I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.—Galatians 2:20–21

Introduction

During a 2014 interview for the New York Times, Michael Bloomberg—former New York City mayor, businessman, and ninth-richest man in the United States—shared that his mortality had begun dawning on him, sobered by how many of his former classmates have passed away.

But as Bloomberg pondered a finite future and eventual death, he gave a stunningly honest assessment of his life. The author writes, “Pointing to his work on gun safety, obesity and smoking cessation, he said with a grin: ‘I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I'm not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It's not even close.’”[1]

Michael Bloomberg’s honesty reveals what he believes about the most foundational question for humanity: How can we be made right with God? How can we be justified—made right—with God? Clearly Bloomberg is confident his accomplishments have earned him entrance into heaven. But is his confidence well placed? The Apostle Paul would answer “no.”

But it’s not just politicians, businessmen, or the wealthy who are tempted to trust in their accomplishments. All people are susceptible to trusting in what we have done or can do to be made right with God. In Galatians, Peter is tempted to return to keeping the Mosaic Law as the basis for his justification.

Context of Galatians

To understand the context of Galatians, we have to go back to the beginning. Paul opens his letter with astonishment that the Galatians are abandoning Paul’s gospel for a distorted gospel (1:6–7). Paul establishes that his calling is from God (1:11–24) and he preaches the true gospel, having been confirmed by early church leaders (2:1–10). Paul turns his attention to the dispute he had with Peter which is in view in our passage.

Peter had withdrawn from Gentile Christians in fear of Judaizers who taught that Gentiles had to keep the OT law. Paul opposed Peter, arguing that justification is not obtained by adhering to the law but rather by faith in Christ. We read this in 2:16, Paul argues, “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”

Then in verse 17, Paul answers the question, “But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?” The argument goes like this: If Peter and Paul, who formerly kept the OT Mosaic law and customs, now live like Gentile “sinners,” (e.g., not adhering to OT law), does that mean that faith in Christ actually causes people to sin more? Answer: “Certainly not!” Why? 

He continues in verses 18–19 by stating that the law cannot justify anyone. Paul writes in Galatians 2:18–19, “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” Christ ended the era of the law in redemptive history. It’s wrong to go back to the law when Christ has already torn down. To keep the law would contradict the cross of Christ, and ignore what Christ has done in redemptive history. The image is like rebuilding a wall, brick by brick, that Christ has already torn down by his death and resurrection.

Galatians 2:20–21 answers the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” Our main point is that those who identify with Christ have been radically transformed by the work and person of Jesus Christ. My aim this morning is to remind us of the glories of our salvation, so that we would be motivated to share this good news with those around us. 

So as consider Galatians 2:20–21, we see three main things about how Christians have been radically transformed.

1. Christians live as crucified people.
2. Christians live by faith in the Son of God.
3. Christians live to magnify the grace of God.

1. Christians Live as Crucified People (2:20a)

The statement “I have been crucified with Christ” is a profound reality that is grounded in the teaching of our “union with Christ.” Believers have died to the law (2:19) when they died with Christ because they are united to Christ and share in his death. Baptism signifies this dying and rising again. Romans 6:3 says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” A believer’s union with Christ means that believers have died in relation to themselves, sin, the world, and the law. Those things no longer exert any power over their existence because they have died with Christ in his crucifixion. 

Martin Luther, in The Freedom of the Christian, likened it to a great king marrying a harlot. In their wedding vows he says to her: All that I am I give you. All of the privileges, honor, royalty, identity, prestige, and power are endowed to her through marriage. So that she has confidence that her sins are not held against her, because she can say, “If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is his, and all his is mine.” Christ takes our sin, and we take on his righteousness when we are brought into union with him. 

This answers the question of how can sinners be made righteous. Believers are justified, pardoned for their sin, and made righteous through Christ. For Peter to say that the Gentiles are saved by faith, but then keep the works of the law as a test of Christian fellowship, he contradicted the gospel. To be crucified with Christ is to die to the law and its condemning power. 

John Calvin put it like this: “As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.”[2] To say that “we have been crucified with Christ” is to so identify with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection that all that is true of Jesus in his crucifixion is true of us as well.

• Jesus’ perfect righteous life means we have the imputed righteousness of Christ.
• Jesus’ death means we also died, overcoming sin, death, and Satan.
• Jesus’ resurrection means we too will be raised to new life.
• Jesus’ glorification means we also will be glorified, dwelling with the Father, seeing face-to-face.

The next statement, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” describes that a radical transformation takes place in the lives of the believer. Believers have died to themselves, and now live to honor, magnify, and exalt Christ because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

Someone once asked George Muller, an English pastor known for his orphan ministry, what was the secret of his service? He replied, “There was a day when I died, utterly died—died to George Muller, his opinions, preferences, tastes and will, died to the world, its approval or censure, died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends, and since then I have studied to show myself approved unto God.” To die to self is not a slogan, but a reality in salvation. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us.

Pixar had a movie several years ago called Inside Out. It follows a young girl named Riley as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. The movie is all about the inner struggle between five personified emotions within her: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. There is a battle over the console to control Riley’s feelings. But for the Christian, there is no longer a battle within us between competing emotions, but rather Christ through the Spirit takes control of the console of our lives so that we live life radically different. 

Christians don’t live for self-actualization, for recognition, for fame and fortune, to build our brand, to carve out our piece of the American dream, to exert our influence, or to win followers. Christians live so that Christ might be seen in our lives. The highest compliment true disciples of Christ could receive is that they lived for Christ. 

Are you living as one who has been crucified with Christ? Or do you continually return to self-condemning thoughts? Like a dog that returns to eat its vomit, do we replay our sins rather than relinquish them to Christ and receive his forgiveness? Do you major on your feelings of guilt, sadness, and disappointment, or do you lift your eyes to see that in him we can confess and receive Christ’s forgiveness? We have Jesus! We need nothing else. 

2. Christians Live by Faith in the Son of God (2:20b)

Paul concedes that we still are living and continue to struggle with sin and to groan with all of fallen creation. But we live this life “by faith in the Son of God.” Again Paul points to the centrality of the crucifixion event in how it shapes our existence. We now live by faith, not by sight, in Jesus Christ. 

Not only are we saved by faith, but we continue to live by faith. Faith is not just a one-time decision or a past event, but a living, active, dynamic, and ongoing reality of how we operate in this world. Living by faith is the ongoing connection we have with Jesus. The Bible speaks about this as abiding in Christ, like a vine that is integrally connected to the branches.

What does it mean to “live by faith in the Son of God?” I recently watched a documentary called The Dawn Wall, where two American rock climbers climb up a seemingly impossible 3,000-foot rock face in Yosemite National Park. It’s an incredible feat, but what was striking is that they lived on the sheer vertical cliff of the mountain for weeks held by half a dozen ropes. If those ropes fail, they plummet thousands of feet to their death. Suspended in the air, life goes on: they cook, eat, go to the bathroom, sleep, and plan how to climb the wall. Suspended in the air, their lives literally hang in the balance by a few ropes. This illustrates how we are to live by faith. We live, breathe, and have our being because God’s upholds by his strong hand, and we live by faith—not in ropes—but in Jesus Christ. 

There are other, practical ways the believer can live by faith in Jesus. In our major decisions, do we pray, ask God for wisdom, and seek out wise counsel? This is one practical way to live by faith in Christ.

• Major: As you ponder what to major in, what career to pursue, do you mainly weigh the pros/cons or do you bring these considerations before the Lord?
• Marriage: As you ponder marriage or a marriage partner, do you submit it to God? Do you recognize that even if this is a wonderful person, but he/she is not a Christian, it would be unwise?
• Children: As you ponder having children (biological, foster, or adoption), do you find yourself thinking about your time, energy, bank accounts, and lifestyle, or do you take into consideration what God may be calling your future family to?
• Career: As you consider a career change or moving to another state, do you walk by faith, considering your spiritual life and church family?
• Retirement: As you consider retirement, moving someplace warm, or moving closer to grandkids, do you think mainly about your preferences, or how God may have you minister at church, among the nations, or in discipling the next generation?

We are to live by faith. Trusting in Jesus. Submitting our desires, preferences, ideas, and aspirations to him and his wisdom and plans.

We sometimes fail to live by faith or fail to trust God because we doubt he knows what is best for us. Does he really understand the stressors I’m facing, or the decisions I have before me? Answer: Yes! Jesus loves us and gave himself us for us. Whether it’s a major, marriage partner, children, career, or retirement, God knows and cares. Even if you don’t get your preference, does he not have something better in store for you? He loves you and gave himself up for you! Consider these two texts:

• “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”—John 15:13
• But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans 5:8

This love and sacrifice is not sentimentality, it is not inconsequential. Some wonder how someone so loveless could be loved. And yet this is the truth of the gospel. The loveless has been shown great love in Christ. Samuel Crossman, in 1664, wrote a hymn called “My Song Is Love Unknown,” which reads as follows:

My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die?

Love has been shown to the loveless by Christ, so that the loveless, the unlovely, could be made lovely by the love of Christ. This is transforming love that Jesus loves his people with. Consider the difficulty of understanding this from this quote from Martin Luther on Jesus as the One who loved us and gave himself up for us:

If you let Christ be depicted in any other way, you will soon be overthrown when trouble and temptation come. Defining Christ like this is the greatest understanding that Christians can have, but it is also the hardest thing of all. I myself, who have lived in this great light of the Gospel for so long, have much difficulty in holding this definition of Christ that Paul gives, so deeply has the doctrine entered into my bones that Christ is a lawgiver. … At the very sound of the name of Christ my heart has trembled for fear, for I was convinced that he was a severe judge. If you feel oppressed with heaviness and anguish of heart, do not impute it to Christ, even if it comes in Christ’s name, but to the devil, who often comes looking like Christ and transforms himself into an angel of light.^[3]

