The Cross of Christ: by Andrew Murray

 

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The cross of Christ is His greatest glory. Because He humbled Himself to death on the cross, God has highly exalted Him. (See Philippians 2:8–9.) The cross was the power that conquered Satan and sin.

The Christian shares with Christ in the cross. The crucified Christ lives in him through the Holy Spirit, and the spirit of the cross inspires him. He lives as one who has died with Christ. As he realizes the power of Christ’s crucifixion, he lives as one who has died to the world and to sin, and the power becomes a reality in his life. It is as the Crucified One that Christ lives in him.

Our Lord said to His disciples, “Take up your cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Did they understand this? They had seen men carrying a cross, and they knew it meant a painful death. All His life, Christ bore His cross—the death sentence that He would die for the world. Similarly, each Christian must bear his cross, acknowledge that he is worthy of death, and believe that he is crucified with Christ and that the Crucified One lives in him. “Our old man is crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). When we have accepted this life of the cross, we will be able to say with Paul, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14).

This is a deep spiritual truth. Think and pray over it, and the Holy Spirit will teach you. Let the disposition of Christ on the cross, His humility, His sacrifice of all worldly honor, His spirit of self‑denial, take possession of you. The power of His death will work in you, you will become like Him in His death, and you will “know Him, and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). Take time, dear reader, so that Christ through His Spirit may reveal Himself as the Crucified One.