Galatians chapter two and verse
20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us today. The Apostle Paul is continuing
his teaching ministry to these Galatian believers concerning
the law and the gospel. This has been the thrust of his
message here in this chapter. He knows how important it is
for believers to have a clear grasp of the gospel because our
flesh always wants to contribute something to our salvation. And that is surely before we're
converted, but also after we're converted as well. We always,
by nature, by this flesh, by the makeup of our personalities
and our attitudes, we always want to be helping God out. Such
is the pride of man. And so the apostle knows how
important it is to have a clear grasp of the gospel. He also
knows that there will be plenty of legalists like these troublemakers
in Galatia who will always be on hand to tell us what we need
to do, how we need to live, and what, according to their particular
partialities and preferences, God expects of us if we are to
please him and live for him. Paul knew that these gainsayers
would be prevalent in every age, not least in our own day. So
in order to supply the Galatian churches with sound doctrine
for their greater spiritual help and also to provide effective
ammunition against the legalists who sought to impose law duties
on them, on these Galatians, the apostle Here sets out the
sure and certain grounds of a believer's justification and acceptance
with God. He shows them and he shows us
that justification for a sinner cannot be obtained by our obedience
to the law. Now, let me just say that this
casts no shade on the law. We're not opposed to the law. We're not antinomians against
the law in the sense that we disparage it, we disdain it,
we rebuke it. We're not against God's law if
it is used lawfully. We recognise its value, we recognise
its importance, we recognise that it is holy, just and good
and it reflects the perfections of our holy God. But what we are doing is we are
reiterating what the Apostle Paul says when he pointed out
to us last week in the previous couple of verses. By the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified. By the works of the
law... You see, and here's the thing,
because some people say, oh yeah, you're talking about justification,
but we're talking about sanctification. I'm talking about holiness. I'm
talking about righteousness, I'm talking about purity, I'm
talking about service. These are what are encapsulated,
included in this work of justification. By the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. There is no righteousness in
the law. He shows us, rather, that a sinner's
acceptance with God is holy Christ's work. Now, that's holy with a
W. It is holy Christ's work to make
a sinner righteous and holy in the sight of God. That's holy
with an H. Legalism robs spiritual men and
women of comfort and confidence in Christ, while the gospel,
on the other hand, supplies comfort and confidence by bringing us
to our fit and able and successful saviour, The gospel lifts up
Christ in the heart and in the estimation of his people. So
now the apostle is going to open another thought for us with respect
to the justifying work of the Lord Jesus. In order to show
us how thorough and complete Christ's death is to save and
to provide for all our needs in this life. He has just remarked
that through the law, he, Paul, is dead to the law. Now, what
was true for the apostle was true also for the Galatians,
and this is what he wanted to convey to the Galatians, what
he wanted to teach them, that they had no need to be listening
to these troublemakers, these Judaizers, these legalists. He
had no need to be giving, they had no need to be giving them
a hearing at all. What was true for the Apostle
was true for the Galatians and it's true for all believers. It's true for you and for me. The law demands death for sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Now, the law demands death for
sin, but after it has that death, It's satisfied and it retires
fulfilled and placated. Now, according to the law, God
must find us guilty as sinners, sentence us as sinners and exact
the due punishment. Only then will holiness be served
and justice satisfied. Only then will the law withdraw. But because Christ took our guilt,
because he received our sentence, bore our punishment, died in
our place, it means that the law has no more claim on us,
and indeed it considers us dead. Through the law, or legally,
we are dead to the law because it's done with us and we are
done with it. And yet, says Paul, we're not
dead. We live because Christ died in our place as our substitute. He died that we might live. And all for whom Christ died
do indeed live and are quickened spiritually and made new creatures
with a cleansed soul and a renewed heart and Holy Spirit affections. Having died with Christ, we live
unto God in the new man, in the new creation. what Peter calls
the hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible. Now,
Paul explains to the Galatians and to us how this dying to the
law and living to God is to be understood. And I think this
is a truly blessed doctrine. I think this is the heart of
the gospel. He says, I am crucified with
Christ. And here we see the close union
that we have with the Lord Jesus in the covenant of grace and
peace. This is the true meaning of sanctification
and being placed in Christ representatively. in God's everlasting councils. It is being set apart in Christ
so that all of the blessings, all of the grace, all of the
goodness, all of the mercies of the covenant God flow to us
as this set apart people, chosen of God. as members of Christ's
mystical body. The whole church, the whole number
of the elect of God was represented by Christ in his death. And when
he died, we died. When he suffered, he suffered
for us. What he endured was reckoned
to have been endured by us so that the law has no more interest
in us and God's wrath against our sin is totally propitiated,
satisfied and gone. We are pardoned and our sins
are atoned for. We are reconciled to God and
he is reconciled to us. So that when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, he did so as what we call our federal head. He did so representatively. And that means that what he suffered
and endured, we are reckoned to have suffered and endured
in him. What he accomplished and secured,
we are reckoned to have shared in with him. And furthermore,
this is not restricted to his death. We are also said to be
buried with him by baptism into his death. Romans chapter 6 verse
3. We have died with him, we are
buried with him, we are risen with him to newness of life,
Colossians 2 and 12. We are made to sit together with
him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2, 6. This is
our union, this is the closeness of the union that we have with
Christ and he with us. He is the head, we are the body
and we are so bound together, so fixed together that we are
conceived as one. In Christ's entrance into heaven,
he entered as our forerunner to appear in the presence of
God for us. And in all of Christ's covenant
offices, he acts as this public head, this representative of
his church and his people and his bride. And the elect, having
been placed into his keeping in the covenant of grace, are
always under his charge and under his care. And then the apostle
goes on to say, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. As Christ lives in resurrection
life, so we too possess the new life of Christ. Right now, right
now we have that new life. These bodies are flesh and they
must die and they will die and we've been thinking about the
frailties of these bodies, we're going to be praying about the
frailties of these bodies, their vulnerabilities in a few moments,
but these bodies are flesh and they will die. but the soul lives
on. And the effect of our spiritual
regeneration by the Holy Ghost is that we have the life of Christ
living in us as completely new creations. Christ lives in us. Now that, it may be hard to conceive
and difficult to explain and it may sound like nonsense to
those without spiritual understanding, but this is what is meant by
our conversion. Conversion is not just a change
of mind or will. It's a transformation of spirit
when the Lord Jesus comes into our life and makes us a new creature. Not in the flesh, it goes to
the grave, but in the spirit so that we can say with Paul,
Christ liveth in me. And I want to say something else
here as well. These Galatians were being troubled
by Judaizers and legalists who told them the law was to be their
rule of life and their standard of measurement in pleasing God. But that's exactly what Paul
is contradicting here. He says, the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God. He doesn't say, I live by the
rule of the law. He says, I live it. This is his
sanctification, if you want to use that word. This is his living
in this world. He says, the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
And this is what the prophets and this is what the apostles
meant. when they repeatedly stated the just shall live by faith. We don't live by our faith as
though our faith is meritorious before God. As if God says thank
you for believing in me or thank you for trusting in me. That's
what free willers would have us imagine. but it's the faith
of Christ we live by and walk by and serve by and measure our
lives by and honour and praise and worship God by. There is
no good thing in us, there is no place there by God and there
is no joy and there is no happiness but what is enjoyed by faith
in him. You will never have joy in trying
to measure your life by the rule of the law. Never. You will always
fall short. You will always feel inadequate. But it's looking to Christ for
everything and seeing him as our all in all. trusting him
for the perfection that he brings and gives and bestows and blesses
us with. So I say again, brothers and
sisters, for the sake of your happiness, for the sake of your
joy in this life, don't Look to yourself, look to the Lord,
look to Christ. Don't look to your obedience,
don't look to your successes, your failures. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ in all of these things. Don't measure yourself
by some standard that someone else tries to impose on you.
Christ has accomplished everything that we need and he gives us
the privilege of enjoying its blessings by faith in him. He has done everything for us
that is required of us and he gives it freely to us to be enjoyed
by faith. And let's note this, the faith
by which we live is the faith of Jesus Christ. Not faith in
Jesus Christ, but Christ's faith in us. Just as it is Christ's
life in us, Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. And
so it can rightly be said to be his faith in us. Even our
faith is Christ's gift to us. There's nothing in this flesh
that we can bring to God but everything is given to us by
God in Christ. And so we are said to be heirs
and joint heirs together with him in all things. Our beloved, the Son of God,
loves us and gave himself for us. Paul says, this is, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. It was love that motivated the
whole covenant purpose of God. Eternal, everlasting love. It motivated the plan of grace. It brought our Saviour down to
die. And now we love Him because He
first loved us. We love Him because He justified
us. We love Him because He sanctified
us. We love Him because He died for us. But we love Him because
He first loved us. We cannot in this life comprehend
the breadth and the length and the depth and the height of that
love. Or truly know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
but we shall have an eternity to discover what it means and
the degrees and the ends to which it extends. And I just want to
finish on this thought. Some of us are coming close to
death. We're older and frailer than
we once were. In a little while, soon, We'll
be embarking on the most unimaginably wonderful experience of eternal
happiness and revelation that God has prepared for us. If you
can say, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me, you have peace now and you have nothing
to fear in what lies ahead. So until then, so long as this
life lasts, let us not frustrate the grace of God by looking anywhere
else except to the Lord Jesus Christ for all our righteousness,
all our acceptance, all our holiness, our perfection, our joy. Soon
we will lay these bodies down to rest. but Christ's life in
us and our new life in him will go on and on and on and on. And that's a fine thought upon
which to finish today. Amen.