Good Works Are The Design of your Spiritual Union With the Son

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Please turn your Bible to Ephesians 2 .10. A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the second half of Ephesians 2 .10.

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Today, we'll be looking at the first half of Ephesians 2 .10. For we are His workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works.

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Also, last week, we talked about the legal union that we have with Christ. Today, we're talking about the spiritual union that we have in Christ.

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When you have Ephesians 2, please stand for the reading of God's Word. I'll read verses 1 -10.

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But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace, you have been saved. And raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages,

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He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God.

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Not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works, which

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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank

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You today for this Word. We ask that we would understand further this union that we have in Jesus Christ. We pray that You would, by this understanding, equip us for every good work.

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We thank You that we are Your workmanship. In Jesus' name, Amen. Many people live the

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Christian life in a very powerless way. That is because, a lot of times, people anticipate having no power.

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In a lot of ways, it is a very self -fulfilling prophecy. People anticipate that they will not be given the strength in order to follow in the

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Christian life with any kind of real success or high ambitions.

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And so, because they are not trusting that the Lord would accomplish in them much, they don't have the

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Lord in them accomplish much. What this passage tells us is that the

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Christian life is not merely a matter of the state that we were first found in, that this is what

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Christ uses. Rather, we are God's workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works.

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He is working in us. He is building us up for His purposes. And if more people knew this, if more people embraced this truth, they would find themselves far more powerful in the

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Christian life. Because God, using this knowledge, using this understanding of Christ in them, would be working in them to more and more accomplish

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His purposes. This one simple truth. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

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Now consider, very simply, what this says. First, it says what God is making.

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He is making a workmanship. He is making some work. It says how He is doing it.

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We are created in Christ Jesus. And then it says the purpose for which

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He is doing it, for good works. So all those three come together, that we are His workmanship.

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We are created in Christ Jesus. That's the how, after the what. And then why, for good works.

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The what, the how, and the why, all together right here. Now what does it mean that we are created in Christ Jesus?

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So last week, we looked at the legal union that we have with Jesus Christ. How we have died to sin.

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And so that legal bonding that the law had over us as a covenant of works has been severed so that we can be joined together with Jesus Christ.

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We can belong to Him in a legal sort of way so that He, as the church's husband, would be able to, would grant her

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His righteousness. This, however, is talking about something different.

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This is a different kind of union. It is a spiritual union. We can see that because later on, in Ephesians 4, it speaks of this creation.

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It says in verse 24 of chapter 4, it talks about putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness.

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So what is this creation in Jesus Christ? It is talking about being created after the likeness of God.

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In the previous passage, it speaks about being renewed in the spirits of our minds. Putting off the old self, etc.

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It is talking about transformation, supposed to representation. Last week, we talked about the legal union and Christ's representation of us, that He represents us before God so that even though we are not ourselves righteous,

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He makes us righteous by crediting to us His own righteousness.

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Even though we don't have a status of honor in ourselves inherently, He grants us a sort of honor because we and Him are counted as honorable and these things are all declared and by representation are counted to us even apart from any transformation.

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Even without Him having done anything in us, we are counted as ones who are righteous.

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Remember we talked about how it was not on the basis of faith? Even though faith is the means by which we recognize what

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He has declared, it is not the basis by which we are declared. Otherwise, He would be declaring us righteous on the basis of something in us, our own faith.

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So faith is the means but it is not the basis. All that to say that this is something, that legal representation does not speak of any kind of transformation but here, this union that we are talking about today, this union that Scripture is opening up to us today speaks of transformation.

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Now think about the differences in causes. One is caused by a legal declaration.

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The other is caused by spiritual transformation, by the work of the Spirit in us. Think about the effect.

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One is to justify, to declare us righteous. The other is to sanctify, to make us more holy.

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So these are the two different kinds of unions with Christ and this union that it speaks of when it says, in Christ, and you always have to ask yourself, what does it mean when it says in Christ?

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What does that mean? Well here, it's speaking of our spiritual union with Christ. How the

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Holy Spirit has bonded us together with Him for us to be transformed. Now as we look at this passage, maybe first we ought to consider the notion of workmanship, that we are the

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Father's workmanship. God is accomplishing something in us. A lot of people imagine themselves to be self -created.

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This is not just true at an understanding of religion, but even many people think that the whole world is self -created, that out of some dense hot point, a big bang, formed the whole world.

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It's interesting how that works because the idea isn't that it came from nothing, but it came from just a very little bit and then that created everything else.

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That's how a lot of people imagine that the Christian life begins.

