Knowing and Growing – Galatians 2:19-21
Galatians 2:19-21 · Vern Peterman · Mar 5, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926549505645

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

In this Knowing and Growing series, we essentially have scheduled three months to look at passages that are about knowing the Lord. And we won't exhaust all the passages that have to do with knowing the Lord. We're sticking with New Testament passages in great part. One of the things we mentioned is that there are Old Testament passages as well. We could go on for the entire year on knowing the Lord.

But what we're going to do starting next month, by the way this is March, welcome to March, so next month we will begin a six-month section on what God's doing in the life of the believer. So we're shifting from knowing the Lord as the primary topic to what are the processes that God has in place for us, and we'll be making, we had taught this before, back in 2011, the first half of the year, and we'll be making some changes, so it won't simply be a turn the crank and do it all over again, but making some changes in that what God's doing in the life of the believer, and then the last quarter of the year will be on what God's doing in the life of the church body. So we'll be looking at those things. That's kind of the layout. So for the rest of this month, we'll continue on with New Testament passages on knowing the Lord. Today's passage, let me just start off by reading it, is Galatians 2, 19-21, and we're going to focus mostly on verse 20.

So it says, For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and 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 through the law, then Christ died needlessly."

OK. There are other passages that show these truths are applicable for all of us in the church body. So why did Paul write I? Interesting, here in this passage, and where's another passage where Paul wrote I a lot? Can you think of one? Romans 7. In fact, we quote the first part of that, but Romans 7, especially verses 7 towards the end, he writes I, me, my, often in there.

And let's ask the question, why does he, when I was over in Africa, one of the guys was frustrated, he says, why does Paul talk about himself? Why does he shift into talking about himself? So let's ask the question, the African question, why does Paul write about himself? Why does he shift to that mode here in these passages?

Yes. One is to definitely include himself. He doesn't say, you guys have a sin problem and I don't, right? He basically, he says, I have the same problem you do. So he includes himself. So that's an extremely important point. And that's one of the things I had to explain to the guys over in Africa. Why is Paul talking about himself? One is he's including himself. Why else would he suddenly shift to using I? Because it's very personal to him? It personalizes it.

If I tell you alone that that cross on which Christ died, people look up to that cross and there was a thief each side of him. But that cross on which Christ died was spiritually crowded. Why? Why was that cross on which Christ died spiritually crowded? Because we were there with Him.

If I tell people that, and I only tell them that, it's possible that people can generalize and not think personally, I was there with Him. And so one of the things we'll take a look at is, Paul says at the beginning of verse 20, I was crucified with Christ. Can you and I say that? Yes we can, and the intent is that we in fact do that. As we read that, we don't just say, well just Paul was crucified with Christ. But we individually and personally take it personal. You hear the expression from time to time, don't take this personally?

Well, this Galatians 2.20, take it very personally. If you're a believer, we should take it very personally. So there's I as a statement, as a statement that Paul is included, there is I as a statement that it's personalized.

Are there other reasons for I was crucified with Christ that you can think of? One of the things we pointed out last year in the How to Study the Bible elective was we said that switching to I was also in the Greco-Roman oratory, it was a rhetorical device. And it was another way of providing emphasis.

We've talked in the past here, how do we provide emphasis when we write? now in our modern era. Bold, underlined, italics are the general ones we want to shout in our internet era. We use all caps, right? And so those are our standard techniques and we've got them here. If we're writing a computer program, we've got a little, okay, I'm going to click on the bold here and I'm going to highlight this and click on the italics. So we'll do it that way.

They didn't have any of that. And as a matter of fact, they had entirely different means of emphasizing something. And we talked about things like repeating with the Hebrew poetry pattern. We talked about emphasizing using a chiasm. We saw that last week in a small chiasm in 2 Corinthians 3, 17, 18. They would use that, but another rhetorical technique that they would use to emphasize is to say, I. And so that is a third reason. for Paul saying, I hear, and I also in Romans 7. It's for emphasis. Using things that would be understood in the writing and speaking of the day.

The other thing I think about is that people that knew him, the contrast in his life, before he was a believer and after he was a believer, that I being the person that I was, persecuting you, even I have been excused, I've been saved, I'm a believer now, and all this is in my past, and who's worse than I was? Yes, and so you bring up a good point, and that's that here's Paul who's not secretive about his past. He tells about his conversion, right? Not just as Luke records in Acts chapter 9, but again twice he tells about his conversion experience. I think it's chapters 22 and 26 or something like that. So he twice again is retelling his conversion experience.

