Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:15–21 (ESV): Justified by Faith

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.  19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Abba,

What does it mean practically to have your life in me?

What does it mean that the “life I now life in the flesh I live by faith in Son of God?”

What does it mean that “I no longer live, but Christ…lives in me?”

Yeah, sure your life is in me. 

You are life.

I have life because of you.

My life is eternally tied to your life, to your death and resurrection.

But what does this look like on a day in and day out basis? 

How does this work when I face times of abundance, blessing, and ease?

How does this work when I face the allure of the flesh, the enticement of sin upon my life?

In no particular order, but as they were prompted to my mind…..

  • I yield my will to your’s.
  • I live for your purpose and not my own.
  • Which means my actions, decisions, choices are affected and even altered by your life in me.
  • The spending of my time, resources, and energies are affected and even altered by your life in me. 
  • Choices and decisions I would not make in the flesh suddenly become willful and joyful choices.
  • I live IN YOUR POWER and grace and not by my own strength.
  • I live incessantly and totally dependent in prayer
  • I DESIRE prayer and communion with you.
  • I live with a a passion and desire to be immersed in your word and to live by it’s wisdom  and truth.
  • Your wisdom instructs and controls my decisions
  • Your will overrides mine and I submit to your desire instead of insisting on my own.
  • I deny myself, elevating you to place of highest standing.
  • I surrender my abundance for the use of a higher goal than my temporal pleasure
  • My desires, in fact, change.
  • My desires become your desires.
  • Before long, it is no longer a sacrifice because the thing which you ask me to give, I WANT to give up.
  • The abundance I enjoy loses its worth because a superior pleasure emerges.
  • I forgive because your live abides in me and alters my will
  • I serve because your heart of servant hood changes my selfish will
  • I exercise compassion because my perspective is that of the cross and not a throne
  • I have joy in suffering because your person reveals to me the higher purpose and value of it.
  • I have peace, unexplainable because your presence comforts me.
  • I live kindly, by my own desire and passion, because your life in me fills me with love and mercy for those around me.
  • Your goodness flows from me in a plethora of minute ways that blesses and encourages those you have put into my life IN ORDER THAT they might see you and your glory!
  • Faithfulness and consistently, though perhaps not perfection, is the testimony of my life.
  • Gentleness is the mode of operation for my life, a modeled by a Savior who touched a leper, an untouchable, to heal him when a word would have sufficed. 
  • Control over my fleshly passions is marked with Spirit filled discipline.

This, and so much more, is what Your Spirit prompts my heart to see as the practical application of the “life I now life in the flesh I live by faith in Son of God?”; of “I no longer liv(ing), but Christ…liv(ing) in me?”

Abba,

Jesus,

Spirit,

May your life and person BE in me and LIVE IN ME.

Let the world see, not me, but you!

Make me invisible in order that your glory may shine.