Galatians 2:19-20
I read a story recently about a heavily booked commercial flight out of Denver that had to be cancelled. Unfortunately, there was only a single gate agent trying to rebook a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the front and slapped his ticket down on the counter. He insisted, "I have to be on this flight and it has to be first class!" The agent kindly replied, "I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to help you, but I have to take care of these folks first." The passenger was unimpressed and replied in a voice loud enough for the other passengers to hear him. "Do you have any idea who I am?" Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and picked up the public-address microphone and broadcast throughout the terminal. "May I have your attention, please? We have a passenger here at the gate who does not know who he is. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to the gate immediately." As the man retreated, the people in the terminal burst into applause.
Did you know that identity theft is rampant in our nation. This experience is frightening and overwhelming, especially when you consider that usually the victim is the one that has to prove his own innocence. You would naturally think the police, creditors, and credit-reporting agencies would come to your defense in these situations. But, it’s estimated that victims have to spend an average of $1500 and approximately 175 hours recovering their good name.
Today’s message brings us to the close of this series about our true spiritual identity. It’s a subject you could pursue for weeks and still have plenty of material left over. The Bible is very clear about our standing with God and how He sees us. However, too often we allow someone/something to steal our spiritual identity or we simply don’t know who we are in the first place.
Consequently, instead of living in the joy of our relationship with Jesus Christ, we spend our entire lives living at the level of spiritual mediocrity. Some of the sources that steal or confuse our spiritual identity are:
1. Basic ignorance of the truth of our identity in Christ.
2. The deception of Satan reminding you of your past or present failures.
3. Friends/family that berate you, rather than build you up.
4. Weak faith that fails to believe what God says about you.
5. Stubbornness in yielding to God’s refining work (so your identity can be revealed).
6. A love for this world more than a love for God.
7. Spending too much time looking into self rather than looking up to the Savior.
This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but it shows some of the prominent ways that people’s spiritual identity is lost or stolen from them.
Thus far in this series we’ve learned that we are saints, possessors of spiritual life from above, new creations in Christ Jesus, God’s mobile temple, and God’s spiritual masterpieces. Today we learn that we are also “crucified with Christ!”
Crucifixion was among the cruelest forms of capital punishment ever invented by men and only the worst criminals were subject to it in Paul’s day. By the time of Christ the Romans had perfected crucifixions, making them as torturous as possible. From the beatings, blood loss, physical exhaustion, and strangulation that occurs as the lungs fill up with fluid, a crucifixion death was excruciatingly painful.
There are some modern examples of crucifixion torture, though they pale in comparison to first century crucifixions.
In an effort to draw attention to world peace, Patrice Tamao of the Dominican Republic allowed himself to be crucified in 1973 as thousands watched on TV. Patrice had three six-inch stainless steel nails driven through his hands and feet and intended to stay on the cross for 48 hours. However, after 20 hours he requested to be taken down because he had developed an infection.
In 1965, a man in Kenya convinced his wife to crucify him "for the sins of all Kenyans." After reluctantly obeying, his wife collapsed and died, apparently from shock. The man was rescued by neighbors, but later died from an infection.
As these illustrations demonstrate, crucifixion is a horrendous process leading to the death of the crucified. But, for Paul, rather than loathe the crucifixion of Christ, he now lived because of it. Incredibly, the crucifixion of Christ was an event that he celebrated.
In addition to Galatians 2:20...6:14 says,
“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
What had been known only as an instrument of death was now Paul’s (and our) means of eternal life and freedom from religious legalism.
As the context (Galatians 2:20) shows, Paul had attempted to appease God by living up to the perfect standards of the law. Instead of finding that the Law brought him life, he discovered that it only led to his death. He could not live without breaking God’s Law and therefore, found himself a condemned criminal. Now he knew that his only hope was in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. It wasn’t until Paul the Pharisee identified with Jesus in crucifixion (by faith) that he found the liberty, forgiveness, peace and joy he had longed to know. It was through the cross that Paul (and all that have lived since Christ) have entered into a relationship with God. That personal relationship cannot be found in the Law, but only through faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ.
It’s important to note that the Greek word for “crucified” is a perfect tense verb, denoting a past action with a continuing effect. Whether or not Paul had realized the full ramifications of his new position in Christ, this was his spiritual identity forever as a believer. Sometimes Christians don’t realize/remember this identity (“crucified with Christ”) and Paul reminds them of a very important truth in Romans 6:11 that must be applied, if your position is to be translated into practice.
“Likewise you also, reckon (consider, count, i.e., put to one's account) yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
It is also interesting that this verb translated as “crucified with” is used only five times in the NT. Three of those are in the Gospels dealing with the criminals that were crucified with Christ (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32; John 19:32) and twice Paul uses it in his epistles (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20). Unlike the criminals of the Gospel stories, Paul is clearly indicating that his “crucifixion with” Christ was voluntary. No one bound him kicking and screaming against his will, forcibly making him trust Jesus Christ as his Savior.
And, by saying he (“I”) was crucified with Christ he was declaring that his “old man” had died with Christ. In other words, the old self-righteous, self-centered Saul died, and the new Christ-centered Paul lives. When speaking of the “old man” (“I”), we mean the worn out, useless, and unconverted sinful nature corrupted by deceit. It is the dominating control of the Adamic nature whose power over him had been broken.
