Quote:
Originally Posted by countmeworthy
Bringing it closer to home, I had the darnest time figuring out Galatians 2:20 meant when I was in the LC back in the 70s. Remember, we did not watch TV, listen to the radio, read only newspaper headlines, went to meeting after meeting, called 'on the Lord' repeatedly, perpetually, incessantly, and monotonously. AND we dressed alike.
So what was the need to teach Galatians 2:20? We had left everything far, far behind us.
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I think that the answer is in looking at the very words used by Paul. He did not admonish the Galatians to have an experience of being crucified with Christ. He used himself as an example. He was already crucified with Christ. "I have been." Not "I am being" or "I must continually be."
The death that was required was satisfied by Christ. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Yes. We all were. That death eliminated the requirement of death for those who believe.
But circumcision was an OT sign that death was required. Similar to the sacrifices, circumcision reflects the cutting away of our sin, and even a sort of symbol of death. Part of us dies. But since Christ dealt with the need for death, there is no need for circumcision.
All of the formulas for how we can do what Galatians 2:20 doesn't actually tell us to do are nonsense. That is my point. Galatians 2:20 does not instruct us to do anything. It is one of those "this is what Christ has done" declarations. Like our initial salvation, we cannot do the dying for our sins (unless we remain unrepentant and just die in our sins).
The life I now live is something that occurs after taking for myself the fact of the finished work of Christ in his crucifixion.
You may have had some important and significant experiences. But they are not what it means to be crucified with Christ. People who don't have those particular experiences may read and then wonder whether they have actually been crucified with Christ. Not because they have failed to believe, but because they did not do whatever it was that someone suggested was their own being, or the formula to be, crucified with Christ.
In the end, the things that we must do and how we do them are less specific that most of the kinds of things that we so often focus on. While it is not quite this open, I am reminded of the closing scenes of Back to the Future - Part III, where Elizabeth Shue holds out a picture that has become blank. While the words said are not really on point, the notion that what it is that our lives will engage in to carry out our destiny as God's image bearers on this earth during this age is not written gives me much comfort. We are not just supposed to do specific things that have been defined in code within the pages of scripture. We are supposed to live the obedient life in everything that we do. We are not supposed to be crucified — it has already happened. We are not supposed to wait for enough dispensing to be righteous, we already have everything we need for it (and for godliness).
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
This is not an argument about how to deal with being crucified, or "taking the cross." It is a different view of what is said and what we are to do because of it. And being crucified does not seem to be one of the actual commands to us. But walking according to the Spirit is. But obedience is. Righteousness is. Justice is. Love is.