Who were we - Who are we - Who are we becoming - Part II

First, I want to just kind of make sure we're all caught up with what we covered last week, because we're going to build on that this week. We looked at your in Adam as an unbeliever. The old man is defined as all of who you were in Adam, so that that old man is a positional person. The sin nature is the nature, the collection of attributes of the old man, okay? It's not the same as the old man, and they're not equivalent terms, okay?

Obviously related. For example, I have a leg. I'll just pick on my right leg, just because that's the one I want to pick on. I have a right leg, and that's a part of me, but that's not all of me, okay? If you saw just my leg walking down the aisle, you wouldn't say, oh, there's Vern, right? You would say, there's Burns Lake, and you'd be a little surprised.

Now, then there is the believer. Once that person who is an unbeliever comes to believe, they are then and then on in Christ. The new man is a positional person, all of who they are in Christ. That new man has a new nature, just like the old man has a sin nature. Some will call it the old sin nature. The new man also has a new nature. The sin nature is all of what the nature of the old man, it's the nature, not the whole old man, the nature of the old man that pertains to this body. That's what we're contending with until we walk through heaven's gates with a new body. So those are some distinctions important to make. Let me give you the idea of a nature.

Suppose that you sent me over to Africa and I happened to go to a place along the Nile where they had crocodiles. Now, you would expect that the crocodiles might be in the water or off on the beaches somewhere because that's a crocodile's nature. Right? You would not expect me to come back and report to you that the crocodiles were jumping from branch to branch and chirping and making nests and laying their eggs up in the nests in the trees or along the river. Right?

You would not expect a crocodile to do that. And you would think it rather strange if I came home and reported that. Why? Because it's not a crocodile's nature to behave that way. So the nature is not all of what the creature is. The nature is the inclination to behave in a certain way. See the distinction there? Okay. So I won't be chirping and jumping from branch to branch. All right.

What we have in the first section here in the handout is largely what we have covered, except for one thing. The one thing we haven't covered is the continuity of person, or maybe another way to say it would be the continuing person. This is, as we give the illustration, in the book of Acts, chapter 22, the Apostle Paul is counting how things were as he was an unbeliever. And a few different times in that 22nd chapter, and that's not the only place where he does it, but a few times in that 22nd chapter, he recounts what happened to him, what he did as an unbeliever. And he said, I was, and I was. And the reason that he can say I was, even though he is now a new creature in Christ, is because there is still that continuing person of Paul that continues from the time he was an unbeliever to the time he's a believer.

One of the points we made last week is that is the part of us that changes. The last brief three-line, two-and-a-half-line paragraph in that first page section says, Likewise, we said that just as there is no variation in being in Adam, there is also no changing the old man or the sin nature. There's also no change in the new man or the new nature since there is no variation in being in Christ.

You ever talk to someone and they say, you know, I'm about 80% in Christ today, but I'm working to get it up to 90. Is that the way it works? No, right? It doesn't work that way. There is no variation in being in Christ. Once you are a believer, you are made to be in Christ and that does not vary. There is no percentage deal in being in Christ. It is an absolute and it is also permanent. People don't go in and out of being in Christ.

Now, let me ask the question, why is it important, before we start talking about what God is doing in the life of the believer, why is it important that we talk about these things? Why do we talk about these things make a difference as we go forward here? Understanding that the difference is in how you think about yourself and others. Yes, exceedingly important.

Am I trying to make the sin nature better? Is that my effort? Should I try really, really hard to be a good Christian? Is that what God has in mind? You see, getting these things clear is very important because otherwise we're trying to change things that will never change. We get frustrated. You ever run into any frustrated Christians? Oh, I just can't do this Christian thing.

Well, good, that's the best conclusion you ever came to, right? People, if they have a clear understanding, they will know what changes. They won't try to change what never will or what never needs to change. Do you need to improve the new nature? Do you need to improve the new man? Do you need to get more in Christ than you were yesterday?

No. And so Christians will oftentimes get frustrated. confused, flustered. What's God doing? Because they don't understand these things clearly. But if we understand clearly how God has made us and what he is changing and how he's going about changing things, then all of a sudden things become much more clear.

Now, don't get me wrong. It doesn't mean that once you understand these things, you never have any problems. Right? That's not the point. But we don't have any false problems. We don't have any problems that result from misunderstanding. We don't have any problems from trying to change something that won't change. We don't have any problems from trying to be more in Christ or trying to be more like Christ. Everyone, anybody who's trying to do that? Trying to be more like Christ? God never intended for you to try to be more like Christ. That's not what he has in mind. Right?

And so it's getting it very clear in our minds what is God doing, what is God accomplishing, and what has He already accomplished. Changing what God intends to change and nothing else. Not being frustrated by trying to change what never will change. And what is never even intended to change. Right?

Okay, let's take a look at deeper in and farther along. I'm not going to sing farther along than Tempted and Tried for you, and Wayne is greatly relieved. Besides that, I don't have Nancy in here, so that's just the way it is. Okay, we talked about in Adam and in Christ previously, and it's mentioned above there.

But the paragraph starts like this, identification is a principle taught in scripture principally to believers in the body of Christ. Is it ever taught to people outside of the body of Christ, identification? Pardon? Yeah, most of the focus of identification is taught to the body of Christ. There are in fact, however, a few places, because it's a broad biblical principle, a few places where it's taught elsewhere. What, for example, happened to the Israelites when they went through the sea and under the cloud? Pardon?

Identification with Moses. They were, as the term is used, baptized into Moses. So the Israelites were baptized into Moses and therefore were under the law. We are baptized into Christ, and guess what? That baptism separates us from the law. There is John's baptism, which is a physical baptism, a baptism for Jews at that time, a baptism of repentance. Let me give you another one.

Jesus, in I believe it's John chapter 8, told the unbelieving Jewish leaders, unless you believe that I am He, that is, I am the God sent Savior, you will die where? In your sins. Is that interesting? Here's Jesus speaking to Jews who are not believers. And He tells them, unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. Now here's an interesting thing. Let's go backwards here.

Here they are. They're essentially in Adam, right? Are they in the old man? Yeah, they're in Adam. The old man is present in them. They have a sin nature. They do not have a new nature. And guess what? One truth beyond that is the unbelievers' sins. A lot of unbelievers will think when they commit a sin, and if they don't get caught, they just kind of leave it behind. Uh-uh. The sins of the unbeliever stick.

You ever have something like this? It's worse than static cling. The things that they do, they're stuck in them. They're stuck in them. They think they can move past it, but they can't. They're stuck in, in Adam, in their sins. All the sins they commit, they just keep sticking. It's like you've got this big debris pile you're walking in. This is the unbeliever. They're stuck in this debris pile.

We go down here, we can take no credit for either, I'm down in the middle of the third line here on that paragraph under deeper in and farther along, we can take no credit for either knowing these truths or in what God has accomplished by our identification with Christ. I'm not in Christ because I did anything other than belief. That's the only reason, right?

These truths of identification are revealed entirely by the will and actions of God, and the blessings of identification with Christ are accomplished entirely by God's infinite, eternal, and amazing grace. It's His accomplishment, not mine. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, most of them, every. Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, where? In Christ, just as he chose us in him. We were blessed in him, we were chosen in him. While we find examples of this identification principle applying to other people groups, the teachings that we'll focus on here are the identification truths that apply Hello.

Believers in the body of Christ from Acts 2 to the rapture when Christ comes for his bride, the church. What we're studying here doesn't apply to all believers of all time. This won't apply to Moses. This won't apply to Noah. Enoch walked with God and these don't apply to him.

These are specific to believers from the time of Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, until the rapture when the Lord takes us to church. So these are specific truths to us. Page 2. Now, the other thing is identification synonyms. We will see in Scripture synonyms that are used for what is identification. The first one we have there in bullets is in, being placed entirely in, so as to share an identity. This is where we made the point that you're not 90% in Christ, you're not 80% in Christ, you're not trying to work to get to be more in Christ. Can't happen, okay?

