This morning, I would like to address the issue of the realities of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the lives of the redeemed. And today we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. And I fear that in many cases, believers do not really think about or perhaps have never heard about the implications of the resurrection on their life for today; and that's what I wish to address this morning from the scriptures. Now for the unregenerate, what we examine today will be pure folly, sadly; but for every twice born saint, what we look at today will be a nourishment to our souls, because we're longing for the glory, for the greatness of God, and to see how he is working in our lives even now, is a staggering reality.

Let me begin with some history. In the Old Testament, God raised up a tabernacle. Later, it became the temple, and in the tabernacle, there was a place called the Holy of Holies. No one could enter that realm of inner sanctuary, except the high priest one time per year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And in that holy of holies, rested the Ark of the Covenant. And inside the ark, which was a box made of gold, according to Exodus 25, was the Covenant, the law of Moses, that had been violated. And above the ark, and on each end, were the golden cherubs with outstretched wings that symbolized guarding the holiness of God, and hovering between those outstretched arms - those wings above the lid of the Ark of the Covenant - was the Shekinah, the ineffable, dazzling light of the presence of the living God, too brilliant to even be looked at by human eyes.

But there was a lid on top of that ark. It was a golden lid that separated the violated law inside of the ark from the presence of God that hovered above it, and that golden lid of separation had staggering implications for every sinner who wants to be reconciled to God, to have peace with God; because on that golden lid, divine justice and grace would come together, symbolically, once per year when the high priest sprinkled the blood of an innocent animal upon that lid, and that lid was called the mercy seat. That was the place where atonement was made. Atonement always requiring two primary things, there had to be satisfaction for the just wrath of God, and also substitution, where an innocent would pay that price; and the mercy seat was therefore the place where the just wrath of God was symbolically propitiated - that is, appeased, satisfied, placated, his vengeance upon sinners was temporarily, shall we say, placated by the sacrifice of the atonement. And, of course, the entire Old Testament sacrificial system pointed to the person and the work of Christ, his atoning work on the cross of Calvary. In fact, in first John 4:10, we read "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." The "hilasmon" in the original language "for our sins." And we see here that God himself provided a way to appease his own wrath, and we witness this in the unfathomable love of God for sinners by sending his Son, and Christ dying on our behalf. In fact, the Septuagint describes that golden lid as the place of propitiation, taking from it the root word "hilasmos," because Jesus was ultimately the propitiation for our sins.

Now, sometime before sundown on Friday Jesus body was laid in the tomb all day Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, then resurrected before sunrise on Sunday; he was resurrected from the dead. Let me read to you the account to give you the full background here. You're familiar with it. It's in Matthew 28 I'm going to begin in verse one.

"Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.

He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come see the place where He was lying.

Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.'"

My friends, the most irrefutable and compelling evidence that Jesus Christ was indeed the Son of God is his resurrection from the dead. In fact, Paul tells us this in Romans one four, "He," referring to Jesus, "was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead." Can you imagine what went through the minds of those women as they saw that angel? That would be enough to terrify you, and then to hear these words, "Come see the place where he was lying."

And dear Christian, I would encourage you even right now to look into that sepulcher, that empty tomb, I want you to see in your mind's eye that stone that has been rolled away, gaze upon the slab where our dear Savior was lying, the God Man who was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief - and then realize that he is not there. His work is finished, and now he sits at the right hand of the Father. But soon he will return. Isn't that exciting to know? And every man and woman will see him one day, and you will see him either as your risen Savior and King, or you will see him as your judge and executioner. You will witness him in either terror or in triumph.

But how does his resurrection impact our lives today? That's what I want to address. What impact does that have for me, for you, as a believer? Is it merely symbolic of spiritual realities, or is there actual power in that resurrection for our life? Is there any supernatural, spiritual influence that is the result of the resurrection? And of course, the answer is yes, and 1000 times yes, and that's what we want to look at for a few minutes out of Romans, chapter six, verses one through 14.

Let me give you a brief context of this. The Jews were convinced that they had to earn their way to heaven by keeping the law. You had to earn God's favor by doing good works. And if you impress God enough, your good works will outweigh your bad and you will be able to enter into the kingdom. And of course, that is at the root of all false religions, and there are many of them today, as there were even in the Apostle Paul's day in the first century. But Jesus, and the apostles now, they've come along, and they've preached the gospel, which is radically different, that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. In Galatians, two, verse 16, we read, "Man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus." I mean, that was mind blowing to the Jews. And in Ephesians, two and verse eight, "For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one may boast."

So you can imagine the Jewish people in that day, and they're basically saying, okay, let me get this straight. What you're saying is that all of the law keeping has been really for nothing. We just trust in Christ alone, that he somehow is the Son of God. He is our Messiah. He paid the penalty for our sins, and we were we're buried and raised up with Him, as you say. And if so, if we believe in Him, God is going to forgive us of our sins, past, present and future, because he bore the penalty for our sin on the cross. So you're saying that he took our sin and gave us his righteousness, and therefore we can be justified in the eyes of God. That's what you're saying, right? Absolutely, that's exactly what we're saying. Ridiculous. I mean, first of all, he is not our Messiah. He is a blasphemer, and he deserved to die. I mean, that's what they thought. And he did not rise from the dead. Everybody knows that the disciples stole his body. And if salvation is purely a gift by God's grace through faith alone, that would be a license to sin. That was the thinking. So obviously, the gospel went over like a pork chop at a bar mitzvah. They couldn't buy it, and so Paul is responding to this misguided analysis, and he does so in Romans six and seven by explaining the profound effects of Christ's death and resurrection for those who believe in Him.

You may recall, he closed in chapter five with a glorious climax statement at the end verses 20 and 21 he says, "The Law came in so that the transgression would increase..." In other words, God gave the law so that man would become more and more aware of his own sin. And ultimately, it was a tutor to drive men to Christ according to Galatians three and verse 24, but he went on to say, "...where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." And then he anticipates the argument. He knows what's going to come, because he is inspired by the Spirit, and that's what we have here in Romans six, beginning in verse one.

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?" In other words, if salvation is through no merit of our own, and where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Why not just increase sin so that God's grace can increase and abound all the more? Why not just live that way? Of course, the answer is, "May it never be!" And he says, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it." "Died" in the original is in the aorist tense, the past tense, and it speaks of something that has taken place in the past, once and forever. In other words, there is an event that has taken place. We died to sin. Now, when did we die to sin? At the point of our regeneration, when God raised us from spiritual death to spiritual life, when we were born again. And as we're going to see it, at conversion, we ceased to exist in Adam, and we became alive in Christ; there was a spiritual resurrection that took place. That which is dead is unable to respond or react to any impulse, to any kind of a desire, and by extension, to be dead to sin, means we no longer have that irresistible impulse and desire to sin. In fact, in first John three and verse nine, "No one who is born of God. Practices sin because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God." In other words, genuine believers are simply unable to consistently, habitually live in the realm of sin because they died to sin. Sothe abusive husband and father, the feminist wife, the recalcitrant, immoral man or woman, the porn addicted college kid, those enslaved by the abominations of the LGBTQ deceptions, all ofthose things...they're freed. When you come to Christ, you're freed from that irresistible impulse and desire to live in those ways.

Again, Romans six, verse one, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" In other words, how can spiritual life and death coexist? The point is, they can't. And a persuasive corollary would be, you can't be alive and dead at the same time, right? Well, yes, but we still sin. Yeah, we do. Although we have died to sin, we are not dead to sin. If we were dead to sin, we would never respond to it. But obviously that is not the case. We're all familiar with that. I mean, we can go to Galatians five and verse 17, and we begin to see again the battle that rages within us. It says that, "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." So every Christian battles with the ongoing remaining effects of the law of sin in the inner man. And so while the old man no longer reigns, he still remains like a defeated tyrant. He still tries to seduce, to tempt. Satan provides all of the ways that that can come about, but his strength has been greatly depleted. And why is that? Well, this is Paul's argument. Because we are now united to Christ. We are now alive in him; the law of sin no longer has dominion over us. We now live under the reign of regenerating, saving, sanctifying grace. We have been liberated by his death and resurrection, which you must understand, is our death and resurrection, we have been crucified with Christ, and Christ now lives in us, right? Galatians 2:20 you're familiar with the text.

And as a result, we have died to the reigning power of the old sinful self, and now we can experience the freedom of what it is to be able to to choose obedience and live for Christ, Romans six and verse six later on, as we will see our old self, it says was crucified with Him that our body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin.

But I want you to notice how Paul continues his inspired line of reasoning in verse three. "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" Here, the term "baptized" - "baptizō" in the original language, it just literally means to immerse; and it is here used metaphorically to describe our immersion into Christ at salvation. It has nothing to do with water baptism. You see, when we were born again, we are mystically united to Christ, we are placed in him. And the ritual of baptism symbolizes all of that. And at salvation, we are therefore permanently immersed into him. We read, for example, in Colossians 2:10, we are complete in Him; "in Him," wherever you see "in Him," it speaks ofus being united to Christ. We are, according to Colossians three, three, "hid with Christ in God." We see the same concept in First Corinthians six, verse 17, where Paul said, "the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." Again, in Galatians, 3:27, he says, "For all of you who were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ."

And dear Christian, I want you to grab a hold of the staggering realities of what this means. What he is saying here is that our immersion into Christ included an immersion into his death. When he died in some unfathomable way, we died. In fact, our spiritual baptism united us to Christ in his death, in his burial and in his resurrection. You see, as we study the Scriptures, we see that the old man of sin that once defined our very nature has been defeated. He no longer reigns. His dominion over us has ceased.

Notice verse four, "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." The term "newness," "kainos," in the original language, speaks of newness in quality with the implication of superiority. There's something glorious that has occurred here. We have a radically different disposition from our former self, and every true believer understands this.

So what is Paul's point? The point is simply this, even as Christ's resurrection proved that his death was an acceptable sacrifice to Christ, so too the believer's newness of life proves that he or she has died to sin in Christ; any man or woman who calls himself or herself a Christian but continues to be unrecognizable against the world that continues to live in sin, is terribly deceived, and they have no basis to claim genuine saving faith. I don't care how many aisles you've walked or how many sinner's prayers you've prayed.

He goes on to say, in verse five, "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, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him...”; “old" in the original language, carries the idea of being obsolete or inferior or worthless. The old self speaks of that worthless old man that we were once in Adam. That old self was crucified with him. Why? He goes on to say, "...in order that our body of sin..." referring to our body in which sin operates, "...might be done away with..." That is one word in the original language, and it means to "render inactive," "to render powerless." It's been done away with. Why? "...so that we would no longer be slaves to sin."

And then he says this in verse seven, "...or he who has died is freed from sin." The term "freed" comes from the Greek term, "dikaioō", and it means "to justify," it means "to declare righteous." Really a fascinating term, and it's the term that Paul used throughout his epistle. Sowe have been freed, or you could say justified. We have been declared righteous. We're freed from sin. We have been judicially vindicated, if you will, as having complied with the requirements of the law of God. And grammatically, it's interesting that that Greek term "freed" is in the the perfect passive indicative tense, which simply indicates that we are the recipients of an action that occurred in the past, enjoying results that will continue in the future. The Greek is very precise.

So think about this, what a glorious truth, we have come to Christ in repented faith, our old nature, that enslaved us to the law of sin; it's been slain, it has been rendered powerless, and now we are freed from sin. Again, think about this, our old nature was crucified with him. It died with him in verse six. And immediately, when this occurred in some inscrutable way, we were joined to him in his death, in his burial, and our old worthless self died, it was buried, it was done away with, it was rendered powerless. You all know what that's like when you came to Christ - little by little, the disposition of your heart and mind just changed, and the things that you once loved, you began to hate, the things that you hated you, you now love. That's the work of the Spirit. And because miraculously, our new self was resurrected with him according to verse six, so we too might walk in the newness of life. And thanks be to God that we are therefore no longer slaves to sin. We have been freed from sins bondage. We have a new nature. The old nature and the new nature are mutually exclusive. You can't be dead and alive at the same time.

To walk in the newness of life means to function differently and how we think and how we act. Ezekiel 36 verse, 26 we read that we are given "...a new heart...and a new spirit." Galatians 6:15, says we're, "...a new creation." Second Corinthians 5:17, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come." And suddenly, when we are genuinely born again, we realize what aliens we are in this world, and we begin to hate our sin more and more. Whenever I hear progressive liberals and transgenders and trans activists and pro-abortion murderers, pro-Hamas terrorists... you know, whenever you hear these people, you think to yourself, my I mean, what planet are these people from? It's just inconceivable. It's like we live in a different universe. And as you hear these people, you see that they're not only bereft of just basic morality and common sense, in many cases, they are literally delusional. I mean, two plus two is five plus; they hate the one true God, the God of the Bible, who has revealed himself in creation, and in conscience, and in Scripture, and in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So obviously we are confronted with the reality that this world is not our home. Something radical has occurred within us.

Bear in mind that the true gospel does not give us what we already desire. It gives us what we do not desire. Regeneration will manifest itself in discernible ways, and certainly there is internal evidence that we can all attest to. When we come to faith in Christ, there's a confidence in the biblical revelation concerning Christ. I'm going to give you just a few. I'm not going to give you all of the passages to validate what I'm saying, but we will also have a love for Christ, the inner witness of the Spirit of God, a love for the brethren, a hunger for God's word, a hatred of sin, a burden for the lost, a longing for the glory and greatness of God, a yearning for heaven. Those will all be internal realities that are part of genuine saving faith. But there will also be external evidence. There will be a life of righteousness, a life of humility, a love for God, a desire to live for His glory, a life of selflessness, a life of victory over the world, a life free from habitual or tolerated sin.

Dear friends, please hear me, a changed life is the surest way to validate genuine saving faith. If the life hasn't been changed, regeneration has not taken place. Jesus said in Matthew 12:33 a good tree is known by its fruit, right? And in Matthew 7:21, "'Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom, but he who does the will of My Father, who is in heaven, will enter.’” And how are we going to do the will of the Father? Only by the work of the Spirit of God, because that is not something we would naturally want to do.

Now understand this, although the sinful self is dead, we still remain incarcerated in our temporal flesh, in our unredeemed humanness. And that will happen, or that will continue on, until glory, and until that day, we will continue to battle our flesh. But when we do this battle because of what Christ did, we are not battling this without the power of victory, which we did not have before because we were slaves to sin. Oh, dear Christian, please understand this, because we have been immersed into Christ, into His death, burial and His resurrection. everything about us, and in us, has changed forever. And what a magnificent thing it is to experience this personally and to see it in others. Isn't it a glorious thing? When we see our children come to Christ, we begin to see them walking in different directions. Sometimes they will say and do things, it's like, oh, my, isn't that wonderful? Boy, that's a work of the Spirit. Or other friends we know that have come to Christ who were just hellions, and it's like, oh my goodness, did you hear what he or she said? Are you watching this? My what a wonderful thing. I can't tell you the number of times over the course of my life and ministry that I've seen people who were enslaved by the most vile sins you could ever imagine suddenly change by the power of the Spirit. And not only do their behaviors change, their desires change, which utterly eviscerates this lie that you hear in the whole LGBTQ arguments.

Paul provides us with this contrast, for example, in Ephesians four, beginning in verse 17, he says,

"So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk..."

in other words, like the unbelievers walk; and how did they walk?

"...in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart,

and they, having become callous, having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

But you..."

as a believer,

"...did not learn Christ in this way,

if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,

that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit,

and that you being renewed in the spirit of your mind,

and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth."

Dear friends, I trust this is the motivating priority of your life, and if so, that is a work of the Spirit of God.

Now back to verse eight of Romans six, gets even better. "Now," if he says, "we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him," verse nine, "knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him." So this speaks not only of the death of sin, but of the death of death. You see, Christ's resurrection has forever defeated the tyrant of death. He no longer has control over us. We have died with Christ, and we're going to be raised with him, and not only in the resurrection of our bodies, but also raised now to walk in the newness of life, which I believe he is speaking about here in this passage.

He says, "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God." And likewise, now, this will be the characteristic of the believer who has died to sin, so that the life that he lives, he will live for God.

