Christ Who Lives in Me (Galatians 2:11-21)
Let us bless one another, Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Through today’s worship, may you really enjoy the true freedom and liberation through the gospel. Once we believe in Jesus Christ, all problems are honestly finished, but there are things within us that block this enjoyment for ourselves.
As a result, we ask questions like, “Even though I believe in Jesus Christ, why do I still have difficulties and get into fights with other people? I know absolutely that when I believe in Jesus Christ, all problems are finished, but why do I still have problems in my life? I thought that when I believe in Jesus Christ, I would be better at working or studying, but why are things the same or even worse now? I thought my business would really thrive, but it’s still the same as before I believed.”
People who lived as unbelievers will say, “I lived a very morally and ethically clean life, and I denied myself, but why do I still face these limitations? Why is it that, for no reason, disasters keep coming into my life, making it difficult?” I hope that we will receive the answer that God is giving us through the Bible today.
1. Peter
In today’s Bible scripture, there are two figures, Paul and Peter. Even today, there are people like Paul or Peter, in other words, Cephas, in the church. Peter is someone who followed Jesus Christ directly, receiving His grace for three years. Peter is also the one who saw Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection personally, and received a mission from Jesus.
Paul, on the other hand, was not one of the apostles. He never wandered with Jesus Christ for those three years. If anything, after Jesus Christ resurrected, Paul had his encounter with Jesus once, and that was the only time he was able to properly listen to Jesus’ words. Yes, God used both Peter and Paul, but the way they were used was slightly different.
The churches in Galatia, as we talked about previously, were the churches that were raised up when Paul proclaimed the gospel with them. That’s not a region full of Jews–these were Gentiles and Greeks who received the gospel and started these churches. However, there was something that sounded similar to the gospel, going into these churches and making a mess. They started saying things like, “You don’t need only faith in Jesus Christ; you also need to follow the laws and be circumcised to be saved.” Because these are people who are coming from the Temple of Jerusalem giving these words, the members of the church were shaking.
That’s why some members from the churches of Galatia sent some members to the Jewish church to get a verdict. At that time, Peter emphasized that you do not receive salvation through the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. So, these people heard directly that the Gentiles received the gospel and were coming to Christ, so they came to see directly.
1) Decision
(1) Eat with the Gentiles (Gal. 2:12)
As he arrived in that region, he started to eat with the Gentiles who’d accepted Jesus Christ in that region. So, Peter was eating with the Gentiles just fine, but some people who emphasized circumcision came from Jerusalem and saw Peter eating with the Gentiles, and Peter was so startled by this, he avoided that spot. From this situation, why did Peter have no choice but to do that?
You can know this if you look at Acts 10. Peter had a dream where there were four-hooved animals that crawled on the ground. These were illegal for the Jews to eat, per the laws of the Old Testament, and a voice from heaven kept telling him to eat it, but Peter refused three times, saying it was dirty, because the Jewish law forbade them from eating these animals.
When he woke up, there was someone sent to him from Cornelius. This messenger asked Peter to come because there was a gathering of people, and they needed the gospel. When Peter went to those people, he said to them, “You are well aware that it’s against the law for a circumcised Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile and yet, I’ve come anyway.”
(2) Stood in front of people (Gal. 2:12-13)
(3) Decision different from the Truth
Despite the fact that Peter was an apostle who was directly discipled by Jesus Christ for three years, this legalistic nature is so fearsome. The Jewish people lived for such a long time, believing in their standards of the law, such that when they believed in Jesus Christ, their nature started to block that. So, even though he specifically said that Jesus Christ’s grace is extended not only to the Jews, but also to save the Gentiles, when the Gentiles came to Jerusalem, he avoided them. It means that he knew the gospel, but it wasn’t applied to his life. He has the gospel, but in his life, he was applying the law.
2) Nature
(1) Nature of the Law instead of the Gospel (Ac. 10:11-16)
(2) Confirmed the Gospel through Cornelius (Ac. 10:28-35)
(3) Changed nature through relaying the Gospel to the Gentiles (Ac. 10:36-48)
So, imagine how hard it was for him to live, because he always had to be afraid of what others think. Within the gospel, it doesn’t matter with whom you meet or eat, but he trapped himself within the frame of the law. When he proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles that Cornelius had gathered, the Holy Spirit worked upon them the same way as they had for the Jews. This was what happened in Acts 10, before the Antioch Church was raised. The scripture passage we read today, though, was way after the Antioch Church. It was way after everything had happened; even still, Peter’s nature was so legalistic.
Before one receives the gospel, everybody has a set of standards that they receive from many generations of their family line. Or, there are some people who have gone to church for a long time, but instead of hearing the words of the gospel, they heard the words of the law, so they have become legalistic in nature. Even though they have been given the gospel, they are not able to utilize or enjoy the gospel. How is that revealed? Everybody has their own standards. We must have our own standards, however, you should not think of that as the truth around which everything revolves.
For the Jewish people, the law was good, but when you begin to apply that as the standard for everyone’s actions, that becomes a problem. People can be different from me. You have to acknowledge their differences, you shouldn’t say they’re wrong just because they’re different from you. Then, in reality before God, I’m wrong and they’re wrong. There’s nothing that is satisfying or “right” to God other than the gospel.
Even as you acknowledge this, you will receive freedom in your relationships. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you truly acknowledge this, then someone being different from me is not a problem. It’s simply that they’re different, they were born differently from me. However, we have a standard within us, “If they’re different from us, then they’re wrong, so we start to differentiate people with the standard of the law.
If you go to Japan, the law will be different than in America. If you go to Japan, it doesn’t matter how much you talk about the American law; you have to follow the Japanese law. Everybody has different standards, that’s simply something that is determined by society for convenience; “Let’s just act like this from now on.” If someone is going to a place that has a different promise, then we have to acknowledge those differences.
Sometimes there are people who are just wrong. When you talk to them, you can definitely tell that they’re very wrong, and it’s possible to start asserting your own opinions. What will you guys do in such a situation? Do you think we have to fix or correct them until the end? That’s your standard; God’s standard is different. He just leaves the incorrect things be. From that person’s perspective, they are correct. From my perspective, I’m correct. This is just a difference in perspective, it doesn’t mean that either is wrong, isn’t that right?
There’s a difference in the perspective of someone who receives the benefits of America versus someone who grew up in a colony of America. You cannot say that either is wrong. There are a lot of Korean people who say they are thankful towards Americans. However, if you ask the Japanese people about Americans, even though they technically made the first move in the war, they still criticize America. However, a Korean person should not point fingers at a Japanese person, saying they’re wrong. The background, the culture, and the nature that we grew up in is different, and that’s the perspective that we’re speaking from, but that’s not the truth; it’s determined by life.
3) Acceptance
(1) Different from me
(2) The Gospel in the incorrect things – Oneness
(3) All people (Level, power) – God’s Plan
What’s important is that we’re able to go together with the gospel, then what is the gospel? You’re able to see in God’s perspective, and there’s nothing we can see through God’s perspective other than the message and the power of the cross through Jesus Christ. God does not see anyone through another perspective. If you have the gospel and enjoy it, it means you’re enjoying everything through the perspective of the gospel.
As we come to church, there will be those who are of high level and those who are of low level. There will be those who have power and those who have none, but humans have been taught to subtly divide between the two. Even though we have the gospel, we don’t apply the gospel. Whether someone has power or not, whether someone is high level or low level, God is still using them through the power of the cross. Then, that is the way to put the gospel into practice and to enjoy its freedom.
If it’s not the gospel, then you look from your own perspective, and say “I cannot communicate with that person and I don’t like them,” so you avoid them. “There are so few rich people here, it’s very low level, so I can’t communicate with anyone.” It’s because that person doesn’t know the reason for the gospel. Every person has sin and falls short of the glory of God. From the perspective of humans, that person may be a little more ethical or powerful, but from God’s perspective, we are all sinners. From God’s perspective, whether you’re a Jew or Gentile, you’re all sinners, and everyone can only gain life through the gospel. When this gospel becomes more than just words and is actualized inside the church, then people can come to life.
