Galatians two twenty

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

I memorised this verse as part of the Navigators’ Topical Memory System, which is a collection of Bible verses put together by Dawson Trotman who believes that when we memorise Scripture we internalise it in a way that “opens up” another channel by which God can speak to us. Through the last few years, Trotman has been right; in different situations God has brought this verse from my long term memory storage to the forefront of my mind and, though its truth never changes, it has come alive in different ways at particular times. I hope in sharing some of the ways it has been particularly poignant you might be encouraged to make memorising Scripture a priority (maybe the Navigators’ Topical Memory System) and to see how God uses internalised Scripture in your own life.

One way Galatians 2:20 has really shaped me has been in how I share my life with and care for other people. I am selfish and there are times when I like spending time with others but there are also times when I just want to be alone. There have been times when someone has called out to me or when I said I would be there for someone and have felt very unmotivated. In times like this Galatians 2:20 has been the Spirit’s words to me. It is both a comfort and an urge to action. It reminds me that Jesus loves me with an amazing love, that he would give himself up to make me enter peace and life with God. It reminds me that Jesus did not consider his comfort more important than mine. It reminds me that Jesus left what he knew was already his to give to those in need before him. And when my life is crucified with him, it means his gift of life is given for a purpose – taking me from my old self of selfishness, greed and comfort to a self that is compelled (or rather “controlled”, as rendered in the English Standard Version of the Bible in 2 Corinthians 5:14) by this love of Christ. And so while I live, I live in a way shaped not by my own perceptions of what I am capable of doing and what I am willing to do by my own strength and desire, but by faith that it is Christ’s love and power that embodies me. It should be Christ’s love and power that should give life to and motivate my thoughts and actions. There was one time when I had a difficult and tiring day at work (six periods of school with teenage boys…) and I had arranged to meet with a friend to read the Bible, something that is a privilege. I really didn’t feel too keen after school but God brought this particular verse to my mind and I realised that when I entered life with Christ I made a promise to live by faith and not by sight because the God of the universe loves me and is on my side. It was my privilege to share this with someone! So many other times when I’ve just wanted to curl up on the couch and read Jane Eyre God has used this verse to remind me of my life’s life – Christ. Sometimes I have listened to that beckoning call and abandoned self; other times I have not. But I find my comfort in the reality that I have put my trust in Jesus once and just as he died once I don’t have to doubt what he has done for me. He doesn’t go back and change his mind.

Another way that Galatians 2:20 has shaped me of late has been in my depression. A good friend of mine who memorised some of the Navigators’ Topical Memory System with me reminded me one day when I was starting to have some unhelpful suicidal thoughts that I cannot take my life because it isn’t mine to take. Remember Galatians 2:20, she said. And since that conversation, I have clung tightly to this verse every time similar thoughts crawl into my mind. I know my life is crucified already, I have died to myself. My life is Christ’s now and I have no power to take it, no matter how badly I want to.

God’s word is indeed, as the writer of Hebrews says, living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword; it judges the thoughts of the heart. It speaks into us by His Spirit, bringing comfort and challenge, promise and fulfillment, assurance and a call to act differently, think differently and believe differently. I hope you would treasure it and soak it up with eagerness and joy.