Good morning. Let's go to Galatians 2. Galatians 2. Paul says 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,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. Now this verse, it reads like
a paradox. And what that means is it sounds
like there are some contradictory things in there, two things that
can't both be true at the same time, and yet they are. They
are true. And this describes our living
unto God. Through the death of Christ,
I now live unto God. And so let's hear this in the
context. This is following on from verse
19, which we saw last week. Verse 19 and 20. I, through the
law, am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. Now remember that I, through
the law, when he spoke of that law, he was describing the law
of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, the law of liberty, the law of
faith, the law of the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation by Him. And that's how he says, I'm dead
to the law. that I might live unto God. For I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me. And so this verse is describing
for us the love of Christ for his people. That love moved him
to action. It moved him to come as our shorty,
as our substitute, to die under the penalty of the law in our
place. We who are his people. He took
our place. He purchased us by his debt,
redeeming us, delivering us from that penalty because he paid
the penalty. He died under the law in our
place to silence the law against us whose hope is in him. And by his death he brought us
into union with himself, wherein we stand accepted of holy God. And now being joined unto him,
unto Christ our husband, he brings us to experience this grace,
to know this love, this grace, this mercy that he has for us.
in His life. I've titled this message, Alive
by Him Who Loves Me. Alive by Him Who Loves Me. Remember now, we see it, well,
we're gonna look at our representation in Christ. Now, Paul in verse
19, he speaks of that law of the gospel, that doctrine of
Christ whereby he satisfied the penalty of the law, that through
his death, him dying in our place, we should live unto God. in freedom, in liberty from that
fear and worry that we had under the law when we tried to work
a righteousness for ourselves. But couldn't because of the weakness
of this flesh. And so now, verse 20 describes
that law, that law of liberty, that law of Christ. It defines our union with Christ. He says, I am crucified with
Christ. Now, we know that Paul wasn't
literally crucified with Christ. The two thieves on their own
crosses on either side of him, they were crucified with Christ
in that literal sense. but he's speaking spiritually. Paul is talking about him being
a mystical member of Christ's body and that spiritually he
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, that what Christ was doing was
for him as a member of his body. Christ came and submitted himself
to death, even the death of the cross, to put away the sin of
his people, to deliver us from the penalty of the law. He paid
the debt that we owed to the law because we weren't righteous. We weren't perfect under the
law. We didn't give the law perfect obedience as is commanded by
the Lord. And so our Lord's death, it accomplished
the putting away. of the sin of every child of
God, chosen of God. It put away the reign and the
dominion of sin over us when we labored being afraid. We were afraid to die. We were
worried and terrified because we saw, I'm not meeting that
perfect requirement of the law. And so our Savior came and satisfied
that law against us by submitting to the death of the law in our
room instead. Remember that Adam is a picture
of Christ. That's what Romans 5 verse 14
tells us. We're told that Adam is the figure
of Him that was to come. Christ isn't a figure of Adam.
Adam's a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what the scriptures
are telling us about Adam, what they're defining there, is that
all of Adam's race, all his seed, were in Adam. We were in Adam's
loins. When Adam rebelled against God,
we were yet in Adam. Adam and Eve had no children
yet. So all of Adam's seed were yet in his loins so that when
he rebelled against God, sin entered the world and he died
by that sin. He became corrupted and defiled. Enmity was found in his heart
against the true and living God. So it is with all his seed was
corrupted and defiled just like Adam. And so when we come forth
of his natural generation, when we come forth being born of his
seed, we come forth corrupted and defiled, in darkness, dead
to the things of God, spiritually dead, spiritually blind, unable
to to please God, unable to live a perfect obedience under the
law of God because we're born of Adam's seed. Adam gave birth
to his children and they gave birth to their children and so
on and so forth to our father, our dads and moms. so that when
our dad, when we're conceived in our mother's womb by our father's
seed, we come forth being born of that corrupt seed in natural
generation. Romans 5.12 says, wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And we see this truth. We just
live our lives and we see the weakness of this flesh. We see
the corruption of our heart, our minds, our thoughts, our
ways. We ourselves are sinners against
the true and living God. So also Christ is that second
Adam and he represents all who are in him. all his seed, so
that we now live by him. We are born of him. We come forth
not of Adam's generation, but of Christ's regeneration. That's why it's called a regeneration. We've been born again by the
seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he said to Nicodemus
in John 3, 7, ye must be born again. And so our Savior sends
the Spirit who takes of the things of Christ, his seed, and gives
us life in the new man, whereby we are born of Christ. We're born again. Peter affirms
this in 1 Peter 1.23, saying that we are born again, not of
corruptible seed, not generated of Adam's corrupt seed, but of
incorruptible seed, Christ's incorruptible, holy, perfect,
undefiled seed, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. Therefore, Paul says in 2 Corinthians
5.17, whosoever is in Christ Jesus is a new creature. Old
things passed away. Behold, all things are become
new for you born of Christ's seed. You're a new creature.
You're spiritually alive. You know the true and living
God because he knows you and chose you and gave you life in
his son. When the Christ of God was crucified,
he wasn't crucified as a private individual citizen. He was crucified
as the head of his people. He wasn't crucified for any sins
or crimes that he had committed. He was crucified for his people
in their room instead. He is the public head and representative
of his body, the church. That's why Christ was crucified
as our head, representing his people. So Christ died in Paul's
place, and Christ's death became the life spring of Paul's life. Out of Christ's death, Paul lived. When Christ died, Paul, that
old man of sin, died with him, meaning the sin debt that we
owe was canceled. The debts are settled, paid in
full. You go up there to try and pay,
it's already settled. There's nothing you owe. Nothing
you owe in Christ. It's all been satisfied by him. So that Paul became dead to the
law for sin. Dead to its righteous demands
that it held against Paul. His debts are all paid. Everything's
been answered for. Paul doesn't owe anything else
to the law. He's dead to the law. It's satisfied. It's silenced. It's shut up to him. There's
nothing more that he owes to it. And just as that's true with
Paul, so it is for every member of Christ's body. You that have
no other hope. you that have turned from the
law of Moses for righteousness, and now look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Christ sent of God, you that look to him alone, believing
him, trusting him for all your justification, following him
for your rule of life, looking only to the Son of God for righteousness,
it's true of you just as it was of Paul. Isaiah 53.5 words it
this way. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes, we, the body of Christ, the members
of Christ, are healed. We're healed by Him. Dying in
our place, all our sins were laid upon Him. he bore them for
his people. And he bore the punishment of
those sins. He made payment for those sins,
submitting himself under the law and dying under the penalty
of the law for his people. So that he crushed, he broke
that power that was upon us. He broke that power, that rule
and that reign of sin over us. And every time that viper, that
old serpent, rears its head back with its poison-dripped fangs
ready to strike us, he crushes the head. He destroys him. There's nothing more that we
owe. to the law and the accuser of the brethren has nothing to
say against us. So this union of the body to
Christ, it's witnessed by the spirit in the writings of the
apostles being moved by the Holy Ghost. Not only did we die with
Christ, but we find that we were buried with Christ in baptism
Romans 6.3 in the beginning of verse 4 says, Know ye not that
so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into
his death? Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death. If we were buried with Christ,
then it follows that we are risen with Him as well. Continuing
in Romans 6, 4, 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. Again, in Colossians 2, verse
12, we are buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who
hath raised him from the dead, so that now we are raised and
seated with Christ our forerunner, who has gone before us into the
veil to make reconciliation for the people, to intercede for
the people. Ephesians 2 verse 6 and he hath
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And so all these manifold blessings,
all this grace of God is shown to us being contained in this
fact, I am crucified with Christ. I'm crucified with Christ, so
that by Christ we have that light spring of life rising up in us. It's the Spirit's beam. It gives
us light and life and liberty in our Lord. All these spiritual
blessings are given to us of our God in His Son, Jesus Christ,
whom He sent to deliver the people, to purchase the people. to make
his people his own, part of his body, flesh of his flesh, bone
of his bones. And therefore, Paul understood
that my death in Christ, I died in Christ, I'm crucified with
Christ, that I might live. I live in him. I live by Christ
himself. Remember what it says there in
Galatians 2.19 in the beginning of 20. I through the law, I through
Christ, am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless, I live. I live. Now because of my union
with Christ, I live. Because of your union with Christ,
you live. you live, you are alive spiritually
unto God. Now this speaks of our spiritual
life by Jesus Christ through the Spirit's regeneration of
his people whereby we live unto God. Meaning we're producing
fruit. We're living branches connected
to the tree. And as the tree is alive and
sends forth that living sap into its branches and the fruit forms,
so it is of us. We are connected to the vine,
which is Jesus Christ, whereby we bear fruit unto our God. The fruit produced by living
souls that live unto God, that live by God. Before life, in
the Lord Jesus Christ was revealed in us, we produce fruits, and
they were fruits unto death. We thought that we were very
successful, very productive in our religion. We thought we were
good people doing what was expected of us, and that God was pleased
with our works and what we did. And yet, just like the Pharisees,
who were also religious, we produced fruit unto death. And you look at the Pharisees,
they're religious. They read the Bible. They did
works and produced things. And the Lord says it was fruit
unto death. It was rotten, stinky fruit. It didn't please God. But now in Christ, we live and
we produce fruit unto God. We bring forth faith, hope, trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ, looking to Him for all my righteousness. He's my peace, my comfort, my
assurance with God. When I look at this flesh, I
see only rotten fruits. I see me working and laboring
for myself. but in Christ is all my hope,
all my joy, all my peace, and my comfort with him, so that
by Christ, and by the life of Christ in me, we do show forth
the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light. whereby we're no longer trusting
in the works of darkness. We're no longer trusting what
we do for God. We're trusting what God has done
for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's righteous fruit. That's
the fruit of the Spirit in us. We're bringing forth praises
unto our God. We're testifying and glorying
in His salvation, in His light, in all that He's given to us
in Christ His Son. it's pleased Him." Turn over
to Romans 7. Romans 7. Let's look at verse
4 and we'll read a couple verses there. Romans 7.4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. We're mystical
members of the body of Christ, born of his spirit, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in
the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we
are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held,
that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness
of the letter. We're alive unto our God. We live by Christ. We live in Christ. We live of
Christ, taught and born of him. So that our life is not simply
one now of being more motivated by Christ than we are to do our
own works in the flesh by man's will and man's works. No, we're
born again. we are regenerated of the incorruptible
seed of Jesus Christ. I'm crucified with Christ, Paul
said. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. When he says yet not I, he's
saying I'm a different man altogether. I'm talking about the Spirit's
work. We're talking about what Christ has done, what he's wrought
in me, not what I was before in Adam. Christ has claimed me
as his own. He's implanted his seed He's
given me spiritual life. He's made me to know what He's
done for me. And He's given me a joy and a
rejoicing in His salvation, whereby I rest and have peace in Him. I live in Christ. I live by Christ. We love Him because He first
loved us. We're born of Him. Paul adds,
in the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, so that the source of our life is Christ. It's Christ. We live of Him,
by Him. Romans 8, 3 and 4, for what the
law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God,
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. He put it away. He destroyed
it. He answered all the demands of
the law. He paid the debt of sin that
we owed, so that it's canceled. It's canceled. It has no more
effect over our inheritance with God. Christ is our inheritance. He's all. It's all settled and
satisfied in and by Christ. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. I'm not trying to work a justification
and a righteousness for myself. by the law. I'm looking to Christ,
trusting Him, believing Him, that He's satisfied all the law
which was against me, and He's put it away, and I now live by
Him. And so this life of Christ in
us, it results in our believing Christ alone for all our righteousness. Because of the life of Christ,
we now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We now trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. We confess the Lord Jesus Christ. We cry out to the Father in the
name of Jesus Christ. He's the fountainhead. He's the
source of our life, the source of our sanctification, the source
of our joy, the source of our rejoicing, the source of all
our works in service to our God and in serving one another. It's
all born in us of the seed of Christ. And so Christ has made
everything to the believer. He's made everything to us. And
that's because we have spiritual life by Him. Even our faith,
even the faith by which we hope in Christ is born in us. It's revealed in us. It's given
to us by God, whereby we behold and look to and trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's Christ that produces this
life. It's Christ that produces this faith. This flesh doesn't
produce this faith. This flesh doesn't bring forth
any good works. Christ alone brings forth that
which is good and acceptable to God. It's Christ's work of
grace in us to make known to us his salvation that he's wrought
for us. Look at Galatians 2 verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ. By the faith of Christ. Even
we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, or the
works of the flesh, for that matter. When we say the works
of the law, we're talking about what this flesh does. For by
the works of the law, by the works of this flesh, shall no
flesh be justified in God's sight. And so, if that's not clear,
Ephesians 2, 5 and Ephesians 2, 8 says, even we were dead
in sins, God, even when we were dead in sins, God hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. For by
grace are you saved through faith and that, that faith is not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. so that by the life of Christ
we now have faith and believe him who loved us and saved us,
who did this work of grace in us. That's why Christ is called
