No Longer I 16th Sept Galatians 4
No Longer I 16th Sept Galatians 4
We are no longer under law – but Grace. Grace that is in Jesus Christ alone – we are declared righteous – as though we have never sinned. – Entirely and only by faith in Jesus Christ – justified by faith – we must not add anything to this gospel!! – for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. I was asked – the 10 commandments still apply don’t they?? – Yes! Grace is not a license to sin – sin is not freedom it is bondage – and grace sets us free – stay with me ---
Ga 2:17“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!
When a person is declared right with God through faith in Christ (justified) – it is much more than simply the subtraction of our sins or forgiveness it is also the addition of Christ’s righteousness.
Is 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
Even our attempts at righteousness are filthy – but when we are justified by faith in Christ – we receive His righteousness as though it were our own! – As Gentiles we don’t even think about this, because of the grace we’ve received, the gift of faith. – We just go boldly into the throne room – and in the joy of forgiveness and the fresh knowledge of the indwelling Spirit we rush into the Presence of God --- we don’t have to abandon, or even consider the law we have never known.
But the Jews seemed to think that if they had to give up the law to be justified by Christ – in giving up the law, they became like the Gentiles whom they considered to be sinners. It is an interesting thing but if we don’t think we are sinners, we don’t need to be saved! – I had a very interesting conversation with a man on Friday who had no concept at all of sin and death or heaven and hell – and so to him all religions had some good things – but he needed none himself!
What the Jews were arguing with Paul was -- in giving up the law to become like the Gentiles and be justified, they were becoming like sinners – and therefore is Christ a minister of sin. Does Jesus prefer sinners over Law abiding Jews!! – God forbid!! Was Paul’s response. We are all, Jews and Gentiles alike, sinners by nature!
Ga 2:18-19For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
If after being justified by faith alone – I then submit myself again to the law, the very thing I have escaped from – I make myself a transgressor because I cannot keep the law never could, never will be able to -- -But when Jesus died, when He was crucified – He died in my place, He took my punishment for being a law-breaker – the punishment for breaking the law is death –
Ro 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Ro 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Under the law – the legal system of God, brought through Moses, everyone who could not keep the law was condemned to death. That is why God put in place the sacrificial system and the mercy seat – so that the nation of Israel – and the individuals, could find forgiveness of law-breaking or sin!! The law uncovers sin and declares all of us guilty – the law condemns us. The law actually kills us. – So if I am dead to the law I am no longer responsible to that law ---
In a sense I am therefore dead and the law no longer has any influence over me. The law could not do for me what Christ has done for me! He took my place of death, my deserved punishment He died my death – then He rose from that death and gave me something else – He gave me life! – The law cannot give life it is the ministry of death – it accuses, condemns and sentences us.
Ga 2:20 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 have been crucified with Christ – when He died in my place – when He took my death – it was as if I had been crucified myself – it is just as if I hung there and my life left me! When He died my death for sin it was fully accomplished – it is finished!! I have been crucified with Christ. I am now dead to sin and the law. The price is paid! – I am not still in the process of dying, I am not waiting for death, or dying to self, or waiting for someone to crucify me. I am crucified!!
One of the great dangers we have in seeking for revival is that we have an attitude of “waiting” – of things always being about to come, future – prophetic – and I think we can slip into this thinking about being crucified – I will die, I am dying, I will be put to death – but we are already crucified!!
2 Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We are dead to the law, the old man and the old way of thinking – we are already crucified – the I has died – it is no longer I – by faith, we receive Him, it is Christ in us – this is the hope of glory – not that I may be glorified, but that Christ might live in my heart by faith!! By faith it is done, complete from that moment I believed. – Can you remember that love that awakened – that first love, that glory in your heart – that joy!
Like me I’m sure you didn’t understand, there was no intellectual assent – for most of us it was simply “I am born again” – Grace whispered faith into your heart – you believed – that was not of yourself it was a gift straight from God – before you knew it, you were crucified with Christ – not by works or knowledge – but by faith and because it is already done and complete before you ever even received that grace! – How simple it all was at the beginning – how complex we make it!!
Because I am crucified – then I can no longer be alive unless I am raised from the dead – but it was Christ who died and it was Christ who was raised up – therefore it is no longer I but Christ who lives in me – this life I am living is a resurrected life! It is the Christ life –
Col 3:1-3 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
These are the most marvellous things to contemplate – and this is the W.O.G. but as it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me – then this life that I live now in the flesh – I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. – So the faith that this life now lives is not directed at a God who is distant and stands brandishing the law – it is not directed even at a Christ removed and seated in heavenly places without me!
