My old self has been crucified with Christ.

.... It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by faith  in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).  The picture Paul paints of conversion is the death of the sinful nature and His making alive our spirit. If we are to live in the power of His resurrection life in us (Philippians 3:10), we need to embrace the spiritual reality of this.  We are to consider ourselves dead to the Law (the main emphasis here in Galatians), and we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11).  There were some who had been teaching the Galatian Church that unless you were circumcised you could not be saved. Paul tells them that for the Galatians to be circumcised would be to put themselves back under the Law, and be obliged to keep the whole thing (5:3).  Religion has been described as man's attempt to get right with God by doing things to please Him.  The offence of the cross is the Lord essentially saying you and I will never be good enough. Isaiah puts it this way “all our righteousness is like a filthy polluted garment (Isaiah 64:6). The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ has become our righteousness for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Galatians had started well, but they were somehow bewitched (3:1). The point is that it is so easy to slip back into thinking that we need to earn our salvation. The feeling that we are not good enough is, in our old self,  true.  But our old self has been crucified with Christ.  That old self is dead to the Law, and its rules and regulations no longer condemn us who live by faith in the Son of God (Romans 8:1).  This is intended to be totally personal and totally practical. That is it totally personal is that although Christ died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2), He also personally died for me (verse 20).  That it is totally practical, is that being set free from the demands of the Law gives us a way to deal with our feelings of weakness and infirmity. In particular in such a state I can choose to set my mind on the truth that my righteousness (innocence) before the bar of God has been purchased for me by His Blood. In particular I never need to fear that I am not good enough, for He has made me good enough. I am declared justified, declared not guilty. I am set free to embrace the spiritual reality that we are dead to sin and alive to God.  

Father, please give us a practical revelation and understanding of these things, in particular of the truth that You have already qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (Colossians 1:12). Help us to rest in this Lord, and to know that when we fail we have a lawyer in heaven (Jesus) interceding for us (Hebrews 7:25). And help us Lord to do our part in, by Your Spirit putting to death the deeds of the old self (Romans 8:13) in Jesus Name Amen