Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ (not ‘ am crucified,' as the E. V. has it). Paul means the past act which took place in his conversion. It is an explanation of the word ‘ died,' Galatians 2:19 (not ‘ am dead,' E. V.). Since the law is a school master to Christ who fulfilled it and removed its curse by His atoning death on the cross, the believer is crucified with Christ as to his old, sinful nature, but only in order to live a new spiritual life with the risen Saviour. Comp. Romans 6:5-10; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 2:20

And it is no longer I that live, or, ‘I live no longer myself,' in the unconverted state, under the dominion of sin and the curse of the law. ‘I have no longer a separate existence, I am merged in Christ' (Light-foot). The E. V: ‘ Nevertheless I live, yet not I,' conveys a beautiful and true idea, but is grammatically incorrect, since the original has no ‘nevertheless' nor ‘yet'

But it is Christ that liveth in me, Christ, the crucified and risen Redeemer, who is the resurrection and the life, is the indwelling, animating, and controlling principle of my life. One of the strongest and clearest passages for the precious doctrine of a real life-union of Christ with the believer, as distinct both from a mere moral union and sympathy, and from a pantheistic confusion and mixture. Christ truly lives and moves in the believer, but the believer lives and moves also, as a self-conscious personality, in Christ. Faith is the bond which so unites the soul to Christ, that it puts on Christ (Galatians 3:27), that it becomes a member of His body, yea flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone (Ephesians 5:30), and derives all its spiritual nourishment from Him (John 15:1 ff.). Comp. Galatians 3:27: ‘Ye did put on Christ;' Galatians 4:19: ‘Until Christ be formed in you;' 2Co 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:5: ‘Jesus Christ is in you;' Colossians 3:4: ‘When Christ who is our life, shall appear;' Philippians 1:21: ‘For to me to live is Christ;' John 15:5: ‘I am the vine, ye are the branches;' John 17:23: ‘I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one.'

That (life) which I now live in the flesh. ‘Now' after my conversion, as compared with my old life. ‘In the flesh,' in this bodily, temporal form of existence. It is explanatory of the preceding sentence. The life-union with Christ does not destroy the personality of the believer. Even his natural mortal life continues in this world, but as the earthen vessel containing the heavenly treasure of the imperishable life of Christ who dwells in him and transforms even the body into a temple of the Holy Spirit

I live in the faith, (not ‘ by,' E. V.) corresponds to ‘in the flesh,' and conveys the idea that faith is the living element in which Paul moved.

Of the Son of God, the object of faith, the eternal Son of the Father who has life in himself (John 5:26), and by his incarnation and his atoning death on the cross has become the fountain of divine life to man.

Who loved me, individually, as a personal friend. The love of Christ to the whole world applies in its full force to each believing soul, as the sun pours its whole light and heat with undiminished force on every object it reaches.