How'd you get to be in Christ? How'd that happen? You're just walking along one day, whoops, you're in Christ. Is that how it happens? No. How did you get to be in Christ? Pardon? The work of the cross is actually involved in your identification as a part of it. You believe. You believe and that is it. Believing is not a work. It's not something that gains you merit. It is entirely God's work and God's merit through Christ, not our own, right? So believing is not a work.

In, being placed entirely in so as to share an identity. There's also with, intimately joined in action and consequence. raise us up together with Christ, in, with, and then together with. There's also the term used in Romans 6, united with, and finally baptized into. This is also in the first part of Romans chapter 6, and also found in Galatians. So those terms are all terms referring to identification. We okay so far? We're there. All right.

The next heading is death is separation. This death is separation principle is one that, if not understood, leads to a number of wrong conclusions. And it's why most of the commentary writers and seminaries throughout the country and the world are off the track. They don't understand the death of separation. When Adam was told that he would surely die if he ate the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, that meant what? Separation, right? Separation.

When Isaiah said that the sins of the people of Israel had caused a separation from God, that unless they believed in Him, they would, excuse me, separation from God that meant spiritual death. This is Isaiah 59, verse 10 verses there. When Jesus told the leaders, this is one we referred to earlier, that unless they believed in him they would die in their sins, the problem for the Jewish leaders was that they would suffer a death that would separate them from God. See, that's the problem that wasn't understood. You will suffer a death of separation. Death of separation. Yes. I read something, I think, that said that why Jesus suffered so much on the cross was because he knew he would be separated from God. Yeah. Well, let's think through that. Jesus died on the cross, right?

But what happened that day? He was separated from the Father, right? Contrary to all eternity prior to that time and after that time, the father and the son had separation going on between them. That was the greatest agony of the deaths, far worse than the nails themselves. See that? There was a unique death that took place. Someone at Holly Hills asked me not too long ago, why is it that Jesus can spend a few hours on the cross, and if people turn that down, they've got to spend eternity in hell? I told him, I said, the answer is capacity. The infinitely righteous Son of God has infinite capacity to pay for sins. None of us comes close to that capacity. Right? We don't have the righteousness. We don't have the infinite character. Yes?

So, since the Old Testament is pictures to help us understand and learn, and God was always identified with Jerusalem, so is the exile because of their, you know, their actions and their lifestyle and the things that they were doing that the prophets pointed out. So they were exiled. They were actually separated from Israel and from God and Jerusalem. Yeah, the land, what they were told, the land will spit you out. That was the figure of speech that was used. The land will spit you out. You will be rejected from this land.

And by the way, you cannot completely comply with the law of Moses apart from being in the land with an operating temple. You can't. There are 613 laws. A whole bunch of them can't be fulfilled unless you're in the land with an operating temple. The land spit them out. You will be in a place where you cannot fulfill the law that I've given you. that this is the death of separation. This is why when we say the law from 2 Corinthians 3 is a ministry of death, it's a ministry of separation. Let's ask this question.

Here's Adam. He eats the forbidden fruit. He looks around. He says, wow man, I'm not dead. Did he get away with it? No. Because ultimately he had phases of separation. And the thing that would finally happen is there would be a separation of the spiritual aspect of him from the physical aspect of him. And that's what death is. Death is not the end of something. It's the separation of something. That's what death really is. It's a separation.

Paul taught, I'm reading from the end of that paragraph there, Paul taught that death means separation in Ephesians 2, 1-3, 11-13, 4.18, and Colossians 1.21.

But God also used the death of separation principle graciously and for our benefit. You see, death of separation certainly means some bad things, but God actually used it for good. Isn't that interesting? Death of separation, you think, oh boy, that's a nice principle to get, you know, understood. Yeah, but God's going to use it for good.

Death of separation can be a bad thing, but it can also be a good thing. And how that happened is we were identified with Christ in His, what? Death. We were identified with Christ in His death, and then He was buried, and we were identified with Him in that. and then he was resurrected and we were identified with him in that.

