Union with Christ VII: From Glory to Glory

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and with me again is AC Floyd, and we are looking at the doctrine of union with Christ.

And as we've been looking at this doctrine, of course, we're talking about how Paul and the other writers in scripture, when they mentioned that we are in him, how is that at the heart of all that we read about in redemption?

And it helps us to get a right understanding of the dynamic in the mechanism of redemption.

How did, how did these things come to us other than the fact that God loved the world and gave his son for sinners?

And so beyond that, but exactly how, how can a holy God do that? And, and at the heart of that is this great reality of union with Christ.

But as we've been talking about that, it does help us also to get the right measure of redemption.

It's easy to think of the word saved, you know, a person is saved.

And we think, well, that, how big a deal is that? And the world and, and the church at times, our own hearts and minds, we can shrink that and lose the magnitude of redemption.

So AC, so before we jump in there with union with Christ again, what are some of the things that you think come to mind when you think of the magnitude of the work of our salvation?

Yeah. So as we would think about our salvation, terms like supermassive, all -encompassing come to mind, it's, it encompasses us and our tiny little lives and it's very personal, but it expands out and you could say that it's cosmic.

It's the entire universe. So not only are we redeemed in the work of our salvation, but the entire universe is redeemed in the work of our salvation.

It's we could think of it also in terms of time and space, it occurs in our lifetime to us here and now, but it stretches back before the world began, before the foundation of the world into eternity.

And it stretches on forward into the endless ages of eternity to come. So when we think about the work of God and our salvation, it's, you could say all -encompassing.

It's everything. It's everywhere. It's at all times. Yeah. And, you know, if I think of Romans 8, where it talks about, you know, the glorification of Christ and the transformation of all creation, and as well as the bride of Christ.

And it is, Lloyd -Jones is so right when he constantly reminds the believer to back up from yourself, you know, to view the big picture.

Don't stop there, you know, move in then close. After you see the big picture, like Ephesians 3, the big picture,

Paul talks about, and then he moves in close, but I'm in prison. And he says to the people, but you know, don't worry about me.

This is for your glory. This is part of something so much bigger than us. And that's always helpful.

When we think about the work of God in our salvation, oftentimes we describe the work of God in the, through his son in two categories,

Christ for us, Christ in us. So Christ for us, the objective things that Christ accomplished that occurred outside of us.

They don't occur in us. We don't feel them. These are realities that don't go up and down with our up and down.

They, in a sense, they don't include us directly, but they impact us and they form the foundation of that other aspect,

Christ in us, what God does in the believer in rescuing us. And that does include us directly.

So we think of regeneration or sanctification or perseverance or glorification in each of these, we are being worked upon or worked within, and we are involved in that.

And while Christ for us kind of work is at times, you know, the things

God says that he does for his, for those who once were his enemies, they rise so far above our limited ability to grasp them.

You know, we feel like we're climbing up a mountain and, and, you know, and we reached the cloud bank and we know there's more to go, but we look out from this, these dizzying heights of whether it's the atonement or the incarnation or the doctrine of the

Trinity, you know, or, or election and predestined to be conformed to his image, all those wonderful truths.

And we say, look, these are true, but God has only revealed as much as we need to know as much as we can grasp.

And beyond that, it, it just baffles us. But I think that it's the work of Christ in us, those aspects of redemption, which include us directly in which perhaps we are cooperative, you know, like sanctification that to me, that's more complex because it involves us.

And we are so complex because of sin we're, we're inconsistent, you know, so, you know, we can, we can try to explain the doctrine of election.

We can only go so far, but we can go that far. But then when you try to explain sanctification, you know, well, how should

I live in this situation? You know, I work with the boss that's lost. My parents, maybe they, they're, they're not

Christians. You know, my church is this or that. And so there's all these variables because of sin.

And we go to advise people as pastors and you feel like Baxter, you know, in his book,

Christian Directory, that massive, you know, hundreds and hundreds of pages of specific questions about how a

Christian should live. And he answers them. And so I've not read that book.

