" NEWNESS OF LIFE " by J W LUMAN Let's turn in your Bible to John 3. The Lord has been dealing with me concerning the reality of newness of life. We are dealing with being separated, caught up and gathered into Christ. And the reality of being separated unto the Lord, caught up in view of Him and gathered in the knowledge, all have as its purpose a tremendous manifestation, expression, a tremendous ministry of Christ in the earth. And the Lord has spoken to me in this regard concerning 'newness of life'. It seems like every time the Lord is about to take us into a greater view of Himself, He brings us back upon the very fundamental foundation of the thing, else we try to bring Christ upon something other than a true foundation. He tries our foundation from time to time. And this business of newness of life is very fundamental to anything of Christ, and to you and I coming into the good of anything of Christ. There seems to be such a lack of this comprehension of 'newness of life' in the Church today. And I think the scripture will help us to understand why so few Christians today have a comprehension of newness of life. We seem to comprehend Christ in the realm of forgiveness of sins, and that's a tremendous realm to one who is having his sins forgiven. But now, having our sins forgiven, where do we go? And there seems to be a comprehension of the Lord in some of His works toward us in a temporal realm - healing and such things. And of course, to those who need healing, healing is a wonderful thing. But once you are healed, then what? There's a great deal more to salvation than these things that primarily are involved in the temporal realm. There is the reality of newness of life! John 3:3-5. The setting here is one that is established in the Old Testament - God's dealing with Israel. I've said many times that salvation is much more than God just having gotten a people out of Egypt. SALVATION FINDS ITS FULNESS IN CANAAN. Let's bring that right over into Christ, because Canaan represents newness of life. Let's go back. Canaan represents newness of life, but look - was it not a tremendous miracle, a tremendous hand of God outstretched that delivered Israel from Egypt through the jaws of the Red Sea? Did not God remind them of that several times, because that was the only thing it seems they could get a hold of? This experience of tremendous deliverance from Egypt - deliverance FROM Egypt - from Egypt. See with them, salvation, what they were experiencing of God, with them it was very much a deliverance from something, from Egypt. It wasn't really an experiencing of a newness of anything. It was the experiencing of a release from something. Now friends, that's a tremendous experience. Now if someone came in your house and binds you hand to foot, wraps you up like a mummy and leaves you there for several days until you just about starve to death, then someone finds you and comes in and all of a sudden, in a matter of seconds, reverses that condition - looses you and sets you free from that. You tell me you're not going to experience a tremendous feeling of release, of exuberance. But I'm telling you all that's happened to you is you've been liberated from a condition - you haven't been brought into anything really new. I'm telling you there's a tremendous release when we come from sin - and we know it's not possible to come from sin except into the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm talking about our comprehension. Why, God in His promise to Abraham had already seen Israel in Christ, Abraham saw Israel in Christ. He saw the seed of God in the land. But the seed themselves never really comprehended that. What they comprehended of the dealings of God was the deliverance from something, not an entering into anything, really - just something done for them. And I think most believers have never really comprehended what newness of life is. That it is not just getting release from sin, it is not just seeing Pharaoh and his armies dying or his tormentors put to death; it's not just a triumphant crossing out from Egypt. But there is a Jordan connected to this thing. There is a Son coming up out of the waters of Jordan in the fulness of a new creation! There is the coming from one world into another world. You can't have the two worlds. You can't do that and experience newness of life. I think our problem, those Christians that are having such a problem in their comprehension of newness of life, is the problem of Israel. They wanted deliverance from Egypt, they just weren't too sure they wanted to leave Egypt. Four hundred years they lived there, their homes were there. Had they been treated right, they would have gladly stayed in Egypt. And I think really when it gets down to the nuts and bolts of the situation, that's the way it is with most Christians too. If sin wasn't so oppressive and offensive, if the world just wasn't so contrary, if the world could just be a better place to live, we'd just be very comfortable living there. See, salvation to the Israelites was getting away from the atrocities, from the painful experiences. They didn't really comprehend the land where they were going - and that's where salvation was. And that's where salvation is. Salvation is not in getting out of Egypt. Salvation is really found in being separated unto Christ, one creation to another; caught up in the view of Him where He and He alone is our vision, and our point of identity; and being gathered up in Him with those of His faith, being gathered as One for the manifestation of Him. That's salvation. Believers have a tremendously hard time with this thing of 'newness of life'. We have a hard time because we've never comprehended salvation as newness of life - we have comprehended salvation as not sinning any more; as getting out from oppression of the devil; as deliverance - and all of those things are experienced there on the way to comprehending salvation in its fulness. But you can't tell me that the journey for Israel began in Egypt and ended on the other side of the Red Sea. You can't tell me that, but what are most ministries trying to say? You start talking about the realities of Canaan and you say, oh, that's too deep. That's the END OF SALVATION! That's where God set out to bring you and I and where He has brought us in Christ Jesus. We've come there in every way except in our comprehension. And that's why we're having a problem with 'newness of life'- we have a small comprehension of 'newness of life'. We call it deliverance, but it's more than that. Not only does Paul say in Colossians 1:13, " Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." That's where salvation is in its richest! The Kingdom of the Son of His love! Having come from one realm to another; from one world to another; one creation to another. Not just being delivered in our own world, in our own creation - just getting a better way of it. That's not what it's about at all! God was just beginning with Israel when they went through the Red Sea. His intention was that He bring them directly to Jordan - and He did bring them to Jordan. But now, Jordan was another matter. A great land was set before them - just on the other side of Jordan that they could only possess in the faith of the Son of God. They could only possess by faith. A great land lay there upon which they had never set their foot and they did not know the way. Oh now, that sounds a little like being in Christ, doesn't it? A vast land set before us. A land that we can not see, hear, touch, taste or feel. A land in which we do not know the way. And then Jesus says, Well, "I'M THE WAY. I'M THE TRUTH. I'M THE LIFE." This land is in fact the fulness of ME! And you don't walk here by sight, you walk here by faith. No wonder so many Christians say that's just too deep. They say 'I'd just rather believe God for deliverance.' All right, but you see what happened to all of those delivered people who refused to enter into full salvation? They walked around in circles until they all died! Now friends, I'm not doubting your deliverance, but most Christians today are having a real hard time with this concept called 'newness of life'. Newness of life is a scriptural term. So, John 3:3, " Jesus answered and said unto him..." We understand it is Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee and he has come to the Lord concerning spiritual life. There must be a lot that was said that is not actually recorded here. Because Nicodemus asks something of the Lord and the Lord just looks right down into his heart and sees the real question. I've talked to a lot of believers, and I hear many questions and many things about which people are confused - Why would God do this or that? And I have to tell you, when you by the eyes of the Spirit look right down to the heart of that person, a comprehension of 'newness of life' lies at the root of the problem or of the misunderstanding or of the question. Such a comprehending comes into your heart with the comprehending of 'newness of life'. Most of our questions with regard to salvation, and the ways of God and the dealings of God all come about because we are trying to live as believers, as Christ-born ones, we're trying to live as Christians without ever being separated, caught up and gathered in the Person and revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're trying to live as New Creatures in an old creation. We're trying to make New Creation reality fit an old creation situation. We're trying to bring Jesus in to answer all of our problems - all of which are actually answered, done away with and put away by the cross, and not found in a New Creation. But we're trying to bring Jesus right into them again. We should be comprehending that salvation is not Christ making an old life better or an old creation better. But salvation is you and I coming into the good of the fulness of newness of life in a New Creation, and dealing with everything out from the comprehending of a New Creature in Christ Jesus. Now that calls for the severing of so many emotional ties. It calls for the loss of a life in one creation and the finding of that life again in Christ Jesus. And most believers have just never heard that gospel. They've heard just enough to get them out of Egypt, but they haven't heard near enough to create a hunger in their heart to go into Canaan. So they just wander around in the wilderness, moaning, complaining, griping, grumbling, claiming provision, but not fulness of life. Wilderness wanderers - full of questions, full of doubts, full of problems - because they're not in Egypt, and in comprehension, they're not in Canaan either. Now I have to tell you that we are in Christ, in Spirit and in Truth and in reality - you and I are in Canaan. You can't be born again and not be in Christ. The New Testament term "IN CHRIST" fulfills everything that Canaan prophesied about or was a type of. So we're not talking about where you are in view of God and by the Spirit. We're talking about your comprehension. You see, when God brought Israel out