Lesson 30c

We are on lesson 30 of the Romans class, and I think we've gone through several, but I would like to try, since we broke it up a little bit between lesson 29 and 30. I'll go through the verses that we're going through, just to give context for the questions. We're going through Romans 8, verses 5 through 11. So I'll read through those, just to give context for where the questions are. For those who, according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who, according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

So, I want to go back on one thing. Mike, I think, let me see where we're at. There's question five. And we went over that a lot about why can't those in the flesh please God. And we went through a bunch of things about how bad the flesh is and why anything associated with the flesh cannot please God. There's nothing good in the flesh. Nothing good dwells in the flesh. And so the first five questions were kind of related to that. But one of the things I wanted to, it kind of is an overall question. get last week to have my kind of dresses.

But in the first five questions, are they addressing individual, the eternal you, or something else? And I mean the eternal you, like Courtney. God created me, and I have an essential me, or essential personality of Courtney. Is that what's being talked about in all these verses, or it's something else? Isn't it about the nature? Getting there. What is it addressing? I just want to make it clear. All these things are condemning. The flesh is bad. This, this, this. But is it talking about Francis? The essential Francis? Is it talking about JD? I don't think so.

What is it? It's just the same nature. The sin nature that's attached to your body. It's the flesh. Yes. What's my remark? Your wife said something. Your family's on fire today. It's your daughter. She's drinking that holy kombucha. Alright, well I'll leave that one alone then. I just want to make sure that we're clear about that. That it's really the flesh. All this is talking about the flesh and the sin nature.

You know, I go back to the point that God so loved the world that He gave Himself for everybody. Does He love everybody, every individual? Yes. But can He accept everyone? No. No, and why is that? They're separated from the flesh. And that's what I really want to get at. God loves everyone. God so loved the world. Everyone.

But, if you're associated, when you leave this planet, and you're identified with the flesh, even though he loves you, you're associated with the sin nature, and he cannot be associated with that. And all that is associated with the sinful flesh is now attached to you. That's why the identification is so important because we are separated from that and we are a new creature. And he can take that one into eternity and love it forever.

And so I just want to make clear, because a lot of these worry about the flesh and flesh, and ooh, it's bad, it's bad, it's bad. Well, that's about the flesh, this shell that we have, not the essential person. But if you do not separate yourself from this, you're condemned. So I just want to make that clear, because we've been talking about how bad the flesh is. But I want to make sure that the individual he loves, but if you're associated or identified with that flesh, you're condemned with it. So those who are associated or unseparated from the flesh cannot please God.

Exactly. And that's what we're talking about. Can anything you do in the flesh please God? Absolutely not. Not. Even though you do really good things, does that please God? No. It cannot. You cannot. The flesh is always an enmity to God. So there's nothing it can do, even though it may appear good to us, It's not anything that God would accept.

If you're a philanthropist, you do all these things, anybody else cannot understand what's happening in your mind. You may be doing it for an ulterior motive. Right. Because the flesh only can satisfy self. Right. So again, I just want to make it clear, because we've talked a lot about this.

Everybody, wow, God just hates me. Well, he doesn't. He hates the sin nature. God loved you, but you're associated with that sin nature if you're a non-believer. But because of Romans 6, we're separated from that. We are separated. We're placed into a new creature in Christ. We have new life in Christ. And so that spiritual life now is alive. What's your spiritual life as a non-believer?

There isn't any. There isn't. It's separate. And death means separation. So you're separated from God. So again, I just want to make clear that we went through a whole lot of verses about how bad the flesh is and you may be thinking, wow, God just hates me. But He doesn't. He loves you. But if you're associated with the flesh, that's what He sees. If you're in Christ, what does He see? Christ. I thought that's all He sees. That's all He sees now in us. Yes.

I think it's important to point out that a believer growing spiritually with this information At an early part in their spiritual growth, they don't observe themselves as different. Even though they may know the identification truths, they don't see themselves as in Christ. They only see themselves as in Adam. And they don't even think about it. Which leads to their self-improvement society and all this other... And at some point, as the spirit works in a believer, he begins to see that he is in Christ only. and that he is separated from the flesh, and that he can view himself as a new creature of Christ, and that changes the whole perspective.

And that's where the manifestation of Christ becomes more evident. As your spiritual growth, as you realize that, that there's nothing good in the flesh, but you have a new life in you, and as you know him, as you study him, you know who you are, and that becomes more manifest. And so even though, and we'll see, even in these mortal bodies, we have life. And so that's the spiritual growth part of it, is you know him more, you become conformed to his image, you manifest him more.

But I agree, when you're first a believer, and even at a harder pace is if you don't know the identification truths as a believer, you believe the sun, you believe in that, the growth will not happen. I believe there's believers that Yeah, obviously, billions of them that believe but don't know the identification truth, they just never grow. Because if you can't grow, I don't think, without these truths. Because you're always working on the old self.

And so, again, that beginning is, you know, kind of, how do I fix this guy up? Well, he'll take you through a lot that will show you that there's nothing good in this flesh. And you'll go through several things in order to grow, to say, hey, There is nothing good in here, just like Paul in Romans 7. Nothing good dwells in this flesh.

The diaper days. Nursery. Milk. And as you grow, meat. And you understand this. And that's when you grow and you manifest Christ. So anyway, I thought that was, you know, we've started beat up so much that the flesh and all that, well, is God just there with a big stick to beat me? No, He's not. He loves you.

And as we get to the end of this chapter, some of my favorite things about Abba Father. We have the intimacy at which we can say, I'm a father, daddy. And then at the very end, it says, we cannot be separated from his love. Great truths. Unbelievable truths. So, even though we're stepping through a lot about the flesh and how tough it is and how tough he is on the flesh, to his children in Christ, then that's a whole different thing. We can address him as daddy. We have that much intimacy with him and he will never separate us from his love. Fantastic truths. Alright, question six.

Do the words in verse 9, if so be, mean that there is a requirement on our part to receive the Holy Spirit? And somewhat this is related to the translation of King James, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. In the New American Standard. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to you. So, what does the if indeed mean in this verse? What does that mean? Sense. Sense? If and it's true. If and it's true. Others? That's pretty much it. You know, in the Greek it's translated, since, equivalent to, if indeed, seeing that. So, those are some of the Greek translations.

So, I mean, since the Spirit of God dwells in you, does that mean there's a requirement on our part to receive the Holy Spirit? It's a separate event. I think that's maybe what the question wanted. So is it something, I guess the way I took this more is that, yeah, is this, do you have to have the Holy Spirit, is that a requirement? Yeah. Yeah. And why is that? Do you have to do anything? No. Because of?

You believe. You believe. So that's the requirement I think is that simple faith, once you believe, you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So in order to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, you have to believe. You have to believe what Romans 6 says, that He died for you for our sins and the other, basically the fact that Christ paid for our sins. And then He graciously, you're saved by what? Faith through grace. Okay. Again, that's the, yeah. Again, we've talked about it many times, when Christ died on the cross, did he die just for believer sins? Everybody.

So, that's why when you're saved by grace, or saved by faith through grace, or no, saved by grace through faith, or backwards, what is the important part of that? Faith is what we do, but what is the important grace? He didn't have to, did he? He paid for all the sins, but He graciously offered us life through Christ. So even though the sins were all paid for by everybody around, for the entire world, past, present, future, He graciously offered us life, eternal life through Christ.

And it's by faith, simple faith. So again, if you're not a believer, can the Holy Spirit indwell you? No. So again, the point being is that if you're a believer, you have the indwelling spirit forever. But he's inviting everyone. He's always convicting, and that's his purpose, is to convict us. Any unbeliever is being convinced or convicted, and that's whether they believe or not believe. That's the only thing that's the issue.

So, Newell had it this way in the Romans book. Here the great mark of a true Christian is that the Spirit of God dwells in him. If he is indwelt by the Spirit of God, he is not in flesh, but instead an entirely different kind of being in spirit. The spirit becomes now the element in which the believer lives, like water to fish or air to the bird, vital, supplying, and protecting. I like that.

It's like watering fish or air to the bird. That's the Holy Spirit. from Wiest's word studies. If so be the last three words are the translation of Eifer, the Greek word, used as something that is assumed to be, but whether rightly or wrongly is left in doubt. The word cannot be translated, provided that or assuming that. That is, assuming that the Spirit of God dwells in you. That is an indication that you are not in the sphere of the evil nature. So again, it's not a kind of like maybe, it's a, what did you say, true? Yeah, true. True, it's true. It's not sort of kind of maybe, it's true.

The Spirit of God dwells in you. Don't you think the confusion is with people where they think of, well, Pentecostal environment, where they think of the Holy Spirit coming in a separate event, that they're equating that to what happened at Pentecost, which is Up to that point, the Holy Spirit had not come into people. Right.

And all at once, He did to all the believers. Which was a big thing. That was a separate event. But that isn't the case when we believe. We believe and the Holy Spirit is immediately there. Immediately there. And again, think of what Pentecost was for. This was the first time the indwelling of the Holy Spirit came. And as in the sign gifts that the apostles and all had, That was to show and manifest that in a very visual way to the doubting Jews. And so in Pentecost, everybody saw, everybody heard, and it was a very visual demonstration of it.

That's not what happens now. It's not necessarily a one-time event where it's kind of like you go to a grand opening of something. You go back five weeks later, they don't have the banners out anymore. The bans are gone. And I think that's the thing where people try to recreate that or say that's a second event. That's not a second event.

Well, also it's the filling. Do you get just a partial filling when you accept and then you grow into this filling of the Holy Spirit? Nope. Is that what happens? Yet full deal. Which is, again, I think I brought that up two weeks ago when I was starting this lesson. You realize there's a song and it's the same power, it's the same power that dwells in you that the same spirit that did all those things dwells in you now.

That is just mind-boggling to me. One third of the Godhead. One third of the Godhead dwells in me. working every day on me and that just boggles my mind sometimes when you think about that. One third of the Godhead dwells in me. The second third I'm being conformed into and the final third I spend eternity with, beholding Christ.

Again, it's just the thought of what we're talking about. Everybody has that ability. Everybody sins a bit, but all you've got to do is accept it. That's all you have to do. Simple faith. No push-ups, no payments, no nothing. Simple faith and you get all of that.

Is it the past tense of God's acceptance of Christ? which created the event for the giving of the Spirit. It's a historical fact of God's acceptance of Christ's work, which brought forth God's event of giving of Well, that's kind of what I was saying about you're saved by faith, or by grace through faith.

So, it's all made through faith, but the grace is that after He paid for all the sin, He graciously now offers us salvation through His Son. So, it was based on the finished work of Christ on the cross. At that point, it's been accepted, and now He offers us salvation through Christ, freely, by faith. Well, and it shows the totality of the salvation that we have.

We just haven't been forgiven our sins. There's a lot more to it than that, which includes the indwelling spirit in our position in Christ. You know, like Louis Ferry Chaffer talks about the 33 things that happened at the cross. It's amazing, and spiritual growth is involved in learning about those and many other things that are true of you now because of what God has done, and it's great.

That goes to my, you know, as I've been studying Karen Park, my kids give me grief because of the way I say it, faith. Faith is the key. Every one of those truths, it takes us to believe them. It's true whether we believe it or not. But as you realize those things, and we've talked about this when we've taught the class and we've gone over the Little Spirit Chief 33 things, if you just start to really think about and have the Holy Spirit convince you about just even a couple of those things, how life-changing that is. If you truly understand all those things that are true about you right now. I mean, you can't help but be changed when you start, by faith, believing those truths. Alright, question 7.

In verse 9, why is the spirit called the spirit of Christ? So in verse 9, however you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So why is he called the spirit of Christ? Is it the spirit of life in Christ? So why is it called, that didn't really answer the question, why is it called the Spirit of Christ?

I put because Christ dwells in us via the Spirit. Say that again. Christ dwells in us via the Spirit. Christ and the Spirit are one. Christ and the Spirit are one. Well, two different entities, two of the Godhead. And the Comforter was promised by Christ. There, that's it. I want to get to it before... I mean, there are several verses that we can look at that substantiate that it is the Spirit of Christ. He promised that He gave us.

So, in John 16, 14, He manifests Christ. So, He, the Holy Spirit, will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and disclose it to you. So, again, the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ and He will take of Christ and disclose it to you. So, Spirit of Christ, He's the one who manifests everything about Christ.

Acts 2.33, Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He, Christ, has poured forth this which you both see and hear. So, Christ poured forth what? The Holy Spirit. So, Spirit of Christ. It came from Christ. He was brought forth from Christ.

John 15, 26. And this is the one. When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. So, Spirit of... He's going to testify about Him. He's already done that. Yeah, I mean it continually does that.

So again, the Spirit of Christ is the very life. His very life is imparted to us through the Holy Spirit. So again, it's not incorrect to say it's the Spirit of Christ. It was brought forth by Him. He promised it from Him. So again, the Spirit of Christ.

Any naysayers on that? Also in the case of the spirit of God's well-being? Yeah. Doesn't the entire Trinity's well-being? Yeah, spiritually, yeah. You know, it's kind of one of those things, there are three different entities, but, and this is, try to explain the Godhead. Three gods, there are three entities that are God, God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, if you have this spirit indwelling you in the life of Christ, is that separate totally from who God is? No. No. He is God.

Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm saying. You have the life and the spirit in you now, and the Father is part of that. We'll get to John 17. I and the Father are one. So, we have Him indwelling. Same thing. Question 8. Does verse 10 answer the request of Jesus in John 17? I'll read verse 10 and then I'll go to John. Verse 10.

If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. The request of Jesus is stated in John 17, 20-23. These are some of my favorites. John 17 is one of my favorites. I remember Wanda, when she was saying, this is, John 17 is really the Lord's Prayer.

And that just floored her. And just, I think, she's so angry at the store. You know what your husband's teaching? But then after a while, she went to a bookstore, and some guy said, here's the Lord's Prayer. And she goes, oh, no, no, that's not it. It's John 17. So I thought that was great, after she realized, when you really look at this, this is for us, and this is really the Lord's Prayer. His intimate communication with God the Father in John 17. And it begins with, and we start with, we want to start with 20. This is the most important, I think, in all of this, in John 17, is about us.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, the ones he'd given, but for those also who believe in me through their word. Who is that? Us. So everything he's praying for now is applying to us. So, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, and you in me. And they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me, and love them, even as you love me.

Unbelievable. Great, great verses. Is that his moral glory? Or... His glory. The hidden glory? That's his glory, yes. Just realize what he just said. Realize what he just said. He wants to give his glory to who? Us. Us. Try and swallow that one. You know what that means.

He wants us to have His glory. He's given us His glory. Not as a separate entity, though, because of our oneness in Him, in the Father. We share in God's very own glory. That's it. We have that. Not an entity. It's an attribute or a God of glory. Attributes. Total. All of them. That He's given to us. He wanted to give it to us. Just swallow that one. You know, He's given it His glory.

So, if Christ is in you, verse 10, as described in John 17, we are one with the Father and Christ. We are one with the Father and Christ. Is our spirit alive? Now? As a believer? Absolutely. In Christ. Even more, we've been given the glory of Christ. So, we have life. We've been given glory. All the things that are given to us when we pay a thousand dollars to the church, right? If we become a member of the church.

It helps. No, it doesn't. Not in the least. By simple faith. That's it. And you receive all of this. And then you'll give up. wherever we have it, is to not accept this. That's what I think is a real spiritual insanity. You're dead. You're separated from Christ. Your spirit is separated from God.

And He's offering eternal life, all of these things He's given us, all of the things that we'll have for eternity, just by simple faith. And yet, the flesh, which we've been learning about in the first part of this, is so against it, at enmity to God. The flesh will do anything to keep you from that. Not just one in the Lord Jesus, but one in the Godhead. Oh yeah, that's what we're saying. Think about that. I in them, you in me. We're all in them. But that's a done deal. Yeah, positionally. That's right now. That's how he sees us. Right now. How does that make your day go?

I mean, you know, at least in Colossians 3, we're hidden in Christ, in God. Same thing. We're hidden in Christ, Spirit, Jesus, and the Father. Not a bad place to be. So again, and the key to it is just simple faith. Incredible. So I have a question. You mentioned all the attributes.

We're not given all of God's attributes, right? As believers. Not deity, no. Yeah, deity we know. He's the creator, we are creatures, and we are given the very image of Christ as a creature. And we will remain a creature, created one, for eternity. So we're not given all of the attributes of the Godhead. Unlimited, for example. But we're able to be whole. We are able to be whole, and that's it. And so we're transformed, but we're not made identical to, in terms of deity. Yeah, not deity. We don't have deity. But it's now, and again, how does God see us now? Complete. In Christ. So what does Christ have?

And it's ours too, but it doesn't go to the extent of the Creator. Yeah, no, we will never be equal to the Creator. But now, and this was that thing I've said a hundred times, you know, I can never understand why in the Garden of Eden, when man is walking, you know, Adam's walking with him, fellowshipping with him, and he said, it's not good for you to be alone. Hello, I'm walking with the God of the universe. What more do I want?

But it wasn't on the same level. Well, that's what's interesting. So from a Mormon perspective, they do become. Yeah, gods. Right, and we do not. They go to the planet Zadok. But again, going back to Genesis, how could you say it's not good to be alone? I'm here with you. Well, they weren't on the same level, and I think we talked about it. It's like you and your dog. It's great fellowship, but they're not on the same level.

What happened when we are placed into Christ? Now, we can behold him, we can be on that level where we can talk to him. Not deity, but he sees us in Christ and the life that we have is Christ. Subjectively, we're made complete in him. Yeah, but we now have the ability to fellowship with him on a fleshly creature, which is amazing now, and that's for an eternity. Cool. Groovy. So yes, Christ dwells in you. And the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. He's given us that through Christ. Because it's His righteousness is imparted to us because we have His life.

Verse 9. Our bodies are dead in what sense? If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Again, what does death mean? Separation. So if death means separation, what does verse 10 mean when it declares that the body is dead because of sin? Because of sin. its nature, its whole attributes. So why is the body separated? Why is that part separated? Why are you separated in the body? Does it have something to do that we are not yet redeemed and our bodies are perishable? Well, I think he's already condemned the flesh, so it's already dead. So yes, in here it's just saying that your body is dead because of sin. It's indwelt with sin. The flesh is. And so your body is dead.

It's separated from God because it can't be. So would that be, you know, they think of God as three, which is Well, you consider it as an egg, the shell, the yolk, and the white. Now, would that be the shell that's broken? Well, I don't know the analogy. It's your flesh that's separated. That's where we've gone through all these verses, where the flesh is where the sin nature dwells.

And can that ever be accepted by God? And has it been accepted by God? What has God done with it? I think you have to make a distinction here that the sin nature, the flesh indwells, controls and is part of the Adamic body. So there isn't any separation of that body from sin, flesh. That's why the body dies, physically dies and that's why it's separated from God and that's why there are new ones, that we get new ones. Because you can't, as he's talked about in these verses, the flesh is at enmity towards God, which means the flesh controls your body, that means your body functions at enmity towards God all the time.

Which is what Paul discovers in 5 and 7. So is that what a lot of believers are trying to offer to God? cleaning it up and then offering it that to God. That's where I would say if you don't understand the identification truths, our death, burial, resurrection, separation, our co-crucifixion with Christ, that we got separated from that positionally. If you don't understand that, you're always going to try and fix it up. That's the only thing you can do. Right. If you don't understand that, you're trying to say, why do I do this?

I'm a believer, why did I just punch that guy? Would that be lack of faith? Or lack of knowledge? Because I think there are billions of people who believe the simple faith in the gospel message, but I don't think they get what the actual transaction that occurred.

Faith comes by hearing. Hearing. And so without that knowledge, they're struggling. Most of them is that you're now empowered by the Holy Spirit. Now I can be better. I can now keep the law. Yeah, that's what I've been doing. Or I did. Pastor presence.

So, let's see, from Wiest about the body. The believer's human body is dead in the sense that it has death in it because of sin, Adam's sin, which brought both spiritual and physical death to each member of the race. So yeah, it was both physical and spiritual death occurred. So that's why we die. The flesh is decaying. It's dead. It's separated.

And then from Newell, it's evident that our bodies here are contrasted with our spirits, and these as in the Holy Spirit. It is well that we thoroughly understand and believe that our bodies are in no sense redeemed as yet. They are dead as regards any emotion Godward, and this because of sin. The flesh can never please God. That's what we've been learning. There's nothing good in the flesh. It will always be So we actually are dead men walking. We are dead men walking, yeah. And we are denied death. Yeah, with respect to God. Question 10. Yeah.

And I think it's supposed to be, our spirits are alive because of righteousness. Explain what that means. How is our spirit alive because of righteousness? We have Christ's righteousness. So, in this verse, life is zoe, which means in the Christian sense of eternal life, i.e. the life of bliss and glory in the kingdom of God, which awaits the true disciples of Christ after resurrection. Is that part of his deity too?

