Let us turn once again to God's
Word and turn to that portion of Scripture that we read in
the epistle to the Galatians Galatians chapter 2 and I want
with the Lord's help to direct your attention for a while to
the words that we find here at the end of the second chapter
in 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." It's a remarkable statement of
that union that there is between the Lord Jesus Christ and the
believer. And so the subject matter that
I want us to consider is that union, the believer's union with
Christ. I am crucified with Christ, says
Paul, 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. It is evidently an experimental
union that is being spoken of, the experience of being united
to the Lord Jesus. There is, as we know, an eternal
union in the covenant God made choice of a people and committed
them into the hands of His Son who agreed that in the fullness
of the time He would come forth as they should, as we just sang,
He would come and stand in their Lord place and answer for them
all those demands of that Holy Lord of God. It was from eternity
that God's purpose, that great salvation in the words of John
Kent, once in him, in him forever. Thus the eternal covenant stands. And so the Lord Jesus speaks
and says behold I and the children which God hath given to me or
they were given to him united to him from all eternity written
in the Lamb's book of life from before the foundation of the
world that is eternal union but that's the God purpose must be
brought into the experience of those people and that is what
is being spoken of here in the text it is that experimental
union that we have here in Galatians 2 20 and as we come to consider
this verse I want us to examine this union in a twofold aspect
in terms of life and of love. And to begin with the latter,
what we have at the end of the verse, the last clause, is really
the foundation of the whole text. And what do we read here at the
end? We read of the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, says Paul, who loved me and gave
himself for me. Here, as I said, is the very
foundation. Christ's love and Christ's gift
of Himself to be the Saviour of His people. We know that none
can ever be beforehand with God. As John says there in his first
general epistle, we love Him because He first loved us. And how that that love of God
is demonstrated in the gift of his only begotten son and what
it was that God gave his son to accomplish that great work
of redemption here in his love says John not that we love God
but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins And now the Lord Jesus so willingly comes to execute
that work that was purposed by God in the covenant. He comes
in the fullness of the time. And here upon the earth we see
something of the reality of the love that He has towards His
Father. Constantly He is aware of that
work that He has to perform. He says how His meat is to do
the will of Him who has sent Him, and to finish His work He
must be about His Father's business. All the love that He has towards
God. We're told in Philippians chapter
2 how being found in fashion as a man, He became obedient. and obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Always obeying God, submitting
to the will of God. Ever conscious of the commandments
of God. He is that one who is under the
law, and now in his life he will honor and magnify it by his obedience. Not only obedient in living,
wherein of course we see him giving all glory to the preceptive
part of the Lord of God, but also obedient in dying, where
he so willingly takes upon himself that punishment of the broken
law. how He dies, the just for the
unjust, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,
and all because of the love that He has towards the Father. But there's also that love that
He has towards men. When we read in the Gospel there
in the 13th chapter of John, having loved His own, It says,
having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto
the end. And what was the end? Why it
all terminated in that cruel death that he has to die. He
says himself, greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends, who were his friends, they were
those who were given to him in the covenant, They were his children,
and he comes for them, but they are in a state of alienation. They are those who are dead in
trespasses and sins. And what do we read therefore
there in the fifth chapter of the epistle to the Romans concerning
this remarkable love that God has towards his people. There in Romans 5, 6, when we
were yet without strength, it says, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Well, here is that love of God. The Son of God, says Paul. who
loved me and gave himself for me. And there is that sense in
which we have to recognize that this love of God is incomprehensible. What remarkable love it is that
lies at the very basis of the salvation of every sinner. We cannot begin to grasp the
wonder of it. Paul, when he writes there in
the epistle to the Ephesians, we see him at the end of that
