Hello and welcome back to week two of Restored, your first year jump start to your journey with Jesus. I'm Steve Blayer and I'm really glad that you made it to week two. I'm so grateful to God for whatever growth you've been experiencing in Christ. I hope that you have found a couple of people to walk with on this journey and that you're really glad to be with them. I know the Father in Heaven is rejoicing at the growth in your life and I look forward to helping you a little bit this week on your journey along. So let's talk today about all of what died on the cross with Christ.
When you came to Jesus Christ, you put your trust in the sacrifice that He made on the cross and that He paid a price that we could never pay and that because of that now you've been reconciled to God. That you and God are, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ and now your whole life when it comes to the Father in Heaven that God's not a scary person anymore. That God's now your Father. More on that in the weeks ahead because that might require more work than we imagine to learn really how to trust God. Today I want to talk about what else died with Jesus on that cross.
If Jesus took our place on the cross, I have really good news for you. It's even more deep than that. Jesus didn't just die for us, but we were actually in Christ on that cross when He died. And here's what I mean by that. This is a verse that Paul wrote to his friends in the church of Galatia, which was a region in Asia Minor. He wrote to when he was still alive and he said this, I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. In this life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Did you hear what he said there? I have been crucified with Christ. Now, Paul did not become a Christian until several years after Jesus died on the cross. So how could Paul have been crucified with Christ? Well, this is the act of faith that actually brought us into salvation. Being crucified with Christ means that the God who lives outside time and space was willing to say this one moment when the only begotten Son took on flesh, that that moment on the cross was going to open a portal, if you will, or open a gateway for anybody from before Christ until all the ages to come to say, count me in as being crucified on that cross with Jesus Christ.
We looked last week about being born again, remember? And being born again means that first something has to die. And that means everything to do with who we were. So let's take a look at all of what died on the cross with Jesus Christ, shall we? If you have a Bible, let's start. I'd like to start doing this with you. Have a Bible that you can open up and look at. And I know most of you probably pick up your phone and look at a Bible app, and that's all well and good.
But I do also want to encourage you and call me old school. But there's something about having a physical Bible that you can look at, get to know where all the books are, because it's an amazing piece of work. And like I said, we're going to spend a little while at some point. I'll teach you about the Bible, where to look for what in it, and so on. But 66 books written over a period of more than 2,000 years, it's an extraordinary work, and it's worth, I mean, most people have one, but get yourself a Bible and get familiar with it. Like I said, don't be afraid to look at the table of contents at first. 66 books, it's a long piece of work.
My Bible is more than 2,200 pages long, and it can take a while to really get to know where things are. So anyway, let's turn to the letter to the Colossians. This was also written by the Apostle Paul, and he described some things that happened on the cross. When Jesus was crucified. So this is Colossians, the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians, and I'll start in verse 12. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith, in the working of God who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.
Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. And when he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them, triumphing over them through that cross, or through him on that cross. So let's unpack this a little bit. Buried with him in baptism. We will next week look at baptism, and I will be urging you to be water baptized if you haven't already been. And what that is, it's a physical demonstration of us acknowledging that everything of what made me, me, all of the sin, all of the weights, the burdens and such, I'm willing to say that I agree with God. He's washing all of that away.
He's making all things new, which is what we looked at last week. I'm willing to say I agree with God that my life as it once was is going to be dead, buried, and gone, and we don't need to talk about it anymore. All that we need to discuss is what's this new life that lies in front of me. That's the good news, and that's what baptism is really all about. So we'll get into that next week. But it says that we were raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. That's this new life that we now, being born again, brand new life, clean slate.
And that's what he says here. Did you catch that? In verse 14, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us. That referred to the, in this place, the law, the law of Moses, which is the Old Testament. All of the rules that said you're guilty, how many, you know, if there's no law, if we're a completely lawless culture, meaning do whatever you want to do, then there's no violation of law, right? It's a pretty obvious point, I know, but if there's no rules to be broken, then you've not broken any rules. Adam and Eve lived in a garden.
There was only one rule they had, and they couldn't even handle that. But when we really figure out this whole life, I mean, you shouldn't murder anybody, you shouldn't lie, you shouldn't take other people's stuff, you should just, you know, only have sexual relations with one woman who's your wife, and all of these things that we, you know, depending what you did before you came to Christ, probably broke, I mean, I broke all the Ten Commandments before I was age 18. And to know that that certificate of debt itself was nailed to a cross. So the first thing that was nailed to a cross was this book of rules that says, every time you look at it, you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty, you're guilty. God said, I'm done with the rule book.
