Daily Devotional · Galatians 2:20
I No Longer Live, But Christ Lives in Me
Reflection
"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." Galatians 2:20 may be the most compressed description of the Christian life in Paul's letters. It contains both the death of the old self and the life of the new, both the historical and the ongoing, both the objective and the personal. "I have been crucified with Christ." Past tense, but with present implications. When Christ died, Paul (in some real theological sense) died with him. The crucifixion of the old self is not a future goal; it is an accomplished fact that needs to be lived out. "I no longer live." The self that was independent, self-justifying, striving to earn standing before God — that self is not reformed; it is dead. "But Christ lives in me." The replacement is not a better self; it is Another. The life now being lived is Christ's life, lived through Paul's body. This is the mystery of the indwelling Spirit. "The life I now live in the body." Not in spirit only, not in abstract — in the body, in daily physical existence. The new life is an embodied life, lived in real circumstances, with real choices. "I live by faith in the Son of God." The mechanism is faith — continuous, daily, active trust in the One who now lives in him. "Who loved me and gave himself for me." The most personal statement in the verse. Not loved the world (though He did) — loved me, gave Himself for me. The love is individual.
Background
Galatians 2:20 appears in the middle of Paul's autobiographical account of his confrontation with Peter at Antioch. Peter had been eating with Gentiles but withdrew when Jews from Jerusalem arrived, fearing criticism. Paul publicly rebuked him: you are not living in line with the truth of the gospel. The principle at stake was whether the gospel actually changes the basis of identity and relationship — or whether old social markers still apply. Galatians 2:20 is Paul's personal testimony to what the gospel actually does to a person.
Truth
The Christian life is not about improving the old self — it is about receiving a new one. The old self that was crucified with Christ is not resurrected and reformed; it is replaced by Christ's life lived through the believing person. This is not poetry; it is the mechanism of sanctification.
Application
"Who loved me and gave himself for me." Put your name in: who loved [your name] and gave himself for [your name]. Sit with the individual specificity of that. Then receive the implication: the One who gave Himself for you now lives in you. You are not trying to be a better version of yourself; you are carrying Someone who is already everything you need to be.