This phrase and the entire verse from Galatians 2:20 makes a great motto. It is a wonderful slogan.
The reality behind it is not nearly as glamorous.
One would think that identifying with the leader of 2 bilion people would be a thing of honor. Think again.
Notice the verb: am crucified.
First, this is passive.
Once someone understand who Jesus is, has faith, commits to Him, loves the Lord above all else, etc. … there is an inescapable process that follows. If you think you can escape what follows knowing the Lord, you are deceived. Holiness follows. Not a little halo. Not angel wings. Not a white robe an harp on cloud nine. No. A life of love dedicated entirely to God.
Being passive means that this need not be a prominent nor especially public activity. I do not mean that we should keep the truth a secret, far from that. Rather the very nature of the process necessitates that it be a passive one. It is acted out upon you. It is a matter in which you really have no choice, once you have submitted to your Creator.
Indeed, the very lack of submission to this nature, is why the religion called Submission (Islam) is so full of hypocrisy. Islam denies the very nature of submission and certainly and rather explicitly, Islam denies the extent of submitting to Allah (that is, to God).
Second, this is a matter of crucifixion.
Islam refuses to suffer dishonor, disgrace, shame, ignominy, disrepute, hatred, spite, malice from anyone, or any real discomfort. While claiming to honor God, the real god of Islam, that is the real allegiance is to the self.
The way of Righteousness is not the same. Rather, the righteous, the saints embrace humility, even humiliation. We accept silence in the face of slander. We speak up to testify to the Love of God, though we risk our own comfort, our reputation, our jobs, our homes, our families, our very lives. Often, this suffering is hidden: in homes where one bitter family member attacks or persistently rejects a believing family member. At other times, it is a matter of a business owner seeking simply to conform to the will of God rather than putting the profit motive at the fore and so being penalized by the state which is in bondage to the evil one simply because they acknowledge no authority higher than the authority of God.
We look to Jesus for help, and so we are treated by the world as though we are helpless. We take the Lord as our defense, and so the world tramples on us as though we are defenseless. We acknowledge only One Invisible, Eternal God, and so the world calls us godless. We trust not in our riches, and so the world slanders us as poor when we receive help from the Lord. The world slanders us as greedy when we have nothing left to give. The world calls us beggars when we share our needs. The world calls us boastful when we share our riches with them. Though the Shepherd has found us and will not let us wander into harms way, the world call us lost because we have left the ways of the world.
The world calls us fools for we reject the wisdom of the world, yet we have the mind of Christ. The world calls us as weak for we do not fight them, yet we are triumphant in the Name of the King of the Universe. The world calls us nobodies and nothings for we hold nothing as our own, but God Himself holds us in His arms as His beloved.
We speak the secret things of God openly, in the hope that some will join us in the Way, but the world calls us madmen. Yet inwardly they burn, for they will know the truth of what we speak one day, that we are not mad, but made anew in the mercy of God.
The cross was not a piece of jewelry.
We are called to be tormented, rejected, hated, despised. We are instructed to suffer with joyful expectation and eager hope. We trust in the face of adversity and definite uncertainty as the world accounts things. We love in the face of spittle, instruments of torture, trauma, beatings, mockery, poverty, isolation, and all manner of evil, for we live in the presence of God.
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