How have we been crucified with Christ?
Galatians 2:20 Footnote:
Legally, God looks at us as if we had died with Christ. Because our sins died with him, we are no longer condemned. Colossians 2:13-15 says, "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Colossians 2:13-15 Footnote: Before we believed in Christ, our nature was evil. We disobeyed, rebelled, and ignored God (even at our best, we did not love him with all our heart, soul, and mind). The Christian, however, has a new nature. God has crucified the old rebellious nature (Romans 6:6) and replaced it with a new loving nature. The penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross. God has declared us not guilty, and we need no longer live under sin's power. God does not take us out of the world or make us robots -- we still feel like sinning, and sometimes we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved, we were slaves to our sinful nature but now we are free to live for Christ.
Relationally, we have become one with Christ, and his experiences are ours. Our Christian life began when, in unty with him, we died to our old life. In our daily life, we must regularly crucify sinful desires that keep us from following Christ. This too is a kind of dying with him. Luke 9:23-25 says, "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?'"
And yet the focus of Christianity is not dying, but living. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised with him. Legally, we have been reconciled with God (2 Corinthians 5:19) and are free to grow into Christ's likeness (Romans 8:29). And in our daily life, we have Christ's resurrection power as we continue to fight sin (Ephesians 1:19, 20). We are no longer alone, for Christ lives in us -- he is our power for living and our hope for the future (Colossians 1:27).
Colossians 2:13-15 Footnote: Before we believed in Christ, our nature was evil. We disobeyed, rebelled, and ignored God (even at our best, we did not love him with all our heart, soul, and mind). The Christian, however, has a new nature. God has crucified the old rebellious nature (Romans 6:6) and replaced it with a new loving nature. The penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross. God has declared us not guilty, and we need no longer live under sin's power. God does not take us out of the world or make us robots -- we still feel like sinning, and sometimes we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved, we were slaves to our sinful nature but now we are free to live for Christ.
Relationally, we have become one with Christ, and his experiences are ours. Our Christian life began when, in unty with him, we died to our old life. In our daily life, we must regularly crucify sinful desires that keep us from following Christ. This too is a kind of dying with him. Luke 9:23-25 says, "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?'"
And yet the focus of Christianity is not dying, but living. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised with him. Legally, we have been reconciled with God (2 Corinthians 5:19) and are free to grow into Christ's likeness (Romans 8:29). And in our daily life, we have Christ's resurrection power as we continue to fight sin (Ephesians 1:19, 20). We are no longer alone, for Christ lives in us -- he is our power for living and our hope for the future (Colossians 1:27).
All Footnotes taken from NIV, Life Application Study Bible.
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