Several books go by that simple title, “Nevertheless!”

The word reeks with determination!

And at times with inevitability! (“It IS going to happen,” in that sense!)

And Paul the Apostle uses it in today’s Bible Study Text, Galatians 2:20. Uses it with great effectiveness, too! (“Nevertheless” appears 97 times in the King James Version of Scripture.)

“I am crucified with Christ: NEVERTHELESS I LIVE; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Wow!

In the first clause here, Paul is dead!

“In/with Christ” dead!

In the second clause here Paul is “alive,” also “in/with Christ!”

“Nevertheless I live!”

Yes, Paul is saying this with determination, THE LAW (OF MOSES) HAS NOT CONTRIBUTED TO HIS SALVATION EXPERIENCE, NOT ONE IOTA! Only Christ Jesus has done this! 

And yes too, Paul is definitely saying this employing a sense of “inevitability!”

Anyone crucified with Christ, must (of necessity) come alive again! Be raised from the dead!

Why?

Because Jesus was so raised from the dead!

If one is truly IN Christ … what Jesus lived, we will live also! We have become ONE with him! Again, “in/with” our Saviour!

“Nevertheless I live!”

Jesus’ Resurrection from the grave was … really, inevitable!

In Psalm 16, Jesus is talking (praying) to His Father: “For thou (Father) wilt not leave my soul in hell (the grave); neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One (Jesus) to see corruption (rot, decay). Thou wilt shew me the path (the way out of the tomb, grave) of life.” Psalm 16:10-11, Jesus had that clear Promise from God the Father, He WOULD be raised from the grave!

And thus, if Paul can be positionally crucified with Christ … he, assuredly … will be positionally raised together with Christ!

“You can’t have one, without the other!”

Praise the Lord!

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live!”

In Jesus.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

In what may be the central (key) verse in the whole Epistle of Galatians … Galatians 2:20 (our Text for several mornings, looks like) … Paul makes  a statement that has been quoted millions of times!

“I am crucified with Christ.”

Wow!

That verb “crucified with” as here rendered in English, is the Greek “sustauroo.” It means “nailed to a pole” (the “stauroo” part) prefixed by “with, beside” someone (the “sus” part, really “sun” before it is amended, blended).

Not just crucified!

Crucified WITH Christ Jesus our Lord!

Plus, the verb is framed in the “perfect” tense in Greek … meaning PAST action, but action that still has an ONGOING impact, effect! (We will never get over being so crucified! It, that great Fact, still influences, guides me every single day!)

Then again as well, the verb is in the passive voice!

Paul did not crucify himself, not in this verse! I am supposing (given Paul’s pneumatology, his belief/teaching about the Holy Spirit) the Holy Ghost Himself has crucifed a willing Paul, nailing him (his flesh, his false beliefs, his whole former life as a sinner) to that old rugged Tree on which Jesus died!

Now we must here remember the context of Paul’s cryptic remark.

Verse 19: “For I through the law am dead to the law.”

The Law (of Moses) has evidently brought Paul to the Cross, to this place of death! (It, the Law,  is a “schoolmaster,” designed to do this very thing, according to Galatians 3:24!)

The Law that finds every man (and woman) guilty before God! (“All have sinned.” Romans 3:23)

It was in one sense the Law that condemned Jesus, although He never violated one iota of it! Jesus on Calvary took my place … and yours … thereby suffering my death … and yours … in our stead!

The Law that puts me to death … put Jesus to death vicariously (in my place)!

As in: “His body … a man crucified … shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (FOR HE THAT IS HANGED IS ACCURSED OF GOD;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”

Jesus … cursed of God … for us!

Jesus’ Death satisfied the demands of the Law … on my behalf, yours too if you’ve accepted Him as your personal Saviour!

I am dead to the Law .. because I am crucifed with Christ!

It’s requirements can no longer be exacted upon me … because of my identification with Jesus in His Death, my participation in Christ!

A quaint illustration … Let’s say the Law showed up at my front door, accusing me of some sin (idolatry, for example). And I was guilty! (I, when a sinner, was an idolater! Guilty of worshipping self or greed or power or some other human, etc.) And the law aggressively calls for my death! (Idolatry was a capital crime in those bygone days.) But … what a minute! If I am already dead (in Christ Jesus my Lord) the Law cannot touch me! Cannot harm me .. because I am dead via Calvary! (You can’t kill a man but once … certainly not twice!)

Amazing!

So … my death in Jesus makes the Law (its threats and judgments) moot, useless, non-consequential!

In other words, JESUS’ DEATH COVERS IT ALL!

Oh, to live such a life!

“Crucified with Christ!”

His shed Blood having satisfied all the demands of sin against my life!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

In one magisterial sentence Paul sums up his relationship to the law, meaning the Law of Moses.

Here in Galatians 2:19 he prudently writes: “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”

“Through” the law, using the simple Greek preposition “dia,” essentially means “by” the law.  Better yet, “by means of” the law!

Sounds like the law “killed” Paul doesn’t it?

In fact, I suggest the law really kills everyone!

Listen to God’s Word: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:20

And by “sinning” we mean?

Oh, 1 John 3:4 answers this: “Sin is the transgression of the law.”

