Dead or Alive?

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Galatians 2:19-21

This passage generated some discussion on my fb wall. Growing up I could not see the reality of what Paul is saying here, that he died to the law SO THAT he might live to God. He no longer lives, and the law has nothing to say to dead people...they're dead! But Christ lives in him, and it's by faith, and righteousness does not come through the law (besides...he's dead to it!). Paul made a similar argument to the church in Rome found in Romans 7:4-6.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were controlled by our sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Again he plainly says that we died to the law THAT you might belong to another, Jesus Christ (who was raised from the dead), that we died to what once bound us and have been released from the law SO THAT we serve in the new way of the Spirit. According to Paul here we die to the law IN ORDER to be joined to Jesus Christ or to live to God. You can't be "alive" to the law and joined to Christ. We can't be joined to Christ and "alive to the law as the law is a "ministry of death" and a "ministry of condemnation" (2 Corinthians 3 - next blog post). Being joined to Christ by dying to the law means we are alive in a new way - Jesus Christ can then live in us, and we serve in a new way - the way of the Spirit. To live as if you're alive to both would be "spiritual adultery."

 So, are you dead or alive to the law?