Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of recognizing our identity as being alive to God, as outlined in Romans 6. He explains that understanding our new status in Christ allows us to live free from guilt, condemnation, and sinful compulsions. Bickle encourages believers to draw on the spiritual wealth available to them, likening it to a bank account that must be accessed through faith and dialogue with the Holy Spirit. He stresses that our emotions and behaviors can be transformed by renewing our minds and speaking truth to God about our identity in Christ. Ultimately, he calls for a deeper engagement with the truths of Scripture to experience the fullness of life in the Spirit.

Continue from my last session on Romans chapter 6 where Paul gives us that most important exhortation. He says, see yourselves as alive to God. He says that in Romans chapter 6 verse 11. We'll get there in a few moments. Because Paul knew that if we would see ourselves in the way God sees us, as alive to God, and the implications of that, that it would transform our life. Beloved, we can live free of condemnation. We can live free of guilt. We can live free of compulsion, sinful compulsions dominating us. I mean, temptation will be there, but the compulsion doesn't have to dominate our life at all. We can live free from anger. We can live free from despair, addiction. Romans chapter 6 is the passage in which Paul outlines the biblical truths that we need to draw on. Now at a first and a quick reading you may not grasp that. You might look at it and say, well I don't see all that there, but it's there. Begin with paragraph A. This is a review from our last session. Romans 6 is the primary chapter in the Bible that teaches about personal transformation. It is such an important chapter, but it's probably one of the most neglected chapters in the New Testament. I want to urge you to devour the book of Romans, I mean Romans chapter 6. Get familiar with the terminology, and basically Paul in the first half is saying the same thing over and over and over. And once you know that, it's not so mysterious. And I want to give you just a couple simple little ways to understand the first half of Romans chapter 6. Again, he repeats himself over and over, says the same truth in different ways. This is the chapter that tells us how to access the power of God in our life. The power that was made available to us freely because of what Jesus did on the cross. Paragraph B. Romans 6 11, the exhortation we're looking at in this session, Paul lets us know that we're transformed by knowing, by seeing ourselves in a different way. He says reckon yourself. Now to reckon is an accounting term, and he is saying see what has been put on your spiritual bank account, and draw on it. You have to see what's in the account before you can draw on it. But you have to draw on it, not just see. You have to make withdrawals, and it's not hard to do it, but it has to be done. I often use the analogy of the homeless beggar living under the bridge, and he gets the sudden announcement that he inherited, a relative died, he inherited a billion dollars. And he might rejoice, but if he doesn't go to the bank and make withdrawals, he can continue to live in poverty under that bridge. And Jesus has put a great wealth into our account, but many Christians continue to live as the homeless beggar under the bridge. Asking God, please help me get food. He goes, go to the bank and make a withdrawal. You got a billion dollars in the bank. Yeah, I know, but it's a couple blocks away, and I don't really understand how bank accounts work. It's confusing today. Somebody give me some food. That's how a lot of believers live in a practical way. Now Romans chapter 6, particularly verse 1 to 10, tells us what has been put in our spiritual bank account. But we have to make withdrawals on it. Paragraph C, later on in Romans 12, and I mean in Romans chapter 12, later on in the book, Paul says, in essence, he says Romans 6 11 again. He says it in different terminology. He says, you're transformed by changing the way you think. Our emotions are transformed as we line up biblically in our thinking. The way to transform emotions and behavior is transformed thinking. We can grit our teeth all day long and try and hope our emotions change, but they won't. We change the way we think, and then the spirit progressively changes our emotions as we come into agreement. But it's not just enough to think different. We take that knowledge into our conversation with God. So we take that new information. It's not just biblical information, end of story, but we get that information into our conversation with the indwelling spirit, or with God the Father on the throne. We talk to God according to the truth. Then that activates it. It's that simple, but it has to be done. I encourage people, when they are on the subject of emotional transformation, because that's how our behavior changes in a deep and consistent way, by our emotions changing. I urge them not to try harder, but to see more clearly. Put your effort into knowing more, to knowing what's in your bank account, becoming a familiar with it. Not being intimidated by, well, you know, Romans 6. I read it. I didn't really get it. Like the homeless beggar. That bank is a couple blocks away, and I don't really get the new technology and all the processes. It's kind of confusing when you go up there to the, you know, and try to put in your code. I don't even know how to do that. I'll forget it. I'll just live in starvation. It's a little bit of effort to reacclimate the way that we carry our heart and our thinking, but we reacclimate. I tell you, you will experience the power of it, and it will experience it progressively. Paragraph D, again, just continuing in review from our last session. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. 21. I call this, Romans 6 made simple. Here in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul summarizes the truths of Romans 6. He doesn't give the detail. Someone might go, hey, I'll just do the easy route. I'll just go to Romans 5. I mean 2 Corinthians 5. Beloved, go to Romans 6 and see the whole account. Read the details of what you inherited in your bank, in your spiritual bank account. Paul says, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. Now when he says he's a new creation, he's talking about our spirit man, because we're spirit, soul, and body. You know that. We're made up of, the human makeup has three components. Our spirit, soul, and body. He's not saying your soul, your emotions, your personality is different. He's saying your spirit man, something happened. Your status changed in the presence of God. You went from a criminal and a person in great debt. Your status changed. Now you're part of the royal family, and you have great wealth. That's the new creation, a new status. You have a new possession. You have the indwelling spirit. But you have to talk to him according to truth. Talk to him about what the truth says about you. And as you talk to him about who you are in Christ, the power of that touches your emotions. Little by little, transforms the way we feel. You became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Not your soul, meaning your mind and emotions. It takes time, but your spirit man literally received the righteousness of God in one quick moment. I mean, the moment you were born again, you fully, finally, instantly received the righteousness of God. Paragraph G, you're one spirit with God. You're not divine, but God's Spirit came to live in your spirit. Some cult groups, false religions, may give people the idea that somehow they're part deity or some kind of confusion like that. And that's not what Paul's talking about. Beloved, when you were joined to the Lord at the new birth, God the Holy Spirit came to dwell in you forever. Fully and finally, forever, God the Holy Spirit lives in you. Now the problem is, paragraph H, we can't feel our spirit by our five senses, by our emotions. We can't get a handful of spirit. So this recreated human spirit, the righteousness of God, the indwelling spirit, our five senses can't get a hold of it. We can't discern it. We can't measure it. Matter of fact, we don't even know what happened in our spirit, except for we read the contract, what it says in the Word. Without the Word of God, we would never know this happened in our spirit, because our five senses can't grasp it. So we read it in the Word, and then we talk to the Spirit about it, then the power of it begins to touch our emotions. It's the same thing with our resurrected body. You can't know by your five senses you have a resurrected body coming. You know it because you read it in the contract, the legal covenant. I have a resurrected body come. That's the only reason you know about your resurrected body. It's written in the covenant. That's the same way you know about what happened in your spirit. It's written in the covenant. So your mind and emotions, you engage with that truth, and then the power of the indwelling spirit begins to touch your mind and emotions. Paul says here in Colossians 3, it's hidden in Christ. It's not even, not just who you are is hidden from others, it's actually hidden from you. We live by faith. We live by the, by what the contract says, what the covenant says. We live by what God says is true about us, because it's hidden from our own mind and emotions, minus the fact it's revealed in the Word of God. That's the only place we get the information. You'd never find this out on your own. Top of page 2. So let's move into some new material that up to now was just review from the last session. Well Romans 5 and Romans 6 go together. You can't separate those two chapters, and some people try to understand Romans 6 because they hear how important it is. They go, okay, now this was my story. I was about 18 years old. My Bible teacher said Romans 6 is the key to change your life. I said, okay, Romans 6 it is. I decided I was gonna devour Romans 6. Well I read it once and said, oh my goodness, this is hopelessly confusing. Forget it. If it, if I can understand that, I'm never gonna get transformed. Well you don't have to have that react, or that response, because I'm gonna give you a couple little tip-offs, because I didn't have anybody help me understand it. I just read it at face value and didn't