Galatians 6:14 (NIV) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

When your eyes are truly opened to the new life that is available through Jesus, everything in your life changes. When you see someone that perhaps raised their hand in a church service somewhere to receive Jesus and their life remained the same, you can be sure that they really didn’t have an awakening. Being brought to new life through the salvation that Jesus offers us is a monumental event. It’s like rising from the dead. You were totally dead in your sins and now you are alive in Christ, with your sins washed away and with a brand-new lease on life. You begin to see everything differently as if you were seeing through God’s eyes. As you begin your new walk of faith in Jesus, the worldly interests that you had before diminish and you gain new interests having to do with the things of heaven. There are some worldly things that you were doing that immediately cease because of your new life. These are usually the very sinful things you were involved in before you were saved. But then there are other things that while perhaps not sinful, lose their allure because you are caught up with Jesus and your new life in Him. That’s what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he said the world had been crucified to him. He was no longer interested in what the world had to offer.

But then He said something else. He said that he had been crucified to the world. What he meant was that now that he was living life on a different plane, the world had lost interest in him as well. This is something that we often don’t think about or realize. When you are not about what everyone else is about, they lose interest in you. When you are no longer participating in the sinful or loose behavior that you used to participate in with your friends and acquaintances, they no longer enjoy being around you. As a matter of fact, they begin to feel uncomfortable around you because you are a reminder to them that they are not living right. You have become light to them because the Light, Jesus, lives in you and that light happens to repel darkness. The life that you gain when you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior is so revolutionary that the best description of what occurs is that you have been resurrected from the dead. You were crucified with Christ to the world and its ways. But the world held its own crucifixion in response. The world crucified itself to you. It no longer identifies with you and wants nothing to do with you. Hallelujah! That is the confirmation that you truly have had a salvation experience and that you are a brand-new person. Every true believer is connected with these two crucifixions and they both point to the miraculous transformation that has taken place that leads to life now and then life forevermore for all of eternity. Praise the Lord for this indescribable gift!

Pastor Joey Vazquez