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The Amish Voice 4

person who believes in Christ will never die, never taste or

experience death.

This is what is meant by the world’s being crucified to the

believer. The believer never has to go the way of the world,

that is, the way of sin, corruption, death, and judgment.

Jesus Christ died to deliver the believer from the world, all

its bondages including the bondage of death.

The Spirit of Jesus Christ (the Holy Spirit) lives within the

believer to give him the power to overcome the world in

all its corruptible attractions. Through the Spirit of God,

the believer has the power to conquer the lusts of the

flesh.

b. Second, the cross crucifies men (believers) to the world.

What does this mean? When the believer dies to the world,

he turns away from the attractions and pleasures of the

world; therefore, the believer becomes unattractive to the

world. Worldly men do not like what they see, for the

believer is rejecting the life-style and pleasures of the

world. Consequently, the worldly want nothing to do with

the believer. They want him out of their way. They want

him as non-existent, as a dead person to them. Therefore,

when a person comes to the cross of Christ, the cross

crucifies him to the world and its ways. He is no longer

attractive to the world.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with

him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that

henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom.6:6).

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet

not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I

now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of

God, who loved me, and gave himself for

me” (Ga.2:20).

2. The cross creates a new man. Nothing makes a person

acceptable to God except God’s very own Son, Jesus Christ.

No religion, no law, no ritual—nothing can avail anything

with God except Jesus Christ. Therefore, if any man wishes to

live with God, he has to

believe in Jesus Christ and approach

God in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now a very practical question arises: How does using the

name of Jesus Christ make a person live forever? Does a

person become acceptable to God by just approaching God

and saying, “God, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ”?

No! And there is one good reason. God knows who is really

sincere and who is not. God cannot be deceived.

Words and

false profession

—just using the words “in the name of Jesus

Christ”—will not save anyone. A person has to be genuinely

sincere. The point is this: when a person is sincere in his

belief, God gives the person a new spirit—a recreated spirit.

God actually places His divine nature, the presence of His own

Spirit, into the person’s life. The person is “born again”

spiritually. He becomes what Scripture calls a

new creature, a

new man.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new

creature: old things are passed away; behold, all

things are become new” (2 Co.5:17).

“Beloved, let us love one other: for love is of God;

and every one that loveth is born of God, and

knoweth God” (1 Jn.4:7).

3. The cross brings peace and mercy (v.16). Note who it is that

experiences peace and mercy: those who walk by the

rule of

the cross and of the new creature

. A person who walks after

the cross, seeking to live as a new creature in Christ Jesus will

be given…

the peace of God.

the mercy of God. He will experience both the

forgiveness of sins and the acceptance of God. And

most wonderfully, he will be given the

perfect

assurance

of eternal life and of God’s care.

Note that the church and believers are called “the Israel of

God.” This simply means that the church and believers are the

true Israel of God, the ones in whom God fulfills His

promises.

4. The cross gives purpose to the scars of life. Christ had

suffered for Paul; therefore, Paul was willing to suffer for

Christ. And suffer he did. He bore as much as any man has had

to bear for Christ. The word for marks means the branding

marks that masters put upon their slaves. The marks identified

the slaves as belonging to them.

The point is clear: Paul had subjected his body so much and

suffered so much persecution for Christ that his body bore the

marks of such subjection and suffering. He could say that the

marks upon his body were the branding marks of Christ—the

marks that proved his slavery and service to Christ. Therefore,

let no man deny his call and ministry for the Lord. He had

strong evidence that he was a true minister of the Lord Jesus:

the very marks upon his body. The cross of Jesus Christ drove

Paul to serve Christ, even to the point of suffering beyond

imagination.

APPLICATION:

The believer who suffers reproach, ridicule, mockery, and

other persecutions because of his stand for Christ bears the

marks of Christ in his body. Have you ever asked the

Why

question of God when...

you are made fun of because of your love for Jesus?

you lose a promotion at work because of your faith?