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Well it's just a little point, just your faith and then from that, everything else comes. No, we are not our own workmanship, we are

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Christ's workmanship. This is something that God is, excuse me, the

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Father's workmanship in Jesus Christ. This is something that He is doing in us. And the whole point of Ephesians is this work that God is accomplishing.

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This has been a great mystery for many years. For many years, no one knew quite what God was doing. This is called in Ephesians, the mystery of Christ.

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The mystery of Christ is finally revealed that He is joining together Jew and Gentile into a new work that He is creating.

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And how is He going to do it? Is He going to require that the Jews by their own, the Gentiles by their own moral reformation align themselves with the law of God and bring themselves into the kingdom by their own works?

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No, they are not saved by their works, rather they are saved for good works.

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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

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But we are His workmanship, creating Christ Jesus for good works. We are not saved by good works, rather we are saved for good works.

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And why is all this done in verse 7? So that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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Once again that phrase, in Christ Jesus. Through union with Christ, we would know

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His immeasurable kindness. If this were something that was coming from us, would we know

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His immeasurable kindness? No, it would be our own work. It would be our own workmanship. There would be no reason to thank

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God for it, or maybe there would be some reason, but it would be a significantly decreased reason. Rather, all glory goes to God because we are

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His workmanship in Jesus Christ. And we understand the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Jesus Christ.

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Now there are several things that Ephesians likens us to. There's a fourth one that Scripture likens us to, and that's not addressed here in Ephesians.

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We'll talk about that next week. That is vine and branches. The branches unite to the vine, have life from the vine.

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But here in Ephesians, the threefold analogy is first of a temple, that we are like a temple.

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All the stones being built together into a temple so that they become something much more.

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What is a stone on its own? Rock on its own is one of the most valueless things you can possibly imagine.

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But if you shape it in the right way, and you put it together with other rocks, oriented around a cornerstone, it becomes something of great value.

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There's hardly anything more valuable than large buildings. You think about real estate in this area.

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It's one of the most valuable things that you can get your hands on in this area. Real estate that has buildings on it.

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The other thing that he compares it to is a body. The parts of the body are pretty useless on their own.

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In fact, they're hazards on their own. If you were to just have a finger lying around, this is not something that you want to be around.

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But the parts of the body, all joined together, being taken care of and shaped the way they ought to be shaped, are something much more valuable.

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The same thing is true in a marriage. Man and woman have a certain capacity by themselves, but joined together, they have a much greater capacity.

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This is especially true in some ways of the wife, which the church is likened to in chapter 5.

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When the Bible describes the capacities of a woman, one of the things that highlights the most is her capacity to have children, her capacity for fruitfulness and to give life.

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But she has no capacity for this apart from being joined together with a man. Likewise, for the church, each individual, as he is joined together with Christ, has a capacity for much more than he would have a capacity for otherwise.

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Apart from Christ, he is dead. He is unable to do any kind of good work. There is no capacity for fruitfulness.

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But in being joined together with Christ, he has a capacity for much fruitfulness.

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And this is the work that God is accomplishing. This is the mystery that those who followed

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God for many years did not understand because it was hidden from them. But now, according to Ephesians, it has been revealed to us.

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It is something that we are to profit from. It is something that we are to be encouraged by.

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And apart from understanding this, we will not fully benefit from this union.

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So what is this union? What is this in Christ -ness, this spiritual union which we speak?

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Let me tell you of some of its qualities. First of all, it is indeed a spiritual union. When I say a spiritual union, what

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I mean is that it is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. When some people hear spiritual union, they think that it primarily involves our spirit and not our body.

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This is not the case. Our bodies are united to Christ as well as our spirits. In fact, our bodies remain united to Christ even while in the grave until the day of resurrection.

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That is what assures that we will be resurrected. So when I call this a spiritual union, I am not negating our body as being part of the union.

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I am saying that this is a work accomplished by the Holy Spirit. Second, it is a real union.

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It is real. It is not just a notion or an idea or a way of speaking. Now, this is not the case with the legal union.

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Remember when I talked about fictitious business names? So, we are, for example,

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Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church, even though our official name with the IRS is Lakewood Village Baptist Church.

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That is an example of a fictitious business name. It is not the real name. Likewise, Christ's righteousness is not our real or inherent righteousness.

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It is, in some ways, a legal fiction. By fiction, I do not mean that it is not true that His righteousness is truly credited to us, but it is not as though we, in and of ourselves, are actually righteous by virtue of that declaration.

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The spiritual union is different. It is a real union that actually is life -giving, that actually is transforming, that actually does change us.

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And so, it is likewise an operative or vital union. It is accomplishing things in us.

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It is bringing life to us. It is transforming us. And then, beyond all this, it is a mutual union.

