Salvation Is Union With Christ

Big idea: Salvation is union with Christ.

1. Embrace God’s eternal plan for union with Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14; 2:1-3)
2. Make the most of present union with Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6)
3. Train your heart forward to final union with Christ (Ephesians 2:7)
   • What is union with Christ?
   • Do we have it?
   • How is it impacting our lives?

• Automated Transcription
• 0:21
  We are in the middle of a series in Ephesians on union with Christ. We're going to be looking at that today, so turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two and stand with me for the reading of God's Word. The Apostle Paul is Unpacking every every believer's story in these 10 verses. We want to look at that. We're in the middle of it today. We we had just such a joyful time two weeks ago. Jared Milliken preached for us, brought the word, and talked about being dead at one point last week. Joe Gruy brought us being made alive, and we're going to complete that segment today about about us being united to Christ, and we're going to read that, and then we have some things to pray about, some some sad things that we want to help our brothers and sisters in prayer for, some exciting things that are coming in front of us. I'm going to read verses four through 10. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing; it is the 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 them. This is the word of the Lord. God, we thank you, our Father, our Lord. We thank you this morning. We revel in a little bit of rain last night. It's cleared some of the smoke out. We revel in your grace in ending fires locally, helping many, most get back to their home, and then providing grace in recovery for many more. We thank you for your grace that provides work in all that we need to to live through many different ways. You are gracious to us above all. We thank you, Father, for making us alive. Those who know you are alive in Christ. Those who are here that don't know you can be, Father. Your grace is abundant; it is immeasurable and it's surpassing. And we already experience it in what you have made and what you are making us in Christ. I pray that you would help us understand what this union, this relationship, is in you. Help us understand this this text and these great monumental truths. They they are needed. I pray for members of our church. I think of of Aaron Miller who lost his young daughter and the memorial that they did yesterday. A peace about his daughter's eternity, but a grief about the loss, comfort and help all the family. Some are still distant from you. Draw them near in pain and difficulty. You are a good father who will take people out of the valley to Himself. I pray that those who are following you that they would be encouraged in you and anticipate the the future day. All of us do as we have had loved ones pass ahead of us. We long for the day of the resurrection and the reuniting of all things. Help us. Help us be steadfast. There are others who have all kinds of other things: recovering from heart surgeries and recovering from various ailments and difficulties that have beleaguered. A lot of people here have relational difficulties that they're trying to navigate, and these truths have something to say about those as well. But give us the power and the clarity to please you and honor you and make the best of the relationships that we have, we pray for churches around our city. I do pray for Riverside, Riverside Church that got burnt down a couple weeks back up up in the nine mile area for the Real Life Church, and there I pray for all the things to come together for the. That they can rebuild, reestablish a beacon of the gospel there, in the in the north.
  
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  Pray for other churches like Indian Trail or or the others that were much closer to the fires, like Three Crosses, and had members, many members who lost their homes. I pray that you would help in that whole process, and ask that you would use resources that have been given, whether it's to here or Indian Trail, to help people in need. We want to be a beacon of hope in Christ as a result of of your grace to us. Now help us, give us attentiveness, give us a mind to understand a powerful, profound theological truth, and and a practical reality for us in union with Christ. We ask this in your name, Amen. You may be seated. To to that, I want to remind you. Thinking about fire relief, if you have a friend or family or families that have been affected, there are people who have given substantial amounts to the care fund at Faith Bible Church so that we can help families in need in fire recovery. I anticipate a couple kinds of ways that that would be the case. Somebody who may have had smoke damage might be out of their house and have a deductible. The care fund's there to help them, so that can help those issues. Some are going to run out of insurance money. Maybe they only have a certain amount for out-of-home stay, and they might run out of that. Again, that might be helpful in the coming weeks or months as you find out about that. And then a lot of homes that are going to get rebuilt will need to be brought up to date to current codes, and so functionally they are underinsured. So those things might be a reality. And what we want to do is connect them not just through just a blanket, you know, come get money, but if you know people, we want you to connect them to us, and so that we can walk alongside them. We have a whole bunch of trained biblical counselors. All of you are able to walk people through grief and trouble. So we would love them to have enduring hope with that. So just saying that, there are ways to do that. Go to our website, scroll way down, and there's fire relief, and as a connection for that, we want to be able to do that. All right. As we turn our attention to Ephesians chapter two, we're we're looking at the greatest rescue in in history. It is the rescue and the salvation story of every believer in the history of redemption. But let's start with a really practical image for those of us who grew up going to city pools as schoolboys? I went to city pool as a schoolboy. Yes, Cheeney had a pool, and it wasn't a pond. It was a real pool with real lifeguards. Every pool has a lifeguard. Her job is to make sure nobody drowns or nobody runs because apparently running is dangerous. No fun. Nobody dies. It's pretty easy to imagine a nine-year-old flopping in the pool because friends shoved him down under and then moved away, and there he is flailing. And the lifeguard blows the whistle, grabs the life-saving ring, jumps in, gets the boy to the side up on the concrete, and he's saved. I don't actually know if that's how it is, but that's what I think. His parents probably are going to be grateful. I bet you could think of a dozen practical illustrations of life-saving rescues. The Apostle Paul lays out the most important one about the rescue from sin, the world that's warring against God and the demonic forces arrayed against us, and it's a little different than that. Those rescue stories serve a little bit of a purpose, but what they typically have is lifeguard rescues schoolboy gets him up, make sure he's breathing, and is like, "Now off you pop, go play again. As if being rescued is to go off and do whatever you want, save your life. You can do whatever you want. What the apostle Paul has here is a rescue into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is union with Christ. This idea is largely overlooked in churches, in evangelism, in Christian literature, even church history, maybe because we just don't understand prepositions. You know, they're grammatical words that have functions, and I don't know.
  
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  In Christ, doesn't sound the same as Jesus died on the cross for me. But if we're reading Ephesians, we read the Apostle Paul especially, and we read the Apostle John. And John, being in Christ, being united with Christ, is everything. The big idea that I would say this morning is something like this: Salvation is union with Christ. It's not all that salvation is, but everything that salvation has for you is in union with Christ. What scriptures say is that Jesus' saving work draws us, connects us, binds us into a relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is done through Jesus, and we so share new life with Christ that we are said to be in Christ. Second Corinthians 517: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. In our reading, we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Christ is said to be in us. Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 127. And it's not merely individual, me and Jesus. It is corporate. We and Jesus, by union with Christ, Christ shares all the benefits of His life, death, resurrection, ascension, rule from heaven, with us. In Christ we call we call God our Father. In Christ the Church calls Jesus our Lord or our Husband. All the benefits that He's achieved in His work are applied to us, but nothing compares to being united with Him. We don't just get the benefits; we get Him. We don't get it just now. Off you pop. Live your life free, however you want. We get him. The only thing we lack is sight and new bodies. This reality is so powerful by His Spirit that lives in us. There is no chasm between us on earth and Him in heaven. I want to say that again. By His Spirit that lives in us, there is no chasm between us on earth and Him in heaven. We might not see Him directly, but we experience Him directly. We might not have sinless bodies, but we have His powerful work in our mortal bodies, and one day we will have new bodies in His physical presence. Before we're done today, I want you to be able to answer three or four questions. What is union with Christ? It's a theological idea. It's an idea that is important for us to grasp and then to put into practice. What is union with Christ? Do I have it? Am I united with Christ? If I don't have it, how do I get it? How? last one? How are its realities impacting my life? That fundamental flaw with the concept of salvation of of out of trouble into safety can be problematic. You can say, "Well, I'm in trouble. God gets me out of trouble. For instance, I'm an addict. God is my higher power, so I can stay sober. We we might realize I'm going to hell. Jesus gets me to heaven, and while potentially wonderfully true, they're malformed unless we understand that Jesus doesn't rescue us like a drowning schoolboy to set us on the concrete. Jesus saves us to Himself. He draws us to Himself. We take Christ for Christ, not just as benefits, the jewels of forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, justification, being made right with God are all set on the crown of union with Christ. Salvation is union. With Christ, to keep with the rescue theme on a theological and personal idea, we're going to use an acronym: EMT, Emergency Medical Technician. Rescue-it's going to be this: embrace God's plan for union. Embrace God's plan for union. We're going to step back to chapter one and see where this comes from. We're going to make the most present union. What does union with Christ mean to us today? And we're going to train our heart on that day we're finally in His presence. EMT. Embrace God's plan for union. Let's start with number one. From eternity past, as we embrace God's plan for union, from eternity past, God's plan was to reconcile sinners by and into union with Christ, by and into a relationship. So let's look back at our context from chapter one. It opens this way in chapter one, verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ. There's the first time we see it-the in Christ language-and He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing.
  
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  This this union that we have comes in Him, and it was given before the foundation of the world, or it was planned before the foundation of the world. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, all of our union with Christ, being drawn into relationship with Christ, has been planned for eternity past. In fact, it's based on the relationship between the Father, Son, and the Spirit, their union together. Jesus made a statement that was so shocking to the Jews around him that they picked up stones to throw at Jesus. And Jesus is speaking of his union with the Father. He says, "The Father is in me, and I am in the Father. The Jews around thought Jesus was claiming to be God, thought it was blasphemous, and we're going to try to kill him. But Jesus was plain as he came to Earth, he descended to us to dwell among us to share with us human life. That he was one with the Father, and we find in John 17, for instance, Jesus' plan in saving lost sheep, sinners was to bring them to the Father. John 1721, he prays for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. That they also may be in us. Jesus' mission was to unite us into a relationship with the Trinity. God's saving plan to save sinners is to unite them in Christ To God, so Christ joins us. The union with Christ begins with God's initiating work from eternity past. He's planned to rescue out of all the sinners some sinners for Himself. Christ joined us, taking on human flesh, and so Jesus is united with us because He knows how it is to live in every aspect of life. Tempted in all ways, we are yet without sin. He knows what it's like to be human. He shared in the human race. He shares His Spirit with us, so we share His power, and the death that he that he died, he died on our behalf to pay for our sin. If you look at one seven, this union language in him, there it is. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. We have redemption, forgiveness in Christ. 113, he talks about when this happens. This happens in time as the gospel is preached. He says, "In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise. This binding into a relationship is sealed, held by the Holy Spirit Himself. One of the Apostle John's favorite phrases for faith in Christ is a phrase like this: "Believing into Christ. There's a particular Greek preposition, ace. There's one that's n, sounds like n, and it's usually translated as in. And then there is ace, which is into. Listen to this familiar verse: For God's. Of the world, that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes into Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. More than half a dozen times Jesus said, and John articulates in the Gospel of John, that we believe into Jesus. How do you believe into something? I mean, there's there's a set of facts, a set of realities and truths, and you could believe in them. You could agree and believe in them. But how do you believe into them? It's the same way that a husband, or a woman, or a man getting married believes into a marriage. You step into a relationship, and in Christ, you step into full trust for His death on your behalf. Full trust in His loving Lordship, full trust and submission to His will. You believe into the relationship with Christ, trusting, resting on Him, his work, his righteousness. So union with Christ means you're brought into fellowship with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We don't merely get benefits from Christ; we get Christ. We get Christ. I want to talk to a lot of parents and a bunch of kids here. I think a lot of boys and girls.
  
