If you’ll open your Bibles to Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6, as you get there I want to tell you a story about a young man named Dan and got to know him. He was a college player at a local college, could shoot the three-point like few guys ever, got into some trouble, watched him come to Christ. After every service, he would ask me, I mean, the top ten most difficult questions, and then we saw him grow, grow, grow, grow, and I still remember I was right in the hallway, and he stopped me.
He said, "Chip, I’ve got to ask you a question." I said, "Okay," and he just pulls out his Bible, Romans chapter 6. He says, "This verse right here, it says -- okay, verse 17, ’But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.’" And then he looked me right in the eye, about a 22-year-old, and said, "I don’t know if I can trust the Bible." I said, "Why?" He said, "I prayed to receive Christ." He said, "I’m not a slave to righteousness, Chip. I’m still struggling. I’m doing things that I know are wrong, and I’ve made progress, but is this true or not?"
What would you tell him? Interestingly, you know, God has a little program for pastors, and so after the service, a lady with kind of stringy, long blond hair, 30-something -- if you’ve ever been to Santa Cruz, huge drug culture -- came out of a promiscuous lifestyle, had a four-year-old out of wedlock, had been on heavy duty drugs, had been a Christian about a year and a half, and her life was being transformed. And she had this little four-year-old next to her, and she came up, and are you ready for this? The same day, she asked, "Can I ask you a question?" I said, "Well, sure."
She goes, "Well, I’ve been reading my Bible now, and God’s changed my life. I’m off all the hard-core drugs. I’ve broken off those bad relationships, but I’ve got a question, and it’s right here," and she pointed to verse 22. It says, "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become a slave to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." She said, "I’m concerned about my little girl, Chip, and God so changed my life, but I’ve got to tell you, it says you’re set free," and she -- "I smoke dope almost every day. I mean, it’s one of the smaller things. I smoke dope almost every day, and I’m thinking what it’s gonna do to my little girl. I’m not set free. Where do you get the power to be set free? I’m not free yet."
What would you tell her? In fact, before we go on and think that this only happens in a church in California, if someone that you felt really comfortable with and you could open your heart and be absolutely vulnerable and know that you wouldn’t be judged, what area of your life would you say, "You know, I know I’m supposed to be free. I know I’m supposed to be holy. I know I’m not supposed to think or act or talk or -- but, you know, I’m a prisoner. My life, if people really knew, my life isn’t where I know God wants it to be." What would come up on the radar screen on your life? What would it be? Because,
see, we want to talk about where do you get the power to change. It’s one thing like last session to say, you know, "This is who we’re supposed to be, and God has given us the power, and He’s done this," but where do you get the power functionally to really change?
If you’ll notice on the front of your handout, I would like to go ahead and read -- I’d like to face this head-on, all right? Follow along. I’d like to let the cat out of the bat. Let’s talk frankly about the biggest challenge that keeps us from continually experiencing this miracle of life change or holy transformation, and I’m gonna suggest that -- are you ready for this? The answer is really pretty simple. It’s sin. What keeps us from becoming like Jesus is sin. When I’m selfish, when I’m envious, when I’m lustful, when I demand my own way, and when I hurt other people, you know what the Bible calls it? It’s sin.
When I do the right thing for the wrong reason, to please people, to impress others or simply gain attention and affirmation for me, it’s sin. The action may look good on the outside, but it’s wrong, and it’s sin. My flesh is in control. I’m not experiencing the holy transformation God intended for me, so instead of the Spirit being in control and helping me live out my new identity in Christ, on multiple occasions, at least in my life every day, I allow the flesh to be in control by the impulses of sin.
So the real question when it comes to this miracle of life change, this morphing, this holy transformation is, "How do you deal with the problem of sin?" Now, could we agree that that really is a pretty big problem? It is mine. Can I ask you before we go on -- go ahead. Go ahead. Open your notes. I can tell some of you are longing to get there. Jump in. Is that not really where the rubber meets the road? When’s the last time you had a honest conversation or where you heard talked about just right up front, "You know what? We are Christians, and we have been forgiven, and we have the power over death. We have the power over sin. We have the power for a new life, but we have this problem in this body, in this world. We keep sinning."
