May 26, 2017 NO LONGER I
Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”
This one sentence that Paul wrote is an amazing in that it captures the central message of the entire gospel. In this one sentence we see that Christ loves us, that He died for us, that we have died with Him, that He lives in us, and that we now have faith to live unto Him in our present life! When the truths of this verse are the hallmark of our lives, we are indeed living according to the gospel and we are experiencing life to the fullest. The good news is that this verse can indeed be a reality for us. The key to this being our life revolves around understanding that it is no longer we who live, but that Christ lives in us. You could say that ‘dying to ourselves’ is the bridge to living the Christian life as God designed. In a very real sense, it may seem that the gospel ‘does not work’ or make sense to us, apart from us dying to ourselves. We may think that dying to self will rob us of our life-and therein lies the problem. The truth is that dying to ourselves is the best thing that can happen to us. Dying to self is simply a matter of yielding the control of our life to God and then daily living as unto the Lord. Dying to self is the epic battle for the believer. Actually, when we accept Christ as Savior, we are dying to self, but dying to self is not a one-time deal, but it is something that are we are to do on a continual basis. It is possible to be a born-again Christian and yet live according to our flesh, but the New Testament is all about what it means to walk in the Spirit, and not according to the flesh. Dying to ourselves means that our life is not our own and that we are now living for someone else. Simply put, if Christ says to encourage one another (and He does), then we encourage one another. If He says to think on certain things (and He does), then we think on those things. The New Testament makes it abundantly clear what it means to walk in the Spirit and it is our part to view the scriptures as the revealing of our new life in Christ. Even though it is our choice, we are not left to our own strength and will-power to die to our self, but by the presence of the Spirit in us, we are able to do so. Yes, because God has redeemed us and made us His own and has made us new creatures, we are no longer bound to the self-life, but can now live under the lordship and rule of Christ who lives in us. Now, everything we do, including our thought life, falls under His lordship, and we can say with Paul, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
Galatians 5:16: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
1 Corinthians 6:19: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
Blessings,
Buddy
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