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Crucified with Christ: The Life of Faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking, a deep dive into the historical,
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grammatical, and theological bedrock of the Christian faith.
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Thanks. For having me back, we have a
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massive topic today. Don't.
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We absolutely massive. We have a stack of sources today
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that confront what might be the defining crisis of our modern
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age, and I want to start by looking at some data that sets
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the stage for our entire conversation.
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Yeah, that data you found is really sobering it.
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Is According to the 2023 data from the Centers for Disease
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Control and Prevention, over 32% of adults in the United States
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report experiencing persistent symptoms of anxiety and
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depression. Wow, 32%.
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Right. Think about that number for a
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second. That is roughly one in three
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people. You pass them on the street, you
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sit next to them in traffic, or you know, you work with them in
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your office and. That is just staggering when you
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really visualize it. It really is, and our culture
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frequently frames this purely as a psychological issue, right?
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Like perhaps it is a chemical imbalance or just an unfortunate
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side effect of our fast-paced, screen obsessed lives.
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Right. The idea is that we can manage
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it if we just find the right app, the right therapist or the
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right medication. Yes, precisely.
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But as we read through the articles and the theological
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commentary compiled for today, a much older and, well, a much
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more staggering diagnosis emerges from the text.
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Yeah, it points to something far beneath the surface.
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Exactly. Wait, I mean spot on.
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We are dealing with an epidemic of spiritual exhaustion.
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Society demands constant, unending performance from you.
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It really does. It is an exhausting treadmill of
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self actualization. That is such a good way to put
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it. People are frantically trying to
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justify their own existence every single day.
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Yeah, we try to prove our worth through our careers or the
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carefully curated personas we maintain online.
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Right, or our activism, or as we will see today, our religious
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rule keeping. We are essentially crushing
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ourselves under the weight of trying to be our own saviors.
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That diagnosis hits at the very core of the human condition.
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I mean, the message the world preaches to you every time you
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open your phone or turn on the television is relentless.
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It never stops. It tells you to look within
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yourself, find your authentic truth, work harder, be better,
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and justify your space on this earth.
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Which is an incredibly heavy burden to carry.
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It is, and against that exhausting cultural backdrop,
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the Apostle Paul drops an absolute bombshell in his letter
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to the Galatians. Oh, he really does.
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Specifically, we are looking at Galatians chapter 2, verse 20.
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The message contained in this single sentence is the absolute
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antithesis of all the advice the world give you.
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Because the world says work harder, but the text says
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something completely different. Right, the text says, to die to
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yourself, to abandon your fleshly efforts entirely, and to
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rest completely in the finished work of Christ.
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Which brings us to the core concept of today's deep dive.
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Today we are looking at the concept of the crucified ego.
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Yes, for the exhausted soul. The soul that is tired of
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constantly performing, tired of wondering if they measure.
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Up and tired of the endless treadmill of self justification.
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Precisely for that person, this concept of the crucified ego is
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the only place you will ever find true permanent rest.
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So what does this all mean for you, the listener?
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We are going to examine the intense historical crisis that
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forced the Apostle Paul to put these words down on parchment.
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Because this verse was not written in a vacuum.
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No, not at all. It was forged in the middle of a
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massive explosive conflict in the early church.
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Then we will get into the actual mechanics of the verse.
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We will look at the precise Greek grammar Paul chose to
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defend the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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And finally, we will take this ancient 1st century text and
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apply it directly to the modern pull of works religion that you
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face right now it. Is going to be a fascinating
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discussion. But to grasp why Galatians 2.20
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zero carries such immense weight, you first have to
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understand the collision that provoked it.
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Right, we have to rewind the clock and go back to the city of
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Antioch. To set the historical stage
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properly, we are looking at a remarkably early date in the
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history of the Church. Yeah, this is likely around 8048
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or 49. So very early on, and the
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Apostle Paul is addressing the churches of South Galatia.
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Which includes cities like Antioch of Pasidia, Iconium,
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Lystra and Derv. Paul had planted these churches
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during his first missionary. Trip.
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The timing here is absolutely critical, right?
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Because the Church is caught in a volatile, highly sensitive
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transitional phase. Yes, you have the New Covenant
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reality breaking into a world that is still heavily entrenched
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in Old Covenant shadows. Up until this point, the people
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of God were identified by very specific national and ceremonial
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boundary markers. Markers that were given to
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Israel all the way back at Mount Sinai.
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We are talking about dietary restrictions, the observed
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evidence of particular feast days, and most crucially, the
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physical sign of circumcision, right?
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And it is hard for a sitting here today to fully appreciate
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the culture shock of what was happening.
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Oh, the culture shock must have been immense.
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It really was. You had Jewish believers who had
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spent their entire lives strictly avoiding gentiles.
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They wouldn't eat with them. They wouldn't enter their homes.
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And suddenly, because of the gospel, they are sitting at the
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same table. They are breaking bread and
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sharing a meal. And into that massive cultural
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shift, that transitional friction, steps a group known as
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the Judaizers. Based on our sources, these were
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false teachers who infiltrated these young Galatian assemblies.
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They claim to be Christians, but they came with a devastating
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catch. What was the catch?
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They demanded that Gentile converts, the non Jewish
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believers must submit to the Mosaic Law to be fully justified
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before God. Specifically, they were
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demanding circumcision. Yes, they were essentially
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saying yes, Jesus is great. Faith in Jesus is necessary, but
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it is not sufficient. Wow, so they were adding to the
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gospel. Right, they were saying, to be a
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first class citizen in God's Kingdom, to truly be right with
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God, you also have to adopt our rituals and our law.
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We need to recognize the psychological appeal of the
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Judaizers here. Oh.
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Absolutely. They did not walk into these
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churches announcing themselves as villains.
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Right. They probably sounded incredibly
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conservative, highly moral, and very biblical to the Galatian
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believers. I mean, they could open up the
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scroll of Genesis, they could point straight to Moses, and
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they could talk at length about the holiness of God and the
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history of Israel. For a new Gentile convert trying
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to figure out this new faith, being handed a concrete list of
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rules probably felt very safe. It definitely provided a sense
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of control, but Paul recognized the lethal threat hiding
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underneath their pious language. It try with.
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What exactly? If human cooperation, if any
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ritual or work of the law is added to the grace of Christ for
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justification, then grace is completely nullified.
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This brings up the famous showdown recorded just a few
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verses prior to our main text in Galatians 2.11 through 19.
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Right. The apostle Peter, also called
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Cephas, is visiting Antioch. And Antioch was a vibrant mixed
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congregation of Jews and Gentiles.
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Initially, Peter is eating with the Gentile believers.
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He's enjoying table fellowship with them.
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He's publicly living out the truth that the gospel has
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demolished the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.
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But then the pressure mounts. Men associated with James the
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Circumcision party arrive in Antioch.
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These were the strict conservatives we just talked.
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About yes and Peter, out of fear of how he will be perceived by
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this group, withdraws. He literally backs away from the
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table. He stops eating with the
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Gentiles and separates himself. And the text tells us his
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hypocrisy was so magnetic and his influence was so strong that
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even Barnabas, Paul's trusted companion, was dragged into it.
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Let's think about an analogy to picture the sheer relational and
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theological damage of this moment for you, the listener.
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I think an analogy is a great idea here.
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Imagine you decide to tear down a dividing wall in your house so
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you can invite guests from the street into your dining room.
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OK, I am picturing that. You look them in the eye and
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tell them they are completely welcome, fully accepted members
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of the family, Right. You are sitting at the table,
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sharing a meal, laughing and passing the food.
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A. Beautiful picture of fellowship.
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But the moment certain influential critics walk through
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your front door, Critics who think those specific guests are
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unclean. Oh, I see where this is going.
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You immediately stand up, build a fence right down the middle of
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the dinner table, and refuse to pass the bread to the other
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side. That is just awful, but that is
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practically what Peter did. And the logical question you
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have to ask is this. If Gentiles have to adopt Jewish
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boundary markers to be accepted at the table, doesn't that
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inherently claim the cross of Jesus Christ is insufficient?
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That is the precise question Paul forces upon Peter, and he
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does it publicly. Because the public action
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contradicted the public gospel. We have to understand that this
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was not a minor disagreement over social etiquette.
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It was not a debate about dietary preferences or cultural
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sensitivity. No, this was a battle over
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solified the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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By backing away from that table, Peter's behavior was implicitly
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teaching the Gentile believers that the blood of Christ was not
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enough to make them clean. He was.
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Communicating without using words that to be truly clean
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they needed the the Law of Moses.
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This blending of grace and works has historically been the most
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persistent heresy threatening the Church.
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Oh, without a doubt. We saw it codified centuries
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later when the Council of Trent formally rejected justification
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by faith alone, insisting that human cooperation is necessary.
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And we see it today whenever someone implies that you're
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standing before God depends on Christ plus your political
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affiliation, Christ plus your moral track record, or Christ
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plus your cultural traditions. If you add anything to grace, it
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ceases to be grace. I love how you frame that
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because it makes Paul's reaction make total sense.
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Paul is absolutely furious. He rebukes Peter to his face in
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front of everyone. And out of that intense, fiery
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confrontation, he doesn't just sit down and write out a better
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set of religious rules. Right.
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He doesn't offer a different philosophical framework for how
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they should all get along. He completely dismantles their
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argument by pointing to an execution.
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Paul starts verse 20 with this staggering clause.
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I have been crucified with Christ.
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Let's break down the Greek syntax of that phrase, because
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the theology here is carried directly by the grammar.
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Oh, I love digging into the Greek.
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What is the verb Paul uses? The verb Paul uses is soonest
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arumae. It translates to I have been
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crucified with. The tense of this verb is
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absolutely vital for the listener to grasp, isn't it?
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Yes. It is in the perfect tense.
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In biblical Greek, the perfect tense describes an action
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completed in the past that has ongoing continuing results in
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the present. So Paul is not saying I am
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trying very hard to crucify myself daily so I can get right
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with God. Exactly, I mean spot on.
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He is declaring a completed, finished reality.
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He was crucified with Christ at Calvary, and he forever remains
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in that state of a crucified man.
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Furthermore, this verb is in the passive voice.
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Meaning this wasn't something Paul did to himself.
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Precisely, this is an act of God.
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The passive voice is crucial because it removes any room for
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human boasting. The believer does not crucify
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themselves into justification. You cannot mortify your own
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flesh enough to earn a righteous verdict from God.
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There is no amount of self denial that will tip the scales
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in your favor. It was a sovereign act of God
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imputing the believer to Christ in his death.
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And we cannot overlook the prefix of that Greek verb, the
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prefix son. Right.
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The prefix son means with. This establishes the doctrine of
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Federal representative union. So when Christ died on the cross
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under the wrath of God, the believer's legal standing under
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the condemnation of the law died right there with him.
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Yes, that legal standing is gone.
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OK, let's push back on that for a second.
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Sure, go ahead because I know someone listening is thinking
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logically. If the believer is dead, how are
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they still making choices? That is a very fair question.
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How is Paul writing letters, traveling the Mediterranean,
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getting angry and rebuking Peter if he is supposedly a dead man?
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Well, we need a way to visualize this.
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Think of it like a deposed dictator.
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Oh, I like this. Walk me through it.
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Imagine a tyrant who has ruled a country for decades.
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He sets all the laws, demands total allegiance, extracts taxes
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and completely ruins the economy.
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A terrible situation. Then a massive revolution
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happens and that dictator is legally stripped of all his
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authority. He is deposed.
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OK, he is out of power. Now, he might still physically
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live within the borders of the country.
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He might still stand on his front porch and show orders at
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people walking by. He might even try to exert
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influence and cause trouble. Exactly.
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But constitutionally, legally, he has absolutely no authority
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to rule the country anymore. You do not have to obey him.
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Is that what we're talking about when Paul says I have been
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crucified? Yes, that analogy captures the
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legal reality brilliantly. What died on that cross was the
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old self-righteous Adamic ego. That old self that sought it,
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standing before God through the law, through social status,
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through religious pedigree, and through human achievement.
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That ego has been executed. Its lordship is legally over.
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This completely annihilates the idea that human free will can
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contribute to salvation. A dead man has no ability to
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save himself. He has no ability to cooperate
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with grace. The natural human inclination is
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to believe we must climb a ladder of moral achievements to
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reach God. The Gospel declares that the
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ladder has been burned to ashes at the cross.
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The I as an independent center of boasting, control and self
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justification has been dethroned permanently.
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Which is such a massive relief when you tie it back to the
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exhaustion we discussed at the very beginning of the show.
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You don't have to manage the dictator anymore.
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His regime is over. You don't have to constantly
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measure your performance to see if you are earning your keep.
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But that immediately raises the next major question.
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What is that? If the old ego is dead, what
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animates the believer now? Christianity is not just a
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vacuum created by renouncing the world.
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Right. It isn't just emptying yourself
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out and sitting in silence. It is a fullness created by
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union, and this leads us to the second clause of the verse where
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Paul outlines the paradox of life.
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He writes, It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
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The transition Paul makes here from the perfect tense of the
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crucifixion to the present tense of the new life is fascinating.
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It really is. Paul uses the present active
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indicative verbs here, meaning to live.
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This highlights the ongoing, continuous reality of this new
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existence. We need to be very clear about
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what Christ lives in me actually means because it is frequently
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misunderstood in modern Christianity.
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Yeah, people tend to water it down.
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This is not just a metaphor for moral inspiration.
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Paul is not sitting there saying I am really inspired by Jesus's
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example, so I'm going to try my absolute hardest to mimic his
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behavior today. And he certainly is not talking
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about some vague New Age mystical energy, no.
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This is a vital organic, mystical union where the Risen
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Lord actually communicates life, holiness, strength and comfort
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to the believer. And he does this through the
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indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The text provides this beautiful
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agrarian analogy that clarifies how this works, which is the
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idea of grafting a branch. Let's lay that out for the
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listener. Let's say you are an orchard
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farmer and you have a diseased branch on one of your trees.
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OK, it produces absolutely nothing but rotten worm eaten
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fruit. You cannot stand there and
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command that branch to grow healthy apples.
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Right. You can yell at it, you can read
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it a list of rules, you can try to inspire it with pictures of
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better apples, but the branch is diseased at its core.
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You have to cut it off entirely. You sever it.
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Then you take a living branch from a healthy tree and you
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graft it right into the trunk of the host tree.
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That new branch lives entirely by the SAP of the host tree.
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It produces fruit, yes, but not by its own independent strength
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or its own striving. It is drawing all its vitality,
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all its life, from the union with the trunk.
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That horticultural reality illustrates the theological
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truth of union with Christ perfectly.
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The believer produces fruit, but the life source is entirely
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external. And we must use this point to
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decisively crush a specific error known as antinomianism.
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Let's explain that term for the listener.
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Antinomianism is the false idea that because we are saved by
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free grace, the moral law no longer matters.
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The idea that we can live however we want.
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Yes, people who hold to this view abuse the doctrine of
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grace, turning it into a license for lawlessness.
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They think, well my old ego is dead, Christ did all the work so
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I can just sin all I want. But you cannot claim Christ
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lives in me while making peace with cherished sins.
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The. Indwelling Christ does not
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fellowship with greed, bitterness, lust, or pride, as
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though they are welcome guests in the heart.
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The same Christ who justifies also indwells and sanctifies.
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Let's pause and distinguish those two terms for you, the
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listener. Getting justification and
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sanctification mixed up causes a tremendous amount of anxiety.
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It leads to so much spiritual exhaustion.
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Confusing those two concepts is the root of much spiritual
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despair in the church today. So define justification for us.
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Justification is a definitive forensic legal declaration by
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God. It happens once.
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God declares you righteous in His courtroom based entirely on
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the imputed righteousness of Christ.
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It is perfect, it is complete, and it cannot be improved upon
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by anything you do. Sanctification, on the other
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hand, is the ongoing, lifelong process of renewal.
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It is the fruit of the indwelling Christ we just talked
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about. You are not justified by your
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sanctification. You obey God's moral law not out
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of a terrifying fear of condemnation, but as a response
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of deep gratitude because you are already justified.
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The grace that pardons the center is the exact same grace
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that trains the center to renounce ungodliness.
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So we have the unseen spiritual reality established, the old
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dictator ego is dead, and the new life is the SAP of Christ
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flowing through the grafted branch.
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But we have to move from the unseen realm to the physical
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daily reality. How do you actually apply this
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mystical union to your very ordinary, sometimes very
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difficult Tuesday morning? When your alarm goes off and you
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have to face traffic. A difficult boss or financial
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stress. This brings us to the next
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phrase, looking at the walk of faith and the reality of
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substitution. Paul writes, and the life I now
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live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of
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God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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Let's look closely at that phrase in the flesh.
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Paul is anticipating A misunderstanding here.
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He wants to clarify that while his old spiracle identity, the
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self-righteous ego, is dead, his physical existence continues.
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By flesh in this specific context, he does not mean a
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sinful depraved nature, which is how he uses the word in other
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epistles. Here he means mortal bodily
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existence. He still gets hungry.
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He still bleeds when he is beaten.
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He still faces grief, weakness, temptation and brutal
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persecution. Salvation does not remove
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believers from creaturely limitations.
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You are still living in a fallen, broken world.
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But the instrument by which you navigate this temporal suffering
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life has fundamentally changed. You live it by faith.
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I think we need to define faith here.
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Yes, because in modern language when people hear the word faith,
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it sounds like a blind leap into the dark.
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Or crossing your fingers and wishing really hard that
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something is true despite the evidence.
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It's almost treated as a feeling you have to conjure up.
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The Greek word here is pistus, but that modern definition is
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not what pistus means, is it? No.
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Biblical faith is instrumental, not meritorious.
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Faith is not a good work that God rewards with salvation.
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John Calvin often described faith as an empty vessel.
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The vessel itself has no inherent value.
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It's value comes entirely from what it holds.
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It is the empty hand relying entirely on an external object.
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And the object of that faith is highly specific, the Son of God.
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You are not placing your faith in a generic higher power, or a
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positive moral philosophy, or even in the strength of your own
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faith. You are resting on the objective
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historical reality of Jesus Christ.
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And what did that son of God do? Paul says.
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He loved me and gave himself for me.
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Let's zero in on the phrase who loved me.
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Notice how intensely personal this is for Paul.
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We are talking about massive cosmic theology here.
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Crucifixion Justification. Federal Union.
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But the consolation is intimately personal.
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Why is it vital that faith is directed specifically to the
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divine Son of God, rather than a generic concept of the divine or
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a set of good ideas? Because a generic deity did not
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bleed for you, a moral philosophy cannot stand as your
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substitute under the wrath of a holy God.
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Here we must analyze the Greek participle periodontos.
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Which translates to gave over or delivered.
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We look at that alongside the pronoun Huton meaning himself
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and the preposition hyper meaning for or on behalf of.
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This grammar gives us the doctrine of penal
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substitutionary atonement. Christ is highlighted here as
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both the priest who makes the offering and the sacrifice that
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is offered. He did not merely wait.
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Let me rephrase. He did not just give us an
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instruction manual for better living.
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No, He voluntarily gave his own life under the divine judgment
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that was meant for sinners. This completely demolishes what
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some theologians call the moral influence theory of the cross.
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Oh, definitely. That theory basically says Jesus
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just died to show us how much God loves us, to inspire us to
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be kinder people. Sort of like a martyr dying for
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a noble cause to spark a revolution of love.
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That theory severely strips the cross of its saving strength.
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If the cross is just an inspiring example of love, it
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cannot actually satisfy divine justice.
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The cross was an objective historical transaction.
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It was the fulfillment of the entire Old Covenant sacrificial
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system. The blood of bulls and goats
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offered in the temple could never actually take away sin.
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They only pointed forward to a greater reality.
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Christ fulfilled that shadow by bearing the curse of the law in
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the place of His people. When Paul says he gave himself
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for me, he is grounding his daily faith not in his own
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subjective feelings of closeness to God.
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Because those feelings change every day.
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Right. He is grounding it in the
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objective historical fact that his substitute absorbed the
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penalty for his sin. So we have built this massive
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theological architecture. The definitive death of the old
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self. The indwelling life of Christ.
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The daily walk of faith anchored in a substitutionary sacrifice.
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Let's bring this right down to St. level for you, the listener.
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Let's connect the 1st century Galatian crisis directly to your
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modern spiritual landscape. Because the text demands a
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wholesale rejection of any form of self salvation.
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How does Galatians 2.2 year confront our specific modern
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idols? Let's start with the idol of
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pragmatism. Pragmatism is the idea that
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truth is determined by what works or by visible, measurable
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results. In the church this often takes
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the form of seeker sensitive movements.
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These movements rely heavily on marketing strategies,
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entertainment, psychological manipulation and therapeutic
23:18
slogans. They try to manufacture
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spiritual life. They treat the church like a
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business trying to acquire customers.
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But Paul says the life he lives is by faith in the Son of God.
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He does not rely on worldly technique or flashy production.
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The true spiritual life is nourished by the ordinary means
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of grace. The preaching of the Word,
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prayer and the sacraments. These things might look weak or
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unmarketable to a pragmatic, entertainment driven culture,
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but they are the very things appointed by the risen Christ to
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sustain faith. And we also have to apply this
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text against the twin errors of legalism and antinomianism.
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We touched on these earlier, but it is worth stating clearly as
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we look at modern applications. Legalism insults the cross's
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sufficiency. It looks the crucifixion and
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says that was a good start, but you have to finish the job with
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your own obedience. Antinomianism insults the
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cross's purpose. It says the cross frees you to
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live in sin. Both of these errors are
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destroyed by the reality of union with Christ.
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If you are crucified with Him, you cannot add to His work.
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And if he lives in you, you cannot love the sin that nailed
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him to that tree. This is where we must understand
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what theologians called the third use of the law.
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We are dead to the law as a covenant of works.
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The law cannot condemn the believer anymore because the
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penalty has been paid. But the moral law still has a
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valid use. It acts as a guide for the
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grateful obedience of redeemed people.
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We don't obey to get saved, we obey because we are saved and
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the law shows us the character of the God we now love.
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There is another modern application our sources bring up
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that I want to introduce here. This one touches on some very
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modern cultural debates. The authors of our research draw
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parallel between the 1st century Galatian heresy and certain
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modern social movements. They suggest these movements
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function as a secularized legalism.
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The source point specifically to the concept of intersectional
25:12
penance. They argue that this framework
25:14
imposes a system of perpetual guilt, demanding endless earthly
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reparations and public apologies for historical sins.
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But the key argument the source makes is that this system offers
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absolutely no mechanism for true forgiveness or absolution.
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Yes, the source material frames this as a new religion of works.
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They argue it establishes a new set of boundary markers for who
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is socially acceptable, much like the Judaizers did at the
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dinner table in Antioch. And the authors contend that
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this fundamentally denies the finished atonement of Christ
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because it demands a payment that can never truly be settled.
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Now I want to be very clear for you, the listener, whether you
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agree with the sources political framing of those specific social
25:55
movements or whether you find that characterization totally
25:58
off base. The underlying mechanical
26:00
argument they are making is fascinating.
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It is a fascinating structural comparison.
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They are arguing that any system, whether it is explicitly
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religious or entirely secular, that demands endless
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performance, perpetual guilt, and constant proof of your
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righteousness without the possibility of a finished
26:16
atonement is going to crush people.
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That is the core take away from the sources analysis A.
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System of secular legalism operates on the exact same
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psychological hardware as the Galatian heresy.
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It tells you that your identity and your justification are based
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on your status and your strict compliance with a set of ever
26:35
shifting cultural laws. It is a terrifying master
26:38
because it never says it is finished.
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But the Gospel says your identity is not rooted in
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earthly grievances, cultural status, or your ability to keep
26:47
the rules perfectly. It is rooted entirely in the
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fact that you have been Co crucified with Christ.
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The cross covers every sin, breaks down every dividing wall,
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and offers the only true absolution available to
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humanity. Which ties everything right back
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to the hook we started with the exhausted, anxious modern person
27:05
reflected in that CDC data. If you measure your standing
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before God, or even your standing before society, by your
27:12
daily performance, your political purity, or your
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religious resume, you will be crushed.
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You will become part of that 32% gripped by persistent anxiety.
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The true answer to exhaustion is looking away from self
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measuring. It is entirely abandoning the
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project of self salvation. The comfort this text provides
27:30
is immense. It is the absolute bedrock of
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Christian assurance. When your conscience accuses
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you, when the enemy reminds you of your past failures, or when
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your daily obedience feels pitifully weak, you do not
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defend yourself with your own merits.
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You don't pull out your resume and say look at all the good
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things I have done. You point to the cross.
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You say I have been crucified with Christ.
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My old self is dead, its debts are paid and the life I now live
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is hidden in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
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me. Your assurance does not rest in
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your achievement, it rests exclusively in the sun's self
28:05
giving. Let's briefly recap the massive
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theological territory we have covered today.
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We looked at the historical collision at Antioch, where
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Peter's fear threatened to build a wall of works righteousness
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right through the middle of the early church.
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We looked at Paul's definitive answer, the death of the old
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self, through the perfect passive crucifixion with Christ.
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We unpack the indwelling life of the risen Lord animating the
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believer. And we saw how the daily walk of
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faith is anchored in the objective historical
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substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, who absorbed the
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wrath we deserved. It is a theological architecture
28:41
that leaves no room for human boasting and simultaneously
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leaves no room for spiritual despair.
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It confronts our modern idols of pragmatism, secular legalism and
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self actualization, offering the only true rest for the human
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soul. It has been a phenomenal
28:56
discussion. I want to leave you with the
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final piercing question to ponder long after this audio
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stops. You have heard the theology, you
29:03
have heard the history, and you have seen the grammar.
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But consider your own heart. What if the greatest threat to
29:09
your standing before God is not your most obvious failures, but
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your quiet confidence in your own religious resume?
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Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
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Rest entirely in the grace of the crucified and risen Son of
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God.