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It is not just us to Christ, but it is Christ to us. As it says in Song of Solomon 2 .16,

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I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. We are joined together with Him in a mutual way.

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This is why He had to become incarnate, just like we saw in Romans 7. He had to become man in order to be joined together with us, not just in order to represent us, but that even the spiritual union would not be possible apart from Him likewise being human.

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He is joined to us together, even in His humanity. And so, it is a mutual union between us.

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And then, it is also an inseparable union. It is not something that can ever be torn apart.

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You might be able to tear a building apart. You might be able to render a body asunder.

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You might be able to divorce a marriage, but none of these things are true when those analogies are applied to the union between God's people and Himself and Jesus Christ.

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This is something that can never be separated apart. A marriage is supposed to last until death. There is no death for the one who is in Jesus Christ.

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The one who is in Jesus Christ may have risen again. They will live forever. And so, this is an inseparable union.

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It cannot be torn apart. And from this union comes the fruit of righteousness.

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Philippians 1 .11 says that this fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ.

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These good works come through Jesus Christ because that union is one that is inseparable. It is one that is operative.

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It is one that is life -giving, etc. Now, this union is also called a mystical union.

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In fact, if you look throughout church history, this is probably the more common way of speaking of it than the spiritual union.

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I thought about whether or not I'd call that, even in the sermon title, the mystical union between us and Jesus Christ. If you want to look more about this,

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I'd recommend that's the term you search rather than spiritual union. Mystical union between us and Jesus Christ.

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Now, why is it called mystical? It's called mystical because it is not fully disclosed, nor will it be fully disclosed to us how all it works.

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There are several different mystical unions in scripture. There's the union between the persons of the Trinity. We will never fully understand how

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Father, Spirit, and Son are all united. This is not something that we will completely comprehend. The union between Christ's two natures,

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His humanity and His deity, this is something that we will not fully comprehend. Likewise, the union between Christ and His church, between us individually, also in Jesus Christ, this is not something that we will fully understand.

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The analogies that are given are true. They apply, but the reality of Christ and the church, that union together, is something that also transcends those analogies so much that it's right to call it mysterious or mystical.

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This is not, once again, to compare to the legal union. That's not the case of the legal union. The analogy there is very straightforward.

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God makes a declaration. These things are counter to us, just like they would be in court. Very straightforward.

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Not mystical. This one is mystical because the details are hidden from us. We don't know all the way it works, but we must trust that it does.

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We must trust that the Holy Spirit is at work. Now, saying that this is mystical is not the same thing as saying that we should be mystics, or it's not the same as mysticism.

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Mysticism doesn't just say that some of the details are hidden or that we can't understand the details, but rather, it would go as far as to say that they defy even logic, and they blur the boundaries of identity between us and Christ so that we are blurring together with Christ in a way.

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This is often known as theosis, the idea of becoming wrapped up in the

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Trinity itself or becoming one person with Jesus Christ. Now, a lot of people believe this.

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You may not realize how frequently this is believed. In fact, this is one of the key things taught by Eastern Orthodoxy.

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Last week, I mentioned that Eastern Orthodoxy tends to deny the legal union with Jesus Christ as being some

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Western concept, even though the Bible frequently speaks about our union with Christ in terms of law and the declaration

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God has made. But not only do they deny the legal union, as far as the spiritual union goes, they corrupt it so that it's not just mystical in the sense of the

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Holy Spirit operatively joining us together with Jesus Christ in ways that we don't fully understand, but rather, it blurs distinctions and defies logic so we become one in essence even with Jesus Christ.

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We are being ontologically transformed so that our essence is becoming

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His essence. This is taught frequently.

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Some of you may have heard of a character, a man known as Richard Rohr. He's a Roman Catholic, but he's gotten a lot of his theology from Eastern Orthodoxy.

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And interestingly, once again, even though he's a Roman Catholic and he's getting this from Eastern Orthodoxy, he's importing it primarily into Protestantism.

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A lot of Protestants, a lot of evangelicals follow Richard Rohr and eat up his teaching about theosis, about becoming one with Jesus Christ.

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It's this mysticism where you're just kind of laying aside logic and hoping for some spiritual experience where you are wrapped up in Jesus Christ.

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This is what a lot of people are looking for. This is what we heard in the testimony earlier from Daniel. The false idea that what we should be seeking is mysticism, some kind of spiritual experience.

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Not that we wouldn't have a spiritual experience in Jesus Christ, but one that has no logic to it and is just a blending together with Jesus Christ.

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I heard from my own father that he went to a men's conference where he was looking forward to a netifying time with brothers, but then a lot of the teaching was just this.

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It was just the idea of being wrapped up into one attorney. So it had invaded even this men's conference that he had attended.

