Sermon: Crucified with Christ

If you would take a copy of God's word this morning, we're going to turn open to the Book of Galatians as we continue our way through that book. If you wanna use a Pew Bible, you can do so by turning to page 9 7 3 in the Pew Bible 9 7 3. This morning we're going to look at Galatians chapter two and verses 17 through 21 this morning,

Galatians two verses 17 through 21 this morning.

And Let's go ahead and let's pray. Uh, before we open God's word together.

Our Father, we are thankful this morning that your son is the great prophet of his people

and we pray that your son, the great prophet, would speak to us this morning

and we would hear his voice, a voice of instruction, a voice of truth, a voice that cannot lie.

And we pray that as that word goes forth, that our hearts would be fertile soil for that word as it is scattered. And so we pray that you and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit would work in each of us, would attend to this word as it goes out. So there is not a life here that can leave this room without knowing, truly knowing and being able to say, I have encountered the living God today and I have heard his voice.

It's in the strong name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

Galatians two verses 17 through 21. This is a holy er, sufficient word of God. 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 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor for through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I've 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 and the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, I do not nullify the grace of God for righteousness. Were through the law then Christ died for no purpose. Though the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let's remind ourselves of a little context here. If you remember last week as Paul had just relayed that he had confronted the apostle Peter and he was explaining that story to the church there in Galatia. Peter had the practice of eating with Gentiles, but then Judaizers came from the city of Jerusalem and Peter's practice stopped. These Judaizers would say that salvation or redemption required something more than simply grace

that is found in Christ grace alone through faith alone. And so Peter no longer ate with the Gentiles and he joined the cause of these judaizers. Maybe not by his words, but he did by his actions.

He was arguing that the works of the law were necessary for right standing before God or what we would call justification word that Paul uses in our text this morning. Just a reminder, the doctrine of justification, justification is a legal word. It comes from the courtroom and it speaks of the fact that we are declared before the tribunal of God as he sits as judge before the tribunal of God. As we stand in his courtroom, justification is that

declaration that we are righteous justification. With that as a context, I'm gonna answer three questions this morning. The first is this, where does the righteousness in our justification come from? Where does the righteousness and our justification come from? If we are declared righteous in the courtroom of God, if he says righteous, where does that righteousness come from?

I wanna look at three heirs to begin with because he begins with an heir in verse 17. It's a little confusing verse 17. But Paul making an argument against the first heir works righteousness. Your righteousness comes from works righteousness. That's an heir. You remember in Judaism, in Paul's day that the doctrine of redemption, salvation was that the righteousness of God could be obtained by observance to the law that's works righteousness.

In fact, the the multitude of the commandments in the law was seen by the nation of Israel and by Jews as this is our great blessing. The the, the more laws that we have, the the more means we have to to earn our salvation and to accrue works righteousness. Riter boss, a theologian tried to sum up this Jewish mindset. He said they saw it as quote, a powerful instrument of redemption. The law. This is just a couple of famous statements from rabbis,

famous rabbis in the history of Jerusalem, of of ju uh, Judaism when rabbis said this, God willed to allow Israel to earn merits and therefore he gave them much Torah and commandments as it is said, in order to give Israel merits. It pleased Yahweh to make the Torah big and strong, more laws, more opportunities to works righteousness and earn that righteousness Or from hello a, a famous Jewish religious leader who helped

to develop the mishna and the Talmud, which is the Jewish kind of oral tradition and teachings that was operative even at this time. He said this, where there is much flesh, there are many worms where there are many treasures, many cares where there are many women. Much superstition. Not exactly fair or correct, but neither is how he ends it. And where there is much law, there is much life. The law is the great blessing

of Israel is the mind of the Jew. We have the law.

And by the law we can have a righteousness before God. The more law the better because the more we have, the more life.

Paul is not of that mindset. He's very clear in verse 16 from last week, by works of the law, no one will be justified. And now in our verse verse 17, he makes a sound argument against works righteousness. Again, it's a little confusing. So I want your nose in your bibles as we try and figure out this verse together. I'm gonna walk through it. What, what does? Well, I mean where does our righteousness and justification come from?

Works Righteousness. No. And Paul's gonna make a strong argument here he begins. But if, but if now with an if statement, you could assume that it's either positive or negative. What he's about to argue here, positive or negative, false or true. Well it seems pretty clear to me he's assuming the if is true. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners. Which is true. We were found to be sinners.

