April 18

Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. - ROMANS 6:3-4

I once sent the title of a message I was to give at a city-wide Good Friday service in North America as, ‘Welcome to Your own Funeral’. Meeting with a group of leaders prior to the service, one of them asked, ‘What is that all about?’. I asked him who died on Good Friday? He replied, ‘Jesus Christ’. I asked who else? ‘Two thieves’. Who else? The answer is, ‘You did, and I did’. It is one thing to say, ‘Christ died for me’, but a deeper thing to understand, ‘I died with Christ’. Our union with Christ means more than being a beneficiary of Christ’s death. In the legal counsels of heaven, I myself have died for my sin, its wages have been paid for me in full, albeit, in the person of a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our legal standing before God through being united with Christ is that I have died for my sin, its wages being paid in full!

Hence the New Testament speaks of our being united in his death as a past tense event: ‘… we have been united with him like this in his death (Romans 6:5), ‘… our old self was crucified with him (Romans 6:6) ‘… we died with Christ... (Romans 6:8) ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20).

Justification is a legal word that says justice has been satisfied, it is owed nothing more. The recipient is free from the demands of the law. This is the ground of our forgiveness and our standing with God. The apostle John takes this to the point, ‘In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him’ (1 John 4:17). Our confidence on the day of judgment has no relationship to our own ability or behaviour, but entirely to our placing our faith and trust in the finished work of Christ, and knowing we are united to Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. The wages of sin is death, and we have died. Its wages have been paid in full. But in a sinless substitute.

Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus that today I can celebrate in the knowledge that in your crucifixion and death, you have paid my debt in full. Halleluyah, it is finished!!

Reflect: Am I walking now by His grace and by His Spirit in the liberty that He gives me in Jesus?