I am crucified with Christ

 

 I am crucified with Christ

 

(Galatians 2:20-21)『 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. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.』

The Jews had the idea of ​​God's chosen people, and they thought they were not sinners because they kept the law well. So when you look at the Gentiles, you think they are sinners. It was considered against the law for Jews to associate with Gentiles. Likewise, the Gentiles deliberately shunned the Jews because they knew the law generally. However, the Jews preached the gospel of God to the Gentiles. In a vision, Peter saw an unclean animal coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloth. Unclean animals symbolize strangers. And God appeared to Cornelius in a vision and told him to meet Peter. So Peter and Cornelius meet and preach the gospel.

In Acts 11:2-4, “And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying,

In Acts 15:1-2『And certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. 』Thus, at the Jerusalem Assembly, Christians concluded that circumcision was no longer necessary.

Even though he thought that Peter had deviated from the law in this way, there were times when he himself acted softly according to the law. When Peter visited the church in Antioch, he was having a meal with Paul, Barnabas, and Gentile believers, and a Jew sent by James from Jerusalem came to the dinner. Peter unintentionally changed his seat while having a meal with the Gentiles and moved to the Jew who had entered the dining room, so Barnabas did the same, and all the Jews who were sitting there moved. So Paul had to rebuke Peter for this situation.

In 1 Corinthians 5:6 Paul said, Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Paul said, "As the leaven spreads by leaving the fornicators out at once, so can the church." Likewise, wrong ideas about the law can become like leaven if miscommunicated between people.

In Galatians 2:15-16, “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law : for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Both Jews and Gentiles are sinners, but it is said that justification comes only through faith in Jesus Christ, not the law.

In Romans 3:9-10, “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: It is only when we are righteous in Christ that we are saved. In Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight his: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

The fact that there is no body to be justified means that all people on this earth cannot achieve righteousness in the flesh because there is a desire to become like God in the flesh.

The law makes it clear. That is why we must put off our fleshly body and enter into Christ. Only those who die with Jesus enter into Christ. Those who obey God's Word are those who deny themselves. Therefore, obedience to God tells us that those who do not die with Jesus Christ cannot obey God's Word because of the flesh.

You cannot be righteous by the law, you can only be righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. In most churches today, there is probably no one who does not know this word. But, why do you keep telling this story? The reason is because the mouth says that we are saved by faith, but not by works. The act is the death of our old self on the cross with Jesus.