“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20
I don’t know many verses that better describe what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a follower of Christ.
We die to ourselves and live by faith in Christ, trusting in Him because He loves us.
What a great verse. This describes, so for every person who’s a follower of Christ, just think about what this verse is saying about us. We’ve been crucified with Christ. This language, very intentional. We think about Jesus’ words to would be disciples all throughout the gospels. “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me,” so the cross is not just a place of death for Christ, the cross is a place of death for us.
As followers of Christ we have died to ourselves, we have crucified ourselves. We have been crucified with Christ to the point where it’s no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. This great exchange, my life has been exchanged for the life of Christ. Christ himself now lives in me. It’s not me anymore, it’s Christ who lives in me. It’s not you anymore but Christ who lives in you. Yes, we live in the flesh every day but how do we live? We live by faith in the son of God. What a picture.
Galatians 2:20 Calls Us to Live by Faith
We’re not just saved at that initial point of salvation by faith, we actually live by faith. Every single day our life is trusting in Christ, we live by faith in the son of God. We wake up in the morning and we say, just like we said at the very point of our salvation, we said, “I cannot do this on my own, I need you to save me.” We say today when we wake up in the morning, we say, “I cannot do this on my own today, I need you to live through me. I’m trusting in you to be my wisdom, to be my strength, to be my sustenance, to be my joy. I’m living by faith in you.”
This last phrase, “We live by faith in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.” Oh, it is good to live by faith in the one who loves us and the God who loves us, to the point where he sent his son to give himself for us. He loves us so much. Christ in us loves us so much. Hear that word from Galatians Chapter 2, verse 20. “Christ is in you Christian and he loves you so much so you can trust him to lead you as your life.”
Galatians 2:20 Teaches Us to Deny Our Sinful Tendencies
Oh God, we praise you for this glorious reality and this verse. We praise you for our death to ourself, death to sin. God help us to live the crucified life today. Help us to die daily just as Jesus called us to, to deny ourselves daily, to die to ourselves and to our sinful tendencies, our selfish tendencies daily. Lord, we want to live in you, we want you to live in us. Jesus, we want your life to be our life, we want you to control and direct and guide our thoughts and our desires, our affections, our words, our decisions, everything we do today.
Live in us, we pray. Help us to trust in you all day long. Help us not to turn aside to ourselves today. Aid us to live by faith in you knowing that you love us. Thank you for the way you love us. Jesus, thank you for giving yourself for us. Thank you for the cross 2,000 years ago, for paying the price for our sin so that we could have life in you, so that we would no longer need to fear death.
We praise you for your love for us then and we praise you for your love for us today as you live in us. Live in us, we pray, today for your glory through us. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
