ENJOY SOME HOT COCOA WITH ME, JESUS SAYS

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives 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. Galatians 2:20

The brisk air, the snow at our feet, the ice we need to chip off our windshields make a cup of hot cocoa sound so good.  Just the warmth of holding a hot mug and the refreshing steam that warms our cheeks make it very inviting.  Jesus wants to share a cup with us and he is going to do so through the wonderful words of Paul as he wrote to the church at Galatia.

I have been crucified with Christ, he says so he has been co crucified.  Co means together as in the words, cooperate, collaborate, cotangent that is an adjoining angle, coverage that means to include or coupled.  When those barbaric Romans crucified Christ on that rugged cross, Paul writes that he was co-crucified with him.  Both Paul and Christ were crucified.  Christ was co-crucified with us and we were co-crucified with him.  Christ rose from the grave too so we were co-resurrected with him too, for we read in Romans 6:9,

Christ rose from the dead and will never die again.            

We were crucified with him and resurrected with him as well. We didn’t go to Golgotha with Christ.  Our sin nature seems so alive, it’s kicking, causing us to do the things we don’t want to do.  Paul writes it as follows in Romans 7:15,

For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practice.

          So Paul is saying that we no doubt feel all of the time.  I want to live right; I want to not sin but my sinful man within, my sinful nature makes me do the things I don’t want to do.  This means we need to be co crucified with Christ.  How does this happen?  Paul writes the answer in his letter to the Romans, the very people that were responsible for crucifying Christ, with whom we must be co crucified.  In Romans 6:6, he writes the following;

Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.

Paul writes the same words to the church at Galatia in Galatians 5:24,

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their corrupt nature along with its passions and desires.

Notice that this is written to Christians, those that belong to Christ so this is an action that must take place after we are born again.

Paul writes that we must know it.  To know something means to recognize it, be familiar with, be aware of.  Paul continues his discourse by writing (Romans 7:16) that we can choose our own master.   We can choose sin, with death as the result or obedience with acquittal, which is freedom.

Now, having got your freedom from sin, ye have become bondmen to righteousness. Romans 7:18

          Paul than goes into a lengthy discourse on how we are bound by the law of marriage for as long as the husband is alive, the woman is bound by the law to her husband, but when he dies, she is free from the law that binds he to her husband, Romans 7:1-3

The husband, he writes, used to be the Jewish law but we are free, no longer married to the law.  We died, as it were with Christ on the cross, co crucified and therefore we no longer are married to the law but now we are married, so to speak to the one that rose form the dead.  Now we can serve Christ, not mechanically following a set of laws but rather in a new way, with all our hearts and minds, Romans 7:6.

Does this mean that the law is bad and evil?  No, but rather the law showed us our sin.  It was the forbidden desires within my heart that caused me to sin.  As long as I didn’t understand the consequence of my sins, I didn’t realize that I had sinned.  The law that was good and was supposed to show me the way to life brought instead my condemnation.  The law is good for it pointed out my sin so the problem was with me, not the law.  I was sold to sin as a slave.  When I realized that I was crucified with Christ and resurrected with him, I am free to live in obedience to him.  The battle continues for as Paul writes in Romans 7:23-25,

But I see that in my body there is another law fighting against the law in my mind. And that makes me like a prisoner to the law of wrong things in my body. I am a very sad man. Who will save me from this body that will make me die? Thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord who will do it! So this is the way it is. In my mind I am a slave to do the law of God, but in my body I am a slave to do the law of wrong things.

It is possible to walk in complete obedience to the Spirit of God for in Luke 1:6 we read about Zacharias and his wife, the parents of John the Baptist

Zacharias and Elizabeth were godly folk, careful to obey all of God’s laws in spirit as well as in letter.

John had some important things to say about walking in the spirit, as he began his ministry.  This has been recorded in each of the 4 gospels and that seems to give it a significant amount of credibility. (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33)  John tells his listeners that someone is coming with far more authority than mine.  I am not even worthy of being his slave.  He will baptize you with fire—with the Holy Spirit.  Later Paul wrote what Jesus had said, ‘You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you.’ (Acts 1:8)

So how does this help us in our being crucified with Christ?  To have power, to walk in total obedience in letter and spirit, we must allow Jesus to baptize us in the Holy Spirit.  When we invited Jesus to come into our heart, when we felt the conviction of God’s spirit, we were baptized into Jesus and we became part of the family of God.  No man can accept Jesus except as the Spirit of God draws him to Jesus.  It is not sufficient to have ’head knowledge’ of Jesus without knowing him in your heart.  Revelation 3:20 tells us that Jesus stands at the door and knocks and we know it is the door of our heart.  People could miss Heaven by only 6 inches—having a head knowledge without knowing Jesus in their heart.

The flesh desires to serve sin but the mind serves the law of God because we have been crucified with Christ and resurrected to newness of life.  Religion is a life style of doing things whereas Christianity is a relationship with Jesus.  Religion requires us to do things so it is a life of do-do and this is not good.  Co crucified and Co resurrected with Christ is best. We have been redeemed, set free; we are loved, adored, victorious and united with him.  Praise God for Jesus and the resurrection life.

          Paul goes into a lengthy discussion in his letter to the Galatians at Galatia.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.  Galatians 3:10

According to this verse no one can win God’s favor by keeping the law but only by walking in faith.   Habakkuk 2:4.  This is so different from the way of the law which says you must obey every law to be right with God.  A good illustration of this is the woman caught in adultery, John 8:1-11.  The Old Testament listed adultery as a capital crime (Lev. 20:10). Jesus saw the conspiracy that was going on.  Since there was no male brought with the woman, maybe they had set her up and one of them was guilty too.  In any case, Jesus told them, to cast a stone, providing they were without sin and then, after they had all walked away, he forgave her.

          In Galatians 3:16 we read,

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

This promise was given 430 years before the Ten Commandments and cannot be changed.  God’s promise was to save by faith and not by obeying laws since the laws were not even given yet.  Abraham accepted God’s promise so why were the laws given.  Paul answers that question too in Galatians 3:19.  There is a fourfold reason for the law:

1.       Intended to reveal sin.  (Romans 4:15)  The only way not to break the law is not to have any to break.

2.     The law is inferior to the promise since it came through angels and the promise was given directly to Abraham (Hebrews 2:2).

3.     The law is not contrary to the promise.  The law required righteousness but was unable to provide it.

4.     The law directed us to Christ.  It acted as a jailer (vs. 22) and disciplinarian (vs. 23, 24).

 

Paul puts it another way in Galatians 3:24-29,

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:24-29, NASB)

          So the law acted as a tutor, a special person that has been given charge of a child to train and guide him until he becomes of age.  He was hired to reveal wrong actions and led the child to the teacher that was to come.  In this illustration, when the fullness of time came and Jesus died on the cross for our sins, the tutor was no longer needed.  Because of our faith in him, the laws are no longer needed to guard us and guide us to him.  We are one in Christ Jesus.  The promises given to Abraham are ours as well.