Crucified With Christ

Alright, like I said, we are in Galatians chapter 2, and we're gonna finish off the chapter today.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

So we're gonna be reading through verses 11 through 21.

So would you please stand, if you're able, for the reading of God's word.

And this is really Paul still setting up the main message that he's gonna be giving to this church in Galatia.

Starting verse 11, he says, But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James.

However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself because he feared those from the circumcision party.

Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, if you who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?

We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

And yet, because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus.

This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

Because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

But if we ourselves are also found to be sinners, while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin?

Absolutely not.

If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Let's pray.

That you would use your word as a chiseling tool, Lord, to form us into the people that you desired us to be.

Lord, that being more and more like Jesus on a daily basis.

So do what you desire here in our hearts here this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So we pick up here in verse 11.

It's a little abrupt, but this is right after Paul explains the confirmation of his ministry that he received in Jerusalem from those Jerusalem leaders that we saw last week.

And confirmation specifically regarding the gospel he was teaching to the uncircumcised.

You know, this grace-based gospel message that didn't require the Gentiles to become Jewish before they could follow Jesus.

And we saw James, Cephas, and John extend, it says, the right hand of fellowship to Paul, really confirming his calling to the Gentiles.

But now in verse 11, Paul will use a real life example to prove his point to them.

That this issue of circumcision and following the Old Testament law, it hasn't been rooted out of the church completely yet.

You know, Galatia is seeing this firsthand when the Judaizers have come and they're teaching Jesus and the law.

And we'll see from this example that even some of the apostles are still struggling with this, with living out this truth that they agree on here, but they're having trouble with their actions.

You know, they're having trouble with a faith, grace-based gospel.

And so that's kind of our running start into these verses, and then here we get to see the example.

Look at verse 11 with me.

But then Cephas came to Antioch.

I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

So Cephas is the disciple, the apostle Peter, the one that Jesus renamed Rock.

And in early, he was an early church father.

You know, maybe at this time, probably the most recognizable name in Christianity.

And Paul opposes this really well-known, highly regarded disciple of Jesus publicly and to his face.

Because he was going against what was confirmed to Paul by these Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, which included Peter himself.

You know, I think Paul's communicating that even though John, Peter, and James came to agreement with him on this topic of circumcision and the law, there were still a lot of wrinkles that needed to be ironed out in this early church as far as how to live that out.

They agreed with it here, but they're still struggling with how to live that out.

Now, before we go any further, I want to take a little bit of a detour here this morning.

You know, I thought talking, I thought about talking about this when we first introduced the book.

I thought about talking about it when we did the first part of chapter two, but I think this week we need to talk about this because it's really going to come into play with how this all unfolds.

So when we were going through the book of Romans together as a church, specifically in chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, we talked a lot about our conscience and how God has built in a conscience to all people from birth.

And if you want to hear more of that, you can go back and hear the details of that sermon in Romans chapter 2, verses 14 and 15.

Romans 2:14

But I want to read that passage to you and talk a little bit about what we talked about when we went through that passage together.

I think it's going to help us to gain some understanding and maybe even some compassion on what the Jewish community that's following Jesus is going through at this time.

So we have a slide.

You can follow along up on the slide if you want.

It's Romans chapter 2, verse 14 and 15.

Romans 2:14

It says, So when Gentiles, who do not by nature have the law, do what the law demands, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts.

Their consciences confirm this.

Their competing thoughts either accuse or even excuse them.

So that Sunday I asked a question, and I want to ask that same question again.

It's not a trick question, so you can answer out loud.

Is it okay to kidnap somebody and then force them into slave labor?

Okay, that's the right answer.

Good job.

Do people think that this would be wrong that have never read the Bible?

Yes.

Why?

There's something that God has instilled inside each one of us that says, that's wrong.

And it doesn't matter if you've read that it's wrong in the Bible or not.

You know, we talked that Sunday about how our conscience has the work of God's law written on it.

Not God's law, but the work of God's law written on it.

So that even if we've never read God's law, we still know right from wrong from our conscience.

You know, we talked that day about how our consciences can be seared, how our consciences can become calloused, how we can even lie to our conscience or allow other people to lie to our conscience, and how our conscience can be deceived as well.

But our conscience didn't start that way.

It's been corrupted by sin.

You know, both our own sin and the sins of others against us have affected our conscience negatively.

You know, one is one extreme of this is um where we don't end up listening to our conscience at all.

And then the other extreme is we start creating extra laws for our conscience that God didn't put there in the first place.

You know, I use the example then, and I'm gonna use it again.

You know, I've actually known more than a few people that struggled with this exact thing on their wedding night.

Where they had something that was considered sin their whole life, sex before marriage, and that changed in an instant for them.

Where after a 40-minute ceremony and exchanging of vows, something that was sin was instantly not sin anymore.

But actually became something that the Lord encourages.

Yet, on their wedding night, their mind knew that it was okay, but their conscience wasn't there yet.

It was still screaming at them, this is not okay.

Feel guilty, feel shame.

Their conscience hadn't caught up to the truth that their mind knew already.

So, why am I telling you all this?

What does this have to do with Galatians?

You know, I really believe that these first century Jews, including James, Peter, and John, were probably still dealing with a disconnect between what they knew to be truth, you know, grace, and what they had known their whole life.

Their whole life they grew up law, good, Gentiles bad, right?

Peter had the vision in Acts with the unclean animals coming down in a sheet, and the Lord said, you know, Peter, rise, kill, and eat.

Peter had already agreed with Paul, as we saw last week, that Gentiles didn't have to become Jewish before following Christ.

He knows in his head that he needs to lean into grace and to not be influenced by these Judaizers.

But he's struggling to do so when he's around others that are leaning into works.

And out of fear, we'll see, Peter will revert to works and start to abandon grace.

But before we get into verse 12, for us here today, that's why we have to stay in God's word.

That's why we talk about God's word, we stay in God's word.

We encourage you to be in God's word on your own.

Because we need God's word to inform our conscience, to make sure that it is right.

And not just trust our conscience to be right all the time.

It needs to be in alignment.

That's our correcting course of where our conscience is, is in God's word.

Because our conscience can become so calloused, it can become so misinformed.

Like I said, it can be sinned against, it can become really legalistic, it can be lied to.

Even by well-intentioned Christians, those things can happen.

So we need to make sure through God's word that we don't add to or take away from the work of the law that God has written on our hearts, as we just saw in Romans 2.

Okay, that kind of sets some things up for us as we move forward.

Look at verse 12 with me.

Paul goes on.

For he, this is referring to Peter, regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James.

However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself because he feared those from the circumcision party.

So Peter shows up in Antioch, he's hanging out with the believers that are there, probably sharing in their church fellowship feasts, probably, you know, accepting invitations into Gentile homes, and everything's going great.

And then James, who's recognized as the church leader in Jerusalem, Jesus' half-brother, he sends these guys from Jerusalem to Antioch.

And what James is doing, sending people from the circumcision party to Antioch, we don't know.

Seems a little bit strange.

You know, hopefully it's for them to see what God's doing among those that are uncircumcised, but we don't know for sure.

But these guys, they show up from Jerusalem, and all of a sudden it says Peter withdrew from the Gentiles.

And Paul says specifically that it was out of fear.

I mean, think of what Peter already knows in his mind.

You know, Jesus taught in Matthew 15, 11, it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth.

This defiles a person.

You know, the Lord had already told Peter, as we mentioned in Acts 10, you know, to kill and eat of those unclean animals.

Peter already agreed earlier in this chapter that salvation is based on grace and not law.

And that Gentiles could come to faith in Christ just as much as a Jewish person could.

But these guys show up, and Peter goes against all that he knows to be truth in his mind, and he withdraws.

Why would he do this?

You know, I think I'd know why.

Because legalistic people are scary, aren't they?

Aren't they?

Especially if you've been in the same circles or the same churches as them in the past, you know, and you've since moved on and they haven't.

And you're doing something that you have found newfound freedom in, that's not sin, and then they catch you doing it.

Then your fear and your conscience are like, I've been caught, you know.

Your brain's saying, you know, this is not sin, but your conscience is saying, shame, guilt.

Or maybe you're doing that newfound freedom that's not sin.

And you catch yourself thinking, if so-and-so saw me, they'd be so disappointed in me.

You know, they think I'm backsliding.

They might even think that I'm not a Christian if they saw what I'm doing now.

So these legalistic guys show up in Antioch, and Peter's got all of this going on, and he just withdraws from the Gentiles.

And people were watching.

Look at verse 13.

Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

They're watching, they're seeing what's going on.

Whoa.

You know, Peter withdrew from fellowship with the Gentiles.

I think I'm gonna do the same.

If Peter's doing that, then I probably need to follow what he's doing.

And Barnabas gets mentioned by name here.

And I think that's important because Barnabas is a Hellenistic Jew.

He's a Greek-speaking Jew from Cyprus.

He grew up in a Gentile city.

Get this with Gentiles.

And he even was influenced by Peter's hypocrisy to withdraw from the Gentiles out of fear of these legalistic guys that show up.

Look at verse 14.

But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone if you who are a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?

You know, he's simply pointing out why this is so hypocritical for Peter to do.

You see, Peter's actions are upholding the message of the Judaizers, aren't they?

Think about it.

Peter's actions are upholding a false gospel.

So Paul publicly confronts Peter because this was something everybody was noticing and could see happening, and others were following and being influenced by.

So Paul has to do this publicly so that everyone watching and being influenced could hear that this was not okay.

This is not how you should act as a Jew following Christ.

Peter was not living out the gospel of grace.

You see, Peter's fear was getting in the way of his courage.

And we've seen that before, haven't we?

Like when he was walking on the water and started to sink, or like when he was denying Christ three times before Jesus was crucified.

Okay, now we get to see what Paul told Peter here in verse 15.

He says, We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

So from this point forward, think of this term Gentile sinners as non-Jew lawbreakers.

Got it?

Non-Jew lawbreakers.

Anyone that's not trying to follow the law as the Jews are, because this is going to come up again in verse 17, but let's look at 16 first.

He says, and yet, because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

If our salvation is truly by faith in Jesus and nothing else, Paul's asking, why do you care so much that you look like a Jew and not like a Gentile sinner, Peter?

Why do you care that you look like a that you're looking like a non-Jew lawbreaker?

Why does that even matter to you?

You know, he's trying to appear to have the works of the law, but he knows that he has salvation by faith through grace.

And notice the word justified here.

You know, it's the first time it's used in Galatians, and it's going to be used a lot more in a theme carrying forward.

So I want to spend a little bit of time on that word.

We have the definition uh up on the slide here.

But justified, this is the Greek dictionary definition, means to render righteous or such he ought to be, to show, exhibit, events one to be righteous, such as he is, and wishes himself to be considered.

To declare, pronounce one to be righteous, or to be just righteous, or such as he ought to be.

And Paul goes into Romans and he explains justification really well in chapter 3, verses 22 through 24, which we have a slide for as well.

And it says, The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Justification is God declaring us righteous when we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

It doesn't have anything to do with our works, it's God's declaration over us.

So remember that as we move forward.

We're going to see that word a couple more times today and as we move on into Galatians, but it's God's declaration of righteousness when we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Has nothing to do with anything we've done.

So Paul hits on this in verse 16 when he says, We know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

It's the only way.

There's only one way, and that's the only way.

You know, God has never in all of history been able to declare righteousness over any human being through their own effort or through their own works by following the law.

We're incapable on our own.

Only Jesus lived perfectly and could fulfill the laws, he gets to in the second part of verse 16 here.

He says, Even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus.

This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no human being will be justified.

So Paul continues to confront Peter here in this narrative.

For the purpose, the reason this is all in Galatians, is for the purpose of relaying to the Galatians that justification is through Christ and through Christ alone.

He's basically saying, Peter, we both tried being justified by the law growing up, and it didn't work.

So why are you trying to go back to that, Peter?

And here's where Paul starts to dig into this idea, for the sake of the Galatians church, of this idea of working backwards.

To digress from grace to works.

This idea that Jesus died in our place so that it didn't come down to Our works was brand new to the whole world in the first century.

