Jesus told those who wanted to be a disciple to take up their own cross and follow Him. Here the Apostle teaches us that true believers have been crucified with Christ and no longer live. That is, they no longer live according to the flesh but that Christ now lives His righteous life in them. Paul wrote the Corinthians that Christians are earthen vessels housing the treasure of Christ.

The Galatian Church was being troubled by judaizing Christians who were insisting that the Gentile converts be circumcised and directed to keep the whole Law of Moses. According to Acts 15 these were certain Jewish Pharisees who had accepted that Jesus was the Messiah. They did not understand that the Covenant and Laws given to Moses at Sinai was not the same Covenant promised to Abraham. The Bible says that because Abraham kept God’s Laws, Statutes and Commandments God made a Covenant with Him and his descendants.

This was not referring to his natural descendants as much as those who would believe and put their faith in Christ. Romans 9 says that it is not the natural descendants of Abraham which are regarded as the children of God, but the Church, who are the children of the promise. It is the Church who has entered into Abraham’s Covenant of Promise.

Yes, Abraham kept God’s Laws, Statutes and Commandments and the Covenant of Promise contains them, but the Sinai Covenant given to Moses had many additional Laws that Galatians 3 says were "added because of transgressions. . .until the Promised Seed (Jesus) should come."

Paul is telling the Galatian Church that since Christ has come that all who have put their faith in Him have been crucified with Him are dead to the requirements of the Sinai Covenant in order that they may be joined to another.

Sometimes Paul presents the marriage Covenant as an example saying that a married person is bound to their mate as long as the other spouse lives, but is released from the Covenant when one dies.

 Since Paul was a Jew himself, and had been a Pharisee himself, he is saying that he too was once joined to God by a Covenant which had no power to remove sin and grant eternal life. The Sinai Covenant served to keep him in relationship with God until the Promised Covenant was ratified by the Blood of Jesus. He died to the old to be free to be joined to God in Abraham’s Covenant which has the power to remove sin and grant eternal life.