(Galatians) Ch2:1-Ch4:7 — Zac Poonen

Dying to the Law and Living to God

19 For through the law I died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. We were considering last week how one of the great dangers that Christians fall into is the danger of being imbalanced.

To be spiritually wise is to understand the balance of the word of God. We saw that in verse 19, that there are two aspects that we need to consider. One is that we have died to the law. That is the negative side, and the other is the positive side, that we might live to God.

That corresponds to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The central message of the gospel, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, is not just that Jesus died on the cross for us, but also that He rose up from the dead.

A message which proclaims that Jesus died on the cross and leaves out the resurrection is not only an incomplete message, it can lead to heresy, it can lead to something which is substandard and something less than the Christian faith.

Now, in exactly the same way, when we consider our dying with Jesus, our death with Christ that is spoken of in Romans 6 and spoken of here in Galatians 2 .19 and 20, we need to consider both the death aspect and the resurrection aspect, the negative and the positive, the death bringing to an end our relationship with one life and with one man called the old man, and our resurrection bringing us into a new relationship with Christ.

That is what we read in verse 19, that through the death of Christ I have died to the law, but I have also been raised up with Christ that I might live to God. And it is because many have not understood both these aspects and tried to hold them in balance that they have misunderstood what death with Christ means and what it means to be dead to the law and what it means to be freed from the law.

Many have understood that to be freed from the law means that now I no longer have to keep the commandments, that in the Old Testament Israel had to keep the commandments, but in the New Testament Jesus has kept it for us, and we no longer have to keep them.

This is not only a misunderstanding, it is a heresy. In verse 20 we read, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live. That is the negative aspect. That speaks of our co-crucifixion with Christ.

Then he speaks about the resurrection aspect. But now Christ lives in me, there has been a resurrection, and the life which I now live in the flesh, which is the life that has gone through death and come up in resurrection, I live by faith, and by faith means by dependence upon and confidence in, a leaning of the entire human personality upon the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.

So it is not that now I have died and nothing is there in place, but that in place of that I-self life, the Christ life has taken over. Now if the Christ life has not taken over in a person, it is pointless that person talking about his dying with Christ.

There must be a replacement. If the old evil spirit that possessed our heart has been driven out, it must be replaced by the Holy Spirit, and not, as Jesus said, about the man who drove away the evil spirit and kept his home empty, because that opens up the door for seven other evil spirits, spirits of deception, that bring in heresy into our way of thinking.

And that is how many Christians have gone astray in understanding what it means to be dead to the law, for Jesus Christ has come with grace, and that is in contrast to the law. Otherwise, if we do not understand that we are freed from law in order to come under grace, if we think that to be freed from law is to just now live without any law, then we nullify, verse 21, the grace of God.

It says, though God has not brought grace through Jesus Christ, it says, though the law has been removed which came through Moses, but nothing has come in its place. But what we read in John 1 .17 is again the two aspects.

The law came through Moses, and that has been nullified now, but now grace has come through Jesus Christ. So if I am freed from the law, it is in order that I might come under grace. And that's what we see in verses 19 and 21 of Galatians 2.

I have died to the law. But then in verse 21 He speaks about grace, and He says, I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. Now the law could not make a man righteous.

The law continuously made a person aware of his shortcoming of God's high standard. Paul says very clearly in Romans 7 that when he read in the law, Thou shalt not lust or Thou shalt not covet, which is the tenth commandment, which says, Thou shalt not covet or Thou shalt not lust.

They mean exactly the same thing. He discovered that there was lust in his heart, that even though he could keep himself clear as far as the first nine commandments were concerned, which referred to the external aspect of a man's life, when it came to the tenth commandment, Thou shalt not covet and Thou shalt not lust, he found he had failed.

And being honest with himself, he had to admit that he had failed. And so righteousness could not come through the law, and external righteousness, yes. Paul says that very clearly in Philippians 3 that concerning that external righteousness of the law he was blameless, absolutely blameless through all those years, Philippians 3.

But that real righteousness which God requires in the heart, which Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter 5, you have heard that it was told, You do not commit adultery, but I say to you, You do not lust in your heart.

You have heard that it is said, Do not commit murder, but I say to you, Do not be angry. And that inner righteousness of the heart which God requires could not be brought into our life through the law.

Righteousness could not come through the law, and what Paul says in Galatians 2 .21 is that if it could come through the law, then there was no need for Christ to die. God required righteousness, that's why Christ died.

That's very clear from verse 21. If we read it carefully, we find that the reason why Christ died was so that righteousness might come into our life. Otherwise, if it could have come without the death of Christ, then there was no need for Christ to die.

So here he is not just speaking about forgiveness of sins. He doesn't say in verse 21, If forgiveness of sins came through the law, then Christ died needlessly. No, he says if righteousness came through the law.

The whole purpose of forgiveness of sins is that God might make our life righteous. The reason why God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, or puts Christ's righteousness to our account when we first trust in Him after repenting of our sins, is so that He might have a foundation on which to impart the righteousness of Christ to us.

For the imputed righteousness of Christ is but a beginning, like the foundation of a illustration. But that's not the house itself. The purpose of the foundation is that a house might be built on it. And the purpose of Christ's righteousness being imputed to us is so that His righteousness might be imparted to us.

And that's what Paul is speaking of. If we do not see that, then we nullify the grace of God. For the whole purpose of God's grace, as we see in Romans 6 .14, is that we might be freed from the grip of sin.

And this is why God has consigned our old life to death, this old life that we inherited from our forefathers, down from Adam, which is called the old man, which wants to sin, which loves to sin, and which cooperates and yields to temptation that comes through the flesh.

That has been crucified with Christ, that will to sin, and now we can put it off by faith and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, receive within us this new life of Christ. This is what we testify to in water baptism, the burial of the old man, that will to sin, coming up and receiving the Holy Spirit's power, being baptized in the Holy Spirit, so that the life of Christ might now be manifested in me.

And if we live in that way, then this word will no longer be a verse to memorize, but a reality in our life. It is no longer I but Christ. In Galatians 2 .20 we have the clearest description of what the Christian life is supposed to be.

Faith Rather Than Works of the Law

No longer I, but the life of Christ manifested in me. May God help us to understand that and to experience it. Galatians 3 .1. You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Here in this verse we have the subject, as it were, concerning which Paul is burdened to write to these Christians living in the churches in Galatia.

The works of the law or the hearing of faith? Are we saved by the law or by grace through faith? And this is where the Galatian Christians were being led astray into another gospel. And this is a subject concerning which there was much controversy in the first century, in the early church.

Many misunderstood what the gospel really was all about in the area of being free from the law and of coming under grace. And this has been true through the twenty centuries of the Christian church. And it's very true even today.

There are very few who really understand what it means to be free from law and to be under grace. And Paul writing to the Galatians says this. He had already spoken in Galatians 2 .20 about being crucified with Christ, Paul says, concerning his own experience.

He says, I have been crucified with Christ. And therefore, verse 19, I have died to the law. Not that I can now live just as I feel like. No, he says in Galatians 2 .19 that I might live unto God now, just like Jesus lived unto God so that we can walk as Jesus walked.

So the alternative to being under the law is to walk as Jesus walked. When I am free from the law, it is in order that I might walk as Jesus walked. That is, to live unto God, and that's what he speaks of in Galatians 2 .20.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life of Christ is now being manifested in me because I am free from the law. And in this context, he says in chapter three, verse one, who is the one who has bewitched you or anesthetized you so that you have become drugged and dulled so that you can't understand what the gospel is all about?

And Paul says, to paraphrase his words, when I came to you, didn't I portray clearly before you Jesus Christ and Him crucified? This was Paul's message wherever he came newly, whether it was to Corinth or to Galatia.

Jesus Christ and Him crucified, salvation through the crucified Christ. Not just the fact that He died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, but also the fact that our old man was crucified with Him.

He says, didn't you hear that message clearly from me that Jesus Christ was crucified? And he says, this is the thing which I want to find out from you. You people were baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was in your midst.

You received the Holy Spirit. And he says, did you receive the Spirit because you kept the works of the law, because God saw that you had come up to His standards, or did you receive the Spirit by the hearing with faith?

And the answer is obvious, that they received the Spirit by faith, not because of having kept certain works of the law, but as their hearts opened up and acknowledged their need, acknowledged their limitation, their failure, and they repented and turned to God, they opened up their heart to God by faith.

They were baptized in the Holy Spirit and they received the Spirit. Now there's a message here for us too. In verse 2, Paul says concerning receiving the Holy Spirit, which is a phrase used in the Acts of the Apostles to identify the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

It's an alternate phrase. Now according to verse 2 of Galatians 3, it is possible for us to know very definitely whether we have received the Spirit or not. Now he's not now speaking about forgiveness of sins.

He's speaking about something beyond forgiveness of sins, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Did you receive the Spirit? And it is possible for and it is necessary for each Christian to know whether he's received the Spirit or not.

The Galatian Christians, Paul expected them to know, and it is not by keeping certain works. The receiving of the Holy Spirit is not a gold medal that God gives us for having kept certain works of the law.

No, it is the equipment that God gives us for the spiritual battle. Something like a soldier being given a rifle before he goes into the battle. Now the rifle is not a gallantry award given to the soldier, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit is not a reward God gives for our having done certain things.

It is equipment, it is power for service, and it is received by the hearing of faith. We cannot receive it any other way except as we come to God in simple thirst and longing. Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him come to me, he who believes, he who has faith can receive.

Then in verse three, Paul goes on to say, all right, now you people receive the Spirit by faith. Now are you going to now be perfected by the flesh? Are you going to try and now perfect your life by your own efforts?

Now there is something we learn from verse three, and that is, Paul expected them to go on to perfection. Yes, to go on to perfection is what the apostles expected of every Christian whom they brought to Christ.

But the question is, how were they going to be perfected? The apostles expected that under the new covenant the believer would rise to far higher standards than any old covenant person could ever come to.

So to be free from the law does not mean that we now descend to a lower standard than the people came to under the law, but to a higher standard, for he speaks in Galatians 3 .3 about being perfected.

The whole question is, how? We read in Hebrews 10, verse one, that the law, which was only a shadow of good things to come, could not make anyone perfect. No, it could not. That's mentioned even in Hebrews 7 .19, that the law made nothing perfect.

But on the other hand, Hebrews 7 .19, there is a bringing in of a better hope, which does make us perfect. And so that is the whole purpose of our being made free from the law. The law could not make us perfect in our conscience.

It could give us a certain external righteousness, but leave our conscience defiled because of lust in the heart. But now, because of a better message, the gospel, grace that has come through Jesus Christ, we can be perfected.

The whole question in Galatians 3 .3 is, how are we going to be perfected? Is it apart from the help of the Holy Spirit? Is it that we begin our Christian life with the help of the Holy Spirit, and then thereafter we are on our own, striving, struggling on our own?

That's how many Christians think it is, and that's why they are defeated. Those who depend on their own ability to live the Christian life and to live in victory are bound to defeat. They are doomed to defeat even before they start.

But Paul says, it is not by the flesh, but by the Holy Spirit that we are going to be perfected. Did you suffer so many things in vain, verse 4, if indeed it was in vain? In the beginning, when the apostle was with them, they had understood what it means to suffer, to suffer in the flesh.

They had understood what it means to be persecuted for the sake of the gospel, particularly from religious people, the Jews of those days. And he says, now you suffered all those things for the sake of this gospel.

Was it in vain? Was it without any purpose? Was it so that you now go back to that old way of life of being under the law? And then he says in verse 5, the one who provides you with the Spirit, God who has given you the Holy Spirit and who works miracles among you.

You see, through the Holy Spirit there were miracles being performed in the midst of the Galatian Christians. He says, how does this take place? Is it through the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Again, it's not by our having come up to a certain standard that God grants us the Spirit or grants us these gifts of the Spirit, such as miracles. It is by faith. Everything is by faith. God gives us His gifts by faith.

God gives us the Spirit's power by faith. Having received the Spirit's power by faith, we are enabled to walk by faith and enabled by the Spirit to go on to perfection. This is the whole message of the book of Galatians.

Abraham, Faith, and the Blessing of the Spirit

We are free from the law that we might be perfected by faith. We turn now to Galatians and chapter 3 and verse 6. Last week we were considering the first five verses of Galatians 3, where he speaks about this contrast between the works of the law and hearing with faith in verse 2 and in verse 5.

He says, you receive the Spirit by faith, verse 2, and the gifts of the Spirit, such as miracles, verse 5, by faith again. Now, this is something very important for us to grasp in these days, when there is so much confusion in the minds of many believers concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

There is such a thing as receiving the Holy Spirit in a definite crisis experience, verse 2, but it is by faith, not by works. Likewise, there are the gifts of the Spirit, such as miracles, verse 5, and many other gifts too, but they are received by faith, not by the works of the law.

There is such a thing as being perfected, verse 3, but it is not by the flesh, it is by the Holy Spirit. So it is not that the message of Galatians frees us from perfection, but shows us how we can be perfected, not by the law, but by coming under the power of the Spirit, who communicates to us grace, which enables us to live the overcoming life.

Having said that, he goes on to the example of Abraham, who lived before the law was given. And in the rest of the chapter, and in quite a bit of chapter 4 as well, he is continuing with the example of Abraham.

Now the significance of taking Abraham as an example lies in the fact that he lived many years before Moses brought the law. He lived before the old covenant was established between God and Israel. And so he says, even concerning Abraham, verse 6, Abraham believed God.

In other words, he had faith. It was not any work of the law that he had kept, for no law had been given. He simply believed God, and this faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure, he says, that it is those who are of faith that are the sons of Abraham.

It is not just those who physically claim a descent from Abraham, as the Jewish people do. He says, no, Abraham was a man who had faith in God. And so the true sons of Abraham are those who have faith, not just those who keep the works of the law, but those who have faith.

Now Paul says this as one who had kept the works of the law during his early life as a Jewish man. And as a very faithful Jew and a Pharisee of the Pharisees. But he realized in his own experience that he was not a true son of Abraham until he came to faith in Jesus Christ.

And so he says in verse 7, those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. Then he goes on to one of the promises that God gave to Abraham, verse 8, and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, that is, the non-Jews, that there was coming a day when all the people in the world could be justified by faith in Christ, and that the period of the old covenant was just a preparation period for the new covenant, which was really God's purpose all the while to establish with man.

The scripture foreseeing that that day would come when all nations would be justified by faith, those who had faith would be justified, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham. So the gospel, in a sense, had been proclaimed in a nutshell to Abraham, not in its fullness as we see it in our day, but just this aspect of it, all nations will be blessed through you.

And this is what the Jews misunderstood completely. They thought that God's purpose was just to bless them, whereas what God had said to Abraham was, I will bless you, and then through you all the nations will be blessed.

In other words, you're not going to be a tank or a reservoir to contain God's blessing, but you're going to be a channel through which God's blessing will flow through to others. You will be blessed, but through you others will be blessed too.

Now this is something very important for us to understand, because this is where the Jews missed out on God's purpose completely. In fact, the apostle Peter was so convinced that God's blessing was only for the Jews that even after he was baptized in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, for ten years thereafter, right up till Acts chapter ten, he and all the other apostles never took the gospel to anyone but the Jews.

They thought this is only for the Jews, even though Jesus had said, when the Spirit has come, you will be witnesses unto me to the uttermost parts of the earth, but they couldn't grasp it. So deeply entrenched were these Jews in this idea that God will bless only us.

Now that is an idea that many Christians have also unfortunately got. God will bless only us, and so they can sit together and think only in terms of their own being blessed. But this is a heresy. No, what God said to Abraham was, I will bless you, and through you others will be blessed.

And if you are a Christian, dear friend, what you need to ask yourself is not just, has God blessed you? Because you can end up in spiritual death like the Jews, even if God has blessed you. In the nation of Israel, God has placed two lakes.

One is the lake of Galilee, two seas we could say, the sea of Galilee in the north and the dead sea in the south. There is a big difference between the two. The sea of Galilee is always full of fresh water because the river runs into it and runs out of it.

The dead sea is always full of stale, dead water because the river runs into it and nothing runs out. Now this is a parable. You can either be like the dead sea with rivers of blessing running into you and nothing running out, and you are dead.

Or you can be like the sea of Galilee with the rivers running into you, and then like it says in John 7, 37 -39 concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, He who believes in Me, out from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

This spake he of the Holy Spirit. Now we read in Revelation 22 that that river flows first of all from the throne of God. It does not begin in my heart. It begins in the throne of God. But it flows down to the depths of my heart from God's throne, and I am filled with the Holy Spirit, but it can never be contained in my heart.

Otherwise I shall stagnate into spiritual death. It has to flow out from me in rivers of blessing to others. This is what the gospel is all about, as we read in verse 8. The gospel that was preached to Abraham was, Others will be blessed through you.

So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. This is what the gospel brings to us. The blessing of God into our life through the Holy Spirit, which we receive by faith, and as we walk by faith, that river continues to flow into our heart, and then it flows out through us to bless others.

The Curse of the Law and Redemption Through Christ

But in contrast to this, in verse 10 he says, Those who are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them.

Now if I do not want to live under the regime of grace, then I have to go back into the regime of law and try to please God by the works of my flesh, by struggling, like those Old Testament believers struggle to please God and always come short, and try to live with an external righteousness alone.

Now if only the external part of our life is clean and we glory in that, then in a sense we are under the law, and therefore under the curse too. For it says, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and if we glory in the external part of our life, we must remember that God desires truth in the inward part, and we remain under the curse.

No one can be justified by the law, because the word of God says that a righteous man is to live by faith, but the law is not a faith. On the contrary, it says, He who practices them shall live by them.

There is a big contrast between living by the law and living by faith, and this is what Paul is trying to highlight here. The law says, Keep everything written in it, but faith brings us to trust in Christ, who gives us the Holy Spirit, so that we can be strengthened within and find purity in our heart and enablement by the Holy Spirit to please God from within.

We turn now to Galatians, chapter 3, and verse 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.

Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. However, the law is not a faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them. These are two completely different ways of life that Paul is speaking of.

One is living by our good works, by our righteousnesses, which are all as filthy rags in God's eyes, because the heart is not clean. What is it that makes our righteousness as filthy rags? The fact that even though externally it may be good, the heart from which it comes is unclean.

I may keep myself clean in my external life and in that sense be blameless according to the requirement of the law, but if my heart is not clean, if I have sought my own glory there, if I have sought my own honor, or if I have done it with some selfish motive, then it is corrupt, even though the action itself may be good and may even have blessed others.

These works are called in Hebrews 9 .14 dead works. Now, we are to be cleansed in our conscience from dead works if we are to serve the living God, and that is why, however much we may try to keep the law without the help of the Holy Spirit, we are bound to fail.

No one can ever be justified by the law, however hard he may try, he cannot keep the law as per God's standard. We read that in Romans 8 .3, what the law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh.

Because our flesh is so corrupt, nothing good dwells in it, Romans 7 .18. Therefore, in our good works, too, there is sin. We read in the book of Exodus that Aaron had to bear a plate on his forehead with the words holiness unto the Lord, and he had to bear the iniquity of the holy things of Israel.

There is iniquity in our holy things. Our righteousness is like filthy rag. That is why we need the cleansing blood of Christ to cleanse us and to present us faultless before God. And so, if we seek to be justified before God apart from that shed blood of Christ, apart from the enabling and the inward working of the Holy Spirit, then we shall be deceived.

No, it is not by the works of the law, but by faith that we shall be justified. And he says in verse 13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

Here again is the negative aspect of our salvation. We have been redeemed from the curse of the law. We were under the curse of the law because try as we would, we could never come up to God's standards.

All have come short of the glory of God, Romans 3 .23. But Christ has redeemed us from that curse because he himself became a curse for us on Calvary's cross. When he hung on the tree, he took that curse that should have come to us.

And as we accept that sacrifice, that he, the righteous one, died for us unrighteous, then we are freed from the guilt of our past life. We are freed from the curse that comes upon us through God's holy demand, the law.

But that's just the negative aspect of our salvation, that we have been saved out of the pit into which Adam and his race fell. But when God created Adam, he had a purpose for Adam. So when we are saved out of the pit into which Adam's race has fallen, saved out of it by Christ, it is in order that we might once again come back to that original purpose which God had for Adam.

And that is the positive aspect of our salvation. So to be saved from the pit is just the negative aspect of our salvation. And to be brought into what God had purposed for Adam is the positive aspect of our salvation.

It's just like when the children of Israel were taken out of Egypt, they were two sides to their redemption. They were redeemed out of Egypt to be brought into Canaan. They frustrated God's purpose by being brought out of Egypt but not entering Canaan.

For 40 years, one generation frustrated God's purpose. And that's what Paul speaks of in Galatians 2 .21, of nullifying and frustrating the grace of God. What is the positive aspect of our salvation which corresponds to the land of Canaan?

That's described in verse 14. In order that, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And so we see the positive aspect, that all nations can now receive the blessing of Abraham so that we might receive, and what is the blessing of Abraham in its fullness for us?

The promise of the Holy Spirit. The baptism and fullness of the Holy Spirit received, once again, emphasized here, through faith. Now earlier in the same chapter, we read of what the blessing was that came to Abraham.

First of all, verse 6, he was reckoned righteous. That's where we begin. Reckoned righteous. And second, verse 8, all nations will be blessed through you. So we are reckoned righteous, that means our past life is cleared and we are declared righteous before God because our past sins have been blotted out, the curse of the law has been removed, and we stand before God as righteous people.

So that we can now enter into Canaan's land. So that we can now experience God's blessing flowing through our life and others being blessed through us. So that the life of the Spirit can now flow through us.

The channels have now been cleared, we can say, to use another illustration. The channels that were clogged up through years of guilt and sin are cleared so that now the river of the Spirit can flow through us and bless others so that we live no longer for ourselves but unto Him who died and rose again.

So this is the whole purpose of the gospel, that the Lord might come and deliver us from the self-centered life that we live where we sought to please ourselves, to live for ourselves and to seek our own gain and our own honor in everything.

Now, if we have not still been saved from seeking our own honor and gain, then in a sense we are still wandering around in the wilderness. We read in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 3, that God was displeased with one entire generation of Israelites.

God was displeased with them, it says. In Hebrews 3 .17, with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? Yes, God was angry, displeased with an entire generation of Israelites because they frustrated His purpose.