Crucified With Christ

Connection Fellowship
May 31, 2009
Crucified With Christ
Galatians 2:1-21
Introduction

“My chains are gone…I’ve been set free” may be the most liberating lines in a song that I’ve sung in a long time. Chris Tomlin wrote this chorus in conjunction with John Newton’s ‘Amazing Grace’. If you have not seen the movie, by the same title, I would encourage you to see it. It is incredible that during the struggle for people to be liberated from ‘men’s law’, spiritual liberty came to William Wilberforce from the bondage of personal sin and guilt. The song is monument to it.

In the late 1800’s, another monument, the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States by France to represent the freedom associated with our country. Millions of people have come to our country and been greeted by this impressive statement of liberty. When you look see it, there is an incredible sense of the freedom that it represents. It has become a picture synonymous with liberty.

But today, we are faced with a picture that may not…on the surface…appear to be the most liberating. But in fact it is the most liberating picture for any single person to have ever lived on the planet. Galatians 2:20 may be the most quoted Bible verses about living the Christian life.

20 “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.

This may be one of the most quoted Bible verses about living the Christian life. It is generally taught in the context of ‘dying’ to our old, sinful life of bondage and allowing Christ to live in and through us in this new liberated life that we have because of Him. That is so true. But the context of this liberty also comes from not being bound to a religious system of legalism and trying to please God (or men) through our behavior…before and after personally receiving the Gospel of Christ.

This is a summary statement of Paul’s personal story.

Acts 15 tells the narrative of this story, but here we have the editorial details. It had been 14 years since his initial visit to Jerusalem recorded in Chapter 1.

Paul took Barnabas (a Jew) and Titus (a Greek convert) to visit the leaders of the
early church to stop the false teaching that a group of Jewish teachers (from Jerusalem) were spreading among the non-Jews that after placing their faith in Christ, they must be circumcised and live by the Jewish traditions.

He met with them privately to keep from making a public spectacle of the issue. They affirmed Paul’s teaching as the TRUE GOSPEL and evidenced it by not
requiring Titus be circumcised. His doctrine of grace through faith was right.

But living it out daily is often difficult. Even the most devoted followers of Christ
can get sucked into the pressures of performance based religion. In verses 11 – 21, Paul shares an example of how Peter, the same leader who walked with Christ and preached the Gospel so effectively, got sucked in.

Peter had visited the Gentiles in the city of Antioch [Acts 12] and was hanging out
(fellowshipping and eating) regularly with the locals. However, when Jewish friends began to visit from the Jerusalem church (with their prejudices about religious rituals and practices), Peter began to withdraw from the locals. It caused such an impact, that even Barnabas was sucked into it.

Paul confronted their hypocrisy. It was not a debate over condemning the Jewish
lifestyle of not eating pork (or anything like that). Go ahead and live that lifestyle if you want. He may have said, ‘be a vegetarian if you want’. But do not equate a legalistic diet (found in an Old Testament ritual system) with a personal relationship or requirement for receiving the grace of God in Christ.

Paul reminds them that the doctrine of salvation by God’s grace through faith in
the sacrifice of Christ on the cross has already been settled…and is not found in works of the law. In verses 17 - 18, Paul lays it out:

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! 18 “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

Paul says, “You cannot have it both ways!” That applies both to what you say
you believe and how you live that out. By preaching unmerited grace, then
saying or acting as if something is done to earn God’s favor, I become a living contradiction. There is no freedom in being a living contradiction.

20 “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.

Paul says that he did not just change religions…he died to it.

I did not know it until this week, but there are multiple statues like our Statue of Liberty…like this one in Tokyo, Japan. There is one in London…one in Paris. You can choose to live and try to find freedom in any of these countries under a similar, yet not identical, banner of liberty. You could also choose to try freedom under the banners of many similar, yet not identical religions. You can even try to mix some Christianity into your own viewpoint and create your own personal religion.

But just like Paul encountered, although many have tried to mix some form of Christianity with their own set of religious rules or rituals, there is no TRUE FREEDOM to be found under any other banner than the CROSS of Jesus Christ.

There is no freedom in living a contradiction.

I invite you today to choose to live in the Freedom of God’s grace found in Christ.