In Christ - Part II
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 · Vern Peterman · Jun 13, 2010
1 & 2 Corinthians, No. 50
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49262725588

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

Good morning. As we proceed into this passage here, I just want to repeat the announcement from last week, because it's coming up soon. Hassan will come to stay as our guest for about two months, starting this coming Friday. Now, what that means is he's actually going to have to leave about two days before that, having been through this cycle previously. It takes about two days of travel, so he's actually going to be kind of leaving around Wednesday to get here Friday.

So at any rate, I'd be praying for that. He'll have an intensive training time in Bible study and biblical counseling, church leadership, and other kind of core subjects. And then we'll send him back so that he can convey that to others. So anyway, be praying about that, and we'll continue to have you updated.

He'll be with us for 10 Sundays, and as a matter of fact, his last day with us will be his last day here after the church service, he'll be getting ready to leave. So, at any rate, we're looking forward to it, and I think there'll be a lot more interest and excitement.

One of the things we mentioned last week, he's never been in an airport before, nor an airplane. So, he was asking us via email just a few days ago, will I have a chance to take a bath on the stopovers? I said, probably not. So, that's some of the orientation that'll have to take place.

Last week we had this slide because in fact we covered the same passage, but particularly verses 17 and 21 touch on some subjects we will want to revisit here. And one of the things we said last week is while Christ died on the cross for our sins, He being our substitute, He dying in our place, that makes us forgiven.

Now I said that only makes us forgiven, which is no disappointment. That is a phenomenal and wonderful thing. Our forgiveness because Christ took our place means that we are forgiven, means that we are redeemed, means that we are justified, declared righteous by faith alone. But it was a God placing us in Christ, or to use another term, baptizing us into Christ, which we'll explain a little bit, that makes us into new creatures. We are a new creation because of that. As Wayne read for us this particular verse 17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, and you get there only by believing, he is a new creature.

The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Galatians 16, 14, and 15 has a similar message. It was God who placed us into Christ, that being baptized so as to be changed permanently, that was the means for the Father blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

In, as we said last week, is just a huge word. One, two letters, right? But the word is huge because not because of the letter count, only two, but because of the significance of what it means to be in Christ. Ordinarily, when we hear this, hey, he took my place, we think that's some sort of an objection to somebody doing something unfair, cutting in line, right? Well, guess what? Hey, he took our place, only this is a good thing.

The Word of God from the pages of the Old Testament on into the New Testament said that Christ died in our place. Isaiah 53, which was a chapter that we studied some time ago, that says that Christ died in our place. Christ took the sins of the whole world upon himself. dying for us, all of us, once for all. You know when you get in line at the grocery store, you know that person in front of you, you know that person behind you, you know the checker, died for the sins of those people too. Going down the freeway and you're stuck in traffic and there's all these people sitting in cars, you know Christ died for the sins of all those people stuck in traffic with you, as well as you sitting there in the car. The whole world, nobody excepted, was included in that. once for all. It was once done permanently and perpetually valid, right?

As 1 Peter 3.18 puts it, Christ also died for sins once for all. The just Christ, the one who was just, for the unjust, all of us. So in that sense, He took our place. He was there instead of us. That as He paid the debt of sin, each one of us should have paid ourselves.

One of the things that is very clear, Scripture looks upon sins as a debt. And in fact, this principle of accounting for things as debts and obligations is something we see throughout Scripture. But like a check in full payment of the debt owed for sin, it is cashed by faith. Let me give you an illustration. The illustration goes like this.

Vern has become hopelessly in debt to the tune of, say, $10 trillion. That just depicts some really outrageous number. So here's Vern. He's $10 trillion in debt. There's simply no way of getting out of paying the debt. There's no other option, bankruptcy, anything. You've just got to pay it.

What happens? Some gracious person comes along. And this person who happens to have $10 trillion writes a check for Vern for the $10 trillion. Okay, now Vern can either believe it. I can't believe somebody paid the $10 trillion debt for me. And turn it over, sign the check.

