I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20, NIV
The Christian life is one characterized by continual release, letting go of oneself to become more like Christ our King. At the same time though, it is through this continual release that we actually become more ourselves than before. Living our lives in the flesh, as opposed to living in Christ, actually draws us further from how we were designed and created. Whereas life with Christ is what we were made for.
The problem is, we are unable to live up to how we were created on our own. We will continue to fall in the desires of our flesh until we finally die to ourselves and learn to live in the Spirit. But this is more easily said or discussed than actually lived out.
The reality for Christians is, that we are messy people who so often vacillate back and forth from our deep desires to be like Christ to our desires of our own flesh. There are countless resources out there to describe this process of transformation or sanctification, so this body of writing will be no means scratch the surface of this discussion.
However, the point of this verse and the reminder it brings to us is that transformation is long and by no means a straight path, for ourselves or for those we are trying to help. This is evidenced by the greater context of Galatians 2, where Paul describes his interaction with Peter in Antioch.
Peter, to whom was revealed God’s plan of redeeming those outside of the genetic line of Abraham (Gentiles), suddenly stopped associated with Gentiles in Antioch when some well-to-do Jews showed up at the churches there. Paul recognized this and saw this as both an inconsistency with the Gospel that is for all people as well as a step backwards for Peter who had previously helped to make the case for allowing Gentiles into the Church.
Paul recounts this story to his Galatian audience as a way of communicating that we cannot find freedom from the law and attempts of earning our own relationship with Christ while simultaneously trying to maintain a rigid following of the law, especially not at another’s expense. Essentially, when we come to faith in Christ, we must daily die to ourselves and our desires to be perfect and instead follow Christ’s example of love, knowing that there is grace for our shortcomings and that we are freed to fully live into the love Christ has for us and others.
The process of transformation that each Christian begins and never fully completes is one characterized by difficulty and perseverance. The process is never fully complete until Christ renews all creation, but it is nonetheless a process we must continue working through together as the whole body of Christ.
Recognizing the transforming work Christ does in our hearts everyday is essential to our continued movement towards Him, and the only way we can continue in our faith. It is this continued work that Christ does in our hearts that helps us to catch glimpses of the reality we cannot yet see, but the reality that we have already been made whole in Him, and now our work is to live into that reality each day.