Unlike crucifixions that cause physical death, Paul’s crucifixion with Christ caused the death of his self-centered life. But, he was still very much alive physically! However, by yielding to the Holy Spirit he was able to have a life that was pleasing to God. In other words, this new life Paul lived was in the flesh, but it was not lived by the flesh.
Someone has paraphrased the way Paul might have given his testimony in light of Galatians 2:20:
“I was brought up under the strict laws of my religion.
“I tried to satisfy the law, but I couldn’t. I realized that I could never find God’s favor by trying to obey the letter of the law, since I kept failing. I fought myself even as I struggled to be good (Romans 7). Eventually I gave up.
“Then something wonderful happened. When I gave up, I learned that there is a way to please God. It wouldn’t be through all my vain efforts, but by believing in Jesus Christ and letting Him live in me.
“So I am now dead to the law and it is dead to me. It no longer has any jurisdiction over me...
“...I have only one hope, therefore. I hope in Christ. I live in Him. I don’t trust intellect or religion or money or glamor or power or anything else to save me. I live in Him who alone can save me.
“Only what Christ wants do I want. He lives in me, rules me, directs me. You see, I can’t be bothered with the outdated rules of an outdated and powerless religion.
“Christ lives in me. He’s been resurrected. God lifted Him high above the power of death and the authority of any human law. He has lifted me along with Him (Romans 6:1–14). I’m not subject any longer to the rule of this world but am triumphant over it in Christ.” (Lawson, L. [1987]. Galatians, Ephesians: Unlocking the Scriptures for You. Standard Bible Studies [50]. Cincinnati, OH: Standard.)
Herein is the practical significance of the wonderful truth about our crucifixion with Christ as it relates to our spiritual identity! We who have believed on Christ have had the power of sin and self broken so that we are able to live a new life that pleases God. Instead of trying to earn His favor by living in obedience to His law, we now live yielded to the Holy Spirit Who indwells us in order that He might produce through us the kind of life that pleases Him.
It is like a glove, for example. A glove cannot do anything by itself. It needs a hand to fill it. When the glove has a hand inside, it is enabled to do all sorts of things. We are like a glove. What we need is the Lord to fill us with His power, which God does when we are “crucified with Christ.” That’s why Paul says, “...it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...”
Baptism is a visible illustration of what happens when we trust Christ as our Savior. When a new believer is immersed beneath the water, he/she is symbolically saying that the old life is “crucified with Christ.” And, when they come up out of the water they symbolize that God has given them a new life to live for Him and through Him.
A military chaplain that was deployed in Iraq once told about how he improvised on the field in order to baptize soldiers that came to faith in Christ. He would take a wooden coffin intended to be used for the remains of a soldier killed in combat and line it with a plastic body bag. He then filled it with water and used it as a makeshift baptistry. The symbolism couldn’t have been more stark than when a soldier was immersed into the coffin filled with water only to be raised out of the water to live a new life for Christ.
That is the exact visual image God is giving to us in Galatians 2:20, which is part of our spiritual identity. You can live in victory over sin because you’ve been crucified with Christ. You are not a slave to your flesh anymore. There isn’t anything God gives you to do that you cannot do because He lives in you and provides everything you need to live for Him. Your spiritual identity is that of one who has died to his old self and has been raised to live a new life by God’s grace. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ means everything to the believer in Christ!
History records that during the Civil War, many acts of violence were committed by both the armies of the north and the south. Once such act occurred in October of 1862 in the town of Palmyra, Missouri. According to W. E. Sutterfield, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Palmyra, the town was under military law at the time....occupied by one of the armies involved in this conflict.
The commander of the army ordered ten men shot in reprisal for the work of an informer in the town who leaked information to the enemy. Several men were being detained in Palmyra jail as prisoners of war at that time, and ten were selected from among them. One of the number was William T. Humphrey, the father of several children. His wife pleaded for his release because of the children and her poor physical condition. Because of this, the commanding officer struck Humphrey’s name from the list and chose the name of Hiram Smith, a young man without a family. Hiram agreed to take the place of Humphrey, stating that perhaps it was better for a single man to die than a man with a family.
The ten men were shot on October 17, 1862, in what has come to be known as the “Palmyra massacre.” At the Mount Pleasant Church cemetery, there is a stone erected at the grave of Hiram Smith by G. W. Humphrey, the son of the reprieved man. It reads:
“This monument is dedicated to the memory of HIRAM SMITH, the hero who sleeps beneath the sod here, who was shot at Palmyra, October 17, 1862 as a substitute for William T. Humphrey, my father.”
In a very real way our lives are living, breathing monuments to the One who rescued us from imminent danger and set us free to live for Him out of love, not legalism...the Lord Jesus Christ!
Conclusion: Thanks To Calvary - Bill Gaither
Verse #1
Today I went back to the place where I used to go
Today I saw the same old crowd I knew before
When they asked what had happened I tried to tell them
Thanks to Calvary I don't come here anymore.
Verse #2
And then we went back to the house where we used to live
And my little boy ran and hid behind the door
I said “son never fear, you've got a new daddy”
Thanks to Calvary we don't live here anymore.
Chorus
Thanks to Calvary
I am not the man I used to be
Thanks to Calvary
Things are different than before
While the tears ran down my face
I tried to tell them
Thanks to Calvary I don't come here anymore.
