Christ’s Death Is Our Guarantee

The death of Christ is a guarantee that every promise God has made is ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in New Creation life. This guarantee is a promise “right up to the end that you would be counted free from all sin and guilt.” (1 Corinthians 1:8). Because of the finished work of Christ on the cross two thousand years ago, we are now counted free and every moment we live until the day He returns we are held in the guarantee of the cross.

The foundation of the New Covenant is sealed with the blood of Jesus. When the bible speaks of the blood of Jesus, it is speaking of his death. Everything that was accomplished at the cross, was made possible by the shedding of his blood.

But more than this, much more, is the revelation that the blood of Jesus accomplished His resurrection.  The resurrection of Jesus was God’s universal endorsement that the obedience of Christ was fully absorbed and completely paid for, all the consequences of Adams sin. The point is that the resurrection proves that the death of Jesus paid everything in full. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then his death was a failure.  His death provided his guarantee that his resurrection would be our resurrection.

This is the absolute promise of today. God wants you and I to live our lives free from the consequences of sin and free from guilt. Guilt free living is God’s best for His people.  By God’s grace we are guaranteed to live a life of communion with his son. A co-partnership of fellowship with the son.  A guarantee that we are now blameless in Christ and much more than this, we are made holy by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

God’s guarantee is that he is forever faithful and He can be trusted to fulfil all his promises in our lives.  His guarantee is that his finished work is complete and therefore we are now complete in Christ Jesus.

Christ’s Death Sets Us Free.

The message of the New Creation planted into us, was declared by Jesus in a synagogue in Nazareth,  when he stood up and read from the book of Isaiah to the religious leaders, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor, He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind see, and that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favour has come.”

This is the revelation of the New Covenant. Christ has come to declare the healing restoration of God to his creation.  The free gift of the Lord’s favour.  A gift we receive, given by Christ to his great treasure. It was His death that would accept us into his family and would restore us.

Christ died to break every chain of oppression, captivity, and to release us from the prison of despair. Christ did not die to make it merely possible or give us a half-hearted answer. He died to bring freedom and to plant his passion into our hearts. For New Creation life is not a refurbishment of our old life but a complete transformation from old to new, darkness to light, from death to resurrection.

The New Covenant is an oath of freedom, a promise of eternal redemption purchased by the blood of Christ.  Our sinfulness, our fear, our captivity all died in the death of Jesus Christ.  In the death of Christ, was the death of everything that oppressed us. When we see the cross through the eyes of faith and trust, we simply find that everything is already done and the chains that had bound us are broken and grace overtakes us.

The end of our quest for wholeness is found in Christ, for Christ heals the deepest parts of our hearts, He opens our blind eyes to the magnificence of His finished work and He sets our hearts free to be filled with his majesty.

The death and resurrection of Christ ends our pursuit of freedom, for in our New Creation life we are eternally connected and set free in Christ to enjoy and delight in him forever. In Christ we are raised with him in His resurrection to live in the abundant life he promised and provided.

Nourish and Nurture Your Heart

When we look in the mirror, what we see before us, reflecting back is what most of us believe we are. Every day we are either busy with thoughts and fantasies and actions, or we are held captive by the constant distraction of digital devices, social media, television, the morning news. Every interaction whether positive or negative influences us, it is so powerful that it controls us.  

Our whole being, body, soul and spirit is caught up and entwined in our belief system. This belief system has the power to give us life or ultimately kill us. We call this belief system the heart and the heart is the conduit for the river of life.

Every interaction we have with creation – whether it be the bus driver or our family – and every transaction we make in the world – whether it be shopping for food or negotiating a contract – and every project we undertake – whether it be baking a cake or climbing a mountain – carries with it the sowing of seeds of belief or unbelief into our hearts.

We need to understand that even the tiniest word or seed creates a belief that can soften or harden your heart.

The fact is life is full of rich moments that make life worth living. It can be amazing and wonderful in its ability to connect with our hearts. There are days when our hearts are captivated by the experiences that enlighten our darkness and change the mundane into adventure. Those captured memories of precious moments where the richness of love and the closeness of acceptance are found in the value of those we treasure and love.

Today's fast living world does little to encourage us to embrace the experiences that surround us. Modern media sells us a dream of a perfect world where we can have anything we want providing we have the resources at our fingertips. And if we don't it sells us the tools to get that which is out of our reach. But deep down inside we know that the things that surround us don't really satisfy us.

For life in all its glory is found complete in the embrace of its designer. Every experience is a chance to connect with the God who formed the universe from nothing. As surely as the sun rises, the sun sets and as surely as the tide flows in, the tide flows out. The everlasting love of God is as relentless and as sure as the universe that we are placed into. And it is here that the mystery of God’s love shines into our world, for God who is complete does not need creation in order to experience love because he is love and every time we open up ourselves to the love of God we move into the now of time. And in the now of time the omniscience and omnipotence of the creator meets the compassion and goodness of the Father. But whenever we move away from the abundance of real love life clips our wings and dulls our shine. God's love was given to be shared. Shared from his heart of goodness. A manifesting in and to creation that we were created and birthed out of His good pleasure. And every moment is a now moment where his love is giving his goodness to us. 

God encourages us to nourish and nurture his love and his life in our hearts. To grow a rich harvest of life giving and life enhancing truth, for it is in knowing the truth that renews our minds and sets us free to know and experience the life of God in Christ Jesus. God's goodness is his story. His story is a work of total commitment, desire and passion. It is a story about you, about someone else, about the world, about life, about God and above all else it is a story of intimacy beyond our wildest imagination.