We're gonna be in the book of
Galatians if you'd like to turn there. Galatians chapter two, Galatians
chapter two. Paul, in our text, gives us the
hope, the only hope that a sinner can have of eternal life. The only hope. Tells us that
he's clearly declared that justification cannot come through and by the
law. Righteousness cannot come through and by the law, but both
are a requirement if we are to be found in favor with the Lord,
you must be justified and you must be righteous. Otherwise,
it's eternal separation. Otherwise, it's damnation. To be without him is to be doomed,
to be doomed. But justification can't come
through and by the law. It can't come through and by
our law keeping, neither can righteousness. It's an impossibility. When I say impossibility, it
doesn't mean that it is a partial impossibility or it's difficult.
What I mean by impossible is it cannot happen. In no way,
shape or form can it happen. Paul's asserted the source of
all justification, as he's already said, Christ. Christ is our justification. He's the source of justification.
He's the topic of justification. You and I are just justified
freely by his grace, but he's the justifier of his people.
It's almost as if he It's almost as if he was repeating
himself to make sure he wasn't misunderstood. He's repeating
the same thing over and over again. He's saying that he say
it this way, then he turns around and says it this way. It's like,
I'm making sure that this is not being misinterpreted. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is all our justification.
Christ is all our righteousness. There's no righteousness outside
of him. And you have to have his faith to believe. And he's
clarifying all these things. He says this by saying these
words, I am crucified with Christ. That's the title of this message.
I am crucified with Christ. Let's read our text in Galatians
chapter two, verse 17. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroy, I make myself a transgressor. For I,
through the law, am dead to the law that I might live unto God.
I am crucified with Christ. So he's clarifying how he's dead
to the law. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In 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. I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. All the justification of every
one of God's elect is solely, completely, altogether the Lord's
doing, or it doesn't exist. It's the Lord that must do all
the justifying. Every detail of justification
must be completed by him alone, because you and I can't complete
it. Everything pertaining to satisfying God If we're to satisfy
God, it completely is dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, not
you and I. Justification is not an act of
man. It's a work of God. Justification
is not an act of man. It's not something that we do.
It's the work of God. It's the work of the cross. It's
the work of the Father in election. It's the work of the Son in redemption.
It's the work of the Spirit in regeneration. It is the work
of God completely. You and I are just the benefactors
by grace alone. What happened on the cross was
not an attempt by our Lord Jesus Christ that could have failed,
that might have had a different alternative, that might have
had a different outcome. What happened on the cross of
Calvary was our Lord successfully doing exactly what he made this
world to do. The cross was for the main reason,
the only reason for the world was the cross. It was for salvation
for God's elect. That's what this place is for,
this earth that we live on, that we enjoy. God has made everything
for the salvation of his people, for the glory of God. That's
what it's for. That's what it's for. God remind us that Christ is
God. He cannot fail. He cannot fail to redeem, and
everyone that he died for, he successfully redeemed on the
cross. Men will say, you have to do
this or you have to do that, and all they're doing is taking
a man and putting him back under the bondage that we heard the
first hour. They're not free. They're taking him and putting
him back under the law. If a man has to do something to make the
blood of Christ effectual, that means the blood of Christ was
not successful and it's not good enough to redeem. That's what
that means. That's blasphemy. Christ's blood did exactly what
it was supposed to do, the purpose of it. The Lord's not gonna kill
his son in order to, for it not to be successful. We wouldn't
do that, would we? Why would you think God would
do that? God wouldn't do that. But the Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself up freely to save his people from their sin. The Father
was satisfied with that sacrifice and the Father justified his
people, made them the righteousness of God in him. Now because he is the end of
the law of righteousness and because I am crucified with Christ,
that means in him I have fulfilled all the demands of the law. Think
about that. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, not I, it's Christ that liveth in me. In the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. The life that we live
is in him. The scripture says it's in him
we live, we move, we have our being. This is a spiritual matter,
not a physical matter. If I'm crucified with Christ,
meaning whenever he died, I died. If I'm crucified with Christ,
then I have been justified freely by His grace. Because I'm crucified
with Christ, in Him, I fulfilled the demands of the law. In Him,
I lived a perfect life. In Him, I satisfied God's judgment
and justice, in Him. This is what He did on the cross
for His people. This is why it's so foolish to say, men, act like
that the cross is a place where you can come and dump your sin
if you want to. It's your choice. That's not what the cross was
for. The cross was between the Father and the Son. The cross
was for the redemption of God's elect. The cross was on purpose.
