Identification Truths Plus 2012
Randy Peterman · May 6, 2012
Identification Truths Plus, No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492631342797

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

All right, so we have just been racing right through Romans chapter 6, by which I mean we're finally on the last four questions, I think it is, of what is marked as Lesson 13, but is actually Lesson 12. But to add to the slight irony, I think the numbering is wrong, so there's like two number 12s or something like that. That being said, you know, because that's one of those things, So we ended off with question eight last week. Does that sound right? No one has any disagreements or about that? Questions, things you wish we said before we get started? So the question is, by being in Christ, what events in Christ's life does the believer partake in? And so that's a a multi-part answer for this question. So what things does the believer partake in by being in Christ?

We're seated in heavenly places. That's true. That is part of the answer, yes. We're baptized into His death. Yes. What else? Is it this whole list? Well, technically that is a subset of that list, yes. That list is beyond what we partake in. Some of those are things that we are recipients of as well. But yes, you're referring to the 34 things, yes. I figured this one would be you guys to have it right off. What is the chart my dad shows nearly every week that shows five pictures? Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding.

Let's go through that because it's not very useful if we just say that's the answer and move on. How do we know that we died with Christ? Faith? Alright, we're going to go into this more in the coming weeks, but let's take a look, skip ahead in your Romans chapter 6. We were crucified with Christ in verse 6, Romans 6. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him. So we were crucified with Christ, we died with Christ, and how do we know that?

The Bible. Yes. Verse 8. So keep going. Verse 8 says, Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So that also tells us that we were resurrected. The other cool thing about resurrection is that there's multiple other references to resurrection. verse 5 in Romans 6, 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. What does the word likeness mean?

Just real quick, make sure we have... Same in kind. So this is that theme that we've noticed, is that like begets like, back from Genesis. It's an important thing that we see that there's a pattern here. Alright, so what are some of the elements, okay, so also we're a new creation. That's that like begets like. So what are some of the elements of the new creation?

His life. Okay, it's his life. That's good. What are some of the benefits? And this gets back to the list of 34 things. How would you describe this new type of creation? It's not a creation even, it's a new type that is of Christ. It's spiritual. We have a new headship. Who is our old head? Adam. So now we have a new head in Christ. That's a really cool thing. The like begets like means we need to have that new type that we are of that is in Christ. The next thing is that we get to be partakers of the inheritance. Who is Christ's inheritance? Us, the church. That's really weird and cool at the same time. By weird, that's maybe not an appropriate word to say in church. You're not supposed to say theology is weird. We don't tend to think of inheritances as people, do we?

If I said, hello, I've got an inheritance, you would immediately run to possessions. Oh, I have money. My parents passed away and now I'm a McDonald's cheeseburger heir or something. Although I think my parents would probably leave behind possibly more than enough for a cheeseburger, but who knows? But the thing is that this inheritance involves the church and we're a part of that inheritance and we get to participate in being Christ's inheritance. How about every spiritual blessing?

Ephesians 1.3 I believe is where we go for that one, so let's jump there because we can. I should have done that earlier, I'm sorry.

Ephesians 1.3 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. And the thing that kind of gets me every time I look at this blessed with every spiritual blessing is that it's really hard to itemize that list. The fullness of that blessing is the fullness of what we receive in Christ, but itemizing that list is insufficient. Because the quality of that blessing is infinite.

So the Lord didn't have to go to an attorney and say, well, this is going to take a while. I'm going to make this will for this inheritance. I've got these blessings for these people. I need to make sure we've got this all written down. It is an infinite quality. So every spiritual blessing is quite amazing. The next thing that we receive is justification. We're justified forever. We'll get into justification a lot more as we go through this Romans passage. So I won't skip ahead for the sake of that.

Citizenship is changed from earth to heaven. Yesterday when I was teaching in Fort Collins we went over 1 Peter chapter 1 and the first thing Peter starts off his letter to, he says, greetings from Peter to the aliens who are spread through, and he lists off the recipient locations. They're aliens. They have a new citizenship. And being an alien is quite a different sort of a scenario.

We don't tend to think of ourselves that way. Every time you watch political news, it's hard to disassociate yourself from US politics, because we live here. Or at least maybe. Maybe it isn't for you. I'll just assume it is. It's just maybe it is for me. And you don't have that problem.

So we have a citizenship that has changed from earth to heaven. What does a changed attitude in citizenship mean for us? How do you look at your life if you realize you're not a citizen here? Think about things above instead of things on the earth. Okay. Yeah, the things of earth grow strangely dim.

It does make politics have a context that you can at least deal with. You have a scope that is like, well, this is going to get worse, the Bible says it's going to get worse, and it's not a term. We don't have to deal with presidents leading the nation in a downward spiral, or politicians going, oh no, this is going to happen indefinitely.

No, this is part of God's plan. It's a little disconcerting when you read that Paul and then also Peter says that we should respect government. It's like, oh no! Yes, do that! Because that's what Christ has called you to. But we have a heavenly citizenship instead of an earthly citizenship. So that's important.

We've got question nine here, and I accidentally already answered question nine, but we should still ask it anyways, make sure there aren't any other questions about question nine. Is this a new principle God has instituted? I would say it was planned from the time of the original sin. Okay, it actually, the cool thing is it's even before then.

Just to point that out, and because I was in 1 Peter and taught on that specifically, I'm going to say let's turn to 1 Peter. It's fresh in my mind, so let's just do that. Let's make sure that I'm not crazy. So turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1, look at verse 2.

He says, According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. May grace and peace be with you to the fullest. that according to the foreknowledge, I should have actually pointed to verse 1 as well, it says chosen according to the foreknowledge. The idea is that God in his foreknowledge before the creation of the earth had made this plan with Christ and the Holy Spirit that these things would take place. And when you jump forward to verse 20, 1 Peter 20, he says, for he has foreknown before the foundation of the world or he was foreknown, I'm sorry, Christ was foreknown, according to the foundation of the world, before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. So God knew from before the fall that the sun was coming. And that's a... Ephesians 1, 4, 2. Just as he chose us and him before the foundation of the world. Yeah. Trish?

If Christ didn't die, I just assumed it was the point in history was his death, because if he didn't die, we would not be identified with him. Correct. So, God knew that the events would take place, but the actual event in history would be his death, no? Yes, it had to be that time, but she had said that it had started at the fall, but I'm just saying it started before that, that God was aware that the coming crucifixion was going to take place. He knew all that was going to take place, but if Christ didn't die, then we would still be in Adam. Absolutely. So there was one point in history, right? Yes.

But the thing that happens at that transaction, and that's where you get into Ephesians, how to get this predestined and all this stuff. All those verses in Ephesians and others, it's because we're placed into Him. Once we're placed into Him, whose history do we have? His. So that's how He can say you're predestined, He foreknew us, He did everything. Why? Because once we're in Him, how long has God and Christ been together? from eternity. So he sees us in him.

Now our history goes all the way back before the foundation of the world. Yet the transaction point was at the cross, at the crucifixion, where we're co-crucified. But at that point our history then reverts to him. And that's why all those verses in Ephesians, where you have predestined for knowledge. Every one of those, if you look at it, it ends with in him. So basically this question is, assuming that Christ died. For a believer, it goes back before the foundation of time. Because our history now is placed in Him. Like I said, if you look at the Ephesians verses now, which is basically our position in heaven looking down. That's what Ephesians is. It's all heavenly.

And where you actually now get all this predestined foreknowledge. And the way I always looked at it, which really helped, was, you know, it's kind of like a door, you know, almost like the Revelation, but knock on the door kind of, once you go in and you're placed into Him, you look back and now time goes back to Him. Once you've entered into Him or placed into Him, you now look back and your history is now with Him, positioned, we're all with Him. So that's, I think, where it goes back to is once that transaction happened, now any believer's history goes back.

Right. So number nine, the funny thing is that the way it's worded is maybe vague, because when Mike put this together, the answer is actually about the like begets like principle. But that's not obvious the way the question is worded. The principle of like begets like is important.

It's one that God set in stone, or set as a principle, I'm sorry, in Genesis. with both animals and then also with mankind. He went an extra step, at least as far as the recording and scripture is concerned. What type is man after? Who is man made in the image of? And who is woman made in the image of? Man. Paul tells us that woman was made in the image of man.

Instead of that being awkward, because we have all kinds of gender issues in our culture, what God was doing was making something special, saying, I have made this person to be just right for mankind as a partner. He left a void there on purpose so that man would name all the animals. Because God told him, name all the animals. And God brought the animals. And Adam was like, OK, that's a lion and that's a tiger, although those are English names. And he went through and he was like, OK. And God said, hey, you're missing somebody. And so God made Eve as a very special type that matches Adam.

