Quotes & Notes on:
Galatians 2:20
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John Wesley's Notes:
The Apostle goes on to describe how he is freed from
sin; how far he is from continuing therein.
I am crucified with Christ-Made conformable to his death; the body of
sin is destroyed. Ro 6:6.
And I-As to my corrupt nature.
Live no longer-Being dead to sin.
But Christ liveth in me-Is a fountain of life in my inmost soul, from
which all my tempers, words, and actions flow.
And the life that I now live in the flesh-Even in this mortal body,
I live by faith in the Son of God-I derive every moment from that
supernatural principle; from a divine evidence and conviction, that he
loved me, and delivered up himself for me.
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
* crucified. Ga 5:24; 6:14; Ro 6:4-6; 8:3,4; Col 2:11-14
* nevertheless. Ro 6:8; 8:2; Eph 2:4,5; Col 2:13; 3:3,4
* but. Joh 14:19; 17:21; 2Co 4:10; 13:3,5; Eph 3:17; Col 1:27 1Th 5:10;
1Pe 4:2; Re 3:20
* the life. 2Co 4:11; 10:3; 1Pe 4:1,2
* I now. Ga 2:16; 3:11; Joh 6:57; Ro 1:17; 5:2; 2Co 1:24; 5:7,15; Php
4:13; 1Th 5:10 1Pe 1:8; 4:2
* the Son. Joh 1:49; 3:16; 6:69; 9:35-38; Ac 8:37; 9:20; 1Th 1:10; 1Jo
1:7 1Jo 4:9,10; 5:10-13,20
* who. Ga 1:4; Mt 20:28; Joh 10:11; 15:13; Ro 8:37; Eph 5:2,25; Tit 2:14
Re 1:5
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Adam Clarke's Commentary:
I am crucified with Christ] The death of Christ on the cross has
showed me that there is no hope of salvation by the law; I am therefore
as truly dead to all expectation of justification by the law, as Christ
was dead when he gave up the ghost upon the cross. Through him alone I
live-enjoy a present life, and have a prospect of future glory.
Yet not I] It is not of my natural life I speak, nor of any spiritual
things which I myself have procured; but Christ liveth in me. God made
man to be a habitation of his own Spirit: the law cannot live in me so
as to give me a Divine life; it does not animate, but kill; but Christ
lives in me; he is the soul of my soul; so that I now live to God. But
this life I have by the faith of the Son of God-by believing on Christ
as a sacrifice for sin; for he loved me, and because he did so he gave
himself for me-made himself a sacrifice unto death, that I might be
saved from the bitter pains of death eternal.
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Family Bible Notes:
Crucified with Christ; through his death Paul had become
dead to all expectation of salvation in any way except through faith in
Christ; yet he was more active than ever, and from better motives. I
live; a heavenly and divine life. Not I; not by my own power or
goodness. Christ liveth in me; by his Spirit; and he is the cause of
every thing right and good in me. The author and sustainer of divine
life in the soul is Christ; and the means of rendering it vigorous is
faith in him--forming between the soul and him a union, by virtue of
which it receives of his fulness, grows in conformity to his image, and
shows forth his glory.
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1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
The same that I was before. In this mortal body.
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People's New Testament Commentary:
I have been crucified with Christ. By faith Paul was crucified at
his conversion, crucified in the flesh, died to the old life with
Christ. Now he lives, or rather,
Christ liveth in him. The old life is laid aside, and the new life is a
Christlike life, due to the spirit of Christ. He is now merged in
Christ.
Live by faith. Faith is the bond that binds him to Christ and enables
him to live the new life.
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Robertson's Word Pictures:
I have been crucified with Christ (Christôi sunestaurômai). One of
Paul's greatest mystical sayings. Perfect passive indicative of
sustauroô with the associative instrumental case (Christôi). Paul uses
the same word in Ro 6:6 for the same idea. In the Gospels it occurs of
literal crucifixion about the robbers and Christ (Mt 27:44; Mr 15:32;
Joh 19:32). Paul died to the law and was crucified with Christ. He uses
often the idea of dying with Christ (Ga 5:24; 6:14; Ro 6:8; Col 2:20)
and burial with Christ also (Ro 6:4; Col 2:12). No longer I (ouketi egô).
So complete has become Paul's identification with Christ that his
separate personality is merged into that of Christ. This language helps
one to understand the victorious cry in Ro 7:25. It is the union of the
vine and the branch (Joh 15:1-6). Which is in the Son of God (têi tou
huiou tou theou). The objective genitive, not the faith of the Son of
God. For me (huper emou). Paul has the closest personal feeling toward
Christ. "He appropriates to himself, as Chrysostom observes, the love
which belongs equally to the whole world. For Christ is indeed the
personal friend of each man individually" (Lightfoot).
Albert Barnes' Commentary:
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 remark,
(1.) that 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 though they were not. Hie 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; but it means that
the effect of the death of Christ on the cross was to make him dead to
these things, in like manner as he, when he died, became insensible to
the things of this busy world. This may include the following things:
(a) There was an intimate union between Christ and his people; so that
what affected him, affected them. See Joh 15:5,6.
(b) The death of the Redeemer on the cross involved as a consequence the
death of his people to the world and to sin. See Ga 5:24; 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.
(c) Paul felt identified with the Lord Jesus; and he was willing to
share in all the ignominy and contempt which was 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,
he 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 has more fully expressed in Php
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." See also Col 1:24; 1Pe 4:13.
Nevertheless I live. This expression is added, as in Ga 2:19, to prevent
the possibility of mistake. Paul, though he was crucified with Christ,
did not wish to be understood that he felt himself to be dead. He was
not inactive; not insensible, as the dead are, to the appeals which are
made from God, or to the great objects which ought to interest an
immortal mind. He was still actively employed, and the more so from the
fact that he was crucified with Christ. The object of all such
expressions as this is to show that it was no design of the gospel to
make men inactive, or to annihilate their energies. It was not to cause
men 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
conversion as he was before. Before, he was engaged in persecution; now,
he devoted his great talents with as much energy, and with as 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 in regard to the putting forth of the energies of the soul. True
religion never made one lazy man; it has converted many a man of
indolence, and effeminacy, and self-indulgence, to a man 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,
and zealous, and ardent than he was before his supposed conversion--he
ought to set it down as full proof that he is an utter stranger to true
religion.
Yet not I. This also is designed to prevent misapprehension. In the
previous clause he had said that he lived, or was actively engaged. But
lest this should be misunderstood, and it should be inferred that he
meant to say it was by his own energy or powers, he guards it, and says
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 which 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 he had.
Of course this cannot be taken literally that Christ had a residence in
the apostle; but it must mean that his grace resided in him; that his
principles actuated him; and that he derived all his energy, and 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, and leaf, and tendril, and
live in them and animate them; 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. As I now live on the earth,
surrounded by the cares and anxieties of this life. I carry the
life-giving principles of my religion to all my duties and all my
trials.
I live by the faith of the Son of God. By confidence in the Son of God,
looking to him for strength, and trusting in his promises and in his
grace.
Who loved me, etc. He felt under the highest obligation to him, from the
fact that he had loved him, and given himself to the death of the cross
in his behalf. The conviction of obligation on this account Paul often
expresses. See Barnes for Ro 6:8 and Ro 6:9-11 See Barnes for Ro 8:35,
and Ro 8:36-39; See Barnes for 2Co 5:15. There is no higher sense of
obligation than that which is felt towards the Saviour; and Paul felt
himself bound, as we should, to live entirely to him who had redeemed
him by his blood.
{a} "crucified with Christ" Ga 5:24; 6:14
{b} "liveth in me" 1Th 5:10; 1Pe 4:2
{c} "gave himself" Joh 10:11; Eph 5:2
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Jamieson-Faussett Brown:
I am crucified--literally, "I have been crucified with Christ."
This more particularizes the foregoing. "I am dead" (Ga 2:19; Php 3:10).
nevertheless I live; yet not I--Greek, "nevertheless I live, no longer
(indeed) I." Though crucified I live; (and this) no longer that old man
such as I once was (compare Ro 7:17). No longer Saul the Jew (Ga 5:24;
Col 3:11, but "another man"; compare 1Sa 10:6). ELLICOTT and others
translate, "And it is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in
me." But the plain antithesis between "crucified" and "live," requires
the translation, "nevertheless."
the life which I now live--as contrasted with my life before conversion.
in the flesh--My life seems to be a mere animal life "in the flesh," but
this is not my true life; "it is but the mask of life under which lives
another, namely, Christ, who is my true life" [LUTHER].
I live by the faith, &c.--Greek, "IN faith (namely), that of (that is,
which rests on) the Son of God." "In faith," answers by contrast to "in
the flesh." Faith, not the flesh, is the real element in which I live.
The phrase, "the Son of God," reminds us that His Divine Sonship is the
source of His life-giving power.
loved me--His eternal gratuitous love is the link that unites me to the
Son of God, and His "giving Himself for me," is the strongest proof of
that love.
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Spurgeon Commentary:
(No comment on this verse).
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William Burkitt's Notes:
Several things are here observable, St. Paul's spiritual death declared,
and his spiritual life described, together with the author and
instrument of it.
Observe, 1. St. Paul's spiritual death, I am crucified with Christ; that
is, with Christ I am dead to the law (in the manner mentioned in the
foregoing verse) dead to sin, and dead to the world.
Learn hence, that all true believers are crucified with Christ Jesus; or
that all justified persons have fellowship with Christ in his death:
They have fellowship with him,
1. In the merit and value of his death; they are ransomed by it, as a
price paid down to the justice of God for them.
2. In the virtue and efficacy of his death; which doth not only merit
pardon for us, but mortifies sin in us: Our old man is crucified; that
is, the power of sin is subdued in us.
3. A justified person hath fellowship with Christ, in the likeness and
similitude of his death, and that is a crucifixion: As Christ died a
painful, shameful, lingering, and accursed death for him, so doth sin
die painfully, shamefully, and gradually in him: They that are Christ's
have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts, Ga 5:24.
Observe, 2. St. Paul's spiritual life described, I live, yet not I, but
Christ in me.
Learn hence, that a crucified Christian is a living Christian; I am
crucified, nevertheless I live; a life of justification and
sanctification at present, in hope of, and as an earnest for, a life of
glorification to come.
Yet, observe, 3. How the apostle corrects, or rather explains himself,
after what mind, and in what manner he lives; he denies himself to be
the author and root of his own life; and declares Christ to be both. I
live, yet not I, but Christ in me. Christ is both the author and
efficient cause, the exemplary cause, the end or final cause of the
Christian's life; a living Christian lives not himself, but Christ lives
in him.
Observe, 4. As the author of the Christian's spiritual life, Christ; so
the instrument of it, and that is faith: The life which I live in the
flesh, that is, the spiritual life which I live as a Christian here in
the world, I live by faith in the Son of God; my life of justification,
is by faith in his blood; my life of sanctification and consolation, is
through faith, in and by influences derived from his holy Spirit.
Observe, 5. How the apostle appropriates to himself in particular, what
Christ had done for all believers in general; He loved me and gave
himself for me.
Where note, though a firm persuasion, and a full assurance of Christ's
special love to ourselves, and his dying for us in particular, is not of
the essence and being of justifying and saying faith, yet it is
attainable without an extraordinary revelation; and, as such, every
sincere Christian ought to aim at it, to labour and endeavour after it.
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Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:
Here, in his own person, the apostle describes the spiritual or hidden
life of a believer. The old man is crucified, Ro 6:6, but the new man is
living; sin is mortified, and grace is quickened. He has the comforts
and the triumphs of grace; yet that grace is not from himself, but from
another. Believers see themselves living in a state of dependence on
Christ. Hence it is, that though he lives in the flesh, yet he does not
live after the flesh. Those who have true faith, live by that faith; and
faith fastens upon Christ's giving himself for us. He loved me, and gave
himself for me. As if the apostle said, The Lord saw me fleeing from him
more and more. Such wickedness, error, and ignorance were in my will and
understanding, that it was not possible for me to be ransomed by any
other means than by such a price. Consider well this price. Here notice
the false faith of many. And their profession is accordingly; they have
the form of godliness without the power of it. They think they believe
the articles of faith aright, but they are deceived. For to believe in
Christ crucified, is not only to believe that he was crucified, but also
to believe that I am crucified with him. And this is to know Christ
crucified. Hence we learn what is the nature of grace. God's grace
cannot stand with man's merit. Grace is no grace unless it is freely
given every way. The more simply the believer relies on Christ for every
thing, the more devotedly does he walk before Him in all his ordinances
and commandments. Christ lives and reigns in him, and he lives here on
earth by faith in the Son of God, which works by love, causes obedience,
and changes into his holy image. Thus he neither abuses the grace of
God, nor makes it in vain.
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Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole
Bible:
(No comment on this verse).
- The Fourfold Gospel:
(No comment on this verse).
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