God forbid that I should boast except
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14
The
gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted
God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the
slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His
death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do
I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for
anything except Him and His purposes? The great privilege of discipleship is
that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to
sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do
not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified
with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the
cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately.
And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was
“crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having
been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which
the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.
Every
once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were
not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do
nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is
personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our
first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet
God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that
identification with Jesus Christ means.
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