And, see, if you do not understand how to deal with that, you will go through the -- what? Try hard, do good, fail. Try hard, do good, fail, and then after a while, you’re real smart, so you’ll try hard, do good, and start faking it, and what we have is a church that by and large seems to be faking it. And so what I want to do is I want to talk to you about what God teaches in His word about how to deal with the problem of sin, and where we’re gonna go, it’s gonna be a bit unusual. I mean, this is gonna be -- are you ready? Of all the things we’re gonna cover, this is one of those "do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do" passages, all right? Ephesians 4:7-10. It’s the next four verses. The Apostle Paul is going to address this whole issue of sin.
Now, what you need to understand is that there is a spiritual principle about life change, and the spiritual principle about life change is that whatever happened to Christ happened to you. You still have Romans open? Now, go back a little bit, because you notice the young man’s question was out of verse 17 and 18. The lady’s question was out of verse 22. Go all the way back to Romans chapter 6, and after talking about this amazing thing that Christ has done in His grace, picking it up at verse 2, because, you know, the argument was, well, if the more you sin, the more grace you get, the argument was, well, maybe we ought to sin a lot so God can give a lot of grace.
And Romans 6:1 opens and says, "Heaven forbid, never." But now listen carefully to verses 2 through 4. "By no means, then, we died to sin. How can we live in it any longer, or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized or identified with Christ through faith were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we may too walk in newness of life." You might underline that in your Bible.
Here’s what you need to understand. The Christian life isn’t about trying hard, going to church, doing programs, reading your Bible, praying more, giving a little bit money, and saying, "Oh, God, I want to be moral." The Christian life is about a relationship, and what the scripture is gonna teach about life change all the time is that there is a co-crucifixion, there is a co-resurrection, and that whatever happened to Jesus on the cross and whatever happened to Him in His resurrection, when you by faith invite Him into your life, you are united with Christ and that the word "baptism," there’s not -- there’s no water in Romans 6, okay? It’s not that it’s a bad thing. Baptism, the root word means to dip. Primarily through in the New Testament it means to be identified or united with, and when it’s used of water, it’s the picture of what’s happening, dying with Christ, coming up to a brand new life.
So Christ died. When you came to know Jesus as your Savior, you died with Him. When Jesus rose from the dead, positioning Christ, you rose with Him. So the power to live the Christian life is not self-effort. The power is the resurrection spirit of what happened to Him in His death happened to you. What happened to Him in His resurrection happened to you, and by faith, then, you live out through His power. And the question is going to be, "How did that occur?"
And so the Apostle Paul, I mean, this whole book is about a transformed life. He is going to go into, actually, a very remote passage. He’s going to reach back into Psalms 68, verse 18, and he’s gonna pull it forward, and he’s gonna make this point for the Ephesians. He’s gonna tell them, "Until you understand what happened between Friday, when Jesus died, and Sunday morning, when He rose from the dead, until you understand what He was doing and what happened, you will never know the basis of where you get the power."
Follow along. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says. Remember, last session it was, right, "Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord." How do you do it? In the context of community, with humility, gentleness, patience, forbearing, making every effort. Why? Because there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God who is over and in, over all, and then notice he picks it up in verse 7. "But contrast to that great unity, but to each one of us grace was given according the measure of Christ’s gift." Therefore, it says, "When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men."
Now, this expression, "He ascended." What does it mean, except that He also descended? Where? Into the lower parts of the earth. "He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things." Now, before I go on, if you’re reading that, and you’re thinking to yourself just candidly, "I don’t have a clue what that means," you’re with about 99 percent of us. I’ve read Ephesians how many times as a young Christian and then later? I mean, what is -- why is he going to this? What’s he talking about? He ascended. He descended. What’s a captive, a host of captives? Where is the lower parts of the earth?
And yet Paul’s argument is going to be that whatever these verses mean are the very basis of you living a transformed life. The question we’re raising is, "Where do you get the power?" And the answer is going to be that between Friday when He died -- He paid the penalty on Friday. What He did from Friday before the resurrection is going to demonstrate to believers what you actually possess because of what he did.
So let’s do a little Bible study. Let’s look at the words, and then I want to spend the remainder of my time with the application of what it looks like for ordinary, regular Christians like you and me. Let’s look at the key words. First phrase, "He led captive a host of captives." I don’t know about you, but I wonder what that means. He’s quoting Psalms 68:18, and there’s imagery here you need to get. He reaches back. It was -- it happened also in the Roman world, but he’s reaching back into ancient times, and he’s giving a picture, a word picture for his audience of that day, that the moment he said this it would be, "Gotcha."
And here’s what would happen. They would have major wars, right? You’ve read of all those wars in Israel, and, you know, they would surround the city, and then they would build these big ramparts, and sometimes it would take months, or sometimes it would even take years, and they’d cut off the water supply, and they’d have a big battle, and then they would overtake an enemy. And when they would overtake the enemy, it was real important for the king or the general to be there.
Remember when Joab sent a letter to David and said, "Hey, David, the city’s about to fall. You need to get here, because if you don’t get here, they’re gonna think I’m the Big Kahuna, and everyone knows you’re the king, and you need to be the Big Kahuna"? Kahuna, that’s a Hebrew translation of being the Big Cheese. And so David comes, and here’s the picture that Paul is painting, reaching from the Old Testament. When we go over here and we conquer these people, here’s what would happen. The king, David, or the general would be on a white horse. Then all of his army would be behind him in battle array, shining battle array, so when the sun hit them, they would gleam.
Behind them -- so the king’s on the horse. Here’s his army, and then behind him would be the prisoners, and it gets a little bit graphic, but they would line them up sometimes three, five, seven, ten across, and if you conquered a big city, you might have a mile of prisoners. And the people would be stripped to the waist to absolutely humiliate them, and in some cases we have extra biblical material that tells us they would literally march them naked. The point was, "Our king has more power. We took your city. We are in charge, and you’ve been totally humiliated," and then be --
So, can you imagine the white horse and the king, all of our troops are victorious, and then these people in chains walking half naked? And we’re gonna go back to our city, and we’re gonna wind through the streets, and the streets are gonna be lined with all of our people saying, "Hail David! Hail the King! Fantastic!" And we’re gonna see our brave warriors who won the battle, and then we’re gonna see the humiliation of our enemies, and then guess what’s behind that, this captivity of captives?
Then there’s gonna be donkeys and oxen and mules, and then there’s gonna be carts, and there’s gonna be gold and silver and jewelry. You know what they are? It’s spoils. It’s spoils. And then the king would say, "I won the victory," or the general. "This is the army. Your foe has been completely annihilated and humiliated, and to demonstrate to you my heart and the victory," he would take the gifts, and he would give them to the people, some to the warriors and some to the people. So if the king came back, you might get a cow. You might get a new bracelet. You might get an earring, but the demonstration --
Notice the context. Christ is giving gifts to the church. Paul is taking an Old Testament imagery to teach the people of that time that just as you in your mind’s eye have seen kings come and conquer -- and the evidence of the conquering is what? The humiliation of the foe, and you got gifts, and he’s saying, "When Jesus conquered Satan, death and sin, Christ, the evidence of that, is giving spiritual gifts or gifted people to the church." And then he says, "Well, what happened after that?" It says he -- okay, He led host these captive -- captive a host of captives. He gave gifts to men.
Now this expression, because it said He ascended. What’s it mean except that He descended into the lower parts of the earth? This phrase, "the lower parts of the earth," the Jewish Old Testament concept of sheol or the grave, had two compartments, a compartment of the righteous dead and a compartment of the unrighteous dead. Remember Luke 16, when Jesus told the parable? Remember Lazarus? Lazarus was the beggar who was righteous, and there was the other man who was very rich and very insensitive, and they both died, and one went to paradise or the place of the righteous and the other where there was a great chasm, and the man who died, you know, cried out to Lazarus, you know, "Please, tell my brothers." But the point is the Jewish mind view of what happens when people died would be these righteous compartment-unrighteous compartment, and he’s saying that during the time of Jesus’ death and before His resurrection, it says He descended into the lower parts of the earth, and 1 Peter gives us some evidence about, "Well, what happened?"
