This today is the fourth Lesson taken from Galatians 2:20, that single verse. With at least one more to go! I find it one of the most important collections of truth in all the New Testament … when it comes to living a successful (mature) Christian Life!

“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.” Again, Galatians 2:20, part of Paul’s autobiography!

I am keenly interested in the clause “the life which I now live in the flesh.” 

Paul was “saved” as a young man, in his early thirties it seems. As he write Galatians he is somewhere around forty-eight to fifty years old, this being one of Paul’s earlier Epistles.

He has been born-again nearly twenty years … and he wants to condense those decades (verbally) in one line … “the life which I NOW live in the flesh.” The emphasis is on the adverb “now,” now that he is saved!

What does he mean by framing “the life he was then living” as being  “in the flesh?”

To Paul the “flesh” meant one of two things. Either his physical body, the “earthly tabernacle” in which he lived … or the “propensity to sin” that was born into Paul (as it was into every human being since Adam and Eve)! His “old sin nature,” in other words.

Here is an example of number one above: “For I would that ye (the Colossians) knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” His literal facial appearance, his visage, his appearance, Colossians 2:1

Now an illustration of number two: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” The flesh as that innate compulsion to sin, Galatians 5:16.

So again, what does Paul mean HERE in Galatians 2:20 by his living “in the flesh?”

In Greek “flesh” is spelled “sarx,” and is derived from a word that means “to sweep away!” Or “to brush off!” Indicating (I believe) something that is temporary, short lived! Not eternal!

Yes … Paul lived those nearly twenty years as a Christian “in the flesh,” but by that he means merely in a human body! And NOT meaning “in the flesh” as the opposite of being “in the Spirit!” In fact, he was perennially filled “with the Holy Spirit!” 

By the way, in this sense look what Paul’s flesh endured for Jesus’ Sake: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, what a list!

What kind of truth can I tell about my Christian experience as I am living it in my body? In my flesh? Or can you tell as well?

What a thought this morning!

Paul again about the body, the flesh we inhabit as Believers in Jesus: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1

Our bodies … a living sacrifice!

Our whole bodies?

Including our brains, by that I mean our very minds?

Our eyes, ears too?

How about our tongues?

Feet and hands?

Let’s re-examine ourselves here … based on “the lives we are now living in the flesh!”

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell