Well, good morning everyone. If you would please open your Bibles with me to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. We are continuing our study through this book from the Apostle Paul. We're gonna be looking at verses 17 through 21 this morning. That's Galatians chapter two, verses 17 through 21. Well, some of you know that I used to work in the construction industry. And when I was in that industry, I had the opportunity to work on a lot of different types of building projects. I was part of project teams that built hospitals and schools and office buildings and laboratories to name a few. Now, the vast majority of these projects that I was involved in were considered new construction projects. That means they were brand new buildings. But a few of the projects that I were involved in over the years were renovations. These were projects where we made significant modifications to the existing building, but much of what was already there was left in place. And there's one renovation project that stands out in my mind perhaps more than any others, we were tasked with renovating an old, probably 60-year-old school. It was a classroom building on the campus of a large private school in Atlanta. And when I tell you that the building was ragged, it was ragged. Honestly, it probably should have just been torn down. and rebuilt, but for some reason we were tasked with renovation. Well, throughout the project, there was one phrase that I noticed and I had not heard it up until that point in my life. There was a phrase that people would use when they were describing the work that we were doing on that construction project. And it was this, they said that we were putting lipstick on a pig. I don't know if that's a familiar phrase for you out there, but it was new for me. They said that we were putting lipstick on a pig. We were doing all of this work to try to mask and conceal the true nature of the building rather than addressing its underlying problems and flaws. And now the renovation was simply putting lipstick on a pig. And looking back on it, I would have to agree with that. We were making superficial changes to a building that was fundamentally flawed. Now, I say all of that to point out that there are many critics who would say similar things about the biblical doctrine of justification. Opponents who would say that justification through faith alone, apart from works of the law, that this doctrine is simply putting lipstick on a pig. They wrongly claim that free justification on the basis of Christ's perfect life and substitutionary death alone, that that is lacking and incomplete, because they say that justification through faith only changes a believing sinner's legal status before God, but that it leaves their character, it leaves their nature entirely unaffected and unchanged. And friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not like putting lipstick on a pig. The gospel of Jesus Christ is full of transforming grace. And as we examine our text this morning, we're going to see the Judaizers. This was the group of false teachers from the circumcision party that had infiltrated the churches of Galatia. That's who Paul is writing this letter to. to address their infiltration. We're going to see them in these verses claim that the gospel of free grace preached by Paul was nothing more than lipstick on a pig. They claimed that it was not transformational in nature. They claimed that those who were justified by faith alone in Christ, apart from works of the law, they claimed that those people were bound to live unholy and lawless lives. and contrary to this slanderous accusation, I want you to see that only the free grace of God in the gospel leads to genuine transformation and holiness in the believer's life. I want you to see that a person who is joined to Christ by faith enjoys not only justification, but transformation. So let us pray and then we'll read our text. Speak, Lord. Your servants are listening. In Jesus' name, amen. Galatians chapter two, our verses are 17 through 21. We'll be reading, starting at verse 11, because this is all part of Paul's public rebuke of Peter. So we'll start at verse 11 to set some additional context and read through verse 21. Hear the word of God. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas 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? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. 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. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 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. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Amen. Well, the title of this sermon is Transformed by Grace. And to help guide our examination of this passage, I've established three headings. Firstly, a defense of Christ. Secondly, crucified with Christ. And thirdly, a new life in Christ. Once again, I want us to see that a justifying grace is a transforming grace. That justifying grace in no way, shape, or form promotes or allows for sinful living on the part of the one who has been justified and made right with God. And I want us to see these things, brethren, so that we might live God-glorifying lives before Him that truly reflect His transformational work of grace. And so once again, our three headings are a defense of Christ, crucified with Christ, and a new life in Christ. And let us begin first with a defense of Christ. Well, on the heels of Paul's clear, if not jarring declaration in verse 16, that justification, that declaration of God whereby a sinner is recognized as righteous in his sight, on the heels of Paul's statement that justification can only be obtained through faith in Christ and not through works of the law, Paul now anticipates the objections that his opponents will have to such a radical statement. So he asks and answers their unspoken question for them. He does this proactively. Look with me to verse 17 again. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. Well, if you look back up two verses to verse 15, you'll see that Paul draws a distinction in that verse as well between the Jews and the Gentiles. He says to Peter, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Now Paul is not saying here that the Jews are morally perfect and not sinners. Rather, he's making the point that the Jews, God's old covenant people, had been given the law of God. The Gentiles did not have that privilege. And so we need to understand that distinction when we read verse 17. In the eyes of the Jews, Gentiles were considered sinners because they did not have the law of God, because they were not subject to the dictates of the law of God, specifically the ceremonial law of God, of which circumcision was representative. So when we read sinners here in verse 17, we should understand this as those without the law. So Paul is basically saying here, if we, that being Peter and any other Jewish believer who had the law as part of their covenant privileges, if we abandon that law as a way to be justified before God and instead flee only to Christ to be justified by faith in him and not by works of the law, If we do this and then are considered by you Judaizers to be sinners, to be without the law, to be as the Gentiles, does this now mean that somehow Christ has become a servant of sin? Here's the question asked in a different way. Does justification by faith in Christ alone, apart from works of the law, does this make Christ a servant of sin? Now, some translations say here, does this make Christ a minister of sin or a promoter of sin? Essentially, the Judaizers are claiming that the gospel Paul preached, the gospel that, remember, had been initially received with such joy by the believers in Galatia, They were claiming that that gospel of free grace was a message that promoted sinful and lawless living on the part of those who received it, thus turning Christ into a minister or promoter or servant of sin. And Paul was indignant in his response to this accusation of Christ and of his gospel. Other translations say, instead of certainly not, they say, God forbid, may it never be. Christ is in no way a servant of sin, and this is strong language from the apostle. Friends, we need to realize that Christ did not come to promote sin. He came to save his people from their sins. Christ didn't come to accommodate sin. He came so that we might go and sin no more. As we saw earlier in chapter one, Christ came into an already sin-cursed world to deliver us from the said sin-cursed world, to deliver us from this present evil age. And when Christ was praying for his people, he didn't pray that they would be conformed to this evil world, he prayed rather that we would be sanctified in truth. So brothers and sisters, Christ did not come to promote sin, rather he came to atone for sin and to set his people free from it. And because Christ came to set his people free from sin, not to promote it, it stands to reason that the gospel of Christ is not a gospel that promotes or tolerates lawless living. The gospel of Christ doesn't allow us to receive free justification through faith in Christ alone, only to turn around and to live however we want, to live a life of rebellion to the law of God. And we'll see why that is in just a few moments. But for now, what I want you to understand is that the Judaizers couldn't imagine a gospel separated from the law, producing anything other than sin in the life of the believer. And friends, before we're too hard on them here, their line of reasoning is not altogether wrong. After all, the law does have a restraining power about it. Even in our own society today, as evil as our world is, imagine if we had no law. Imagine if there were no consequences at all for law-breaking. What would this lead to? Well, certainly it would lead to even more chaos and even more evil. In fact, we can see this playing out in certain cities like San Francisco, where they publicly announce certain crimes are no longer going to be prosecuted. What happens to those crimes? They shoot through the roof. My friends, this is how the Judaizers saw the gospel of free grace, the free offer of forgiveness in Christ to sinners separated from the law of God. They thought, you can't just offer a bunch of Gentile sinners Christ without the law. You can't give them Christ without Moses because you're gonna create a bunch of lawless converts. You're gonna create a bunch of antinomians. But friends, for as much as we can understand their logic, at the end of the day, The fact remains the Judaizers had never been touched by the grace of God. They didn't understand because they hadn't experienced the transformational power of the gospel for themselves. And because of this, the Judaizers, in attacking Paul's gospel and promoting their false gospel, a gospel that required works of the law to be added to faith in Christ for justification, in doing this, they had turned grace on its head. They had turned grace into merit. They turned the free gift of justification in Christ into something that must be earned through obedience. But the real irony here in what they did, despite the Judaizers' high view of the law, despite all of this, they were the ones who were actually lawless. Listen to Paul explain in verse 18. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. What was it that Paul had previously tore down? Well, this is in reference to any form of earned righteousness. Righteousness obtained in any part by his obedience to the law of God. And Paul had torn down the idea of law keeping as an instrument of justification before God through the preaching of the gospel. And Paul makes the astounding claim here that if he were to rebuild what he tore down, if he were to once again seek justification through the law, then he would be a transgressor. Now remember, this is essentially what Peter had started to do in verse 12, when he shrunk back and he removed himself from table fellowship with the Gentiles there in Antioch. So in this verse, Paul says, I, if I rebuild, so he's speaking of himself, but we can be sure that he's got Peter in his sights as he's saying this. Peter, if you continue down this road, you're making yourself to be a transgressor. In this word transgressor, it means lawbreaker. So Paul is saying that if he or anyone else rebuilds the law as a means of justification, then that person actually becomes a lawbreaker. And why is this? Well, the demands of the law end in perfect obedience. That is something that Paul nor any person in all of history save Jesus Christ can render. As Paul will say later in chapter three, all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. because of their failure to keep the law of God perfectly, the Judaizers were under the curse of the law. The Judaizers, contrary to their slanderous accusations, are actually the true ministers of sin because they are demanding that Gentile believers submit to the ceremonial law, particularly circumcision, to complete their justification. and in seeking to be justified by the law and force others to do the same, by the way, the Judaizers had proven themselves to be transgressors. They had proven themselves to be the lawbreakers. And lawbreakers, friends, are not righteous before God. This is because the law was never meant to be a means of justification. It was meant to be a guardian, a schoolmaster, a tutor to lead us to Christ, to show us our need for justification in Christ. Only in Christ can we as lawbreakers be justified. Only when his blood washes away all of our sins, only when his perfect robe of righteousness, as Jesse was speaking of this morning, only when that perfect righteousness of Christ is given to us, only when the blood and righteousness of Christ is imputed to us by faith, can we then be counted righteous before God, never through our own obedience to the law. So Paul makes clear, if I rebuild the law as a way of justification in my inability to keep that law, I'm proving myself to be a law breaker. I prove myself to be under the curse of the law. And I am once again, without hope in the world. And this is why the gospel is so precious to Paul. When he came to understand that he could never be justified by law keeping and when by God's grace he embraced by faith the only one who could justify him, he could never go back. He could never rebuild what he had once tore down. And so we've seen Paul offer a defense of Christ in response to the slanderous accusation from the Judaizers. Does the gospel of Christ lead to lawlessness? Certainly not. God forbid. Well, as we move to our second heading, we'll see the first two reasons Excuse me, the first of two reasons that Paul gives to the Galatians here to show why the gospel of free grace does not and can never promote lawlessness in the life of the one who has been transformed by it. And the first reason that the gospel of Christ does not promote lawlessness is the fact that believers have been crucified with Christ. Look to verse 19. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. Far from rebuilding the law as a means of justification, Paul declares that through the law, he died to the law. It may be something for you and I to say that, but it's an entirely different thing for the Apostle Paul to say that. Consider for a moment who the Apostle Paul was. This was the man whose life was once dedicated to the most strict observance to the law as a Pharisee. This man has now died to the law. The Hebrew of Hebrews, the man with as much reason for confidence in the flesh as anyone who ever lived, he has died to the law. And consider Paul's own testimony of his life before Christ from Philippians chapter three. He says this, if anyone thinks that he has reason for confidence in the flesh, in other words, if anyone here thinks that you can keep the law unto salvation, if you have confidence in that, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Friends, as men and women judge on the outside, based on externals, Paul had been as obedient as any man could possibly be. If ever there was a man above reproach in his outward conduct, it was the Apostle Paul. But Paul, like every unregenerate person, was lacking inward obedience and inward motivation. Paul, despite all his outward conformity to the ceremonial laws of the old covenant, he did not and could not love the Lord, his God, perfectly with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. He did not and could not love his neighbor as himself. And friends, perfect inward and outward obedience is exactly what God requires. He will settle for nothing less. And it's this