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 NIV
Crucified
Early in the morning of December 10, 1962, Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin still hoped they could avoid being marched to their deaths at midnight. Convicted of murder in separate cases, they were sentenced to hang at the Don Jail in Toronto. But there was reason to be optimistic. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had commuted most court-imposed death sentences to life imprisonment, and the cabinet’s decision on a last-minute appeal was pending. Many in Toronto’s legal, academic, and religious communities were lobbying intensely for the government to step in to reverse the judgment of the courts.
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We all understand that Jesus died on a cross. We focus on His crucifixion regularly – certainly on Good Friday and every time we share the Lord’s Supper. Developed as perhaps the most cruel of all forms of punishment and death, reports in our day tell of rare circumstances in war-torn regions of the country where it is still used. That is beyond our imagination. We can’t imagine facing such death. But followers of Christ are called to imagine it – and not only physical crucifixion in the life of Jesus. Paul the apostle writes this in Galatians 2:20: “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.” Followers of Jesus need to consider what Paul is speaking about here. We are called to lay down our lives for Him. Our old pre-Jesus life is gone forever, crucified on the cross of loving commitment to Him. Crucify the self today and rise to new life in Him.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley