The Crucified Life | Micah Watterson

[SPEAKER_00]: stand for the reading of the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Matt Bauer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be reading from Galatians chapter 2 verses 17 through 21.

Galatians 2:17–21

[SPEAKER_00]: But if an hour endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin, certainly not.

[SPEAKER_00]: For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

[SPEAKER_00]: For through the law, I died to the law,

[SPEAKER_00]: I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_00]: In 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.

[SPEAKER_00]: I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Word of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, good morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a music stand.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where it went.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just grab this one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nope, not that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hold on.

[SPEAKER_01]: My apologies.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right.

[SPEAKER_01]: little way to cut the awkwardness, all right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians 220, yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: So obviously we're in our first week of Curtin not being here for his sabbatical, so hey, you have passed the test, you're here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, he had asked me to speak this morning, and apparently I've gotten a trademark of being an Old Testament guy, and so in spirit of refreshment, we're gonna go New Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, this verse really is, it's really a life verse for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it, it's one that I have to preach to myself most often.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it is a great help to me, but it's also just a great verse.

[SPEAKER_01]: that makes me realize who I am and who Christ is and what my life should be because of that, if that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so like Matt Red, 17th through 21, I think there is such great treasure in those verses, but before we get into them, we need to get a little context to figure out, why does he say this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I do believe verse 20 is more of a resolution, it's a statement,

[SPEAKER_01]: based off of everything that he has led up to, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: We've had two chapters and 19 verses that build up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so just a little context for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul's obviously writing to the church in Galatia.

[SPEAKER_01]: right, but he's more spoke talking about an interaction that he has had with Peter.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if you've read Galatians, you know that there's this little, we could call it a tip if you'd like between Paul and Peter, where Peter, we know in Acts 11, had received a vision from the Lord that allowed dietary restrictions to be lifted off of the people.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we are in Christ, we have freedom, therefore we don't have to.

[SPEAKER_01]: have dietary restrictions, or what Peter was doing is he had preached in the Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_01]: The non-Jewish people, I am not Jewish, therefore, I would be a Gentile.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think most of us here are Gentile people.

[SPEAKER_01]: They believe the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they were believers.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so that was kind of this first thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so when Peter had heard about that, of

[SPEAKER_01]: his preaching, the Holy Spirit entering the Gentiles, God has opened the gospel and salvation to those other than Jews, us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went and told of this, and there were some Judaizers, is what we would call them, or people who my virgin calls them, the circumcision party, people who attain to the circumcision, who they really believed that in order to be a believer in Christ,

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That was a sign of faith and he couldn't be saved without it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Peter knowing all that, he was going and he's preaching to the Gentiles and yet he was making them hold to the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: So if we'll read real quick, versus 14 through 16.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Paul, he's recounting his interaction with Peter in reference to this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Seaface, Seaface being Peter, right, rock.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the name that Christ gives to Peter.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when I said to Seaface before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Peter was called to go and preach to everyone, Jews in Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he goes and does that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet he's saying, hey, you're living like a Gentile, someone who doesn't have to hold fast to these laws, dietary restrictions, holidays,

[SPEAKER_01]: circumcision, and yet you're holding them to that standard.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's continue reading.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says verse 15, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Paul's relating to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, look Peter, you and I, we are Jews by birth.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not like those people.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have held to this

[SPEAKER_01]: This law, right, this code of conduct, of circumcision, of dietary restrictions, of Jewish holidays, all these different things that the law would make them submit to.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, we're not like them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yet, verse 16, we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, that is really good news for us, because we are Gentiles, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's who he's talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are not like these people.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is by faith that we are justified in faith alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, that really leads us into verse 17, where I would like to go through and just define a few things before we kind of go back and find this whole logical reasoning that Paul goes through with Galatians, because Paul is so, so smart that, I mean,

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to really, really think about what he says.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so verse 17 he says, but if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin, and he answers that with certainly not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Other translations might say, may it never be.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what are we talking about here?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's two terms I wanna really,

[SPEAKER_01]: define for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first one is being justified.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does it mean to be justifies?

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we know first of all, that being justified is in act of Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ does it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're justified in him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so this

[SPEAKER_01]: This term, justification really means that we have been justified, acquitted, found innocent or vindicated by Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And really, the scene of the courtroom of heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is what you'll find a lot in some theologians in their writings, these theological books about all these different terms.

