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Colin Smith: The Christian life is lived in the body, and the Christian life is by faith in the Son of God. These two statements will give you a firm handle on the Christian life as it is in the Bible and as you will experience it every day of your walk with Christ.

Steve: Welcome to Open the Bible weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, I think many of us understand that the Christian life is lived by faith in Christ, but what do you mean when you say that the Christian life is lived in the body?

Colin Smith: Well, living life in the body simply means that we all feel the pool of the flesh. Every Christian experiences the pool of temptation, and we never get beyond it.

Steve: Yeah, and so why is it so important for us to wrap our brains around these two concepts?

Colin Smith: But the the huge relief to me is that it makes sense of my experience. And I think many Christians will say, you know, if the Son of God is living in me, if I really have faith, why do I have all these struggles? And here the Bible comes to us and says, well, you are living by faith in the Son of God, but you're also living life in the body. And that's why you got to struggle.

Steve: Well, it's exactly what today's message is all about. It's entitled new life, new battles. Makes sense there. If you can join us in Galatians chapter two, we're really drilling down on verse 20 as we begin our message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: What do you make of the Christian life? How do you find time together what the Bible says about it and your own experience of it? If you're a Christian, you've died to sin, but if you're like me, you probably find that sin is pretty much alive towards you. Its presence is obvious. I wonder if you've noticed the contradictions in your own Christian life. You love Christ, so why is it then that you're drawn to sin? You trust Christ, so why is it then that you struggle with so many fears and so many anxieties? I don't know about you, but I often find that I am a mystery to myself.

Do you find that about your Christian life? You think now I I I don't fully understand exactly what's going on inside of me as a Christian. Well, that's the reason why we're looking at the inside story of the Christian life so that we can get a better handle on what it means to be a Christian. And if you're not yet a Christian, what it would be like, what you could expect if you were to become a Christian even today. Well, maybe you have struggled to hold together your own experience and some of the things that the Bible says about being a Christian.

You know, you read about joy and you read about peace and you read about all of these things in the Holy Spirit, God working with you, Ephesians one with the same power that he exercised in raising Jesus Christ from the dead. And you think I'm just trying to get through a course at college, you know, I'm just trying to raise a family. I'm just trying to find a job here. I'm just trying to struggle with a sickness here and my life doesn't seem quite so grand as all of that. Well, I hope you'll open your Bible today at Galatians chapter two and verse 20.

Galatians chapter two and verse 20. I want to draw your attention to what I think is one of the greatest statements about the Christian life in all of the Bible. To me, it has been one of the most profoundly helpful in all of the New Testament. Many of you will be familiar with it. Galatians chapter two and verse 20 we read these words. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Spurgeon says about this verse, quote, your life as a Christian is a very strange one. I am crucified, nevertheless I live. How do you hold these two things together? What a contradiction. He says the Christian's life is a matchless riddle. No worldly person can comprehend it, and even the believer himself cannot fully understand it. He knows it, but solving all its enigmas, he feels to be an impossible task. Well, there's the enigma, there's the mystery, there's why it's pretty difficult sometimes to make sense of what's going on in your own experience as a Christian. And our purpose today is to look into this mystery as we explore the inside story of the Christian life.

I do hope then that your Bible is open here because for all of the mystery of this verse, I've got to tell you, I have found this verse of scripture to be more helpful than any other for getting a handle on the experience of the Christian life. And I want to draw your attention to two statements in this verse that I have found personally to be so very very helpful. They're right in the middle there. Do you notice that Paul describes the Christian life in two ways? First, he says the Christian life is a life that is lived in the body.

The life that I live in the body. And then secondly, he describes this life that is lived in the body as a life lived by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So here are two touchstones of the Christian life. Here are two handles as it were that you can get on the Christian life. The Christian life is lived in the body and the Christian life is by faith in the Son of God. These two statements will give you a firm handle on the Christian life as it is in the Bible and as you will experience it every day of your walk with Christ.

