Church bulletin:
We are all very familiar with the crucifixion narrative. Along with the incarnation and resurrection, the crucifixion is the heartbeat of our faith. We specifically give thought to Jesus’ death when we join together at the Lord’s Table. It is central to the ministry of God’s Word and we live with mental images of the ghastly scene. The Son of God battered beyond recognition hanging upon a cross. The two thieves crucified either side. The jeering crowd. The cry of dereliction. It is quite common to see books, plaques, ornaments, icons etc. depicting the three crosses. But were they the only ones crucified on that fateful day? No.
If you are a believer, you were crucified with Christ. His crucifixion is your crucifixion. You are in the picture by way of representation. Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
I have been crucified with Christ says the apostle Paul – united to Christ in His death. What was true for him is true for all believers. The Lord Jesus went to the cross on our behalf, as our representative. As soon as we believe, all that He passed through and accomplished became ours. This is what Paul means in Gal 2:20. The moment he became a believer he was crucified. He died with Christ. His life of trying to obtain righteousness through the law was over; his life as the persecutor of God’s people was over. He had died to that way of living. His life as the Christian apostle and missionary, the preacher of grace and faith was soon to get underway. The old man was dead and buried, the new man had arrived – resurrection.
The verb tense in Gal 2:20 indicates that Christ’s death had on going ramifications for Paul. In other words, the crucifixion was an ever-present reality he carried with him. Day by day Paul regarded himself as dead to what he once was. At the same time he was alive to the Lord and what the Lord would have him to do – “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Dead yet alive. A living dead man we might say. The life of Christ within Paul was the driving force which propelled him into Christian service.
This is how we are to see ourselves – dead yet alive. When we think about the crucifixion, we must do so not only in historical terms, but as a present reality in our own lives. What does the crucifixion mean for me today? It means that I am dead to what I was pre-conversion. I am no longer under the curse of the law awaiting God’s wrath. The old way of living is over because I am no longer a slave to sin. At the same time, death means life. Alive in Christ and to Christ, I am free to serve God. I have the very life of God within.
This is an important theme that is repeated in Paul’s letters – Rom 6:1-14; Col 2:20-23, 3:1-3; 2Tim 2:11-13. It is something that we must meditate on. The life we are called to live is only possible as we maintain the death of Christ on our behalf. If we are not dead through faith in Him, we are under the law, slaves of sin and ripe for judgement. In order to embrace life in Christ we must embrace death in Christ and embrace it continually.
1 Cor 15:31, I die daily.