Identification Truths

12 says, in verse 13, what does the word yield or present mean? What do you think? Now it's interesting because, when we talked about this last week, I want you to notice that in Romans chapter 6, there's nothing for you to do for the first ten verses, other than to note. That's all you're supposed to do is know. So if you get the information from the Word of God that instructs you to know, are we talking position or condition? What do you think?

If you're just to know something, position or condition? I have a condition? Anybody? Do I have a position? Yeah. How many think it's position? How many think it's condition? A lot of people are too chicken to raise their hands. It's actually position.

And the reason it is, is because it's just information about what God says, who you are and where you are and what you have. There's nothing for you to do other than to know it. And God is communicating through His Spirit information. When you get to 11, now it's your turn. And what's the key word in 11?

Believe. That's something you do. Do you see that? Now it's getting conditional. So you believe, or you reckon these things to be so. Reckon yourself indeed dead unto sin, but alive unto God. Up until that time, it's just informational. And knowing the information is the critical part. The next part is believing and reckoning it to be so.

Now, when we get to It says, therefore, let not sin reign. There's something else you do. You don't let sin reign. You exercise your will. But the Word of God gives you the reason why. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in its lusts. And now here you go. And do present and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." Something for you to do.

Present. Or, lots of translations use the word yield. I don't like the word yield because it's passive. I like the word present. Tell me what present means. What do you think it means? To offer forth. To offer forth. Okay. What else? Anybody else? You'll have to read them. Please. Yeah. First, in that day, stand beside her to exhibit. Right. But then, the case on Alba, tense and mood and voice are the important parts. Well, let's go through that and we'll do it slow, so go. It's a verb. Everybody know what a verb is? It's an action word. You know, if I say get out, that's an action word. Get is the action word.

Second person. There's first, second and third person. First person is the speaker. Second person is the one spoken to. It's plural, so it's all of you. So this means that you're presenting yourself. Is it present tense or perfect tense? So you present yourself now. You okay with that? Is that confusing?

Sometimes when we start talking about Greek, it gets kind of weird. So, is that the same kind of thought as pray without ceasing? You've heard my joke about pray without ceasing. Our buddy Strachan and I were in a mission years ago when we were first believers. and there was another guy down there that had a little coffee and counsel deal, and we had a Bible study one day, and we were kind of going around, and the guy said, well, I read in the Bible that I'm to pray without ceasing. I'm up to 60% of the time.

Okay. Is that what this means? Presenting is an interesting word. The best description I have of it, like when Matt enlisted in the army, or whatever he did. He went down to whoever and he raised his right hand, took the oath, and said to them, I belong to you now. Right now, presently, on this very day, he still belongs to them and they're still using him, but he isn't raising his right hand every day. Do you see that? There's no doubt in his mind that he belongs to them.

When I went down, I don't know, somewhere in Denver and raised my right hand and some Marine sergeant said, you're mine now. He wasn't kidding. I found out later they weren't kidding. Because I remember during the Vietnam War there were guys in my unit, I was in the reserve unit at Buckley, that would try to get out. And the Marines would always say, we have a contract with your signature on it. And they'd smile. So we're going to live up to our end. We expect you to live up to your end.

Now, so you present yourself. Yes, Donna? The reason that it's present tense, is that because of the two natures? Yeah. Do you understand what she said? Understand the question? So then the old man is continually trying to present. Yeah, and that's a good question. Do you think your old sin nature would try to present itself to God? What do you think?

Yeah, sure it will. Absolutely. Your old man will do it. He'll try to do it. Yeah, the old man will do anything but not do anything. That's exactly right. So the key phrase in this verse, I think, is the phrase that, but present yourselves unto God as being alive from the dead. That gives you the person who does the presenting. Now, let's talk about that alive from the dead.

Who is that guy? It's a new man in Christ, right? And that new man, does he have to twist his arm to get him to present? No, it's part of his nature. It's what he is. So, the believer who... Don't get nervous when I tell you that maybe your old man presented itself to God. Okay, big deal. The deal is that you have the Spirit of God within you, you have the new life within you, and as you grow in Christ conditionally, you'll find that your frame of reference and your attitude is a presenting attitude. The life of Christ is a sacrificial life, and that's the life you have, and you don't have any trouble as you grow presenting.

If you're straining at it, you can trust... you trust me, it's the old man. The new man doesn't strain at this. You see that? It was interesting to me on the Greek, again. The first one is the present. The second one, where you present yourself to God, is Aristens, which is fact, command. which is a path-completed action. You have presented yourself.

So let's make that clear. The verse says, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. That is present tense. Don't keep doing that, is what it's saying. You see what I'm saying? Don't keep doing it. present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. That present, one time. How many times did Matt enlist in the Army? Once. How many times did I enlist in the Marine Corps? Once. But I used to think it was more than once. One time.

Do you see that? So, as we go through the rest of Romans 6, we're going to find that there's an awful lot is done through the Adamic old sin nature, that is a constant kind of a thing, like the last verses, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. You know, wages working all the time. Presentation of yourself to God as a life from the dead is one time, because the life does that.

See? You alright with that? Is that clear enough? In other words, put it this way. If the Spirit has led you through understanding to present yourself to the Lord, whatever language you use, it's too late for you. You're cooked. You're done. You belong. You're in. You see that? You belong to the Lord. And you know what?

Whenever you believe God, and whenever you respond to any of His logical commands, He takes you at your word, even though you might change your mind tomorrow. He takes you at your word and so get ready, here we go, which is really cool because it doesn't leave it up to you. A definite entering into an attitude of presenting ourselves as risen ones to God. There's an attitude there that comes with the life. Newell says, The exhortation is, believingly, to take the attitude of a risen one in Christ and thus present yourself once and for all to God. And this is not strain. This isn't hard. This is the way the life is. So my question 13 was, who are the ones commanded to present themselves unto God? The risen ones. Yeah, the risen ones. The ones that are alive from the dead.

Do you see that? Vern, when he was doing Ephesians and Colossians, about every other week he would talk to us about logical commands. Remember that? As opposed to moral commands. That in the Word of God there are the moral commands which are legal. You do this and if you want to be blessed, and if you don't do it, you're going to be cursed. That's a moral command. This is a logical command. This is something that a believer, when he understands the truth, it's logical to respond to this kind of a command. Present yourself, present your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, as those that are alive from the dead. It's spiritually logical that you do that. It's not a strain. And you know what? You don't get anything for doing this. This is already true of you. But this is the attitude that a believer has, alive from the dead. Which, alive from the dead is really cool. What does alive from the dead mean? Spiritually alive when you are spiritually dead. And so, death means what?

Separation. So at one point you were separated from life, from God, from righteousness, right? But through this process, or these mechanics that we're learning in Romans 6, what's happened? We died unto all that was separated from God, and now we're resurrected. And resurrected ones, this is normal behavior for a resurrected one.

Do you see that? That's why the language is the way it is. Any questions there? Because we're moving on. Okay. So we're going to move on to the next set of questions, which are the ones from last week. And I think it'll take a while to get through these. So we're going to move to verse 14. And things change.

From an identification point of view, why would we not be under law, and therefore sin would not have dominion over us? Is the question clear? Because we're under grace? Yeah. Now think about this. From an identification viewpoint, why would we not be under law? Because Christ nailed it to the cross. Well, close. is now true of me. My identity is now with Christ. Okay?

So, Christ is not subject to law. Is he? He's not under law. Therefore, I'm not under law. You see that? We're studying the book of Galatians on Tuesday. I must say, there's a couple of guys in there that aren't buying this. They still think the law is hanging out. There's obligations on our part. to somehow obey it. We're not under law.

Is this mosaic law or law principle? Both. Not only if you were a Jew it would be the mosaic law, if you were a Gentile it's just law principle. Does that mean you get to speed? Ask you about that. Law principle being this, that anything that you would do in order to receive favor or blessing from God, you can be a law unto yourself, you can be in a Christendom type environment where you are struggling all the time to do things that would somehow be pleasing to God and would put you in a more favorable position. So we are no longer functioning under a legal principle. You know what a principle is? What is a principle? It's the way something works or operates. Gravity works the same way all the time. Grace works the same way all the time. So does law. It's a principle. Law first demanded duty and then offered blessings. but what principle are we under now? Grace.

Okay, so how would you define grace then? What do you think about that? Did you look those over, by the way? Most of you have probably seen them before. That grace acts freely according to God's own nature as love with no promises or obligations to fulfill and acting, of course, righteously in view of the cross. That's a pretty cool definition, isn't it? Grace, therefore, is uncaused in the recipient, as cause lies wholly in the giver, who is God.

I don't know about you, but when I first read these years ago, they just stopped me in my tracks. The frame of reference, the viewpoint of a man under grace was not the frame of reference I lived under. When you get down... I'll go down to the place of man under grace. He has been accepted in Christ who is his standing. He's not on probation. I was okay with that. As to his life past, it does not exist before God. He died at the cross and Christ is his life. That's why we're studying identification. Grace once bestowed is not withdrawn.

I'm finding in raising my son sometimes that given the set of circumstances where I have to discipline him, he thinks because of the discipline that my grace has been withdrawn, and it hasn't been. And so would we. We do something that God is going to use it for our spiritual growth, and it's painful. We think he's gone to Florida for a week, and he isn't gracious this week, because we really made him mad.

Once grace is bestowed. Yeah? If we separate the two, then how can we always combine them, law and grace, together? We're in an age of grace, but I don't realize we turn to the law. If we are separated like that, if there's law, if there's our discipline, then there's no grace. Oh, I see what you're saying. So, why do we respond to legal principles and therefore suffer the consequences of doing so? Or, when we sin, there's a consequence to be paid, even though we're under the umbrella of grace?

Is that what you mean? Well, I don't know. It's just... No, not necessarily. I think a lot of people will say that there's grace and law together, working together. I see. We still have the law. But then we'll combine the two, but then when we're disciplined and we say there's no grace, you know what I mean? We separate them. Yeah. First of all, those that say that are biblically not correct. Because you're under either or. There isn't an admixture. Maybe the best way to describe it, once you stick your toe into the river of law, you're all the way in. It's just like sin. Once you dance with sin, you're sinning. It isn't my finger that's sinning and the rest of me is okay.

Once you ascribe to any sort of a legal principle, you're under it, which means you're under condemnation. Now, having said that, because the position that we live in, which is under the umbrella of grace, God is able to take all of those exigencies that we manufacture and use them to be gracious towards us, to develop us, to cause us to grow, and it may be painful, but I always ask myself, who's really in pain here? Is it the old man, or is it who I am in Christ? And if I recognize that God is dealing with me as a man in Christ, the guy that's suffering is Adam, who I'm not him anymore.

Now that doesn't mean that, like a circumstance that you were in, really was faultless, but you obviously were involved in a situation where you ended up being an illegal consequence. Are you going to suffer the consequences? Absolutely you are. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe, depending on what the Lord is going to use that. I'll give you another example. On Thursday night, we're studying the Gospel of John, and we're right at the crucifixion, or right at the resurrection, but we were talking about the crucifixion a couple of weeks ago, What was really interesting about the class was that every human being that was involved in the crucifixion of Christ, from the time he was arrested to going to Annas' house and then to Caiaphas' house, had a trial, then delivered over to Pilate, scourged, beaten, taken and crucified and all of that. Every human being that was involved in that play was acting as a free agent, they thought. You understand? From their perspective, they were doing what they thought was in front of them and the right thing to do.

What none of them understood was, is that God orchestrated every single nuance of that crucifixion. And when you get to the point where Christ is on the cross, He says, in order for the scripture to be fulfilled, He cried out, I thirst. Because that was the last thing to be fulfilled. And when that was done, He gave up his life. Nobody took it from him.

So every nuance of that, well, when you translate that into your own life as a son of God, identified with Christ, no matter what it looks like to you and everybody around you, God has nano-second organized your life just like that, to approve you, to present you blameless and holy before him in love. See that?

No matter what it looks like. no matter what you think you did to screw it up. He intercepts the temptation for condemnation and uses it for your approval. Does that mean that you avoid the sinning? No, not necessarily. But there's not any condemnation for them that are in Christ.

Does that make sense? Grace is an action that's independent of all of the things that men do, and it's not dependent on their action. Do you see that? Grace is not dependent on you. I know that sort of fries some of you, you constitutionalists, but it doesn't depend on you. That's right.

So the failure of devotion does not cause a withdrawal or the bestowal of grace as it would under law. The third section is the one I like the best. The proper attitude of a man under grace. To believe and consent to be loved while unworthy is the great secret. Isn't that cool? To refuse to make resolutions and vows for that is to trust in the flesh. So you New Year's guys can forget all that.

To expect to be blessed, though realizing more and more your lack of worth. To testify of God's goodness at all times. To be certain of God's favor, yet to be ever more tender in conscience towards Him. To rely on God's chastening hand as a mark of His kindness.

There you go, Craig. See that? A man under grace, if like Paul, has no burdens regarding himself, but many about others. Okay, and I'll just do the next two and then we'll move on. To hope to be better is to fail to see yourself in Christ only. Boy, if that just doesn't take the wind out of your sails, I don't know what does. And this last one I love. To be disappointed in yourself is to have believed in yourself in the first place.

So anyway, sin, back to the question, we're not under law, and because we're not under law, sin is not to have dominion over us. So how do law and sin go together? Why are they in the same camp? Because the law is the knowledge of sin. Okay. What else? Law makes sin more simple. That's right. What else? Think about it from an identification standpoint in the two men. Law applies to which man? That's right, first Adam only. Sin applies to which man? Old man only.

Does that make sense to you? So here we are, sitting in this room, positioned in Christ, above in the heavenlies, with a new nature, but we're sitting in this room with a sin nature still in us, right? Because we have that nature in us, our capacity to live under law and sin is there. So when Paul says in Romans 7, that is, in me, in my flesh dwells no good thing, but then he says a little later, I determine that it's no longer I who sin, but sin that dwells in me. Do you understand what that means now?

That you can, your flesh, and it's yours, you own it, Nothing good dwells in it. Most of you think that you're learning, the percentage goes up every year, but five years ago you were about 50-50, now you're up to about 80-20. You still think there's 20% good there, sorry. Nothing, no good thing.

And then you read later on in Roma 7, you think that That your old man isn't you, and so you're not responsible. Yes, you are. It's your old man. But it isn't the new man in Christ that sins, it's the old man. See that? You alright with that? Or is that confusing? It's not confusing, it's the battle that's recognized.

Yeah, and what you discover, I think, is that, put it this way, a believer, a human being that becomes a believer and is introduced to the right truths and gets a trip through Romans right away and starts to grow spiritually, how long do you think it takes before that person views themself as not being an Adam anymore? Maybe. Is there a possibility while you live here on this planet that you can see yourself identified as being in Christ and I'm no longer in Adam anymore? And I don't react out of Adam?

What do you think? You're talking reality or in the mind? I'm talking reality. In the mind you speak. Well, it's your frame of reference, you know, that the way you interact with your environment and people is less and less Adamic and more and more being Christian. like that because they think you're nuts.

You still have to go into the working world and you still have to do this. So the minute you say something that's spiritual, bam, you're up against the wall. Okay, but let's go at it a different way. Let's say that you're cruising along in the working world and you're abiding in Christ, and someone comes and slams you.

What's your reaction? Well, out of your position or your condition in Adam, you react the way he would react, which is, you know, vengeful or anger or whatever. But as you grow in Christ, your reaction would be, one, there would be a greater understanding of what's going on, because you know, and you know the capacity... You're quiet. Yeah, you're quiet. That's right. Because the Lord Jesus, when he was crucified, he wasn't complaining. He wasn't complaining.

I'll show you a verse that was kind of interesting in this situation. I guess it's to be able to see the good in this process. And not crank up the good, but just to see it. And to see that we, it's how we'll be able to behold more of the Lord. It brings me to tears because I see all the loss. Let me run through some verses for you. This is out of, and you wouldn't think he'd know this, but he does.

1 Peter chapter 3 verse 13, And who is he who will harm you? if you become followers of what is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify or set apart the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than to do evil."

Now, let's say that that's your, in your life today, tomorrow, Tuesday, that's your frame of reference. That's the way you're walking down the street. That's the life of Christ functioning in you. Now, as a young believer, you may not have that frame of reference. You may see yourself as a safe sinner trying to be better, right? But as you grow spiritually and understand your identification and the Spirit of God works in you, your frame of reference becomes more and more like this. So you begin to see yourself, your identity, who you are, as one who is in Christ.

It doesn't change the circumstances. As a matter of fact, it may make them even a little more difficult, as you've described. Do you see that? I've never really understood that. I don't necessarily understand it right now, but more than I used to. I always thought that was something that was conditional. Do, you know, be this way. Be that way. Passive or whatever. That's the law. People that try to be passive. No war, no challenging people with anything. Just be spineless passive.

I have an example of something I went through a number of years ago. I worked with this outfit and the boss was one of these guys who was always flying off the handle. Every week we'd sit down and go over files and all this stuff. One day he said something. Sometimes he's down your throat and other times he's not. I was always walking this line of what we're talking about. How do I interact with this guy? Because you can't be passive. You have to interact. But you don't have to be on the same level as they are. And one day he said to me, I always feel intimidated around you. And I said, why? He says, I don't know. I just can't read you. Well, I kind of knew what he was talking about. That was a good example. I mean, he ultimately got canned because he was taking money out of the paper cash store. He's the boss.

But on a practical level, I think it's kind of what we're talking about. You know who you are in Christ, and it's not that you're slamming any message down anybody. It's just your life, your interaction. Just as theirs is their life in their area. That's a good example.

I think a lot of it is going back to what Christ offers that the world can't is peace and rest. That's right. And I think in all these trials, at least for myself, I go to grace is sovereign. If you know, God is sovereignly in control. You have peace through any situation. Yeah, you do. Even if it's unfair in what you think, As long as you know he's in control, and it's for your growth, you know, go back to your favorite book game, Consider it All Joy, when you encounter his trials, knowing that testing your faith, that he's enduracious, and that's the perfect result, and he's perfectly complete. You know, and that's when you have that, no matter what's going on, no matter what, you can always have that peace.

Well, and that's one of the elements of the new life in Christ. Mount Stanford used to say that for the young believer, God will, when the young believer prays, maybe maneuver the circumstances. But as you begin to grow, what he does is he begins to change you in the middle of him. Do you see that?

There's the manifestation of the life of Christ, the rest that's in you, which can be an intimidating factor. I mean, go to John's Gospel in chapter 19 and read about Pilate and the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus, you know, wasn't in Pilate's face, but Pilate was really nervous about him. He couldn't get a handle on this man, you know. And his wife had dreams and said, stay away from this guy. He couldn't find any reason to condemn him, you know. At the time, there's anything but peace, though.

As you're growing and learning, yeah. And we may fail at the time and get mad or whatever, but even that uses to see if we really believe. You know, right there is an interesting point. Let's see if I can ask this right. As you learn what we're doing, we're learning our position of identification. from Adam to Christ, right? But that's the position, and God is about the business, through His Spirit, of implementing that position into our lives, which means, at least to me, it means two things.

One, that I would dislike and hate my old man enough to walk away from him, and not to rely on him, and not to use him. You understand? to fear Him and know that I'm free, and two is to love the Lord Jesus enough that I would go to Him. Now, from a practical standpoint, how would God pull that one off? How would He make you, without coercing you, without twisting your arm, make you so sick of your old man that you would abandon him? How would He do it?

That's right. That's exactly right. I'm convinced we have to discover the futility of Adam on a practical level. That he's not trustworthy, that he sins all the time, that he's not worth relying on, that you don't want to go there and you don't have to go there. Do you see that? And that you're not free just to abandon him so you live in the ozone, but you're free from him to live in Christ. And this part of the scripture in Romans 6 that deals with legalism is there to demonstrate that any kind of law principle keeps you in Adam. Do you see that?

That's what is designed. The law was given to the unrighteous man to make sin exceedingly sinful. So if you, in your wisdom, think that by obeying any set of principles, whether it be the mosaic law, the list that's on your refrigerator, or the little black box that's behind your ear, that's going to make you more pleasing to God. The problem with that is that you're in the old man doing that.

The new man in Christ doesn't function that way. Do you see that? So, it's refreshing to know, like you said before, that when it's working on the old man, That we're not associated with it. That we have this new life and it's not us. I mean, he's growing us in Christ, but he's also working on destroying the old man. These things, the law and everything, I think if you've lived your whole life trying to better yourself and the world, It's just a downward spiral. Yeah, it is.

And I think to know that God is working on disconnecting you from that. Our buddy Bob Strawn used to have a great example of that, that trying to improve the self is like following a line of twine, and you keep doing this and doing this and doing this for years, and when you get to the end of it, what do you find? That it's tied to the front. and you got nowhere. You got to throw in the towel. Yeah, yeah. So, let's see if we can do... We got still a couple of minutes? Is that the first bell? Okay.

