I Have Been Crucified With Christ (Gal.2:20)
The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to
sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions
and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict
against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to
myself. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .” He did not say,
“I have made a determination to imitate Jesus Christ,” or, “I will really make
an effort to follow Him”-but-”I have been identified
with Him in His death.” Once I reach this moral decision and act on it, all
that Christ accomplished for
me on the Cross is accomplished in
me. My unrestrained commitment of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the
opportunity to grant to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.
“. . . it is no longer I who live . . . .” My individuality
remains, but my primary motivation for living and the nature that rules me are
radically changed. I have the same human body, but the old satanic right to
myself has been destroyed.
“. . . and the life which I now live in the flesh,” not the life
which I long to live or even pray that I live, but the life I now live in my
mortal flesh-the life which others can see, “I live by faith in the Son of God
. . . .” This faith was not Paul’s own faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith the
Son God had given to him (see Ephesians 2:8).
It is no longer a faith in faith, but a faith that transcends all imaginable
limits-a faith that comes only from the Son of God.
Sid Stewart
Executive Director
864 226-6193
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