His righteousness? No. Again, Davey clarified that. We don't have deity. We have all the attributes minus. We don't have deity. We don't have all the powers that Christ or God has. We have basically his character, I guess. So that's one attribute that he's given to us. Yeah, His righteousness is imparted to us.

Because again, who does He see us in? Christ. So He sees us in Christ. What does He see? Christ's righteousness. It's not our righteousness. It's imparted. Yeah, He sees us in Christ because we have His life. So we're not righteous in ourselves at all. But in the life of Christ and our new creature in Christ, what does he see? He sees Christ. So it's not imparted, it's what? It's identified to us in our new life. His righteousness is identified to us now.

In our new life, new creature in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5.17. That's what I was going to say. It can't be an impartation because it would destroyed the oneness that he talks about. Our righteousness has to be because of our union in oneness with Christ. And we share his righteousness. I've got 20% and you've got 20%. We share the whole thing.

Hopefully we get through this. from which the believer's spirit is alive, so that the Holy Spirit energizes it with divine life, which is righteous in its quality. Eternal life is not only unending in its nature, but also ethical and spiritual in its content. So, as a question, is our flesh alive under God? No. Is our spirit? Yes, as believers. So, first of all, First from all that's been real, our spirit is alive. So what does that mean to every believer? If our spirit is alive. All those things in John 17. I got to go back here a minute. Isn't the flesh in hope? No way. Total enmity. The new man is in hope of the flesh. No way. Not at all.

Are we going to have a new body? I'm saying hope is in, but it's in Christ. But the new body is not flesh. Yeah, the new body is not flesh. What is it? Spiritual. Yeah. It's a spiritual body. Yeah, we'll have a spiritual body. Now this will be gone. I'm so happy to have this thing gone. You know, just like no new hips, no new knees, no new, you know, getting old. Not for sissies. This is like his glorified body. Yeah. Well, we'll have a new body. We have nothing good about a hope for this body. That's what non-believers do, or believers who don't know about the co-crucifixion. They keep hoping this will get better. It is nothing. He has condemned it. Gone. See you later.

But in Galatians 2.20 it says, and the life that I live in the flesh. I live by faith. Yeah, I'm in the flesh now. What is that faith? I'm in the flesh now. Right. Until I'm taken to rapture or I'm out of the planet. Come to the second service. We're going to do Galatians 2. Actually, I love that verse. I love that one. OK, so first of all, it's real. Our spirit is alive. So what does that mean to the believer?

2 Corinthians 5.21. He made him who knew no sin to be sent on our behalf. Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Again, the association with Him, we get His righteousness associated with us because God sees us in Him. Newell states, Not only are our sins put away, and we ourselves justified from all things, but we have been created in Christ Jesus.

And that's in 2 Corinthians 5.17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Newell states it this way, our spirits before they were new created in Christ were alive so far as existence is concerned, but had no life as God counts life, for that is only in Christ and by the Spirit. I think that really sums it up. I'm in the flesh, I'm alive, but it's condemned, set aside, separated, because I have a new life in Christ. Didn't Christ have flesh? He's the only one. Right. But that's one of our hopes. No. Not to have that flesh. No. His flesh. We'll have a new spiritual body. When he was glorified, he was glorified. That's when we'll have it. It's after. He had a glorified body.

That's what we'll have. So Ephesians 4, 22 through 24. that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." Again, for believers, we're putting on the new life, and that is Christ, which is in the likeness of God, created in righteousness and holiness of truth. Great, you know, that's what we have now.

We have that position. So, question 11, if we can get it. In verse 11, what does it, what does he mean, we'll give life also to our mortal bodies? Alright, should we, yeah, we'll get that next week. We'll get that one next week. Alright, let's close.

Father, we thank you again for these truths, the position we have in Christ, and just those incredible verses in John 17 where we see the Lord Jesus praying and talking about us and what we have. and that we are one with you, the Spirit, in Christ. And that is an incredible thought, and that's for an eternity, and we thank you for that. We thank you that it required no requirement from us other than simple faith, believing what you told us, and again, with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. the gracious act of offering us salvation through Christ and again it's by faith only. We thank you for all these truths and what it means to us and again we just thank you for the Lord Jesus who went to the cross to pay for our sins and you graciously offering us salvation. We pray for Mike in the next service just to bring forth the word and prepare our hearts to receive it. We thank you for this time in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.