The Christ Consequence 2
Supernatural
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1. God in your life!
John 14:1,6-11- Relationship
2. Your existence with God
3. Your existence with others – Shaped your response to any and all situations (even the ones that may cause you to try work it out yourself)
4. Your eternal existence – Gave your future a purpose.
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Your existence with God
Romans 8
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Romans 8:1-4
Life in the Spirit
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Gods world is the Spirit…
John 4:24 New Living Translation (NLT)
24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
God existed in our world by sending Jesus to live amongst us in the flesh so that we could give ourselves to live in His world in the Spirit.
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BUT…
John 14:6-7 New Living Translation (NLT)
Jesus, the Way to the Father
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. 7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.[c] From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
Jesus in the Father, Father in Him
In faith we are in Jesus and Jesus in us
Therefore we are IN the Father’s world.
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STUDY OF ROMANS 8
What does that look like?
Charles G. Trumbull said this:
“The eighth of Romans has become precious to me, beginning with “no condemnation,” ending with “no separation,” and in between, “no defeat.” This wondrous chapter sets forth the gospel and plan of salvation; the life of freedom and victory; the hopelessness of the natural man and the righteousness of the born again; the indwelling of Christ and the Holy Spirit; the resurrection of the body and blessed hope of Christ’s return; the working together of all things for our good; every tense of the Christian life, past, present, and future; and the glorious, climactic song of triumph, no separation in time or eternity “from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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Starts with: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus
Ends with: No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Romans 8:1-4 New Living Translation (NLT)
Life in the Spirit (His World)
1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you[b] from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[c] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
The Trinity at work.
Romans 8:1-4 New Living Translation (NIV)
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
It was God who sent His Son, it was His Son who went to the cross and it was the Holy Spirit who gave us a new heart.
God invited the whole of us to the whole of Him
Let’s look for a moment at how the Trinity works for us:
God the father
(1) God sent Jesus in the likeness of sinful man (meaning He was human in every way except he didn’t sin) to be a sin offering. Someone had to pay the price for our sins so God sent His Son to pay that price for us.
(2) By this means, God condemned sin in sinful man so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in those who are joined to Christ. Christ lived the perfect sinless life that we couldn’t.
God the Son
(1) He was the sin offering for us. There are many today that do not acknowledge that God has any wrath side to Him at all, only that He is love. But as we know having studied the first several chapters of Romans that Gods wrath is just as important as His grace and love. Without understanding His wrath we can not really understand His grace and love for us. We need to hold close the reality of Christ’s suffering for us on the cross. For without Gods wrath on Christ we would be still doomed to hell. Without Gods wrath on those who will not come to faith in Christ, He would not be a just God.
(2) Jesus did a work of redemption for us. Jesus redeemed us from the fate of our sinfulness, He purchased us so that we would not have to endure the wrath ourselves. He purchased us with His life so that we could be with Him in heaven.
God the Holy Spirit
(1) The Holy Spirit has joined us to Christ. He joined us to Christ so that we become beneficiaries of all that Christ has done.
(2) The Holy Spirit gives us a new heart. He does this so that we can live a changed life so that we can be a testament to the power and grace of God and so that we will have a true desire to do the work God has called us to.
Romans 8:3-4 New Living Translation (NLT)
The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[c] So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
In a Gallup pole 95% of Americans claimed to believe in God and 81 % claimed to be religious. In spite of this only one in five or 20% of these people said that religion is the most influential factor in his or her life.
Many who would consider themselves religious even Christian are really not. It takes more than just saying that you’re a Christian to be a Christian.
Saying you’re a Christian without the Holy Spirit who changes and renews your life and your heart is a dead religion and a dead faith.
Christians as we see them in the Bible are men and woman who live their lives in a way that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident in their lives.
It is obvious to those who know them that they are Christians.
“By their fruit”…”Fruit of the Holy Spirit”
Being part of God’s world means that your identity – from flesh to spirit.
Jesus became flesh to remove it as a barrier to our minds and our approach to God’s world and introduced us to a supernatural world…
Next week – How we are to exist in God’s Supernatural World.