A Christian is

Colossians 3:3-4

I wonder how many of you who are reading this would understand if I told you that Christians are dead people walking.  In fact, if you meet a person who claims the name of Christ and tells you that they have never died, they are either ignorant or not in Christ.  But the normal Christian, the Sunday morning only person, the one who has a Bible on the coffee table, but opens it only at church, they have little understanding of this death the apostle Paul is referring to.   “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Is our problem ignorance of whose we are, or have many who claim the name of Christ never been crucified with Christ?  Now if you are totally confused, we must begin at the beginning, Adam was made perfect, he had a pure heart before God, and he had a live spirit with God, in fact he walked with God.  That was before sin entered into Adam and the very moment sin entered into Adam he died spiritually.  If you and I looked at Adam with a natural eye he looked very much alive, but Adam knew what it was like in the garden with God before sin, and Adam knew that he no longer had a live spirit or a pure heart before God.

Now the story has a happy ending, for God so loved you that He sent His only Son in human form to live with us and show us an example of how a human with a pure heart before God could have a relationship and fellowship with our Creator.  But it required more than an example, it required someone to free us from the wrath of a holy God, whose holiness required justice for the penalty of sin. 

The Holy Spirit spoke these words to the apostle Paul and he recorded them for us; “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  The end of those things is death.  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23)  You may be asking how do I get this free gift?  That is the best question a person can ask God.

You and I showed up on planet earth with a dead spirit to God and we need help, and that help came in the form of a baby born to a virgin named Mary.  He took on flesh and dwelt among us, the gospel according to John is very helpful to one who is asking God how to receive this free gift, the gift that is required by God to have fellowship and a relationship with God.  To have a live spirit to God we need a redeemer and that was what Christ did for all of mankind on the cross.

Now with that information, this is what the Scripture has to say about anyone who by faith has entered into Christ.  “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)  At the moment you by faith ask Jesus for the free gift, you received His Spirit, you enter into His time line and you became an eternal being.  And what were you crucified to, the control of sin, and the wages of sin, which leads to death.   You have a new spirit living in your body, a relationship with God, not rules or requirements but fellowship, that is, if your life is hidden with Christ in God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice