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What in the world makes us so
embarrassed about the gospel? I determine to know nothing among
you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. All right, the text I want to
look at tonight is short but rich, and it's one of those verses
that I memorized as a fairly new Christian. It's a text that
is probably familiar to most of you. Galatians 2 20. Galatians
2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. There's a lot of amazing truth
packed into that simple verse. It's a marvelous summary, really,
of Paul's whole theology. Packed into a single sentence,
it compresses every facet of salvation into what is really
a wonderfully concise statement that focuses deliberately on
the personal nature of justification and faith and our perfect union
with Christ. I've often said that the heart
and soul of Paul's theology and especially his teaching about
salvation is summed up in the truth of our spiritual union
with Christ. If you want to understand Paul,
you have to get that concept. I think I've pointed out from
this very pulpit on a couple of occasions that the Apostle
Paul's favorite way of referring to Christians is this. He repeatedly
says that we are in Christ. spiritually and mystically united
with Christ in such a way that in the words of Ephesians 5 verse
30, we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. We are in him in a spiritual
union. that unites us with him in such
a way that his life counts for our life, his death counts for
our death, his resurrection counts for our resurrection, and his
resurrection power becomes the energy by which we live. Colossians 3, verse 3 says, For
you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. And therefore, whenever Paul
speaks of believers, He describes them as those who are in Christ. In fact, I was prepared tonight
to give you a whole string of verses that use that expression. I'm going to shorten that because
I don't want to extend the service unnecessarily tonight. But let
me just give you a couple of Romans eight verse one. There
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Romans twelve five, we being many are one body in Christ and
everyone members of another. And in fact, in Romans sixteen,
if you really want to see this graphically, don't turn there
now, but go and look at Romans sixteen, where Paul's Paul sending
greetings to specific saints in Rome. And he repeatedly uses
that expression in Christ. He uses it some twelve times,
I think, in that one chapter. And over and over again, that
is how Paul refers to believers. Second Corinthians 517. If any
man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's describing a union
with Christ that makes us share in and benefit from all of Christ's
virtues. And again, I could go on and
on giving you verses. that use that expression, I won't.
But let me just say this in every one of Paul's New Testament epistles,
he uses that expression in Christ to describe believers. It's used
some 50 or 40 or 50 times in the New Testament, depending
on which translation you look at. Peter uses it once in first
Peter 514. But normally that is a purely
Pauline expression. It's Paul's favorite expression.
And it underscores the one truth that really lies at the heart
of Paul's soteriology, that faith brings us into vital union with
Christ so that we participate in his life and death and resurrection. And that is both a positional
and a practical truth. In other words, there is a forensic
or legal aspect to it, meaning it involves a divine reckoning.
God's verdict is that we are in Christ. We're not literally
and actually crucified with Christ, but he died as our substitute,
our legal substitute. And in the reckoning of God,
Christ's death counts as ours. His death is the atonement for
our sins. He's paid the penalty of sin.
Prescribed by the law on our behalf, and so there is a legal
or forensic reckoning that's involved here. But there is also
a practical and experiential side to our union with Christ. His life and His power infuse
us and transform us by awakening us from a state of spiritual
death. That death that held us in its
bondage as unbelievers and Christ's power then continues to operate
in us to energize us by giving us godly desires, by giving us
a true love for holiness and infusing in us the power both
to will and to work for God's good pleasure. Our verse. Galatians 220 encompasses all
those truths in language that is almost poetic. Paul employs
the language of oxymoron throughout this verse. I throw that word
out for you not to impress you. I hope you understand what the
what the idea of oxymoron is. It's a figure of speech. that
deliberately uses the language of paradox. It sets seemingly
contradictory terms against one another. An oxymoron is like
it's an expression that appears self-contradictory, just appears
that way. It's not really like pretty ugly,
you know, or jumbo shrimp. One of the famous was or my favorite
Microsoft works. And I love oxymorons because
they make you stop and think. Tight slacks. Nothing much. And we love to
do that. We love to put words together
that really don't go together. Unbiased opinion, you know. Exact estimate. Or self-help
group. I could go on, I won't bore you
with a list of them, but there are lots of them. Civil War,
where do these come from? But the juxtaposition of words
and ideas that don't usually go together make the real point
stand out for us much more clearly. And some truths in the Christian
life are best expressed as oxymorons, paradoxical language, and in
our text Paul uses a trio of paradoxes to sum up the reality
of our fullness of salvation in Christ. Look at them. He says, I am crucified, yet
living. I live, yet not I, but Christ. And the life I live in the flesh
is a life lived in faith. Three paradoxes there, and I
want to look at those one at a time tonight and try to unpack
some of the truth about our salvation that Paul has condensed into
this one incredibly rich statement. Notice first, we'll call it if
you want to take these down, I'll give you three of them.