Or Refuse it. Ah, no way somebody is going to do that. I can't believe this check. This is not got to be good, right? And take the check and rip it up, throw it down, whatever, but not cash it. And be unforgiven of a massive obligation even though the check is good and the amount is already there in the account ready to be paid, ready to pay off my debt. It is possible for someone to turn that away. Nah, I can't believe that somebody would pay off my debt.

This check can't be good. That's the illustration. Now, if you've been at a bank, credit union, whatever, you may have heard this phrase, we'll need to see some identification. Maybe at the airport at some point, at least hopefully you have, right? So we'll need to see some identification. Well, guess what? We need to see some identification this morning too, but keep your wallets in your pocket.

What took place with Christ on the cross was not limited to Him dying in our place, not limited to Him paying the huge, massive, ominous debt that we owed. Even though it is amazing and awesome and wonderful that that's taken place, we who believe Every single one who believes that Christ died for their sins, was buried, and rose again, as simple as that, we're also, whether we believe it or not, united and identified with Christ, based only upon belief. Our identification with Christ in his death on the cross, his burial in the tomb, His resurrection from the tomb, His ascension into the heavenlies, and His seating there in the heavenlies, our identification with Christ was in all of that. Our identification with Christ makes a massive, huge difference.

Now, one of the things we use this word identification, it isn't something we automatically remember, is it? But it is a handle, it's a term that we use to try to explain what God has done. This fact of identification is one of the biggest secrets in all of Christianity. Oh, not that it should be, don't get me wrong. It's rarely spoken and rarely understood among Christians. It is abundantly testified to in scripture. The words used in the Bible that convey this family of truths are used repeatedly.

One of them is the simple word in, that huge, massive word that we talked about. It means to be placed entirely in so as to share an identity. If we say that someone is in Christ, it means that they share an identity with Him. They are entirely within Him.

Now, see this bear? There's a person entirely within this bear, okay? The person is entirely within this bear, and if you didn't see the hand sticking out, you wouldn't see the person. Why? They're entirely within the bear, and what you would see is the bear. Someone is in a family.

They share an identity now with that family, having been in that family, and that identity impacts their history, That identity in that family, that being in the family, impacts their present, and it impacts their future, doesn't it? In. Huge word. It means that when we're in Christ, we share an identity with Him that impacts our history, it impacts our present, it impacts our future on into eternity. It impacts who you are. The next word is with. It means to be intimately joined in that action, whatever the action is, and also all the consequences of that action.

We could pick a number of different verses, but one of them is in 2 Timothy 2.11. For if we died with him, and we did, we will also live with him. Why? We've been identified with Him. We are with Him in these things.

So 2 Timothy 2.11 has this truth. Another one, very similar, together with, as above, with together underscoring and emphasizing that same identity in action. It's emphatic about the same truth as with.

He made you alive together with Him. When Christ was made alive there on that day of resurrection, you were made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. United with. United implies a oneness. So a spiritual oneness is communicated. For if we become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Romans 6.5. Okay? United with, joined with a oneness. We have a spiritual oneness with Christ in the history that he had in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. What a fantastic truth. Baptized into. A lot of people, they think water. Well, that might be somewhat helpful, but let's talk about it.

Here in Romans 6 again, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? It means to be immersed or placed entirely into something so as to be permanently changed by that immersion or entire placement. It isn't, gee, I got wet and I'm going to dry off. It's, I am by that immersion or by being placed into, I come out entirely different.

In Galatians 3.27, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with him. That's part of the picture, the image of being in Christ. It's like that guy in the bear that I showed the picture of. Being entirely inside, what you see is what's on the outside. When you are in Christ, what God sees is Christ. His identity becomes yours. You are in Him. What God sees is Christ.

You don't want to hear all the things that I've done that are bad, okay? You especially don't want to record it and broadcast all over the internet throughout the world, right? But guess what? My righteousness is because I'm in Christ. His righteousness now is what God sees. We used this illustration last week. I'll use it again because I think it's very helpful.

They would speak in New Testament times about baptizing a sword. Why would they do that? They would take the sword and put it in the fire and get it white hot, very hot. It had to be glowing. And then in order to case-harden the sword, what would they do? The next thing they would do is they would take that white hot sword and put it in the water and go tsss. Why? That sudden cooling from white hot to cold would change the crystallization character of the outside of the metal and would make that metal much harder than the steel or iron would be beforehand.

That was one of the ways to use the word baptized. Another way that they used the word baptized was with regard to dyeing cloth. Now, it turns out that purple or red cloth was extremely expensive. It was sold only to royalty, which is why you see pictures of royalty even up in the medieval times, often with red or purple robes. What does that signify? It signifies this expensive dye. The dye was so expensive, it cost more per ounce than gold. So they would take the cloth, put it in this very expensive dye.

In those days, there was no way to get the red or the purple out of the cloth. It was permanent. So they would take the cloth and they would use the word baptize. They would baptize the cloth into the dye and make it permanently changed so that when it came out it was different.

So you being baptized into Christ means a permanent change, a radical change, a change in identity, a change in character, a change in spiritual appearance. So we have this summary here, as you have on page one of your handout, of these key words that have to do with our identification with Christ. And the key thing to look at in that is it's in Christ, with Christ, together with Christ, united with Christ, baptized into Christ.

Those words describe who you are. Those words describe who we are as believers. Who are you? I'm in Christ. Who are you? I'm with Christ. Who are you? You're together with Him. You're united with Him, baptized into Him. Those things define who you are, and it is God who has done these things.

It's not our efforts that make us get there. It's not our dedication. You cannot be made to be in Christ by coming into this building. I'm very glad you're here. But that doesn't make you in Christ. It makes you in a building. Right? You only get to be in Christ by God's doing because you believed. That's all. Now, we have a question here. A very important question.

What is death? What is death? Is death that thing that has to do with caskets and funeral homes and flowers and unusual lighting, or is death just sort of an end of the road suddenly? Is that what it is? What is death? Hmm. Death shows up pretty early in the Bible.

The second chapter, as a matter of fact. It goes like this in Genesis chapter 2, 15-17. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat from it you will surely die.

Death. So was God wrong when he told Adam, in the day you eat from it, you will surely die? Did Adam eat? Chapter three, did he eat of the fruit and just keel over right there? Is that what happened? No. So was God wrong? I think not. In the day that Adam ate of the tree, he died spiritually. Which means that there was a spiritual separation. Key point. Spiritual separation between Adam and God. All the consequences of that spiritual death, that spiritual separation, followed from the spiritual separation that was there from God. Physical death. All the tainting and contamination of this world. That followed the spiritual death. Adam and Eve didn't die physically right away, so they're okay, right? Well, not so much.

It's often overlooked that the word death in the Bible is defined as separation, and joining or union is defined as life. That principle applies throughout the entire Bible. Here is from Romans 6, 10 and 11. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Notice that death and life are not just being alive and being dead, but it's in relationship to. If we look at it this way, this is what the verse is saying. For the death he died, he died in relationship to sin once for all, permanently done. But the life that he lives, he lives in relationship to God. Death is separation. Life is joining. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead in relationship to sin, but alive in relationship to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7.4 continues with that theme. You also are made to die to, that is, die in relationship to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may be joined to another. Here's this joining, which means life, right? to him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. Alive to Christ? Why? How did the being alive to Christ happen? It was a joining to him. Separation is death. Joined to is life. That's the definition. And frankly, it's a definition that most of Christendom has not understood.

So here's how we understand what God was telling Adam that day. In the day that you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will be spiritually separated from Me, your Creator. That's the warning that God was giving to Adam. It wasn't that as soon as you bite that fruit, you're going to keel over and die right there. It's not that the fruit is somehow that kind of a physical poison. What it meant was a spiritual separation will take place between us on the day that you eat of it.

So the basic principle of separation from God because of sin is a key point. It was expressed by the prophet Isaiah as he wrote the book of Isaiah. We studied this also some time in the past here. Seven centuries before the birth of Christ, Isaiah put it this way in Isaiah 59 too. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and God. And here is this Hebrew repetitive pattern. And your sins have hidden your face from you, his face from you, so that he does not hear. Sin makes separation. Why? Because sin produces death. A death of separation. Not cessation. Not termination. Not annihilation. Separation. Very key point.

Even in the book of James, it's often translated just as the body without the spirit is dead. That word without can also mean, and I think probably should mean, the body separated from the spirit is dead. Here is, as you have on page two of your handout, some quotes.

