The Cross of Jesus is the remedy for us. That sin may not reign in our mortal body, the old man is crucified with Christ. If we die with Christ, we will also live with Him. That is, if through faith we appropriate or enter into the death of Christ, the body of sin dies to sin. Sin will not reign over us. Through faith we are saved. And again, through faith, we are crucified with Him. We, who once wholeheartedly gave ourselves to sin, are redeemed from sin that we may become wholeheartedly the servants of righteousness. The result is that holiness becomes our portion. Then thereof is eternal life.

This is a mysterious experience, which becomes ours through faith. Have we found new life in Jesus Christ? Good. But have you been crucified with Jesus? Through our body we contact the world; the desires of the world enter our body. These lusts try to captivate our will and rule over the soul. There is no power on earth that can deliver from this servitude or slavery. Our spirit should be subject to the Holy Spirit who has quickened it. And our will should be under the control of the spirit. This transformation is called being born again. Everyone who is converted tries to bring his will under the authority of his spirit which is controlled by the Holy Spirit. Our will, which was a slave to the desires of this world, completely unites with the will of God when we are crucified with Christ. As we take hold of the Word of God in prayer, our inner being which is being taught by the Spirit of God bridles our will and leads it into God’s way.

This is what Jesus meant when He said that He would draw all men up to His Cross when He Himself was lifted up to the cross. He meant that He would draw men into His righteousness and His perfection. He would draw men into His love and His Holiness. Christ on the Cross is able to draw us. This is the heavenly magnet which attracts men who are fallen in sin to a higher life. It is a power that draws men into an unselfish life and a victorious life. As you look at the Cross, your defeats will disappear and will be replaced by victory. As you meditate on the Cross, your ugly and evil nature gives place to holy desires.

When you are thus lifted up, you’ll lift others also. He who is lifted up to be crucified with Christ becomes a powerful man to attract others. The Spiritual Magnetic field around him keeps growing. As you fill your heart abundantly with the Word of God, this inner part of you, which is able to hold your will in its grip, will be getting stronger. As your obedience to God’s Word increases, your power to attract others increases. If an ordinary strip of iron is stroked with a magnet, that piece of iron becomes a magnet too. As you look at the Cross, you are changed into a spiritual magnet. You’ll draw other plain pieces of iron towards you.

Rise with Christ

Those who are crucified with Christ become those who rise again with Him. There is no defeat to such people. When Jesus was crucified, He obtained complete victory over the world and was lifted above all the power of the enemy. Those who partake of His death and resurrection share in this authority. Please read the 6th chapter of Romans a hundred times and meditate over it. Appropriate the power in the death and resurrection of Jesus; with a body that is dead unto sin and a spirit that is alive unto God, in every place that the sole of your foot shall tread you will see victory.

O Christian, have you won your village for Jesus? If you are crucified and buried with Jesus, you will surely win your town for Christ. You will not be distracted by looking at others, but you will pray, gather a prayer group around you, and intercede until your town is won for Christ. Even if you be a lone man like Elijah, you’ll still win, or else if you work with a team like Nehemiah, you will win. The glory of Christ will be seen in every place which you tread. You will be a co-worker with Christ.

Miraculous fruit

Love, faith, humility, [and] holiness will spring out of you as of themselves. The fruit of the Spirit come[s] out of those who are crucified with Christ. You’ll see victory in your family. You will win back those children of yours who have strayed out of the way. While you are praying, the spiritual drawing power in you goes towards the lost and takes hold of them. It will take hold of your wife, it can take hold of your husband. When you were converted, the Lord gave you a pure heart and a clean conscience. In order to preserve and strengthen the pure heart and clean conscience, you need to be crucified. Paul speaks of this experience in Gal. 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”

Now you find your lot in pleasant places. A very precious inheritance becomes your own. You will fix your hope forever in the Cross of Christ. The Lord will be at your right hand. You will not be moved. Your spirit will rejoice in the Lord your Saviour. You will walk in the path of life. You will enjoy fulness of joy in Jesus. You will be full of the fruit of the Spirit. You will attract sinners to Christ.

“I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Jesus brings us riches in glory. When you come to Christ, you find yourself standing before an empty grave. In [Medina] you will find the grave of Muhammad. The great men of history are all in their graves. But Jesus’ grave does not hold Jesus. Jesus’ grave is empty. The glory of His life is the empty grave. His life was such that the grave could not hold Him.

We first go to that grave because we believe He died for us. Except for that death, you and I have no hope. He was holy but we are unholy. He took our place and died for us. With this faith, when we stand before the grave, a great grace comes and fills us. We are saved freely by grace.

Once we feared God and believed we would be blessed if we would obey His commands. Once we trembled. But now we wonder at His love and grace. Out of this grace comes a power that fills our hearts. “To be strengthened in the inner man by His Spirit.” You cannot understand how you are living a holy life. A power is moving you to live so. You should have died, but Jesus went into the grave in your stead. He released for you the riches in glory.

Ephesians 4:8 reads: “Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” He took captivity captive. What a wonderful statement. We were captives of Satan, but Jesus defeated Satan and released us.

When He took captivity captive, He gave gifts—such gifts as made people wonder and know for sure they were given by God, not by man. The priests could not speak anything when they saw the lame man leaping after he was healed in the name of Jesus by the disciples.

Let us go to the grave and believe. The riches in glory are released—a new nature. Jesus was in the centre of God’s will. Blessed is the man who will put himself in restraint to stay in God’s will always. He will enter into the abundance of the complete freedom of God. Are you murmuring to be in God’s will? Are you sorry that the will of God lays so many restrictions upon you? Are not these restrictions to draw out of you the great gifts within you put there by God?

Who is this person who is above all principality and power now? It was He who denied Himself to the uttermost to be in God’s will. If you also do that, you also will be lifted like that. If you happen to face a need, suddenly you will see this need met. A spirit of patience will come upon you. A spirit of meekness and love will enter you. These are riches in glory. What greater riches can there be?

Those who come to the grave and believe and praise God will see the riches of God opened to them—yea, all the fullness of God. Many people do not receive these riches because they do not believe. When you are filled with the unlimited love of God, the whole earth is yours. All men will come to you. When they see the selflessness of Christ and the self-denial of Christ in you and the willingness in you to die for truth and righteousness, the world will come to you. The world wants to see a woman filled with riches of glory and a man who has measured the depth of God’s love.

There is a great freedom in God’s will. Many missionaries have seen incredible miracles when they faced severe times of trial. The One who rose from the dead will never leave you. You cannot even imagine or think of what God has for you. It will be according to that power. That power is working in you. God’s plan will be revealed to you. According to your need, gifts will be given to you, and these gifts will help you to fulfil His will.

As you look and look into that grave believing Christ died for you, more and more riches will come out of it to YOU!

If you have ever taken money dishonestly, you need not pray God to forgive and fill you with the Holy Spirit until you make restitution. If you have not got the money now to pay back, will to do it, and God accepts the willing mind. Many people are kept in darkness and unrest because they fail to obey God on this point. If the plough has gone deep, if the repentance is true, it will bring forth fruit. What use is there in my coming to God until I am willing, like Zacchaeus, to make it good, if I have done any person wrong or have taken anything falsely? Confession and restitution are the steps that lead up to forgiveness.

There was a friend of mine who had come to Christ and was trying to consecrate himself and his wealth to God. He had formerly had transactions with the government, and had taken advantage of them. This came to memory, and his conscience troubled him. At last he drew a cheque for the amount he had underpaid and sent it to the Treasury of the government. He told me he received great blessing after he had done it. That is bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. I believe a great many men are crying to God for light; and many are not getting it because they are not honest. …

When I was in Canada, a man told me that when he was a boy a man gave him by mistake a piece of money that was called in Canada a “ten shilling” piece. It was just about the size of a quarter of a dollar, and it was gold. Instead of giving the boy a silver shilling, as intended, the man gave him a gold ten shilling piece by mistake, and the boy kept it. The next day the man came back to the boy and said, “When I made change with you yesterday, didn’t I give you a ten shilling piece instead of a one shilling piece?” The boy lied, “No, sir, you did not.”

For forty-three years that man had that lie on his conscience. At last the Spirit of God got hold of him and he became a Christian. He no longer knew where to find the man so he just figured up to interest and handed principal and interest to an orphanage. So he got if off his conscience at last. If you have anything on your conscience, straighten it out at once. If your mind goes back to some transaction with your neighbour in which you cheated him, pay back every dollar at once.

—D. L. Moody

In a neighbourhood of late eighteenth-century Malden, Massachusetts (North America), a precocious little four-year-old used to gather together the children. The reason was to play church, he officiating as minister. His favourite hymn, even then, was: “Go preach my Gospel [good news], saith the Lord.” In later years, the young boy would follow this command of Jesus Christ to go into the world and preach the Gospel—but not before he had seen the “dark side” of the world without God.

Death on the dark side

Born in 1788, Adoniram Judson grew up in a Christian home. It was later noted that “he could truly have said with St. Augustine, ‘This name of my Saviour, Thy Son, had my tender heart … devoutly drunk in, and deeply cherished; and whatsoever was without that name, though never so learned, polished, or true, took not entire hold of me.’” In 1804, he entered Providence College (later Brown University) a year early.

