THE SECRET TO LIVING ABOVE THE AVERAGE

They saw it, the unveiling of the Lord’s glory on the mount of transfiguration!  Yes, Peter, James, and John were overwhelmed by what they privately viewed, and yet that was not the once-in-a-lifetime breakthrough; the process in their spiritual development was far from over.  Their hearts were not yet loyal to Him.  And that is clearly proven by the facts of Gethsemane when they slept as He prayed and by Golgotha when they “all forsook him and fled.”

We surely remember how Peter in the judgment hall events totally denied even knowing Christ, not once but three times.  What a total collapse of loyalty!  The record stands to testify how they gave way to panic and fear plus total self-interest after He was crucified.  And for all of us, I think, it is the same.  We tremble to think we would do the same had we been there with Him, for we too are faulty and fickle and we, at best, are not above representatives of the average Christian in this generation.

So, when did it all change for them?  It was after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit that the truth fully dawned on them and they became extraordinary witnesses of Christ.  Only then did faith fully form with a boldness they did not possess before.  Then the relationship blossomed into something special and supernatural.  Then they grasped the full implications of Calvary’s cross and its place in God’s purpose of redemption.

The hymn we once sang says, “on the green hill outside the city wall.”  There the “Savior died that we might be forgiven, and died to make us good.”  We must be gripped by the cross and the empty tomb to live above the average.  Without these, Christianity would be nothing beyond a call to be good and better.  It would be a frustrating call to obey Christ in our own strength, and to be left with only an example to follow.  It would be teachings on the principles of idealism to copy or emulate.  That is not Christianity!

We understand the cross and the resurrection in the light of the other.  Both give light to the other!  The Scriptures then come alive that “God was in Christ, reconciling the guilty world to himself, not reckoning men’s offenses against them …” (II Corinthians 5:19)  He, in love did the incredible as He took our guilt upon Himself, “became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).  This is the wonder of wonders—here is what God feels about man’s sin and how He suffers and loves and yearns over all who are guilty.  How can that not melt the hardest heart?  This vision of a holy God grieving, giving, suffering, dying.  Only the most blind and spiritually careless about sinfulness before God can turn their back on that.  “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and by a sacrifice for sin condemned sin in the flesh …” (Romans 8:3-4 Margin).  God, in holiness which is beyond human description, taking the sinners place, and yet, He did that for us.

So we come to the cross and embrace it and become one with Him in His death, and only when we do that shall we also be made one with Him in life anew.  It is a life of identification with Christ crucified which leads to renunciation of a sinful lifestyle.  We are “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and no longer live life to ourselves.  Only then does the resurrection become a full-blown reality.  “The Gospels cannot explain the Resurrection; it is the Resurrection which alone explains the Gospels,” said J. S. Whale.  It is the first and the last dominating element of the Christian faith.

If Christ had not risen, the cross had dreadful consequences, not just historically but personally.  It means death ends life and we are lost forever.  Jesus died and rose again, but Dr. Leon Morris explains, “The same power that brought Christ back from the dead is operative within those who are Christ’s.  The resurrection is an ongoing event.”

So, the next step is to remind ourselves that Calvary must be a daily personal experience.  Crucifixion must always be as real to us as it was to Him.  “… we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17, NIV)  So it’s told to the world by both the words of our lips and the wonder of our life.  Never was a greater task given to anyone with no greater barriers and with no greater blessings!  The privilege involves a sacrifice.  We must not avoid the difficulties nor shun the dangers.  Faithfulness in sharing Christ is the only way to learn the meaning of sharing His suffering.  “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.” (Colossians 1:24, NIV)

How can we keep a person from drowning and not get wet, or rescue a person from a burning car and not feel some heat, and save a soul from a helpless eternity and not place ourselves in front of the door that opens to hell? Notice, “the work of God” (John 9:3). Yes, it’s intended to be work!  Have we served watching the clock and been griping and begrudging that time is overtime with little added pay?  Have we forgotten Calvary and its expression of love for the unforgiven?

Those that reap a harvest seem to be those that voluntarily take upon themselves the heartbreak of the abused and the downtrodden.  To them the cross is more than a symbol atop a church or an ornament on a neck chain—it means precious blood spilled and the incredible agony of Christ.  That is transferred to us and to privations, persecution, and partings.  To borrow from Churchill, it meant “tears and toil, blood and sweat.”  Dr. R. G. Lee of Bellevue, Memphis, said in a sermon, “He drank our cup, can we drink His?  Can we resemble Him and not suffer?  Is it not an honor to have fellowship with Him in His suffering? … Would you have only ease, when He had only trouble?”

But always we keep together the two:  the ghastly crucifixion and the glorious resurrection.  The bloody suffering and the blessed reigning.  Paul did when he wrote to Timothy, “And if we think that our present service for him is hard, just remember that some day we are going to sit with him and rule with him …” (II Timothy 2:12, TLB)

Jesus himself tied the two together, “From then on Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly … that he would suffer … He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.” (Matthew 16:21, NLT)  How could they miss it, or, for that matter, how could we?  It is the two sides of the same coin.

To live above the average, we must see both the meaning of His vicarious death and the meaning of His resurrected life.  And we see that skillfully blended together by the theologian Charles Hodge, “The resurrection of Christ, as the evidence of His sacrifice of His death being accepted and the validity of all His claims, is a much more decisive proof of the certainty of all who trust in Him …”

But a point briefly needs to be made here.  We must think correctly; the cross is not a grim defeat and the resurrection a glorious victory.  Rather, it is this way:  the cross was a victory decisively won and the resurrection was a victory clearly demonstrated.  In the cross there is undeserved love shown like the world never knew, in the resurrection there is death conquered like the would never thought possible!  That is all summarized in Peter’s statement “You killed him, but God raised him”!  The human verdict, “Let’s crucify Him!” but God’s verdict, “I’ll raise Him.”  His body was raised, His tomb was empty, and death was defeated.

So then, because of the cross we are sure we have been forgiven by Christ, and because of the empty tomb we are sure those forgiven will live forever with Christ.  And with that truth alive within us, we have discovered the secret of living above the average.