You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
20 I am
crucified [sustauroo] with Christ: [Christos]
nevertheless [de] I live; [zao] yet not [ouketi] I, [ego] but [de] Christ [Christos] liveth [zao] in [en] me: [emoi] and [de] the life which [hos] I [zao] now [nun] live [zao] in [en] the flesh [sarx] I live [zao] by [en] the faith [pistis] of the
Son [huios] of God, [theos] who [ho] loved [agapao] me, [me] and [kai] gave [paradidomi] himself [heautou] for [huper] me. [emou]KJV-Interlinear
20 "I
have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. NASB
Life is the quintessence of existence. Without life there are no senses, no feelings, no emotions, no thoughts, no interactions, without life there is nothing.
In death there is nothing. That is the absence of life. No feelings, no senses, nothing. But also, in death, when the process is a separation process, there are no rules that govern and no connection to rules that attempt to govern.
And so it is as Paul states in this verse and the previous verse.
Once one was ruled by the Law, and this applies to all of humanity, as the rules of this world apply to all. But those rules gave everyone, nothing to look forward to, nothing to hope for, no destiny but a permanent existence away from life.
Then Christ went to the Cross, and paid the heavy price for sin and the penalty of death, permanent death, that it demanded.
And so since we have believed in Christ, then we all become associated with Him in His death. For He paid the price of death and through our belief in faith, we died to the rules of this world, to the rules of death, thus separating us permanently from death and those rules.
And since we are separated from death, then we have life, but not life in and of ourselves, but life by means of and through Christ.
None of us had any say about our existence before we were born. None of us orchestrated or brought about our own birth. Others did all of that for us. Our parents perpetuated the biological aspects, and the Lord created our human life, just as He created our eternal life at the very moment we believed in Him.
But having this second chance of life, being reborn into a spiritual life, we now have the opportunity to design and define our eternal destiny. That we do, or do not do, by means of our interest or lack of it, in our learning bible doctrine on a daily basis.
God still does all of the work, but we have the right to choose to advance in life, or to remain stupid and forfeiting our eternal reward.
In eternity past, God invented us within the divine decrees. That was our start. We had no say or even awareness in that part of our existence.
In time, we were born into this world and God gave us our human life. That started our adventure, our story, our song, our travels through life. But that start was in accordance with the rules of this world, and in that we had no good story worth telling.
But then we believed in Christ and that gave us a second start, but remaining in this world, and in so remaining we were given a new set of rules, a separation from the old rules, to which we should never return nor even attempt to return to, lest we be fools.
And yet so many people return to the works or efforts of their own energy, claiming their earning power for this new life, to which they have no right to claim.
Our entire life is totally dependent on the life of Christ, on the work that He accomplished, on the plan which He has been faithfully executing throughout these many millennia and beyond. From a history that none of us have any direct personal knowledge.
Once we were all bound by the Law, the rules of this world. Now, through our faith and resulting salvation, we are bound by the new rules of grace in Christ, through which we have an awesome opportunity to advance to heights in our life that were before never obtainable.
Christ is the living God. The only living God. Christ is man, the unique person of the universe in that He is both God and man in one person.
Christ is also the word, the written word. And through that word, when we learn it, assuming that you participate in a daily study that enables you to learn it, then you advance in your spiritual life by transforming your soul by means of that word, and making a stronger and stronger unity with Christ in you.
As believers we are indwelled by all three members of the Trinity, from the moment of our faith in Christ. But we were also empty of divine viewpoint and thus in need of completion. Filling up our soul with doctrine and understanding we develop muscle, spiritual muscle, which translates into faith. And in real true genuine faith, then nothing is impossible, Matt. 17:20.
But most people fall way short of this, because they constantly turn back to the rules and comfort and indifference of this world.
How many see truth and recognize it?
How many see truth and pursue it?
How many see truth and invite others?
How many see truth and stick with it, especially when something comes along to tempt them away from truth?
No spiritual muscle comes from the lack of faith, comes from the lack of understanding, comes from a lack of learning, comes from a deficient study plan, comes from a failure to dedicate oneself to a daily study out of indifference or inconvenience or simply not taking any of this God stuff seriously.
And so then, what rules apply, rules of death or rules of life?
