Implications of Union with Chirst

Introduction: The Great Contrast of Ephesians 2

0:04 Will you follow, please, as I read again this morning, Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1 to 10.

0:16 And may I encourage you to try to listen to the portion as though you had never heard it before, to hear what God the Lord says in these, His own words given to us through the mind and pen of the Apostle Paul.

0:34 Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10. And you did He make alive when you were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the Spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were alive. Were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace have ye been saved, and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace have ye been saved, through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,

1:57 not of works that no man should glory. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God aforeprepared, that we should walk in them.

2:15 We continue today our studies in this portion of God's Word, this section that contains the first of two great and vivid contrasts which the Apostle gives us in this second chapter of the letter to the Ephesians. We have, as we've reminded you again and again, the contrast in these first ten verses between what? the Ephesians and all men are by nature, and what the Ephesians and all believers have become by grace, particularly conceived of as individuals. The before and after picture is very graphic, and it has the whole mentality of the death-life contrast. Before you were dead, now you are alive. And of course, the last half of the chapter dealing with the contrast, between what they were as a national entity. They were Gentiles, cut off from the visible people of God, but now, by way of contrast, they are made nigh in the blood of Christ.

The 'Before' Picture: Death, Bondage, and Wrath

3:23 For some weeks, our attention has been focused upon this first before and after picture. The first three verses declaring the before. What are we? What are you if you are not in Christ?

3:38 What are all men before the grace of God? Now God comes to them. Well, the apostle says their true condition is one of death. And you did he make alive, when ye were dead.

3:51 There is no spark of a divine life at all. What is the activity in which dead men engage, that is, a living monument to their spiritual death. Well, he tells us they're bound by the world, the flesh and the devil. And what is their true condition in that state of spiritual death?

4:09 He tells us that, when 뭔가 gets inside of a body, Persephone put in there and is dead, then his rest remains a important comprehension. Their true position before God is one of liability to divine wrath. They are by nature children of wrath. And so the first three verses are a vivid and though brief, yet very comprehensive statement of what all of us are by nature.

4:30 What you are sitting here this morning, if you have not been vitally joined to Jesus Christ, God says your condition is one of spiritual death. Your life is a living monument of that death. You live for nothing but to gratify lust, to obey the dictates of your own depraved nature, and to carry out the will of the world and the powers of darkness. And I solemnly declare to you that in that condition, a canopy of divine and righteous anger hangs over your head this very moment, and it hung over the head of every one of us when we were yet in the world.

The 'After' Picture: God's Authorship, Motive, and Method

5:11 In our sins. But blessed be God, there is the wonderful transition in verse 4, but God. And from verses 4 to 10, we are considering the great transformation from the before to the after. And we have seen thus far that the author of this change is God and God alone.

5:30 We are known, we are told that it is God by the very putting of his name at the beginning of the account of the transaction. But God, and all that follows, is but a commentary on the activity of this exclusive author of the change, God himself. He is the subject of those verbs, quickened, raised, and seated. He is the one who did the quickening, the raising, and the seating.

6:02 He is the actor in the passive verbs. By grace ye have been saved. Something has been done to us. And he is the actor.

6:10 And he is the actor. And he is the actor. Who has acted upon us. And he is the great creator of our new life.

6:17 Verse 10. He is the ordainer of the fruits of the new life. And so the apostle, in a way that cannot be misunderstood, points again and again to this great fact that the author of the change is God himself. And as Jonah from the belly of a great fish cried out, Salvation is of the Lord.

6:38 So the apostle wrote from away, from a Roman prison, these words that we too might understand that salvation is of the Lord. Then he directs us to the motive which moved God to effect this salvation. Why should he thus give life and salvation to dead sinners? The apostle tells us in verse 4, it was because of his great love that cut a channel of rich mercy.

7:06 It was divine love and divine mercy alone that could, could conceive, implement and apply so great a salvation. Now our attention is being focused on the third strand of thought. What is the method? What means does God use in effecting this change?

7:26 If he alone can do it, if he does it in love and mercy, how does he do it? And we have seen that this passage gives us both a general and a specific answer. The general answer is to be found in three things. Paul tells us that the method is one in which the person and work of Christ are central.

7:47 Four times Christ or Christ Jesus is mentioned in verses 4 to 10. The change comes not by religion in abstraction, not even by the church in its concrete expression upon earth. It comes to pass by the work of the Son of God incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God. And secondly, God's method is one in which the biblical notion of grace is dominant.

8:17 Three times in this section the word grace is mentioned. So the salvation is one not of merit, not one of dessert, but it is wholly gratuitous. That is, it is all of grace. And then the third aspect of the general answer as to the method of God.

8:35 It is a method in which the reality and pervasiveness of the changes, evident what vigorous language, quickened in contrast to death, raised in contrast to bondage, seated with Christ in contrast to groveling in the flesh pots of Egypt. The word creation, the word good works, in contrast to walking in trespasses and sins, the apostle could not use more vigorous vocabulary to convey the notion that the change is real and the change is pervasive, and God's method of saving dead sinners will always find itself in this orbit of biblical mentality. Christ is central, grace is dominant, and the change will be evident. So much for gathering together in about six minutes what it's taken many hours to convey in detail in our expositions. Now we are presently concerned with the more specific answer, to that question, what is the divine method in saving sinners?

The Specific Method: Union with Christ

9:45 What is the divine method in changing us from the before to the after? And we began an answer to that question by examining these three words in our last study in Ephesians. He has quickened us together with Christ, verse 5, has raised us up together with Him, and made us to sit together with Him in the heavenly place, which is in Christ Jesus, verse 6. The change that God brings about in which Christ is central, grace is dominant, and the evident change is manifest is a change that comes to pass by joining sinners to the virtue of His Son. They are quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, and seated with Christ. Therefore, God's method is somehow to bring sinners into such a relationship to the saving acts of Jesus Christ that those acts actually affect them. His quickening becomes theirs.

10:57 His resurrection becomes theirs. His session becomes theirs. And may I remind you that this is nothing more or less than what the Bible means by being saved. For you'll notice, in the midst of this, twice He says, for by grace have ye been saved, verse 5, and then at the conclusion of the whole matter in verse 8, by grace have ye been saved.

11:23 So then, to be saved means nothing more or less than to be quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, and seated with Christ. Now then, what shall we do with those concepts? Having expounded the verbs and their significance in our last study, we shall see, as you know from my remarks last Lord's Day, I've been in a great mental and spiritual agony as to how to handle the passage. And let me use an illustration to clue you in as to what we're going to be doing in the next couple of weeks.

The Necessity of Deepening Our Understanding of Union with Christ

11:55 Imagine a man who is committed to be a tour guide in an underground cavern in which there is to be found many and diverse, or there are to be found many and diverse sites to dazzle the eyes of all who go on this tour into this underground cavern. Now the guide knows that at certain points along the way it is not unusual to see coming right out to the wall of the cavern little evidences of precious metals. Perhaps as he goes through with his lantern pointing out the different sites it will catch that which glistens like gold or silver or some other precious metal. And he also knows that sometimes that is not merely a little speck of that precious metal that could be flicked off with a knife or a screwdriver, but is really but the end of what we might call a whole rod or a whole vein of that precious metal. And if you dig in from the one little spot that the eye catches, lo and behold, you will strike a rich vein of precious metal. Now imagine the tour guide who is committed to take people through the entire cavern to show them all that's there and yet he keeps passing that spot that shows about this much on the surface of the wall of a very precious metal.

13:22 And he's constantly tempted to stop and to say let's pause here a while and take our picks and shovels and trace that thing out to see if there's more than just a little surface amount of this precious metal. Well, in a very real sense this is what I've been experiencing. I have been attempting under God with the help of His Spirit to take you through Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 to 10. That cavern that is resplendent with the beauty of God's saving mercy in Jesus Christ.

13:56 Now, we've shined the light upon this concept quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, seated with Christ. Now at this point we can do one of two things. We could go on to expound verse 7 which sets forth the purpose God had in mind for all of this. God is the author of the change but God.

