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
No Longer Living
St. Matthew’s Church in Quebec City, today a city library, dates back to the 1870s. It replaced a stone chapel built in 1849 that the many Anglicans living in this part of town had outgrown. The graveyard surrounding it is older still. Opened in 1772 it boasts what is probably the province’s oldest gravestone. After New France was handed over to England in 1763, the need to bury Christians of different denominations in separate graveyards led the British government to acquire a plot of land on Chemin Saint-Jean where Anglicans—and later Presbyterians—would be buried.
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There is something fascinating about visiting a cemetery. As I wander through, I wonder about the lives of those who have ended up in that cemetery – what does that dash between the birth and death dates represent. All of us, until Jesus returns, will die – some sooner than others. It’s interesting that the apostle Paul takes this thought and uses it to drive home a really important spiritual lesson. In Galatians 2:20 he writes, “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.” Paul says that the moment he met Jesus, he died – died to self, to sin, to the old life, to pride, to self-reliance, to the old nature – I could go on and on. From that moment on, the life of Jesus took up residence in Paul – and it does for all of us who have trusted Christ. He now lives His life through us. What a thought.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley