Jesus said, because I live, you also will live. Our fate is determined by the head of the humanity or body to which we belong. If I belong to Adam, I share his guilt. Death is my destiny, whatever I do.
If I belong to Christ, all his righteousness and his life are mine. The gospel is a simple message. As has been said by others, even a child can understand it, yet it's a message that can be contemplated, studied and mined for a lifetime.
And as we do, we see more and more clearly how great this good news is. Welcome to the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. We have a special week of episodes as you'll hear messages from this year's Ligonier Ministries National Conference, and you'll have the opportunity to respond to a new resource offer every day. Today's teacher is Michael Reeves, who serves as president and professor of theology at Union School of Theology in the United Kingdom, and when you give a donation of any amount today at Renewing Your Mind dot org, you'll receive lifetime digital access to two of his teaching series, Reformation Truths and The Fear of the Lord, and I'll tell you more about those series at the end of today's episode. Today's message is on union with Christ, and this subject transformed my understanding of the gospel, so I'm sure you'll want to listen to today's message again and again.
Here's Dr. Reeves. Friends, do you know why so many Christians are short on joy, shy in prayer, and so ensnared by their sin? It's because they think they have only a minor problem requiring a little salvation, and so they think, well, my problem is I've done a few bad things, and so maybe if I do some good things that will cancel them out, or God can just forgive me. After all, there's not that much to forgive. That'll be an easy one. In reality, our problem is so radical, it requires a solution so breathtaking, it has the power to liberate the enslaved, to strengthen the weak, and to bring both comfort and joy. Do you want to hear it?
Let's start with the problem so we can see the radicality of the problem for the solution we need. The Apostle Paul put it with the bluntness of a hammer in Romans 5. He said, sin came into the world through one man, that's Adam, and death through sin. One trespass led to condemnation for all, for by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. Do you see the point? I do not determine my own destiny.
John Dunn was right, no man is an island. It is because of the sin of Adam that we sin and die. I confess at that point, I can hear the sirens of the thought police come wailing up the street because this is outrageous. Because am I not the master of my fate, the captain of my soul? Do I not determine my own destiny?
And it's hard for us to hear this in a culture that is so soused in Hollywood goo, but no. We have been born into a problem that goes back before we even existed, before we had done anything. We have all been born of Adam in his likeness, of his family sharing his sinful identity. And so it's not that we sin and therefore we are sinners, we are born sinners and therefore we sin. We're born with a problem and we're just in our sin acting out who we are.
Now this is so weird to us. We need to go to 1st Corinthians 15 for some help, so would you turn to that with me? I will begin to see here why this is great good news.
But you need to see the problem to get the solution. 1st Corinthians 15 from verse 20. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who've fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order. Christ the firstfruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ. Now to get Paul's argument here, it helps to realize he's got an Old Testament text on his mind and that text is holding a lot of the argument of 1st Corinthians 15 together. And he's hinted at what this text is in verse 4, if you've got the passage open. In verse 4 he said Christ was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
Have you ever wondered which ones? Which scriptures? Well there are many Old Testament scriptures that talk about resurrection and the third day. Most of you are probably thinking, oh Jonah.
But there are more. But I think there's one above all that unpacks Paul's argument. It is the third day, Genesis 1.
So would you come with me to Genesis 1, because this completely opens up Paul's logic. Keep something in 1st Corinthians 15 if you can and turn to Genesis 1 and we're going to dive in at verse 11 where we're looking at the third day of creation. And God said, let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind on the earth.
And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit, in which is their seed, each according to its kind. Sounds a little repetitive doesn't it?
He's driving in a key lesson. For there in the first chapter in this creation week on the third day of Genesis 1 we see the first fruits of creation. As Christ raised on the third day would be the first fruit of the new creation, of the resurrection from the dead. And these fruits in Genesis 1, these first fruits, they reproduce according to their kinds because here's the point that keeps being repeated. They have seed that is the next generation within them.
Do you see the point? The seed is within the fruit. So what happens to the fruit happens to the seed. Where the fruit goes the seed goes. And so it is Paul says with Adam and Christ.
They are the first fruits of two very different crops. All other humans are but seed in one of those two fruits. Adam is the fruit of death. Christ is the fruit of life. All Adam's seed in him die. All in Christ are made alive. This is the big picture of humanity for Paul.
It's not that humanity is this vast throng of disconnected individuals. Adam and Christ are the two men. They are the heads, the first fruits of the old and the new human race. And each one of us is merely a seed in one of those fruits.
A member of one of their bodies. Dependent for our fate not on ourselves but on the fruit in which we belong. So when Adam sinned we sinned as his seed in him. When he died we died. And so at my birth I was born into a sinful, guilty, spiritually dead humanity. Now today we live in a culture of hyper individuality of individualism but that has mutilated our understanding of the Christian good news because reading it individualistically the gospel sounds like hey you individual come and add a little something to your life. Have a bit of grace.
Paul sees it very differently. Our very identity is a problem. We were born of Adam.
There's no hope for us in trying harder. We need more than just a little bit of grace. Our only hope is to be taken out of Adam's old humanity. To be born again. To be a new creation. And so in the loving wisdom of our God when all was sin and shame a second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came.
And this last Adam would be the head of the new humanity just so that all who are born in Adam share Adam's fate so all who are reborn in Christ share his fate. All who are members of Christ's body experience in him what happened to that body. So we died with him in him on the cross. Our old identity was slaughtered, speared, buried so that Paul can write I have been crucified with Christ. For since he was in Christ as a Christian Paul knew he had been taken down into the death of Christ.
There in the death of Christ all boasting in himself was silenced. He had been condemned on the cross in Christ. More than that in fact in the death of Christ Paul knew he had met and endured all his condemnation. But even that wasn't the end for after the cross the father couldn't leave his beloved son dead and so the father vindicated his son or to use the language of 1st Timothy 3 16 he justified him. In other words the father declared his son to be righteous and so utterly worthy of life and clearly there was more righteousness in him than there was sin in us and so having borne our sin death could no longer hold him. Having taken sin and death down to death death had no further claim on him. And now think when Adam the head of the old humanity was found a sinner all in him shared his fate.
He was the first fruit of death. Now when Christ was justified declared righteous worthy of life by his father he was Romans 4 25 raised to life for our justification. All who are in him share that life giving justification he received on Easter morning.
He is the third day first fruit of life and righteousness all his seed that are in him share his fate thus in him we are given new life and we are covered by his righteousness. It all makes for an infinitely more nourishing gospel. You compare this union with Christ to the sort of muck theology where justification is explained as nothing more than is just as if I'd never sinned. As a young Christian I believed I was thrilled to believe that when I first trusted in Christ I had all my sins forgiven. My slate was wiped clean and I thought this is brilliant but I dirtied it up again rather fast and I thought now what is God to do with those sins?
He dealt with them all what what happens with the new ones? Do I need to be re-justified now? But those sins are problems hindering my enjoyment of God but the idea that I might need to be re-justified betrayed the fact that young Reeves had not appreciated my new identity as a Christian is in Christ the righteous one and so not my feelings not my behavior not my faithfulness he is my righteousness he is my status he is my standing before God the same yesterday today and forever. You know when John Calvin in his Institute's if you've ever been scared of the Institute's this will cure you I'm gonna read you a little bit and you'll see how good it is and when he's explaining justification he uses this illustration from Genesis 27 to explain it so do you remember it's the story of Isaac and his two sons Jacob and Esau and you remember the two sons Jacob and Esau so Esau you need to know he's a man's man he likes going out hunting animals shooting them and so he smells of hunting and the other thing you need to know is he is hairy very very hairy so much so that if you stroke a goat that's what stroking his hands are like that's hairy Jacob his younger brother is a smooth-skinned mummy's boy who hangs around in the kitchen and Calvin says this Jacob did not of himself deserve the right of the firstborn but concealed in his brother's clothing wearing his brother's coat which gave out an agreeable odor the smell of hunting there in he ingratiated himself with his father so that to his own benefit he received the blessing while impersonating another and Calvin says we in like manner hide under the precious purity of our firstborn brother Christ so that we may be attested righteous in God's sight and this is the truth for in order that we appear before God's face under salvation we must smell sweetly with his odor and our vices must be covered and buried by his perfection in other words we are clothed with a righteousness that is not our own but Christ's as Adam and Eve were clothed by the Lord in the skin of the first sacrificial animal so Christians are clothed with Christ instead of having to face God in the fig leaves of our own righteousness our own efforts we appear before the Father in our firstborn brother our vices covered and buried by his perfection Jesus said because I live you also will live our fate is determined by the head of the humanity or body to which we belong if I belong to Adam I share his guilt death is my destiny whatever I do if I belong to Christ all his righteousness and his life are mine and so all Christians no matter how weak can boldly say with Charles Wesley no condemnation now I dread Jesus and all in him is mine alive in him my living head and clothed in righteousness divine bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own Christ is our righteousness that's why Luther could say that Christians are at the same time sinners and righteous that in themselves they're sinners but like seed in a fruit Christians are hidden in Christ his destiny his status is theirs always spotted with sin no way worthy of salvation in ourselves for the rest of our lives however much we mature but however weak or strong mature or immature surround it closed with Christ what relief from our society's insistence on self-confidence I know self-confidence sounds great doesn't it to us because it's like caffeine for the ego for as long as it's going well the thing is if you try to have self confidence before God you will be an emotional yo-yo you know you'll be up on Sunday because been to church prayed been good down on Monday because you've done the opposite and feel he loves me he loves me not he loves me he loves me not according to how you feel no we can know an assurance anchored in firm ground outside ourselves in Christ Christians are people who have given up all claims to both their badness and their goodness and instead we've gotten Christ and so we can say with Martin Luther when the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell we ought to speak thus I admit I deserve death and hell what of it does this mean I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation by no means for I know one who suffered and made satisfaction in my behalf his name is Jesus Christ the Son of God and where he is there I shall be also that is just the answer for the Christian who is dogged by failure by the whisperings of the accuser instead of trying to top up Jesus work on the cross instead of trying to sweep our guilt onto the carpet we can own up to it all knowing our sin can no longer define us the Christians have a new identity we died with him were condemned with him and now where he is in newness of life there we shall be also this union with Christ oh the assurance it gives but it also union with Christ it transforms because to speak of our oneness with with Christ is another way of speaking of Christ's marriage to his people the bride and the bridegroom have become one we are now together Christ and his bride the church together for better for worse for richer for poorer in sickness and in health till death when we meet and here's why that is transformative because this marriage is no marriage of convenience we do not come to Christ to use him or his connections we don't marry become one with him to get his heavenly citizenship or status we're not as John Calvin would say it to seek in Christ something other than Christ no the greatest benefit of union with Christ is Christ this marriage is made so that we may know and enjoy him union is the foundation the solid foundation allowing us to enjoy communion with him and take the Apostle Paul the Apostle Paul when he's writing to the Philippians of Philippians 1 do you know he doesn't say my desire is to depart and be in heaven he says my desire is to depart and be with Christ which is far better because for Paul heaven would not be heaven salvation would not be salvation without Christ Christ is our life he is our treasure and prize we enjoy being one with him because we enjoy him and that cuts through one of those Christian debates that never seems to die down I wonder if you've noticed these so on the one hand there are some Christians who so want to emphasize the absolute freeness of salvation that they get very very nervous at any calls for holy living because they think whoa whoa whoa it's free so don't make any requirements it's free and there's another camp that is quietly terrified of the language of free salvation and they say don't tell people it's completely free always I'll never come to church as if salvation is some ethereal box of goodies you get when you die but all that problem goes away if salvation is Christ and then you can't separate salvation and Christian living or justification and sanctification because both are about him and he cannot be sliced up because it's not like God has these lumps of righteousness or salvation in heaven and he thinks have a little bit of righteousness have a bit of salvation no he gives us his son and in his son we have righteousness and salvation and life therefore as a preacher I offer Christ to all freely but I offer no life apart from him he is salvation in him is all righteousness and knowing him is the heart of holiness Martin Luther put it so well he said through faith in Christ Christ's righteousness becomes our righteousness all he has becomes ours or rather he himself becomes ours this is the only reason we have his righteousness because we have him and knowing him walking with him is the only life and liberty for which we're saved Christ says Paul in Colossians 3 is our life so let's think what is Christ's life what is this life that we've been brought into well the son's very identity is found in this that he is the beloved of the father the son never acts out of guilt neediness the desire to curry favor with his father for eternity the father has showered his love upon his son and he cannot but love his father and long to please him for him being the son of so perfectly kinder father it is Jesus says in the incarnation his meat and drink to do his will that is the life of the Son of God and that's the life we're drawn into so just as the father has always poured out the spirit of his love on his beloved son so God has poured the spirit of the same love into our hearts by the same Holy Spirit we are partakers of his anointing filled with the spirit in him believers then receive the very spirit of the Sun and the spirit wakes us up to share the holy tastes of the Sun and so in Christ given his spirit I begin to cry as I'd never cried before Abba my dear father I would never have called God that before and it wouldn't have been true before I was united to Christ but the spirit of adoption brings me to share the son's own affection for his father and for the first time I fulfill what I was made for I love the Lord my God and I find like Christ I want to be with him I want to pour out my heart to him I want to please him I want to find my rest in him and the more you know yourself to be a child of God in Christ the more you look to him the one who is your life the deader you will find yourself to be to your sin sin will still allure always but he will find living in Christ keeping in step with the spirit the spirit will make old sinful desires wither and new holy desires will start sprouting up so that you will find yourself longing yearning to be free of the sins that once you cherished and you'd never want to let go of because you have a new heart that longs differently you are a new creation you have ears that hear differently a new brain that thinks differently eyes that see differently a new tongue that speaks differently you know there's a beautiful moment in Hebrews 2 you might want to turn to this to see it in Hebrews 2 verses 12 and 13 visually captures this sharing of the son's life this is what it is to share his life in him so in Hebrews 2 in verse 12 there's a quotation from Psalm 22 and Hebrews says this is Jesus saying to God the Son says to the Father in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise can you picture it there is in the midst of the congregation he is the firstborn surrounded by his brothers and sisters the children of God and there he is and he leads our praise he is our worship leader he stands at the front singing God's praises in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise and we sing along and he then says verse 13 I will put my trust in him and we'll roar Amen it's a snapshot of the whole relationship between the firstborn and the ones he says he is not ashamed to call brothers he delights to do the will of his father and as the spirit that works on him works on us we slowly come to share his delight so think there at the front of the congregation he is a king victorious over the world the flesh the devil and behind him we share his victory slowly watching sin trampled under our feet waiting for Satan to be finally crushed there he is a priest interceding with his father for the world and we put our hands by his and pray with him he is a prophet making known his father to the world and we join in his mission we are united to the Sun so that we can share his life our joy our prayers our mission our holiness our suffering our hope all are a sharing in the life of the Sun we're not simply given some thing called eternal life by God and sent out to get on with it no nor are we forerunners with final responsibility Jesus Christ is the firstborn and we live in his slipstream the body following the head do you see it it means our union with Christ not only gives us such assurance it is the living room of the Christian life and yet so often we try to live as if we were all on our own and the way it works out is we just default to thinking I'm an individual we default to thinking therefore I am what I do and when you think that you think so I am not primarily a son of God in Christ but I am successful or unsuccessful popular or unpopular depending on how the day is going and when you are not defined by Christ you will be as fragile as a puffed up balloon if you begin to define yourself by success or popularity they will matter too much to you and if you get them your ego will go through the roof and if you don't get them you will implode but either way those things have mattered too much to you but that can't happen when the core of my identity is consciously found in Christ who is the same yesterday today and forever and it's not just for our own personal sanity when Christians define themselves by something other than Christ they become like something other than Christ they poison the air all around them so when a Christian craves power and popularity when they get it they become pompous patronizing perhaps bullies when they don't get it well they become bitter apathetic prickly and so whether flushed by success or burned by lack of it they cared too much for the wrong thing defining themselves by something other than Christ they become like something other than Christ ugly so our union with Christ has deep plow work to do in our hearts union with Christ immediately gives us a new status before God but for that status and identity to be felt to be the deepest truth about ourselves that is radical ongoing business but that is the primary identity of the believer the only foundation for truly Christian living and so friends for our joy for our health and fellowship we must take arms against the insidious idea that we have any identity whether that's background or ability or status the idea we have any identity more basic than that of sharing the son's own life before the father so how shall we live in this living room of the Christian life if this is our life how shall we live out the reality that Christ is our life well in Colossians 3 where he used that phrase Christ who is our life he said this if you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God in other words set your mind on the one who is your life friends life righteousness redemption are found in Jesus and are found by those and only by those who look to him and to be clear it's not that we look and think okay that's what he's like let me go away now and try to be like that no we are changed by the very contemplating of him for now beholding the glory of the Lord we are transformed into his image from one degree of glory to another 2nd Corinthians 3 18 right now it is contemplating him that leads us more deeply into likeness with him but one day we will not just contemplate him by faith we will see him when he returns and when he appears John writes we shall be like him for we shall see him you see it that right now we become more like him by faith as we contemplate him by faith but that full unveiled sight of him in his glory will be so majestically affecting my very body will transform the sight of him now by the spirit makes us spiritually more like him the sight of him then face to face will make us finally body and soul like him as he is that is the heart of living in this life in Christ just as the Father delights to contemplate his son so we share his delight and enjoy contemplating Christ fixing our gaze and our focus on him let me finish with the story of a man who looked to Christ and was transformed it was John Bunyan the author of pilgrims progress and he was a troubled young man he said that trying to be a good Christian he said my peace would be in and out sometimes 20 times a day comfort now trouble presently but he said one day as I was passing in the field with some dashes on my conscience I was fearing all was not right suddenly this sentence fell on my soul thy righteousness is in heaven I thought I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand there I say is my righteousness so that wherever I was whatever I was doing God could not say of me he lacks my righteousness because that righteousness was right before him I saw moreover that it's not my good state of heart that makes my righteousness better nor my bad state that makes my righteousness worse I saw my righteousness is Jesus Christ himself the same yesterday today and forever and now now did my chains fall off my legs indeed I was loosed from my afflictions and irons my temptations fled away and I went home rejoicing for the grace and love of God Christians look to Christ he is your righteousness he is your life in a world filled with distractions and with lives touched by trials we need that reminder don't we Christian look to Christ he is your righteousness he is your life that was Michael Reeves from Ligonier Ministries National Conference this past May in Orlando Florida if you'd like to join me Michael Reeves and other teachers and Renewing Your Mind listeners at next year's National Conference it's not too late to secure the early bird discount visit Ligonier org slash 2025 to learn more and to register and we'll see you next April in Orlando do you fear God there is so much confusion surrounding what that means in a sense the gospel is a paradox because it freezes from our fears yet leads us to fear God dr. Reeves has an eight-part series on the fear of the Lord that shows what that fear is and the beauty of it when you give a donation of any amount at Renewing Your Mind org or by calling us at 800 435 4343 you'll receive lifetime digital access to that series and study guide along with another one of his series reformation truths dr. Reeves teaches on those foundational truths of the Reformation and why the Reformation was so important you can request both resources at Renewing Your Mind org or by clicking the link in the podcast show notes but be quick as this offer ends at midnight be sure to join us tomorrow as W Robert Godfrey joins us to address the topic of truth in a truth distorting culture here on Renewing Your Mind you
