Do we sometimes focus too much on the cross? Should we not emphasize the resurrection of Christ? I remember a classmate ask something along those lines back in high school. Back then I hadn't really thought about it much. However, one thing I have come to appreciated is that both elements of Christ's work are essential and both have significance to the Christian life.

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 16:24 ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom. 6:1-4 ESV)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Gal. 5:16-17 ESV)

The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ are more than simply church dogma; those who believe that Jesus died for their sin and rose from the dead are "baptized into his death" and also "walk in newness of life." It is difficult to express in words-written or spoken-all that this means for the life of the Christian. The best terms in which I can think to express this thought are the spiritual discipline of self-denial and, in Paul's language, "walking by the Spirit."

Self-denial might also be considered "walking by the cross." That is, the cross compels us to deny ourselves, putting to death our former selves with our selfish desires or "works of the flesh," which are "sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these." (Gal. 5:19 ESV) These are things for which Christ died to free us. Walking in that freedom means denying ourselves and "taking up our cross" as we follow Christ.

As Christ said, if we deny or "lose" ourselves (in light of the cross), we will find ourselves (in light of the resurrection). In self denial we experience the cross and lose our former, sinful selves. The resurrection is experienced when we "walk by the Spirit." Even as we die to ourselves through Christ's cross, we come to "walk in newness of life" in walking "by the Spirit." Here we find ourselves as we ought to be-to be like Christ. Day by day, "from one degree of glory to another" the Holy Spirit transforms us on the inside, so "we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." (2 Cor. 4:16 ESV) The fruit of this transformation is: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Gal. 5:22 ESV)

The cross and the resurrection are both at the very core of the Christian faith. If Christ did not die and rise from the dead then the Christian's faith is in vain and freedom is an illusion. Because he did, the cross and the resurrection must be at the very core of those who call Jesus Lord; they must be the heartbeat of the Christian through the discipline of self-denial and through walking by the Spirit.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Gal. 5:24-25 NIV)