Life Between the Cross and Resurrection

You know, this is an amazing song. Most of you have heard the story of this hymn, the man that wrote it. If you notice in your bulletin, you have the words, Horatio's Spafford was a businessman in Chicago, and very wealthy, and when the Chicago fire occurred, even though he wasn't hurt, many of his friends were, he was a believer, and it had such an impact on him that he decided he wanted to live the rest of his life in a different way. He wanted to live his life for Christ alone. And he decided that what he needed to do was to sell everything he had, and he was going to move to Jerusalem of all places, in order to bring his family there, spend some time there, and then see what God had for him. He had four daughters, and just as they were, the day they were supposed to depart, discovered that one of the sales of this property, that he had a lot of property, and one of the particular pieces went bad, and he had to stay.

He couldn't leave with his family. And so his family left, but what they did was, they were actually scheduled to be in a room in midship, but because of this change, they moved the family forward, and in the midst of this trip to France, was where they were going initially, across the Atlantic. It was hit by another ship, right in the center of the ship, and it went down. All four of his daughters perished, and his wife survived, and when his wife sent him word, her words were saved alone.

Well, when he finally was able to leave Chicago, and to go and be with her in France, as they were passing by this place, the captain was looking at his charts, and he said, this is where the ship went down, where your family perished, and he wrote this song. At that point in time, he said, God gave him this song, as they were passing that part of the ocean, and he writes, this is the message that God gave him, the change of heart that he gave him, when peace like a river attended my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, the word lot means, whatever has come to pass, whatever my particular path in life has been falling me, whatever my lot, that was taught me to say, what a lesson, what a lesson. That was taught me to say, God, it is well with my soul. The glorious truth, I wanted to sing this hymn this morning, because I wanted to hear you sing those words, it is well with my soul. What a glorious God we have. On the back table, I wanted to mention something, on the back table there are some brochures.

I know some of you would like to get your kids in some kind of camping situation in the summer, and the youth group is going to be doing some things in the summer, but there's quite any conference where we're going to have our retreat this weekend, by the way. If you'd like to go, you can still sign up today. But according to the conference grounds, it says youth camps, children's camps, junior eye camps, senior eye camps, all summer, different times, and they're all scheduled to the schedules in here. If you'd like to be a camp counselor, there's also some information in here how you might do that. You might want to pick one of those up on the back table. Camping is a wonderful thing for Christian young people, for young people, to be exposed to the gospel in a different context.

My son, I had been, I talked about my son, I'll be in trouble. My son, when he was 13, went away to camp, and he was a believer, but he came back, absolutely transformed. In fact, I had to throttle him back. He was so, he was so on fire, and when I was at the hospital visiting him last week, in Fremont, his best friend, Paul Guadarama, came to see him, and Paul was at that camp with him. And those two guys, along with a couple of other young men, it was amazing what happened to them at this camp, and how their lives were so turned around, and they're still walking with the Lord, still wanting to serve him. Today we come to Romans, again to Romans chapter 6.

This is such a glorious passage. I want to speak to you this morning, as time allows, about the message that's here. It's so vitally important. That is about our life between the cross and the resurrection. And that's where we are living now. We're not Old Testament saints that lived before the cross.

We are New Testament saints, New Covenant believers who are living between the cross and the resurrection. This text is going to teach us. Chapter 6 through 8 is going to teach us that moral renewal proceeds from our union with Christ and His death and resurrection. It comes not through moralizing, not through moral teaching, although that should be done at times, but it comes through our union with Christ in His death and resurrection.

But how does this happen? That's really the question that we want to look at. How is it that God transforms us the deepest part of our character through union with Jesus Christ? How does He do it? What part do we play? What part does the Holy Spirit play?

And what kind of changes can we legitimately expect in our lives as He does this work in us? Well, the answers to those questions are found in Romans 6 through 8. The reason I want to make this point is I want you to understand that as we go through this passage, you don't get the total story until we finish these three chapters. They're a unit. They flow out of, of course, the first four chapters and then the bridge of chapter 5, justification by faith alone, and then in chapter 5, the Apostle Paul makes this transition to this truth that we are accepted before God based upon the merits of Jesus Christ alone through faith in Him alone. Our acceptance and our righteousness is based upon what Christ has done, not upon what we have done.

And then in chapter 5, we transition. And in chapter 6, He begins to tell us now how are justified people supposed to live in this period of time between the cross and the resurrection? How are we to live? And what is God up to? What is He wanting to do in our lives? I like to show you something.

