Breath Of Life Online Ministry
 

"...our old man was crucified with Him (Jesus), that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." Romans 6:6

Of the many images that express what it means to be born again, the Bible uses our following Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection more than anything else. But there are a couple of important extremes being taught on this subject that we ought to be aware of and avoid.

The first is that its all finished in Christ. It is true that Jesus has done all the actual work for us. However, we have a part to play in comprehending and aprehending the full benefit of His work in our lives. Once we're saved, we don't jump onto an automatic "Bless Me" cloud that will escort us through life while we eat bon-bons.

The second extreme is one of works to earn blessings and keep our salvation. We have to keep crucifying the old man. God is unhappy with our failures and so we must work very hard to gain and keep His approval.

No, no we need to realize that Jesus is our High Priest. He stands between us and the Father with His hands raised up. When the Father looks at us, He sees us through the nail pierced hands of His Son. He can't even see our failures, He sees the perfection of the sacrifice given to redeem us from them.

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins" Ephesians 2:1

To demonstrate this with a little more clarity, have a look at John 11. Let's use the record of Lazarus' resurrection as an analogy.

We follow Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. Just as Lazarus was dead and buried, so were we in our trespasses and sins.

When Jesus stands before the open tomb of our heart and calls out to us, it quickens us to come out of this death and rise up in newness of life. It is just as miraculous when we are born again as it was when Lazarus was raised from the dead.

Once the miracle was accomplished, Lazarus stood in the doorway of an empty tomb completely ALIVE! And its the same with us, once we're born again, its just like standing in the doorway of our own empty tombs...completely ALIVE!!

But that's not where the story ends, even though this is where our typical methodology tends to break away from the analogy.

After Jesus performed the miracle, he commanded the others to take his grave-clothes off, to LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO!!!

Why is this so critical? Well naturally speaking, its pretty obvious. Lazarus was bound hand and foot, wrapped in grave-clothes and his face was covered with a linen death mask. A fellow can't do much living dressed up like that.

And so it is the same with us. Beneath our death mask and grave-clothes is a living, breathing new creation! He has been miraculously quickened, resurrected to live in abundance of life! Now its time to take off that false appearance of death to reveal the fullness of Jesus' life giving power of resurrection.

 


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