Identification Truths

Going back to Romans 6. Now, to maybe kind of set this up, our foray through John 17 primarily had to do with the Lord Jesus praying to His Father about what He would like to see done, which is not something that there's any doubt about, but we learn from that Their desire was to have what? What's the number one desire in that prayer when the Lord Jesus talks about us? What does He want for us? He wants unity. And not unity like we're all members of the same fraternity, or we're all Republicans, or we're all playing on the same team. What's the unity He's talking about? Or oneness, maybe, is another way to say it.

One with Him in life, sharing His very life, the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus. And the name of the class is Identification, so what we're talking about is identification with Christ. We spent two months plus talking about our identification with the first Adam. So what Romans 6 really is, is the discussion on how God's going to do it mechanically. How did he unidentify you with Adam and re-identify you with Christ? How did he do it? He had to have a process or a principle or a way in which to do it. He just doesn't declare it. He's got to go through the mechanics of doing it. So that's what Romans 6 tells us.

At least the first ten verses which we'll study this week and the next time, is really the mechanics about how God did it. And these first ten verses that we're going to study are all positional. Do you understand what I mean by that? They're all positional. All of the information is positional. What do I mean by that? It's something that's been already accomplished by God in eternity and it's already true of you in your position in Christ. It may or may not be what your experience is, but it is true of you regardless of what your experience is.

And if I ever teach this class again, we'll do John 17 before we get into Romans 6, because it would have been a better place. Question 1. From a worldly viewpoint, what does burial prove? Well, maybe we ought to, just to set it up, let's read some of the verses so we can kind of get I got a new Bible thanks to Steve. My old Bible just opened to Romans 6. I think I'll start in 3.

It says, or do you know, or do you not know, that as many of us that were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. were in verse 4, therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death.

From a worldly viewpoint, what does burial prove has taken place? Yeah, you don't bury the live people, you only bury the dead ones. The thing about burial is, and I think everybody in this room has been to at least one funeral in your life, right? What is the final act that consummates the last tie between that person and the world. It's the burial, right? When you go to the gravesite and they lower the body into the grave, that's the last act that demonstrates the separation or the tie between that person and the earth.

So right here in Romans 6.4, the Holy Spirit is trying to show us through Paul that we died with Christ and we were buried with him, which proves that we died. They wouldn't have buried Christ if he wasn't dead, and they're not going to bury you unless you die. So death means separation. Christ was totally separated, as we'll talk about more what he was separated from as we go on here, but then he's buried, and so are you and I. You see how God is effectuating the cutting you off from the first Adam. Burial would do it. So what is God's object or aim in being identified in Christ's burial? What's he trying to show us? What's his aim? He's setting forth some pertinent facts. So what's he doing here?

He's saying that we did die with Christ, and we were buried with Him. So, if we died with Him, and death means separation, what did we get separated from? The old sin nature. The old sin nature. Anything else? How about McDonald's? Adam. Adam. That's separated from Adam. What else? Diet Pepsi. Diet Pepsi. Did you get separated positionally from the world? What do you think?

Absolutely. Really, we're separated positionally from the entire old creation. All of it. So, all believers, by this verse, all believers are declared by the matter of their baptism to proclaim themselves as having been so identified with Christ's death that they were buried, and their past has ended." That's what it means. Their past has ended.

Now, we've died, we're in the grave, right? Now what? Verse 4 says, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Okay, so we're not going to stay in the grave, because the Lord Jesus didn't stay in the grave.

So, describe to me what newness of life means. Boy, do you get quiet. The word here, the root word of newness, the key word here is newness, not life, and the word is kainos, Kainotes come into a new state of being is what this means. You see that? Both newness and life are nouns, but newness is the subject. You see that? So the word newness here doesn't mean I traded in the old Chevy for a new Chevy. It means I traded in a car for something totally different. I traded in my Adamic life for a life that's totally new. There has never been that kind of life before. Have you ever thought of that subject? When Christ was raised from the dead, he was a totally unique human being. There had never been, on the earth, a human being like that before.

Do you agree with that? Totally new. New in kind and quality, new in substance, everything about him is new. So, if the old was crucified with Christ, all of the man in the flesh, and it ended before God on the cross, talk to me more about this newness of life. What is it? Tell me about this life. What do you think it is? It means that you stopped being bad and started being good? What do you think about that? Do you think we stopped being bad and started being good? Is that the deal? Okay, if you say no, then you've got to tell me what... It's the new life positionally, new nature. Maybe this question. In the Garden of Eden there are two trees. What are they called? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What's the other one called? Life. So which tree are we talking about here? Life. Yeah.

So most Christians, I think, in their mind have this idea that when they became Christians they never left the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What happened was they just moved off the evil branches over into the new ones, the good ones. Right? They think, well, now that I'm a Christian I've got to be good.

The issue is that what God did is He took you out of the tree, went down the garden and got up into the tree of life. Now you have a whole new, entire different life, in which goodness and badness are not the criteria. Good and evil is no longer the issue. So this new life, if it doesn't function based on good and evil, what does it function on? Life. That's exactly right. And by life, what do you mean? What do you mean by life? What is life?

Christ living through us. God is the self-existent one, right? Ego e me, I am who I am. And the Lord Jesus, we talked about the closest union possible, is that the hypostatic union between deity and humanity, that the Lord Jesus Christ is this creature, not creature, but person, who's a 100% man and he's a 100% God and there's a union between those two natures and that union is called Christ. That union is Christ.

Now, he is the one that we would say is life. So what he is, is life. The characteristics of that life. How do you describe life? I think you can only describe it by its characteristics, can't you? You can't say, well, life is life. You can't define a thing by a thing. So the characteristics are holiness, righteousness. What other characteristics would there be? How about this character? Fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, that's all characteristics of the life. How about this characteristic?

That you love the good and you hate the evil. See that? That's different than someone being in Adam and trying to be good, because he never really does hate evil. It isn't that you hate the evil things you do, it's that you just hate evil of itself. And you love goodness, because goodness is who God is. You see, the Lord Jesus said there's none good but the Father. Why? Because that's who He is.

This life that we have in the resurrected Christ hates evil. Part of the life. So you don't need to be doing spiritual push-ups so you can hate evil. It's part of the life. You see that? We're talking about life, not a mere manner of living. Do you understand what I'm saying? We're talking about life now, not a way of living. It's newness, newness and kind of life, and that is resurrection life, was never known until Christ was raised from the dead. There wasn't that kind of life before.

Okay? Now, is that alright with that? Is that kind of a confusing issue? It's a tough issue to kind of get your arms around because life is the issue. Mike? Isn't it having that intimacy with Christ? That's what life is. In terms of experiencing it? Knowing Him. Having that understanding His ways and who He is. Having him touch that part of you that produces his life. Interesting. That intimacy. I hear you. Where does this life exist in you and me? In him. What part in me does it exist? When the verse says Christ in me, what does it mean? Where is he? It's in my spirit. We'll chase that rabbit a little more as we go on.

Now, maybe to distinguish what we're talking about, is there a difference between the resurrection of Christ to newness of life and the coming forth of Lazarus from the grave? And if there is, yes or no? Everybody say yes or everybody say no? How many think it's the same? Cowards. How many think it's different? Everybody does. Alright, so explain the difference.

Well, Lazarus died later on. He died first. The second death. Well, Lazarus, and there's a couple of other incidences. There's the wife of Nain's son, and Jarius, the daughter, were all brought back by Christ, right? To what? To the same old life. I mean, I've got to tell you, if I'm Lazarus, I'm not happy. I mean, big deal.

I mean, if he's figured this out and he's coming forth, he's thinking, come on, I was out of here. What it means is, from Lazarus' viewpoint, is that his human spirit returned to his body and he his body began to function again, but it was the same life as before. He sure made his sisters happy. Oh yeah, they were happy. Of course he was too, but he didn't know the difference at that point. So all it really is, is that this earthly life has resumed, which means in Lazarus' case, he's going to die again. Isn't that interesting? That's the part that I wouldn't be happy about.

It says in verse 4 that Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. In other places it says that He is the first born from the dead or the first born from the dead ones. So what is being the first born from the dead mean? or he's the first fruits of them that slept." Have you heard that phrase before? So Christ, when he comes forth from the grave, he doesn't come back into the old flesh and blood earthly existence, does he?

He doesn't come into that. Does he have blood in his body? What do you think? No. How do you know? How do you know he doesn't have blood in his body? He poured out his blood, right? So when he's raised from the dead, Thomas can stick his fingers in the holes and put his hand right in his side. So he doesn't have any blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood, right? So if Christ is raised from the dead, it means he can't be fleshly anymore if he doesn't have any blood.

Right? Well, let me ask you. When you're raptured and get a glorified body, are you going to have blood in it? Why? Because you don't need it for the life. Do you see that? Your human body needs a blood to exist, but your resurrected body doesn't. Christ didn't have blood in his body. Does he need to eat? No, but he can. He doesn't need to, to survive, because your body is a spiritual body at that point, and it doesn't need those things to function. What else could his body do?

