I was curious about how much crime was going on around my house. So, a couple months ago I downloaded a crime app on my phone. This app would notify me of criminal activity going on around me. It also allowed me to choose what kinds of crimes I wanted to be notified of – shoplifting, robberies, domestic disputes, assault & battery, gun violence and dozens more. I wanted everything. My phone was blowing up. I figured there would be a lot of crime I wasn’t aware of, but I did not expect to see so much crime. Until I had this app, I didn’t know just how much was going on around me.
The Law did the same thing – until God gave the Law mankind did not really know how bad their sinful-criminal activity was. The law exposed it, accounted for it, and as we saw last week, the law excited sin – causing us to sin more.
In verses 17-18 last week we saw how trying to build or rebuild a life of following the law is what makes a person a lawbreaker.
This whole section is contrasting the Law with the Gospel. This whole section started with Peter’s sin in verses 11-14, and Paul confronting him. Peter began withdrawing from Gentile believers because some Jewish believers came into town. In doing so, Peter was reverting back to those old Jewish ways of strict separation from Gentiles, and in doing so he was sinning against Christ, the cross and those Gentile believers. He was also sinning against those Jewish believers who followed his lead and committed the same sin.
Then, after describing this episode, Paul spends verses 15-21 explaining to the Galatians the theological basis in Christ for the new unity Jewish and Gentile believers now have.
- Verse 15 reflects the Jew-Gentile division under the law and sets the stage for the new unity shared in Christ.
- Verse 16 shows us how the Gospel justifies while the Law condemns.
- Verse 17-18 shows how the Gospel increases righteousness while the Law increases sin.
- Verse 19 shows how the Law brings death while the Gospel brings life.
- Next week we’ll see the famous verse 20 and then the week after verse 21.
Today lets divide our verse into two preaching points: 1) I Died To The Law, and 2) I Live For God
I DIED TO THE LAW (19a)
First, we see Paul saying, “I died to the law.” Look at the first half of verse 19, “For through the law I died to the law…”
What does dying to the law mean? What does it mean for a person to say “I have died to the law?” It means that they have been released from the power and the authority of the law. Dying to something means you are freed from something, it no longer controls you, it no longer has mastery over you. To die to something means you no longer live for it. Dying to the law means a person has been released from the law’s binding authority and therefore they no longer are obligated to live for it. It is no longer their master.
This point may be hard for some to accept. But let’s look at some other examples of “dying” to something that the NT teaches us. Lets look at some other things we are supposed to “die” to that all of us would readily agree on. Here are other things we are supposed to die to:
- I am told that I died to SIN (Romans 6:2; 1 Peter 2:24)
- I am told that I died to the WORLD (Romans 6:14; Galatians 6:14)
- I am told that I died to the elemental forces of this world (Colossians 2:20)
Dying to something has the idea of no longer submitting to something. No longer being obligated to something. No longer being under the mastery of something. It carries the idea that it is not something I live for any longer. Not only does this thing I have died to have any authority or power over me anymore, but there is also the sense in which it is not my priority anymore, it is not what I am devoting myself to. And along with dying to sin, dying to the world, dying to the elementary spiritual forces of this world, we are also told that we have died to the LAW.
Why is this important? Why is it important to see that we are released from the authority of the law? To see how important this is, we have to understand what the bible says is the reality of those who are under the law:
First, because we are being explicitly told we are released from the law. Notice how Paul says, “For through the law I died to the Law…” Notice the word “For,” which connects the previous verse, verse 18. He said in verse 18 that rebuilding a life of law-keeping makes me a lawbreaker, and then he explains in verse 19 that I am not supposed to rebuild a life of law-keeping because I am dead to the law. My relationship with the law is one of being dead to it. Building a law-keeping life would make me “alive” to the law. But Paul says we are dead to it, and we have no obligation to it. Turn to Romans 7:1-4 with me.
- Death releases someone from the law of marriage so that they can remarry. When a person’s spouse dies they no longer belong to that spouse and are free to remarry and belong to someone else
- Paul says the same thing is true with a person and the law: since we have died to the law we no longer belong to it, and we are free now to belong to something other than the law. Paul says its not something, but someone – Jesus Christ.
- Notice verse 4 that belonging to Christ automatically means we no longer belong to the law. To think that we can belong to both Jesus Christ and the law is equivalent to saying a woman can belong to two husbands. We can belong to one or the other, but not both.
- Notice also in verse 4, the same pattern as our Galatians verse, that in order to live for God we must die to the law. It is a condition of living for God that we are dead to the law.
- Verse 6 is so explicit in declaring a new way of living apart from the law, “…..READ….”
APPLICATION: Do not make the mistake as a Christian of trying to build a law-keeping life. You are told explicitly not to do that.
