The cross leads to resurrection life

When we became Christians and were baptised to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him. For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of God, now we may also live new lives (Romans 6:3-4). Since we died with Christ we will also share his new resurrection life. We can now serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit of God, who raised Christ from the dead, and who lives in us.

When God raised Christ from the dead, he gave us, who were dead because of our sins, life with him. He actually raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are now seated with him in heavenly realms, - all because we are one with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-6).

Since we are a new person, created in God’s likeness – righteous, holy, and true, we must display a new nature. That can only be done if we live according to our new resurrection life in the Holy Spirit. When we apply the cross to the old sinful nature that loves to do evil, we won’t follow the evil desires. In stead, the Spirit will give us desires that are opposite to the unclean desires of the world. When we are directed by the Holy Spirit we will live a life of faith expressing itself in love.

But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Living the new life

Since we have been raised to new life with Christ, by embracing the cross by faith, we must set our sights on the realities of heaven. If we are serious about living the new resurrection life, we must act accordingly. We must pursue the things over which Christ presides. We must allow heaven to fill our thoughts!

Don’t just shuffle along, with your eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ, - that is where the action is! See things from his perspectives! You died with Christ. You were buried with Christ. You were raised with Christ. You are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm! Your old life is dead! Your new life, which is your real life, is with Christ in God, even though it may be invisible to spectators! The resurrected Christ is your real life!

So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it (Colossians 3:12-14; The Message).

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way (Colossians 3:15-17).

When you have applied the cross to your own ambitions, when you have stopped being selfish, when you have stopped pushing yourself to the front, then you are free to live the resurrection life of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit! When you have stopped trying to make a good impression on others to sweet-talk your way to the top, you can put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. The way of the cross leads to a resurrection life that is a blessing to everyone around you!

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him! (Romans 8:15-17, The Message)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (Romans 12:1-2).

Living in pure grace, living the resurrection life, is the life God brings to us. That is the only way to really understand ourselves as believers, by what Christ is and by what he does for us, not by what we are or what we can do for him.

Exercise:

In what way is Christ your real life?

In which areas is the Spirit prompting you to take new steps?

In what way can the new life be seen in you?

Continue to memorise these Bible verses:

Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. (Romans 6:6-7)