Presumed Dead Series

Chico Alliance Church

“Presumed Dead”

Review

Christ reigns supreme over all creation.

Christ remains sufficient for all creation.

We have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness.

We have been transferred into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.

The ransom price has been paid.

Our debt has been paid and forgiven.

The King of this kingdom is Christ Himself.

Image of the invisible God

Creator of all creation

Preexistent before all creation

Sustainer of all creation

Head of the Church

Firstborn from the dead

Filled with the fullness of Deity

Agent of reconciliation to the Father through His sacrifice for us

We must clearly understand the principle of life in this new kingdom.

“As you received Christ Jesus so walk in Him”

This made possible through the work of Christ who

Firmly rooted us In Him

Continually builds us in Him

Continually establishes us in our faith

We must clearly understand the basis of our relationship with Christ.

He is fully God.

We are filled because of Him

He is head over all rule and power.

We have been circumcised by reason of our identification with Christ.

We were raised up with Christ.

We have been made alive with Christ.

He took the certificate of debt, the laws and decrees out of the way

He disarmed the rulers and powers.

Having died to the law of sin and death.

We are not to focus on keeping the law but holding fast to Christ who kept the law for us.

ILLUS

When we landed in Conakry Guinea there were soldiers and people all around the airport customs area.

The missionaries were right there to escort us through the unfamiliar territory and rescue us from certain delay and expense.

We did not know the “rules” or the laws and customs of the country.

Our entire focus was to hold fast to the missionary who knew what to do and had established a relationship with the government.

It is Jesus that hast the relationship with God.

We will never know or do enough to keep His laws.

We must focus then on holding fast to the one who kept the law for us and lives in us.

Not only do we shift our focus away from law keeping but also we are to focus on experiencing to the fullest what it means to live according to the law of the spirit of life in Christ.

On the basis of our co-resurrection with Christ we are to focus our priorities and focus our thinking on eternal things.

WHY?

Past Motivation

We died with Christ and were raised with Christ.

Present Motivation

Our life is presently hidden with Christ in God

Future Motivation

We will be revealed with Christ in glory when He returns.

So here we are.

? Rescued from the kingdom of darkness.

? Transferred into a brand new kingdom ruled by His beloved Son.

? Freed from the law of sin and death by our identification with His death.

We are then to continually hold fast to Christ

? Raised again into newness of life according to the law of the spirit of life by our identification with His resurrection

? Protected and secluded in God

? Awaiting a glorious revelation

We are then to continually pursue the eternal

We are then to continually contemplate the eternal

This morning we continue our study of the specific application of new life in Christ.

Prayer

“THEREFORE”

In light of the realities mentioned above Paul calls for further action.

Paul shifts from the teaching that there is an aspect of our new life that is not earthly but hidden and still hidden with Christ in God urging us to deal with an aspect of our life that is yet earthly.

He calls them the “on the earth members”

There is considerable difference of opinion as to what he actually refers by this term.

“members” is used of the parts of the physical body, or the differing members of the body of Christ to the capacities of our earthly body.

We are spirit, soul and body.

There is an aspect of us that affects us but is not us.

I understand “members” to refer to capacity to gather and process data and express the various dimensions of the soul in ways that conveys to others.

Before being made alive to God, these capacities could only bring forth fruit for death.

Having been raised to a whole dimension we have the new capacity to bear fruit for God.

The struggle comes as sin continues to seek manifestation through those same members.

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:4-6