Gal 2:17–21 — No Longer I, but Christ: The Life of Faith

Review of Paul’s Argument

Galatians has three principal movements. Chapters 1–2 concern the Apostle of Gospel Liberty. Paul defends his apostolic authority and establishes that his gospel of righteousness by faith in Christ, apart from works of the law, came directly from Christ rather than from any human teacher.

Chapters 3–4 concern the Doctrine of Gospel Liberty. Paul will expound justification by faith in relation to the promise given to Abraham and the law given 430 years later. Chapters 5–6 concern the Life of Gospel Liberty. Freedom from the law as a covenant does not permit believers to indulge the flesh; they are called to serve one another in love.

Galatians 2:17–21 concludes the first section and provides a transition into the doctrinal argument. Paul is recalling his public rebuke of Peter at Antioch. Peter initially shared table fellowship with uncircumcised Gentile believers because he knew they were accepted before God through faith in Christ. When men came from James, however, Peter withdrew because he feared “those of the circumcision.” His conduct implied that Gentiles remained unclean unless they observed the Mosaic Law.

Paul reminded Peter of the gospel they both confessed: “We know that a person is not reckoned righteous by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Peter’s withdrawal contradicted this truth. Galatians 2:17–21 continues Paul’s speech and explains both the ground of righteousness and the ongoing life of faith.

Paul is concerned not only with how sinners are initially justified, but also with how justified people live. The Christian life begins and continues through faith in Christ. Galatians 2:20 expresses this beautifully: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

Galatians 2:17–18: Who Is the Real Transgressor?

Paul asks, “But if, while seeking to be reckoned as righteous in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, does that make Christ a promoter of sin? Certainly not!”

The expression translated “servant of sin” may be rendered “promoter of sin.” The objection is that justification through faith in Christ, apart from the law, appears to leave believers as sinners. If Jewish Christians abandon the law as the basis of righteousness and are then found to be lawbreakers, does Christ promote sin?

In the immediate setting, Peter and the other Jewish believers were being treated as sinners because they ate with Gentiles and did not maintain the traditional distinction between clean and unclean. The accusation was false insofar as it rested upon Old Covenant boundary markers fulfilled in Christ.

Yet Paul’s answer also addresses a broader reality. Christians who seek their righteousness in Christ still discover sin within themselves, and others see their failings as well. This is not merely hypothetical. Does the continued presence of sin make Christ its promoter? Paul responds with his strongest denial: “Certainly not!” “God forbid!” “May it never be!”

Romans 6 raises the same objection after Paul’s exposition of justification: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” Again the answer is an emphatic no, followed by an appeal to union with Christ. Galatians 2:20 gives that same substantive answer in compressed form.

Paul first reverses the accusation: “If I rebuild what I tore down, then I prove myself to be a transgressor.” Peter was rebuilding the wall of the Mosaic Law that separated Jews from Gentiles. By withdrawing from Gentile fellowship, he treated law-observant Jews as righteous and Gentiles as unclean.

The word transgressor carries the sense of covenant breaker. Returning to the law as the basis of righteousness would not demonstrate faithfulness; it would violate the New Covenant by turning away from Christ. Peter’s retreat, not his former fellowship with Gentiles, was the true inconsistency.

Paul shifts rhetorically from “we” in verse 17 to “I” in verse 18, but his point is inclusive rather than merely autobiographical. Anyone who rebuilds the Law Covenant as a means of righteousness rejects the covenant established in Christ.

Galatians 2:19–20: Crucified with Christ

Paul continues, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” The phrase “through the law” has two principal interpretations. It may mean that the law exposed Paul’s sin and drove him to Christ. Alternatively, it may mean that the law killed Christ when he came under its curse and, through union with Christ, put Paul to death as well.

The second interpretation fits the following verse especially well: “I have been crucified with Christ.” Galatians 3:13 will explain that Christ became a curse for us. On the cross, he endured the law’s judgment for our sins. Because believers are united to him, his death under the law is also their death to the law.

“I Am Crucified with Christ”

Most English versions say, “I have been crucified with Christ.” The Greek uses a perfect verb, describing a past event with continuing consequences. The older rendering “I am crucified with Christ” brings out Paul’s present identity. He was crucified with Christ in the past and now exists as one whose status is defined by that crucifixion.

The Contemporary English Version vividly renders the phrase, “I have been nailed to the cross with Christ.” By virtue of union with Christ, we were represented in his death. The law has executed its curse; it has done its worst and put us to death in Christ.

Christ’s death is substitutionary: he died in our place and bore the penalty we deserved. It is also representative: because he died as the covenant head of his people, those united to him died in him. His death is counted as their death.

This truth adds a profound dimension to our confidence. Christ endured the judgment of hell for us, and in union with him we have already passed through that judgment. The law cannot execute its curse twice. Believers may therefore confess not only that Christ was crucified for them, but that they have been crucified with him.

The negative statement, “It is no longer I who live,” is followed by the positive: “Christ lives in me.” Union with Christ includes not only death but resurrection life. The old self has been put to death, and the risen Christ now dwells in believers by his Spirit.

Galatians 2:21: Not Rejecting the Grace of God

Paul concludes, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” The implied thought may be stated: “I refuse to reject the grace of God by reverting to the law.”

Paul’s life is defined by union with Christ. He has been crucified with Christ and raised to new life in him. He therefore refuses to do what Peter’s conduct implied: rebuild the wall of the law, seek righteousness there, and turn away from God’s gift in Christ.

If righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing. Peter’s return to separation from Gentiles implicitly treated law observance as necessary for righteousness. Paul calls him to recognize the consequence: adding the law to Christ as a basis of acceptance nullifies grace and empties the cross of its purpose.

God’s gift of grace is Christ himself: Christ’s love displayed in giving himself for our sins and Christ’s righteousness granted to believers. To return to the law for righteousness is to turn one’s back upon that gift.

Doctrine: Either the Law or Christ

Righteousness comes either through the law or through Christ. Here law means the law as a covenant and a means of achieving righteousness before God, not the moral law as a guide for Christian gratitude.

The alternatives are mutually exclusive. The Judaizers tried to combine them: faith in Christ was good, but circumcision and law observance were also necessary. Paul insists that righteousness cannot come through both. If we seek righteousness through the law, we reject Christ. If God reckons us righteous through Christ, we cannot return to the law as a covenant.

Believers still receive God’s moral law as a guide for grateful obedience. Freedom from the Law Covenant is not freedom from holiness. But the law must never be rebuilt as the basis of our standing before God.

The fear of other people can tempt us to do precisely that. Peter listened to the judgment of those who treated him as unrighteous for eating with Gentiles. Our own consciences may similarly tell us that forgiveness in Christ is not enough and that we need our law-keeping to make ourselves acceptable. To yield to either voice would make us covenant breakers by directing us away from Christ.

Applications: The Life of Faith

The Christian’s Identity

Paul is concerned with the ongoing life of faith as well as initial justification. Just as we are not justified through the law, we do not continue the Christian life through the law as a covenant. Both our justification and our life flow from union with Christ. We are reckoned righteous by faith, and we live by faith.

“It is no longer I who live” speaks to the Christian’s deepest identity. The old self has been crucified with Christ. Therefore, the most fundamental truth about us is not determined by fluctuating feelings, shame over the past, present temptations, intrusive sinful thoughts, the accusations of conscience, or the condemnation of others.

Those experiences remain real, and believers still struggle with sin. Yet they do not define who we are before God. Our old self was nailed to the cross with Christ. Our new identity is found in the risen Christ who lives in us.

The Christian’s Christ-Centered Focus

Paul describes the positive side of the life of faith: “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.” To live “in the flesh” here means to live in this mortal body in the present age before the resurrection. Even now, amid weakness and struggle, the Christian lives by faith.

Faith is not an anxious effort to believe intensely enough. It is a restful confidence in Christ, a conscious reliance upon the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. It resembles the trust of a young child who confidently runs to loving parents without needing to reason itself into believing that they will provide care.

Living by faith means living each day in the awareness of Christ’s love. That confidence enables us to answer competing voices. The opinions and rejection of others, hardship, illness, and even death cannot overturn the fact that Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

The Heidelberg Catechism expresses this assurance by confessing that I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Christ dwells in us by his Spirit, and we live in union with him.

Paul’s repeated use of “I” makes his confession personal, but not private. He presents his own life as an example into which every believer is invited: “The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.” All the world’s efforts to find righteousness, identity, success, and security become as dust beside this reality.

This is the heart of the Christian life: no longer I, but Christ. The life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.