Colossians Lesson 1

So I didn't quite finish up the introduction last week. A couple of things, we were talking about that Colossians is strategically placed between Romans and Ephesians. Romans is all about the believer on the earth, God coming to the earth, saving man, and everything is done here.

You never leave the planet, so to speak. Ephesians, on the other hand, places you at the very beginning in the heavenlies. And everything that has to do with your heavenly position. Colossians puts you on the earth with your mind, your thought, your head. Contemporarily speaking, your head's in heaven.

So that's kind of where we're going to go as we study the book of Colossians. We're not talking about We won't be talking a lot about your position in Christ with some reference to it, but the flavor of the letter is the believer is here with his focus there. Where Romans, the whole focus is I'm here and God has come to this planet and resolved the problems I have, but he's never taken me off the planet. in the book of Romans, okay? Ephesians he does. All right? Then, so... Okay. Colossians, your head is in heaven and... You're still here. But your focus... Your focus is in the heavens, but you're still here. Okay. Okay.

So, why was the book of Colossians written? What's the reason for the letter? Was there a big problem? Were these guys like the Corinthians, immoral and in trouble? Yeah, the Colossians had begun to drift away from a couple of things. And I know these two things are really important to you guys. First one is union with Christ. They were drifting away from it. We're just trying to figure it out. and they're already drifting away. So that was one of the problems and they were losing their sense of who they were in the body of Christ and their union with Christ. And so Paul is going to reinforce that and talk about the union of the believer, even though we're here, we're united to Christ in the heavenlies.

Divisions of the epistle are 1. The introduction which we're working on today through verse 8. Paul's prayer for the Colossians which is one of the coolest prayers in all of scripture. Chapter 1 verse 9 through 14. And then in chapter 1 verse 15 through 23 is the preeminent glory of Christ. I would say that those verses are probably the best verses that describe the glory of Christ anywhere in the New Testament.

So we're going to go really slow through that. Chapter 124 to 223 is the concerns for the Church of Colossae, which we just mentioned. Chapter 3, 1 through 4, 6 is the characteristics of the abundant life of the believer and the conclusion of the book. So that's kind of where we're headed.

I don't know how long it's going to take us to get through all of that because Jim McCully sent me an email. He said, well send me a schedule. And I said, we don't have a schedule. We don't do schedules. We let the Spirit of God run the class and if we take three weeks doing one thing, that's fine. We don't care. Those of you who were in the Holy Spirit class recognize that, you know, especially if Courtney was teaching, it was a long time.

Oh, and if you're going to take notes and you don't do things electronically and you want a notebook, just help yourself to one of these. I'll put them over here. So afterwards or right now, whatever you want, just come and get one. OK, so let's get let's jump into the first group of questions. And so somebody read, somebody who can read English, read the first eight verses of Colossians chapter one. Nice and loud so everybody can hear.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints.

Because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it is also in all the world. And it is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard answers of the grace of God and truth. As you also learned from our dear fellow servant who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf who also declared to us your love in the spirit.

What was the authority for Paul's apostleship? The will of God. The will of God, huh? So, could I claim to be an apostle? No, he's been with Christ. He was instructed with Christ, by Christ. So an apostle, in order to be an apostle, and you'll see on TV today people who claim to be apostles, right? An apostle refers to a divinely chosen man or men who were spokesmen for God.

That's what they were. The essence, the very center of apostleship was authority. These guys had some incredible authority and power. They could really, at the direction of the Lord, they could perform miracles, they could raise people from the dead, they had every spiritual blessing, they had every gift, they were amazing.

So, Paul's authority was by the will of God and he states it. Now, you'll notice when you read Paul's epistles, he always starts out with his authority. Why do you think he does that? Exactly right. There were plenty of teachers around who claimed authority that didn't really have it. And if you've ever studied the 1st and 2nd Corinthians, that's a big deal there. A really big deal. And so he goes into it a lot in greater depth there. So he was an apostle of Christ Jesus and by the will of God. So he's establishing his authority.

It's important to do that. if you're going to be a teacher of the Word of God. A prophet functioned as God's spokeman or mouthpiece in the Old Testament. If you rejected a prophet, you rejected God himself. If you reject the authority of an apostle, you reject God himself.

That's how close these things were linked. Now, trick question. Those of you who have heard this before, you can't answer. If I said to you, well, if I'm searching for the truth, and I want to know exactly the truth, where would I find it? Where? The Lord Jesus Christ. I would say that's a wrong answer. What was it? The Lord Jesus Christ. Because I can say to you that the Lord Jesus Christ taught things on the earth when he was here that the Apostle Paul talked further. So what's the ultimate authority? Who's the ultimate authority? Paul the Apostle is the ultimate authority.

He says in the book of Galatians, what does he say there? If anybody, including an angel, or any of the guys hanging around with him, teach any other gospel other than what I teach, let him be a curse. He's the man. Why him? He was chosen by God and he's the final revelation. He's the guy with the final answers and the final truth. So, that's why it's always a trick question.

People say, well, the Bible. I could say part of the Bible says you're supposed to be under the law, Paul says you're under grace, so how do you reconcile those two? The Lord Jesus didn't teach the church. He referred to it, but he didn't teach it. The final authority is Paul the Apostle.

He's the guy. And there hasn't been. There are guys that claim from him, but he's it, if you want to find out. And you don't believe now that anyone could heal someone? Oh, I didn't say that. I know you didn't. Were you trying to put me on the spot? Don't I always? I don't have any trouble with God healing people. What I have trouble with is the fact that the gift of healing resident within a certain person is available today. God heals people all the time. And he might even do it through you. It'd be scary, wouldn't it? I should call you up and say, Wanda, I need a healing. So any questions about Paul's authority? I just was wondering, it seems like Paul had some help.

How do you mean? From God giving him these words. He received the authority but he could be trusted because the words came from him. That's exactly right. He spent three years in Arabia with the Lord and the revelation to him about the body of Christ and that kind of thing was progressive because if you read Ephesians and Colossians, the truth there is beyond the truth of Romans or an expansion or an expanded revelation. Now, if you take Paul the Apostle out of the New Testament, get out your scissors and cut out all of his letters, what do you miss?

Positional truth. What else? Grace. What else? The church. The body of Christ. The rapture. No, the rapture is talked about in Revelation, says John. How about identification? How about position in Christ? How about all of the stuff that's talked about? You take him out and everything that we exist for is gone. We end up some sort of glorified Jewish people without him. So, he's critical. And because he is critical, he always establishes his authority because he knows what he's about to talk about or teach or write about is new.

And he says, especially in Galatians, he said, I didn't get my information from anybody other than God himself. I didn't go up to Jerusalem and have those boys teach me. I went up there to make sure they were teaching the right thing. I got my information directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's why establishing authority is so important for the Apostle Paul. Alright with that? Question two.

What's a qualification for an Apostle? How did you get to be one? We had an election, some of us ran for apostleship, some of us got, no. They were chosen. You were chosen. Appointed by God. You were appointed by God. In John it says they were given to him by God. Given to him by God. The apostle had to be called directly by Christ. So we got these 12 guys hanging around with the Lord Jesus who were called, you read about them in John and other places. But then Jesus is crucified, he's dead, buried, resurrected, he's gone to the heavenlies, and then Paul shows up in the scene. How did he qualify? He saw Christ sitting at the hand of God, didn't he? Yeah, on the road to Damascus. Who did he run into? The risen, glorified Christ on the road, right? Now, you know what's interesting about that?

The first twelve apostles, were called by Jesus the Messiah. Nothing special about him, but he calls them and they come. They witness three plus years of his ministry, they witness his death, they witness the fact that he was buried, they witness his resurrection, and then they all hustle down to the Mount of Olives where it was and he goes to heaven. And then they witness Pentecost. That's their exposure to who Christ is.

Where did Paul start in terms of his relationship? Who did he see? More than risen, glorified. Do you understand that? The first introduction that Paul has to the Lord Jesus Christ, he's glorified man in the heavenlies. So he's the one that's qualified to talk about.

You don't think he actually saw or met Christ before he went to Damascus because he was persecuting the Christians? No, I don't. But he didn't persecute the Christians until after Pentecost. He wasn't hunting them down until afterwards. There's no evidence in the Word that...

He held the coats. You know, well, they stoned Stephen and that was, you know, I don't know how many years after Christ left the planet, but there were quite a few believers by then, you know. But just exactly what was the point at which Paul went into the desert, I guess it was, and was taught directly by Christ. He's saved, he goes into Damascus, he can't see, he's there three days, prays and fasts, and what's the guy's name, shows up to give him his sight back, tells him that he's, you know, oh, by the way, the Lord has called you, and this isn't going to be, you know, you're going to suffer. Was that early? Yeah.

Then he goes, he teaches in Damascus, Then he went from there to Arabian Desert for three years. Then he went from there to Jerusalem. And then from there, they said, don't call us, we'll call you, go back to Tarsus. And he was there for, I don't know, 7, 8, 10 years before he went down to Antioch to begin the ministry. Does that tell you anything about how long it takes the Spirit of God to get you ready for ministry? It took 12, 13 years to get Paul ready. Trust me, you're not going any faster. So the qualifications, the most important one is that you had to be called directly by Christ. So you had to have seen him and met him and the call came from him.

An apostle is an ambassador. You know what an ambassador does? If I were to make Jessica an ambassador of Holly Hills Bible Church and she was going to go down the road and talk to this church and that church, would she be entitled to sort of go in there and give them her opinion about things here? No, she wouldn't. What does an ambassador do?

That's right. So if she represents this group, she can only tell them what we tell her to tell them. She's not entitled to her own opinion. Apostles are the same way. They're ambassadors of the calling of the church, and their instructions, their teaching has to be what they've been taught. They're not entitled to their opinion. But you are. Whose opinion matters? Yours? You know, when we all get to glory, there's only one person who's going to have all the rights. You know who he is? and the only opinion that will count is his. So enjoy your American citizenship as long as it lasts.

The other important thing about the apostles is that they did not originate from a human source. Now we can argue all day long about Peter not having enough patience to wait for Pentecost to happen and so he gets the boys together and they're going to pick a twelfth guy by drawing lots. That's a pretty spiritual thing, it's like flipping a coin. It's very interesting, there are those that argue against Matthias being an apostle, as far as I'm concerned he is. Because he met the Lord, but they're the ones that said, you're now an apostle because God worked this short straw for you.

It's important to understand that no apostle got his apostleship from any human source. There wasn't an election. There wasn't, oh, he's a great guy, we'll make him an apostle, like we do elders and deacons now. We see, what we look for is God raising somebody up who's functioning as a deacon and we say, oh yeah, we'll make him a deacon, because he's already functioning as one. God has already called him. You can tell. But there aren't any apostles. Steve?

So how does some of this play into the answer Let me read around 2 Corinthians 12, 12. Perseverance, signs, wonders, mighty deeds. 1 Timothy 2, 7. Speaking truth in Christ. Teaching Gentiles in faith and truth. Revelation 2, 2. The opposite are liars. Romans 1, 5. Obedience to the faith.

That type of thing. Explain your question, I don't... I think it fits. The question is trying to qualify what is a... An apostle. What is the qualifications of an apostle. So I'm just kind of reading around on some of that. Okay, in terms of what you read about the gifts, they were all gifted like that. all of them. They could do miracles, no problem. But notice that Peter only does them when he knows that the Lord would have him do them.

I think in Romans 1, he's talking about himself? No, Revelation 2, it's just a general comment, the opposite of an apostle. Oh, here's someone that lies versus The other verse where it's saying, speaking faith, truth. Oh, okay. And where you'll really see that played out is in Corinthians. Especially in 2 Corinthians where Paul begins to compare himself to the false teachers. And that's what he calls them, liars. He does call them liars. And the reason is that if you're the guy, let's say you're the Apostle Paul, you're the guy with the information, the truth from God.

You may be the only guy. And so you write a letter or you're in Corinth or you're in Colossae, well you've never been to Colossae but you're in one of these towns that you're starting a church in. You're doing all the teaching. You don't have anybody helping you because you're the only one with the right information.

And so you lay it out and other people learn it. There's no Schofield reference Bible. So they learn it, and so when they turn away from it, like in Galatians, Paul writes them and says, you know, I taught you the truth, why are you turning away from it so fast? I'm amazed.

So anybody that would teach anything other than what he taught had to be a liar because they didn't know the information. And you have a guy like Apollos showing up on the scene who's a believer, but he doesn't understand all that Paul teaches. Aquila and Priscilla take him aside and teach him what Paul had taught them.

I was wondering, when Jesus saw the 500 after his resurrection, was he in a glorified state at that point? No, no, no. In John 15, the Lord Jesus told the disciples, it's expedient that I go away. Because if I don't go, I won't send a comforter. Now what's interesting about that is that the Holy Spirit has come now, and when he reveals Christ to you through the Word, you see the glorified Christ. If he hadn't left, he would have never been glorified as a man. See, that's why he had to go. And that's why the delaying of the Spirit until he did go and get glorified, so that the Spirit would come and his work would be to glorify Christ and to reveal his glory to us as believers.

So why did Paul refer to the Colossians as saints? You know what a saint is? Aren't we all saints? I don't know about you. What does a saint mean? If I say you're a saint, like Vern likes to write emails to people and he says, you know, Saint Alan, why does he refer to him as a saint? What is a saint? Somebody who went through the Catholic process? What is a saint? A brother of Christ? I'll ask it simply this way. The word sanctification? and saint and holy all mean the same thing. What's it mean? Set apart. So when I say that Wanda is a saint, what am I saying?

She's a set apart one. Okay, now when we were teaching the kids downstairs, in order to explain to them what a saint was, I said to one of the kids, Luke, I said, Luke, stand up and come with me. And we went outside the room and I stuck my head back in the room and I said, Luke is now a set-apart one. He's set-apart from all of you. He's now out there with me. So when I say Debbie's a saint, what am I really saying about her? She got set-apart from two. From what? The old man, sin, the world. Christ Jesus himself resurrected life heavenly. That's what a saint is.

Is that a conditional truth or a positional truth? Last week when we talked about position and condition, did you understand kind of what position and condition is? We'll probably talk about it every week. What's a positional truth and contrast it with a conditional truth?

They had been placed in Christ, but then he referred to them as faithful brethren. So that would be positional, wouldn't it? Faithful brethren would be conditioned. A positional truth is something that Paul or the Word of God says is true of you, whether you believe it or not, know it or not, like you've all been raised up with Christ, right? You've all been crucified with him, buried and resurrected, right? Do you guys remember that? No, but it's a position you enjoy from God's perspective.

Now your condition may or may not reflect what your position is. You may not act. A couple of people I know in this room sometimes don't act like Christians. in a while, including yours truly. So the deal is, is that from a positional standpoint, it's important for us to learn our position. Because once you get that information, now your faith has something to focus on. rather than your condition and how you feel and the reaction.

Now you're all positioned in Christ, right? You're all members of the new creation. So I don't want to hear any whining that the Broncos lose today. When I say you're a saint and you have been set apart, where did you land? That's right. So you're now positioned in Christ. Okay? So whatever is true of Christ is now true of you. Can you get out of that position? Why not? That's the right answer.

He puts you there. You don't have the liberty of changing your mind. Salvation is his idea, not yours. Identification is his idea, not yours. He puts you in Christ at the point of Christ's death. You were buried and resurrected and you now see it with Him in the heavenlies. You can do all the mind changing you want, but you didn't put yourself there in the beginning, so you can't change it. You cannot change it. Because if you could, half the people in this room would be going somewhere else.

Does that make sense? Here's the deal. When you exercise faith, in the person and work of Christ. Does God say, oh, I'm going to give you, Ralph, a lot of credit because you exercise faith, so I'm going to put you in Christ. And two years from now, Ralph says, you know, that was probably not a good decision. I think I'm going to change my mind. And the Lord would look at him and say, oh, okay, Ralph, I'll take you out of Christ.

See, faith, you don't get any credit for your faith. It's a non-meritorious act. So when you believe in the person and work of Christ, what the Spirit does, he does 36 things to you at least that are permanent. It's really good if you find out what some of them are. It might change how you do stuff. Set apart.

Third, a saint is the most common designation of a Christian in the New Testament. I grew up a Catholic. I went to Catholic schools. All we ever were taught was you've got to really, really work hard your whole life and maybe after you're dead, the church will canonize you. Canonization, they're trying to do it to one of the popes now. You have to go through this long thing and then they officially designate you as a saint.

One of the things I really liked when I first became a Christian is I was a saint right away. That was really cool. Yeah, I went back to my buddy over at Regis, my buddy Father Hoescher, who was really a neat guy. I said, did you know I'm a saint? Actually, he did. He understood.

So question four is kind of a redundant question. Is this a positional truth or a conditional truth? It's positional. The word saint always refers to a positional truth. 1 Corinthians 1-2 To the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified, sanctified ones are saints, in Christ, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. Conditional truth is 1 Corinthians 3-1.

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not able, for you are still fleshly, and you are walking like mere men. So walking like a mere man and being fleshly can't affect your position in Christ.

So in 1 Corinthians within two chapters there is a description of a position. Now, does it sort of make us feel like we can get by with stuff if we say, well, you know, I can kind of do what I want. It doesn't affect my position? It may have never been. What do you think? Well, some people were. The Corinthians, for example. They were. Yes, they were. They used it as license. They took it as license? Guys got quiet with that question. How come? Nobody in this room has ever taken advantage of that position, have they? Paul answers that very succinctly. May it never be.

Romans 6.1, what shall we say? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? May it never be. That's right. And 14 or 15. But then shall we sin because we're not under law, but under grace? May it never be. So what's the big problem?

I know what's going through your mind. You're thinking, boy, if these guys don't give us the rules to follow by, we're not going to be able to be holy. I'm watching Dances with Wolves the other night. I love that movie. And the cavalry soldier wants to know who the Indian chief is. And he says to the woman who's the interpreter, well, is he a chief? And she said, no, he's a holy man.

It's like, wow, that's cool. It would be neat for someone to say about you, you're a holy man. But all of you are. You're all holy because you've all been set apart. Here's the problem. Okay, I got this position. It's wonderful. Bless you. And I can kind of do what I want.

You know what the biggest sin in the Old Testament was? What's the number one sin in the Old Testament? This is really bad too. What is the biggest sin in the Old Testament? Idolatry? No. That everyone did in his own heart what he thought was right. That's the biggest sin. Oh, so how am I supposed to live then? Am I not supposed to live by what I think is right? Mike, I didn't hear what the sin is. Everyone did in his own heart what he thought was right. What's the problem with that? Sounds okay to me. Rush Limbaugh would go for that. What's wrong with that? Because our hearts are evil. You don't get to decide.

The Lord decides. So, when the word of God is laid out to you and you learn this position, what I think the biggest misnomer is, is that the great thing about the positional truth is that it's based on God's grace towards you. And God's grace is unlimited. and it's unmerited, and it's full on all the time, and it's based solely on what Christ did on the cross. When you begin to enter into that grace, you can't help but respond.

You don't need rules. How many of you love the Lord? Nobody? Why do you love the Lord? Because he first loved us. That's grace. That's how it works. We respond because of the grace. If you have never been taught grace, or you don't ever find out about grace, then you go back to the fallback position, which is living by rules. I can't go to God and say I love you because it says I should. I learn because I live under grace, because I learn the principles of my position, I respond. I can't help but do it. Grace is probably the greatest motivator there is.

Way more than law, threats, arm twisting, political correctness. I think it comes back to, it's a life, not a law. And as we are conformed to Christ, and it says we have the mind of Christ, as we mature in Christ and grow in Christ, grow in the grace and knowledge, It's who we are. And it becomes manifest as who we are.

It's not an effort. I always go back to the thing, Christ didn't wake up every day and say, the Father has this five things for me to do. It was who He was, or is. And He did it. And that, same for us, we're in Him. And it's not a set of laws and checklists. It's a life. And that's the key. It's a manifestation of a life.

Everybody understand what he's saying? It's really important because the Lord Jesus made an incredible comment. He said, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. I've got to tell you, if they're marching me to the cross, I'm not joyful about it. But he was. Why was he? Because he knew what was happening. He knew what the consequences were going to be. He knew that he and the Father were going to be able to extend grace because of what they were about to accomplish.

So that brings up the next question. Distinguish between God and Father. Because it says he's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How do you distinguish between God and Father? That's a hard one. You can't. They're one. Why would Paul then say, to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ? Why both? Why both? To let us know that he is both, that he is God and he is Father?

Close. That's really close. Steve? I couldn't find it, but it seems that God is the ultimate creator to be worshipped, but Father is more Very good. God is a relationship of Christ as man. The relationship that Christ as man had to God the Father was that of God. God was his God because he was a man. Father has to do with relationship as a son. I noticed that Nick doesn't call me father, but he calls Courtney father, because they have that relationship. Yeah, he uses it as hey you.

Another distinction that you see is in the Trinity, it's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not God the Son, Holy Spirit. Yeah, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, maybe put it this way, If you and I were going to come up with a way in which to distinguish the difference between God number one and God number two, what words would you use to demonstrate the relationship that God number one has with God number two and vice versa?

You couldn't come up with any better way than father-son, because that describes their relationship. Does that make sense? My relationship with my son is different than any other young man in the world. It's an intimacy that we have that I don't have with anybody else, any other man anywhere, anytime. The Lord Jesus and the Father have a relationship of Father and Son. But as the Lord Jesus is a man, God the Father is his God. Because every man needs a God, has a God.

So when the word of God comes down over time and they start referring to you as his son, what are they talking about? Is this all about lordship? I mean the Colossians is about Christ being lord, but his father was a father in that intimate way, but he was also his lord and he said he couldn't do anything except what he saw the father doing. Whatever he did, he did in obedience to God. He said that they were one. The Father and I are one.

How cool is that? Well, and also, we're sort of like, we're body, soul, and spirit. But we're still one. How do you deal with moving on in John chapter 17, where it says, Father, that they may be one in us? I don't know. Isn't that cool? Yeah, I'm not sure we'll understand that until we get to be with him. But the oneness that you and I share with the Father and the Son is almost incomprehensible. But for all eternity, we're going to be one with the Godhead. Wow.

If a person doesn't have the position in Christ as a Christian, you can't claim that God is his Father. only his God, if he wants to say that. It's just like being in a family. I can say my brother Roy, but I can't say my brother Mike, except in a Christian sense, because you're not a Smith. You're not part of our born family. That's right, not the same genealogy. Or in the Christian, when I become with Christ in him, then There is this father relationship that I didn't have before.

That's exactly right. And why do you have it now that you didn't have it before? Because you have a new life. You have his very life. My son has my and Donna's very life. Right? So he's our son. He can call us father, mother. When you are placed into Christ, you get his life. You can call God the father. He is your father.

It's your life. See that? It's cool. He didn't leave anything for you to speculate about. He calls us my brother as well. Isn't it in Hebrews he says that? We share life. And he was the first born of the new creation. Oh yeah, and that's another part of it. New creation. You're all members of the new creation although you've got these old stinky old creation bodies. You all have to take showers. Well some of you do.

So, tough question, we could probably, you know if the buzzer goes off and I don't hear it, somebody say something. We probably won't get this answered today. Question six, what does in Christ mean? Identification with Christ. Say that again. Identification. Identification with Christ. Everything that is true of him is true of me. True of him is true of me. If I ask you to give me one word that might describe in Christ, what would that word be? Union. Perfect word. Union.

So, is this a heretical statement if I say that as you read Paul's epistles, whatever you read about Christ is also true of you? Is that heresy to say that? No, it's true. Whatever is true of Christ is true of you. There are 140 times that in the New Testament there is this reference to in Christ. So when we were talking about that with the kids downstairs, I could tell. They were thinking, how did that happen? You know, did I get into his pocket? How does that happen?

Well, I think maybe the best way to explain this is Christ was the creator of the first creation, right? He is the new creation. He didn't create the new creation. He is the new creation. Okay, I have to ask. Okay. But God, is God first? I mean, if you're God, then you must be in control of everything. And then it says something in the first part of John. He was the Word and the Word was made flesh.

Well, you're trying to understand with a finite mind what the Trinity is and how it functions. It's three persons, one God. You know, there's not three Wandas, there's one Wanda. And we think dualistically there's you separated from me, separated from Mary. You know, we're individuals. But God has three persons but they're one God. One in life, one in nature. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

They never do anything that contradicts with each other. They're totally in harmony with all of their thoughts and direction and process, yet they've decided that each one of them takes a different role. You know, God the second person, he didn't decide, but became a man. But God the Father, the first God, number one, didn't, and God the Holy Spirit didn't. God the Holy Spirit, as we learned in the last class, has a unique role. The Son has a unique role, and the Father has a unique role. But they're all controlled by God. Harmony.

Juan, is your question more the triune God, but then where do we fit in if we're in Christ? If we're just like Him, do we have the same power and controls, everything like that? Is that what your question is? Or is it more related to triune God or we as new creatures in Christ? Is that your question? Because we have everything in Christ except his deity. No, I'm not in this.

I'm just trying to understand something that is, like you said, incomprehensible. Yes, it is. I'm trying to understand the Trinity. If you ever find out, call me. They all have the same glory and essence of God, but they do have separate roles in our salvation. Yes they do. Yes they do. And one of the three is actually a human being. Isn't that something? He's 100% God and he's 100% man. And he will be a man for all eternity. Which is kind of cool. I think it's the same. Who really gets to make the decisions? Who's the number one guy in the Trinity? The real boss is somebody like a husband and a wife. Yeah, but that's what we can't figure out. Who's the boss of those three? Those three are the boss. They never are out of harmony with one another. We want the chain of command. Yeah, we do. And they don't have to sit down and have a meeting and put on a chart. They all are of the same mind all the time.

Donna. of the strength of the sin nature, that we can't think of things without a self being involved. Yeah, that's right. That's a great point. Everybody hear what she said? We can't think of things without self being involved. But you know what's cool? You have the mind of Christ. Everybody in this room.

Now, did the other bell go off? I've got to quit then. You'll have to hold. and I were discussing this the other day going home she was telling me to pray about praying to the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit was in us and I said well I thought we learned that we weren't to pray to the Holy Spirit pray to God in the name of Jesus that's right and in the power of the Spirit good for you you're right but we can talk to the Holy Spirit I mean, if he lives, then are you just going to ignore him?

Well, no. If you understand what he's doing, he's always revealing Christ to you. You know, he's kind of in the background. Now, trust me, I've talked to him a lot. But I know the proper thing is to pray to the Father through Christ. But you're not praying, you're just having a conversation. Conversation, yeah. But he never answers. He says, go read your Bible.

We'll start with question six next week and what we're going to do is do five minutes on how you got to be in Christ. Might surprise some. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and how we thank you for the position that we enjoy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're so thankful for the Apostle Paul who you designated the one to reveal to us and teach us. these unbelievably wonderful truths that are believable. Thank you, Father, we pray in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.