Identification Truths Plus 2012

known as the doctrine of the two men. Now, next week we are going to get into what is Romans 6, which is in fact the mechanical understanding of exactly what happened in identification. But before you get there, I think you have to understand the doctrine of the two men and why it is important. Somebody tell me why it is important. Why is it important that in the word of God he carefully points out these two men and characteristics about both men? Why is that important?

Russ? His sin resulted in death for all. And when Christ died for our sins, He brought grace and righteousness to all who believed. Okay. So, before that, why is Adam so important to us? Why is he such an important character? Because we get to know how miserable we are. I think he was the first one of us to Intimately know God and walk with Him. Okay. And then He sinned and boy that intimacy went out the window in a hurry, didn't it? Yes. So what's the big deal with Adam? Why should we know about Adam?

Sin nature is attached to Him. Louder. The sin nature is attached to Him. So the sin nature is attached to Him. You could say that all humanity is identified with Adam, right? We have an identity with Adam. Not only physically, but spiritually. So, whatever Adam is, that's what we are. That's identification.

So, what Romans 5.12-21 is saying, well here comes this other man, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is bringing something different. He is a man like Adam, in that he's a representative man. All are from Adam and all from Adam die. Here comes the second or the last Adam. You know why he's called the last Adam? Because he's human. No. Why would he be called the last Adam?

There's not going to be another representative man. There's only two, Adam and Christ, and every human being is either going to come from the one or the other. Now, the Lord Jesus physically didn't look any different than Adam, but boy was he different spiritually. He's a totally different kind of a man.

And so the reason that we look at Romans 5, 12-21 is to try to get as clear as we can in our minds, as much information as we can about the first Adam, and then begin to understand and get information about The last Adam, what Romans 6 is going to show us is, if you get a good understanding of who the first Adam is and all of his characteristics and this little phrase that says an Adam all die, then I would think you'd want to be really working hard to figure out how you can get free from him. Because if you're identified with him, you're dying.

Right? So did God offer a solution? Yeah, in Christ we live. Okay, so here's a trick question. Ready? And Courtney doesn't get to answer. Here's the trick question. Here comes Adam, and here you come, and you've all committed sins. And because you've committed sins, you've been condemned. Right? Jesus shows up. He dies on the cross and pays the penalty for your sins. your sins. Do you have a right as a forgiven sinner to be in the presence of a holy God?

I have a yes. I have a no. No. I have two no's. You know you don't. Why? Because he gave us a right once we believed. No. Why don't you have the right to be in the presence of a holy God? You're still deaf. You're still from Adam. Adam has no standing before God, none, because he's a sinner. There was a trial held in the Garden of Eden and the defendant was Adam and all those that are in Adam, right? But you're still a sinner.

Let's say that you're a thief. and you steal something and somebody says, well, you know, rather than you have to suffer the penalty, I'll pay off whatever you stole. Does that change the fact that you're still a thief? What if you paid off yourself? Well, you can't do that. But you stole. Oh, yeah, you stole. So you're a thief. Well, you were a thief. No, I am a thief.

Let me put it this way. We didn't want to tell you. Let me put it this way. Bruce has committed one sin in his life. Just one. That I know of. That was the only one. Is Bruce a sinner? Sure he is. Monique told me last night that he actually committed another sin. So now he's got two. So he's a sinner. By creation, by being an atom, he's a sinner.

A sinner has no right to be in the presence of the Holy God. So, what does God do? What does He do? He sends us Christ who has forgiven us all of our sins if we believe in Him. Okay, if you're just forgiven but you're still a sinner, you're still a sinner. Okay then, why do we have the boat? He takes you out of Adam and puts you into Christ. Yeah, see, the man Christ has all the acceptance before the Father. And if you're in Him, you have it too. I told you it was tricky. So the answer is not what you've done, the answer is what are you? What are you? See that? And what you are matters before God, not what you did. See that? Okay.

I don't want anybody to leave today not understanding these two men. That was the problem that Nicodemus had, wasn't it? He didn't understand he was a new man. Yeah, when Nicodemus went to the Lord and said, you know, I'm a Pharisee, I really have it together. And he said, unless you're born again, you're never going to see the kingdom of God. And he went, huh? I got all the credentials I need. And the Lord said, nope.

Unless you're born anew, born from heaven, you will never see, nor will you ever enter into the kingdom of God. Why not? Because a forgiven sinner who is not born anew is still a sinner. And he has no right before God because that man and all men in Adam were at the trial in the Garden of Eden. And guess who lost the trial? The defendant was found guilty.

And when you're found guilty, then there's a sentence handed out. What was the sentence? Death. your condemnation. Okay? So we have, what I'm trying to get you to understand is there's a difference between the penalty for the actions that you've committed and what you are and who you are. So here's another trick question, Monique, pay attention. It is a trick question. Hopefully it makes you think.

Did God forgive the sin nature? No. Did God forgive your sin nature? Well, I guess so. He separated us from it. What did he do with the sin nature? He killed it. He condemned it. He crucified it. You the person were crucified with Christ, but that sin nature that you have has been condemned to death.

But you have been resurrected in Christ. The great thing about you, Monique, is when you leave the planet and go home to be with the Lord, your sin nature doesn't go with you. But we still have it now. You still have it now, but you're not identified with it. It's not our master. That's right. Well, it's not supposed to be our master. It doesn't have to be.

So, with that in mind, I think we got down to question four, right? Everybody have Lesson 11? Are we alright? Does everybody have copies of this stuff? Okay. Let's start with 3. You know what justification of life means? Justification of life. What does it mean? It's one of those terms that you see. It's question 3. Justification of life. What does it mean? it goes to what I was just talking about. No, it's more than that.

If you've been justified, what's the word justified mean? It means to be declared righteous. It just means that God said, Randy, I declare you righteous. But then he says, we need more than that. We need what the Bible talks about as a justification of life. What is that? What's the difference between just a regular ordinary Wal-Mart justification and justification of life?

And we're condemned to death and in Christ we are too. That condemnation is gone and we're justified to live. That's good. That's really good. You see it's one thing to be justified and have a standing. It's another thing to be in the position of life. You see that? We're not only forgiven and justified, we have been placed by God and declared by God to be in life. Does that make sense? I'm not getting a lot of nods. So, to be in life right now, because now eternal life starts? Maybe put it this, here's what I wrote, the notes I wrote down which might help.

The ordinary conception of justification does not go beyond the pardon of sin. Everybody understands your sins have been pardoned, you've been justified. This indeed is first and we should also have confidence that our sins will never be reckoned against us. If you're in this class and you think your sins are going to be reckoned against you, you need to move. Because we're convinced that that's not going to happen. whether they're past, present, or future, now. But this leaves us, the believer, without a positive standing, a positive position.

We do not come to justification of life until you get to Romans 5.18. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through the one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

Not only cancellation of guilt, release from penalty, but life and standing in the risen Christ. You see the difference now? Justification of life means that you have a standing in the resurrected Christ, in life now. You used to be in this thing called death, now you're in life.

Does that make sense? So, if death is separation, then life is Christ and it's relationship. Awesome. That's good. Through Christ's act of righteousness at the cross, it not only cancels your guilt, but you have life in the risen one. How cool is that? You have life in him. That's justification of life. That's what it means. Is that why it's so difficult for people to grasp that? Because we want to do something, you know, instead of accepting. We want to work for something.

Yeah, and you know in most Christian environments the focus is on the fact that Christ died for my sins. There's no discussion very much about, well what did he do with me, the sinner? What did he do with me? Because I know that if I don't figure out that he better have done something more than just pay for my sins, it isn't going to stop me from producing more sins.

How is it possible for me to live righteously and holy if I'm still the same old dog I always was? It's not possible. It's not. But you know, he didn't stop there. He put us in Christ and gave us a standing in Christ of righteousness of life. We have this thing life. And you know what's cool about the new life that we have? Does it have a problem with sin? No. No it doesn't. Because it's his life. So your whole identity now is his life.

And John 1.4, way back before any discussion about identification, John, the writer of the Gospel of John says, in him was life. Nobody had it, life, until Jesus shows up.

