Christs Life in Me

Galatians 2:19–21 NKJV

For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

This much-loved verse is quoted, printed, and repeated often, most especially the first half of this statement.

This is also Paul's grandest declaration yet about what exactly happens when someone is saved or justified by placing their faith in Christ.

In a very real sense, Paul's argument is that we become so closely attached to Him that we die with Him and He begins to live in us.

Paul has been emphasizing that faith, and faith alone, is what saves us—adding any requirement of good deeds or rituals is contrary to the gospel (Galatians 1:8–9; 2:16). Christ was crucified for our sin

. By faith, we trust that His death paid for our own personal sin.

In that way, we are crucified with Him, our sin with him on the cross.

That sinful "us" dies, replaced by the resurrected Christ "in us.

" We continue to live in the flesh, of course, but our lives are now directed not by our sinful selves but by our faith in Christ. Paul expands on this great truth powerfully in Romans 6:1–6

Romans 6:1–6 NKJV

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

WE die that He may live n us not to continue in sin but to have the power to flee from it the power to resist it the power to cast it off of our lives

I want you to notice

In Galatians For the first time, Paul mentions Jesus' motive for giving Himself for us:’

His love. Christ died for us because He loves us. Unlike the unyielding system of the law,

Christ is a person motivated by His love and concern for us.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

It is striking that the small word “I” appears so often in the words of the apostle Paul. As for this our text goes directly into the bulls-eye of the modern life.

Nowadays the “Me, myself and I” receives all the attention. In our ego-culture most of the verbs are being expressed in the first person singular; I am, I want, I have, I do, I live, I will…

It is the “I” of the self-determination. The “I” of the total independence. The “I” of the human being who doesn’t need others, and has enough with himself.

Someone recently described our era as “the Culture of Narcissism”.

He drew a comparison with a character from Greek mythology, called Narcissus. This Narcissus discovered on a certain day his handsome body in the reflection of the water. He couldn’t get enough with admiring himself, all day long. More and more he inclined forward to see as much as possible from his own image. According to the story he became so in love with himself, and bended so far forward, that in the end he fell in the water and drowned.

The ancient character of Narcissus shows the modern man truly as he is. The “I” receives all the attention.

People have become individualists, with their own “I” in the centre.

Today it is considered important to claim your rights, to open yourself to all the possibilities, and to stand up for yourself.

But you can impossibly say this of Paul, can’t you? What he tells us here in Galatians is something very different.

It is diametrically opposed to the modern philosophy of life.

Something has happened to his “I”. The “I” is no longer the centripetal power in the life of Paul.

It has become Someone else. He doesn’t any longer live for himself, but for his Lord Jesus Christ. He gave his life to Jesus. He gave himself to Jesus in order to receive another life.

When Paul could tell us about his life today, he will probably tell us that he has led a life full of: I am, I have, I want, and I do!

His life turned around himself. He was sitting on the throne of his own life.

And then something happened, he would say. +

Then the Lord Jesus appeared to me on the road to Damascus, and changed my life radically. From then I started seeing things completely differently. It has put my life upside down. I began to live a whole different life.

Have you had your road of damascus experience I know I have

But we could object to this: was Paul really such a wicked self-seeker? Was he such a Narcissus who had fallen in love with himself? From the book of the Acts we get to know him as someone who diligently took care of the clothes of the ones who stoned Stephen. And we see him going to Damascus with letters from the high priest in order to capture and arrest Christians there. He was driven by a burning passion to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Lord of Israel.

He advocated zealously for the the law of his God. Is that so narcissistic?

No, Paul would say, but still it was blind zeal. Zeal springing from a deep felt need for religious satisfaction. I wanted to stand up for the law, but actually I wanted to do it for my religious self. Blind zeal and self-love. Ultimately I was aiming myself in my aiming for God.

The Pharisees of his time had degenerated the enforcement of the law. God wanted to be served and honoured in obedience.

But the Pharisees looked for their own justice and status in the strict enforcement of the law. They didn’t aim the honour of God, but their own honour. Jesus said about them:

Matthew 23:5–6 NKJV

But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

Paul discovered this religious narcissism in his own soul. It became clear to him when he met Jesus on the way to Damascus.

Although he was blinded by a light from heaven, his eyes went wide open for his personal situation. He wasn’t anymore looking for his own justice, but had found the justice by faith in Jesus Christ.

That’s why he can say so full of confidence: “For through the law I died to the law, so that I can live with God”.

This is my situation, Paul says. The whole complex of laws, regulations and traditions, what formerly dictated my life, is a settled matter. I have brought all my own desiring and justifying, all my zealous advocating, all my fanatic law enforcement to the cross of Christ and have laid it down there. I have given myself completely to Him. I have capitulated for the power of God’s love. I surrendered to the grace of Jesus Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

Do you notice it? There is no trace left of the bloodhound ‘who was breathing out murderous threats’ against everything which was called a christian.

The old man was Gone in a instant he was gone, not over a long period of time but immediately he was so changed

Here a man is speaking who has met Christ and who experienced a permanent change of life because of that.

Where is the Saul who once persecuted the young Christian church? Where is the zealous advocate of the law?

Where is the man who was so proud of his Jewish roots and brilliant knowledge of the law?

He cannot be found anymore. He is dead. He has been crucified with Christ. His hands and feet are nailed to the wood with Christ. Together with Christ his head is bowed. Together with Christ his heart is broken. Together with Christ his side is pierced. This way the death of Jesus has also become the death of Paul.

Have you had such a experience that the old self has died that there no longer remains a even slightest bit remaining in him He was so different his named like peter was changed from Saul to Paul He was a new man a new creation formed in the image of his saviour

But when Jesus was raised from the dead, Paul says, I raised together with Him. The old Saul doesn’t exist anymore. His name is now Paul, meaning “the small one”. He became small himself, because the greatness of God has entered his life.

He has become weak in order to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘

I am dead, but I live, that is not anymore my own self, but Christ lives in me’. I live from the grace, the love and the justice of Jesus Christ.

That is surrender.

Surrender takes place where a human being has a true meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In such a moment you cannot remain who you are. You discover your own unworthiness, your sin and your shortcoming.

If you want to hold on to your life, maintaining your own “I” at all price, keeping upright your own justice, you will loose your life in the end, says Jesus Christ. But if you give your life, if you hand yourself over, if you surrender to the love of God, you will find life.

Surrender is the hardest thing there is. It is a harsh sound in the ears of the people of this ego-culture. It is the last thing a human being would do.

To renounce, to give up, to surrender in the hands of someone else. The gospel is diametrically opposed to the natural feeling of the human’s soul

. Our society is not waiting for a message of self-surrender and self-renouncement.

Paul discovered the great secret of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You seem to loose everything by giving up yourself. It seems to end your life. But it is different. Only by surrender, only by handing yourself over into God’s mighty hand, you can find life, your destination, and justice.

It is the oddest existing paradox. It doesn’t work out in business, politics or on the battle-field.

It doesn’t make any sense in the derailed reality of our world. In the world the strongest rules. You shouldn’t preach surrender in the world. It is stupid. It is a contradiction.

Maybe first even contra-productive. But still it is the only way into the Kingdom of God, into the true life with Jesus Christ. Surrender is the key to a life with God. That’s the secret of Paul’s Golgotha-experience.

By loosing he found. Somewhere else he says that ‘whatever was to my profit, I consider rubbish’. And it became a gain for him. He was crucified with Christ, and resurrected with Him.

But still he is standing firmly on solid ground. ‘The life I live in the body…’ he says. He has not evaded from the earthly existence

. He has not become a monch on Athos. Somewhere between heaven and earth, on a cloud.

No, here in the life of eating and drinking, sleeping and working, of worries, needs and cares he lives in the flesh.

And this existence is not very easy. It’s is not always easy to live according to the principle of surrender. There is temptation, struggle and trouble. There can be so many things that burden us.

But I persist, Paul says, because of the faith in the Son of God. By faith Jesus lives in me

‘Who loved me and gave himself for me’.

That is what Paul adds to it. He keeps being very personal in his witness. He loved me, and gave himself for me.

Do you hear the undertones in these words? Paul is moved and touched. Jesus loves him, the religious narcissist

. He who wanted to do everything by himself. Who wanted to enter the Kingdom of God by his own zeal and justice. Who wanted to do the right thing all the time, but noticed again and again how close the evil was. Paul expresses his astonishment about the love of God.

Surrender is difficult. There are people who never succeed in getting to it.

Who want to keep holding their lives in their own hands. Who are afraid of loosing themselves. They consider God’s demand beyond them.

They wish to preserve authority over their own lives. Who is this God, that he can put such demands on a human being.

This question is not only stemming from the modern feeling of life, but it is a question of all time. God may not touch our “I”. Our own private “I” is holy for us.

God asks surrender from us. Not because he wants to satisfy his need for power, or because of his rights as the Creator of life, but only because he loves us as a loving Father. When God asks surrender from us, he asks very much. It is the highest and ultimate thing we could ever give.

But the wonderful thing is that he does the same himself. Also He gives the highest and the greatest thing he has. He gives himself in the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ. In the encounter of God and man we see the road of sacrifice.

God doesn’t ask something from us, that he doesn’t also do himself.

There once was a man who worked in a small town as the operator of a drawbridge on a river. A train track ran across the bridge, and the operator’s job was to keep the bridge up when no train was coming, so that the boats could pass under it. When a train approached, he had to blow the whistle, and let down the bridge.

One sunny Saturday morning, the man brought his seven-year-old son along to work with him. The boy could play down at the river, step stones and rocks, chase butterflies, or even try to catch a fish.

Shortly before noon, a passenger train was due to come through the area. The man began to make preparations to put the bridge down so the train could pass safely across the river. As he examined the bridge, he noticed that someone – a small child - had somehow climbed over the fence next to the bridge and was playing exactly at the spot where the bridge would come down. As he looked closer, he realized with horror, that the child was his son. In desperation he yelled out his son’s name, but the sound of the approaching train was louder than his screams. He knew he had to make a quick decision. If he lowered the bridge now, his son would die. But if he didn’t, all the people on the train would die as the train fell into the river. He barely had time to think.

As he screamed in agony, the man pushed the handle to lower the bridge, just as the train arrived. His son died instantly. And as the train passed by, the people just smiled and waved as they passed by the man in the control room, with his head bowed low, ignorant of what had just taken place.

Isn’t this what God did for us? He sacrificed his own Son, so that we could live. This is God and this is how he acts. His being and essence is love and sacrifice. He wants to give us everything, springing from his loving heart. He wants our heart, but he also gives his heart.

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Along with Christ all things! Even more than Christ, who already is everything. That is God’s surrender, God’s sacrifice. God is exuberant and abundant! It is true and for us it can become a personal reality: Jesus has come to give us life and eternal joy.

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. This is the way in which Paul describes his life. The Lord Jesus has given himself to him. The only thing Paul could do was to also give his life in the hands of his Lord.

In this way the Lord approaches us today

On Golgotha He gave his life for us. What happened there was for all humanity. Can we agree with this for ourselves? Is it also a reality in our lives? Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who has given himself for us. .

WE must surrender our life our passions our wants our desires must die as with Christ if we want the fullness the freedom of God in our life I must die you must Die as Christ died for you you must die for him

AS Christ surrendered and became a sacrifice for you to gain His life your life must be a living sacrifice for Him given completely to him

Galatians 5:24 NKJV

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Have you truly done this

Are you missing the fullness of God the peace of God in your life has anxiety grappled you with fear has depression held you back has doubt kept you from receiving the fullness of God then by the mercies of God surrender your life today die to your pleasure to your desires to your passions today trust in Christ’s finished work receive his forgiveness receive His free gift of faith and be forever changed not held back any longer but forever and completely changed by the grace and mercies of God