Now notice verse eight more closely. "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe..." in other words, we have faith that we shall also live with him. And by the way, both in English and in Greek, the future tense, like it's used here, emphasizes the inevitability of a certain thing. In this case, the phrase, "we shall also live with Him," speaks of the inevitability, the absolute certainty, that when we die, we die with Christ, and we're going to be raised with him, and inevitably, inescapably, without a doubt, we will live with him, as opposed to living in the realm of Satan. So we understand all of these things, we've been raised to walk in newness of life, and he's going to bear this out more fully in verse 10.

Verse 11, "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." The context here is the certainty of holy living for all who have been genuinely born again, all who have been immersed in Christ's death and resurrection. In fact, he's going to go on to say later in verse 16 and following,

"Do you not know that when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

Beloved, please understand this is the stuff of genuine saving faith. But notice something else fascinating here in verse 10, "For the death that He died, He died to sin..." Now, in what way did the sinless Savior, the sinless Son of God, die to sin? Well, obviously he did not die for his sins, he had none. He died for our sins. First, John two, and verse two, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins." His death satisfied the just wrath of God that we deserved. He paid the penalty for the sins of all who would trust in him as Savior. In other words, his death met the legal demands required by the law for our sin, but his death not only paid the penalty for our sin, it also broke the power of sin for all who were united to him in saving faith, as Paul has so clearly described.

But notice what else in verse 10, "For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all..." Well you talk about security. The penalty has been paid. There's no need for any more sin-atoning sacrifices. Hebrews 7:27, "because this he did, once for all when he offered up Himself." Hebrews 10:10, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all." First Peter 3:18, "Christ died for our sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit."

So in verse 10, when he says, "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives," it says, "He lives to God." And this is astounding. The sinless Savior lived a perfect life, then he died to sin once for all, and as a result of that, the life that He lives, He lives to God. So beloved, we no longer, because we're united to him, live in the realm of Satan and sin and death, because that has been forever vanquished at the cross. Yes, we're still living in a fallen world, but it has been defeated in terms of its power and because we are united to him and his death and his burial and his resurrection, not only will we to share in the realm of glory, but also, right now, like Christ, we can live to God.

Let me put this real practically. There is nothing that you can do in your life that is more important than living to serve, to honor, to worship Christ, to live in light of His glory, because your life will soon be over. I think of what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 1:14, he had everything; brilliant beyond anything that we've ever seen on earth, save the God Man, Jesus of Nazareth, and in Ecclesiastes 1:14 he says, "I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after the wind." In other words, all the stuff that we desire in life we cannot grasp. It's like trying to grab a hold of the wind. It's all fleeting - riches, fame, power, position, pleasure, lasting joy. I mean, life is uncertain and is short.

Later on, in chapter 12, verse 13, he says, "The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." You see, he's saying that all that matters in life, is to fear God, to live for his glory. And we do that, we know, without any fear of condemnation, if we are in Christ, knowing that we are ultimately accountable to him. So again, right now, we too, like Christ, quote, "live to God." And remember Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father right now, isn’t it amazing thing to realize that? Ephesians two and verse six Paul says that even now he has, "raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace." So Christ manifests the divine character of God, and because we are united to him, we can show forth that character as well, by the power of the indwelling Spirit.

Moreover, because our Redeemer is in constant fellowship with God, delighting himself in his infinite perfections, enjoying the sweet communion, we too could have that same fellowship because we are united to Christ. And I wish to draw your attention to something else that is fascinating here. Paul has preached doctrine for 148 verses up to this point, teaching on condemnation, justification, helping believers understand their new identity in Christ, and finally, on the 149th verse, he gives his first exhortation. Here's what the Spirit of God would have us to do in light of all that has been said, verse 11, "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." In other words, I want you to understand this great doctrinal truth. Based upon that doctrinal truth, I want you to consider yourselves to be dead to sin.

By the way, this certainly underscores the fact that we need to know Bible doctrine. I'll say no more on that, other than most Christians today are terribly undiscerning because they do not know Bible doctrine. Things have been dumbed down to a point where people have the theological acumen of a dung beetle and they stay in church all of their life; how are you possibly going to consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, unless you understand the doctrinal truths that support these magnificent realities"

So again, verse 11, "Even so, consider yourself to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Paul likes to use this word, "consider" - "logizomai" in the original language; it means "to count" or "to calculate," and it carries the idea of of reckoning, of calculating, to credit something to someone. And you know, we might say, regard or recognize this about yourself; and grammatically, this term is a command that is to be carried out upon ourselves, to consider yourself and to do this on an ongoing basis. This is the command now.

Now notice the two things that we are to consider. One, "consider yourself to be dead to sin." In other words, beloved, make it a habit to affirm this in your heart, that sin and death no longer has dominion over Christ, and because I'm united to him, it no longer has dominion over me. Make it a habit to think about this, to consider this - Christ's death has forever defeated the cruel task master of sin. I no longer have to respond to that even when my flesh draws me to it, and his resurrection has forever defeated the tyrant of death, and I'm going to be raised with Christ. Now, I'm sure you're like me, I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid of the process of getting there, nobody wants to think about that. But when death happens, my, you go into glory. But we will be raised with Christ, not only in the resurrection, but also the moment we were born again. We have been raised to walk in newness of life, which is the primary emphasis of this whole context. So salvation is not just about being saved from the penalty of sin and thus ensuring eternal life but also being saved from the power of sin right now.

So I want you to consider yourself dead to sin and secondly, “...but alive to God in Christ Jesus." I want you to affirm this great reality on an ongoing basis, even as Christ now lives in the realm of glory beyond the reach of of Satan, sin and death, because I'm united to him. The same power that raised him from the dead is at work in me right now, and I want to take full advantage of that in every way I possibly can. Ephesians two and verse five, "...even when we were dead in our transgressions, (He) made us alive together with Christ." What an amazing text. And in verse 10, "...we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." What an astounding thing to reflect upon - the reality that we are part of a predetermined plan of a sovereign God. Beloved, you are alive to God in Christ, everything about your relationship to him is forever changed.

And he goes on therefore in verse 12, and says, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts..." in other words, how foolish to obey the lusts of your mortal body that is temporal and is dying. Chapter seven and verse 14 and following, remember Paul grieved that he is still quote "of the flesh, sold into the bondage of sin." That is to say, I'm still fleshly. And he said in verse 18, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh..." And he mourned in verse 23, "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I say a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members." So in other words, even though the sin principle, the law of sin remains in our body, we are not subject to it. We don't have to obey its lust. So he says, "Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts..." Romans, 8:13, we are to put, "to death the deeds of the body."

Beloved, please hear this, sin cannot be domesticated. It must be eradicated. And this begins by remembering, considering, contemplating, reflecting upon these doctrinal truths pertaining to your union with Christ. You need to know these things so that you can rehearse these things, so you can pray these things, so that you can teach these things to your children and teach them to yourself, to be able to affirm these things in your heart and live them by your will. Second Timothy two and verse eight, remember Paul said, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel." Romans four and verse 25, "He was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification."

So since we've been dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, verse 12, "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." Do you not know that you have been justified? You have died to sin, you've been raised to walk in newness of life.

Therefore, verse 14, "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law..." in other words, you're not under the condemnation of law, "...but under grace." That is the supernatural power of the indwelling Spirit that is at work in you, conforming you ever more, day by day, little by little, into the likeness of Christ.

Well, dear friends, I challenge you to reflect upon the great implications of Christ's death and resurrection in your life and celebrate them, especially this day, Resurrection Sunday, but reflect upon your new identity with Christ every day that you live as we have been commanded to do, and in so doing, we will be able to bring God glory in unique ways. And through that, the Spirit of God will minister to us in ways that we can't even fully comprehend, amen.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths, cause them to bear much fruit to the praise of your glory. And for those that may not know Christ as Savior, I pray that today will be the day that you will so overwhelm them with the guilt of their sin that they will freely and voluntarily come running to the cross to repent, to humble themselves, and cry out for your mercy, for your grace, that you will give so quickly. We thank you, we give you praise for the glory of Christ, and it's in his name that I pray, Amen.