Hey everyone, welcome to PvBibleAlive. I’m Bruce Hays, the pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Wichita, KS. You can find this, and all podcasts on PvBibleAlive.com. Today, I am sharing with you a sermon from a continuing series I have been preaching at Parkview in our Sunday morning worship service. We are in the epistle to the Galatians chapter 2, verse 15, 20 and chapter 3, verse 1.
You remember the last time Paul was confronting Peter, because Peter changed seats, he moved from the Gentile table to the orthodox Jewish table, thus indicating somehow that the Gentiles lacked something in their salvation. That they are unclean.
15 We, being Jews by nature, and not Gentile sinners, 16 yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law.
Then Paul argues that salvation, justification, isn’t by works but by faith. God did it. I didn’t do it. Then he makes this remarkable summary of what happens when you are saved.
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That 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.
From that grand statement about how the Galatians were saved to verse 1 of chapter 3.
Galatians 3 World English Bible (WEB)
3 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
After Peter last time, I was just going to dive in to chapter 3. I got hung up jumping back and forth between 2:20 and 3:1.
How to Backslide.
Backsliding is a kind of old-fashioned word in the church. It used to be used a lot, not so much today. At its basic definition, it means; relapse into bad ways or error.
I was looking at that word and
There’s kind of an interesting tool in Google. I typed in “backslide.” And it not only gave me a definition, but gave me a chart showing the time periods when it, the word, was most frequently used in literature. From 1800 to 1884, it was a sharp increase in its use during the “2nd Great Awakening” in America, then a sharp decline. By the way, the word is enjoying a slow revival, rightfully so, in America today. We backslid.
What it describes is the state of a Christian, who came to faith in Christ, who was placed at the top of a mountain. It is the Mount of the transfiguration, if you will. It is the mountaintop experience of perfect sweet fellowship with our Lord.
Remember the story of the Mount of Transfiguration? Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John to this high place, and He was transfigured before them.
and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. ...
It was a wondrous experience for these three disciples. They experienced Christ in His full glory. You remember that it was so great that Peter suggested to Jesus that they set up tents on that mountain, and stay.
“Let’s not leave.”
So, back to Backsliding. What happens? You are on this mountaintop of glorious fellowship with Jesus, then one day you wander a little way from His side. You hit a steep incline with lots of loose gravel and you lose your footing, and you slide part way down the mountain. Out of fellowship with Christ, you struggle to regain your footing, sometimes resulting in a further slide down.
That’s what happened to the Galatians. They went from
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
To
Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth
They backslid. How did it happen? Well that’s what we are going to consider today.
Let’s pray
Father, I think most of us can relate to these Galatians. We see the slide back in ourselves, our church, our country. We remember when we came to faith. That internal drawing of your Spirit to be converted. We remember our baptism, “Buried with Christ, raised to walk in newness of life.” Those times that we were in close fellowship with you. But we also remember times that we slid away. Maybe we are there now. Lord, teach us today from your word how that slide begins, so we can get back to fellowship with you. We pray this in Jesus name, amen
How did we get from 2:20 to 3:1 in this letter?
How did we get from “Christ living in me,” “I am crucified with Christ.” Then talking about being bewitched and disobedient to the truth. Well I’m going to take you through the steps today, the steps away from Christ, so you can recognize them, and avoid that backslide.
And the description of these steps involve two parts;
First 2:20
I. From The Height of our Exaltation in Christ
II. To The Steps that bring the Slide
I. The Height of our Exaltation in Christ-we are taken to a great height when we become Christians. 3 steps upward
2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That 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.
2:20 is one of the most beautiful descriptions of Christian conversion in the Bible. It describes, for us, what happens when you come to faith-how did we go up.
And I’m not talking about the time you joined a church, or walked down an aisle to shake the preachers hand, or prayed or prayer, or got baptized.
Those activities may have coincided with your Christian conversion. But your Christian conversion takes place, when you, in your heart, put your trust in Jesus Christ as your Living Lord and Savior, and because of that faith, God came to live in you, by His Holy Spirit. Christ in me.
That’s what Paul is describing here. “I am crucified with Christ.” And it would be easy to move past this verse quickly with a summary statement. But I couldn’t do that with this verse. Because if you and I are to be helped in our backsliding, We need to know how the Galatians-who were also crucified with Christ, to oh foolish Galatians. We need to remember where we slid from, we need to remember who we were. Before the slide, we need to remember the height from which we have fallen. So I want to break this verse down for you today into its phrases.
A. I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, Jesus Christ now lives in me. What does this mean? I don’t feel like this.
What is Paul saying that I have been crucified with Christ?
