Identification Truths Plus 2012

We are right on 21, lesson 21. I think we got to, we got, I think. To the fold in the paper. To the fold in the paper. So, we are at the Identification Truths, Lesson 21, and we are, I think, we got through Question 6, but I'll go through it quickly again, because that's kind of one of the starting points for the next whole set of questions.

So, what is the definition of grace? And I started off, Lewis Berry Chafer defined grace as the limitless, unrestrained love of God for the lost, acting in full compliance with the exact and unchangeable demands of his own righteousness, through the sacrificial death of Christ. Now, I like that one, but that's a mouthful.

How do you get all of that under three to six? Yeah, leave enough space there for you to get all that down there. So that was Lewis Perry Schaefer. And we've talked about Chester McCauley. had boiled this down. He basically took a lot of what Lewis Barry Chaffer had, and as I said last week, the book that Lewis Barry Chaffer has on grace is a tremendous book, probably one of the better books on grace.

However, it is one of those ones where you read it three times, every chapter, every page, three times to really see what he's getting at and how he's explaining it. Jesse McCullough kind of boiled it down, took basically his definition and boiled it down to what we use now. For those of you who have heard this several times, what is our definition of grace as boiled down by Chester McAuley? Unlimited, unmerited, unsolicited blessings of God based on Christ's life and death and sacrifice for us for freedom from sin.

That's the long version. Okay. Anybody else? Have you heard? Our boiled down version is grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessing of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Short and simple to remember. And really the words, the unmerited and unlimited, and then the totally adequate work of Christ. Those are the key words in our definition. So grace is the unmerited and unlimited blessing of God based on the totally adequate work of Christ. So with that we move to question seven. What are the three essential parts in the definition of grace? That's what you just said. Limited, unmerited, and Christ totally adequate. There you go. It was simple. See, I think we can get through these questions pretty easily now. That's what I was hoping on last week we'd get through.

So, the three essential parts of grace are the unmerited blessings of God. Grace is always unmerited. So it's always unmerited. And then the second, grace is the unlimited blessings of God. Can you ever overwork grace? Can you ever overwork it? Can you ever take more grace than there is? Never. If it's unlimited, there's no way I can outdo it.

Okay? And then grace is based on a totally adequate work of Christ. Again, how you get the unmerited part is that it was all done by Christ. The grace was based on what Christ did. And so, you know, the unmerited part becomes more logical, if you want to put it that way, is because Christ did it all. He paid the price for the sin. Now, again, when you think of the cross and the sin, was that a gracious act of Christ paying for the sins?

Yeah. It was? Yeah. No. Grace came afterwards? Grace comes afterwards. The payment was was a judicial. It was that Christ would pay for the sins. It was a judicial act. Salvation is based on grace. He didn't, you know, again, He didn't have to give us salvation after payment of sins. He could have left us as sinners. But He graciously what? Offers us salvation. So always remember that. When you're sinned, that's paid for, done.

That's why I say, I think in my prayer, the only thing left right now is who is Christ. That's the only question left for this world and the lost, is who is Christ. That's the only question, because the sin's been paid for. So, have the sins been paid for only Americans? For Portuguese? for, name whatever you want, for the Western Hemisphere. Is that the only one that the sins have been paid for? Who? All. All. All. So is that only for believers or unbelievers? Everybody. Everybody. That's the key.

The sin question has been taken care of by Christ. And a lot of people don't understand that, but it's been paid for. So we always say, Mike's favorite guy, the guy across the street in the White House over here, are his sins paid for? Yes, the answer is yes. So what is the issue then? The only issue is who is Christ and do you believe by a simple unmerited act of faith, believe in the finished work of Christ on the cross? That's the only question left for every human being. Because the sin question is taken care of. So, again, we have the unmerited and unlimited blessings based on the totally adequate work of Christ. Those three things. So, let's move on to question 8. Read Ephesians 2, 5. And then what are the three elements to this verse?

