I Died, He Lives
Galatians 2:19-21 · Vern Peterman · Jul 8, 2007
Galatians (2007), No. 12
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492603239341

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're going to be moving right into this passage here this morning, Galatians 2, 19-21, as Courtney read for us. And one of the things we'll just point right off is that Galatians is a book that concentrates truths that are said elsewhere, oftentimes with more explanation, but Galatians brings it together. It concentrates those truths and states them succinctly, and that's true of this passage here. There are other passages, and we have some of them quoted for you in the handout and on the slides, that explain some of these in more detail, sometimes providing some other perspectives. But this particular passage is really potent. And as we look at this, here's Romans 6, 3 through 7.

We've been baptized. And by the word baptized, it's not just speaking of putting somebody in the baptismal. Baptized meaning placed into, immersed in. Immersed in so as to be changed completely by the immersion. Give a couple of examples. This word baptism was used in New Testament times for taking a piece of floss and putting it completely into a dye so that it came out entirely changed in its color. Or it was used also when they made the Roman soldiers' swords, they would heat up the sword to white hot and then plunge it into cold water and that would harden and anneal the surface, changing the character of the sword by the immersion into water. So that's what this word baptism is talking about. We'll talk about this more as we get into Chapter 3 as well.

But we have been united with Christ, as verse 5 says, united with Him in the likeness of His death. Certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. Our old self, and we'll look at that here this morning, our old self was crucified with Him in order that our body of sin might be done away with. And the next part there, we have died with Christ. Certainly, we see that in the middle of the passage that Courtney just read for us here, where it says, we have been crucified with Christ. We shall also live with Him, Christ having been raised from the dead.

And in verses 10 and 11, for the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. And that truth is brought forward. He lives to God. We live to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. In the next chapter, in Romans 7, you also are made to die to the law through the body of Christ.

That's the same message as Galatians 2.19. And then in verse 6, but now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound.

Now, one of the interesting things is that as things are stated here in the passage that Courtney just read for us, Galatians 2, 19-21, we keep running into this I. Now, does Paul have I trouble? Is that what he's talking about? Why did Paul write with I repeatedly in these verses? Why did he do that? And by the way, we can throw in the question, why the me's? Three of them. Why the I's and the me's in this passage? So why would Paul write with I? Well, let's take a look at a few reasons.

First of all, Paul was defending his commission. He was defending his commission as an apostle, and he was defending the gospel that he had received directly from Jesus Christ. So stating, here's how I stand and here's how I live would make perfect sense from that standpoint. He would say, here is my stance with the law and how it comes about. I have been crucified with Christ. Here is the gospel that I have received from Jesus Christ and how I live it out.

This is real to me. The truths were not hypothetical. It wasn't just a result of some long math equation coming to the hypothetical end. No, these were very real and personal in Paul's life, and he could say that right here in these verses. I have been crucified with Christ. Did the truth apply to other believers? Certainly. But he could claim it personally because it was very real in his own life.

Beyond that, in New Testament times, one of the ways of emphasizing a truth, of bringing it dramatically, is to state things in first person. I see this. I do that. We have an example of that in Romans 7, starting with verse 7 through the end of the chapter. He does things very similarly. Why? Among other purposes, it emphasizes, underscores, and shows a dramatic focus upon the things being said.

Paul's going to tell the believers in Galatia later on, this is chapters 3 and chapter 5, that they're included in these truths. He's not just saying, I'm the only one that got crucified with Christ. Sorry about you. I'm the only one who has died to the law, but sorry. No, he's not doing that, is he? He will tell them that they're included. His initial statement, however, is focusing on himself as the example.

So we look at this passage, there's also an additional big advantage for us. Because we see, as we saw in the Romans passage, and as we'll see later in Galatians, that these truths are meant to apply to us, we can put ourselves in there. Matter of fact, let's do that right now. Let's kind of read through it and think of yourself in that.

For through the law, I died to the law. Does that include you? If you're a believer here this morning, yeah, you can put yourself and say those words and learn from it and gain Paul's perspective. Through the law, I died to the law so that I, the believer, might live to God. 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 up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes to the law, then Christ died needlessly.

Here's how we're going to approach these three verses. Okay? Here's our approach. First part here is we'll look closely at verse 20, the middle of the three verses here today. It talks about who died and who lives, and then uppercase who died and uppercase who lives. And so we'll look at that here.

Next Sunday we'll talk more about the first and the last of the three verses, verses 19 and 21. Verse 19, as we'll see next week, addresses our relationship to the law and our relationship to God. Verse 21 speaks of the exclusivity of the principle of law and the principle of grace. A couple weeks ago, we made available a handout, Law vs. Grace.

Those in the Sermon on the Mount elect have got a copy of this. But I'd also point out, if you go on the Holly Hills website, there's a copy of it available there. You can download it. Last couple of weeks, I've been encouraging people to take this and put this under your pillow. You can put several copies if that helps you, okay? But at any rate, feel free to download it, print it out, and whatever number you feel is helpful to you, and take a look at it.

We'll be returning to this chart here, comparing the principle of law versus the principle of grace. All right, now looking at verse 20, which will be our center point today. Here we have in verse 20 an interesting point. There is a small chiasm. Now, as a chiasm, as we have been noting, mirror image in written form. So here's this verse, which is in itself a small chiasm. And why do I say that?

I say that because the first and the last parts of this verse speak of Christ's death on the cross. The top part says, I have been crucified with Christ. Christ was crucified. I was crucified alongside Him, with Him. And the last part says that when Christ was crucified, He died for me. I died with him, he died for me.

That's the message here in the first and the last part of this verse. What's interesting too is you say, well, he loved me and gave himself up for me. That sounds good. I can go for that, you know. But this my dying with him, believe me, that's loving too. We'll see that shortly. The middle part of verse 20 tells us about who does the living in Paul's life and how that takes place. It's not about the dying so much as the living. Who lives? Who does the living day-to-day?

So here's Galatians 2.20.

It tells us that we're identified with Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. We'll see as we'll study this even further in chapter 3, the five ways in which we've been identified with Christ, identified with Him as crucifixion, said here in Galatians 2.20, buried with him, proving that he died and that we died with him. Raised with him, he was raised to new life, we with him.

Ascended with Him as He ascended into the heavenlies and seated with Him, Ephesians 2.6, seated with Him in the heavenlies. That's where we're left. Seated with Christ.

In this specific passage in Galatians 2.20 where it says, I have been crucified with Christ, this is explicitly stated here in this verse. The other truth that is implied because we live to God is that we were raised with Him. As we put together, and we'll do this more in detail later, as we put together all the passages, we see that Scripture, when we see all these truths laid side by side, explicitly lays out each of these truths more than once.

So let's start with that first line there in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. Page two of your handout there. In the English, It says, I have been crucified with Christ. Believe it or not, that's one word in the Greek text. Boy, they pack a lot into those words, right?

That word is a perfect passive indicative verb. Now, you might be saying, well, what's a perfect passive? And that's not it. Okay. The perfect passive is this. First of all, it's a verb, which means it's an action. Okay? There's an action that has taken place. that it is a perfect tense means it's a completed past action. It's a done deal.

It is completely done. It has ongoing results into the future and that's a very good thing. It wasn't just, I've been crucified with Christ but now I've got a bunch of stuff to do because it didn't take. Or I've been crucified with Christ but I've got to go back and do it all the time. No. It's a done deal. It has ongoing results into the future and in fact, eternity, it implies impermanence. I'm crucified with Christ.

The passive part means that God has done the action. It's not our job to go crucify ourselves with Christ. He has done it. He is the one who's accomplished it. It is God's work. It is God's work having been accomplished through Christ and in Christ. It's not ours to do. We don't have to work at being crucified. As a matter of fact, I just would ask this. Do any of you remember that? Do you remember being crucified with Christ?

No. It is a revealed fact, spiritual fact, revealed to us, we take on faith. Faith in the spiritual facts that God has revealed intentionally because He loves us. For the person who is a believer, This isn't just something, boy, it sure would be nice if I was crucified with Christ. I hope I was. Boy, is it a possibility? Maybe I can pray and ask the Lord that it happened. No. If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He died for your sins, that He was buried, that He rose again, if you believe that, then you're saved. And this has taken place already. God did it. Not us. It's not something that we have yet to do. It's not something we can do or expect to do. It's all God's accomplishment. It's done completely, already and forever. So we have been crucified with Christ. Imagine that.

