The Key to Liberty - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, June 15. Why do so many believers struggle with the same sins over and over? Let's stay tuned for a pivotal explanation from Galatians chapter two. You'll turn to Galatians chapter two, and tonight we're talking about verses 18, 19, 20, and 21 in the second chapter of Galatians.

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor, for I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And then probably the most prominent verse in all of Galatians, 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 with the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness comes by the law, that is, our righteousness, then Christ is dead in vain. I want, if you will, to turn to John chapter eight for a moment, and I want us to look at something here in the 31st verse of the eighth chapter of John, because he tells us something that is very essential if you and I are to be free. And when we talk about liberty and freedom, let me describe what we're talking about.

We're talking about liberty and freedom as believers from attempting to live up to the law, live up to rules and regulations made by man, living up to self-imposed expectations that we think God has upon us which he does not. So he says in John chapter eight verse 31, Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and if you continue in my word, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The only way to be free, listen, the only way to be free is to know the truth. And one of the primary reasons so many people are in bondage to all kinds of hang-ups, all kinds of self-imposed expectations, trying to live up to something God never intended us to live up to, the reason we're in bondage is because of our ignorance.

We do not know the truth. He says you shall know the truth if you do what? Continue in my word. Now listen, if ye continue in my word, then he says you're going to know the truth and it is the truth that frees men from their bondage.

Now it's very important you see that for the rest of what I'm going to say. It isn't what we do that frees us, it is what the truth does. When you and I are able to accept the truth of God, we become free. He says the truth shall make you free. If you'll turn over to verse 36, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. All right, now back to Galatians chapter 2. We're talking about being freed and liberated as God's children, free to become everything God wants us to be, free to accomplish or allow Him to accomplish in and through us what He desires. Hudson Taylor who is the missionary who started the Inland China Mission said that God said to him one day, Hudson, I intend to evangelize Inland China and if you will allow me, I will do it through you.

And I wonder what God would say to you and me if we would give him a listening ear. And before God, listen, before God could use Hudson Taylor the way He used him, and a little biographical sketch about him by Dr. B. Raymond Edmond, who was then president of Wheaton College, wrote a little book entitled They Found the Secret, 20 Short Biographical Sketches of Great Men of God. And the first one in the book was Hudson Taylor and the title of the chapter was The Exchange Life. That exchange life is wrapped up in verse 20 of the second chapter of Galatians. And Hudson Taylor was at a point in his life of utter desperation, doing everything he knew to do, struggling, trying, fretting, fearful, failing, wondering why he couldn't do any better, living under this terrible canopy of expectation. Rody's sister told her that his sin was worse than it ever was under great temptation and on and on and on he described his sense of utter failure to live the Christian life and here he was in the middle of China trying to evangelize Inland China until a friend of his wrote him a letter. And the letter described to him that his failure was absolutely essential before God could use him, pointing him to Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. And it was in the experience of exchange in his life for the life of our Lord, though he's already saved, that God began to use him and make him a blessing that has flowed and flowed and flowed all this hundred years later and more, and was a blessing and has been a blessing to so many of us today.

So when we talk about being free, I want to say this to you. You'll never be able to accomplish, nor will God ever be able to accomplish through you, what he desires until you and I are able to grasp the truth. And the truth is the message of the cross.

Our acceptance in the eyes of God, our freedom before him, because you see when Satan lies to us, we believe his lies, then we are hung up in bondage. We don't have that sense of freedom and liberty and the power of the Spirit of God surging in us and to us and through us in order for God to accomplish what he desires. So I wonder what God would say to you tonight if you were listening. What he said to you, John, James, Mary, Sue, I intend to do thus and so, and I'll do it through you if you will give me your life. Well let's look, if you will, beginning in verse 18 of this chapter, what he's saying and what he's been saying all the way through these verses and through all this book and that is the futility, the absolute helplessness of man to live up to the Ten Commandments, the absolute futility of man trying to live up to the ceremonial law in order to be made acceptable before God because as we've said before, the purpose of the law was not to save men but to render men absolutely and totally helpless before God because they could not keep the law. So he says in verse 18, for if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. Now what he's referring to is this, he says if I go back now having discovered the truth that I've discovered in Christ Jesus, if I go back and rebuild the theology which says salvation comes by keeping the law, he says that I become a transgressor of God because God has nowhere said that man is saved by keeping the law. Verse 19, now watch this, for I through the law am dead to the law. And what he means with that is this, that by the law, the purpose of which was to render man helpless in attempting to keep it, the law condemning man because it left a standard that no man could keep, he says I through the law am dead to it.

