During crucifixion, as gravity pulled the body down, the natural response of the victim would be to push the body up and produce respiratory relief. To prevent that, the feet were also nailed to the cross and the legs of the victim were broken at some point. Pushing up to relieve the respiratory distress became very painful and soon impossible as the pain and exhaustion took over. The fixing of the feet was another mechanical technique in crucifixion that produced a forced obedience to the process and guaranteed the end result: Death.
The crucifixion of self becomes a reality as three things happen:
- We acknowledge the truth of God
- We accept the truth of God by faith and keep our hands out of His business.
- We affirm our faith in God’s truth by becoming obedient to it. It is the living practice of what Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of His passion: “Not my will but thine be done”.
It is by obedience that the power of faith in God’s truth is experienced. It is obedience that is sorely deficient in the lives of Christians today. As Christ’s feet were fixed to the cross, so must our own feet as we walk in obedience to God’s truth. The obedience requirement of the crucifixion of self requires us to walk through our sin and turn from it by the power of Jesus living in us. In other word, we allow him to walk out and live our lives for us, by faith.
The unwillingness to obey causes spiritual difficulty and produces the disasters and the spiritual beatings of daily living. We are commanded to love but we don’t. We are commanded to forgive but we don’t. We are commanded to be humble and poor in spirit but we remain haughty and proud. Without obedience, faith has no life. The book of James puts it this way: “Faith without works is dead”. The works of faith flow from obedience. Obedience is the final matter in the death of self. Without obedience, the Three Holy Lies continue to live and the life of Christ in us is suppressed.
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