Second, we have to understand how we’ve been released from the law because being under the Law means a person is under the mastery of sin. To be under the law means to be under the power and mastery of sin. Turn to Romans 6:14 with me….READ, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Notice how the law and sin go together: sin is our master when we are under the law. But when we come to Christ in faith we are released from the law, and sin is no longer our master – because we are now under grace in Christ Jesus. This connects with the point of verse 18 previously where anyone who puts themselves under the law and tries to build a law-keeping life they become a “lawbreaker” in doing so.
APPLICATION: Do not put yourself back under the mastery of sin by trying to build a law-keeping life.
Third, we must see ourselves as no longer being under the Law, because being under the Law means we are under condemnation and God’s wrath. Turn to 2 Corinthians 3:7-9 with me….READ….see the contrast between the Law-life and the Spirit-life. See the Law brought death (v7) and condemnation (v9). That is the only thing the Law can do for us: condemn us and kill us.
Also, turn to Romans 7:9-13 with me and see there how the Law condemns…READ
But think of what Romans 8:2 says for someone who is now a Christian, “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has SET YOU FREE from the law of sin and death.”
APPLICATION: Do not return to the law, which only brings condemnation.
Question: Does being set free from the law then mean that I am free to live in sin? Absolutely not. As our next point shows, dying to the law doesn’t mean living for sin, it means living for God.
I LIVE FOR GOD (19b)
The other point for today is LIVING FOR GOD. Paul says that he died to the law so that He might live for God.” Lets pull out several important points.
First, living for God requires dying to the law. Notice Paul says, I died to the law SO THAT I might live for God. When he says “SO THAT” he is telling us a cause and effect relationship. Living for God happens when we die to the law. Living for God requires dying to the law.
Second, living for God means I have new life in Christ. I have been made alive by God to live for God. I am united to Christ in His death and in His resurrection, so that I am dead to a life of sin and live to God for righteousness. Turn to Romans 6:1-10 with me…READ
Third, living for God means living righteously. Righteous living is done by living for God – not living by the law. See how this verse (and the whole section) contrasts living out the law. Again we ask the question raised so often: “Does being set free from the law then mean that I am free to live in sin?” Absolutely not! The NT teaching is that a person who has trusted in Christ is not under the law, but under grace, and that being the case they now live for righteousness
- 1 Peter 2:24
- Romans 6:14-15
- Titus 2:11-12
- Philippians 3:7-11
- Galatians 5
CONCLUSION
What each of us needs to understand is that when we turn to Christ we experience both a death and a new life. We die to the world, to its elemental forces, to sin, to Satan, to the Law. Romans 6 says that we co-died with Christ. All of this “dying” only happens when we put our faith in Jesus Christ to save us. And when we do that, not only do we die in all those ways, but we also then become alive in a way we’ve never been before. We are born again (John 3), regenerated (Titus 3), made alive (Eph 2), co-resurrected (Rom 6) and now we have true life – eternal life – the life of God within us. So as our sermon title says, “In dying, I live!” “Therefore,” 2 Corinthians 5:17 declares, “If anyone is in Christ, the old person has passed away and the new person in Christ has come forth!” Amen!
I am calling on you today to die. Die! Die to man-made rules. Die to lifeless dead religion. Die to the law. Die to your sin. Die to this world. Die to yourself. Die!
And then I call on you also to Live! Come to Christ and live! Come alive right here and right now. Come to Christ right now because He is the only one who can make you alive. He is the only one who can put all your sin in the grave. He is the only one who is alive and therefore the only one who can make you alive. If you turn to Him, humble yourself, confess your sins to Him and believe on Him then this very day you will receive eternal life.
I’ll end with the story of Lizzie Atwater, a noble Christian woman who had fully died to this world and possessed true life in Christ. Lizzie was a missionary to China who was martyred in June of 1900. That year, more than 32,000 Christians were murdered by Chinese nationalists. One of them was Lizzie Atwater, who was pregnant when they came for her with the sword. Before the killed her the soldiers took her to a nearby town and she was able to write a letter home. These were her last recorded words:
Dear ones, I long for a sight of your dear faces, but I fear we shall not meet on earth. I am preparing for the end very quietly and calmly. The Lord is wonderfully near, and He will not fail me. I was very restless and excited while there seemed a chance of life, but God has taken away that feeling, and now I just pray for grace to meet the terrible end bravely. The pain will soon be over, and oh the sweetness of the welcome above! My little baby will go with me. I think God will give it to me in heaven and my dear mother will be so glad to see us. I cannot imagine the Savior’s welcome. Oh, that will compensate for all these days of suspense. Dear ones, live near to God and cling less closely to earth. There is no other way by which we can receive that peace from God which passeth understanding. I must keep calm and still these hours. I do not regret coming to China.
Shortly thereafter, the soldiers killed the pregnant Lizzie and the other Christians with her with swords, then tossed their lifeless bodies into a pit.
Take this glorious martyr’s words right now: “live near to God and cling less closely to earth.” Die to this earth and everything that belongs to it, and come near to God that you may take hold of eternal life and everything belonging to it! Die so that you may live!
SILENT REFLECTION