Session 18 – Romans; Romans 6-8: Mark Lanier, 10/05/25

Romans 6-8: Union with Christ - Mark Lanier
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[00:00:00] Thank y'all for being here. If you're watching on the internet, thanks for being, on the internet and watching there. We miss you present, but we sense and appreciate your presence. I knew a fella. Now this fella came to know the Lord and then he was baptized, and this fella told me with tears in his eyes, I don't get it.

I gave my life to the Lord. I've been baptized and I'm worried that I must have done something wrong. Could I have maybe [00:01:00] blasphemed the Holy Spirit? I don't get it because everything seems to be going wrong with my life. I'm not living that Christian victory. I'm not that success story that says I gave my life to Jesus and now everything is blue skies and rainbows and sunbeams from heaven.

I'm struggling. I'm struggling with the same sins I struggled with before I came to Jesus. Now that may sound familiar to you because that may be your story because you're human. I know a gal. Oh, by the way, these aren't real pictures. These are [00:02:00] AI generated people, so if you're thinking, I know that guy too.

Nah, it's just like a smorgasbord of a bunch of guys put together. I didn't know that gal. She lives across the street. Nah, that's just her doppelganger. This is a totally made up person. I know a Galbo who had the same story. She said, I came to be a Christian. And I thought life would be great, and I'd wake up the next day and I still had the temper.

She said, I wake up every morning and every morning I wake up. The first thing I do is, Lord, today please help me control my temper. Please help me see where I'm speaking in anger. Please help me not be passive aggressive. Please help [00:03:00] soften the sharp edges to my corners. And she said to me, generally by one o'clock in the afternoon, but certainly by five, I've utterly failed.

Am. Am. Is there something deeply wrong with me? And all I can say in part is, yeah, that sounds like everybody else's story because to some degree or another, we're all that way. So what can we do about this? Are we stuck living in this rut? Of failure and moral depravity. Are we enslaved to this sin that we have no ability to defeat?

Should we [00:04:00] just simply ignore it all and just say, well, God is merciful. I mean, what gives. I thought I was supposed to be great. Now that I'm a Christian, but I feel like I'm just beat up.

These are questions that are not new to us in Western society in the 21st century, are we in the 21st or 22nd century? I know it's 21st, but this lives on in the internet for maybe another a hundred years, and they'll say 22nd. Paul seeks to educate us about this. This is what Paul's gonna be talking about.

And so we have a chance to hear Paul on this in Romans chapter six through chapter eight. And what I'd like us to do [00:05:00] is reason through these questions with Brother Paul. Now, as I designed this lesson, I designed it to be in three steps, three stairs. The first level is the certainty. Of our union with Christ, we can be absolutely certain that we are united with Christ, and that's foundational.

We need to understand that. And then the second stair is the certainty of our new life in Christ. And so we will then look at that, and then third, where we won't have too much time to get into it in depth, but we'll look at what are some practical implications. And what we're doing is taking something that Paul's dealing with in three [00:06:00] chapters, and we're having to break it down into small little pieces.

And I mean, we could do it as three chapters. But there's so much richness in the small pieces that I want us to dig down into those small pieces and enjoy some of the richness because Hank has told me before, don't hurry through this stuff. We want to, we want to eat it fully. We want to digest it. We're gonna chew it 25 times before we swallow it.

So in honor of. Dr. Hank I will as well. And we'll start with the certainty of our union in Christ. Now remember our background. Paul's writing this letter to a church that started out Jewish, brought in Gentiles. The Jews got kicked out by Caesar. They're gone for [00:07:00] several years. They come back, they've gotta readjust to a church that the Gentiles have been running for several years and they're trying to figure out how to put this church back together.

And so Paul's been dealing with it from a. Theological perspective of looking at salvation, but he's also dealing with it from a behavior perspective, how we live as Christians, and that's a section that we're in right now. How does this affect how we live? And Paul was a theologian. But Paul was what I call a practical theologian.

He cared about theology where it was practical. He cared about studying God and his nature and what he's done through Christ and the church and the future, and all those areas of study and theology. But he cared about 'em in terms of what difference do they make to us. So we've got this letter and [00:08:00] Paul's been writing it.

And we get to Romans chapter six, verse five, where we're gonna start today and uh, uh, today. This first point is taking what we did last Sunday a little bit further, but we're gonna take what we did last Sunday and I'm gonna give you a little bit of a reprise of it so that you're still in the flow of things.

Paul began. If we have been united with Christ. In a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. And in the Greek, what Paul's using is a very logical process that is if then. And we use if then statements logically. Today, if I flip the switch then the lights come [00:09:00] on.

It's the same thing. You don't read it as readily in the English versions of the Bible as you do in the Greek, but in the English versions we have four if, and then we have shall certainly instead of then. But in the Greek, that's what we have an if then type statement. But it's, if this is true, then this certainly is true and that's that power of the aka the Greek, it means it's, it's really certain.

So if cocoa is in the cake batter, it will certainly be in the cake. No brainer, Paul might say. And so Paul has said here, if we have been united with him, futo is the word that's [00:10:00] translated united. And it's a, it's a, uh, a botanical, a plant, a gardening metaphor. It means if it's grown together, if we have been grown together with Christ in his death.

We're not getting pulled apart. We're more certainly grown together with him in his resurrection. And so this idea of being grown together is there. And if you tie this into the verses before, what Paul is saying is this is the spiritual reality of baptism. We're organically, biologically, if you will, united with Christ and his death.

And in his resurrection, it's echoes what Paul says in two Timothy two 11. If you want to go check it there. So Paul begins by saying, if we've been united with him in his [00:11:00] death, then certainly we're united with him in his resurrection. And think about the implications. The implications are we know that our old self was crucified with him.

We may not feel it all the time. We may feel frustrated. We may feel at wit's end. We may feel like we're no different than we were. Paul doesn't say we feel that our old self was crucified with him. He says, we know. This is head knowledge. This is something we're aware of. Sometimes our heart has to listen to our head because our heart's not always in the same place.

Those of you [00:12:00] who know my penchant for watching weird tv.

Might know that what I've really been into for the last two or three years is kdr. So what's K drama? It's Korean drama. Um, my wife accuses me of watching Korean soap opera operas. I refuse to go there because I would have to rip up my man card. This is sophisticated Korean drama that just goes by the Korean days of our lives.

Um, but it's very interesting to watch this interplay in Korean TV between heart and head because they're always trying to figure out [00:13:00] what does it mean to say senge? I love you. Is it a feeling or is it a thought? See, biblically if we tear apart the Greek language, they've got words for feelings of love and words for thoughts of love and all the rest, but the concept of a biblical love.

That is a, a, a good and, and serviceable love serviceable for the kingdom, for humanity and serviceable within a marriage. It's rooted in a decision. Love Shakespeare brought the romance to the front. Before Shakespeare. It wasn't just the, the, the romance. It was very much more the, the, the, the process and the thinking.

And so even in one John, it talks about how our hearts may convict us, but we need to be thinking of what we know because [00:14:00] our brain needs to trump our hearts. Paul says, we know that our old self, and this word that he's using for old is not our case. It's it's PIOs. This is the old in the sense of worn out.

Past its serviceable life. Uh, my brother-in-law, Kevin Roberts told me the other day, no, it was a few years back, he said, yeah, he said he, he, he still remembers the day he went to the doctor after he turned 40 and the doctor had the worst news possible for him. And I said, what was it? He said, the doctor told me that after you turned 40.

Your parts are outta warranty.

You got no choice. You just, if it breaks, deal with it because you're outta warranty. That's the sense of this word I ruled self is outta [00:15:00] warranty. It wasn't of any use. This is exactly. What Paul was referencing in Titus that hands talked about this morning in his sermon, and I hope he does the same sermon in the 10 30 outstanding sermon.

This is when we were senseless. This is when we were enslaved to our passions. This is when, this is the old self, the worn out self. That was useless, but that self Paul says was crucified. With God and, and this word crucified with soon. It's a real pauling thing. We're gonna see it again later on as we deal with the, the next few verses, but it, it's, it means it.

We did it with him. We were co crucified with Christ.[00:16:00]

Paul says in Galatians two 20, I have been crucified with Christ.

And what Paul is saying here is sin doesn't have dominion over us anymore. It's closed. That old self is out of business forever. Our old identity as a slave to sin has been legally terminated. It's been actually terminated, and sin doesn't do business in our lives anymore by right. We might let 'em, but not by, right, because Paul says one who died has been set free.

This has happened. They have been set free.

Now, I mentioned last week that this is a.[00:17:00]

This is a funny use of this word in a sense. The Deo words in the Greek are rooted in this idea of being justified. Paul uses one in Titus two. Again, I mean the, you would think that I wrote hands his sermon this morning and hands wrote my class because they fit together like this. And do you know why they fit together like that?

They're both talking about the gospel and there is one gospel, Paul and the Lord and the Holy Spirit wrote the class and the sermon. That's what it's about. But you've got this peculiar use almost of this word DEOs here. Because Paul is, it's translated by the English standard versions. One who has died has been set free, but the word is actually a courtroom word that says they've [00:18:00] been declared not guilty.

But you can see the the, the way Paul is able to effectively use the word, you might ask the question, is it that they've been set free or that they're justified? Which is a nice, fancy word we get from the romance languages that talks about us being made or declared righteous, not guilty. Well, those words are related.

Um, famous criminal case people have been keeping an eye on, uh, Sean Combs was sentenced this week and Sean Combs was sentenced for sex trafficking in New York. And, um, uh, he made, uh, an urgent plea to the judge with tears and a letter, uh, that he has found his faith again in prison. And if the judge would release [00:19:00] him and not put him in prison longer, that he would, um, be able to, uh, uh, be an example for others and help lead people in the right way.

Uh, the judge said, ha, um, that's a legal term. Ha the judge said instead, you will be incarcerated for five years. You get credit for what you've done. But if he's behaves well, he'll be out in two and a half more years. Now, if the judge had said instead. Or the jury had said instead, back before the sentencing, you are not guilty, you are justified.

What would've happened to Sean Combs, he would've been set free. So those words are related to each other in their idea. Anyway, Paul's saying, if you have died, you are now free. You are now justified. But Paul's got this rabbi in him. That [00:20:00] likes to write with ambiguity at times because he wants you to appreciate all of the different sides of his truth.

And we'll see that again in a bit. But what he's saying is, someone who's died has been set free. Look, when you're dead, your wife cannot make you take out the trash ever again. You cannot make a dead man do something. When you are dead, nobody's gonna say, wash your dish out. Don't just leave it in the sink, put it in the dishwasher.

Not that I've ever heard that.

So as we reason through this with Paul, we should start with this foundation that we can be certain that we are united with Christ in his death. And if we are united with Christ in his death, we can be equally certain. [00:21:00] We have a new life. Paul says as he continues in verse eight. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Look at that verse. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. What I'd like to do with you for a moment is talk tense and I, no, not that kind of tense. I want to talk verb tenses. I mean, be more specific. We think in English grammar as things that happened in the past. Things that happen in the present and things that happen in the future.

In the Greek language verb tense has more than just locating it in time. It's got certain aspects to it. And so sometimes we [00:22:00] talk about the verb aspect, and sometimes we talk about the verb tense, but I just want to talk about the, the temporal element of verbs for a moment and look at it as things that happened in the past.

Things that are happening right now and things that are happening in the future, because Paul uses all three of those time senses in one verse in his verbs. Here, Brad, I have something for you. Don't leave

here. Um, Paul uses all three of those in in this, um, oh. Thank you. Yeah. Paul uses all three of those in this verse. Let's go look at it together. He starts out with, now if we have died, and this is in the past tense API men, we have died. It's an heist. Heist is a [00:23:00] kind of verb. It's a, not a kind of verb, it is a, a tense or um, an aspect of a verb.

You can take a verb and you can put it in all these different forms, much like English, and one of the forms you can put it in is the heist form. And this is what some scholars would call an heist of decisive action is something that has happened. We decided to share the death of Christ. It was a decision.

It is something that happened in the past. This is an event that occurred in the past. This is what Hans was saying this morning when he said, do you have a gospel story? Have you encountered and put your faith in the gospel truth that Jesus Christ died for your sin? That act of grace [00:24:00] from God. This is an heirs of decisive action.

It's something that happened in the past. In the past, we died to Christ. That's what he's been pointing out this whole time. He says, then he says, we believe now we believe is no longer an heirs. Now we have shifted to the present tense tuman and the present tense is talking about something that we experienced daily, minute by minute.

It's real, it's active. It's right now. So we in the past, we died in the present, we believe.

Hit the pause button for just a moment. And by the way, I did have mercy in my heart for all of you. When hands this morning said, you know, if I wanted to really. He was more polite than this, [00:25:00] but really bore you and put you to sleep. I'd dig into this Greek in more detail. Um, I have no compunction about bore you and putting you to sleep.

That's why we give you coffee. We give you donuts. Um, we have your neighbors who can elbow you, so we're just going in for it. I told him, laughingly, I said, you are so much more merciful than I am. We're going into it. I wanna pause for a moment and I want to talk about this word peu that's translated believe.

EU is not easily captured in one English word. It means believe in the sense of, you know, you're persuaded, you're, you, ascent mentally, you, you, you, I got it. You know, it does mean that I understand. I, I get it. I believe it, but it means something beyond that. It also means a conviction. This I am so convicted that, that I'm willing to act on it.

It is not just something I, I believe it's something [00:26:00] I'm convicted about and something I trust in, I will trust in this. So what Paul is saying here is if we believe present daily, if we're convicted about this, if we trust this, if we find this reliable and inspirational and motivational. Then in, if this daily trust and confidence is there, we can know that we will also live with him.

We can have a confidence that is a trusting con. We can rely upon it that we're going to live with him, and that's in the future tense. So we got all three. Time aspects of a tense exhibited in this one verse. If we have died aorist of decisive action, then we believe a, a, a present [00:27:00] tense daily about what the future will hold, and we can live trusting in that.

These are very important steps to understanding how to move in victory over sin. I loved the communion this morning. I, I look, I'm almost like, let's do it every day to have time to reflect upon, you know, Jart was up here and he said, you know, think about, since, you know, last time we had communion, you know, last it's been, what, six weeks or so?

Two months? I don't know. Um. Month, whatever it is. And, and he said, you know, maybe you said something you shouldn't. Maybe you, I'm thinking, well, that was this morning. I mean, well, I don't have to go back last month. Maybe you, you, you acted in a way you shouldn't have. Yeah. That was coming in here when I cut the guy off in the parking lot.[00:28:00]

I mean, I, I need to be doing this evaluation much more frequently than once a month. When you send, like I do. I am reminded of a lawyer one time who said, uh, he went to this church, and I said, uh oh, I didn't know that. And he says, yeah. And he was introducing me to the preacher and he said, I actually sort of work at the church.

And I said, what do you do? He said, I provide the sin for the preaching.

All right, so what does this mean? We will also live with him. When's he talking about?

When is he talking about? I mean, I, we will also live with him when it's a future experience. What does Paul mean? Got three options. This is Paul's ambiguity. John Monson. Three options. Option number one. [00:29:00] Paul might mean right now. He said, but yeah, he used the future tense well, yeah, yeah, yeah. But remember, he's talking in, not just in one verse, he's talking in a chapter, in a book.

He's saying, we have died with Christ. So from that past experience of dying, the future is one where we live with Christ. And so we're living in the future right now. We're post death. We're in that resurrection so we can be confident in this future life that we're living now. So that's one option. Paul could mean that we will also live with him right now, but he also might mean that we'll live with him at death.

When we die, we depart and go live with our savior. We went to, um, a service honoring our friend, friend of many in this class, Rodney Pennington, and our son-in-law walked away from the service saying. [00:30:00] He has not laughed that much in forever in a day because the service was a celebration of Rodney's life.

And anybody who knew Rodney knew that there was no way to get between him. And a good joke, I, I mean, he wrote much of his own funeral, including he wanted some Dallas Cowboys to show up to lower his casket into the ground so they could let him down one last time.

Um, you can rejoice in the face of death. Even though you grieve in the absence of the loved one in your life in a tangible way, you can rejoice because you know they're gonna go see the savior. We can believe that we will also live with him. Amen. And so death might be [00:31:00] what Paul means with this conviction and trust That says we're gonna be with him.

There's third option. Maybe he's talking about the par, the, the eschaton, the second coming, or, um, yeah, I'll leave that there. The second coming. And, and if it's the second coming, it's the idea that for eternity. We will be with him. So which is it? What do you mean, Paul? Why are you so ambiguous? Why didn't you just add a word or two to tell us what you meant?

And the answer I believe, is in a very rabbinic way. Paul is just saying yes, yes, yes. Because all three of those are true. Paul says it's true. Now, Galatians two 20, I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet, not I, but Christ lives with me now. [00:32:00] But you go to Acts chapter seven and you see Stephen being stoned and right before he dies, he has a vision as the heavens open and he sees the son of God at the right hand of the Almighty.

That's where he's going. And at death we experience a reuniting with our savior, unlike what we have now in a different type, different degree, and certainly at the second coming, Paul uses the same vocabulary in one Thessalonians four, 14 and 17. Look at it for just a moment.

First Thessalonians four 14 through 17. Dealing with this second coming, Paul says,

then, well, let's start with verse 14. Since we believe Jesus died, since we [00:33:00] believe Jesus died, since we believe he rose again, Jesus will bring with him those who fallen asleep. Paul adds in verse 17. Then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

So we will all always be with the Lord. So Paul uses that language everywhere, and what Paul is telling you is that. We can have confidence and trust that we'll be with him now and when we die and for eternity, that is what we can be confident of. And with that we have something that is freeing for us.

Look at it for just a moment in one more detail. [00:34:00] And I mean, I'm sorry, we're just like mining this. I'm pretending I'm teaching you a Greek class in Romans. Okay? This is right here with him. With him is actually found in, in two of the Greek words. Sue is an abbreviation for soon in Greek, which means with Paul's added it to the verb and him, there's your pronoun at the end with Christ.

That's a very Paul idea. You don't really get that in the rest of the New Testament. That's Paul's lingo. That's Paul's idea. Oh, you can read the rest of the New Testament and you can read about how believing Christ you can read about following Christ. You can read about Christ saving you and being saved by Christ, but this with Christ, that's Paul.

And he does it with a lot of different verbs in a lot of different places. But [00:35:00] Paul is the one in the New Testament who explores a distinct and a mystical union with Christ. We can't understand all of what's entailed in this union with Christ, but it's no less real, just because we can't rationally explain it to the nth detail, much like the Trinity.

It's still real, even if we can't rationally explain it to the nth detail. And so this is Paul with Christ. Look at Ephesians two, five and six for a minute. Galatians and Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians two, five through six.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God being rich in mercy made us alive [00:36:00] together with Christ by grace, by the cross of Christ, you have been saved and he's raised us up with him. And seeded us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's Paul. We have this union, this mystical union with Christ.

Look at Colossians two 12 through 13.

Paul says, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. That's it. You know, God made us alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses. This is Paul. We've got this union with Christ.

So when he says this, knowing that Christ being [00:37:00] raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. We are one organically rooted together with Christ in his death and his resurrection, and we can be confident that it affects not just the decision we made before, but it affects us today.

It will affect us when we die and it will affect us for eternity, and we can be confident of this. We are with him in some hard to explain way, yet totally real. And so Paul now turns all logical again on us and just says, look, just be logical. Just as, as sure as one plus one equals two. Consider the logic of what [00:38:00] I'm saying here.

Consider we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. We know this Now that in Greek is a participle and it is a, a causal participle, we would say. And what that means is because we know. He does not say because we feel, he does not say, well, I intuit it.

He does not say, well, it's just the way it is. He speaks of what we know, and biblical faith is always grounded on what we know. I don't have a blind. Leap of faith. My faith is a reasoned explanation [00:39:00] for things that I know Paul says We know. He's saying, use your Nain. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him. By the way, that's a real fun little word in the Greek. This verb translated dominion. Some of you who are in the Greek classes that we are teaching recognize part of this. You're more familiar maybe with the noun form of Rios Rios is the noun. That means Lord Paul talks about the Lord Jesus over and over and over in his writings.

And what Paul does is he takes the verb form of Lord and uses it here and says Sin [00:40:00] death no longer lords it over Jesus. Death no longer lords it over Jesus. Jesus. I mean, Satan cannot threaten Jesus with death anymore. Oh Jesus. You better not help out those champion forest people or I'm gonna kill you.

That's an absurdity. Death no longer has any lordship over Jesus. So if we've been united with Christ's death and resurrection, we only have one Lord, and it's not sin and death. Our Lord is the Lord Jesus. Who has conquered sin and death. That's the only Lord of our life. There is one Lord for the believer.

So [00:41:00] we have this one Lord, and sin doesn't have, and death doesn't have any lordship over Jesus and doesn't have any lordship over us because the death that Jesus died, he died to sin. Once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Now, this is an interesting passage, an interesting verse. First of all, he died to sin.

How did Jesus, who knew no sin die to sin in Greek nouns. And words that function as nouns and adjectives. And anyway, you've got a whole collection of words, but here we're talking about nouns, nouns. Have little endings that go on 'em that tell you how they function in the sentence. Should it be the subject?

Should it be the source something came from or, or should it be [00:42:00] a description of something or should it be a direct object or an indirect object? And all of this kind of stuff, instead of placement of the words like we do in English, they just put little labels on 'em and said, I'm a noun. I'm the subject, or I'm the object and it's got this label and it uses a high pitched voice when it does it.

Um. Died to sin is in the date of case. How can we, um, did I just switch? Yeah. Died to sin is in the date of case. So it's the death that Jesus died. He died to sin. This is the exact same grammar. If you look at it, te or ti. If you look at the grammar here, it's the same phrase, grammar function that Paul used with us who died to sin in verse two.

So this gets some scholars perplexed, we died a sin because we're [00:43:00] sinners. But how does Jesus die to sin because he wasn't a sinner? How could Jesus, how could perfect Jesus die to sin? We get it for us, but how does Jesus die to sin? I thought he didn't have any. If you go back and look, Jesus died to sin.

Remember Jesus Lord, sin no longer lords it over Jesus. Death no longer lords it over Jesus. What Paul has done in this chapter is personified sin. He's made sin a, a person in, in some ways. And so if you understand that he's personified of sin, whoops, go back. Then he died to sin. Death no longer lords it over Jesus.

While Jesus was alive in a human form, he could experience human death. He was fully human, so he has died to the effects of [00:44:00] sin. It's gone. Sin does not lord it over Jesus anymore. Death does not Lord it over Jesus anymore, but look what happened. Instead, he died once for all. Now, somebody out there is gonna say, huh?

Does that mean one time for all times? Or does that mean one man died for every person?

One time for all times is what Paul means here. A Phi Ephi is in the Greek APHAs is this idea of, I guess I sh yeah, that works once for all in time. The death of Jesus happened. Once it is finished, it doesn't have to happen again. His final word, teti from the cross. It is finished. [00:45:00] It's done. He died once.

He, all the sins were taken care of. You can't have one. He didn't take care of. You sent it, he washed it. It's already happened. He paid the price. This same word. I don't have time to look at these, but if you're making notes and you want to go back and look, you can see this once for all is talking about time instead of one for everybody.

If he wanted one for everybody, he, he would've used some different grammar he could have used. Uh. On behalf of or or of all Pontone Hooper Pontone, or he could have done any number of different things, but that's not what he did once for all Here, he used a word that means once for all time.

So the death that Jesus died to sin, he died once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Now I wanna return to this date of case that I [00:46:00] told you about with Tein and Tein Tahar in the, the date of would carry a label to a, a New Testament exe of being. This date of case would be a D of of disadvantage.

Whoops. Get over there. Go go. Just ignore this for a minute. Go, go, go. It's a date of disadvantage. In other words, he died to the disadvantage of sin, to the detriment of sin. But you've got that same D you can kind of see, even if you don't read Greek, you can see how you've got the same kind of endings, just the difference between a feminine form and a masculine form.

You've got the same kind of endings. For to God. So the life he lives, he lives to God. If this means he died to the detriment of sin, [00:47:00] it's a date of advantage where it comes to God. Say, what is this talking about? Lemme tell you what I mean. Jesus died to the detriment of sin, but he lives to the glory of God.

God is glorified in the life of Christ. And those of us who are entwined with Christ, we live to the glory of God. If we don't understand these things, we are the rat on a wheel running inside the cage wondering why the wheel never changes. But if we began to understand, then we can begin to take steps.

To be empowered by God's spirit, to live more holy and right before God, but this Christ died to the detriment of sin. He lives to the [00:48:00] glory of God. Remember what Jesus said in his high priestly prayer in John 17 verse five.

Look at the high priestly prayer. Jesus says to God, father. Glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed. See, Jesus had to come die to the detriment of sin so that he could be restored to live to the glory of God. This is Paul and Philippians two. That he emptied himself.

He took the form of a bond servant was made in the likeness of men and humbled himself to others, to the point of death, even death on a cross. But therefore, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him a name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow those who are in heaven, on earth and under the earth in every tongue, [00:49:00] proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

To the glory of God the father. He lives to the glory of God the Father, and so do you. Christ's death was terminal to sins claims, and his life is permanent in God's power. So logically, where are we? Paul says in the next verse. So you also must consider yourselves. Dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

That's the certainty of our new life. Now, what are the practical implications? I can't wait to tell you next week, and so we're gonna pick up there next week, but right now we have points for [00:50:00] home.

I cannot overemphasize how important it is to know the truth, to know that our old self was co crucified with him, to know that he is dead, that he is resurrected. Paul uses the word over and over because he wants us to know these things. Hmm. I, I love coming to church. I love worshiping. I love praying. I love the Lord's Supper.

I love the fellowship, but I also really love having a pastor who preaches and teaches God's word because we need to know these things. And when he's got someone visiting who can parse the scriptures as well as the friend this morning to let them have the pulpit. So that God could be glorified and we could [00:51:00] be edified and educated.

I'm a lawyer. I ply my trade in the courtroom. I can, I can weave a pretty good story, not as good as my mom, but I can weave a pretty good story. Mom's best storyteller we've ever known. When we were kids, people would come over and spend the night. What do you wanna do? Can your mom tell us stories? That and cooking, mom's cooking is all they wanted.

Um, we were just the door into mom's presence for these kids who wanted to be adopted. Um, but I could get up here and just tell you stories. I might even entertain you.

But my charge and my responsibility is to try and help us learn what God wants us to learn, because that's the foundation that's gonna help us with our [00:52:00] story. Stories are useful as examples to help us understand concepts. Stories are useful to motivate us to move to holiness and righteousness, but what we need to do is we need to know what God is doing in our lives so that we can walk in the victory that he has for us.

If you have a million dollars in the bank and you never know it, what a waste. You'll never draw on it. So if we know the truth, then we can begin to process the implications. This is when we can begin to live out of that new nature and not our old habits. This is when we can embrace the idea that one who has died has been set free from sin.

And we can begin to process what that implies and what are the ramifications of [00:53:00] that in our life. And as we do that, we'll learn to use certain tools that will help us. But we've gotta understand we're not fighting to become free. We're learning how to live free. There's a huge difference. That's why Paul said, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

You've got to understand the difference to be able to walk with the tools, and

this is where we have to draw it to an end today. So thank you for your attention. Thank you, Lord for this word. And Father, it is our prayer that you will bless everyone with a greater awareness of the incredible, not just victory we have in the death and resurrection of Jesus, but the transformation you have done as you've moved us from a realm of slavery to sin into freedom in Christ.[00:54:00]

We love you beyond measure. And we pray through Jesus our Lord. Amen. See you guys next Sunday.