We are going to begin in verse 15. Galatians 2.15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, so that 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 are found to be sinners is Christ then a servant of sin certainly not verse eighteen for if I rebuild what I have torn down I prove myself to be a transgressor For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I that 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. Now I want to start this morning by challenging you a little bit on something because there was a bell that continued to ring in my head this week, particularly these verses that we read, 15 through 19. I assume that many of you have read that time and again I have and I've worked through Galatians before but What I want to get at is that there are probably some here this morning that are not in the word as much as they need to be. That regular scripture reading is not part of your life in the way that it needs to be. And if that's the case, you're missing out on one of the means of grace that God has given to bring you close to himself. But even if regular scripture reading is Part of your habitual life What may not be and what I want to challenge you with before we look at the text is that to read the scriptures for the time that you're going to do that and to not try to understand what they say is sometimes not that helpful and I don't know if you understand this or not, but There are a lot of things in the Bible that are easy to get at. I mean, easy to understand the first time you read them through, but there are a lot of things in the Bible that are not easy. They require some work. And really, some of you have heard me say this before, and it doesn't originate with me, But really, there are two ways to read the scripture and to deal with the scripture in my mind. And we will term them, you read the scripture with your boots on and you read the scripture with your boots off. And what that means is that sometimes we just go through and read the scripture for the pure enjoyment of reading the scripture. We just read a few chapters or a book or something because it's something that we get a lot out of. But then when we read the scripture with our boots on, we've got our notepad or our electronic device next to us, and we have our study materials, and we work to understand what it is that God is telling us in his word. We go deeper. And both of those are appropriate. But I dare say that if I were to, I'm not going to do this, because this text, honestly, particularly this first part, is tricky. Dare say that if I were to ask you what this text meant That some of you would read down through it and give me an answer this morning And while that might be okay What you need to do is not do that on a lot of things just in your own personal life. You need to You need to work at it because honestly The reason for that is, and I'm not going to spend much time here, but it did ring a bell in my head. The reason for that is this. All of the time, even after we've come to Christ, you have to determine what it is that's the authority in your life. What do you base how you live on? If you're not regularly in the scripture and trying to make application about it. So when you're in the scripture, you want to know who God is. You want to know what he's done. You want to know who you are and you want to know what that means for you. Those are the questions that you need to be asking as you're in the scripture. And if you're not regularly asking those questions if you're not regularly dealing with those things then you are basing your life on something other than what God has revealed for you to base it on. It's just that simple. It really is. It's just that simple. And we can say well I'll base it on things that I've heard before. Yeah but other things creep in there and we're dealing with a book which is where I'm going with this. where people have fallen into false teaching, right? What's happened here is that these people got the gospel and it got twisted. And it got twisted by some folks coming in with some ideas about the way things are and saying, well, what you said was good, but we're just going to add a little bit to that. And we want you to think about these things. When we get over into chapter three, we're going to see Paul saying, you foolish Galatians, who bewitched you? The way that you get bewitched is that you are kind of just living your life, you know? You're a Christian and those kind of things, read the word, hear some sermons, do some things like that, but you're not actively engaged. You're in a right position then for somebody to come and get you and twist your thinking. And the other thing is you say, well, that's not going to happen to us because we're in fellowship, we're in a good church with people that teach the word. I hope so. That's our desire. But if you're depending on me to stay orthodox and with the faith, you should be very afraid because I'm fallible, just as fallible as any of you guys are. We need each other. If you depend upon me to tell you all the time what's true and what's not, that's not as good as your trying to determine that and us coming together and talking about that. You've got to be in the scripture. You've got to know what your work life is supposed to work like, what your parenting is supposed to look like, what your marriages are supposed to look like, what your interactions are supposed to look like. The only way you're going to know that is if you're in the scripture regularly. As we come then to the text, verse 15, I have been working out of the ESV translation for a good bit of time, and I like it. I think it's a good translation. However, it does this thing where it puts these subtitles in the text to kind of show you where you are. And the subtitle that I have for verse 15 is justification by faith. Well, in one sense that is helpful because that's what it's talking about there, so that's good. But on the other sense, it's not helpful because it can give the idea that 15 is separated from what happened before. And I think it's not. In fact, I think those two things, the story with Peter, and I'm going to go over that briefly again, the story with Paul's conflict with Peter, I think is directly related to what comes after here. And I've noticed that a lot of people, a lot of translations are separating that, and I think you miss it that way. I will tell you that there are at least two ways, and maybe three, that these verses are taken. Because they're kind of obscure. I just have to be honest with you. They're kind of obscure I've worked with it Now for over a week, and I'm gonna give you the way. I think we ought to take it It doesn't mean that the other folks are wrong, and I didn't hear anybody I didn't look at any commentaries where they took it different where I say I This is not orthodox. This is heretical. I mean these weren't people who were Interpreting these verses in a way that I thought would be ultimately harmful, but at the same time I think there's a best way to do it. And so that's how we're going to do it Before we get into 15 though. We need to tell the story again. So Paul relates this story at Antioch where he is there in the church there with the Gentile believers and Peter comes to visit and and Peter is fellowshipping with those brothers and sisters there at Antioch and they're eating together. Peter is eating at the same table with them. He's using the same dishes. Gentiles are probably even preparing the food using the same dishes, having fellowship one with another. And then there are a group that comes from Jerusalem. Scripture says these people are from James. I don't think that means that James sanctioned them, but I think that they had some connection with him. These Judaizers come down and Peter is afraid that they're going to think badly of him. And so he begins to separate himself from the Gentiles and to eat separately and starts honoring some of the ceremonial law again there when it comes to those things. And it gets twisted enough that even Barnabas gets carried away with it. Paul's partner. And Paul doesn't like this at all. And so he comes and rebukes Peter. And he says, how is it that you, loosely paraphrased, how is it that before somebody was looking at you, it was fine for you to live like a Gentile. And now that these guys are here, you want the Gentiles to start acting like Jews. That's not the gospel. It doesn't have anything to do with anything and we talked about that quite a lot last week well Paul now in verse 15 is going to go on with this and in verse 15 he says we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners Okay, that's a little bit tough for us because we're thinking what does that mean? I mean Paul is writing to the Galatians and he's telling him about the gospel. What is this about Gentile sinners? What is he saying? He's still dealing with this issue with Peter and what he's saying is we were born underneath the covenants. The Gentiles were not. That's all he's saying. So he's not calling all Gentile sinners. He's making this case to the Judaizers and those people that were with Peter at the time. And what he's saying is OK. I'm with you. We are Jews. We have the promises in the covenants. The Ten Commandments were delivered to us. We are Abraham's children. And we're not Gentiles, right? These Gentiles don't know anything about all those things. And throughout all the Old Testament, they were looked at these Gentile sinners. They were not part of the covenant, right? So that's what he's saying. But we need to understand something here quickly before we move on. And that is, I should remind you that this letter, while it is obviously a rebuke of the Galatians, we need to keep in our heads that We know a whole lot more than the Galatians did at the time that this letter was written to them. I want you to think about that a minute. We have the canon of scripture, right? These Galatians were saved fairly recently from the time that this letter was written. And they didn't have the Old Testament. They didn't have the traditions. They didn't have all of these stories except just what Paul gave them. And their tradition had been to worship idols. That's all they knew about. So we have a whole lot more than that when we look at this. But Paul says now in 16, yet we, talking about these Jews, we know that a person is justified by works of the law. is not justified by works of the law there it is but by but through faith in Jesus Christ and what he's saying is is that first of all Jesus when he was on the earth through the through his ministry and in the apostles at Jerusalem made it clear even there that you're never going to please God by keeping the law ever going to please God by keeping the law And now in this book, we have this word justified that's been introduced. And a lot of people talk about that word in different ways, but we're going to use it several times in this passage. So justified, we can say it's made right. Some people would say just as if I'd never sinned to try to remember it. But I want to make it more forceful than that. Justified means that I have gone before the judge as a criminal, and the judge has said, you're not guilty. That's justified. I've gone before the judge as a criminal, and the judge has said, you're not guilty. That's what it is to be justified. And it, of course, has so much more meaning when we recognize that as we have gone before the judge, that we are criminals, And we are guilty. But someone has come to pay for our guilt in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now that's going to be described for us as we move forward in this text. But justification is a good biblical word. You need to know what it means. Now remember, when we go back to what we've already talked about, we're talking about the gospel, which has been changed. And we said salvation is by grace, through faith, plus nothing. We've said we want to talk about the gospel in really simple terms. God is holy. I am not, and I need to be rescued. And that being rescued, that's justification. I'm going to be rescued. from my criminal behavior, from my sin. Paul here is making the case