Here is the wonderful application of Easter Sunday truth to the Christian life from Galatians 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me.“
Easter is about what happened to Jesus: death, burial, and resurrection. And for the Christian, we are united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. This union with Christ is especially evident in Christian baptism: going down into the water–a picture of death and burial–and rising from the water–a picture of new resurrected life in Jesus.
This passage of Scripture in Galatians 2 is about our faith. It’s about our belief, our trust in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that occurred 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. So, before we focus our attention on verse 20, let’s back up a bit and grasp the overall context of this passage.
In Galatians 2:15, Paul relays a discussion he had with Peter about how the two of them–Jews who believed in Jesus Christ as Savior–were no different than non-Jews; Gentiles who believed in Christ as Savior:
We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, (Galatians 2:15)
For centuries the Jews regarded Gentiles as “sinners.” After all, Gentiles did not even attempt to keep the Old Testament law like the Jews did, so the Jews had no reservations in referring to them as sinners.
But what Paul does next is to remind Peter that whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, he or she is set right with God the same exact way: not by keeping all the Old Testament law–including dietary laws, Jewish rites and rituals like circumcision–nor even in keeping the moral law, like the 10 Commandments:
knowing that a man is not justified (set right with God) by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
This verse (verse 16) is one of the great verses of the Protestant Reformation. It is a verse that clearly demonstrates that sinful man is set right with God not on the basis of man’s performance–not on the basis of keeping certain laws, or sacraments–but solely on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. It is a clear statement of the doctrine of justification.
Justification means to be set right with God. It means to be declared “Not Guilty” of all sin. It is the exact opposite of condemnation. Condemnation means I am guilty and I stand condemned before God. Justification is the exact opposite—not guilty!
Several years ago, I worked as a parole officer in North Georgia. I supervised convicted felons who were granted parole; the privilege of serving a portion of their sentence outside of prison. And where I had the opportunity to share my faith with a parolee, I would use terms & images familiar to his or her experience.
So I would say something like, “Imagine you are in the courtroom and you are found guilty of some such offense. And they are going to take you away for your crime and punish you. Now, imagine that someone unknown by you stands up in the courtroom and says, ‘I will take his punishment for him.’ And the judge–knowing the person who stood up, and knowing his integrity and character–allows that person to take your punishment. The judge then sets you free. Justice is served because the offense is paid for, and you get to go free.”
I would use that illustration to try to teach how Christ takes our punishment upon Himself. He does what we ourselves cannot do: He lives a perfect life of rule-keeping, never breaks any laws, and then dies on the cross to take our punishment upon Himself so that we can go free.
And the force of that illustration is even greater when we imagine that the judge, rather than simply saying, “You are now free to go; leave my courtroom,” instead says, “You are now free to go, but I’m not merely going to put you out on the street. No, I’m going to take you into my care; driving you to my home, and letting you live and abide with me. And I’ll give you everything you need for the rest of your days.”
This is, in essence, what our Righteous Judge does for us!
Paul is teaching in verse 16 that there is no other way to be set right with God; to be justified, or be declared “Not guilty,” than by believing in Jesus.
The original Greek in verse 16 may be more effectively translated: “we have believed into Christ Jesus,” which conveys a full trust in Jesus, a resting into Him completely, uniting together with Him into death, burial, and resurrection.
This teaching sets right the Jews’ misunderstanding of the place of the Old Testament law. For centuries most Jews believed that the law—the ceremonial laws, dietary laws, 10 Commandments, and so on—was kept in order to earn favor and blessing with God. Paul is teaching that this is wrong. The law was never intended by God to be used as the means of salvation.
Nor was the law ever intended to to exclude Gentiles from the saving good news of the gospel.
In the following verse, Paul imagines a traditionalist Jewish perspective on his friendly fraternizing with “sinful” Gentiles:
“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! (Galatians 2:17)
Paul is arguing that he and Peter and the other apostles are not sinners because they find themselves “also among the sinners (NIV);” that is, also among the Gentile sinners. After all, Paul and the apostles already were sinners—Christ didn’t make them sinners. They were already guilty of sin.
In fact, Paul goes on to argue that the law–to which he had died to as an attempted means of earning God’s approval –is the very thing that stands against him, forever pointing out his sin:
For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. (Galatians 2:18)
To paraphrase, Paul is arguing, “If I should erect again this edifice of ceremonial law and ritual as a means of seeking justification, the result would be that the law would prove me a sinner over and over again!”
For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. (Galatians 2:19)
Paul “died” to the law as a means of his trying to be saved and accepted by God. The law, however, is still good and helpful.
The moral law—like the 10 Commandments—is good and right; certainly good for us to keep! But we do not keep the law as a means of salvation.
We don’t try to “become righteous” or “get saved” by keeping the law. Christians don’t obey the law—like the 10 commandments—to become saved. Christians obey the law because they are saved; they want to keep the commands, knowing they are good for right.
So Paul says that he died to the law as a means of salvation. Put another way: he stopped thinking that he could ever keep the law in such a way as to please God or earn favor with God.
He knows now that he does not have to earn acceptance or gain approval with God, but that God approves of him through Jesus Christ. So he says, “I have died to the old way of rule-keeping that I may live—really live!—to God.” That’s verse 20:
I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Paul continues writing here in verse 20 about the doctrine of justification, being “set right” with God; being declared “Not guilty” of all sin by the Supreme Judge of the universe. He is writing here about what is often called, “The Great Exchange.”
On the cross, God the Father thinks of us as having done what Jesus did and He thinks of Jesus as having done what we did.
So God gives to us what was Christ’s and gives to Christ what was ours. He gives to Jesus our sin and punishes that sin in Christ. And He gives to us Christ’s righteousness and favor.
God the Father treats Christ as if He had done what we did and treats us as if we had done what Christ did.
So Paul can say, “I know I am loved by God, accepted by God, approved by God, because God thinks of me as living the life Christ lived. And God thinks of my sin as belonging to Christ. So I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; Christ’s perfection applied to me though I am a sinner; Christ’s perfection imputed to me so that I can say, ‘I live,’ and this is how I live: I live by faith, by believing into the Son of God.”
And this is the basis of our acceptance and approval and favor with God. God loves us perfectly in Christ.
He will never love us any less when we sin and he will never love us any more when we do right—which is what legalism begets: believing that God will love us more if we just keep trying harder.
God loves us perfectly in Christ.
But someone may object: “If God loves me perfectly regardless of my performance, then why should I ever perform, why should I even try to obey laws like the 10 Commandments. I mean, what’s the motivation here?!”
The motivation is gratitude. It is living our lives as a “thank you note” to God for His life, death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf.
Here’s a helpful illustration by Tim Keller:
Imagine a father watching his beloved son play baseball for the team his father coaches. As [the father] sits in the dugout, he loves his son fully and completely. If his son forgets his father’s instructions and strikes out, it will not change his love for him or approval of him one bit. The son is assured of his father’s love regardless of his performance. But the son will long to hit that home run. Not for himself—to gain his father’s love—but for his father, because he is already loved. If he doesn’t know his father loves him, his efforts will be for himself—to win that love. Because he knows his father already loves him, his efforts are for his father—to please him. The Christian is assured of God’s love and approval. God is pleased with us in Christ. So the Christian longs to obey God, not for himself, so that God will save him, but out of gratitude to God, who he knows has already saved him..
—Keller, Timothy. Galatians For You (God’s Word For You) (p. 22). The Good Book Company. Kindle Edition.
Paul celebrates the grace of God in his being accepted and approved by God. He concludes his train of thought in verse 21:
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” (Galatians 2:21)
Paul revisits the hypothetical question he raised earlier in verse 18: “If I build again those things which I destroyed…” In other words if, in fact, we are to seek to be justified by keeping the law and we can somehow earn our approval or earn heaven; earn acceptance and earn salvation, then why—and here is the clincher—why would Christ die?! His death would be pointless. He would have died in vain.
Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is necessary because we cannot be justified without His death, burial, and resurrection. If it were somehow possible for us to earn approval and acceptance with God by keeping the law, then Christ would have lived and died in vain.
The fact is, no one can be justified by keeping the law. Righteousness does not come from the law because we can’t keep it perfectly. God keeps it perfectly for us in Christ. He lives perfectly and He dies as a substitute, taking our punishment for us, and then—on the third day—the Father raises Christ from the dead so that we may be justified or, declared righteous.
Christ was “delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25) so that we may be justified; declared not guilty.
God the Father raised the Son from the dead as a way saying, “I am satisfied with the sacrifice of My Son in your place.”
Christ was raised for our justification. He was raised so that we may be declared “Not guilty.”
**Easter Truths to Live Out:
1) The Gospel is the Only Way to be Set Right with God
Remember verse 16: Paul says that “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (no one!).
The force of verses 15 and 16 is that not even Jews–those regarded for centuries as God’s highly favored ones–not even they are justified by the works of the law.
No one is saved by what they do (works of the law) but by who they know (Jesus) and what He has done in their place.
Remember that every other major religion is about earning acceptance and approval with God—Buddhism, Islam, other philosophical belief systems—they are about doing good works in an effort to please God or some idea of God.
If we tried to earn our salvation, we would have to be perfect at keeping the law.
