I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

I’m not the same anymore. Something very important has happened to me. I used to be one way, but I’m not that way anymore. Spiritually, I used to be captured and dominated by sin and the devil, but that’s not true of me anymore. I have passed from one spiritual state of being to another altogether. I have passed from the spiritual state of death to a new and better spiritual state of life.

There was an old me that used to live, but that doesn’t live anymore. When I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the old me was crucified with Him on the cross. I didn’t die bodily on the cross, of course, but spiritually I died with Christ. The old sinful spiritual state of being no longer characterizes who I am and what I’m about. Spiritually, I’m someone completely different. Spiritually, I’m indwelt by the Spirit of Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit Himself (Romans 8:9).

Although the old sinful spiritual state sometimes tries to take control of me again, it never succeeds. Although the Apostle Paul says that the old sinful spiritual state, which he referred to as the “flesh,” stands in opposition to the Holy Spirit in me (Galatians 5:17), it can no longer gain the upper hand. The supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in me keeps me from going back to the way I once was. The Spirit will help me to shove my old sinful nature back into the grave where it belongs.

I could not possibly do this on my own. I could not have overcome sin and the devil, because they are too powerful, but now I can do it because Christ lives in me. Once I was weak, but now I am “strong in the Lord and the strength of his might.” And I am “able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:10-11). No longer am I the pathetic creature that was dominated by passions and desires inspired by the devil.

Christ lives in me – and I will never be the same again.

By John Huisman, friend of Bible League International