We may, like Luther, think of Jesus as a lawgiver, rather than one who has loved us and given himself up for us. If you are convinced that Christ is a severe judge, always feeling a heaviness and anguish of heart—not because of godly grief—but because you doubt God’s goodness, Luther says this comes from the devil, not from God himself. Live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

3. Christians Live to Magnify the Grace of God (2:21) 

Here Paul goes back to his former argument that we ought not go back and follow the Mosaic Law because the law does not justify. Only Jesus justifies sinners. If we go back to the law to be made right with God, we are trusting in the law, and nullify the grace of God. To go back to the OT law as though righteousness could be obtained by more rules, regulations, and traditions, would render God’s grace and Christ’s death as useless. We nullify it. We cancel it out. 

To try to pay for grace is to nullify it. Two years ago when we moved to Minnesota, we didn’t have a home. So many gracious and kind people from Bethlehem opened their homes to us. And guess what, no one asked us to pay rent! Why? Because it was a gift. It was grace. If I paid rent—as though we had a legal contract—then the gift would be nullified. Instead, we lived for free because it was grace and a gift that was extended to us.

If we treat our salvation as something that could be earned, as something we contribute to, or as something we have to accomplish, we actually devalue it, undermine it, and even cancel out what Christ has accomplished. It goes from gift to contractual obligation. It’s like saying, “God, if I do these things, you owe me salvation!” If salvation could be earned, then Christ didn’t have to die. If righteousness could be obtained by the law, then Christ didn’t need to die.

The heart of the message of the gospel is that we cannot earn it, but it is given as a gift to sinners who will trust in Jesus Christ and stop trying to earn it themselves. Michael Bloomberg’s error is a deadly error in thinking his resume is sufficient to impress, please, or merit God’s goodness.

As believers, we don’t nullify God’s grace, but we magnify the grace of God. Instead of canceling it out by trying to earn it, Christians magnify God’s grace by receiving it as a free gift. We more fully magnify God’s great worth by relying on Jesus, living by faith, and walking in this new identity that we have received by grace.

We magnify God by receiving his salvation as people who are utterly hopeless without the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We are hopeless without him and cannot obtain our salvation any other way. We must be made new by Christ. This morning, if you haven’t received Jesus’ salvation for you—by dying to yourself, by being brought into union with him—you have an opportunity to be crucified with Christ, to die to self, and to now live your life by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself up for you. This will magnify the glory and the grace of Jesus Christ, when we come to him as needy sinners in need of grace that only he can give us.

And for those who know Christ—who have been brought into union with him, who live by faith in the Son of God, who know their helplessness without Jesus—commit to magnifying this grace by relying on Jesus, living by faith, and opening your mouth as a bold and winsome witness of Jesus. Do you have neighbors, family members, coworkers, and friends that are beginning to doubt whether their resume is sufficient to be made right with God?

I remember bike riding with a neighbor who was on the cusp of understanding the gospel. I had just performed a funeral earlier that day. I asked him, “Suppose it was you that died, and you came before God in heaven, and he asked why you should be let in, what would you say?” We had talked about the gospel many times before and studied the Bible together, so this wasn’t an unusual question. He said, “Well, I think it would say that I tried my best with what I knew.” Then he thought about it further, and said, “but I don’t think that would be enough, and he’d just have to choose to let me in despite having not lived perfectly.” Oh that we would remember and recognize that it is all by grace, and that grace is offered freely to all who will receive it by faith.

______

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/us/bloomberg-plans-a-50-million-challenge-to-the-nra.html

[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John T. McNeill, ed, Ford Lewis Battles, trans, Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960 [1559]), III.i.1.

^[3] Luther, Martin. Galatians (Crossway Classic Commentaries. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), pp. 111–112.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Main Point: Those who identify with Christ have been radically transformed by the work and person of Jesus Christ.

Outline:

1. Christians live as crucified people.
2. Christians live by faith in the Son of God.
3. Christians live to magnify the grace of God.

Opening Question

• What does Michael Bloomberg’s quote, “I’ve earned my place in heaven,” reveal about how he sees the world and heaven in particular?

Discussion Questions

• What is the context and the main argument leading up to Galatians 2:20–21?
• What did Peter do, what did the circumcision sect likely require, and why does Paul object?
• How does the summary of the gospel in Galatians 2:20 address the controversy taking place?
• What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? What are some other passages that shed light on this reality?
• What does it mean to nullify the grace of God?

Application Questions:

• What does it look like to live as crucified people?
• What are some ways we can live by faith in the Son of God?
• How can we live to magnify the grace of God?
• What are some plans we can put in place to share Jesus with unbelievers this holiday season?

Prayer Focus

Praise God for his work of redemption such that we have died, Christ lives in us, and he loves us and gave himself for us. Confess your sins of trusting in something other than Christ or trying to earn or merit right standing with God. Thank him for how we have been crucified with Christ and now live by faith in Jesus. Ask God for help to share this good news with those without Jesus.