This saying is trustworthy: If we died with him, we will also
live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny
him, he will also deny us. — 2 Tim 2:11-12
To be partakers of Christ’s crown, we must be partakers of Christ’s
cross. Union with him in suffering must precede union with him in
glory. This is the express testimony of the Holy Spirit:
“If so be that
we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” The flesh
and the world are to be crucified to us, and we to them; and this can
only be by virtue of a living union with a crucified Lord. This made the
Apostle say,
“I am crucified with Christ — nevertheless I live; yet not
I, but Christ lives 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.” And again,
“But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I
unto the world.”
An experimental knowledge of crucifixion with his
crucified Lord made Paul preach the cross, not only in its power to
save, but in its power to sanctify. Through the cross, that is, through
union and communion with him who suffered upon it, not only is there a
fountain opened for all sin, but for all uncleanness (Zech. 13:1). Blood
and water gushed from the side of Jesus when pierced by the Roman
spear.
This fountain so dear, he’ll freely impart;
Unlocked by the spear, it gushed from his heart,
With blood and with water; the first to atone,
To cleanse us the latter; the fountain’s but one.
“All
my springs are in you,” said the man after God’s own heart; and well
may we echo his words.
All our springs, not only of pardon and peace,
acceptance and justification, but of happiness and holiness, of wisdom
and strength, of victory over the world, of mortification of a body of
sin and death; of every fresh revival and renewal of hope and
confidence; of all prayer and praise; of every new budding forth of the
soul, as of Aaron’s rod, in blossom and fruit; of every gracious
feeling, spiritual desire, warm supplication, honest confession, melting
contrition, and godly sorrow for sin — all these springs from that life
which is hidden with Christ in God, are in a crucified Lord.
Thus Christ
crucified is,
“to them who are saved, the power of God.” And as he
“of
God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption,” at the cross alone can we be made wise unto salvation,
become righteous by a free justification, receive of his Spirit to make
us holy, and be redeemed and delivered by blood and power from sin,
Satan, death, and hell.
Selah.
— J. R. Miller
