In the text and context, the apostle has in view and is combatting an opponent. The opponent charges that the doctrine of justification by faith alone ignores the law and makes men careless and profane. The opponent teaches that we are justified both by Christ and by our obedience.

The apostle is not guarding his doctrine of justification by faith alone from the charge that the doctrine makes men careless and profane. The apostle is not saying, “We are justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and now I want you to understand that this does not mean that you may live however you want.”

But the apostle has his eye squarely on the opponent, who says,

Yes, Christ died for our sins. Yes, we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, but we must also keep the law. We have fellowship with God through Christ and in the way of our obedience. We have intimate communion with God through Christ and in the way of our good works. We have the forgiveness of sins through both faith and our repentance. The sinner must first repent, and then and only then is the sinner forgiven.

Christ and the sinner’s obedience, works, and repentance! The opponent charges, perhaps not explicitly, for Satan has become more subtle,

Paul, your doctrine of justification by faith alone is an evil doctrine. You ignore the law. By your doctrine you make people ignore the law, and they will live licentiously.

The opponent defends his doctrine by saying,

I am only interested in the church’s holiness when I teach Christ and obedience, when I say that the way to God is Christ and one’s good works, when I say that fellowship with God is by Christ and in the way of one’s good works. My only interests are that we do justice to the law, that we are concerned about the holiness of the church, and that the people of God live holy lives. When I say that the sinner first must repent and then and only then is he forgiven, I am only doing justice to the fact that God requires repentance of sinners.

By this the opponent charges that the gospel does not do those things, that the gospel neglects the holy life and repentance.

The apostle counters the opponent and his doctrine by saying,

If you believe in both Christ and the sinner for salvation; if you believe in Christ and your good works as the way to God; and if you think that you have fellowship with God by Christ and in the way of your obedience, then you make Christ the minister of sin. Then Christ actually did nothing. He did not die for your sins. He did not deliver you from your sins. Christ is the minister of sin.

Paul exposes in this that all who deny or compromise the doctrine of justification by faith alone teach a very wicked doctrine.

The apostle attacks the opponent further by saying,

The way to God is not Christ and your good works. Until you die to the law, you cannot be a holy person. It is impossible. Indeed, if you do not die to the law, then you become a very wicked person who attacks God and his law so that you can make a way to heaven and God’s fellowship and blessings for yourself. You must die to the law, so that the law cannot tell you, “You must keep me to live. You must keep me to be blessed. You must keep me to receive God’s blessings.”

To die to the law means that the law has no power to tell you that you must keep the law to live, to be blessed by God, to have God’s fellowship, or to enter heaven. Further, to die to the law means that you are lifted above all the judgments and condemnations of the law. The law cannot condemn you when you have died to the law.

You can only be holy if you die to the law. If you do not die to the law, then no matter how good and glorious your life looks on the outside, it is a wicked life. It is wicked, first, because it denies Christ by whom one is dead to the law. It is a wicked life also because the one who lives that life hates the law and the God of the law.

Since no man can keep the law and live, one who is not dead to the law must necessarily change the law’s demand for perfection to mean instead that he must try his hardest to keep the law. And he must inevitably redefine the righteousness and goodness of God—whereby God blesses the righteous and curses the wicked—to mean that by grace God rewards imperfect good works.

Only when you die to the law are you alive to God, and then you live unto God. And you must admit that a life lived unto God is the best life. It is the beginning of heaven here on earth.

When the false teacher teaches Christ and your good works as the way to God’s fellowship and defends that by saying, “I am only interested in the holiness of the church,” then you must say to the false teacher,

I can never be holy by your doctrine, but I must become a very wicked person who denies Christ and changes the righteousness of God into unrighteousness. Your doctrine will bring me into bondage, and your doctrine will kill me now and forever. Christ gives me the best life possible. It is life unto God. And Christ does this because he justifies me by faith alone without my works.

