the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Romans 6:6. I am crucified with Christ. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14.
How many statements of the apostle are not readily repeated after him; yet these declarations are seldom heard; and more seldom are they uttered truthfully! The true Christian cannot skim over them as the butterfly skims over the flowers, without drawing honey from them. Yet here the best honey will be found. The cross, the crucified One, must be in us if we in truth believe in Him. When this Rock of Salvation is within us, all the billows of raging passion; all the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil, will break against it and lose their power. Do not let Christ, His cross and His merits, be to you the servant of sin. Let Christ be the destroyer of sin, who crushes the serpent’s head in your soul. When the world, and sin, and every evil inclination, is a cross to you, and you destroy it on the cross of Christ, then are you crucified with Christ; then you can truly glory in the cross of Christ. Thus only can you crucify sin, "the old man. " Without Christ and His cross all your endeavors are in vain and all your glorying but shame and injury.
Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
Thou, from hence, my soul shalt be:
Perish every fond ambition,
All I’ve sought, or hoped, or known;
Yet how rich is my condition!
God and heaven are still my own.
