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Romans 6:1-14, "Union With Christ" Pastor Nathan Williams · Clifford Baptist

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  Speaker A: Welcome to the July 19 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is Romans, chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. And the sermon is entitled Union with Christ, delivered today by Associate Pastor Nathan Williams.
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  Speaker B: Praise God. I pray that his grace still amazes you today as we open up our Word together. I hope you have a copy of God's Word. Please turn to the Epistle of Romans, chapter six. That's where we're gonna be today. And today is a unique opportunity. We have to look at the salvation
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  Speaker C: that's given to us in Christ.
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  Speaker B: Because it's really easy for me to misunderstand things. I don't know if it's just because of the mental capacity I have or what it is, but sometimes we go through life, we have a great opportunity or we have a great tool, and. And we misunderstand it, so we end up not getting the most out of it. A silly one I know of in my own life is dishwashers. Dishwashers are amazing tools, and if you have a good one, they wash dishes real good. But you know what I love to do? I love to wash dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. I sit there and I scrape everything off. I wash it on sometimes even with soap. And at a certain point, what am I doing? I'm misunderstanding the point of a dishwasher, and I'm not getting the most out of it. And there might be a car you got. You didn't know about the features it had, or a phone that you got, or a new tool that you got for your shop, whatever it is. There's many things in our life that we don't take the most of it for granted, and we just miss out on what it has to offer us. And sometimes that happens in our relationships. I think the most real one for me is growing up. Everyone idolizes their parents, but then when you hit the teenage years, they become the weirdest, dumbest. My mom's actually here today, so I love you, Mom. That was only when I was a teenager, but I think she can vouch for it. And you don't take the most for your. You take your parents for granted, you misunderstand who they are, all they have to offer, and you just don't really get the most out of them. But thankfully, often, and hopefully this has been the experience of many of y'. All. As you become an adult, as you grow up, you realize, well, your parent is actually pretty smart or has some things to teach you, has some Great Counsel actually has worked really hard to show you some things in your life. But early on you took it for granted and you misunderstood and you didn't get as much out of it as you could in your teenage rebellious years. And today I want us to look hard and focus in on what we have in Christ. As Paul takes time in the middle of one of the greatest letters written to emphasize the reality of who we are in Christ and what we're given in our salvation. Because it's so easy to pick and choose different parts of the gospel and
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  Speaker C: and misunderstand it, so we miss out
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  Speaker B: on what actually makes it good news. Before we read the passage, I want us to understand what Paul's been saying up to this point. He's been making a case that everyone exchanges God for created things, exchanges the truth of God for lies. And despite God giving us his word and giving us the law, despite God giving us consciences that bear the truth of when we're doing wrong, all of us, as Romans 3:23 says, we fall short of the glory of God In Romans 3:9, we're under sin. We're in the dominion of sin. We're captive by it, and we are broken and we're lost. And Paul shows the good news of chapter four and chapter five that by
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  Speaker C: faith we can find peace with God through Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker B: By faith we can be made right with God, put in relationship with God, and find peace with God in the life we were made for. With God. No matter what trials we face, no matter what problems we have, if our faith is in Christ, we're saved. It's the beauty and the hope of the Gospel. But in chapter six here, Paul takes time to address some misunderstandings by revealing some realities of salvation we need to know. So let's look at chapter six, beginning in verse one, I'm going to read verses one through 14. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with
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  Speaker C: him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in
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  Speaker B: a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to Nothing. So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ,
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  Speaker C: we believe that we will also live with him.
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  Speaker B: We know that Christ being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died. He died to sin once for all.
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  Speaker C: But the life he lives, he lives to God.
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  Speaker B: So you also must consider yourselves dead
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  Speaker C: to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker B: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been
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  Speaker C: brought from death to life and your
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  Speaker B: members to God as instruments for righteousness.
