Lesson 20b
Romans 6:3-6 · Mike Doyle · Oct 7, 2018
Romans (2018-21), No. 37
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191219565

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

Alright, we are in lesson 20, and there should be copies of it back there if you don't have it. We're dealing with Romans chapter 6 verses 3 through 6. So just maybe to set this up, Paul says in verse 3, Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be enslaved to sin. So the first question I have in the notes is at what point in the lifeline of Christ were we baptized into him? Into his death. Into his death and why there? Why is that the place? We have to die. Why? Because life begins in death. Why did we have to die? We had to die to the sin nature.

There's a principle involved here. Do you know what the principle is? I don't, I think. Except the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die. You notice in the world system that you live until you die, right? Christianity, you die first, then you live.

You see that? It's different. Now, to re-emphasize what J.D. talked about last week, the first 10 verses of chapter 6 are positional. Positional. You know what I mean by that? What do I mean by positional truth? It's eternal, it doesn't have to change. They are truths that are eternally set in concrete, they will never change. So these first ten verses, the information that we're discovering is never ever going to change. It can't change because it's our position. And that principle is really important as you look at these ten verses. All the way to verse 10, positional.

2 Corinthians 5.21 says that Christ was made sin for us, which meant that he substituted. He was our substitute in terms of the penalty and the guilt.

But he was also made this thing called sin. What does that mean? What does it mean that Christ was made sin? I think it was that he bore every sin of all mankind. He was made sin for those hours or whatever. I'm sure that's wrong. Why would you be so sure that's wrong?

When you look at the fact that God put the sins of the world on him in order that he might die and pay the penalty for it, because the soul that sins it will surely die. But there's a difference between that and him being made the thing sin. What's the difference?

The sin nature. So was he made of sin nature, you think? Whatever separated him from the Father, the Father could not... The Father could not look upon sin, right? That's what he was. So would you say then that what happened was, what's that? In his humanness. God identified him with the sin nature so when he looked at him at that point he was in fact sin itself, the principle and the nature or not? Yes. You say yes? Anybody want to argue with me or with my When he was made sin for us, what happened was that he was identified with the very principles and nature of sin. So God looked at him as though he were a sinner.

That's how he identified the best. And that's why I think that the question is at what point in Christ's life were we united to him or baptized into him and you said his death. Was it the fact that he gathered up all those, everybody in this room, and all those that would believe, and identified them with Christ at that point in time, which means that he was made the principle of sin, sin itself, because we were all identified with him, and that's what caused him to die.

It was not only that time, but a time forever. Was he made sin? No, it ends. It ends. Do you agree with that, J.D.? Yeah, I was just differentiating in my mind between, he was not producing sins, I mean, he was not, so it was the sin nature. He was identified with it, but he did not have a sin nature. Yeah, and the identification of the sin nature was yours and mine. My body of sin. And yours, yeah. Was it as a principle? As a principle of sin. That it continues, that principle continues. Well, it doesn't, you know, from a position, now listen, that's why these verses are important in terms of position, because that's what we're talking about here.

At the point in which Christ is identified with the sin nature, at that very point he has to die, doesn't he? He can't live one second, so to speak, as a sinner. He has to die. There's two aspects of that, though, to paying for the sin. which blood... Sins. Yes, sins.

So there's two aspects of it. So there's the sins, that all the sins were laid upon him, so that was the payment part. Which he did himself. And then the flesh or the body was the identification with our body, right? So there's two aspects of that death. A payment for the sins, and then the identification in his death. Yeah, so right here is where the identification starts.

This is where it takes place. And the Holy Spirit takes you and me and baptizes us into Christ. Is this the first time this is mentioned at all? Yes. This is the very first identification truth? Yes. Yeah. Baptized. That word. Union. So what does the word baptize mean? Question two. Yeah. Baptizo, the English word, basically means to immerse or place into by immersion. Say that right?

