Sugar Land Bible Church

Guest (Male): word of God. I'm very glad again that we could be here. I just want to say first of all that I'm especially glad that your church has air conditioning. My wife and I, we come from the land of the frozen chosen, and it only gets hot up in Duluth a few weeks out of the year, and it's been hot lately. And I jokingly said to a member of our congregation last Sunday, well, I'm actually going to go down to Sugar Land Bible Church next Sunday where they have air conditioning. So I'm going down there to cool off.

In all seriousness, I do want to say I have great respect and appreciation for this church and your pastor. I've known Andy for, I don't know, 15 years or so maybe. But we do pray as a church for Sugar Land Bible Church every week and we count it a privilege to be able to minister with you and pray with you in Christ. And so, I want to just send greetings from the rest of the church in Duluth to you as well.

I first heard about Sugar Land Bible Church via Andy when he came to our Bible conference years ago. We have one every fall. And he came and taught, and subsequently, he came 10 or 11 years in a row. And so, I just want to say as well a hearty thank you for supporting him in his travels and allowing him to be a blessing to not only Duluth Bible Church, but I know to many others outside of this local church. And so, I just want to pass that along.

You know at Duluth Bible Church, I've been teaching recently through the Epistle to the Galatians. And I thought that I should probably teach a couple of verses today from that Epistle that would encapsulate the essence of Christian living in this dispensation of grace that we're in. And they're found in Galatians 2:20-21, the key verses that we already read at the beginning of this service. And those two verses really encapsulate the Christian life by grace in a nutshell. And so, I thought I would just unpack that shell, so to speak.

And if you want to follow along in your Bibles, you can look at those two verses and turn there. But if you are turning there, I want you to just to ponder a simple question at the outset with me as we think about these two verses. Imagine if someone were to ask you as a Christian, tell me in one sentence or in one short summary, what is the essence of the Christian life? What is it really all about? What would you say? What elements would you include in your explanation?

Well, thankfully, the Apostle Paul already gave us such an answer in a couple of places in his epistles, but here is one short summary. He said for me to live is simply Christ. Now that says it pretty succinctly, as succinct as it gets. I really appreciate this statement from the co-founder of Dallas Theological Seminary many years ago. Many of you know Lewis Berry Chafer. He was primarily known because he went on to not only found Dallas Seminary but taught there for many years. Well, this man was the co-founder and he died, I believe, in the first two years of the school. W.H. Griffith Thomas was his name. And he also understood this very point that I'm making today. And this was over 100 years ago that he wrote a book called Christianity is Christ, which title says it all. But he also wrote in another place this statement. The theme of Christianity is not a theory, not an institution, not a book, not a set of rules, not simply a code of morals, nor a system of philosophy, and not even a statement of truth or principle. No, Christianity is a living person with whom all these things are connected and from whom they proceed.

And that's really what we're going to see in Galatians 2:20-21 this morning. We'll see in these two verses five simple but significant truths about living the Christian life by God's grace. And it all centers around our Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's why we're going to see five simple points this morning. Number one, from Galatians 2:20-21, that we have a position in Christ and an identification with Him. And that is the key to walking in daily fellowship with Him. Do you know who you are in Christ as a believer? And by that, I don't mean simply, do you know that you're saved and Heaven-bound? But do you know who your Savior is to you and that He is in you and you are in Him and what that means? That you've been identified with Him.

Secondly, what we're going to see from these verses is we not only have a position in Him, but He indwells us. Every one of us as believers in Jesus Christ. So, we can have a living and dynamic relationship with Christ and not just a change of our destiny. And thirdly, what we're going to see is that the Christian life is designed by God to be a daily walk of dependence on Christ as the sole trustworthy object of our faith. Just like we trusted in Him initially to get eternal life. We put all our dependence on Him. That is how we are to walk now thereafter in our Christian life, a walk of faith.

Fourthly, we're going to see that the motivation for our Christian life is our Savior's love for us. Is there any greater love in the entire world? And if you're here today and you're hungering and thirsting and you're desperate and you're tired and you're looking for genuine love in this world, look no further than Jesus Christ. There is no greater love. That should be the motivation for living the Christian life. And His love is a gracious love that doesn't look at us in all our flaws and faults and says, "I don't want to love that." But despite our flaws, despite our sin, He loves us. And that means it's a gracious love. And it's a love that knows no limits and has no bounds, scripture says. That's why it is utterly amazing.

And fifthly, what we're going to see from these two verses today is that God's grace towards us for salvation and the Christian life was only made possible by Christ's sufficient and finished work. Aren't you so glad that Christ cried out on the cross, "It is finished"? So, for the rest of eternity, you don't have to remain wondering, "Did He do enough? Is it fully accomplished? Do I have to pick up the slack and compensate for what He didn't do? Can I really be sure that I belong to Jesus Christ forever?" And the answer to that is emphatically yes from the word of God.

Now, if we're going to look at two verses out of Galatians today, we need to understand the context for these two verses, as a text without a context, as you are well taught, you know, is a pretext for teaching error. So, let's understand the context of Galatians 2:20 as we're diving in to these two verses. You see there was a situation in early Christendom in the first century. The Apostle Paul had gone on his first missionary journey to this region of modern-day Turkey and it was called Galatia. And you can read about it in the book of Acts in chapters 13 and 14, how he went there with Barnabas, and they mightily preached the gospel to Antioch of Pisidia, to Iconium, Lystra, Derbe. These towns, there was great opposition, but there, and there were all kinds of fireworks going off. But what happened by the grace of God is that many got saved, Jew and Gentile. Churches were planted. Believers began to grow. But according to chapter 1 of Galatians, within a year to a year and a half of their salvation and those churches being established, false teachers had come along teaching legalism. Judaistic legalism, especially. And so, the Galatian believers had their foundation shifted from under their feet and their walk with the Lord was becoming askew as well.

This is how the importance of teaching and holding to a clear gospel is, not only in our testimony to the lost, that they would hear the saving truth, but as it affects our Christian life and walk as well. But what you see in Galatians, this epistle, is a strong contrast between law and grace. And what the Apostle Paul is doing is he's setting forth to us a shift in the stewardship or economy of God. That dispensationally, God had shifted from the law as a dispensation or a stewardship of living to now an economy or stewardship of grace for the church age. And we are under grace today. We are not under law as a rule of life or a stewardship or an economy. And this is how the Lord wants us to think, based on Galatians and Romans and other passages in the New Testament.

Now in Galatians chapter 2, which we're going to see in a moment, the context was that earlier in the chapter, it described a situation where the Apostle Paul was up in the city of Antioch, enjoying fellowship with a church full of Gentile and Jewish believers. Until one day, the Apostle Peter came up from Jerusalem with fellow Jews who were believers, who accompanied Peter. And Peter, when he came to Antioch, he saw these Gentile believers, he saw Jewish believers, and he knew he had these men from Jerusalem over his shoulder, and he started to withdraw from the Gentile believers. Sending a loud and clear message, not with his words, but by his actions, acting hypocritically. And you know who was there to call him out on it? The Apostle Paul. He rebuked him right in front of others. And he did it out of love. And what he said was the truth in his correction of Peter. And so, his words to Peter are recorded in Galatians 2:14-21 as part of the inspired word of God that we can read about this morning. That is the context for what we're reading in Galatians 2:20-21.

Now, just as a historical footnote, do you think Peter got offended by that correction and never had fellowship with Paul again? No. He took it. And he made the mental correction, humbled himself. And they had wonderful fellowship thereafter. And I love the Apostle Peter. I can't wait to meet him in Heaven. You know, he was Exhibit A throughout the gospels of a screw-up who spoke what everybody else was thinking and then took the correction from the Lord Jesus for it, and all the other 11 apostles said, "Thanks for speaking up, Peter. I was thinking the same thing." But Peter had been corrected so many times and learned to humble himself and take the grace of God and grow. That he became an example for all of us. That's why when I see him in Heaven, I think I'm just going to go up to him and give him a hug. He's going to say, "Okay, you're only about the 10 millionth believer that's done that." But just as a side note. So, this is the context for Galatians chapter 2.

Now, we have in verse 19, leading up to our two verses, this statement. Paul writes, "For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God." What is he saying here in verse 19? Well, Paul was a Jew who was originally under the law. He was condemned by that law because he couldn't keep it perfectly, as none of us could. But he died to that law when he put his faith in Jesus Christ and was placed in Christ positionally. And the result was that Paul was now free to live unto God, not unto law. And we as Christians are also not under law in this dispensation, or as a rule of life, but we are under the grace of God in Christ. For if the law could not justify the sinner, and it can't, how could it then sanctify the saint today? And if the law could not declare me righteous before God via law-keeping, how can it now make me righteous practically in my walk with the Lord?

While the law could show us our need for Jesus Christ, attempting to keep the law could neither justify us nor sanctify us. And that's why all believers now are no longer today to live by law, which is legalism. But rather, we are to live in a daily personal vertical fellowship with our Savior who loved us and died for us. That is living by grace instead of law. And that's what he was speaking of leading up to verse 20.

Now, the first basic and essential truth that I want you to see about living the Christian life by grace is found there in verse 20 and it says, "I have been crucified with Christ." Has that happened to you as a believer so far? Well, this is a statement the Apostle Paul made. He wasn't physically co-crucified with Christ, but he speaks of it here in the past tense. In fact, it's the perfect tense in Greek, which referred to an event in his past that had continued up to his present. It was still true of Paul that Paul had been crucified with Christ, still was crucified with Christ, and it will forever remain true. And it's in the passive voice, as a verb in Greek, which means it was done to him, not by him. What we're going to see is that every believer in Christ has had this happen to them, according to the word of God. Whether you feel it or see it or sense it or not, it's written in the word of God, and it's true of you. We need to accept it by faith. In fact, this verb, "I have been crucified," is also in the indicative mood in Greek, which means it's presented as a statement of fact for all of us to believe.

