Tuesday, April 2, 2019

CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST



"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing."  Galatians 3:20-21

What do these verses mean? I will list verses that will help in understanding this passage at the end of blog, but first give a step by step narrative. This narrative would be meaningless unless it's based totally on the Bible. After many years of study, I have come to think in Bible verses. If I can't visualize a verse that will validate the truth that I want to convey, I may not have the 'truth'. What I think, how I feel, or my opinion doesn't mean a thing if I can't substantiate it with Scripture.

        "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live"...
Jesus was nailed to a cross and hung there until He died. Crucifixion was not uncommon at that time, in fact Jesus was hung between two thieves. We obviously didn't hang on a cross with Him. The apostle Paul wrote these words in a letter to the Galatians in hopes of having them understand that when Jesus died on the cross He, God in the flesh, took our sinful human nature upon Himself. The wages of sin is death the Bible says. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so we don't have to, therefore our sin was killed, crucified, with Jesus that day. 

        "I no longer live" may not make sense since we know we are very much alive. Again,when you explore Scripture you see that Paul was saying our old sinful nature died and we became a new person. The old is gone and the new has come.  We look the same, and truth be known, we may very well behave the same until the Holy Spirit works within us so that we have the power (God power!) to resist our human nature.

        "...but Christ lives in me" - How can this be? The Bible doesn't use the word 'trinity', this is a term we use to comprehend the three persons of God - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One God in three persons. You may be a husband or wife, a parent and a sibling, but you are one person with three different roles. We have a heavenly Father who is sovereign over all, His Son Jesus whom the Father sent to "become sin" for us - Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And finally, the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and enables us to accept spiritual truth. We come to know God, not because we are smart, but by revelation through the Holy Spirit.

        "The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Our human faith fails so
in this world, in my earthly body surrounded by problems, chaos, pain, fear, insecurity - all the elements of being human, I don't depend on my faith being steadfast. I count on the Lord, He will never fail me, I'm fragile.

 What exactly did I do, or not do, to have earned this incredible love God has for me? Nothing! Before the foundation of the world He called me and ordained that I would be one of His sheep. Paul taught the gospel of grace which was an enormous stretch for the Jews who struggled to gain their own 'righteousness' and live by the Mosaic Law, not understanding that God gave the 'law', Ten Commandments, in order for us to know that we need a Savior. Jesus was prepared from the beginning to be that Savior.

The Lord will pursue His sheep until every one has come into the fold. None will be lost. We had five children. Now and then we'd be someplace where there were crowds of people and suddenly we'd lose track of one of them. I remember the panic we felt while trying to remain calm as we searched for the missing one. When our 'little lamb' strayed into view, we were so relived, angry too because the kids were supposed to keep an eye on us and not get lost!

When the Lord seeks us out, we will come, we must. We have no other option. The day Jesus found me at the kitchen sink with a jar of jelly I couldn't open asking Him for help, was the day I was filled with the Holy Spirit. He will never take this away from me, I'm His forever! Life has never been the same. Even though my life isn't perfect, I know the old me was made new that day. 

       "I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing."

We can't achieve perfection by following a set of rules. Only Jesus can clean us up and make us presentable to our heavenly Father. He, because of His grace and mercy, did this by paying the price for our earthly sins by dying on the cross. His words, "It is finished." Jesus did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, He did not die needlessly.

Even though we know our salvation is secure, we can't behave any way we want because the Holy Spirit in us won't let us. It's important how we look to others, many will never read let alone study the Bible, but if you claim to be a Christian, they'll read your life. I once had a pastor who would say at the end of his message, "Now go out this week and make Jesus look good." We understood what that meant. We lift up Jesus, never ourselves.

"To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy...
through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!"  Jude 24

Luke 23:32 - 49  - The crucifixion
Romans 3: 21 - 26 - Righteousness through faith in Christ
II Corinthians 5:17 - New creation in Christ
Romans 8:26 - 27 - The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf
Galatians 1:11- 12 - Gospel received by revelation from Christ
Galatians 3:24 - Law put in charge to lead us to Christ
Romans 10:4 - Christ is the end of the law
Matthew 5:21- 22, 27-28 - How God view anger and lust
Ephesians 2: 8 -9 - Saved by grace through faith, a gift from God
Matthew 18: 10-14 - Parable of the lost sheep.
John 19:30 - Jesus said, "It is finished."
Acts 2;38 - 39 - We received the gift of the Holy Spirit

Thank you Jesus, all praise and glory belong to you.