Mine says it's immersion, submersion, and emergence. You know, and Hal used to do that little demonstration with the white handkerchief and the ink. And I'm going to pull the handkerchief on it. Can you tell the difference between the ink and the handkerchief?

No, they're the same. And then you couldn't clean up. After you did that, you couldn't bleach the ink. If it was indelible ink, you couldn't bleach the ink out of it. It's a word that means united. The cloth is permanently changed by being dipped into the ink.

You and I are going to be permanently changed because we have been identified or placed into Christ at the point at which he died. Real quick, Mike, I think you brought up something really incredible. So we've got these identifications on the board of the IDs, right? Identity, sin, and death, and the history of all that we were in Adam. And we've been talking about through death, we have this new history that is in Christ, and we have the justifications. If you've ever been confused about identification and what Holly Hills has kind of harped on for so many years... We don't harp around here. We do. You're not giving away a harp, are you?

Chapter 6 verse 3, if you write it down, that's where this whole thing begins. If you've been confused about it, this is where you go back to and you start grounding yourself and thinking about what happened because I was identified spiritually with Christ and his baptism. That's where it starts. And think about this. Up until we get to this point, the question has to come in your mind, well we've got these two men, we went through the doctrine of the two men, right? We talked about all of the really wonderful attributes of Adam. And we began to talk about who the Lord Jesus was.

What 6.1-10 does is tells us exactly the mechanics and how God got us from here to there. He did it. This is how he did it. And so that's why I say it's positional truth. This is what God has done with every believer regarding leaving my identity with this man and a new identity with this man. The way he did it was to put us in Christ at the point in which he died. Well, when you die, you separate. What are you separating from? When my buddy Emmett died several weeks ago, what did he separate from?

He didn't cease to exist. What happened to him? His soul and spirit left his body and it went somewhere else. His body stayed here. So he's gone somewhere else. So there's separation. When you and I were identified with Christ's death, what did he separate from? Let me do it this way. Here's the Lord Jesus. Here's the sin nature. When we're baptized into Christ, he's identified with that sin nature.

When he dies or he separates, what happens? He separates. He separates. From what? Sin itself. As a man, he separates. So even though the sin nature still is doing its shucking and jibing, it's no longer attached to the Lord Jesus or me. That's why it's positional.

You see that? So it's really important to understand that this transaction really did happen. Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant, it did happen. Okay? So it took three hours on the cross to pay Penalty for sin, or sin. And the moment that was completed, that's when he said it was finished, that was it. Then he died. The work's done. Yeah. Verge, and I agree with him, thinks he was up there more than three hours.

Being penitent for a sin? I mean, that's how long it became dark and he said, Why have you forsaken me? You can see that, right? At the point in which Christ would cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why did he say that? Just because he was supposed to? Because the Father turned away from him. Why? Because he's identified with this thing, sin itself, and God can't look on sin. So for the first time in eternity, that's kind of an oxymoron, The father turns away from him and he dies. But the dying was the separating from all sin and he paid the penalty for every single sin ever committed and ever will be committed, all of them. Why did he have to do it that way?

Because God was the offended one. All of the sins had to be paid for, not just those of believers, not just the ones that were immediate, every single one, because they were an offense against the Holy God. Since Adam until the end of... Well, there were these angel guys too, you know, those had to be paid for too. All sin, all sin. Really? Yeah, all sin. We can't go into eternity. But the angels can't go into salvation. I know, they don't get to salvation. Well, do you get to salvation just because he did that? What if he didn't offer it to you? He didn't have to, did he? No, he didn't.

See, that transaction is between the Father and the Son. Our inclusion in it is being baptized by the Spirit into that death. That's our inclusion. We go in when he dies. So do you see question three, why baptism pictures this event? A believer who's baptized, I've often thought that the baptismals ought to be on the front lawn of all churches. Because when you go down in the water, it's dying. And when you come up out of the water, newness of life.