I've read, I've glanced at it and become overwhelmed at the sheer number of answers he gave. So it is complex.

And when we think of the doctrine of sanctification, it can be very complex. You know, how am

I supposed to understand what the Bible says about this in light of my present circumstance?

But thankfully, what we're looking at today is something that I think kind of clears away a lot of the unnecessary fog.

And that is how is the reality of union with Christ at the heart of the root system of sanctification?

So when we think about the doctrine of sanctification, the word sanctification can be used in a couple of major ways, and they're both biblical and both very significant.

So AC, give me, where would you start the first use of the word sanctification?

So as we would think about sanctification, the first place that we need to stop and consider is positional sanctification.

How is our position in Christ affecting our sanctification?

What does it mean that we are positionally sanctified? Well, it means that we are fundamentally, objectively set apart for Christ and to Christ.

So that doesn't, on the surface of it, have any bearing to do with what we might call practical or subjective sanctification.

So our day -to -day walk with the Lord. Positional sanctification has to do with where do we stand in Christ?

What does that mean for us objectively in reference to Him? How has

He claimed us as His own, separated us from the mass of Adam's fallen humanity and placed us in Himself?

Yeah, and that has to be primary, because without that, the other use of the word sanctification that is also biblical, the daily progressive transformation, that can't occur.

We can't reverse the order. We can't be daily transformed to the degree that one day

God would look at us and say, okay, you're close enough to the image of my son, morally, that I think you could be brought into a near relationship with me.

So that is impossible. They have a very definite order, positional, purchased, set apart for God.

Now the person that we're set apart to, his character then alters our character.

You know, we can think of it in a very simple illustration. If you are set, taken from one family and put in another family, the character of that family's father begins to influence you and you begin to be like that family and like it in the way it thinks and desires and talks and chooses.

So being set apart to God, the kind of a God that we belong to, begins to show up in our moral transformation, the practical daily alteration of our thinking and deepest desires and choices.

Now when we talk about that second subjective aspect, the daily progressive transformation into the image of Christ, you know, we see that all through scriptures.

We were talking before the podcast about 2 Corinthians 3, 18, gazing upon Christ. We are transformed into that image from glory to glory, you know, progressively more and more looking like our elder brother.

Now that is a work of God within, but it is also a work that we are wholly cooperative in.

You know, we want to be generous in our cooperation with the work of God. We want to be in harmony with that work.

So we want to be cooperative or walking in harmony with what God is doing within as he's moaning us into the image of Christ and making sure that works itself into every area of our daily life.

That brings us to union with Christ and this issue of the subjective or the progressive daily transformation of our lifestyle, a holy lifestyle, a godly lifestyle.

And when we look at the doctrine of union with Christ, particularly in the writings of Paul, we'll see from Romans 5 and 6 and 8 that Paul links this with two great questions.

It answers two great questions for the Christian with regard to this transformed life. The first is this.

Is it really possible for every Christian to grow in holiness, to be transformed into the image of Christ?

Second, is it more than possible? Is it inevitable that every

Christian will grow in likeness to Christ? That's why we read in Hebrews 12 that we are to pursue peace with all men and sanctification without which no one will see the

Lord. So it's not talking about positional sanctification. It's something we're pursuing. Pursue that daily transformed life, pursue likeness to Christ in the way you think and desire and choose, because apart from that transforming process, you will not see the

Lord. In other words, you are not a Christian. It is inevitable.

Something is fundamental to the nature of our relationship with God due to union with Christ that makes that process a part of every

Christian's life. And we'll talk about that and some questions it raises at the end.

Well, let's consider how Paul argues that union with Christ makes sanctification possible and inevitable.

If we go back to Romans 5, AC, the second half of Romans 5, kind of, if someone just says to you, what's the second half of Romans 5 about?

