“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20). What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? Imagine that we are nailed to the cross - not a cross similar to the one upon which Jesus was crucified, but nailed to the exact same cross. And what’s more, nailed to Jesus’ while He’s still up there. Thus our hands and our feet are pierced not only just as His hands and feet were, but the same nails run through our hands and through His hands and then into the cross. Thus our hands are bound and affixed to Jesus’ hands, and our feet our bound and affixed to Jesus’ feet. A crown of thorns upon our head tangles our thoughts with His thoughts. A spear thrust through our side and His side knits our hearts together as one. As we are crucified with Christ, we walk the same path that He walks, because our feet are nailed to His feet. Our hands are busy with the work of Salvation because our hands are fastened to His hands. Satan wants us to believe that our pains and sufferings and persecutions and afflictions are a wedge driven between us and Christ, a reason to doubt and distrust and forsake our Savior, just as our pain is undeniable evidence of His abandonment of us. But those big scary pieces of metal are not wedges that separate us from Christ but nails that bind us ever more tightly to Him. With every stab of pain and sorrow, we have the opportunity to affix ourselves ever more firmly to our Savior Jesus Christ. All of us would rather avoid the cross if we could, but for those of us who are willing to be crucified with Christ, we will find that we are connected and bound and sealed to Him far more inextricably than we ever might have imagined.
