“Dying to Self – Part 2” – Galatians 2:19-21

Probably all of us have had one of those nights where it seemed impossible to sleep. We tossed and turned, trying to get to sleep, but our thoughts kept crowding out sleep. It is at those times that with the Father, letting Him take control of whatever is troubling our mind. Only when we surrender the trouble to God are we able to relax our minds and float off to sleep.

When we look at today’s passage, we need to keep in mind that Paul’s declaration is his statement that his coming to God in Christ allowed the apostle to stop fighting and learn to rest in salvation by grace, free from works and the law.

Background

We live in a world where the law given to Moses really has little if any bearing on our own personal lives. Though it posed a genuine problem in Paul’s world, what does it really have to do with us? Surprisingly, quite a lot.

The typical Christian—someone like you and me—says we believe in salvation by grace and faith, not by works. Yet, we find ourselves reverting to a works-based lifestyle in our relationship with God. We sin, and think that God is not happy with us, that He’s giving us the silent treatment and that we have to do something to get back into His good graces. We know we are saved, but we don’t believe our relationship with God is where it should be unless we do something to make it better.

While there is some truth to that, we have to look at the motives behind it. Yes, we should spend more time in prayer and Bible study, but only because we need to be in fellowship with the Father, and the best way to strengthen that fellowship is through working on our relationship with Him, just as we work on our relationships with our spouses, our children, our friends.

It’s when we begin to think that we have to pray, we have to read our Bibles, we have to go to church in order to earn God’s favor is where we miss the boat. The Bible reminds us that God demonstrated His love for us in that He sent Christ to die for our sins while we were still sinners, still His enemies (cf. Romans 5:8-10; 1 John 4:9-10). When we sin, we need to repent, not to get back into God’s good graces, but to acknowledge our wrong to Him and to ourselves. Sin hinders the relationship, yes, but it never ends it for the believer. Confession allows us to surrender ourselves to Him once again that He can work through us and in us. This passage speaks to this reality.

Paul’s letter to the Galatians is in response to attacks made against him as an apostle and, more importantly, against the gospel that he preached and taught in Galatia.

In the world that was the first century Mediterranean world, there were strong factions of Jews that hated all things Gentile. Their belief was that God would have nothing to do with Gentiles, that Israel was God’s chosen nation and the people of Israel were God’s chosen people. God would have nothing to do with Gentiles, and therefore the Gospel had nothing to do with them. In their mind, if a Gentile wanted to come to Christ, he or she must first convert to Judaism, embracing circumcision and obedience to the laws given to Moses by God.

Because Paul was going out to the Gentile world and encouraging them to come to God through Christ without any reference to legalism, the Jewish leaders determined to send out their own missionaries that would follow the apostle and try to correct his incomplete Gospel. They would travel throughout the area, telling those who had come to Christ because of Paul’s ministry that they had only begun the process.

Paul got wind of this and knew that the very concept of the Gospel was being threatened in a way that could destroy the Church before it ever really got started. As a result, Paul wrote this letter, using phrases such as “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned” (Galatians 1:8) and, “If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:9).

Paul then wrote in detail about his ministry with the Galatians and his calling as an apostle by God Himself. The apostle then began to address the fallacy of this fake gospel, beginning with an argument he probably had heard others make before. In 2:17-18, Paul stated their argument: “IF, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.”

What follows next Paul’s central belief about what the gospel is all about and why we live by God’s grace and Christ’s presence. In these words we find the reason we must immerse ourselves in Christ.

Central Truth: The reason we die to self is so that Christ can live through us.

God’s plan for Christ to live in us:

1. The purpose of the law (19)

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

I was driving to church several years ago through McGregor. I knew that the speed limit was 35 or 50, but I couldn’t remember when it changed from 50 t0 55. I was driving and assumed that the speed limit must have turned to 55 so I was going that speed. I noticed the police car at the side of the road, but thought I was okay. It was only when I looked past the police car to see the speed limit sign changing the speed from 50 to 55 that I knew I was in trouble. Sure enough, even though I was going what I honestly believed to be the speed limit, I got a speeding ticket. I needed that sign to show me the true speed limit.

