The All-Sufficiency of Christ
S. M. Baugh, Ph.D.
First published in Evangelium, Vol.2, Issue
2.
Is faith in Jesus Christ all that I need to be justified? Has Christ really done
it all for me? Today we face a variety of teachings which directly or indirectly
erode Paul’s gospel by telling us that faith in Christ is just not quite enough.
We must add some little pinch of our own: a little holiness, a good work here or
there—some little extra to ensure our place in heaven. But Paul’s answer to this
is a resounding affirmation of the all-sufficiency of our Savior: “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.”
Galatians 2:20 must certainly be one of the more striking statements in Paul’s
writings. He introduces his thought by saying, “I have been crucified with
Christ.” We can imagine a zealot saying such things out of empathy for his
martyred leader: “His death shall be my death!” But Paul’s next verse moves far
beyond empathy: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” The
context shows that Paul’s astonishing affirmation is no mere respectful
exaggeration but a profound declaration of just how radically extensive and
exclusive is Christ’s mediation for those who live by faith in him. For Paul,
Christ is all that he needs. Paul carries his thought forward along these very
lines: “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” (Gal 2:20b).
Dying with Christ
Paul speaks elsewhere about the death of the Christian in the
death of Christ. For example, in Rom 6:1–14, he develops an
argument that the Christian has been crucified, buried and
raised with Jesus Christ. In baptism, Paul argues, “We have been
united with him in the likeness of his death” so that we are
“dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:5, 11).
Later in Galatians he makes a similar point: “And those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires” (Gal 5:24; cf. 6:14) only to be “made
alive together with Christ . . . co-raised and co-seated” with
him in heaven (Eph 2:5–6; cf. Col 2:13). In these passages, Paul
shows that since Christ conquered the dominion of sin in his
death and resurrection, we too participate in his victory by
virtue of our union with him. This then forms the foundation of
an exhortation to live according to that awesome truth: “Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies . . . but present
yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to
life” (Rom 6:12–13).
But there is a difference in how
Paul develops the point in Galatians 2. In Gal 2:20, Paul’s
statement about our death in the death of Christ is not an
exhortation to personal holiness. It is instead a concise
affirmation of how we are justified by faith alone. “Christ
lives in me” deals with justification. This connection makes
this verse striking and powerful.
What Does Being "In Christ" Mean?
In an earlier generation, scholars
interpreted Paul’s many statements about our being “in Christ”
or “in him” as a form of Christian mysticism.
(1)
They claimed Paul proposed that the Christian loses all
individuality through a mystical merger into Christ like a drop
of water falling into a divine “ocean.” This is similar to the
pantheistic teaching which characterizes certain ancient Greek
philosophies, New Age ideas, and Hinduism.
But this pantheistic mysticism is wholly absent from Paul, who
conceives of the larger problem of mankind not as a separation
from a divine “ocean,” but as being sinners
(2) and through the law transgressors
(3), which brings death (4)
and not righteousness (5). Since we are
all sinners, the law condemns us to death and places us under a
divine curse. (6)
Because of this terrible,
relentless truth, the brilliant light of God’s free mercy
irradiates to the greater glory of his grace. God’s wonderfully
wise and gracious solution was to give his own Son as our
mediator. And here the true mystery lies. Through the law, which
must condemn sinners, we died when the righteous, holy Son of
God took upon himself the law’s curse. (7)
Substitutionary Atonement
This connection between Christ and
us is the heart of the gospel. Conservative Christians have long
defended the biblical doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary
atonement. This teaches that Christ died as a sacrifice in our
place both to appease God’s wrath toward us and to cleanse us of
the guilt and stain of sin. In our Galatians 2 passage, Paul
expresses the effects of this reality when he says, “I have been
crucified with Christ . . . who loved me and gave himself for
me.” This statement can only be true if Christ died as our
Substitute, so that when Christ died for us, we died along with
him. Furthermore, God’s wrath against us has been extinguished
since it was poured out on his Son in our stead.
Substitutionary Righteousness
But this is not the whole gospel story. Paul is not
finished because justification requires more than simply the forgiveness
of sins; it also demands a righteous life. Consequently, Christ is not
only our Substitute in death but in life as well. When Jesus Christ
lived a righteous life in full conformity to God’s holy law, he was
living for us. And when Christ was raised and thereby vindicated as holy
and righteous before God, this verdict that passed on him, passed on us
as well! (8)
Paul expresses this truth
concerning Christ’s positive, substitutionary life and
righteousness in Gal 2:20. Paul has no claim on God on his own.
He has no righteousness of his own, no circumcision, no good
works, no life of his own—nothing at all. But Paul has Christ
and in having him, Paul has everything! (9)
Though Paul no longer lives as it were, Christ lives in him.
Reformed theology has long held to both Christ’s substitutionary atonement and
to his substitutionary righteousness imputed to guilty sinners as a free gift.
For example, the Westminster Larger Catechism Q&A 71 states that Christ “by his
obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s
justice” (substitutionary atonement). Furthermore, it states that Christ’s role
is that of “surety” whose righteousness is imputed to his people by faith (substitutionary
righteousness). This term “surety” (“guarantor” or “mediator”) is derived from a
key passage in Hebrews (Heb 7:22) and expresses perfectly the positive role of
Christ as our Substitute whose righteous fulfillment of God’s law is credited to
us. Hence, in justification we are not only forgiven through the satisfaction of
God’s absolute justice, but we are also accounted righteous in his sight through
the merit of Christ’s own holy life.
So then, Paul’s statement that he no longer lives but that Christ lives in him
is not a mystical teaching that he is merely a drop of water merging into a
pantheistic divine ocean. Instead, Gal 2:20 is a radical statement of legal
standing. Before God’s judgment seat, Paul and we along with him stand before
God with no righteousness of our own whatsoever—we have only Christ. Indeed we
have died, and Christ lives in us, so that we too will live in eternity with
him. As such, our justification rests in Christ alone—who died the death we
should have died and lived the life we needed to live. Nothing is left over for
us to complete; Christ has done it all. He is our all-sufficient Savior.
FOOTNOTES
1 E.g., Gal 2:17; 3:14, 26, 28
2 Gal 2:15, 17; cf. Rom 3:10–19
3 Gal 2:18; cf. 3:19
4 cf. Gal 2:19; Rom 7:5–13
5 Gal 2:21; 3:21; cf. Rom 10:3–6
6 cf. Gal 3:10 and Deut 27
7 Gal 3:13
8 cf. Rom 4:25; 5:12–21; 2 Cor 5:21;
1 John 2:2
9 Rom
8:32
Ó2007
Westminster Seminary California All rights reserved
S. M. Baugh
