I died...

Strange title I know…let’s just dive in and explore the following quote a bit:

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

I understood this quote from the Bible in a whole new way this week than I have previously. I’ll do my best to get it across to you. Read all the way through so you can get the whole idea. There is probably more that I don’t understand yet, but this much just became so clear to me that I have to share it with you.

Basically, in short, I died.

That reminds me of a quote from “Finding Nemo”, where Marlin says, “I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I died I’m dead.” (He of course was not dead, but I am.) Okay, let me try to clarify: I’m not a ghost or anything like that. My body is still functioning. My brain is still active. I still have emotions and so on. Looking at me you probably couldn’t tell anything is different- unless I act or talk differently. I could say the change is more unseen.

I guess the change is partly in the way I look at life, and how I respond to it. For example, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about me. I don’t have to be intimidated by anyone or anything because it’s not me and it’s not about me.

Instead of me living my own life however I want, it is Jesus Christ that lives through me. It’s not about me; it’s about Him. I can be completely surrendered to God. (Though there may be some other things I’m not aware of right now, I have surrendered everything I know of…and when God shows other areas to me, I’ll surrender those areas too.) I can do whatever God says because it’s Him in me. It’s His power giving me the ability to do what He says.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

It may sound strange, but it is amazingly freeing to completely give up control to God. It’s not up to me to figure out how I will do what He tells me to do. I can just trust Him. For example, if God told me to pray for you to be healed, it’s not about me nor is it my own power that would heal you. It is God’s power flowing through me. When I’m completely surrendered it’s like I’m a water pipe that is clean- nothing blocking the water flow- and God can just flow through me. (My pastor has been mentioning this idea a lot in his sermons lately.)

All this, my dying and Christ living in me, didn’t really happen this week. I wasn’t crucified with Christ this week. I just understood it so much better this week. It really all happened long ago. When Jesus was crucified, I was too. When I was born again I died and was born into the Kingdom of God. (You can find out more about being born again in “The Bride” post.)

Why am I telling you all this? Well, this was so monumental to me that I want to share it with you. You can completely surrender your life to Christ and experience His life in you too. I’m not at all suggesting that you commit suicide. Please, don’t even consider it! God has such an amazing plan for your life! What I’m talking about it completely different. I hope you can see that from what I’ve written. If you haven’t COMPLETELY surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, join me, and many others, in this new life of Christ living in you.

“To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27, emphasis added.)

If you’d like to go deeper into this topic or if you have questions, let me know.