That is becoming absolutely helpless and condemned by it, having to turn to Jesus Christ by faith, he says I have become dead to the law in order that I may live to God. Now skip verse 20 for a moment and let's go to verse 21. He says now I no longer attempt to frustrate the grace of God by attempting to add to it, but he said for if righteousness comes by the law, which he tried and failed and it condemned him, then Christ is dead in vain. That is the atoning death of Jesus Christ is absolutely null, void, empty and useless if a man by keeping the Ten Commandments could become acceptable before God, he says then the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a waste. Now I want us to go back to verse 21 because here's the key and the title of this message, the key to liberty.

Here is the key to your freedom and my freedom. Usually people take this verse out of context and they elaborate on it and most of what they say I'm sure is true, but I want us to see it in the context in which Paul said it because he's talking about the futility and the helplessness and the vanity of any man believing that anyhow under any condition he could ever do anything to make himself acceptable before a righteous holy God. So let's look at verse 20 and see what he says. Here in the middle, listen now watch this, here in the middle of all of these first two chapters he's talking about that he's tried to keep the law, the law condemned him, the purpose of it was that the schoolmaster that said to him, you have failed. That is the law had one message to mankind. Not live up to me and be saved, but you have failed, failed, failed, failed, failed. You get FFFF.

You haven't kept the law so you go back and repeat the same grade again. In the middle of all that Paul says, remembering now he's talking to a group of Gentile as well as Jewish believers, Gentiles who've been saved by faith, Jewish people who've been saved by faith, but now they have the Judaizers who've come up from Jerusalem and they're saying the only way to be saved is by faith in Jesus Christ plus keeping the law. Now when Paul makes this announcement here in verse 20, I'm sure this absolutely had to blow them totally out of their Jewish saddle. Listen to what he says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me now and the life which I now live in the flesh I live with the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now I want you to follow me very carefully because Paul mentions some of these things in other letters. He says, first of all, in 1 Corinthians, he says, in my past life before I became Paul, I was Saul of Tarsus. In my past, he says, spiritually speaking, I was in Adam. My root and core and Genesis, my very beginning was in Adam. When Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, he says, spiritually speaking, I fell. For in Adam, all of us were. He says, before I was in Adam, in Adam's disobedience and rebellion toward God when he fell, he said, so I in essence likewise fell so that I have inherited that bent away from God.

He said, I was in Adam. But he says, something happened to me on the Damascus Road. On the Damascus Road, echoing in his ears was the sermon of Stephen, God's servant, echoing in his ears and before his eyes continually dangled that scene of Stephen bowing down, being stoned to death, looking up into heavens and talking about seeing Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God consummated his conviction of Saul of Tarsus, struck him down on the Damascus Road. And in those moments when he said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? He received by faith, Jesus Christ, whom he persecuted, whose people he's pretty persecuted, whose church he hated and despised. In that moment, all of his past, all of his attempts to keep the law, suddenly it all came crashing down upon him, he fell upon his face, and the Messiah whom he hated became his Savior and his Lord. Now, as Paul began to understand what happened to him, he in this passage is giving us a bird's eye view, which he describes all through the book of Ephesians, which he also pictures in chapter 6, 7, 8 of Romans. And when you begin to understand the tremendous, listen, here is the man who'd never heard any of this, remember, and God opened his spiritual eyes to grant to Paul the apostle, old Saul of Tarsus converted, he granted to him the greatest deposit or divine wisdom any human person has ever been able to receive in all of humanity.