In the one compartment, in Hades, 1 Peter 3:18-19, it says, "For Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous." Why? "To bring you to God." And notice this. "He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit through whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison." Now, it’s interesting. This word "preached" is not the same word as preaching the Gospel. This is He made a proclamation. This is Him going to the unrighteous and saying, "The victory has been won. The judgment of sin has occurred." Those who have stiff-armed God, those who have turned away -- he’s pronouncing, "Sin’s been taken care of."
Then notice he goes on. In 1 Peter 4:6 it says, "For this reason, the Gospel" -- the good news. That’s what the word means, the uongillion, "was preached," a different word. This is our word for preaching. It’s preaching of the Gospel -- "is being preached not to those who are dead so they might be judged according to men with regard to the body, but live according to God with regard to the spirit," a couple very obscure, difficult passages that when you read them in commentaries, what I can tell you is this is people don’t make a lot of comment on them, and I am in no way suggesting that, boy, I’ve got it all figured out, but it’s very clear Paul says He went to the lower parts of the earth. It’s very clear from the early creeds of the first 300 years of the church that He --
Remember, some of us who grew up -- He descended into Hell or Hades, and now He’s been risen, and what the King did, the King of Glory, is He pronounced that sin and Satan and death have been judged, and then He went to Paradise, and remember the thief on the cross? What did He say to him? "Today, you’ll be with me in Paradise." He didn’t say next week. He didn’t say three days from now. He said today. Why? He died as the last Old Testament saint. "Today, you’ll be with me in Paradise," and then others will teach that when Jesus is resurrected and goes to the Father, He takes Paradise with Him up to Heaven. The righteous will come before the very presence of God, Old Testament saints.
Now, notice that He might fill all things. Why did all this happen? Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Revelation 5:9-13. Listen to the role of the Messiah. It says, "And they sang a new song," verse 9. "You are worthy to take the scroll into _______ seals, because you were" -- what? "Slain. He died, and with your blood you did" -- what? "You purchased men for God." Where? "From every tribe and language and people and nation. You’ve made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on earth.
"Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousands upon ten thousands, and they encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they said, ’Worthy is the lamb who was slain to’" -- what? "’Receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise.’ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them singing to Him who sits on the throne." Who sits on a throne? A ruler, a victor. "To Him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, Jesus, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever."
Now, I do want to suggest that this is a hairy passage. It’s a difficult passage, and it does raise a number of issues, and we could sort of sort them out for a long time, but the basic overview teaching is crystal clear. The gifts that God gave to the church came because there was a battle, and there was a battle in which there is a victor, Jesus. And this Jesus, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords won the battle because He hung on a cross, and at the moment He hung on the cross, all the sins of all men for all time were placed upon Him, and He became a righteous substitute. And then for three days He made a proclamation of the victory here, and He told the righteous and preached to them, "What you’ve been waiting for and look forward to all these years has come about," and then He rose from the dead, and the evidence -- Paul’s point is this. The evidence that Jesus conquered sin, that Jesus conquered death, and that Jesus conquered Satan is gifts or spoils are given to men, the church.
One last point. This raises one question, and your faces tell me there’s that quizzical look of, "What about this?" or "What about that?" Will you imagine that before you is a line, and right in the middle of the line we’re gonna make the cross, all right? If I am an Old Testament saint -- you might want to jot this down -- every believer of every age gets saved exactly the same way, by grace, through faith. Okay? Every believer of every age gets saved by grace, through faith, and what does it is the cross
If I’m an Old Testament saint -- remember, this is a line. There’s a cross in the middle. I’m an Old Testament saint. I have offerings and revelation and truth and the hope of a Messiah that will one day forgive me for all my sin, but each year, once a year on the day of atonement, I will go and we will go through a ceremony, hoping and praying and asking God for the day of the Messiah, but until then, this day of covering or atonement I look forward to what the Messiah will accomplish. By faith I trust in what God has done. David in the Psalms, what’s he teach? It’s of God’s mercy. No one is ever justified by the law, and so Old Testament saints look forward to the cross. What Jesus did on the cross is what paid for every Old Testament saint’s salvation.
