20a I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:20a)
Our post today picks up with Paul sharing from his heart about a gospel-aligned life—what our life justified by faith in Christ should look like. He confronted Peter for bowing to the fear of man and withdrawing from non-Jewish believers in Antioch, and continued with a beautiful teaching about the type of life the gospel is meant to produce. Last week, we saw that the gospel-aligned life is free and for God. Today, we see how it is totally identified with Christ, connected to him in his death and burial, but also his resurrection.
Totally Identified with Christ (20a)
The second aspect of gospel living Paul draws out is that it is a life totally identified with Christ. The person who believes the gospel—who trusts in Christ's work to justify and save them before God—is a person God has connected to Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Paul wrote:
20a I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. (Galatians 2:20a)
Paul's announcement is astounding: when you trust in Christ, you are crucified with Christ (20). Paul expands on this in Romans 6, where he says:
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)
Imagine it! When you believe in Jesus, you die to the law. God considers you to have died and been buried with Jesus so that you can have new, resurrection life with him. As a Christian, your old life is gone, and your new life is found in Christ. You are totally identified with and in him.
As Paul said to the Corinthians:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Paul knew, and we should know, that the old self—the self-righteous, self-centered, weak, needy, dead in trespasses and sins, righteousness-as-filthy-rags person—is gone. Once we trust in Christ, we are made new and positioned in Christ as a new creation.
If a hawk is hunting a dove, the dove will find a hiding place, perhaps in the cleft of a mountain face. In the cleft, the dove is safe—it is in the rock. This is the case for us as Christians. We are safe because we are in Christ. We are in the Rock! We are absorbed into him, protected by him, and alive with him.
Paul felt this was what had happened to him. He died with Christ—he no longer lived. It was Christ living in him (20). This does not mean that Paul's personality or personhood was suppressed. It does mean that even his love response to God was enabled, not by his own energy, but by the energy of Christ living within him. Jesus had made himself at home in Paul, and Paul drew upon the resources of Christ to obey God.
Jesus had promised to make his home in and with us. He promised to be one with his people. He said things like:
"Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." (John 14:19–20)
These statements were a commentary on something he said earlier:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:15–17)
I consider myself fortunate because, as a young Christian, one of the first lessons my mentors taught me was about the indwelling and enabling presence of the Holy Spirit. I learned how the Spirit empowered the early church and could empower me. With open hands and an open heart, I asked God to strengthen me for a life dedicated to him. I have repeated that dependence daily, and he has proved himself time and time again. It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
This beautiful truth was foreshadowed in the pages of the Old Testament. The Spirit would come upon the great heroes of the Bible, but seemingly only in spurts. Abraham would trust God for descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky but then try to produce offspring by sinful means. Moses would boldly lead the people out of captivity in Egypt, only to fall into a fit of rage and misrepresent God at the rock of Meribah. David would slay Goliath but also sin against Bathsheba.
It was not until Jesus stood in the waters of the Jordan, freshly baptized by his cousin John, that the Spirit descended and remained upon a man. Jesus did everything by the power of the Spirit. And his death, burial, and resurrection made it possible for us to depend daily on the Spirit's strength for life. We can say with Paul, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (20).
The church in Laodicea was filled with Christians who felt they had no needs. They were smugly self-sufficient before God. But Jesus saw their spiritual poverty and wanted them to become desperate for his help. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20). If they would turn to him, he was already at the door, waiting to come in and strengthen them.
Brothers and sisters, gospel living is found completely in Christ. Find your life in him and, daily, cling to him. Open the door!