Okay, I like that verse. This
is our aim. Verse 5 of that hymn. O teach
us, Lord, to know and own this wondrous mystery that Thou with
us art truly One and we are one with Thee. We see that by faith. That's how we appreciate it.
That's how we come into the good of it. It's by faith. So we've
been considering in Galatians, which is such a clear statement
of the truth. You know, if you want to understand
the Scriptures. There's a lot of Scripture, but
to understand it, you need the key. And this is one of the parts
of the Scripture where the key is laid out so clearly, and if
you grasp this key, it unlocks the rest of the Scriptures to
you. As Christ did with those disciples on that Emmaus road,
he showed them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Now, we've been looking at how
is a person made right with God. Is it by what he does? or by
what Christ does. This is the essence of the gospel.
The whole of religion, if you want to test religion, is it
true? Is it the true gospel? Put it
to this test. What does it say about how you
get right with God? Does it say it's by the works
of Christ, by the death of Christ? And so many of them do say this,
but they also add another thing. And also, of course, you need
to do so-and-so and so-and-so and something else. And as soon
as they do that, that destroys the Gospel, because you cannot
mix them. Look what Paul says in chapter
5 of Galatians, in verse 2. He's talking here about circumcision,
the right of circumcision, symbolical of the Mosaic law to be added,
which these Judaizers were trying to add to the responsibilities
and obligations on these Gentile believers that they needed to
subject themselves to these Jewish rites and ceremonies in order
to be properly saved because without it they said you cannot
be saved and Paul says this I indeed Paul say to you that if you become
circumcised if you add anything like that to the gospel not you'll
miss out on a few things Christ will profit you nothing The gospel
you believe will be a false gospel, it will be a worthless gospel,
in the day of judgment it will count for nothing, nothing whatsoever,
as we'll see shortly as we look at verses 20 and 21. You see,
he's been establishing that justification is by faith, by belief in what
Christ has done, by trust that what Christ has done, has done
everything, and not law works. He's been teaching that the law
has no relationship to Christ's people. None at all. You're dead
to the law. You're dead to the law. Absolutely. He's been teaching at the same
time, and he'll go on to develop this when he gets into chapter
5 and the fruit of the Spirit, that this does not give license
to sin. Of course not. Not shall we sin
that grace may abound. Absolutely not. But he's been
stressing that the people of God, Christ's people, are under
no burden of the demands of the law. And this is what these Judaizers
wanted to do. They wanted to bring them again
under a burden. They wanted to put them under
bondage. As it says earlier on in chapter
2, these people came in seeking to put them under bondage. Verse
4, that they might bring us into bondage. So the relationship
to law is destroyed by faith. And so we don't seek to resurrect
it. This is what Paul says in verse 18 of this chapter 2. If
I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgressor. We don't seek to resurrect that
system and that method. If I do, I'm clearly a transgressor
of it, of the law, and of faith in Christ. Because by the works
of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight. We're
dead to the law is what Paul has been teaching. You're not
under law, you're under grace. You're dead to the law. As Romans
10, verse 4 says, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone who believes Christ is the end of that law and so
we're dead to it as a rule of life and we're driven to God
in Christ as a rule of life Christ is our rule of life not the law
to live to God and not to self this is what it's about living
to God and not to self now remember that when we get to these verses
which is the subject of our meditation this morning 20 and 21 of chapter
2 Paul is still speaking publicly he's still in speech marks He's
recording what he said in verse 14. He started to say it there,
I said to Peter before them all, and the speech marks start there,
if you being a Jew, and he's still there when we get to verses
20 and 21. This is the context. He's speaking
to a public gathering there of the Galatian churches. with Peter
who he said was to be blamed and he's straightening him out
and he's telling him why he's wrong and why what he's done
is a complete contradiction of the gospel that he claims to
be an advocate of and a representative of. And that's the context of
these verses 20 and 21. How is a person made right with
God? It's by being in Christ. By being represented by Christ
in everything he did as a man. That's why Christ became a man.
That's why he was born as a baby. He's the second Adam, is what
another part of Paul's epistles called him. The first Adam is
a representative of the whole of the human race, in that when
he fell, we all fell in him. But Christ is the second Adam,
and he's the representative of his people. Those of that human
race who were given to Christ before time began, says Paul
to Timothy in his second letter. That's where Paul says he is,
in Christ. And that's where all true believers
are, without distinction. Now let's come and look at these
verses 20 and 21. And I must say, this is one part
of the Scriptures where I much prefer the Authorized Version
translation of it. And so I'm going to read these
two verses from the Authorized Version translation. Paul says,
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. You'll see this a few subtle
differences between what's in our New King James version of
the scriptures some subtle differences but I think are important. So what he says then You've heard
the expression, or you've seen it in Western movies, you know,
where the baddies out there are riding the planes and the notices
go up. Wanted. Dead or alive. You know? Billy the Kid. Wanted. Dead or
alive. Doesn't matter how you get him.
Doesn't matter if you shoot him. He's wanted by the law. Dead
or alive. Well, my subject this morning
is not dead or alive, but dead and alive. this is the believer
if the scriptures if we're reading these correctly it's that in
Christ we're dead but we are also alive dead and alive dead
and alive in Christ is what these verses are talking about it's
talking about being completely united with Christ and that's
what that hymn was talking about that we sung just a few moments
ago union with Christ and it's that same union irrespective
of natural background. Whatever race we come from makes
no difference, whether we're male or female makes no difference,
whatever our social standing is, whether we're the top boss
or the lowliest worker or whether we're top politician or unemployed
or whatever it is, it makes no difference whatsoever. We have
this same union with Christ. It doesn't matter what our commercial
or our civic standing is. Because as Paul says in Galatians
3 and verse 28, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek. There
is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female.
You are all one in Christ Jesus. It's being in Him and being united
with Him. You see, this is what Jesus said
to the disciples. You know, he sent them out. He
sent them out when he preached the gospel to them and he sent
them out and he said, go and the evil spirits will be subject
to you and they came back rejoicing. You should have seen the works
we did. You know, we came across this situation and in the name
of Jesus we commanded this evil spirit to go out of this person.
And even the evil spirits obeyed us, they were saying. And Jesus
said, don't rejoice in those things. Don't rejoice in that.
Don't rejoice in the things that you've done. Rejoice in this,
that your names are written in heaven. He's saying effectively
the same thing. Rejoice. that you are in Christ
Jesus. Rejoice that you're represented
by Him. You're in Him. And He is your
substitute before God in all things that pertain to God and
to righteousness and to judgment. You're in Him. We must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. But if you're a believer, you
stand there in Him. And therefore, there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You
stand before God in Him as your surety. He's the guarantee. He
signed the papers in eternity. He stands on your behalf. Whatever
is due to Him, I will bear it in His place. Whatever is mine
is His by right. This is what Jesus says. He's
the surety of His people. He's the mediator. For there
is one mediator between God and man. Not a priest. No priests. No human being. No pastors, nothing
like that, can stand between you and God. If you're a believer,
there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ
Jesus, who is also eternal God. He's the representative of his
people, and of you and me, if we're in him. And so, This verse
says, I am crucified with Christ. Or, that's what it says in the
Authorised Version. Perhaps there it should have said, I have been,
or I was crucified with Christ. When, in time, two thousand years
ago, Christ was crucified at Calvary, outside of Jerusalem,
He's saying, I was crucified there with Him and in Him. I am crucified with Christ. For
Christ, I'm not literally crucified. You can see I haven't got nail
prints in my hands. Physically, I wasn't crucified
there, but in the reckoning of God, all of His people in Him
were crucified with Christ. When Christ died, in a sense,
we died. He was crucified on behalf of
me as if I had been crucified legally and actually there. This
is what's represented in baptism, in believer's baptism. You go
down into the water and are buried with Him in baptism, symbolizing
complete identification with everything that Christ did for
His people. When He died and was buried and rose again, He
did it all for me and I did it all in Him. A complete identification. And what was crucified there?
When Christ was crucified, what was crucified of me? when it
says, I am crucified with Christ. What was crucified is the me
that is in Adam, the old man, the flesh, the sinful nature. That was crucified with Christ.
The me that deserved to die for sin was crucified there with
Christ. for he bore my sin and all of
its guilt in his human body in his own body on the tree of Calvary
and he paid the penalty that was due to it entirely on my
behalf there and it's in the reckoning of God and in the reckoning
of divine justice I died there in Christ the old man that deserves
to die for the soul that sins it shall die was crucified there
in Christ you know that law stands God will in no wise clear the
guilty he won't in any way He must punish sin, and he did there
in the Lord Jesus Christ when he bore the guilt and the responsibility
for my sins on the cross of Calvary. And so in terms of divine justice,
the old me has been crucified in Christ. But nevertheless,
he says, nevertheless, I live. Yes, in divine justice terms,
I've been crucified, but nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. What's he saying there? He's
saying that there is a new man created within me after the pattern
of Christ, after the nature, the pattern of Christ. For Paul
says again in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and 17, he says, if
any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed
away. All things have become new. There's
a new creation. You know when Nicodemus came
to Jesus and he says, we know that you're a man from God. He
says to Jesus, we know you're a man from God, for nobody can
do the things that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus says
to him, unless a man is born again, unless there's a new creation
within, you cannot even see the things of God. Never mind talk
about them and discuss them. You can't even see the things
of God unless a man is born again. There must be a new creation
within. Now turn over to 1 John. chapter
3 I want to show you a little bit more about this new man nevertheless
I live yet not I but Christ lives in me first John chapter 3 we know that John has already
said about us as we are in his first chapter if we say we have
no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us we are
sinners If we confess our sins, He is faithful than just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. And His Word
is not in us. You see, it's absolutely clear.
By nature, we're sinners and we're sinful. But look what He
says in chapter 3. He says in these first nine verses
of chapter 3, Behold what manner of love. The Father has bestowed
on us that we should be called the children of God. Therefore,
the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved,
now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed
what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone
who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness
and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins in him
there is no sin whoever abides in him does not sin whoever sins
has neither seen him nor known him little children let no one
deceive you he who practices righteousness is righteous just
as he is righteous he who sins is of the devil for the devil
has sinned from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains
in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God." Now,
isn't that superficially confusing? Isn't it superficially contradictory? But you know, I believe that's
talking about the two natures that are in the believer. The
one who commits sin is the old nature, the flesh. but the new
nature that's born again within nevertheless I live yet not I
but Christ lives in me that new nature cannot commit sin. There's
two natures within. There's the inward man who delights
in the law of God after the inward man. And there's the old flesh
who, despite what the inward man wants to do, still commits
sin and still is sinful. And if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. There are
two natures within. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me. This is Christ living within. You know, it's the same in Romans
7, which we read earlier. The two laws. He says, the law
of my mind, which delights in the law of God, and the law in
my members, which is the law of sin, that I in my flesh commit
sin. It's the same in Galatians 5
and verse 17, and you could just turn over that page just to look
at that. This is the nature of the believer. Two natures within, the flesh
and the spirit, for the flesh lusts against the spirit and
the spirit against the flesh. Is this not your experience?
It's certainly my experience. The new man within hates sin
and wants to live for God and wants to live righteously and
despises the sins that I commit. And yet the flesh, the old rusty
works of the flesh are warring against the Spirit and they're
contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that
you wish. But the man who's led by the
Spirit, you're not under the law, etc. etc. We'll come back to that obviously
in a few weeks time. You see, Christ dwells in the
believer by His Spirit. He says in John 14 and verse
23 that anyone who loves Him I and my Father will come to
him, and we will make our abode with him." God in Christ says
He'll come and live in you. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me. We read in Colossians chapter
1 and verse 27, let me just turn that up, talking about knowing
what are the riches of the glory, of this mystery, of the gospel,
of the truth of this gospel of substitution. And he says, which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ living within is
the basis of your hope of glory. I know I'm going to heaven. I
know for sure Christ is in me. He witnesses with my spirit that
I'm a child of God. I know that I'm going to heaven.
I have this hope of glory. And Peter himself, the one who's
being rebuked publicly here in Galatians chapter 2 by Paul,
when he writes his second letter in the first chapter in verse
4, says that we are partakers, that believers are partakers
of the divine nature. What an amazing statement! Partakers
of the divine nature. So, what does he say then? He
says, I've been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, because I go on living as a believer in the
flesh, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith
in the Son of God. He's saying that we do live in
this flesh, but how do we live as believers? We live by faith. We live by spiritual sight. We live by that trust that the
natural man does not have, for the natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him, neither
can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned. But God
gives to his children spiritual discernment, which is faith.
