Living the Resurrection (2)

“The Christ Way”
Galatians 2:20

the best way to live for Christ is for Christ to fully live in us

1. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

2. these are life-changing words. They’ve sunk their hooks in me. They haunt me. They chase me. Like a magnet they pull me close. They are life-giving, hope-imparting, hunger-creating.

3. I hope you’ve had a similar experience with Scripture. Where the Word of God rises up off the page, becomes living and active & pulsates with a must-listen-to voice. A voice that demands your very best attention.

4. as I shared 2 weeks ago this verse lays out a number of truths about Christ:
* Christ is the Son of God – he’s divine
* he was crucified
* he rose from the dead – he ‘lives’ in us
* he loves us
* he gave up his life for us
* he lives in us

5. but there’s more. We also learn some important information about people who are Christ-followers:
* we have been crucified with Christ
* we no longer live
* Christ lives in us
* we live this Christ life by faith
6. this is a Christ-drenched scrap of inspired Scripture. As I shared 2 weeks ago, the 1st word of this verse in the Greek language Paul wrote in is Christ – with Christ I have been crucified.

7. one way words are emphasized in the Greek language is through word order. Paul could have easily written ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ as our English translations have it. But no. He wanted the spotlight on Christ so Christ was put in the emphatic position.

8. this verse is about Christ Christ Christ. This is good theology. Everything is about Christ & begins with Christ:
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col 1:15-20).

9. creation & salvation begin with Jesus and end with Jesus. In Jesus God always makes the first move. Ours is the second move. He initiates – we respond, we receive, we answer.

the first movement
1. who’s making the first move? Christ, the Son of God, Jesus. Son of God means Jesus was God’s Son. Which means Jesus is Divine, is God.

2. God in the person of his Son Jesus is who we are dealing with in Galatians 2:20. We’d better pay attention. This is not Brian Williams, Mark Cuban, Condoleezza Rice, Steve Jobs or Gordon Smith. But Jesus who’s calling for our attention & lives.

3. he loves us. This leads him to give up his life for us by his crucifixion on the cross. But Jesus didn’t stop there. He rose from the dead. And he didn’t stop there. He now lives in the very lives of his followers.

4. last week my dad told me with tears in his eyes that he would gladly take the place of my brother Tom who is dying of a brain tumor. Well, Christ did, he gave his life for us!

5. one of the things that makes Christianity unique from other world religions is this – we believe in a God who has revealed himself in a person. This person is Jesus Christ:
a. Judaism – God reveals himself, say, through Moses, but Moses is not the revelation of God
b. Islam – Allah reveals himself through Mohammad but Mohammad is not the revelation of God
c. Buddhism – Buddha is the revealer of spiritual insight but Buddha is not the revelation himself

6. not so with our faith. God reveals himself in Jesus. Jesus is not simply the avenue of revelation – he IS the revelation of God.

7. Paul refers to himself 3xs in this verse by use of the pronoun ‘me.’ The Son of God who loved me. The Son of God who gave himself for me. The Son of God – Christ – who lives in me.

8. I love Paul for writing himself into this expose of Christ. Paul is the theologian’s theologian. He unfolds God’s cosmic plan of salvation layer by layer in the book of Romans. Paul is a thinker. Paul is a visionary. Paul is intelligent. Paul can hold his own with the philosophers of ancient Athens (see Acts 17). If any one gets it, Paul gets it.

9. and here in this scrap of inspired Scripture Paul brings it home to himself. Jesus came to this earth to be strung up on a cruel Roman cross & die the death for all of humanity’s sinfulness…because he loves ME, writes Paul. And because he loves ME, he gave himself for ME. And now this means, says Paul, Christ lives in ME.

10. love leads to sacrifice leads to relational intimacy. The one & only very God of the universe lives in ME. And YOU. And US if we are his followers.

Incubating Christians
1. this arrived via email this week. A man received a vision. He saw Christians sitting in ordered rows, like eggs in incubators, only they were in churches. They sat & listened but the pastor’s words were barely heard or understood. They had life inside, but they were trapped within religious shells. It wasn’t necessarily that their ministers lacked anything in their messages; their sermons were historically and factually true. Yet, for the most part the shell surrounding each Christian seemed impenetrable.

Yet, there were exceptions. Every once in a while, the shell of one of the eggs would crack under the pressure of inner hunger; someone would fight through the shell. When one broke free, others nearby followed his example and began to break through their religious shells as well. When a majority had hatched, their church was no longer just an endless incubator, but it had become the body of Christ himself and the people in this group transformed the world around them.

What did it mean to break through the shell? It meant an individual understood that God’s plan for their lives was not incubation, but transformation. The church was a place where God empowered people to become Christ-like.

Today, heaven is again calling us to break free of the shell of religion and embrace the liberty and power of a Christ-like life, indeed, we have been created to become like Jesus. There is no lasting spiritual fulfillment apart from walking from glory to glory toward this one great purpose!

2. how is this possible? Breaking out of our shells? Becoming like Jesus? Transforming the world around us?

the second movement
1. this perhaps is the hardest point of this verse to understand. I have been crucified with Christ.

2. this is what the older theologians call our ‘mystical’ union with Christ. When Jesus was crucified on the cross we were crucified with him. Not physically but spiritually. Our fallen human nature was nailed to the cross with Christ’s sinless human nature and died.

3. the picture you see right now up front ‘shows’ this point. The church is the bride of Christ & was there with Christ when he died.

4. what died? Our sinful nature.

5. the Tim who lives after saying ‘yes’ to Jesus is no longer the Tim who lived before. There is a new Tim. This new Tim is the Tim who looks away from himself and trusts in Christ for forgiveness, grace, new life & salvation.

6. Paul writes I no longer live, meaning his sinful, fallen, rebellious, independent self. That self died on the cross with Christ. That self was struck down.

7. Christ lives in me. When I surrender to his indwelling presence, he keeps my ‘old self’ down, powerless, nailed to the cross.

8. to be daily filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ is to be moment-by-moment surrendered to his control of my life. I increasingly become Jesus’ look-alike, his act-alike & his live-alike. Christ in me by his Spirit controlling…
* our lips & what we say
* our ears & what we hear
* our minds & what we think
* our eyes & what we see
* our hands & what we do
* our feet & where we go
* our hearts & how we feel
* our wills & what we decide
(Anne Graham Lotz)

9. and by living IN us he intends to transform our lives from the inside out. He intends to make us his earthly reflection.

Just like Jesus – Max Lucado
1. what if for one day, Jesus were to become you? What if, for 24 hours, Jesus wakes up in your bed, walks in your shoes, lives in your house, assumes your schedule? Your boss becomes his boss, your mother becomes his mother, your pains become his pains?

With one exception, nothing about your life changes. Your health doesn’t change. Your circumstances don’t change. Your schedule isn’t altered. Your problems aren’t solved. Only one change occurs.

What if, for one day and one night, Jesus lives your life with your heart? Your heart gets the day off, and your life is led by the heart of Jesus. His priorities govern your actions. His passions drive your decisions. His love directs your behavior.

What would you be like? Would people notice a change? Your family – would they see something new? Your coworkers – would they sense a difference? What about the less fortunate? Would you treat them the same? And your friends? Would they detect more joy? How about your enemies? Would they receive more mercy from Christ’s heart than from yours?

And you? How would you feel? What alterations would this transplant have on your stress level? Your mood swings? Your temper? Would you sleep better? Would you see sunsets differently? Death differently? Taxes differently? Any change you’d need fewer aspirin or sedatives? How about your reaction to traffic delays? Would you still dread what you are dreading? Better yet, would you still do what you are doing?

2. Lucado is onto something. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.

3. The best way to live for Christ is for Christ to fully live in us.

4. what Lucado describes is what Paul meant when he wrote Galatians 2:20. The Christ Way.

5. are you stuck in your religious incubator? Let the life of Christ dwelling inside you break through the egg shell of your life. Let him transform you. Let him live his life in & through you.