I’m a Christian—Now What? - Part A

You and I were at enmity with God, the Bible says.

Or in the words of last week's text, we were by nature the children of wrath even as others. But now things have changed. Now we said yes to Jesus Christ and we are saved.

The relationship has changed. When you make the choice to surrender to Jesus, you enter a new position relationally with God. Find out more today on Connect with Skip Heitzig as Skip shares about the new family you're a part of when you give your life to Jesus. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you to live boldly for Jesus in a culture in need of truth and light. Some people find comfort in the status quo, others just can't wait to challenge it. If this were a recovery meeting, I would begin by saying my name is Skip and I'm a non-conformist.

How about you? Do you go with the flow or swim against the current? The truth is going against the status quo can be difficult, but following Jesus requires it. The Bible's account of Daniel shows how God can transform lives by one person's willingness to defy what's normal. I like to think of it this way, when the waves of life came crashing down, Daniel decided to go surfing.

He thought I'm going to ride these waves. If these waves are the will of God for my life, I'm going to learn how to master these things and I'm going to get propelled forward. Learn to soar above the status quo with Skip Heitzig's book, Defying Normal. It's our way of saying thanks for your gift of $35 or more to help connect more people to God's word. And when you give, we'll also include the booklet, What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren. These two resources will help you stand out from the crowd for God's glory.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely today or call 800-922-1888. Now we're in Romans chapter eight as we join Skip Heitzig for today's message. You know, one of the most exciting things that you can ever see, ever witness, ever be a part of is a live birth. Now I say that as a spectator, obviously, an onlooker, those women who have had babies who are viewing this and have been in labor, they have a very different perspective than that, but nonetheless, it is very, very exciting. And I will say not only as a parent, but especially as a grandparent because grandparents get all of the joy, but none of the responsibility, really. Somebody once said that the job of a grandparent is to fill their grandkid with sugar and give them back to their parents, which I have done on many occasions. There is a story, a legend of God having a conversation with our first parents, with Adam and Eve. And it's like the first parent talking to his first two children, Adam and Eve. So after creating the heavens and the earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing He said to them was, don't.

Don't what? Adam replied. Don't eat the forbidden fruit, God said. Forbidden fruit? We got forbidden fruit? Hey, Eve, we got forbidden fruit. No way.

Yes way. Don't eat that fruit, God said. Well, why, Adam replied? Because I'm your creator, and I said so, God told them, wondering why He hadn't stopped after making elephants. A few minutes later, God saw them taking an apple break in the garden, and He was angry.

Didn't I tell you not to eat that fruit? Uh-huh, Adam said. Then why'd you do it? I don't know, Eve said.

She started it, Adam insisted. Did not. Did so. Did not.

Did so. Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve should have children of their own. Now, we expect children to grow up and to have a life, and to have a life. But until they do that, we give them lots of leeway. There's a lot of things that they do that we let them get away with. And let's face it, babies can do some things that are not attractive, but we excuse them, we humor them, because they're babies.

Here's the list. They're demanding. They're unable to feed themselves. They love to be the center of attention.

They're driven by impulses, like hunger and pain and sleep. They're irritated when they're dirty, even though they made the mess, and you've got to clean it up. They have no manners. Somebody once said a baby is simply a digestive apparatus with a loud noise at one end and no responsibility at the other. But that's natural. That's what babies do. And that's okay. But when you see an adult acting with those mannerisms, it's not so cute. It's not funny.

In fact, it's tragic. Simply stated, a birth should lead to a walk. When you are born again, you should see spiritual growth. You see it in the physical world.

You expect it. You should see and expect it in the spiritual world as well. That brings us to Romans chapter eight. This brings us to a section of scripture that could be called the crown jewel of the New Testament.

Somebody once said that if the Bible is like a ring, then Romans chapter eight is the diamond on the ring, or the book of Romans is the diamond on the ring, and the eighth chapter of the book of Romans is the sparkle on the diamond. Now, last time we got together, we looked at salvation out of Ephesians chapter two. We called it once dead, now alive, and we looked at the stages that every saved person goes through. In fact, every human goes through some of those phases, but a saved person goes through all of them. But once you're saved, now what?

Or as I've called this message, I'm a Christian, now what? And the now what is that that birth, that salvation, should lead to some distinct experiences. And we have outlines that are available online, and I've outlined this for you in your online. You can pull that down and see it, but the four experiences are position, progress, proof, and promise. And we're going to look at all four of those beginning in Romans chapter eight, the 12th verse. We begin with position.