to these that have come and to the rest of us as he speaks that the Jews that have come to faith in Christ have figured out in verse 16 that we believed in Christ and when we did that we also understood that there is no way that we can keep the law. We're not saved by works. So we as Jews understand that that we're justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. And then he ends verse 16 because by works of the law. will no one be justified. That's what he says. OK. Now. We spent a lot of time making some application about that last time. And I'm going to mention it just briefly again now because that concept he's saying you Jews even those that have come down here from Jerusalem to Antioch in this situation. And as I'm speaking to that truth and that situation. I'm also speaking to you Galatians in terms of what these Judaizers are trying to say to you. What's going on here is you cannot be justified by what you do. Now we like that. But I think sometimes maybe we like it in the wrong way. So I'm going to take a little bit different tact on it this morning. What many people that want that preach you are justified by faith alone plus nothing. OK, what many people, the reason they do that is because what they want to say then is you're saved by grace through faith plus nothing. and they preach that over and over again because they're trying to talk people into the idea well that means that really Christ doesn't need to have any effect in your life. Right. You don't need to be sensitive to sin because that would be works and you don't need to worry about what God says about how you live your life because that would be works. You don't need to worry about fellowship with brothers and sisters because that would be works. That's not what that means. All right? So I want to be clear. We are not saved by doing any of those things. We are saved by grace through faith in what Jesus has done for us. But we are not to use that grace and that faith that's been given to us as a gift to say that God doesn't change people's lives. He does. So now we're doing a little bit of the flip side of this and we're going to because when we get to verse 20 that's what that's about. OK. That's what that's about. Verse 20 is the mechanism by which we live the Christian life now. And so a lot of times when you hear people preaching. So I want you to listen for this. Well when you hear people preaching sometimes it's not by works. Don't worry about the Lordship of Christ. Don't worry about any of those things. If you just believe, then you can be saved. That's not what Paul's doing here. Paul is saying that you cannot be good enough for God. You cannot do enough righteous things for God to look on you with favor. You see the difference in between those two things? The difference in between those two things is huge. You need to understand that there's nothing that we can do. We can't keep the law. The Ten Commandments. We can't keep it. And if we've broken it one time, we should be damned. You got that. But what he's also not doing here is saying, all right, you Galatians, that's fine. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. And this was an accusation that was given that was made in Paul's day. And it's an accusation that's made against biblical teaching now. What you're saying is is we have to work. No I'm saying that grace is bigger than you think it is. That's what I'm saying. More on that later. We need to deal with the text. So. He says in verse 16 you Jews understand this right. You Jews that come down here that are saved understand that you're not saved by works either. Now verse seventeen he's still talking about these Judaizers. But if an hour a day endeavors to be saved in Christ we too were found to be sinners. Is Christ then a servant of sin. Certainly not. What does that mean. Well I think it means this. If what Jesus taught is that we don't have to keep the law the ceremonial law. We're unable to keep the moral law. We're unable to do these things to be saved. And we believe that as Jews. If we believe that as Jews. But now you guys are coming in and saying that's not true. You're saying that yes, you do have to keep these things. That you do have to do these dietary laws. That you do have to dress in certain ways. That you do have to do all these things. If Jesus was wrong, then we're all sinners now. right if it requires us to keep the law if we have to have faith yes but we also have to do these things we have to become Jewish we have to be circumcised and we have to do all these things if that's really true then what Jesus taught us in terms of what he was going to do for us in our justification is not true and it means that Jesus himself is backing sin up. He's encouraging us to sin. If these things are really what we're supposed to do, then Jesus is telling us to sin. But what kinds of things did Jesus say? You know, sometimes I wonder about some of these people who want to say, you know, there was a different gospel. You know, it's been a different gospel in the Old Testament. It's different. And then in Jesus time, it's different. And then in Paul's time, it's different. Certainly there was more revelation, but it's always been through faith. that people were able to approach God. Always been through faith. And the thing is, is we remember some of the things that Jesus said, right? It's not what goes in to a man that defiles the man, but it's what comes out. Remember that? Jesus was teaching these things. He broke their ceremonial laws all the time. On purpose. To show them that they didn't mean anything. He healed people on the Sabbath. His disciples would go through the grain fields and grab grain and use two hands and not wash their hands right before they ate it. These are the kinds of things we're talking about. Godly people in the Pharisees' mind and in the Jewish mind did not do those things if they were godly people, if they were God's chosen people. Jesus broke those rules. He did. So when we're looking at this what he's saying here is if we really are to do these things if what you Judaizers are