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Message 03-19-17
Galatians 2:19-20
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.
Series: Crucified with Christ
Raised from Self to Savior
Series Thesis and Intro
Galatians 2:19-20 tells us there are 4 things that are
true of every Person who is Crucified with Christ. These
are not terms of discipleship; but rather deep realities
that, if we will embrace them and understand them, will
transform our lives.
 Every person who is crucified with Christ is raised
from law to life
 Every person who is crucified with Christ is raised
from self to Savior
 Every person who is crucified with Christ is raised
from flesh to faith
 Every person who is crucified with Christ is raised
from loss to love
Today: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? To
understand this, we need to observe the scene on
the Cross.
A Tale of Two Criminals
Systauroō (Sis-tau-ra-oh)
“To crucify along with”
 Only appears in the New Testament 5 times.
 Three of those times refer to the criminals who
were “crucified along with Christ” on the cross.
 The other two times are in Romans 6 and here in
Galatians 2
Their example speaks to our reality:
Luke 23:32, 39-43 (cf: Matthew 27:38, 44; Mark
15:27; John 19:18)
32 Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be
put to death with him. 39 One of the criminals who were
hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him,
saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the
same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed
justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds;
but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said,
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you,
today you will be with me in paradise.”
In Luke’s account, we see the whole of the Gospel
message on the Cross:
 We mock Jesus when we say, “If you are the Christ,
why can’t you save me?”
 We agree that the law is just when we affirm that
we are under the sentence of death, receiving the
just reward for our deeds (the point of being alive
is to stave off death as long as possible)
 We hope in Christ when we say ‘remember me’
 We are assured by Christ for Salvation (today you
will be with me in paradise)
Colossians 1:13-14
13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in
whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Crucified with to be raised with
The striking thing about this moment is in verse 43, “He
said to him…” He did not say it to both of them. Thus,
Jesus conferred eternal life to the one who fell upon him
seeking redemption and whom he thus assured, and not
to the other who continued to rail against him.
 He guaranteed him life after crucifixion
 He guaranteed him paradise
 He guaranteed him immediate transfer (today, not
tonight, not tomorrow)
 The companion to this verse is Ephesians 2:4-7
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love
with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in
our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by
grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with
him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show
the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:3-6
“All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death. 4 We were buried therefore
with him by baptism into death, in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his,
we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection
like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with
him in order that the body of sin might be brought to
nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Baptism is a picture of this reality. That’s why baptism
is for the believer. When we are baptized, we’re not
playing out Christ’s baptism by John (for he knew no
sin and had no need to be baptized). In baptism we play
out the scene on the cross.
 I am justly under the sentence of death because of
my sin
 I am crucified together with Christ.
 I become dead to all the hopes, dreams, aspirations,
desires of this life when I say “Jesus remember
me…”
 Christ guarantees me life, paradise, and immediate
transfer if I die with him
1. Only one of the robbers died together with Christ.
The other merely died in proximity to Christ.
2. When I say “remember me”, I don’t say it after I’m
raised to newness of life, we say it before we die with
him; before we are raised together with Christ. No one
has eternal life who does not first agree that they are
under the curse of the law.
The picture of baptism then, is one of us dying and
being buried with Christ and then raised with him.
Christ died. He did not merely faint. He was not merely
unconscious. He died, and was raised to walk again in
newness of life.
The Jesus who walked on the earth and ate and drank
with his disciples after the resurrection bore the scars of
crucifixion even as he walked in newness of life. You
and I, who trust in Christ, still bear the scars of the life
we lived apart from Christ, however long or short it
was.
 Baptism is a picture, and pictures and analogies
only go so far.
 Baptism adds nothing to your salvation.
 Baptism doesn’t fundamentally change us.
 In baptism you and I are witnessing to something
that is already true of us.
 You and I will still sin and at times will run back to
our sinful self for an hour, a day, a week, a year.
That’s why Paul, explaining the new life in Christ, says,
Colossians 2:20-23
“20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the
world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you
submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste,
Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as
they are used)—according to human precepts and
teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of
wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism
and severity to the body, but they are of no value in
stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
Galatians 3:1-6
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was
before your eyes that Jesus Christ was
publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only
this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or
by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having
begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the
flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed
it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you
and works miracles among you do so by works of the
law, or by hearing with faith— 6 just as Abraham
“believed God, and it was counted to him as
righteousness”?
Paul implores me not to continue to be enslaved to sin;
it cuts against the truth of who I am. I’ve been crucified
with Christ. I am dead to the world and alive to Christ;
that’s truth – reality at the molecular level. I am alive –
for the first time – to the possibility of real change. This
is not therapy. This is resurrection. When I declare God,
to myself, to others, and to the principalities and
powers in heavenly places, “I have been crucified with
Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives
in me,” I’m declaring my independence from sin and the
world and I’m declaring my utter dependence on Christ.
Applications
“I have been crucified with Christ.” I know it, not
because I have left the world or because all my troubles
have disappeared. Quite the opposite: I know it because
I’ve been raised to newness of life, scars and all. I know
it because I long to be away from this body and present
with Christ. I know it because my scars tell me of the
glory yet to be revealed in me. In the Japanese art form
called “kintsugi,” broken pottery is repaired by binding
the broken pieces together with lacquer mixed with
gold dust, so that, rather than hiding the scars, they
become part of a new beauty: the pottery radiates glory
at the broken places. After the resurrection, Jesus came
to his disciples and said, “See my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does
not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And
when he had said this, he showed them his hands and
his feet.” (Luke 24:39-40)
Have you been crucified with Christ, or are you merely
dying-by-inches the death you so richly deserved only
feet away from the Savior? Are you still living for self,
or are you living for the one, with whom you died and in
whom you are raised? Are your scars open wounds? As
Isaiah said, is your “whole head sick, [your] whole heart
faint? From the sole of your foot even to [your] head, is
[there no] soundness? Only bruises and sores and open
wounds; [neither] pressed out or bound up or softened
with oil? Or is Jesus your kintsugi, binding and dressing
your wounds in bright gold and causing you to walk in
newness of life?
(Offer prayer at conclusion)