Badenoch Free Church

Gal 2v20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live!?

The thrust of the message is that Paul is saying he has changed completely. In fact he has been crucified! He no longer lives the way he used to! Things have changed.

He does not live, in fact, Christ lives in him! Therefore, his life now is all about faith in Jesus, who loved him and gave himself for him!

Life, for Paul, was no longer about ‘me’ but about ‘You’.

This is what happened to Paul and it is what has happened to every believer throughout history. If you are a believer today, you have changed.

You have changed completely and radically.

In fact you could say you have gone through death - you have been crucified with Christ. And now you live because He lives!

The implications of that for the original readers were that they were no longer to live according to the old rules and regulations of Judaism as a way of salvation.

They were free from seeking to gain Gods acceptance through the law of Moses!

The gospel was now in operation.

1) So Paul has changed completely:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”

Obviously Paul was not actually hanging on the Cross with Jesus.

So what does he mean?

We can answer that by asking what was Jesus doing on the Cross?

He was paying the penalty for the sin of the world. He was dying in our place.

He was dying for Paul. Paul’s sin and guilt was hanging on the Cross with Jesus.

When Jesus died for Paul, God condemned Jesus and found Him guilty, in Paul’s place! Jesus was dying in Paul’s place as his Substitute.

So when Paul says “I have been crucified with Christ”, the “I” he is referring to is his sin and guiltiness! It is all gone - Crucified!

So much so that he can say “I no longer live”.

The old “I” is gone dead and buried!

If you believe in Jesus today, the same is true for you!

You can say “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”!

Your sin and guilt is gone. Done away with. Dead with Christ on the Cross!

There has to be this death for there to be life.

A Christian is someone who is completely new.

Someone who has gone through death and started again!

So the “I” of the old life is gone! What is there instead?

There is not just a vacuum where sin once was, no there is: “but Christ lives in me”.

“I” - (old self of sin) - does not live, it has been crucified, but Jesus lives in me.

He has replaced my sin and guilt with Himself!

Where once there was sin and guilt, there is now the Lord.

When the Father looks at us, he no longer sees our sin, he sees instead his Son.

We have been changed dramatically and fully! --- Christ “lives” in me.

Where sin once “lived” Jesus lives! Our sin, our old self is dead! Gone!

2) So what do we do now that we have undergone this change? What does Paul say?

“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 live. We still have our bodies that we live in and through.

Our bodies have not been crucified. Our bodies are good and useful.

Our bodies are the tools through which we ‘live and move and have our being’ in this physical time bound world.

Yet we no longer live according to the dictates/principle of Sin.

The sin is dead.

We live according to a different principle.

We live by “faith”.

Thus, our bodies need to be trained to live ‘by faith’ not by sin and sinful desires.

This is the change that has taken place:

Once sin was our master, but that has been crucified: Now Jesus is our master.

To live by faith then, is to live acknowledging Him as our new Master.

He has died for us, he has rescued us from sin, we owe him our lives!

This new way of life is no hardship!

Our life of faith is faith in someone who “loved me and gave himself for me.”

He “loved me”.

This form of the word for love can mean to “place first in ones affections”.

That is what Jesus has done for each of us individually.

He has placed us first in his affections!

So we can all say with Paul He “loved me”! Personal singular!

Jesus does not have a general love that covers everyone the same!

He has a specific love for each individual!

This is where Divine love and human love differ.

We are finite and can only place one person at the forefront of our affections!

But Jesus is infinite he can love us each personally at the forefront of his affections!

And this love of Jesus is no mere words! “He loved me and gave himself for me”

This is love in action. He “gave himself”.

“paradi,dwmi paradidomi

Meaning: to hand over, to give or deliver over, to betray”

You remember that Judas handed over Jesus to the authorities. Judas betrayed Jesus. Yet, Judas could not have betrayed Jesus unless Jesus was willing to give himself up!

The betrayal was treachery, but the giving up of Himself was total loyalty to those whom he loved!

Jesus willingly gave himself up for you! Because He loves you individually and personally.

What can you do for Him? Live! Live life to the full! Revel in the new life that you have. Rejoice. Worship. Love. Respond. Live free in the freedom that Jesus has bought for you! Live.

Don’t worry about rules and regulations, simply live for the Glory of Jesus and all will be well.

sunday evening 12th Aug 2007

Philippians 3:8 ^{8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ}

Context: meaning.

3v1 - rejoice in the Lord

V2-4, watch out for Judaisers who want you to be circumcised as a way of salvation

5-6, Paul could put every confidence in his outward form if that was all that counted for salvation. He had everything!

V7 - yet he does not count on any of it as a way of salvation.

V8 - all that he had confidence in before he now forgets!

He has turned his back on his previous way of salvation and given up everything for Jesus!

Everything else pales into insignificance in comparison to knowing the Lord.

For Jesus he gave up everything.

They are no lose, it is all rubbish, if is means losing Christ.

What is going on here?

Paul has just described his great heritage v4-6.

Things that would have meant total acceptance by the religious establishment!

These things he would have once considered as to his prophet.

Yet now he looks on them as loss.

What makes them a loss? Knowing Jesus. That makes all the difference.

Knowing Jesus is so much better than all these other achievements!

He has given up everything in order to get Christ.

Yet that is no loss because he has gained Christ.

The Christian can look back on his road to salvation and say that the only thing that really matters is Jesus.

Main meaning:

Knowledge of Jesus is ultimately all that really matters. Salvation is all that counts.

Philippians 3:4-6 ⁴ though I myself have reasons for such confidence……….”

Circumcision does not count.

Paul’s heritage does not count. Heritage doesn’t count.

Family clan does not count

Total outward dedication to the Law of Moses does not count

Religious orthodoxy and zeal does not count

Paul had all the outward signs of someone who was blessed by God!

All the outward trappings needed for human acceptance in his day.

Yet none of it mattered a bit - it was in fact all rubbish.

He happily gave them up in order to know Jesus.

People would have looked at Paul and said there is a man who had everything!

But in reality, before Jesus he had nothing!

Two questions arise out of all this:

1) What is Knowledge of Jesus?

Paul always craved a better knowledge of Jesus and considered everything that got in the way of that knowledge as rubbish.

We need to remember that Paul was a Hebrew and thus when he speaks of Knowledge he is speaking as a Hebrew.

For the Hebrews this knowledge of someone was relational and personal

So when Paul is talking about knowing Jesus He is talking about knowing Him personally. Personal saving knowledge.

What about you? Do you really know Jesus. Or do you just know about Jesus?

Saving knowledge of Jesus is not abstract and philosophical but personal and relational and practical. It’s not knowledge about Him, but actually knowing Him.

We can have lots of knowledge about historical figures. We can look in history books that tell us when and where they were born, we can read their records of success and failure! But we don’t actually know them! We only know about them!

We can know about our heroes in sport and film etc, but we don’t know them personally.

With Jesus, through our knowledge about him we can and we must actually get to know him!

2) where does this knowing Christ lead us?

It leads us to 2 conclusions:

A) we see that knowing Christ is the best thing ever - “surpassing greatness / excellence”

Paul says that knowing Jesus is “u`pere,con huperechon

u`pere,cw be of more value than, be better than, surpass t`o. u`Å something of much more value Php 3.8)”

Knowing Jesus is more valuable than anything else! It is all that counts!

What is real treasure? Jesus - that is it! He is so Great that beside him all else is junk!

What is your real treasure? Is Jesus all that really matters for you.

Is everything else by comparison not just rubbish?!

“rubbish” - that which was thrown onto the refuse pile!

All that matters in the spiritual life - when it comes to getting right with God is Jesus. Everything else is rubbish - to be thrown out!

B) and we see that knowing Jesus means that we see him as our Lord! “Christ Jesus my Lord”

If you want to know whether you really know Jesus then ask how do you see Him?

Do you see Him as “my Lord”?

He is your Saviour who died for you, your Teacher who leads and instructs you and He is your Lord who loves you! And whom you love! Which in practice means you follow and obey Him! He is you Lord!

All that really matters then is this gaining Christ. Everything else is rubbish!

What do you think?