How many times in the Old Testament is the death penalty pronounced on anyone violating some aspect of the Law? Here’s Exodus 31:15, a single example: “Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.”

Now, multiply this “threat” dozens of times!

Furthermore, crucially, James 2:10 adds: “For whosoever shall keep the WHOLE law, and yet offend in ONE POINT, he is guilty of all.” One little “mishap,” and a sinner is guilty of breaking it all, the entire Mosaic Code!

No wonder Scripture dogmatically concludes: “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23!

So Paul believes that he is “dead” to the Law … because he has (even if accidentally) disobeyed that Law … and that Law (in principle) executed him, put Paul to death!

Dead to the Law! Dead by means of the Law! Dead because of the Law!

But (praise God) “born again” in Christ Jesus the Lord! Because of the Lord Jesus!

Paul’s “deadness” to the Law is a fact, too. The verb “am dead” (in Greek “apothnesko”) being an “aorist,” depicting an action having occurred in the past. Indicatively so, positively so.

Paul’s “aliveness” unto God is a longing desire, possibility … based on Jesus’ Death on Calvary! (And God’s subsequent “Gift” of Salvation! The very “heart” of the Gospel, Paul’s Gospel.) The verb “might live” (in Greek “zao”) being in the subjunctive mood!

This presents us with the distinct possibility of the salvation of everybody (all the “whoseoevers” of John 3:16)! The Atonement is unlimited, then! Everybody who believes in Jesus, repenting of their sins!

Wow, what a Verse!

“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”

What pristine theology!

Then … to preach the Law as the means of salvation … is a slap in the Face of Almighty God!

Dead to the Law!

Dead because of the Law’s condemnation!

But then … the possibility of being alive in Jesus!

Paul’s words: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Does this Lesson make sense? It sure brings me peace!

 

The Tuckasegee River, beautiful, flowing through Dillsboro, North Carolina. I made this photo yesterday afternoon as Debbie and I rode to Church.

This morning we left Dillsboro, North Carolina, the Revival having ended there last night. We drive home and repacked the car … and now I am in Knoxville, Tennessee (Alcoa really) ready to preach tonight. Wow, God is good!

TODAY’S BIBLE STUDY LESSON …

Paul is aghast!

Could anyone forsake the Grace of God and revert to a complex system of laws, 613 of them to be exact, in order to go to Heaven when he or she dies?

Yet some of Paul’s church-members in the Roman Province of Galatia had done that, or were on the verge!

So Paul earnestly asks: “For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Galatians 2:18

Wow!

If Paul (making himself an example to those Galatians) should go back to the observance of the Law of Moses, as a means of salvation … spurning (renouncing) in the process the Gift of God (salvation) that is offered to every man and woman, boy and girl … Paul would have (automatically) become a “transgressor!”

This noun, “parabates,” simply means one who has “stepped” back across a “line!”

The English etymology of “transgressor” is … one who “goes” (Latin “gradi’) “across” (Latin “trans”) a questionable barrier, maybe even a dangerous demarcation!

Paul is NOT going back!

He will NOT digress!

He will NOT frustrate the Grace of God!

What a lesson for us!

NEVER go back to … anything less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Today’s Text, verse is tough!

In fact, I have had to include a second (Galatians) verse to help further clarify what Paul is saying. At least what I believe he is saying.

Paul here asks, in his sometimes opaque way: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.” Galatians 2:17

Meaning: “But if, while we (true Believers) seek to be justified (saved) by Christ (by faith alone), we ourselves also are found sinners (by side-stepping Jesus and trusting the Law of Moses) , is therefore Christ the minister (helper to) of sin (at least inconsistency, if now downright error)? God forbid.”

To Paul, falling back on the Law of Moses, for one’s soul salvation, is nothing less than a blatant SIN! It is a denial of the Power of the Grace of God! We who have been saved, who have received salvation as a “gift,” would never want to so dishonor Christ!

To revert to the (inferior) Law of Moses (for salvation) … would in essence (according to Paul’s logic) make Jesus Christ a “minister” (a “servant”) of sin! An “accessory” to sin, one scholar words it!

Jesus certainly preached salvation as the result of belief in Himself, of faith in His Father! (John 5:24 … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”)

If Jesus is wrong here, and a man or woman has to also add obedience to Moses’ law as an aid to salvation … Jesus has become an adjunct to Moses! Moses who would then be a co-saviour! That’s impossible! Nearly blasphemy! Paul preaches: “Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.”

Maybe Galatians 2:18, the next verse will help us. “For if I (Paul) build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” That is: “For if I build again (go back to) the things which I destroyed (man’s works for salvation, including any legal list or lists), I make myself a transgressor.” And here “transgressor”means something like “stepping across the line!”

From Grace back into Law!

From Jesus back to Moses!

Now I too say, “GOD FORBID!”

The verb “destroyed” above is a translation of the Greek “kataluo,” to “loosen the bonds” of something! To “set free” something or someone!

Folks, no matter what anyone says … the LAW does not justify anyone!

Only the Blood of Jesus can do that!

Wow!

I never realized how much the Epistle of Galatians (it first half anyway) so dogmatically emphasizes “salvation” apart from human works, particularly obedience to the Mosaic Law.

Truly, we are “saved by Grace!”

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell