Crucified With Him, Seated With Him: The Law of Identification

Sermon outline

Whatever Christ went through in His substitutionary sacrifice, you went through with Him, so you are dead to sin, alive with Him, free from sickness and poverty, and seated with Him far above every power.

1. Substitute and identified: God's legal and vital plan

   What Jesus did is not a religious story or merely history: it was God's plan from the fall, when He declared in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of the woman would destroy the devil. Jesus had to be born of a woman to have legal rights on earth, which the devil does not have. He came as the substitute sacrificial lamb, gave Himself voluntarily on the cross, and took the sin and sickness of the human race, legally making us sons of God.

   “Whatever Jesus did for us, it's not a religious story.”

   • Genesis 3:15
   • 1 John 3:8

2. Crucified with Christ: the key word is 'with'

   Whenever Scripture says 'with Christ', it means that if Christ went through it, you went through it with Him. You were not physically crucified, buried or raised, but legally, in God's eyes, you were, because you said yes to His lordship. Now Christ lives in you, and you live by the faith of the Son of God who loved you, past tense, before you ever loved Him.

   “Whenever you read a scripture that says with Christ, it means if Christ went through it, you went through with him.”

   • Galatians 2:20
   • John 3:16

3. Your old man is crucified: dead to sin

   The law could not save, which is why Christ came. Your old self, the nature you had before you were born again, was crucified with Him, so a thief is no longer a thief and a bad habit has no dominion over you: do not blame the devil, make a choice and step out of it. Being dead to sin does not mean sin does not exist, but that to the new creation it has no power. Christ bore your sin and sickness, so drop them and walk away.

   Illustration: When they nailed Him, I was nailed. When He gave up the ghost, I died with Him.

   “It's not the devil driving you or the devil having influence over you. He has been stripped. You have to make a choice.”

   • Romans 6:6-11

4. God's witness: you have eternal life

   The witness of God is greater than the witness of men, and His record is that He has given us eternal life, the life of God inside, able to change any adverse circumstance outside. People without Christ merely exist, eating three meals and going to bed, but believers are living life. You may look ordinary at work, but you are an ambassador of Christ, and wherever you show up, God shows up.

   “Wherever you show up, God shows up.”

   • 1 John 5:8-13
   • 2 Corinthians 5:20

5. The law of identification: complete union with Him in His substitutionary sacrifice

   He gives the definition and has the church repeat it: complete union with Christ in His substitutionary sacrifice. John called Jesus the Lamb of God, foreshadowed by the ram God provided for Abraham, and when Jesus cried 'It is finished' the old order of sacrifices ended. So when He was crucified, buried and raised, you were too, and if all things are under His feet they are under yours. Without this, the Christian life becomes hit and miss, hoping God will hear you.

   Illustration: A firearms amnesty lets you hand in unlicensed weapons without prosecution, and an extension of the tax deadline means you need not fear when someone says you are late. You are legally free.

   “Anything else will be a hit and miss thing for you.”

   • John 1:29
   • Genesis 22:8-13
   • John 19:30

6. He became poor that you may be rich

   On the cross Christ took poverty as well as sin and sickness. Poverty is a disease attached to your pocketbook, the cycle of loan after loan, but the revelation that Christ became poor breaks it. 'We are not prosperity preachers; we are Christ preachers.' God calls you healed and rich, so do not wait to count bedrooms or cars before calling yourself what He calls you, and do not accept depression as part of your new nature.

   Illustration: Holding up a purse, he says poverty means the purse is diseased, while wealth means it is empowered to multiply. Walk up to an orange tree and call it a lemon tree and it would scream back 'no'.

   “Poverty is a disease attached to your pocketbook.”

   • 2 Corinthians 8:9
   • Joel 3:10

7. Buried and risen with Him: stop fishing in the wrong pond

   You were buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him to walk in newness of life, so your grandfather and your bloodline no longer define you. You could search your whole life for an ancestor's secret sins, but God has forgiven you all trespasses, not some, and quickened you together with Christ by grace. If Christ lives unto God, you live unto God.

   “Stop fishing in the wrong pond. All your trespasses.”

   • Romans 6:4-5
   • Colossians 2:12-13
   • Ephesians 2:5
   • Acts 13:33
   • Romans 6:9

8. Alive in Christ and translated out of darkness

   As in Adam all die, in Christ all are made alive, and believers are conformed to the image of the firstborn among many brethren. God has already delivered us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son, so if there is darkness, shine.

   “In Adam all die, but in Christ all are made alive.”

   • 1 Corinthians 15:22
   • Romans 8:29
   • Colossians 1:13

9. Seated with Him: pray from heaven

   God raised Christ and seated Him far above all principality and power with all things under His feet, and He is the head while we are the body, so if Christ reigns you reign with Him. Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God, and God uses the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. You can pray from earth trying to reach heaven, which amounts to begging, or from your seat with Christ, a highly favoured place where there is no lack or sickness, so walk out of sin, habits and poverty.

   Illustration: Just say, 'What am I doing smoking? This is nonsense. I'm free,' and walk out of it.

   “You can pray from earth, trying to reach heaven, or you can pray from heaven, controlling the affairs of the earth.”

   • Ephesians 1:20-23
   • Ephesians 2:6
   • 1 Corinthians 1:23-30