Well, with that in mind, let
me just read three verses here. The last three verses of Galatians
2, beginning at verse 19. The Apostle Paul writing here.
And he says, for I through the law, Galatians 2, 19, for I through
the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live,
now that's the title of this message, the life which I now
live. 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. And I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. The life which I now
live. Now I want to give you in three
points here a description of the life of every true child
of God. Under this title, the life which
I now live. He says here, the life which
I now live in the flesh. Now when you see that word flesh,
a lot of times you think of the sinful flesh. For example, in
Romans chapter 7 verses 14 through 25, he speaks of the flesh, or
in Galatians chapter 5 over here, the warfare of the flesh and
the spirit. But that word flesh has different meanings in different
contexts. It doesn't always mean sin, as
it does in For example, Galatians 5, the spirit lusteth against
the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. Doesn't always refer
to fallen sinful human flesh. Sometimes it just simply means
this fleshly body. This fleshly body. This physical
body. And that's what Paul means here.
You could give you an idea. For example, in John chapter
1 and verse 14, it says, the Word, which is Christ, God the
Son, was made flesh. Now, he wasn't made sinful, and
he wasn't made to be a sinner, but he was made flesh. And what
does that mean? That means he united with a human body, a physical
body, body and soul, in what is called the incarnation. And
so, There was no sin involved there. He was born the seed of
woman, conceived in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit.
And so even though he was a man in every way, flesh and blood,
yet without sin. And so Paul is simply saying
the life which I now live in this physical body, that as I
walk this world, in this day, One day this physical body is
going to be shed and I'll have a new spiritual body. That's
another matter. But the life which I now live,
now what is that life which I now live? What is he talking about? I'll give you these three things.
Number one, it's a justified life. That's number one. A justified
life. And then number two, it's divine
life. Divine life. And then number
three, it's grace life. Grace life. Justified life, divine
life, and grace life. Now what do I mean by justified
life? Well look at verse 19 again. He says, for I through the law,
not without the law, not in opposition to the law, Not against the law,
but I through the law am what? Dead to the law. I'm dead to
the law. Now, what does that mean? Well,
why does he emphasize his death through the law to the law? Well,
as you know, in the book of Galatians, the gospel message of salvation
by God's grace had been challenged. by legalist, false preachers
who preached that sinners are in some way, now listen to this
now, that sinners are in some way, at some stage, to some degree,
made righteous through their law keeping. That was the problem. And these false preachers, now
they did not openly deny the grace of God. They claimed to
preach grace and believe grace, salvation through Christ. But
they would say something like, well, in order to really be saved
or in order to really be righteous and holy, in order to really
be accepted with God, you've got to be circumcised, you've
got to keep certain days, you've got to obey certain rules and
regulations. And that is opposed to the gospel.
Paul over in Galatians chapter one, he called it another gospel,
which is not another. That is another of a different
kind. In other words, he's making sure that they understand now,
now, you know, today in today's modern religious landscape, what
we would, somebody would say, well, you know, we're all Christian,
but they just believe a little different than you on this issue
of obedience and the law. Well, Paul says that's not the,
that's not the case. He said, if they preach that,
let them be anathema. That means they're under the
curse of God. That's what it means. Salvation by the works
and will of man in any way, at any stage, to any degree, is
a false gospel. And Paul, he confronted that
challenge. Look over at Galatians chapter
three. Look at verse one. He says, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you? Literally, that means who's put
a spell on you. That you should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set
forth crucified among you. Now Paul's saying, I've preached
the gospel to you. I've preached Christ crucified. I've preached
salvation by the grace of God in Christ. I've preached to you
righteousness, not by your works, but by the obedience unto death
of Jesus Christ. I preached to you the righteousness
of God. We talked about that earlier
in Romans 1, 16 and 17. So he says in verse two, this
only what I learned of you, received ye the spirit by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith. In other words, when the
Holy Spirit came under the preaching of the gospel and you received
him, How was it done? Was it under the preaching of
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Now, what is the hearing
of faith? It's the preaching of Christ. Salvation by grace. That's what faith believes. You
see, the problem is don't ever remove saving faith from its
object. When the Bible speaks of Abraham's
faith, it's not speaking of that to elevate Abraham's strong moral
fiber and determination to believe. It's saying that to elevate Christ,
who is the object of Abraham's faith. Christ, who is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
You see, faith is not set up on a pedestal in scripture. Christ is. And our faith is in
him. So he says, the hearing of faith.
