Galatians 2: 20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.
So many times we try with all our might to be like Jesus. We pray to the Father to make us more like Jesus and ask Jesus to help us conform ourselves to his image. As is clear in this passage, though, that is not what we are to do. We don’t have to be like Jesus. Isn’t that a relief? We are taught to surrender our lives to him so that he lives through us. This is a very atypical thought for a society like ours. Our society tends to be very “self” oriented and because we have been indoctrinated into this thinking we strive with all our might to accomplish lofty goals in ourselves. While it is laudable from one perspective, that really is the worldly perspective. God never called us to be saints apart from himself. He called us into deep relationship with him wherein he lives an exalted life through us. It is his job to live the life of Christ through us as we are the Body of Christ. Our task is to get out of ourselves. It is, in a nutshell, to get ourselves off of our minds. If we listen to our language we sometimes find that the pronoun “I” is much used, even overused. It is not so much a question of what God wants you to do, but rather what you will allow Him to do through you. “I” no longer live. “I” am dead. The life I now live is the life of Christ in me. If we, the church, can get this message deep down into our spirits, we will most certainly see an enormous change in ourselves, our churches and our community.
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