Okay? Can you tell me exactly what life is? Oh, wow. I think every time you see the word life in the word, You're talking about the life of God. He is not only life, he's the giver of life. He's the reason you exist. And it depends on the kind of life you have. He gives animal life. Is that being aware of relationship? Well, death is separation. I think Holly said it well. Death is separation.

Life is being joined to Christ, with Christ, and it is It is the empowering of His Holy Spirit. In general, the Christians focus upon the death of Christ, He died for me. All Christians focus on it, right? But the growing believer, his life must be the focal point of faith. It must be Christ, who is his very life. Colossians 3, for you died and your life, life now, is hid with Christ in God.

Listen, Galatians 2.20, I've been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

How cool is that? See, so you have this thing and we have this thing now that my buddy across the street in the White House doesn't have. It's called life. and it is the very life of the resurrected Christ himself. That's the entire purpose and definition of what this class is all about. That's exactly right. The purpose of the class is to show you how you got the life.

And you did not get the life by just having your sins forgiven. See that? Big difference. And you didn't get life by being a good person. How's that working out for you? It takes me out of the equation. I know. Now you're working on the third sin. I don't know.

I think the other thing is, too, that the payment of sins is one thing, but it was the gracious act of placing us in. He didn't have to. He paid for the sins. But the gracious part is, after he paid for the sins, he put us into Christ. He put us in Christ. That's the gracious act. Because he could have paid for the sins and left us sinners. But he didn't. And that's the beautiful part. It is the beautiful part.

And as you get a grasp on what you get in Christ, I don't like to put it that way, but we're pretty self-centered, so that's okay. Let's go back on the list. Yeah, back on the list. What you know that you, who you are in Christ and what the blessings that you have, those blessings and that grace that you live in and that life you have will slowly but ever so surely Take your focus off of the world, flesh, the devil, politics, and focus you in on Christ.

Because Colossians, when Paul says, since you be risen with Christ, is that a true statement? Are you risen with Christ? Are you or not? Not. Gotta make up your mind. If you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your mind, your affection, your heart on things above and not on things of the earth. And then he tells you why. Why? Because you died. And your life is hid with Christ and God.

You know, I think that's all good, but we also have to work, get a job, take care of our kids, so what do we do with that? It's like I coached her to say stuff. We're going out to lunch today. Do you see what that statement supposes? that this thing called life, who is Christ, is lazy, I can't earn a living, I can't function unless I have the self to function in. Well yeah, how do you pay your rent? How does the life of the resurrected Christ pay my rent? But I mean that's why you have to be partly, partly you have to be of the world. No you don't.

Then the Lord Jesus Christ, he got his rent paid, how did he do it? He didn't have to pay rent. Sure he did. He had to eat, didn't he? Renter to Caesar went Caesar. You know, one of the reasons I think that he didn't start his ministry until he was 30 years old is because Joseph died and he had to raise his brothers and get them all off and going before he could start his ministry. So how did he do it? He was a carpenter. Yeah, so you were. You think he ever hit his thumb with a hammer? that he was living in light.

The misunderstanding is that resurrected life doesn't know how to earn a living, doesn't know how to take care of its family, that you'll sit around apathetically watching Christian programs. Well, you know, it says in the Bible too, we're expected to work, we're expected to be in relationships with other people, and that's all just part of it. You know, the Apostle Paul, at the end of his life, literally said, this resurrected life that has been functioning through my body has worn my body out because my old body isn't designed to function with this incredible resurrected life that's in me. You don't know what it's like to perform until you abide in Christ resurrected. You have no idea in terms of, not only do I have a responsibility to feed my family, I have a responsibility to love my wife as Christ loved the church. Where in the self am I going to do that? I have all this stuff in the resurrected life of Christ that without the Spirit of God it never gets done.

See? But God uses those things to teach us and to reach others. So if we were sitting around doing nothing, I think it's more of a, are you doing it for you or are you looking to Christ that I'm going to work because God wants, He's put me on this earth, I'm an ambassador, and use me how you want at work or wherever. Because work in and of itself is not bad. I challenge people once in a while when they call me up with that, oh life in Christ means apathy. I say go ahead and try it. Help yourself. I mean you've got the Spirit of God in you. and you're beginning to understand what resurrected life is, sit on your butt and see how long it lasts.

