… you have been raised with Christ … — Colossians 3:1
Stop and think about our resurrected Lord. Is He depressed? Is He anxious? Is He intimidated by Pilate or Herod or Hitler or your boss or any bully you can think of? Is He cowering in the presence of the evil one? Is He a somber sourpuss? Does He sneak away to deaden His pain with a bottle of liquor? Is He struggling with impure thoughts? Does He eat too much? Does He look in the mirror and cringe?
I don’t know what your struggle is, but whatever it is, substitute it for the questions I am asking.
Now think about our resurrected Lord. How much energy does it take for Him to be happy? Is He trying His best to have fun? Is He struggling to maintain His peace? Is He gritting His teeth to muster the courage to face another day?
Don’t joy and peace and strength and courage and every other virtue that is good — don’t these things flow right out of the center of who He is? Aren’t these things automatic and inseparable from Him?
Our resurrected Lord is victorious. Nothing can or ever will defeat Him. Nothing can overcome Him. Nothing can challenge Him. My kids used to sing a song: "Jesus is the winna mon." He is triumphant.
Now we move on to you and me. How hard do we need to try to be victorious? If we already are (underline are) raised with Christ, why would we need to act (underline act) like we are raised with Christ? We don’t need to parody ourselves. We are victorious. We are the indestructible children of God.
The biggest part of Satan’s scheme is to hide from us our true identity. If He can make us believe that we are hopeless sinners instead of holy saints, then he will forever hold us to the treadmill of works righteousness, keeping from us the opportunity to do good works because we are already righteous in Christ.
Think it over.
Be encouraged!
Dwight
Dwight Clough is the author of four Christian books and is an active member of Lake City Church in Madison. This devotional is also available via email and you may review the archives back to 2002. To contact Dwight or Kim, use their contact form. You may also support their ministry.