Jan 21 But I had Plans

January 21

But I had Plans

Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Christ:

Galations 2:20 is often quoted without giving it much thought. Some people have that verse underlined in their Bible. Others may have claimed it as their life verse.

Ga 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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.

This great verse is filled with wonderful and meaningful expressions of dedication.  There is too much in this verse to consider all of it so dear reader, let us look at the first phrase today. I am crucified with Christ.

Crucifixion was the worst way the Roman government could think of to kill people.  Normally the cause of death was asphyxiation.  If you extend your arms out and a little above your head, as if nailed to a cross, you will notice breathing becomes a little harder.  When the Romans nailed someone to a cross they made sure the feet were nailed so the knees were bent a little.  The crucified person would raise their body to take pressure off from their arms so they could breathe. But with bent knees the muscles would tire. Also putting pressure on the nailed feet would add pain. So the victim would slide up the cross to breathe and then slide down the cross as the legs tired and the pain in their nailed feet became unbearable.  When breathing became too difficult they would again raise the body with their bent legs to catch a breath. Death would usually occur in a day or two or three. It was a miserable way to die.

 Yes crucifixion was a gruesome punishment, but I want to focus on the crucified man rather than the process. There are at least three things about the crucified man I want to consider.

First the crucified man is looking in only one direction.  His ability to look at first one thing and then another has been taken away. Now he only looks in one direction.

Secondly, the crucified man has no thoughts about returning to what he was doing before he was crucified.  Old things are gone. The skills he had learned, the property he had acquired, the things that were important to him, and any unfinished project is gone. All that he was, all that he had and all he had done were gone. He would never more return to any of them.

Lastly he had no future plans for his life. They were also gone.  His plans to buy or sell, to travel, to retire, to acquire or spend, to achieve, to attain, to learn, gone, all gone.  Crucifixion would take all he had and all he ever would have.

I am not suggesting that a Christian needs to give up everything to follow Christ.  A follower of Christ must be willing to give up something from the past or future, but crucifixion by its very nature, takes everything from the past and the future.  This is not a verse that requires Christians to sacrifice all they have or ever will have to be followers of Christ. The word crucifixion in this verse does not focus on the process of being crucified but on the end result. We are dead. Verse 2:19 is a key to understanding verse 2:20

Ga 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

Galations 2:20 is a culmination of Paul’s argument that starts in verse 16. He is explaining that we are dead to the law and nothing of the Mosaic law needs to be connected to salvation. It was not necessary to become a Jew or follow Jewish customs before a gentile could be saved. Verse 20 is focused on being dead and not on crucifixion. 

But it is still a great verse. As we read scripture it is important to understand the context of a verse. The context of Galations 2:20 is part of an argument Paul is making against those who would require gentiles to add Jewish customs to their salvation.

Oh how blessed we are that our salvation is free and is the gift of God and not of works. That is what Gal 2:20 should remind us of. We are dead in Christ and dead to the law 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.”