Can I go back? You certainly can. I don't like the word adequate. It sounds like it's just enough. We'll get into some of these things as the words will become super abounding and those. You know, on ours... He said totally adequate. And the totally kind of increases. It's the multiplier on that. And I think it is... I guess when I...

Adequate, there's nothing else. Nothing else. I can't add to it. We'll get into the definitions of grace, how it's super abounding and all that, but it's totally adequate. There's nothing more I can add to it. The adequacy was from what God demanded. Because of His righteousness it was enough. God is infinite, so the adequacy has to be infinite. So it isn't just up to the standard, it's up to the standard of God himself. Yeah, so we could paraphrase it as totally satisfying God's righteous demands. Yeah, for appreciation. Yeah, the 25 cent word for appreciation.

It's way more than we need, but it was adequate for what God demanded. Yeah, and I guess the way I use it, thinking it was more adequate, there's nothing more. I mean, there isn't anything else. If you leave any connotation that there's something else that needs to be done, then inadequate to me, that was what was needed.

Okay, so in Ephesians 2.5, what are the three elements of this verse? So we're going to look at the recipients of grace and what they bring to the table.

So Ephesians 2.5, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Okay, so what are some of the elements of this?

I called out three. Once we're dead. We were dead. We're alive. We're alive. We're safe. It's great. It takes for granted. Grace. Yep. Yep. Any others? Grace. I thought we were just... I was thinking, I guess I'm a little confused about the grace versus the judicial act. Say that again, sorry. It says we're saved through grace because of the judicial act that grace did. Okay. Okay. Any others before I lay out mine? Okay. These people are saved. That's a blessing. Okay? They're saved.

What was the basis of that? Holly gave it. What was the basis of it? Holly? Faith? No. No. What? Grace. Grace. Okay. So, now the important part. What was the payment? What did we give for this blessing and grace? What did we give? Nothing. Well, we did come with something. What was that? A bunch of junk. Well, you kind of hit it off at the beginning. What did we come to the table with? Sin. Sin? It's in the first part of the verse. Even when we were what? Dead. We came with a corpse. That's what we came with. We were dead. We were dead in sin. And while dead, God gave enormous blessing and gave us salvation.

Is that why people don't know what they're doing? Because they're actually dead, in a way, in their sins? Actually, yes. That's why the carnal mind doesn't understand some of those things. And it's only through the Holy Spirit. Convicting and convincing us. Because otherwise, the carnal mind is dead.

It truly is, isn't it? And again, why this is so important in the fact that in grace and even our believing, it's in simple faith. It's not a meritorious act, nothing of merit. And again, it's not in how we believe, it's in what we believe, the veracity of what we believe in. It's not our faith.

The object. They are dead men walking. Dead men walking. So we come with a corpse. That's our addition to this fine equation. We come with a corpse. We're dead. From this text we see that the recipient of grace does not contribute anything except a dead body. Basically that's all. So, what about the character of the recipient of grace expressed in this verse? What's the character of it? Worthless. Nothing. Dead. They don't contribute anything. They did not merit blessing in any sense. There was no merit to the blessing.

We were dead when we came. And by grace, the gracious act, we obtained salvation. So again, we're getting to this, trying to express some of the when we go unmerited, what that really means. I mean, what do we come with? We come with a dead body. So, we'll continue on this in question 9.

Read Romans 5.20, and what is the contribution made by the recipient of grace in this verse?

So, in Romans 5.20, the law came in that transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So, what did we offer? What did we offer? Yeah, we came in with increased sin. Against the background of increased sin, grace did much more abound. So when we come in, we're offering sin. This is taking it in a different direction, I think. I think you're going to jump ahead, but that's okay. No, I don't know. I mean, we offer nothing.

But we admit a lot, I think, when we're admitting that we're not king of our dead little universe It's understanding who you are and the sin question, and that's when you read through the first part of Romans, Romans 3 through 3, you know, all have sinned, all have, you know, and you understand who you are, which the Holy Spirit convinces you of that, that you are a sinner, and that there's a gap between you and God that can't be filled by any effort of your own.

