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Crucified with Christ by Serena Butler "I have been crucified with Christ." Paul wrote those words in his letter to the Galatians. You can find them in the second chapter. What was going through Paul’s mind as he wrote those words? Whether he wrote them with his own hand or dictated them to a scribe, I imagine they were difficult words for him. In order to fully understand this phrase, I think we have to have lived during the time when crucifixion was practiced. We have nothing in our American culture to compare to it. We sometimes try to compare it to the electric chair because that is the cruelest form of capital punishment we allow. However, I don’t think the electric chair remotely compares to what Christ went through as he was crucified. The electric chair is quick and relatively painless. Crucifixion, on the contrary, was long and very painful. Paul, I am sure, had witnessed at least one crucifixion during his lifetime. He had seen the cruelty and the humiliation associated with it. To be crucified meant to hang publicly, naked, for hours, as the world watched. You were nailed to the cross by your hands and feet, your naked body rubbing against the rough wood as you tried to catch your breath or relieve the stress on your joints. You had to contend with the swarming bugs, hot sun, and comments from the crowd. Many people hung in this agony and humiliation for hours before relief finally came in the form of death. "I have been crucified with Christ." Paul understood the physical pain of crucifixion, but Christ experienced more than just the physical pain. He suffered psychological pain through separation from His heavenly Father. He expressed this through crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This pain was probably worse than the physical pain. God the Father had been by Jesus’ side through every minute of His life. His Father had sent angels to minister to Him during His 40-day fast in the desert. He had given Jesus the strength to minister to the multitudes for three years. Through those three years, the Father had provided wisdom in confronting the religious leaders of the time. Now, during the most difficult time in His life, Jesus felt forsaken by His Father. Physical pain was accompanied by desertion. Then add to all of that, the spiritual battle that was waging. Satan and his demons were fighting the powers of heaven with all the strength they could muster. The eternal destiny of mankind hung in the balance as Jesus hung on the cross. There is no way that our human minds can grasp what Jesus Christ went through on that Friday afternoon. "I have been crucified with Christ." It was because of me and you that Jesus endured all that He experienced on the cross: the humiliation of being naked in a public place, the physical pain, the emotional separation from His Father, the spiritual warfare. Paul understood that. As Christ hung there, it was as though He wrapped all of our sinful lives around Him and took them to the cross. Paul made it personal, understanding that all of his sins were taken to the cross with Christ. Christ went to the cross so that Paul would not have to. Christ went to the cross so that none of us would have to. Paul, as we, had nothing else to offer except for our sinful lives. Without the saving act of the cross, we still have nothing but our sinful lives. But Christ took those lives to the cross and gave them the potential to be forgiven lives. You can trade in your sinful life for a holy, forgiven life, if you will just believe that Christ did all that He did for YOU. "WE have been crucified with Christ." If we read further in the letter, Paul brings out an interesting contrast. Galatians 3:27 says that if we choose to follow Christ we "clothe ourselves with Christ." At the cross, Christ wrapped our sinful lives around Himself and took them to the cross. In exchange, we get to put on Christ. We can wrap ourselves up in the holiness of Jesus Christ. I think that is an amazing trade. Our sin filled lives, for holy, pure, eternal lives. During the beatings, shipwrecks, and prison time, I think Paul thought about the price that Christ paid for him. It must have been what motivated him to keep on through all the trials he faced. It ought to be what motivates us to live our lives for Christ. When we remember all that Jesus endured for us, how can we refuse to live our lives for Him. My prayer is that I will be able to say, as Paul did, "I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." May I never forget that Christ took me to the cross with him. He paid the price for my sins. He went through the pain so that I wouldn’t have to. In exchange He gave me a new life. It is a life that I don’t deserve and can never earn. That is the greatest gift of all. May I never waste a single moment of my new life. And may I live every day showing others that they, too, can trade in their old lives for new.