Life Defined and Refined in Christ

UV 3256/10000 Life Defined and Refined in Christ
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Galatians 2 v 20


For St Paul who was steeped in the Jewish faith, customs and traditions, to break free from these and place his entire trust in Jesus, it was a giant leap. It was certainly more difficult for him than for Peter and the other apostles. Yet, his understanding of the freedom we have in Christ is what enabled him to do so. The cross that was even then and for a few centuries later an instrument of death became for St Paul the ultimate symbol of life. Everything negative or burdensome including following the requirements of the Jewish religious law was crucified in his mind with Christ. St Paul’s revelation of Christ enabled him to completely identify his life with Christ.

Paul put his religious beliefs to death on the cross. He put his ego to death on the cross. He put his fears of non acceptance by fellow Jews to death on the cross. We too need to identify with Christ completely and set no store by religious traditions or any other practice that we used to think could help us earn grace or favour in the sight of God. Now our appeal for mercy and grace in the sight of God rests only on what Christ did on the cross. Faith in Christ is about giving up all our little articles of faith and immersing ourselves completely in the experience of the agape love of God manifested in the willing ascension of Christ on the cross before His ultimate ascension to heaven. In doing so, He created a path, He became the Way for us to join with God, to be one with the Ultimate, Absolute and Loving Father in heaven.

Our act of believing in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and receiving Him into our hearts as our living Saviour and King amounts to our accepting that we are a new creation of God. The first time our ancestor Adam was created painlessly but now each of us is created out of the pain of Jesus on the cross. The intense pain that He suffered should have been ours for each of us to bear. But He provided the way of escape for all human beings. In response to such great love, we need to live as if we are living primarily or only for Christ, that we are living by grace and not by sight or our senses. We need to live a life above that indicated by our limited physical senses. We need to live a life not to seek the approval of men but the approval of God. It is no longer I, me, myself but Christ in me and I in Christ. Whatever I do, I do in partnership with Christ, whatever I attempt, I do with the grace of Christ. If our lives are defined by Christ, it will also be refined by Him.