Our key text today is Romans 6:4-5: "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection..."
The cross is the emblem of suffering and shame. There is the life we led before we came to the Cross and there is the life we lead on the resurrected side of the Cross. We are alive because He is alive!
Death is separation from God. The Cross is a declaration that each one of us must go through it and we will emerge on the other side "in the newness of life."
Think about Noah's ark for a moment: Those who believed in what Noah was doing stepped out of a world that was condemned and walked into the ark. The Cross is the ark: we walk out of this world and into the Cross. We are then delivered from death, destruction and corruption.
How does God see us? He sees the Cross! We are filled with Christ and His love. Our lifestyle will reflect that powerful reality. God has defined His way of salvation: Christ. Christ is at the center of all God does.
The old man, the old nature that we all possess as fallen children of Adam must pass through the Cross under the power of the Holy Spirit. Why? In 1 John 3:1 it says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not." The Cross makes it possible for me to become His child. Thus, I present myself to Him as one who was raised from the dead. I will be a living sacrifice for His glory.
We are now in a time where the difference between those who are walking in the "newness of the [resurrected] life" and those who are not is becoming more and more apparent. If you are in Christ, you now need to see yourself as God sees you! You are a new creation: the old has passed away and the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17)
You are no longer under the law, under having to work out your salvation, or still striving to overcome sin. He was revealed to take away our sin. We're in Him. If we completely surrender to Him, the old struggles will begin to drop away. Sanctification is a process and begins the day you surrender to Him. 1 John 3:6 says, "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." We abide in Him and we no longer want to sin.
We need to see Him through revelation. Moses asked to see God's glory: his struggles lessened after that. Our hunger and thirst will be fulfilled. We can read the Bible every day, but until the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures for us, we will continue to struggle. An encounter with God is life-changing, pure and simple.
So, are hungry are you? How much deeper in Him do you want to go? Or, are you indifferent?
Our King of kings and Lord of lords is looking for hungry people Now, more than ever before, are hungry seekers after the Truth needed. In John 14:16-17, it says, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
Jesus did not leave us as orphans. He did not leave us comfortless: because He lives, I will live also! If we love Him, we shall be loved by Him and His Father. It is our choice.
John 14:23 give us this beautiful promise: "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." Holy wow!
If we walk in His resurrected life, we are empowered by that very Life. He is our Life. He is our Power. If we are baptized unto His death, He puts His life inside of us. The same Spirit that raised Him from the dead is the same Spirit that makes His home in you!
Time is short. The chasm is widening. We are either in Him or not. God doesn't grade on a curve. Right is right and wrong is wrong. There is no place for a 90% Christian. It is His righteous way or nothing at all.
Choose this day whom you will serve. If you choose Him, He will give you the very power you need as you walk on this resurrected side of the Cross!
