This sermon is available for free download from www.graceunlimited.co.za That's www.graceunlimited.co.za There you will also find many other sermons, the speakers blogs, events, pictures, links, web store, e-documents and contact details. Simply follow the links to Grace Unlimited on Sermon Audio. Guys, it's a great privilege for me to come and share God's Word with you. Just open up God's Word for you as well. We can open up to the second chapter of the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter 2. And we're actually going to be looking from verse 15 to verse 21. Well, as I start here, I want to tell you about a man. A man that I know about. This man looked in the Old Testament, and as he was looking in the Old Testament, he saw that there's a man that's coming, a man that's promised, that is different than any other man. A man that's going to come and he's going to actually turn God's people back to Him again. And he was just expecting this man to come, this individual to come. And this guy that I know about, he was there when the little baby was born in the manger. This guy, he was actually there when the shepherds came and they gave this amazing report about this little baby with the name of Jesus. This man that I know, he saw just the gift that the wise men brought. And it's a gift, this is for a great and awesome king. And he was thinking, well maybe, just maybe this is the This promised guy from the Old Testament that is here. And this man that I know, he saw Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. And he was looking at the Old Testament and saying, yes, maybe it's Him. It looks like this is a promise that's being fulfilled. And he heard the people sing, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the highest. And this same man that I know, he heard that the city of Jerusalem was in uproar. And he was running to find out what happened. And as he came closer, he just heard these voices of the people crying out, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! No! No! Crucify Him! This man saw Jesus. He saw that they had beaten Him. He saw they had put a cross on Him. And they marched Him up to Golgotha. This man was standing close enough to hear the shots of the hammers fall. This man could hear the agony of Christ, of Jesus, as they were just forcing him onto that cross. He saw them raising this cross up and dropping it into place. He was close enough to hear Jesus' words. He heard Jesus say, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. He looked at the people around. Some of them were casting lots for Jesus' garments and he was remembering this was something that was promised. He looked at Jesus again and he heard Him cry out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? This man heard Jesus saying, it is finished. This man stood there at the cross and he was just seeing and experiencing this amazing thing happening. And he was thinking to himself, what an amazing God, what an amazing Saviour, what an amazing event that I have just experienced. And this man thought to himself, he did almost everything. He did almost everything. This man turned around and was thinking, yes, it was such an amazing event. This is almost enough. But I need to add a little bit to this. I need to add a little bit to the cross. This man is me. This man is you. You see, so often we come to the cross and we look at the cross and we realize This amazing thing that God has done for us by sending His Son, killing His Son on our place and then we turn around and we think it was almost, it was close. We think, yes, He maybe did enough to save us but now we have to go and do something to keep ourselves safe. How silly is that? How shocking is that? To stand there and look at the cross and realize what Christ has done and then say, well, it was almost enough. There's something that I need to add to the cross. That's shocking. That's just foolish. That does not make any sense. And you might be sitting there and saying, no, no, no, this is not me. You're mistaken. I will never do such a thing. I understand what Jesus Christ has done for me on the cross. I understand that his death was sufficient. Well, yes, maybe. But let's consider this one thing. Let's compare you and me to the Apostle Peter. And we're not even going to consider him right at the beginning. We're going to consider him 16 years plus after he was saved. After the day of Pentecost. And let's see, do you think you hold to the gospel more strongly and you trust more fully in the gospel, in the cross and the work of Jesus Christ than the Apostle Peter? Because, you see, Peter fell into the same sin. And if Peter, the Apostle Peter, could have fallen into this idea that Jesus Christ did everything for me to be saved, but now I need to do just a little bit more. There's something else that I need to do to keep myself there, to keep myself safe. If that could happen to the Apostle Peter, certainly it will happen, and it could happen to me, and certainly it might happen to you. So that's why I want us to turn here to the Galatians 2, and I want to just give you a quick background, just to explain to you what's happening here. This great Apostle Peter, the rock, He was the first one to minister to Gentiles. God gave him a vision from heaven to show him that the law and specifically the sacrificial portions of the law, the dietary portions of the law was something of the past. He could not eat anything, he could not say these things was unclean. But also God showed him that the Gentiles can now become part