Thank you so much for leading us again this morning, Mark and Diane. I appreciate that. Good morning to everyone. Glad you're all here this morning. It's a beautiful day. We've been having some great weather. Praise the Lord for that. 

We're continuing our study in the book of Galatians this morning in chapter 4. And Paul's continuing with his message, his encouragement to the believers to hold fast to grace, to hold fast to Christ, and not to turn back to the law as a way, as a rule of life. 

In our text this morning, we see the heart of Paul. We see the deep love relationship that Paul had with the believers in Galatia, their history, their salvation, and Paul's great desire that Christ would be formed in them, that they would hold fast to Jesus and not turn away from the grace of God that brought them salvation when they heard the gospel and believed. They were now in danger, really, of abandoning this grace because of the influence of the false teachers who came from Jerusalem preaching a gospel of faith plus works. 

Well, it's Paul's great desire and God's intent that every believer be conformed to the likeness of Christ, be sanctified, that his outward living would come into consistency with who he is inwardly because of the salvation work of God by grace through faith in his life. This is the great heart of Paul expressed in these verses—his desire, his love for the brethren. 

Just as it was for them in that day, it's vital for us today, for every believer, to understand God's intent and means for forming Christ in you, for our sanctification, and how it is we are to live the Christian life. The message of the book of Galatians is salvation by grace through faith, justification and sanctification by grace through faith in Jesus. This is the heart of this epistle, and we continue with that this morning in this wonderful text before us in verses 8 to 20.

Let's look at that together, Galatians 4, 8. **But then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now, after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage?** You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

**Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or reject. But you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? They zealously court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor and birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts about you.**

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, knowing God. Second, weak and beggarly elements. Third, become like me. Fourth, have I become your enemy? And fifth, Christ formed in you.

Well, first in our text, we see Paul remind them of how it is they were saved, where they came from, who they were before, and how God saved them by his grace. In verse 8, he says, **But then indeed when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now, after you've known God, or rather are known by God.** The Gentiles to whom Paul writes had been part of the pagan religions of their time. They worshipped and served false gods. They worshipped and served demonic influences. We see this clearly in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. It's really an instructive passage. Let's turn to that—1 Corinthians 10 verse 19.

Paul writes, **What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? Do we know better than he?** 

Paul tells us that behind every false religion is demonic influence, is the prince of the power of the air. Those religions of men, the religions that men have designed and crafted after the creatures of the earth or after their own corrupt nature, those religions have their origin with Satan. And that's something we need to understand and be clear about. 

These are the kinds of things that the Galatians were involved in before they came to know God, or as Paul puts it, God came to know them. This is a reminder that they did not do anything to know God. They did not earn their relationship with God by works or law or rite or ritual. But rather, God came to them, brought to them the good news message of the gospel of Jesus Christ through Paul. They were saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus alone. 

This is just Paul's way of reminding them that they did not get into this salvation by some work or religious ritual. It was God's grace, God's intent to know them that brought to them life and new birth and fullness of salvation in Christ. This is why Paul is so perplexed. He writes, **Then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which are by nature not gods. But now after you're known by God or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage?**

Paul is in absolute wonderment. He can't understand because the believers had come out of religion and works and ritual. They had come to know the gospel of grace, of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus. They had experienced the great blessings of salvation, of fellowship, of new life in Christ. And now they were in danger of going back? What in the world were they thinking? This is what Paul's trying to figure out. Why would you go back to that, having known the truth and come out of that? 

The phrase "weak and beggarly elements" refers to those first principles, going back to the beginning. Paul's words here point specifically to the impotence of those weak and beggarly elements. For the Jew, this would have been the law, and similarly, for the Gentiles, some sort of external law or works or system. Paul here highlights the weakness of the law. 

As in so many places in the scriptures, Paul speaks of the bondage to this law, of the weakness of the law, the inability of the law to bring us salvation or to produce righteousness in our lives. It was weak, beggarly. It could not save or empower or deliver. In Romans 8, 2, Paul says, **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 in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin; he condemned sin in the flesh 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.** 

So what Paul's saying is the law of Moses could not save me. It gave me no power. The law gave me a standard of righteousness, but it gave me no power to keep it. So what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh—because sin dominated and controlled me in Adam—therefore I was unable to keep the law perfectly, which is what it required. What the law could not do, God did. God did that by sending Jesus. He now has worked in me to allow me to love. Love is the fulfillment of the law, agape, self-sacrificial love. 

Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3 with me, please. This is a really great passage on the subject of the law and its inability to save or produce righteousness—2 Corinthians 3, 2. Paul says, **You are our epistle,** talking to the believers, **written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God.** 

We see here that in the new covenant, there's an internal work. It's no longer an external law, but there's an internal work that God does in us. **We have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, not of the law, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the law, the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.** 

But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. 

Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 

Now here's the good news, verse 16. **Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, when the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Liberty versus bondage. The law was bondage. The law was death. The law was condemnation. The Spirit is life. The Spirit is righteousness. The Spirit is liberty.** This is the contrast between the Old and the New Covenant. 

So there is a clear and consistent contrast in the teaching of Paul between the law, or the letter, and the Spirit. His point in our text, and in the verses we just read, is that the law is unable to bring life or righteousness. The function of the law is to show us our sin, is to leave us guilty, to shut our mouths before a holy God, and to lead us to faith in Jesus Christ. But Galatians 3, Paul said, **Once faith has come, we're no longer under the law.** 

In Romans 7, 5, Paul draws this contrast. He says, **When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now, we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.** Such clear words. We should serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. The law should not be our rule of life. The law should not be a means whereby we try to generate holiness through keeping it. 

We no longer serve, live by the law, the letter, but there is freedom and liberty in the Spirit. Freedom to love, freedom to obey God. Paul picks this up in Galatians as well, for our application concerning the law and the life of the believer. Let's look at Galatians 5, 1. We'll get to this shortly, Lord willing. 

Galatians 5, 1, Paul exhorts them, **Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he's a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law. You have fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. You ran well, who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind. But he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Where the Spirit is, there is liberty.** 

So what is our liberty in Christ? To love. We now can love God and love man. This is the command of the new covenant—to believe Jesus and love one another. We serve not by the letter but by the power of the Holy Spirit, the life of Jesus Christ in us as we walk by faith. 

So we see in our text known by God. We see weak and beggarly elements, and next Paul says, **Become like me, verse 12. Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?** 

Well, apparently Paul had some sort of eye disease that was not attractive, and he was experiencing a bad bout of this when he ended up in Galatia. We see the relationship they had from the beginning and that was built, of course, strengthened through the gospel and them being saved in the fellowship that they had in Jesus. But they received Paul. He says you would have even plucked out your own eyes, and he's reminding them of where they came from, how they were saved, what their relationship was, and he says, **Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?** 

The blessing that Paul and the believers in Galatia enjoyed was sweet fellowship in Christ. That fellowship came with salvation—that excitement, that thankfulness, that passion to know Jesus, to make him known. That passion that comes when a man realizes his sin and need and understands the goodness of God and his grace. Salvation through faith in Jesus alone, and there's a great bond. Paul had this with the believers there. 

But because of confusion and false teaching, this was all in danger now. Their relationship was hindered. That sweet fruit-bearing fellowship they had solely in the grace of God was now somehow tainted by a turning back to law and works and self-righteousness. 

Paul says, **I became like you.** The Gentiles did not have the law of Moses, the law of God. They were not seeking to establish their own righteousness through the law of Moses. Paul, in this sense, became like them. Romans 9:30 says, **What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone.** 

In this way, Paul became like them—leaving the law as his way of life, as his righteousness. Philippians 3 gives this testimony. He says, **We are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so—circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.** 

Now listen to what Paul says: **But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him—not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.** 

The great irony is that the Gentile believers in Galatia were now turning to the law of Moses. They were placing themselves in bondage to the law, putting on their necks the yoke of bondage that neither we nor our forefathers could bear, as Peter says. 

Paul says, **Become like me, for I became like you.** Don’t go to law; be free from the law. Live by the grace of God through faith, just as I am, just as you were. I became like you; now you become like me. And Paul makes this great statement in verse 16: **Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?** 

If the Galatians fell in with the Judaizers in their false message, then Paul would become the enemy because he spoke the truth against these lies. I feel like Paul sometimes in this way. Believers all of us love the truth until the truth rubs up against something in our lives that needs to be changed—some understanding, some doctrine, some thinking, some practical application in our lives. And I feel that sometimes just because I'm preaching through the truth of the Word of God, I'm put in this position of being the bad guy for offending, for touching a nerve, and I say with Paul, **Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?** 

We should always want the truth. But the truth can sometimes be painful because it is the truth that is sanctifying us—that is making us like Christ, changing those things that are not consistent with who we are in Christ. And this kind of growth is necessarily painful sometimes. But we should always want to know the truth, always be seeking the will of God in our lives, and those who are willing to speak the truth in love should not be considered our enemies but our friends. The truth is what matters most. Jesus said, **Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.** 

Last, in our text, we see **Christ formed in you.** Verse 17: **They zealously court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor and birth again until Christ is formed in you. I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts. I'm perplexed about you.** 

My little children, my born ones, my born-again ones! For whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. False teachers always want to draw men away. They want to hold them for themselves to bring themselves glory, to increase their power, their wealth, their influence. They wanted to draw away the Galatians to themselves, court you for no good, exclude you that you may be zealous for them. 

But being zealous for religion, for a sect, for some system of theology is not good. Paul says we must be zealous for a good thing—for truth, for the gospel, for Jesus. The key verse is verse 19: **My little children, through my labor and birth again until Christ is formed in you.** 

Paul says I labor. He uses the word here for the pains of parturition. Raise your hand if you know what parturition means. I was up on a farm. We did a little class with Northland College one time on wolf trapping up at Jeff Lauren's farm in Gurney, and my boss was there, and he's one of these very educated men, you know, and he was giving a talk to these students. I was standing with Jeff and Beth Lauren there, and he said something about post-parturition. Beth leaned over and said, **What's that mean?** I said that means after they have their babies, and she said, **Why didn't he say that?** That's a good question. Why didn't he say that? 

The labor pains of childbirth—that's what Paul is talking about. Paul is laboring with great intensity. It is his sole focus and goal to have Christ formed in them. Can you imagine a woman in labor—some of you may have been there for that? Maybe you should or shouldn’t be; I don’t know, but can you imagine a woman in labor saying, **You know, I've been thinking maybe we should get that firewood done this afternoon** or **maybe we should go on this vacation?** She’s focused. She’s intense. 

Paul is focused on one thing, and that is to have Christ formed in them. This is Paul’s great desire, his mission, his life— to see believers sanctified, to see Christ formed in them. The word formed is the same root word used of Christ in the transfiguration. Metamorphic—the word is the explanation of the Christian life, of the process we are now engaged in. This life, this transformation—we are in between justification and glorification. 

In Matthew 17, it says, **Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.** 

Now, now what do Moses and Elijah represent? The Old Testament, right? The law and the prophets. **While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.”** When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, do not be afraid.” 

When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Jesus pulled back his flesh to show them the inner essence of who he is, and they were stunned, struck, fell on their faces before him. This is the idea of this word. It’s also used in Romans 12:1 and 2. 

Let's look at Romans 12:1. Paul, after the great doctrinal section of the book of Romans, where he's fleshed out the gospel, explained to us the truth of who we are in Christ and how we should live, he says, **I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, all of these great truths we’ve talked about, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.** 

That’s that same word right there. **Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.**

There are two key words here, and they are conformed and transformed. I love this passage so much because it explains to us biblical sanctification. Biblical sanctification is an outward conforming to an inward reality—the truth of who we are because of the work of God in salvation, specifically regeneration. 

I’ve shared this before, but I want you to listen carefully to Weiss' comments on these two words, conformed and transformed. The word translated "conformed" refers to the act of an individual assuming an outward expression—how we live, assuming an outward expression that does not come from within him, nor is it representative of his inner heart life. The prefix preposition “soon” adds the meaning of the verb to the meaning of the verb—the idea of assuming an expression that is patterned after some definite thing, and here that would be the world. Its present tense shows an ongoing action. 

So what Paul’s saying is stop being conformed by the world. Don't let the system of the world and the demonic forces behind it mold and shape you into the image they desire. It is not an outer force that must transform your outward behavior; it’s an inner force that must transform your outward behavior. 

So, he says, rather we must be being present—be being transformed by the renewing of our mind. The word transformed, like we said before, is that metamorphic, which speaks of the act of a person changing his outward expression from the one that he has—an outward expression now—how you live, changing it from the one you have to a different one, an expression which comes from and is representative of his inner being. 

That’s so important for us to understand. It’s biblical sanctification. It’s the definition of Christ being formed in you, meaning that the outward life, the walk of the believer is whatever—more continually becoming into consistency with who they are on the inside. 

This is the exhortation found consistently throughout the New Testament. Like Ephesians 4:1, he says, **I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy.** Right? To walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. In the first three chapters, he gives us these glorious truths about who we are and what we have in Christ, and then in 4:1, he says, **Therefore, walk in equal weight.** The words mean equal weight—walk in consistency with who you are. 

Now the crucial truth becomes this: to understand, know, and believe who we are inwardly in Christ. If you believe that you're a vile wretched sinner, then how should you live? Back in that Romans 12 passage, Paul says it is reasonable for us to live a new life—to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. The word reasonable is logicos—rational, agreeable, following reason. In other words, it’s logical; it’s reasonable for us to live a holy life outwardly because of who we are inwardly and because of the very life and resurrection power of the Holy Spirit in us. 

