Crucified with Christ 

DEVOTIONALS: CHRIST IS MY LIFE

Our union with Christ begins with our union with the death of Christ on His cross. My union with Christ brings Christ into me.

The Condition and the Need.

My fellowship with Christ starts at the cross, the place of union between me and Him. The Word declares that “We have been united with Him like this in His death” (Rom 6:4-5); “being conformed to His death.” (Phlp 3:10); “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Gal 2:20) It happened more than 2000 years ago. My sinful nature was crucified with Christ. I must make this experience current and real to my daily life now: My nature is dead in Christ. The sin-nature or evil self is hopelessly incurable and cannot be cleansed. The cross is God’s remedy for this inherited sinful condition of man. Salvation depends not only on putting away our sin, but also on trusting Christ to deliver us from our self, the center and curse of our life. Now, we have to learn to believe this truth and learn to live it by faith in our everyday life: “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20) It is done by applying death to self-life: by denying and rejecting sin and sin nature every single day in the faith of God. Believe and declare everyday that you are dead to your sin in Christ, you are dead to its power, that your sin nature has been crucified with Christ.

By faith surrender your nature to the cross. Continue declaring by faith “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” You are not just saying words from the Bible, you are declaring the truth of God, and this itself carries divine power when done believingly – it should be done daily by faith. This divine power against the sinful nature is what saving grace of God provides – freely – but it is not an automatically continuous power. It must be appropriated daily, moment by moment; if this truth is lacking, we will surely fail. It is here that our problem and weakness are found. Many usually believe that this divine power against the flesh or sinful nature works by itself automatically when sin attacks us. This is not the case, we need to get the divine power and take what is freely provided by grace, and that, moment by moment, day by day. The manna from heaven was given to the Israelites day by day. One day’s manna was useless for the next day. We need to appropriate the power of the cross moment by moment, everyday. Only the cross can kill the life of the old man, the sinful nature. This is why Jesus tells us: “Carry the cross and follow me.” The cross does not refer to bad or difficult circumstances of life or sufferings, which are common to all men on earth. I need to crucify my nature daily on the cross, by believingly denying it by the indwelling power of the Almighty Christ. This divine power must be appropriated moment by moment, every time needed – daily. We are planted – united – into the likeness of His death we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection life. Fellowship with the Crucified Christ will take me into fellowship with the Resurrected Christ.

Many Christians pressure their nature with ideas of holiness, and change their behavior by their own will power to become acceptable to both, God and people. This can be done by the old man, with his natural power, discipline and reasoning. The result will only be earthly not heavenly, we end up with human modifications not divinely produced changes. Many people urge themselves on to do their moral duty without first receiving the needed crucified life – the life of denying self-life. This is a demonic deception and we are blind to it, we are pursuing blessings from above but not seeking the life of the Bread of Life from above, in order to replace our life of self.

We all need to see and recognize our condition and our need. We all have to be convinced about them before considering the path we need to follow.

The Way

We must learn like Christ to depend absolutely and continuously upon God the Father. Notice the words of Christ Jesus about Himself: “The Son can do nothing of Himself.”  (Jn 5: 19); “I can of My own self do nothing. My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will.” (Jn 5: 30) “I receive not glory from men.”(Jn 5:41); “I am come not to do Mine own will.” (Jn 6: 38); “My teaching is not mine.” (Jn 7: 16); “I am not come of Myself.” (Jn 7: 28) “I do nothing of Myself.” (Jn 8: 28); “I have not come of Myself, but He sent Me.” (Jn 8: 42); “I seek not Mine own glory.” (Jn 8: 50); “The words that I say, I speak not from Myself.” (Jn 14: 10); “The word which you hear is not mine.” (Jn 14: 24) Do you see Jesus’ complete dependence on the Father?

God is showing us and teaching us: that the deepest root of Christ’s life and work is absolute dependence on the Father; that the state or condition of the heart of Jesus, as Son, is deep humility, the entire yielding to the Father. God is revealing to us that the essential nature and life of Jesus is deep humility, absolute dependence on the father in everything. Without true humility, true agape love is impossible. We must like Christ live depending absolutely and continuously upon God the Father. We absolutely cannot live this life on our own. This is the life Jesus wants to live in us, and this is the very thing I must allow – allow through my moment by moment consent to crucify my self-life.

Our tragedy is that we attempt to live the new life in our own efforts, in self-dependence, by the power and wisdom of past experiences, and not by the power of the Spirit. We, our nature, wants to help God, help the new life to live in us but this is not what the gospel teaches. It does not work that way. The new life is Christ’s life in me, He does not need my help, my help belongs on the cross. My nature (my help) must remain on the cross, it is the mortal enemy of Christ and the new life.

We are born to this world with an affinity and love for self-life, for selfishness and pride. We inherited this sinful condition from Adam. We see some good in the old man, so we do not hate it. We do not hate our sins, because we are not seeking to see their sinfulness. We are continuing to hear the voice of the flesh about un-essentialness of knowing our sins and our sin nature. The flesh secretly minimized sin for us and blocks our consideration of them. Our sin nature makes us hear only a partial truth: “there is no condemnation”; and blocks the rest of God’s truth from us about sin. “No condemnation” is not the end of the path for us, there is much work God has to do in us concerning sin and sinfulness. Christ should be all and in all (Col 3:10-11). The power of the self-life has been completely destroyed on the cross, unless you allow it to come to life by your unbelief, indifference or carelessness. This is what’s missing in our understanding and in our life.