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  I think from like you know seven to to 12 are here in the room, and your mom and dad, or the Sunday school teachers, or the discovery workers have been telling you about your sin, Jesus' death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins, and your need to believe in Him, and believing fact is essential. If you don't get the right facts, you don't have the right person to believe into. But I think a lot of boys, girls at a young age, recognize the truth because they feel it. I sin. I get in trouble. The Bible makes it clear that I sinned and I'm in trouble with God. There is eternal separation from God, and my mom and dad tell me that Jesus is the one who paid for my sin, and if I believe on Him, then I will get into heaven. But somewhere in that eight to 12 to 13, there there is something that they're not quite sure of, and that is a relationship with God. When you believe into Christ, you believe into a relationship, and sometimes at those young ages, it's hard to discern. But here are some ways to think about it. So, if you're one of those boys and girls, somewhere between seven and 12, yeah, I know I'm a sinner and Jesus saves. I don't know if I'm a Christian. Maybe these are the kinds of things you want to think about. When Jesus came in Mark chapter one in the Gospels, he starts preaching, "Repent and believe. The kingdom of God is at hand. Very soon he comes to Peter, James, John, and Andrew, who were fishermen, and Jesus called them, saying, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. What's the invitation to relationship with Jesus? Follow me, a person. Let me be your teacher. Let me be your Lord and Master. And what did it say they did? They left their nets and followed Him. They left what built their identity? Who they were? They were fishermen, and now their identity was Christ. A rich young ruler came to Jesus. It's famous story in the Gospels. It's in three of the four. He was rich, and he was really good at keeping all the Jewish rules. And he asks Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life? He had money, and he was good at keeping the rules, and he knew he was dead inside. Jesus said to him, "Sell all you possess, give to the poor. Come follow me. He told the rich young ruler, "If you want to have eternal life, you aren't going to have to give up your identity and make me your identity. You're going to have to come to me and follow me." That tragic story is unknown to us. He wouldn't do it. He walked away sad. He wouldn't give up that identity. Kids, grown-ups too. These kind of things plague you too. You you've tried work so that you could really live, but you're dead inside. You've tried money, but you're still dead inside. You've tried sex, gaming, building a following on social media, family. Now, modern age, healthy food choices, promotions. You've tried to get off the grid, become a trad wife, homeschool, and these new pursuits are supposed to give you a new identity, and you're you're still dead inside. By the way, I think healthy food choices is a good idea, but as an identity, you're still dead inside. That's because only in Jesus is there life with your Creator. Only in Jesus, so kids and adults, it's saying something like, "Jesus, I want you for you. I need you for you. You're my only hope. I want to follow You, I think a mark of saving faith is expressed in the ancient hymn, one of my favorite hymns, and "Be Thou My Vision. The ancient writer sung it this way: "Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise; Thou my inheritance, now and always, I'll often hear of Christians talking about Jesus as their inheritance and and God on the throne and heaven as their inheritance. Then, but the hymn writer says He is my possession and my portion now. At this very moment, you should say, "Jesus, nothing else matters if I don't have you. I leave anything behind that gets in the way of you.
  
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  And if your heart is calling to Christ like that, if your heart is saying something like that to Christ now, then you have been born again. Something has happened in you, and it's been the eternal plan of God that through Jesus you would return to Him as a child to a father. Embrace God's plan for union with Christ. Second, make the most of present union with Christ. So, what does it mean now to be united to Christ? Now, as we jump to chapter two again, especially five and six, Paul's telling the story of every believer from one to 10. Verse five says, "Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God the Father-that's who he's talking about-made us alive together with Christ. You go back to Jared's sermon two weeks ago about being dead. Christians were united to something. We were in union with something before, Romans 512 summarizes it really simply. We were in Adam. We were in Adam. Adam represented us. Adam sinned ahead of us. We have all since sinned. We are members of the human race in Adam bearing the condemnation of Adam, as it was described as Jarret just masterfully worked through it. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. I mean, here's pictures of union. You were dead in the trespasses of your sins, in which you once walked following the course of this world, Jesus calls you out of the world to Himself. You were following the course of this world. That is all the people who are set to make anything but Jesus God. That's the course of the world, Following the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Oh, you were in union with something before your sin, your sinful desires, your sinful heart. Following the course of the world, full participation with the course of the world. Full participation under the lies of the devil. This is what it means to be dead, unable, unwilling to come to God on God's terms. We lived according to those we were in union with. Now I got a great email this week. A young man wanted to talk about free will, man's choices, and election. Simple topic took about two, two or three sentences. Do you believe in election from eternity past, or do you believe in free will? Those are not competing choices, but a lot of people think they are. So we need to reframe how this this works out. You do have real choices, and you do have a real will. You always choose according to your desires, and your desires are always conditioned by your nature. Here's a classic illustration. All of you can see. Go up to cattails. It's feeding time for the big cats, and imagine that the the the vets, the caretakers of the big cats. It's feeding time, and they just put a pile of red meat in front of the lion and a pile of brock. Oh, it's it's got garlic and olive oil, and it's slightly steamed with some spice. It's amazing. You put pile of broccoli, pile of red meat. You know where this is going. What's the lion choosing? The meat. because that's his nature. He is built to eat meat. Oh, it's the lion's free will and free choice to eat healthy or eat to his death. What's he going to choose? The meat, because that's his nature. This is what Paul's telling us: the role of election. God in eternity passes all the sinners who would ever live, giving them a choice between a life in His Son and a life of destruction under the Prince of the Power of the Air, and apart from the gracious intervention of God, we always choose the Prince of the Power of the Air because that's our nature. That's what it is to be dead. But God, in His grace, sent Jesus to indwell, to die, to rise, to ascend, to rule, and you need a new heart to choose Him. And this is what God does through the gospel. When we read Ephesians two, we need to think of dead choosing to God, dead to faith-filled obedience, dead to Godward worship, dead to relationship with God. We need to think at some level about Walla Walla State Penitentiary and dozens of local gangsters who have been caught on on death row, waiting for their execution.
  
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  We we need to think of of ourselves in in terms like this. We we followed ahead of the gang, we followed the course of the words. We were we had corrupt desires, and in comes the gospel, in which Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is preached, believed on, hearts are changed. Corrupt nature is made alive. Dead is made alive. Alive wants to follow the Lord. Alive is free. We have been made alive together with Christ, Charles Wesley wrote this line a couple centuries ago. Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin. In nature's night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray from God's sight. He sent a life-giving ray into his heart. I awoke; the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. Amazing love. Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive with Christ. There are three pieces to this union: made alive, which is one Greek word; made alive together with is one Greek word; raised with, raised together with is one Greek word; seeded with, seated us with, the seated with is one Greek word, and its direction is all into Christ. Made alive means that God made the spiritually blind to see, the spiritually dead come to life. Then they believe on Him and they follow Christ. What does this mean in life? Then to enter into relationship with Christ, to be bound into Christ, to be drawn into Christ. It means that all of the work that He did in time and history on your behalf are shared with you. He lived as a man, died, paying our sin, was raised to life. He ascended to the right hand of the Father. He's seated and ruling, and that union with Him, because He puts a spirit in us means that all he has is shared with us. Romans 610 through 11 then gives us a brand new idea of how we live with sin. Romans six says this: For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. He's made you alive. You now have a real and new power to resist temptation, to defeat temptation, to follow him in loving obedience, you're not just tossed around by various temptations and by the world system. You must consider yourself dead to those things. You are united with Christ. You share those benefits. The risen and seated is in the same part or the same order as as chapter one, verse 20. This power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand raised him up with him. We share Jesus' exaltation and ascension while serving our King in an earthly tent. Our inner man, our soul, is united with Christ in heaven. He gives His Spirit, and we could call them spiritual resources with a capital S Spirit. You know we we sang two songs at the beginning that were both union with Christ songs. I'm fighting a battle that He's already won. I already share the victory with Him because He has ascended and I am united to Him. I have to go through the valley. I have to go through the difficulties. I have to go through the trials and tribulations. I'm given a task to spread this good news and to do His will and work in the world. But He has poured out the Spirit in us. Romans five five says God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us by that Holy Spirit, what's our new relationship according to Romans eight? We call God Abba, Father. There's five minutes in the drive from Seattle, going west on I 90. When you you come up out of vantage, you hit the crest one of the passes at rye grass. Anybody know the rye grass rest stop? Yes, lots of you have stopped with your children at the ryegrass rest stop. What do you see looking? Southwest, you see Mount Rainier on a clear day. Mount Rainier stands magnificently there, towering above.
  
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  Every time you open your Bible, every time with with an open heart to hear, every time you gather to sing at church, you get a vision of the mountain of God's grace in Jesus Christ, and you know you've got to go back down the mountain you're in. You've got to go through valleys if you want to get to paradise. Which is ironic that I'm using this for a Mount Rainier Sarah. There's a camp area, a park area called Paradise. If you're going to get to Paradise from the top of rye grass, you're going to have to go down, up and down more mountain passes through a lot of winds that could blow you off the road, and through a few amounts of car sick making turns. Like it's it could be difficult. That's true, but every time you get a sight of Christ, you know you already have a place with Him. That is being seated with Him, your soul is already bound to Jesus. When you die here, your body will be at rest until the resurrection day. But your soul is there. We are said to be seated with Him in the heavenly places. Seated has to do with the reigning, the rule, Christ is seated. He's ruling and reigning, and because you're united with Him, His Spirit and His power are already helping you resist sin and temptation. Already helping you seek obedience, and those are how you're reigning now on this earth. You are seeking to implement His good and loving rule into your family life, your marriage life, your single life, wherever you live, your work life, your rest life. You are seeking to advance Christ's rule in everything. It's this wholeness, this fullness that you have in Him. There are some fans of Pride and Prejudice in the room. Jane Austen, yeah, mr. Darcy. I saw some mr. Darcy pictures. Thank you, Dennis. mr. Darcy. There, somebody did a takeoff series. Got into that world, and this gal made her own series. And the other Bennett sister, I think it's called. I adore my wife. I love her. She has us watching that. I didn't really like Pride and Prejudice. I don't know. I just can't get into the whole British thing and the the class structures and and how you get people to love you and you're nothing if you don't have any money. Like it's just belabor to me. So I'm adoring watching another mrs. Bennett, the other the other Bennett sister, which has been a delight, because here's the thing: Mary Bennett in the Victorian world needed a rescuer and a husband to survive. She needed wholeness. It's a comedy, and all comedies are about bringing two people that are apart together to be whole. Which every time you see a wedding happen, you understand what that means. Two people that are apart and sort of half of themselves come together to make a whole. Ephesians five talks about the relationship of Christians to Jesus as a wife to a husband. They are not whole until they are united to Jesus, and just as in Pride and Prejudice, whenever one of the sisters got married, she was fully taken care of because her husband shared all of his benefits with her. Everything that was his is now hers. Thank God, we got to go to Spider-Man last night. Just a little break from the Bennett sister, but you know it really didn't help because this Spider-Man is all about wholeness. It's the same story. A little more action. The same story. Spider-Man is not whole on his own. Neither is any human. Till he has Jesus Christ, we are whole in Jesus Christ, and he shares everything with us. We are so secured to him; it is said that we share all of it. What do we do with that? What do we do with that? Colossians 131 through five has some things to do with it. Write that down. Look it up. It's a great provocation to pursue this relationship with Christ. It says, "If then you have been raised with Christ. Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. You're already bound by His Spirit. You're as good as there, except in your body. Set your minds on the things that are on above, not on things that are on the earth.
  
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  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. He shares His life with us. We share His death. He dies for us. He dies for our sins. We die to our sins for Him. This is your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. If you're wondering when it's time for your kids to get baptized or for you to get baptized, Certainly, we need to have the right facts of the gospel because we have to have the right Jesus. But we also have the right impulse into relationship with Jesus. So, any child pursuing in a childlike way, hearing from Jesus in His Word, talking with Jesus, which Jesus called abiding in John 15, which is another union with Christ passage. Abide in Me and My words with you. Abide in you. Ask anything you wish, and I'm happy to give them to you. Do you have a compulsion? to be with Jesus, hear from Jesus, and talk to Jesus. Do you have a compulsion to kill your sin, feel the guilt and weight of sin, turn from sin, turn to Jesus, and seek victory over it? Union with Christ will leave evidence in your desires for Christ and your desires against sin. Embrace those truths that God's destined you for. If you are in Him, make the most of them, and finally, train your heart toward final union with Christ. Train your heart toward final union with Christ. Verse seven gives us another purpose verse. We've we've seen several of them in chapter one about all the blessings God's given, and the repeated refrain was to the praise of His glory. Here's the blessings in the Father to the praise of His glory. Here's the blessings of the Son to the praise of His glory. Here's the praise. Here's the work of the Spirit to the praise of His glory. Here we have this history, and God gives us a similar view, and we need to train our hearts for this full final union with Christ. He says, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God's work in redeeming undeserving and hell-bound sinners is to display his grace for all eternity. That-that is, in the coming ages, it refers to time now. If you die as a believer, your soul immediately is perfected and entering the presence of God, your body lays at rest, guaranteed for resurrection. At Jesus coming, the body is raised and joined physically in His presence, Jesus returns. He reigns. He establishes His kingdom. He establishes a new heavens and a new earth in the coming ages. Refers to now and all eternity. What does God delight doing? What's God's purpose in this, from eternity past, the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit have never lacked a thing. They have always been a fountain of glory, and at that moment, you, we are present in. That glory, the fountain, the fireworks that never run out, are the display of His glory, that He might show. This is this word for display, put on display the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We've seen the great love with which He loved us when we were still dead, we have seen the mercy that He has. We see this grace in kindness, which is all God's thoughtful ways toward us. And it's not so much talking about what we praise Him for, although we will. That's the chapter one. It's talking about the delight that God the Father has seeing God the Son rejoicing in the immeasurable grace that He has poured out, that He has drawn His people to enjoy with Him, just like a wife or a husband wants to share all of who they are with their spouse. Christ, the groom, delights to share all of who He is with the church. It will be immeasurable riches of grace. You might have stepped into an elevator that has lots of floors, not in Spokane, but if you've been to the Columbia Center, maybe you've been privileged to go to the Eiffel Tower.
  
  51:42
  Well, let's just say you you you got to go into the Space Needle, which is pretty cool. It's coolish. I mean, compared to the Eiffel Tower, when you step in at the moment of your death or the moment Jesus comes, it is as if you step into an elevator, and there's only one button, and it's up. There are no floors, and it rises. It never reaches the top floor. It rises and rises, and first you're glad to be there, and there are all of God's graces. You you know what you've left. You know what you have, and you never reach the top because God is infinite and He is keeping you going. You have saving grace and sustaining grace, and you never run out of that. You start looking around at all of the brothers and sisters, and as you ascend higher and higher, you see more and more. The higher you ascend, the more you see, and you never reach the top of the Unsurpassable riches of His glory and grace and kindness in Jesus Christ. That's where you're headed. A display of grace that has no end, because you'll never die again. You'll never sin again. You will see perfectly, and He delights to display that grace. We need to train our hearts on that display that is toward us in Christ Jesus, what is union with Christ? It's being joined to God through Jesus Christ and His Spirit, joined in an unbreakable relationship in which we love Him with our whole heart, and He loves us by sharing Christ's benefits with us. That's done because He's made us alive. He has given us His Spirit. Do I have it? Do I have union with Christ? Do you lovingly, reverently call God your Father, Jesus, your brother and Lord. Do you want to know Him more and more? Is it your joy to obey Him and love Him? If that's true, that means Jesus' Spirit is in you. You have been made alive, and you are. Secure. If I don't, how do I get it? Turn aside from every lie that promises life apart from Jesus. Turn to Jesus, who is life. Believe into Him. How are its realities impacting me, my life? Are you killing the desires that displease Jesus? Are you feeding the desires that please Him? That's where the feasting on His Word comes in. That's where the gathering with the saints in various forms comes in. That's where talking to Him comes in. Christ is your husband. Have a conversation with him, listen to him, give him thanks and praise. Look forward to seeing him in this very body. If we were to give a picture of salvation according to Ephesians, it's it's something like this. Ephesians tells us that salvation joins us to God like a child to a father, a body to a head, a citizen to a nation, stones in a temple wall, a bride to a husband, and this union isn't singular-not just you and Jesus. It is corporate, and as much as you need to respond individually, the truths here are corporate. The rescue story is a gang of thieves and thugs changed into servants and priests to God and each other. And the thing that will shock many in the world is to see those kind of people loving each other here, because of what they have in Him. Let's pray, Father. Thank you for the grace and mercy given to us in Christ. We thank you for the union. It's uncomfortable for guys to say they're the bride, but I think it's uncomfortable for the girls to say that they're sons of God, and yet these are the pictures. You are our Father, Lord Jesus. You are our husband, and what you have bound yourself to in us secures us, changes us, blesses us, and we in turn want to bless you. Thank you for uniting us, bringing us to yourself. May we press on to know you more and more in Christ's name, Amen.
  

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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