You no longer live. Rather, Christ lives in you.
Galatians 2:15-21 (NIV)
15 We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
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19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 22 - Our Justification Through Faith in Christ
We believe that
for us to acquire the true knowledge of this great mystery
the Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith
that embraces Jesus Christ,
with all his merits,
and makes him its own,
and no longer looks for anything
apart from him.
For it must necessarily follow
that either all that is required for our salvation
is not in Christ or,
if all is in him,
then he who has Christ by faith
has his salvation entirely.
Therefore,
to say that Christ is not enough
but that something else is needed as well
is a most enormous blasphemy against God—
for it then would follow
that Jesus Christ is only half a Savior.
Summary
One of the fundamental messages of the Bible is that people need perfect righteousness in order to be right with God. So it makes sense that the Devil twists this truth in order to deceive people. He wants you to come to one of two incorrect conclusions:
That you can attain this righteousness on your own by keeping various commands (the commands themselves may be good in and of themselves; all the Devil cares about is tricking you into putting your hope into your ability to perfectly keep it);
That you will be saved as long as you've done more 'good' things than 'bad.' What makes this idea really popular in our day and age is that you can define what's good or bad on your own!
These lies - that a person gains salvation by keeping "the works of the law" had percolated deeply into the Galatian church, and so the primary purpose of Paul's letter to them is to lovingly rebuke them and call them back to the truth. No one, writes Paul, will be justified by the works of the law (v16). He goes on to write "for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (v21).
You do need perfect righteousness in order to be right with God, but the simple and wonderful truth of the gospel is that you are given what you need in Christ. "A person is not justified [made righteous] by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ." (v16)
Dig Deeper
So then, the age old question goes, if keeping the law doesn't add anything to my salvation, then why keep it? Paul answers this question a number of different places in his epistles, but his answer in v20 speaks for them all:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
What he means here is that Christ died to sin on the cross, and you are in Christ, so consequently you've died to sin as well. And since Christ rose to new life after dying to sin, so you too must rise to this new life even here and now since Christ is living in you.
This means your motivation to follow God's good and perfect law doesn't come from a desperate desire to justify yourself in God's eyes, but rather because living apart from it - living sinfully - seems disgusting and contrary to every instinct of your new life in Christ.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, whose law helps us identify our sin and guides us in how to live in Christ;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Ask God to root out your sinful desires to justify yourself and to equip you to follow His law through Christ and for Christ;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 6
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