Identification Truths Plus 2012

I'm going to start with question 24 of last week's stuff. Question 24 says, By being in Christ, what events in Christ's life does a believer partake in? By being in Christ, what events in Christ's life does a believer partake in? You were crucified with Christ.

You died with Him. You were buried with Him. Verse 6-4 says that you were buried together with Him. Burial is the act of the consummating act between man and his ties to the earth. You also resurrected with Him. You're a new creation in Christ. When He went up to heaven, you went with Him.

Let's see how smart you are. The last question last week, is this a new principle God has just instituted? In other words, you know, whatever is true of Christ is true of you. When did he institute the principle? Yeah. Do you remember what it was called? That like begets like.

We were all born in Adam, so we're just like him. Whatever he was and is, is what we are and are. Same thing with birds and trees and animals and, you know, life begets life. Not only is that true in the physical realm, but it's also true in the spiritual realm.

So, when Romans 6 says that you were taken by the Holy Spirit out of Adam and placed positionally in Christ, the like-begets-like principle still holds. Kind of cool, huh? Really cool. So, last week when you were really angry that you had to come from Adam, this week you should be pretty excited that now you come from Christ. So, I'm hoping that you read Romans chapter 6 These first questions have a lot to do with question number one. Why is living any longer in sin just not the norm of the believer? Because like begets like. We're in Christ. Okay.

Romans 6.2.

What does Romans 6.2 say?

How shall we who have died to sin still live in it? How can we who died to sin be living in it any longer? This isn't a plea for Christians not to live any longer in sin. It's a statement of fact. If you're no longer in sin, how can you function out of it? See, it's very interesting that that's the way the question is asked. How can you who died to sin and the sin principle, singular, remember we talked about that last week, How can you go on living in it? It would be like saying, how can you who died in New York City still be living in New York City?

You can't. That's the principle. You see that? Now I must say, even though the principle is stated very clearly there, it's a tough faith pill to swallow. Right? Because sin raises its ugly head all the time. So, question two. Baptism is the cause. What's the effect of our baptism into Christ? Separation from the sin. Yeah, separation, you know, newness of life. When we were baptized into Christ, remember, at what point in Christ's life did we go in? Remember that? Have I asked that question already? At what point in Christ's existence on the earth did we get placed into Him? It says so right there.

Don't you realize that when you were baptized into Christ, you were baptized into His death? That's when you go in. You go in at the point at which He dies. He separates Himself from your sin because He was made sin for you. So, when you're co-crucified, co-died, co-burial. Okay, so crucifixion then is the death?

That's question four. Okay. We'll get there. Resurrection, so baptism is the cause of The effects are all the other things. Understand that? Baptism is the cause of how you got into Christ. Once you're in there, the effect is all of the benefits derived from being in Christ.

Positional truth. Do I need to review position? What's position? Position is like Once we're in Christ, in the righteousness of God in Christ, we're seated in heavenly places in Christ, so that our condition is how we stumble, tumble, and fall, trying to make our condition like our position. When you read Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, It's all what we call positional truth. It's what is true of you from God's perspective and it can never be changed. It can never be altered. But your condition as your everyday walking around existence on the earth may line up with your position and may not. But position is everything. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. So as a believer, to spend your time finding out what your position is, I would think would be really important. Find out who you are, you know.

Okay, question three. Is the following statement true? If I did not die with Christ on the cross, I cannot be living in Him, risen from the dead, but I am still back in the old Adam in which I was born. True or false statement? True. True statement. Why? Because my old position still holds. I'm in Adam.

I wrote down there's no more difficult task and no task requiring such constant vigilant attention is assigned by God to the believer. It is a stupendous thing this matter of taking note of and keeping in mind what goes so completely against your consciousness that your old man was crucified. You know, my saying for years has been, Lord, if I was crucified with you and died on that cross with you, how come when the music starts my feet are moving? You know? How come when the temptation is there, I'm going for it? And the answer is simple.

I haven't settled down by faith in what the facts are. I don't believe them. And my job is just to take him at his word and believe him. These words are addressed to faith, to faith only. Christ died once, once and for all unto sin, and he's not dying continually. I'm told to reckon myself dead in that death of Christ. I am therefore not told to do my own dying to sin self in the world, but on the contrary, to reckon by simple faith that in his death I died and to be conformed to his death. So you can stop trying to die.

