Crucified
And Alive
Adapted from the Licensing Trial Sermon
preached by Pastor Linus Chua on 8 June 2012
“I
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20)
Crucified and alive? How can
that be? That sounds so strange, so paradoxical, you might say! And indeed it
is. In the Apostles’ Creed, we read the familiar words, “Suffered under Pontius
Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried…”
Crucifixion is normally
associated with death, not life. The people of Paul’s day would know that much
better than we today. I don’t think any of us here have seen an actual
crucifixion. Perhaps on the television or in movies but not in real life.
But in
those days, it was a common thing. Crucifixions were often carried out publicly
and in the open so as to terrify the people and dissuade them from committing
those especially heinous crimes like murder and treason.
Crucifixion had this effect
because it was a very slow and humiliating and especially painful and
excruciating death.
Isn’t
it interesting that the English word excruciating actually comes from the word
crucifixion? “Ex” means “out of” and excruciating literally means “out of
crucifying.”
So when Paul wrote about
being crucified, his first readers understood exactly what it meant, namely, a
gruesome and sure death.
But here in our text, the
Apostle beautifully unites these two concepts in the life of the believer. He
tells us that the believer is both crucified and alive at the same time.
The Lord helping us, we’ll
like to consider what he means by that and what that means for our lives as
believers. But first, let’s consider something of the context and background to
this passage.
Context
The book of Galatians was
the first or earliest of all the inspired letters of the Apostle Paul.
He wrote it sometime in AD
48 to the Christians at Galatia because of the troubles that had arisen in
their midst.
False teachings had
infiltrated the Galatian church. False teachers had come amongst them and were
teaching them, most of whom were Gentiles, that faith in Jesus Christ, while
good, was not enough for salvation, and that in addition to faith, they needed
to submit to Old Testament rites and rituals and ceremonies.
In theological terms, they were trying to base
their justification on their sanctification. They were seeking to exchange the
gospel of God’s free grace with a performance-based kind of Christianity.
And in order to do that,
these false teachers had to discredit Paul and his teachings by accusing him of
various things. And so the book of Galatians is really Paul’s defense of his
apostleship and his gospel.
The first two chapters focus
mainly on the charge that Paul was not a true apostle. In chapter 2 from verses
11-21, Paul writes about his opposition to the Apostle Peter at Antioch when
Peter temporarily lapsed into the errors of the Judaizers by withdrawing
himself from the Gentiles and refusing any longer to eat with them.
Paul rebuked him publicly
for his error and then turning to the entire audience, taught them that no one
is justified by the works of the law but only by faith in Christ.
He argued that if the
Judaizers were right, then Christ would in fact be a minister of sin since He
was the One who revealed to Paul the gospel of free grace.
If Paul’s gospel encouraged
sin, as the Judaizers were claiming, then Christ would be the minister of sin.
Paul responds, as any true believer would, with an emphatic denial, “God
forbid!” or “May it never be!”
No, the gospel of free grace
is not a license to sin. In fact, as Paul demonstrates, it is the doctrine of
salvation by works that promotes sin. The law was never given or designed by
God for the purpose of salvation. To use the law in that way is in fact to be a
transgressor of the law.
That is what Paul means in
verse 18 when he says, “For if I build again the things which I destroyed
(referring to works-salvation), I make myself a transgressor.”
What then was the purpose of
the law? In verse 19, Paul mentions one of the uses of the law, namely, to
convict us of sin and to show us our need of Christ.
So having established that
justification is not by works but by grace through faith, the apostle goes on
to show that the gospel does actually produce holiness in the life of a
believer.
He connects the doctrine of
justification with the doctrine of sanctification by introducing the important
truth of our union with Christ.
This brings us to our text
in verse 20. I would like us to consider it in three simple points.
First, as believers, we are
crucified with Christ. Second, as believers, we are alive in Christ. And third,
as believers, we are loved by Christ. Crucified with Christ, alive in Christ,
and loved by Christ.
So first then, as believers,
we are crucified with Christ.
Crucified
with Christ
In Greek, the first part of
verse 20 literally reads, “With Christ I have been crucified, and I no longer
live…”
The
verb crucified is in the perfect tense, indicating a past completed action that
has continuing results. In other words, this crucifixion is something that took
place in the past but has continuing effects in the present.
At
which point in the past did this crucifixion of Paul and all other believers
take place? Quite clearly, it took place when Christ our Lord was nailed to the
cross at Calvary.
Now in the Bible, we are
told of at least three things that were nailed to the cross that day. First,
and most obviously, Jesus Himself was crucified. His hands and His feet were
affixed by the nails to the horizontal and vertical beams respectively.
The second thing that was
nailed to the cross was the public notice or inscription or title that read,
“Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews” (John 19:19). In those days, it was a
custom to affix a label to the cross, giving a statement of the person’s crime
for which he was being crucified.
John
tells us that the notice on Jesus’ cross was written in three languages –
Hebrew, Greek and Latin so that all the people whether Jewish or Greek or Roman
could read and understand that the crime for which Jesus was supposedly put to
death, namely, insurrection or political rebellion, was a serious one.
The third thing that was
nailed to the cross was the debt of our sins. Paul tells us in Colossians
2:13-14, “having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of
the way, nailing it to his cross;”
This handwriting of
ordinances refers to the law of God, which we have broken and thus incurred the
wrath and curse of God.
But God has fully cancelled
the debt of our sin by nailing it to the cross of His only begotten Son Jesus
Christ. Christ died for all our sins and transgressions of God’s law.
So three things were nailed
to the cross of Christ. But here in Galatians 2:20, Paul adds a fourth thing,
namely, us.
Yes, that’s right, if you
are a believer, then you were nailed
to the cross too that day. Amazing thought, isn’t it?
The cross is not just a
historical event in the life of Jesus Christ. The cross is also part of every
believer’s personal life story. We were nailed to the cross just as surely as
Christ was and we can say:
“I am” or a better translation would be “I have been crucified with Christ…” What a startling assertion!
Now we must be careful here. We are not saying that we had a part to play in the atonement of our sins. Christ, the God-man, alone atoned for our sins by offering up Himself as the perfect sacrifice to satisfy divine justice.
The
atoning and substitutionary death of Christ is an utterly unique and
unrepeatable event.
Nevertheless, because of the
wonderful reality of our union with Christ, we may truly be said to have been
crucified with Him. In other words, being crucified with Christ is an objective
reality based on the believer’s union with Christ.
What happened to Christ also
happened to His people. So closely are we united to Him that His experience now
becomes ours. One writer wrote, “Union with Christ is nothing if it is not
union with Christ in His death.”
Now
what exactly does union with Christ in His death or crucifixion mean? At least
three things.
First, it means that we are
dead to the curse and condemnation of the law. On the cross, the law carried
out its death penalty against us. When we died in Christ, the penalty of the
law was over and done with.
It is like a man, who was
found guilty of say armed robbery, and was sentenced by the Judge to several
years in prison and several strokes of the cane. Having received the strokes
and served the prison term, the man is set free.
His punishment is over. The
law can make no further demands or claims on him with regard to that crime he
had committed.
The same is true for us. The
penalty or payment for our sins has been fully made by our Substitute. The law
requires nothing more of us by way of punishment, and it can do no more to us.
We are dead to the condemnation and penalty of the law.
But second, to be crucified
with Christ means that we are dead to the law of God as the means of
justification or obtaining a righteous standing before God.
Remember the apostle Paul –
how prior to his conversion, he was a very self-righteous Pharisee. He thought
he had what it took to merit a righteous standing before God.
He claimed to be blameless
as touching the righteousness of the law. He had a righteousness of his own
that comes from keeping the law.
But when he was converted to
Christ, that old self-righteous Pharisee in him died.
He tells us in his letter to
the Philippians chapter 3, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by
faith:”
So too
the person who has been crucified with Christ. He no longer seeks to keep the
law in order to earn favour with God or merit eternal life. That kind of
legalistic life is over. He is dead to the law as a way of salvation.
But third, to be crucified
with Christ means that the person is no longer under the power of sin. The
power of sin is broken. The reign and dominion of sin over a believer’s life is
over. Christ now reigns. Sin has lost its deadly grip and stranglehold.
In Romans 6, the Apostle
Paul puts it this way:
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is
freed from sin.”
Not
that the believer is absolutely free from sin. He still sins due to remaining
and indwelling corruption of the old man. But sin does not have the mastery
over him any more.
Professor
John Murray puts it this way in his excellent book Redemption Accomplished and
Applied, “There is a total difference between surviving sin and reigning sin,
the regenerate in conflict with sin and the unregenerate complacent to sin. It
is one thing for sin to live in us: it is another for us to live in sin. It is
one thing for the enemy to occupy the capital; it is another for his defeated
hosts to harass the garrisons of the kingdom.”
I love his analogy of
capital and garrison. Indeed although sin wages a constant war against us and
harasses us all around, nevertheless, it no longer occupies the capital city,
that is, the very core and centre of our lives.
And so because I have been
crucified with Christ, I no longer live. I am dead to the condemnation and
curse of the law. I am dead to the law as a means of justification and
acceptance with God. And I am dead to the dominion and rule of sin.
I am
truly dead. Nevertheless I am truly alive.
This brings us then to the
second point this evening, Alive in Christ. We move from the negative side of
our redemption to the positive side of it.
Alive in Christ
Paul writes, “nevertheless I
live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God…”
What does Paul mean here?
Well, let’s be very clear what he does not mean.
He does not mean, as some
mystics teach based on this verse, that we have somehow lost our own
personalities or that our personalities have become so mixed up with or merged
into the person of Christ that it is suppressed or absorbed or unrecognizable.
No, the believer still
retains his own individuality and personal traits and characteristics after
conversion. The apostle Paul still had a personality of his own.
It was still Paul, the
individual, who thought and wrote and bore witness and exhorted and rejoiced
and so on. We see his personality even in all of the books and letters, which
the Holy Spirit inspired him to write.
But what the Apostle is
saying is that Christ has now become the dominant force and the energizing
influence in his life. As we said earlier, the power of sin has been broken and
lost in his crucifixion with Christ.
Now Christ rules and reigns.
He controls the citadel of our hearts. The life that we now live is closely
bound up with the life of Christ. We are no longer our own.
In fact, we could say that
we no longer have a life of our own and that the only life we now have is the
life that God has put into us through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The true Christian life is
not so much we living for Christ as Christ living through us. This is a
tremendous thought. We are not our own. We belong to Him. He now lives in us
and through us.
The phrase “the life which I
now live in the flesh…” speaks of the fact that this life we have in Christ is
not something that is future or reserved for heaven. Right now, right here on
earth in this earthly mortal body, we who are believers, have this life.
This
reminds us that we must not view our bodies or the physical part of us as
unimportant for the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith
of the Son of God.
In Romans 12:1, Paul urges
the brethren to present their bodies as a sacrifice to God, living, holy and
acceptable.
And again in 1 Corinthians
6, he tells us that the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and that
we are to glorify God both in our body and spirit, because both have been
bought with a price and we belong to God in the totality of our person – body
and soul.
Now this amazing union
between Christ and the believer is brought about by faith. Faith unites us or
if you like, faith cements us to Him. Once a person puts his faith in Christ,
he is united to Him, and this union with the Son of God becomes a spiritual
reality.
The benefits and blessings
of Christ become ours to enjoy the moment we believe. Like a water pipe, faith
serves to connect us to Him and Him to us, and through the pipe of faith, flow
all the benefits of redemption to us.
The words of Martin Luther
on this verse are worth quoting, “Faith therefore must be purely taught:
namely, that you are so entirely joined to Christ, that He and you are made as
it were one person; so that you may boldly say, I am now one with Christ, that
is to say, Christ’s righteousness, victory, and life are mine. Again, Christ
may say, I am that sinner, that is, his sins and his death are Mine, because he
is united and joined to Me, and I to him. For by faith we are so joined
together that we are become “members of his body, of his flesh, and of his
bones.”
The believer’s union with
Christ not only brings justification or a righteous standing before God, but it
also brings sanctification. Actual righteousness and holiness is being produced
in the heart and life of a believer.
More and more we die unto
sin, as our Catechism puts it, and more and more we live unto righteousness.
Just as Christ loved God
above all and His neighbour as Himself, so we who have the life of Christ begin
to do the same.
The old ‘I’ or the old
“self” is dead. The new ‘I’ – the one that is found in Christ – now lives. This
means that there is a decisive shift in the center of my life and focus from
self to Christ.
No longer do I live for my
own selfish and sinful desires. No longer do I pursue my own ungodly goals and
dreams.
Now Christ, who lives in me,
directs and guides all that I do. His kingdom and His glory is now my priority.
I now live for something
much bigger and greater than just my own wants and concerns. I live for Him and
for His glory.
Furthermore,
the desire and the strength to live a Christ-centered life come from Christ
Himself. Moment by moment, day by day, He energizes and drives and motivates
and empowers me. Apart from Him, I can do nothing.
So then, crucified with
Christ and alive in Christ. But thirdly, we must consider this – that we are
loved by Christ.
Loved by
Christ
All that we have said thus
far about being crucified with Christ and about being alive in Him would not
have come about apart from the love of Christ for me.
It is entirely because of
what the Son of God has done for me and in me that I have been crucified and I
now live.
And the
Son of God did what He did not out of compulsion or mere obligation, but He did
it out of love. Not for His own sake but for mine, He went to the cross and he
rose again. Yes, even his rising again was for our sakes.
Indeed, the love of Christ
is the source and the fountain out of which His sacrifice flows. Without it,
nothing good or beneficial would come to us.
And as a proof and
demonstration of His love, He gave Himself up for me. This speaks of the fact
that He willingly and freely offered Himself up.
Reminds us of what our Lord
Himself said in John10:17-18, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it
down, and I have power to take it again.”
The words “for me” indicate
that Christ did not go to the cross for everyone in general, but He went as a
substitute for each and every one of His people. He died specifically in their
place. He had His people in mind when He went to the cross.
What took place on the cross
was not an impersonal or mechanical transaction. Let me give an illustration of
a mechanical transaction.
You go to the ATM machine to
draw money. You put in your card, key in the amount you want, say fifty
dollars, and you wait for the machine to dispense a fifty dollar note.
Now we know that when the
authorities print the banknotes, each one has a unique serial number. But when
we draw the money from the ATM, we don’t care which particular fifty dollar
note comes out.
As long as it comes out and
we can use it, who cares whether its serial number is 2BU642594 or OEM126399?
It’s all the same to us. We
draw it, use it and that’s it. We have no love or attachment to any particular
note.
But not so when Christ went
to the cross. He went to the cross with specific names and people in mind, and
to make payment for the specific sins of theirs.
So the cross was not a
mechanical transaction but a personal expression of His love for His people as
individuals.
And this is the reason why
we cannot simply go up to anyone in the street and say to him or her – Christ
loved you and gave Himself up for you.
We do
not know that, especially when that person is not living by faith in the Son of
God.
Only those who are living
that kind of life of faith in Christ can say, “the Son of God loved me and gave
Himself for me.”
It is not that our faith
earns His love or merits His atoning sacrifice. But rather, our faith in Christ
is the result of and indeed the demonstration that Christ loved us and gave
Himself for us.
Crucified
with Christ, alive in Christ and loved by Christ. What does all this mean for
me?
What this Means for Me?
As we draw to a close, let
me draw your attention to the personal pronouns of our text: did you notice
that in this one verse, the personal pronoun ‘I’ or ‘me’ is used no less than
eight times?
“I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
What does this tell us? Well, it tells us first of
all that the religion of the apostle Paul or the Christian religion is an
intensely personal one. Yes, Christianity involves more than just the
individual but it is not less than that.
Here
in Galatians 2:20 the apostle Paul reveals the individualistic character of the
kind of faith that leads to salvation.
Christianity
is a very personal faith first as to its subject.
Each
person must make his own decision. Each must embrace the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ for himself. Each must experience his own fellowship with the living
God. Each must rely upon Him with all the confidence of his own heart.
It
will not do for you merely to be a member of a covenant family surrounded by
godly parents and siblings and family members.
And
it will not do for you merely to be a member of a local church and be immersed
in a Christian community and hidden amongst a Christian crowd.
You,
each one of us, we all need to have a personal faith and relationship with the
LORD. You need to be able to say, “I
am crucified with Christ…and Christ lives in me…and the Son of God loved me
and gave Himself for me.”
Elsewhere in Romans 10:9-10, Paul writes, “That if thou (singular) shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Apart
from personal faith in Christ, one cannot be saved. This was true in the Old
Covenant economy and this is still true today. If we do not personally believe
in the person and work of Christ, we will be cut off from the vine and the
olive tree.
But
Christianity is also very personal as to its object. The object of a
Christian’s faith is not merely some abstract concept or principle or ideal. It
is not even just something about or pertaining to Christ.
No,
the object of our faith is no less than the person of Jesus Christ. He loved
me. He died for me. He lives in me. He is the object of my faith and my love.
He and I.
Dear
brethren and friends, I ask you this evening, what is the state of your
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it a real, living, vital, and
personal relationship? Or is it just something that is vague, abstract,
historical and impersonal?
