Galatians 2:20

Since Christ was in Paul, who will doubt that he was also likewise in Peter and John and in every individual among the saints, and not only in those who are on earth but also in those in heaven? For it is absurd to say that Christ was in Peter and Paul but not in the archangel Michael or Gabriel.

Christ is the true Son, and so when we receive the Spirit, we are made sons. For it says; 'you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adopted sonship' [Romans 8:15]. But when we are made sons in the Spirit, it is clear that we are called children of God in Christ... And when the Spirit is given to us-the Saviour said: 'Receive the Holy Spirit' [John 20:22]- God [The Father] is in us... But when God is in us, the Son is also in us.

We will set these matters in order, one after the other, and we will show where it is meet that the disciple should begin, and how he should advance and ascend all the grades of the Christian life and conduct, until he arriveth at the …

Judas and the priests, with the princes, handed him over, and Pilate, to whom he was finally handed over, handed him over again. But the Father handed him over that he might save the abandoned world. Jesus gave himself, that he might do the Father's will. But Judas and the priests and elders of the people and Pilate unwittingly handed over their lives to death.

(Verse 20.) But I no longer live; Christ lives in me. The person who once lived under the law no longer lives, for they persecuted the Church. But Christ lives in them, providing wisdom, strength, speech, peace, joy, and other virtues. The one who does not possess these virtues cannot say, 'Christ lives in me.' And all of this is said in opposition to Peter, directed at Peter. But as for now, I live in the flesh. To be in the flesh is one thing, and to live in the flesh is another. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. VIII, 8, 9). Therefore, it is said to those who live well: However, you are not in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. He speaks about God to the Romans, that he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us. Now, about Christ, that he gave himself up: 'He loved me,' he says, 'and gave himself for me.' In the Gospel, where the apostles are listed, it is stated: 'And Judas Iscariot ((also Scariot)), who betrayed him' (Luke 6:16). Again, in the same Gospel: 'Look, the one who will betray me is approaching' (Matthew 26:46). But the Scriptures mention the high priests and elders of the people, who condemned Jesus to death and, binding him, led him and delivered him to Pilate the governor (ibid., XXVII, and Mark XV). And afterwards about Pilate: He released Barabbas to them, but Jesus, after being flogged, he handed over to them to crucify (John XIX). Therefore, the Father handed over the Son, and the Son himself handed over, and Judas and the priests handed him over to the rulers, and finally, having been handed over to him, Pilate himself delivered him. […]

I no longer wish to live after the manner of men, and my desire shall be fulfilled if ye consent. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet no longer I, since Christ liveth in me." I entreat you in this brief letter: do not refuse me; believe me that I love Jesus, who was delivered [to death] for my sake. "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits towards me?" Now God, even the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, shall reveal these things to you, [so that ye shall know] that I speak truly. And do ye pray along with me, that I may attain my aim in the Holy Spirit. I have not written to you according to the flesh, but according to the will of God. If I shall suffer, ye have loved me; but if I am rejected, ye have hated me.

Observe him then, how he felt towards the whole world. "The world is crucified unto me," he says, "and I unto the world": I am dead to the world, and the world is dead to me. And again: "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." And, to show you that he was as it were in solitude, and so looked upon the things present, hear himself saying, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." What sayest thou? Answer me. And yet what thou sayest is the contrary; thou seest the things invisible, and the visible thou seest not. Such eyes as thou hadst gotten, such are the eyes which are given by Christ: for as these bodily eyes see indeed the things that are seen, but things unseen they see not: so those (heavenly eyes) do the contrary: none that beholds the invisible things, beholds the visible: no one beholding the things seen, beholds the invisible. Or is not this the case with us also? For when having turned our mind inwards we think of any of the unseen things, our views become raised above the things on earth.

"That I might live unto God, I have been crucified with Christ." Having said, "I am dead," lest it should be objected, how then dost thou live? he adds the cause of his living, and shows that when alive the Law slew him, but that when dead Christ through death restored him to life. He shows the wonder to be twofold; that by Christ both the dead was begotten into life, and that by means of death. He here means the immortal life, for this is the meaning of the words, "That I might live unto God I am crucified with Christ" How, it is asked, can a man now living and breathing have been crucified? That Christ hath been crucified is manifest, but how canst thou have been crucified, and yet live? He explains it thus; "Yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." In these words, "I am crucified with Christ," he alludes to Baptism and in the words "nevertheless I live, yet not I," our subsequent manner of life whereby our members are mortified. By saying "Christ liveth in me," he means nothing is done by me, which Christ disapproves; for as by death he signifies not what is commonly understood, but a death to sin; so by life, he signifies a delivery from sin. For a man cannot live to God, otherwise than by dying to sin; and as Christ suffered bodily death, so does Paul a death to sin. "Mortify," says he "your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion;" (Col. iii: 5), and again, "our old man was crucified," (Rom. vi: 6) which took place in the Bath. After which, if thou remainest dead to sin, thou livest to God, but if thou let it live again, thou art the ruin of thy new life. This however did not Paul, but continued wholly dead; if then, he says, I live to God a life other than that in the Law, and am dead to the Law, I cannot possibly keep any part of the Law. […]

But the way is none other than through the most burning love of the Crucified, who so transformed Paul, caught up to the third heaven, into Christ, that he said: I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, now not I; but Christ lives …

I judge that because Paul already at that time walked in the spirit, and in his mind consented to the law of God because it is good (Rom 7:16); for this reason he deemed this very mind of his, as a certain principal and supreme …

Let us consider how Paul had denied himself, who said: "Yet I live, now not I." For that savage persecutor had been extinguished, and the devout preacher had begun to live. For if he himself were still that same person, he would certainly not be devout. But let him who denies that he lives say from where it is that he proclaims holy words through the teaching of truth. He immediately adds: "But Christ lives in me." As if he were saying openly: I indeed have been extinguished from myself because I do not live carnally; yet I have not died essentially because I live spiritually in Christ.

To the Law he says or inasmuch as it pertains to the Law.

By the words "I am crucified with Christ" he indicated baptism, and by the words "it is no longer I who live" – the life after this, through which our body dies. "But Christ lives in me," that is, there is nothing in us that …

Then when he says, "with Christ I am nailed to the cross," he amplifies what he said. Now he had said that he died to the Law and lives unto God. Hence he explains these two things: First, that he died to the Law, he …

The Apostle goes on to describe how he is freed from sin; how far he is from continuing therein. I am crucified with Christ - Made conformable to his death; "the body of sin is destroyed." Rom. vi, 6.

6 ), but the new man is living; he is dead to the world, and dead to the law, and yet alive to God and Christ; sin is mortified, and grace quickened. [2.] He lives, and yet not he. This is strange: I live, and yet not I; he lives in the exercise of grace; he has the comforts and the triumphs of grace; and yet that grace is not from himself, but from another.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens

I am crucified with Christ - The death of Christ on the cross has showed me that there is no hope of salvation by the law; I am therefore as truly dead to all expectation of justification by the law, as Christ was dead when he gave up the ghost upon the cross. Through him alone I live - enjoy a present life, and have a prospect of future glory. Yet not I - It is not of my natural life I speak, nor of any spiritual things which I myself have procured; but Christ liveth in me.

Paul looks at the matter of salvation from the point of view suggested by Grace. If any man might have said, "The Son of God, whom I have loved, and to whom I have given myself," it would have been the Apostle. On another occasion, speaking of the Lord, he said, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." But here he thinks not of himself, or of what he had been led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord had done for him!

I live by the faith, &c.--Greek, "IN faith (namely), that of (that is, which rests on) the Son of God." "In faith," answers by contrast to "in the flesh." Faith, not the flesh, is the real element in which I live.

IN great ranges of mountains there are lofty peaks which pierce the clouds, but, on the other hand, there are, here and there, lower parts of the range which are crossed by travelers. They become national highways and afford passages for commerce from land to land. My text rises before my contemplation like a lofty range of mountains, a very Andes for elevation!

IN great ranges of mountains there are lofty peaks which pierce the clouds, but, on the other hand, there are, here and there, lower parts of the range which are crossed by travelers. They become national highways and afford passages for commerce from land to land. My text rises before my contemplation like a lofty range of mountains, a very Andes for elevation! I shall not attempt, this morning, to climb the summits of its sublimity—we have not the time and we fear we have not the skill for such work—but I shall, to the best of my ability, conduct you over one or two practical Truths of God which may be serviceable to us this morning, and introduce us to sunny fields of contemplation. I. At once to our work! I call upon you to observe very carefully, in the first place, THE PERSONALITY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION as it is exhibited in the text before us. How many personal pronouns of the first person are there in this verse? Are there not as many as eight? It swarms with "I" and "me." The text deals not with the plural at all. It does not mention someone else, nor a third party far away, but the Apostle treats of himself—his own inner life, his own spiritual death—the love of Christ to him, and the great sacrifice which Christ made for him. "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." This is instructive, for it is a distinguishing mark of the Christian religion that it brings out a man's individuality. It does not make us selfish. On the contrary it cures us of that evil, but still it does manifest in us a selfhood by which we become conscious of our personal individuality in an eminent degree. In the nocturnal heavens there had long been observed bright masses of light—the astronomers called them "nebulae"—they supposed them to be stores of shapeless chaotic matter until the telescope of Herschell resolved them into distinct stars.

