We're going to be looking at Galatians. We're in this series that we've entitled "Free for Good," and we're in Galatians 2 this morning. And in this chapter, the Apostle Paul is still confronting Peter for really denying the gospel through the way that he was relating to Gentile believers. And so he's confronting him, but he gives us such a full expression of the gospel as he confronts Peter and reminds Peter what they together have affirmed and what they hold to. And so we're going to be looking at verses 15 through 21, and one of these verses in this section is a verse that's very, we'll say, popular. Many believers have memorized it. I would commend it to you if you've not memorized verse 20, I would encourage you. I think it'll nourish your soul as you say, "Lord, I just want to memorize and meditate upon this verse this week." God will use it in your life, I believe that. So that's part of the passage that we're going to be talking about and teaching this morning.

Galatians 2:15. He's speaking to Peter, "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Jesus Christ, in order that to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners. Is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

May God encourage us through his word today. Please be seated. So again, we welcome you all. If you're visiting with us, welcome. We pray that you'll experience the love of God through the people, through our prayers and singing, and through the teaching of the word today. We all need the love of God in our lives to strengthen us, and I pray that that will be your experience here. If you are part of a Bethany family, today we've set aside to emphasize name tags, and why do we do that? And I just want to encourage you. If you're part of Bethany, one of the ways we think is pretty simple, but that does actually have a profound effect upon our fellowship, is when you wear a name tag, you are communicating to people that you might know very slightly or might not know at all, that, hey, I'm the kind of person it's okay to come up and talk to. And so this is a loving invitation to build relationships and for others to build in the body of Christ, to build relationships with you.

Now, we have this name tag Sunday, not because this is the only Sunday we want you to wear a name tag, but because we hope that today, through emphasizing this, we really are encouraging more and more of y'all to wear them every Sunday so that we can be, though a large family, a true family. A family that says, "Hey, we're a group of people who loves God and we love each other, and we want to lean into each other, and we want to build relationships, stronger relationships with each other." So I know one of the big practical problems of a name tag is we tend to lose them. And it's okay if 10 times in 10 Sundays, if you lose it, on the 11th Sunday, the righteous act is call the church and ask for another one. All right? So we don't mind printing name tags, so don't feel embarrassed is the idea. Also as a practical note, I know most of ours have this little clip. You can ask for a magnet one, and that one often works better. So anyway, just to encourage you that we pray that this has an actual impact upon the way that we relate to each other. I know, for instance, even with the young folks, I want you younger folks and young folks maybe 15 on down, I really love you.

I delight to see your smiles. I delight to get to know you. My old brain sometimes has a hard time remembering your names. And even if you wear a name tag, it would allow me, and I think others to be– and I know you might be shy about that, but I just want you to know that I take pleasure in growing that relationship, and name tags help, all right? So let's pray together and ask God to bless our time in the word. Father in heaven, thank you, thank you for your Son, Jesus. He loves us. He took on human flesh and became one of us to represent us in death, to become a curse so that we might be redeemed, purchased from the curse. That we might have life in you, that we might worship you. Father, I pray, Lord, that you do a work in each of our hearts, that we would be revived.

That all of us who believe in Jesus would experience the fullness of his dwelling in us and taking ownership and mastery over us and us being led by him who is such a faithful and good shepherd. Lord, thank you that we never need to fear that when we follow Jesus that we are going into destruction, but we are always coming out of it through following his voice. Lord, I pray that you encourage your people, encourage them in their obedience, encourage us in our relationships, encourage us in our worshipOpen up your word for us that we might behold wonderful things today, that we might experience your gospel at work in us, alive to us. And Lord, we want to confess by faith today that we have ears to hear what your Spirit would say to us. Lord, please bless those who are here who have not yet come to know Jesus as Savior. I pray, oh Father, that his beauty and wonder and goodness and love would be so impressed upon these that they would be drawn to him and find life in him. So we pray that in Jesus' name, amen. So a number of years ago, I received a letter from a young man who was about to be deployed by the United States military into a war zone. The letter was written to family and friends as he was about to depart from the safe borders of our own country into harm's way, and he recognized as he writes this letter that he might not return home. So this is what he wrote, "Family and friends, it is with profound joy that I write to you today because of the challenging circumstances that lie ahead of me. I can say with joy because James tells me to consider it pure joy whenever I face various trials of many kinds, because the testing of my faith produces perseverance, and perseverance must finish its work so that I might be mature and complete and lacking in nothing. Additionally, when I realize the hardship of being separated from my loved ones, I also realize the true treasure that each of you have been in my life. The uncertain future at times can be crippling, but praise be to God, for He is the mountain that props up my faith. If God chooses to take me, yes, God determines the length of our lives by his sovereign power, then I can rejoice in the full life that God has given to me through Jesus Christ. If he were to take me today, who am I to complain? Has he not so richly lavished blessing after blessing upon my life? Are not each of you a wonderful example of this grace? I have lived a full life and proclaim with Paul to live is Christ, to die is gain. Family, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you to consider the beauty of the gospel message, the message that tells us that we are separated from God because of our sins, and the only remedy for bridging that eternal separation is found completely dedicating our lives to Christ, not based on the merits of anything we could ever do, but solely upon the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, who completely absorbed God's wrath so that we don't have to bear any punishment anymore. There is nothing more beautiful than what Christ has done for us. I love you all and wish you well."

