How do you feel about that?
How do you feel about that?
I would like to tell you about a thought I have been reviewing in my mind.
Saul of Tarsus was a Jewish man, having been brought up with excellent teaching of the Jewish laws and traditions. How was God able to teach this human being how to live by the Life of Christ, when it appears to not be known to numerous Christians of our day–two thousand years later?
In Galatians 2:20, Paul is was ahead of most of today's Christians, it seems to me.
There is another thought that I probably should express at this time. What was the background, the context of Galatians 2:20?
It appears that the Apostle Paul did not observe all of the traditions of the Jews. This reminds us of the Lord Jesus and the continual harassment He experienced because of the things He and His disciples did on the Sabbath.
James, Peter (Cephas) and the other Apostles were observing some of the Jewish traditions. Paul did not, and so appeared to be sinning.
Paul, although he had not seen Jesus as they had, rebuked them sternly. He defended himself against the charge of being a sinner.
"But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker." (Galatians 2:17,18)
And then:
"For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:19-21)
How did Paul, the Jew, come up with such wisdom? It had to be Christ living in him who made this explanation.
What did Paul mean by saying, "For through the law I died to the law."
So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:4-6)
"We have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code."
It sounds to me that Paul is maintaining that the sinful passions that lived in his flesh condemned him to die on the cross with the Lord Jesus. It was the Law of Moses that condemned him.
Since Paul died in and because of the Law, he is free to follow the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ. He no longer is bound by the Law of Moses. The Law has no authority over the dead (Romans 7:1).
I doubt that James, Peter, or any of the other Apostles understood Paul. This wisdom was God's gift to Paul, the person God had chosen to explain the transition from Moses to Christ.
I do not think this transition is understood to the present day. There still are people, not only the Jews, but Christians also, who tell us we must observe the Sabbath day (Saturday). In fact, there are Christians who think they go to church on Sunday because they view Sunday, instead of Saturday, as the Sabbath.
It indeed is remarkable that Paul is not understood to the present hour by so many Christians.
How are we free from the Sabbath and other commandments?
By being crucified with Christ. We have set aside our old adamic nature over which the Law has authority and now are living along with the Lord Jesus in His resurrection life.
It is as simple as that!
But how do we dare consider ourselves to be free from the Law of Moses, even though we count ourselves as crucified with Christ?
This is the purpose of the grace of God and the meaning of grace.
Contrary to the belief of many Christian institutions and churches, grace is not a softening of the demands of Christ. Rather it is God's way of freeing us from Moses so we can serve Christ. We did not just decide to be free from Moses.
God issued grace, telling us that if we are willing to be crucified with Christ, denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following the Lord Jesus at all times, for His part He would provide a dispensation of grace that would hold us guiltless even though we inherited from Adam the passions of sin.
I am not referring to the philosophy of Dispensationalism, which I believe to be an error of considerable magnitude.
I think today's Christian teachers have some idea that God has set us free from Moses, but many appear to be ignorant that once we are free from Moses we come under an infinitely stricter law—the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
However, that new law does not work by our reading the commandment and then endeavoring to keep it.
Rather, the new law works as we pray and the Spirit of Christ gives us of His body and blood, writing His eternal moral law in our mind and heart. We now have the willingness and the power to overcome specific sins as the Spirit points them out to us.
What do we do? We turn from this world, its attractions and its bondages. We deny ourselves. We take up our cross of deferred desires. We place our treasures in Heaven. We look to Jesus at all times, in every situation, to guide our thinking, speaking, and behaving.
It is a life of cheerful, prompt obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Such is death to our old nature. But it is the ground from which the resurrection life of the Lord begins to germinate and then to grow into the Kingdom of God.
So Galatians 2:20, which I first was taught while a member of the United States Marine Corps, so long ago, proves to be the guiding principle of my life in the present day.
How marvelous and eternal are all the works of God!
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.