of Egypt, as far as God was concerned, they're out of Egypt and they're in the heart of Canaan. I know there was an actual, literal journey there, the New Testament writer in Hebrews lets us know that, but really it was a journey of faith. Because the reason they did not enter was because of unbelief, not because they were too weary or because the Jordan was too wide or some physical thing. No - because of unbelief. Now you bring this right over into Christ. Our journey is in a comprehending of salvation - we walk by faith. And faith is a comprehending given of God. So, we who are in Christ, are either comprehending the reality of Christ, or our comprehension of salvation is much less, and most believers have a very small comprehension of a very great salvation. Most believers comprehend it to be only deliverance from sin, forgiveness of sin, and now we're waiting to die and go to heaven. But salvation is so much more than that deliverance, so much more than waiting to die and go to heaven. Salvation is actually dwelling in the realm of the reality of and in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus! Salvation is union with Christ! SALVATION IS IN ACTUALITY NEWNESS OF LIFE! That's what salvation is. It is finding ourselves in the very Person of Christ! So many of us have this earthly comprehension of the Lord. We want to comprehend Him in our realm, in our sphere, much like He was comprehended 2,000 years ago. He walked around in a dirt body, with a long beard, wearing a robe - but that was a body prepared for Him, given to Him wherein He might die and bring us into a great salvation! So that our comprehension of Him can no longer be as one walking around with a beard, wearing sandals and a robe, identifying with this creation. He identified with this creation (Adam, the old man) that He might die, bring this creation to an end, and by the Spirit of God and the power of the Resurrection and the reality of the New Birth, bring us into a New Creation, wherein He is not walking around with a beard and a robe, but dwells in you by His own eternal Spirit! Salvation is not you and I comprehending Christ in this creation. Salvation brings you and I to comprehend ourselves in a New Creation - a NEWNESS OF LIFE! But very few believers have that comprehension of Christ. Most believers are still comprehending Him in the flesh - as He came to be for 33 short years, as He ministered for 3 1/2 short years - to bring one creation, that which had fallen short of the glory of God to a stop, and to release us from it. Yes, deliver us from the power of darkness. But why? TRANSLATED US! That's a work of the Spirit - translated us, raised us up together, seated us together, quickened us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Bringing us from one kingdom to another, from one creation into another. I tell you, you can not comprehend 'newness of life' until you comprehend the reality of coming from one creation to another. Salvation is not making the first creation better; salvation is bringing us into a new relationship - a New Creation altogether. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things (and that's all things of the first) are passed away..." Confusion comes when we try to hold on to those old things. Well, I know we just try to hold on to the best of them, but nonetheless we try to hold on to them. We try to hold on to those old relationships rather than losing them and finding them again in NEWNESS OF LIFE! And we try to bring the Lord into all of that. And the fact of the matter is by the Spirit of God, you and I, by that quickening life-giving Spirit have been brought into union with the Person of the Lord Jesus. And I trust the Lord will enlighten the eyes of our understanding concerning this reality. Jesus looks right down into the heart of Nicodemus and He knows what's troubling him. He knows that here in this man is a hunger for newness of life, and that he has not found it, can not find it and will not find it in the ceremonies of the Law. He knows that the Law at its best only points to the newness of life, but newness of life itself is not achieved by the Law. So Jesus answers the true question of Nicodemus' heart, " Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh..." Here's the real distinction - that which is born of the flesh is flesh. There is a first birth, there is a second birth. The first birth is one thing, the second birth is altogether, totally, absolutely different from the first. They are not alike, they have nothing to do with the other. One is of the flesh, the other is of the Spirit. One relates you to the creation of sight and sound and touch and taste and feel and natural life and natural birth and natural relationships. The other birth relates you to another world, another time, another creation, another generation, another mankind. The two are totally, absolutely different one from another! The Lord was not telling Nicodemus he needed to be born again in the flesh. We don't need any more Nicodemus'. We don't need any more J W's. J W doesn't need to be born a second time as J W. J W doesn't need to go back into his mother's womb and come out again. He isn't going to be any better the second time he comes out than he was the first time he came out! We are speaking of a birth here, a real, genuine, God-ordained birth, but it is not the first one done over again. And I'm afraid that most believers really think it is - that it's a better J W, a better John, a better Mary that comes. What is made clear here by the Lord to Nicodemus is that this new birth has nothing to do with Nicodemus and His mother, with Nicodemus experiencing another natural birth. But you see, a real birth is being talked about. So the real issue is settled here. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Everything that the Lord has said here concerning blood and water is summed up in this statement. The difference is one birth is of the flesh, the other birth is of the Spirit. Now here's the kicker - you can not cross from the first birth to the second birth EXCEPT BY DEATH! That's what the whole thing is about here. How can a man be born when he's old? He cannot. He cannot, Nicodemus. You must die to be born again. You must die to be born again! Do you hear me? You! No, the world doesn't have to die. You've got to die! Other things, other people, other places, they don't have to die - you've got to die. And then you find your life ANEW IN CHRIST! But the life that you find IS CHRIST! and you come back, as it were again, but now as Paul says, "But it's not I, it's Christ who liveth in me." You come back in NEWNESS OF LIFE. You come back in ANOTHER CREATION. You have an appearing in the Lord Jesus and you come realizing you have no life but Him. Now those things to which you died are still there, they didn't disappear - you disappeared! But now you are appearing in Christ and so, your relationship with the world, with other people, places and things, is going to be different now. It's going to be as one who is dead to them, but alive to God. Consequently the basis of your relationship now with those people, places and things is one of ministering Christ! I didn't say preaching sermons - ministering Christ! It can not be done any other way. And if you try you're going to be full of questions to which there are no answers. You're going to be full of feelings from which there is really no deliverance, because the deliverance has already been set forth. You can not come from a birth of the flesh, this first creation, to a birth of the Spirit, except the first die. Why? Because the new birth is not in effect, a second birth - it is a NEW BIRTH. And the word "new" means 'from above, from the beginning, from the first.' In other words, this birth recognizes no previous birth. Nicodemus is saying how can there be a birth like this? Because in the language that Jesus was speaking, Nicodemus understood that means born from above, born anew, born as from the first, born as from the beginning. Nicodemus is saying, how can that be? And the answer the Lord gives down in verse 13, 14, 15 is it can only be through death. The first birth has to die, because we're not talking about a second birth, we're talking about a NEW BIRTH. So the first birth, that birth of the flesh has to die. The one born of the flesh has to die. Then he is born anew. He is born as though he was never born before. He is born in a New Creation and it is as though he were never in any other creation at all. And that can happen to you when you're six years old or you're sixty years old. And like Nicodemus, if you try to understand that in the flesh and say, 'Hey, I'm sixty years old, how can I experience a birth that's going to eradicate my first birth? How can I do that?' You can't - EXCEPT YOU DIE! The first one, that old man, that first - has to die. Because it is not a second birth. It is not J W being born a second time. No, that which is born of the flesh comes to a death. That's the cross. There we die. " Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" The old man dies, and a new birth - a birth from above, a birth as from the beginning, because it is He who is from the beginning - IT IS CHRIST HIMSELF WHO IS BIRTHED IN YOU! You are birthed of the Spirit of Christ! Christ is dwelling in you! Born of the Spirit of God! That's the reality of the new birth. That's the reality to which Paul came - the reality of what it means to be born again. It means, "I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST". But the miracle of miracles is, " NEVERTHELESS I LIVE, YET IT IS NOT ME, IT IS CHRIST WHO LIVETH IN ME." And that's the new birth. That's being born from above. That's being born from the beginning! I come back in the Lord, but it's really the Lord coming back because He lives in us and He is coming! I COME FORTH IN NEWNESS OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS! I come forth having no life but Christ. So now I will relate to those same people, those same places, those same things, this same world - it's still there. But I have come back. And I haven't come back as a second birth, another J W. No - I've come back as one who has no life but Christ. So my relationship with those people, places and things is as one who has no life but Christ. Now for the first time, you can actually do some good - you minister. You minister as one who is dead to it, but alive unto God. And you're not in captivity or bondage to those things that used to bind you, even the emotional ties. Now those are actually replaced by what the Bible calls "fruit of the Spirit". For there is an emotional love and there is a love which is the fruit of the spirit - a manifestation of Christ. And they're different. I didn't tell you that you lose all your emotions. I'm just telling you that they are different. There is a difference in an earthly wisdom and the wisdom which is Christ. There is a difference in an earthly understanding and the understanding which is Christ. There is a difference in an earthly joy and the joy which