As I read that afresh, my heart was again warmed by this young man's faith, and I think that there's not a sweeter illustration that I could be in Galatians 2 with than this letter from this man of faith. He knows that there are physical dangers to his life and that he's not promised tomorrow, and yet he writes as a man whose life has been united to Jesus's death and to Jesus's resurrection. He knows that Jesus now lives in him, and that makes all the difference. And so through this letter, he's declaring, "The life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me." Well, the main idea we're going to trace through this morning's passage is that Christ Jesus dwells in us. What a mystery, what a wonder, what a gift from the Lord. The Lord Jesus himself, in his person, dwells in us, and we are forever then, through the gospel, united to him in his death and resurrection. The life that we now live in this physical body, now we live by faith in the Son of God who loves us and who gave himself up for us. Oh, how we need revival in our own hearts, in our church, and in the church throughout the United States. And revival comes as we begin to grab hold of the Lord Jesus Christ and his indwelling presence, and we begin to live by his power for his glory.

Well, today, as we look at Galatians 2, this passage unfolds four joyful changes then that we experience when we become united to Jesus through faith. So there are more than four, but these are the four that Paul sort of focuses on in this particular section of Galatians 2. The first change. So what happens that is transformative in the life of one who believes in Jesus and is united to him? Well, the first change we're going to talk about today is that we no longer stand condemned, but we become justified before the Lord. As we noted last time we were in Galatians 2, Paul's confronting Peter for caving in to the pressures of what he calls the circumcision party. So Peter is withdrawing his own fellowship away from Gentile believers in order to appease what Paul calls false brothers. So Paul now confronts Peter, and he confronts him not on the basis of social ethics. In other words, Paul doesn't come and say, "Hey, Peter, you're not being nice and kind to the Gentile brothers." He could confront him on the basis of social ethics, but he doesn't.

What does Paul use to confront Peter? Well, he uses the theology of salvation, the doctrine of the gospel itself, the doctrine that says that we become justified by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone. Look at verse 16 with meWe know, and he's speaking again, Peter, you and I both know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus, the Messiah. So we, you and I, Peter, we also have believed in Messiah Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Messiah and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one is justified. Now, last time we were in this passage, we gave a definition that I want to repeat. It's so important for us to understand what God means when he talks to us about justification or about being justified. So justification is the legal act by which God declares the guilty sinner as innocent, blameless. To be justified is to be accepted by God as though we have perfectly fulfilled his law, and to be treated by God as though we've not broken even a small part of the law of God. The Puritans used to define justified this way: it's just as if I'd never sinned. So the way the Lord looks at us when we are justified by God's grace through faith is that that person who has sinned is now treated just as if I'd never sinned.

Now, there's some shortcomings to that definition, but it's helpful to keep in mind what justification means. God tells us very plainly that for every person born into this world who possesses the image of God stamped upon their soul as being one created by God in the mother's womb, that there's going to be a future day when every person is going to stand before him as judge. And on that day, we're going to be called to give an account of our lives, every part of our life, every thought we've ever had, every word we've ever spoken, every action we've ever taken, every relationship that we've been involved in, every motive of our heart. And the Lord as judge, he knows everything. He knows everything perfectly and completely. He never forgets. He sees all. And this Lord, this God who we will stand before, is absolutely perfect in righteousness. He is holy, holy, holy. That means he hates every sin that defies his holy name.

