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Gal_2:20. Ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγὼ , ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός ] The comma which is usually placed after ζῶ δὲ is correctly expunged by Lachmann, Rückert, Usteri, Matthies, Schott, Tischendorf, Wieseler, Hofmann; for, if ζῶ … ἐγώ were not to be conjoined, ἀλλά must have stood before οὐκέτι . The second δὲ is our but indeed after a negative (Hartung, Partikell. I. p. 171), and ζῶ and ζῇ are on both occasions emphatically prefixed: alive however no longer am I, but alive indeed is Christ in me; whereby the new relation of life is forcibly contrasted to the previously expressed relation of death ( Χριστῷ συνεστ .). After the crucifixion of Christ followed His new life; he, therefore, who is crucified with Christ, thenceforth lives also with Him; his whole pre-Christian moral personality is, in virtue of that fellowship of death, no longer in life ( ὁ παλαιὸς αὐτοῦ ἄνθρωπος συνεσταυρώθη , Rom_6:6), and Christ is the principle of life in him. This change is brought about by faith (see the sequel), inasmuch as in the believer, according to the representation here given of Paul’s own experience, it is no longer the individual personality that is the agent of life (“mortuus est Saulus,” Erasmus), but Christ, who is present in him (through the Spirit, Rom_8:9 f.; Eph_3:16 f.), and works, determines, and rules everything in him, ζῶ δὲ οὐκέτι ἐγώ , ζῇ δὲ ἐν ἐμοὶ Χριστός : the mind of Christ is in him (1Co_2:16), the heart of Christ beats in him (Php_1:8), and His power is effectual in him. Thereby is the proof of the words ἵνα Θεῷ ζήσω rightly given; see on Rom_6:10.
ὃ δὲ νῦν ζῶ ἐν σαρκὶ κ . τ . λ .] Explanation of what has just been said, ζῶ … Χριστός : but that which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith on, etc. This explanation is placed by δέ in formal contradistinction to the preceding apparent paradox. The emphasis, however, lies on νῦν , now, namely, since the beginning of my Christian condition of life, so that a glance is thrown back to the time before the Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι , and νῦν corresponds with οὐκέτι . Νῦν is often understood—as by Erasmus, Grotius (adhuc), Rückert, Usteri, Schott, following Augustine and Theodoret—in contrast not with the pre-Christian life, but with the future life after death (rather: after the παρουσία ). A reference of this kind is, however, entirely foreign to the context, does not harmonize with the emphasis which is laid on νῦν by its position, and is by no means required by ἐν σαρκί ; for this addition to ζῶ is made by Paul simply with a view to indicate that after his conversion the material form of his life remained the same, although its ethical nature had become something entirely different.
ἐν σαρκί ] denotes life in the natural human phenomenal form of the body consisting of flesh. The context does not convey any reference to the ethical character of the σάρξ (as sedes peccati). Comp. Php_1:22; 2Co_10:3.
ἐν πίστει ] not per fidem (Chrysostom, Beza, and others), but, corresponding to ἐν σαρκί , in faith; so that faith—and indeed (comp. Gal_1:16) the faith in the great sum and substance of the revelation received, in the Son of God (notice the anarthrous πίστει , and then the article affixed to the more precise definition)—is the specific element in which my life moves and acts and is developed. It is prefixed emphatically, in contrast to the entirely different pre-Christian sphere of life, which was the νόμος .
τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντός με κ . τ . λ .] points out the special historical fact of salvation, which is the subject-matter of the faith in the Son of God, giving impulse to this new life. Comp. Rom_8:37; Eph_5:2. Καί is explanatory, adding the practical proof of the love. Observe also the μέ and ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ (see on Gal_1:4) as expressive of the conscious and assured fiducia in the fides.[109]
Lastly, the construction is such, that ὅ is the accusative of the object to Ζῶ , and the whole runs on in connection: the life which I live, I live, etc. See Bernhardy, p. 106; Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 393 f.; Dissen, ad Dem. de cor. p. 302. The interpretation: quod vero attinet, quod, etc. (Winer), is indeed grammatically admissible (see on Rom_6:10), in so far as ὅ is likewise retained as the accusative of the object; but it needlessly injures the flow of the discourse.
[109] Luther well says, “Hae voces: dilexit me, plenissimae sunt fidei, et qui hoc breve pronomen me illa fide dicere et sibi applicare posset, qua Paulus, etiam futurus esset optimus disputator una cum Paulo contra legem.” But this faith is not the fides formata (Catholics, including Bisping and Reithmayr), although it is the source of Christian love and Christian life.