Ravenwood

BETA

 
 

Sanctification is realized in the believer by recognizing his identification with Christ in His death. Death is the permanent separation from God. Christ took our sin upon Himself those that accept this fact indeed share in his death. This is where the "rubber meets the road" in our daily activity of life. God does not expect us to experience death. We get a partial experience of separation from God which is why you have felt alone, and separate even though you were surrounded by friends and family. The feeling of separation from something bigger than ourselves is the driver God uses to draw us closer to him. It's reality forces us to long for that higher power, which is God.


His holiness is never lost though, and that separation must be bridged. To make the bridge He sent his Son to redeem us, through His death - death on a cross. In that death Christ took on our sin. Scripture foretold this before the event took place, "He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed."


In that death he went to face Satan himself and leave our sin on the floor of hell. Those that accept this are coves by his grace. That grace is the ultimate do over! It guarantees that no matter the sin we will be forgiven, "...because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."


His grace covers all sin, and while we may still mess up, his consistent sanctification is what holds as heirs of God. Of course, it is not license to sin, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.


While we identify with death, we know it has no effect on us through our identification with Christ's resurrection.


Next stop - Orient Heights



 

Identification-Death

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