Your Christian life is lived in the body. And what that means is that you will always feel the pool of the flesh as long as you live in this world. You will find that there are times when you lack courage. There are times when you lose heart. You will find times when you lament your own failure. You may experience sickness. You will experience at some point weakness. Eventually, if Christ has not come within the span of your lifetime, you will like the vast majority of other believers experience death itself. On the way there, you may experience depression.

On the way there, you may experience anxiety, doubt, feelings of inadequacy, loneliness. All of this flows from the reality that Paul states here that we live the Christian life in the body in this physiological reality. I live this life in the body. But that is not the whole story. Second handle on the Christian life. Your Christian life is lived by faith in the Son of God. This Christ is for you, he's saying. This Christ is with you. His spirit lives in your body. And what that means is that you can look to him and you can count on him in every circumstance of your life.

What he's saying here then is that it is Christ's presence that makes it possible for you to live this difficult and challenging life in the body. Because Christ's power makes it possible for you to live this life with all of its struggles and with all of its difficulties. And that power is appropriated to you and by you as you exercise faith. So think with me for a moment to give an illustration here about the metro train making its way in every morning and coming out every evening from Chicago. The train runs on twin tracks. And if you like to think about it that way, thinking about these parallel tracks that we cross so many times, the Christian life runs on the twin tracks of these realities.

You are in Christ and you are in the body. Both of these things are true so long as you are living in this world. And just as the metro train needs two tracks to get into Chicago, so you need a firm grip on these two realities in order to make sense of the Christian life. Get hold of one without the other and you'll always be in confusion. You'll be saying, why is the Christian life as it is? Why am I so far from the realities of the Bible? The Christian life then is in Christ and it is in the body.

And once you grasp that, you begin to see and make sense of your own experience. Sin dwells in you by the flesh. Christ dwells in you by the spirit. As long as you're living this Christian life, you're engaged in some kind of conflict with the world and the flesh and the devil. And the reason that you're able to engage in this particular struggle is that Jesus Christ lives in you. Being in Christ means that you have new life. Being in the body means that you have new battles. And that's our title today, new life and new battles.

Steve: You're listening to Open the Bible weekend with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called new life, new battles. Well, Open the Bible is able to be on the station, make the podcast, the app, and all the ministry tools available because of your generosity. So thank you for giving to and supporting this ministry. And as you give a gift of any amount, we want to say thank you this month by sending you a copy of the ESV Psalms photography edition. And Colin, tell us about this book.

Colin Smith: Well, the first thing to say, Steve, is I was absolutely wowed when I saw it for the first time. Not only does it have all of the 150 Psalms each set out on its own page, but it has each of these Psalms with the most beautifully photographed images that illustrate the themes of the Psalms. We're talking about a hard cover book in its own design sleeve, more than 300 pages. It is beautiful. Now, how would we use it? Well, the Acts of the Apostles tells us that the early Christians had four priorities. They gave themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread.

That's really the communion and to the prayers, the prayers. Well, what were the prayers? The prayers surely were based around the book of Psalms. And God has given to us this book of 150 spirit inspired prayers so that we can use them. And this photography edition of the ESV Psalms is just a beautiful way for a person to be able to take the words that God has given us and then to turn them back to him in prayer. I think it's going to be a blessing to everyone who has it.

Steve: Well, we'd love to send a copy to you as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give at our website openthebible.org or over the phone when you call 1 877 open 365. Again, the website is openthebible.org and our toll-free number is 1 877 673 6365. Let's get back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Being in Christ means that you have new life. Being in the body means that you have new battles. And that's our title today, new life and new battles. Now, I want you to see that these twin realities are not only in this verse, they're actually all over the Bible. Um so let me just give you four examples. And rather than chase all over the place, I've taken the four examples from the one letter of second Corinthians, which if you go back just a couple of page, you will see that that's the letter before Galatians here.

Second Corinthians is fascinating because it is the letter more than any other where Paul opens up his own personal experience of what it was like for him to live the Christian life. And so let me just take one or two snapshots so that you can see both the new battle that he faces and also the new life in which he faces that battle. Second Corinthians chapter one and verses eight and nine is the first of these. Second Corinthians chapter one and verse eight and nine. Look at the new battle here. Paul says we do not want you to be uninformed brothers about the hardships that we suffered in the province of Asia.