is Christ. There is a difference in an earthly peace and the peace which is Christ. You see the earth can be going to hell in a handbag, and your peace in Christ remains and you'll be able to minister to that to those in the earth. The earth can be running around in circles with bombs exploding in their back pockets, having no answer at all. And the wisdom which Christ is will sustain you and you'll be able to minister. But you see if you haven't come to comprehend 'newness of life', if all of salvation you are comprehending amounts to being delivered from sin, and yet you're still trying to make Christ work in an old understanding and in an old creation... And the love that you're really experiencing is that emotional thing - the wisdom, the understanding - you'll be trying to understand earthly situations - everybody wants you to understand them. But that wisdom which is above is a greater understanding. And the comprehending of it is that there is no answer for these things except they come to the cross and be counted loss, be counted dead, and this whole life has to be found again in Christ Jesus. Now that's the understanding which comes from above. You see, you and I want to sit down and understand the situation. My God, we want to do something that God did not do, could not do - No, EXCEPT HE BRING IT ALL TO THE CROSS. No wonder most Christians are so frustrated and confused trying to make salvation work in an alien environment; trying to make salvation work in a creation not meant for it. Oh, you can manifest salvation in the earth, but you can't make it work in the earth. It only works IN CHRIST JESUS! It only works in heavenly places. It only works in a New Creation. You can manifest it in the earth. You can manifest it in your home, in the grocery store, on the highway, on your job. You can manifest it there, but it doesn't work there. IT WORKS IN HIM! You can manifest a heavenly wisdom, understanding and judgment in the earth, but you can't find them in the earth. Nicodemus was confused about the thing. And the Lord said, " You must be born as never before. You must be born as from the very beginning. It is not a second birth. It is a new birth. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Nicodemus, it's never going to be anything else. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit - it will never be anything else. The two cannot mix. The one must die and the other must come forth in its place." Now that's what salvation is all about. Verse 13, 14, 15 certainly is where Jesus brings this whole conversation. "And no man hath ascended up into heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life." The Cross - you'll never see in the teachings of Christ or in the scripture in the New or Old Testament, the line of salvation until all of a sudden - THE CROSS, either in type of shadow or in reality - the cross comes right into view. Because necessary to a new birth is the death of the old. Now the term 'born again' we've already discussed. But in verse 5 the Lord Jesus says, " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit..." And in the original context and a better translation, the term is 'except a man be born out of water'. What does that mean? Look at Matthew 3:16. The scripture explains the scripture. We're at the baptism of Jesus. Tremendous significance is given to this baptism by the Lord Jesus Christ. John didn't want to perform it. And the Lord said it is necessary that it be so. John really said, 'I think it would be better if you'd just baptize me.' Thereby the lesser being baptized by the greater. But this baptism is not God's blessings, the greater, coming upon the lesser. This baptism is in effect doing away with the lesser and the greater only remaining. Everything that went down into the water was part of John's baptism. John's baptism concluded all of the Law, all of the Prophets. Everything that pointed to Jesus was finally culminated and given a voice - ONE VOICE - in the ministry of John the Baptist. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Every scripture, all of the Old Testament, all of the ordinances, all of the Prophets - everything speaking of the coming of Christ, comes to be fulfilled in the voice and in the person and the ministry of John. That's the lesser, because it's pointing to the greater. The greater didn't come to bless or prolong the lesser. The greater came to fulfill the lesser, all of the lesser, and stand in its place! So everything of the going down in to the Jordan was of the baptism of John, because John was doing it. But when Jesus came up out of the Jordan, all of a sudden, the ministry of John was completed. It had gone as far as it could possibly have gone - it could go no further. Verse 16, " And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water..." There's the term. " Except a man be born out of the water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God." Here is the reality of what that is talking about. There's only ONE MAN that comes up out of the water. And that's the NEW MAN IN CHRIST JESUS! We all know that this baptism of Jesus was a figurative baptism pointing towards the reality of His Death, His Burial, His Resurrection - the working of the cross and the revelation of the Father. Everything that the river Jordan stands for, not just death - death, burial, resurrection - not those things as things, but those three works as a New Creation, as a New Man standing up, and coming up out of - COMING UP OUT OF - not standing in the water, not standing in the death, burial, but COMING UP OUT OF THE WATER ONTO THE BANKS OF THE JORDAN - stepping as it were over into Canaan; stepping as it were into the midst of a New Creation in Christ Jesus! Not only that, there at the Jordan, divine revelation - the heavens opened and the Father speaks - not John this time. No, John is done with. Everything he represents is over. Now the heavens open and the Father declares newness of life. The Father declares "THIS IS MY SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED." Was He not speaking of the Lord Jesus? Certainly He was speaking of the Lord Jesus. But He was speaking of that New Creation which the Lord Jesus would bring forth in Himself. He was speaking of that many-membered Son which is the fulness of the Lord Jesus. He was speaking of that many who are One Son! All those who have no life but Christ, and are the very Body of Christ! That's the work that He gave the Son to finish. And the Jordan baptism is a looking forward and a declaration of that finished work. And then right after that baptism that Son of Man comes up out of the water - a New Creation and immediately He is put to the test - severe test, severe trial, severe testing of His faith. But He comes forth and He enters into ministry - the ministry of the Son of Man. And during the ministry of the Son of Man, as the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus always kept speaking of that greater One to come, that greater ministry, that greater manifestation of Himself, of which He was a forerunner, of which He was the pattern, and of which He is the fulness. But it is the greater manifestation of Himself, the greater ministry that would come forth in the earth - by the coming again of the Son of Man. So you see, when He speaks of the water He is speaking of His baptism. What does His baptism involve? It involves the death of all the old, not only the death of that which is sin and sinful, but the death of that which points to Christ but is not Christ. You see it was said of John by the Lord Himself, John is the greatest that the Old Testament, the greatest that the prophets had to offer. And yet John is least, the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. What I'm saying is more comes to the cross than just sin and sinful. Even religious concepts come to the cross. Everything that points to Christ but is not actually Christ comes to the cross. If it is born of the flesh it comes to the cross - and IT MUST DIE! And it goes down in the baptism. But the One who comes up is not brought up by John, and John has no more to say to Him or to do with Him. THE ONE THAT COMES UP IS RAISED UP BY THE GLORY OF GOD, RAISED UP BY THE POWER OF GOD, RAISED UP BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, BORN UP OUT OF THE WATER AND BY THE SPIRIT! The Spirit descends upon Him and remains for He is given the Spirit without measure! This is the One who dwells in you! This is the One by Whom you have newness of life! This is the One Whose Body you are! This is the One in union with Whom you stand! This is the Son that you are in union with Christ! NEWNESS OF LIFE! Translated. One cannot enter into the kingdom, but this One is translated into the kingdom of the beloved Son, into the kingdom of God, into the kingdom of Christ! This New Creation in Christ Jesus - up out of the water of His baptism. So we're back to that real question - how can a man already born be born anew? How can a man already born one time be born as having no previous birth? He cannot, except he die! Look at Romans 6. Paul is speaking to the believers, and they've got a lot of questions and they've got a lot of problems, no doubt the same kind of questions, same kind of problems that you and I have. It comes down to this. Verse 1, " What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin..." He's not really telling Christians shall you continue to sin and go about sinning, but in sin, in that realm that has fallen short of the glory of God. "... that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we..." Look, he doesn't first say 'how shall we that are born again... how shall we that are saved... how shall we that are delivered. That is not what he first says, because that is not what first matters. " How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" You cannot live any longer in something to which you are dead - in a relationship to which you are dead, in a world to which you are dead, in a bondage to which you are dead. If you are dead you cannot live in it any longer. You, yourself are free from it through death. Yes, there's more than death, but we're talking about death right now, because death is the liberating factor. New Birth is the joining again factor - that brings you into a new union. But death is that which separates you from the first. And Christians are trying to enjoy "newness of life" without experiencing in their own comprehension, without coming to realize a death to the first. And that's where the problem is, that's what confuses. Trying to experience newness of life and never in our own hearts suffering death to the first. So that we've actually got two loves going on, two lives going on, two creations going on at the same time. And to say the best for that is to say it's confusing. Paul's answer here is the same as the Lord Jesus' was to Nicodemus. " God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin..." Alive to Christ, alive to Christ - oh yes, but don't try to comprehend being alive to Christ until you're ready to comprehend being dead to sin, because it won't work. I've come to realize that God is bringing us to a point of coming into the greatest view of Christ that has ever been released from the heavens, a view of Him that shall bring about a coming, a manifest appearing and ministering of Him in the earth, and most Christians haven't gotten by dead to sin yet! Most Christians are still trying to lay hold of newness of life without turning loose of oldness of life. We've turned loose of what we've considered sin, but what about all the rest of it? 