You say, "Well, I don't, I didn't really feel that. I don't feel it from day to day." Well, we don't live our Christian life based on our feelings, do we? Our feelings are the caboose. The facts of the word of God are like the engine that drives the train. And what comes after those facts is our faith in the revealed word of God, and then our feelings follow. That should be the order. I honestly don't feel like I'm crucified from day to day. But it's a spiritual reality that happened 2,000 years ago.

I love a story that Louis Berry Chafer, the co-founder of Dallas Seminary said years ago. When he was younger, before Dallas Seminary, he was a traveling evangelist, and he was in Southern Florida in a rural congregation. And they were singing a new hymn that he had never heard before, and he was a musician as well. So, this really struck him. And the song had words that clearly conveyed this truth of Galatians 2:20 and Romans 6. And the words went like this, and they really left an impression on him about his identification with Christ. Chafer said I heard these words: "Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb? Were you there when He rose up from the grave? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there?" You ever heard that song? Very famous Christian hymn now, but it wasn't 100 years ago or so. But that conveys this truth that every believer was there. You died with Christ, you were buried with Christ, you rose with Christ, and they were singing about it in this little rural country church. And every believer in Christ hearing those words should say, "Amen." That's true. That is our biblical truth of Romans 6:1-11 that teaches about our co-crucifixion with Christ.

But it's not as though our sin nature died. It's still alive and well on planet Earth, to use a Hell and Zee title. But we have died to it when we died with Christ. We died to the law. We died to everything. We died to this world via our co-crucifixion with Christ, Galatians 6:14 will go on to say. So, that now legally, we're not under the law. We're not under the old covenant. We are not under the sin nature as our master or ruler. We are under new management, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to know this to be true, reckon it to be true, and yield in light of it. Whether you feel like it's true or not, the Bible declares it.

Now, why does all this matter? What difference does this make? Well, because in our thinking, let's admit it, as Christians, our first normal response when we live the Christian life is to think the problem is all out there, right? It's other people. It's the world. It's Satan. "He made me do it," et cetera. Rather than taking responsibility, which the Bible says to do, and recognizing Public Enemy Number One is that guy you see in the mirror when you get up every morning, and he's the first one you see. You know, the unholy trinity: me, myself, and I. And Christ took care of that problem via the cross. That's why Romans 7:18 says, "In my flesh," Paul wrote, "dwells no good thing." And he was writing that as a Christian who'd already been justified but struggling in his sanctification because his focus was on himself rather than the cross.

You know, there's a problem when people think, "Well, if I could just escape from this world, maybe go to a monastery and become a monk, all my problems would go away and I'd have peace." Doesn't work that way. Because you know what would happen in that monastery? You bring you with you, right? And a lot of Christians think, "Well, if I'm going to have spiritual victory in my Christian life, I have to crucify myself." What's the problem with that? It's already been done. You can't add to what Jesus already did. I've never met anyone who thinks that they can physically crucify themselves. You know, you might get one nail pounded in. But what are you going to do with this hand? Use your feet? And then once you get that one pounded in, what about your feet? You can't crucify yourself. It's something that has to be done to you, not by you. And Paul understood this. He said, "I have been crucified with Christ." And what that means is, as a believer in Jesus Christ, your position in Christ or identity is that you've died with your Savior.

Years ago, somebody said regarding D.L. Moody, you know, "What are they going to say on the day of your funeral? What do you want said?" He's going to say, "Well, tell people that I'm not dead, I'm alive. And I already died prior to my physical death. I died with Christ. And I've had eternal life in Him ever since. So, I'm more alive now in glory than ever before." But that's how we should think. Which sphere are you in? Are you an old creation person in Adam still, spiritually dead towards God? Are you now in Christ as a believer? See, you're either in one of these two camps. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ today. There's no other location. And just like, you know, real estate has this saying, "It's all about what? Location." Now would this be a good location to start, you know, move your family in next door perhaps? No.

When it comes to the Christian life, we've got an excellent location in a positive sense. We're in Christ. Those of us who've trusted in Him for eternal salvation. It says in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, to a church that Paul had previously said characteristically was walking in carnality. But in chapter 1, they were sanctified in Christ Jesus. That was their spiritual position as God saw them. Legally justified, forgiven, et cetera, but practically still walking in their flesh. And yet he could say of them in 1 Corinthians chapter 12:12-13, "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we've all been made to drink into one Spirit." This says absolutely nothing to do with H2O. This is the Holy Spirit placing everyone who's put their trust in Christ into union with Jesus Christ in that body.

You see, it says in 1 Corinthians 15:22 that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." That's why when you see your lost condition, you see your need for Christ, you see the sufficiency of what He accomplished for you on the cross, and you put your faith in Him to save you, believing He died for all your sins and rose from the dead, and you don't have to work to be eternally saved, He did it all. You transfer your trust from everything else to Jesus Christ alone. At that moment that you believe, the Holy Spirit of God takes you and places you into union with His Son, Jesus Christ. When you become a child of God in the family of God, that's your position. And now that you're in Christ, you no longer are dead in trespasses and sins, but you're alive. You have eternal life. You're no longer a slave to sin in terms of your legal position. Now you've been set free to serve Jesus Christ because you're redeemed and you belong to Him. You have His righteousness imputed to you. You've been adopted now as an adult son with sonship status, meaning you're the legal heir to a fortune in Christ. And you have all these spiritual blessings by virtue of a new location or position, being in Christ.

