Crucified with Christ
Ralph H. Manchee

In Galatians 2:20 we read, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

If we are to claim this truth for ourselves, we need to consider what it means to be crucified with Christ. From the seven statements our Lord made from the cross, we can find some of the meaning of being crucified with Him.

Forgiveness

"Father, forgive them...." This is not the response of the self-life. The "I" wants retaliation, get even, not forgiving those who perpetrate the wrong upon us. But our Lord taught that we are to forgive those who wrong us. When Peter asked how many times shall I forgive my brother who has wronged me, seven times? Our Lord answered seventy times seven. He didn't mean we were to keep count and after 490 times we shouldn't forgive anymore. We are to do as our Lord does to us, forgive and forget. When God forgives He forgets. He remembers our sins no more. God has put our sins behind His back, and He never turns back to look at them. He blots out our sins, as the winds blot out the fog. He has placed our sins under the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Our Lord taught us in the model prayer that He gave us, "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors'. If we expect forgiveness, we must be forgiving. Forgiveness is to be a mark of the believer in Jesus Christ.

Fellowship

"Today, shalt thou be with Me in paradise." These words spoken to a criminal, speak to us, that we must also welcome into our fellowship those with a past, that may not seem to be the person we would choose to be a part of our fellowship. Belief in the saving work of the Saviour is the requirement for admission to Christ's family. When the Philippian jailor asked Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved, Paul answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." In the first chapter of John's gospel we read, "but, as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God."

The fellowship of believers is not dependent upon their past, but upon their relationship to Jesus Christ by faith in Him. There are degrees of growth in the believers, and the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives to bring us into conformity with our blessed Saviour; but remember He is still working on us, we are not conformed to His likeness. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us, "we shall all be changed." At the rapture God will complete the work of conforming us to the likeness of His dear Son. We shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, what a day that will be. We need to be able to say to that sinner who trusts the Lord, welcome into the family of God.

Filial Love

"Behold, thy son; behold thy mother." Even as our Lord hung upon that cross, he had a concern for those He loved. As He hung there seeing His mother and John, the disciple that was so close to Him, He gave the care of His mother into the hands of John, who took her from that hour into his own care. James tells us in his epistle that "pure religion and undefiled is to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble." Our Lord's command to His followers, that ye love one another. Brotherly love is to be one of the marks of the Christian. 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a picture of Christian love.

Forsaken

"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" When Jesus was bearing our sins upon that cross, the Father could not look upon sin. For Christ was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God through Him.

Because He was forsaken, we shall not be forsaken. Because He bore our sins on the tree, we shall never know the agony of being forsaken by God. When we take a stand for our Lord, the world may forsake us, but we will not be forsaken by God. Those who allow the Holy Spirit to direct their lives have the promise of Hebrews 13:5, "He will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Our Lord told His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations and He would be with them unto the end or consummation of the age. He was forsaken that we might never be forsaken by God.

Fulfillment

"I thirst." In Psalm 69:21 we read, "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." His thirst on the cross was the fulfillment of the Scriptures. It also speaks of His humanity, for He was the Eternal Word made flesh. John 19:28 tells us, "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, 'I thirst.'"

As believers we need to thirst also; in the beatitudes in Matthew 5:6 we are told, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Every believer should have a genuine thirst for the things of God; and when we have this thirst, we have the promise from God that we shall be filled. This too is the fulfillment of God's Word.

Finished Work

"It is finished." The work that our Lord came to earth to do has been completed. He came to do the Father's will. As a child of twelve in the temple, He had asked his parents, "Wist ye not, that I must be about My Father's business?" He had left heaven to take upon Himself a human body and being found in fashion as a man, He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God through Him. He was faithful in doing the work the Father had sent Him into the world to do; as the Father sent Him into the world, so has He sent us, who are His followers into the world with a job to do. "Go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son (our Lord Jesus Christ) and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you." He finished His work; it is our responsibility to complete the task He has given us to do!

Future Secure

"Into Thy hands I commend My spirit." Having completed the work He had come to earth to do, He commended His spirit into the hands of the Father. While it looked as if the enemies of our Lord had won a victory as He hung on the cross, He was in complete control. In commending His spirit unto the Father, He was restored to the glory that was His with the Father before He came to redeem lost mankind.

As believers, we too can know the security of commending our lives into the hands of our Lord and our Heavenly Father. We are in the hands from which we cannot be plucked. John 10:28,29 says, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand."

The Psalmist had this assurance as in the 23^rd Psalm we read, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Ralph H. Manchee is a retired pastor living in Oak Bend Community in Ocala, Florida. He served on and was chairman of the IFCA International Youth Committee and pastored churches in Kansas, Illinois and Missouri. He also served in the Kansas, Greater St. Louis and Central Illinois IFCA International Regionals. Ralph Manchee directed youth and junior camps in Kansas (15 years) and Central Illinois (7 years). He was also a radio announcer in Asbury Park, NJ, Chicago and Peoria, IL.