'Well I'm going to hold onto it.' Why? you think you're going to save it and make it better? You're not. You'll only do that by losing it and then approaching it again from the understanding of Christ! It isn't going to go anywhere, it will be right there, but you'll come back different. The work takes places in you and in me and must do so, or not only do we not have an answer for this world, we're going to be as confused as it is. It's time we all wake up and realize that if we are to lay hold on NEWNESS OF LIFE, let alone be ministers of that newness, we've got to suffer this death in our hearts. Dead to sin, dead to the world, dead to the first creation. How can a man be born anew? Except he die, he cannot. He must die! Then be born again. Well, what Paul is telling the Christians here is that this is not something you've got to do, this is something that happened to you. This is something you've got to comprehend. You who have come by Christ came by His death into His life. But that wasn't preached to you - nobody told you about that. They told you about coming to life, so you are just trying to blend the two together without ever in your heart ever really coming to comprehend in absoluteness of divine realization - I DIED! I AM CRUCIFIED! I DIED AND CAME BACK AGAIN IN HIM! I DIED AND AM BIRTHED ANEW! Now that's what salvation is. Death and life - death to sin, alive to God. How? THROUGH JESUS CHRIST THE LORD! Romans 6 here will tell you that in verse 11. But the point is Paul is saying this isn't something you have to do, it's something you've got to comprehend about your salvation. That your salvation was not just a deliverance. Your salvation was a dying to one world and being born - birthed by the very Spirit of Christ Himself - into another. And Paul keeps saying, 'Don't you know that? Don't you realize that as many of us as were baptized in to Christ were baptized into His death? Don't you realize that?' And he found that most didn't. So, as pertaining to spiritual life, " What, know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death..." Not we must be - WE ARE! This is something of salvation that you've got to come to comprehend. You've got to come to comprehend by divine revelation that CHRIST IS YOUR LIFE! By that same revelation you've got to comprehend you have no life but Christ. That means you've got to come to comprehend we come to death before we come to life. You can not be alive in Christ and not be dead in the world. You can't do it. Now some of us are trying to comprehend salvation that way and that's the reason so many are confused. But in actuality it can't be. If you are alive in Christ, you are alive because you died at the cross with Him. Through the work of God you died. If you did not die, you could not possibly be born again. It's not something you've got to do, it's a realization you've got to come to. It's a judgment you've got to accept. You accept that Christ is your life. You must accept that you have no life but Christ. You accept that you are in Christ Jesus. You must accept therefore, you are not in the first creation any longer. You accept that you are alive to God by Christ. You must then accept you are dead to the world. This is a judgment, this is a realization, this is a comprehension to which you and I must come. It is a gospel we must accept. Failure to do so is tantamount to unbelief. It's tantamount to not entering into Canaan. Why? Because we won't accept the death. It's tantamount to refusing to comprehend full salvation. 'No, I just want salvation to be getting rid of some of my sins and leaving me alone so I can just live here in the world, and be a better person and have a better place.' That's not going to work. That's not going to work because that's not true. And that's all that Paul is saying here. He does not say, 'Don't you know you've got to die?' He's saying do you not understand you died? Could it possibly be you don't understand you have no life but Christ? Could it possibly be that you really think you're still alive in the first creation, and yet born anew in the second? And he's showing them that is not possible. He's showing them that's where the problem is - it's a lack of knowing, a lack of comprehension. And he's simply saying - No, AS CHRIST IS, SO ARE YOU! And he brings them down to verse 9 and 10. "Knowing that Christ being raised from among the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him, For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." It is through your union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we must judge this. As it is with Him, so it is with you. He could not come forth in Resurrection until He died in the first creation. Neither can you. When you came to the Lord you came by His death, and by His burial and by His resurrection. You must come in the fulness of the Spirit to comprehend Him in that way. This is a foundational thing. It is the rock upon which spiritual life is built - this realization that we live only by Him, in Him, through Him and have no life other than Him. Don't you see, the backside of that is that I'm dead, except He be my life? And we come to realize how did that happen? It happened when we came to the Lord. He delivered us from the power of darkness. How did He do that? He did that through death. He did that through the cross. He translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. How did He do that? Through the Spirit of Life, through the Spirit of Resurrection, through the Spirit by which we are born anew, born again. That is what salvation is. Salvation isn't me trying to die. Salvation isn't me trying to live. Salvation is me realizing that what I have experienced with the new birth is that I have come from death unto life! That I have passed from one creation to a New Creation wherein lives only Christ. And I must come to have that Christ, that Living Christ revealed in me and then I relate to the first creation and to the second creation in that understanding. My God, you'll never lay hold on NEWNESS OF LIFE until you come by this comprehension. Paul makes it so clear. NEWNESS OF LIFE. What is the issue of new life? That we have died? No, that's not the issue of new life. That's the issue of baptism. That's the issue of the water. He who comes up out of the water comes up out of death. The issue of our baptism is we were baptized into His death. But the issue of new life is not that I died. There's a greater issue to new life. The issue to new life is in Romans 6 verse 4. "... that like as Christ was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." The issue of new life is that Christ lives and He lives in me and He lives in you. But He could not do that except I first died with Him, that by Him I might live. Nothing else had to die. I died to it. And I live unto God, but I live unto God through the One who lives in me. HE IS THE CHRIST, THE LIVING ONE, AND BY HIM I HAVE, AND CAN WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE! So you see 'newness of life', the issue of newness of life is the reality that Christ lives and that He is our life. But what we've got to do is come to this realization. And it's not coming to realize I've got to die, but realizing the only way I can be born again is that I died to sin. You see, it's very much that way. Here's an example. It's like going to the death of a loved one, let's call it a real close loved one, because what we're viewing here is ourselves. We come to the funeral and there they are. They are stretched out in the casket. Now two issues lay before us. We can either accept they are dead or we can refuse to accept that judgment and we can go on in the foolish thought that they are not dead. I'm not talking about 'alive in Christ', I'm talking about in the natural. We've got to make a judgment concerning that first birth, that first born one, that one that is laying there. They are dead. There's nothing I can do. I didn't kill them and I can't make them alive. Now, you didn't kill yourself - that's part of coming by the cross. That's part of the Lord Jesus - His death, His burial, His resurrection. You can't be part of His death without being part of His burial. You can't be part of His burial without coming forth in His resurrection. All of that is one work of the cross. And you and I have got to come to the point of looking at that which is of the first birth, that which is of the flesh is flesh - and we've got to realize that died with Him - that I may live by Him. Salvation is my dying, Him living! Salvation is the first man dead, the second man is the Lord Jesus. The second man is Christ living in me. I am His Body in union with Him. I live by Him. I have no life but Him. Only in that comprehension can you lay hold of NEWNESS OF LIFE. You can not lay hold of newness of life until you suffer the judgment of the loss of the first. You can't mix the two up. Most Christians I know today are trying to mix the two. They are trying to have the one without the loss of the other, and you can not do it. Why? BECAUSE OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF CHRIST! Because of what He did you can't have it any other way. " Except a man be born out of the water and of the Spirit he can not enter into the kingdom of God." Except you come by baptism, up out of the water - death, burial, resurrection - quickened by the Spirit of God - you can't enter the kingdom of God. It's not a second birth. It's a new birth! NEWNESS OF LIFE! It is CHRIST LIVING IN YOU! This is the foundation of the whole building. Until you and I come to this first judgment of the cross, we'll never come to what I'll call for teaching sake, the second judgment of the cross, which is the judgment we must face in Christ as born-ones. As a child born we must face a judgment in order to have part in the reality of the Son who is given, who is revealed of the Father. Until we come to this first judgment, the judgment that separates us from one creation to where we're found only in the New Creation, in the comprehending that it is not I, but Christ - until we've come to that judgment, we'll go no farther in things of spiritual life. I trust that the Lord will ground you and I together in that foundation which is Christ, which is Christ revealed in us. And that His bringing us upon the foundation will enable us to walk in NEWNESS OF LIFE. That we may not look back but set our heart, set our gaze on the evercoming reality of the Son. May God grant that to you and I, I pray. AMEN!