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And to give you some of the reason that people would believe this, because this is not founded on nothing, let me give you some of the reasons.

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2 Peter 1 verse 4 talks about us partaking of the divine nature.

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Many people take that as becoming one with the Trinity or becoming one person with Jesus Christ. Or 1

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Corinthians 12 speaks of the church under the name of Christ.

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It says, though many members are one body, so it is with Christ. It denotes the whole church by Christ's name.

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Is not the church one ontologically with Jesus Christ in that way?

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And then you even have statements from fairly important figures in church history.

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Athanasius who was the most instrumental in Nicene Council. That is where the

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Nicene Creed came about and the Trinity was first defined in the most dogmatic sort of ways.

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By dogmatic I mean careful formulations. Even he has a quote where he says, speaking of Jesus Christ, he became man in order that we might become

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God. And so if you have the Bible talking about us partaking of his nature, you have even Athanasius saying we will become

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God. How are you supposed to understand these things? Well, I think it's pretty clear that when it talks about the divine nature it's not talking about his essence.

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It's not talking about his being in that way. This confuses nature in essence.

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So nature is not essence. In Romans 1, verse 20, it speaks to this.

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It says his invisible attributes, namely his power and divine nature have been clearly perceived since the creation of the world.

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So when it says divine nature there, that same phrase used from 2 Peter 1 .4, when it says divine nature, what does it mean?

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It's talking about his attributes. It's talking about his qualities. What is seen in creation? Oh, his wisdom, his holiness, etc.

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These are qualities that we are being transformed into having through union with Jesus Christ, which is different than our own being, our own essence being transformed into Jesus Christ himself.

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Likewise, it confuses the notion of union and communion. Remember, union with Jesus Christ is the bringing of us together with him.

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Communion is those things that are shared with him. He shares with us in his graces. So he shares with us in his holiness, transforming us, etc.

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So these things that are shared with him are not him himself in that union.

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So it confuses not only, you know, the parts of the body are not the body itself.

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Brought together, they in some sense share an identity with the body, but you cannot say that the finger is the whole hand or that the whole hand is the whole body.

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It's just not the case, even if it is to be identified in some way with the body. So it confuses nature in essence.

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It confuses union and communion with Jesus Christ. And it makes the union to be something that is destructive rather than constructive, destroying what is there to create something new rather than building that thing into something better.

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Right? If we are a temple, the analogy is not, okay, you take the cornerstone and the other stones together and you pulverize them until they're slurry.

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Right? The idea of the vine and the branches are not that you mulch them until, you know, they're a fine mulch that you can spread around and they're all one.

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Rather, the grafting happens together to be something constructive, something fruitful, not something destructive.

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But what Theosis does is a destructive union rather than a constructive union where Christ makes something glorious for himself that did not before exist.

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Right? He himself already existed. If that was good enough for him, he wouldn't need to create us to form us into him in this mysticism type union.

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What he wanted to create was something new to glorify himself. He is doing something constructive.

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This is an incredible workmanship that the Father is creating, something new. And so to speak more of that communion, what is it that Christ shares with us?

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It is a life -giving sanctification. It is an increasing in our holiness, a transformation in order for us to be more and more like him.

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You consider each one of those analogies and what happens, how the parts become like the chief thing.

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In the temple, all the stones gain their orientation from the cornerstone.

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They are all to be aligned like him. They are all to be cut further until they are rectangular and that they can be aligned with the cornerstone.

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The body gets its air, it gets its understanding, its vision, etc. All these things from the head.

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It gets its purpose from the head. All these things come to the rest of the parts of the body from the head.

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The same is true with the husband and wife. The wife receives her orientation from her husband's leadership.

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She receives the capacity for giving life to new children from her husband.

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These are all things that come from the husband. And so it is with us individually and corporately as a church that we receive life from Jesus Christ and that he is working in us to accomplish that fruitfulness, to accomplish in us good works.

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Now this is described later on in Ephesians 4. I'd like to go ahead and just read to you

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Ephesians 4 beginning in verse 22.

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It talks about to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.

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This is how the Bible describes it. It is putting off of the old self. It is putting on of the new self.

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This is the creation, that same word created is used here. We are being created in that way, our old self being mortified, our new self being vivified, being brought to life by the life -givingness of Jesus Christ, us being united to him in the

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Holy Spirit. And so this is built out with a putting off and a putting on.

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If you continue to read this passage you can see this here. It says therefore having put away falsehood

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Okay, so what's the put off? You put away falsehood, let each one of you speak truth. You put on truth speaking.

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It says in verse 27 or verse 28, let the thief no longer steal but rather let him labor.

