to be true is not expressed the same way. So we have some identification truths that are expressed individually, and we point to this example here in Galatians. Through the law, I died to the law, and we see in the middle of page 1, Romans 6, 1-11, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death.

So just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

So is that expressed individually or all of us? Corporately, collectively. How is it to be applied? Individually or together? So it's expressed together to be applied individually. So this is an interesting thing. Why is it expressed together, collectively? Using we and us and that kind of thing. Why is it expressed that way? Okay, so it's true of all of us, so that's why the collective statement, right? And it is applied personally. Okay? Yes? Isn't that the same that the path that God took with The Jewish people in the Old Testament, he saw them as a nation, but he also saw them as individuals, right?

Doesn't this, in a sense, take the place of the sacrificial system? Because this is how you get rid of sin. We've died to it, right? And in fact we even asked this question, did this sacrificial system really ever take care of the sin issue? No. It basically said this is a matter of looking ahead to putting things on hold until Christ's sacrifice, but ultimately it's Christ's sacrifice that gets the job done. But it was the only and best system they had. Yeah, it was an interim system until Christ's sacrifice.

Then there are identification truths which are expressed collectively and are intended to be understood collectively. Among the best examples are those passages where the Church is the Bride of Christ, married to Christ, and identified with Christ. So we read Romans 6, right, which expresses our identification collectively, together. We were us. Statements like that. Here what you have is Romans 7, 1-6, where, Do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?

For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is freed from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined And the New King James, like you have in a lot of your pew Bibles, are that. Kenneth Weist translates it as married, and other translations as well.

Married to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also are made to die to the law. So notice that this is you plural. We're made to die to the law. That is the plural expression of the same thing we just read in Galatians 2.19. I died to the law. So that's personal. You, plural, all died to the law. In order that you might be joined to another.

Again, that word is the exact same word that is married in the New King James and in Lee's translation and others. to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. Are you then joined to and married to Christ? How is that relationship carried out? Is that each one of us is individually married to Christ? No. What's that? So we talk about the churches, the brides, bride, singular, of Christ. So here we have an identification truth that is applied collectively. There's an identification truth applied collectively.

So let's take, I hope you have another handout here. This is the other one that says, Supplement, Holy and Blameless, pages 1 and 2. So Ephesians 1, 3 and 4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him in love. So, we have a couple of different things here to bring out. The New Testament has a series of things that are on the bride and the bridegroom's feet. Here you have this holy and blameless term, as we mentioned in Ephesians 1-4, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

Ephesians 5.27, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Oh, that Christ might present to himself the church to be holy and blameless.

See also Colossians 1.22 and 2 Corinthians 11.2.

Colossians 1.22 also uses that term, holy and blameless.

And 2 Corinthians 11.2. Let's see, I have to jump ahead through that one. We'll get to that in a minute.

Here is Jewish marriage practices in New Testament times. At the appointed time, the father would send the prospective bridegroom from the father's house to the home of the prospective bride. The father himself who sent me is Jesus. So, in New Testament times, who would pick the bride for the son? the father would pay the bride for the son. And then he would go and he would send the son with a, here's the bride price that you have to be willing to pay. This is the amount that you're willing to pay. And so he would send the son where there would be a negotiation with the father of the woman to determine the purchase price of the bride.

But guess what was the purchase price for the bride that Christ paid? His life. He paid with his life. For us, the Church, the bride price was Christ's death on the cross. Hebrews 12.2. So once the bridegroom paid the purchase price, the marriage covenant was thereby established and young men and women are then considered to be husband and wife. That is, they were betrothed. Since Christ the bridegroom has paid the price, the marriage covenant has indeed been established, and the church is now betrothed to Christ.

This is the 2 Corinthians 11.2 passage. Why don't we get out and have a Bible easily available there?

Let's look at 2 Corinthians 11.2. Somebody read that for us?

So 2 Corinthians 11.2. Then the bridegroom would declare to the bride before the father of the bride that she was consecrated, sanctified, and set apart exclusively for her bridegroom.

So that's what Paul would say in Ephesians 5.25, that Christ paid the bride price so that he might sanctify the church, his bride. Alright, that's page 1. Let's look at page 2.

