04/10/2023
We have completed Holy Week, and during this week we lived and were spiritually crucified with Christ during His final days. We followed Him through the joy of His arrival in Jerusalem, to the last supper, His anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, the capture, trial, and scourging of our Lord, and then we join Him in spirit on the cross for His crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Yes, we have been crucified with Jesus... not in the physical sense of dying, but spiritually. Our crucifixion is such that our old selves died once again and our new lives in Christ took on new life. Paul explains this to the Galatians in this scripture:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 ESV
Why is this so? Why is it that we have been crucified with Jesus? Is faith not enough, and our empathy during His final week not complete? The answer is no, because He did not go through this ordeal in order to prove He could suffer, die, and defeat death... He did these things to save us from our sins; to wash us clean of our iniquities. Paul speaks again, but this time in Romans...
“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.”
Romans 6:6 ESV
Before Christ there was the law. It defined sin and convicted us under it, but Jesus fulfilled the law and changed the playing field. He took the sting out of the legalism of the old law, and gave us forgiveness; not just once a year during the feast of atonement, but every minute of every day. He taught us of the love of God that was hidden by the law to great degree. So this past week we died on the cross with Jesus. We died to sin, and we died to the law...
“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”
Romans 7:4 ESV
As we spiritually traveled with Jesus through this past week, hearing the hammer falls and feeling the pain as we were nailed to the cross with Him, we were led to remember that it is not our efforts that allowed us to be there... we were not righteous enough to be included of our own accord... it was grace and grace alone that granted us this privilege. His death, that we claim as well, and his resurrection, that we too experience, are beyond our grasp except through Him.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV
I read a wonderful account this morning that was written by Oswald Chambers. He wrote about the very personal decision to accept our place on the cross with Jesus.
"Have I made this decision about sin - that it must be killed right out in me? It takes a long time to come to a moral decision about sin, but it is the great moment in my life when I do decide that just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world, so sin must die out in me, not be curbed or suppressed or counteracted, but crucified." - Oswald Chambers
Did we make, or renew, this decision last week regarding the sin that Chambers writes of? Did we accepted our place with Jesus on the cross? If not, are we prepared to do so now? Jesus doesn’t ask us to die with Him once a year, but every day… He invites us to pick up our cross and follow Him today, not just on Good Friday or Easter Sunday.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25
Prayer:
Holy Father, I struggled through Holy Week. I was grateful for the cross and all it represents in my faith and life, but I was heartbroken by the suffering of your Son Jesus. I cried and wretched at the thought of His physical ordeal, and yet I shouted with joy and jubilation as He defeated sin and death. He is your Lamb, and His blood is pure... in Him I find redemption. In Him my sins are released... but the cost was almost too much for me to bear. Forgive me my weakness Father, forgive me the tears I cried as your will was done; forgive my broken heart as I looked at your Son beaten and hanging on the cross in my place... and yet I thank you for allowing me to claim His death, and resurrection as my own victory over sin. I praise your Son Jesus and look forward to the day when I can wash His feet with my tears, and give Him thanks for redeeming my soul from sin. Until that day Father, give me the strength of faith that will allow me to shoulder my cross each day and follow Him to Calvary as I should.
Rich Forbes