That this was a huge moment in time. And so when he says, I was crucified in Christ, you say, and I needed to be. That was the best thing that could happen, right? That person that I was needed to be put away and put out. So yeah, you bring up a very good point. And Paul could look and say his past was terrible. Do we need the same thing, though? Yeah, every single one of us.

Here's Vernon Peterman, became a believer at four and a half. I needed to be crucified with Christ. I mean, the worst thing I've probably done was throw a temper tantrum and throw my brothers and sisters' toys in the trash or something. But nonetheless, I needed to be crucified with Christ, to be ended from the old little boy, the old man, right? So that needed to happen.

So anyway, as we look at this, and we start off with the first slide there, the I's and the me's. The I, me, my pattern is here, and it's also in Romans 7. Occasionally you can see them crop up elsewhere, but those reasons that we brought up this morning are the various reasons why, and there's multiple reasons, why this is a good thing for Paul to write.

It wasn't as our African friend asked, what is Paul writing about himself? So it was more than just he's suddenly turning selfish. Romans 6, 3 through 7, Romans 6, 8 through 11 to 14, Romans 7, 4 through 6, those passages are included. We're not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I'll leave it for you to look for yourself at what things are comparable in those.

OK, and we talked about the fifth slide down there, why would Paul write I? But a really big thing, and for us personally as we apply it, it's good for us to know all the reasons for the I, but it's very important for us to look at it and say, that I includes me.

That I includes me. That I look at it and say, I, and put my name there, I, Vern Peterman, was crucified with Christ. And that's a very good thing. It was the best thing that could be done. Alright, so let's shift over to the second page here. So one thing we have here is a small chiasm again. We pointed that out last week.

I have been crucified with Christ who loved me and gave himself up for me. So then the middle part of that chiasm, the middle part of the sandwich, 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.

That's the middle part. Why is the middle part of the chiasm there, and not repeated? It's for emphasis, right? So what is Paul doing? Crucified with Christ and then he loved me and gave himself up for me. That's an emphasis by repetition. But the middle part of the chiasm is there in the center for emphasis.

So the middle of verse 20 tells us about who does the living in Paul's life and how that takes place. Let's ask this question. The title of this part of things is Knowing the Lord, right? This first quarter? This doesn't say anything directly about knowing the Lord. Why would it be included?

Why would we include the middle part of Galatians 2.20, or any part of Galatians 2.20, if it doesn't specifically talk about, using the words, knowing the Lord? Why would that be? Because it shows a relationship, which is knowing the Lord. One is it shows a relationship, and one of the points we've been making is there are two words that are useful, and one is relationship. Relationship is there, it's established, it is true, you're not going to change that relationship.

The fellowship is a different matter. And I often use the example because Randy puts up with it. Randy is my son, and no matter what I do or he does, he's still my son. Sometimes fathers and sons can get so disrupted that they disclaim that. But the reality is the relationship is still there. Now, it is possible that though Randy is my son, let's take the instance that I did something that was horribly offensive. to his family.

He might say, Dad, I love you, but what you did last Saturday night or whatever it was, was just really offensive and it's going to take us a few weeks to cool down. So what is he saying? He says, I'm going to have to break fellowship with you, ongoing fellowship with you. This isn't stopping the relationship. but the fellowship is at issue. So another way to look at that is position, that's a term that we use, and condition. The relationship is position, the fellowship is condition.

See that? So that's a term that we would use here. So while this doesn't talk about knowing the Lord, using the word know or knowing, It does so in a sense of what is my relationship with the Lord, I was crucified with him, and what does that have to do with my ongoing fellowship with him and the day-to-day character of the relationship. So that's where it relates to knowing the Lord. And what we talked about before, let's think about this.

Earlier on we talked about where Jesus said directly to his disciples, I'm the vine, you're the branches. And what did we say about the character of the knowing in that passage in John 15? I'm the vine, you're the branches. Is there intimacy between the vine and the branches? Does a branch just kind of hang out nearby?