As a New Testament saint, I’m over here a hundred years, two hundred years, a thousand, two thousand. I look back, and the object of my faith is the fuller revelation of Jesus, and I trust in Him and by His grace by faith He has paid for my sin, but whether I’m an Old Testament saint or a New Testament saint, the cornerstone of all the work of God is the work of Christ. All from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 21, the central figure of scripture is Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, victor, savior, redeemer. It’s very, very important.
Now, the theology lesson is over, okay? Theology lesson is over. For those of you who are saying, "Oh, my head hurts," or, "You know what? I’m gonna get a theology book and read some of this, because he went really fast, and my head still hurts," until we learn to think theologically, until we learn to go beyond some superficial things about, "I love Jesus. He loves me. He died for me, and I prayed a prayer" -- one of the reasons we don’t have people’s lives dramatically changing, they do not understand what Christ did, and until you understand what Christ did, you don’t know what you possess, and if you don’t know what you possess, you will turn the Christian life into, "I love God. I know He came into my life. I’m trying really hard, but it’s just not working."
Now, are you ready? I want to give you three facts that flow out of this passage, all right, and I’ll try and remember, actually, if there’s any fill-ins to give them to you. If not, Phil will give them to you next session. And after each fact -- and this is truth -- then I’m gonna give you a principle, and then after the principle, I’m gonna give you some very practical ways so that when we walk out of here, you will understand, know, and then we’ll get to apply how you get the power to actually change, because, remember, this is not about someone out there, right?
Remember the question I asked you? I mean, I had a young guy say, "Hey, there’s some areas in my life aren’t changing." I had a young woman who was honest and vulnerable who said, "I smoke dope every day, and I can’t stop. How do you get the power?" And remember what I asked you? What’s yours? What’s yours? Don’t listen to this next application with a sense of, "Oh, the theology, now that was pretty interesting. Never heard it quite like that. I think I’ll check it out when I get home," and the rest of what we’re gonna talk about is why God brought you here this morning.
You know, there’s people in this room that struggle with pornography. There’s people in this room that have had an abortion. There’s people in this room that are workaholics. There are people in this room that you have outbursts of anger. There are people in this room that are consumed with you. There are people in this room that have a mindset, and you struggle desperately with depression, and you don’t know where to go or how to get help. You know why? Because you’re human. You’re not perfect. We all struggle, but often you don’t understand where to get the power to change, and in so many Christian circles there’s not the freedom to share that that really is a struggle so you get help. So let’s talk about what it looks like.
Fact number one, Christ is a conquering victor over sin, death, and Satan. The power to live a new life was made possible by His death and resurrection, by His death and resurrection. There are three implications. Number one, you are free. When He died, He gave you the power over sin. You are no longer a slave to sin, and that’s got to get in your head before it gets in your practice. Romans 6:17-18.
By the way, this is a -- this is a fact. All of Romans 6 is in a tense and the Greek. This is not an application. It says, "This is data. This is facts. This is information that’s absolutely true a hundred percent of the time, and here’s what’s true of you if you’re united with Christ, but thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been" -- notice the tense of that verb? Is that something that’s gonna happen some day, some way, somehow, or is that something that’s already happened? You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." That’s true of you. It’s a fact.
Fact number two flowing out of this, you have power over death. Death has lost its sting. Therefore, you are forgiven. You know, it’s not like, "Oh, I hope God, and I’ve got to please Him, and, well, I didn’t read my Bible today, and He’s probably really down on me. I didn’t pray as long as I should, and I knew He --." No, no. You live out of your relationship with Christ. You are forgiven. It is a fact.
Romans 6:22-23, "But now that you have been" -- notice the tense of the verb -- "set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift" -- literally, the free gift of God -- "is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It’s a fact. Power over sin, power over death, and finally, you are secure.
It says, "When you were dead in your transgressions," Colossians 2, "and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature," or literally your flesh, "God made you alive together." How? With Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Notice the tense. It’s a perfect tense, something happening in the past with future consequences, on and on. Having cancelled the written code with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us, and He took it all away, nailing it to the cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities. Where did that happen? At the cross. Between Friday and Sunday resurrection, He disarmed them, and then He announced it and said, "Hey, guys. Guess what? You lost. When I died on the cross, bang! Sin covered forever. When I rise from the dead, bang! Your power over God’s children, gone. When I died and rose, death, sting, out of there."
