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Crucified With Christ (Galatians 2:15-21)
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Crucified With Christ (Galatians 2:15-21)
Galatians: The Truth of the Gospel :: A Study of Galatians
Sunday Message recorded 03 October 2021
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Introduction and Ministry Overview
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Associate Pastor Josh Shell. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Josh gives today's message.
Significance of the Lord's Supper
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey, well, good morning, everybody. How are we doing? Guys, this has been an incredible morning. So if y'all don't have more excitement than that, I don't know what's going on. We just took the Lord's Supper, which is the greatest gift, the greatest thing that we could ever do in this life as believers to celebrate what the Lord has done for us and that he died on the cross for our sins, rose again, and through his blood we are now atoned.
00:01:05
Speaker
We are justified by His blood. And that's exactly what we're going to be looking at today as we continue our series of the book of
Study of Galatians Chapter 2
00:01:12
Speaker
Galatians. So if you've ever heard Bibles, go ahead and take them out and open up to Galatians chapter 2. We're going to be looking at Galatians chapter 2 verses 15 through 21. 15 through 21. Any of you guys haven't noticed, I got this fancy dancy little microphone in my ear, which allows me to come way out here. And I'm so excited about it.
00:01:35
Speaker
Y'all thought I was crazy behind the pool pit, wait till I start moving around, right?
00:01:40
Speaker
So, but I am excited for us to continue this, going through the book of Galatians today as we look at these verses in chapter two. This has been just an incredible study for me personally. I hope it's been good for you. And I know we're only two chapters in. We still have a long way to go in this book, but there's so much rich, so many rich things in this book for us to just really take apart and for us to apply to our lives every day. So I'm excited for us to look at this together.
00:02:06
Speaker
But before we continue, I'm just going to stop and pray for us one more time, and then we will look at this passage. So will you pray with me? Lord God, we just thank you so much for today and the gift that it is to be here. Lord, we thank you for the grace in which you pour out over us every single day, the new mercies that are poured out. Lord, we thank you for your creation and allowing us to be a part of it.
00:02:27
Speaker
Lord your creation displays your glory and Lord you deserve all of our praise and so Lord we just thank
Justification by Faith versus Works
00:02:33
Speaker
you for that. And I just pray that as we look at this passage today that you will open our hearts and our minds to the reality of what we have in you when we proclaim and profess Jesus as Lord and Savior.
00:02:46
Speaker
Lord, we receive the free gift of salvation of grace, and Lord, we are just so thankful for that. So just prepare our hearts for what we're gonna be looking at today, Lord, and will you just lead us through this, is in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's read this passage together, okay? If y'all would like to stand with me in honor of God's word, that would be fantastic.
00:03:09
Speaker
We'll go through this together. So pick up verse 15, it says, we yourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet you know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
00:03:34
Speaker
But if our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too are found to be sinners. Is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. For I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. In the life I live now in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Amen.
00:04:04
Speaker
Do not I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law that Christ died for no purpose Awesome you guys can be seated. Thank you
00:04:19
Speaker
So as we look at this passage, there's three things I want to pull out for us to understand here. That as a result of us, as we take the next step for the right behavior with the right belief, ultimately it's founded upon us choosing to surrender our lives to Christ.
Unity through Faith
00:04:35
Speaker
Believing by faith in Christ and Christ alone.
00:04:39
Speaker
It is true that being crucified with Christ, that we are able to have these three things. That one, the first thing I want to see is that we are accepted by God. We are accepted before God through faith in Christ. We see that here in verses 15 through 17.
00:04:59
Speaker
I love the way that Paul starts this passage out of this section out because he says, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. What Paul is saying here, he says, hey, I recognize that we are Jews by birth and that according to the law, we are separated from the Gentile sinners.