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What are you to put off? Thievery, stealing. What are you to put on? Laboring. Verse 29, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up.

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What are you supposed to put off? Corrupt talk. What are you supposed to put on? What is good for building up?

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Verse 31, let all bitterness, wrath, and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice.

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Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. So what are you supposed to put off?

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Bitterness. What are you supposed to put on? Forgiveness. Each one of these put offs are attended with a put on.

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And so that is the fullness of what's happening. A lot of people imagine this being just the put off that you're supposed to stop doing this, stop doing that, stop doing that.

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There's a put on that's supposed to happen. He does not just mortify and kill.

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He is life giving. He is bringing life to something. There is a put on that is happening. Once again, a lot of people don't have power in the

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Christian life because they don't understand this. They don't have as much power as they could because of a lack of understanding. Christ is still working in them.

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But the more you understand this union, just like it says in verse 20 there, but that is not the way you learned

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Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, an understanding of it allows you to take advantage of this more and more.

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That if you just try to put off and there's no putting on, that is not understanding the creative work that Christ is doing in you.

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It's thinking of it as solely a destructive work and not a creative work that he is doing. Don't expect your kleptomania to go away if you don't start laboring.

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If you sit around idle all day, you're not going to have anything. You're going to need to steal in order to survive.

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But if you labor, then that's not needed anymore. It's very straightforward how this works and yet at the same time, many people don't think about this reality that there can't just be a putting on.

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There has to be a putting on. Something else it says here in this passage in verse 24, it says that we are created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness.

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Now think about that likeness of God that's happening here. When God created man, he created him in his own likeness.

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He created him in his own image. Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. Now that image is corrupted in the fall so that mankind by nature does not reflect

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God as we ought. However, the Bible says that Jesus Christ not only is very similar to the image of God, it says that he is the image of the invisible

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God. It says in Colossians 1 .15, he is the image of the invisible God. So when we are joined to him and we receive his likeness, those qualities of his being joined together with us so that we have communion with him in those things, we become more and more like him, more like his image.

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We become wholly like him. We become patient as he is patient, etc.,

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etc. This likeness transfers. Once again, think about the way this affects the different metaphors.

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You have the stones. They become like the cornerstone in their orientation.

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The body becomes like the head having shared purpose, having shared blood, shared

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DNA, etc. These things, the likeness is transferred so they become more and more like the thing that they are oriented toward, more and more like the head.

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And so it is an increasing in that likeness. Now, continuing with this idea of creation, it is a, it identifies our purpose.

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Our purpose, your purpose is determined by what you are created for. God created mankind. He created mankind with a particular purpose to tend after the garden, etc.

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Mankind being corrupted, not capable of fulfilling that purpose. But Christ having transformed us has given us another purpose.

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We are transformed so that we have this purpose that we are created for good works.

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So it says in Colossians 116 that all things were created through him and for him. Now, if all things were created through him and for him, how much more is that the case with the one who has been created by him a second time?

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Right? Who has, remember in the previous verse in Colossians 115, it says he is the image of the invisible God. Next verse says all things are created through him and for him.

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If we are joined together with him so that we are being created by him to have his very image, how much more is this the case with us and our purpose?

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And so that means that he has equipped you sufficiently for that purpose, for good works. When we looked at Titus 2 .14,

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that passage that says that he has purified a people for his own possession to be zealous for good works, ideas he owns us.

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An owner determines the purpose of a thing. But if you think about it, ownership can only particularize the purpose for a thing.

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You can't, you can't just take anything and then because you're the owner, give it some purpose and expect it to do that thing.

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You can't take a cardboard box and say this is going to be my refrigerator. You can't take you know, an oven and say this is going to be my refrigerator.

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Without some kind of design, you can't expect that thing to do it. Christ does not just own us for this people, for this purpose, us being his people for his own possession, to be zealous for good works.

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Rather, he transforms us, he has created us for this purpose. So that we fully have that design.

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So that he has built us and rebuilt us so that we have the capacity for everything he has called us to.

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You have the capacity for everything he has called you to. You can say I was made for this.

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A lot of people face challenges in life. They face the different trials that God has foreordained from before the foundation of the world like it talks about in the second half of this verse.

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For good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. They end up landing at one of those places that God has foreordained that they should walk in them.

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Some trial, some difficulty, some great task that he has not called others to necessarily, but some great thing that this person is called to.

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And they say, I was not made for this. I can't handle this. How many times have you had that thought when you encounter some trial?

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I wasn't made for this. He is making you for it. Not only have you been created in Christ Jesus, but he is continually by the spiritual union transforming you for those things.

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He is making you for this. And so you can approach all this with a kind of enthusiasm, with a kind of confidence that says, that I am made for this.

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So for the unbeliever, abandon all hope of any kind of moral transformation that you would have apart from Jesus Christ.

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A body part cannot, on its own, laying there dead on the ground have any life to it.

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Stone cannot on its own become a building. A wife cannot on her own have children, apart from miraculous work that God did in the virgin birth.

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These are not things that can happen on their own. Rather, there has to be some kind of union in order to give life.

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Now a lot of people might try to pursue some kind of moral reformation through outward means. They might join the military.

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A lot of people have experienced some kind of outward moral reformation in the military. Might go through a 12 steps program.

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A lot of people have experienced some kind of outward moral reformation through a 12 steps program. But these cannot change the heart.

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They cannot actually give you any life because there is no union with Christ, the one who is himself the image of God.

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You will not become more like Christ. You will just imitate in a very superficial way the outward workings of that.

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That is the best that you can do. So abandon all hope and trust in Jesus Christ. And he will transform you.

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It's not just that he might or he may. He will. If you come, if you turn to Jesus Christ, he will transform you for his purposes.

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Now as one who already believes what you should be doing is first of all you should make some study of this union.

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Now on one hand, like I said, this is a mystical union. It cannot be fully understood so on one hand it is not to be pried into so much as it is to simply be experienced.

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On the other hand, Scripture speaks so much of this union that you would be a fool to not get the hint that we are supposed to understand it and know about it to some degree.

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It speaks of being in Christ repeatedly. The least you can do is when it says in Christ think about what does that this verse that says in Christ tell me about the nature of that union.

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The more that you understand it, the more you will benefit from it. Just consider again what he says in Ephesians 4 20.

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But that is not the way you learned Christ. Assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus.

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Learned in him. The truth is in him. This union in him has more power as you understand it more.

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As you understand your place in him more. And so make some study of this that you would not be the one who expects no transformation and then experiences very little as some sort of self -fulfilling prophecy but understands this and expects it so that you would experience it more and more.

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And then pursue. Pursue that transformation. Mortify the flesh. Vivify the new self.

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Put on, put off. Now this is a work that God is doing in you but this is something that he has called us to do.

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He has called us to put off the ways of the flesh. Put on the new self.

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So very simply, just you can look through the list of things here for plenty of examples of what this looks like.

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Right? The liar needs to stop lying. Start speaking truth. Stop stealing.

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Start laboring so you can have something to give to others. Later on, and this keeps going through chapter 5.

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You can find lots of examples of this. The drunkard is not supposed to be filled with wine. Instead, he's supposed to be filled with the spirit.

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Speaking to one another in songs, hymns, and spiritual songs. So he's supposed to sing instead. Being filled with the spirit.

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These are various things that you ought to do. And do not expect some kind, do not expect much victory apart from both halves of that.

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Apart from both putting off and putting on. Right? If you just put off, if you understand Christ's transformation in you to only be a destructive one and not a constructive one, do not expect victory.

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Right? For example, you know, someone who struggles with pornography and they think, okay, my way of dealing with this is to put off viewing pornography.

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Okay, eventually those desires are still going to get you. There cannot be you cannot have victory apart from the means that Christ has given us.

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There's both the putting off and the putting on. What is the putting on that God has given for sexual desires?

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It is marriage. He has called people in normal circumstances to marriage. He's called people who have sexual desires to marriage.

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So that you would have a godly outlet for those desires. And so one who's trying to mortify the flesh should not expect success apart from understanding what they are supposed to be filling that with.

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What Christ is building up not just what he is destroying. And one key for that is if you're trying to figure out, well, with my sin that I'm dealing with, what is the

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I understand the put off, but what is the put on? Almost all of these have some kind of outward focus.

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The put off is about something that's very inward, me -focused, selfish. I'm stealing.

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I'm lying to get what I want. I'm doing, you know, etc. The put on is do the opposite to help others.

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Help others. It is outward focused. Just going back to the pornography example.

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That's very me -focused. There's no interaction with others. Instead of producing life it produces death.

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Marriage is something that produces life. Sexual union, man and woman, etc. These are things that are outward focused and life -giving.

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So this is an important task is to distinguish what is the put on that I am supposed to be doing.

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Now you should approach this with a lot of confidence expecting

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Christ to work in you. This includes long -term things. There's a lot of people who will approach long -term callings and reject them because they don't feel that they are spiritually equipped for those at that point in time.

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Not trusting that God would grow them in those things. There are a lot of people who don't want kids because they don't think they have the spiritual qualities to be a good parent.

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They think, I'm not patient enough for children. I'm not, you know, just list whatever.

