Thursday, May 17, 2012

Crucified with Christ

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.  Death on a cross was probably the most miserable, and degrading form of  capital punishment  that the ancient world ever devised.  Way back in Deuteronomy 21:23 the law allowed that if a crime was extremely heinous, a man could be executed and then nailed to a tree, or pole/cross to serve as a warning to would be offenders. These people were considered accursed… “anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse.”  That Christ should die in this manner, was an almost insurmountable hurdle for Jewish believers to scale. How could he be the  Savior of the world, and die a death that God had formerly cursed?  The Apostle Paul had just gotten through rebuking Peter, for confusing gentile converts, when he wrote these words.  Peter had been teaching  that “justification” was found, in part, by observing Jewish law.   Paul was rightly adamant in proclaiming that we are only made right, justified, by faith in Christ alone, and by his saving death on the cross.  To make his point absolutely clear, he used the analogy of himself being crucified with his Savior.  Crucifixion, the death sentence that brought  with it guilt, sin, humiliation and eternal separation from God, now not only held the promise of new life, but a life lived with Christ in us!  I’ve attached a powerful song recorded by Phillips, Craig and Dean, listen and let this scripture become your personal anthem.

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