If in seeking justification in Christ, we too. We too. Who's he talking about? Well we, he's speaking of himself, but he is not just speaking of himself, he's speaking of more than himself, right? We it's plural. Well who has he just mentioned? Well just in our previous passage of last week, he mentioned Peter and he mentioned Barnabas, we too, these men Peter Paul Barnabas, if we too were found to be sinners, now we gotta stop

'cause found is an important word. It's also a judicial term, just like justification is a judicial term, a legal term. One is found guilty or one is found innocent. So he, here's the argument. We were found guilty, sinful sinners. Here's the argument, Paul Peter Barnabas, they're good Jews. They were good Jews and they were found to be sinners though they were card carrying members of the Jewish law, secure Salvation Society.

Paul was the president for goodness sakes, he was Pharisee of Pharisees. And he's saying, listen, we too, we were found to be sinners before we came to Christ, before we endeavored to be justified in Christ. They weren't righteous when they embraced Christ.

If that wasn't true of Paul, who could it be true of?

Nothing in my hands. I bring simply to thy cross. I clinging naked, come to thee for dress.

Thus his conclusion, the law does not grant righteousness works. Righteousness is not the answer to our question. But what's interesting is that Paul was being accused of being a sinner by abandoning the law. The judaizers were saying by simply clinging to Christ alone. Paul, you you're you're in sin because God gave us the law and the fact that you're not going to the law, you are a sinner. You abandon the law. And Paul's argument is, we were sinners by trying

to observe the law and earn our justification before God. We too were found to be sinners. And then he, he takes it a step further. He doubles down to show that the accusation is untrue. He asks, is Christ then a servant of sin where we might say it this way? Is Christ promoting sin? Because Christ spoke about coming to himself? He pointed to himself, he says that this is what the gospel is. And Paul is saying, listen, if if Christ, by pointing us

to himself, if he is pointing us away from the law, then Christ is leading us into sin. If going abandoning the law and just going to Christ, he's promoting sin. Are you saying Christ is promoting sin?

Paul is a very strong answer to that. May it never be.

That's not a possibility. Sin is opposed to Christ. And Christ is opposed to sin. They're not allies, they're not friends, they're not even polite with one another. Christ came to conquer sin. If clinging to Christ for our justification apart from the law is sin, then Christ is in cahoots with sin. May it never be who would say such a thing?

Verse 17 answers our question clearly we are not declared righteous before God because we've done enough good works to be declared righteous before God. And then look at Paul's great argument to close out our text in verse 21. If righteousness worth through the law, then Christ died for no purpose works righteousness. Paul is arguing. It makes a mockery of the cross to God and to Paul works righteousness. It isn't a silly endeavor,

it's an offensive endeavor

'cause you make a mockery of the cross.

We're not declared righteous because of our works. Let's address the second heir and I'm gonna address the second and third though they're not in this text, but they're important for you to understand. And I think you'll see as we get through this sermon this morning and we go through the rest of the passage. But let me address the second heir to the question of where does the righteousness in our justification come from?

The second error is that there really is no righteousness in our justification. It's just a, it's a a legal fiction. That is that when a person stands before God in his courtroom and he is there as judge that he looks upon us and he just kind of mystically or magically waves his hand and he just says, ah, righteous.

But God cannot lie and just as significant as the fact that he must uphold righteousness, he must judge justly or he himself is not righteous. So it's not simply that the charges against us are are thrown out and we are pardoned. There's no legal fiction here.

The third heir that we must address is neither are we declared righteous in our justification because we have become righteous.

And by God's grace, if you're a Christian, you be growing in grace, in growing in Christ, growing in righteousness. But this is the heir in Roman Catholic teaching. The official teaching of the Roman church is that grace is poured out upon you in the waters of baptism upon an individual in the waters of baptism. And that grace comes into their soul. It's what we would say it is infused that grace is infused into the soul.

And then as that person cooperates with that grace and puts to death sin and grows in righteousness, they become increasingly righteousness, righteous, and they become righteous. And in the words of the official Roman Catholic catechism, it says there is a renewal of the inward man. Now that's true. When you come to saving faith in Christ, there is a renewal of the inward man.

But in the Roman system it is that which leads you being declared righteous before the throne of God.

It's one's own righteousness that supposedly makes one righteous before the throne of God. We might define this as justification through sanctification. Listen, sanctification is incredibly important. We're gonna walk through that some in the weeks ahead. We are to grow in graze, but our justification brings about our sanctification, our justification is not our sanctification.

So many fall into this air and it isn't just in the Roman church, it's in churches all over the place. And there's not a doubt in my mind that it's in this room, in this church.

God's spars from the air of justification being swallowed up in sanctification.

Some of you're living there, you have this weight and you have an incredible guilt that is on your shoulders. You, you wonder, are you good enough today? Were you good enough this week? Were you good enough this past year?

So you struggle with assurance of salvation because you wonder if you've done a good, good enough job.

That's no gospel. Our justification is not swallowed up by our sanctification. Now, when you are justified, you are sanctified, you grow in sanctification.

But our justification is not swallowed up in sanctification

if it's not by our works. If it's not a legal fiction, if it's not by sanctification, where does the righteousness in our justification come from? Not by works, not through a lie, not infused. Well then from where the answer's in verse 17, they were justified in Christ. And how are they in Christ? Look down to verse 20. By faith they were justified in Christ by faith in Christ. It's locational, it's positional. That's why Paul keeps returning over

and over as we've seen week after week. He just keeps returning to Christ because it's only in Christ that one can be justified.

And you are only in Christ by faith.

When when we're in Christ by faith, we're clothed with his righteousness.

It's imputed to us his perfect living in this life and his right standing before God. Paul will say it this way in Philippians three, nine, it, it is not a righteousness of my own. Rather, he says it comes from God on the basis of faith or as he says in two Corinthians 5 21. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God in him. Same language as as here in our passage in him.

The righteousness we are adorned with before the tribunal of God is in no way ours. It's what theologians will call an alien. Righteousness. It's a foreign righteousness. It's somebody else's. It's completely outside of us. And then it's imputed to us.

It's outside of us, it's another's. And yet now it's ours

because we're in Christ by faith. Christ's righteousness is, is ours.

Think of a maybe a mother with a small boy and it's a rainy day and she's got a long rain coat that she's covered from head to toe and the rain is coming down and it is pouring. And she grabs that baby boy of hers and she brings him to her bosom and puts her coat around him.

And her covering has been, hi come his covering,

he is hid in her, he's clothed with her and he's safe and he's sound,

you know, dear Christian, when the, when the father looks at you, he, he always sees you clothed in the righteousness of his son. That's how he sees you clothed in the righteousness of his son.

Maybe another illustration, it's not a good one, just like the last one, but I was thinking this morning,

you know, have you ever met anyone, been around someone that you just say, oh, that person is so annoying and they annoy me and yet their spouse, they will say something that isn't funny at all and their spouse will just laugh like it was the funniest thing ever. They will make some comment that is crude and they will think, oh, that was the wisest thing anybody has said. You go, what? What is wrong with that spouse?

That that they're looking through the lens of love, that they see them through the lens of love and you see them through the lens of annoyance.

God sees you in Christ

maybe even better and much better. Listen to the Heidelberg catechism question. Answer 60, how are thou righteous before God? Here's the answer. Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ. So that though my conscience accused me that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God and kept none of them and am still inclined to all evil, notwithstanding God without any merit of mind, but only of mere grace grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction,

righteousness and holiness of Christ. Even so as if I never had had nor committed any sin. Yay. As if I had fully accomplished all that obedience, which Christ has accomplished for me.

And as much as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart, where does the righteousness for justification come from Christ?

Our second much shorter question.

What does it look like to now be in Christ? In Christ? Paul highlights two things. New life and new life lived for Christ. When we find ourselves justified in Christ, it's accompanied by new life in Christ. Paul Admonishes, his accusers, accusers in verse 18. Now that he's a Christian, now that he has found salvation in Christ by faith. If he were to return to the law by promoting it as a means of salvation, he would be returning back to

that which he had torn down. And he's saying by doing so he would be sinning. They are accusing Paul of sinning by abandoning the law. They're saying you're transgressing the law. Paul, you are sinning. He's saying, no, no, no, no. To return to the law would be sin. Why? Because verse 19, he died to the law. He died to its power. He died to its dominion over him. How? Verse 20. By being crucified with Christ, the old Paul died.

That soul of Tarsus is dead. He's a new creation. The old is gone. The new has come in coming to Christ. Paul is not simply that Paul that has a new right standing before God. He's also a new man.

And so for him to act like the old Saul of Tarsus and go back to what he was would be folly, he, he died with Christ. His old person was crucified with Christ.

I hope you understand that. If you're a Christian, that old you, that's dead, that old you, that's gone,

he don't return to those things.

He says, it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Christ has taken up residence in Paul and every Christian, this is the case. And Paul will sometimes speak about the Holy Spirit taking up a residence in us. And sometimes he will speak about Christ taking up residence. Is it the spirit or is it Christ that dwells in us? Yes, by the Spirit Christ dwells in us. In Christ the spirit dwells in us. Notice we're not only in Christ,

but Christ is in us new life.

