Well, good morning to everyone. Good to see you all here this morning. Thank you, Mark, for leading us again in that song we just sang, His Wounds Have Paid My Ransom. What a great truth it is to know Jesus Christ and the salvation he provides.

We come together this morning to focus in really on one thing, the cross. Jesus gave us a command to celebrate his death, burial, and resurrection regularly in communion service in order to remember what he did for us and to proclaim his death until he comes. And so the last Sunday of each month at Living Hope Church, we have the Lord's Supper. It's a time to remember, to focus on the cross, to celebrate and rejoice in what the Lord has done for us, what he accomplished by himself, and what that means for us today and for life eternal.

Our text today, in my mind, is the most appropriate in the whole of the scriptures for this purpose. It's the richest, the fullest, most succinct explanation of our salvation in Jesus Christ and what it means not only for eternity, but for today and every day we live on this earth until he comes. It teaches us exactly what we have, who we are in Christ, and why we now as believers in Jesus Christ can and must live a new life because of the transformation that has occurred in us by his grace and power.

We're going to see this morning that salvation is a declaration. It's an imputation of the righteousness of God. In this sense, we are in Christ. When I believe I am in Christ, God sees me as he sees Jesus in his righteousness. This is a positional truth based on what Jesus has done, not on any work that I have done. This is justification and we're going to review that briefly as we studied it last month in chapter 5 before moving on to this profound text in 6, 1 to 11.

We are saved from the wrath to come. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. We have eternal life. These truths are based solely on what Jesus did at the cross, solely on what he accomplished in his death, burial, and resurrection. But my friends, that's not the end of our salvation. I fear sometimes by concentrating so much on justification in the teaching and emphasis of the church today that we risk missing the so much more that Paul talks about over and over in Romans 5 of being in Christ, of what we have in him and who we are in him.

Justification is a glorious truth, a profound truth. We are saved forever. We are righteous in Christ. There's no condemnation. We will spend eternity in heaven with him. And it seems to me with many in the evangelical church, that's where it ends. This is the totality of it. I'm going to go to heaven, I'm not going to be judged, I'm not going to suffer the wrath of God. But that's really a short-sighted view of salvation, a tragic underestimating of the totality of what we have and who we are in Christ because it misses the new creation, the new birth, conversion, the great doctrine of regeneration, and the resulting new life in Christ today.

So we will not stop at justification. We will see in our text that salvation in Christ is not just a declaration of righteousness, it is that, but it's an actual work of changing our very nature on the inside and making us new creatures, new men in Christ, and this is well at the cross. This is what struck me. I've taught this text many times. Some of you are saying we know. Romans 6, 1 to 11 is one of my favorite texts in the Bible. But as I was studying it this time for this communion service, something struck me that really hadn't before. 

I'd taught the doctrine, I'd taught through the verses, but what happened with us happened at the cross as well, in our death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ. Let's look at our text, and we're going to begin in 518 and read down through 611, just a little bit of review in 518. 

Therefore, as through one man's offense, that's Adam, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? For do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. 

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I've given you four points on your outline: first, justification unto life; second, death at the cross; third, declaration and transformation; and fourth, new creation, new life. Well, first in our text we see justification in verse 18. I don't want to make an assumption that everyone here this morning or everyone listening on the website or on the live stream understands fully how we are saved, what justification is. So I want to make the gospel clear, and this is something for believers that we always rejoice in to hear as well, I want to take a little time and review the doctrine of justification, how it is that we are saved.

For if we don't have a clear understanding and a settled faith in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith in Jesus alone and what He accomplished on our behalf, then nothing else really matters. And as important as it is for believers to understand what happens at the point of salvation through faith in Christ, regeneration, transformation, and we're going to get to that this morning, we must first do our best to make a clear presentation of the first step, the gospel and faith in Jesus. 

To be sure that what Paul says in these great chapters is true of each one of us, and that we're actually believers in Jesus Christ, saved and justified. You remember back in chapter 5 at verse 1, Paul sets the tone; he gave this clear statement, everything that he's teaching in Romans chapters 5 to 8 is true only of those who have been justified by faith. So we can't claim these promises, claim this new life, if we haven't first come to faith in Christ. 

So as we consider Romans 5, 12 to 19, specifically the clear statements of 18 and 19, we gain an understanding of what the gospel is and what it is not, of why we are condemned and why we need a Savior and how it is that salvation can become a reality in our lives, justification by faith. 

In verses 12 to 17, we learn that our condemnation as a son or daughter of Adam came through Adam's sin in the garden. This one unrighteous act by the one man Adam brought condemnation and a state of sinfulness to every man that's born in Adam. And this results in a manifestation of that sin in us outwardly through personal sinful acts. And that we see all around our lives, our world every day. 

The idea that man is basically good is a lie of humanism. Man is basically evil. And it's hard to look at the world and read the news and deny that. We are condemned in Adam. And every man, woman, and child is born in Adam, inheriting a sinful nature. Verse 18, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. That's pretty clear. Even so, through one man's righteous act, that's Christ on the cross, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.

You see, we must understand the problem if we're going to get the solution right. If we think the problem is that I sin and I sin and I sin and I sin and I become bad, then the solution obviously would be to do good and do good and do good to become good. But the Bible teaches not that I do bad; that's not the problem. The problem is that I am bad, that I'm corrupt on the inside, that I'm dominated by indwelling sin that I inherited from Adam, and it controls me. And we're going to see that as we flow through our text this morning. 

So the solution is not to do good and do good and do good, because the problem is I am bad on the inside. It's like a corrupt hard drive in your computer. You know, you can put clean your screen and blow out the keys and put little stickers on there. If the hard drive is corrupt, the computer won't work. You need a new hard drive. And that's what happens, we'll see, in salvation. 

We learn here how it is a man can be saved, can be justified in Christ because of the one righteous act of the one man, Jesus Christ. If one man's act got me into this, then one man's act can get me out of it, you see? 

And we learn here what the gospel is not, listen carefully my friends, this is so important, this is the difference between heaven and hell. The gospel is not religion. The gospel is not some system of works and rites and rituals and candles and incense and sacraments and my works of righteousness, suffering, giving, all the things that go with the systems created by men. The gospel includes none of these things. Because the gospel's not something I do. The good news is that it's all about what Jesus has done. 

Titus 3, 4 says, when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Don't worry, verse 10's there, the works will follow, and we're going to see why this morning. We were created in Christ Jesus to do good works which He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. 

Turn over to Romans 4, one of the clearest texts on justification, it follows Romans 3, which is perhaps the clearest text, explaining how it is a man can become right with God by the imputation of God's righteousness to him through faith in Jesus alone. 

Romans 4, 1, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, but to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, how much more clearly could he say it? Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. 

The Scriptures are clear, salvation does not come by the law, does not come by works, does not come by some religious ceremony, rite or ritual. Salvation comes solely based on what Jesus did at the cross. In Romans 3, 19 it says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, why? Why did God give the law? What does the law say to man? That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God, therefore by the deeds of the law, by good works, no flesh, no man will be justified in His sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

Verse 21 is the transition, but now, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. You say, well I have to believe Jesus, but I also have to do this and I have to do that. No. What's it say? The righteousness of God apart from the law, apart from good works is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, the whole Old Testament. Even the righteousness of God, how? How do I get this righteousness? Through faith in Jesus Christ. And who's it for? To all, and on all who will believe. Just as we see in our text in Romans 5.20, the scriptures are consistent and clear that God gave the law so that our sin would become apparent to us, would become exceedingly apparent, as Paul says in Romans 7. The law was not given for us to keep to earn our own righteousness because we cannot keep the law. It only requires perfection. Jesus said you must be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect. 

The law was given to show us our sin to lead us to faith in Christ, and when faith has come we are no longer under the law, Galatians 3 says. When a man comes to understand his sin, his unrighteousness before a holy God that he has no remedy, he has no solution to his sin problem and that he deserves the wrath of God for his sin, then that man must turn in faith to Jesus, to the one and only Savior. 

And having believed in him, having put his whole faith and trust in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, in His substitutionary death in my place for my sins, and I'm justified, I'm saved. God imputes his own righteousness to me solely on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross and on the basis of my faith in Jesus alone. We are righteous solely because Jesus gives to us his righteousness by imputation. He credits his perfect righteousness to my account, and this only by faith. 

In John 5:24 Jesus said, most assuredly, verily, verily, I say to you, he who hears my word, that's the gospel, and believes in him who sent me has—possesses right now everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life. 

John 3:16 we know that verse, we love that verse: for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. 

Listen to verse 18: he who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Why is he condemned? Because he has not believed Jesus. I don't see anything else in that verse. 

John 3:36: he who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. This is the doctrine of justification. This is how a man is saved from God's wrath for his sins. Faith alone and Jesus alone and what he accomplished on the cross—not faith in my works, not faith in my church, not faith in some act or rite or ritual, not even faith in my faith. It's not that you have to believe; it's who you have to believe. Faith in Jesus. This is the glorious good news. This is the gospel of our salvation. 

What we see in verse 18 and following of our text is even more good news. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men resulting in justification. And then there's two words here of life or unto life. Those last two words are monumentally important when we are justified by faith in Jesus; there's not only this positional truth of justification like we were singing about this morning, but there's also the impartation of spiritual life. This is what these words of life or unto life mean; it's an actual impartation to us of the spiritual life of God, and this is the doctrine of regeneration. It's an actual work that God does in us to change us and make us new men on the inside, dealing with the sin problem in us that corrupt hard drive, the sin principle, the power that indwells every man.

And you know, we might think that God would deal with this by doing something to the sin. Why not remove the sin? Kill the sin that lives in our members? What we find is that God has not chosen to do anything with indwelling sin. It's still there. It's there in a man in Adam; it's there in a man in Christ until we die, till we're glorified. But rather, he's chosen to do something profound with us, those who believe Jesus, and that is to kill us, to crucify us in order that our relationship to that sin in us might be changed forever.

Now here's the interesting thing as I study these truths, these words; it becomes apparent that this death, this crucifixion of my old man in Adam and all that I was, this new creation to new life that results in holiness and grace reigning through righteousness in my life. This too happened at the cross: death at the cross.

Let's look at Romans 6:1 again and see what Paul says. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. God forbid. May it never be! No way, no way can we continue in sin like we did. Why? Because we died. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized, this word means to be placed into—were baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit, the book of Corinthians tells us. It just means to be immersed or to be placed into—the context determines the meaning. This is a dry verse here. 

We were placed into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. We were placed, we were united into his resurrection. Or if we have been united together, see he makes it clear here in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Verse 6: Knowing this—here's what you have to know—that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin, now that's the physical body controlled by indwelling sin, the body of sin might be done away with or rendered powerless that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. 

This regeneration, this new creation is as much by grace through faith as my justification, and it's not something I have done or am doing. In fact, it's finished, and it was finished at the cross. I died; I was crucified over 2,000 years ago with Jesus on the cross. Paul says that at the moment I turned from my own self-righteousness, from my religion, and to faith in Jesus alone, I was united, I was placed into him with his death, burial, and resurrection.

I was crucified with Christ in order that I might be buried with him so that I could be raised with him to a new life. Look at verse 6 again: knowing this, that our old man, that's the man in Adam, dominated, controlled by indwelling sin; our old man was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, done away with, so that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 

This truth is the key to understanding what we have and who we are in Christ. God's remedy for dealing with the controlling power and domination of indwelling sin in the man in Adam was to kill our old man, was death on the cross, and then resurrection to new life with Jesus. He crucified our old man. Watch this now, in order that, for the express purpose that our body, our physical body, our members, our hands, our tongue, our mind—would no longer be controlled by the indwelling sin principle. 

So that in our salvation we should no longer be slaves of sin. In verse 21 in chapter 5, he said it this way, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The problem for the man in Adam wasn't dwelling sin which dominated and controlled him so that he could not please God—Romans 8:7, he cannot please God. He could not do what was right; he could not keep the law; he could not do anything but sin. 

God dealt with that problem when he placed us into Christ at the point of faith. Turn over to Romans 8:2 with me. Romans 8:2, Paul writes, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, you see we were unable to keep it. God did. 

I didn't do it; God did it. How did he do it? By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin? He condemned sin in the flesh where it dwells. Why? In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

The righteous requirement of the law is love according to Romans 13:8. What the man in Adam could not do was love, agape, self-sacrificial love. But those who believe Jesus are known by their love for one another and for God. Jesus makes this clear over and over. They will know you are my disciples when you have love for one another, when you're willing to lay down your life for a brother, when you're willing to give of your time and your money and your effort for the salvation of the lost, when your life is all about serving Jesus Christ and loving God and loving one another.

John makes this emphasis in his epistles as well that we love one another. Paul even addresses it in Romans 5:5, for the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. We now in Christ are no longer slaves to indwelling sin. We are now able by God's grace and power and life in us to love one another, to live in holiness day by day, and to glorify God in all that we do.

And my friends, this should be our expectation in light of who we now are in Christ, new men with a new heart and a new spirit and the Holy Spirit living in us. Jesus Christ lives in you. His love's been poured out into our hearts. We're dead to sin. We're dead to the law, as we'll see in chapter 7. We are free from the bondage to fear of death, and all of this is true because we died with Christ and were raised to newness of life.

But it's true—it's true, my brother, my sister in Christ. It's true of you. Actually, not positionally. Actually. Now we are perfectly righteous in Christ positionally. He paid for all of our sin; we stand in the blood of Christ, but we are not perfectly righteous in practice. I get an amen there? Why is this? Is it because we lack something? 

Has God not given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness? Isn't the very purpose in salvation, as we have just seen and see all over the New Testament, to make us like Christ, to totally transform and recreate us to live in holiness? So, why do I still sin? 

It's not that we have to; it's not that we must sin. God's made provision in every circumstance in a way of escape and the ability to do what's right, to trust him. It's that we choose not to believe God; we choose not to reckon his words to be so. And rather we trust our feelings, our emotions, our experiences. We're susceptible to the temptations of this world and Satan's system and the sin that still dwells in us. 

God says we're free from sin. God tells us to be holy for he is holy. God tells us we are new men, regenerated, changed on the inside and actually says here in Romans 6:2 and in John 3 that it's not possible for us to continue in sin as we did in Adam because we've been so changed. We cannot go on in a continual state of sin because we are in Christ. 

Jesus said it like this: there'll be fruit, some 30, some 60, some in hundredfold, but there'll be fruit. But we must first know; that's why Paul keeps saying knowing this, do you not know? Know this. We must first know. 

And then verse 11 tells us we must reckon; we must count up the facts; is what God says is true in Romans 6:1 to 10, is it true? Verse 11 says you better believe it. You better reckon it. It's an ongoing present tense every day, moment by moment. And Pastor Crenn says it's like spiritual breathing. It's not a one-time thing. We don't get up in the morning and go, I'm dead to sin, right? And that lasts us all day. I wish. It's moment by moment.

Verse 10 says for the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts, and do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 

Now reckon, yield, present your members to righteousness. How do we present our members as weapons of righteousness, our tongues, our minds, our hands? We must first know these truths, then we must choose to believe them, to reckon them to be true, and this comes through renewing our minds, through taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, being in the Word and prayer and fellowship and practice. 

My friends, practice these things intentionally in each area of your life—in your relationships with your wife, your husband, your children, your co-workers, whoever. Renew your mind by the Word that you may know the truth. Don't listen to preachers that tell you you're just a vile, wretched sinner, because that's not what God says. And if you believe you're a vile, wretched sinner and you expect to live that way, then you're likely to live up to your expectations. 

Make a volitional choice to believe God, to settle these things in your heart that you are dead to sin, that you no longer have to live in it, that you should expect to live a holy life, and then choose. Choose in your mind when the temptations come. Reckon the truth when the moment comes. Make a choice to practice these things and then present yourselves to righteousness for the glory of God. Use your tongue to speak what edifies.

I can preach it; it's hard to live it. It's hard to live it. I can be out in the barn milking a cow and I'm thinking, dead to sin, I'm gonna love my wife, I’m gonna lift her up, I want to encourage her, and I'm gonna go in the house and I'm gonna speak things that edify. Sometimes I go in the house, and something happens, and I don't speak what edifies. It doesn't mean that we can't. It doesn't mean that God didn't save us for that purpose. 

Think about what God did. God did, Romans 8 says. What did He do? He not only saved us from His wrath for eternity, putting all of His wrath on Jesus Christ, satisfying His wrath in the death, burial, and resurrection for my sins in my place, but He also changed me. Anyone that knew me before knows that. He went to great lengths to make me like Christ, and He's continuing that work.

We must make a choice, a continual moment-by-moment choice to believe God and trust Him and His power to bring His will to pass in our lives, and this is a choice we make. Keep working at it. I am. But understand the battle and understand the doctrine, what you have, who you are in Christ. The battle is in the mind to believe God, to trust Him, and depend on Him to produce holiness.

We're working through the points of our outline here: justification unto life, death at the cross, declaration and transformation, and finally we see new creation, new life. We touched on this already a bit, but this is really the key to understanding why it is we can live a new life in Christ. 

Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5 with me; we can't leave that passage unread in the context of our message. 2 Corinthians 5:14. I got a note here under this clock, I don't know who put it here, but it says, "don't be afraid to preach longer, we will listen." That's alright. 

2 Corinthians 5:14. For the love of Christ compels us. What drives us, what motivates us, what moves us? The love of Christ. Preach the gospel to yourself every day. Because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died. Do you see the consistency in the scripture? We died too. And he died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, it's one or the other my friends, you're either in Adam or you're in Christ. Can't be both. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God. You know, when I go outside in the morning and I look, sometimes the moon's still out there, I look out my bedroom window when I first wake up, or I see the cows grazing, the sheep laying in the park there, all things are of God. 

I praise God, praise God for his creation, praise God for the stars on a cold night. I never thought that way before. Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. Look at this; he's committed to us the word of reconciliation. 

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. What an amazing passage of Scripture this is. We no longer live for ourselves but for him and his mission and his purpose in us. Mark read Galatians 2:20 this morning, I've been crucified with Christ. This happened when I believed; I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

We died; our old man was crucified. Now we're new men. Anyone who's in Christ is a new creation. Now God is working through us, his ambassadors in this world, with the word of reconciliation, the gospel truth to persuade men to come to faith in Christ. We died; we have put off the old man. Colossians 3 says, since we were raised with Christ, seek those things where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. 

When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. What a promise! Verse 9, he says, don't lie to one another. Why? Why? Don't lie; that's a law, right? One in ten commandments? They got that down on the church on a corner, too: don't lie. But why? What's the logical basis? What's the indicative truth that underlies the command that makes it reasonable for me to not lie to you? Since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and you have put on the new man—past tense, it's done, aorist tense. 

Then it says present tense, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. This is an ongoing work. Don't act like who you were. Don't live like the world. Stop being conformed to the world. Rather, be being transformed by the renewing of your mind. You died, you put off the old man, you put on the new man, and now you are being renewed according to the image of him who created him. 

Ephesians 4 tells us exactly the same thing. This is no thin doctrine, my friends. It is the essence of the Christian life. Jesus lives in you. He lives his life through you as you look to him, as you abide in him, as you trust him. And all of this is possible because of what Jesus has done in and for us in his death, burial, and resurrection, and our union with him in this. 

His spirit gives strength to our inner man, Ephesians 3 says. Jesus lives in us to work through us. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power—in Ephesians 1, it says the same power that raised Jesus from the dead works in the believer. 

Salvation is solely by the grace of God. He works in you to strengthen you, to live his life in and through you as you trust, as you believe, as you reckon what he says to be true, and choose to yield to him and his power to produce holiness. The Galatians kind of miss this. Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, who's drawn you away, that you should not obey the truth? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 

This only I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? That's justification, right? How was it you were saved? When you came to faith, was it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Did you hear the gospel and choose to believe and the Holy Spirit came? Then he says in verse 3, are you so foolish—having begun in the Spirit? That's justification. Are you now being made perfect? That's sanctification. Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 

You began in the Spirit; are you now being made perfect by your own works, by your own power? Having begun in the Spirit, you're now being made perfect by the power of God, the grace of God, in our lives as we trust and believe. We are sanctified by grace through faith, one step at a time, abiding, reckoning, as He lives in us. And all of this is possible— all of this is a reality—because of the cross. 

At the cross, Jesus died, was buried, and rose again to new life, and we too. Can you believe that? Can you get a hold of what Paul says here? We too were crucified; we died; we rose again with Jesus so that we might also live a new, holy, and God-glorifying life as a witness to this world, bringing them the gospel truth that they might be saved. 

It's all about the cross, and that's why we're here this morning—to remember, to proclaim, and that's why we celebrate the Lord's Supper, in obedience to what He told us. But what a joy, what a privilege it is to come together, come together now and celebrate what Jesus did for us, and affirm the gospel truth. Not only the way to life, right? Eternal life, no condemnation, but also the way of life, each day, each moment. 

Let's close in prayer and then we'll have our communion time. Father, we thank you so much for the gospel, we thank you for the truth, we thank you that you teach us consistently over and over and over, so many ways. Paul said it’s not tedious for me to write the same things to you again and again, but it's safe for you. Help us keep coming back to the gospel, and help us to understand the depth of the meaning of what it means to be in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.