Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.08 – February 1997
I Live By faith In Christ
A Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on Galatians 2:20
Scripture Readings: Mark 15:1-20; Galatians 2:11-21
Suggested Hymns: BoW 301; 398; 306; 302; 392
Dear Brothers and Sisters in our Lord.
Believing in Christ is not always so straightforward. It can be. But people have a knack of making faith very complicated. It is plain from the faith of some that they are far too confident for the wrong reasons. But others are not confident enough in their faith. They struggle a great deal in believing that Christ is able to do wonderfully good things in them.
So, on one end of the scale we have those who feel far too positive about themselves, whilst on the other end of the scale there are others who are often depressed by all the inferior things they see in themselves.
We, therefore, want to obtain some practical help from Scripture about the blessings that are there in Jesus’ suffering and death. We are looking at this statement from Galatians which says: “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.”
We’ll put all that under the heading: “I live by faith in Christ!” For that is what it boils down to. The Christian lives in a special way. He does not live as someone from the world lives. The Christian’s life and thinking is quite different to those who are not of Christ but of the world.
What makes it different is that the Christian lives by faith in Christ. The Christian’s life comes from Christ, it’s rooted in Christ and centres on Christ. That’s what our text is saying in a nutshell. Now as we look at all that, then we have these two sub-points which seem to be in opposition.
The first is: I have died.
And the second one is: yet I live.
Both these brief statements are true of the Christian.
Let us now see how that can be so.
- In the first place let us see how the Christian can say: I have died. The text has the phrase, “I no longer live.” What does the believer mean by that? Obviously he cannot be dead in the sense that his body has stopped breathing and is ready for a funeral.
These words were first spoken by the apostle Paul and the reason for what he said came about because of a fundamental difference he had with the apostle Peter. The Lord Jesus had taught the apostles that no one can be saved by observing the law of God, for the simple reason that there is no one who can obey God’s law perfectly. All have sinned.
Therefore, the only way to become right with God is through Jesus Christ the Saviour. He became the Substitute, He was condemned in the sinner’s place, He died the sinner’s death. It’s Christ dying for the ungodly. And only by believing what the death of Christ can do for the sinner can the sinner become right with God.
Now the apostle Peter, just like the apostle Paul, knew all that. It was an essential and a wonderful part of the message of the gospel that all the apostles were privileged to proclaim. But then a sad thing happened in Antioch, where both Paul and Peter were. Some Jewish Christians arrived from Jerusalem and, sadly, they had an incorrect understanding of the gospel. They said that in order to be right with God the believer also had to be circumcised.
Now it was understandable that they said this because the custom of circumcision had been with the Jewish people for thousands of years, and under the old covenant it had a deep meaning. But Christ’s death on the cross had ended such rituals. Baptism had come in the place of circumcision. But somehow these Jewish Christians found it hard to let go of this long-time practice.
Now for some reason the apostle Peter was afraid of this group from Jerusalem. Before they came Peter had fine fellowship with the Gentile Christians who, not being Jews, had nothing to do with circumcision. But when these Jewish Christians arrived, Peter drew back from the Gentile Christians, and he seemed to give his approval to circumcision being necessary after all.
The apostle Paul got very upset about this because he saw straightaway that what Peter had done was very harmful to the church. Was a believer now not made right with God through faith alone? After all what Christ did, did the believer still have to depend on circumcision? In other words, what Peter now seemed to be advocating was that salvation is by faith plus works.
All through the ages the Christian church has had to battle this heresy. A version of this heresy we are familiar with is when you have people say that in order to be saved you have to believe in Christ, plus speak in tongues. It’s always the plus, the extra, that undoes the wonderful scriptural teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith. The extra can be anything but it’s always wrong when it’s seen as an extra to faith.
I mentioned tongues, but it has been other things as well. The Roman Catholic church has, of course, taught for a long time that salvation depends on faith plus works.
Now the apostle Paul had no hesitation to oppose Peter on this heresy. He made his position very clear when he said: I have died to all those laws that demand me to do this or that before I can be right with God. I am right with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s the beauty of Christ! He is my complete Saviour. I live by faith in Christ who died for the ungodly. I can’t live and I don’t have to live anymore by depending on all kinds of extras for my salvation. When Christ died to the demands of the law, then He set me free from having to meet all those demands as though my salvation still depended on my perfect obedience to them.
So it was Paul who was the first to say: I have died. And every Christian may say the same thing. Every Christian, for the sake of his own salvation, must say the same: I have died. He can say it without any hesitation when he knows how, through faith alone, he is right with God, through Christ.
But let’s try and make that more clear by asking: When did I die? Well, the believer says, I died when I stopped believing that I myself had to do something in order to be saved. That part of me is no longer there. It is dead. It’s gone.
Before Paul fully realised that the gospel actually said, Christ has done it all – before he saw that, he was under the impression that in order to be right with God, he had to be a good Pharisee; he had to obey this law, observe that custom, hang on to that ritual, and so on. Then the gospel hit home. By God’s holy law no one can obey perfectly.
The law condemns all forms of disobedience and disobedience is sin and sin brings death. But Christ came and He died for those morally weak and helpless. He died for the ungodly. Now when anyone believes that then you no longer stand condemned before the law. Christ was condemned in your place.
God’s law is still very useful in that it shows how you can please God but it no longer condemns you on account of your failure to comply. You are free from condemnation because of what Christ has done for you through His suffering and death.
The part of any believer which died, then, is that part of him which tries to become right with God by depending on doing what the law says. So whatever you and I were doing before we realised that we live by faith in Christ, that now is dead. It has to be. For Christ has come.
You can see how true this is by looking at people who try to be right with God without Christ. Maybe they have not yet heard of Christ. Maybe the gospel is incorrectly presented. Maybe they have not understood the gospel of Christ. When God’s free grace is not understood people will fall back on themselves – on their own works.
Isn’t this the sad thing about other religions? Many of their custom and traditions are much more than that- they are laws. Laws that demand, and when you don’t conform to the letter then those laws, condemn you. So they live in fear. Always afraid that their observance of the law is not good enough. Always afraid that they will be condemned. So they try harder, the one outdoes the other.
It’s the same thing with the sects. The one demands this, the other that and woe to you if you don’t meet the demand. And it is so very, very sad when even some Christians fall into a similar trap, just like those Jewish Christians from Jerusalem who insisted on circumcision in addition to faith.
Why do some Christian not simply live by faith in Christ? Well, when you begin to depend on something additional to faith then you can point to it and say, ‘I am Christian because I am seen to be trying to live by the rules. I am a Christian because I have been baptised. I am a Christian because I am a decent citizen.
And, unfortunately, other people don’t help when they say, ‘Yes, you must be a good Christian because you do all these good things. If anyone is right with God then it must be you, for you are such a good person. If anyone deserves to go to heaven then it must be you.
But when you live by faith, then you have died to all that trying to depend on your own works in order to be right with God. I no longer live like that. I don’t go by that anymore. That’s finished! It’s what I did in the past. But now it’s by faith in what Christ has done. At least He has obeyed perfectly.
When I was trying by works, it was always imperfect. And I knew that my works were imperfect, but I refused to admit it and I pretended to others that I was doing these works quite well. So, I was a hypocrite as well. What a blessing for me that I heard the wonderful gospel of Christ. It got me right away from trying to impress God and others by my own works.
But here is another question: how did I die? I died when Christ died! But wait a minute, Christ died on the cross nearly 2,000 years ago. Yes, but when He did, He somehow also represented my death. When He died there on Golgotha, then He died for others. He was sinless Himself, completely innocent of any wrong. So He didn’t die for Himself. He died for all those whom He was saving, whether they lived before or after Him. One death for all.
That’s how God has worked out our salvation. So that part of me that tries to be right with God on the basis of works has been crucified with Christ. It has been killed good and proper. Whenever the tendency comes up in my mind that I have to fulfil some kind of work in order to be right with God, then I better squash it straightaway.
Unfortunately, my mind and your mind, tries this sort of thing all too often. Better do this, or better do that, otherwise God and others might think that I am not much of a Christian. But I have to crucify those tendencies in me. I should be saying, ‘I want to do this good thing and that good thing because the Bible teaches me that it pleases God, it honours His Name, and it is a good example for others to follow. But as to my salvation depending on it, no, not one bit. For my salvation I depend completely on Christ. He has done it all for me. The Bible says that I may believe this to be true and that’s what I am doing.’
Then to what did I die? We already said: to all those efforts of trying to save oneself. But let us be aware that our western culture is trying to do this all the time. And unfortunately some people in the Christian church are not picking this up, for they are saying, unintentionally probably, what the world is saying. Does not the world say that you have to learn to accept yourself and to love yourself?
But what a sad and unworkable solution that is in trying to overcome whatever personal problems people are struggling with. Why tell people to love and accept themselves when one’s human nature is depraved. It is sinful.
Human nature is inclined to all sorts of evil things. People need to acknowledge this and they need to hear that Christ died for the ungodly and be persuaded to come to Christ for forgiveness and pardon of their sins. That sinful self must not be accepted and loved. It must die, be crucified with Christ, and then people must live by faith in Christ.
And it is the same with people who say that we have to have self-esteem. But it’s the very thing that I haven’t got when I see my sinful nature. I can’t hold myself in high esteem when I see the sinfulness of my mind. I need to see Christ. And I can’t say that I’m OK and you’re OK when the Bible teaches me that I’m not OK and you’re not OK. Only Christ is OK.
People, then, are always looking for ways to say that they are somehow alright. They again and again try to convince themselves that somewhere in their human nature there is some good. But God’s Word says that human nature has fallen into sin and it needs deliverance from the power of sin. People everywhere need to be saved in Christ. That’s the only real salvation there is.
- Thus, in the second place we look to the other statement that says: Yet I live! The old sinful self no longer lives and in its place has come the new self which lives by faith in Christ.