As a symbol of the covenant relationship that had been established, the bride and groom would drink from a cup of wine over which the betrothal benediction had been pronounced. So the betrothed bridegroom would begin preparing a place for the bride and the bridegroom to live, in which they would live together once the wedding had taken place.

So I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So this is the first personal mention in the New Testament of Jesus preparing the way for the bride here is this John 14, 3 and 4 passage. I go to prepare a place for you and will come again receiving to myself that where I am there you may be also. This is also the first rapture passage, the passage in which the church is caught up or taken up.

So from then until the time of the wedding, the father was to keep the bride consecrated, sanctified, and set apart exclusively for her bridegroom. Family and friends were expected to help in this task. So Jesus, praying to the father, said, sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth, as he was praying for us.

The next thing, the bride was also to prepare for the wedding day. She was in preparation for the wedding to take a customary bridal bath, not just so she was physically clean, but to picture her moral cleanliness. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6.11. So on the wedding day, what would happen on the wedding day? So on the wedding day, the father of the bridegroom would say to the bridegroom, go get your bride. So the bridegroom would go to receive his consecrated, sanctified, set-apart bride to himself, to be presented to him by the bride's father, family and friends, and the groom also presenting her to himself, she being holy and blameless. So what you have here Between Romans 7, 1-6, we, the Church, together are identified with Christ and married to Christ.

And in Ephesians 1, 3, 4, 5, 25-27 say the same thing. They express the identification truths collectively with the Church as the wife or the bride of Christ. So, identification truths regarding the Church are expressed singularly. I have been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, intended for singular and personal application. I also have passages like Romans 6, 1-11, where the identification truths are presented as a we, plural, because the truths apply to all of us, even though the application is individual. And then we have passages like Romans 7, 1-6, Ephesians 1, 3-4, and then 5, 25-27.

We have those passages that are expressed with the Church as the bride or wife of Christ, where the identification truths are all collected. So why do we bring up those distinctions? What's the value in talking about those distinctions? I think it's because it's not supposed to be a selfish thing and it also shows that you should be a member of a body, not a signed member or anything, but a participating member of the body because Christ is the head of that body and if you're part of that body, you are submitting yourself to him. So being a part of that body, Along with that, you go to Romans and Corinthians and you get into the gifting passages, so that's generally part of the body.

There's more. Okay, it will happen. Tell me about that. Well, the whole body of Christ will grow and be perfected in Christ. That's His goal. Okay, so let's talk about this. I as an individual, is God done with me yet? Once I'm saved, I have my position and it's all done. You know, I'm just, nothing's changing, I'm just waiting to go home. Is that right?

The process of sanctification, individually and corporately. Alright. And Jesus Christ will sanctify the church. He will. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And... So, you say He will sanctify the church. What does that mean? So, perfected. And when you say the church, do you mean that each individual or all of us together? Both. And I think this is the key. There is both individual growth and individual sanctification.

How do I know, for example, that I'm going to be made into the image of Christ? The Word of God says so. And where does it say that? In the New Testament. Very good. So Romans 8, 28 and 29, and it says that we've been predestined to be saved. We've been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Which means along the way, there's a process. And when is that going to be done? Predestined until 2019? Ongoing. On my birthday this year, is it all done? It starts at salvation and is completed when we are glorified. That makes it maybe. Probably going to be ongoing in heaven too. There is an indication that it will continue in heaven until a certain time when Jesus can give the Church over back to God. I can't tell you where that verse is found. So for each of us individually, there is a predestination to be conformed to the image of the Son. Does that mean I'm perfect now? No, it won't happen on earth.

So in my position, I have what we call the unfathomable riches of Christ. In my position, I already have all those things. Those are being worked out as a process in my life. And so that process that's taking place, that says that there is still a working out of that in my daily life, but it will be completed when I stand before the Lord.

Then how about with the church? What did we just read here? That we would be What did he say there in Ephesians? Twice? That we would be holy and blameless? Holy and blameless. And so that is when you look at God chose us in Him that we would be holy and blameless. The Father picked the bride. That we would be holy and blameless. But, so let's look at that.

