I would like to begin with a quote from the well-known preacher, A.W. Tozer. Tozer was a Christian Missionary Alliance pastor. This comment was made most likely about 75 years ago. He wrote – “Something has happened to the doctrine of justification by faith… What happened is not so easily discovered. It is not matter of simple fact; a plain yes or no, an obvious black or white. It is more elusive than that, and very much more difficult to come at; but what has happened is so serious and so vital, it has changed, or is in the process of changing, the whole evangelical outlook. If it continues it may well turn Christianity inside out and put for the faith of our fathers something else entirely. And the whole spiritual revolution will be so gradual and so innocent appearing that it will hardly be noticed. Anyone who fights it will be accused of jousting against windmills like Don Quixote. Faith now means no more than passive moral acquiescence (to) the Word of God and the cross of Jesus. To exercise it, we have only to rest on one knee and nod our heads in agreement with the instructions of a personal worker intent upon saving our soul. The general effect is much the same as that which men feel after a visit to a good and wise doctor. They come back from such a visit feeling extra good, withal smiling just a little sheepishly to think how many fears they had entertained about their health when actually there was nothing wrong with them.”
The “doctrine of justification by faith” to which Tozer referred is a blessing found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the ancient Biblical message that Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross at Calvary in order to pay the sin debt of those who humbly repent before God and put their trust in Him. To be “justified” is to be “declared righteous” by the Lord God of Heaven and earth. And to be “justified by FAITH” is the Biblical truth that this righteousness is given only to those people who simply trust what Christ accomplished on the cross.. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through (the sacrifice of) our Lord Jesus Christ.” “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
What Tozer saw developing 75 years ago is now a poison in the religious stew of North America. Time and time again, over and over again, people are being urged to “ask Jesus into their hearts,” and then with a pat on the back, they return to the sinful lives they had been living. Their spiritual doctor has given them a pill – a placebo – sometimes encouraging them to take one every week. So, they may add church attendance to their lives. It is just a tiny bit more than what they had been doing before their professed faith – It is not much more than trying to work their way to heaven by adding a little religion to their lives. They have been to the spiritual doctor and what he has said made they happy to have made the appointment.
Without implying that yours if the faith Tozer was criticizing, what I would like to try to do this morning is encourage you to compare your faith in Christ to the faith which Paul expresses here in Galatians 2:20. Paul’s testimony here was not: “Praise God, Jesus has washed away my sins,” which, of course, was true. It wasn’t: “I can’t wait to get to heaven to see my Saviour’s face,” which, I hope, is your desire. His faith was not a simple “now I belong to Jesus.” Paul was saying, “I am now DEAD, having died in Christ. I am ALIVE, but that life is NOT MINE, it is actually the life of Christ Jesus who lives in me.” Yes, Paul rejoiced in the love of God seen through the death of Christ, but it wasn’t like looking at a beautiful picture in a religious museum. His faith in the Saviour – his salvation in Christ t was thoroughly life-changing. It was life-changing, not just death-changing – an avoidance of spiritual death.
When we stop to consider what Paul tells us here, we see a fantastic faith – an unbelievable form of belief.
Paul was CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST.
As far as I know there is no other definition for “crucifixion” than the most common definition. When Paul spoke of being “crucified,” he was talking about being nailed to an uplifted piece of wood for the purpose of completing a death sentence. Crucifixion was never designed for the reformation of a bad person – it was all about his execution. In a literal sense, it was not a means of punishment – like a spanking or jail time. It was designed to take away a man’s life in one of the most cruel and lingering fashions ever devised. And Paul said that HE was crucified WITH Christ.
But when we look back at Golgotha and the crucifixion of Christ, there were only 2 other men crucified that day. They were a pair of murdering thieves; one of whom repented and died, and one who died without repenting. Although we don’t know their names, there isn’t the slightest reason to believe that one of them was Paul. And besides, there isn’t the slightest reason to believe that either of them lived through their ordeal. But when the Apostle says that he was crucified with Christ, he wasn’t talking about nails through his hands He was talking about a substitute – a volunteer replacement, standing, or hanging, in Paul’s place.
This idea is consistent with the theology of the Bible – the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Paul’s crucifixion and death at Calvary was accomplished vicariously when the Lord Jesus was crucified. Every ram, lamb, goat, bullock, and turtle dove ever properly sacrificed in the Bible died in the place of the man or woman who offered that sacrifice. It died as a substitute for the sinner.
When Jehovah gave His first command to our grandfather Adam, it made room for that idea: “If you disobey me in regard to this command, you shall surely die.” Later that day a pair of animals, probably sheep, died to cover the exposed sins of Adam and Eve. But after that those two sinners lived several hundred more years just outside the Garden of Eden. Animals took the place of the sinners in the judgment of the sinful humans. And so it has been with repenting sinners and vicarious sacrifices ever since.
One of the most illustrious early sacrifices was offered to the Lord on the top of Mount Moriah. Abraham had been told by God to offer his son Isaac as an sacrifice to the Lord. When the moment came to slit his son’s throat, God stopped the process and miraculously supplied a substitute. A ram took the place of Isaac on the Lord’s altar, not far from where Jesus’ died about 1850 years later. In many of the Old Testament sacrifices, the person making the offering was ordered to put his hands on the head of the animal that was to die. In that symbolical act, the sacrifice and the sinner exchanged places. The one that died on behalf of the other. The one died that other might live.