All the incorrect things we’ve learned may be needed, but when that becomes the all-encompassing standard, it will become a snare that frames you. When Americans hear me speak English, they say, “Wow, you’re so good,” and there’s a lot of situations where second-generation Koreans will say that I’m good at English, because they know my level. But the problem is the international students. These foreign students are not even good themselves, and they start nitpicking at my pronunciation.
So they just use these unnecessary standards to divide people, “Your pronunciation is bad, I don’t want to hang out from you,” but from the perspective of a native speaker, they’re all bad, and from the perspective of God, we’re all the same, but we’re just fighting amongst each other, who’s better and who’s worse. I’m not telling you to not look at level, but that should not be your standard. God doesn’t look at outer appearances, God is able to see everyone through His grace.
Then why do you think the Jewish people were so strangled by the law for thousands of years? It is because that was the Word God gave them. They couldn’t just throw away the Word God gave them, but the problem is that they were not able to determine the real intention with which God gave them the law.
2. Paul
1) Understand the law
(1) Law – Sin increased (Rom. 5:20, Rom. 3:19)
Romans 5:20 says that the reason God gave us the law is to show our sins. If we didn’t have the law, then we wouldn’t even recognize our own sin. Because we have those traffic lights, we are able to see who is breaking traffic laws or not. If those traffic lights weren’t there, we wouldn’t have that standard. However, the reason God gave us the law is to reveal to us how sinful we are.
But the way these people received the law is by thinking, “Oh, this is the Word of God, so we have to do our very best to obey that law so that we’re not wrong,” so that’s why they stake their entire lives on keeping the actions of God’s law. They thought this was the greatest way of believing in God. God gave us the law through Moses; does that mean sin did not exist before Moses? His Original Sin was still there. Every human being has Original Sin from the moment they’re born, and by giving us the law, God is able to reveal how severe this sin is. Through the law, God is able to reveal to us that we are sinners. We are in a state of death because of our sin.
(2) Law – To bring life (Rom. 7:10)
But it must not end there; God gave us the law so that through it, we can go into the grace of the gospel of life through Jesus Christ. So, the law is a good thing; however, Peter made it the standard of everyone’s actions, and that’s why he avoided the Gentiles when the Jewish people came.
(3) Not under the law but under grace (Rom. 6:14)
We are no longer held under the law because Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. When Jesus Christ came as a human, He never broke any law. He died on the cross to take upon all the problems and curses of my sin, both my Original Sin and my sin of not keeping the law. So He made it so that we no longer live by the law, but by the gospel, and the only way we can live is by faith in the gospel.
We do not become righteous by any of our actions, but simply by believing in the work that the Lord did. But we keep falling into the trap of debating before people about who is better and who is worse. We stand before people and we’re under the misconception that if someone keeps the ethical laws, then they are good. If someone is well-mannered, clean, and ethical, we cannot criticize them by the law.
They only have faith if they believe in Jesus Christ. We can only be righteous if we believe in the fact that Jesus Christ took the curses of all our sins on the cross on our behalf. Does that mean that the law is now destroyed? No, through Jesus Christ, He solidifies the law even more. The law is God’s Word, and not even 0.1% of it will disappear. It’s that the perspective with which we look at the law is wrong. God gave us the law as a tool and a channel for us to realize our sinfulness so that we hold onto only the life of the gospel, but instead, we look at the law as a goal, and that’s why people are oppressed by legalism.
2) Act of the law
(1) Under a curse (Gal. 3:10)
(2) Cannot be righteous (Gal. 3:11)
(3) Self-righteousness and pride
That’s why from our perspective, we can say to others, “That’s wrong,” and we keep trying to fix and correct people with the works of the law, but even if you try to fix them, they cannot come to life. Their actions may change slightly, and that’s the education of the world. Yes, that’s necessary but that cannot save people. If the church doesn’t have the gospel and their standards are the acts of the law, that cannot save the church. If they emphasize, “Have you lived like this? Have you lived like that?” The Bible tells us it’s impossible to live like that, and the Bible tells us there’s not a single life that is satisfying in God’s eyes. We may receive the praise of people, saying “This person has a great personality,” but that’s not how God sees us, and if it’s not correct before God, the devil rushes in. The devil is only held at bay if something is correct before God.
