“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
To experience our new life in Christ will not be pleasant for the flesh—in fact, it can be excruciating. Still it is the way to experience the reality and blessedness of that life. “Not I, but Christ” is a tremendous motto for every situation of life. He is our life (Col. 3), and so this is just giving room for that life to be experienced in a world that had no room for Him. “The faith of the Son of God” simply means the faith whose object is the Son of God. How wonderful to forget self and get that blessed Man before our souls in all His perfection and glory—to say, because it is the truth, “This is my life.”
“What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.” “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me” (Psa. 56:34).
There is a first-class and a second-class train to heaven. In the first verse (second-class), fear is there first and then trust in the Lord. We must confess that this is often our experience. In the second case (first-class), God is put first and there is no room for fear. How important to daily set the Lord always before us in a real and living way—leaving not much room for the fear.
R. Thonney