John 18:14, “Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.”

Isaiah 63:5, “I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore, My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me.”

Caiaphas was the High Priest during the life of Jesus and he spoke this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had to die not just for the Jews but for the whole world. Then God in Isaiah saw He was the only one who could pay the price for salvation, so He used His own arm (Jesus). The commonality of these two verses is something had to be given up for the desired end to be acquired. Jesus had to die for the world and God had to give up Jesus for salvation. That is the basis of salvation. Somebody had to give up something and that is the cost of anyone who accepts salvation. Salvation came at such a steep price and its recipients must pay the same price.

Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

This is by far my favorite verse at the moment. To me it perfectly describes the Christian life. The first thing it tells you is the cost of Christianity. The verse tells us that the first thing that happened to us when we accepted Christ was we were crucified with Him. Then it tells us for the rest of our lives we must live out that crucifixion. In other words, we must live out what Christ did in us. We all know the famous verse where Jesus tells His disciples if anyone wants to follow Him, they must deny themselves and pick up their own cross. That is exactly what the above verse is telling us to do.

Jesus gives us the perfect example of picking up our cross. He demonstrates it to us in the garden of Gethsemane. In the garden He did want to go to the cross. He asked God the Father to take that cup from Him, but only if it is the Father’s will. Then He submitted to the Father’s will and went to and through the cross. That is how we pick up our cross and die with Christ, by submitting our will to His will. It sounds very easy but its very hard. The classic example is when you don’t feel like going to church, but you know the Lord is leading you to go so you submit to what God is leading you to do and go to church.

The rest of Galatians 2:20, states that we live this life by the faith in the Son of God. What the Holy Spirit means is that we live believing in our new identity in Christ and letting that truth influence our daily living.