Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles with today's message, I'll be preaching from Galatians,
the book of Galatians in the New Testament. This is the letter
that the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to
several groups, several local assemblies in the area of Asia
Minor called Galatia. And I'll be looking at Galatians
chapter two, beginning at verse 19. And the title of the message
is Living Unto God. Living Unto God. Galatians two,
verse 19, where the apostle writes, he says, for I, through the law,
am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Dead to the law,
living unto God. That's a kind of strange language,
isn't it? Paul says, I'm dead in one sense,
but I'm living in the other. Well, what does he mean? And
what is it to live unto God? Well, first of all, living unto
God is the life of a believer, a sinner saved by grace. One who has been born again by
the Holy Spirit, who's been given new spiritual life by the Spirit
from Christ. Some of the old writers used
to say the resurrection life of Christ is within God's people. And they live spiritually and
eternally unto God. Now an unbeliever cannot live
unto God. Now an unbeliever, now listen
to me, an unbeliever can be religious, can be moral, dedicated, charitable,
all of those things. An unbeliever can be a person
who's doing their dead level best trying to keep the law of
God. trying to be the best person
they can be. An unbeliever can even be a person who claims to
be a Christian. In fact, here in the book of
Galatians, you know, the book of Galatians is a book that Paul
wrote in defense of the gospel, defending it against people who
claim to be Christians but were not Christians because they were
trying to bring believers under certain segments of the Mosaic
law in order to be saved. or in order to be more righteous.
And Paul called it another gospel, which is not another. In other
words, it's a false gospel. So an unbeliever can do all of
those things, can appear to be righteous before men, can claim
to be a believer, but he's not living unto God because unbelievers
are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And that's what we
have to understand. You see, that's the state of
man in this world by nature, as we are naturally born. The
Bible teaches that we all fell into sin and death through Adam's
fall in the garden. And I could go through scriptures
and show you all kinds of things that back that up. And as a result
of our fallen Adam, Adam being the representative of the whole
human race, the whole human family, as a result of that, we're born
dead, the scripture says, dead in trespasses and sins. That's
a state of spiritual death. Now we're alive physically, and
we have certain attributes that belong only to human beings such
as we have a conscience, but everything about us in a natural
state is spiritually dead. We don't have hearts and minds
to believe and rest in and receive the things that glorify God.
We don't have eyes to see. Remember Christ said in John
chapter three, he says, you must be born again or you cannot see
the kingdom of God. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God. Christ told his disciples when
he began to speak in parables, and they asked him why he did
it. And he said he did it as a judgment against those who
refuse to believe because they have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not
hear. But he told the disciples, he
said, but blessed are your eyes for they see. In other words,
you have spiritual eyes. They all had physical eyes, but
the disciples were given from God spiritual eyes to see the
realities of the word of God, the realities of sin and righteousness
and salvation, the value of these things in the word of God. and
you have spiritual eyes and you have ears to hear. Over in the
book of Revelation, every time that he spoke to the seven churches,
he concluded his message to the churches with this, he that hath
an ear to hear, let him hear. One of the best illustrations
of salvation in the new birth found in the Bible is John chapter
11 when Christ raised a man named Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus
in his dead state, that's an illustration of man by nature. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. And so he raised Lazarus from
the dead. He gave him physical life. Well,
in the same way, through the new birth, under the preaching
of the gospel, the Holy Spirit gives spiritually dead sinners
spiritual life, new hearts, new life, new knowledge. Eyes to
see, ears to hear, hearts and minds to understand and receive
the things of the kingdom of God. So if you want to know if
you're spiritually dead or spiritually alive, how do you receive and
how do you react and how do you value the things of the kingdom
of God as revealed in the Word? Now that's what living unto God
is. It's seeing the value, the glory,
living unto the glory of God, the natural man. Unbelievers
don't live to the glory of God. They may give God credit, like
the Pharisee of old in Luke 18, I thank God I'm not like other
men. But they don't see the glory of God in the salvation of sinners
based upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's His glory. So living unto God is living
unto His glory. Living unto God is living as
motivated, not by mercenary promises of earned reward. There are people
today who claim to be Christian, but they're trying to work their
way to earn their rewards. That's not living unto God, that's
living unto self. Living unto God is living as
motivated by grace, unearned, unmerited favor. realizing that
God has freely and fully given me all the blessings and benefits
of salvation, not based upon what I can earn, but based upon
what Christ, in His obedience unto death as my surety, substitute,
and redeemer, earned for me. I plead not my own works, my
own righteousness. I plead the righteousness of
Christ that God has imputed, charged, accounted to me. And
that's motivated by grace. It's motivated by love. God's
unconditional love towards me. You see, God's love is in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's no
love for any sinner. I'm telling you the truth. There's
only hatred, which is God's justice. And don't let preachers fool
you. They say God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody. That's
not scriptural. All that does is set you on to
seeking something in yourself or something that you've done
in order to be saved or to be kept saved or to enter glory. And that's not living unto God.
That's living unto self, I'm telling you. And you can look
up in the sky and say, well, I give God the credit. He may
not want credit for that. Again, consider that Pharisee
in Luke 18. He said, I'm not like other men. I don't do this, I don't do that.
I tithe more than what's required. I fast more than what's required.
And he said, I thank God for all of that. But you see, God
didn't want credit for that. God sent his son into the world
to establish a perfect righteousness whereby he could be just to justify
the ungodly. And so living unto God is living
a life of obedience, fighting the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit, as motivated by grace, gratitude, and love, not by promise
of earned reward. That's a mercenary. Living unto
God is not living under the threat of punishment of God's law. That's legalism. So living unto
God is living for his glory. It's living as motivated by grace,
gratitude, and love. I always think about in the book
of Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ in verse 16,
I believe it is, he said, let your light so shine before men
that they may see your good works and do what? glorify your Father
which is in heaven." Now, the light there is not the good works.
The light is the gospel of Christ. The gospel that is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. The gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. that shines on the works of believers
to show them acceptable unto God because they're the fruit
of faith, of grace and faith, and accepted with God based upon
the blood of Christ, washed in His blood. Peter called them
acceptable sacrifices, acceptable in Christ. And they're not to
draw attention to ourselves. but they're to point sinners
to the God of all grace through Christ, give glory unto God. And that's what living unto God
is. It's living not for self, but for God. Well, how does a
person come to live unto God? Well, Paul writes here, again,
this is Galatians 2, 19. He says, for I through the law
am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I'm through the
law, through the law, not without
the law, not against the law, but I through the law am dead
to the law. In order to live unto God, we
must be dead to the law. Now what is he talking about
here? Well the context tells us back up in verse 16 of Galatians
2. Paul writes this, he says, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of, or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, justified not
by our works, but by the work of Christ, his faithfulness,
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Now, here we learn that to be
dead to the law is to be justified before God. And what is it to
be justified? I deal with this just about every
program because it's the heart of the gospel. To be justified
involves two things. One is negative. The other is
positive. Justification is a legal matter. You can think of it as being
charged with a crime and brought before the court to be judged.
And justification involves, number one, the negative is to be forgiven
of all my sins on a just ground. Now you say, well, what do you
mean that's negative? It's not negative in the message. That's
a very positive message. Oh, I need to be forgiven. Is
there any forgiveness for my sins? And what brings about the
forgiveness of sins? But I'm negative, what I'm talking
about in this legal issue of justification, the sins that
we've committed in Adam, the sins that we've committed ourselves,
that all of those sins have to be washed away. They have to
be put out. and purged, that's what I mean
by negative. Something has to be done to put
them out, to put them away. And so how are the sins of God's
people forgiven? How are they washed away? Well,
I state it on this program all the time. What can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see, nothing I do can wash
away my sins. Nothing that I try to do or anything
I stop doing can bring about an atonement for my sins. Nothing that I think or say or
do can purge away my sins. There's only one thing that can
purge away the sins of God's people and that's the blood of
the Lamb of God. That Lamb who gave Himself, that
Lamb who was without spot and without blemish. Now how does
that happen? Well, before the foundation of
the world, God chose a people in Christ and gave them to Christ
and made Christ their surety. And that means that the debt
of all their sins was laid to His account, His charge imputed
to Him. And Christ willingly accepted
that role. And He did it because of the
love of His Father, He did it because of His own exaltation,
and He did it because of His love for the people that God
gave Him. He came to save them from their
sins. And that's why He had to die on the cross. Because the
payment of that debt must be death. The death of a suitable,
God-appointed, able, and willing substitute. And that's Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. So to be justified means that
God cannot charge me with my sin. That's the negative. That's
the non-imputation of sins. God cannot charge me. Romans
8.33 says, if God be for us, who can be against us? It says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. Who can condemn us? It is Christ
that died, yea rather is risen again, seated at the right hand
of the Father, ever living to make intercession for us. Now
the positive aspect of justification is righteousness that Christ
worked out in his obedience unto death, the merit, the worth,
the value of all that he accomplished, imputed to his people." In other
words, negatively, my sins are all taken away. Positively, I
have a righteousness that equals and answers the demands of God's
law and justice. And that's the righteousness
of Christ imputed to me. In the book of Romans chapter
4 and verse 6, Paul quoting David from the Psalms. about the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth, that means charge, account, lay
to the charge of, imputeth righteousness without works. And that righteousness
is the righteousness of God. Now, what Paul is saying here
in Galatians 2.16 is that sinners cannot be justified by their
works. There's no work that we can do
in trying to keep the law that'll cleanse us from sin and make
us righteous before God. None at all. What does it take?
It takes the faithfulness of Christ. That's His faithfulness
to do what He engaged Himself and promised to do before the
foundation of the world, to save His people from their sins, to
work out a perfect righteousness for His people. And that righteousness,
as our sins were imputed to him, his righteousness is imputed
to us, that is believers. Now, so that's when Paul says,
I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto
God. Well, look at verse 20. How did I become dead to the
law? Well, he states it right here in verse 20. I'm crucified
with Christ. I'm crucified with Christ. Now,
how can he say that? Was Paul there on the cross with
Christ? If you look at the historical
record in the Bible, Christ was on the middle cross, there was
a thief on the right, a thief on the left, but there was no
Apostle Paul there. Can I say that I've been crucified
with Christ? Yes, but was I there on that
cross? This is the language of representation. This is the language
of substitution. This is the language of a surety
ship relationship that I have with Christ. I wasn't there personally. Paul wasn't there personally.
