Post by Leeza on Apr 8, 2015 9:09:20 GMT
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
What does that mean? How can a person be crucified with Christ?
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Romans 6:5-8
For years, I could not understand what it meant for us to die with Christ. Oh, I understood it from an intellectual level, of course. When I was baptized, I was buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 When I was submerged into the water, I understood that to mean, "down with the old man, up with the new one." That's what I was taught. But I never knew what that meant.
I've been a Christian for 43 years. And you know what? All that time I did not know what those verses meant. How do you "die to self"? How do you put that into application? The flesh is battling against the spirit, with the body being wracked with addictions, uncontrollable appetites, the lust of the flesh, the besetting sin that overtakes you that you want to control but cannot? It's the principle of Romans 7:22-25
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
The answer is in Romans 7:25
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Yes, Christ is the answer. But how do you apply that to your life? What do you do when you have tried everything that you know and nothing works?
Do you know when I finally figured that out? When I became disabled, then consequently when I was dying in the hospital last year. I had no strength left. I was stripped of just about everything. I had lost my independence, my finances, my ability to take care of myself, and the things and people I thought that I could not live without. The things I took for granted, I could no longer do for myself, like grocery shopping, preparing meals, even taking out the trash. I always had taken a lot of pride from the fact that I pulled myself up by the bootstraps from my humble beginnings....until I figured out that I no longer had bootstraps to pull up. I learned to depend on the Lord and caregivers for everything, including helping me take take a shower when my knee became permanently damaged to the point where I could no longer get up and down without hand rails in the shower, or without a specialized toilet seat, or walk without a walker.
I asked the Lord years ago to mold me and make me into the kind of person He wanted me to be. I wanted Him to mold me into the image of Jesus. Well, I got more than I bargained for. He answered that prayer all right, but not in the way that I expected. I learned obedience by what I had suffered. I learned to put my will aside and what I wanted and conformed myself to His will. ".....No longer I who lives, but Christ in me." I discovered what it meant to put myself aside and obey whatever the Lord wanted me to do. I started consulting the Lord in everything...."should I do this, Lord? Should I do that? What should I do in this circumstance? Should I walk to the right side or to the left?"
And I discovered something else. The Lord taught me that living the Christian life is both hard and easy. The hard part is giving up our stubborn will and giving it over to the Lord. The easy part is when we do, we learn to desire what the Lord wills for us, and we learn to obey. Once we get to that point in our lives, then life becomes so much easier for us, because since the Lord knows what is best for us, we ask Him to make the major decisions in life as we learn the principle of John 15:4 Abide in me, and I will abide in you. Just as the branch cannot produce fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
What does it mean to "die to self"? It means that we give up our will and our desires and give them to the Lord and ask Him to live through us. Once we do that, our lives become much easier. We are no longer in charge, Christ is. He steers the ship, not us. That is what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 11:29-30: Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Yes it is. Thank You, Jesus, that I no longer have to carry this load anymore.
What does that mean? How can a person be crucified with Christ?
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Romans 6:5-8
For years, I could not understand what it meant for us to die with Christ. Oh, I understood it from an intellectual level, of course. When I was baptized, I was buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 When I was submerged into the water, I understood that to mean, "down with the old man, up with the new one." That's what I was taught. But I never knew what that meant.
I've been a Christian for 43 years. And you know what? All that time I did not know what those verses meant. How do you "die to self"? How do you put that into application? The flesh is battling against the spirit, with the body being wracked with addictions, uncontrollable appetites, the lust of the flesh, the besetting sin that overtakes you that you want to control but cannot? It's the principle of Romans 7:22-25
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
The answer is in Romans 7:25
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Yes, Christ is the answer. But how do you apply that to your life? What do you do when you have tried everything that you know and nothing works?
Do you know when I finally figured that out? When I became disabled, then consequently when I was dying in the hospital last year. I had no strength left. I was stripped of just about everything. I had lost my independence, my finances, my ability to take care of myself, and the things and people I thought that I could not live without. The things I took for granted, I could no longer do for myself, like grocery shopping, preparing meals, even taking out the trash. I always had taken a lot of pride from the fact that I pulled myself up by the bootstraps from my humble beginnings....until I figured out that I no longer had bootstraps to pull up. I learned to depend on the Lord and caregivers for everything, including helping me take take a shower when my knee became permanently damaged to the point where I could no longer get up and down without hand rails in the shower, or without a specialized toilet seat, or walk without a walker.
I asked the Lord years ago to mold me and make me into the kind of person He wanted me to be. I wanted Him to mold me into the image of Jesus. Well, I got more than I bargained for. He answered that prayer all right, but not in the way that I expected. I learned obedience by what I had suffered. I learned to put my will aside and what I wanted and conformed myself to His will. ".....No longer I who lives, but Christ in me." I discovered what it meant to put myself aside and obey whatever the Lord wanted me to do. I started consulting the Lord in everything...."should I do this, Lord? Should I do that? What should I do in this circumstance? Should I walk to the right side or to the left?"
And I discovered something else. The Lord taught me that living the Christian life is both hard and easy. The hard part is giving up our stubborn will and giving it over to the Lord. The easy part is when we do, we learn to desire what the Lord wills for us, and we learn to obey. Once we get to that point in our lives, then life becomes so much easier for us, because since the Lord knows what is best for us, we ask Him to make the major decisions in life as we learn the principle of John 15:4 Abide in me, and I will abide in you. Just as the branch cannot produce fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
What does it mean to "die to self"? It means that we give up our will and our desires and give them to the Lord and ask Him to live through us. Once we do that, our lives become much easier. We are no longer in charge, Christ is. He steers the ship, not us. That is what Jesus meant when He said in Matthew 11:29-30: Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Yes it is. Thank You, Jesus, that I no longer have to carry this load anymore.