Crucified With.....

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. 
Crucifixion is not something that happens everyday here in America.  In fact it hasn't happened as a criminal punishment in a very long time.  The capital punished has long since been abandoned and now fades into history if not for the Christian religion.  So as modern people we don't understand the agony and full effects of the gruesome way in which the Romans condemned the guilty in their society.  Being removed from the experiential knowledge of it we often miss the full impact of what it did to the society and the body of the person crucified.  The only reference we have tends to be Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. 
We know the effects of the cross of Christ about as much as we know of Roman crucifixion.  One amazing fact about the cross of Christ is that it ceased all punishment for the believer.  There is no longer a need for the person of Christ to be crucified because the death of Jesus was enough.  It satisfied the demands that the law had against you and I.  We are free because He was crucified on the Roman Cross.  There are no more "crosses" for the believer once he has entered into Christ. 
Jesus became what you did so you could become what He is.  There is a scripture in Luke that quotes Jesus, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me."  When Jesus was placed upon the cross you and I were gathered to Him and were crucified with Him.  Luke goes on to give commentary.  "He said this to signfiy the death that He would die."  Christ was preaching that when He was crucified the whole world would be crucified with Him.  There was no more crucifixions to happen.
The effects of that one act are amazing.  Jesus reveals them to us through His Spirit.  I will mention just one.  Sin no longer is a master over you.  Because you have died with Christ you have died to the old man, the world, sin, and the Devil.  You have been cut off from their influence, power, and mastery.  As a man who has literally died and can no longer sin, so you have died and are liberated from it.  Now walk it out.  You do not need to try as a dead man gives no effort; declare your death to sin, society, and satan and let the freedom of Christ reign in you.