That's the convincing and the admitting in the faith is admitting that you are a sinner and that you need the Lord Jesus as your Savior. So there is, I can see the admitting part, but that's I think the Holy Spirit convicting you of who you are in Adam. That's really the understanding and that's the admitting of who you are in Adam. And then it's the, by faith, accepting the free gift of salvation in Christ. Okay.

So, does something seem contradictory in this verse, Romans 5.20? Where sin increased, grace abound all the more. Yeah, it seems like there's a limit to grace in the way it's Right. So, do you think it's limited? No, I don't, but I mean, you're wanting us to come up with something that... Well, anybody else before I give what? See, it's easy for me because I have all the answers. So, I have all the answers.

What's contradictory in this verse? The more you sin, the more grace. Exactly. Doesn't that sound really weird? Yeah. Grace increased all the more. So, if you sin, grace increases. It's a true statement, Thomas. It's a true statement, but isn't that... I don't think that's what it's saying. So what do you think it's saying? I think it's saying that grace was so great that whatever sin you committed, even if you continue, the grace was already there. Absolutely. And that's why it's a true statement, in that you can't out-sin grace. There's no way. This verse tells you that no matter what your sin is, grace abounds all the more.

Matt? The other thing it tells you is that if you apply law to sin, the result is an explosion of sin. And so the thinking would be if I... I've always thought that law somehow would regulate and keep me from sinning, but when law comes in, the word says, sin explodes. So the question is, well, would grace keep pace? You know, if I do bring law in, sin explodes, is grace going to compensate?

Yeah, and it does. It super abounds. It's more than, and the point I think of this first, and actually it's kind of interesting because we'll go in the next couple of questions, we'll go in about how Paul answers this also, and doesn't retract this statement. Because it sounds illogical to me. Okay, if we sin, we have more grace. Hey, hey, hey, I like this system. I like where this is going. Which Paul will answer. But what this also tells me is grace is unmerited.

Because it's saying if sin is increasing, grace abounds all the more. Is there any merit in sinning while grace is being poured out. I mean, there's no merit in sinning, but he's pouring out grace. So grace has to be unmerited, because it's nothing of what I'm doing. If I sin, he's pouring out grace all the more. So it points to the unmerited part of how grace is, because if it was merited, how could you say sin is increasing, or sin and grace increases?

Is that a merit-based system? No, it can't be. I would say though that at the end of Romans 6, that the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life. I mean, you work at it, and you get the reward. Like Vern's been saying in the message, you have to work to get this. When we get to the next question, Seth, we'll address that. Okay? Okay.

So, Romans 5, 6-10, and then give four words that describe the recipient of grace from these verses. I'll read it. Romans 5, 6-10 For while we were still helpless at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one would hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." So, question, give four words that describe the recipients of grace. I'll try it.

Helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. Well, anybody else? ungodly that we have. Okay? Holly nails them all. So from verse 6, for while we were still helpless, we were still helpless. Notice the contribution we made to deserve the blessing. Helpless, without strength, is in the King James. Without strength. So we came, we were helpless. Also from verse 6, at the right time Christ died, Grace, for the ungodly. We were ungodly.

So, you know, just kind of at a halfway point, can you see how the recipients of Grace deserved it? They got saved, but what did they contribute? You understand, we're trying to get to the unmerited. Hammering home how Grace is an unmerited system. because we were helpless and we were ungodly as recipients. And this is, we're talking about in salvation. So we'll get into the operating system as a believer through grace, but it's still the same principles of unmerited.

So from verse eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us that in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So we were sinners. So, if you read this verse in the light of what we deserve, verse 8, what we should read, now this is if we deserve it, should read, God judges us while we are yet sinners. That's how it should read. I mean, if we're a fair system, we're sinners. We should be judged for it, but we're not.