I think one of the interesting misconceptions of that is that it would be impossible for that to be the case and for Paul to write the requirements for elders that this guy has a long-standing business relationship with secular people and is considered... How would that be possible? It's impossible. If you weren't working.

That's what he said to the rich young man, sell all you have, give it to the poor and come follow me. Oh, I can't do that. I figure I'm on the earth maybe, well at my age, not so much longer, but I'm going to live all eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is just a sneeze. You know, I think the thing is too, it's a life. It's just living. That's right. Living a life. It's life. You know, I go back to even in this 17, you know, with Jesus.

You know, where he says, I've given them your word and the world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So, you know, it's Christ's life, just like Christ lived. We have the same life. It's a life, not doing. And I think the question is, you know, what you're saying is, It's not doing. It's just a life. It's a life in Christ.

And you're just manifesting that as you live. And it's a great question, Monique, because it is one of those tactics that your sin nature will use inside of you to make you think that, well, I've got to resort to my old self every now and then because the relevancy is there.

No, you don't. You can trust Christ with every second of your life from now on. and you will fulfill not only the obligations you think you have, but all the others that you didn't even know you had. This is the utensil being used, but the force behind that utensil is how it gets done and what it gets done towards. Because I'm thinking of one of the verses, don't work as unto men, you work as unto the Lord.

That his life is enabling me to do towards him, so it's very... Well, if you have the life of the resurrected Christ, you have that, right? I do. So, let's see, the Lord Jesus sustains the universe every second of every day, right? Absolutely. And he doesn't get worn out doing it. That's right. He knows the thoughts and hearts of every human being that ever lived and knows them right now.

So you think he's capable with this resurrected life in me to keep me moving? Hopefully I need to move on so we can get to the motivation of that life. The motivation of the old life is law, intimidation, fear of failure. You know what the motivation of the new life is?

Grace. Grace is the most powerful motivator in the universe. And kind of the opposite in a way is that you could find yourself in a position or a job or something where you're making bucket loads of money and it could come pretty easily and it's kind of like what you do with that money and you know so you don't have to feel like oh I'm you know climbing the ladder and walking all over people to get to money versus our own kind of thing like I want the money for me versus like maybe God puts you in a position that you're making a lot of money or something so you can be a good steward of it. The reasoning is all in what your motivation is and how you think about it.

Would you give your life for somebody else? Yes. What if they owed you five bucks, would you give it to them? One thing I'm curious about is, you know how we're new creatures in Christ, and we live this Christ life, but we still have the demic fallen nature in us. Paul says, I no longer live. Is that the demic part? And who is the I that's living?

Yeah, Galatians 2.20, who are the I's? I have been crucified with Christ. What I is that? Old man, new man. Old man, nevertheless I live. Who I is that? And the life I now live, new man, in the flesh, I live, new man, by the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

See, when you start talking about life, life isn't something that's in a jar in a cupboard. Life is dynamic and this is God himself that lives in you. You don't have to go and rely on anything out of the flesh. You do go there, but you don't have to. Paul was the same as us because there's a verse that says the things he wants to do, he doesn't want to. He does. He's trying to live the Christian life out of referring back to the flesh in a legal system.

You know what he found out? O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then two verses later he says in 8, there's a new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. And what has that new principle of the spirit of life done? It has freed me from the law of sin and death.

That's a perfect tense. I'm free. I don't have to go there anymore. Nice discussion. Perfect. What does it mean to be set down as a sinner? It's an adjective here. I'll do it quickly. I'm sorry, it's not an adjective, but it's what they call a substantive. It's essential. It's what you are.

You were set down, all men were set down as sinners. Verse 19, through one man's disobedience and many were made or set down as sinners, even so through the obedience of one, the many will be made righteous. The whole emphasis is upon the fact, is not upon the fact, I'm sorry the fact but the effect of the fact. Does that make sense? Whether the case of Adam or in the case of Christ was produced by a federal head acting apart from the actions of those affected, but you sinned in Adam.

