04/12/2025
In my April tenth devotional message, I concluded that we can, and should, find ourselves crucified with Jesus, so this morning let’s ask ourselves a very similar question... are we resurrected with Him too, and what does that mean to our faith and our lives.
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Romans 6:5 ESV
In this verse Paul makes a bold statement about the new life we will find within ourselves once we have been crucified with Jesus. He tells us that after having picked up our cross and experiencing the death of our old selves, we will find that we have been inoculated with a full dose of life in Jesus Christ, and that our recovery from sin will have gone into full swing. Pastor Oswald Chambers wrote about this amazing conversion in these words...
"I can have the resurrection life of Jesus now, and it will show itself in holiness.
The idea all through the Apostle Paul's writings is that after the moral decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus invades every bit of my human nature." - Oswald Chambers
Our lives are transformed when we believe and have received the infusion of Jesus and the Holy Spirit into our spiritual selves and bodies. With their arrival the good work that was begun in us will continue to increase until at last it has defeated every remnant of sin within us and has completed the work of transformation that was started on the cross. This process of consecration continues on until Jesus returns to claim us and we have achieved a full likeness of Him. In that promised moment of completeness we will have been made ready by grace for His seal of approval and to walk with Him into judgement.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:6 ESV
I have a letter that my father wrote my grandmother from a hospital bed in England after he had been badly wounded while fighting in Germany during World War II. Once he had told her that he was alright, and was recovering, he made an incredible statement... he said, "This penicillin is a wonder drug!" You see, penicillin, and the idea of antibiotics, was new at that time, and this marvelous drug had defeated the infection which had invaded his body when shrapnel riddled it.
Sin, like the shrapnel of an exploding shell, riddles our body from birth and its infection begins killing us the moment it does. Just as infection set in the moment my father's body was pierced, opened as was filled with metal, mud, and the microscopic creatures that rode into him among those foreign things, sin enters into us.
With their surgical skills the doctors were able to clean out as much of the infection as humanly possible, sew him up, and treat the wounds, but it took something brand new, something amazing, to defeat the microorganisms that were killing him from within. It took penicillin.
Before we are resurrected with Jesus, we can try to heal ourselves. We can attempt to lead moral lives, obey God’s law, and do good things, but our body and soul has been invaded by sin, and we have no hope in totally defeating this scourge that is thriving within it. We need an amazing new breakthrough... we need to die and then be resurrected with Jesus Christ... but we also need to be inoculated with the life that is him so that He can combat and defeat the sin that has permeated our bodies and spiritual lives… and live again.
We feel the effects of our new life the moment we are resurrected with Christ. His impact is immediate, but there is a recovery period in which He continues to heal us. My father returned to the front lines, but it took a few weeks after being treated, for him to recuperate fully, and for the penicillin to eradicate all traces of infection. It is the same for our spiritual lives... although we are saved and the sin is forgiven, it takes a period of time for our new injection of life to complete its work in us, and the memory of our old selves to be overcome.
So yes, we are resurrected with Jesus, and yes, we are forgiven and saved, but that is not the end; our convalescence lasts most, if not all, of our lives. But we have indeed been resurrected, and we have been injected with that full dose of life, that is Christ. In this way the recovery is certain and our letter home to all who would hear should read... "This Jesus is a wonder! I was dead but now I live. He has saved me from death and sin!"
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus who has redeemed me. I thank you Father for the restorative properties of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. I feel His presence within me every day and know that in Him I am saved. Lord God, I was once filled with sin and without hope, but through your grace and mercy I am now walking with your Son, who abides within me, and am becoming more like Him with each passing day. Give me the strength to recover completely from the effects of sin through the wonder of His sacrifice and a lifetime of welcoming Him within me. Forgive me Father for my sins and heal me now of their infectious effects. Let my skin that is pocked with the sores of a sinner become clean like that of Naaman the leper who you healed... for you are faithful, merciful, full of grace, and true to your every promise. Your Son Jesus is in you, and you are in Him just as He is in me , and I in Him. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who heals me with your love through Jesus Christ. Holy are you who eradicates my sin and gives me life by your grace. Hear me now Father as I call out your name joyfully and pray to you in the name of your Son Jesus that your will to be done in me. Your mercy and grace have had full effect and have removed my sin. Furthermore, Abba, you have given me the strength to combat its lingering temptation through your Holy Word and have welcomed me into your presence for all eternity. I joyfully sing now” Hallelujah!” with the heavenly host, and claim Amen to the prayers of the martyrs, saints, and every believer as they worship you. You are indeed worthy of all honor and praise forevermore!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah! and Amen!
“So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
2 Kings 5:14 ESV
Rich Forbes