What is a church? It is a gathering of people who are regarded as righteous as a result of their faith. That’s why the standard of the church is not the rules made by humans, but by the gospel of the cross of Jesus. Then, someone’s bound to ask this question, “This person’s actions are so wrong, shall we just leave them alone?” The answer to that is in Galatians 2:20. That person has Christ living within them, so take your hands off. Inside of that person, Jesus Christ controls them, so you can just back off, because you cannot save anybody with the standards you emphasize; you’ll only end up killing them.
You yourselves, take your hands off of your life. You work so hard physically thinking you can succeed, but you need to surrender now because you will eventually. You have your own standards that you want, so you keep working diligently to get it, but God’s standard is not diligence; God’s standard is not success; God’s standard is, “Will this person live or die?”
But we’ve already set our own standards. “If I’m going to do my business, I want it to be like this,” yes, we need that, but that’s not the standard nor the goal. What is your standard? “I will run my business for the gospel and through this business, I will save people through the gospel.” That is the business that is correct in God’s eyes; only there is there freedom and joy in your business.
It’s the same with studying; there are so many people who are good at studying, but that’s not what God desires. God thinks it’s only correct if you study with the strength of the gospel and you use your studies to testify of the gospel to save. Humans will only look at this person, thinking “Is this person skilled or not?” but that’s never God’s standard. Joseph went in as a slave, David had such strong and capable older brothers, and his father did not even call him to line up when they were looking for a king. That means the way people see and the way God sees is different; people only look at outer appearance and actions.
Even when they get married, that’s all they look at. Yes, you have to look at that, but that cannot be your absolute standard. Inside of that, you need to ask, “Are they trying to live by the gospel or not?” Then that family will come to life through the gospel. Curses and disasters will flee. The Bible is telling us everything you have to live with, and the Bible is telling us what the standard is for the entire church. Yes, it’s impossible to get rid of our own standards, but when you take your standards as the absolute level of the gospel, then you will die first.
So yes, you can make promises, but you shouldn’t say, “I’d rather die before breaking this promise.” You shouldn’t just say arrogant words, “If I say no, I’ll always say no.” If someone says, “Once I start something, I will finish it,” those words are a headache. Our physical body was not created so that if we do something, then we’ll finish it. God hears your thoughts and will make your life so that it doesn’t work out that way.
3) Faith
(1) Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:16)
(2) Become righteous (Gal. 2:16, Rom. 3:26)
(3) Law – Death, God – Live for (Gal. 2:19)
(4) Faith – Uphold the law (Rom. 3:31)
God is alive and is listening to the words inside your heart. When you say something to one person and you say something else behind their back, God hears that. That’s what it means to stand before God. God and the devil both know whether you have insincere motives in your heart. People don’t know that, but you keep living your life thinking, “Hey, if I live this way before people, I’m not going to get caught.”
3. Gospel that saves
1) Cross
(1) Jesus’ death – Died with (Gal. 2:20)
(2) Jesus’ resurrection – Lives within me (Gal. 2:20)
(3) Body – Live by faith (Gal. 2:20)
We must live with the gospel, with Christ as life within me. I have died on the cross with Christ, but I’m still alive physically. The fact that you’re dead means the “me” that lived by my physical desires, the “me” that lived not by God’s will but only my will, is dead on the cross. Now, it’s no longer me, but Christ lives within me, now we live by the gospel. Living by the gospel means you are living by the Holy Spirit.
2) Power
(1) Filling of the Holy Spirit (Ac. 1:8)
Philippians 3 says to serve the church within the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? It means do not use your own strength because if you live with your own strength, you will face limitations, and if you work with your own strength, you’ll end up boasting of yourself and you’ll make yourself fall. That’s a completely legalistic action. You want to get acknowledged by people because you want to be better than others. That’s a person who is living to feed their own stomach, that’s in Philippians 3.
How do we live? Christ lives within me, then we’re living through Christ. Every standard is the gospel. The cross, all people have weakness, and that’s why they need the gospel. We look and live with those eyes. If you tell someone to do something with their strength, that doesn’t even make sense. You have to live with the power of Christ within you. It’s faster to say that rather than nagging.
You’re a child of God and God is with you. Though you are weak, God will give you strength. That’s how you apply the gospel and help them live by the gospel, too. There are many different types of people in church, there are types like this and types like that. All you have to do is acknowledge that, because their actions can never block the gospel of Christ living within them. Your own weakness can never overcome the Christ Who lives within you. Your fiercely strong ideologies can not block Christ within you; your ideologies are bound to be broken. Therefore, we do not live with any of our strong standards, but only within the faith of Jesus Christ and His grace.
Do you have a problem? That problem cannot overcome the Christ within you, but if someone is not applying the gospel and they live with their own law and physical strength, they will fall in the face of problems. That’s why people who live by the law and their physical self will end up falling into their limitations. Quickly be restored through the gospel.
Even if you get cancer, it doesn’t matter because you cannot fix that with your strength. I hope you will come to life with the gospel; may you live with the power of Christ within you, then that problem is irrelevant to me. This gospel is not a simple matter. It’s not enough to end it with two syllables, “gospel,” but we are living with that gospel now. If you don’t have strength, you have to live with the power of the gospel.
(2) Power (Ac. 1:8)
God promised to be with you through the power of only the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ came to us as the Holy Spirit. Now, stop living by your mental strength, but live by the power of the Holy Spirit. You have to live with the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the world. Right now, the world is educating everyone saying, “You can control the world because you are God. You can study well on your own, and you can run your business on your own,” that’s what the world teaches, but your spirit will die, and if your spirit dies, everything dies.
If the software is corrupted, then over time, even the hardware is corrupted. The most important thing for a human is their spirit. If our spirit is dying without any joy or rest, what is the point of having physical things we see? What’s the point of acknowledging actions like this or that? If we simply live with the power of the gospel, the Lord will guide us in the direction of fulfilling the law on His own, so it’s not something we can fix by telling someone to be like this or to be like that, it must be naturally healed by the power of the gospel.
God wants a church that fulfills these words. God doesn’t want a church that only says the gospel with words, that’s just too noisy. He wants us to actualize the gospel so that our lives become gospelized, then the characteristic is that you’ll be able to accept all people. If the law becomes your standard, then if someone is wrong, you’ll have to cut them out. If you go to certain churches, there’s only well-educated people there, because if someone is uneducated, they will kick them out, saying “We can’t communicate with you.” But God doesn’t call us like that. No matter who that person is, God allows us to become one in the gospel.
So there’s no reason to emphasize that you’re born here because everyone in the world is one. It doesn’t matter who immigrated here first or not, it doesn’t matter how many generations you’ve lived here, we can only live by the gospel. “It’s been 40 years since I immigrated,” why does that matter? But people keep arguing with that. We live with the gospel, then do you think someone didn’t live anywhere else before immigrating here? They lived there, too, then if someone has lived in America for a long time, they will be looked down on when they move to another nation. The only thing that saves other people is the gospel, not by our standards, but by the Christ within them. You live by His strength. You need to live your life, study, and work by His power. That’s the Christ Who lives within me.
(3) End of the earth – Witness (Ac. 1:8)
In Genesis 6, it says the sons of God became mortal or physical. What that means is that they no longer lived by the spirit of the Lord within them; they lived by their own strength, and if you live by your own strength, you will end up surrendering. God brought the disaster of the flood to them. During the age of the Nephilim, demons were working, and because they were only living physically, they could not overcome the evil spirits. That became a problem. But Noah received God’s favor.
I believe the gospel is God’s grace, not by our actions, but we receive faith by grace. The Bible says, “Noah walked with God.” It doesn’t mean he said, “God is in my heart,” but he enjoyed God being with him in every aspect of his life. If you ask a 3-year-old, “Where is Jesus?” They will point at their heart. But if you’re 70 years old, and you’re still saying that, that’s a headache. For a 3-year-old, they’re still nursing from their mother, so it’s okay for them to say, “Jesus is within my heart.” But if someone is 70 years old, it’s not enough for them to say that Jesus Christ is in their heart. You need to say that Jesus Christ is with you within every aspect of your life.
