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Today, on Good Friday 2018, Christians around the globe are commemorating the passion of Jesus Christ—the suffering He went through to pay our sin debt in full with His blood and to give us new life in Him.
Good Friday isn’t a national holiday in the U.S., but it is a state holiday in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Texas.
I’m so glad I live in Texas, one of eleven states in the U.S. that recognizes the importance of the Resurrection!
Every Christian knows (or ought to know) that Christ’s crucifixion on Good Friday wasn’t the end of His story:
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and … He was buried, and … He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4 NASB).”
If Christ was not raised from the dead on the third day, then our faith is in vain (worthless) and we are still in our sins (1 Cor. 15:14, 17).
The Good News is, if you are a believer in Christ, you are no longer in your sins.
Every person on this earth at this moment is either “in Christ” or “in their sins.” There is no middle ground.
And the change of location from “in our sins” to “in Christ” happens once in a lifetime. There’s no such thing as jumping in and out of Christ.
I am leaning entirely upon His Spirit within me to cause me to communicate the extraordinary significance of not only what happened to Him over two thousand years ago, but also what happened to me and you (if you are in Christ) at the same time!
You may be scratching your head, wondering, How in the world could something that happened to Christ have happened to me at the same time?
I will tell you. It’s a spirit-thing.
It happened in the unseen, eternal spiritual realm.
Father God exists in the Eternal Now (eternity past, eternity present, eternity future). He exists outside of this time realm.
After all, He is the One who created time. He didn’t have a beginning. He has always been, is, and will always be.
If you’re having trouble wrapping your mind around this, ask Christ’s Spirit within you to give you eyes to see into the eternal spiritual realm and realize this amazing truth.
In Ephesians 1:3-4, the apostle Paul writes:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him, in love (NASB).”
Father God chose you and me to be in His Son, Jesus, before the foundation of the world.
Why did He want us “in” His Son? So that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love.
I believe Father God does the Happy Dance every time one who belongs to Him realizes (becomes fully aware of; understands clearly) that not only are they in Christ right now and forever, but they were “in Christ” when He was crucified, buried, risen, and ascended into Heaven at His right hand.
In other words, those who belong to Him were co-participants (in union) with Christ in His crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension (all Scriptures below are taken from the NASB):
Scriptures that speak of our crucifixion with Christ:
“Our old self was crucified with Him” (Rom. 6:6).
“I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20).
“You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3)
Scriptures that speak of our burial with Christ
(burial implies the finality of death):
“We have been buried with Him through baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4).
“Having been buried with Him in baptism” (Col. 2:12).
Scriptures that speak of our resurrection with Christ:
“God … even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with Him” (Eph. 2:5).
“You were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead … He made you alive together with Him” (Col. 2:12–13).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3).
Scriptures that speak of our ascension with Christ:
“God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4–6).
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).
Dear reader, please notice that all of the above Scriptures are past tense.
If you are a believer “in Christ,” the old, sinful you was crucified and buried with Him and the new, holy you was born again in Him when Father God raised Him from the dead!
And that is exactly what the Resurrection of Christ Jesus has to do with you!
On Resurrection Sunday (and every day), you should be doing the Happy Dance, celebrating your resurrection—your spiritual birthday—in Christ!
If your brain is going tilt-tilt and you are struggling to wrap your mind around this supernatural, eternal truth, this tangible example might help:
Imagine that Father God is holding a Holy Bible in His right hand.
This Bible represents His Son, Jesus Christ, who is also called the Word of God (John 1:1, 14).
Since Christ is also referred to as “eternal life,” we can think of this Bible as the spiritual realm of eternal life and everything outside of it as the spiritual realm of eternal death (1 John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-13, 20).
The Bible refers to these two distinct spiritual realms as “in Christ” and “in Adam.” “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive”(1 Cor. 15:22 NASB).
Now, I want you to see Father God taking a blank sheet of paper and writing your name on it. This is when He knit you together in your mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-16).
When you were born into this world, you were born into the spiritual realm of Adam, separated from Christ’s eternal life (John 8:21, 24; 1 Cor. 15:17; Col. 1:13, 2:13).
Please notice that this paper (you) is outside of the Bible (Christ).
Father God longs to put you (the paper) inside of Christ (the Bible), but because He gave you a free will, this is not His choice to make.
He can woo you, presenting all the evidence to you, but you get to choose whether or not to be joined to Christ.
If there is such a thing as Father God “waiting,” I believe He waits with bated breath for us to hear the Gospel and believe in (literally “into”) His Son (John 3:16).
Think back to the moment you accepted Christ and see Father God take you (the paper) out of Adam and put you into Christ (the Bible) (Col. 1:13).
Take a moment to let this truth sink in.
Once you are placed into Christ, your God-less spiritual past becomes nonexistent and you automatically share in Christ’s Spiritual past, present, and future.
Talk about a quantum leap!
And His past includes His crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension!
In other words, it is just as if we had never been separated from God by sin!
Now that is shouting (and dancing) ground!
Our sins are gone—not merely covered. They are no longer attached to us because we are now and forever in Christ!
We don’t live in the realm of our sins—in the uncircumcision of our flesh—any longer!
Outside of Christ, we were in the flesh; inside of Christ, we have been separated, or cut off, from the flesh.
And the news just keeps getting better: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:1-2 NASB). (Notice the verb tense is once again past.)
Jesus promises us that no one can take us out of His eternal life: “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28 NASB).
No one means no one, not even ourselves. Once we are in Him, we cannot get ourselves out of Him. Only Father God could do that and He promises not to!
He also promises never to leave us or forsake us: “He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you'” (Heb. 13:5 NKJV).
Christ promises to never separate Himself from us, no matter what we do or don’t do!
And finally, He says that even our own faithlessness (not living in dependence on Christ) can’t disqualify us once we are in Him: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13 NASB).
Goodness gracious!
This says we are so joined to Him—so mingled with Him—that we are “one spirit with Him,” and He cannot ever be separated from Himself! (1 Cor. 6:17).
The super-fantastic news of the Gospel is: Every believer in Christ is in Him forever! It’s a done deal!
No chance of ever going back to Adam. Even if you were deceived into believing you wanted to.
Don’t you think it’s high time we Christians put on our dancin’ shoes and celebrate what Christ has ALREADY accomplished for and in us (made us holy and blameless) through our co-participation (union) with Him in His crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and ascension!
Dear reader, have you taken the quantum leap of faith into Jesus?
If no, I pray that you would not waste one more moment “outside” of Christ and ask Him to come live inside you.
The moment you do that is the moment you are simultaneously placed into His life forevermore.
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If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to check out all of my books and my video series based on my first devotional.
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