In 2:20 Paul says, “Christ lives in me.” According to the concept of an exchanged life, our life is terminated and Christ lives. But we need a more thorough understanding of what it means to say that Christ lives in us.It is rather easy to understand that Christ lives. But it is difficult to understand how Christ lives in us. This does not mean that I have been crucified and live no longer, and that Christ lives instead of me. On the one hand, Paul said, “no longer I”; on the other hand, he said, “Christ lives in me.” The phrase “in me” is of great importance. Yes, it is Christ who lives, but it is in us that He lives.
In order to understand how Christ can live in us, we need to turn to John 14. Before His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, “Because I live, you shall live also” (v. 19). Christ lives in us by causing us to live with Him. Christ does not live alone. He lives in us and with us. He lives by enabling us to live with Him. In a very real sense, if we do not live with Him, He cannot live in us. We have not been altogether ruled out, and our life has not been exchanged for the divine life. We continue to exist, but we exist with the Triune God. The Triune God who now dwells within us causes us to live with Christ. Hence, Christ lives in us through our living with Him.
Once again the illustration of grafting helps our understanding. After a branch has been grafted into a productive tree, the branch continues to live. However, it lives not by itself, but by the tree into which it has been grafted. Furthermore, the tree lives in the branch which has been grafted into it. The branch now lives a grafted life. This means that it lives, not by itself, but by the life of the tree into which it has been grafted. Furthermore, this other life, the life of the productive tree, does not live by itself, but through the branch grafted into it. The life of the tree lives in the branch. Eventually, the branch and the tree have one life with one living. In the same principle, we and Christ also have one life and one living.
In John 6:57 the Lord Jesus said, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” The Son did not live by Himself. However, this does not mean that the Son was set aside and ceased to exist. The Son, of course, continued to exist, but He did not live His own life. Instead, He lived the life of the Father. In this way the Son and the Father had one life and one living. They shared the same life and had the same living.
It is the same in our relationship with Christ today. We and Christ do not have two lives. Rather, we have one life and one living. We live by Him, and He lives in us. If we do not live, He does not live; and if He does not live, we cannot live. On the one hand, we are terminated; on the other hand, we continue to exist, but we do not live without Him. Christ lives within us, and we live with Him. Therefore, we and He have one life and one living.
Galatians 2:20 explains how through law we have died to law. When Christ was crucified, we were included in Him according to God’s economy. This is an accomplished fact. We have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in us through His resurrection. His living in us is entirely by His being the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This point is fully developed in the following chapters of Galatians, where the Spirit is presented and emphasized as the very One whom we have received as life and in whom we should live.
“I,” the natural person, is inclined to keep the law that I might be perfect (Phil. 3:6), but God wants me to live Christ that God may be expressed in me through Him (Phil. 1:20-21). Hence, God’s economy is that “I” be crucified in Christ’s death and Christ live in me in His resurrection. To keep the law is to exalt it above all things in my life; to live Christ is to make Him the center in my life, even to make Him everything to me. The law was used by God to keep His chosen people in custody for Christ for a period of time (Gal. 3:23), and eventually to conduct them to Christ (3:24) that they might receive Him as life and live Him as God’s expression. Since Christ has come, the function of the law has been terminated; therefore, Christ must replace the law in my life for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.