DCLM Higher Everyday 22 April 2024 — Crucified with Christ
Topic: Crucified with Christ
Text: Galatians 2:17-21
17But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20I 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.
21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Key Verse: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Galatians 2:20).
Message
To live a crucified life, Christian youths must fully surrender to Christ. The journey to being crucified with Christ begins with our decision to follow Christ entirely. Jesus admonished His disciples to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him. In his book, Divine Conquest, A. W. Tozer said, “The cross where Jesus died became also the cross where His apostles died. The loss, the rejection, the shame, belong both to Christ and all who in very truth are His.”
Being crucified with Christ is to be dead to sin. Just as a dead man is not moved by anything around him, a crucified youth is not moved by the allurements of the world around him. The issue of crucifixion with Christ takes a central place in our walk with God. Paul warned us not to build again the things which we have destroyed because to do so would be to frustrate the grace of God brought to us through the death of Christ. It takes self-denial, and dependence on Christ to walk with God in crucifixion.
Quote: Be dead to sin.
Challenge: Consecrate your life, your all to Christ.
Prayer for today: O God, I surrender all in Jesus’ name.
1. Admit that you are a sinner. "For all [humans] have sinned, and comes short of the glory of God....[and] the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 3:23)
2. Repent now. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ...[for] if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness " (Acts 3:19, 1 John 1:9)
3. Believe that God loves you and Jesus died for you. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
4. Invite Jesus into your life through prayer of faith. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20)