But now where do I live? Well, I still live in the body. I am still a human being with a human nature, but the difference is that I am living by faith in Christ. The apostle Paul says: “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” So it is really Christ living in me.
Now, living by faith whilst still in the body is never easy. The believer’s whole life is taken up by learning to let Christ live in and through him. The believer so often falls back into his old self. You are what you are with your own kind of temperament. Amongst all of us there are not two who are exactly the same. We are all different. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and it varies with each one of us. We have different pasts. We have our own particular circumstances to face every day. Some of us are young, some are old. Some are healthy, others are not. All this is our life in the body. It is us in the flesh.
There are times when we want to escape from everything. We often speak of getting away from it all, but most have to go back to it sooner or later. And our own self always comes along, of course, wherever we might go. But the secret of survival as a Christian is to live by faith in Christ. In all circumstances. That’s where your believing has to be done. Right where you are and in what you are.
This is how God’s Word puts it: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him [i.e. Christ] who gives me strength” (Phil.4:12-13).
The believer, then, lives by faith in Christ wherever he lives in whatever circumstance. But how can I live by faith in Christ? Well, with Satan trying to get us off the rails and with our own nature to contend with, it is an on-going business. So often the believer takes his eye off Christ. He looks to himself and says: ‘I don’t know, i am just a simple minded person. I can’t understand much. How can I have a close relationship with Christ when it’s all so difficult?’
Or another believer says to himself: ‘I just don’t seem to have enough interest in the things of God. I feel I should be extremely keen and motivated but I am afraid that I just lack the energy to pull out all stops for Christ. It worries me because God wouldn’t want to love me when I don’t show enough interest.’
Or another believer will say: ‘I think I don’t repent enough. I am aware that I fall far short of what God expects from me but I just seem to accept that as normal. I do ask for forgiveness but I think it’s not sincere enough and not deep enough. Will God love me when I don’t repent enough?’
Or another believer is troubled deeply by terrible thoughts that come up in his mind. He would never want to speak about it to anyone. They would be ashamed. And he is ashamed of himself. But he keeps on having them. Impure thoughts, lustful thoughts, nasty thoughts. How can God love you when your mind is full of garbage?
Or another believer just can’t give up that sinful habit. He wants to, desperately so. And for a while things go well. But then he falls again. He hates what he does but he hasn’t got the strength to stop himself.
Or another believer is conscious of being far too easily influenced by wrong things and the wrong type of people. Away from these things and those people he is fine, but once he comes into contact with whatever he has a weakness for, he’s gone. And whenever he is in the company of the wrong type of people, he’s gone. There’s no willpower. No strength to say no.
Now here are some examples of believers who are conscious of their shortcomings and who know that their living by faith in Christ leaves a lot to be desired. And indeed, they need to improve. Things like that are not right. But what we want to say here is that the worst thing you can do is to stop believing in Christ. Don’t take your eye off Christ. You can’t live by only looking at yourself and your failures. But you can live, and hope for better days to come, when you live by faith in Christ.
You see, there is no believer who has a complete understanding of everything. And our salvation does not depend on having a perfect understanding. It is the same with everything else that was said. Our interest in the things of God is never enough. Our repentance of sins is always imperfect. Our thoughts are never wholly pure. Our break with sinful habits is never completely final. We are never completely immune from evil influences.
We are not saying this to excuse ourselves. But we need to stop thinking that God will only love us when we do everything just right. It’s the old heresy again: making your salvation depend on faith plus works.
There is not one believer who does everything just right. Why do you think we need Christ? Because we are not all right in ourselves. Even our faith is imperfect. But whilst we are helpless, whilst we are ungodly, Christ died for us. I can only live when I hold on to that truth. I can’t live by my performance. It’s so terrible poor. But I can live by faith in Christ.
So why do I live? “Because Christ loved me and gave himself for me.” You and I have to go back to that fact all the time. It’s the only thing that keeps you going. God came to me and picked me up right out of the bog of sin. He cleaned me up with the blood of Christ. Forgave all my sins. I was the one who deserved to suffer and die for my sins but Christ took my place.
Why did God do that? Because He loved me; loved me when I was helpless, weak and ungodly. No one else loves like that. But God does. What He did for me in Christ His Son is just amazing.
So why do I live? I live because Christ lives in me?
And for whom do I live? Well, for Christ, of course.
When I remember all what He has done for me, then how can I be anything else but thankful? Why should I not be obedient to Him and in that way express my love for Him?
I still have plenty of shortcomings in my love and obedience for my Lord and Saviour, but with Christ living in me I will want to battle on in the fight against my imperfections and sins for the rest of my life, until the Lord calls me home, or unless He returns first to make all things perfect.
No, I don’t want to live for myself. Sometimes I am inclined to. In fact, if I don’t watch it, I will do it too much. But that old part of me has died. It was crucified with Christ. I no longer live. Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the body, I live by faith in Christ.
Miracle of miracles, He loves me and gave Himself for me!
Amen.