p. 1 | For Us | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 24, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 59.

For Us

Crucified with Christ.—Says the apostle Paul: "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." Gal. 2:20. Again, in Rom. 6:6, he says: "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him [Christ], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin."

JESUS met his death by crucifixion; he here reached the acme of his sacrifice—death. It is for this reason that the cross stands as the symbol and exponent of all his sufferings,—it was in reality but the climax; they here reached high noon. Perhaps it would be better to say that they here reached deepest, darkest night; for his whole life was a cross-bearing life. From his anointing at his baptism by the Holy Spirit it was especially so. "He poured out his soul unto death,"—a process which endured during his whole earth life. "For even Christ pleased not himself" applied not to a few acts, but to his whole career. His whole life was a crucifixion, a putting to death, by the power of God, of the natural lusts and tendencies of the flesh which he had in common with all men.

For Us.—All this he did for us. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. 15:3. He was made "to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5:21. He took upon himself our nature, was made in "the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3), "in all things" "made like unto his brethren" (Heb. 2:17), a partaker of "flesh and blood," "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14, 15). All this Christ did for us. He "pleased not himself." He crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, never giving them place for a moment, never parleying with the enemy, never entertaining the thought of sin. And he did all this that we might so unite with him that the same work of righteousness might be wrought by his life in our sinful flesh. His was a lifelong crucifixion, of which the cross of Calvary was but the climax.

WE are crucified with him. Faith gives up all to Christ, because he has bought us, body and soul. It accepts of Christ's sufferings for our sufferings, Christ's death for our death. But faith does not do this that we may still indulge in sin. It does this that we may separate from sin. Therefore, Christ's self-denial, Christ's sufferings, Christ's crucifixion, if truly accepted by faith, will do for us just what it did for him. First of all, it will lead us to give up all that he may live in us, even as he gave up all that God might live in him. Christ met the suffering, the crucifixion, in purpose in the very beginning before he came to this world. He was then the "Lamb slain." He was the Lamb slain in the wilderness of Sinai; he was the Crucified One at his baptism. His death on the cross, the lowest depth of degradation for man, was but the filling up of his sufferings. And faith accepts all—Christ's crucifixion in all things. For Christ's sake it renounces the world, renounces all aims, objects, ambitions, relations, even life itself, for the one sole object of glorifying God, of doing God's will. "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections [margin, "passions"] and lusts." Gal. 5:24. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation" teaches us that we should deny "ungodliness and worldly lusts." Titus 2:11, 12.

Buried with Christ.—We die with Christ. "We are buried with him by baptism into death." The "old man," "the body of sin," the worldly affections, lusts, desires, ambitions, are dead; and baptism—immersion—is a fitting representation before the world of the severance of the sinner from his life of sin. When one dies, in the common order of things, he is buried. The fact that he is buried is a proof on the face of it that he is dead. So when one is buried in baptism, he says to all who behold it, I am dead to the world; I have yielded up all for Christ.

Risen with Him.—The crucifixion, the death, the burial, are but the negative side of the question. The same faith which accepts Christ's suffering and death as ours, which makes us to be crucified with him, and buried with him, also accepts Christ's life, Christ's righteousness, as our righteousness. As Paul expressed it, "Christ liveth in me." The emptied heart for Christ's sake, the renounced life, leaves room for Christ to come in and reign in the heart and life as King. We die and are buried with Christ, not simply "that the body of sin might be destroyed," not simply that "we should not serve sin" longer (Rom. 6:6), but that we should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God (Rom. 7:4), or, as stated in Rom. 6:4, that we "should walk in newness of life." This is the genuine proof of death to sin, the genuine evidence of faith. "If ye love me," says Jesus, "keep my commandments." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4. These are strong words, but they are the words of the Spirit of God. Reason shows them to be true. When Christ lived here upon the earth as Jesus of Nazareth, he kept all of God's commandments. John 15:10. He did the Father's will. John 6:38. Will he not, then, if he lives his life in us, do the same work, keep the same law of love and liberty?—He certainly will. "The righteousness of the law" will "be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4), because the Spirit of Christ in us will lead us to walk in the new life, "even as he walked" (1 John 2:6).