The Exchanged Life

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Scripture: Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
"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."

Devotion

Few verses in Scripture compress so much of the gospel into so few words. Here Paul gives us not merely a doctrine to affirm but a testimony to share: the Christian life begins with a death.

"I have been crucified with Christ." The verb is in the perfect tense, describing a past event with abiding consequences. Paul is not speaking of a goal he is striving toward but of a reality already accomplished. When Christ died, all who are united to Him by faith died with Him. The old self, bound to sin and condemned under the law, has been put to death. Our union with Christ is not a metaphor to be admired from a distance; it is the ground of our standing before God.

"And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Paul does not say that he has been improved, or that Christ now assists him. He says the old master has been dethroned and the risen Lord now dwells within. The Westminster Standards speak of this when they describe believers as united to Christ and made partakers of the benefits of His death and resurrection. The Christian life is not self-reformation, but Christ's own life lived out in His people by the Spirit.

"The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God." Notice that Paul still lives an ordinary, embodied life. He eats, labors, suffers, and grows weary. But faith is the engine of that life: a continual, trusting reliance on the One who is its source. Sanctification, like justification, proceeds by faith.

Then Paul reaches the heart of it: "who loved me and gave himself for me." The word me is deeply personal. The Son of God did not merely die for an abstraction called humanity; He loved and gave Himself for His own people, sinners by name. This fuels all gratitude and answers every accusation of conscience.

So, when you rise tomorrow, do not ask first, "What must I accomplish for God?" Ask rather, "How shall I live by faith in the One who loved me and gave Himself for me?" That is the whole Christian life in a sentence.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, we marvel that You loved us and gave Yourself for us. Teach us to count ourselves crucified with You and alive in You. Dwell in us richly by Your Spirit, and grant that we may live in the body by faith in You, to the glory of the Father. Amen.

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