Who were we - Who are we - Who are we becoming - Part I
Vern Peterman · Jan 9, 2011
What God Is Doing in Believers, No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926223204625

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

Today starts four weeks of looking at who we are, who we were, and it says who were we, who are we, and who we are becoming. And so this is the first of four. And what I've got is these sort of anatomical diagrams with the idea that we'll be doing the equivalent, spiritually speaking, looking at what is the spiritual anatomy of people, believers, unbelievers, and then what will our spiritual anatomy be. So, today is a start looking at that. And we've got some terms that have been used among Christians. We'd like to get some clarification on those terms. Some of these things we'll be looking at over the next four weeks will be the unbeliever, for example, the old man, the sin nature, and the believer, the new man, the new nature, identification truths about these spiritual entities, and that'll be next week, and then body, soul, and spirit of the unbeliever and the believer. And then finally, Adam and Eve were originally created in the image of God, but believers are being conformed and transformed into the image of Christ.

Is that different? Or how different? Some years ago there was an album put out titled, Adam Again. And the question is, are we really being made Adam again? Not really. God's actually not taking us back to the garden. Right? Okay, so we'll be taking a look at that.

Now, the unbeliever, the old man, the sin nature, and the believer, the new man, and the new nature. When believers share these terms, there is often at least some uncertainty as to what these terms mean, and perhaps even a lot of uncertainty. The old man, aside from me, right? The sin nature, what is that? the sin nature, the new man and the new nature.

So to get clarity, here we'll start with first Corinthians 15 20 through 22. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Let's ask the question, in Adam, what does that mean? Our federal head. Yeah. Well, I cheated. I put it there right below that, right? All human beings are conceived and born in Adam. That is, they are positionally in Adam and identified with him so that all unbelievers have Adam as the spiritual head of the race of fallen Adam. The federal head, as Craig put it. This is the fixed position of each unbeliever, as long as they remain unbelievers, right? All those in Adam share his spiritual history and the consequences of that history and are identified with him. Why do we say spiritual history? Share in Adam's spiritual history? What's Adam's spiritual history? What did Adam do? What happened to Adam? All right, yeah, and he fell. Now let's go back a little bit. What was, where was Adam initially as he was created? Pardon? In the garden of Eden. Yeah, in the garden, right?

And yes, and the key thing is he was not righteous, he was innocent. He was not fundamentally righteous, he was innocent. However, He chose to sin, do the one thing, I mean God, here's this, garden, eat everything, you know, be fruitful, multiply all that, just don't eat from that. Guess what he did? That's the one thing that he did, right? It's kind of the one rule, don't do that. So what does it mean to have his spiritual history? What does it mean to have Adam's spiritual history?

We're born with the same condition that he received when he fell. So we have the same nature. Yeah, in other words, the spiritual anatomy, if you will, is the same because we have the same spiritual history. As a non-believer, right? Before we came to believe. The next one in Christ all of those who were conceived and born in Adam Once having believed the gospel of salvation are placed into Christ They are from that time forward in Christ by God's doing first Corinthians 130 All those in Christ share his spiritual history and the consequences of that history and are identified with him So if you're a believer do you have a The spiritual history of Adam and the spiritual history of Christ. Do you have both?

No. What's interesting is your history as a believer, spiritual history replaces the spiritual history that you had as an unbeliever. So it isn't added to it. You aren't in Adam with that history and then in Christ too. have a replaced spiritual history. You have the spiritual history of Christ as a believer, and no longer the spiritual history of Adam. Now, let's ask a question here. It's not in writing, so you can't cheat, right? Can a person just go back and forth between these two, in Adam and in Christ, and in Adam and in Christ?

I see heads going, no. Conditionally, you're saying we can go. Well, okay, we'll talk about that in a minute, and that's one of the things to recognize. What Gene's talking about is it's possible for a believer to sin, right? Well then, how is that? And that's one of the reasons we'll be taking a look at that.