Paul made that point in this verse. We need the law to show us what sin really is. If we read through Leviticus and Numbers, we realize just how exacting God really is. We can see from Adam and Eve that a simple taking of a forbidden fruit—a trifling thing on earth, really—was enough to give them a death sentence. It wasn’t the taking of the fruit, but the sin that condemned them. Looking at the laws given to Moses—even if we consider only the Ten Commandments—we see how difficult it is to walk in complete obedience to God. Paul was right; we need the law to show us what sin is and to show us how much we need God’s forgiveness and grace.

The religious leaders of Paul’s day insisted that it was possible to follow the law to such a degree that they could earn God’s approval. That was Paul’s testimony in Philippians 2:4-6. He said that he followed the law, and in that regard, “as for legal righteousness, faultless.”

But on the road to Damascus, Paul was confronted with his sinfulness. At that point, or shortly after, he came to realize that his life devoted to the law was keeping him away from God rather than drawing him to God. On that road, under the gaze of Jesus, Paul died to the law and turned to grace.

The law pointed out his sin to him, and it points out sin to us. We need sin defined so we can know what is expected of us. We need to know that, no matter how good we are, we still fall short of God’s high expectations. We know that we need Christ. Like Paul, when we came to Jesus, we died to the law in order to live by faith in grace.

2. We are crucified with Christ (20)

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.

Over the past few weeks, we know that Paul taught that our baptism symbolizes our death to sin in Christ, and our rising to walk in His life. This death to the law and to sin sets us free from slavery to sin and the law. Even though the sinful nature inhabits our bodies, we are no longer obligated to follow sin because we are set free from sin in Christ Jesus.

This was Paul’s emphasis in this verse. The moment he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, Paul stopped living for self and stopped trying to earn God’s favor by his works and the law. On that road to Damascus, Paul began a new life, one in union with Christ through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

Notice that Paul wrote Jesus lives in him. This does not mean that Paul’s personality ceased and that Jesus took over his being. No, it means that as Paul lived his life, Jesus was right there with him, guiding him and teach him.

The same is true for us. God’s salvation does not mean we stop being ourselves. It means that we no longer have to confront temptation and sin on our own. Now we have the guidance of the only One who was able to be tempted as we are, yet without sin. We now have Jesus with us. He is the One who showed us how to live in complete obedience to the Father, how to demonstrate our love for God in loving others. He is the One who knows what it is to be human and still be pleasing to God.

Paul learned that the way to find God’s pleasure is to live by faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” If we want to do what is pleasing to God, then we trust in Him. We rely on Christ to guide us, live with us and in us. We trust in what Jesus taught. We follow Him.

We life we live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God. This is how we immerse ourselves in Christ.

3. Christ living in me demonstrates God’s grace (21)

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.

Paul’s critics tried to dismiss him and his gospel message by saying that the apostle ignores the law and encourages licentiousness. This verse fully refutes that fallacy.

Paul understood and taught that living in grace by faith is the key to pleasing God. Living by faith in Christ sets aside the futility of following laws and frees us to follow the Spirit’s guidance. It frees us from trying to jump through hoops and lets us learn and grow in God’s grace and ways.

Righteousness is gained by grace, not the law. If it could, Paul correctly wrote, then Christ died for nothing. We know that Jesus’ crucifixion was necessary. By it, we find justification and righteousness. The crucifixion was and is the only way we can come to God through Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life, and He is the only means by which we find eternal life, which is knowing the Father and the Son.

When we immerse ourselves in Christ, we know that salvation does not give us license to sin, but leads us away from sin and toward a life of faith and pleasing of God.

Conclusion

Do you want to know what makes God happy? It isn’t doing good works. It is in walking with and learning from Jesus as the Spirit lives in us and works in us to sanctify us. It is in living this life in the body by faith in Christ. When we walk in faith, with Jesus living in us, do we become immersed in the One who loved us enough to die for us.