It's faith to look, to look and to see and to follow, for when
In Hebrews, the writer has gone through all of that gallery of
faith of all of those men, Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and so on
and Samson and You name them, all of them there, Gideon, they're
all named as examples of people who saw by faith the things that
Christ, the Redeemer, would do for his people. He then goes
on into chapter 12 and he says, therefore, let's press on. Let's
press on. Let's run the race looking unto
Jesus by faith, following Him, looking unto Him. And it's by
faith in the Son of God You see, I live by faith in the Son of
God, says the New King James Version. So, my faith is in Him. I'm looking to Him. I'm trusting
in Him. But, this is why I like what
the Authorised Version says as well. It says, I live by the
faith of the Son of God. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I live because
Christ himself was faithful and obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross on my behalf. And I rest in that fact of history,
that solid fact of history, that the Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. He lived in my place and he died
in my place. It's faith in the Son of God
that everything that I need for acceptance with God, I walk through
this life dead to the world in a sense, though living in the
world, though earning a living in the world, doing all of these
things, yet dead to the world in a very real sense. Because
everything that I need for acceptance with God in eternity, my justification,
my being declared legally righteous without a case to answer before
the holiness of God, my sanctification, my setting apart from the things
of the world, my righteousness, that which I must have for without
it no man shall see the Lord. Pursue holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. You only find it one place and
that's in Christ. That wisdom from God, the wisdom
of things to do with salvation, the redemption that I need, it's
all in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. So it's trusting in those things. I live, the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. The important word here is who
loved me and gave himself for me. You see, salvation is so
often taught as a general thing. The Arminian gospel is God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life. This book doesn't
say that. It doesn't say it at all. God says that he loved his people
in Christ. And he came and he specifically
redeemed them. This is about a distinguishing
love. This is about a term which is
not well liked and never has been. Particular redemption. That Christ came and represented
specific people. This is why the me is important
there. The Son of God who loved me He
loved me. I don't know why, but He loved
me and gave Himself for me. And how do I know that He loved
me? He loved me because He loved
me while I was still a sinner. Romans 5 verse 8. Yet for a good
man, somebody might dare to die. But God demonstrates His love
to us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. To us, we live with it all the
time. You know, the pig in his pigsty is not at all conscious
of mud and mire and filth and dirt and stink and horrible things
like that because he lives with it. It's the environment in which
he lives and we live with sin all the time and we're desensitized
to it. But the Son of God, God who became
a man to live in the place of his people, he shrunk back from
it. It revolted him. It terrified
the Son of God. Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me. Which cup was that? It was the
cup. of the sins of his people that he had to bear, that he
had to become sin for his people. You know, you can tell about
how much you love your children. You know, there are things that
you will do for your children that you won't do for other people's
children, you know? You think about those horrible
nappies and if you're the mum, you'll deal with it because you
love that child. You know, I mean, it's the same
with all of my grandchildren, but at the moment, Timothy comes
when I'm eating something, and if it's children I've never come
across before and they come up to me and they want a spoonful
of my pudding, I think, I'm sorry, I'm not putting my spoon in your
mouth, I'm going to put it in my mouth. But because he's mine,
you know, that's not the slightest problem. I mean, there's such
a queue of enthusiastic women to change his nappy that I let
them get on with it, but if it was necessary, I don't want to
change anybody else's nappy, but I'll quite happily change
his. Because I love him. I love him. And Christ loved
his people. He loved me and gave himself
for me. He got down into that mire of
my sin. He got down into that revolting
place of my sin and bore it and gave himself in my place that
I might be made the righteousness of God in him. This is distinguishing
love. This is particular redemption. We can never appreciate what
He did. This is what He did. Look, let
me read it. You don't need to turn to it because you know it
so well. This is what He did. Surely He has borne the griefs
of everybody who ever lived. It doesn't say that. Surely He
has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all." He's not talking about everybody
who ever lived. He's talking about the many.