There on that day, there were a lot of people who were stunned by the things that took place. The disciples, many of them scattered. I'm sure many were appalled. There was a Roman centurion that day that said, truly this is the Son of God. He had no idea how many other people were there. How many other people were crucified on that same cross. Amazing, isn't it?

It's a truth revealed to us that we take on faith. And what a phenomenal impact those spiritual facts and that faith and those facts has. Think about it as you look at this verse. One of the things that he says here is the law is your life. The message of the legalists. The message of the Judaizers. But he says, nope, Christ lives in me. Not the law. The law is not my life. Christ is my life. He is the source of life. He is life indeed.

Colossians 3, 3, and 4, another passage where these identification truths, these truths that we have been identified, united with Christ in His death, are presented. Colossians 3, 3, and 4, for you have died, he writes to the believers in Colossae. So while in Galatians he says, I have been crucified with Christ, in Colossae he says, it applies to you. You have died Christ.

Isn't that an interesting thing to say? If you didn't understand the impact of this, it would seem like that's an awful thing to say, wouldn't it? It would also seem absurd, except that this is a phenomenal work of God. This is a revealed miracle, something that nobody there on the day of the crucifixion saw except the Lord himself.

And your life is hidden with Christ and God when Christ, who is our life, Christ is our life. He is the one who is living. So I have been crucified. I have died with Him. Christ lives in me. He is my life. And it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Because of the reality of this co-crucifixion with Christ, this crucifixion alongside of, together with Him, the one who was me has died.

All of us can look back at a time, if you're a believer here this morning, can look back at a time when you say, well, I remember this time I put my trust in Christ. I remember the time when I put my faith in Him. And at least in marking a point in history, that's when we believed and this was true of us. And yet the Lord, who's not limited to time, the Lord who sees because he exists at all times at once, who sees it all as one event, looks at it and says, ah, you believed here and it was applied to you at some point in history here when you believed. But it took place for all of us who believe, including those who have yet to believe even today. It took place there on the cross with Christ. We were all crucified with Him on that momentous day.

The one who was me, and in my case, I was four and a half when I came to believe. But guess what? This little four and a half year old kid was in Adam. I was born that way. I had an old man, even though I was young. And that old man was what was crucified that day. The one who was me was nailed to the cross with Christ. And so me, I am no longer the one doing the living. The old man is out of the picture, crucified, separated, Christ is the one now doing that living in this body that walks on this planet.

As Paul told the believers in Corinth, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So think about that. How's that again? The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. The life that was shown forth from this body, this one, is no longer the life source that I once tried to live by. I tried to live through this. This wasn't going to do it. In my case, I can remember the day coming home from church. We had a blue, I think it was a 55 Chevy wagon, okay? And in those days, no seat belts. Leaning over the seat and saying, how do you become a Christian?

And my folks kind of saying, wait until you get a little older. Well, that night I woke my mom up in the night. I said, I waited long enough. And so, what had happened there, the life that I was trying to live by, that old man, it's funny, at four and a half, I was tired of it. Four and a half, it was old enough. And from then on, from then on, the life in me is the Son of God. So how does that take place? How does that happen? By faith.

It's not by my trying harder. It's not by my redoubling my efforts. I don't re-re-re-rededicate my life. I can't fix it that way. It's not by an acting job. I can recall a movie in which Anthony Hopkins played C.S. Lewis and he did a great job. He pretended to be a Christian. I don't believe he is, but he did a tremendous acting job. The Lord does not ask us to do that. He's not asking for good actors. He's asking only for people who believe in him unto salvation and believe in him and his provision for daily life, his life instead of mine. That's what he's asking for, not actors.

The last part of verse 20 says this, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Christ, the one with whom I was crucified. Christ, the one who is now my life. That one is the one who loved me and gave himself up for me, voluntarily. It keeps showing up in the New Testament in different ways.