You already did. So here's Holly's question. What does crucifixion mean? Well, crucifixion is just a method of putting someone to death. That's really all it is. It was a lingering, slow death that might take days. The cool thing about what happened on the cross of Christ was that when he had accomplished all of the work that God sent him to do, he died. They didn't take his life from him. He gave it up. Because crucifixion could take days. You died of suffocation or heat stroke or something like that. He was there six hours and died. He gave up his own life.

But it says we're crucified with Christ. That's exactly right. That's how you died. When He was there, you were there. And talk about something tough to believe, you know, when the gospel message is brought to you as an unbeliever, and someone says to you, look, the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid the penalty for your sins, all of them, and if you will believe that, He will save you for all eternity. Well, if you're like me, it took a while. Then, so you buy that, by faith you receive that, and you're going along merrily as a Christian and somebody comes up to you and says, hey have you ever read Romans 6?

It says you died with Christ on the cross. Wow. I did? I don't remember doing that. See, the point is, is that when you're dealing with God in the spiritual realm and the eternal realm of things, time is irrelevant. See, when Christ died on that cross, you did too. I once told a friend of mine that we are dead, that you died.

And she said, how is that biblical? Yeah, how is that biblical? Yeah, that's exactly right. And you know what? Paul's epistles is inundated with death, burial and resurrection of the believer fall over the place. You know? It probably makes it more clear, I think, to unbelievers that, you know, if you say you're spiritually died. You know what I think? You know the best way to go at this? Is the way the guy, the fellow that first introduced me to him. You know how he did it? It was great.

He said, open up your Bible. to Romans chapter 6. Read the first 10 verses. Read them out loud. I read them. He said, what does it say? I said, maybe I died. He said, yeah, you did. Read them again. That's all it took. So it isn't your persuasiveness. You must have been prepared because you already had a Bible. Yeah, well, I had been a believer four weeks when he showed that to me. And so, I mean, you know, I began, I learned a couple of things that day. The second thing I learned that day was let the Bible do the teaching and not me. Let the Word do its job.

How can you say, well, I see what it says, but that's not biblical. Oh, really? Maybe we ought to tear that page out of my Bible. That's not a good one. There's a misunderstanding of what it means to be dead, if not annihilation. That's right. It's separation. That's really good.

Isn't it good that you got the Romans truth so early in life? I mean, after salvation, I should say. Yeah, I mean, I feel most blessed, you know. But I also am convinced that The study of Christianity begins in Romans chapter 1. By the time you get to chapter 6, here are the identification truths. It's basic Christian understanding. We are teaching identification truths to 9 and 10 year olds and they're getting it. They understand. So our next class, it's the work of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit wanted you here and wanted you to get it.

That's exactly right. You know, so you didn't have time to... It's a grace deal. Yeah. It's totally. But you know what? I've talked to lots of believers who have heard these truths through their Christian life and didn't believe them or didn't think they were biblical or thought that didn't make any common sense that I would die. But I did. And you're right.

To understand what the word death means is really important. It just means separation. It doesn't mean you cease to exist. If you understand you were united to Adam and that relationship ended through your separation on the cross with Christ and then you were united to Christ in resurrection, that's all you need to know. What more than that do you need to know? I'm no longer hooked to this guy.

I'm now united to Christ. So when you read, when we studied John 17, what does the Lord Jesus say to the Father when He prays to Him? Father, that they may be one as we are one. How's He going to pull that off? That they may be one in us. That's how He did it. He did it on the cross. We are one with the God of the universe. There's no other creature that can say that. We're it. Kind of cool. Kind of cool. Alright, in verse 6 it says, that my old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. What does the body of sin being destroyed mean?

The word destroyed is a King James word. What other words does your version say? Done away. Done away. The Greek word is katergeho, which means annulled, what Hal Malloy used to say, taken off line, I like it better to be put out of business since my old man was crucified with Christ. All the rights that sin had to me to express itself through my body are gone.

It doesn't have a right to control me anymore. So now the Holy Spirit who indwells me has the rights and he will put out of business the body of sin. Okay? Another one of those incredibly stupendous truths, especially if you're young, you just think, how's he going to do that? Does he have the power to do it? Yeah, he does. So now what is your relationship to sin as a believer?

