One Life

Devotional

Before We Begin

The song, One Life, grows from Paul's declaration: “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” (Galatians 2:20). The song reflects that truth; Scripture defines it.

A Righteousness We Could Not Produce

There is a reason the first verse begins with inability. Scripture does not present salvation as the reward for finally becoming righteous enough. Romans says, “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight”, while believers are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:20, 24).

Paul makes the contrast personal in Philippians: he refuses to rest in “mine own righteousness” and instead desires “that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). That does not make righteousness unimportant. It tells us where our right standing with God comes from. We do not manufacture it and then bring it to Christ. We come to Christ because we do not have it.

Crucified With Christ

Galatians 2:20 does not describe the physical death of the believer. Paul is speaking about a decisive change in identity and allegiance. Romans develops the same pattern: “our old man is crucified with him” and believers are to reckon themselves “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:6, 11).

That is why the chorus of the song, One Life, can hold two truths together: “I am crucified with Christ” and “yet—I live.” Christianity is not the erasure of the person. It is life reordered around Christ.

The Life I Now Live

Galatians 2:20 immediately answers the question raised by the second verse: What do I do with the life He saved? Paul says the life he now lives is lived by faith in the Son of God. Faith is therefore not only the doorway into Christian life. It is the continuing posture of that life.

We trust Christ for what we could never accomplish ourselves, and we continue trusting Him as we learn obedience, surrender, and dependence. Romans calls believers to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” and to “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1–2). Ephesians says that those saved by grace are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Grace does not leave us unchanged. It changes the reason we obey.

Made Righteous—and Still Being Changed

One line in the song, One Life, says, “I can stop trying to be righteous. / He has already made me so.” Scripture helps us hear that carefully. In justification, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Second Corinthians says of Christ, “he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We can stop trying to earn the verdict that rests in Christ.

But Scripture also calls those who belong to Christ to pursue holiness and grow in obedience. Philippians tells believers, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling”, immediately grounding that command in God's work within them: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). Hebrews says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness” (Hebrews 12:14).

We do not pursue holiness in order to purchase salvation. We pursue it because God is already at work in those He has saved. The difference is enormous. One life is driven by the fear that we must make ourselves acceptable. The other is lived from the security of what Christ has already done.

Not My Own

The bridge reaches another New Testament truth: the saved life belongs to the One who saved it. Scripture says, “ye are not your own” and “ye are bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). Second Corinthians says Christ died “that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Surrender, then, is not payment for salvation. It is the response of a life that has been redeemed. The question is no longer, “How can I save my life?” Christ has answered that. The question becomes, “How shall I live the life He has given me?”

Reflection

Where am I still trying to establish my standing with God through my own performance? What would it look like today to live by faith rather than by self-reliance? Is there an area of my life I still treat as entirely my own, rather than something entrusted to Christ? How does knowing that obedience grows from grace change the way I approach holiness?

Prayer

Father, thank You for the life of Christ given for me and for the righteousness I could never produce on my own. Teach me what it means to be crucified with Christ and yet truly alive in Him. Keep me from trying to earn what You have given by grace, and keep me from using grace as an excuse to remain unchanged. Let the life I now live be lived by faith, surrendered to You, and shaped by Christ who lives in me. Amen.