Seven Realities of the Christian Life
Galatians 3:26-29 · Mike Doyle · Jul 21, 2019
Galatians (2018-20), No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261915428005

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

Good morning. So in preparing for teaching today, we spent a lot of time digging and looking and searching, and I must give credit where credit's due to Helmer Loy was the one years ago, I think in 96, he put together these seven points we'll go through today. And I just adopted the seven points because they're so apparable to these verses. And you have a handout, and hopefully I left some room if you wanna take some notes about what the subject matter's gonna be. So the first one, In verse 26, it says, you wouldn't think he could get seven cool things out of two verses, but they're here.

For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Every single one of us is a son. From the previous verses, we've gone from inmates to sons. And we talked about last week, we had this guardian, we were in jail, and I related it to being in boot camp in the Marine Corps, you had this wonderful guy called a drill instructor. You never went anywhere without that guy. Everywhere you went, he was with you. He was the guardian. So we went from, I could say, an inmate or a recruit to a son.

So why are we all sons? We're sons because of our faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have become spiritual sons of Abraham and actually organic offsprings of the God of the universe, one of his sons. Galatians 3.7 says, therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith that are the sons of Abraham. Everybody in this room is a son of Abraham. If you have Abraham as your father, where does that put you?

It puts you in the place of blessing. The Lord Jesus, as we talked about last week, is in the bosom of the Father. We are in inseparable union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So where does that put us? It puts us in the bosom of the Father. It's a place of blessing. It's a place of comfort and security. It's a place of love and tenderness, and probably security is the most important part of it.

Now, in these verses, he begins to show, being a son of God, begins to break down things. And we'll talk about like children. We are, this Greek word is weos, which means we are adult sons. We don't start out as infants. We are adult sons. And it's an important word because God views us as sons of full age. I have a 27-year-old son. I look at him as he's a son of full age. He's responsible. Some of you have young children, and they're different.

And under the law, as we've discussed, you need a guardian. even though you might be a son, you need a guardian. But when you've come a full age, by faith in the personal work of Christ, you no longer need a guardian. Why? Because God considers you an adult son.

You now live under this umbrella of grace that you lived before under law, which meant you needed a guardian. You have, some people say, achieved the majority you have outgrown the surveillance of the governor. You don't need it anymore. So the question hit me was, was this just a title that we now possess? You know, we can all, we'll pass them out after church, this little name tag that says, I'm an adult son. or is there more to it than just that?

Well, the most important part of it, I think, is 2 Corinthians 5.21, where it says, I'm sorry, 5.17 says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, are you in Christ? The answer, yes.

You're a new creation, an entirely new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. Totally passed away, new things have come. Now see, I really love this verse, you know why? Because I'm a realtor, or I was a realtor. You know what realtors really like? Location, location, location, that's all.

Where you are is the most important thing in the world, and the most important thing in eternity. We're all seated in Christ in the heavenlies. So for all our God's sons, through faith in Jesus Christ. Every single person, you're a son today. My father-in-law's getting ready to go home and enter into full sonship, full on. Full on, I envy him, I must say, I really do. Because he's going where we all wanna be. Reality number two.

Every believer was baptized into Christ. So not only are we sons, but we were baptized into Christ all of us, every single one of us. It doesn't mean that you were, some were baptized and some were not. Every single one of us were placed by Christ, by the Holy Spirit into and united to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all one in Him as sons.

So Paul has spoken to the Galatians in the previous verses as in Christ, referring to this vital union that they have, which exists between the Lord Jesus and all believers. He begins to remind them, now how did that happen? What was the mechanics of how that happened? They put their faith in the person and work of Christ. What did the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit took them and baptized them into Christ. He put them in Christ.

This is probably one of the most important truths concerning us as believers, that who we are in Christ. Incredible, because it explains so much of what our life is to be as believers. Why is that? Growing believers, which we all are, have to understand this reality in our life.

If you don't understand that you were co-crucified with Christ, when you were baptized into Christ, Romans 6 says you were baptized into his death. If you did a timeline of Christ's existence on the earth, at the point in which he died is the point in which the Holy Spirit baptizes you into him. Why then? Because that's the time that he was made sin for us, and he separated himself from all of the old creation, the fallen creation, and the old man.

That's what happened to us by being united to Christ at that particular point. If that is not understood, if you and I don't understand that we have been separated from all that we were in Adam, then we know today in computer science we have this default position. The default position is we go back to working on Adam rather than growing in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We won't have any spiritual growth if we don't understand that principle.

It's looked at in this reality when we talked about Galatians 2.20. Paul said back in chapter two, I have been crucified with Christ. That's true of me and you. It's really an identification with him, with Christ, in his death, burial, and resurrection. The very moment we would believe we were identified, we were united to Christ, we're one with Him. The Holy Spirit placed us in Christ. The Holy Spirit buried us with Christ, and the Holy Spirit raised us up to be in newness of life.

Second Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, is anyone in Christ? Are you in Christ?

If the answer's yes, here's what he says. You're a new creation, a totally new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. New creation. As a new creation, we were baptized, immersed into the Lord Jesus Christ, never to be taken out.

We're now in living union with him. One of the cool things I'm able to observe this week is that Jack McBride knows these principles, and you can tell he knows. He has no fear about where he's going. As a matter of fact, before he even broke his hip, he kept saying, I sure like to leave. I'd like to be home with my Lord. Why, Jack? Oh, because I'm already positioned in him. I recognize where I'm going. Maybe we could do it sooner rather than later. Well, the day has come. It might be today, you know.

First Corinthians 12, 13 says, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether we were Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, we're all made to drink of that one spirit. This has nothing to do with water baptism, because water baptism doesn't put you into Christ. We're gonna have a baptism next week, and the man that I'm baptizing, we've had this conversation about, you realize that baptism doesn't add anything onto you, doesn't make you more spiritual than you were yesterday. What this is about is demonstrating what has already happened to you spiritually in Christ. To be put, baptism is a real simple word.

It just means to be put in and never taken out, never. Reality number three, every believer can put on Christ, clothe themselves with him. It's like putting on a jacket, a sleeve at a time. It's like wrapping oneself in Christ. It really, this word really means abiding intimacy with Him. But it also has another sort of different meaning that can be described this way, to sink or to go in or under. So what about the times that are troubles in your life or pressures or life squeezes you? What happens? You become puzzled. You become doubtful. You're not quite sure what to do. And that's the kind of week we've had on and off with Jack McBride.

We can sink into one of two places. We can sink into distresses and we can become boxed in with a lot of anguish by the circumstances. We can even become depressed. believing that there's no way to get through all of this, or that we are totally out of resources, what are we gonna do now? Or, we can sink into Christ. By faith we can reckon and count upon our identification with him. We can sink into his love, we can sink into his care for us, his compassion for us, and his long suffering for us.

Sink down in. And the words put on here are from a Greek word, enduno. It's used the act of clothing oneself with strength, with righteousness, glory, and salvation. The idea is not that you put on a mask and you act like something. This is real. It refers to the act in which one enters an actual relationship with somebody else. Put on the new man.

Now, I found some really good information about Ephesians 4.24 where it says, and you put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. This is the man we put on.

This is the new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ. the believer possessing a new and spiritual divine nature. Still have the human personality, but you have Christ now as the center of who you are. You're crowned as it is with the Lord. He's indwelling you as your very life now. So the believer is patterned after the Lord Jesus in his perfections, and his character.

And so now what's changed is that we are righteous before God because we're in Christ. We're righteous before men because we're in Christ. And we're totally holy. We're set apart for God's use. So Paul here is appealing for us to become what we are in Christ.

But again, we must do our part. and this isn't legal, I'm not going to give you a list, by putting on this new man. So let's consider some suggestion. What if you said to me, well how do I do this? How do I put on this new man? It would be kind of interesting to look at some of these words. You know that in Christianity you have this theology that's called name it and claim it. In other words, I want it like Courtney was talking about a Ferrari this morning. I'm gonna name it and claim it. Well, you can't name and claim anything that isn't already yours. And so if I claim to my position in Christ, I'm not asking God to do anything to me, he's already done.

Ephesians 2, 4 through 6 states the fact that our salvation, which is true of every saint, whether he knows it or not. These wonderful truths that we've spent so much time talking about here are true of every one of us, even if we don't know it. Our ignorance doesn't make them not true. Ephesians 2, 4 through 6 says, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead, separated by our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.

And raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. If you're a believer that doesn't know what that verse means, then you can't put it on. You have to know. So it's true that every believer was united to Christ in his death and resurrection the very moment that he believed. It is in Christ who is seated in the heavenlies in Christ at his right, the Father's right hand.

This new position that we share is the very foundation of our sanctification. And it's the very foundation of how we live our lives and how we walk under grace. That's where it happens. So to take our position in the Lord Jesus every single day, it takes a definite act of faith. And to see ourselves far above all is to begin the day with victory, not with failure. We are fortified against the power of the world of Satan and the flesh, as our greatest enemy is the flesh. We've got the advantage, but we're called upon to use this advantage, to use it for ourselves. The second principle that I would talk to you about is, and I love this word, is to covet. Sounds like good, huh?

To covet your possession in Christ, to really desire. Every believer is the possessor of every single spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. True or not? Says so in Ephesians. Every one of us. So our desire for spiritual treasures probably is at a low ebb. Do you desire for all of them? Yeah. To claim these affectionately, you gotta really want them. And I dare say the Spirit of God is always working to cause us to really want them.

That's his job. So to put on this new man who is the Lord Jesus Christ will mean seeking after spiritual riches, seeking the affections primarily and preeminently upon the heavenly thing. I'm setting our affections on primarily heavenly things and preeminently upon heavenly things rather than earthly things. For co-resurrection with Christ lifts us into a sphere where only Christ and his teachings and his things can satisfy us.

Since you then be risen with Christ, Colossians 3.1, seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above and not on things of the earth.

Why? Because you died and your life is hid with Christ in God. That's true. Third principle, count upon the power of the spirit to do all of this. To take our position in the Lord Jesus and to covet our possessions in him can't be done by dependence on your ability. You can't do it. God has made provisions for such impotency. The Holy Spirit resides within each one of us.

He's a permanent resident, and he's there to make Christ a living reality to us and in us. That's what he's there for. You can look at the whole chapter, the first half of Romans chapter eight that we're studying in Sunday school for, and it'll lay out to you the Spirit's ministry. What's he up to? What's he doing? It's His work to conform you and me to the image of Christ. His work.

Our part is to count upon the Spirit to do what He says He wants to do. Our part is to keep the, for the Spirit to allow the Spirit to keep the old man in the place of death on the cross where Christ put him, and to manifest the new life of the Lord Jesus. I think that is true growth in grace. I'm gonna repeat that. His part is to conform us to the image of Christ. Our part is to count upon him to do both of those things, to keep the old man in the place of death or inactivity where God has put him, and to count on him to manifest the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in us.

That's growth. Count upon him to do what he's been sent to do. So, as many as as were introduced into or in union with Christ, what have they done? They put on Christ, they wear Him, they're in Him. Reality number four, every believer has an identical standing or position before God, every single one of us.

And what's great about verse 28, that Jim read, there is neither, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male or female, you're all one in Christ Jesus. It's really interesting how the beginning of this verse talks about there is neither. The emphasis is on the statement that first appears. You can say it this way, there cannot exist in Christ any of these differences. any of these differences. So you might ask the question, why is it impossible for all these differences to go away when we're in Christ?

Why would they go away? Some of you may remember Roland Hedrick. He was a dear friend. The Lord took him home probably 15 years ago. He used to have trouble with this verse. When Tuesday men's Bible study, he used to say, yeah, but I don't wanna be a girl for all eternity. So I'd take him this verse and say, well, you're not either gonna be either one of those things.

