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1:14Welcome back to our study of Galatians and the gospel of grace. We've been looking at several things in series here. We've been looking at the gospel and its singularity. That is its priority. The gospel is to have priority over our lives. We've looked at its authority and its origin, that the gospel is from God, and that speaks of its authority. Last time we looked at the good news about justification. That the good news of being justified, being made right with God, is something that is freely given, something that is not earned and never could be earned, but that it is freely given. Today, we want to keep going down this vein of thought, looking at this gospel of grace and its good news, specifically about union with Christ and what actually happens when we come to Christ and what happens in salvation. This is a very significant passage in the New Testament, and the thought that it expresses is really fundamental to Christianity. And it comes down to the very question: how are you going to be made right with God? Certainly, the good news is that it is by faith alone, but how does that actually play out? And Paul is in the middle of really a confrontation, a conflict with the Judaizers.

3:00There are these individuals that had come up from Jerusalem, and they started telling the church and those there, they were very articulate, and they started telling people there that, you know what? You can't be saved unless you obey the law of Moses. Or maybe they were saying you cannot maintain a good relationship with God unless you obey the law of Moses. One way or the other, you cannot obtain and you cannot maintain a good relationship with God unless you obey the law of Moses. These are the antagonists in the passage. And the problem with the Judaizers is that they had a faulty view of the Messiah. They thought, much like those who had rejected Jesus, that he was coming to make Jews of all nations. And so when they came up to Antioch and saw all these Gentiles who had put their faith in Jesus Christ, they were saying, okay, we need to go a step further and make them proselytites to Judaism. That was the Judaizers. Well, you think about what does a Judaizer do? Well, makes Jews. Judaizer. I'm going to turn you into a Jew. That's the idea. It tries to make people Jew-like. And so we pick it up in the middle of this confrontation. And they're very good at their deception. And their deception is that faith isn't enough to make you right with God.

4:30And their success is seen in that Peter got caught up in it and started withdrawing from his Gentile brothers and sisters. And not only Peter, but Barnabas and all the believing Jews pulled themselves away from their Gentile brothers and sisters. And it is Paul that confronts the situation. Though he's talking to Peter and addressing Peter, he is really addressing the Judaizers. The very last thing, Saul, verse 16, Paul is telling Peter, look, we are Jews by nature, and we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we, Peter, have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ Jesus and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified. That's the last thought that Paul had addressed Peter with. And he's going to go on and we pick it up. But before we jump back into the narrative, I want to talk to you about union, about union in relationships. And this isn't something that should be difficult for us to understand. We understand when a Couple gets married, they become one. Their accounts get joined. They bring into this marriage union. I remember I was one of those poor college students, and by God's grace, and those of you who knew me knew I only had a bike for a lot of times because cars got stolen. That was another story. But I had a bicycle, and then my sister-in-law was so kind to me to sell me her Plymouth Horizon, her 1982 Plymouth Horizon. And I was excited. The down part of it, I didn't have, and she only sold it to me for a dollar.

6:51And then she was kind enough to finance it for me for three years. And that debt I did bring into the marriage. That's about it. And then she forgave the debt when I couldn't pay it off. But you get the idea: when we come into the marriage, we have to share our assets as well as our liabilities. We can think of this union between people, between a father and son. A union. I remember, and I've shared this story years ago when I was young and in my Seeking approval by my peers by doing bad things, I broke into a store and stole a bunch of groceries with my friends. Now, it just so happened that this store owner got caught, by the way. This store owner was one of my dad's best clients. They also owned the bank where my dad got all his loans.

7:58So you can imagine what I did. I brought shame upon him. I made his life difficult. He had to pay for my offenses. I couldn't pay back what I had stolen. And I look back over my life, and I look back, and I just look back at just the kindness of my father and how he stepped in and picked up the slop that I had made and made it right. But as I look back, can I ever make this right? Now he's gone on. Can I ever go back? No, it's a matter of history. How can I ever make this right?

8:47And that's the question, a fundamental question of Christianity. How can we go back and make right the wrongs that we have done? I mean, if you're honest, we have messed some things up. Well, the answer is found in the gospel, the good news, the good news about this union with Christ, and how when we come to Christ, it's like a joint account is opened up between us and the king. The king and all of his assets, and us, the subjects, all of our liabilities, coming together in one joint account, and he making things right. Let's jump right in in verse 17.

9:41But, in light of what I just said in verse 16, Peter, we are wanting to be justified in Christ ourselves. But if, verse 17, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? Paul asks a question. And it's very important to understand the we ourselves. Paul is speaking about Peter. He's talking about, and he just said this, we, in verse 15 and 16, we, even we. This is, he's referring to Peter and himself and these other Jewish Christians. He's saying, look, we, if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christina. Then a minister is sin.

10:32If we are looking in Christ for our justification in that sphere, look, there's two spheres where you can be looking for a right standing with God. One is in the law and your goodness, the other is in Christ and His righteousness. Those are the two spheres. And Paul is saying, Look, Peter, if while we're seeking to be justified in Christ, we have been found to be sinners, been found by who? By these Judaizers. They're the ones who have come up into Jerusalem. I mean, from Jerusalem into Antioch and saying, Look, you Gentiles here, they are sinners. They're not brothers. They don't look at them as brothers. They look at them as sinners. And so Paul is saying, Look, if now these people find us as sinners, so now we're also looking to be justified in Jesus Christ, Peter. And now, if we're found to be sinners, by the way, that's the same word that's used to speak of the Gentiles in verse 15, the Gentiles. You see, to the Judaizers, the Gentiles who believed in Jesus were still sinners. And they came in looking down upon them from their arrogant perch.

11:53That's not surprising, though, is it? We see this in Scripture before, right? You remember. Remember Jesus? Some Jews got on to Jesus for the very same thing, eating with sinners. Mark 2:16, when the scribes and Pharisees saw that he, speaking of Jesus, was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, Why is he eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners? Well, it's not surprising that this same legalistic spirit would come into the church. And so when Paul and Peter are up there in Antioch eating with the Gentiles, it's no wonder, no surprise, and even to be expected that this legalistic spirit would come into the church and say, ah, they're sinners. You shouldn't be eating with them. And Peter withdrew. So did the others. But it's like what Paul is saying in this expression. Look, but if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? In other words, look, Peter, just because they are saying we are sinners, number one, doesn't mean that we really are.

13:06But furthermore, number two, if we are sinners, then Christ has led us into it by his teaching, by his ministry, by his call, by his promises. So if we are found to be sinners, it implicates Christ as a minister of sin. And so he asks that question: is Christ a minister of sin? And it's a rhetorical question. Question. Paul asked the rhetorical question: If this is true, Peter, if we're seeking to be made righteous in Christ, then is Christ a minister of sin? Is he a servant of doing wrong, of violating God's laws, of error? And the answer, of course, is a clear no. And it would be to Peter and to everyone else.

14:01This is a question that is asked. I won't spend a lot of time into the going to the various interpretive issues of this, but this question is being raised by Paul, and he's directing it at Peter. It's not a question, generally speaking, like, is, like, we would ask ourselves, if we found ourselves to be sinners, and really it boils down to this question: does the doctrine of justification by faith alone promote sin? And so, in which case, the answer would be no. But that's not really what I think is being asked here. This is a specific question that Paul is directing at Peter. And it's in this setting. Basically, what he's saying is, look, Peter, if the Judaizers were right, as if By withdrawing, you have just demonstrated. If the Judaizers were right that salvation is either earned or maintained by the works of the law, then all the apostles were in sin. And worse, Jesus Himself has led us there because he has not taught us to come under the law, but to be in him.

15:23It's like Paul is saying, Peter, do you really think that seeking to be justified in Christ is sin? If that is your thinking, you make Jesus a minister of sin. And that is absolutely unthinkable. That's where Paul is going with his thoughts. Look at verse 17. May it at the end, may it never be. May it not ever be considered as such that Jesus is a minister of sin. And so after asking this rhetorical question, Christ, then Paul goes on to ask or pose a hypothetical situation. Now, Christ is certainly not a minister of sin. He is a servant of righteousness. He's the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Savior born to save their people from sin. He is no minister of sin at all.

16:24And so then Paul goes on to ask this hypothetical situation. Or pose this hypothetical situation in verse 18. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. So Paul is stepping in there. He's saying, look, for argument's sake, and he's not directing it at Peter. He's like, look, Peter, if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. In other words, if I, Peter, if I am going back and rebuilding what I once threw down, I am the one transgressing. What is he talking about there? He's talking about a system of law-keeping righteousness. By teaching righteousness by faith alone, in Christ alone, Paul threw down and destroyed this law-keeping righteousness that sought righteousness by obeying the letter of the law.

17:32I know some might think, well, what is it that Paul once rebuilt or once destroyed? Some people's minds might go to the church. Or if I rebuild the church, which I once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. That doesn't really fit, does it? Because rebuilding the church is a good thing. What is he talking about here? He's talking about what he destroyed. A doctrine, a law-keeping work. Works-based system. In other words, he threw down a system where you had to get in heaven because of your own goodness.

18:11He says, But Peter, if I go back to rebuilding that and I start putting laws on people, I'm the one crossing a line. Now, he uses a different word for sinner here. He uses the word transgressor. He says, Look, Peter, if I go back to rebuilding a law-keeping-based righteousness, then I'm the one crossing the line. I'm the one sinning against God. And I'm demonstrating this to the whole world. It's like he's saying this: if I abandon the righteousness that comes by faith in Christ and go back to promoting a self-based legalistic righteousness, I would be the one transgressing, and so would you, Peter. What we would be doing is openly admitting that we were wrong to follow Christ in this regard.

19:06And then Paul goes on in verses 19 to 21 to explain why he could not transgress God this way. He's going to explain why. Look at verse 18: 4. Verse 19. I'm sorry, verse 19. 4, through the law I died to the law. He's going to go on to announce and to bring into view one of the most glorious doctrines in Scripture, and that is union with Christ. What happens when we come to Christ? This concept of union with Christ is so large in the New Testament that Paul refers to this concept 120 times in his own writings.

20:02John refers to it 26 times. But if you want to boil down one of the most significant doctrines that is spoken about in the New Testament, it is this concept of being found in Christ, in Christ, in the Lord, in Christ Jesus, in whom, in him. That's how it's described in Paul's writings. What a relationship with Christ looks like is being in him. You know, we say, we call people Christians. But maybe a better term, instead of, well, there goes a Christian, or ask a person, are you a Christian? Maybe the better question is, are you in Christ? That might be more square a little more precisely with the New Testament terminology. Are you in Christ? Are you in Him? That becomes the significant feature of your life. Not if you're just broadly called Christian, but are you in? Christ and certainly Paul sees himself as being in Christ in union with him. And so what he does is he goes on and to he announces good news about the union with Christ. And I want to look at this good news. Paul doesn't want them giving up this truth. He doesn't want them giving up the gospel. He is in the thick of it, confronting the Judaizers.

21:27And so this morning, as we just, in our time, we start thinking about the union with Christ. I want you to hear the good news about it so that this news about union in Christ, that your soul will take hold of it and will never cease to treasure this most precious truth. Union with Christ, being in him. And so I want to look at the good news of union with Christ. Those in union with Christ, first of all, have fully satisfied the law's requirements. Now that's good news. All the righteousness in the law that God demands, that God revealed, what he expects, it's all there for those who are in Christ. Let me walk through this. Like I said, deep, profound truths.

22:30Core truths to biblical Christianity. Verse 19, for through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. Through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. Notice how Paul gets really personal in these verses. I, I died, so that I might live. He's speaking about what's happened to him and the joy that he has experienced in this relationship, his new relationship with Christ. Paul understood. Paul understood that the intent of the law was never to declare a person righteousness or righteous. It was never. Quite the opposite. The law was given to exterminate any hope of a right standing with God on the basis of our own righteousness. It was given to exterminate, not to exonerate, or not to declare a person righteous.

23:36Psalm 14, 2 says this, The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. No one who complied with the righteousness. Revealed in God's law. Not even a single one. You see, the law was given to kill our fallen Adam-born spirit. Come back tonight. We'll talk more about that.

24:18The Christmas cat and all that is about really Christmas theology. And it's a really, we'll be dealing with some issues, deep issues of theology. So please come back. But what does he say? He's saying, the law was given to kill this Adam-born spirit, not to declare it righteous. The law condemns it. It doesn't declare it righteous. But notice the instrument here. Through the law, through the law, I died to the law. By the instrument of the law, I died to the law. Think about that for a minute. Suppose I'm afraid all my life of being fallen off a cliff and dying. Maybe I'm afraid of heights, and so one day I fall off, and to my horror, I die.

25:24Guess what? I'll never fall off another cliff again. So through the means. Of my death, I have been exonerated. I've been forever freed from the fear of dying, falling off a cliff ever again. A dead person doesn't fall off a cliff again. You see, by means of the law, I died to the law. What Paul is saying is, through that which was written in it, I died to it. A separation took place between in Paul's spirit. He's not talking about his physical death. He's still alive physically. But what is he talking about? He's talking about a separation that took place between him and the law. Because of what the law says, and because of my own self-reflection in truth, I know there is no life with me. I condemn myself.

