Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
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Paul is writing to the people of Galatia and describing how God has led him to minister to those outside the Jewish culture. He has explained that not even the Jews, with all of their history and tradition, are saved through that history or tradition. Both Jew and Gentile must come the same way to new life as was recorded in Galatians 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
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But the word "believe" can be diluted to a fairly weak term that could mean "I suppose so", or even "I think that happened....but it has no personal relevance".
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But Paul provides a vivid picture of the kind of belief that transforms and delivers in the first verse we quoted. The kind of belief that Paul is describing takes place when an individual realizes that they were on the Cross with Christ and when He died, they died. And when He rose from the dead, they rose from the dead. And as He is alive...they are alive in Him. They have experienced an awareness of being made into a new person. This new person no longer thinks of them self with a capital "I". They have a new "center" to their identity.
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Savior has replaced Self at the center.
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blessings,
Rob Smith
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"Death is inevitable. Life is a choice!"
John 11:25
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."
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