No, it has to be connected. It has to be infinitely connected. As a matter of fact, if I take a branch and take the shears and go snip and put it an eighth of an inch away from the vine, how's that going to work? The branch will die. The branch will die even though it's only an eighth of an inch from the very same vine it was connected to moments before. You and I both know the branch is just going to die. Whatever leaves are on it are gone. Whatever life was in the branch is going to be gone. So there must be intimacy and not close proximity. Close proximity is not enough. So it's not like hanging around Jesus. Not enough. Think about the disciples. Just pick one.

Here's the Apostle John. He wrote the Gospel of John. What a surprise. So here is the Gospel of John, written by John. And John, on the day of Pentecost, became a member of the body of Christ. He wasn't before, by the way. He became a member of the body of Christ. He was identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, and he had day by day then a relationship with the Lord and the opportunity for fellowship with the Lord. What this passage focuses on is the other part of that vine and the branches, and that's dependence. Part of knowing the Lord is dependence. Is that branch absolutely dependent upon the vine?

Yes it is, and to the point that, we made the point earlier, you snip off that branch and make it just an eighth of an inch. You can put all the structure you want, hold it just an eighth of an inch away from the vine and that branch is going to die. And all the leaves on it, if there's any fruit, it's going to go to waste and turn into raisins. To carry that analogy a little further, if you snip the vine and try and put it back, you know, snip the branch off, try and hold it to the vine. As soon as you let go of it, the branch is going to drop off.

It needs to be structurally... It has to be structurally connected. If I have other structure holding it up, really close, possibly, you know, if you cut it and then just stick it right next to it, that's not close enough. No, because some of the sap is going to drip away. Just drip away instead of going through, right? It may get some sap, but it won't get the whole, what it's supposed to be.

So here, I guess, putting two words together, intimate dependence is what that picture is. And that's really what this is looking at here. Do we have a life as a branch apart from the vine? No. And do I have a life here as I walk this planet apart from the vine? No. And that's really what this is talking about, and in order to show how our absolute dependence is upon the Lord, without which we don't have a life. What did Jesus say in John 15?

Without me you can do nothing. Without me you can't do as much. Without me you can do a fair amount. Without me you better try harder. None of those, right? Without me you can do nothing. Zero. Zilch. You can't do a thing. Without me, you can't do anything.

So this is the absolute dependence of the branches upon the vine. This passage is, in a way, talking about the same thing. I've been crucified with Christ. Why? So that I understand that I have absolute dependence for any life happening here. I may be a believer eternally saved. I can go over my position in Christ and take weeks and weeks and weeks. In fact, we could take the whole year to just look at my position in Christ, couldn't we? We could examine it for the whole year.

But, all that being true, can I, as a believer, experience death? Not spiritually, no. Can I experience death? No, it's the word that I use. Can I experience death? So the relationship, no, that's unchanged and will not be touched. But I can experience death and by death I mean a loss of fellowship with the Lord.

Yes, it is why Jesus didn't just say I'm the vine, you're the branches, you're going to depend on me and abide in me, and state it as a fact. Could he have stated it as a fact? Sure, within the Greek you can just say that. I'm the vine, you're the branches, you're going to depend upon me, and that's the way it is.

But here while we walk this planet there can be this dichotomy between what we have in a relationship, our position, and how we actually live. And that changes moment by moment. If I come in here, and this is all the Word of God and all that, if I come in here and say, I can teach this stuff, Fern knows how to do this, and depend upon myself to teach you this material, what's happening? But everything I say may be true, as a matter of fact, you may even benefit from it. But I won't, and it's quite possible something might not get across, and as a matter of fact, something may get across that's not good. Everybody gets out of the elective and they say, Vern sure was doing it today. And that's not what the Lord wants, right? So even for me, this dependence and carrying this thing out, to talk to you about it is something that has to be there. Or in my own life, by myself, doing my best, I will experience death.

Romans 6.23, often misunderstood and misapplied, For the wages the sin nature pays to the Christian is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." So here, he says, I've been crucified with Christ.

By the way, that is in the perfect tense. which is not designed to make you perfectly tense. The perfect tense is a completed past action, ongoing results on into the future. By the way, you're going to see that in the main service again too. A completed past action, ongoing results on into the future. If the context doesn't say otherwise, and it often does not in the New Testament, it implies permanence, including here.

So I have been crucified with Christ as a completed past action. Who did it? This is God's accomplishment, not mine. 1 Corinthians 1.30, it is by God's doing you are in Christ Jesus, including being crucified. I didn't try to be crucified with Christ. I can't enhance it by my own effort. I can't merit it. All I did was I believed that Christ died for my sins, was buried, and rose again.

