I ask you to be vigilant in your spiritual warfare, don't hobnob with the gorillas,

look to the victory of Christ, look to the atomic power of the Holy Spirit.

There is great hope in this conception of the Christian life for imperfect people like you and me.

It certainly does seem counterintuitive, but there is great encouragement to be found in understanding

the Christian life as warfare. In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper shows how this is

the case from Friskartian's three, one to four. This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem

Baptist Church on February 21, 1988. I could not address you as spiritual,

but as fleshly as babes in Christ. Now, what does that little phrase mean? That's a rich and

wonderful phrase. That phrase is so full of encouragement for babies in Christ and fleshly people,

as well as mature people. What does in Christ mean? The best explanation in the vicinity of this verse,

I think, is chapter 1, verse 30. If you want to look at it with me. In chapter 1, verse 30, Paul says

that God is the one who has put us in Christ. From him, you are in Christ, or the RSV says,

he is the source of your life. That means he's the one who puts you there. He's the one who wrapped you

up in Christ, unified you to Christ, joined you to Christ, so that now you're in Christ. Now,

what does it mean? That's what the last part of the verse is good for. This Christ, God made

our wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, which simply means Christ is for

you all that you need to be when you are in Him, and that's goodness. That's one of the greatest

doctrines of the faith. It's called justification sometimes, or union with Christ, to be wrapped up

so in Christ by being united to Him by faith, He becomes for us all that He is for us,

all that we need to be in order to be accepted by God, He becomes for us and begins to work within

us as we are in Him. So the first thing Paul wants to say about fleshly Christians is that they

are in Christ as far as he can tell. He assumes that they are in Christ. Second observation,

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