So look at the bullets here, about a half dozen of them. Romans 6, 1-11. The summary statement is, you're dead to sin, alive to Christ. Romans 7, 1-6. Death releases from marriage. We've died to the law, but we've been joined to whom? Joined to Christ, right? 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15. Dead to ourselves, alive to Christ. Galatians 2, 19 and 20, died to the law to live to God. Colossians 2, 20, died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. And Colossians 3, 5 and 20, dead to sin, died with Christ to the world.

So death and separation is bad news, unless it's good news. Here, God would give Adam a warning. On the day you eat of it, you will certainly die a death of separation. First evidenced by Adam hides. Evidenced again by God saying, Adam, where are you? Not because God didn't know. Certainly God knew where Adam was, but he needed Adam to realize something really significant had happened, right? So the key biblical principles can be summarized.

Identification joins us and death separates us. Identification with a death joins us to that death so as to separate. Isn't that interesting? Identification joins us, death separates us, so if we are identified with a death, We are joined in that death in order to be separated. Examples. Identification with Adam, which is the same thing as being in Adam, joins us to Adam's death of separation from God. See that? Joined with Adam. Joined with Adam. Joined in the death of separation.

As an unbeliever identified with Adam in Adam, Each of us was separated from Christ, separated from his righteousness, separated from his spiritual history. And each of us was joined to the sin nature, to the law and to the world and to Adam's spiritual history.

Separated from, joined to. Identification with Christ, which is the same as being in Christ, joins us to Christ. As believers, what was true of our being joined to and identified with Adam gets reversed. Identified with Christ, we were joined to Christ, to his righteousness, and to his spiritual history. And each one of us was separated from the sin nature, the law, and the world, and from Adam's spiritual history. Compare these joined to and separated from truths using the diagram on the next page. Let's ask a question here. Let's recount briefly. What was Adam's spiritual history? Let's talk about that. What was Adam's spiritual history? How did Adam start off spiritually?

In innocence. God created him in innocence. Now that's different from righteousness, right? Righteousness is a fundamental righteousness and right standing with God. Innocent is one who has simply not sinned, right? So he was created in innocence and everything went along hunky-dory until what?

Pardon? He disobeyed. He broke a whole bunch of laws or what happened? Just one, right? Just one. He sinned, and then God came along and said, oh, that's OK. No biggie. Right? Is that what happened? No, not so much. What happened? He became separated. He chose to have his own way. It was an act of and a commitment to rebellion. Yeah.

It wasn't only Adam. It was the whole Earth that was cursed. And the Earth was cursed. But what happened to all other subsequent human beings? They were all in Adam. They were all in Adam. All identified with Adam. All sharing Adam's history. All sharing his history. Spiritual history. Yeah. were over the animals, right, until the curse, and then they lost their ability to reign. Right?

I don't know how you could say that. This all happened at the same time, but Adam and Sam. They got pitched out of the garden, right? Was God just being mean and nasty, or why did God pitch them out of the garden? Listen to this one, Satan. basically took over and had control of the earth. Yeah, all of a sudden, they had listened to Satan. That's part one. The earth was cursed.

But why else were they pitched out of the garden? What was in the garden that God wanted to keep them apart from? The tree of life. And was that because God was just being mean and nasty? Or what was the reason for that? The age of the tree. They could be alive forever. Yeah, stuck in that mode. stuck in that place. So it was actually God's gracious act, not God being mean and nasty and ornery, God's gracious act to pitch them out of the garden.

And before they ever left, Genesis 3.15, to tell them of the Savior that's coming. But they had to leave the garden.

Now, we share, until we believe, we share that spiritual history in Adam. But once we are placed into Christ, do we have Adam's history anymore? No. We have Christ's history. That's one of the reasons that I am glad to be able to do truly biblical counseling and not being stuck trying to do the world's counseling. Can you imagine trying to make the sin nature better? Can you imagine trying to feel better about sin? You know, make it feel good. Huh, that's not so good. And in this world's counseling, what do they do? They go over your personal history. History in where? In who? History that you had all under while at the time while you were in Adam. But being in Christ means what's your history now? You are in Christ and you share His history.

You no longer have that history of Adam, but you have that history of Christ. We are identified with his death and burial and resurrection and ascension and seeding. You have that new history. And with that, there is something encouraging and hopeful to counsel with. Because we're no longer talking about, you know, here's what happened to Aaron Adam and now you have this sin nature and good luck. And try to feel better about, you know, the sin and your history and that you're going to die in your sins, you know. Yeah, you want to feel real good about that. That's called grief counseling, right? No, we have a new history in Christ. This is phenomenal good news. Pardon? Ah, let's think about that. Adam was born in innocence, but was Christ innocent or something else? Huh? Righteous, okay.

We, because we are in Christ, have Christ's righteousness. So righteousness is a fundamental rightness with God, which is different from innocence. Innocence can be fallen from. Righteousness is unchangeable and eternal. Yeah. Innocence has not been since that period of time in the garden. Yeah. We don't really truly have innocence since then.

That's a good way to put it. So here on page 3, what I've got here is an In Adam and In Christ, and underneath that I actually have some lines for you to write in. Of course, you all have something to write in, write with, right? But let's look at, in Adam, what are you joined to?

Pardon? You're joined to the old man. You're there. You're in the old man. And what else? Yeah, you're joined to the sin nature. The old man, the sin nature. What else? Now, below that, we have separated from. You can say separated from God. and specifically separated from Christ. What else are we joined to in Adam?

The history. We are joined to Adam's history and you can't run away from it. You can put your best effort in, you can't get away from it. That's the history you got. It's the wherever you go, there you are. Right? You can run as fast as you want. You can't get away from that history. You can go supersonic. It still won't get you away from that history. And what else? Authority. Let's ask this question. What's the authority for someone who's in Adam? What calls the shots?

The sin nature is ultimately An ownership. What's interesting is the ownership is of the sin nature. Ultimately, you've got a trio of enemies that you're stuck with. The world, the flesh, and the devil. You're joined to them. You may want to get away, but you're stuck with them. And ultimately, over this world, who is the authority over this world? Satan, okay? You're part of the world, you're joined to the world, you're stuck. There's no running away from it. Now, so once a person is in Christ, joined to, what are you joined to? Joined to righteousness? And where did that come from? Did it just show up? Joined to Christ and His righteousness. We also have His history. You're joined to His history.

The other history that you had when you were in Adam has now been displaced. You don't get one alongside the other. You no longer have that history. You've got an entirely different history. What else are you joined to? to His life. Really, if you're in Christ, it's everything about Him. It's His life. It's His history.

Pardon? The new nature. Pardon? You are a new creation, or it's this in Christ, all these things we're talking about. These are radically different things from what you're stuck with in Adam. There's a word I haven't used in here, but we could easily include it too. How about a different future? What's the future in Adam?

How's that look? Is that looking pretty good? It's not so good. You can kind of make it look good short term, kind of. But long term, it's just not so good. Now, in Christ, how's your future look? Yeah, even if the near term looks rough, the future is ultimately bright. For the one in Adam, the future short term may look good, but ultimately it's horrible. Isn't that interesting? So you have a different future.

You're joined to a different future. Now, what have you been separated from? in Christ. Pardon? You're separated from the old man. Boom! There's the old man. You're out of being in Adam entirely. This isn't a percentage deal. It's not like I'm working my way towards being in Christ a little bit more. None of that. I am no longer joined to that old man. What else? What else are you separated from? The world, you're separated from the world and the devil, Satan. You're also separated from, now this is an interesting one, you're separated from the sin nature. Does that mean the sin nature no longer exists? No. What it means, the sin nature no longer has the claim over you that it once had.

What it likes to do is pretend that it has the claim. Yes, there will be an entire separation because what we don't have in here is we're describing this is the person as you are right now, a believer, a church-age believer right now on this planet. A time will come when our position who we are eternally, and our condition will be completely in harmony. We will have new bodies that won't be subject to having the sin nature attached to it. It's one reason that God doesn't just take you out as soon as you're a believer.

He'd have to kill you. Why? You need this new body to have a complete and entire replacement for the way things are now. Okay, we're separated from the world. We still have to live in the world. That's right. And when we say separated, that's different from saying, does the world end because we're a believer? No. Does the sin nature stop because we're a believer? No. We say the world, the flesh, and the devil. Is the devil still around?

Yeah. So all these separated from's don't mean termination and annihilation. but it means spiritual separation from, and a reversal of what we were joined to. See that? And is that why you're saying that all these writers and commentaries that run us, when it comes to the term death, because they're not seeing the separation. And we bring that into this whole sanctification area. Yeah. No more dead than six must be annihilated. Yeah. Yeah. They're saying it's separated. Yeah.

It's one reason why you'll have some people in the reform camp saying, well, Jesus has got to be Lord or you're not saved. And if you've really fallen to sin, well, you probably weren't saved. And then even though there are theological odds, folks coming out of a lot of charismatic and Methodist ideas will say, well, once you've got this second blessing, then you don't sin anymore, right?

And so in both cases, there's a lack of recognition. It's a failure to understand this, what we're looking at right here. If I say I have no sin nature, I've got a problem. Imagine if we sent the guys over to Afghanistan and said, don't worry, we're sending you over there, but there's no enemy.

Imagine what a disaster that would be. Well, what happens is there are Christians, Christian leaders, who go and tell their people, oh, don't worry, there's no sin nature. What a wreck. What a train wreck to send people into. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Just like telling the guys going over to Afghanistan that there's no enemy there. That would be a mess too, right? So, let's take a look here at the bottom of page 3. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Well, and as a matter of fact, this word baptism we start off with 1 Corinthians chapter 12 says that the Holy Spirit has baptized us into the body of Christ. So we have an identification with one another. as well. That's quite correct. But it's the same principle applied, even the same terminology, baptized into. What does that mean? You've been identified with one another through your joint identification with Christ.

Our understanding of identification might be looked upon as somewhat hypothetical if we were to just stop here. We won't. There are at least two areas of application that touch directly upon what God is doing in the life of the believer. One of those, the first one, the primary manner of dealing with the sin nature comes about because we were identified with Christ.

Fellows, I told you, you know, sin nature is just a beast, but just go out there and fight real hard. Try real hard to resist it. Just, boy, punch him in the nose. Is that going to help? These truths are there for one reason to equip us to battle with the sin nature and that battle will be there until we have a new body and walk through heaven's gates. We are dead to the sin nature which is present as a deposed monarch and alive to God. So that's part one. So this is not just some hypothetical thing It's very real every day, every minute. You have to ask the question, why do believers sin? How do believers have any hope of not sinning?

That's what we just talked about here. Reckoning yourself dead to sin, and by the way, don't stop there. I've talked to people that have stopped there. I'm just going to reckon myself dead to sin. No, don't stop there. It's like a bridge that only goes halfway across the river. You'll have all kinds of cars just going ka-foom, ka-foom into the river. Why?

It only goes halfway across because the other half is alive to God. Dead to sin, alive to God. So that's part one. The changes in our continuing person as we walk dead to the sin nature and alive to God are in the direction of Christ. What do I mean by that? Conformed to Christ, transformed into the image of Christ, growing, maturing, being sanctified. All those ongoing processes in the life of the believer, all those ongoing processes are in the direction of Christ.

It's not just trying to be a good person. In fact, I wouldn't recommend that at all. It is not just trying to be Christ-like, but there is actual spiritual change taking place to that person who can say, I was. I was that in Adam guy. I was. But that person who was in Adam is now in Christ. And that's the person. That continuing person, that continuity of person, that's the person that is being conformed, transformed, changed, growing, maturing, being sanctified.

And that process is all in the direction of Christ. We don't have some vague notion that we're going to try to be gooder people. We're not heading in some vague direction. We're not even trying to be like Christ. God is carrying out these processes in each believer, and it's directed towards a person, Christ. You're not just trying to vaguely change your character. It's directed towards the person of Christ. To the end that one day we shall be like him. We will see him as he is. That's where this is all headed. That's where it's going.

