Recently I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the issue of faith. There are so many wonderful passages of Scripture that deal with this issue, today I want to focus on Galatians 2:20 which tells us “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives within 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.” Some translations say “I live by faith in the Son of God” and others say “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” I want to share a few thoughts around this today.
In my view view either translation has a wonderful implication for our lives. If we we say we should live our lives by faith in the Son of God. It means our entire lives are encapsulated by our faith in Jesus. We no longer live the way we used to, now we live our lives out of relationship with Jesus.
If we say we should live our lives by the faith of the Son of God, it means that Christ working in and through our lives impacts every area of our lives. Even our faith is inspired and impacted by the faith of Jesus Himself. His faith is released in and through our lives like the wonderful gift of faith mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:9.
Faith is something that originates with God. As we connect with God in prayer and enter His presence our faith begins to rise. I don’t know about you but in my moments of intense doubt, those moments when I’m really struggling with my faith and I get into the presence of God, all the fear goes and my faith begins to rise. These are the moments where I feel the very faith of Jesus Himself is rising up on the inside of me, it’s a beautiful thing.
The Greek word for “in” in Galatians 2:20 is “en” which means “in the condition or state in which something operates from the inside.” You could argue that as you have faith in Jesus something begins to operate on the inside of you, and your faith is impacted. Wow! I want to encourage you today to live your life this way. Faith in Jesus can release can impact you life with the faith of Jesus. It seems to me from examining the Greek word for “in” here, that both translations could be true in some wonderful way.
This passage is preceded by an understanding and knowing that we are dead to all we are, we no longer live and Christ lives in us. Faith begins when we understand our identity in Christ. Christ lives in us, the miracle of the new birth, transforming us and sanctifying us, make us more and more like Jesus every day. If we want to have faith we need to remind ourselves it’s no longer we who live, we need to die to all that we are and allow the Spirit of God to work deeply on the inside of us.
This passage ends with the understanding that God loves us and because of that love Jesus died for us. The beginning and the end of our faith is faith in God’s love for us and faith in Christ’s finished work. We need to know that today. Faith begins to rise as we get ahold of these wonderful truths in deeper and deeper ways for our lives.
Today you may be struggling with your faith. Maybe you have been through some challenging times and your faith is low. Maybe today you feel like giving up. I want to encourage you to spend time with God, release everything to Him. You will find as you enter His presence your faith will rise to get you through the greatest storm.
Maybe people and circumstances are saying no to you. I want to encourage you all God’s promises are yes for you. (2 Cor 1:20) I want to encourage you to live your life by faith in Jesus, let his faith rise up on the inside of you. If you can just believe, all things are possible to the one who believes!