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  Speaker C: For sin will have no dominion over you. You, since you are not under law, but under grace. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, Lord, we praise you that you show us and reveal to us the fullness of the gospel, the fullness
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  Speaker B: of the grace given to us in Christ. So Lord, I pray that your Word
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  Speaker C: will abide with us today, that your
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  Speaker B: truth will sanctify us. Your Word will shape us and help us to walk in the fullness of life. Not misunderstanding who Jesus is and what he has done. Not misunderstanding what our lives following Christ looked like, but help us to know
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  Speaker C: the joy and know the truth and know the hope of who Christ is and what he has done. Today I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
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  Speaker B: Here Paul begins very clearly by saying, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? That's the misunderstanding that we many times run into. We proclaim to be followers of Christ. We understand the hope that Jesus has died for us, has given us new life and he has given us what we don't deserve. So our good thinking selves go, well, that means I'll just live however I want, or I won't really take my sin that seriously. I'll just ask God for forgiveness. I'll just keep on living however I want. I'll say I'm a follower of Christ, but in my life I'm just gonna keep on living like I used to. I have a pretty good life. If I can just add Jesus to it, I'll just be a little better off. And Paul is blown away by this. In verse two he's very clear. He's like, by no means. How can we who died to sins
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  Speaker C: to live in it.
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  Speaker B: Paul doesn't comprehend how someone who is
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  Speaker C: actually saved could be okay with this
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  Speaker B: because he knows the fullness of what salvation is.
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  Speaker C: And thankfully, he reveals it to us in this passage.
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  Speaker B: He takes time to unpack it. You've seen the movie the Polar Express, maybe with your kids, or maybe you just like to watch it at Christmas time. You know that when the kids all get on the train, when they're going along to the North Pole, the conductor comes along and asks for a ticket. And every kid who pulls out the ticket is all right, and the one kid whose ticket fell out of his pocket is about to be thrown off the back of the train. It's not a good story. It's bad news for that guy. But oftentimes as much of a cliche it is. We in our minds understand the gospel just like the well, I need to make sure I say a prayer, or I need to make sure that I've been baptized. I need to make sure I give to this church. I need to make sure I serve at this church or go to this church to make sure that I have this ticket to where when I'm called up and I'm asked, did I believe in Jesus? I can say, yes, I accepted Christ. Yes, I follow Christ.
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  Speaker C: That's beautiful.
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  Speaker B: That's wonderful.
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  Speaker C: But if that's it, We do not understand the gospel. We don't have the fullness.
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  Speaker B: We're just as silly as me washing dishes before they're put in the dishwasher. That makes no sense. We are given so much in Christ.
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  Speaker C: Why don't we take hold of it and rest in it?
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  Speaker B: And Paul reveals to us this reality. He reveals that our union with Christ, the reality of salvation, this is the main point today. Our union with Christ is our salvation. Us being united with Christ in relationship with Christ, one with him is what makes salvation. Saving is what makes salvation. Glorious is the only hope we have. Yes, it looks like putting your faith in him and trusting in him, but the reality that's occurring is you become
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  Speaker C: one with Christ and that changes you, that transforms you. You can no longer be the same. And all of it is grace given to us by God. And when there's no union with Christ, there's no salvation.
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  Speaker B: Where there's no relationship with Christ, there's no true, genuine conversion. But Paul shows us the three saving realities of our union with Christ. And I'll tell you now, then we're going to work through this passage. And look at every time Paul says something we need to know, he says it three times. What we need to know, he's unveiling, revealing the reality of what our union
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  Speaker C: with Christ means, what Our salvation with
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  Speaker B: God looks like the first one is our union with Christ is our identity. Our union with Christ is our deliverance.
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  Speaker C: And last, we will see union with Christ is our destiny.
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  Speaker B: So let's begin by looking in verse three, where Paul says, do you not know there's the Word, what we need to know, what we need to understand about this salvation, this good news that he's writing about in this letter, that do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. He begins to show us that union
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  Speaker C: with Christ is our identity.
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  Speaker B: Right before, he was saying, by no means, how in the world have you died to sin? Can you still live in it? He's thrown off because he knows that what makes you you changes when you believe in Christ. Most of us, if not all of us, have Social Security numbers. That's what identifies us to the government. That what makes you different than me. And all of us, we look different, we have different hair colors. We have different family connections. Some of y' all are grandparents. That's what makes you you, not me you. We all live different places. God's made all of us different, but we have different things that identify us and set us apart from other people. Paul is showing us here. Well, if you think you can just keep on living as if nothing's changed.
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  Speaker C: You don't know who you are in Christ.
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  Speaker B: You don't know the reality of what your identity is now. What defines you, what makes you you changes if you believe in Jesus. Do you not know that all of
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  Speaker C: us have been baptized?
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  Speaker B: And let's pay attention to prepositions today. I know we don't like English, but it says into Christ where we're located, into his death. We're Baptists. We know what baptism is. We come up, we profess our faith in Christ, we get baptized into the water. And then we come up and we get a T shirt, and we've proclaimed our faith in Christ. And that's a beautiful thing that we do as believers to proclaim what has happened to us. The word for baptism just means to be dipped. We go under the water, we get immersed in the water, and we come up showing that we're a new person.
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  Speaker C: But it's the spiritual reality that represents that makes all the difference in our identity.
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  Speaker B: Paul says that if we've been baptized
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  Speaker C: into Christ, we were baptized into his
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  Speaker B: death, we have died. If we've been baptized into Christ, what makes us us? What we live for, what we want to be known for, all that dies and goes away, and we become bound up in Christ. He becomes our everything. And Paul goes on to say that we end up being raised with Christ.
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  Speaker C: But this baptism into Christ matters, this
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  Speaker B: diving into relationship with him, being immersed not just into water, but into all. Jesus is all God is. As the Holy Spirit begins to dwell and live with us as believers, that transforms us. Just like a fish on the dry land, dying. When he throws that thing in the water and it gets baptized in the water, it comes to life. We as image bearers, when we are living in rebellion away from God, pushing God away. When we put our faith in Christ and we get baptized into him, we become connected with Him. We begin to have relationship for the very one that we were made for. We become alive. We become different. When you plug in that vacuum cleaner into the wall, then it turns on. When your phone has no service and no network connection, it does nothing for you. But the moment it connects to the network, it comes alive. And you can use it the same way. When we put our faith in Christ, when we are saved into Christ, we become one with him. And that begins to define us and. And we are changed.
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  Speaker C: So baptism is not just something we do physically. It's spiritual.
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  Speaker B: If you in your back of your mind say, well, I've been baptized one time when I was a kid, or I said a certain prayer when I was a kid. But in your life, you've never been fully immersed and been baptized into Christ. He's never became what you live for. He's never became your Lord.
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  Speaker C: He's.
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  Speaker B: You never became what defined you. All you did was got wet. And you could have done that at home in your shower.
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  Speaker C: But in Christ, through His grace, we find life when we're baptized into his
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  Speaker B: death in the old us, the part that in our distortedness, sometimes love. But we kind of don't like ourselves in our sinfulness. Oftentimes that part of us dies when
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  Speaker C: we're baptized into Christ, we can leave it behind.
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  Speaker B: We don't have to worry about that part of us anymore.
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  Speaker C: We can give it away and give it up.
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  Speaker B: And Paul clarifies. He says, we were buried therefore with Him. There's another one with him by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
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  Speaker C: shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His.
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  Speaker B: That is our hope. We're all dying people, whether we're 20 years old or almost 90. In this sinful, fallen world, we're in the process of wilting away. Spiritually, we're separated from God, apart from Christ.
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  Speaker C: But if we've been united with him, we're one with Him. We have hope that we will live for him forever.
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  Speaker B: The physical problems don't destroy us. They might give us trials and challenge us. But we have a hope bigger and stronger. And our identity is not defined by our physical realities, by how good we are at things. They begun begin to be defined by
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  Speaker C: Christ and what he has done and
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  Speaker B: what he is doing, period. Our identity is not how good you are, how faithful you are. Our identity is how good God is and how faithful Christ is.
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  Speaker C: And that becomes what makes you different,
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  Speaker B: what gives you a reason to wake up and keep on living for the Lord. And let's see what this looks like. There's a few phrases here that show us what we begin to be like. He says, just as Christ, he's talking about us. Just as Christ was raised from the
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  Speaker C: dead, we're just like that.