telling these Galatian believers that we have to do then Jesus has made us all sinners because I've been taking all this time teaching them that they're not supposed to do these things that they're just supposed to believe in the saving death and resurrection of Christ. All right. So verse eighteen Paul talks about himself for if I rebuild what I tore down I prove myself to be a transgressor once he's saying it's kind of obscure what's he saying he's saying look we went through all that autobiographical stuff for Paul before right if anybody knew what it was to be a good you I Paul know what it is to be a good you and yet when I came to Christ. I didn't confer with men but Jesus gave me the gospel itself told me what it is and sent me to the Gentiles and here I come to the Gentiles and now what he's saying is if I agree with you Judaizers if I agree that these Gentiles need to become Jewish in nature if I agree with you if I rebuild that which I tore down what he's saying is I tore down a bunch of stuff just like Jesus tore down a bunch of stuff I went through and I said these things are not important Gentiles are part of the covenant promise that was made to Abraham we'll get to that in a little bit they are able to come into relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and they do that by grace through faith plus nothing that's how that happens and if anything else goes on here that we have to add to that if I rebuild that stuff back up so that we all look like Jews again then I'm a transgressor I'm a sinner at that point if I've added to the gospel in any way then I also am a sinner. So first of all, it's Christ. It's Christ. So it's in the verse preceding, it's if Jesus told us that we didn't have to do these things to be saved, if this wasn't part of salvation, then he's a sinner. And then Paul turns it, and he says, if I tell you that these Judaizers are right, and now we must do more than just believe, repent and believe, if we do that, then I'm a sinner, because I've gone against what Christ has said the gospel is. Now more personally, in verse 19, he says, For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. Sometimes we speak against personal experience, right? Because our personal experiences can be different. But while sometimes we need to do that because everything needs to be based on the scripture and God's revealed himself in that, we also don't want to forget often that Experience, in terms of testimony, is a powerful apologetic. It's not the only one, but it is. Experience is something that, when someone gives it to us, can encourage us, can challenge us, can spur us on. I don't know how many times, and many of you can probably say this as well, how many times I've heard someone testify about God's work in their life, and that has been some of the most encouraging things that I've ever heard. I would rather sometimes hear someone testify about the goodness of God in their life and salvation and what he's done Than a really good sermon some days, you know, I mean, it's it's good. It's helpful It's not everything but I think that's kind of what Paul's doing here So he's teaching us a doctrinal lesson, but at the same time he's talking about his own experience and his experience is when Christ knocked me off that horse and told me who he was and and blinded me and then I spent all that time alone with him the result of that was I died to the law how did I die to it through it it killed me how did that happen because I could not in my own mind put it together that I had to keep this law in order to please God because even as good a Pharisee as I was and as zealous as I was even to persecuting the church I couldn't keep it I couldn't do it. And if so that and I was God showed me just putting words in Paul's mouth a little bit that if that was the standard then I'm lost. Because I can't keep it. So what happened. Well he died to the idea that he should keep it. Through the law he died to it He saw it it pointed out his sin. And so what happened? Well, he saw just what we've been talking about God's holy His laws are right and just perfect And I'm not And I need to be rescued That's what dying to the law is through the law he dies to the law Why that I might live to God what's that mean? It means that when I recognized that I needed to be rescued because I couldn't keep this law, when I recognized that, then I had faith that someone had acted in my place. That God himself had provided a way for me to be, we'll go back to our word justified, to be made right with him. God provided a way for that to happen. And now, I'm not trying to keep the law anymore, but I'm alive to a real relationship with the God of the universe. That makes sense. So let's go through this again. We'll just go through it briefly before we get to 20. So that we'd be sure that we've got it. Paul says in verse 15 to these Jews. Look, we're Jews, right? Born by Jews. We weren't Gentiles to start with. But even we figured out that the only way for us to come to Christ and to have a relationship with God was by grace through faith. we recognize through what we knew about god that he is holy that we are not and that we needed to be rescued even we as jews saw that then he says and we know because we've had experience with this our fathers couldn't do it that no one is justified by the works of the law because we can't keep it well then he says in verse seventeen well okay if you guys are right if you know if if i in endeavoring to come to Christ and I'm found to be a sinner because I didn't keep the law. Then what you're saying is is that Christ is a sinner that he is the author of sin. If you're saying that Christ should have preached that we did these things and I should have been preaching that we did these things and now you're twisting these Galatians so that they think they have to come be Jews. If you're going to twist all that in that way, then Christ himself is a sinner and we shouldn't pay any attention to him. Because what's the obvious thing? Paul's going to say it in a little bit. If it was possible for us to please God through all of these things, then Christ is not necessary anymore. That's the issue. If we're going to say that we can be good enough to please God, then Christ isn't necessary anymore. Well, Paul then in 18 says, well, I'm going to be a sinner if I agree with you guys I'm going to be part of your twisting of the gospel of by grace through faith plus nothing because if I rebuild these things that Jesus tore down and now I'm tearing down and I'm saying come to Christ you Gentiles come to Christ come in we're not worried about how you eat your food we're not worried about how you wash your hands we don't care if you're circumcised or not we want you to come to Christ and believe that he has died for your sins and rose again, and that you repent from your sin, you turn away from your old gods and your old life, and you have faith that Christ is able to save you to the uttermost, to bring you into relationship with God, and you begin to walk with him. That's the thing. We don't care if you're circumcised or not. And he said, if I start adding that stuff back on, then I'm sinning. Because I'm adding to that. I'm saying, no, that faith isn't good enough. That repentance isn't good enough. You need to come on further. You need to do these things. You need to look a certain way. Well, then in verse 19, he said, look, this is my own experience. I've been here. I tried to do it. Read Romans 6 and 7. That's your assignment for next week. Read Romans 6 and 7. Because what you'll find there is Paul's experience in his teaching on these things. And what he's saying is, the law killed me. I had to die to that law because I couldn't keep it. I was covetous. And that's how I was found to be. And I couldn't keep the law. But that's good. I need to be able to die to the law to give up on myself and my ability to keep it. And in our context to give up on my ability to look really Christian and to be really holy on my own merit and all those things. I need to give up on all that stuff because I have to die to that so that I can live to God. Now the verse that we quote all the time. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live in some of your translations. There's no longer I that live. But it's Christ that lives in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. All right, we're going to break that down a little bit, but we need to shock you. We need to shock ourselves in the way that the Galatians would have been shocked reading this. When you're about 50 A.D. and someone mentions crucifixion in the same sentence with your name, that is not a happy thought. We use the cross and crucifixion and those things in our terms 2,000 years removed from that and they become more religious kinds of talk kinds of thinking those kinds of things when you had seen over and over again people nailed to those things and bleeding out there This wasn't funny. I mean this wasn't some sort of a religious thing This was a reality and so when Jesus said things like take up your cross and follow me That that was not Metaphorical if you saw a guy leaving town with a cross over his shoulder he wasn't coming back. I That's the way that works itself out. And so when Paul identifies himself with the crucifixion of Christ in this way, that's not something that's a winsome thing that he's proclaiming to these people. That's something that in our flesh would be a hateful thing. We wouldn't want to hear that. Well, now that we got that out of the way, we need to look at what it means. Well, it means the same thing, basically, as he said before. I'm crucified with Christ. That means I died to the law. Through the law, I died to the law. That's first of all what that means. It means that when Christ died, this thing that is me, my flesh, it died too. I died. Now, what's being told you here, it's said a lot of different ways in a lot of scripture, a lot of different things that Jesus said, a lot of different things that others said, but we need to be clear. This is how people become believers, right? You're not crucified with Christ, you're not saved. Just like in John 3, you're not born again, you're not saved. All of these metaphors that are given. It's the same. It's the same thing that's being communicated from different angles. You don't get to be you anymore and come to Christ. OK. There's some good things that God has done given you a personality giving you some common grace kinds of things. But that sinful sinner that you that can't do anything else but sin that has been disobedient rebel to God. That thing has to die. Has to. And we're crucified with Christ. Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ. Why? It's no longer I that lives. You see, being a Christian is, when I come to Christ, is saying, I don't want to live anymore in terms of the way that I have lived. I don't want to be me anymore. Because I see that what I am, there's nothing good there. I'm sick of it. I hate it. God has shown me in his grace that he's holy and that I'm not. And I can't be me anymore and have anything to do with him. And I don't want to because everything that's worth anything to me is all wrapped up in getting to be in a relationship with Him. And for that to happen, I'm going to have to die. I'm going to have to lose all that. That's going to be what it is. And it's not just, we'll get to this, but it's not just wants, it starts wants, but this is something that throughout the Christian life happens over and over and over again. So when you sign up for, I believe this, I want to be one of God's people, this is what you signed up to do. And you say, well, that doesn't sound good to me. Well, that's because you don't understand it. It's the most glorious, awesome thing that you could ever be involved in. God would be gracious enough to save you. And you have to see it that way. Because what did Jesus say? I came to give life and to give it more abundantly. That's what he's saying. This abundant life. This is how you get there. You have to die. So when he says I'm in crucified with Christ, so it's no longer I that lives. But Christ lives in me. Christ lives in