Walk through the walls, show up, not show up. It could even change appearance, walking with the disciples. They didn't recognize him. it could do all of these things because it wasn't of the old life. If you're going to have newness of life, you're going to have to have a new vehicle in which for it to function. If you're going to be heavenly, you've got to be suited out to function heavenly. If you're going to be spiritual, you've got to have a body that works in spiritual realms. Do you see that? So, the newness of life also needs a new vehicle.

The verse you're talking about, Courtney, is Leviticus 17.11. The life of the flesh is in the blood. So he laid down that life. Christ did. And he's now a heavenly man. He's in the heavenlies and it is there that he has a human body. God wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenlies. So the difference between Lazarus and Christ being raised is that Christ is raised to Kainos, newness of life, new kind of life. No blood. See that? You alright with that? If we were baptized into Christ's death, what involvement do we have with Him when He's raised to newness of life?

Now, you remember when we talked about Adam, that all that was true of Adam is true of you. because you come from Adam, right? But now, the discussion here in verse 4 says that we also should walk in newness of life, and we'll talk about walk in a minute, but we're involved with Him being raised from the dead. If we were actually identified, united with Christ at the point in which He died, and we were buried, then when He's resurrected, what happens with us?

We get resurrected too. This newness of life is what we're about. So what do we have? Whatever is true of Christ resurrected is also true of you. We didn't die physically, so we still have the old body we're living in. We're still living in the world. with all of the influences. But positionally, we've been resurrected in Christ. I don't know if you've ever noticed this. The apostle in writing in all of his epistles never talks about a Christian dying. He always talks about him going to sleep.

You know why? Because he already died. You already died. See that? So when you leave this planet as a believer, all you do is go home. That's really what happens. You enter into the fullness of this resurrected life that's already yours. That's really what it is. Do you see that? Even though your physical body is going to cease to function.

So, 1 Corinthians 6.17 says that he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Same life, same spirit.

Philippians 3.20 and 21, whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

So, you know, you guys aren't even Americans anymore. Too bad. Sorry. You know, you're now heavenly citizens. And the reason you are is because you're qualified, organically, to be a heavenly citizen, because you're resurrected with Christ. Okay? Any questions about that? No? You're buying all this? So, what is our identity with the sin nature and the whole sphere of the first Adam life now? What is your identity with sin nature and the whole Adamic life? What is it? You buy that?

That's a really hard one, I think. You know, because you have to look at the Lord and say, no, wait a minute. If I'm dead, buried and resurrected with you, how come I'm, you know, whenever I hear that sinful music, I'm going for it, you know? Or how about whenever I'm tempted, I really think it's going to be good for me. Hey, a pig always ends up back in the mud. So...

We really don't have any identity with the sin nature in the world and the law or Satan any longer. See that? You have no identity with Adam at all. You may be walking around with this Adamic carcass strapped to your new spirit, but you don't have any identity with him. It isn't who you are. It's now a foreign thing to you. Your sin nature, although it's still active in you, is now a foreign thing. It's not who you are. In the Roman times, I heard that if you were convicted of murder, sometimes what they'd do is they'd strap the body of the person you killed to you and make you walk around with it until it fell off of you.

That kind of describes a Christian. We're strapped to this old body and that's not who we are. The writer here, Paul, insists that the death is a fact true of only believers. This is a fact that only believers in Christ can say is true of them. You've been lifed in Christ. You now have his life.

So, in verse 4, in my King James, it says that we should walk in newness of life. The word walk here means to grow together. What do you think is the source and energy of this walk? And by the way, walk means to just walk around. It means to live. What is the source and energy of this new walk?

The Holy Spirit. Paul said, for me to live is Christ. Isn't that one of those puzzling verses that when you see it you think, what does he mean? For me to live is Christ. Can you imagine my son saying, for me to live is Mike? Or dad? Or Aaron to say, for me to live is mom? You see how that is? But Paul says, for me to live is Christ. What does that mean, for me to live as Christ? Christ's life, not his life, not Paul's life. Not Paul's Adamic life.

So does the believer have two natures in him, or one? He's got two. Next time we're going to talk about the one nature, guys. So, the problem we have, I think, as believers, is that you go through verses like this, and this is just unbelievable information, don't you think? I mean, as a young believer who knows that Christ died for his sins, and he's introduced to this, he's got to be looking at this, thinking, are you nuts? I was raised to think of one nature. The church I went to. But you never were exposed, I bet, to the fact that you were crucified with Christ. Not until I went to Vince Bible Study. Man could never come up with that.

We like that feeling that we get when we do something. And we have to be doing something. That one nature is pretty good because then we have to compete. And we have to compete. So honestly, when you're faced with information like this, and people love to say, well, we Christians live by faith, and I'm always asking, well, what do you believe?