The paradox of death, the paradox of death. He begins this statement
by saying he is crucified, yet living. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, and if
you understand Paul's whole theology, this is a very deep paradox indeed,
because before he was crucified, Paul was actually dead. He says
so in several places, but chiefly Ephesians 2, verse 5, he says
to all of us, we were dead in sins, but God has quickened us
together with Christ. And he's speaking there of our
life before conversion, our life without Christ. He says all of
us were dead in trespasses and sins, or as he says in Ephesians
four, verse 18, having the understanding darkened and being alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that was in me
because of the blindness of my heart. That's what life was like
before Christ death. And Paul says he was dead. But
now, as one who is crucified with Christ, he is truly alive
for the first time. Paul has borrowed this paradox,
I think, directly from the teaching of Christ, who said in Matthew
16, verse 25, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it,
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will find it. Now,
in what sense was Paul crucified with Christ? You'll often hear
people quote this passage as if Paul's speaking of some kind
of mystical, deeper life, second level experience that launched
him into a higher plane of spiritual life. I've heard speakers use
and abuse this passage by applying it to a kind of pietistic self-crucifixion,
as if Paul were speaking about some kind of spiritual or even
real self-flagellation, you know, where he would put himself on
the cross daily by self-denial or something like that. That
is not what Paul is talking about here at all, and the context
makes it clear. Notice verse 19. For I, through
the law, am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And what
he's talking about in verse 19 is what he explains. With this
first paradox in verse 20, he's talking about being dead to the
law, dead in a legal sense. In other words, beyond the reach
of the law's threats and condemnation, the law's ultimate penalty was
already paid on his behalf by Christ. So Paul is saying the
law has no further claim on me. As far as the law is concerned,
I'm dead. And that's exactly what he means. In the eyes of
the law, he is dead. He is legally dead. He is talking
here about the doctrine of justification by faith. He says so explicitly
back in verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we,
and he's speaking here to Peter, even we Jewish people have believed
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. He's saying that's how we're
justified by faith. And now he says he's dead to
the law. The law has no further claim
on him. And in our verse, verse 20, is
simply explaining why he is dead in the eyes of the law. I am
crucified with Christ. Now, again, it goes without saying
that Paul was not literally and actually placed on a cross alongside
Christ. He was not crucified with Christ
in any literal or historical sense. So what does he mean by
this? How was Paul crucified with Christ? He explains exactly
what he means at the end of the verse and also in verse twenty
one, the son of God loved me and gave himself for me. And therefore, Paul says, I do
not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. He's saying that the
death of Christ on the cross was for him. On his behalf, in
other words, Jesus death counted as Paul's death legally. And
that's true of every believer. That's one of the major points
Paul makes all through his writings in the New Testament. Christ,
Paul says, gave himself for me. He died in my place. He stood
in for me as my proxy and my substitute before the judgment
seat of God, and he took my punishment. And that's what the expression
for me means in this context. When you read that, that's what
he's saying for me instead of me. See, death is the legal penalty
of sin, and Christ actually died the worst, most horrific kind
of death punishment. you could ever meet out the law
exacted against him the death penalty for sin, a sinner's death. If he died in such a way for
me, then he could have only done it in my place as my substitute
and representative because Christ himself was not a sinner. And
that's exactly what Paul says just a chapter later than this.
Look at Galatians 313. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law being made a curse for us for his written curse.
It is everyone who hangs on a tree. That was the death penalty exacted
by the law against Christ. Why? For me, Paul says. And so it's clear that what Paul
aims to teach here in Galatians 2.20 is the substitutionary nature
of Christ's sacrifice. And you see, legally, if Christ
bore the legal penalty of my sin on my behalf, then legally
it is as if I was crucified with him. Because in the eyes of the
law, that was my sin being atoned for. That was my death by proxy. That was the portion of divine
wrath I deserve and so, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ
and that is how I am dead to the law through the law. Legally,
or in Paul's exact words, through the law, I am as good as dead. And so every truth Paul makes
in reference to this passage is rooted and grounded in the
doctrine of substitutionary atonement. My participation with Christ,
my spiritual union with Christ, my fellowship in his death and
resurrection, his role as my representative and proxy, all
of it hinges on the truth of substitutionary atonement. Christ
died as my substitute. In my place and in my stead,
now there have always been people throughout the history of the
church people who call themselves Christians and want to identify
themselves as Christians, but who despise this doctrine of
substitutionary atonement. And as a result, they usually
try to redefine what Jesus death was all about. Some have said
Jesus died not as our substitute, but as our example. So when he
died on the cross, it was only to give us an example of self-sacrifice
and meekness. He was showing us what it means
to turn the other cheek. And so what saves us under that system
is not what Christ did for us, but whatever we do to follow
his example. And that is virtually, that's
what virtually all theological liberals, all Socinians, deists,
all kinds of moralists, that's what they teach. That same view
has also cropped up in several places over the past five years
or so, especially in the literature associated with the emerging
church movement. You see this doctrine of substitutionary
atonement attacked more and more, and it's usually promoted by
people who think, OK, but substitutionary atonement makes God seem so harsh.
If God is so rigid in demanding a punishment for sin that he
would even punish his own son for the sins of other people
and place his innocent son on the cross in the stead of guilty
people, that just makes God seem so harsh. And so they say, let's
let's reimagine the atonement. Let's look at it a different
way. And we'll say it's an example of Christ's love and it's an
example of turning the other cheek. And let's just think of
it as an example for us to follow. But that turns out to be a recipe
for salvation by works because it denies the objective efficacy
of Christ's death for me. It means his death for me didn't
really accomplish anything other than giving me an example which
I now have to follow. If he is only an example for
me, then it's up to me to follow that example if the atonement
is going to be efficacious in my case. There have also been
people throughout the history of the church who are more or
less willing to acknowledge that, OK, Christ's death on the cross
was the penalty of sin in a sense, Christ did, in a sense, bear
the penalty of sin, but he didn't do it vicariously. He didn't
do it as a substitute. He didn't do it actually taking
the guilt of my sin on himself. In other words, he didn't really
die as anybody's substitute or proxy, but rather they say his
death was a sort of display of how much God hates sin. It was
a demonstration, a public demonstration of what divine wrath would look
like if God really did carry out the penalty against sin.
And so the cross, according to them, was more or less a symbolic
gesture, not an actual payment for anybody's sins. And again,
that destroys the objective efficacy of Christ's death and makes the
atonement mainly an example for us to follow. It puts the work
of our redemption back on ourselves. And so they destroy the truth
that explains our union with Christ, because, you see, if
he's not my substitute, then I don't have this union with
him that Christ is that Paul is describing in this verse.
Now, these things are important for you to understand and defend,
because there is an upsurge of people today who argue against
the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. And sometimes they
can make their arguments and their words seem really good.
As I said, a lot of people don't like the doctrine of substitution
because they just can't stomach the idea that God always demands
vengeance against sin. They'd rather have a kindly sort
of pliable God who just overlooks sin and ignores justice altogether
and and says, basically, let's just forget about any kind of
punishment. Substitutionary atonement is
not a doctrine, frankly, that is well suited for the postmodern
era in which you and I live. It goes against the sensibilities
of contemporary culture. The idea that a loving God would
punish the sins of an evil world in the person of his own innocent
son is a truth that most people find distasteful. It's an offense. It seems refined and indelicate,
it is an offense, just like the Bible says, the cross of Christ
is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. But to those who
believe it's the power of God and the wisdom of God, and that's
what Paul is celebrating in our verse. The offense of the cross
is the very thing we do celebrate. Don't ever be tempted to back
away from it or tone down this truth or soften the idea just
because worldly wisdom finds it offensive. A hundred years
ago, Alexander McLaren. Pointed out, this was a tendency
even in those days as well, because it's not just the postmodernists
who make these arguments, the modernists made the same arguments.
And Alexander McLaren was up against the modernism of his
day, which was going exactly the same direction as the postmodernism
of our day. And he pointed out that when
people lose sight of the substitutionary nature of Christ's atoning work,
they soon lose interest in the cross completely. And that's
a disaster. He said this quote. Whenever
the full-orbed faith in Christ as our substitute has begun to
falter and grow pale, people do not know what to do with Christ's
death at all, and they stop talking about it to a very large extent.
And then he added this. Unless Christ died as a substitute
and a sacrifice for sinners, it's really hard to see any meaning
in the cross other than a sentimental melodrama. And what McLaren was warning
about is exactly what happened among the modernists and theological
liberals who were just beginning to flourish in his day. And frankly,
that is the same thing that is happening today with seeker sensitive
Christianity, postmodern Christianity, open theism, emerging Christianity
and all the other varieties of pseudo Christianity that are
trying to modify the gospel message. and move in and take over evangelicalism
and make the gospel more palatable for people today. Try to do away
with the offense of the cross. Listen, if you are ashamed of
the offense of the cross, you will ultimately silence the only
truth that can save. So it's vital, it's crucial.
And Paul's words in this text reveal the superiority of the
doctrine of substitutionary atonement. The truth that Christ died as
a substitute for sinners means that Christ's atoning work is
inherently and objectively efficacious. His work on my behalf has already
accomplished everything necessary for my life and salvation. And
so there's no work and no ceremony for me to perform in order to
add to the process in order to gain any merit of my own. But
eternal life is already my present possession, guaranteed by the
death and the resurrection of Christ, because he's already
died and risen again. And he did all that as my substitute.
I, through the law, am dead to the law that I might live unto
God. As Paul says here, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live yet. Not I, but Christ live within
me. Jesus himself said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he who
heareth my word and believeth on him who sent me half everlasting
life, he speaks of everlasting life as a present possession.
And that person, he said, shall not come into condemnation, but
his past past tense has already passed. from death unto life. Eternal life, again, is my present
possession, and the only guarantee of that truth lies in the fact
that he has already fulfilled as my substitute everything the
law of God ever demanded of me, including the penalty for my
sin. My spiritual union with Christ is what seals the reality
of that truth. On the personal and practical
level, that's what these testimonies tonight were all about. And this
is the very truth that makes assurance of salvation possible. Notice, by the way, how this
text portrays salvation in our union with Christ as a very personal
and individual thing. Have you noticed all the personal
pronouns Paul uses the subjective pronoun I? is used five times
in this one sentence. That's unusual for Paul to speak
of himself that much, but he's not really speaking of himself
here. He's applying what Christ did to him. So you have I five
times, the objective pronoun me is used three times. That
is eight first person pronouns in just one verse, one sentence. Paul's emphasis here is on the
personal and individual aspect of salvation. He's not talking
about any corporate or collective notion of covenant membership
or the community of Christianity or whatever. Now, some of you,
especially the seminary students in our midst, will be aware of
a deadly theological trend that is popular right now in some
academic circles, known as the New Perspective on Paul. This
is a wholesale reinterpretation of Paul's theology that departs
to some degree from every historic Protestant distinctive on the
doctrine of justification by faith attacks really what Paul
is talking about in this verse. It's a move instead back to a
more sacramental and corporate theology of justification and
tends to diminish or even eliminate the notion of personal justification
and according to many who who promote this new perspective
on Paul. When Paul speaks of justification, they say he's
not talking about how an individual can be right before God. He's
talking about how Jews and Gentiles corporately relate to God's covenant. And in fact, let me quote one
of the advocates of this view, N.T. Wright. He's probably the
most influential advocate of the new perspective on Paul.
He says this, quote, Justification is not so much about soteriology
as about ecclesiology. In other words, it's not so much
about the doctrine of salvation as it is about the church. It's
a group thing, he says, not an individual thing. It's about
how diverse groups of people, Jews and Gentiles in particular,
and how they relate to the covenant community. It's not about the
individuals standing before God. He insists that through most
of his writings. But here, Paul is clearly dealing
with a very personal and individual reality. Verse 16, knowing that
a man, a private soul, personally, individually, is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
And then, down in our text, Paul is still in the process of unfolding
that same doctrine of justification, and he deliberately makes it
as personal as possible by declaring his own case. He's not saying
this is true of me only. Paul isn't claiming this is true
of him and not you and me as believers, but he's saying this
is true of every believer, but I'm going to express it in a
personal way just to stress the personal nature of it. I am crucified
with Christ, he says. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. He doesn't say us, although he
doesn't exclude that idea. He certainly means all of us
who believe. But the justification he is describing
here is a personal and individual reality, and he stresses that. And this is the paradox of death. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Now, here's the sum of everything
I've been saying. Paul is describing a personal
faith that looks back to the historical event of Christ's
death and resurrection and rests in the knowledge that my union
with Christ makes me the beneficiary of his death on the cross and
a participant in that historical event. I'm dead to the law because
Christ died in my place, and as we're about to see, I'm alive
unto God because I also participate spiritually in Christ's resurrection. Now, I want you to see that the
thread of this same idea runs through everything the Apostle
Paul ever wrote, he continually says that we are dead because
Christ died as our substitute and and by our union with him. We participate spiritually in
his death. That's a common theme throughout
the Pauline epistles. Let me just quote a few verses
for you. Galatians 6 14. He says, God forbid that I should
glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Romans
six, verse two, we're dead to sin, he says. How are we dead
to sin? Verses three and four. Know you
not that so many of us, as we're baptized into Christ Jesus, were
baptized into his death? Therefore, we are buried with
him by baptism into death. Now, that's not speaking about
water baptism there. It doesn't have anything to do
with baptism by water. There's not a drop of water in
Romans six. This is about baptism into Christ,
baptism being identification with him. It's about our union
with him. Again, baptism was a term that
related to the dying of fabrics, where it was immersed in the
dye and took on the properties of that dye. We are baptized
into Christ in that sense. It's the same thing Paul describes
in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free,
we've been made to drink into one spirit. He's describing it
as a spiritual baptism. The Holy Spirit, notice, is the
baptizer in this case. He baptizes us into Christ, he
immerses us into Christ. And this is speaking of the spiritual
reality of our union with Christ. And he says, if you are baptized
into Christ, in other words, united with him spiritually through
the agency of the Holy Spirit, then you are baptized into his
death, united with him in his crucifixion. And so that is the
sense of what Paul means In our text here, where he says, I am
crucified with Christ crucified, but not literally and actually
dead. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. That's the paradox of death,
and it flows right into the next paragraph. If you want to write
these down, notice the next one, the paradox of resurrection.
I live, he says, yet not I, but Christ, I'm crucified yet alive. I'm alive and yet it's not my
life. He's building this amazing string
of paradoxes that cover the whole range of the Christian experience.
The paradox of death was all about justification and the point
there is that faith justifies us as it as it looks back to
the historical event of Christ's death. The paradox of resurrection
is about the very principle of eternal life itself. And here
we see that faith regenerates and empowers us as we look to
the living Christ for our life and energy. I live, he says,
but my life is not my own. Christ is the source of it, and
just as his death counts as his death, His resurrection from
the dead both seals my justification and gives me life. So I'm alive
from the dead because my substitute is alive from the dead and I
am united with him by faith. Paul saying the very same thing
here that he says in Colossians three three, where he says, for
you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. In other
words, believers are united by faith with Christ in such a way
that God sees our sin debt paid in full by Christ's death, and
we are therefore brought up from the dead with Christ through
his resurrection so that death has no more dominion over us.
