Galatians 2:19-21

Well, good morning. This morning, we're going to look at Galatians 19 through 21. And actually, as a preface to this, I'd like to say that in Sunday school, we covered Galatians last year, all 2010. And Randy and Bob Eckel and myself did that. And I had the opportunity during that time period to study Hal Malloy's notes on Galatians. And I'm sure folks have been here during that time period. about eight years or so on Galatians, the book of Galatians.

He spent, probably on these three verses, he spent maybe a year or longer. I don't know. You guys were here longer. So anyway, they're just tremendous verses. I'm only going to cover actually 19 and a little bit of 20. I've used Hal's notes extensively and it's just been a blessing for me. I learned As Hal was teaching you at Holly Hills, he was teaching others, other places, and so Bonnie and I learned about this even though we weren't here physically with you guys.

So this is kind of a, hopefully it will be a reminder and encouragement. Okay, so let's start here. So basically, the general theme of Galatians is our liberty, our freedom in Christ. And that kind of appears almost throughout the entire book. And actually, if you were here the day after Christmas, I did another thing on Galatians. We did a summary. Hopefully, this will be a little bit smoother. OK.

So let's see. Two aspects of our liberty in Christ are addressed in 19 and 20. The first of those is liberty or freedom from a law system. We're going to see that in verse 19. And then in verse 20, the first part, we're going to see liberty from our sin nature. And Christ's death accomplished, his Christ's death and our death with him secured this liberty. And the key thing I think here is that Christ's death I think we all understand.

His death on our behalf, death for the penalty of sin, I think most believers understand, the part that is less understood is our death with Him. And actually, if you were to tell some believers that we died with Him, they might not even know what you're talking about.

I mean, that's hard to believe. Here at Holly Hills, we talk about that a lot, and I think it's a very accurate description. But our death with Him is as significant as His death for us. So that's kind of a key thing to keep in mind as we go through there. And actually, liberty or freedom comes by death. Liberty to live the Christian life comes by our death with him.

And that's going to be kind of a key thing to keep in mind. So as we go through here, I wrote down some important words. Actually, I realized after I made the chart up, I didn't actually get them all. So there'll be some words I didn't really talk about here at the beginning, but we'll cover them as we go through.

The first of that is Law with a capital L. And you guys probably, you guys are good You know, good theologians here. Capital L usually says that must be something important. Usually it's deity, if it's God or Christ. In this case, Law usually means the Mosaic Law. So when you see in the text of Scripture, you'll see The Law, with a V before it, the definite article, usually refers to the Mosaic Law. What's interesting in the passage we're going to look at, I'm not sure the translators really We'll get to that. What we're going to see is something called a law system. A system of rules that man makes up to say that he's pleasing God.

For example, man may say, I'm going to excel in church attendance. I'm going to be here every time the door opens, every time there's a work day. I'm going to excel at that, and somehow that's going to please God. Because I've been here all that time, that will count. I'll be able to add those up in some measure, and that's going to gain me favor with God. Nothing wrong with working, coming to the church regularly. I mean, nothing wrong with that.

But if you're going to measure that in terms of acceptance with God, that's a wrong metric. So we'll talk about lost system. Death. Death in scripture means what? Good. Good. Separation. That's one of the cool things. Death is separation. Think about it. When a loved one leaves you, he's not with you, right? You're separated from that person. Does that person, believer, unbeliever, die? No. Everyone is eternal. Either eternally with God or eternally separated from God. So death is separation. Key thing to remember.

Life in scripture, there's no life apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our life. So life in scripture, many times we'll talk about the idea that maybe our, especially in this case, we were out of fellowship and we returned to fellowship, we want fellowship, so we have life now because we're in fellowship with God, fellowship with the Lord.

