The Crucified Life

One time a young man came to an old saint who taught the deeper life, the crucified life, and said to him, “Father, what does it mean to be crucified?”

The old man thought for a moment and said, “‘Well, to be crucified means three things. First, the man who is crucified is facing only one direction.”

If he hears anything behind him he can’t turn a round to see what’s going on. He has stopped looking back. The crucified man on the cross is looking in only one direction and that is the direction of God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and the direction of Biblical revelation and the direction of world evangelization and the direction of the edifying of the church, the direction of sanctification and the direction of the Spirit filled life.

And the old man scratched his scraggly gray hair and said, “One thing more, son, about a man on a cross–he’s not going back. “

The fellow going out to die on the cross doesn’t say to his wife, “Good-by, honey, I’ll be back shortly after five. ” When you go out to die on the cross you bid good-by-you’re not going back! If we would preach more of this and stop trying to make the Christian life so easy it’s contemptible we would have more converts that would last. Get a man converted who knows that if he joins Jesus Christ he’s finished, and that while he’s going to come up and live anew, as far as this world is concerned he’s not going back–then you have a real Christian indeed.

The old man went on, “Another thing about the man on the cross, son; he has no further plans of his own.”

Somebody else made his plans for him, and when they nailed him up there all his plans disappeared. On  the way up to the hill he didn’t see a friend and say, “Well, Henry, next Saturday about three I’ll come by and we’ll go fishing up on the lake.” He was going out to die and he had no plans at all.

It is beautiful to say “I am crucified with Christ, ” and know that Christ is making your plans.

(Excerpt from Total Commitment to Christ by A. W. Tozer)