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  Speaker B: We too. So along with Christ, we too might walk in newness of life. Paul's showing how we're in the same track as Christ. We begin bound up in Him. We begin to get his benefits. I remember in high school knowing a few people who played on the JV baseball team. And they enjoyed baseball, but they were not going to go pro. They were not that good. But we had a really good varsity team. At the end of the JV season, they moved one or two guys onto the varsity team and all they did was basically ride on the bus and practice with them. And guess what? The varsity team won the state championship. And those two guys got rings. And as a little kid, I remember being like, well, this guy's showing his ring that he won the state championship. But I know he didn't do anything. He just got lucky. The other players did all the work. Same way. We see that as we're just as Christ raised from the dead, we too raised from the dead. We get the benefits of Christ by
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  Speaker C: doing nothing
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  Speaker B: because of God's love for us and his grace for us. He gives us that life in Christ, but only if we're on his team. If we're not united with the team, if we're not united with him, we're not in relationship with Him. We don't get those benefits. But our faith in him means that spiritually we begin to depend on him
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  Speaker C: and the benefits of what he has done become ours.
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  Speaker B: And the word united with him means
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  Speaker C: just to be organically connected.
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  Speaker B: You think of trees that grow up. They're organically connected with all the different cells, a part of it. It's one large tree, a bunch of different parts.
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  Speaker C: We become connected with Christ. Every believer.
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  Speaker B: And what he accomplishes, we accomplish.
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  Speaker C: And that begins to def.
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  Speaker B: So our identity is defined by the death of Christ, and our identity is
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  Speaker C: defined by the life of Christ. So important as a believer.
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  Speaker B: When you're in union with Christ, your identity is bound up in the death of Christ. He died for your sin. Your sin no longer separates you from God. Your sin no longer can control you. Jesus death defines you, for you can
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  Speaker C: be at peace with God.
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  Speaker B: Likewise, it doesn't take much of a mirror. We don't even need a mirror to know that we're messed up. We don't have that much together. But as a believer, if our faith is in Christ, what it means is we begin to define ourselves not by our goodness, our performance, our abilities, but
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  Speaker C: by what Christ has lived and done for, for us.
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  Speaker B: That defines us. So on the best day of your life, you're still miles short of how good Christ is. And you're still defined by that. On the worst, hardest day of your life, where you think, well, I just might as well throw in the towel now. No, you're defined by Christ's perfection, not your own imperfection. So you can continue to walk with God, trust in God, and follow God no matter what, wanting more and more of his goodness and wanting less and less of your sin. Cause you're defined by Him. You can serve him with joy, even imperfectly.
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  Speaker C: Cause it's not up to you to impress God.
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  Speaker B: When God looked at His Son and said, this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.
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  Speaker C: He now says that about his own children in Christ. The God of the universe looks on believers and said, these are my sons and daughters in whom I am well pleased. Through our faith in Christ, our union with Christ, he becomes our identity. So when we live the Christian life,
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  Speaker B: this is where it gets practical. We don't just go and say, well, let me clench my fist and really try to impress people, really try to do all the right things. Let me make sure I give this much, or serve this much, or read this much. Yes, we are to live for God. But the motivation is not one of duty and impressing God. We've already been given everything. We have the joy of relationship with God. We're defined by Christ already.
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  Speaker C: So we walk in delight and joy of living for him because of how good he's been. To us, we seek to serve him
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  Speaker B: not in order to oppress God or make sure we're saved.
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  Speaker C: We serve him because we want people
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  Speaker B: to know what's defined and changed us, can define and change them. When we find those family members or those co workers that are really hard to spend time with because they're just hateful, we all know those people or they're very difficult. But when the Bible calls us to love everyone, we can only do that if we're in Christ. And we realize that when they hate on us, when they look down on us, hey, I'm sorry that they feel that way. But in Christ, I know that this is not true. In Christ, I'm already defined by what Jesus has done. It's not up to me. You know what? I'm going to love them and treat them as they're not supposed to be treated because I know God has treated me and defined me the way I don't deserve. That's the only way we can have the power to love, the only way we can have the power to forgive is if we know who we are in Christ. That's why Paul is blown away. And people say, well, do we just continue sinning?
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  Speaker A: No.
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  Speaker B: If you are changed in Christ, if
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  Speaker C: you're a new person, why would you want to?
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  Speaker B: And he goes on, this isn't even where he ends in another epistle, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5. But we just heard read earlier that we're a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. Right before that. In verse 16, Paul tells us not to regard anyone according to the flesh.
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  Speaker C: But why is that?