1. Not physically, Paul had not been crucified, let alone with Christ. thieves –it’s a word picture—dying in some way when Christ died.
2. Not the following of an example- Jesus died in total self-sacrifice, and I choose to follow Him in that total self-sacrifice—this is not a work of man
3. What he is referring to is the Death of the power of the sin nature in me—it’s a picture of something dying in me.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
The "old man" in him, the self-seeking and sinful element in his nature, is slain, and for it is substituted a life of close and intimate communion with Christ
Paul is saying that happened to him to Galatians to us.
When did this happen for Paul?
On Damascus Road—somewhere between “who are you Lord” and “What do I do” But the transaction was made at Calvary. Jesus died for Paul’s sins at Calvary-Paul was crucified with Christ at Calvary. You were crucified with Christ at Calvary.
and it is no longer I who live,
I am indwelt by God’s Spirit.—so when you were given God’s Spirit, that’s when the crucifixion with Christ took place—you died.
B. but Christ lives in me.
By the Spirit, He lives in me. Now, what does this mean? Did I come out of my conversion a different person? Yes. Is there any me left? Yes. Is there any inclination to sin left? Yes. You are still in there, your sin nature is still in there, but now the indwelling Christ is in you. And His life in you is so powerful, by contrast, your sinful inclinations are like shooting BB’s at a Sherman tank. One dying flu bug in a sea of white blood cells.
Hold on, but I’m still here!
C. That life which I now live in the flesh,
D. I live by faith, trust in the Son of God,
E. who loved me,
F. and gave himself up for me.
It’s me, but it’s not me. John MacArthur—can’t tell where I stop, and Christ begins.
I don’t get it, I died, Christ lives in me, I’m alive, living by faith.
Jesus is in you, a new powerful spiritual life that is so potent, that your old sinful nature is as though it were dead.
Now how does this work? Jesus in me, the Spirit in me, I died, now he lives. How do I explain that? I don’t. Anymore than I can explain the Trinity. It’s a mystery.
The height—3 steps up—now you are at the greatest height—some poo poo their lives—I’m not worth much—you’re the highest that any person on this earth can get. But just imagine. The Jesus of the Transfiguration living inside of me. his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. The Jesus who made the storms stop with a word, the same word that raised Lazerus from the dead. The same Jesus, that Scripture says, raised Himself from the dead.
"Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.'
"The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life -- only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again" (John 10:17-18).
That’s the power of Jesus Christ.
This is the same power that created everything that exists; all things were made by him, and without him was nothing made that was made.
At your conversion, that power came to live in you, and will be with you for eternity.
And the point Paul will get to, is that with that kind of internal power and instruction, you no longer need to rituals, the letter of the law. The law had all kinds of physical commands for the Jews, in order to keep them in line. And those steps were given in order to guide a blind people.—but you are no longer blind—you have the Lord of Glory living in you—I’m tryiny to describe it.
Imagine this; If I am running a camp for the blind, I would probably install, rails everywhere, and brail written at every corner. And on the first day of camp, there would be an extensive training in order to insure the safety of the campers.
I would have specific detailed instruction about how many steps there was to the horse barn, about steps to working in the kitchen. What to touch, what not to touch.
If I, as camp director, saw you the blind campers breaking one of the rules, I would remind them, and if they persisted, reprimand them for their violation. “You’ve got to follow the rails, no climbing over.” Kitchen-directional sounds, wear bells--You’ve got to count steps out loud as you enter the horse barn, or you may walk in to danger.”
But let’s say that during camp, you had some kind of surgery, cataract, an eye implant surgery. And after the initial recovery period, they were completely cured of their blindness. Now, they can see everything. They can see the pond, the horses, the stove, the knives in the kitchen, and all the rails.
As a camp director, am I going to continue demanding that that campers count their steps out loud as they enter the horse barn? No, am I going to continue to demand that they hold on to the rail as they walk to the pond? No
They are free from those rules. I am crucified..
That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith, (not by rules) in the Son of God.
This is the height-freedom from blindness--Galatians
And before, because the Jews, and all people were spiritually blind, they needed lots of rules, to keep them separate from evil, to give them very specific rituals that kept them under the influence of the truth.
But now the Jesus of the Transfiguration comes to live in us. He has opened our spiritual eyes. He has ushered you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And what’s more, the Light of the world now lives in us.
To Peter--We don’t need all this rituals, washings, rules of separation anymore. And that’s where the Galatians had come. Some of them may have been worldly before Christ, but they repented of their sins and put on Christ’s righteousness. We now can live by the simple Great Commandment and the Royal law; love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.
To Peter—why are you telling a sighted man to follow rules for the blind.
It’s as though that newly sighted person at the camp is now given these simple instructions; Listen to camp sponsors, be considerate of other campers, and have fun. He can see, he is free.
That’s the height of our exaltation in Christ. We are a sighted people walking among the blind, free, among slaves.
So how did we Galatians, get from that kind of indwelling power, and love, and grace, to
Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
How did the Galatians go from “crucified with Christ” to bewitched, bothered, and bewildered.
It’s as though a new camp sponsor, without any authority, came to newly sighted camper and said, you’ve got to follow the rules just like everyone else. Hold onto the rails, count steps out loud, don’t stray from the paths. And the astounding thing—not that someone would say that, etc. And the camper did it.
The Galatians slid into legalism. They slid back just as many Christians backslide. We may go back to the legalism we knew before Christ. We may slide back to habits and sins we knew as “life” before Christ. But the path to both is the same.
2nd half
Steps to backsliding.
We took 3 steps up to the height, now 3 steps down.
Galatians 3 World English Bible (WEB)
3 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain, if it is indeed in vain? 5 He therefore who supplies the Spirit to you and does miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
Now Paul proceeds by asking rhetorical questions. He knows the answers, and they know the answers. But their backsliding is evidence that they are not thinking about, or have forgotten, the answers.
AA. The Foolishness of Their Backsliding
1. Bewitched: Step one- listening to false teachers
2. Disobedient: Step two- forgetting the truth
losing sight of Christ’s sacrifice
BB. Step three- forgetting the work of the Spirit
Does this sound familiar to you as a Christian, especially new Christians, we go up, we go down.
1. Your reception of the Spirit
2. Your continuing in the Spirit
3. Your suffering in the Spirit
4. Your works of the Spirit
It’s a simple process that Satan has been using since the Garden of Eden; Introduce doubt in God’s Word. Encourage separation from God’s presence.
CC. The Foolishness of Their Backsliding
1. Bewitched: Step one- listening to false teachers—Eve listened to the serpent—there are a lot of talking snakes
The first step down the path to backsliding is in listening to false teachers. Paul describes the Galatians here as foolish and bewitched. Outlandish words for believers--“Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you.”
The word for “bewitched” is ebaskenan: Paul’s word to the Galatians here are dripping with sarcasm. Ebaskenan means bewitched, the evil eye,--superstitious belief that a person/witch could look at you and curse—drive you mad. “Who gave you the evil eye to cause you to forsake the truth?” Who fascinated you, or overpowered you with their voodoo, that you turned from the truth?” (voodoo is my interpretation)
Did someone have you under a spell, that you turned from the height--richness of life in the Spirit to the deadness of the letter of the law?
1st step to backsliding
You see, The Galatians began to listen to false teachers; Judaizers.—they opened their ears to lies. What were the Judaizers telling them to do?
Chapter 2, compelled to be circumcised: separated himself,
4:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.To observe Sabbath days; don’t work on Saturday—very strict definition of work,
Don’t eat unclean animals; pork, lobster, shrimp,
Tithe sent to temple—follow the rails, count steps, don’t stray from the path, wear bells
And the thing is, the Judaizers justified these commands by the Old Testament Scripture.—very narrow reading-- We have the mistaken impression that Satan draws people away with flagrant sin. No, he draws people away with small incremental steps to his “righteousness.” He doesn’t say, “come, be evil.” He says, “Come, this is good.” The Galatians were invited to Bible study classes. The Judaizers quoted Scripture.
It says here—be circumcised, honor the Sabbath day, don’t work.
And the Galatians just took it. They knew it contradicted what they had been taught. They were simply adding legalism to grace. They were giving a listening ear to the deceivers, and eventually the deceptions influenced them to change their behavior.
The same happens to all of us. We start listening. Step one.
The longer you listen to lies, the more you begin to accept them.
1st step
2. Disobedient: Step two- forgetting the truth—Eve chose disobedience
Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
Steps 2 and 3. Forgetting the truth—what is that truth? Christ’s sacrifice
“who has bewitched you not to obey?” You see, the Galatians could have said, hey, it’s not our fault, we were deceived, we didn’t know any better. But Paul doesn’t buy that. He calls their departure from the truth what it is—disobedience. Who has bewitched you to not obey the truth. You chose to leave what you knew was the truth. You were going along to get along.
They chose to disobey. It doesn’t even say here that there was much of an argument with the Judaizers. It doesn’t say that the Galatians heard what the Judaizers said, searched the Scriptures to see if what the Judaizers said was true. It doesn’t say they wrote Paul a letter, asking for his input. Paul, these guys have showed up. No,
chapter 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Paul was amazed at how quickly they slid.