grasp at all what it was saying. Well Romans 5 and Romans 6 go together. That's my point here in paragraph 8. But there's a very, very important truth in Romans 5 that you might not grasp at a quick read, but it's a very important biblical truth. It's a fact. God sees all human beings in one of two positions before him. There is not a third status. There's only two. If you're not in status one, you're in status two. There is not a third option. You are either, he sees you either in Adam, that's the term, the biblical term, or he sees you in Christ. Paragraph 1, if he sees you in Adam, you're not born again. It's talking about a person not born again. Whatever is true of Adam before God is true of that person. Adam was under condemnation. Adam was powerless. Before the compulsions of sin, he had no ability to challenge those compulsions. I don't care how sophisticated, intelligent, how much self-will a person has. If they're in Adam, they cannot control the emotions of sin. I mean, they could ride the storm out and those emotions will dissipate, but they'll rise up again and again and again. And they will dominate them, those emotions. They have no inward power to dissipate those emotions and make them go away. Whatever's true of Adam is true of everyone in Adam. Now that's a new idea to some people, but it's a very common biblical truth to those that are familiar with the book of Romans. And it's an important truth, even though it might seem a little awkward to get your mind around it on the front end. But equally true is that whatever is true of Christ is true of everyone in Christ. That's the power of this great biblical truth. Whatever happened to Jesus and his humanity before God related to redemption, whatever happened to him, the benefit, it's been given, put on your account. Now you may say, how does that work? That's not our subject right now, why God chose to relate to the human race in this way. But that is the biblical truth. That's why all the religions of the world don't lead to the same God. Because all the religions of the world, they're still in Adam. They're still under the condemnation that Adam's under. There's not a third option. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. So the other religions of the world, they're still in Adam. They're still under condemnation. But the point I'm really making is at that point, is that when you're in Christ, whether you feel it or not, the same acceptance that Jesus has, you have. The same righteousness he possesses, you possess. Whether you feel it or not, it is true. Now the goal is, we want to draw on that bank account. We want to activate the power of that truth in our life. We want to speak the Word of God before God. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And as we begin to talk to the Holy Spirit about that truth, our emotions begin to feel the power of it. Because the indwelling Spirit, he lives in your spirit and he influences your emotions. He lives in your spirit and he influences your mind and emotions. And the more you talk to the Holy Spirit, who lives in your spirit, according to truth. I don't mean just a kindless, I mean just a dialogue in and of itself, although that's good. But I mean talk to him according to what the Bible says is true about you. He will influence your mind and your emotions in the most positive way. It's little by little, it's progressive, but the influence is real. You'll feel different. You'll think different. Just line by line, it's kind of like rewriting the code on a computer program. Little by little our minds are, our mind is renewed. I'm going to read paragraph 2 again. Beloved, this is, this is indescribably glorious. Whatever is true of Jesus's standing before God in his humanity is true of everyone who's in Christ. Whether you feel it or not, that's the covenant. That's the bank account. That's what the homeless beggar inherited, the great inheritance. And if you get out from under that bridge and go to the bank and draw on it, you can live in royal status with the wealth of God in your actual daily experience. That's Paul's point. Paragraph B. Now in Romans chapter 5, which is the context to understand Romans 6. I mean we're talking about how important Romans 6 is. But I'm saying Romans 5 is the context to understand it. And the concluding verse of Romans 5, where it comes to this grand pinnacle conclusion is chapter 521, which is the final verse of Romans 5. You have to understand chapter 521. That's the final verse of Romans 5. And then Romans 6. You've laid the, you have the context to understand it. Paul says, I'll paraphrase, in the same way that you were under the reign of sin when you were in Adam. You were totally under the reign of sin. That was the status you were in before God. The judgment of God was over your life. I mean meaning eternal judgment. If you'd have died in Adam, you would end up in the judgment of God forever. Sin reigned like a king over your life. The penalty of sin, the power of sin, the consequences of sin dominated your inner man. Didn't mean you couldn't have any positive thoughts. That's what I was talking about. Talking about in terms of your position before God. God loved