Good morning, everyone. It's
good to see you here, and I'll add my welcome to Winston, to
you visitors who are here today. We're glad providentially that
God has sent you our way and hope you'll be blessed thereby. Today, turn in your Bibles to
Galatians chapter 2, and I'm going to be focusing primarily
on one verse, Galatians 2.20, and a message that I've titled,
Yet not I, but Christ. That's a phrase taken from verse
20 in Galatians 2. Some of you will recall that
the last message I brought here was from this same passage I
covered, verses 16 through 21, in a message that was titled,
Through the Law, Dead to the Law. That phrase taken from verse
19. And we're going to look again
at verse 19 in preparation to consider verse 20 today. But
that overall context is important to our proper understanding of
Galatians 2.20. So if you didn't hear that, I'm
not going to review all that today. But if you didn't hear
that message, I would encourage you to get a copy of it. It will
help your understanding of this verse. This verse 20 is a verse
that's always intrigued me. Like many of you, I memorize
this verse. And I memorized this verse at
a time when God had not revealed to me that I was dead to the
law in Christ through the law being satisfied as we studied
there in verse 19. I had not yet been by God's Spirit
slain by the law as Paul described it in Romans 5. And yet the verse
still had some intrigue even at that time to me. You know
it begins with a set of paradoxes and we'll be looking at that.
He starts off just at a casual first reading. Paul said, I'm
crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. What do
you mean? You did, but you live. Yet not I. Wait a minute, I thought
you just said you live, but not I, but Christ lives within me.
And of course, we'll understand that's not a contradiction as
we look further into this verse, but that certainly makes it interesting.
But I am going to go back to verse 19 and consider that again
so that we see in context here what Paul was saying as we lead
into verse 20. He says there in verse 19, for
I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto
God. He's Paul saying that through
the very satisfaction that Christ made to the law, he's dead to
the law. You may recall he was answering, when Peter withdrew
his fellowship from those Gentile believers, it appears he may
have done so in fear that the other Jews would say, oh, you're
like those Gentiles. He called them, in verse 15,
the sinners of the Gentiles, describing them like they were
under that old covenant period of time where God had left the
Gentiles without any revelation of himself except that by the
light of nature. Only the nation Israel had the
types and the pictures under the law that typified Christ. And so perhaps in fear of being
characterized as those Gentile believers were being falsely
characterized, Paul is correcting that here in verse 19 and saying,
oh no, we are not lawless. We're not without the law, without
any motive to even obey God, but rather through the law, being
perfectly satisfied both in its precept and in penalty. Through the law being satisfied,
he can say he's dead to the law. You see, he no longer has to
meet a law, so to speak, a requirement or condition, for he sees all
of that met in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished
in his life and death. And when I say precept and penalty,
I simply mean this, and that is that Jesus Christ came and
obeyed God's revealed will perfectly. He said in the Sermon on the
Mount, every jot and till. He said, that's what I came to
do, to fulfill the law and the prophets. Every jot and till,
down to every detail. For God's holy and he requires
a perfect righteousness. Christ said that in that sermon
when he said, accept your righteousness exceeds that of the best of the
best, the scribes and the Pharisees. Ye shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And he goes on in verse 48 and
he says, how far it has to exceed that. He says, Be ye therefore
perfect. Perfect obedience must be rendered. He tells us in the book of Acts
that unless you possess that perfect obedience, you'll in
no case enter in when he says that all the world is going to
be judged by that righteousness. Now that word righteousness means
by that very perfect satisfaction made to God's law and justice.
And he says he's going to judge the world by that, and he's given
assurance unto all men. That got the job done. He said,
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereby he's given assurance
unto all men, and that he raised him from the dead. For righteousness
demanded life. God was satisfied with the work
that Christ had done in his perfect obedience unto death, but Christ
didn't need this righteousness, you see. He didn't come for himself
to produce righteousness. No, he came as a representative
and a substitute for people. It's called in the Bible, God's
elect. Christ said, all that you've
given me, Father, I won't lose any of them. They'll all come
to me and I'll raise them up at the last day. God's very elect. whom Christ lived for and died,
they fell in Adam. By Adam's sin, death passed upon
all men, and so they come into this world. We all come to this
world dead, spiritually dead, alienated from God. The Bible
says, by nature, even as children of wrath, that is, those for
whom Jesus Christ did not die, can't tell us apart by nature,
And being sinners that Christ died for, you see, the law had
to be satisfied in its penalty, too. God's just, and He will,
He says in Scripture, by no means clear the guilty. And so a penalty
had to be extracted that was sufficient to pay the debt due
to now an infinitely holy God. You see, the Bible testifies
to us that most in this world perish. that most are on the
Broadway that leads to destruction. And that's an everlasting banishment
from God. That in itself, being consistent
with the fact that your death can't do anything to pay down
the debt of a sinner before a holy God. It won't get the job done.
That banishment is forever and ever. But Christ, He got the
job done. For each and every one for whom
He lived and died, you see, God testified before all of us. that
because he lives, all those he represented lives, when he said
he raised him up from that grave. You see, because death had no
more dominion now, he had gotten the job done, satisfaction was
made. So what we have here is through
the law being satisfied, a righteousness established at the cross, Paul
can say, I'm dead to the law, that I might live unto God. So now, even in verse 19, we
see this connection between Christ's death, what was accomplished
through the law being satisfied, and this living unto God. And
if we don't leave with anything today, I hope it's with a greater
appreciation for this kind of impenetrable link between those
things. Righteousness being established
and spiritual life, not only eternal life, but spiritual life. That is, being born again as
a fruit and effect of that righteousness being established. And we'll
see that more as we go through this. You'll recall in the previous
message, some of you will, that we talked about what Paul meant
here when he said being dead to the law. We talked about a
couple of aspects of that, but no matter how we look at it,
it's really all one and the same in this sense. It's only through
the law that we can consider in any sense that Paul is dead
to the law. And as we talk about Paul this
morning, keep in mind that the scripture says Paul is a pattern
of all believers. You see, any for whom Christ
lived and died, they too will be whole, have it revealed unto
them that they, like Paul, are dead to the law, so that they
can say, as he said in the first part of verse 20, I'm crucified
with Christ. In Romans 5, if you want to study
that on your own, we have a great commentary there on what it means
to be slain by the law. What that means in a summary
sense here is that Paul, in his experience, that is, in his life
here on this earth, he was brought to see the extent of the law. That this perfection really was
required before holy God. And in so seeing that, He was
killed, so to speak, of all our natural notions, the notions
we all began with when we first get interested in religion. This
idea that salvation is somehow, in some way, conditioned on something
done by me, or in me, or through me. Me meeting a requirement
or a condition. A keeping of the law, so to speak.
And so this revelation to him, though, of this very fact that
he's given these eyes to see and these ears, this heart and
mind to understand and love and embrace the truth of the gospel,
is through the law, through the law being satisfied. It's a direct
correlation with righteousness being established that Paul is
and was slain by the law. There are none who will be slain
by the law. There will be none who will reject
their natural notions that somehow if I'll just do my part I can
get myself saved unless they were represented by Christ and
satisfaction was made for them by their substitute through the
law being satisfied. Paul was dead to the law, you
see, because there was nothing that remained to be fulfilled
in the law. Perfect satisfaction had been
made. Christ rose again, because as
sin reigns unto death, even so might grace reign unto righteousness,
excuse me, grace might reign through righteousness, unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 5, 21. Sin demanded death. Righteousness demands life. And
so each and every one for whom Christ lived and died, they're
going to live. And the life they're going to live, we're going to
look at here in verse 20, is not our natural physical life,
but it's speaking of our spiritual life in Christ. Well, he starts
in verse 20, and he says, For I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." There are those
seeming paradoxes here. I've titled the message today,
Yet Not I, But Christ, because I hope before we leave today
When rightly understood, these words are certainly not considered
by themselves, but when we understand them as they are intended in
this context today, I think they present a beautiful picture of
the essence of the gospel of grace, that is, God's true gospel,
in stark contrast to the opposing religion, the only other religion
there is, the religion of works. The religion whereby, the religion
we all start out in, the religion that's just so natural to us
when we get serious about religion and we want to go to heaven,
we say, well, what can I do to be saved? What can I do? We presume, see, that there's
something I can do, that salvation's in some way conditioned on me,
the sinner. Now there are only two religions,
grace and works. Whether a Buddhist or a Hindu,
Islam, or many who fall under the name of Christianity, whether
it be Baptist or Methodist, Catholicism, Pentecostal, you see what identifies
you as being a participant in the religion of works is the
same thing that identified me as once having been a participant
in the religion of works. And that is, I thought that at
least in some way, to some degree, salvation was conditioned on
me meeting, I had to meet some requirement, some condition.
