14.1 The Phrases of Galatians 2:20
© 2015 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
I have been crucified with Christ; 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 the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
I find it fascinating that when we peruse Paul’s words, I want to look at the meaning of every word, but when we bring in John’s words, I want to fit them into the great story of God. I suspect I am sensing God’s intention.
I Have Been Crucified With
First notice that the words are grouped into specific phrases, thus we want to take each phrase as a meaningful group.
Notice that “I have been crucified with” is one word, a word form used only once by Paul in the Bible. “Crucified together with” is found elsewhere, yes, but not including “I have been.” The Greek verb tense is perfect indicative. That means that the condition of the action is absolutely true in every right now that exists. The person inside this word is 1st person singular, specifically – “I.” Notice the prefix “syn;” it means merged together with.
I Live – He Lives
- Zo de: BUT – I live.
- Ouketi ego: no longer the ego, no longer the emphatic “I.”
- Ze de: BUT – He lives. Here the LIVES refers directly to Christ.
- En emoi: en (a preposition) – properly, in (inside, within); (figuratively) "in the realm (sphere) of," as in the condition (state) in which something operates from the inside (within).
- Emoi: MY EGO. Christ lives in the sphere of my present ego!
We are seeing a pattern of simple words that Paul repeats. We can arrive at the meaning by that pattern.
- De: but, but – on the other hand.
- Nyn: now, right now.
- Te: That! does not just mean “the faith of the Son of God,” but must also include the I live of the Son of God.
- Tou: this word is an adjectival pronoun. It serves to ask the question – Which Son of God? – and answer with – let me tell you who I’m talking about.
- Agapesantos me: First, me is just another form, just another way to spell the Greek “ego,” the emphatic “I.”
- Agapesantos: the love of God in action, but in the solitary past tense form, a positive action that took place in a singular event sometime in the past. An action that occurred over a short period of time, but became complete long ago.
Gethsemane
Gethsemane is written all through Galatians 2:20. One could say that Galatians 2:20 simply repeats the word “Gethsemane” five times, in five different ways.
We must begin to position Gethsemane. Gethsemane is not the beginning of the cross. The cross is the completion of Gethsemane. The cross is Gethsemane made final and explicit. But it was in Gethsemane that the progressive action of Jesus took place, the action completed by the cross, the action here: Having loved me.
I Deliver Myself Over
- Kai: and also. Having loved me, yes, and also something else.
- Heauton – emou: Himself – me. These two words are the simple placement of Jesus and me.
- Paradontos hyper: Having given up for.
- Paradidómi: to hand over, to give or deliver over, to betray. I hand myself over, I pledge, I hand Myself down, I deliver, I commit, I commend, I betray Myself, I abandon Myself.
- Paradontos: In an already completed action, Jesus “betrayed” Himself, traded Himself for me.
- Huper: over, beyond, figuratively: on behalf of, for the sake of, concerning.
- Hypér (a preposition) – properly, beyond (above); (figuratively) to extend benefit (help) that reaches beyond the present situation.
I for I
To grasp fully the power and intensity, the overwhelming reality of Paul’s gospel for us right now, let’s go back through the phrases Paul uses once again. This verse is very much a phrase verse, rather than a verse containing a series of single but powerful words.
Christ I have been crucified with – I live, but no longer I, He lives, however, in me Christ – even more than that, the NOW I live in all the sphere of flesh exists only inside the sphere of the I live faith of the Son of God – this One having loved me, this One having traded Himself for me.
Self for self. Life for life. I for I. No longer I, but Christ.
The Progression of Crucified With
Single, finished, past tense action. Done, over with, forgotten.
An action that was made perfect by completed process at some point in the past, but is presently made perfect in every single moment NOW.
A right now action that is continual and never stops, always all in the present moment, an action that is happening to us, that we receive by faith, not something we ourselves “do.”
Symmorphosed with His Death
Jesus did not crucify Himself and neither do we.
“Being symmorphosed together with His death” is passive tense, passive on our part, an action, an entwining, a merging, that we receive.
This view of our symmorphy with Jesus’ death is the real meaning of 2 Corinthians 4:10-11.
In contrast, as we go through the normal difficulty, confusion, painfulness, and failures of being a human in this world, we know that we bear in our bodies the same revelation of Father through weakness that Jesus bore as He took the whole creation into death. For the death of the Lord Jesus penetrates unceasingly and successfully all the way through all that we are.
The Singing of Paul
This is the singing of Paul, the singing of each one of us, singing in response to the singing of Jesus. I live, but not I. He lives, moreover, in me Christ.
I live, but not I. He lives, moreover, in me Christ.
Christ living as me. The words cannot mean anything else.
There is an I of me that is alive, BUT that very much alive I of me is the I of Jesus. Jesus has become the me of me. I have become the I of Jesus.
Flesh of His Flesh
Ephesians 5:30-31 is more than a companion verse to Galatians 2:20, but a defining verse. First complete and then reduced.
For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two (Christ and the church) shall become one flesh.”
For we are organs and limbs of His flesh – Christ and we are become one flesh.
Jesus Traded His Self to Us
The Spirit of God through Paul ties this entire truth, the doorway in, the great HOW of God, the means of God by which He accomplishes His great purpose in our lives, directly into the action of Gethsemane, into the action of a Man rising to His feet, into the action of the dregs of the Cup turning into the blazing Joy that consumes the Heart of the most passionate Being in the universe. That Joy is you and me.
Adam traded our self to the serpent in return for the serpent’s self. Jesus traded His self to us in return for that false self gone.
Absolute and Today
The Word is a Rock, a huge and thick steel-reinforced concrete slab upon which we stand. The Word is a Covenant, a binding agreement, sworn by God by oath against Himself, that binds us together with the Father and the Father together with us. Absolute and today.
The meaning of Galatians 2:20 is clear and unmistakable. Christ is my life, my self, my ego; I have no other life. The Lord Jesus Christ lives as me; I put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is my life; I have no other life.