If you could have one verse of Scripture engraved onto your tombstone, what would it be? Or if you could have one verse and only one scripted and framed to hang in your living room or kitchen, which verse would you choose? Or, to put it a little differently, if someone were to write a biography of your life and put one verse on the title page, what verse would best summarize your aspirations and experiences as a Christian?
I’d love to know your verse, and the reason for it.
I have been thinking about this for years, and I can’t narrow myself down to one verse. But the verse for Sunday’s sermon — Galatians 2:20 — is near the top. Out of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, we’d have a hard time coming up with a better choice than this one:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (KJV).
This is a verse I memorized during my college days; I’ve been mulling over it for thirty-five years, but I have yet to plumb its depths. In simplest fashion, it seems to present three configurations to the Christian life. That will be the subject of Sunday’s sermon at TDF. (For an advance look, click here.)