And that reminds me of a joke, so I have to be careful. I don't want to tell a joke. No, go ahead. I guess then, too, with woman being made in man's image, then that would keep Adam as the not leader, but as the... Having an authority or a position? Yeah, the authority, and that's why he can also accept the responsibility for Eve making a mistake.

Here's where this gets really cool. Okay, so let's take a step back. We look at that and we go, oh no, gender issues, or we think marital problems, or equality, and all these things. Let's take a look at something that happens that is vitally important to who Christ is.

If you go back to Genesis chapter 3, and I'll turn there, you don't necessarily have to, but Genesis chapter 3 in verse 15, I have a gas receipt in there for bookmark, God tells Eve, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.

Because she was made as a, I'm going to say subtype, but I mean that as a software developer, not as a negative statement towards femaleness. But because she was made as a separate type that was derivative of Adam, she could be described as having a seed. Why was it important for her to have a seed different from Adam having a seed? It wasn't the same head.

When God impregnated Eve it was to fulfill, I'm Eve, Mary, it was to fulfill, get my theology straight, and then, so, yeah, Randy's got all kinds of bad theology, why is he teaching? But the type, yeah, the joke is bad, the typology here is really critical because then you can have, you can have the hypostatic union, you can have a perfectly 100% God, 100% mankind type of Christ that is not tainted by sin. Because Eve doesn't carry that, Adam carries that.

That's the way the scriptures outline it. But it's really cool that this like begets like and that this pattern of genderness matters throughout scripture. It creates an opportunity for who Christ is later on. So when number nine, the question asks, is this principle new? No, it's not. It roots all the way back to Genesis. I've got some interesting facial expressions I'm seeing on people's faces.

Ben, in Galatians 3.28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female for all of you. For you are all one in Christ now. Yes. So the principle now is that linkage, it doesn't matter male or female, there's no difference, change, anything. We're all one in Christ now. Where were you reading that?

Galatians 3.28. Okay. So what you were describing is how Christ could come through Mary, but now the likeness is in Christ only. For male, female, Jew, Greek, anybody. There is no distinction now. Yeah. And that being his point, that now there isn't that distinction. Yes. And that's really important. And the funny thing is that that is repeated also by Paul in other places. He really wants to make sure that that is a principle that is carried over.

That in the church, those things that we worry about for gender, in that regard, don't matter. When we get to heaven, the male, femaleness that we're associated with, the marriages that we're associated with, Our parenting, all of that. Parenting is not the right word. Predecessors and what not. None of that matters in Christ. So Randy, why does it matter in our church building and how we operate church things at the pulpit, lack of a better term. Why do we distinguish in the church building itself?

Conditionally, because what I'm talking about when I say that is a positional truth. Conditionally, actually Paul references that and he talks about the order that needs to be there. We can look in Romans chapter 15, not Romans 15, is that, wait a minute, 1 Corinthians 15, where he talks about male and femaleness, because God set those things in order. It's actually 14, 1 Corinthians 14.

Only because I hear that a lot. Yeah. So I'd really like to know the answer too. Well, and the thing is that it's one of those, one of those, there's a bunch of places, quite frankly, I'm not off the cuff. Because people will use the birthday party. read it to us.

This is why females can be pastors, this is why females can have all these different roles because of the verse that you had said. And I'm like, well, I mean, I looked through Acts and how the church is supposed to run. Yeah, there are deacons, there are all sorts of things, but that is in Christ that's who we are. But under grace, he gives us delegated authorities, elders. So in the church, the elders are the ones who organizationally run this body. And so he's given principles on how to run a local body.

And so you can't just say male and female, we're all the same. Well, that's why there's so many female pastors. Why not? But they exclude a lot of the logical or his principles that Paul lays out for organizational running of the church. Husband and wife, you look at how We have an earth that we're given, organizationally, to run while we're here. Once we step into eternity, we're all the same. We're all male or female, it doesn't matter. But here, he's given principles to run and given authorities. Under grace, he's delegated some of his authority to look like elders, husbands and wives. There are a bunch of different things that are still... Government? Government? Government, yeah. verses 18 through 25. There is an order that Paul writes about. I'll read it out loud. 18 through 25.

Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not exasperate your children, slaves. And so he sets up an order for a household But the households come together and meet in the church and the order of responsibility is still intact. The problem when you get to places like when people use that Galatians passage, and I'll flip back over there for the sake of context, is they don't use it in context.

So let's look at Galatians chapter 3. starting in 26, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither is there slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

At no point in time do I hear people take that one verse out of context, 28, saying, see there's no gender issues and then continue on to talk about being Abraham's descendants and being excited about what that means. What does that mean? Well, it had to do with being recipients of the blessing across all the nations through Christ, through the seed of Abraham.

That's the context for it, not the genderness, not the slave nor freeness, it's the context as being under the blessing of salvation. But they've taken this one verse out of context and said, see, there's no gender issues. That's not what it says. And I think the out of context is position and condition. That's kind of the root of why they get out of context. This is positional truth. We are in Christ. Male, female doesn't make a difference. So they don't understand position and condition.

So that's a lot of where this misinformation comes from. Molly, I think Holly has a question. So some of the women teachers will, their audience, they'll kind of promote their audience as teaching to other women. That's no problem, right? In fact, that's encouraged in some context. For example, Titus chapter 2. Yeah, let go. Yeah.

So older women likewise are to be reverent Apparently speaking is not my thing today. Reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that you may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. So yeah, the older women teaching younger women is important. And in fact, one thing, I'm going to step on a soapbox for just a second.

One thing that I've seen as interesting with the internet is that the younger generation of men and women are not going to the older men in the church. They're Googling. What does biblical manhood look like? It doesn't matter. I read this really cool blog post and I was inspired. That's terrible! That's horrible. You know, Titus says, older men, younger men, why are elders' qualifications so stringent? Because you're the example for the next generation. Not anymore, I have Google. Thank the Lord for Bain. You know, it's just, no, that's not it.

But yeah, there is an order that God has put there, but it's in respect to him, into his order, and it creates opportunities in a marriage relationship that only God could put forth. And that's cool. It brings forth relationships in the body that only God could put forth. And so it's one of those things where the order that's there, the like begets like, all of those things tie in together to bring glory and praise to God.

When man comes up with a new system, does it bring glory and praise to God? No. Even if it tickles our ears. I know this is on a different angle, but explain to me about the four nines. Some people say they don't have a choice if God knew it. If He knew it, what can they do about it? Well, this right here is a light bulb. We have 20 minutes left in class, and we now have time to schedule it for that.

So let's go back to 1 Peter, because that's an example of that, or we can go to Romans chapter 8. Courtney, which one? I go to Ephesians. You go to Ephesians? Ephesians 1. You go to Ephesians 1 and you look at all that. This is the selection and free will and that whole deal. If you look at Ephesians 1, when you look at that, and this is where it's almost most prevalent. If you understand Ephesians, Ephesians is really explaining from a positional standpoint where we are.

We're seated in the heavens. we've been given all spiritual blessings, we're in the heavenly places, we're in Him, in Christ. If you look at all these, when you look at them, it's just, blessed be the God of places, in Christ, just He chose us, in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be. In love, He predestined us to adoption, as sons through Christ to himself according to the kind intentions of the praise and glory which he freely bestowed on us, where? In the Beloved. Every one of these has in him. So that's the predestined, the pre-knowledge, the fore-knowledge. All those things are what?

One replaced in him. And this is all about our position in Christ and what that means. And getting us out of Adam, and we've talked about this a lot, the history we have in Adam, you know, and all that, well, how do we get out of that? That's all the mechanics we're going through now in Romans 6, is how do we get out of that history with Adam to get a new history in Christ, the cross, in Romans 6. Once we're placed into Him, our history is His history.

So, when did God know Christ? Before the foundation of time. So he can then see us in him, and so, because what? He knows Christ. And he sees us in Christ. So all that predestination is after we're placed into him, we now have this history that goes back, and so how long has he known Christ?

Forever. So it's still, It comes down to belief in Christ and the finished work on the cross. But once we do that and that transaction is made, all these positional truths in Ephesians 1 make a lot of sense. And that's why I think he puts almost in every one of these, in him, in him. This is true in him. This is true in him. In him, in him, in him.

That's where all the foreknowledge is. Not that he goes, you know, I think Courtney and And he's going to point down and he knows, well no, it's after I'm placed in the Christ. He now knows me from eternity past. So that's where, and again, the misunderstanding of choice or being selected. They take these and it's not, they don't see the in him part. Every reference to foreknowledge and predestination comes into contact with the doctrine of being unified with Christ.

So when you look at, for example, he went to Ephesians, I'll take a look at Romans 8.29.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. All of those things are wrapped up in Christ. All of those things are tied up in who Christ is. And I can't find a reference to it. Maybe, Courtney, you can look it up on your computer.

But it says it's God's will that none should perish. Okay? Then none should go to hell. If it's God's will and God chooses you and you don't have a choice in it, then none will go to hell. Everyone would be saved. Unless there is, and this is where it comes down to how do you describe God's will?

Is God's will, there's multiple types of God's will, just like you have multiple types. Okay? Of your will. God's will, he has his perfect will, which is what he would like. He has his perfect will that he controls, and he has a general sense of... and then he has this character of who he is. God is perfect, and just, and righteous, and merciful, and all those things, and those are characteristics that define his will.

But he also created us in his image, which means that you got a will, you have a volition. And so, if God chooses who goes to hell, you didn't have a volition involved there, and so being created in God's image means that you were created not really in God's image. You were only kind of sort of made in God's image.

So the problem is that what we're describing is a predestination. When you look at predestination, because that's the name of the doctrine, when you look at the passages right here, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. The predestination was to conformity. Predestination was not about, I'm picking that person to go to hell. And that's the problem. That's what we get into. Sorry, I said that. That's mine. It's hot.

The one you were looking for, I think, is 2 Peter 3.9. 2 Peter 3.9. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Okay. Thank you.

2 Peter 3.9. So if God doesn't want anyone to perish and go to hell and he wants all to be repentant, if it's all God's choice and all God's will and you as human beings created in the image of Adam or Eve have no choice, then this verse is pretty useless.

But then he knew what people were going to choose him, which I guess the whole time thing comes into play. He is knowledgeable of that. He foreknew it. But he was respectful of the will of the individual. The Holy Spirit woos the believer, but the believer believes. You actually believe. Now there's a whole vein of Reformed theology that actually says you didn't believe. It says that God gave you the gift of belief. So God believed for you and then gave you that gift. Which is not hard to, or it's not easy to find in Scripture.

This is a rabbit trail of theology that is consumed possibly millions of hours of people's time. It blows my mind that little old me, he respects my will. It just blows my mind. I can't wrap my head around that. But the thing is that you're... that's love. And that's the benevolent love of God is that he comes to you and he says I love you and I'm sending my son to die for you because I want relationship with you. And that's a really big concept. It should cause us to be stirred emotionally. And when we get into grace a little bit more, it makes sense in that... Ingrid loves this. We never use this word. Non-meritorious act. It is the one thing that we... Say that again, I couldn't hear you. Non-meritorious act. Ah, yes.

There is nothing in believing. There is no debt owed to that. There is no... work, there is no, it is the only, and the best word is non-meritorious, there is no merit to place us into Christ. If it is, it diminishes what Christ did and would rely upon us for something. And by faith is the only thing that we can be placed in with, it requires absolutely no debt, payment, effort, anything.

So he set it up that way. It's his free gift and it exemplifies grace in that grace is not a definition of non-meritorious and unlimited blessings. It's non-meritorious. I mean, salvation is through grace. Other than making the right choice. Yeah, but there's no payment, no effort, there's no merit to your effort. It's belief. Right. But belief is sometimes effort. in a way.

Well you may struggle with it. To go from a person who was raised Jewish and was Jewish their whole life to then believe in Christ, that seems like a pretty big sort of mental effort. If it's not a gift from God, it's a choice. And that choice is huge, because you're maybe rejecting your whole family.

But whose work is that? Well, it's not work by itself. It is a decision. It comes with consequences, which links us to Christ's work. That's where the consequence is. Is it big? Is it substantial? Yes. It's huge. But who's the one working? Christ is the one doing the work. The Holy Spirit is the one convicting. But I'm saying before you make that choice, do you have the Holy Spirit then? Who's working on you? The Holy Spirit will be working on you. So God's working on you. God's always working on people. He's always working on everybody and everybody.

