Conformed in Order to Comply

What we're gonna talk about today, you know, when you have a couple of weeks, two, three weeks in between sermons, at least I start thinking about the next sermon I'm gonna give right away. And I've been thinking about this and I'm praying that what I'm gonna do comes together in the way that I mean it. And that's why I had Jim start today by reading Romans 12, three through five, for through the grace of God given to me, I say, every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

For justice, we have many members in one body. We're many members in one body. And all the members do not have the same function. So we, who are many, are one body in Christ. And individual members, one of another. And I think this fits with what we've been talking about over the last several weeks and how we function within the body of Christ and how God has designed for believers to interact with one another.

We could say that that premise alone is probably difficult sometimes to see it in action, but What these verses do, I think, is they are the beginning of the teaching of conduct for the Christian life, especially verse four and five. And before chapter 12, though, we had the teaching that told us what God had already accomplished in the believer in order to produce the behavior of a new heavenly man in us. because that's really what this is about. That's what conduct is about. So Romans 6, 4 through 9 are really, really important, and we throw around this term, identification truths and union with Christ, but it really is critical to understand what they are, in order to eventually arrive at an understanding of how a heavenly man functions.

So in chapter six, there's seven statements I want to talk about that are visible, and on them the whole argument of conduct hangs. So Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. That is, He is divinely quickened or made alive so that his resurrection is a miracle, was a miracle. So verse four says, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, here's our response. Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. And when you look at that sentence, The noun in that sentence is newness, not life. New life. This is kind of crazy. I did this by accident.

As believers, we were planted together with him in the likeness of his resurrection. That is, We share in the very power of which God has raised him from the dead. So verse five says, for since you have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also in the likeness of his resurrection. Third statement, our old man is crucified with him. That is that the former sinful nature was judicially regarded as crucified, dead, buried, and left in the tomb of Christ. Knowing this, then our old man is crucified with him.

Why? That the body of sin might be destroyed. The whole thing, sin nature, might be made ineffective, or as Helmelot used to say, taken offline or put out of business. And henceforth, we should not serve sin. And it's the sin. Don't serve, we should not serve the sin nature. That is the power of sin is our master, is practically been broken and we're released. Verse six, that the body of sin might be destroyed or made ineffective, that henceforth we should not serve sin. There's the reason.

Five, we believe that we shall also live with him. We are not to refer to this only as our final resurrection, but his resurrection onward and forevermore. Our life is one with him right now, resurrected life. So verse eight says, now if we died with Christ, we would believe that we shall also live with him. resurrected life right now, not when we die and go to be with the Lord.

Death has no more dominion over him. The whole process of separation, the dominion is gone. So we in him are delivered from all that dominion of sin, which is implied in death. as its judicial penalty. So I compared verses 9, 6-9 with 6-14. 6-9 says, knowing this, that Christ being raised from the dead doesn't die anymore, death has no more dominion over him. And if you drop down to verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law, you're under grace now.

And the last one in that he lives, he lives unto God. And to us also, God is to be the source, the channel, the goal of our new life. And so we are to manifest our unity with him. Verse 10 says, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he lives, he lives unto God.

So it's not a surprise to us that when we get to chapter 14, that we're talking about living unto God. Arthur Pearson said, this teaching is so wonderful that it would be incredible were it not found in the, say the word, inspired scripture. and thus sealed with the authority of a divine teacher. It is manifestly a revelation from God, for it never would have entered into the heart of any mere man, untaught of God, to conceive of this premise.

So, today's verses, for not one of us lives to himself. And verses I just showed, I'll tell you why. And not one of us dies for himself or to himself. If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died, Christ lived, died and lived again, that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

So when I saw these verses, I had to go back because living under God is nice to say, but where is the proof that says I can live under God? So a noteworthy statement, none of us lives to himself, okay? None of us dies to himself, for both if we should live or we should die, we live or die unto the Lord. Well, that's kind of news that you already know, but it's practical and it's real. And the reason was that we should live unto him, if we should die unto him, we belong to the Lord, we're his.

So if you look at the inner linearity, which Roger likes to do, and it's really informative sometimes in just a few words. The inner linearity says no one, not even one male or female, For of us, to himself lives. Talking about a believer. Present, active, indicative. It means right now, active voice, indicative mood is reality. Believers, not one of us, male or female, lives to himself. Not one of us, not male or female. To himself dies, present, active, indicative.

Everything that goes on from the time we were saved to the time that we go home to glory is only for the Lord. Only. Denny noted from Reese's commentary, it means no Christian is his own end in life. What is always present in his mind as a rule of his conduct is the will and the interest of his Lord. The same holds true of his dying. He does not choose either the time or the mode of it. Like a Roman Stoic would say, I die to please myself. We don't get to do that.

The point here is that These verses really do point up, and I talked about this a few weeks ago, a vertical relationship. Me and the Lord Jesus. You and the Lord Jesus. Every believer has a vertical relationship with the Lord Jesus. Every one of us has that. And every believer belongs to Christ. Do you ever think of yourself as that I'm his property? He bought me on that cross. He owns me. I'm his.

I don't ever get to think about, well, we were talking about it in Sunday school, how dangerous is it for a believer to think, well, I'm gonna do so-and-so, because it really isn't gonna harm me. If it's done outside of Christ, it's gonna harm you, because I belong to the Lord. You belong to the Lord. every single believer, ownership. By understanding the earlier verses in Romans that Jim read, we begin to realize there is more to the Christian life than just doctrinal principles. Members one of another, we have no right to usurp the rights of the Lord.

He has them all. You ever think about that? I mean, we Americans love the fact that we have a constitution and we have rights. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that because we're Christians, we don't have any. God has them all, every single one. And here's what, if I was gonna make a picture of it, you have the Lord Jesus in the heavenlies, and you have the believer on the earth. And there's a connection between him and me and between me and him. What's it about? It's intimate, personal relationship. Every believer, because they belong to God, has this intimate, personal relationship with the Lord Jesus.

Now, lots of believers don't know that because it's never taught. We're taught how to do rather than how to be in a relationship. Whatever we do, we do unto the Lord. Why? Because we have this relationship, this way, vertical. Whatever we do, we're not to live or die unto ourself. We don't live and die that way as believers. We are to live and die unto the Lord. No matter what, I belong to him.

What is that saying? The golden rule. He that's got the gold sets the rules. He that's got the life sets the rules. We are the Lord's, period. We belong to him. His purpose in dying and living again is that he might be the Lord of our lives. The world should be able to observe that principle in our lives.

People should be able to look at Christians and say, there's something about that person that is, as we talked about in Sunday school, that's God-likeness. A life to which the believers are called in these relationships starts with mutual acceptance, Romans 14. When you study Romans 14 all the way through the chapter to 15.7, that's really what it talks about. It talks about a mutual acceptance one of another. all agreeing and doing what they do to the Lord. Imagine an environment like ours where everybody functions with the same focus in mind.

I live my life to do what the Lord would have me do in spite of the differences, in spite of judgments of what I think should be done. I live unto the Lord. Room is therefore left for growth, in the knowledge as the word of God opens to our faith while conscience, meanwhile, is respected. I respect what you have to say. You respect what I have to say because we both are the same in the Lord.

We belong to him. So the position of every believer is set by divine grace. William Newell. In this verse eight, or if we die, we die to the Lord. The believer is aware that he belongs to the Lord, that he is the Lord's. At every moment he lives, the Lord is the supreme one. And if we are called to die, he's still the supreme one. The believer may have to leave this life here to be present with the Lord, but the Lord is still supreme. If we should die, it is to the Lord that we die. The saint has lived to the Lord. No other kind of living is intended for the believer. And now he has a new experience. He dies to the Lord.

I'm finding that in our body of believers here, we've got a few people that are Maybe the Lord's gonna take home soon. It's a joyous thing, because they live unto the Lord and they're gonna die, they're gonna leave the planet unto the Lord. The Lord's personal right and ownership is a reality in life and in death, both. Our beloved Savior and Son and Lord pass through the domain of death for one purpose, that he might be supreme even there. There's no place that you and I can go where he isn't supreme. For to this end, Christ has died and lived again that he might rule over both the dead and the living.

It's interesting that Christ died and lived that both the dead ones and the living ones might be The Lords, back to the interlinear economy. The dead ones is an adjective that describes the noun, the ones who are dead. The living ones is a participle which takes the place of a verb, it's present tense, active voice, right now. A participle takes the place of a verb, right now they are living. And he's Lord of both. Living or dying, it's to him. Whether one or the other, therefore, we are his.

And this grounded on his dying and living and resurrection, the major doctrine of this epistle and the basis of all Christianity. Everything in Christianity is based on the work of Christ on the cross, his death and his resurrection. Because everything changed that day. So, now as the resurrected Christ, he rules in the supremacy which he had acquired by having gone through death. It's a principle founded on his having died and lived again.

So, if you want to use the word, the rule of Christ is established in the affections of each one of us who knows him. And I'm gonna focus now for the next couple of minutes on the establishment in the affections, because it's a really critical part. Is not rule a very beautiful word from that point of view? My thought was that if you understand that the rule of Christ has been established in your affections, now you don't have a problem with the word rule. You're thankful. So the greatest importance that we should be under the principle of submission. We submit to him and to each other. Only then shall we be divinely regulated in all of our ways. Submission. What a blessed principle.

Second Corinthians 5.15. He died for all and they who live should no longer live for themselves. but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. This premise is everywhere in Paul's epistles. So the rule of Christ is thus established in the affections of each one who knows him. Every believer needs to make sure that he really does have the Lord before him in what he does.

How can I put that simply? Should I check with him every time? Yeah. Everything we do should be filtered through, Lord, is this what you would have me do? And finding out about Your affections being so intense with the Lord is a searching exercise that all believers go through. It's one thing to become a theologian with a lot of knowledge. It's quite another thing to be so intimate with the Lord Jesus that you understand his affection for you. In many believers, the law or principle of law is looked at as the rule of life. We can talk endlessly about that. If you look at Mark 10, 17 through 22, the young man that came to the Lord and said, look, I've done everything, I've done everything that the law prescribed for me for eternal life, what must I do?

He hadn't found it yet, law principle. But we can only have one or the other. You either get the law or you get Christ. You don't get 50 or one and 50 or the other. You don't do percentages. Either the law is the rule of your life or Christ is. People try to compound the two, but that's an impossible because they're completely distinct. Either the person of the glorified Christ is the rule of our life or law is. So when Christ died and rose, the greatest moral revolution happened that can possibly be conceived.

Once the demands of the law came from the glory, But instead of drawing man, they repelled him. Go back and read Exodus 34 and Moses in the glory on his face. How did the Jews react to that glory? It repelled them. They didn't want anything to do with God's glory.

But now, the revolution is that the glory, instead of repelling, attracts us. We're attracted to his glory. It is the expression of God's glory that invites us and forms us in the likeness of itself. The law was in the glory once, but now the Savior is in the glory.

Exodus 21.5, and this has to do with, if you were a slave in Israel, you were a slave for seven years and then you could leave. But some slaves said, I love my master, my wife, and my children.

I will not go out free. Why? Affection. Except a corn of wheat fall on the ground and die, it abides alone. And when I put this slide together, I thought, they're gonna see that and think, what is he talking about? It doesn't fit. Yeah, it fits. Let me show you why.

In that verse, Jesus, by dying, what did he do? He produced a company of human beings that were of the same stock as he is. See that? In other words, both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are what? They're all of one. Well, we might say of one what? We could say, I'm gonna stick a couple of nouns in there. I'm gonna say one life or one glory or one something. You can't put those in there. You just have to go with the word one.

But one, his own stock. We read of brothers in Christ in the gospel narrative, but they are never the same stock. All of his disciples, And his brothers, until after the resurrection, were not of his stock. But now everybody that believes in the Lord Jesus is from his stock, in his proper character until he rose from the dead.

It's important to understand that we are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh and spirit of his spirit. He rules in supremacy. which he has acquired of having gone through death. I'm repeating a slide from before. It's a principle founded on his having died and living again. The rule of Christ is thus established in the affections of everybody who knows him. Why? Because we're like him. We're of his stock. Is it of the greatest importance that we should be under the principle of submission? Yes.

Second Corinthians 5.15, they who live should no longer live unto themselves. Why? We're of his stock. The rule of Christ is establish an affection of everyone who knows him.

Philippians 3.8 tells us, more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.

Philippians 3.10, one of our favorite verses, that I may know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings. being conformed to his death in order that I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Now, First Paul's desire to know Christ's person is really a cool thing, except he already knows Christ.

He met him on the road to Damascus. So it's obvious that a deeper and a fuller knowledge is what he has in mind here. The rest of the verse 310 particularizes that knowledge. Even though that Paul met him on the road to Damascus, his desire was to have a 24-7 intimacy with the Lord Jesus all the time.

The second is that Paul desires to know the power of Christ, because what does the power avail him? The word denotes that he can overcome any resistance because of the power of the resurrection. No greater power has ever been exhibited in the history of the creation than the power it took to raise Christ from the dead. And third, Paul's desire is personal and intimate fellowship with Christ.

Where? In his sufferings. Why are the sufferings so important? Because as a member of Christ's stock, you're gonna suffer. Christ suffered. Opposition, you're gonna have it. But it's all purposeful because God uses it for your spiritual growth. It involves conforming. Paul is not pointing to the actual act of dying here, but rather to Christ's attitude in his death. What was his attitude? Life out of death.

Second Corinthians 3.18, but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

People can say to you when they don't believe this verse, show me the effects. I can show you by my works. You say back to them, You do not believe in beholding Christ's glory for transformation. Let me behold him and you can judge the effects. You want to show them the effects of a glorified life, Christ in your life.

They do not believe that God can come in his infinite purity to the lowest spot and conduct a poor wretched sinner from there to the top, God's glory. Who would believe that outside of Christ? It's not like the prodigal son. Everything that's inconsistent with God in the light shows and then love confirms. The reason it's not like the prodigal son is he was just restored or given back something that was his in the first place. With us, it's all new. We are given Christ himself because the light that we see in beholding his glory removes whatever is in the way, and the love is the measure of what he conferred to us or on us.

Again, with that in play, I think it's easier to understand that I don't live, or you don't live, or we don't live to ourself. And we don't die to ourself. If we live and we live unto the Lord, if we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord. Why? I just showed you.

For this end, Christ died and lived again. that he might be both the Lord of the dead and of the living. So, there's a ministration of righteousness from God's glory. Now watch this again, repeat of the slide. Now it's not just the Lord Jesus, it's the glory of the Lord Jesus and the believer intimate personal fellowship, but now it impacts a moral transformation into his own likeness. This vertical relationship of, why can't I say the word, intimacy, has an effect on each one of us. who seeks to know the Lord in glory. There's an effect on you. It's a transformation, a confirmation into his likeness, likeness. Maybe sum it up this way.

May we be practically more like him, our eyes full of the glory of the Lord, and He ever before us, supplying to us power over our difficulties and our hearts abounding in praise to Him who He has blessed with such a rich salvation. So let's close. Father, how thankful we are that salvation was just not a rescue, but it was a conformity to the very image of your son, the Lord Jesus, into his glory, his magnificent glory. And so, Father, we desire that each one of us would grow and grow and grow in beholding the Lord Jesus, beholding his glory, knowing what the transformation that will take place will allow us to live as you would have us live because we belong to you. We thank you for that. We pray in your son's name. Amen.