If you were to kind of sum it up in a sentence or two, what's the key truth that Paul is pressing there?

I would sum it up like this. What you see there at the end of Romans 5 is simultaneously all that Adam lost or all that we lost in Adam, but then you see all that we gained in Christ.

And in that discussion, we have union. Union with Adam, we are affected by what

Adam did. It continues to impact our lives. We see this throughout all humanity.

Just turn on the news. You see it. It's a bitter story. But union with Christ means that we are actually affected.

We are impacted. We are legally, positionally, but also practically, daily impacted by what he has done as our mediator.

If he is ours and we are his, if we are in him spiritually, placed in him legally, then all that he has accomplished and still is doing becomes our reality when we believe we are, he's the environment that we live in.

And so that affects this whole issue of holy living. So Paul argues after saying that we are now in Christ and these benefits come to us.

He asked that question at the beginning of Romans 6. What shall we say then? Okay. If we live in the realm of grace that Romans 5, the last few verses talks about, and we're not under that condemning realm of law, which the law he says later is, is suited perfectly to point us to the right path of love toward God.

And of course, to expose when we step off the path, but the law has no power to fuel a life of obedience.

It's just the path. It's not the strength to walk the path. So Paul says, you're not under that angry condemning law, but you are now in this realm of grace and this realm in this realm of grace, righteousness flourishes.

And Paul then asks the obvious question. Well, what should we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

Romans 5 tells us that everywhere sin exists in the life of a believer, grace over abounds.

It spreads even further. It, it cleans deeper. It rises higher than sin.

So should we use that as an excuse for self -indulgent living and verse two of Romans 6, we all know

God forbid King James translation, or, uh, may it never be the new

American standard says, how shall we who died to sin still live in it? That's the big question.

And that's where union with Christ is applied. What Paul's going to show us is that in being united to Christ, what

Christ did for us in his, uh, redeeming work on earth has so impacted us that it is possible to be transformed and it is inevitable, or we could say it negatively.

It is impossible that we would not be transformed. So let me read verses one through six of Romans six.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be.

How shall we who died to sin? So there's this statement that if we don't know why he's saying it, it would confuse us.

How shall we who died to sin still live in it? So when he's talking about dying to sin, what's he talking about?

Is he talking about you're a Christian? And at some point in your life, you got so serious about following Jesus that you moved from just being a believer to a repenter, uh, just being, uh, seeing

Christ as savior to treating him as Lord. That's not what he's talking about. Something has occurred in the past before we were born, and now it's come to impact us.

So verse three, he explains it. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ?

Jesus had been baptized into his death. Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father.

So we too might walk in newness of life for if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Let's stop there. So Paul points them back to when they embraced Christ, when they repented, when they believed and in that professing that Christ is their

Lord, they were baptized. So he says, basically look back to when you were born again, when you embraced

Christ, what happened? Well, you became the beneficiary actually in time of what he did prior to your birth united to him as your mediator, as your living head, what he did now channels hits us, so to speak impacts us.

So the old you is dead. You died with Christ by virtue of being united to the one that died on the cross.

Your old identity is dealt with. It's dead. And a new you, a new identity, a new legal standing before God is raised from this grave because Christ was raised from the grave for your justification.

And so the old you has done away with and a new identity is given. And in this new identity, you stand before God.

We talked about this in previous episodes justified or completely right with him.

So union with Christ means essentially, inevitably, it's not something we do.

It's something that was done to us and for us. The old you is gone.

A new you has raised. And Paul connects that later in the chapter with not just identity, but realm that you live in, which he mentions in chapter five, but he goes on to talk about it in verse 15 and following you once were a slave.

You were a slave to an old master. But you have been delivered from that. And you've been, now you've been enslaved into a new master, which we might think, wow, that doesn't sound so great.

But then when you look at the masters, then you realize this is life and death. I once was in an, in a kingdom of darkness.

Paul describes, you know, the life of the self -centered human in Colossians one, but now

I've been transferred, brought out of the kingdom of darkness and placed in the kingdom of light.

Same thing. So I have a new environment. I have a new master. I have a new identity.

So because of these things, AC, what, what does that make impossible?

There are things now that are impossible because of the death of Christ, the life of Christ, your death, your new birth, your citizenship in a new realm under a new master.

Paul presses all of that to say what? It makes it impossible for us to go back to the old master.

Not that we can't hear those once familiar commands, do this, practice this sin, do it now.

We don't have to obey him anymore. We don't have to go back to his rule and we don't have to go back into the sin that we were enslaved to.

It's canceled sin now. We've died to it. It is something that now, though it is mortally wounded, it's not put to death altogether.

There's still sin in our members. We don't have to obey its cries and we can actually be killing it.

Yeah. So positionally, legally, we owe the old master no obedience.

And like you said, though, he can lean across the fence between the two kingdoms and say to us, come on.

You know, it wasn't so bad, was it? You know, you can go back to the old way of living.

And like you said, we can still sin. We can still give into temptation and believe lies, but we can never positionally, legally go back to his field and to be rightfully his slave.

That's what Paul means when he says you are dead to sin, not you are incapable of sin, but you are dead to sin as you once were alive to it.

You once were in a sense, it's rightful slave, but you are no longer that, that you, the you that was a slave of sin that belonged to sin is dead.

And a new you has been raised under a new master and you have no right or ability to hand yourself back to the old master.

Now you mentioned that though we can still sin, something about the power of sin and the daily tempting power of sin, not the ruling power and owning power of sin, but that ability to tempt us.

Even that's been changed. Look at verse six of Romans six, knowing this, that our old self mark that, that our old self or our old man was crucified with him.

That's past tense. It's completed. It's not something we do. Why in order that our body of sin mark that that's something different might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for he who has died is freed from sin.

All right. So what's he saying? Well, again, freedom from sin here is freedom from the rule, the tyranny of sin, not from the susceptibility to its lies.

We are no longer in its realm. No longer is sin our rightful master.

But what about this problem that I can still feel the pull of temptation?

I can still give into that shamefully. Paul explains that the old you, the old self, um, that old identity is dead and gone.

All right. We've mentioned that, but there still remains this thing he calls our body of sin.

Not that this physical body isn't essentially sinful because we know Christ had a physical body that was not a sinful thing, but this corporeal existence, this human daily existence on earth, we still have the remnants of the old sin nature.

We could say we still have the clingings of those old habits, those old ruts in our soul.

And so while that is still there, it is no longer a mastering principle or force.

It can tempt us, but it no longer can rule us. Why? Well, he says in verse six, that the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ impacting us doesn't just change our political standing and, you know, our, our identity.

It also changes that old nature in that it has been dealt a death blow.

It is mortally wounded. The words in the new American standard that are translating that Greek phrase are so that the body of sin might be done away with.

And that can be misunderstood. It's not saying it's eradicated completely. One day it will be. It's saying that it is rendered powerless or think of a tree, you know, a thorn bush in your yard, and you've chopped the roots to it.

And it is dying. It's in the process of dying. It cannot be revived, but while it's dying, there are still the thorns there.

They can still scratch or catch your clothes. Sin in our nature is still clinging there and we are still temptable, but it has been dealt such a blow by our union with Christ that it has no ability to rule us in itself.

Now, the practical application of that is found in verse 11 through verse 14.

Even so, he says, consider yourselves or reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Now, let's stop there. The first imperative, the first command that we encounter in the book of Romans is not in chapter one or two, three, four, or five.

None of those chapters have an imperative for the Christian. You must do this. But chapter six, verse one through 10, no commands.

Chapter six, verse 11, a command, the very first command for a Christian and Paul's greatest letter doesn't come until the sixth chapter of the 11th verse.

And even that command is not a command that deals with some duty you do outwardly, but it deals with a command of how you are to think, reckon, consider, calculate.

All right. Sum up, look at life, calculate life correctly.

Reckon, calculate, consider yourself what? In Christ, I am dead to sin's rule and I am alive to God.

And that then brings further implications or duties. Verse 12, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal body so that it may, so that we would obey its lust.

And we are not to go on presenting the members of our body, our mind, our eyes, our ears, our mouth, hands, feet, our, our anything about this existence on earth.

Don't, don't hand anything of yourself in, in this life back over to sin as an instrument of unrighteousness.

But he says, because you're united to Christ, present yourselves, your identity, your person to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

So ordinarily in Paul's letters, he's so precise and extremely logical in the flow of his argument.

But it seems like jumping from verse 11 to verses 12 and 13, he isn't anymore.

Yeah, his, his arguments aren't parallel here. His commands are lopsided. The command of what you're not to do states one basic thing.

Don't present anything of this present bodily life.

Don't hand over your body as an instrument of sin again. That's the negative one thing, one command, the positive two commands.

So here's where it's not parallel, but do present yourselves, not just your body, but your identity, the true you present yourself unto

God as people alive from the dead. First command, second positive command and present your bodies, this daily physical life, present that to God each day so that everything that you are can be used as an instrument of righteousness.

Uh, Lloyd -Jones is the one I think that pointed this out for me in his commentary on Romans six, which is just worth its weight in gold.

And if you want to read more on this chapter, Lloyd -Jones is just so good. He's just very methodical and it fits his kind of mind, you know?

So I think he excels here. Um, what he points out is Paul is theologically correct, though his logic is lopsided.

His argument is not parallel. It couldn't be parallel. Lloyd -Jones said, he can't say this.

Don't wake up and present yourself back to the old master as a person who was once alive in Christ, but now you're going to go back to the death of sin and its rule.

You can't go back into the grave. You can present your body as an instrument of sinful behavior, but you can't present your identity, your person, you can't hand yourself back.

So he doesn't have to command that. He just says, don't use this body anymore for sin.

But when he talks about the positive side, there is something we can do, which there is not a, an opposite that we can't do.

The positive that we can do is that we can present ourselves to God as men or women alive from the dead in Christ.

So it's such a simple picture. Christ, like Lazarus, we are called from this grave of death and shame and guilt.

And we walk out of the grave and it's like every morning you wake up before your feet hit the floor, you know, you're, you're rolling out of bed and you think,

I am a person alive from the dead. I have been called out of a grave.

And as that is real, I turn my face, my heart toward my

God. First thing. And I say, I'm yours. And I present myself to you alive in your son.

And second, I also present my hands, my thoughts, my eyes, my ears, my senses, everything.

I present these as tools for obedience. Uh, so a wonderful lesson there in verses 11 through 14.

Now let's jump to chapter eight and we'll see where Paul speaks a little more of why holiness is not only possible, but essential to a

Christian in verse one and two and three and four. Let's read those.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And we've talked about that when we talked about justification, but that can't be separated from a transformed life because he says in verse two, four, the law of the spirit of life in Christ.

Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh.

God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

So Christ fulfills the law in our place as our representative, a perfect obedience, but he also works within us by his spirit so that the law is being performed or, uh, obedience is being done in us as well, not for justification, but as an expression of love.

And he speaks in verse two about the core of this, because we are in Christ, we have the spirit of Christ and the spirit of life in Christ.

Jesus is daily setting us free from that. The law of that spirit sets us free from the law of sin and of death.

So we already mentioned that in chapter six, verse six, there's still this body of sin. There's still this remnant of sinful nature that clings to us.

This old indwelling principle of sin that is counteracted in day to day, practical ways by another principle at work within us that is far greater.

And that is the work of the spirit of Christ. And it is by being in Christ that we have this as an essential aspect of our rescue.

So when we speak of the law of the, of the spirit of Christ or the law of sin and death, it's important that we understand what does he mean by this word law?

