New Wine for New Wineskins March 2020


Categories :

Raised From The Dead

1 Corinthians 15: 14, 17

14 …If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty…17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

If Christ is not risen, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. That is a radical statement. Listen to how the Amplified Bible expands on it.

Amplified

14 If Christ has not risen, then our preaching is in vain [it amounts to nothing] and your faith is devoid of truth and is fruitless (without effect, empty, imaginary, and unfounded)….17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is mere delusion [futile, fruitless], and you are still in your sins [under the control and penalty of sin]

There is a song that we have been singing for a number of years:

Here I am humbled by your Majesty
Covered by your grace so free
Here I am, knowing I’m a sinful man
Covered by the blood of the Lamb

Now I’ve found the greatest love of all is mine
Since you laid down your life
The greatest sacrifice


It is a great song – but I can’t sing the third and fourth lines of the song the way they are written.  Instead I sing:

Here I am, knowing I’m a righteous man
Delivered by the blood of the Lamb


If my sins are just covered then they are still there.  It is like putting new wallpaper on top of existing wallpaper – the old wallpaper is now covered but it is still there.  If you peel back the new wallpaper you will expose the old one underneath.  

The Old Covenant was based upon the principle of sacrifice as a covering for sin.  But in Hebrews chapters 8 – 10 we see that God has established a brand new covenant with better promises.  The New Covenant promises the removal of our sin.



Hebrews 8: 6 – 13; 9: 11 – 15, 23 – 26; 10: 11 – 18

6 But now He (Jesus) has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10  For this is  the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and  I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  11  None of them shall teach his neighbour, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the   LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins  and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away…….11 …Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, 14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance…….23  Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself…….11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13 from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. 15 But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 18 Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.


Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross brought together all of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant into one final all-sufficient sacrifice that provided more than just a mere covering of sin – it removed sin and its effects forever for those who believe.

Under the Old Covenant there was only one way to separate a person from sin once and for all – and that was to put them to death!  And that is how the Old Covenant was ended and New Covenant established when Jesus died our death.  But the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross makes no sense in and of itself if all it does is cover sin because the blood of bulls and goats was sufficient for that.  It is the resurrection that makes sense of the Cross – in fact resurrection is the ultimate purpose of the Cross.

Jesus’ death was sufficient to set us free from sin’s penalty but only his resurrection could set us free from sin’s power.  It has been the failure to move believers fully into a New Covenant understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection that has crippled our effectiveness in living the brand new life that was the purpose of the Cross.

Romans 6: 1 – 14

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How
shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

If Jesus was not raised from the dead then we are still in our sins with all of its negative effects of guilt, shame, condemnation, failure, sickness, oppression and poverty – but if he is raised from the dead then we are raised with him and we are completely set free from sin and everything that is attached to it!  Grace is not just a ‘cover-up’ – it is the supernatural empowerment and provision of God to live free from sin’s power and its effects.

2 Corinthians 5: 14 – 15, 17

14 …the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again…17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new – the old is gone and the new has come!

We have been set free!  We have been raised from the dead!

Ephesians 2: 1, 4 – 6

1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…….4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

We have freedom from sin, freedom from sickness, and freedom from oppression – but it is freedom with purpose.

We have been raised up with Jesus to be a continuation of his life, an amplification of his message, and an extension of his works.

We have been set free to love God, to love people, and to love life.

We have repented from dead works, which is everything we were involved in before we were born again – and now we are free to live by faith.  And so we can ask, “What now, Lord?”  “How do I get to know you better?” “How can I get involved in reaching the lost?

As long as Jesus’ disciples were still locked into doubt and unbelief concerning his resurrection they were paralysed by fear and confusion.  Even though they were “free” their freedom had no purpose!  When Jesus appeared to them he rebuked them for their hardness of heart and unbelief and restored purpose and direction to their lives!

Mark 16: 14 – 20

15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

I believe that part of our problem in failing to fulfil the Great Commission has been our continual focusing on Jesus’ death as a “covering” for our sins and our failure to believe in the power that his resurrection has brought us into.  We have been set free from sin so that we can live free from all of the guilt, shame, fear, etc that cripples our effectiveness in reaching out beyond the boundaries of our own lives, and we have been supernaturally empowered to live the life that God has purposed for us to live.

Colossians 2: 12 – 15

12 (You were) buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses … He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross – Amplified Bible)15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

We have been raised up into victory and we now have freedom with purpose.  This is not freedom to live any way we choose, but it is freedom to live the life we were created to live.

1. We have freedom to live for God.

Romans 8: 28

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Ephesians 1: 3 – 14

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

2. We have freedom to live for people.

Acts 26: 16 – 18

16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 I will deliver you from the Jewish  people, as well as from  the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

1 John 3: 8

8…For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

Matthew 10: 7 – 8

7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

Luke 4: 43

43 (Jesus) said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”

John 20: 21

21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

3. We have freedom to live life.

John 12: 26 – 28

26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. 27 “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

John 10: 10

10 …I have come that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it
overflows).

Jesus came to die our death on the Cross so that we could raised with him from the dead and live his life. We have been raised from the dead to live the same life that Jesus lived.

Someone said to me a while back that the reason that everyone doesn’t get healed is because the kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. One man described those who believe that healing has been provided for all as having “an over-realised eschatology.”  But we need to understand that the only part of us that awaits resurrection is our physical body.  And so, if we leave this earth suit behind before Jesus comes then it will either be raised up and reunited with our spirit at the Rapture when the dead in Christ will rise first, or we will be changed as we go out in the Rapture.  Until then, we have been given power over all the power of the enemy and have the authority to resist every manifestation of the curse in our physical bodies.

Romans 8: 11

11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

If Jesus is not risen, then our preaching is empty and our faith is also empty because faith only comes through hearing the truth of God’s word.  And if Christ is not risen, our faith is futile; we are still in our sins, still in our sickness, and still under the power and dominion of the kingdom of darkness – and so we are destined to live in defeat and failure.

But He is risen, and we are raised with him to live in victory.

Don’t be like a wall covered with a fresh layer of wallpaper, trying to cover up the old stuff underneath.  We don’t have to make do with trying to cover up our character defects when deliverance has already been provided.  We don’t have to be content with medication that covers up the symptoms of our sickness when healing has already been provided.  We don’t have to try and get by on government benefits that cover up our poverty when prosperity has already been provided.

We have been raised from the dead. That was the ultimate purpose of the cross.

We have been raised from the dead to live in freedom – freedom with purpose.

We are raised from the dead and we are free to love God, to love people, and to love life.

We are free to live for God, live for people, and to live and to enjoy life in all of its fullness.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *