I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20)
Inasmuch as we have been crucified with Christ legally, because God looks at us as if we had died with our Lord Jesus Christ, what I want to encourage you with today is to focus on living, not dying. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised from the dead with Him too. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that lives in us and is at work in us making us more and more like Christ.
The more we allow our Lord Jesus Christ to live in and through us, the more we become like Him. The more surrender to God’s will and submit to God’s Word, the more we are “being transformed into His image with every increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). This process is known as sanctification, and it takes place throughout the entire life of the Christian. It does not happen in a day, but daily, moment by moment, as we cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
When the apostle Paul said, “Christ lives in me,” he was reminding us that we become more like Jesus through inhabitation, not imitation. Through the choices we make in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we begin to do, think, and say, what God wants us to do, think, and say. In the strength of the Almighty, we have the power to say ‘Yes’ to the things we must say ‘Yes’ to and ‘No’ to the things we must say ‘No’ to. Paul gives us another reminder to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13).
Remember, Paul is not warning us we can lose our salvation. Once saved, always saved. We are not to live in nervousness and anxiety. What he is saying is we are to pursue what we are practically through obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit, what we already are positionally, because Christ lives in us.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 