Epistle Galatians 2:19-20 (Unison)
Through the law I died to the law, so that I
might live to God. I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ
who lives in me. And the life I now live in
the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Teaching Raised from flesh to faith
Raised by Christ
Just before we leave the first half: the whole whole
matter of being crucified with Christ:
 Depends on συσταυρόω sys-tau-rahō
 Greek is a very precise language
 Verbs in Greek have tense, voice, and mood
 Perfect tense - describes an action which is
viewed as having been completed in the past,
once and for all, not needing to be repeated.
 Passive voice - The passive voice represents
the subject as being the recipient of the action.
E.g., in the sentence, "The boy was hit by the
ball," the boy receives the action.
 Indicative mood - The indicative mood is a
simple statement of fact. If an action really
occurs or has occurred or will occur, it will be
rendered in the indicative mood.
What can we learn from this? The KJV gets it
right when it says, “I am crucified with
Christ.”
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My being crucified with Christ is a
completed work that was done to me
(perfect tense)
I had nothing to do with why or how it
happened (passive voice)
It is a real work that really happened (as
we’ve been saying, “At the molecular
level”). It is not figurative (indicative
mood)
The transformation of Christian conversion -of becoming wrapped up with Christ the way
we mean when we say “I have been crucified
with…”; this transformation is complete, it is
involuntary; most important, it is real.
Paul wants us to wrestle with what has really
happened to us if we have become united with
Christ in his death and in his resurrection. He
knows his first sentence, “Through the law I
died to the law, so that I might live to God,”
set us up to question
 In Christ, have the laws of nature really
been altered?
 In Christ, has the law of God really been
fulfilled?
 In Christ, has the law of sin and death in
particular really been abolished in me?
The second sentence answers the first. “I
have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer
I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
1.1 Corinthians 15:16 says rhetorically, “If
the dead are not raised, not even Christ
has been raised” (and you and I are
hopelessly lost, mired in sin upon sin).
2.1 Corinthians 15:20 answers the
hypothetical with facts. “But in fact Christ
has been raised from the dead, the
firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep.”
3.The statement, “I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ
who lives in me,” is just like that.
4.If the law of sin and death cannot be
changed, then no matter how I protest, no
matter how exemplary a life I live, my end
is still destruction, and I am to be pitied if I
proclaim a faith that is not true. But if it is
true of me that “through the law I died to
the law,” then, and only then is it also true
that “I have been crucified with Christ. It is
no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in
me.”
In Christ the laws of nature really have been
altered; the law of God really has been
fulfilled; the law of sin and death in me really
has been abolished. This molecular
transformation that tells me I am bound up
together with Christ must have profound
implications for how I will move about in the
world for the rest of my life, or Christ died for
me to no end.
Titus 3:4-7 (a warning against works
righteousness)
“When the goodness and loving kindness of
God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not
because of works done by us in
righteousness, but according to his own
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and
renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured
out on us richly through Jesus Christ our
Savior, so that being justified by his grace we
might become heirs according to the hope of
eternal life.”
I need to know what it means that I am raised
from Flesh to Faith. My resurrection together
with Christ changes every single thing about
the life I now live in the flesh:
 not so I can do better
 Not so I can be a better person
 Christ has done better
 Christ has done the best
 out of gratitude and the sheer pleasure of
his love I long to do well
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Are you sitting there right now, unmoved by
these things?
Does knowing that the finished work of Christ
on the cross changes your life at the
molecular level leave you unchanged?
Are you saying, “This is a bore! Get on with it
and tell me what I must do to help me cope
with life. What must I do to become a
better person?”
If that’s what’s going on inside, then Christ
has no part of you and you have no part in
him
You are still walking according to the flesh
Raised from Flesh
Matthew Henry, in his Complete Commentary
(1708-10) says that the Christian “lives in the
flesh, yet he does not live after the flesh.”
We live in the body, but we are not enslaved to
the body any longer
A greater reality is at work in us
What is the flesh? Ask what it does, how it
operates, and you’ll begin to see what it is.
Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the works of the
flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,
jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and
things like these. I warn you, as I warned you
before, that those who do such things will not
inherit the kingdom of God.”
This is how the flesh operates:
1.Ruled by false bodily passions (immorality,
impurity, sensuality)
a. he’s not saying sex is wrong;
b.elevating sex and sensuality to a place
reserved for God is wrong -- addicted
c. ANYTHING, elevated to the place God
deserves, corrupts
2.Ruled by false spiritual passions (idolatry,
sorcery)
3.Ruled by false relational passions (enmity,
strife, jealousy, fits of anger)
4.Ruled by false social passions (rivalries,
dissensions, divisions)
5.Ruled by greed instead of need (envy,
drunkenness, orgies)
And so...
1.God’s command to “be fruitful and
multiply” turns inward and I become
obsessed with an impulse that God called
good
2.God’s command that “you shall have no
other gods before me” turns inward and I
worship what my own hands have made; I
invoke my own power or the power of
spirits rather than trusting the One who
made me
3.God’s command that “it is not good for us
to be alone” turns inward and the most
basic social unit -- the family -- is torn
apart rather than seeking God who calls us
by name
4.God’s command that “you shall be my
people, and I will be your God” turns
inward and the church is destroyed by
party factions and politics, rather than
walking in love as the Body of Christ
5.God’s command that he would give us
dominion to rule over the creatures of the
earth and that he would supply us ample
food (Genesis 1:28-30) turns inward and
we create an economy of scarcity,
hoarding to ourselves what we’re afraid
there won’t be enough of; overeating,
over-drinking to deaden the fear brought
on by all the rest of our inward-turning
excesses
That is the Flesh. That is what we’ve been
raised from. All the things you always took for
granted, “that’s just the way I am; that’s just
the way our family is; that’s just the way our
church functions,” turn out to be the law of sin
and death working in us. That’s what we’ve
been raised from.
Raised to Faith
Ephesians 2:4-7 explains God’s motive for
doing it, His character in doing, His action in
doing it, and His end-game for doing it:
 “But God, who is rich in mercy… that’s his
motive
 out of the great love with which he loved
us… that’s his character
 even when we were dead through our
trespasses, that’s our problem (the flesh)
 made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved) and raised us
up with him, and made us sit with him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… that’s
his method
 that in the coming ages he might show the
immeasurable riches of his grace in
kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus.” That’s his end game.
Why don’t we live by faith? It sounds
conceptual; it sounds like a philosophy; it
sounds like theological principles. That’s why
so many people tune out talk of faith: “I want
something real. Remember, “Just tell me
what I need to do to become a better
person.” You want real? What could be
more real, more visceral, more affecting to the
senses, more overwhelming, more inexorable,
more powerful than me bound up in one in
crucifixion with God’s only Son? What could be
more real that Jesus, taking upon himself the
full measure of everything in my whole life I
ever thought to replace him with?
It is God’s good pleasure to raise you from
flesh to faith, beloved; “that in the coming
ages he might show (might demonstrate) the
immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.”