Christians, it says very clearly, that we are, as Christ followers, to follow Christ and do as He did. His main purpose was to go to the cross, so our main purpose is to go to the cross. I see it as an invitation, daily, to pick up areas of your life that need to die: pride, selfish ambition, lust, immorality, drunkenness, slothfulness, addiction, and wrong thoughts.
We are as Christians, supposed to take these areas and walk the lonely road to Golgotha, to be strung up, and die in these areas. They are to completely die. Then we are to be put in the grave, put away, these old mindsets, old ways, then we are to be resurrected in a completely new way.
We may look the same, but we should start to talk different and act different. We have resurrection power and a new nature derived from God’s Spirit. The areas we die in are derived from our sin nature. Jesus literally bore all of these sins. He was pure but became our sin debt, so when He died, they died. He was put in the grave and went to the grave for us. When He was resurrected, He was purified and in His blood was the power to purify us. He was resurrected Holy, righteous, and pure to help us overcome our sin and lead us to our own cross in life. The areas we die in, and are resurrected from, are the areas we can help people to go to their own cross, die, and resurrect from.
Jesus was the first resurrection “domino”, setting up a wave of sinners that will impact others. We all have areas to die in. We know Jesus went to the cross once and carried ALL of EVERYONE’S sins in one day. As Christians, we need to daily take up whatever areas are present in our flesh and on that day crucify it. To crucify it is to kill it. If you do it right, you will not have to struggle in this area again. Jesus overcame the grave and set us up to be overcomers as well.
He is the perfect model for us, because each agonizing step we take in the journey to crucify our flesh, we are simply walking in the footprints and shadows of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Where we hang and die, he hung and died, when we go to the grave, He’s been there, and He is the first resurrected of many brethren! Now He rules and reigns and invites us to join Him through the power of crucifixion and resurrection. To also rule and reign with Him for all eternity! In Jesus Name, Amen.
Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 (NIV)
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV)
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24 (NIV)
written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2019
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