Closer Than a Brother

Read Galatians 1:1–2:21

17. Suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!
18. Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
19. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.
20. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. Galatians 2:17-21

Achild and a new puppy are virtually inseparable. They can spend so much time together that you would think they were a young couple in love or a mother and her newborn. Every time you turn around they are playing together, napping together, or getting in trouble together. They can become best friends.

In a sense, fellowship with Christ is like a marriage or like that relationship between a child and a puppy. It is a relationship so intimate that Christ and the Christian are—or at least should be—inseparable.

In this passage, Paul describes his close relationship with Jesus. Paul reviews his life story to remind readers of the miracles God can perform. Paul even goes so far as to say that he has been crucified with Christ and that Christ now lives in him. How close are you to Christ?

Paul was not one of the people crucified with Christ outside Jerusalem. So what did he mean by claiming to have been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20)? Paul meant that his sinful nature had been put to death when he accepted Christ as his Savior. In essence, he had exchanged one life for another. He had given up control of his life, as well as his desire to sin, in exchange for Christ’s redemption from sin and new life in the Spirit.

This spiritual reality holds true for all Christians. When we trust in Christ as Savior, God looks at us as though we had died on the cross with Jesus. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we will also be raised with him (see Romans 6:5). Now Christ lives in us, and we are spiritually alive by his power. By Christ’s power we are also no longer bound by the chains of sin.

The next time you face temptation, remember that you have been crucified with Christ and that he lives in you. Then resist the temptation, confident that Christ will strengthen you and provide a way of escape as well.