You just kind of come around then. Well, you come to a point where you believe or don't believe, which is no effort, no merit. See, I want to say, want to say that choice has some, not merit, but I want to say it has some It may be tough for you. It's a big deal. It is. It's life and death. It's not meritorious. That's the thing. But there's nothing you can point to that says Christ owes you for that. Or anybody owes you for that. Which means there's no merit. I totally get that. And that's where salvation is by grace. And he set it up perfectly that way. anything required of us other than the non-meritorious act of belief. Right. That's it. Which is a big deal. Right. Well, let's step back. We're going to skip the questions on baptism a little bit because I think we've talked about those last week with baptism and what baptism is. I want to ask the last question that's on there. I think it's duplicated in number.

Why does it matter that this is relevant or applies personally. Why is it critical for these verses to have personal application? Since God would do what he did and Jesus would do what he did for one person, and that one person is you, so you've got to personally have that relationship Not you have to have it, but you would have that personal relationship with God if you were the only person on earth. The numbers apparently aren't too big for God. The millions and millions and billions of people who have lived throughout history isn't a challenge for God to keep track of. Well, let me read the verses and then let's ask the question again. 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? I'm going to stop there because why does it matter that you died to sin personally? We're not a slave to sin anymore. When I was younger and I read through this and no one explained to me that this actually applied to me, I looked at this and I said, this isn't me. I'm still sinning. I'm still sinning. How could this possibly mean me?

And I didn't have any answer. And no one at that point in time that I spoke to did any sort of exposition of it. I'm not sure that they understood it. But because of this I thought, well I don't know how I died to sin. This didn't make any sense to me. I don't know how I was identified with Christ. That is crazy talk right there. That's mystical. I could not understand it.

And so I had no concept of victory over sin. Which is what you were saying. I had no concept of the fullness of what Christ did on the cross. So the personal and direct application of these verses is a challenge to the believer because they have to stop saying, I can do it.

Legalism is rooted in the I can do it attitude. It fits really well in America. What do we do? You can be successful in America. You do it. We hear that story all the time. And if you can't do it, just get a credit card. They'll do it for you. This also goes to the whole class, identification. It's all identification.

Our identification with Christ. And that's where I think we hit a lot of times when we see the sign out front, Save Sinners. Not sinners anymore. We're not sinners. These verses are critical to the mechanics of how that happens. Because lots of people say, now that I have Christ, it enables me to do whatever. I'm able to do it now, because I have the Holy Spirit living in me, and now my old self can be shined up, cleaned up, and now I can, and if you're covenant, all these laws and all this stuff, and now I can fulfill all this stuff, and they totally miss the transaction that is happening right here.

This is the linchpin of identification. How do we get out of Adam into Christ? And that application is where the abundant life that we read about comes from. And that was, for me, really shocking. I was really frustrated when I actually started to learn these things. It's like, even this has been in front of me my whole life that I could read, and I had no idea.

But instead I got, here's some more law. Oh, here's some more rules to follow. Take these. Take this. You know, it's like, oh man. I literally remember somebody telling me the Holy Spirit will enable you to live the law out. And I remember thinking, something about that's not right. It doesn't make sense.

And I was in high school. No, I was in junior high. And I was in the ninth grade. And I opened up to Leviticus. And I went to the laws where the feminine hygiene rules were. And I went to the leader after the study and I was like, listen! And I flipped it open to Leviticus 15. I remember the chapter actually because it was such a striking moment.

And I said, why isn't this happening in the church then? Why are these women not leaving the camp? Why? And he really didn't have an answer for that. He goes, well that part of the law doesn't apply. What? But when instead you look at Romans 6, you recognize that you died to the system of the law, you died to the system of the flesh, and now you are alive in Christ because you were baptized into those things.

That application changes your worldview. That application changes what tomorrow looks like. It puts new meaning to what your day is. Well, that's the only way you can deal with sin. Everything else fails. And of course that's why last week question six was such an important question.

We're not asking God to change our sin patterns, we're asking us, we come to him and say, you've changed my ability to not sin. and all of that, I mean, it builds up. We're going to keep going next week. I think we'll go over verses four and five, and that may not take the whole class. We'll see. And then Mike will continue on with six on.

Any other thoughts or questions? I think that was actually the second, or the first bow. Second. Was it the second bow? Yeah. Anything else? Things you wish I hadn't said? Alright, well we'll close in prayer and then I'll tell you that joke I thought of earlier. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would just continue to impress these things onto our lives as we go through the week and the days ahead of us until you draw us to you in your return or the rapture. And we just ask that you would bring us to these truths over and over again so that if we do stumble that we would recognize that there's the growth opportunity there to be abiding. We just thank you in Jesus name. Amen.