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  Speaker B: Because as believers, physically, how we live, how well we think, how well. But that doesn't define it's are we
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  Speaker C: trusting in Christ that defines us. Period, end of story.
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  Speaker B: And that leads us to love people who don't deserve it, to serve people who don't deserve it. And that leads to us leaving sin
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  Speaker C: and living for God.
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  Speaker B: If you really rest in your identity of Christ, it doesn't lead you to this lukewarm, just playing around with sin. No, you've been immersed and baptized into Christ and found the fullness of life with Him. Why would you want to leave?
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  Speaker C: That
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  Speaker B: doesn't mean we become perfect overnight,
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  Speaker C: but we begin to walk into who Christ makes us.
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  Speaker B: In verse 6, Paul says another thing we need to know. He says, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order
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  Speaker C: that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.
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  Speaker B: It goes on to say so that we would no longer be Enslaved to sin. It's more than just this head game where we think to ourselves, well, God sees me as righteous. I guess I'm good with that. No, there's a real reality happening that
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  Speaker C: when we're united to Christ, the second
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  Speaker B: point of this passage, the second reality we need to know is union with
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  Speaker C: Christ is our deliverance.
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  Speaker B: Union with Christ is our salvation because it is our deliverance. He says, we know that our old self. And what he means by this, in Paul's terminology way of thinking is the old us that used to just want nothing to do with God. We want to kind of do things on our own terms, try to get the best on people. Wanted to always just make sure we're playing the system for our own benefit. He's saying that old version, if you're
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  Speaker C: in faith, united to Christ has been crucified, his died.
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  Speaker B: And Romans know how to kill people through crucifixion. It's a done deal when you die. And he explains why we don't just die, because, well, that might as well be what you deserve. No, you die.
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  Speaker C: Your old self dies so that the
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  Speaker B: body of sin might be brought to nothing. Have you ever seen Karate Kid? The original one? When someone sweeps the leg, they fall down, they lose themselves, they can't do anything anymore. Same way when we are united with
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  Speaker C: Christ, Christ sweeps the leg of sin and defeats it through us, being united with his crucifixion and his death through
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  Speaker B: our body of sin, the power sin had over us. And I want to be clear, our bodies are not evil. The physical world we live in is not evil. It's just been corrupted and broken by sin. So when we die to Christ, we're letting that corrupted body that's controlled by sin not be what defines and controls us.
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  Speaker C: We're letting Christ define and control us.
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  Speaker B: I think it's clear that we're delivered in three ways. And Paul explains. He says, so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin. He tells us that sin has a
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  Speaker C: power over us, to enslave us, to
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  Speaker B: force us to be under its control. You have no choice as a human being. You are stuck in sin. You're enslaved to sin. And when Jesus even talked to the Jews about this in John chapter eight, they're like, oh, we've never been enslaved or in bondage to anyone. And Jesus says, no, you're enslaved to sin.
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  Speaker C: All of us are stuck in our sin. But if in Christ our whole self
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  Speaker B: is crucified in Christ, his death becomes the death we should have died. The Power of sin to separate us from God. The power of sin to keep us out of relationship with God is severed.
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  Speaker C: And now we can know God. Now we can walk with God.
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  Speaker B: Because it's no longer our imperfection that matters. It's Christ's perfection that brings us into relationship with God. So in our union with Christ, we're delivered from the power of sin. The shame we carry when in sin, the fear of death that sin brings has no place in us because Christ has defeated it, Christ has overcome it. So if your faith is in him,
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  Speaker C: you're united with that victory, and his
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  Speaker B: victory becomes yours, and the power of sin is gone.
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  Speaker C: You can be in relationship with the
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  Speaker B: God you were made for. You can live life not in sin, carnally ignoring God, but you can live in peace, talking to God, living as God intended, and enjoying the fullness of
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  Speaker C: this creation in relationship with him. Because Christ has delivered us from the power of sin.
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  Speaker B: But he explains again, for the one who has died has been set free from sin. So we're not just released from slavery, we've completely been set free. And the word there is literally to be justified from sin. Sin can't call any debts on us. You might think of a bank robber who has an armed robbery. You might be able to disarm him and get the gun away and take away his power. And he no longer has any power. But his penalty is still coming, the penalty and the consequences of what he's done. Even though he no longer has power to do anything, no longer has power to go anywhere, he's still going to
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  Speaker C: face the consequences and the judgment of what he's done.
