Identification with Christ’s Death and Resurrection

It is the power of the Christian life. It's the secret of the Christian life. It's the mystery of the Christian life. It's the place of our identification with Christ. While we are in the flesh, we can be dominated by what we see and what we feel and our history and our achievements and our glory and our shame, but it's all us, right? It's the flesh. The key to dealing with the flesh is to see our death with Christ. On the one hand, it is an article of faith, meaning it's something we reckon on. It's something we consider. It's something we believe that we died with Christ to the world, to sin, to the self, to our history, to the law even. So on the one hand, it's something we see and acknowledge. We're to reckon ourselves dead. When it comes to the flesh and according to the spirit, we are to present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead. The two go together, but presenting ourselves as alive to the dead is based on an acknowledgement that we're in a new realm. You are no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. We are told we need to set our mind on the things of the spirit. To have the mind set on the flesh is death. It says if you live according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So on the one hand, we are to reckon these things. On the other hand, we're actually participating in our death as a present reality. The crucified Christ is the one putting us to death. On the one hand, he did it, and on the other hand, he's doing it. This is a mystery. If you don't understand spiritual things, you're not going to understand this. That's what the natural man is. To the natural man, the things of the spirit are foolishness. The mystery of Christ is foolishness. They can't see it. They're veiled. There's no reasoning with them. They are carnal, so they only know what their senses tell them. Then they go to the Word and try to confirm their senses by cherry-picking the scriptures and ignoring the ones that point to spiritual realities. That's why they can only see law. It's because they're in the flesh. Like I said yesterday, the whole thing is of what kind of person are you is going to determine what you see in the scripture. If you are sense-dominated, flesh-oriented, and you deny this basic truth and don't see it, and don't agree with God's judgment on the flesh, you're never going to see anything beyond. You're not going to see anything related to the spirit at all. You can use the words, walk in the spirit, but you mean something different. To walk in the spirit is for Christ to be magnified in you. The risen Christ actually living through you so that it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That is what the goal of the Christian life is. That's what God wants to express. But our part is seeing that we're dead. His part is manifesting his life in us. He brings us through all kinds of things to accentuate that reality. Petra already did a message about this. I woke up to find out that she had done a message, and I went to bed thinking, man, I want to do a message on this. I'm going to continue with it, even though she did, because my burden didn't leave. But the Lord brings us through things that are designed to bring us again and again to the reality of our death with him, and to actually work that reality in us. 2 Corinthians 4 talks about this. Always bearing, this is Paul, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifested in our body. For we who live are always being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death works in us, but life in you. And we have having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, we believe, therefore we speak, or I believe, therefore I have spoken, we believe also, and therefore we speak, knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up by Jesus and present us with you. Now that's talking about ultimately, but that's also talking about, this is how he lives, because he was talking about how he was, we have a treasure in an earthen vessel. The excellency of the power might be of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, not destroyed, always bearing about in our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. So on the one hand, there's our situations. I always say on the one hand, on the other hand, but whatever. These are situations that the Lord brings them through, and they are for the purpose of manifesting Christ's life. But the life is manifested to the degree, in a sense, that the apostle is under realization of his weakness before God. And his situations are designed to put him in that kind of mind frame. And not only is he in weakness, but he says he's bearing about in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus. And that is real. We have to understand that the death of Christ is given to us as an inheritance. Our death with him is given to us as part of the package. When the Christ comes, he comes not only as the resurrected one, but with the power of the cross. The cross was not just him dying. It is a power. It is an accomplishment. It is a victory. It's his victory over Satan. Through death, he destroyed the one who had power over death. That is the devil, that he may deliver us. And he stripped off the principalities and the powers in his death, and he triumphed over them in his death. And he circumcised the old creation and put it off. He defeated sin. He became sin and terminated it on the cross. He swallowed it up. It's a place of victory. To the senses, it looks like a place of defeat. To the carnal man, it looks like a place of defeat. There he is crowned with thorns, and yet he's being glorified. The glory starts on the cross. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. And when the apostles came to him and said, you know, the Greeks want to talk to you, and they were all excited. He said, oh, indeed, it is the time for the son of man to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. So his glory started in his death. On the one hand, his outer man was being crucified, but on the inside, his spirit was being raised up in God, strengthened. Paul, I'm sorry, Peter talks about that, that he was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. And in that spirit and in that resurrection, he went into Hades to preach his victory to the disobedient spirits that were in prison. That is a victory parade. And that was why he was dead and his body was in the tomb. The death is the victory because it is the end of the old creation. It's the end of everything that's in opposition to God. It brings it all to naught. And if we don't see that, people believe that the cross is a place of defeat. It is a place of defeat of everything in opposition to God, but it's a place of liberation and victory and rest and satisfaction for those of us who know the secret place of the most high. The secret place is the tomb, by the way. I really believe that. Where my flesh is just done, you know, the motions of sin are just done. He who has died is freed from sin. But this is a present thing we are bearing about in our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. And this is an art. This is something of faith. He says, we have this faith, so we believe, and therefore we speak. And we know that the Lord will raise us up. This is how Paul lives. He doesn't live according to his own resources, his own strength, his own virtue. He lives dependent on the power of God to raise him up, not once and for all, but moment by moment. So in Romans 8, he says, if the Spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies by the Spirit that dwells in you. Now, look at this. If you are not of the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be it that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Okay, so there's these two truths. On the one hand, the body is dead. On the other hand, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And now, if the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead also will quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you. That's the same thing he was saying in 2 Corinthians 4. He's talking about how is the treasure in the earthen vessel manifested so that the power, excellency, the power is not of man, but of God. It's in death and resurrection. On the one hand, my body is dead and I'm buried about in my body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, and I'm being delivered over to death. Not only am I dead past tense, but I'm being delivered over to death. Always, he says, we who live are always being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. That is how the treasure in the earthen vessel is manifested. The earthen vessel is brought into death, okay, and the treasure is glorified, put on display, strengthened into us. Another way Paul says it in 2 Corinthians 4 is the outer man is being consumed day by day, but the inner man is being renewed. Another way he says it is these momentary life afflictions working us at exceeding weight of glory while we look not to those things which are seen, but to the things which are unseen. There's a working of glory being wrought in us by the power of God as he raises us up every day. Every day we enter into the reality of our baptism into his death and its implications, and God even arranges situations to make us aware of our need for his death and our need to be identified with him in his death. For Paul, it was extreme, okay, persecutions, afflictions, everywhere he went. Those were designed to bring him into a place of death so that the life could be manifested in his body. For the ministry, he said, so death is working in us, but life in you. That is how the New Testament ministry is produced, a ministry that is more glorious than the law which was given to Moses, and when he came down from the mountain, his face was shining, so they had to put a cover over it. He says in 2 Corinthians 3 that this New Testament ministry is even more glorious than that, and it writes Christ in your heart, so that you become a living epistle of Christ with an eternal glory that does not fade. The glory that was on Moses' face fades, but this glorious writing never fades. You're going to shine for eternity because of what was wrought into you through the New Testament ministry and its ministers who were delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in them, so that when they spoke, it wasn't just words and letters, dead letters, but words of the Spirit and life. The ministry of the Spirit that gives life, that is the power of God working in you a weight of glory, so that Christ is actually shining on your heart. It takes bringing people out of the old creation and into the new creation and people walking in the Spirit and in the power of God in order for Christ to be wrought in you. It's one thing to know something about Jesus. It's another thing for God, who called light out of darkness, to shine on your hearts, to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And He does that through the New Testament ministry. We talked about all that in 2 Corinthians when we went through the book this last, I don't know, few months ago. It's on a playlist. But what we have is glorious, much more glorious than anything of the old creation. But people treasure the old creation and they do not want to consign it to death, and so they do not partake. They don't see this glory. They don't taste it. And to them, the Christian life is just a matter of law-keeping. They read the word according to the letter. They read it veiled, just like Paul said in 2 Corinthians. When they read Moses, when they read the Scriptures, there's a veil over their hearts. But when the heart turns to the Lord, we all, with unveiled faith, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. He's imparting Himself to us and shining on us in the word because of the New Testament ministry. Because Paul was brought through these situations where the earthen vessel was set aside so that the treasure in the vessel could be manifested, we have this shining New Testament ministry working Christ into us and shining in our hearts and illuminating the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When you read Ephesians, when you read Philippians, when you read Colossians, when you read 2 Corinthians, and you see these glorious high peaks in the New Testament, and you are caught up by that vision and actually taste something of God Himself, it is because Paul was this kind of person that bore about in his body the divinity of the Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in him. That is the root of his ministry. It's the root of his Christian life. He lived by the power of God, and it wasn't something he chose. We get this idea, you can actively choose to be in the Spirit. No, you grow in the Spirit, and God brings you through the situations that demand your death. We meditate on our death, that's true, and it's a place of liberation, but it is our need that produces this kind of meditation. If you haven't needed much, you're not going to see much because it's really for God to work out. God is sovereign. Christ is the head over all things to the church, and He's working all things together for our good to bring this glory into us. He uses our situations and many things that we think are adverse to us. We are misinterpreting because we don't understand what God's after. Some of our trials, we keep fighting in our flesh to try to fix the situation. Like Paul used to pray, he prayed three times, Lord, please take this thorn from me. Finally, God said, look, no, my grace is perfected in your weakness. He finally goes, I learned to boast in my weakness so that the power of Christ may tabernacle over me. This is the key to the power of Christ tabernacle over you. This is a deeper kind of power than just the power we see in the book of Acts where people are doing miracles. Those are outward signs. This is an inward reality that the unspiritual person doesn't even believe is real. This is the glory behind the veil in the holy of holies that the unspiritual person doesn't believe is there because he's in the holy place and there's a veil. He's blind to it. So there's no reasoning with him again. Anyway, in Romans 8, he's talking about the same kind of life that is a miniature. Now we do not go to the extremes that Paul went through. The reason I accentuated his ministry and said, look, this is the glory of Christ shining on us. And when you taste God in the new testament ministry, it's because of this person and what God brought him through. It's not because of Paul. It's because of the glory that God brought into Paul while he brought him around and made him a fragrance of Christ in everyone. That fragrance to get out the boat, the vessel had to be dealt with. Okay. We though, this is the principle that we live by. We live by reckoning ourselves dead by seeing that if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin. The spirit is life because of righteousness. And we're waiting on Christ to give life to our mortal bodies. So he says, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he that raised up Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brother, we are debtors not to the flesh to live out to the flesh. Now, another way to say that is just, we are not debtors. See, the debt to the flesh was canceled at the cross. The fact that I'm dead means I'm no longer owe it anything. I don't owe that realm anything. Now you think about Noah, who's a picture of baptism. He's building the ark and then he's going to get on it and he's going, he owes nothing to that old realm. It's all going to be buried under the sea. He's dead to it. And he has no debt to it. Nobody could come to him and say, Hey, I know you're working on this ark, but we need you to come. We're building a building over here and it needs supports. And you're the only one who knows how to really build these things. So we're, you're going to come over here and do this. Now I'm dead. That realm doesn't even exist. I'm building my ark and I'm out of here. You don't have a debt to the old creation. Okay. For if you live after the flesh, you must die or you shall die. And that sounds negative. Like if you live in the flesh, you're going to die. Um, and in a sense it is negative because the death he's talking about is if you live in the flesh, you're going to be under Sinai. You're going to be bound to the law. You're going to be under condemnation. You're gonna have a spirit of bondage and fear. Okay. But at the same time, if you live according to the flesh, which we often, you know, uh, until our vision is really renewed, we're living according to the flesh, but then God brings us into death. You know, you must die. That's part of his work. Um, but if through the spirit, you mortify the deeds of the body or put to death the deeds of the body, you will live for as many as are led by the spirit of God. They are the sons of God. The leading of the spirit is about putting to death the deeds of the body. I mean, you can't get away from our death with Christ as a present tense thing. On the one hand, we were crucified with Christ past tense. On the other hand, we are putting to death the deeds of our body. How? By walking in the spirit. Well, what does it mean to walk in the spirit where you have the mind set on the things of the spirit? Those who are after the spirit mind, the things of the spirit, one of the things of the spirit, the things that Christ has accomplished in his death and resurrection. And we agree with it and believe in it. And therefore we speak it. And we are waiting. We are believing that Christ is able to put our body to death and quick in our spirit. And this is talking about how righteousness is manifested in the Christian life. You know, you think that the way to deal with sin is to obey commandments. Well, you know, you have outbursts of anger in your home. So therefore the Bible says, uh, do not be wrath, you know, do not be anger, be angry and sin not. So you try not to sin. You think that that's the way to have victory over sin is to just stop doing it. And most, even the grace Christians believe this. No, the key is our death with Christ. He, if we die with him, we're free from sin. It is his, the present caring about our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, as we, by faith, look to him to raise us up, which means our position is in the tomb. And that's how we actually live. Okay. Uh, this is a present tense reality based on a past tense fact. So it's not that the death is just in our past. And now we go on to whatever. No, we are present. Our present tense continually renewed in our identification with his death. And we look at it as the power of the Christian life. Now, Romans six says it this way. Um, therefore we were buried with him and by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we should also walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Now I read, I used to read the recovery version and NASB quite a bit. I do appreciate the King James. However, sometimes other translations, uh, bring other concepts. You got to figure out which is, you know, it says we've been planted together and that's true. His tomb was in a garden, right? And we were buried with him there. We were planted there. His burial was our burial. His, his planting was our planting. And then his resurrection is the harvest and that's our resurrection too. Um, but we have been planted together in the likeness of his death. The NASB, I think it was the NASB, but I know the recovery version said, if we've grown together with him in the likeness of his death. And if you look at the inner linear, uh, and you parse the word or whatever you call it, translate the word. Um, if we are planted together in the likeness of his death, it is born together with of joint origin. So that's our birthplace. Okay. But it's also, uh, to it's, it's an identification, like a congenital twin, like, you know, Siamese twins are joined together. We're joined together at his death. It's not just our birthplace from which we go out of it's our, it is our place in him. Um, and then the second meaning is grown together and united with, and that's where the NASB and the recovery, I don't know if it's NASB, but I know the recovery says, if we've grown together with him in the likeness of his death, and that is implied, we will be in the likeness of his resurrection. And the, the, the thing is, is to the degree that we grow with him in his death, we are in his resurrection and walking newness of life. So there's a growth in the death of Christ. Okay. Um, and, and it says the third one is kindred, meaning that we are of his death, his, you know, kindred is like in Genesis, there's the different animals, right? Each after their own kind. Well, here's a new kind. It's called the death of Christ. Are you of that kind? Because the death of Christ was not just an end. It was a creative act. And we see that in Colossians. And we see that in Ephesians too, that in his death on the cross, he created the new man. And we saw that in Genesis too, when God put Adam to sleep, it was a creative act. He took a rib out of his side to produce Eve. And then he woke him up and presented the woman to him. And he said, this will be woman. This is bone of my bone and flesh, my flesh. She was built from Adam in his death, a type of death that that deep sleep was a type of death. And we're told that in Ephesians five, that, uh, this is a mystery, uh, a pointing to Christ in the church. How was