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Crucified with Christ
What does it mean
to be crucified with Christ?
.
The phrase crucified with Christ is symbolic for a spiritual truth -
how the believer is made right with God. Justification by faith actually makes
it possible to live for God.
.
Being crucified with Christ means that
we are no longer under the penalty of the Law - That penalty was paid by
Christ on our behalf. When Christ was crucified, it was as if we were crucified
with Him. The penalty was fully paid — just as surely as if we had been
crucified for our own sins. When Christ rose from the dead, we rose, too. Being
crucified with Christ means that we are new creations. The old life is dead and
gone. We walk in newness of life. Now the risen Christ empowers us to
live for Him in a way that pleases God.
Got Questions Ministries
An extended discussion on the subject is
found in Romans 6:3–14.
Since no believer was literally crucified
with Christ, the phrase crucified with Christ is symbolic for a spiritual
truth.
Galatians 2:20 is a
key passage: “I have been crucified with
Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the
body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The context of Galatians 2 is how the
believer is made right with God.
False teachers were telling the Galatian
churches that faith in Christ was not enough.
To be saved, they said, believers must also
be circumcised and become “Jewish.”
Only then would they be wholly right with
God.
In Galatians
2:15–16 Paul counters that idea: “We who
are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified
by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our
faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by
the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be
justified.”
Paul says, “Through the law I died to the law so that I
might live for God” (Galatians
2:19).
While Paul was trying to please God by
keeping the Law, he was not really living for God.
The more he tried to keep the Law, the more
he saw how much he failed.
It was only when he gave up trying to
achieve righteousness on his own and accepted the righteousness of God by faith
in Christ that he truly began living for God.
Justification by faith actually makes it
possible to live for God.
That penalty was paid by Christ on our
behalf.
When Christ was crucified, it was as if we
were crucified with Him.
The penalty was fully paid — just as surely
as if we had been crucified for our own sins.
When Christ rose from the dead, we rose,
too.
Now the risen Christ empowers us to live
for Him in a way that pleases God.
We used to seek
life through our own works, but now we “live
by faith in the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20).
Being crucified with Christ means that we
are new creations.
“If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The
old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
The old life is dead and gone. We walk in
newness of life (Romans
6:4).
The lusts of the flesh and the love of the
things of this world have been crucified (Galatians 5:24).
Now we love Christ, though we have not seen
Him (1
Peter 1:8).
Being crucified with Christ means that we
have a new commitment.
We are dedicated to the service and glory
of the Lord, and that dedication destroys selfishness and surpasses ties to
family and friends.
We have taken up our cross to follow Him (Matthew 10:38).
Being crucified with Christ means that we
have a new way of life.
At one time we “followed the ways of this world and of the
ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient” (Ephesians
2:2).
But that way of life was nailed to the
cross.
Now we follow Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith, and we seek to please Him in every way (Hebrews 12:2).
The idea of being crucified with Christ
emphasizes our union with Him and His death on our behalf.
We trust in Christ’s crucifixion as payment
for our sin penalty, and we rely on His power to live in a way that pleases
God.
The emphasis is on what He has done for us,
not what we have to do for God.
Too often, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it
is Christ who lives in me” becomes “I
need to crucify my sinful desires and try harder to live for God.”
We are relying less upon the power of
Christ and more upon our own power — and that will never work out well!
In short, Galatians 2:20 tells us how we
escaped the penalty of sin to live a life that pleases God.
Knowing that we are “crucified with Christ” should give us great encouragement in our
Christian walk.
We have the power to say “no” to sin and “yes” to God.
Got Questions
Ministries
seeks to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by providing biblical, applicable, and
timely answers to spiritually related questions through an internet
presence."
GotQuestions.org is a ministry of dedicated and trained servants who have a
desire to assist others in their understanding of God, Scripture, salvation,
and other spiritual topics. We are Christian, Protestant, evangelical,
theologically conservative, and non-denominational. We view ourselves as a
para-church ministry, coming alongside the church to help people find answers
to their spiritually related questions.
https://www.gotquestions.org/crucified-with-Christ.html
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https://puricarechronicles.blogspot.com/2018/05/crucified-with-christ-for-i-am.html
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Living The
Abundant Life By Dying To Self
https://puricarechronicles.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-abundant-life-abundant-life-is-life.html
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