Justification

All I can say, is that since spring break, I have begun to see a change in the way I see things in the Bible. Thanks to Gerald, my understanding of justification and the implications that go along with it have totally changed my view on God for the better. Just reading through Philippians I have seen things that I would have missed. Philippians 3:7-11, for instance says

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

In these few verses alone, I saw justification written all over them. "That I may gain Christ"...how? Through the power of his resurrection; specifically his resurrection from the dead. For the longest time, my view of Jesus was that he died for my sins on the cross. While that is an amazing thing, after talking with Gerald, he made me realize that Jesus' death on the cross really meant nothing without the resurrection from the dead. Having mastery over the earth and sin Jesus was raised and gave [to those of us who have trusted in him] a part of himself to us- which is the Holy Spirit who works and wills in us. Before I really knew what the resurrection meant to me I thought that because Jesus died, my sins were forgiven, but they were still a reality in my life... and that by believing that Jesus died for my sins, he took those sins on himself. But for me, it ended there. It ended without a new beginning, so to speak. However, this passage says itself that I too can be risen from the dead with Christ and therefore giving me new creation. With that new creation in Christ, I can now "become more like him" and that is an amazing thought.