WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 This wonderful gift this week. 2 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 For this pulpit Bible, I am not a prophet, but I would say that this may sit as part of our pulpit for many years to come. 3 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 I am very grateful for that. 4 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 It is a wonderful gift. 5 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 We were singing a couple of hymns, and we sang “For the Beauty of the Earth.” 6 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 There was a little line in there that goes, “For the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight.” 7 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 We read words like that. 8 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 I wonder if we think about the meaning of words when we sing them. 9 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.000 We should. 10 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.450 I want to be talking about that mystic harmony this morning. 11 00:00:03.450 --> 00:00:08.350 I am going to be talking about some things that are beyond our comprehension. 12 00:00:08.350 --> 00:00:14.540 There are things that you are familiar with, you have thought about, I am sure. 13 00:00:14.540 --> 00:00:19.100 You cannot avoid thinking about it to some degree. 14 00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:41.820 As we explore this this morning, we are going to find that what we are looking at are things that go beyond our experience, our normal actual experience from day to day. 15 00:00:41.820 --> 00:00:46.570 What I am going to do this morning, I am going to begin by reading from Romans chapter 6. 16 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:51.840 I am not going to do exactly an exposition of this this morning. 17 00:00:51.840 --> 00:01:00.000 We will look at the focus of what we are going to look at this morning, which is Romans chapter 6 and verse 11. 18 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:10.960 But I am going to read a portion of this this morning, beginning in verse 1 of Romans 6. 19 00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:26.710 I should probably tell you that what we are going to be talking about is the foundation that is assumed and taught in this passage, which is the amazing unity that the believer has with Jesus Christ. 20 00:01:26.710 --> 00:01:30.790 That is the mystic harmony that I want us to think about today. 21 00:01:30.790 --> 00:01:39.000 There is a union that a Christian has with Jesus Christ that goes beyond normal relationships. 22 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.600 It goes beyond our typical understanding of things. 23 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:53.840 I wanted to explore that so that we can appreciate better what that is, which is foundational to so much of Christian life. 24 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:58.720 In fact, it is foundational to every part of Christian life. 25 00:01:58.720 --> 00:02:04.490 It is foundational to every part of the doctrine of salvation as well. 26 00:02:04.490 --> 00:02:06.620 It is crucial. 27 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:12.120 Growing in our understanding of this teaching should be helpful to us. 28 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:16.200 We will understand it at different levels. 29 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:20.560 All of us can understand this at some level. 30 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:24.400 A few might be able to understand it a little more. 31 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:27.180 None of us will understand this completely. 32 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:34.720 It is one of those really deep, profound teachings that come to us directly from the Word of God. 33 00:02:34.720 --> 00:02:45.360 Let me begin by reading this beautiful and wonderful and instructive passage from Paul’s letter to us, the letter to the Romans. 34 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:50.820 Romans chapter 6, beginning in verse 1: What shall we say then? 35 00:02:50.820 --> 00:02:54.540 Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 36 00:02:54.540 --> 00:02:56.280 May it never be! 37 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:59.240 How shall we who died to sin live in it? 38 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:07.540 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 39 00:03:07.540 --> 00:03:19.880 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 40 00:03:19.880 --> 00:03:39.240 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. 41 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.500 For he who has died is freed from sin. 42 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:54.620 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. 43 00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:57.540 Death is no longer master over Him. 44 00:03:57.540 --> 00:04:02.960 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all. 45 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:07.130 But the life that He lives, He lives to God. 46 00:04:07.130 --> 00:04:13.800 Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 47 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:35.380 Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 48 00:04:35.380 --> 00:04:42.050 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 49 00:04:42.050 --> 00:04:54.640 That is the passage this morning I want us to be thinking about, and I want us to apply this by understanding the relationship we have with Christ. 50 00:04:54.640 --> 00:04:58.040 Let me pray for us and ask God to help with this. 51 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:07.160 Father, we recognize that the passage that we have read, which is so crucially important to us because we want to live a godly life before You. 52 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:18.740 We want that exhortation of Paul, that instruction for us to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ. 53 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:19.980 We want that to be true. 54 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:23.320 We want to do this. 55 00:05:23.320 --> 00:05:30.340 Lord, the foundation for this is in our relationship with You, in our relationship with Christ. 56 00:05:30.340 --> 00:05:40.140 And so we ask, Father, for help this morning as we consider this passage and many others, as we think about the truth of Your New Testament teaching. 57 00:05:40.140 --> 00:05:53.360 Help us to understand this relationship that we have with Christ a little better, to wonder about it, to appreciate it from a new perspective, to be able to worship You because of the glory of it. 58 00:05:53.360 --> 00:06:03.460 We ask, Father, for all of this help, and it can only come to us by the power of Your Holy Spirit applying these truths to our hearts and minds. 59 00:06:03.460 --> 00:06:06.940 Please do this for us, we pray, in Christ’s name. 60 00:06:06.940 --> 00:06:07.570 Amen. 61 00:06:07.570 --> 00:06:11.360 How do we keep from sin? 62 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:14.900 How do we live a godly life? 63 00:06:14.900 --> 00:06:16.400 How do we keep ourselves from sin? 64 00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:22.360 We do that, Paul says, by reckoning ourselves dead to sin. 65 00:06:22.360 --> 00:06:25.700 What does he mean by that, and how do we do it? 66 00:06:25.700 --> 00:06:37.240 Paul, in this entire passage, is talking about a spiritual reality, and that reality is our union with Christ. 67 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:40.460 Everything in the Christian life is based on that. 68 00:06:40.460 --> 00:06:42.360 Everything. 69 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.780 I was just looking at the beginning of last week’s sermon. 70 00:06:45.780 --> 00:06:49.160 I pulled a quote from last week’s sermon. 71 00:06:49.160 --> 00:07:01.420 Near the beginning of the sermon, I was talking about the previous week’s sermon, and I said, “We explored the deep foundational truth of the fear of God, recognizing His terrifying infinite holiness. 72 00:07:01.420 --> 00:07:09.000 We saw that the core of all human sin, according to 3:18, is having no fear of God before their eyes. 73 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:20.940 But we concluded with the magnificent transforming truth that because we are in Christ, that terror is utterly changed into awe. 74 00:07:20.940 --> 00:07:28.650 God, the Almighty Judge, whose power is terrifying to His enemies, has become our loving Father.” 75 00:07:28.650 --> 00:07:32.240 That is an extraordinary thing. 76 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:39.000 God, who is terrifying, He is incredibly awesome, He is infinitely powerful. 77 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.800 When we are in Christ, He is our Father. 78 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.620 Did you get the little phrase, “in Christ”? 79 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:48.120 In Christ. 80 00:07:48.120 --> 00:07:53.400 If we are in Christ, then He is our Father. 81 00:07:53.400 --> 00:08:02.190 Everything in the Christian life is based on our unity with Jesus Christ, the fact that we are one. 82 00:08:02.190 --> 00:08:05.340 There is a powerful unity. 83 00:08:05.340 --> 00:08:07.380 We are one with Jesus Christ. 84 00:08:07.380 --> 00:08:14.520 This teaching, the importance of this teaching, cannot be minimized. 85 00:08:14.520 --> 00:08:24.620 The union of a believer with Christ is difficult for us to comprehend because it is spiritual. 86 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:30.510 People call it mystical, that mystic harmony I was talking about. 87 00:08:30.510 --> 00:08:33.160 It is mystical. 88 00:08:33.160 --> 00:08:41.170 By mystical, I mean that it is something that transcends our normal understanding of things. 89 00:08:41.170 --> 00:08:43.670 It is something that is absolutely true. 90 00:08:43.670 --> 00:08:47.100 It is just as real as the wood of this pulpit. 91 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:51.280 But it transcends our normal experience. 92 00:08:51.280 --> 00:08:55.720 It goes beyond, really, beyond this physical world. 93 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:59.310 It reaches out into something that is more than all of that. 94 00:08:59.310 --> 00:09:00.760 It is a transcendent truth. 95 00:09:00.760 --> 00:09:05.160 It is a central truth, I said a few moments ago, of salvation. 96 00:09:05.160 --> 00:09:09.670 Union with Christ is central to the whole doctrine of salvation. 97 00:09:09.670 --> 00:09:15.060 It is not something that some theologian invented. 98 00:09:15.060 --> 00:09:26.000 It was taught first of all by Jesus Christ, and it is taught throughout the New Testament, repeated over and over again. 99 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:34.220 The teaching is that we are in Christ, that Christ is in us, we are like Christ, and we are with Christ. 100 00:09:34.220 --> 00:09:41.760 All those truths are found in this talking about the relationship of a believer with Jesus Christ. 101 00:09:41.760 --> 00:09:47.070 It is something that is hard for us to grasp, to comprehend, to think about. 102 00:09:47.070 --> 00:09:50.960 There are lots of things that are difficult for us to think about. 103 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:54.140 Some things in the physical world are difficult to think about. 104 00:09:54.140 --> 00:09:58.720 I thought maybe this might be an illustration. 105 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:04.780 I was reading, I hope it is a good illustration. 106 00:10:04.780 --> 00:10:07.960 This week I was reading about quantum computing. 107 00:10:07.960 --> 00:10:11.760 It is an interesting thing, quantum computing. 108 00:10:11.760 --> 00:10:15.300 When you start reading about that, it leads you to quantum physics. 109 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:20.420 Quantum physics is something that I do not have the math skills to comprehend. 110 00:10:20.420 --> 00:10:25.020 My mind, I do not think, I do not know if I have the capacity to. 111 00:10:25.020 --> 00:10:29.650 Most people probably do not have the capacity to think at those levels. 112 00:10:29.650 --> 00:10:33.960 Some will, but not completely. 113 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:40.700 But it is an amazing thing, some amazing thing that happens. 114 00:10:40.700 --> 00:10:47.190 For example, the thing that I found most interesting was a principle that is called quantum entanglement. 115 00:10:47.190 --> 00:10:51.560 I am going to talk about quantum entanglement for just a minute. 116 00:10:51.560 --> 00:10:55.620 Maybe it will serve as an illustration. 117 00:10:55.620 --> 00:11:15.840 On the atomic level, or in quantum physics, there is a principle where a particle can be entangled, linked with another particle in a profound way. 118 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:19.740 They can be separated by great distance. 119 00:11:19.740 --> 00:11:25.260 If you affect one, immediately the other one is affected as well. 120 00:11:25.260 --> 00:11:30.360 I am going to give you an absurd illustration. 121 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:39.700 Let’s say we have two packages, two little packages, and the packages have one sock each in them. 122 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:45.920 They are identical except one is red and the other is blue. 123 00:11:45.920 --> 00:11:50.080 Today is my son Justin’s birthday, and he is an appropriate distance. 124 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:53.320 He is about 5,000 miles away from us in Romania. 125 00:11:53.320 --> 00:11:56.520 So let’s give him one of those packages. 126 00:11:56.520 --> 00:11:59.080 We have the other one here. 127 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:06.910 If one sock is red and the other is blue, and I open up this package and I have the red sock, guess which sock he has? 128 00:12:06.910 --> 00:12:08.550 He has the blue sock. 129 00:12:08.550 --> 00:12:12.500 It is not too profound, is it? 130 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:16.580 Let’s make them quantum socks. 131 00:12:16.580 --> 00:12:32.660 If there is a quantum entanglement between these two things, then in each package, both socks would have the capacity or would be both red and blue at the same time. 132 00:12:32.660 --> 00:12:46.720 So, when I open up this package and I look at it and it is red, immediately, 5,000 miles away, the sock that is in the package that Justin would open would turn blue. 133 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:51.360 It would be blue at exactly the same time this one turned red. 134 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:56.310 You read something like that, and you think about that, and you think, well, that is amazing science fiction. 135 00:12:56.310 --> 00:12:58.780 That is what you think. 136 00:12:58.780 --> 00:13:03.120 I cannot quite believe that. 137 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:09.260 Quantum computers work based on that principle. 138 00:13:09.260 --> 00:13:18.060 Quantum computers that actually work, work based on the principle of that entanglement. 139 00:13:18.060 --> 00:13:24.400 It is something that is real, that is physical, that is beyond our comprehension right now. 140 00:13:24.400 --> 00:13:33.760 In fact, Einstein called that “spooky things that happen at a distance.” 141 00:13:33.760 --> 00:13:37.330 So it is something that is beyond us. 142 00:13:37.330 --> 00:13:47.050 Our union with Christ is called a mystical union, not because it is not real, but because it is something that is beyond our normal experience. 143 00:13:47.050 --> 00:13:49.520 It is difficult for us to understand. 144 00:13:49.520 --> 00:13:52.360 But God has revealed it to us in His Word. 145 00:13:52.360 --> 00:14:01.740 He has revealed it to us in His Word, and we deal with it all the time, so often that I do not think we think about it very much. 146 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:09.640 How many times in the Bible would God have to tell us that for us to really believe it and grasp it? 147 00:14:09.640 --> 00:14:13.300 It should be one time, shouldn’t it? 148 00:14:13.300 --> 00:14:16.700 How many times does He tell us that? 149 00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:18.360 I did not count them all. 150 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:25.980 But every time the Apostle Paul uses that phrase “in Christ,” that is what he is talking about. 151 00:14:25.980 --> 00:14:30.000 Every time he says “in Him,” this is what he is talking about. 152 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.960 How many times does he do that? 153 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:34.740 164 times. 154 00:14:34.740 --> 00:14:36.170 Just that one phrase. 155 00:14:36.170 --> 00:14:37.260 That is many. 156 00:14:37.260 --> 00:14:41.040 That is just one of the ways that the New Testament describes it. 157 00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:45.280 That is just one of the many ways that it is described. 158 00:14:45.280 --> 00:14:55.900 This is a reality, our union with Christ, that is profound and hard, really impossible for us to completely assimilate. 159 00:14:55.900 --> 00:15:01.060 It is like some other mystical unions that we read about. 160 00:15:01.060 --> 00:15:03.820 For example, the Holy Trinity. 161 00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:12.760 The Holy Trinity is that within the nature of the one God, there are three eternal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 162 00:15:12.760 --> 00:15:14.150 They are one. 163 00:15:14.150 --> 00:15:15.830 There is a unity there. 164 00:15:15.830 --> 00:15:18.420 There is only one God. 165 00:15:18.420 --> 00:15:23.120 But within the nature of the one God, there are three eternal persons. 166 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.080 Do you grasp that? 167 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:26.670 Not really. 168 00:15:26.670 --> 00:15:29.670 It is a mystical union. 169 00:15:29.670 --> 00:15:31.060 It is true, though. 170 00:15:31.060 --> 00:15:34.320 It is absolutely vitally true. 171 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:40.680 Or the relationship with Jesus within Himself. 172 00:15:40.680 --> 00:15:59.400 When the Son of God, the Holy Son of God, who is spirit, becomes incarnate in the person of Jesus, there is a unity that takes place that is beyond in His nature, that is beyond anything we can comprehend. 173 00:15:59.400 --> 00:16:04.280 Jesus is 100% human with a human soul. 174 00:16:04.280 --> 00:16:05.800 He has a human spirit. 175 00:16:05.800 --> 00:16:10.940 He has a human body that is subject to the things that humans are subject to. 176 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:18.240 At the same time, He is completely, completely God. 177 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.950 Can you wrap your mind around that? 178 00:16:20.950 --> 00:16:26.140 That is a spiritual relationship that is similar. 179 00:16:26.140 --> 00:16:41.360 When we are in Christ, there is a union between the believer and Christ that goes beyond what we can normally think about. 180 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:45.580 164 times Paul says “in Christ.” 181 00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:47.700 How many analogies are there? 182 00:16:47.700 --> 00:16:56.880 Paul uses the power of the Holy Spirit, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, all of these “in Christ.” 183 00:16:56.880 --> 00:17:05.640 When he gives the illustration of a marriage, which is a powerful illustration of the union of a believer in Christ. 184 00:17:05.640 --> 00:17:08.610 Christ, the faithful husband, the church is His bride. 185 00:17:08.610 --> 00:17:17.230 It is sealed by vows, which is faith and trust, and it is for eternity, forever. 186 00:17:17.230 --> 00:17:21.900 That is one illustration. 187 00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:26.320 Christ is the head of the body, and the church is the body. 188 00:17:26.320 --> 00:17:29.140 This is talking about the unity believers have with Christ. 189 00:17:29.140 --> 00:17:31.640 The building and the temple. 190 00:17:31.640 --> 00:17:46.040 The imagery of a great building and all of the with its Christ is the cornerstone, and all of the people of God make up the stones of that building. 191 00:17:46.040 --> 00:17:48.160 Unity, together with Christ. 192 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:52.160 Those are symbols and pictures. 193 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:55.600 Jesus talked about the vine and the branches. 194 00:17:55.600 --> 00:17:59.260 He is the vine, and we are the branches. 195 00:17:59.260 --> 00:18:06.740 The branches are part of the vine, and the life of Christ flows through the vine into us. 196 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:11.200 It is talking about that unity that we have with Him. 197 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:25.640 When we celebrate baptism, we are celebrating symbolically with water what it means to be immersed into the person of Christ through salvation. 198 00:18:25.640 --> 00:18:33.440 When we celebrate the Lord’s Table, we are celebrating Jesus’ provision for us with His life and death. 199 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:43.840 The food, the bread and the wine, is His life imparted to us. 200 00:18:43.840 --> 00:18:52.540 All of these things, every one of these things, have to do with this relationship with Jesus Christ. 201 00:18:52.540 --> 00:18:53.950 When does this happen? 202 00:18:53.950 --> 00:19:01.980 That is a tricky question, because the Bible gives us two answers, and both are true. 203 00:19:01.980 --> 00:19:04.080 Two answers to when it happens. 204 00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:13.100 First of all, it happens in the mind of God in eternity past. 205 00:19:13.100 --> 00:19:16.310 This is the straight teaching of the Bible. 206 00:19:16.310 --> 00:19:17.510 It is very plain. 207 00:19:17.510 --> 00:19:25.640 I will read a verse to help demonstrate that. 208 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:39.400 John Murray described it when he said, he writes, “The union with Christ has its source in the counsel of God the Father before the foundation of the world.” 209 00:19:39.400 --> 00:19:56.750 In other words, the fact that you are united with Christ was in God’s mind in eternity past, before anything happened, long before you were born, long before this earth was created, before the foundation of the world. 210 00:19:56.750 --> 00:20:06.040 It has its fruition, its ultimate result, in the glorification of the sons of God. 211 00:20:06.040 --> 00:20:16.340 The person who is in Christ will one day be glorified with Christ, receive a new body, live with Christ in glory, be the glorification of the sons of God. 212 00:20:16.340 --> 00:20:18.960 How long does that last? 213 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:20.300 Forever. 