Galatians 3:1 "You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified."
This verse was puzzling me the other day. Will brought it to my mind and said, "I don't think the Galatians were even there! It is a really long journey to Jerusalem." We both laughed but the implied question, "What is Paul talking about?" bothered me. Will was right, by foot Galatia is some, 6,000 miles away from where Jesus was crucified. So what could Paul mean by this? Surely the Galatians were not witnesses of the crucifixion? Or where they...?
Simply put, Paul is talking about the power of the cross in your daily life. The same thing Jesus meant when He said, "Take up your cross daily and follow me." You may not realize that Paul was crucified long before he faced death in Rome. See for yourself just a few verses earlier in Galatians chapter two verse twenty he says, "I have been crucified with Christ," and that is exactly how we make sense of what Paul was referring to in in chapter three.
The New Testament teaches us of the power of the cross in your daily life; that is why I chose to write this note. But, before I unfold this message, first let me ask you a question. Do you believe there is a cross for you to take up today? Is the cross a thing of the past for you? Is it something that Jesus did two thousand years ago that doesn't effect your present life?
It is a popular belief in our day in age that Jesus paid for our sin, and if we accept that we are done with our struggle and sin has no effect on us anymore. The problem with that is it's not true for anyone who has been a Christian for more then an hour. What do we do when sin is crouching at our door? Or rather what do we do when sin appears to be safer then the path of pursuing God? I mean let's face it there are a lot of times when sin just seems like the best option. Here is an example. I live near the railroad. Imagine you are walking down a railroad track that travels as far as you can see, and you have been there so long it has become quite comfortable to you. You hear a train is coming, but you don't see it and are not sure how far away it is. People have told you over and over if you don't get off the tracks, before the train comes, you will die, and you in your heart believe that is true even though you have never actually seen someone get run over by the train, nonetheless it seems terrifyingly logical and quite painful. So you suddenly feel the urge to get off the tracks, and when you look to your left and to your right somehow you have come to the middle of a large lake that has a thin layer of ice over the top. Or at least the ice seems thin enough to you that you wouldn't want to press your luck. Every now and then you step off the track and the ice doesn't shatter but still doesn't seem perfectly safe either, so you jump right back on the train track again. You often see, on your right hand, a minister and a friend standing on the ice saying, "It's OK. Come off the tracks before that train hits you! You have no need to fear death on this side. Come to the right side and make your journey with us. We don't belong on those tracks and we certainly won't be on this ice forever. Come! For Jesus has shown us a path that is narrow, slippery, and hard, but promises us it will lead to Him and He has satisfied our souls desires!" However, no matter what they say you still don't trust that ice, and find yourself in a predicament. It's not that you don't trust Jesus you just don't trust the ice! The train whistle blows and you realize you must make a decision soon. Now, you look to your left and there is a carnival. Many people ice fishing, skating, and dancing around. They are so comfortable for they have become so distracted with their party they forgot about the train and the ice all together. They call to you and say, "Come make your home with us! We can fashion an igloo out of the snow and put a fire in it for warmth. With so many of us here there really is nothing we aren't capable of doing." Your tempted to go, but you realize with so many of them standing there that when the train comes by it will surely break the ice apart with its turbulence causing everyone to fall in and die. You begin to hate walking on the tracks all the more but you at least accept that when you die, and die you will, that you will ultimately find God anyways it's just a matter of time. What do you do? You may fall through on the right, and it would be miserable to walk on down that icy cold path. It has no promise of immediate security. You will be run over by the train if you stay on the tracks. And the train will probably cause ice on both sides to crack and shatter when it comes through anyway. Are you in a no win situation? Sometimes life for a Christian can be like that if you let it. You are struggling on a path of sin that you have been struggling with for quite some time. Maybe for you it's control. Control is the railroad track, and you know Romans eight says, "Sow to the flesh and you will die." But it seems as though if you give God control, and go to the right hand side of the railroad He probably will allow you suffer in this life. He might take your job, a family member, take your house, take your reputation, your money. You know the left side of the track is a dead end, but it promises control contingent upon a thin layer of ice so you would be constantly worrying about the ice breaking anyways... We must trust Jesus' call to the hard and narrow path. Close your eyes and jump! Run as fast and as hard as you can down the path on the right! It will be tricky and you may fall and get hurt, but this is the path that leads to life.
Now, there is more to it then that. Every inkling you have to go back to the tracks must be put to death. Through Christ Jesus we don't have to fear death, and we are no longer slaves to sin. This does not mean that sin doesn't call to us, or allure us with a sweet perfume. You may feel the need to take control again, as a Christian even, and this need for control must be crucified. Don't forget the power of the cross in your daily life! We must embrace, with humility, crucifixion of our flesh, and when we do this we witness the power of God. Paul gives us two great examples of this power that comes through crucifixion. One in First Corinthians, "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross be emptied of its power." It appears here that the cross can be emptied of its power, and apparently if Paul preaches in his flesh and leans on his eloquence he will accomplish just that.
He goes on to mention, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God." "23 We preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles but to those who believe the power of God and the wisdom of God." He couldn't make it any more clear then he does in chapter two, "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." Paul acted and spoke in such a way that he could say, "I purposed to know nothing but the cross." He crucified eloquent words, lofty speech, and wisdom! And by crucifying his flesh he demonstrated the power of God.
Paul in 2 Timothy chapter three seems to hint at a power or a lack thereof because men refuse to crucify the desires of the flesh, "But understand this, that in the last days... people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power."
The "power" being denied here is probably more, but no less, then the power that comes from taking up your cross! There is zero crucifixion happening in their life. They, over and over, give in to the flesh. This lifestyle is selfish. They have emptied the cross of its power in their life because they are lovers of pleasure.
If you find yourself going back to the train tracks, and finding comfort on the path of sin that gives of an illusion of safety, you must crucify it. Someone is probably going to offend you today, your pride may be revealed today, your security might be taken from you tomorrow what will you do? Fight back? Feed your pride? Put your trust in something else? Be a crucified father, crucified mother, brother or sister. Kill your pride! Your wife offends you; lay down your sword. Be something salty for the world to taste when they persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of false things against you for My names sake. Take it to the cross when your best friend lets you down, big time, and say with Paul, "we carry around in our bodies the death of Christ, so the life of Jesus may be manifest in our mortal bodies."
Do you love to pleasure your flesh?
Or do you let the cross crucify the desires of your flesh?
Do you have a form of godliness but deny its power?
Or will you demonstrate the power of God through the humility of being crucified to the world?
I say join Paul and be crucified with Christ, so the life you life in the flesh is in faith in the Son of God who loves you and gave Himself up for you; then you can say to the people who have seen you live your life,
"Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified before your very eyes, because you saw me."
I have much to say about this in weeks to come, but for now let us purpose our hearts to make no provision for the flesh and to be crucified to the world and the world to us. That we, by sharing in His sufferings and becoming like Him in His death, may also then know the power of His resurrection.
