10. An Exchanged Life
10
An Exchanged Life
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
There are seven personal pronouns in this verse, but Paul is writing not only about himself but also about every person who has trusted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He is explaining an incredible spiritual transaction that, if we understand it and claim it, will transform our lives. I read about a Civil War veteran who was living in poverty but was proud of the fact that he had a “letter signed by Mr. Lincoln.” Another veteran looked at the letter and said, “This letter guarantees you a pension for the rest of your life! Why are you living in poverty?” Too many Christians are stumbling along in spiritual poverty and defeat when Jesus has already provided for their every need!
Our old life, before we knew Christ, was an enslaved life; but our new life in Christ is an exchanged life. According to Galatians 2:20, this is what that means:
We Have Exchanged Being Dead in Sin for Being Dead to Sin through Jesus Christ
There are two aspects of Christ’s work on the cross that must be distinguished. First, it was a work of substitution. Our text tells us that He “loved me and gave Himself for me.” Jesus “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24). Jesus said, “I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:15). This is the good news of the gospel, that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3–4). Under the old covenant, the sheep died for the shepherds; but under the new covenant, the Good Shepherd died for the sheep! This is substitution.
Our text closes with substitution but it opens with identification: “I am crucified with Christ.” Paul explains substitution in Romans 5, while in Romans 6 he explains identification. When we trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit baptized us, or identified us with, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) so that we have died with Christ, our old life has been buried with Christ, we arose with Christ, we ascended with Christ, and today we are seated with Christ and are sharing in the riches of His grace (Eph. 2:4–6). Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, every believer is identified with Jesus, so that 1 John 4:17 affirms that “as He is, so are we in this world.” We are so identified with Christ that, when Saul of Tarsus persecuted the believers, he was actually persecuting Jesus Christ (Acts 9:4)!
If we are identified with Christ, what bearing does this have on our day-by-day, practical Christian life? Consider these biblical truths.
“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24).
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
“But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).
“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross]” (Col. 2:15).
These verses make it clear that our spiritual enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1–2)—have been defeated by our Lord’s death, resurrection, ascension to heaven, and enthronement in heaven! As by faith we identify with Christ’s victories, the Holy Spirit enables us to triumph. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4; see v. 18). We have died to the old covenant law (Gal. 2:19) so that we live by God’s grace in all that we are and all that we do (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9).
A physically dead person cannot respond to physical stimuli, and a person who has been crucified with Christ need not respond to stimuli from the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin (Rom. 6:1–14), which means that we should believe that what God says in the Bible about all believers is true for ourselves. It’s like cashing a check. Suppose I give a missionary friend a check to help support his ministry. He believes there is money in my account to cover it, so he goes to the bank, endorses the check, and receives the money. As children of God, we believe God’s Word that we are identified with Christ in His victories, so we claim victory by faith. We endorse the check! When we are tempted by the world, the flesh, or the devil, we deal with it like victors and not victims, and trust the Lord for overcoming power.
We died with Christ and therefore can reject the temptations hurled at us by our enemies. We arose with Christ and therefore have spiritual life and power now. We ascended with Christ and therefore are not of this world even though we are in this world. We are enthroned with King Jesus in heaven and therefore have authority to “reign in life” (Rom. 5:17). If we put a snakelike letter s just after the e in reign, we end up with “resign.” To yield to temptation is to abandon our throne, and it isn’t worth it!
Salvation means coming to the cross to trust Christ, but discipleship means carrying the cross and identifying with Jesus Christ. “If anyone desires to come after Me,” said Jesus, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). To carry a cross means to accept suffering and shame and to be willing to put to death those things that are not in the will of God. Today the cross is a piece of jewelry, but in the first century the Romans saw crucifixion as the lowest form of execution. Jesus transformed the cross into power and victory, and Paul gloried in the cross (Gal. 6:14)!
We Have Exchanged Being Energized by Satan for Being Empowered by Christ
The person who does not have Jesus living within has Satan, the prince of the power of the air, living within and in control (Eph. 2:2). Many people have the idea that Satan controls lost people only by means of narcotics, alcohol, pornography, covetousness, anger, and other such sins, but this is not true. Satan is basically a counterfeiter; he copies what God has to offer and most people can’t tell the difference. In the parable of the tares (Matt. 13:24–30, 36–43), Satan sows counterfeit Christians wherever Jesus sows true believers. The devil has counterfeit ministers (2 Cor. 11:13–15) that declare a counterfeit gospel (Gal. 1:6–9) and encourage a false righteousness (Rom. 9:30–10:4). Eventually, he will produce a counterfeit Christ (2 Thess. 2). It’s difficult to realize that some of the nicest religious people we know may not be Christians at all but servants of Satan, and, unless they turn to Christ, they will be with Satan forever.
According to Ephesians 2:1–3, unsaved people are spiritually dead, disobedient to God, and living for the world, the flesh, and the devil. This doesn’t mean they do bizarre things that startle people, because Satan is much wiser than that. Judas was an apostle, in fact, the treasurer of the group, and he preached sermons and even did miracles (Luke 10:17–20), yet he was not a believer (John 6:66–71).
Christ lives in us in the person of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called “the Helper” (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7). The Helper does for believers today what Jesus did for His disciples while He was with them on earth. Satan is strong and subtle, but “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4), and He is always with you. The Spirit reminds us of what He has taught us from the Word and enables us to have wisdom in detecting and defeating the enemy. Satan and his demonic army cannot read your mind, so be careful what you say or write lest the enemy make use of it. However, as we obey the Lord, He will be our “refuge and strength” and see us through to victory (Ps. 46:1).
Just as God dwelt in the tabernacle and the temple, so the Spirit lives within every child of God, and we must be careful how we treat God’s temple (1 Cor. 6:18–20). To abuse it, not care for it properly, or deliberately put it into unnecessary danger is to sin against the Holy Spirit. The believer’s body is also God’s tool chest, for the members of our body are “instruments” (or tools) for the Lord to use (Rom. 6:13–14). God used David’s arm and sling to defeat a giant and the tongues of the prophets to declare His Word. The believer’s body is a depository for God’s spiritual wealth, for “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7). The Holy Spirit has given each of us gifts and we must use them to glorify the Lord. What a tragedy when gifted believers use their gifts to entertain the world instead of to edify the church.
We Have Exchanged “Walking by Sight” for “Walking by Faith”
Four times in the Bible you will find the statement, “The just shall live by faith” (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38). “The just” are those who have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ and have been declared righteous (justified) by the Lord. Paul’s epistle to the Romans explains this miracle. Galatians explains how the just should live, and Hebrews explains what it means to walk by faith. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). To walk by faith means that God’s people measure life and make decisions on the basis of God’s Word and God’s glory, not on the basis of what they see, hear, feel, or learn from the world in which they live. When Abraham fled to Egypt (Gen. 12:10), he was walking by sight and not by faith, and so was his nephew Lot when he and his family moved into Sodom (Gen. 13). Both families got into trouble.
The Christian life begins with an act of faith when we trust Jesus to save us. But for the Christian life to grow and be a blessing, we must maintain an attitude of faith, knowing that the Lord has a perfect plan for our lives. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). The Lord uses the Scriptures, prayer, wise counsel, and worship to renew our minds so we will know His will and do it. When I was serving in Youth for Christ, Dr. Bob Cook used to tell us, “If you can explain what’s happening in your ministry, God didn’t do it. Keep your ministry on a miracle basis.” There is good scriptural backing for what he said, found in Isaiah 55:8: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.”
Faith is not recklessly jumping ahead and doing what we feel is God’s will. Faith is obeying God regardless of how we feel, what the circumstances are, or what the consequences may be. The founder of the China Inland Mission, J. Hudson Taylor, said, “Having faith in God is depending on the faithfulness of God.” Faith must be grounded in the character of God and in the word of God, and we must obey because we want to glorify God.
Faith must operate in every area of life, not just the “religious” matters. When you read Hebrews 11, you learn that Abel worshiped by faith (v. 4), Enoch walked by faith and witnessed by faith (vv. 5–6), Noah worked by faith (v. 7), and various other people warred by faith, sacrificed by faith, and suffered by faith (vv. 35–40). As you read the annals of faith, you learn that the Lord doesn’t always deliver, protect, and provide; sometimes He seems to abandon us, and we get discouraged and are tempted to start walking by sight. The exchanged life means that we hold to God’s Word and wait on God’s timing regardless of what the people in the world would do. To walk by sight means to look around desperately for an escape hatch or for somebody who has the resources to rescue us. To put it bluntly, faith is living without scheming. When you study the life of Jacob, you sometimes find him praying and pleading with God and then going off and executing his own plan. That is not walking by faith, but the Lord was gracious to him and helped him, just as he helps us today.
We Have Exchanged Being Motivated by Selfishness for Being Motivated by Love
The value of a deed can often be measured by the motive behind it, and those who enjoy the exchanged life are motivated by the love of Christ. This is not natural human love but supernatural divine love, for “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). God loves the world (John 3:16), He loves the church (Eph. 5:25–27), and He loves every believer. In fact, Jesus said that the Father loves every believer just as He loves His own Son (John 17:23, 26). Amazing! It’s a personal, individual love that never changes, and nothing can separate us from that love (Rom. 8:35–39).
How did Jesus demonstrate His love when He was ministering here on earth? For one thing, He had time for individuals and didn’t settle just for big public meetings. He had time for blessing the children, for meeting individual seekers like Nicodemus (John 3), for dining in homes, for helping Gentile outsiders, and for healing and encouraging the helpless. He was a servant and not a celebrity, and was willing to touch a leper and also a dead corpse. He was patient with people, including His own disciples, especially when they were debating over which of them was the greatest. One day He said of His disciples, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long must I be with you and bear with you?” (Luke 9:41).
Jesus was available to the people day and night, even when He tried to take a day off and rest. He prayed for people and taught them the Word of God. He forgave people, even while they were crucifying Him, and He fed the hungry and healed the sick and afflicted. But the greatest demonstration of His love is His death on the cross. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). When I hear people complain that God doesn’t love them anymore, I ask, “Have you been to Calvary lately?”
“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus” (John 11:5). Then why did He delay going to Bethany when Lazarus became ill and died? Because He had grander things in mind than simply healing His beloved sick friend. “This sickness is . . . for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). When life is motivated by love, God gives us a heart to care, patience to wait, and the opportunity to serve others and glorify God.
When we love Jesus, we are not ashamed to show it. The apostle John is called “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” but he was also the disciple who loved Jesus and let it be known. When you read chapters 13 to 21 of John’s Gospel, you see John expressing that love openly. He leaned on Jesus’s breast in the upper room, a demonstration of what it means to abide in His love. John stood by the cross and shared the fellowship of His sufferings and those of Mary (19:26–27), and three days later, when he heard Jesus was alive, he ran to the tomb to greet Him (20:1–10). Are we in a hurry to spend time with Jesus? It was John who first recognized Jesus standing on the shore (21:7), for love has 20/20 vision; and when Jesus told Peter to follow Him, John got up and followed also (21:20). Love for Jesus helps us love His servants, even the ones who fail. It was John who wrote that profound record we call the Gospel of John, because love always has to testify of its beloved (21:24–25).
When we think of the apostle John, we should also think of Jude 21, “keep yourselves in the love of God.” How do we do this? By keeping His commandments (John 15:9–10). By leaning on His breast, loving Him, and listening to Him. By loving others. By sharing the good news of salvation. By standing at the cross courageously and carrying our own cross faithfully.
Unfortunately, there are professed Christians in churches who are “enemies of the cross of Christ” and don’t live like the citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:17–21). In a letter saturated with joy, mentioning this fact made Paul weep, and we ought to weep as well.
The Lord did not call us to be apostles, but He did give us an exchanged life that can make a difference in the church.
Any volunteers?