Great Joy

It really should be Easter (Resurrection) Sunday every day for born-again Christians.

Christ's finished work on the cross set regenerated believers free from the slavery to sin. Yet it's the kind of freedom that we have difficulty grasping, much less achieving, in practical terms, not for lack of self-discipline, of which there could never be adequately enough in these imperfect bodies, but for lack of faith, which arises from the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We are not only justified by grace through faith, we are sanctified by grace through faith.

Jesus sees what we do not see: His completed work in us. If we try to get there by our own energies, by our own desire to do good, even by our own zealousness (remember Peter and the rooster's crow), we will fail. On our own efforts, we may succeed to some degree, possibly more than the unregenerate, but we will still fail. We will know that we have failed. Like the young Moses before his first trip to the wilderness, we are given a heart for the Lord but still stubbornly strive to do His will by our own power. A defeated life, even for a saved life, results.

Victory for Christians is identification with the Risen Christ — His power and His glory forever. Paul writes that we are to live "with Christ" (Romans 6:8) and "by faith in the Son of God." (Galatians 2:20) By living in faith, we trust the Lord to bring us to that objective (sanctification), only in His time and in His way. It is by faith that His will transforms our day-to-day lives.

There is great joy in freedom.

withChrist.org provides many excellent resources for further study on the "identification truths." For a primer, read "Identification History."