In Galatians 2:20–21 the apostle is still dealing with the life unto God, the reality that the life that we have through faith in Jesus Christ is the best possible life. The apostle calls that life a Christ-life. The life that we have by Jesus Christ is the life of Christ in us. It is a Christ-life, and a Christ-life is the best life. A Christ-life is, first, a life in which you cannot be condemned. You can never be condemned for any of your sins. A Christ-life is, second, living a heavenly life while you are still living on earth. This Christ-life you have through faith in Jesus Christ. A Christ-life is the infallible and inevitable fruit of Christ’s righteousness imputed by faith without works. All who seek to be acceptable to God by faith and their works are devoid of this Christ-life because they are not justified and are still in their sins.

And the apostle is still dealing with Christ’s righteousness. He is dealing now with the infallible and inevitable fruit of Christ’s righteousness. The fruit is a Christ-life.

To understand what the apostle is saying in the text, you must know that righteousness is life. Whoever is righteous lives. Second, you must know that the quality of the righteousness explains the quality of the life.

If you have law-righteousness, you might have life. Let us say that you could perfectly obey the law, which says, “Whoever does me lives in me.” There is life in the law if you could keep it perfectly, but your life would be an earthly, carnal life. The best kind of life in the law was Adam’s life in the garden of Eden. But that kind of life is all that the righteousness of the law can give. The law cannot give a higher, heavenly life.

However, you cannot perfectly keep the law. Therefore, the only life that you can have in the law is a life of death, condemnation, fear, misery, wretchedness, wondering, and a fearful looking for judgment to come. There is no life in the law for the sinner because the law says that the sinner must die. The law leaves the sinner where he is. If you come to the law as perfect, the law will leave you there. If you sin in the law, the law will leave you there. If you come to the law dead, the law will leave you there. There is no gaining of life, blessedness, or glory by the law. Not for a mere man.

The righteousness of Christ equals life. However, the life that Christ gives is on a much different plane. You live in the flesh now, and so you must live this life that Christ gives in the flesh. Yet the flesh does not explain this life. It is a Christ-life. It is a life that is above sin, death, and condemnation. It is even a life where there is no possibility of sin, condemnation, and death. A Christ-life is the life that Christ received himself—that is, the life that Christ now lives in heaven in immortality and with the impossibility of sin, condemnation, and death.

A Christ-life is obtained only through crucifixion. The only way to enter that life—the life of immortality and the impossibility of sin, condemnation, and death—is through the cross. If the sinner were to gain that life at the cross by himself, the sinner would have to satisfy the justice of God, suffer all the wrath of God, go to hell, die for his sins, and love God perfectly. Having satisfied the justice of God, the sinner would have to be raised from the dead. His obedience and suffering would have to be so perfect and glorious that they would be worthy of eternal life. As the reward for his righteousness, the sinner would receive immortality and the impossibility of sin, condemnation, and death—a Christ-life.

Impossible for man!

But a Christ-life is a reality because of the Lord from glory! His glorious person, the person of the Son of God, makes his righteousness glorious and worthy of eternal life. This Christ received from God the Father when he raised Christ from the dead and set Christ at God’s right hand.

The apostle says about himself and for the believer,

I was crucified with Christ. I died, and I rose again to life—a new life of immortality and no possibility of sin, condemnation, and death. I was crucified with Christ. You understand that I must be crucified!

The apostle does not say in the text, “Christ was crucified for me.” But the apostle says, “I was crucified with Christ.” That is because the sinner must die. The sinner must bear his offenses. The sinner must bear the punishment for his own sins. That is God’s justice. That is also the law, which says, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” (Gal. 3:10).

Neither does the apostle say, “I died with Christ.” But he says, “I was crucified with Christ.” Crucifixion is the accursed death, the death whereby God drives as with a sword the living word of his wrath into the heart and soul of the sinner and cuts down the sinner. God brings the sinner down into hell through the cross.

“I was crucified with Christ.”

Do you understand what the apostle means by “I was crucified with Christ”?

First, he means that two thousand years ago when Christ was crucified, I was crucified, and you were crucified. Literally, the text reads, “I have been crucified.” The apostle refers to the reality that happened two thousand years ago on Golgotha.

