BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing English Emagazine April 2019 | Page 8

April 2019 | www.bymonline.org themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:14-15). *“To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living” (Rom 14:9). * “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” (Rom 6:8-12). page 8 To tell a sinning saint that no amount of sin can alter the perfect standing before God into which the blood of Christ brings us is not scriptural language. It sounds almost like, “Continue in sin because grace abounds.” The apostolic way of putting the point is that of 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins….” “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). That which cancels the curse provides the purity. The cross not only pardons, but it purifies. From it there gushes out the double fountain of peace and holiness. It heals, unites, strengthens, quickens, blesses. It is God's wing under which we are gathered, and “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psa 91:1). Taking up Our Cross But we have our cross to bear, and our whole life is to be a bearing of it. It is not Christ's cross that we are to carry. That is too heavy for us, and besides, it has been done once for all. But our cross remains and much of a Christian life consists in a true, honest, decided bearing of it. Not indeed to be nailed to it, but to take it up and carry it this is our calling. There is something peculiarly solemn about these passages. Both in tone and words they are very unlike the light speech which some indulge in when speaking of the Gospel and its forgiveness. This is the language of one who has in him the profound consciousness that severance from sin is one of the mightiest as well as the most blessed thing in the universe. He has learned how deliverance from condemnation may be found, and all legal claims against him met. But more than this, he has learned how the grasp of sin can be unclasped, how its serpent-folds can be unwound, how its impurities can be erased, how he can defy its wiles and defeat its strength how he can be holy! To each of us a cross is presented when we assume the name of Christ. Strange will it be if we refuse to bear it, counting it too heavy or too sharp, too much associated with reproach and hardship. The Lord's words are very uncompromising: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt 16:24). Our refusal to do this may contribute not a little to our ease and reputation here; but it will not add to the weight of the glory which the resurrection of the just shall bring to those who have confessed the Master, and borne His shame, and done His work in an evil world. This is to him one of the greatest and most gladdening of discoveries. Forgiveness itself is precious, chiefly as a step to holiness. How any one, after reading statements such as those of the apostle, can speak of sin or pardon or holiness without awe, seems difficult to understand. Or how any one can feel that the forgiveness which the believing man finds at the cross of Christ is a release from the obligation to live a holy life, is no less difficult to understand. With the taking up of the cross daily (Lk 9:23), our Lord connects the denial of self and the following of Him. He “pleased not Himself” (Rom 15:3); neither must we, for the servant is not above his master. He did not do His own will; neither must we, for the disciple is not above his Lord. If we endure no hardness, but are self-indulgent, self-sparing men, how shall we be followers of Him? If we grudge labor or sacrifice or time or money or our good name, are we remembering His example? If we shrink from the weight of the cross, or its sharpness or the roughness of the way along