We have a grace system. God judges that. That's what should occur, but there's a different principle. It's called God's grace. God is able to give blessing on an unmerited basis. So if you really think he should be judging us for the sin, but it's not.

The sin question has been taken care of, now he graciously acts in salvation. From verse 10, for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son. Again, notice that the pattern is the same all the way through, undeserved, unmerited blessings. So, the four things that we came to the table with, we were helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God. And God demonstrates grace, which should give us to the fact that it's unmerited. It's not what we do. This is His system poured out upon us. And we'll get to the point where we get to where the only thing we can do is say thank you. So, moving on to the next question set. You guys have all that? 22? Who has it? You mean 22? Everybody got it? You got 22? What's the next one? Oh, you got that one, okay. Alright, so, moving on in this.

2 Corinthians 12 and 9, and then we'll ask the question, what is the recipient's qualifications for receiving God's grace based on this verse? So, we're continuing on the unmerited part. 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10 I'll read. And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Okay? So the background for God's blessing was what? Well, Paul's weakness. Weakness. He had an infirmity in the flesh and wanted to have God take care of it.

Yeah, I mean, well, and again, if there's value and, I don't know, wages of what you do, then how does that square with grace? If there's any power in you or any value of your contribution to grace, how does that add to or negate grace? That negates the next verse Romans 4. So what does it show based on our definition of grace?

Again, I've already given it away five times. Unmerited. Unmerited. We know this because of the character of the recipient. As we'll see in the next few verses, we'll also know this because in Scripture it says grace is the opposite of merit. And obviously the opposite of merit would be no merit or unmerited. Okay? So, going on to question two.

Read Romans 4.4. And then we'll ask the questions, what does the verse say about grace? And I don't know if I have it on the question sheet. The New American Standard Bible uses the word favor in its translation. The Greek word is charis, or grace.

And New King James says, now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. Right. And the NASB is, now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, grace, but what is due? Now him that worketh is of reward, and not reckoned of grace, but of debt. So to clarify this first, let's insert some words to make it clear. Now the one who puts in 40 hours, is the paycheck not counted as favor, but what is owed to him? What is owed to him if he works for him?

Example of a paycheck. You don't pick up a paycheck based on grace from the employer. He doesn't just come in and graciously hand you a check, right? You pick it up based on the debt accrued by the employer for your work. You don't count when I get a check, I don't get a grace check. Just because of the grace of, well actually I'm self-employed, so I'm gracious to myself. But you work for somebody. When you get your check, it's not just grace, is it? No. No, why? Because what? You work for it. You work for it. You work for it.

You know, for the first time now, I understand When that man in the vineyard, someone came early in the morning, and some late at the end of the day, and he gave them all the same pay. And you know, I thought, I used to think, well that really isn't that good of a step, but that's grace. If it's not based on any, like I said, if it's work and the debt accrued, it's not grace. I mean, someone for their whole life long living as a Christian, has the same amount of grace as the one at the tail end?

Oh yeah, it's full on full. Everybody has the same. You know, the graphic that Vern uses upstairs a lot is Niagara Falls, basically. You know, the thing, it's like drinking from a fire hose. Grace is like that. It's more than you could ever take, because it's... super bounding. It's more than we can ever take. We live in that system.

So, in the vineyard, what about the guy who worked really hard and is that grace in a sense that he can be grateful because he can work hard? And you don't look to other people like what God has given them? because God will just give grace as God wants to give grace. If there's anything based on a work, in the example, if somebody works and you pay, that's exactly what I'm saying, grace is not. It doesn't matter how hard you work, it doesn't matter how many hours you work, it doesn't matter what you do, if there's a debt accrued, grace is negated.

That's the point. So, you know, when we do this, grace is totally unmerited. There's no debt accrued to God that says He has to pay back. Right. No, I understand that. So, you know, whatever the example is, the point being is when you work and you get a paycheck, you've worked for it, and it's owed you. In grace, are you owed anything? No. So that's the point. It's the opposite.