third chapter praying for them. And what is the burden of his
prayer? He wants him to come to some
understanding of that that is really beyond all understanding. In Ephesians 3, 17, he prays
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we
ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto
him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. Amen. It's his prayer. What we
have here is one of the prayers of the Apostle. And what is he
praying? He's praying for them that they
might be able to comprehend something of this remarkable love of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And yet he says, it passes knowledge. It passes knowledge, but he wants
them to be filled with it and to be filled therefore with all
that love of God. Paul knew it himself. How personal
is the language that we have here at the end of our text this
morning. See how Paul speaks singularly,
respecting himself. Dr. Gill's comment is this, it's
as if Paul is the only person. It's all about Paul this. He
speaks of the Son of God who loved Mary and gave himself for
Mary. You see, true faith doesn't deal
with God and with Christ in a general vague way. Where there is true
faith, it's a very personal thing. It is just Christ and me. It's Christ and the sinner. It was William Tiptoe who said
that real religion is personal. And we see this so evidently
in the way in which Paul is writing here in the text. The Son of
God, he says, loved me and gave himself for me. This is that
religion that had evidently been revealed to him. Remember in
the opening chapter, we read it earlier. He pleased God, he
says, to reveal his Son in me. that I might preach him among
the heathen. And Paul doesn't go to confer
with others. No, this gospel, it's not of
men. He hasn't received it from any
man. He's received it all together
from God. It's just a personal thing. All
Paul knew it. He'd experienced it in his own
soul. And what is it that he's had
an experience of? It is the grace of God. It is
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved Him. And loved Him so
much that He was obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. The basis then of that union
that there is between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people. But let us, I said two things,
and I want us in the second place to turn more particularly to
the life of the Christian that Paul is speaking of in the former
part of the text. He's speaking of his experience,
the sort of life that he's living. 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. It is life
that he is describing to us. And what is it that we can observe
about this life of this man, this Christian man? Well, we
observe some four things concerning the life of the Christian. It is a spiritual life, it is
a crucified life, It is a paradoxical life in a sense. But principally
it is a life of faith. That's the fourfold division
that I want us to consider for a little while. The life of the
Christian. First of all I say it is a spiritual
life. The life which I now live in
the flesh. We have to observe here some
sort of distinction from a fleshly, physical, natural life, which
is common to all people, and the life that Paul is describing
here. And it is a new life. It's a
new life. It's not a life of the flesh,
although he's living in the flesh still. There is that that has
taken place in this man's soul. the Lord Jesus in that great
third chapter of John's Gospel where he speaks of the doctrine
of regeneration, the necessity of the new birth. Remember what
the Lord says there, that which is born of the flesh is flesh
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Well, this man, he was certainly
born As he says back in that 15th verse in chapter 1, he was
once in his mother's womb. God was the one who separated
him from his mother's womb. God was the one who gave him
a natural birth. But God had done something more
than that. God had also revealed his Son in him. And how was that? It was by that new birth, that
of the Lord is speaking of himself in that third chapter of John.
Ye must be born again, or the vital necessity. There is no
salvation without the new birth. That is not what our parentage
is. We cannot inherit grace from our parents. Every individual
must know that mighty work of the Spirit of God. Oh, the wind
bloweth where it listeth, says Christ, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither
it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit, the sovereign work of the Spirit, and the Lord
is used in that comparison of the circuits of the wind. so
inexplicable, and so too the great work of the Spirit of God
when he comes into the soul of that sinner and the sinner is
born again. Oh, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature, he's a new creation. He has a new life,
and that new life is a spiritual life. Look at what Paul says. concerning this life that he
is living. He says, Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. The life which I now live in
the flesh. It's not I, it's Christ in me.
Christ living in me. Peter has that remarkable expression
in the opening chapter of his second epistle. when he speaks
of Christians as those who are partakers of the divine nature. It is that seed of the new birth
that can never sin. It doesn't mean that the believer
doesn't ever sin again because alas, there is that old nature
and there is the conflict. And remember how the apostles
certainly knew much of that conflict between the new nature, the divine
nature, that spiritual life. But there was also still that
that was born of the flesh. How the flesh lost it against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary
one to the other, he says, and ye cannot do the thing that ye
would. And he has a great deal to say
concerning that conflict in the seventh chapter of the epistle
to the Romans. And surely if we know anything
of the grace of God, anything of that new birth and what it
is to be a partaker of that divine nature, we are much caused to
be thankful to God that there is such a chapter as Romans 7
left on record. Do we not feel something of what
Paul himself is writing of there in Romans chapter 7? Look at
what he says towards the end of the chapter, the goods that
I would, I do not. And the evil which I would not,
that I do. This is the believer. He wants
to do good and yet evil is ever present with him. He has this
whole nature that he is still ready to sin, ready to the ways
of the world. the good that I would, I do not,
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would
not. It is no more either to it but
sin that dwelleth in me." All that indwelling sin. He feels
himself to be a wretch. As he says right at the end,
all wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord, So then with the mind I myself serve the Lord of God
but with the flesh the Lord of sin. Don't think for a moment
that he's saying he's got some sort of split personality. That's
not the case. The true Paul is the one that
he speaks of there when he says with the mind I myself serve
the law of God and observe here the emphasis that is placed upon
his true self It's not tautology. He doesn't just say, so with
the mind I serve the Lord of Gods. No, he says, with the mind
I myself. That's not tautology. It's Paul
emphasizing this is the real me, the new me, the grace of
God in me. That is my chief desire. Why
this body of sin that I carry about with me it's nothing but
a terrible burden all this man you see his life is a spiritual
life and he wants to know deliverance from all his sins and sin is
ever a great burden to him this is the evidence is it not of
the new birth where there is that communication of the new
nature, the divine nature and the conflict, the warfare that
a believer feels in his own heart the life then that Paul is living
as one who knows that experimental union with the Lord Jesus Christ
it's a spiritual life but it's also a crucified life I am crucified
with Christ he says What a remarkable statement! I am crucified with
Christ. Now, of course, we have to recognize
that that is true representatively. That is the basis of the great
doctrine of substitutionary atonement. Because of that eternal union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, when He dies upon the cross, He is
dying as the representative of his people. They are in him and
it is the punishment of their sin that he is enduring. He has
no sin of his own. There's no real cause of death
in him. He is altogether free from sin.
He is preserved from all the taint of original sin. As we
so often say that that is born of the Virgin Mary is referred
to as that holy thing that holy thing which shall be born of
shall be called the Son of God even in his birth he is free
from the taint of Adam's sin he is conceived miraculously
the great miracle of the virgin birth no taint of original sin And
in his life he is holy and harmless and undefiled and separate from
sinners. He never committed one sin, he
never thought one sinful thought. Ever, always, holy, ever pleasing
his father and yet he dies. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. How can a sinless man die? He dies. Because there he is
a representative of his people. He was being punished in their
room and in their stead. Substitutionary atonement. I
am crucified with Christ. But Paul isn't really saying
that here. That is a truth. But what is
Paul really speaking of here is to be understood experimentally. He is one who is himself crucifying
the flesh. Look at what he says later in
the epistle, in chapter 5. And there at verse 24. They that are Christ, he says,
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. He is
Christ. He knows what crucifixion is. It is that truth of the mortification
of sin, of putting to death of sin, the crucifying of sin. Again, he says the same when
he writes in the epistle to the Romans. In chapter 6 at verse
6 knowing this that our old man,
he says, is crucified with him that the body of sin might be
destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin as we said
this is the believer's great burden he has his body of sin
what is he to do with it? what the believer desires is
the crucifixion of it, the dying of it putting off the body of
the sins of the flesh That's the language that Paul uses when
he writes in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 11. We see it constantly brought
out in these epistles of Paul putting off the old nature, putting
on the new nature. Again, look at the language that
he employs to those Colossians in chapter 3. The verse 8 says, Now ye also
put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication
out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the
image of him that created him. Oh, it's a life you see, a crucified
life. a life in which there is a great
deal of the mortifying of sin. But how significant are the words
that we have here at the beginning of our text? He says, I am crucified
with Christ. Oh, it's all with Christ. It's
not of himself. We cannot of ourselves put to
death the deeds of the flesh. We cannot do it. we cannot make
ourselves holy, we cannot deliver ourselves from our fallen nature
it's all in Christ, it's all of Christ and that's why he says
to the Philippians that I may know him and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed
to his death interesting, I find it most striking that the order
there you see he puts the power of the resurrection in the first
place that's what he wants to know
of the Lord Jesus Christ that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection it's only by the power of his resurrection
as that is communicated as that comes into the soul of the sinner
that there can be that crucifying of the flesh the fellowship of
his sufferings conformed to the image of his death It's all of
God. It's all of grace. That dependence
upon the Lord Jesus, I am crucified with Christ. With Christ. And now we need the Spirit of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, when Paul writes there
in Romans chapter 8, he says, If ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live. It's through the Spirit. Oh, we have to learn that truth,
our complete and our utter dependence upon God in the mortifying of
sin, the mortifying of the deeds of the body. And so too the believer
is one who is crucified to this world. Paul says it again here in this
Galatian Epistle, there in the last chapter. Verse 14, God forbid, that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Oh friends,
I'll be those who are crucified unto the world. It's not just
what we are, it's not just putting off our sins, that sinful nature
that we feel so much clinging and cleaving to us, but we don't
want the ways of the world. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world, all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the pride of the eyes and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world is
passing away. Oh God grant that we might know
something of this life of the Christian. It's a spiritual life,
I say. It's a crucified life. It's mortifying. It's killing,
putting to death, crucifying. The deeds of the body and the
ways of the world. But then in the third place,
this life of the Christian is paradoxical. What do I mean? Well, I'm sure you know what
a paradox is. It's a seeming contradiction. A seeming contradiction. He says here, Nevertheless, I
am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. There's the paradox. Dying and
living at the same time. I expect death, but I live. Again, we see it so often in
the in the epistles of this Apostle Paul. Oh, thank God for this
man who was raised up as we saw to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. And now he ministers to us sinners
of the Gentiles. By the grace of God he ministers
to us. Look at what he says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 6 and verse 9 again. He's speaking of his own experience.
But the paradox we have there as dying he says and behold we
live as chastened and not killed and those statements are really
parallel statements the dying is equivalent to the chastening
and the living is of course equivalent to the not being killed as dying
he says and behold we live as chastened and not killed chastening
in that sense is akin to dying and whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth if ye endure chastening
God dealeth with you as with sons what son is he whom the
father chasteneth not? or do we know those chastenings
the Lord dealing with us correcting us And yet, those chastenings
are so strange, they seem to overwhelm us at times. Isn't
that true, friends, with regards to the life of the Christian?
There are those things, those trials, those troubles, those
afflictions that come into our lives, and they overwhelm us. How can this be? Why is the Lord
dealing with us in this strange way? Oh, we see it in the book
of Job time and again. look at what we have there when
Elihu comes forward and speaks in the 33rd chapter and there
at verse 19 he's addressing Job as we see
from the opening verse and he says concerning the godly man
he is chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude
of his bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorreth bread,
and his soul dainty meat, his flesh is consumed away that it
cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his soul draweth near unto
the grave, and his life to the destroyers. When the Lord is
dealing with us in contrary ways, He's chasing it. Oh, they're
so killing, are they not? And yet the psalmist says, the
Lord has chastened me sore, but he has not given me over unto
death. It's interesting. I read that
very psalm at home this morning, Psalm 118. I'd been preparing
previously in the week, and I'd forgotten that it's there. in Psalm 118 that
we have that remarkable statement in verse 18 the Lord has chastened
me sore yet he has not given me over unto death and Paul knew
it all the Lord's dealings he was a man who clearly recognized
the absolute sovereignty of God in everything you cannot read
the Pauline epistles without seeing that truth Everything
that comes is under the hand of a sovereign God. But all the
mystery of God's dealings with him, there in 2 Corinthians chapter
4 and verse 11. But look at the context of what
he is saying there, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8 he says, we're
troubled on every side. yet not distressed, we are perplexed
but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but
not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus." There's the crucified life. "...that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we
which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh. Here's the paradox. We which
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. This is
why in that 6th chapter of 2nd Corinthians he says as dying
and behold we live. interjects that little word,
behold, and the strength of it, the force of it, look! look with
surprise, consider this! all things are right here we're
dying and behold, we're living this is the life, you see the
life of the Christian 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." Oh, what is this life? It's
a spiritual life? It's a crucified life? It's that mortifying of all the
deeds of the body? It's so strange and mysterious,
so paradoxical. But principally it is the life
of faith. It's the life of faith. And he makes that so abundantly
plain. The life which I now live in
the flesh. That is the life he's living in this world. It's the
life of faith. I live by the faith, he says,
of the Son of God. Or Christ himself says, because
I live, ye shall live also. There's the union, there's the
experimental union. It's the life of God, the life
of Christ in the soul of a man. Thy dead men shall live. Together
with my dead body shall they arise. It's that resurrection
life, the power of Christ's resurrection. How remarkable it is! Christ
and the sinner are one. How are they one? They are one
by faith. It's a real union. But it's not just eternal in
the purpose of God. It's that that comes and must
come into the soul. It must be experienced. It must
be experienced. Now look at the context here.
