Thinking again about our union with Christ and what it means for us in our attempts to change, Philip Ryken offers these encouraging words. His opening couple of lines are citing the Puritan William Perkins.
“We are in mind and meditation to consider Christ crucified: and first, we are to believe that he was crucified for us. This being done, we must go yet further, and as it were spread ourselves on the cross of Christ, believing and withal beholding ourselves crucified with him….
“Take this one step further: not only were we crucified with Christ, but we were also buried with him….But death is not the end, either for Christ or for us, so Paul goes on to say that Christ was raised from the dead, and that we were raised with him….Spiritual growth is not based on something we think, feel or even do; it begins with something that Christ did for us on a rough piece of wood, in an empty stone tomb, and in the heavenly realms of glory” (Philip Ryken, “The Message of Salvation”).
Christians can change. Sins we struggle with we can overcome. Temptations we face we can resist. There are no shortcuts in this raging battle within our heart. But there is hope. Hope for change and power to change begin with recognizing what took place on the cross of Christ. Not only did Christ die for us, but we died in him. That death broke the stranglehold of sin and temptation in our lives. What was formerly inevitable now becomes resistible. No question, temptations are fierce and we will stumble till the day we die. In each temptation, though, we should recall that this temptation is resistible, seeing what Christ did “on a rough piece of wood, in an empty tomb, and in the heavenly realms of glory.” In other words, we look up when we face temptation and we look up when we fail in temptation, beholding that our Savior stands in heaven ready to forgive us for failures, but to fortify us in temptations.
Amen.
–DJB