Sin nature, our nature from Adam, we're going to talk about that nature as believers in the Lord Jesus. And also, another key point is that believers and unbelievers have a sin nature. Some teach that believers somehow lose that sin nature, but I don't think that's really accurate to Scripture. Believers have a sin nature, and it's where sin originates from. New nature, our nature from God, our Christ life. Only believers have that.

We're going to see how that kind of works into that. Crucified, we're going to find out that being crucified with Christ is critical. You may not really have thought much about that. I am crucified with Christ, but it's critical to understand that and know what that means. And then baptism. We're going to talk about baptism. I'm actually going to give you a demonstration of baptism.

A little teaser there. Okay. I'll leave that where it is right now. Okay. First verse. Verse 19. For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God. So the main idea here is really, if you look at the first part of that, before the so that, he's basically saying, I am dead. I am dead to two things, to the law and through the law.

Notice that I, in my little bullet format there, I didn't capitalize law. And that's where I think, if you look in the original, if you notice in verse 19, this is the New American Standard, it has the law twice. The V isn't there in the original, so it's just law. So in that case, you'd be free to translate that just law with a small L. I think that fits better, and we're going to see that as we go along.

And Paul here is making a statement about himself. He's saying that in his Christian life, he is, I am dead or separated to the law and through the law. So he's making a statement, and we're going to back it up by verses. How can Paul say that he is He is dead to the law and through the law.

And we'll see that shortly here. And the purpose for that is the last part of the verse, that I might live to God. Here's where live shows up or life shows up. We'll find out that death, being separated from the law, allows him to live the Christian life. If you're living it by metrics, if you're living it by how many points you build up on a scale, You're going to be hopelessly on a treadmill.

Even the best of us, we make our New Year's resolutions, which I'm not so hot on. I don't do too well on those either. We can't keep our own resolution by about February. I go to the gym on a regular basis. It's amazing. Early part of January, it's packed out. You can't get in that place. February gets less. March less. It just keeps going. People make resolutions, and they can't keep them.

So God doesn't want us to make metrics. He wants us to trust him for what he's done. So Paul's saying, the reason I'm dead to the law is that I might live to God. That frees him to do that. OK. So why can Paul say that? The first reason is, from Romans 7.4, it says, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made, so who made you?

You were made to die to the law, and notice here it's capitalized law, through the body of Christ. So I would say in some cases, even though we're going to call it a law system, it could include the Mosaic Law, and Paul was an example of that. He said, the law slew me. The Mosaic Law, God's holy standard, I couldn't keep it. So it could include Mosaic Law. I mean, that's why the translators use a capital L. That's why. OK, 7-6.

But now we have been released from the law, having died by that which we were bound. So two things here. We were made to die to the law, and we're released from the law. So that's Paul's position. This is what we call positional truth, who I am. And Paul's saying in verse 19, He is making that real in his life.

I've died to and through the law. So here I'm going to expand this a little bit. Law here is referring to a law system. I've already gone through this a little bit. A law system is anything you do in your own will and effort that you think will please God. I had started a list there and you could add to that.

You could add to that, in Paul's time, it was circumcision. Remember that in the Galatian church, people were saying, well, these new believers, they have to be circumcised. That's a measure. That's a metric of their devotion to God, that they become circumcised. They also must observe certain animal sacrifices. They must have certain days they do and do not do things.

So a law system, I think, is what's being focused on here. And let's look at, we'll just go to the next slide here. Philippians 2.13, For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work, or do, for His good pleasure. So, man isn't, you know, if you notice there, the definition of a law system is that it's your own will and your own effort. Well, God is the one that wants to work through you. He is your life. He wants to will, His will to be accomplished in your life and His work.

It says in Ephesians 2.10, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

And it says God has planned those beforehand that we should walk in them. So He has made the plan. We're not to make up the plan. We're to be faithful to His plan. So that's the key here. That we're not to have a metric, a law system that we're performing to. We perform to what God has provided for us by faith. So let's go on.

So there's two I's in this verse. It says, for through the law, I died to the law, so I might live to God. So what's the first I? The first I is the old self, all that I was in Adam. The second I is the new self, all that I am in Christ. So he's saying that You know, I've been separated from my sinful nature. The old I has died, but now I have the new life, which is the very life of Christ.

So now we kind of keep going on this. I died, or I have died. It's death to the law. I died with reference to the law system as a way of life. I'm not going to create these metrics. I'm not going to judge my Christian life by a set of metrics that I've made up or maybe that some body of believers have made up. I'm going to trust what God has said. And then I'm dead through the law.

Paul talked about that a lot in Galatians there. He basically said that He said that the law was a curse. It was a taskmaster. And actually, let me read here Romans 7, 9 through 11. It says, I once was alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died. And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me. For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me. And through it, it killed me. So the law, because it's God's holy and righteous standard, is an impossible, you cannot keep it. You cannot keep the law outside of Christ.

And we're not to keep the law, we're to have faith in the maker of the law, the Lord Jesus. That's not to say we're lawless. Continuing on, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So that's another point. That's why the law slew us or killed us. So how do we appropriate the fact that we're dead to the law?

By reckoning, so that we might live to God. There are several parallel verses in scripture. In Philippians 1.21 it says, For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. So our very life that I might live to God is Christ's life.

So the second verse here, Galatians 2.20. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So I chose the King James here, and after looking, I think on the first overhead I have I have the New American Standard. There's a slight difference between those two versions. And it has to do with the passage, nevertheless I live, yet not I. I really think the King James actually brings it across better because we're going to see that when I was crucified with Christ, I can now live because my sin nature has been dealt with. I think that's more, it brings it out clearer than the other translations.

So the first part of this verse, I have been crucified with Christ. This verse is making a statement about what has happened to Paul and to every believer. You know, Paul uses in this passage here, he uses I about seven times, I think. And I think he uses that maybe for the reason that it's personal. This is Paul talking, but he wants us to assert our name there, that I was crucified. Every believer can say that. I was crucified with Christ. So the first point is here. What's the I in this case? The I that was crucified was the old self. And actually, it's co-crucified is a better translation.

So I think Vernus used this analogy that the cross was a crowded place. The Lord Jesus took every believer with him to the cross, spiritually, not physically, obviously. Every believer was taken to the cross. We were co-crucified with Christ. And the idea of crucified is to put to death on the cross with Christ.

Actually, the verb tense here is this one that is completed action in past time with abiding results up into the present. So you can rightfully say, some translations say, I am crucified, some say I have been crucified. And both are correct because It's an action that happened in the past, so it was completed in the past, but it goes up into the present. So we stand, every believer stands now as a crucified person, and will be crucified until the day we go to be with the Lord.

That crucifixion continues on in our life, and it's a wonderful thing that we're crucified. You may think it sounds kind of morbid or whatever, but it's not. It's a wonderful thing. We'll see more about that. And it's in the passive tense. Some people think, well, let's see, I'm crucified with Christ. I've got to do something really for the Lord. I've got to really suffer somehow. God is the one that enacts this. We can never do this. This is done on our behalf. And we appropriate it the moment we believe.

When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we became crucified. So now we're going to have a series of questions here. The first one is, how was I crucified? So obviously it wasn't physical crucifixion. So it's got to be something different than that. So we're going to introduce another word to explain what crucified means. OK.

It was by baptism into Christ's death and burial. So the question comes up, and I've already kind of given away the answer here. May I have it? So what kind of baptism? Occasionally we'll have a person, we just had some recently, have water baptism. Well, this is spiritual baptism. I like to illustrate spiritual baptism.

It's going to take me a minute here to get my things together here. And actually, this is an illustration that Hal has done in the past, and I've used it a few times. I'm not sure if Vernon's used it, but bear with me here for a second. I remember Hal doing this. I'm not sure if you guys remember when Hal did this illustration of spiritual baptism. He did it much smaller than I'm going to do it, but I decided to go for the big stuff here. Okay, now you have to use your imagination here a little bit.

