How Does ‘Christ Live in Me’ (Galatians 2:20)?

00:00:00.000 | Hello again, and thank you for listening to Ask Pastor John with longtime pastor and author

00:00:07.480 | John Piper.

00:00:08.480 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:00:10.160 | Today we have a question about John Piper's bestselling book, Don't Waste Your Life, and

00:00:14.120 | it comes to us from a listener named David.

00:00:16.000 | "Hello, Pastor John.

00:00:17.300 | Like so many others, I thank God for your labors and his word to bring clarity on a

00:00:21.160 | wide range of biblical topics.

00:00:23.360 | My wife and I listen to the vast majority of Solid Joyous Devotionals and Ask Pastor

00:00:27.000 | John episodes, and we have learned a great deal from each of them.

00:00:31.380 | Over the years I've pondered Galatians 2.20.

00:00:33.760 | It appears to teach that the person I was in Adam is dead, and the risen Christ is now

00:00:38.720 | doing the living in my earthen vessel.

00:00:42.280 | Would this be your understanding also, and if so, might it be appropriate to modify your

00:00:46.380 | book title to Don't Waste His Life?

00:00:50.420 | In what sense is the life we now live really a calling for his full life to manifest through

00:00:54.820 | us and to break through our limitations and doubts and fears?

00:00:59.140 | What would you say to David?"

00:01:00.300 | I would say, "Yes, yes, yes."

00:01:05.140 | When I say to Christians, "Don't waste your life," this means don't waste Christ's life.

00:01:16.220 | That is, in fact, what I mean.

00:01:17.540 | So yes, I didn't make the connection, so thank you.

00:01:22.060 | I didn't make the connection with Galatians 2.20 like you did, but that is exactly right.

00:01:28.300 | Let me read it so people are up to speed with what we're talking about.

00:01:31.980 | Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ.

00:01:34.700 | It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the

00:01:45.140 | flesh," paradox there, "I no longer live," and then he says, "The life I live."

00:01:50.700 | There's some sense in which he's not living and Christ is living instead, and another

00:01:54.420 | sense in which, "Oh, I am living," but what does he mean then?

00:01:56.620 | He says, "And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved

00:02:04.080 | me and gave himself for me."

00:02:07.380 | There's the fundamental truth about a Christian.

00:02:09.940 | When we, by faith, are united to Christ, we are first united to His death, Romans 6.5,

00:02:19.900 | if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with

00:02:26.300 | Him in a resurrection like His, and then, since our old, rebellious, unbelieving selves

00:02:34.820 | died with Christ in union with Him in His death, we're made alive by the Spirit to walk

00:02:42.360 | in newness of life, Paul says.

00:02:45.880 | And David is emphasizing that we think of this newness of life as Christ living through

00:02:52.700 | us so that all our life becomes a display of Christ.

00:02:58.740 | That's good.

00:02:59.740 | So, let's look at some other texts and see how that works itself out.

00:03:08.300 | Stay in Galatians for a moment.

00:03:09.580 | We were at 2.29.

00:03:10.900 | Let's go to 5.24.

00:03:12.180 | "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

00:03:20.260 | So, what dies in union with Christ is old passions and old, destructive, sinful, Christ-dishonoring

00:03:28.460 | desires.

00:03:29.460 | That's how we show Christ now—new desires.

00:03:34.660 | His desires start to rule.

00:03:36.740 | And then again, 6.14, "Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus

00:03:44.300 | Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I have been crucified to the world."

00:03:54.180 | So, being crucified with Christ means that we are not any longer slaves of the world.

00:04:02.020 | We're free.

00:04:03.300 | We're not just echoing, conformed to, mirroring the standards of the world, which means the

00:04:10.580 | power of sin is broken.

00:04:12.460 | Romans 6.7, "One who has died has been set free from sin.

00:04:18.180 | So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."

00:04:25.220 | This is how we live the life of Christ.

00:04:29.580 | We live in victory over the sin that He died to defeat.

00:04:35.060 | Or here's the positive way of saying it in Romans 6.13, "You have been brought from

00:04:41.980 | death to life, so present your members"—that is, your arms and legs and tongue—"present

00:04:49.820 | your members to God as instruments of righteousness."

00:04:55.100 | I think "instruments of righteousness" is another way of saying visible manifestations

00:05:00.420 | of the way Christ lived righteously in the world.

00:05:04.700 | Another way Paul says it is that if we suffer for Christ, "we carry in the body the death

00:05:12.500 | of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our bodies."

00:05:18.900 | So there it is, real clear, the life of Christ shining out, manifest in our suffering bodies.

00:05:27.400 | Still another way is to use the imagery of the aroma of Christ.

00:05:31.740 | Paul says, "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession through

00:05:37.740 | us and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere."

