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
Here I must share with you my own experience. Thirteen years ago
I came to the point where I knew that there was a lack somewhere in my life.
Sin was defeating me, and I saw that something was fundamentally wrong. I asked
God to show me what was the meaning of the expression, 'I have been crucified
with Christ.' For some months I prayed earnestly and read the Scriptures,
seeking light. It became increasingly clear to me that, when speaking to us of
this subject, God nowhere says, 'You must be,' but always, 'You have been.' Yet
in view of my constant failures this just did not seem possible, unless I was
to be dishonest with myself. I almost turned to the conclusion that only
dishonest people could make such statements.
Then one morning I came in
my reading to 1 Corinthians 1. 30. 'You are in Christ Jesus,' it said. I looked
at it again. 'That you are in Christ Jesus, is God's doing!' It was amazing !
Then if Christ died, and that is a certain fact, and if God put me into Him,
then I must have died too. All at once I saw. I cannot tell you what a
wonderful discovery that was.
The trouble with us today is
that we think crucifixion with Christ is an experience we have somehow to
attain. It is not. It is something God has done, and we have only to receive
it. The whole difference lies here: Is the Cross a doctrine to be grasped and
then applied? Or, Is it a revelation which God flashes upon my heart? It is
quite possible, as I have proved, to know and preach the doctrine of the Cross
without seeing the wonderful fact.
All God has done, He has done first
of all to Christ, and only then to us because we are in Christ. God does
nothing directly upon us. Apart from and outside of Christ, God has no work of
grace. Here is the preciousness of 1 Corinthians 1. 30. God has not only given
us Christ but Christ's experience; not only what He can do but what He has
already done. From His death onwards, all that He has is ours.
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