“I I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and give Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.
“For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might to God. I have been crucified with Christ…” (Galatians 2:19 - 20a).
“But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:6.
Most professing Christians know only one-half of the Gospel...at most…; just as an automobile stuck in mud and spinning its tires digs itself into deeper and deeper holes, so much of the professing church repetitiously spins its preaching and understanding into the mud of half a Gospel and never moves on to the fulness of the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross.
Ask the typical professing Christian about the Cross and he will say, “Christ died for my sins, so they can be forgiven.” Then ask, “Are there other dimensions to the Cross alongside the forgiveness of sins?” Instead of an answer there may just be a blank look.
It is as if the professing church, much of which professes a high regard for Scripture, has excised Romans 5:12 - 8:39 from the Bible. (Yes, we will quote Romans 8:28 and 8:37 - 39 but we will do it without regard to their context). For in Romans 5:12 - 8:39 we see that Christ on the Cross not only cleanses us of our sins and forgives them, but that He has taken us into Himself in His death and resurrection so that we are:
- Having died and risen with Christ we are transferred out of Adam and into Christ - a change of identity.
- Having died and risen with Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God.
- Having died and risen with Christ our relationship with the Law is severed.
- Having died and risen with Christ we no longer owe the flesh anything - we have no obligation to satisfy its desires.
- Having died and risen with Christ we are no longer slaves living in fear but sons and daughters of the living God and heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.
One of Paul’s points to Peter in Galatians Chapter Two (see also previous post on Galatians 2:20) is, “Look Peter, we have died to the Law, why are you trying to reestablish a relationship with something we have died to? Why are you seeking to leave our husband Jesus Christ and return to a husband who can only bring heartache (Romans 7:1-6)? Peter, if we do this we will be found sinners (Galatians 2:17 - 18).”
The Law makes us sinners, the Gospel makes us saints.
The follower of Jesus Christ is called to live in the knowledge that he has died with Christ to the Law, to sin, to the world; and having died he now lives to God and belongs to God.
Paul writes in Galatians 6:14, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world have been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
In Colossians 3:1 - 3 Paul writes, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
There are many mysteries associated with the Cross and the Atonement, many dimensions. One of the foundational elements is that we are crucified with Christ, that we participate with Christ in His death and resurrection. In the letter to the Romans Paul does not stop writing about the Atonement at 5:11, but rather having unfolded the glory of justification by faith through grace he continues into our life in Christ and in His Kingdom - for Christ does not forgive our sins and leave us in our old condition, rather He takes us within Himself on the Cross into death and resurrection - a resurrection that is ever unfolding.
If we would grapple with the reality in Christ presented in Romans 5:12 - 8:39, and elsewhere in the Bible, we would see far fewer “Christian” self-help books, far fewer 12-step programs, far fewer “how to” messages - for we would be a people rooted and grounded in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ, we would be a people who know who Christ is and who we are in Jesus Christ. One half a Gospel leaves the church without an identity in Christ, it leaves the church anemic at best, and Galatian at worst (fallen from grace). Without knowing the fullness of the Atonement, by relegating the Gospel to one-half a Gospel, a message of forgiveness of sins, we force ourselves to seek growth through the flesh and the Law or its equivalent (Galatians 3:1 - 3) - for where else can we turn?
In the Gospels Jesus invites us into intimacy with the Trinity (see John chapters 13 - 17); in the epistles the apostles unfold the Way and the Reality...and yet we repeat step one again and again and again and again - the treadmill of one-half of the Gospel, for all it can ever be is a treadmill if we don’t burst beyond Romans 5:11 - we have rebuilt the vary barriers God has destroyed...this was Paul’s argument when he engaged Peter in Galatians Chapter Two.
“I am crucified with Christ.”
“Who am I?” I am dead, and yet in Christ I am alive.
Christ has brought a new humanity into existence, a Second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47). Which humanity shall we live in? What will be our biosphere? Our source of life (see John 15)?
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ do you know, do you confess, that “I am crucified with Christ”?
We need not feel compelled to think as the current age, to adopt its values, to derive our self-worth from things or positions or popularity, to measure up to the Law, to strive to be better than others, to take counsel of ungodly thoughts, to engage in ungodly actions. Why? Because we are crucified with Christ and are dead to these things and elements - we learn to reckon ourselves dead to these things but alive unto God (Romans 6:1-11).
Jesus Christ has not only paid a debt that we could not pay, He has given us the riches of Himself, of the Trinity...He has enfolded us into the Incarnation - the grain of wheat has fallen into the ground and died and has burst forth from the earth bearing much fruit (John 12:20 - 26).
What a tragedy for people to have their sins forgiven and never know the other half of the Gospel. Yes, a tragedy for the people of God to live as if they were not the people of God but still slaves to self, to sin, to the Law, to the world. Oh how we could touch others if we knew the fulness of the Gospel, if we were free from self-preoccupation and enthralled with Jesus Christ and His incredible work on the Cross.
Perhaps we would have fewer instances of ugliness within congregations if we confessed that we are crucified with Christ, for how can a dead person take offense? And how can a man or woman who is a slave to God seek to hurt his or her sibling in Christ?
When we look at the Cross let us see Jesus, and let us see ourselves in Jesus, and let us see our brothers and sisters in Jesus…
“I am crucified with Christ.”
And so are you.
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