3) Church that saves
Yes, Jesus Christ is in your heart, but you have to speak about Jesus Christ is with you in every aspect: in your church, in your business, in your family, and that’s why God gives you the evidence. But you will receive continuous evidence in your church, in your business, and in your family, of people coming to life with the gospel of Jesus being with you, and that’s how you become a witness, not a witness of how well you can keep the words of the law, but a witness of how the gospel saves.
Your actions of keeping the law well yourself will only exalt your law and your righteousness, and you’ll throw away the gospel of Jesus Christ in a trash can. Because you’ve kept the law, you only testify of yourself and you exalt yourself. There’s honestly nothing we can testify of, because we received it by Jesus Christ’s grace, but in everything, they keep talking about themselves and boasting of themselves. Someone who truly knows the gospel, someone who really knows how sinful people are, cannot boast of themselves.
Paul received the grace of the gospel so much that he confessed, “I was a sinner in my mother’s womb, and there’s nothing to boast about in my great education.” He confessed, “God destined me for salvation from long ages past,” and I hope you will enjoy the power of this gospel every day.
(1) Reality of the Gospel – Platform
The Lord is living within me, the Lord has already completed your whole life and is guiding you forward. It’s not about you determining your own plan, your own goal, and trying your best to get there; the Lord has already completed your life and is with you, guiding you through it. When you face a problem, Christ does not shake. You may shake, but Christ never shakes. It doesn’t matter how wicked the world is; they cannot overcome Christ and that Christ lives within me. We can have victory only when we enjoy this through faith, and this is the message. So, we need a church that’s able to accept and understand many types of people through the gospel.
(2) Spiritual communication
The church is a place that must have spiritual communication with God to receive His power. Because humans don’t have power, we keep trying to rely on other people. However, the power of God can do world evangelization and He is with us with that power. You should never be discouraged because of yourself. It’s normal to be discouraged when you look at yourself, and it’s normal to be discouraged and to be in despair when you look at other people. That’s why you should not hold onto the law, but only the gospel. I hope you will see through faith the Christ that is living within you and within the other person. Then you will see the evidence that God is guiding everything perfectly.
(3) Media – 237 nations
We must not hold onto this message just by ourselves, but especially in the age of media communications, we must spread this message to the 237 nations. Right now, we have to give the gospel message to the missionaries in El Salvador, but they do not speak English, so we need to interpret these messages. Who will answer that call? That is the work God is doing right now, and if you want to do that, you cannot stay still. There must be someone who has specialized knowledge, and it takes money as well. God does the work, but God does it through people.
The church that our future generations grow up in will be a church that can broadcast the gospel to all nations at the same time. Immediately, right now, we have Mongolians, and they can understand English, but if some people cannot, we have to interpret it into their language. God’s message is allowing the message of the gospel to go into everybody, and that’s why we need science and skills, that’s why we need money. Then God prepares it and says He will do it. Do you think that’s the extent? In the future, it will go to the 237 nations because the complete gospel is relayed. I believe that God has called us all with that plan.
Conclusion
1. Only Gospel
2. Only Holy Spirit
3. Me, business, church that saves the 237 nations
May this week be only the gospel, only by the Holy Spirit, which is the power of the gospel, may your work save people.
Prayer
Let us pray together with the message we’ve received.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Prayer
God, we thank You. We pray that the gospel we have been given today will be our power to save. Allow us to become the church that You desire, that proclaims only the gospel, in an age where there are so many churches. Allow us to become the witnesses who only work and study with only the gospel.
We have returned our material blessings as offering. We have given them to you as future generations, temple construction, missions, and tithe. We believe you will answer us with the economy of light to save the 237 nations of the world. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. We believe God will guide him through the worship that he gave today with the power of the gospel, that will become his power and he will be used as a witness to save others. We pray You will bless Him abundantly. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the heads of all the people of the Lord who believe, enjoy, and want to testify of the Christ within them, be with the remnants and all the work they are doing, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen