“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 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.”
Galatians 2:19-20 (KJV)
Commenting on Martin Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith, Duke George of Saxony said, “It’s a great doctrine to die by, but a lousy one to live with!” An unknown author wrote, “We die when we live unto self, but we live when we die to self.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom.14:7-8).
I have been thinking about this living and dying issue. What is the normal life of one who is justified by faith in Christ? Dying to self, the law, and the world is more than simple rejection of external ceremony and rites. Despite his terminology of circumcision, feasts, and food laws, Paul isn’t teaching us to reject regulation and to accept mystical spiritualism. Rather, he is teaching that personal crucifixion is the death of one’s self-trust and merit. Personal crucifixion yields to and places faith in Christ’s finished work at Calvary. This personal death occurs by faith and is necessary in order to “live unto God.”
So, what does it mean to be “crucified with Christ”? In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin wrote, “As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he suffered and done for salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.” Being crucified with Christ then places Christ on the inside of the believer. Being crucified with Christ joins the believer to Christ. Being crucified with Christ is a radical transformation of the spiritual nature of the believer. Therefore, the believer’s crucifixion is to be understood as a spiritual death rather than a physical one. And so “Christ lives” in the believer whose physical life is lived “by the faith of the Son of God.”
This critical issue is not only about dying. It also involves living. The one who is crucified with Christ also lives by faith in Christ, since the justified walk by faith and not by sight. One New Testament author put it this way, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). Another New Testament author put it this way, “Now faith is the substance of our hoping, the evidence of our undertaking, not of our seeing” (Hebrews 11:1). Calvin wrote, “It is faith alone that justifies, but the faith that justifies is not alone.” So then, dying by faith and living by faith are two sides of the same dynamic reality in the believer’s life. And both are possible only because of Christ’s love and sacrifice.
Dear Father, thank you for the death and life of Christ. Empower us with the faith to both die with him and live for him. This I pray in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be encouraged today in Christ’s death and life,