Question two is, describe the difference between Romans 6.14 and 1 Corinthians 9.21 as regards one's association with the law.

Now, 1 Corinthians 9.21 is, Paul says, to them that are without law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law."

Paul says in Romans 6.14 that sin won't have dominion over us, for we are not under law but under grace. So, what do you think?

The law is given by God to the Jews. The Gentiles are not subject to that at all. Okay. In 1 Corinthians, what does he mean to them that are without law, as without law, not being without law to God? Gentiles. Gentiles, okay. And what's Paul describing there? He's describing a ministry he has to the Gentiles.

That's the whole set up for it. Although I am free from all men, that is number one. I made myself a slave to all so that I might win more. That's the purpose of all these. I'm a Jew, laws, everything. He's just becoming to win them or draw them to Christ. Not that he's under it. He's just becoming it to bring them to Christ. When he says, and the King James says, but underlawed to Christ, how would you translate that where it made more sense? I would change one word. I would change the word under to in. In other words, you could say, but inlawed to Christ.

Do you understand what I've said there? I'm now a member of his body, of his very person. So I have a relationship with him that of maybe marriage that I didn't have before. And not based on the principle of I ought to, but based on the principle of love. Do you see the difference? I don't know if that makes...

Well, you could say like you transcend in the sense that if you have a relationship with someone that you care about, you are not going to violate any of what they would say would be the laws that would harm that relationship. And what's interesting, relationship is probably the key here because if you're a Jew under the Mosaic Law, what's the law in Israel and all that about? It's about a relationship with God, isn't it? And God said, here are the rules. You want to have a relationship with me, here's what you've got to do. And if you don't live up to them, I'm going to curse you. If you do, I'll bless you.

However, as you described, like in a marriage, we're joined together in a relationship that functions in a certain way, but not legally because the motive is different. And what's a marriage designed to be? A relationship, right? I mean, I love it. And here we are as believers, right? And a man loves a woman, and what do they do? They go to church and take vows. What is that all about?

You know, like they're going to be able to live up to them? Give me a break. It's not going to happen. See? But what's the relationship? It's like the relationship you have with Christ. What does He do? He recreates you in Himself so that you are in-lawed to Him or married to Him. or share the same life with him, and there are principles that function within that life, that supersede anything that the Mosaic Law ever would require you to do. Do you see that? Does that make sense?

We've got a minute. Let's talk about conscience for a minute. The growing believer. Well, let me ask you this. Is your conscience reliable? Heavens no. You have to have a purged conscience. A renewed conscience. Mine is crucified. I don't want to renew any. Well, Hebrews says that something, is it 10, I think, talks about the conscience being renewed by the blood of Christ.

Let me put it to you this way. If my marriage with Donna is based on conscience, then is that reliable? It depends on your social upbringing. Well, it could be. That's right. Which means it isn't reliable, right? So what's our relationship based on? It isn't based on conscience. No, it's based on love. Or based on life.

Every man has a conscience. Every believer has a conscience. I think the maturing believer begins to rely less and less on his conscience and more and more on the Word of God and the person of Christ. Because he is his very life. Christ doesn't function based on conscience.

Truth. Or drive your state and home a little closer so it's based on love, but how are you going to know How are you going to have confidence in your understanding of God? Great question. I think there's a principle involved here. The first principle is the Word of God.

It's the tool that God used to communicate the information to me that he loves me. But the real implementer of that is the Holy Spirit himself. In Romans 5 he says that the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our heart a love for God. The Holy Spirit is the one who implements this relationship, and He does it, initially, by persuading us that God loves us. That's His job.

With His implementation, and you're reading the Word of God, what do you find out in the Word of God? You find out this awesome grace that you live under, that God implemented and did, without checking with you if it was okay. He just did it. And what does He ask you to do? Believe me. That's it. Just believe that I did it. And I've given you my Spirit. Whereby what? I cry, Abba Father. Wow. See?

Is that okay? So, the Spirit of God is here in every believer to effectuate on a practical level this intimacy with Christ. That's what He's here to do. He's to conform believers to the image of Christ by revealing Christ to the believer. Does the second bell go off? We'd better close. Our dear Father, how we thank You for Your Word, and how we thank You that we are absolutely and forever under grace, and that we belong to You, that we are alive from the dead. And we thank You, Father, and we pray in Your Son's name. Amen.