Wow. And all the young people here in the front row.
I have to admit, I miss Stephen and Dora being right there, because they are a good barometer for speakers. When you look out, if Dora is nodding and Stephen is nodding—in two different senses—you are in a good place.
If you see Stephen grab his Bible and rustle through it while you are speaking, you get a little nervous. You know that corrective ministry is coming.
Anyway, today we are going to do an introduction into what is on my heart, and more or less touch on the major piece of what is on my heart another time. I guess, God willing, maybe that will be next week. I do not know.
But let us just begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we do want to commit this time into Your hands. We do thank You that You are the bread of life that came down out of heaven. You are the One who sustains us by Your life, for apart from You, Lord, truly we can do nothing.
Truly, our time will just be a waste apart from You blessing us to be able to speak and to hear. Lord, we commit Your Word into Your hands, Lord, to do with it as You will. We just pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Wow, that sounded like my cell phone.
Let me begin by asking a question. Now, those of you who know what I am going to speak on, you are obviously going to know this answer real easy. And those of you who know your Bibles pretty well, you are going to know the answer too.
But can you think of one verse in the Bible that best states how the Christian life is really to be lived? One verse in the Bible that best states how the Christian life is really to be lived?
I think one would be hard-pressed to come up with another verse other than Galatians 2:20. I think most of us here in this room could quote it. You know, it reads:
I have been crucified with Christ;
and 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 up for me.
What other verse captures the simplicity and yet profoundness of the authentic Christian life than this one? You know, Paul expresses in this verse not only the way, but the motive in which the Christian life is to be lived.
But I want you to note where this verse is found in this letter to the Galatians. You know, there are those who like to slice and dice the books of the Bible into outlines, and they say that this letter, the letter to the Galatians, is best divided into three sections.
The first section is from Galatians 1:1 through Galatians 2:21, and they have entitled it “The Defense of the Gospel of Grace.”
The second section is from Galatians 3:1 through Galatians 4:31, and it has been entitled “The Gospel of Grace Explained.”
And lastly, the third section is from Galatians 5:1 through the end of the book, which is Galatians 6:18. They have entitled that “The Gospel of Grace Applied.”
Now, we find Galatians 2:20 in the first section of this outline. We do not find this verse under the second section, which is the gospel explained—or, in other words, that section of the letter that we would call the doctrinal part of the letter.
But we find it in this first section, where Paul is presenting his credentials as an apostle of Jesus Christ. You know, the Galatian believers had fallen into error, and in order to confront the error, he needed to state the grounds of authority to do so.
So he starts by authenticating his apostleship of the gospel of grace by saying he had received it from Jesus Christ and God the Father. We see that in Galatians 1:1.
Then, by the confirmation of his apostleship to the Gentiles by James, Peter, and John, we see that in Galatians 2:9. And lastly, as one who is on equal footing with the other apostles, showing his authority in defending the gospel of grace, we find that in Galatians 2:14-21.
Now again, we might think it is strange that Galatians 2:20 should fall under this first section and not under the section we would deem the doctrinal part of the letter. Why is that?
It is because Paul had authenticated this truth in his own personal life. It was not just a doctrinal truth to him, but he had experienced it in reality, which in turn equipped him to be able to teach it.
Paul said in Galatians 1:15-16:
But when God, who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb,
and called me through His grace,
was pleased to reveal His Son in me
so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
Note the order here: number one, reveal His Son in me; and then number two, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
Galatians 2:20 speaks of Paul’s personal experience of the gospel he preached. Paul is not just presenting spiritual truth, but truth he has entered into.
You know, no authentic salesman would try to sell any product that they have not first truly been sold on. Unfortunately, we see many that do that in this world.
Now, we want to touch on this verse, but in doing so, we need to approach it in its context, where it is found. We have already mentioned that this letter has been broken down into three sections, and we find the context of Galatians 2:20 falls into the latter part of the first section, which has been called the defense of the gospel of grace.
Specifically, it is the part where Paul is authenticating his apostleship. We see this in Galatians 2:11-21. So what we want to do is read these verses and refamiliarize ourselves with the story which leads up to verse 20.
So, beginning in Galatians 2:11, we are going to read all the way through verse 21.
But when Cephas came to Antioch,
I opposed him to the face, because he stood condemned.For prior to the coming of certain men from James,
he used to eat with the Gentiles;
but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof,
fearing the party of the circumcision.The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy,
with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel,
I said to Cephas in the presence of all,
“If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews,
how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;
nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law
but through faith in Christ Jesus,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
so that we may be justified by faith in Christ
and not by the works of the law;
since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ,
we ourselves have also been found sinners,
is Christ then a minister of sin?
May it never be!For if I rebuild what I once have destroyed,
I prove myself to be a transgressor.For through the law I died to the law,
so that I might live to God.I have been crucified with Christ;
and 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 up for me.I do not nullify the grace of God;
for if righteousness comes through the law,
then Christ died needlessly.
Now, this little section we just read can be broken down into two parts. First, we see Peter’s hypocrisy and the reaction to it in Galatians 2:11-13. Then second, we see Paul’s response to Peter’s hypocrisy in Galatians 2:14-21.
Now, regarding this second section of Paul’s response to Peter’s hypocrisy, there is some difference of opinion as to whether Paul spoke this whole discourse from verse 14 through verse 21 before Peter and the rest, or whether verses 15 through 21 were merely added in this letter for the sake of the Galatian readers.
My leaning is that Paul spoke all this discourse before them. He needed not only to point out the error, but to give an explanation of why it was an error.
Now, let us look at this first section that we find in Galatians 2:11-13. It begins in verse 11: “But when Cephas,” or Peter, “came to Antioch.”
You know, Peter’s coming to Antioch is sometime later, after Paul and Barnabas’s journey to Jerusalem, which is spoken of earlier in this epistle, where they were recognized as being given grace to go to the Gentiles with the gospel. Peter probably wanted to visit and see how things were going in this area.
And we find, as he was there, he made it his practice to share his meals with those believers, to fellowship in their homes—those believers who were predominantly Gentiles. He gathered there. He joined in their love feasts.
And, you know, I can even imagine that as he was at those love feasts, he was first in line to get some of that pork barbecue or some of that shrimp off the grill.
We find that though Peter was a Jew, he was at liberty to partake in some of the things that were forbidden under the law. Why? Why did Peter do that?
Well, I think most of us are familiar with the occurrence in Acts 10, where Peter received a vision from the Lord regarding a sheet with all kinds of animals that was let down three times. A voice said to Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
And the sheet was full of all sorts of unclean animals—pigs and snakes and shrimp, probably lobster—all these things we consider delicacies today. So let us look for a moment in Acts 10. Let us see what Peter learned from that vision.
Acts 10, beginning in verse 17:
Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind
as to what the vision which he had seen might be,
behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius,
having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate;
and calling out, they were asking whether Simon,
who was also called Peter, was staying there.While Peter was reflecting on the vision,
the Spirit said to him,
“Behold, three men are looking for you.
But get up, go downstairs and accompany them without misgivings,
for I have sent them Myself.”Peter went down to the men and said,
“Behold, I am the one you are looking for;
what is the reason for which you have come?”They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, a righteous and God-fearing man,
well spoken of by the entire nation of the Jews,
was divinely directed by a holy angel
to send for you to come to his house and hear a message from you.”So he invited them in and gave them lodging.
And on the next day he got up and went away with them,
and some of the brethren from Joppa accompanied him.On the following day he entered Caesarea.
Now Cornelius was waiting for them
and had called together his relatives and close friends.When Peter entered, Cornelius met him,
fell at his feet, and worshiped him.
But Peter raised him up, saying,
“Stand up; I too am just a man.”As he talked with him, he entered
and found many people assembled;
and he said to them,
“You yourselves know how unlawful it is
for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him;
and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
That is why I came without even raising any objection when I was sent for.”
