Our New Identity in Christ

Well, good morning. This morning, we're going to talk about freedom. Freedom is one of the highest values we have in America, freedom to pursue happiness, freedom to live the life that we think is most beneficial to us, freedom to enjoy the life that we believe God has set forth for us. We are willing to vote for freedom. To fight for freedom and even some of us who die for freedom and the freedoms that we are committed to as a church, I see our freedom to raise our children the way we believe God has called us to raise our children. Freedom to protect the unborn baby. Freedom to live a life that we believe God has set forth in Scripture. So that we can pursue happiness and prosperity. Freedom is a good thing to enjoy, and we should be praising God that we have a government. We have a nation that allows us to actually fight for certain freedoms. But as we're fighting for all of our temporal freedoms. I want to ask you. How much are you fighting for freedom against sin? How much are you seeking to die for your freedom against the greatest enemy we have? The greatest hindrance to true happiness. How much are we willing to fight and die? To secure freedom. Against sin, our greatest foe, the greatest hindrance for true, lasting happiness. What we're going to look at this morning is freedom, and it's a freedom that only God can provide freedom against the fear of death. Freedom for the freedom against the sin that slaves us, enslaves us so powerfully. We're going to look at is how God has secured our freedom and how we can participate in this freedom. Turn with me to Romans six. And it's interesting here, the context in which we're looking at this freedom. Is really a perversion of the gospel, Paul. is attacking here in Romans six, a clear perversion of the gospel. If we go back to chapters three through five, he has established that we are justified by faith alone, but it is by God's grace that our sins are forgiven. Where sin abounds, grace abounds. And so someone asked, what shall we say then in verse one? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? The question here is getting the gospel slightly. If they understand that Jesus Christ died for every sin, Jesus Christ died for all of our guilt, Jesus Christ paid the penalty that was due us for our sin. They get it enough to say, well, can we go on sinning then? Can't we sin more boldly because we know Christ will Forgive us. They get something about the gospel, but they're missing the big picture. What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? Paul answers it with an absolute no. By no means. Do not even think of this. How could you even contemplate such a notion? Then he gives the answer, explains the answer. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried with him. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. 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. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace. Friends, if we're going to pursue true freedom. The freedom that God provides in Christ Jesus. Freedom against our greatest enemy. We have to see here that Paul gives very clear instructions. He gives very clear commands. And one of the greatest commands is actually that we must know something. Did you hear that repeated over and over again? Look at verse 3. Do you not know that we've been baptized in Christ Jesus? Verse six, we know that our old self was crucified with him. Verse nine, we know that Christ being risen from the dead will never die again. What Paul is commanding here is that we know something. You see, in order to truly get the freedom, we have to understand the freedom, we have to understand what God has done in order to truly bask and enjoy. and delight in the freedom that Christ has given to us. And if I were to summarize the two basic things we need to know, it's two different phrases here in the text. Look at verses three and four. We have been baptized into Christ Jesus. That's the first major phrase. We have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Verse four has something very similar. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism. So there's a baptism into Christ that we need to understand. What does that mean? But the first we're going to look at is the phrase in verse five. If we have been united with him, we shall certainly be united with him in his resurrection. And you can see that there's actually a number of with hymns in this text. This is very similar to Ephesians in the in hymns. See, this phrase, we are united with Christ, points to the glorious doctrine of union with Christ. This is the most important salvific category you can have in your theology. Union with Christ, because it's only when you're united with Christ that you get all the benefits. that Christ has to give you in salvation. You see, when we're united with Christ, we receive justification. When we're united with Christ, we receive sanctification. When we're united with Christ, we're regenerated. We're converted. We will be glorified. You see, all these benefits are only ours if we are united with Christ by faith. It is the primary category for us to have in our doctrine of salvation. Because it's only Christ who's able to provide true salvation. In Christ, we receive the great blessing of being redeemed and regenerated. Now, the second phrase really fleshes it out a little bit more because we have a verb there. It's not just united with Him. We are baptized. into Christ. What does it mean for Paul to say we are baptized into Christ in verses three and four? This is actually a big point of controversy in many circles. Because there's two real options. One, it could refer to the heavenly baptism. It could refer to God Himself saying, you have a new identity. I have made you a son of God. Or it could refer to the water baptism that we're about to exercise and participate in. Well, I think it actually means both. I don't think you need to cut a line and say it's only referring to one of these baptisms, and I'll explain why. But let's look at what the most basic meaning of baptizing to Christ means. No matter how you interpret it, when you're baptized into Christ, you receive a new identity. The most basic concept here is that you have purple dye in a white cloth and the action of baptizing puts that white cloth in the purple dye. When you pull it out, it has a new identity. It's not a white cloth. It's a purple cloth. When we're baptized into Christ, we receive a new identity. When we were baptized into Christ, God looks at us in a different way. See, that's the heavenly baptism. That's God Himself saying when we place our faith in Christ, when He sees us as one of His sons and daughters because of the Son, He no longer looks at us as children of wrath. as children deserving of wrath because of our sin. No, he looks at us as children who he's going to pour out his love upon. He sees us as children to whom he wants to love and bring into his holy presence. We're no longer children of darkness with this new identity. No, we're children of light. We're no longer children who will be cast out into eternal destruction because our sin is offensive. No, we'll be children who are brought in to feast with God. We'll be children who God loves and pours his love out upon, who are invited to eat at the King's table forever. So we're baptized into Christ. I believe Paul is thinking that eternal change of identity. You are no longer condemned. You're no longer under wrath. No, you are a beloved child of God. The second way that it could be referring to baptism is the ordinance. The water baptism that we're going to witness. In this service and what that baptism is, is simply reflecting that eternal identity. Change what that this ordinance is going to be doing is simply reflecting What God has declared to be true. You are not saved by the water baptism. It has no regenerative power in and of itself. What it's doing is simply reflecting what God has already done. You are going to be dipped into the water, representing your death to your own life and your death to the power of sin. And you'll be lifted up out of the water, representing new life. new hope and eternal life in Jesus Christ alone. Now, the reason I believe that Paul actually is we don't have to say Paul is only referring to either the heavenly identity change, the heavenly baptism or the earthly baptism is because I'm not sure the early church or even we should make such a strong dichotomy between that. If Paul is referring to the water baptism, the water baptism is only significant if it's truly reflecting The heaven baptism. And any time we hear the word baptism, we should be praising God that he has declared us new in heaven. We should remember that water baptism that we experienced. That reflected the heavenly reality. Baptism does not have a cause and the heavenly baptism and the water baptism does not have a cause and effect relationship. No. The heavenly baptism is the reality. That's the one that really matters. That's the one that we must have. The water baptism is seeking to merely reflect and symbolize the reality. And so when we look at the word baptism here, we see that we have a new identity in Christ. We have been baptized into His death. And if we are baptized into his death, we'll be baptized into his resurrection. We will be lifted up as well. Well, let's get into the thick of this. So we've got the two major concepts, union with Christ and baptism. Both are pointing to a new identity, and this new identity is what we must have because without that new identity, we have none of the blessings. But if we're going to consider ourselves united with Christ in his death and resurrection, let us first determine what Christ accomplished with his death and resurrection. Let us first determine what Christ accomplished with his death and resurrection. Scripture says that the Jews crucified Jesus Christ. He was hung on a cross by the Roman soldiers and the Jews. But what's interesting there is it doesn't say they killed him. The Jews didn't kill Jesus Christ, the Romans didn't kill Jesus Christ because they only have a finite power. They only have a small dose of power because they're finite creatures. That is God Almighty, the creator on the cross. He allowed them to hang him on the cross, but they did not have the power. to kill Him. No, God alone has the power to allow that to happen. Christ gave up His breath. Christ gave over His life. So, as we see the Christ on the cross, as we see His death, it's not a powerless Christ. It's not a powerless Savior. No, only He has the power to actually allow God to die in this way. So, what does Christ accomplish on the cross? In His death. In His death, He conquers our greatest enemy. When Christ died, what He did was, as an innocent man, He took upon the wrath of God. Jesus Christ, being perfectly innocent, being perfectly obedient to God, put out His hands and took upon the wrath of God that was not deserving to Him. What He did was He took upon the wrath of God that was deserving to us. Jesus Christ on the cross and in His death does not die for His own sin, but He takes upon the sin of all who believe in Him. He takes upon our sin and dies the death that we deserve. So Christ in His death He destroys the power of sin and death. He takes away the guilt that is ours for our sin. He takes away the wrath that is due to us because of our rebellion against God. And then he rises again. He's raised from the dead to manifest, to demonstrate that he has conquered these enemies. He has conquered the power of sin. He has conquered the wrath of God. He has conquered death itself. So what does Paul say we need to know in order for us to be united with Christ and enjoy His benefits? I'm going to start here in verse 9. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. The first thing we need to know is that when we are united with Christ, when we place our faith in Christ, we no longer have to fear death. We no longer have to fear guilt. We no longer have to fear facing a holy and righteous God. Because what Christ has accomplished for us is a pathway to eternal life, the narrow road. If we place our faith in Christ, we do not fear death. We do not fear God's wrath. We do not fear the guilt. And we have to realize is we will constantly feel guilty as Christians. We will constantly be overwhelmed with guilt because we are going to continue to sin. We're going to continually be accused in our sin. But to realize is that when we place our faith in Christ. We no longer have to be afraid of those accusations. We no longer have to believe those accusations. We know that he has paid our guilt. We know that we have no eternal guilt. You see, Satan wants to accuse us of our sin. Our conscience wants to destroy our confidence in Christ. Because if we feel guilty, if we experience guilt, we are constantly going to be ineffective for the kingdom. That's why Paul says the great clear second command, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to Jesus Christ. It's not just knowing it to be true that Christ died for our sins, but it's actually considering ourselves dead to sin. There's not just a matter of not of knowing we don't have guilt. But it's reckoning to ourselves, it's meditating upon the fact and realizing that every time we are accused of our sin, We can counsel ourselves with the Gospel and say, no, I know Jesus Christ died for my sin. I know He was the infinite, powerful God who took away my sin and my guilt. I know that this accusation cannot condemn me, because Jesus Christ, the one true God, has conquered all guilt before the Father. So there's really two steps there. We must know what Christ has done, and then we must constantly apply that truth to ourselves. Well, the second thing we need to know is that we are united in Christ's death because the power that sin had over our life is now destroyed. Now, this really gets into more of our day to day activities. You see, we were once in a state where we could not sin. We're born with a sin nature. We're born with a propensity and a desire to sin. We rebel against God by our very nature. That sin nature that we are born with, the old self that Paul talks about in verses six and seven. We know that our old self was crucified with him. In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. The old self, that body of sin, that is our old nature. Our old sinful nature, and that sinful nature only produces sinful desires. And those sinful desires only allow us to choose to sin against God. But what Christ has done on the cross is he's loosened the chains. He said, you are no longer a slave to sin. I have destroyed the power of sin in your life. You no longer have to sin. Because what Christ has done here is two glorious things. One, he destroyed the power of sin in our life. Secondly, he gave us the Holy Spirit. If we look at another text, John 16 particularly. We would see that Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit because then the Holy Spirit is going to give us new desires and it's going to begin to regenerate and change our heart. See, this is what our life looks like now. It's an internal battle. We have that old nature that's still there. That's why we're never going to be perfect. We're never going to be sinless. We have that old nature and it's producing sinful desires. And before Christ, illuminates our hearts before the Holy Spirit comes in our hearts. All we have are those simple desires to obey. They enslave us, they capture us, we can do nothing but obey them. But when we're united with Christ, he destroys that power, that