Christ Liveth In Me

By Tammy Lacock

“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.” (Galatians 2:20 KJV)

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman begins with the Apostle Paul’s declaration in Galatians 2:20 of who we are now in Christ.

But first, Warren emphasizes Paul’s focus on the mind throughout his epistles. Yes, by God’s grace, all we must do to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:31). Yet Paul tells us, our mind-change doesn’t stop there in our understanding of who we are now. In Hebrews 4:12, Paul makes it clear that the Word of God divides soul and spirit. For us to have any understanding of what took place when we believed, we must first understand this division.

When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we were literally translated into the Kingdom of God. By just believing, our Satan-natures were replaced by Christ’s nature in our spirits. Christ is joined to us in one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). We are one with Him in spirit. Christ joined to us is our salvation. Because of this, we are brand new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our old selves, our sin-natures, are “crucified with Christ” and our new nature is Christ.

However, our souls — where our minds reside — have yet to catch up with what God did in our spirits. This is where Paul tells us throughout his epistles, that we must have an ongoing mind change as we grow up in our new life in Christ. We must “suffer the loss” of who we think we are and come to an entirely new understanding with Christ as our new life. (Philippians 3:8). We must continue to believe and ultimately come to a knowing of who we are now in Christ if we are to live out who God created us to be.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us who we are now. Our old selves died with Christ. Yet we live by Christ’s life now because He lives in us, joined to us in one spirit. From now on, He is the one we go to when we need to make choices and decisions. He is the one we give our mind to now. It’s in our minds where we begin our love affair with Him. Love is a choice we must continually make if we are to grow up in Christ. All of our choices now stem from this love. Christian life is about a loving relationship with Christ, who now lives in us. It’s personal.

Warren shares, “Life is nothing but a series of choices being lived out.” In Galatians 2:20, Paul is making a choice to fix his mind on his new life in Christ. Christ is his life now. His old self is cancelled out and his mind is now fixed on Christ and His faithfulness, not his own.

The Apostle Paul centers his gospel on the mind. If we are to now live our new life in Christ, our minds must be continually renewed. We now have new choices to make. Let’s give our minds over to Christ so that we “may know Him” (Philippians 3:10) and now make choices centered on our love affair with Him.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5 KJV)

“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16 KJV)

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23 KJV)