2 weeks ago we began talking about some things that are foundational to the gospel.  We want our understanding of things like justification, and what it means to be righteous to be built on Jesus Christ and him crucified, instead of being built on the traditions of man. 

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The way people saw justification in Jesus’ day is you were meant to have a certain life.  Justification was all about the life you had.  And in possessing the life you were meant to have, then that life justified you.  Possessing the life you were meant to have was the evidence you were as you should be.  If you had the good life you were supposed to have.  If your life was clothed in beauty and splendor, that was the sign, you hit the mark God has for your life.  

That’s why we can feel shame when we see ourselves as not having something that pertains to life and godliness; thats why we can feel condemned when we see the fruit of death in our lives.  The knowledge of good and evil tells us those things are a sign we dont have the life we’re meant to have.  When we see the fruit of death in our lives, the knowledge of good and evil accuses us, it tells us we arent in the state we were intended to be in; it fills us with shame by telling us we arent partaking in the good life we were created for. 

When Paul was Saul, he was a Pharisee.  His mindset was that justification is about having the abundant life, but then he defined the abundant life by the riches of the world, by the things the world esteems for a good life.  His treasure was in the earth.  He served Mammon.  He thought if your life looked good in the world, then that is the life that justifies.  He thought gaining the good the world has to offer was equivalent to godliness.  And he thought the way to gain a good life from the world was by performing the works of the law; by being a hebrew of the hebrews; a pharisee of the pharisees; circumcised the 8th day; of the tribe of Benjamin.  He thought anyone who didn't have a good life in the world, those people were the cursed of God, they were the forsaken of God.  They were the sinners.  And in fact not having a good life in the world was seen as a sign you were a sinner.  Thats why the disciples asked jesus who sinned that this man should be born blind, when they came upon the blind man in John 9.  That’s why the disciples said who then can be saved when Jesus says how difficult is it for someone rich in worldly possessions to enter into the kingdom of God.  

Then something miraculous happens to Saul.  He encounters the glorified Jesus on the road to Damascus, and his blindness is revealed.  Jesus didnt make Saul blind.  Jesus says in John 9 he came into the earth so those who dont see might see, and those who think they see would be revealed to be blind.  Jesus called the pharisees blind guides.  Jesus didnt make Paul blind.  The blindness that was already present in Paul was made manifest in the light of Jesus’ life.  

When Paul encountered the glorified Jesus it wasn't just like oh a bright light.  When Paul sees this great light and he hears Jesus say it’s Jesus whom you persecute.  All of a sudden Paul’s mind is racing.  All the things he'd ever known.  All his doctrines.  They’re all racing in his mind because all of a sudden when Paul encounters the glorified man Jesus on the road to Damascus he sees the life that justifies.  He sees Jesus, and now he has a point of reference for the good life, the abundant life, that justifies.  He says to himself, oh my gosh this is the real treasure, not the corruptible life thats of the world.  You have to understand this wasn't Paul's only reference point for Jesus.  He knew who Jesus was.  He knew the end Jesus met on the cross, and he thought that was the sign Jesus was a sinner and ungodly, and so now he sees this dude standing in the glorification of the Father’s life, and he sees thats the life that justifies because it was even able justify Jesus from the shame and the accusation that came from the death of the cross. 

When Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus, he saw the mark GOD has for mankind.  He saw we were always meant to be Heirs of God.  Heirs of the likeness of God's immortality.  And that's the only life that can justify you.  That’s the only life that can justify someone from the sin and the death and the corruption that's in the world.  That’s the only life that can silence the voice of accusation, and persuade someone their life is as it ought to be.

After Paul encountered the glorified Jesus, that’s when Paul begins to say I am crucified with Christ, its no longer I who live its Christ who lives in me, and the life I live now in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.  

When Paul says it’s no longer I who live, he’s thinking of the man whose treasure was in the earth.  He’s thinking of the Saul who thought the way to be justified with life was found in performing the works of the law.  When the scales fell off Pauls’ eyes and his blindness was healed, he no longer lived in the world looking to the life he had in the world, as if that life can justify him.  He says it’s Christ who lives in me.  The life that manifested in the body of Jesus’ resurrection, dwells in me.  It’s the life of Christ Himself; the life the Father of Lights has in Himself, that dwells in me; that justifies me; that persuades me I have the life I’m meant to have, as I walk in this earth, and the death and corruption and tribulation in the world tries to make me ashamed, telling me I’m separated from God and the abundant life.  That’s why he says in his letter to the Galatians he’s dead to the world and the world to him.  He no longer lived as if the life that justifies is contained in the good he could gather to himself in the world.  He no longer lived, trying to justify himself with the life he could produce in the world.  He no longer sought the life that justifies through the strength of the flesh, and the works of the law

In my own life there was a time I was trying to be justified by the life I could produce through my running ability.  I thought I could sow my running ability to produce a beautiful life, a life that was beautiful according to the worlds standards, and that life could justify me; that life can prove I am as I ought to be; that life can defend me against the shame and the accusation that comes from lack; that life will be my shield and my buckler; that life will be my exceeding great reward; that life will make me exceedingly fruitful; and that will prove me.  I didn’t know it at the time, but it was I who was living.  Nothing wrong with being passionate and working hard, only let your hard work be born from having all things in God.

Paul says the life he lives now in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God.  When Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus he saw it wasn’t performing the works of the law, or performing carnal principles, that produced the life that justified Jesus.  Jesus could do no work on the cross, his hands were nailed to the tree.  All Jesus did was look to the Father.  Paul saw there was a faith in Jesus’ heart, and that’s what produced the life that justified him.

When Jesus was in the earth, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and more specifically when he was on the cross, he lived by a certain faith.  The scriptures call it the faith of the Son of God.  It wasnt Jesus who lived, it was the Father whose life was in him, if you catch my drift.  Jesus knew the life that justifies is the life he shared with the Father from the beginning. 

Heb 12:2  says Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  

The joy set before Jesus was the glorification of his flesh.  It was the glory he shared with the Father from the beginning.  Jesus says to the Father in John 17 glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world was.  That’s what was lifted up in Jesus eyes when he was on the cross.  It was the Father and the life Jesus shared with the Father that was lifted up in his sight.  Jesus knew the Father was in him, and he was in the Father.  Jesus knew that even though sin was manifesting death in his flesh, sin wasnt the Father of His life.  Jesus knew his life was from above.  He knew he was dead to sin, and alive to God.  That’s what justified him from the shame of the cross.  It disesteemed the death of the cross, and justified his heart from the accusation that came from the body of death.  Jesus didn’t try to despise the death of the cross.  He saw the life He shared with the Father, and that warred against the sting of death.  The life the Father has in Himself, that He gave that Jesus would also have in Himself, when placed next to the death of the cross, overshadowed the shame of the cross.

Paul says the life he lives now in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God.  Paul lived his life in the earth beholding his life in Jesus, and the life of Jesus in him.  His intimacy was with the life that manifested in Jesus, and through that he was intimate with the life the Father has in Himself.  He walked in the earth justified by the life of the Father.  When the death and tribulation and lack in the world tried to accuse Paul, and make him ashamed, and tell him he didn’t have the life he’s supposed to have.  The same faith that was in Jesus’ heart on the cross, dwelled in Paul, ministering to him, exalting the Father in his sight, exalting the Fathers life in His sight, telling him, he’s not separated from the love of God.  Where do we think Paul saw that nothing could separate him from the Father’s love?  He saw it in Jesus.  Paul and everyone else, but the one thief, thought the cross was a sign Jesus was separated from the Fathers love.  When Paul encountered the glorified Christ he saw not even the death of the cross was a sign Jesus was separated from the Father’s love.  

Nothing can separate you from the Father’s love isnt nothing can go wrong for you in this world.  What it means is nothing that can go wrong in this world, whether peril or sword or disease or famine or persecution, or life or death, can be a sign you’re separated from the love of God.  The Father brought a plague to death in the body of Jesus’ resurrection.  The Father has caused your life to overcome sin and death in the flesh.  The Father has made you whole, by giving you the life He has in Himself, and thats the evidence He loves you.  You are an heir of God.  You’ve inherited the fulness of God in human flesh.  The Son is in you and you are in the Son, and you share with the Son in the life He’s shared with the Father from the beginning, and thats the sign God loves you; thats the sign you have the life you’re meant to have. 

Romans 6 says reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God.  Your life isnt born from sin.  Sin isnt the father of your life.  The world is not the father of your life.  Your life isnt begotten from the weakness in these mortal bodies or the weakness in the earth.  Your life isnt held in the happenings of this world.  Your life is born from above.  It’s been begotten from the word of truth, it’s been born again from an incorruptible seed.  God Himself is the Father of your life.  Your life is under the continuous ministration of Gods life.  The Father has life in Himself, and He has given that you can have that same life, by giving you Jesus.  That’s how Christ lives in you.  The life that is Christ, that was manifested in the resurrected Christ, dwells in you.  Let that life be exalted in your sight.  That life overshadows the death in the earth.  That life rebukes the devourer; that life justifies from the accusation your life isnt as it ought to be.  That life disesteems the shame.