You can look death straight in the eye for the rest of your days if you’re a child of God and know, "You know what? I can get on an airplane. I’m not afraid of 9/11. I’m not afraid of cancer. I’m not afraid of this. I’m not afraid of that," because to be at home with the Lord is when you’re absent with the body, and that’s why the early church was so focused and so powerful. They weren’t trying to find all that they could get in this life. They knew. Great chance you’re probably gonna die following Christ, and the moment you do, what? To live as Christ and to die is -- it’s gain. But those are -- those are core facts that become a part of your thinking and your heart.
How did it happen? He made them a public spectacle by triumphing over them through the cross, and so I want you to know that you are free, that you are forgiven, and that you are secure. So what’s the application? Here’s the principle. Life change always begins with the truth. Life change always begins with the truth. The miracle, the miracle of the changed life always begins with the truth. Jesus’ last night, what did He pray? Do you remember, John 17? He’s loved these men. In His mind’s eye, He knows this birthing of the church. John 17:17, "Father, sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth."
What is it that’s gonna radically change these fishermen and former prostitutes and slaves and a handful of people that are in the house of Herod? What’s gonna change this rag-tag group into an army that transforms the world? Life change begins with truth. So Jesus prays they’ll know the truth.
When He was talking to a group of Jews -- remember John 8:31-32? "Jesus was therefore speaking to those Jews who had believed him, and He said" -- what? "If you abide" -- not listen to, not go to a study, not fill out a notebook. "If you abide in my word" -- it means to take in the word for the purpose of specific application. "If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Application. A mind and heart saturated with God’s word is the prerequisite for life change. A mind and a heart saturated with God’s word is the prerequisite for life change.
I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, but after about a year in Christ -- my sister lived an amazing life. I saw it. I came to Christ, and my dad was going through some really rough times. He was at Guam and Iwo Jima. He was a 50-caliber machine gunner, killed thousands and thousands of people, had nightmares. To this day, he still has nightmares, and he saw the change in my life.
I came back after one year of college, and a nav guy who was a bricklayer helped me, and he said, "You’re different. What do you got?" And I’d like to say that I could say, "Oh, Dad, what’s happened is I’ve been transformed. Jesus died on the cross as my sin’s substitute. I believed on that. I have a new identity. I am now in the Bible not to earn or get God’s favor. I already have His favor, and I’m reading God’s word to renew my mind so I can discover who I already am, to live out of that by faith in this gracious, wonderful relationship." I didn’t do any of that. So I said, "Dad, I don’t know. They gave me a Bible, and I asked Christ to come into my life and been reading it, and I can’t put it down, and I quit cussing. I don’t know how it happened. I quit lusting most of the time. Don’t know how that happened. I have this kind of desire to help other people. Don’t know where it came from."
He said, "Well, you’re really different. I want what you got. How do I get it?" I said, "I don’t know." Navigator should have showed me the Gospel, I think, before I left, but, you know, and so I said, "Dad, let me tell you something. Here’s how I got it." He said, "The Bible?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "I’ve never read it." I said, "I never have, either." And so my dad, being the good ex-Marine that he is, gets up at 5:00 in the morning, starts on the Gospels, and from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. every day, he reads Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. He goes, "You know what? Either these guys really can’t get this story down, but they keep telling the same thing a lot of different ways." I learned enough to tell him, you know, a little bit different perspectives, and Mark’s writing to the Romans, and Luke and, you know.
And so after about three or four months, he goes, "You know, Chip, I’m not sure what it’s all about, but it’s somewhere about this relationship you’ve got to have faith." Life change begins with the truth, and after months and months and months, my dad came to the point where what he understood was it was about a relationship, and the way you enter the relationship is how? By faith. He said, "How do you do that?" I said, "I don’t know." He said -- I said, "Keep reading." He said, "Okay."
Can I ask you, what is your personal practice of saturating your mind and heart with God’s word, your personal practice? I don’t mean going to church. I don’t mean listening to someone on the radio, although I do believe that has great benefit. I mean your own personal life, the feeding of your own soul. What are you daily or regularly doing so that the intake of the supernatural word of God, energized by the spirit of God, is beginning to address how you think and understand and frame how all of life works so that His word, as Romans 12:2 says, "You no longer are conformed to the world, but you’re transformed by the renewing of your mind"? What’s your personal practice?
