My friend Tony has a sweet tattoo of Galatians 2:20 inked over his ribs. Tony came to trust in Jesus in his mid-20s, which makes the words so powerful. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” If you knew Tony, you would know how true that is. The old Tony didn’t pray to Jesus, didn’t gather to worship Jesus, didn’t tell his children about Jesus, and didn’t trust in Jesus to make him right with God. But that version of Tony is dead, crucified with Christ. Now a new Tony is alive, where Jesus is living in his heart and directing his steps.
You might never get that passage put under your skin, but I hope, like Tony, you savor the beauty of those words. Jesus lives in us. We fear God, love God, and trust in God because Jesus lives in us. We hate our sin, even as we struggle against it, because Jesus lives in us. We long to see the face of our Father a billion times more than we want to win a billion dollars, because Jesus lives in us. We know we are forgiven and adored by the God who runs the universe, because Jesus lives in us.
No, we are not yet what we one day will be. But we are not what we once were. By the grace of God, we are what we are—the children of God. The people who died to sin and are raised again to live every single day with Jesus.