14:20 In the second place we have seen that God's method is to unite us to His Son. Now we could consider and we've looked at the motive I'm sorry His love and mercy the method union with Christ now we could go on in the fourth place to the purpose the manifestation in the ages to come of the exceeding riches of His grace. But I've not been able to do that. I've been checked in my spirit and as I've paused and I've begun to take the pick of meditation and contemplation and the light of dependence upon the Spirit of God as I've been tracing that vein of truth some things have opened up to my own understanding which I feel it would be prodigal not to share with you.

15:04 And so for the next who knows how long week or two may end up four weeks I don't know what we're going to do what we're doing is we're pausing right by that concept of salvation coming by means of quickening with Christ being raised with Christ and seated with Christ and we are determined by the grace of God that together we shall discover something of the wonder and the glory and the beauty of that biblical notion. And so this is what we propose to do. Now this is going to make demands upon you as it's already made great demands upon me. It's going to demand that you think hard.

15:48 It's going to demand that you think long. It's going to demand that you pray. It's going to demand that you meditate. It's going to demand that you concentrate.

15:57 And I submit to you that this is absolutely essential if you name the name of Christ for these things are true of every single believer. If you're a Christian you have been quickened raised and seated with Jesus Christ. Now if these things are true of every Christian then every Christian ought to seek to grasp the significance of these things because if he fails to do so number one God is dishonored in his ignorance. That is the ignorance of the Christian.

16:34 God is dishonored if we ignore or treat lightly the gifts which he has conferred upon us. Imagine a father away on a trip. His children are in his mind continually. And one of the ways he expresses his love and thoughtfulness is to purchase gifts for each of his children.

16:54 Maybe three or four for each of his children. And each of those gifts is purchased with distinct personal concern for each of the children. How would that father feel if he comes home the children meet him at the door they say hi dad they have their hugs and kisses he takes out his little package each one containing gifts for each individual child he gives this to them then he goes off to take care of other matters and he comes back two days later into the child's room and finds the package there unopened. What does that do to the father?

17:27 Well you say it grieves him. That gift was the tangible expression of his thought of his love of his desire to provide things that would bring both delight and supply some usefulness in the lives of his children. That father is grieved if the gifts so thoughtfully planned and purchased are despised. How must the heavenly father feel who in infinite wisdom has conceived from eternity a salvation that is bound up in the concept of being joined to Jesus Christ.

18:08 How must the father feel when his children are content to say well I know I am a partaker of that salvation I have the package in my room I'm too lazy to open it and examine it as to its precise contents. You do not need to know the significance of what it means to be joined to Christ in his death burial resurrection and ascension in order to be a believer. You must experience what it means to be a believer. You must not necessarily understand that.

18:43 But you dishonor God if having experienced the virtue of union with Christ you do not pursue that principle and that element of biblical truth to the place where you have a clear loving trustful understanding of it. And not only is God dishonored you and I are impoverished if we ignore or treat lightly God's gifts. Let's go back to the father and his gifts. Suppose two of the three gifts he purchased for each of the children had a very practical and useful function in their lives.

19:16 He knew that one of the children was having a terrible time with a certain discipline at school with a certain academic discipline and he had purchased a book which was geared to help children with that kind of problem. Not only is the father insulted when the child does not open the gift to examine its context the child is impoverished by not utilizing what the loving father has provided for the well-being of the child. And dear people everything that is revealed in scripture God has revealed for our prophet. Deuteronomy 29.29 The secret things belong unto the Lord but the things that are revealed are for us and our children that we may do them. And this great and precious doctrine of union with Christ is a doctrine that is filled and fairly bristles with practical implications for it is accurate to say that the strength of one's faith and the degree of one's love and the certainty of one's hope will be in direct proportion to one's believing apprehension of what he has in Christ Jesus. Let me give it to you again.

20:34 The strength of your faith as a Christian my faith as a Christian the degree of our love and the certainty of our hope will be in direct proportion to our believing apprehension of what we are and have in Christ Jesus. Think of the car. You'll get no more out of the wheels in terms of performance than is coming from the engine and the engine gets no more than what's going in at the gas tank.

21:10 If the wheels of the Christian life are our practical obedience the engine that drives the drive train in the wheels are those graces of faith hope and love. We live by faith. If you love me you'll keep my commandments. We are saved in hope.

21:28 But what is it that fires the engine that produces the movement in the wheels? It is our believing apprehension of what we are and have in Jesus Christ. And if there is problem at the end of the car where the wheels turn it's because there is some defect in the function of the engine and the problem is that there is a problem may be it's not getting enough gas through the carburetor and God's method in stirring up his people to greater diligence and obedience is that that which gives gives a spring that which gives drive and power to obedience shall be fed by an understanding of what we have and are in Christ Jesus. And so if it is true of every believer that he has died with Christ has been buried with Christ has been raised with Christ has been exalted with Christ God is dishonored if we do not strive to attain a clear conception of what those things mean. Secondly we are impoverished if we do not attain to that clear understanding and thirdly God condemns flat out condemns the spiritual mentality that's content to live on surface issues. We are not dealing with surface issues.

Union with Christ: A Predominant Vein of Biblical Truth

22:53 We are getting into a vein of truth that plumbs the depths of the mystery of the gospel but God condemns the mentality that is continually hankering after nothing but pablum and nothing but milk. Hebrews 5 verses 11 to 14 the time he ought to be teachers one have need we have need to teach you again what are the first principles of the oracles of Christ and that mentality is condemned and therefore I plead with you as a body of people to come with me as we stand before this rich vein of New Testament revelation let us take the pick of diligent thought and apply it with the arms of prayer and faith and trust that together we shall see the glory of God open to our view as the spirit of God enables us. So then we come back to Ephesians 2 and we find ourselves as we go through this great cavern of truth standing in front of these three words quickened together with Christ raised together with him seated together in the heavenly places in him now what should we do well the first thing I want to do and probably time will permit only this this morning I want to establish that this is a rich and predominant vein of biblical truth

24:21 I simply want to demonstrate from parallel passages that this concept of God's method in saving people being one of uniting them to Christ is no literal concept stuck off in the corner here in Ephesians 2 alone it is a concept that is found again and again upon the face of the New Testament first of all the passage before us then turn to Colossians chapter 2 Colossians chapter 2 verse 8 take heed lest there be anyone that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy in vain deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and in him ye are made full who is the head of all principality and power here's the assertion that in Jesus Christ you are made full you are made complete if you go outside of Christ for the meeting of any

25:41 spiritual need Paul says you're leaving fullness for emptiness what an amazing statement in union with Christ you're made full you'll never get any more than that which God has stored up for you in Christ you haven't got it all in your experience yet but it's as good as yours if you're in him in him you're made full well how did that come about what was the divine method of bringing me into that living vital relationship with Jesus Christ which has resulted in my being made full in him he's going to explain that verse 11 in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead and you being dead through your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh you I say did he make alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses you see what the apostle does he's saying you must never think of the forgiveness of your sins and what is more elementary to the Christian faith than the holding out of God's way of forgiveness he says that forgiveness came in a way in which

27:09 you were made alive together with him do not think of his death upon the cross for you as the ground of forgiveness without also thinking of your being made alive together with him as the method by which you entered him to that forgiveness he brings them right together not for theologians but for common ordinary Christians there at Colossae chapter three if then ye were raised together with Christ he assumes the reality of it seek the things that are above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God set your mind on things that are above not on the things that are upon the earth for ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God well am I dead or am I alive how does a dead man

28:05 set your mind on the things that are above conscious volitional activity of living men but it only can be performed by living men who are dead men well how do you put all that together well that's our concern we're standing before that rich vein of biblical concept and we're seeking by God's grace to grasp a clearer more definitive understanding of what the Lord means turn back to Romans chapter six we're just looking at the frequency of the concept I want to demonstrate to you that we must spare no pains to grasp this because it is so predominant a biblical notion what shall we say then verse one of Romans six shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid we who died to sin how shall we any longer live therein or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death not a death like his we were baptized into his death there's some kind of connection between the actual death that he died in time and the death that I die when I become a Christian his death to sin and for sin becomes my death how do we put all this together he goes on to develop we were buried therefore with him through baptism into death that like as Christ