God says, that's it, I'll take it from there, and he does everything else. So I've been crucified with Christ, so this verb means it's an action, the perfect tense means it's a completed past action, ongoing results on the future, implying permanence, and the next slide over. So the passive part means that God has done the action to crucify with Christ. It's not our job, it's not our accomplishment.

Yes? So since Christ died for the sins of the whole world, does that mean the whole world was crucified with Christ and that each person has to take or believe or whatever it is, but they were all there. You ask a very good question and one of the things that we will do at times, I haven't done it for months perhaps, is to talk about what were the different things accomplished on the cross. So let's walk through that because you ask a very important question for people to get clear. Okay, so Christ died for the sins of the whole world, right?

When Christ was basically done paying for our sins, one of the things he said in one Greek word was to telestai, which was also in the perfect tense. Completed past action, ongoing results on the future, implying permanence. And that was an accounting term that said it's all paid. Imagine Jesus expressing an accounting term from the cross, but that's what he did. He expressed it's all paid. What did he mean?

The sin debt was paid. The sin debt was paid. Was the sin debt paid for the Russian leader Putin? Yes. Was the sin debt paid for me? Yes. Was the sin debt paid for the person that just drove down the street? Yes. The sin debt was paid for every single person.

Does that mean they all believed? So why would Christ pay the price when not everyone's going to believe? And this is the Calvinist issue, right? Why would Christ pay the price for people who he knows, because he knows the future, are not going to believe?

Continually gives opportunity. Yeah, in other words, you know, Putin is savable. from that standpoint, that Christ paid the price for the whole world because God so loved the world. And who does that include? Everybody. First John even says he paid for the sins of the whole world and uses that term. Now, does that mean everybody gets saved? No. And so the payment does not apply unless I believe. And I could use an analogy.

Everybody is thrown into debtor's prison, and you're not getting out without paying the $4 trillion debt. Let's make it outside the range of Donald Trump. $4 trillion is the debt that is owed by every single person, and you're not getting out of that debtor's prison without paying that $4 trillion debt. Now, so here's everybody in the whole world in this debtor's prison. A guy walks in and says, guess what? I've got good news for you.

A man has paid the debt for every single one of you. I've got checks written out with your name on it for everybody here. It's all paid. The money is in the account. These checks aren't going to bounce. The money is in the account. All you have to do is believe it, take that check, turn it over, sign it, turn it at the door, and you walk out. The debt's paid. All you have to do is believe it. So some people say, and they grab the check, and they turn it over, and they sign it, and they turn it at the door, and they walk out free.

Somebody else says, eh, I'll wait till I get older, and they stick it in their pocket. Somebody else says, this is nonsense, and they dump it on the floor. Someone else says, I don't believe this one bit. Rip, rip, rip, rip, rip. And they tear it up and throw the pieces on the floor. Another person says, yeah, I believe that. Take out the cigarette lighter and torch it. Turn it into ashes. So different people will respond to it.

Was each one of those checks a real and valid check with full funding behind the check? Yes. And so that analogy I think helped get the point across that the payment has been made, Christ declared it from the cross, for every single person on the planet, even the nastiest person you and I have ever known, even the nastiest person we don't want to know. The check has been made out with full funding behind it for every single person on the planet.

And it is a matter of us turning that check in. And what is that? That's believing. Do I believe that the money's in there and the payment's been made? All I've got to do is turn the check in and walk out. So that's the first part. The payment's been made for anybody.

It's only valid for those who believe. When Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ, however, is that applicable to everyone on the planet for whom payment has been made? No. And so what we have is that payment is true of every single person who believes.

Identification with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, and only in those five things, only applies to those in the body of Christ, in the church, from Acts 2, which we just began studying, to the day of the rapture, and I hope it's today. I hope I don't get to teach about Acts chapter 3 this morning. So from Acts 2 to the day of the rapture, that applies.

And those people, and only those, get identified with Christ. Noah was not identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. Moses was not identified with Christ in those things. David was not identified with Christ in those things. Even the thief on the cross was not identified with Christ in those things.

The one who believed. Why? It's only true of those who believe from Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, to the day of the rapture. That's all it applies to. Was I identified with Christ when he just fed the 4,000 and crossed in a boat over to Magdala on the west side? I wasn't identified with Christ in that.