Forgiveness. Nope. Don't have one. You don't. It's not trick. You don't have a relationship to sin anymore. That's right. We're dead to it. The example I've used for years is my mom went home to be with the Lord 20 years ago and when they had her down in the funeral home, I didn't go down there and shuffle the cards and say, hey mom, it's your deal. Deal them up. Why not? Because she had died. That's right. So when sin comes a-calling, What can you say? Go pick on somebody who's alive to you. I'm dead and alive to Christ.

Verse 8. What does verse 8 tell us to take for... Does verse 8 tell us to take for granted that we died with Christ? Should we take that information for granted? Is that what it means then, not to take it for granted, but to take up your cross every day? To not take that for granted? Somebody read verse 8. We have died with Christ. We believe that we shall also live with Him. Should we take it for granted that we died with Him? Absolutely we should. Oh, we should. Sure we should. Didn't we? Didn't we?

Minus one. baptized and they say that you're buried with them, raised to offer in this place. And that's what you're doing. That's exactly what baptism is. And I think that all the baptisms ought to be out in the front yard. Because when you're being baptized, what are you saying? Goodbye to the world and to sin. Down you go, up you come to newness of life. So you should take it for granted that you died. You did die. It would be like asking Monique if she's a Republican. Yes, I am. She takes it for granted.

What is the reason given for this assurance that we shall keep on sharing his risen life? Verse 9. What does verse 9 say? Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more, death has no more meaning. So that's the reason given of the assurance that you should have, that you should keep on sharing his risen life. If you're united to him, then what's the principle? Whatever's true of him is also true of you. Just like before you were a believer, whatever was true of Adam was true of you.

See that? And it seems like part of it is the knowing that. You've got to know it. To believe it, you've got to know what you believe. Faith isn't just some ethereal emotional thing where, you know, you have to know the specific facts. These facts, they don't get any clearer than this. The problem is that they go totally against your experience, your thought process, everything you know to be true initially.

But once you take God at His word and you believe this, boy, get ready. Because you're going for a ride. Hang on to the chair. Because the Spirit of God intends to make this so real to you that you will walk away from sin because you know you can. So, question nine.

What makes the fulfillment of John 8.51 possible?

And here's what John 8.51 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my word, he shall never see death.

How is that possible? How do you never see death? Because you already died. See that? What does Paul say when a believer checks out of the planet? How does he phrase it? You're going to sleep. Right? He never says Christians die. He always says you go to sleep. Why? Because you already died.

You're just going home. Does that make sense? Your soul and your spirit leave your body. You're going home. You're checking out. If you're not a believer, you're dying. Does that make sense? Okay. Let's see. If the believer falls asleep, His spirit goes to be with Christ. There's no dark valley or anything like that. Okay. Ten. What does it mean for death to no longer have dominion over Christ? What does it mean for death to no longer have any dominion over Christ?

Where is that in the Bible? Could you read that? What's that? Is it in Romans 6-9? Yeah. What does it say? When Christ was on the cross, he was made sin for us, right? Think about sin, S-I-N, not sins, sin. So when the Father puts your sin nature and my sin nature on him, does sin control him? Does sin have dominion over him? Yeah, it does. How do you know that? Death no longer had dominion. Did it ever have dominion over us? Yes it did. When he was flesh? No, when he was made sin.

Here's the moment when it happened. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? What's happening there? He is now the personification of sin itself. What did the Father do? Looked away from Him. He can't look on sin. Now once that happens, what does Christ do? He dies. He separates from all of that. He died one time. You died in Him one time.

Sin no longer can have dominion over Him. It did at one time, but it did for a purpose because how is God going to free mankind from the dominion of the sin principle if he doesn't make the Lamb sin? He has to. Do you see that? He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Singular. For what purpose? That we may become the righteousness of God in Christ. Do you see that? He was made the thing sin. It doesn't mean he sinned, it just means your sin nature and mine were put on him and he was identified with it. And then he died. As far as Christ's suffering goes, I would think that would be the most awful, awful part.

That was it. You're absolutely right. That's where it was. That's what caused him to sweat blood in the garden. He knew that was coming. That was it. It wasn't the physical stuff. It was that issue right there. Because the Father, we don't appreciate the relationship and the intimacy between the Father and the Son. from all eternity, it was broken right then.

Wow. How awful. Billions, the sin of billions of people, past, present, future were put on him. Wow. Yeah. And when that happens, God has to turn away. And that was, yeah, God, what a perfect thing for God to do, because God knew he would have to suffer that, too. Can you imagine, like, your kid just, yeah. for the joys that perform you endure at the cross? Wow. So here's the next question.

