Crucified With Christ

Galatians 2: 20-21 (NIV): 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

Paul wrote this letter to combat a heresy that had come into the church there: that Christians were obligated to follow the Jewish law along with believing in Christ. Paul had brought the gospel to Galatia on a missionary journey, but someone had come behind him and told the new church that Christians must continue to follow the Jewish law in order to be right with God.

    Paul said no. He wrote to explain that faith in Christ alone saves us – there is nothing to add to that. We are saved by grace. If we could work our way to heaven by following the law, then why did Jesus have to die? God would never have allowed Jesus to die if that wasn’t the only way we could be righteous.

    So, do Christians have to follow the Old Testament laws in order to be right with God? The Civil and Ceremonial laws were given to the Jewish people. They came to an end when Jesus died and rose again. Remember how the curtain in the temple tore when Jesus was on the cross? That was to symbolize that now we can all enter into God’s presence. Peter saw a vision in Acts 10 letting him know it was okay to eat all foods. And Jesus became the one and only sacrifice that atones for our sins. The sacrificial system had come to completion.

    The Moral laws still stand however. These include the Ten Commandments and God’s edicts that we love one another. We follow these laws because we love God, not to earn salvation. We do these things to please God, but, because of Jesus, we do not lose our standing with God if we fail. Jesus has set us free from that fear and bondage.

    Paul said he had died to himself and now he lived by faith in Christ. He was free to please God and dead to the sins that enslaved him. He was a new person. He had been born again.