No one wants to be nailed to a tree literally, but what does it mean to be crucified with Christ? In Galatians 2:20 Paul claims to be crucified with Christ, this is in the continual scripture study of our lesson. There is a point, none christians may say to be crucified I can nail you has Christ was nailed, but that is not the message we want the world to understand concerning these things. What it means is our sins our burried with Christ when a person believes and we are resurrected into a new life of service, meany a sacrificial life placing the old bad habits aside and taking on the image of Christ in our life. Not to be Christ but to become like him in our actions of love, mercy, gentleness, and so forth. No believer does these things perfectly.

As new born babes in Christ as believers we need to desire the milk of the word of God. It is not always an easy desire, that milk sometimes settles a little bitter, and yet taste as sweet as honey. Other times it goes down like a spoon full of sugar and remains sweet to the soul. Yet like all milk, it can sour and curdle the stomach at times. When it curdles and taste bad, it because of our own sin in our life seems better then the dose of milk we just had. Yet that milk was pure and sweet when it went into the mouth.

I be truthful there are times in our life we are like a dirty dish. The dish has food that stuck in many places and must be removed. Only way to remove it is soap, water and a scrubby. By the time it all clean, we realize it took the soap and scrubby both to get it clean. We need the word of God, but we need the knowledge of Christ in the flesh was the scrubber of our soul, without his suffering our need of salvation would not be known. He just another death, until his resurrection came. The knowledge our sins beat him, our sin, crucified him and our sin killed him, only demonstrates that his power to rise again did not come from our love, or our hope, nor our fear. I came with his love for us to allow up to know his word lives despite what we personally do.

God calls us to be a holy priesthood, after we receive the price Christ had to pay for our sin. He calls us to lively stones.for a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. Remember having a pet hermit crab or seeing them at least in the pet store. Well those hermit crabs take up residence in anything that resembles a shell or a house, if they will fit into the shell, or it larger then there old one. He takes up residence and makes it his house. Christ comes and lives in our heart and in our life. He comes and enters the door of our heart and sits down and dines with our soul. He does not kill our soul, but lives within our hearts and helps us as a friend would help a friend.

Our faith in God is built on the foundatation of Jesus Christ,(the word of God). The ones that rejected God's word try and build their lives on other things and not the principals of God, nor on the foundation of Jesus. Jesus is the foundation stone of faith for every believer in God. Our faith begans with seed of truth of God's word being believed, and then fully comes to surrender when one receives Jesus as Savior and Lord.

God calls us to be holy, but are we? That is why we need Christ to clean us like we would wash dish, but also inside the heart where sin often tries to take root with desire and compassion for sin. Christ takes his hedge clippers and the word of God destroys it. It like the game asteroid where the asteroids are being destroyed by the rocket ship, without destruction it will destroy ship. God's word destroys the sin in our life by his correction. Sin can not over take a new believer. In Old Testament we see Saul was consumed by his sin, but David was corrected. We see the corrective nature of a believer and one using God in the since of ceremony and not faith. If you want God to destroy the astroids in your life, you need to believe his word, receive his word and do his word.

No one does it perfectly, yet we called to live God's word perfectly, our humanity is the thing that betrays us, but by God's marvelous grace, he forgives us and corrects us as believers in faith. We become part of the royal priesthood upon faith, and God desires better things for us then to continue in sin.

Dear Heavenly Father, teach us our sacrifice is not by being nailed to a cross but by surrending our sin and allowing you to bury it with your word of faith. and Christ being our scrubby of our soul, purifying our hearts and soul. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Galatians 2:16-21 KJV
16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.