Berean Community Church Wednesday Bible Study 11/1/2023 Galatians 2:17-21

>> All right, good evening, everybody. I wanna just read the passage for us, give us a couple guidelines, and then go over the questions that you guys are gonna be discussing. So can I get the, all right. This passage contains actually one of the most famous verses in the whole of the scriptures. And it's important not only to kind of dig in deep, to turn on our brains to glean as much as we can, but also if our hearts are not engaged, we turn one of the most beautiful verses in all the scriptures into a confession that's actually not true of us, right? So I'm gonna read this passage, and then we'll go over the questions. Verse 17, and remember, Paul is still speaking to Peter, and this continues through the end of the chapter. His main audience of this statement is Peter.

But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law, I die to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified to Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. So, as per usual, the first part of our discussion is gonna be you going over what you've prepared at home.

But question number two, what's being emphasized in Paul's rhetorical question here in verse 17? Number three is, what does it mean to die to the law? And in your heart, you actually should, "Have I died to the law?" Okay, to think things through. And question number four, especially if you are a Christian, what is the purpose of living by faith while in the flesh? Because if you are a Christian, you've been crucified to Christ, and now, going forward, there's a purpose to your being alive, right? So, what is that? So, I want you guys to discuss that together, and then we'll reconvene at 810. But let me pray for us. Father, I pray that tonight, you would engage not only our brains, but also our hearts. I pray that we won't just talk for the sake of saying things, but that as we share what we've observed and learned and that we've dug into in this passage, that our hearts would be stirred to worship.

And I pray especially for those of us who quote this section without giving it much thought, that you would cause us to pause, to reflect deeply, and to respond appropriately. So, with each and every group, Father, I pray that you would protect the discussion, would you guide just the fellowship, and would you open up our hearts and our minds so that we can understand and even feel the Scriptures. So, would you bless our time together? I pray this in Jesus' name. We'll see you guys at 810.

All right. You guys can turn your attentions toward the front real quick. Let me begin our time with prayer. I'm a little bit like excited slash a little anxious 'cause there's so much stuff in here that I feel like I'm trying to figure out what to leave out, okay? So hopefully it's crisp, hopefully it's concise enough where you're not losing your focus. But let me pray and ask God to help us glean from this. Father, thank you for just the opportunity to share fellowship over the study of your word. And I pray that you would help me talk, help me wrap this up in a way that is profitable for your people. So I pray that you would help all of us to glean much and the things that are not covered, I pray that you would cause our hearts to yearn to know more and more of the truth and more and more of your heart for the lost, more and more your heart for the elect, and that all of that will cause us to worship you and to delight in your word and in the person of Christ.

So we thank you, Lord, for our time together. We pray this in Jesus' name. So we spent eight weeks so far in the autobiography of Paul, or like a portion of it, and we're at the end, okay? And chapter three and four, he's gonna go launch into a lot of the theology that was introduced over the last two weeks, justification by faith alone, okay? And how that's been the case from the very beginning. So that's what Paul's going to do in chapters three and four, and that's where the meat of Galatians is. Chapter one and two, remember at the time when Paul is writing this, they don't have the New Testament. And so basically, people who've been with Jesus, who are performing miracles, who are performing signs and wonders, those are marks of an apostle, right?

And so if you actually attack Paul's apostleship, his authority, you can almost discount his message, and people are trying to do that. And so the first two chapters is Paul really defending his apostleship because what's at stake is the believability of the gospel, right? And so we've gone through chapter one, where he first meets with the apostles. How he shares a little bit of his testimony. Chapter two, the first half of it, we're talking about even like the apostles of Christ, and Paul himself, all were in one accord. They all had the same message, they had the same gospel, they had the same passion. But then in chapter two, verse 11 and on, you're seeing, all right, but even if an angel, or even if a apostle preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed.

Peter is not preaching a different gospel, but by his actions, it's almost like he's saying that the Judaizers are right. So Paul's launching into this public rebuke. So verses 13 all the way to 21 is all his public rebuke. You guys following me? So 17 to 21, it's all to Peter, and maybe to Barnabas, okay, and then the rest of the Jews. But the backdrop of this is the defense of his apostleship, the truthfulness of the gospel, and chapters three and four is gonna be where the meat of the theology is gonna come, okay? We looked at last week the difference between condemned versus justified, okay? Condemned means to be declared wrong, guilty, okay? And Paul was saying Peter stood condemned by his actions.

Okay, I mean, clearly he's not saying Peter's going to hell, but you're acting like someone who's condemned, okay? But to be justified is to be declared not guilty, to be declared righteous. And I wanna read Hebrews 9, 22 to 28, and hopefully this serves as a little bit of a backdrop of just important theology here, okay? Verse 22, "And according to the law, "one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood, "and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. "Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things "in the heavens to be cleansed with these, "but the heavenly things themselves "with better sacrifices than these, "for Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, "a mere copy of the true one," like an earthly tabernacle, "but into heaven itself, now to appear "in the presence of God for us."

There is a condemned verdict, and there's a guilty verdict, and there's judge, there's God the judge, and Christ is there, right? "Nor was it that he would offer himself often, "year after year, as the high priest enters the holy place "year by year with blood that is not his own. "Otherwise, he would have had needed to suffer often "since the foundation of the world. "But now, once at the consummation of the ages, "he," Jesus, "has been manifested to put away sin "by the sacrifice of himself. "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, "and after this comes judgment, "so Christ also, having been offered once "to bear the sins of many, "he'll appear a second time for salvation "without reference to sin to those eagerly await him."

If we were doing a study on Hebrews, this would bring up a lot of inductive questions on its own, but this is a good backdrop for what we looked at today, okay, and I'm gonna come back to this at the end. Now, Galatians 2, 15 to 16, we looked at last week, okay? Paul to Peter in response to his hypocrisy or not being orthopodeo about the gospel. You're not walking consistently, okay? Paul is saying, "We are Jews by nature "and not sinners from among the Gentiles. "Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified "by the works of the law, "but through faith in Christ Jesus, "even we have believed in Christ Jesus," the Jews, "so that we may be justified by faith in Christ "and not by works of the law, "since by the works of the law, "no flesh will be justified," and this was last week, okay?

So with our passage today, I'm gonna unpack it from the bottom to the top, okay? Because a lot of times, the way an argument is read, if I were to think through inductively, some passages, it helps actually to ask questions from the bottom up, okay? And so I'm gonna do that, all right? So the first question I would ask is, Paul says, "Then Christ died needlessly," okay? "If righteousness comes through the law, "then Christ died needlessly." So logically, I would have to think, well, then there was a purpose to Christ's death. He was put to death for a reason. You guys tracking? There's a logical conclusion to that. There was a point to his death. Why? First, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

We looked at Hebrews. In the very beginning of Galatians, we read, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father "and the Lord Jesus Christ," verse four, "who gave himself for our sins," why? "So that he might rescue us from the present evil age "according to the will of God the Father." So what's the first reason Christ was put to death? To rescue his elect out of the present evil age. That's the first reason. Secondly, we're gonna look in January, "So that he might redeem those "who are all under the curse of the law to make us sons." So there was no other way for you and I to be called children of God. There was no other way for you and I to be rescued from the current world, cursed by sin, cursed by just utter depravity.

The only way was through his death. Logically, that's where I'm starting, right? If righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. All other religions say that righteousness can come through the law, right? No other religion says that righteousness cannot come through the law. Christ died for a purpose. That's the first point that we see if we go bottom to top. Secondly, then, how did Christ die? A good question was asked, why did he have to die? What's the point of the cross, right? Like, it makes no sense if you're not a non-Christian. If you've grown up in the church, you're like, oh yeah, Jesus died on the cross. But the logical question is like, why does a death of a man on a cross have to do with my eternity?

So why did, or how did Christ die? He was crucified, and we're gonna read in Galatians chapter three. So Paul's setting all this up for the next two chapters. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. He took our place, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. That's Deuteronomy 21, 23. So how did Christ die? Well, why did he die? So that he could rescue us, and that we could become sons of God. How did he die? He died on a cross. In 2 Corinthians 5, 21, God made him who knew no sin to be what? Sin on our behalf. He was substituted, so that we might become the righteousness of God. So Christ died on the cross. What role did or does the law play in a man's life?

So that's the next question that hits my head when I'm going bottom up. Christ died on purpose, through crucifixion, to do away with the law. But then what does that have to do with me? Now, this is a little bit of a preview to chapter four, verse one and two, but basically in chapter three, verses 10 and 11, which we're gonna be covering in two weeks, it says, "For as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." That's chapter three, verse 10. So chapter three is gonna make it clear that if we are under the law, and we don't do everything that's written under the law, we are cursed, and we're condemned.

So that's our condition. And the purpose of the law, we're gonna look at in chapter four, is that it was the guardian, it was the restrainer, it was the steward for the people of God, to point to a Messiah, to point to the way of the inheritance. Okay, so chapter four, verse one and two, we're gonna look at later. Now I say, "As long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father." And later in verse four, it's gonna say, "But in the fullness of the time, God sent Jesus Christ, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem all those under the law, so they might receive the redemption as sons, adoption as sons."

So we're gonna go into this in chapter three and four. So what we see today is setting up for two whole chapters, about 50-something verses, on theological points of man's relationship to the law. Okay? And then the question, how is man justified? Okay, what need did Christ's death fill? He rescued us, so we could be adopted. How did he die? He died on the cross, to redeem those who were under the law, to rescue us out, right? So then, how is a man justified? So I'm going bottom up. How is a man justified? By faith alone. Okay? If you guys are familiar with Numbers, chapter, I almost fell over. Numbers chapter 21, verses four through nine, "The sons of Israel rebel against God." They complain, they grumble.

They complain to Moses, they complain to God. They say that we should have died in Egypt, where there were garlic and onions and leeks and things that we could eat. We sat around pots of meat, but now you've brought us out here to this wilderness to starve us to death. And they're grumbling. And so the Lord, seemingly, his patience has been tested, so he sends venomous serpents, and the venomous serpents, literally it's fire snakes, they come and they bite the people and many die. Raise your hand if you're familiar with this story. Okay? And then they go, "Oh, we have sinned!" And then they repent. And God has compassion on them, and he tells Moses, "Put a bronze snake," and what just bit the people?

Fiery snakes. "Put a bronze snake, fashion it up on a pole, "hoist it up so that the people who've been bitten "and are hurting and are suffering and are dying, "all they have to do is look at the snake "and they will be healed." Raise your hand if you're familiar with that story. That is such a foolish thing if you're like, "Oh, I just got bit, I got stung by a scorpion. "What do I do?" Look at the scorpion. It makes no sense. But in John chapter three, what Jesus says to Nicodemus is, "Just as Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness, "so the Son of God must be lifted up. "For God in that way loved the world, "so that he gave his only begotten son, "so that whoever just believes "will not perish but have eternal life."

So how are you and I justified? We can do nothing to either earn his favor, we can do nothing to wipe our sins away, we can do nothing. That's what's been taught so far. The only thing we can do is acknowledge our helplessness, repent, and ask for help, and gaze with the look of faith. That's it. And a person is saved by that. It's a foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, what is that? It's a power of God. So Paul is gonna launch into two chapters of this, but he's starting with this statement about justification and condemnation and its relationship to the law. And it's always been this way. And I wanna quickly walk you through Genesis, okay? Genesis chapter three, chapter one and two, it's detailing the created order, but chapter three is where you actually get the fall, right?

