The Value of Christ’s Crucifixion

Scripture:

Galatians 2:20-21 (NIV) 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. (21) I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Galatians 2:20-21 ((MSG) Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (21) I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily

Observation:

How have our old selves been crucified with Christ? Legally, God looks at us as if we had died with Christ. Because our sins died with him, we are no longer condemned (Col 2:13-15). Relationally, we have become one with Christ, and his experiences are ours. Our Christian life began when, in unity 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).

And yet the focus of Christianity is not on dying but on living. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised with him (Rom_6:5). Legally, we have been reconciled with God (2Co 5:19) and are free to grow into Christ's likeness (Rom 8:29). And in our daily life, we have Christ's resurrection power as we continue to fight sin (Eph 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 (Col 1:27).

Believers today may still be in danger of acting as if there was no need for Christ to die. How? By replacing Jewish legalism with their own brand of Christian legalism, they are giving people extra laws to obey. By believing they can earn God's favor by what they do, they are not trusting completely in Christ's work on the cross. By struggling to appropriate God's power to change them (sanctification), they are not resting in God's power to save them (justification). If we could be saved by being good, then Christ would not have had to die. But the cross is the only way to salvation.

Application:

In order to accept Christ as Savior, and crucify my flesh daily, I need to turn from my sins and willingly nail my sinful nature to the cross. I do this my naming the weak areas of my flesh, confessing where I have failed and receiving God's strength and forgiveness. I must do this DAILY. Every single day, aligning myself with Christ's crucifixion by dying to my flesh. This doesn't mean, however, that I will never see traces of its evil desires again.

As Christians we still have the capacity to sin, but we have been set free from sin's power over us and no longer have to give in to it. We must daily commit our sinful tendencies to God's control, daily crucify them, and moment by moment draw on the Spirit's power to overcome them. When we do this every day, we refuse to "set aside the grace of God." By crucifying my flesh, I am recognizing the value of Christ's crucifixion. I never want God to have to say that, when it comes to me, that "Jesus died for nothing."

Prayer:

"Lord, forgive me for the times that it seemed that Your death meant nothing to me. That grieves my heart and Spirit this morning. I am so thankful for your death and resurrection. Yet, still I lean on my "goodness" oftentimes instead of your grace. I repent of that today. I make up my mind to die to my flesh at this moment. I am sure there will be other moments throughout this day that I need to die to. Help me to turn from my sins and willingly nail my sinful nature to the cross. In Jesus name, amen!"