So contrast obedience with disobedience. We need to get your kids in here for this one, right? No. It's kind of like choosing sides, isn't it? Like I'll choose the God side or the world side. Okay. And it's like siding up with God. The Greek words used here are kind of interesting. Para, P-A-R-A-K-O. I've got E-E-S. I don't know why I have two E's.

And what that means is it means mishearing. The other one is Hupa Koes, which is H-U-P-A-K-O-E-E-S, which means submissive hearing. Disobedience can be defined in its essence as a refusal to hearken. It's a refusal to listen. Where obedience can be defined as bowing the ear to submissive listening.

One of the cool things, if you're ever involved in marriage counseling or premarital counseling, you always get to this point where wives submit yourself to your husbands, right? And usually the wives, the hair goes up on their shoulders. I'm probably sure you should have used a better metaphor. But think about it. This word, submit, is the same word. It means to listen under. Or to listen under. It's not servitude. It's listening under. Yeah, because, but that's also, and the husband is supposed to put his wife on a pedestal. So it kind of works together, right? I mean, maybe it's the wrong word. But you know what?

The husband's job is to love his wife, and here's the requirement, as Christ loves the church and gave himself for it. And he's to present her holy and blameless before him in love. So what that says to me is there's going to come a time when I'm going to have to take Donna up to the Lord and say, here she is. How'd I do? Without that resurrected life, it doesn't get done. Because I'm just as nasty as Bruce. What's that? Which eye? The new eye. Okay, now here's a statement. Well, this isn't kind of tricky, but listen closely.

Was the life the Lord Jesus had before the cross counted to us for righteousness? Understand the question? No. I'll say it slower and louder. It's like, you know, when you're running into somebody in Czechoslovakia and you're trying to speak their language, you speak English louder and slower. Was the life that Christ lived before the cross counted to us for righteousness?

No. Yes. No. No. Because Christ had to be on the cross. There you go. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the life before the cross, which was his active obedience, right? as it is called, is not in any sense counted to us for righteousness. Because then he would have just been another guy, right?

But when he says, I knew you before the foundations of the earth, because we are placed in him, so it's eternal, how come that's not part of the eternal? It is part of the eternal. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundations of eternity. However, In time-space reality, he was born and lived for 33 years before he was crucified. And the point is, the life that you have is post-crucifixion, resurrected life.

So although he was a terrific guy before he was crucified, that's not the reckoning. He didn't obey the law for you. How did you satisfy the requirements of the law? How did you? Louder. Sure you did. How did you do it? You died. You died. You know, you're a dirty rotten dog and the law came running after you, it got you, got a hold of you, took you up on that cross and you died with Christ. That's how the law got fulfilled. And so if you died to the law, do you have any more reason to mess with it? No, you don't. You don't.

Let's say, for example, let's say Courtney shoots me and I die, and he goes to trial, he gets condemned, and they're going to send him down to Canyon City and give him the juice. So he's walking down the thing to go to the gas chamber, and he falls over dead from a heart attack. Are they going to pick up his body and take him in there and give him the juice? No. Why not? He's dead.

So why would you mess around with the law if you already died? You wouldn't. Legally, he was not guilty because he did not meet the requirements of the judgment. Say that again. Legally, he was not guilty of the crime because he died prior to execution of the crime. But he shot me. What are you talking about? That sin was paid for but didn't they get him? They didn't get him. They didn't get him because he died before he got there.

It's a legal kind of sin. So was a law given to either one of the Adams, the first Adam or the last Adam? No. That's a trick question, isn't it? Was the law, and we're talking about the Mosaic Law, was it given to the first Adam? No. No, he didn't. How about the last Adam? Christ. He fulfilled it. How did he fulfill it? There you go. So the law wasn't given to either one of them, but look at the verse, is it 19 or 20?

20. trespass might increase, but worse than increase, grace increases. Now look, it's this really important part. Here's the sin nature functioning in those Jewish guys, right?

They had them, like it or not. Here comes the law alongside, external to them, but alongside them. And what was it designed to do? What does it say that it was designed to do? fulfill any of the laws so that the trespass might increase. That's right. Israel was vain, self-confident, but when God gave them the law, what happened?

