Death in the Flesh, Life in..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey. When God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons were brought safely through water.

Baptism, which corresponds to these now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience. the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to these, They are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery. And then my line you. But they will give account to him who is ready. To judge the living and the dead, for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, the judge in the flesh, the way people are. in the spirit the way God does amen this is the word of God now brothers and sisters I hope that you see from verses 1 through 6 in chapter 4 the contrast that the Apostle is given us between those who are in Christ Jesus and those who are not in Christ Jesus the Apostle is providing a comparison a contrast a between believers and unbelievers, those who by grace through faith have been united to Christ and are in Christ, those compared to those who remain in their sins are not believers and are outside of the person of Jesus Christ.

In simple words, the only two type of people that are in the world, people who are in Christ and people who are outside or who are not in Christ. That's the contrast that the apostle is giving us from verses one through six. But there is a context for that contrast, which is very important. It is not only that he's comparing the people of God against the people of the flesh or the world, but there is a very important thought that is in the mind of the apostle as he is providing that contrast and that contrast is in the context of life and death those two topics life and death and everything that is related to life being alive living that is what corresponds to life and that which is of death and those who have died. It's very important that we see the context in which the apostle is going to give us the contrast between believers and unbelievers.

The section that we have just read, or in the section that we have just read, the apostle mentions directly or indirectly 14 times this concept of life and death. So that speaks of the importance of us understanding the comparison between believers and unbelievers, those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ, within the context of that dichotomy between life and death. Put your eyes, please, in verse 18, and I will show you how life and death is that which is in the mind of the apostle to give us the contrast between believers and unbelievers, or Christians and non-Christians. When he's speaking of life, he's going to use words such as living, or alive, or even life. And when he's speaking of death, he's going to use words such as suffer, or death, or dead.

Let's see in verse 18, he says, for Christ also suffered, this is Christ also died once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he may bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, you can see the contrast there, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when God's patients waited in the days of Noah in the ark who was being prepared in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. That is everyone else besides or apart from those eight souls or those eight people died and the eight souls or eight persons were alive. They survived. The verse 21, baptism, which corresponds to this now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is, that he was dead in the tomb, but now he's alive.

That is from death to life. who has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers being subjected to him. And then he continues, since therefore Christ suffered, that is, he died in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whosoever, now speaking of Christians, has suffered in the flesh, that is, died in the flesh, has ceased from sin, so as to live, that is, about life, for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. And these Gentiles are living, this is of life, in sensuality, passions, rankiness, orgies, drinking parties and lawless idolatries with respect to these are surprised when you don't you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and they malign you but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they may live in the spirit the way God does. 14 times, most of them directly and a couple of them indirectly, the apostle is speaking between this comparison between life and death.

Those who are alive and those who are dead, or someone being brought from death into life. This is the framework, this is the thought that the apostle has through this passage and it's in this context that the apostle is comparing believers with unbelievers. Based on what I said last week, if we were going to then define and give definitions with the context and what the text says about who the believers are, who Christians are, brothers and sisters and friends, we could say that those who are Christians, those who are in Christ by grace through faith, are those who have died in the flesh just as Christ died in the flesh and have been made alive in the spirit. So in a sense, to be a Christian is both to be alive and to be dead is to be dead to the flesh and to be alive in this spirit in the person of Jesus Christ. This is spiritually speaking.

And then implicitly from the text, we can therefore conclude that just as believers are dead to the flesh and alive in the spirit, we can say of unbelievers, we can say of those who are outside of Christ, those who are not united to Christ, that they remain living in the flesh, but they are dead in the spirit. Just as the believer is both and alive also the unbeliever in a sense is also alive and also dead the unbeliever is alive or lives in the flesh in the in the power of the flesh but he's dead sisters why am i doing this because this is very important for us to understand when the apostle is speaking of life in the spirit and life in the flesh because in the same sense that pay attention to this that i christian spiritually speaking in the spirit and dead in the flesh now when we speak physically speaking that Christian can die and die in his body so brothers these are all the concepts that are through the mind of the Apostle and if we are going to understand the exhortation that not only he gives to believers but also that which he says that very important concept. Last week, the exhortation was for those who've been united in Christ are alive in the Spirit and dead to the flesh. And I said to you that we understand those concepts of being alive in the Spirit and dead in the flesh because of our union with Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ died in the flesh.

He was buried and we are baptized, united to Christ in his death. And when he was powerfully resurrected, the power that resurrected the Lord Jesus Christ is the power that gives us eternal life is the power that gives us the life that we now have in Christ. He suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. So we have died in the flesh and we are made alive in the spirit. And then I said to you that based on that glorious union that we have with Christ, we are to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ so that we can fulfill the exhortation that the apostle gives to the Christians in this portion of the scripture.

That is to leave behind the passions of our flesh and to move towards the will of God. But pay attention to that, beloved brothers and sisters. The fact that we are alive in the spirit and dead in the flesh does not mean that the human passions still have certain influence in the way that we live. The fact that the apostle is telling us to leave behind human passions signify or tell us that human passions still have certain influence or power in us. This is very important to understand.

Now, the apostle here now is going to speak of the unbeliever. And I'm going to try to take you through the text and then do it in a very concise and quick way so that we can get something of this passage. Now, brothers and sisters, there is not only a contrast or a comparison between believers and unbelievers among all in the context of life and death there is also a contrast of wheels if you pay attention the exhortation that the apostle gave to believers in verse two is so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. That is to Christians. That Christians who are alive in the spirit, but are dead in the flesh, are to live the temporal life that we live in the body, in the flesh, for the will of God, and no longer for the passions of our former ignorance.

He says to live for the will of God. But there is a contrast with another will that is given here to us. And that is in verse 3. It says, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. The literal Greek vea is for the will of the Gentiles.

And then if you have another translation, you will have the word, the will of the Gentiles. So he says, leave behind the will of the Gentiles, that is those who are lost, those who are in their human passions and move towards the will of God. This is the contrast. Life and death, believers and believers, the will of God and the will of the flesh. Those who are in Christ Jesus can live for the will of God because Christ has given them life to do so.

But what we're going to be doing today is actually analyzing and studying the will of the Gentiles. And when he speaks of the Gentiles, he's speaking of unbelievers. The people of God are the chosen people, as he said in chapter two. But the Gentiles, spiritually speaking, are those who are not God's people. brothers and sisters, to shed more light into this concept of life and death and the will of the flesh against the will of God, I want to take you to a passage of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 2, in which he is going to tell us something very important about the will of those who are not Christians, those who are not in Christ, those who are not united to the person of Jesus Christ.

So if you go to Ephesians chapter 2, The apostle using exactly the same language that apostle Peter uses in the passage that we have just read is going to give us more light about brothers and sisters, those who are outside of Christ, those who are dead in the spirit and who live in the flesh, those who are not in the family of God. And in verse one, through three, he says, he's going to do it in a very interesting way. He's going to speak of our previous former state in the flesh. So he says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. following the curse of this world, following the prince of the power of the earth, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all have once lived in the passions of our flesh, once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."

Pay attention to that section that says, the desires of the body and the mind. The word there literally is the will of the flesh and the mind. It's not the desires of the body. It is the will of the flesh, using exactly the same words that Apostle Peter uses in the portion of the scripture that we just read now, brothers and sisters and friends, this passage that we have here teaches us about the nature of those who are not in Christ, the nature of those who are outside of Christ and believers. And there is three things that I want you to see.

The first thing is that by nature, using the words of the apostle, they are children of disobedience or children of wrath. The Gentiles, spiritually speaking, those who are not in Christ, by nature, the apostle says, they are the sons of disobedience in the end of verse two. And then in the end of verse three, he calls them children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, brothers and sisters and friends. Those who are not in Christ are children of disobedience, or sons of disobedience, and the wrath of God abides on them. And this is not only something that is learned when a person is born, or this is not something that is received from the context in which we live, but the Apostle says that this is by nature, that this is innate to who we are as humans, that we are children of disobedience and wrath.