Two thousand years ago the soldiers captured you in the garden.

Two thousand years ago the soldiers bound you like a thief. Two thousand years ago Pontius Pilate tried you.

Two thousand years ago the Jews found you guilty.

Two thousand years ago the Roman soldiers dug a hole in the ground, set your cross in the hole, and nailed you to that cross between two thieves, so that you were numbered with the transgressors.

Two thousand years ago all who passed by laughed you to scorn.

Two thousand years ago you entered the darkness of God’s wrath, the darkness that was God’s judgment against the sinner and that signified the very darkness of hell. You entered that darkness; out of that darkness and in that darkness, God’s wrath pressed out of you a terrible cry from your breast, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Two thousand years ago the darkness was lifted.

Two thousand years ago you gave up the ghost.

Two thousand years ago you went into a grave.

Two thousand years ago you arose from the dead.

You were crucified with Christ, so that the cross of Christ was your cross. The death of Christ was your death. The crucifixion of Christ was your crucifixion. You were crucified with Christ, and the resurrection of Christ was your resurrection.

Second, the apostle means by “I was crucified with Christ” the reality of what happens to the believer in his heart every day by faith. What happened at Golgotha, where you were crucified with Christ, is brought into your heart by the Holy Spirit. He makes that the living reality of your life. You were crucified with Christ, so that truth—the accomplishment and the saving efficacy of Golgotha—is brought into your heart and life and made the ground of your entire existence.

Oh, the apostle is not making a dogmatic statement. He does not say that the elect were crucified with Christ. That is true. But the apostle makes a confession of faith: “I was crucified with Christ.” He makes that confession because when the doctrine of justification by faith alone is attacked, that is an attack on the most intimate reality of one’s salvation. Paul says,

I was crucified because I was a sinner who needed to be crucified. I was crucified because I had guilt on account of which I was worthy of condemnation. I was crucified because I had no right to stand and live in the presence of God. I was crucified because I was dead, and I deserved to go to hell. And this must be the ground and source of my entire existence every day, for every day I am a sinner who deserves condemnation.

In that crucifixion of me with Jesus Christ is found the very deepest reason for my life now. I was crucified. And I am crucified with Christ every day, so I am dead. My old, guilty, polluted, sinful, and damn-worthy self is dead. It has been cursed and sent into hell.

The life of Christ before his death and resurrection was a sin-life, not because he had his own sin but because he had the sins of all his people on him. Because Christ’s life was a sin-life, he lived that life justly under the wrath and punishment of God. Therefore, Christ’s life was no life at all. It was a death-life. When that happened to Christ, that was your life too, so that in Christ’s crucifixion for all your sins, you were crucified.

And you live! Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection.

That is also how you must understand “I was crucified, and I live.” It is not “I was crucified, nevertheless I live.” Neither is it “I was crucified, but I live.” That is not the point. “I was crucified, and I live.” The crucifixion of you with Jesus Christ is the ground of your life. That is the only ground and the only source of any life.

There is no other life. In this world there is nothing but the valley of the shadow of death, and life in this world is nothing but a continual death. In this world there is only sin and guilt. Therefore, there is only the wrath of God, the fearful looking for judgment, and the terror of death. There is no life. There is no life in this world because all men perished in Adam. All men departed from God, who was their life. All men died in Adam. All men are now conceived and born dead, and they rot until the eternal wasting of hell overtakes them. There is no life in the world. There is nothing at the end of this death-life for everyone in Adam except eternal death.

“I was crucified with Christ, and I live!”

Your crucifixion with Christ—the fact that when Christ died, you died—means that you live now. You truly live. You have a life that is a Christ-life. That is what the apostle means when he says, “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” The apostle battles the opponents of his theology who ridicule a Christ-life and make a separation between the elect sinner and Christ when they say,

Christ died for me. Christ forgives my sins, and now Christ gives me a life that I have independently of him. I live!

Did not God regenerate you? Do you not live? Are you not made a new person? Do you not do good works? Do you not believe?

No, you do not do those things. Christ does them.

The opponents ridicule and mock a Christ-life. They think teaching a Christ-life makes man a stock and a block. They say, “You cannot preach a Christ-life because that will make the congregation a pack of antinomians.”

But preaching a Christ-life is preaching the gospel, and the preaching of the gospel does not make men antinomians!

The apostle says,

I do not live, but Christ lives in me. Not me but Christ. My whole life is Christ. I live that life in the flesh. That is true. I do things every man does. I eat. I drink. I go to sleep. I work. But I do not do those things as other men do; the doing is Christ in me. And I do things that men by nature do not do, but only Christians do. I pray. I believe in God. I hear his word. I repent. I hate sin. And I do all of that in my flesh.

But that life cannot be explained by the flesh, for that life is Christ in me. This means that the life of Christ in me cannot be explained by me and my person. I live life in the flesh, but it is not I who lives but Christ in me.

I am Christ, and Christ is me.

The opponents hate that statement. Oh, yes. It takes away everything from man and gives all the credit to God in Jesus Christ, his Son.

Paul says further,

You cannot join me too closely to Jesus Christ. Christ believes in me. Christ repents in me. Christ does good works in me. Christ obeys the law in me. “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”!

That life is a Christ-life, first, because that life is above condemnation. One who has a Christ-life cannot be condemned, even if he breaks the whole law his whole life long. The devil, the world, and the law cannot condemn him. The law will come to him and say,

Well, you did not do this, that, and the other thing. You cannot have fellowship with God. You were supposed to do this, that, and the other thing. You cannot have blessings from God.

You must tell the law, “You cannot condemn me, law. If you are going to condemn me, you must first condemn Christ.”

Then you become bold and say to the law,

Now, law, you said that I must do this and that and the other thing to have fellowship with God. I must do this to have God love me. I must do that to have God’s blessings. I must do something else to have closer fellowship with God. And you tell me that I did not do these things, so I cannot have fellowship with God. I did not do that, so I cannot have God’s grace. And I did not do this, so I cannot have God’s blessings. Law, you must condemn Christ.

And then you become very bold and say,

Now, law, you are the devil coming to me. I broke the whole law of God. I did not do the things that you told me to do, and I did things that you told me not to do. I am an idolator, an image worshiper, and a Sabbath breaker. I take the Lord’s name in vain. I am disobedient to my parents and superiors. I am an adulterer, a murderer, and a false swearer. Besides all that, I am covetous, so that sin is in my very nature. I am flesh and can only live my life in the flesh, and my flesh is rotten and totally depraved. But, law, you cannot condemn me without first condemning Christ; for I was crucified with Christ, and I live in him, and he lives in me.

A Christ-life is a life above condemnation, so that you never can be condemned again. For one who has a Christ-life to be condemned, Christ must be condemned.

The law cannot say, “You must keep me to live.” Can the law tell Christ what to do? Can the law come into heaven and say, “Christ, you must do this, that, and the other thing in order to live”? The law cannot do that. Christ is Lord of the law. He is the lawgiver. He is the judge. The law does not control Christ; he controls the law.

This is true for the believer. This is what it means to be free. A Christ-life is a life of liberty, a life of freedom, freedom from the condemnation of the law. Thus the law cannot deprive you of your life because you do not keep the law. The believer’s life is hidden with Christ.

Second, a Christ-life is the beginning of eternal life in you now. Christ in you—that is heaven. Christ’s doing in you every good thing; Christ’s living in you and through you, so that all that you do is to the glory of God—that is heaven. Oh, yes, it is a principle, but it is a victorious and an indestructible principle.

What does Christ do? Christ is wholly devoted to the glory, honor, and holiness of God. With a single mind Christ is always seeking the glory of God.

You have that life in Christ himself. You might never, ever, seek God’s glory. Let us just say for the sake of argument that you do seek God’s glory, but when you seek God’s glory, you do it half-heartedly while also seeking your own glory. In Christ you obey the whole law. In Christ you love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. In Christ you love your neighbor as yourself. In Christ your life is perfect.