Did that happen? Yep. Really happened. Really happened, but I wasn't identified with him in that. Here Christ was born in Bethlehem. You had shepherds that could testify, yep, saw him. You had magi from the east come in, yep, saw him in Bethlehem, yep. I wasn't identified with Christ in that.

Just his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, seed, just those things. So Paul is actually only stating one of those things, and the rest of the Christ was buried, Christ was raised, Christ was ascended and seated is assumed, but the pivotal truth in this passage is I was crucified with Christ.

So here you have a situation, there are some instances in which Christ's death applies to everybody on the planet who ever lived. There are some instances in which Christ's death applies only to those in the church. Actually, I can think of three of them, and that's one of them, the identification with Christ and those five things. There are also things that apply just to the Jews.

Christ's death was the confirmation of the New Covenant. So here's Christ saying at the Last Supper, this wine symbolizes the New Covenant confirmation in my blood. I have been crucified with Christ and Christ lives in me. I would say that there are probably several passages we could choose from. Colossians 3, 3, and 4 is a good one to indicate these same truths in a parallel way.

And that says, For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Okay, have you been crucified with Christ if you're a believer? Yes. Yes, you have. So you can say this personally, I have been crucified with Christ. Are you now just permanently dead? Isn't that great, I've been crucified with Christ, now I'm just dead forever? What does it mean?

Our old life is separated. Yeah, we're separated from our old life, spiritually speaking. We're separated from our old life, spiritually speaking. The old man, all of who we were, is done and gone. The old man, all of who we were, is done and gone. Yes? More importantly, we are created anew. Ah, okay. And how are we created anew? How does that happen? I mean, why aren't we just dead? How is it they're created anew, and there's something after that?

Because that's what happened. In other words, I've been crucified with Christ and that's a good thing, but that's not the end of the story, is it? I've been crucified with Christ and that was the best thing that could happen. Why? Because I've also been identified with him in his burial, which means really, really dead, and his resurrection. I've been identified with them in that resurrection.

And by the way, does the sequence, died, buried, raised, ascended, ceded, does the sequence matter? Yes, it does. Yes, it does matter. If you scramble those, that's not good. What if the last thing was I've been crucified with Christ? So not only are we only identified in those five things, but the sequence of those five things matters. And it's the sequence in which Christ was crucified, buried, raised, ascended, and seated. And so that sequence matters, and it matters forever. It matters right now, and it matters forever.

Yes? I guess I've been thinking of this, I don't know where it is, where it says that Christ is the firstborn among many brethren, and us being new creatures. Yes. And so that's where, you know, first we have to reckon with I've been crucified. And then to say, here's this new creature. And how much did I have to do with the new creature? I had nothing to do with it. So this thing isn't something I'm going to go in and fix up.

If I'm ignorant of these things, if my thought is, well, I really still have about ten commandments to work with, maybe nine, maybe eleven, depending on how you tweak it, then I'm still thinking that I've got something to do, instead of recognizing what must be done already.

One of the things we're going to cover starting in April and continuing on into October is we're going to talk about the processes God has in place. We're going to talk about what is God's part, and only after that talk about our part. We do have a part, but when it comes to these things that are our position, we need to understand, one, what is our position, and two, what is God's part first.

The tendency is for believers either to try to do what God's already doing or has done. And if we're ignorant, that's the hazard. We'll try to do what God has already done. We'll try to carry out what God is already doing. And anything that we do, and we do in fact have a part, anything we do has to start with understanding what God has done and what he's doing. See that? That's why we're looking at this here. Here's what God's already done. I've been crucified with Christ. Christ does the living in me. Do I have to stir up life on my own? No. My own contribution to this is zero.

We have to recognize what He has done and is doing Everything that we do and are called to do, and we are, we'll learn about that, everything we do and are called to do is entirely in response to what He has already done and is doing and will do. And so that's why we have to understand that so that we don't try to do it ourselves. And by the way, what happens? People try to do it themselves, and how do people do it then?

Not so good. And so, do you ever feel guilty? Is that what God intends? No. But guilt, by the way, is never something that God intends you to operate from. Yes? So, we came into the dying, but there's also in scripture this consistency of like Romans 6.11 Consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. So there's a dead to, but there's always a live to. Dead to, alive to.

