Recently, I read The Crucified Life: How To Live Out a Deeper Christian Experience by A.W. Tozer, which was first published in 1953. Tozer was a pastor and writer who authored more than forty books and served as pastor of Southside Alliance Church in Chicago for more than thirty years.
Rev. James L. Snyder said, “Tozer taught that Christ did not die on the cross just to save people from hell; rather, He died on the cross so that all could become one with Christ. That concept was so personally important to Tozer that anything that came between him and that unity with Christ had to be courageously dealt with and done away with, regardless of the cost.”[1]
If you’re in a season of life when you are longing to experience a deeper union with Christ, my hope is these quotes from Tozer will be helpful to you:
- The crucified life is a life absolutely committed to following after Christ Jesus. To be more like Him. To think like Him. To act like Him. To love like Him…We can get all caught up in the nuances of religion and miss the glorious joy of following after Christ. Whatever hinders our journey must be dealt a deathblow.[2]
- One important point many fail to understand is that the Bible was never meant to replace God; rather, it was meant to lead us into the heart of God. Too many Christians stop with the text and never go on to experience the presence of God.[3]
- Simply believing the Bible does no good until we pull those promises of God out of the Bible and by faith appropriate them into our lives.[4]
- Our ultimate goal is to see Christ face to face. As with every other type of journey, so the journey of living the crucified life has many obstacles. If we rest upon our own strength, we fail.[5]
- Success in the Christian life is not automatic. The soul must be cultivated like a garden.[6]
Tozer makes it clear that cultivating our union with Christ must be intentional—it won’t happen by accident. But the good news is, that we can be as close to God as we choose to be. So let’s be people who “draw near to God,” knowing by faith that He will respond by “drawing near to us” (Jas. 4:8).
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[1] A. W. Tozer, The Crucified Life: How To Live Out a Deeper Christian Experience, (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2011, 7).
[2] Ibid, 16.
[3] Ibid, 19.
[4] Ibid, 51.
[5] Ibid, 35.
[6] Ibid, 35.
