GOD'S GREAT NEWS for MAN'S GREAT PROBLEM - Romans 1-8

Changed Lives

Last week, we had the privilege of hearing Kris share her testimony about coming to Christ. Nothing thrills my heart more than to witness the change Jesus Christ makes in a believer's life. Here are several more testimonies:

A redeemed drunk, with strong memories of his hopeless days as a slave to the bottle, and with stronger convictions about the new sense of power he possessed in the Holy Spirit, responded in this way when someone charged that his religion was a delusion: "Thank God for the delusion; it has put clothes on my children and shoes on their feet and bread in their mouths. It has made a man of me and it has put joy and peace in my home, which had been a hell. If this is a delusion, may God send it to the slaves of drink everywhere, for their slavery is an awful reality."

A policeman reports: "I've been on both sides of the fence: a gang member as well as a policeman. I have seen tragedy, permanent injury, property damage, wasted lives and even death as a result of sin. My whole outlook on life has changed since Christ came into my life and, being a Christian policeman, I view things much differently..."

An author: "At the age of thirty-three, I had almost lost interest in finding the key to why I am here. My study of the philosophies had stimulated my mind but had left my heart empty. My study of many of the religions of the world left me exhausted. ... My life was won by Ellen Riley, a childhood friend whom I saw again while in Charleston after those 18 years. Ellen had become a dynamic Christian. Christ was a Person to her. ... When she saw me again she was horrified to see the girl she had known as a bubbling, happy teenager, now a tired, bored, would-be sophisticate. She said I looked as though I was warding off a blow. 'What do you really believe about God?' I asked her. 'I believe God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to show us what He is really like and to save us from sin.' And so, on Sunday afternoon, October 2, 1949, after quite an argument on my part I just suddenly looked at her and said: 'Okay, I guess you're right.' And that was it. God doesn't require any big, formal introduction. Since then, day by day, life with Christ has been a continuous experience of one new discovery after another. Now I like to get up in the morning. He is my reason for waking up!"

A psychology professor: "As a research psychologist in the field of personality development I analyzed hundreds of people. I sought to discover the inner motivation which governs the basic attitudes of living. But when I met Charles Campbell [a Christian missionary] I knew that here was someone whose personality I could not rationally explain. Then when I became a Christian I understood that the life-changing ingredient in his life was Christ. Today, the most important proof to me of Christianity is the amazing change that has come into my own life. Peace and confidence in God have taken place of anxiety and worry. My troubles increased when I became a Christian, but Christ gave me power to have victory over all of them." (Excerpted from Evidence That Demands a Verdict, pg. 328-342)

These stories, and Kris' testimony last week, tell unique tales of individual relationships with Jesus Christ. But there is a common thread in all these stories, which can be summarized in five words: JESUS CHRIST CHANGED MY LIFE. In fact, Jesus Christ had become their lives, and there was no thought of going back. Would a redeemed drunk return to slavery? May it never be! Would a Christian policeman return to being a gang member? May it never be! Would a dynamic Christian author return to being a bored, would-be sophisticate? May it never be! Would a man experiencing peace and confidence in God return to the anxiety and worry of his former life? May it never be! Would our own Kris return to the darkness and death of her former life without Christ? Of course not! When we have been changed by our indwelling Christ, there is no going back.

This radical change in our identity in Jesus Christ, this passage from death to sin with Him into a life to God with Him, is what Paul chronicles for us in Rom. 6:1-11. Here we learn the secret of how Christ changes lives forever.

Should We Remain in Sin? What Has Really Changed? - 6:1

To understand the questions in Rom. 6:1, we must review the end of chapter five. Paul affirms there that Christ's sacrifice on the cross overthrew the terrible reign of sin and death, initiating the reign of grace through righteousness unto eternal life. Paul says not only that Christ reigns, but that those who have open-handedly received His freely given gifts of grace and righteousness will reign in life through Jesus Christ. If we who believe will reign in life, entering into Christ's reign of grace that supercedes the reign of sin and death, what do we do about our sin? Can we continue to sin, knowing that grace will always outstrip sin? What has really changed? Paul addresses that problem in Rom. 6:1, with two rhetorical questions: "What shall we say then? May we remain in sin that grace might abound?"

The main issue here is the old plague of anti-nomianism. Does the sovereign rule of grace imply a degree of freedom with sin because the umbrella of grace is large enough to cover all sin? During my first six months of being a committed Christian, I knew a woman named Tracy. She was a believer, whom God used to give me some good counsel at a critical juncture in my own faith. But there was something very odd about her life. Tracy went out one night with a man who wasn't a believer, who was the boyfriend of one of Tracy's friends, and Tracy slept with the man. It ended up as nothing more than a "one night stand." She knew where things would end up that night, and didn't seem to be worried about it. Every time I thought about that situation, I ended up shaking my head in disbelief: it was so incongruous. One day that summer I asked her at an ice cream shop how she could sleep with him so openly without any regret. I'll never forget her answer: "Dorman, we're under grace. I don't need to worry about it. God's grace covers all that." What an erroneous way of thinking! God's grace is glorious and covers all sin, but it is cheap grace indeed when reduced to a quick excuse for sin. Tracy's problem was that she didn't know who she was. She didn't understand the phenomenal CHANGE that has taken place within us by the infusion of God Himself into our lives in the Holy Spirit. That will be Paul's theme in verses 2-10.

We Have Forever Changed by the Baptism of the Holy Spirit - 6:2-10 (Overview)

I want to begin with an overview of vs. 2-10. First, Paul responds to the question of Rom. 6:1 with an incredulous gasp: "Are you serious?" Then Paul asks a question of his own: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Then, in vs. 3, Paul asks another question: "Don't you know who you are now in Christ, you who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, you who have been baptized into His death?" In vs. 4, Paul's thesis statement in this section, he describes for us the gargantuan change that has occurred in us through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In vs. 5-7, Paul explains who we are in Christ through our baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit, specifically in regards to our union with Christ in His great death to sin on the cross. Then, in vs. 8-10, Paul describes our great union with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit in terms of the life we now live with Him: His resurrection life lived totally to God. In vs. 11, Paul commands us to live as who we are in Christ: dead to sin and alive to God. Verse 11 is highly significant, since it is the first time Paul gives us a command to follow. It has taken six chapters to get there, but now we have a specific command from God to apply what we have been hearing!!

Furthermore, the text here gives us a wonderful clue to Paul's main point of how we have changed utterly through our new union with Christ. There is a little word in Greek, "sun," which in itself means "with." Throughout this passage, that little word either appears by itself or as a prefix a total of FIVE times. Thus, Paul's thrust seems to be this: WE ARE WITH CHRIST IN ALL, AND CHRIST IS WITH US IN ALL, past present and future, now that we are united with Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit!!! The focus in this passage is squarely on Jesus Christ, and us "with Him." That is the key to our identity, and the change in our lives: He is our life, He is the changer, He is our focus. We exist "with Him," our identity is now forever bound "in Him."

We Are United With Christ in His Death to Our Sin - 6:2-7

Verse 2 is Paul's incredulous gasp in response to verse one. He thunders, "Are we to continue in sin? LET IT NEVER BE!" Then Paul asks two questions of his own. First, he asks, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Now in his question there are two verbs, the first being "we died." This verb "we died" refers to a specific point in each Christian's past at which he or she died to sin. There was a point in time in the past when we were converted, when by faith we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's Son, when we were born into the family of God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. At the moment of conversion, we died to sin because we became united with Christ and died on the cross with Him to our sin. The second verb phrase is "shall we live [in sin]?" Here the verb is in the future tense. The point Paul is trying to make is this: an enormous change happened when we met Christ by faith in His cross. A transferral of life that took place, His life for my life. Our future was forever changed entirely by that one momentous change in the past.

Paul presents for us in verse two the crux of the matter in Rom. 6:1-11. The issue is one of life and death: our death to sin in union with Christ in His death to sin on the cross, and our life transferred to Him and His new life infused in us by the Spirit through the resurrection. In light of our absolutely new identity in Christ, and His new life in us living through us every day, how can we return to the way we were before? It is simply impossible: we have been changed indeed, and that old person identified wholly in sin has died with Christ to sin. The change Paul describes here is so immense that Paul uses the language of ultimate human change, from death to life, as his language to describe what happens to a Christian at conversion. In fact, this is why that event is referred to as "conversion," a synonym for "change."

In vs. 3, Paul asks another question: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" In this question Paul introduces us to the primary metaphor he will use to explain the change that has occurred in us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Paul describes this absolute change by reflecting on baptism, the rite of passage out of death into life for the Christian.

Colin Browne, a learned Greek scholar, says that, "... in the NT [the word baptizo] was extended to EXPRESS THE COMPLETE RENEWAL OF HUMAN EXISTENCE." Then he defines the term briefly this way: baptize means "dip, immerse, submerge, baptize." Significantly, in secular Greek, baptizo is an intensive form of bapto, and means two things: a) dip, and b) cause to perish (as by drowning a man or sinking a ship). Bapto was used in the ancient textile industry, of "dipping" cloth to dye it and change its color. When a woolen or cotton cloth is dipped into a vat of dye, its dingy grayness is changed indelibly into red or purple or blue or green. It will never be gray again. But baptizo is more intensive than this, because a death of some sort brings about the indelible change in color. Our baptizo into Christ changes us from a dingy gray in our sin to a royal blue in the family of God.

Another scholar, William Barclay, has done some excellent historical work on what this word would have meant to the original hearers, both Jew and Greek. "When a man entered the Jewish religion from heathenism it involved three things: sacrifice, circumcision, and baptism. The Gentile entered the Jewish faith by baptism. The ritual was as follows. The person to be baptized cut his nails and hair; he undressed completely; the baptismal must contain at least forty "seahs" ... of water. Every part of his body must be touched by the water. As he was in the water he made confession of his faith before three fathers of baptism, and certain exhortations and benedictions were addressed to him. Now the effect of this baptism was held to be complete regeneration; the man was a new man; he was born anew. He was called a little child just born, the child of one day. All his sins were remitted because God could not punish sins committed before he was born... Theoretically it was held -- although the belief was never put into practice -- that a man was so much a completely new man that he might marry his own sister or his own mother. He was not only a changed man, he was a new man, a different man." Thus, Paul's Jewish readers would have immediately grasped the wholesale change of identity implied in this term "baptize."

But what about the Gentile reader? The idea of baptism was rampant in the mystery religions that were ubiquitous in the ancient world. In fact, baptism was an essential rite in entering into, or being initiated into, the mystery religions at the time. Quoting again from Barclay, "We know that in one of the mysteries the man to be initiated was called 'moriturus,' the one who is to die, and that he was buried up to the head in a trench. When he had been initiated he was addressed as a little child and fed with milk, as one newly born. In another of the mysteries the person to be initiated prayed: 'Enter thou into my spirit, my thought, my whole life; for thou art I and I am thou.' Any Greek who had been through this would have no difficulty in understanding what Paul meant by dying and rising again in baptism, and, in so doing, becoming one with Christ." Thus, Paul's Gentile readers would have seen this as a total "death and re-birth," even into "oneness with God" as the basic idea behind this term.

So, Paul says here in vs. 3 that we who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have died to our old life, to its default mode of sin, and have been born anew to an entirely new life. There is no going back; the royal blue cloth can never be dingy gray again.

The significant point of departure is when Paul says we have been baptized "into Christ Jesus." We were baptized into Him, as the only One who died to sin on the cross and overcame death at the resurrection. Being baptized "into Christ Jesus" is significant here because he defines baptism APART FROM WATER. True baptism, that which united us inextricably with Christ, is a spiritual reality. It is baptism into Christ Jesus accomplished by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist understood the distinction between the REALITY of baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit and the SYMBOL of that baptism in the rite of water baptism by immersion. Here is what John said in John 1:33: "And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit."

But verse three ends on a strange note for us. Do any of us really understand that we were baptized into Christ's death? That when we talk about the cross of Christ, it is not just Jesus' passion story, but our death story as well? Mysteriously, we were with Him and in Him on that cross, dying as He died to our sin. When we received Christ into our lives, we wanted to get life, but what we got was resurrection life: a life that had passed through death. We got His death to sin, and His life to God. It is a complete package.