When we get to heaven, we're not going to be having merit badges, are we? No, I mean, there are crowns and other things. This is the finest crown. There's five different types of crowns and things like that. But what do we do immediately? We throw it at its feet. Oh, that's true. So whatever crowns we obtain are immediately thrown at its feet. So, it's not like we're running around with merit badges up in heaven going, hey, check out, I got five grand, you got four. No way. The thing is, immediately we throw them at his feet. So, you know. Okay, understand?

Then, so let's read on to verse, question three. Read Romans 5, 20. From this, and this is kind of where I think earlier, Holly, getting to, from this verse, is it possible to out-sin grace? Romans 5, 20. And the law came in that the transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So, can you out-sin grace? No, grace abounded all the more. There's no possibility to out-sin grace. Okay? What if you tried to? You know, we're going to get to that question. Paul had to deal with that, I think. Romans 6, 1 and 2. We're getting to that, exactly. We'll get to that later here. So, again, grace is what from our definition? When you put it into Romans 5, 20, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. What is the term we use? Grace is what? Unlimited. It's drinking from a fire hose. It's trying to take in all of Niagara Falls. It's trying to swim in the ocean and try and touch every molecule in the ocean. It's unlimited. Okay? So, question four.

From Romans 5.20, does Paul say that we should sin more?

Is this dangerous teaching about grace? Does this verse say, how can I exalt grace? Just keep on raising the sin level. Is that what it says? Well, if you pull this verse out all by itself, then you can get a, what is it, an antimonium system where you say, well, God's grace is going to take care of me anyway, so it doesn't matter what I do. Is Paul saying we should sin more? Because if you want more grace, what do you do? Sin. Because it's super balanced.

It's bigger, right? Is that what he says? No. I don't think so. Not if you read the rest of the letter. There you go. Yes, you have that look on your face, Mike. I think if you're coming down the road here in Romans, You can't say to God, at some point, you know, you're going to have to restrict this grace.

Because the bottom line is, is that I can, under grace, sin. Now, God isn't going to say, okay, enough grace for you, I'm going to restrict you, or I'm going to discipline you, or I'm going to do whatever. That's not the point. The point is, or the answer to, what shall we say then, shall we sin that grace may abound, the answer is a totally different direction.

That's what I'm getting to. I want to make it clear, though, that I have even said to people before, you know, if you want to sin, help yourself. Go for it. I mean, once you begin to, if you'll sit and listen and we'll talk about grace, I don't have to worry about that.

But if I try to restrict them, then I've missed it. In other words, if I say, well, God's going to punish you, or you're going to end up paying a consequence, or I'm fearful of going that far with grace, if I have that attitude, then I'm off the ground of grace. You know, quite frankly, that's why I'm spending so much time on why grace is unmerited. Because if you base anything on What you do is how God doles out grace.

You're mistaken. That's the whole point. I mean, that's why I'm beating this up so much of what you bring to the table. You bring a corpse, you bring sin, you bring all this stuff. So is there any merit to him distributing grace? There's nothing based on you. He's full on, full out. 100% grace. He doesn't restrict it based on your actions. Good or bad. Good or bad. And that's a great point. Good or bad.

When you think you're doing something, you know, you're coming here on Sunday morning and you filled out your questions. God thinks you're just a little bit hotter because you filled out those questions. It doesn't matter. It's not based on your actions.

You know, that's the thing. When you look at it, a lot of people, you know, do good things. And when you go back to the garden, it was a tree of what? Like, good wealth. That's where we are. Knowledge of good and evil. Good and evil. So, if you're not doing, you're not murdering people, you're not stealing newspapers, you're not, you know, you're not on the, but I'm doing good things. I, you know, I helped a little old lady across the street and I took her trash out and I did all these good things.

