Crucified With Christ
CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
GALATIANS 2:18-21
2:20 sets out the foundation facts of the Christian life. How true is it of your experience of Christ?
Notice Paul’s courtesy in his controversial stance against Peter’s wavering and insincerity which had the adverse effect of leading others (notably Barnabas, 2:13) astray. For, clearly, when he says, “If I build up again those things which I tore down” (2:18), it is Peter who should be the speaker. The description fits Peter’s action like a glove. It was he who had turned round completely, under pressure from the “false believers” (2:4) who represented James’ party (2:12).
Paul places the capstone on his previous argument against these people. With the coming of Christ and the provision of God to meet the desperate human situation created by a sinner’s inability to keep the law, the latter’s regime as an instrument of salvation is over (2:19).
A new basis is laid for the divine-human relationship. The old self-life is condemned and put on the cross; there is, however, no canceling of personality, no call to asceticism and self-punishment. The dying of self is an invitation to a glorious new possibility: life in union by faith with a living Lord who now controls the believer and who lives out Christ’s resurrection life (2:20). Only from the vantage point of this “dead to self—alive to God” experience can the cross be seen in its true light. Only as sinners throw themselves on the mercy of God shown on the cross as the sole ground of their hope does the cross assume its real importance, for if there is any merit in human achievement—if there is any second way to God or sidedoor entrance into God’s awesome presence—then Christ’s death is “to no purpose” (2:21): he died for nothing.
Note 2:19-20: the tenses of the verbs are important: “I died to the law” is aorist, looking back to the grand renunciation of Paul’s Damascus road experience when he gave up all hope of self-justification (Philippians 3:7). “I have been crucified” is perfect, referring to a past action which has a continuing effect. “I live”: a present tense, for life in Christ is a moment-by-moment fellowship.