Galatians is a book of warning to be alert for false teachings or perversions of the truth. Truth will set one free while false teaching will lead to bondage. It is here to the Galatians that Paul is trying to once again encourage them not to sway or be convinced of anything other than the truth that they heard from him before.
Today, we will be focusing on verses 19-21. In these verses Paul shares with the reader the personal love that Jesus has for him and his response to Jesus’ love. Paul prefaces that no one is justified for their sins before God by obedience to the Law, but only by faith in Christ Jesus alone does one become righteous before God.
In verse 19, Paul shares the place that the law has in his life. “For through the Law (of Moses) I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.” (NAU). The verb “died” is in the Indicative Aorist Active tense 1st person singular form. This tells us that the subject did the action of the verb in the past and describes a fact. Paul is telling us that he decided to die to the law. He emphasizes this by using the pronoun “I” twice. We don’t see this in the English translation, but Greek verbs tell the action and who is doing the action (I, we, you, he, she, they). By using an additional pronoun, in this case, “ego” in the Greek or “I”, this places emphasis on subject, Paul, in this case.
He wants to make it clear to the reader, because the Law showed him to be a transgressor, that he was the one that died to the Law. In a figurative sense, he decided to have no part of it, not to even respond to it. The word “hina” in the Greek or “so that” and the following verb in the Subjunctive tense are used to show the purpose or intent of the subject. Paul’s intent is to live for God. He could not live to please the law and God at the same time. He had to stop serving one to serve the other. He had a choice to make. He was either going to have his righteousness come from obedience to the Law, which was impossible, or by trusting in Jesus Christ for his righteous standing before God.
In the following verse, Paul shares that it is Jesus that is living in him because of his trust in Him. It is in the latter part of the verse that Paul brings salvation to a personal level. The verb “have been crucified” is in the Indicative Perfect Passive 1st person singular form. This is telling us that what has been done in the past is fully completed and has present day effects, also, that the subject receive the action of the verb. Paul is making it clear that he his death is complete with Christ. He is no longer living by the Law. The Law is totally nonexistent in his life for salvation. He is non-responsive to being obedient to the Law for salvation. As Jesus was raised from the dead and lives so is he raised from the dead by the power of God, and furthermore, Jesus is presently living in him. This is shown to us by the verb “lives” in the Indicative Present Active 3rd person form. Which means that Jesus is living with Paul in the present time. Jesus is always living in the Believer. Paul makes a contrast between death and life. He had to die to one area to live in another. He had to die to the Law, no longer life for it, to be able to live with Christ. His life before was alone on his own. Now the life that he lives is with Christ Jesus living in him.
Jesus not only died for the whole world so that all my believe in Him, but He died for each of us personally. The verb “gave…up”, as in giving up ones life sacrificially, is an Aorist Active Participle in the Genitive Masculine Singular form. What this tells us is that an action is undefined (that it happened without details as specifically when), the subject did the action and modifies a word in the genitive masculine singular form which is “Son of God” in this sentence. The God of the universe loves him personally. Paul is pointing out that his salvation is very personal with Jesus and Jesus chose to give His life and make it very personal. Paul is passionate about this truth because Jesus is passionate about him.
In verse 21, states that he will “not nullify the grace of God”. The verb “atheteo” or “nullify” has the idea of setting aside, disregard, to reject, to make void. He knows that Jesus death is precious and of absolute necessity for righteousness before God. If Jesus did not die to take the sins of the world upon Himself, then no one would escape God’s judgement for sin because the Law could not give righteousness. God is purposeful in all that He does. Nothing that He does or allows is without purpose. He would not have sent His Son to die a painful death nor punish Him for all the sins of the world, if it were not necessary.
Please know today that Jesus is passionate about you. He personally gave Himself for you as well as the world. May our hearts respond to this Amazing Love with passion for Him. Help us Lord to die to our passions that are not pleasing to You. Please, Lord, raise up a deep passionate love only to please You.
Love Daniel
Posted on April 3rd, 2007 by Daniel
Filed under: Truth To Live By