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followed by "nevertheless I live" (Gal. 2: 20). "If we be dead with Christ" found in
Rom. 6: 8 is immediately followed by "we believe that we shall also live with Him".
The statements of Rom. 6: 3-5 "ye . . . . . were baptized into His death", "buried with
Him by baptism into death", "the likeness of His death", are followed at once by "the
likeness of His resurrection".
Not only so, but if we retrace our steps and return again to Gal. 2:, we shall find the
present "quickening" there too. Paul does not say "I have been crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the latter days I shall live again in
resurrection", he says "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". So, in Rom. 6:, future and literal resurrection is
anticipated by a "walk in newness of life" and "the likeness of His resurrection", and we
are enjoined to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but ALIVE UNTO GOD
through Jesus Christ our Lord. This present "quickening" enables us to shake off the
dominion of sin (Rom. 6: 14); the power of the "old man" (Rom. 6: 6), and also
enables us not only to rise and walk in newness of life, but to serve in newness of spirit
(Rom. 7: 6).
Let us tarry a little while we ponder some of these present anticipations of resurrection
life. We have already referred to Gal. 2: 20, we must refer to it again. The Apostle
there says that even though he had been "crucified with Christ" nevertheless he lived. It
will be evident to every reader that Paul was not literally and physically crucified with
Christ, but he was "reckoned" to have died with Him, and enjoined the believer to take
his stand also: "likewise reckon ye also yourselves . . . . . dead . . . . . alive" (Rom. 6: 11).
Paul lived by "reckoning" as God reckoned, standing where grace had placed him,
realizing that in this position and in this position only was life and victory.
"Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." How are we to understand this? If we take the
passage to extremes, it will mean that Paul as Paul had been obliterated, that he was
indeed non-existent. If that be the teaching, then Paul was not saved; he had been
destroyed. Paul could not look forward to receiving a crown of righteousness, for he had
not kept the faith, or finished the course; Christ had taken his place and Paul no longer
counted as an individual. The use of the word ego "not I" finds illustration and
explanation in Rom. 7::
"I was alive without the law once . . . . . sin revived, and I died . . . . . it slew me . . . . .
I am carnal, sold under sin; for that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I
not; but what I hate, that do I . . . . . now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that
dwelleth in me . . . . . so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the
flesh the law of sin" (Rom. 7: 9-25).
Here is a complicated argument, and a double use of the ego. The ego evidently can
be dominated by sin, having its seat of operation in the flesh, which term embraces both
"the members" and "the mind" (Rom. 7: 23 and 8: 7). Paul however has been
redeemed, and he now sees the war that is going on in his members is waged against the
law of his mind, and that with the mind he can now serve God. He now, as it were sides
with God, and speaks of the new man as "I myself". What Paul teaches in Gal. 2: 20 is