Crucified Hearts

“I have been crucified with Christ; 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 gave Himself for me.” ~ Galatians 2.20 NKJV

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” ~ Galatians 6.14 NKJV

We so often stray from abiding with him there, at the cross. Paul said, “I die daily” (I Cor. 15.31). Only when we are united with him in a death (to self) like his can we be raised with him in new life. Jesus’ constant prayer throughout His life was, “Father, not my will, but your will be done”. Nevermore true was this secret prayer of his heart than when, after uttering these very words in Gethsemane, He hung suspended from the earth, nailed to a cross as a common criminal.

How do we join Him there? All by faith through his grace. Beholding, we become changed. (2 Cor. 3.18). Only Christ can do this for us. We cannot crucify ourselves in the spiritual sense anymore than we can in the literal. One hand would always be free. Death with him is by faith when we fully surrender to the truth that only his blood can atone for our sin and shame. Do we believe in him? Faith alone decides the question on our part. Grace for forgiveness to settle our debt and the gift of His Spirit in us is His part.

“No outward observances can take the place of simple faith and entire renunciation of self. But no man can empty himself of self. We can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work. Then the language of the soul will be, Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it. It is Thy property. Keep it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee. Save me in spite of myself, my weak, unchristlike self. Mold me, fashion me, raise me into a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can flow through my soul.” ~ Christ’s Object Lessons, 159

This is personal work in prayer with him. No one else can do it for us. It is not working ourselves up or down with emotions, trying to evoke a feeling for him. It comes in communion with Him by an act of his grace. There is a measure of mystery to the Spirit’s work on the heart (John 3.8). Exactly how we are born again, born from above, cannot be fully explained. But we know it comes when we want this above all else. We want him, to be with him and to be like him. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will satisfy. Oneness with him in his death to sin is our greatest desire. He will make it so. You may say that you still do not know the way. But Jesus declares, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me”. We do not even repent before coming to Jesus. We come to him and he freely gives us repentance.

“Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” ~ Acts 5.31

We come just as we are, knowing we are sinful and undone, yet not knowing ourselves as he does. We come to him in our helplessness, in our brokenness.

“When we feel our heart need, when we long after the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, Christ draws nigh to us. Self is crucified. Christ lives in us, and the power of the Spirit attends our efforts. Then the souI is refined and elevated. Light from the heavenly sanctuary shines upon us, and we are enabled to exert an influence which is a savour of life unto life. By a union with Christ, by living faith, we are privileged to enjoy the efficacy of His mediation. We are crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life.” Ellen White, “The Present Truth” PRT Aug. 31, 1889 (UK)

“For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
(Isaiah 57.15) NKJV

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” ~ Romans 6.5,6 NKJV

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famous for the quote, “When Christ calls a man He bids him come and die”. Jesus put it this way, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Luke 9.23 NKJV).

All of this truth, the death and resurrection of the self with Christ, is hidden in the compassionate call Jesus makes to all who are laboring under the crushing weight of sin and despair.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11.28-30).

And when we surrender ourselves to His care and keeping, when we know the free and full forgiveness of our sins through His blood, through His death as our substitute and surety, what is this yoke He places on our shoulders?

The yoke is an instrument of service, one that binds us to Christ as we move forward in love for others just as He has done for us. The yoke is the law of God’s love, what we once defied, but not embrace through His grace. Christ for us and Christ in us is the righteousness of God that brings us to the obedience of faith (Romans 1.5).

Ellen White describes it this way.

“The yoke is placed upon the oxen to aid them in drawing the load, to lighten the burden. So with the yoke of Christ. When our will is swallowed up in the will of God, and we use His gifts to bless others, we shall find life’s burden light. He who walks in the way of God’s commandments is walking in company with Christ, and in His love the heart is at rest. When Moses prayed, “Show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee,” the Lord answered him, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” And through the prophets the message was given, “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Exodus 33:13, 14; Jeremiah 6:16. And He says, “O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:18.” ~ Desire of Ages, p. 331

So Paul can say, “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” (Romans 13.8 NKJV)

And again,

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6.2 NKJV)

In the last few hours Jesus had with His disciples before His suffering, humiliation, and death at the hands of “his own”, He taught them this same truth. How essential it must be for true discipleship with the Master.

““If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14.15-18 NKJV)

We come to Jesus just as we are in our sin, violators and abusers of His will, of HIs law of love. Our enmity is so great that we can no more change ourselves to obedience than a leopard can change its spots. We have no power to bring something clean out of an unclean thing. But in surrendering the will to Him (He will not force us), we are washed from our sins and given His very self, by His Spirit, to dwell in us. The obedience we once found impossible becomes our bread of life. Our thoughts, emotions, feelings, and actions are one in Spirit with His. We long to do His will, bear His image, please Him in everything. Love for others, His love in us, is revealed in self-sacrificing ministry as we go “outside the gate”, as sheep among wolves, to bear the cross of Christ to others.

Each new day brings challenges, temptations, trials to overcome. Our treasure is in “jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4.7). His grace reveals aspects of our character, hard habits and dispositions, that must change for love to grow and bear the full fruit of His character. It is a process. It means a daily dying to self, so He said. It means taking up the cross daily to follow Him, counting others more deserving than ourselves. It is the ministry and way of the cross that alone can bring the life of God’s love to starving souls. The Word of Life we offer, freely as it was freely given to us, is the Word of the Cross.

The servant is not above their Master. And the servant follows the Master. Where He is there they are. His life becomes the servants life, the life of Him who said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10.45)

We’ll close with this sublime thought from the apostle Paul, who lifted up Christ as crucified for us, as both our salvation and our example. Here is the essence of what it means for the first to be last and the last to be first in the revelation of God’s glory, in “Christ and Him crucified”.

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2.1-11 NKJV)