Not a Pyramid

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Graeme Wilson in Freedom Fighters

Not a Pyramid

“If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:11

I’m not sure if they’re still around but I remember a scheme called Pyramids that people would try to invest in to make money. An unsustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment. I kept asking “what is it I buying into”?

 

This time of year as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus I am reminded of what it’s all about. Sometimes I find myself witnessing to people about Christ and telling them how great it is to be a Christian and “selling” the idea of belonging to God and going to Heaven which is good, but if we miss the resurrection we are missing the power of the Gospel.

The very fabric we are made of has to come out of the truth of the act of the ultimate sacrifice that created what we refer to as being justified by faith and receiving the righteousness of Christ.

I have seen to many Christians trying to live out the sanctification process without fully understanding the justification that the whole process is born out of. If we don’t grasp the meaning of the Resurrection and try to live out the process of sanctification we are in danger of being conformed into the image of Christianity instead of Christ.

Paul puts it plainly before us in the preceding verse,

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

 

Paul understood that the only way to “our resurrection” was thru the “power of His resurrection”. In other words it was explained to me this way, born once, die twice, born twice die once (you may need to read that again). That’s why he says “If, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

So you see we are not selling a pyramid here, But Christ, and Him Crucified. Paul tells us in 2^nd Corinthians 2, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony] of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

So let us be reminded and have what should be fueling the fire in us when we live out our faith, to quote Paul again “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). – Rob Russomano is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and serves full time at America’s Keswick. You can email him at rrussomano@americaskeswick.org

Daily Bible Reading: Proverbs 27-29; Hebrews 4

Think About This: We may easily be too big for God to use, but never too small. D.L. Moody

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Psalm 78:72