Galatians 2:20 KJV
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.
This important biblical concept is evident throughout much of the Apostle Paul’s writings. At the heart of identification is the believer's understanding that they have been “grafted into” the work that Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection. The believer at the new birth becomes positioned ‘in Christ’, and Christ is ‘in the believer’.
Without an understanding of this new identity in Christ, the believer is weak in their ability to live the abundant life Jesus has provided. The knowledge that ‘we are made acceptable ‘in Christ’ is our foundation. Ephesians chapter one begins our understanding of the ‘In Him’ realities and our need to identify with them. In Christ we become ‘as he is’ in this world, 1 John 4:17.
The concept of ‘identification with Jesus Christ’ refers to the believer’s spiritual union with Christ; sharing in His death, burial, resurrection, and new life. It means that what happened to Jesus in His redemptive work is counted by God as having happened to the believer as well.
Mankind, created in the image of God, [Gen. 1:26-27, John 4:24] is a three-part being: spirit, soul, and body, 1 Thess. 5:23; 3 John 2. The beginning of identification occurs when we recognize our need for God and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. Jesus explained the need for a ‘born again’ experience to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, chapter 3:1-14.
At the heart of identification is union with Christ — the believer is “in Christ,” and Christ is “in the believer.”
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh….Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come, and all this is from God……’ 2 Cor. 5:16-18
Today’s verse, Galatians 2:20, highlights our spiritual reality. ‘I have been crucified with Christ.’ It is one of the mysteries the bible holds. Physically, we know we have not been crucified with Christ. This is the condition of our inner man, the spirit of man who died to be born again. John 3:5-7. We don’t need to fully understand, but we must believe and agree with the one who has decreed this new place we are to live from.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized in his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.’
Romans 6:3-4
The identification with Christ's death and burial declares His victory over the power of sin and death. His victory becomes ours in Christ. Sin no longer has dominion over us.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again death no longer has dominion over him. ……So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passion…present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you…’
Romans 6: 8-14