May 04, 2025

                                                   Who Are We in Christ?

                                                       Galatians 2:20

May 4, 2025                                                                                              Dr. Don Bazal

Galatians 2:20 –  I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

 The Scriptures enlarge our heart.

 Psalm 119:32 – I shall run the way of Your commandments, for You will enlarge my heart.

 Galatians 6:14 – But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

 Hebrews 6:1 – Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

FIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BELIEVER

 1.  Crucified – “I have been crucified with Christ.”

 Romans 6:3-5 –    Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Ephesians 2:1-6 –  And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

 2.  Alive – “Nevertheless I live”

 John 10:10 – The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

 Romans 7:4-6 – Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

3.  Christ in Us – “It is no longer I who live but Christ in me.”

 John 14:20 –  In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

 Colossians 1:27 – to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

4.  Faith Life – “The life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”

 Romans 1:17 –  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

 5.  Love Life – “Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

 Deuteronomy 6:4-5 –  “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

 Matthew 22:35-38 – One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment.

 Ephesians 5:25-27 – Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, ²⁶ so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.