Three years ago I was sitting at a night service when the leader explained how we needed to see ourselves as, “dead in Christ.” He said, “Every night I go to sleep I imagine I am in a funeral coffin. I am dead, but Christ lives.” Now I have heard a lot of sermons about how we have died with Christ and are alive in Christ, but never again will I want to picture myself in a coffin! He made us close our eyes and picture that coffin… I said to myself, “No! I want to live I don’t want to think about being in a coffin.” I remember being sleepy when I got in the building, but when he made us close our eyes, the last thing I wanted to do again was fall asleep and subconsciously wake up in a coffin. This brings up an interesting thought, what does Galatians 2:20 mean when it says the following:
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
Have you ever heard, “You’re a dead man walking?” This is funny isn’t it? People say, “I’m just a dead man walking.” What does that mean when you say you’re a dead man walking? These are phrases that always confused me. Are you dead or are you alive? So, when the Bible says, “we are crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) what does that actually mean?
The Holy Spirit wrote that your we were crucified, but praise God, Jesus did not stay in the tomb. No, He rose again, and so did you! All of the evil you, is dead. Do you see the difference? All of our sin was crucified. Jesus isn’t going to die again, so he did it, “once and for all” (1 Peter 3:18). He died and the sin went with him, but when He rose again the sin wasn’t with Him! Now we are dead to sin.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. – Romans 6:11
We are dead to the sin nature that once held us captive. We have been set free. So we are alive. Galatians 2:20 does not say you were crucified and stayed dead. This verse is saying that we were crucified, and now we are alive with Christ! Like water baptism, we were crucified at the cross, and then we were raised with Him to live in the Spirit. The old man is gone, the new man is here. Me and Jesus get to ride the road of life forever together. I’m not a dead man walking; I am an alive man running.
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