Because we're not talking about 10 commandments or any of the other commandments. So AC, how would you describe the law that's spoken of in verse two?

It might sound a little weird to describe it like this, but think of like an internal power or a force at work in you.

I think that's what gets at the heart of what Paul is communicating there in Romans chapter eight.

Yeah. So, you know, in old watches or clocks, you would have spring would drive the wheels, you know, so you wind the grandfather clock, you wind your watch and there's a main spring.

So it's, it's the primary source of power. And as it's be, as it's slowly, you know, releasing tension, it is doing it at a certain rate and it drives all the little cogs and wheels inside that watch or clock.

There is within us a new main spring. There is a new, like you said, energy at work.

And as it is at work, it is not just enabling or empowering obedience.

It is a, it's a guiding principle. So it's more than a main spring. It's an, it's an, it's a dominating influence.

Think of how we were before we came to Christ. There was a fundamental preoccupation with self and we were dominated.

Everything was influenced by this, this principle at work in us, this guiding principle.

And that is, I am more significant than anyone on the planet. I'm more significant than God.

Everything, everyone exists for me. But now the work of the spirit, uh,

Stuart Oliot and his very helpful little commentary on Romans. I think the well, when commentary series published it, uh, he's a

British author. He, he says the old law of sin and death, the old principle of sin and death can be summed up by this phrase, me, me, what's in it for me, the new, the law of the spirit of life in Christ creates a new phrase, him, him, what's in this for him.

So, you know, the God word life, not just the ability to obey, but a guiding principle.

Oliot in his book gives a wonderful illustration because he, he, he gives an illustration. I think that shows the fact that both of these laws are at work in a person, but one over comes the other and therefore obedience is the product.

So we've been set aside. We are not in the realm of the old master any longer.

That position has changed. We can never go back and hand ourselves back, but we can sin. So how do we not sin?

Or as you said, how do we daily put the desire to send to death that Paul talks about mortification, killing sins, temptations within us daily?

Well, that comes through the law or the principle or the powerful guiding work of a new person within us, the spirit.

And as we walk in dependence upon him, as we, as we walk in the word that the spirit has given us, we are looking to him to enable us.

And as Paul says in Philippians to give us both the desire and the ability each moment to do the will of God.

So in, in this illustration that I want to give from Oliot, I think we find the balance.

He says, imagine getting onto a plane because he's flown a lot. So you get onto a big jet and you look around the jet sitting still, all these people are on it.

The jet is massive. And you think, how can this massive thing that weighs so many tons, how can it float effortlessly through the air?

You know, how can it even get off the ground? It seems impossible. We have what we call the law of gravity and every person sitting in those seats and that plane is under the dominating influence of the law of gravity.

But when the plane begins to taxi, then we have new things. And we were discussing before, since neither of us are science guys, what do we call this?

I guess we call it the law or the principle of aerodynamics. We have thrust and lift.

And so as the air is passing above and beneath the wings, as the engines are pulling, pushing the air through the thrust and the lift, the aerodynamics overrule the law of gravity.

So gravity is still there, even when we're flying, you know, thousands of feet above the earth.

And it feels as if the plane is no longer affected by gravity, but it is affected by gravity.

But there is a greater law in place, this aerodynamic, you know, reality.

So when we think of the Christian, the Christian has, while in this life, there is still this susceptibility to sin's lies, but there is a greater law at work, a greater principle, a greater mainspring now.

And the spirit of holiness is working within everyone who is in Christ.

And in that aspect of, you know, of life, he is transforming us into the image of Christ.

He is giving us the desire and the ability to obey and to say no to the old ways.

So that's how Paul explains union with Christ, guaranteeing not only that it's possible, but it's inevitable that we will be daily transformed into the image of Christ.

But that brings some questions. Yeah. In thinking about this topic and the

Christian life, I thought of people who maybe have voiced concerns about their own soul on YouTube, you know, just commenting on some of the videos, or even, you know, thinking of people here at Christ Church who've voiced their own concerns about their own soul.

