As I reminisced on my past as a young believer in Jesus Christ, I vividly remember the first time I came across this passage of Scripture, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. I was flabbergasted and intrigued about the possibility to live in a earthly body and yet live a crucified life in Christ? As the years went by and as the Lord continued to reveal to me the importance of a crucified life in him, and after thirty years of being a Christian I am just starting to understand the importance of the CRUCIFIED LIFE.
With proper teachings in the Word of God, a Christian will soon discover that the key to victory over sin is accomplished when he begins to identify himself with the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our victory over sin depends totally on our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Take the time someday to sit by yourself in a quiet place with God and ask Him to reveal to you what He inspired the Apostle Paul to write in Romans chapters 5 and 6. Because, since we are crucified with Christ, God has given us the ability to spiritually put our old nature to death, "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace." Romans 6:14. Jesus did not give us a license to sin but a license to have victory over sins.
But a CRUCIFIED LIFE demands a life of holiness and righteousness. There are no selfish motives in a Born Crucified Life. It is impossible to live a Crucified Life without the help of the Holy Spirit in our life. Your brain will be consumed with the demands of the commandments of God, which is an impossibility to follow on our own, because they are contrary to our human nature's demands. God requires things from us that are impossible to accomplish in the natural realm without His help. For example the Crucified Life demands that we love our enemy. This is not a natural thing to do; you need Christ and His Holy Spirit to be able to carry this to fruition. We are supposed to rejoice in the Lord when we are persecuted, but only a Crucified Life with Christ can understand that.
But a CRUCIFIED LIFE demands a life of holiness and righteousness. There are no selfish motives in a Born Crucified Life. It is impossible to live a Crucified Life without the help of the Holy Spirit in our life. Your brain will be consumed with the demands of the commandments of God, which is an impossibility to follow on our own, because they are contrary to our human nature's demands. God requires things from us that are impossible to accomplish in the natural realm without His help. For example the Crucified Life demands that we love our enemy. This is not a natural thing to do; you need Christ and His Holy Spirit to be able to carry this to fruition. We are supposed to rejoice in the Lord when we are persecuted, but only a Crucified Life with Christ can understand that.
According to Galatians 2:20, it is Jesus who actually lives in us. Jesus the King of glory took residence in my body and is constantly working on me from the inside out. He is presently chiseling everything that does not resemble Him. The only thing we are required to do is allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and let God work in us for the purpose of reflecting Christ in our life. If you allow the Holy Spirit to fill you understand that He has set you free, He is setting you free and He will set you free from the bondage of sin and Satan. Satan has been defeated at the cross two thousand years ago. Satan will constantly try to mess you up and make you believe lies. Remember what Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.
When you live a CRUCIFIED LIFE you will live a life of sacrifice. You will, on many occasion, go against the world views and be ostracized, laughed at, mocked and ridicule by many for your stand on the Word of God. If you live in the Crucified life you will not be tempted to go back into the world because you have placed yourself on the transforming altar of the Lord. Paul admonishes us to place ourselves on that altar, "I beseech you therefore, Brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:1-2.
The CRUCIFIED LIFE will reveal to us down deep in our soul that we are saved, sanctified, redeemed and purchased by the blood that Jesus Christ shed on Calvary for us. In Jesus Christ I am dead to sin. When God look down on us, even though many times we stumble and fall, He sees the blood of Christ. Since Jesus paid it all, and I am in Him, and I am crucified with Him, therefore I am justified before God in Christ, as the Apostle Peter explained to us in his first Epistle, "Who his own self (Jesus) bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness." I Peter 2:24. To have victory over sin you must be in Christ and be Crucified With Him. As soon as a person experience this freedom in Christ, the sooner the Holy Spirit will start a fire that no man can extinguish. If you want your Christian life to go stagnant, empty and full of bitterness just come down from the position of the CRUCIFIED LIFE and live in defeat instead of the victorious life in Christ.
We are called to live a CRUCIFIED LIFE , we are in this world but not of this world. All our focus should be on Christ and aallowing Him to live His life in us. We are called to be an influence in this world not being influenced by the world. Our soul purpose to live a crucified life is for us to present our Lord to a lost world. The world must see the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. It is God that places us on that cross with Christ for the world to see. Nowhere in the Bible is God asking us to crucify ourselves, but He does require us to take up our cross daily, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23. This death position once taken, the Christian must learn the CRUCIFIED LIFE. What I mean by this is that it takes a lifetime of picking up your cross daily to possess a daily walk with Christ. When you do, you will see life in Christ in a total different way, and no one will be able to disturb your faith and assurance of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, just like Christ picked up His cross to be led by the Holy Spirit to die for us on the cross of Calvary, so we must also pick up our cross daily to die for Him, and like this we will be able to say like the Apostle Paul, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." II Corinthians 4:10.
We are called to live a CRUCIFIED LIFE , we are in this world but not of this world. All our focus should be on Christ and aallowing Him to live His life in us. We are called to be an influence in this world not being influenced by the world. Our soul purpose to live a crucified life is for us to present our Lord to a lost world. The world must see the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. It is God that places us on that cross with Christ for the world to see. Nowhere in the Bible is God asking us to crucify ourselves, but He does require us to take up our cross daily, "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23. This death position once taken, the Christian must learn the CRUCIFIED LIFE. What I mean by this is that it takes a lifetime of picking up your cross daily to possess a daily walk with Christ. When you do, you will see life in Christ in a total different way, and no one will be able to disturb your faith and assurance of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, just like Christ picked up His cross to be led by the Holy Spirit to die for us on the cross of Calvary, so we must also pick up our cross daily to die for Him, and like this we will be able to say like the Apostle Paul, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." II Corinthians 4:10.
Amen!
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