20. I am crucified--literally, "I have been crucified with Christ."
This more particularizes the foregoing. "I am dead"
(Ga 2:19;
Php 3:10).
nevertheless I live; yet not I--Greek, "nevertheless I live, no
longer (indeed) I." Though crucified I live; (and this) no longer that
old man such as I once was (compare
Ro 7:17).
No longer Saul the Jew
(Ga 5:24;
Col 3:11,
but "another man"; compare
1Sa 10:6).
ELLICOTT and others translate, "And it is
no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." But the plain
antithesis between "crucified" and "live," requires the translation,
"nevertheless."
the life which I now live--as contrasted with my life before
conversion.
in the flesh--My life seems to be a mere animal life "in the flesh,"
but this is not my true life; "it is but the mask of life under which
lives another, namely, Christ, who is my true life" [LUTHER].
I live by the faith, &c.--Greek, "IN faith (namely), that of
(that is, which rests on) the Son of God." "In faith," answers by
contrast to "in the flesh." Faith, not the flesh, is the real
element in which I live. The phrase, "the Son of God," reminds us that
His Divine Sonship is the source of His life-giving power.
loved me--His eternal gratuitous love is the link that unites me to
the Son of God, and His "giving Himself for me," is the strongest proof
of that love.
JFB.
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