"Nineteen hundred years have passed away but the rains of the centuries with their calloused tears have not yet washed away the blood from the rotting wood of a deserted cross. Nor have the winds covered His footprints in the sands of Judea. Calvary still sands. And you and I erect the cross again and again and again every time we sin. The hammer blows are still echoing somewhere in the caverns of your heart and mine--- every time we deny Him -- every time we sin against Him or fail to do what He commanded. he is being crucified again and again and again. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? I was-- were you?"

I first heard those words of U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall close to fifty years ago, and for all those years I understood God to be saying to me that I indeed helped put Jesus on the cross, and so I was indeed there at Calvary.

True enough. But the Lord has recently kicked it up a notch. As I have been studying and hearing the Voice of the Lord, I have become aware that not only was I there as a part of the crucifying mob, I was also there as a partaker of the Victim's death. I was on that cross with Jesus.

When we came into Christ, we inherited a shared experience with the very Son of God.

The Bible says that when Jesus died, we died. Sin was defeated and given no more a reason to exist. That part of me which is evil, my flesh, was nailed to that cross. Sin was and is defeated.

Death is not a process in the apostle Paul's thinking. It is a historic fact to which we must connect. Consider these examples:

Romans 6:2, "...we who died to sin..." Romans 6:3, "[we] were baptized into His death." Romans 6:4, "...we were buried with Him." Romans 6:6, "Our old man was crucified with Him. ." Romans 6:8, "...we died with Him."

All past tenses. Sin makes no sense in the now."Into Jesus" means into His death. Into His life. Into His persecution. "They persecuted me, they will persecute you." And also, into His successes. "If they kept My sayings, they will keep yours."

More. Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ." Done deal. Over. Galatians 5:24, "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh..." History. Flesh is finished.

Still more. II Cor 5:14-17, "If one died for all, then all died." Makes sense to me. "...old things have passed away..." Can't argue with that.

Or can I? Though the words are surely clear, a lot of questions come to mind. How many live in the reality of these revelations? Do I? Who leads a perfectly sinless life? If few do, what of the rest of the Body of Christ? Do these constantly erring ones call in question Paul's statements? And how does all this sinlessness work? How do we get to such a state? Let me suggest some more specific Q's and A's:

Q: Is the Christian life about fighting demons or crucifying the flesh or both?

A. Watch Jesus. How did He overcome? Being perfect was not a piece of cake because of His Deity. Remember, His humanity was a part of the equation. As we must, he was engaged in fasting. Whole nights in prayer. Constant listening to the Father for direction. A baptism of power. The model that He showed us is spelled out in our own marching orders in the famous Ephesians 6 passage about the Christian's armor and warfare.