In verse 19 he says, I through the Lord am dead to the law that
I might live unto God. Luther remarks here, as a godly
man, this godly man is one who is dead to the law. The law is
not made for a righteous man. The law is made for the sinner.
There is a ministry of the law It's that ministration of condemnation,
that ministration of death. But here is a man who is delivered.
And his deliverance is in Christ. And he's died to the Lord. And
he lives unto Christ. And Christ is everything to this
man. Christ is all this man's salvation. But Christ is also all this man's
sanctification. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ
that he lives, it's to Christ that he is subject. He's one
who will be obedient to all Christ's holy precepts. He's not under
law in that sense, he's under grace. Oh, it is the faith of the Son
of God. It's that faith of which Christ
is the author and of which Christ himself is also the object. and there is that twofold aspect
to the life of faith Christ is the author of faith are we not
reminded of that exhortage there in Hebrews chapter 12 to look
to the Lord Jesus looking on to Jesus it says the author and
finisher of our faith you say to me this morning, oh I wish
I had that faith how can I obtain that faith, that saving faith
that justifying faith you cannot perform it of yourself duty faith
is a nonsense we cannot give ourselves faith, we cannot work
that true faith in our own heart we have to look to the Lord and
you know the force of the particular verb that he is using at the
beginning of that second verse in Hebrews 12 It has the idea
of looking away onto Jesus, taking your eye off every other object,
looking only onto Jesus. That's the force of it. That's
the look. When he says look and live, it's
looking to the Lord alone, looking onto Jesus. The author and finisher
of our faith, he must do it. It is that faith that comes out,
it comes of the operation of God. as we read in Colossians 2.12
it's God's work in the soul of the sinner it's the communication
of that gift for by grace are you saved through faith and that
of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any
man should boast or the sovereignty of God you see He is the author
of faith the giver of faith when Peter writes in the opening words
of his second epistle. He reminds us of that sovereignty
of God in the gift of faith. He writes to those who have obtained
like precious faith with us. They have obtained like precious
faith with us. and again the word that we have
there to obtain it's associated, the particular word that he uses
is associated with how you obtain a thing as it would seem by mere
chance it's connected with the idea of the casting of lots the
casting of a lot, we probably did that as little children You
know, you draw the straws and somebody's going to draw the
short straw. It's like a lot. It's a chance
thing. We don't know. And yet it's not chance. All
the fictitious powers of chance and fortune I defy. My life's
minutest circumstance is subject to his eyes, says the hymn writer.
Oh, true. The wise man tells us in Proverbs
that the lot is cast into the lap that the whole disposing
thereof is of the Lord. It's not a chance thing. It's
a sovereignty of God in every detail. And so that faith, they've
obtained like precious faith. How have they obtained it? It's
not a chance thing. It's the great purpose of God.
It's what God has communicated. It's what God has given. Oh,
this is the faith of the Son of God. the faith of the Son
of God is that faith of which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is the author and the giver but He is not only the author of
faith and this is the great thing the
important thing really He is the object He is the object of
faith looking on to Jesus we have to look to Christ And
we have to look to Christ for everything, for pardon, for righteousness,
for peace. Of Him, i.e. in Christ Jesus, says Paul, who
of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that as it is written, He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. Oh, we have to glory only in
the Lord. It's all in Christ. And so, this
apostle, the human author of this epistle to the Galatians,
what does he say writing in his epistle to the Philippians? For
me to live is Christ. For me to live is Christ. That's
Paul, you see. 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.
All the just shall live by faith. Paul is the one who takes that
expression, we find it back in the Old Testament in that little
book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse
4 that great statement that just shall live by faith how much
it meant to Martin Luther when he saw the great doctrine of
justification by faith and it's Paul who takes it up in Romans
chapter 1 and verse 17 and again in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
38 but also here in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 11 but that no man is justified
by the Lord in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall
live by faith and what is it to be living by faith? Oh, it's
living on the Lord Jesus Christ all our salvation As we've said,
every part of that salvation, not only justification but sanctification,
all in the Lord Jesus. And it all flows from this blessed
basis. It's the love of God in Christ
Jesus. It's the Son of God, says Paul. who loved me and gave himself
for me. O God, grant that we might know
this personal religion, this real living union with the Son
of God, even our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless His Word.
Amen.