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Matthew's Testimony
Tony's Testimony
“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." Galatians 2:20
An October baptism, outside, in the UK, seems like a brave thing to me. It’s cold out there! So, you can imagine my relief when Paul offered to do the wet part this time!
Autumn is well and truly here, and the temperatures to go with it. But the most vivid clue that Autumn is really here is the changing and falling of the leaves.
I’ve been running this week, and it seems every tree is dropping its leaves. And, on every footpath, thousands of leaves cast around in every hue of red, and orange, and yellow.
That’s what deciduous trees do in autumn. As the temperatures drop, their leaves drop don’t they. And I suppose, we would see it as a sad sort of event – despite all those beautiful colours – were it not for the fact that we all know that after winter, when the temperatures begin to rise again, all the deciduous trees will explode into new life all over again.
The deathly fall of autumn, and the bleakness of unclothed winter trees, will give way to new life in spring. And it will feel gloriously good when it happens.
That’s a snapshot of what our country looks like for 6 months of the year in the UK isn’t it? A slow and deathly decline; a barren cold snap; and a glorious explosion of new life that follows.
Jesus picked up on a similar natural process when he said this: ‘Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds’.
He said that just before his own death. And he meant it as a metaphor (a symbol) for his own death.
The kernal of wheat is dormant when it goes into the ground. And when it comes into contact with water, enzymes are activated that cause the seed structure to break down – a kind of death of the seed. But out of the seed’s death comes new growth that develops into a plant!
Jesus did go on to die. He was crucified on a cross. And for you or me, that would be the end of our mortal lives on earth. But for Jesus it was not the end, because, like the seed he spoke about, he was raised to life again.
Amazing as that truth is, what is more significant, is that the plant in Jesus’ metaphor produces many seeds – that’s what plants do – they produce lots of seed. Out of one death comes not just one life but many lives.
So, it is with Jesus. He rises to life not only for the sake of one life (his own), but to produce many lives.
Jesus’ powerful resurrection creates new life in many people.
If you look at your order of service, you will see a bible text printed there (Galatians 2:20). It reads like this: ‘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’.
I want to use this bible text to tell you the good news about Jesus. The good news that has come and made its home in Tony and Matthew’s hearts - and which is the reason why they are being baptised today.
This verse is a recognition of what has happened to someone who has become a Christian. So much of what claims to be Christianity doesn’t know the reality of this verse. But Tony and Matthew know the truth of this verse in their own experience.
The verse is very personal. See for yourself. It says: ‘I have been crucified with Christ’. ‘I no longer live’. ‘Christ lives in me’. ‘The life I now live’. ‘I live by faith’. ‘The son of God who loved me’. The son of God who ‘gave himself for me’.
It’s a verse that just packs in ‘personal relationship’ from start to finish.
And the verse has this same theme in it that we’ve already talked about. The theme of death followed by life.
Jesus’ body died when it was crucified on the cross and he went into the grave. And three days later he rose up from it to life again.
But the verse, even though it applies the same pattern of death and new life to the person in view, it is not referring to their physical death. It’s referring to a different kind of death. It’s referring to the death of the part of me that is spiritual.
When it says ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ it doesn’t mean I was on the cross with Jesus. It means that, just as Jesus’ body was crucified, so my spiritual nature, that I was born with, was crucified.
And that word ‘with’ shows that Jesus’ death is not a mere metaphor for my spiritual death. But that a Christian is someone whose spiritualdeath has happened because of Jesus’ physical death for them. They are linked together. My spiritual self has been crucified with Christ in his crucifixion. That’s what it means.
What is the ‘spiritual self’ the verse is talking about? We were all born with sinful spiritual natures. That means we live in a state of broken relationship with God all the time - even without thinking about it. That’s what our sinful nature prefers - every waking moment.
The problem of our sinful nature is the single greatest wedge between a person and God that can possibly exist. It is enough to invoke God’s very righteous anger and fury against them.
This verse is saying that a true Christian is someone who is so united to Jesus that Jesus’ physical death produces in them a spiritual death.
That sounds like it must be good news. Because if my sinful nature was the wedge between me and God, then its death is surely the elimination of that wedge and the reconciliation of me to Him.
Amen and hallelujah! That’s is what has happened! That’s what Tony and Matthew say, in their own words, they have experienced.
This is so profound and so deep. Jesus went to the cross for me and that has produced in me a nature-transformation.
The old sinful nature has ‘died with Christ’, and it no longer lives. And a new nature has been formed in me. This verse calls that new nature ‘Christ living in me’.
It means there is a new preference for Jesus worked by the power of Jesus’ Spirit who now lives in me.
The body is the same as it always was – you might find that idea disappointing; don’t worry there’s good news on that front too, there’s a new a better body coming down the line, just not yet - the body is the same as it always was, but the spiritual nature is completely changed.
The new nature is characterised by what the verse calls ‘faith’. ‘The life I now live [new life] in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God’.
This is the key to the union with Christ. The new life comes when the old life dies. And for it to die it must be united to Christ in his death.
So that, his death on the cross was for me. And when it gets applied to me like that, my old self dies, and ‘I no longer live but Christ lives in me’.
And that union comes about by faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is what unites me to him.
Jesus has promised that he will come to anybody who puts their faith in him. Listen to his words: ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock [my door/ your door knocking]. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me’.
Opening the door to Jesus is what faith in Jesus is. It’s receiving Jesus as your personal precious Saviour, and Lord.
Maybe you’ve never done that. It’s not too late. Today can be that day when you receive Jesus by faith as your Lord.
What would motivate Jesus to die for a sinner like me? The verse says one thing: love.
Jesus, out of his great love – undeserved love - gave himself for me on the cross. Let’s not forget that the cross is where Jesus was executed. Where he suffered.
‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice [death] for our sins’.
The most essential thing about love is that it is sacrificial.
Jesus’ sacrifice was the greatest sacrifice ever made because, whilst we were still sinners he died for us. It wasn’t after we mended our ways. It was whilst we were his enemies. That’s the measure of the love he had for me.
That decisive transformation that has happened in me, to make me alive in Christ, was worked by his voluntary sacrifice. No one took Jesus’ life from him; he laid it down of his own accord. He went willingly to the cross for me.
So, when we put it all together, we see that if we are Christians, our old sinful life has been put to death with Jesus and, we have been raised up with Jesus to a new spiritual life in him.
We are united to him by faith. The chords of faith are stronger than the chords of death even. And so, we say ‘hallelujah, we belong to Jesus’.
Tony and Matthew say ‘hallelujah, I belong to Jesus’. Their lives are hidden with Christ in God. And they walk forward now by faith in Jesus - who loved them and gave himself for them.
Baptism is a sign. It signifies that we have been crucified with Christ – that’s why we go for baptism by dunking and not sprinkling here at Riverside. It’s why we’re called Riverside Baptist Church.
Going under the water signifies our death to sin. Emerging out of the water signifies our rising to new life in Jesus.
Autumnal death puts on a colourful display that grabs our attention. And vernal life (spring life) puts on a lush leafy display that brings joy to our hearts.
Baptism is a display also. A display of the glories of Jesus’ sacrifice. A sacrifice that brings about spiritual death and new spiritual life in his people.
And we rejoice with Tony and Matthew this afternoon – and with all the angels who rejoice over one sinner saved – because of all that Jesus has done for them.