I'm no longer going to relate with you based on whether you keep or break my rules. I'm only going to relate with you based on your faith in Jesus Christ. So he put that on the cross, and Jesus crucified it, and it died with Christ. What does that mean for us on this side of the cross? It means that our whole relationship with God is no longer going to be based on whether we have a good day or a bad day. It's not going to be based on whether we keep all the rules. It's going to be based on whether we keep our face turned toward God at all times, and trust in Him, and Him alone, for our salvation, and for the new life that we have right now.
That's what got nailed to the cross. You've heard the expression, we've got a clean slate. We use that term. It's actually a term that comes from the taverns of England, as I understand it. And if you were a regular at the tavern, I used to be a regular, but I didn't frequent places that they called taverns, let's say. So they would have, you could keep a tab back in the old days, and the bartender would write on the chalkboard, you know, on a slate, what your debt was. So you could keep ordering drinks and so on, and you settled your tab with them.
Sometimes that night, or if they knew you, maybe you could go on for days or weeks or months. And then some people would accumulate so much of a debt that the bartender would have to say, I'm sorry, I can't serve you until you pay your debt. And when you paid your debt, they would wipe the slate, and now you have no more debt. So you could frequent the bar again. Let's take it and make it spiritual now. There used to be a debt that we had. Every time we broke the rules, it was like another strike on that slate.
And the cross was a wiping of the slate. So you get to start all over again. Now you might say, yeah, I've been in Christ for a month, and I already have a whole bunch of strikes on that slate. Welcome to the club. The good news is that because it's no longer, there's this thing that got canceled out on the cross. There's no more rule book. There's no more God weighing us day in and day out. You had a good day today, but you're really messed up this day. We'll really dig in on this in the weeks ahead, but we no longer relate with God based on that.
We relate with God based on Jesus Christ. Am I in Christ? Am I heading toward God? Am I living my life by faith, even though I still fail, even though I still sin? Am I living my life toward Christ? And if the answer is yes, you're doing great. That got nailed to the cross. It says that he disarmed the rulers and authorities. So those are the demonic authorities. The demonic authorities actually had influence in our life because we gave it to them. How do we give demonic authority influence in our life?
By opening the door for it, by doing things that we know we ought not to do. Literally gives the kingdom of darkness permission to mess with our lives. So a lot of the destruction that we bring upon ourselves, and it seems like, you know, we sow just a little bit and we reap a lot of harm from it, is because we've opened the door. Good news? He's disarmed them. They have no more power over you. What else was crucified on that cross with Christ? All of the rights that the kingdom of darkness has to mess with you.
They no longer have authority. There is no such thing as anything in heaven or on earth or inside the earth or under the earth that can make us do anything any longer. They don't have any authority any longer, except if we give it to them. So today understand, and this is for now, just understand this, that the power of the kingdom of darkness to mess with your life has been canceled out. This whole picture right here, imagine a parade in the days of old. Maybe you've seen some old movies about the Roman Empire. When they came back after conquering a territory, they would take the leaders, the kings, the generals, whoever they took as prisoners of war, and they would parade them right down the main street of Rome.
So all the crowds could come and see, look who we conquered, and they'd bring all the spoils of war with them. And they would walk through, and everybody could celebrate. The powers that they conquered were humiliated publicly. And what Jesus did, why did Jesus have to do it on a cross? Why did it have to be this shameful, horrific thing that he endured? Why did it have to be that way? So that those principalities and powers could be ashamed openly. When they would see that they crucified an innocent man, when they would see what they had done to the Lord of glory, that the King of heaven and earth had come, and instead of receiving him as the God that he was, they instead crucified him.
All of those were ashamed of themselves. And because of that now, they have no authority. The other thing in here, let's say he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Transgression simply means everything that we've done wrong. The things that we ought not to have done that we did anyway. All forgiven, slate wiped clean. That was all on the cross in Christ. So when we say, I have been crucified with Christ, what we're saying is that we, by faith, are putting all of what we once were on Christ, on that cross.
It relates to an ancient practice, sacrifices that were made in Israel. And one of the things that happened every day, and once a year on what was called the Day of Atonement, is you would lay your hands on a sacrifice. The priest would lay their hands on that sacrifice and would impart to that the guilt and the sin of whoever was making that sacrifice. And after doing so, that bull or that innocent lamb or whatever the sacrifice was would now carry and actually embody all of the sins of the person who imparted it to that innocent animal. And so in the ancient Hebrew language, let's say it was a goat that was being sacrificed, it would be referred to as the goat, the sin, or in other words, the sinful goat. All of my sin transferred onto that goat.
