Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Summary

Alright. Strangely, again enough. I had never noticed that there’s very little in chapters 1 and 2 on the new man. Oh, if you want to spiritualize it, you can find it in every verse of the Bible, but once you get past chapter 3, that’s all it’s about. Here’s the book. We’ll start with verse 1:15. But when he had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, He was pleased to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the Gentiles…that He might cause the revelation of His Son in me. That He might show me the Son in me. That the curtain might drop, and Christ might be seen inside me. That He might reveal His Son, not to me, not for me, not through me, but in me. He has revealed the Lord Jesus in Paul, and if in Paul, He’s revealed the Lord in you. Okay, let’s go on.

He gave us one of the most beautiful understandings of these two lives we have. Actually, we have three, but I’m going to concentrate on the two. I cannot, or my flesh cannot, obey anything that’s either religious or spiritual. Therefore, if I am to be justified in the sight of God, I must be justified in Christ and no other way. Concerning the law, through the law, I died to the law, or through the law, I died to the law. Now, what that means is very difficult to explain, but I believe it means this: by seeking to obey the law, to understand it, and to fulfill it…I failed. Now, that could be one meaning: I failed to the point that I gave up. Or it may be that’s one possibility. It may be that Paul is saying that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law, and the law itself had promised the death of Christ, and therefore it was by means of the law that I died to the law. That’s the only understanding that I can give of that verse. For through the law, I died to the law. But whatever it means, whatever its meaning, this point is obvious that by something, by some means, there is death between me and the law. It does not matter which one of you is dead. If the law dies, I’m free from the law. It is dead. If the law is alive and I am dead, I am breaking the law because I am dead. Because it ends all obligations to all rules.

I do not care what theology you espouse. I do not care if you’re Mormon or Methodist, Baptist or Buddhist…Muhammad or Mormon. I do not care what you believe. If you are dead, you’re free. God has reckoned you dead, and whether I put the law on you or you put the law on you or some group puts the law on you, the fact of the matter is you’re the freest creatures in all the universe that doesn’t even reckon dip. You believe that for one hour while you’re sitting here, and then you walk outside, and you go right back and follow the law, when in fact, you’re dead. I’ll tell you: the freest people in this city are the people in the graveyard. Not one law in this city pertains to them. The Catholics can’t touch them. The Baptists can’t touch them. The Mormons can’t touch them. The Muslims can’t touch them. You have not seen anybody walking through the graveyard preaching, and you know you will not. You are reckoned as dead as those people are.

Don’t let anybody put you under the law. If a man says that’s true, it doesn’t mean a thing. And if a man says it’s not true, it doesn’t mean a thing. It’s God’s view that matters, and God says you are dead. So, the law is, and the laws do not hold you. That’s right. Mother doesn’t hold you. Daddy doesn’t hold you. Baptists don’t hold you. Religion doesn’t hold you. Gene doesn’t hold you. Nothing holds you. Not even nothing. Just name it. It doesn’t hold you. You are reckoned free. And isn’t that great? I tell you, the Lord’s concept of finishing the problem of sin, the flesh, and the law was incredible. What a powerful Gospel brother Paul preached. How total was his gospel. But here was a group of Christians who would have packed up and gone back to it as if it were the greatest thing in the world. That only means one thing. There’s a natural inclination inside the old species to wish that they were… In fact, it shows the pride of the old man because the new man within doesn’t like that. The new man is absolutely certain that all power to do all things rests in Christ. The old man still believes he can do it.

Anytime you fall under the condemnation of the law, you’re simply admitting your pride and that you believe that you could perform the commandments of God. Those commandments were not cast for you to be able to fulfill. They were meant to drive you to Jesus Christ, and you are still being driven, day after day, until one day, you shall glorify Him. I believe I should quit working and begin believing what is true: that I’m dead and the law has no obligation to me. Okay. God has said Joe is dead. Now that’s only part of the story, but still, even though you say I’m dead, boy, I have a few problems. Can’t quite get all this stuff done.