We were under great pressure and it was far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. Now you see the battle written all over there. He says to translate it another way, we were utterly, unbearably crushed. That was part of his experience of the Christian life. But notice at the same time he then says in this verse, but this happened that we might rely, not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. Do you see the power of that? He's experiencing the new battle and the new life at precisely the same time.

He is not saying I once was in a terrible battle, but of course now I am in Christ. All of that is behind me. No, he's saying the new life in Jesus Christ is what made it possible for me to stand and to endure when I felt utterly, unbearably crushed and when I felt even the sentence of death coming over my own life. New battle, new life. Turn over a couple of pages to second Corinthians chapter four and two verses here, verse 11 and verse 16. Notice the battle in verse 11. We who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake.

Always being given over to death. I mean, you remember how Paul speaks later in this letter about being shipwrecked and being flogged and being persecuted. I mean, this is real experience. He had the wounds in his own body to demonstrate it. But then he says, look at the life here. We're always being given over to death for Jesus's sake so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. Life of Christ is being evidenced in this apostle standing up under this and continuing to serve Christ and to go on as a missionary. Verse 16.

He's making the same point again, the twin realities. We do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away. So here's a Christian who physically, his body is in decline. But he says at the same time, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. There's the reality both of life in the body and the reality of life in Christ. And these two things are happening to the apostle at the same time. Turn over another couple of pages, would you? Once you start seeing this, you'll see it all over and you'll begin to have a handle on the Christian life.

Second Corinthians chapter seven, I'm looking at verse five. Look at the new battle. When we came to Macedonia verse five, this body of ours had no rest. But we were harassed. That 's the apostle speaking. At every turn, conflicts on the outside, fears within. This is extraordinary. Here's a man in Christ, a man of extraordinary faith. And he's describing a particular experience that he goes through and he says, I I was harassed. I came to Macedonia. I experienced all these conflicts that were going all around me. And what was going on inside me was fear.

Fears within, conflicts without. That's life in the body. But notice it's never alone. Notice the new life in the very next verse, but God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus. Even in this I experienced God's grace and his help and he sent me a friend. That's what he said. Turn over another couple of pages and you'll see it again. Second Corinthians chapter 12 and verses seven through nine. You may know these verses well. Here's the battle. Verse seven. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.

And three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away. Oh God, please take away this affliction in my life. Satan's tormenting me. So there's the conflict. There's the battle. But notice the new life. But Christ said to me, my grace, verse nine, is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. And Paul says therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. So this is the same apostle who on one occasion captured these things in just two phrases. He said, who is sufficient for these things?

I look at my life. It all seems overwhelming. Who is sufficient for these things that I face? And that's life in the body, isn't it? You ever felt that? I know I have. But you see that's one of the twin realities of the Christian life because in the very next line he says, but our sufficiency is of God. Battle, the life in the body, by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Now, once you get hold of these two firm handles on the Christian life, I think you will find this to be profoundly helpful.

It will help you to make sense of your own experience. It will help you to understand the broader scriptures that you are reading when you place them within the light of this context. Let me give to you six ways in which the twin realities of the Christian life can be stated. I hope you might find at least one of these helpful. Here's one way of saying it. The Christian is at peace with God, but he is at war with sin. See, a true Christian, someone has said, is known as much by his war as by his peace.

If you think of the Christian life only in terms of, oh well, I have peace with God and so I should experience all this wonderful peace all the time, then you've got one handle and you won't have a clear grasp of what the Christian life is. To be at peace with God also means that you're at war with sin. And that is why the Christian is known as much by his conflict, by his struggle as he is by his experience of peace. Grasp one without the other, you really will never understand or make sense of the Christian life.

Second, Christ lives in me by the spirit. Sin lives in me by the flesh. See, the Christian doesn't live in sin, but sin lives in the Christian. Christian's not in the flesh, but the flesh is certainly in the Christian. It's well said in one of the songs that we sometimes sing here, in my heart there is a treason, one that poisons all my love. So Lord, take my heart and consecrate it. Wash it in your cleansing blood. There is never a day when my heart does not need the washing and the cleansing of the blood of Christ.

And that's true of your heart as well. However much you've progressed in the Christian life, no Christian ever arrives in heaven because he's done well in the Christian life. Christians arrive in heaven only because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's always our dependence. Here's another way of saying the same thing. The Christian is done with sin, but sin is not done with the Christian. Now, that's important when you read a passage like Romans in chapter six and verse two. You know, we have died to sin, the Bible says. Or when you read one John in chapter three and verse nine and John says, you cannot go on sinning if you've been born of God.

You you no longer sin. And yet at the same time, in one John 1 8 we're told, if a man says that he is without sin, he deceives himself and the truth is not in him. How are we to put these things together? Simply this way, that to be a Christian means that a decisive break has been made with sin. You are not the person you were. You are done with sin, but sin is not done with you. Let's put it another way. The Christian lives in the power of the spirit, but he or she also experiences the weakness of the flesh.

See, don't expect that the power of the Holy Spirit will make you feel on Tuesday evening to take a random point in the week, like you are standing on the victor's podium taking your bow for your performance in the Christian life during that day. You will not have that experience, not the side of of heaven. And then you will be on your face and on your knees in adoration before Christ. No, the power of the Holy Spirit is what makes it possible for you to persevere in the challenges that you face on Tuesday of this week.

Steve: Unfortunately, we do have to pause the teaching right here, but we'll get back to looking at these contradictions that we experience in the Christian life next time here on Open the Bible weekend. Our message is entitled new life, new battles. And it's part of a series called the inside story of the Christian life. It's a great reminder that just because we come to Jesus and we're given a new life doesn't mean that all the struggles and all the difficulties and the battles of life go away. No, we just get new battles along with that new life.

And I love how Pastor Colin pointed out today that the Christian is done with sin, but sin is not done with the Christian. So we are in a battle. And the great thing is we do get to fight that battle from a position of victory. Well, Colin, I'd like for you to talk to the person who says, well, I've been hearing all kinds of different people talk about what it means to live out the Christian life. What is the criteria or the grid that we had to run that teaching through?

Colin Smith: Well, I think that there are two things to look for and they're right out of the scripture that we'd be looking at. Ask the question, does this teaching take the doctrine of sin seriously? Does it take the power of sin seriously? Or is it suggesting that one day, you know, I'm going to get to a position in this life in which I'm no longer really battling because, you know, I'm wholly yielded and entirely sanctified and so forth and so on. That's not taking the life in the body seriously. The other question to ask is, is this teaching taking the power of the Holy Spirit seriously?

Because it is not the case that I'm always just going to be the same and I'm never going to make progress because here I am, you know, wretchedly in this body of flesh and so forth. The power of the spirit lives within every believer and so there is hope of progress. So these two truths are really very important for getting a biblical framework in terms of understanding the Christian life.

Steve: You know, Colin, I think a lot of us understand that we are sinners and it seems to be so much more obvious that we have this problem with sin than what the Holy Spirit may be doing for us.

Colin Smith: Yeah, easy to say we're sinners, but the problem is if we only say that, then we end up excusing our complete lack of growth and progress. And so the challenge is the Holy Spirit lives within you. Think what spirit lives in you. The power of God is present in your life for precisely the battles that you have with sin. So why say you can't make progress? Why say I can't be different? That's a denial of the very gift that God has given to you. So the Bible gives us this absolute realism about the struggle and it gives us wonderful hope in terms of the progress that we can make.

Steve: Well, that hope is what we're going to continue to look at in our next broadcast as we continue the message new life, new battles. I hope you make it a point to join us for the next Open the Bible weekend. Open the Bible weekend is a listener supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: This is Pastor Colin. And I want you to know about a resource that will help you in your devotional life. It's called Open the Bible daily. My colleague Pastor Tim Augustine takes what you hear on Open the Bible and he edits it into daily bite-sized chunks that you can read in your devotional time in less than three minutes. Every day you'll find a verse of scripture, a short teaching from God's word, and an application that you can carry with you through the day. People who use this tell us that they read it every day. And I think that if you try it, you'll love it too.

For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.