Here's Romans 6.11. Here's Peter in 1 Peter. He does the same thing. Dead to sin, alive to righteousness. Even Peter gets it. A little later, but he gets it. So yeah, this is a key thing.

What are we dead to? What are we alive to? If we are operating ignorant of that, then the tendency is to sit there and crank up the guilt knob. Right? Turn up the guilt knob. And boy, and by the way, how many of you have had some practice with that? Yeah, and so the tendency is to crank up the guilt knob And God says, I never had any intent for you to go around feeling guilty. I don't want it. I don't want it. God does not want us to be occupied with sin. He does not want us to meditate on our sin. He does not want us to go around feeling guilty. What does He want? Fellowship. Fellowship. Essentially, all those things you mentioned are focused on self. Yes, all the things I mentioned are focused on self.

If I'm feeling guilty, that's me. In my stance before the Lord, am I guilty? Nope. It's all paid. That's why we sing the song, Jesus paid it all. Because it's not feeling guilty. By the way, how long do you have to do penance? And so understanding this is key. This is a total absolute thing. It's God's doing. If I'm operating out of feeling guilty, if I'm feeling like I've got to do penance for so long and X, Y, and Z, I've got to do this and that, I'm sorry Lord, I can't have fellowship with you.

I've got to feel bad for the next two months. I've got to go through Lent. and quit eating peanuts or something, you know? No, none of that. And by the way, to confess our sins, do you have to sit there and name them and contemplate each sin for 30 seconds? No. Not for 30 seconds, not for three. Do you know what that word that's translated confess is? Homo lugia. All it means is I agree with God about the sin. That's it.

Nancy and I used to live in this 12-story apartment building on the fifth floor, and they had this trash chute that was like phenomenal. They would open this door, dump the trash, drop it, and it would just go, and it would hit the bottom, and you could hear the thing hit, and the trash would just go faster and faster. Don't stick your hand in there very long because there's somebody up on the 12th floor that just dropped their trash in there and it's going to hit you at a very high rate of speed, right? We had a gal come and visit and stick her head in there and I pulled it out real fast. That is not a good idea. The trash just goes down real quick.

The Lord does not want us to sit there and meditate on the trash before we drop it down the chute. You get my point? The focus is not on sin. I don't have to make penance. It's all been paid for. All I have to do, 1 John 1.9 just says, do I agree with God? This is sin? Yep. Boom. Great. Now we're on to fellowship. Which is what he wanted. Guilt and penance puts me under the law. Guilt and penance and law all go together. And it all focuses on who? Me. What does the Lord want us to be focused on, or who? Christ.

Yeah. And so the sin thing is just simply a matter of parallel to the trash. Nancy, is this trash? Yep, it goes down the chute. Okay, on to life, right? And now we're on to the rest of life. I don't spend a half hour going over the trash with Nancy. I don't spend a half hour thinking about it, putting it in there, taking it back out, putting it back in the chute.

You know, think about it a minute, put it back, open the door, close it. No. Is this trash? Yeah. In the chute? Okay, on with life. You don't go piece by piece into the chute either. No, I don't say, hey, remember when we had the scrambled eggs six days ago? Here's the eggshells. Remember that cream cheese that you put in this thing? Here's the wrapper. Remember that? Just don't do that.

Confess our sins is not sitting there meditating on it. If you take more time confessing your sins, such as to take away time from fellowship with the Lord, you've got something wrong there. It helps to know that Jesus satisfied God about the sin issue, that it has nothing to do with us, and that we passively receive the benefit through Christ.

There was a whole lot going on that day and you and I don't even remember it. That might be a good thing. It probably is. Jesus paid it all. It's not my job to pay what's left. To feel guilty about it? To meditate on it? To make penance? God says, confess. You agree with me that this is sin? Good. Now we're back on to fellowship. That's what God wants. It's that simple.

And as we look here at Galatians 2.20, it's as simple as this. It's no longer I who do the living. I'm not trying to find life by feeling guilty. I'm not trying to do this or that. Asking what would Jesus do may in fact be the worst thing you could possibly do. Because it's not what would Jesus do, and then I try to emulate it, it's what does Jesus do right now. Yes? So how do you know whether it's Jesus doing the doing or it's you doing the doing? One is a recognition of our dependence upon the Lord. And just realize, starting with, we're absolutely dependent upon Him.

You ever read the passage, you know, to pray continuously, pray without ceasing? Philippians, pray without ceasing? Ever try to do that? I think the perspective and motivation that really is necessary there is not, you know, hey, I've got it up to 12.43 hours a day, and I'm trying to keep track of it and get that number up there.

No, that's not what God's looking for. The realization is my absolute desperate dependence upon Him. And that's going to drive me to pray because I'm desperate that I cannot do it on my own. I was never intended to do that. If I feel like I've got to sit there and try to work up the number, I've got the wrong perspective. If I am an absolute desperate dependence upon him, I ended up praying constantly, because I realized I don't have it.

I'll just share something. When I was a teenager, my dad moved us up to the farm, and so I'll tell farm stories, and they're kind of fun and funny. But the reality is that was a time when my dad had moved the family away, and here I was in my middle teen years, and my dad was just plain gone. Almost all the time, just gone.

When my own kids became teenagers, I felt like, man, I do not have what it takes to be a father to teenagers. And it's probably a good thing. Because I would spend hours and hours every night, sometimes taking it out of my sleep. praying for my kids, praying for the adequacy to be their dad. Because I knew I don't have the kids to be the dad they need.

It's personal and absolute dependence. Now that they've grown up and left the house and all that, I look at them. I don't have the adequacy to be their adult dad and to be a grandpa. I've got 11 of them now. So really it's not a matter of I try to increase the prayer time and up that number.

This whole thing is a matter of realizing our utter dependence and just to make that clear, I had to be crucified to get me out of the way. So let's look at page 3, expand and explain. I'll go ahead and read that and we'll finish with that. 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, it is no longer I who do 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." In order for Christ to do the living through me, he set it up perfectly. He says, I'm going to start off by crucifying you so that the only life is my life and not yours. There are no brownie points for the person who tries the hardest to live the Christian life. Do you know how rewardable that is? If you try your very hardest to live the Christian life, such that you're proud if you do it and disappointed if you don't, and guilty if you fall short. How much of that is rewardable? Eternally rewardable?

Zip. Nada, nothing. It is wood, hay, and stubble. 1 Corinthians 3, 10-15. Without me you can do nothing rewardable. Nothing rewardable. And then the flip side of that is the only thing rewardable, the only thing that is something and not nothing is what? is an intimate fellowship with and an intimate dependence upon him. That's pretty profound.

I mean, probably most of Christendom operates off the self-effort to keep the law, feel guilty if you don't, make promises to God, feel terrible if you don't keep them, moat. And we're right now in this, you know, Lenten season, right? At the end of it, what are they going to do? They're going to throw this party and it's called Mardi Gras, right?

And the whole thing is a big waste because it's no longer I who do the living and I don't make promises to God. I depend on His promises, not make promises to Him and try my hardest to keep them. I don't do New Year's resolutions. It's no longer I who do the living. It's Christ who does the living. And in doing that, my knowing Him is knowing my intimate dependence upon Him. Intimate dependence, not my own self-effort, not what most of Christendom considers to be the elements of Christianity.

How many of the Ten Commandments? None. How many promises do I make? None. How often should I feel guilty? Never. Does God want me to try really hard to be a good Christian? No. If I'm disappointed, should I be? No. No. It's not what He has in mind. There is no disappointment. There is no guilt. If you want condemnation, I just can't help you. You have to go somewhere else. There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ Jesus? Yep.

If you want guilt, condemnation, if you want a lot of self-effort, want some brownie points, want to feel disappointed, I just can't help you. And God doesn't want that either. Isn't that something? Here in the Christian life, what do a lot of unbelievers think the Christian life consists of? All those things we just said really are not a part of it at all. It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me.

What a relief. What a relief. If I'm feeling like I've got to work real hard at being a Christian, If I'm feeling like I'm guilty, if I'm feeling like, boy, I've got a lot of stuff to do in order to keep up, you know, a good face. Those are just indications of where my dependence is, where it shouldn't be. Isn't that a relief? Isn't that a good thing? Yes, it is. A very good thing.

Thoughts, comments, questions? Alright, let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that this passage is so absolute. There's no grayscale in here. We've died to the law. Absolutely. We've been crucified with Christ. Absolutely. It's no longer I who do the living. Absolutely. But Christ does the living in me. Absolutely. All of this is absolute. There's no grayscale. It is all what you have done and are doing and will do. Thank you for that. And that's all we can do, is thank you. We pray in Jesus' name.