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"I am dead to law . . . . . I have been crucified with Christ", are the words of the
apostle in Gal. 2: "I am dead to sin . . . . . Our old man was crucified with Him", says
the same apostle in Rom. 6: And, in Gal. 2:: "That I might live unto God . . . . . I live,
yet not 1:" And then, in Rom. 6:, the words of the same apostle: "Reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."
How are we to understand the serious expression: "crucified with Him"? Its only
other occurrences in the N.T. are in the Gospels, and there we shall learn this meaning:--
"The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth"
(Matt. 27: 44).
"They that were crucified with Him reviled Him" (Mark 15: 32).
"Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was
crucified with Him" (John 19: 32).
Reader, as you look at this record, do you realize that these dying thieves are a picture
of yourself? Here indeed is the "offence of the cross", the exposure of the utter
hopelessness of the flesh--"none good", "none righteous", all condemned to a
criminal's death, "the death of the cross".
It will be noticed that Matthew, Mark and John have been quoted in this connection.
What has Luke to say? It is Luke who shews the inner meaning of the cross and its three
victims:--
"And when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him,
and the malefactors, one on the right and the other on the left" (Luke 23: 33).
Each of these three crosses bore a condemned and dying man, for the Lord Jesus
Himself entered into condemnation "for us". Both of the malefactors were "in the same
condemnation" (Luke 23: 40), but here their likeness ends. One of them railed upon
Christ, but the other rebuked him saying, concerning their own condemnation: "And we
indeed justly: for we receive the due reward of our deeds." This dying man bows before
the doctrine of Romans, that "all have sinned", and that "the wages of sin is death". But,
looking at the central figure, the Son of God, he says:--
"But this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord . . . . ."
We are not concerned for the moment as to what else he said. He said "Lord"; and if
the dying Man was indeed the "Lord", and if "He has done nothing amiss", then He was
the great Sacrifice for sin, so long promised, and at last offered. Here took place the great
transfer upon which all our hopes depend. The dying thief ceased to be merely, as an
accident of time and place, "crucified with" Christ, and, becoming "united with the
likeness of His death", was brought into salvation.
"Crucifixion with Christ" is set forth in Rom. 6: as having a specific object in view:
"to render the body of sin inoperative" (katargeo). Katargeo.--There are five other
occurrences of this word in Romans (3: 3, 32; 4: 14; 8: 2, 6) where it is rendered
"make without effect", "make void", "loosed from" and "delivered from". In no case