Galatians 2:20
20 I am crucified [sustauroo] with Christ: [Christos]
nevertheless [de] I live; [zao] yet not [ouketi] I, [ego] but [de] Christ [Christos] liveth [zao] in [en] me: [emoi] and [de] the life which [hos] I [zao] now [nun] live [zao] in [en] the flesh [sarx] I live [zao] by [en] the faith [pistis] of the
Son [huios] of God, [theos] who [ho] loved [agapao] me, [me] and [kai] gave [paradidomi] himself [heautou] for [huper] me. [emou]KJV-Interlinear
20 "I have been crucified
with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me, and delivered Himself up for me. NASB
Life is the quintessence of existence. Without life there are no senses, no
feelings, no emotions, no thoughts, no interactions, without life there is
nothing.
In death there is nothing. That is the absence of
life. No feelings, no senses,
nothing. But also, in death, when the
process is a separation process, there
are no rules that govern and no connection to rules that attempt to govern.
And so it is as Paul states in this verse and the
previous verse.
Once one was ruled by the Law, and this applies to
all of humanity, as the rules of this world apply to all. But those rules gave everyone, nothing to
look forward to, nothing to hope for, no destiny but a permanent existence away
from life.
Then Christ went to the Cross, and paid the heavy
price for sin and the penalty of death, permanent death, that it demanded.
And so since we have believed in Christ, then we
all become associated with Him in His death.
For He paid the price of death and through our belief in faith, we died
to the rules of this world, to the rules of death, thus separating us
permanently from death and those rules.
And since we are separated from death, then we have
life, but not life in and of ourselves, but life by means of and through
Christ.
None of us had any say about our existence before
we were born. None of us orchestrated or
brought about our own birth. Others did
all of that for us. Our parents
perpetuated the biological aspects, and the Lord created our human life, just
as He created our eternal life at the very moment we believed in Him.
But having this second chance of life, being reborn
into a spiritual life, we now have the opportunity to design and define our
eternal destiny. That we do, or do not
do, by means of our interest or lack of it, in our learning bible doctrine on a
daily basis.
God still does all of the work, but we have the
right to choose to advance in life, or to remain stupid and forfeiting our
eternal reward.
In eternity past, God invented us within the divine
decrees. That was our start. We had no say or even awareness in that part
of our existence.
In time, we were born into this world and God gave
us our human life. That started our
adventure, our story, our song, our travels through life. But that start was in accordance with the
rules of this world, and in that we had no good story worth telling.
But then we believed in Christ and that gave us a
second start, but remaining in this world, and in so remaining we were given a
new set of rules, a separation from the old rules, to which we should never
return nor even attempt to return to, lest we be fools.
And yet so many people return to the works or
efforts of their own energy, claiming their earning power for this new life, to
which they have no right to claim.
Our entire life is totally dependent on the life of
Christ, on the work that He accomplished, on the plan which He has been
faithfully executing throughout these many millennia and beyond. From a history that none of us have any
direct personal knowledge.
Once we were all bound by the Law, the rules of this
world. Now, through our faith and
resulting salvation, we are bound by the new rules of grace in Christ, through
which we have an awesome opportunity to advance to heights in our life that were
before never obtainable.
Christ is the living God. The only living God. Christ is man, the unique person of the universe
in that He is both God and man in one person.
Christ is also the word, the written word. And through that word, when we learn it, assuming
that you participate in a daily study that enables you to learn it, then you
advance in your spiritual life by transforming your soul by means of that word,
and making a stronger and stronger unity with Christ in you.
As believers we are indwelled by all three members
of the Trinity, from the moment of our faith in Christ. But we were also empty of divine viewpoint
and thus in need of completion. Filling
up our soul with doctrine and understanding we develop muscle, spiritual
muscle, which translates into faith. And
in real true genuine faith, then nothing is impossible, Matt. 17:20.
But most people fall way short of this, because
they constantly turn back to the rules and comfort and indifference of this
world.
How many see truth and recognize it?
How many see truth and pursue it?
How many see truth and invite others?
How many see truth and stick with it, especially
when something comes along to tempt them away from truth?
No spiritual muscle comes from the lack of faith,
comes from the lack of understanding, comes from a lack of learning, comes from
a deficient study plan, comes from a failure to dedicate oneself to a daily
study out of indifference or inconvenience or simply not taking any of this God
stuff seriously.
And so then, what rules apply, rules of death or
rules of life?