00:05:45.900 | We are the aroma of Christ.

00:05:49.260 | I think that's another way of saying our life is Christ.

00:05:53.140 | When people spiritually smell our ethos, our attitudes, our actions, when they sniff spiritually,

00:06:02.340 | what they smell is the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and to

00:06:07.660 | those who are perishing.

00:06:09.620 | So don't waste the aroma of Christ, which you are.

00:06:15.140 | And another way he talks about it is in 2 Corinthians 3.18.

00:06:19.280 | This is how we actually look like Christ.

00:06:24.020 | We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into

00:06:31.380 | the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who

00:06:37.440 | is the Spirit.

00:06:38.440 | In other words, the more we see Christ clearly in the Word, the more we are changed into

00:06:47.540 | His image, and the more our life becomes His life for others to see.

00:06:55.580 | So we don't waste our lives by looking more and more like the world.

00:07:01.580 | We try not to waste our life by looking more and more like Christ, seeing Him more clearly,

00:07:06.960 | knowing Him more deeply, and so coming closer and closer to His image in the world.

00:07:14.760 | One last way Paul talks about our living the life of Christ and not wasting the life of

00:07:21.560 | Christ in us, Galatians 3.27.

00:07:24.760 | For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

00:07:32.760 | And then again, same thing, Romans 13.14, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no

00:07:39.580 | provision for the flesh to gratify His desires."

00:07:42.320 | Or Colossians 3.10, "Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after

00:07:49.720 | the image of its Creator."

00:07:52.200 | So Paul thinks of Christ as our new uniform, insignia, badge maybe, put on Christ, what

00:08:04.840 | we put on or wear as a covering or a badge or insignia not only covers us but becomes

00:08:14.220 | our new identity, our appearance in the world.

00:08:18.680 | And this appearance of Christ we must not waste.

00:08:22.840 | Maybe one last question.

00:08:24.580 | How do we live this new identity?

00:08:26.860 | Not I but Christ in me.

00:08:28.960 | Just two quick pointers.

00:08:30.360 | Galatians 2.20 says we live it by faith.

00:08:35.280 | The life I now live, I live by faith.

00:08:37.000 | And Romans 7.4 says we live it by the Spirit.

00:08:41.560 | It goes like this, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, and the life

00:08:46.240 | I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God."

00:08:50.200 | So the conscious appropriation of the new life is by trusting Christ.

00:08:56.200 | But then Romans 7.4 says, "You have died to the law through the body of Christ so that

00:09:02.260 | you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we

00:09:06.520 | may bear fruit for God."

00:09:09.560 | We have died to the law that held us captive so that we may serve in the new way of the

00:09:16.080 | Spirit, not the old way of the written code.

00:09:20.440 | In other words, once we thought willpower law-keeping was the key to life, but we died

00:09:28.840 | to that.

00:09:29.840 | We died to the law in that sense.

00:09:32.000 | And now the key is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit way.

00:09:37.520 | And the way he's active in us is by faith.

00:09:41.220 | This is the new way of the Spirit.

00:09:44.680 | So the sum of the matter is, when we are saved, we are united by the Spirit to Christ.

00:09:53.160 | Our old self—unbelieving, rebellious, loving-sin self—dies with him.

00:10:01.000 | Our new self is created by the Spirit through faith, and the image of that new self is Christ—Christ

00:10:11.240 | himself—from one degree of glory to the next.

00:10:14.320 | So yes, David, yes, don't waste his life.

00:10:19.120 | Don't waste Christ's life in you is good theology, and you can change the title of

00:10:25.680 | my book if you want.

00:10:26.680 | All right.

00:10:27.680 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:10:28.680 | "Don't Waste Your Life" or "Don't Waste His Life," whatever your preferred title,

00:10:32.560 | you can download the book right now free of charge at DesiringGod.org/books.

00:10:37.640 | The whole thing can be found there as a PDF.

00:10:39.660 | If you prefer a printed copy, two new editions were recently released, I think a year or

00:10:44.160 | a year and a half ago.

00:10:45.160 | A gift edition hardcover especially is worth checking out, and then a new design of the

00:10:49.800 | paperback.

00:10:50.800 | Both of those are at Amazon.

00:10:51.800 | Check them out.

00:10:52.800 | Well, what does it mean to live like a slave of God compared to living as a son of God?

00:10:57.840 | Oftentimes we make a mistake here, and we fail to live in the beauty and the freedom

00:11:02.000 | of what it means to be a child of God.

00:11:04.160 | So how do we know if we are living like a slave or living like a son?

00:11:07.960 | That's next time on Wednesday.

00:11:09.680 | Until then, I'm your host, Tony Ranke.

00:11:10.800 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday.

00:11:12.920 | [END]

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How Does ‘Christ Live in Me’ (Galatians 2:20)?

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