This Resurrection Life
Living as justified men and women in a post resurrection world.
This Sunday, April 28, we begin a new sermon series exploring our identity in Christ. We are justified men and women because Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Who are you? How do you identify yourself? An identity is what you identify with; you identify with your family; you identify with your politics; you identify with your ethnicity; you identify with your style. Christians identify wholly with Jesus Christ. When God the Father looks at your past, he sees the past obedience of Jesus. When God the father looks at your present, he sees the present righteousness of Jesus. When God the father looks at your future, he sees the future glory of Jesus.
But we, looking at ourselves in the mirror, do not see any of these things. Why? Because we are ignorant, unbelieving, and unrighteous, but mostly ignorant. (The word just means, we do not yet know).
We will get to the way we become actually righteous in Romans chapter 6 to 8 (most likely in January) but let me give you the long and short of it right now. God has declared you justified, actually righteous, through faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ. That is, God has credited the death of Jesus for your debt and the life of Jesus for your present wealth – a down payment of what is to come in the Spirit.
In reality, I still see sin in my body. How will God get the members of my flesh and blood body to match the righteous declaration in Christ? That question is asked in Romans 6. Romans 7 answers, “not by law!” That agonizing chapter is a man trying to be transformed by external works and it only results in a greater awareness of his condemnation. Chapter 8 concludes the section by teaching us that we become actually holy by walking in the Spirit; by a true transformation, from the inside out, over time.
I am well aware that when I say, “walk in the Spirit,” some of you immediately take your seatbelt off and move freely about the cabin. The word Spirit means anything beyond the Bible, in your thinking. Don’t do that. Please, for God’s sake. Literally, for God’s sake. We will see in Romans 8 that being led by the Spirit or walking in the Spirit is a way of talking about God empowered obedience in the present world. So, that’s a simple summary of how we become actually more and more righteous, more and more like Christ.
In the next six weeks, we will address our ignorance and unbelief or positively, we will learn the truth versus the lie that we may have a more full faith in Jesus Christ from first to last.
The Scriptures have much to say about who you are, what you are for and where you were going. It is found within the story of sin and redemption, that is, the story of how God remakes the world through Jesus Christ.
I want to look at six biblical relationships of man that tell us who we really are. The aim is to leave you justified in Christ, identifying fully and totally in Christ. To every question, “Christian, who are you?” You should be able answer with confidence, “I am in Christ.”
- April 28 – You and God: You are a valuable person made in God’s image.
- May 5 – You and your Body: You are both body and soul and both are good.
- May 12 – You and Sin: You are “unfinished.”
- May 19 – You and God’s Church: You are part of a family.
- May 25 – You and the World: You are for good.
- June 2 – You and God’s Glory: You are for glory.
I am looking forward to seeing what God will do in our lives through His Word in the next 6 weeks.
Pastor Robert
