Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church 8/25/19

Lord’s Day

Sermon Text: Galatians 2:20

• Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ

The Apostle Paul is bringing Spiritual Truth to the Galatians. Our text for this morning provides us with a window into the inspired truth that Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia about death, about resurrection and life in Christ. Fast forward 2000 years and listen to this verse today, is it providing you, Christian, with the same impact that God inspired Paul to write? We will dig and find the diamonds revealed here in this text, sparkling precious stones of Spiritual Truth giving us encouragement and propelling us to tell this Good News to the world.

Here is a quote from a man who knew the Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ:

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

― Deitrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

He knew Galatians 2:20 and its implications intimately,

On April 8th, 1945, Bonhoeffer was given a cursory court martial and sentenced to death by hanging. Like many of the conspirators, he was hung by wire, to prolong the death. He was executed with fellow conspirators such as Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and Hans Oster.

The camp doctor who witnessed the execution of Bonhoeffer later wrote,

“I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer … kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

Just before his execution, he asked a fellow inmate to relate a message to the Bishop George Bell of Chichester

‘This is the end – for me the beginning of life.’

Bonhoeffer understood deeply the Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ, But do we? Lets look at it for a moment:

What is this Spiritual Truth?

Spiritual Truth that is given through the Word of God and revealed through the Holy Spirit. This is pure truth. Promises Made and Promises kept a Covenant that will never be broken. Hebrews 9:15

15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Spiritual Truth the same Spiritual Truth spoken by our Lord Jesus here in John 14:16-17

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” p

This morning we see this Spiritual Truth in the Apostle Paul’s inspired words to the Galatians.

Most of you may have memorized this verse we are looking at this morning, but as time goes by we may have forgotten this beautiful statement of inspiration by the Apostle Paul, time sometimes does that, the world creeps into our lives and all of a sudden we may no longer see the vast implications that this verse carries for us as Christians. It’s time to see this verse again, to enjoy it, to love it and most of all to be encouraged as we walk by faith and not by sight.

Now The Apostle has begun chapter 2 with a short description of his time in Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus, all this to enforce the gospel of faith alone. Here is where will will camp out this morning, in the crescendo of Paul’s speech to the Galatians, verse 20, the absolute, magnificent power of God revealed through the Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ .

Christian, this is how we must live in the Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ.

In our text Paul through the inspired Word of God has given us a 3 step plan, the 3 parts of this plan for Christians is our death in Christ, BeingAlive in Christ and Living in Christ.

Death in Christ

The Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ

Our Death In Christ

1)  I have been crucified with Christ. I love the way the ESV puts it, there are three distinct periods after three distinct statements, let’s see our first step in understanding who we are in Christ. Death, the world denies it, we may think it will never happen to us, and there is a tremendous shock to our systems when we hear of a death of someone we love, someone we are close to. But we are all dying physically, each day we get closer to the moment when our eyes close for the final time in this world, our only hope as Christians is dependent upon Jesus Christ and the promises he has given us. Paul’s inspired words here in verse 20 come as he is frustrated by the way the Galatians have so quickly deserted the gospel. Paul is “astonished” (1:6) at how fast his brothers and sisters have added something to the gospel. In Chapter 2 Paul is still putting forth the glorious argument of faith alone, by justification alone. And here is where we see Paul speaking of death, and not just death, but a crucifying death.

What Paul does not say is important here, he does not use the word death, but instead chooses to use crucified with Christ.

This is so important, there is a suffering part here as we die with Christ. We will never suffer as much as our Lord did on the Cross, but we do suffer as we die with Christ, and suffering a death like Christ is part 1 of God’s plan, the first part is to know we have died to this world, and through this death we have suffered. See the way of our death to the world in Paul’s statement, “crucified with Christ”, Paul lost all of his worldliness, his standing, as a Pharisee among Pharisees, he suffered through all sorts of pain and illness. But Paul counted it as garbage compared to the glory of God in Christ Jesus. All of Paul’s suffering amounted to less than nothing.

Philippians 3:8-11

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Hear the Words of our Lord Jesus:
John 15:18-19

18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

We also have suffered with loss of friends and family who are not saved. We as Christians find ourselves sometimes in pain for this loss, crying out to the Lord to deliver our loved ones, for them to come and die with Christ!

Christian, this is your calling, come and die with Christ, suffer the rejection of the world and all it’s devices, climb up upon the cross of Christ and be one with his death. Jesus was rejected by the world and His own people, how can we not understand our own death to the world? My brothers and sisters, my friends, hear this, this morning,

the death of Christ is the ultimate act of love, nothing compares, everything else is small in the face of the Cross of Christ. John Stott gives us some assistance here:

“That is the measure of the love of God. All God’s further gifts of love are less than His supreme gift of love on Calvary’s Cross. So Calvary may be said to guarantee everything else to those who are Christ’s”

Love, unbelievable love is given for you and I upon the Cross and Christ bids us to die with Him, what better love is there?

1 Peter 2:24

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Death in Christ is the healing balm, death with Christ provides the healing you are searching for. If you are a believer, you must realize that you have died and the death that you had brought you to the Cross with Christ.

But this love doesn’t end here with the death of Christ and our death to the world, no, the promises proclaimed are the same promises kept. As Christ is resurrected we are also resurrected to New Life, New Life in Christ Jesus.

2) Life In Christ: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

We have been reborn, resurrected from our death, new life demands new understanding

In part 1 we know that we who are believers have died with Christ, understanding that brings us to the second step that the Apostle Paul gives us. That we are not our own, “we have been bought with a price” we have been redeemed, taken from the path of death to the path of eternal life with Christ. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” We have been changed, the big theological word for this is we have been justified, made righteous before God, because of Jesus and his Grace alone. This justification of us is something we need to dwell on for a little bit here this morning. There are so many wrong ways of interpreting justification in our churches today. Justification is not something that continues on through the believers life, it is a one time amazing merciful work of God, that has nothing to do with anything we have done. God justifies the believer once and then sanctifies the believer throughout their lifetime. This is where we need to be as Christians knowing that we have died with Christ, knowing that God has justified us and is continuing to grow us spiritually through His sanctifying grace and mercy.

Because we have been justified with God, we are not living for ourselves anymore, there is something different about us, and that something different is that Christ is living in us. Romans 6:11

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The thing about the second part of verse 20 that is very revealing for believers is that fact that we are not who we were. Paul writes later to the Romans about this same fact of being Alive in Christ and dead to sin. Sin no longer controls us, it doesn’t regulate who we are, sin cannot abide in the believer anymore, for how can sin live with Christ? Of course we are still here in the flesh and we still sin, but sin cannot abide with Spirit. In all the issues in a Christians life today, anxiety, guilt, shame, drugs or sex or whatever, Christ has made us free, He has freed us from this bondage, and I believe Paul was speaking of his own bondage to the Jewish Law when he said, It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. He was a Law addict, addicted to the legalism of his day, everything required a physical action, a sacrifice, a ritual bath. Now he is free from all that and this is his crying out to the churches in Galatia, Christ lives in me, this is the power of Christ in me, the power of Christ has lifted me from the depths of hell. Paul knew he had died, it was on the Damascus Road that he was crucified with Christ, blinded and led by someone else.

Listen to Francis Schaeffer here:

“The Bible says that at the moment we pass from death to life, we passfrom the kingdom of darkness to to kingdom of God’s dear Son. We become individually, children of God. We are children of God from that time on. I repeat, there is no way to begin the Christian life except through the door of spiritual birth, any more than there is any other way to begin physical life except through the door of physical birth.”

Are you encouraged by this thought? Have you begun to see these parts of the Christian Life? The Spiritual Truth brought by God and revealed in His Word demands that we acknowledge our Union with Christ, in His death, and in His resurrection.

Our Union with Christ isn’t dependent upon us, it comes DESPITE US! Please hear this today, knowing who you are In Christ is the most important thing to know as a Christian, Paul knew this that’s why this theme is repeated in Romans and many other places in Scripture.

So the believer knows they have died with Christ, they understand that they have been raised with Christ, but they still live and breathe in the flesh here in this world, and that takes us to our third part this morning Living In Christ

3) Living in Christ: And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul brings the entire argument of how we are justified by faith alone to a resounding Amen here in verse 20. It is what the Galatians most certainly need to know and practice, the very idea that faith in Christ, and all he has done for them will sustain them and nothing else is needed for them to experience the Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ.

After this Paul calls the Galatians fools to have missed this all important fact of the death and resurrection and life of Christ that dwells in them. The Apostle loved these brothers and sisters and because of that, the truth must be spoken.

They had disregarded the perfect Spiritual Truth and then opted for something that could never compare with the glorious wonderful, amazing, work of God through Christ Jesus Alone. They had added something to their faith and replaced the gospel with a false gospel.

Are we so separated from our brothers and sisters in Galatia? We may be separated by thousands of years, but some believers today do not acknowledge this amazing work that God has done in them. Faith alone does not seem enough for us, people want more security because you don’t believe that Faith alone is enough.

When Christians don’t see their death in the world, they fail to see their own resurrection in Christ, their Union with Christ is just something that they hear and they don’t really see in their everyday lives.

ff Bruce

There is, nevertheless, an unmistakable tension set up by the coexistence of life in mortal body and life in Christ—by the fact that the life of the age to come ἐν Χριστῷ has ‘already’ begun while mortal life ἐν σαρκί has ‘not yet’ come to an end.FF Bruce New International Greek Testament Commentary

Grant OsborneSin is no longer an internal force controlling us but an external power that tempts and tries to regain control through the “flesh”—or sinful tendency—in each of us. The key to victory is surrendering totally to the “Christ who lives in” us and drawing strength from the Spirit to defeat the flesh (Rom 8:5–13).

This is so evident in counseling friends and brothers and sisters mired in all kinds of worldly things that have no eternal value, but only serve to bring down and destroy. CS Lewis helps us here:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

Life in the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, think about this, we live in this flesh in FAITH, faith not in ourselves but in THE SON OF GOD, who…LOVED ME! and because HE LOVED ME He gave himself for ME! Some scholars feel that Paul is speaking broadly here, to all Christians and I can see that, it makes sense, but also I can see Paul thinking about his own conversion and speaking these words for himself. Imagine someone giving something up for you. Maybe someone gave up their seat for you on a crowded subway bus or train. Maybe someone let you go ahead of them in a crowded grocery store. This is not what has happened here, Christ has done the unbelievable! Because The Son of God loved us He gave himself up for us, sacrificing everything for you for me. We can never repay this debt, it wasn’t given because of what we have done, it was given by grace alone, and in our faith alone this is where we plant our flag in this world. We live by faith faith in the promises that never fail that are always faithful and true.

This is the culmination of Galatians 2:20 and putting all these different steps together that God has given us to walk in this world in faith because of what Christ has done for us.

We have died with Christ, We have been reborn with Christ and now we live in Christ and Union with Christ is now realized in every believer. If you are a believer here today I pray this is extremely encouraging. If you are not a believer listen to this:

the God of the Universe of Creation bids you to come and die with Him, He doesn’t leave you there but He resurrects you into a New Creature (2Cor. 5:17) one that has the Holy Spirit living within you. Christian, The life you are living right now at this very moment is generated by the Holy Spirit and His job is to reflect Christ in all things. Allow this Spirit to be your guiding force in all you do, See… you have been crucified with Jesus, reborn with Jesus and now you live with Jesus.

If you are here this evening and you have not died with Christ, then your heart is not changed and you still live by the dictates of this world and not by Christ. Christ proclaims that you come and die with Him, be reborn in Him and go forth living in His righteousness alone. This ultimate act of love never before seen in this world awaits you, love that is pure, love that requires nothing to gain it, and love that sustains you here and forever and ever.

This is Truth, not relative Truth, but the all encompassing truth of our Creator God. Spiritual Truth that asks you to be crucified, be resurrected and to live in the newness of the Spirit of God. James the brother of Jesus tells us to:

“ Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

Count it all joy saints! Count it all joy! Joy in our crucifixion, Joy in our resurrection and complete joy in our Faith in

The Spiritual Truth of Death and Life in Christ.