What Does It Really Mean to Let Christ Live Through Me Instead of Trying Harder Myself?
Orientation
Many believers struggle with the frustration of trying to 'let Christ live through them' as if it were a spiritual technique to master.
- The struggle often comes from focusing on our own surrender or effort.
- We can end up more frustrated, treating Galatians 2:20 like a formula we can't crack.
- The starting point is not your effort, but a fact God has already accomplished.
For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. (Galatians 2:19)
— Galatians 2:19
Clarification
This is not about achieving a state of passive emptiness or turning 'Christ in you' into a new performance standard.
- Your crucifixion with Christ is a divine transaction to believe, not a spiritual experience to muster.
- The goal is not sinless perfection in this life, but growing dependence on Another.
- The life flow comes 'by the hearing of faith,' not by focusing on your own crucifixion.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)
— Romans 6:6
Structure
Pauline revelation presents a transfer from living for yourself to living in Christ, grounded in identification with His death and resurrection.
- See your death with Christ as a settled fact (Rom 6:6).
- Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God (Rom 6:11).
- Present yourself to God as one alive from the dead (Rom 6:13).
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. (Galatians 2:20)
— Galatians 2:20
Weight-Bearing Prose
The Christian life begins with your death, not your effort. The law’s purpose was to exhaust and condemn the flesh, bringing you to the end of yourself. God is done with the flesh. Your crucifixion with Christ is the foundational fact: you died with Him, severing your connection to the law’s demands (Rom 7:1-4). This death is not for license, but for life—to clear the ground of the old ‘I’ so that Christ Himself might be your life. The practical mechanism is not self-focused surrender but faith in the Son of God. The supply of the Spirit happens ‘by the hearing of faith’ (Gal 3:2,5). As your mind is occupied with Him—His love, His gift of Himself—a spontaneous transfer occurs. You are changed by beholding, not by striving (2 Cor 3:18). This is the renewing of the mind: presenting your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable already, and seeing yourself as you truly are in Christ.
Integration
If you’re struggling today with how to ‘get out of the way,’ take heart. You are not called to achieve a state. You are called to believe a fact and rest in a Person. Christ lives in you. The branch does not focus on the sap; it simply remains connected to the vine. Your part is to come empty-handed, to preach the gospel to your own soul, and to trust Him to do through you what you cannot do for yourself. He is faithful. Keep turning your eyes away from yourself and onto Jesus. The transformation is His work, by His Spirit. This is your landing place: Christ in you, your life, your sanctification, your all.