Church people do the same thing today. I still remember a documentary I watched about converts to Mormonism. One young lady they interviewed was stating why she chose Mormonism over her childhood faith. She said that in Mormonism, she and her husband would be together, married for eternity, so she chose Mormonism over Christianity. She liked that idea.
Well, there you go, I’ll just pick the set of religious beliefs I like the best, and that will make them true.
But isn’t that really what people do? Do most Christians really, when presented with false doctrine “Study to show themselves approved?” “Rightly dividing the Word of truth?” Or do they just pick what sounds the best.
That’s the second step to being backslidden. First, you sit and listen to the lies. Then you choose to ignore, forget, the truth.
It happens in normal Christian life as well. When Christian people slide back into sin, it’s not that they don’t know the truth; they just push it back to the back of their brain so they can enjoy this moment in the flesh.
Step two- forgetting the truth—what truth--losing sight of Christ’s sacrifice
And the big truth that was pushed back, for the Galatians, was Christ’s sacrifice.
Look at what it says
Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
Paul is saying, “I clearly portrayed Christ’s crucifixion for you. How could you turn from that truth?”
He’s saying,
It wasn’t a deficit in understanding. It wasn’t that you didn’t have a complete picture or teaching. It was clearly portrayed.—Christ’s crucifixion
Now why does Paul single out the teaching of Christ’s crucifixion? Because that is “the Truth” that separates true Christianity from legalistic Christianity.—they forgot—“crucified with Christ.”
If you want to know if a particular denomination is teaching true Christianity—do they add work to grace.
There are really two branches of Christianity today; Grace Christianity-which is the Truth, and Law/work Christianity, which is a lie. And you can identify both by how they view the crucifixion of Christ. Either “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe,” or He didn’t pay it all, I have to pay some, or all.in his own life, or purgatory.
It’s easy to get pulled into legalism if you forget the truth of the crucifixion. What is the truth of the crucifixion. 2nd step forget the truth
Hebrews 10:12-14 King James Version (KJV)
12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
By His offering, He has perfected the believer forever. Perfect—complete—no part missing, Forever, never ceasing, into eternity future—did you get that? It’s not that He made you perfect up to the point of your conversion, and then you have to make sure you don’t blow it, or you need to keep doing good works, or somehow keep taking mass to apply to yourself Christ’s sacrifice. It’s done forever.
And Paul clearly taught the Galatians that truth. And now they are backsliding, thinking that their good works somehow will make them perfect more than forever. More perfect than perfect.
The Galatians not only listened to lies, and ignored truth. They were not only disobedient, but They ignored the Truth; They were disobedient to the Truth; the Cornerstone Truth on which was built Christ’s church.the cross that paid it all.
Backsliding begins with filling yourself with lying voices, then you disobey the truth you know, forgetting the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Then at last, you forget all the work the Spirit has done, and continues to do, and wants to do in you.
Probably the greatest work of the Spirit we forget, is the work of restoration. We begin to believe Satan’s lie that we can’t go back. That God no longer wants us. That we will never amount to anything for God. We forget that it wasn’t us that accomplished anything to begin with. It was God that worked in us. And so if we are to get back from the downward slide, we have to get back to God working in us.
Well, if I could impart to you any truth from this passage, it would be, that there is no dark corner that you can’t come back from. There is no legalistic system that the Spirit can’t draw you out of. There is no place on this cursed earth that is outside the hands of God’s redemption.
Don’t believe the lies, that you are finished. The entire reason Paul wrote this letter to the Galatian churches was to call them back.
Sometimes when we are backslidden, you know what we decide to do-like Galatians—become legalistic—I remember a family Denise and I visited in Mound Valley—they were church members—we showed up at their house unexpectedly—they were in the middle of family Bible reading—but everyone—husband, wife, two teens looked miserable—this is what hade happened—they had decided to read through the Bible together—each night as a family—but they fell behind—like a week and a half—the father—we’re backslidden—what’s the answer—legalism—we’re going to sit here and read all that we are behind until we catch up.
You don’t get back to God by legalism—simple repentance, confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
You don’t get back to God by your work—but by His work in you—so you need to go backwards up these steps—reconnect with God’s spirit in prayer, separate from lying voices, search the Scriptures asking God to speak to you.
Let us pray,
I just want to thank you Lord that you always call us back. That you stand at the door and knock, and all it takes to be restored is to open the door. Lord, I pray that your Word that was preached today, will effect in the hearts of those who heard it, all that You desire. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.