If your life isn’t changing in the areas that you really have said to yourself privately you want it to, go back and ask, "Am I really in the Bible in a way that that can happen?" Now some of you are thinking, "I’m in the Bible. My life’s still not changing. So is there -- if there’s a Step Two, tell me quickly." There is. Good. Glad you asked.
Fact number two is that we become co-partakers of Christ’s victory over sin, death, and Satan the moment we receive Christ as our personal savior. Did you hear that? We become co-partakers. Remember? Whatever happened to Christ, if He died, you died with Him. If He’s resurrected, you’re resurrected with Him -- what? -- in order to walk in newness of life the moment you receive Christ, and the principle that you need to understand is life change demands that we act on the truth. It’s not enough to saturate your mind and your heart with the truth. You have to act on it by faith.
But I want to give you a picture, because this identity of Christ stuff, I think what happens is it gets kind of foggy. Let me -- let me give you a little picture. Are you ready for this? This -- let’s make this block of wood Christ. I mean, I don’t mean to be sacrilegious, but just by way of illustration it’s Christ. There are certain properties that wood have. Can we all agree? One of the properties is if you put wood in a bowl of water, it will float. Okay?
Now, let’s make this knife you. This is your life. There’s certain properties to a life if you are an atom, and if you’re an atom, here’s what happens. You don’t float. What the Bible is teaching is very simply this. Whatever happens to Christ, whatever’s true of Him, the moment you receive Him by faith and are united to Him by faith is not true of you, and the Christian life literally is not about performance or trying harder or self-effort. It is understanding this relationship and what you already possess.
So here’s basically how the Christian life works. Some people said duct tape can fix anything. Little did they know, and scissors would probably work good. So let’s say you pray and receive the Lord Jesus as your savior. You understand what He’s done, and so by faith you are -- it’s what’s happening to a lot of faith in the world. So by faith you are now united to Him. I should have done this before I put it in the water.
If you are united to Him, then the properties that govern His life now govern your life. What’s true of His death -- sin, Satan, and death is conquered -- is true of you, who died with Him. What’s true of His resurrection -- power over sin, power over death, power over the enemy, the principality’s been declared subservient to you. What’s true of Him is true of you, and what you need to understand is that the Christian life is about this union you have with Him.
In the book of Ephesians alone, go through tonight if you want to have some fun, and just read the phrase, "In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ." The hope of glory, "In Christ. In Christ. In Christ. In Christ." Read through the epistles, "In Christ. In Christ." Now that you are in Christ -- you know what this is? That’s in Christ. That’s who you are. The Christian life is living out of what you already possess in Him, and if you don’t know what you possess, go back and read Ephesians chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3. "In Him you’re redeemed. In Him you’re adopted. In Him the Spirit dwells in you. In Him the spirits have -- the spiritual gifts have been given. In Him you are a son. In Him you have an inheritance." All that is true of Christ is true of you.
Now you know Paul -- this isn’t so weird now, is it? Do you think this way? Honestly, is this how you think about your relationship with God, or are you into the, you know, "Didn’t read my Bible, feel a little bit guilty, missed church, ought to be doing more. They asked me to serve on this committee. I’m trying to do this"? Is your life a rat race of activities and responding to pressure and trying hard and not experiencing the peace and the power and the love and the joy and the sense of such acceptance that you can freely say yes to this and no to that, because you don’t need security from a job or from a person or from a family?
You’re secure in Him. You don’t need accepted from everybody out there and over there, because you’re accepted in the beloved. You don’t have to have everything stashed away that’s gonna work out for you ten, 20 years because you never know, because are united to the all-powerful, all-knowing, loving creator of the universe, who says you’re the object of His affection. He loves you. He’s for you.
So the principle is, "How does that happen?" Life change begins with truth. Principle two, life change demands that we act on the truth. I mean, there’s tons of scriptures. Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you are saved through faith," right? It’s not of yourself. It’s not by your works, but faith is that action step, the teaching of Jesus. If you act on the truth, then you’re free, and the insight is this, is that faith is believing God to the point of acting on what He said, whether you feel like it or not.
