ALIVE IN CHRIST

Col. 2:13-15 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross. In this way God disarmed the evil rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross of Christ.

Without Christ, everyone is spiritually dead. We can never be good enough to get rid of our sins on our own. We can never do enough to cancel our sin debt to God. We can't do it, but God can, and He did.

God made us alive in Christ. What this means is that our sins are all forgiven. All means all. Every one of our sins are forgiven by Christ when we come to Him and sincerely repent of them. He did away with all the charges against us. He wipes the slate clean. We must know that every sin we commit is noted in heaven and held against us. Without Christ in us, we have nothing to stand between God and us. With Christ in us, we have His righteousness and holiness standing between us and God.

In Christ, God destroys the hold that sin has on us. Satan is rendered powerless to hold us captive to sin and its condemnation. We have the ability and desire to not sin when Christ lives in us. When we stumble and do sin, it's because of our failure to stand up and resist in Jesus' name, not His inability to help us. Satan cannot touch or harm those who are living and growing in Him.

The cross of Calvary stands always before us as a testimony that it is true. Our victory is in Christ alone. He totally disarmed all the forces of evil and stands before us as the way, truth and life of those seeking God.