Christ For Us
Galatians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsChrist frees us from the crushing weight of salvific obedience.
Notes
Transcript
Let us Pray.
bounce off what I said last week.
Jesus desires that His Church be One Church. This oneness, this unity, is something we must fight for.
We saw how we can fight for it in our work place, you tried and failed and feel that God is your enemy.
We forget that Christ is for us.
The Road Laid Out, the Result Made Plain, and the Relation Set Forth.
The Road laid out: Jesus or Us (vv. 15-16)
The Road laid out: Jesus or Us (vv. 15-16)
15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
Paul is still building an argument. He is arguing like his opponents, the Judaizers, who viewed the Gentiles as sinful dogs. He grants the Jews their superior status, for the sake of argument, to bolster his next point.
16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Justified: δικαιόω, to render a favorable verdict.
Justification is an act of God by which he declares sinners to be righteous by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.
R. C. Sproul
Even we--We holy Jews know that no one has God look at them and say, “Not Guilty” expect for one way: Faith in Jesus. That is why we have believed! We believed in Christ so that we could have this legal declaration by God! Paul did this by faith
Works of the Law--Obedience to what the Law says with the intention of it making someone right before God. Paul knew this life intimately.
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Paul knew this life, and what did he say? These were all a pile of garbage. There is no work, no deed, that can justify a sinner before God. Paul makes sure his reader get that by grabbing the Old Testament.
Galatians 2:16 (KJV 1900)
16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
This is a quotation from Psalm 143:2
2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
These Judaizers are claiming that it is Christ plus the Law of Moses. Christ plus your works. Jesus and Us. Just a little bit of Law. They miss it. That was never the Law’s point. Rom.3.20
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law is such a law that Adam failed to keep it, though innocent; how, then, shall you keep it while imperfect?
Life’s Inevitable Burden, Volume 59, Sermon #3355 - Galatians 6:6
Charles Spurgeon
App: You are sitting here saying, “I believe this. Why are you pushing it so hard this morning? I’m not going to go looking to Exodus 28 for obedience to make God happy with you.” But you are looking at your behavior with your grandkids. With your spouse. With your devotional life. Every single one of these we turn into little good deeds that we do to earn God’s acceptance.
We almost never say them out load, and most of the time we do not even realize we are thinking this way. We go on our Christian life, doing our best to love our Savior, right up until we hit a speed-bump called sin. You snap at those grandchildren. You really didn’t mean to, you had had a long day, your alarm clock went off an hour early and the coffee had not even started yet. Your migraine was aching all day and you just could not take the little one’s noises anymore.
You know you sinned. And you are being crushed by it. It is hounding you in like a wolf goes after its prey. You are sitting here on the point of tears ready to throw yourself into hell’s fire because you know how angry God in heaven is at you.
We slip right into the mindset Paul argues against: there is no righteous through anything we can do. It is Jesus or us. Paul makes that plain in the next two verses.
The Result Made Plain: Rebuild for Ruin (vv. 17-18)
The Result Made Plain: Rebuild for Ruin (vv. 17-18)
17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
Paul here answers an accusation he knows will come up. Remember that he is freely eating with Gentiles. As far as the Judaizers are concerned, this is game over. You do not do that.
They see Paul going around having a cheeseburger and they hate it. To them, this is making Jesus tell us “Go sin! Go do it!”
This is making, in their eyes, Jesus the encourager, the minister, the servant of sin itself.
Of course, Paul rejects that. God forbid!
He shows that there is indeed something that encourages us to sin. And it is the very thing the Judaizers hold up and love.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
Sin loves to look at rules and go, “Oh boy, fun!” It isn’t Jesus that tells us to do these things; is our sin, that loves to break laws. That’s why Paul says what he does here in our text:
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Things which I destroyed—The Law as a system of works righteousness. Paul has labored to destroy this idea. If he were to turn around, follow the Judaizers, and build it again, what would happen?
Transgressor—Lawbreaker. If Paul were to build up the Law as a system of obedience, as something he had to do in order to receive the approval from God’s court of justice, he will never get it. God’s Law was given to reveal our sinfulness. To try and turn it into a method of obtaining salvation is like trying to use a mirror to get the food out of your teeth! That isn’t its job!
APP: And that is what we do every time we judge God’s love of us, His acceptance of us, on our performance. And this easily masks itself as spirituality. We think, “Well, I’m saved, but God might need to discipline me, He might need to chastise me.” We say those words, and we mean “hate.” We think that based on what we do, God hates us. You do it. I do it. It is just what Paul says the results of rebuilding the law: it leads to ruin.
Thanks be to God, He did not leave us like this. Yes, we are ruinous. Yes, we are dirty. Yes, we are all those things and more. Yes, you sinned before you came here today. But Christ is for you. The Road Laid Out, the Result Made Plain,
The Relation Set Forth: Christ For Us (vv. 19-21)
The Relation Set Forth: Christ For Us (vv. 19-21)
19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Do you see the glorious irony? Paul says that the Law gave him a means of dying.
Dying that, purpose, A means of dying for the purpose of living unto God.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
What is the way of life? Being led by the Spirit of God, being a son of God. The way to true life is the way of God, and the way of God is the way of the cross.
How did Paul die through the law? Paul’s need was expressed through the Law and His Son obeyed the Law and died according to the Law.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
What the Law could not do, because we are sinners, Christ did, so that we would now by faith obey the law out of a heart of gracious gratitude. Jesus’ life became our life. Go back to Galatians
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
I am—pefect tense, past action, present implication.
When Christ died, I died.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Nevertheless I live—We did not die physically. Our sinful desire, our sinful nature, was crucified to that cross with Christ. We now live by faith, a life that is so closely connected to our savior that Paul says “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Not the old nature of sin and selfishness, not the man who hates God and wants to seek righteousness through Law-keeping.
life…life by faith....who loved me.—What a glorious word. Our live is lived by faith in Christ, the Christ who loved me. Who knew me particular. Who died in my particular place. In your particular place.
And I love how Paul ends this glorious section. Look at verse 21.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Frustrate—reject.
In vain—for no purpose.
Paul presents the two alternatives: either Christ’s death is enough or it was useless.
App: Saint of God, Christ is enough for you. Grandmother, Christ loved you. Christ died for you. You are Christ’s, and He is yours. You judge yourself by your own standards of right and wrong;
God judges you by His Son. You are free. You are free from all of the things we use to try and make ourselves holy, and right, and good. You
Union with Christ frees us from working to justify ourselves.