The old man being crucified with Christ means that your former identity under sin came to a legal end through your union with Christ at the Cross. Scripture does not present the old man as the believer’s true identity waiting to be improved; the believer is now identified with Christ in His death and life.
What Does Galatians 2:20 Mean by “Crucified With Christ”?
Paul states the truth plainly:
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)
Paul was obviously still physically alive when he wrote those words. So when he said, I am crucified with Christ, he wasn’t talking about physical death.
He was talking about what had happened to the man he had been apart from Christ.
Something ended at the Cross.
Paul could still say, nevertheless I live, but he could no longer define that life by the man he had been before. His life now belonged to Christ. That is why the verse moves directly from I am crucified with Christ to Christ liveth in me.
The Cross didn’t simply give the old man some religious help. It marked the end of the old identity and the beginning of life in Christ.
What Is the “Old Man” in the Bible?
The old man is the person you were in your former identification apart from Christ.
Paul uses the same language in Romans:
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)
Notice the wording: our old man is crucified with him.
Paul doesn’t tell believers to crucify the old man. He points them to something that has already happened through Christ.
The old man is therefore not simply a list of bad habits. Nor is it another name for every sinful temptation a Christian may experience. It describes the believer’s former identity in relation to sin.
That former identity was brought to the Cross with Christ.
Does This Mean My Past Was Erased?
No.
Being crucified with Christ does not mean your history disappeared or that you suddenly lost every memory, personality trait, weakness, or consequence connected with your past.
It means your past no longer has the right to define who you are before God.
There is a difference between having a past and still being the person that past says you are.
A man may have spent years living in sin before coming to Christ. Those years really happened. But once he is in Christ, Scripture does not tell him to keep using that former life as the final definition of himself.
The Cross has established a new one.
This is why the believer’s identity rests in Christ’s finished work, not in a daily attempt to make the old man die again.
Why Does Paul Call It a Crucifixion?
Crucifixion is strong language because Paul is describing an ending, not an improvement program.
The old man WAS NOT cleaned up, rehabilitated, or taught better behavior.
He was crucified with Christ.
That language keeps the center of the Christian life where Scripture puts it: the Cross.
What happened to your old identity was accomplished through Christ, not through your ability to reform yourself.
Paul could therefore say:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live. (Galatians 2:20)
There is an ending and a continuing life in the same sentence.
The old identity has been judged at the Cross, yet the believer lives—and that life is now described by union with Christ.
Is Being Crucified With Christ Something I Must Make Happen?
NO!
Galatians 2:20 is not a command telling Christians to crucify themselves spiritually. It is a statement of what is already true of the believer in Christ.
Paul says, I am crucified with Christ.
Romans 6:6 says, our old man is crucified with him.
The emphasis is on an accomplished fact.
That matters because many Christians spend years trying to produce through effort what Scripture says Christ has already accomplished at the Cross. They treat the old identity as though it is still their true identity and must gradually be killed through enough discipline, surrender, or self-denial.
But the starting point of the Christian life is not, “I need to make my old man die.”
It is, “My old man was crucified with Christ.”
Christian living begins from that fact, not toward it.
What Does This Change About How I See Myself?
It changes the place from which you understand your life.
You are not an unchanged person trying to become someone new through better behavior. Your former identity has been brought to an end at the Cross, and your life is now bound up with Christ.
Paul’s words are remarkably personal:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. (Galatians 2:20)
That does not mean your individual personality disappears. Paul remained Paul.
It means the old identity is no longer the controlling answer to the question, “Who am I?”
The Cross has answered that question.
The old man was crucified with Christ. The believer now lives in relationship to Christ, and that new identity rests on what He accomplished rather than on what the believer feels able to accomplish.
