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00:00 Again, it's my pleasure and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of God. Even though the throat
00:06 is a bit weak. We are now in the midst of uh our series on um Paul's letter to the Galatians. We
00:14 have finished uh so far chapter 1 and part of chapter 2. And this morning we
00:20 are in the last portion of uh chapter 2 which was read to us now specifically
00:25 from Galatians chapter 2 verse uh 15- 21
00:31 and there is a bit of overlap with the passage for the sermon two weeks ago just to ensure some continuity in our
00:38 exposition on chapter 2. The title given to this morning sermon is a rather long
00:44 one part of which uh sound a bit like Greek. It says the heart of the gospel,
00:50 Simu Eustus at Picato. And when Dr. Peter suggested this title earlier on, I
00:56 said, "Wow, this sounds really academic and I love it."
01:01 If it is just the heart of the gospel, some of you might think, "Yeah, this one I already know." And you might not uh
01:08 might choose not to come to church this morning. The reason why I'm say this is because
01:13 there are some of us perhaps not many who actually look at the speaker's name
01:19 and the topic before deciding whether to attend Sunday service.
01:25 Imagine calling your wife from the office. Honey, what are you cooking tonight?
01:30 And if it sounds good, you come home for dinner. Otherwise, you eat out. You
01:35 don't do that, do you? You come home for dinner regardless of what she cooks, right? And similarly, we come to church
01:42 regardless of the speaker or the topic. Cuz remember, we are a community of
01:48 God's people. And coming to church on Sundays is an expression of our
01:54 membership in this community. We are connected to each other in a very special way in a sense that we are
02:00 co-traers in this journey of life into eternity with God. In any case, uh with
02:07 such a title like uh Simu Eustus epicato, you might have asked what on
02:12 earth does this mean? And that may have attracted you to come.
02:18 It's okay. Whatever your reason for coming now before we continue, shall we uh commit this time to the Lord in prayer?
02:27 Our father in heaven, speak to us so that we might better understand your truth and your plan. so that we might
02:34 also respond accordingly to your invitation. For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
02:48 The phrase uh simulus at Pakato is actually a Latin phrase
02:53 that means simultaneously justified and a sinner. From the Latin
02:59 word simul we get the word simultaneous. And from Eustus we have words like just
03:06 or justified. Picato means a sinner. So when string together it means being
03:12 justified and being a sinner both at the same time. You can actually uh wear buy a t-shirt
03:20 that says Simulustus at Picato. And people may ask you what does this mean?
03:26 And then and then you can start sharing the gospel. More drastically, you can also consider
03:32 wearing a huge tattoo in your arm that says the same thing. But I won't
03:37 recommend this. You may end up driving people away from the gospel. This Latin phrase first appeared in the
03:44 writings of the famous uh German reformer Martin Luther. And later we are
03:50 going to explore this concept of simultaneously justified and a sinner. The idea that we
03:56 can be justified before God and yet we are sinners at the same time. Justified
04:02 is a theological term that means to be found righteous before God. In other
04:08 words, how can sinners how can sinners stand righteous before a holy God? And many people are seeking
04:15 God. But you and I are not perfect. We are far from perfect. We harbor sin in
04:21 our lives. And yet, is there a way for us to approach God, to know him, and to
04:26 have a relationship with him? And this is the heart of Christianity. A shorter title might have been um
04:34 justified sinners. And if you think about it, the phrase is uh an oxymoron.
04:41 An oxymoron is an expression that carries a contradiction in terms. For
04:47 example, there is this uh tour company in Philadelphia by the name of awfully
04:53 nice tours. So, are the tours awful or are the tours nice? Of course, we know
04:59 what it means. Or for example, when we say in English, your silence is deafening.
05:07 And once in a while, or rather once in a blue moon, uh my wife gets upset with me and she would give me the silent
05:13 treatment. And I tell you that silence is louder than thunder.
05:22 So although an oxymoron carries a contradiction, uh it it still makes a lot of sense.
05:30 And last month I found myself in Mata Fair in PWTC. And as the Chinese would say, people mountain, people sea. It's
05:38 so so crowded if you were there. And there was hardly any room to move. And so happens that in front of me was this
05:45 lady wearing this oxymoronic t-shirt that says, "So good at being bad."
05:52 So is she good or is she bad? Actually, she's good. Good at one thing, being
05:57 bad. So like this expression, the term
06:03 justified sinner is an oxymoron. As a matter as a matter of fact, the entire Christian message is is rather
06:11 oxymoronic. A lot of what Jesus said was oxymoronic.
06:16 For example, Jesus said in Matthew 20:16, the last shall be first and the first shall be last. So if you want to
06:23 be first, you got to stand at the back. It's a paradox. And now I know finally why people have
06:29 to set it back. It is an application of Matthew 20:16. Last shall be first.
06:36 And maybe we should change the church name. Last Baptist church.
06:45 But seriously, one of uh Jesus most oxymoronic statements is found in the
06:50 John 20 12:2. Anyone who loves their life will lose it. Anyone who hates their life in this
06:56 world will keep it for eternal life. So if you love your life, you will lose it. But if you if you hate your life or lose
07:03 it, you will keep it. Strange. But what does this mean? We will come back to
07:08 this later in the sermon. So what I propose to do this morning is that we first examine our text for today,
07:14 Galatians 2:15-21, to see what is Paul trying to put across here. And the verses here can be a
07:20 little bit uh uh confusing and they need to be explained. And after that we shall
07:25 take a step back and take a look at the larger picture of a justified sinner or
07:31 simuel Eustus at Picato. So let us first zoom into the verses and then we shall
07:36 zoom up. But before that as a usually I do this
07:42 as a backdrop to to the sermon. I would like to uh consider a passage from the
07:48 gospel from the gospel according to John specifically from uh John uh chapter 8
07:54 the first 11 verses there's no need to turn to the text it's well the we all well know narrative of Jesus and the
07:60 woman caught in adultery and most of us are very familiar with that passage
08:07 but briefly let me just go through the narrative uh some teachers of the law and they were
08:13 opposed to Jesus They they caught a woman who committed uh adultery and
08:18 brought her to Jesus. Now in those days in those terrible days uh adultery was a
08:24 crime punishable by death and that is death by stoning according to the law of
08:29 Moses. So they brought the condemnment to Jesus because they were trying to set up a
08:34 trap for for Jesus. And this is what they said to Jesus in the middle of the text. This woman was caught in the act
08:40 of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you
08:47 say? It's a trap. If Jesus had said, "Let the woman go," they would accuse
08:54 him of contempt for the law. If Jesus had said, "Go ahead and stone her," then
09:00 he would be undermining his own ministry that was based on love and compassion. So, it didn't appear to be a situation
09:07 one can easily get out of. And this was when Jesus said the famous
09:12 line, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." But before this, but before he said
09:18 this, Jesus bent down and wrote something on the ground with his finger.
09:25 Now after he said this again, he bent down and wrote something on the ground a second time. So understandably, what
09:33 Jesus wrote on the ground has become a subject of intense speculation over the
09:39 centuries. Bible scholars are curious. Many Christians are curious what did Jesus write. The answer is nobody knows
09:48 because it's not recorded in the Bible. So there is no way of knowing. John didn't see it fit uh see it necessary to
09:54 write it down. Some thought that Jesus wrote some Old Testament verses. Others
10:00 guessed that he might have scribbled the sins of of the women's accusers. But I
10:06 wish to propose to you this morning that what Jesus wrote is not nearly as
10:11 important as the act of writing. What Jesus wrote, curious as we might
10:17 be, is not so important if you compare to the actual act of writing. What do I
10:23 mean? You see, throughout the Old Testament, we find God speaking now and again to
10:29 his people, but mostly through his prophets. Our God is a God of spoken words. He spoke much more than he wrote.
10:38 As a matter of fact, there are only two occasions in the Old Testament when God actually wrote something. Only two. And
10:45 one is in Exodus 31 uh uh 18 when God wrote the ten commandments on two stone
10:52 tablets. And in the verse it says inscribed by the finger of God. The
10:58 second instance is Exodus 34:1 when when God had to write the the ten commandments. a second time because
11:06 Moses broke the first set of tablets. I told my daughter if she ever loses or
11:13 breaks her iPad tablet, she will not get a second one. But how patient is our God?
11:22 So when we link these two Exodus verses to John chapter 8
11:28 where we find Jesus writing not once but twice on the ground. If we connect these
11:33 two narratives, we get the sense that Jesus was actually visuallying visually
11:39 telling the teachers of the law. You were telling me about the laws of Moses.
11:45 Hello, what talking you? I was the one who wrote the laws and I gave it to Moses.
11:51 Because when they threw the law at Jesus, little did they realize that
11:56 right in front of their eyes was the lawgiver himself. Anyway, the crowd soon dispersed and
12:03 Jesus let the woman go, telling her at the end, "Go and sin no more." And this
12:08 is certainly a beautiful story of forgiveness. But it also raises a very troubling question. How could Jesus just
12:16 let her go? What about the law? Can the law be set aside just like that? What
12:22 about the punishment for a crime? After all, didn't Jesus say that she he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill
12:28 it? Now I'm going to set aside these difficult questions for a while as I
12:33 wish to get along uh with today's text from Galatians
12:41 and we'll come back to uh later to discuss uh uh Jesus and this adulterous woman.
12:47 Now although we have only seven verses here for the sake of uh uh clarity and easy understanding I'm going to uh
12:54 divide the passage into three parts. In the first two verses, uh, verses 15 and
12:59 16, Paul makes an assertion, a theological assertion if you like, and
13:05 this is the the part that overlaps with the previous sermon by brother Arnold.
13:10 Next, in verses uh 17 to 18, Paul addresses an objection uh from some
13:16 Jewish Christians. And lastly, from verses 19 to 21, he outlines an
13:21 important conclusion. And the anchor verse is in verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer
13:27 live but Christ lives in me. But before we jump into these verses, let's see what is happening here in these various
13:34 churches in Galatia. And now this letter is written to a group of churches in that region. And here's a map of the
13:41 Roman Empire at that time. And Galatia was a Roman province uh marked in red
13:47 here. And let's recap what we learned from the previous sermon. Earlier in
13:53 verse 11, Paul explains that he was at odds with Peter at the Antioch church uh
13:60 a short distance away, not really so short. Uh if I can point Antioch is a bit to the to the to the east of uh of
14:07 Galatia. The Antioch church, uh Paul's home church had a mixed
14:13 congregation with both Jewish and Gentile Christians. Gal the Galatian
14:18 churches were also mixed but perhaps with more Gentiles than Jews because they they were further from uh further
14:26 away from Judea. And what happened earlier even before verse 11 was that
14:31 Peter was behaving like a hypocrite because he used to eat with the gentile Christians but when some Jews some
14:38 Christian some this Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem he quickly dissociated himself from the gentile
14:44 Christians. In verse 14, Paul mentions that when he met Peter in Antioch, he criticized him
14:52 for his actions, namely Peter's action of uh this practice of double standards.
14:57 Now to follow what is going on here, we must understand that the first Christians, the earliest Christians,
15:03 they were all Jews uh as evident from the first few chapters of the book of
15:08 Acts. But soon Paul and a few others like Barnabas uh they they were tasked
15:14 with the with the job of uh bringing the gospels to the Gentiles including those
15:20 in Galatia and then beyond to Greece and this is indicated in verse 9 in the
15:26 text. Now the problem is that some many of the Jewish Christians, Christians who
15:31 are Jews, especially those from Jerusalem, they maintain that in order to be true Christians, they must
15:38 continue to follow the laws of Moses, which they have been doing all their life uh even before they became
15:44 Christians. Not only that, it's okay if they follow the law laws of Moses, but
15:49 now they insisted that the gentile Christians must also do the same if they want to be truly saved. And this is what
15:56 they say in the this is what they say in Acts 15:1. Unless you are circumcised
16:02 according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.
16:07 And this is what brother Arnold described as gospel plus. In other words, adding something else to the
16:13 gospel. In this case, gospel plus adherence to Moses laws. And which is
16:18 what got Paul so upset. Now what are these laws that they insisted that all Christians, Jews and
16:26 Gentiles must follow? You see, the Jews were and they still are very proud of
16:32 the fact that they were the people to whom God gave his laws through Moses.
16:37 They were the people with whom God made his covenants. They were the chosen people of God. They were special people
16:44 in God's eyes. And these are facts that we today even affirm.
16:50 The so-called Mosaic law, the laws of the laws of Moses is said to consist
16:55 mainly of three types. Moral, ceremonial, and civil laws. Now, the
17:02 ceremonial laws are the ones that are contentious, which includes a circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and
17:10 including all the various food food laws. And to illustrate how complex these laws
17:16 can can be, there is an obscure verse in Deuteronomy 14:21
17:21 from which the Jews uh derive a strange law that prohibits mixing meat with
17:28 milk. Now the Jews may consume both uh meat and milk but not at the same time.
17:34 I think if you consume meat then you can only take milk 6 hours later. The idea the gap is uh 6 hours
17:42 because this comes from this is stated not explicitly but implicitly uh from this
17:49 Deuteronomy verse and hence a cheeseburger uh is not will not will be considered
17:56 non-halal by religious Jews. They will not touch it with a with a 10-ft pole
18:01 because cheese is a milkbased product and you are placing it on top of beef
18:07 patty. a definite no no in Israel even today.
18:13 When we traveled to Israel almost four years ago, we were a group of small group of four uh Caroline, Michelle, my
18:20 wife and I. And our first stop was Tel Aviv where we also visited the home of my close friend Dan Felman who lived
18:26 with his wonderful wife Nihama in a northern suburb of uh Tel Aviv. And both
18:32 of them were very religious Jews. And this picture is uh uh was taken in
18:38 their apartment. I was the faithful cameraman and that's why I'm not in the picture.
18:44 My friend then then later uh showed us their kitchen where I saw two basins
18:52 uh kitchen sinks. Okay. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the kitchen.
18:58 I thought it'd be rude to take picture of the kitchen suddenly. But why two basins in the kitchen?
19:06 Also there are two separate sets of utensils. Why two sets? You see one is exclusively for meat meat
19:14 and the other one exclusively for milk based products because the two cannot mix from that Deuteronomy verse.
19:21 We also have two kitchens, two sinks in the kitchen, one wet kitchen, one dry kitchen but not to that extent. Okay.
