Crucified with Christ
“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.” Galatians 2:20
The Christian life isn’t a self-help program. We aren’t given a set of exercises to perform in order to achieve results. Instead, God works in our hearts and changes us from the inside out, transforming our desires and motives so that our new choices in behavior will be genuine and not contrived.
Our role in this transformation, though, isn’t completely passive. Paul reminds us that the first step in this transformation process is a fresh perspective on death and life. He considered himself to be “crucified with Christ,” which means that he applied Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to his own selfish desires as dead. In place of Paul’s selfish desires in residence, Christ Himself lived in his heart, transforming him little by little, day after day.
Even though Christ transforms our hearts, we take responsibility to recognize selfish motives and actions, consider them to be dead, and replace them with God-honoring thoughts and behaviors. The Christian life, then, is lived at the moment of choice when we pick life over death and Christ over our selfish demands.
We may be confused from time to time, and we may be disappointed that we aren’t changing as fast as we’d like, but we can take heart that Christ Himself has taken up residence inside us. As we pay closer attention to His instructions and trust Him to use us, we’ll gradually take on more of His character. We’ll love people with His love, serve with His humility, and stand strong in hope of the future because we remember the promise of the Resurrection.
A.W. Tozer said it like this: “People who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks: (1) They are facing only one direction, (2) they can never turn back and (3) they no longer have plans of their own.
The Christian life isn’t a self-help program. We aren’t given a set of exercises to perform in order to achieve results. Instead, God works in our hearts and changes us from the inside out, transforming our desires and motives so that our new choices in behavior will be genuine and not contrived.
Our role in this transformation, though, isn’t completely passive. Paul reminds us that the first step in this transformation process is a fresh perspective on death and life. He considered himself to be “crucified with Christ,” which means that he applied Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to his own selfish desires as dead. In place of Paul’s selfish desires in residence, Christ Himself lived in his heart, transforming him little by little, day after day.
Even though Christ transforms our hearts, we take responsibility to recognize selfish motives and actions, consider them to be dead, and replace them with God-honoring thoughts and behaviors. The Christian life, then, is lived at the moment of choice when we pick life over death and Christ over our selfish demands.
We may be confused from time to time, and we may be disappointed that we aren’t changing as fast as we’d like, but we can take heart that Christ Himself has taken up residence inside us. As we pay closer attention to His instructions and trust Him to use us, we’ll gradually take on more of His character. We’ll love people with His love, serve with His humility, and stand strong in hope of the future because we remember the promise of the Resurrection.
A.W. Tozer said it like this: “People who are crucified with Christ have three distinct marks: (1) They are facing only one direction, (2) they can never turn back and (3) they no longer have plans of their own.
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