2. The cross and experience (2:19-21)
2. The cross and experience (2:19-21)
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
If we were not already familiar with verse 20, it would strike us as quite extraordinary. That Jesus Christ was crucified under Pontius Pilate is an established historical fact; but what could Paul possibly mean by writing that he had been crucified with Christ? As a physical fact it was manifestly not true, and as a spiritual fact it was hard to understand.
We need to examine the context. Verses 15–21 are in general about justification, how a righteous God can declare the unrighteous righteous. But in particular they assert that sinners are justified not by the law (referred to 7 times) but by God’s grace through faith. Three times in verse 16 the apostle insists that nobody can be justified by the law. It would hardly have been possible to state more forcibly than this the impossibility of self-justification, that is, of winning God’s acceptance by obeying the law. Why is this? Because the law condemns sin and prescribes death as its penalty. Thus the function of the law is to condemn, not to justify.
Since the law clamours for my death as a law-breaker, how can I possibly be justified? Only by meeting the law’s requirement and dying the death it demands. If I were to do this myself, however, that would be the finish of me. So God has provided another way. Christ has borne the penalty of my law-breaking, and the blessing of what he has done has become mine because I am united with him. Being one with Christ, I am able to say ‘I died to the law’ (v. 19), meeting its demands, because ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ and now he lives in me (v. 20).
As in Romans 6, so in Galatians 2, the assertion of our death and resurrection with Christ is Paul’s answer to the charge of antinomianism. Granted, nobody can be justified by law-observance. But that does not mean that I am free to break the law. On the contrary, it is inconceivable that I should continue in sin. Why so? Because I have died; I have been crucified with Christ; my old sinful life has received the condemnation it deserved. In consequence I (the old, sinful, guilty I) live no longer. But Christ lives in me. Or, since plainly I am still alive, I can say that the life I now live is an entirely different life. It is the old ‘I’ (sinful, rebellious, guilty) which lives no longer. It is the new ‘I’ (justified and free from condemnation) who lives by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
It is important to grasp that Paul is referring to the death and resurrection of Christ, and to our death and resurrection through union with him. He puts the same truth in two ways. Regarding the death of our old life, he can say both ‘he loved me and gave himself for me’ and ‘I died...I have been crucified with Christ’. Regarding the resurrection to new life, he can say both ‘Christ lives in me’ and ‘I live for God’ (v. 19) or ‘I live by faith in the Son of God’ (v. 20).
To sum up, Christ died for me, and I died with him, meeting the law’s demands and paying sin’s just penalty. Then Christ rose again and lives, and I live through him, sharing in his resurrection life. Justification by faith, then, does not set aside God’s grace (v. 21). Nor (as in Rom. 6) does it presume on it, saying ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds much more’. No, justification by faith magnifies the grace of God, declaring that it is by his grace alone. It is the notion of justification by law which sets aside the grace of God, for if a righteous status before God were attainable by law-obedience, then Christ’s death was superfluous.