[SPEAKER_01]: You'll find a courtroom scene terminology, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so

[SPEAKER_01]: The courtroom would be that if it were me on trial right when I die, I will go to the courtroom, God the father will be the judge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Satan will most likely be the prosecutor right bringing up charges against me which would be some smysin, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: However, I have the greatest, greatest defensive turn, the greatest helper, the greatest counselor,

[SPEAKER_01]: which is Christ, it's always spirit.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so God is, he's judging this case, Satan is bringing up all these sins that I have against me, and they are absolutely true and yet Christ comes and he says, He is justified because of his faith in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that is it, justified.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're justified in the eyes of God because of our faith in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: So justification.

[SPEAKER_01]: The other term I would like to really

[SPEAKER_01]: Define for us is he says in our endeavor to be justified in Christ we too were found to be sinners

[SPEAKER_01]: he says is then is Christ in a servant of sin and he says certainly not and so this term sinners I think we really need to read the context that's why we started that way because I think it means not so much being found in sin right we're not being found actively sinning but I think this is more so a reference to the people group.

[SPEAKER_01]: a group of people which are sinners, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we go back and read in verse 15, it says, we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so I think this is what he's referring to.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's this group of people, these sinners who do not hold to the law anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have to hold to circumcision, dietary laws, holidays, all these different things that Peter was making them hold to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Saying you are not justified and list you do those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, if we two were found to be

[SPEAKER_01]: sinners really this group of people like the Gentiles right people apart from the law who have who hold no importance to the law in the way that used to work.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we're found to be sinners like them is Christ then a serve of sin and he answers that with no.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to get to why in the next two verses.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really crazy Paul's super helpful.

[SPEAKER_01]: He makes these grand statements and then he backs them up with proofs.

[SPEAKER_01]: So our two proofs are going to be found

[SPEAKER_01]: and verses 18 and 19.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you see, both of those start with the word four.

[SPEAKER_01]: Four.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so that lets us know what he just said.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the reasoning behind it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, we are not making Christ a servant of sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we are found to be like Gentile people in our endeavor to be justified.

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely not.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, certainly not, may it never be.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we read this backwards, it's because

[SPEAKER_01]: In verse 18, because if we rebuild what we tore down, it says, then we would make ourselves to be a transgressor.

[SPEAKER_01]: If I rebuild what I tore down, then I prove myself to be a transgressor.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what in the world is he talking about there?

[SPEAKER_01]: We've got rebuilding, we've got tearing down, we've got transgressions here, and it's all to this point of Gentile sinners, we're like them, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we absolutely are like them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't do these things anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to go one more verse to give a proof for that, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to have to read this backwards really.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 19 says, for through the law, I died to the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that I might live to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: For through the law, I died to the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that I might live.

[SPEAKER_01]: to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the reasoning of, if we, if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor for or because through the law, I die to the law so that I might live to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the reasoning of me being a transgressor for building up something which has been torn down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all up here.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's try and bring it down and make it more understanding because Paul is, he can be very confusing sometimes, a lot of the times.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's very confusing.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what does he mean here in verse 19?

[SPEAKER_01]: For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: What Paul is saying here is that the main intention, or the main purpose of the law, was to free us from it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, other parts and inscriptions says, through the law, sin was made known to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the law is good because it shows us our sinfulness and it shows us our need for a savior.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, if we, the intention of the law is to show us our freedom from the law and it shows us that we are dead to the law in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says that, for through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the intention of the law is showing us that we are no longer under the law, because who can bring, who can uphold the law other than Christ?

[SPEAKER_01]: No one.

[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot be justified through the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely not.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what verse 21 talks about at the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: If righteousness were through the law then Christ died for no purpose and we know that Christ did die for a purpose a great purpose a purpose of

[SPEAKER_01]: intense, just real, helpfulness to me, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It has profound impact for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why he died.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the intention of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so through the law, I died to the loss that I might live to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I really want you to hold on to those two terms.

