Crucified with Christ

 The Cross of Christ and the work done by Jesus on that Cross are central to the message of the book of Galatians. Paul was driving home the fact that Jesus did the work of salvation and what we must do is receive Him as our Lord and Savior, Who died and arose for us. When we do that by faith, we are set free from the ways of this world and the ways of legalistic religion. (Galatians 6:14) Several times in this book Paul refers to being crucified with Christ and crucified to the world. We need to understand this truth, and we all need to make sure we are crucified in the same way. 

Crucifixion was execution. When the people of Paul's day heard that word, they thought death. When we come to know Christ, we must die to self in order to live with Him. We are born again, so our old man is dead. This happens when we fully repent of our sins and doing life our way. (Galatians 2:20) There can be no salvation without this crucifixion of our old person. Then, we are at the same time trusting in Jesus and His work on the Cross for us to cleanse us from our sins, once and for all. We realize we can't work for our salvation or live by works any more. Therefore, we are crucified in relation to this world. We stop trying to please the Lord and others by works. We begin to live by grace through faith every day. If this crucifixion doesn't happen in our life as a believer, we will be miserable and live a defeated Christian life. However, if we are fully crucified with Christ and to the world, we live in victory, as we walk daily in the power of the Lord. (Galatians 5:16) That crucified, victorious life is my prayer for all of us, because that is God's will for us all.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ephesians 1-3.