Sermon Central
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Cricified With Christ
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Jan 8, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: What does it mean to be "crucified with Christ"? How will that affect our lives?
Reminders:
Are you “Pressing On” for Jesus in your life?
Are you hungry for (or thankful for) a life delivered from the ravages of slavery to sin because of the power of a risen Savior?
Are you hungry for more of Jesus; knowing Him better, walking with Him more closely, feeling His very presence if your life?
Are you longing for the day when you will finally see Him face to face?
Are you pressing on to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”
Let’s stand together and read our memory Scriptures in unison as part of our worship for the Lord.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
“All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Aren’t you glad that the Word of the Lord is active in our lives; teaching us, rebuking us, correcting us and training us in righteousness?
When that happens by the power of the Holy Spirit we can answer John Wesley’s question of, “Did the Bible live in me today?” with a resounding, “YES!!!” PTL!!!
In the book of Galatians, Paul is writing to defend the truth of salvation through faith in Christ alone. Some false teachers had come into with the false doctrine that salvation was through the keeping of the Jewish law AND faith in Jesus.
The Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write in Galatians 2:15-3:1a
“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
“So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin?
“Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! O, foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”
Wow! That is powerful! Can you sense the frustration and passion in Paul’s writing?
No one tolerates someone messing with their children! And the Galatians were spiritual children of Paul!
We do not tolerate someone messing with our children spiritually!
This is the same dilemma Paul was facing.
Memory verse - Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
This, my friends, is a pivotal holiness Scripture. We already have in our memory arsenal some awesome holiness Scriptures.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 (recite)
God will never give us a command without enabling us to obey the command and His desire is for us to be entirely sanctified.
And, Matthew 22:37-40 (recite) shows us the path to a holy life.
Galatians 2:20 gives us a graphic example of what enables such a transformation.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”
Holy living is living in conformity to the known will of God by the enabling grace of God setting us free from slavery to sin and making us a slave to righteousness through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Many of our Christian brethren say that this is not possible. That we sin in word, thought and deed every day.
We do not believe that the definition of sin is falling short of the mark. That is a far too ambiguous definition.
We believe sin is intentional disobedience of the known will of God by a morally responsible person.
You know what God wants you to do or not do and you choose to disobey.
Now, let’s just process this thought. A body by itself cannot sin or be holy, it must be controlled by a Spirit in order to initiate any action. So, if I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, then I sin, who is sinning? Christ???? NEVER!!!!