And I want you to see, just to get a flavor of how important this is in the New Testament, how many verses speak of this. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is where? In Christ, you are what? A new creation." Meaning if you're outside of Christ, you're not a new creation. You need to be born again. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says that reconciliation is found in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. If you're in Christ, you've already been reconciled to God through His substitutionary work on your behalf. Romans 3:24 says that "we are justified freely by His grace through what? The redemption that is found where?" It's all located in Christ Jesus. And because you're in Him, the redemption price is applied to you. And that's how God views you today as a redeemed one. That's why I love that song we sang before the service today. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. A song that is wonderful and biblical.

Ephesians 1:7, "In Him we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins." 1 Corinthians 1:30, "But of Him, God the Father, are you in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Christ is the sphere or location or position where all these treasures of God's grace and blessings are found. So, you're either in Adam, missing out on all these things, or you're in Christ, and you have all these things whether you daily think about it or reckon it to be true or not. And the more we think about who we are in Christ and let that affect us in our walk, we become transformed and we begin to grow once we're in Christ. And this is a process. But it begins with recognizing, again, our relationship to Jesus Christ and our identity in Him as co-crucified ones.

I like what one old saint years ago wrote, Ruth Paxson, who said, "We may be forgiven because we died, He died in our stead," in reference to Christ. "We may be delivered," in terms of a daily walk, "because we died with Him." Do you see the difference? She goes on to say, "God's way of deliverance for us, a race of hopeless incurables, is to put us away in the cross of His Son, and then to make a new beginning by recreating us in union with Him, the risen, living one." She's absolutely right.

Now, there is a difference between substitution truth and identification truth. And I want you to see this in this simple comparison. Substitution truth is the fact that Christ died for our sins. 1 Corinthians 15:3 declares that. That's the gospel. But the Bible also says in Romans 6:10 that Christ died unto sin, sin meaning the sinful nature, so that it would no longer practically and positionally be master over us. So, He died for sins and He died for the sin. Do you see the difference? Secondly, we're told in scripture that Christ died for you. But also we're told in Galatians 2:20 that you died with Christ. Little different emphasis there. Under substitution truth, we see that Christ was buried. Some say that's, He wasn't necessarily buried in our place, but we often declare that. And thirdly, we see that you were buried with Christ. Colossians 2:12. Paul speaks of that metaphorically there. And then when it comes to substitution truth, Christ was risen for our justification, Romans 4:25. Whereas with identification, we were co-risen with Jesus Christ for our sanctification, Colossians 3:1.

Here's a fifth contrast: that Christ ascended and is seated at God's right hand. Whereas when it comes to our identification, you're now seated with Christ in the heavenlies. Isn't that amazing to ponder? I know you're in Sugar Land here this morning, but just take a mental journey right now and ponder that truth of Ephesians 2:6, that you, along with the saints in Duluth, Minnesota, and everywhere else, have a position in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Sixthly, Christ freed you from sin's penalty. Whereas with identification truth, Christ freed you from sin's power by stripping the sin nature of its legal position as master over you. And then lastly, God accepted Christ's work on your behalf. And with identification truth, he wants you to ponder that God has now accepted you in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, this is how we are to think and let it transform us from day to day. Knowing that we've died with Christ, been buried with Christ, we've risen with Christ, and we're seated with Christ, and now we are to think this way.

The Lord is saying, in effect, "My child, as you reckoned on the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus for your eternal salvation, now go on in faith and reckon on His work for you to have spiritual victory from day to day as you walk by faith and believe that you died with Him and you're risen with Him in new life." I remember the story from years ago, hearing of two college girls who were wonderfully saved from Hell to Heaven by the grace of God. And a few days afterward, they received an invitation from their unsaved friends to go on a rip-roaring party where there would be lots of alcohol and drunkenness. And they kindly replied to this invitation, "Thank you for considering us, but we cannot attend because we both have died. We died with Christ a week ago." They were letting their position in Christ affect their decisions moving forward. And that is what Romans 6:1 and following declare. That you've been baptized into Christ Jesus in terms of His death. And by the way, you will never read anywhere in the Old Testament, under the dispensation of law or any dispensation, where a believer could say, "I've been baptized into Christ the Messiah." This is only true under grace, which means it's an amazing privilege for us to ponder and let it transform our lives. The passage goes on to say in Romans 6 that we are to live in light of the fact that we've died towards the sin nature, and that the old man, who we were in Adam, is dead and gone. But the sin nature no longer has a right to rule in our life.

And so, Romans 6:11-14 tells us to not only know this but "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." Implying that for a Christian, that could happen, right? You know, there's this teaching of lordship salvation today that says, "Oh, no. If you're truly saved, you won't live on an an ongoing basis under the influence of the sinful nature." Well, that's not what verse 12 is teaching. Verse 13, "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace." And that word "under" speaks of being under someone's authority as a dispensation or stewardship for living. So, what that tells us, dear saints, is that we are not to go back under law and be legislated by the law of Moses, but rather we're to be governed by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is Christian living by grace. To know who you are in Christ, that you're co-crucified, co-buried, co-risen, co-seated, and your life is with Christ. Reckon that to be true. Present your body and your members as instruments in yielded dependence on Him in light of your union now with Jesus Christ.

