North Anderson Baptist Church
On Mission In Anderson & Beyond
December 3rd, 2023
Locations & Times
North Anderson Baptist Church
2308 N Main St, Anderson, SC 29621, USA
Sunday 9:00 AM
So far in our study of Galatians, we've seen Paul boldly declare that it is faith in Jesus alone that justifies sinful man. He now anticipates a couple of objections from the Judaizers and addresses them.
Their objection might sound something like, “You say faith in Jesus alone makes us right and acceptable before God but you still sin. Jesus’ work of making you right before God apparently doesn’t make you right enough. How could a person be accepted by God but still struggle with sin? This whole being declared right with God through faith in Jesus alone thing just gives people a free pass to live any way they choose”
Galatians 2:17 “But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin?”
THE FEAR OF THE JUDAIZER: an ancient heresy that is still as much of an issue today as it was 2,000 years ago: ANTINOMIANISM.
Basically – antinomianism is the idea that Gods moral law plays no role in a believer’s life at all.
YET THE PSALMIST WOULD DISAGREE
Psalm 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life”
Psalm 119:97 “How I love your law! It is my meditation all day long”
There are also 1050 commands in the New Testament that cover how we relate to God, interact with one another.
1 John 5:3 “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”
Matthew 5:17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
CONCERNING THE LAW, THE QUESTION WE SHOULD ASK IS: HOW and WHY we obey them.
The Judaizer would say that we obey Gods commands in our own strength so that we will be accepted by Him
Paul would say that it is because we are accepted by Him that we’re empowered and inspired to obey Gods commands.
That’s Paul’s answer to the Judaizers objection in verse 17
Does that grace give me a license to live any way that I choose? ABSOLUTLEY NOT!
It’s BECAUSE of the grace of God that I have been shown through Jesus Christ that I, a sinner, am compelled & empowered to obey Gods law!
THERE’S ANOTHER DITCH TO FALL IN: Legalism
Paul warns about trusting in Christ and THEN turning back to your adherence to the law to ensure your acceptance by God.
Again, he anticipates the rebuttal of the Judaizer to be something like, “Ok, we’ll grant you that a relationship with Jesus is needed in order to be right with God but that’s not quite enough. You must keep the law, too”
Galatians 2:18-19 “If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.”
Paul is saying, “I once spun my wheels attempting to prove my righteousness through religious performance. If I were to go back to that, it’d be an offense to God”
In trying to be more right with God through external performance, the legalist actually ends up being less right with God.
HOW could it be sinful to build a spiritual life through adhering to the Law of Moses?
Because it’s like looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, taking the punishment we deserve, and saying, “That’s not enough"
PAUL SAYS – I did that and died to that. I died to performance-based faith. I died to attempting to be right with God through my own wisdom, strength and work. I died to having confidence in my own flesh.
Galatians 2:19 - “Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.”
For most of his life, Paul believed that God would accept him because of his law-keeping but by revelation of God, he had grown to see the real purpose of the Law was not to make him right with God but to show him that he was wrong with the Lord.
Romans 7:7 “Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.”
The law is a mirror not a window.
Sinful man looks into the mirror of Gods Law and doesn’t see the radiance, holiness and perfection that’s required to have access to Heaven…see’s the wrinkles, blemishes and warts of sin
SO IN VERSES 17 through 19, Paul CRUSHES theological liberalism (I can live any way I want because of grace) and theological legalism (I can earn the good graces of God)
NOW look at one of the most profound verses of scripture in the NT and see where real, abundant and eternal life is found– Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
IN THIS VERSE WE FIND THE KEYS TO REAL LIFE:
1.CHRIST DIED FOR YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…”
When Christ was crucified, it was as if we were crucified with Him. The penalty was fully paid—just as surely as if we had been crucified for our own sins.
Being crucified with Christ emphasizes our union with Him and His death on our behalf.
Being crucified with Christ means that we are no longer under the penalty of the Law. That penalty was paid by Christ on our behalf.
Romans 6:6-7 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin”
In other words – the first step to really living is dying – sin, self
2.CHRIST IN YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”
When a person believes in Jesus, he or she is united to Christ, first in His death and then in the newness of His resurrection life
Romans 6:4-5 “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”
Paul often spoke of Christ taking up residence in the hearts of those who accept Him as Lord and Savior.
Not only is Jesus Christ alive today, but through God’s Holy Spirit—He lives and dwells within every child of God.
Romans 8:9 “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him”
Colossians 1:27 “Christ in you, the hope of glory”
Romans 8:14-16 “For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children”
1 John 4:4 “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
3.CHRIST THROUGH YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God…”
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen”
Habakuk 2:4 “The just shall live by faith”
Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."
4.CHRIST FOR YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Jeremiah 31:3. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness."
Jesus loves us because He is love, not because we are lovely.
Their objection might sound something like, “You say faith in Jesus alone makes us right and acceptable before God but you still sin. Jesus’ work of making you right before God apparently doesn’t make you right enough. How could a person be accepted by God but still struggle with sin? This whole being declared right with God through faith in Jesus alone thing just gives people a free pass to live any way they choose”
Galatians 2:17 “But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin?”
THE FEAR OF THE JUDAIZER: an ancient heresy that is still as much of an issue today as it was 2,000 years ago: ANTINOMIANISM.
Basically – antinomianism is the idea that Gods moral law plays no role in a believer’s life at all.
YET THE PSALMIST WOULD DISAGREE
Psalm 19:7 “The law of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life”
Psalm 119:97 “How I love your law! It is my meditation all day long”
There are also 1050 commands in the New Testament that cover how we relate to God, interact with one another.
1 John 5:3 “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”
Matthew 5:17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
CONCERNING THE LAW, THE QUESTION WE SHOULD ASK IS: HOW and WHY we obey them.
The Judaizer would say that we obey Gods commands in our own strength so that we will be accepted by Him
Paul would say that it is because we are accepted by Him that we’re empowered and inspired to obey Gods commands.
That’s Paul’s answer to the Judaizers objection in verse 17
Does that grace give me a license to live any way that I choose? ABSOLUTLEY NOT!
It’s BECAUSE of the grace of God that I have been shown through Jesus Christ that I, a sinner, am compelled & empowered to obey Gods law!
THERE’S ANOTHER DITCH TO FALL IN: Legalism
Paul warns about trusting in Christ and THEN turning back to your adherence to the law to ensure your acceptance by God.
Again, he anticipates the rebuttal of the Judaizer to be something like, “Ok, we’ll grant you that a relationship with Jesus is needed in order to be right with God but that’s not quite enough. You must keep the law, too”
Galatians 2:18-19 “If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.”
Paul is saying, “I once spun my wheels attempting to prove my righteousness through religious performance. If I were to go back to that, it’d be an offense to God”
In trying to be more right with God through external performance, the legalist actually ends up being less right with God.
HOW could it be sinful to build a spiritual life through adhering to the Law of Moses?
Because it’s like looking at Jesus hanging on the cross, taking the punishment we deserve, and saying, “That’s not enough"
PAUL SAYS – I did that and died to that. I died to performance-based faith. I died to attempting to be right with God through my own wisdom, strength and work. I died to having confidence in my own flesh.
Galatians 2:19 - “Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God.”
For most of his life, Paul believed that God would accept him because of his law-keeping but by revelation of God, he had grown to see the real purpose of the Law was not to make him right with God but to show him that he was wrong with the Lord.
Romans 7:7 “Is the law sin? Absolutely not! But I would not have known sin if it were not for the law.”
The law is a mirror not a window.
Sinful man looks into the mirror of Gods Law and doesn’t see the radiance, holiness and perfection that’s required to have access to Heaven…see’s the wrinkles, blemishes and warts of sin
SO IN VERSES 17 through 19, Paul CRUSHES theological liberalism (I can live any way I want because of grace) and theological legalism (I can earn the good graces of God)
NOW look at one of the most profound verses of scripture in the NT and see where real, abundant and eternal life is found– Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
IN THIS VERSE WE FIND THE KEYS TO REAL LIFE:
1.CHRIST DIED FOR YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…”
When Christ was crucified, it was as if we were crucified with Him. The penalty was fully paid—just as surely as if we had been crucified for our own sins.
Being crucified with Christ emphasizes our union with Him and His death on our behalf.
Being crucified with Christ means that we are no longer under the penalty of the Law. That penalty was paid by Christ on our behalf.
Romans 6:6-7 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin”
In other words – the first step to really living is dying – sin, self
2.CHRIST IN YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”
When a person believes in Jesus, he or she is united to Christ, first in His death and then in the newness of His resurrection life
Romans 6:4-5 “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”
Paul often spoke of Christ taking up residence in the hearts of those who accept Him as Lord and Savior.
Not only is Jesus Christ alive today, but through God’s Holy Spirit—He lives and dwells within every child of God.
Romans 8:9 “You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him”
Colossians 1:27 “Christ in you, the hope of glory”
Romans 8:14-16 “For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children”
1 John 4:4 “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
3.CHRIST THROUGH YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God…”
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen”
Habakuk 2:4 “The just shall live by faith”
Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."
4.CHRIST FOR YOU
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Jeremiah 31:3. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness."
Jesus loves us because He is love, not because we are lovely.