GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GALATIANS 2:19b-20
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I have been crucified with Christ 20 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. By this I mean that the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and sacrificed himself for me.
Paul’s theology is digging deeper. He is digging down to show us a post in God’s holy doctrine that cannot be budged.
There are some verb tenses in Greek that don’t correspond to what we have in English. One of these is the perfect tense. Paul says, “I was / have been crucified.” This means that at his conversion, the old Paul died. He uses the word crucified to show this kind of a Christian change and death of the old, sinful, condemned self. But it also means that the results of that change continue into the present and beyond. The perfect tense shows lasting results. In other words, since Paul’s conversion, Paul stands acquitted of his sins. This was not just the death of his condemnation, it was Paul’s death to the Law of Moses. He no longer tries to be saved by keeping the Law; therefore it is also, at the same time, the beginning of his life as a Christian believer. He is justified by Christ’s death for all mankind. What is true about Paul’s sin and condemnation is also true for you.
While for most of us this takes us back to our baptism, Paul is probably thinking of his terrible days of darkness, genuine blindness, after Christ spoke to him in the vision on the way to Damascus. Paul’s bitter shame churned in his guts and writhed in his mind as he considered the depth of his terrible sins. He had persecuted the church of God and had arrested, tortured, and even killed in this cause.
Now, by his conversion which in Paul’s case was followed by baptism (most often they happen at the same time), Paul’s old life came to an end. “I no longer live” is the heart of this verse. Paul’s sinful will is crushed and crumpled; Christ lives in Paul. So his life is no longer a life of sin guided and dominated by Paul’s sinful will, but now it is a life guided and commanded by Chirst. It is a life under Christ’s will, not Paul’s. And who is Christ? Paul reminds us: He is the Son of God who loved us all, and who sacrificed himself on the cross for us. Each of us can say, “this was for me,” and be perfectly correct.
We still live out this life in the flesh, we who have faith in Christ. We live in the flesh, but not of the flesh, in (that is, only in) the flesh, or according to the flesh (Luther). Our life is life in the Son of God, who is Christ.
Not “of the flesh,” that is, not driven by fleshly desires and sinful lusts. Not “in the flesh,” that is, only in the flesh without reference to God’s grace in any way. And not “according to the flesh,” that is, not obedience to the flesh and every impulse of the flesh, as if we are animals who have no control over what we do, and do things only to gratify the stomach, or out of fear, or lust, or thirst, or to protect what we believe to be ours.
We live under grace. This means that we do not live under the judgment of the law, but under the righteousness that comes from Christ. We are removed from God’s judgment upon sin because we have been brought into Christ, and Christ lives in us. What God’s Son did for us was as a substitute for us, taking the blame and the punishment for our sins in his own body, in his flesh. Why would we want to bring that blame and punishment back upon ourselves? Therefore the whole life of the Christian is lived day to day under Christ; under his constant comfort and love.
Does this sound like the same bell being rung again and again? This is the love of God, and this is our joy. As with the regular reception of the forgiveness in worship, and the sacrament as well, we are happy to hear, again and again, that our Father in heaven loves us on account of Christ, and that his mercy endures forever.
“For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies” (Psalm 57:10)
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Galatians 2:19b-20 Christ in us