Friday April 17, 2020

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration:

Luke 9:23-24 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (24) For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

This is the part where most falter. We all want the life which Christ promises. We want the joy and the peace, we want the full and complete life, we want eternity in paradise with the Father, but we don’t want to die. We like the destination, but the road to get there seems too hard. Many people want the open tomb, but they forget that in order to be resurrected, you must first die. You see, Christ did not simply die and resurrect for Himself. He did it so that you could as well. We praise Him for that work, and we celebrate His victory, but the greatest celebration is not a lovely church service. It is not a lavish party with good food and an Easter egg hunt (though all those things are well and good). The greatest celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection is to participate in them.

Crucify the Flesh

Gal 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Christ calls us to participate in His death. This is a strange concept, and an uncomfortable one. But the road to resurrection leads through the cross. Christ paid for your guilt, so there is no need that you endure what He suffered, but still you must lay on Him what He paid for. You must nail your sinful nature, your way of life to the cross with Him. In a sense, you must be crucified with Christ. This is a hard thing, and it does not all come at once. We are to die to sin, but that death is not quick and easy. Consider the manner of Christ’s death. It was difficult and frightening, it was painful and humiliating, it was long and drawn out. Our sin will not go without a fight, and we will need to each day put it back on that cross to die. That is why Christ says that we must daily take up our cross. We do this, we participate in the death of Christ that we might be free from the sin which seeks to bring us into condemnation.

Rom 6:6-7 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (7) For one who has died has been set free from sin.

As the Israelites of old could not come the Lord without sacrifice, so we must, through Christ, put to death the body of our sin in order to draw near to Him. Only by so dying to ourselves, participating in Christ’s death, can we then participate in His life.

-Jared Freeman, “Open Tombs”