That there's not one sin, "Oh, that's too small. Let's knock that off the list because it's not that significant to me." No, the Lord hates, with an infinite hatred, every sin that we've committed, thought, word, deed, against his holy name. So we read in the scripture over and over this truth. God does not keep this future day of judgment sort of shoved into a corner, but he expresses it plainly all throughout his word. In Hebrews chapter 4, we read, "No creature is hidden from his sight." Not one person. "But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." And then in Romans 2, on that day, this day of judgment, we're going to stand before the Lord to give an account. According to my gospel, this is the gospel truth, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

There are some things that we think, "Hey, I was able to keep that a secret. Nobody discovered it." On that day, those secrets will be judged by Messiah Jesus. We go on then, and we read in Romans chapter 14. So then each of us, every person, is going to stand individually before the Lord to give an account of himself to the Lord. And then Hebrews 10. "For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.'" That's what the Lord says. And again, the Lord will judge his people. And then here's the conclusions that the writer of Hebrews makes.

It's a fearful thing. It's a terrifying thing. It's a trembling thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Friends, the day of our accounting is fast approaching. It will come upon us more quickly than we can possibly imagine. And that day is as certain as yesterday. That day is not cloudy with a chance of meatballs, right? That day is absolutely set on God's calendar, and it will not be moved. It will not be postponed. It will not be delayed.

And if we stand before the Lord with our sins attached to our soul, it's going to be a fearful thing. A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now, I know that there are many today who say, "I'm not afraid of that day. On that day, I think I'm going to be able to give an account, and I think on that day, I think my good works are going to outweigh my bad." Or, "On that day, I'm going to stand up to God and tell him a few things." Well, you may think that now, but I'm going to tell you that on that day, everything will change. The reality of who God is, the reality of his just condemnation upon a person's sins, every person who stands before him with their sins still attached will tremble. There's not one strong enough to say, "Yeah, I'm going to stand courageous and defiant in the face." No, we will stand trembling before him, to whom we must give an account. Yet praise God for his gospel.

There's good news for us because all of us have sinned, and so all of us, when we think of that future day, have a right to begin to tremble in thinking about that future day, and yet this is what the gospel releases us from, that when Jesus Christ comes and takes on humanity, and then he dies as the God man upon the cross in our place, receiving the punishment that our sins deserve, that he promises that everyone who believes in himThat His blood will cover our sin, wash us free of these sins, so these sins will be detached from our own soul. We're not going to be accountable for the sins of which we've committed, because the Lord will release us through the blood of Jesus, and that Jesus himself clothes us with his righteousness, so that the judge will treat us, who are guilty sinners, as though we'd never sinned, as though we have committed the righteous acts of the Lord Jesus. What a day that will be. If we are in Jesus, if we have been united to him, that day, the day of judgment, will be the best day we've ever experienced in all of our existence. If we have not been united to Jesus, who is the only solution to this issue of our sin, if we've not been united to Jesus, then that day will be the most terrible, most horrifying day of our entire lives. Friends, I want you to know that Jesus extends this offer, this invitation to every one of us. There's not one of us to whom we've not been given this invitation to come to Jesus Christ and to receive the benefit of Jesus's death, of Jesus's blood washing us completely, making us ready for that future day so that we will be presented before the Lord because we are united with Christ, presented before the Lord as blameless, as faultless. What a day that will be. And so I wonder, as you think about your own life, have you joined yourself to Jesus through faith? And if you have not yet, I would urge you to think about that future day and to think about the invitation and the offer of Jesus for you and to consider whether or not this is a decision, this is a commitment, this is a resource that you too would grab hold of in desperation and receive for yourself.

So the first change that happens is we go from being condemned on that day you're going to be declared guilty, and now we go to now that we have this standing before the Lord that's been transformed, now we're justified, we're declared righteous. The second change is that we died to the law and we become alive to God. When we are joined to Jesus, we died to the law, we become alive to God. Now, there are some people in the Apostle Paul's day who did not like this message of God's grace. And they're really, really bothered that the law of God is completely set aside as a means to gain points with God because in pride and in self-righteousness, they want to be able to do some things to gain some credit. They believe they've accumulated some points that they can cash in on the day of judgment when they stand before the Lord. And so this message of grace, grace alone, is a message that ruins their whole self-righteousness, all that bank that they think they've accumulated of points in the eyes of the Lord. And so they argue then. They say, "We don't like this message of salvation or justification by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone." They say, "If God justifies people who are wicked sinners, why should anyone try to obey God at all?"

Like if the number of sins and the depths of sin doesn't matter and a person's justified even though they are a wicked sinner, what is the motivation for us to seek to obey the Lord? And then they look at Paul and they say, "Paul, your message actually encourages people to break the law. It encourages to break the law by stripping the law of its threats regarding future judgment." If you strip the law of its threats, that if you do this, then this is going to happen, it's a really bad thing on the future day, then no one has any reason to obey. So the gospel you preach, Paul, is dangerous, and it makes people sin more. Now, what is the Apostle Paul's answer then in response to that accusation? Well, at the end of verse 17, in short, his answer is two words: "Certainly not. God forbid. You misunderstood everything. If that's what you get out of this message that I've been preaching to you, then you haven't understood anything."

He says in fullness of verse 17, "If in our endeavor to be justified in Messiah, we too are found to be sinners. Is Christ then a servant of sin? Did the Messiah come to make people sin more? No." So our justification by faith alone does not make us careless about sin in our life. No accusation could be further from the truth of what the gospel actually does. And the reason is that when God justifies us, he also regenerates us. So no one is justified without receiving new life in their soul. And with that legal declaration, it's not sort of a legal fiction, but rather it's a living reality that is also accompanied by the Holy Spirit indwelling the person who's justified, and that Holy Spirit is active in bringing the life of God into that person's heart. When a person is united to Jesus, they are declared legally as righteous.

And that has happened, but there's something also more that happens. Justification isn't the only transformation when we believe. What also happens is that there is a real change in our inner person. Look at verse 19. "For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God." So through the law, I died to the law. In other words, when I used to attend to the law and seek to gain acceptance from God by obeying the lawAll the law did was make me realize how far I fell short of God's righteous standards. And the law ultimately brought me to the end of myself as I tried to obey the law. It was through the law that I died to the law. I realized the law can't be the source of my salvation.

It can't be the source of my acceptance before God on the day that I stand before him. It's impossible. The more I look at the law, the more I realize how far I fall short of the law and I disobey the law, the more I realize how much judgment is falling upon me. And so through the law, I died to looking to the law to be any part of my salvation, and I became alive to God. When I became dead to the law, that's when I started looking for another salvation, another means to be justified. And that's when God brought Jesus right in front of me, and I recognized he's the one that provides me with a right standing before the Lord, but he's also the one that makes me alive to God. The law never made me alive to God, but now I'm alive to God through Jesus Christ. Why is dying to the law so important? The Apostle Paul says, "Through the law, I died to the law." And he doesn't say, "So that I can do whatever I want to do."

And friends, by the way, there are some who misunderstand the gospel in our modern times. They hear the gospel and say, "Okay, I'm going to pray the prayer, and I'm going to pray the prayer so then I'm not going to have to worry about living the way I want to live, so I can just sin all the more." There are people who actually believe that. And I'm telling you, if you're one of those, then you don't understand the gospel at all, that you don't have faith, and your soul is still in peril. It's not through praying a prayer so you can do whatever you want. The Apostle Paul says, "Through the law, I died to the law." Why? "So that I might live to God." So that I could have my life rooted in him, have his life inside of me, and that I might be able to know him and to worship him and to enjoy him and to love him. This is what the gospel brings.

This is what union with Christ produces. When we believe in Jesus, we are forever united to the Lord, and in our union with the Lord, we become dead to the law and alive to God. What does that mean? Those are some theological words that Paul uses that actually are hard to practically discern. What does that mean in my life? So let me make a few statements. To be dead to the law means that we no longer look to the law for our validation. We don't say, "Okay, I'm going to attend to law, and maybe God will be pleased with me." To be dead to the law means we no longer look to the law to enable us to live a holy life. If I really want to live a holy life, I need to keep the law in front of me, and I need to look at the law in the morning and in the middle of the day and in the evening, and that's going to produce a holy life.

When we're dead to the law, we say, "No, the law is not going to help me with that." When we're dead to the law, it means that we no longer look to the law to free us from sin's guilt or its power, its hold to overcome temptations that seem to be strangling. When we're dead to the law, it means we no longer look to the law to be the ground of our fellowship together. And this is a big one. So what unites us together in a church family? And again, if we look to the law and say, "Hey, we are a community who shares the same moral standards," we've lost the essence of what fellowship is or how fellowship can exist among a diverse group of people. Now, do we have a consistent and God-given list of standards? Yes. Law is good. But it's not the law that binds us together.

And we start looking, hey, these are the standards we share together, and this is why we're together as a people, we've missed entirely the gospel. And we're not really able to have fellowship because it's not the law that provides us with the substance of our togetherness. When we're dead to the law, it means we no longer look to the law to grant us acceptance into God's family, to open the door of heaven to us. We no longer look to the law for our freedom from future judgment to make us ready for that day. So what does it mean to be alive to God? It means that we do look to Jesus for our validation. The reason why we know that God would accept us is because of Jesus. It means that we do look to Jesus for the power to live our holy lives. It's not a self-help program, but it's Christ living in us. That we do look to Jesus to free us from sin's guilt and its shame and its power in our lives.

We look to Jesus to draw us near to God so that we can enjoy him. He's the one that's going to draw us near to the Lord. That we do look to Jesus to be the ground and center of our fellowship together. What unites us as a people? And even in our own church, there's such diversity here of age and ethnicities and backgrounds and all kinds of ways that we aren't necessarily together. But what unites us together? It's we see Jesus in the center of our community, and the closer we draw near to Jesus, the closer we draw near to each other. And as we draw near to Jesus, we look at our brother and sister who's a lot different from us. We say, "But you too are grabbing onto Jesus," and that means everything because Jesus is everything to me, and that means I'm bound forever to you. To be alive to God means that we look to Jesus to grant us acceptance into God's family.

We look to Jesus for our freedom from future judgment. Listen to 2 Corinthians 3 now. Paul's going to talk about the difference between what the law can produce and what Jesus produces. "Such is the confidence that we have through Messiah toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves, but our sufficiency, it all comes from God," the ability to live the life that we want to live. It all comes from God. "And it's not of the letter," he's talking about the letter of the law, "but it's of the Spirit." So he's contrasting the law, the letter of the law, with the Spirit of God. For what does the law do? "The letter kills."

In other words, it shows us how dead we are and condemns us. "But it's the Spirit that gives life." It's the Spirit of Jesus. Now, if the ministry of deathThat was carved in letters on stone, again, a reference to Moses' law, came with such glory that the Israelites couldn't gaze at Moses' face because of its glory. So this ministry of the law, again, the law is good. The stone tablets were great. Just that they only kill, they only condemn, they couldn't bring life. And yet, it was a ministry of death that had incredible glory. Moses' face shone as he came off the mountain. He says, "So if that ministry, the law, had glory, how much more then, how much more will the minister's spirit have in his glory in our community, in our lives?"

Too many believers today are still looking to the law to provide what the law could never provide. We're looking for the next set of self-help principles. We're looking for the next spiritual discipline, the next way of engaging with disciplines. We're looking at the next set of higher standards, if we just elevate our standards. We're looking to the next new worship song that sort of thrills us with emotion. We're looking to the next better understanding of marriage, of gender roles, of political theory, of parenting tips. Now, all these are taught in scripture. So we're not saying that scripture doesn't attend to these matters. What we are saying is that they must never occupy the center. And if these occupy the center, like the best way to live my life is by having this set of spiritual discipline, this kind of understanding regarding family, this kind of understanding regarding political ideology, that's what needs to be centered.

Guess what happens? People die, and a church dies because the letter kills. What brings life to church? It's when Jesus, who died and rose again, his resurrected life is right in the center of our community. That's where there's life. Because we have no ability to look at a principle. Oh, I can apply that principle. That's going to be… We have no ability. It's only Christ in us that is the hope of glory.

The law can never produce light. It only exposes darkness. The law cannot bring forth life. It can only convict us that we are dead in our sins. It's Jesus that brings light. It's Jesus, his very precious person, who brings life and the good news, and here's the good news. The good news is that Jesus, the Son of God, offers his very self to us. He makes him available, himself available to us. He says, "I will be joined to you. I will join myself to you."

It's by abiding in him that we bear much fruit, for apart from him, we can do nothing. Revival, and I pray for revival, it will not come into our lives or into our church through the law, but through Jesus. Revival will never flow out of stone tablets, but out of the Spirit of the living God. So as we run this race that God sets before us, we're right to fix our eyes on Jesus. He's the one who gives us entrance into this race. He's the one who introduces to us. He's the one who puts us on the starting line. We wouldn't even be in this race, this glorious race that ends in glory, and we would never even be allowed at the starting line if it weren't for Jesus and his grace placing us in this race. And what Hebrews chapter 12 says is, he says, "As you run this race, fix your eyes on Jesus. He's the one who placed you in the race at the starting line. He's the one who's going to be with you every step, every stride along that path, as difficult as it might be, and he's the one who's going to bring you to the finish line."

There's no one that Jesus places on the starting line that he doesn't carry across the finish line. That's Hebrews 12. And so what are we here to do? Well, let's get rid of every weight. It's not as though we're passive. We get rid of every weight that's besetting us and keeping us from running with freedom and power, and let's fix our eyes on Jesus because he is the source of life for us. So what change happens? Well, we died to the law. We become alive to God. The third change.

We give up control of our lives, and now Christ lives in us. What an amazing statement verse 20 is. "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I live, but Christ now lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God," and by the way, he's one who loved me and who gave himself up for me. So when we place our faith in Jesus, there's a real miracle that happens, a number of real miracles. One of those is that God joins us in union with his Son, Jesus. This union, it's not imaginary. It's not make-believe. It is real. This union is not physical, so we can't see it.

It's spiritual, but it is real. God joins us to Jesus in a way that's wonderful, indeed that is mysterious, but a way that is true. The union is such that through the New Testament, as God shares with us his gospel, two phrases appear over and over and over, almost too many to count. We almost look past them because there's so many. And those two phrases are what? The two phrases are Christ in us and then us being in Christ. In Christ. So which is it, this union? Is Christ in us, or are we in Christ? The answer is yes.

So when we come to faith, Christ comes and enters into our soul in a real way so that his life is actually being lived outside of us, and then we are placed in Christ safely in his arms, safely into his heart. Us in him, he in us. This is this union, this oneness that God creates between us and himself through his Son, Jesus. Because we are united to Jesus we spiritually experience Jesus' death and resurrection, an event that took place 2,000 years ago. Spiritually, we were there when we place our faith in Him today. That means that when He died, we died with Him. That's why when we stand before God, we're declared blameless because we already died. We died in Christ. Our sins were already punished. We were with Him at the cross.

And that's what Paul says, "I've been crucified with Christ, and yet I live." I'm not saying that I don't have any life anymore, and yet the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me so. So when we experience this union to Christ, and this crucifixion and this resurrection, this new life, it means that we no longer are the same. We don't live the kind of lives we used to live. We live lives that are new. They're new in the sense of their direction because when Jesus enters and dwells in us, He says, "Hey, the direction you were going was leading toward death, and I'm not going to participate in that." And He begins to move us, and He moves us in a new direction. We become new in our priorities. What's important in the use of our resources, our time, our energy, our money? Well, again, when Jesus is indwelling in us, He's moving us to use those resources in a way that builds a treasure forever, not just is emptied out in this world and then pass away and go nothing.

We are new in our relationships. We're new in our righteousness standards. We're new in our values. We're new in our worship. Everything becomes new. When Paul says, "I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," he's saying something about the keys of ownership being transferred from ourself to the Lord Jesus. I'm now living in my people. So Christ lives in me. He dwells in me.

When Jesus enters and takes residence within us, as Paul's describing, Jesus does not come as a visitor. Okay? He doesn't say, "Hey, let me just hang out for a little while in your life, and I'll be content with just being a guest." When Jesus comes, remember, He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. When He comes to dwell in a heart, He comes to rule and to reign. He becomes as king. He comes to become the owner of our whole life. Jesus does not dwell in our hearts in a manner in which He abides by our rules and our standards and our priorities. But rather, Jesus enters into our heart in a manner in which we voluntarily submit all of our decisions over to Him.

You're the one who's my Lord. You're the one who's my master. You're dwelling in me. Now, my life is yours. It's not my own anymore. I've been bought with a price. And someone responds, "Well, wow. Okay. From the outside, that's a lot of trust." It's one thing to give Jesus a good portion of your life, but to give everything over to the Lord Jesus Christ, to yield everything, the full bit of ownership, 100% of the ownership of your life, yeah, that's a lot of trust.

And that's the reason why Paul ends the way he does. How does he end? He says, "The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God." Well, that's a lot of trust. Yeah, but He's the Son of God, and He loves me, and He gave His life for me. He's the Son of God. He knows so much more than I know about how to direct my life. I've made a mess of my life. Jesus will never make a mess of my life because He's the Son of God. He's all wisdom.

Furthermore, He loves me. He's never going to act against me out of frustration to do me harm. How much does He love you? Well, He gave His entire life for me. He loves me to the end. He loves me permanently. He loves me eternally. And that's where there's security to say, "You know what? I want Jesus to dwell in me and to take ownership over everything. I can't trust myself to make anything good of my life, but I can trust Him."

Now the question comes, does every believer experience Galatians 2:20? Can every believer say, "I've been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me"? And the answer is yes, every believer can say that, and no, not every believer can say that. So yes and no. Yes, every follower of Jesus comes to Him in faith and is joined by the Spirit to Jesus. They are justified. They have right standing before the Lord. Every follower of Jesus is a new creation.

If you believe in Jesus and you've connected your life to Him, the old's passed away, everything becomes new. The self-life dies, and the Holy Spirit awakens. This transformation is a work that God begins in us the moment our lives are joined to Jesus. So there is a sense in which every believer hears Paul's statement in Galatians 2:20, says, "That's me." And yet, no. Many believers live below the blessing of their salvation, below their standing with the Lord. They've experienced transformation. There is no true salvation apart from transformation, and yet they don't walk daily by faith. They can't say, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith," because they've wandered away, and they've allowed their eyes to shift away from the Lord and trusting in the Lord with their lives, and they've begun to look at their own and take ownership. I think this idea is best presented by the bumper stickers that says, "Jesus is my co-pilot."

I don't need Jesus to be my co-pilot. I need Jesus to be my pilot. I don't know how to fly the plane, that's the thing. So Jesus, don't ever let me take the controls. You are the pilot. I'm trusting you entirely with my whole life. And if Jesus is our co-pilot, then we're not experiencing Galatians 2:20. And there are so many believers who live below the line of the blessing that God offers because they continue to take controls back. They say, "Okay, you fly this part, but I want to fly this part." Paul urges us away from Jesus being co-pilot in Ephesians 4.

He says this to the Ephesian believers, "Assuming that you've heard about the Messiah and were taught in him." He says, "I'm trusting that you know the gospel. As the truth is in Jesus," he says, "that you've learned to put off your old self." This is an action. So we've been crucified with Christ. That's a biblical reality. So our union guarantees that we've been crucified with Christ, and yet Paul says, "But you need to put off the old self." Why is that? Because while we've been crucified with Christ, this old self is still active in us. And this old self will still be active, seeking to rise up and gain control all the way until we stand before Jesus, till the day we die or the day we are taken up in glory.

So the Apostle Paul says, "Hey, the gospel teaches you to actively, daily, put off the old self." Say, "That's not who I was. I got to remind myself, I'm not who I used to be, and I'm not going to let my old self dominate and control my life." And then Paul goes on to say, "And you've learned to put on the new self." And the new self is created, that's God's gift, created so you have a new self. It's created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. If we're to realize the joy of Galatians 2:20, we must actively, consciously put off our old self and put on the new. And our old self keeps wanting to take back the controls of the airplane, and then we say, "No, Jesus is my pilot. He's in charge. I sometimes don't understand exactly how his directions are going to work out, but I trust him because he's the Son of God, and he loves me, and he gave himself up for me. I am going to trust him."

When I was about sixth grade, my mom encouraged me to read a little booklet, and the little booklet is by Robert Munger entitled "My Heart, Christ's Home."^[1] Perhaps some of you have read it. It seems to have gotten off of the attention of the Christian realm, but it's available by PDF. I encourage you to read the full of it. It made an impact on me as a sixth grader, and it still makes an impact upon me as occasionally I read it for my own soul's benefit. But let me read a little excerpt. "One evening I invited Jesus Christ into my heart." That's Christ dwelling in me, right? "What an entrance he made. It was not a spectacular emotional thing, but it was very real. Something happened at the center of my life. He came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the light. He built a fire on the hearth and banished the chill. He started music where there had been stillness, and he filled the emptiness with his own loving, wonderful fellowship. I've never regretted opening the door to Christ, and I never will. In the joy of this new relationship, I said to Jesus, 'Lord, I want this heart of mine to be yours. I want to have you settle down in here and be perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to you. Let me show you around.'"

And I'm going to encourage you to do that, to speak to the Lord daily and say, "Hey, my house, it's your house." Mi casa is no longer mi casa. Mi casa is holy your su casa, right? So everything is yours, right? And to have that conversation, that's how he begins. And then the first room is the study, and I'll just read this one room. "The first room was the study, the library. In my home, this room of the mind is a very small room with thick walls." I like that. So the room of the mind, very small room with thick walls, right?

Does that describe your study? I think it describes mine. He goes on to say, "But it's a very important room. In a sense, it's the control room of the whole house. Jesus entered with me, and he looked around at the books in the bookcase, the magazines upon the table, and the pictures on the walls, and as I followed his gaze, I became uncomfortable. Strangely, I had not felt self-conscious about this before, but now that he was there looking at these things, I was embarrassed. Some books were there that his eyes were too pure to behold. On the table were a few magazines that a Christian had no business reading. And as for the pictures on the walls, the imaginations and thoughts of the mind, some of these were shameful. Red-faced, I turned to him and I said, 'Master, I know that this room needs to be cleaned up and made over. Will you help me make it what it ought to be?'"

Which by the way, is a great statement. Rather than saying, "Okay, I'm going to set the law in front of me, and I'm going to reform myself. I'm going to make myself better. I'm just going to not do this and not do that," it's inviting the living Christ and saying, "Would you help me? I need your help. I need Christ. I need you to dwell in me, and I need your strength." "Certainly," he said, "I'm glad to help you. First of all, take all the things that you're reading and looking at which are not helpful, pure, good, true, throw them out, and put on the empty shelves the books of the Bible. Fill the library with scripture and meditate on it day and night. And as for the pictures on the walls, you'll have difficulty controlling these images, but I have something that will help."

And he gave me a full-size portrait of himself, and he says, "Hang this centrally on the wall of your mind." I did, and I've discovered through the years that when my thoughts are centered upon Christ himself, his purity, his power, cause impure thoughts to back away, and so he has helped me bring my thoughts under his control. Now, the rest of this little booklet, Jesus enters the dining room, where the appetites are satisfied, the living room, where relationships are made and grow, the workroom, where energies are spent, the rec room, where fun and joy is pursued, and finally, there's a hall closet where secret things are kept. And that was the last room in this little booklet because there were some secret things I didn't want Jesus to see or know, and he put a lock on that door until finally he said, "I've got to let Jesus into that closet." Friends, it is such a healthy thing for us to begin each day and ask Jesus to enter every part of our lives, to recognize his indwelling presence, and to ask him what he desires to be done today for him so that he can be at home in our hearts, so that he can dwell in joy. After all, Jesus is the owner. And I want to ask you, would you take some time and pray over each room of your heart? If you are a believer in Jesus, Jesus dwells in you. Would you ask him personally to speak truth to you so that you might live out this new life of yours by faith, and that every part of your house, every room, would be filled with his joy, his peace, his goodness, his righteousness, his truth? It is in this way that we move toward a life that is abundant.

I know I had one more change, but for the sake of time, I just want to close by encouraging you. At the end of verse 21, he says, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." Living by faith in God's law nullifies God's grace, and that's why it's such a deadly trap. This kind of life that is living by faith in God's law to help us, it revels in our own accomplishment, it makes us proud, it makes us judgmental, make us critical. It's the kind of life that keeps us from experiencing the power of Jesus' resurrection in us. So Paul tells us that if the law had any role in giving us life, then Christ died for no purpose. And I want you to know, brothers, and he's talking to Peter directly, you know that Christ's death means everything, so lean back into him. Lean back into him and fix your eyes upon him as you run this race that God has set you upon. It is through him that you'll finish the race with great glory and with great joy for his praise. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, thank you that Jesus Christ dwells in us. Thank you that you have united us to him in his death and resurrection. Thank you that the life we now live in our physical body, we live by faith in your Son who loves us and who gave himself up for us. Father, I pray that you'd give us a fresh vision of Jesus, a fresh vision of Jesus' love for us, a fresh vision of Jesus' sufficiency for every need, a fresh vision of Jesus' sacrifice that accomplished our acceptance, a fresh vision of Jesus' majesty that caused us to bow down and tremble in wonder, a fresh vision of Jesus' grace that flows to us and grants us life. Oh, Father, I pray that you'd be our vision through your Son Jesus' name. Amen.

Referenced in this sermon

1. My Heart, Christ's Home by Robert Boyd Munger (1954). View ↩