in particular, Paul's polished external outward conformity to the law of God. It's this reason that the 10th commandment, the commandment not to covet, it's for that reason that that specific commandment hit Paul so hard as an unbeliever. He could fool himself with his outward and superficial obedience to the other nine commandments, but he could not escape his inward covetousness. Listen to Paul describe this in Romans chapter seven. Paul says this, What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it, killed me. Friends, the law was a mirror for Paul. And he looked into it and he saw his sinfulness and his inability to satisfy God's perfect standards. Therefore, through the law, Paul died to the law. I recall for a moment the illustration that I shared with you last time from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Remember, poor Faithful was going up the hill difficult, and he is overcome and attacked by Moses. Moses, of course, being a picture of the law. And Faithful was assaulted by Moses, and he was left for dead until the Lord Jesus Christ came and rescued him. This is what the law does. It beats you down, it condemns you, and ultimately it kills you. The law for Paul and for any other soul that has ever been saved is a guardian. The law is a tutor that leads us to Christ, that shows us our need for Christ. So I would say to you, if you are here this morning and you are outside of Christ, you need to look at yourself in light of God's holy law. You need to see that you fall far short of his glory and perfection. You need to see that because of your sin, his righteous wrath abides on you this very morning. Now you may not see his wrath right now, but I promise you one day it will be revealed. And you must, like Paul, run to Jesus Christ who fulfilled both the righteous requirements of the law in his perfect life, And then what did he do? He laid his life down voluntarily, fulfilling the righteous punishments that are contained within the law, the righteous penalties of the law. If you would look to Christ and receive that free gift by faith, those things would be yours. The perfect righteousness of Christ, the substitutionary death of Christ. If you were outside of him this morning, look at the law, see your sinfulness, but then look at Christ and see his absolute perfection, see his willingness, see his ability to save centers just like you. Well, I want us to notice next the purpose for which Paul died to the law. It wasn't so that he might live any way that he chose. It was so that he might live to God. Look again to verse 19. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. How does one live to God? What does that look like practically? Well, the irony here is that the law of God showed Paul his sinfulness and it drove him to find his righteousness in Christ alone and not through the law. Through the law, he died to the law, but having died to the law, Paul could now live for God. And to live for God, friends, it is to live with his law as the rule of your life. That's the irony here. The law killed Paul and drove him to Christ. Now he can live for God. What does that look like? It looks like God's law. It looks like the Ten Commandments. Listen to what commentator William Hendrickson says about this. He asked the question, what is meant by living to or for God? Negatively, it means no longer living for self. Positively, it indicates living as God wants me to live. Hence, to his glory, according to his revealed will, his law. And he goes on to say, there is no warrant, therefore, to go to any extreme in denouncing the law the hue and cry of the present day to the effect that as Christians, well, we have nothing whatever to do with the law anymore. This has no scriptural justification at all. It is in fact a dangerous slogan, especially in an era of lawlessness. So brothers and sisters, let us be careful not to view God's 10 commandments as no longer binding upon us as a rule of life. Now to be sure, the law as a means of justification must be condemned and we condemn it. But the moral law of God, those 10 commandments, which are a reflection of God's perfect and holy character, the moral law of God as our rule of life must be embraced by us, brothers and sisters. We must be able to say, as Paul did in Romans 7, that the law of God is holy and righteous and good. We must, as it were, uphold the law by faith. But how is it possible to live for God? How is it possible for you, a fallen creature, to live to the glory of God, to live with his law as the rule of your life? We might also ask that question this way. How is it that the gospel of free grace does not promote lawless living? And friends, that's only possible because of one thing. Look again to verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. Paul could live for God because he had been crucified with Christ. And if you are in Christ this morning, believer in Jesus, you have been crucified with Christ. You have been united with Christ in his crucifixion. This is the doctrine of union with Christ. This is what it means to be in Christ. Remember our last time together, we talked about how every human being, even before they're born, Every human being is guilty before God, even before they commit a sin. And we showed that from Romans chapter five. We talked about how Adam in the garden was acting as the federal head, as the representative of all mankind. And the Bible says that when he sinned, we, past tense, sinned. When Adam sinned, we sinned. Because of our natural union with Adam as our first father, when he sinned, we sinned. But similarly, for the believer in Jesus, because of your union with Christ, when he was crucified, you were crucified. When he died, you died. And when he was raised, you were raised. This is what it means to be in union with Jesus Christ. Now, Lord willing, two of our children will be baptized at the end of our worship service and be added to the church. And baptism is a symbol of this very thing, of union with Christ. It is a symbol of being united with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. And it's only fitting that the Lord would providentially work in such a way as to have this text be the text that is preached upon this morning. I want you to listen to what R.C. Sproul said about the believer's crucifixion with Christ. He said, quote, our old lives have been crucified with Christ. They have been put to death. When we embrace Christ in justifying faith, we put to death the old man, the old life, the old corrupt human nature. It is dead and buried. Brothers and sisters, being in union with Jesus Christ should determine the way that we view the cross of Christ. We cannot only say that Jesus was crucified for us. We should say that. Amen to that. But we cannot stop there. And I'm not suggesting here that there was anything that atoned for sin other than the death of Christ. But that said, we must also say that we have been crucified with him, that our old man was put to death with him on the cross. So not only was Christ crucified for you, you have been crucified with him. And friends, this is what separates free grace from cheap grace. This is what separates free grace from what's called easy believism. From I prayed a prayer that one time, I'm good. Yeah, yeah, I'm good with God. I did what that minister told me to do. I raised my hand at that meeting. I walked down the aisle. I signed my name on this card. I'm good. Stop talking to me about the gospel. Stop talking to me about righteousness and sin and judgment. I'm good. I took care of that. It is this very thing that separates free grace from lawlessness and antinomianism. So believer in Jesus, you have been crucified with Christ. And as it's been rightly said, our conformity to Christ is the most sure demonstration that we have been crucified with him. And this reality of union with Christ is exactly why the gospel of Christ does not produce or promote sin, as the Judaizers had slanderously claimed. When we were crucified with Christ, sin's dominion over us was destroyed. Now, certainly we still battle with sin, don't we? None of us are perfect. We hate our sin. Daily, it's a struggle. But we are no longer ruled by sin if you are in Christ. Brothers and sisters, you have to grasp hold of this truth in your heart if you are going to live to God. I want you to see this. Please turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter six. Romans six. I want you to see for yourself here your new reality in Christ. I want you to see your new relationship to sin, having been crucified with Christ. Romans chapter six, starting in verse 11. Paul says this, so you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And present your members to God as instruments for righteousness. Why? For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Believer in Jesus, you have been crucified with Christ. Sin no longer has dominion over you. Being crucified with Christ, being regenerated, given a new heart by God, being born again, brothers and sisters, this is no small thing. This is a big deal. When was the last time you contemplated the fact that you have been crucified with Christ? I was telling Pastor Jerry just this very morning that this week, as I was preparing this sermon, It hit me with a freshness that it has not hit me with in probably, I'm ashamed to say, years. When was the last time you contemplated the fact that sin no longer has dominion over you? It's so easy for us to forget that because we've been crucified with Christ, sin no longer has dominion over us. Yes, it is our enemy, but it's no longer our slave master. If you are in Christ, you have a new master now, brothers and sisters. You have a master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. A master whose commandments are not burdensome to you. The Bible says that God has predestined all of his children to be conformed, to be shaped into the image of Jesus Christ, into his likeness, into the likeness of the only sinless man ever to walk the earth. This is the purpose for which you were crucified with Christ. This is the purpose for which you were regenerated, to glorify God by your loving, grateful, and dependent obedience. So why does the gospel of Christ not promote sin? Why is it that Christ cannot be a minister of sin? It's because his people had been crucified with him. When the believer trusts in Christ, when they are united to him by faith, they are changed radically and permanently. They are now a new creation. Behold, the old is gone and the new has come. Well, as we move now to our final heading, Paul gives the second reason why the gospel of Christ does not promote sin. And that second reason is this, because once crucified with Christ, the believer now lives a new life in Christ. Look again to verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 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. Consider the old Paul for a moment. The old Paul was extremely zealous for what? Well, he tells us the traditions of his fathers. That's what he lived for. He was zealous for those things. The old Paul was a persecutor of the church of God. The old Paul was a self-righteous Pharisee, but the old Paul is dead. It's not the old Paul who is living now. Just as the old Paul was united to Christ in his crucifixion, the new Paul is united to Christ in his resurrection to walk in newness of life. And this union with Christ is so intimate that Paul can make two seemingly contradictory statements at the same time. First, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And then he follows that up by saying, the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God. It's not Paul who lives, it's Christ, but yet it is Paul who lives. So how do we reconcile this? Well, to be sure, when we are justified by God's grace, we're not transported into some higher spiritual realm where we no longer have to battle with sin or navigate the effects of living in a sin-cursed world. We still must live in our bodies in this world for as many days as the Lord has given us. But how does Christ live in us, even as we live in the flesh, even as we live in the body? Well, he lives in us through his spirit. And this is the same spirit, by the way, which raised Christ from the dead. This is what Paul is getting at in Romans 8. Paul says this in Romans 8, he says, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." Well, he goes on now to explain the consequences of having Christ living in you through His Spirit. He says, so then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Brothers and sisters, as we live our lives in the flesh, in the physical realm, we are to live not according to the dictates of our flesh, but according to the spirit of Christ who lives in us. This is to be united to Christ, not only in his death, not only in his crucifixion, but to be united to him in his resurrection. A few moments ago, I shared a quote from R.C. Sproul on the believer being crucified with Christ. And I want to share the rest of that quote with you, where he speaks to the believer now being united with Christ in his resurrection. He says this, just as Christ came out of the tomb with a new power of life, a resurrected life, so the Christian, once he is reborn and justified by faith, is to show evidence of new life because a new power for life has been imparted to him by the indwelling Holy Spirit. How can we as Christians identify with Christ's death and not identify with his resurrection? How can we identify with His death on the cross by faith and then continue to live as if nothing has happened, as if there's no new power, as if there's no resurrected life within our souls? And saints, may that never be said of us by God's grace. Christ living in us through His Spirit does not mean that we become all of the sudden passive observers. It doesn't mean that we are now hands-off in our sanctification. Rather, it means we're now equipped to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And Paul goes on to describe this type of Spirit-filled life as a life that is lived by faith in the Son of God. Just as the branches draw their life and their nutrients from the vine, we too must draw life and nourishment from our vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. Being now united with Christ, being members of Christ, we live our lives by faith in the Son of God. We live our lives by abiding in the Son of God. Jesus addresses this in John chapter 15, where he says this, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If we are to be fruitful servants of the Lord, if we're to show our union with Christ through our conformity to Christ, we must abide in him. We must live our lives by faith in him. And how do we do this? Well, certainly it begins with trusting that he is sufficient both to save and to sanctify us. We must believe all that Christ has said to us in his word, but more practically, I would submit to you that we abide in Christ when we make diligent use of the means of grace that he's given us. In our private lives at home, that means we must be consistent in our reading and application of God's word. We must be diligent to commune with him daily through prayer. And Pastor Jerry taught us this recently on Wednesday nights where God speaks to us through his word and we speak to him through prayer. And if we're to abide in Christ, we must both hear from him and speak to him day by day as we live by faith in him. But friends, Christ has also given us public means of grace. He's given us the church. And so if we are to abide in him as we should, we ought to make use of the public means of grace. We should be diligent in gathering together on the Lord's day to hear his word preached, to sing his praises, to offer prayers to God with all the saints, to observe the Lord's table in baptism together. And I'll say this, for parents of young children, the church is a means of evangelizing your children. Now to be sure, they should hear the gospel more from you than they do from Pastor Jerry or from me, but nonetheless, God has blessed you with a local church that although far from perfect, we are by God's grace striving to faithfully preach the gospel to you and to your children week in and week out. And so if we are to abide in Christ, if we are to live our lives by faith in him, we ought not neglect the means of grace, the conduits of grace, the instruments of grace through which God nourishes and grows the faith of his people. We'll notice next to what Paul says about Jesus at the end of verse 20. He continues, 