CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
It is a truth of God’s Word that we are crucified, impaled on that cross with Him. I don’t understand that but I receive it as truth because He said it.
Paul seems to be in a quandary of thought here when he says “Nevertheless I live, yet not I.” How can I live if I have been crucified? The same way He lives after being crucified, He was resurrected and so am I to walk in the newness of live that only He can give— “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.” It’s obvious that Paul is still a living, breathing human being, still walking around in this body of death, however he has discovered the truth of Matthew 11:28-30 of resting in our Savior and allowing Him to do through us what He wants.
Satan will war tooth and nail to keep us from getting this truth, he wants to keep us so busy laboring over other things, (even church stuff sometimes) that we will totally miss the blessedness of resting in our Savior and will never learn to allow Christ to accomplish what He wants to do through us, things we think are impossible. For example, speaking to and removing mountains. When we are faced with a mountain in our lives we can do one of two things, try to climb over it (self effort) or remove it (faith effort). Many settle for the first option when their lives would be so much simpler if they would learn to use the indisputable authority that has been given us by our Savior to remove it (Mark 11:22-24). As Becky and I were talking the other day the Lord prompted us to remove a mountain of paralyzing doubt and fear that a friend of ours deals with about her salvation. To this day I don’t understand the dynamic of speaking to and removing mountains, by all human ways of looking at that, it sounds absurd but in the realm of our faith it is an exciting reality. Not only did we remove the mountain, we asked Him to fill the void where the mountain once stood with the light of His Word, the light of His truth, and the light of His love. We won’t ask Him again to deliver her from the doubt and fear (no need to mention something to Him that is removed) but we will continue to praise Him from this point for filling her mind with the very things that will produce the faith she needs to walk in the freedom that He has in store for her. As I was working on this particular part of this study I listened to a devotional on 1st John 5:14-15 and I am confident that we prayed according to His will for her, we know He heard us, and therefore we stand in that confidence that we have (not will have) the petitions we asked for—it is a done deal.