the church created in the death of Christ? His death is actually material that God uses to build his death and his resurrection. They kind of go together. They shouldn't be separated. The death and resurrection is Christ. His death is with him as a present reality. Otherwise, how could we carry about in our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, right? It's in the spirit. When the spirit comes as the reality of Christ, he brings everything Christ accomplished with its power and is the reality of everything Christ accomplished with its power. So to walk in the spirit is to mortify the deeds of the debt body, but our mind needs to be renewed to understand God's judgment on the flesh, the position of the flesh, how we're liberated. How are you liberated from sin? He who died is freed from sin. This is what he says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we should no longer serve sin, for he who died, for he that is dead, present tense, is dead, is free from sin. Now, if we are dead with Christ, we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For in the death he died, he died to sin once, but in the death, I'm sorry, in that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, reckon yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God through Christ Jesus. This is how we deal with sin. Let therefore sin not reign in your mortal body. It has no place there. I'm not in debt to it, but it is to the degree that I see that I died with him, and that is a growth called mind renewal. It's a growth in the knowledge of the truth, which means I keep being brought back to this consideration of my death with him. It is the kind, it is my kindred place. I am of his death. I was born there. I am identified with it, and I carry about in my body, and that, while I'm in this flesh, is how he deals with the body and with its sins. The commandment gives you no power. Just because somebody says, don't sin, doesn't mean you have the power to deal with sin. The question of how to live the Christian life is answered in the gospel, which tells me I was crucified with Christ and raised together with him, and it is the power. It is not of man. The excellence of the power is not of man, but of God, and it's about this treasure in the earthen vessel. It is not about the old creation. It's about the new creation, and the way into the reality of the new creation is through death. This is, again, something that I can tell you, but you have to actually see it in the word and believe it. There comes a point where reckoning means, because we're to reckon ourselves dead, will you actually believe this? We know how to believe that God has forgiven our sins. We exercise faith in it when we come to him, and we believe that Jesus is our propitiation, and his blood cleanses me of my sin, and therefore I can have fellowship with God. But how do I get free from the sin so that I don't keep coming to him about the same thing? Most Christians live in a tension between knowing they're forgiven and being under condemnation because they can't get free from the things they're being forgiven of, so they think their apology isn't sincere eventually. They're like, well, if I was really sorry, if I really, really repented, I wouldn't still do it. Well, the reason you do it is because you only believe one side of the equation. You believe Christ's death for you, but you don't believe your death with him. And just like you exercise faith in his blood and his death for you to deal with your sin so that you can have fellowship with God, you believe in your death with him to rest in the place of fellowship with God. He who is dead is free from sin. If you're still alive, you're alive not only to sin, but also to the law, which is what he talked about in Romans 7. He spends this chapter talking about how you died with Christ and were buried with him, and then chapter 7 he talks about how you died to the law. You died to everything. You died to the world too. Your death is a death to everything. There's no partial death. Some people say, well, we died to the law of Moses, but we're alive to the commands of Christ. No, we are dead. And when the command comes, all that is to show me my need for Christ. That's what this law is for. Every instruction in the whole Bible is to show me my need for Christ and to open me up for his supply. But my response is to abide in the place of death. Now, Philippians 3 talks about Paul's pursuit. He says, he's seeking, yes, I count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He said, if anybody has something to glory in the flesh, I'm more. I've got all these accolades in history, but I counted all his loss. What is that? That's a reckoning himself dead for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them as dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness or history, if you want to say, which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness, which is of God and by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death. Now, this has the same idea as growing in the likeness of his death. Being conformed to his death means that that his death is the place where I rest. His death is my reality. Paul's pursuing to be conformed to it and that's talking about his mind, okay, because he says, and then he says, if any, by any means, I may attain to the out resurrection of the dead. Now it just says resurrection here, but the Greek word, it's only used once in the whole scripture and it's a special word, meaning out resurrection or spectacular resurrection. It is rising up again. It only appears once. Does it tell us, okay, I need a better dictionary. It is a special resurrection. Okay. And it has to do with reward. It has to do with the spectacular entrance into Christ's presence with full confidence and boldness. As opposed to being ashamed of his presence, which remember John says, abide in him so that when he appears, you may have confidence in his coming, not shrink back in shame. And Paul throughout his epistles admonishes us that we need to be without spot and without offense before his coming. And that has to do with having our mind renewed in the realities of the gospel. And in one of those thing, one of the things about the gospel is our death with Christ. That's what's not taught. And that's what's resisted. Our death with Christ and being conformable made conformable to his death is the key to being found without spot before him to abide in that fellowship and to be full of the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ has to do with our resting in the place of death so that Christ can be manifested in us. And it comes to through a knowledge of understanding or an understanding that the purpose of the Christian life is for manifesting Christ. That's what you are. You are a vessel for Christ. Yes, you were created for God and your body and your mind, your will, your emotions have special gifts that God's given by creation to you that he's not canceled out because of the cross, but they were to be animated not by Adam, but by Christ. And that person is the new man and where to put off the old man and put on the new man, which is being renewed in the knowledge