We have a new position. God adopted us into his family, and we are now children of God. Verse 12 says, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, that is, the fallen nature, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we also be glorified together. There's some words in that six-verse paragraph that I want you to notice.

A couple of little phrases. First, in verse 14 is the term sons of God. We are sons of God. In verse 15, he uses the word adoption.

That is the analogy that he's drawing off of. So we are sons of God. We have an adoption or we are adopted.

In verse 16, the word children or the phrase children of God. Now adoption is an act of God whereby he places you into his family. He makes you members of his family.

It is a relational term. Before you were a saved person, your relationship with God was not an intimate one. It was a distant relation.

It was a separated relation. Like it says in Isaiah 59, God said, my hand is not short that it cannot save, my ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, but your sins have separated you and your God. So yes, we had a relationship with God, but not close, not intimate, not like the one described here. In fact, you could say it was like this, God, human.

That was the relationship. Or better yet, holy God, fallen human. You and I were at enmity with God, the Bible says. Or in the words of last week's text, we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But now things have changed. Now we said yes to Jesus Christ and we are saved. The relationship has changed. Now it's not God and human, it's Father in heaven and child of God.

That's a brand new position of relationship. Now this adoption is what John had in mind at the very beginning of the Gospel of John when he said, as many who received him, to them he gave the right or the power or the privilege to become children of God to those who believe in his name. Now I hear from time to time leaders or activists say things like, well, we're all God's children. Everybody in the world, we're all children of God. That's wrong.

It's right only in one sense. Creatively, we are children of God. We are children of God by the fact that he made us all in his image.

But that's where it ends. Redemptively, we are either children of God or children of the devil. You know, in the New Testament book of John, John chapter eight, the enemies of Jesus Christ, those who rejected him, the Jews who wanted nothing to do with them, claimed that God was their father. And they had a relationship with God. And they had an argument with Jesus over this. And they said to Jesus, we have one father, even God, to which Jesus replied, if God were your father, you would love me. But you are of your father, the devil. So the relationship was God and fallen human, holy God and fallen humanity. Now the relationship has changed because of Jesus Christ. Now it's heavenly father and child of God. We have been adopted into his family. Paul liked that term.

In fact, he uses it five times in the New Testament. Adoption. It literally means to place as an adult son, to place in a family, someone who is considered an adult son.

It is not a natural birth. Once again, we were by nature, the children of wrath, the Bible says, even as others. But we have been adopted into his family. So when Paul uses the term, Paul has in mind Roman adoption. He's writing to the Romans.

He's using the background of their culture. And the apostle has in mind the process of a Roman adoption ceremony. Now in a Roman adoption, the son who is being adopted loses all of his rights from his previous family, but gains all of the rights of the new family he's being adopted into. So that even if in that family, there are natural born children, the adopted child is considered equal. Co-heirs of the estate.

One of the New Testament scholars that I read, F.F. Bruce said, in the Roman world of the first century, an adopted son was deliberately chosen by adoptive father to perpetuate his name and to inherit his estate. He was in no way, that is the child, inferior in status to a son born in the ordinary course of nature and might enjoy the father's affection more fully and reproduce the father's character more worthily. So to be adopted in a Roman culture was a high status symbol.

It meant that you have equal footing with natural born children in that family. There was a teacher talking to her first grade class about adoption, wanted them to understand that they could be kids in the class who are adopted and what that means in society so that they would accept one another. And one little girl said, I think I know something about adoption. I've been adopted. And she said, this is how my mother explained adoption to me. She said, when a child grows in your heart instead of your tummy.

I think that's beautiful actually. And I think that's a good description biblically of adoption. God had you growing in his heart for a long, long time. In fact, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter one that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

There it is. You are growing in God's heart. God predetermined that he would bring you into his family. And that's adoption in the New Testament. He chose you before the foundation of the world.

I've always loved what Spurgeon said about this. He said, it's a good thing God chose me before I was born. He probably never would have picked me after I was born. Now, do you know a lot of famous people have been adopted? For example, John Lennon was adopted by his Aunt Mimi after his mother died. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple adopted. Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa adopted. Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth, Faith Hill, Jamie Foxx, Eleanor Roosevelt, all were adopted children. We are adopted into God's family.

That gives us a certain privilege of access. Notice verse 15. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba Father. Abba is an Aramaic and a Hebrew word that literally means daddy. It's not just father.

It's something much more intimate. You still see in Israel today, little Hebrew boys and girls running around the streets when their parents are closing Abba, Ima, Daddy, Mommy. So we now have a right to approach God as our heavenly Daddy, something that Jesus allowed when he said, When you pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Jewish people never did this at the time of Jesus. They never referred to God as my father or our father. He was too distant. He was too powerful.

He was too sovereign. So they would simply use the words Hashem, which means the name. Whenever they would refer to God, they would never say my God or my father. But Jesus in the gospels 70 times referred to God as Father, the father, our father, my father, but also gave us permission to use it. So that's the first experience position.

We've been adopted into the family. The second experience after salvation after position is progress. And what I mean by progress is we get victory steadily as time goes on over the flesh. In verse 12, Paul says, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh. That is, we don't owe the old nature anything to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to this fallen nature of the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

You will live. Now I'm referring in particular to a process that takes place after regeneration, after salvation, after adoption, called sanctification. That's what theologians call it. It's a million dollar word, sanctification.

I've had people come up to me. Have you been sanctified? Yes, and I am being sanctified.

It's an ongoing process. What it means is what Paul means here in these verses is we don't have to live like we used to. We can conquer old patterns and we can grow continuously and spiritually. So sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes me more free from sin and more like Jesus Christ.

I want to give that to you again. It's a very important definition. Sanctification is a progressive work of both God and man that makes me more free from sin and more like Jesus Christ. Now don't misunderstand that. That doesn't mean we become sinless. It does mean we sin less. As we go on more and more, we're like Jesus Christ, less and less, we're gripped by sin's dominion. You know, one of the first things I heard as a young man before I gave my life to Christ is that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That was good news to me. But then I found out something else. The devil hates you and has a miserable plan for your life. And they're often fighting over souls.

Of course, God gives us the choice to say yes to one or the other. But the devil hates you and he wants you to be miserable. He wants you to be stuck in the mire and the muck of your past. And he wants you to be miserable.

He wants you to be your past. And unfortunately, a lot of Christians are. They kind of grow a little bit then they stop. There's no really continual progression. Somebody once said, a Christian is a man who feels repentance on Sunday for what he did on Saturday and is going to do again on Monday. Let me tell you, that's not a definition of a Christian.

That's the definition of a defeated Christian. Now, after regeneration, let me give those words again to you. After regeneration, after God awakens life in us and we see our need for Jesus and then you come to Jesus and we go from regeneration to justification, which means God declares you righteous. Then we go to adoption.

He places you in the family. Then there is this. There is sanctification. We become mature. We grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now, I want to clear this up or make it clearer for you. Justification is instantaneous. God declares you righteous.

You say yes to Jesus, child of God, put into the family of God. Justification is instantaneous. Sanctification is not. Sanctification is continuous. Justification is entirely God's work. You can't earn it.

You can't add to it. It's something He does. But sanctification is with human cooperation. So this is where we are working together with God to grow holier. That is, we are not passive when it comes to our sanctification. We don't just kick back, let go and let God. We have to actively cooperate with the Holy Spirit for victory. Now, the question is, how do we do that?

What do we do? Well, here's a nice little summary for us. Paul says, also in the book of Romans, this time in chapter 6, verse 11 and 14, he says, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin. What does that mean, reckon yourselves? It means consider or count on this as a fact.

This is an established fact. Reckon yourselves to be dead 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, for sin shall not have dominion over you.

Now, the way that is worded shows me that there is an element of human control. Don't let sin reign, reckon yourselves to be dead, reckon yourselves to be dead, reckon yourselves alive to be God. This talks of cooperation. God wants to do it, God gives us power to do it, power to grow, power to mature.

We have to cooperate with that. Too many Christians live on the right side of Easter, but the wrong side of Pentecost. Too many Christians live on the right side of pardon, but the wrong side of power. Too many Christians are out of Egypt, but they never make it to the promised land.

They wander in the wilderness, continually wander in the desert. Martin Luther said, you can't stop birds from flying around your head, but you can certainly stop them from building a nest in your hair. So we must cooperate with what the Spirit wants to do and make progress, not sinless, but we sin less.

That's Skip Heitzig with a message from his series 2020. Now, here's Skip to share how you can help keep this broadcast going strong, connecting you and others around the world with the gospel. Our desire is to see listeners like you connect to God's Word on a deeper level and be transformed by its truths.

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That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Your generosity helps keep this biblical encouragement coming your way and going out around the world to help change more lives. Come back tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares how the Holy Spirit works to grow you in your faith. We are to have a Spirit-directed life. A Spirit, not a flesh-dominated life, that's the negative. The positive, a Spirit-directed life.

That's possible. We have the best Helper in the world, the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, when the Helper comes, He will be with you, He will be in you, and He will guide you into all truth. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.