you, but you had a problem because you were under, under condemnation. I was under condemnation, but glorious news, in the same way that you were under the reign of sin, now you're under the reign of grace. In one moment, the day you were, the moment you were born again, you suddenly changed status. You went from a criminal who was in great debt, you owed billions of dollars, and you were in trouble with the law. Criminal and in debt. Suddenly, the penalty for the crime has been paid, the debt has been paid, you're in the royal family, you have great wealth. In one moment, you change status. That is what Paul is saying here in chapter 5 verse 21. Number two here, we're under the reign of grace. That's the prevailing biblical truth throughout Romans chapter 6. We're under the reign of grace. The implications are vast. There's many implications to this, and instead of Paul enumerating all the list of the implications in Romans 6, he just put in the bank account, under the reign of grace. In other words, you inherited billions. It's kind of like billions. There you have it. Now draw on it. Go buy your car, buy your house, buy your clothes, go do your stuff. He doesn't break down the details of what you're gonna do with the wealth, and the implications of the wealth. He just declares you have the wealth. That's really what Romans 6 is saying. Paragraph 2, well the Holy Spirit, this is, this is part of the wealth. This is a great part of the wealth. You're one spirit with, with God, the Holy Spirit. He lives in you. So the nine fruit of the Holy Spirit actually dwell in your spirit. Now your soul, your mind and emotions, you don't have these virtues in and of yourself. I don't have them. But they dwell in our spirit by the person of the Holy Spirit in an infinite measure. So the analogy I commonly use is anger. Anger rises up in our emotions, our, our soul, our mind, our, our mind, emotions. We have anger. What most people do is they just let anger ride its course. Let the storm ride its course, and five minutes, or five hours, or five days, the emotion of anger dissipates, and the guy goes, whoa, that was an intense period there. What Paul's saying is you have supernatural peace dwelling in your spirit. He's in it. That peace is in you by virtue of a person. Now we know the Holy Spirit is not just an influence. He's a real person. He's in you. Now again, your spirit, man, you can't, with your five senses, you can't get a hold of it. So you might go, I don't feel the Holy Spirit in me, my spirit, man. And Paul said, read the truth. Read the bank account. Draw on it. How do you draw on it? How does the homeless beggar get up, walk three blocks to the bank, and draw on it? Here's how you do it in that analogy spiritually. You simply turn your attention of your mind to the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. Thank Him for peace. That's how you write a check or make a withdrawal. It is as simple as doing that. Thank you, Holy Spirit. I'm acknowledging your presence. I believe that you're there. I don't feel you. Anger's rising in your emotions. You turn your attention inward. You thank the Holy Spirit for the truth of what the Bible says. He dwells in you and is full of peace. I'm telling you, the anger will dissipate in your emotions. You go, wow. I love to tell the story again. The first time I ever experienced that, I was so excited that I wanted to test it. So I bothered one of my sisters, I have five sisters, to see if she'd get mad, see if it would work again. Well, it didn't really work because it was so fun. I wasn't, I didn't really get mad. So, but I got mad later that day. So it's still, I got a chance to prove it. All nine of these virtues, when you're tempted, when somebody insults you and you want to kind of even a little bit get even with them, you got a mindset, you know what, I don't really like that guy. Turn your attention inward and thank the Holy Spirit for goodness. I tell you, it will change your thinking ever so slightly, but you stay in the conversation. You'll feel different. When I feel that way in my emotions, I'll turn my attention inward and say, Holy Spirit, thank you for goodness. And all of a sudden, that guy that I want to give a little insult and kind of get even with, I don't feel exactly the same way. Maybe I'll let him go this one time, one more time. When you have a, when you, when we have an impulse of lust, we turn our attention inward, thank you Holy Spirit for control. We have a temptation to quit. Thank you for long-suffering, the ability to persevere. And you get that moment of inspiration, that moment of reprieve. You got to stay in, you got to keep the conversation going. It's called abiding in Christ. But you get that momentary reprieve, and then when that negative emotion comes again, you go inward, you have the dialogue again, you talk to the Holy Spirit, and the emotion is influenced again by the Holy Spirit. We do it as a lifestyle. That's called abiding in Christ or walking in the Spirit. Beloved, we won't walk in the Spirit more than we talk to the Spirit. I'm telling you, those two are near synonymous. A lot of people, they walk in the Spirit and they think that out of dialogue with the Holy Spirit, they're just gonna suddenly walk in the Spirit. We'll walk in the Spirit to the measure we talk to the Spirit. Nine virtues. They have all the different life situations right there before us, and we get momentary reprieve from those negative emotions by that dialogue according to the Word, and then a little while later in the day when another negative emotion, we go right back into the dialogue. I'm telling you, it will work. And if we stay with it over time, it's called abiding in Christ in John 15, or it's called walking in the Spirit, Galatians 5, or many, many other passages as well. Look at Roman numeral 3, paragraph A. Well, Romans 6, verse 1 to 10, that's your bank account. That's the term that theologians use. It's your legal position before Christ. Mean it's, it's how God sees you in His court. It's the status, the new status that you have. You're not the criminal anymore. You're now part of the royal family. It happened in one moment, the moment you were born again. So your legal position is what happened in God's court. You're fully accepted and enjoyed by God, and it's what happened in your human spirit. You're indwelt and empowered. I'm gonna say that again. Your legal position before Christ is what happened in God's court. You're accepted and enjoyed by God instantly, because when God sees you, He sees you through what happened in His Son. Beloved, this is good news. I want to draw on that. I want to feel what God feels when He looks at me, because by nature we look at ourself and we feel negative more than positive. I mean, that's the plight of the human race, but we see ourself in the way God sees us in Christ. We have a very different feeling about ourselves. But if you don't draw on that bank account, you can live like that homeless beggar under the bridge. I mean, billions in your bank account, but living virtually in starvation, practically speaking. Well, your legal position is what happened to you in God's court. He accepts you and enjoys you. It's what happened in your human spirit. You're indwelt and you're empowered, because you're indwelt. It's the same thing. Saying the same thing two different ways. Well, Romans 6, these 10 verses, again, Paul says virtually the same point, or two or three points. He says them over and over again. The same two or three points. You want to read it. You want to read the legal document. You want to read the bank account. You want to get familiar with it. You want, but it's not enough to read it and say, got it. Because if this language, or these truths, rather, do not get into your conversation with God, they won't empower your emotions. They really won't. You can just stay as the hopeless, live like the poor beggar. And again, I don't know of another chapter more relevant to personal transformation than Romans 6, but I don't know of another chapter more neglected in the body of Christ than Romans chapter 6. Well, there's a few I'd put in that category, but that's one of them. Well, let's look at this. Paragraph A, continuing that. Experiencing the benefits begins by knowing. That's the key idea. Do you want to know? Do you want to experience the wealth? You got to know what's in the account. Do you want to experience the benefit of your legal position? It begins by knowing. There's more than knowing involved, but knowing is where it begins, and that's where most believers neglect it. Many believers repent sincerely, because that's part of it, too. But they repent, but if they repent without knowing who they are, the repentance is still sincere and it matters, but it doesn't free their emotions. You can repent of lust. You can repent of anger. You can repent of addictions. You can repent of condemnation. You can repent, repent, repent, but if you don't know what's in the bank account, your emotions aren't going to change, though your repentance is sincere. And sincere repentance matters, but it doesn't change your emotions. I want my emotions changed. I want to feel different. Beloved, you feel different, you live different. Now, we can't wait till we feel better to live different, but when our emotions are changed, our behavior is far, the transformation of our behavior is far more consistent, and it's far deeper transformation. We still have to restrain our behavior, even if our emotions are going crazy. Again, like I said before, if you don't, you'll go to jail. Look what Romans 6, I have, I want you to notice four times, in verses 1 to 11, the idea of knowing. Verse 3, Paul says, don't you know that everyone that was baptized into Jesus, here's this phrase, you were baptized, another word is, you were placed into the benefit of his death. He goes, don't you know that? Don't you know that when you were baptized, the essence of what happened, you were placed to the benefit of Jesus's death. Don't don't you know that? And the believers at Rome go, no, we didn't know we entered into the benefit of his death. Wow. Goes on in verse 6, he goes, don't you know that the old man, the person you were in Adam, is gone. Gone. He's not just on probation or over in a, you know, a prison cell somewhere waiting for another chance. He's gone forever. When it says