John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave.

Galatians 2.20, we see right here, he loved and he gave.

Ephesians 5.2, he loved and he gave.

Ephesians 5.25, he loved and he gave. You know, you get the impression that he loved and he gave.

But, Galatians 1.4, where Paul had just began introducing this letter, says, the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to pay the price. We get the additional insight from this verse. He loved us. That motivated Him to give Himself. Not because we were so deserving. Not even as a four-and-a-half-year-old kid was I worthy and deserving. And there's no way that I could do anything to pay it back or earn it.

Christ, when He was on the cross, said it is finished. He used, interestingly enough, a financial term. It's completely paid for. The debt is all paid. He paid the debt, the price for our sins, full price, no bargains. It was very costly. And that's one thing that's amazing as we study in the Sermon on the Mount downstairs, as we study in grace and the principles of grace here and the elective that meets here, as we study in Romans in the red carpet room. Grace just keeps coming out and it keeps coming again here. He paid full price, amazing grace, and it was extremely costly, extremely costly.

He didn't just do it so that we'd get life insurance, eternal life insurance. He didn't do it just so that, okay, I got a ticket when I'm out of here, I get to go to a better place. That wasn't a sufficient reason, a sufficient explanation. His intent is that every right now, from the moment that you believe, including right now, all the way into eternity, would be radically different.

And that each of those moments would glorify Him. So your death with Him back then, if you're a believer, here this morning, you died with Him. Your death with Him back then and now, that is, His life and your life until the very day when we see the Lord face to face. That's what He was looking for. Not just to pay for your sins and say, okay, that's done. Not just so that you could be identified with Him because, gee, that's nice to be close. but to impact every single moment from the day that you believed on into eternity.

It's all, every moment, radically different. And your eternity is radically different because you gave. And that is all only and entirely by faith. It's not because I work harder at it. It's not because I give it the old college try. It's all by faith, dependent entirely upon who He is and what He's done, and who I am in Him.

So we were there. We were there when He was crucified. Isn't that amazing? The Roman soldiers thought they were putting just about three nails in. That's all they saw. And it is amazing the centurion did indeed say, truly this is the Son of God. He recognized that.

That's quite an amazing thing to see. But what Paul wants us to see here is every believer here this morning was there, right there, when the nails went in. And isn't it amazing? He loved and gave himself up that day when no one else knew what was going on in the big picture, knowing we were there with him. Isn't that astounding? Knowing that we were there with him that day. For the joy set before him, he endured that.

For you, for me, but not just for us, although yes, he gave himself for me, but also so that we could be there with him, the old man having been crucified. So what does Paul mean by all the I's and the me's? The I who was crucified with Christ, this old man, that's the Roman 6-6 passage we saw, the old self that it says in the New American Standard. What is this old man, this old self, this old man that I had even at page four and a half? It's all of who we were in Adam.

Even though I was only four and a half when this event took place for me, there was this old man there. Why? Because I was born in Adam. I was conceived in Adam, as a matter of fact. In Adam, in the old man, all of who I was was there nailed to the cross. It needed to be crucified. It was the most loving thing that Christ could do and the Father along with Him. Christ lives in the new man, my new position, who is a new creation, not the old man. That old man was crucified.

But as I live now and as you live now, if you believe, Christ who lives in me, and if you're a believer you can say me too, He does the living through me as I depend upon him. How? By faith. This new man is faith in what? Not just faith in faith, not faith that I get credit for, but faith that depends on who he is and what he's done. That faith. That's the faith that allows his life to live out in my life. For Paul, he's the one who originally wrote I and me.

And as we see in other passages of Scripture applicable to all of us, every believer here this morning, we can speak of the me whom Christ loved because I'm no longer an Adam. I am, and we can say that personally, I am if I'm a believer, one who was crucified with Christ.

No longer that old man. I am no longer that person. I'm no longer in Adam. And the reason I can say that is very interesting. The old man, the being in Adam is a position. There is a continuity of person, it's a real curious thing, from the person I once was to the person I am now. Before I woke my mom up at some hour in the morning and said, I've waited long enough. I was still in the old man. I was still in Adam.

