Tue 31 Mar, 2009
“There is an explicit paradox in this verse. “I have been crucified,” but “I now live.” But you might say, “That’s not paradoxical, it’s just sequential. First I died with Christ; then I was raised with him and now live.” True. But what about these even more paradoxical words: “It is no longer I who live,” yet “I now live”? Do I live or don’t I? Paradoxes are not contradictions. They just sound that way. The aim of the death of Christ was to take our “old self” with him into the grave and put an end to it. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing” (Romans 6:6). If we trust Christ, we are united to him, and God counts our old self as dying with Christ. The purpose was the raising of a new self. So who is the new self? What’s different about these two selves? Am I still me? The verse at the beginning of this chapter describes the new self in two ways: One way is almost unimaginable; the other is plain. First, it says that the new self is Christ living in me: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” I take this to mean that the new self is defined by Christ’s presence and help at all times. He is always imparting life to me. He is always strengthening me for what he calls me to do. That’s what a Christian is. The other way it speaks of the new self is this: It lives by trusting Christ moment by moment. “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.” Without this second description of the new self, we might wonder what our part is in experiencing Christ’s daily help. Now we have the answer: faith. The proof that he will be with us and will help us do this is the fact that he suffered and died to make it happen.”
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
As I reflect here, the Apostle Paul really accentuates the meaning of faith in this passage. To Paul, faith was not just believing with one’s mind. Faith was a bodily thing. It was a putting off and putting on. It was putting to death something old and living in something new. It was not just redressing or adding an accessory to what he already had. As John Murray, the great 20th Century Theologian put it:
“the most characteristic act of faith [is the] engagement of person to person, the engagement of the sinner as lost to the person of the Saviour able and willing to save. Faith, after all, is not belief of propositions of truth respecting the Saviour, however essential an ingredient of faith such belief is. Faith is trust in a person, the person of Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the lost. It is entrustment of ourselves to Him. It is not simply believing Him; it is believing in Him and on Him.”
I was once a collector of Christian things and faith was part of my collection. It was in my bag of essentials and I pulled it out when I needed it. It was influential but not transformational. However, over the years, God has been kind to show me that true faith is not something I conveniently use to convince myself that I am a Christian or “I can do anything”. Faith itself, disconnected from an object and not active, is no more powerful than saying “I think I can, I think I can”. However, faith “in and on” the only one who can save sinners is infinitely powerful because its object is infinitely powerful. Faith and the message of the Gospel binds me to the one who saved me, namely Christ.
Questions: Why is our experience of faith today so radically different than what Paul describes? Could it be our definition of faith has changed? How do you define faith and its application? Is it consistent with Paul’s definition?
John Piper quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.
John Murray quote from “Redemption Accomplished and Applied”
Questions and reflections by me.
Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.
This is volume 34 in a series of Lenten reflections based on “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.
Stephen says:
Our faith makes miracles happen. Based on a deeper understanding of faith provided above by you, I now understand that miracles are not magic. They are the manifestations of wholeness, of healing. You have healed me. And when I say you, I speak to the same One who is in me at this very moment and on forever and ever. I am no longer afraid of being with Christ. I no longer judge so I know I can walk freely from this point forward. I used to destroy my body with alcohol and drugs. I don’t judge others for doing so anymore and now I am free to move past this addiction myself for I have no fear of stagnation due to judgment from others. Thank you.
Art says:
Stephen
Thank you for the clarification of “you”. The LORD is a great God who does heal and transforms our affections and desires.