Tozer Devotional

TOZER DEVOTIONAL

Devotions » Tozer Devotional

Wed, April 09, 2014

Because He is Alive We Can Live

This Easter season might be a good time to get our emphases corrected. Let us remember that weakness lies at the manger, death at the cross and power at the throne. Our Christ is not in a manger. Indeed, New Testament theology nowhere presents the Christ child as an object of saving faith. The gospel that stops at the manger is another gospel and no good news at all. The church that still gathers around the manger can only be weak and misty-eyed, mistaking sentimentality for the power of the Holy Spirit.

As there is now no babe in the manger at Bethlehem so there is no man on the cross at Jerusalem. To worship the babe in the manger or the man on the cross is to reverse the redemptive processes of God and turn the clock back on His eternal purposes. Let the church place its major emphasis upon the cross and there can be only pessimism, gloom and fruitless remorse. Let a sick man die hugging a crucifix and what have we there? Two dead men in a bed, neither of which can help the other.

The glory of the Christian faith is that the Christ who died for our sins rose again for our justification. We should joyfully remember His birth and gratefully muse on His dying, but the crown of all our hopes is with Him at the Father’s right hand.

Verse

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:25

Thought

Without the resurrection the manger is a sentimental pause and the cross a human tragedy. But the empty tomb points to the risen Christ. His resurrectiion gives meaning to the manger and the cross. Christ was raised to life and now lives for our justification.

Prayer

Because You live, Lord, I can live free from the penalty of sin and death. Because You live, I can live.