Verse 11 of Isaiah 53, that my righteous servant shall justify
many. He shall bear their iniquities. He'll bear the iniquities of
the many that he will justify. The Son of God. I live by faith. in the Son of God. I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me particularly in a distinguishing
way, in a sovereign grace electing way, and gave Himself for me."
And so, He saved His people from their sins. And so, His people
are complete in Him, says Paul to the Colossians, chapter 2,
verse 10. You are complete in Him. Now then, can law works
add anything to that? Can law works add anything to
that position? Can circumcision, mosaic rites,
food laws, Sabbath keeping, all of that list of do not touch,
do not taste, do not handle that Paul goes through in Colossians
chapter 2, can any of that add anything to the completed salvation
that's in Christ? Well if they can, this is what
Paul says in verse 21, If they can, then I set aside the grace
of God, I frustrate the grace of God, and if that's the case,
and if righteousness in any respect can come through the law, and
law works, if it can come in any respect through those things,
Christ died in vain. And the grace of God is worthless.
And it's a frustrated thing. I set it aside, I frustrate it.
And this is what I would ask anybody listening to this. In
what is your trust? Now here's the subtle error.
You say, oh I trust in Christ. You talk to a Jehovah's Witness,
they'll tell you that their confidence is that Christ died for their
sins. They will, they'll tell you that. But what else? What
else is added to it? Is it Christ alone, or is it
in Christ mostly, plus I get a bit of comfort from those times
when I witness for him, when I post a leaflet through a door
for him, when I have this conversation with somebody, you know, and
I sort of come away thinking, hmm, that's pretty good, did
alright there, didn't let him down that time, that must count
for something, or You know, I normally get very aggravated when I'm
driving in stressful situations, but no, I kept it under control
today. I didn't lose my temper today
with that bloke that cut me up so inconsiderately. And yeah,
that counts for something. That's a little bit better. Or,
oh, I did somebody such a good turn. I actually remembered and
I did somebody such a good turn. You know, it's such a common
belief is this, especially in our country, especially amongst
those who call themselves Reformed, Calvinistic, particularly Reformed,
Baptist, Calvinist, Presbyterians, they believe this, the sovereign
grace of God, but the duty of the believer to subject themselves
to the law for sanctification. There was an old commentator,
Samuel Bolton, I think it was, said this effectively, He said,
the law drives us to the gospel for justification. That's what
chapter 3 says, as we'll see in a few weeks time. The law
drives us to the gospel for justification. But then he says, and having
come to the gospel for justification, then the gospel drives us back
to the law for sanctification, to tell us what we need to do
to be sanctified. I was reading J.C. Ryle's book
on holiness, and J.C. Ryle has a lot of good things
to say and he's highly revered and respected as a writer, Anglican
Bishop in the 1800s, Bishop of Liverpool, but yet he wrote quite
clearly, justification is God's work, sanctification is our work,
where we obey the words of the law in order to become sanctified
and more holy. And you know what it's like?
It's like sewing on, because Isaiah in chapter 64, I think
it is, says, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in his sight. And yet it also says that he
clothes us with the garments of salvation. He clothes us with
the garments of salvation. And do you know what that is?
That confusing law works for sanctification and faith for
justification, it's sewing filthy rags as patches onto the seamless,
perfect robe of the righteousness of Christ. That's what it is.
You say you're making a strong point here, but it's so true
and it's so dangerous. There was an old woman in Southampton
who'd listened to a ministry for years and years and years
which taught you come to the law to be driven to the gospel
for justification by faith in Christ alone but having got there
you then must go back to the law to find out what you need
to do to become sanctified. She'd lived under that ministry
of so many others and as so many do up and down this land of ours
And I remember her distinctly saying this to me. She said that
she always tries to have a word with her neighbours and people
she comes across to witness for Christ because she says, I don't
want to go into the presence of the Lord empty-handed. Well,
I'll tell you, I do. I want to go into the presence
of the Lord empty-handed. I want to be able to sing with
that hymn writer. Who was it? Was it Top Lady?
I don't know. We're going to sing it in a minute. Nothing in my
hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked come to thee for dress and so on. Well, that's what
we're going to do now. We're going to sing that closing hymn,
if we can get our penis back.