«　WEEK 3　DAY 4　»

　　John 3:5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

　　Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

　　When we were regenerated, we were crucified….No one was born crucified in a physical sense, but every believer is regenerated crucified. This corresponds with the Lord’s word in John 3:5: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”…The water refers to John’s ministry, and the Spirit refers to the Lord’s ministry.

　　To be born of water, according to John’s ministry, is for the termination of people of the old creation. When we are buried in the water of John’s ministry, this indicates that we realize that we are good for nothing but death. When people came to John to repent, John threw them into the water to bury them, to end them, to terminate them. When a sinner repents to God, he should repent to such an extent that he realizes he is good for nothing but death. Thus, he hands himself over like a corpse to the baptizer. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” pp. 463-464)

　　When we preach the gospel and lead people to repent and believe into Christ, we may tell them, “You have to realize that as a person who has repented and believed into Christ, you, as a person of the old creation, are now a dead person. You have handed yourself over to me as a corpse, and I will now put you into a tomb of water to terminate you.” Paul tells us clearly in Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12 that in baptism we are buried together with Christ into His death. When we raise up a baptized one from the water, that indicates resurrection. In resurrection we are now in the Spirit. Through the terminating water of death and the germinating Spirit, we are born spiritually. To be reborn through termination and germination is to be regenerated. Thus, every regenerated person is regenerated crucified.

　　We are regenerated crucified and are dying to live (1 Cor. 15:36). We were born dead, and now we are dying to live. Dying to live means to live under the crucifixion of Christ. Every day we are dying. Paul says that he died daily (v. 31; 2 Cor. 4:11). Our environment is putting us to death every day. Our dying is a continuous matter. The Christian life is a long life of dying. Every day we die to live. We were reborn crucified, and now we are dying to live. This is a living under the crucifixion of Christ. In Galatians 2:20…, on the one hand, Paul had been terminated, but on the other hand, a resurrected Paul, one who had been regenerated, still lived. Paul had been crucified with Christ, yet Christ lived in him and he lived Christ (Phil. 1:21a). Christ and Paul had one life and one living.

　　Now we need to consider once more who died on the cross. We need to say, “I died on the cross.” When Christ was incarnated, He took us upon Himself. He put on blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14). Therefore, when He was crucified, we were crucified with Him. All of us as a part of Christ, received the injection of His death on the cross.

　　In the phrase regenerated crucified and dying to live the conjunction and conjoins regenerated and dying. We are regenerated, and we are dying. We have been regenerated crucified, and now we need to die that we may live. After our baptism, we live by dying and we die to live. Dying to live is the proper meaning of bearing the cross. (CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” pp. 464-465, 469)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1991-1992, vol. 2, “The Christian Life,” chs. 9, 12-14