And you see, that testified that in my conscience I was not yet
dead to the law. I still had a law, a requirement,
a condition to meet. For me, I was raised in a church
that taught that Jesus Christ came and lived and died for all
men. And I thought that I truly was a participant in the religion
of grace, because we called it grace. We knew Ephesians 2.8.9
said, for by grace are you saved through faith. We knew that God
called it grace, so we called it grace. But you see, the scripture
says grace and works can't mix. And I'll never forget when God
providentially put me under the sound of the true gospel The
one that Paul said is the power of God unto salvation, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. That's that satisfaction. That's
how one is dead to the law through the law, so being satisfied.
I'll never forget being confronted with the fact that my former
notions about Christ's work revealed that I thought He lived and died
for every man, that He paid for all the sins of all the people
who ever lived. And somebody says, well, what
makes the difference then between those who go to heaven and those
who go to hell? Like most, I knew the Scripture
said that most perished. There's going to be a multitude
of sinners in hell. And I said, oh, I've got to believe.
You see, that was my Savior, was my faith. When I imagined
that the difference between those who go to heaven and hell was
not what Jesus did, He did the same thing for both groups in
my mind. But it was what I did. You see, I still had a law. I
didn't really need mercy. I just needed to cut my end of
the bargain. Preachers across this land today will be promoting
that with their listeners as they sadly, sincerely but sadly,
call on men to make a decision for Jesus. They'll say, if you'll
just walk down this aisle or if you'll just in the quietness
of your own heart say this prayer, if you will invite Him in, if
you will just trust in Him, if you will be baptized, Different
religions, different denominations, different things, but it's all
a condition or a requirement that you must meet. Well, that's
the religion of works. And I want us to see today how
even our faith, our spiritual life, our walk is yet not I,
but Christ. Well, what does it mean to be
crucified with Christ? Well, it's kind of pretty easy
if we read verse 19 ahead of time there. Paul said in verse
19, through the law, through the law, I am dead to the law,
that I might live unto God. You see, it's through Christ's
perfect satisfaction, both precepts and penalty, that he made it
for Calvary, that any can see themselves as dead to the law.
That is, I don't have any condition or requirement. Not only do I
not have any, I can't. I really need mercy. I need for
God to have put me in Christ, made me one with Him, and I need
for His blood and righteousness to have been imputed, is the
scriptural word, put to my account in the same way that my sins,
the demerit of all of my sins, was put to His account. You see,
He died for sins He had no part in producing. He who knew no
sin, the scripture says, was made sin for us, that we might
be in the same way, see, implied there, made the righteousness
of God in him. That is legally constituted so
by God's justice. In other words, he died for sins. He didn't have any part in producing.
And if you're going to stand before him with a perfect righteousness,
it's going to be one you had no part in producing. You see,
you've got to have his. And the good news is, if you're
made dead to the law, so that you see that, so that you must
have that, as we heard so vividly during the 10 o'clock hour. If
that's your heart's desire, you can't get that heart's desire
by nature. You see, that was purchased for you by what he
did for you. It was that righteousness that
demands the life that will cause any of us to see that. We've
all gone out of the way, the scripture says. The way that
seems right to us is the way that ends in death. And in the
new birth, God gives us life. And he causes us to see something
we didn't see before. So we're called to faith and
repentance. A rejection of what I once thought
was gain, you see. Well, to be crucified with Christ,
Paul is saying this is what I mean. When Christ died, I died. When
he was buried, I was buried. When he rose again, I rose again. Now, Paul, he wasn't even among
those two thieves that hung there beside Christ on the cross. He
wasn't there physically. He wasn't in the tomb with Christ. His body didn't ascend with Christ
into the heavens. His being crucified with Christ
is no less real. And if you'll keep in mind, see,
all that Christ did, all that he accomplished, that resulted
in his very resurrection, he didn't do for himself. He did
it for people. He didn't need a righteousness.
