On Good Friday and Easter you are not an onlooker.
You may be much more.
You may come along!

Second Adam⤒🔗

Jesus hung on the cross.
One Person.
And yet, God says that he saw me too.
With many others.

In him.

This truth goes deeper than we can comprehend. And yet, everyone who accepts Jesus,
may know that he is crucified with him (Rom. 6:6).

We did not feel anything of that. He carried the pain; we share in the result.
Crucified with him because God saw us in him.
Just as he saw us in Adam, in whom we fell.
Here is the second Adam, the last Adam.

Crucified With Him←⤒🔗

Crucified with him, how should I imagine that to be?
I do not know.
Very simply, I imagine that Jesus saw me, thought of me, and took me along in his heart.
Something like that.
For God wanted to condemn sin in my flesh (Rom. 8:3).
Therefore, I cannot remain just an onlooker. It is my life that was crucified.

Died With Him←⤒🔗

Whoever wants to follow Jesus is buried in baptism. Into the grave, with him (Rom. 6:4).
This is how an end is made to a sinful life. As radical as possible.
A great gift?

Are you coming along?

Jesus did not die for himself, but for all those who came along with him through death,
to the other side.
To the life that never again dies.

Raised With Him←⤒🔗

Where sin is, is death.
Those two always go hand in hand. They came home together, they go away together.
Now already.
The open tomb proves that the sins have been paid for.
Believing in Jesus is to be raised from the dead (Eph. 5:14).
It is discovering that his resurrection is your resurrection (Eph. 2:6).

Are you getting up?

This is the only way to celebrate Easter.
Not looking in the distance but getting up in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).

Placed in Heaven With Him←⤒🔗

Where sin and death reign, there is distance from God.
Those three always go hand in hand. They came home together, they go away together.
Now already.
Jesus, before his disciples’ eyes, ascended from earth to heaven.
He did not go back. As man, he went to heaven for the first time.
For him no distance anymore.

In his heart you come along.
God is still seeing you in him.

Do you want to be seen like this?

Then you are, though on earth, also with Jesus in heaven (Eph. 2:6).

Appearing With Him←⤒🔗

The glory of Jesus is great. To him belongs all the power in heaven and on earth.
One day, everyone will see his majesty (Phil. 2:9-11).
This glory he shares with his church (Eph. 1:22-23).
He is still our Adam. God sees us in him, as him.
That is the reason why your own life is still hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
A special situation: I do not see who I am, but I am there!
It is also a temporary situation, for we will appear with him (Col. 3:4, Rom. 8:23).
Easter also is to let yourself be lifted up and look far ahead.
Not to be glued to this existence but expecting that “Jesus will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
You may come along till the end.

Coming Along As a Way of Life←⤒🔗

These are some thoughts which one by one contain more than one can fathom.
In faith we embrace Christ and all his benefits.

Everything in him is also for us.

How is that life in him then? It is partly hidden, as he himself is not yet seen in his greatness.
We look forward longingly to his coming in glory. Then we will see him and also ourselves, in a way that we cannot yet comprehend.
But life is Christ is also partly public, already visible to everyone. Because he wants to be closely united with us, through his Spirit. We are still in his heart, and he is in our hearts.
Then you are dead to the power of sin, to live for God.
The old enemy cannot catch up with you, through death and resurrection no one can take you back.
You should also not want to go back.
Those longings do not fit anymore now, they are doomed to disappear.
Albeit that they are at times still very much alive, in your life there is a continuous dying.

Dying and getting up again become a daily reality.

Through the Spirit of Jesus, who gives us everything that we have in Jesus. Those are well-known words, perhaps somewhat abstract.
Then perhaps exchange them with coming along and doing the same, giving yourself to Jesus
and to what he is doing.

You also learn to think along as he does, whereby quite a different light falls on the people you meet and the situations in which you find yourself.
And do not be afraid, no one can take this life away from you.