Buried and Risen in Him
Romans 6:1-4 · Jim Pool · Jul 30, 2006
Romans (2005-07), No. 42
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262357516579

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

Alright, well, it looks like most people have their Bibles open to the Romans in chapter 6, so just going to do some review for us this morning. We talked last week that chapters 3, verses 20 through chapter 5, verse 21 teaches the justification truths, and we're moving into chapter 6 here, starting last week, and it's going to be focusing on the sanctification truths.

Christ's death for us deals with the penalty of sin, while our death with Christ deals with the power of sin or deals with the root of sin. So we're moving or have moved already into this section here which deals with how is it that believers can be free from the power of sin in our lives on a daily basis. Critical things for us to understand. If we're looking to deal with the sin nature any other way other than the truths that God has revealed to us in chapter 6 of Romans, then we're going to be left with self-effort and we're going to be left simply in legalism trying to overcome the sin nature other than God's way. And futile is what we'll is what one would find if we're trying to go about it that way. We asked this question last week, what's the ultimate purpose of these truths? I think it's really important for us to ask that question again. What's the ultimate purpose that God has revealed these truths to us? That God would be glorified. He would be able to declare His glory, to reveal His glory, to share His glory, and to be glorified.

I mentioned that in my prayer. Bob and Margaret have 60 people coming over this afternoon, this evening, to their house for a party. Boy, let the Lord be glorified somehow during that time there. As they're walking in these truths, boy, That's it. And Hal has shared stories that he's going through with his interaction with people in the hospital that he's had opportunities for the glory of the Lord to be shown through people that he's interacted with. So as Hal is resting in and walking in these truths, boy, the Lord is being glorified through us as believers.

So the ultimate purpose is that. So the focus of it all has to be on the Lord and not on ourselves. And it's easy for us to get a little bit self-focused, I think, at times, and self-centered. How do these truths benefit me? What do these truths do for me? And it becomes kind of an inward look at how they affect us as opposed to, boy, this is all for the glory of the Lord.

I think it's important that we keep that in mind. Review again. How is this tree to be stopped from producing this fruit? We talked about that last week. I'm kind of starting out this morning with the questions early on in the class. Just speak up and answer the questions. How was it?

What do you do? How was it that we're going to get that tree to stop producing the fruit there? That's right, you've got to deal with the roots. You can pick the fruit off that tree all day until you fill up your barrel, fill up your crate, whatever it might be. It's going to keep coming back. We talked about that last week.

To stop it from producing fruit, you've got to get to the root. So, how has the sin nature stopped from producing its deeds, the deeds of the flesh, in the life of the believer? How has that happened? How is that possible in the lives of believers? You've got to get to the root. You've got to get to the root of the issue.

You're the same thing. And so if we're trying to suppress sin in our lives through our own abilities or if we're trying to create different habits or different things in our lives to overcome the deeds of the flesh in our lives, it's going to be futile. We're not going to get anywhere. We're going to be frustrated and discouraged and end up in despair.

So we've got to get to the root of the issue, and that's what we talked about last week. So through our identification with Christ, we've been separated from the sin nature, the one that produces the deeds of the flesh, and now we have been given the new nature, the very life of Christ, and it's the fruit of the Spirit, as talked about extensively in Galatians. Again, just to review.

Should we continue in sin so that grace can increase? Is that something that we as believers should be doing? And the answer to that one is obviously no. And it's such a rhetorical question. And since the question doesn't need to be asked, but Paul asked it in Romans, so therefore I think we need to ask it ourselves. So, why is it that we should not continue in sin so that grace can increase? Why should we not continue in sin? Any thoughts?

Because we've died to it. Exactly right. We shouldn't continue in it. because we've died to it, because we have been identified with Christ. We talked through that there last week, this idea of died. It's a positional truth. Its action is a reality and it happened in the past. It's a permanent act which cannot be undone or redone. And this verse does not tell believers to die to sin, but tells that we have already died to sin in the past tense.

Which question? The second one? Why is it that we should not continue as in? I think the majority of believers wouldn't know the answer to that. I think overall and in general, there's a real lack of teaching of the identification truths amongst the common Christianity and common churches.

