Lesson 4 Identified with Him

     When we understand this new righteousness that has been granted us by His grace, we will understand the power of His Name.  Many will say that "Jesus paid it all," but then continue acting and walking like we still have a part to play in it.  Our part is to believe in what Jesus has already done.  Believe that He wasn't raised from the dead until all was paid for.  Therefore, if you will see yourself as raised with Christ, then you'll see yourself raised with Him and you will understand the difference between a "forgiven sinner" and a new creation.
     You're not an old sinner saved by grace.  You, as the old sinner, died and was buried and were saved by grace, became a new creation, became a son of God and joint heir with Jesus and have the very righteousness of God in Jesus Himself.
     We've never dared count ourselves as sinless because of what religion has taught us.  We still struggle under the burden of who we were because we have never really counted ourselves dead with Christ.  As we study God's Word concerning these truths with the carnal mind, we are still awaiting the resurrection.  If we ready these truths by the Holy Spirit, then He (the Holy Spirit) will reveal the "now" truth of our resurrection in Jesus...that it's already done.
     For some reason, I don't really understand how we falter at the truth of actually being dead and then risen with Jesus.  We can read the words and mentally come to an agreement with what we read, but we haven't allowed the revealed truth of the Spirit to make these truths alive to us.  We keep thinking that these are future truths and now "now" truths.  And, as long as we continue to think this way, we will see ourselves as "forgiven sinners."
     The power of our right standing with our Father, is wrapped up in the power of Christ's resurrection.  If we see ourselves resurrected with Him, then we can understand that we're now like Him in His resurrection.  This means that we died the death with Him as payment for our sin, we were separated from God as Christ was when He was buried, we were sentenced with Him when He was sentenced and we were raised with Him when He was raised. 
     The resurrection that we as believers will experience in the future, is the resurrection of this house (body) we now live in.  Our resurrection by the Spirit of God is a total and complete raising of a new being.  The being (dead spirit) was cast out of His presence with Christ.  The new being was raised from death to life and was a new creation without sin, without fault and without blemish.  This new being was so pure, in fact, that we are now called and made to be one spirit with the Lord.
     1Corinthians 6:17 (Amplified) says, "But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him."  1Corinthians 6:19 (Amplified) says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives in you; Whom you have received (as a Gift) from God? You are not your own."
     We've studied more about the sin than we have the Sin Bearer.  We've always been spoken to like the person we used to be before we died, then the new being who was raised up with Jesus.  We've mostly dealt with our "dead" body rather than our "live" spirit.  We keep dealing with the body as though we never died with Christ.  We also keep dealing with our spirit as though we were never raised with Him.  In most cases,we have acted like these are future events that are not yet done.
     Because we haven't considered our bodies to be dead, we have the problem of sin conscience that we struggle to fix on a daily basis.  The sin problem can't be fixed in the flesh because sin was an is a spirit problem.
     If our bodies are dead to sin (and they are), then how can you fix a dead man?  We're still trying to make a dead man do right when a dead man can do nothing.  Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says that, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the (Holy) Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
     We've spent most of our time trying to control the flesh instead of spending time walking in the Spirit.  As we spend more time understanding and walking in the Word, the things of the flesh will have no pull or control over us.