But the second thing, which is scary, in verse one, or in verse two better, it says, when he's contrasting our former times in the flesh, compared that to the spirit, he says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins, when we were dead, in which you once walked, this is when we were in the flesh, following the curse of this world. following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Those who are not in Christ are sons of disobedience and sons of wrath, but also they are then by nature followers of the curse of this world, which is equivalent, brothers and sisters, to be followers of satan who is the prince of the power of the earth that it is that a person by nature a human by nature is born into a system in which he does no other thing that following the curse of this world which is equivalent to following the prince of the power of the earth or the prince of the earth which is satan this is the natural condition of the unbeliever this is the natural condition of the spiritually speaking gentile and because of that The will of that person is manifested in what it says there in the second half of verse three. It says, verse three, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the will of the flesh, or the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. That is, brothers and sisters, that the natural condition of the lost will necessarily take them.

This is natural for them. This is naturally for the person who is outside of Christ to carry out the will of the mind and the will of the flesh, which is in enmity against God. The Apostle Paul says in Romans that those who are outside of Christ, cannot please God. They cannot submit to the law of God. They are unable to submit to the law and to the commandments of God.

That's why Paul calls them here children of disobedience. Now this is very important brothers and sisters because the carrying out of the will of the Gentiles is what Peter is going to give us some practical examples. So if you go to chapter four in the passage that we have of Peter, Peter is going to now demonstrate and give to us external manifestations of this nature of the lost, that it is corrupt and that it is fallen. this will of the flesh, this will of the children of disobedience, this will of the children of wrath. In verse three, he says, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles, that is, those who are in the flesh, want to do, that is, their will, the will of the Gentiles.

And he's gonna tell us how they carry out their will. And he says, living in sensuality, in passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. Brothers and sisters, when the authors of the Bible gives us a list of sins, sometimes we might think that because they're just given a list of sins that they're just listing there whatever came to their mind first. But that is not the case. The authors of the Bible usually give us a list of different scenes with a purpose and with an intention.

And the list of scenes that we have here, first of all, is not an exhaustive list of scenes, because these things, these manifestations of the will of the flesh is what Paul calls in Galatians the works of the flesh. You remember the very famous passage comparing the fruits of the spirit against the works of the flesh. that which is produced for Christians who are walking in the Spirit, and that which is natural for those who are in the flesh. That's what Paul calls the works of the flesh. Here, the apostle is giving us not an exhaustive list of works of the flesh.

And as I said to you, there is always a purpose. This is not the first time that Peter is given us a list of sins. You might remember in the beginning of chapter two, a few months ago, probably a long time ago, when we did the sermon there in chapter two, he gave us a list of sins. He spoke of malice and deceit, hypocrisy and envy and slander. And that list of sin had a clear purpose for the exhortation there.

So what I'm trying to say here to you is that the apostle is not only listing works of the flesh, but he has a very important purpose and intention in mind. The first thing that I want us to do is to classify those sins. There is a sense in which those six different sins or unrighteous deeds that the apostle is providing there, sensuality, passions, rankiness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry, six of them, that they can be classified in three different categories. In three different categories, they can be put. The first one is the category of sexuality.

The category of sexuality. You have sensuality, you have passions, and you have urges. These are sexual immorality. These are sins that are related to sexual immorality. Not only sexuality, but the second category could be food.

and drink he mentions here in the third scene he calls he speaks of drunkenness and he also speaks of drinking parties which in another bible translation will be banquets or not only drinking parties but these are like banquets or actually parties and when people will come and drink and eat This is the first one, sexuality. The second, it is food and drink. And the third category, which is the last scene that he gives us here, it is related to worship. He calls it lawless idolatry. Sexuality, food and drink, and worship.

