My Death with Christ and Christs Life in Me
Galatians 2:19-21 · Roger Henderson · Apr 14, 2019
Galatians (2018-20), No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261914362776

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, this morning I'm going to continue on in the book of Galatians. We're getting close to the end of the chapter. And if you're any student of the Word, you'll realize that we're coming up to, and we'll cover this morning, one of the most important verses in Galatians, possibly the most important verse in all of Scripture. Of course, if you listen to J. Vernon McGee, every verse is the most important verse in Scripture. Which, you know, you could argue if it comes from God's mouth, it's got to be good, right?

I've entitled this section mostly focused on Galatians 2.20, my death with Christ and Christ's life in me. Because we're going to see both that our death with Christ is critical in our life with Him. So let's look at what we did last week. So last week, and I thought to start with, last week Mike did a great job, but I thought it would be kind of good to define, and we talked about law a lot, dying to the law, But in that verse, if you look carefully, you'll notice that that's not the mosaic law.

It's really a law system. So a law system is anything you do. by your own will or efforts that you think will please God. And men, in the Mosaic system, certainly that was the law. All the 512, whatever they were, and there were a lot. So they endeavored to, quote, keep the law. But in our times, that can be anything. That can be your own code, whatever you think may please God.

So we obviously want to make sure that what we think pleases God is true to scripture. So I want to give a definition here. And we learned also that we have a freedom. In Galatians 2.19, we learned about our freedom or death or separation from any law system as a way of life. And you can't please God by creating a law system. You only can please God by operating the way he operates. He operates by grace. And our part of that is faith. So we're going to learn, oops, wrong way. There we go.

In Galatians 2.20, we're going to learn about my death with Christ and the wonderful results of that death. All right. So to start off with, I have a confession to make. A good part of this lesson was taught about 20 years ago. 90 AC. No, actually more than 20 years ago. So who was here 20 years ago? Raise your hand. Okay, all right.

Well, maybe you remember this lesson and maybe you won't Anyway, actually it's it's actually that's not totally the truth because if you remember that time period our brother how he he taught especially Galatians 2 20 over maybe a year or I looked through his notes, and he started off in Galatians 2.20, he digressed for a while, he came back to 2.20, he digressed for a while, he came back to 2.20. Anyway, it's well over a year's time period.

So I feel very humbled that I'm going to cover Galatians, at least part of Galatians, I'm going to cover part of Galatians 2.20 in, you know, 40 minutes. It's going to be, we're going to race through this stuff. Okay, anyway.

So he kind of shared that in Galatians 2.20 is a critical and crucial passage in terms of our understanding of our position and identification with Christ. It also addresses our walk and our growth in our Savior. So let's just start off with the first part of that verse. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

And what I did, if you'll notice, if you're a careful observer, you'll notice that I use the King James here. Actually it has liveth rather than lives. And actually I found in looking at it and studying it through, that actually the King James brought out the best, this verse.

So I used it and studied it from that perspective, because it related very closely to the original, and it's hard to see it with other translations, so I'm using that particular version. Another part of this I wanted to kind of point out is that you could approach this verse in a variety of ways. And I liked what was done in the past, so I kind of went along with that. So I'm going to do a Doyle today.

I'm going to put questions up. But I'm going to put charts up to answer them. That's going to be the difference. Mike puts questions up, and he talks about it. I'm going to put questions up, and I'm going to put charts in between them. So it's going to be different. So here are the questions.

I'm actually a little bit ahead here. I'm just a little bit ahead. I'm getting so excited here. So let's set the stage, and we'll get to the questions. OK. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Notice I've put in red the I's and the me's. We're here about I's and me's. So who are these I's and me's? They're obviously Paul, right? Start with I. I am crucified with Christ. Christ lives in me. So they're certainly Paul, right? But they're also, I think every believer can put his name in there. That I was, that I, Roger, I, Mike, I, Vonnie, whoever, was crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. You know, actually, you start off, there's a paradox right off the bat. You say, well, wait a minute. I died, but I'm living. What's all that about? And we're going to try to answer that. So that's part of this whole thing, the I's and the me's, and all I's the same. So we're going to try to work through that. OK, so now let's get to the questions. I got ahead of myself here. So here's the questions. And I got actually eight questions, but I'm going to repeat four twice. So it's only four questions. Okay. But they're slightly different, a different part of the verse.

