Galatians 2:20

I am crucified Better, I have been crucified. The mention of death and life suggests theDeath which bore fruit in Resurrection. The Christian is by faith -incorporated into" Christ (Hooker). Of this incorporation Baptism is the sign and the pledge. Hence the prayer in the Office for Public Baptism, -that he may crucify the old man, and utterly abolish the whole body of sin; and that as he is made partaker of the death of Thy Son, he may also be partaker of His Resurrection". Crucifixion, though a lingering mode of death, is yet as certain in its issue as that by the rope or the axe. Tworobbers were -crucified with Christ", on separate crosses. One was with Him in His Cross, and therefore with Him in Paradise.

nevertheless I live more exactly, -And it is no longer I that live". The -old man" is crucified. The -new man" which has put on the Lord Jesus Christ, is clothed in Him, has Him as the principle of its life (ch. Galatians 3:27). Christ is now "our life" (Colossians 3:4), and -He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us", 1 John 3:24.

the life which I now live in the flesh my life as a man on earth, since I became a believer. It is termed -in the flesh", to shew that more is meant than the life of the soul. St Paul was no mystic. With him Christianity was not abstraction from the duties of social life. It elevated, purified, ennobled them. He claimed and used his rights as a citizen of Rome, while living as a citizen of Heaven.

by the faith of the Son of God Rather, -in faith" a faith which has for its object the Son of God. The life in the flesh is lived in faith. This is the sum of practical religion. What a perversion of the truth to apply to those who withdraw from the world, with its duties, its trials, its opportunities, the title of -religious"!

The object of this faith is not termed, as usual, Jesus Christ. It is "the Son of God". But that is not all. He, in His uncreated Majesty, as "the effulgence of the Father's glory and express image of His substance", could not win the confidence of the conscious sinner. But His eternal Sonship gave its value to His atoning sacrifice, and is "the source of His life-giving power".

gave Himself for me = delivered Himself up for me to anguish, and shame and death. The same verb occurs in the passive Romans 4:25, "who was delivered up". Luther remarks on this passage, -Here have ye the true manner of justification set before your eyes, and a perfect example of the assurance of faith. He that can with a firm and constant faith say these words with Paul, is happy indeed. And with these words Paul taketh away the whole righteousness of the law and works". See Additional Note, p. 90.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CH. Galatians 2:20

This verse strikes the key-note of the Epistle, and is a summary of the whole Christian revelation subjectively considered. St Paul here discloses to our view the secret of his life as a Christian and as an Apostle, the mainspring of his wonderful activity, the source and the object of the enthusiasm by which he was inspired. We know something of his life and his labours. Here he tells us howthat life was lived, and whythose labours were undergone. A full record of his teaching has been preserved to us. Here is a summary of it all.

A comparison of two other passages of the N. T. will serve to throw light on this verse. In Ephesians 2:4 St Paul speaks of that -great love wherewith God loved us, and even when we were dead in sins quickened us together with Christ". In Revelation 1:5 St John ascribes praise -to Him that loveth us and released us from our sins in His own blood". In the former of these passages, the love displayed is that of God the Father [36]. Here it is the Lord Jesus Christ who loved the Apostle. In the latter passage, the love of Christ is regarded as still exercised, unchanged, towards those who are its objects [37]. (Comp. John 13:1.) But in both passages it is the love of the Church collectively, not of the individual Christian, which is affirmed. In the verse before us St Paul appropriates this love. His language is intensely personal. -Who loved me". He claims as his own the assurance made long before to the prophet Jeremiah (ch. Jeremiah 31:3), -I have loved thee with an everlasting love". Of this love the proof and pledge was the great Sacrifice of the Cross. He -gave Himself for me". There is no boasting here, save that which the Apostle avows when he says (Galatians 6:14) -God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ". Such boasting is the confidence of true humility, the faith which constitutes personal Christianity.

[36] This love of God is -in Christ Jesus our Lord". Romans 8:39. Comp. Romans 8:35.

[37] The present tense, -loveth us", has the support of the best MSS., and is adopted in the R. V.