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. Please note, Paul isn't pursuing an obedient life of faith to earn Christ's love. He already has Christ's love. He's pursuing an obedient life of faith because Christ has loved him. And friends, the same has to be true for you. you should pursue Christian obedience because Christ loved you. Not because you want to earn his love. You should pursue obedience because he loved you and he gave himself for you. And if you're here this morning and you are in Christ, if you have been justified by his grace through faith, do not forget that the Lord Jesus Christ loved you and he proved that love through his own self-giving on the cross. The cross is both the ultimate symbol of God's love to mankind lost and the Christian's ultimate motive for obedience. This is why Paul ends verse 21 as he does, I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Only when we understand the reality of being crucified with Christ, only when we understand the reality of having a new life in Christ, it's only then that we can see the cross of Christ in its true light. And friends, the cross of Christ will have no rival. It cannot have a rival. You either have Christ or you have nothing. Christ will either do everything for you or he will do nothing for you. And this is what the Judaizers didn't understand. This is what they couldn't understand because they had not been transformed by grace. Not only were they slandering the grace of God, they were nullifying the grace of God by supplementing the perfect and complete crosswork of the Lord Jesus Christ with their own imperfect obedience to the law in some futile attempt to earn salvation. The grace of God was theirs for the taking. It was there. Christ had been offered freely to them in the gospel. but they wouldn't receive it only on condition. They were only interested in receiving the grace of God on condition, on condition that they had earned it through their law keeping. And Paul, as we saw in chapter one, issued his apostolic anathema on the Judaizers false gospel of faith plus works. And as we'll see when we get to chapter five, but I think it's a fitting warning for those of us here this morning that Paul has an equally stern and sober statement for any of the believers in Galatia who might be tempted to follow after the Judaizers. And let's all of us hear this this morning. whether you are completely assured and affirmed that justification is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, or whether perhaps you're wrestling with that question. Listen to the Apostle Paul from Galatians 5. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ. You who will be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. My friends, saving righteousness is not obtained through the law, but only through faith in Christ. Do not nullify the grace of God by seeking to obtain it on any condition, no matter how small. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. And so we've seen Paul offer a defense of Christ and of his ministry of grace by pointing to the reality of the believer being crucified with Christ and to the reality of the believer having a new life in Christ. And we can safely conclude that Christ is not a promoter of sin, but a promoter of holiness. Likewise, we can conclude that his gospel does not promote sin, but it promotes holiness. Therefore, every person who is united to Christ by faith is not only justified by grace, but friends, they are transformed by grace. Does this describe you? Have you been transformed by grace? Have you been crucified with Christ? Have you been raised with him to walk in newness of life? And if you haven't, my hope for you is that God would use his holy law, that he would use his 10 commandments summarized in the two great commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. My hope for you is that God would use these commandments like a mirror, just as He did with Paul, to show you your sinfulness, to show you how far short you fall of His glory and His perfection. But my prayer is also that you would see in our text today a loving Savior who gave Himself up on the cross for sinners just like you, that you would see Christ as completely able as completely willing and as completely sufficient to save any sinner who would come to him in repentance and faith. By God's grace, may today be the day that you can say for the first time, I have been crucified with Christ and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. Let us pray. Father, bless your word to us now, we pray. We ask that for those of us in Christ, that you would bring to our minds and our hearts afresh the truth that the old man has been put to death, that sin no longer has dominion over us, and that your spirit is working in us both the will and to work for his good pleasure. Help us to be motivated through the love shown to us on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ to live a God glorifying and obedient life to you. And I pray again for those who are outside of Christ, Lord, would you show them their sinfulness? Would you show them that they fall far short of your glory and that there is a penalty that that carries? And as Jesse mentioned this morning, that penalty will either be poured out upon the head of Christ on the cross and paid for completely, or it will be poured out upon the head of the sinner for eternity in hell. would you draw them irresistibly to Christ. Glorify yourself in the salvation of sinners, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.