“Buried
with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of
the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”-Colossians 2:12
Sometimes, in order to understand how something works it is
helpful to take it apart. By removing
the integral pieces, you begin to understand the purpose of those pieces and
how they function with one another as a whole.
The entire operation is the sum of many different parts.
We all have a birth date, and we all have a death date. The birth date most of us know, and the death
date none of us know. When we leave this
world, we leave behind this fragile flesh and venture out into the unknown. For my part, it wasn’t the preaching of God’s
love, or grace, or blessing that initially motivated me to seek God; it was
fear. The preacher told me that if I
died a sinner then I was bound for a sinner’s hell. That revelation motivated me to want to do
something about my sin. When I learned
that there was a sinless, spotless Christ who died on a cross, rose from the grave
and sent the Holy Spirit so that I could be free from sin; I believed, and when
I heard the good news, that faith in one Jesus Christ was my ticket out of sin;
this is really when two and two became four.
Holy Ghost conviction gripped my conscious, because I could not go on
living this awful life of sin, rejecting the salvation that Christ bled for. Jesus Christ died for me. When I saw my sins as God did and saw myself
a guilty sinner in need of a Savior I began praying “God forgive me.” The first miracle of grace is that a person
can kneel guilty but rise justified. It
was a wonderful feeling; it was so wonderful I thought “how could there be anything
more?” But there was more. Though my past sins were gone, there was
still the future to contend with. I knew
there would be ample opportunity to commit sin again, and I was afraid of what
would happen when temptation came. Those
close to me said “if you don’t get the Holy Spirit in your heart; the carnal nature
will overpower you and you will sin again.”
The stalk had been cut, but the root remained. You have got to get at sin from the root. In my option, herein lies the key to the whole
matter; death. Carnal sin is the “want-to”
sin, it is the driving force. At the
heart of carnal sin, is self. Your
selfish desires are the lifeblood of carnal sin. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, so they
took of the tree. The taproot of sin is
self. It is that self which must be destroyed. You must die so that Christ can live within. There are so many people who seek God for forgiveness,
and so few who seek for holiness. You
can be sorry and not saved. You can feel
forgiven, but not die. The twenty-four-hour
testimony is a common thing because it does not include your all on the
alter. The twenty-year testimony is an
un-common thing because it does include your all on the alter. If you die, if you give all, if you say God “whatever
it takes I want You!” He will raise you
up a new life. The second miracle is
that God can take a unholy man, out of his unholy sins, clean him up, cleanse
him entire, and sanctify him wholly. That
the same man who was once a habitation of devils, can now be a habitation of
God. He will sanctify you and you will
be holy. Holiness is the power needed to
destroy sinfulness. When God came into
my heart, the devil moved out. Now every
day is His day. The old man is dead, and
the new is Christ. This is what it means
to be a Christian.
To remove, any one part is to undermine the entire operation of
salvation. Salvation is not merit based,
like a diploma. It is faith based. You put your faith in the whole operation of God
through Jesus Christ. When you do, that
is what will save you. You don’t have to
understand it all, you just believe it all.
