The Death (5) and Resurrection of Christ

Certainly our service to Christ springs out of what he has done for us on the cross. We're going to see hopefully a little better the connection between those two tonight as we look at the death of Christ and the results of it for our Christian lives. We've been several weeks now talking about the death of Christ as we continue to study the doctrine of Christ, the various doctrinal truths in the scriptures that relate to our Lord and Savior and we have been talking about how his death should be interpreted. We talked about the importance of it, the necessity of it, the nature of it, the meaning of it, and the finality of it. We ended last time by talking about the finality of Christ's death, the fact that he died once for all and it was his one death that paid for sin forever. For those who come to know Christ, it sanctifies us, the Bible says, that's a part for Christ forever and we saw that that corrects three different errors, sacramentalism and that is that the teaching that salvation is through sacraments or ordinances, basically which are taught by some to be a repetition of the death of Christ over and over and over again and we saw that the book of Hebrews clearly teaches against that. Also, legalism that we can add our own works to the cross, Jesus died once for all to save us, that's all that's needed. And then we saw that it also corrects universalism which is the fact that the teaching that God will offer a second chance after death to those who die without him. If there is any other way to be saved other than the cross, any other way, once that's rejected and death comes, there's any other way, then that certainly does away with the finality of Christ's death. Okay, so we're going to look at one other truth related to the death of Christ and that is its relation to the Christian life. Now, it's important to understand that the death of Christ is not just an academic issue to flesh out and study and understand all the different angles of it, but the death of Christ is clearly tied in the scriptures to how we live our Christian lives. What we're going to do tonight is look first of all at the connection to righteous living on the part of the death of Christ that it is connected and we're going to take a look at five passages quickly that just show the connection between the death of Christ and our living out our Christian life and then we will look at how they're connected. Okay, but first of all the connection to righteous living. I'm going to look at five passages in each of these passages. What to look for? What I want you to look for is this. The expression so or so that or two or in order that those kinds of purpose result clauses have to do with with there's they're found in each of these passages that we're going to look at tonight. All of them talk about the death of Christ and then it says Christ died so that or in order that or that or so which gives us a result a link to something to do with the way we live our Christian lives. Let's just look at these fairly quickly. I'm going to say a whole lot about them. We just look at them and and show the connection. First of all, first Peter 2.24. First Peter 2.24 shows that the death of Christ is connected to a life of righteousness for us. First Peter 2.24 says he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that that's the purpose. That's the result. There's a link to something here and the link is so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. Jesus died not only to save us, well maybe I should put it this way, but to save us is much broader than just freeing us from the condemnation of hell. Salvation involves how we live as well at least affects how we live. So he died so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. It also is connected to a life of holiness, not only a life of righteousness, but a life of holiness. Colossians 1, 22. Colossians 1, 22. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to, here's the key word too. In order to is the idea to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. So Christ died to reconcile us in order that or so that or to in order to present you holy in his sight. Now the holiness that's being spoken of here is our positional standing before God. That's obvious the way it's phrased. Righteousness is the way we live out. The gospel live out our Christian lives holiness at least in this passage has to do with our standing before God. We have a holy standing. We are presented holy in his sight without blemish, free from accusation. Obviously that has to do with our standing before God, not just our practice. Okay then there is the connection to a life of unselfishness. Thirdly look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, 2 Corinthians 5 verses 14 and 15. For Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and he died for all that. Okay see the purpose clause he died for all in order that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So the connection again Christ's death was for the purpose of so that in order that we might live not for ourselves but for him who died for us and was raised again. So the connection to an unselfish lifestyle as well. We're not to live for ourselves anymore and that's all rooted in the death of Christ. He died for us so that that might be true. The fourth connection is a connection to a life of victory. Hebrews 12, Hebrews 12 verses 1 through 3. Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us fixing our eyes on Jesus the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross. Okay now we're talking about his death. He endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from centers so that here's the purpose so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. So the death of Christ has as one of its purposes a life of victory for us so that we will not grow weary, will not lose heart, will not give up but that we will be victorious. We will endure, we will actually stick it out and endure through the hardships of the race of the Christian life and then the fifth connection is a connection to service. Hebrews 914. Hebrews 914 says how much more then will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleans our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God. Christ died first part of the verse so that we may serve the living God. Christ died not just so that we would be delivered from hell. There is much more to Christ's death in that. Christ's death is intimately tied to. It is connected to. It results in a kind of life that we are to live. His death empowers us for this kind of life, a life of righteousness, holiness, unselfishness, victory, endurance, service. All of those things are tied directly to the death of Christ. So Christ's death is connected to righteous living. It is not just abstract, okay Christ died so I don't have to go to hell. Now Christ also died so that you would live right. Okay. Part of his, his purpose of his death was so that our lives would be changed and we would live differently. Now we're going to look next at how Christ's death leads to righteous living. What is the connection? What, how does that connection work? What is there in the death of Christ that actually produces leads to these results of a changed life? Before we look at those passages any comment or question to this point. Are you tracking with me okay? Any question about what we're doing? Okay. We're just going to look at several passages here to, to indicate how Christ's death does lead to righteous living. And the greatest I think of all of them is the passage in Romans 6. So please look at Romans 6 verses 1 through 11. I think this is really the thrust of this whole chapter and really chapters 6 through 8 to describe how the death of Christ produces in us and actually sets the apparatus up, the possibility up, the potential up for us to live righteous lives. Here's how it works. Okay. Let's just kind of glance through this passage. Paul has dealt with justification, the fact that we're declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven in chapters 3 through 5. Now he's going to deal with okay, how should that influence our living? And he begins with a question. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? In other words, okay, I've gotten saved. I'm declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven. I'm justified. I'm right with God. Now I can go on living any way I want, right? That's the question. Paul says no, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. He says by no means. I still like the King James terminology. God forbid. You know, no, of course not by no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in any longer? Oh, you mean when Christ died, we died to sin too? Aha. Yes. How? Because of our union with Christ. And that's what he goes on to describe. It's pictured in baptism verses 3 and 4. Look at verse 5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection. So verse 6, for we know that our old self, our old personal that we were in Adam, our unsaved life, all that old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with literally rendered inoperative powerless. It no longer has the driving force power over us is the idea. That here's that purpose cause again. That we should no longer be slaves to sin. So here's the point. When Christ died, when I received him as my savior, God looks at me and says, your old person, the person you were in Adam controlled by the sinful nature, just living however you wanted to, that died. That died with Christ. That's your old self, your old man as the King James refers to it. That died. That's not talking about your sinful nature. That hasn't died. But the person you were in Adam, the unsaved person that died. And it died because you were united with Christ in his death. Well, if you're united with him in his death, he died, you died. Then you're also united with him in his resurrection, which means he was resurrected to a glorified body, a new life. You are also resurrected with him to a new life. So this is describing the spiritual mechanics of how this influence between the cross and the Christian life works. The mechanics are, God sees us as having died with Christ. So an old way of life stops and we are resurrected with him, a new way of life starts. That is intimately tied to the death of Christ. And it provides us the potential then to live as we should. So based on this union with Christ in his death and resurrection, then Paul says, okay, here's what you do. Verse 11, in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. In other words, make a mental calculation. The word count, look, logitimize the Greek word. It means literally to make a calculation, the count something to be so, which you've been told is so. In your practical experience, say, okay, I'm no longer that old person. I don't have to live that way anymore. I have new life, resurrection life. I can live differently. I don't have to live under the dominion of the sinful nature anymore. I'm not a slave to that anymore because that old person that I was in Adam has died and I'm a new person in Christ. I can live differently. Rehersh that over and over in your mind. Count it to be so. What he's already told you is true. That's how you do this. It's a mental reckoning, if you will, of what he has already said to do. And then he goes on to another step. He says in verse 13, do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. In other words, we've died and we've been brought to life and since that is true, then stop yielding yourself to sin. Start yielding yourself to God. You have the ability to do that. We are not powerless in the face of temptation. That's his whole point. We're not powerless. Why? Because we died with Christ and we've been raised to walk in a new life. So I need to count that to be so every day of my life and say, hey, wait a second. I can live this way. I can live in victory. I can live in holiness. I can live in righteousness. I can live in unselfishness and all those things that we've talked about before. I can do that, not in my own strength, but because I died with Christ and I'm a new person now. And so I don't have to yield my bodily members, my mind, my eyes, my ears, my tongue, feet, hands, whatever. I don't have to yield my bodily members as instruments of wickedness. I can offer myself to God. Okay, so it's all because of our relationship to the death of Christ. That's what gives us the power to say, notice in and yes to righteousness. Okay, so this is a critical passage in understanding how the Christian life works. The Christian life, please understand this, the Christian life is not just me trying harder in my own strength, more willpower. You know, I got to do this. I got to quit doing that and I'm going to do better tomorrow in my own strength. No, no, no, no, no. It's not that at all. It's all rooted in the fact that you are united with Christ and his death-bearing resurrection. So you have the ability because you're a new person in Christ to live like you want you to live. Count that to be so and stop yielding yourself to sin. Start yielding yourself to the Lord. That's how it works. Okay, comments or questions there. That's such a key passage. John, that's exactly what it is. John, it really is that middle section sanctification. It is rooted in justification. We have been saved, declared righteous before God. That's past. That's done once for all. That's good. But now we are being saved, sanctified. In other words, we're growing in our likeness to Christ, our ability to overcome temptation and sin and live righteously. That's what he's talking about here in chapter 6. And then we shall be saved in the sense that we shall ultimately be delivered from the very presence of sin when we're glorified. Yeah, those three tenses of salvation are important to understand. We have been saved. We are being saved. We will be saved. Okay. In the sense of justification, it's once for all. You are declared righteous before God and you're saved forever. But you are being saved in the sense of peace, continually setting you apart to be more like Christ and you're growing in this process of yieldedness. And then ultimately, we will be completely delivered when we get to heaven. That's the ultimate sense of salvation. Yeah, that's exactly what this is about. Okay. You've been given the option to make choices. Yes. Yes. And if you want to live, you can practice in the misery you have that choice. Yes. But we don't have to live that way. We've been delivered from that and we have the power to make the right choices. You'll get to that chapter 8 of Romans. That power is the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit who gives us the ability to make the right choices. But yeah, you're right. This simply gives us the potential to live in holiness, to make the right choices. Now, let me give a little caveat there, a little disclaimer. And it's this. The end of chapter 6 talks about the fact that we are no longer slaves to sin. We are slaves to righteousness. And that kind of dovetails with what the rest of Scripture teaches that, okay, yes, we have the power to live a righteous life. But it's not like if I go the rest of my life and never make a righteous choice and don't care about that and don't want to, then I can still say I'm saved. If you are genuinely saved, there will be some evidence of it in your life. There will be some right choices along the way. And there will always be a desire to make those right choices. Okay, so that's an important part of the picture too. It's not like I'm a blank slate and I can go either way I want it, it doesn't really matter. If I never show any inclination toward righteousness and always an inclination toward sin, that's probably a sign I've never really been saved, never been regenerated. Okay, but yes, what we're talking about here is the potential is there, the power is there, I still have to make the right choices. Okay, I still have, and that's why I say, don't offer any part of yourself to sin. Stop doing that. You know, start yielding yourself to God. That's my choice. I've got the choice to do that. Steve, do you have your hand up? Right. Right. It's just a little nos unable to make mistakes. There is a little tempo. One non-res Sesame, there is a little bit of being radical. No goes missing anyone in the present. It's all gjort aching. And all the no tests remain at throughts making mistakes. That's all because of you, miss. Yeah, good point. It is the fact that we are no longer slaves to sin that gives us the freedom to make the right choice. And we're no longer slaves to sin. I just, I was misunderstood when you started. I thought that passage, no man can serve two masters had to do with the fact you only have one wife. Right? We needed a bit of humor. So man can't handle two eyes. Okay, we better get back to our passage here until our, because I can tell I'm going to get in trouble real quick. Okay. All right. So the Roman six passage is a real key passage in understanding how the Christian life is to be lived, start with, but especially how it's connected to the death of Christ. Okay, the death of Christ not only justifies us and delivers us from hell, it also makes it possible for us to live the Christian life as we should. It's very much tied together. Okay, these other passages I'm going to kind of skim through, because I do want to get a look, to at least get started on the resurrection of Christ tonight. But look at 1 Corinthians 6 20. How does Christ's death lead us to righteousness living? Well, it also gives us the motivation of gratitude. And that's kind of hinted at here in 1 Corinthians 6 more so in 2 Corinthians 5. But the first passage here, 1 Corinthians 6 20, you know, verse 19, your body is your temples, the Holy Spirit, who is in you, you receive from God, you're not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. It is because of his death for us, because of the redemption that we have, bought with a price that we are to honor God with our bodies. In other words, we are grateful to him and we live for him in the way we should. By the way, this honoring him with your body in the context is talking about fleeing from sexual immorality. I know it's used a lot of other ways and that's fine. Those are true. No doubt there are lots of ways that we should honor him with our body. But in the context, beginning back in verse 12, he's talking about sexual immorality. And that's the way you're to honor him with your body is not to engage in sexual immorality. That's the key thought in this passage. And what so it is tied to living with gratitude because he died for us, we're grateful to him and we want to live for him. Okay, we don't want to live for ourselves anymore. We don't want to indulge our sinful desires and lusts anymore. That's gone because we're grateful for his salvation. But also look at 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 15. We looked at these verses earlier, verse 14 and 15. 15 says, any died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and raised again. So we are grateful to him for his death. His death for us motivates us to be grateful and to us not live for ourselves, but to live for him. Okay, gratitude results in saying, I don't want to live for myself anymore, but I want to live for him. Look at what he's done for me. Look at his sacrifice for me. Okay, Galatians 6.14. How does Christ's death lead to rights as living? Well, it does something to our relationship with the world as well. It changes our whole relationship to the world. Galatians 6.14. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Again, it is our relationship to the world has changed. Just like our relationship in Romans 6 to the sin nature has changed. We're no longer slaves to sin. Our relationship to sin has changed. Our relationship to the world has changed. The world has been crucified to me and I have been crucified and dead to the world. It doesn't mean that the world is no longer alluring. It means like John pointed out earlier, I have the choice. Now I'm not like Steve said. I'm not a servant, not a slave anymore to this. I don't have to go along with the world. I now have the freedom. My relationship to the world has changed and I can go a different direction. I'm not just sucked along with the rest of humanity into this path of the world. Okay, so our relationship to the world has changed. Then Philippians 2. Philippians 2 versus 5 to 8. How does Christ's death lead to a righteous living? Well, it provides us an example of unselfish living. We saw earlier it was tied to unselfishness, but how? Because of the example of Christ's death. You're familiar with these verses. In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage or something to be grasped, hung on to it all costs. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being founded. Appearances of man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Christ's death, this whole humbling process of becoming man so that he might die, but ultimately his death serves as an example for us. Verse 5, in your relationships have this same mindset. So his death serves as an example of unselfish living. That's the whole point of this passage in Philippians. It was what he says about Christ's coming down to this earth and dying for us is all being used as an example of how we should live unselfishly. Verses 1 through 4 talk about that and he says, okay, here's an example of it. It's Christ and his death. So he provides an example of unselfish living. Then a couple other verses in Hebrews, one of them we looked at a few moments ago. Hebrews 914, we focused on the last part of the verse. We're going to focus on the first part of it this time. How much more than will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God? Okay, that's the death of Christ. Cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God. What he's saying here is the death of Christ. How does it lead us to a life of service? Well, it frees our consciences from acts, ritual acts, ritual religious observances that don't do any good. They don't save us. They just lead to death. In other words, if you're putting your confidence in your religious rituals, baptism, Lord supper, any other religious ritual, church attendance, any kind of religious ceremony or ritual acts of those kinds of things. If you're putting your confidence in that to save you, that's just going to lead to death. But what Christ has done is he has freed our conscious conscience from the guilt of salvation by works. So since we are freed from that guilt of thinking, oh man, I got to do this and this and this and this and this. I'll never get there. You know, freed from that pressure, freed from that, our consciences, since we are freed from that, now we can serve him out of gratitude. See the difference? I don't have to live right or serve God in order to gain entrance into heaven. But I want to serve him and live right as every true believer does. You want to do that out of gratitude. He has purged our conscience, cleansed our conscience from trying to do religious things in order to get to heaven. In order of that, we may serve the living God so that we can turn around. We're free to serve him out of love, we're free to serve him because we want to. There's no longer any compulsion to serve him or to live right because we think that's what's going to get us into heaven. So man, I got to measure up. You know, we've been freed from that. But that doesn't make us want to then turn around and say, okay, great, I don't have to live that way to get to heaven. So I can live any way I want. No, no, no, no, again, it frees us to serve him out of gratitude, out of love. And then one final one, Hebrews 10, 19, we need to be very confident in God, very confident in God's way of living. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, okay, here's another way, concrete way that Christ's death leads to righteous living. Why? Because it opens the door into God's presence where we go to get help to live the Christian life. Christian life. Christ's death opened the most holy place, opened the door for us to come directly into the presence of God. That's where every day of my life and every day of your life we need to come to to get the help we need, the strength and the grace and the mercy we need to live as he wants us to. So Christ's death opened that door for us and provided the invitation to come right on in and get what you need to live the Christian life. That's how the death of Christ leads to righteous living. All those passages give us little bits and pieces of that as to how Christ's death is tied to righteous living. All right, comments or questions there? Okay, the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12. That's an interesting concept. It's almost like he's talking about us running a race and almost these people in the grandstand. They're watching us. They're witnessing our race. And I think probably because of what he's done in chapter 11, it's talking about all those Old Testament saints that are listed in chapter 11 that lived by faith. He spends a whole chapter giving us all these people that lived by faith. And then he starts chapter 12 by saying therefore and there's a rule of Bible interpretation that's so basic and key. Whenever you see the word therefore, you go back to see what it's there for. And you go back to chapter 11. And so he's tying chapter 12 to chapter 11. I think those are the witnesses he's talking about. And it's an amazing thought, a great, great observation and question. Amazing thought to think that as I run the race of my Christian life, there's a whole grandstand full of Old Testament saints cheering for me. It's not that they're observing the race to see how poorly I'm doing. Some of them messed up too. And they're up there saying, okay, come on, John, keep going. Just I know it's hard. Oh, you trip there. You know, I did the very same thing. Come on, let's go. Come on. You can do it. By God's grace and the strength of his spirit that they're cheering us on. And I just think that is such a beautiful picture. I think that I think the cloud of witnesses is is the Old Testament saints that has just talked about who lived by faith. And now they're cheering us on to do the same. Live by faith. You know, that's a great question. Dream, I think that could well be. I think it could be that, obviously here he's talking about Old Testament saints who've gone on to heaven. Well, with the passage of time, since the writing of the book Hebrews, there are a lot of other people who've gone on to heaven too. Maybe they're also included in this great cloud of witnesses. It's at least a great motivator. And I think a great thought to think that, for instance, my dad's up there cheering me on. And I like that idea. So I'd like to think that. Yeah. It may well include believers who have died and gone on to heaven since