The concept of being crucified with Christ is a life–and–death issue.
You may be thinking that this is an overstatement, and I don’t blame you.
Granted, the subject isn’t very appealing to our natural minds—at least at first glance. But honestly, if glancing occasionally is all we ever do, it will remain unappealing—and misunderstood.
That is really sad, because it is crucial for Christians to be exposed to this—to understand it well, and to walk it out by faith.
Let’s look—really look—at this concept together, and discover a realm of freedom only God could make possible.
Let’s begin with a few simple questions: Why is being crucified with Christ important to me? How does it affect me?
Isn’t it good enough that I am a believer?
During the time of Christ Jesus’ public ministry, thousands of people crowded around, just to see and hear Him.
Many believed He was some sort of extraordinary personality—healing their sicknesses, speaking amazing phrases they had never heard before, casting out the demonic forces of darkness, and feeding thousands of people from a handful of food.
But just because Jesus was believed to be someone special, didn’t necessarily mean that all “believers” believed Him to be the Savior of the world.
And very few believed Him to be God incarnate, who had come down from Heaven to dwell with men.
Of course, many would eventually trust and receive Him as Savior and Lord. And because they believed in the Savior and Lord, they gave Him their total commitment. They gave Him their lives, that He might be their Life.
But the others—who merely believed Him to be a great man, teacher, healer, provider, or any other lesser titles they came up with—eventually walked away.
Soon, Christ would die, be resurrected, and return to heavenly realms. His earthly ministry was finished. No more of his spectacular miracles would be seen.
And, for many who only followed Him casually—this marked the end of their belief. We might say, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
They believed—in the moment. But when their moment ended, they did not retain Him. It was because they didn’t really know Him, or He them.
He did not live within them.
Today is certainly a different time and place, but human hearts are basically the same.
Simply believing in Jesus as someone special has never been enough.
But bowing before him—as Savior and Lord—is everything.
And if you have done this, you have become a member of the most blessed family alive. You literally live within our Father’s unseen Kingdom of Light.
Where is this Kingdom of Light? If you have received His salvation, you have been born again—and Jesus comes to live in you. He reigns within you, as Lord and King.
“While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. (John 12:36a)
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:” (Ephesians 5:8)
His Kingdom becomes a new world within us. It is nothing short of amazing! This is the life of the true believer.
Everyone who has followed through with this first essential stage of belief—a belief which results in Jesus living within us—inherits the ability (through the power of God the Holy Spirit) to initiate the next stage of belief.
The next stage of belief? But I already follow Christ.
But think about why you follow Christ. In the book of John, Jesus tells his followers that if we love Him, we will keep His commands.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”(John 14:15)
Jesus says that we are to abide (stay) in Him—and He will abide (stay) within us.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” (John 15:4)
When we abide (stay) in Him, and He in us, we are operating in His Kingdom—which is within us. He gives us the ability to “bear the fruit” of keeping His commands.
And what are His commands, to a born-again Christian?
“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-30)
And so, the motivation for following Christ isn’t good works at all, but love.
It has the carry-through affect, this love—from Christ, through Christ, and to Christ. Nothing else can sustain us.
Church attendance is certainly good. Prayer is important. Bible reading is essential. But love is the glue that binds us together—our family relationships in God’s kingdom.
We tend to forget—God is our Father. Jesus is the Son, and our brother. That’s family. And of course, that makes us family members, each one with another.
In Romans, the apostle Paul gives a remarkable revelation afforded to those who follow on to know their Lord. He explains that if we identify with Christ’s death, burial, and raising to life, we will recognize by faith that—in God’s eyes—we have also died, been buried with Him, and raised to new life again.
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:5-7)
Therefore—by our faith—Sin no longer has its dominion over us. We are no longer slaves to Sin.
Because we have died to sin.
And Paul declares in Galatians,
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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 gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
What a faith picture! What a triumph over the strongholds of Sin! What a chain-breaker!
It is no longer we who live, but Christ—who lives within us! A dead person cannot be controlled by Sin.
Paul also explains in Galatians chapter 5, that those who have bowed before Christ, as their Lord and Savior, have crucified the flesh, with its passions and desires. Wow!
To truly understand and declare this truth is a source of strength.
Let’s take a closer look at the cross. Of course, it is where Jesus bled and died for us. It’s where we bowed in submission to God’s perfect will. And it’s where Heaven and Earth were moved on our behalf.