214 00:20:20.300 --> 00:20:20.720 Forever. 215 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:25.250 So it goes from forever to forever. 216 00:20:25.250 --> 00:20:28.810 That is incredible to think about. 217 00:20:28.810 --> 00:20:32.180 That is an amazing thing for us to think about. 218 00:20:32.180 --> 00:20:36.780 Its orbit has two foci. 219 00:20:36.780 --> 00:20:42.040 One is in the love of God, the eternal love of God, and the counsels of eternity. 220 00:20:42.040 --> 00:20:47.140 The other is the glorification of Christ and the manifestation of His glory. 221 00:20:47.140 --> 00:20:52.520 The former has no beginning, the latter has no end. 222 00:20:52.520 --> 00:21:01.030 Then he says, “We cannot think of a past, present, or future apart from union with Christ.” 223 00:21:01.030 --> 00:21:03.560 That is pretty profound. 224 00:21:03.560 --> 00:21:11.180 Every part of our life is connected in a real way with union with Christ. 225 00:21:11.180 --> 00:21:14.200 So it begins in God’s eternal plan. 226 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:30.460 Before God created a star, before He divided the light from darkness and hung a star in the heavens, God saw us in His Son, the Lord Jesus. 227 00:21:30.460 --> 00:21:34.800 He saw us in Him before anything else happened. 228 00:21:34.800 --> 00:21:41.060 The Apostle Paul tells us that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4 . 229 00:21:41.060 --> 00:21:50.980 He tells us in 2 Timothy 1:9 that He gave us grace in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. 230 00:21:50.980 --> 00:21:51.790 You should look at that verse. 231 00:21:51.790 --> 00:21:54.060 That is a paraphrase of the verse. 232 00:21:54.060 --> 00:22:01.420 Look up 2 Timothy 1:9 sometime and think about that verse. 233 00:22:01.420 --> 00:22:06.860 This means that God never thought of you apart from His Son, the Lord Jesus. 234 00:22:06.860 --> 00:22:16.640 From the depths of eternity, His plan for you always was and will be wrapped up in the glorious plan for Jesus. 235 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:23.540 For a believer in our own experience, there is another answer to that. 236 00:22:23.540 --> 00:22:26.980 We are immersed in Christ. 237 00:22:26.980 --> 00:22:34.650 We become part of Christ in our experience when the Holy Spirit of God baptizes us into Christ. 238 00:22:34.650 --> 00:22:38.160 It is when we put our trust in Jesus Christ. 239 00:22:38.160 --> 00:22:44.440 The Spirit of God identifies us in Jesus Christ. 240 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:47.500 It is an act and work of the Spirit of God. 241 00:22:47.500 --> 00:22:53.440 It is called the baptism of the Spirit of God, and that is different from physical baptism. 242 00:22:53.440 --> 00:22:57.700 In fact, it is better if you do not even use that word baptism. 243 00:22:57.700 --> 00:23:04.780 If you thought of that as immersion into Christ, that is what this is talking about. 244 00:23:04.780 --> 00:23:14.040 In the New Testament, when you get to the word baptism, it is a word that comes to us from the Greek. 245 00:23:14.040 --> 00:23:16.740 They did not translate that word. 246 00:23:16.740 --> 00:23:19.520 They transliterated the word. 247 00:23:19.520 --> 00:23:35.780 Because when most of our English Bibles were being formed, the King James Bible, for instance, the King James Bible was formed in part of the Church of England. 248 00:23:35.780 --> 00:23:38.850 They do not baptize by immersion. 249 00:23:38.850 --> 00:23:44.720 There are different forms of baptism that different people, different groups do. 250 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:50.720 Some sprinkle, and some dip, and some immerse. 251 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:57.320 The Bible is very clear about baptism. 252 00:23:57.320 --> 00:24:05.170 When it came to that word, you could see how that might be problematic if every time you got to that word, you translated it. 253 00:24:05.170 --> 00:24:10.440 If every time you got to the word, you translated it and you said immersion, which is what it means. 254 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:14.980 If it was normally translated, it would be immersion. 255 00:24:14.980 --> 00:24:18.680 It would be hard to read dip out of that, wouldn’t it? 256 00:24:18.680 --> 00:24:22.530 In any event, I am not trying to step on anybody’s toes here. 257 00:24:22.530 --> 00:24:24.420 I am just telling you the truth. 258 00:24:24.420 --> 00:24:42.020 The reason that I am telling you this is not over the ordinance of baptism, but by what it means when we are talking about it in Romans chapter 6 , which is the immersion of the believer into Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. 259 00:24:42.020 --> 00:24:44.640 We are immersed into Christ. 260 00:24:44.640 --> 00:24:46.860 We become part of Him. 261 00:24:46.860 --> 00:24:48.490 We are immersed. 262 00:24:48.490 --> 00:24:51.660 That is our experience in salvation. 263 00:24:51.660 --> 00:25:03.520 It is a spiritual act of God that does a work on us, uniting us with Jesus Christ in a profound and meaningful way. 264 00:25:03.520 --> 00:25:05.680 That comes to us through faith. 265 00:25:05.680 --> 00:25:11.000 This union with Christ is received through saving faith. 266 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:15.460 Justification happens because we are united with Jesus Christ. 267 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:19.900 Romans 8:1 , we quoted Romans 8:1 for the last three weeks. 268 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:24.600 “There is therefore now no condemnation.” 