It Is No Longer I Who Live

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20, WEB)

There is a strange loneliness in this struggle, a sense that you are facing it entirely on your own strength, and that your strength is clearly not enough. You watch yourself lose the same battle again and conclude that your best simply is not going to cut it. You have tried willpower, you have tried resolutions, you have tried starting over, and the pattern keeps reasserting itself until you begin to wonder if you are just not made of strong enough stuff.

Paul, of all people, agrees that your best is not enough, and then he says something that changes where the strength comes from. He writes, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The life you are living now is not meant to run on your resources alone. Christ lives in you, and the strength for the fight comes from him living his life through yours.

That reframes the loneliness completely. You are not standing in this battle by yourself, drawing on a reserve you have already exhausted. There is Another living inside the very life you thought was yours to power alone.

Notice how Paul ends: who loved me and gave himself for me. He makes it personal, singular, as though he were the only one Christ died for. You can say it the same way, in the first person, with your own name in the sentence. Christ loved you and gave himself for you, and now he lives in you. When you feel too weak for this today, that weakness is not the end of the story; it may be the very place his strength meets you. Lean your whole weight on the One who lives in you, because the life was never meant to be carried on your own.