It's Not About You

"For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, the life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" - Galatians 2:20

What it says:

For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me

What it doesn't say:

For Christ died and now it's up to me to pay him back and live well and be a good guy.

For Christ died and I've got to do my part.

For Christ died and my efforts are now needed to complete his work.

What it means:

Obviously, I'm still alive (unless this is all a very convincing "Sixth Sense" situation) but at the same time a part of me is now dead. When Christ went to the cross, he died, but not only Christ, this verse says I, too, was crucified with Him. Specifically, my old life, my old self, my former way of living was crucified, killed, and dispelled along with Him.

The "I" who now lives in this temporal body is not the "I" who was crucified. That self is gone forever. Killed. Crucified. Removed. Gone.

Therefore, anything and everything I do can be done out of a new self, a new man, in whom sin has forever been displaced.

The old man is dead. Dead folks don't act. Dead folks don't talk. Dead folks don't think or have motives or choose or try hard. They're dead.

What it says:

The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God

What it doesn't say:

My current life is therefore meaningless

My current life is therefore determined

My current life needs to shape up so I'll act more like Jesus

What it means:

The old man is dead, but as I live as the new man, there's work to be done, there's life to be lived. But, all the difference in the world is here, it is not a life for me to live and it is not work for me to do.

Rather, he has already done it. My sole role is in the word FAITH. Just as justification comes by faith, so too does sanctification. Christ has done it. My self is dead. I don't try harder. No, not at all. I instead look to the one who has accomplished all. I turn in faith to him who is always faithful. I turn to him who has already lived a sinless life and credited it fully to my account apart from and unconnected to any of my own merit.

By faith, I appropriate His life.

What it says:

. . . who loved me and gave himself for me.

What it doesn't say:

. . . who loved me and died as an example of how much I should love other people.

. . . who loved me and died to prove he loves me.

. . . who loved me because I'm awesome.

What it means:

He loves us. It's not about us. If he didn't love us, he wouldn't give himself for us. His love motivates his action, but his action is wholly independent of me because I am wholly unworthy and without him I am wholly unholy.

Thanks be to God his love is about him and not about me.

None of it is about me.

My right living? Nope. He's already done it.

My efforts? Nope. His are totally sufficient.

My lovableness? Nope. He loves me in spite of my narcissism, not because of it.

It's all about him.

And when we begin the grasp this (and return to this Truth when we wander) we begin to understand that this is the only way to really live.

Especially when you're dead.