CROSSING JORDAN

In the book of Exodus, we read how the Israelites escaped Pharoah's army by crossing the Red Sea on dry land. 

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.  Exodus 14:21-22

The book of Joshua tells us that they eventually crossed the Jordan River in like manner.

The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.  Joshua 3:17

The spiritual journey of a Christian can be seen in these two events which separate the three stages of one's life as a believer ... enslavement in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness, and the Promised Land. 

Crossing the Red Sea represents the divine act that brought salvation to a lost and dying world; the freedom from the penalty of sin through Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. No longer under the authority of the ruler of this world, we are ushered into the desert to begin our walk with God. 

The 'wilderness' is where the lessons of sanctification are brought to bear. 'Self' is the toughest weed that invades the garden of one's saved life. Just when we are sure it is dead it turns up again. We wrestle, we drift, we sin, we cry, we doubt, and ... we fear that our salvation is tenuous at best. But, God remains patient as He sees us through this period of inner conflict.

Once sanctification has reached a 'crisis point', the Jordan River comes into view. Crossing it represents the passing from one level of Christianity to another. It marks the end of the futility born of human effort ... and the beginning of a life entirely lived by faith alone. 

Jordan is that intense crisis of the soul in which we are forced to choose whether there shall be a 'once-for-all' abandonment of ourselves to the will of God, or whether we shall take what seems to be the easier way, that is, of continuing in the Christian life, but with a reservation in our love toward God. 

It is one thing to be brought out from the 'Egypt' of our unregenerate life. It is another thing altogether to bury all our self-born aims; to pass through to that higher life where no desires or purposes are tolerated but those of our blessed Lord Himself. - Baxter

On the other side of Jordan is where you can say with confidence ... I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

When you come to that river of decision, go ahead pilgrim ... cross over.