of him and created him. And you don't know that person. Everybody wants to cling to their old man and say, well, I'm, I'm risen now. So this is who I am. You don't know, you don't know who you are. You only know who you are to the degree that, you know, Christ, like John said, we are now the children of God, although it's not yet manifested what we shall be. But we know that when we see him, we shall be as he is. And we need to be conformed to his death. We need to be renewed. This is talking about a state of mind. He says, not as though I attained or either perfected, but I follow after if I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended by Christ. I count myself not to have apprehended, but this thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to the things which are before I pressed towards the mark for the prize of the high calling in Jesus. Let us therefore, as many be mature or perfect, be thus minded. And if any other thing you are otherwise minded, God shall reveal this to you. Okay. So this is talking about what kind of mindset you have. My mind is that I was crucified with Christ. I want to, I've counted all things as done for the excellent knowledge of Christ. I'm no longer pursuing my own righteousness. I'm no longer pursuing building up my own self. I'm not in debt to it. I'm dead to it all. And not only that, but I seeking to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. And I'm being conformed to his death. And this all assumes a basic kernel of truth, which is that Christ is in you. And he is the pursuit of the Christian life. Your perfection in the flesh is not the pursuit of the Christian life. Christ is the pursuit of the Christian life. We're pursuing to know him and to gain him and be conformed to him. He is the Christian life. He is our life now. And at the root, your flesh rebels against this idea and says, no, that's not what I want. I want to live unto myself. I would rather be given rules on how to live and be rewarded for it. When I do it well, then I can take the glory. I don't like this idea that Christ is my life. It's a rebellion. Okay. Now he talks about that in this chapter. Um, he says, uh, for a minute, he says, brethren, be, follows together me and mark those who walk as you have us. For example, what is the example? I'm counting all things as done. I counted all his loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. I'm seeking to be conformed to his death, abiding in his death. And he already told us that this is the true circumcision at the beginning of the chapter. He said, rejoice in the Lord to write these things to me. Indeed is not grievous, but for you, it is safe. Beware the dogs, beware the evil workers, beware the concision for we are the circumcision, which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. Not only do we not have confidence in the flesh, but we're seeking to be conformed to his death. We're growing in the likeness of his death. We are, we are continually meditating on the implications of his death and the victory it affords. And that is our key to the manifestation of righteousness, true godliness, holiness, and Christ in our life. He who died is freed from sin. And if we've grown together with him in the likeness of his death or to the degree that we've grown to the likeness of his death, we should be in the likeness of his resurrection. That is the key to walking in newness of spirit. And he says, brethren, be followers together of me and mark those who walk this way. That's how for many walk of whom I've also, who I've talked, I'm sorry, who I've told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction. Who's God is their belly or their appetite, whose glory is in their shame. And they mind earthly things. Okay. These are the same kind of people he was talking about in Colossians two, beware. Let's anyone come and spoil you, judging you unworthy of your prize and take you captive according to their empty deceit, their vain glorious philosophies, the traditions of men, the elements of this world do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. All of these things have an appearance of religion, but they're of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. What has value and power against the basic indulgence of the flesh is seeing my death with Christ, which we'll see in a second. But he says, these are enemies of the cross. Now they are walking around as Christians among us, but they set their mind on earthly things and glory in their shame. The shame is the whole creation. What if Noah, instead of bringing animals into the arc, sent out search parties to look for the best treasures of Cain's city, preserve those statues and put them in the arc. That would be a glorying in his shame. In the shame, the old creation is fallen. It looks glorious to our eyes because we've dressed it up, but in God's eyes, it's a contemptible collapsed heap. We are judged. We're under the sea. God done with it. Their end is destruction. God is their appetite. They're resisting God at the core. No, I don't want Christ in me. It's not Christ in me. It's me. It's me for God. But in doing that, they're resisting God and their mind is on earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven from whence we also look for a savior. That is our walk. Our walk is our conversation. They walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, but we have a conversation in heaven and we're looking to heaven for our salvation. And that's not just salvation forever, like eternal salvation. But in Philippians, Paul is talking about Christ being manifested in his body. He says, this will turn out to my salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. That as always, with all boldness, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death or to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Death is gain. Not just the end, which brings us into Christ's presence, but living, being conformed to his death is gain. But the enemies of the cross say, no, it's not gain. You're defeating yourself because they believe now that we are Christians, God's given us the power to do it. And he's cheering us along saying, you can do it, right? No, that's not it. The secret of the Christian life is being conformed to the death of Christ and growing in the likeness of his death. And our conversation is in heaven. We're not setting our mind on earthly things, earthly performance, earthly victories, earthly history, earthly glory, or earthly shame. We are setting our eyes fully on Christ in heaven who shall change our vile body. He says our body is vile, that it be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he's able to subdue all things to himself. Now it's interesting. There's plenty of people that are very pretty. They can't even imagine or good looking, whatever. They can't even imagine themselves as vile. But that's God's judgment. We have no idea. God's mind of these things. Our body is vile. It's detestable because it's polluted with sin. It's corrupted. And no matter how much we dress up the pig, it's still a pig. You put makeup on the pig, it's still a pig, right? So finally, then, Colossians 3. He says he was finishing Colossians 2 by talking about these earthly minded people with their commandments, right? Wherefore, if you are dead with Christ from the ruminants of the world, why is the living in the world? Are you subject to ordinances, touch not, taste not, handle not, which things are perished to the using after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things have a show of wisdom and will worship and humility and neglecting the body. It's a show. It's just a show, but are not of any, this really it says is not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. The indulgence of the flesh, like we talked about yesterday, is the basic grasping covetous desire to repel God and live as ourselves before God, rather than being a vessel in which Christ dwells. And for that, there has to be death, right? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a substitute, a counterfeit of the tree of life. It seemed to promise what the tree of life could give, but on your own terms, you don't have to submit to God and live Christ. You can be like God yourself. Just take this tree and then you'll work it out yourself. It's a basic rebellion based on covetousness. Colossians 3, he continues the thought. So those things, the ordinances are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. What is? Well, if you'd be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. That's the same thing he said in Philippians. Our conversation is in heaven, from which we look to the Savior. Where Christ sits on the right hand of God, set your affection on those things above, not on the earth, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then you will appear with him in glory. He is your life and you are dead. He's said it several times here. You're dead. So what do you do? You set your eyes on Christ and you're looking to him to be manifested. When Christ, who is your life, is manifested or shall appear, then you'll appear with him in glory. On the one hand, yes, that's a rapture verse. On the other hand, that is a manifestation of Christ as the Christian life. That's what we're looking for. I want Christ to be magnified in my body. I want to live Christ. I want to be conformed to his death because I know that to the degree that I understand and am renewed and identified in the knowledge of my death with him, to that degree, his resurrection is in me. The way he works is to put the old man out of the way and then manifest the new man. We are put to death. He is enlivening himself in us. Our spirit is full of Christ and he is life to our mortal body through his spirit that dwells in us as we reckon ourselves dead and identify with his death and are even conformed to his death, which means we lose all of our attachments to our virtues and our strength and our ability to do it. We say, Lord, the demand is on you. I'm no longer a debtor. I'm no longer in the flesh. I'm in the tomb and you now are to be my life. He says, based on this knowledge, if you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. You are dead. Your life is hid with Christ and God. That's why it's a mystery. It's hidden. Mortify, put to death, therefore, your members which are on the earth. This is how God in Christ through Paul tells us how to deal with sin. It is by putting our body members to death. On the one hand, we see that we are dead with him. On the other hand, we put our body to death. But how? By setting our mind on the things above. That is, it's not so much every day you choose to be heavenly minded. It is in one sense, but it's a growth. God has to bring you through the situations to cause you to need a deliverance. In that deliverance, you seek. Remember with the ark, there was only one window pointed at the heavens, right? He wants to make our eyes single. God has to arrange everything to do that. So, we are growing in this. Our putting to death is, on the one hand, something we do, but it comes out of this acknowledgement and a vision that I died with Christ and this is how God deals with it. People don't believe that. I remember I used to read this stuff and go, I just don't understand. Why did I not understand? Because I didn't want to believe it first. The way scripture works is you believe first and then you understand. The understanding doesn't come until you believe it. And we are to reckon it as fact. Okay, this is how God says he's dealt with me. That he put me to death with Christ. And this is how he says that I'm to deal with sin. Not by law keeping, not by ordinances, not by do not taste, do not touch, do not handle. Those things appear. They make people look holy. That's why they're so dangerous is because people who can do it look holier than you. And then they come to you with their false spirituality that takes you away from Christ. They judge you unworthy of your prize and they take you captive. And they wouldn't be able to do that if they looked more sinful. But because they've dressed up the flesh in religiosity, they look so spiritual, but it's of no value against the real indulgence of the flesh. And they're coming after you covetously to make you part of their group. They're not bringing Christ to you. But the answer to sin is not a commandment or an ordinance. The answer to sin is our death with Christ. And we have to be delivered over to death. We're carrying about in our body the dying of Lord Jesus. We're being conformed to his death and we're growing in the likeness of his death. And if you've never heard this kind of truth before, you should be saying, Oh, I have no idea what that means. Okay. That's fine. But the last thing you want to do is because I don't understand it, I reject it altogether and I'm going to oppose it. No, this is, I spent years in Romans five through eight, just meditate. What does it mean that I died with him? And I finally had to start believing it. And it just became a part of my view of the gospel. You believe that Jesus died for your sins, according to the scripture, rose from the dead, according to the scripture, according to the scripture shows us a lot more than just Jesus dying in the cross and raising up out of the tomb. It shows that we died with him and we were raised together with him. And we're identified with him. And there's a new life and a new power. There's a new source in you. There's a new creation. You have been brought into it. That's part of the gospel too. That's why the gospel is not just the beginning of the Christian life. It's the food for the entirety of the Christian life. And you have two ways to look at the Bible. Either you look at the instructions and say, I'll do it. Or you see your death with Christ. You believe the gospel as the means to do the things that the commands say the commands are there, but what is our response? It's our death with Christ being raised together with him. And when we're in heaven and we are glorified, we don't need commands anymore. Because we will by nature do everything. It'll just be fulfilled. But the commands are there today because of our need. Now, the answer to the commands though, is not to go try to do them, but to see our death with Christ and our being raised together with him. We believe that Christ is the righteousness that the law requires. And I must have him manifested in me. If I'm going to see fruit in my life, it's Christ manifested in me. And how do I get that? Well, I have to be conformed to his death and grow in the likeness of his death and reckon myself dead and present myself to him as one who's alive from the dead. And then from that moment, I'm not looking to myself to do it. I'm looking for him to give life to my mortal body by his spirit that dwells in me. He quickens me and makes me alive. And it's an unconscious thing. The fruit in the Christian life is not so conscious. You don't even really realize. You just are so absorbed with Christ and all the realities with him. And now you're living an entirely different life that's clean. And you have victory and power so that sin doesn't have dominion over you anymore. And you're not under condemnation. And you're in the spirit of sonship. And you're full of the realization of what you have in him and how much he's for you. He wants to get your eyes off yourself. And that's why our death with him is so important. Let's see, was there anything else I wanted to say about this? Yeah, there's Jesus did a parable in Matthew, where he said, I forgot what chapter, dang it, to the Pharisees, you know, a father had two sons. And he said, go out to the vineyard and work, keep the vineyard. And one son said, I won't do it. But afterwards he repented and he ended up doing it. But another son said, I do do it. And yet he didn't do it. And then he said, so which of the sons obeyed? And I'm like, well, obviously the one who didn't, who said he wouldn't, but ended up doing it. And he said, okay, well, the tax collectors, the harlots, the sinners, the prostitutes, and the lepers are entering into the kingdom before you. And God sent the son of man and you're seeking to murder him. You did not bear the kingdom's fruits. And now that vineyard is going to be burned. And the kingdom is taken away from you. And it's given the kingdom is taken away from you. And it's given to people who will bear its fruit, who the prostitutes, the lepers, the sinners, how, well, they're the ones who said, we can't do it. You know, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Lord have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. That's their place. And they, in that humility, no, they can't do it before. See, that was me. I knew I couldn't do it before I even tried. And yet I eventually got convinced to try, but I was such a leper, you know, when I became a Christian, I commands, they all caused me to tremble. How can I, I can't, and I won't, I know that, you know, that's our response. And that is very similar to I've been crucified with Christ. We just need to grow in our faith to appreciate God does not have a demand on you. He crucified you. Now the demand is on his life. How is it that the sinners bear fruit? Well, the, the life of Christ in them is going to produce it. They said they wouldn't, but afterwards they did. But those who said they do and boast that they will are the ones who end up not bearing the fruit. Why? Because they're seeking to establish their own righteousness apart from Christ. They won't come to Christ. They want to be identified with the kingdom. They want to be very religious. They want to talk about Jesus. But when it comes down to how is the Christian life lived, they scoff, mock, slander, this notion of our death with him. And so you're just looking for a license to sin. You're just trying to get out of law keeping. Don't you realize that we're strong and we can do it? We said, no, we can't do it. We're not going to do it. And yet we end up doing it. We end up actually enjoying the rich fellowship and the feast, and having peace and joy and fruit in our life. You say, no, he doesn't have fruit in his life. Remember that joke he made, that pastor so-and-so joke? There's no way. Well, that's because you are a sanctimonious, self-righteous, religious Pharisee that looks at the outside and doesn't judge the heart. You don't judge with righteousness. And it's proven by the fact that your religiosity is a sham because you're so offended. The fact that you're that offended just shows what you are. And that's what the Pharisees were. Eventually they killed the owner of the vineyard. They said they bore its fruit. They boasted in their fruit-bearing and their love for God and ended up killing the one he sent. So that offense really is telling. When you hear these kind of messages, and instead of saying, I don't understand. Lord, help me believe. Help me with my unbelief. I'm going to meditate on this. You reject it outright, and you add it to the list of things that you oppose. There's this group of people that literally is non-stop in trying to take apart everything I teach because of their offense. They think they're offended at me. They think that I'm this ungodly, divisive person who's full of pride and all that stuff. Their eyes are on me. But what they're really offended about is what I teach. It's the offense of the cross. And they're revealing themselves to be enemies of the cross. They're earthly-minded. So we don't want to be like that. And so if you don't understand all these things, first of all, you need to say, do I see it in the word? And if you do, then you need to be talking to the Lord about it. Because again, believing is the key to understanding. You believe first, and then you understand. Believe it or not, that's how it works. It's a mystery. But once you embrace it, you say, okay, Lord, you have said I died with Christ. I need to be conformed to his death. To the degree that I've grown in the likeness of his death, I'll be in the likeness of his resurrection. If by the Spirit you mortify, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. I'm to put to death my body, which is on the earth and its members. What does that mean? Ask the Lord. This teaching won't make any sense to you if you don't have any light from the Lord. So again, I probably just need to wrap it up because there's not much more I can say right now. The message is already so long. But this is something to definitely consider because it is the centerpiece of the Christian life. And to reject it is to reject the new creation and to reject Christ's rule. You're not opposing man, you're opposing the doctrine of Christ. And then as far as, you know, the old timers said we live in the reality of our baptism. I used to not know what that means. It's just a simple way of saying this. Everything comes down to our death with him.

things I said, you know, they're just embarrassing moments from different times of my life. And my whole life had a lot of embarrassments in it. And God just washed that away because he taught me to say, I'm dead. That man is gone. Doesn't even matter anymore. Really Lord, thank you I died with you to see myself on the cross with him. Man, it is liberating. And then to the degree that you're, it says if we grow with him in the likeness of his death, we'll also be in the likeness of his resurrection. To the degree that you see yourself dead with Christ, there's a corresponding degree of resurrection supplied to you for utterance and liberty.

