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Have you ever known a “pretender”? Someone who lives and acts like someone else? There is the reality of who he is – and then there is his life – two different stories. We’re all like this.

Review:

Being a Christian means that God’s spirit has united or bonded the heart of a sinner with the gospel. Becoming a Christian happens when, through the work of the Holy Spirit, your heart says, “yes” to the gospel – your heart is welded to the gospel. Becoming a Christian means that the relationship between God and sinner has been restored because Jesus owns your sin – he took it – and God’s justice toward it – on himself at the cross..

A Christian is someone who – through the working of the Holy Spirit – has given himself/herself over to the love of Christ.

The gospel:

John 3:16–17 – “…God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 – For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:6 – For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 – For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…

1 John 4:9 – In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

The gospel means that sin does not win. Jesus came to own the sin of all who are helpless.

Like it or not, it seems to me that, often, most of our focus is the security of eternal life that is ours after our physical death – and that is precious beyond words. “When I die, I will be with Christ”. It is that reality that is exceptionally precious to folks like the Walkers right now.

Becoming a Christian, however, means so much more than that.

John 3:16 – “…God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes (present tense) in him should not perish but have (present tense) eternal life.”

Present tense – The verb tense where the writer portrays an action in process or a state of being with no assessment of the action’s completion.¹

Eternal life – and all the benefits of Jesus and his work – became yours when you were welded to the gospel – they are yours NOW. Being a Christian means that through faith the sinner IS ACTUALLY free from the victory and rule of sin – NOW. The power of sin in your life has been destroyed. The chains of sin that hold you captive are no longer holding you captive – you are free.

The reality of Christ in our place is profound. Receiving the gospel MEANS something has changed. Al’s father is no longer here – something has changed – life is not the same.

Romans 6:6 – We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For those who are, by faith, united with Jesus, his death was your death. His victory was your victory. When he sacrificed himself for you… when he took your sin as his own and you became free.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – …if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

1 Thessalonians 5:10 – …[Jesus] died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

Because we struggle with sin here and now it’s easy to believe the victory of Jesus for us is mainly ours after we die. It’s like

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 – For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Colossians 3:3 – For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Christ for you means sin no longer has control over you – sin no longer is your master. Sin does not actively define you – God does.

The death of Christ creates realities – sins forgiven – death is defeated. These realities are true, sure, and decisive. No compromise or partial victory here – all those who take Christ are – in Christ – free from sin.

JOHN 11 – LAZARUS COME OUT – Just as Jesus’ words created life and Lazarus walked, so too the death of Christ on the cross created a new reality for us – SIN IS DEAD.

1 Peter 2:24 – He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Galatians 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

It doesn’t feel like sin has been killed in my life. That’s because our thinking needs to change, our habits need to change, our desires need to align with reality. We’re like this friend of mine that I mentioned earlier.

The death of Jesus on the cross was real, the reality of what he did there is real, Jesus must become everything to us so that we can be who we are.

Romans 6:12-14 – Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.