Colossians

Okay, we had worked our way down to question six, right? And question six is, what is the fullness of... Well, let's do this, just so we're on the same page. We're talking about, we're dealing with verses, chapter one, verse 18 through 20. He is also the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning. the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through whom I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." So, question on verse 19 is, What is this fullness that's discussed here? I found a Greek word. You found a Greek word? What is it? P-L-E-R-O-M-M-A. Pleroma. Pleroma? Fullness. Fulness.

When did you know it? I haven't given up on grief. That's great, isn't it? So, first, there's a couple of things here. First, that all fullness was pleased to dwell in him. The key word is all, not partially. Okay? All fullness was pleased to dwell in him. So why is that such a big deal? He was completely God. He already was completely God. As well as completely man. There you go. The fact that he's a man and that the fullness of love was dwelling in him as a man.

I think a lot of times we sort of view the Lord Jesus as in the white tower in the corner, unapproachable. Sitting on the throne room of God today, on his throne, is a human being. Not an angel, not a spirit, it's a human being, the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, I think that's a really significant thing. That in heaven, in the throne room of God, sitting on the throne is a human being. And the fullness dwells in him. So, the fullness was pleased to dwell.

This is a truth of Christ person. The glory of the incarnate Lord, for we have seen him, for he that has seen him has seen the Father. Do you understand what that means? When the Lord Jesus said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father, what is he saying?

They are one. They are one in what? Essence. Yeah, right word. That is what they are. The Lord Jesus, because he is a human being, wasn't lacking anything. Except for one thing. What was it? Sin nature. Huh? Sin nature. No, well, he didn't have a sin nature, but God didn't have a sin nature. Right. I'm talking about... What did the Lord Jesus on the earth have, or not have, that God had? Omnipresence, maybe? No. Glory? Huh? Glory? Glory. He wasn't glorified yet as a man. That's coming.

Because he asked for that in John 17, right? So, uh... The Father that dwelled in him did the work, he said. We have observed earlier that it's because of his being a divine person that he could be said to be the firstborn. It was founded upon the fact that he was God who created all and sustains all.

But there's more here. There's more of what he is here. So, which leads into question seven. Notice that the fullness is said to dwell in him It's not an act. It dwells. What's the significance of that? I can tell you my opinion. What? Dwelling. It's there to stay. It's home. It dwells there. It's home. And it infuses the whole being.

The whole being of God himself. Okay. How about this idea? That the question was not of his, whether he was acting like God or not. The fullness just was in him. You see that? So it's not only a question of acting, but of dwelling, whether he acted or not. The fullness of God dwelled in him. Okay?

Well, it's a passive man. It's passive. The word focus is passive. The dwells in him is passive. So it was done to him. It wasn't something he did. It was already there. Oh, something that was, okay. Now, Mike. Yeah. This is maybe going back to question six, but it's both of them, I think.

How does this verse 19 different from Read 2.9 loud enough so that those old people over there can't hear. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. How does that differ from in Him all the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him? Is there a difference between fullness and Deity? What do you think? No. No, I don't think so. What's that? Do you think they're the same? What do you think? I think they're different. Tell us how.

Yeah, I mean deity is God and all powerful, all the attributes of God. Fullness is just the character, the essence to me, who God is. Deity is something different. I think they are the same. Let's step outside. I want to examine what this fullness is about a little bit.

Does all your Bible say that it pleased the Father? Do you know that in the Greek is not there? The word father is not there. It's in italics. You know why they stuck it in there? Because these guys didn't come to our class and they weren't as smart as we are. Why would they put the word father in there?

Without father, I think it referred to the complete trinity. I think it refers to the complete complete agreement. I think they're adding something that shouldn't be there. Well that, what I have, you mean why did they put the word father? Didn't put the word father. Didn't put the word father.

Here's what I'm after. Well it says no because the verb was pleased suggests God's choice or resolve. So if the fullness that was pleased could dwell. But the word father isn't in that verse in the Greek. Yeah but it didn't need to be. And why not? I just told you. You probably want to sub for me. Because the verb was please suggests God's choice or resolve. Okay. It's very interesting here.

The translators from Greek to English couldn't figure out how they could translate this verse and in the context they had to purposely frame it so that it looked like it was the father's decision. What does that say? It says that maybe the three of them on the Godhead weren't on the same page. You understand what I'm saying? Well, it sounds like the Father was in charge, rather than mutual agreement.

Or that the fullness was in Christ to the exclusion of the rest. There are those who think that God... Let me put it this way. If Courtney and Jim and I get together and we have a meeting about something, when we walk out of that meeting, are we going to have one mind about it? Answer, no we're not. No we're not. When God makes a pronouncement about what he wants, do you think the three persons in the Godhead have the same mind about it? Absolutely they do. And that's the point here.

That there isn't anything that the Father has done or the Son is involved in or the Holy Spirit is involved in that they didn't have one counsel about. You know, they don't have meetings in heaven. They don't sit down and the father says, well I've been thinking this over, what do you think Jesus, should we go this way or go that way? They always have one counsel, not similar, but exactly the same thought process about every single issue.

Yet they're all individuals. Isn't that something? I'm thinking they don't have to go through the thought process like we do either. No, they don't. See, so the thing I want you to understand is that this verse isn't contrasting one person against another, the father against the son, or the father had to make the decision about whether the son was going to have fullness dwell in him.

It's always been that way. So, now, if that's the case, you could say that the state that all fullness was freezed to dwell in him, it is put in a general form, purposely it's put that way. So, is there going to be a time? Is there going to be a time that you and I are connected with that frame of reference? What do you think? When is that going to happen? Speak up. She says it's already happened. That's right. It started already. And positionally it is.

You know what's marvelous is that lots of times we pray that God would do this or that when we haven't checked with him because we think it ought to be done that way and the mind of Christ, like in this case the fullness of God is dwelling in Christ and where are you? So should your mindset and your viewpoint and your understanding be anything different than Christ? or the Godhead shouldn't be, it is, because some of you guys are Republicans.

Well, then how do you pray? How do you pray? I mean, you can't pray and say, ask for some healing for someone or... You know, I got to tell you my story about I was asked years ago to pray for somebody to heal, get healed. And so when I went to pray, I got this overwhelming impression that I should pray that they don't be healed. Because God was teaching them something, and they needed to be taught whatever that lesson was. So I didn't pray that they got healed, and I was afraid to tell anybody for the longest time, because the consensus of opinion was to be healed. Now, I want to show you something.

In Romans 8.26 it says, likewise the spirit helps our weakness for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.

What's to pray for as we ought? What's to pray in his will. Yeah, what his fullness of his mindset is about any circumstance. But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can't be understood. Now he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of the saints.

That's right, according to the will of God. So it seems to me all you have to do is go to him and say, well, what do you want to do here? How do you want me to pray? I want to pray X, but I'm more interested in what you're doing here. And the Lord Jesus was the same mindset. You know what he said? I don't ever do anything myself. I only do what I see my Father doing. Can't we just pray and then say according to your will? Well, no. You just go and counsel with him first.

He'll let you know. He promised us in Philippians that if we went to him, in prayer and supplication, what would he give us? The peace that passes understanding, right? He didn't say, I'll answer your prayer. I'll give you something that's a lot more valuable than that, which is my peace about it, right? So I can say to him, you know, I'm praying about this, I don't know how to do it, but he'll let you know. He'll let you know. Would you say having a train wreck, if the train wreck would save these two souls up here that we should pray there shouldn't be a train wreck? Absolutely not.

Even Paul the Apostle said, look, I'd really like to go home and be with the Lord, but the Lord says I've got to stay with you guys for a while, so that's what I'm going to do. His preference was something different than what God's preference was for him. So I think it's important in praying that before you start, you go to him and talk about it. Maybe you want X, but he doesn't want X so fast. We were praying for Paul Giles. What if God wants to take him home? Is that a bad thing?

If I get sick with cancer, I don't want any of you praying that I stay here. I'm out. I'm gone. I had a secretary one time who told me that her grandmother, every time she gets sick, the family would all get together and pray that she'd get well. She had a family reunion and told them, the next time I get sick, no praying for me to be well. I'm gone. And they did and she left. Do you see that death, the next big step in your existence is death? You get to go home. I don't know why we struggle so hard to stay in the cesspool, but we do. Has God made us that way?

No, he didn't. No, he didn't. You don't think he's for self-preservation? No, he's not. Self-preservation? Self-preservation? Oh, I know he keeps every bit of every cell going all the time, but we do seem to have almost an instinct to prevent our death. What's the self designed to do? To promote itself and to keep going?

Well, it says in John, though, he says, anything that you want, I mean, you ask me and I will do it for you. Sure. Yeah. According to whose will? His will. I'm hoping you're understanding that intimacy with Christ and understanding and knowing his will is a treasure beyond calculable value. There's nothing more valuable to a believer than intimacy with Christ and to know his mind about things. Nothing. And a lot of times it will go against the self mind. Because self is all designed to do one thing and that's to promote itself. And what did God do with your self? Crucified. He's done with it. Isn't it?

So, when my brother died, I was a little mad at God, because he and I were the closest I was with anybody, til down. And Miles sent me a thing that said, it's interesting how he put it, it said that the Lord Jesus loved him more than I did. And he wanted him home with him now, because his job was done. Well, when I thought about that, I thought, you know, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Because isn't that reality? You know? Hey, Mike. Yes, sir.

Just throw out Philippians 1.21 and Paul's perspective on that. All right.

Philippians 1.21?

For me to live is Christ, to die is gain. So the difference between living and dying is not as vast as we might think it is because to live is Christ and so to have fellowship with and to walk and do the work that he has for you on this earth is Christ. To die is to be in presence with Christ But there's not this vast chasm between the two in Paul's mind. It's just a presence issue in terms of a physical presence. Everybody hear that? People are hard of hearing over there. Just to kind of balance the... No, I think you're absolutely right.

You'll see when Paul writes about the believers dying in his epistles, he never uses the word death. He uses the word sleep. Why? Well, he also refers to it as absent from the body. It's a location. And why would he refer to us, quote unquote, dying as gain? Why would he refer to it as going to sleep? Because we already died.

You see that? I think this goes back to the faith in believing in things. And what this gives you from a practical standpoint is you don't have a fear of death. If you understand this, there shouldn't be the fear of death because that is what Jim just shared. It's game. If you really understand that, There is no fear in death.

That's actually, you know, going home. Our citizenships in heaven, that's going home. the peace that he promised, and the rest, and all the things he's given us, if you understand those things. Personally, it's like going in the operation, which you were very kind to say that you'd speak at my memorial if I died in the operation. I would. But it's a win-win. I think I told you, it's a win-win. Sure. If I get a new hip and it's great, if I go home to be with the Lord, it's a win. It's a win either way. That's right. And you have that perspective that So you shouldn't be afraid of death.

I think as you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, and you grow in what the Bible calls liberty, you get more and more free from sin, from attachment to the world, from legal systems, and this desire in your heart is that you want to be home with the Lord, but you're going to stay here God foreordained that each one of us would accomplish certain tasks that he has determined ahead of time that you would accomplish, right?

So when you do the last one, by the way, when you get to the beam of judgment, nobody gets to say, I did one extra or I missed one. You don't get to say either one of those things. When you do the last one, how long do you think you're going to stay here? It's not up to us.

Well, listen to the question. Listen to the question. When you've done the last thing that God has foreordained for you to do, how long is it going to be before you're gone? Instant. You're gone. You know why? I just told you. Because the Lord Jesus Christ loves you more than anybody here does. And he wants you home with him. See that? Jack used to say that my dog didn't, nobody loved him as much as my dog. Because every time he'd come over the dog, you know. The Lord Jesus loved him more than my dog did.

So, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ. And it's not just in that one person, it's all three of them. And it's a divine fullness and it does not act excluding any of the other two. So the Lord Jesus Christ does not act, or when you read the Gospels, everything he did was in harmony with the mind and the purpose of the Father and the Holy Spirit. You see that? Even though there are three distinct persons, Their fullness is the same because they share the same life. And they're always in harmony. Always.

Then how do we direct our prayer if we don't ask? I can just tell you what I do. I go to them sometimes and a situation comes up and the first thing I say is, what do you want to do here? How do you want me to pray about this? My instinct is to pray that you would resolve it quickly, but maybe you don't want to do that. I want to know what you want to do about this.

I know that you're the God that works all things together for good to those who are called according to your purpose. I'm absolutely persuaded about that. And I know that you use everything to conform every believer to the image of your son, the Lord Jesus. So, if that's what you're doing, that's fine with me. And I think the Spirit of God will let you know the direction he would have you pray. I really do.

Because our instinct is to, well, put it this way. One of God's greatest tools is to create need in a believer's life. so that they'll have to go to him about whatever the need is. And it's a process of going to the Lord Jesus and a greater intimacy and a greater acquaintanceship with him and a conformity that goes on. But what if every time God creates a need in your life, everybody prays really hard that the need go away? You're not going to grow much. Do you see that? It's a mindset. And the Lord will let you know.

I was just thinking Romans 8.26. I mean we get caught up so much with the technicalities of how to speak and what to say.

I guess in the Holy Spirit class, just to kind of refer back to that, I'll read Romans 8.26. It says, in the same way that the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, and we're always in that situation, I think.

But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. So He's got our back. He's going to make sense of what we're saying. And it goes on to talk about searching the heart of God. And how do we do that? We hold Him in His Word. So as we come to know Him through His Word, we may get more technically savvy with how to pray. But the Holy Spirit always has us backed up to make sense of it in a way that is according to His will.

So I think that's good. Yeah, I think that's good. Cartney? You know, adding on to that, I think the thing is that, it goes back to the Philippians, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks and everything. And it goes back to the intimacy too with God. I have the intimacy to come before Him with anything. Abba, Father, Daddy. There's no limitation to that. I can ask him for anything, and I should, because that's the communication he wants. He wants that amnesty.

The end of the Philippians, and the peace of God which passes all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds. Again, what Mike's saying, it's not that we get the answer that we want. What do we get? We get the peace. So I can come and ask anything.

We have a friend who's about to go home with the Lord. My prayer is that he has the peace and the comfort I also ask, if you want a miraculous, you know, to make him whole, I ask for that too, but give him the peace. And I, you know, I'd leave it in your hands and comfort the family and those kind of things. But the thing I, and it's with what Jim was sharing too, you can go with anything and it's the Holy Spirit that takes it.

We can go and ask for anything. The idea is that we should, We shouldn't expect our answer. And that's where the Philippians says, He gives you peace in anything. If the answer is maybe yes, no, wait, completely off what you have. But you have a peace understanding that He answered in His will.

One of the things that's always struck me about that Romans verses is that the Spirit of God searches the mind of God and He intercedes. Which direction is it going? Am I praying and it goes through the translation filter of the Holy Spirit so God can understand what I'm talking about? That's the way, when you read it, you think it's going that way, because it isn't the way it goes. You're the one that doesn't get it. So the translation process is from God's will through the Spirit to you, so that you can understand what God's will is about the circumstance. And you should expect him to do it. He says he's going to. You know, he says he's gonna.

Early on in my Christian life, one of the guys who led me to the Lord, one of his best friends was dying of cancer. So he said, well come up in the hospital, I want you to meet this guy. You know, I'm a Christian, a monk. And I still have worldly attitudes about stuff like that. So we go in the room and this guy was kind of a challenging sort of a man.

So he says to his buddy, he says, you know what, He said, I've been praying for you, but I've figured it out. He said, either way you're going to win. You're either going to get your body cured, or you're going to go home and be with the Lord. So stop complaining. So he said so. I said, you're right. That's right. God's either going to come and he's going to fix your body, or you're going to get to go home. Those are the two choices you have. You win both ways. How do you lose a med deal?

It doesn't mean we're lackadaisical about it, you know, who cares? I mean, because we care. Right. Well, let me put it to you this way. If you had a choice between someone you really love staying here or going home, and you got to make the choice, what would you do? And they were a believer. No, you wouldn't. So I wouldn't have any trouble making that decision. You'd be out of here in a minute.

My father slipped away when he was 56 years old and he slipped away and then my mother went and took him and called him back. And a few days later, he was slipping away. No, he said to my mom, he said, why did you call me back? Why did you call me back? And a few days, he was slipping away, and a friend was with Mama and said, Elizabeth, leave him go.

And he died very peaceful. And on his grave, it's the sleep in Jesus, yes. Well, you know the old joke, don't you? When I die, I want to go peaceful like my grandfather did, not screaming and yelling like the people in his car. OK. OK, I think I've also covered question 8.

Would it make a difference in context as to who Christ is? And it had to do with the idea that not one person of the divine fullness acting in exclusion of the rest, they're all of the same mind. And I think we've answered You know what the great thing about that is, is that 1 Corinthians says that we have the mind of Christ. Wow, that's kind of cool. So I would say with the mind of Christ, there's a solicitation on our part to say, well I want to do what you want to do, I mean what's going on here?

And I think he responds, I really do. Mike, I've been thinking about the verses that he came to free those who were all their lives in bondage to figure death. I don't know what the reference is, but to read that verse, I think it struck me like it hasn't in the past, maybe that I mean this is a real thing. This is what he not only wanted to do but did. It's complete.

So is there to be on my part some reckoning that this is indeed a fact that I have been freed from the fear of death and I should recognize that and grow so that in my condition it's true? Part of that subjective freedom conditional freedom is learning what has been done. The fear of death came because I was attached to, united to, the sin nature. I was in bondage to it.

You know what the biggest lie in the world is? What's the biggest lie? And you all bought it. Free will? Yeah, that you got free will. Here's you, here's the sin nature, and the Bible clearly says you're a slave to sin. Right? Who makes the decisions about where you're going? The sin nature does. So when the Lord Jesus says, I'm going to come and free you, that's what he's talking about. Because Satan, through the sin nature, held the fear of death over everybody who was attached to that sin nature.

You see that? So if he, through your identity with him on the cross, you get separated from that, he's still floating around in you, but this union isn't there anymore. You've been separated and now the Lord Jesus Christ, his resurrected life, you're united to him. There isn't any fear in him. None. And that's how it gets driven out. But you've got to know that information. You just don't wake up one morning and, well maybe, I mean the spirit is so gracious, you know, you begin to relax right away. But understanding what has happened in the transaction is really important for an ongoing freedom day to day, I think.

Is God done with your sin? How come you're not? Is he done with my sin? Yeah, but I'm not, but I should be. I'm resurrected. Next question, what does reconciliation mean? This question is going to get asked next week too, or the week after. What does reconciliation mean? I put a line in agreement. A line in agreement, that's pretty good. Anybody else? To make peace possible. To make peace possible. To pardon. That would be more of atonement. To be sinless. Not to do sins. Alright, let's uh... There's a distance. I haven't thought, like I was reading the passage and... From what I gather, what Christ said on the cross is he dealt with the sin problem. That was God's way of dealing with it. So, reconciled for me could mean God's way of dealing with something.

Okay, that's a contribution. That's pretty good. Would it be restoration? Were any of you ever in a right relationship? That's good. So you're getting the idea. The basic idea of reconciliation means to adjust something to a specific standard. To adjust something to a specific standard.

As used in the Bible, man is viewed as out of harmony with God. No kidding. Who, through the cross work of Jesus Christ, accomplished what is necessary to bring man back into fellowship with God. So who is the reconciler? You mean you're not? Do you have to reconcile God back to you? No. God never did anything to interfere with the relationship. It began with man. Let me ask it another way. If you had the opportunity as a non-believer to reconcile yourself to God, would you do it? No. Because you're at enmity with God. I think we don't appreciate how far the distance is. How far the distance is between God and the lost? How far is it? From here to Arvada, right? How far? How far? You don't want them? Sure? Nobody wants them? Nobody cares? How far is the distance? It's farther than we can calculate.

And so God has to approach the problem, and he didn't have to do this, to reconcile man back to himself. Is the fact that Jesus became a man, the second person of the Trinity became a man, and that the fullness of God dwelt in him, is that enough to effectuate reconciliation? No, if we don't respond to that, it's of no benefit. Respond to the fact that he became a man and he was... He had all the fullness. So what if we do respond to that?

Do we get reconciled? Yeah. The sacrifice did it. Ah. We were drawn because it was there, I think. The fullness was there. But it was the sacrifice that did the work. I think the Jews and the Romans have proved that the fullness being there wasn't a drawing card. Well, that's true. One or the other. The issue is what you were saying.

The reconciliation couldn't be accomplished by Jesus just becoming a man, or the fullness of God dwelling in him has to be a death. How come? How come? Separation. Separation in the blood of the cross. There's a separation. What do you mean? Well, he is the only one that can bring us into harmony with himself through the death of Christ. And why did it take the death of Christ to do it? Because without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins. Okay. The life is in the blood. Yeah. So in order to reconcile Jim McCauley to God. It has to be the one who's doing the reconciling had to die. Why?

Does that go all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God, there's a death there to cover Adam and Eve and then we were all born under the curse. Is that to bring us back out of the curse? Well, we never were out of the curse. My mother conceived me in sin. I understand that, but I mean, we as individuals, when we accept Christ and we were there, buried and resurrected with him, doesn't that take us out from under that curse of Adam?

Yeah, and how does it do it? Back in the garden, what did God tell Adam? The soul that sins, what does death mean? It means separation. And so you have to understand, if you look at death from the standpoint of separation, then the separation wasn't now that God was going around the garden looking for Adam because he was hiding. He was absolutely, totally, eternally separated from anything that was like God at all.

So if God can't tolerate sin in his presence, what has he got to do with it? Punish it. Huh? As a punishment? No, not punishment. Well, it's banished as far away as is possible. Romans 8.3 says that what the law couldn't do, what was the law designed to do or what they thought it was designed to do? God sent his own son. in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, what did he do? He condemned sin in the flesh. He had to do it that way. Because in order for you to be in the presence of a holy God, you have to be blameless. You have to be perfect. Trick question.

If you are a forgiven sinner, are you allowed to be in the presence of God? Hold on, think of what I'm asking now. If you are a forgiven sinner, are you acceptable in the presence of God? Answer, no you're not. You know why? Because you're still a sinner.

Forgiven sinners don't get to go into the presence of God. Yeah, but you didn't die. You died with Christ. And resurrected. So are you a sinner anymore? No. From his perspective? No, you're not. So now you're reconciled. Does that make sense? I'm not saying you don't commit sin, Wanda. What I'm saying is that you're not a sinner from God's perspective anymore. And you may function different than who God says you are in your position in Christ, but you are not identified as a sinner. You're now a son.

But you were saying, could you be in the presence of God as a forgiven sinner? As a forgiven... Well, aren't we in the presence of God? Isn't that our position? And your position means that you're not a sinner anymore. But down here I am. No, you're not. I'm not? No. I mean, remember... If any man be in Christ, he is in the creation. All things that passed away, behold, everything has become new. We don't desire to sin anymore. You don't, I do. Well I don't. Murder doesn't pay.

So in order for us to be reconciled, The way God did it, it had to be through the blood of Christ's cross. There had to be a death. There had to be the separation of what offended God, which is you and sin. See that? And so God reconciles you from the farthest place back to the closest place and that all happens in a nanosecond. When he was on the cross, he was separated. Why have you forsaken me as a man? And he went through as a substitute, a perfect substitute.

Does that sum it up? You know, the substitutionary part of Christ's death where he paid the penalty for your sins is not enough to be reconciled. Because you're still a sinner. No, but that's the step that was necessary. To propitiate God. Yes, so that he is satisfied with that death. Then he can raise Christ from the dead and raise us with him. Do you understand what he's talking about? If the Lord Jesus on his own pays the penalty for the sins of the world, he satisfies God about the penalty and the guilt. And that's all he did. He didn't do anything other than that. Do any of us have a right to be in his presence? No, we don't. But we are.

Because we were identified with the Lord Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection. You were crucified with him, which means that you got separated from your identity as a sinner. And now you have the resurrected life of Christ. Don't believe, they're still stuck. Yeah, that's right.

And Mike, maybe Wanda, right now we have two natures. There is a sinful nature and then the new creation, new creature in Christ. So yeah, we still sin, we still have the flesh, we still do that. There are two natures in us right now. But the new creature is new in kind, new in quality, and is not a sinner. The trick question always is, can you go as a forgiven sinner? What are you by that word? You're still a sinner. So the trick question is, sinners don't get to be there just because they're forgiven, they're still a sinner.

You have to separate. So the second one, there are two creations, the old man and the new man. Once we step into eternity, we're separated from the flesh, separated from sin nature. Now, we just have that new creation, new creature in Christ placed into him. So we still sin today because we have two natures. We listen to the old nature and we follow it. We don't have to. We're not in bondage. We sometimes do. But the new creature in Christ can't. The new nature doesn't. So we have a new creature, new in kind. from our old sinful flesh to the new creature.

I'm going to ask and answer the last question, which will answer your question I hope, because both the bells went off. In what way does the blood of the cross make peace? And here was my answer. The death of Christ terminates all of the fallen man in the eyes of God. Adam and his entire race was terminated in the eyes of God. And the resurrection places the new man in the position of satisfaction so that God is no longer at enmity with man. You put Adam aside is what he did.

Okay, but we do sin. You commit sins. Okay, I thought you said no. Well, let's put it this way. Sin, just like resurrected life, has to have a source. So when I sin, what's the source of my sinning? It's my sin nature. But I'm not identified with that sin nature anymore. I'm now identified... Do you realize that sinning for a Christian is just spiritual insanity? It's not consistent with who they are? Sinning is not consistent with who I am in Christ.

See? I don't think we deliberately sin anymore. We just don't. What are you wearing? You look like that one. I never committed a sin that I didn't want to or didn't like. You haven't? Absolutely not. Every single sin I've ever committed, I wanted to do it. I wasn't fooled. I knew what I was doing.

But if you hurt someone's feelings, that is a sin, isn't it? And then you ask them to forgive you. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. If I offend you, it's interesting, if I say something that offends you, you decided to be offended. Now if I cause you to stumble, that's a whole different thing. But if I offend you, what have I offended? Have I offended you in Christ or have I offended you in the old man? That's the question. and fully well knowing what you're doing. When I stand before the Lord, do you know when you go to the beam of judgment that sin is not going to be an issue there?

Not going to be an issue. What's going to happen? We're going to get rewarded. Isn't that cool? Why isn't it going to be an issue? Because it's already done. We've got to close. Jim's going to talk about reconciliation more. So, keep your pencils sharp. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross, not only on behalf of us, but also with us, that he took us with him down into death, that we might be separated from all that was unpleasing to you, recreating us in Him, resurrected in Him, and so now we have exactly the same acceptance before you as He does, the Lord Jesus. I would pray that we would all grow in the awareness of our position and the intimacy that's afforded to us as believers. Thank you, Father, we pray in your Son's name, Amen.