THE ACCUSATION AND ARGUMENT AGAINST JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH (Part 5)
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Good Teachers: (1) Constantly re-evaluate what they are doing; (2) Set large goals; (3) Ask – “Does everything I do contribute to learning?”; (4) Prepare well; (5) Check for understanding; (6) Like teaching; (7) Get results from their teaching; (8) Have perseverance. Don’t give up.
TEACHING GOAL: Show that at the moment of our new birth we were also made one in Christ’s death on the cross.
QUESTION: Can you name four things that were nailed to the cross?
1) The Lord Jesus Christ; 2) The public announcement that read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews – John 19:19; 3) The debt of our sin: God forgave “all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:13-14); 4) The follower of Christ – Gal. 2:20.
TEXT FOR THE DAY:
“But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that 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.
“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. The life I 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! (Gal. 2:17-21)
ACCUSATION AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST / FOR
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH (Part 1)
1. The Accusation Against Justification by Faith – Godlessness
2. The Underlying Assumptions in the Accusation – Fear & Love
PAUL’S REBUTTAL (Part 2)
Why We Can’t Go Back Under the Law
3. Rebuilding a System of Law Proves the Christian is a Lawbreaker
4. Seeking to Live By the Law Destroys All Hope of Salvation
PAUL’S REBUTTAL (Part 3-5)
Why I Can Live a Godly Life Apart from the Law
5. I Am Motivated to Godliness by Christ’s Love For Me.
6. I Am Liberated from Sin’s Power by My Death With Christ
7. I Am Indwelt by Christ and He is My Strength
PAUL’S REBUTTAL (Part 6)
Depending on the Law for Salvation Makes the
Crucifixion of Christ Meaningless
VI. I AM LIBERATED FROM SIN’S POWER BY MY DEATH WITH CHRIST
INTERPRETING THE FIRST “I” IN GAL. 2:20
THE “OLD SELF”, THE “ADAMIC NATURE”, CAN STILL CONTROL A CHILD OF GOD
QUOTE: “Self is the root, the tree and the branches of all the evils of our fallen state.” (William Law)
CHRIST BREAKS THE POWER OF CANCELLED SIN
I AM UNITED WITH CHRIST IN HIS DEATH
“I have been crucified with Christ . . . “
QUESTION: Is our crucifixion with Christ a “subjective experience” or an “objective reality”? Explain your reasoning.
“. . . . the Christian has been crucified with Christ. It uses the perfect tense to show that this is something that really and truly happened, as if we were nailed to the very tree of Calvary. This is not a subjective experience [existing only in the mind] in the life of the believer, but an objective reality that is based on the believer’s relationship to Christ” (Ryken, 74).
ILLUSTRATION: Just as a person who becomes a citizen of the United States has decided to live within the historical reality created by events in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, so the person who becomes identified with Christ has decided to live with the new historical reality created by the events of the cross of Christ and his resurrection. (Hansen, 76)
QUESTION: From the view of an historical event, what is the difference between Christ’s death for us and our death with Christ?
Our union with Christ in His death is an objective, historical event. Christ dying for us on the cross is also an objective historical event.
When we are born-again we are automatically “Born Crucified.” His death simultaneously cancelled my sin (dying for me) and delivered me from its power (I died with Him).
QUESTION: How many times is our “union in Christ’s death” mentioned or alluded to in Romans 6:1-13? Find and underline the exact phrase in your Bible.
6:2 – we died to sin
6:3 – baptized into his death
6:4 — buried into death
6:5 – united with him in His death.
6:6 – Our old self was crucified with him.
6:7 – Anyone who has died
6:8 — If we died
6:11 – count yourselves dead to sin
6:13 – brought from death to life
Other Scriptures referring to our union with Christ in His death:
I have been crucified with Christ . . . . Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature . . . . The cross through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world . . . . Buried with him in baptism. (Gal. 2:20, 5:24, 6:14; Col. 2:12)
QUOTES ON BEING ‘CO-CRUCIFIED’ WITH CHRIST
QUESTION: What does Luther mean, “as two”?
“The moment I consider Christ and myself as two, I am gone.” (Martin Luther as quoted in Born Crucified, LE Maxwell)
QUESTION: Why do we often consider “Christ and myself at two”?
QUOTE: “The Cambridge Puritan William Perkins (1558-1602) said, ‘We are in mind and meditation to consider Christ crucified: and first, we are to believe that he was crucified for us. This being done, we must go yet further, and as it were spread ourselves on the cross of Christ, believing and withal beholding ourselves crucified with him.’” (As quoted in Ryken, 73)
READING: George Mueller, when questioned about his spiritual power, responded simply, “One day George Mueller died.” D. L. Moody was visiting New York City when he consciously died to his own ambitions. And evangelist Christmas Evans, putting down on paper his surrender to Christ, began it by writing: “I give my soul and body to Jesus.” It was, in a very real sense, a death to self. John Gregory Mantle wrote, “There is a great difference between realizing, ‘On that Cross He was crucified for me,’ and ‘On that Cross I am crucified with Him.’ The one aspect brings us deliverance from sin’s condemnation, the other from sin’s power.”
ILLUSTRATION: Thomas a Kempis composed in Latin between 1418-1427 AD a book titled, “The Imitation of Christ.” Wikipedia claims that it is probably the most widely read devotional book next to the Bible. There is no question that, as the title suggests, we must seek to imitate the life of Christ. He told us to do that.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me . . . I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done . . . . And walk in love, as Christ has loved us . . . you should follow in His steps . . . He who abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked . . . Predestined to be conformed to the image of His son . . . . Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus . . . . Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did . . . (Mt. 11:29; John 13:15; Eph. 5:2; I Peter 2:21; I John 2:6; Romans 8:29; Phil. 2:5; I John 2:6)
QUESTION: How do the commands telling us to imitate the life of Christ relate to the fact of our co-crucifixion with Christ?
We cannot, for we do not have the power in ourselves, imitate Christ. To do that we need supernatural power. The first step in experiencing that supernatural power is by accepting our co-crucifixion with Christ.
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ” (Romans 6:11)
QUESTION: What does ‘count’ mean? What are some synonyms? How does this work?
Count = reckon, consider, continually consider, see yourselves, regard yourselves. (Dictionary synonyms: view, regard, think, believe, conceive)
Galatians 2:20 tells us that before we can imitate the life of Christ we must reckon ourselves dead with Christ, participate fully in the death of Christ.
Remember, a person cannot crucify himself/herself. You can nail one hand to the cross, but you can’t nail the other!
Hymn: Dying with Jesus, His death reckoned mine; / Living with Jesus a new life divine; / Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine, / Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.
THE BIBLE IS ABOUT CHRIST:
Christ, on the cross provided salvation from sin. He canceled our sin debt. For this we always live with a thankful heart. But the crucifixion provided more than just salvation from sin. Christ included us in His death, in a sense we were co-crucified with him.
Christ not only died for us but included us in His death. His death for us cancelled our debt of sin; Our death with Him broke the power of sin.
Christ has freed us from both sin’s penalty and sin’s power.
SO WHAT???
1. Romans 6:1-13 and Galatians 2:20 plus several other verses specifically emphasize that in accepting Christ’s death for us we also accepted our death, the death of our old nature, with Christ.
2. Our union with Christ is his death an objective, historical event
3. When we are born-again we are automatically “Born Crucified.” Christ’s death simultaneously cancelled my sin (dying for me) and delivered me from its power (my dying with Him).
4. We can only imitate Christ and be conformed to His image as we reckon ourselves crucified with Christ.