I was reading a interview (or perhaps read a tweet) by someone recently and he posed the question in the title – what side of the cross do we live on? It got me thinking.

Before the cross we were a people bound to sin and the punishment that it deserved. Romans 6:23a tells us clearly “For the wages of sin is death.” However because of the sacrifice of Jesus who paid the penalty for our sin through dying a criminals death, after the cross we no longer are in debt of our sin. Romans 6:23b follows up by saying “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Those of us who follow Jesus should live the life of resurrection rooted in the understanding of the cross.

Too often we don’t live in the fullness of this truth.

There are some of us living on the other side of resurrection. We live in our sinfulness and depravity, feeling sorry for ourselves because we are a mess. I understand why. Western Christianity, certainly in my context, has reinforced this view many times over and when you couple this with the fact that I often feel myself tempted towards immoral choices, I can easily believe that I’m just a miserable sinner!

Then there are some of us living on the right side of resurrection but with no regard for the cross. We accept it but don’t respect it. We are happy to accept the forgiveness of our mess but because we know our forgiveness is assured we live recklessly and with no restraint knowing we are fine. Again, I understand why. The culture around us tells us that we are the masters of own destiny, that everything is permissible, and if God will forgive us anyway then why not do anything that we’d like?

The truth is, we once were just miserable sinners. We were lost in our sin, we had no hope, no chance of redemption. But the cross happened. Now we are no longer held accountable for the penalty of that sin, Jesus dealt with it.

Unfortunately sin is present around us and will always be until Jesus returns but we have a choice in the in-between with regards to what power sin has over us. The fact that we live on this side of the resurrection means that sin doesn’t have to have that power. God has defeated the enemy and through the Holy Spirit we have the same power that Jesus had to choose the Father and push against sin.

When we makes mistakes, God doesn’t cast us out and we then we have to live pre-resurrection, no, we are restored and forgiven. But the knowledge of what Jesus went through to buy that forgiveness means we no longer want to choose anything from that old life again.

Also, if we are living on this side of the resurrection then we should realise that Jesus’ victory doesn’t just save us but it empowers us alongside the Holy Spirit to take authority over evil in the world today. We can pray and trust that we are aligning with the desires of the Holy Spirit to bring wholeness to the world around us. When we pray for Gods breakthrough we aren’t praying like miserable sinners on the other side of the cross but as saved sons and daughters on the other side of the resurrection.

What side of the cross are we living on?