269 00:25:24.600 --> 00:25:28.020 You do not have to worry about God’s judgment. 270 00:25:28.020 --> 00:25:30.100 Why? 271 00:25:30.100 --> 00:25:33.840 For all those who are in Christ Jesus. 272 00:25:33.840 --> 00:25:41.600 If you are in Christ, if you are united with Him. 273 00:25:41.600 --> 00:25:56.140 Here in Romans chapter 6 , we begin to see just one of the many, many applications of what it means to be united with Christ and how it works. 274 00:25:56.140 --> 00:26:05.940 In the first part of the chapter that we read, how can it be that we who died to sin shall still live in it? 275 00:26:05.940 --> 00:26:14.050 Do you not know that all who have been baptized, immersed into Christ Jesus, have been immersed into His death? 276 00:26:14.050 --> 00:26:21.380 Here is one of those amazing things that has to do with the mind of God and our connection. 277 00:26:21.380 --> 00:26:23.240 It is a real connection. 278 00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:31.260 Let me remind you that when we think about thinking in ourselves, we think, well, we imagine all sorts of things. 279 00:26:31.260 --> 00:26:37.800 What we are talking about in the mind of God is something that is real, because God is the one who creates. 280 00:26:37.800 --> 00:26:44.380 All reality comes from Him, and He is ultimate reality Himself. 281 00:26:44.380 --> 00:26:46.820 God sees us in Christ. 282 00:26:46.820 --> 00:26:57.960 When Jesus Christ came into this world, when He was born and laid in that manger in Bethlehem, God saw you with Him. 283 00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:03.320 God saw us connected with Jesus Christ from the very beginning. 284 00:27:03.320 --> 00:27:20.000 When they took Him to pay that sin offering, the little offering for purification, that they did a week after He was born. 285 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:23.340 Why did they do that for the sinless Son of God? 286 00:27:23.340 --> 00:27:30.440 They did that because God sees you in Him, and we needed that purification offering. 287 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:37.500 We need every point of the Old Testament law kept. 288 00:27:37.500 --> 00:27:47.000 God sees us in Jesus keeping all the perfect law of God through His entire life. 289 00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:56.140 All the things that are true of Christ, God sees as true of you by vicarious through the work of Christ. 290 00:27:56.140 --> 00:27:57.640 We did not do it. 291 00:27:57.640 --> 00:27:59.260 We could not do it. 292 00:27:59.260 --> 00:28:03.680 But Jesus Christ did that for us. 293 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:16.480 Jesus, who is sinlessly perfect, goes to the cross, and He pays the price of your sins, all of them, and my sins. 294 00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:19.280 God sees us there with Him. 295 00:28:19.280 --> 00:28:20.850 He sees you there. 296 00:28:20.850 --> 00:28:37.240 It is not possible for you to hang on the cross for three hours, endure the infinite wrath of God, an eternal hell’s worth of wrath in three hours. 297 00:28:37.240 --> 00:28:41.400 But God sees you as if you have done it because Christ did that for you. 298 00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:45.580 He identifies you with Christ. 299 00:28:45.580 --> 00:28:49.680 He sees you die on the cross, be buried with Him. 300 00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:52.720 This is what this text is saying. 301 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:59.120 Be immersed into the ground, placed into the ground with Jesus Christ. 302 00:28:59.120 --> 00:29:05.720 He sees you rise from the dead with Jesus Christ, given new life. 303 00:29:05.720 --> 00:29:10.900 That whole debt completely paid. 304 00:29:10.900 --> 00:29:14.860 If it were not paid, He would still be in the ground. 305 00:29:14.860 --> 00:29:22.640 The fact that God raised Him from the dead, when He raised Him from the dead, He raised you from the dead spiritually. 306 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:28.900 The fact that you will rise physically one day is based on that truth as well. 307 00:29:28.900 --> 00:29:34.260 More than that, we are given eternal life right now for this life. 308 00:29:34.260 --> 00:29:42.100 Right now we have eternal life, and that comes from the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. 309 00:29:42.100 --> 00:29:49.040 The same power, the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, is the power that empowers us. 310 00:29:49.040 --> 00:29:55.870 That is what it tells us in Ephesians 1:18 following through there. 311 00:29:55.870 --> 00:29:58.350 It is an extraordinary thing. 312 00:29:58.350 --> 00:30:02.510 Do you not think that this is beyond our comprehension when you start thinking about it? 313 00:30:02.510 --> 00:30:07.360 It is beyond anything that we normally think about. 314 00:30:07.360 --> 00:30:13.980 But it is absolutely gloriously, wonderfully true. 315 00:30:13.980 --> 00:30:19.480 Based on that, Paul has something to say to us in verse 11. 316 00:30:19.480 --> 00:30:29.630 In verse 11, he says, “Even so,” I should read 10 too just to connect it. 317 00:30:29.630 --> 00:30:32.960 “For the death He died, He died to sin once for all. 318 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:36.180 But the life He lives, He lives to God.” 319 00:30:36.180 --> 00:30:43.100 If you are thinking about that in connection to this relationship we have with Christ, then you can get this. 320 00:30:43.100 --> 00:30:50.220 “Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” 321 00:30:50.220 --> 00:30:55.320 This is an exhortation to us. 322 00:30:55.320 --> 00:30:59.390 Paul is saying in verse 11, “Do this thing.” 323 00:30:59.390 --> 00:31:01.240 Here is something for you to do. 324 00:31:01.240 --> 00:31:07.140 It is to reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. 