[SPEAKER_01]: I died to the law and I lived to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that, you're probably already drawing some conclusions, is really what verse 20 is about.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, all these things, and we go back to verse 18, we would find ourselves to be a transgressor.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says, if I rebuild what I toward down, which really what I think is, Peter has received this vision of, hey, these Gentiles no longer do you need to

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, cast them out or put them aside because now there are no restrictions on anything.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have liberty and freedom and Christ to eat what we want, to not be circumcised.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have the circumcision of the heart which is baptism, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to follow these traditions, these lawful traditions, no more.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter received that vision and yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's trying to build it back up by making these Gentile people do this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you see that?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's building back up what he has torn down, what God has torn down.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he says, if you do that Peter, then you are a transgressor.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now why does he say that?

[SPEAKER_01]: A transgressor against what?

[SPEAKER_01]: And really, it's because he's a transgressor of the law again.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says righteousness and justification cannot come through the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: It must come through faith and Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we're holding other people to be saved, justified, made right by the law,

[SPEAKER_01]: then we are we are sinning transgressing against the law because the law's main purpose was to show us that we are no longer under the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: I know it's really really confusing, but that's what he means here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I hope that made sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can come and talk to me afterwards.

[SPEAKER_01]: But now we get to verse 20, which is it is so, so precious.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: In 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.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I think a good way to break this down is, I think there's three main big points here that we can cut this one verse up into.

[SPEAKER_01]: And simply enough, it is just take it where the periods are or where the semicolon's are.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, first statement, first thought is, I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean for a believer?

[SPEAKER_01]: How have we experienced that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Romans chapter seven real quick, if you'll go with me to Romans seven, we're going to begin in verse four.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is Paul again talking.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, this like was my brothers, you have also died to the law through the body of Christ, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, hey, same idea.

[SPEAKER_01]: That lets us know what Paul's talking about here in Romans is exactly what he's talking about in Galatians.

[SPEAKER_01]: Really?

[SPEAKER_01]: A good way to look at this is Galatians is a...

[SPEAKER_01]: Spark notes short summary of Romans, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot of the same things, which is Romans is way more in-depth, so Romans will really help us understand this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, my brothers, you have also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have been crucified with Christ to what end.

[SPEAKER_01]: so that we may bear fruit for God, verse 5.

[SPEAKER_01]: For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law, we're at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

[SPEAKER_01]: But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so now with Christ, we are released from the law to live in this newness.

[SPEAKER_01]: which is Christ, do you say that?

[SPEAKER_01]: We have been crucified with him so that we might live with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we go to Romans 6, we read another great thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's pretty much the same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is Romans 6 starting in verse 5.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go back to verse 3.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to ask you a question right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know that you have been crucified?

[SPEAKER_01]: You have been killed.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are dead in a sense at this point.

[SPEAKER_01]: if we have been baptized into faith in Christ, then we have experienced a death.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he doesn't, he doesn't just end there, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, we were buried there for with him by baptism into death.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have been killed on that cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: You and I have been killed on that cross, with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: But He says in verse 4, about baptism by death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in noonice of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we don't stay dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our faith is not a dead faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are not a dead people, but we're a people of life in living in noonice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the only reason for that is because Christ was raised.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Christ is in all and through all in our faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have been killed and crucified and buried with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet because heroes, we now rise with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we live our lives to Him through Him and for Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He continues in verse five.

[SPEAKER_01]: For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: For one who has died has been set free from sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now if we have died with Christ,

[SPEAKER_01]: We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Death no longer has dominion over him.

[SPEAKER_01]: For the death he died, he died to sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: The life he lives, he lives to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's go back to Galatians 220.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that gives us great understanding of this first big thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: I no longer live.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have been killed on that cross.

[SPEAKER_01]: The only reason that I am alive now, I am living, I am experiencing the newness of life every day.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm able to wake up in the morning and rejoice in the Lord and enjoy Him is because I have been raised with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the only reason I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: So our second big thought, next sentence, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's our next one.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I think there's two big questions that come out of this.

[SPEAKER_01]: The first one is, I don't know how to share about that because I know that I'm living right now, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: We are all living right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you're alive, you're here, you're breathing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I no longer live.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I've heard, in talking about this verse, I've heard people who say, I don't really know what that looks like because I am me, like I am myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have my personality, I have my thoughts, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think Paul, what absolutely agree with you, we know Paul definitely still has his own personality, read his letters.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he has full of personality.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is not lost that part of himself, but what he's saying is, I think we need to define the two eyes.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's two eyes in this in verse 20.

[SPEAKER_01]: But this first eye says, it is no longer eye who live, but Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's talking about that old self, the old man.

[SPEAKER_01]: the dead man, the sinful man, the man of flesh.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I is no longer I who live, I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: The old man has been put off, killed.

[SPEAKER_01]: and it's Christ who lives in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, yeah, this old self, it's the old self, but what does it mean that Christ lives in me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I now possessed by Christ?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I, do I have my own faculties?

[SPEAKER_01]: Am I able to think and do things on my own?

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the medium of Christ living in me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is it not by the Holy Spirit?

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus himself is bodily someplace.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's up in heaven right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's not living in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Physically, his body is not in me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is his spirit, the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is how we live through Christ and Christ lives in us.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: That ties right back to, I died to the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: Through the law, I died to the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then he says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and then here's our third thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, in the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you might be reading that and think, I mean, is that not a paradox, Paul?

[SPEAKER_01]: You just said, it is no longer I who live, and then you go to the next sentence, and you say, I now live, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you talking about, Paul?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's really confusing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul, he's saying this because that first eye, that old self, has been killed absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then the second eye that we read, he says, the life that I now live in the flesh, that eye is now the new creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul says, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the new man.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is, he says, in the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is how we live now.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live by faith in everything that we do.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live by faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live by trust.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live by our future hope, our security, and our trust in Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, the life I live in the flesh.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't give specifics.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't say, the life I live at work or the life I live at home or the life I live,

[SPEAKER_01]: By myself in my private life he says the life I live in the flesh that is everything including our sin nature the life I live in the flesh where we have weakness still It says I live by faith because we are a new creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have been crucified with Christ That is the great work that Christ has done for us Do you see anything in here that it gives us our own responsibility?

[SPEAKER_01]: Right have we earned anything in here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul, he uses such passive speech here to prove that it is all dependent on Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't say, I now live my life in the flesh, on my own accord.

[SPEAKER_01]: I really strive, I endeavor to live now.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, no, I live my life by faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is totally dependent.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is a passive life that we live now because we are new in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I live by faith in the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he says, who loved me and gave himself for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that is so beautiful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because Paul, he's writing to this church.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's writing about his confrontation with Peter.

[SPEAKER_01]: He makes this so personal.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, I have been crucified with Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: I no longer live.

[SPEAKER_01]: I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is true of you and me.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can claim that as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: That hopefully we have put our faith in Christ and we are now crucified with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it we live by faith in Him because He loved me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And He gave Himself up for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's intensely personal here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know that Christ has loved you?

[SPEAKER_01]: He loved you so much that he died for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gave himself up for you to the purpose of that you would be justified in the eyes of God because of your faith in Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: That we can claim and be a partaker of the death that was due to us because of our sin and yet not experience that.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is what the mercy and grace of Christ is for us, that He has taken it, and He has given it to us as a gift.

[SPEAKER_01]: He bore the penalty of our sins on our behalf, and He gives us the gift to live in new life with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: We now get His identity, which is righteous and justified.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's all because of our faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, he ends this with a really interesting thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says in verse 21, I do not nullify the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he's ending up this argument with Peter.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, I do not nullify the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: If righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think another easy way to figure out what he's talking about is to read it backwards again.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's go backwards.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, then Christ died for no purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know that is absolutely not true, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ died for a great purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says it in the beginning of this book, Galatians chapter one verses three and four.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here it is, who gave Himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

[SPEAKER_01]: So what is the reasoning?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is there purpose in Christ's death?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it is to deliver us from the present evil age and to give himself for our sins.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that is absolutely false.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ did not die for no purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: He died for a great purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if that's true, then we read the next part.

[SPEAKER_01]: This next piece.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we know that Christ died for a purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then that let's us know that righteousness is not through the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's what's going to Philippians chapter three.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be verse verses eight and nine.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul talks about this here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law,

[SPEAKER_01]: But that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, if Christ died for no purpose, then righteousness is through the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we know that's not true because of what Paul says here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says,

[SPEAKER_01]: not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: So where does our righteousness rest and depend on?

[SPEAKER_01]: Depends on our faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our trust our belief in Christ, absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then we read it back one more time.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Christ did not die for no reason.

[SPEAKER_01]: Righteousness is not through the law, but through

[SPEAKER_01]: We do not, and what he's talking about here is what he talked about in verse 18.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so if we do that, then we do nullify the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we are upholding the law again, and we are making Christ's death for no purpose because we're saying you must attain to these separate things apart from Christ to be justified.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we know that is not true.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ did die for a purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is by faith that we are made righteous.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, in what we do, we should not be tearing down the dividing wall of the law.

[SPEAKER_01]: We should be building up the wall of faith in love that Christ has shown us.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is not nullifying the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is making it immensely effective.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you with me nullification is the opposite of effectiveness.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to nullify something, you make it not effective.

[SPEAKER_01]: You make it inert.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God's grace is not inert.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is immensely effective.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we know that if we are living our lives, apart from the law, because we have been set free from the law,

[SPEAKER_01]: than we are making the grace of God effective, that what its purpose was, which is to make us right and justify, apart from the law, is being accomplished.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanna really end with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is just a really great way to look at our old self and our new self.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you'll go with me to Revelation seven, or I'm sorry, Romans seven again, not Revelation.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look at verse 24.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Roman 7, Paul's talking about this is one of my favorite chapters because it's very, very relatable, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: This is his whole thing of like, I know what I should do and I know what I shouldn't do and yet I do what I shouldn't do when I want to do that which I should do, but he's like, I just, there's this inner, this conflict between his two natures which I know we feel that as well, where we know our sin and yet we still do it and we want to do good.

[SPEAKER_01]: but we just don't accomplish it all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul says that, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He talks about all these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he ends it with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna look specifically at verse 24.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to read up, uh, starting in verse 22, we'll read up to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, for I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he says this, Retched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he says verse 24, who will deliver me from this body of death?

[SPEAKER_01]: Who will do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is only Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, verse 25, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the answer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who will do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It is God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is the only way that the old man is put off and the new man is uplifted and our lies.

[SPEAKER_01]: He takes the pilot seat, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's the one who's in control of the new man.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if the man wants to come back up, I'll end with this last thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember where I heard it, but I know it was very, very impactful for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: to learn about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: This term body of death, the ancient Roman, I think he was like a historian and a poet, his name is Virgil.

[SPEAKER_01]: He recounted of a punishment that the Romans used to give to murderers.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you went out and murdered somebody, a punishment that you might receive is that they would take the corpse of the person that you murdered,

[SPEAKER_01]: and they would chain you to that corpse.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the way that they would do it is they would do it, either eye and palm to palm.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you'd be chained up like that to this dead body that you are responsible for.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to look at your sin and your crime dead in the eye and walk around like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a form of capital punishment because walking around with a rotting corpse

[SPEAKER_01]: And the way that this guy put it is this body of death, they would think about that, that we are walking around a part from Christ with a body of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: That we are chained, Ida, I, Palm De Palm with our sin and it is killing us slowly.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is this weight, this uncomfortableity, this stench, this rot that has chained to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul says, who will set us free from that?

[SPEAKER_01]: For the Romans, it was a capital punishment.

[SPEAKER_01]: You would be set free once you have died to it.

[SPEAKER_01]: What we know with Christ, who sets us free?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's him.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is the one who delivers us from this body of death.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has saved us so that we might put our faith in him and say

[SPEAKER_01]: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life that I live in the flesh, I am now going to live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's prayer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, your word is so encouraging to us and yet it is so, so good at showing us of who we are and who we ought to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that we would give up this old self that we would understand that we have been unified in your death, but not just in your death, but we have been unified in your resurrection.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have new life because of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that, yes, our sin has been crucified with you, but we have new life.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are a new creation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because of our faith, all because of our faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, I pray that we would understand the joy that our faith brings you, that we would want to please you more and more.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I pray that you would restore to us the joy of our salvation.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, you are so good to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, we neglect you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We undermine you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We take back control.

[SPEAKER_01]: We try to un-crucify ourselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God, I pray that we would be resolute this morning and saying, that we are alive in you, that your life is now my life, that I will live for you, God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that in all things we would glorify you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I pray these things in the name of your son, amen.