The Gift of Living Now in Jesus

Galatians 2 (TNIV)

11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

 15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

 17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

 19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

What are the things that keep us living in the past or the future, rather than the present?

What would it mean for you to more fully realize the reality of Christ in you, right now?  Will you go there . . . now . . .?

Living Now in JesusLife is strange.  Sometimes we can be physically present and yet be a million miles away somewhere else.  Perhaps we are caught in the past, or even in the future.  But living now, where we actually are, is sometimes harder for us that one might think.  Mickey Mantel once said, "It is amazing how much we don't know about the game we have been playing all our life."  Living in the present.

So what is the life that you are living and experiencing in the present, right now?  It's not about our past, or our future, it's about who we are, right now, in the only segment of time of which we have any real control.  That's where that text in verse 20 of Galatians 2 comes into focus for us, right now, in this present moment.  Take a moment, right now, to read that text (see the bold print to the right).  Read it alone.  Read it in the context of the passage.  But most importantly, read it in the context of who you are and where you are right now.  Christ lives in you right now.  Your life is different, and can be different, because of that.

That's what Pastor Jon explores with us in the sermon this week, exploring what it means to live with Christ in us, not in the past, nor even in the future, but right now.  Christ in us.  Giving us His life.  If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here.