I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. ~ Galatians 2:20

Paul’s words in the text above have been a source of encouragement and strength to many believers since the time they were written, but a text like this can also easily be misunderstood if read in isolation. So what exactly was Paul meaning when he said, I am crucified with Christ, and how can we stand with Paul and say the same?

First, we need to know that being crucified with Christ is not some metaphysical doctrine that Paul taught. Paul was not teaching a doctrine outside reality. To be crucified with Christ does not mean that when Jesus died on the cross I was also dying at the same time. Instead, it means that through faith in Jesus, I am surrendering my life to his, and yielding to his Holy Spirit to live through me in obedience to Jesus as my Lord.

Paul says to the Romans, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. ~ Romans 12:1-2

Being crucified with Christ isn’t some imaginary or mystical mindset we take about the cross. Instead it is living in obedience to Christ and daily dying to our own will for the will of God, thus putting to death the works of our flesh. Christ died so that we might live, and eternal life in Christ doesn’t begin when we die and go to heaven, it begins now, and we live as those who have been crucified with regards to the flesh. Being crucified with Christ is the walk in the Spirit!

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. ~ Galatians 5:16-26

Being crucified with Christ is putting off the sins of the old man and living according to the image and likeness of Christ.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. ~ Colossians 3:1-11 

We are crucified with Christ at the moment we are born again when we are immersed by the Spirit of God into Christ, in this way we die to sin and are made alive unto God, and we are to live as unto the Lord not fulfilling the desires of the flesh which leads to sin.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him… ~ Romans 6:1-8

Notice that Paul does not teach that we were crucified with Christ at the time Christ died on the cross. Rather he is explaining what happens to us (spiritually) at the time of our conversion, when we are saved. He explains this in view of why we are not to go on living in sin. When we believe the gospel we are immersed (baptized) into Christ and his death by the Spirit of God. Notice that Paul uses the words, like as inference to the resurrection and the new life we are to walk in: like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

A careful examination of Romans 6 shows that the conversion and new life of a believer is to in the likeness of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ Romans 6:9-11

This truth is laced throughout Paul’s teachings in the New Testament. For example, he says in Ephesians, put off concerning the former conversation (lifestyle) the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. ~ Ephesians 4:22-24

In Paul’s theology, the death of Christ empowers us to live in victory over sin because the Spirit of the One who died and rose again for us now lives within us. The same power that worked in Christ, who chose to lay down his life rather than save it, now lives in us by the Holy Spirit. Thus we can overcome the power of sin and the flesh through the indwelling power of the Spirit of the crucified One. We have power to put off the old man of sin (the person we were before Christand without Christ) and put on the new (the person God has called us to be) which is created in the image and likeness of Christ. Paul sums this up by calling it crucified and risen with Christ. This is the work of the Spirit of God in us who have received forgiveness through Christ’s finished work on the cross, conforming us into his likeness.