“Gospel Community” (Gal 2:20)
- Our Core
Values II -
“We Preach Christ Crucified!”
There
is one story that I always try to remember whenever I prepare the message. This
story is about one church in England.
The slogan of this church on the front door was always "We Preach Christ Crucified."
But after many years, the church decided to change the sign into "We Preach
Christ." They still preached Christ, but not necessarily Christ “Crucified.”
They started focusing more on Jesus' moral life, noble character, and his
philosophy than on his death and resurrection. Then, many people left the
church. After a few years, the church changed its sign once again. It became
"We Preach." From that time on, the church started preaching any
topics from politics, philosophy, ethics to all kind of social issues. Then
more people left the church. And eventually, that church had to close down. This
story reminds us of what must we believe and what must we preach to ourselves
and to the world. In this respect, today’s Scripture contains the fullness of
the gospel in a nutshell: “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 lived and gave himself
for me.”
“Christ Has Died!” (Prerequisite
of Galatians 2:20)
This
is the gospel that we must hold fast to forever. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing; but to us who are being saved it is the power of
God.” Paul knew that the gospel of
the cross alone is the power of God. Before he came to preach in Corinth,
he was in Athens
(cf. Acts 17:16ff). The city of Athens
was full of idols. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, preached the good news
about Jesus’ death and resurrection to everyone in the market place as well as
in the synagogue. When the people heard of this gospel, some of them laughed at
him and others said, “We want to hear more about this” and they left. The Bible
says “A few men became followers of Paul and believed” (v.34). The fruit of his
ministry in Athens
was not that impressive. If I were Paul, I would modify the message for the
next time. But Paul did not change his message. He continued to preach the same
message, “the message of the cross,” in the next city, Corinth.
In 1 Corinthians 2:2 he says, “For I
resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified.” He knew that the people were asking for miraculous signs and
human wisdom. He knew the message of the cross would be a stumbling block and sound
foolish to them. But he still preached Christ crucified, because Paul knew that
this gospel alone is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who
believes. Paul himself used to laugh at the message of cross. But in the depths
of despair he encountered Jesus who died on the cross to deliver him. Since
that time, Paul always preached Christ crucified.
“I Have Been Crucified with
Christ!”
Today’s scripture is Paul’s
confession of love to Christ. When we experience the deep, deep
love of Jesus, then we come to confess like Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ.” It is not a goal to achieve by our efforts. It is a statement of the
life we will live when we fall in love with Christ. I want you to pay
attention to the tense of this verse. It is the “present perfect.” It is
already completed. NLT version translates this verse in this way: “My old self has been crucified with
Christ.” When we fall in love with Christ
who was crucified for our sin, we become dead to our old self. That’s why
in Romans 6:11 Paul says, “In the same
way, count yourselves dead to sin but
alive to God in Christ Jesus.” It is not about trying hard to be dead to self. It is about accepting death to self. St Macarius was a well-known church father
in 4th century. One youth asked him, “What does it mean to be dead
to self and to the world?” St Macarius sent him to a cemetery to rebuke and
then to praise the dead. Then he asked him what they said to him. The young man
replied, “They were silent to both praise and reproach.” Macarius said, “And so
you too. Be dead like the dead.” Dead men tell no tales. Dead
men do not become
angry when insulted, nor puffed up when praised. That’s
what it means to be crucified with Christ.
“Christ Lives in Me!”
Some
of you may say, “Yes, I want to be holy. I want to be dead to self. But it’s
hard to keep up.” Now we have “knowledge” of how we should live, but we don’t
have the “power” to achieve it. Paul went through the same process
already. He really wanted to live a holy life, but at the same time, his sinful
nature made him a slave to sin. So he cried out in despair, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue
me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:22-24) But this is not the end. We have
good news. Jesus promised, “I will not leave
you as orphans. I will come to you” (John 14:18) He died on the cross, but on the third day
he was raised from the dead by the power of God, and as he promised, he did
come back to us to dwell within us through the infilling of his Holy Spirit.
William Temple used to illustrate this mystery in this way: “It is no good
giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a new play
just like it. Shakespeare could do it, but I can’t. And it is no good showing
me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live a life just like it.
Jesus could do it, but I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and
live inside me, I would then be able to write plays like he did. And if the
Spirit of Jesus could come and live inside me, I would then be able to live a
life like he did.” This is the open
secret of how to live as a Christian.
I
would like to share my story how the Holy Spirit guides me to live a victorious
life. In summer 2010 I went to a short term mission trip to China
with the church members. During the trip, there was a time when things became
very difficult. The advance group had to transfer several times and skip meal
to prepare a special service ahead of time. After the trip, one of the team
members shared this experience with other church family members. For some
reason, he remembered wrong. He thought I was not the advance team member. So
after he shared the story, he said something like this, “Pastor Victor doesn’t
know how difficult it was because he was not there.” When I heard this, I was
so angry. Immediately, I was tempted to say for myself and cry out, “I was
there!” But at that very moment, the Holy Spirit said to me, “Be silent. Be
dead.” And then he said to me, “I know you were there.” Strangely enough, my
anger subsided. His peace guarded my heart. I truly came to believe if God saw
me I was there, that would be enough. I then was able to focus on God rather
than what others thought of me. And I was able to be free from how they saw me.
“I Live by Faith!”
Today
Paul’s confession is not out of a sense of religious obligation, but it is from
sense of freedom and excitement. He shouts with joy, “Yes, I have been crucified with Christ. I no long live, but Christ
lives in me, and now I live by faith in him!” The gospel is good news
because God deals us according to the finished work of Christ. “By Jesus’ death
and resurrection” our old life is gone and a new life burgeons! As I close the
message, let me tell you the story of Pastor Tullian Chavijin. In his book, “Jesus + Nothing = Everything” he shares
the following story. He says that one time his friend’s daughter, Robin, found
herself in a very difficult English literature course that she desperately
wanted to get out of. She sat there on her first day and thought, “If I don’t
transfer out of this class, I’m going to fail. I can’t do this.” She came home
with tears in her eyes and begged her dad to help her get out of the class. So
the next day her dad took her down to the school, and they went to the head of
the English department. He asked for his daughter’s transfer. Then the dean
looked at Robin and said to her, “Robin, I know how you feel. What if I
promised you an A no matter what you did in the class? If I gave you an A
before you even started, would you be willing to take the class?” Robin was astonished
and said, “Well, I think I could do that.” The teacher said, “I’m going to give
you an A in the class. You already have an A, so you can go to class.” Later
the teacher explained to Robin’s dad how she took away the threat of a bad
grade so that Robin could learn English literature. Robin ended up making
straight A’s on her own in that class. That’s how God deals with us. Because of Christ’s finished work, we
already have an A. The threat of failure, judgment, and condemnation has been
removed. We have victory in Jesus forever!
Do you want to live a
victorious life? I will tell you an open secret. The secret of a victorious life is to die to
self everyday, and to live by faith in Christ who lives in us. “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.” Let us
believe this gospel! Let us sing this gospel! Let us live this gospel! Then,
our life, our family, and our church will be transformed and prosperous in a
wonderful way. Amen.
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