“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 KJV)
I remember many years ago being so challenged by a sermon that was based
on this scripture. I found it impossible to accept because intellectually it
was a paradox to me since my spirit accepted the truth but my behaviour
denied its reality in my life. It took me years to understand the mystery. Oh
what a blessed mystery. Dead but living! This paradox aptly describes the
believers in Christ.
I do hope this message help you too to understand this scripture and to
embrace it and rejoice in it.
Apostle Paul aptly explains this paradox in his epistle to the Galatians.
Let's read it again.
Galatians 2:
20 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. (KJV).
This statement is true for every born-again believer. If you are a
believer, you have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless you live.
Being baptized into Christ is simply being baptized into His death and
into His resurrection. Everyone who has put his faith in the person and
finished work of Christ has become spiritually united with Christ in His
death and resurrection.
This simply means that you died with Christ on the cross and also rose up
from the dead with Him. Hallelujah!
Apostle Paul queries the believers in Rome.
Romans 6:
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. (NKJV).
Through the body of Christ the believers have become completely dead to
everything that has held them captive or in bondage before, whether it is the
Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin, or Satan.
Paul aptly explains this truth in his epistle to the Romans believers.
Romans 7:
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that
the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long
as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her
husband.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be
called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so
that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the
body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised
from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (NKJV).
Consider verse 4 in New Living Translation.
The key to a victorious Christian life is not seeking to die daily to the
Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin or Satan, but walking in the consciousness or
spiritual understanding of the truth that you are already dead to them having
been crucified with Christ.
Romans 7:
4 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no
longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of
obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
(NLT).
Sadly, many believers today don’t have the revelation knowledge of the
spiritual implications or significances of their union with Christ in His
death and resurrection. This is the reason why many believers today are still
being held captive by the Mosaic Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin, or
Satan.
Your spiritual union with Christ in His death and resurrection has set you
free completely from all bondage. You are no longer a slave, captive, or
prisoner of the Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin, or Satan. You are now free to
bear fruit to God.
It is absolutely impossible to bear Christ-like fruit without identifying
with Christ in His death and resurrection.
Romans 6:
6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin
might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. (NKJV).
Galatians 5:
24 And those who are Christ's have put to death on the cross the flesh with
its passions and its evil desires. (BBE).
Galatians 6:
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
(NKJV).
While it is absolutely true that you have been crucified with Christ,
thereby becoming dead to everything that has held you captive, yet it will
take you being always conscious of this truth or walking in this spiritual
understanding for you to experience true freedom in your life.
Many believers today are constantly striving, struggling, straining, or
sweating to be free from the Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin, or Satan because
they are not walking or operating in the consciousness of their death through
the body of Christ to all those things which have held them in bondage.
As a born-again believer, you are not called or expected to seek to die
daily to the Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin, Satan, or whatever is holding
you captive. You are simply called and expected to believe and accept that
you have already become dead to all the things that have held you captive or
in bondage through the body of Christ.
The key to a victorious Christian life is not seeking to die daily to the
Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin or Satan, but walking in the consciousness or
spiritual understanding of the truth that you are already dead to them having
been crucified with Christ.
There is a profound difference between a dead person and a person who is
dying!
The Scripture amply attests to this truth:
“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3
NKJV).
“Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through
the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised
from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” (Rom. 7:4 NKJV).
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you
not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into His death?” (Rom. 6:1-3 NKJV).
Besides, walking in the consciousness of your spiritual union with Christ
in His death and thus your complete freedom from bondage of the Law, the
Flesh, the World, Sin or Satan; you also must walk in the consciousness of
your spiritual union with Christ in His resurrection.
Knowing that you have been crucified with Christ is just a half truth. The
whole truth is that you were not only crucified with Christ, you were also
raised together with Christ from the dead, so that you can walk in newness of
life, bearing much fruit to God (Rom. 6:4, 1 Cor. 15:21-22).
Sadly, many believers today are only preoccupied with being crucified with
Christ and not with being resurrected with Christ. The truth of the
believer’s death and resurrection with Christ is like a coin; it has no
value without having both sides.
Romans 6:
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly
we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. (NKJV).
The major key to your fruitfulness in Christ as a believer is reckoning
yourself to be dead to the Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin, or Satan, but
alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive
to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJV).
Being alive to God in Christ is simply yielding, surrendering or
presenting “yourself to God as being alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Rom. 6:13 NKJV).
Walking in the consciousness of your spiritual union with Christ in His
death and resurrection implies refusing to let the Law, the Flesh, the World,
Sin or Satan dominate, drive, influence or control your thoughts and
actions.
It is simply saying “Yes” to the Holy Spirit at all times and under
all circumstances. This is walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25)!
This is what Apostle Paul admonishes us to.
Romans 6:
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey
it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin,
but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness to God. (NKJV).
Romans 6:
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as
you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of
righteousness for holiness. (NKJV).
Beloved, rise up today to begin to bear much fruit to God by walking in
the consciousness, spiritual understanding, or revelation knowledge of your
spiritual union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
As a born-again believer in Christ, your responsibility is not to seek to
die daily to the Law, the Flesh, the World, Sin or Satan, but to appropriate
what the Lord Jesus Christ has already accomplished for you by His death on
the cross by reckoning yourself to be dead indeed through the body of Christ,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Prayer: My Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for my spiritual union with
Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. My Dear Holy Spirit, teach and
help me daily to walk in the consciousness of this truth, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
God bless you all so much
Howard Barnes and team
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