But I was just as much in reality right there on the cross with
Christ as he did so as my representative. My surety. My substitute. My Redeemer. And that's over
in Romans chapter six, we see that stated. In verse three,
Romans chapter six. Know you not that so many of
us as were baptized into Christ. Now that baptism there, baptized
doesn't mean water baptism, as some say. The context tells us
this. Paul's not talking about being
baptized as a confession. Believers are to be baptized
in water. dipped in water, go down into
the water, immersed as a confession of our union with Christ, our
belief and faith in Christ. And sometimes the Bible speaks
of that. But here the word baptized means placed into, united with,
made one with. And those who were baptized into
Jesus Christ, placed into Him. How? By God choosing them and
putting them in Christ, giving them to Christ. Ephesians 1 speaks
of it. We're in Christ. He's my representative. Made one with Him in His redeeming
work when He died on the cross. He died for me. He didn't die
for Himself. He died for me, for my sins. And He says, if you were baptized
into Jesus Christ, you were baptized into His death. When He died,
if you're a believer now, now this is not to everybody without
exception now, This is to those who believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ by God-given faith. You cannot say that Christ died
for you until you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot
say you're one of God's elect. You cannot say that Christ is
your surety. You cannot say that Christ redeemed
you. You cannot say that you're born again by the Spirit until
God brings you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
that's the fruit and effect of God's grace. of being dead to
the law. So he says you're baptized into
his death. When he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried.
When he arose again from the dead, I arose with him. The Bible
teaches this. And so in verse four of Romans
six, he says, 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. To live unto God is to walk in
newness of life. What is that newness of life?
It's spiritual life. Whereas once I was blind, now
I see. Where once I was deaf to the
word of God and the glory of God in Christ, now I hear the
beautiful words of the gospel. Whereas once I was an unbeliever,
now I'm a believer, even though I struggle, even though I'm still
a sinner saved by grace. I still, I'm still a believer.
And we could go on. And verse five says of Romans
six, for if we've been planted together in the likeness of his
dead, how could we say we've been planted together? As Christ
is my representative, my surety, my substitute, my redeemer. Now
he's my keeper. My intercessor, he says, we shall
also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Verse six, knowing
this, that our old man, our old self, as identified with Adam,
that would condemn us, if not for Christ, it's being crucified
with him. My sins have been put away, they
cannot be charged to me. I have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's law and justice, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, everything that sin brings is destroyed
in Christ, that henceforth we should not serve sin. To live
under God is to not serve sin, be a slave of sin. It doesn't
mean we stop being sinners when God saves us, but it now means
that we look upon Christ as our deliverer, our redeemer. Our
sins have been put away, they cannot be charged, and it's to
fight sin as motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. And then
he says in verse seven, for he that is dead is freed from sin.
That word freed there means justify. I threw the law. How? Christ went under the law. Over in Galatians four it said
he was made under the law. That means all of the conditions
of my salvation were put upon him, conditioned on him, and
he died in my place to satisfy the law. I'm dead to the law.
The law of God cannot condemn me. Why? Because I'm such a good
person? No, because Christ died for my
sins. That's right. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's what
Romans 8 one says. And so, I'm dead to the law,
that I might live under God, how? Verse 20, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. When Christ died, I died. When
he was buried, I was buried. But when he arose again, I rose
again. And the fruit of that, the result of that, and the evidence
of that, is that I'm now born again by the Spirit. I've been
given life, I live. And Paul says, yet not I. but
Christ liveth in me. Now what's he talking about there?
He says, I'm dead to the law, I was crucified with Christ,
and now I live, nevertheless I live, but yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. What is he saying there? He's
saying that I'm not the source or the cause of this new life
living under God. You know, that's what most people
think who call themselves Christian today. They think they're the
source, they're the cause. You see, they say God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, but what God's love and Christ's
death really means nothing as to an individual's salvation
until they make the right choice out of their own goodness or
free will. Well, my friend, that makes you the source of life,
not God, not Christ, eternal life. And Paul says, no, no,
I'm not the source or the cause of this life, it's Christ living
in me. Now how does Christ live in his
people? By his spirit and by his word. And he says, verse 20, in the
life which I now live in the flesh, in this human body, I
live, listen to this, I live by the faithfulness, that's faith
or faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. This life that I live, living
unto God, it's because of His faithfulness to keep me. I have faith in Him. He gave
me that. And then he says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Righteousness came by Christ,
not by my obedience to the law. And if righteousness could come
by my obedience to the law, then Christ didn't have to come and
die. He died in vain. But we know that's not true.
Christ did come and He did die and He didn't do it in vain.
There'll be no sinner in hell for whom He died. All will be
well with those for whom He lived and died and rose again. I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
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today and may the Lord be with you.