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Wednesday August 26, 2026

I live; yet not I

“It is important to have it clear that when I say “I am crucified with Christ” I do not mean that I as a self have died to being a self–which is an absurdity. Yet preachers often mistakenly use the phrase “death to self.” I cannot die to self, for I am eternally a self! I only die in the sense that my self has changed masters. I have ‘died’ to having a job in a steel firm, if I’ve crossed over and joined a cotton firm. That is the sense in which I have died in Christ.

There are also teachers who put such a strong emphasis on this death reality of the Romans 6 “death to sin” that they leave folks tossing about in a death-mindedness. It is necessary for a time, but then out we come from the tomb!

So Paul continues, in his famous Galatians 2:20 statement, with “…nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,” and we continue in our faith affirmation along with him. We say categorically, and with no ifs or buts, ‘I am crucified with Christ’–cut off, dead to sin, dead as the old self which was Satan’s dwelling place, dead to the world system in which I outwardly live. Dead, dead, dead, in His death. That I have to say before I can move on. But then I say, “…nevertheless I live”–meaning, of course, by His resurrection out from the tomb.

But here comes the vital spot. Paul does not stop there one moment in this saying ‘…nevertheless I live.’ He does not leave us time to dwell on this fact of being risen, alive in Christ. he straightway corrects himself–contradicts Himself–and says, “No, not I, but Christ lives in me.” Now this is revolutionary, radical, because though he says it is Christ living in me, he is not saying “side by side with me.” He is saying Christ has replaced me at my center: “yet not I.” Or as some have translated it, “…yet no longer I.” And that is why I use the word replacement as a key word.

Now this brings us to the very center of our Total Truth. Paul is obviously really saying, “The real ‘I’ in me is not my Paul ‘I,’ But Christ. I am really Christ in His ‘Paul’ form.” Yet I am that self-form, for Paul goes on to say in this same scripture, “…and the life which I now live in the flesh….” He is still there, the redeemed “Paul-I.”

This is the spot where we sometimes meet with controversy. Paul is not here making the point that we are two–Christ and I. No, he is saying right out that the real “I” is Christ, and my “I” merely His agent, vessel, branch. And he states it so boldly when he puts it, “I live, no not I, but Christ lives in me.”

Taken from: Yes, I Am

By Norman Grubb

Pages 121-123