God raised us up with Christ. Ephesians 2:6 (NIV)
When Jesus was raised from the dead, He moved, walked, ate, and spoke. He met with His disciples, He forgave them, and He sent them out. “Raised up” speaks not only of new life, but also of new ability.
Becoming a Christian is a change of direction, but it is more than that. Suppose a man has a great ability to make money, and he uses it to make money for himself. Then he sees the needs of the world, and so he decides to deploy his ability to make money in a different way. For the next ten years he makes money for widows and orphans. That’s a change of direction. It is a wonderful change of direction, but it is using an ability that already existed and deploying it for a new purpose.
But when Paul says that we are “raised with Christ,” he is saying something different and far greater than that. Being raised with Christ means that you have strength and an ability to act that you did not have before. Sin is no longer your master. You no longer need to listen to or be pushed around by the sinful nature.
Take this in: When you became a Christian, God gave you His Holy Spirit. He made you alive to God, and now He lives in you. Charles Wesley captures this in his great hymn “And Can It Be.”
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound by sin and nature’s night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
[There’s the new life, but notice what happened next…]
My chains fell off, my heart was free.
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee!
Are you still living as though sin was your master? If so, why?
