Galatians 2:20 Meaning: "I Am Crucified with Christ"
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 (KJV)
This is the verse the Crucified to Life hat is built on. I'm not a pastor or a scholar, so what follows is how I read it, along with the context that helped me.
Where the verse sits
Paul wrote Galatians to churches that were being told they had to keep the law of Moses on top of believing in Jesus. In chapter 2 he describes confronting Peter at Antioch for pulling away from Gentile believers at meals (Galatians 2:11–14). Verse 20 comes at the end of that argument. Right before it he says, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God" (Galatians 2:19).
So the verse isn't a standalone motivational line. It's Paul's answer to the question of how a person is made right with God.
"I am crucified with Christ"
Paul talks about his old self as if it was on the cross with Jesus. He says something close to this in Romans 6:6: "our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." The old life, the one run by trying to earn it or by giving in to everything, is treated as dead.
"Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me"
This is the part I keep coming back to. Paul is still alive, still in his body, still Paul. But he says the life in him now belongs to Christ. I don't fully understand that and I'm not going to pretend I do. What I take from it is that I'm not supposed to white-knuckle my way into being a better person on my own.
"Who loved me, and gave himself for me"
The verse ends on something personal. Paul had spent years persecuting the church (Galatians 1:13), and he writes this about himself.
Why put it on a hat
I wanted something I could put on in the morning that said this without me having to explain it. "Crucified to Life" is my shorthand for the verse: the old self on the cross, and a life on the other side of it.
The Crucified to Life hat is here, and the rest of what I make is under Christian hats.