See? It's almost like you ought to wave goodbye. I'm leaving. See ya. I don't belong to you anymore. Every believer who's baptized in water is a symbol or an example of what really happened to him spiritually. Baptized into Christ's death. If he died, we died. If he didn't die, we didn't die. If he didn't get separated, we didn't get separated. You see that? It's a really critical point because there is no sin nature in this man. There's no sin in this man. There can't be, because it's Christ.

But because I'm identified with sin, I come from Adam, if I'm going to end up in Christ, he just can't say, well, I think I'll just grab this guy and throw him in there. We've got to deal with this sin issue, or God has to deal with this sin issue, and he does it by immersing us in Christ's death, identifying us with him when he dies. died.

When we get to verse 11 going forward, we can start to talk about the actuality of living a life that is resurrected after we die. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. It says, For I delivered unto you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the and that he was buried and that he was raised the third day according to the scripture. Now this passage refers to the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord as to salvation for the lost. True? Is that what it refers to? Answer, yes it does. So it is as if they would have partaken of if they had been crucified, dead and buried and resurrected. It's the same. It's the same. Which scripture, which time? 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4.

Out of Newell, a very interesting statement he made, being baptized into Christ Jesus is the substance of which co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial, co-resurrection, co-seeding are the attributes. Do you see that? I'll say that again. Being baptized into Christ Jesus is the substance of which co-crucifixion, co-death, co-burial, co-resurrection, co-seeding, those are the attributes. the substance is my being identified or baptized into Christ's death.

In other words, baptism is the cause, everything else are the effects. So all this is to realize one great divine purpose. Do you know what the purpose was? It's the last verse of chapter 5. What's it say? So just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ. So what's the purpose of all of this? That grace might reign. It can't reign any other way. That's the purpose.

In order for grace to be a reigning principle, there has to be newness of life. There has to be an environment in which grace is the reigning principle, because up until this, sin is the reigning principle, and death, right? 512 told us that. So, question 5, and this is a subjective question. You guys ready? Let's see how smart you are.

How do you receive the statement of your death unto sin with Christ? Verse 2 says, Indeed, how shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it? And verse 11 says, In the same way, you also must reckon or regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but alive in relation to God because you are in Christ Jesus.

So subjectively, how do you view this? What do you think about these verses? What do you think about this whole idea that, wait a minute, was I really crucified with Christ? Did that really happen? Anybody can answer. We believe it by faith. We believe it by faith? Well, my question is, do you really believe it? I'm telling you, I don't think a lot of believers do, even though they know the information. I don't think they believe it. You know how you can tell? You get the butt monkey. Yeah, butt. Yeah, butt. Were you crucified or weren't you? Yeah, butt. There is no butt. Were you crucified? Were you? Yes.

You know, Mike, I've said this several times, how this learning the identification truths has given a lot more stability in it. Part of that, there was always that doubt, there was always doubt, you know, and I always, I think I used the John 1028, that I'm in, you're in the Father's hand, but you can't get out, you know, those are my rock verses to go back to, but it was always that kind of, if there was a doubt about salvation, You know, every once in a while I just, oh gee, I wonder.

Ever since the identification, it's never been a doubt, because I've died. If you truly believe that, how do you come back from death? And would Christ come back from death? You know, to the same position. And ever since that, there's no doubt, because I'm already dead. And that gives me a position that I can't get out of. I've been placed into Christ. And there's no going back. There's no doubt of my salvation at that point. If you really look at this transaction and believe it, how do you doubt your salvation at that point? How do you get back or how do you lose that? And ever since then, it's been... I've never ever had a doubt ever since the identification.

Sure. You can't have one without the other. You can't. You can't. See, if you grew up in a denomination, it doesn't matter which one, they all have kind of a back door in the sense that if you're really, really bad, maybe you weren't saved in the first place. Or maybe Christ didn't take care of all the sins on the cross.

