The Goal is Whole: Live it Out L3: Identification

Even if we were baptized without really knowing all it means, once we receive this understanding, we can immediately engage the benefits. We did it, and it is ours! This is our identification with Jesus and all that He did for us, opening up the way for us to fully enjoy His newness of life.

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FULL STUDY:

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. ³ For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)

Holiness is the lifestyle that taps and outworks the nature of the new creation within us. This is the lifestyle of "we in Christ, and Christ in us", made real by our identification with Jesus and all that He has done for humanity. What He did is good for all, but it is our identification with Him that makes it real for us.

We have seen already in earlier studies that true holiness operates in the realm of faith, where our inner belief is activated by words that align with new creation truth (even if we don’t see it or understand it fully). The words are important, but it is not words only, as we will see today, and more in the next study.

Our entire soul realm needs to become subjected to our inner spirit, rather than smothering it. Our soul includes our mind, will, and emotions, and when these are left to dominate our lives, we live as “soulish” or “carnal” believers. We are spiritually reborn, but we are still living in the old ways. Instead of this we need to lay the “old self” aside, and put on our “new self”, as Paul writes:

“since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Colossians 3:9-10)

Notice here that the new self is being renewed to a true knowledge, according to the new creation image! The new nature is already 100% formed and available – it is the new creation spirit within the believer. But the new self is our soul, which being brought into subjection is able to outwork that glorious new nature into the sense realm, and then manifest out into our character through holy living. Paul is telling the Colossian believers that this is something they have already DONE, “since you laid aside…”. This is clearly an act of the will. It is something that needs to be done once, but then it will need to be reinforced and re-stated, over and over in specific circumstances of life, especially when we see the old nature rising up. In this study we will focus mostly on how we take hold of our will, as the first step towards activating the lifestyle of holiness.

Perhaps the clearest, most biblical way of aligning our will with putting off the old and embracing the new, is through water baptism. Water baptism is a simple mechanism that God has given us to choose to embrace our identification with Jesus in His death on the cross. The cross is where we truly meet Jesus, and become placed INTO Him, being then taken into the fullness of His death, burial, resurrection and ultimately His glorious and victorious life. As we saw in an earlier study, God caused every person to be drawn to Jesus at His death on the cross (John 12:32). Water baptism is the opportunity for us as individuals to say "thank you, yes, that was for me, I receive it". Of itself, just getting dunked in water doesn’t produce anything, but it is the act of faith that engages us with the full purpose of God in the new creation, recognizing that through the act of re-creation, we are baptized spiritually into His death. And that is the entry point into everything the new creation life is. When Paul speaks about being baptized into Christ, this is not really the water baptism, but rather a spiritual act by God Himself, where we are brought into union with Jesus, and unity in the body.

“do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4)

Fulfilling the physical act of believer’s baptism in water is our personal assertion that we choose to reject the old fallen nature, and embrace His glorious new nature. It is a solid, once-in-a-lifetime assertion of the WILL. Even if we were baptized without really knowing all it means, once we receive this understanding, we can immediately engage the benefits. We did it, and it is ours! As we make that choice, and make it real through the physical act of water baptism, so God carries out the immersion of the spirit man into Christ Himself. Paul goes on to explain:

“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:5-7)

This is tremendous new creation language. We become UNITED with Him! Union with Jesus! First in His death, but then also CERTAINLY in His resurrection. Notice the phrase, “knowing this”. Knowing what? Knowing that our OLD SELF WAS crucified with Jesus! It happened long ago at the cross and is that monumental, pivotal truth that we identify with through a choice of faith. We simply need to agree with it, (believe it), and speak it!

But let us be clear here about the purpose of this. Holiness is not to be centered on death of the old, although that is the essential entry point. But the goal is living in the new! Holiness is not about us crucifying the flesh, but rather about us identifying with the death that was already accomplished by Jesus on the cross, and then activating the new life in the spirit. As Paul states, it was “in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin”.

Continuing the passage, Paul states clearly the path to walking in the new nature, the walk of true holiness:

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:8-11)

It is easy to read through these verses as mere statements of theology, but they are much more than that. These are practical steps to living in the new creation life! We agree that we were crucified with Christ (not as a theology or concept, but a spiritual reality - it actually took place when Jesus died on our behalf at Calvary, and is activated as we engage its reality through personal identification). Notice how it says HE died, ONCE, for ALL. All includes each one of us, as well as every single person we may get to interact with in our lives! Because of us having been crucified with Christ, Paul continues, we BELIEVE that we can also LIVE - WITH HIM. To believe is to activate the faith walk that draws from the new creation nature, as we live in union with Him. He will not die again, and neither do we need to. We need to move on into outworking His life! “The life that He lives, He lives to God”. The conclusion is, we should simply consider that we ARE dead to sin, and activate our new creation state as being ALIVE to God in Jesus. When we take steps to do that, we will experience that life welling up from within.

Ultimately, this comes down to holding fast to our identification with Jesus, and bringing all aspects of our being into alignment with Him:

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)

“Do not let” is speaking of us engaging our will. This is our choice to make! Because we have been crucified with Christ and brought into union with Him in His victorious life, we need to refuse the workings of the old nature within, by an act of our will. Those lusts and every type of fallen corruption are still there within us and we can obey them if we so choose. The fallen nature does not disappear just because we become a believer. But through identification we rather assert that we were crucified with Christ, and then engage the new nature, rather like putting our car into “drive”. Paul puts it simply as not presenting members of our body as instruments for bad living, but rather as instruments of righteousness to God. This is an ongoing choice we need to make. When we do that, we engage the powerful grace realm, which leads to us reigning in life! (Romans 5:17). Through presenting our faculties to the righteous life of the new nature, we outwork the new creation life of Jesus from within, expressing holy character in His strength. This is True Holiness!

Water baptism is our act of identification with Jesus. It is agreement, alignment, union with Him, and is a simple and powerful way of engaging our will in the new creation. Water baptism is the biblical faith response to the gospel! If the gospel is the message that Jesus died for us, was buried, and rose again, then water baptism is our response that says, “count me in”!

“Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2: 37-38)

Having been baptized in this way, we enter the lifestyle of constantly keeping our will engaged with the new creation life within, outworking the holiness of Jesus from the inside out!