Albert Barnes Commentary Galatians 2:20

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that [life] which I now live 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." — Galatians 2:20 (ASV)

I am crucified with Christ. In the previous verse, Paul had said that he was dead. In this verse, he states what he meant by it and shows that he did not wish to be understood as saying that he was inactive, or that he was literally insensible to the appeals made to him by other beings and objects. In respect to one thing he was dead; to all that was truly great and noble, he was alive. To understand the remarkable phrase, "I am crucified with Christ," we may note the following:

1. This was the way in which Christ was put to death. He suffered on a cross and thus became literally dead.

2. In a sense similar to this, Paul became dead to the law, to the world, and to sin. The Redeemer, by the death of the cross, became insensible to all surrounding objects, as the dead always are. He ceased to see and hear and was as if they were not. He was laid in the cold grave, and they did not affect or influence Him. So Paul says that he became insensible to the law as a means of justification; to the world; to ambition and the love of money; to the pride and pomp of life; and to the dominion of evil and hateful passions. They lost their power over him; they ceased to influence him.

3. This was with Christ, or by Christ. It cannot mean literally that he was put to death with Him, for that is not true. Rather, it means that the effect of the death of Christ on the cross was to make him dead to these things, in the same way that He, when He died, became insensible to the things of this busy world. This may include the following points:

   1. There was an intimate union between Christ and His people, so that what affected Him, affected them .

   2. The death of the Redeemer on the cross involved as a consequence the death of His people to the world and to sin (Galatians 6:14). It was like a blow at the root of a vine or a tree, which would affect every branch and tendril, or like a blow at the head, which affects every member of the body.

   3. Paul felt identified with the Lord Jesus, and he was willing to share in all the ignominy and contempt connected with the idea of the crucifixion. He was willing to regard himself as one with the Redeemer. If there was disgrace attached to the manner in which He died, Paul was willing to share it with Him. He regarded it as a matter to be greatly desired to be made just like Christ in all things, and even in the manner of His death. This idea he expressed more fully in Philippians 3:10: That I may know him, [that is, I desire earnestly to know him,] and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. (1 Peter 4:13).

Nevertheless I live. This expression is added, as in Galatians 2:19, to prevent any misunderstanding. Paul, though he was crucified with Christ, did not wish to be understood as saying that he felt himself to be dead. He was not inactive, not insensible, as the dead are, to the appeals made from God, or to the great objects that ought to interest an immortal mind.

He was still actively employed, and more so because he was crucified with Christ. The object of all such expressions is to show that it was not the design of the gospel to make people inactive or to annihilate their energies. It was not to cause people to do nothing.

It was not to paralyze their powers or stifle their own efforts. Paul therefore says, "I am not dead. I am truly alive; and I live a better life than I did before." Paul was as active after his conversion as he was before. Before, he was engaged in persecution; now, he devoted his great talents with as much energy and untiring zeal to the cause of the great Redeemer.

Indeed, the whole narrative would lead us to suppose that he was more active and zealous after his conversion than he was before. The effect of religion is not to make one dead concerning the exercise of the soul's energies. True religion has never made a lazy person; it has converted many an individual of indolence, effeminacy, and self-indulgence into someone actively engaged in doing good.

If a professor of religion is less active in the service of God than he was in the service of the world—less laborious, zealous, and ardent than he was before his supposed conversion—he ought to consider it full proof that he is an utter stranger to true religion.

Yet not I. This phrase is also designed to prevent misapprehension. In the previous clause, Paul had said that he lived, or was actively engaged.

But to prevent this from being misunderstood, and to avoid the inference that he meant it was by his own energy or powers, he qualifies it, saying it was not at all from himself. It was by no native tendency, no power of his own, nothing that could be traced to himself; he assumed no credit for any zeal he had shown in the true life.

He was disposed to trace it all to another. He had ample proof in his past experience that there was no tendency in himself to a life of true religion, and he therefore traced it all to another.

Christ liveth in me. Christ was the source of all the life that Paul had. Of course, this cannot be taken literally to mean that Christ had a physical residence in the apostle.

Rather, it must mean that His grace resided in him, that His principles actuated him, and that he derived all his energy, zeal, and life from His grace.

The union between the Lord Jesus and the disciple was so close that it might be said the one lived in the other. So the juices of the vine are in each branch, leaf, and tendril, living in them and animating them; similarly, the vital energy of the brain is in each delicate nerve—no matter how small—that is found in any part of the human frame.

Christ was in him, as it were, the vital principle. All his life and energy were derived from Him.

And the life which I now live in the flesh. This refers to his current life on earth, surrounded by the cares and anxieties of this life. In this earthly life, he carries the life-giving principles of his religion into all his duties and all his trials.

I live by the faith of the Son of God. This means he lives by confidence in the Son of God, looking to Him for strength, and trusting in His promises and His grace.

Who loved me, etc. Paul felt under the highest obligation to Him, from the fact that He had loved him and given Himself to the death of the cross on his behalf. Paul often expresses this conviction of obligation (see the commentary on Romans 6:8, Romans 6:9–11, Romans 8:35, Romans 8:36–39, and 2 Corinthians 5:15).

There is no higher sense of obligation than that which is felt towards the Savior; and Paul felt himself bound, as we should, to live entirely to Him who had redeemed him by His blood.