Crucified with Christ

He is Risen

This morning is Easter Sunday, the morning when we celebrate Jesus’ victorious resurrection from the dead. But it’s also the Lord’s Day the day when we each week celebrate Jesus’ victorious resurrection from the dead.

While many pastors this morning will be focusing on Matthew 28, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24, or even John 20 looking at the texts that explicitly address the glory of Jesus having risen in the flesh and what beautiful texts those are - Jesus was dead and he rose again - he is risen — But I’m going to continue our series in Galatians and partly because I intentionally planned to be in this text this morning — As Paul speaks of a very important part of that resurrection. Specifically, what does Jesus’ death accomplish? and who does it accomplish that for?

In his answers to those questions:

Paul applies the gospel.

Paul personalizes the gospel.

Paul also in this text gives us an understanding one of the grandest doctrines of Scripture… The doctrine of justification.

Justification

Martin Luther described the doctrine of justification by faith alone as “the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls (Sproul, Acts, 266).

John Calvin referred to it as “the hinge upon which everything turns”

The doctrine of Justification by faith is at the heart of the reformation. And it is at the heart of Christianity. So this Easter morning, we gather and rejoice because though Christ died on the cross that Good Friday (at Passover) and was laid in a tomb that night and the tomb sealed, then on that first Lord’s Day the tomb was found empty as Christ had risen - and in his death and resurrection he has accomplished justification for his chosen saints.

Before I get too far, let me provide a definition for justification.

Justification is a legal standing, specifically a legal standing before God. Man’s natural state before God is sinful, hell bound, dead in your trespasses and sins and in loving it and hating God.

Justification is the declaration that God’s people have been made right, and they stand before God as holy. Those who are justified no longer have their sins counted against them. They have been made just. To quote Paul in Romans 8:1:

Romans 8:1 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

What might be the most important verse to understanding just how significant the gospel is. And the key to much counseling.

However, we also ought to understand how one might become justified. And this is the heart of the drama in Galatia.

Does one become justified by what they have done, or does one become justified by what God does in them?

Does one earn their salvation by obedience to the law, or is it merely by faith?

Do we bring anything to our salvation, or has Jesus already accomplished all of it?

That’s essentially the same question posed three different ways. And while Paul has answered this question in this text, we seemingly continue to try to rework it. At times the church struggled deeply with this. Unfortunately, the issues that Paul deals with in his letters continue to pop up.

This is one the driving issues that led to the protestant reformation. And if this wasn’t dealt with I’d be speaking in Latin - and probably not happily married with two wonderful children…

Pope Leo X approved the sale of indulgences because he wanted to rebuild St. Peter’s Bascillica. The indulgences said that a person could give a certain amount of money to earn time off of purgatory - this could apply to them OR they could buy time off for their deceased family member.

This led to John Tetzel, the used car salesmen of the 16th century, marketing indulgences with a mixture of bad poetry and rancid theology. Such as “As a coin in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs”. Some debate over if he actually said that - but his sermons certainly taught it. But this issue is part of what drives Luther in the reformation to declare that salvation cannot be purchased. Not by works, and not with money.

We still see a downstream version of this existing among those like Joel Osteen, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, or Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker or others in the prosperity theology movement, or Word of Faith movement. Those TV preachers who promise their listeners that if they just sow a seed of faith then God will bless them, or even worse that if they send so much money their sins will be forgiven.

While Paul isn’t dealing with this same thing - but it’s the ugly sister of that theology.

What Paul is dealing with and correcting here is the idea faith is not enough, but that you can bring something to you salvation - or that you need to add something to your salvation. Either way we look at it both of the theologies I have described are a works righteousness that departs from the Biblical teaching of Justification by faith alone in Christ alone.

These errant theologies can be reduced to if they have faith + works they can earn salvation. (James works this out to demonstrate that saving faith is accompanied by good works, but not that good works complete saving faith.)

At the end of day, all of these theologies state that the blood of Jesus isn’t enough to save. Thus the theology that adds works to the gospel is one that hears Jesus saying “it is finished.” and responds with “Um… actually…”.

How arrogant do you have to be to think that what you can bring to your salvation is greater than what Jesus has already done?

And just in case anyone needs a refresh Galatians is Paul dealing with Judaizers wanting to force gentile who convert to Christianity to fulfil parts of the Jewish law (namely circumcision) in addition to faith in Christ.

Paul Applies the Gospel

v. 15-16

Paul begins here in verse 15 which sort of sounds like an insult in the ESV. But ultimately, Paul is demonstrating that he is not arguing for his own benefit but for the benefit of the gentiles. He’s defending someone else. To fill that out his entire argument is that even though he is a Jew by birth, having the law, and keeping is doesn’t bring him justification before God. Paul’s argument is that man is not justified by works of the law but by faith.

Though to be clear, the Jewish people were never saved by the law. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. But also they broke the law about 30 seconds after receiving it. And they continue to break the law. As does every human every time they sin.

“A person is not justified by works of the law.” You cannot earn salvation through works of the law will not work.

And yet every other major religion posits this idea. In short, if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds you will make it in. Yet the problem is that your works are not good enough.

The default perspective of most people in America, including many of those who are in churches somewhere this morning is that if I’m basically good enough then God will let me in. Which truth be told is a really raw deal if that were to be true - because I’m human just like the rest of you - and I know it doesn’t take that much to stop doing your best. And since God is perfect, he must demand a standard of perfection. But our standard for righteousness is too low.

Paul in this text is making a comparison. He is presenting two arguments for salvation. Though he immediately shows that the first is faulty.

The first is that there are those arguing that you can be saved by fulfilling the works of the law. This would be those Judaizers in the text saying that you need Jesus + keeping the law, Jesus + circumcision, Jesus + baptism to be saved.

