The Crucified Life 钉十字架的生命

1/12/2025; Galatians 2:11-21; Brother Mike

Peace brothers and sisters. Today’s message is “The Crucified Life 釘十字架的生命”. This is my 4th message in Galatians 加拉太書. We will be reading from Galatians 2:11-21. Today, I feel like I’m taking out the treasure box of God’s word and showing you the most precious treasure I’ve found. Of course, all of God’s word is precious, however, today, we will be reading the verse that I’ve found to be the most powerful verse in my life. It’s like the Excalibur sword神剑. Every time I raise this sword of God’s word, I found it is invincible against all spiritual attacks and spiritual struggles. This verse is Galatians 2:20. Let’s read this verse together in the 1984 NIV version, which is the one I memorize as a Christian. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 20我已經與基督同釘十字架，現在活著的不再是我，乃是基督在我裡面活著；並且我如今在肉身活著，是因信神的兒子而活；他是愛我，為我捨己。” The picture shown on the corner is a design made by someone from my church.
I heard a missionary, serving in Indonesia with the Scripture Memory Fellowship, share how he was saved by this verse. He realized that even though he grew up in a Christian family, he did not have Christ living in him. This verse also motivated him to memorize more scriptures since he found it so life-changing. As believers in Christ, you have the crucified life. Your old self has been nailed with Christ on the cross. Then, how can you experience the power of the crucified life? From the passage today, we will look at 3 ways you can experience the crucified life. 1) A crucified life will stand for the truth 釘十字架的生命必堅持真理 2) A crucified life will be free from self-justification 釘十字架的生命必沒有自我稱義 3) A crucified life will be secure in Christ 釘十字架的生命必在基督裡有安定.
Let’s pray before we begin.

1.A crucified life will stand for the truth 釘十字架的生命必堅持真理 (vs. 11-14)

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” 11後來，磯法到了安提阿；因他有可責之處，我就當面抵擋他。12從雅各那裡來的人未到以先，他和外邦人一同吃飯，及至他們來到，他因怕奉割禮的人，就退去與外邦人隔開了。13其餘的猶太人也都隨著他裝假，甚至連巴拿巴也隨夥裝假。14但我一看見他們行的不正，與福音的真理不合，就在眾人面前對磯法說：你既是猶太人，若隨外邦人行事，不隨猶太人行事，怎麼還勉強外邦人隨猶太人呢？
Cephas is Peter, who is one of the apostles and a main leader of the church, after Jesus went back to heaven. Cephas is his Aramaic name and Peter is his Greek name. Both mean “rock”. This nickname was given by Jesus to Simon Peter in John 1:42. Jesus said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). 你是約翰的兒子西門（約翰在馬太16：17稱約拿），你要稱為磯法。」（磯法翻出來就是彼得。 So, why did Paul say Peter was condemned? As a main leader of the church, Peter was leading Jewish believers not to eat with Gentile believers because of these visitors. By his actions, Peter is agreeing with the “circumcision party奉割禮的人” visitors, that Jewish believers can’t eat with Gentile believers because they don’t follow the Jewish dietary laws. This would particularly hurt the Gentile believers since Peter was eating with them before the circumcision party came. He may have ate food such as pork, lobsters, oysters, shrimp, clams, crabs, which are prohibited by OT dietary laws. By stop eating with the Gentile believers, Peter’s action is saying that Jewish Christians must follow OT dietary laws, even when they are with Gentile Christians. This reminds me of the Jesus Revolution movie耶穌革命電影. In the late 1960’s, when the hippies嬉皮came into Chuck Smith’s church, they all sat on the right side of the pews, bare footed, jeans, long hair and all, while the original members sat on the left side of the pew looking properly dressed and conservative. (Spoiler alert劇透警報) In one scene, some of the original members got fed up and left the church. One of them got up to leave as well but instead of walking out the back of the church, he turned and sat down on the right side of the pews with the hippie members, showing that God touched his heart to accept these new hippie believers. In Peter’s incident, the issue is not just about fellowship, but raises questions for Gentile Christians about their status in the Body of Christ and even how they can be saved. Paul mentioned Barnabas, because he should be the nicest guy there. His name means the Son of Encouragement. 巴 拿 巴 翻 出 來 就 是 勸 慰 子 . Why is he also giving the Gentile Christians the cold shoulder冷落他們? Did Barnabas do this because he considered Peter as his boss, and so he was just following his lead? This shows us that in all things our real boss, our real master should be the Lord Christ Jesus. And by the word of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we follow His lead, and not just blindly follow any person. Amen? Paul reminded Peter (in front of the Jewish Christians there) that he was living in the freedom of Christ by eating like a Gentile with the Gentile believers, not constrained by the Jewish dietary laws. Why is he now making the Gentile follow Jewish dietary laws? We did not see Peter’s response. However, I believe this whole incident shows us the crucified life in Christ. Paul is doing this because of his crucified life, not caring that he as a relatively young leader in the church is standing up to Peter, the big guy, the one who was the leader of the disciples after Jesus ascended to heaven. This is because in the crucified life, it is no longer the old Paul living, but it is Christ living in Paul. Paul’s words and actions must now be Christ’s. By doing this, in a way, Christ, living in Paul, is rebuking Peter through Paul. Do you remember when Christ rebuked Peter when He was on earth? It was also a pretty hard rebuke. “Get behind me Satan撒但，退我後邊去罷！” in Matthew 16:23. We see Peter’s life is also crucified in Christ in that he listened and did not kick Paul out of the church because of this, what we in Chinese church would see as a major losing face no-no situation. Peter could have responded: “How dare you speak to me this way? Do you know who I am? I am Peter the rock. You don’t speak to me in front of others like this.” However, in Acts 15, Peter and the other apostles welcomed Paul and Barnabas, and Peter was the one who first defended their position about Gentile believers not required to follow Jewish laws. Here is a picture of Peter’s church in Capernaum迦百農 in Israel when I visited in 2018. This is a modern Catholic pilgrimage church天主教朝聖教堂. This is where they said Peter’s house was. They build a church on top of the ruins廢墟. Here is a statue of Peter by the church with the verse from Matthew 16:18 “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church 你是彼得，我要把我的教會建造在這磐石上”. There are different interpretations of this verse by different church traditions. One interpretation I think evangelicals福音派 can accept is that the words for “Peter petros” and “rock petra” are different words in Greek. So “Peter petros” refers to a small stone and the “rock petra” refers to the large bedrock stone大基岩. The bedrock that the church is founded on is the truth that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God, which Peter had just proclaimed in Matthew 16. Peter and the apostles founded the church on Jesus Christ as the cornerstone基石.
A crucified life will stand for the truth, regardless of how crazy it may seem. In this moment of crisis, Paul sees his Jewish brothers being influenced to shun their Gentile brothers and sisters. I can imagine the Gentile believers looking at Paul wondering why he is the only Jewish Christian eating with them? Then, the life of Christ living in him compelled him to act and he experienced the reality of the crucified life. Peter also experienced the crucified life by accepting the truth of the Lord despite a public facing-losing situation. Jesus shines when believers experience the crucified life. Amen?

