Who do I live for?
Who do we live for? What motivates us when we get up in the morning? When we believe in Jesus Christ, we surrender our rebellion against God, admit that we have angered Him and trust that He has forgiven us by allowing Jesus to take our punishment. We can not let it end there. If we believe that Christ died for us, and that He now lives in us, we must live for Him, and no longer for ourselves and our own selfish desires. God has designed us for a purpose and He saves us in order to enable us to live for Him and for His glory.
Scripture
Galatians 2:19-21 ESV For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Bible Study Questions
Crucified with Christ
What happens to our former life, with all our sins, when we believe in Jesus Christ? What are we set free from going forward? What does it mean to be set free, and no longer be slaves to sin?
Galatians 2:20 ESV I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live,
Romans 6:6 ESV We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Romans 6:11-13 ESV So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Christ in me
When we have died to sin we are no longer indebted (past), and we are no longer enslaved to it (present). Why are we able to live the way God designed us when we live by faith inn Jesus Christ?
Galatians 2:20 ESV but Christ who lives in me…
Colossians 1:27 ESV To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
John 17:23 ESV I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Living by faith
Living in “the flesh” means the way that we live daily in the present. When we’ve been made right with God by faith, we must also live by faith. What does it mean to live by faith and why is it contrasted to pride in Habakkuk 2:4?
Galatians 2:20 ESV And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God
Romans 1:17 ESV For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Habakkuk 2:4 ESV “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Faith in the Son of God
Faith isn’t just a positive mind set, as if we can manifest what we desire by declaring and believing for the sake of it. Faith has an object, we believe in someone, not in the manifestation of desired circumstances. Why is the object of our faith reliable, and so precious?
Galatians 2:20 ESV I live by faith in the Son of God,
John 3:14-16 ESV And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Loved and Purchased
When we believe in Jesus Christ and set our faith on Him, we are recreated. Our old self dies and we are reborn. Who does the new person belong to and why?
Galatians 2:19-21 ESV I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
The value of grace
If there was another way to be right with God, especially by doing things like following the law, what would that say about the death and resurrection of Jesus? What would it say about His love and sacrifice for us?
Galatians 2:21 ESV I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Hebrews 7:11 ESV Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?
Buried with Jesus, raised by Jesus, Living for God
Given that God has taken care of our past and guaranteed our future, how should we respond in the present?
Galatians 2:19 ESV For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
Romans 6:4-5 ESV We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.