You In Christ and Christ In You
Mike Doyle · Feb 22, 2009
You in Christ & Christ in You, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492612525788

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

Okay, we are in Lesson 7. We got to question what? We talked about who controls the sin nature. We talked about do we have the freedom to plead with God about the power of a tendency to sin over which we have no control. We talked about that. So now we got, I think we didn't do 8, right? We didn't do baptism, right? We didn't do that.

What's baptism mean? What's the word mean? Baptizo? That's Greek. Not soak, it means to dip. That's what the word bapto means. And the Greeks used it primarily for dyeing a garment. And I don't know if any of you, you've been around a while. Palmyloi had a great demonstration where he would take a clean white handkerchief and a jar full of dye and he'd put the handkerchief in the dye and then he'd pull it out and he would say that's what baptism is, you go into the dye so to speak and when you come out you're so united with the dye you can't separate the dye from the cloth anymore. So baptism is in essence, that's a good demonstration, I hope I explained it right. Baptism, is it something we should do as believers? Is it a kosher rule? I don't think you have to do it, do you? You're right. What does it represent? What does baptism represent?

Identity with Christ. Identity, yeah. I mean, it's not like taking a shower, cleaning off those sins. Would you say that joining as a believer to Christ and separation from the old life? That's exactly right. Growing up as a Catholic, baptism meant washing the sin off your soul, you know, with the grillo pad. What it really represents is death. That's what baptism really represents, separation. And that's why I've always thought that the baptismal should be on the front lawns of churches. Because that's what's really happening. When you go down in the water, you die to them. You're leaving. Goodbye. And when you come up, you're in Christ and you're separated.

So we were baptized in Romans 6.3. This, by the way, is the verses where we are. We were baptized into Christ's death.

Acts 19.5 says that when they heard this, the gospel, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

In Romans 6.3 and 4, I just mentioned 1 Corinthians 1.13, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? No, you're baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 12.13, for by one spirit are we all baptized or placed into one body, whether you be Jews or Gentiles, whether you be bond or free, all have been made to drink of one spirit.

Galatians 3.27, as many as you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Colossians 2.12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you were risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. So this baptizing event, right, who does it?

Now if you're in Uganda and your Church of England, it's 20 bucks. That's right. You become a Christian and you want to be baptized in their church, you've got to pay. But it has to be a believer, right? Whoever baptizes you, you have to believe in whatever. And they tell you that it isn't complete until you get baptized. Twenty bucks. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. When you make two dollars a week, that's a lot of money.

So who does this baptizing work? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does it. So now think it through. What does he do? He takes a believer and he puts him in Christ, right? At what point in Christ's existence does he put him in? At the point in which he dies. That's when he goes in. So when he goes in, what's his make-up? He's an Adamic man, right? Think about what I'm saying. He's an Adamic man. He's got a sin nature.

And he gets placed by the Holy Spirit into Christ. Specifically at the point in which Christ dies. now it should make more sense to you, why then? Because at the point in which Christ died, he's made sin, the thing sin, for us. Your sin nature and my sin nature was put on him when we were placed in him by the Spirit. So when he dies or separates, and we're in him, it separates from what? Sin. Your sin nature and mine.

So that's why it's really important, I think, that when the Holy Spirit identifies us or baptizes us into Christ, that He does it at the point, Romans 6.3 says, baptized into His death. It's important to know that that's when you go in. We're not baptized before the cross. We're not baptized at the resurrection. We're not baptized at the feeding of the 5,000. We're not baptized at the point at which Christ dies. Because it's the point at which you die.

See? It's the point at which you get separated from everything that's not of Christ. Is that OK? OK, but what happens to you like a child? You have absolutely no clue. Should you baptize a child? No, I think it's ridiculous. I agree. What does he or she know? Nothing.

Does baptism give you anything? I mean, wouldn't you say, okay, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you get an extra 50 cents if you get baptized? I got baptized in three different churches and you know I come up still a wet sinner. Yeah. I'm going to pick on you for a minute. From a positional standpoint, now listen to me carefully, from a positional standpoint, when the Holy Spirit baptized you into Christ's death, his burial and resurrection, Did you come up a sinner from a positional standpoint? No. To my knowledge, I didn't. You didn't know the difference. But positionally you didn't. See, that's the cool thing. You're in Christ. There's no such thing as a saved sinner. Positionally. No such thing. Because you're not identified with the sinful man anymore. That doesn't mean you don't commit sins.

Did you see that? you know, I guess, clarity in things that the Holy Spirit has done, placing us and doing all that, versus baptism in water. That's a wholly separate thing. You know, so all these are truths about us that you read about, you know, we're buried, those are our truths. That, I guess, getting to that baptism, our water baptism, is not a requirement for any of these things to happen or anything like that. So the clarity between those two, you know, a lot of people, well, you've got to be baptized so these things happen. It's not. Our water baptism is just a public demonstration of what has taken place. That's right. What has already been accomplished by the Holy Spirit. He did it, see. So baptism really is a demonstration for them.

Isn't it really? It's not for you. What do you get out of it? So it's just for show? I would say a demonstration rather, I wouldn't use the word just for show, but it's important I think, it's like the Lord's table, baptism, it shows a public identification with Christ. And identification with what actually happened to you spiritually the moment you believe. I've heard it said it's an outward expression of an inward experience.

That's good. That's good. Yeah. And Mikey, you know, I found over the years it's a good chance to actually talk about identification. Yeah. Perfect. It's a picture of that. I think it's an opportunity really. It really is. It's perfect for that because that's really what it is. You know.

I sent me a book last week on grace and part of it is trying to talk about identification. He doesn't get this part. You know when you read a book, he just doesn't get this unity thing. He said our unity with Christ is imputed. I said no, no. It's not imputed. We're identified. We're united. We're in union with Christ. Let's see, so by being in Christ, what events in Christ's life does the believer partake in?

Now the reason I ask that question is I want to set this up a little bit. Everybody in this room has earthly history, don't we? Like I can go back to my father, and then my grandfather, and my great-grandfather, and way back, you know, and having a last name like Doyle, you'd think I came from Ireland. which I did, but my dad went over to Ireland and searched our history and found out we were really French. He wasn't real happy about that. We're Normans is what we are. So we all have a history that goes back and back and back and back and ends up in the Garden of Eden.

Right? Right to ask. When we are baptized into Christ, your human history is now over. Right? You can't go back to the Garden of Eden because now you have a new heritage. How far back does your new heritage go? Eternity. Why? Why? Because you're from a new line of man now. You are from the Lord Jesus Christ. You are no longer an earthly man. Now your last name doesn't change and your physical appearance doesn't change, but now you are a son of God. How long has that been in existence? A couple of days before Eden? So now your history changes totally. You have no history in Adam anymore. Your history is now in Christ.

So when Paul says in the word of God, I have known you in Christ from the foundations of eternity. Is he telling the truth? Sure he is. You've always been in Christ because you left a finite man and you were placed by the Holy Spirit into eternal man. Now you're an eternal being. I am a son of God, by the way, a legitimate, organic offspring of the God of the universe. That's who we are. Cool.

So, what do you share in? By being in Christ, you share in all the events of Christ's life. You were there when he was crucified. You were there when he was buried. You were there when he died. You were there when he was resurrected. when he left the planet and went to be at the right hand of the Father, you were there in him. So all of these things now become true of you.

What's interesting about believers is that I don't think they buy this. My sister one time gave me a book on Ireland and said, I'm going to go to Ireland, do you want to go with me? I said, well I'm not from there anymore. I said, well, I haven't got time to explain to you now, but if we would just view ourselves that our history is now Christ, it would change our perspective. You know, I'm sad to say, you're not from eastern Colorado. Sorry. I'm not from Illinois, you know. I'm from the heavenlies. That's really who we are. And the reason we are from that is because of our identification, our union with Christ in all the events that are true of Christ's life.

And so, if our history goes back to eternity, how about going forward? What about that? What's going to happen then? That's right, so when you read in the Word of God what Christ is going to be doing in the future, what do you think you're going to be doing?

Same thing. You're going to be doing the same thing. Because you're now of him. I think that's a really important point. I asked in question 12, is this a brand new principle that God has just instituted? No, it's not. You know what the principle I'm asking about is? Two men, but like produces like. We all come from somewhere. We all send in Adam in the garden. This principle has been in existence since God started the creation. And not only is it a physiological principle, it's also a spiritual principle. Because those that come from Adam There's been some events that have happened to the Adamic man, like in the garden they had this trial, and Adam lost. And because he lost, he was condemned. So if you're from Adam, you're in big trouble.