We don't realize that being a new creature in Christ takes all of these earthly distinctions away, all of them. We're all one in Christ. So I find it really interesting that if they can't exist in Christ, well, I wonder what we're gonna be like. So we're all Jew and Gentile, new creatures in Christ. Every single one of us is a new creature. We are all placed in living union with Christ. Every single one of us in this room. We are all one in Christ. Doesn't matter if you are Jewish or Gentile or slave or free or male or female or Pick any distinction in the world that we live in that you may claim it all goes away in Christ.

My heritage is mostly Irish. I'm not Irish anymore. My sister called me one time and said, hey, I'm gonna go to Ireland and look up where we came from. You wanna go? I said, no, I'm not from there anymore. She didn't understand. So the earthly distinctions go away. All the national distinctions, all the social distinctions and even the sexual distinctions go away.

The individual differences between a Jew and a Greek or a slave or a free man, or we could say a boss and an employee, a male and a female are exchanged in that higher unity with which all believers are raised by the fact that they all have a common life in Christ Jesus. If you remember, those of you who have spent any time in John 17, the Lord Jesus talked about this a lot. He said to the Father, and I love John 17 because, It's the Lord Jesus praying to the Father. And one of the things that struck me about that when I first started to read it was, we were talking about praying the last couple Sundays. We pray according to the Father's will. We say, I hope it's His will.

And if it's not, the Spirit will get me lined up with His will so I won't ask and miss. So when the Lord Jesus is praying to the Father, you think the Father thought, well, I'll give you a four out of five. How about six out of 10? No, he gets everything he asked for, everything. Listen to this. He says, I'm no longer in the world, yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name. You realize that we're all kept in the name of the Father. And the name, and Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me, that they may be one even as we are one. The Lord Jesus prays to the Father before the cross, he said, I want every one of them to be one as we are one.

I can't arrive at that in my finite mind exactly what that means. But then he says further down, the glory which you have given me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them, you and me, that they may be made perfect in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. You can't fake this. As you recognize and rest in the fact that you are one with Christ, what happens?

What do they see in the world? One heart now beats for all of us. It's the heart of the Lord Jesus. The pulsating life of the Lord Jesus is the motivating power for each one of us. One mind guides us. It's the mind of Christ. One life is lived by all of us. The life of the Lord Jesus produced in us by the Holy Spirit in every circumstance and every relationship that an individual can possibly find himself into. So verse 28 says there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave, free, male or female. We are all one in Christ Jesus. Reality five. Every believer is Christ's cherished possession.

Pretty cool. It says, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants according and heirs according to promise. This is kind of an interesting sentence. It says, if, that's the conditional part, and second part, the result. If you belong to Christ, do you belong to Christ? Yeah, we do. is the first part's true, then the second part's true. If the first part were false, then the second part would be false. But the first part is true. The first part says, since you belong to Christ.

Galatians 3.1 says, Christ was graphically portrayed before your eyes. He says this to the Galatians. They believed in Christ and his work and received the Holy Spirit by faith. The result is, that they are now Christ's cherished possession.

Isn't that cool? You know what God is looking for, the Father is looking for an inheritance, and the Lord Jesus looks for an inheritance. You know what the inheritance is? It's us. It's us. That's what He wants. So, do we belong to Christ? Answer, absolutely. The conclusion is we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. Reality number six, every believer is the spiritual seed of Abraham. You are, you are, then you are. You are, you know what an essence verb is? An essence verb describes what a thing is in its existence.

The standing in which we continually exist is belonging to Christ and we are descendants of Abraham. And you know why that will never change? Because Christ can't change. God will never change. So all of these things that are true of us in just these two verses will never change because God never changes.

So what seeds is he talking about? Because Abraham had a lot of physical seeds, Ishmael, Isaac, even the Lord Jesus. They're Abraham's physical seed. But this says we are his spiritual seed. What makes us a spiritual seed? Because God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations spiritually by faith in Christ. He promised him that. So our identification with Christ makes us the spiritual seeds of Abraham.

And this was the big problem that Paul was fighting against with the Judaizers coming down from Jerusalem to try to persuade them to get under a law system. They were putting the Galatians under a Mosaic law system. The Galatian Gentiles would become the seed and progeny of Abraham. What they were saying is that unless you put yourself under the law, you're not gonna be of the seed of Abraham.

Paul says, no, that's not true. You already are by faith. Paul asserts that this privilege only comes by faith alone. That's what he's telling them. Romans 4, 1 through 5. I'm going to check the time. I don't want to go over. I've got a couple of minutes. In Romans 4, 1 through 5, Paul says, what shall we say then that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?

For if Abraham was justified by works, which he wasn't, he's got something to boast about. Something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, solely on the fact that he believed. Now the one who works, his wages are not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." This is a real simple example.

I'm going to pick on Laban. Let's say I work for Laban and I install floors all week. On Friday is pay day. Do I go to Laban and say, Laban, would you please pay me? No, I've incurred a debt because I performed for him. So I can live under a law system and do all these performances for God and at the end of the week and go say, well, Lord, I performed, can you count me righteous? He says, no, that isn't how it's done. It's done by grace alone and faith. Grace alone and faith. You get it for free. And any sense in which you try to earn it, you spoil it. You get it for free.

Paul knows that Abraham was justified by faith. He knows that Abraham became his spiritual father and the spiritual father of all those who believe. And God made salvation dependent upon faith and only faith, nothing else, in order that it might be available to both Jew and Gentile and everybody. So since Abraham is the spiritual father of all believers, it does away with this false Jewish idea that kinship to Abraham physically was the one way to get divine favor from God.

You know, when Nicodemus went to see the Lord Jesus at night, his mentality was, well, I'm a Jew, I'm in the kingdom. And Lord Jesus said, no, no, unless you're born again, you're not even gonna see the kingdom. let alone get into it. That must have just tilted his mind. He said, wait a minute, I'm from Abraham. I'm a Jew. The Lord said, that isn't how you get in.

By belonging to Christ, believers are also Abraham's posterity, for Christ is the seed of Abraham. And since believers have entered into a relationship with Christ, they consequently have a share in the same position as he has, and must likewise be Abraham's seed. Last principle. Every believer is an heir of God and a joint heir of Christ. Every single one of us, heirs according to promise. An heir is one who receives an inheritance and that inheritance doesn't start the day that you leave, you have it now.

We have his life. We can walk in newness of life now and forever. We're blessed, already blessed, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. We share in Christ's glory. And we have the privilege of abiding intimacy with Christ now, with the Father and the Son, that they've had for all eternity.

It's not possible to have a greater inheritance than we already have right now. and it's given by matchless grace. What I find interesting, I've thought about this a lot. If I'm positioned in Christ, and you're positioned in Christ, and eternity after the wedding feast of the lamb and the beam of judgment, and the millennial kingdom 1,000 years, and after that, what are we gonna do? Think about this.

The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one. And for all eternity, they have been interacting and loving each other back and forth in this Father, Son and Holy Spirit. OK, where are you? If we're one in Christ, guess what? We're in there and we're the only creatures who ever are in there. No angels are in there. The Jews are not there, but we are, because we're one in Christ. And not only that, we have been suited out for that by being recreated in Christ.

We can settle down and recognize, I was thinking about my father-in-law yesterday. He's gonna go be with the Lord here today or tomorrow or whenever, and all of this is gonna open up to him. And like Vern used to say, he's gonna be going, Think about that. And yet, we're all kind of hoping he'll stick around a little longer. Bless his heart. I've been praying that he goes home to be with his Lord right away.

So, since you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and you're an heir according to promise. Let's pray. Our dear Father, my prayer today is that we would enter more fully on a conditional basis into what you have already provided for us, that every reality that's true of us in your dear Son, the Lord Jesus, would be known by us and abided in by us going forward. And we thank you, Father, we pray in your Son's precious name, amen.