20 - I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 - I do not set aside God's grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!
Vs. 20 - “I have been crucified with Christ” - Paul is not saying he was physically crucified (that much is obvious). Who, or what part of him was crucified? This not a silly question.
Jesus said, “You must be born again.” (John 3:7) Humans are body, soul and spirit. They are fully human when conceived, they were not alive, and now are. The body is temporal, and develops from conception, through birth, to adult-hood. We will receive new bodies when we are with God in heaven. Christ’s human body died on the cross. At resurrection He received a new body - He was born again. We will be like Him, when we see Him. (See: 1 John 3:1-3) We will be born again, just as was Jesus Christ the Lord.
The soul is eternal. (Sometimes the soul and the spirit seem to be synonymous in scriptures.) Our old nature (spirit) is replaced (born again) - it ‘was not’ and now ‘is’ with a new spirit which is in tune with God and Jesus. We will no longer be subject to the desires and passions of the old spirit (the “sin nature”) which leads us into sin. Just as our present physical bodies will be permanently replaced when we are in heaven, so will our old nature ‘die’ when we go to meet Jesus. Peter says this wonderfully, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit” (1 Peter 3:18)
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” - This is wonderfully explained in the book “The Normal Christian Life”, by Watchman Nee. Christians too often operate on the premise that their Christian life can be done by perseverance plus a little boost from Jesus. Watchman emphasizes that it must ALL be Jesus. “Apart from Me, you can do nothing,” Jesus said. (See: John 15:5) Oh, you can do all kinds of things. These will be done in the power of the flesh. None of those will be done controlled and empowered by the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
My most difficult task as a Christian is complete surrender to Jesus - letting Him live through and in me. My old nature always wants to take control. We sometimes take the information “I will give you a Helper,” (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) to mean He has given us a ‘Boy Scout’ to help us across the street, or help us through a situation (Thinking, “I can do most of it, but need just a little ‘help’.) That is too arrogant. We over-estimate our abilities.
“the life I now live in the body” - our citizenship immediately changes from this world to Jesus’ kingdom. (See: Col. 1:13) However, we are not transported immediately to heaven. ( Which is a bummer!) So, we live on in this body in this world.
“because of the faithfulness of the Son of God” - We have this new spiritual life because of Christ. It is not because we are SO faithful to God. It is because Christ was obedient and faithful and found pleasing to God the Father. When Christ saying, “It is finished!”, on the cross that day was not accepting death, but indicating God’s justice was fulfilled, the debt was paid, finished, nothing else was owed to pay for sin. (That is my understanding of that statement.)
“who loved me and gave himself for me” - See: John 3:16; Phil. 2:5-11; Rom. 5:8; John 14:21, 23
Vs. 21 - “I do not set aside God's grace“ - Paul is emphasizing that any other path is NOT accepting the offering - God’s grace: salvation through faith in Christ. Do not turn your back on the grace offered. Do not convince yourself, “I can do this!” You cannot. God has offered the free gift of salvation, by His grace.
The NASB (see note 1) uses the word “nullify” in place of “set aside”. We see the word nullify used in political discussions. A state is said to have ‘nullified’ a law when it decides not to follow that law passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the President. There is great debate as to whether this is legal. With respect to God’s laws, it is unwise to nullify His commands. We do so at our own peril.
If righteousness ... through the Law” - This is the first part of an “If - Then” statement. IF you and I could pull this off successfully, we could pile up enough brownie points to get into heaven. We would have a righteousness that would be acceptable to God, and would meet His standard of Holiness, and would render us perfect and without sin. If we could do that on our own, then ...
“Then Christ died for nothing.” - Second part of the “If - Then” - If we are successful through works, Christ’s sacrifice was unnecessary. As bad as that sounds, the logical end is worse - we don’t need Jesus, we don’t need God. This is a lie from Satan. This lie is found in almost every philosophy - we can become perfect by personal exertion. This means the whole Bible is a lie. This means God is as useful as Wonder Woman, Superman, or the Tick. He would be no more than a cartoon god in a cartoon land. May it never be!
*** End of Chapter ***Note 1: NASB - New American Standard Bible
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