he's crucified, it means, the idea of dying with Christ means that the status is permanently changed. That's what the idea of death means. It's a permanent change of status, not a temporary one. Says in verse 6, don't you know that the person you were in Adam under condemnation, powerless before the compulsions of sinful compulsions, don't you know that person will never ever exist again? You will never, you can't get unborn again. You can't change your status. I'm talking to a sincere believer. Verse 9, he says, don't you know that Christ dies no more? Christ will never be under that judgment of sin, so therefore you'll never be under. He bore it on the cross, he died, he entered the realm of death, but he rose from the dead. He'll never enter that realm again. The idea is, don't you know, you will never enter that status again. Never, ever, ever again. Then he says in verse 11, reckon. It's the idea, it's the same idea, don't you know. He goes, see what is on your spiritual bank account. Paragraph B. Now the two most, in my opinion, the two most important verses in the book of Romans, not just Romans 6, the whole book of Romans, in my opinion, in terms of personal transformation, in terms of the context of transformation, is chapter 521 and chapter 6 verse 2. These two verses, they're right next to each other. Paul said, you're, you were under the reign of sin, now you're under the reign of grace. Chapter 6 verse 2, here it is. Very, very important passage, and I'm not going to cover it in great detail right now, but I want to, I got a little bit more detail on the notes. I encourage you to study this out. You want to get this phrase down. If you don't understand what Paul meant when he says, how shall we who died to sin live it any longer? If you don't know what he means by died to sin, because there's a lot of confusion about that biblical truth. If you get confused on that, well you'll just stay confused by it until you get it right. Meaning, I've heard different views, two or three different views of this, and it's really confusion. They don't understand the context of what Paul, of Romans chapter 5 and chapter 6. When he says, how shall we who died to sin? He's talking about, how shall a person who is instantly at the new birth, separated and finished forever from the reign of sin? That's what he's talking about. He's not saying sin died in you, how some people take it. He's not saying you'll never have a sinful feeling again. Some believers go, we died to sin, I don't sin anymore. I go, I need to check you into a hospital or something. I go, you don't have any sinful feelings ever again. No, I died to sin. The Bible says it. So you never have a negative feeling. No. Again, get the guy some help. I respect the sincerity, but that is not what Paul is saying. He's not saying sin died in you, you have no more negative emotions. He's talking about a change of status. You died to the reign of sin. You are forever, instantly at the new birth, forever permanently separated from the reign of sin. You're no longer under it ever again. The judgment that was on you is gone. There's no condemnation. The powerlessness is gone. Meaning sinful emotions emerge, but now you have power to challenge them. You have a person living in you, and he will be in you forever. You will never be unable to challenge those negative emotions. Never again. You may refuse to, but that ability to challenge is in you, by virtue of the Holy Spirit. And Paul's argument, he goes, how could somebody who's changed status from the criminal status in great debt to the royal family status with great wealth, how could they live like a homeless beggar under a bridge anymore? That's his argument right here. You know, some believers, they confuse this chapter, and they think, well, I'm under grace. So they, some people think they don't sin. That's one confusion. Another group of people think it's okay to sin because you're under grace. Paul's saying, are you saying it's okay to live as a homeless beggar under a bridge because you got a great inheritance? He goes, that's illogical. So the guy that says I don't sin anymore, I have no more negative feelings, he's wrong. And the guy that says it's okay to keep sinning, it doesn't matter because I'm under grace, that's wrong, too. That's not what Paul's saying. He's saying you've changed status before God. You're no longer under the reign of grace. You're in the royal family. You have indescribable wealth. Now draw on it. The wealth is yours so that you can resist that whole, the whole taint of sin in your life. The goal is to be, understand the power to live free from it. You're free from the condemnation and now you can challenge the compulsions of sin that rise up in your emotions. But you got to talk to the Holy Spirit according to the Word. That's how the homeless beggar draws on the bank account. When he says we are dead, what he means by the word dead, we're finished, is the idea. We're finished forever with the status. See in the, in the natural, if a man is charged with a great crime, he dies. You can't do anything with the charge now. I mean you could charge him, go put it on his tombstone if you want, but it's not gonna affect him anymore. That, that legal charge has no power. He died. It's over. That's what Paul's saying. Or if a man, you know, owes billions of dollars, he dies. You can't go to his grave and like give me the billion dollars. It's worthless. That's the point that Paul's making. When he says you've died, he means the status has changed so permanently, so drastically, that there's no more claim on you to where the penalty of, of your former sin, the penalty of your sin is no longer on you, former or current sin. Jesus bore the price of it. You're dead. You know the, the criminal, the court system may go to that graveside and try to rebuke the man, but it's, it's futile. The devil will come and he'll accuse you and rebuke you, but beloved, you change status. You died to that status. You will never, ever be in that status again. Never, ever. Not a little bit. Not one toe in it. Not one leg in it. You are dead to that status as much as a man in the tomb is dead from those legal charges. Separated. Finished forever. That's what Paul means by died. Paragraph two. When Paul says we died to sin, he's not exhorting us to do something. He's not saying you ought to get sincere and die to sin by renouncing it. He's not telling us to renounce in later in verse 13, 12 and 13, he tells us to renounce sin, but that's not what he's doing here in, in verse two. He's not saying you ought to rise up and die to it. I mean, come on, Jesus loves you. He's worthy of your obedience. Just die to it. He's not exhorting us to do something. He's informing us of what's been done to us instantaneously. He's informing us of them, of the, what was put in our spiritual bank account. Nor is Paul saying sinful desires died in you. That's not what he's saying either. He's saying your status under the reign of sin, your status as a criminal is now forever gone. It's a powerless criminal. It's a, you're in a completely new status. You're in the royal family. The charges won't cross over. They can't. It's gone forever. He's making a final, definitive statement of something that happened to you the moment you were born again. And the reason I'm stressing this, because if you get that phrase wrong, died to sin, you won't draw on the wealth that is present in this truth, that is represented by this truth. The wealth represented is there's no condemnation. When Paul says you died to sin, you've died to the condemnation of it. You've died to the powerlessness before these sinful compulsions. When sin rises up in your desire, don't be intimidated. Challenge it. Talk to the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for peace. Thank you for self-control. Thank you for goodness. Thank you for long-suffering. Challenge those emotions. You know, it's like the old analogy, I've heard it many, many times, of slavery in America's history. And President Lincoln in 1863 gave, established the Emancipation Proclamation, where he declared that in America all the slaves are free. Legally they were free. And so in one day, it happened in one day. So the next day, the the man that was born in slavery, he's 50 years old, he sees his former master. The next day, he is not his master anymore. And that master says, go do this. The slaves emotions will rise up, and he's gonna be tempted to go do it out of intimidation. But the law says you can say no now. And a lot of folks, after the Emancipation Proclamation, called the Cross of Jesus, were free from that former slave, I mean, former master. And when those emotions rise up, we don't have to be intimidated. Oh, I always came into fear. I always came into lust. I always came into anger. No. Say no in the name of Jesus. Talk to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, thank you. You have patience in me. I'm in Christ Jesus. My spirit is righteous. The spirit dwells in me. I'm challenging that former master. I'm not gonna yield to intimidation. That's what Paul was saying here. Many people just give up and give in. They think, well, for 50 years, I always obeyed you. I mean, what can one day matter, beloved? One day changes your status. It matters because you have a different position in the court of God, and you have a different possession of the indwelling spirit. Happened in one day. But a lot of folks, they live like that hopeless, homeless beggar under the bridge, starving to death every day, freezing. And they have indescribable wealth, but they got to walk a couple blocks down the road, and they got to withdraw some money from the bank, and no one's going to do it for them. And no one can do this for you. You have to engage with the spirit in the truth yourself. Top of page 3, paragraph D, verse 3. Paul says, don't you know, and he's gonna say the same truth over and over again in different ways. He says, don't you know that when you were baptized into Christ, here's the phrase, you were baptized into his death. Now the word baptized means placed into, immersed. He goes, don't you know, when you were born again and water baptized, and those two go together, is the idea. And from the biblical point of view, a person's born again, they're water baptized, you're filled with the Holy Spirit. It's one big just reality that