But once we went out in the hallway and talked, and I said, Lord, I believe in You. Once I understood the Gospel, this was true of me. That continuing person was who was saved by faith. I can say, like every believer, this. When I believed that Christ died for my sins, here's the I, there's the me and the my, and that he was buried and was resurrected, then I was saved.

That continuing person, that's not a position. It's a person. The old man is a position. The new man is a position. That person, Connecting between those is me. I can look back and say, I, that little four and a half year old kid, was saved. Because the old man was crucified. Who I was in Adam. All of who I was was crucified with Christ.

And Paul said this in Acts 22. He could say about what had happened before he was He said, but it happened that as I was on my way approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Paul could speak of who he was because the person that he was, he was no longer, but he was saved. He says, that was me. but now I am in Christ. Now I am the new man with a new nature. This is how a believer can talk about the I that was back then and the I that I am now and talk about the I that I am yet to be.

Let's take a look at that. The old man is a position in fallen Adam. The position and the condition of the old man are identical. Once Adam sinned, he was stuck in that initial place. The new man is a position in Jesus Christ. The believer is learning to trust Christ to do the living on earth. As we behold the Lord, as we walk in fellowship with Him, as we abide in Him, He does the living. He does the walking. in the new man. And there is a glorified man. Right now, you and I are walking around with these things. But that's not how it's going to stay. And some of you may be particularly aware that that's really good news. Okay?

It is a wonderful thing that we can look forward to a time when the Lord will have saved every bit of us. Body, soul, and spirit, as Paul praise with the Thessalonian church. The Lord will have saved it all. And we can look back and say, like Paul did, I was that old guy. We can look to our time now and we say, I am the one who is this earthen vessel holding the treasure of Jesus Christ. And I am the one who will be glorified.

The one who will be saved body, soul, and spirit in the time when I see the Lord face to face. The glorified man, like the old man, interestingly enough, the condition and the position of those two is identical in the sense that the old man has a position and a condition, always walking according to the sin nature. The new man Taking the glorified body will always walk with the Lord, always in fellowship with Him. The daily condition and the eternal position of the glorified person will be the same. By the way, as I use the word man, I'm not meaning to be sexist, I mean as a person. The essential personhood continues.

And by the way, if these last couple of slides are helpful to you, there is a handout that's available on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room. If it's helpful for you to have that, look at it, study it, think about it, that's great. Feel free to take advantage of that. Here is the expanded and explained part, and I'd like to read through it with you. It's not long and complicated, but it may be helpful.

By God's own doing, the old man, all of who I was in Adam, was crucified with Christ, that being a completed action with an ongoing and fixed outcome, and it is no longer I who does the living, but Christ continues to live in me, and the life which I now live in this physical body, I live by meritless faith in and full dependence upon the person and works of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. who loved me, though I did not deserve any of his love, and voluntarily gave himself up most graciously for me, to whom he owed absolutely nothing." Think about that.

What does this mean for us here? Here we are living, I assume, most or all of us in the Denver area. For the Lord to live his life through us is exactly what God had in mind. For us to depend by faith upon who he is and what he's done is the perfect thing to do. It is precisely what the Lord has designed.

Whether you're here in this building or out on the open road, whether you're in school, maybe taking a test, or mowing the lawn. Maybe you're taking care of kids and taking care of the food, whatever it is. It's the Lord's intent that He do the living everywhere we go.

And I was sharing with somebody yesterday that this particular lesson came home to me at a time that was extremely difficult. I came to a place where I said, Lord, I can't do the living. I'm not going to make it. And if the Lord needs to use a lesson like that, I guess that's fine.

But you know, the Lord is not asking that we wait until the desperate moments. He is looking for all times, even now, and five minutes from now, and even when we're walking out the door. His life, and not our life. By faith, not by our efforts. Meritless faith. faith only in him and in his merit, in his worth, in his worthiness.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your precious word. We thank you for the immense truth that it is your life in and through us. We're done here. Our efforts are through. It is your life. It is your accomplishment. It's your living moment by moment. by a faith that earns us nothing, a faith that credits us nothing, but gives all the credit to You. We thank You, in Jesus' name, Amen.