So the key to being out of oldness and being conformed to the death of Christ and growing in the likeness of his death is learning to repudiate yourself as the point of reference and lay hold of what God says is true in Christ, even if you don't see it with your natural eyes, because you're giving glory to the one who calls those things that are not as though they are and gives life to the dead. You're dead. Newness of life means God has to move. That's what it means. It means total dependence on God. It means it has to flow out of God, not out of you. It's no longer I who live. I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. That's the point. That's what God wants. So being planted together in the likeness of his death will also be in the likeness of his resurrection, but that's in italics. So we'll also be in, we'll also be in resurrection or actually we'll also be resurrection. We will be life. We will be full of life. We will be the life of Christ. He rose up and I'm his life. What? That might be too much, but he is life in me and he wants to quicken my mortal body so I can be raised up to walk in newness of life. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we'd be dead with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more. Death has no more dominion over him for that he died. He died unto sin once, but then that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, reckon you yourselves also to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So he's saying, look, there's this reckoning, there's this knowing you have to get a vision of being dead with Christ. This is almost as important as seeing that the blood cleanses you. A lot of people see that the blood cleanses them, but they don't see that they died with Christ and that's just as important. The same way we learn to exercise faith, oh Lord, thank you that you forgave me of my sin. We have to exercise faith that says, I was crucified with Christ. God no longer is looking at me as the source. He is looking at the life of the resurrected Christ. That's the one upon whom the demand is made. And so knowing that, first of all knowing, there's a few things we need to know. Our old man has been crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we would no longer serve sin.

The leading of the Spirit is about putting to death the deeds of the body. You can't get away from our death with Christ as a present tense thing. On the one hand, we were crucified with Christ past tense. On the other hand, we are putting to death the deeds of our body. How? By walking in the Spirit. Well, what does it mean to walk in the Spirit? We have a mind set on the things of the Spirit. Those who are after the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit. What are the things of the Spirit? They are the things that Christ has accomplished in His death and resurrection. And we agree with it and believe in it, and therefore we speak it. And we are believing that Christ is able to put our body to death and quicken our spirit. And this is talking about how righteousness is manifested in the Christian life. You know, you think that the way to deal with sin is to obey commandments. Well, you know, you have outbursts of anger in your home, so therefore the Bible says, do not be wrath, you know, do not be anger. Be angry and sin not. So you try not to sin. You think that that's the way to have victory over sin is to just stop doing it. And most, even the grace Christians believe this. No, the key is our death with Christ. If we die with Him, we're free from sin. It is the present caring about our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, as we by faith look to Him to raise us up, which means our position is in the tomb. And that's how we actually live, okay? This is a present tense reality based on a past tense fact. So it's not that the death is just in our past and now we go on to whatever, no. We are present, our present tense continually renewed in our identification with His death. And we look at it as the power of the Christian life. Now Romans 6 says it this way, therefore we were buried with Him and by baptism into His death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we should also walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Now I read, I used to read the recovery version and NASB quite a bit. I do appreciate the King James, however, sometimes other translations bring other concepts. You got to figure out which is, you know, it says we've been planted together and that's true. His tomb was in a garden, right? And we were buried with Him there. We were planted there. His burial was our burial. His planting was our planting. And then His resurrection is the harvest and that's our resurrection too. But we have been planted together in the likeness of His death.

We have to understand that the death of Christ is given to us as an inheritance. Our death with him is given to us as part of the package. When the Christ comes, he comes not only as the resurrected one, but with the power of the cross. The cross was not just him dying. It is a power. It is an accomplishment. It is a victory. It's his victory over Satan through death. He destroyed the one who had power over death. That is the devil that he may deliver us. And he stripped off the principalities and the powers in his death. And he triumphed over them in his death. And he circumcised the old creation and put it off. He defeated sin. He became sin and terminated it on the cross. He swallowed it up. It's a place of victory. But to the senses, it looks like a place of defeat. To the carnal man, it looks like a place of defeat. There he is crowned with thorns. And yet he's being glorified. The glory starts on the cross. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. And when the apostles came to him and said, you know, the Greeks want to talk to you. And they were all excited. He said, oh, indeed, it is the time for the son of man to be glorified. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. His glory started in his death. On the one hand, his outer man was being crucified. But on the inside, his spirit was being raised up in God, strengthened. Paul, I'm sorry, Peter talks about that. That he was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. And in that spirit and in that resurrection, he went into Hades to preach his victory. To the disobedient spirits that were in prison, that is a victory parade. And that was why he was dead and his body was in the tomb. The death is the victory because it is the end of the old creation. It's the end of everything that's in opposition to God. It brings it all to naught. And if we don't see that, people believe that the cross is a place of defeat. It is a place of defeat of everything in opposition to God, but it's a place of liberation and victory and rest and satisfaction. For those of us who know the secret place of the most high, the secret place is the tomb, by the way. I really believe that. Where my flesh is just done, you know, the motions of sin are just done. He who has died is freed from sin. But this is a present thing we are bearing about in our body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us. And this is an art. This is something of faith. He says, we have this faith. So we believe and therefore we speak. And we know that the Lord will raise us up. This is how Paul lives. He doesn't live according to his own resources, his own strength, his own virtue. He lives dependent on the power of God to raise him up, not once and for all, but moment by moment. So in Romans 8, he says, if the spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised up Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies by the spirit that dwells in you. Now, look at this. If you are not of the flesh, but in the spirit, if so, be that the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if any man has not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Okay, so there's these two truths. On the one hand, the body is dead. On the other hand, the spirit is life because of righteousness. And now, if the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ from the dead also will quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you. That's the same thing he was saying in 2 Corinthians 4. He's talking about how is the treasure in the earth and vessel manifested so that the power, excellency, the power is not of man, but of God. It's in death and resurrection. On the one hand, my body is dead and I'm buried about in my body, the dying of the Lord Jesus, and I'm being delivered over to death. Not only am I dead past tense, but I'm being delivered over to death. Always, he says, we who live are always being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in us.