Daily Word

"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;"

(Philippians 3:10)

Paul speaks of the power of the cross and his longing to know Christ and "the power of his resurrection."

Both are saving, but with very different effects:

The power of the cross is destructive – the power of the resurrection is creative;

The cross is killing, the resurrection is birth-giving;

The cross breaks down, the resurrection builds up;

The cross is terrible – the work of the resurrection is glorious.

The cross reveals the terrible depth of betrayal, meanness, contempt and rebellious hatred that lies

hidden in a human heart. It is the crushing of all our hopes and illusions about ourselves.

The cross is God's great tragedy - there his heart is broken by our hardness, our mockery and contempt (Ps.69:19-21).

We must allow the reality of the cross to hit us before the power of the resurrection can transform us;

We cannot experience the wonder of the resurrection until we have tasted the terror of the cross;

No Easter delight without Good Friday despair.

What does this mean for us personally?

We cannot come to know the renewing and transforming power of Jesus' resurrection in depth, unless we have first experienced being united with Christ in His death.

And that is not possible without sharing His sufferings.

"It is not possible without pain to be thoroughly saved" writes the Swedish song-writer Emil Gustavsson in one of his hymns.

This means that all our illusions and false images of ourselves, all our pride and self-confidence must be crushed to crumbs.

How this will be realized for you personally, only the Lord knows. Each one has his own unique path to go to the cross to die to all that he is in himself and rise to a life where it is no longer "I, but Christ who lives in me."

The power of the cross and the power of the resurrection – we must personally come to know both!