Broken but Healed: Galatians 2:20

When I was seven years old, I was outside playing with some boys from the neighborhood. Like most boys, we were looking for adventure. Eventually, we found an old red metal wagon and what appeared to be a giant mountain — or at least it seemed that way to seven-year-old boys. In reality, it was just a large hill.

With a wagon and a hill, there was only one thing to do — climb to the top, point the wagon downhill, jump in, and hope for the ride of our lives. And it was great! Until it wasn’t.

I remember picking up speed and as we went faster, the front wheels began to wobble. Then it happened. BOOM! The wagon flipped over and tossed us into the air. We hit the ground and rolled over and over until we finally came to a stop.

As soon as I landed, I knew something was wrong with my arm because it hurt. My dad suspected it was broken and even though it didn’t look out of place, we went to the hospital for an X-ray to confirm his hunch. He was right. My arm was broken and I needed a cast.

Interestingly, while the doctor used an X-ray machine to diagnose my injury, he didn’t use it to fix my arm. Something beyond the X-ray was needed to heal me.

Galatians 2:19 says, “For through the law I died to the law” (CSB).

God desires that He is glorified through our obedience and that we are made righteous and holy.

To be righteous, we must follow the law perfectly. Unfortunately, due to our sinful nature, we are broken people unable to uphold the law.

The law comes with a curse: anyone who fails to keep it completely is condemned to die. This is the bad news of the gospel.

The “law” that Paul speaks of acts like an X-ray machine. It reveals our brokenness but it cannot heal it. Our brokenness isn’t mended by returning to the law; it can’t be fixed by trying harder or doing more because we are dead to the law.

While this is the bad news of the gospel, the good news is that even though we cannot keep the law, Jesus kept it in our place. Our salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Paul continues in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in 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” (Gal. 2:20).

The good news for us, as children of God, is that we can hold onto the historical-redemptive truth that “I have been crucified with Christ.”

When Christ died on the cross, He didn’t say, “It is possible,” He said, “It is finished.”

When we place our faith in Christ, it is as if we were crucified alongside Him. Jesus’ death on the cross satisfied God’s wrath against sin taking care of the punishment we deserve. We also take hope in the present reality that “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Christ promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). He is always with us, leading and guiding us in every situation we face.

We find comfort in the truth that “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.” Although the world may seem chaotic and uncertain, we can take solace in our faith in Christ, the creator who knows the future. Because of His love for us, we can rest in the assurance that His death and His life are ours.