And I No Longer Live

Today I don't want to complicate anything and I don't want to point out anything that we are doing wrong. I know I get a bit heavy on some issues but we really need to be because of the dangerous direction we are moving in. But none of that today. I want to simply demonstrate the importance of meditating on the Word of God. I am going to use one verse that I was meditating on earlier. Look at the richness and the depth of a single verse from Yahweh's incredible love letter:

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live."

I hung on the cross with Jesus. I was there with all my sins. The only thing that could separate me from them was death but because I was crucified with Jesus, because he took my place, I was able to die without physically dying, and this separated me from my sins. Simple and beautiful.

But I am dead. I no longer live. So now what?

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me."

Wow! So I died with Jesus and the only reason there is any life in me now is because Jesus rose from the dead and now lives in me. I can live because Jesus lives. It is more than just a promise on the Day of Resurrection, it is something that I live today, in the practical. I died but Jesus lives in me.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God."

I live by faith in Jesus. I can live because Jesus lives in me and I live in this body by this faith I have in him. That is powerful stuff. So I don't belong to myself. I most definitely belong to Jesus and I am only able to live because I have faith in him. It sure makes me want to have more faith, strong and powerful. It also makes me realize that I am not limited by what I was.

Death has separated me from everything that had defined me before. Now it is Jesus who defines me. It is Jesus who places or removes limits. It is Jesus who has given me new life. Now another verse comes roaring to mind:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17)  

This changes perspective big time. It means I can step out of what I once was and step into what I am in the new reality of the Kingdom. I operate in Jesus' strength, power and wisdom. It might be hard to learn how to walk with these new legs but that's okay because Jesus is doing the walking, I just have to obey and allow him. But the verse isn't finished with yet:

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

And there is why I can completely trust him with my death and the life he lives through me. This is why I put my faith in him with no questions, doubts or fears. He has earned my trust and I gladly give my faith. No one else has done what he has done for me with the cost that he had to pay. No one else suffered for me as he did. No one else climbed up on a cross. No one else died that I would be forgiven. No one else defeated death so that I might have life. No one. I am indebted to him and I gladly surrender to him that he might live in me so that I might live in him. May his will be done through this body of mine.

There is so much more that flows through me concerning this one verse but I leave it as I have written. But if this is where one verse can take us, how much more the entire Word of God. But it won't do anything for us if we are not meditating on it.