How To Study The Bible

Okay. Well, considering what day it is, I thought we'd take a look at Galatians 2.20. And I want to preface this with a little bit. About four years ago, I was going through a period of time where I was just saying, okay, Lord, You do whatever You have to do in my life to teach me. Just whatever it is. Shortly thereafter, the Lord brought through my work a project. People in the office called it the project from hell. It was this horrible, massive, awful, nasty project in which I had to clean up this mess.

There is an ongoing lawsuit over the thing, in which case the company I work for is suing another engineer. But the position was, okay, Vern, you clean it up and then we'll go back and get this thing taken care of later because it's this other guy's problem. So anyway, that's continuing on. And a month ago, I still had to go back and do depositions.

But the point being, this project was so awful, it was seven days a week. I had people calling me at home, at night, weekends, Sunday afternoons, all the time, really, really mad. It was on a piece of property. You've heard of the Gap stores. The guy owns, you know, the Gap, that's his property. And it's a $50 million house on this property. So it was a major fiasco, and lawyers calling, and it was a nasty, horrible, awful, nightmarish time. I said, okay, Lord, that's how you answer prayer, right?

And in the midst of that, this verse, Galatians 2.20, was the thing I could look at and say, this is how I'm going to survive this.

This is how I'm going to be able to to handle it. I was wondering how you got into the ministry. I had actually started seminary before that. So it wasn't like, boy, I've got to get out of this. But still, I think it was the Lord's answer to prayer. Lord, this is what you're going to use in my life to teach me. Because that's what I said. Lord, you do whatever you have to do to make me the man you want me to be. And so that's what he did.

And it was quite an experience. But I would just Think about this particular verse because it was really the only way of surviving this thing of getting short nights of sleep, night after night, week after week, month after month, people calling all hours of the day and night just fiery mad. I mean, it was quite a deal. Having to take the blame for something that wasn't my fault, that kind of thing. So it was really a great deal of fun. As we go through this, this is not just theoretical.

This is something the Lord said, okay, Vern, I want you to really learn this good. And so he put me in a situation, there was no way to survive it, just in terms of physiology and in terms of, you know, because of just lack of sleep and constant horrific stress, aside from this. It had to be Christ's life and not mine.

Bottom line. So anyway, let's take a look at this verse because I think there's some There's some real survivability in this. Okay? 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. Okay?

And just for the sake of getting a little more smoothly here, and also if not all the numbers and letters, this is the same verse, Galatians 2.20. in the New American Standard Version. So let me read that. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In 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.

What words do you see repeated frequently in this? In me. That's one. What's another one? Live keeps coming up. And I. See, those are three kind of ideas that keep repeating. There's this I. And what we'll see is I doesn't always mean the same thing. And me doesn't always mean the same thing. Anyway, we'll look at that in more detail here. First of all, even aside from just looking things up in books, what's this crucified thing all about? Just think about, you know, He's writing in the context. Who was doing the crucifying in those days?

The Romans. Right. The Romans did it. And what did they do? Kill you in a very slow and painful way. Yeah. This was nasty. People frequently took days to die. I was talking to a fellow, Tashi, who's a guest of Art and Doris. And he's an engineering student at CSM. And one of the things that happens, this is just a nice little civil engineering analysis here. You know what I'm talking about.

When you hang a body, let's say that body, just to pick a number, weighs 150 pounds. You put nails, and the nails went in about here, not in the middle of the palm because that would tear out. The nails went about in here or somewhere in there. You put the nails in, and they're like this, right? and you have this pull, you don't have 150 pounds of stress on each nail. It's multiplied.

There is a leverage factor that comes in there. You have many times the amount of stress on those nail points than the weight of the person because of the leverage factor. In other words, if I'm going like this, I'm suspending it directly. The more I go out like this, the more I have an increase in the stress and the stresses on the arms are much more than the weight of the person.

Several hundred pounds could be on each arm. For instance, if the line were straight, the forces would be infinite. Yes, if the line were out straight, the forces would be infinite. If it would be this, it would be 150 pounds total. But you've got some increase factor and the farther straight they are, the worse it is. But the point being, you have not just 150 pounds, you have hundreds of pounds of longitudinal stress on each arm. It's yanking each arm out of socket. It's ripping away at the joint. But what points of support does that person have?

They've got a nail through each hand, and usually Romans were economical. They saved nails and put one nail through both feet. So they'd go through there, and so the person would shove themselves up on the nail through the feet to get a breath. and then go down because the stresses were pulling on each one and all the while it's pulling tendons and ligaments loose in the shoulders and tearing that up. And so the person would go for days, typically, they'd go for days shoving up, you know, on the feet to get a breath and then going down like this to rest all the while it's tearing at each of the shoulders with a multiple of the usual force. And that's just a physical problem. Meanwhile, you're getting thirstier. Meanwhile, you're getting hungry. Meanwhile, your thighs from pushing up are getting exhausted. Meanwhile, you're losing blood. This is a horrible way to die. This is ghastly.

So when we say, I'm crucified, this isn't just some theoretical little thing. To them, for Paul to say, I am crucified, just that very word is like, oh, this is awful. This is terrible. If you can think of some awful way to die, the Romans invented it. And they came up with this horrible, horrific thing. So to say, I am crucified with Christ, that's not a nice little theoretical nicety. It is awful. It is horrific. It is a ghastly way to think of dying. So just that first phrase, his readers would see that word and it would just slam them. That was a heavy word.

I am crucified with Christ. Now let's take a look at that. Yes, if there were some instance, for example, what would frequently happen and was an exception with Christ is let's say, okay, we've got to hurry up and get these guys dead because the Jewish law doesn't allow them to be hanging on the cross overnight. So they just go along with a real heavy club and just whack and go across the leg bones, break them, and that way they couldn't shove up anymore, couldn't get a breath, and they'd suffocate. So that way they were merciful. Oh boy. Anyway. So yeah, that was so they could shorten the process. Otherwise, it might well take days. Crucifixion was not a, hey, you're dead inside of 60 minutes. In some cases, yes.

There was in the first century an instance where there was a rebellion that got going and they had several thousand slaves that were crucified all at one time. As we look at this passage here, the first thing, this word crucified. Now, the way this, let's fully switch. I am crucified with, what do you notice about that? That is all one word, okay? So there's one word to say I am crucified with.

And Paul does something unique, and this is something you'll notice in Paul's writings. He likes to make compound words. He makes compound words. The Apostle John, Revelation, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Gospel of John, all similar. He liked to use simple words, real simple words. Paul, in contrast, liked to use compound words.

This is one of those. Staros was the word for crucify. Sustaru, Sustarao, This is an instance, this is together with. It's a prefix. It means together with. I am together crucified. I am together crucified with Christ. I am crucified with Him. It's not just alongside. He and I are together being crucified. As one. You are together being crucified. you have been identified with Christ to the point of you and He are being crucified together, not, you know, He's over here and I'm over here, sort of next to Him. You are together crucified. So here's His statement. I mean, this is a phenomenal statement. I am together crucified.

And notice, here is the indication, and it's basically the same idea as in Romans 6.6, that the old man was crucified together with Christ so that sin cannot have preeminence in a believer's life. This is what he's saying when he says, I am together crucified. He's not saying that he, Paul, was physically crucified with Christ, right? This is a spiritual crucifixion that's taking place there.

But notice the tense that comes out of that. The verb form is perfect, indicative, passive. That perfect means completed past action with ongoing results. And the implication of that perfect tense is it's permanent. It's a permanent done deal. The next thing, it's indicative. That's just stating it's a fact. And the third thing, it's passive. I didn't do it. God did it.

At times, and you felt this way likely at times, and you may have run across other believers who feel this way, or other people who think they're believers and feel this way, that somehow, I've got to do the crucifying. Ever felt that, or had people have that impression? Oh, I've got to do some bad things. And this time of year, various people around the world, I hear stories like in the Philippines, down in Mexico, where people go and actually get crucified in order to They feel like they've got to do something, you know, to feel real bad.

Yeah, I've got to crawl on my hands and knees, and I've got to get bloody on my hands and knees. The point is, this isn't something we do. This is something God does. It is, in the passive tense, it's all His doing. It's His accomplishment entirely. Now let's not ignore this. What's translated Christ is Christos, and that is basically using as a title for the Messiah.

