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(2 Corinthians 5:21) "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
Oswald Chambers encapsulates all that I've been writing these past days with this beautifully simple teaching. The view that 'Christ died for me, therefore I go without suffering any punishment' is never taught in the New Testament.
What is taught is that “He died for all” (not – He died my death), but that by identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have imparted to me His very righteousness.
Identifying with Jesus's death, means recognising the spiritual union with his crucifixion and resurrection. This involves believing that one's old self, marked by sin, died with Christ, and a new life in Christ has begun. It's a belief that Christ's sacrifice on the cross atones for sins, and through faith in that sacrifice, believers are freed from the power of sin and given new life.
It means that when we are united to Christ in faith, we participate in his death, not physically but spiritually. We let our old selves and desires die with all our sins. All the patterns of sin we once took pleasure in, and the things we took pride in identifying with are dead and gone (Romans 6:2-6)
As Oswald beautifully paraphrases it, "It is not Christ 'for me' unless I am determined to have Christ formed ‘in me.'
Let's pray, "Heavenly Father, thank you that through baptism into Christ Jesus, I have been baptised into His death. I acknowledge that my old self, the self enslaved to sin, was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, and I might no longer be a slave to sin. Help me to consider myself dead to sin and alive to You in Christ Jesus. Grant me the strength to resist the temptations of the flesh and to live a life that is pleasing to you, empowered by Your Holy Spirit. May I live in the reality of my union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and may my life reflect this truth." Amen!
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