Relationship with the Unseen God

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal.2:20)

Pastor Dan Salvesen says that when people ask him, “What is your religion?” he likes to say, “I am in relationship with the God of the universe.”  Whoa! Powerful stuff!  Relationship with God is indeed what Jesus Christ has made possible for all who would follow him. Following Jesus is not like following any other great leader who ever walked the face of the earth.  Jesus put it this way:  "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Matt 16:24-25). 

When Jesus spoke those words the crucifixion still lay ahead of him, but a few years later, when the apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” the cross was behind him, and the meaning of ‘taking up his cross’ comes through with apostolic power!

The apostle Paul says he has died with Christ on the cross. But how can that be, Paul is very much alive as he is writing those words! Paul is simply obeying Christ. He is denying himself and taking up Christ’s cross, which has now become his.  Paul has forsaken the old Pharisaic life he had been living, with himself Saul of Tarsus on the throne. Saul is now dead and the Apostle Paul is living a brand new life by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave himself for him. The Spirit of Christ now indwells Paul, occupying the throne of his life, and enabling him to follow Jesus.  Paul now lives the life God purposed for him when he was chosen ‘in Christ’ before the foundation of the world, and the apostle is telling all believers how we too can live the lives God purposed for each of us, in relationship with the unseen God, Creator of the universe.