Chapter three, verse seven and eight, Adam and Eve, then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden, because they remembered what God had said. If you eat of this tree, what happens? You will surely die. The serpent is a liar, Genesis chapter three, verse four. Oh, you surely will not die. But now, their eyes are opened, they know what they've done wrong, and the first thing they do is they try to cover their own shame.

That's false religion right there. And they're terrified because God's gonna put them to death. Okay? But God pronounces, this is called the proto-eugon-galion, Genesis chapter three, verse 15. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. This is talking about a future savior that's gonna come and undo this thing. And we read about that in Galatians chapter four, verse four. Chapter three, verse 21, you get the first substitutionary atonement. An innocent animal dies to cover up the shame of the people. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Was there death before this?

No. No. I don't know what animal this is. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sheep or a lamb. But there's a lamb, innocent, did nothing wrong. God puts them to death. For the first time, there's death. He takes off their skin, covers Adam and Eve. They try to cover up their own shame. Doesn't work. God has to put an innocent animal to death to cover up the shame, even of the first man and the woman. Cain and Abel. They're probably well aware of this story, right? Because Cain, Abel, and their siblings are the only ones around. Okay? Just tangential. Everyone just assumes Cain married his sister 'cause he had no other options, okay? But this is the account that we see in Genesis chapter four.

So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground. Is the ground cursed or blessed? Cursed. Cain, by his own toil, by his own sweat, by his own efforts, brings to God, look what I did for you, God. And what did God do? He rejected it. Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. What do you think Abel had to do to these firstlings? How do you offer someone the fat portions without killing the thing, right? You just move the sheep. No! Abel, it looks like, puts this sheep to death and presents it to God and says, "We know that this is the only way." And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering.

Chapter of Hebrews 11, four, "By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, "who worked harder," presumably Cain, "through which he obtained the testimony "that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, "and through faith, though he physically "is currently dead, he still speaks." It's always been this way. So, condemned by God is to be declared guilty. We're all under that state. Can a guilty man ever work off his debt? No. It's impossible. And we're gonna learn in Galatians three and four, you have to keep all of it to work it off. Justified is to be declared not guilty by peers, or by whom? By a judge. Verse 27 to 28, I wanna read it again. "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, "and after this comes judgment, "so Christ also, having been offered once "to bear the sins of many, "will appear a second time for salvation "without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him."

So, what's interesting here is, what did Peter do? By withdrawing himself, separating and shrinking back, without a word, he almost made it seem like the false emphasis that the Judaizers were placing that they were actually right. So Peter, in so doing, is making it seem like, well, Christ died, but that was still not enough, because then these guys still have to obey the commands of the law of circumcision, of ritual cleansing. And that's what Paul is really upset about. And we're gonna see theologically, chapters three and four, the ramifications of it. I wanted to do something a little bit different. As I was thinking about this passage, yet not I, but through Christ in me, came to my mind.

'Cause especially verse 20. And then I texted Daniel Eo, and I was like, "Hey, can we sing this after?" He's like, "Oh, we were gonna sing that in the first part." And I was like, "Ooh, synchronization of the thoughts." But I wanted to sing it again, in light of what we looked at, and I feel like maybe if we sing it again now, it actually will resonate a little bit more. But you don't need to come up yet, let me read this, okay?

But read with me. I mean, I skipped verse two just 'cause it was long, not because it was unimportant. But what gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer, Galatians 4, 5? There is no more for heaven now to give. Christ died once for all, Hebrews 9. He is my joy, my righteousness, and freedom. Christ, it was for freedom that Christ set us free, Galatians 5, 1. My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace, to this I hold, my hope is only Jesus. For my life, my crucified life, is wholly bound to his. Oh, how strange and divine, I can sing all is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Verse three, no faith I dread. I know I am forgiven, regardless of how much I had sinned before Christ. Regardless of the debt I owed, I am forgiven.

The future, sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave, Galatians 1, 4. God raised him from the dead. Or chapter one, verse one.

To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea. The life I live in the flesh now. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, gave himself for me. Oh, the chains are released, I can sing. I am free, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Verse four, with every breath, I long to follow Jesus, for he has said that he will bring me home. And day by day, I know he will renew me, until I stand with joy before the throne. To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus. All the glory evermore to him. And when the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. And some of this is alluded to in chapter six.

And I'm gonna pause there, before we sing. This is just a couple quotes that I riffed off the internet. But I'm on the Charles Spurgeon fan page. I'm a Charles Spurgeon fan boy. But he writes this. I know of nothing which I would choose to have as a subject of my ambition for life than to be kept faithful to my God till death. Still to be a soul winner, still to be a true herald of the cross, and testify the name of Jesus to the last hour. This is the appropriate response to the cross of Christ. Not because Jesus died for my sins, don't judge me, I can do whatever I want. That is not the appropriate response. But for those who want to, who have been crucified with Christ, you've been united to Christ, not only in his death, but also in his resurrection.

You've crucified the sinful, the flesh, Galatians 5.24, right? This is what awaits you in this present evil age. And Leonard Ravenhill, he's a English evangelist. If you want to be like Jesus, remember, he had a wilderness, a Gethsemane, and a Judas. Jesus did not die to make this life a blessed life. A blessed life. A comfortable life. Amen? But it was for freedom that Christ set us free. And before we sing, I'm gonna do a couple announcements. So, like, awkward, but just bear with me. Bam, we have a seminar in terms of how to make decisions that please the Lord this Saturday at 5 p.m. Outreach Thanksgiving dinner. If you are praying for a non-Christian, and you want them to, you want to invite them to a Thanksgiving dinner, the outreach team is hosting one on November 18th.

Additional information's on your apps. FAM245 is our three years in under married couples. There's a bowling fellowship. We just decided, and we set the details in motion for a ping pong tournament we have every year, December 31st. So New Year's Eve this year is on a Sunday. So that's a long day. Especially if you're just spending time with church people. We're gonna have a 3 p.m. ping pong tournament, 11 p.m. New Year's Eve service. And then at our last members meeting, some of the dates that I gave you were incorrect. The first one is because we were still using the calendar that had 17 weeks per session, or for the second half of the session, but we shortened it to 13 weeks. So our Bible study actually starts a week later, February 7th, and not January 31st.

So keep that in mind. And then our BAM retreat, the dates were messed up 'cause I was looking at the wrong calendar. Hi. - Seminar's at 4.30. - Seminar's at 4.30, okay. The first one. You should've raised your hand in the beginning. All right, and then, so it's 4.30, and then the BAM retreat is Friday the 23rd to the 25th. All right, so just, so I wanted to adjust that on the calendar so you're not confused. This closes on Sunday. We already have about 700 people signed up for the regional Thanksgivings. We have room for about 75 people left. So if you want part of this, please do sign up. It's gonna close this coming Sunday, and Pastor Peter's gonna announce that on Sunday as well. But if you wanna do that right now, go ahead and do this.

Otherwise, I'm switching forward. For next week, look at verses one through nine, okay. Some of them are very short verses, so you don't need to freak out by the number of the verses. Oopsie, I didn't put the questions. Okay, this is just a copied and pasted slide. So I will amend these questions. I'll put them up. This is for this week. But these are the group discussions. After Daniel leads us in a time of praise, I want us to think through what does it mean for a person to live to God, and what tangibly is the source of your strength in living to God, okay. Second question, how do you know that Christ lives in you? Like, how do you know that? What does it mean to live by faith? Three, in what ways is your old self still dying if you are a Christian?

And what aspects of your old self are you still struggling to crucify, to put to death? And so those are the things that really should evoke a lot of open sharing and questions and prayer requests. Okay, so I'm gonna ask Daniel to come back up, and then we're gonna sing, and then we'll break off into our groups.

Amen.