Made Alive With Christ

MADE ALIVE WITH CHRIST

Text: Colossians 2:13 and 14

When we consider the forgiveness and mercy of the Lord, we know that God has certainly accomplished many great things in us. At one time, we all were living a miserable life in our sins. That’s when Jesus came and saved us. I have thought about that often this past week.

As we grow older in our Christian life, some of us loose sight of all that God has done for us. I have found that when (some) new believers first get saved, they can easily see the real meaning of forgiveness for their lives. A new believer will be confronted with the need to repent of their sins. But what happens next (in their new life in Christ) can be confusing.

It was Christ Who spoke to the church at Ephesus in Revelations 2:4,

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

What was Christ talking about?

What did Christ mean by saying this?

It is the same problem that many Christians still have today.

What can happen to a new believer is that they will sometimes grow older in the Lord, but don’t seem to mature in their understanding of the forgiveness of God.

They understand forgiveness when they first come to Christ, but later will “loose sight of all that God has done for them.”

The fact is if we “loose sight” and don’t live or grow in the forgiveness and mercy of the Lord, we tend to fill our spiritual lives up with works and religion.

Listen. Man is in desperate need of forgiveness every moment of everyday.

I am convinced that man somehow knows this. But if a new believer does not learn how to grow and how to live in the forgiveness of Christ, he/she will try to accomplish forgiveness on their own.

I have met many people (who have been a Christian for many years) who have tried to duplicate God’s forgiveness with their good works. This may seem to work for them for a while. Some people get comfortable in just doing lots of good things for the church they attend.

But eventually we all have to realize how much we need what Christ has done.

Our good works are simply not enough to save our souls. But the work that Christ has done for us on the cross is enough.

And that is why we must remind ourselves of what Jesus has accomplished in us and for us at the Cross of Calvary.

By reminding ourselves of this great sacrifice, we will be encouraged with what God has for us in the future.

God is not through with you, yet. He has a lot more that He wants from you…

When we think of the His sacrifice on the cross, we will also remind ourselves of how much power there is in prayer.

Jesus conquered it all on the cross for us.

Every situation, every crisis, every need (physical, emotional, or spiritual) has been resolved and reconciled at the cross. We haven’t anything to worry.

We really can count on Christ to meet all of our needs in the future.

All of this makes me love God more everyday. I can never repay Him for all that He has done. None of us can. What I can do is continue to thank Him daily.

My friend, verse 13 (in our text) tells us that God has done something that no one else could do. You and I were once “…dead in our trespasses…”

The New Living Translation says that we were “….dead because of our sins…”

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Christ has saved us from not only from our sins, but the death that sin causes.

Verse 13 of our text tells us we have been

“…made alive together with Christ…”

Our lives have been restored from the destruction of our sinful past.

Perhaps we become so busy with our duties (here at church) that we forget what Christ has done.

Verse 14 also tells us that Christ has erased (or cancelled out) the “handwriting” (the records) against us. Thanks be to Christ and His forgiveness, there isn’t any record of any of our wrongdoings.

Verse 14 says that Christ has taken all of records of our sins away and they have been nailed to the cross.

Do we sometimes become complacent about the Cross of Calvary when we keep thinking about what happened weeks, months or (even) years ago?

The fact is Christ wiped the record clean when He forgave us.

But the problem is we keep rethinking and reliving those old sins that happened years ago. We start all over again with the accusations, and the guilt, and the condemnations.