THE AUDITORIUM SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

MARCH 6TH, 2005

GALATIANS 2:19-21

THE SUBSTITUTIONARY LIFE

 

 

 

 

I.     In verse 19, Paul flatly states the condition in which the Law finds us:

 

     A.     We are “dead to the Law.”

 

          -     All of us are spiritually bankrupt; criminals against God and His Law.

 

     B.     We can “live unto God.”

 

          -     The solution must lie somewhere beyond us.

 

II.     A person who has been justified has five characteristics (20):

 

     A.     We have been “crucified with Christ.”

 

          1.     A save person has been crucified with Christ on the cross.

          2.     Positionally, the saved person died with Christ, rose with Christ, ascended with Christ, and is seated with Christ now (Romans 6:3-5).

 

     B.     The saved person is alive spiritually (“nevertheless I live).

 

          1.     The Lord Jesus came to give us life (John 10:10).

          2.     We are spiritually alive because of the substitutionary life of Christ.

          3.     Jesus not only died for us, but He lives for us (Romans 7:4).

 

     C.     The saved person is spiritually alive because “Christ liveth in me.”

 

          1.     Jesus stated on the night before His crucifixion how we would be saved (John 14:20).

          2.     Jesus did not give us eternal life apart from Himself; He gave us Himself and His life is eternal.

          3.     This was the great mystery that Old Testament saints could not understand or foresee - that God would dwell in man not just with man (Colossians 1:27).

 

     D.     The saved person lives by faith (“I live by the faith of the Son of God”).

 

          1.     I am saved by faith in the substitutionary life and death of Christ on the cross (Romans 10:9).

          2.     The Christian life is a life of faith in Christ (Romans 1:17).

 

               -     God honors faith and faith honors God.

 

          3.     My outward life should be a demonstration of the inward man .

 

     E.     A saved person realizes that he/she is justified because Jesus “loved me and gave Himself for me.

 

          1.     We should always be aware that Jesus loves us personally, died for us personally, and lives for us personally.

 

          2.     We should also be aware that saved  people are never alone.

 

          3.     In John 17, Jesus closed the prayer acknowledging that the sign of God’s love for us is the life of Christ in us (verse 26).

 

III.     Paul concludes the chapter by stating the impossibility of any works-based -salvation (21).

 

     A.     Salvation by works “frustrates the grace of God.”   (21)

 

          1.     If you earn salvation then you deserve salvation.

          2.     Grace gives you what you do not deserve, while works pays you what you do deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9).

 

     B.     If a person can be justified by keeping the Law “then Christ is dead in vain” (21).

 

          1.     Your life does not add anything to His life, and your eternal life is based on His life.

          2.     Paul could have continued the thought by saying: “ And if you remain justified by your works then Christ is alive in vain.”

          3.     Our works simply add nothing to the salvation process.

 

 

Conclusion:     Next Sunday, Paul deals with a spell that has seemingly been cast on the Galatians when he asks: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?