Completye in him

The speaker discusses the concepts of atonement, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, and assurance in relation to the believer's identification with Christ. They emphasize that belief in Christ's finished work, not personal efforts, leads to righteousness and sanctification. The message stresses that believers are complete in Christ from the moment of belief and are accepted in the family of God. The talk highlights the importance of understanding and living out of this truth rather than trying to earn righteousness through works. The speaker also touches on the idea of future judgment and encourages walking in alignment with one's identity in Christ. Okay, good morning, and so I wanted to talk about this morning, Complete in Him is part of a trilogy that I've been doing called The Last Adam. And so we begin today in Romans 3, 24 through 26, and before we get into the actual text of that, a little background. In the first message, we looked at two men, there's the first Adam and the last Adam. The first Adam was of earth, earthy. Through Adam came sin, death, and condemnation, but scripture calls Jesus Christ the last Adam and says he was made a quickening spirit. We saw that the believer is identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection through the operation of God. Now I want to slow down and distinguish several words that the church people often use though they mean the same thing, and those are atonement, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, and assurance. They are connected, but they are not interchangeable. Each one shows us another part of what God has done through Christ and what becomes true of the person who believes. Christ paid in full, God justifies the believer, the spirit sanctifies, quickened and sealed. The believer stands completed in Christ unto the day of redemption, understanding the terms of that. So atonement points to the payment Christ made through his blood that he shed on the cross, and it was to answer God's righteous judgment against sin. The work was not performed by us, it was accomplished by Christ before we ever believed. And the atonement is real, as real and complete as it is at the cross, and the atonement as real and complete as it is at the cross awaits for faith to become personal salvation. It does not mean the sin debt was not paid for all men, it was. But to 2 Corinthians 5.20 still says, be ye reconciled to God. Paul pleads there with us, and it's basically in light of what verse 19 had just said, which was that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their sins against them. And then he basically as though he turns to us and says, now be ye reconciled to God. Because God did his part at the cross, our part is to believe. Believing receives what Christ has accomplished, it adds nothing to his payment. Justification is God declaring the believer righteous, and it happens when we believe. Abraham is the pattern, he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. For us, what we believe is specific, that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. Our faith in his finished work, not our own work, his work. And when we believe, God credits it to us as righteousness. Sanctification is not a ladder we climb until God finally accepts us, it is what happens immediately when we are justified. The Holy Spirit sets the believer apart, makes him holy unto God. What grows afterwards is not our standing, but our understanding and the realization of what is already true. And the ongoing clarity is what is progressive, not what is complete when we believe. So if you improve enough, you may be sanctified. He says you are sanctified. So it is a complete work. So the next part here I like to talk about is the courtroom problem. And obviously a courtroom in our finite reality is a lot different than the ultimate judge of heaven and earth. But I think it gives a pretty clear idea of what I am trying to convey and what the scriptures is telling us. So in Proverbs 17 15 says, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Romans chapter 4 verse 5, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Proverbs says justifying the wicked is an abomination. But Paul says God justifies the ungodly. So how can both be true? The answer is the cross. God's law required perfect righteousness. Jesus Christ had no sin. He honored the righteous character. The law expressed and answered the price that justice required. God did not lower his standard. He satisfied it in Christ. So Romans 3 24-26 tells us, Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. Did you catch that? It's Christ who is just and justifier. God remains just because sin was not ignored. Christ answered that charge, and God becomes the justifier of the person who believes in Jesus. Hebrews 10 11 12 and 14 Every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice, which can never take away sin. But this man, after he hath offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Morning offering, evening offering, those priests stood because their sacrificial work was never finished. Jesus Christ sat down because his sacrificial work will never need to be repeated. One sacrifice for sin forever and he sat down. That's what scripture tells us. Second Corinthians 5 19 and 20 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. God acted first. He removed the barrier on his side and committed to us the word of reconciliation. And Paul still says, be ye reconciled to God. The message must be believed. The finished work and the call to believe belong together. So let's repeat that. The message must be believed. That's imperative. It cannot be paired with some outward work of the flesh. It's only by grace lest any man should boast, right? The finished work and the call to believe belong together. Again, the finished work is Christ's atonement and our believing is what justifies us. Now, that may not make sense to a lot of us. It just seems there's got to be more to that. But here's the thing. That's how God set it up. In his infinite wisdom and knowledge, that's what he chose. So, 2 Corinthians 5.21, let's take a look at that. It says here that for he has made him to be sent for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God does not rewrite history and pretend we never sinned. He does something greater. Christ answers the charge and God imputes righteousness to the person who believes. God has declared the believer righteous. Now let's consider the relationship into which he has brought us. Ephesians 1, verses 5 and 6, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to his good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved. Who is the beloved? Jesus Christ, the father's dear son. Our acceptance before God rests on being in him. Our acceptance before God rests on being in him. We do not bring our record before the father and hope it is good enough. We come in his son with the standing he has freely given us. And Paul speaks of adoption. That tells us we have a place in God's family as his children and as theirs. We have a father, a place to belong, and an inheritance. We have been looking at the courtroom, the charge against us, the payment Christ made, and the righteous verdict God gives the believer. Now Paul shows us the family relationship that belongs to that same believer. The one who has justified you has also given you a place in his family. You are accepted in the beloved. This acceptance is already ours in Christ. As we come to understand it, we learn to live from it. That brings us to sanctification, being set apart unto the God to whom we now belong. So understand what I'm saying here. I'm not saying that we are in an ongoing process of sanctification. Not in the terms of our positional standing. We are complete in Christ the moment we believe. We believe immediately we are sanctified and sealed into the day of redemption. We are not trying to earn our way as we go. We are not trying to prove ourselves holy. We are holy because it's never been that it's based on our righteousness or our holiness. We are in Christ. We are covered by him. It is his righteousness by which we are called righteous. 1 Corinthians 6, 11 But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Ye are sanctified. Our sanctified position is God's work. The Corinthians had a serious problem. Paul called some of them carnal inbaves in Christ, yet he still addressed them as sanctified in Christ Jesus. Their failures required correction, but their correction did not purchase their standing. You see, did you catch it? We are not saved by our efforts or our performance. We are saved by believing in the death, burial, and resurrection. We will all be accountable for the things that we do. We will all be judged. There will be the white throne judgment. There's also the Bema judgment. That's another sermon for another day. If you're interested in understanding that more, I will say to look at 1 Corinthians 3, 10-15. That is the breakdown where I'm talking about. I therefore beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Ephesians 4.1. Look at that, the vocation, the word, I'm sorry, the work that you're called to. He does not say walk worthy so God will call you. They have already been called, accepted, redeemed, forgiven, and sealed. Now he beseeches them to walk in agreement with what God has already made them in Christ. What grows is not their sanctification. It is the realization and understanding of what is already completely true. I can't emphasize that enough. Ephesians 1.13-14. After that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. Listen to the order. The word of truth was preached. They heard the gospel, they believed, then they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Ephesians 4.30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. Paul gives us a definite promise, sealed unto the day of redemption. He's not saying if you grieve the Holy Spirit you lose your salvation. He's saying don't do it because you were sealed for the day of redemption. You know, understand your lane. Understand who you are and walk in that, right? Walk worthy of the calling in which you were called. Remember what we saw in the first message. God places us into Christ's body by His Spirit. Our place there is His work. And here Paul calls that same Spirit the earnest of our inheritance. God pledges of what is still to come. Think for a moment. Think of Noah in Genesis 7 verse 16 and it says the Lord shut him in. That is an illustration of being kept by God. Not a direct explanation of the Spirit's seal. We establish our assurance from what Paul says here in Ephesians. But the picture helps. Noah's safety rested in the provision God had made rather than in his strength to hold the door shut. Our confidence too rests in God's provision. Christ completed the payment and the Spirit has sealed the believer unto the day of redemption. Our feelings may rise and fall but His promise gives us the settled reality that we rest upon. Notice that the same verse says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Our conduct matters to Him. The assurance of belonging to Him gives us a foundation from which to respond to His word and correction. We can take God at His word about the standing that He has given us in Christ. The struggle does not cancel the standing. Now Romans chapter 7, 24 and 25 says, O wretched man that I am. Remember that? Where Paul gives that very familiar struggle that I think all that have really been trying to seek after God and to honor and glorify Him have come into. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul does not ask what religious works will save me again. He asks who shall deliver me. He knows it ain't him. He knows he don't have it in him to do, right? He's wretched. The answer is Jesus Christ. The presence of warfare does not mean the seal has been broken. When we sin, we acknowledge it before God. Do we attempt to pay for it again? Do we ask God for more forgiveness that He's already said you've already been forgiven? I think that when we believe that Christ forgave us for all sin, we need to just believe it and quit thinking that we have to keep going back and asking for more because what is that saying? I don't really believe you. Now I know that turns a lot of heads and I know people think, what? But the truth of the matter is, I'm not saying that you don't confess. I'm saying let's acknowledge our sin, but let's thank Him for the sin that He has forgiven us for instead of thinking I have to be forgiven again because don't get it twisted. The forgiveness of sins requires blood sacrifice and God is not going to come down here every time we need forgiveness and die every time, right? So we know that that priest that sat down one time for all time for all sin, He's forgiven us. That's the reality. Religion has made it something else, but you can rest assured as a true believer that you are forgiven. Some people don't like that because some people like having their works part of the effort. They can even bring up a lot of scriptures that are not in context, but they can bring a lot of proof text up why they believe that, but when we get down and we look at who is the body of Christ and where we were placed and who we are in Him, we have full assurance we're complete in Him. Colossians 2.10, and ye are complete in Him. There is nothing left to pay, nothing left to add, nothing left to earn. When Christ finished the work, we hear the gospel and believe. God justifies us, sanctifies us, quickens us, places us into Christ, and seals us unto the day of redemption, and as we study God's word, that which was already made true of us in Christ becomes clearer and clearer, not more complete, but more clearly understood unto the day of redemption. God's record says the believer is already seated in heavenly places in Christ. The debt is paid, Christ sat down, the spirit has sealed us unto the day of redemption, so reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Our body simply has not caught up with our, with your settled position yet. And so, that's the thing here that I'm trying to point out. If Paul says to reckon ourselves, which is an accounting term that says this is where the account has been settled and this is where you are, reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin. So, if we are dead indeed unto sin, are we going to go ask for more forgiveness, or are we going to thank God for the forgiveness we have? I think that's a matter of believing or not believing. Now, I leave it up to all to make the decision what they think, and I'm not going to say your personal connection to that, I'm not going to speak to that. I think everybody has their own conviction that they have to attain to, but I see that when I confess sin, I thank him for the forgiveness he has provided, because that's telling Christ I believe what you did, I believe you died. And if we are told to believe and that's what makes us righteous, I think that that line of thinking has merit, but I know that we have not been taught that. We're told that we need to keep a short account and ask for forgiveness of our daily sins, but I think that it would be more accurate to say to confess and thank rather than strive and plead forgiveness. So, your body simply has not caught up with your settled position yet in Christ. And I say all of this to say, Abraham believed God. It was credited to him as righteousness. And righteousness is also credited to us through our believing, through our faith, our faith in his work. Amen? So, we can rejoice and know that right now, positionally, we are seated with him in the heavenlies. So, if that's true, it's settled. We are complete in him. Amen. So, God bless. I pray that all come to the knowledge of the truth. I pray this lands well with those who hear and would ask that you would prayerfully consider these things and allow God's word to speak for itself, challenge everything that we have been taught and believed in the light of what scripture says, so that we can accurately understand God's holy word. And with that, I say, praise and peace.