of the same people, not through keeping the law, but the faith in Christ. He's seen this vision. And this same Peter came to the home base of Paul and of Barnabas at Antioch. You see this city, this place of Antioch was Paul's sending church. This is where he first ministered, well not first, actually the second place he ministered with Barnabas. But he was sent out from this place. And Peter came to this place, here in Galatians we see the story being told to us. He comes there and then initially what he does is he has fellowship with everybody there. And this was a very mixed group of people. There was Jews and there was Gentiles. So Peter had fellowship with the Gentiles. He was eating with them. He was staying in their homes. He was just, you know, just like Paul. But then there was a group of people that came, Jews from Jerusalem that came. And when they came, suddenly Peter changed. Suddenly he withdrew himself. Suddenly, no, no, Gentiles are now not good enough. I'm just with these guys, with the Judaizers now. I'm just eating with them. I'm not having fellowship with those uncircumcised Gentile sinners out there. Suddenly he moves himself away. And clearly these Gentiles, the Jews that came from Jerusalem, clearly they did not understand that there is no difference now, there is no Jew and Gentile now, we've been made one in Christ. Christ doesn't have two bodies, he only has one body, we have been made one. And clearly they also thought that there is something that Gentiles need to do to be part of God's people. They thought Gentiles had to be circumcised. And they thought they had to start keeping the law. They had to become a Jew in order for them to become part of Christ's body. This is what these guys were thinking, that Peter was now saying, I'm with them, I'm not with these Gentiles anymore, I'm now with these Jews, I'm with these Judaizers. And Peter, by associating with them, by just staying with them and rejecting sort of the Gentiles, not eating with them anymore, he was in effect saying, these guys are right, these guys are right, I think they're actually right. If the Gentiles want to come and have fellowship with me, what they need to do is they need to get themselves circumcised. They need to start eating the stuff I'm eating. They need to start keeping the law. Even though Peter himself just a little while ago wasn't eating that same stuff. It was foolishness. And even some of the other men from Antioch started following this example of Peter. It even went so far that Barnabas, even Barnabas was caught into this whole hypocrisy of Peter. And you see, so often we do the same thing in our actions and in our attitudes. So often we actually believe that salvation is based on something we have to do as well. So often we are also like this. We are like the man that looks at the cross and says, it's almost enough. It's almost enough. But Paul, by the grace of God, saw right through this. He was seeing exactly, these guys are not being true to the truth of the gospel. They're being, just acting in a foolish way actually. It doesn't make sense. Why are you doing this now Peter? So if I just quickly read from verse 11, just to give you guys the story from Paul's perspective. But when Cephas, that's another name for Peter, came to Antioch, I posed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. You see, he used to share with them. But when they came, he began to withdraw and withhold himself from them, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined in the hypocrisy. The other guys also started doing this. with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I, Paul, saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas, I said to Peter, in the presence of all, because his sin was public, if you, being a Jew, lived like the Gentiles, and now, like the Jews, and not like the Jews, how then is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews? So as we look to our actual passage verse 15 to 21, we see that Paul is addressing the sin of Peter. And he's addressing it while he's writing to the Galatians, because they are stuck in exactly the same thing. In Galatians, there was this Judaizer that's saying, guys, yes, you started in Christ, but you need to complete it with circumcision. You need to actually complete it by keeping the law. But what is the big problem here? Why is Paul so upset? You know, because Peter just sort of removes himself from eating of one of them, and associates himself. Well, let's look at our text, and we're going to read from verse 13 to verse 21. We are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I die to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and who gave himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Lord, then Christ died needlessly, pointlessly. Paul is showing us in this section, and he's showing Peter specifically, the foolishness, even the craziness of going back to works after you've been saved. He's showing us and he's giving us four reasons why it doesn't make any sense, it's foolish, to think that you can now keep yourself by works if you've started by faith. If Christ has actually saved you, how can you now just go back to works? And when I say going back to works, what I mean with that is, what I mean with that saying, going back to works, is to say that you think that your relationship, the love that God has got for you, is based on what you do. So if you do the right things, God loves you more. And if you do less things, or the wrong things, God loves you less. That is that kind of thinking I'm speaking about. That's going back to works. That is basing your relationship with God on works. And it could be works of the law or your own law. And that is exactly what these Judaizers were doing. That's exactly what they were doing. They would say, yes, we definitely have to have faith in Christ. But that's not all. We need to be circumcised. We need to keep this law. We need to keep that law. And, and, and, do, do, do. This is all the things you need to think and get done with. And then you will be, your relationship with God will be right. That's what these guys were believing. And when you look at this passage, the first reason we see why this is so foolish is because we started by faith in Christ. We didn't start by works. Let's look at verse 15 to 16. We are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ, even we have believed in Christ, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law. Since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. And Paul here is saying, you know, we started by faith. We were saved by faith. We were justified by faith. We were not justified by works. That is his point. And when you look at this first scene, you see there, he says, we are Jews. He's saying, Peter, you and me, Barnabas and other Jewish guys are now eating with all the Jews. We are all Jews. Naturally, we were born Jews. We are not from among the sinners, from among the Gentiles. We are this elite group, according to your buddies. That's what they would say. They would say, we are this elite group. We are sort of sacred. We're not sinners. We're not Gentiles. And that's why he uses that word sinners there. It's not just somebody that is actually in sin. This is a term that they use to deride and to just speak against the Gentiles. This is name-calling. that the Jews that Peter was fellowshipping with and friends with would have given the Gentiles. They would have called them, you guys are just sinners. The Gentiles, you are out of law, you are lawless. That's what they would say. So what Paul is saying is saying, remember Paul, Peter, me and you, we are Jews. Nevertheless, knowing the truth, knowing that a man is not justified by faith, not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we, this group that your buddies are saying is so, you know, elitist, even we believed. Even we were not saved by the law. So Peter, how can you now say the Gentiles need to be saved by the law? How can you now say You know, we didn't start this way. How can I say, no, no, no, no, no. The Gentiles, they need to be circumcised. They need to follow all the little earthen steps. That's what Peter's point, Paul's point to Peter is here. We are Jews, but even we did not start by the works of the law. Even we were justified, even we were justified through faith in Christ Jesus. And you just see how many times he uses the word, they justified. That word means to be declared right. In this context, it means to be declared right. Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ Jesus. It is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner righteous or right, without sin, in Christ Jesus. Before justification, the sinner is guilty. He's guilty before God. He's guilty under the law. The law looks at the sinner and says, you're guilty. But then, through union with Christ and through faith, God can actually say, no, no, no, now he's not guilty. And when the Supreme Judge has spoken, who's going to say now, no, no, no, this person is guilty. No, he should put his hammer down and say, God, not guilty. And the person can walk free. There's no one that can argue and say, you know, who's going to condemn? If God has set us free, who's going to say, no, no, no, I know that guy is guilty. When God says, no, no, no, he's not guilty. And that's justification. Justification is God saying, we are not guilty. And it's clear through this passage, it's through faith. In fact, Paul even tells us in three different levels, it is only through faith. And it is not through the works of the law. Three different levels. The first one is sort of just in a general sense. Look at the end of verse 13. It says, nevertheless, knowing that a man, that's very general, just a man, not a specific somebody, just a man is not justified by the works of the law. Generally, no one is justified by the works of the law. But then he goes very specific and he picks the best group, the only people that might have fought out by law, the Jews. Only the Jews might have thought, OK, maybe we can actually get there by keeping the law. He says, no, no, no. Even we, the Jews, even we, like he says, even we believe in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ Jesus and not by the works of the law. So generally, this is true, specifically of the best possible group that it could have been, that maybe might have had the law, It's true. And then universally, then he makes it a universal statement. Look at the last little section there. He says, by the works of the law, no flesh, no flesh will be justified. No one that is a human being that's got flesh can justify themselves by the works of the law. So what is he saying? He's saying generally, Specifically, universally, justification is through faith in Christ Jesus, not by the works of the law. And if that is true, Peter, and you know it is true, that's what he's saying to him. We know, me and you, Peter, this is true, and we know this is true. How can you now say, no, the Gentiles need to do it by law? How can they now go and live with this guy, and that's their view? Their view is, no, the Gentiles need to be circumcised. It doesn't make sense. It's foolish. If you started by faith, you think you're going to complete by works. And that's exactly his point in 3 verse 3. Look at chapter 3 verse 3. When he's writing to the Galatians, they're doing exactly the same thing. And he says, you are, are you so foolish? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Having begun by the Spirit, by the new person, are you now perfected by doing stuff in the flesh, and specifically here is referring to circumcision?" He says, no, it's foolish. Peter, you've been foolish. And us, if Peter and Paul could not get it by works of the law, how are we going to get it by works of the law? No ways. But so often in our actions or in our attitudes, that's exactly what we do. That's exactly what we do. We know that we are saved by faith, but then when we actually live, it's like we think it's by works. When something wrong happens to us, the first thing we think is, ah, what did I do wrong? Why is God upset with me? What's the thing that happened? What must I do now to get all of this fixed? No, no, no. If Paul was like that, just imagine how Paul would be up and down, up and down, up and down. Because one time he's in the ship, being shipwrecked. Another time he's standing in Mars Yule, speaking this amazing sermon. I mean, Paul in Philippi, he's sitting in a stinking dungeon. His hands are in his gut, his feet are in stocks. He's in the middle of the dungeon, the worst place there is. And what does he in silence do? Praise God for seeing. That's what, if you understand this, that's what you can do. You can be in a dungeon and praise God. So that's his first point. We started by faith, not by works. Then if we look to verse 17 and 18, we will see, because the reason why this is foolish is because it leads to condemnation of Christ. Think about that. It leads to condemnation of Christ and leads to condemnation of yourself. But if we, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Remember, Paul is speaking here to himself. about himself and about Peter. He's speaking about the we, still. And that's the people that's now searching, they're seeking to, they're endeavouring, the ESV says, to find justification in faith in Christ. That means they've rejected the law. They've put the law on our side. They're saying, no, it's not by the law, it's through faith. And now what's happening is, you know, now they're being found to be sinners. So what does that mean? What does it mean that Peter and Paul is now found to be sinners? Does it mean somebody was running in some place and saying, Hey Peter, Paul! What are you guys doing? That's sin! No, that's not what it means. It's not that. The key is the word that's used again. It's the same word that's used in verse 15. When these Judaizers are saying, you know, we are not Jews by nature, but we are not among sinners like the Gentiles. We are not the Gentile sinners. What Paul is saying is, let me see if I can explain this. He stopped trying to keep the law and to be justified by it, through the law. He's now actually eating with the Gentiles. And now Peter's buddies are saying, ah, you guys, you're just like the Gentiles. You guys are sinners. So, while Peter and Paul have now been seeking to be justified through faith, other people are calling them sinners. The Judaizers are calling them sinners. And this is now Paul's point. He's saying to Peter, you know this is true. You know this is what they're saying of us. Are they correct? Are they right? Because if they are right, then is Jesus a minister of sin? Because Jesus ate with Gentiles. Jesus ate with the Tashkulites and the sinners. Same word. Same word. Jesus said, we don't need to keep the law to become part of Him. We need to believe. But these guys, your new friends, are saying, no, we need to keep. Jesus said, no, it's through believing. They say, no, it's through keeping. Jesus said, you become one with me through faith. And they say, no, no, no, we become all one through the Lord. Who's right? Is Jesus the minister of sin? Or are they the ministers of sin? That's Paul's point here to Peter. If you say, no, no, no, we don't need to You know, people don't become part of one body through faith. They actually need to do things to become part of one body. What you're saying is Jesus is a liar. You're saying he's now a minister of sin. And then he goes on and he says, For if I rebuild what I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. If I rebuild that which I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgression. And MacArthur says here, by using the term we, and he's been using we from verse 15 all the way to verse 17, he's basically, it's like he's softening, he's graciously identifying himself with Peter and saying, you know, it isn't actually just you Peter that's doing this, but I'm putting myself worth you. And now he even goes further, he's even more gracious. And he gives a personal, hypothetical example. He's saying, and let's just say, if I'm doing this, Peter. But actually what he's doing is, he's showing Peter, this is what you're doing Peter. You are the one that's actually rebuilding something that you in the past have destroyed. You are the one that's actually showing yourself to be a transgressor now. So he's softening the blow by putting himself in there. So Paul is saying, if anyone, if anyone, it's a hypothetical case, even I or you Peter, if anyone of us should be rebuilding this specific thing, if we have broken it down, we've destroyed it, we've tear it down in the past, then what we are doing is we're proving ourselves to be a transgression. Now there's a change of word, that's not sinner anymore. This word transgression is somebody that knows the right thing, he knows what's the right thing to do, but he doesn't do it, he does the opposite. It's somebody that knows there's a line and he goes and he steps over it. Somebody that actually knows the truth and he's doing exactly the opposite. So what is Paul saying here? What's the thing that's now being rebuilt through this whole situation, the background here, that has been destroyed in the past? Well, it is just a legalistic system. It's a system of worth, rights, righteousness. that Paul and Peter, both of them, are destroyed. When Peter got saved, he definitely did not say, it's by Christ and me. No, he said, it's all just Christ. And that's what Peter preached. Over and over, he preached this to the Jews, he preached it to the Gentiles. That was Paul's ministry, to go and break this thing down. And Peter as well. But now, through Peter's actions, what he's actually doing is, he's rebuilding the Spanish system. He's actually now rebuilding what he in the past has destroyed, by putting his faith in Christ and by preaching the gospel, the three gospels by grace. Now, Paul is saying, but Peter, you're rebuilding this thing. And you know this is wrong. You're actually just proving yourself to be a transgression. It's not Jesus that's the minister of sin. It's actually you that's in sin, Peter, by thinking this way, by acting this way, by actually associating yourself with these guys that holds to this position. And how about us? How about us? When we were saved, what we said to Christ was, I'm poor in spirit, the Beatitudes. I need forgiveness. I cannot save myself, there's nothing in me. But do we then, after we have been saved, do we then say, well, now I need to keep it. Now I need to do these different things. Do we sometimes act like Peter, in our actions? No, we are saved. We are saved by grace. We don't keep ourselves saved through works. We should not rebuild this thing that we've broken down when we've put our faith in Christ, initially. Like Paul says in Philippians 1 verse 6, For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. He does not say, he who began a good work in you will leave it for you to perfect it until the day of Christ. Now He will do it. God is working in us. God is the one that's building this in us. It's not by our own works and our own doing. Now this brings us to the third point of Paul. And this is glorious. This is beautiful what we're going to see now. He's been arguing more negatively. Now it's going to turn to positive argumentation. So let's look at verse 19 and verse 20. He says, Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live, in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. In verse 19, it's a little hidden in our English translations, but actually the I there, for through the law I died, it's emphatic, it's in the front of the sentence. Actually it's more saying, for I, through the law, died to the law. And it's such a strong I there. that it seems like Paul is turning from this hypothetical case of him and Peter and turning to himself. It's like he's saying, Peter, you are rebuilding the law through your current association of this people, but I have actually died to it. I have died to the law through the law. How is that possible? How does someone die to the law through the law? How does someone die through the law? I mean, how does this work? How does someone die through the law? Well, the law said the following, if you sin, you have to pay a penalty, and that penalty is death. When you sin, what the law is shouting out is, give him the death penalty! Kill him! The only way you can die through the law, to the law, is by actually dying. But actually, somebody needs to die. There's a penalty with sin. And somebody needs to die. That's how it's through the law that we die. Because the law actually stipulates this. The law says, if there's sin, there's death. If there's sin, there's death. But how did Saul actually die? How did Saul actually die? And it tells us, we don't need to guess, it tells us in verse 20, I have been crucified. Saul says, it's through crucifixion. This is how I died. I was crucified. And then he says, with Christ. I've been crucified with Christ. Well, does that mean Saul was one of the other two brothers next to Christ standing? No, no. It's through what we call union with Christ. Saul was in Christ when Christ died. God thinks of every single person Every single believer, every single person, every single believer, before the cross, during Jesus' time, even unto the end, as if they have died with Christ. In Christ. In union with Christ. Saul died. Saul died with Christ. In Christ. And that is how Saul is now dead to the law. That's how he's dead to the law. He's died to it. And I need you guys to drag your minds around, shake it, because this is so difficult to understand, but it's so glorious. So keep working. And Paul so many times himself says, you know, I am in Christ. And Christ is in me. This thinking of the fact that we are united with Christ. We are in Christ. That's the only way how Paul can say, I have been crucified. Paul himself was never physically crucified. This is the only way it's possible. It's in and through Christ. So God thought about me and you as well, as having died to the law in Christ. Having died with Christ. And then when we believe in our actual life, God then comes and He actually unites us to Christ through the Spirit. And we see this in 1 Corinthians 12. Our union with Christ then actually becomes a reality. Not just something that God was thinking about when the cross was happening, but something that's actually true of you now. You have been placed in Christ, and Christ has been placed in you through the Spirit. There's a union that has taken place. There's a oneness now. It becomes something that is real now for us. And therefore, because we have died with Christ, Paul can shout out, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Those who are in Him have no condemnation, because the condemnation of the law, the death, has already been died. Saul is dead. And now to go back to the law, it's like going back to the grave. It's going back to the place where you just died. And if we were dead, but now we are alive, You don't want to, you know, go back to the dead. You now want to live. If you have died, but you're still alive, you're beginning a new life, you actually want to live. And that is exactly what Paul's point is. He says, we have died for through the law, I have died through the law, so that I might live to God. The death didn't just happen so that you can stay dead. The death happens so that you can live. You didn't die with Christ so that you can just stay in the grave. You died so that you could be raised with Him. To live for God. And you didn't... You weren't raised so that you could live for yourself. Either. You are now to live for God. To God. We died so that we could live. We died so that we could live. How does that work? How do we die so that we could live? I mean this... This is mind-boggling kind of stuff. Well, Paul again, he answers us. He gives us the reason. He explains it to us in verse 20. So he explains the second half of verse 19 in verse 20 again. He's saying there, and I like the way that King James actually puts it. He says, I am crucified with Christ, yet I live. So what Paul is saying is, I die, I live. What? Well, you just said you died, now you say you're living. He says, yes, but not I, Christ in me. There is a new person that's living. You can put it like this, Saul died, but I Paul am alive. The old person is dead, the new person is alive. The old person and its old nature has died on the cross with Christ. Saul is dead. And the birth of a new person has happened. Paul is alive. You see, in our union with Christ, we don't just die with Him. We are raised with Him, like I've said, from the dead. And we are raised so that we would live for God. We were born again in Christ, in union with Him. The old person, the old person was under the law. The old person was in the kingdom of Satan. He was a slave of sin. The new person, he is in Christ. He is in the kingdom of God. He is a slave of righteousness. Romans 6,000. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. The old things is gone. They all die. Saul is dead, Paul is alive. And that is why he continues and he says, Paul says there, it's not just, it's not I that's living anymore, even though I'm alive, it's Christ that lives in me. Christ, He lives in me. So we have died of Christ, but we have been raised of Christ. The old person is dead, but the new person has come. And that new person is indwelled by Christ through the Spirit. And Christ works the fruits of the Spirit in that person. Because Christ lives in Paul, he can say, I can do all things. And he's talking about obedience there. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Because Christ is living in us. In Christ we are dead to the law, and in Christ we are alive to God. That's what verse 19 is saying. You don't live to God through the law. You live to God through Christ. The law was not given so that you could be justified by it. Christ was. The law is not given so that you can be even sanctified by it. Christ is. The law is not the thing that helps us in our sanctification. Christ is. And both justification and sanctification becomes yours through your union because you are part of Christ. And that becomes true of you because of faith in Christ. Paul in verse 16 was telling us, and he was showing us, and we've seen it clearly, justification is through faith. But in the rest of verse 20 he's telling us, sanctification is through faith. But it's empowered by a new person that's living in you, Christ in you. Now you might say to me, wait, wait, wait. You are saying, it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. So does it not mean that I can just live the way I want? Can't I just do what I want? I mean, if it's not based on me, if it's based in Christ, and it's because of His union that I'm justified and I'm even sanctified, then I don't need to live for God anymore, do I? If He's the one that's doing the living. And Paul answers this kind of a question in Romans 6, and I need you to shake your head again. He says, no, may it never be! How shall I, who died to sin, still live in it? And then he continues and explains, in verse 5 he continues, if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, then we were with him in death, we're not just going to stay there. He says, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Certainly there will be a new person rising. You see, Paul says your logic is right. If it is based on Christ, and I have to listen carefully, if it is based on Christ, then we can live the way we want to. If it is based on Christ, then we can live the way we want to. But Paul also says, you need to see the full picture of our union with Christ. We died with Him, we have been raised with Him. The old person is dead, the new person is alive. Yes, you can live the way you want, the way the new person wants to. But you cannot live the way the old person wants to. To put it the way Paul puts it, or could put it, is, yes, I, Paul, because I'm united with Christ, because I'm a new person, I can live the way I want. But I cannot live the way Saul wants. I cannot live the way the old person wants. I'm a new person, there's a new person with new desires living in me. You see, when we are in Christ, the old person is dead. How can you say you want to live like him? He's dead. He's gone. And a new person is alive. The old nature is dead and the new nature is alive. The old things have passed away. Behold, the new things have come. The old person was a slave of sin under the Lord. The new person is a slave of God for righteousness. You can live the way you want. But you cannot lift away the old person. And that's exactly what Paul actually tells them in Relations 5 verse 1. Just turn there, it's two pages long. Relations 5 verse 1. And you can keep your finger here because we're going to go to another passage soon. It was for freedom that Christ set you free. He set you free. Go left, be free. Therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to yoke of slavery. You have been set free to live the way you want. But you cannot live the way that the old person wants. But now you might say to me, I know, I know I'm in Christ. I know I've been united. I understand my justification. I understand that the old person is dead and I'm a new person. But the old person feels so alive. The old person feels so alive in me. There's sometimes these desires that I have to sin. And that's exactly, when you follow the whole argument of Paul in Romans 7, that's exactly what he deals with. He says yes. Christ even said this. He said the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. And Paul goes and he deals with how we struggle in the flesh. And I don't have the time to fully explain this, so this afternoon if you're confused, go and read Romans 6 and Romans 7, all of it in one sitting. And just follow the argument. But what I can say for now is, though we have the old person is dead, we've got a new nature in Christ. We still have the flesh. We still have the flesh. And this flesh is still subject to sin. And this flesh is still corrupted by sin. and that is why in Galatians 5 after he said Christ has set you free in verse 1 he tells him in verse 13 so look at Galatians 5 verse 13 for you that were called for freedom you were called to freedom brethren only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh and then he goes on a little further down he says but I say walk by the spirit And you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. What about the spirit? For the flesh sets its desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. There is a battle that is taking place in you. The near spiritual person is fighting against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another. So that you may not do the things that you please, things that the flesh pleases. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer under the law. It comes back to the same point. How do you do that? How do you not carry out the desires of the flesh? I'm going to finish soon here. Paul goes on there, if we go back to chapter 2, verse 20. He says, I've been crucified with Christ. There's no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself up for me. You see, Paul says, I know, I know we have to live, and we have to live in the flesh. But it's Christ that's living in me. And even this life, this battle that's taking place in me, I fight it through faith. And the object of that faith is the Son of God. I fight it through faith in Him. And I look to what He has done for me. I see His love. How He loved me. And how He gave Himself up for me. Paul is saying, I can fight this fight. I can run this race. I can win it. Because Christ is in me. I'm a new person. And because of faith, I can see what He has done for me. And what's amazing is, Paul doesn't say there, He loved us. And He gave Himself up for us. No, he's very personal. He says, no, Christ did this for me. He's saying, wow, look what He's done for me personally. He loved me. He gave Himself up for me. And that is my motivation. That is the thing why I want to live. I don't live so that God would be pleased with me. I don't do the things that I do so God might be more satisfied. I see He already loved me fully and He was willing to send His Son for me. So even sanctification, comes through faith, comes through faith in the Son of God. And if we just sum up what we have seen in these two verses, we have seen first, it is our union with Christ that sets us free from the condemnation of the law. We are no longer under the law, we are not under the power and the condemnation of the law. It is also, secondly, in our union with Christ that enables us to live for God, because it is Christ that is living in you, through the new person. And then lastly, we see it's by this union with Christ that we are motivated to live for the one who loved us and gave himself up for us. And then just to complete the last verse, verse 21, it says, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. He's saying, Paul, Paul is actually saying to Peter, Peter, our union with Christ is through grace. Everything that I'm speaking about is the grace of God. I don't nullify the grace of God. But when you say we need to add