Christ Lives in Me

Call To Prayer

Topic: Christ Lives in Me

By: Daniel Peter

Date: 05.11.2024

“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 2:20, NIV)

Apostle Paul is one of the most interesting characters in the Bible. Not only was his life used to demonstrate God’s grace—as he was persecuting Christians when he encountered Jesus, leading to his salvation—but he became one of the greatest apostles of his time. Also, his life was used to reveal the different forces at work in the lives of the saved and unsaved.

While narrating his struggles with sin before encountering Jesus Christ, he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15, NIV). This reveals that, though he had the desire to do right, he found himself doing wrong. However, he came to an interesting conclusion about his situation when he said, “And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me” (Romans 7:16-17, NIV). That is, it was not he who did those things he didn’t desire to do, but sin.

Some people, when caught in a crime and asked why they did it, respond, “It’s the devil.” This is essentially what Apostle Paul was saying here.

When God created the earth, He gave man authority over it. Though we are spirits, it’s our bodies that give us the right and access to operate in this dimension. No spirit can operate on earth without one with a body granting it permission, even God (Genesis 2:7; Job 32:8). When Adam sinned, he became a slave to sin (Romans 6:16-17; 2 Peter 2:19). Sin, which is a spirit, gained access to man’s body and operated on earth as it willed. The old man couldn’t resist the nudges of sin, as he was a slave to it. This was what Apostle Paul meant when he said it was Sin that did those things he didn’t want to do.

However, after his salvation experience, a new force emerged in the body of Apostle Paul. This force didn’t just give him the desire to do right, but the ability to do it, for He is the one who works in us to will and do according to His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). When describing his new life in Christ, he said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20, NIV). Just as when the spirit of the first Adam died when he sinned and sin gained access to his body when the second Adam (Jesus) died, our bodies were accounted as being co-crucified with Him, and the Spirit of God gained access to our spirits (Romans 6:3-4). In the fallen man, sin lived, but in the new man, Christ lives.

Christ is that force that causes us to desire and do right. This is the reality of all true children of God. So, every righteous act we do, is actually Jesus Christ doing it, just like it was sin doing those things the old man didn’t want to do as highlighted in Paul’s narrative of his struggles with sin. Therefore, we thank and acknowledge God for them (our righteous works).

Prayer Points:

Let’s thank God for His word today.

Let’s thank Him for the salvation of our souls and deliverance from sin.

Let’s thank Him for the desire and ability to do right.

Let’s thank Him for being our righteousness.

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