Third, a Christ-life means that in Christ you have that life in principle. You begin to live that life now. It is impossible that you not begin to live that life. Christ is in you. You cannot resist Christ. You cannot fight Christ. Christ so works in you that you will to live a Christ-life.

A Christ-life can be characterized as a resurrection-life. It is a life of one who is worthy of death, who was crucified, arose from the dead, and ascended to glory above the possibility of sin, condemnation, and death. When that life comes into you, Christ comes into you, and Christ is righteousness, peace, joy, comfort, and holiness. And he drives away sin, guilt, darkness, and sadness. You live, yet not you but Christ in you.

Is there a better life than that?

Can you live a better life by law keeping? Can you give something to God that is more precious to him than the life of Christ?

Oh, God forbid!

What is a law-life? A law-life is that you must keep the law to go to heaven. You must do this and that to be a holy person and to be acceptable to God. Do not forget that that life is a law-life.

“Oh, yes,” the opponents say, “Christ is the basis of your righteousness, but if you want to be holy and acceptable to God, then you must believe. You must obey. You must repent.”

There is nothing but bondage, misery, condemnation, and death in that law-life. You can never obey enough, repent enough, believe enough, and do enough. If you start making rules for yourself about what you must do to be a holy person, you will never stop, and you will add precept upon precept and law upon law until you are buried. There is nothing but bondage in a law-life.

A Christ-life is freedom and liberty. You died already for all the sins that you have committed, are committing now, and ever will commit. And you arose from the dead, and you never can be condemned. And you begin to live unto God. That is a Christ-life.

You have that life only by being justified by faith alone. You do not have that life by being justified by faith and works. You do not have that life by your works. You have that life because of the power and efficacy of the death of Christ. You have that life on the ground of the righteousness of Christ alone. And you have that life because you are one with Christ.

You must ask yourself,

How could I die with Christ, so that I was crucified? I was not even born when Christ was crucified. Now I live in the flesh, and in this flesh I commit all kinds of sins. How can I live?

The apostle says,

You live by “the faith of the Son of God.” You have a Christ-life by faith alone. You have a Christ-life by faith alone without works. You have a Christ-life by faith alone without obedience to the law. You have a Christ-life by faith without repentance. The life that you live, you live by the faith of the Son of God.

When the apostle says “faith of the Son of God,” he does not refer to Christ’s faith, but he refers, first, to the object of your faith, which is Christ. It is faith that cleaves to Christ. It is faith by which you are one with Christ. It is faith by which you ascend in Christ to the presence of God.

Second, the apostle refers to the contrast between faith and obedience (works). That is always the contrast in this matter of your living: faith or obedience. Faith is one thing; obedience is another thing. Faith is one thing; work is another thing. Faith is one thing; doing is another thing. When the apostle says “faith of the Son of God,” he contrasts that with all that you can do—all your obedience, all your repentance, all your activities, all your works. These things are not faith. You do not have union with Jesus Christ by works. This means that you do not become a good person by your works. You do not become acceptable to God by your works. You are not put in possession of the saving efficacy of the death of Jesus Christ by your works.

This Christ-life is yours by faith.

It is by faith alone.

What the apostle says can be put in terms that men use today. You do not have fellowship with God both by Christ and in the way of your obedience. You do not have blessings from God and closer fellowship with God both by Christ and in the way of your obedience.

It is by faith.

It is by faith alone.

This is because by faith you are one with Christ. Your obedience cannot make you one with Christ. You could obey the law perfectly, but you would not become one with Christ by your obedience. All your good works and activities cannot join you with Christ. Therefore, you cannot possess Christ’s righteousness by these things, and not having his righteousness you cannot live. But you must die by these things. By faith alone you are one with Jesus Christ. By faith alone the saving efficacy of the death of Christ comes into your heart, so that you are crucified with Christ. Your sinful self died, and you arose from the dead, so that you are free from condemnation.

Do not miss what the apostle means when he says “faith.” He means your union with Jesus Christ. Because you are one with Christ—engrafted into him by faith— you are a member of Christ’s corporation and a partaker of his righteousness and life.