in works, you're actually nullifying. You're making God's grace nothing. You're making it zero. You're making it useless. And you're actually making Christ's death pointless. Needless, he says. It wasn't necessary if we could do this by works. Now you might say to me, oh well, I know that. I know we need Christ's death. I know we need to trust Him in faith. But don't we need to add a little something in there? Something from our own. Some work that we need to do. Well, Paul answers in Romans 11 verse 6, he says, If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. It's no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, if it was on the basis of works, grace would no longer be grace. You cannot say it's by grace, I'm saved through faith, and by works. As soon as you add works in there, grace just goes away, there's no more grace. You cannot receive something that's free by paying for it. It's foolishness. You nullify, you're making God's grace zero, you're making the cross seem needless, pointless. And when you've removed God's grace, and when you've removed the cross of Christ, there's no hope for salvation. There's no way you can be saved without the dress of God and the cross of Christ. So Paul tells us, don't be foolish, don't be almost crazy. By going back to works after you've been saved, because you did not start by works, you started by faith. Because if you do that, you're actually saying Christ is a sinner. You're actually just showing yourself to be a transgression. Because of your union with Christ, This is not true. Everything about your salvation is because of the union of Christ. And because if you add in works, you nullify grace. And you make Christ needless, pointless. Now how about you? Where are you tempted to be like Peter? And Peter wouldn't have said this. Never. Peter didn't believe this. But he acted it. His attitude was like this. And where are we tempted to be like that? To have this attitude that actually says, looking at the cross and saying, well, it's great, but it's just not great enough. And I want to give you just a few specific examples. And if these hit you, they might just be hitting the guy next to you as well. So don't think I'm being personal. I just want to love you and show you some other stuff. When everything goes well in your life, everything is just beautiful, and then suddenly, BAM! An accident, sickness, something happens. What do you do? Is it like, ah, God loves me less. What have I done wrong? What do I need to go and fix? Or is it, no, no, no, if this happens, God loves me just like he's loved his son. And therefore I know this is for my good. Because when you say, no, no, no, when this happens, it must be something that I've done wrong. What you're saying is, it's by works. What you're saying is, Christ didn't do enough in the end. Or the opposite, everything just goes well and there's no, bam, it just goes well. Are you saying, wow, this is because I'm just doing so well, I'm just, I'm keeping low, I'm stellar performance against the Lord. No. No, it's all because of grace through Jesus Christ and your union with Christ. God can only look at you and say you're sinless, you're spotless, you're free, because you're in Christ. And the last one, repentance. We have to repent, don't we? If we sin, We have to feel, God I love you, I want to live for you, I don't want to be in this sin. You want to repent, you want to confess it, you want to turn away from it. But let me sketch this scenario for you. Let's say you've got a friend. He's in Christ. He believes the gospel. He gets into a small accident. Gets out of the car. Sees the other guy. They start talking. Start arguing. Now they start swearing one another. They start getting into a fight. Another guy pushes your friend into the road. Accidentally a bus comes. Gone. Dead. No time for repentance. And Jesus Christ said in Matthew 5. If you call your brother names and you're angry at him. You are guilty to go to hell. You have to go to hell. Where is your friend? Do you know? Who is in heaven. And why do you say what you say? Your friend is in heaven. He is in heaven because if he is in Christ, Christ has already soaked up all the wrath of God. He soaked up everything that hell could be for him. He is united with Christ. God loves him like he loves his own son. Even that son of arguing and calling somebody names, that deserved to go to hell, was taken up in Christ. Christ drank that wrath to the very end. So don't live your life as if the cross was not enough. Don't look at your Bible and you actually see all these amazing events and you put your faith in Christ and then when something goes wrong or something goes right, you think it's because of you. No. Put your trust in the finishment of Christ and you being united in Him. Let's close in prayer. Lord we thank you for your word Lord and Lord I know these The truth is beyond me to be able to explain, Lord. I cannot... I cannot communicate this the way I want to, Lord. And Lord, I pray that You would, through Your Spirit, work in the hearts of these people, Lord, that they would understand just this amazing truth that we are justified in Christ, and that we are even sanctified because Christ has made us a new person. And now we can live in that new person, Lord. Help us not to live like the old person, Lord. Help us not to give an opportunity to the flesh, Lord. and help us to put all our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ and in the cross and in us just being one with Him. I pray this in the name of our Savior. Amen.