Now, brothers and sisters, pay attention to this because there is something very particular about these scenes that have been listed here, and this speaks of the intention of the Apostle to communicate that message. Because remember, brothers and sisters, that initially what the Apostle is trying to do is to give us an exhortation as Christians to leave behind the passions of the flesh and to move towards the will of God. So let's, we may think that because we never, or we may have never fallen in this type of sins, that this does not apply to us, that that might not be the case. So now brothers and sisters, there's something very particular about these scenes that have been just listed here for us. Different to the list of scenes that were given to us in chapter 2, these scenes are scenes that are performed always externally.

You're right, when you have envy, and when you have malicious thoughts, and when you have a deceitful mind, this is something that happens within you. But the list of sins that the Apostle has listed here are sins that, in nature, they happen externally, that they are manifested externally. And not only that, but these are sins that require at least one other person committing this particular sin. And these three type of categories that I have given you, sexuality, food and drink, and worship are very well defined what the Apostle says after in verse 4. He says, with respect to this, they are surprised, the Gentiles, when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery.

Because that which characterized those sins that had been given to us is excess. It's excess in sexuality, in food and drink, and in worship. Now brothers, that which is holy, and that you have that which is unholy. Because sexuality, food and drink, and worship, they have their counterpart, which can be righteous and holy. Sexuality can be holy and righteous according to God's standards.

And food and drink can be also holy and righteous according to God's standards. And worship, of course, is the purpose for which we have been made, and that can be holy and righteous. The sins that the apostle is listing here are sins that are committed, according to the word that I understand, in a collective way. It is something that requires more people. It's something that requires others partaking of the sexual immorality of this parties, the drinking parties, and this drunkenness.

And this is very important because the thought that it is in the mind of the apostle, brothers and sisters, is the very important thought of separation. Separation. Read what he says in verse four. With respect to this, this is all the sins that he has just mentioned. With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery he's assuming that christians do not join that is that they separate themselves from these gentiles of unbelievers who are performing all of these scenes and perhaps these were sins that these christians were under or in before they became followers of the lord jesus christ and that's why he's given them the exhortation in the beginning of the passage to live the rest of your life in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.

Now, brothers and sisters, perhaps I'm not able to articulate very well the importance, the importance and the mandate and the calling of scripture for the Christian, the one that is alive in the flesh and dead, alive in the spirit and dead in the flesh, to separate from the wicked and unrighteous practices of those who are dead spiritually. Now brothers, we are, and sisters, we are in the world. And we are to deal with things of the world and the things people even in the world. But the Bible is very clear that the affections of the heart of the believer had to be directed, connected, and given utterly and completely to God. Because those who love the world do not have the love of God in them.

Those who have love towards the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in them. Those who have love for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the air, the pride of life, they cannot have the love of the Father in them. The affections of the heart of a Christian are taken captive by only two masters. and that can be Christ or that can be the flesh and the world this is very very very important because even what comes after in the mind of the apostle there is this concept of separation that the christian is not to join those who are in the flesh. But before I move into the next part of this, I really want to share with you an exhortation in the mind or in the mouth of the apostle Paul that is found in 2nd Corinthians, chapter number six, 2nd Corinthians, chapter number six.

The apostle is going to give us a little bit more clarity on this concept of separation. 2nd Corinthians chapter 6. This is what I try to put in my mouth and with my words, but this is with the words of the Apostle Paul. He says in verse 14. Chapter 6 verse 14.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what person does a believer share with an unbeliever?

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord.

And touch no unclean thing, and I will become. I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." Now read verse 1 of the following chapter, because there's no chapter divisions in the Bible. Since we have these promises of God abiding in us when we separate those of the flesh or the things of the flesh from among us, since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves for every defilement of the body. And again, it's not the body, it's the flesh.

Defilement of the body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in what? In the fear of God. Brothers and sisters, these are not my words. These are the words of scripture that he has called us, those who are alive in the spirit and dead too in the flesh, to walk towards the will of God and to constantly and ongoingly separate from the will of the Gentiles, from the passions of the Gentiles. And this makes absolute sense, brothers and sisters, because If a person is alive, how is that person going to remain in fellowship with those who are dead?

How can life have any meaningful, deep fellowship with those who are dead? Now, do not get me wrong. I'm not saying that we are not supposed to have any type of fellowship with those who are not Christians. I'm not saying that. I'm speaking about the passions of the flesh.

which contaminates the walking in the spirit of those who are in Christ Jesus. And let me tell you something, that the more that a person becomes like Jesus Christ, the more unnatural that will be for that person to have intimate and deep fellowship with those of the world. The more that a person will be more like the person of Jesus Christ and the things of his life will be like what is written, the less that that person will insert him or herself easily in the things of this world. They are naturally opposed. And this is what happens according to the apostle Peter.

If you go back to the apostle Peter, when that of the spirit comes into the presence of that of the flesh, the natural result of it is that there is going to be opposition between them. That should tell you a lot of the contemporary state of Christianity, in which Christianity is simple and easy to be within the context of the things of the world. Look what Apostle says in verse 4. With respect to these, they, the Gentiles, are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery. That it is that the lost, the unbeliever, Those who are not in Christ are surprised, are utterly surprised that these people who in the past joined us in doing these practices, now do not join us.

anymore and their surprise brothers and sisters is natural because for them doing those things are that which is supposed to be done that is their nature taking them to do particular things and those who were in christ before in the flesh were doing those things that's why they are surprised he says do not join them in the same flood of debauchery and the result of it it is that they malign you brothers and sisters The more that the shining glory of Christ is present in our lives, the more that the schemes and the systems of this world will be contrary and opposite to the light of the Savior. He came to this world and He was reviled. He was accused. He was persecuted. He was killed.

He died on our behalf. The light of Christ and the light of Christ in his disciples, if it's in us, the more that shines within us and through us, will make us different to the world. And therefore, the world will evidence and will witness that difference in those people, and they will respond naturally. surprised in the fact that we do not join them in their practices and the response to that it is reviling accusations. These are slander.

These are maligning words towards those who are in the person of Jesus Christ. But the Apostle is going to conclude now this section telling us what is the expectation of those who are not in Christ. If the expectation of the believer was that they will leave behind the passions of the flesh and move towards the will of God, then the expectation for the unbeliever is this brothers that they will give account to him who is ready to judge again, believing and the death. And I want you to I want you to pay attention to the readiness. of God to execute this judgment.

He says that he will or they will give an account to him that is God and this God that in the future they will give an account. He is ready to judge the living and the dead. those who are alive in that time and those who are dead in that time. Not even death is escape door for the judgment of God that it is to come. This is the universality of the judgment of God that it is to come.

This is the instruction that the apostle or the spirit through the apostle is given to this church, that these people who are in the flesh, they will give an account before the Lord by brothers and sisters. And this is very important because here, after the apostle has presented this rather very daunting scenario, this very daunting context in which these unbelievers are to be separated from, in which these lost people are to be removed from, and in this unbelievers are going to be the recipients of the judgment of God that is to come after this very daunting scenario. The apostle is going to provide an encouragement to the Christians in the midst of that. Very daunting is an area, and he says in verse six, if you pay attention to that verse, he says, for this is why the gospel was preached, even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh, the way people are. in the spirit the way God does.

And you can see some of the difficulties and complications with that verse. But pay attention to what the apostle says. He says, for this is why the gospel, which is the message of salvation, was preached, that is, in the past, was preached to those who are in the present, now dead, that though those who are now dead judge in the flesh the way people are, they might leave future In the spirit the way does brothers and sisters some of these persecutions That believers would have received because of their christlikeness Some of these reviling accusations and all of these difficulties that they would have gone through because of christlikeness Would have not been only in the lips or in the mouths of the unbeliever But many of them would have lost their lives because of their christianity and because of their profession of faith And many of them were in a state of hopelessness in which, what is it going to happen with the future? of my soul. The apostle is providing a glorious hope in saying that even those Christians who are now dead in the body received the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though they died, that is the judgment of the flesh, the wages of sin is death.

And even if we are in Christ, we are supposed to die in the flesh and be resurrected into the new body into glory this is the judgment to the flesh in the likeness of men who according to men we might be powerfully resurrected the way that god believes that's what the apostle says there For this is why the gospel, the good news of salvation, were preached to our brothers and sisters who now are dead in the flesh. But when it was preached to them, the message gave them life, a life that goes beyond the present but moves into the future. And now being dead now in the flesh, they will be in glory, made alive eternally the way that God lives, no longer to die. the gospel brothers and sisters that we have a spiritual life that when glory comes is actually going to be transmitted even in the flesh. The flesh, your body, everything that is in you, it is not only getting older, but it's going to die.

The important thing is that if you are in Christ, you have a hope that something greater is yet to come. And even if you die before the Lord Jesus Christ come, your brothers and sisters can say the testimony and give glory that even to those who are now dead, the gospel was preached. So now that they might be made alive in the spirit, I'm not only in the spirit, but also in the flesh. That's the message that the apostle Paul gave to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. If you want to go with me there, and I want to point a couple of things and we will finish there.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this is by no means the first time that an apostle speaks of these glories and these truths the apostle Paul had done the same in first Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 12 and we're going to read a rather long portion but pay attention to the hope that the christian has that even if we die in the body because the gospel of salvation was preached to us, we have the certainty that the death of our body is going to be made live in the spirit because of the person of Jesus Christ. verse 12 chapter 15 and let's read carefully their brothers and sisters and we will see what the apostle does here now if christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead but if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even christ has been raised and if christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain we are even found to be misrepresenting god because we testified about god that he raised christ whom he did not raise, if it's true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your fate is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, We are of all people must be pitted. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for us by a man came death by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead for us in Adam all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ, the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God might be all in all.

The apostle Peter says in the section that we read that it is we are safe through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father and all authorities have been subjected to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now brothers and sisters the hope of our eternal union with Christ Pay attention to this. The hope of our eternal glory with the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the apostle Paul in first John, chapter five, is that which purifies us in the present and the judgment that is to come when the Lord comes. It is a sense of separation. The Lord is going to separate those who are in Christ from those who are not in Christ and he is going to execute his righteous judgment.

But our belonging to Christ requires of a present and ongoing purification in Christ that removes us from the things of the world and that points us to towards the person of Jesus Christ. This is even what the apostle will continue saying here in the passage that we have in front of us. Pay attention to verse 29, and we will finish there. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, what we were just reading before, in verse 29 says, otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?

Now pay attention. Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus?

If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor. as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God.

I say this to your shame." Brothers, the hope of the resurrection that is coming ahead. The hope of the type of life that we have in Christ is not that we can call ourselves to be Christians just now and that we can just do all of these Christian things of coming to church once per week and doing Christian things. The type of life that in Christ. It is an ongoing increasing life of conformity to the person of Jesus Christ which necessarily requires a that the person will remove him or herself from the unrighteousness, the wickedness, and the defilement of the things of this world.

And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1, that we constantly purify or cleanse ourselves from the impurity or wickedness of our body and of our flesh in light or in the vision of the fear of God, knowing that is God the one who judges the living and the dead, walking towards the call of the supreme calling, which is eternal union in the person of Jesus Christ. And this is the message, brothers and sisters, that makes us and sets us apart from the world. God did not intend would remain like the things of the world. He intended to save his people so that his people will be a testimony of the glories and of the power, the purity, the holiness, the sanctity that is in God, the perfections that are in God, the love that is in God, so that when he comes and he executes his that he is unjust. No one will be able to say that he is unfair.

No one will be able to say that his judgment is not according to what it is supposed to be. Because in Christ, the judgment that even he executes on us, it is right and it is perfect, taking us into eternal glory. Amen?