You know, Acts 10:17 states that Peter was perplexed in his mind. He knew this vision was from the Lord, but it seemed to instruct him in a way that was contrary to his understanding of the Word of God, which is the Torah.
You know, I wonder if, after the vision, Peter recalled how the Lord had one time told the disciples that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of him. How contrary that would have been to them in their minds.
The Lord was basically telling them certain foods are not what make you unclean in the sight of God, but it is a matter of the condition of one’s heart. The restriction of certain foods and association with certain people was given to the Jews, but it was to teach them the importance of separation from those things that can pollute one’s relationship to God.
But the Jews in general made these restrictions of the law merely an outward thing—a thing in which they could boast, a thing in which they could wield superiority over others, the Gentiles. They lost sight of the true purpose of the giving of the law.
And I am afraid it is hard for us as Gentiles to understand the difficulty that the Jews of this time had in accepting salvation in Christ alone. They had placed much of their confidence in their heritage and their receiving of the law. They believed it put them on superior ground, far above the Gentiles.
Even Jews who believed in Christ at this time struggled with being fully emancipated from the law of Moses. But you know what? Do we not see that same problem in the church today?
In some Christian circles, they teach strict adherence to the Ten Commandments, and further they add to this the so-called church calendar that marks out special seasons such as Lent and so-called special holy days in which believers ought to pay special homage.
Some have gone to extreme measures in the matter of outward law-keeping, such as Martin Luther, who, thank God, received revelation that the just shall live by faith. But, you know, the problem with Luther was he did not go far enough in his revelation.
He had given up all hope in salvation through any type of self-effort or form of law-keeping, but he still clung to some forms of self-effort in growing in the Lord. Not unlike these Galatian believers, who had begun well in the Spirit but thought somehow they would be perfected in the flesh.
Well, we will touch on this more later. But what we can say is that Peter, through this vision, received revelation, and thus conviction, of the pure gospel: that all are saved on the same basis, which is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Outward rules and regulations avail to nothing as to acceptance before God. So Peter saw that all men in themselves stand on the same ground before God; that heritage or outward laws and regulations do not put one into any kind of favored position before God, but that all are accepted purely by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So Peter was at liberty to fellowship with these Gentile believers in Antioch, having been convinced in his spirit that all are accepted in and through Jesus Christ alone, apart from any works.
You know, in fact, we find before this occurrence in Antioch that, in Acts 15, a council was held. You remember the council? It was held to address the issue of whether Gentiles should be circumcised and directed to observe the law of Moses.
And we find Peter saying in Acts 15:5-11:
Brethren, you know that in the early days
God made a choice among you,
that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.And God, who knows the heart, testified to them,
giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
and He made no distinction between us and them,
cleansing their hearts by faith.Now therefore why do you put God to the test
by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke
which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus
in the same way as they also are.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever put a yoke on one of your brothers or sisters?
So obviously Peter got it. And Peter had been enjoying toasting pigs’ feet over an open fire with these Gentile believers in Antioch. But we find in Galatians 2:11 that Paul opposed him to the face. Why?
Galatians 2:12 says:
For prior to the coming of certain men from James,
he used to eat with the Gentiles;
but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof,
fearing the party of the circumcision.
So Peter was eating with the Gentiles, and then certain men of the party of the circumcision came to Antioch. These ones are commonly called Judaizers, ones who say salvation through Christ is not sufficient, but that one also needs to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses.
It says they were sent from James. Now, James apparently struggled early on with being freed completely from the law. You know, we find that though James gave his approval at that council in Acts 15 not to burden the Gentiles with circumcision and the law, later on in Acts 21 James instructed Paul to take a vow, to give the appearance to the Jews of his following the law because of reports that Paul was teaching Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.
So James thought it unnecessary to burden the Gentiles with the law, but he still felt it necessary for the Jews not to wholly desert the law. One of the obvious problems with this is that it continues to create a distinction between the Jews and Gentiles which God has removed in Christ.