This faith is in the indwelling Christ in me – personal, present, close, real! – the Spirit of Christ in me – God with me – Emmanuel!! –
1 Jn 2:27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
Christ in us – the Spirit of Jesus in us, guiding us into all truth, leading us, showing us things to come – How often we live this life looking out, waiting still to die – waiting for yet another baptism, another infilling, -- I am so challenged by this myself – waiting for another Pentecost – yet Christ is in us – this life we are living we are living by faith in Him – the abiding Christ. Our faith is in Him and He is in us! --- Yet we live an external type of faith.
Nothing is impossible to Him and He is in us!!! He gave Himself for me, in love, and by love, and for love – and He sheds that love abroad in our hearts – by faith! But it is there – in us, in our hearts – indwelling!! God is Love and Christ is God and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God’s love in us! And we have not earned this, deserved this, in fact we deserved the death we died by faith in Christ – or that He died for us!! – And all of this by GRACE – we didn’t even ask for it!!
Ga 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
It is all by faith through Grace – and if this is not the truth – if we could be righteous before God by the law then Christ died in vain!! – If it’s all by the law, then what need of the Spirit of Christ – what need of Pentecost, what need of crucifixion?? If this is not the truth then our religion is empty and foolish and we are deceived – yet if it is true then we must accept this and embrace it as never before – Christ in us the hope of glory – His glory! and the Honour of God’s Name!!
This is one of the greatest spiritual battles for all of us – it was for the Galatians – once the law is reintroduced – faith is eroded – it is robbed from us – for most of us it is far easier to live by the law than by faith – rules and regulations and systems make us comfortable and in some ways remove responsibility from us back to God – that denies the wonder of Grace – we are never freed to sin again – but rather with Christ in us and knowing the Spirit – we obey God through love!
The Spirit guiding us into all truth, correcting, teaching us to discern -- This life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who dwells in me, faith in the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ in me. That faith is in His indwelling, His enabling, His being, His Holiness, His Majesty, His Person! Him in me. -- This faith, if it is genuine, demands to live by grace, it demands we live by Holiness we live in the righteousness of Christ, we live boldly, praying believing, for it is no longer I
So there is a battle that rages constantly – because we still live in the world and we still inhabit this body that is fallen and yet to be redeemed – this body that one day will be renewed into the image of Him - So I understand more and more the body! This body of death wars against the Spirit. The things I would not do, I do, because the body wants its own satisfaction, the fallen nature fights against Christ in us. So we have this battle in our minds - much larger than we may have realized.
2 Co 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
This is Paul’s description of his apostolic authority over these battles of the mind – how he fought against everything that would deny this faith by Grace. – Because although Christ is in us – we still have to walk in this physical body – we live in it day by day – but it is not from this physical, carnal, unspiritual perspective that we wage the battle against us and Christ – for our weapons are mighty in God – in the indwelling Christ!! We have a power residing in us that is able to defeat all else!!
No longer I but Christ in me, fighting the battle of the mind – pulling down from the head, the mind, the strongholds – the fortresses we have erected that rise up against God – this is an internal battle – the flesh warring against the Spirit – raging in our minds and hearts – why should I forgive? -- Why should I overlook that attitude? – Why should I excuse that person for doing that?
I will not do that! --- The W.O. G. Says and so I’ll enforce the law!!
No one tells me what to do! -- Who do they think they are? – I am absolutely within my rights! They are in the wrong, they will not listen to me, they never make an effort!! --- Fortresses of self justification that revert to the law!! A legal argument to justify a wrong attitude that Christ in me would not accept, think or enforce!! These arguments of the mind, actually exalting themselves over the knowledge of God --- who is in you! This battle rages – in some of you it is raging right now – but there is a weapon we must learn to use – a very powerful weapon that no one in the world has! We can pull these arguments down and bring them into captivity – that is, break the power of the carnal fleshly dead self – and submit to the obedience of Christ. – Bring them captive to the W.O.G. – by grace – not breaking the laws of forgiveness and bitterness or wrath
We don’t escape the law – Jesus said He came to fulfil it and that not one jot or tittle will pass away – but we don’t live by it, we live by Grace and mercy and love – but it is in Christ – bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ ---
Heb 5:7-8 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
This is the obedience of Christ -- going to the cross suffering, taking our punishment bearing the sin and sickness and pain for humankind, the obedience of Christ was to die in our place we must bring every thought captive to this obedience. Who thought it not robbery to be equal with God and yet made himself into the likeness of man. Where the flesh is glorified, and humanity is exalted over Christ, that cannot be the Spirit of God but some other spirit at least the human spirit.