Where am I still? I'm still in the tree of good and evil. I've just moved over to this branch. I'm not in the tree of life. So the good acts are not any better than the bad acts as far as where you're positioned in the tree of good and evil. You're still over here. You have to be placed in the tree of life, in Christ. Good and evil over here, it doesn't matter now. You have a life.

So the good thing, your grace isn't based on your good efforts or your bad efforts. Because it's all according to God's plan. It's His grace. It's not merited. It's not based on you. And what I'm trying to get at, which as I study this more and more, how beautiful that is. It's not based on what I do. It's not based on how good I am. It's not based on anything of me.

That gets me to the point of rest and peace. That's where the peace comes from that surpasses all understanding. That's where the rest comes from. It's because it's not based on me anymore. It's based on His life and me yielding to Him, just living my life. It takes your view of yourself. Totally. And it doesn't matter whether I'm good or bad, God is pouring out in this system of grace.

Now, there are consequences to being sent. I mean, you lose fellowship. If I'm, you know, sinning and doing my thing, I am breaking that fellowship. I'm running away. He is full on trying to get me back and turning me through the Spirit, convicting me and convincing me to turn around. He wants that relationship.

But the grace didn't stop because I turned and did something stupid. It's not based on any good or bad act of mine. I was just thinking that good and bad is really an expression of law. We judge what is good and bad according to some kind of law, even if we made it up ourselves. Great point, great point. And different cultures certain things you say or do are considered bad taste. But that's a great point. But it's the same kind of idea.

As soon as I start judging good and bad, either in myself or in others, I'm putting them or myself, under some kind of regulations, and God's grace is because of who He is. Sorry to jump ahead, but the frightening thing about that is it's totally dependent on His nature and His faithfulness and who He is. And if He weren't faithful, then I'd be sunk, because I can't bring any merit And I've got to depend on his fire hose, Niagara Falls, whatever.

And that's what you want. That's where the rest comes from. Because it takes it all off of you. It takes it off of you. He said, my peace I give unto you. And where the peace surpasses all understanding. That's a verse that I was clinging on to. It's a peace that the world doesn't understand. The world can't understand that. And the rest, you know, take my yoke and I'll give you rest. The world cannot offer you rest.

He can. Because through our identification we've been placed into Him. Our life is His life. There's a lot of different things that just add up. I think one of the biggest problems with believers is they really try to give God cause for Him to be gracious. They worked really hard to put God in a dead position or to give him cause to be favorable to them.

Well, I think that is exactly what Paul addresses in what we've talked about in the Romans 6.1. Remember, 5.20 came before this. So he could have pulled this back and said, you know, that sin increasing grace is super bad and all that.

What does he say in Romans 6.1? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin live in it? So if you're continuing in sin, are you living in Christ? Are you living as who you are in Christ, identified with Him?

No, we wouldn't be doing it. So, you know, it's kind of interesting that, you know, when we say about some of these things, congratulations, you know, Paul answered this. He had the same problem 2,000 years ago. He had the same thing that, you know, he explains what grace is, and then people, I'm sure, are going, Yahtzee! I can sin because grace won't keep pouring out on me. I can do this. This is awesome.

May it never be. You are dead to sin. So, he doesn't retract 520, in fact restates it again, that grace is always greater than sin. He doesn't say that where sin abounds, grace abounds to the same level. He doesn't say that. But Paul doesn't do that. He doesn't say that it's just up to the same level. He stays with verse 20. You cannot out-sin grace. Grace always abounds in sin. above sin, excuse me, grace always abounds above sin. And notice that his answer is very simple in verse two. Shall we sin so that grace may abound?

What was his answer? No. And I guess his question is, is this answer good enough for you? Wouldn't you be testing God, so to speak, if you say, you know, I mean, acknowledge doing that? Would that stop grace? It would not stop it, but... What happens? I think it would be detrimental to your relationship with God. You start moving away that fellowship, that intimacy with God. And whose loss is that?

And you know, God can show you grace through that to just bring you back around to say like, okay, you think that you can out send me or whatever, but I'm just going to keep piling grace on you. You know, and when I look at the sovereignty of God, He allows us to do these things. He allows us. He allows us to do it, and if you understand that we can't be separated from His love, it's not that He wants to hurt us. His whole purpose is to have intimate fellowship with us, to conform us to the image of His Son.

So if He allows us into sin, it's to what? show us that we do need to be dependent upon Him, that we are walking away. We're losing the fellowship. He wants us to draw that intimacy back. And we're the ones walking away. He's still full on with grace. It doesn't stop. It just keeps coming at us. But He allows us to do those things. And it's again for His purposes and His glory to conform us. And so again, you know, my philological engineering brain, it just keeps, you know, that tells us about, you know, if you sin or do whatever, don't, you know, it's the first John 1, 9, agree that you're not acting as who you are in Christ.

That's the confession part. And that's to understand that the sins have already been paid for. It's already done with. You're just walking away from the fellowship. Turn around. Have that intimate fellowship back with me. You know, and that's the confession part. It's just agreeing that you're not acting as who you are in Christ. So that would bring in the guilt factor when you feel guilt. And the guilt over the sin or the guilt over the loss of fellowship. The guilt over the sin should be done with. It's paid for. Do we need more than what Christ did? No. It's done. The turning around is you're not acting who you are in Christ. That's the exposing of through whatever you're doing is you're not acting That's who you are in Christ. Turn around. Have fellowship with me. Intimate. That's what I wanted to say. The course that we're teaching is a course in identification. And he melds grace and identification right in verse 2.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? That's the issue. The issue is that if you're dead to sin, then you are alive to grace. So how can you live and sin any longer if you're dead to it and you're alive to grace? That's really what he's saying and so that's the opening of the door to explain to the Romans actually, or all of us, that it is an unmerited issue That's the whole point of all of this, and that's why we're beating up this unmerited. To understand how you operate in this system of grace, it's not based on you. That's the whole key.

That's why all this discussion is, all you're doing by sinning or turning away or whatever is losing the fellowship. He's full on wanting to just pull you back. So it's not based on what you do. All you're doing is losing fellowship. I'm turning my back and running away from God's fellowship. His grace is pouring out, trying to get me back. Turn around. The logical is the verse 2, is what Mike says. It's not logical. You're dead to it. What are you doing? Hello? You're dead to it. The Holy Spirit would never lead you to sin. The expression there in verse 2, How can you live in sin? It isn't that you don't sin, how can you live in sin?

Yeah, continuing. And so that idea of living has to, the idea of settling down in and making that your way of life, make that your parameter. That's a good point. It's not saying just, you know, once it's, when you're doing this continually living it.

The other thing is, the word that Paul uses here is not just a no, it's a very emphatic no, it's meganito or whatever it is. Well, in some translations it says God forbid. Yeah, and actually, yeah, meganito, and that's the Greek strongest form of no. So it's not just no, it's no. No. I said no. He's saying no, and it's because you are dead. It's not who you are.

Okay, we will continue with question five, and I actually have questions for next week, too. We'll probably get through this one, I think, and then start on the next one, so I'll give you the questions for that, but let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. Again, thank you for any time we can study your Word. Thank you.

Just as we understand and delve into the topic or the system of grace. Father, we realize that something we just can't look into nature, look around and discover what grace is. We have to study it. We have to be taught it. We have to, through the Holy Spirit and your Word, be taught what your system of grace is.

And when we begin to understand it, what an incredible system you have provided for us. that there is no burden on us. It's not related to any merit or effort or work in order to receive it. It's full on, full grace, unlimited, unmerited blessings. And again, it's all based on what the Lord Jesus did on the cross.

So Father, we thank you for this system of grace that you have us in, and we rest in that. And Father, we just again pray as we move upstairs with Vern. Give us the word clearly and prepare our hearts to receive it. Father, we do all these things in the name of your Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen.