Out Of Adam And Into Christ

As we continue to explore what the Bible says about being “IN,” we discover the incredible news of the Gospel: that by placing our faith in Jesus we are taken out of Adam and united with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection so that we can be brand new creations in Him. This is our standing. This is our new identity in Christ: we are totally transformed because of His grace. Good news! We Are Recreated

TRANSCRIPT:

Our identity in Christ comes as a result of an enormous, glorious exchange that provides for us a brand new family, brand new way of living, a new purpose, perspective, significance, destiny, and so much more! What does it mean to be in

Christ? It means right now you are holy, righteous, and good because by faith you’re in Jesus and you have been recreated to the core.

We’re glad you’re here, New Creations! Let’s dive in…

Welcome to episode 4 of The We Are Recreated Podcast. My name is John Matthew, this is Kim, and we are adventuring into the grace of God as we explore biblical answers to two of life’s big questions: 1) What is God like, and 2) what is my identity because of Jesus and the cross?

And as we started we’re pulling apart the various phrases that we find in our theme  verse here, 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says, “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come.” And in these first few episodes we’ve been looking at that little phrase “in Christ” so that we can discover the awesome truth that we’re brand new creations in Him.

So, first we shared a broad overview to capture the general over arching concept of what the Bible means when it talks about being “in.” Then, we considered the hard news of our old identity of being in Adam and that gave us some context now for understanding what the Bible means when it says that we are now in Christ… which is what we’re after today: the really Good News of being in Christ

And this is the premise that we’ve been working with: that when you’re in something or someone, what happens to that thing or to that person also happens to you. Or in a Biblical context, we participate with the person that we’re in.

In the last episode, we saw from the Bible the truth of the situation for people who are in Adam – tough news! But now we’re on to the good stuff, and we love the Word and we believe that it’s leading us to Jesus, that it’s true, and so we should be able to see this

glorious exchange that we’re talking about in the Word. We should be able to see in the Bible the miraculous truth that by faith we’ve been taken out of Adam and brought into union with Jesus.

So, for this one, we’re going to take a look at Romans 6 where Paul is telling believers about what it means to be baptized into Jesus. And we need to just set the stage a bit with a note about baptism. The words “baptize” and “baptism” aren’t originally English words. “Baptized” is a Greek word that we have adopted and assimilated into our English vocabulary. The Greek letters were swapped out for Latin letters that make the same sounds, and so now “baptize” is part of the English language.

But being baptized is not necessarily about being dunked in water. We believe in water baptism and that sacred moment with Jesus. And that it’s a great testimony of our faith in Him, and also a great picture of the reality of being placed into Christ. But the word “baptized” just literally means “immersed into” or “identified with.” It’s the same word that was used to talk about dyed fabric. So, it used to be white cloth but it was baptized or immersed into or identified with the dye, and now it’s red or purple…

So, water baptism becomes a representation of the spiritual truth that we discover here in Romans 6 starting in verse 3. It reads like this:

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized [or immersed] into Christ Jesus have been baptized [immersed] into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father so we too might walk in newness of life.

Let’s look at this really closely. Paul starts out saying “don’t you know??” As in, this is really important and you need to know! And if you don’t know yet, it’s time. Let’s learn it. Maybe he’s even surprised that they don’t know this yet. I mean, if you can hear Paul being just a little bit sassy, you can hit the like button.

You’ve gotta read it right: don’t you know?!

So, verse 3 tells us it’s important to know that those baptized into Christ have been baptized into His death. Verse 4, we’ve been buried with Him through baptism into death. And that burial piece is important because it’s a clear picture of the finality of it all: he’s talking about our old self. It’s done! It’s over! It’s finished! It’s a complete work! The old self is dead and buried and gone. And then also in verse 4, he says so that just like Jesus was raised from death through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So good! It’s worth noting that all of the things in this verse, that are happening to us, are past tense. They have been done. The cross is a fact of history that happened for us as a payment for sin, and this death and this resurrection was done to us. It’s a reality and a transformation that we step into by faith. It’s something that Jesus accomplishes for us and in us. It’s this incredible exchange that moves us out of an achieving system into a receiving system (but that’s a different video!)… Takes us out of Adam and places us into Jesus. It’s amazing!

And so, we actually recognized our situation in Adam in the last episode – Romans 5. It sounded like this:

🔵 When Adam sinned, I sinned.
🔵 When Adam died, I died.
🔵 When Adam was condemned, I was condemned.
🔵 And when Adam became a sinner, I became a sinner, all of humanity became sinners.

But now we get to recognize this excellent, glorious news that we’re in Jesus, we have a brand new identity… that when we’re United with Him in his death and resurrection the grace of God allows us to say these things:

🔵When Jesus died, I died.
🔵When Jesus was buried, I was buried.
🔵When Jesus rose again, I rose again with Him. in the power of the Holy Spirit and was recreated as a brand new creation.

And let’s hold on tightly to the “so that” of verse 4. It’s the reason the whole point of the work that went on at the cross, and it’s the second half of 1 Corinthians 15:22: “In Christ all will be made alive.”

So, in joining us to Jesus at the cross, the old in-Adam person that I used to be, separated from God, bound and addicted to sin, condemned – all the things we talked about in the last episode – that’s dead and gone, and now we’ve been joined to Jesus. We’re gifted a brand new identity. We get to live a recreated life in a brand new way as brand new creations.

I love what Ephesians says about being in Christ. It says, “And he raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together, giving us joint seating with Him in the heavenly sphere by virtue of our being in Christ the Messiah, the Anointed One. He did this so that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable, the limitless, the surpassing riches of His free grace, His unmerited favour in his kindness and goodness of heart towards us in Christ Jesus.”

So, this is the deal we get to live out and enjoy: we place our faith in Jesus the Savior, and by faith we participate with Him at the cross so that we are recreated in Him, and all of this is a demonstration of His kindness and His grace.

We’re going to take a deeper dive into the truth of our being crucified with Christ as we explore the next part of our theme verse which says, “The old is gone and the new is here.”

But even before we get there, why don’t you just take a minute to really grasp on: “Don’t you know?” Hold on to it. Take this truth in, that if you’ve put your trust in Jesus you’ve been taken out of Adam and placed into Christ… that you are a brand new creation in Him.

And if you’re thankful for the way that Jesus has paved the way for you to be totally transformed, why don’t you leave a comment below and we’ll celebrate together the goodness of God that he’s poured out on us.

In the next video, the next episode, we’ll have some further conversation about being joined to Jesus in His death and resurrection. Join us there, and until next time, remember: We Are Recreated.