No, he came to provide for people what they would not provide for
themselves. And so those, each and every one of those whom the
Father had given him, In eternity past, they died when he died. Not physically, not personally,
but in their representative and substitute. And when he arose
again, they arose again in him. They had life. And it's manifested
in each and every successive generation among those by their
belief in God's gospel wherein they see they're dead to the
law. They must have salvation that Christ alone wrought out
at Calvary. He says, Nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. We know from verse 19
where he says, I'm dead to the law, that I might live unto God. He's talking about a living unto
God here. He's speaking of a spiritual
life, and the rest of the verse makes that even clearer. That's
what Paul is talking about. Keep your place there in Galatians
2 and turn with me over to Romans 6. Romans 6 is a great commentary
on Galatians 2. In Romans 6, beginning in verse
3, Paul wrote, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Now that's not
speaking of water baptism there. That's speaking of a union with
Christ, that word baptism. Those who were made one with
Christ, he's saying, were baptized or placed into his death. Therefore we're buried with him
by baptism into death. You see, we were placed into
his death. He was made our representative,
a substitute for a people. Who are those people? God gives
eyes to see that they're dead to the law and alive through
Jesus Christ alone. We're buried with him by baptism
into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life. So you see that righteousness
does demand our eternal life. When Christ said, all that you've
given me, Father, I'll lose none of them. They'll come to me and
I'll raise them up at the last day. Speaking of our resurrection
into heaven's glory, we see here that that same righteousness
demands our spiritual life. We walk in a newness of life.
This is speaking of our walk in our own lives here. For if
we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Paul said,
I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. I was crucified, but
in that crucifixion, righteousness was established for me, and there's
life. Knowing this, that our old man, speaking of our standing
in Adam, is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, rendered powerless. You see, sin has no more power
to condemn me. As I was, as we all are, naturally
going about trying to establish a righteousness of my own, trying,
well, if I'll just believe enough. Or if I'll just go to church
often enough, or if I'll just give enough money, if I'll do
this, that. I'm still in bondage to sin because of a sinner. I
can't get away from it. See, I came into this world a
sinner. I sin because I'm a sinner. I'm not a sinner because of sin.
But it's destroyed. That body of sin is destroyed
that henceforth we should not serve sin. I'm no longer in bondage
to it. I'm no longer in a position of
trying to achieve something that's impossible to achieve. For he
that is dead is freed from sin. That word freed there means justified,
acquitted, not guilty. Boy, to be free in Christ is
to be free indeed. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. Again, this is
talking about our resurrection unto spiritual life, as we looked
at and saw there at the end of verse 4. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead, he died no more. You know, in the
Old Testament, all those bulls and goats and innocent, unblemished
lambs and all that were shed at the altar to typify Christ,
they offered over and over and over again. But when the real
McCoy came, that which was being typified, the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ, he only died once. See, he got the job done, but
in that he liveth now, he liveth unto God. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead doth no more death have no more dominion
over him. Yet not I but Christ. Paul saying
that he lives spiritually now. He's got a spiritual life that's
not his. That's not of him. That he is
not the source of. He didn't go and just study enough
so he could get it all right. in order to gain his life. He can't make himself born, you
see. You didn't have anything to do
with deciding when you were physically born, and neither does God's
people have anything to do with their spiritual birth. No, he
says, it's yet not I. He's not the same Paul, you see,
as before, that he is by nature. He's not speaking of his natural
inclinations when he was walking after the flesh, as the scripture
calls it, when he was going about trying to establish a righteousness
of his own, when he was religiously serious now, zealous, seeking
to be saved, or more saved, or more fit for heaven by his deeds
of the law, as he described it in Philippians 3 concerning zeal. Well, he was persecuting the
church, the true church, in the name of God. He was a zealot.