in the scriptures the author and finisher of our faith because
our faith comes from him, it springs from him as our author
and we are kept and preserved by the Lord Jesus Christ unto
the end so that It's finished in Him. When we stand before
Christ in that day, there will be no need for faith. There will
be no more need for hope because we shall see Him as He is. So there won't be faith because
we'll see Him and know Him as He is. Love will continue because
love never fails. It never goes away. We'll love
Him even as we love Him now. And we shall behold Him who loved
us perfectly. we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is." And so it's the faith of Jesus Christ
which works upon us to bring forth our faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the faith of Christ that
acts upon us to bring forth faith in Jesus Christ. We're like newborn
babes. When a babe is born, all that
babe does is receive. receive, receive inputs for its
care, for its warmth, for its nourishment, for its sustaining,
for its life. Everything's provided for that
newborn babe to give it life and to keep it living. And so
it is with us, brethren. We are newborn babes in the Lord
Jesus Christ and He's feeding us and providing all things for
us so that we're growing by His grace and His love. Now Paul
gives us the reason for such care for the believer. Christ
who loved me, gave himself for me. All this life is from Christ
and by Christ with all its graces and spiritual blessings and spiritual
benefits. It's from his creating us to
him coming in the flesh, to him fulfilling all the law perfectly,
coming under the law and fulfilling it perfectly, even to his submitting
to death, the death of the cross, to make satisfaction for the
sins of the people. And so as a result of what he
has done, we live by him and we'll live with him for all eternity,
rejoicing and sharing in his inheritance, in his life for
all eternity. Our faith doesn't give us life
with Christ, nor does it secure our comforts in him. Our faith
is the result of Christ's love for us. It's the result of his
life in us. All our comforts are received
of him, just as that newborn babe receives everything from
its loving mother. It receives love from its mother.
It receives warmth and care, a bed, comfort. It rests in its
mother's arms. That babe has peace by its mother. Well, so it is with us that we
receive peace and rest and warmth and comfort and love being cared
for by our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 33 verse
27 begins, the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are
the everlasting arms. You may feel like you're holding
on to God. For dear life, with all your
strength and all your might, lest you lose your grip and slip
away and fall into outer darkness. But the reality is, you're held
up. You're undergirded with the everlasting
arms. And you shall never fall away.
For you are Christ's, and you're in his hands. and we are in the
hand of God so that nothing can pluck us away or take us away. Now I want to emphasize one last
thing with you. This love is personal and this
love is distinguishing. Everything Paul said in verse
20 was very specific to Paul. It was very personal to him. Let's read it, 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,
I live in the flesh, 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. When you read this, it sounds
like Paul saying, that which Christ did was for me. Just for
me. He came into this world because
he loved me, and he died for me. And that's how every child
of God knows their Savior. He did this for me. If I was
the only one, his only child, he came into this world because
he loved me, and he died for me. It's not just a general sense
in which we believe that Christ is the savior of the world. That's
true. But he's my savior. He died for
me. And that's how you see him. He
died for me. He loved me. He made me to know
this. He revealed faith in my heart,
looking to Him. He delivered me from the bondage
of the law and delivered me from trusting in the works of my flesh
for righteousness. He made me to see that Christ
is everything. He's all. He did that for me.
And that's how our Lord comes to His child, revealing this
grace, revealing His life in each and every one of you who
now hope in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what our God does for
us by His Son. Rejoice in Him. Be glad in Him. Amen. All right, brethren, let's close
in prayer and then we'll be dismissed for about, we'll come back at
five after the hour. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Lord, for your love and that you died for us. And Lord, let everyone who hopes
in you hear and receive this truth that you loved me and you
died for me. Lord, that's what you've done
for each one of your children, each of your children you've
given life to, and made us to see that Christ is my all, that
I have nothing of myself, of my flesh, but Christ is all. Thank you, Lord, for your grace
given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you continue
to Bless this truth to our hearts that you would flood us and fill
us with this joy and rejoicing in our hearts for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Lord, you're worthy of all praise,
adoration. Lord, we thank you for this life
and this salvation which you've given to us in Christ. It's in
his name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Okay, Brett.