So, God reckoned Joe dead, that’s number one. Now then, number two, if that be true, God has reckoned again. According to God’s reckoning, the resurrected Christ is all there is. I have a hard time believing I was righteous, sanctified, and glorified. Well, then, could you believe this? That you’re dead, and that your name has been erased, and it has been replaced; there is only the resurrected Lord. That’s all that the Lord sees. The Father sees so unusually. Well, you think, “Why would God see such a thing as that?” Because your God is not…you know, you begin to wonder about God. It is because God is free of time and space, and He sees what really is. I’m telling you, there will be a day in this universe when you will see that there is nothing left but Jesus Christ. But God sees, right now, that in this universe there is nothing left but the Lord. In the new creation, God only reckons Christ, and that’s all.

I’ve been crucified with Christ. I no longer live. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Everything that is not Christ is reckoned as dead. Why? Everything that is not Jesus Christ in that body is reckoned as dead, and everything else is alive. Now, Jim, consider that tomorrow, when you’re walking around, everything here that is not the Lord is reckoned dead. Everything that is being carried around right now, the Lord is carried around, and it’s dead. And there is only here in the eyes of God Christ. The only thing now left in me that’s alive is the Lord. Well, my spirit has been made one with the Lord’s spirit, and the Lord’s Spirit is in my spirit. The two spirits have become one spirit, and His Spirit and my spirit are now eternally one. I have the eternal life of the Lord, and that is reckoned as Life, and everything that is not that is reckoned as dead.

When the Lord gains ground in my soul, it’s reckoned as resurrected life. The Lord puts to death the soul; you go through agony, and one day you come out alive, and that’s reckoned.  One day, your body, this outward tabernacle, shall dissolve, and the Lord shall give you a new body, and that will be reckoned to Christ. There is living in you, even on the day you’re saved, when you’re hanging by a thread, from that second on, nothing in you is reckoned as alive except Christ; and as the Lord grows and takes over you, that’s reckoned as alive. Everything else is reckoned as dead. When He gets to your body, it’s reckoned dead until the Lord takes over the body and it’s reckoned alive. Then one day, you will be all alive and all the rest of you dead, and there is no judgment held against a dead man. There is no condemnation of a dead man. There is no law that holds a dead man. Everything else is the Lord. What’s your problem? You don’t have the law; the pot is dead. The old great pot is dead. Everybody else is dead. The only thing that lives is Christ, and we will no longer know any man according to the flesh. I think that would be a good place for church life to begin.

Well, I can believe it about everybody in the room except me. Billy, that’s not exactly true. You go home…I’m going to say it to you again…you go home and try not to believe this. Now, you’ve heard; you go home and try not to believe it. You’ll find it very difficult not to believe, because your spirit is a believer. Your spirit has already seen this. Your spirit knows this to be true. Your spirit put up a sign, saying, “Amen. I’ve been trying to tell you this for years.” It’s okay. Your spirit is sitting there and saying, “Well, sure. This has been true. This has been true ever since the crucifixion.”

I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. When I was 19 years old in the summer of 1952, I was memorizing verses and living in Rome, Italy. I knew that this was probably the outstanding verse in the New Testament, and it finally came to me. Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. And I walked all around that end, all the streets that day, saying that, knowing that it was very important, the key to all things; I was repeating it, hoping that I would understand what it meant, and there was no way on earth for me to understand what that meant, because I would not take it at face value.

I am dead, and it is no longer I who lives but is Christ who lives in me. And as long as I live in the flesh, I live by faith…I live by the faith of the Son of God. I live by the faith of the Son of God. Now, that simply means that the flesh part is walking around; insofar as my flesh is alive, insofar as the “I” is alive, insofar as the old man is alive, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Now, what does that mean? That means two things. One of them means I don’t have to have faith, and in fact, I don’t have faith; Jesus Christ has faith. I live by the faith of the Son of God, and that’s the way the verse is written. I live by the faith of the Son of God.