From Ephesians 2, verses 11 through 13, Paul says, you are at that time separate from Christ, being aliens and without God. That word without God is atheos. It's very similar to you were atheistic. You are without God. You are separated from him. The words here mean to be separate and apart from, separate and alienated.

Ephesians 4.8 continues it, and matter of fact is emphatic on the point.

Ephesians 4.18, excluded from the life of God. And it's the same word that showed up there in chapter 2 of Ephesians. Excluded from the life of God.

You know what that means? Death. Does it mean that the people walking around are dead? Not physically. Spiritually they are. Because they are separated from God. That's the key point about death. Here's Colossians 121, you were formerly alienated, same Greek word, and hostile in mind. There was a separation. That's the way we were before we believed. We were separated. We were spiritually dead.

As Paul wrote, and we studied some months back here in 1 Corinthians 15, for as in Adam all die, Here in John 8, 24, what does Jesus say to the Jewish leaders? Oh, they're pious. Oh, they read the scriptures all the time, the Old Testament scriptures. But he tells them, therefore, I said to you that you will die, where?

In your sins. The believer is in Christ. The unbeliever is stuck in their sins because they will not accept Christ's payment. They're identified with their sins. They're stuck in them. People think that, you know, they can kind of get past their sins and, whew, I didn't get caught for that one. Right? No, but nobody found me out. You know what? It sticks to them. It's kind of like this glue.

All the sins, they just stay there. You're going to die with all those sins stuck to you. That's his warning to them. You're going to die in them. You're going to be all over. You're going to die in your sins, unless you believe. If you believe, what happens? You don't die in your sins. You die in Christ. See the difference? There's a choice there, isn't there? You're going to die in your sins, or you're going to believe, and then you die in Christ. And that's radically different. Unless you believe. Believing is the distinction.

Here in Ephesians 2, first several verses, and you were dead in, separated from God spiritually, in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. That's the, you formerly lived out your life in those sins. Even when you were dead in, separated from God in your transgressions. See, being dead is not being annihilated or being unable.

Oh yeah, you can still walk around. But the key point is separation from God. That's the point. So finally, some good news. Isn't that great? I have good news to share with you after talking about this awful being in your sins and in Adam and all that. Good news, not good news. OK? All right. Not good news, good news.

Now, we read the Book of Ephesians that those who believe in Christ are in Christ, in Him, in the beloved, and in whom, and phrases like that. And matter of fact, as it turns out, in six chapters, Paul writes no less than 36 times about the one who believes being in Christ. 36 times. Matter of fact, with that kind of repetition, you'd almost get the impression he was emphasizing it, right?

Being in Christ is always the place of blessing and power and acceptance and love and identity in Him. You're concerned about being blessed? It's in Him. Every spiritual blessing, it's in Him. You're worried about adequacy, sufficiency and power for living life? It's in Him. You're worried about whether you're acceptable? It's in Him. desperate for love? It's in Him. Worried about who you are, your identity? Concern you at all? It's in Him. It's all in Him.

That's why I keep repeating it 36 times. It's in Christ. If we look at Ephesians 1, 3-14, which interestingly enough, although it's broken apart in English, it is in all of Greek literature of all time Verses 3-14 is the longest sentence in all of Greek literature of all time. Nobody has beaten it, so far as I'm aware. But in that, look at what Paul does in verse 3. In the heavenly places, where?

In Christ. Just as He chose us, where? In Him. In the Beloved. In Him we have redemption, and not outside of Him. As God purposed, where? In Him. All things in Christ. In Him also we have. What do we have? It's in Him. Verse 12, in Christ. 13, in Him. You were sealed in Him. In Him, in Christ. In whom? In the Beloved.

Death is separation, being alive is union. Romans 6, 1 through 11, you are dead to sin, dead in relationship to sin, alive to Christ, alive in relationship to Christ. Romans 7, the very next chapter, death releases one from marriage, you died to the sin and are joined to Christ. 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.

Died in relationship to the law to live to God. And by the way, we were not given the Holy Spirit in order to be able to live out the law. That's very important that you understand that. We died to the law. When you ask the question, why did Christ die on the cross? For those of us in the church, He died for my sins, yes. But one of the other reasons He died on the cross was to separate me forever from the law. That's one of the reasons he died.

