Ought not the Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory? —Luke 24:26
Our
Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life. His resurrection means that He has
the power to convey His life to me. When I was born again, I received the very
life of the risen Lord from Jesus Himself.
Christ’s
resurrection destiny— His foreordained purpose— was to bring “many sons to
glory” (Hebrews 2:10). The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to
make us sons and daughters of God. We never have exactly the same relationship
to God that the Son of God has, but we are brought by the Son into the relation
of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new
life— a life He had never lived before He was God Incarnate. He rose to a life
that had never been before. And what His resurrection means for us is that we
are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we will have a body
like His glorious body, but we can know here and now the power and
effectiveness of His resurrection and can “walk in newness of life” (Romans
6:4). Paul’s determined purpose was to “know Him and the power of His
resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).
Jesus
prayed, “…as You have given Him authority over all flesh that He should give
eternal life to as many as You have given Him” (John 17:2). The term Holy
Spirit is actually another name for the experience of eternal life working
in human beings here and now. The Holy Spirit is the deity of God who continues
to apply the power of the atonement by the Cross of Christ to our lives. Thank
God for the glorious and majestic truth that His Spirit can work the very
nature of Jesus into us, if we will only obey Him.
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