The things that we've just talked about are monumental.

They're weighty. You're talking about this sanctification in Christ being inevitable.

It's going to happen. But then, you know, whether it's on YouTube or whether it's in, you know, this church, there's still people out there saying, yes, that sounds so wonderful, but it almost feels like it's too good to be true.

Or I don't see that kind of fruit in my own life. I don't see the inevitability of sanctification in Christ in me.

It doesn't feel that way day to day. What do I do? How am I supposed to think? So, those are some of the questions that immediately came to my mind as we would consider this topic.

How does the believer out there, you know, we might put

Lloyd -Jones or Luther or Calvin or Amy Carmichael or anybody else up on a pedestal and think, well, these things came easy to them.

It's, but we're talking about me here. How would we apply it to them in a way that's helpful and stirring and comforting?

Well, I think that every believer that I've met, and certainly

I feel this many times in my own life, there are seasons that we pass through where it seems that we look over our life.

It's like looking at a garden, a vineyard, and we don't see fruit anywhere. Looking at the apple tree,

I don't see any fruit. It's like a winter season. The leaves aren't even on the tree. And I wonder, is it dead?

You know, is this all a lie? Have I, have I deceived myself? And the

Puritans, you know, in dealing with people who are all officially Church of England and officially

Christian, you know, they, they did a lot of fruit inspection. And I think the

Puritans are, you know, so helpful, but they're not the scripture. And if you only read the

Puritans, you can become such a, an inspector of fruit to the degree that, you know, all the fruit, you know, all the fruit on any tree in my yard.

It, it would have little bugs. It would be maybe not as colorful as we want.

Not as big, you know, the apple isn't just right. And it's wonky looking, you know, and like, and so we think, oh, it's all imperfect.

It's all a lie. This isn't even an apple tree. Well, you know, nobody would say that we would say, well, no, it's an apple tree.

It's just fruits, not perfect. And that's the same way with the Christian. We're not looking for perfection.

In fact, we're not even talking about the degree of transformation that occurs in this life.

The scripture, you know, when in the parable, the sower and the seed some in the, in the ground that represents the true

Christian, the ground that received the seed and a plant grew and fruit was produced.

So Christ likeness was produced. Some was 30 fold, some 60, some a hundred.

We're not all a hundred. And we're not all 30. And I think that some seasons

I feel like I'm a little closer to the 30 and some, I'm a little closer to the 60 or the hundred.

Well, how do we deal with that? One, one reality is what

I just mentioned. And that is if the work of God is going on, if we are in Christ, then there is transformation occurring.

And if it's a small amount and it's not as great as we would long for it to be. If it's occurring at all, that's a

Christian because that does not occur in an unbeliever. So we may wish for a greater degree.

And that may be a grief to us because we love the King now, and we want to be more like him.

And it grieves us that we are still unlike him. But even that grief is evidence.

When it's that type of grief, it's evidence of the work of God in us. So we're not talking about degree, small or great.

If it's occurring, that's a man or a woman in Christ. Also, we are really poor judges of ourselves.

We were duped by sin long before we came to Christ. Like, you know, you look at yourself in the mirror and you think when you were lost, okay,

I'm not perfect. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have done that. But, and then you justify yourself, but I'm not that bad.

I mean, how else did we live with ourselves? And even as believers, we're not so good at judging where the work of God is visible.

Those around us are often much better. And it's good to talk to a more mature Christian that knows you and loves you to say, look, sometimes

I think there's been no change at all. And that person can say, I understand the feeling, but I see change, you know, and, and here are some specifics, you know, so is there any at all?

That's not a good reason to become complacent, but that is reason to say to yourself, I have no right to say,

I can't be in Christ because I don't seem to be growing in holiness quickly enough.

But there is another issue, I think, and that is, and we see this pastoring a lot. We have many friends who have personalities that tend to be more introspective.

So it's, it's by their very emotional makeup. They are always struggling with this question and they are prone to doubt any good and to believe any bad that is said of them.

And we have other friends that maybe are true Christians and they never look at themselves and they're prone to think that they're doing great because they're flying along the surface of life and they never stop and look deep.

And so they don't get tied up with themselves and there's weaknesses and strengths that are seen in both personality types.

Neither of them is right or wrong, but we need to know, like Lloyd -Jones says, you need to know yourself other than knowing

God, knowing yourself is the second most important thing so that you can apply the scripture to you specifically.

If you are a person who doubts themselves in every area of life, who tends to say a sentence and then think, oh, maybe

I said it wrong. I mean, in any area, you know, at work, at home or at church. And then you come to the scripture and you look at the loveliness of Christ and you look at all that you owe him and you want to give him all.

And then you look at your life and you think, I don't know if I'm giving him anything. If you are the kind of person that is, that is, um, as a pattern, habitually doubting everything about yourself and picking yourself apart, guard yourself against the false despair.

My advice would be for that person, look at Christ, look at Christ, look at Christ, because by looking at Christ and adoring

Christ and getting to know Christ better, fruit will be produced even if you never seem to be able to see it.

So rest yourself in Christ. He will not, you think, well, but if I do that, then

I could deceive myself. I'm going to go to hell saying, well, I looked to Christ and I never looked at myself.

If you are a person who is constantly introspective and you look to Christ with real faith, real love, even if it's weak, it's there.

Do you think that your elder brother will let you deceive yourself?

If you are saying to him, I know that my propensity is to just be so tangled up with myself that I don't even wake up and do the basic acts of obedience.

So God, I'm just going to look at him and I'm going to treasure him and I'm going to adore him.

And I'm trusting you to help me to follow him. But, you know, for every one look at self, 10 looks at Christ, you know, be careful with the balance.

By the way, chapter seven, Romans, it's a great addition. You read chapter six and you think, man, that's right.

Everything he says is true. And whether I feel it or not, I'm dead to sin's rule. And then you go along for a while.

And then maybe you feel like you just walked in front of a Mack truck and you got squished by some old temptation that you thought you had gotten a grip on.

And, and you think, oh, goodness, maybe Romans six isn't for me. Maybe it's not true at all, or maybe it's true for other people, but I'm not one of them.

And you read Romans seven and you see where Paul is admitting that even as a believer, which

I believe that's a description of a believer. There are, there are seasons of, of struggle where you feel like crying out,

God, who will deliver me from this life where I'm still so temptable.

I don't have to sin, but sometimes I do sin. And it's heartbreaking. And the answer to that day to day is found in Romans eight.

Okay. So there's so much here, AC, if you just were to sum it up for us, what do we need to do tomorrow morning when we wake up?

What do we do? Well, what we need to do tomorrow morning is do what we had done earlier in this podcast, which is to take the first six chapters of Romans, all those foundational indicatives that Paul gives us and realize that's the, that's the core, that's the starting place for all that we're going to do.

And then start at verse 11 of chapter six of Paul's letter to the

Romans and reckon all of it concerning us to be true.

And then go forward from there, living on it, no matter what we're doing. Yeah. The beauty of being able to, in a sense, wake up and to look back and there's a grave behind me, a grave of shame and righteous wrath.

I should be in that grave forever. There's an old master behind me calling my name, but he cannot cross into the new realm of Christ.

And there's Christ before me. And it's a wide open field. I am free, free to live with my

King, for the King, by this King, in this King. And I present myself to him and my body, my mind, my senses, my moments and days, my dollars, my relationships.

I just hand them to him daily so that they would be instruments of righteousness.

It's really, it's so wonderful. If Paul hadn't explained it so carefully, I don't know if we could believe it.

Next week, we'll pick back up and look at union with Christ and our adoption.