Crucified to Belong to Jesus

rucified to Belong to Jesus  
 
Galatians 5:24-26 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
 
TWO words here should help us love God with all of our heart.   
    The first word is “belong”. What does it mean to belong to an organization? You want to learn about the organization’s rules for membership, so you can be a good, responsible member. There is opportunity to meet new people and join with them for the organization’s purpose. Your participation in meetings and events becomes part of your life. If you belong, you accept responsibilities to advance the organization’s effectiveness in the community. To belong means you willingly give part of yourself to the group.
    What happens when you belong to Christ? It’s more than giving part of yourself, isn’t it? To belong to Christ means you didn’t choose to belong. He chose you. The Holy Spirit has said to you, “You no longer belong to the world. You belong to the Son of God. You are set apart to be his disciple.”
    This is not a casual or partial relationship! The Father, Spirit and Son have granted you faith and appointed you a member of his church. Belonging to Jesus is a binding relationship. Your life is a participation in God’s purpose. He has made it so. The life you live in the body, you live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you. (from Galatians 2:20) How loving God is to choose you to belong to him.
    The second word that should grow your love for God is crucified. Everyone reading this letter in Paul’s day knew the horrible ravages and torture of crucifixion. It was a long, humiliating, excruciating,  suffocating death. Why do you think Paul choose “crucify” to describe the destruction of the sinful nature and its passions? He said the same thing in Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
    Paul was describing a tortuous change from our sin nature to our salvation. This also emphasizes that this death to sin and its passions is God’s doing. We do not decide to crucify ourselves. The pain and penalty is too severe.
    But this is what God required of his Son. And this kind of death to self is what God requires of us. Our sin nature does not die easily. When God says, “You are mine. You no longer live in sin.” we spiritually submit to the cross as Jesus did. Our lives are not our own. When Jesus called Lazarus out of the grave, he said, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” (John 11:44) In the same manner, the Holy Spirit has ordered your “grave clothes” – your sin nature – to be removed. Your sin is crucified. Your soul is risen from its crucifixion when you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:27)
    God so loved you, he chose to crucify your sins, so you can belong to him. You have died to sin, and you are born anew into Jesus’ church. Will you love God and his church with all of your heart?