Now that's the embodiment of sin. The really good news in all of this is that our sins and everything that was evil about us now imparted into Jesus on that cross. He embodied it for us. We don't carry it any longer. Everything that you did before you came to Christ, it's already been crucified in Christ. The moments of weakness that are to come, the times that you'll fail and sin and fall short of the glory of God already on there. It's not as if God said, okay, this year that you get saved, I'm going to give you a pass for everything you did until then.
But now that you come to know me, everything you do from here on out, you're going to have to pay for that. That's a path to dead religion. That is not what this is all about. That was crucified in Christ. Our life in Christ is purely based on remaining in Him and staying faithful to Him alone. It has nothing to do with whether we had our Boy Scout good deed of the day kind of day or not. More on that in the future, but let's look and really receive something powerful.
Five or 600 years before Jesus went to a cross, the prophet Isaiah prophesied some things and it was as if God took him into the future and he was watching Jesus be crucified and could see spiritually what was happening to him while he was on that cross. And it's an amazing thing that he saw, so much so that there's some people that think that Isaiah, maybe some chapters were added into Isaiah after the cross of Jesus Christ, which is nonsense, but some people think that because it's so accurate. And in chapter 53 of the prophet Isaiah, that's about, it should be about halfway into your Bible. Isaiah is a big book, but if you can, look for the 53rd chapter and if you have time this week and you're looking for a chapter to kind of study and really get into, read and study this chapter.
That would be really tremendously helpful for you. I'm just going to read a couple of verses because he describes everything that Jesus carried when he was crucified on that cross. So Isaiah 53, two verses in particular describe everything that was in Christ on that cross. And I'd like you to just kind of take a moment, relax, let the Lord show you, like we need to experience this spiritually and not just in our minds because this is life-changing stuff. Because if we continue to walk with Jesus, but carry all of the things that he carried on the cross, we're going to be worn out because I could tell you now, now that your conscience has been awakened and your spirit's been renewed and awakened to God and his version of what holiness looks like, this can become overwhelming really fast. Or we can rest in the fact that the last words Jesus says, some of the last words Jesus said on the cross were, it is finished.
And I want to read you what the it is that was finished. All right? So verse 4 of Isaiah 53, Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried. We ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our peace or well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging, we are healed. What's amazing about this passage is pierced through for our transgression. How did Isaiah know that Jesus was going to be crucified?
They hadn't even invented crucifixion yet. And yet it's like he saw it in living color. So here are the things that Jesus crucified, our griefs. What in your life up until this point has brought you to the place where you felt like, I am so brokenhearted right now, I don't even know if I can carry on. I have been so deeply devastated by this loss of something I loved that I'm not sure life is worth living anymore. Maybe you got all the way deep into that place or maybe you just know what grief feels like. Good news.
Jesus carried this. I've said this at many a funeral that when tragedy comes our way, all of us will say something like, boy, I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy or man, I never imagined this day would come. This is how much Jesus is so amazing and how much he loves us. He chose this day. He set his face, the scripture says, like a rock toward Jerusalem and refused to turn back. And he chose a day where he would carry every grief-filled moment of your life. He carried on that cross.
And what we do when we come to the cross and when we come to Christ is we give that to him and we say, God, I need you to carry this for me. I can't do it any longer. Our griefs he bore. Our sorrows he carried. Sorrow, the difference between sorrow and grief here is that grief are things that just happened to us. Sorrows are the things where we do something and we reap what we sowed. And I've got really good news for you. Even the things in life that came because, you know, as we say, we made our bed, now we have to lie in it.
Even those things were carried on the cross. He knows our weakness. He knows our frailty. And he said, I'm going to have to carry that for you because for you to try to make up for that or for you to try to atone for that is going to be more than you could ever bear. So I'll carry it for you on that cross. Your sorrows are on that cross and Christ just picture them that way. God, you're carrying every mistake I ever made and I accept it by faith that you crucified that 2,000 years ago just so I could live free.
He was pierced through for our transgressions. That means every time we did something wrong, we did what we knew we should not do, that was carried on the cross and already the punishment's already there. It's like we go to a court appearing before the judge and we have this whole list of accusations against us and we are guilty as charged of every one of them but the judge says, I have really good news for you though. You're going to leave here today with time served and you might say, but I never served any time for what I did and the judge will say, somebody else already did it for you and you are free to go not as an innocent man but as a free man because somebody else was punished on your behalf. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Those are the things that are in us.
You know, you might not be somebody who always did wrong things but the only difference between somebody who does the evil thing and somebody who didn't do the evil thing many times is that the one who didn't do the evil thing would have done it if he had opportunity. I know for me, a lot of the things I did not do that I wanted to do, the only reason why I didn't do it was because I was afraid of getting caught and that's what iniquity is all about. I have a desire to do evil but either I'm afraid of the punishment that will come or I had no opportunity to do that thing. Iniquity refers to the desires of the heart that are for doing things that we know are wrong and living with that is a heavy burden. Good news, it's on the cross with Jesus Christ. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him.
So chastening is a punishment. What we do many times after we come to Christ and this is what religion does is we punish ourselves for our sins and it's like Jesus is on the cross saying, stop. I already did. Why do you think I did this horrible day that I did for you? Don't punish yourself. The punishment's already on me. You, saint of God, cannot be punished for what you do. Now, does that mean that you continue to sin? No. More on that next week. It doesn't mean that we say, well, I'll just sin so that God will forgive me and it doesn't matter any longer.
No, no, no. We died to all of those things because we were crucified with Christ. We died to all of those desires. How could we continue in them? And by his scourging, we are healed. When that scourge was taken to Jesus back, he wasn't just crucified, he was tortured before he went to that cross and his flesh was completely destroyed just for the sake so we could be healed. And that word healed means body. It means our mind. It means our soul. It means our heart. It means everything about what makes us us.
Body, mind, soul, and spirit, all of it can be made whole. And that's what the journey of discipleship really is all about. We are going to be made whole. Everything about us renewed and restored to the likeness and image of God himself as it was in the beginning. And that's why we call this discipleship series Restored. So I'd like to pray for you and leave you with one last thing. Romans 6 verse 11 says, Reckon yourselves dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ. Reckoning is a banker's term, actually.
You might remember reconciling your bank account back in the day before we did everything electronically, which I do now. I remember having a checkbook and every time I wrote a check or made a withdrawal from the bank, I would keep a register of all of the debts and all of the credits to that account. So when I made a deposit, that's a credit. When I withdraw from that bank account, it would go on the minus side. And we can view our good deeds and bad deeds like a bank account sometimes. And when I feel like, hey, I did the right thing today, I get some credit for that. So my bank account went up.
But now I messed up and I did something wrong. I said something wrong, did something, and now I have a debit or a withdrawal from my bank account. And God said, you know what? I want you to knock that off because in the end, you're never going to have a balanced account. You know, the challenge of balancing the checkbook is that we would get from the bank a statement every month and then you compare it to how you've been keeping track. And here's, if we try to live by rules and try to live our own self-righteous holy life, what happens is when we get the actual bank statement from heaven, which has a perfection standard that's unattainable, that's absolutely impossible, we compare it to how we've been keeping track and we realize, oh my goodness, I am so deep in debt, I don't think I'll ever get out. My bank account will never be in the black.
I'll be in the red for the rest of my life. And God said to do, I want you to reckon your account this way. We're not going to be doing that whole legal thing where you check the two columns like that. I want you to get rid of that and I want you to reckon when you balance the checking account of your heart and of your life. I want you to reckon yourself dead to sin. Do you still sin? Yeah. But I want you, when you look at your bank statement from me, it's going to be all of that sin has been put on the cross with Christ and you're dead to it.
It has no effect on you any longer. And as you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, he's the author and he's the perfecter of your faith. You can never do it without him. So let's not try. This week, as you dig in on your devotions, I pray that you'll encounter God in a profound way. But I want to pray for you right now. Lord Jesus, I pray that you will change the thinking of all of us, all of us who are watching this video and studying your word, that no longer will we view our lives as anything but dead and resurrected in Christ Jesus.
That all of the ways that we used to try to attain to righteousness will be out the window and everything that we do from this point forward will be by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself to us, for us. I pray that you would help us to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ and make us a people that are crucified with Christ. Unpack what that means to our inner man so that we'll never forget not only was a price paid for us but a price was paid as us and that we're in Christ on that cross, our old self, crucified, dead and gone and only the new self remains. Amen. God bless you. Enjoy your study this week and I'll see you again for week three. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.