Called To A Cross

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Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

The smallest words in Scripture come with the most punch and power. The words but, now, if, so, then, when, in, with… all are small little words that when used in the Word of God are packed with huge colossal life altering meaning. We seem to read the Scriptures and let the big words like predestination, justification, and propitiation cause us to claim that the Bible is to hard to understand and to read and to teach to our children, when all we need to do is focus on the little words, because if we do, the big ones will take care of themselves.

I love every book of the Bible, but there are a few that if I was stranded on a desert island and could only have one book of the Bible I could narrow it down. I would want Deuteronomy, Psalms, John, Romans, or Colossians. Currently I am teaching through Colossians, so this one is my present favorite. The book of Colossians is so relevant to our present day here in America. We have been fed so much crap in our Christianity that we have forgotten what being a follower of Christ actually means.

As I sat and listened to Wayne Barber teach from Colossians 3:1-4 after our last class, he shared about an illustration that someone used to teach him about salvation. He shared how it was a popular one, and it was, and is, because I have heard it too. He shared how the teacher would stand up front with a quarter in his hand and tell the group of kids in front of him that whoever wanted this could come and get it. He shared how the class would always be so timid that they no one would get up, but he knew the illustration so he always got up and grabbed the quarter and sat back down. The teacher would then share how salvation was a free gift and all you had to do was receive it… and although yes, it is true that salvation is a gift and it is free and it must be received, it is so much more.

Salvation is a call to a cross not just THE cross.

Salvation is not a quarter in God’s pocket that He passes out to those who are willing to come and jump in His lap. As Wayne Barber shared a “gift” in that sense can be lost, can be stuck away, can be taken back, can be received without any personal cost, this is not the way we receive salvation.

When God calls to you, when He holds His hand out to you, it’s not filled with a quarter. It’s filled with nails, and they are held in a nail scarred hand.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

Matthew 16:24

Salvation is a call to die. It’s a call to enter into the death of Christ so that you can be raised with Him a new creation. The old you put off, laid aside,  done away with, no more… for you were crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and raised with Him.

cross

In Colossians 3:4 we are taught that we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God. In Ephesians 2:6 we are taught that we, now alive in Christ, are seated with Christ in the heavenly places with Him. In Galatians 2:20 we are taught that we have been crucified with Christ and that we no longer live, but Christ lives in us, and the life that we live here and now in this present flesh is lived by faith in the Son of God. Salvation is not a quarter that we tuck in the pocket of our heart. Salvation is a glorious exchange.

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.

1 Corinthians 15:50-54

Salvation is kind of like the movie “Freaky Friday” when the mom and daughter exchange bodies. Remember how the mom woke up to discover that she was now living in the daughter’s body and the daughter awoke to discover that she was now living in the mom’s body? In the mind of God your life, your eternal beautiful life, is hidden with Christ in God seated with Him in the heavenlies and Christ is now in you, and your earthly body is now His, to be used by Him, through Him, and for Him to bring others to Him. You are not your own, you have been bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

This is the truth. This is being a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old you is dead and the new you is being renewed and conformed into the image of the Son of God by the Holy Spirit who now lives in you.  If Christ is in you, then you are in the process of being changed.

Remember how in the movie the hearts of the mother and daughter were changed? This crazy exchange of bodies allowed the mother to see things through the eyes of her daughter and her daughter was able to see things through the eyes of her mother and now because of this new knowledge and wisdom and revelation of truth, they were forever changed.

Beloved, Christ came so that you could finally see things through the eyes of God. Unlike “Freaky Friday” He didn’t need to see things from our perspective, He came to earth and put on flesh so that He could die for us, not so He could understand us. We, however, will never truly see or understand the mind of God unless we have come to Him and trusted Him enough to take the nails out of His nailed scarred hands and come to our own cross by way of His.

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

This is why if you have salvation you cannot lose is, it can’t be stuck away and hidden, it cannot be taken back, and it’s freely given but it indeed comes with a cost…  You can’t die, be buried, be raised, and be placed with Christ in God seated in the heavenlies and then be unseated, unraised, unburied, and undead to be dead in sin again. That’s where that little big word IF comes in…

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ… (Colossians 3:1)

Count the cost beloved. Jesus did and counted you worthy. Now will you do the same?

Is He worthy?

Is He, His life in you, worth the cross?

This cross will mean that you willingly choose to keep seeking Christ. It means that you are willing to die to every desire, thought, and deed that is contrary to the Word of God. It means you trust Him and His Word, not your own heart and not the words of mere man that change according to culture and personal benefit.

Is He valuable enough to you that you are willing to die daily to the old you until the day that death is swallowed up in victory and you are revealed in Him and with Him in and with glory?

Are you reading this as someone who counted the cost and said yes to the cross, but you are MISERABLE because you have let the old self be resurrected and your mind and others are telling you that God has forgotten you, that He won’t forgive you, that He never really knew you?

Hear me loud and clear…

IF you are presently living and walking in things that you know are wrong, that you know are contrary to the truth of the word of God, that you know Christ died to save you from, then beloved if you are miserable that is NOT God condemning… that is HIS MERCY calling you. He is calling out to you to come back to Him. There is only one reason that sin can make you uncomfortable and cause you to hate yourself and that is because IT IS NO LONGER YOUR NATURE! 

Christ is calling you to come, to come and repent, and let Him wash your feet…

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9