The Exchange – The Presidential Prayer Team

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. – Galatians 2:20

Have you ever read Galatians 2:19-21 and felt somewhat lost? Paul talks about how he is living, then he’s not living, then Christ is living in him – it may be a challenge to follow everything he says in these few sentences.

The heart of the idea that Paul is communicating is found in verse 20, when he says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are instantly united to Him. This means that, first, their old life of rebellion died on the cross when Jesus did. Second, it means that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead also made believers alive to walk in a new life of following God. Essentially, a Christian trades in their old, imperfect, sinful life when they receive Christ.

If you have placed your faith in God, this means that you are no longer your own – your life now belongs to Jesus. There will be remnants of your old life that will linger and seek to rival what God says. But that is where your faith in God comes in. Trust that He will continue to grow and transform you, making you more like Himself as you continue to follow Him. Pray today and thank God for this amazing gift He has given you. Ask Him to continually change you to be more like Him, that others may see Jesus in you everywhere you go. Pray over the nation and ask God to appoint men and women who follow Him to positions within the government, to follow His leading for the U.S.

Today’s Verse: Galatians 2:20

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Romans 7:1-6

7 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? ²For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. ³Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.