If you tried to keep the 10 Commandments, you would have to continue to keep all of them perfectly throughout every single day of your life. That’s a huge problem because Jesus taught that our thoughts condemn us as well as the acts themselves—adulterous thoughts make us adulterers, murderous thoughts make us murderers.
Paul really drives this point home in the next chapter, chapter 3, and verse 10:
“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” (Galatians 3:10)
I am cursed if I do not continue in all things written in the book of the law. So that’s like getting a 99% on a test and having an “F” written at the top of my paper. If you wanted to somehow earn your way into heaven or earn your justification, you would have to get a 100% all the time.
The gospel is the only way to be set right with God. We must fully rest in Jesus, fully trusting in Him or fully resting in His righteousness; His works on our behalf.
This fact leads to the second gospel truth to apply this week:
2) You may “Get” the Gospel, but it hasn’t “Gotten into You”
What I mean is that you may understand terms like justification or salvation and say, “I know what that means. I am set right by God not on the basis of my performance, but on the basis of Christ’s performance in my place.,” but it hasn’t really moved from your head down into your heart.
You understand it cerebrally, but not cardiologically.
I think this may be the problem of many professing Christians today. They know they are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone; they know they are accepted not on the basis of their performance, but on the basis of Christ’s performance for them—yet they go on living their lives trying to gain approval from others.
When the gospel has really “gotten into you,” it changes the way you think, love, and act.
You realize that you are loved by the greatest Person in the universe. You are loved by God and accepted by God and approved by God. So you don’t always try to seek approval from others, or seek life in a relationship with others. Your life is in Christ. It’s verse 20 again:
I have been crucified with Christ; 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 for me.
If you are a Christian, this is life, real life! You no longer have to live trying to earn approval and acceptance from others. God approves you! God accepts you!
So you may date someone or you may consider marriage with someone, but your approval and acceptance—your life—is found not with another person, but in God Himself through Christ Jesus!
When the gospel has “gotten into you,” you are free. You no longer struggle to be validated at school, or validated by your friends, or seeking approval at work, or always needing strokes on the back–applause and approval from others; promotions, attaboys, needing to be needed, needing to be loved–no!
God accepts you perfectly in Christ. God loves you perfectly in Christ.
Note how personal the gospel is to Paul in verse 20:
“I have been crucified with Christ…Christ lives in me…the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me!”
We have noted:
1 The gospel is the only way to be set right with God
and:
2 You may “get” the gospel, but it hasn’t “gotten into” you
Thirdly and finally:
3) We must Preach the Gospel to Ourselves throughout the Day
Credit to Jerry Bridges for this phrase: “Preach the Gospel to ourselves.”
What this means is that we continue to go to the cross for our acceptance and approval from God.
Too often we assume that when we perform well, our performance earns blessing and favor with God. We think if we’ve had our quiet time, or we give our tithes, or if we witness to our neighbors that God will love us more and that we’ll earn blessing and favor.
But again, the gospel is that He loves us perfectly in Christ.
Similarly, when we perform poorly, we assume that our performance causes us to fall out of favor with God. It is especially at these moments that we must “preach the gospel to ourselves,” taking our sins to the cross.
John Owen, a great Puritan theologian, argued for this practice in his book, Communion with the Triune God. Here’s a helpful paraphrase of his premise:
It is the daily duty of the saints to consider the great provocation of their sins. (every day we need to realize we are practicing sinners, no matter how small, they are a provocation to the holiness of God). We need to take those sins to the cross and see Jesus bearing those sins in His own body on the cross. So we take those sins to the cross and we leave them there. And we come away with Christ’s righteousness.
This robe of righteousness is not something that we will “put on” at the last day when Christ returns and we enter into the final state of a new heaven. It is a robe the Christian wears right now.
So we must be proactive in preaching the gospel to ourselves throughout the day or we will default to a performance-based relationship with God.
God accepts us perfectly in Christ!
I heard Jerry Bridges illustrate this truth by talking about his watch. Before battery operated watches, you had to wind them every day or they would stop working. You have to wind the mainspring in order for it to keep running. He said, “The gospel is the mainspring of the Christian life, but you must wind it every day.” And I would only add here, “we must wind it frequently throughout the day,” like the popular praise chorus:
I need You,
Oh I need You
Every hour I need You
If you don’t preach the gospel to yourself regularly, Satan will try to discourage you and defeat you. Don’t let Satan whisper in your ear, “You’re a bad person. You’re an unfit mother, you’re a bad father. You’re a teenage failure.”
It’s at these moments, Christian, that you must look to the cross and see Jesus there who is your perfect Substitute, the Perfect One in your place who made an end of all your sin and made you acceptable to God forever.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.1
God bless you and Happy Easter!
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