I’ve Been Crucified with Christ
By Jennifer Slattery
“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.” Galatians 2:20
For nearly a decade, I lived as if my salvation depended on me. I could explain grace to anyone else. I could insert their name into verses telling of God’s immense mercy and love and assure them, with all honesty, that their worst sins wouldn’t drive Him away.
But I struggled to own those truths. To truly rest in grace. I knew, through faith in Christ, I’d received my “get out of hell free” card, but I behaved as if I had to continually earn His favor or prove my devotion. The pressure and sense of defeat was crippling.
One evening in the middle of worship, I fell to my knees and cried out to Him, “What do you want from me?”
God’s response, spoken to the depths of my heart: You.
That was it. He wanted me. All of me, laid at His feet, crucified to my will and all my attempts to reach Him in my own strength so that I could rest fully in His grace.
Paul, the author who wrote today’s verse, had reached that same place. Prior to trusting in Christ for salvation, he’d spent a lifetime trying to earn God’s favor. He’d followed the law fastidiously and had even persecuted those he once believed opposed it. But nothing he did brought him any closer to God. It was only when he died to himself and his efforts to keep the law that he found freedom and grace.
Focused on the cross and relying on it to do what Paul, through all his striving, couldn’t, he “died” spiritually in order to experience new life through Christ.
To rest in Him, I needed to learn to do the same. To say, daily, “I’ve been crucified. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, releasing in the spring/summer of 2019. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall outings with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit her online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
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Originally published Sunday, 07 July 2019.
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