We
all need to examine ourselves as to the reality of our faith in Christ and the
vitality of our union with Him. O let us settle for nothing less than true,
genuine and authentic Christianity.
But
the second thing that we can learn from this repeated use of the personal
pronoun in this verse is that our identity is found in Christ and Christ alone
– our identity is found in Christ and Christ alone.
The Apostle Paul was not being self-centered and
neither was he trying to promote himself when he repeatedly used the first
person ‘I’ or ‘me.’ But rather, He is teaching us the right way we ought to
view ourselves and live our lives as believers in Christ.
If
I were to ask you this evening – what is your identity? How would you answer?
Would
you say I am a human being who is working hard in this world to make a living
and to support my family? Or would you say I am a person who is seeking
happiness and contentment in wealth and fame and pleasure? Let’s be honest
here.
Or
if you’re a young person, would you say I am a youth with many years ahead of
me and I’m preparing for a bright future by excelling in my studies?
Or
if you’re struggling with problems in the home, would you say, I am a husband
or a wife struggling to make my marriage work and to keep it from falling
apart.
Or
I am a father or mother who is trying real hard to bring up my
less-than-cooperative children in the way that they should go?
Or
if you’re unmarried, would you say I am single and lonely and waiting for the
right person to come along?
Or
if you’re an aged person, would you say I am so old and weak, and I’m just
waiting for the end to come?
Or
if you have a very difficult job or you’ve just lost your job or you’re
depressed or you’re suffering from some chronic physical or mental affliction
or you’re a single parent or you’ve just lost a loved one or you’re battling
long standing problems or and so on and on.
What
would you say to the question of your identity? Who are you?
If
you’re a believer, then regardless of your inward and outward circumstances,
your successes and failures, your strengths and weaknesses, your character and
personality, your past and present, remember that your identity is found in
Christ.
I
am crucified with Christ and Christ lives in me. That’s who I am first of all
and most importantly. My identity is bound up in the One who loved me and gave
Himself for me, even Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.
Yes, our circumstances in life may change from day
to day, our fortunes (as it were) may rise and fall, but because our identity
is found in Christ, we have a firm foundation that never shifts, a solid rock
that never moves.
I
am crucified with Christ. I am a sinner who has been cleansed and washed by the
precious blood of Christ. I have a righteous standing before God and I have
been set free from the power and dominion of sin.
Christ
lives in me. He rules and reigns over my life. He is daily sanctifying me and
empowering me against sin and temptation. I no longer live for myself but for
Him. His glory, His kingdom, and His will are my chief concerns and goals and
priorities in life.
I
am loved by Christ. He loved me so much that He was willing to give Himself up
for me on the cross. He exchanged His life for mine. He took my sins and He
gave me His righteousness. If He has given me the best gift of all, will He
withhold anything that is truly good for me? Surely not!
Dear
Brethren in Christ, remember who you truly are. You are not first a husband, a
wife, a parent, a doctor, a businessman, a pastor, a student or whatever
calling you may have.
You
are first and foremost a Christian – one who has been crucified with Christ,
one in whom Christ lives, and one whom Christ loves immensely.
You
are a Christian husband, a Christian wife, a Christian parent and so on. You
are not defined by your calling or vocation but by who you are in Christ.
And
neither are you defined by a past event or a present struggle. Say not I am an
alcoholic or I am a person who grew up in a dysfunctional family or I am an
angry person or I am depressed…so on.
While
we should never minimise these past problems or current struggles, these things
do not displace our more basic and fundamental identity of being in Christ.
Say
rather, I am a Christian who struggles with alcohol or addiction or anger or
depression or fatigue or pain and so on. Who I am in Christ supersedes whatever
struggle I am going through right now.
You
are defined by Christ. And because of that, you can have real help and real
hope in everything that you face for you do not face them alone or in your own
strength.
The
world is obsessed with things like self-esteem, self-improvement,
self-fulfillment, self-indulgence, and self-image. These are self-absorbed
times that we are living in.
The antidote to all this is to see ourselves as
being in Christ for as Christians, the only self that we have is the one that
is united to Christ.
The author Philip Ryken wrote, “We will never find our true selves until
we find ourselves in Christ. Our identity is established by our union with
Christ. We have no self, except the self that we have in him. To have a
“healthy self-image,” then, is to see ourselves as we are in Christ.”
“I am crucified
with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who
loved me, and gave himself for me.” Amen. W