You see, when we believed Jesus, we were totally transformed on the inside. We were made new men, new creations in Christ. God took out our heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh. He made us alive in our spirit and caused His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and Jesus Himself came to live in and through us. In Ephesians 1:19, it says the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you. 

Now we live in a new way—not by the letter, but by the Spirit. Let's look at Romans 5:19. Paul’s been discussing the contrast between the man in Adam, the man in Christ from 5:12 down through this verse, and he says, **For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.** We understand that first part so well. By one man's sin, Adam’s sin in the garden, we were made sinners. That is who we were in Adam, and thus how we lived. 

But I feel like we struggle with that second part. By Jesus’ one act—His obedience to death on the cross—we were made righteous. Life was imparted to us. Look at the end of verse 18: **Justification unto life.** That speaks of the impartation of divine life in us. 

Now notice verse 20. He says, **Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.** Grace superabounded, so that, there’s your purpose words—why did grace abound? **So that**, as sin reigned in death—now think about that with me. How was it that sin reigned in death when you were in Adam? How was it that sin and dwelling sin reigned in your life? Completely and totally, right? 

As sin reigned in death, what’s the next two words? **Even so.** The same way, just the same. **Even so, grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.** And we say, **Well, I want to observe this day and this month and this year and this festival, and I'm going to go through this ritual to make me more holy. And I'm going to fast and that high-octane prayer to show God I'm serious.** Paul says, **What are you thinking? What are you doing? Grace. Grace reigns in your life. Jesus Christ lives in you. Don't go back to the law. Don't go back to the law. Look at Jesus. Abide in Him. Know Him.** 

Just as sin reigned in Adam so that the outward fruit was only sin all the time, so Paul says, grace reigns in the man in Christ so that his outward fruit might be continuous righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the purpose of God in transforming us and imparting to us His supernatural life, dealing with the sin that dwells in us, and releasing us from the bondage to the law. 

Romans 6 goes on to explain that our death, burial, and resurrection from the dead, our union with Christ totally transformed us on the inside and forever changed our relationship to sin and law and death and hell. We died. Our old man was crucified so that grace might reign under righteousness that we might be conformed to the likeness of Christ, that Christ might be formed in us, that our outward behavior—how we live—might ever increasingly come into consistency with who we are on the inside because of God’s saving work. This is the explanation of the Christian life. 

It’s a battle, my friends. It’s not that it’s not a battle; it’s not automatic, right? But the question is, what is the battle? The battle is in the mind. The battle is in the mind to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, to renew our minds to these truths, to believe, to know, first of all. 

Paul says you have to know; then you have to choose to believe, to reckon what God says is true, and then yield yourself to Him and His power. This is the explanation of the Christian life, and it's Paul’s intent for every believer, and this is the very heart of the letter to the Galatians and why their going back to law was so devastating to God's intent and purpose for their lives. 

Paul has spoken so consistently on this throughout the letter. Next time, we’re going to see an allegory—an illustration of the two covenants—of the two women representing law and grace, and we’re going to see Paul explain that we must cast out the bondwoman. We must now live by the grace of God through faith. 

Galatians 2:20, he summarized it: **I have 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.** Paul was laboring, agonizing like a woman in childbirth with this single focus—that the believers would be transformed, outwardly changed to come into conformity with who they are on the inside, that they might live lives worthy of their calling for the furtherance of the gospel and the glory of God. 

My brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are going to live a new kind of life, you must first understand who you are in Christ. You must reckon and believe what God says is true about you, and then you must yield to Christ’s life and power in you. You must abide in Jesus every day. He’s what you need. We need to trust Him, look to Him—not constantly be looking to the law and to ourselves and our performance and trying to measure up and failing—there’s only frustration in that, there’s no fruit in that because the law cannot produce righteousness. 

Walk by faith, trusting in the grace of God. In this way, and only this way, will Christ be formed in you. Will we live in harmony with who we are and not who we were? **Such were some of you**, Paul says. **You were washed, you were sanctified, right? You were made new men; now live like new men.** That’s the message. By God’s grace, through faith. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for the work that you've done in us. We're so thankful for your grace, your salvation. We're thankful that your grace was sufficient in Christ to save us, to rescue us from your wrath for our sins, to justify us. But we're also thankful for the work of regeneration—that you changed us on the inside, that you solved this problem of the dominating, controlling power of indwelling sin and the bondage to the law and the fear of death. 

We still have sin living in us. We still live in these unredeemed bodies. But who we are in our nature, in our essence, in our spirit, is redeemed men, fit for heaven, in Christ Jesus. Help us to live according to that truth, and help us to believe what you say in your Word and help us to depend on you to work out all the details, Lord. In Jesus' name.