29:34 was raised from the dead through the glory of the father so we also might walk in newness of life if we become united with him in the likeness of his death we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection knowing that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away verse eleven even so

30:01 you see how predominant the thought is and again it's in the area of a practical concern shall we continue in sin and Paul's answer is no if you understood this vein of truth you'd never even raise the objection now turn to Galatians chapter two Galatians chapter two the well known verses nineteen and twenty of chapter two for I through the law died unto the law that I might live unto God I have been crucified with Christ he is not saying I have had some experience of personal death to sin that is like the death that Christ died he said no it's something more intimate more vital than that I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in the faith the faith which is in the son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me chapter six and verse fourteen God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified unto me and I unto the world Christ cross has become mine how do we explain all of that then of course second Corinthians

31:30 chapter five verses

31:34 pivotal passage in which this concept is set before us in vivid language second Corinthians five fourteen and fifteen for the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that one died for all therefore all died and that he died for all that they that live should no longer live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again here is this death life contrast and the heart and life of a believer now what can we say thus far about what we found in these passages I've not expounded them I've simply read them to let your mind and spirit feel something of the tremendous weight of the biblical materials in this area well I think you would be prepared to make several conclusions with me conclusion number one is this a person who has not been crucified with Christ buried with Christ and raised with Christ and seated with Christ is not a Christian that's conclusion number one if as you sit here this morning listen to me my friend if you have not been crucified with Christ you're not a Christian if you've not been buried with Christ you're not a Christian if you've not been raised with Christ you're not a Christian if you are not seated with

Conclusion 1: Union with Christ Defines a Christian

33:00 Christ in the heavenlies, you are not a Christian. This is not speaking of some advanced Christian. This is not speaking of some special class of Christians. This is not speaking of people who've attained some great experience as Christians. This is what a Christian is. Christian is a man that's been crucified with Christ. He's a woman, a boy, a girl who's been buried with Christ, been raised with Christ. You say, but I don't... Now, don't ask the question now, what does all that mean? Just look at the obvious and warranted deduction from these many passages. All of them are simply describing what the Christian is. And therefore, if you are not in Christ, if you have not been crucified with Christ, buried, raised, and seated with Christ, you are not a Christian. To use the more pointed language of Ephesians 2, the

34:02 passage, that is sort of the springboard of our study this morning, you are either dead in your trespasses and sins apart from Christ, or you are dead to your sins in union with Christ. You're either lying bound under the power of the world, the flesh, and the devil, or you've been raised to a state of liberty in union with Christ. You're either living under the canopy of divine wrath, or you're seated in the heavenly places in the position of favor and acceptance before the face of God. The message that I want to hear from each and every one of you here this morning is in one of those two categories. No neutral ground. No middle ground. No mediating position. As you sit here, as I stand here, as you sit there in the room downstairs, it's true of every single one of us. We are either dead in our sins or dead to our sins in union with Christ. We're either walking according to the course of this world in bondage and servitude to the world, the flesh and the devil. Or, when Christ is at hand, we decide to walk according to the course of His world. And this world of that cross of Christ, the sin that

35:02 was shed in the presence of Christ, this sin that was shed in the presence of Christ, is the great sin of the flesh. Now, don't think of living in our own view, in character, in its own way, devil, or we are Christ's free men who come out of the grave in newness of life. We are either under that frightening canopy of divine wrath, or we are seated in the place of favor and acceptance. That's the first conclusion. Now the second conclusion is this. A Christian who has no distinct concept of what it means to have been crucified, buried, and raised and seated with Christ, cannot make sense of some of the major portions of the Word of God. Now I think you would agree to that, wouldn't you? If we do not have some distinct notion, and I use the word notion in its classical sense, that is some perception with the noose, with the mind, here in the noetic, with reference to where I think, up here in my thinker. If we do not, as Christians, have some distinct conceptions of what it means to have been crucified with Christ, buried with Christ,

Conclusion 2: Union with Christ as a Weapon Against Antinomianism and Legalism

36:06 raised with Christ, seated with Christ, then we cannot make sense of some of the major portions of the Word of God. And it's interesting, is it not, that in the very portions that I read to you, two of the greatest plagues of vital Christianity, Paul kills them with this one doctrine. On the one hand, there's been the plague of the Holy Spirit, and on the other hand, there's been the plague of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, there's been the plague of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, there's been the plague of the Holy of antinomianism. That's just a big word for saying do it as you please in the name of Christian freedom.

36:40 And how does Paul answer the antinomian? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He says, no. If you understood what it meant that you were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ, you'd never make the objection.

36:56 Now what's the other great error that has plagued the church? Legalism.

37:01 And how does Paul answer the problem of the legalism in the Colossian church? Chapter 2. He says, what? Why is though living, you're living as those that are still bound to this world?

37:13 He says, you died with Christ. Why is though living are you subject to the ordinances of men? Now isn't it interesting that this truth has a two-edged sword that cuts the nerve of loose living and cuts the nerve of legalism.

37:33 In other words, child of God, if you have no distinct notion no clear conception of what it means to be crucified, buried, and raised with Christ, you do not have a major weapon to fight the tendency within your own bosom and it comes from the fiery darts of the enemy against the two great plagues of the Christian church. Antinomianism and legalism. And it's when the child of God by the illumination of the Spirit lays hold of what it means, then he has a powerful biblical basis to deal with his own flesh. When his carnal remains will begin to reason, well, you're accepted in the Beloved. You're standing before God is wholly upon the work of another. You and your performance have nothing to do with whether or not you will be justified or are justified and will be declared so publicly at the last day. Therefore, since the salvation is all of grace and all outside of you, it rests completely upon Christ, let us sin that grace may abound.

38:44 He says, oh, at that point, understand what it means that you died with Christ. And if you understand what that means and you reckon it as a reality, you will never be found presenting the members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. You'll have a sword to cut the nerve of the apparent logic of antinomianism. And what about the earnest Christians who wants to please his Lord?

39:10 Oh, he wants to please his Lord. Right down to what he wears, how he conducts himself on the Lord's day. Right down to every detail he wants to please the Lord. What's going to keep that sensitive, earnest Christian from being ensnared in a thousand regulations that God never laid upon him until he loses all his joy, all his liberty in the Holy Ghost and instead of going around with the happy, I use it reverently now, carefree spirit of an adopted son who has the run of the Father's house.

39:43 He goes around like a cringing slave always looking for the most recent frown upon the brow of that distant and awesome and austere God. What's going to keep him from that? He says, oh, understand what it means that you were crucified with Christ. Understand what it means you were buried with him, you were raised with him, seated with him.

40:05 And he says, if you get hold of that, then you'll walk in the liberty, that is yours as a son of God, in which you died with Christ through all the regulations of men, that you might be turned loose in the Father's house to have the run of the house with a heart that would not knowingly and willingly grieve your heavenly Father. So you see, child of God, you and I to some degree must be impoverished if we do not have a clear understanding of what it means to be crucified with him, to be buried with him, and to be raised with him. And the Lord willing, what I shall attempt to do starting next Lord's Day, because if too much time has gone even to attempt to start it this morning, and you've had to think hard and long, is I want to begin having shown the centrality of the concept, I want to open up the concept in terms of some axioms. You kids in school, you know what your axioms are? They're your fundamental postulates, your fundamental rules. Those are three words you ought to know and understand.

Looking Ahead: Axioms of Union with Christ

41:11 And axioms, postulates, rules, principles, wherever you go, they're there. You can't get around them. They're those fixed laws of whatever discipline you're working in. In physics, you have certain postulates, certain axioms.

41:26 In mathematics, certain axioms, certain postulates, certain principles, they're there. You can't get around them. You can't deny them. There they are, waiting to be recognized.

41:36 Well, we want to look at some of the axioms, some of the principles, some of the postulates of this concept. This great doctrine and open them up, the Lord helping us. But I think it'd be better to, I had been prepared to, I was prepared to bring the first, but I think you've thought enough and hard and long enough on the background material. Let me then pull the strings together and conclude our study this morning.

Summary and Exhortation to Believers and Unbelievers

42:00 We've come in Ephesians chapter 2 to these amazing words. But God, being rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, trespasses and sins, has quickened us together with Christ, by grace that He'd been saved, and raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be saved? That's what it means to be saved.

42:31 To be brought into such a vital participation with Jesus Christ that His saving acts and what was done to Him in some way becomes mine. His quickening becomes mine. His resurrection mine. His ascension mine.

42:52 You see that? You see why we're forced to wrestle with those concepts. We can't think in terms of Ephesians 2 language about this great contrast and the method of God in delivering dead, bound, guilty sinners. We're just forced.

43:07 These things strike us. And we must either just glance at them and walk by to the next, the next part of the cavern, or we must stop as we've stopped this morning. And lo and behold, what do we find when we stop? Well, we find that this concept is not limited to Ephesians 2.

43:24 It is a concept that the Apostle opens before us in many sections of the Word of God. And on the basis of that, we have drawn these two conclusions that if this is not true of us, we're not believers. And if you're sitting here this morning an unconverted man or woman, boy or girl, I can well imagine, what's going on in your head. You say, what in the world does this talk about Christ being crucified?

43:47 What in the world is... My friend, listen to me.

43:49 My friend, listen. You better put your hand upon your haughty mouth.

43:55 You'll burn in hell unless what we've talked about is true of you. You better take it seriously. You say, I can't be bothered. I must survive.

44:04 My friend, get the garbage of the world out of your mind and begin to think of what it means to be crucified with Christ or hell will be the eternal monument. of your folly in refusing to do so. I want it, my friend. Listen.

44:22 Put your hand upon your mouth. Almighty God, who has one salvation and has revealed it in one book, says that that salvation is to be found in His one Son and in one method, being joined to Him. If you're not joined to Christ, you better spend the rest of your days finding out what it means and how to be. Oh, my dear friend, you'll curse the day you were born.

44:49 When you stand before Almighty God. We're not just dealing with religious notions. We're dealing with the awesome stuff of heaven and hell and judgment and the lake of fire and the glories of heaven.

45:06 If these things are not true of you, you're not a Christian. And if you're not a Christian, you're still in the before of verses 1 to 3. And in that position, the wrath of God hangs above you and will break upon you unless you repent. And then our second conclusion, dear child of God, it's going to mean the pains of meditation.

45:30 It's meant the groanings and the agonies at the desk for hours on end in the past weeks as I've had to bow before that vein of truth and say, Lord, I see so little. It must be glorious since you've put so much of it in your word. But Lord, I feel impoverished. What does it mean?

45:49 How am I to understand it? Then, Lord, how can I convey it to you people that all thank God for just a couple of inches with the pick of arduous thought and study and the arms of prayer and faith, just a couple of inches that the surrounding to that vein of truth is broken away, has whetted my appetite to say, Lord, take me deeper. Take me in more clearly, more fully, more perceptively. Lord, take us as a people.

46:22 Take, take us as a people. Oh, beloved people, this could be the harbinger of a new dimension of spiritual reality and vitality and glory to Christ. I do not offer some kind of a titillation of an itch for some coat of many colors experience. I'm not talking about that at all.

46:43 I'm simply talking about what the first chapter of Ephesians talks about where Paul says, I pray that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of your heart, being enlightened that ye may know. Oh, let us be found earnestly praying that God himself will enable us to know that all of the blessed and holy fruits that God has ordained should come from the loving, believing reception of this truth may be wrought in the life of this congregation. Oh, beloved, God's revealed this to make us more holy. He's revealed it that we might not be crippled with the, with the spirit of looseness or crippled with the spirit of bondage.

47:28 He wants us to be Christ's free men and women. And this truth, more than any other, is calculated to keep us from the errors of the left hand and the right. So let us together pray and believe God that he who has revealed the truth objectively in the world will reveal it to us subjectively, personally, inwardly, and then enable us to walk in its light. Let us pray.

47:53 Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.