August 29, 2025 | Be God's Family
Crucified with Christ
Scripture: Galatians 2:17-21 (NIV)
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 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. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Devotional
How good do I need to be? Are the 10 commandments enough? Do I need to live as a pauper? I keep hearing that I need to do better, but I thought Christ died for me! Paul can be a bit difficult to read, sometimes seemingly speaking in circles. Finding exactly what he is trying to say is hard. In this passage, he speaks of Christ being a servant of sin. Really? He emphatically responds: "Absolutely not!” He speaks of dying to the law so that he might live in Christ. What does that mean? How do I die to the law?
These questions can get in the way of hearing the message Paul is trying to say, and it’s important to remember that we modern people are not his contemporary audience. This was written 2000 years ago for a church consisting mainly of Jews who were now converted Christians. They were questioning whether Gentiles could be Christians without first becoming Jews by following the traditional laws and practicing circumcision.
Paul is arguing back! If following the Jewish laws alone could save you, then he himself should have been saved. Instead, following the law had merely resulted in him feeling inadequate to the task. He had to "die" to the law. He had to give it up as a way to salvation. The way to salvation was Christ. Faith in Christ. Christ living in him, in us. There we are saved.
Salvation is not anything we can "do," but a gift from God. God has done all the work. He has been perfect, through Christ, on our behalf. Nothing we can do will earn us a spot in heaven. If we are good, follow the Ten Commandments, volunteer, save children, give away all our money, it will not be enough. We must believe that Christ died for us. That is it – nothing more complicated than that.
When you believe, when you bring Christ into your life, the law is not needed. You will have no choice but to be "good," to follow the Ten Commandments, volunteer, save children and give—because it will be Christ working through you, and because you will want to do all these things in response to such a gift. It won't be a matter of choice, it will just be.
Don't mishear me, there are still struggles, we are not perfect. But that is really the point: we don't have to be perfect, God has already done that for us.
Poem
Dry Clay
Psalm 104
When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
Psalm 104: 30
Dry clay, lifeless though molded
My being, here I am
Until You breathe Your Spirit
Creating me to stand
Your image in this broken world
Your lampstand of Your way
Providing beams of Son-light
To hail creative day
So breathe upon me, Holy One
Change clay into Your child
Give me your full renewing pow’r
Your life through me provide
