It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me

Introduction

Do you guys want to hear about one of the biggest mistakes I made as a doctor? Tell Jehovah’s witness blood transfusion story.

Now do you guys know much about Jehovah’s witnesses? You know the guys who walk around, knocking on people’s doors, handing out these little fliers saying ‘you’re going to go to hell if you don’t believe’? Well, if you didn’t know already, Jehovah’s witnesses are not real Christians, and I would even call them a cult.

And what is particularly sad about Jehovah’s witnesses, is that they have a lot of rules and laws they have to follow in their religion. And these rules are a matter of life and death for them, because they have this strange interpretation of the Bible, and they genuinely believe only 144,000 people specifically can actually go to heaven. So they are essentially competing for a spot in heaven, which is why you see them work so hard in evangelism going door-to-door. There is a lot of pressure on them in their every-day life to prove themselves, by their good works, they reject blood transfusions even in life-threatening situations, they don’t celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Easter, national holidays, and if a believer don’t follow the teachings then they can be completely cut off from their family and friends and become really socially isolated.

And the reality is most other religions are like this. Just like Jehovah’s witnesses, you have to ‘work your way up to God’, you have to somehow work really hard and earn your right to be good before God and enter into heaven.

So what freedom we have in the Christian gospel. Our salvation, and status as children of God, and going to heaven, doesn’t depend on whatever good we can do. Christ has achieved it for us. So why would we want to turn to any other inferior form of religion? Why would we want to go back to anything that goes back to our works, and trying to earn our way to God?

This is exactly the trap Peter falls into in the passage today, and Paul tells Peter off and corrects him. And as Paul corrects Peter, Paul beautifully tells us very clearly, exactly what the gospel is, and what that means for our lives.

Read Galatians 2:11-21.

1. Peter’s Mistake

So what was the mistake that Peter made? Normally in Jewish custom, Jews and non-Jews (Gentiles), would be completely separated, because by Jewish law, they were required to be kept separate because they considered non-Jewish people ‘unclean’. But with the coming of Christ, Christ removed the need for these laws of separation, and Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians could free spend time together and eat together. And it was the same for Peter and other Jewish Christians - they saw the freedom Christ gave them from the law, and they would eat with non-Jewish people.

But then if we read verses 11-14, we see that Peter gets pressured by some people who come from Jerusalem, as they tell Peter that they have to go back to Jewish law. And rather than resisting their pressure, Peter caves into them. And Peter gives up the freedom he had in Christ, and goes back to the Jewish law, and stops hanging out with the Gentile people. And not only did he stop fellowship with the Gentiles, it seems that Peter and friends were actually telling the Gentiles that they also have to follow Jewish laws and customs, even things like circumcision.

And hearing this, Paul is furious and calls Peter out. let’s read Galatians 2:14 “14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?””

Paul essentially calls out Peter for hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is where you believe one thing, but you act in a different way. Even though Peter believed that he was now free from the law because of Jesus Christ, he was now a hypocrite, because the way he lived didn’t reflect his beliefs, as he was telling the Gentiles they needed to go back to the Jewish law.

And hipocrisy is something we need to watch out for in our lives as well, because this is one of the biggest things that the world accuses Christians of, and stops them from believing. They see the Christians say they believe one thing, but they act in a completely different way.

But what Paul is concerned about is even more than just Peter’s hypocrisy. What Paul was really concerned about was the truth of the gospel. By Peter acting hypocritically, he was putting the truth of the gospel at risk. The gospel is that we are saved by Jesus Christ alone; but Peter’s actions were showing another thing, that faith in Jesus Christ is not enough, and you need to add something on top of it, like following Jewish law.

So we see that the gospel is spread not only through spoken words; we don’t just communicate the gospel to others by telling them. The gospel is communicated to others by our actions as well. And this is why Paul was so angry with Peter’s actions, because his actions were not communicating the true gospel. The way we communicate the gospel to others, is not just words, but also how we live, so this is exactly why how we live is so important. We always need to make sure that our outward actions are aligning withour inward beliefs, not only for our own lives, but for the sake of others.

2. Paul’s response #1: Go back to the gospel!

So after seeing Peter’s hypocritical actions putting the gospel at risk, Paul goes back to what the gospel is!

Read Galatians 2:16 “16 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 Christ Jesus, in order 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.”

Paul just goes back to the basics! He just goes back to the key message of the gospel, the key message of the Christian faith which is this: we are saved by faith in Christ alone, and not by anything we do. We can’t add anything to God’s work of saving us.

Paul in this verse shows us two pathways humans can take:

We can try to be saved by ‘works of the law’, which means by our own efforts and works, or

We can be saved by faith in Jesus Christ, which means we trust in Christ’s works, not ours.

And then Paul shows the impossibility of being saved by our own efforts because he then says ‘because by works of the law no one will be justified’. He’s saying that being saved by our own efforts and works is IMPOSSIBLE. The only way is believing in Jesus Christ!

This is a really important message to remember. Because this message seems simple enough because you guys hear it all the time. But when you go out in the world, people will attack you for this message. This is the message that people find offensive, stupid, foolish. And the reason is because the gospel is saying to people ‘you are sinners, you are not good enough, you are evil’. Who wants to hear that? Most people think they are good. And when they are told they are sinners, they have a knee-jerk reaction of being defensive, angry. But the truth is, no matter how ‘good’ someone is, they are still sinners, there is still evil in all of us, and no amount of ‘good’ that we do will save us. And the good news is, all we have to do is believe and trust in the perfect work that Christ has already done for us! No more trying desperately like Jehovah’s witnesses and other religions trying to get back to God; Christ has already achieved that for us and all we have to do is believe. That is why it is so important to tell others to believe in Jesus Christ, not just through words but through our actions as well, because that is the only way to be saved.

3. Paul’s response #2: Christ lives in me!

But it’s not just getting saved by believing in Christ that Paul talks about. Paul talks about another aspect of the gospel that we don’t talk that much about at church actually. The gospel is not just a matter of being right with God and being saved, but what kind of life that saving should lead to.

Read Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This verse is talking about how when God saves us, it should actually change our lives, the very way we live.

Because of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, he has freed us from the requirements from many of the laws of the OT. But it shouldn’t stop there. It’s meant to lead to something. And that is now a life where we no longer live for ourselves, but we now live for God.

And the way God achieves this is by uniting us with Christ. Look at his langauge - ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ and ‘Christ lives in me’. When God saves us, God unites us with Christ so that what happened to Christ also happens to us: Christ died on the cross, so our old sinful lives also die on the cross with him. And just as Christ is resurrected into a new life, we are also resurrected into a new life.

And that new life is a life that is lived for God, which was something that was completely impossible for our old selves, but is now possible because Christ lives in me. And it’s only possible by faith in Jesus Christ - the same faith that saves you and lets us go to heaven, is the same faith that has the power to change our lives, by crucifying our old sinful selves, and empowering us by the Holy Spirit so that it is Christ who lives in us now and produces a radical change so that we are now able to actually live a good and righteous life for God.

Conclusion

So the gospel is not just about the question of ‘how do I get right with God?’ ‘how do I go to heaven?’

The gospel is not just about saving you, but actually producing change in your life. What Paul is describing here is a radical change, a radical break from the old life, to a radical new life that Christ gives us (ie, Paul’s own life experience - Damascus Road). The same faith Jesus Christ that saves you and lets you go to heaven, should completely change your life. Paul is actually talking about us becoming a new creation - that is how radical this change is. By faith in Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, God changes us so that we are no longer in the driver seat of our lives, but it is Christ, to empowers us, and directs, and controls our lives. When we become Christians, because we are living in this body and on the physical outward level we may not notice a difference, there is a radical inward change, a new birth, a new creation, where we are spiritually united with Christ, our old self dies on the cross with Christ, and we are raised to new life just like Christ’s resurrection. It is actually a miraculous, supernatural change! Our thinking, our direction, our goals, our desires, our emotions, our hearts - everything changes, and the goal and direction of all that we are, now becomes God, no longer ourselves. That change may not be instantaneous, and it may happen gradually over your life, but there should be a definite before and after.

(No time to talk about following unfortunately:

‘orthopodeo’ - we need to walk in step with the gospel (literally means ‘walking in a straight line’). If we don’t, we are hypocrites, actually twisting the gospel message we present to the world like Peter. Being able to ‘walk straight’ depends on union with Christ, becoming a new creation. So part of the Christian life is to bring everything in our lives ‘in line’ with the direction of the gospel. We need to bring everything in our lives - our thinking, feeling, and behaviour - in line. So Christian living is therefore a continual realignment process - one of bringing everything in line with the truth of the gospel. - Timothy Keller, ‘Galatians For You’.

the parallel of when Jesus describes the gospel of ‘believe and repent’ - the gospel is not just believing (cf. James 2:19), but there needs to be repentance, a change in the direction in your life. This is what this passage in Galatians is also talking about - the gospel is not just believing and being saved, but the same faith that saves you, also brings about a new creation in you such that the very way you live your life changes. And the way you live your life is important because as we saw in Peter, a hypocritical life can obscure and twist the gospel.

‘who loved me and gave himself for me’ - see Harmon commentary.

tension between ‘no longer i who live, but Christ who lives in me’ vs. ‘life I now live in the flesh’ - we are not passive puppets just sitting back doing nothing with no active engagement; at the same time, we live by Christ’s power. Similar to Philippians 2:12-13 tension.

verse 21.)

So remember, how we actually live is so important to the Christian life. The gospel is not just about being saved, but its also about the complete transformation that saving brings. How we live should actually change, and our actions and works are actually important - not because they save us, but because not only do our wrong actions twist the gospel message for those around us, but the very way we act should reflect the radical change that has occurred inside of us.

Discussion questions

Do you think the way we behave and live around our family and friends line up with our faith? Are there any ways we might be hypocrites? What are some examples?

Before today, did I think that the gospel is just about how to be saved? After today, how will the gospel change how I live on a day-to-day level? What are some specific things I can change this week?