You see, everything goes through the cross, or should in our thinking. Spiritual victory in the Christian life is therefore not a matter of just, you know, repeating the work of Christ on the cross to conquer sin. That's already been done and settled. Now we need to reckon it to be true and yield in light of that. And that leads to a new purpose or direction in life, in our decisions, where we say no to sin and we say yes to God because of Jesus Christ and who we are in Him. And that is what Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians 5:15 when he says, "And He died that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." Now what are your reasons for living the Christian life? When you leave here today, how are you going to think as you proceed in your walk? Is it to get, go for the gusto and obtain the pleasures of all that this world has to offer, money, fame, power? That's hedonism. Some people live for that. Others live for religion and say, "Oh, no, no, no. True fulfillment is not in those things. We need to get religious. I need to start thinking in terms of appeasing God and changing my life so that I can gain God's favor through that. And I want to stay out of Hell so I better fly right." Well, that's just religion, the religion of man. That's not a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ on the basis of grace.

You see, when it comes to the foremost essential questions of life, "Who am I? Why am I here? Where did I come from and where am I going?" The answer to all of them are found in the Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Everything goes through the cross. Our purpose for living is not ultimately for a church or a Christian cause, no matter how noble it may be. It's not to prove that we're spiritual to one another so we'd get some "atta-boys". But rather, it's to live for a person, the one who loved us and gave himself for us. And that is the greatest love of all, the love of Christ. Sorry, Whitney Houston. Learning to love yourself is not the greatest love of all. It's the love of Jesus Christ.

So, as we go back to Galatians 2, let's consider again verse 20. "I have been crucified with Christ." But we see a second key truth of the Christian life in verse 20, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." This is not the statement of a paranoid schizophrenic who is deluded. Rather, this is the declaration of a spirit-filled, Christ-filled man of God. You know, I thought about titling this message, "Who is living inside of you today?" But I thought, you know, some people might misinterpret that and, you know, "Let's not let Pastor Tom leave Houston before we check him into the local clinic." You know, there's a context for that statement. Can you imagine how that would be misinterpreted? But let me seriously ask you, "Who's the source of your Christian life? Is it Christ in you?" It should be. Just like Paul.

Now, many Christians struggle with this concept. We are Trinitarian because the Bible's Trinitarian. We believe there's God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons in the one being who is God. And we know that the Holy Spirit indwells us. Several passages are clear about that. But do you know that according to Ephesians 3:19 and 4:6, even God the Father indwells the believer? And not to miss out, so does Jesus Christ. John 14:20, "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." An amazing union. That is why Colossians 1:27 refers to Christ in you, you Colossian believers, the hope of glory. You see, the Christian life is again, not just some other religion, it's a relationship with the real, living person who we fellowship with from day to day. Who we don't view as some absentee landlord out there in the far recesses of outer space. You know, "He created us and then stepped back and let us have at it here and and destroy ourselves on planet Earth and He'll come back at the end." No. He's with us from day to day. Paul could say, "Christ lives in me." Now, we don't see Him with the physical eye, of course. We don't feel Him with our senses. But this is a statement to take by faith and believe moment by moment and day by day until one day your faith will become sight and you will see the one who you've been having fellowship with invisibly all along when your faith becomes sight.

Now, I can hardly wait for that day. Is your faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you, as Paul says in Galatians 2:20? You see, the object of our faith is Jesus Christ. We trusted in Him as the object of our faith for salvation, believing He died for our sins and rose again. But He's also the object of our hope. The blessed hope is not merely a prophetic event on a eschatology chart and timeline. It is something that is summarized by Paul and Titus 2 as the blessed hope of the believer. It's a person. And Jesus Christ is the object of our affections because He is risen and seated at God's right hand, and He is our life. Therefore, we are to seek Him from the heart, Colossians 3 says. And He is the object of our obedience because He is the Lord of the church and our lives, and the head of the church. So, we take our direction from Him as well. He is the object of our guidance and our walk from day to day because the Bible says He's the good shepherd in our life. We are the sheep. And sheep normally follow the shepherd. But He's the one directing and guiding. And He's a good shepherd. If you let Him direct the steps of your life. Jesus Christ is our object for mercy in life. Do you need mercy at times? You know, "Lord, have mercy!" is not just an expression we say, you know, to be funny. It is something I literally have prayed day after day many times when I'm in a jam, and I feel like the trials of life are greater than I can face, I say, "Lord, I am so weak and frail. Can You have mercy?" And He is compassionate and He does. Time and time again.

That's why Hebrews 4 refers to Him as a sympathetic high priest because He came in the flesh. He knew the struggles that we go through in everything except sin. Yes, He never sinned, but He knows what it's like to live in this sin-cursed world in a weak, frail body and go through the trials of this world as well. He's also the object of our strength and vitality from day to day because He's our spiritual vine, John 15 says, and we are the branches. You ever think of that? That you are plugged into Him, and just like that branch, if it's broken off, you see it lying on the grounds around the church here, it's going to die. The foliage will will die off in a matter of days. But if we stay plugged in in terms of dependent fellowship with Him, He can produce His fruit in and through us. And it says in John 15:4-5 that "we are to abide in Him, and He will abide in us, for apart from Him we can do nothing." So, striving to live the Christian life apart from fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ is an exercise in futility. We don't live the Christian life by sheer determination. "I will! I'm going to do it! I've failed in the past. I'm going to roll up my sleeves and I'm going to do it harder!" Well, you know who tried that already? Paul. Romans 7. Remember that? "The good that I want to do, I don't do." Because he was relying on self. So, it's not by sheer determination. It's not by legislation. More laws aren't going to help you be more spiritual in your Christian life. It's through a walk of fellowship with a living Lord and Savior who loved you and died for you.

And lastly, we see here that the object of our faith is the one that we worship, Jesus Christ. He's the only worthy one, Revelation 5 declares. Remember John was in Heaven, and he looked all around, and there was no one found worthy. And he began to weep until somebody tapped him on the shoulder in Heaven and says, "Weep no more, John. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, who's also the Lamb of God," paradoxically, "both forever is the worthy one to take back the title deed to planet Earth." And what is the scene in Revelation 5 that results? They break out in worship to Him. "Worthy is the Lamb because He was slain." And this is how we live our Christian life, and we will for all eternity. Be turning to Him. That's why I've defined the Christian life this way, that it's designed by God to be a daily vertical personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Based on His sufficiency and our union with Him so that we continually appropriate our spiritual blessings in Him as we walk by faith and are filled with the Holy Spirit. And I might say, Christ as well, and God the Father, to glorify God. That's what it's all about, folks. And that's what Galatians 2:20 is driving at.

Let's go back there. It says, "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." I live by faith in the Son of God. This speaks of the manner of our Christian life, that it's a walk of dependence upon the Lord. Going back to this co-founder of Dallas Seminary, W.H. Griffith Thomas, I found this quote this last week in one of his old books. See, it helps sometimes to just pick those old books off the shelf and blow the dust off them. I literally cracked it open and found this page and began to read this quote, and I thought, "This is amazing. Lord, thank You. I don't mean to be mystical, but You just gave me a quote to use for this Sunday." Griffith Thomas says, "What is the best way of promoting Christian holiness and guaranteeing the true fruits of faith in our lives? The supreme spiritual danger of the Christian life is that of legalism." For, and by the way, that's what Galatians is written to address primarily. "For there is an inevitable tendency to assume that although justification is by faith, sanctification is somehow by struggle. That although the sinner is powerless in regard to salvation, he is not so in the matter of holiness." The result of this view is frequently to cause trouble in the Christian life, making the believer feel that though he is unable to become justified apart from himself, he cannot possibly be sanctified unless largely aided by his own efforts. But in reality, there is one great principle of faith covering the whole of the Christian life, which shows beyond all question that those who are fullest, freest, and frankest in their proclamation of justification by faith are thereby enabled to show that sanctification is likewise to be received in Christ by faith. And that there is one dominating principle throughout. We receive Christ Jesus by faith and we are to walk in Him by the same principle, Colossians 2:6. And when this is fully realized and properly emphasized in relation both to justification and sanctification, the outcome is liberty, joy, and practical holiness, which answer fully to the New Testament requirement of the Christian life. Now, I know that's a mouthful. But what he's saying is true. How did you get justified before God? Was it when you were water baptized? Was it going through confirmation, getting catechized? Was it by partaking of a communion wafer? Was it walking an aisle, maybe not for communion but at a crusade from Protestants, to pledge your life to try harder and recommit yourself to serving Jesus Christ? Did that justify you? No.

You see, salvation is not a 12-step program. It's a one-step response of simple faith in the only worthy saving object of our trust, Jesus Christ. Do you remember when you first put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior for your eternal salvation? You came to a point in your life where you realized, "I have no hope apart from Jesus Christ. I am going to transfer my confidence, my trust from anything that I was resting in before, going to church, my good works, whatever it was, I'm going to transfer it from that to Jesus Christ alone because He is the object of my trust." And you had that certain mindset of switching your confidence. When you did that, did you say to yourself, "Oh, well, now that's done. Check the box. I don't have to ever think that way again the rest of my Christian life." No. What he's saying here is Colossians 2:6, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." It was by faith then, it should be by faith from day to day as well. Recognizing, "I'm not sufficient in myself, but Christ is sufficient, and I'm going to rely upon Him step by step." That complete dependence is how we are to think in our walk from day to day. And by the way, this is not sanctification by works, but it does result in good works that glorify God.

You see, when you're thinking this way, in yielded dependence upon the Lord, you're a spirit-filled believer. And what comes out of the spirit-filled believer's life? A desire to want to do good works. And so, the works are not the means of sanctification, but they're the result. And we tend to flip those around by nature in our thinking. God says, "I don't want you to have a Nike mentality." What is that? Well, just get out there and do it. We want the outcome, so roll up your sleeves, try harder, and just get going. That's fleshly performance. God says, "You will fail," just like Paul in Romans 7. Rather, what He wants us to do is rely upon Him in a walk of faith. And this is a process over time. This is what 2 Corinthians 5:7 refers to when it says, "We walk by faith and not by sight." But how does this walk of faith in the Son of God relate to growth and sanctification? Well, again, I mentioned that at a point in our lives, we all have to see that we're sinners and that we're lost and we have a need for Jesus Christ. God is infinitely righteous, and we all fall short by nature of that. Romans 3 declares. But at a point in time, when we put our trust in Christ, we are justified in God's sight. This is the beginning of the Christian life. You get a position in Christ. You're in Him. You've died with Him. You've risen with Him. You're seated with Him. Christ is your life. And now throughout the rest of your Christian life, you are to walk. Whether you're a babe in Christ, an adolescent, or you're moving on to adulthood and maturity, you're to continue to walk by faith, even into your older years as an older saint. Till that day we go home to be with the Lord in glory. And then and only then will our standing that we have before Christ, which we got at justification, will that line up with our walk or our state. Then we'll be perfect, sinless in that sense. But that's glory. That's not now. In the meantime, the Lord wants us to grow in this walk of faith. And at times you may be a spirit-filled believer who's walking by faith, or at times you may be a carnal believer. 1 Corinthians speaks of both. And this will change and fluctuate. One thing that never changes is who you are in Christ and your position from day to day. And I'm very thankful for that.

But this is what Paul was referring to in Galatians 2:20. "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me," notice this, "who loved me and gave Himself for me," the end of verse 20. What is the motivation for your Christian life to be? The love of Jesus Christ for you. What that means is, you are not to walk every day, get up, and look in the mirror every day and say, "Man, you're a sinner, Tom. But if you try harder, you can outwardly reform, and then you'll find your self-worth if you do that. If you just walk more faithfully, more consistently, you'll be more worthy in God's eyes." And you know what? That's not true. You know, the kid's song, "Jesus loves me?" "Jesus loves me when I'm good, and I do the things I should. Jesus loves me when I'm bad, though it makes Him very sad." That's one version of it. I like that version. A kid's truth, but it's so clear and simple. We should never lose sight of that wonderful truth. And again, the world knows nothing of this kind of love. The world loves only if the world out there becomes attractive, then we follow those people who are attractive. The world says, "Oh, can you contribute? Well, then you have value and worth. We want to partner with you and have a relationship with you. But if you can't contribute much, you're not worth much, so see you later."

The world loves based on merit, based on worthiness, but God comes along, and He thinks differently. And He chiefly wants to demonstrate His love to those who are incapable of reciprocating, who are sinners, dead in trespasses and sin, knowing how undeserving we are. And He loves for what He can give, not for what He can get like the world. Have you thought about Galatians 2:20? "I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me." And how does He spell love there? "Gave Himself for me." Isn't that just like John 3:16, which I'm sure you all know, probably the most famous verse in the whole Bible? "For God so loved the world that He did what? Gave." That's how He expressed His love. Giving His only begotten Son. That's why as we think of John 3:16, how did God demonstrate how much He loves you? By Christ dying on the cross for you. And by the fact that He died. That's what 3:16 is talking about. What is the extent of this love? Well, Ephesians 3 and other passages say that He loves you with an infinite and an eternal love. Think about this for a minute, dear saints. When you were born again, and God declared you righteous and accepted in His Son, the beloved one, did He love you with an infinite everlasting love at that moment? Yes, He did. What about five years later, 10 years later, 20 years later, when you have a major spiritual blowout in your Christian life, and you are ashamed, and you want to give up in the Christian life and say, "I can't, it's impossible, I can't do it. I'm going to quit going to church." Does He love you just as much then as He did back here? Absolutely. What does that tell you? He can't love you any more or any less than He's already loved you when He accepted you in the first place. And we are to let that truth transform our thinking from day to day, knowing that, "You love me to the max, Lord. That's amazing. I don't deserve this." And yet, we're told in Ephesians 3:17-19 that "we would come to grasp this truth, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." You see, when you let that love of Christ motivate you, you are a spirit-filled, Jesus-filled, God the Father-filled believer, and you will spill what you're filled with. You'll be a wonderful witness, and you will do good works as a result, as the overflow.

But I am amazed at how much the Lord loves us here. It's boundless, it's limitless, it's unsurpassed, and it never ends. That's why I love what Romans 8:38-39 says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor things present, nor things future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor any other created thing." Are you a created thing? "Shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Notice the position again, in Christ Jesus. If you're in Him, He's going to love you forever, no matter what happens in your future, no matter what you do as a created thing, no matter what Satan is doing in this wicked world that's getting darker by the day until the return of Christ. All this tells us that you're eternally secure. And you don't have to live by this crippling daisy theology from day to day, wondering, "Does He love me? I'm doing well in my walk with the Lord, but on the days I don't walk with the Lord, I don't think He loves me as much." He loves me, He loves me not. He loves me, He loves me not. Now that's not what the Bible teaches. His love for you is constant. That means you're eternally secure in Him as a believer in Christ because He didn't love you based on your worthiness to begin with.

And when you grasp this, how much He loves you, what do you want to do in return? What is the normal response? Well, you want to love the person that loved you. And I like how John writes in his first epistle, chapter 4, verse 19, that "we love Him." Why? Because we really want Him to get, for Him to love us in response. Because if I don't love Him, boy, He's not going to love me. No, that's the opposite of what this verse is saying. He first loved us even when we weren't responsive. Isn't that amazing? I have found as a parent, we have three adult grown children now, that, you know, they haven't all been perfect. Pastor's kids aren't perfect. Little inside information here. They've had their struggles in their walk too as part of their growth. But we have found that if we show and demonstrate to them the love and grace of God as He's treated us, that has a far better effect on their response than if we're all over them like a cheap suit and just nag them. Because this is how God deals with us.

You see, when you understand this motive for the Christian life, who we are in Christ, what He's done for us, how much He loves us, now we're to walk in dependence upon that. The proper motivation for the Christian life should be one big simple thank you note. That's all our Christian life is. "Lord, I want to do this because I'm grateful." Why did I want to come to Sugar Land Bible Church and teach? Because of the love of Christ. And He put a love in my heart for you, even though I haven't seen you or met most of you before. The love of Christ in us.

Let's cover one more point here. A fifth point from verse 21, going back to Galatians 2:21, "I do not set aside or nullify." I like the New American Standard translation better here. "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." What does this show us? That the basis of your Christian life is Christ's work, and it's finished, and God's grace. If you could get to Heaven by being good, how good would you have to be? How good is good enough? Well, you'd have to be as good as God. That's why when I share the gospel with people, I, I try to, well, I don't try to shock them, I just tell them the truth, and it arrests their thinking. And sometimes it snaps the religious mind out of his spiritual darkness and blindness when I say, "To get to Heaven, you don't have to be good. You have to be perfect. Are you perfect?" "Well, no." "Because you have to be as good as God for God to let you into His perfect Heaven." "How are you doing with that?" See, most people, sometimes when I share, begin to share the gospel with them, they'll say, "Well, I'm good." And I'll say, "Did you know the Bible actually says there's none good, not one, including me?" "See, the Bible says that we're all sinners. And when you see the law, the Ten Commandments, I should say, that aspect of the law, it's like a mirror to show us all our flaws and faults. But that mirror has no power to remove the flaws and faults that it's showing you. It's powerless in that regard." And I used to think growing up as a Roman Catholic that if I just kept the Ten Commandments more faithfully, my odds of going to Heaven would improve. And the more I tried to keep them, the more I felt condemned, and it showed me, "I'm not measuring up." And the law was fulfilling its purpose.

You see, to get to Heaven, it's not a matter of getting your good to outweigh your bad because the wages of sin is what? Death, not good works. That's why Christ had to die for us. And Christ took all our sin. It was put on Him at the cross, imputed to Him, so that we would get His perfect righteousness by grace. What a deal! In fact, there is no better deal in the entire world. Tell me a religion that has anything better to offer than this. There is none. This is the real deal from God. Christ died for every one of our sins, no matter how you label them. Every single one paid for in full. And that satisfied the justice of God so that no more work had to be done because the wages of sin is death, Christ paid those wages. Therefore, He's free to give the gift of eternal life to all who believe Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead. Dead saviors can't save, but a living Savior can. And Christ rose from the dead to show that His work on the cross was accepted by God the Father, and it's all finished. Now we have grace Christianity which says, "It's all been done, all been provided for. It's not a matter of you doing more to be accepted by God. Now will you believe that it's finished?" Christ did it all. Put your trust there.

I remember reading Ephesians 2:8-9 for the first time, and it was a shock to my unsaved religious mindset. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." And in my thinking, salvation was a reward for the righteous. And I thought I was righteous enough, except on my bad days, I had to admit, "I'm out." Rather than a gift for the guilty. And as time went on in my life, I came to realize, "I'm guilty. I have no hope apart from Jesus Christ's finished work alone." And that last statement, "lest anyone should boast," was really convicting to me because I came to realize that though I might not be out stealing hubcaps off of cars, I am a thief religiously because if I think I can get to Heaven by my good works, then I am stealing glory that rightly belongs to Jesus Christ alone. To Him be all the glory. To Him be all the credit because He did it all. And He should be the object of our trust and our boast. Dear saints, this is not just justification by grace through faith. This is the Christian life by grace as well in a nutshell for you. Let's pray.

Guest (Male): Heavenly Father, we thank You for the simple and clear teaching of Your Word. I pray for the saints of Sugar Land Bible Church, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, that we would just continue to grow in who we are in Christ and that Christ would live and dwell within us and we would have His life lived out through us for His glory. That the answer to, "What is our Christian life about?" would simply be Christ. "For me to live is Him." We pray this in His name and for His sake. Amen.