In the Bible, this is kind of the motif as you look at the way the Bible looks at time, history, the history of man. After the fall, we entered into what's called referred to in the scriptures as the present evil age. We've been in this evil age a long time since the fall of Adam and it resulted from his fall as the head of the race. And then the Bible also speaks about an age to come and in this age to come righteousness is going to reign in this world. There's righteousness is going to cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. There is going to be a ruler, a Messiah, who's going to rule in righteousness and all those who are under His rule are going to live in righteousness and glory and love and perfection.

It's a glorious promise and truth. And the Old Testament saints look forward to that day when this present evil age would end and we would enter into the age to come, the age of Messiah. God's man, anointed man, his anointed son, the God man who is going to come. We saw in chapter five, Paul looks at this in kind of a panoramic way. He looks at the flow of all history under the heading of Adam and Christ. We saw under the reign and rule of Adam.

He was appointed ruler and he failed so miserably that the characteristic of this age is sin and death. And Paul makes this point that generation after generation death reigns. But then he begins to show us something that's so important for us to understand. And that is that the age to come has broken in upon us. It broke in upon us with the coming of Jesus Christ. That picture of the cross is to picture the fact that even though the present evil age continues on, the age to come has come upon us.

Jesus once said to the Pharisees who were accusing him of healing and doing miracles in the power of belesable. That is in the power of Satan. And Jesus said, if what I'm doing is the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you. If Jesus Christ is truly God, if this is God's man, if this is Messiah, the Son of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And so in a very real sense, the kingdom of God came in Jesus Christ. One of the confusing things that a lot of people face when they read the Bible, and you'll hear a lot of arguments about this, has the kingdom come or hasn't it? Are we in the kingdom or are we not in the kingdom? And the reason people ask this question is because the Bible says we're in the kingdom, and the Bible also says the kingdom hasn't come yet. So how do we put these things together? We're told in Colossians chapter 1 that God through Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit has taken us out of the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son.

All believers have entered into the kingdom in some sense. And yet we pray, and the Lord's Prayer, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We await the kingdom to come and establish this kingdom upon this earth.

But what we are experiencing now is that as we live under Christ, His rule in the age to come as it is broken in upon us. And we experience righteousness in life. What we are living in is what you could call the overlap of the ages. In other words, this period of time we are living in right now from the cross. And when I say the cross, I mean the incarnation, the cross, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. That entire event began the last days.

Everything about it was the marking of the last days. And the last days, God said, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. And that happened on the day of Pentecost. And we are living in these days in which we are living both in the present evil age and we see it all around us. And yet we are living also in the age to come. In the sense that we have been transferred into the kingdom of His dear Son.

The church in this fallen world is evidence of the rule of Christ. It's evidence of the presence of the kingdom of God on earth, even though we await the ultimate fullness of the kingdom of God that's going to come at the second coming of Jesus Christ. So the answer to the question, are we in the kingdom or are we not, is yes. We are and we are not. We are in the kingdom, but the kingdom is not yet come in its fullness.

But we are living now in this period of time. Now, when you stop and think about this, it's also referred to as the already not yet or the now not yet. That comes from various passages like 1 John chapter 3.

Now we are the children of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be. When you look around, you see all these children of God in this room and you think, wait, they look just like all those people that aren't children of God. Because children of God and the New Testament are those who have been born again. And yet we don't look very much differently than those who are not born again. It's amazing, isn't it? And yet, what He says is, we have begun to experience what it means to be a child of God.

There has been an internal change like Jesus told Nicodemus, you have to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. You have to be born again in order to enter into the kingdom of God. And so all of you, through the new birth, have entered into the kingdom of God in a very real sense.

But we still live in the present evil age. And so there are times when believers look schizophrenic. The church can appear to be that way at times.

But we need to understand. Now, what happens in the teaching on the Christian life? Sometimes there are various distortions of what the New Testament teaches. For example, this idea of a second blessing or perfectionism, where I can enter into a second blessing experience. And all of a sudden, I have come to perfection as a Christian. That I'm completely holy in Set-apart to God and sin has been eradicated from my nature.

Well, the reason for that confusion is a lack of understanding of this truth that we're talking about. That we are living in the overlap of the ages. It's true. We have entered into the kingdom. We have experienced the perfect righteousness of Christ being put to our account. And we have even experienced the righteousness of Christ being infused in us through regeneration and the indwelling presence of Christ and the Holy Spirit in God the Father.

But we are not perfect. We are not perfect. And we will not arrive at perfection until we enter into His presence. And this work of sanctification is completed.

But what we have experienced is a real work of sanctification. We have been set apart for God and you will never, ever, ever in your life as a believer. Be happy and satisfied living as anything other than a saint who has been a set apart to God. You have to come to understand that in order to live the Christian life. Otherwise, there's so much futility. I've seen believers growing up in a group that taught perfectionism, that taught a second blessing, that included the eradication of the old nature.

And yet seeing these people with no nature sin so grossly was really quite an experience. But if we understand what's really going on, even though we know we are fallen, we know we still have sin clinging to us. We can come to experience life in the kingdom of God today in a very wonderful way. And this is exactly what Paul is going to teach us here. This concept of the two ages is the basis of Paul's teaching in Romans 6 through 8. He begins it, he introduces us to this in Romans chapter 5 when he puts everything under the head of Adam and Christ.

Adam and Christ, two realms, and it's also two ages that have overlapped. And so even though we've entered in to the age to come in a very real sense, we still await the second coming of Christ and the coming of absolute righteousness in him. As he rules in this world.

Now we suffer from living in the overlap of the ages. And with this in mind, Paul seeks to clarify the extent to which sin, death, the flesh, the law affects our lives. And what we're going to see in these three chapters is Paul is going to speak about these three issues in the life of the Christian, who's living in this overlap of the ages.

First of all, he's going to talk about our relationship to sin, to sin as a ruler in our life, to sin as a dominion, to sin personified as a ruler over us. If you ever felt like that, where sin mopped up the floor with you, where you gave in to the temptation to sin and it was like a ruler who took charge of you, who demanded that you carry out this sin. And when it was over, you were so wretchedly remorseful. Paul's going to explain to us what our relationship to sin as a power in us is. In chapter 70, he's going to talk about our relationship to the law. The problem with the law is if I look to the law as the basis of my acceptance with God and my relationship with God, as I look to it as the regulator of my relationship with God, I'm going to be in big trouble.

I'm going to fail miserably. And so he explains our relationship to the law in chapter 7. In chapter 8, he speaks to us regarding our relationship with the flesh, that is our mortality, not just our sinfulness, but our fallenness, our mortality, our fleshliness in living upon this globe, this fallen world, in this fallen world.

Now, this little chart, what it is saying to you, and you might want to jot this down, is that in the first 11 verses, he tells us what is already true. And then in verses 12 through 23 in chapter 6, he says, now, this is how you have to live because the not yet part of your relationship with sin. Even though you have died to sin, you've been made alive to God, guess what? Sin still shouts its orders to you. And you're in danger of obeying the commands of sin in your life. Remember that story of those people who escaped across the Iron Curtain in a balloon, you ever see that movie?

Well, imagine if you had escaped from behind the Iron Curtain when it was still there, and you got into free territory, but you set up camp right at the wall. And every day, those on the east would come to you and they would give you orders about how you were to live your life. And because you were so used to hearing their orders and obeying their orders, you were greatly tempted to obey it. That's exactly what it's like at times in our Christian life. We've been set free from sin, but too often, we allow the demands of sin to control our life. The same thing is true in chapter 7, the first six verses, he talks about the already of our relationship with the law.

We have died to the law, and now we are married to Christ. Law is pictured as a husband that could not produce fruit. It's like a woman married to a man who could never be satisfied with the way she is, and he's making demands upon her continually, and there's no love, and there's no relationship, and there's no fruit, no children.

But he says, when death occurs, there is a separation, and we've been set free from the law as the regulator of our relationship with God, and we've been married to Christ. And in this relationship with Christ, we bear fruit to relationship. What a glorious picture.

But then in verses 7 through 25, he speaks to us about the not yet aspect of our relationship to the law, and its function, and then in chapter 8, he does the same thing with the flesh. The first nine verses, in reference to the flesh, he talks about how the spirit of God coming to live within it, that set us free, in verses 10 through 30, he talks about the not yet aspect, and what we must do. And we look at it one other way. Romans 6, 7, and 8. Chapter 6, our new relationship to sin, as believers who are living in the overlap of the ages, sin is a power. Sin is a dominion.

Sin is a ruler in our life. In chapter 7, our new relationship to the law, and chapter 8, our new relationship to the flesh, but notice that the key, Paul says, to understanding our new relationship with sin, is the fact that we are alive to the Father through our union with Jesus Christ. We're alive to the Father. This is the key. In our walk, in this period of time, until the resurrection takes place, is that we have to understand that we are alive to God. And we will have to do certain things to make that a reality or a life.

