February 25

This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us; — 2 Tim 2:11-12 BSB

To share in Christ’s crown, we must also share in His cross. Union with Him in suffering must come before union with Him in glory. The Holy Spirit makes this clear: “If we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified with Him.” We must be crucified to the flesh and the world, and the world to us, and this can only happen through a living union with our crucified Lord. This is why Paul could say, “I am crucified with Christ—yet I live; not I, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” And again, “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Paul’s personal experience of crucifixion with Christ made him preach the cross, not just as a means of salvation, but as a means of sanctification. Through the cross—through union and communion with the One who suffered upon it—there is a fountain opened for both sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). Blood and water gushed from Jesus’ side when pierced by the spear, as the old hymn says:

“This fountain so dear, he’ll freely impart;
Unlocked by the spear, it gushed from his heart,
With blood and with water; the first to atone,
To cleanse us the latter; the fountain’s but one.”

David said, “All my springs are in you,” and we can echo his words. All our springs—whether of pardon, peace, acceptance, justification, happiness, holiness, wisdom, strength, victory over the world, or mortification of sin—are found in a crucified Lord. Every fresh revival of hope, every prayer and praise, every gracious feeling and desire, every godly sorrow for sin—all flow from this life that is hidden with Christ in God. Christ crucified is, to those who are saved, the power of God. At the cross, we are made wise unto salvation, righteous by justification, sanctified by His Spirit, and redeemed from sin, Satan, death, and hell.