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I'm not joyous enough for children, etc. I'm not loving enough for children. These are things that He will transform you to be and He will do it in sufficient measure, in sufficient timing.

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Do not wait until you have accomplished all these things so that you can pursue long -term.

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Do not think that the parent, for example, that you have to be equipped with every spiritual blessing for five kids just when you have your first kid.

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Or to handle a 13 -year -old when you have a one -year -old. These are things that God typically, in His typical providence,

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He introduces to people in a gradual way so that He will transform them for what they need at that point in time.

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I've seen a lot of people look at my wife and say, wow, there's no way I could do that. I don't have the spiritual qualities to be a mom of nine.

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I'll tell you all a secret. She did not have the spiritual qualities to be a mom of nine when she was a mom of one. This is not,

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I didn't have the qualities to be a father of nine when I was a father of one. I did not have the patience that I have today.

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Lord willing, I will continue growing in patience so that I can have the capacity for even greater tasks, etc.

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These are things that God is growing us in.

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We are His workmanship in Christ Jesus. Don't put off long -term things, not recognizing that God will grow you in them.

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Another one is church membership. A lot of people say, oh, I don't have the spiritual qualities to handle the responsibility of church membership or all the social interactions of church membership.

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These are things that God has called every single Christian to. Trust that He will transform you so that you will have the capacity for that responsibility for that work.

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There's no need to use excuses. So many people go to excuses when they are confronting their sin or when someone is confronting them with their sin.

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They say, oh, I can't do that. That's too hard. This is really difficult, etc., etc. Essentially what they're saying is

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God can't change me to be like that. They are despising the workmanship of God.

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They are despising the union of Christ, thinking that it is a little thing that cannot accomplish much. Isaiah 29 16 says,

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You turn things upside down. Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker,

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He did not make me? Or the thing formed say of him who formed it? He has no understanding. If you are

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God's workmanship in Christ Jesus, do not say to your maker, You have no understanding. You couldn't make me like this.

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You are the clay in the hands of the potter. He can transform you for any purpose that He sees fit.

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And He has joined you to Jesus Christ through the Spirit of God so that you would be transformed to do those things.

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Now, a couple of things to keep in mind so that you are not discouraged in this task of transformation and the task of pursuing good works, expecting to be transformed by Christ so that you can pursue them.

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One, learn to distinguish between spiritual capacities and natural capacities.

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So if someone is someone might look at a particular calling and think that God is going to give me everything

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I need for this. Romans 12 talks about let not someone think that He is more than He is.

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I'm butchering that verse a little. But the idea there being that someone shouldn't take high teaching positions, not being realistic about what

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God has gifted them with in order to be able to teach. So there are certain things that are just kind of innate that we don't have any real reason to expect that God would transform us to have more of.

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There's a certain kind of intelligence that someone is born with and while they might increase in knowledge, we can't expect people to completely change mental capacities in every sort of way.

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If you're born with a certain kind of body, certain kind of strength, you can do a little bit of exercise, but you can't anticipate that God would transform you radically in some kind of physical way.

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These are not things that He has guaranteed and if you take on tasks expecting that that's the kind of transformation that you would receive, you're going to be disappointed because that's not part of the promise.

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So there needs to be some realism in that. At the same time, there ought to be a lot of optimism about the spiritual things.

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You should not think that this is going to necessarily take a very long time. You should not think this is necessarily going to be, yeah, this is going to have to be put off forever, but rather expect

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Christ to do much. If He hasn't done much in the previous half of your

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Christian walk, do not look at that as a testimony against Him. Rather look at it as a testimony against you.

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You should repent. You should be the one who is transforming, not despising the work of the

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Lord as though it is something that is necessarily slow and powerless.

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He will transform you. Now think about how this applies to others as well.

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That evaluation of your self of whether or not you have been faithful in that process of transformation can apply to others.

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I think it is right to look at yourself and to look at others and evaluate that transformation. A lot of people consider that to be despising the work of the

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Lord. How dare you look at the servant of the Lord and say that God is not doing a sufficient work in him.

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But consider this. Jesus was happy to make those determinations when He wrote to some of the churches, like the church in Sardis, and He says that your works are not complete.

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In Revelation 3 -2, the author of Hebrews and Hebrews 5 -12 says, many of you ought to be teachers by now.

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He is willing to make that judgment and confront them with this, that there ought to be some kind of transformation that had happened more than the transformation that had happened.

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I think it is right to make those assessments. In fact, I would say it is despising the work of the Lord to not be willing to make those assessments.

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Just say, oh well that is all God has done in him. That is all God can do. That would be despising that work.

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It is right to make these assessments in order that you might encourage your brothers and sisters and be able to say things like, many of you ought to be teachers by now.

