The Crucified Life
In the church today, not much is said about living a crucified life before God. The problem with that is it’s a foundational doctrine of the church. Without the crucified life, we can’t walk a submitted life before God. The crucified life, is the only life that God authorizes for us to live. We must give up our old life for his new life. Jesus in his discourse with his disciples made some very important statements about the crucified life. Let’s look at Matthew 16:21-27. In this passage of scripture, Jesus began to discuss with them that he was going to Jerusalem, and that once he got there, he would have to suffer many things by the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes; and that they would kill him, and he would be raised on the third day.
Peter rebuked him and said God forbid that this thing would happen, and that it would never happen to him. After Peter’s rebuke, Jesus rebuked Peter, and he made these important statements. “You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” “If anyone wishes to come after me, he/she must deny him or herself and take up his/her cross and follow me.” “For whoever wishes to save his/her self life will lose it, but whoever loses his/her self life will find it.”
Jesus was very emphatic about what he stated to his disciples. He said that we are to set our minds on God’s interests not our own and that we (must) deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. What does it mean for us to deny ourselves, and to take up our cross? The Greek word for deny is a very strong word, it is: (aparneomai) and it means to disown, renounce, disregard, to deny utterly; it is to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone, to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests. So, what Jesus was saying to his disciples is, that they were to sever their ties with their old life, to deny it utterly, to renounce it and disown it, and to no longer live for self, instead they were to live for him. 2 Corinthians 5:15. They were to die to their own self interests, and live for Christ’s interests.
For the most part, this is not taught to new believers when they come into the faith. So many of them make a profession of faith, and then go about living their lives the way that they want to, being governed by the self life instead of living out of the new creation being that Christ made available to them through the cross. 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:17-24
Jesus lived a crucified life. He only did what he saw the Father do. John 5:19-20. He said that his food was to do the will of the Father. John 4:34. He didn’t do anything on his own initiative. That means, that he did not do his own will, but submitted himself to the Father and his will. John 5:30. The ultimate act of submitting his will to the Father, was that he died on a cross for you and me. John 19:17-18; Philippians 2:8.
The Greek word for cross is: (stauros) It speaks of a stake, or post that was used during the Roman era, as a form of capital punishment. It was one of the most hated instruments of death that anyone had to use to kill, or be killed on. It was used for the guiltiest criminals, particularly the basest of slaves and robbers, the authors and abetters of insurrections and occasionally used in the provinces, at the arbitrary pleasure of the governors. The cross was an instrument of death, an excruciating way of death. In Christianity it symbolizes the death that the believer is to identifiy with in his or her own life when coming to Christ. It speaks of self denial; by implication the atonement of Christ. One who takes up his/her cross is identifying with a death to self and the old nature, and a rising to a new life that is centered in Christ. Romans 6:3-6; Ephesians 4:17-24; Colossians 3:10
This all seems very daunting, because we have to give up our self life, which is our old way of living life. The only way that we know how to live. By choosing to lose the lower life, we gain the higher life. The (Zoe) or life of God. He gives us a whole new life that is founded in him. Ezekiel 36:26; John 3:16; Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17. This life is his very own life that he gives us. It’s a supernatural life, a life that comes by way of the Holy Spirit. In the scriptures it’s called eternal life. We come to know God intimately, and live from him as our source of life.
This crucified life, is the only life that God wants us to live. Matthew 10:38; 1 Corinthians 1:18; Luke 14:27. Remember that Jesus said that (if anyone wants to come after him) he/she (must) deny themselves, and take up his/her cross, and follow him. To follow him doesn’t mean that you walk around with him. It means that you live the way he lives. You surrender to him and pattern your life around him. He’s working in us, so that our lives reflect his. Philippians 2:13; Ephesians 5:1. Living the crucified life is not a negative thing, it’s a powerful thing that God wants us to experience on a daily basis.
