Scripture Notes: Crucified with Christ (Galatians 2)

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and 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.” St. Paul is quite clear in his letter to the Galatians: Christ is everything to him, his whole world, his whole life, the center of his being and his mission. 

In baptism, Paul died with Christ, just like we all do, and he rose with Christ, just like we all do. The water is a symbol of both death and life, and because baptism is a sacrament, it effects what it symbolizes. It makes us a new creation, filled with the divine life that we call sanctifying grace. God loves us so much that He came to die for us. He gave Himself for us when the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became incarnate and suffered and died on the cross. We enter into that suffering and death but only so that we can enter into the new life of the Resurrection. We no longer live our old sinful lives; rather Christ lives in us.