The Revolutionary Gospel
Christ Lives in Me
August 22, 2021
What’s the most miraculous event in your life?
Has your life ever been completely changed and turned upside down?
Acts 9 tells us the story of Paul’s radical conversion on the road to Damascus. He was baptized by Ananias and began to preach.
Galatians 2:20 NIV
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.
Christ was crucified because the plight of humankind was deeper and darker than anyone had imagined.
Romans 6:3-4 NIV
“Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
We get to participate in his death and resurrection – so we too may live a new life!
Jesus surrendered himself to death on the cross. We surrender ourselves to death in baptism.
Salvation is a total surrender to a God we choose to trust.
The history of the Easter Vigil – Sundown on Holy Saturday, with candles lit, people would be baptized as a sign that they, too, were participating with Christ in his resurrection!
Baptism is our outward protest of sin’s attempt to win an inward war.
Christ lives in me.
Romans 8:11 NIV
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from a borrowed tomb is now with us!
From the opening passages of Scripture, the Holy Spirit is identified as the person of the Godhead most responsible for bringing life to places, people and situations that are formless empty and dark.
Genesis 1:2 NIV
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
Genesis 2:7 NIV
“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
John 20:22 NIV
“And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
- Albert Schweitzer, missionary, and pioneer doctor to Africa
When life is empty, superficial, or dark, the Holy Spirit has the power to bring us life.
