Crucified with Christ? Wha-? How?
Yeah, we’re not talking about actually nailing your old self on the cross with Christ. Time travel hasn’t been perfected, so you’re not going back to that day on Golgotha.
What we ARE talking about is the surrender of your mind and heart. It’s that choice to put your old thoughts and actions on the altar of sacrifice and begin to live as the new creation that faith in Jesus brings.
This is a word picture of the surrender that salvation requires. Before we come to faith in Jesus, we are living with a different god in charge. Usually that god is self, and we have to give that god up in order to follow the One True God.
We have to admit that we won’t be in charge anymore, that we’re not the boss of us. When we surrender the throne and Almighty God takes it, our lives are changed forever. Literally forever.
And before we move on, did you see the last part of Galatians 2:20? “So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
That word “gave” can be interchanged with “delivered up.”
“…the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.”
The first time I studied this verse, this part slammed into me and bowled me over completely. It brought tears to my eyes!
Jesus loved me (and you) so much – even though we weren’t yet born, even though He knew some of us would never love Him back – and delivered Himself up to die in our place.
As we read the gospels, we see that He willingly went to Jerusalem, knowing the religious leaders were hunting Him. He willingly left that Passover Seder and walked across the valley and up the mount into the garden named Gethsemane. He willingly allowed the soldiers to take him prisoner. He willingly endured the trials, the beatings, the Cross.
Jesus wasn’t taken.
He was delivered to the crucifixion.
He delivered Himself.
Because He loves us.
Oh my soul!
So now, in 2019, we can live, even thrive in our earthly bodies, despite their being wracked with pain, sickness – all that comes with living life – because we trust in this Son of God who delivered Himself to be our sacrifice. We can know that one day all the pain, all the anxiety, all the fear, all the sickness, all the stuff of humanity will be gone forever.
We can live with that hope when we realize what He did for us.
Today, when the headache makes seeing difficult, when arthritis makes us wince, when disease eats away at mind or body, let’s remember that we can live now because of our Savior’s sacrifice that allows us to live forever.
Rejoice in Him today, friends. He is worthy. And so are you.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