Saul of Tarsus was. You see, and he said, touching
the law blameless. When it comes to the letter of
the law, Paul said, I had no equal. You couldn't touch my
morality. And he said later in that chapter,
he said, but those things that I thought were gain to me. He
said, I now count loss. I put him in a loss column, you
see, for he had been given life as a product of what Christ had
purchased for him at Calvary. And as such, he became dead to
the law, dead to all of those notions of meeting a condition
or a requirement. He says, Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. And as we heard in the 10 o'clock
hour, Christ lives in us, and he is his spirit by his spirit. That's how he lives in us, his
Holy Spirit indwelling us, and by his implanted word. And I'm
speaking of the word of the gospel wherein that righteousness is
revealed. You see, when I see that that's the only way God
could save me a sinner is by him imputing to me the very merits
of what my Lord and Savior accomplished and nothing else that I could
add to it. Well, you see, that's when I know that I've had his
word implanted into me, for it's the word wherein his righteousness
is revealed. It reflects the truth here when
he says, yet not I but Christ liveth in me. That even this
spiritual life, this walk of faith being applied to us personally
now in the new birth by the Holy Spirit is exclusively a result
of our oneness with Christ, being crucified with him. In other
words, what he alone merits for his people as their representative
and their substitute. You know, Paul recognized a great
exchange took place there on the cross. His whole life under
the law, listen, including what the Bible calls the deceivableness
of unrighteousness. The sin that would deceive us
all. That is the sin of trying to gain acceptance with God based
on something other than Christ's perfect righteousness. That's
the deceivableness of unrighteousness. That sin of trying to be saved
by His work. You see, even that sin was crucified on the cross. the demerit of that as well.
So Paul doesn't own this life that he's talking about, this
spiritual life. That life died. That life that was manifested,
that life manifested in all men by our assuming to be in control
of our destiny. You know, men will go to great
lengths to maintain control of their destiny. Some will come
to the conclusion, rightly so, that the scripture is very clear,
and it doesn't take spiritual life to see this, that Jesus
Christ did not die for everybody. He said in John, he said, you
don't come to me because you're not my sheep, describing those
whom the Father had given him. You see, people can conclude
that truth, and yet in our determination, listen, a determination we'll
all cling to unless God gives us life and faith to see differently. Some will say, well, he must
have looked down through time then and decided, well, I'm going
to die for you because I know you would do your part and believe
something. And so you see what we do in
our sinful nature. We cling to this idea that I
can get myself saved. and that God saw something good
in me. And in doing so, we're placing that in rivalry with
that which took the infinitely valuable blood of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. And God will not have it. He
won't share his glory. So we see, he says, the life
which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. The literal translation
of that last phrase I think I mentioned in the previous sermon is, the
life which I live in the flesh, in faith I live that of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So we see that
true God-given faith doesn't look to itself. It excludes itself
as having to play in any part in your being blessed by God,
but rather it's not of ourselves, it is the gift of God not of
works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2, 8, 9. The motivation,
I think, for our walk of faith is also embodied or alluded to,
at least, in that last phrase when he says, that faith is of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. To see that
clearer, go back to Romans 6 now. We read there in Romans 6 in
verse 7 For he that is dead is freed, justified, acquitted from
sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God. Look at verse 11. You see, if you've been made
dead to the law, if you see what Christ has accomplished at Calvary,
and you see that there is no salvation except that which He
rendered there by His perfect obedience unto death, then He
tells us here, it's a great line here in verse 11, You reckon
ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's a command to those who
have been slain by the law, He's saying it's a command for you
to be consoled, to rejoice. You reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin, dead to the law. Nothing else required for
your salvation, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. That's
in our walking around here in this life. Don't let it rain. You see, if we let it rain rule,
then we're going to go back to trying to establish a righteousness
of our own. We're going to think it has something to do with our
dedication, our zeal, our decision for Jesus, whatever it is. But
don't let it rain in your mortal body that you should obey it
in the lust thereof, that you'll gratify your sins by acting out
on them. Neither yield ye your members,
your body, your thoughts, as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield, that is, bow to God. Bow to God's revealed
will. Strive to obey Him. Strive to do right. Yield yourselves
unto God, listen though, as those that are alive from the dead.