This idea was brand new.

And it's no wonder that everyone's consciences was saying at this time, yeah, but I feel like I need to do more.

It feels like I at least need to earn something in order to be able to be saved.

Peter went through this digression.

We're watching it right here in this chapter.

Barnabas went through this digression.

And the Galatian church is starting to go through this digression as well.

From grace to a works-based salvation.

And so Paul just stands up and he's saying, No, no, no, uh-uh.

We can't do this, you guys.

You see the direction that we're heading?

We're going backwards.

We need to be heading this way.

And now everybody's turning around and heading the other way.

You know, their whole life, these Jews have grown up with the idea that if you're not following the law, then you're a Gentile sinner.

That was the equation that was in their head.

And now these Jewish Christians are not following the law anymore.

So the automatic assumption is you're a sinner.

Paul goes on, verse 17.

But if we ourselves are also found to be sinners, so not following the Old Testament law, while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin?

Absolutely not.

Paul continues on with this same flow of logic.

He's saying, you know, if we don't follow the law, and then we now hang out with these lawbreakers that our whole life have been known as lawbreakers, and yet we claim to be following Christ while not upholding the Old Testament law, is Christ then promoting sin?

You know, remember, they grew up thinking not following the law, that's sin.

Their conscience is probably still adjusting to this.

And the fear that's caused by legalism is still controlling some of their actions.

So Paul's explaining that you don't have to follow the law to be sinless.

And at the same time, that does not mean that Jesus is promoting sin.

I really think Paul's saying we need to stop with these equations that law equals justification and that no law equals sin.

Because that's not the case.

Paul is declaring there's a new equation for us, you guys.

Jesus equals justification.

Full stop.

End of equation.

That's it.

Just Jesus equals justification, and we don't need to add anything to that.

He goes on with this analogy.

Look at verse 18.

If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker.

So rebuilding things that are torn down.

You know, house flipping shows, house flipping in general, renovation shows, you know, all that kind of stuff, they've been become really popular and common like over the last 10 or 15 years, haven't they?

So I want you to pretend that you're watching HGTV, okay?

These renovators come into this house of this couple.

This couple really considers themselves real do-it-yourselfers, you know, the true DIYers.

But they have no clue how to be DIYers.

But it didn't stop them from trying, okay?

The place is a mess of DIY projects that had gone wrong or weren't finished yet.

The house is an absolute disaster.

And the renovators, they're the hosts of these shows, they see it and they say, This is so bad that we'd like to tear the house down completely and just completely start over.

We'll make this house a new creation, and behold, all things will be made new.

And then the renovators throw out all of these ideas of this, what this amazing new house could be.

And the homeowner's like, yeah, you know, that sounds great.

Let's do it.

So they tear the house down completely.

But the next day, the homeowners show up to their now empty lot and say, you know, this sounded great in the beginning, but I think we liked things the way that they were when we had done the work ourselves.

And we could look at our projects and take pride in them.

You know, the fact that we did all of this ourselves.

There was a certain satisfaction that we had when we did those projects all by ourselves.

So here's what we would like to do: we'd like you to rebuild the house exactly like it was, using the exact same materials that are in this huge pile over here now.

Same countertops, same cabinets, same finishes, flooring, the floor layout, everything.

We just want you to take that heap of garbage and then build it back into the house exactly like we had it before.

I don't think they would air that episode, do you?

I don't want to watch that episode personally.

And Paul doesn't want to watch that episode either.

So Paul says in verse 18, if I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker, to be a sinner.

If I go back to the law and salvation by works, I'm just rebuilding this nasty old house of works that I had before.

Right back into the same sin that I was in before.

Works-based salvation doesn't make us better Christians.

It just makes us lawbreakers again.

And the only way out of lawbreaking is faith in Jesus Christ.

Allowing him to make us a new creation in Christ.

You know, in Isaiah 53, 5, it says that Jesus was pierced because of our rebellion.

He was crushed because of our iniquities.

He was pierced and crushed for our law breaking, for our sins.

Yet something inside of us says, you know, I'd like to go back to the law so that I can have some pride and some satisfaction that I've had something to do with my salvation.

So I can look back at my DIY projects that were an absolute mess and somehow take some pride in those things.

Look at verse 19.

For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

Think of what it means to die to something.

To die to the law or to die to our flesh.

Some biblical terms that we see often.

You know, that means to renounce it and renounce its control over us.

Let's put it in a different context.

So, say for the sake of an argument, you have no family whatsoever, you pass away, and they take you to the morgue.

However, you owe$20,000 to the IRS.

So the IRS shows up to the morgue, demands to see your body, and then starts shouting at your corpse.

You're not getting away with this.

Give us that$20,000, or we're taking you to prison.

Who cares, right?

You're dead to the tax law, right, at that point.

It has no effect over you.

You know, I would be like, yeah, go ahead, take my corpse to jail.

I'm dead to the law and I'm dead to the prison system.

You know, do whatever you want.

So Paul says, through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live for God.

The law was leading to Paul's death.

But Jesus died that death for him.

So through Jesus' death, through his body, Paul died to the law.

The law can shout at Paul all of it, all that at once, that you shouldn't be eating with the Gentiles.

But it's just shouting to Paul's corpse at this point.

He says, I am no longer under the power of that law, because I have died to that law.

Just like that corpse had died to the tax code.

Paul has already come to this understanding that you can't live for the law and live for Christ.

If you're living for Christ, you're dead to the law.

It has no power over that old corpse anymore.

But Peter and Barnabas are saying through their actions, I'm alive to the law and I'm living to Jesus.

And that's where the hypocrisy comes in.

That's what Paul is pointing out here.

You know, and I think in anticipation of the question of, okay, Paul, you know, from these Galatians, when did you die?

When did you die to this law, Paul?

He says in verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ.

And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

When Jesus died on the cross in our place, our death and condemnation under the law has been crucified with him.

So much so that Paul says he no longer lives.

He's no longer living to try and satisfy the law that he's now dead to, but is now living in Christ.

And we don't just share in the death of Jesus, as we've been talking about, we also share in his resurrection.

We share in his life as well.

That's the symbol of what baptism is: sharing in his death, burial, and resurrection symbolically.

To where our identity is now in Christ, and I know that we all struggle with this here today, with our identity being in Christ.

You know, we so often try to find our identity in so many other things in this world, other than Jesus, in what we do, in what our giftings are, maybe what our heritage is, or our political beliefs, or in our gender, or in our sexuality.

Maybe it's in the material possessions that we own.

We try to find our identity in those things, and we struggle to first find our identity in Jesus Christ.

And if he is not our identity first, then we have completely missed the mark as followers of Jesus.

Paul's saying, all of those things that used to be a part of my identity have been crucified with Christ.

So much so that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

He goes on, the second part of verse 20, he says, The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

He's saying, I no longer live by works, I no longer live by the law, and by my Jewish heritage or my Pharisaic lifestyle that I had before.

He says, I live by faith in the Son of God.

Look at how much Paul knows that he is a new creation.

Paul has zero interest in going backwards to a works-based salvation.

He's fine with leaving all of that behind.

And he's encouraging these Jews, these hypocritical Jews, Peter and Barnabas, who are a part of them, to accept these Gentiles as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And stop with the distinctions between Jew and Gentile at this point.

You know, Romans 3.29-30 says, Or is God the God of Jews only?

Is he not the God of Gentiles too?

Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

In Ephesians 2.8, he says, For you are saved by grace through faith.

And this is not from yourselves, it is God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.

This is what it all comes down to right here.

You know, salvation is simple.

God made it that way.

So simple that it seemed too easy to these Judaizers and to these Jewish people that are struggling with it, that grew up Jewish.

You know, Paul wrote to the Romans, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

It's righteousness through believing, through faith.

And that was a hard pill for these Jewish people that grew up with Allah.

That was a hard pill for them to swallow.

And the Jews feared that this line of thinking is gonna lead to sin abounding.

You know, if they didn't make people also uphold the law, then what's to keep them from sinning?

It's a very legalistic way of looking at things.

Not realizing that what Jesus desired was a relationship.

That obedience needs to come from a place of love and of gratitude and not from duty.

You see, when we come to Christ, we start that process of sanctification, of becoming more like him, of becoming one with him, just like in a marriage.

But Jesus is perfect and we're not, so we have to do the coming to him.

He's not gonna become more like us, we're gonna become more like him.

And if we're gonna become one with him, it means that we are becoming more like him, abiding closer with him.

And if we're doing that, grace will abound and sin will decrease.

You know, I've never seen someone clinging to Jesus and truly abiding in him that was also living in sin.

Those two things cannot exist together.

And Paul understands this.

The Judaizers don't.

They still think we need the law just to keep the behavior up within our churches.

They wanted to use religion to scare people into obedience.

And that's pretty much the definition of legalism right there.

And we'll finish off with verse 21.

It says, I do not set aside the grace of God.

For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

You know, if Paul sets aside the grace of God, he's then rebuilding that old, nasty, works-based house that's already been torn down.

And Paul's point is, if we truly needed to rebuild that house of works, then Jesus died for no reason.

And Paul's point is if we truly needed to rebuild that house, then we're going back to the law.

We're going backwards again.

You know, the law couldn't save us.

Even though we tried so hard, the law couldn't save us.

And if it could, Jesus wouldn't have needed to come to be crucified and to be resurrected from the grave.

But he did come and die and resurrect in our place because we couldn't do it on our own.

I want to end with this.

I'm going to read verse 20.

And I want you to take note of every time that it says I or me.

You know, Paul has personalized this for himself and can confidently say these things about himself.

The question becomes can each one of us read it as if it were our own words?

Can we say this with a hundred percent honesty?

So ask yourself that as I read this.

It says, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Can you say that about yourself?

Is your identity in Christ, like Paul's identity is in Christ?

Is your identity in his death and resurrection?

Can you say that you are living by faith?

Can you say that you've not set aside the grace of God, as Paul said in 21 there?

You know, trying to add some gold stars to our salvation.

As believers in Christ, that should be our goal.

To be able to recite verse 20 as our own words, to make that personal to where we 100% mean it and believe it for ourselves.

And if you're not following Christ, this is what he desires from you.

He already died in your place and is not only offering his death in your place, but he's offering you his life as well.

So your salvation will not be dependent on your own good deeds.

Which look like to God some DIYers nightmare.

He wants to make you a new creation in Christ that does not depend upon you.

And all you have to do is accept that gift of that free gift of salvation as your own that He's offering you.

So I want to encourage you, if that is you, do that today.

It's a free gift.

It's already packaged up.

You just need to accept that gift as your own.

Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.

You can do that from your seat.

You can come up afterwards and chat with us, and we would love to walk you through that.

But let today be the day that you do that.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you that you have made salvation so easy on our part.

It wasn't on Jesus' part, he gave everything.

But on our part, we just need to reach out and accept that gift.

Or wherever we think we need to add to, wherever we think we need some gold stars to make our salvation more complete or better than the next person, Lord, forgive us for that.

We recognize that Jesus had to come because we couldn't do this on our own.

And that once we are saved, that we can't add anything to that salvation and become more saved.

110% saved.

Lord, that doesn't exist.

We thank you for that gift and that we are washed clean, that you have declared us righteous in your sight, not by our own works, but by the works of Jesus Christ.

And that we can now accept those as our own.

I pray that we would live that way, that we wouldn't add laws to our conscience, that we wouldn't add laws to salvation, to our walk in any way, Lord, but we would walk in the freedom of Jesus Christ, realizing that if we're abiding in Christ, that sin will decrease.

We don't need a law to make sin decrease, Lord, but through a loving relationship with Jesus, through clinging to Jesus, Lord, that you're gonna take care of all of those things.

That you're gonna convict us, that you're gonna show us the things that you want to push out of our life, Lord.

The things that we're finding our identity in that are not you.

Lord, forgive us of those things.

Point those things out right now, I pray.

Those things where where we feel like we're a we're a part of that and we're finding our identity, and this is who I am.

Lord, if that's not you, forgive us.

Help us to find our identity strictly in you and you alone, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.