2.A crucified life will be free from self-justification 釘十字架的生命必沒有自我稱義(vs. 15- 19)

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
15我們這生來的猶太人，不是外邦的罪人；16既知道人稱義不是因行律法，乃是因信耶穌基督，連我們也信了基督耶穌，使我們因信基督稱義，不因行律法稱義；因為凡有血氣的，沒有一人因行律法稱義。17我們若求在基督裡稱義，卻仍舊是罪人，難道基督是叫人犯罪的麼？斷乎不是！18我素來所拆毀的，若重新建造，這就證明自己是犯罪的人。19我因律法，就向律法死了，叫我可以向神活著。
While trying to live the Christian life, we found so much sins in our life. This doesn’t nullify everything Christ has done for us. It just shows us that we can’t justify ourselves 自我稱義. Only God can justify us. Believing this, we can then be free to admit when we are wrong. We don’t have to fight to prove that we are right.
Yet, how many times do we fall into the performance trap 績效陷阱 as Christians? Have you tried to earn God’s acceptance? Our natural human tendency is to think that we must do something to earn God’s acceptance. The Bible is clear –justification 稱義 has nothing to do with external activity. We do not gain or maintain a relationship with God by our “performance.” We are to live our life under grace. We are not justified by our works. God’s grace gives us freedom from sin, freedom from the fear of condemnation, and freedom from performance. We can either be motivated by grace or by guilt or by some combination of the two. To be motivated by grace is to be motivated by God’s love – God’s love for us and our love for God.
When you face spiritual attacks, such as accusing thoughts and temptations, remember Galatians 2:20, that you have been crucified with Christ. Let the word of God conquer those thoughts and temptations. It will set you free from trying to justify and rescue yourself from sin. Would you like to experience this kind of crucified life – to be free from the futile attempts to justify and rescue yourself from sin? Then, wholly surrender to Christ as your justifier and rescuer.

3.A crucified life will be secure in Christ 釘十字架的生命必在基督裡有安定 (vs. 20-21)

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. 20我已經與基督同釘十字架，現在活著的不再是我，乃是基督在我裡面活著；並且我如今在肉身活著，是因信神的兒子而活；他是愛我，為我捨己。
21我不廢掉神的恩；義若是藉著律法得的，基督就是徒然死了。
The I (ego in Greek) in “I have been crucified with Christ” is the old self. For Paul, the old self lived in legalism 律法主義 and it was crucified with Christ. It is no longer living. A new life is in him. This new life is Christ living in him. Christ not only gives the new life, but Christ is the new life.
Have your old self been crucified? The crucified life is something that has happened and is also a present reality. Do you believe your old self has died with Christ? Do you have faith to live this new life where Christ is living in you? When you experienced the crucified life, you also experienced the faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. Brothers and sisters, just like that children’s song, we can say to ourselves, to the world, to Satan: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. 耶穌愛我，我知道，因為聖經告訴我” And this truth gives us security in Christ 在基督裡有安定.
When you have experienced the crucified life in vs. 20, then you will say with Paul in vs. 21, “21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. 21我不廢掉神的恩；義若是藉著律法得的，基督就是徒然死了。” You have the crucified life when you died to any attempts to find righteousness through anything you have done. Our security and peace is found in Christ alone. Otherwise, there’s no reason for Christ to die.

Brothers and sisters, the crucified life is a life set free by the love of Christ, motivated and empowered by the love of Christ, and shining brightly in the love of Christ. 誠然，釘十字架的生命是因基督的愛而釋放，因基督的愛而激勵和賦予力量，並在基督的愛中閃耀的生命。Will you live the crucified life by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you? Let’s pray.