Crucifixion

Readings for today: Galatians 1-3

Galatians 2:20 is one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” For me, this verse sums up the Christian life. My old life has been crucified. Put to death. Executed. It is over. It is gone. It no longer has any power over me. It no longer has a hold on me. And every time it tries to rise from the grave - which it does daily for me - I must turn to Christ and let Him put it to death once more.

Classically, this is known as the “mortification of sin.” It is the Christian practice of daily “dying to self” or daily putting to death that which seeks to tempt me away from Christ. And while that sounds hard and painful and maybe even “unhealthy” in our therapeutic culture today, it is actually freeing. We are all born enslaved to Self. We are all born with an inward orientation. And when we are crucified with Christ, we are putting to death Self itself. It’s why Paul says, “I no longer live.” He literally means it! He no longer lives for Self. Self no longer has a hold on his life. He is now set free to live for Christ. And not only to live for Christ but to actually be filled with Christ. When we put to death the Self, we don’t become an empty shell. Christ literally comes to take up residence inside us and we now live our lives for Him.

There is nothing better than living for Christ. My own life is a testimony to this fact. There is no greater joy. No greater fulfillment. No greater honor than living for Christ. Serving Christ. Sacrificing all that I have and all that I am for Christ. Because I no longer live, I do not have to hold back. I don’t have to worry or be anxious or afraid. I don’t have to wonder about provision or protection because God is my Provider. God is my Shield. God is my Protector and the lifter of my head. This is what Christ understood even about Himself. He lived on the good and faithful promise of His Father to give Him all He needed when He needed it. The same is true for us. When we live for Christ, we live in complete and utter and profound freedom because there is nothing this world can do to us. Nothing this world can steal from us. Nothing this world can take from us. Our lives are hid with Christ in the heavenly places. Our lives are held by Christ in His hands. And He is faithful and true and just and merciful and we can trust Him.

When you think about what it means to be a Christian, does it include death? Does it include the crucifixion of the old life or is there still a part of you hanging on to who you once were? Trying to perfect in the flesh what God began in the Spirit? (Galatians 3:3) This was the issue at the heart of Paul’s confrontation with Peter. Peter was still hanging onto his Jewish identity. He was still beholden to what his fellow Jewish believers thought of him. He had not yet fully crucified his old way of life and it was creating division in the early church. What about you? Are you living like Peter or like Paul? Can you say with full assurance that you’ve been crucified with Christ and no longer live and Christ now lives in you?

Readings for tomorrow: Galatians 4-6

Political Pressure

Readings for today: Matthew 27:1-31, Mark 15:1-20, Luke 23:1-25, John 18:28-40, 19:1-16

Why did Jesus die? There are all kinds of answers. The most common answer is the theological one. Jesus died to take away the sins of the world. Jesus died in our place. Jesus died the death we deserved thus setting us free from the judgment of God. This is absolutely right and something every single Christian should affirm. However, it’s only part of the picture.

To the Jewish authorities of His day, Jesus died because of blasphemy. He committed the most serious religious offense one could possibly commit by setting Himself up as the Son of God. He claimed to forgive sin in addition to healing disease, casting out demons, and even raising the dead. He taught as one who had divine authority not as the other teachers of the Law. He even claimed to be equal to God. All of these things, plus His growing popularity, made Him a dangerous threat to the religious groups who were vying for public approval so they had Him killed.

To the Roman authorities of His day, Jesus died because of political expediency. It was simply easier to put Him to death than have to deal with the civic unrest caused by His arrest and secret trial. Pilate could find no fault with Him. Nothing that would require the death penalty. He even tries to pardon Jesus several times or appease the crowd by having Him scourged or release Him according to ancient custom. None of it will do. The crowd smells blood. The religious leaders threaten to report Pilate to Caesar. Herod is no help. So Pilate tries to wash his hands of the whole thing and give the people what they want. He makes the decision to have Jesus crucified.

To the disciples, Jesus died tragically. They didn’t know about the resurrection. They didn’t realize this was all part of God’s grand plan. All they knew was that their beloved rabbi was arrested at night, illegally tried and imprisoned, falsely accused, unjustly tortured and eventually executed. They were helpless to do anything about it. All they could do was stand by and watch as it all went down. Then they scattered in fear that the same thing might happen to them.

The death of Jesus is one of the clearest examples of how God uses everyday, ordinary means to accomplish His divine will. It was His will for Jesus to suffer and die on a cross. This was God’s plan from eternity. It’s foreshadowed in prophecy after prophecy from the Old Testament. There was nothing humanity could have done to delay or stop it from happening. At the same time, human beings made real choices along the way. We exercised our free will and God used the decisions we made to bring about His sovereign will. The Jewish leaders freely chose to accuse Jesus of blasphemy and bring political pressure to bear on Pilate. Pilate freely chose to cave to the pressure and condemn Jesus to death on a cross. The crowds freely chose to call for Jesus’ crucifixion. None of them were forced to make those decisions. None of them realized the gravity of their decisions until after the fact.

At the end of the day, Jesus had to die because God decreed it. And God decreed it because God’s great desire is to bring an end to the powers of sin and death. And God’s decree was necessary because humanity sinned and fell short of the glory God intended. So we are the ones who are ultimately responsible. It was our sin that put Him on the cross. It was for our sake that He died.

Readings for tomorrow: Matthew 27:32-66, Mark 15:21-47, Luke 23:26-56, John 19:17-42, Psalm 22