Do you believe this stuff? Do you believe this? And I dare say lots of believers see it, read it, hear it, but they're not sure they believe it. Is this really true of me? Is this really who I am? Answer, yes, it is. I'm one of those people that think that until you believe this, the Spirit won't work it into your experience.

You've got to buy it. Until all the unbelievers died. That's why you do 40 years of spiritual growth until your unbelieving self dies. And if you believe that Christ really did include you in his death, burial, and resurrection, that you really are raised to newness of life, hang on. because the Spirit is going to take you for a ride like you've never known.

Because this is true. This is absolutely true. And the issue is, do you believe it or not? It's not just cool spiritual information that the guys at Holly Hills can kind of talk in identification. It's not that. This is life. This is reality. But our job is to believe what God tells us. And this is insanity from a natural man's viewpoint. What do you mean I died? Who's believing it? The old nature or the new nature? This has to do with the new nature. That's right. And for Paul to say, for me to live as Christ, he can't say that unless this is true. You see that? You couldn't say it either unless it was true.

So our job is to simply take God at his word and believe him. And this is off the charts in terms of making any logical sense to the natural mind, because what has God just told the natural mind? What has he just said to the natural man? What has he just said to Adam?

We left you behind. Bye. That's what he's saying. Goodbye. You got cut off. You're done. See that? The old man says, I'm going to prove to you that the Bible isn't right. Because I'm going to be more active now than I ever was before. Just to show. Imitate it, sure. His lights have to go out. So, are you alright with that?

These are the kind of verses that make an honest believer who's growing has to look at these verses and say to himself, is this really true of me? Is God telling me the true facts here, or is this something that will be true of me later on when I leave the planet and go to be with Him? Or is it true of me right now? Did this in fact, 2,000 years ago, did this happen? Was it me in that cross with Christ? The answer is yes, it was. And so God has taken pains to instruct us and to show us what He has done So for what reason? Why is he showing us this? Why would he even tell us this? Why does he want us to know this?

I don't know. That's right. That's right. So you can understand what the daily processing in your life is all about. That's not who I am. That's not who I am. Once you get to the point of believing this, it becomes a lot easier because it's not who you are. When you see who you are by God's word, you can then see it is not you or it is you.

Right. But you have to come to that point that you believe this. Right. That you are a new creature in Christ. Yes. That's, I think, the turning point. Once you know it's not a fix-up of the old man, it's not a, you know, a Lazarus, a second chance. It's not any of that. But it's a new creature. And, you know, it's a pig going to the mud. That's not who I am now. That's exactly right. You know, many times I'm wallowing in the mud. That's right. That's right. In the midst of that, you know, I think, you know, he's there to show you. And that's the maturing process. Yeah, you know, I think it's difficult because it's so radical in the beginning.

But it's incredibly wonderful to find out that, because we've got two issues that we deal with, sins, in which all believers love to talk about the fact that Christ paid the penalty for their sins, so they don't have to, that they're going to go to heaven. But then God takes incredible pains, and he's incredibly thorough through the Apostle Paul, to explain that he took care of not only sins, but the thing that caused the sins, the sinner. And that he did something about the cause. That he no longer, from his perspective, he no longer deals, or put it this way, he no longer has to deal with the Adamic man. He already did. And so we as Christians, the problem we have is believing the facts. Now, how many of you are absolutely persuaded that you're saved? How come? How are you persuaded? Who persuaded you? The Word of God and the Spirit, right? How many of you are absolutely persuaded that these facts are true of you too?

Do you see what the Spirit's doing? The week after, or maybe, let's see, A year after you were saved, were you as persuaded about it as you are today? No, you weren't. But the Spirit working slowly in you has settled you down. You couldn't convince me that you're saved, but you're convinced in your own heart, right? There's no doubt. The Spirit will convince you of this too. And when He does, you'll be free. Conditionally free.

Like Galatians 2.19, I through the law am dead to the law, and I might live unto God.

Is that the point when we die? The point is that we're already dead. And the issue is, do we believe it? Physically die? Oh, no. This information isn't to give us an insight as to what's going to happen when we leave the planet. This is for now. Right now. I think we have to learn about, on a practical standpoint, what it is to live by faith. That we believe God and trust Him, no matter how the natural mind picks up the information.

It's idiocy for the natural man to look at a verse that says you died. Really? Colossians says that I'm to set my affections on things above and not on things of the earth and then in verse 3 it says the reason why, because you died and your life is hid with Christ and gone. Is it really? I don't feel it. Well, feelings have nothing to do with it. Is it true or isn't it, and do I believe it?

That's the same way we were saved. That's right. We believe what God told us. Some people have huge salvation experiences, others don't have any. It doesn't change the facts. Facts are facts. I wanted to mention one thing in verse 5 that we probably didn't talk about very much, but in verse 5 it says, If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.

This if there, is that maybe or maybe not? It's since. It's an if of certainty. It's for sure. The best way to translate it is, since we have been united together in the likeness of his death, that's a fact. Undeniable facts. Certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. So what does he mean here? It looks like we shall be... What's he talking about here?

If the fact of our death is true, is there an if about whether the resurrection life will be true? What do you think? No. The thing is that the resurrection life to be manifested in your life is a growing thing. You have been crucified, so you will live.

That's the point. You may not always live like this, but you're going to. You can't retard it. You can slow it down from a conditional standpoint, But when you leave here, this is the way it's going to be, and this is intended for us to live like this now, right now. And the likeness of resurrection life is a manifestation of the resurrected life of Christ through you. It's not you doing a bunch of good things.

What if I was still going to my old church and getting the same, I guess, It's a governmental teaching, and I stayed there. Will at some point the Holy Spirit enlighten me? That's a great question. If your doctrine is off, it's like logic. Your findings are going to be off, and you'll keep hitting that rock. Let me ask you a question, Mike.

Yeah, that's right. God has his truth, right? It's laid out in his word, and so let's say you're in a covenant-oriented church. Does that just mean that God says, well, he's a goner. He won't listen to me, so I'll leave him alone. What do you think? If you're a believer, you're in the word. The spirit is working. So what's the hindrance? The fact you're in the wrong church? What is the hindrance? It's just your response to the Holy Spirit. That's right. It's the same thing as becoming a bully. Yeah. So I could just be content with it. You could be content with the legalism. With the flow. Sure. But... And you may not know any better. I mean, maybe... With the Holy Spirit, I really think that the Holy Spirit made me just question everything and not be content with the status quo. That always caused trouble. I wasn't satisfied with it. We were ordering a drink.

Yeah, this building is full of troublemakers. I think, I really think, and it's going to be interesting to see how the Lord lays this out because we'll know, But I really think that all believers, the Lord focuses and tracks on His line of life. And we're the ones that reject it. We're the ones that say, no, that can't be right. I want my list of things to do.

I think a lot of people, you're missing out with the peace that He's offering. And I think that's the thing that you lose the most, is the peace I think in most churches, it's another program. It's the purpose-driven, what is it? And they keep turning to man's fix for this, to do something. And I think there's a certain amount that get called off of there, that just say, this isn't it. And then that creates the hungry heart. And then it's the searching for, this ain't working. forced into believing God. And unfortunately, as we've discussed that many times, why isn't it en masse? But it doesn't happen. And I think man is so wanting to live, old man. That's right. It's another program, another little present over here, another little bead bobble, whatever. And each one fails. I think that's right.

It takes a hungry heart to move down this road. You had a hungry heart? In other words, you somehow knew, somehow, the work of the Spirit knew, that that wasn't the truth. Well, you knew that it wasn't fulfilling you. You weren't getting fed. And there was no rest, right?

And there has to be, I mean, I think lots of believers come to the point and they say, boy, there's got to be more to Christianity than what I know, you know? Maybe I better get over to that four-square gospel church. Maybe they got it, you know? My son decided to get a different pastor to have on Kenroy because it was their pastor, and it just doesn't seem right. And I think, why do you keep going there? And it's the same thing.

There's a recognition that they're not being fed. Sometimes churches are problems to people's spiritual growth. You get going and you get to be friends with everybody that's there, and you have a social environment that's your church, I mean, you might as well go to the Kiwanis club, or go to the movies, or bowling or something, I don't know. But you're not getting fed.

And it all hinges, the fulcrum of spiritual growth, the fulcrum of spiritual growth are these identification truths, right there. This is the issue. your inclusion in the death, burial, and resurrection with Christ is the central issue of your spiritual growth. Because if you didn't die to the old man and you weren't resurrected in Christ, you are not going to grow spiritually because there's nothing from this point forward in Paul's epistles that you're going to understand, because it's all based on this truth. This is the foundation, the block of spiritual growth, is your identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. It is the fulcrum. If you don't get this, you don't go on. It's just like if you don't believe in the person and work of Christ, you don't get saved. You're not going anywhere. It's the same way here.

These are foundational truths for the believer. Our dear Father, how we thank you for what you've done to us, not only for us, but to us. And we look forward to walking in newness of life, in resurrected life, and beholding the glory of your Son, which is our privilege. And we thank you. We pray in his name. Amen.