If you, at some point in your life, through faith in the person and work of Christ, you get to leave Adam and find yourself identified with Christ, you know, you miss the condemnation. And why do you miss it? Or do you miss it? Do you miss it? You get to bypass it? You don't bypass the effect you had and have on you. That's true. Here's what I'm after.

Did the law get a hold of you? Did sin get a hold of you? Did it judge you? And did it condemn you? It did, didn't it? Did the punishment get carried out on you? Yeah, it did. You already died. See that? Yeah, it got a hold of you. You know, strung you up in the gallows, up on that cross, and you died. See? So now you're free. Can't die twice.

So, baptism is the means. What are the effects of our baptism with Christ? What I was after there, which we've talked about, we have a new federal head, a new history, a new destiny, a new life. Being baptized into Christ Jesus is the substance of which co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial, co-resurrection go seeding our attributes. Baptism is the cause, the rest of these things are the effects. except in advance as far as being non-believers their sins were paid for but also this took place which is separate but the second thing we're talking about in Christ has no bearing on unbelievers that's true it doesn't so the first was for all mankind as far as sins were forgiven The first part, which is known as the substitutionary death of Christ, he did all by himself.

He did not do that for the benefit of humanity. He did that for the benefit of himself and his father. When Adam sinned and subsequently all the sins that have been committed, they have been committed against God, right? He's been offended. He has been, give me another word, His righteousness and His holiness have been offended. And because He is holy, there has to be restitution for that. There has to be payment for the offense against God. Now, the big problem is that one of God's creatures committed the offense, but because he's a creature and not the creator, he isn't capable of paying the price of the offense. Understand what I mean by that? How many of you are bridge players? You guys know what a bridge is? I won't use that example.

You come over to my house and my dog bites you in the leg. There's been an offense committed against you by my dog. Can my dog satisfy you to recompense you for biting you in the leg? No. But I can. because he's my dog. And because you're a human being and I'm a human being, I can satisfy the offense against you.

God being the creator and being God can't be satisfied by a creature satisfying the offense. It's going to take God to satisfy God. So the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, becomes a man. He's fully God and fully man. And here was the game plan. God said, real simple, the soul that sins gets 40 years of hard time. No, the soul that sins must die. Right? So the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, when he dies substitutionarily, is that a word? What he does is he satisfies the insult against God himself. And he's the only one that could have done it. So God looks at the sacrifice of Christ and he says, I am satisfied not only about the sins of believers, but I must be because I'm God. I have to be satisfied about all sin for all time. Because I'm God. I have to be. That's that great word, propitiation. That's what it means. It means satisfaction. That was an event done all by himself and it was a transaction between the Father and the Son. That's the eternal covenant.

Now, when it comes to the identification part, that was a whole new part that nobody ever knew about, other than the principle was set up in the Garden. The fact that we would be identified in the Lord Jesus' death. And that's why, really, Paul the Apostle was such an important character in history. He was the first one that knew about this. This is the unique message that Jesus taught Paul in Arabia about these truths and principles.

Now, my buddy who lives in the White House across the street over here, his sins have been paid for. Is he forgiven? Yes. This guy's not a believer. Now his sins have been paid for. Has he been forgiven? No. Because there's a requirement, isn't there? Didn't God give us a requirement? What was the requirement? To believe.

So, God himself is satisfied about that man's sins, the penalty, but because he is still attached to the Adamic old man who wasn't forgiven, he was condemned, right? When that guy leaves this planet, he's going to go and suffer the consequences of the condemnation of his union with the Adamic old man. How'd I do? I mean, that's great. This is wonderful. Keep going.

So the forgiveness of sins was something that Christ did. Were we put in Christ then when he died on the cross? Because that's what we died to sin. Again, the substitutionary part of his death was done all by himself. We were not involved in that. Not in that part. So His death alone paid for our sins and we didn't have to die with Him.

That's exactly right. Maybe put it to you this way. The blood of the cross, the blood satisfies God about the sins, about the penalty. It is the cross itself that solves the old sin nature issue. You see that? Both of these events were going on at the same time. Both events.

But I think, and what I'm about to say is my own opinion, the Lord was on the cross for about three hours and at some point, you know, he's suffering and he's fulfilling all the prophecies about him, but then he gets right to a point where he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And the reason I think he said that was because that's when my sin nature hit him. It wasn't the issue now of suffering and paying the penalty for sins. Now he was identified with my sin nature. And when that happened, the father turned away from it. And he died as a man spiritually. Now when he actually died, separated, is when the sins were all paid for. I like those last three words he said, it is finished. It's finished. He was telling you that he knew he had already paid the price. Yeah, it's done. The job is done. That's right.

Very important words because it leaves nothing for you to do but believe. So Marlos, I think as you think through this, to separate in your mind the substitutionary death of Christ, which he did by himself for the penalty of sins, and your identification with him in his death, your union with him in his death, are two events, two separate incidences going on in the same event. And the identity is only for believers because Romans 6 says that the Holy Spirit took you upon the second you believed and put you into Christ's death. Well once that happened, like I believed in 1977. You know I went from Adam to Christ in 77 on time line. But once I went into Christ, I'm now an eternal man. So I was with him on the cross.

Because it's happening right now. Christ is a freshly slain lamb. but he's also the lamb slain from the foundations of eternity. Hebrews says that we enter in by a new and fresh way. That fresh way means that the effect of his death on the cross is just as effective right this minute as it was at the time it happened. It's fresh, it's new, right now all the time.

So you have to differentiate between the sins, what we have done, and what we are. That's exactly right. God is talking about here what we are. Starting in 512 when we started talking about the two men, what we started to talk about is what we are. Who we're from, our identity.

I am an Adam, a sinner. Right? We're not talking about in Romans 6 substitutionary death. That's why when you read through Romans 5 and 6, you get to 5.12, it doesn't talk about sins anymore. It now talks about sin, sin nature, who we are, what we are, words.

We're the beneficiaries. We're not the major player. We're the beneficiary in the transaction. That's a good way. That's a great statement. Let's say, well, I can say this. Let's say Christ dies on the cross, pays the penalty for your sins. Right? And then he says it's finished. And then he says, okay, I'm done. I'll be home soon, Father. You took care of the problem.

Was there any obligation on his part to give us the grace to enter into any of that? No! No! That's the grace part. That because he was freed up in his holiness and righteousness and the offense against them, he extended his grace out to humanity and said, whosoever believes, I'll accept you. He didn't have to do that. That was not part of the deal. You read the Eternal Covenant. When you come to the players in the Eternal Covenant, where are you? You're nowhere. You're not part of it. This is a transaction between the Father and the Son about sin. The only contribution you made was that you helped put him up there. That's it. He didn't do this for you. He did it for himself.

Now, because he is who he is, a gracious, loving, wonderful God, once it's done, he comes right out and says, OK, I'm satisfied, come here. One requirement. You've got to believe I'm satisfied. That's it. I did everything. Just believe me and you get it all. He told him that and I'm the way of the truth in my life. That's right. Exactly right.

But it's terribly cruel, isn't it? I mean, here's Christ hanging by a thread and terrible pain. And not only that, the terrible part of it is that he gets separated from his father. That's the terrible part, because they're both God. Yeah, I was thinking in regard to what you just said, it's done, come on. The reason, it says that he is condemned because he does not believe in Christ.

The other incredible thing is that man knows where he's at. Look at the first part of Romans there. He knows. He knows this. I go back to my friend at work. I use it so many times. But he told me, I don't really want it. I know what you're like. I know the kind of person you are. I don't want that. That's right. It just blows your mind. Yeah, it really does. I think all men have some understanding. Well, I think he's an idiot. Politely said. Idiot is a good word for that.

Well, I was at that point, too. I was at a point in my life when I said, no, I'm a pretty good person. I haven't done any really bad things. Conversely, too, when you are presented as a non-believer with all of this grace, what's your reaction? My reaction was, God isn't that gracious. Come on, give me a break. He's not that good. No, God wouldn't do it that way. You mean there's nothing for me to do? My buddies kept saying, nope.

I said, yeah, right. I didn't buy the Brooklyn Bridge last week, but I was thinking about it. Or the melon truck that I fell off of. That was the hardest thing for me, was to accept the grace. operating system for your life now. That's right. Thank you.

How tough is it for you to accept what we've talked about last week and today? That it is true of you, and it's all grace, and it's yours, and you can take it. And as we go down through now a couple more verses in Romans 6, he starts to say, well if this is true, here's some positive consequences because of it. The grace gets more overwhelming, but tougher for you to buy into, because it's grace upon grace, it just explodes. I've got to finish this class. One more question. From an identification standpoint, does baptismal water have any spiritual effect upon a person? The answer is no, it doesn't. I'm going to actually get to Lesson 8 today.

Question one, from a worldly viewpoint, what does burial prove has taken place? You know the old riddle? What is God's object or aim in our being identified with Christ's burial? Why would he, in 6.4, insist upon the fact that we were buried with him. What's he trying to tell us? That our old sin nature is dead. Or not our old sin nature is dead, but we are dead. Yeah, let's ask that question right now and we'll get into it. Did your sin nature die? No. Who died? We did. We did. And what does death mean?

So we got separated from the sin nature. The sin nature is live and active and living in Gary, Indiana. Trust me, it's there. Now listen to this term. We federally died and were buried with Christ. In other words, by federally what I mean is what happened to our federal head happens to us. Just like our federal head, Adam, we sinned and Adam in the garden. Isn't that what 5.12 tells us? So, federally is a good word to use for this. We died unto sin, we died unto the world, and we died unto the old creation federally in our head. Because that's what he did, and we did it with him.

So, I think in this verse Paul declares that all believers, by the very matter of their baptism, they can proclaim themselves as having been identified with Christ's death They were buried and their past was ended. When George Watson was buried, what does it tell us in the world? His history is over. So why do you think Paul would use the word buried about you and me? Same reason. Our history in Adam is over. You don't try to go and get it resurrected and fix it up. So, what does verse 4 tell us? Let's look at 6.

Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, good news coming, that just as Christ was raised from the dead, or the dead ones, by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. So, question three is, what does this verse tell us it took to raise Christ from the dead? What did it take to raise him up? What's the term used here? What did it take to raise Christ from the dead? It took the glory of the Father. So how do you define glory? It's the sum total of God's intrinsic attributes. It took the sum total of all that God's attributes were to raise Christ from the dead ones.

I submit to you that that is a greater power manifested than the creation. It took more power to do that than to create the first creation because when he's raised from the dead It's a brand new creation. It just isn't a man being raised. It's a brand new creation that's happening. It's the most marvelous display of the glorious divine power ever seen.

Christ had fully glorified God in all that he is in his earthly life and on the cross. Then God raised Christ from the dead in glorious triumph. You will find as you study Paul's epistles that somewhere you'll find that where it says the Spirit raised Christ, Christ raised himself. It took all three of them together and all the glory of God to raise Christ from the dead. Doesn't seem like it should take that much, but it did. So, now we're going to get into an interesting part. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Can you describe what newness of life is and what it means? Well, if you believe, you're a new character. Okay. Describe what this new character is. What is it? In Christ. In Christ? Well, you're transformed because you now believe. The word newness here is What it really means is that you come into a new state of being. New state of being. No human being had ever been in that state of being before.

So both newness and life are nouns. For you grammar geeks, you understand what I mean by that? Newness and life are nouns. Which one of those two do you think is the subject of the sentence? Is it life or is it newness? Newness. That's right. That's exactly right. Newness is the subject of the sentence. So, do you understand what he's saying there? Newness. In other words, the newness means You came into a new state of being. That's what the noun is. That's what the facts are. Right.

Okay? Mike? Yes? Would that be the other verse that says that all things have become new? Yeah. Would that be the same word and the same idea? Oh, I didn't look it up. Where is that verse? If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, everything has become new. I think it's the same word. That's because they don't understand the vision. Everything is new. So newness is the noun, not life. What life describes is the newness. And when you see this word life, the way it is in here, it means God's life. What I used to think, and probably it's pretty general, is that verse where it says that all things have become new, it's like, okay, I've been washed, I'm clean, I'm forgiven, and I have a fresh slate to start out on.

But it doesn't mean that at all. No, it doesn't. That's right. It does not mean that at all. It really means a brand new creation. And in this new creation, One of the reasons why we as believers spend time studying especially Paul's epistles is because that's where you find out about what this new creation is all about. Well, we whizzed through it today, didn't we? So, what we'll do, we'll pick up next week and talk more and more about newness and then I'll question five, is there a difference between the resurrection of Christ and newness of life and the coming forth of Lazarus from the grave? And maybe that will help explain the difference about Christ's resurrection.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace. The fact that we are united to your Son for all eternity is such a gracious fact, and like the hymn says, we can barely take that in. But it's true of us, Father, that we would ask that we would continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of your Son and be able to live constantly on the resurrected side of the cross, Father. We thank you. We pray in the Lord's precious name. Amen.