Romans 6.11;  8.1;  8.29 THE SEVEN TOGETHERS        Sun AM, Apr 9, 2000  

INTRO:  Most important Truth for Christian Life.  UNION of believers with Jesus Christ. Only way for us to find acceptance with God= Union with Christ.  God’s Way for us to have Victory over Sin= Union with Christ.  God’s Will and Plan for every believer to be one with Jesus Christ.  This has to do with our Justification, Conversion, Regeneration, Recreation into the Image of Christ, our Sufferings, our Inheritance and Destiny.
If this Truth is all that important, we should be thinking and talking about it often!  Our Union with Christ is spoken of in several passages in especially Paul’s letters.  The key word here is the word Together. There are seven ways in which we are said to be together with Jesus Christ, or in union with Jesus Christ.  This is not mere Imitation.  It is Union.  Union is more Vital.  Union makes us participants in Christ’s Life and Christ’s Career.  Let us examine them one by one and so build ourselves up in our most holy faith.  

Crucified Together: Gal 2.20 An important doctrine Galatians =Justification by Faith.  Esp. in first four chapters.  (2.16)  How can sinful man be saved and find acceptance with and a righteous standing before a holy God?  God designed a plan of salvation for us sinners, in which He sent His only begotten Son into the world, to become a Man and to be our Substitute.  And so Jesus came and on the Cross, He Suffered the shame of bearing our sin and guilt.  The wrath of God against Us for Our sins was laid on Him.
Paul was not present when Jesus was crucified.  Neither was he nor were we there to have the nails nail us to the cross.  It is not we who physically went through such agonies.  God’s wrath wasn’t poured out on us. Yet Paul claims to have been crucified with Christ!
The lesson here is that when Paul and we believed on Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God slain for us, Almighty God judged that we were In Christ Jesus there on the cross.  A transaction took place.  We were JUSTIFIED in the sight of God.  All our sins were laid on Jesus, and His Perfect, Holy Righteousness was put on our account.  This is so high and wonderful a truth, so rich and full, that it is as if we were actually there being CRUCIFIED with Christ!  This is that great doctrine of Justification by Faith.  I deserve to be punished for my sins.  I was punished for my sins, for I am in Christ & therefore I was crucified with Christ when He was crucified for my sins.  He was not crucified for any other reason, than because of my sins.  

Died Together:  Rom 6.1-3  Paul develops this idea more in Ro 6.  There is a moral result of my being crucified with Christ.  Death to sin!  A corpse cannot sin.  See 6.11, where we are told to count ourselves dead to sin.  There it is as if Sin is a slaveholder.  But we who were once slaves to Sin, are now dead.  Slaves no more.   The word REDEEM, to buy out of the slave market of sin.  Sin’s power over us WAS absolute.  Now it is broken once and for all!  The thing we are told to do in 6.11 is an act of faith.  Believe it!  Reckon it!  Count on it!  See yourself the way God sees you, and the way He now wants you to see yourself.   Sin no more!  

Buried Together: Rom 6.4 (Col 2.12) A dead body must be put away out of sight soon.  Burial puts the dead out of sight.  Since we have been buried with Christ, our old life is put away.  There is a great contrast between the old selfish life and the new Christ-centered life.  It is called the Old Man and the New Man which is created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, the image of God.  It is unthinkable that we should go on in the Old life we used to live, just as it would be unthinkable to keep a dead body around our homes.  That is why Paul says “God forbid!”  After Augustine was converted, a prostitute recognized him and tried to seduce him.  He responded:  “It isn’t me any more!”   Christian, it simply will not do for us to live the godless life and think the godless thoughts we were accustomed to living and thinking before.  That godlessness is what we’ve been saved FROM.  

Quickened Together:  Eph 2.5  Christ came back to LIFE!  Power!  Could I make myself come back to life?  Son of man, can these bones live?  IN Christ we are made alive.  As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.  Through the Holy Spirit’s power, we are regenerated, born-again!  Before this, spiritually dead to God.  Dead in trespasses and sins.  Walking corpses with the smell of death.  NOW, Life in God.  Partakers of His Life.  Christ is alive, we are alive.  Christ rose from the dead, we have a sure hope of resurrection.  We who believe and receive the Son of God are made alive by the Holy Spirit.  We are new creatures.  All things are new.  We now love the things of God, we worship in the Spirit of God, we walk after the Spirit, are filled with the Spirit, have the fruit of the Spirit of Life.  

Raised and Seated Together:  Eph 2.6;  Col 3.1-3  Surprise!  YOU are in heaven!  You are IN Christ, and Christ is in heaven!  Therefore YOU are in heaven!  It is not enough to think that we WILL BE in heaven some day.  We are there now!  We are as good as already there because GOD SAYS SO.  He says that He has raised us up and seated us with Christ Jesus in heavenly places.   Jesus has already been raised, exalted to God’s right hand, the place of honor and authority.  You are not cheap refuse.  You are not ordinary.  You are a child of God, precious to Him.  IN CHRIST, we are SONS of GOD!  We have all the rights and privileges of SONS OF GOD.   So pray with boldness, live courageously, bask in God’s love and favor, behave in royal fashion, be noble, for we are called with a great calling.  We should therefore walk worthy of it.

Suffer Together:  Rom 8.17-18  We’re taking this Together out of order, it seems.  But Whoa!  You are still here on earth, aren’t you?  It isn’t easy here.  You are buffeted.  You fall sometimes.  You drift sometimes.  You are often tempted.  You often become cold and sluggish.  Friends, enemies, the world, the Devil all conspire to make you unGodly.  It is as if the old nature is trying to climb down from the cross, or out of the grave.  It would walk in a worldly manner.  It knows nothing of Christ.  The old nature is corrupt and still gives you fits, it seems.  But remember your union with Christ!  He suffered in the flesh, too.  Enemies conspired against Him.  Even as the Perfect Man, He could be tempted, and He was.  The garden of Gethsemane was especially tough.  But God the Father gave Him grace to endure even the Cross.  God will not abandon you, either.  Christ Jesus knows what you’re going through, because He has been there!  He Who never sin when He was tempted knows how to help you to live above sin and to overcome temptation.   Recognizing that we are in a constant struggle during this lifetime, we must never let our guard down, but rather, like Christ Jesus, be watchful in prayer, self-denying, self-disciplined soldiers of His Cross, bearing our own cross, following Him.  It won’t be easy.  But we will be victorious and happy, even in the midst of this world of grief and sorrow.  There’s a bright day coming!   We are not alone.  We suffer together with Christ.  

Glorified Together: Rom 8.17-23  God’s Word and His indwelling Spirit assure you of a home in heaven forever.  You belong to God.  He belongs to you.  Your final destiny is secure.  Think of Christ’s GLORY now!  It is YOURS, too!  God says so!   Besides the blessedness of finally being made perfect in His presence.  Besides the contentment it brings to know that we shall rise and see that our bodies have been made perfect like His glorious body.  Besides our knowledge that there shall be no more pain, no more tears, no sorrow, no death then, and Heaven and Earth shall be as one.  It is not only that all these things shall be mine THEN.  They are mine NOW!  And there is a reward awaiting me that no thief can possibly steal, nor can it rust nor be eaten by moths.  We taste of the Heavenly glory now, when we gaze on the face of Jesus Christ.  When we worship Him, when we love Him and appreciate Him,  when we meditate on His Perfections and holiness and goodness.  It is when we do this that God meets with us and fills us and communes with us.  It is then that we feel His nearness.  It is glory now.  And if it tastes SO good now, we cannot begin to describe how good it will be then.  Cheer up!  Stand Up!  Go Forward!  Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the one in whom we are in Union with forever.