Galatians 2 (6)

Opening Prayer: Psalm 110.1-3
The LORD said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
Your people shall be volunteers
In the day of Your power;
In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.

Sing Psalm 110.1-3
(Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation)
“Sit by Me at My right hand,” the LORD says to my Lord,
“until I make Your foot stand on all who hate Your Word.”
The LORD sends strength from Zion: “Rule all Your enemies.”
While those who Him rely on go forth their LORD to please.

Read Galatians 2.1-21; meditate on verses 17-21.

Preparation
1. What is our status as believers?

2. How does a believer live?

Meditation
Today I am in the grip of something alive in me. Susie took one look at me this morning and said, “Oooh.” My body has been taken over (temporarily, I hope) by a living substance. My head is throbbing. My nose is running. I have a sore throat. I slept in this morning.

When something alive—like a virus, say—is gamboling about in you, you know it, and you want it to end sooner than later.

Except, of course, when that living entity is Jesus. “Christ lives in me” is, in my book, the most astonishing and most precious sentence in all of Scripture. Me! In me! Jesus Christ! He is alive in me and in all who believe in Him, striving by His Spirit and Word to grow and stretch out in us, to rule all our thinking, feeling, choosing, and doing and to rule these always. He is living in us to transform us so that we might be more like Him (2 Cor. 3.12-18), that His righteousness might capture every aspect of our soul and spread out from there to characterize all our words and deeds.

When we sin—and we all do and will—it’s not Jesus performing that “ministry” in us. It’s us, like Peter, resisting Jesus’ grace, thinking we know better, and stepping out on our own to do “our thing.” We’re trying to be a law unto ourselves, rather than to submit to God’s Law for the freedom, love, power, and joy keeping it provides. We’re not “under the Law” for salvation but becauseof it, because He Who perfectly kept the Law is alive in us, striving and stretching and straining with joy to bring us into conformity with His righteous image.

Jesus is alive in me. In you. Do we know it? Is He making Himself known in and through us? “Christ lives” in us. Go for the glory!

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
I through the law
Died to the law
That I might
Live to God—
I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live
But Christ lives in me—
The life which I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God
Who loved me and
Gave Himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God,
For if righteousness comes through the law,
Then Christ died in vain.
(Gal. 2.17-21)

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15.19, 20).

When we get the Gospel wrong, or we deviate from the pure Truth of it, either we are found to be the most pathetic and pitiable of people, or worse yet, Christ is perceived as having suffered and died in vain. 

Nothing good ever comes from telling the Good News slant! It may be a unique way to write poetry, but when it comes to life and death, Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, is the only way to tell it and live it.

We needed the law to know that we could not keep the law to be saved.
And we need the law to guide us on the Jesus Path now that we are saved.

For Christ to fully live in us, we need to die to ourselves, and give Him room to work.  And this “Christ life” that we now desire to live, can only be lived by faith in and through the saving work of Jesus--Who loved us and gave Himself for us— for this reason and for this purpose.

We cling to the knowledge and Truth of His grace, because it is only by grace that we are saved (Eph. 2.8, 9).
But then we give our hearts and minds, for the rest of our lives, to be pleasing vessels for His honor and glory. And those attributes will not happen outside of keeping the Law through His power—because He lives in us. “I will run the course of Your commandments, for You shall enlarge my heart” (Ps. 119.32).

“Because He Who perfectly kept the Law is alive in us, striving and stretching and straining with joy to bring us into conformity with His righteous image.”

Reflection
1. What evidence do you see that Christ lives in you?

2. In what ways would you like to see more evidence of His living in you?

3. Whom will you encourage today with the reminder that Christ lives in them?

It is a remarkable sentiment, that believers live out of themselves, that is, they live in Christ; which can only be accomplished by holding real and actual communication with him. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Galatians 2.20

Closing Prayer: Psalm 110.3-7
Pray that more of Christ’s Presence and power would be at work in and through you today. Pray for each situation or opportunity before you today to live for the glory of the Lord. Pray for grace and strength to do so.

Sing Psalm 110.3-7
(Aurelia: The Church’s One Foundation)
Your people in Your power, arrayed in holiness,
like dew of morning’s hour shall serve like youth refreshed.
The LORD has sworn and never will He His promise check:
“You are a priest forever after Melchizedek.”

The Lord is at Your right hand to execute His wrath,
and judge all kings and all lands—doomed sinners in His path.
Then, all His foes defeated, He takes His hard-won rest,
in glorious triumph seated with us, redeemed and blessed.

T. M. and Susie Moore

If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.