Becoming Christians, we are crucified with Christ, so to speak. As Paul describes it, the thing that is put to death is our “old self.” The “body of sin” is killed, resulting in the situation that we are no longer “enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6).
In the widest sense, the words “people of God” apply to every person created by God. But in the Scriptures, the phrase often refers to a subset of the human race: a group with a special relationship due to having been redeemed by God (Hebrews 4:8,9).
The Christian truly has “been brought from death to life” (Romans 6:13). And there is a wonderful irony in this. It was, after all, by dying that Jesus “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10).
As long as we believe that we’re doing all right — and that any remaining problems are within the power of science and psychology to solve — we will cut ourselves off from the highest of all joys: reconciliation with the God who created us.
I know of no part of the plan of salvation that is any harder than this. It is gut-wrenching. But look at the doors that are opened. Humbled, we are ready to come to the foot of Jesus’ cross and say, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).
However unlikely, implausible, or even impossible it may seem, the gospel story must be judged on the basis of the evidence. So if our sense of likelihood tells us that “nothing good can come out of Nazareth,” the gospel simply says, “Come and see.”