Nothing since has ever been the same, or is more important. We might say that it is the crossroad of our life. That place in time, where we choose Life.
Look at what Jesus said of the cross, in Luke:
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”(Luke 9:23-24)
And again, in Matthew, Jesus states,
“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38)
But wait a minute. My cross?
I thought it was all about Jesus dying on His cross. I’m just the believer, right? He died, and I believe. Isn’t that the deal?
Well, it is. And it isn’t.
Our initial belief—the belief that we need Jesus to save us from our Sin—saves us from our Sin.
But we also read in Hebrews,
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” (Hebrews 3:14)
We see here that life moves forward. Our days progress and go on. Our salvation is a lifetime of salvation, lived out one day at a time.
The cross—what exactly is it, then? We know it as the instrument of pain and death in Bible times. It was violent, bloody, and brutal. But besides those apparent characteristics of a shameful death, what might Christ’s cross mean to God?
And, because of what Jesus accomplished there for us, what should the cross mean to believers?
“And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mar 8:34)
Jesus instructed us to deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Him.
Deny myself, take up my cross, and follow Jesus—these all sound like action phrases, describing the active life of the true believer in Christ.
But what exactly is this cross of mine? We know for certain that our Savior was crucified there. So, what must this metaphorical cross of ours represent?
Let’s review:
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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 gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
With this statement, we know we have been crucified with Christ. We also know that we are raised with Christ, to a new and victorious life.
Therefore, there is a cross for each of us. It is the living testimony of our own death and life in Him.
We are no longer as the world is—the “living dead”, condemned in their unrepentant Sin. Instead, we are people who were once dead, but now raised to life—by the death, burial, and resurrection-power of the Almighty God.
Just as Jesus accepted His own cross—declaring to His Father, “not my will, but yours be done”—we also must accept our cross, which is the Father’s will for our lives, as well.
Yes, we have a cross of our own to carry. It is God’s revealed purpose in us. It is Life!
We now have one more essential avenue to explore. It reveals to us why the very act of identifying with Christ’s death is so vital in understanding a walk of obedience and son-ship before Him, and honoring to our Father in Heaven.
In Philippians chapter 2, Paul speaks of Christ’s humility—His perfect attitude that all believers should want to emulate. He says,
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)
So, let’s think about this: Christ, the King of heavenly realms, is born upon planet Earth. Eventually remembering his own kingdom realm, He doesn’t think it odd or wrong to be equal with God. After all, He is God the Son.
But even still, He humbles Himself and takes the role of a servant, because He now lives among and resembles sinful flesh. He lives with an attitude of a servant, and obeys His heavenly calling to be sacrificed for wrongs he never committed, suffering the death and humiliation of His cross.
But notice that Paul begins with, “Let this mind be in you,” which was also in Christ Jesus.
So, if we are able to adopt this attitude—this mind of Christ—by some grace of the Almighty, what would it reveal?
A parallel of purposes. Christ’s first—and ours to follow.
The parallel would be something like this: We humans are born into this race of mankind, and eventually, we come to faith in Christ Jesus, to bow before Him and to serve Him. And we are born again—redeemed.
All things for us have become new in God: no more curse of Sin to bear; no more death to fear. We are now renewed.
Even so, being found in the likeness of fallen mankind, we make no reputation for ourselves. Instead, we make a reputation for the precious, perfect God that we serve.
He gets the glory. He gets the honor. We take the servant role, and gladly serve our Master.
And being found in our humanity, we humble ourselves—through life’s sometimes humbling situations.
We die to self.
We die to our own personal desires, to instead serve God’s desires—putting God’s plans and purposes at the forefront.
And—in the possibility that He may even require our physical death—we remember our great High Priest, our own Good Shepherd, who gave all that He had, and all that He is—for us.
We remember that He became a servant for us. We remember His immeasurable love for the very least of us.
Are you in a humbling situation? Clothe yourself in His humility, remembering Him, who died naked and alone upon your cross of shame.
Know that you are to be both a believer and a cross-carrier. Every day. Hold onto that cross—your cross—which held your Savior, who bore your every Sin. Lift up your cross of testimony like a banner of victory.
Remember that your life is no longer your own. Put it all on the table. You have been purchased with a great price, and He has a divine purpose for your life that He wants to reveal.
Ask the Lord to reveal His perfect will to you. The only way to really live, is to live your life as though you are crucified—and raised to new life—in Him.
Because you are.
It’s your source of strength.
And it’s your only true life.
