“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” — Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

Galatians 2:20 is a verse many of us have memorized. But what does it really mean? Here’s how it begins: “I have been crucified with Christ”

Once you accept Christ’s once and for all sacrifice for your sins and embrace His offer of forgiveness from sins and reconciliation with God, at the point of believing, your sinful God-hating rebellion is nailed to the cross of Jesus.

Believing theologians call this “Union with Christ”. We, at the point of believing, are united with Him, so Christ’s death on the cross is our death. Our old sinful nature was nailed to Christ’s cross, and it died alongside of Jesus. We cannot do this ourselves — but Christ’s cross can! We trust (or act in faith) that our sins are forgiven, and our old sinful, God-despising self was nailed to Christ’s cross with Him.

It’s not just a miracle that our sins are forgiven, it’s also a miracle that we have been given a new heart, and the heart of stone, unresponsive to God, was taken from us and replaced with a God-loving, righteousness-desiring heart. Biblically, this is called the miracle of Regeneration.

Yes, even after we are crucified with Christ, those habitual learned patterns of rebellion continue to be there until the time of our physical death. But while that is true, there is a spiritual death that has already occurred. In my inmost being, all who believe in Christ are crucified with Christ. Jesus called this being born again.

Let’s look again at what Paul affirms in verse 20. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Paul has already discussed what we call the great exchange: Christ took my record of debt and rebellion against God, and He suffered in my place; I took Christ’s record of perfect righteousness upon myself so that I am judged by Christ’s righteousness, not my own.

But now we have another great exchange: my sinful self was nailed to Christ’s cross and removed from me, and now Christ’s righteous life lives in me.

The first great exchange (Christ dying for me) is a forensic, or a legal declaration. But the second (being crucified with Christ so that the life of Christ now lives in me) is an experiential reality. I sense Christ alive in me; I sense His righteous impulse guiding me through the life I live, the decisions I make, in the things I love and the things I hate, and in the things that now motivate me. It is not me, it is Christ alive in me. I have come to believe, and this is what has occurred.

And that is why the last part of verse 20 just logically follows: “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Paul has been arguing for justification by faith alone, but it turns out that the life I now live in my earthly body (on this side of eternity) is not the same life that I used to live. Something big happened! I not only believed in Christ’s cross and in His sacrifice on my behalf, but I also now live by faith in Him. That is, I confidently trust Him in all things, not just that my sins are forgiven, but that my life, my joys and sorrows, my decisions, my loves and hates, my sexuality, my intellect and the things I think — everything now is lived in faith in the Son of God who loved me.

People who try to achieve the holy life by law keeping never get there. No matter how hard they try, they always fall short. But people who live by faith in Christ, well, they are not sinless, but they trust Christ in all things. They trust that Christ will guide them and that Christ will live His life in and through them.

Justification by faith and by faith alone DOES NOT lead to careless living. Indeed, it leads to Christ-like, Christ-filled, Christ-motivated living. It leads to the life of Christ being worked out in everyone who truly believes.

And in this way, everyone who truly believes shuns sins, leans into the life of godliness, and does so accepting no credit for all that is good and holy, but rather, gives all glory to Christ in whom we have believed.

The life of holiness is a direct result of the life of faith not the life of works. To God then be the glory!