A Sermon Based Upon Galatians
2: 15-21, NRSV
By Rev. Dr. Charles J.
Tomlin, DMin.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist
Partnership
Pentecost 8, July 26th,
2015
What makes
you feel free and alive? How about a
roller coaster? This past spring
marked the opening of Carowind’s new ‘monster’ roller coaster ride, “Fury325”.
It’s purported to be the world’s largest, fastest, frightening and
exhilarating roller coaster. I learned
about it when I heard it from two female local news reporters who were
traveling down to see it and to take a ride on it themselves. One reporter said, with fear in her
eyes, “My friend loves roller coaster. Me, not so much!”
What does it
take to make you feel alive? A roller
coaster? Bunge Jumping? Parachuting? Or perhaps Hang Gliding? Some people put a lot of demands of what it
takes for them. Many people need a
‘thrill’ so they can ‘feel’. They
need to “take a walk on the wild side” or walk on the edge of life and death to
feel and realize what it means to be alive.
In the days
of the apostle Paul, just being a Christian could make you feel alive, because
you could be persecuted, or worse, you could lose your life. If fact, it did come to that for many of
those first disciples. Today our
Christianity has become much more bland, boring, dull or dreary. The worst thing that could happen is to fall
asleep during a sermon and break your neck.
That just about happened while Paul was preaching. Even way back then, some went to sleep and
almost missed their whole life. Can you
imagine?
Today, in
this message on freedom Galatians, we want to consider one of the most
important Bible verses where Paul writes,
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is
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” (Gal. 2: 19b-20). While
the ideas presented here are ancient, this verse speaks volume to what it means
to be alive, awake, and aware, as a follower of Jesus Christ.
LIVING IN THE PRESENT-TENSE
When it
comes to thinking about ‘life’ and what it
means to follow Jesus, there is one word
that should jump right off the page for every single one of us, whether we are Christian or not. It’s the word that comes in the middle of
verse 20 when Paul writes: “And the life, I NOW live in the
flesh….” (20). When you think about it, is there any other
way to live than ‘now’? Oh, yes there is:
You could be trying to live in
the past. That’s where a lot of people become content
to try to live. They remember how it
used to be. They are imprisoned in how
things were, but will never be again.
They are not really living in the past, but they are dying in the
present because they want life to stand still.
And this is the problem, no ‘living person’ can actually ‘stand
still’, and no living person can go back
to the past, nor can any living person
really live in the past, because, “the
past is past”. It exists no more. Nothing really exists except the
present. Until you realize this you can
really live free at all.
Of course we
know what Paul’s past was. When Paul
says ‘AND THE LIFE THAT I NOW LIVE IN
THE FLESH” he remembers very well
the life he used to live. He recalls
the self-righteousness of his past. He
remembers how he murdered Christians.
He remembers how he thought he was upholding the law, but what he was
really doing was breaking the heart of the law which is the law of love and
grace. Paul had made a lot of mistakes,
even when he meant well, even when he was very educated, and even when he was
an outstanding citizen and an exceptionally bright, moral, and religious
person. Paul was all of this in his
‘former life’; but he got it wrong.
What strikes
me about Paul’s self-understanding about the ‘past’ is that any of us can get
stuck there. Even when we were right and
are still right, we can get stuck in the things that have been good for us and
to us. Good is good, but even good can
become bad, if we get stuck in it. Think
about a young person who doesn’t grow up.
They graduate school, they go to college, or get a job, but they never
move out. They keep living off their
parents, or they never create a life for themselves. There is a lot of good in having a good
home, great parents, wonderful roots and a great ‘foundation’, but if you never
built your home and move on to make use of what you have been given in the
past, then you decay and die. For you see, it’s not just a bad past that
can hold you back, a ‘good’ past can be more
dangerous if you are ‘bound and determined’ to live in it. No one can live in the ‘past’ and live free
in the present.
You may also try to live only in
the future, dreaming,
hoping, praying, and pressing toward what you hope is yet to be. Just like a ‘good’ past, planning and hoping
for the future can become enslaving as well.
You can work so hard to make your hopes and dreams happen that you fail
to live the life that you have right now.
We’ve all done this, and most of us know just how dangerous it is. You can have a family and never see
them. You have dreams, but never be
content with what you have. You can
even be dreaming, singing, and praying for heaven—to be with loved ones past,
but forget to be a witness and do the work that needs to be done, right
now. By only living for the ‘future’
your forget to live the days you have now.
The point
Paul is making when he writes about the Christian life, is that life “in Christ” is the life that you and I should
be determined to live right ‘now’. You can’t live off the life you have lived,
or the decisions you have made, but your faith and your freedom comes alive
with the life and the decisions you are making ‘now’. It is the ‘power of now’ that Christ calls you to
that will set you free to be all that you can be in your life. One
very famous spiritual writer Eckhart Tolle, makes exactly this point in his
very popular book with that very title,
“The Power of Now”. Tolle’s book has struck a nerve with
millions around the world, as it has been printed in over 33 different languages
and has been on the New York Times list of best-selling books ever since it was
released. It is ‘spiritual’ book, but it is not overly
religious, though it is based upon spiritual wisdom that comes from Jesus, from
Buddha, from modern psychology. It has
been widely used by business leaders to help those who are over their head in
‘materialistic’ matter to realize that ‘the
physical world is not the only world there is’. It is a book to help people get off the wheel
of self-destructive behavior and to find a ‘life’ that is lived, not in the
past, nor only for the future, but for now.
The best
part of Tolle’s book comes right at the beginning, when he explains what
motivated him, as a spiritual teacher, to set down and to begin to write this
book about the “Power of Now”. His experience was not that much unlike the
apostle Paul. He says that up until his 30th year, he lived
in ‘a state of almost continuous anxiety interspersed with periods of suicidal
depression…. One night not long after (his) 29th birthday, he woke up
with a feeling of absolute dread. He
woke up like this many times, but this one was more intense than it had ever
been. He observed the dead silence, the
darkness, and then the distant noise of a passing train---everything was so alien,
so hostile, and so meaningless. But the
most loathsome thing of all, however, was himself, and his own existence. What was the point of continuing to bear the
burden of his miserable life? Why carry
on in the struggle?
“I cannot live with myself any
longer” was the one thought he kept repeating to himself in his mind and
heart. Then suddenly, something came to
him. He says ‘I suddenly became aware
of what a peculiar thought it was…. If I cannot live with myself, there must be
two of me… Am I one person, or am
I two? Maybe only one of them is real… Maybe
the only ‘self’ that is real is the one who is ‘alive’ right NOW! That’s was his awakening to the ‘now’ of
his life. This was his way of moving out of
his ‘self-condemnation’ to seize the gift of ‘now’.
If this sounds
like the Buddhist teaching about ‘enlightenment’,
it is. If it also sounds something like
a person having a spiritual experience of being ‘born again’, it is that
too. There is only one spiritual
reality, but there are many ways to describe it. When Jesus spoke about ‘life’ he was not
speaking “Christian” as much as he was speaking “life”. The Christian life
is not about having a particular religious life but the true religious life is
about getting a life, or as Jesus said, getting a life that is “abundant”, full and meaningful. It is about getting beyond who you haven’t
been, and not getting stuck on who you want to be, but it means getting real about who you are,
right now, not in self-condemnation and defeat, but coming alive in the love,
the grace, the goodness, and opportunity of this very moment.
“The
life I NOW live…” Paul says. Or
finding the ‘self’ that is ‘real’ right now, who is alive and to be
free, --free to love, free to be loved, and free to love God and others. This is the first step toward finding life in
Christ, as we discover the freedom to live ‘in the present tense’.
LIVING TO PRECLUDE A LESSER
LIFE
But living
the ‘life’ that is full, free, and fruitful, is not living just any kind of
life we want, you want, or I want, but
it is living the kind of life that God
has created us to live. This is
what makes Christianity a peculiar kind of faith, not just another form of
religion. This is why Christianity can
find truth in other religions, in other ways of living and culture, because
Jesus is the Lord of all. Christianity
can learn, appreciate, and appropriate truth from all walks and ways of life,
because Jesus is the truth—all truth. Christianity
knocks, seeks, and finds life that is ‘full
and abundant’ (Jn. 10:10) because it is about the life you ‘should’ be
living now, wherever you are and whoever you are. This is something that Buddha could only partially
see. He was on the right path, but he
was not ‘the way, truth and the life’.
Jesus is the
‘life’ who points us to a quality of life we all should live now, which is why Jesus told Nicodemus, in no uncertain terms, “You must be born again” (John
3:3)! Jesus was not telling Nicodemus
not to be Jewish. He was not even telling
Nicodemus how to become a Christian, as in getting a new religion. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that if he
wanted life, he had to learn to see
everything differently and to live
his life in a completely new way. This
life was not the life Nicodemus necessarily wanted, but it was the life God wanted, and it was the life Nicodemus
needed to live, and should have been living. For only when Nicodemus decided to live in
God’s now, as he ‘should’ be, seeing, thinking, becoming and being in Jesus as
the Messiah, will he get free and stay free.
Paul himself experienced this new level of life
and living in Jesus Christ. This is
what his letter to the Galatians is about.
Certain ‘troublemakers’ had infiltrated the churches
in Galatia, who wanted to stay with the old way of living, or to go backward
away from the freedom Christ gives.
But Paul would have nothing of it.
He himself had been a follower of God’s law, but Paul came to realize
that even God own law (which was good in the past) could not give him what
Jesus now offers which can take into the future. In the grace of Jesus, a new kind of obedience
and law has been revealed and released—the law of love. This new kind of seeing, being, and living is
best described by Paul as a life of ‘‘faith
IN Jesus Christ’ (2:16, NRSV). But
before you settle on this translation, you must remember that this can also be
translated, ‘the faith OF Jesus
Christ’ (KJV). In the original
language it can be translated either way, and in good Christian understanding, it
is advantageous to see it both ways, not just one way. To put it simply: we can have FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST because of
THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST. It is
Jesus himself, who makes this new way of life possible.
The ‘power’
that enables us to live in the now, not in the past, nor only for the future is
because of the faith Jesus himself had as he lived his life ‘for us’ and died ‘for
us’. What kind of ‘faith’ did Jesus have? Again, this is an oversimplification, but
the ‘faith’ Jesus had a life lived because of the ‘obedience’ that was in his
heart---not because of the law. This
is why Jesus was able to challenge the rules, the laws, and the regulations
that had lost their soul and heart. Jesus lived a life that trusted God in a way that
vindicated him, even when the world turned against him. Jesus lived a level of life that can still
save us from the negative pulls of this world.
Jesus lived a life that was based not on human flesh alone, but based on
Jesus own spiritual ‘relationship’ with the Father—the source of life. As Jesus was one with the Father, so we can now become one with the Son, who
came to create a new level of believing, of living, of loving, and
faithfulness, that is based upon having a relationship of ‘faith’ that is not
based upon laws, rules or regulations, but is based upon having the right
attitude of faith based on God’s reconciling and redeeming work. By having faith to join with Jesus in having
the faith Jesus had, and by living the quality of life Jesus lived, we too can
be saved from the lesser, lower, destructive way of life which can enslave and
rob us of the life we should have.
How do we
come to this higher level of ‘life’ by having ‘faith in Jesus Christ’? We don’t come to it, but Scripture says this
freedom for life comes to us, as ‘gift
of grace, through faith, not of works,
lest anyone should boast’ (Eph. 2.8).
Jesus did not come to take our life from us, but he came to empower us
to get our lives back, which the ‘world, the flesh, and the devil’ can still, steal
away. This is why Paul’s discussion
includes a discussion about ‘being found to be sinners’ (v.17). Paul’s point is the Jewish need for the law
proves Jews are still sinners, just like being a Gentile without the law also
proves Gentiles are still sinners.
Since,
before God, we are all sinners, there is
only one sure way not to be a sinner
anymore. It does not mean that we
ever overcome sin or ever stop ‘falling
short of the glory’ God has intended for all of us. We can never stop being a sinner through the
law, and we can never stop being a sinner, even if we live outside the
law. No, the only way to stop being a sinner is to be released from the
guilt of sin by the only one who can release us: God.
And this is exactly what the Jesus’ life and death means.
The very
biblical word Paul uses here is ‘justified’
(v. 15, 16, 17, 21). This word is the
same as the word ‘righteous’, which is
a legal word from ancient law courts which means to be ‘declare free of any charges’ whether you are guilty or not. Only a
judge who is free from any legal restraints can do this. And this is exactly what God has done in
Jesus Christ. The whole world stands ‘guilty’
under the judgment of sin, but now, God, the righteous judge of all, has
declared us ‘righteous’ and ‘free’ of any charges. This declaration of ‘justification’ is not
based on who we are, but it is based upon who Jesus is, and it is based upon
our having a living faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Lord of all. As this free gift of grace is given to Jew
and Gentile, free of charge and free beyond the law, all of humanity has been
given the gift of ‘freedom’.
The Faith of
Jesus Christ, which calls the world to have faith in Jesus Christ, is a good news gospel that means that in
Jesus Christ, God has set the world free
from sin, to empower us to be free from
lesser living so that we, and anyone with faith in Jesus Christ, can live a full,
abundant, and redemptive life. This
quality of life can even now be lived while living ‘in the flesh’ because it is
not based upon our ‘flesh’ or upon
following the law in our flesh, but it is based upon the heart that has ‘faith’
in Jesus Christ. It is a faith that is
not based upon works of the law at all, nor upon our achievements, nor is it forbidden
because of our character flaws or our failures to live our ‘best’ life, but now,
the life of faith is based upon the ‘faith
of Jesus Christ’ who has ‘finished’ God’s work of reconciliation and now
works through us all ‘by faith’ and ‘for faith’ which is only way any kind
of ‘faith’ will work—by faith.
PARTICIPATING IN THE LIFE OF CHRIST
We can live our
life in God’s ‘now’ because in Christ the past forgiven. We can live in God’s now and we can preclude
sin, not by overcoming sin, but by overcoming the power of sin because we have
a God who has declared us righteous, not
through our goodness, but through his own goodness, love and grace, through faith in Jesus Christ because of the
faith of Jesus Christ. It is this Jesus’
own life, death, and resurrection that now inspires and empowers us to live our
life on a ‘higher level’ of understanding, of consciousness, or of awareness,
which is nothing less or nothing more than a life that is now live by grace,
through faith in this Jesus who loves and gives himself for us.
But there is
one more important word. Paul says we
participate in God’s forgiveness and freedom, through participating in ‘crucifixion’
of Jesus Christ. This is not done by
being ‘crucified’ in fact, but he means being ‘crucified’ by faith. Being ‘crucified with Christ’ means that ‘it
is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”. This mystical, spiritual language is hard
for some to get a handle on, but Paul
goes on to explain it quite simply, “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…” (v.20). This is the kind of life which sets us free
and keeps us free. It’s the kind of life
live ‘by faith in the Son of God’ so that we ‘crucify’ the that may hinder us and are released to live
the only kind of life that ‘justifiable’---which is a life that is free to live
a life based on God’s love (vs 20, “who loved me and gave himself for me”.
The life of
faith in Jesus that is based on the faith of Jesus, is a life that is lived out
of love for God and others because of God’s love for us and for all
others. Only when we participate with
Jesus, in the death of our old selfish, legalistic life, can we learn to live
this new kind of life based upon the love of God. But
how do we see this kind of ‘crucified life’ in real life today?
At the end
of March, CBS ran an remarkable story about twelve strangers who made a six-way
kidney swap that gave life to each of them.
Up until the story was released, the twelve strangers had not met each
other, to learn whose kidney donation had given them life. The most remarkable part of that story, which
was already known, is that it all began with one altruistic donor, Zully
Broussard, age 55, who felt compelled to
give her own kidney to save a stranger’s life.
She said she came to realize just how precious life is, when she lost
her own husband and son to cancer. (http://news.yahoo.com/video/six-patients-six-donors-pay-130234735-cbs.html; http://hospitalbusinessnews.com/tag/zully-broussard/).
What is
remarkable about Mrs. Broussard, is not only the compassion she had, but the ‘faith’
she had. Her donated kidney could not be
used by the person it was intended, but it started a chain reaction of compassion,
which saved the lives of others, all because of her ‘faith’ to give. Isn’t this what ‘faith of Jesus’ means for
our ‘faith in Jesus Christ?’ Jesus came
to show us not only how to die, but how to live, by giving our own life to God
and to each other. By ‘faith’ Jesus has
started a chain reaction of faith to redeem us and set us free to live in God’s
love. This is still how Christ has ‘died for something, rather than for
nothing. Amen.
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