If all the cross means to you is that is where Christ died for your sins, you have missed its’ greatest truth! “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, BY WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO ME, AND I UNTO THE WORLD.” (Galatians 6:14). “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives 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). You see, when Christ died, I DIED! That is the greatest truth of the cross. The old former YOU is to be reckoned dead and buried – gone, no more! The world that once held so many attractions for you, appealing to the lusts of the flesh, is another world – a world that has passed from the scene, a world to be forgotten.
And that is another aspect of the cross, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins (dying on the cross), THAT HE MIGHT DELIVER US FROM THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD, according to the will of God and our Father” (Galatians 1:3-4). Have you noticed I haven’t even left the Galatian letter in expounding this great truth to your mind? So many miss this primary truth Paul expounds upon in this tiny letter to the believers in Galatia. “O foolish Galatians (or Americans, or British, or Canadians), who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you…” (See Galatians 3:1). How could Jesus Christ be crucified AMONG US, since He was crucified long, long ago on a hill called Mount Calvary outside the ancient city of Jerusalem??? Look about you at fellow believers! Are they not following the exhortation of their Lord, taking up THEIR crosses, dying to the world, to self and to sin? “And He (Jesus Christ) said to them ALL, ‘If any man (or woman, any believer) will come after me (desirous to be a follower of Jesus Christ), let him deny himself, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS DAILY, and follow me, for whosoever (you, me, anyone) will save his life (maintaining control over the same, doing things OUR way, choosing how to live our lives) shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake (letting Jesus Christ lead us in the way we are to live), the same shall save it (to life eternal)” (Luke 9:23-24).
Entering into eternal life is not just believing Jesus Christ died for you, it is DYING WITH CHRIST! “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, THAT HE MIGHT BE LORD both of the dead and living.” (Romans 14:9). That is WHY Christ died – that He might become your LORD, the one who “calls the shots” in your life. “He died for all THAT THEY WHICH LIVE SHOULD NOT HENCEFORTH LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO HIM WHICH DIED FOR THEM, AND ROSE AGAIN” (See 2 Corinthians 5:15).
Over and over again, the apostle Paul expounds this truth in all of his letters: “Christ..loved the church (believers called out from the world), and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it…that He might present it to Himself a glorious church (a glorious assembly of former disobedient humans), not having spot (of sin), or wrinkle (of impurity), or any such thing, but that it should be (truly) holy and without blemish” (See Ephesians 5:25-27). Don’t limit God. And don’t fight Him either. Let Him work in your life so that other believers might see Christ crucified among them IN YOU!!! “(Christ) gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from ALL iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar (special, exceedingly different) people (group of human beings), zealous of good works (working the works of God in their individual lives)” (See Titus 2:14). Yes, when Christ died, YOU DIED! Now let Jesus Christ make that concept a reality. He will, but you must submit to Him as your LORD and let Him work by resisting any contrary impulse, and as sure as day follows night, you will find that He who died most assuredly did rise again and now lives in you! God grant you the mind to see this and believe it and, yes, enjoy it is my prayer.
Christ’s Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley