WE MUST UNDERSTAND WHO WE
ARE …
Psalm 49:20
Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts
that perish.
- Understanding is what separates us from the beasts.
NEW CREATURES …
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The
old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
- We are not who we once
were, or who we could have been.
- We are someone fresh and
new, created by God.
- We must not forget who we
are – new creatures with new habits.
HIS WORKMANSHIP …
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good
works, that He prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
- As a new creature, we do
good works – God's works.
- We must not forget who we
are – workers of God's good works.
SELF LIFE VS.
CHRIST'S LIFE
Romans 7:18
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my
flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry
it out.
- This is the clue that
unlocks a mystery.
- Sometimes "self"
(me) is synonymous with "flesh."
- There are two identities
implied here: a self-identity and another identity (which we find out is Christ-identity
later in the chapter. It is Christ who saves me from myself, because I
can't save myself.)
- There's nothing good in
self/flesh.
- Christ alone IS my ability
to live right.
- Apart from Him, I am
doomed to the failure of my flesh.
Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his
life for my sake will find it.
- (Flesh) Death = (Spirit)
Life
- (Flesh) Life = (Spirit)
Death
FACT: I AM DEAD TO
SELF … ALIVE TO CHRIST …
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet
not I, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by
faith, of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- This death is a privilege.
It's a beautiful thing.
- Death is a past-tense
fact. I am dead to sin and flesh and self.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have
concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died
for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him
who for their sake died and was raised.
- We are as good as dead. This
is our glory.
Romans 6:6
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order
that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be
enslaved to sin.
FACT: IT DOESN'T STOP
THERE. NOW I MUST CONSIDER MYSELF DEAD … I HAVE TO WALK IT OUT.
Romans 6:10-11
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the
life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- I am utterly identified
with Christ.
- I am dead to sin (my old
man, my old self)
- I must think and act as if
this were true … because it is.
- My thought process based
on a faith position.
- As an illustration, let's
say I am bulletproof, but I don't know it. What good is it to me in
practical life? I may never experience the benefit of it, because it has no
bearing on how I live my life. Whereas, if I knew and believed it, it
would impact my decisions and it would change the way I live. With that
knowledge, I might do things I never dreamed of doing; I might do a great
deal of good in the world. Well consider – how much greater of a gift have
I received from God, that Christ the Lord
lives inside of me? I am more than a conqueror, no weapon formed
against me shall prosper, I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me, I am an overcomer destined for triumph – if God is for me,
who can stand against me? What if I lived every moment of every day as if
this were true? How would my life
change?
Ephesians 5:8
For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in
the Lord. Walk as children of light
- I was darkness.
- I am light.
- Now I need to act like
light.
- I have no excuse for
acting like a lost person – because I am NOT a lost person.
Romans 6:4
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 too may live a new life.
DON'T NEGLECT IT …
Hebrews 2:3
How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It
was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard
…
- We are saved. Now what?
Parable of the talents. You don't get saved so you can just hoard this
immeasurable treasure in a crypt.
- It changes everything. If
it doesn’t, it means we either don't have it or don't value it.
IT'S A DAILY PROCESS …
Ephesians 4:20
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that
you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to
put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness.
Colossians 3:9-10
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the
old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Romans 6:11
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive
to God in Christ Jesus.
- Reckon – my thought
process based on a faith position.
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