Galatians 2:20 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.

In the early days of tape recordings there was a product called Memorex. It’s slogan was “Is it real or Memorex?” Here in this verse it might appear to some that Paul is saying it is Memorex.  “Yet not I” is a confusing phrase in this verse.

What would the purpose of conformance be if after surrendering our lives to Christ that we no longer existed and everything done thru us was Christ and not us? We are not puppets and God does not hold the strings causing us to dance to His music. We are still that not yet perfected human with one caveat, we are joined in the Spirit in our experience. While He is able to enact God’s will without our knowledge or cooperation that is not God’s design. God wants us to join Him in His activities. It is a shared experience.

The real key to the opening verse is living by faith.

Hebrews 11:6a But without faith it is impossible to please him:

I omitted the rest of the verse because I want to concentrate on the faith portion. A shared life is only possible by living a life of faith and that is pleasing to God. In any loving relationship no matter who the two parties might be, shared experiences are pleasing to both parties and help build a better and more stable relationship.

If we live our lives with this awareness of sharing this life with God perhaps then we might be more considerate of what He wants to do. He is kind and merciful and wants us to ask Him what it is He would like to do today, just like any relationship.