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"We were buried with Him . . . that just as
Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of
life"
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white
funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment
of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive
dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a
resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this.
It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your
mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral
in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and
stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the
cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving,
but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans
6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul?
Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is
there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and
overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at
my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once
you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of
sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white
funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The
moment of agreement depends on you.
- Romans 6:4
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