325 00:31:07.140 --> 00:31:08.910 You are to do this. 326 00:31:08.910 --> 00:31:11.900 It is interesting. 327 00:31:11.900 --> 00:31:16.450 Here is a little quiz for 10 seconds. 328 00:31:16.450 --> 00:31:19.550 Here is a 10-second quiz on the book of Romans so far. 329 00:31:19.550 --> 00:31:22.240 In chapter 1, how many exhortations? 330 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:24.960 How many times did Paul tell you to do something? 331 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:26.110 Do you have any idea? 332 00:31:26.110 --> 00:31:27.940 10 times. 333 00:31:27.940 --> 00:31:29.160 How many times? 334 00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:29.840 Nobody knows. 335 00:31:29.840 --> 00:31:31.580 It is okay. 336 00:31:31.580 --> 00:31:33.920 How about chapter 2? 337 00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:35.460 You do not know. 338 00:31:35.460 --> 00:31:41.720 Chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, halfway into chapter 6. 339 00:31:41.720 --> 00:31:42.750 No time. 340 00:31:42.750 --> 00:31:45.520 He has not asked you to do a thing. 341 00:31:45.520 --> 00:31:47.840 Not in any of these chapters up to now. 342 00:31:47.840 --> 00:31:51.230 This is the first time he asked you to do something. 343 00:31:51.230 --> 00:31:58.360 He is asking you to do something based on everything that he has given you before in this book. 344 00:31:58.360 --> 00:32:02.900 Especially in light of this unity that we have with Jesus Christ. 345 00:32:02.900 --> 00:32:10.840 He is saying that since this is true for you, reckon it to be true. 346 00:32:10.840 --> 00:32:12.200 Reckon this to be true. 347 00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:20.200 Since this is true for you, credit that as true. 348 00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:27.800 Several weeks ago, when we were doing Philippians part 2 , I did a two-week survey of the book of Philippians . 349 00:32:27.800 --> 00:32:39.830 When we were looking at that, I spent a long time on the meaning of that word that is translated in this version, “consider” or “to reckon” or “to credit.” 350 00:32:39.830 --> 00:32:49.900 It is an accounting word, and it means you could declare it like a judge would say something is true. 351 00:32:49.900 --> 00:32:52.210 My dad used to use the word “reckon” a lot. 352 00:32:52.210 --> 00:32:58.640 “I am going to go to the grocery store on Friday night,” he would say, “I reckon.” 353 00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:04.760 It has lost its meaning over time. 354 00:33:04.760 --> 00:33:15.960 What the word means is like a judge declaring a sentence, or an accountant taking it is a word that deals with reality. 355 00:33:15.960 --> 00:33:25.880 It is a word that lines up and says what is actually really true. 356 00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:43.360 If you have $10,000 in your checking account, and you record that in your book, you put down in your checkbook account $10,000. 357 00:33:43.360 --> 00:33:53.930 The number in the checkbook, if it does not align with what you actually have, it is not reconciled. 358 00:33:53.930 --> 00:33:55.640 It is wrong. 359 00:33:55.640 --> 00:34:07.060 When you actually record the reality, then it is something that reflects something that is significant and meaningful. 360 00:34:07.060 --> 00:34:26.690 Paul is telling us, instructing us in this passage, that because it is true that you have already died with Jesus Christ, identified with Him in His death, in His burial, in His resurrection, then consider yourself dead in your old nature to sin. 361 00:34:26.690 --> 00:34:31.810 It is not saying that you do not have sin in your life as a Christian. 362 00:34:31.810 --> 00:34:35.260 It is not saying that you are not tempted with sin. 363 00:34:35.260 --> 00:34:43.820 What this is saying is that your old person has been crucified with Christ. 364 00:34:43.820 --> 00:34:46.720 You have new life in Christ. 365 00:34:46.720 --> 00:34:53.500 Go on and live in that new life and ability that you have with Jesus Christ. 366 00:34:53.500 --> 00:34:59.110 Live with the resources that God has given you in Jesus Christ. 367 00:34:59.110 --> 00:35:01.160 You have died to sin. 368 00:35:01.160 --> 00:35:13.220 You have been immersed into His death, buried with Him, and united with Him not only in His death but also with His resurrection and the life that we have been given. 369 00:35:13.220 --> 00:35:16.020 John Stott gave an illustration. 370 00:35:16.020 --> 00:35:28.240 He said, “Imagine an elderly Christian believer, John Jones, and he looks back on his life, and he divides his life before conversion and after conversion. 371 00:35:28.240 --> 00:35:42.120 Volume 1 is the story of the old man before conversion, and it ends with his death in Christ. 372 00:35:42.120 --> 00:35:53.870 Volume 2 is the story of the new man after conversion, and it opens with spiritual resurrection, with the life with resurrection, and establishes a new life dedicated to God.” 373 00:35:53.870 --> 00:35:56.140 That is what we are talking about here. 374 00:35:56.140 --> 00:35:59.000 God saw you in Jesus. 375 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:00.240 Saw this happen to you. 376 00:36:00.240 --> 00:36:00.860 It is real. 377 00:36:00.860 --> 00:36:04.000 This identification has already happened. 378 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:10.640 Reckon that reality to be true, and go on in the new life that you have in Jesus Christ. 379 00:36:10.640 --> 00:36:12.580 Go on in the strength of that. 380 00:36:12.580 --> 00:36:20.800 You can lend your members, he says, to sin and be subject to sin, but you do not have to. 381 00:36:20.800 --> 00:36:23.600 You have strength and ability in Jesus Christ. 382 00:36:23.600 --> 00:36:24.390 You have a new resource. 383 00:36:24.390 --> 00:36:35.620 It tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that every spiritual blessing is stored for us in Him, in Jesus Christ. 384 00:36:35.620 --> 00:36:43.080 We have access to all the spiritual power because of our relationship with Jesus Christ. 385 00:36:43.080 --> 00:36:51.100 Our union with Christ changes every part of our life, even the most mundane parts of our life. 386 00:36:51.100 --> 00:36:59.460 The everyday things that you do can be done in Jesus Christ, and that gives it an eternal meaning. 387 00:36:59.460 --> 00:37:08.880 When Paul says, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me,” we tend to think of extraordinary things. 388 00:37:08.880 --> 00:37:12.060 But he says all things. 389 00:37:12.060 --> 00:37:29.560 That means that when you do the ordinary chores around the house, you can do those in Christ, or you can do those with your mind caught up in the mindset of the flesh. 390 00:37:29.560 --> 00:37:40.000 If you do those things in Christ, there is going to be joy in that forever, because it is something done as a work of faith in Christ. 391 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.220 The mundane things, everyday things, can be done that way. 392 00:37:44.220 --> 00:37:47.980 “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” 393 00:37:47.980 --> 00:37:54.330 When our labor is done in the Lord, it is not in vain, it says in 1 Corinthians 15:58 . 394 00:37:54.330 --> 00:37:56.740 It is worthwhile. 395 00:37:56.740 --> 00:38:02.670 We live in a new relationship, and that relationship is the relationship that we have in Jesus Christ. 396 00:38:02.670 --> 00:38:04.240 We are united with Him. 397 00:38:04.240 --> 00:38:10.720 We receive every spiritual blessing in Him. 398 00:38:10.720 --> 00:38:12.690 We live according to that relationship. 399 00:38:12.690 --> 00:38:14.500 That is just that one phrase. 400 00:38:14.500 --> 00:38:17.230 It is also true that Christ is in us. 401 00:38:17.230 --> 00:38:19.240 It is part of the same union. 402 00:38:19.240 --> 00:38:23.600 “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 403 00:38:23.600 --> 00:38:31.300 And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 404 00:38:31.300 --> 00:38:37.490 1 John 4:4 says that “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 405 00:38:37.490 --> 00:38:43.080 There is a relationship where we are in Christ and Christ is in us. 406 00:38:43.080 --> 00:38:44.800 That powers the Christian life. 407 00:38:44.800 --> 00:38:47.520 That is the power of the Christian life. 408 00:38:47.520 --> 00:38:49.700 It is real. 409 00:38:49.700 --> 00:39:00.770 This is an incredible reality that the Lord of glory would unite Himself to us in such an amazing way. 410 00:39:00.770 --> 00:39:05.910 It is probably, I guess, the richest relationship imaginable. 411 00:39:05.910 --> 00:39:10.500 It is our position in Jesus Christ. 412 00:39:10.500 --> 00:39:16.920 The indwelling power from Christ in us, which transforms us, makes us like Christ. 413 00:39:16.920 --> 00:39:20.160 There is no glory in this for us. 414 00:39:20.160 --> 00:39:21.460 Not really. 415 00:39:21.460 --> 00:39:25.550 The glory is that we reflect and give praise to God. 416 00:39:25.550 --> 00:39:33.980 It is humbling when we recognize our complete dependence on Him. 417 00:39:33.980 --> 00:39:37.000 How does it change us? 418 00:39:37.000 --> 00:40:00.400 How would we be different if every day we did what this said, if we lived in this reality, that this is the normal way we think of life, that we are dead to sin, our old past is dead, recognize the reality of that, and pursue life in the connection that we have, the resurrected life that we have in Christ. 419 00:40:00.400 --> 00:40:03.880 How would that change us? 420 00:40:03.880 --> 00:40:25.740 How would it change us if whatever we do in the day, when we are changing diapers, whatever we do in the day, if we are doing those things in Christ, recognizing that we are in Christ, doing all the things that He has asked us to do, it gives us a different perspective on all of reality. 421 00:40:25.740 --> 00:40:31.720 It makes it more precious and more valuable. 422 00:40:31.720 --> 00:40:36.580 Let me just think about Galatians 2:20 one more time, and we will close just with the reading of this verse. 423 00:40:36.580 --> 00:40:38.950 “I have been crucified with Christ. 424 00:40:38.950 --> 00:40:43.530 It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 425 00:40:43.530 --> 00:40:53.480 And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 426 00:40:53.480 --> 00:40:54.340 Let me pray. 427 00:40:54.340 --> 00:41:42.760 Father, we thank You for the amazing work that You have done for us in Jesus Christ to unite us with Him in such a profound way, and that these things that happened to Christ happened to us in a real way, so that we are free from sin and free from judgment, that our sins have all been forgiven in Christ, and that You have given us new life and an empowerment to live a life by the indwelling of Your Holy Spirit, the indwelling of Christ in us in that way. 428 00:41:42.760 --> 00:41:53.560 Father, these things we cannot comprehend them, not completely, but we can live them out by the power of Your Spirit. 429 00:41:53.560 --> 00:42:11.240 Our prayer this morning, Lord, is that You make these truths real to us, and Father, real in our daily experience as we through faith live out what we are called to do in this relationship we have with Christ. 430 00:42:11.240 --> 00:42:23.480 Please enable us to live godly lives pleasing to You out of the love that You have given to us because we are in Christ Jesus. 431 00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:27.480 Help us in these ways, we pray, in Christ’s name. 432 00:42:27.480 --> 00:42:29.480 Amen.