26:23God's law condemns me. You see, the righteousness revealed in the law killed Paul's hope of ever being right with God by the works of the law. That's what the revelation of God's righteous standards and how high He is. It kills our hope of ever being right with Him on the basis of our goodness. And listen, friend, if you're still trusting in Your goodness to save you, you are hopelessly. In a very bad situation, unless you open your ears to the gospel, because you cannot and will not achieve godliness that way.

27:18The law condemned him. Through the law, I died to the law. But there's a glorious purpose involved there. Look at the end of verse 19, so that I might live to God. You see, even though the law condemned Paul, God had a glorious purpose in mind in giving the law that I might live to God. You see, Paul's hope for being right with God came through the gospel, not through the law. And a resurrection took place in Paul from being good enough to a relationship with the one who is good.

28:12A resurrection took place from slavery to the letter of the law to a relationship with the lawgiver. You see, contrary. Too many who think that justification by faith alone leads to lawlessness, they misunderstand what Paul is saying here. The gospel does not provide an excuse to sin, it empowers a believer to live with God as truly the master. That doesn't come through the law and our law-keeping obedience to the letter, it comes through a relationship with God Himself in Christ.

29:10So it's clear that the moment Paul met Christ, he died. He died to his old ways, but he came alive to God. Now, we'll keep going. What is how, how were Paul's death and new life actually accomplished? How did it come about? And the first part of verse 20 is going to answer this question: How did Paul's death and life come about? And maybe more specifically, how does your life and my life experience this kind of death and this kind of resurrection that Paul experienced? Well, verse 20, first part of it answers this question. Look at verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Paul speaks of two events taking place. And he's going to articulate these events in other places as well. Listen to Romans 7:4.

30:17Therefore, 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. The same core thought. I have been crucified, not I will be crucified, but I have been. It's taken place, it's done, and it is no longer I who live. My life is now very different, but Christ lives in me. Now, look at two events take place. Two events that spiritually took place in Paul's heart, that needs to take place and will take place in the heart of every believer. First of all, notice that there's a spiritual separation that takes place.

31:06I have been crucified with Christ. There is union with Christ in his death. Why? Because we need pardon for sin. And it's clear, though the concept may be hard to get your mind around, the language is explicit. I have been crucified with Christ. In some transcendent way, Christ's death. In Christ's crucifixion, his people were there. Paul and every believer. In some way, we were all there with Christ. Come back tonight. We'll talk about that a little more. But think about it: the king and all of his subjects crucified at Calvary.

31:53And so, when you think about what is the ultimate penalty of the law for lawbreakers, the ultimate penalty is curse of God, death. That's the ultimate penalty. So, at the crucifixion, king and subjects met the penalty of the curse and death demanded by the law. So, when Christ, you think about this for a second, when Christ agreed to be our king, my king, it's like a joint account was opened up. We could call it the kingdom account.

32:33And we can think of the kingdom account as having all of the assets and liabilities of both king and subjects. Christ brought no sin into that account. He brought no sin into the union, but all his subjects sure did. And now, this joint account has a real problem, doesn't it? Law condemns it. Both king and kingdom in this relationship, for this kingdom to flourish under God's blessing, sin has to be dealt with. And so the law demanded death, and Christ's crucifixion paid the demand. So out of this kingdom account, debt was paid. Let's think about this on a personal level. By joining myself to Christ in faith, what am I saying? I'm saying, Christ, you are God's king, the one that God expects me to obey. And you have invited me, you have chosen, you have wanted to be my king, and so I'm coming to you, taking you up on all of your promises to be your subject and for you to be my king. I bring all of my moral deficits, I bring all of my sins, but I also bring my disposition to sin into the account.

34:13And so the law condemns this king-subject relationship on the basis of my sin. And the law demands that it must be paid. You see, if we didn't combine accounts, Jesus would have no reason to. Die. But his desire to be in a relationship with you and me necessitated his death. Suppose I crashed my car into a neighbor's car and I needed to pay for the damages. You know, that's what the law expects. If I injure somebody or harm somebody, I need to pay for the damages. Now, suppose I pay this neighbor the full amount of the damages I caused. Can my neighbor ever expect payment again?

