Aspects of an Abundant Life
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Jesus declared that one purpose of His coming was that His followers might have life and “that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). As we explore aspects of an abundant life we are giving thought to what we might think of as experiential theology or a theology of Christian living. This week Theology 101 seeks to delve into what might be termed a crucified life.
The Apostle Paul used such terminology in his testimony in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” Later in Galatians he added, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).
Crucifixion of the flesh
At first glance it may seem contradictory to say the way to abundant life is by death. The death in view must be of a spiritual nature not a physical one.
Rather than the crucifixion of a body, this crucifixion is that of the flesh — flesh being a term by which the Bible speaks of our lower sinful nature with its desires or compulsions.
A crucified life is thus one in which sinful or fleshly desires are being put to death.
How then is one to make the matter of a crucified life a fact of the Christian life? We might include in the process three ideas: know it as a fact of Scripture; want it as part of obedience to Scripture; and reckon it so as an act of faith.
The key is willingness to reckon it so or count it so.
Daily confession
This reckoning is not a once-for-all event however. Rather it demands day-by-day or moment-by-moment confessing the fact of having been crucified with Christ.
For example if temper seeks to flare say by faith, “I died to that.” Similarly if unkind words begin to form or hatred begins to boil respond immediately with, “I died to that.” In short, living a crucified life demands reckoning the truth of Scripture to be so in life’s situations of temptation.
We remember that Jesus Himself placed emphasis on the need for “daily” denying oneself and taking up of the cross by those who would follow Him (Luke 9:23).
Romans 6:11 commands, “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts.”
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