Crucified With Christ - Galatians 2:19-20

"For through the Law I died to the Law,

that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ;

and it is no longer I who live,

but Christ lives in me;

and the life which I now live in the flesh

I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me,

and delivered Himself up for me."

(Galatians 2:19-20)

Wow! Are you longing for freedom? Well, here's where you'll find it - in Christ crucified for you. But first, let us realize just how NOT free we are apart from Him.


This section of Galatians begins with some bad news - the Law kills! That bad news simply serves as the honest backdrop for the good news of the gospel which is about to be proclaimed - Christ gives life!!


Truly, no one can be justified by the Law. The Law condemns us. It shows us just how terribly we miss the mark. It accuses us - and rightly so. Honestly, as Paul proclaims, the Law kills us - it is a taskmaster that mercilessly drives us to our grave. The more we try to live the Law the more we die to the Law. ("through the Law I died to the Law....")


BUT...

Christ has lived the Law for us and has sacrificed Himself for our sinful failure to fulfill its demands. Jesus is, in fact, the living Law and as our sufficient Savior he has set us free from the just wages of the written Law which held us in choking chains. His perfect life and atoning death have granted us the power to live unto God - a thing we were NEVER able to do before. "For through the Law I died to the Law, THAT I might live to God." Through Christ, we are suddenly free to do that which we were utterly incapable of before - we are free to do the right thing!! There's your good news and what good news it is!!


Paul's not done, however. He has more to say about this good news.


He writes: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me."


Having been crucified with Christ we find real life, living life, vibrant life, a holy life. Our dead and enslaved selves are set free and are resurrected anew. Our stillborn selves are born again. Our old and worn out selves are re-created to a status of brand new and useful in His service! Truly this Galatians passage is a parallel picture of 2 Corinthians 5:17 where we are told that "therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come."


Henry writes:

"The old man is crucified. The new man is living. Sin is mortified. Grace is quickened. 'I live, yet not I.' He has the comforts and triumphs of grace; and yet that grace is not from himself but from another."

Beloved, this is a mantra we need to return to regularly. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me!" Look not to yourself - look to your Savior!!


If we look to ourselves we will see our sin. If we look to our Savior - to Christ crucified for us and ourselves crucified with him - we will see our salvation! Look not to yourself. Look to Him"who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil age!"


Through Jesus we live because He lives in us! He is our righteousness. He is our life. He is our power. He is our protector. He is our hope. He is our - everything!! We are in union with Christ - inseparably amalgamated to Him and in that fact we find freedom.


Luther writes the following about Christ's living in us and the benefits that are ours because He does so:

"Since Christ is now living in me, He abolishes the Law, condemns sin, and destroys death in me. These foes vanish in His presence. Christ abiding in me drives out every evil. This union with Christ delivers me from the demands of the Law, and separates me from my sinful self. As long as I abide in Christ, nothing can hurt me.

With Christ domiciling in me, the old Adam has to stay outside and remain subject to the Law. Think what grace, righteousness, life, peace, and salvation there is in me, thanks to that inseparable conjunction between Christ and me through faith!

Paul has a peculiar style, a celestial way of speaking. "I live," he says, "I live not; I am dead, I am not dead; I am a sinner, I am not a sinner; I have the Law, I have no Law."

When we look at ourselves we find plenty of sin. But when we look at Christ, we have no sin. Whenever we separate the person of Christ from our own person, we live under the Law and not in Christ; we are condemned by the Law, dead before God.

Faith connects you so intimately with Christ, that He and you become as it were one person. As such you may boldly say: "I am now one with Christ. Therefore Christ's righteousness, victory, and life are mine." On the other hand, Christ may say: "I am that big sinner. His sins and his death are mine, because he is joined to me, and I to him."

How amazing! How wonderful! How marvelous!!


Do you find yourself dead? Have you been killed by the Law? Do you see yourself as absolutely unable to live up to its demands? Friend, that is a good place to be for in the acknowledgement of your inability you may, by faith, fling yourself upon the certainty of Christ's ability.


You CAN'T keep the Law - and you don't have to - for He has kept it for you to enable you to live it through Him. Are you living in Him, through Him, and to Him? Are you looking to Him or to yourself? Are you crucified with Christ or dying in your doleful duty? Are you living in Him and He in you? Are you, by faith, resting upon His meritorious work and therefore bearing the fruit of that work? Are you depending on the fact that He has loved you and given Himself up for you? The cross of Christ is the place where freedom is found. Flee to it my friend - and find your life in His death!

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me."

Crucified,
Lori