Galatians 2:20a
"I am crucified with Christ;..." That
is the very function of the Gospel of Grace. That Christ died for the
sins of the world, and was buried, and that He arose from the dead in
the power of an Endless Life. And the secret which God held within
Himself, that being. That we as sons of Adam, seen as if we were in the
second Adam, sinless and crucified in Him, buried,, raised and ascended
all "in Him." We always like to make the point and we've been making it more strongly than ever that when we come under that forgiveness, we are forgiven everything, past, present, and future.
By inspiration of illumination we were seen in Christ throughout His
ordeal. It was as if it was our ordeal in God's mind and Christ's, this
is to have the mind of Christ, to have a mind set on the things above.
We will never, never come into the presence of God with sin on
our back so to speak, because it has all been paid for. Now we know this
is a stumbling-block to most human comprehension or intellectualism. We
don't have to understand it, we're to just believe it and receive it
because that's what the Book teaches. We've been forgiven all our
trespasses, not because of anything we have done, but all because of
what Christ has accomplished on our behalf. He's our completion and
we're His completion, as a bride is the husbands completion of law.
That's what makes the Gospel so simple and yet so complex we'll never
understand it fully this side of glory, this is the crisis which
produces His faith in us. Paul goes on to say in verse 20 that even
though he and us are crucified by identification with Christ's death:
Galatians 2:20
"I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith (faithfulness) of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Now
what do we mean by the faithfulness? Someone asked, "How do you get
people to sit there all afternoon in those uncomfortable chairs?" Well,
they've never complained, and that proves we don't have to have
upholstery to get people to come in if we're feeding them from the Word,
with the Spirit of Truth. But anyway when our people came in today they
picked a chair to sit on, we'll bet there wasn't a person in this room
that analyzed or inspected that chair to see if it would hold them, did
they? Not a one of them did that. Why didn't they examine their chair?
Our faith in that chair was enough. Now if we're placing our faith in
that chair in turn what does that chair have to be? Faithful. If the
chair isn't faithful, then we would go to the floor. But Jesus first had
to trust what the word told Him and then as the son of man He had to
know and trust the Father, when the word revealed that He would not see
corruption (Psalm 49:9 and then Isaiah 38:17, 53 and then Jonah 2:6).
So as the son of man even Jesus had to trust someone first the Holy
Spirit and then His Father how? by taking them at their word. Just as
we're to do in like fashion or to do likewise.
Now it's the same way with Christ. He has claimed to have done
everything that's necessary, and we've put our trusting in His faith.
Now someday when we get to the eternal abode is God going to say, "Well
I'm sorry William, but it wasn't what it seemed to be?" No way, but
rather He's going to say, "The Blood of Christ is faithful, He is
faithful." And that's why we can trust completely in Him. So
this is what we're sure that Paul is driving at in verse 20. That it's
through the faithfulness, his trusting the one who is faithful to keep
us, because He loves us and gave Himself for us. The other day my 5 year
old grandson asked me, "Grampa, do I love God enough? Do I have enough
faith that if he should come tonight that I won't be left behind?" Now
that's a pretty good question from a 5 year old isn't it? But the
question isn't how much we love Him, but rather how much He has loved
us? You see that is pointed out so clearly in John chapter 11 in the
account of Lazarus. All through that chapter it isn't how much Mary and
Martha loved Jesus, but how much He loved them.
John 11:3
"Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, `Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.'"
John 11:5
"Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus."
Then when we come down to the shortest verse John 11:35 "Jesus wept." What did the Hebrews in that area say?
John 11:36
"Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!" So
it wasn't how much they loved Him, but the other way around. So we must
remember that it's not how much we love Him but how much He loves us,
and has saved us, and is even now keeping us. Now let's go on to
Galatians 2:21 where Paul says:
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