35:12Not according to the law. I've paid it. Now suppose I committed a crime that deserved the death penalty. I'll say my wife made me do it, or something like that. But let's suppose, just for sake, that I did something that deserved the death penalty. And then our state puts me to death. And then you take me over here to my grave plot, which is just right across the street, and you start to lower me down into the pit. And all of a sudden, you hear this, let me out, let me out. You open the lid and you discover I've been resurrected. Not only did I die, but now I'm alive. Okay, let me get out of this box. Can Texas law ever condemn me to death for the same crime again? It's been paid. That's getting a sense of what Paul's argument in regard to the law. What this means for those in Christ is the ultimate penalty of the law. The full wrath of God, death, has been paid.

36:34He died for us, and we died with him. The law is satisfied. It has absolutely no more condemning authority on those who are in Christ. It's been fully paid. Kingdom accounts settled. The maximum fine has been paid. That's the first spiritual event awakening that Paul understood. I have been crucified with Christ. Second event that spiritually took place in Paul was this union with Christ in his life. Not only do we need to be unified with Christ in his death because we need pardon, we need the removal of sin, but we need union with Christ in his life because we need his righteousness.

37:30Christ lives in me. Look at verse 20. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ is living in me. Think about that. The very Spirit of Christ himself is living in his people. If you're in Christ, the very spirit of Christ, that perfect disposition to love and obey the Father, is in you if you are in Christ. That's why Paul could say, I no longer live. Christ's person is spiritually part of who I now am.

38:15And he's promised never to leave. He's there. You see, what happens is by agreement with God's righteous standards and God's law and his just judgment upon all those who mess up planet earth with sin, when you and I come to that realization, it's not good for sin to go on, and I see myself as a sinner, it's right that sin in me be dealt with. It is right that the law would keep someone like me from heaven because I would just foul up another paradise unless something changed. So eternal life based on my goodness isn't going to happen. And neither is eternal life based on your goodness going to happen.

39:01The law kills any hope for a right standing with God on the basis of our goodness. And that's good news. Because the law also prepares us for Christ. The law opens my ears to God's solution. Here's the truth: God does want a relationship with me. God does want a relationship with you. He just doesn't want a relationship with your sin. God does want to bring you and me under his finest blessings for eternity. That's why he sent his son to die.

39:39But in the resurrection, I realize the king lives. Both king and his subjects are now spiritually alive, awakened, alive to God, fully meeting the law's demands. My sin given to him, his righteousness given to me, a new entity. Let's keep moving. So the good news of the gospel of grace is that those in union with Christ have fully satisfied the law's requirements, but they also have a new outlook on life, a new outlook on life. Look back the second half of verse 20. 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. Me. Paul is saying, the life which I am now living. Interesting. I thought Paul said he had died.

40:37And now he talks about life. What is he talking about? He's talking about his life in the mortal body. Paul died spiritually, but he still lives in his mortal body. Even though his mortal bodies still have sinful inclinations, but they are at odds with the new spirit that is in Paul. And so life is going to be still, the remaining years that he has on earth, he is going to be putting down sin, being sanctified, because there's a completely different spirit in Paul. The old Paul died. The new Paul, which is in union with the Son of God, is present. And this brings forth a whole new outlook on life. Look at how Paul lives. The life which I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith. I live by certainty. I live in the trust of, in loyalty to. I am firmly connected to these realities which impact the way I see myself and the way I see my world around me and the way I'm going to spend the rest of my days on earth. I live in faith. I am no longer. Living in the flesh to satisfy the fleshly demands or to achieve some sort of goodness that approves, that meets with God's approval, Paul is certain.

42:16What is it exactly that he is the object of Paul's faith? Look back. I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, the Son of God. Interesting, he doesn't say Christ here. He uses the word Son of God. Son of God is the highest title, but the Son of God is that very expression of union with God at its closest and most intimate way. He now lives in union with the Son of God, who is in the closest union, never to be divided from the Father.

42:53Faith is the way to be joined to the most important person in the most profound way. And now notice what he. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. It's like Paul is saying, now I know these things for sure. He loved me. You see, belief in God's love for you is the foundation of a life of obedience to him. It isn't the result of a life. Obedient to him. We need God's favor to be able to walk in his favor. Belief in God's love for you already, rather than believing that you have to earn it, are going to produce two very different ways of life. Are you looking to your relationship with God thinking, I have to earn my favor with you, and then I have to keep my favor with you?

43:55Or if you go down life saying, I know it's already settled, you love me and you gave your life up for me. That's what the cross was all about. And yes, I am imperfect, but I don't feel the same about my sin anymore. I'm growing in your way. Now, you see two very different things. I'm not living to please. I'm living because I am in the one who is already pleasing. I am already pleased. I am already loved.

44:25That's a whole different way of living. Well, this was the transformation that took place in Paul. Think about it. He went from a persecutor to a worshiper. And it's faith in Christ that brings about this dramatic change in living. I can assure you, if you do not know Christ today, you need to have an outlook change on life. He does love you. He wants a relationship with you, and that's why he came. That's why we celebrate his coming.

45:01But it was costly for him. Third piece of good news about the gospel of grace is that those in union with Christ understand God's grace and his gift of righteousness. Look back at verse 21. I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. This is where Paul lands the plane in his conversation. I do not nullify. I am not. It's a present verb. I am not setting aside this grace, Peter. I'm not going back to a law-keeping kind of righteousness. I am not going to set aside this grace of God that is in Christ.

45:56It's like what Paul is saying. It's like, I understand the cross. I get it. I understand what the cross reflects. It's an expression of Christ's grace, of God's grace. And I understand that my right standing with God is based upon the obedience of my king, not on my own. It's based on what he has done and what he has accomplished. And, Peter, I will never set Aside such grace and render what Christ did on the cross as meaningless. Because look, if righteousness comes through the law or through any other possible means, then Christ's death on the cross was in vain.

46:47Strong argument. But those of you who are trusting in your goodness to save you do just that. You make the cross meaningless. All the religions of the world that somehow concoct a scheme where you can be made right with God based upon certain adherence, based upon some kind of outward conformity to some kind of standards makes Christ's death meaningless. Righteousness doesn't come through any other way. A right standing with God doesn't come through any other way.

47:30And this is Paul's, Christ is not a minister of sin. Those who go back to a works-based system are the ones who are transgressing God in this manner. Peter, I can never do that. And I'm sure these words struck a chord in Peter's heart. He was there at the crucifixion. He saw it. He was never going to make Christ's death meaningless. Turn the Judaizers back, at least for a moment. Well, those in union in Christ, the good news is that they have fully satisfied the law's requirements. They have a new outlook on life, and they understand God's grace and the gift of his righteousness. You see, this morning we've been looking at some of the core elements of biblical Christianity.

48:26How does a person come into a right relationship with God? How do you come into a right relationship with God is one of the most fundamental matters of your life. And it involves some of the core issues of biblical Christianity. Most important issue, Christ crucified. The most important connection that you can make to this, faith. With the most important result is that a new life in God begins. Take hold of this truth in your soul. Never cease to treasure it. It is truly good news. Listen, saved to obey the law is not good news.

49:20Or you can be saved by obeying the law is not good news. It's what Peter, that's what Paul is telling Peter. None of us could do it. Peter had already recognized that as well. In Acts 15, we can't do it. And listen, if I could lose my salvation, I would. My right standing with God is based upon what He did and what He keeps, and I am connected to that through faith. And He now lives in me. He is no minister of sin. That's why fruits keeping with repentance is very important. Because what happens in salvation is you come to Christ and He is in you.

50:10Life is never the same. Go back to a question: How can I ever make right the wrongs I did? How can I ever make the situation right with that I did to my dad? Well, I can't, but God can. And let me tell you how He makes all things right. Number one, I can confess my sin to God because ultimately my sin that shamed my father was against God. I can be joined to Christ in His crucifixion and death.

51:01Fully satisfying the law's demands, pardon for my iniquity. I can also be joined to Christ's life in His resurrection and live for Him. That changes my present. It doesn't change the fact of history that the world is still fouled up and marked by sin. So, how does He make that right? Well, I look forward to the time when He returns, the one who has promised to make all things new. Good news. Only God can right the wrongs that we have done on planet Earth, and He has promised to do so. Not only will He wipe away every tear, but He will remove every cause for every tear to be shed. That's the new heavens. That's the new earth to which we are all invited. And we can be connected to that today by putting our faith in Him and treasuring the good news. Never let it go. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow our hearts to you this morning, we are thankful for this rich teaching of your word that explains to us. how we, by faith, are joined to you in your crucifixion. We are joined to you in your resurrection. And it is no longer that we are this going through life on our own, but that you really do spiritually join us. We are no longer separated from you, but joined to you.

52:56So, Father, we look forward to what is ahead for planet Earth because we know that you make all things new. And even now, Father, as we join to you in faith, Father, we know that all things have been made new in our own lives. We're not what we used to be. Praise your holy name. And you are with us to continue to transform us into the likeness of your Son. Praise your holy name. Amen.