Underline that. As those that are already, see,
alive from the dead. Not in order to establish your
righteousness, not in order to get life, but because you already
have it. And your members as instruments
of righteousness unto God, for sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you are not under the law, but under grace." You're
dead to the law through the law being satisfied. What then? Shall we sin? That's
what the natural mind immediately goes, man, if I believed what
you said, then I'd just sin like the devil. You see, because my
doing good is not going to get me anything. I don't get a thing
for it. And he says, well, Shep, is that
what we should do because we're not under the law but under grace?
He said, God forbid. Going back to Galatians 2.20,
you see what one who has been slain by the law, to see that
salvation is not conditioned on him or her in any way, to
any degree. You see, what that one discovers
is there's a new motive for obeying God. It's the motive of grace
and gratitude. He said, this faith is of the
Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And the believer
then can truly rejoice in the fact that he only loves God because
God first loved him, as the Scripture tells us. You know, I, like many
others, used to say, I never, I took pride in this, another
example of my pride, I guess, but I would say, I don't back
up to take my paycheck. reflecting my thoughts that I
earned it. I worked hard, and I know many
of you do too. And most of you don't hold your employers or
your bosses with a great sense of gratitude for just giving
you what you deserved. But oh, to find yourself slain
by the law that testifies that you only find if you were crucified
with Christ draws out our hearts to obey at least to some degree
in our feeble ways, all out of gratitude. You see, you're not
grateful for anything. You're not truly grateful for
that which you can earn. If you can do your part to get
yourself saved when you get ready by whatever it is, you can say
Jesus did 99.9%, but if you'll do your .1%, you can get yourself
saved. You see, you really do have room
to boast. You did what it took. You did
what your denomination, your religion said. But this is speaking
of the motive of gratitude and grace versus a mercenary or legal
motive. It says that, imagine, I just
sin all the more because I just can't think of a valid reason
for me to do it if I'm not going to get something for it. You
see, that in itself is a stark reflection of our self-absorbed
sinful natures. In verse 21, as we saw in the
previous message, Paul concludes, he says, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. He's saying, I don't set it aside. I don't displace it. I don't
make it void by acting consistent with those who are not dead to
the law, but who is still trying to meet a condition or a requirement.
Because you see, if the requirement for entrance into heaven, the
righteousness I must possess, if it can come by my keeping
the law, by my meeting a condition or requirement, then do you realize
that when we all thought that, we really were testifying that
Christ died for naught, that He died, His death, He died in
vain. Because you see, that's what
He said He came to do. And it's to deny that that got
the job done if there remains something for you or me to do.
Well, in closing, I hope you've seen even more clearly today
that every aspect of a sinner's salvation is by grace. Christ, having completely and
exclusively finished all that was necessary to save God's people,
each and every one for whom he lived and died, we can see from
this passage, they shall have life. He bought it for them.
There's not going to be any, and any who, as evidenced by
being slain by the law, seeing all their hope in Christ and
the righteousness He accomplished being put to their account, you
see, they can take full consolation and assurance and rejoice today
in knowing, doggone it, I was crucified with Christ. I was
among those for whom He lived and died, for the natural man
can't see those things. And we see that it's all from
start to finish. If we understand or write even
those simple words there, yet not I but Christ in its broader
context of this passage. So in closing, just listen again
real quickly to the words of verse 20 and think on these things. And I'll inject that literal
Greek translation for that last phrase. He said, I'm crucified
with Christ. That is, I'm speaking of my oneness
in His death. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I. It's not this life I live, but
I'm speaking of the spiritual life. But Christ liveth in me
by His indwelling Spirit that quickened me, gave me life, holds
me there, keeps me there, and His implanted Word of the Gospel
wherein His righteousness is revealed that I value and embrace And the life which I now live
in the flesh, in faith I live that of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Yet not I, but Christ.