power still lives within us, but he destroys its absolute dominion over us. So that we can start to see that those really are sinful desires. We can start to diagnose and understand that these desires that are welling up within me, they're rebellious against the God who has saved me. And most importantly, He gives us the Holy Spirit. That illuminates how evil those desires are. That illuminates how corrupt and perverse our natural heart is. And the sweetness is, the sweet truth is the Spirit gives us new desires. You see, the Christian cannot live a sinless life now, but the Christian now has the ammunition and the power to fight sin. The Christian now has the ammunition by being united with Christ to overcome the sinful desires that have dominion over him and go to battle with those, with the power and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Friends, what we have to do is realize that this is true. We have to know these truths. And then we have to really apply them to our own lives. I was out to eat with some friends recently. We went to Outback, and of course, we ordered a Blooming Onion. And one of the men there mentioned that this has so many calories and so many fat. I wasn't looking at that part. But then he said, no nutritional value. It tastes really good, but there's no nutritional value. Because I thought about that. If you remember Israel, after they're freed from Egypt, after God does great miracles, miracle after miracle after miracle to show that He is a great and powerful God, He takes them out of the abuse of slavery. He shows them His glory. His glory is with them all the time in presence. What does Israel do? They start grumbling. I wish we were back in Egypt because they had onions and leeks. I wish we were back in Egypt because they had onions and leeks. I wish we were back in slavery. God, you didn't know what you were doing. The food tasted better back there. You see, they lost perspective of what God was doing. They lost an understanding of the great power of God's salvation to redeem them. They lost perspective of how to enjoy and delight in the true freedom that God gives. because they wanted their food to taste better. That's the temptation of sin, friends. Temptation looks good to the eye. It'll taste good. It'll feel good. But it'll take you out of true freedom. It'll take you out of truly experiencing the life that God has created for you. You see, we do not continue to sin, because sin is our enemy. We do not desire to go back to the benefits of sin because sin is lurking to destroy us. No, friends, we must always be remembering what God has done for us. We must always be counseling ourselves with what God has done for us, and then we must obey what Paul says in Romans 6 as well. We must yield ourselves to God and not to our sinful passions. There's really three steps here. Know, reckon, and yield. We must know the truth. We must counsel ourselves with the truth and see that it is truly ours. Then we must act. We no longer give our eyes and our ears and our lips and our hands and our feet and our heart and our mind to sinful passions, to desires of the flesh and the desires of the life. Now, we start to give everything we have to God, to His work, to His love, to His ministry. We start to submit ourselves to God and what He has for us. And that is when we will experience true freedom. That's when we'll truly experience a pursuit of happiness that truly satisfies. Friends, as we think about this morning, Nathaniel and Clara particularly, realize that it is in Christ that you're being baptized. Realize that it is in Christ and not the power of the church, not the power of the pastor. In Christ alone, you are redeemed. In Christ alone, you have died to the old guilt, to the fear of death, to the power of sin. You are being risen again. have a new identity, to be a son and a daughter of God, to walk in a newness of life, to walk according to the Holy Spirit, to walk with us as we march along fighting, fighting internally the sins that rise up in our own hearts and doing battle with the spirits that are about us, proclaiming His gospel until He comes. Let's pray. Almighty God, we come before You. You are good. You are holy. You are glorious. Father, You looked down upon us and You saw that we had no power to free ourselves. You looked down upon us and saw that we had nothing to conquer those great foes of ours, sin and death. So, You came down to us. You came down to be like us. We praise You, Jesus Christ, for dying for us. We pray now that as we seek to live a life that finds true happiness in You, that we would obey the Holy Spirit. We would not quench the Spirit, but we would truly delight and enjoy in the desires Your Spirit gives us. And we would fight and battle with that perverse nature that corrupts us. and corrupts the good gifts you give us. We thank you, Lord, for the testimony and the confessions of faith that Clara and Nathaniel have given and will give now. We praise you, Lord, that they're an encouragement to us. We pray that we would be a great encouragement to them. We praise you most of all that your gospel allows us to rejoice and celebrate in occasions such as these. In your name I pray. Amen.