I am not about to preach from this whole verse, for I have done that before—this single sentence will suffice me. I shall not attempt to enter into the fullness of the spiritual meaning of this very deep and fruitful passage. I am merely going to bring out one thought from it and to try to work that out, I trust, to practical ends. It has sometimes been objected, of the preaching of the Gospel, that we exhort men to live for another sphere and do not teach them to live well in the present life.

I am not about to preach from this whole verse, for I have done that before—this single sentence will suffice me. I shall not attempt to enter into the fullness of the spiritual meaning of this very deep and fruitful passage. I am merely going to bring out one thought from it and to try to work that out, I trust, to practical ends. It has sometimes been objected, of the preaching of the Gospel, that we exhort men to live for another sphere and do not teach them to live well in the present life. Nothing can be more untrue than this! I venture to say that more practical moral teaching is given by ministers of the Gospel than by all the philosophers, lecturers and moralists put together! While we count ourselves to be ordained to speak of something higher than mere morals, we nevertheless, no, for that very reason, we inculcate the purest code of duty and lay down the most sound rules of conduct. It would be a great pity, dear Brothers and Sisters, if in the process of being qualified for the next life we became disqualified for this! But it is not so. It would be a very strange thing if, in order to be fit for the company of angels, we should grow unfit to associate with men! But it is not so. It would be a singular circumstance if those who speak of Heaven had nothing to say concerning the way there. But it is not so. The calumny is almost too stale to need a new denial. My Brethren, true religion has as much to do with this world as with the world to come—it is always urging us onward to the higher and better life! But it does so by processes and precepts which fit us worthily to spend our days while here below. Godliness prepares us for the life which follows the laying down of this mortal flesh. But as Paul tells us in the text, it molds the life which we now live in the flesh. Faith is a principle for present use.

Paul looks at the matter of salvation from the point of view suggested by Grace. If any man might have said, "The Son of God, whom I have loved, and to whom I have given myself," it would have been the Apostle. On another occasion, speaking of the Lord, he said, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." But here he thinks not of himself, or of what he had been led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord had done for him! He dug down to the foundation of salvation—he traced the stream of Grace back to the Fountainhead and, therefore, he spoke of "the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." You will not do wrong, my Beloved Friends, if you meditate on what the Grace of God has enabled you to do—if you do it humbly and if you praise God for it. I think that we sometimes forget to give Glory to the Lord for the sanctifi-cation we have already received. I have heard persons thank God for their health and for their wealth, but I have not so often heard them express gratitude for Divine Grace. I do not know that I wish to hear them praise God for their virtue, but still, if they have any, and they know that they have, let them praise God for it—for what virtue have they which they have not received? If you have any faith, if you have any hope, if you have any love—if there is any difference between you and your fellow men, if you possess anything by which God is glorified—you ought to thank Him for it and to praise and bless His holy name. Still, there would always be a tendency, in dwelling even on what we have done by the Grace of God, to begin to get unduly exalted and, on the whole, it is far wiser to think of what Christ has done for you than of what you have done for Him! I say, again, you may think of what you have done for Christ and give God the Glory for it, but it will not be well to dwell upon that thought to any great extent.

I am crucified with Christ - In the previous verse, Paul had said that he was dead. In this verse he states what he meant by it, and shows that he did not wish to be understood as saying that he was inactive, or that he was literally insensible to the appeals made to him by other beings and objects. In respect to one thing he was dead; to all that was truly great and noble he was alive. To understand the remarkable phrase, “I am crucified with Christ,” we may remark: (1) That this was the way in which Christ was put to death. He suffered on a cross, and thus became literally dead. (2) In a sense similar to this, Paul became dead to the Law, to the world, and to sin. The Redeemer by the death of the cross became insensible to all surrounding objects, as the dead always are. He ceased to see, and hear, and was as though they were not. He was laid in the cold grave, and they did not affect or influence him. So Paul says that he became insensible to the Law as a means of justification; to the world; to ambition and the love of money; to the pride and pomp of life, and to the dominion of evil and hateful passions. They lost their power over him; they ceased to influence him. (3) This was with Christ, or by Christ. It cannot mean literally that he was put to death with him, for that is not true. But it means that the effect of the death of Christ on the cross was to make him dead to these things, in like manner as he, when he died, became insensible to the things of this busy world. This may include the following things: (a) There was an intimate union between Christ and his people, so that what affected him, affected them; see Joh 15:5-6. (b) The death of the Redeemer on the cross involved as a consequence the death of his people to the world and to sin; see Gal 5:24; Gal 6:14. […]

When Jesus comes into your life, He comes into your spirit and takes up residence.