So that I am no longer under any law at all. Died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. This world here that has its progressive pressuring upon us. This world that wants to conform us. Colossians 3, 5 and 20, dead to sin, died with Christ to the world. The same set of truths and deaths and separation is not just found in the writings of the Apostle Paul, although he certainly said it often and explained it the most.

But it shows up in 1 Peter 2.24, "...and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin, die in relationship to sin, and live to righteousness.

For by his wounds we were healed." Isaiah 53. It's an act of God. That's something that oddly enough shows up in the insurance documents. God is the one who has placed us into Christ. He gets the credit for doing it all. And just Him. For starters, He did it so that we share an identity with Christ forever. An identity with Him that never ends. This is key.

The new spiritual history that we have in Christ replaces the spiritual history that we had in Adam. It also supersedes our earthly history, even as individuals. It is not always the case, but it has been historically the case for therapists of different kinds to go and explore your earlier life history. on the basis of Freud and a number of other psychological models, will ask you about your earlier life history. And according to that viewpoint, exploring your past history is a very important thing to do in order to understand how you've gotten where you are. And of course, Freud had a lot of those kinds of theories, as well as other psychologists since. By the way, you know those Freudian slips? I never wear them. Anyway.

Okay, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, which in Judaism deserved death, this is what Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1.13, even though I was formerly a blasphemer in my life here on the earth in the past, and the persecutor of the church seeking the death of believers, and he says in Acts, every chance I had I voted for death for the Christians. He told people that. Every chance I had, I wanted those Christians dead. I didn't want to just harass them, I wanted to eliminate them. And he was a violent aggressor.

The term for that, and it comes right out of the Greek, is hubris. That means to take a satisfaction in the pain and suffering of your fellow man and to shake your fist at the gods. So among the Greeks, that was the worst thing you could do, because that was inviting judgment and trouble upon everyone.

Paul says, that was my history here on this earth. But guess what? I've got a new history. I have been identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. And it is my new history that determines what's going to happen from here forward. It's my new history that changes who I am. Nancy and I have the the honor of being able to counsel with a number of people. And we are interested in some degree to talk to people about their personal histories.

But we take great joy in being able to tell them about their new history in Christ, who they are because they are in Christ. That new history supplants and replaces and is frankly far more full of answers than understanding the personal history of the person.

Another key point that comes out of this is God never says, whoops, right? This placement in Christ is something that doesn't vary over time. I'm not trying to work on getting to be more in Christ. It's never undone or reversed, nor is a reversal or undoing of our being in Christ or with Christ or together or baptized in Him even threatened anywhere in the scripture, okay? We talked earlier about being in Christ, with Christ, together with Christ, united with Christ, baptized into Christ. Now, there's a challenge.

If you can find it, please let me know. But I have not seen a passage that talks about a believer being taken out of Christ. I've not heard anything that says, be careful, you better watch it, or you're going to be taken out of Christ. If you find that passage, you let me know. I haven't seen it. How about one to be made without Christ? Oh, you're with Christ, but be careful! Watch your step! You might be made without Christ or separated from Christ. Un-united with Christ? Or how about un-baptized with Christ? Just click the undo icon, right? That'll do it.

No, you don't find that. You see, as we look at these truths of identification, you don't find any of those threatened or said to be undone. I don't know what it looks like when somebody gets unseated from the heavenlies, but I just never heard of it in Scripture. You just don't have that.

In our spiritual blessings in Christ in the heavenlies, they are untouchable. They don't get tarnished, tainted, or eliminated, or reduced. Nobody can steal them. You don't need insurance for them. They're locked in, they're fixed, they're absolutely certain. The outcome is absolutely certain to take place. It is a fixed future and eternity forever as a consequence of that. Here are some key passages looking at them.

Romans 6, 4-6, Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism, remember that being placed unto, into death. so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we will also be, as implied, united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, and that's because you know, that our old self was crucified with Him." What does it mean, our old self? Our old man is another term that you may have heard or read. All of who we were in Adam is that old self, that old man.

Galatians 2.20 we may reference to, I have been crucified with Christ, with all the consequences of that. Now you think about it, being crucified with Christ, that isn't something that any of us would think, oh boy, I'd like to volunteer for that, right? But guess what?

It was a good thing. It was a gracious thing. And it's the first thing out of these identification truths, these series of identifications, it was the first thing he did. And it was most gracious. It's exactly what we needed. Ephesians 2, 4 through 6. I love this passage, and especially the verse that follows.

But God being rich in mercy, wealthy in mercy. By the way, you can put in the word wealthy. You think of somebody who's extremely wealthy. God is wealthy in mercy. A massive, just impressive wealth because of his great love with which he loved us. By the way, he didn't love you just a tiny, teensy-weensy little bit. He didn't love you just barely adequately or not quite enough. His love wasn't stingy. No, it was great love with which he loved us. What did he do?

Even when we were dead in their transgressions, in other words, we didn't deserve it. We weren't, oh, those people are so cute. No, it wasn't anything like that. When we were dead in our transgressions, when we were really ugly and separated from Him, He made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. He did it all graciously. He doesn't say, Nancy makes such great blueberry muffins, I think I'll make her alive with Christ. He did it all by grace, and He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ, all by grace. And by the way, that's not just a, it's eventually going to happen. It's a done deal. It's a done deal. Here now, here are some slides. You'll have them on half pages on pages three and four. I'm not going to go at this scale. I'm going to bump up the scale so we can read it a little more easily here on the screen.

The believer died in relationship to the sin nature. It means that the sin nature in the believer is no longer the monarch. We're no longer the slave to the sin nature. The flesh, this Galatians 5, is the expression of the sin nature through the earthly body.

Now, you might be wondering, why do I have a picture of this Idi Amin? on the screen, and the reason is this. Idi Amin during the 1970s, I think it was like 71 through 79, was an increasingly brutal dictator in Uganda. Hassan was born after his day, but he is still infamous. Not too long ago, a movie was made of this man. He killed Christians brutally and often. Anyway, at one point in time he made a mistake. He attacked Tanzania and Tanzania booted him out. And so he was exiled to Saudi Arabia where he died about 2003 to my recollection. So what was he? A deposed dictator.

That's a good example for us. Somewhat like Idi Amin, the sin nature is a deposed monarch. a deposed dictator. It doesn't mean the sin nature isn't around, but the sin nature has no right to rule, no right to reign, no right to call the shots. The sin nature may scream and yell and demand and holler and even try to sound enticing in the Christian's life, but the sin nature no longer has the right to call the shots. He is a deposed dictator, a deposed monarch.

You are now dead in relationship to the sin nature. Does it mean the sin nature is dead? Nope. You probably discovered that, right? It does not mean the sin nature is dead, but it means the sin nature no longer has the right to call the shots. The sin nature may be loud. The sin nature may be threatening. The sin nature may sing a siren song that sounds enticing, but has no more right to rule.

God did that by grace. The believer died in relationship to the law of Moses and any principle of law after that. No part of the law of Moses is applicable to the believer who is part of the body of Christ and that includes us. Is it inspired scripture? Yep, it's inspired scripture. It is given for us to learn from and the law spells out all kinds of things about God's character and about how God operated certainly with the Jews. We can learn from it and ought to, but we're not under it, not under the principle of law. What are we under? Grace. Grace, as Romans chapter 5 says, grace is the reigning principle. We breathe an atmosphere of grace.

The believer died in relationship to the world and its principles. See, the world has its pressures. Romans 12, 2 talks about not being conformed to this world. Basically, what's interesting is the New Testament talks about two possible conforming processes. One is the one God has in mind to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. Romans 8.

The world also has a conforming plan for you, and that's to conform you to its mold. So the world is going to continue to try to conform you to its mold, but guess what? You died in relationship to the world. Did the world die? Uh-uh. It's not gone. As long as you're here, it'll be around. But you died in relationship to it. Your absolute conformity to the world's mold and pressures has been ended. God now has something else that he has in place, and that is conforming you to the image of the Son. How does that happen? Grace.

