{"id":366,"date":"2009-02-27T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T23:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/?p=366"},"modified":"2009-02-18T11:09:50","modified_gmt":"2009-02-18T10:09:50","slug":"lent-devotions-2009-friday-27th-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/2009\/02\/27\/lent-devotions-2009-friday-27th-february\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent Devotions 2009: Friday 27th February"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.\u201d <\/strong><\/em>Galatians 2:20<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who is the \u201cI\u201d that has been crucified with Christ?<\/p>\n

First, it is the \u201cI\u201d that thinks itself justified by its observance of the Law. The \u201cI\u201d that returns – as the Galatians were doing, and as Peter had once done in Antioch – to building up the things it once tore down, the way of following God\u2019s Law.<\/p>\n

This \u201cI\u201d no longer lives, declares Paul. It has been nailed to the cross along with Christ Himself. It has been crucified with Christ.<\/p>\n

However, dead men don’t talk. The \u201cI\u201d that can make this ringing declaration of identification with Christ is another \u201cI\u201d: the \u201cI\u201d that has faith in Jesus Christ, and lives by that faith. The \u201cI\u201d that looks so much to Jesus rather than to itself that Paul can speak as if no \u201cI\u201d remains, but only Christ: \u201cit is Christ who lives in me\u201d.<\/p>\n

As Luther writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cFaith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you become as it were one person. As such you may boldly say: \u2018I am now one with Christ. Therefore Christ\u2019s righteousness, victory, and life are mine.\u2019 On the other hand, Christ may say: \u2018I am that big sinner. His sins and his death are mine, because He is joined to me, and I to Him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is good news twice over. The \u201cI\u201d that is \u201cthat big sinner\u201d – the \u201cI\u201d that tries (and fails) to justify itself by the works of the Law – is declared by Christ Himself to have died with Him on the cross. But the \u201cI\u201d that is one with Christ by faith rises with Him from the grave, sharing His \u201crighteousness, victory and life\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for the gift of faith, by which my sins have died Your death, and I can live Your life, Your righteousness and Your victory. Amen.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.\u201d Galatians 2:20 Who is the \u201cI\u201d that has been crucified […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent-devotions-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}