I want you to see what Paul saw. Up until this time, he says, you're talking about keeping the law, he said, I was spotless as a Pharisee. He said I was the tribe of Benjamin. When it came to touching the law, he says, I was absolutely blameless.

That is, when it came to background, heritage, accomplishments, and achievements, Paul said I stood head and shoulders above all the rest. But when it came to keeping the law, when God worked in his life, he began to see what an absolute futile attempt it was to live up to this law. Now, in the 20th verse, Paul is describing what God did in his life and what, listen, watch this, not what God's going to do in your life, what Almighty God has in the past tense already done in your life. Now, I want you to look at the verb tense here, and then I want us to go back and see what he says.

Watch this. There are two primary tenses that are so very, very important in the Greek to understand the scripture. One of them is the aorist tense, which says something happened one time in the past, and that's it. When you were saved, aorist tense one time in the past, it happens. But there is a perfect tense which says something happened back here in the past, and the ongoing effects of that are still going on, and it is in process today as if it were happening even right now.

Now, watch this. Verse 20 of Galatians 2, I am crucified with Christ. Perfect tense, which means in the past, I was crucified with Christ, and the overflowing effects of that crucifixion are still living and abiding and overflowing and having their effect upon my life. He didn't say I'm going to be crucified. He didn't say I crucified myself. He didn't say I got crucified. He didn't say somebody else crucified me. Paul says, listen, I was crucified with Christ, and the ongoing effects of that are still in process.

Now, watch this. He says, nevertheless, not only was I crucified with him, he says, but I'm alive. Now, to them, crucifixion meant death.

They're sitting there nodding their heads. This man's got to be a real fool. We've already told everybody he was, but he's proving it right here in front of everybody. Now, he's saying that he was crucified, executed on the cross, and yet he says, and yet I live, and the life which he's now living, he's living by faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself. What in the world could Paul possibly mean? Now, I want you to listen very carefully, because some of you are going to trip right over this.

I want to tell you right now, you're listening? All right, now, watch what I'm saying. What was crucified when Paul said, I am crucified with Christ? What was crucified?

Certainly wasn't his body, because if it had been, he'd have been dead. All right, go back to Romans chapter 6. Let's see what got crucified, because you see, not only was Paul crucified, but you were crucified. So listen, whatever got crucified in Paul got crucified in you.

Now, watch this. Chapter 6, verse 6, knowing this, not supposing it, not hoping it, knowing this, that our old man is, past tense, was crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, rendered inoperable, losing its power, that henceforth we should no longer serve the power of sin within us, the principle of sin within us. All right, so what happened? When Paul was riding along the Damascus road, before he was saved, he was out to persecute the church and destroy Christians. The moment he was saved, the scripture said, he was lifting up his eyes, saying, Lord, what will thou have me to do? What got crucified was the old Saul of Tarsus. That's what was crucified. Now if it was crucified, that means it was executed.

That is, it died. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth within me.

All right, now, watch this. The old Saul of Tarsus got crucified. Nobody crucified him. He didn't crucify himself. And I've heard people say, I just got to crucify myself so I can live for Jesus. That, listen, there is no way in the world for you to do something. Listen, how can you kill a man who's already dead?

You can't execute what's already been executed. He says, you, knowing this, our old man was crucified with Christ. So that when Jesus Christ was crucified, Paul says, Paul says, when he was crucified, I was crucified. Romans six says, when he was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose. How could he have done that unless he'd been placed into Christ?

So that identification is what? God seeing me in his eternal line. Now I have the life of Christ living in me, the Holy Spirit indwelling me, sinning me, Jesus Christ living within my life so that his life has become now my life. And if I should ask any real believer who understands it, is the life of Christ in you?

Yes. What part of his life is in you? All of his life is in you. So when he died in the mind of God, the eyes of God, if I've been placed into him, I have been identified with Christ. I've been identified with his crucifixion. So God, the father said through Paul the apostle, I have been crucified with Christ because I have been identified with his life. My old past has been crucified once and for all on the cross. Thank you for listening to The Key to Liberty. We would like to invite you to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness. Stop by InTouch.org slash 45 years to learn more. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.