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  Speaker B: But in Christ, in our union with him, we're delivered not just from the
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  Speaker C: power of sin, but from the penalty of sin.
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  Speaker B: We're not united with God to live in a relationship with God, to fear him judging us and condemning us one day. We don't walk fearfully in the sense of, well, what if God just condemns me because I'm not enough? No, Christ has defeated and delivered us from the power of sin, but also through being united in his death.
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  Speaker C: He has paid the penalty and paid for the punishment of our sin. It's already been paid. So in our union with Christ, in our relationship with him, we can walk with him as children, as sons and
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  Speaker B: daughters, full of joy, resting in all he is. And we see that union with Christ delivers us not just from the power
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  Speaker C: and penalty of sin, but from the presence of sin.
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  Speaker B: Paul says, now if we have died with Christ, we believe we will also live with him. Jesus doesn't do this and then just do some paperwork in the back room. So we're good.
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  Speaker C: No, he comes to live with us, to be in relationship with us.
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  Speaker B: And if you read the Gospels, when Jesus shows up, things did not stay unaffected. When a leper who was unclean and sick encountered Jesus and was touched by him, he became clean, purified and healed. So if this Jesus we become united with and his presence begins to live in our life, while sin might still be in this world, Jesus begins to
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  Speaker C: make it new and push it back
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  Speaker B: in our own life and in the world around us. As we lean into who we are
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  Speaker C: in Christ, Jesus is pushing back sin in our life.
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  Speaker B: If we lean into the sin in our life and we ignore Christ, sin just continues to come and have a
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  Speaker C: presence in our life. If we lean into all Jesus has done, we can be delivered from the presence of sin
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  Speaker B: in part in little steps. In our long, bumpy journey of following Christ, we have our moments where we mess up where things aren't, but perfectly. We have a hope that in Christ
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  Speaker C: he will make us completely free of sin in the new heavens and the new earth to be with him forever. That's what our salvation is.
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  Speaker B: We begin to be defined by Christ. We delivered by Christ all through our
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  Speaker C: relation and our connection with Him.
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  Speaker B: And that's what we were made for. That's what life is about. And Paul shares at the very end of this passage the last thing he
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  Speaker C: wants us to know so we don't misunderstand salvation.
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  Speaker B: He says, we know in verse nine that Christ being raised from the dead,
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  Speaker C: will never die again.
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  Speaker B: Death no longer has dominion over him, for the death he died. He died to sin once for all.
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  Speaker C: But the life he lives, he lives to God.
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  Speaker B: The third thing he wants us to
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  Speaker C: know is that union with Christ is our destiny. It's what we were made for. It's what makes us most human and most alive.
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  Speaker B: In John 17, Jesus makes clear that this is eternal life, that they know you,
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  Speaker C: that we know God.
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  Speaker B: When we push God away and we try to just figure out life apart
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  Speaker C: from him, we're just running on fumes till this body gives out on us and this life gives out on us. But when we live in relationship with God, in union with Christ, knowing that
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  Speaker B: we're defined by what Christ has done, it's not our sin that can hold us back and set free and made right before God, that we know that we are walking in what we were always made for in relationship with God. And we see Paul say, being Raised
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  Speaker C: from the dead, he will never die again.
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  Speaker B: Talking about Christ, death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died
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  Speaker C: to sin once for all.
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  Speaker B: Paul makes clear through a few little phrases that never again will Jesus die. No longer will sin and death have any dominion.
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  Speaker C: And once for all, Jesus has accomplished this.
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  Speaker B: What Jesus has done is guaranteed certain. No worries of it coming up flat or not delivering.
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  Speaker C: Jesus has accomplished is settled. What does that mean for us in our union with Christ?
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  Speaker B: When we begin to be defined and our identity is found in him, we begin to find our deliverance in Him. That means what is certain and destined
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  Speaker C: for Christ becomes certain and destined for us. We don't have to worry. Christ is going to see us through. Christ is going to accomplish what he has started in us.
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  Speaker B: He who began a good work and you will see it unto completion.
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  Speaker C: As Paul says in Philippians, Jesus is
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  Speaker B: going to accomplish what he has started.
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  Speaker C: Cause we are united with Him.
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  Speaker B: What he has perfectly accomplished will be
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  Speaker C: perfectly accomplished in us. But how do we respond to this? Do we rest in our union in Christ or do we resist it?
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  Speaker B: Whether we're a believer, do we walk in the fullness of who Christ is, or do we run from it? Maybe you're not a believer in here. Maybe you've been pretending to be a believer in here. You've never actually defined yourself by what Christ has done. You've never been delivered from the power of sin and the penalty of sin by trusting what Christ has done. But then you're not walking in what you were made for.
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  Speaker C: You're running from it, into destruction. Our response must be to believe and rest in the reality of what Jesus has done.
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  Speaker B: Something interesting is the very first time in the whole letter of Romans that Paul gives a command is in verse 11. First time he tells people here's an imperative, what must be done. It's here he's been going on for a while and it's this. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So he's been unpacking the gospel. But what do we need to do? We need to believe it. We need to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. We must believe that and consider that in rest in that the Spirit of God is drawing you into relationship with Him. If his news is being proclaimed to you, then rest in it. Don't resist it. Consider yourself dead to sin, leave it behind and consider yourself alive to God by resting in all you are in Christ because you will not find anything greater in anything else. That's the first command that Paul gives.
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  Speaker C: To believe and have faith that this is true and to rest and walk in it. Consider yourself.
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  Speaker B: He goes on. There's three more commands right after this. So Paul, once he starts giving commands, he just starts going with them. He says, let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passion.
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  Speaker C: He tells us to turn and repent.
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  Speaker B: Believe in your union with Christ and turn from sin. Repent from it. Do not let it rain in your life anymore. Do not obey it. The passion and the lust of life. Turn to Christ and find him as your satisfaction, not the sins of this world that will leave you empty. And he explains how we do this in verse 13. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. If we're one with Christ, if we're on his winning team per se, that's what we were made for. We're defined by that. We've been delivered from sin.
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  Speaker C: Let's walk in it.
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  Speaker B: Your sin is not better than that with Shepherd. Right now, our two year old, we have to tell him what his hands are for. If he comes up and hits you or smacks you, well, sometimes he has to get disciplined. But we try to instruct him. Your hands are for holding, your hands are for hugging. This is a 2 year old. Your hands are for. And we instruct him on things he can use his hands for and what he can't use them for. That sounds silly because it's a two year old, but we're no different. God's given us these beautiful bodies, these beautiful lives. Are we presenting and using our hands, using our lives for him or for sin? If we're using it for sin, if we're okay with sin, we're ignoring it. We are not walking in union with Christ, we're pushing him out. We're not living together with him, we're running from Him. And that is not what our salvation is all about. Our salvation is to live with him, to walk with him, to find life with Him.
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  Speaker C: So today,
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  Speaker B: if your faith is in Christ, are you resting in the union you have in Him? The union is your salvation. The identity you find in him is your hope. The deliverance you find in is your hope and it is your destiny.
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  Speaker C: Rest in it.
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  Speaker B: So if you're a believer who likes to add Jesus, but then live in sin and be comfortable with sin, have no part in it. That is not the Christian life. It becomes questionable if that is even you found the Christian life or if you're a believer who never feels like they can do enough to him. Make God happy with them. Rest in your identity in Christ, not in yourself. If you've never actually rested in all
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  Speaker C: Jesus has done for you, considered yourself
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  Speaker B: dead to sin and alive to God
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  Speaker C: in Christ by faith, do it today. Be reconciled to God today through Christ. Let's pray together.
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  Speaker B: Heavenly Father, we praise you that this morning that we can study your word and that you show us that in Christ we find salvation in Christ. By your grace, you unite us with him. For it's not all up to us. It's up to Christ and what he can do through us. That's what we were made for, to live in relationship with you like that. God, thank you that you thought of us. In our sin and brokenness. You made a way in Christ we
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  Speaker C: can trust in that.
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  Speaker B: So Lord help us, whether we're a believer or an unbeliever, to turn to
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  Speaker C: you and consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. Today, in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
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  Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.