Just a short piece today!

Crucifixion is really quite deadly. It kills people.

And in the case of Jesus’s crucifixion, more than just His body was killed there.

According to Scripture, the ‘sinful nature’, the ‘body of death’, our sickness, our sins, even our mortality, were all nailed to the Cross and crucified with Christ. The Letter of Paul to the Romans goes into great detail on this, as do many of St. Paul’s letters. These were all nailed to the Cross and left in the grave; they are dead, buried and gone. Also, each believer was also crucified, dead and buried with Him.”…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.“ (Col 2:12) – and so we also were in Christ when He was raised from the dead.

And here’s the thing: the only thing that is resurrected is the new creation. All the other rubbish is left in the grave! They are still dead and buried!

And so we can rejoice because our sicknesses, sin, the old nature, our guilt and shame, the Law that stood against us and was hostile to us (Col 2:14) – all these and more have indeed been left behind in the grave, and the newness of life that we now have does not have to contain any of these things. It is as if they are no longer a part of our nature, since we are indeed in Christ Jesus. This is simply incredible news! Not only does God love us and want to have fellowship with us – to enjoy our company, and we to enjoy His – but He has also provided freedom from the things that beset those who have not accepted all that He has done. Freedom to walk with Him in newness of life, unhampered by the ‘sin that so easily besets us’ (Heb 12:1)

And sometimes, that’s us. It’s not just the ‘unbeliever’. So often those in the Church do not realise just what Jesus has done, and do not appropriate it for themselves.

So maybe it’s time that we realised that indeed all that bad stuff that was crucified with Christ is still in the grave, and it need trouble us no more. Take this in, meditate on it, let it change your life. This is freedom. This is ‘truth that shall set you free’ in Christ.

Praise God!