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Crucified Together
11 Plays8 months ago
Vernon takes us through a critical discussion on our co-crucifixion or "sustauróō". And the context of Galatians 2:20 is vital to the understanding. Vernon continues with Paul's encouragement to be careful and not "nullify" the grace of God. You might want to pray and ask the Father if you are nullifying the grace of God. Don't nullify, glorify God for His grace!
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Transcript
Introduction and Theme
00:00:02
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free. And welcome back this is Vernon Terrell and
00:00:25
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Today I was thinking about a verse. It's an old favorite. In fact, it's the verse that our network 220 is based on. It's Galatians 220. Many of you know it well. It's a favorite. It says, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
00:00:49
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and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I love this verse. But you know, this verse really should be understood in the context of this letter that Paul is writing.
Paul's Confrontation with Peter
00:01:13
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And I'm gonna start,
00:01:16
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Galatians 2 15 and we even have to back up a little bit more but Paul starts writing he's actually giving a bit of a lecture here and he Starts out we are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles like Paul. Where's this coming from? Well, if you go back just a wee bit farther and
00:01:40
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He's recounting this story, this event that happened with Cephas, or Peter. Starting in verse 11, he says, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. In his face, he said, because he stood condemned. What he did was, it was just wrong. It wasn't right what he was doing
00:02:11
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He said, for prior to the coming of certain men from James. So you get the picture. They're actually kind of at this little restaurant, if you will, eating establishment.
00:02:30
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and Peter's eating with some Gentiles, and Paul is kind of recounting this story, and he says, for prior to the coming of certain men from James, so presumably these were Jewish folks, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof
00:03:00
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Can you get that picture where he's kind of backing away a little bit, you know, hey, not really talking to them, fearing the party, the folks of the circumcision? And you know, Peter's a pretty influential guy and says the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy
00:03:26
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with the result that even Barnabas, the great teacher, was carried away by their hypocrisy.
Justification by Faith
00:03:37
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But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, the good news, and what is that? That the Gentiles are in
00:03:54
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It's not Jews versus Gentiles, it's Gentiles being grafted in right alongside the Jews. He said to Cephas, Paul said to Cephas, in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it
00:04:23
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that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews. And then he continues the lecture. We are Jews by nature, not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we, and I think we gotta pause there. I think he's saying, Paul's like,
00:04:52
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putting himself in here, even we as Jews, we had to do the same thing the Gentiles do. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus. Some of the Jews didn't. They rejected Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of Man, as the anointed one. Paul says even we have believed in Christ Jesus.
00:05:22
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so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.
Metaphor of Being Crucified with Christ
00:05:40
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And he says, but if, he goes, let me paint this scenario, I mean, let's play this out,
00:05:48
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because we know we believed in Christ, so we can be justified by faith. Gentile or Jew, we're all justified by faith, because you know the works of the law, no flesh will be justified, but if, scenario, while seeking to be justified in Christ, and we ourselves have also been found sinners, wait, we're justified yet we're still a sinner,
00:06:17
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Is Christ then a minister of sin? It's like, is that what you're saying, people? Well, may it never be. Because if we're justified in Christ, we're not sinners. We're righteous. We are, in fact, justified, made righteous, holy.
00:06:43
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Are you seeing that scenario? He's, Paul's just painting that picture. Say, look, if you're saying we're justifying Christ yet, you're still a sinner. Well, Christ is the minister of sin. He goes, not. He was looking for, if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Are you saying that Jesus is a transgressor? Of course not.
00:07:12
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And Paul says, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. And then that famous verse, because he did believe and he is justified. He says in verse 20, I have been past tense, crucified with Christ. And that word crucified is so powerful,
00:07:41
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It's a contracted word from son together with and staturuo, if I said that right, to crucify. You put them together, it's to crucify together
Living a New Life Through Faith
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with. What a powerful word that I have been, and as a believer in Christ, you have been crucified together with Christ.
00:08:12
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He said, well, wait a minute, I'm looking at my hands and my feet. No scars there. But Paul says, but it happened. I believed, I was justified. I have been past tense, crucified. And you know, when you're crucified, what happens? Well, you die. And that's why he says, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
00:08:41
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And then he says, and the life which I now live in this flesh and this body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. What was crucified? You were crucified. That spirit, that old nature, that sin-loving sinner died.
00:09:06
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was placed on a cross the moment you believe, you were crucified, and that was buried and gone. And you were raised up a brand new creation in Christ. In fact, you were joined together in union with Him.
00:09:28
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And that's how Paul can say, in Christ, in union with my brand new spirit that has been made righteous, he lives in me. Right now, Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live
00:09:56
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in this fleshly body, in this skin. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. That's real life. That's living. But we often miss it.
Value in Christ, Warning Against Legalism
00:10:21
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We miss the fact that
00:10:25
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receiving Christ. Yes, we're forgiven from sin, past, present, future, done, gone. As far as the east is from the west, he does not remember our sin anymore. It's gone. But there's more. I was actually crucified. I died. I was buried, done away, gone, as Romans 6 says.
00:10:55
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and raised up as a brand new creation in Christ. That's powerful. The enemy wants you to think that that old man is just alive and kicking inside you. The enemy wants you to think, oh, you've got the good dog and the bad dog and whichever one you feed is gonna win. No, the bad dog is gone. You're good, because he made you good.
00:11:25
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But why do I still mess up? Why do I still struggle? And we've talked about it before and we'll talk about it again. There's a lot of reasons for that. That doesn't negate the truth that you died. You were co-crucified with Christ, crucified together with Him. Everybody who has ever believed and who will ever believed in Christ
00:11:53
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Crucify together with him. How do I get in Christ? Well, just go back to Galatians 2 verse 15 and 16. You're not justified by the works of the law, but how? Through faith in Christ. When you believe, when you receive, you're placed in Christ. That is all it takes.
00:12:24
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and an incredible dramatic transformation happens. You are crucified together with Christ. And Christ lives in you and me. And the life that you're living in this body
00:12:46
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You're living by faith. That's what life is all about. If we're trusting Christ in me, to express his life through me, and through my unique personality and gifts and talents, he just wants us to live life, trusting him along the way, knowing that he loves me and he gave himself up for me. That's how valuable we are.
00:13:15
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Do you see yourself as valuable? Do you see yourself as loved?
Grace vs. Law
00:13:21
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The enemy wants to confuse us and have you be distracted from that truth, that you're loved and that you're valuable. That you're forgiven and that you're free. You know, Paul goes on and wraps up this bit of his speech
00:13:45
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He says, I do not nullify the grace of God. That's another great word, isn't it? I do not nullify the grace of God. That is what many of us do. We try to nullify the grace of God. That is, we want to displace it.
00:14:14
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Maybe abolish, get rid of it, make it, render it null and void. If you think of it as a contract term, we want to, we often do, not that we want to, but we often nullify the grace of God. How? For if righteousness comes through the law, well then Christ died needlessly.
00:14:43
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You see, when we're depending on the law, when we're depending on rules, and to get us to make life work, and we're depending on anything outside of Christ himself, we nullify the grace of God. You see, law and grace cannot co-insist. It's one or the other.
00:15:08
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You don't balance, let me have a little law and a little grace and balance the Christian life. That's not the way it works. You die to the law and it's all of grace. So don't nullify the grace of God. It sounds so good, doesn't it? All the rules and the expectations you put on yourself or your spouse or your kids,
00:15:39
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And I know when you have kids, I had mine, right? And as kids, I do need boundaries and rules to understand life and to protect them. But that's not how we relate to God. That's not how we experience God's victory and God's peace. The more rules you put on your marriage,
00:16:08
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What does it say in Romans 4? The law brings wrath. And I can testify. Maybe you can too. That is a true statement. But when you put rules on yourself, expectations on yourself, well that right there just nullifies the grace of God.
00:16:31
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Because you're believing a lie that somehow you can be more righteous with more rules. That doesn't work. I want you to rest in the truth that you have been crucified together with Christ.
00:16:54
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that Christ lives in you, that the life you're living right now, you just live by faith because you don't feel it, it doesn't feel like you're dead. It doesn't, looks always like you're dead, but you're dead. And you've been made alive now, brand new, righteous and holy, justified in him.
Personal Reflection on Grace
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So let me encourage you, I don't know what the Lord may be speaking to you on this.
00:17:24
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But just do a check. Are there areas in your life, maybe right now, that you're nullifying the grace of God? Are there areas in your ministry where you're nullifying the grace of God? Are there areas in your relationships right now where you're nullifying the grace of God? Because if righteousness comes through the law, well, Christ died needlessly.
00:17:50
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Are you nullifying the grace of God in your own personal experience of His victory? Say, man, too much grace. You know, shouldn't we have some type of balance? I don't know, Paul says in Ephesians 1 that His grace is overflowing.
00:18:16
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That's how much grace he's given us and you can't out sin the grace of God. The truth is you don't want to. The lie is that you wanna abuse it. And that's just another slick strategy of the enemy is that all, you can't have too much grace. You need to go ahead and add some of these rules and you better be doing this just to get God to like you just a little bit more. Just make sure, check off the boxes,
00:18:49
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Ask the Lord to reveal how you might be nullifying God's grace. And then rest in the truth that you died to sin, that you're alive to God, that you were crucified together with him.
Conclusion and Resources
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And maybe the Lord will show you how you can stop talking about it and start walking.
00:19:14
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You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gment.org. That's gminc.org.