The word could actually be used for anyone who was anointed, but in this case it's referring specifically to Christ. This is the Messiah, the one who was anointed. Now, who did they anoint? What was the pattern for anointing? The kings? Good. And who else? Priests. Kings, priests, and one more? Prophets. Prophets, priests, and kings. Those three were anointed. So here is this one who is a prophet, priest, and a king, and what did they do? Crucified him. I have been crucified, Paul is saying, with that Christos, that anointing, being the thing that qualifies a prophet, priest, and a king. And Christ is all three.

Let's take a look at the next part. Somebody mentioned that the word live and life keeps coming up. This is the word, remember several weeks back we talked about this, there are two words used for life or living, or live, and one is bio, and that's just referring to this physical body and referring to life that is purely earthly, and that's it. This is a different one, zao, and you'll sometimes see a related word, you know, zoa, or zoe, okay? That is a word that has a different sense to it. In this case here, in the sense of to exist without end, now and hereafter, to live forever.

Okay? Different sense. So this isn't just live like, you know, okay, I got blood flowing through this thing, you know, and the heart's pumping. That's not what it's talking about, okay? Now, so we go to this, Go to this verse. Let's go back and take a look at this.

I am crucified. Actually, it says, I am crucified. That perfect tense really says, I was crucified. So actually, the I am almost implies a different sense. I was crucified in its perfect tense. And it has ongoing results. But probably the Greek sense would be better represented as, I was crucified, then, with ongoing results into the future.

Together with Christ, not alongside, somewhere in the same vicinity. I was crucified together with Christ. And then when this word life comes up, it's not just talking about my blood's pumping and my body's working. It's talking about life that's deeper than that. Life that goes beyond that. And notice how often that word living comes up here.

It's a big issue, isn't it? There is one thing I want us to note. You see this live? What's the number there? 2198? Liveth is actually the same one. Shows up again. Okay. Now, what do you notice here? What's that? Yeah. OK, here's here's the thing. If we look at this, let's see if I have that on the overhead here. There may not. Yeah, here we go. Thirty seven, thirty nine.

It actually the word life right here is not this is the life which that word that word there does not have life in it. It's not in the Greek. That's an insertion. It really just says, that which. So life is implied, but it doesn't actually say that. That which is the meaning of the Greek there. Now, let's take a further step through this though. At one place in that verse it says, the life I live right now.

In the Greek, the usual sense of the present tense is right now, continuous. And if you want to say right now, like this moment, you don't use the present tense. We would do it in English, but you don't do that in Greek. In Greek, you use a special word to say right now, this moment, and that's what he uses here.

So when he says, the life I now live, this word here, nun, the life I now live, word is a specific one to say the one I'm living right now, right at this moment. So he doesn't use the present tense, he uses that one specific word to point to the one I'm living right this instant.

I live by the faith. Now let's look at this word faith here. The word for faith in the Greek is the same word for believe, and it's basically the same word for trust. Same word. We have different words. This is an unusual situation where we have different words. In the Greek, it's all the same idea.

But it's not just believe like in your head. It's believe, act on. it's carried out, it's believed that you depend upon. See the difference there? So it's a word, this is where, for example, the Philippian jailer comes up to, here's Paul and Silas in the jail, and he says, what must I do to be saved? Just lays it flat out. And their answer says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he didn't just say, have an intellectual concept of. So it's like all your heart, mind, soul. It is.

Put trust in it to the point of you are going to depend upon that to save you. It's one thing, for example, for somebody to sit there at the top of the cliff and say, I believe that rope can hold me as I rappel down this cliff. But it's the person who is willing to rappel down the cliff that believes in the rope. This story, and you may have heard it, but I'll repeat it just for the sake of making the point, It's this guy who takes the wheelbarrow across the rope over the Niagara Falls. And he says, you know, everybody think I can do that again?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, get in. That's believing. Not standing on the other side. It's the one that's willing to get into that wheelbarrow. That's the one that believes. And that's what this Word is talking about. Not talking about, yeah, intellectually I've arrived at this conclusion, or I think that that is, from a standpoint of the facts, a reasonable conclusion. No. This is one that you are willing to depend upon, like the person that gets in the wheelbarrow, or the person rappelling that looks to that rope to keep them as they're going down the instance.

Years ago, when I was back in engineering school, Nancy and I were youth sponsors at a local church. There was a girl who was in the youth group, a nice gal, and I noticed when she came to the youth group one day, both of her hands were just wrapped up in gauze. It looked like she had a couple of volleyballs.

What's going on here? So anyway, the story came out. She was at a mountain climbing school in Yosemite National Park. And as she was at the school, there were various students around, you know, getting their gear in place. And she said to this, you know, one instructor, she was talking about various things with the equipment and getting things done right.

And at one point, one of the students says, you know, hey, does this look pretty good? And the instructor looks over and the guy's, you know, got everything attached right. And he says, yeah, it looks pretty good. At that point, the guy dives off the cliff.

Only thing is, this girl who had the hands all bandaged up, look, the rope was not attached to anything. So what happened is, she grabbed the rope. Which by that time, this guy had gotten some velocity. This just tore the flesh off her hands. Just ripped the flesh off her hands. Burned it all the way down to the point it was showing meat. But she saved the guy's life.

It's kind of an analogy. That's what Christ did for us. That guy, he didn't have to place faith, so the analogy breaks down. But that guy depended upon her sacrifice to live entirely. And he made it through that because of what she did. pure, plain, and simple. And that's what we're doing with one extra step.

God says, will you believe on the sacrifice I've made? Will you believe on the sacrifice I've made? And on the basis of that belief, the Lord says, okay, then the sacrifice is applied to you. So as we look at this here, again, let's not think of this as in some theological, theoretical realm. This is real stuff. Real life. Christ paid the price. When we were crucified with Him, do you remember that? He's the one that took the penalty for this thing. By faith and by grace, we were identified with Him. But He's the one that took the hit.

Now, there's a couple of other things to take a look at. One, you notice this, it says, in the flesh I live. Now, that word flesh is used in different ways in the Bible. What are some of the ways that you can think of that it's used? Sinfulness, okay. Sinful character is oftentimes called flesh. What are some other ways? Yes, the actual physical body is also called the flesh. There's also another way to talk about the flesh of this animal, the flesh of that one, so a different kind.

Ah, yes. Exactly that. It has different ways that it's used. The Greek word is sarx. Easy enough word to pronounce. This word is used in different ways, and it is, for example, Paul talks about the flesh. Believers have a flesh, right? He used the word sarx. He also uses that same word, in the sense that Carol is just pointing out, to mean simply our mortal, physical, human bodies. So it can be used in that way, and that's specifically what it means.

In fact, the dictionary in the Complete Word Study of the New Testament identifies Galatians 2.20 particularly meaning that. That's his intent here, okay? In the physical human body. Could be, although in this case it's just talking about this, you know, this human body that I have. But yes, a decaying flesh, that could be Sark's too, usually with some other description, you know, goes along with it. Okay, there's something else to take a look at.

And notice here, It says, the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Now, one of the things that I notice, loved, APTA, what's that code there? And gave, APTA. Both of those have the same verb form. Somebody has a code index there? What does the APTA stand for? Okay. So, loved and gave, both of those words are given the aorist participle active. That has, in coming over into English, the idea of a punctiliar past action. There's a certain point in time that was the case.

And notice what he does is he links up, at that point in time he loved me. It doesn't mean he doesn't love me now, but at that point in time he loved me, at that point in time he gave himself. Those two go together, and that's the linking that he does.

He loved me, and he gave himself for me, and that giving was sacrificial, wasn't it? Guess what kind of love that is? Yeah, this is agape love. This is love that does for the other person not what the other person wants, but what is thought best for the other person, even if they don't want it.

I'm sure that fellow who was falling quickly realized that this rope wasn't stopping him. And he didn't realize why it stopped, why it started to slow down. But I'm sure in the end he was glad it happened. He loved me and gave himself for me. That loving was not something that we said, hey, Lord, why don't you die for me? We didn't look at it and realize, hey, you know, I need somebody to die for me. We didn't realize that. God was the one who took the step to do that.

But at that one point in time, He loved me and gave Himself, at that point in time, gave Himself sacrificially for me on my behalf. Let's take a look at what this would look like. Let me do kind of a complete translation here. Let's see if I can get that a little straight. There we go.

Galatians 2.20. If I do an expanded translation so we get the full sense of what this is talking about. The man I was in the past. Who was I in the past? Yeah, I was in Adam. Whoever I was. For Paul, it was that Pharisee that I was in the past.

For me, I was four and a half years old when I became a believer. At four and a half, I needed Christ to die for me. And I realized that. I remember I came home from Sunday school and I asked my parents, how do you become a Christian? And they actually said, wait until you're a little older. And I woke them up that night and I said, I waited long enough. But at four and a half, I needed a Savior. At four and a half, I needed Christ to die for me. At four and a half, that was good enough for me to say, okay, Lord, I don't understand this whole thing, but I believe in what you have done. I believe in what you've done, and therefore, I was that man in the past. The man I was in the past, and because it's in the perfect tense, I'm going to use this sense here. The man I was in the past was permanently crucified together with Christ.

Now, let's take this point. If it's perfect tense, done in the past, it's permanent, it's completed past action, what chance is there that I'm going to lose my salvation? Do I go in and out of it? No, it's a done deal. It's perfect tense, so it's completed. It was permanently crucified together with Christ with ongoing results into the future. The fact that I was crucified with Christ will continue, it continues now, and will continue on into the future to have results. That's the meaning of the perfect tense. And the man I was in the past, that's this guy, right? The man I was in the past is no longer continuing to live right now. Guess what? The me that I was isn't any longer. I'm not that guy, okay?

But there lives in this new creation that is me right now, the person of Christ continually. Christ is the one now dwelling in me continually. Constantly. And the life which I live in this physical human body, that's what Carol was pointing out, that's this flesh, this human body we've got right here, this thing. I live by means of faith.

The one I'm living in right here now, I live by means of faith, that faith, which is in the very Son of God who loved me unconditionally. He didn't say, hey, I'm going to go up on the cross because Vern's an awful nice guy. He says, I'm going to go on that cross because I love Vern not for what he is or because he asked me to do it. but because I love and care for Him regardless of what He is asking me to do or thinks is good for Him. Which faith is in the very Son of God who loved me unconditionally. That's the agape love. And at one point in time willingly gave Himself. Now here's something.

If I want to just say sort of casually in the Greek, that I'll give myself, I'll use the passive voice. But if I want to underscore something, I can use a separate word for himself. If I want to just give myself, I can use a passive or middle voice, and it'll get done that way. But he said here instead himself, and he actually uses a separate word for that. In the Greek, that's emphasis. That's emphasis. Otherwise, I can build a lot into the verb, right? He didn't do that here. Instead, He willingly gave Himself. He gave Himself, okay? Sacrificially on my behalf. He gave Himself sacrificially because of His love that He had for me. That unconditional love on my behalf. And the reason I was able to go through this project here that was hellish was because every day, every moment, I would say, I can't live this. I can't live through this.

Constantly phone calls. Weekends. Nights. Right in the middle of this I had a son get married. My oldest son got married. First wedding in the family. And right in the middle of that I'm getting these phone calls. Horrible time. Trying to get ready for this wedding. Suit and tie on. People calling mad. Just really quite a time.

Right in the middle of that I just say, I can't live this Lord. My son is getting married and I'm a zombie. Physiologically, I just can't hold up to this. And yet, in the middle of that, I say, okay, I can't do it, but this is Christ's life. It's His life that's going to handle this, not mine. And that's the only way to survive it.

But that's where it's by faith. Faith being dependence upon Him in a real sense, not just, gee, I believe that there's such a person as Jesus and He did something pretty good for me. But it's dependence upon that. It's believing it to the point of dependence.

Okay? All right. Let's call it good. Okay? Lord, we thank you for your word, for your truth. We thank you for all that you've laid out. Indeed, we have been together crucified with you, and that's a done deal. And we can depend upon that. And not only Did You take the price upon Yourself that we could not pay, but You gave us a life that we could not earn and don't deserve. We thank You for that great exchange that You have accomplished. In Jesus' name, Amen.