What it means for the believer to have been identified with Christ in his burial. Same thing, we want to go through that at the scale. Being buried with Christ is the assurance that the death actually took place. Do you wonder did Jesus actually die? Yep. Wrapped up his body. As a matter of fact, the centurion had to certify before Pilate, yep, he's dead. For real.

And then they wrapped up his body and put him in the tomb. With the Jewish practices that they had in those days, as a matter of fact, there are some similarities today among observant Jews, they get the body in the grave on the same day. They placed Jesus' body in the tomb. put a stone over the opening of the tomb, and then was set a seal over the tomb.

A set of soldiers, about like what you see pictured here, more than a dozen, fully armed, by the way, who would be threatened with great harm. Some of the things that they would do to soldiers that would fail to guard is sometimes if they'd fall asleep, they'd light their clothes on fire. Sometimes they would kill them. So the soldiers took this seriously. But nonetheless, that didn't stop what happened.

Inside the tomb, it was spiritually very, very crowded because you were there. Don't misunderstand me. There wasn't a lot of room in the tomb. But it was very crowded spiritually. You were there. I was there. Everybody that you know as a believer was there. That was a very crowded tomb.

Being dead in relationship to the sin, the sin nature, the law and the world aren't hypothetically or nearly true. They are true. Why? Because that body lay there in the tomb. That's how you know Jesus actually died. And here's what it means to be raised with Christ. Being raised with Him means when Christ was raised to new life, that burial cloth on the tomb experienced a mass evacuation.

People were just screaming out of that tomb. The doors opened, people just went flying out of there, a whole bunch of them, including you, including me, went flying out of that tomb, a mass evacuation. even if the Roman soldiers didn't see them all. In fact, all it took for them to be shocked out of their minds was to see one body come out. That was enough.

Being raised with Him means that a new life is derived from His new life. You see, we're not only dead in relationship to the sin, the law, and the world, but we're alive to a new kind of life, to God and to righteousness. Being made alive was a one-time occurrence, but being alive is from then on.

Ephesians 1.18-23 says that the surpassing greatness, the overthrown greatness of the power of Christ's resurrection is the measure of the magnitude of the new life. The life that is into you as a believer, as you trust in and depend upon the Lord, the life that is into you is measured by the magnitude of Christ's resurrection.

It's that kind of power. The kind of power that throws the stone off to the side. The kind of power that makes Roman soldiers run. The kind of power that raised Christ from the dead. The kind of power that doesn't make somebody have to unwrap the cloth, but he comes right out of it. It's that kind of power that is into your life each day as you depend upon him. That's the measure of the magnitude. He is the one who is intended to do the living. You're done. You're through.

You're now ascended and seated with Christ. In the book of Acts chapter 1, Jesus was with the 11 disciples, the 12 less Judas, there on the Mount of Olives, and there, right in the presence of the 11, he ascended. We have it from the Ephesians passage that we quoted above, that Christ was seated in the heavenlies.

As with any process or sequence, it's where it ends that counts so greatly. Notice that the sequence is not just to be scrambled. It is there where we're seated with him. Where it really counts. How did this whole thing end up? Seated with him. We are in Christ with him there in the heavenlies. That's how the sequence ends. We're with him forever. Starting the day you believed. That includes right now. We're in Christ. We're in Him. And that makes a huge, massive difference. What a huge word, in, is. What an amazing thing the Lord has done. How amazing is the Lord's grace?

That's why Ephesians 2.7 says that the Lord will show, that word means demonstrate, visibly, He will show His grace to us on into the rolling ages to come.

And we will go, ah, ah, ah. I don't know how I'm going to exhale and inhale, but gasping in amazement. And to say millions and trillions and whatever numbers go beyond that of years is no way to measure it. We will still be amazed. when there are no longer human numbers to put to it.

We will be amazed at His grace, that He so graciously identified us with Christ, impacting our history, our present, and our eternity. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at these passages, as we look at the truths that you've laid out, who we are has been radically impacted. Our identity, our past, our present, our future, has been replaced. We are in you, and you see us in you, and we thank you for that.

And Lord, as we go from here, this will be a day that in one way will be like every other, and yet we go away from here as people who are like none other except those who are in you. What an awesome thing. What an amazing thing. How amazing your grace. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.