It had a purpose and it was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We're no longer obligated to
die because we've died in Christ. Before he is, we've died in Christ.
Now we have to physically die, but not spiritually. That's the
second death the scripture talks about, the second death. This
is an eternal matter, not a temporary matter. The Lord didn't come
to save the flesh. He didn't come to give us sunshine
and rainbows our whole life. I said the first hour, you're
going to be hated, Scripture says, for my name's sake. Because men
hate the truth. They love the praise of man more
than the praise of God. He came to make his people righteous.
He came to justify his people. He came to establish a righteousness
without the law by fulfilling the law on our behalf. And that's
what he did. All this means, brethren, is
his life is my life. His death is my death. His resurrection's
my resurrection. And wherever he sat down, I'm
in him. I'm seated in heaven. His people are seated in the
heavenlies right now. Say, well, I can't see that. We're here
right now. Well, he'll reveal it one day. He'll reveal it.
He's never lost one sheep. They're all there. God's people
have been freely justified by his amazing grace. You know,
that's all past tense. That's all past tense. This is already
over. It's already done. The Lord's
already justified His people. There's not something that we're
waiting on for us to be justified. There's not something that He's
waiting on you to do in order for you to be justified. If you're
His, you're justified right now before the throne of God, before
His holy law. Listen to Romans chapter five,
verse nine. Much more than being now justified. You know, I like that word now.
I bring it up every chance I get whenever I see it. There is now
therefore no condemnation. When is it not now? It's right
now's now and right now's now. It's never not now. Much more
than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. When God sees his people, he
sees his son. This is what being crucified
with Christ means. This is what Paul's talking about.
This is the glorious, I'm gonna call it an act. We can call it
a work of substitution. That's what it is. This is substitution.
This is what we call substitution where He took my sin, the sin
of God's elect, He took your sin and the sin of God's elect
and gave us His righteousness freely by His grace. Nothing,
no requirement whatsoever of me, no requirement whatsoever
of you. Not a work, not a prayer, not a deed, not a thought, nothing. Nothing, as a matter of fact,
if you do anything in order to try to have part in this righteousness,
we heard the first hour, he calls it transgression. Calls it transgression. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. We're
justified by his blood alone. When God sees His people, He
sees His Son, and He is well pleased. Listen to 2 Corinthians
2.15, for we are unto God a sweet saver in Christ. Think about
that. For we, His people, His elect, are unto God a sweet saver,
a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved, in them that
are saved, and in them that perish. They no longer smell like death.
Do you know that? We no longer smell like death.
We no longer have the stench of sin upon us. The Lord calls
it, I can't remember the word he calls it, but the definition
of it's disgusting, that's the word, but I can't remember the
original word. But anyways, abomination. I believe
is what it was, abomination. That means disgusting. That's
what he calls they that have their own sin still yet, and
they're looking to themselves for righteousness. If they have
this trespass, this working iniquity, he says, I hate the workers of
iniquity. I hate them. That's what he tells us in Psalm
chapter five, verse five. People are like, I thought he
was a God of love. He is. In so much, he gave his only begotten
son for a purpose, to save his people from their sin. That's
how much he loved. It wasn't an attempt. He did
it freely by his grace, not leaving it open-ended for you and I.
You ever had something unravel? A shirt, maybe? A sock? I don't know, something. I don't
know how to fix that. I can't fix that. Well, God didn't
leave it unraveled. It's completely finished. It's
over. You don't need to mend it. It's not broken. It's done. We no longer radiate the stench
of sin. We look like him. We smell like him because we're
in him. We're in him. What good news
to a sinner to know that when God sees me or God sees you,
he sees the blood of Christ. He sees his son. He sees perfect
righteousness. He sees true holiness. He says,
I'm well pleased with you. I'm well pleased with you. All
we can see is sin. All we can see is that we smell
ourself, don't we? Metaphorically speaking, you
know what I'm talking about. The Lord's made you a sinner,
you loathe yourself. You see yourself as being a sinner.
You hate the way that you smell. You hate the way that you are.
And it's a metaphor, but we feel it on us. Lord, have mercy. And where do you find comfort?
In trying to clean up your life and do a little bit better? No.
When I hear that he justified his people freely by his grace,
that's whenever I can rest. Whenever I hear that righteousness
can't come by the law, but Christ is the end because he gave his
people righteousness, the end of the law. When I hear that
he satisfied all the demands of God, now he sat down because
he's successful. He's the successful savior of
his people. I can rest then, I can rest then. The Lord took our sin onto his
account. He charged his righteousness
onto our account. What a glorious thing substitution
is. That's what he accomplished on
the cross of Calvary. This was charged to the account of all
God's people. Listen to Colossians chapter two, verse 14, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. The handwriting of ordinances.
Imagine how long that list was. Handwriting and ordinance. We
don't know the sin that we do. Men believe sin is just what
you produce or what you do. Sin is what we are. That's the
problem. So everything we do is sinful. Nothing that we can
do is righteous. Nothing that we can do in and
of ourself is good. And that's the lie of Satan that tells men
we'll live good and do good. You can't because of your sin.
where our bodies are a body of sin. A dog does not bark to become
a dog. It barks because it is a dog.
We sin because we're sinners by nature, by practice, by choice.
But here's the good news. He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, contrary to us, and took
it out of the way, nailed it to his cross. This was done freely
by his grace. This is why grace doesn't need
to be reformed. I saw a sign that said Grace
Reformed Church. Grace doesn't need to be reformed.
It needs to be declared plainly and simply. Doesn't need to be
reworked. No free grace, sovereign grace
of God is perfectly fine exactly the way it is right now. It just needs to be declared.
What does it declare? What does it declare? For by
grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourself, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That
doesn't need to be changed or reformed or spoken differently. It just needs to be declared
simply and plainly. And only the Lord's people are
enabled to believe that. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done. It's not according to us. It's
according to him. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
salvation of his people. He is our justification. He is
our righteousness. He did all the reconciling of
everything that our sin had broke. Our sin broke it. The fall, we
didn't halfway fall. We fell all the way to the bottom,
completely depraved. Being in our father Adam at that
time, we fell in him. No hope of salvation in and of
ourself or anybody else except The Lord Jesus Christ. But listen
to what this says, Romans 5, 10. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Well, how
did he do that? How did he do that? Well, substitution. His substitutionary work on the
cross. I wanna show you that. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
5. Second Corinthians five, look
at verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold,
all things are become new. And all things are of God who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given
us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespass unto
them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, We are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he, God, hath made
him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, his elect, who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Here we have a mystery. A mystery
that of the Lord swapping places with his people, a mystery. You
and I don't understand this fully because our minds can't comprehend
it fully. We believe it because it's in
the word of God. And just as we mentioned, grace
doesn't need to be reformed. This doesn't need to be reformed.
It needs to be declared plainly and simply. And we believe it
by faith alone. This is the glorious truth of
substitution. This is the mystery of transposition.
where they swap places. It's the marvelous transplant
of our sin unto the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness
unto his people. This is what happened on the
cross. He took our sin, nailing them to his tree. He took the
handwriting of ordinances that was contrary to us and against
us, and he nailed them to his tree. This is what he did. And
in doing so, he made us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This is what crucified with Christ
means. This is how he reconciled his people. Perfect oneness back
with God. Perfect oneness. There isn't
a spot. There isn't a blemish. There
isn't a stain. There is nothing that's in between
you and God if you are in Christ Jesus. He sees you as perfectly
righteous and he is well pleased with you. He's only well pleased
if we're in Christ. What do I mean by oneness? Well,
notice verse 17 says, in Christ, therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature, old things are passed away and behold, all
things are come new. When Christ was praying his intercessory
prayer, John chapter 17, verse 23, he said this, I in them, and thou and me, he's praying
to his father. I in them, thou and me, that they may be perfect
in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me and
has loved them as thou has loved me. That's what I mean by oneness.
I in them, thou in me. That's what he did for his people.
Perfect as one. When he sees me, he sees the
blood. He sees me as worthy and not
as I am. He views me in garments as white
as the snow. This is what the blood of Christ accomplished
on the cross. This is what he successfully
did. Now let's read this passage one more time. Verse 17. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things become new.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation,
to it that God was in Christ, God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespass unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Someone asked
me, I've been asked several times since being the pastor here from
different people. I get emails of different things. They want
my take on verse 21. They ask me, what's your take
on verse 21? What does 21, what does verse 21 mean? It means
what it says. This isn't complicated. It means
what it says. Like so many other things, men
want it to say something that it doesn't say or they don't
understand it because they don't want it to say what it's saying.
But it means what it says. It just needs to be declared
plainly and simply. You know, the Old Testament scapegoat
is a perfect picture of what happened here. What happened
to the Old Testament scapegoat? Well, the priest had to go and
confess the sin of the entire congregation to the scapegoat,
and that scapegoat bore that sin in its body and was sent
away bearing the sin of the people. It was gone. The sin of the people
was put, it's transplanted. This is what Christ did, the
same thing. Scripture says he bore our sin
in his body upon the tree. He bore the blame of his people.
He was made guilty, bearing our shame, our sin upon the tree.
If he hadn't been guilty, somebody said, well, he couldn't have
been guilty because that would have that would have tainted the sacrifice.
Understand something. If he was not made to be guilty,
then God would have killed him unjustly. God would have killed
him unjustly. But because he was made guilty,
he literally took our sin and owned the guilt of it. And the
terrors, the scripture says of God, compassed him about. He
was made guilty. And God saw the travail of his
soul and he was satisfied. He was satisfied with the sacrifice
of his son. This is simple logic, yet it's
a mystery to the flesh. It's not a complicated verse.
We just declare it and we believe it by faith alone. Sacrifice
at no time was tainted. wasn't a sinner. He was the sinner
substitute. It's not complicated. Christ
was made to be guilty of my sin, not his own. He didn't have any.
He was perfect. He was sinless. He set apart. Our sin was laid
to a charge, his charge. He drank the cup. You remember
the cup? He kept praying to his father, father, let this cup
pass for me. That was our sin. That was our, he drank the cup
of damnation, the cup of our sin into himself. When he says
that he nailed our sin to the tree, who was nailed to the tree?
Was it not Christ himself? He's the one that was bearing
it, his own body on the tree. That's what 1 Peter 2.14 says,
he bore our sins in his body on the tree, and his righteousness
was laid to our account. His righteousness was laid to
our account." This is what we refer to as substitution. Anytime
you hear me talking about substitution, this is it. We swap places completely. I asked my girls if they understand
what substitution was, and Bethany spoke up. She said, yeah, well,
I get a substitute teacher sometimes. That's a perfect example. The
teacher that was there before couldn't make it in for whatever
reason, so they bring in a substitute, somebody to take the place of
the other teacher. in the room instead of the teacher to do
her job or his job while they can't do it. The Lord Jesus Christ
stood in our room instead because we could not do the job necessary
for salvation and righteousness. Keeping the law is not going
to help us, it's gonna make us worse. So the Lord Jesus Christ
put away the sin of his people by burying them in his body on
the tree. And God was satisfied when he
saw the travail of his soul. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall be satisfied. He shall be satisfied. Only the Lord Jesus Christ could
have put away the sin that separated us from God. Only the Lord Jesus
Christ could have done anything to help us. We're helpless in
and of ourselves. He did it once, he finalized
salvation. This was not in part, this was totally, completely,
100% accomplished. I'd say 110%, but that doesn't
mathematically add. You understand what I'm saying
though. There was nothing left undone. And believing that you
have one responsibility to do something that you produce as
any part of your righteousness is to discredit the entire work
of Jesus Christ. It's not what we do, it's what
he did alone. That's our only hope of salvation. And he said, it is finished.
You know what that means? There's no more wrath. It's gone. There's
no more judgment. It's gone. Do you know why? Because
there's no more sin. It's gone. He said, I'm going
to cast it as far as the East is from the West, never to be
remembered again. I'm going to cast it into the sea of forgetfulness.
The bottom of the sea. Can't find it. Can't find it. It's gone. It's all gone. Pertaining
to God's elect, Christ endured all that was due us. So we're
able to read this, or we're able to quote this verse and understand
what it means. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. Some men will say, okay, that
means I need to walk towards the spirit, and then there'll
be no condemnation. No, you walk to the spirit because
there's no condemnation. You got it backwards. We don't
walk to the flesh anymore because there's no more condemnation.
He took it away. We don't try to fix it anymore.
Walking to the flesh is literally trying to keep the law pertaining
to righteousness. We don't do that anymore. We
walk in the Spirit. Well, what does that mean? We
look to Christ as all. That's what walking in the Spirit
means. He says here, if you look in
verse 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,
old things are passed away, behold, all things become new. He didn't
just put away the sin of his people, but he made us new creatures
also. He says here that being a new creature, any man be in
Christ, well, if I was in Christ when he died, then I'm in Christ
right now, that makes us new creatures in Christ, does it
not? New creatures in Christ Jesus. Being a new creature mean
we're born from above, born of his spirit. Do you remember what
he told Nicodemus? You must be born again. You must be born
again. When God comes to a sinner and
he calls that sinner out of darkness into his glorious light, he calls
that sinner to be birthed, to be birthed. And when that sinner
is birthed, he's made alive, he's a new creature in Christ. He's a new creature right now.
Right now, we are a new creature in Christ Jesus. You say, well,
I can't see it. Well, you won't, it's on the
inside. It's the new heart, isn't it? See, the physical man, the
flesh, cannot receive the things of God. The scripture tells us
why, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. So the
Lord's gonna have to give us a new heart to believe. He's
gonna have to give us faith to believe. He's gonna have to make
us a new creature in Christ, born of his seed, born of his
seed. And that's what he does for the
Lord's people. Look at verse 17 again. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. That's not future
tense, that's right now. Old things are passed away right
now. Behold, all things are become new. What a glorious thought
that the Lord, everything required, he provided in giving us whatever
he requires. Whatever he requires. This is
why we no longer walk to the flesh, but the spirit. So he
births his people. by His Spirit, by His Spirit,
giving them His Spirit. Now we understand spiritual things.
This is why we hunger and thirst after righteousness. We didn't
hunger, did you hunger and thirst after righteousness before the
Lord called you out of darkness into light? No, He gave you a
new appetite, didn't He? He gave you a new desire. He
made you a new creature. That's what He did. This is why
we must have Christ lest we die. Now go back to our text in Galatians. Verse 17, but if while we seek
to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I
build again the thing which I've destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead
to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. but Christ liveth in me. In 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. I do not frustrate, I do not
discredit, I do not cast aside the grace of God, for if righteousness
came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. I am crucified
with Christ. Therefore we are dead to the
law. We died to the law on the cross
of Calvary. Returning back to the law will
only bring further condemnation. It won't bring life, but coming
to Christ? What do you mean coming to Christ?
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith is coming to Christ.
Coming to Christ is the fulfillment of the law because you're coming
by faith. As we heard the first hour, Because we have been made
dead to the law, we've been made the righteousness of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And after the work, you know
what he did? After he did everything I've described this morning for
his people, one time, for all time and eternity, you know what
he did? He sat down. He sat down. This is so significant. In the Old Testament scripture,
you see that the temple never had a chair. He had all these
tables and different things. They never had a chair. The work
was never done. It was day after day after day of sacrifice and
work and sacrifice and work and sacrifice and work. And our brains
still think that that's how salvation's accomplished, our natural mind,
because it can't receive the things of God. What does the
Lord do? He gives us a new mind. He gives
us a new heart. He gives us a new understanding.
He gives us a new, we believe him by faith now. Well, what
do we believe? That when Christ was finished,
he sat down and the work's done. Nothing else is required for
you and I because we are crucified with him. Because he in us, we are in him,
there's perfect oneness. That means we are seated in glory
in him in the heavenlies. Paul said this, and we understand
this now, the sufferings of this life, this present life, are
not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us. What is that glory that's in
you right now? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in
you, the hope of, that's the new man Paul was talking about.
It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Oh, it hungers and
thirsts after righteous. Not like this flesh. This flesh
didn't hunger and thirst after righteous. The flesh hungered
and thirst after the lust of the flesh, didn't it? But oh,
he gives us a new desire to seek his face. The glory is right
there right now in Christ alone. I can't understand that. We see, we can't see it. So we
can't understand it. But the Lord says that glory
is there right now. That's going to be revealed. It's already
there. It's already there. That means nothing can change
it. Can't get it out of you because we didn't put it in us. He did.
I love that. This is all because I am crucified with Christ. Is
that your hope? That's my hope. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would
take these words and bless it to our understanding for your
glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.