It cataloged all of their sins and made every one of those items a transgression. So no matter how arrogant they were, and how self-confident they were, once the law was imposed on them, what happened? They're all in big trouble. Big trouble. Because it smoked old Adam out. The law came alongside so that what?

That sin, is that singular in there? It's not sins, right? It's sin, isn't it? Look in the verse 20. Sin, what's sin? Remember we saw the difference between sins and sin? What's sin? Sin is the Adamic sinful nature, right, the old man? When the law comes along next to the sin nature, what does it cause the sin nature to do?

Go in a nursery today, pick any two year old you want, put this on the table and say don't touch it. You know what that proves? That the law causes the sin nature to rally. What do you mean I can't touch it? That's the problem with every person ever on a diet. You can't have that chocolate. Oh my gosh, I want his chocolate. I never noticed the chocolate until you said don't touch it. So understand what the law's purpose was. It was to make sin exceedingly sinful. And it was the catalog and category. It's like doing a QuickBooks program. How many laws were there? 624? 613 catalog categories in the quick and sin or in the mosaic law system. And every time you clicked on one, oh, there's another one.

You know, I couldn't. I spent all my time trying to duck those 613 and all they did was bury me. Now, let's see. Oh, I got to go to the next sheet. We are moving along. What did Christ say his work in this world was? What did he say he was here to do?

Fulfill the law. Bring eternal life. The son of man came to give his life for a ransom. Through the eternal spirit he offered himself without blemish to God. The reason that the Lord was perfect in his 33 years was so that he could be a spotless lamb.

You see that? He couldn't have any of us up there on the cross. It had to be Christ. I'm going to jump down to 11. What did the Laws of Rival Accomplice regard sin? We've talked about that. Made us aware of it. What's that? Made us aware of sin. Well, it not only made us aware, but what it did was it caused sin to explode.

Here's maybe an example. Some of us go camping. We all should go camping. And sometimes they don't have a fire ban, so you get to have a bonfire. So the bonfire is a sin nature and that can of gasoline that you have in your camper is the law. So when somebody comes and says, put out the fire and you go get the can of gasoline to put out the fire, what happens to the fire? That's what the law does. Okay. That's exactly what the law does. It's not water. It's an inflammatory substance.

Because they're taught that if you have a set of rules and you can obey them, you'll be better than you were. Or you will achieve righteousness through your own effort. In Galatians, Paul says, if righteousness was by the law, then what? Then Christ died in vain. If you could earn your righteousness, let's say you could.

Let's take a guy, a really cool holy Jewish rabbi, and he could fulfill the law, and he walks up to God and he says, I did it. What's God going to say to him? Nice going? What kind of standing does he have? He's still an Adam, and he's still a human being, and he has no association with Christ. He has no standing at all. It made him self-righteous is what happened. And then you get pride, so boom, sin. You can't win for a reason in this game. Okay, now the last part. How does grace superabound when sin abounded? Read the last verse. This is a really, really cool verse. God gave us grace that was greater than Read it out loud.

Somebody read it. Twenty? Twenty. Twenty-one. Well, twenty it is. Twenty, I'm sorry. The law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And then you want twenty-one? Yeah, I do. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. smoke out all the Adamic nature, right? The sin nature. And it does its purpose. It causes the sin nature to explode. But then he brings in Christ and this thing called grace.

Now, can you out-sin grace? No. You sure? Yes. You weren't thinking that you might be able to? No. Maybe put it this way. Can you personally sin enough that you could finally get God mad at you again? No. Haven't any of you ever entertained the thought that, you know, I've done that so many times and God is punishing me for it? Well, I think that, but he doesn't. Yeah, see that's the point. You can't.

Grace is a super abounding environment. Now let's talk about grace. Notice it says that sin reigned. Remember we talked about reign? What's reigning mean? Rule. It's an operating system in which sin and death own you. You can't escape. It's like living in one of those iron curtain countries in the 1960s. You had no freedom whatsoever. So sin is a dominating, controlling factor.

