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GALATIANS - I Have Been Crucified With Christ
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Galatians
PART 2: THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE APOSTOLIC POWERS OF PAUL (Galatians 1:11 – 2:21)
4. Paul surpasses Peter in standing fast in grace (Galatians 2:11-21)
GALATIANS 2:17-19
17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.
Paul looked attentively at Peter and the lawyers around him, also at the Gentile believing brothers, and said to the moved crowd: “All those who suppose that the righteousness prepared by Christ for us is insufficient, and that they have to add some work to complete his redemption, through human efforts, testify, through their self-deceit, that they are still sinners, who need justification, for Christ has not yet gained complete triumph in them. He, who is concerned about the orders of food, seeking inside purification through outside ablutions, confesses through these practices that Christ has not yet overcome sin completely, and that sin is stronger than him and triumphant over him, as if the Lord were a servant of sin. Unbelief in the complete grace is blasphemy against Christ. Many Christians, nowadays, zigzag between the law and the grace. They do not know that they disparage the glory of Christ, by their incomplete submission to grace.
Now, having experienced that narrow atmosphere, Paul left the religious house of the law, and pulled down in his heart the prison, which had chained him, for in the mirrors of its tablets, he looked a perishing transgressor. Therefore, Paul moved from the court of the law to the vast expanses of Christ, and abode in them. He was unwilling to build the old house, for holding any commandment of the judgments of the law would bring unlimited condemnation against him who held it.
Thus, Paul died to his pride through the law. He stopped placing his hope in his own righteousness, and saw himself condemned and rejected in the anger of God, for whoever builds himself on the law lives a hopeless, hypocritical life, a servant of himself.
How strange that this knowledge did not come to Paul as long as he was a Pharisee. Yet, he immediately recognized his state when Christ appeared to him in glory. Then his belief in the law was broken, and he knew that all his diligence could not bring him near to God, but made him an enemy of his Son. As a result of this essential perception, he turned against the false legalistic righteousness, and held to the grace, which justifies freely by the blood of Christ. He believed no longer in a divine reward for his good works and charities, but lived for God, justified by grace.
GALATIANS 2:20-21
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain."
Paul expressed his faith to Peter in a most impressive and forceful style, proving to him that faith is not composed of thought, science, and mere belief, but of death to sin and ego, and it is the new life in Christ. With these words about participation in the crucifixion of Christ, and in his resurrection to the divine life, Paul proceeded to the heart of our faith. He, who joins himself to Jesus, dies and separates himself from sin, law, death, temptations, and hypersensitivity, for the love to Christ teaches us to hate and reject sin with strong determination. At the same time, believers find the working of the Spirit of God in themselves, the Spirit who is in himself the life and person of Christ. The Christian can say humbly and certainly: “Christ, in his fullness, lives in me”.
Certainly, we have this faith in causation, and not in pretense of perfection, for the struggle between spirit and flesh continues night and day. However, our commitment to the Son of God includes the guarantee. He perfects us with grace, for he lives and loves us, and has proved his love by his death in our place. We can testify to you that Christ loves you personally, and he died for you and rose to justify you. You are not alone. He will help and perfect you if you abide in him and never be separated from him.
The apostle Paul calls out to you, saying: You are saved not by your uprightness, or your keeping of the commandments, or your noble origin, or your diplomas, but only by the grace of Christ. If you commit yourself to the Lamb of God, you will need no additional righteousness; but if you think that you have to add any other righteousness to the righteousness of Christ, then you testify by this mistake that Christ has not truly forgiven you your sins, giving the lie to him. However, thank God for Jesus has reconciled the world to God, and whoever believes is justified, and whoever knows Christ glorifies his grace as the only way to salvation.
As such, Paul clarified to his readers in Galatia that he was designed by Christ to be the apostle of the Gentiles, and that he was not connected with Peter, but was in conformity with him in the principles of salvation, and he would reproach him if he were wrong, while Peter was unable to complaint against him. Paul proved that he was truly the apostle of Christ, and he delivered us from submission to the Jewish rules. We are not lawyers, but are living in Christ, and abiding in his grace.
PRAYER: O Lord Jesus Christ, we magnify you, and thank you, because you made a complete atonement, and justified us entirely that we do not need to add our incomplete works. Help us to participate in your death and resurrection, to consider ourselves dead to sins, law, and the whole world, and live in you, as you dwell in us in the fullness of your power. We love you because you loved us first. You are the mighty Son of God, our Savior, and our perfecter.'
QUESTION:
- What is the heart of our faith?