Let's Get Back to the Cross

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Yes, Charnock, it is wonderful! I will get the words I read in the book and post them here. Great stuff!

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Actually, our Father has trained everyone of us for clear-cut, explicit faith in this second aspect of Calvary: our individual identification with the Lord Jesus in His death to sin and rising onto resurrection ground. This training taught us thoroughly in the first realm: believing and appropriating the finished work of His dying for our sins-justification. Now wer'e asked just as definitely to believe and appropriate the further aspect: "Knowing this, that our old man crucified with him" (Rom. 6:6); "Likewise reckon also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God" (v. 11).

Our intelligent faith, standing on the facts of Calvary, gives the Holy Spirit freedom to bring that finished work into our daily lives. We stood on the fact His dying for our sins, and this act of faith allowed the Holy Spirit to give us our freedom from the penaty of sin-justification. Now, once we come to see the fact of the further aspect, we are urged in the Word to stand on the liberating truth of our dying with Christ in His death to sin, which allows the Holy Spirit to bring into our lives freedom from the pwer, the enslavement, of sin-progressive sancti..fication. And of course when we stand with Him in ory, we will be forever free from the presence of sin -- entirely sanctified and glorified.

"As our Substitute He went to the cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins; ads our Representattive, He took us with Him to the cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together


...

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my dis..ciple" (14:27). His reason for this is simple: Self can..not and will not follow Him, but taking up one's cross results in death to self and newness of life in Christ Jesus.

A disciple is one who is free from the old and free for the new. In other words, scriptural words: "dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God" (Rom. 6:11). And for this the Lord Jesus clearly states that each must take up his cross. Here is the ultimatum, so now to the "how."

But first, how not to take up one's cross: "Chris..tians need to understand that bearing the cross does not in the first place refer to the trials which we call crosses, but to the daily giving up of life, of dying to self, which must mark us as much as it did the Lord Jesus, which we need in times of prosperity almost more than adversity, and without which the fulness of the blessing of the cross cannot be disclosed to us" (Andrew Murray).

"May we cease to confuse the words 'a cross' with 'the cross.' Sometimes believers in self-pity bemoan themselves, and say, 'I have taken, or must take up my cross, and follow Jesus.' Would that we would lose sight of our 'cross' in His cross, then His cross be..comes our cross; His death, our death; His grave, our grave; His resurrection, our resurrection; His risen life, our newness of life." No, taking up our cross does not mean the stoical bearing of some heavy burden, hardship, illness, distasteful situation or relationship. Enduring anything of this nature is not bearing one's cross. Taking up the cross may or may not involve such things, but such things do not constitute our cross.

The believer's cross is the cross of Calvary, the one on which he was crucified with Christ (see Gal. 2:20). There the eternal emancipation proclamation was signed with the blood of the Lamb and sealed by the Spirit of God. Every believer is thereby freed from all bondage, but not every believer is aware of this liberating truth.

MILES STANFORD... PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH -- Formerly entitled THE GREEN LETTERS

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A deep burden of self and hunger to be like Him cause the function of the cross-crucifixion-to become attractive. The long devastating years of abject bondage make freedom in the Lord Jesus priceless - the cost becomes as nothing to us! We begin to share (think of it!) the at..titude of our Lord Jesus and of Paul. "For the joy that was set before him," the Lord Jesus "endured the cross" (Heb. 12:2). The attitude of the Apostle Paul became: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14). "Let this mind [attitude] be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).

Yes, we begin to glory in the cross, our very own freedom from all that enslaves, from all that would keep us from fellowship with our risen Lord. So we begin to take up our cross, our liberation, our per..sonal finisned work held in trust for us so long and patiently by the Holy Spirit. Talk about your trust funds!

And here is how we take up and bear our cross:

Finally prepared by our needs, aware that our bond..age was broken in Christ on Calvary, we definitely begin to rely on that finished work - we appropriate. Our attitude becomes: I gladly and willingly take, by faith in the facts, my finished work of emancipation that was established at Calvary; I reckon myself to be dead indeed to sin and alive to God in Christ. This is taking up one's cross. As we learn to do this, we be..gin to find these facts true in experience. The Holy Spirit brings that finished work of death and applies it to all of the old nature, which is thus held in the place of death - the death of Calvary. If and when we turn from the facts and begin to rely on anything or anyone else, including ourselves, self is released from the cross, as active and enslaving as ever. Through this process we are patiently taught to walk by faith, to maintain our attitude of reliance on the finished work of the cross.

Adolph Saphir wrote: "The narrow path, com..mencing with the cross- 'Ye have died with Christ' ..ending with the glory of the Lord Jesus, is the path on which the Lord draws near and walks with His disciples."

"'Christ liveth in me.' The Lord within lives as the sole source of life. The old 'I' has no contribution he can make to Christian life and service; he can never be harnessed to the purposes of God. Death is his decreed portion. There cannot be two masters in our lives. If the old 'I' is in active possession of us then Christ cannot be. But if we gladly take hold of the great fact of redemption - 'I have been crucified with Christ' - then Christ by His Spirit takes up the exercise of the function of life within us, and leads us as His bond-slaves (disciples), in the train of His tri..umph."

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There is a certain frame of mind we require in order to come to God in faith to see awesome results in our prayers and christian life. COME AS THOSE ALIVE FROM THE DEAD.

Rom 6:13.

Being alive from the dead is the state a believer has who has died, been buried and risen with Christ. Being alive from the dead implies we died and then came alive again. And having died is a powerful truth because we died TO SIN. We were not just saved and forgiven OF SINS but died TO SIN. Not many realize what DEATH TO SIN involves.

After we are forgiven OF SINS, we begin our new lives and soon realize there is a force in us called SIN that pushes us to commit sins that we will have to be forgiven of all over again. Gradually, the Lord wants us to realize the cross took care of the FORCE OF SIN as much as the ACTS OF SIN. We DIED TO SIN. That is a reference to the FORCE OF SIN, and not the acts.

God requires our faith in the fact that we died TO SIN so that he can supernaturally empower us to enjoy life above sin because we are alive from our deaths TO SIN!

[Amanah]

thank you Bro Blume, I'm reading thru this and it's great devotional reading.

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by Amanah

thank you Bro Blume, I'm reading thru this and it's great devotional reading.

Thanks for mentioning this. I never thought of these as devotional readings. lol Praise God!

[Amanah]

Originally Posted by mfblume

Thanks for mentioning this. I never thought of these as devotional readings. lol Praise God!

let just say that I've been reading these this morning and God is moving on my heart to pray and seek his face, so, that is what devotional readings are for.

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by Amanah

let just say that I've been reading these this morning and God is moving on my heart to pray and seek his face, so, that is what devotional readings are for.

Wonderful!

[Amanah]

bump

[TyronePalmer]

Originally Posted by Amanah

bump

A great thread to bump! And let me add a link to a great message by Derek Prince entitled "The Cross At The Center"

http://youtu.be/Bex1SXSyT6s