In chapter 7, he says, in relationship to the law, we are united with the Son, like our wife has united to a husband, and in this relationship, the severing of the old relationship with the law, and this new relationship with Christ, and then in chapter 8, the key in our relationship to the flesh, and our fallenness, and our weakness, the weakness of the flesh, we don't know how to pray as we are. We don't know how to live as we are. What's the key? The key is the Holy Spirit who lives within us. We are to live in the Spirit.

Now I want you to know something about that right there. You see the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is Paul's pattern. He shows us how the triune God is engaged in our life as we live the Christian life, and we need to understand that. The key to victory over sin in our daily walk, and you're never going to have perfect victory, but the key to victory is that we are alive to the Father. The key to being free in Christ is understanding that I have died to the law, and I'm united with Christ, and it's my relationship with Him that's going to produce righteousness, not trying to institute the law.

And third, in chapter 8, he's going to say that the key in overcoming the weakness of the flesh, my own mortality, and my simpleness as a fallen human being, is living in the Spirit. But the law could not do weak as it was. God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and forced sin, condemning sin in the flesh, and then he goes on to say now, this law of the spirit of life is animating me. The whole chapter, chapter 8, is about how to live in the Spirit. There's so many Christians who don't know how to live in the Spirit. It isn't some mystical, esoteric thing.

Living in the Spirit is simply coming to understand what are the dynamics of living in the Spirit. Now, there are some folks in our church that are moving out of California. They're going to have to learn how to live all over again. It's going to be completely different, Dave, down there in the South.

Now, I know you're from there, but I bet your things have changed. You're going to have to learn how to live all over again, because it's different principles of life. We're praying, it's going to get so bad, you'll come back to California, and breed this good air.

But we, living in the Spirit, we have to understand the principles of living in the Spirit. And so many Christians try to live in the Spirit, as though they were still living in the flesh, and so Paul's going to stick to those issues. Now, let's look, a little closer, as we have time in chapter 6. The first 10 verses, we have the Indicatives. I put that there, because I mentioned it last week. The Indicatives, the statements of fact, these aren't imperatives.

This text is not telling you to crucify yourself. It's not telling you that you need to nail yourself to the cross and die in Christ. It's saying, this has already happened to you, because of your union with Jesus Christ. Listen again to these words. I'm going to begin in verse 3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, Jesus, have been baptized into His death?

Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that His Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk. That is, right now, in this overlap of the ages, that we might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man, the person that we used to be in Adam, was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for He who has died is freed from sin.

Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again. Death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Now notice, in this text, first of all, we are dead to sin and alive to God, but we need to ask, and what sense is that true? Well, there are at least four, I think, implied in this text. The first one is judicial. We could say, you know, forinsic, it has to do with the fact that your standing before God has completely changed. You have died to sin in the eyes of God, and you have been made alive. Your status has changed.

When a woman marries a man, when Janay and Ryan get married this next weekend, her identity changes. Her last name changes. Her identity before the law. Her status in this country changes completely. Her wealth is completely dissipated. She's no longer the daughter of Bill.

She's now the wife of Ryan Peterson. And so she enters into poverty. But her whole identity is changed in the eyes of the law. It's a little boy in this church who's going to be adopted this next month. His name is going to change. His status before the law is going to change.

He has a father who's adopting him who has declared that he is willing to take full and complete responsibility for his care. That he would lay down his life this way to make him his own. He's going to take his name. You see, that's a change of identity. That's a legal judicial forensic change. And that is the basic way this text is talking about your death in Christ.

Because of your union with Christ, when Christ died, you died with Christ. You are legally dead to sin, and you have been made alive to God. Now, that's important. The old man. It's translated old self in the New American standard. It's literally the old man.

And where it comes from is chapter five. The two men, the old man Adam, the new man Christ. And so he says, my old man, the person that I was before when I was an Adam, I died in Christ. And that person no longer exists. I was co-crucified quite literally. So, Stauro, I have been co-crucified with Christ.

When Christ died, I died with Christ on the cross. That's what he's saying. When you go and see the passion of Christ, you see the sufferings of Christ. You picked it on that picture. Imagine that what God is saying in this text through the Apostle Paul is, that happened to you. You died to sin.

And you were made alive to God. A change of legal status. It's like adoption of becoming married, of becoming a citizen. Your status before God has changed. Your status before sin has changed.

Now, this is not about a change of nature. It isn't saying your old nature died because if you've noticed, your husband still has his old nature, doesn't he, ladies? Still has it. It's still there. What has died is you, the person you were, the connections you had, all of your standing before God in the law and sin has changed. Because you died and you were made alive to God.

