Crucified With Him

How is it that I can be crucified with Christ? I wasn't there 2,000 years ago and I didn't hang on a cross next to Him, yet this is tremendously important to my spiritual life if I am to decrease and He is to increase. God's plan is not to make me better but to get me out of the way through death, and to make a new me through resurrection. I can't do it on my own, so I must go through the way that God has made for me.

It is linear thinking to see spiritual history in a timeline from then to now. But God is eternal and has a different perspective. If I view this history in a timeline I see it like this:

+ ( the cross) ........................... \o/ (me).

This way, I'm separated from Christ's death on the cross by 2,000 years. But if I view it in God's eternal perspective it looks like this:

+
.
.
.
.
.
.
\o/

So now I can see how it's possible for me to be aligned with Christ's death, even to be a partaker in it; whatever happened to Him happened to me since I am in Him. And that is possible because that's the way God sees things. Thus I can reckon (count/affirm/attest) myself as crucified with Him.

Does that mean that Christ is continually crucified? No - that was once and done. But God sees me as in Christ and Christ as eternal.

Jesus was my substitute - He took my sin upon Himself there. But He did so much more; He took my place, yes - but He also made a place for me on the cross, so I can truthfully say with Paul "I am crucified with Christ." Grasp that - you and I were on the cross because of what Jesus did there; He made a way for us.

Similarly, I can say that through baptism I am buried with Him and I can also say that I am risen and resurrected with Him (Col 2:12), and mean it - it's a reality, not a wishy-washy theological supposition.

This is not reformation of character - this is death and resurrection. Something more happened to me in baptism than getting wet - I was buried! I was in that tomb, in Christ. And when the stone was rolled away and Jesus stepped forth, I came forth with Him. With Him - all the way!

This is not suppressing my desires but allowing the Son of God to vanquish me in every area. This is not living for Jesus, but Jesus living in me. This is not walking the walk, but limping like Jacob and leaning on the arm of my Beloved.

So no longer do we have the option/privilege of living our own lives; instead we are called to usher in the King of Glory in all His beauty and all His splendor, to prepare the way of the Lord, and to participate with Him in the dawning of His Kingdom.

Are you ready for that?