The Life in Christ: Galatians 2:16-20, especially vs. 20: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me." The Archpriest, John Iliytch Sergiev, better known as St. John of Kronstadt, for many years kept a journal of "edifying thoughts and feelings that came to [him]," which ultimately were complied and printed as "My Life In Christ." Few works of the Fathers have done more to establish the expression, "the life in Christ" for English-speaking Orthodox Christians than this treasury of extracts from his diary.
In today's brief selection from Galatians, the Apostle uses the verb "zo," meaning "to live," five times as he speaks of the three essentials of the life in Christ: "to repudiate the law as a basis for attaining righteousness" (vs. 16); "to unite oneself to Christ" (vs. 20); and to "live by faith in the Son of God Who loved me" (vs. 20). Note that these essentials are paralleled step by step in the Baptismal Liturgy: the candidate must "renounce Satan, and all his angels and all his works, and all his service, and all his pride," "unite himself unto Christ," after which prayers are offered that "he may prove himself a child of the Light, and an heir of eternal good things."
First then, St. Paul asserts "that a man is not justified by the works of the law," or that "by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified" (vs. 16). The life in Christ begins with the insight that legalism is no solution for life. The most thoroughgoing of efforts to keep even the good, holy, and moral Law of God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai ultimately fail, since no one can fulfill the law completely, for "all fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Sin and its result, death, remain the dominant facts of life for all human beings, superseding our best efforts.
However, once the futility of legalism is acknowledged, the gateway to the life in Christ is opened, and the true alternative of faith "in the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20) becomes plausible, essentially urgent. As Fr. Nadim Tarazi says, "This recognition of the necessity of faith is then the prologue to faith." One who sees the futility of living solely by rules is ready to take the requisite steps to "unite himself unto Christ."
The Apostle expresses this act of uniting oneself to Christ in several ways, each of which emphasizes a different aspect of the life in Christ: to "live to God" (vs. 19) points toward the goal of Christian living, to become "crucified with Christ" (vs. 20) reveals the necessity to repudiate self-reliance, to have Christ living "in me" (vs. 20) speaks of turning to the presence of the Lord within, to "live in the flesh" (vs. 20) shows that earthly limitations still exist, and to "live by faith in the Son of God" (vs. 20) declares one's abiding commitment, day to day in the Christian life.
St. Paul asserts that "the Son of God...loved me and gave Himself for me" (vs. 20). Hereby, in the words of Fr. Tarazi, the Apostle reminds us that the love of God is "the origin of everything that brings about our salvation." The life in Christ requires the Faithful to love in the same manner that Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us (vs. 20) every day, every hour, in every circumstance, and every relationship. "Live" manifestly equates with "acting like."
Take the Apostle's five uses of "zo" in vss. 19 and 20, and reframe them as actions: to "live to God" is to behave as He does; that "I no longer live" means that I give up my self for others; saying that "Christ lives in me" marks me as His obedient servant; to "live in the flesh" requires me to embrace suffering, toil and struggle; to "live by faith" is to live so that others see the Son of God through me and in me. The word "witness" virtually replaces the word "live!"
O Lord, my God, may I ever remember Thy grace and henceforth live not unto myself, but unto Thee, our Master and Benefactor, in the hope of eternal life and unutterable joy.