But what does the last part of that verse say? When sin reigned, what's supposed to happen? Grace did much more abound. So here we have the introduction to grace. at the end of a discussion with two men and what they brought to the table and the law comes in alongside to cause sin to abound and now the Lord Jesus and what he has done in grace becomes the principle under which you live.

Don't you think of grace as like it's a commodity on the Chicago board of options exchanges? Or like the Catholics think about grace, they have three categories of it, and it's like a service station, and you pull in, I think I need 14 gallons of sanctifying grace. And then I'm going to put 2 gallons of whatever the other kind of grace is. But grace isn't a commodity. Grace is an operating system.

You see that? And like Courtney said, we can say thank you, that's it. One of the greatest problems when people think that they can outsing grace They think that somehow God is sovereign enough to do all kinds of things, but wasn't smart enough to know about eternity and the future, where I was going to sin and do that one thing. It's like, oh, I forgot to have my son pay for that. Yeah. Yeah. There were so many that I missed that one. Yeah. Yeah. But it was only care and sin that they missed. Yeah. Absolutely.

God's omnipotence and omnipresence and solitude quality that makes grace sufficient and superbound. So, you have two men, Adam and Christ, you have two reigning principles, one is sin and death, the other is grace and life. Which one do you live under? Grace and life. You sure? Absolutely sure.

Then don't go back and try to take some from the old to make things work. What's the definition of grace? Macaulay's definition is the best. It's unmerited blessing. It's unlimited blessing. And what's it based on? It's what Christ did on the cross. So if it's unmerited, how do you earn it? Oh, that means, like Monique, we're going to get apathetic. No, it's a gift. It's a gift God gave us. It's not only a gift, it's the environment you live in. You live in grace.

You didn't work for it. You didn't work for it. And you know, when we try to go back and take from the old, God just will bring us around. Taking from the old is going back into a lost system, which is condemnation. And what is the spirit of God's job? He's to convince you of where you are and what you're doing, but at the same time restore you so that you will live under grace.

Now if it's unlimited, any thought that you entertain, that your own personal sinfulness, somehow there isn't enough grace for that, is a ridiculous thought. You see that? Once you get to the point that you truly believe and reckon that there is no sin too big, I got to that point once after being here for a while. I remember that all of a sudden I realized I could go out and do something that was sinful, but it's kind of like it lost its flavor. Yeah, it's like once you believe that there's nothing you can do and that God loves you that much, all this other sin stuff does not seem so... I mean, it has to do with what you said, the law.

Now, do the positive side of that. This resurrected life you have, being dwelt by the Holy Spirit, living under grace, I'll be darned, I kind of like this righteousness. It's cool. I love hanging around with these people that love the Lord Jesus. They're all nerdy, but boy, is it cool to be around them. It's like all that stuff you wanted. I'm one of those guys that I have kind of a reputation with my old buddies. And every time I'm around them now, they go, we know what you're really like. And I say, no you don't. They told me, right? Believe me. Well, I mean, we're all, that's what we all were.

But now who am I? Well, am I now a person who is saved and my sins paid for? But really I'm this little guy over here that, that's not who I am. It isn't only that I'm forgiven, I'm a brand new creature, suited out by God, resurrected in Christ to live and function in an environment of grace. That's who I am. Yeah, and it comes natural once you have believed. Hey, after 45 minutes I finally persuaded you. It comes natural. That's right.

What I think is awesome about grace is that over time the Lord shows us where we're like, okay, I have a technical dictionary definition of grace and I'm done now. We grow in it. That's why Peter ends his letter with, grow in the knowledge of grace. Second Peter, grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. You don't grow into it, you're in it and that's where you flourish. You put seeds in the ground, they grow in the dirt that they're in. You grow because you're already in the grace. You're not growing into it. That's right.

What was the technical definition again? It's the unlimited and unmerited blessings from God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Alright, now next week we start into Romans 6 and what we're going to discover is how God pulled all this off. How did he do it? Mechanically. How did he get Bruce out of Adam into Christ? How did he do it?

And like you didn't have to have that sort of healing. Two at least. Let's close. Any more questions? Let's close. Father, how we thank you for your grace and the fact that we live under it. We thank you for your spirit that you're so careful about revealing to us and allowing us to live in that grace and in it to behold the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.