One day while still a teenager, Adoniram was reflecting on religious pursuits. He thought of the humble Gospel minister, working only to please God and benefit his fellow-men. The latter would have a fame that triumphed over the grave, sounding before him as he entered the other world. Suddenly the words flashed across his mind: “Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be the glory.” Adoniram had stepped on dangerous ground and was startled by a flood of feelings. He was afraid to look into his heart lest he should discover that he did not want to become a Christian. He was resolved to be a great man.

During his college course, Adoniram developed a strong and influential friendship with a young man, Jacob Eames, a free-thinker engaged in questionable amusements. Soon he seemed to be as great an unbeliever as his friend. His father severely condemned Adoniram upon learning of his sentiments. His mother wept and warned him; this followed him wherever he went as he toured part of North America. He knew that he was on the verge of the kind of life that he despised. However, “I am in no danger,” he thought to himself. “I am only seeing the world—the dark side of it, as well as the bright; and I have too much self-respect to do anything mean or vicious.”

During the course of the tour, Adoniram spent a night at a country inn. The landlord mentioned that he had had to place him next door to a young man who was exceedingly ill, probably in a dying state, but he hoped that it would give him no uneasiness. Judson assured him that, beyond pity for the poor sick man, he would have no feeling whatsoever, and that his pity would not be increased by how close he was.

But it was a very restless night. Adoniram thought of what the landlord had said: the stranger was probably in a dying state. And was he prepared? Alone, and in the dead of night, he felt ashamed at the question; it proved the shallowness of his philosophy. What would the intellectual, witty Eames say to such boyishness? But still his thoughts turned to the sick man. Was he a Christian, calm and strong in the hope of a glorious immortality, or was he shuddering upon the brink of a dark, unknown future? Perhaps he was a “free-thinker”, educated by Christian parents and prayed over by a Christian mother. In imagination, Adoniram was forced to place himself upon the dying bed, though he vigorously tried to avoid it.

At last morning came and Adoniram went in search of the landlord. He asked about his fellow-lodger. “He is dead,” came the reply. “Dead!” “Yes, he is gone, poor fellow! The doctor said he would probably not survive the night.” “Do you know who he was?” “Oh, yes; it was a young man from Providence College—a very fine fellow; his name was Eames.”

Judson was stunned—it was his former friend! After some hours, he tried to continue his journey. But one thought occupied his mind, and the words “Dead! Lost! Lost!” kept ringing in his ears. He knew the religion of the Bible to be true, he felt its truth, and he was in despair. He decided to abandon his travel plans and at once turned towards Plymouth. Later that year he entered Andover Seminary and on 2 December 1808 made a solemn dedication of himself to God.

Death to self: Jesus Christ’s man

In September 1809, young Judson began to think about the topic of foreign missions, going abroad to tell others about Jesus Christ. A sermon on the evidences of the divine power of Christianity in the East produced a powerful effect on his mind. During a lone walk in the woods, while meditating and praying on the subject, and feeling half inclined to give it up, the command of Christ—“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature”—was presented to his mind with such clearness and power that he resolved to obey the command.

In 1810, Judson and others presented themselves for missionary service in the East. Later he wrote to the father of a young lady with whom he had fallen in love. Having outlined the sufferings that might befall her, he asked: “Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?” The father of this young lady, Ann, allowed her to make up her own mind. She determined to “go where God, in His Providence, shall see fit to place me.”

In 1813, the couple arrived in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). They were to suffer greatly. He was imprisoned in 1824, and his wife sacrificed to care for him, dying eleven months after his release. Their baby daughter followed. Utter spiritual desolation overcame Adoniram—the man who had laboured to learn the Burmese language, produce a dictionary, translate the Bible, and win souls for Christ. Yet news of his brother’s death in 1829 helped Adoniram to climb out of the darkness as he had reason to believe that his brother had died in faith. In 1831, an outpouring of spiritual interest in Burma could be discerned. Thousands were inquiring. “Are you Jesus Christ’s man? Give us a writing that tells us about Jesus Christ.”

“How few there are who die so hard!”

Adoniram went on the last voyage that he would ever make in 1850. He died on 12 April, his coffin cast into the sea. One of his last sentences was: “How few there are who… who die so hard!” His life on earth was finished. And with his suffering and sacrifice—sufferings far more than those noted above—Christ had drawn many Burmese to Himself.

—See E. C. Judson, Adoniram Judson, D. D.: his life and labours and John Piper, Adoniram Judson: how few there are who die so hard!