What does he mean? I no longer live. It's not that Paul disappeared or that he became inconsequential. No, he says in the life I now live in the flesh He he lives it. He lives it. He, he lives it in his person, his bodily flesh. That's why he mentions his flesh and that life He now lives. He says He lives by faith in the son of God. Paul is making it clear his priorities have changed even as his position has changed, even as his person has changed.

Hi, his way of living changed it it it's completely different. And what is the great difference? He surrendered himself.

His life is no longer about him. It's not about Paul. He's not his own. He's been crucified and now it's Christ who lives in him and he lives by faith in the Son of God. For the son of God. It's about him now.

Does it look like now to be in Christ new life and then new life, live to Christ. For Christ and to Christ. Christ becomes the great pursuit. He becomes the great passion for those who are new creation in him. Why? Why? Well, because he's a new man. But it's not simply because he is new. It's what I think is one of the greatest clauses in all of the scriptures is there In verse 20, he says, he lives by faith in the son of God

who loved me and gave himself for me. And once that switches flipped in the head and the heart and the souling changes,

I live by faith in the son of God. Paul says, ah, let me tell you about him. The son of God who is the son of God. He's the one who loved me

and gave himself for me.

He loved me. That sappy sentiment we call love. This love is throbbing action in the greatest measure he gave himself for me

and Paul in this passage, there's so many eyes and me and and my this. This is Paul's marching song. Why He now lives to and for Christ. That refrain that keeps going through his head over and over and over is He loves me and he gave himself for me. That's the refrain.

Is that the refrain in your head

or you're trying to find your justification in work's righteousness.

Keep trying to do better thinking that we'll earn God's favor and you keep feeling like a failure. And you know why? Because you are a failure justification. You'll always be a failure in justification.

Or maybe you believe that God will simply justify you as a legal fiction. He'll just dismiss the charges. People will say all the time, my God would not send anybody to hell.

Well, if your God is not the God of the Bible, then your God is not God. And the God of the Bible sends people to hell.

He must uphold righteousness. He must uphold justice. He must uphold holiness. Or he denies who he is and he can't. There are no legal fictions.

Or maybe you believe infused grace comes into you and your growth and grace will justify you. So you are very busy about religious things, wondering if today was enough and you feel the weight, your your justification, it's always in jeopardy. You find no security in Christ, no true lasting peace with God because you have no real gospel. That is not a real gospel.

Hope. Preach to different answer to the question from where does our righteousness and justification come?

Paul's answer is, it's in him. It's in him that we have justification by faith in him, the one who loved me, the one who gave himself for me,

that parable of the, the lost sheep.

It is, uh, it strikes a lot of people as odd shepherd. He, he's got a hundred sheep and he is got 99 and one wanders off and he goes chasing after the one said, that's just bad math. What's wrong with this shepherd? Does his mama not teach him when he was a little boy? You don't. You'll go one, leave 99 to get one.

But every Christian knows Paul knows I'm the one.

I'm the one he loved me and gave himself for me and John's gospel. John will refer to himself throughout the gospel as the one whom Jesus loved.

Say what John? That seems pretty haughty are, are you being proud saying that you think that Jesus loved you more than he loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus and the other disciples? I don't. It's not pride, it's amazement.

I'm the one Jesus loved. He loved me and he gave himself for me.

I wonder if you can sing that to yourself, if that's the refrain going over in your head over and over. He loves me. He gave himself for me

that song. Jesus loves Me.

It is a song that we kinda squint at and it's sad. We consider it a children's song. We're we're too sophisticated adults as adults for something that simple. But the Gospel's simple. Just like that song and all this finding a different way for righteousness. It's sophisticated. Piling up the works takes quite a lot of effort. Illegal fiction takes quite a bit of gymnastics and argumentation. Righteousness by infusion of grace requires a lot

of religious systems. But righteousness given simply received by faith in Christ, that simple by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, that simple. That's the gospel. Jesus loves me and gave himself for me.

Can you sing it to yourself? Can you sing it to yourself?

Do you sing it to yourself?

Jesus loves me. This I know before the Bible tells me so little ones. Your little ones to him belong. They are weak. Your works aren't gonna do it. Ah, but he's strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Bible tells me. So that refrains to be going through your head all the time. Christian, you gotta keep singing that and tell yourself that because oh, you forget it. Jesus loves me

instead of a prayer of application. How about we sing a prayer of application together, sing Jesus loves me. This

He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus us loves me

means so I'll believe that truth. Christian.