TOPIC:“Dying In Order to Live”
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live not by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (2:20)
Of all the Bible verses in the New Testament that describes the Christian life, Galatians 2:20 is the best and most complete. It describes total Christian living. It is the outliving of the inliving Christ. And yet, to many people this verse appears to be full of problems and contradictions. For here is the testimony of a man by the name of Paul who says on the one hand that he is dead, having been crucified, while on the other hand he is alive. And not only alive, but more alive than ever before.
The question arises: How can Paul be dead and alive at the same time? That's the mystery I want to speak about and solve in this message. Before I do, I want to state four important truths about the Christian life.
The Christian life is an entirely new life. It is not the old unregenerate life improved,
patched up, or made over. It is a totally new life which is imparted to us when we accept Christ to be our Savior from sin. The Apostle Paul had this in mind when he wrote: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (II Corinthians 5:17, NIV).
The Christian life is lived in the flesh. The flesh refers to the believer's present body.
We live this new life in Christ not in the clouds, not in Heaven, not in a monastery, not in a vacuum, but in our earthly bodies here and now with all of its problems.
The Christian life should be one of constant victory. The life to which God calls us,
and which He makes possible for us, and in us, is a victorious, triumphant, overcoming, satisfying and God-glorifying life. Though there is always the possibility of sinning, through the redemption of Christ there does not have to be the necessity of sinning.
The Christian life is . . .