When Christ Jesus was led to the cross, nearly everyone knew that He was an innocent man. Pilate had declared him legally innocent; and the Jewish judges had to hire liars against Him. Judas confessed that he had betrayed innocent blood. And Jesus had challenged people to point out His sins, but even his enemies had to shut their mouths. The Lord Jesus – “the Lamb of God, slain from before the foundation of the world” – was exactly what the law about sacrifices had proscribed: a blameless and perfect substitute. He was just like Isaac’s ram. The ram that was sacrificed by Abraham on Mount Moriah did not die for any sin or crime that it had committed. It died as a substitute for Isaac. Years later, Isaac might have looked back on that event and said, “I was sacrificed when that ram was slain, nevertheless I live.”
And that the point that I’d like you to grasp: The Lord Jesus didn’t die providing the OPPORTUNITY for sinners to be delivered from their sins. He died with the specific intention of delivering those particular sinners for whom He was offered. Months after the crucifixion, while Paul was in the process of persecuting the people of God, that wicked man was brought to his sinful knees before God. As he acknowledged the Lord’s authority over his soul, and when he repented of his sin, he began to see that Christ died for HIM. The Lamb of God had come and had died in his place. And in that sense, Paul was crucified when Jesus was crucified. So in Romans 6:8 he could speak of being dead with Christ. “Jesus Christ was crucified for me, and He died for me.” “I am crucified with Christ and I died with Christ.”
Here is my question to you this morning: “Is THIS the kind of radical faith that you have?” Most professing Christians today do not fully realize that they died in Christ; that they are DEAD. They should not be living the same old sinful life they had before they were born again. When they put their faith in the dying Saviour, they united themselves to Him in His death as well as life. They died in Christ. They were CRUCIFIED in Him. And it was not a slow death tempered with Oxycodone. It was a violent, painful death – even though was felt by Christ Jesus, their substitute. I think that it took even Paul some time to come to understand exactly “how dead” he really was.
Paul was crucified with Christ, nevertheless he was ALIVE.
Look again at Romans 6:6-10. I know that there is a confusion of tenses, times and territories in these verses. For example there are the words “LIVETH with Christ” and “SHALL live with Christ.” The second statement refers to the future, while the first speaks of the “on-going NOW.” But clearly, the reason and source of the life in question is the Lord Jesus. And I am not talking about staying alive because of the blessing of the Lord, like a baby nursing on its mother – although that is absolutely true. Rather the Christian has eternal life only because his life in inextricably linked to the life of the Saviour. In this case its more like that baby in its mothers womb.
Do you remember the Lord Jesus’ wonderful parable of the “Good Samaritan?” A traveler was mugged and was left on the trail, at the verge of death. First, he was nursed, nourished, and nurtured by the Samaritan. But that Samaritan had business to transact in other places. But he could walk away, leaving a few shekels to pay for his medical care, and the sick man would survive. One of the lessons not taught by the parable is that if the Saviour should walk away from us, we’d be eternally dead.
How does the Christian come to possess this eternal life? Colossians 3:1, like Galatians 2:20, reminds us that when Christ arose from death, he brought us with him. Permit me to quote that verse in Colossians and then give you an accurate paraphrase: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Paul was saying “SINCE you are RISEN from the death with Christ, set your heart on Heavenly things.”
When someone like Paul, or someone like me, puts his hand on the head of Christ the sacrifice…. When the sinner believes on the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, the death that the Saviour died becomes his. In God’s sight, that sinner died when Jesus died, and the penalty for his sin died at the same time. But when the Lord Jesus exited that grave, overcoming death, the repenting believer also arose to enjoy the blessings of Jesus’ eternal life for ever more. We were crucified and died with Christ, and we arose from the dead to begin a new life with Christ. Jesus didn’t die potentially saving anyone; He died to accomplish the entire salvation of the sinner whom He loves. Believe it; Believe Him; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” But this is not the commonly preached faith of the 21st century. It sounds quite familiar, but the modern gospel lacks scriptural soul. Paul’s was a fantastic faith, an unbelievable belief.
Now, going back to Colossians 3:1, “If ye then be risen with Christ – alive with Christ – seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” If you died with Christ and now live with Christ, then your Christianity is more than periodically doing some religious things. If you died and live in Christ by your faith in the Son of God, then your life will be lived as if it belonged to the Saviour. You have responsibility to love and serve this Christ, and you will naturally love and serve. If you died with Christ and now live with Christ, you have the command to seek the things of Christ.
So I ask you this question: “Are you now DEAD with Christ?” The question is not: “Did you ask the Lord to save you?” and it isn’t, “Do you want to go to heaven when you die?” The question is: Have you been crucified with Christ at Calvary? If you did not die with Christ, then you will die the second death and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. “If you are dead with Christ, and risen with Christ, have you set your affections on things above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of the Father?” How stands your soul before the Lord this morning?