Did the thing sin die? I'd say no. Right answer. It didn't die. What died then? We died to it. See that? That's a really important point because there's a whole school of theology called the one nature people that say that the sin nature died. No it didn't. You died to it. And the verse there says, unto, that's the key word. I think it's helpful to know too that death is separation. Yes, that's right. Death is not annihilation.

Because if you've been a Christian more than 15 minutes, you know that sin is still active in you, the sin nature. The issue is whether you have to respond to it or not. You don't have to now, because of these truths. Does God intend to change the old man? No. He doesn't. Why not? New creatures. The old stuff is junk. Well, okay. Maybe ask it this way. Because it's dead. You don't put new wine in. Old wine skins, that's right.

So if Christ died for your sins, right? He paid the penalty for your sins. Did he die for you, the sinner? Did He die for your sin nature? No, He didn't. What did He do with the sin nature? He condemned it. So He didn't forgive your sin nature. He crucified it.

He forgave you, the person. Now you're a new creature in Christ resurrected with a whole new nature. So God is never going to improve or change, or make to act like a Christian, you're old man, so stop messing with it. Leave it alone. Verse 14, 614, Courtney's favorite verse in the Bible.

Sin shall not have dominion over you, because you're not under law, you are under grace. So the question is, from an identification point of view, Why would we not be under the law and therefore sin would not have dominion over us? Why are we not under the law anymore? We're in Christ and Christ is in us and Christ would never live under the law, therefore we don't.

Yeah, well, when we had the Christmas Eve service, we talked about John chapter 1, that we beheld his glory full of grace and truth. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So not only did he deal with the sin principle on the cross, he brought an entirely new operating system called grace. The law system is real simple.

If you obey me, I will bless you. If you don't obey me, I will curse you. If you do what I say, things will go well for you. If you don't, you're going to have trouble. That's the law system. Can I add one thing? I think I mentioned this already before, but I heard a pastor say, if you follow the law, you'll be blessed, but then also If you don't follow the law, you'll be cursed. And if you follow the law, you'll be blessed, but then all...

All right, I gotta change it. He used it as speeding. If you speed, you get a ticket. And so you obey the law, you drive the speed limit, but then you're all puffed up because you have self-righteousness because you obeyed the law. So it's like you obey it, Either way. Notice that what's assumed in 614 is that if you are under a law system, sin has dominion over you.

So what was the purpose of grace? It was to eliminate sin as a dominating principle. Now, most of us don't think about grace as being that kind of a thing, but that's what it's there for. Grace is the only thing that will eliminate the dominion of sin over you. Grace is what? We've talked weeks on grace and we're not quite there fully, but at this point just understand Christ brought in a whole entirely new operating principle called grace. We need to learn about grace as much as we can. The first thing grace is there to do is to eliminate sin's dominion over you.

People don't think grace is that great of a motivator. It is the most motivating thing in the universe. Is my co-crucifixion with Christ and bear on resurrection a gracious act? Absolutely it is. Think of the grace that's there for me. Why would I go on sinning if I'm dead to sin? Grace. You see how the motivation comes? Wait a minute, I don't have to go there. It's not that if I go there God's going to curse me and if I don't go there I'm going to... I don't have to go there because of the grace provided by God.

So, there's a question in Romans 6.1 and there's a question in Romans 6.15.

Romans 6.1, here's the question. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Right? What's the answer? Absolutely not. What's the question in 15? Shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace? Okay, the answer to both is the same. How can that possibly be?

If 5.23 or 5.22 said, where sin abounded, grace superabounded. So a really smart Christian said, well, I'm going to sin more so grace will abound more. And the question is asked, should I sin more so that grace would abound more? Answer, no. How can you who died to sin live any longer in it? 15 says, well, gee. Should I live under grace then, or not? Answer, absolutely you should. Now, I want to just quickly go through about 20 things.

Verse 2, we died to sin. He who died to sin. Verse 3, we were baptized into his death. Verse 4, we were buried with him through the baptism into his death. 5. We became united with Him in the likeness of His death.

6. Our old man was crucified with Him.

7. He that hath died is justified, or freed from sin.

8. We died with Christ.

11. Reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God.

13. Present yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead. That's what took us six months to get through. I could spend the rest of the year on just right there, but let's move on. Fifteen. How were we made free from sin and put into the service of God? Believing in what Christ did for the cross. Do you see the subtlety that's going on here? If you as a believer don't know or understand identification truths, Then what are you going to do in terms of serving God?

You're going to serve him out of the flesh, aren't you? You're going to crank up your old man and try to get him to look like a Christian because you don't know the difference. See that? If you do know and believe that you were crucified, buried and resurrected with Christ, what are you going to do there? You don't need to crank up the new man. You're going to walk and rest and live by faith alone.

In God, the Spirit is going to do His work through you. Pretty cool, huh? He exhorts you right here that we are to present our members unto God for His use. But then there's a little phrase at the end, I think it's verse 16, or no, 13, as those that are alive from the dead.

God can't use anything from your old man. As far as he's concerned, it's what? You've been separated from it. He condemns sin in the flesh. He's not going to use it. If you go at God from a legal standpoint, he's not listening. He's not listening. See that? So all of this reformed theology that tries to incorporate the Mosaic law and all that system into it, guess what? God's not listening. because he operates under grace only. Only.

Important point. I think the hardest thing in the spiritual growth is to, as you grow in Christ, I think the hardest thing, I see that a lot in the hungry heart ones and I agree with it, is identifying that there is nothing good all the time trying to seek something good out of the old man. And that's the hardest thing to uproot, I think. Very hard.

Is the identification of who we are in Adam. And God's done with that guy. And that entity in us that is the old man. And that's, I think, the hardest thing as you grow, is to see that there is nothing good in the old man. The old man is trying his hardest to say, I'm valuable here, let me do this, let me do that, let me make you feel good, let me... And that's the hardest thing in the spiritual growth, I think, is identifying who the old man is, and understanding that there is nothing good in him. and that God is done with it. I tricked these ladies last week by asking them how good they were. Remember that?

What's the tree in the garden called that he wasn't supposed to eat from? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Most Christians think that what their salvation did was put them over on the good branches and take them all, you know, they went from the evil ones and scurried over to the good ones. So now they're good. and they're going to serve God from the good branches.

What's the problem with that? You're in the wrong tree. You're now in the tree of life. So the issue is, get out of the tree, go down the garden, get up in the tree of life. There's absolutely no contrast between good and evil when you live in the tree of life. It's just life. Christ himself. So if you get stuck in this good and evil, good and bad nonsense, You're in the wrong tree. See that? It's pretty subtle, that tree. The identification truths are in the Garden of Eden. They're all there. Right there. So then it turns into, like in Corinthians, it turns into more like, as far as works go, as a Christian it turns into good and worthless. Worthless. That's right. Not bad, but worthless.

Verse 23, 623 says that we had to work to get paid. What was the work and what was the payment? The wages of sin is death. Notice that you have to work at this sin thing. You really do, you have to work at sin. That comes naturally. Naturally, that's right, you have to work. But the free gift of God is eternalized through Jesus Christ. You don't have to work for that. You already got it. See? Sin was once a terrible paymaster. It paid you the wages you earned. And you earned it. Trust me. You earned it. You got death every time. You got death every time. It's a hideous employer. What a horrid service. It's hellish wages is a way to put it. But now, how do I say this?

Believers who live in the old man live under the king of terrors because they never can be good enough. They work and work and work out of the flesh and what do they get? Sin and death. But you rest in the eternal gift. Oh, by the way, what do you have to do to get a gift? You don't have to do anything. Just take it. You didn't earn it. So why think that you did? Or you don't have to pay it back. If you do, it isn't a gift. So why are we not under any law system now? We're not under sin. We're also not under a law system. How come? Same answer. Sure. Same answer. You died to sin, you died to the law.

So why do we as Christians need to be told about grace? Why do we need to be educated about grace? Why does Paul have to tell us what grace is and how it operates? I think it's because it's so different from the world that we're living in, in the flesh. It's totally opposite. It is. It's totally opposite.

And how much of grace of the real word grace did you understand before you became a believer? Zippo. So you're saved by grace through faith and hopefully you did get saved by grace through faith and somebody didn't slide a couple of laws in on the deal. Like come forward, make Jesus a Lord of your life, make sure you get baptized. That's not grace, that's a you gotta do system. You're saved by grace through faith and not of yourself.

It is a gift of God. If you start on that basis, you're more likely to continue on that basis and accept the grace that comes towards you. That's why Romans 6 is where it is. It's the grace of God that dealt with the source of your sin. Wonderful. So, we need to be told about grace because we don't know anything about it.

If you're like me, it took these guys three weeks, in the spirit of God, three weeks to convince me about salvation. You know why? I was looking for something to do. I was looking for an angle where I could be a contributor to my own salvation. I didn't think God could accept me, which he couldn't in Adam. That's why he crucified me. But I was looking for a reason for God. If I went through the transaction, I had to do my part.

So, you get saved by grace through faith. Does God say, oh yeah, I'm going to give you credit for your faith? Does he say that? Faith is the one thing a human being can do he can't take any credit for, because where's all the value? It's in what you believe, not the fact that you did believe.

So you start on a grace basis. If you get that part, then as you grow spiritually and you learn identification and position in those things, you begin to see the grace there and you submit yourself to it. I mean, you recognize that, boy, these people in the world don't understand what's happening, but this is a grace system that I live under.

And it's powerful. More powerful than any law could ever be. We define grace. as the unmerited and unlimited blessings of God, based on the totally adequate work of Christ. That's the definition we like. So it's unlimited, means you can't exhaust it, it's unmerited, you can't earn it, and it's all based on what Christ did on the cross.

Can the one distributing grace be put under an obligation by those receiving grace? Understand the question? If Courtney is being gracious to me, biblically gracious to me, can I somehow put him under an obligation? No, I can't. Because as soon as I pull that off, it isn't grace anymore. See? Grace always functions that the giver of the grace is under no obligation to do it.

Now, so imagine a body of believers at Holly Hills Bible Church. Every one of us living under grace. How cool would that be? It would be just astounding. Guess what? It's what God has in mind. That's what he has in mind. Oh, and I know what you're thinking. It's unrealistic. Really? That's the point, huh? That it's unrealistic. In a way. By definition it's unrealistic because grace is unrealistic. What is the design of grace and what is it expected to accomplish? We already discovered that sin won't have dominion over you because you're under grace. But what's it designed to accomplish? It came to prevent sin. Right? Conformance to Christ? To being like Christ? To always be in relationship with God? Never being separated again? Okay. Let me add something to it.

Grace is designed to control your conduct. Do you see that? When I respond to the grace, how do I respond? I respond in the kind that the creature I am in Christ would respond. Does it control me? Yeah, it does. I'm not a free, independent agent. I'm either subject to sin or subject to the Lord, one or the other. And if I'm walking in the Spirit, I'm living under grace. The grace is controlling me. I'm free. Boy, that doesn't make any sense to the natural mind, does it? But I'm free. What am I free from? Sin, law, all of the influences of the world, and our buddy Bill Zibub. What am I free to do? Behold the glory of the Lord Jesus. Be conformed to His image and to walk in Him. That's freedom.

So the question is, does grace have the power to control us? Here's the verse, Titus 2, verse 12. Grace has come to instruct us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. That's what grace does.

It is the only way in which God operates now under grace. It's the only way. So I would think for you bright students that if someone came to you and said this is the only way the system is going to work You might want to find out about the system. That's why believers read their Bible.

So if we catalog all the commands in the New Testament from Romans to Jude, would there be enough instruction for living under the grace principle? Answer no. Oh no. God isn't going to tell me what to do. Specific commands are not enough to live under grace. So how do you live?

If you don't have a specific, like who's going to the Bronco game this afternoon? Who's going to watch it? First Californians chapter 2 says I shall not watch the Broncos. So what gives you the freedom to watch it? You live under a principle. You live under principles, not laws. I'll finish up the definition of a principle and then we're done. What is a principle? We talked about it last week. Want to see a principle? Look at me. Here's a principle. What's that principle?

Does it work the same way every time? Grace works the same way every time. Every time. Every time. So if I learn the principles of grace, they function the same way every time. Principles are, I don't cause you to stumble. I don't cause you to sin. I love you because Christ loved me. and I don't let anything control me or master me because I already got a master. Who is it? Christ himself.

So, we're done. Hopefully, see most of you next week. pretty sure that it won't be long before we teach identification and grace again. We do it about every other year. All right, let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you, and I thank you for this opportunity to be involved in a class that teaches us the principles of grace and our identification with your Son, that we may continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of Him and rest in Him in our position, Father. We thank you. We pray in the Lord's precious name. Amen.