Are we holy and blameless yet as a church? No. How about the church around the world? What shape are the churches in? Yeah, not in great shape, right? So, problems, issues. Well, we have a lot of division in the church. But I think I'm reading Ephesians 5.27, but that she would be holy and blameless in the whole church. Not just a bunch of people being holy and blameless, but the whole church as a whole. All it takes is one person to be divisive, and that wipes out holy and blameless for the whole church.

So in terms of practice, let's just pick some examples. What are some problems that the church has? If you talk about the body of Christ here on earth now, what problems do they have? That should be easy. Some of them are still under the law, and we just saw Romans 7, 1-6. and still under the law. And what does it say about our relationship to the law? We have died to the law in order to be joined to and actually married to Christ. So yeah, thinking I'm still under the law is a problem. The church can't agree on doctrines. Yeah, so this is another one.

Here's 1 Corinthians 1.10. The church has got issues and difficulties. The church has got issues and difficulties, and those difficulties include lots of doctrinal variation. He writes to them and says, I urge that you say the same things. Do we say the same thing? Many not, right? Many not. So that's a problem. Yes. But that's interesting.

That happened almost immediately after the church was established. John talks about that, the Gnostics, and Peter, and most of the Gospels are addressing the doctrinal changes that were happening within the church. And you're talking about it in Acts, what they decided that they were going to present to the Gentiles. So this isn't anything new. This is from the first church on.

So did the church have problems when the apostles were alive? Lots of them. Can you think of some of the problems that the church had when the apostles were alive? Did they write about them? What was the problem in Galatians? What was the big issue? about the same as what's going on today in the church.

Yeah, in other words, the believers saw themselves as under law, right? Specifically, they saw themselves as under the whole law of Moses, starting with circumcision. So here's the letter to Galatians. Shortly thereafter was when the council that we've been talking about here in Acts 15 took place, and the church was then brought The church was then brought to be with a declaration, a letter, from the apostles and from the elders in Jerusalem that said, no, we're not going to put you under that. As Peter put it when he spoke last in Acts, he said, we're not going to put people under that yoke. The Jews themselves referred to the law as a yoke. So we're not going to do that. And so we want the Gentiles to observe some basic morality, and otherwise, that's it.

So, how about, what are some other problems that the Church has? Yeah? I was looking at a paper that talks about the immaturity of the faith. What was the problem with the people in Hebrews? What does chapter 5 say was part of the problem? There were several passages and warnings. So one is they had some severe warnings. And what else?

That they weren't teachers, that they were status quo in their faith, they weren't growing. One of the things that Hebrews 5, at least about verse 14, says they were dull of hearing. By now you ought to be teachers, but instead you have this other problem. And what other problems did the church have, even during the time of the apostles? They couldn't decide which leader to follow. So 1 Corinthians lists a number of them, and the starting was you've got a bunch of different guys that you're following. I follow this one, I follow that one. Do we have that problem today? Yes. Yes. And you say it quickly, right? Joseph Smith. Pardon? I said Joseph Smith. Yes, and so what we have is we still have a problem with following leaders.

How about denominational or theological names? Are there churches named after people? Yep. And sometimes you'll have multiple denominations named after specific people. A whole family of denominations named after a specific person. And then a lot of the isms are named after people. Theological isms named after people.

And what else? Well, you always have the pride and the selfishness that is ingrained in the church and usually it affects the leadership first and then disseminates out into the congregation. That's a lot of times what causes splits. From experience, anyway. There's like political correctness or social type. Okay, so here's another thing that happens is churches can oftentimes get deflected off into putting a real emphasis on social and political issues as being primary and the focus, right? So that's one of the things that people divide up over. specific social and political issues. A self-improvement plan?

Yes. And along with that, I think you have the world has a tendency to see the church as a collective group of people that should be solving all the world's problems. And so whenever there's a problem, they say, well, they would have been in church. It would have been taken care of. So the church seeing itself as solving the world's problems.

Is the world ever going to have its problems solved by us in the church? Is the world the place where we should be looking to solve problems? Not really. And why not? What's the issue with that? The world is the problem. Yeah, the world itself is a problem, right?

As a matter of fact, one of the things we'll look at in terms of identification truths is we've died to three things, right? We died to the law, right? That's what we saw in Galatians 2.19 and in Romans 7.126, we died to the law. We died to the thin nature, which is Romans chapter 6, and then we died to the world. That's in Galatians chapter 6 and also in the book of Colossians chapter 2. So we have a death of relationship to, and the world is one of the things we died to. So if we died to it, how are we going to fix it?

Yeah, not going to happen, right? Yes, yeah. Yes. a confusion of doctrine. People mix up the church with Israel, and so there's the kingdom now. There's significant doctrinal confusion, and a part of it has to do with, for example, is Christ the king now? Are we in the kingdom now? That's a crappy kingdom. That's really quite an issue out there and a significant portion of, I'll call it Christendom, real focused on those kinds of things.

We're going to make the world better until Jesus has to come. Is that going to be the way it's going to work? No, no, I'm afraid it's even going to get worse before it gets better. Yes? God in this world is too powerful. I mean, God in this world is in power. Okay. And are we going to change that? No. No. Is God going to change that? God will. God will. And are we going to help him? No. No. So that's not going to get changed and It's going to happen when God makes it come about, not us.

Primarily, it's what you like to say, it's the fact that people don't understand Scripture. and how it relates to them individually and what's really expected, which is what this class is about. So that's primary as far as how you function after you become a believer, how you grow, how you mature, what's the purpose of all this, you know, and you don't find that in too many places and probably primarily in most of the churches you don't ever hear that.

It's kind of a social club. That doctrine is kind of, in the scripture, is a sideline to going and socializing. Okay. Alright. So, any other issues that you see that the Church has? So I guess one of the questions is, holy and blameless, when is that?

Just like being conformed to the image of the sun, which is done for each individual, we as the bride of Christ will be holy and blameless when we together are made holy and blameless, but apparently not until then. We will be like Him for we will see Him as He is. So let's ask this question, in what ways will we be like Him? In all ways but as deity. Pardon? In all ways but as deity. Yeah, if you look at it, okay, what ways have we been made to be like him? Are we going to be God's two? No. We're not going to be God's two. And by the way, there are different groups that kind of get that mixed up. Right? So, no, we're not going to be God's two. Then, So we're not going to be gods?

Is there any other, I guess another way to put it, in what ways are we going to be like him? Yeah, one is we will have bodies like his, as we would say post-resurrection body, as his resurrected body, okay? Everything will function. Things will function as they are not now. Things in our human body don't function well right now. So let's ask this question. He will share his glory. Does he do that now? Yes, in fact, even now. We were identified with him. Were we identified with him in everything? No, we were identified with him in these five things. So we will share a history with him.

The death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. Since he is a new creation, the beginning of a new creation, we would still be in that creation part. We're still creating. The God part is not creating. So basically it's everything but deity.

We will share a history with him, explicitly that history is in five things, and we will not have, however, deity. The deity is the primary thing. that we will not have. Now when we say not as deity, does he share his glory with us? Is that a part of his deity? So here we have something very interesting. He shares aspects of his very character without sharing his deity. We have his history, we have his righteousness, we will have a resurrected body as his. So many things like that in common, but then also this difference we won't be deity. How can he do that? Because he's God. Pardon? Because he's God. First of all, he's God. So what that means is that he shares qualities that come from his deity without sharing his essential identity as deity. See the difference? He will share qualities from his deity without sharing his essential identity as deity.

And by the way, so will you, what will be your identity? Will everybody look around in heaven and say, man, look at all the Jesuses? We'll be the same person. Pardon? We'll be the same person. Yeah, so what's interesting is you will have a unique relationship with him. This is particularly what Revelation makes clear. It says you'll have a name that only you and he know. So there's a uniqueness in the relationship. There's a uniqueness in your identity.

And yet there is a great deal that we will share in common with Christ. Yeah? The other thing is we'll probably have the understanding we will no longer have to believe that by faith. Yep. We'll understand all of that. Yes. Okay. So let's pray because we've just completely run out of time. Thank you Lord for just your word and some of these things are kind of mind-stretching and what amazing things you've decided to share with us and we in fact are called brothers of Christ and brothers of one another and But in the midst of that, we see and hear the identification clues, both individual identity as well as identity together. And what an astounding thing to ponder. And so we just ask that you'd guide and lead us as we continue to look through these things. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.