Now, this, in this text, this is both, I don't want to overdo this, theologically, but this is both corporate and individual. That is, it has to do not just with us individually, but it has to do with us as a people. We have died to sin, and we have come under the rule of Jesus Christ, and we are alive to God. We're a different people. This is a, when we gather together like this, it's as though there's an atmosphere here that we are breathing, that we are living under the rule of Jesus Christ, and we're experiencing the rule of Christ right here as a corporate body. The Church of Jesus Christ around the world, corporately, the people of God, have experienced this.

But it's also individual, each of us have experienced it. But let me make one other point. And that is that this is both, I'm going to see another big word, this is both so theological and eschatological. So theology is a biblical word. This means what the Bible teaches about salvation. This is a picture.

This is a re-expression of justification by faith alone. God has declared me righteous in Christ, because of my union with Him, my identity with Him, and I've been given credit for dying for my sins, as well as dying to sin. It's an amazing truth. It's salvation words, salvation concept. I have died to sin.

But it's also an eschatological concept. And what I mean by that is simply the Old Testament, as we saw in this chart, they were constantly looking forward to the day in which sin would be overcome, and they would be set free as the people of God. They look for a day when the Messiah would come, the Redeemer would come, the one who was going to set them free from the bondage of sin. And that's happened. We have entered into the last days. Have you ever wondered why the Bible is continually saying in the first century, these are the last days?

Were they confused? Some people think, oh Jesus, and Paul thought that Christ was coming back in a month, and they were wrong. No, he didn't. What he was saying is, we have entered into the last days. We are a last days people. That's who you are.

You're eschatological people. Put that on your bumper sticker. I'm an eschatological person. You are a person who's entered into the last days because you're experiencing the last days deliverance that Christ has brought through the cross and is applying. And what we await is simply this. This period of time we're living in.

When he went back to the Father, the Father says, son, sit down at my right hand until I make all of your enemies your footstool, and then you'll return. So that's what's happening. God is making all the enemies of Christ his footstool, and then Christ is going to come back. And righteousness is going to reign. And we're going to experience in the fullest sense the reign of Christ.

But we have already entered into these last days events. Something dramatic and climatic has happened. You've entered into a different sphere of life. You have died to sin. And that will never change. It doesn't matter what you do next week.

You have died to sin. You may be a fool next week. And act like you're alive to sin. And obey sin.

But the fact is you're dead to sin. It may be like the person who's living on the free side of the Berlin Wall and the orders of the East Germans are being shouted over the wall and telling them what to do, and they obey it. But you would say that's really stupid, isn't it? It's really stupid when you give in to sin, isn't it? Let's all say it. I'm really not.

The second way in which we died this death has occurred is baptismal. I believe that this text is using water baptism in a very effective way, a very clear way. And that is that water baptism is a picture of our union with Christ and the way that we identify with Him in this epic-changing death that He died on the cross and how we draw from its benefits. It's by being joined to Jesus Christ. Water baptism, when we immerse a person into water, that is picturing the fact that that person has entered into union with Christ and has entered into this new state of being dead to sin and alive to God. And Paul's point here is that this genuine initiation into Christ means trusting in His death as our death.

We have died to sin, and that's what baptism pictures. Now, moral. We're told in verse 4, notice in Romans chapter 6, verse 4, therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism in the death so that as Christ was raised in the dead through the glory of the Father so we too might walk in newness of life, that we might walk in newness of life. This death to sin is to issue in into a change of life so that as Christ was raised in the dead physically, we should experience a newness of life.

Now, He's very careful in His wording here because there's something future about this yet to come that you have an experience and I have an experience and that is physical resurrection. But right now, until the physical resurrection, we have entered in. This is the purpose of us being joined to Christ as we might enter into a newness of life. The old life was I was dead to God and alive to sin. The new life is I have died to sin and I'm alive to God the brand new existence in Jesus Christ.

And so what He's talking about here is that God's intention here, when He says, so that, this happened, so that Christ was raised in the dead through the glory of the Father so we too might walk in newness of life. This indicates God's intention. His intention is that we would walk in newness of life.

Now, He doesn't promise perfection, but what He says is my intention in this union with Christ is that you would enter into a new life, that you would walk in newness of life, being dead to sin and alive to God. And so as we await the consummation of God's purpose in the future, when this is perfected, we are called to live as those who belong to the risen Jesus Christ. And so the point of His death and resurrection in our union with Him is not that we should continue in sin, as He mentions in verse one of this chapter. God didn't save you in this way so that you would continue in sin. And His intention is that you would walk in newness of life, life, and life is being alive to God. It's having a relationship with God, the one who created you for Himself.

That's life. John 17-3, Jesus said, this is eternal life, that they might know the intimately, the only true God, and Jesus Christ who knew of sin. You'd enter into newness of life. The fourth way this is used is literally in verse five notice, for if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be in the future.

Now this is past and future tense. In the past, we have become united in the past with Him in the likeness of His death. And in the future, we shall also be united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection. Those who have been united with Him in His death are going to be united with Him in physical resurrection. The dead will be raised, and we'll have a body like His. Just as Jesus Christ was raised in the dead, and He will never die again.

The same is true of us, because He says death no longer has dominion over Him. Death was a penalty, a penalty of sin, an effect of the law in Jesus Christ has banished that weapon by dying in our place, and effecting liberation from the power and effect of sin. So we're now to live in the present as those that are expecting to be raised from the dead. Some people wonder what's important about knowing about eschatology, the last things, the rapture, the second coming of Christ, and all those things. I mean, why waste your time? There's so much disagreement about it.

We've got pre-tribbed, mid-tribbed, post-tribbed, pre-mill, all-mill, post-mill, and we've got consistent creditorism. I mean, there's just a ton of eschatology floating around the church. Why should we even be interested in the last day? Because the man who has this hope upon him sure applies himself even to see it through. In other words, Paul is saying here, we are to live in light of the promise of Jesus Christ and the resurrection that we are moving towards. You know why?

I think you can be spiritual and be pre-tribbed, mid-tribbed, post-tribbed, pre-mill, all-mill, and post-mill. I think you can be a spiritual, God-honoring Christians and hold any of those views. If that offends you, I'm sorry, but it's just the truth. I know Christians in all of those camps who really believe the Bible, who haven't abandoned the Scriptures, but they understand what the Bible is saying differently. I'm a pre-millennialist, I'm a pre-tribulationist, but I can tell you I wouldn't die for being a pre-tribulationist. That's what I think is going to happen, but I may be wrong, and I'm not losing any sleep over it.

Why would I lose any sleep over it? Jesus is coming back, and we're going to be raised in the dead if we aren't alive when he comes, and we're going to enter into his righteous kingdom. He's going to raise his people and reward them. He's going to raise the wicked and judge them, and we're going to enter into the kingdom of God. 568 different events that lead up to and are involved in that, that you know people put in all kinds of categories. I may not be able to put those things in just the right kind of shape, but I know this, Jesus is coming back. And I've been given this promise that I will be raised in the dead, and I am to live in light of that promise.

Listen to what Kaisman says in his commentary about this. He says, even though we have not yet participated, we have not yet, I'm sorry, even though we have yet to participate in that resurrection. Its power already rules us and sets us in the new walk. You see, the fact that we know we're going to be raised in the dead rules over us. We know we're going to be raised in the dead. The way I use this body today is important because this body is going to be raised in the dead, and I'm going to be rewarded for what I've done in this body.

You ever thought about that? What you're doing in this body? The Bible says you're going to stand before Christ, and he's going to reward you for what you've done in this body for him. So it's important that I live in light of the resurrection. This is why historically, although I don't think there's any problem with it, historically Christians have not practiced what? What do you call it when you burn a body?

Primation. I couldn't think of that word. Historically, Christians haven't practiced cremation, not because there's something unbiblical or simple about it. It's because they know they're going to be raised in the dead, and so they put their body in a grave, and they put a marker over it. So when Jesus comes back, you'll know where they're at.

Now, he doesn't really need a roadmap, obviously. If you're going to have something, you're going to kick over the grave stone. You're going to come out of that grave, and you're going to be coming out in a body. This body's going to be renewed and made like the body of Jesus Christ. I'm going to see him face to face. What a day that's going to be.

I'm going to stand before him in his body. That's what jokes are. I'm going to stand before him in his body. He's going to reward me for being face to face. What a glorious promise and a motivation.

Now notice something. Christ died and was buried, and Paul says, we were baptized into his death. When you submitted the ordinance of baptism, you were saying, I have put my faith in Christ, and therefore I have entered into union with Christ. It's the picture of this union with Christ. We were baptized into his death, because I was united with Christ. I was united to him in his death, and I was buried with him in baptism.

And then notice the second part of this. Christ was raised from the dead, and Paul says, so that we could now, at this time, how we are still physically alive before the coming of Christ, so that we could now walk in newness of life. I can live my life alive to God. I can have boldness before him. I can come to him and say, oh God, hear my prayer. Father, Abba Father, this week I was thinking, what's in my son wondering what's going to happen and praying for him and thinking, what a glorious truth I can come before this God and say, Abba Father, which means, oh my dear Father, I desperately need your help.

Will you act? Will you work in this situation? Will you answer our prayer? Be lost to answer the prayers of his people. So he wants us to walk in the midst of life, but ultimately, to be united with him in a resurrection just like his.

Well then we need to ask ourselves, are we really free from sin? I mean, this picture is so glorious. We have been set free from sin. We've died to sin. We no longer have a relationship with it as our ruler.

But are we really free from it? Well, notice in verse 6, knowing this that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be done away, rendered ineffective and operative. What does he mean by body of sin? It's just a way of speaking about the whole person who is controlled by sin. You know what that's like? You've all experienced it.

The whole person, your mind, your physical abilities, your emotions, everything, under the control of sin. The law says to a person, thou shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and sin says, you will not. Controls your emotion. It will. Body, your mind, everything about you. And he says, this is happen.

This union with Christ is happen, so that this body of sin, that is my body as an instrument of sin, should be done away with. Let me read to you a paragraph out of Douglas Moose, commentary and Romans. He says, our sinful self was hanged on the cross with Christ so that the body as the helpless tool of sin might be definitively defeated. Implication or the use of the tense that implies something very important. And that is that a decisive experience, a decisive event has occurred to render powerless the body of sin. And I can tell you something.

I believe that your body as a believer is no longer, no longer, an effective tool of sin. And you might say, well, I still know how. Not as well as you used to. Not as well as you used to. You know, I've used this illustration before. Like when God saved you, it was like taking a little creature out of a muddy, murky pond, like a little tadpole, and taking it out, and God transforms that little creature into a human being with lungs, with brain and a heart, and all that.

Well, he may have a handkering to go back and live in a cesspool but I'll guarantee you he can't do it anymore. And none of you can either. He that has been born of God cannot plan and carry out a life of sin. Because God seed remains in him and he cannot live a life of sin. Clear that? You've been set free from sin.

Your body won't work as a tool as a body of sin and no longer. You can still use it to sin. But you can't live in it. You're ruined for sin. And if you're not ruined for sin, then you haven't experienced a new birth yet. And that's what you need.

But notice the purpose clause in verse four. Back in verse four. So that, for this purpose, that we might walk a newness of life. This is God's intention. His intention is that we might walk a newness of life so that the body of sin might be destroyed. Paul calls us to live in light of this.

Give it up. You can't use your body as an intimate sin and no longer. It doesn't work that way. So walk a newness of life.

Now there's an important reminder here of... Here's this big way to get it. Eschatological clinching and Paul's thinking. What I mean by that. I'd like you to learn this word because this is a good biblical word. It's just the biblical word for last thing.

And it's a word that speaks to the fact that we've entered into the last days. And that has great effect. It doesn't just mean, man, Jesus is coming soon. That's not what it means that we're living in the last day. What it means is we have entered into a brand new phase in the redemptive program of God since the cross until the second coming of Christ and this overlap of the ages. We live.

We are able to live in newness of life in this fallen world. It's an amazing thing. And God displays His glory by empowering His people in a fallen world to live in relationship with Him. We'll notice this. Here's the not yet aspect that Paul talks about. Our rescue from sin from the dominion of sin will only be complete when we are physically resurrected and transformed.

In other words, we're not going to be completely set free from sin and its power in our lives until the future. That's why people sin right up to the end. In a different way. Attitude, bitterness, what most and motivating things for me as I'm getting older is I want in my last days not to be a bitter old man who hasn't forgiven us or who's still harboring sin in his heart when you can't guard it.

But the already aspect is even now God's purpose is that we might no longer be insolated to sin. That we can walk in the moon of the light even today. Now, in verses 8 and 9 He says those who have died with Christ will also live with Him in a state beyond this life. In verse 10, He says, as a man Jesus, the implication is, as a man Jesus was subject to the power of sin and death, even though He never succumbed to them. He never sinned, but He was living in a sphere realm in which sin reign as Paul puts it, He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

But He never succumbed. But when He died He was set free from sin. Set free from the influence of sin and the power of sin in any way and the same thing He says is now this benefit. A cruise to us. Even though we're not going to experience this in fullness until the future, His resurrection casts a shadow on our lives. And we constantly live under this reality that He is alive.

Now, there's an important point here in the flow of this. Is that the hope of physical resurrection. I want you to get this. This is important to get this in your heart. That the hope of physical resurrection is as much an empowerment for God to living as the certainty that on the cross sins penalty with faith. We've been talking about that so much.

Sins penalty was paid on the cross. You've been justified, declared righteous. But just as important is the hope of physical resurrection. Physical resurrection. That brings empowerment for Godly living when you live in light of the resurrection. Those who belong to the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus need no longer live as the helpless slaves of sin.

You don't have to live as a slave of sin because you have died to sin and you've been made alive to God. Now, let's real quickly look at the imperative. Three minutes. The imperative. We've looked at the indicative. This is what's true.

You've died to sin. You've been made alive to God. And God's purpose is that you would walk in the midst of life. How do you do it? You can come back and look at this again.

But let me give you the three imperative. First of all, take the first is change your way of thinking. That's a good, Bob Dylan song. Change my way of thinking. Stop being influenced by fool.

Well, that's what we ought to do. Change our way of thinking. In verse 11 he says, recon yourself to be sinned, to be dead to sin, and alive to God. The word recon means count it to be true. Make this your mental perspective of life. When you wake up in the morning to remember, I am dead to sin, and I'm alive to God.

Have this basic assumption of life. Secondly, take action. And you mentioned three things. Two negatives, one positive. The two negatives are first, stop allowing sin to reign unopposed over your daily life. Some of you have some sin habits that you just assume you're going to do this till you die.

Why? Why should you succumb to sin? Why should you be continually offering your body, the members of your body? That is your human capacities to sin. Why? Paul says, stop it.

Stop presenting your members to sin as an instrument of unrighteousness. And then he says, stop presenting, this is what he says. Secondly, stop presenting your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. So stop allowing sin to go unopposed and stop presenting your capacities to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.

Now one positives that goes along with that. And that is, report for duty. That's what he's saying in verse 13b. Present yourself to God as those alive from the dead. And your members as instruments of righteousness. What does that mean, present yourself?

That means report for duty. It means show up. Have you ever heard that saying, showing up as 95% of the job, right?

Well that's what it is in the Christian life. Show up. Present yourself to God. Report for duty. You are his valet. You are his servant.

He's made you alive to him. It's one thing that some people all they think about is how to overcome sin. And they spend all their time trying to figure out how to overcome sin. And they never has crossed their minds. Just wait a minute. The only reason God has given me this capacity, this promised overcome sin, is so that I could present myself to him as his servant.

Let me give you a little hint. Instead of worrying so much about getting free from this sin, just start showing up. Just start presenting yourself to him as his servant. Pay attention to the Father. It costs God the death of his son, the life of his own son, in order to make it possible for you to show up and be a servant. Think of what it took to make you a servant of God.

The blood of his own son. He paid the price of the life of his own son so he could purchase you so you could be his servant. Are you functioning? Are you presenting yourself to him? Are you showing up? Are you reporting for duty?

I can guarantee you. If you start reporting for duty based upon the truth of this teaching, that you can do it because you have died to sin and you've been made alive to God in Christ Jesus. And you have the right to come before God and to say, I remember this guy, Dick Williford, came to Christ on a Tuesday night and Sunday evening, the first prayer meeting he was in. We're all going around the room praying and a really great prayer, very theological. We were then and came to Dick.

First time he was prayed with a group of men, because, hello, God, this is Dick Williford. I thought, what a perfect way to address God. Why don't you try that this way? Hello, God, this is your servant, Frank. I'm here and I'm ready to serve. He is valid.

I've got my mom at home with me and she's very weak. And what if she was lamenting yesterday and she's just feel so bad that she's put this burden upon her? And I said to mom, this is a great privilege that I have. I serve you. It gives me great joy. It's sad because you serve me.

And now I get to serve you. God purchased you so that you could have this joy of being a servant. There's no greater joy in all the world than to be a servant of God. One greater privilege is there is to show up and say, come here and I'm available. What do you want me to do? Let's go.

Mighty God. Oh, what privileged people we are. That through your sovereign grace, we have died to sin and have been made out of God. That we no longer have to serve ourselves as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians. What a relief. I don't have to serve myself any longer.

And I'm free to serve the living God. The servant of God. The highest title in all the Bible could be a servant of God. And that's what you've made us. And we pray, oh God, this week that we would report for duty. Whatever you lay before us, whatever is our lot this week, we pray that we would show up, report for duty, and experience you using us in the work of the kingdom, even here and now as we await the fullness of the kingdom in the future.

Please press these truths upon our hearts, Father, I pray. Help us to dig and understand and let it penetrate our hearts when I'm thinking of pray that it would change our lives in the name of Jesus. Well, how we want to be a workforce for the living God, so we pray that we could do this work in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Thank you.