then. No reason why it shouldn't really. Okay. Anything else there? The death of Christ, how it affects, and it's so closely tied to the way we live. So basic. Okay, we only got about four or five minutes just to introduce the concept of the resurrection. And again, I remind you that in dealing with the doctrine of Christ, although we're not just doing a chronological life of Christ through the gospels, we're taking all the scriptures about what they teach about Christ. But we are kind of following a chronological pattern. You know, we started with pre-existence, eternity past, then talked about his deity, then the fact of his incarnation, how he became man through the virgin birth, his humanity, his life on earth. And now he's death. Now we're moving to his resurrection. So we are proceeding somewhat chronologically. But there's a whole lot that could be said about the resurrection that we're not going to touch on. You know, the importance of the resurrection, the historical evidence for the resurrection. Those are good apologetic truths for believers to know and to take joy in. But what we're going to do basically is touch on the biblical teaching of the resurrection and then the doctrinal significance of it. Why is the resurrection significant for us? So tonight, all I want to do is briefly introduce the fact that when you talk about the biblical teaching of the resurrection, you don't start with the gospels. You start with the Old Testament. Okay, the Old Testament teaching is where you begin. And you know why a couple of passages I want you to think about will close with this. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul describes the essence of the gospel. What is the gospel message? And he says this. He says, for what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance. 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, when Paul's writing 1 Corinthians, somewhere in the 50s, probably a D, what scriptures is he talking about? The Old Testament Scriptures, right? Anytime you find that kind of a reference in the New Testament, the Bible Paul had in his hand was the Old Testament. There were some, there were some of the letters or gospels possibly. Not all of them had been written by now. Certainly not all the New Testament have been written. They did not have a copy of the entire New Testament. There may have been some early letters and one or two of the early gospels may have been around at this time, but not pulled together in our New Testament yet. So when they talk about the Scriptures, they're talking about the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament. So Jesus died according to what the Old Testament taught and Jesus was resurrected according to what the Old Testament taught. That's what Paul's saying here. And by the way, Jesus said the same thing. This is the other passage, Luke 24, this great passage. I love this passage about Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Remember the story? And Jesus is explaining to them why they should have understood his death and resurrection. Just a couple of quick passages here, chapter 24 verses 25 to 27. He said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets. He explained to them what was said and all the Scriptures concerning himself. And he's taking the task over the fact that they didn't understand his death, burial, resurrection. He said, if you knew Moses and the prophets, you would have known this. You would have gotten this because it is taught in the Old Testament and then in verses 44 and 45. He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you, everything must be fulfilled that has written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them this is what has written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. It's what is written. Where? In Moses, in the prophets and the Psalms. That's what he just told them. That's what is written in the Old Testament. So what we're going to do is we're going to next week. We're going to look at some of those prophecies and some of the Old Testament types. Just a few, just a smattering to give you an idea of how the Old Testament taught the resurrection of Christ. So when you talk about the biblical teaching of the resurrection, you don't start with Matthew 28. You start in the Old Testament because that was the prelude. That was looking forward the prophecy of the resurrection. Okay, time's up. Let's bow for prayer and we'll be dismissed. Thank you, Father, for our great Savior. And Lord, thank you. Thank you that when you sent your son to die for us, he died not only to justify us, to remove your wrath and condemnation, to make heaven possible and to deliver us from hell. That is so wonderful, Lord, and we thank you for that. But he also died so that we might live a righteous life, so that we might live in his power, so that we might have endurance, so that we might not give up, so that we might be unselfish. Everything that we are to live out is tied to our union with Christ and his death and bear on resurrection. Thank you for that, Father. Thank you that because we are united with him, not only in his death, but also in his resurrection. We have the ability to make the right choices, help us to do that, to no longer yield ourselves as instruments of wickedness to sin, but as instruments of righteousness to you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.