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To be able to speak the words of Scripture with confidence. Not only should you be willing to make those kind of valuations, but you should also be willing to, with that kind of confidence about the

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Lord's capacity to work in someone, rather than despising that work and saying that God can't work in this person. You should be willing to encourage people in long -term commitments.

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Just like I talked about people avoiding long -term commitments because they think that the capacity they have now is the capacity for the later ends of the task and that God wouldn't transform them.

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You should be willing to encourage people in long -term tasks knowing that God will grow them. So many people

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I have seen discourage others from marriage in particular because they don't think they have spiritual capacities for marriage.

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It's true that they may not, but by the time that they find a spouse, by the time they get married, is there not sufficient time for Christ to do the working in them that they would be sufficiently equipped to begin marriage?

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Is that not something that God can do? And so we should be encouraging people in long -term commitments with a notion that God can work powerfully and swiftly even through this union with Jesus Christ.

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That when you see someone who lacks spiritual qualities and who has not grown those spiritual qualities, they must stay stagnant forever.

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Do not despise the work of the Lord that way. Or the number of people who say, oh, this person just doesn't have the discipline or responsibility, sense of responsibility to hold down a job, and so his idleness is therefore justified in this way.

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There's a lot of people who would encourage someone else not to, just to continue in their unemployment and their unproductivity because they don't think

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Christ has powerful enough to work in them. Rather, you should encourage them that, knowing that as they put off, as they put on,

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Christ will work in them. Same is true with ministry. I've seen a number of people discourage younger men from pursuing ministry because they lack the spiritual qualifications for elder.

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The idea being that, well, if you're even to pursue this, you already need to be qualified. No, the pursuit is going to take some time.

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Growing in those qualifications is going to take some time. Encourage with an understanding, knowing that those qualities can be developed over time.

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I've seen cases where a pastor will begin working with someone for the office of elder or for the office of deacon, and people will see that as a statement that this person is qualified already.

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Just, you know, the training and the working with them, right? And then they'll say, boy, that pastor lacks all discernment because he thinks this person has the qualifications.

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When you read 1 Timothy 3 and he doesn't have the qualifications. No, you should approach this with an understanding that God can grow someone in the qualifications prior to holding the office.

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They shouldn't hold the office without the qualifications, but He can grow them. And so you should approach all these things with that kind of optimism.

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You should do this with reconciliation also. You should not look at someone to say, oh,

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I don't need to work out my problems with them because they just can't change. The number of times I've heard that from people, right?

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This person just will not change. Do you not believe? What I used to tell people is, don't you believe in the

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Holy Spirit? Now after the sermon maybe I'll say, don't you believe in the mystical union? And then they'll maybe they'll be a little more engaged and think more about what

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I'm saying and I'll have a chance to explain it to them. But don't you believe in the mystical union? If they are a brother or sister united together with Jesus Christ, of course

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He can transform them. Like you're not thinking lowly of them, you're thinking lowly of Jesus Christ.

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And this is true for church discipline too. A lot of people will oppose church discipline because they'll say, oh, well, this person wouldn't, you know, the threat of discipline, the acts of discipline, that wouldn't change this person.

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Well, if they wouldn't change them, then they're not united to Christ. They are united to Christ and you can be guaranteed that it will change them.

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So you should be able to approach something like church discipline with confidence because of that union in Christ, because it will always, it will, if you are discerning the matter rightly, it will turn out well because there is a guarantee that Christ transforms through this spiritual, through this mystical union.

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And then, yeah, be optimistic and invest in the body.

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This is something that has to be thought of not just individually. A lot of people think of their union with Christ as being primarily an individual thing.

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Primarily it's a corporate thing. Think of all the analogies, husband and wife, well the wife and that is the whole body, right?

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The head and the body, well sure the parts are in there, but the whole body is the church. And then the building, right?

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The whole building around the cornerstone. These are things that are corporate in their nature.

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They are whole bodies together. And so you ought to, as you are pursuing good works, not just to do so individually, but to do so corporately, encouraging others, especially in your local fellowship, especially in your local church, toward good works.

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Do not look around and think, well Christ can't do much. Rather, he can do much. Be optimistic.

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Knowing the power of the mystical union is a great power. And you cannot just say that maybe this person can do this by their own strength, maybe

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I can do this by my own strength, but they were made for this and they are being made for this. I am made for this.

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I am being made for this. Good works, dealing with trials, dealing with temptations, special callings, every one of those good works

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I have the capacity for because I am made for them. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful truth that we have here in this passage, that we are your workmanship, creating

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Christ Jesus for good works. We ask that you would give us the courage, the confidence to pursue good works with this truth in our inventory.