And he says in verse three, look at Galatians 3.3, he says, are
you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect, complete, finished? You could say righteous
by the flesh, by your works, by your doing. Now what is it
to begin in the spirit? It's to begin by looking to Christ
and resting in Christ for all righteousness, for all eternal
life, for all forgiveness, for all glory. That's how we begin. Now having begun, that's what
the Holy Spirit, that's what it means to begin in the Spirit.
That's what the Holy Spirit does. He points sinners to Christ.
And I'll tell you something, in your religious experience,
if you're not resting in Christ, I can tell you without fail,
by God's word, it's not the Holy Spirit who's doing that work.
It's another spirit. Remember Paul dealt with that
in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, those who come preaching another
Christ, another Jesus by another spirit, another gospel. I'm telling
you, if your whole salvation is not resting totally 100% upon
the glorious person and finished work of Jesus Christ alone, it's
not the Holy Spirit who's doing that work. It's another spirit. But he says this, having begun
in the spirit, having begun this thing by looking to Christ and
resting in him for all salvation, for all righteousness, now are
you made perfect, complete by your works, by your doing, your
efforts? He says in verse four, have you
suffered so many things in vain if it yet be in vain? What he's
telling them then, he said, look, if you persist in that kind of
thinking, what you're going to prove that it's all vanity, that
you were never saved to begin with. But back up here in Galatians
2 and verse 19, he says, I threw the law. Now, the preaching of
the gospel does not deny the law of God. The preaching of the gospel does
not confuse, complicate, or challenge law of God. It doesn't ignore
the law of God. Well, where does the law of God fit in the preaching
of the gospel? We'll look over at Galatians
4.4. Cross the page. Here's how it fits. He's talking
about, but when the fullness of the time must come, that's
the appointed time. Who appointed that? God did before
the foundation of the world. God sent forth His Son, you know
who that is, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
the second person of the Trinity, made of a woman, what's that?
That's His incarnation, the Word made flesh, dwelling among us. And then it says made under the
law. Now what does that mean, He was made under the law? That
means He was responsible and accountable to keep the law for
His people. How do you know it's for his
people? Look at verse five. To redeem, he was made under
the law to redeem. What is it to redeem something?
It means you pay the price required. He was made under the law to
pay the price required for his people. To redeem them that were
under the law that we might, and what's the result? That we
might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons,
God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, I have a father. So Christ was made under the
law. Now, what was he doing in this redemptive work under the
law? What was he doing? He was keeping
the law unto death. He obeyed the law unto death
to pay the price required. He was made accountable for the
sins of his people. There's a lot of words in the
New Testament that are translated, that relay the meaning of sin,
what sin is. The most common word is the word
hamartia, which means to come short. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. What that means is we missed
the mark. And so here's the mark, and we're somewhere below that
mark. No matter how high we get, we're still below the mark. We've
missed it. We don't come up to the standard. If you're doing
a particular job, for example, in building or something like
that, you have standards that you have to go by. And what this
is saying is, in this matter of sin and righteousness, we
don't measure up to the standard. We can't do it. We're sinners.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
that means what? Well, that means we deserve death.
and hell. And whatever we have on this
earth that is good, we don't even deserve that. We don't. You say, well, somebody, I had
a fellow tell me down here years ago, he said, he said, well,
I know I'm not perfect, but I haven't done anything to deserve hell.
And I said, well, you don't believe the Bible then. And I said, stop
going around here telling people you believe the Bible because
you don't. Because the Bible says that every one of us, including
this preacher standing behind this pulpit, that if God were
to judge me based upon my best efforts to keep the law, what
would I deserve and earn? Hell! Now I'm telling you that
because this book says, I'm not telling you that because I see
it in myself, no. Or I feel that, no. This book
says it. This is the judgment of God.
But Christ was made under the law. Now what does that mean?
That means my sins were imputed to him. My debt, that's another
word for sin in the scripture. Let me show you something. Look
over at Hebrews chapter two. I may have shown you this already
in another message, but look at it again. Look at verse 14 of Hebrews chapter
two. He says, for as much then as
the children. Now who's the children? That's
God's elect people. That's God's people. And they're
partakers of flesh and blood. That's the physical body. That's
Paul said, the life that I now live in the flesh. He, that is
Christ, also himself, likewise, or in the same way, took part
of the same. That is, he was made flesh. He
was made of a woman. Now why did he do that? That
through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. That is he came to destroy the works of
the devil because the devil was instrumental in bringing about
the death of the human race in the fall of man. And he says,
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. Now look at verse 16, for verily
he took not on him the nature of angels, he didn't come to
save angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. He came
to save the seed of Abraham. That's who he came to save. That's
who Christ died for. Who did Christ die for? He died
for the seed of Abraham. He died for the seed of Abraham.
What's that word seed mean? That means his children. Abraham's
children. Was that talking about Jews alone?
No. We'll show you that in just a moment, but hold on to that
thought. We'll look at verse 17. Wherefore, or for this reason,
in all things it behooved him. What does that word behooved
mean? You don't use that word, do you? I don't. We don't use
that word today. That's an old Elizabethan English
word. Behooved. It behooved. Some people
may use it. I don't know. But normally we
don't. What is that word? But you know
what that is? That's the Greek word for debt. D-E-B-T. And what does it say? And it
behooved him. Wherefore in all things he was indebted. to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. What
is he saying? He took on my debt. Go back here
to Galatians 2. That's what he did. He took on
my debt. I had a debt in Adam. When I fell in Adam. And it was
a debt to God's justice. And I didn't have one penny to
pay it. My works can't pay it. Don't even come close. They just
make it worse. The more I try to work my way
out of that debt, the worse off I get. You ever known anybody
like that? They get in debt and the more
they try to get out, the worse it gets for them. That's the human
race in Adam. That's you and me and Adam. And
then my religion won't get me out of it. Baptism won't get
me out of it. Won't pay one penny. You say,
well, what's the hope of any of us? Somebody who's appointed
by God, who's willing to do it, and who's able to do it's got
to come and pay the debt in my place. And that's what the gospel's
all about. That's why Christ is called the
surety of his people. That's why he was made sin. That
means our debt was charged to him. And he came and he paid that
debt by the redemption price. And what was the redemption price?
His blood. His blood. So that's what Paul
means when he says, I through the law am dead to the law. I
through the law. Somebody kept the law for me.
Somebody paid my debt. The law was honored and satisfied. and magnified, not by my works,
not by my religion, not by my doing, not by my suffering or
my dying, but by somebody else's, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how it was paid. And therefore, I'm dead to the
law. In other words, the law has no
legal hold on me anymore. It's gone. The debt's paid. It cannot legally do anything
to me by the way of condemnation or requirement because my debt
has been paid. What does that mean? That's justified
in Christ, by the grace of God, based on the righteousness of
Christ imputed, charged, accounted to me. He took my debt, I get
his riches. He took my sin, I get his righteousness
in return. My sins were imputed to him. My debt was imputed, charged,
accounted to him. His righteousness is charged
to me. It's on my, what does my account
say? My account says righteous. How
did it get that way? Well, I worked hard. No. No,
I didn't work hard. In fact, I worked against it.
I tried hard, I believed hard. No, no, no, no. How did he get
that way? Turn to Romans 6. Turn to Romans
6. Here's how it got that way. It got that way through the crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the cross of Christ. Verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us
were as were baptized or placed into or united with Jesus Christ,
were baptized, placed into, united with into his death. What does
that mean? It means when he died, he died
for me. And he says, therefore we're
buried with him by baptism into death. When he was buried, I
was buried. I'm united with him. He represented me. He was my
substitute. He's my surety before the holy
law of God. That like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we should
also walk in newness of life. Out of his death came our life.
This life that I now live that Paul's talking about, how did
it get that way? Through the death of Christ.
His death, burial, and resurrection, you see. And what was that? That
wasn't just a historical fact. Somebody told me, I remember
one time I was, after I preached to Massey, we had a lot of visitors
that day. I don't know what day it was, but there was a lady,
and I was talking about what the gospel is, and she was going
out, and she said, well, I thought the gospel was the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. And I said, well, those are historical
facts of the gospel, but they mean something. Why did he die? He died to satisfy the law for
his people. That's why he did it. He was
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.
And so he says here, verse 5, for if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. If he died for you, you're going
to be resurrected. That's what he says there. He
didn't die for anybody who ends up in damnation. If he died for
you, you're going to be resurrected. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him. That's that condemnation in Adam.
That's that old man. But that the body of sin might
be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he
that is dead. And that word dead there means
dead. Is justified or freed. That's
what it means. That word freed means justified
from sin. So therefore the life that I
live now in Christ is the justified life. Now in the mind and purpose
of God, that's the way it's always been. Did you know that? But
here's the thing. In my mind, it only comes about
when God the Holy Spirit opens my eyes to see Christ. There's
the court of God's justice. That was settled in eternity
when God chose a people and gave them to Christ. and set him up
to be our surety. That was settled. But then there's
the court of conscience. My conscience. And my friend,
listen. Here's a person, I'll give you
an example of what I'm talking about. Here's a person who has a guilty
conscience. Now let me tell you something,
every human being ought to have a guilty conscience. Now I know
the loony bins are full of people with guilty consciences. I can't
get by. But every human being ought to
have a guilty conscience. in some way, some form, fashion
it up. Now here's the problem. What removes the guilt? What
settles the conscience and gives peace? Well, there's a million
things that people use to try to do that. Some of them reform
and turn over a new leaf. Some of them get religion, walk
an aisle, get baptized, or as they say, accept Jesus into their
hearts. That's not even biblical. Some
of them do this, some of them do that. Some of them give money
away. They'll do all kinds of, but
the only thing that's gonna settle the guilty conscience in a truly,
truly convicted sinner, a believer, is the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me show you that. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. And
that's what settles the life which I now live in my conscience. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. He's talking about the death
of Christ to put away the sins of his people. That's the whole
passage here in Hebrews 10. But look at verse 19. He says,
having therefore brethren boldness, that word boldness means liberty
or freedom, means confidence, to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus. Now you see that? The holiest.
What's the holiest? That's the presence of God. Now
what gives me freedom, liberty, and confidence to do that? And I want you to think about
it this way. You've got to come before God, who knows your every
thought, who knows your every motive, who knows everything
you've ever done, ever will do. And you've got to come before
that God for judgment. You know, if you got caught in
the act doing some great crime and you had to stand before the
judge, you wouldn't come too confidently, would you? And so think about it that way.
You're coming before a holy God. Now, how can a sinner like me
have any confidence? He says it here, by the blood
of Jesus. You see, that's the death of
Christ. That's the cross. I threw the loam, didn't I? And
then he says, and having a high priest over the house of God,
that's Christ, look at verse 22, let us draw near with a true
heart, a true heart is a sincere heart, an honest heart, that
is a sinner coming admitting his guilt, in full assurance
of faith. What is full assurance of faith?
That means looking to Christ, the blood of Christ, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's a guilty conscience. and our bodies washed with pure
water. How am I cleansed from all my sins? How is the guilt
removed? My liability to punishment, my
deserving of punishment, how is that removed? Through the
blood of Christ, through the righteousness of Christ, that's
how. And that's the life I now live.
Listen to me, here's what I'm saying. I'm a sinner, but I'm
forgiven of all my sins. Past sins, present sins, future
sins. How? By the blood of Christ.
That's right. I'm pardoned. I'm cleansed. I'm made the righteousness of
God in Christ. Me, I am made the righteousness
of God in Christ. How? By His righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to me. When God sees me in the court
of His justice and law, He sees no sin. My sins are wiped clean. The books are wiped clean. What
He sees is a justified person. And that's the life I live. Now
how am I going to live like that? I've got to live by the faith
of the Son of God. Look at Galatians 2 again. He said that I might live under
God. Now, somebody might say, well, now, if that's the case,
then you can go on and sin as much as you want to. No, Paul
says I'm dead to the law that I might live under God. I'm crucified
with Christ. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I rose. Nevertheless,
I live. There's life. Now, this is the
divine life. He says, I live. Now, didn't
Paul live before this? Well, he lived, but it was a
life of death. It was a life of unbelief. Let
me tell you something right now, every one of us. If you don't
know and trust Christ for your whole salvation, you're a walking
dead person. You just don't know it. You've
got physical life and you've got a physical mind and all that,
but as far as spiritual life and a hope of salvation, you're
dead. Walking Dead. That's funny, you
see that program, The Walking Dead. But he says, nevertheless,
I live that spiritual life, yet not I. Now this divine life that
he's talking about, this is not what some people today call the
new nature in the sense of God creating a divine life inside
of me because, let me say, anything is divine cannot even be created.
If it's divine, it has no beginning and no end. And it's certainly
not God making any of us divine. We're not little gods or sub-gods
or sub-parga. No, we're still human beings.
But we have life from the divine. What Paul is saying here when
he says, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, he's simply
saying this, the life that I now live, I'm not the source of it,
I'm not the cause of it, Christ is. I'm not even the power of it.
Christ is. Christ liveth in me. And how
does Christ live in me? By his spirit and by his word.
Turn to Romans chapter 8. Look at Romans chapter 8. This
divine life is the fruit and result of being justified before
God through the blood and righteousness of Christ. In other words, if
Christ died for you, if you're justified from all sin because
of Him, you're going to live eternally spiritually. That's
the result. Out of His death comes life.
