(All scripture references are NASB and all references to “Law” are Torah (Mosaic law) unless otherwise noted. I usually capitalize “law”, only because I am using it as a proper noun, not as a special status.)
In honor of Easter, I'm going to pause one article in my study of agape and write about something near and dear to my heart.
The Missing Puzzle Piece
Do any of you do puzzles? I'm not a great puzzler, though I enjoy it from time to time.
We have a friend of our girls who is practically an adopted daughter and she loves puzzles. She is constantly puzzling.
So, though not a puzzler myself, I know from the many times I have heard an exclamation coming from the puzzling table that a lost puzzle piece is a devastating event.
Great lengths are gone to in order to find the missing piece. Not only is there the agony of unfinished business, depending on the missing piece, it could completely obscure the entire picture being worked.
A Missing Piece of the Gospel
Missing is probably a bit of a strong word, but it fits the analogy, and what I am referring to is certainly not emphasized greatly in my circles.
When I consider all the Easter sermons I have heard over the years, including recent ones, it is mostly absent from the discussion, at least from my experience.
Only when I have searched for like-minded preachers and teachers on the internet have I heard it emphasized.
I write this with great sadness in my heart.
There are many scripture passages that describe this missing piece of the gospel, but I will emphasize a few of my favorites.
The first two are passages in Colossians -
2:9-14 - “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over every ruler and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision performed without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
All I can really say is “Hallelujah”! And this passage demonstrates so much of the symbolism that came to be in Christ. If you ever wonder, 'Why circumcision?’
3:1-3 - “Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
And then, Romans 6:3-11 -
“Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
And finally, Galatians 2:19-21 -
“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
Christ's Death, Burial, and Resurrection are Useless unless We Follow Him There
I say this is rarely taught (and again, this is based on my experience, hopefully yours is different), yet it is brought up frequently.
Nearly every baptism service (at least in the “Baptist” based communities) quotes Romans as the person is baptized: Buried with Christ and then raised to newness of life.
Of course, this is what baptism is a picture of and a symbol for. Yet, again, seldom do I hear anyone going further and contemplating what this means. The concept is profound and its seeming absence as an emphasis is confounding.
While the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely amazing and essential for our redemption, it is utterly useless unless the the topic of this article happens.
Your death and resurrection is equally important for your salvation as Christ's death and resurrection is.
Seriously, unless our old self dies with Christ, is buried with Christ, and then our new self is raised with Christ, then the story of Easter is just a historical account. This is where the “rubber hits the road” for Christianity.
You can believe in the resurrection of Christ all you want, yet if you miss your own resurrection, then at a minimum your Christianity becomes a set of beliefs and behaviors, and this may dampen it's impact in your life.
I don't want to minimize how simple salvation is. You call on the name of the Lord to be saved. But as the author of Hebrews admonishes, let's not just stick with the elementary elements of the gospel. We must understand deeper in order to grow.
Whether this death, burial, and resurrection has never happened to you; or it has and you just haven't given it much thought, we need to contemplate our own death and resurrection in the same way we do Christ's.
The Cross is a Quarter of the Gospel
Some communities very nearly only emphasize a quarter of the gospel (or maybe 1/3rd to be generous).
There is much talk of the cross and Christ substituting and taking care of our sins. Yet, in many places, Paul emphasizes that without the resurrection, we cannot be saved.
Yet, Easter seems to be the only time the resurrection is emphasized. Without a living Christ, it is all pointless. Yes, the cross is essential and important, our sin was an obstacle of Christ being able to complete the work of redemption. But the cross did not save us.
Let me repeat that: the cross did not save us.
In Paul's great treatise on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, he says this in verse 17:
“and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
This is the “noun” version of sin - a person, place, or thing. This simply means you were never placed “into Christ” and taken out of Adam or sin. I believe this is plural because he is writing to multiple people.
The cross enacted your forgiveness: past, present, and future. But taking away your sin was not enough to save you. You needed more than just forgiveness.
As Andrew Farley likes to put it, crucifixion took you from a -10 to a 0; resurrection took you from a 0 to a 10. Forgiveness is the 0; life is the 10. All believers are a 10 on the righteousness (life) scale.
Not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ did to us.
If You Personally have not been Raised, then You are still IN your Sin.
I believe that one reason this doesn't get emphasized is that, at least in the spiritual communities I am familiar with, sin is a huge issue. It is constantly discussed and parsed.
I am not trying to minimize sin, it's wages are death. It is horrible and destructive.
Yet, when we make salvation all about sin, we miss the point. Thus, I can see why the cross is emphasized. If sin is the whole issue, then the remedy for sin becomes the whole issue. Yet, sin is not the whole issue, or even the main one.
The main issue is our spiritual death. Sin caused this, and thus plays a big role, but simply removing the sin issue doesn't bring us back to life! Something more needed to be done. Doing away with sin was only a part of Christ's mission because it was an obstacle to His main mission.
He very clearly states His main mission in John 10:10 - “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.”
Thus, He had to destroy the power of sin and the power of the Law, the “decrees against us” (See Colossians 2), yet this was done because they were both obstacles to His main mission: to give us life.
This mission of life is why the Law is such a failure. I will do an entire article on Galatians 3:21, but it applies here. Consider these words and the word 'impart' (not impute):
“Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? Far from it! For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.”
My personal opinion is there is something fleshly in this focus on sin. Some bent to be fascinated with the carnal, even in a negative sense. I cannot judge anyone's heart, but it just feels like there is something not quite right in that mindset.
At the same time, whether it should be emphasized as much as it seems to be, (especially for believers), our sin did need to be dealt with, and it was, once for all, on the cross.
So, if we are going to talk about sin, let's remind ourselves that we are free from it's power. Let's focus on Christ's powerful work, not our own failures. As I have written before, admit there is a problem, but focus on the solution more than the problem.
Life Comes from our Resurrection
The other way this gets de-emphasized is that our resurrection comes in two parts. At salvation, we are spiritually resurrected. At the return of Christ or our physical death, we are physically resurrected.
While both are emphasized in scripture, it seems that the spiritual resurrection is emphasized more. Which is rightly so, as without the spiritual resurrection, a physical resurrection would be pointless, and possibly harmful.
(God seems to indicate this in Genesis when He removes Adam and Eve from the garden because He did not want them to live forever physically in their spiritually dead state.)
Yet, I wonder if we sometimes overlook the spiritual resurrection in favor of the physical, and even interpret many of the spiritual resurrection passages through the lens of the physical?
The physical resurrection and the final kingdom is awesome and a great hope. But we are not there yet. Let's look forward to that, of course, but we should not miss out on the many great promises that we have already obtained through our spiritual resurrection.
The Four Pillars of the Gospel
There is so much to be dug out of all the scripture above. But, I am trying to be more succinct. I will probably not be able to hold myself back at some point and will go verse by verse.
But, please carefully read and consider the passages and their implications to your faith and walk. If you have done so in the past, may this encourage a review.
One other point is that the gospel means “good news”, and every bit of it is good. So, every part is good news, and thus the gospel. I do not want to lessen any of the goodness of any part of it. Every part is good.
But all the parts of it work cohesively to accomplish the work Christ intended.
In conclusion, I would like to emphasize what I consider to be the four pillars of the gospel as it applies now. (there are technically six pillars, and I will mention the last two at the end.)
Jesus’ Death on the Cross - as I mentioned, sin was an obstacle to Christ giving us life. He had to remove it “as far as the east is from the west.” As Romans 6 puts it, he broke the slavery of sin that was holding us.
Jesus’ Resurrection - we need a “living Christ” in order to make us alive in Him. A dead prophet is worthless for this purpose. Teaching and a belief system cannot make you alive (John 5:38-40). You must be joined to the living Christ.
Our Death in Christ - Our old spiritual self had to die and be buried with Christ. When Christ says “die to self”, this is what He means. It is a one time event at salvation. We take up our cross and follow Him to the cross to be crucified with Him.
Our Resurrection in Christ - we are then raised to newness of life spiritually. All of the other three had to occur first, but this is the goal Christ came to accomplish, as He Himself stated. We are made alive in Him. We become the 'new self'. Once this occurs, we no longer 'die to self', we live as the new self.
Christ's ascension and our eventual ascension are the other two pillars. We are “raised and seated” with Him spiritually now (Eph. 1:20 and 2:6) yet there is a culmination to all of this where we will see Him face to face.
I am not ignoring this, yet much teaching and literature has focused on this, so I want to focus on the more neglected truths. We have been resurrected now, and it is this fact that changes our life and walk.
Please ask God for wisdom to help you understand the profound implication that not only did Christ die, was buried, and rose again; you also, if you are a believer, have died, been buried, and raised again to newness of life.
Your death, burial, and resurrection are the final pieces of your current and ongoing salvation. It is not only Christ who experienced these things - because He did His work, when you put faith in Him, He brings you through them too.
This is how you became a new creation. And that, as Paul puts it, is all that matters.