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Nearly all Bible
believers know that Jesus was crucified for us. But some seem to think this
means we do not have to be crucified. They want to receive the benefit of
Jesus' death, but don't seem to realize that we too must die.
The purpose of
this study is to learn what it means to be crucified with Christ and why it is
important.
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Not only did Jesus die to make us Christians, but as Christians we must be crucified with Him. Each of us needs to examine himself and ask whether he/she has been crucified with Christ. "Have the nails pierced your hands and your feet?"
Consider some
ways the Bible says we must die spiritually. [Compare Philippians 3:10]
I. We Must Die to
Self.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Consider some
other passages that help us understand the meaning of Galatians 2:20.
Matthew 16:24-27
============
To come after
Jesus, we must deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him (verse 24).
What does it mean
to "take up your cross"?
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Some think it
means we must be willing to bear a burden: "bad health is my cross I
bear," or "my husband is my cross." But the meaning is far
deeper than that. Jesus said to take up your cross and follow Him. Was Jesus'
cross just a burden for Him to bear? A cross is a place to die! Jesus' cross is
where He was crucified.
Verse 21 - Where
was Jesus going? He was going to die. Jesus said that He was going to die on
the cross. Then He said, if we want to be his disciples, we must deny
ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Jesus gave his life for us. Now
we must give our life for him!
Verse 25 - If we
refuse to give up our life now - if we are determined to keep it for ourselves
- then we will lose it later. If we lose it now, we will gain it later. The
subject being discussed is not bearing burdens but losing life. In order to
live, we must die!
Verses 26,27 - If
we live so we gain the whole world, we may lose our soul at the judgment. Jesus
is talking about what it takes to receive eternal life. Many people would be
willing to bear a few burdens or make a few changes for the Lord. But not many
will give their lives!
The lesson is
that, to gain your life in eternity, you must die now.
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Verse 24 - To
come after Jesus, we must deny self. This means total devotion and dedication
to serving God. Give up what you want and live your life to please God. Take up
your cross and follow Jesus means to deny self and be crucified with Him: Give
your live for Him just as surely as He gave His life for you.
Galatians 5:24,25
===========
Those who belong
to Christ must crucify the flesh, with its passions and lusts, and walk in the
Spirit.
We all have
natural desires that are not necessarily wrong. But sometimes they lead us to
disobey what the Spirit teaches in the word. To walk according to the Spirit,
we must put to death these desires: crucify the flesh.
It is not always
wrong to do as we desire, but we must not let our desires control what we do.
Are your fleshly lusts crucified, or do they still control your life?
"Have the nails pierced your hands and feet?"
Now consider
again the verse where we started.
Galatians 2:20
=========
I have been
crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Self must be slain, because the desire to please self is what hinders us from
dedicating ourselves to serve Christ. Note other passages:
2 Corinthians
5:15
***************
Jesus died for us
so we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died for us.
Most people
prefer to please themselves. "I don't want anybody telling me what to
do!" "I want to be in charge of my life." This attitude must be
killed. We must let God be in charge of our lives and tell us what to do. We
must live for Him, not for self.
2 Corinthians 8:5
**************
The Macedonians
gave generously because they first gave themselves to the Lord.
To crucify self
means to give oneself as a sacrifice to God. When Jesus was crucified, He gave
His life as a sacrifice to do us service. When we are crucified with Him, then
we give our lives as a sacrifice to serve Him.
[Romans 12:1,2]
Luke 9:23
********
The parallel to Matthew
16:24 adds to take up your cross daily. Many people will submit to Jesus once
in a while or even most of the time. Crucifying self means denying your desires
every day. It is a continual struggle to achieve total devotion to the Lord.
Most people
understand that giving one's life for a cause would be an act of supreme
devotion. When a parent dies saving a child or a fireman dies saving someone
trapped in a burning building, we understand those people paid the supreme
sacrifice. That is what Jesus wants of us: the supreme sacrifice. We may need
to die physically for His cause; but if not, we still must give our lives in
His service.
When Galatians
2:20 says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,"
it means we must live our lives as He would live if He were in our place. He
died to save me; now I must let Him live through me.
Now consider
again the question: "Have the nails pierced your hands and your
feet?"
II. We Must Die
to the Will of Men.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Many people fail
to serve God because they are doing what they want. Others fail because they
are doing what other people want. Consider two areas where this applies:
We Must Follow
Divine Law over Human Law.
============================
Colossians 2:20
*************
We die with
Christ from the basic principles of the world. This refers to submitting to
human laws (verse 22).
Note 2:8 - We
must guard lest men spoil or capture us after the traditions of men and
rudiments of the world, not after Christ. The world follows religious laws and
traditions that originate with men, not God. Christians must submit instead to
Christ.
Matthew 15:9
***********
Worship based on
human commands is vain.
This does not
mean we never submit to human rules in any realm of life. Jesus tells citizens
to obey civil law, children to obey parents, and wives to submit to husbands.
But we must never violate the will of God in order to follow human rules. God
has made His rules and revealed them in the Bible. We must do nothing except
what He has authorized.
Why should we not
bow to the Pope or to Mary, follow man-made creeds, sprinkle babies for
baptism, use instruments of music in worship, have quarterly or weekday
communion, call preachers "Reverend," send church contributions to
man-made institutions, or involve the church in entertainment or recreation?
These are all
man-made religious practices. God's word never tells us to do any of these
things. We should not submit because we died with Christ! The men who made
these laws did not die for us; Christ died for us. So we should give our lives,
not to do the will of men, but to do the will of Christ who died for us.
Death often
refers to separation. We separate ourselves from man-made laws, refusing to
obey them. Instead we follow Jesus the head (Colossians 2:19).
So, have we been
participating in man-made religious practices or fellowshiping those who do
practice them? If so, we need to learn to be crucified with Christ.
We Must Please
God Rather than People.
=========================
Galatians 6:14
************
Because Jesus
died for me, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. The context
shows this means that I do not heed the pressures of the world that would
influence me to disobey Christ (compare verses 12,13).
Friends or
relatives may want us to participate in sin. They may ridicule us or even
persecute us when we refuse to go along with error. We tend to want to go along
with the crowd. We must be crucified to such pressures, so they don't lead us
to disobey God.
John 12:42,43
************
Jewish rulers
believed in Jesus but would not confess Him, because they loved the praises of
men more than the praises of God.
It is not always
wrong to do what pleases people. But we are wrong when our desire to please
people leads us to displease God or refuse to stand up for the truth.
Matthew 10:34-39
***************
Note: Losing our
life, taking our cross, and following Jesus are all discussed again here. We
are required to serve Jesus even when this alienates us from our dearest loved
ones. If we are not willing to make this sacrifice, we are not worthy of Jesus.
One of the
biggest problems in the church is spineless people who will not resist peer
pressure. They will not stand up to those who are in sin, but allow loved ones
to influence them away from the truth.
We must obey God
rather than men (Acts 5:29). We must refuse to practice sin, we must refuse to
fellowship sin, and we must speak out against it. This requires us to die to
the will of men, including our dearest loved ones.
So consider again
the question: "Have the nails pierced your hands and your feet?"
III. We Must Die
to Sin.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1 Peter 2:24 -
Jesus bore our sins on the cross so we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. Once again, not only did Christ die for us, but now He requires
us to die.
This also
involves death in two senses:
We Must Die to
the Guilt of Sin.
====================
Romans 6:3-7
***********
The old man was
crucified so the body of sin might be done away (verse 6). We have died to sin
being united in the likeness of His death (verses 4,5).
In physical
death, the spirit departs from the body (James 2:26). In baptism, the body of
sin is cut off from our soul. He who has died is justified from sin (verse 7).
Romans 6:17,18
*************
This happens when
we obey from the heart the form of teaching delivered and are then made free
from sin. This includes baptism into Jesus' death (verses 3,4). His death then
forgives our sins (death to sin) and we are raised to walk in newness of life.
"Have the
nails pierced your hands and feet?" Has your old man of sin been
crucified? If not, you are still in sin, and this will lead to eternal death
(verse 23). Either you are crucified with Jesus, thereby killing the guilt of
sin, or it will kill you! It is a matter of spiritual life and death.
We Must Then Die
to the Practice of Sin.
=========================
Romans 6:1,2
***********
If we have died
to sin (the guilt is removed), why return to the practice of sin? Why allow it
to continue to live in your life?
That is what some
want to do. What good would it do to receive forgiveness, if we just return to
sin?
Romans 8:13,14
*************
Living after the
flesh will lead to spiritual death. To avoid that death, we must put to death
the deeds of the body (sin). We must be led by the Spirit (through the word)
and avoid sin. Otherwise, we will die. Either sin dies or we die.
Often in Western
movies the good guy and the bad guy meet for a showdown. Everybody knows
someone is going to die. "It's either him or me!" You and I face a
daily showdown with sin. Either we kill it, or it will kill us. Has sin been
crucified in your life, or is it alive and well?
[1 Corinthians
15:31]
Colossians 3:3-14
**************
Dying to sin
means we must die to all sin, not just some of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Verses 3-7 - We
died to sin, so we should put to death these earthly members, because they
cause God's wrath to come upon us. When a body dies, all the members are dead.
If some members are still alive, the body is not dead.
"Fornication,
uncleanness, passion, and evil desire" - Put off, not just illicit sexual
relations, but also the things that encourage them: dirty movies and music,
pornography, dancing, scanty and indecent apparel. Have you put these to death?
"Covetousness"
- greed and over-emphasis on material things. Do you lie, steal, or cheat to
get ahead in business? Gamble? Neglect your children, attendance, Bible study,
or teaching others for the sake of possessions or pleasure?
Verses 8-10 -
"Anger, wrath, malice" - Do you lose your temper and say cruel,
hateful things to hurt others? Do you seek vengeance to get even with people
you think have harmed you? Do you hold grudges and refuse to forgive even when
people repent and ask your forgiveness?
"Blasphemy,
filthy language, lying" - Do you stretch the truth or omit important facts
in order to lead people to believe what is not true? Do you slander people to
hurt their reputation? Do you tell dirty jokes, use profanity, or take God's
name in vain?
Verses 12-14 -
All these sins must be replaced with good habits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Tender
mercies, kindness" - Do you try to put yourself in other people's place
and consider their viewpoint? If you must tell them they are wrong, do you do
it from a sincere concern for them? Some are quick to criticize others. Are we
also quick to do it for the good of the other person, or just to win an
argument, or just to get our own way?
"Humility
and meekness" - Do we insist on our own way: "my way or no way."
Do we submit humbly to God's will? Do we give in to others, when we can do so
without sinning? Do we honestly recognize and admit our sins, or do we justify
and rationalize?
"Longsuffering,
forbearance, forgiveness" - When people apologize to us, do we really
forgive, or do we continue to hold a grudge? Do we from time to time drag out
the memory of the old sin and remind the person who committed it and use it as
a weapon to beat people with?
Above all, do we
"put on love"? Do we really do what is best for others, or do we
selfishly seek what we want? Do we always act with goodwill for all who are
involved?
To be crucified
with Christ means to put sin to death. But the problem is that sin does not die
easily. Even when we have been cleansed from guilt, and when we thought we put
that bad habit or that bad attitude to death, it has a way of coming back to
life. We must put to death all those sinful members and keep them there.
When we have
totally, completely dedicated our lives to God - died to self - we will find it
is much easier to die to sin and live to righteousness. When we find we are
struggling continually overcoming some sin and becoming what God wants us to be,
we must go back to the basics of our relationship with Jesus Christ and totally
dedicate ourselves to His service. We must crucify ourselves.
Conclusion
=======
2 Timothy 2:11 -
To live with Jesus, we must die with Him. We usually think that life comes
first, then death. But Jesus teaches that, spiritually you must die first, then
you can live. Eternal life comes only after we die to self, to the will of
others, and to sin.
"Have the
nails pierced your hands and feet?" Jesus died for you. Have you died for
Him?
* Have you died
to self by truly denying yourself and committing your life to serving God?
* Have you died
to the will of others, by determining to follow only Jesus' teaching in religion
and obeying Him regardless of what others may want?
* Have you
crucified the old man of sin by believing and being baptized? Are you daily
crucifying the practice of sin in your life?
"Have the
nails pierced your hands and your feet?"
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(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 2017, David E. Pratte
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