19:29 Now coming back to our text, the Jewish Christians in in in in in Antioch and
19:34 also in Galatia, they were telling their Gentile brethrens that they must do this, they must do that. They cannot do
19:40 this, they cannot do that. Mostly from the ceremonial laws of Moses, they must
19:46 be circumcised, they must keep the Sabbath, they cannot eat cheeseburgers, for example, otherwise their salvation
19:52 will be will be in jeopardy. And what happened in Antioch is now also
19:57 happening in Galatia. So Paul first had to make an assertion.
20:05 He has to insist on the right theology in the first part of the text. That means adherence to the law cannot be a
20:12 condition for salvation. The only requirement for salvation is faith in Jesus. And this is clear from verse 16.
20:19 A person is not justified by works of the law or in the other uh translation by observing the law but by faith in
20:27 Jesus Christ. And for emphasis Paul repeats this in the same verse that we
20:33 may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. And then he
20:39 says it a third time in the same verse by the works of the law no one will be
20:44 justified. And if Paul says it three times, it must be very important. As mentioned just now, justified here
20:51 means to be standing before God and to be found righteous, to be standing in judgment before God and to be pronounced
20:58 innocent, to be saved from condemnation, so to say. So simply verse 16 means that
21:05 there is no hope of salvation by trying to observe all the laws. It's simply
21:11 impossible. You can try but you will surely fail because of our weakness,
21:17 because of our sinful nature. The only way to be saved is by faith in Jesus
21:22 Christ. There's no other way. So please do not try to add other conditions to this only way.
21:29 From verse 15, we see that Paul is addressing the Jewish Christians, including Peter and the other Jews from
21:36 Jerusalem. And he includes himself to emphasize that he is also a Jew like the rest of them.
21:42 However, this verse can be a little bit uh troubling because Paul writes, "We who are Jews by birth are not sinful
21:48 Gentiles." It seems to imply that the Gentiles Christians are sinful and the well the Jewish Christians are sinless.
21:56 Now, this is certainly not the case and I shall clarify. As explained earlier, the Jews were very
22:02 proud that they were the chosen people of God. They were the people of the covenant of God's covenant and hence
22:08 they considered people outside the covenant namely the Jews as people who are who are lost and condemned
22:16 and unfortunately this kind of mindset caused them to look down on the Gentiles
22:22 and to look at them with contempt and they like to describe them as gentile
22:27 sinners or sinful Gentiles. So when Paul says that we Jews are not
22:33 sinful Gentiles, it is merely a reflection of the prevalent culture at
22:38 that time. Paul is just using the language that is common at that time. He didn't mean that the Jews are not sinful
22:44 like the Gentiles. He's merely saying we Jews as opposed to they the Gentiles. We
22:50 Jews were the first to become Christians and we are supposed to know how we gain salvation. And that's all. So do not
22:55 read too much into this verse. So after asserting the theological
23:01 facts, Paul now addresses the objection he faced uh from the from the Jewish
23:08 Christians in this second part of the text. And now verse 17 uh may be a little
23:16 puzzling, but what but if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find
23:21 ourselves also among sinners, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin?
23:27 I had trouble reading this verse, but it will make a lot of sense if you see it as Paul merely restating the objection
23:35 that he's facing. And let me uh rephrase this objection. So, let me just paraphrase this verse. The Jewish
23:42 Christians are saying, "Look, now that we are justified in Christ, are you suggesting that we we eat non-hal food
23:50 together with the Gentile Christians? Are you asking us to sin by going against the laws of Moses? Are you
23:57 implying that Christ promotes sin? You see, the Jewish Christians just
24:02 simply cannot accept the fact that uh the notion that faith in Christ and this alone is sufficient for us to be found
24:09 justified or righteous before God. They keep insisting that we must follow the law uh especially the the ceremonial
24:16 laws of Moses in order to be saved. But the truth is we cannot be justified
24:21 through adherence to the law or observing the law or by the works of the law. The law has no role in our
24:29 justification before God. Therefore, you are now free to eat all the cheeseburgers you want. Everything is
24:36 now halal. No need to have two uh separate things in your kitchen. Of
24:42 course, you can refrain. You can still refrain from eating cheeseburgers if you like, but it is no longer a condition
24:49 for salvation. So, please don't impose this on your gentile brethren.
24:54 Anyway, Paul has already explained this in in verse 16. So, he answers this
24:59 objection with a strong u absolutely not in this verse.
25:06 Now the interesting thing is that actually Peter with whom Paul had uh
25:11 some disagreement over this issue. Peter actually knew all this because in a
25:16 dramatic uh account in the Acts chapter 10 some of you may know this. Peter saw
25:22 a vision where a large sheet you know came down from heaven and carrying all
25:28 kinds of animals including halal and non-hal ones. And then a voice from heaven told Peter
25:35 not once but twice that he was free to eat all of them. And through this vision which happened
25:41 three times, Peter knew that it was he was no longer bound by all these food
25:46 laws. And so he started eating with uh the gentile Christians. But as explained
25:52 earlier, when a group of Jewish Christian came from Jerusalem, he quickly withdraw himself from the Gentiles for fear of being condemned by
25:59 these Jews. In other words, he compromised his conviction and behaved like a hypocrite.
26:05 He abandoned his gentile brethren and made them feel secondass. And that's why
26:11 Paul opposed him uh earlier in verse 11.
26:16 Now all this is all this that is happening in Galatian churches tells us that it is not only a theological issue
26:22 namely what does it take to be justified before God but it is also a racial issue
26:28 because some of the Jewish Christians were treating their non-Jewish brethren as secondass
26:34 just because they are not following the ceremonial laws of Moses. And what we should notice here is that
26:40 when Paul addresses this theological point, namely uh that we all justified by faith and not by works of the law. As
26:47 Paul deals with this point of uh of doctrine, he's also at the same time promoting the idea of equality and the
26:54 unity uh in Christ because later in Galatians 3:28, Paul writes, "There is
27:01 neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus.
27:08 But I shall leave this to another preacher who will expound on this passage. And nevertheless, there is this
27:14 sight lesson for us all that all believers are equal and united before Christ. I started the sermon by pointing
27:21 to our membership uh in the community of believers. And I wish to stress here that in this community there shall be no
27:28 distinction. Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Nepali, African
27:34 absolutely no distinction. There should be also no distinction between rich and poor, male and female, tall and short,
27:41 fat and skinny because we are all one in Christ.
27:46 Now let me in this second uh portion let me touch on just this other verse in the second part where Paul says if I rebuild
27:54 what I destroy then I really would be a law lawb breaker. Now this sounds a little bit cryptic a bit hard to
27:59 understand but it's not so difficult. What did Paul destroy? He destroyed the notion that one can be justified uh uh
28:06 before God through through the law by works of the law. So why why should he rebuilt it and bring him back? Now the
28:13 Jews may may be inclined to think that by setting aside the law uh that makes
28:18 Paul a lawb breaker but Paul is saying on the contrary if I agree to the law as a means of justification before God then
28:24 I will be the law the lawb breaker. I will be because I'll be going against God by adding extra conditions to his
28:31 salvation plan. Now let's quickly move to uh the third part the conclusion because we need to
28:38 leave some time to discuss simulus epicato. Here we find in this last part the
28:45 language of uh life and death. Paul first talks about death. I died to the
28:51 law from verse 19. I've been crucified with Christ from verse 20. I no longer
28:57 live from verse 20. In this portion, he also talks about
29:02 life that I might live for God from verse 19. Christ lives in me from verse
29:09 20. I live by faith in the son of God also from verse 20.
29:14 But it seems like Paul is touching on a on a on a on a new topic altogether.
29:20 So what is the link between this third part and the earlier two parts? What is Paul trying to convey?
29:27 Now for that we need to go back to Acts chapter 10 which I mentioned earlier about Peter's vision about how he was
29:33 told that all uh food was permissible. No more halal and non-hal distinction.
29:39 Cheeseburgers are okay although too much of them is bad for health.
29:45 From Acts chapter 10, we therefore can conclude that Christians are no longer bound by the laws of
29:53 Moses, at least in so far as the ceremonial laws are concerned. And that's why if
29:59 you are a male and you become a Christian, there is no need for you to be circumcised.
30:04 But imagine this were not the case and we guys need to be circumcised. Wow. Then I think Dr. Peter would have
30:10 to do a lot of cutting. And thankfully Paul says in uh later in
30:17 Galatians uh uh 5 sorry Galatians 5:6 uh
30:23 in the end of the book for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.
30:32 So the ceremonial laws so it's clear that the ceremonial laws have been set aside
30:39 but what about the moral laws? Are we also not bound by them? Have the
30:46 moral laws also been set aside? Now, this is a far tougher question.
30:53 The answer is yes. We are no longer bound by the laws of Moses, whether ceremonial or moral or civil. And let me
31:00 give you the spiritual basis for this. What does Paul say in the verse 19 in
31:07 our text? I died to the law, which means that the law has no hold on us. And the
31:14 word law here is a general term that encompasses all of Moses' laws. And
31:19 further down in the book in Galatians 3:23, Paul writes, "Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody
31:26 under the law." Notice the past tense, we were held, implying that now we are
31:31 no longer being held in custody uh held in custody under the law.
31:37 more explicitly. Let's look at the third verse from Romans 7. Now, Romans 7 is a place where Paul discusses this in in in
31:43 great detail. In Romans 7:6, he writes, "But but now by dying to what once bound
31:49 us, we have been released from the law." So, it's quite clear from these verses
31:55 that we have been released from the law. But this raises a very troubling question. Does this give Christians a
32:03 license to sin? Now that we are justified uh before God uh by faith in Christ, does it mean that
32:10 we are now free to commit sin? After all, the law has no hold on us now. And
32:16 that is why this third part is so very important, the conclusion.
32:21 And interestingly, Paul asks uh the same question uh in uh Romans 3:31.
32:27 Do we then nullify the law by this faith? And he answers this loud and
32:33 clear. Not at all. Rather, we uphold the law. But how does this work? How does it what
32:40 does it mean to uphold the law uh when we are already dead to the law from verse uh 19? And to answer this, let's
32:48 look let's look at the anchor verse for today uh in verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer
32:55 live but Christ lives in me. The key here is the word crucified.
33:00 Who or what is being crucified? Of course, you answer Jesus.
33:07 But what I mean here is that you, I, he, she, all of us, all of us have been
33:14 crucified. But more specifically, we crucify our self-reliance,
33:19 self-sufficiency, self-centeredness, self-interest, self-justification.
33:25 In other words, we crucify our old self, our old sinful self to the cross. As we
33:31 are justified by faith in Christ, we die to the law. As we die to the law, we also put to death our old self so that
33:38 Christ can live in us. So therefore the cross while it is an emblem of Christ's
33:44 sacrificial death on our behalf, it also it is also a symbol of our renewal as we
33:50 nail our old self to the cross. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul describes us as
33:56 new creation as a result. But in reality, this is not an easy
34:02 thing to do. Nailing our old self to the cross is really a process that takes a
34:08 lifetime. The old sinful self often refuses to die. And so we nail it to the
34:15 cross day after day. Technically, this is known as sanctification. It is a long
34:21 torturous process of refinement that lasts a lifetime, somewhat like a diamond bin being polished and shaped
34:29 until it becomes a beautiful sparkling piece of gem. But this is a big topic for another sermon. But nevertheless, as
34:36 the new creation takes shape, as the old self gets nailed to the cross, as we
34:43 move from self-centeredness to Christ centeredness, as we live for God, verse 19, as Christ lives in us, verse 20,
34:51 what happens is that we find ourselves upholding the law and we uphold the law
34:57 by the power of Christ in us. That's why Christians are generally
35:03 lawabiding citizens. Not all of course but if you are truly
35:09 new creation you will uphold the law. You will want to uphold the law. Not because you have to but you want to.
35:17 And that is why for a true Christian even though we are being released from the law is never a license to sin. On
35:24 the contrary it's a motivation not to sin. And from this angle we can now
35:29 understand uh the the ox the oxymoron moronic verse earlier I showed in John
35:36 uh 12:2 when Jesus says those who hate their life in this world will keep it for
35:41 eternal life. Now, he's not promoting some sort of a self-hatred because those what he means is that
35:47 those who hate their life refer to those who are crucifying their old sinful self
35:53 and they will get they will get to keep their life for eternity. And here lies the key lesson for today
36:00 and I shall put it across in the form of some questions. Have you been crucifying your old self
36:06 to the cross? Have you been making progress in your renewal towards new
36:13 creation? Are you becoming more and more Christlike?
36:18 Now, please do spend some time to dwell on these thoughts because these are questions with eternal ramifications.
36:25 We have finally finished unpacking most of the uh verses in our text for today and I hope the passage is now clearer to
36:32 you and as a pro as I promised earlier after we have zoomed into the text, we shall now zoom out. So now let us take a
36:38 step back and look at the larger picture of God's salvation plan and then we shall conclude by revisiting the concept
36:45 of Samuel Eustus at Picato and I propose to paint this larger
36:51 picture of God's salvation plan via a series of FAQs frequently asked questions. Okay, some of them may not be
36:58 so frequently asked. It's rather unusual approach I must say but let's see how it goes. I shall ask a series of questions
37:04 and we shall then discuss the answers one after the other.
37:11 The first FAQ is this. Why is God so judgmental?
37:18 Okay, I admit I'm a sinner. I'm not perfect. But why must God judge me? Isn't he supposed to be a God of love?
37:26 Very valid question. Now this is a rather common uh objection
37:33 non-believers have against Christianity. They can accept the notion of a god of love but they cannot accept the idea of
37:39 a god of judgment. And a related question to this is how can a god of love send people to hell?
37:46 No. The answer is really quite simple. If God is not a God of judgment, if sin
37:52 does not come with consequences, if there is no penalty for wrongdoing, then there will be total chaos in this
37:59 world. Evil will thrive unabated. Criminals will have a field day. If you
38:05 are a parent or or a teacher or an employer, you will understand this.
38:12 The fact that our society is largely orderly
38:17 is because there are laws, there are judges sitting in courts, there is a
38:23 judicial system in place. Of course, there are some bad people, you know, running around. But the fact that you
38:30 can come here later, you can go for lunch and you can go for dinner in a restaurant and not get harmed in in in
38:37 the process is a testimony to the fact that the laws of God, this God of judgment are well reflected in most
38:44 judicial systems around the world except of course for failed states like Somalia or Yemen or Libya.
38:51 So if God is is is just a God of love and not a God of judgment, then he will
38:58 be not a god, not worthy of being worshiped.
39:04 The second FAQ is a little harder. Why must God judge me so severely? Okay,
39:11 I accept that there is a God of judgment. Okay, I admit I'm a sinner, but I'm generally a good person. I may
39:19 have done something bad but nothing very serious. I'm not like those robbers and
39:24 and murderers. Okay, there is some good in all of us.
39:30 True. Here we need to consider the attributes of our God. What kind of a God is he?
39:38 to catch a glimpse of God's nature, especially his holiness. There is a dramatic account in Exodus chapter 3
39:46 where God appeared to Moses in a form of a burning bush. The bush was burning, burning, burning, but it was not burned
39:52 up. So Moses got curious and he wanted to get closer and that was God. That was
39:58 when God said, "Don't come any more closer for the place you are standing is holy ground." Had Moses moved any
40:04 closer, he would have been consumed or vaporized by the holiness of God.
40:11 In a more dramatic scene in Isaiah chapter 6 in which is described the
40:16 throne of God, we read that the angels had to cover their faces because their eyes could not take in the radiance of
40:24 the holiness of God. And they were calling out to each other, holy, holy,
40:29 holy is the Lord Almighty. Our God is a thrice, holy God in whom is
40:36 the fullness of purity and perfection. He cannot stand even the slightest stain
40:42 of sin otherwise he will not be God. And so to suggest that we can approach
40:48 God and plead please overlook my little sins.
40:53 To suggest that we can do that is to be completely ignorant of God's nature. If
40:59 God can say okay I I I shall overlook your little sins then this God is not
41:04 worthy of worship. The third FAQ is even harder.
41:12 Why can't God just forgive me? Yeah. Just let me off you know please.
41:20 This question actually came up in in last Wednesday at my alpha group discussion.
41:27 Isn't God the omnipotent all powerful God? Surely he has the power to forgive me. Didn't Jesus forgive uh forgive the
41:34 the adulterous woman? Well, certainly God has the power to
41:40 forgive just like that. But he doesn't. And there is a reason and that reason has something to do with the concept of
41:46 cost and payment in any valid moral framework.
41:51 For any moral framework to function effectively, there must be payment known
41:58 as a penalty or punishment for every deviation from a moral law. Because a
42:04 cost is incurred whenever there is a wrong. And to give you a simple analogy,
42:10 if you borrow my blender and you break it, then you have to buy a new blender for me. It will cost you. If you refuse
42:17 to do so, it will cost you our friendship. If I forgive you because you cannot
42:23 afford a blender, then I would have to buy a new blender. It will cost me.
42:28 Whichever way you turn, there is a cost. Whenever there is a wrong, if you rob a
42:33 bank and you are sentenced to a jail term, it will cost you your freedom. That's the payment you have to make. If
42:39 you exceed the speed limit, it will cost and you get a ticket, it will cost you 300 ringgit. That's the payment you have
42:46 to make. That's why a judge cannot simply let the accused go. His job is to
42:51 assertain his is guilt. And if the person is found guilty to determine the the amount of payment or or penalty
42:58 which is which we call a sentence that's why God cannot simply just forgive us and let us go because someone must pay
43:06 the price for our sins. And here I bring you back to John chapter 8 to the
43:11 narrative of Jesus and the adulterous woman which we discussed at the beginning. We asked earlier how could
43:18 Jesus just let her go? What about the law? What about the penalty? She almost got herself uh stoned to death that day
43:24 which was the punishment they wanted to meet out on her. Now, even though it is not written in
43:31 John chapter 8, as Jesus let the woman go, as she walked away, we can almost
43:38 imagine Jesus thinking to himself, "Yes, the law must be applied. But woman, in a
43:46 few months time, I shall pay the penalty for you. I shall die on your behalf so
43:54 that you can live." Someone must pay the price for her sin.
43:59 And Jesus paid it in full on the cross for her. Not only Jesus paid the price for her, he also paid it for you and me.
44:09 But we must hurry along. The fourth FAQ is this is a short one. It's
44:14 interesting. Why can't I do more good than bad to compensate for my sins?
44:22 Okay, fine. There is a price to pay. I agree. So let me just try to do more good to accumulate some good points to
44:29 pay for my sins. Interesting viewpoint. This is like an
44:35 accountant's approach, you know, looking at the moral framework as a ledger with two with two columns, you know, debit
44:40 and credit. So if you do bad, debit, debit, debit. If you do good, credit
44:45 credit. And just make sure that the balance is positive. It sounds like a reasonable idea. In
44:52 fact, many religions are based on this idea. Make sure you do more good than bad. But actually, it's quite ridiculous
44:58 if you think about it. Imagine standing before God and he starts to total up
45:03 your debit and credit columns. Total use a calculator total up. Okay,
45:10 you have a one ringit balance. You just made it by the by your skin.
45:17 Come in and enjoy heaven. The next person comes up. God again
45:22 totals up his uh his debit and and credit columns. Oh, sorry. You're one ringit short.
45:30 Too bad for you. To hell you go. So, it sounds ridiculous if you think about it.
45:36 You will be well well advised to know that the Almighty God doesn't play debit
45:41 and credit games with us. He cannot stand even one single cent in the debit
45:47 column. But we already covered that in the second FAQ. And the last FAQ
45:53 uh will lead us uh to this simil useless epicato. What hope then is there for sinners?
46:02 Is there any hope for us? If God is a thrice, holy God who cannot stand even the slightest sin and if we are
46:09 basically sinful, does that mean that we are doomed? This is the most important question.
46:15 Yes, we are all sinners. The psalmist says in the Psalm 51:5, "Surely I was
46:20 sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." If you think you're good, you're good enough to be
46:27 found righteous before God, then you are kidding yourself. Remember the the oxymoronic uh t-shirt I showed you
46:33 earlier? So good at being bad. Well, many of you might think that you are not
46:39 so bad as her. And that might be true, but the reality is that we are all so
46:45 bad at being good. And none of us can claim to be so good at being good.
46:51 Granted, you may not be a robber or a murderer, but you are not immune from
46:57 greed, envy, pride, dishonesty,
47:03 hypocrisy, ally, lust, and the list goes on. And
47:08 that's why the message of the gospel is so powerful and so inviting because the answer to this last FAQ is yes, there is
47:15 hope. When we find no hope through the law because of our sins, God provides a way for us to approach him which is the
47:22 way of the cross where Jesus died as our substitute. And just as he did for the woman in John
47:28 chapter 8, Jesus died so that we we too might live.
47:33 The only way to God the Father is through faith in Christ Jesus. We can only be found righteous before God
47:38 through faith in Christ. When we stand before God, we he sees our righteousness, not our he sees the
47:45 righteousness of of of Christ and therefore he sees us as righteous, not our own righteousness.
47:51 But why not our own righteousness? Because we are sinners. So let's be honest here. Christians do
47:59 commit sins. Who among us claim can claim that he doesn't sin? If a Christian says that he
48:06 doesn't sin, he's lying. Church leaders, church members, longtime Christians,
48:12 young Christians, strong Christians, weak Christians, we all sin. The truth of the matter is that we are
48:18 weak. The old self simply refuses to go away. If you examine the pages of the
48:24 Old Testament, it is mostly a catalog of the sins of God's people and their leaders. Time again, even the chosen
48:31 people of God, they failed him and they disappointed him. They disobeyed him and we are no different. And so the question
48:38 is what happens when a Christian sin? Does he lose his salvation? As I said a minute ago, when we stand before God, he
48:45 sees the righteousness of Christ. And I have this picture that illustrates this very well. When we Christians stand
48:51 before God, we stand as sinners. True. But because we stand in the shadow of
48:56 the cross, when God sees us, he sees the righteousness of Christ. And as a
49:01 result, we are deemed to be justified. And this is the mystery and essence of
49:07 Simuel useless epicato. We are righteous and sinful at the same time. We are
49:14 simultaneously saints and sinners. It is an oxymoron. But therein lies the beauty
49:20 and mystery of God's plan. The Bible uses the metaphor of a of a robe. R O a
49:28 robe to describe this justification by faith in Christ. Not a cheap t-shirt, but a long robe that covers our entire
49:35 body. In Isaiah 61:10, it says, "He has clothed me with garments of salvation
49:41 and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness."
49:46 We may still harbor sin in our life, but the Bible describes these sins as being covered
49:53 like a robe covering the dirty clothes inside. Psalm 32:1 says, "Blessed is the
49:59 one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." Psalm 85:2 also says, "You forgave the
50:07 iniquity of your people and covered covered all their sins." Do Christians
50:12 love to sin? Absolutely not. We may sin because of our old self. And that's why
50:17 we need to continually nail the old self to the cross so that we as we learn from today's text. But when we sin, God
50:25 promises us that our that we cons, this is in 1 John
50:30 1:9. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
50:36 unrighteousness. The blood of Christ shed on the cross is powerful enough to cleanse all sins
50:43 past, present, and future. The Christian is expected to sin less and less
50:50 during the course of his life as he is transformed step by step to be more and more Christlike. Jesus is also saying to
50:57 us, go and sin no more. It has been a long sermon. We have had plenty of
51:04 theology, the theology of salvation, but mostly basic stuff. But before I end, I shall leave you with some application
51:09 questions. We recently observed Good Friday 10 days ago as as you picture
51:16 Jesus hanging on the cross. Ask yourself, have you been crucified with
51:21 him? Have you been nailing your old self continually to the cross? Is Christ
51:28 living in you? Etch this verse in your heart. I have been crucified with Christ
51:34 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Shall we close in prayer?