There's something left for you to do. But once you start understanding that I died with Christ, There's no going back. My buddy who died three weeks ago, he even commented a Tuesday Bible study. And all the guys in 30 some years in that Bible study, there hasn't been one of those guys that died that ever came back. Why not?

The other thing it does too is it takes up, you know, you truly understand it also helps update the works and the law aspect of it. In that, you know, usually in those doubts is I've got to do something. Are you a believer? You've got to do this or you've got to do that.

When you fully understand this, there's nothing I can do. I have been placed into Christ and the law and the works are gone. And so all those things that they put the burden on you about you've got to do this or you've got to do that. It's all up to Him and His death and our identification with that. And so all that goes away. Not to say that the sin nature which still resides in us is still screaming every day, trying to, you got to do something. But if you begin to embrace and understand and believe, which that's all required to do, that all goes away. It's been dethroned. Yeah, the question is really simple. Did I really die? Did I really die? I think that we all have memories of growing up as kids and we have really fond memories of certain things and not so fond memories of things. Right?

But when we're sitting here talking about history and our new history, I mean, there's a challenge there for us as believers to think of it that way. I mean, that's not something that comes natural to a believer, is to rework a historical concept in our minds. I mean, I'm challenged by this concept of my entire new history in Christ. Which means, do I think of it as fondly as I think of those memories that I had growing Now, that's not a perfect comparison, but the point is that when we're thinking about identification, it's not just something we put on a board or we talk about. It is something that we look at in a historical perspective of who we actually are.

And that takes time. It takes growth, right? But just to be clear, We are growing in an understanding of our new history. And that's what we're trying to do here, right? And when I say do, we're teaching ourselves in the word so that we might be reminded of who we actually are in Christ. And that's chapter 6. That's where we get started here. I agree with that. I think that you guys read The Hungry Heart.

How was it this morning or yesterday morning that talked about learning what the old man really is, I don't think you can appreciate what you've been saved from until you begin to have some sort of an understanding of what you've been saved to. If you recognize that, wait a minute, God in his wisdom is showing me who I was in Adam, a wonderful fellow that I am, purposely to show me, wait a minute, look what I separated you from. You always thought you were a great guy.

Isn't it not what we was but what we are? But at the same time showing us who Christ is, who is our very life now. So yeah, and I really think that the reason I emphasize that question because so many believers I talk to and we want to talk about identification and the issue was always this, did you die or didn't you? Did you die and when that death took place what did you get separated from? Is that really true? I mean people have said to me, well I don't remember any of that. I don't either. I do. Do you remember when you died? Were you back there on the cross? Did it hurt much?

You know what's interesting is we're talking about identification truths here. Our identification with Christ at the moment of baptism I think writ large, when I'm thinking about identification, it starts earlier. The identification, co-identification, actually starts at Christ's birth, because He becomes identified with us. So then He can take on the sins of the world as flesh and blood to become sinful on our behalf, so that we can then become identified. identified with him in death, burial, and resurrection.

Looking forward, and not at that point do we get identified with him. But yeah, he's coming in. But he had to first be identified with us. Yes, he does. As a human. Yeah, he's got to become a human. I think that's actually part of the identification. Yeah. That shows the bifedral headship. Well, and that's why the question is, at what point in Christ's lifeline did you get identified with him?

It wasn't at his birth. He identified with humanity at that point, but he's a totally different man. He's a federal head now, another one. The second one, the last Adam, he's the new humanity. So the idea is, he's come and identified with humanity, but somehow God has got to figure out a way that I can get out of the old guy and get into the new guy. That my history can change. from who I am and what I was in Adam to being identified with the new federal head. See? That's what...

I say this probably once a week is that we realize that the Holy Spirit, when we believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit placed us into Christ and sealed us there safe and secure forever. So that when Romans 8-1 comes up, there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Like I have a Christian friend. had really bad alcoholism problems.

And every now and then he kind of goes back to that. And I don't, I think he's saved forever no matter, he's believing in Christ, he's placing the Christ seal there. And rather than going, oh boy, you naughty boy, shouldn't he do that? He shouldn't do it, but it has nothing to do with the salvation because Jesus did it all. Well, like, and Courtney made that point. really clearly.

If that guy understood this, then it would change his viewpoint on who does the drinking here? Which man is it? Is it the old man or the new man in Christ? Who does the sinning in my life? Is it the old man or is it the new man in Christ? Who am I? What do I have and where am I seated? If you don't know those truths, you can't exercise faith to appropriate them to your life, you don't know this. You get to a point where at best your sins are forgiven and you're doing the best you can. But if you understand identification, it changes the entire view of how you live your life. It's the old man, not the new creature. Does the new man in Christ have a problem with alcohol? No. No, he doesn't. Well, who am I? I have a game show. Who am I? It's amazing though.

I haven't been up in the Brethren Troops for so many years. A lot of these are Brethren Troops. to have it not, how do you miss this? Now when I look back, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, we're new creatures, new divine. 2 Corinthians 2, 20, I've been crucified. How do you miss that? Or Colossians 3, for you have died and your life is hidden. We need to ensure it in Christ, in God. How do we miss this? How do you justify that in your mind? It fits perfectly with identification, but how do you go by it for 20 years?

I don't have the answer to that. I don't know how all of this, like the Brethren were supposed to be the keepers of these great truths, and they got away from them. Ironside said that when they started focus on how they were meeting rather than why they were meeting. They lost the grip on what these truths were. Isn't that because it's going from conditional to positional? Trying to, you know, trying to. The other thing J.D. said, is this the first time it's mentioned? This is the first time I thought about that.

The way the books are laid out, they are not chronological. This is Christianity 101. And each new epistle lays out a different and greater truth. An expansion of this. This is 101. But this is the bedrock. This is the foundation. Without the foundation, all these other things don't make sense. No, they don't. That's really interesting. They don't make any sense at all.

How do you do that? I've been crucified before. I've died. When did I die? But it's on this bedrock foundation right here that everything starts. When you first become aware of these truths and begin to enter into them, you look in the mirror and say, I don't look dead, but I died. So the next question is simple. Why does the next verse talk about burial? Why would you include that? The question is why include burial in the events that we share in union with Christ?

You have to do something with the body. Okay, you're tracking good. In the footnotes of Newell, Godet said that burial is the act which completes the breaking of the last tie between man and his earthly life. It's perfect. Think about the word finality.

Everybody in this room, I'm sure, has been at least one funeral in their life, right? The burial part is really final, isn't it? It really is. That's why the Lord went into the grave. It's the end. That's what baptism depicts, going into the grave. That's the last thing. And you hear people all the time talking about, say, well, you know, my buddy John is out there in that cemetery plot. No, he's not. His body's out there. He's not there. The last thing is to put the body in the ground.

See that? Okay. I think part of the confusion is like to read the sermon on the mountain and blessed if you do this blessing, you know, and if you read the old blessed if you do this, cursed if you do that. But that's just kind of grain in your head. And then Paul will say, here's this list of horrible things. People who do this will not be going to heaven. You know, and you're going, and you, so you, it gets you, it sort of is.

And think about this, the Lord Jesus tells, what's his name? Unless one be born again, he'll never see or enter into the kingdom of heaven. Kingdom, truth. Wow, that's pretty explicit. What's interesting is that it brings up the whole, and I really don't like this term, dispensational truth. I like stewardship better.

But if you don't understand that part, it seemed to me, I had a thought one day, was that God started with Adam, he sinned, and you come down through the history all the way to Christ, and really what God is doing, saying, well, you know, we'll get rid of all humanity except for Noah. We'll kind of start over. Well, that didn't work out so good, so the Tower of Babel will spread them around. Well, maybe that didn't work out so good, so what we're going to do is we're going to start our own nation through Abraham, and they're going to be the godly people, and that didn't work out so good. So it's almost like God said, look, all of these centuries, What I'm really proving to you is that Adam can't do it. That's what I'm really showing you.

So that when Christ comes on the scene, now I've got a man who will do it in a godly manner. And the idea being that God came to the earth in Christ and He took care of the entire sin issue. Everything that was displeasing to Him, He handled in Christ. He did it. He stopped looking at man to do it. He did it through this man. So now what does he say? He doesn't say to humanity, do this and you'll be pleasing to me. What he says to humanity, I took care of this, all you've got to do is believe me. I'll give you the whole thing if you believe me. I solved it. I'm not looking to you to solve anything now. I did it. See?

That's how grace reigns. That's why grace is the principle that God is working towards. Because He's always wanted to function in an environment of grace. That's what He's always wanted to do. Well, now we can. Because all the impediments were taken care of on the cross.

All of them. I've had people call me up and say, I'm really just exasperated and really sort of beaten up by this continual sin that I commit all the time. I talk to him back and forth and then I get a little frustrated and then I say to him, oh that's right, my Bible says that that sin that you committed wasn't on the cross with Christ, right? No. It all got handled. All of it. And so God can say to us, okay, I've done it all. If you believe, you get it all. All of it. Not 20% and you've got to earn the other 80. You get it all right now.

He keeps us there until we do believe. So the problem that we have as men is that we're always trying to, the sin nature, the nature of this guy is always trying to justify his existence. He wants relevancy. It's like all those people on Facebook. They want to be noticed. He wants to be noticed. I'm an observer. I see your political. I'm not. Facebook is the devil. Facebook is a platform for the sin nature to express itself. OK.

Next question. What's the meaning of life? Question 7. What is newness of life? It's a resurrection. You're just explaining the term by the term. What is newness of life? You have a new kind of life. New kind. And we are one in Christ. Yeah. New kind in the sense that I'm buying a Chevy rather than a Ford. No. New in quality. New in quality and kind.

I would say this, Christ died instead of me, the judgment belonged to him, he took it all. The believer, us, is identified with Christ as person and his work and thus counted to be a co-participant in all that Christ has done. Aren't we counted to be a co-participant in all that Christ has done? Are we or aren't we? So the believer's union with Christ achieved by the Spirit's baptism into him is the ground of a perfect identification with Christ and all that has deathless sin accomplished.

We spent the whole class talking about that. So what was done forever satisfied the righteous demands of God against the old man. Your old man, all of the claims that God has against your old man has been satisfied. And it opened a way to a life that is well pleasing to God. But that life has to have a source. And that life is the resurrection of Christ. So what did Christ resurrect to? I mean, he rose again. So did Lazarus. He came back too. He was still human. He came back the same old way. And he still had to die. He still had to die. Boy, I'd hate to have been Lazarus. I've got to do this again. But he's new in the kingdom. What's that? Isn't he new in the kingdom? Yeah, that's interesting.

We don't know. Because we don't know how long he lived after he was raised by Christ. So what did Christ rise to? The right hand of God? That's not one I have. He rose to a new creation. Christ's resurrection began an entirely new creation. You see that? He's totally, I mean, he looks, he's got a resurrected body. But he runs into Mary and he says to Mary, don't identify yourself with me yet until I go to heaven and I'm glorified. What is he talking about? What I'm about to offer you is not just identification in my death, but I'm going to offer you an entirely new creation.

Brand new. Never been that kind of creation before. Ever. So think about it. Is that the first spell or the second? Alright, one last comment. Think about this. Christ was the agent through which the first creation was created, right? Got that in place? How about this? He is the new creation. He is it. He didn't create it. He is it. That's newness. Let's close. Our dear Father, how thankful we are what you've done. Overwhelming to us sometimes, but we pray we might enter into it more full all the time, growing in the knowledge and grace of your dear son, the Lord Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.