The Cross, Part 9

Loving the Christ-life!

“I Am Crucified With Christ”

By Tammy Lacock

“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)

This week, Warren Litzman dives deep into the heart of the Apostle Paul’s gospel, where there is no separation between new life and the shedding of Christ’s blood. Warren once again details Christ’s journey leading up to His death.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Christ accepted His Father’s will and drank of the cup of every single sin ever committed — past, present, and future — we too were in that cup. Our sin-nature, passed down to us from Adam by the curse of Satan, was in that cup. We were poured into His body. And the sin of the entire world was so severe for His body to bear that it began to push out His blood. Through His scourging, His walk to Calvary, His crowning of thorns, and His nailing to the cross, His blood was shed and pushed out so much that it only took six hours for Him to die. His work was then finished. Christ’s death on the cross finished sin and death once and for all. And we, too, were crucified with Him. We were in Him when He died, and we are in Him now. When He went from death to life, we did too. By the Cross, He now lives in us, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him, brand-new creations (1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

The beginning of knowing Christ is knowing where He is. In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us exactly where He is: “Christ liveth in me.”

No separation. He tells us it is now time to get to know and fall in love with Christ who now lives in each of us as believers.

We fall in love with Him by now giving ourselves, our lives back to Him. He’s not coming and going. By the cross, He now lives in us. He is our new life. By the help of the Holy Spirit, may we develop and deepen our love for Christ by making Him our first love.