The Big Picture of the Bible: Chapter 12 The Believer Must Die with Christ

12 THE BELIEVER MUST DIE WITH CHRIST. Having studied the death of Jesus as the Lamb of God and established the importance of His burial and resurrection. This portion of our study leaves us squarely into the realm of personal responsibility. Remember 1 Peter 2: 24, which speaks of what Jesus, has done and what we must do in response. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross” and He did so “that we might die to sin.” This is the primary purpose of the plan of redemption that I as a believer might die through and with Jesus Christ, so that His death might represent the death I deserve as a sinner, this the Spirit of God tells us is what is required in order to remove my sins, I must die to sin. It should come as no surprise then to find that Christians are consistently represented throughout the New Testament as those who, in the past, have died with Christ. 2 Timothy 2:11 is one such example, “It is a trustworthy statement,” the apostle Paul writes, “If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him.” Notice that the Christian is one who has died with Christ, not for Christ, or in Christ, or because of Christ, but with Christ. The believer must die with Christ, because that is the only way that the judicial price for sin can be paid… Continued by book author Kenneth W. Craig