It's also one of the reasons why there are those who say, you know, Christians have no sin nature. And they'll teach, you know, if Christ is not Lord, you're not saved at all. And, you know, so there's variations on this. You know, you've got to be perfect or else you must not have been saved at all.

Didn't save and salvation mean we're saved from and unto? Yeah. And we're going to take a look at it. Precisely, what does that mean? What does it mean that we're saved? So let's take a look at, well here you've got side two. Yes, Doug. Let's go back to 2016. Yes. Okay.

Everybody who was born between Adam and Christ are lost. Everybody born between Adam and Christ are then lost. Where did you get that? Well, it says here, for a person to medicate death, that also takes the risk of life, or so it's added, all die. So it's twice all that we get in life.

Ah, okay. There's a very good number of problems to be used. It can be added to the price. Okay. Now let's ask this question. Now what about those that die during this period of time? Well, we actually have another question that we could add on to that easily, and that is, Is everyone who is saved for all time in Christ? No. And why do we say that?

The Jews were baptized into Moses, right? The statement that he's making here about in Christ is specifically with regard to the church. We have no indication at all that others who were saved of other times are in Christ. So this particular statement and what we're looking at here is an insight on us as church-age believers, but it actually doesn't address directly the question that Doug's asking, and that is, what's the spiritual anatomy and how are others outside of this time of the church, Acts 2 to the Rapture, saved? And the reality is that they are all saved by faith. However, not all are in Christ that are saved. That is unique to the church. So Paul is giving us unique insight for those of us who are in the church. Salvation was always offered from the very beginning and will be offered until the last human being here on this planet. by faith.

We haven't addressed it here. It was addressed in the Q&A class that we had at one point in time. Very briefly, some people will try to pin a particular age as the age of accountability. I don't know that it's possible to really nail something like that down. They'll say like, you know, age 12 or something like that. There have even been those who have said that, boy this is kind of amazing, there have been those who have said, even in their own time, that children can't be saved.

As for myself, I know for certain, at age four and a half I was saved. And it was because I believed and I insisted that I be told the gospel. And I'd know it for a fact. It's interesting, I tell the story at four and a half, you know, I was on the way home from church and I asked my parents, those days with no seat belts, leaning over the front seat, you know, how do you become a Christian? How do you get saved?

And they kind of said, well, you have to wait, you know. until you're a little older, and I woke my mom up that night and said, you know, I've waited long enough, you know, and so that was it. So we went out in the hallway and talked, and I remember it, and Nancy checked with my mom, and she said, yeah, that's what she remembers too. So that's what happened.

Yes, and I think that in hopefully answering your question here, I think that the Lord is the one who judges the age of accountability. That the age of accountability may be different with different people. And I was four and a half. I know that others at age four and a half may not be at that place. It may be years later. And that's fine. But the Lord is the one who judges hearts. And I think that's something for us to remember. The White Throne Judgment, I'm not going to be the one deciding who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. That won't be my job. OK.

Top of page two, you see a Diagram and I'd like to have us first look at the left-hand side those in Adam There is the the term the old man. It's used in Romans 6 Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 The old man is all of who you were in Adam To use a term That old man is a positional person. Why do I say a positional person? I? The old man is a positional person because it's all of who you were in Adam. Now, when I say all of who you were, spiritually speaking, what does that include? It includes us in nature. There's the diagram. Let me ask another question. Does it include spiritual history? Do you have a personal history? We could go one at a time and say, what's your personal history? I was born here and did this, and so we could do that.

But in Adam, all unbelievers have a spiritual history that they share with him. There's also a question of ownership. Ownership. So the old man, all of who you were, includes other things besides the sin nature. The nature is the inclination to act. So this old man is the positional person of all of the unbeliever, who the unbeliever is in Adam. Yes. In other words, if you look at the spiritual history that we as believers have, it fundamentally is founded in relationship with God.

That's the starting point. Adam's spiritual history includes that he was created innocent, as has been stated here, but he chose to disobey God and therefore fell into sin. And apart from God's action, gracious and merciful action, he would have been stuck there. There was no way to get out. It's a hole you don't get out of. Now, did I answer your question? Yeah. Yeah, it is everything about he was created innocent in the garden. It was everything about what's described there in Genesis 3.

You know, before God would meet with Adam, except now after the fall, Adam hides. Where are you? Wasn't because God didn't know where Adam was. The question, where are you, Adam? was because he wanted Adam to recognize something's different. Yeah. Now, even though believers say Adam before Christ, he wasn't placed in Christ, but he would say it's based on the looking forward to the cross. And that's shown by the, he took this animal skin to where?

Yeah, they're in Genesis 3.15 is the promise of the Savior.

Yeah, it's salvation by faith, but looking forward. Yeah, as you look at it, everybody from Adam to the time of Christ looked forward to God's provision. And then from then on, we look backward to God's provision. One of the interesting ways that that shows up is in the Passover They did it as a remembrance looking back on the time of the exodus there And looking forward to Christ There at the Last Supper Christ did the handoff We now look back as a remembrance on Christ's death for us And we look forward until He comes, right? So, they look back and they look forward, we look back and we look forward. But our looking forward is now until He comes. Their looking forward was looking forward to the actual God's sacrifice, God's Passover, Lamb.

Yes. Can I say then that you said the spiritual history is founded with God. I agree and understand fully with that. Can you also say that it's identified with that? That you are identified with that? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Fair to say, right? Yes. Oh, yeah. Quite. So that's how we got the old nature. And that's when we say in Adam, that's what it means.

We are identified with him. We have a sharing with him in his spiritual history. In Christ we are identified with Christ and our spiritual history in Christ is not added to the history with Adam. It replaces the history we have with Adam. So it's the same metamorphosis or change for the entire human soul. I mean, we had a change with the identification with Adam. Yes. We've got the old nature. Now we have another change or metamorphosis with Christ because we have a new nature. Yeah. Now, you're asking good questions, but you're ahead of me here. Hold on. We'll get there. Okay.

The sin nature is the collection of attributes and characteristics of how the old man is inclined to behave. How the old man is inclined to behave. But there is more to the old man than just the sin nature, which we'll look at next time we meet. So the positional person of the old man has a sin nature, but is not exactly the same as the sin nature. One of the things that I have noted is sometimes people will talk about my old man. You don't have an old man. The old man is all of who you were in Adam. Are you in Adam anymore? No. So our old man is at the cross. Yeah, and it stops there.

By itself, the inclination of the sin nature would not be to believe in Christ, that Christ the Son of God died and was buried and rose again. Would the sin nature by itself ever believe in Christ? Would the sin nature ever say, Oh, I'm in desperate need of salvation. I'm so glad that Christ died for the sins. Would the sin nature ever do that?

No. And so this is the point. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. This is John chapter 16. We studied this in our Thursday night study not too long ago. The only reason that the unbeliever will believe at all is because of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and for no other reason. The sin nature would never choose to believe. It's always England down. Always. That is the powerful and overwhelming inclination of the sin nature. It is always in rebellion. It is always against and contrary to God.

As the work of the Holy Spirit, the unbeliever is convicted, John 16, 8-11, and because of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, the old man comes to believe, which is the last act of the old man. The last act of the old man is to believe. Contrary to the sin nature, only because of the work of the Holy Spirit. That's the last thing the old man does. And why do we say that's the last thing? Because what happens when you believe?

Where are you? Are you in Adam? No more. You are in Christ. And you don't flip back and forth. You don't slip back and forth. All of who the unbeliever is in Adam, is the old man. The last thing that the old man does is believe, and that's it. No more, no longer is he in Adam. Top of page three. That person is then taken out of being in Adam, never again to be in Adam, and never again having the positional person of the old man.

That person who was positionally in Adam is now by faith in God's work through Christ made to be positionally and irreversibly in Christ. There is neither the threat nor the statement of anyone being made out of Christ once they're in Christ. Right? In Ephesians chapter 2, 4 through 7, Paul talks about, but God, even when we were sinners, but God, and he takes us and gives us this new spiritual history that ends up placing us seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

There is, right after that, no subsequent passage that says, but be careful, or you'll slip and you'll fall out of that heavenly throne. There isn't any such passage. Right? There isn't any such verse. There is no whoops! Right? You slipped out of Christ. Or God tried really hard to keep you there, but you just fell out of need. Okay? No. You don't see that. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Yes, and we'll talk about that in a minute. So what we see, the one who is in Christ, that's the positional new man. All of who you are in Christ. And like we talked about with the old man, that means you have a new history. What's your new spiritual history? You have Christ's spiritual history. How did that happen? We were identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seeding. We share now that history. We don't have that plus the history in Adam. The history in Adam has been replaced. We are now completely in Christ and we share His history.

How about ownership? You are not your own, 1 Corinthians 6 and 7. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price. Ownership. You have a new ownership that you didn't have before. You have a new location that you didn't have before. Yes? I think that paints a good picture of grace. Because it kind of takes you out of the picture. I mean, you're definitely married, but it kind of illustrates how you perceive it. What you see here is, here's the diagram, and you see all these changes taking place here. I've got a radically new history.

I'm in Christ and not in Adam. And I don't go slipping back and forth. And it's all by grace. Every bit of it is gracious. God doesn't say, Vern, you were so good, you just did great stuff, and so guess what? I'm going to get you a reward here. I'm going to put you in Christ, because you were so good. No. It's all by grace.

You are no longer having any relationship with that old man. But now we come to Pat's question. What's this sin nature thing? It is not the person of the old man that comes back to haunt you. That can never happen. But the nature, the inclination to act, is attached to this body. So guess what? You know why God can't get rid of the sin nature in the believer? He'd have to kill you. Yeah. Because the only way you're going to get a body that doesn't have a sin nature attached to it, associated with it, is to get a new body altogether. And that's going to happen, but not quite yet. Right. I see a hand. Yeah.

I presume that God was the total actor in that created out of nothing. But Barah is the Hebrew word that Spells out creation out of nothing. Then I assume that that means that he's a total initiator and he created it out of his realm of wherever he's at, this new self, right? And so it's a creation, it's not being made. My question is, was the old nature in Adam also created? Right. It was not created. See, I don't understand those two things. Well, think of it.

In what spiritual state was Adam created? He was in a state of innocence. He, by himself, chose to rebel against God. And all of us are born into, so when you talk about created, made, the real question is born. So guess what? We are all born in Adam. But now, how did you get to be in Christ? Was there a birth? Yeah, there was a new birth, right?

There was a choice to believe. And that was it. And was Adam's choice there in the garden to believe? See, here is the thing, is Adam chose to disbelieve, being saved is a choice to believe. It's a single choice to believe God. So here, as you look in the diagram, you see that little dashed line in the sin nature.

Let's ask this question. Is the new man changing? She says no. Anybody agree with that? Disagree? Is the new man changing? Yes, he says. Okay. Now we've got a debate. Now, the new man is all of who you are in Christ. Is all of who you are in Christ changing? No. See, if you say it that way, all of who you are in Christ is changing. Is your spiritual history changing over time as a Christian? No. You have been identified with Christ, that spiritual history is not changing. Is your ownership changing? No. You're not your own, you've been bought with a price. That's not changing. There's nothing about that that changes.

The new nature, which is in contrast to the old nature, the sinful nature, is that changing? Is the new nature changing? That's the nature that pertains to the new man. The new nature is not changing. The new man is not changing. Because remember, the new man is a positional person. Your position doesn't change.

Say that again? It's like accessing your account. You have everything, you just need to go in and get it. Okay, and we'll get to that in just a little bit. But yeah, that's a good quick summary. But we are changing relative to becoming more in the image of Christ. So that leads us to the question. Here I am. I am in Christ. I'm not getting more in Christ or less in Christ. I have a new nature.

Here is the new man who is this positional person that doesn't get very. How is it that the New Testament can talk about being transformed, changed, conformed, growing? How can that happen? If my new man is a positional person, if the new nature of that new man isn't changing, what's changing?

Pardon? Is sin nature getting any better? No. Sin nature is not getting any better, right? And see, that's one reason I'm glad I don't have to be a secular counselor. Oh, that would be awful. Let's figure out how to make your sin nature better. Oh, good. Give me some Pepto-Bismol, right?

And so you have these things that don't change. What's changing? Here's where we come to the next diagram. Here is Paul in the last part of Acts. Several times he gives the account of how he was saved. And you see that. You also look at some of his letters. And Paul says, I was. Hmm. I was.

How can he say I was if the I was was the old man? How can he say I was if the I was had that old man in Adam with everything that went along with it? How can he say I was right now as he is a believer? This is the guy that wrote all these books of the New Testament that we read about. How can he say I was?

Oh boy, either it completely baffled you or... There's one more thing. Who got put into Christ? There is an identification of that person called you. So, Paul can say, I was. He can write to the believers at Ephesus and say, formerly you were. Why? Because there is this, and the term we've given it here is this continuity of person. There is this person that was in Adam and is now taken out of Adam and placed into Christ.

And being in Christ, that doesn't change. It doesn't vary. The old man doesn't change. Nothing about that changes. What does get changed, because that person, the identification of who you are as a person, does get moved out of Adam and into Christ, and there is a growth in that person Towards that new identity. Towards the new man. Towards the new nature.

And that's what's happening. And when, Gene, you earlier were talking about the fact that Christians can sin. Why do Christians sin? Here I am in Christ. I've got the new man, which doesn't change. I have a new nature, which doesn't change. How can Christians fall into sin? The sin nature, not the old man, the sin nature that pertained to the old man is associated with this body.

And we have a choice to put our trust in the Lord or to let the sin nature that stuck with this body until we walk through heaven's gates. We can let one or the other reign. And that's why you can have a believer who is walking with the Lord and something happens and they suddenly decide in this situation, around this person, whatever the circumstance is, they say, I'm going to trust myself right now and not walk in who God has made me to be. Yeah, we'll be talking more about body, soul and spirit and what those things are and how an unbeliever is composed and how a believer is composed.

At the inner part of us there is a person that is either in one position or the other. We're in Christ or we're in Adam before that. We don't go back and forth, but there is that one person that gets, and that's us, that's the essential us that gets transferred from being in Adam to being in Christ. Yeah, Pat?

I have a confusing statement. In John, the healer has been born of God, who is not sin, whereas his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Is this like a different time that that scripture is important? That scripture is always confusing. They're talking about sin. Yes. I'm going to push that question off, but we will address it. But let's think about this. What is happening with me as a believer is I am no longer in the old man. My old man can't show up. But the sin nature that pertained to that old man is still associated with his body. It's no longer in charge.

The best way to put it, I think, is to call it a deposed monarch. A number of you may remember the situation with the Philippines. They had Marcos. Ferdinand Marcos was the dictator. And he got deposed. Well, he and Imelda, you know, the one that was famous for buying all the shoes? He and Imelda were still around, but they were no longer in charge of the Philippines.

Well, he could get on the phone and start, you know, calling up some of his old buddies and, you know, hey, remember me? You know, we used to be close together. And he can make various appeals. to try to take charge again. And various people for a time had loyalties to him. And so he actually could make the phone calls and get people to respond. But that's the same struggle that we have. We say, well, that voice sounds familiar. That voice used to call all the shots. And we can still listen to that pleading. and still say, boy, there's a familiarity to that.

But the reality is the sin nature is a deposed monarch. The sin nature has no right to call the shots. But just like Marcos, or when I was with Hassan, I'd give him the example in Uganda with Idi Amin. Idi Amin was deposed. He was still around until 2003 when he died. But he no longer could call the shots, at least by rights. It's interesting, when we did the Bible studies on Romans, that I do better understand the last part of Romans 7, where Paul has to struggle with the old man and the new man, right before chapter 8. Thanks be to God.

But Zodiatis goes through and actually shows that there's a difference in when Paul uses the word I. It's the struggle, it's this person, and I didn't understand that before, but what you're talking about, this person, the I, changes in that in the greed, supposedly. It changes in that struggle. He's got the old I and the new I, and the old I and the new I. Not the I here, but the I person.

So that's the same thing that you're talking about here. And I think, to clarify this for me, you're saying the sin nature, the body is actually in, with the new nature, it's also in the old nature. No, no, no, hold on. I need to back up here. The sin nature is associated with this body, but we're no longer dealing with the old man, and the new nature doesn't have the sin nature. Yes. That's what I'm saying.

In other words, the new nature is in me, and before I was a believer it was also the old nature was in me, in my body. So Paul refers to flesh, or sarx in the Greek, right? So the old nature, Paul always refers to the old nature as sarx, right? No. Because in the sarx reference, the flesh is in Galatians, and what the flesh is, the sin nature as it works through this body. That's what the flesh is.

The sin nature as it works through this body. Right. What is it called, what the new nature is? What is what called? Well, if you have, if Paul turns and starts as, you know, the flesh working through the body, what would he refer to the new nature working through the body after you're a believer? That's Christ living his life in us.

So it's the same thing as in Christ? Yeah. I've been crucified with Christ. I share his history, right? It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me. So our place then is at any moment, to decide, am I going to depend upon who God has made me to be, and am I going to depend upon that spiritual history, new spiritual history that I have, am I going to have a personal dependence upon all that the Lord has given me, or am I going to let that deposed dictator call the shots?

I would give the example with Hassan. because Idi Amin was back in the, for most of the 70s, was just a horrible tyrant. But then he was booted out and continued to live in Saudi Arabia. And he had no right to call the shots after that once he was booted out. But he would still, he could still call people up and try to pull strings and make things happen.

Even though, you know, could he have an influence? Yeah. Did he have a right? No. And now he died, which will be the equivalent of when we go home to be with the Lord. Sin nature will be no more. We won't have that wrestling, that choice. Yes? Let's think about this continuity of person. The continuity of person does include this body, right? Think about this. If I am an unbeliever, and let's say, let's take it for instance. I'm going to choose Nancy. Here's Nancy. She was an unbeliever until about age 15. She didn't like fish. And guess what? She still doesn't like fish. So here's Nancy. She has a preference both before and after. That's the same. Her body carries all the same genetics.

Just before I became a believer, I got a scar from getting my foot caught in the spokes of a bicycle. And guess what? When I was saved, I still had a scar. So there are things that are going to continue, and one of those things is simply our bodies. There's things that we like and don't like, skills that we have. If someone is an accountant and they become a believer, they'll probably still be an accountant, right? So there are things that continue from that being in Adam to being in Christ. Those are things that are continuing. Now, the body part of it will be replaced, right? We'll get a new body.

But there's still a continuity of person that goes from that unbeliever to the believer. Right? There's the essential you. The essential you. And what's interesting is God does not just take... Here's Vern the unbeliever. This little guy running around. Here's Vern the unbeliever. And God doesn't say, okay, I'm just going to eliminate him and make another person to replace him, sort of in his name. He doesn't do that. He takes that person and takes them out of Adam and places them in Christ.

So there is a continuity of person. That's why Paul could say, I was. I did. That's why he could write to the believers at Ephesus and say, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And it's still you. So there is that continuity of person aside from these positional persons, old man, new man. And it's that person from in Adam to in Christ, it's that person that's been transferred that is being changed. And that's, as we go looking through the rest of this, what's being conformed. Not the new man. The new man doesn't change. Not the new nature. And certainly not the sin nature.

Right? It is the essential you that is being conformed, growing into the position that you already have. Absolutely. Does that make sense? That's what God is changing. changing the essential person who you are. And your individuality does matter. In the book of Revelation it says that Christ will give you a new name that only he and you will know. The individual personal relationship does matter. God does not look at Christians as just some sort of a, you know, blenderized saints.

A big mass. You as an individual person count. Here's Jesus dying for the sins of the whole world and he turns over to this thief on the cross. Today you'll be with me in paradise. He's not so preoccupied with this mass thing, this mass effect that he's going to have by dying for sins. that he can't pay attention to an individual person. He does care about you personally. So how does the continuity of a person change when a believer dies? Well, you look at it, you still will continue on except that all the processes that are taking place now will be taken to their ultimate.

That is, you will be done being conformed to the image of Christ. There's 1 John. We will be like Him. We'll see Him as He is. We will have His body. We will have everything about us like Him, and yet still have our personal identity. So we're undergoing a process now that will reach its culmination when we see the Lord face to face. and we will be like Him. Yes. And other things. Because if you look at it and you start looking at what are all the things that make you you, God is not in the process of just erasing all of who you are.

You know, here's Paul and Peter in their later years, and they're writing just marvelous stuff, but they write differently. They continue to write differently. They continue to have a personality that each of them has. Paul continues to be Paul. Peter continues to be Peter. Yes? I guess the tricky part is that you can't really change the stuff that you want to change, I want to not be angry with you, or whatever. Right? I mean, it really is kind of fun.

And here's what we'll be looking at. Ultimately, Stan brought up Romans 7. Towards the last part of Romans 7, Paul spends several verses saying, you cannot of yourself will to do the right thing. In Galatians chapter 5, half of verse 17, he says the same thing in half a verse. You cannot will to do the right thing. But, what Romans 6 and 7 and 8 and Galatians 5 both say, is that our primary and priority choice is not just making the right decision.

It's where's my dependence? Dependence. Where is my dependence? And that's why Romans 7 is there to tell us, you know, I tried to do all the right stuff on my own and it doesn't work. And so he goes through the chapter telling about the frustration and just exasperation of trying to do that.

He gets to the point in half a verse in Galatians 5. and says, you cannot simply will to do the right thing. God doesn't just assign to you, here, here's the right stuff to do, now go do it. I'll check with you when you get back. God doesn't do that. Instead, He says, not just here you are in Christ, but here is everything that I have done, and you have to depend on Me to pull this off. What I want out of you is not something you can do. But Christ's life lived through you is the only way it can be done.

So that's one thing. You look at like the Ten Commandments that we'll be looking at in the main service here in a few minutes. Thou shalt not murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, all the things to do and not do. People will struggle with that. As a matter of fact, Romans 7. Paul read, you know, don't covet. He says, man, all I was doing was coveting all the time. I couldn't do it.

So it's not a matter of not knowing the rules and not banging people over the head with it enough. It's a question of whose life is trying to live it. That's the priority choice that we have as believers. Whose life is living this out? Is it the Lord's life or is it my best efforts? He's saying my best efforts isn't going to cut it. We're out of time.

Next week we will look at this same thing but dig more into the identification aspects of it. We touched on it briefly by using the terms in Adam, in Christ. But there are a whole bunch more things for us to take a look at and to understand our spiritual anatomy. And included in that is what we've been separated from and what we've been joined to. Or maybe I should say who.

That's right. Lord, thank you for the insights that we have from your word. Thank you for the understanding that we have. Thank you for the clarity that it brings in terms of what you're doing in our hearts and lives, what you already have done. And Lord, we just look forward to what you have yet in front of us to reveal and make clear. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.