Then Paul also presents another argument - the correct one - justification by faith in Christ alone. What Paul is demonstrating here though is that no one will be justified by keeping the law. But only though faith in Christ and his work on the cross.

But Paul’s argument is not his own, and it’s not a new argument either. Paul is drawing this argument from Psalm 143:2

Psalm 143:2 ESV

2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.

Now you might think “that looks nothing like what Paul says here.” and correct there is only a partial relation here, as well as Paul’s likely referring to the greek translation of the Psalm. Yet thematically, the Psalm matches what Paul is arguing here. No one is righteous before God - no one has earned their way to God by obedience to his word. (Paul makes the same argument, and quotes the same verse in Romans 3:20).

But before he continues Paul proceeds to provide some necessary qualifications.

Necessary Qualifications

And in a similar tone as in Romans 5-6,

Galatians 2:17 ESV

17 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!

As one might think that justification coming from Christ makes Christ a servant of sin Paul response with an interesting phrase.

Certainly not! or May it Never be!

I prefer to translate it as ABSOLUTELY NOT! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? Some liberty there. But it is an emphatic negative that Paul is using. He uses this construction several times in his letters. Frequently in Romans but also in chapter 3 of Galatians. He poses a question that someone might ask and then responds with this certainly not and then he continues teaching… Another example is:

Romans 6:1–2 ESV

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

In both Romans 6:1-2 and in Gal 2:17 Paul is responding to the idea that someone might suggest that there is something good about sin - if this makes Jesus a servant to sin we have it all wrong. Especially as that is a completely antithetical conclusion to the entirety of Scripture.

Yet we will find that we will continue to sin even after when we desire to please God, when we miss the point.

But if we try to outweigh that sin with more good works we misunderstand the gospel. Repent of your sins and pursue righteousness but seeking to further outweigh your bad with good only returns you to what was torn down.

Yet Paul continues to demonstrate that if he returns to what he has torn down. This is describing what he said of Peter before. Peter was content to live with the gentiles and eating with the gentiles - until those from James returned.

Paul Personalizes The Gospel

Take note in verses 19-21 how frequently Paul uses the 1st person. (10 times in those three verses.)

Paul in verse 19 makes a remarkable statement. I died to the law. Now Paul has already demonstrated that the law does not justify. And in Romans he celebrates that the law reveals his transgression - but he is no longer condemned by the law - so that he might live to God.

How is this so? Because he has been crucified with Christ.

Think of your Baptism. The incredible ordinance that we celebrate to identify with Christ, to proclaim of the gospel, and to be obedient to what the Lord commands. When we baptize, at least in a baptist church we confess that you were buried in the likeness of his death, and raised in the likeness of his resurrection. You have been crucified and buried with Jesus. You old self has been put to death, and in your new life in Christ you have been raised with him and he lives in you.

He lives in you…

Not like the Lion King… we are not saying that Jesus lives on in us in an esoteric, etherial, spiritual way - no, Jesus rose in the flesh and he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. But when we say that Christ lives in us - we are saying that Jesus rose from the dead IN THE FLESH, and we are united in his death - we have put our old self to death:

in Romans 6:6-7 Paul writes:

Romans 6:6–7 ESV

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.

In Colossians 2:13-14 Paul

Colossians 2:13–14 ESV

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

While this further adds to our legal language of justification above - it also draws upon the certificate of death issued to the old man. You were dead you sins and trespasses and Christ made you alive. Paul is asserting that he left that old man in the grave, and through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection he was brought to live.

But this also means that the life that Paul, and the Christian, lives now in their new life in Christ - is one that is centered on not pleasing themselves, or pleasing the flesh but rather focused on pleasing God and glorifying Christ. Not to earn anything but because it is what we now desire.

The final part of 2:20 is a beautiful confession for all of us to rest in. “the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me.” Paul after speaking of justification, and salvation now personally applies the gospel.

Often times we are too quick to read ourselves into passages of Scripture… and often times as the wrong person in Scripture…

The Son of God who Loved Me

The Son of God who gave himself for me

Paul in verses 19-21 applies these truths to himself. He makes the doctrines of the gospel personal. But they do not merely apply to Paul - they apply to everyone Christ. All those who have faith in Christ Jesus have been crucified with Christ. Christian - Jesus loves you. Jesus gave himself up for you.

Yet if you are not in Christ today, then you stand condemned before a Holy and Righteous judge. You cannot rest in the same beautiful truths. The works of the law here that Paul here says cannot save, do condemn. They show us how sinful we are, and they reveal to us our desperate need for a savior.

The conclusion of this chapter provides a strong condemnation for anyone who might seek to earn righteousness through works of the law. If righteousness is through the law then Christ died for nothing.

Galatians, if you can earn your salvation by keeping the dietary laws and by practicing circumcision then Christ died in vain.

If the Pope can offer forgiveness with the purchase of indulgences then Christ died in vain.

If our good deeds can earn our salvation then Christ died in vain.

If buying a prayer shawl from a TV preacher huckster can earn salvation then Christ died in vain.

But Christ did not die in vain. Christ died a meaningful death. We were dead in our trespasses and sins - dead people don’t work their way to salvation, dead people don’t do anything - but Christ in his sacrificial death - takes our punishment upon himself so that we might be raised to live with him.

What a glorious savior, and a glorious work of redemption. We often find ourselves inclined to want to be able to work for our salvation. If we could do something to earn it then we can know that we had accomplished it - but if it were all on us how could we ever believe that it was enough? How could we have faith that our actions were good enough?

And yet we don’t have to worry about that… because Jesus is enough. And Jesus has declared that it is finished.