And that's why we have everything from, you know, the car won't start, to my body won't start, to, you know, boy, it hurts a little bit or it hurts a lot, to, you know, boy, I wish those politicians would get their act together. Everything else that's happening in our, you know, surroundings and in our own bodies, all these things have a direction.

And that is that we be conformed to the image of the Son, that we be transformed to the image of the Son. That we be growing and maturing, not just in some vague way, but in Him. See that? The last line there, I'll just read the whole last paragraph.

The changes in our continuing person as we walk, dead to the sin nature and alive to God, are in the direction of Christ. Conformed, transformed, growing, maturing, being sanctified, etc. These changes take place as we are walking consistent with who we have been made to be as our eternal identity, which takes place because Christ does the living in and through us by faith in Him. These changes take place as we're walking consistent with who we have been joined to and what we have been separated from in Christ.

So has God given you an assignment? We're talking about what God's doing in the life of the believer. Is God just giving you a bunch of assignments? Is God the great delegator? He's saying do this and this and this and don't do this and this and this and when you walk through heaven's gates we'll see how you did. Is that what God's in the business of doing?

No. The changes that He is carrying out in us are changes that He will carry out all along the way using, as we'll see, a number of different things. So that when we walk through heaven's gates, we shall be like him and we will see him as he is. Pardon? Yeah. There is a walking that is fitting, but it's not by God giving us a list of behaviors that we're to conform to. It's not by God asking us to change something that will never change. Right? Yes. We will spend a month unconformed and a month untransformed. How about that? Yeah.

We want to have a very clear understanding. Because I've heard people say, oh, we behold the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word and then we'll be conformed. No. There's actually something different. And so we'll be looking at what's conformed, what is transformed. What is growth? What's maturity? What is being sanctified? We'll spend probably about a month on each of those words. So yes, we will go in detail and understand clearly what those mean. Does that make sense? Yeah. Other questions, comments, exasperations, inspirations? Yes.

If you look at it, we have an eternal position, that doesn't change, right? We have a condition, which is, here is how we are walking at this moment. And then there is also a change. So there's position which doesn't change, there's condition which varies from one moment to the next, but then there is a change. And the direction of change that God intends for us as believers is that we're being conformed into the image of His Son, transformed, growing, and maturing. So the change that takes place over time comes as we, moment by moment, are in our condition walking according to how God has intended and empowered and enabled and energized us.

Yeah. Yeah, they're abiding. We're abiding in Christ. Yeah. You see, here's the problem that sin nature has. The sin nature is terminal. Right? It's terminal. The sin nature is terminal. We use terminal for, you know, like this disease is going to finally be the end or something. But sin nature is terminal.

It's not going to get any better. It doesn't have anything to offer. It's terminal. And as much as it might try to market and sell you on different things, it's terminal. It just doesn't get any better. It doesn't have anything to offer. Everything about what the Lord is offering us and calling us to is eternal. And that's a whole lot better than terminal.

So everything that the sin nature has to sell you on is not only contrary to who you are, it's contrary to who you're going to be. It is only the new man, with the new nature, that goes beyond this present life. The sin nature is terminal. At the end of this body, the sin nature is done. Yeah. So that's why the law deals with the sin nature. So essentially, God deals with the sin nature, but also He guides the path. Yeah.

The law is not going to do any good. It's like, okay, You're asking something that's terminal, that can't change, to make you better. Huh? And the law is terminal? Yeah. I mean, it's all going to be done. And so what's going to last? Guess what? We're being conformed, transformed, growing into, maturing into what will last. And we've been separated from all the things that won't.

That sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Doesn't it to you? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty neat deal. Let's pray. People are looking through the windows and wondering, what on earth are we doing in here this long? Okay. Lord, we do thank you for this time. We thank you for what you've made clear. We thank you for what you've accomplished because you love us, because you care for us. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.