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THE KING’S BUSINESS
faith in Christ, and not by works o f the law. I f that is so, the Christ in whom we sought justification is a minister o f sin; He puts us in the place o f sinners. Are you willing to take that ^position, Peter, which is the logical conclusion o f your present conduct? * Is Christ a minister of sin?" ' This thought Paul naturally spurns with horror: “May it not be” (this is the exact force o f the words translated “ God forbid” ) Paul cries. Paul continues his argument still further. He does it now very kindly, not saying too pointedly, “You, Peter, are building up the things which you once destroyed,” but imagining himself in Peter’s place and not mentioning Peter at all, “If I build again the things which I destroyed (the necessity o f the law as a means o f justification, which both he and Peter destroyed by seeking justification by faith in Christ and not by works o f the law), I do not commend myself (as you are trying to do, Peter), I commend myself a sinner (i.e ., prove that I am a sinner). I would either have been a sinner in the past by destroying it, or in the present by In the nineteenth verse Paul passes from his specific argument with Peter to a gen eral statement o f -the great principles in the case: “I thought the law died unto the law, (i. e., the law by its own terms has dominion over a man so long as he liveth—cf. Rom. 7:1-4), but I was put to death in Christ on the cross, and so through the law itself I am dead to it and it no longer has any claim upon me)., (cf. Rom. 7:4; Col. 2:14). But I was made dead to the law, not that I might remain dead, but that I might live again—live unto God” (cf. Rom. 6:4; 7:4 ). Paul develops at length this great thought which he here suggests in Rom. 6 and 7, but he goes further with it in this passage also: “I have been cru cified; with Christ” (R. V .) he says. The meaning is, Christ’s crucifixion is our own. When He died on the cross we were in Him and were therefore Crucified in Him building it again.” Sunday, April 21 . Gal., 2 : 19 - 21 .
(cf. 2 Cor. 5:14). As all men sinned in the first Adam, so all believers were cruci fied in the second Adam. His crucifixion was ours. There is another sense in which we may "Say: “I have been crucified with Christ,” that is when the flesh, with the passions and lusts thereof, has been put on the cross, utterly ' renounced (ch. 5:24), when we have really denied self, said good- by to all we are, and have said to self, “I do not know you at all (cf. Matt. 16:24), “you are a cursed thing” (cf. Gal. 3:13), then, in this sense, we are crucified with Christ. But the first sense, i. e., the/sense that we were crucified in Christ when He hung upon the cross, is the primary sense o f Paul’s words in verse 20 . Crucifixion with Christ is not something that we are to work, but something that God has already wrought for every believer. In the cruci fixion o f Christ on the cross every believer has a right to Say: “I have been crucified with Christ.” Paul continues; “ Though I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live.” Indeed we never truly live until we have died. Resurrection life, life beyond the grave, is the true life. Not only is it true physically hereafter, it is also true spirit ually now, that we must die if we would really live. Many and many a one who bears: the name o f Christian is not truly living because he never died. But Paul goes on still further, “I said I live, but speaking exactly it is no longer I that live (I am dead), but Christ liveth in me (i. e., the self-life is gone, the Christ life is all).” Here we have the whole secret o f true, blessed, victorious living: “I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me.” But how is this to be realized in practical experience? Paul explains, That life which I now live in the flesh (i. e., iff my present bodily estate), I live in faith; (i. e., not in my self efforts after legal righteousness—cf. Phil. 3:9, 10, R. V .); the faith which is in the Son o f God (i. e., in Jesus as the Divine One), who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” That last wonderful phrase, “Who loved me and gave Himself for me,” needs no comment, but it should be pondered lorn?
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