Having explained the "death" part of the package in vs. 3, Paul highlights the "life" part of the package in vs. 4. This is Paul's thesis statement in this passage, in which he takes this spiritual reality of baptism through the Holy Spirit and looks at how that changes us so completely. He tells us, "Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Here now we have both parts of our union with Christ, the great change in our identity, clearly presented to us: our death to sin with Him in his death to sin on the cross, and our new life to God with Him in His life to God after the resurrection.

The best illustration for this truth is the rite Jesus left to describe this to us: the rite of water baptism. Water baptism is a physical describing the spiritual baptism spoken of here in Rom. 6:1-11, especially in Paul's thesis statement in vs. 4. The reason we have chosen to baptize by immersion in our church is because water baptism by immersion is the closest fulfillment of the rich meaning of this term baptizo. When the person steps into the water, it is a little cold, then they must answer solemn questions, then they must by faith allow themselves to be lowered down until they are covered by water, the picture of dying and being covered over in a tomb. But thank God we don't leave the person there, as God did not leave the Son in the tomb. We quickly raise the believer back up out of the water into life and breathing and the joy of newness. This is the beauty and joy of water baptism by immersion: it clearly portrays both the death to sin with Christ, and the resurrection out of death into life with Christ. We are not trying to settle the age-old baptism debate, but it is clear to me that water baptism by immersion is the clearest representation of the great reality of our spiritual baptism into Jesus Christ.

We learn at the end of verse four that baptism has two parts, moving from death to life. We were buried with Him into His death to our sin, IN ORDER THAT JUST AS CHRIST WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD THROUGH THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, SO WE TOO MIGHT WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. This is indeed God's great news, isn't it?

In this little phrase, "that just as Christ was raised from the dead," the light of the new life, the dawn of Easter, comes shining through. The whole reason we were so tightly linked with Christ to His death on the cross and the burial in the tomb is to reflect the utter death to sin we experience through oneness with Christ in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The negative side of our union with Christ is our death to sin in Him. But here dawns the positive side: if we died and were buried with Him, so we must undoubtedly be raised with Him. Thus, the resurrection POWER that made Him alive now comes to live in us, and we have the power of God in the person of the Holy Spirit to live a totally new life in and through us. This is Paul's point here in vs. 4. But how was Christ raised from the dead?

Christ was raised "through the glory of the Father." This means that the glory, the shining reality of the living God, rolled away that stone, burst into the darkness and smelly death of that tomb, and infused the divine life by the Holy Spirit into our dead Christ, giving Him an eternal body reborn from the dead tissues of the body enwrapped in burial clothes. Taking death and making life out of it certainly is the mightiest display of the living power of God, and thus it is through the glory of the Father that His death was transformed into eternal life. It was a Father's love for a sacrificed Son, loving Him back to life.

Not only was Christ raised: so were we, with Him. Now, why have we been raised with Christ? To have a promise of a harp to play in heaven? NO! We were raised with Christ "so we also would walk in newness of life." This term "newness" is used by Paul in Rom. 7:6 to refer to newness "in the Spirit." It is a new spiritual life totally unlike any life we have known: absolute newness of life. As one scholar noted, "in rising Christ left all that was dead behind, as that rising was due to the Father's love and power; as we share that rising, so we must leave our dead selves behind and walk."

Let me tell you about one of my best friends that illustrates this remarkable change brought about by our baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit. In high school in Boulder, Colorado, I had three close friends. I and my three friends all went away to college in California, with Paul going to San Diego. Paul and I kept in close contact: we saw each other at Christmas in Boulder, Paul and his girlfriend came up to visit me, we spoke by phone, etc. Later on, I became very committed to Jesus Christ, and the next time Paul and I spent a week together was when I visited him down in San Diego. He was living with his girlfriend in this little house a block from the beach, doing "the beach thing." He tried to show me how cool it all was; how much she was "like" a wife, how much this was "like" married life, but he was trying so hard to convince me it was obvious he was trying to convince himself. I could tell there was a lot of friction between them. It was a cheap imitation of married life, and Paul was acting married. But he wasn't a very good actor. I was a young Christian at that time, but the Lord gave me grace not to condemn Paul for living with his girlfriend, but to simply enjoy him and hang out with him that week, sharing Christ more by listening and loving than by talking too much.

When I came back to Palo Alto, I asked Blythe to marry me with a poem and a rose at sunset, and I was married a few months later. Then Blythe and I went to Ireland for our extended honeymoon. One bitterly cold night in our unheated cottage in Ireland, at about 5:00 AM, I heard the phone ring with that distinctive European "beep-beep" sound. Dressed in very little, I leaped up in the pitch dark to go get the phone ... I was sure someone had died. I grabbed the phone, and it was Paul on the other end, telling me, "Dorm!! I just had to call and tell you I just became a Christian!! You were the first one I wanted to tell, because I knew you would be excited. And right away I will be moving out of the beach house and away from Shirley, and I am going to start a whole new life." Someone had died: Paul the actor. Someone had also just been born: Paul the believer.

Paul said, "I'm going to start a whole new life." A whole new life is what he has had. We see each other about every year or so. Just this week I got a card proclaiming the birth of his second son. During one of our periodic visits, Paul and I were reminiscing a bit, and he told me something that struck me: at our 10th Year High School Reunion, Paul had been voted "Most Changed in Ten Years." I thought about that: that kind of wholesale change is what Christ is all about!! Now that Paul is happily settled as a Christian man walking in newness of life, with his wife Michelle and his two boys in a nice family home in San Diego, would he ever go back to the little beach house, and that silly act with an old girlfriend? May it never be!

Moving more quickly, let's follow Paul's parallel reiterations of this argument in vs. 5-7. In verse 5, Paul begins to describe for us the results of our new union with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He says, "For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." The term Paul uses to describe us now, as "united with Christ" is a term from horticulture. It means "grown together with," and may have in mind the idea of "grafting." We are so united with Christ that we are "grafted" into His life, and His life flows through us. Paul merely tells us here that if we are grafted into His life so completely as to share His death, so we must CERTAINLY share His resurrection. There is no hint of doubt in Paul's voice ... but rather the ring of absolute certainty, unswerving assurance.

This picture of "grafting" into Christ reminds me of the walnut trees I used to see planted along various streets in California. These trees are fascinating: their root is of one type of very black walnut tree, a strong root able to withstand the elements, while the trunk and branches is of a whiter type of walnut that produces a sweeter nut. The white type has been grafted into that black root. It is one tree, but its root is of one type and its trunk and branches of another type. This is the way we are with Christ: He is our great root, but the trunk and branches are us. We are one with Christ, and He is together with us and we are with Him in all things.

Verse 6 begins confidently. Paul says, "knowing this," which I think is where he completes his thought begun in verse 3, where he asked the question, "Do you not know ...?" Both in verse 6 and verse 9, Paul tells us what we can know for certain in light of the enormous change in our identity brought about by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So, what are we knowing? We are knowing that "our old man was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin would be made powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." Here is where Paul uses one of those verbs with the "sun," or "with" prefix attached to it: our old man "was crucified WITH Him." Paul is using all these "with" terms to drive home the complete reality of our union "with" Christ in all things, from His death to sin to His life to God in the Spirit.

But what is this "old man" idea? What was crucified with Christ was OUR OLD IDENTITY. Who we once were is not who we now are. That person literally has died. My high school buddy Paul the actor died, and my eternal brother Paul the believer lives. Last week, Kris shared her testimony. This week she and I spoke about the change Christ brought about in her life. She told me she looks back at pictures of five years ago before Christ changed her, and she shakes her head: that woman no longer exists! She is dead and gone, and a new Kris in Christ now lives. She told me she still meets friends from her past on occasion, and they nearly always shake their heads at how much she has changed. That old Kris is dead; our new Kris is now alive with Christ, living unto God, forever!!

Verse 7 summarizes verse 6, with Paul stating simply that "he who has died is freed from sin." In other words, if we are indeed the ones having died with Christ, thus entering into His payment for all past sins, then we are acquitted from that sin. Payment has been made, and we are set free forever!!! Would we go back to prison to pay our dues, when full payment has already been made? May it never be!!

We Are United With Christ in His Resurrection Life to God - 6:8-10

In vs. 8-10, Paul focuses more specifically on the new resurrection life we now have through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Looking at vs. 8-10, I am persuaded that they may comprise an early confession of faith, an early creed of the Apostles and the early church, or maybe a hymn that was sung. Verse 8 begins with "Now if we have died with Christ," as the foregone conclusion following logically from our baptism into Christ and Paul's discussion in vs. 2-7, then "we believe ..." This sounds like the introduction to a creed, or confession of faith. Then, both verses 9 and 10 have a certain rhythm, a certain cadence that may have been because they were composed to be recited by memory. Other sections in Paul's writings, such as Eph. 4:3-6 and II Tim. 2:11f., may also comprise early creeds or hymns.

Verse 8 continues the logic of baptism, from our union with Christ in His death to our union with Him in His resurrection life: "For if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him." Here is the complete package of our identity in Christ: we died with Him, we live with Him. In Adam, death followed life. In Christ, life follows death. We live because He lives, and the only life we can now lead is life with Him. We cannot live solo any longer apart from Him: that life has died. Our only life is with Him; in fact, He is our only life now, the life lived through us. In vs. 2, Paul asked "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" We cannot, because we have died with Christ to sin, and the life we now live is life with Christ. There is no going backward to the tomb, only "further up and further in" as C. S. Lewis used to say.

In vs. 9, Paul reprises for us again "what we can know." He begins the verse by saying, "knowing that Christ..." Notice that Paul's focus throughout this entire passage is on Christ Himself, not necessarily on us. His mention of us is always and only in context to us "with Christ" or us "in Christ." So, if our Christ dies no more because of His resurrection, death rules over Him no more; the same applies to us, because we are so totally united with Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is the summary of Paul's argument throughout this whole passage.

Verse 10 is the conclusion of this creed or hymn that is presented here: "For the death He died, He died to sin once for all; and the life He lives, He lives to God." He died TO SIN, and in this case it was an utterly conclusive death: ONCE FOR ALL. He will never have to die again to deal with sin ... it has been dealt with conclusively across all time at the cross. He died to sin, once for all: including every sin you and I ever have committed in reality or dreamed of committing in secrecy, every sinful deed or thought in the past, present, and future. His death on the cross was the necessary and totally sufficient sacrifice for all of humanity's sin. So, having died to sin once for all and resolving forever man's great problem of sin, he is set free now to live His eternal resurrection life to God. And since we are united with Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we are similarly set free to live to God. Think of it: set free from the guilt of past sin, set free from the ongoing daily battle with sin, set free to live to God a life beyond the fear of death and the condemnation of unforgiven sin. We are free indeed. Our liberties in this country seem to be shrinking every day, but our liberties in the kingdom of God grow every day as we grow into the fulness of living life to God with Christ. Thank God our citizenship is in a truly free kingdom, not just in a less-and-less free republic.

KNOW Your Changed Identity: LIVE as Who You Are in Christ - 6:11

Just as Paul's argument from the logic of baptism included identification with Christ in two ways, how we are with Him in His death to our sin, and how we are with Him in His new resurrection life to God, so Paul's command to us in verse 11 is a two-part command, having the same two parts: death first, then eternal life.

Verse 11 begins with "Even so." Here is the logical end to Paul's whole argument in this section, and the end is a solemn command. Paul's command is very forcefully stated. "YOU reckon YOURSELVES TO BE dead indeed to sin." This is a significant point of departure in the book of Romans: you ought to put a "star" by this verse in your Bible. The verb here is in the imperative mood, the first time a command is invoked in the book. And since we are to reckon ourselves TO BE, this command is all about who we are: our identity.

The colossal point Paul is making here is that our IDENTITY HAS CHANGED FOREVER. He uses the language of identity here: the emphatic YOU reckon YOURSELVES TO BE. Thus, the command here is that we are to CONSIDER OUR IDENTITY AS UTTERLY CHANGED: TO KNOW WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST. We are now indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and are baptized into Christ. We are joined with Him by His Spirit in His death and His resurrection life, and by this spiritual union that changes our identity we now must reckon ourselves to be dead to sin. In the Holy Spirit we are one with Christ. We must by solemn command KNOW OURSELVES as being AS DEAD TO SIN AS OUR RISEN CHRIST IS, and AS ALIVE TO GOD AS OUR RISEN CHRIST IS!!! OUR LIFE IS SWALLOWED UP IN HIS; IN FACT, HE IS OUR LIFE. This is WHO WE ARE through our baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit!

The amazing thing is the amount of work and love and sacrifice God had to go through from Rom. 1:18 through 5:21 to change our identity utterly so that we COULD have CHRIST'S RESURRECTION LIFE, that we could indeed obey this command.

The weight of this command is also noted by Paul's emphatic use of the second person pronoun humeis. This is like Paul the preacher pointing his finger at his readers and at us and saying "YOU must know who you are in light of this gargantuan change. YOU ARE: AS DEAD TO SIN AS OUR LIVING CHRIST IS!! YOU ARE: AS ALIVE TO GOD AS OUR LIVING CHRIST IS!! There is no going back to the way it was before!!! The change in identity has been too great!!!"

I love Paul's statement "dead indeed to sin." Paul wants us to know that death very clearly, so much so that he describes it as "dead indeed." This means really dead, really corpse-like, really rotting, dead as a door nail, etc. As He died once for all to sin on the cross and we are one with Him, we must see ourselves as dead indeed to sin as well. Sin must become as poison for us; as abhorrent for us as it is unthinkable for Him as the resurrected Lord of the universe. The idea of "dead indeed" is maybe better translated as "dead absolutely." This death to sin is thus seen as past, finished, completed in Christ.

So who are we to be in Christ? We are to be "alive to God," as in the next clause. But, how can we be "alive to God?" Only IN CHRIST JESUS. This is Paul's summary statement of his entire discourse on our oneness with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit: we are now IN CHRIST JESUS. This is Paul's great summarization of our identity, stated ten times in eleven verses in Eph. 1:3-14: our identity is no longer in Adam, no longer in sin, but IN CHRIST. This is who we are now and forevermore. My life cannot be seen as a solo, independent, individual life any longer: my life is wrapped up forever in Christ's life, in Him who is my life forever.

But how can we follow this command in verse 11? To make it our lifelong passion to live life and make choices every day based only on our identity in Christ. We live life every day based on our paltry career identities: I am an engineer, I am a pastor, I am a manager, I am an estimator, I am a housewife, I am an administrator, I am a teacher, I am this or that. But why not live first as I am in Christ, serving Him as a pastor, an estimator, a housewife. Everyone is agreeing with me on Sunday here in church, because we all know what I'm saying is true; but it is not so easy on Monday in the marketplace. It is so much easier to live like everyone else whose career alone comprises their identity. But for Christians, a career is a sad substitute for Christ. He must be our life and our identity must be rooted forever in Him, not just in the smaller things in life like a career. More on this next time!

Conclusion: A Changed Identity Put into Practice

All throughout this morning, I have been sharing about basically one theme: in Christ, we are changed. Our identity is forever altered. This personal, radical, total change is the essence of Christianity. Christianity is so constant and moving a force in the world because faith in Jesus Christ truly changes people. The thread running through all Christian testimonies can be summarized in five words: JESUS CHRIST CHANGED MY LIFE. Believers are changed from the inside out; they are made into utterly new creatures. They are dingry gray cloths whose color is changed forever to a royal hue. They get elected "Most Changed in Ten Years." They transform radically, as did Paul the Apostle himself, going from Christian persecutor to Christian preacher. It is the utterly transforming power of the Holy Spirit infused into someone that makes them so completely changed, so entirely new. Christianity has lasted because knowing Jesus Christ completely changes you for all eternity. And once you have undergone the colossal change of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there is no going back to the way you were before. May it never be the same!!

At the beginning, I shared with you several testimonies. I want to return to one, and expand it a bit. The gang-member turned Policeman shared this about the change in identity and mission in his own life: "I've been on both sides of the fence: a gang member as well as a policeman. I have seen tragedy, permanent injury, property damage, wasted lives and even death as a result of sin. My whole outlook on life has changed since Christ came into my life and, being a Christian policeman, I view things much differently. In all my duties I am constantly aware that I must share God's wonderful plan of salvation with others as I continue 'on patrol for God.'" What a testimony: he has been truly changed; his identity is rooted in Christ; and he looks to share with others the great change in his own life, that they too may be changed. May we follow his good example!

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