The other myth in the church is that faith is this feeling. "I feel strong, I feel close to God, and now I’m gonna do this." You know what? If there is a bridge, and we’ll talk about it a little bit later, that’s made out of concrete and steel, there’s days that you could feel like, "Oh, I’m afraid to go over that bridge," and you know what? It’ll hold you just about the same. Or there’s other days you can say, "Well, you know, 15,000 pounds of steel and concrete over a little stream, you know, this is no big deal."
It doesn’t matter whether you feel this way or feel that way. The issue is the object of your faith, and so when God talks to you about, "I want the first portion of your time by faith, whether you feel like it or not," you say, "Here it is, Lord." When the Lord says, "I want the first portion of your money," you say, "Well, wow, that’s kind of scary, but here it is, Lord." When the Lord says, "I want your speech to begin to reflect this in your marriage," "Well, okay, here it is, Lord." And whether you feel like it or not, you choose to obey, and in the action of faith and choosing, whew, that’s when grace comes. There’s a lot of us waiting for a ooey, gooey, liver-quivering experience to begin to obey God, and the grace comes out of the truth and your response to the truth.
In my dad’s situation, finally, you know what he did? He read. He read. He read. He read, nine months or a year, and finally he said, "You know what? It’s about faith, but I’m not sure how to get it," and on his dresser was a little Four Spiritual Laws. "Lord Jesus, thank you for Bill Bright," and he picked up Four Spiritual Laws. "Law One, God has a wonderful plan for your life. I read those verses. Law Two, your sin separates you from God. Boy, I know that one. Law Three, God, because of what Christ has done, is your sin substitute. Hmm. Law Four, you need to personally receive Him by faith. "Here’s a prayer. Wow. I think I’ll kneel down by my bed. ’Dear God, I’m sorry for all those people I killed. I’m sorry for all the things that I’ve done. I’m sorry for what I’ve done in the life of --.’" And he said, "Please come into my heart." Life change begins with the truth, and life change begins to be activated only when by faith you act on the truth.
Fact number three. Fact number three is that every believer is given a spiritual gift or gifts that’s a supernatural enabling at the moment of salvation for two reasons. He uses this word here that each believer is for all. It’s an endowment or a sacred trust for service, and it’s uniquely designed just for you and for two reasons. Reasons number one is to remind us that life change occurs on the basis of grace, not self-effort. I mean, all this stuff about spiritual gifts, it’s not just finding how wonderful you are and what He’s given you.
Every time you exercise your spiritual gift -- if we got Paul’s picture. I mean, that lady, when she’s milking that cow after the general won the big army, what’s she thinking? "Wow, we beat those really big bad guys, and the only reason I have this cow is that my king won a victory, and because he won a victory, I got this gift, and this gift reminds me as I milk this cow or look at my bracelet or the gold earring that my king is victorious," and, in our case, over sin and death and Satan.
The second reason is it reminds us that we have a special supernatural empowerment that makes us other-centered agents of grace who supply what others need to morph or to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. Your gift of mercy meets me in my time of desperation. Your gift of administration organizes what we all need so we can work together. Your gift over here of giving allows those people in Honduras that we heard about earlier to have the resources to do what a man and his wife have left their medical practice so they can serve and love people.
See, He gives each of us supernatural gifts, so remember we’re children of the King. We are victorious with Him, and now we are empowered to be about what? Doing what our king tells us. So what’s He say? Very simple. Life change, the miracle of life change is available to everyone who -- what? Who by faith is willing to unite in relationship with Christ and accept that His death, you died to sin. His resurrection, you were raised from sin and the power and all that it is and that his disarming of Satan and the principalities you share in, and you can look demonic forces in the eye, and we’ve had some experience with that in Santa Cruz, and not on the basis of who you are but on the basis of who God is say, "Get behind me, Satan. I want to be Your child, doing Your thing in this little thing we call time. You’re my King." If any man or any woman is in Christ, you’re a new creature. What Paul’s saying is that’s the basis. That’s where you get the power.
