VICTORY THROUGH THE CROSS

by:  Charles R. Solomon

The Line Diagram, which follows on the next page, forms the foundation for instruction in the crossing of the Jordan.  Just as there is a “Romans Road” over which to travel in crossing the Red Sea for salvation, there is also a “Romans Road”, primarily in Romans 6, for the crossing of the Jordan.  Of course, much hymnology muddies the waters of the Jordan by representing it as physical death and Canaan as heaven.  It is a picture of death—our death and resurrection with Christ, which is the portal or entrance into the victorious life or walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16).  As you read it and examine all of the scriptures referenced, I would ask you to pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal this truth to you in a way that you will understand so that you might end your Wilderness wandering and move into the Promised Land of peace and rest.  In so doing you can cease doing in order to be and begin being in order to do.



The Line Diagram shows the “life out of death” principle—God’s way of disposing of internal conflict.  The horizontal line represents eternal life, the life of Christ.  By definition, eternal indicates no beginning or end; it exceeds the boundaries of time.  Since Christ is God, He has always lived and always will.  His life is the “same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).  As portrayed at the left of the line, Christ “became flesh” (John 1:14) and lived in a human body for some 33 years.  Then, He was crucified, buried and raised from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3,4).  He continues to live today (Hebrews 7:25).  Note that eternal life is not only a present and future reality for the believer but also involves the eternal past.



Until we are born again (John 3:3), we are not in the life of Christ—eternal life—but we are in the spiritually dead life of Adam. One can readily see that if any one of our ancestors, represented by the dots on the diagonal line, had been missing, we also would be missing!  Physically speaking, our lives had beginning in Adam, so that whatever happened to him also happened to us.  When he sinned, we sinned.  When he died (spiritually), we died—just as we would have died in our great-grandfather if he had died before siring any children.  Thus, since spiritual death is separation from God, we were all born dead (spiritually).  We need forgiveness for our sins, but we also need life.  The Lord Jesus Christ came to give us both—by dying for our sins and by giving us His resurrection life (John 10:10).

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If you are a Christian, you already know this much.  What you may not yet know is the following:  For the believer, physical death is the gateway from life in the world and the presence of sin to life in Heaven and the presence of God.  Similarly, another type of death is the gateway from the sinful life of Adam into the eternal life of Christ.  When a person is “born again”, he, in the same instant, dies.  He is born into the life of Christ, but he simultaneously dies out of the life of Adam.  Christ comes into our lives when we believe in Him and are born again, but that is not all; we are also made “partakers” of His life—eternal life.  Romans 6:3 says we are not only baptized into Jesus Christ (His life) but also into His death.  We can’t occupy two opposite lives at the same time—the life of Adam and the life of Christ.