Since crucifixion isn’t a popular form of punishment anymore, how can we be crucified with Christ? This devotion looks at what is being crucified and how we accomplish that.
Nuggets
- Christ is the start of our reconciliation with God.
- Baptism is the symbol of our conversion experience, providing the physical evidence that we have died and been buried to sin and have risen in a new spiritual life with Jesus.
- We are crucified with Christ when we suffer with Him.
- We are no longer responsible for the penalty of sin.
This devotion is coming out on Palm Sunday. It is based on a Sunday Morning Bible Study lesson my ladies and I are not going to get to have.
I picked out these verses from Romans 6 because they talk about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Starting in the next devotion, we are going to stop our What I Believe series and talk about the seven sayings Jesus said on the cross. I was glad to see this as kind of a set-up.
Although, I did tell my sister tonight that I had originally planned to start the Easter series with this devotion instead of the next one. Oh, well. That is for another devotion/another day.
Let’s see what we can get out of this one. It seems funny that we could be crucified with Jesus. That really isn’t a popular form of punishment anymore. So, how can we be crucified?
Let's Put It into Context
“Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6: 4 CSB)
Paul starts off the sixth chapter of Romans by asking if disciples are given a license to sin now that they have been forgiven. His answer was an emphatic no!
Paul used the symbolism of baptism to describe how we are now dead to our old way of life — one controlled by our sinful nature. He goes on to explain why by using Jesus’ death on the cross to illustrate.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
United in His Likeness
“For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rom. 6: 5 KJV)
I love how the King James Version translates this as “for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death …” (Rom. 6: 5 KJV). Okay. Planted.
Well, Jesus did give that analogy Himself. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15: 5 NIV).
Jesus likened Himself to the root of the plant — the foundation. Plants generally start by forming roots.
Christ is the start of our reconciliation with God. “… I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14: 6 NLT).
I think sometimes we focus too much on growing our plant parts. We don’t really concentrate on growing our root parts.
If we concentrate just on what we see, we can get top heavy. There is this disconnect between the body and the Source of life.
Oh, I know. We have been told since we were knee-high to a bullfrog that we have to be the best people that we can be.
No. We need to be the people that God calls us to be. He calls us to be rooted and grounded in Him.
Glossary
When it is talking about the likeness of His resurrection, it is talking about baptism. Baptism is, according to the Holman Bible Dictionary, “the immersion or dipping of a believer in water symbolizing the complete renewal and change in the believer’s life and testifying to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the way of salvation.”
Resource
Baptism is the symbol of our conversion experience, providing the physical evidence that we have died and been buried to sin and have risen in a new spiritual life with Jesus. But it is more than just a dunk or dip and go.
Paul said we are “… united with him …” (Rom. 6: 5 CSB). God is after a character change. We are to imitate Jesus.
What united us with Jesus in the first place? Faith. Faith is the belief that the doctrines stated in God’s Word are true, even if we do not understand all aspects of them.
Dykes had a really interesting discussion on how any change that occurs in us today can be described as an imitation of Christ. He asked a good question: “Was [Christ’s death] not, to begin with, the first full recognition ever made on this earth of the guilt of sin, and of the integrity of the law?”
Resource
Oh, yes. The Old Testament characters knew they sinned. “Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have done wrong and have acted wickedly” (Ps. 106: 6 CSB).
What Jesus did was say something could be done about it. He said sin was wrong, and God’s law was right and just.
Up to that point, no one could do anything about paying the penalty for sin. No one was worthy.
Enter Jesus. He was the only Person in history or in the future Who is a worthy sacrifice.
When we make a confession of faith, we are saying, “Jesus, You were right. Sin is wrong and can be defeated by You.” Once sin is snapped in us, we can grow to be even better imitators of Jesus.
Glossary
The Old Man, But Not in the Mirror
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6: 6 CSB)
Ever since Adam and Eve committed the original sin, we are born into our sinful, physical nature. “What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later” (I Cor. 15: 46 NLT). That is what is considered our “old self.”
Rainsford gave a good description of what our sinful nature is. He wrote that is “simply our natural self, with all its principles and motives, its outgoings, actions, corruptions, and belongings; not as God made it, but as sin, and Satan, and self have marred it.”
We are crucified with Christ when we suffer with Him. That entails the following:
- We sentence sin to death and execute it by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
- We strive to grow in grace and knowledge so that we can imitate Him.
- We make this decision of our own free will.
Did you also catch that there is a distinction between “… our old self [and] … the body ruled by sin …” (Rom. 6: 6 CSB)? The first is talking about us. The second is talking about sin itself.
Paul actually says that “… so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless …” (Rom. 6: 6 CSB). Sin infects the whole body.
Just as the body has many parts, so too sin has many aspects. The thing is, is that sin has to be completely conquered. Not compromised. Not improved.
Sin has to be completely eradicated. Sin’s hold on us has to be broken.
That takes time — the rest of our lifetimes, in fact. That is one of the reasons we go through sanctification. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul beginning with regeneration and ending with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Our old natures were crucified with Christ. If you have ever watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, the movie gives us a pretty good idea of what all crucifixion entailed.
It wasn’t pretty.
It was painful.
It was necessary. Sin had to be destroyed, and Jesus said He was the Man for the job.
Did you catch it? There is a distinction between old and new. The distinction is Jesus and our imitation of Him.
Vinke put it this way. He wrote, “Man’s nature is from God; but the corruption of man’s nature is from himself.”
That means we have to work to imitate Jesus. It will not come easy in this world.
Free Indeed
“since a person who has died is freed from sin” (Rom. 6: 7 KJV)
Oh, yes. We can still sin because we are still in these sinful, physical bodies.
Thank You, sweet Jesus, that isn’t where we have to remain. “When God speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear” (Heb. 8: 13 NLT). Upon conversion, we now have a spiritual, sinless nature.
We are freed from sin.
We are not only freed from sin, but we are also justified through Christ. Justification means the act of making something righteous before God.
We are no longer responsible for the penalty of sin. Because of that, it no longer has a hold on us.
We just think it does. How many times do we tell ourselves, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” (Rom. 7: 24 NLT). Satan does a good job getting us to doubt that we have been forgiven.
When we believe, we have to believe it all. Yes, Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus rose. But also I was a sinner, Jesus died for me, God forgive me, I am a new me.
We are new creations. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (II Cor. 5: 17 NLT).
We were given have our spiritual nature, too, upon conversion. Spurgeon described it like this: “Every Christian has a new nature which was implanted in him through the Spirit’s working. That new nature utterly hates and loathes evil …”
Our spiritual nature can’t sin. “… The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, and there will no longer be any curse …” (Rev. 22: 2-3 CSB).
So, we have these two natures running around inside of us. Neither is going to give up the struggle, and there should be no compromise.
Making the Connections
If Christ hadn’t have died, there would have been no payment for our sins. We would still be alienated from God.
Since Christ died – since He willingly died for us – His blood served as payment for our sins. Once we admit our sins, believe is Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer, and confess God as ur Sovereign Lord, we have complete access to God.
We couldn’t do it by ourselves. We needed Jesus’ blood as the sacrifice.
It is all about grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers.
How Do We Apply This?
I absolutely laughed out loud at what Spurgeon wrote. He said, “Fight with your sins. Hack them in pieces …” He is absolutely true.
We either have to put our sins to death, or we will die in our sins. It is an either/or proposition.
The day is coming soon when there won’t be any more time to make a decision for Christ. Once time is up, our decisions have been made — and it is a no.
A no means no heaven, no contentment, no reward.
Don’t be a no person.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Father God. We humbly come, thanking You for the plan of salvation. Thank You, Jesus, for being our substitute. We submit ourselves to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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