Week 1: Free at Last! Day 3: Crucified

Galatians 2:20 (NIV) – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

The Message Bible says it like this:

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

We have been crucified with Christ! We identify with Him in His death in such a way as to allow Him to live through us. To live a crucified life, we must remember the following:

(1) Few will understand
(2) We must abandon our own will and our own agenda – it’s not about us!
(3) We will have few intimate spiritual companions
(4) Intense time alone with God is required
(5) We will constantly be on the witness stand
(6) We must go ‘outside the camp’
(7) There will be time when our dignity is forfeited
(8) We must forego our rights
(9) We must accept that death is painful
(10) Because He was forsaken, you never will be

How does God want you to respond to what He showed you today?

For me…

(1) He wants me to remember that I must abandon my will. I must always be obedient to the will of God; no matter how uncomfortable that may be; no matter how many people misunderstand me; I must do God’s will. I have to follow the plan He has laid out for my life.

(2) He wants me to continue to spend alone time with Him. I find that I am in prayer daily at the church and I am there alone. During this alone time, God speaks and I listen; I talk to God and He hears me. It is in this place of intimacy that I find comfort during tough times; those times when I don’t understand why, how, when, where, or what? I encourage you to spend some alone-time with God. Let Him speak to you; let Him comfort you; let Him direct you. You will feel refreshed!

Are you living a crucified life with Christ?