Our life is hidden safely in his care because it's his life,
too, by union. by our participation with him
and his participation with us. In fact, that is the very same
thing Paul says in Romans six. I keep going back there for a
reason. Romans six, verses eight through eleven. He says, Now,
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth
no more. Death hath no more dominion over
him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. And the resurrection of Christ,
therefore, guarantees our life, and since death has no more dominion
over him and because we are spiritually united with him by faith, our
life is hid with Christ in God, and therefore we are secure forever. This is an amazing truth, and
Scripture stresses it over and over. I'm not digging something
obscure out of this single verse. It's all over Scripture. John
14, verse 19, Jesus said, Because I live, you shall live also.
And listen to the next verse, John 14, 19, Because I live,
you shall live also. Now, verse 20. At that day, you
shall know that I am in my father and you and me and I in you. Christ is united with his father
in the father, and we are united with him, he says, you and me
and I and you so that our life is literally hid with Christ
in God. And by our union with him, we
participate in his resurrection life, and it's a great security
to us. By the way, there is a practical
use for this truth. Paul leaned on it to see him
through his worst sufferings. Listen to what he says in 2nd
Corinthians 4 verses 8 through 10 and notice this same truth
runs as a thread through that passage. 2nd Corinthians 4 starting
at verse 8, he says, describing his ministry, we are troubled
on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not
destroyed. Why? Why do these difficulties
not have any impact on Paul? Verse 10, always bearing about
in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. And in 1 Thessalonians
5.10, Paul says that Christ died for us, that whether we wake
or sleep, We should live together with him. Again, that is the
bedrock foundation of our security. In other words, our union with
Christ makes us participants not only in his death and crucifixion,
but also in his resurrection and his life. So we're crucified
with Christ, nevertheless, we live or more precisely, Christ
lives in us. In fact, notice another significant
thing here in Galatians two twenty earlier, I showed you how frequently
Paul uses this expression in Christ to signify our union with
him here. He turns the expression around
and shows the flip side of this same truth here. It's not just
we who are in Christ, but also Christ lives in us. And that's
how intimate the union is. It's the same thing Jesus said
in John 14, 19, which I just read a second ago, where he says,
I am in my father and you are in me and I am in you. It works
both ways, so inseparable is our union with Christ that we
are in him and he is in us. Listen to Paul's prayer for the
church at Ephesus Ephesians three verses sixteen and seventeen
says he's praying for them that God would grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by
his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith and in Colossians one twenty seven. He speaks again
of Christ in you the hope of glory. And as Rick said this
morning that hope It's not just a vague longing or a wish, it's
a certainty. Christ in you, the guarantee
of glory. Christ lives in us and his resurrection
life is what energizes and drives our spiritual life and guarantees
that for all of eternity. We are participants in his resurrection
as well as his death so that Even though in the eyes of the
law, we're not only crucified with Christ. We're alive with
him as well. We're crucified with Christ,
nevertheless, we live. And in practical terms. This
truth ought to teach us to depend on the indwelling spirit of Christ
to empower us, this truth ought to color how we think about everything
that comes against us. It teaches us to look beyond
ourselves and to lean on Christ, who is our life. We're not living
the Christian life for Christ, he's living it in us, that's
the proper perspective, and that is. precisely what Paul says
in Romans 6. I keep going back to that passage
because you know what? In extended form, Romans 6, well
it says precisely the same thing as our text. And if you take
it and extend it out, Romans 6 is practically an extended
commentary on Galatians 2.20. Paul summarizes his whole theology
here in Galatians 220. He spells out the same truth
in detail in Romans six. And if you see these two passages
together, it'll help you understand them both better. Romans six,
remember, is where Paul says we're buried with Christ into
death by that spiritual baptism that unites us with him. Verse
eight is the one that says now, if we be dead with Christ, we
believe we shall also live with him. Verse nine says death can
have no dominion over him now that he's conquered death and
been raised from the dead. And then Paul says this verse
eleven. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
He's saying, put this perspective over your entire vision of your
Christian life. That's how you should think of
yourself. Do you think of yourself as dead and resurrected? If you
are truly united with Christ by faith, you should, because
you know what? That's reality. It's a spiritual
reality, but it's real. It's more real than anything
you can see with your eyes or touch with your hands, because
this is how God himself sees you. And that's how you ought
to think of yourself, and that's what Paul says here. Reckon yourself
to be dead, indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ. Reckon yourself. Notice how Paul
uses this word reckon. The Greek word is logism and
it's the same word that's in other places translated impute,
like in Romans four, where we're told that God imputes righteousness
apart from works to believers. In other words, he reckons us.
Righteous, Romans four, verse eight uses the same word, and
it's actually quoting from an Old Testament passage, Psalm
32, to say that God does not impute or reckon sin to believers. In other words, he reckons them
guilt free, completely righteous. As a matter of fact, he imputes
to them a righteousness that is not their own. And at the
same time, he doesn't impute to them their sins, the guilt
of their sin. That's how the divine reckoning of justification
works, and Paul says that's how we ought to think of ourselves.
We should reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, truly and really
dead to sin and dead to the law. Beyond the reach of the law's
condemnation and therefore freed from death and freed from sin's
guilt. We're freed from guilt and condemnation
by Christ's death, because again, we're united with him. And in
legal terms, we are therefore participants in his death. And
so we should reckon ourselves well and truly dead to sin. But you know what? It doesn't
stop there. We're also alive unto God because we participate
in Christ's resurrection as well as his death. And so we're alive,
but it's not our life. It's the resurrection power of
Christ. Listen to Paul's words from Philippians three verses
ten and eleven, another very familiar passage. And here is
the true longing of every heart that is united with Christ by
faith expressed in the words of the apostle Paul. He says
that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable to his death, if
by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
And so, Christ's death and his resurrection are one package.
His death frees me from sin. His life empowers me for righteousness. And we lay hold of both of them
by faith. And in fact, that is the paradox
of the resurrection. I live, yet not I, but Christ
lives in me. I live, but it's not my life.
And so, we've seen the paradox of death. We're crucified, but
we're living. We've seen the power of the resurrection.
We're living, but it's actually the life of Christ in us. Now,
here's a third paradox. We'll call it the paradox of
life. This one is a little more subtle
when you read the verse in English, but let me show it to you, the
life which I now live in the flesh, I live in faith. That
is the literal rendering of the Greek prepositions in the flesh
and in faith, and they are identical and parallel expressions in the
Greek, and it sets up another paradox. While I'm living in
the flesh, I'm actually living in faith. And so faith, not the
flesh, is the driving principle in my life. My true life is not
contained in this flesh. The life of my flesh, the living,
breathing, organic life that is visible to the human eye,
that is not my true life. My flesh is simply a mask that
conceals the true principle of life that actually energizes
me. Spiritual life. I live by faith in the son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me. Notice he's speaking
of the life which I now live in the flesh as opposed to my
life before conversion, which was really a kind of walking
death, remember. Spiritual death, dullness to
the things of God, that was the old life, but the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by faith. And notice also that
the object of our faith is also personal and objective, its faith
in the son of God, faith in his person and faith in his work. And I want to show you something.
Don't miss this. All three of these paradoxes hinge on faith. The paradox of death teaches
us that faith justifies as it looks back to the historical
event of Christ's death. The paradox of resurrection teaches
that faith regenerates and empowers as it looks to the living Christ
for its true energy. And here we learn from the paradox
of life that faith sanctifies as it conforms us to Christ.
And you know what, it's the same faith in all three cases, the
faith that justifies is the same faith that sanctifies not a different
faith. Verse 16 says we're justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Verse
20, Paul says the life we're living in this flesh while we
wait for glory, we're supposed to live in the energy and the
power of our faith in the Son of God. It's the same faith,
it's not a different faith, but it's the same faith because it's
the same object of faith. It's always faith in Christ. The error of. deeper life theology
and all brands of perfectionism, no lordship doctrine, most forms
of pietism. They all commit the same error
in that they make justification and sanctification hinge on different
acts of faith so that they think, OK, you're justified by an initial
act of faith, but you have to have a different experience of
faith and a different kind of faith in order to gain sanctification.
So you're saved by this act of justifying faith where you look
to Christ as Savior to free you from the guilt of sin. But then
they go on and teach that you need to reach a higher level,
a second stage of the Christian life by a completely different
act of faith and a completely different kind of faith. A completely
separate experience of faith when you finally surrender all
or accept Jesus as Lord, not just Savior, or or you finally
die to self or you have some kind of existential faith crisis
where you finally get to move to the next level of spirituality.
If that is your impression of how sanctification works, forget
it. That's not how it works. And
that's not what scripture teaches. The faith that sanctifies is
the same faith that originally looked to Christ as our substitute
and our Savior. And if you don't realize that
you are going to be hamstrung in the process of your sanctification.
Notice here, Paul is talking about real life in this present
world, the life which I now live in the flesh, and he says the
driving principle of this life is faith in the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. That is the same faith that
was born at Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. It's
the only faith Paul ever knew. It's the same faith he nurtured
and cultivated and sustained throughout his life. It is the
faith he was speaking of at the end of his life when he wrote
to Timothy and said, I fought a good fight. I've finished my
course. I have kept the faith. It's gospel
faith, faith in Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. And
the object of that faith is the same historic person and historic
event that procured our justification in the first place. That is the
proper focus of all true faith. He gave himself for me on the
cross, which is the greatest manifestation of his love. Greater
love hath no man than a man that lay down his life for his friends.
So the cross is the focal point of the faith that empowers a
godly life. And if you lose sight of the
work of Christ for you, you will falter in your attempts to live
your life for him. I've said this many times before,
but it bears repeating, if you struggle with besetting sins,
if your sanctification seems sluggish or stalled, if you are
frustrated in your progress towards Christ likeness, There is no
greater spiritual tonic than to preach the gospel to yourself.
Remind yourself what Christ has done on your behalf as the great
high priest who offered himself as an atonement for your sins
that will restore the proper focus of your faith and that
will energize you spiritually to live in the power of his resurrection.
Remind yourself that you are dead to sin, dead indeed to sin
through the cross, but alive unto God through the resurrection.
And reckon yourself to be dead indeed unto sin and its power,
dead to the claims of the law against you, but alive in the
resurrected Christ. And remember that faith unites
you to him so that his power and his life flow through you. And that will do more than all
the counseling sessions in the world to set your spiritual compass
straight again. Your sanctification, no less
than your justification, is wrought by faith in Christ and not by
your own self effort or fleshly energy. That was Paul's focus.
That is the message of our text. All the Christian life is a life
of faith, because faith is what unites us with Christ. Now, quickly,
as we close, what if you're not a true believer in Christ, what
relevance does any of this have to you? I mean, can you know
with any certainty that he loved you and gave himself for you?
The answer is only if you lay hold of him by faith. If anyone
has not the spirit of Christ, Scripture says he is none of
his. True faith. His personal faith, that's one
of the lessons of this passage, you cannot be in spiritual union
with Christ because of the faith of your parents. Or because of
an act of water baptism or because of any other sacrament or work
you might do, you don't unite with Christ by attending church
or even by joining a church, only faith, personal faith in
Christ can unite us with him. And only the Holy Spirit can
awaken a dead heart to faith. But Scripture says faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so the very
fact that you have come under the hearing of the word of God
is a token of his mercy and goodness to you. And I urge you to respond
to it. So if you are here today without
being united with Christ by faith, My counsel to you is to receive
him by faith as your Savior before you leave here tonight. My prayer
for you is that his word and his tender plea will be the instrument
by which he draws you to himself. And for those who are in Christ,
let this passage be a reminder of your high position. Remember,
the same faith that looks to Christ for salvation lays hold
of all his work on our behalf. You don't need a new or different
kind of faith, you just need to go back to the beginning and
recover your first love. He loved me, he lived for me,
he died for me and he lives in me, that is the key to everything
in a single verse. I've been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the
life which I now live in the faith. I live by the faith of
the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Let's pray. What a powerful reminder this
single verse is the gospel and all the spiritual truth we need
wrapped up and summarized in a single text, I pray that your
spirit would apply it to our hearts tonight. that would be
reflected in our lives this week and that Christ would glorify
himself in us through that resurrection life that operates in us. We
pray in his name. Amen.
A Trio of Paradoxes
| Sermon ID | 11211161844 |
| Duration | 54:37 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Galatians 2:20 |
| Language | English |
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