Galatians 2:19 - the end of Me

"For through law I myself to law did die, in order that to God I should live."

-Paul emphasizes that for him, the law was actually the catalyst which brought about his dying to it.  He tells us further down that the law was his tutor (Gal 3.24) - it didn’t make him more acceptable to God, but rather effectively taught him that there was no way he could ever keep it all, no way he could measure up to God’s standard of perfection as embodied in those hundreds of commands.  His flesh knew he was guilty, that he was a transgessor and separated from his Creator, and the law simply confirmed that fact, pointed out in stark relief that he was in fact hopelessy guilty and separated. 

-Guilty people do one of two things - they run and try to hide, or they try to make it right and work it off.  The law in fact energizes both of these responses.  Some people run from it, they might even go off and rebel against it, perhaps thinking to go out in a blaze of glory (it’ll be a blaze of something, according to Jesus - cf Mt 13.41-42, 18.8-9, 25.41).  But others, they are inclined to work it off.  Our flesh naturally gravitates towards deeds we can do in order to assuage our guilt, to somehow pay off our guilt and make things right, make us right with God.  Yet in the end, if we would live with our Creator, if we would experience the blessedness, the surpassing peace and unspeakable joy of being rightly related to Him and in His eyes having done everything right, we must die.  Well, Jesus is the One who did die physically, but we must die to the law - to that entire system and fundamental(ly flawed) philosophy of works-based righteousness - and furthermore we must die to self.  We must come to the end of ourselves, to the end of our self-effort AND of our self-centeredness.  It must be the end of Me, the death of the threefold-self: Me-Myself-and-I.  If we would be alive TO God we must be alive FOR God.  It’s all about Him...