me. It's no longer me. I do things that don't make sense for a person who is only interested in his own life and his own interests and his own selfishness. I now live the way that Christ would live. He lives his life through me. You see, the gospel, we started talking about this, the gospel being about justification, right? So I'm made and made right. Well, that's the first part of it, but that's not all of it. If that were all of it, God would have shown immense grace to us, awesome grace to us, but it doesn't stop there. Because now we get to 20, and it's not just a matter of being justified so that I don't have to go to hell anymore, but God is saying, in your salvation, because I've shown you that God's holy, you're not, and you need to be rescued. Part of that rescuing, that's justification, but the other part of that justification is now I, God, am going to live my life through you. You're not going to be what you were before, because I'm going to live my life through you. Now that is something that is it should blow your mind. Sometimes I think we've heard these things enough that they don't. But that should blow your mind. That I'm going to die and someone else is going to live life through me. That's Christianity. In fact I would tell you that's Christianity in its most basic form. That's what it is. Now let's go back to the error of the Galatians. What was happening in this error that was being taught there is not that God would live his life through us. Not that we would become more like Christ and glorify God in the way that he glorified God because he would live his life through us. No. We're going to live our lives again. We're going to start keeping all these rules and everything because that's going to make God happy. We're going to become Jews. We're going to do the circumcision thing. And in our day and time, we do this all the time, right? We're going to have the types of books in our homes that all of the rest of these holy people have so that we can be part of the club. We're going to do the same things with our televisions that all the rest of these holy people do so that we can all be part of the club. We're going to show up to church. We're going to do these things, not any of which is bad, some of which can be very helpful, but that's not what saves people. It won't even get close. And you may start by thinking, when you begin to keep some of these rules, you may start by thinking that, well, this is really good, this is really awesome, I'm part of the club, I see the benefits in these things. But I can tell you from experience that if it's being done out of legalism and law, it will start to get a really bitter, nasty taste in your mouth in not too long. Because you'll find there's no satisfaction in it. Okay. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. But it's not I. Now, this is important. How do I live? The life that I now live, how do I live? How does that happen? By what? Verse tells us. How am I living? Faith. Faith. I'm living by faith. I'm not living by following rules. I'm not living by being circumcised. I'm not living by washing my hands right. I'm not living by doing any of those things. I'm living by faith. That Jesus is who he says he is and that he's done what he says he has done. That's how I'm living. Okay? Now, is that going to change our lives? Absolutely, but from the inside out, not from the outside in. And that's the point that Paul is making here. I live by faith. I believe what he has said. Now, he says then, Jesus loved me and he gave himself for me. So what do I have faith in? Well, this is simplified here. I live by faith in the Son of God. Who is he? He loved me and gave himself for me. So what am I believing? What am I having faith in? That Jesus loves me and he gave himself for me. That's what I'm believing. That's how I'm going to live. Now, 21 is important. We're going to finish there. I don't nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for nothing. Now here's the thing that you have to know. If you think that you can please God because you are such a good person, you have made it so that Christ's death is pointless for you. Let me say that another way. If you think that you are going to please God because you have kept the little Christian-y stuff that we do, and you think that you are going to keep that in that way, Christ's death affords you nothing. Nothing. What is it then? I'm going to nullify grace? You want to nullify grace? Tell me how good a person you are and why God should save you because of what a great, great person you are. There's no grace in that. Paul says, I can't nullify grace. Righteousness doesn't come through keeping the law because I can't keep the law. I don't want to nullify grace. So what do I want to say then? I want to say that I'm crucified with Christ. I have identified with his death and the person that I used to be, God has changed. That person is dead. And the new person is created in the image of Christ through the spirit of God. And now I walk in relationship with him. I live there. I live by faith that what he has said about me because of what he has done, that that is true. I don't look at my own performance and determine that God loves me or doesn't love me based on my performance. I don't look at my own ability to do anything. But I look at the merit of Christ and I say, in my mind, when I'm looking at that, I say, is that enough? And if it is enough, then I'm saved. Praise God. Let's pray. Lord, we are grateful for your word this morning, and we ask now that you would bless our time to come. I pray that you would help your people to dig into this passage that we've looked at this morning, that you would be gracious to them as they think about it. Thank you, Lord, that we don't have to keep the law, but that you did it for us. Thank you that repentance and faith are what you have granted us so that we can walk in a newness of life in relationship with the God of the universe. Gratitude, Lord, is all that we could ever have when we look at it that way. Thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.