Look at Romans chapter 8. verse 6 he says for to be carnally
minded fleshly minded is death now that can refer to the immoral
persons of this world and it can refer to the most religious
without Christ but they that are after the Spirit the things
are he said but to be spiritually minded is life and peace to be
spiritually minded is to look to Christ and rest in him Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God dwell
in you. How do I know if the Spirit of
God is dwelling in me? Well, what's your hope of salvation?
What's my hope? What's my assurance? What cleanses
my conscience? What removes the guilt? What
motivates me to obedience? You see what I'm saying? If it's
anything but Christ and him crucified and risen, it's not the Spirit
of God. The Spirit of God dwells in us. Now if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, that's his physical body, that's
dying every day. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. The Spirit gives life because
of what Christ accomplished. Because Christ is the Lord my
righteousness, you see? That's divine life. Christ lives
within his people by his spirit and by his word. Go back to Galatians
2.20. He said, he said, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, I'm not the source
of it, I'm not the power of it, Christ is. Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, in this physical body, I live by the faith of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, a lot
of translators will say, will read it this way, the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith, by faith in the
Son of God. I believe this King James Version
here is the best translation of it. I live by the faith of
the Son of God. Now, it's true, everyone who
has this divine life, who's been born again by the Spirit, regenerating,
in whom the Spirit dwells, and dwells. Everyone lives by faith
in Christ. We live by looking to Christ,
resting in Christ, following Him. But the source and the power
of that life is not our faith in Him. The source and power
of that life is His faithfulness to do what He set out to do.
And what did He set out to do? To redeem us from our sins. I
live by the faith of the Son of God. His faithfulness to keep
the law for me. His faithfulness to die for me.
His faithfulness to bring me into the kingdom. His faithfulness
to keep me and preserve me and bring me into glory. His faithfulness
is the source and the power. My faithfulness is the fruit
of His grace. That's the divine life. And then
lastly, look at verse 21. Here's the grace life. He says,
I do not frustrate the grace of God. That word frustrate means
to make void. What's he talking about? Well,
here's a person who claims to believe salvation by grace. I
guarantee you go over this town, you go into any of these churches,
and ask people, do you believe salvation by grace or salvation
by words? I guarantee you they'll say salvation
by grace. Most of them, well, just about
all of them that you know will say that. Here's all kinds of
religious people, salvation by grace. Well, what you got to
find out, well, what do you believe grace is? What do you mean frustrate
the grace or make it void? Well, most people, and I know
this from personal experience because of what I was raised
in, most people who claim to believe grace will frustrate
it, will make it void by their works. And here's how they do
it. Look at verse 21. Here's how
they do it. For if righteousness come by
the law, that is by my keeping the law, by my works, then Christ
is dead in vain. Here's what he's saying. If you
can in any way to any degree at any time produce a righteousness
that answers the demands and requirements of God's justice
by your law keeping or your works or your religion, then you don't
need Christ. And what he did, well for you,
you claim it was for you, he died for you, well it was in
vain because you don't need, if you can produce that righteousness,
you don't need Christ. The only ones who need Christ
are described in Romans 3 in verse 10. There's none righteous,
no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. The only ones who need Christ
and his righteousness are those who cannot produce one of their
own. Paul is saying here, I don't frustrate the grace of God that
way. I am not made righteous before God by my works. I live
the grace life. My salvation, my preservation,
My reward, my blessing, and my glory in heaven is all by the
grace of God and based upon the righteousness of another, the
Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness charged to
me. I don't deserve any of it and
I don't earn any of it. And I don't work for any of it.
It's already been settled at the cross of Calvary by Jesus
Christ. Everything I do, That's pleasing
to God. Everything I am, that's pleasing
to God. Everything that God has done
for me by way of forgiveness and pardon, even the divine life
that I have within me by the power of the Holy Spirit in the
new birth. It's all the product, not of
my works or my doing or my dying or my suffering, but the product
of Christ crucified and risen. It's the product of his righteousness.
And to say otherwise, it doesn't matter what. If you say you believe
the grace of God, but you say otherwise, you're making it void.
You're denying grace. Paul says in Galatians 5, you're
falling from grace. That doesn't mean you lose your
salvation. It means you just deny what you claim to believe.
So don't frustrate the grace of God. See, the life which I
now live, it's a justified life. I'm justified eternally, everlasting. It's a divine life. And my friend,
it's that life of grace that only God can give through Christ.