Yet the apostle speaks of a oneness with Christ at a deeper level. From where did that faith come? If you are one with Christ now by faith, so that you have been crucified with Christ, arose with him, and now you live the Christ-life, from where did that come? Two thousand years ago you were not even alive. You existed in the counsel of God. This is what the apostle brings up by the word “loved.”

“I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Love! That is the love of God, the love of God whereby he set his affection on you, the love of God whereby he eternally chose you to be his child, the love of God by which he gave you to Jesus Christ from all eternity. Eternally you were one with Christ, and that eternal oneness explains that you died with him and now live with him. That eternal oneness causes you to be joined with Christ by faith and to be a partaker of his righteousness and life.

You do not have to do good works to have the love of God, fellowship with God, and the favor of God. You had God’s love, fellowship, and favor from all eternity. He loved you, and you had nothing. He loved you in Jesus Christ from eternity, and from eternity he beheld you as perfect and alive in Christ.

And Christ loved you. That is why Christ laid down his life on the cross. He loved you and gave himself for you. He loved you because God loved you. There was nothing in you that made you worthy of such love. You had nothing. Christ loved you because God loved you, and Christ loved God. Because Christ loved God and Christ loved you, Christ laid down his life for you. That is what love does. Love gives. Love gives of self.

Christ laid down his life for you.

For you?

Who are you? A good person? An obedient person? A loving person? A doing person? An active person? A repentant person?

You are a dead person who has nothing and is worthy of nothing except condemnation and damnation. Christ loved you, and loving you he gave himself for you.

The eternal love of God is your eternal connection with Christ. God took you in love and gave you to Jesus Christ. In love God took you and united you with Jesus Christ when you were yet unborn. Because you were one with Jesus Christ eternally—because eternally Christ was your head and you were part of Christ’s body, because eternally you belonged to Christ, because eternally he was responsible for you and all your sins and disobedience— he laid down his life for you. He gave himself for you, so that being united to Christ by faith, all the love, the saving efficacy of Christ’s death, all his righteousness and holiness and satisfaction, and all that Christ is in the eyes of God becomes yours.

And you live!

You live!

You can never die!

You live and are free from condemnation!

You live now unto God, having died to the law.

There is no better life than that. You cannot have life through the law. You have a Christ-life only through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Those who are righteous by faith shall live!

That doctrine—that doctrine alone—establishes grace.

What is the power of the life of Christ in you?

What is the power of God’s choice of you?

What is the power of the cross?

What is the power of the cross in your heart?

What alone saves the elect?

Grace!

Grace that administers the righteousness of Christ to you by faith without works also gives to you the life of Christ in you.

If you must keep the law of God to be righteous with God and to have fellowship with God, so that despite all Christ’s work you are still found a sinner who must achieve God’s favor and blessings, then Christ died in vain. That is the wickedness of the doctrine that teaches fellowship with God through both Christ and the works of the sinner. That doctrine teaches that Christ died in vain. His death did not do anything. Christ’s death did not save you because you still must keep the law of God for salvation, fellowship, blessings, and life. If you must obey the law to have fellowship with God, then Christ died in vain. If Christ died in vain, that is a nullification, an abolishing, of the grace of God. That is making the grace of God vain.

If you say “I have God’s blessing by Christ and my works,” that is not faith. If you say “I receive greater blessings from God the more I obey,” that is not faith. If you say “I need Christ, and I must obey the law of God to go to heaven,” that is not faith. If you say “I need Christ to have the assurance of my salvation, and I need works for additional assurance,” that is not faith. That is wicked unbelief.

Faith would not so nullify Jesus Christ and the grace of God in Christ. Faith would never mock the truth of Christ in you and say, “Oh, does Jesus Christ believe for you? Does Jesus Christ repent for you?” Faith would never do that. That is not faith; that is unbelief.

The apostle says that by the grace of God and through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and on the ground of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you live. And the life that you live is Christ in you. It is a Christ-life. Even your life is not your own. Your life is Jesus Christ in you.

You do not have that by faith and good works. You have that by faith alone.