Now, these ones from James probably were using—I believe, and we might even say abusing—James’s name as leverage. As James was considered one of the pillars in the assembly in Jerusalem, they wanted to push their legalism, and they would use anything to do so.
In fact, one would even question whether these ones were saved at all. But certainly, if they were, they were putting a large degree of confidence in their flesh.
So we find when these ones came that Peter withdrew himself, no longer fellowshipping with the Gentiles. Why? The end of verse 12 says, because he was afraid of the party of the circumcision.
Peter was not withdrawing because of a change of convictions. We have already looked at how God had shown him in the vision that basically he was no better than the Gentiles, and that they all were saved by faith in Christ. But Peter became afraid of these who believed otherwise.
Why was he afraid of them? Could it be that he thought his reputation would be at stake? Peter, no doubt, was one of those who was referred to as one of reputation in Galatians 2:2.
Do we find ourselves at times and situations where we consider our so-called reputation more important than our convictions in the Lord?
Do you remember what it says of the Lord in Philippians 2:6-7?
Who, being in the form of God,
did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made Himself of no reputation,
taking the form of a bondservant
and coming in the likeness of men.
You know, Peter may have struggled with this matter of the love of the approval of men. But you know, we find in Proverbs that it says the fear of man is a snare.
And look at the result of Peter’s withdrawing from the Gentile believers. It says in Galatians 2:13:
The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy,
with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.
We see this domino effect: when Peter withdrew, the rest of the Jews went with him. This one who was an apostle, this one who was a leader, was influencing others with his action, even to the point where Barnabas was carried away.
Barnabas was a leader at Antioch, whom no doubt was highly respected and loved by these Gentile believers, but he withdrew also. It says these Jews and Barnabas joined Peter in his hypocrisy—Peter, who knew better, but because of fear portrayed a different character than what his convictions really were.
So Paul opposed Peter to his face publicly, in front of everybody. Some might say, “Should not Paul have taken Peter aside and opposed him in private?” But what occurred had happened in front of many believers, both Jews and Gentiles.
So Paul applied what we find in 1 Timothy 5:20. You do not have to put that one up.
Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all,
so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
Paul knew this act of hypocrisy could create a split that may never be remedied. So he confronted it head-on in public. We know Paul was a strong man, but it still must have been very difficult for him to confront Peter. Surely Paul had loads of respect for Peter.
But Paul knew he had to be steadfast in the purity of the gospel for the Lord’s sake.
So, in the second section of our text, beginning in Galatians 2:14, we find that Paul sees Peter was not straightforward about the truth of the gospel—not straightforward about the truth of the gospel.
This word straightforward is an interesting one in the Greek. It comes from a word, orthopodeō, from which we get orthopedics. Orthos means straight, and podeō refers to the foot. It speaks of straight feet.
We talk about staying on a straight path, walking the line. Paul was basically saying to Peter, “You are not walking a straight line of truth. You have deviated from what you know to be truth.”
So Paul stops Peter in his tracks, saying, “Peter, you know that you are walking off course from what you know to be true.”
Now, if one is to confront Peter, and in particular in front of an antagonistic crowd such as this party of the circumcision, that one had better be loaded up with a good explanation.
And we find that Paul begins with a question to Peter in the latter part of verse 14:
If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews,
how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
Paul basically says to Peter, “You have been persuaded with the truth of the gospel. You have been living like a Gentile and not as a Jew, but now you are flip-flopping, and you are acting again like a Jew.”
This gives a false message to the Gentiles that they need to become as a Jew in order to be fully accepted and to grow in the Lord. Peter, what has caused this sudden change of course?
You have been living in freedom from the law of Moses, but by this action you are, in effect, compelling the Gentiles to take on what you formerly had put off. You came to the place where you saw that the Gentiles are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as we are, yet now you are backpedaling and drawing distinctions again between Jew and Gentile.
Yes, we Jews had the thought among ourselves that we are Jews by nature and not sinners among the Gentiles. That is to say, we thought we Jews were a special breed and not unclean like the Gentiles, who are without God.
They had no hope of being right before God, having no law to show them God’s requirements to be approved before Him. But we had placed our hope in the law. We were those in that place, but we were brought to a place where we have discovered that no man can be made right before God on this basis.
We have given up all confidence in our ability to keep the law and have come to realize that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus.
So look how Paul drives this truth home—salvation in Christ alone—in Galatians 2:16. First, declaring in general:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but through faith in Christ Jesus.
And then he applied this truth to the Jews as well, because they are no different:
Even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
so that we may be justified by faith in Christ,
and not by the works of the law.
But that is not good enough. So then he backs it up with a rephrasing of Scripture and says:
Since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.
This is found in Psalm 143:2:
For in Thy sight no man living shall be justified.
Note how Paul inserted “works of the law” in his rephrasing of Psalm 143:2, because he knew this touched on the core of what the good Jew believed in and relied on.
Does this not remind you of some famous verses that Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, in Romans 3:20-25?
Because by the works of the law
no flesh will be justified in His sight;
for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.But now, apart from the law,
the righteousness of God has been manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all those who believe;
for there is no distinction;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified as a gift by His grace
through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation,
that is, a satisfaction, in His blood through faith.
So Paul points out in verse 16 that even we Jews have come to the understanding through failure that we alone can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ. And thus, why would we want to place a burden on the Gentiles that we ourselves cannot bear?
Now, allow me to deviate from this text for a moment and address why it is that no one can be justified by the works of the law. This probably goes without saying, but I am going to say it.
First of all, we need to state that in Romans 7 it says the law is holy. There is no fault or problem with the law. It expresses the righteous requirements of God. But we find the problem resides where? With man.
We find in James 2:10:
For whoever keeps the whole law,
and yet stumbles in one point,
has become guilty of all.
To become a transgressor of the law only requires not fulfilling it in one occurrence. You know, to use a foolish illustration, if one could completely satisfy the law all their life for ninety years—which we know would never happen—but for the sake of a foolish illustration, if one could follow the law all their life for ninety years, but then on their deathbed violate it in one aspect, they would become guilty as a lawbreaker.
The truth is that there are none who are capable of being justified by the law. There are none that can keep it perfectly—none, of course, save the Lord Jesus Christ, who fulfilled it.
Firstly, He fulfilled it by walking perfectly under it, which in turn qualified Him to be the One who could save all by paying the price the law demanded of lawbreakers.
So with that being said, why did God give the law if none can perform it? And what is its purpose?
Well, we already read in Romans 3:20:
Through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
The law was given to expose man for what he is: a sinner. It was never given for him to live by that principle.
You know, I like what William Newell says regarding this matter:
God must show man his sinnerhood, and this could not be done
but by revealing His holiness and righteousness,
and asking man to conform his life and ways
to that holy and righteous rule.God knew he would not and could not do this.
But man did not know it, and must discover it through failure.
Therefore, and thereunto, did God give the law.
By the law is the knowledge of sin.God names the law a ministration of condemnation and death,
and not of righteousness.
Notice that: would not and could not do this. But man did not know it and must discover it through failure. As Paul says in Romans 7, sin was shown to be sin by affecting death through that which is good. That is out of Newell’s book Romans Verse by Verse.
So, as we have pointed out in Galatians 2:16, Paul states that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul knows Peter knows this truth, so he goes on to show Peter how his action contradicts this truth.
And in the process, he wants to pound home that salvation is through Christ alone. Look in verse 17:
But if while seeking to be justified in Christ,
we ourselves have also been found sinners,
is Christ then a minister of sin?
May it never be!
Paul says to Peter, “You discovered that through the law you were not able to be justified before God. And yes, through this discovery, you were placed on the same ground as a so-called Gentile sinner.”
“But did you not find in Christ the righteousness you needed? Or are you now finding that Christ is not sufficient in this matter of being justified before God? Do you not know that in so saying, you are making Christ a promoter of sin, if in fact He is not sufficient as your righteousness before God?”
You know, surely to this Peter would have exclaimed, “May it never be!”
But Paul goes on in verse 18 to say, “Peter, the reality is that if you rebuild what you once destroyed, you prove yourself to be a transgressor.”
If you go back to the law of Moses, to that which you had separated yourselves from, you place yourself back under the curse of the law. You put yourself back in the place of a transgressor, for none are justified by works.
Notice Paul goes on in verse 19. He expresses his relationship to the law:
For through the law I died to the law,
so that I might live to God.
Now, what does Paul mean that through the law he died to the law? Paul firstly came to realize that the law, which he thought would bring life, only brought death, as he came to see that not only outward obedience was required and demanded, but it also required inward obedience, and he saw he was unable to perform it.
Thus, secondly, he was driven to the One who alone satisfied the law completely in His life, and He had taken Paul’s place in paying the price the law demanded of a transgressor, which was death.
So now that brings us to verse 20. It is within this context where Paul sees that he has died to the law. Paul had a desire to live for God. Do we have a desire to live for God?
But Paul came to the realization that he could not do so through the principle of the law. He came to realize he had to die to the law if he was truly going to live for God.
So, verse 20: we firstly see how Paul explains how he died to the law. He says, “I have been crucified with Christ.”
Note the tense. It is in the aorist tense in the Greek. It speaks of an action completed in the past with a present result.
Paul knows the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as they live. So the only way to be freed from the law is through death, and this was accomplished for him in Christ when Christ died on the cross.
The law had done its job in driving Paul to Christ to find deliverance from its penalty. But Paul wanted more than deliverance from a penalty. He wanted to be able to live for God.
Paul knew that the problem with living for God did not reside in the law, for the law is holy, righteous, and good. Paul realized that the problem resided in him.
And thus he wrote in Romans 7:18:
For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh.
Paul realized he did not have the strength to live for God, for the law was spiritual and he was carnal, or fleshly. At best, he could only agree with what the law demanded, but the carrying out of the law he could not do.
He needed an altogether different life to be able to live for God.
You know, many in the church wholly agree with this doctrine of justification by faith. They realize there is nothing they can do to be saved. But somehow, many cling to the thought that in order to live for God, in order to be sanctified, they must place themselves under a law principle.
Such ones still believe that they can, through some form of outward self-effort, live for God. What it comes down to is they still put some confidence in the flesh, not unlike these Judaizers.
They say, “If we do not have any rules, we will be lawless.” The motive may be good, but often it is not, because it is generated out of fear.
Paul came to realize that there was no hope in law-keeping, whether for justification before God or in the matter of sanctification for God.
He discovered his release from that which condemned him, the law, and his release from that which crippled him, himself, through co-death with Christ.
But in addition, he discovered through co-identification with Christ that he was now able to live for God, not through the old “I” being somehow empowered, but by substituting the old “I” with the very life of Christ through him.
Paul knew only Christ could live for God, and he knew Christ was in him. The way to allow Christ to live through him was by faith. He said:
The life which I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God.
He would no longer walk by outward rules and regulations, but look to and rely on Christ to be his life. Outwardly, it might still appear that Paul was still living his own life, but inwardly, Christ was the mainspring.
And we find that Paul’s motive was Christ’s love for him. He felt a constraining by the love of Christ that caused him to submit to that life within, and through that life found the ability to will and to do what was pleasing to God.
So, to simply simplify this, what can we glean from this verse? How is the Christian life to be lived? I think it comes down to three things.
Know that you have died.
“I have been crucified with Christ.”
Know Christ lives in you.
“But Christ lives in me.”
Allow Him to live through you.
“It is no longer I who live. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”
Now, God willing, we are going to stop here today. But God willing, we want to look at these three points in more detail the next time.
May the Lord grant us grace.