daily crucifixion

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Galatians 6:14

A Christian lives with very changed affections. The power of the world system is supposed to no longer have attraction. It is dead. The cross of Jesus is now central in the Christian mindset and not the desires of the world, the desires of the flesh, or the pride of life. That stuff is to have been crucified with Christ as the Christian is raised to walk in new life.

That is what is SUPPOSED to be. But the reality of life is that we do still live in the world. Although all that past stuff died in Christ, we do still live, and so the second part of this little verse is also a reality for the believer. We must dies to the world as it has been crucified to us. We must kill in us any desire for that which pride, materialism, and sensuality may still stir within in us. Anything “not Jesus” needs to be brutally crucified. Jesus and and our sin guilt with Him. Yet in order to know the new life in His resurrection, we must also die to this world.

Lord Jesus,

The world has been crucified to me. This I know in Your cross. I must also be crucified to the world. This I must do by taking up Your cross and following. Help me then to live this way... seeing both sides of my daily crucifixion in Your cross! That shall be my goal. That shall be my hope. That shall be my only boast.

Amen