Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria Grace for Living Devotional Wednesday September 27, 2023 TOPIC: I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED

BIBLE READING:

GALATIANS 2:17-21

17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. 18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 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. 21 I 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  

MEDITATION:

P.T. Forsyth in his book, ‘The Cruciality of the Cross,’ opined that “Christ is to us just what His cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what he did there Christ, I repeat, is to us just what his cross is. You do not understand Christ till you understand his cross.” This, indeed, is the heart of Christianity, the firm foundation of faith in Christ. Until this becomes true in a person’s life, defeat and failure are guaranteed because in our flesh, dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18).   

Being crucified with Christ means that I no longer live according to the sinful lusts and desires of my flesh – I no longer commit what I know to be sin, wilfully, and consciously. Sin in my flesh has been nailed to the cross by faith, and now by faith, I can fight the good fight of faith, like Apostle Paul said, and lay hold on eternal, overcoming life, and grow tired of myself.   

The grace to say ‘no’ whenever tempted is also a great revealer of a crucified life. To agree with temptation would be the same as coming down from the cross. We enter into life through all sorts of temptations. We must therefore be able to say, ‘no’ to our self-will as well, be faithful in this and make no exceptions whatsoever.   

The last time you were able to say ‘no’ to sin and temptation, how did you feel?  

PRAYER:

Oh Lord, help me to daily sing, ‘I no longer live, Jesus lives in me.’

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:

PROVERBS 31, 2 CORINTHIANS 13