August 11, 2021
Galatians 2:20-21 (NIV)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
CONSIDER THIS
The gospel is a comprehensive, totalizing reality. It impacts every aspect of our lives, every molecule of our bodies, every relationship, our thoughts, emotions, dreams, hopes, and loves; indeed, 100% and more. When the text says, “The life I now live in the body,” that’s what it means. One of our biggest errors is considering the gospel primarily as a “spiritual” matter, or compartmentalizing it as the “religious” part of our lives.
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men. If He be something He must be everything, and if He be not everything He is nothing to you.”
Sounds familiar doesn’t it?
“The old has gone. Behold, the new has come.”
“I no longer live. Christ lives in me.”
What keeps many people from going all in is they think there is something else either they have to do or that God has yet to do in order for them to get there.
Are you a Christian? A person of the Way, as they used to call us? A “little Christ” as Martin Luther put it?
Then you are already all in. You are just asleep. It’s why our core text at Seedbed is this one:
“Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!”
Will he shine because we wake and rise up? No! He is already shining. He is reigning over the universe, the multi-verse, the whole cosmos, and he is right here, right now.
We grew up praying at bedtime, “If I should die before I wake . . .” Here’s a better prayer: “If I should wake before I die!”
A reader wrote me yesterday, Bob Casady, with this incisive word about Galatians 2:20-21, which you will remember, says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
“I have been crucified” really stands out for me in this text. It, I believe, is what happened to me when I believed and became a new creature in Christ. “Have been” is obviously past tense. It isn’t something that will occur for Paul (or us) but actually has. Our part is waking up to this reality, not in asking that we become crucified. For years, I thought crucified with Christ was an ongoing crucible I had to endure until it finally happened but it did happen. It is finished. Jesus finished it. The second half of the gospel is entering into the mystery of Christ in us, the hope of glory. As the first half proclaims what Christ did “for” us, the second half rests in what Christ does “in” us. The old self died at Calvary. We just need to wake up and see we are resurrected in Him.
Henceforth, we shall call this, “Bob’s Declaration.” Thanks, Bob. Enough said.
THE PRAYER
Father, you have done it! Through your Son, Jesus Christ, you have done it all. It is finished. Come Holy Spirit and awaken me to the depths of my being. I am ready for the ultimate reality. In Jesus’ name, amen.
THE QUESTION
How do you relate to Bob’s Declaration?
For the Awakening,
J.D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
2 Responses
Having been raised in a church tradition that stresses baptismal regeneration (Titus 3:5, Romans 6:4), I was already aware that this drowning of the “old Adam” was a done deal. For me the real issue is not so much waking up as it is reminding myself of what took place in my baptism and living out that realization.
And sometimes waking up to the reality of who Jesus is and exactly what has been accomplished through Him can turn life into the crucible of God’s creativity.