Galatians 2
v.2
I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
v.6
As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message.
v.7
On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.
v.9
James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.
v.10
All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
v.19
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
v.20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The Christian life is a dying life. If we are in any real sense joined to Christ, the power of His death makes us dead to self and sin and the world. In that region, as in the physical, death is the gate of life; and, inasmuch as what we die to in Christ is itself only a living death, we live because we die, and in proportion as we die.
The one thing that stirs men to true obedience is that their hearts be touched with the firm assurance that Christ loved them and died for them.
So the juices of the vine are in each branch, and leaf, and tendril, and live in them and animate them; the vital energy of the brain is in each delicate nerve - no matter how small - that is found in any part of the human frame. Christ was in him as it were the vital principle. All his life and energy were derived from him.
There is no higher sense of obligation than that which is felt toward the Saviour; and Paul felt himself bound, as we should, to live entirely to him who had redeemed him by his blood.
What does it mean to be “in Christ”? It means to be so united to Christ that all the experiences of Christ become the Christian’s experiences. Thus, his death for sin was the believer’s death; his resurrection was (in one sense) the believer’s resurrection; his ascension was the believer’s ascension, so that the believer is (again in one sense) seated with Christ “in the heavenly realms” (Eph 2:6) When one died with Christ, one’s “old self” (cf. Eph 4:25) died with Christ. This was arranged by God so that Christ, rather than the old Paul, might live in him.
v.21
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”