happens right when you're born again in one big flow. It's not supposed to be, you know, 10 years later, 10 years later, 10 years later, you know, first you're born again, then you're baptized 10 years later. It's all one reality. He's talking about the position we have by being new creatures in Christ. It's not the water that frees you, it's the indwelling spirit and the gift of righteousness that frees you. Some people put their faith in the water. No, the water is speaking to the new status and the new possession of the indwelling spirit. The water speaks to that. Paul says, don't you know when you were baptized, you were baptized into his death. That means you were placed into the benefit of his death. Meaning, what's the benefit of Jesus' death? He bore the wrath of God. Guess what? The wrath of God has been born for you. You don't have to bear it. You're under no condemnation. That's the point. When Paul says you're baptized into his death, what that translates to your life is there is no more condemnation in your life in Christ Jesus. That's what that phrase means. In a practical, emotional application. Then he goes on, verse 4, he says, we were buried with him through baptism into death. And some people try to picture themselves down in the tomb. Don't picture it. That's not the point. You don't, like, they could mysteriously go back on the tomb, and they, I think I got it. There. I got it. I'm buried with him. No, no. That's, that's not the point. What Paul is saying, when he uses the word buried, his point is it's permanent. It's final. I mean, when the criminal dies, he's unburied. It's the public announcement. The criminal's dead. You can't charge him. Go to his tomb if you want. It's gonna make no sense. It's a burial. It's that public statement, and it's that reality that the death is permanent. It's final. It's concluded. You're not almost dead, kind of in a coma, going back and forth. No. When you're buried, everyone agrees it's over. The case is settled. That's the point of buried. It's settled forever, never to be undone. You're not gonna get resuscitated. You're not almost dead. Like, some people think, well, I'm almost dead to sin, because they, what they're thinking is, those emotions are still there. I'm almost dead. I go, no. Being dead to sin is a status that you change in one moment the day you're born again. And again, I realize for some of you this is new. This spiritual bank account is new to you, all that you have. Just take these notes and just stay with it. Because, again, he's saying the same thing over and over and over again, just in different ways. Okay, let's go to paragraph E, verse 5 to 7. He says it again. Paragraph F, verse 8 to 10. He says it again. He's saying the same thing. Same truth. He goes, you got it! The bad stuff is gone. The good stuff is in place. You got a new status. It's permanent. It's final. It's forever. It's instantaneous. It's free. Draw on the bank account. That's what he's saying. Go to Roman numeral 4. Now he says, after he's given 10 verses, saying the same thing over and over, chapter 6, verse 11, he says, now apply it. Reckon it. See this wealth in your spiritual bank account and draw on it. That's what he means by reckon it. You're dead to the reign of sin. You're alive to the reign of God, to the realm of God, to the reign of grace. Those are all synonymous. You're alive to the whole realm that Jesus is alive to, as a man. Jesus is fully God. He's fully man. But as a man, he has all these privileges related to our salvation. All of them are ours. We're alive to God. It means all that's true of Jesus and His humanity is true of us because of Him. Beloved, this is fantastic. I mean, again, it's like saying you got billions given to you. Paul doesn't enumerate all the different ways to spend the money and all the ways to apply it. He's basically saying here, the debt is canceled. You're in the royal family. You have billions of dollars. Now you apply it in a thousand different life situations. Paragraph B, see yourself alive to God. You're enjoyed by God. You're indwelt. You're empowered. And it goes on and on. Top of page 4. Paragraph B, renewing our mind. That's the key. We've got to renew our mind. If we don't agree with the Word and talk to the Spirit according to the Word, beloved, the influences of the Spirit won't touch our emotions in the same consistency. I mean, the Spirit will still touch us here and there, but He'll touch us far deeper and far more consistent if we enter into the dialogue of making withdrawals from our spiritual bank account. He tells us how to make withdrawals. Paragraph C. He says the Word is near you. He goes, the Word is so close to you, it's in your mouth. Now he means the Word of promise. Romans 6 gave us the promises related to personal transformation. Here he says, the Word of power. The Word that releases power. It's so close to you guys. I want a supernatural experience. I want to go to heaven. I want an angel. Paul says, say it. Say it and you will activate it. It's so close. It's in your mouth. Just say it. The truth to the Holy Spirit and the checks. That's like writing a check and the wealth will begin to flow. Well, amen and amen.