Galatians 2:20 – The Cross: the Heart of the Gospel
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The Apostle Paul had been Saul the Pharisee. His life had devoted to the detailed and careful observance of the Old Testament law, believing that this was the ground of his acceptance with God. So he had taken pride and boasted in his lawkeeping.
He had heard of Jesus and the claims of his followers that this man was Israel's long awaited Messiah. But Jesus had been crucified by the Romans so he was plainly a charlatan. So, burning with zeal for the traditions of his fathers, he persecuted the church, dragging the followers of Jesus off to prison and seeking to stamp out their teaching.
But all of this had changed. He had met the risen Lord Jesus when he was on his way to Damascus to destroy the church in that city. That encounter had shown him in a blinding flash that Jesus was both the Messiah and the Lord of Glory. His whole world had been turned upside down.
In the verses we are looking at this morning, Paul speaks of what the death and resurrection of Christ now mean to him. He knows that Jesus death and resurrection are more than just facts of history; something happened there which vitally affected him. Jesus' death and resurrection displayed the depth and greatness of Jesus love for him, he "loved me and gave himself for me." Paul knows that he was embraced by Jesus Christ and had now been united with him in his death and resurrection, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
This is why Paul is so passionate about the Gospel that he proclaims; it means something to him – it means everything to him. And this is surely why his words speak so powerfully to us – to us as Christians. We know that the truths he speaks here apply equally to ourselves – we can identify with Paul's words. We too can say, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
I want us this morning to look together at this wonderful verse of Scripture. I want us to understand what Paul is saying about Jesus' death and resurrection and to understand afresh what these events mean for us.
So, looking at Jesus Christ crucified and risen, what now does Paul see? – What do we see?
1. This is where I have been brought to judgment
Paul once felt able to sit in judgment upon Jesus and his followers, but now he knows that this is where he has been brought to judgment.
Paul recognises that the law in which he had formerly taken such pride, rather than commending him to God, condemned him before God. As he says in his letter to the Romans, he now recognises that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And he recognises that "the wages of sin are death." Paul recognises that as Saul the Pharisee he was deserving of the law's penalty – death.
But, says Paul, the penalty has been paid. When Jesus died, he died in my place; he endured the penalty, the judgment, that I deserved.
So, says Paul, in his death, I was brought to judgment – "I have died … I have been crucified with Christ."
This is a wonderfully powerful picture. In Jesus' death judgment was passed on me – or perhaps, more accurately, on my sin. Judgment Day has passed for me; it happened when Jesus died upon the cross.
Have we understood this truth? We stood condemned for our failure to live up to all that we were created to be. But Christ has died for us. He died in our place so that we might say that in his death we also died.
The cross is the place where I was brought to judgment and there is now no condemnation for me for I am found in Christ Jesus. Do you feel the wonderful reality of all that this means? "No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in him is mine."
2. This is the ground of my assurance
Think back to when Paul was Saul the Pharisee. Where then was his ground of confidence before God? It was in himself, in his own life – he was proud of what he was.
But now everything has changed. The "I" in which he took confidence has been crucified – that "I" is no longer alive. Now he delights that "Christ lives in me." It's no longer "I" but "Christ" who is at the centre. It's as if Paul is saying, "All that I was, all my bad deeds but also all my best deeds, have been set aside; "I have been crucified." The ground for my standing before God is not I but Christ. In the words of an old hymn by Horatius Bonar:
Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art;
That, that alone can be my soul's true rest;
Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart,
And stills the tumult of my troubled breast.
Here is the ground of Paul's confidence day by day. As a Christian, he is aware that he is far from being all that he should be; he can write, "In me … there is no good thing." His whole ground of assurance of his acceptance with God in not in himself but in Christ.
Why do so many Christians lack assurance? Often it is because they are looking within themselves: at their own repentance; their own spirituality; their own feelings. How different are the words of Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live." All that belongs to me, all that comes from me, has been put to death. The life I now live, the life of faith, has its focus in Christ. He is the ground of my assurance. I am always changing but he is unchangeably the same yesterday and today and forever.
Is this what you see in Christ's death and resurrection: the place of your judgment; the ground of your assurance – "Not I but Christ."
3. This is the source of my life
"Christ lives in me. The life I now live", says Paul, "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
As I look at Christ crucified for me and risen for me I see that his risen life is now the source and power by which I live my Christian life – Christ lives in me. And I see that his death and resurrection are to be reflected in the shape of my life – the death of me and the new life that is mine in Christ – the power of Christ in me.
I am called to live under the shadow of the cross – to die daily to self and to self-centred desires. I am to live the resurrection life that is shaped by the presence, power and priorities of the risen Saviour who lives in me and through me. I am to live by the power and direction of the Spirit of God.
Is this what you see when you look at Christ crucified and risen? Is this what you see as you come to receive communion? Here is the place where I was brought to judgment. Here is the ground of my assurance. Here is the source of my life.
4. This is the basis of my hope
Paul writes, "Christ lives in me." In writing to the Christians at Colossae, Paul speaks of "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Christ is risen from the dead and has ascended to glory. Yet he lives in us by the power of his Spirit. And his life in us means that we share his resurrection life now and will share in the glorious resurrection to come.
Paul uses an interesting word to describe God's gift of the Holy Spirit who brings the risen life of the Lord Jesus into our lives. He uses the Greek word arrabōn (2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5, Ephesians 1:14), which in Ephesians 1:13-14 is translated by the UK edition of the NIV like this: "When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory." The Holy Spirit who brings the life of the risen Lord Jesus into our lives is like Christ's engagement ring given to us. The Spirit brings with him the unbreakable promise of a deeper and fuller union with Christ yet to come. He who died for us and is risen for us promises to bring us safe at last to share in the fulness and glory of his risen life with him. Christ in us, by his Spirit, is our certain hope of glory to come.
Listen to how Paul expresses this truth in Romans 8:11, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you." Do you understand what Paul is saying here? The Spirit of the living God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is living in you. And as he raised Christ from the dead so he will also raise you from the dead to share in the risen life of Christ. Wonderful promises that God has given to us not only written in his word, but written into our hearts and lives by his Spirit within us.
So to Sum up…
In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
As you look at Christ crucified and raised from the dead, what do you see? As you come to take communion, what do you see?
· This is where I have been brought to judgment – my sin has been dealt with and there is now no more condemnation for me;
· This is the ground of my assurance – my assurance that I am accepted and embraced by God and owned as his child rests not in me and what I have done but entirely in Christ and what he has done for me;
· This is the source of my life – Christ is the source of my life; the risen Christ lives in me and is at work in me and through me, calling me and enabling me to give myself to a life of faith, faith in him who loved me and gave himself for me.
· This is the basis of my hope – his presence in me now in the person and power of his Spirit is the guarantee that I shall share in the fulness of his resurrection life with him; Christ in me is the hope of glory.
I want to leave you with a challenge this morning: learn this verse off by heart. Repeat it often to yourself and savour afresh all that it means for you.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
May God help us each one to see and understand and glory in these things, and to live to the full the life we have been given in Jesus Christ.
Peter Misselbrook,
2/10/2022, Christ Church Downend