Who was put to death on the cross? So that's going to talk about who's this I. Who was put to death on the cross? How was I crucified with Christ? Why was I crucified with Christ? And how do I appropriate it? Or, you know, it's a fancy word. You know, how do I make it mine? How do I put it in shoe leather? What difference does it make as I walk out the door today? How will it be different if I appropriate this truth that we learned today. So those are the four questions for this little section.

I'm crucified with Christ. Who was put to death? How was I crucified? Why was I crucified? And how do I appropriate this crucifixion in my life? You know, some would say, you know, some would say, I got to, and I don't mean to knock any particular ministry, some would, isn't there a gentleman that actually carries a cross around, I've seen movies of him, he carries a physical cross around the world And he uses it, I think in not a bad way, to talk about Christ.

He walks all these places, all over the world, and he's met thousands of people, maybe me, I don't know, a lot of people. That's his ministry. But the Lord isn't asking us to carry a cross around. He's talking about something he's done to us and for us. So it's a huge difference.

Okay, crucified is this word, it's a compound word, and actually it's together with plus crucified, so it's actually co-crucified. So we could say, I am co-crucified with Christ. And crucify is the idea to put to death on a cross, and we're going to see that death The concept of Christ's death and our death with him is going to be critical. And we're going to see that it's important to understand that. Actually, there's three parts. Every verb in the original language has a tense voice and mood. So the tense of this verb is what's called the perfect.

And it's the idea that it's a past action. So in the past, we were co-crucified with Christ in the past. But this doesn't stop there, it continues on to the present. So we continue to be crucified. Okay, that's the tense of the verb. It's in the passive voice, and this is kind of referring to the fact that we're not doing something. I'm not out carrying a cross around with me, a physical cross. We're being acted upon by God, or we're acted upon by God. And then the indicative mood is the idea that it's reality, it's a fact.

So you could render it, I have been crucified, and I stand crucified. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ stands crucified today. Now, this is a positional aspect, and we're going to see how do we appropriate this? How do we make it ours? So, I have been crucified and I stand crucified. Okay? So, then the next part is this little prepositional part with Christ. We were associated with Christ and his crucifixion and death spiritually. So okay, so now we're going to try to answer the first question.

Who was put to death on the cross? Who's this I? Well, first of all, it's a person, right? Because Paul is talking about himself, right? I, or we put our name in there. So it's a person. And a person, we know from scripture, has a body, soul, and spirit. And then next, so based upon those couple of things, and we think about the fact that we're talking about a person being crucified with Christ, that kind of assumes that they put their faith and trust in Christ. So it's speaking of, I believe, all that they were in Adam. All that were in Adam was crucified with Christ. Okay? So now we're going to go to how do the scriptures say we were crucified? We obviously weren't crucified physically, right? And we're not crucified by doing some act, by performing some action.

So what's interesting is scripture talks about a couple of things. I just went ahead and went through those quickly. It talks about baptism. And baptism is going to be kind of the link into Christ's death and burial. So your first question is, well, could it possibly be water baptism? And some might argue that.

But if you look at Romans 6, you're going to see it's spiritual baptism. And I was kind of thinking, you know, if you when you study scripture you look at other scriptures in studying Galatians 2 20 you need to have Romans 6 in one hand in Galatians 2 20 and the other and as you read as you try to understand Galatians 2 20 you go. Oh Romans 6 says that that's what he's talking about because Romans 6 is going to tell us about baptism about our baptism and into Christ.

So you need to understand the truths from Romans 6 to explain Galatians 2.20.

And then one additional point here is that it talks about in 1 Corinthians 12, it talks about talking about the body of Christ. It says, Knowing this, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free, we were all made to drink of one spirit. So we were baptized into one body, that's the body of Christ. So this baptism is our entrance into Christ himself. And so let's see what Romans 6 has to say about that. So it says, or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, Jesus, have been baptized into his death. So it says, well, first of all, let's just back up for a second.

So to understand baptism, spiritual baptism, we need to define what it is. What is spiritual baptism? And spiritual baptism, you know, I often Occasionally, it hasn't been frequently, but I have a chance to do a water baptism. We'll have this open here and we'll do a water baptism. And it's a picture of spiritual baptism. But spiritual baptism has one really important point.

The literal definition of spiritual baptism is that I'm immersed into Christ and never taken out. So sometimes I shared with the people, I said, well, if you want to do this right, you don't get to come out. What's Roger talking about here? But that's the idea. Spiritual baptism is cool. We're placed into Christ, immersed into Christ, and never removed. Whereas the water picture, the person comes up, and there's significance to that. Spiritual baptism, I'm immersed into Christ and never taken out. I'm so identified with him.

Okay, so then another part of this, we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So we've been baptized into his death and we've been baptized into his burial. So if you think about this, I'm not sure I actually covered that earlier, We talked about our co-crucifixion. A lot of these words in here have the word co- or the prefix soon in there. It's co-crucifixion, co-burial, and co-resurrection. So we're identified with our Savior in those three areas at least. His crucifixion, his burial, and resurrection. So this points out two of them.

Baptized into his into his death and think about you know crucifixion is death right death on a cross and here we are we're Baptized or Cope into his into his burial and we're going to see that the part the way I appropriate this I've been baptized into his Resurrection and that's a cool part. That's going to tell us how we live this life Okay, so let's go on so why was that crucified I?

So the short answer, I'll just give you three short answers, and then I'll back up the scripture. Bob was pointing out very well this morning, you know, we get up here and we talk about things, and hopefully we've done our homework, and we have a verse or verses to back up what we say. If I get up here and just start talking, which I can, not as well as some, you know, some people can just talk, you know, usually I have to have something to say about, tell you about the weather, about cars, or whatever. I need to have verses to back it up.

So I'm going to give you the summary, and I'll give you the verses. To be separated... Okay, first of all, why was I crucified with Christ? To be separated from our sin nature. So I'm hoping... You guys are convinced you have a sin nature, right? Anybody doubting that they... Anybody have doubts about that? If you do, talk to me afterwards.

So it's to be separated from our sin nature. And boy, sounds, you know... Around here, that's pretty common talk. Two purposes, so that our sin nature would be rendered inoperative, or taken offline, or taken out of business, but not annihilated, and that's key, so that we do not have to be slaves of sin.

We don't have to be at a speck and call. We can answer the bell, so to speak. As Mike likes to say, the music starts playing and we start dancing. The music is playing, I've got to start dancing. We don't have to do that. Okay, so here's some verses Back once again.

I noticed I reread Romans 6 6 6 Romans 6 1 through 11 this morning a couple times and Every verse except the first verse has the word death in it Every single verse has the word death in it and it's either Christ's death our death with him our death to sin and so on but every verse 2 through 11 has the word death in it I was thinking about About Barney Fife, you know who Barney Fife is he's the guy he's a constant hospital sheriff deputy sheriff deputy sheriff on Mayberry right and they actually show some taste when they go to church and Barney comes out of church in one episode and says, you know, you can't say too much about sin and And they say something But I'm going to change that. You can't say too much about death, especially Christ's death and our death with Him. So that's my analogy to Barney Fife there. You can't say too much about sin, or you can't say too much about death, and our death with Christ.

I got totally off the track here, I know. So the verses that back this up. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, Here's the purpose. In order that, our body of sin, and that's, you know, people struggle with that terminology, body of sin. It seems like the best take on that is that it's the totality of our sin nature. I'm not sure I would die over that, but, you know, that's what, the best I understand. The body of sin kind of refers to our sin nature, the totality of it, might be done away with, put in idols better, taken offline.

So that we would no longer be slaves of sin. So that's the verse that gives you those points I made before and then then 6 7 says for he who has died is freed from Remember another good student in Romans 6 is going to pick up every every sin with doesn't have the isn't plural every sin singular you can put you can put in their nature the sin nature and For he who has died is free from the sin nature.

And that's huge. That's huge. But the old sin nature is still around, and we still start dancing sometimes. Okay. So let's go on. Okay, how do I... I was kind of working up to... This is my fourth question. We talked about the first three questions. Who is it? It's all I am in Adam. I lost my questions here. I was going too fast. Let me go back here. You have them on your page there. Who was put to death on the cross? The I. How was I crucified? I was crucified through baptism. Why was I crucified? To separate me from my sin nature. So we're down to that point. The last step is, how do I make that real in my life?

And I'll give you the general statement is, by reckoning or counting, putting your faith in the facts. And that's so much of scripture is that way. God presents a wonderful truth to us and he asks us to believe it. If you don't enter in by belief, you miss out. You have to believe, I was crucified with Christ. And then the verse that backs up the reckoning here is, even so, consider or reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God. I like that contrast. We're dead to the sin nature, but alive to God. So that's what we're to be counting on. So when we walk out the door today, and sometimes I've used this, hopefully not mechanically, but something will happen. Maybe I'm, maybe somebody I'm driving along, obeying the speed limit, maybe, and somebody whizzes by me and cuts in my lane and just about causes me to have a wreck.

What do I do at that point? The music starts dancing. I'm going to speed up and cut this guy off. That's my first. Actually, unfortunately, before I was a believer, I actually did that one time. I was going to respawn back. Really cool. Fortunately, I didn't kill myself. But anyway, that's another story. Let's see. Okay. So that's the choice we have. We respawn and let the sin nature just drive us, or we say, you know, I'm dead to that. Scripture says, reckon yourself dead. So I'll say, you know, to myself, I'm dead to that. Yeah, I can go after that guy and show him, you know, who's boss here.

But why do that? I don't need to do that. Anyway, and there's thousands of other opportunities we have to reckon that count upon that. And some aren't as easy as that one. Some are a lot more subtle, maybe. Bob was pointing out today was cool. You know, you're in a situation and Maybe you talk about the Lord, maybe you don't, and you know, you struggle with that. So anyway, so that's the four points. Who was put to death on the cross? All who were in Adam. How was I crucified? By being baptized into the person and work of Christ. Why was I crucified? To separate me from my sin nature. And then how do I appropriate it? Basically by faith in the facts, counting upon those faith in the facts.

Okay, so now we're going to switch to the I. I have a little I up there. Nevertheless I. And this is why the King James was superior, I thought, because the other versions, look through the other versions, most of them kind of combine nevertheless I with yet not I, and they kind of mix that together, and I didn't, I just, you lose this, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I. And I even like, if you look at the interlinear, which is a word-for-word translation.

Word-for-word it says, but I am living. Boy, I like that. I was crucified with Christ. I am living. You say, wow, that's cool. I'm living. What's this living about? Okay, so I've got four more questions. They look like the other four questions I had because they're all the same kind of format. Who is living? Who's the I? How was I made alive? What is the purpose of my living?

How do I appropriate it? And you know what we're going to find? We're going to find that the answers are almost the same. And you actually almost scratch your head and you say, how can the answers be the same? Anyway, we'll get to that. Who is living? Could this be a different I? And it certainly is. You know, I don't think I have to, in fact, actually, let me read. If you have any doubt, we know the moment we believe you were born again, not physically, but spiritually. So if you've forgotten, remember our old buddy Nicodemus?

In John 3, 3 through 7, it says, Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born again when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said you must be born again. So we must be born again.

So something's happened to every single believer. Something's happened radically in their lives. They've been born again. And we know from a wonderful verse, 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Let me read that. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. All things passed away. Behold, new things have come. So we have a totally new and quality life. You have a new nature, which is Christ's nature. And all things have passed away. I believe that's speaking of the separation of our sin nature. And I would be willing to listen to others. I'm actually not as sharp on that verse as I should be. But anyway, that's my thought. Talk to me later if you...

So I believe the new I is our new creation in Christ. So the believer has the old Adamic nature. But we're separated from that. That's hanging out with him, and then he has this new nature in Christ. And so that's the struggle. Which one will I abide with, hang out with, spend my time with? Our desire is we spend our time with Christ, certainly. Okay. So how was I made alive?

What do you think the answer is going to be? Baptism again surprise surprise by baptism into Christ, but this time we were were a Baptist baptized into Christ's resurrection It was for the first part. It was baptized into his death now. It's baptized into his resurrection thus receiving his life and made totally complete and that verse this verse talks about that completeness and And in him you have been made complete and he is head over all rule and authority And that word, made complete, is the idea to be totally full of something. We're totally full of our Savior. We're totally complete in our Savior. Not that we're not to grow in grace, but we have all of Christ that we need to live our life there. He's in us.

And then some more along that line in Colossians 2.12, having been buried, with him in baptism in which you also were raised up, that's being co-raised, that actually is literally co-raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So what's the purpose of my living? And we go back to Romans 6. The purpose is so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, So we too might walk in newness of life.

Boy, that phrase is interesting. New in quality nature. This new in quality nature is really Christ's life. And part of the problem with looking at that is that newness... First of all, you say, what's the verb in this thing? So we too might walk in newness of life. Actually, the verb is walk, and newness is really a noun. Newness is describing a nature. It's describing Christ's nature as a source of our new life.

What I thought I'd do here is, this has been done before, but I really like this. To me, this just really rocks my socks. And it's been done a bunch of other times since God is love we know that from 1st John 4 9 and Christ and the Father are one and crisis in our is our life we could read the love chapter 1st Corinthians 13 4 through 8 this way we could I'm going to insert something in place of love Christ's life is patient Christ's life is kind. And I'm not trying to put a guilt trip on you here. I'm just showing you how radically this new nature is from us. Because if I try just the first two, just starting with patient, I have a problem with patients already, we're out of the starting block.

But Christ's life is totally different. Christ's life is patient. Christ's life is kind. Christ's life is not jealous. Christ's life does not brag. Christ's life is not arrogant. Christ's life does not act unbecomingly. Christ's life does not seek its own. Christ's life is not provoked. Christ's life does not take into account a wrong suffered. Christ's life does not rejoice in unrighteousness. Christ's life rejoices with truth. Christ's life bears all things. Christ's life believes all things. Christ's life hopes all things. Christ's life endures all things. Christ's life never fails.

And what I've done there, just for you know, I'm not trying to rewrite scripture. I'm just taking, based upon what was in the upper right-hand column there, the nature of who Christ is and the nature of the love that we have in His very life. This is how His life would operate in us. But I'd be the first to say, take any one of those. And you know, unfortunately, many times I'm not patient. Anyway, but this is when we walk by faith in His truth. This is what He desires to live His life through us and to show these qualities. So how do I appropriate it? And it's going to be the same as we had before. It's really no different. I put the two verses down again. Actually, 11 speaks probably more to it than 6. Let me just reread 6 again.

Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, put in idle, so that we would no longer serve sin. So here's the part, as I mentioned before, here's the part that speaks of our part in this. Even so, consider or reckon, by faith, to be dead or separated from the sin, the sin nature, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So we come back to the same set of verses to remember our crucifixion with Christ, as well as our new life in Christ. So whether remembering his crucifixion or our new life in him, it's the same process, by faith, counting upon what he's done for us. OK. All right, so.

So actually, there's a short comparison I noticed between verse 19 and verse 20, the first part of verse 20. Back in 19 it said, I'm dead to the law, that I might live to God. 20 says, I'm crucified with Christ, but I'm living. Pretty cool stuff, you know. You're both dead to the law, and you're crucified with Christ, and you live the life that God desires you to live. I thought that was a neat parallel. Then I left the last little part. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. It's the not I, but Christ life. That's the life that he desires to live out through us.

In Romans 8.10, are you guys up this far in Romans class?

The 8.10? Okay.

If or since Christ is in you, Though the body be dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. So the key point, Christ being in you, kind of backing that up, and then this wonderful verse in John 14 talking about Christ speaking, I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. That's the Christian life, Christ in us, Christ living his life through us. Okay, so I'd like to just close here with... First of all, I'm going to read something and then I want to just make one last comment. Okay, so I got this from Ron Merriman. Christ is in us in order that his life principle might be livened or animated in us. He is not only the resurrection, the escape from death, he is the life. Pretty cool stuff. Pretty cool stuff. And one last thought.

You know, what we see here, what we see in many, the truth is that death must come before life. We see it in nature, right? You know, the seed dies and it gives forth life. You know, we see it in Christ. You know, we're going to celebrate his death here on Good Friday and his resurrection life. And it's true of us, as we come by faith and trusting him, we experience a death positionally, and then we're to count upon it conditionally to live our lives. But then we can live our life. But death comes before life. Death must come before life. All right. We thank you, Father. Lord, we thank you for our time today, Father. Thank you for the marvelous truths in this passage, Father. We pray that we would remember them, and thank you for our time today. In Christ's name, amen.