Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. As believers in Christ, We are united not only in his death and in his burial, we are united with Christ in his resurrection. We are complete. In Christ. That's power.
Welcome to the verdict with Pastor John Monroe, Senior Pastor at Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Bible tells us that when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, we are united with Him. But do we fully understand and appreciate what it means to be united with Christ? Today, we're going to try to wrap our minds around the implications of this brilliant truth.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe with today's lesson. In our study of the book of Colossians, we're learning the magnificent truth That those who have been saved by the grace of God are united with Christ. Paul is explaining that our union in Christ is not accomplished through the sacraments or ordinances of the church. but rather through repenting of our sin, And receiving Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour and Lord.
So. Baptism is not the entrance into the life of Christ. but rather the sign and seal that we are already in Christ. I find this truth of being united with Christ extremely humbling and also exciting. All that the father has, he's given to his son.
And now through the grace of God, we are eternally united with Jesus Christ. Let's think further of this intriguing subject. I ask you to open your Bibles to Colossians. Colossians two then, verse six Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
According to human tradition, According to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him The whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily. and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you are circumcised. with a circumcision made without hands.
by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. having been buried with him in baptism, In which you were also raised with him through faith in a powerful working of God. Who raised him from the dead? And you who were dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. By cancelling the record of debt that stood against us, With its legal demands.
This he set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame. by triumphing over them in him a magnificent passage in this central portion of this letter to Colossians. As we look particularly at verses 11, 12, and 13, we will learn that believers are complete in Christ. Because we are united with Christ.
First of all, I believe that Paul is saying in verse 11 that believers died with Christ. Isaiah says, He's wounded for our transgressions. He's bruised for our iniquities. We died with Christ. Mua, in his commentary, writes: It is in and with Christ's own death, then, that believers were themselves bought from death.
to life. We are complete in Christ. Because we are united with Christ, in particular. We are united with him, verse 11, in his Death. But not only have we died with Christ, we were buried with Christ.
Verse 12. Having been buried with him, that is with Christ in baptism. Was Christ buried? Of course he was. The gospel is not only that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, but that he was buried.
The burial of Jesus Christ is very important. It establishes, among other things, that he truly was dead. There is no doubt. the Jesus body was buried. The burial is the proof of The death.
Paul is saying this amazing thing here. that we who love Jesus Christ that we have been buried With Christ. Not only has the Christian died with Christ, He or she has been buried. With Christ. That is, there has been a decisive break.
with our old sinful life. The old sinful life It's buried. We have died to sin, and therefore, and this is Paul's argument in Romans 6, we can't continue to live. The same old life as we did before we received Christ. We are no longer slaves.
Yeah. Jesus Christ makes a radical difference in our lives. You know, when we have a baptismal service, as we do here regularly, One way of looking at it only in part is that it's a funeral service. We are burying Someone. The old person.
We're burying, as it were, the old man. He has been crucified with Christ, buried with Christ. The old life has gone. We are burying it symbolically. Here is a man.
Businessman, before he came to Christ, he lied and he cheated in order to get ahead. No, he's a Christian. That lying and cheating and deceit That tax evasion and all of that has gone. It's been buried with Christ.
Now He runs his business with honesty and integrity. Here is a young man before he came to Christ who had a very foul mouth. All of that sin. That vulgar Blasphemous speech. It's gone, it's buried.
Put to death. He's now a Christian. And Christ Cleans his mouth, he speaks very differently. Here is a woman before she came to Christ, was very self-centered, very self-absorbed. She has not only died with Christ.
She has been buried. with Christ and that selfishness, that self-absorption. That selfishness which characterized her has been buried.
Now, in God's grace, she is saved and she begins to serve and to help others, and her life is opened up. to serve rather than to be served. Those who have died with Christ have been. have been buried with Christ. And increasingly we find that these old appetites and desires have changed.
There is a decisive break with the old way of life. We are buried with Christ. United in his burial. But aren't you glad we have the rest of Verse 12 and 13. Not only are we Have we died with Christ?
Not only are we buried with Christ, praise God, we are raised with Christ. Christ. Verse twelve again. having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith. in the powerful working of God.
Who raised him from the dead? And you who were dead. in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. I have died with Christ.
I have been buried with Christ. And now I am raised with Christ. Christ is raised from the dead. The gospel is not only that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, not only that he was buried, but says Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, he was raised on the third day according to the scripture. Central to the Christian faith.
Is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? He's alive, we're singing about it, and therefore he is sufficient for all of our needs. As believers in Christ, We are united not only in his death and in his burial, we are united with Christ in his resurrection. We are complete. in Christ.
Think of that union. Dying with Christ. Being buried with Christ, now being raised with Christ, that I receive through faith in Christ the very resurrection life of God in my soul and in my heart. Paul reminds them here that you are formally, spiritually dead. Verse 13, dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
Pretty graphic, isn't it? But now they have been made alive together with Christ. Through the grace of God, we are united with Christ in His glorious resurrection. That is not all future, that is present. I am presently raised with Christ.
That's power. Now you say how can we Have such a union in c Union with Christ. How can we, who are characterised by failure, and by our sins and frustration, How can we receive this completion in Christ? How can we be made full in Christ? How can we be united?
with Christ. Turn back. to Ephesians 2. And let's remind ourselves of this glorious truth. How can we be united with Christ?
It's all by the grace of God, isn't it? Ephesians 2. Read with me. From verse 1. And you were dead.
in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world, Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. That's what we are by nature. A very sad picture, isn't it? But look at verse four.
But God. Being rich in mercy. Because Of the great love with which He loved us, not because we were wonderful people. But because of the great love with which you loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. There it is.
How did this come about? By grace. You have been Saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This has happened presently to the believer.
So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And Paul, although he's talked about grace, wants us to be very clear about it. Verse 8, For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It's a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in. Then Do you understand that we're saved by Grace alone. Through faith alone, In Christ alone? You say my Life's out of order. I've made a mess of my life.
I truly am spiritually dead, spiritually bankrupt. What's going to change me? Turning over a new leaf?
Some reformation of character, some better education.
Some personal enlightenment, no, not at all. What someone who is dead needs is new life. And that's what God offers in the gospel through the power of Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, who was buried, and who raised again.
Now, that life, that resurrection life, that new life. The life of God in the soul comes to us How is it received? Through faith. We're saved by grace. The basis of our salvation is grace.
It is received. The instrument by which we receive it, the means by which God pours out this blessing to us, is by faith. That's why Abraham was such a great man. He had faith in God. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
And so we come. Believing that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, and we cry out to God for His mercy. And in his great love, as Paul says here, with which he has loved us, he makes us alive. With Christ so that we are saved. Yeah.
Grace. And here In the verses we're looking at in Colossians 3, we understand that our baptism beautifully pictures this union with Christ. No, we don't become a Christian through baptism. We don't receive this new resurrection life through baptism. Water baptism looks back to our conversion, which was received through faith in Christ Jesus.
But in the New Testament, conversion and baptism are often seen as one act because usually they were carried out on the same day. And so what happens? Here at church at baptism, when an individual is baptized, He or she goes into the water. A picture. of their death.
with Christ. They are saying Christ died for me. He paid the price of my sins. He died as my substitute. Through our union with Christ, we died with Christ.
Then the individual being baptized goes under the water. A picture of burial. That's why we believe in immersion. It's a graphic picture of burial. A death has taken place, our death to sin, and now there's a burial.
When someone dies, it is followed by a burial. We have died with Christ, now we're buried with Christ. And then the individual comes up out of the water.
Someone say hallelujah. This is a picture of a resurrection with Christ. This is the new life. The resurrection life, eternal life. We've been brought from death to life.
From slavery to freedom. Says Paul in Romans 6, to walk in newness of life. We are now eternally alive. Things are different now. How can I continue to live as I once lived when I have this new life, this resurrection life within me?
All of the power I need to live a life pleasing to God is given to me by God Himself, who indwells me through His Spirit. That we have the inexhaustible Christ, we have the fullness of Christ. And I am united with with him. If you've never been baptized as a believer, you need to identify publicly with Jesus Christ through this beautiful ordinance of baptism. A picture of your surrender to Christ.
A picture of your walk to the newness of life. A picture that you are not going to go back to the old life, or Satan is going to haul you back. He's going to tempt you. But with the power of the Holy Spirit, Putting on the full armor of God, we're not going to go back to our old way of life, the old attitudes, the old sins, the old way of thinking. The power of sin.
In our life, has been broken by the resurrection of Christ. He has conquered sin. We now die to sin, and we are united with Christ, and we're alive in Christ. forever complete. In Christ, what a powerful argument Paul is making against this false teaching.
Which would seek to wean them away into some mystical, ascetic, legalistic type. of theology. Do you understand, brother and sister, as you sit here tonight? That if you're saved by God's grace, you share. In this Resurrection.
Life. Through your union with Christ in His death, in His burial, and His resurrection. Paul is going to say, and we'll think of this in a couple of weeks, from verses 13 through 15, that all of our transgressions are gone, nailed to his cross. We're alive in Christ. We are free now to live the fullest of lives.
Free from the power of sin. free from the guilt and the shame of sin, all because of Christ. He is eternally alive, and I am eternally alive because I'm united with him. And there is no force in the whole universe, there's nothing in hell itself which can separate me from the love of God, which is in. Christ Jesus, as Paul says in Romans 8.
When I was practicing law, We had a client who inherited an island in the Shetland Islands, the Northerly Islands in Scotland. Before he got this inheritance, he lived rather humbly. But now he owned an island. Quite a large island, quite a nice island, and a large home on it, which he also inherited and some other assets. He received this, not by any because he had done anything.
but because of his name. because he was part of a certain family. He was united to a rich family. By himself, he was poor. But through the death of a relative he now gets this wonderful inheritance.
The resources of the family are transferred into him. Financial resources are deposited into his name. I only dream of such things, but it's never happened yet. The title deeds to the proper day. To the island, to the house, to some other things, is transferred into his name.
What does he do? He does absolutely nothing. All he does is has the privilege of drawing on these resources. and assets. All of his financial needs are met.
And it's all a gift. You see, I wish I could that would happen to me and all. But if we are united with Christ as we are, There is a far greater blessing, isn't there? Blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. All that you need, brother or sister, to live a godly life is found in Christ.
He will take care of you. for all of life. He will take care of you through death. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. What about death itself?
No fear, because my Savior has already gone ahead. He is risen from the dead, and as Paul is saying here, I am alive in him. I am Seated with him. All of these blessings available to me, all of his grace. Therefore, draw on these blessings.
draw on these assets. Why do we live sometimes as Christians in such a poor, humdrum way? That's like having ten million dollars in the bank and living as a pauper. And someone says to us, why don't you draw on the assets? They're there, they're given to you as a gift.
You inherited them.
Someone worked hard for them, but they've come to you absolutely free.
Now enjoy them. And Christ has done it all, hasn't he? We did nothing for it. All that we bring is our sin. And our transgressions, and in His great mercy and in His love, He reaches down and He saves.
In His grace. and me, and transforms us, fills us with His Spirit. And so Paul is saying, listen, you're complete in Christ, you're full in Christ. Find your satisfaction in Christ. Don't pursue the things of this world.
He's going to say in chapter 3: set your affections on things which are above, not on the things on earth. Why would you Turn to that which is tawdry when all of the resources of heaven, the whole universe, are available to you. Find your satisfaction in Christ and demonstrate. By the way you live. And the way you act and your priorities, that you are united with Christ and His death.
in his burial and in his resurrection. Father, These are amazing truths and they are mind-blowing as we think of the implications of them. We thank you that we are rich indeed. Not only are our transgressions forgiven, but We are heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. All that you have is available to us.
We thank you for the inexhaustible Christ. for the all sufficiency of Christ. Perhaps there's someone here and they have They don't know Christ. They are not united with Christ. They're going through life all alone.
Father, in your mercy save them. Quicken their spirits, open their eyes that they will repent of their sin and turn to Christ. And those of us who know the Savior, help us ever to keep our eyes on Him and to draw from His fullness. We ask it in His name. Amen.
This is the verdict featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever. but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World.
Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict.org. While you're there, consider making an investment in this Bible teaching ministry. Whether it's $5, $50, or more, your gift today helps cover the cost of sharing these gospel messages to listeners around the world. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the Verdict Podcast, featuring John's weekly podcast exclusive called Avizandam.
It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or simply go to our website. Again, that's theverdict.org. The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, We invite you to join us for our Sunday services.
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Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Are you united with Jesus Christ or Is Jesus merely a remote historical figure? or a religious concept. I'm praying. that you will know Christ personally.
When he died on the cross for the sins of the world, he died for your sin. He will give you eternal life. and united with him, you shall never perish. If you're following Jesus Christ, take a moment to thank him. for this so great salvation.
And join me next time as we think of the triumph of the cross. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
