I direct your prayerful attention
to the Apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians. Galatians chapter
2 and verse 20. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2 verse 20 In the middle of the Apostle's
teaching to the Galatian Church, and indeed many of his letters,
while he is giving instruction in doctrine, in teaching of the
facts of salvation and the doctrines of the Gospel of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, He also speaks of himself and of his
own experience of the truth and how those doctrines affect him
in his life and how he applies them into his own life. And we may say this does apply
then to all of the people of God, it's not just The Apostle,
the Apostle is able to clearly see it, articulate it, but the
effect of Christ's work in the Gospel is to be known and felt
in our hearts and seen in our lives. It's not just an interesting
historical thing, it's not just something that we have in our
heads and just doesn't touch our hearts or lives, the whole
of the Gospel. It speaks to us as sinners, those
that are walking through this life and we begin it as born
in sin and shaped in iniquity and just following after the
flesh, after our own thoughts and our own desires and our own
ways consulting only ourselves. And yet, by the grace of God,
those that are born again of His Spirit and those that are
converted, they are brought to know, taste and walk in the precious
truths of the Gospel. It is a provision for sinners,
not just for eternity, for heaven, but for life and for the daily
conflict between the old nature and the new nature, our flesh
and what it still desires, like we've sung, and the new man of
grace. And so the Apostle really in
our text is speaking of how he identifies with the crucifixion
of Christ, what that means to him and how it actually applies
to his life. Now in this letter to the Galatians,
the main point of application that he has to the crucifixion
of Christ is concerning the law of God. The Galatians had received
the gospel And he speaks of this in the first chapter. He tells
them of what Christ has done. Verse four, who gave himself
for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world
according to the will of God, our father and our father, to
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And so he sets forth in
the first few verses a summary of the gospel, that substitutionary
offering of our Lord Jesus Christ upon Calvary. And he puts it
in the way, gave himself for our sins. But then he reproves
them and he marvels that they soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, but he says
it is not another gospel. And the whole point that he's
dealing with with the Galatians is they're looking back again
to the law of God to be justified. Their deficiency in their trust
in Christ, in the gospel, in what Christ has done, is seen
in them leaning back to the ceremonial law, circumcision especially,
but the apostle is very concerned that a man is not justified by
the works of the law in verse 16, chapter 2, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Justified means to be counted,
free from guilt, free from condemnation, not justified by the works of
the law, but by the faith of Christ, not by the works of law. For by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And then he says, for if while
we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,
is therefore Christ the minister of sin God forbid? And so on one hand, he's setting
us free from the law. On the other hand, he's guarding
against those who would say that there is no law and we can live
lawless and live just as we like. And this is why, of course, we
read the chapter in Romans, Romans 6, where the apostle had established
that we are saved by grace and saved by faith. and then poses
the question, that shall we then sin that grace might abound? And he answers that, again, with
identifying to the death of Christ, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So everything is coming back
to that. Remember in Corinthians, he said,
when they had a party spirit, and when there's conflicts amongst
them, I determined to know nothing, among you, save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified." Really, the cross, Lord Jesus Christ, His
crucifixion, is the key, the secret of the Lord, which is,
with them that fear Him. It's the central point, the answer,
really, to all questions and puzzles and wanting to know how
we can be saved, how we can be free from guilt, How we are to
live, how we are to deal with sin that remains in our members,
how we are to glorify God, how we are to obey God, everything
comes back to the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Apostle does this with letter after letter answering many different
errors that the Church of God and those in the churches were
putting forth, he always comes back to Calvary and what was
done there. We think of the beautiful chapter
1 Corinthians 15, where he dealt with the error that there is
no resurrection of the dead, and how he proves all of the
implications of taking up with that error. Very seldom is there
just one implication of an error. Usually, it affects many, many
things. You think, if someone was building
a house, and they made an error in the foundation of the house,
that is going to affect that whole building. Everything in
it, just one error. Not just one bit, not just the
foundation, but the building that is on it. I remember many
years ago, one of the chaps I worked with over in Echuca in Australia
on the border, New South Wales and Victoria. And he built a
house and they built the houses there on a slab of concrete.
And the specifications said it had to be six inches thick, a
whole floating slab on the ground. And then they built a house on
it, a wooden frame house. Built houses very different over
there than here. The wooden frame goes up first,
and then the bricks on the outside of that is just a veneer. And in fact, the roof goes on
before even the bricks are brought up. But when he had that slab
poured, he actually decided himself to make it a bit thicker. He
made it eight inches thick. It was just as well that he did,
because though the builders that did it mixed the cement wrong,
and it was not the full-strength cement, and then they noticed
the cracks in it, and they did have to undergird it and put
concrete underneath it. But that one error wasn't found
out until the house was fully built, and there was then cracks
in the foundation. And we find this in the Word
of God. There are no real little errors,
and especially where it is in a foundation truth and concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, there must not be any error at all. We must be very clear about the
relationship that we have with Christ, His death, and what we
understand has been accomplished and done. and identify with that. And this is where the apostle,
he speaks of himself. Regarding the law, the verse
before our text, verse 19, for I, not just someone else, not
just the speaking about things in the third party, but this
is him. I, through the law, am dead to
the law, that I might live unto God. In Romans 7, he explains
how that was, that he said, I was alive without the law once, but
when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment,
which was ordained unto life, I found to be unto death. And so the commandment came and
it slew him, it took away his self-righteousness. the commandment
in all its holiness and purity, it showed him and brought him
in guilty as a sinner. And the Apostle in Romans, he
does give the reason for the law that all the world might
be brought in guilty before God. The law was given that the offence
might abound. The law was given that there
might be condemnation known and fells, and that's why he says
through the law, I am dead to the law, that I might live unto
God. But in our text he speaks of
his relationship to a crucified Saviour, crucified Christ. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. His summary in the next
verse really reinforces what we have said about Galatians
regarding the law of God. He says, I do not frustrate the
grace of God if righteousness come by the law. then Christ
is dead in vain. And this is the same point that
he was covering in Romans 10, where he had these countrymen
that had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, and
they were going about to establish their own righteousness. So what
is upon my spirit this evening is that relationship and how
we may identify ourselves. How do we identify and see how
Paul did with Christ and him crucified? And I want specifically
to think of how it does apply where sin works in our members,
that we also crucify and take up our cross ourselves. I want
to look then at various aspects of identifying with the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord has said that I, if
I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. Right through the Old Testament,
the relationship between sin and sacrifice is established. Right at the very start, when
the first promise was given, the seed of the woman that should
bruise the serpent's head, thou shalt bruise his heel. And then
there was the sacrificing of the lambs, the clothing, the
skins that were provided to cover Adam and Eve. And then right
through the ceremonial law, right through from Abel in his sacrifice
that God had respect unto, but not Cain, there is the pointing
to a laying of sin on another, a substitutionary offering, and
that the law is very clear, without the shedding of blood, there
is no remission of sin. And so he says, I am crucified
with Christ. Now, of course, does not mean
that he was literally, the Lord Jesus Christ, was crucified with
a thief on each side. This is not speaking of the apostle
literally being crucified with Christ at all, but what is put
here, Christ died, and Paul really is saying here that he also died,
or his old flesh died there, that he was crucified there.
That's where his sins were put away. Instead of him dying, Christ
died. But Christ died and he has made
sin for us who knew no sin. And the Apostle puts it in that
way, that he so identifies with Christ, as if he sees himself
there. Christ is dying for him, but
he died there. His whole flesh died there. His
sin was dealt with there. If there was no Christ and no
substitution, then Paul would die for his sin. You and I would
die for our sin, but we would remain dead, because the sentence
against sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And so, our Lord dealing with
sin, He deals with sin, and our old man dies with Christ. He says, I through the law am
dead to the law that I might live unto God. But our Lord was
crucified to fulfill the law, to satisfy the demands of the
law, to satisfy justice, to appease the wrath of God. And the apostle
says, I identify with Christ's death in such a way to say that
I am crucified with Him. My sins were nailed to His cross. My sins were dealt with there. They do not need to be dealt
with by me fulfilling the law, by me dying, by me and my obedience
to the law, Christ dealt with them, and I identify with that
in a way of saying I am crucified with Christ. And we may say that
when Christ died, then the sins of all of his people were put
away. They all, like those pots of
small and great volume, All that were hung upon him,
all fell off, and those sins that were laid on him, they were
put away, they were dealt with, they were punished in his flesh,
and he died once to put away sin. And yet he is said to be
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world in the purposes
of God. And those from Abel to Christ
all died in faith, as Hebrews 11 testifies, that Christ would
come. They saw those promises afar
off and they embraced them. But those promises, they centered
in what the Lord would do at Calvary. If you and I are saved,
then we will identify with Christ and His crucifixion. There will
be our hope. It will be like the Old Testament
saints, that when the lamb was being slain for their sin, they
laid their hand upon the head of that lamb. They identified
with it. That lamb's sufferings, that
death, its bloodshed, was not because of its sin, but because
of the sinner. They saw that death, they saw
that suffering. And so that is the first way
we would identify with Christ's death, as being crucified with
Him, that our sins were laid on Him, and it was just as if
we were dying with Him, and our sins put away when He was crucifying. then is identifying with Christ
as being then dead unto the law. This is his teaching here, that
the law then is of no power against him. In Romans 8, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. If we were
to commit an offence that warranted a fine in this land, and while
that fine was unpaid, that law would be against us. It would
pursue us until that fine was paid. If someone else paid that
fine for us, then the law would be satisfied and we would not
be pursued by the law. There was nothing, we couldn't
be held to prison, we couldn't be required to pay the fine again,
we couldn't have anything held against us because that account
had been settled. And the identifying with Christ
is identifying with the law as being. fulfilled in Christ, the
law as satisfied in Christ. And the apostle identifies with
Christ in that way, his crucifixion and his death. You're not under
the law, but under grace. You're not lawless, not without
law, and all his arguments regarding living holy and godly lives and
upright lives in Romans 6 and in other places. He says the
law was made for not a living man, but a dead man, a transgressor,
sinners. But the people of God, they're
not looking to the law as giving them life at all. It has nothing
to say to them In condemnation and in how to live, they look
to the Gospel, they look to our Lord Jesus Christ. And of course
it is everything that is contained in the Holy Word of God that
is to be the guide and direction for a child of God how to live. But as regards condemnation,
as regards the debt, then there is being dead to the law. But
then he identifies not only in death, but in life. He says, I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live. And he is identifying with our
Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead. That is something we
could never do if we were to pay and put away our own sin,
if that could be so. We would not, we could not rise
from the dead. But our Lord Jesus Christ himself
was spotless and innocent, and that debt being paid for his
people, the assurance of it, he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. So as clear
as the Apostle is identifying with his sins put away on Calvary,
he's also identifying with Christ's life. Nevertheless, I live. You know, if we went back to
Romans 7 and Paul was brought in condemned as a guilty sinner,
if there was no gospel, if there was no hope some other way, if
it was just hope in fulfilling the law, there would be no life. He would have died. Any soul
that is under conviction of sin with no hope set before them
in the Gospel is just utter and black despair. But in the Gospel
there is hope and it is in the risen Saviour. And so he speaks
of a life, a new life. He says, nevertheless I live,
yet not I. not that old nature, not that
which he once was. Because with the Apostle Paul
we have a very clear difference in his life before and after
the Damascus Road. Those that identify with Christ
identify with the old life as dead and a new life living. You do show forth the praises
of him hath called you out of nature's darkness into his marvellous
light. Those that are risen with Christ
in newness of life. And that's what the apostle identifies
with Christ. And he said, yes, it is I, but
it is not me. It's a new me. It's a different
me. and how different it must have
been to see Saul after that conversion as before. The lion turned into
a lamb and a hater of Jesus into a lover of Jesus. You know, with the man that was
born blind, there was much questioning whether he really was the same
man. And he says, I am. He says, I
am. Once I was blind, but now I see. But I am the same man, but I
am very different now. I have eyes to see now. I see
now. In a spiritual way, God's children,
at the new birth, they see, they hear, they feel. They are new
creatures in Christ. They almost don't even bear any
resemblance to what they were before. And so, again, it's identifying
with Christ and a change that is wrought that they are the
same person, but a difference has been made. Job, he speaks
of it, even thinking further of the resurrection, And he says,
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God, whom I shall behold for myself and not another. And he views that God will raise
him up from the dead, it will be a completely different body,
Like Paul reads to the Corinthians, the mortal body, and yet a celestial
body, and yet Job says, it will still be me. It'll still be me. Now if we had a daffodil bulb
and we planted that daffodil bulb that was all shriveled up
and looking dry, and in springtime it came up, that daffodil, would
say, it is still me. I come from this same, same bowl. The butterfly flying around would
say, you see that caterpillar a little while ago? It's still
me, but I'm different now, I've got wings now, and I've changed,
but it's still the same, same one, same thing. You have all
of these illustrations in nature that show something of the creation,
the resurrection, and the difference, and yet being the same person,
but also the change by grace of being the same person, but
a new creature in Christ, living in a different way, living a
different life. And so the apostle identifies
with our Lord in that way. We're not able to do that, ourselves
which is created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. You know if the Lord has wrought
those things in us, if he has made that change, brought us
to see our sins laid on Christ at Calvary, that he has changed
us, and made us new creatures in Christ, dead to the law, alive
unto God, then we should also identify with the Lord in the
ordinances of His house. Some might think, well, what
degrees should we have a knowledge of Christ or His work in us before
we are baptized? Those who are baptized in the
early church they would have needed much teaching and much
instruction to follow, especially the youner, and they weren't
told, well, you've got to wait until you're able to recite the
Westminster or Baptist Confession of Faith or be able to speak
authoritatively on the Scriptures. No, it was those that identified
with Christ because That is what the Apostle, we read it there
in Romans 6, and he explains what baptism is. He says, Know
ye not that so many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ,
were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death. that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. And so in the ordinances of the
Lord's house, in baptism especially, it identifies the candidate with
Christ and Him crucified, His death and His rising again. is a personal profession and
dwelling upon these two things, what has been dealt with the
old life, the sin, and what is made a new creature, how they
are then living in Christ and how they are a new creature in
Christ. Old things passed away, all things
become new. And that then is followed by
the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And again, there's identifying
with Christ in eating the elements, the bread and drinking the wine.
You do show forth the Lord's death till he come. Do this in
remembrance of me. And those who are doing it, those
observing that ordinance, are identifying, they are publicly
stating, my hope for heaven, is built upon Christ and Him
crucified, His blood, His death, His broken body, not my works
of righteousness which I have done, not the law, but Christ's
fulfilling of the law and making it honourable. And so where the
apostle is applying these doctrines, these truths to himself, has
always been the intention of the Holy Spirit, the intention
of our Lord who instituted these ordinances, that that which was
really experienced and wrought in the hearts of His people,
that it be shown forth in those ordinances, and they be reminded
of it, and they glorify Him in showing it forth as often as
they eat His flesh and drink His blood in the ordinance of
Lord's Supper. So may we remember that too,
and if we are partakers and identifying with the crucified Christ, may
we do it as well in the ordinances of his house. Then the apostle says here, he
identifies with Christ living in him. He says, yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me. Now, the Lord had given his promise
to his disciples, to those that believed that he would come and
take up his residence with them. His promise was, and still is,
Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. He's with his people by his grace
and by his spirit that he puts in them. And so the apostle here
says the life which I now live in the flesh. Very clear, this
is the life here below. This is in the flesh, this is
the life that I live. I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That is, that
faith of which in Hebrews we're told our Lord is the author and
finisher of faith. And without faith it is impossible
to please Him, and faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. And it is vital that we have
faith, and are given that faith by the Lord. And faith sees what
eyes do not see. It's the spiritual eyes. It's faith that looks back to
the burdens thou didst bear when hanging on the accursed tree,
Hopes her guilt was theirs, the hymn writer says. It is the faith
that believes the word of God, that what was done there and
the tomb empty, the Lord will honour that, that he may trust
in that. Faith hangs upon the precious
words of God. It believes them. It hangs upon
them. I think in one of Mr. Ramsbottom's
books, he speaks of faith and the tightrope walker who said
to someone, did they really believe that he could wheel a person
in a wheelbarrow across the Niagara Falls on a tightrope? And they said, yes, they believed
that he could do that, but they wouldn't get into the wheelbarrow.
And the thing is with faith, it is a trusting, trusting solely
in what we have faith in. And he's trusting solely in the
work of our Lord and his testimony, his word. Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. And so that life
that he lived was in the faith of the Son of God, faith that
was given him. And how that faith was tried,
the many things that happened to him in the persecution with
the Jews, in the shipwrecks that he had, in the times that he
was taken by the Romans, in all these things that came upon him,
he had this view that the Lord was ordering all things in his
life. He says, I count not my life
dear, unto me. My life has been given to me
as a prey. It's given to me from the dead. He says in another place, you
are bought with a price. Wherefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit which are his. And as Paul lived and
may be as we live as well, it is by that faith that he has
given And may we remember this, that we mentioned that faith
cometh by hearing. As we gather together and read
the Word of God and have it preached, that is to strengthen our faith
and to help us to cleave to the Lord and to remember His Word
and hang upon His Word. Faith is not an empty thing. It rests upon what the Lord has
said and what the testimony of Scripture is what the Lord has
done. It is easy for us to say that
we believe in the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. But unless
the Lord gives us faith, we will never rest wholly upon it. always be a leaning, leaning
to our old works, leaning to the works of the flesh, leaning
to something that we can see, trying to add to Christ's sacrifice,
trying to put something else to it, but it is Christ only,
and that is the work of faith. Another identifying with the
crucifixion of our Lord, is the love of God. God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And in our text, the apostle
says this, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. And he's tracing that love of
the Lord in what he did. This is something that those
that believe in a universal atonement can never say. Those that say,
well, Christ died for everybody, and only those that believe and
avail themselves of his sacrifice can be saved. And they can just
believe of their own free will. But that takes away the very
particular love of Christ. I lay down my life for the sheep,
he says. He says to the scribes, Pharisees,
ye are not of my sheep, therefore ye hear not my word. And greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the law that demanded a just weight, a just balance, no more,
no less, The Levites redeemed the firstborn of the children
of Israel one for one. And where there wasn't enough
Levites, then they paid for the shekel according to the sanctuary
for those that remained. There's not a payment, just a
indiscriminate payment for any, for all the sins of mankind.
and then it's only available or only effectual in some. The
apostle could clearly see that as Christ died for him, his sins
were laid on Christ. Christ knew those sins. He knew
for whom he died. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them whom thou hast given me. and where
then the apostle has faith to view Christ dying for him and
giving him a new life, he is able to say very clearly, who
loved me? I identify with Christ's crucifixion
in that I see by this Christ's love for me. There might be trouble
maybe tonight, How do I know that Christ loved me? Of course,
with Peter, the evidence was we love him because he first
loved us. Our Lord said to Peter, love
us thou may, and Peter could testify that he did. And where
the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost,
it is a testimony of Christ's love for us. He puts it that as he is wrought
to bleed by faith, Christ died for him. He knows that that was
through the love of God. But then there is identifying
with the crucifixion of Christ in our own painful and lingering
death. with sin in our members and we
are to take up our cross and follow the Lord and really daily
feel what it is to be crucified with Christ and our members which
are upon the earth and yielding those members as servants and
to righteousness and not servants of sin. And it is identifying
in this way, and I feel it very much so of God's children. They
have a lingering death, as it were, of the old nature. Indeed,
it doesn't have dominion over them, but it's still there, and
there's still the conflict. And if you return to Romans 7,
After the chapter we read, again the Apostle deals with it in
his own personal experience. He says, The good that I would,
I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? His answer is,
I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There will be a constant
battle between the two and it's a painful crucifixion of the
flesh. And the apostle identifies with
our Lord and every child of God will identify in that way. When I'm meditating upon this
verse, the way it begins is not, I was crucified with Christ,
I am crucified with Christ, as if it is continuing on. Well,
Christ is not suffering. Christ is in heaven. But the
identity of his people here below, they are still in a body of death. They are still compassed with
infirmities. They still have sin in their
members, but they have this promise that sin shall not have dominion
over you. We are not under the law, but
under grace. And so that path is a path of
crucifixion, painful and slow death. And I just wanted to convey
this. If you've got habits, besetting
sins, those things that plague us day by day, it will be, through
our life, a slow, painful death. of those sins, nailed to Christ's
cross. It will be also identifying with
Christ a willingness to take up our cross and follow Him. Our Lord was insistent upon this,
that we also have a cross, not just putting away our sin, but
it's dealing with sin here below. It's how we interact with it.
It's how we allow it as it works in our members. It's that which
takes away the power and dominion of it. If ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. And it is being
crucified with Christ in this way. Another aspect of being identified
with Christ and him crucified is that willingness to take up
the cross, a willingness to fight the good fight of faith, a willingness
to resist the devil with the promise he shall flee from us,
the willingness to wrestle day by day, often coming as in 1
John 1, confessing our sins, Pleading that promise, if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Don't ever think that just because
we would identify with Christ that we'll have no consciousness
of sins here below. It is God's people alone that
feel and know what sin is. and that groan underneath it.
And lest we be in despair and dejected over it, we are shown
the way in which sin is to be dealt with, and that is crucified. And it is a painful way. Flesh
dislikes the way, but faith approves it well. The flesh, as it were,
kicks and struggles and resists against the spirit. But it's
a blessed thing if we have the spirit that goes the other way
and it resists against the flesh and against the desires of the
mind. Toby Paul's identifying with
Christ, it has respect to his eternal standing, It has respect
to his daily conflict with sin. It has respect to the ordinances
of the Lord's house. It has respect to identifying
with Christ's finished work and putting on a right and a real
foundation of a hope beyond the grave, a hope that is built solely
upon Christ, His death and His resurrection and the effect that
that has had and does have on our own lives. May the Lord add
his blessing. Amen.