Untitled Sermon (2)
Crucified Christians
Verse 20 describes the new life into which Paul came when he renounced the law and turned to Christ. It was in essence a life of identification with Christ, both in death and in resurrection. The former, identification in death, is expressed by the opening words: I have been crucified with Christ (ASV). Believers, by virtue of their corporate union with Christ, were included in his death (cf. Rom. 6:6). What he experienced, they experienced. This may be seen as yet another reason why the law has no claim on Paul. Phillips: “As far as the Law is concerned I may consider that I died on the cross with Christ.” The tense of the verb (perfect) speaks of an act accomplished at some point in the past but having abiding results.
But Paul’s Christian experience involved not simply an identification with Christ in death; it was also an identification with him in life. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me (verse 20a, ASV). The sense is that Paul no longer thinks of himself as having a separate existence from Christ. Christ has become the source, the aim, and the motivating principle of all that he does (cf. Phil. 1:21). “As in the old days the law had filled his horizon and dominated his thought-life, so now it is Christ. Christ is the sole meaning of life for him now; every moment is passed in conscious dependence on Him” (Cole, p. 83).
In the words and that life which I now live [that is, after having died with Christ] in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me (verse 20b, ASV), Paul describes life in Christ more precisely. Essentially it is a life of faith in contrast to the life of law which was his before conversion. And it is a certain kind of faith, one that is directed toward and centers in the Son of God.