"I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST." First, be sure that you understand this statement doctrinefly. In all things the Lord Jesus Christ is the Substitute and Representative of his people, in all that he did, Christ was our Representative before God. His dying upon the cross was virtually the dying of all his people. Then and there, all of those who believe on him unto life everlasting rendered unto Divine justice all that was due, and made an expiation to Divine vengeance for all their sins. The Apostle Paul delighted in the fact that as one of Christ's chosen people, he died upon the cross in Christ. God's elect are so really and truly one with Christ that when he died, we died in him. This is the doctrinal meaning of these words. But Paul did much more than mentally accept this doctrine. He confidently rested his hope upon the crucified Christ. He believed that by virtue of Christ's death, he had satisfied Divine justice, and found reconciliation with God.
So, secondly, I want you to be able to speak these words as one who is resting his soul upon Christ - "I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!" The doctrine will give you no comfort and peace, Until by faith you rest your soul upon Christ. My friends, it is a blessed thing when the soul can, as it were, stretch itself upon the cross of Christ, and feel - "I am dead. The law has slain me. I am therefore free from its power. In the Person of my Substitutes the law has done to me all that it could do. It has executed me. In my Surety, I have born its curse, endured its penalty, and satisfied its wrath and condemnation." When I say, "I am crucified with Christ", this is what I mean - I am now free from the terror of God's holy law. Resting my soul upon the cross of Christ, I no longer fear that I shall be condemned by God.
Free from the law, O happy condition!
Jesus hath bled and there is remission:
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.
Can you rest your soul, by faith, upon the crucified Christ? But Paul meant even more than this. He not only believed in the death of Christ, and trusted in it, but he actually felt its power in himselfs causing the crucifixion of his old corrupt nature.
So, in the third place, I want you to know the experience that these words express - "I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!" When Paul saw the pleasures of sin rising in his old natures he said, "I cannot serve these: I am dead to them: I am crucified with Christ." This is the experience of every true believer. Having received Christs we are to this world as men and women who are utterly dead. We are dead to its customs, dead to its charms, dead to its ambitions, and dead to its principles. Our life is hid with Christ in God.
Yet, while conscious of the fact that we are dead to this world, the children of God can, at the same time, exclaim with the Apostle, Nevertheless I live". We are fully alive to God. The believer's life is a paradox the worldling can never comprehend. Even the believer himself does not understand it. We are dead; yet we are alive. We are crucified with Christ; yet we are, at the same time, risen with Christ in the newness of life. Union with the suffering, bleeding, risen Savior, and death to self, the world, and sin are soul cheering truths for our hearts. May it please the Lord this day to give us the enjoyment of them! God grant that each of us may be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I lives 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."
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