23 lines
4.2 KiB
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23 lines
4.2 KiB
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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Day By Day By Grace — Bob Hoekstra</title>
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<div class="head">Day By Day By Grace</div>
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<div class="subhead">Bob Hoekstra</div>
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<div class="desc-center"><div class="pad2020">March 20</div></div>
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<h2>More on the Resurrection and Justification</h2>
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<div class="block"><i> [You were] buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being <b>dead</b> in your trespasses…He has <b>made alive</b> together <b>with Him</b>, having forgiven you all trespasses.</i> (<a onClick="return mV('Col',2,12,13);">Colossians 2:12-13</a>)</div>
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<p>These truth-packed verses unfold the role of the <b>resurrection</b> as we started out with God through <b>justification</b>, when He declared us righteous in Christ. In this initial work of the Lord on our behalf, we were <i>"<b>buried</b> with <b>Him</b> in <b>baptism</b>."</i> Here, baptism is referring to our <b>identification</b> with Christ. When we first believed on the Lord Jesus, we were joined to Him, made one with Him, identified with Him. <i>"We have been <b>united together</b> in the likeness of <b>His death</b>"</i> (<a onClick="return mV('Rom',6,5);">Romans 6:5</a>). From God's perspective, we who trusted in Jesus Christ died on the cross with Him and were buried in the tomb with Him. Water baptism bears testimony to this truth. Identification with Christ makes this our spiritual history before God. In God's sight, our old life was crucified and buried.</p>
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<p>Through faith in Christ and our identification with Him, we were also raised from the tomb with Jesus. <i>"<b>In which</b></i> [that is, <b>by identification</b>] <i>you also were <b>raised with Him</b> through <b>faith</b> in the working of God, who <b>raised Him</b> from the dead."</i> Just as His death became our death through identification, so also His resurrection became our resurrection. <i>"For if we have been <b>united together</b> in the likeness of <b>His death</b>, <b>certainly</b> we <b>also</b> shall be in the likeness of <b>His resurrection</b>"</i> (<a onClick="return mV('Rom',6,5);">Romans 6:5</a>). In God's sight, we were raised to a new life in Christ. <i>"Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism</i> [that is, <b>by identification</b>] <i>into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in <b>newness of life</b>"</i> (<a onClick="return mV('Rom',6,4);">Romans 6:4</a>).</p>
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<p><a onClick="return mV('Col',2,13);">Colossians 2:13</a> offers another aspect of our need for a personal spiritual resurrection. <i>"And <b>you</b>, being <b>dead</b> in your trespasses…He has <b>made alive</b> together <b>with Him</b>."</i> Before we were justified through faith in Christ, we were not only guilty and condemned, we were spiritually dead. We had no true life in us. We could not relate to God or interact with Him. For us to start out with God in justification, the Lord had to raise us with Christ from our spiritual deadness.</p>
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<div class="dbdbg_prayer">O Glorious Lord, what a good reminder this is of the desperate condition I was in when You justified me. I was not merely needy; I was spiritually dead. I thank You for burying that old life with Jesus in His tomb. I praise You for raising me with Christ to a new life. I rejoice in the radical nature of Your saving grace. Lord, by the power of the resurrection, lead me in the reality of newness of life, in Jesus' name, Amen.</div></div></div>
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<div class="desc-center"><div class="pad2020"><a href="./devotions/daybyday/03/0319.html">Yesterday's Reading</a>
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