This is a container, this is a bucket, in our imagination that's filled with a dye, a blue dye. Okay, so I'm going to take this I have a white towel here, a hand towel. I'm going to baptize this white hand towel. I'm going to spiritually baptize this white hand towel.

I'm going to do it first and then we'll explain it. How about that? So I'm going to baptism. The original meaning is bapto, to dip or to immerse. So I'm going to dip or immerse with my prop here. I know Hal tried this with the real thing and it was exciting. Okay, so we dip it in to the dye, dip it into the dye and slosh it around there, in theory. In theory.

And it comes out. So now it's baptized. Okay, so what's the difference between the white one I put in and the blue one I took out, right? It's been baptized. It's been immersed into the dye. It's been permanently changed. Now obviously this is not this example. I could bleach this. But in our spiritual baptism, it has been baptized. It has taken on the very nature. We have been baptized into Christ. What I always like to say is that we have an example of that when we have water baptism, or if you're going to really present that properly, you need to be baptized into the water and never change that. So you can't come out of the water. So if you're really going to do it right, you can't come out of the water. You've got to swim off someplace and get up. I don't know.

So true baptism is an irreversible process. We were baptized into Christ and never removed, never taken out. And that's a wonderful thing. Think about that. We were baptized into our Savior, and that's a permanent condition. It's unchangeable. It cannot be changed. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did it on our behalf.

So the way we were crucified is that we were, and this is where we hear our word of identification come along, we were baptized or identified with our Savior through baptism. And it says in In 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit we all were baptized into one body. That's talking about the church as a whole, but you can apply that, I think, in describing what the Holy Spirit did on our behalf. So we were baptized, spiritually baptized, into the person of Christ. So that's a how of crucifixion. And here's some verses to back it up. It says in Romans 6, 3, Or do you not know? And when Paul says that, he's saying, this is something you should know.

All of us who have been baptized, immersed, dipped into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death. We are baptized into his death, and he goes on in 6.4, we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So as I've said many times, we are baptized into the person and the work of Christ, two parts, the very person of Christ and his work on the cross. The next time, why was I crucified? What was the point of the crucifixion? To be separated from our sin nature. That's a wonderful part of this. You say, well, why is that important? Well, the sin nature is a source of sin.

Maybe as a believer you think, well, you know, I do pretty good. I don't lose my temper too often. I don't do this. I don't do that. Well, you know, to be separated from our sin nature allows you to exercise faith in God. So our sin nature would be rendered inoperative. And I think actually a better translation is to be put in idle or taken offline. Also, so that we would no longer be slaves of sin. So two-part message here. so that our sin nature would be put in idle, and secondly, that we would no longer be slaves of sin.

So we're now free, the theme of Galatians, we're now free to serve our Lord, to walk in newness of life. So here's some more verses on being crucified. Romans 6 is just very rich in verses about our crucifixion with Christ and being baptized. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, so we're co-crucified with him, in order that, with a purpose that, our body of sin, the sin nature, might be done away with.

Better translation is, put in idle or taken offline, so we would no longer be slaves of sin. The Lord doesn't want us to be slaves of sin, not to say we won't sin, but he doesn't want us to be a slave of sin. And then, for he who died is freed from sin. So we're free to walk in newness of life with our Savior.

So the question is, how do I appropriate this in my life? And it's not too hard here. It's by reckoning. Through faith in the facts so the facts are presented in Scripture the facts are presented They're presented to us in God's Word, and he asked us to believe that So as we believe that then we then we can walk in a way that pleases him walk free of sin Romans 6 11 even so Consider or reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus this word consider or reckon and It's an accounting term.

It's like an accountant, which has a ledger. And he counts up his balance sheet. What do I have? Is accounts receivable? I'm not sure I'm too good at this. Anyway, he counts up what he has. He says, I have this many resources. Well, the Lord wants us to count up what we have. And we have the riches of God. We have a class here sometimes. the riches of God's grace, 33 riches of God's grace, they're all the things that a believer has in Christ. So he tells us to reckon or consider yourselves. We count those up.

And one of those things we count up is that we're dead or separated to the sin nature. And when you see in this verse, wherever you see sin singular, you could put in there sin nature. And actually in most cases it has a definite article, but it's not translated that way in the translation. So you could say, reckon yourselves to be dead to the sin nature, but alive to God. Notice that in 611 there's kind of two parts to this.

We reckon that we're dead or separated from our sin nature, but we also reckon that we're alive to God in Christ Jesus. So two parts to that, and they go together. Okay. The next part is, nevertheless I live. So who is living? This eye is a new creation in Christ. So the old eye was separated from its sin nature. The new eye, the new creation in Christ, this is a new equality.

It says in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Actually, another translation on that, all who are being, new things have come, it says there, new things have come into being. All who we are in Christ has come into being in us.

So we have the very life of Christ. So how was I made alive? Once again, by baptism. So you see, crucifixion, carried out by baptism is crucial in the Christian life. By baptism into Christ's resurrection, thus receiving his life and being made complete.

In Colossians 2.10 talks to this, a couple parts to this. The first part, the complete part, it says, and in him you have been made complete. Notice all these verb tenses here are that something was done to you. It didn't say you made yourself complete. It says you were made complete. So this is something that God has done to us. He didn't ask us. He didn't seek our counsel on this. He just did it. He is ruler over all authority.

And continuing on with that, in 2.12, having been buried with him in baptism. So we were co-buried. If you look at the tenses there, we were co-crucified, co-buried, and we're going to say we were co-raised. So Christ had us with him. in all those three aspects. Actually there's two more that he has us with as well. In which we were also raised up through him in faith the working of God who raised him from the dead.

So what's the purpose of our living? To walk in newness of life. I'll repeat some of these verses here. So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the fathers through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." That's a new kind of life. It's Christ's very life. How do I appropriate this?

Once again, you know the facts, you know what Scripture says, and you count upon those, knowing our death to the old self and the person of Christ. And again, we go back to the same verse here because it's the same process. The same process in appropriating these truths in the Christian life is counting upon what Christ has done for us. 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 be slaves of sin.

So here's a picture that Vern uses quite often. Hopefully, maybe this has helped a slight bit. The first part talks about crucified, and in 220 it was stated. And I think, I would put implied as buried as well. It talked about our co-burial with him, and that we were co-raised with him. There's also two other aspects with we have a co-burial. relationship with our Savior, the ascension and the seething, but we've kind of talked about our co-burial, I mean our being co-crucified, co-buried, and co-raised.

So, kind of comparing 19 and 20a, in 19 we had, I was dead to the law. We're going to see a fact was stated and resulted in life to God. I am dead to the law, that I might live to God, And in 20A, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. So these truths, freedom from the law, the law system, and freedom from our sin nature through crucifixion with Christ, results in life. Life as God sees it. Life in his Savior. Life in the Savior.

So there's still more to this verse, but I have to leave that for another time. Starting with the But there's really wonderful information here. But Christ lives in me. We've kind of talked about that already quite a bit. Christ is our very life. He lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So hopefully that's in a future time. Oh yeah, I was going to ask you a question. Did somebody steal too much here? Well, thank you. So let's pray. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the wonderful truths of your word, Lord. We thank you that you have provided it by your death on the cross, and we thank you that you have provided for us to be crucified with you, buried with you, and raised with you to newness of life, that we can serve you, Lord. Thank you that we no longer have to to work on a metric system, a system that would count up various acts we might do, but we can operate by faith and by counting upon, as an accountant would do, counting upon what you've done for us in your word. In Christ's name, amen.