With Christ have I been crucified, yet I am living; no longer I, but living in me is Christ. Now that which I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith that is of the Son of God. Who loves me, and gives Himself up for me.
Galatians 2: 20, Concordant New Testament
The question was thrown down a few days ago by a good friend of mine. Looking for a few new topics for my page, he suggested a few to chew on. One of them was this, how do we live crucified? Ok, simple enough, but wait. How many Christians out there truly understand that we NEED to live crucified? Yes, I believe that living crucified, as Christ is, is something which we should endeavor to do. But how do we go about it? First, let's get an understanding of the concept of living crucified. We see this mentioned by the apostle Paul in Galatians. It is a verse which I am well familiar with from my studies into the faith of Christ Jesus in me. Again, most Christians have probably never heard this spoken from a pulpit either. I know I haven't. Yet Paul was under the understanding that One who had already died...was alive again in him. I believe that Paul knew of Jesus through his own persecution of the early church. As we know, Paul went to great lengths to persecute those who followed the teachings of Christ, even to the point of death. This was the man, chosen by God, to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the world. So how did Paul get from being the man who despised the early believers to a man who proclaimed Christ Jesus in him? Well, if we are to believe Paul, it was the revelation of the Lord which led to his knowing of the indwelling Christ {Galatians 1:15-16}. Paul goes into the detail of how when it pleased God {verse 15}, to reveal His Son in me {verse 16}. From the words of Paul we can also get an idea of how we ourselves will come to the knowing of Christ in us. It is by the revelation of the Lord, no other way. This is how I came to the knowing of Christ in me. I, like Paul before me, was a dead man walking.
Now, when it delights God, Who severs me from my mother's womb and calls me through His grace, to unveil His Son in me that I may be evangelizing Him among the nations, I did not immediately submit it to flesh and blood.
Galatians 1: 15-16, Concordant New Testament
I can pinch myself a few times and still wonder, "How is it that I'm dead?" How can I be a dead man walking when everything tells me that I live and breathe in this body of mine? Once again, the words of Paul help us along in our understanding of who we are. In Romans, Paul proclaims that it is our "Old man" which was put to death next to Jesus on that cross. When Christ was first revealed in me, it was my understanding that it was my old sin nature which was crucified with Christ. This seems acceptable as Paul proclaims in the very same verse that I was crucified that "The body of sin might be done away with" {Romans 6:6}. I believe that this holds part of the answer to my friends question of how we live crucified (of course, it could be a trick question as he is also prone to doing). How is it that Paul lived crucified? We have to assume that he did as he had a complete knowing of the indwelling Christ in him. So complete, in fact, that his old life prior to his revelation on that road to Damascus was but a memory for him. Paul lived his life AS JESUS who dwelled within him. He understood that the old Paul was dead and gone, and that what remained was Christ. Christ Jesus was his life. THIS is how we live crucified. We live crucified in the knowing that our old man has been put to death and replaced by the indwelling Christ. We live crucified in the knowing that we are alive in Christ Jesus. We didn't choose Him, He chose us. So it seems that I'm not a dead man walking...but a man walking in Christ Jesus.
Knowing this, that our old humanity was crucified together with Him, that the body of sin may be nullified, for us by no means to be still slaving for sin, for one who dies has been justified from sin. Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also, having perceived that Christ, being roused from among the dead, is no longer dying, death is lording it over Him no longer, for in that He died, He died to sin once for all time, yet in that He is living, He is living to God. Thus you also, be reckoning yourselves to be dead, indeed, to sin, yet living to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6: 6-11, Concordant New Testament
~Scott~
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