The Reality of the Cross

Many believers have limited knowledge as to their identification in and with Christ. For most, the born again experience is the extent of their spiritual connection with the Savior, meaning that they have eternal life. (1 John 2:25) However, the Bible reveals some things that stagger the mind, because they are almost unbelievable. When the Apostle Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20) he meant that he had been judged, condemned, cast out, stripped naked, and nailed to the cross with Jesus. In other words, Paul literally identified himself with Christ in the disgrace and suffering of His crucifixion. Paul tells us, "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." (Romans 6:6) Our spirit, the real person that we are, that Paul refers to as the old man, which was spiritual dead, having the satanic nature, was nailed to the cross with Christ. This means Jesus identified with humanity in sin and suffering, and we identify with Him in His crucifixion. We were crucified with Christ! We were nailed to the cross with Christ!

In the Father's great plan of redemption, as soon as Christ was nailed to the cross, with His crown of thorns, and with the howling mob that surrounded Him, justice began to do its awful work behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. The people at the cross could only see Jesus in the physical realm hanging on the cross, but God saw the real man, His spirit. Angels and demons could also see His spirit, the real man, hidden within His body. Isaiah records for us the Father's plan, "Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses) and carried our sorrows (pains), yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:4-6) On that awful instrument of death, the cross, Jesus not only became sin with our sin, sick with our sicknesses, but He also became a curse. (Galatians 3:13)

Sin and sickness are both a spiritual condition that manifest in the physical body. They both come from the same source, Satan. As we see, Jesus was made sin. Therefore, because He took our sin we
need not be ruled by it ever again (Romans 6:14) Because He was made sick with our sickness, we need not be ruled by sickness and disease ever again. It was all nailed to the cross with Christ. When we recognize this, we will no longer struggle for faith, righteousness, and holiness, because we will
know that we were nailed to the cross and died with Christ. PTL...

The Holy Spirits revelation to Paul concerning this is an unveiling of what happened from the time that Jesus was made sin on the cross, until He sat down at the right hand of God. Jesus was our Substitute and we are to identify ourselves with Him in this truth. He poured out His life unto death.
Through that death we were made alive. It was our sin that slew Him and it is His righteousness that gives us life. He drank the cup of death, that we might drink the cup of life. In that mighty ministry before He arose from the dead, He destroyed death. In fact when death slew Him, it slew itself. The reality of Christ's death is, He conquered sin when He allowed it to overcome Him. He conquered sickness and disease when He let them take possession of Him for a most wonderful purpose, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Think about His wonderful, perfect work of redemption from the cross to the right hand of the Majesty on high. He became one with us in weakness, in sin, in disease, and spiritual death that He might make us one with Himself in righteousness, in perfect health, and fellowship with the Father. (John 17:20-26) He became death's prisoner in order to set us free. In the mind of Justice, we died to sin and its dominion when we died with Christ. The believer now has a perfect oneness with Christ (John 15:5) We have become New Creations in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17)  Therefore, sin, sickness and disease do not belong to the New Creation. It is an abnormal thing in the mind of the Father for a child of God to be sick and although many seem to carry the burden of sickness and disease, we simply need to remind ourselves, we died with Him; We died to the dominion of sin; We died to the dominion of sickness and disease; We died to the dominion of circumstances and habits. We must let 1 Peter 2:24 become a reality in our lives, "Jesus, Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed," because these things are so...