00:05:23
Speaker
But what he's addressing here in verse 16, he says, hey, there's no longer, though we were once separated, and though we were once considered higher than the sinners, there's no longer any distinction between us. There's no difference between us. We are now on the same level. We are on the same playing field. Because that's what he says there in verse 16, right? He says, yet you know that a person is not justified by works of the law. Whoa, that's bold, Paul.
00:05:52
Speaker
That's the very thing, you're attacking the very thing in which the whole Jewish tradition is based upon, the Old Testament law. But he says, you are not justified by the law, but through what? Faith in Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ and Christ alone. This is huge.
00:06:16
Speaker
This should bring us so much joy and so much excitement because now we no longer have to conform to the Old Testament law, nor do the churches of Galatia at this time, which Paul is addressing, but rather we can have freedom in Christ through faith alone, through his grace.
Circumcision as a Spiritual Covenant
00:06:32
Speaker
And that through that faith, we are now justified. And that word justified or justification is a gracious act of God by which God declares a sinner righteous through who?
00:06:47
Speaker
Christ, through Jesus. The only way we can ever be justified, be forgiven of our sin, being able to be before a judge and declare a guiltness, is through Christ and Christ alone through His Atonement, through the blood of Christ.
00:07:09
Speaker
This is the picture. Because we are now justified through faith in Jesus Christ, when God looks at us, he no longer sees a guilty, sinful man. When God looks at me, praise the Lord, by the way, that he doesn't have to see a sinful man who's condemned. But when he looks at me, what does he see? When he looks at you, what does he see? The blood of Christ. If you put your faith and hope and trust in Jesus. And by seeing the blood of Christ, he says this person, he is free. His debt's been paid.
00:07:40
Speaker
He gets to freak into salvation of eternal life. But if you don't put your faith and hope in Christ and you continue to try to obtain your salvation through this law by fulfilling this list of things in which cannot bring you salvation, when God looks at you, he doesn't see the blood of Christ. When God looks at you, he still sees the condemned sinner standing before him. And you're gonna have to answer to your sins.
00:08:18
Speaker
For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. Paul later talks about it in Ephesians chapter two. This is not of anything that we have done, but it's a free gift of salvation through Christ, right? This is a glorious picture. And again, how do we receive this faith? How do we receive this free gift? Well, Paul also talks about that in Romans chapter 10, verse 10, right?
Inward Faith and Transformation
00:08:43
Speaker
He says if one believes in his heart,
00:08:47
Speaker
that Jesus Christ is Lord, he confesses with his mouth, he shall be what? Saved. Key thing there is that you have to believe in your heart. Again, going back to the distinction between Jews and Gentiles is the idea of circumcision, right? Circumcision is this big physical representation of the covenant that you made between you and God in the Old Testament law. But let me explain something to you guys.
00:09:15
Speaker
Circumcision is not just physical. It's spiritual. And that's what Paul talks about in Romans chapter 2. I don't have a whole lot of time left, but I'm going to read this to you anyway. Romans chapter 2 verses 25 through 29, it says this. It says, for circumcision is of indeed value if you obey the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. Hmm.
00:09:43
Speaker
This is Paul telling this to Jews, right? So if you are circumcised, if you are of the circumcision, and if you can't uphold all the law and you break one aspect of it, guess what? You might as well just nullify your circumcision. You're uncircumcised. And he goes on, so if a man who is uncircumcised, however, keeps the precepts of the law, will his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
00:10:09
Speaker
then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code of circumcision but break the law." That is powerful. What Paul is talking about is that if a person of circumcision or a Jew doesn't keep all aspects of the law and they break just one, guess what? They lose their circumcision. But if someone who is uncircumcised fulfills all aspects of the law because it is written on their heart,
00:10:35
Speaker
They're able to condemn the circumcised man who broke the law.
Life through Christ and the Law
00:10:40
Speaker
Ain't that something? But he goes on, it says this, for no one is a Jew who is one merely and one hourly, nor is circumcision outward and physical, but a Jew is one inwardly. And circumcision is a matter of the heart by the spirit, not by the letter, not by the law.
00:11:06
Speaker
He finishes with, his praise is not from man, but from God. This is huge for you and I. Because you and I, Gentile sinners, are now able to become Jews. We are adopted into the family of God. Because of the faith and the hope that we have in Christ and through his crucifixion.
00:11:35
Speaker
And it goes on to verse 17, this is a very interesting question that Paul poses there in verse 17, where he says, but if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. So why is Paul asking this question then? What he's trying to communicate to the churches here is this, is that just because you have received the free gift of salvation, you have the grace of Christ that covers your sin, does not mean that you could keep on sinning.
00:12:08
Speaker
That's called cheap grace. It's that mindset of, hey, I have Christ in my life, and as long as I have Christ, I can just continue to live my life and eat, drink, and be married for tomorrow we die. That is a false gospel. That is a false narrative. Paul is saying that just because you have grace does not mean you can keep on sinning. Because Jesus is not a servant of sin. He's a servant of righteousness.
00:12:36
Speaker
And when you choose to put your faith in Christ, you put on Christ in, you put on Christ in, you have the indwelling spirit of Christ in you, which means that you are no longer a servant of sin, but rather a servant of righteousness. And you should have that same desire and that same passion to pursue righteousness as Christ did, as Christ does. Amen.
00:13:04
Speaker
Which leads me to the next point here in verses 18 through 20, is that not only are we accepted by God through faith in Christ, but now we are made alive in God through faith in Christ. We see that here in verses 18 through 20a, the first half of verse 20.
00:13:23
Speaker
For he says, For if I rebuild what I tore down, I'll prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. For I may crucify with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. In verse 18, what Paul is referring to here is him tearing down the Old Testament law in his life. He's talking about his previous life and how he was so adamant about fulfilling the law that he became so zealous to destroy the gospel because of what the law commanded of him.
Living Righteously through Faith
00:13:52
Speaker
He says, if I've torn that down, then why would I try to rebuild it? Because when I was pursuing that law, I was lost. I was walking in sin. I was walking in transgression. So if that's my life in the law, then why would I try to rebuild it? Again, he's going back to the idea of our sin in verse 17. If we've been covered by grace, then why are we going to try to continue on sinning? Because all sin does is lead to death.
00:14:22
Speaker
But when we are made alive in Christ, we have life. So why are we going to try to rebuild what we've already torn down in this life when we receive Christ?
00:14:38
Speaker
Here's what the Old Testament law shows. Y'all ready for this? I'm not trying to say that the Old Testament law is obsolete. The Old Testament law is still very prevalent today. We need to be reading it. We need to study it because what the Old Testament law does is that it shows us that we cannot solve the problem of our sin. We cannot solve our sin. There's only one who can solve that problem. That is Christ alone.
00:15:07
Speaker
And that's what we see in verse 19 when Paul says, I have been through the law, died to the law, said I might live to God. And what Paul is referring to here is that through the law, the law required atonement for sin, according to the Old Testament law. There had to be this sacrifice to pay the price for your sin. There had to be that atonement of sin there. And instead of Paul having to pay that price, or instead of us having to pay that price, who paid it for us?
00:15:36
Speaker
Jesus, y'all can speak up, it's okay. Jesus, right? Christ paid that price for us so that way we don't have to pay it. And through that payment and by faith in Christ, Paul was now joined together with Christ and he now partakes in that atonement. Praise the Lord, because that's the same for us today.
00:16:01
Speaker
Because of the price in which Christ paid for us on that cross that day, we, when we confess Christ and believe in Him, we now put on that same atonement. When our price has already been paid. So when he says that in verse 19, he says, through the law, that's also that I might live to God. We all need to be saying that. Because of the finished work of Christ and the atonement of His blood.
00:16:32
Speaker
And he goes down to verse 20 in the first part, he says, I have been crucified with Christ and there's no longer I that live, but Christ who lives within me. And when you surrender your life to Christ, you're not just, here's the thing, you're not just receiving salvation when you surrender your life to Christ. You're receiving it, but you're also committing your life to follow. You're committing your life to live it out. It's not just you receive the free gift and you're done,
00:17:01
Speaker
You receive the free gift and you get this desire inside you to want to please God. So Paul talks about later on in 2 Corinthians 5.17 where he says, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The old what? The new has come.
00:17:23
Speaker
Your life has been transformed.
Empowerment by the Spirit
00:17:24
Speaker
Your spirit has been renewed. You no longer have the passions of the flesh in which you once lived before you knew Christ. But rather you desire to follow Christ in every way. So when he says, there are I that crucify with Christ, there's no longer I that live with Christ who lives within me. This is a beautiful picture here.
00:17:47
Speaker
We no longer have to worry about our sin because Christ paid the ultimate price for us and through the atonement of his blood we are now made right before a righteous holy God and as a result of that we should be on fire to share the good news of Jesus to those who don't have it.
00:18:08
Speaker
Are y'all awake, man? Come on! This is what I'm talking about. When you receive the good news of Jesus, there's just a lot of flame in you that you cannot contain. Now like you, there's times where I don't do that as well. I'm gonna be completely transparent. There's times where I walk in and I encounter somebody that I don't really wanna talk to. I'm not really in the mood to try to share the good news. So I'm just as guilty.
00:18:38
Speaker
So I'm not trying to catch judgment on anybody. But the reality is though is that we should be all, we should be so consumed by the love of God, by the love of Christ, the free gift of salvation to the point to where we cannot contain it. But yet the churches today and what we ultimately see here in this gospel here or in this letter that Paul's writing to the Galatians is that we are allowing others to infiltrate that passion
00:19:07
Speaker
that fire, and we're allowing them to extinguish the flame. We would rather choose to obey the commandments and the laws of men and their tradition than remain faithful to the true gospel which sets us all free from that.
Believers' Empowerment and Suffering
00:19:30
Speaker
Paul later goes on in Colossians chapter three and he says this in verses one through four, he says, if then you have been raised with Christ, you need to be seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. He goes on and says, you need to set your minds on the things above and not the things of earth because you have died with Christ. Your life is hidden within him.
00:20:00
Speaker
And when Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. So as a result of putting our faith in Christ, when we become one with Christ, then we are hidden in Him. We become His image bearers, His likeness. We become the aroma of Christ, as Paul also talks about. When we walk into the room, when there's people around, people should be like, man, who's got all that joy?
00:20:27
Speaker
Who's got all that happiness? Who's got that love? But no, for many of us, we walk in the room, people are like, man, what's that stagnant smell? Right? We don't need to be whitewashed tombs, people. We look pretty on the outside, but on the inside, we are just as dead as the deadest thing in the world. But we need to be alive.
00:20:53
Speaker
When we put on faith, when we put our faith in Christ, we are made alive in him. And we should have the aroma of Christ. People should not be able to, when they see us, when they hear that we are believers in Christ, they should not be able to just put us in with the rest of the group. But rather, they must separate us because they're like, hey, there's something completely different about this guy over here. Y'all feeling him? Larry, you feeling him? That's right, amen.
00:21:20
Speaker
Which leads me to the last point here, and we'll start wrapping up. I know I'm almost pushing time. As a result of those first two, the third thing is that as a result of us being crucified in Christ, we are now set free from the law of sin through faith in Christ. We are set free. Right, we see that in verses 20, the second half, verse 20 going into 21. It says this, it says,
00:21:49
Speaker
In the life I now live, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. For I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law that Christ died for no purpose.
00:22:04
Speaker
This is a beautiful picture for us. When we read verses 28 through 21, this is beautiful because of the justification that has been paid for us, or the act of justification there where we are made right before God, only because we put our faith in Christ.
00:22:23
Speaker
Because we put our faith in Christ, we are made right. We are justified before God. And because of that, we're able to live with God. We're able to be accepted by God. We're able to be alive in God. And this is a beautiful thing that we should not be able to contain. But this is the other thing. Through that, through us being justified, we both legally and relationally become empowered by God.
00:22:51
Speaker
What I mean by that is this, legally, we become empowered by God because we are no longer condemned to our sin, which is what we saw in verses 19 and 20. Relationally, we become empowered because we now share in Christ's sufferings, and we have died to our old ways.
00:23:12
Speaker
What do I mean by we share in Christ's sufferings? When we choose to put our faith in Christ, we become Christ and dwells himself in us. The spirit comes and he dwells within us and we now partake in the things of Christ. Just as Christ came and walked among the earth and he faced suffering, it's bound to happen to us because when we put on the image of Christ, guess what? People are gonna come against it.
00:23:40
Speaker
Christ wasn't somebody who, Jesus wasn't somebody that everybody just absolutely loved. They loved Him for His miracles, absolutely. But when it came down to the truth in which He was speaking to their hearts, guess what? They were like Peter, they were like, no man, I'm gonna back away from this. He wasn't that favorable when it came to the truth. And that's the same thing for us today. When we put on the imputed righteousness of Christ, people are gonna want to rebel against us. They're not gonna want to have to do anything to do with us.
00:24:11
Speaker
because of Christ. But because we are crucified with Christ, relationally we are now empowered by Christ, or by God. We
Essence of Christian Righteousness
00:24:22
Speaker
must never forget that. And here's the thing, the only way we can remain free, guys, y'all ready for this? The only way we can remain free in our Christian walk today is through this. It's not through obedience to the law, okay, or fulfilling what the church requires of us.
00:24:41
Speaker
but rather it is through the indwelling Holy Spirit given to us that releases divine power in us to be able to live that life. That has nothing to do with you. You can be the strongest, you can be the smartest, you can be the greatest in your field. I don't care. You yourself cannot live a Christian life the way you're supposed to without Christ. Because without Christ, guess what? You're not a Christian.
00:25:10
Speaker
That word Christian is Christ follower. And back in when that term first came about, guess what? That was actually a derogatory term. They used it in a derogatory system like, ooh, man, y'all see them Christians over there? Man, you need to stay away from them Christians. But now it's like some form of endearment, right? Where it's like, ooh, you're a Christian. Yeah, praise God.
00:25:37
Speaker
The only way you can truly live the Christian life, be a Christ follower, is through the imputed righteousness of God, through the indwelling Holy Spirit within you who gives you the divine power to do it. Because everything inside of us in our nature wants to rebel against it. And it goes on in verse 21. It says, I do not nullify the grace of God, for righteousness were through the law that Christ died for no purpose.
00:26:08
Speaker
What Paul is assuring the people here is this. For if righteousness were to be found through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. And what Paul has, and all that Paul has been proclaiming in his ministry up to this point, is void. And all that we believe is void. If righteousness could be gained through the law, the gospel is not needed. Then Christ died for no purpose. God said his one and only son for no reason.
00:26:41
Speaker
He was just wasting his time. But that's not the case.
Closing Reflection and Questions
00:26:46
Speaker
God sent his one and only son because that's the only way that we can have life. The Old Testament law doesn't bring life. The Old Testament law only brings you to the threshold of grace. But it's Christ who brings you through the door. Will you guys pray with me?
00:27:08
Speaker
Lord God, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, we thank you for men like Paul who you call to be ambassadors for Christ who were boldly proclaiming the truth because as a result of their boldness, Father, we now have the gospel today and we now get to partake in the goodness of you. And Lord, we are now able to be justified by the blood of Christ. So Lord, we thank you for this message of hope that we now have
00:27:37
Speaker
And I just pray, God, if anybody is here, they do not understand the gospel message or they have questions or they will start seeking. Because, Lord, the only way we can find answers is by seeking the right questions. And so, Lord, I just pray that that will happen today.