Is that where you were going with your question, Bob? That's exactly it. I mean, the verse is clear, isn't it? God forbid, how shall we that are dead descend no longer in it? It's not a lengthy discussion, is it? That's right. That's right. Yeah, it's not. Vern?

But I think Bob's point brings up the fact that the world and even people in Christendom have all sorts of other solutions. And the problem is that there's other solutions and there's a bunch of them. The other solutions that people have are all the alternatives to what God has. And so it's important. This is an important point of discernment. So that we don't get sucked into a, here's the change your habit program. That's right. Whatever the answer has to be. Promise keepers. That's right, sure.

We have to go about it God's way. And God's way for freedom from the power of sin in our lives is through the truths revealed in Romans chapter 6. So how did we die to sin? Talked about that last week, so there's a little bit of a quiz from last week, but how is it that we died the same?

Think about that. Exactly right. Yeah, Christ on the cross and our identification with him and with his action and what happened to him there. Exactly. That's how we died to sin. Yeah, very good. Explain to us. And in verse 3 and then on down in verse 4, we've been baptized or identified with Christ. How about this?

Has the sin nature been annihilated or eradicated? I'm seeing some nods saying, no, it hasn't. It hasn't been eradicated and it hasn't been annihilated. And you will come across people that you cross paths with. We talk about how the devil can be free from the sinner. You say, well, it's been eradicated and annihilated. And they come up with that in verse 6 where it says, And Bob's going to go through this next week for us. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified, I think, with him that the body of sin might have been away with. The KJV uses the word, they're destroyed. So they get confused there on what the terms there mean. Therefore, they say it's totally gone and it's eradicated. But that's not correct. That's incorrect.

So what does died to sin mean? We talked about that. We talked about that last week as well. What is the idea there of died to sin? If it hasn't been eradicated, if it hasn't been annihilated, what does died to sin mean? Yeah, we're not slaves to it any longer. What does the idea of death mean in this context, or died in this context mean?

Separation? That's exactly right. So we've been separated from this in nature. We've been separated from its influence, from its control, from its slavery, from its power. It's a positional separation from the power. Bob? I think this is God's view of us, right? At times we may not feel like this. Sometimes I wonder how little I feel like this, in terms of the power of the atom nature. Nevertheless, God sees this as a done deal. And I don't know about everybody here, but that's really uplifting, isn't it? Absolutely. You touched on another thing.

You mentioned the feelings, and the thing is, in our culture, we've been taught that feelings are spiritual. That if you think something, that's not that spiritual, but if you feel something, then it's more spiritual. And the truth is, this is neither one of those. that this is something that's walking by faith, and it's not the same as walking by feelings. It's not the same as making me feel a certain way. And this is a surprise for a lot of Christians to find out. I was talking to somebody recently, and I told him, I said, you know, faith is not walking by your feelings. And they just looked at me like, you're kidding! You know, it was a massive revelation.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, I brought up the point last week that when we are walking in the flesh, when the sin nature is at a certain moment controlling us, are these truths still true? And the answer to that question was absolutely yes. They absolutely are. So what hope that brings to me personally, and I think to you guys and to everybody at large that knows these truths, when I'm walking in the flesh, These truths are still true of me at that moment.

So therefore, I can believe in those truths. I can actively believe in those truths at that moment. And I don't have to... there's no guilt. I don't have to try through self-effort to get myself out of walking in the flesh. It's just believing in those truths right there in that moment. And there allowing Christ to live His life in and through me. And doing what... therefore doing what it is that God wants me to do. What hope? When it feels like I might be stuck. But I'm not stuck. In a gym at the same time.

If you are walking in the flesh, well, I should say this, these truths are given so that we don't walk in the flesh. That's right. Because even verse 1 and 2 here, Paul's addressing consuming sin. That's right. Practically. And his answer is, you know, God forbid, how shall we die to sin? We're going over here to this position of truth. That's right. Still live in it. That's right. Practically live in it. Right. The whole point he's giving us, this is so that We won't be walking in the flesh. That's right. Yeah, good point.

It's still true if we are, but the point here is that we have to make it. To bring the freedom from it, sure. Any other thoughts? Okay, so can the sin nature still try to influence our lives? Yeah, of course it can. In a conditional way, it can try to influentialize. We're going to talk about that in a little while. But Josiah's point is a great point.

The whole point here is that we have died to sin, that we would no longer walk in it. And we're in in verse 4 today, but we'll be walking in newness of life. But it can still try to draw us back into that slavery. Do believers have to give in to the temptations of the sin nature? That's what you're bringing up, and the other point is absolutely not. No believers do not have to give in to the temptations of sin nature. Alright, so I wanted to review this as well. We talked about this in verse 3. Let me read verse 3.

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? The idea here of do you not know is the same word that's used over in chapter 7 and verse 1, and we looked at that last week. And it assumes present knowledge, knowledge enough to understand what follows. And so it could be said, do you not know, and by the way, you do know. So these people already knew the truths of what Paul was talking about. And so he's saying, okay, you guys know this, and therefore in verse 6, because of knowing this, and therefore because of knowing this, therefore verse 11, reckon, believe on it, count on it to be so. And when we get to verse 11, we're going to see that That's actually an imperative, something that God is calling us to do, to believe in these truths as fact. So, let's review there.

What is the meaning of baptism in verse 3? That's again a review question. Again, in verse 3, what is the meaning there? Are we talking about water baptism or are we talking about something else? What's the meaning of baptism there in verse 3? Spiritual baptism? Yeah, right on, Katie, good job. So, when we say the idea there is spiritual baptism, not water baptism, what does it mean to you? Okay, I've been spiritually baptized into Christ.

What does it mean there to you? I've been immersed into the person of Christ. Yeah. Immersed into the person of Christ and never changed. And union with Him. Exactly right. Yeah. Good. Received His life. Yeah. Good. Thoughts? Any other thoughts? Okay.

Yeah, those are all the things that we mentioned last week, which is great. The idea of baptized is immersed, it was brought out and placed into, identified with, so whatever happened to Christ has also happened to us. And so this point here, what have we been baptized into, is critical. We've been baptized into Jesus Christ. You know, it's so important. We're seeing a change here. We're seeing a new source. No longer is the source going to be the sin nature, but the source is going to be the life of Christ, which we have been placed into.

Previous union was with Adam. We were identified in the first Adam, as was brought out extensively in chapter 5. And so, separation from that Adamic nature is only going to come through death. And we brought it earlier. Lots of Christianity tries to bring about separation from the Adamic nature through all types of different things. We can come up with a long list. But separation from that Adamic nature is only going to come through death. Our death with Christ on the cross.

So we're no longer in Adam, but now we are in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.17, that we are new creation in Him. Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. That's the idea there. Okay, this is where we left off last week, so I wanted to kind of pick it up here. So, we were baptized, or immersed, or placed into, identified with His death, and so when Christ died, we also died with Him. Important point for us to understand. Whatever happened to Him, also happened to us.

So, we ask the question, what part of us died? The sin nature positionally died, and all that we were in Adam is what died. We talk about what actually died when we were identified in Christ's death on the cross. And remember that death means separation? So in our death with Christ, where were we separated from? We need to know what's going on. We need to know the biblical facts so that we can believe in them and therefore walk in freedom. In our death with Christ, what we were separated from was the sin nature. We were cut loose from it. We were severed from its power or from its slavery or from its tendency to try to influence or lure us back to the sinful nature, sinful ways.

Baptized here, used here with the preposition, baptized into his death, it indicates a movement into in order to become involved with or a part of. So we've been baptized into Christ, so that we could be involved with Him and so that we would be a part of Him. We're involved with Him and what's happening with Him and we're a part of Him so that what is happening to Him is also happening to us.

Critical for us to understand those points. This union, this togetherness placed into We were buried with him through baptism into death. So the idea here of buried has the idea of to bury together. So when Christ was buried, we were also buried with him because we were identified with him. Whatever happened to him, happened to us. He died, we died, he was buried. We were also buried through our identification. We were buried into death. Again, the preposition here is communicating the incorporation into Christ's death. Again, the idea here of our union with Him. Whatever happened to Him happened to us. Okay, so why did all of this happen? Why did these things take place? Why did God work it out in such a way that this is happening?

It was in order that as Christ was raised from the dead, in verse 4, through the glory of the Father, so too, end of verse 4, so too that we would be able to walk in newness of life. So we see here that the conjunction that is to express purpose, for a result. And so, our baptism into His death and our baptism, our burial, through His baptism, we'll read in verse 3 there, baptized into Jesus Christ, been baptized into His death, we've been buried with Him, through the baptism into death, in order that this might happen. So, in order that, or the expressed purpose, or the result, is that what happened to Christ also happened to us. So we're getting here to the purpose clause of why these things happened. He's kind of stating the fact, and the fact, and the fact, and then he's getting to the purpose clause.

Christ died, and we also died with him. Christ was buried, and we were also buried with him. Christ was raised from the dead, and we were also raised from the dead with him. It doesn't explicitly say that we were raised. It says that we died with Him. It says that we were buried with Him. It's implying the fact that we were raised with Him. But if we were to read Colossians 2, 12 and 13, that specifically says that we were raised with Him. But certainly this passage in Romans is clearly implying that this happened.

For the ultimate purpose that God would be glorified as we walk in this newness of life. To walk is to walk about or to conduct one's life in such a way. That's the idea here of walk. And you see there that it's subjunctive and that points out that this may happen or it may not be happening. So, these things happen so that we should walk a newness of life. You know what? Here in this room, we might walk in newness of life or we might not walk in newness of life. That's the idea here of what's coming across with the subjunctive. But look at this.

Based on the context, it is clear that God wants us to be walking in newness of life. As Josiah brought out earlier, the whole point here is that we have died to sin so that we would no longer still be living in it, as it pointed out in verse 2. walking no longer in the sin nature, but in our new life with Christ. That's what the ultimate purpose is here. Yeah, Carol. I just want to back up for a second, because I'm always confused. Based on the context, it's clear God wants us to be walking in this life, of course.

But is that a choice we make, and is that ultimately up to us? I think so. Yeah, I think that there's a... The decision to walk in the flesh or to walk in the spirit, I think, is ours to make. I think that we, certainly, we're believing in the truth. We're actively believing in the truth.

If I'm going to walk by faith, or I'm going to walk in the spirit by faith, or walk in the flesh, is it my responsibility or is it God's responsibility? It sounds like I'll stay in Rome at seven the rest of my natural born days. I would never get out of that. Well, as we're seeing... I went on to 8. What's that? I went on to 8. Yeah, yeah.

As we're seeing the reveal of truths here, that God's laid out for us in Romans chapter 6, where we have died to sin, and therefore we believe in those truths to be true. We're going to get to it in verse 11, where it says to reckon, which is to believe, or to count on it, or to rely upon that. We're believing in the fact that we're dead to sin, and that we are alive unto God. We're walking in those truths. Therefore, we're allowing Christ to live His life in and through us, doing what it is that He wants us to do.

You know, the flip side of that is, then it's God's responsibility. And so, then the problem, I think, with that is that, then if I'm walking in the flesh, whose fault is it? It's God's. Well, it can never be God's fault that I'm walking in the flesh. It's always my fault. It can't be.

So if we go over to the other side where it's up to God whether I'm walking in the flesh or I'm walking in the spirit. Therefore, if I'm walking in the flesh, well, this is where God has me and I can't do anything about it and therefore I'm stuck until the Lord moves me out of this spot. I'm not quite sure that's scriptural, because then it puts the problem on God. But really, it's my responsibility, I think, to walk my faith.

Bob? You know, I'm going to paint a scenario, Jim, and let's see what your thoughts are on this. Sure. You know, the atom nature has an opportunity to pick good from evil. But the question is, what is the motive and what's the source of that decision? In other words, if I've got to face life by choosing the atom nature, choosing the Christ nature, I'm in this position of potential likely failure. I mean, maybe I'm overly making this situation more complex than it is, but I mean, I'm jumping ahead to 11, which is, of course, a key verse. Sure. It's based on 1 through 10. Yeah. It's based on 1 through 5. Yeah, yeah.

So I mean, the idea is The reason that the new nature lives is because I believe that I'm alive under God, right? And I guess when we have these choices on a day-to-day basis, we may be choosing, because the Spirit has led us and lifted us up in a new nature, to walk that path, i.e. it's his life, not ours. Or alternatively, we're there intellectualizing. And again, we're told to flee evil, right?

I mean, James Truth, et cetera. Sure. The question, who's making that decision? Adam? Or is that the Christ nature that's making? So I think we can get caught up a lot in this kind of Adam versus Christ choosing, intellectualizing kind of Which life are we going to pick today or for this next hour or for the next minute or two? And it seems to me that maybe this is a little bit different in that rather than this choice, if I believe what God has revealed as true, that I've been baptized with him and buried unto death and risen in newness of life, that that truth prevails in my life, I'm not in this position of having to choose all the time. That that life lives out. We're earthly beings. We all have an old nature. The world tempts us. Our old man tempts us. Satan tempts us. We all have an opportunity to choose that. But I'm almost kind of conceptualizing. When I'm in a situation where I have to choose, I'm already partly defeated.

The new life shows up and lives out in the believer in that I'm reckoning this truth to be true. That in fact, I have been baptized unto him into burial and resurrection. I don't know. Yeah, I do. I think I completely see what you're saying. The thing that I think is that God has, through our identification with Him, He's given us this new nature. He's given us the very life of Christ. And therefore, it's simply my believing in that. It's not that I am trying to muster anything up. It's something that is there, and now it's something that I can believe in. But I think the Scripture teaches that the responsibility is to believe. We have the responsibility to believe.

Now, I wish I would have brought house illustration of the man's head, and the flesh and the spirit, and there's a switch inside the man's head. So, which way is he going to go? And I think that does come down to a decision of ours. Now, is it a decision of faith? Absolutely. And Jim, right there, I think, Bob, in the illustration you gave, you didn't allow for the individual person to still have a personality to make that choice. this flesh, or the new nature making that choice, and there was no third entity being like me. There's still a Josiah that makes that choice to choose in either the flesh or in the life of Christ. So I would look at the whole setup a little differently. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Not really.

The life of Christ in us isn't going to believe for us. I think that's what... I think that we still have There's a sin nature, then there's Jim, and then there's the life of Christ. And the life of Christ in me isn't going to believe for me. I think that's what my part in this whole thing is. It's the believer's responsibility to believe. That's our part. When we remove that and say that the life of Christ is going to believe for me, then I think that we get into a fuzzy spot. I mean, I'm saying if we're constantly intellectualizing these truths, it's not making it. Sure.

This isn't a thought process. Gee, I wonder which way I'm going to go with this one. Is it going to be the Spirit leading me to this answer, or is it the old man's going to take me down this path? Am I sitting there kind of weighing these things and kind of making the choice? I'm saying a self-righteous man without a price can make the right decision for the wrong reasons.

But he can't make a right decision to believe in his new nature in Christ. That's an impossibility. That's true. But what I'm saying, Jim, is that that belief, knackered out, is a life that has more limited choices in it. Yeah, sure. Sure, for that guy. Believing that God has revealed this to be true. And if our belief in that is as secure as our belief that we've been justified forever, that once saved, always saved, in terms of eternity, and my sins forgiven, then I think that life starts to really work out in our lives. And we each have to deal with that on where we're at with the world. Any thoughts, Brian or Hal? If we go back to that switch.

In terms of where are we resting? Are we resting in who we are in Christ? Or is the faith in the attraction? of that sin nature and resting in what seems to be right in terms of the sin nature or what seems to be very attractive because the sin nature is very attractive. of faith, and I have to agree with Bob in terms of choosing. Faith is arrested as opposed to choosing.

There's a separation there. There's a distinction there. Faith is always to be looked upon as a dependence. and that ultimately it's not like we're sitting on the throne making some sort of a royal decree kind of decision but what we are doing is saying this is the one on whom I am going to depend these are the spiritual truths certainly a person could just take them intellectually these are off your computer computer but but that's not sufficient the computer has no way to make a dependence upon the spiritual facts and and so the faith that we place on the Lord is a dependence upon him, not a work and certainly not something, not a gift either. It is neither one of those. It is 100% dependence because we are dependent creatures. That is the way God made us to be dependent entirely upon him. So this should be an easy question to answer though.

Who decides to make that dependence? That's what we're talking about here. If you're right, it is a dependence or a reliance or a trust, but still, does that just happen? Or do I decide to do it? Either one believe in it, or somebody else believe in it for me. Does that make sense?

Yeah, faith is acting, Josiah. make the choice to lie. But again, I think a life lived is not a series of choices. I mean, if in fact we're battling everything that comes up as a choice between good and evil, I don't think that's what God's telling us. It just happens. Do I believe that in my life?

I think you bring up a good point, and that's that is like a series of choices. If it's a matter of us choosing between this moral decision and that moral decision, then we're off the mark. Right. That's what we're talking about. Ultimately, ultimately, this passage lays out the one the one choice that makes any difference. Roman 7 is us making the choices on direct moral decisions.

The one choice that makes any sense at all is dependence upon the Lord. And that's why we talk about specifically this dependence here, not looking at, am I going to choose to do or not do this action, or do or not do that action. The battle's already lost if we're there. But it is a question of, on whom am I going to depend? Where is my faith? On whom is my faith placed? Any other choice at a moral level, we've already lost the battle because our dependence is to be upon the Lord.

This is the only thing that makes sense. There's dependence upon him. Take a look at Penelope here. She just trusts and depends upon Katie and David. She doesn't make this decision each day whether I'm going to trust Dad or Mom. It's just a total trust and reliance on who and knowing, knowing, Katie and knowing later. It's not a choice, it's a total rest in who they are.

I used to be down on the word choice. I'm just going to tell you kind of where I've come from a little bit. Because the word choice tended to be and tends to be a legalistic term. I think legalism says you've got to do this and you've got to do that. You've got to make right choices and boom, boom, boom, boom. So I think that it's carried over the fact that this word choice is a legalistic term. And I think because it tends to be a legalistic term, therefore we tend to shy away from using the word choice.

But in light of what we're seeing to be true, and in light of verse 11, we're going to get to it, it's an imperative. And it's something that God wants us to do. So, I think that we're involved. because it's something that God does want us to do. And to use the word choice, I don't necessarily see as being a bad thing, because we're not being legalistic in this room. We know that there's no way that in and of myself there dwells any good thing. We know that. And we know that it's only going to come through believing and resting in our identification with Christ.

But the believer does have a part in the Christian life, and he does have a responsibility in the Christian life, and I see that responsibility as one of belief. I don't think it's a bad thing to use the word choice, but I think terminology has a history. and we consider the history of terminology, I think that comes into play here a little bit.

What you brought up right off in the first verses there, may it never be, God forbid, that what he's presenting here is from a lay out the switches standpoint, yeah you could choose different ways. But there's only one choice that makes any sense at all, and that's dependence upon the Lord.

And that's what he's laying out here. He says, may it never be, God forbid, only dependence upon the Lord makes any sense at all. But look who you are. Look what God has done. Look at The very person that made you to be in Christ is the only thing that makes any sense at all.

And any other choice is absolutely nuts. And of course the rest of the chapter gets into, you know, you've got the former slave master and you've got the present one. And being under the old one, there's nothing about it at all that makes any sense whatsoever. And the dependence upon the Lord is the only sane and reasonable choice to make.

But it's dependence, it's not a work. Sure, absolutely. And choice, you know, we use the word choice, which I do, and I don't have any problems using that word. It's not a work. It's not an effort of Jim to choose. It's, hey, there's a temptation. The temptation in and of itself is a sin. Hal's explained that in very detail.

But there's going to come a time in the process of reckoning, what's going to happen? Which way am I going to go? Am I going to go towards the pull of the temptation or am I going to go towards my new life in Christ? And I'm sure, is God behind the scenes working? Absolutely. No doubt about it. He's positioned me in Himself and He's drawn me to Himself. There's no doubt about any of that.

But does there come a point in that process where, okay, what's going on? Am I going to believe? Am I going to believe or am I going to walk in the flesh? That's not a work, that's not legalistic, that's not, I don't think, putting too much responsibility on myself.

I think that's what verse 11 is calling us to do and we'll get to it in a couple of weeks. Jim, if we take it to the 600 commands or so in the New Testament, Okay, so, you know, do we make a list and choose each time whether, you know, we do this or don't do this?

Right, right. Or do those demands represent the very life of which you described, as He would give it to us, as we are? See, that right there is a very involved statement. As we walk by faith. So there is our part. We're walking by faith. And then there's the 600 and some odd commands that God has before us in the scripture. We know that they're even repeated in the New Testament for us. The last half of Ephesians, we're going to get into Romans chapter 12. From there to 16 is nothing but practical Christian life. So as we're walking by faith, therefore, I think the life of Christ is going to be manifested in us. But if we're not walking by faith, then we're going to be walking in flesh and there will be no life of Christ.

Look at the slide. Twelve. We'll see what we want to do with the rest of these notes. I'll talk to these guys about it. Again, I think we all knew this was going to happen, and I think it's fine to just put this thing in, not even in the first gear, and just go slow through it. So, I pose this question on slide twelve.

How do we walk in newness of life? Because that's where verse four ends. Walking so that you would walk in newness of life. So, therefore, what you see I've got down is walking by faith. walking by faith, allowing Christ to live His life in and through us, and doing the things that He wants us to do. I think that, in my interpretation of scripture, is the way that I see it laid out.

God calls us to walk by faith. He always has. Even from the Old Testament, He called people to believe in Him. And now, He wants us to walk by faith and dependency upon Him. Therefore, He's going to be living His life in and through us as we're walking by faith. And as a result of Him living His life in and through us, there's going to be the fulfillment of the New Testament conduct passages that we see laid out all over in the New Testament. So that gets to the how does all this happen.

What is the believer's role? Here's the danger. I'll just say it straight up and then we'll close for today and talk with these guys and see where we go next week. If we don't say that the believer has a responsibility in this thing, and that we're just resting, and that we're just abiding, and that we're just waiting on the Lord to conform us into the image of Christ, and that we don't have a responsibility to believe actively, believe, make a choice. Therefore, what we're left doing is just waiting, and just waiting, and just waiting, for the life of Christ to be manifested in and through us, and what very easily happens is that in the meantime, we're stuck walking in the flesh. And that's not glorifying the God. The whole point of these truths is that God would be glorified. So we're waiting, we're walking in the flesh, while I'm just waiting on the Lord to bring me to this point where I'm going to depend upon Him, and therefore I'm stuck. We have to remember, faith is active. It is not passive. It is not passively waiting. Faith is active. It's always active. It's an active. Just like love is active. So it's active. Sure. I agree with that. Yeah. Why not? It does rest, but it's active. OK. Good thoughts and discussion and interaction. Let's let's pray. I just one more thing.

I think one thing is is in the bigger perspective, all the blessing here with what can easily be taken as mechanics. But to give it a name, it may be a little bit. too overblown, but in Chapter 8 it deals with a new world dynamics that is what's the spirit's involvement in this process. And that's the big bracket picture. And I think if we go through this to recognize that that's going to show the other part of this thing that makes it, that takes it beyond just mechanics. We're being presented, you know, here's the facts, here's the faith, and here's how it looks. How that gets played out in a dynamic, living way gets played out in Chapter 8.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you for this time. And thank you for this passage and for our interaction and discussion over it. And these are things that are very important, I think, to our spiritual growth and to understand what it is that you've done for us. Understand all that it is that you've done for us positionally. At the same time, understand how it plays out in our condition. Because that also is important. And so Lord, as we see clearly, our need for you, that your Holy Spirit would be the one leading us and guiding us into all truth.

And so I pray that you would continue to do that. We know you are. And that you would be bringing these things to our remembrance this week, so that we might enjoy a more intimate relationship and a more intimate fellowship with yourself. That's the whole point here, that you would be glorified. So thank you, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen.