Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello. We want to say welcome to let's Talk Life. Thanks for tuning in. It's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful week. Just celebrated the Fourth of July, 250 years. I was trying to remember the word for 250. Do you remember it, Carl? Do you know it?
[00:00:17] Speaker B: No. 250.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: I just call it 250 because it's actually a lot shorter to just say 250 years. It's like some weird long word for. For a quarter of a thousand. I don't. I don't even know why there's a word. I don't even know why there's a word for it, but there is. Today's episode is.
I titled it Our Identity Statement. Yeah, that's a good starting there.
It's Galatians 2:20. I. I was excited to just team teach with Pastor Brett here at church yesterday. And of course, we're recording this on Monday.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Just for the people listening.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: This past week.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: Yeah, this past week. In any case, we covered Galatians 2:20, and we never even got to verse 21. So we're going to cover that this week and we'll here get as far as we get to. But it's just. It's so good to talk about because that was really my starting point was Galatians 2:20 starts off saying, I have been crucified with Christ. That is our identity statement, because it is a statement, and it's very crucial to understand the. That as a statement of fact and truth and reality.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Right. It's our reality.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: This. This is what's true. This is what's true of any believer.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: You know?
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And like, we don't always see it. Right. We don't always recognize that as being true. We don't always feel that it's true. But I like how you just said that. It's every believer, everyone who is in Christ.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: This is your present reality. And so coming to trust that, maturing into that, renewing, setting the mind into that reality, that's the journey, and it's a good one. So anything you want to say first as we dig into these?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: No, it's just identity. If that was. If there was one theme that I could repeat the rest of my life, it's identity. Yeah, it's identity. Who sure am I? I mean, that's the question that we all wrestle with from the youngest of age to the oldest of ages.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Is who am I?
And starting with God, start answering that question by starting with who does God say I am?
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Who does God declare I am? Who. Who does God make me? I mean, that's right. Right. Those are good places to start.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
Yeah. So good. I'm just gonna read the whole verse.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: This is just verse 20. I don't even have verse 21 in front of me. Oh, maybe I do in the niv. I have been crucified. What's that?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: You didn't shoot that Bible yet?
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Oh, man, it still snuck its way into my. Into my notes.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: I was dreaming today, so. Don't worry. It's all good.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Oh, good, good. It says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. But Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. So that's Galatians 2:20 and 21.
And I don't know, we might not get all the way through even all that. It's amazing when you can start to see the Bible come to life. And just like what we've already said, to receive and understand that this is my present reality in Christ, it's like I. This verse has so much more to it than it ever has in my life before. There's so much more there.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Those are.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: You know, I threw these questions out. I think you have them too, Carl, just to process. But what does it mean to be crucified with Christ? What does it mean that I no longer live? What does it mean that Christ lives in me? How do we tackle those? How do you answer those? How do you bring somebody to an understanding of that? Part of it is, well, we can talk about it, we can dialogue about it, but I can't make you get it right.
So ask God.
It's always my. My challenge, so to speak to people. Ask God. Yeah. If it doesn't. If it's too much for you to comprehend, that's. It's time to ask God, because he's the one that gives the wisdom on this. So any of those you want to tackle, Carl?
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, just. Even. Even starting with. Starting with crucified. I mean, just Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again.
It's. It's the heart of the gospel is the sacrifice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so when we think about being crucified, we instantly can think of Jesus. Jesus, the. The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, you know, crucified Hebrews once for all, you know, he says it is finished. And so starting with, starting with that, that idea that Jesus was crucified for me, so that's, that's kind of where we start. And I guess most, most churchgoers that, that would probably be something they've heard before, something that, that they, you know, you believed in that, that he died for me, he died for my sin. And that's kind of like, okay, that's, that's where we start. And it's fascinating because then after, right after the resurrection, as Jesus is giving the apostles and prophets revelation, or if you want to say the Spirit of God's given them revelation, they start to understand things a little differently, which is, I think where we're going here. And I don't know if you have something you'd like to add right now.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: No, I mean, just my starting point, I'm going to maybe just take it a little bit further that this, this verse is an identity statement. I already said, but to follow that up, it is an identity statement. It's not a self improvement slogan.
And I think that's, that's even going off of what you just said. That's been our mentality, that's been our thinking. That's like, I'm just gonna post this up on my wall. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it just becomes this slogan that we. Once you hear it so many times, it doesn't mean as much. But now that I have this revelation and this insight from the Holy Spirit, it's like I'm actually looking at this word as being so much more meaningful. It just changes everything because it is all about our identity. And I think that's been the mix up within, I don't know, ministry for us, church for so many people, religion that people have come up in and fallen into. We've never been able to identify with any of this. It's no different than trying to get your identity out of what you do for work. It's like at some point it's empty and it's like, well, I really love this, or I got rich doing it. But it's like, but so it's, it's who am I?
So that question still lingers in the most successful people in all these other areas too. And the same is true in the spiritual world.
Yeah, so, so, so good.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: So thank you for saying those things. And so then the New Testament authors are looking back and they no longer see Jesus as the victim. Right? They, they See him as a victor, a champion. Right, that.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: And then. And then they. They start saying things like union. And they start saying things like, I was identified with Christ on the cross, whether it's Romans 6, whether it's here in Galatians 2, whether it's 1 Corinthians 6. And so all of a sudden, this coming back to union, I think every week it's either identity or union. It's coming back to, here's what really happened to you.
Right.
And it's like. It's not like a second ask of Jesus. It's not like, oh, maybe later. And it's. It's like man at the moment of faith, at the moment of salvation. And again, it's not just. It's not just a moment. And then you're saved and you're good. It's like God continuing to transform, mold us into the image of his Son, Jesus.
And so then he says, you've been crucified. I've been crucified, Christ. And so that's that union that that took place wasn't just Jesus dying for me. I was actually in. I was actually crucified as well.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: Right. Yeah.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Which means I died. I died.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: So good. Right. Right. Yeah. So. So who is it that died? This is. I think this is something that Brett threw at me. Who. So who died?
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah. The point of. My point of reference, that you could. You could even say the. The old man in terms of. I am no longer a sinner.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: So I'm no longer sinner. I'm now in Christ. So. So I'm. I'm his child.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: I'm.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: I'm set apart.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: I'm. I'm one with the Lord. Right?
[00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: What about you? How to answer that?
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, very, very much the same way. I mean, right off the bat, it is. Because I've mentioned this before, there are four eyes in this verse.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: And the first two are different than the last two. The first two is reference to the old man. I, the old man, have been crucified with Christ, and I, the old man no longer lives. So that man is dead and gone. And I don't need to try to resurrect or bring him back or try to make him better. He's dead, and he needs to stay dead. Because the new I, that diverse, continues on with the next two eyes is the new me. I'm a new creation in Christ.
And that's so beautiful to come to an understanding of and to recognize that's because. Yeah, so I have been crucified. It's a past accomplished thing that happened. It's a reaction reality. And it's like this accomplished union just to go back to even that word so that one time thing doesn't have to keep happening in my life. It happened and it's a reality, right? And the life moving forward is me coming to mature and to renew and set my mind into this reality of this finished, accomplished work that happened with me being crucified with Christ on the cross.
So, yeah, I mean, I love Romans 6. I love Colossians 2.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: They're all saying the same exact thing.
The old self crucified, that's Romans 6. The old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with.
Like man no longer slaves to sin, you know, in Colossians 2, having been buried with him and baptism, raised with him through your faith in the power of God. And here's like tricky words, right? Like the word baptism, immediately people go to water baptism, immersion. And immersion is the right way to say it.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: It's.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: We have been immersed into death with Him.
We are in this union with Him. So get us, you know, get away from the whole baptism thing.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: It's.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: We have been immersed in his death and we are with him. We're in union with him. And then, same way, we have his resurrection life. So it's. Yeah, it's so good. So good. I've been crucified with Christ. And he goes on to the next one. And the next question, what does it mean that I. No. Long live. I think this was always confusing to me and I think maybe that's why I didn't dig into this verse. I didn't understand if the.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: If the old me. I mean, this is what it says from the rest of the Gospel. If the old me is still alive, I am still my point of reference.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: And if I am still my point of reference, if I'm still my point of reference, I'm still trying to correct me, fix me, straighten me up, make something out of me, or do something to change me.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: So it's. It's me trying to do something to me.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Yep. It's so true. I read that very thing yesterday morning because it's just so gripping. And this is the greatest point, is more of a personal point. On this book I have in the margins, I put a star in the word in all caps, stuck. Because that was my life. I was so stuck trying to understand who I was And I couldn't process it because I had all the mentality of, I'm trying to correct myself, I'm trying to straighten myself out. I'm trying to please God, do better. And man, I was failing at every single one of them. And only when I came to the point of realizing that, okay, that was all law based living and the law only leads me to recognize that I can't do it. And, and it leads me to say I, there needs to be another way because this isn't working. And there's Jesus standing there saying, I'm the way, trust me. Trust that I can do it.
I've already, he's, he's like saying, I've already done it to you. I've already changed you, now let me also live through you. And, and it's, it's like so incredible to, It's a journey to walk through. It's, it's, you know, I'm meeting with somebody today that just can't process through this stuff. And isn't that everybody at one point or another? That was you. That was me.
[00:12:57] Speaker B: Right? Oh yeah. And I can, we can still go back there. We can still go back.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Yeah. So, yeah.
Well, I just, I was just thinking of the point of reference thing in the rest of the gospel. I go back to that all the time. We no longer live as ourselves, as a point of reference. Jesus has become our point of reference, our source. Another way of saying is he is our source. I'm not my source any longer. And I'm going back to even just thinking about, we are his workmanship, we are his masterpiece. I really love the translation of masterpiece because it actually says a finished work. And, and when it's finished, like maybe not all artists, but I think most artists that have made a masterpiece, they really finished it with. They loved every single bit of it. Like they just. And that's. I love you. Go all the way back to Genesis. God created. God created. God created. And he said it's good. But then he creates man and he says it's very good.
I just think we're his masterpiece. That's such a beautiful thing. Again, an identity statement to recognize that's what God thinks of me.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Right?
[00:14:01] Speaker A: That's beautiful.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what God thinks of me. And so even at the point of reference, he says this. The spotlight will still be on us. And that's where most Christians are living with. I've got to produce for God.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: I just wanted to read that from there, you know, until the full work of the cross, our death and resurrection with Christ becomes a reality to us. We will try to produce something that's not required of us. Our focus will still be on us.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Instead of Christ in us.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Right. Wow. Yeah. So true.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Christ is now my point of reference, because that's why he continues by saying, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christ lives in me is now a point of reference. Christ in me.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And so this, the rest of the gospel, oftentimes comes to actually saying, Christ lives in me. Of course Christ lives. But he goes on to say something that was so, like, I couldn't put my mind around it right away. And it's taken me a long time to process it, but I loved it, but I couldn't understand it.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: But.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: But he says that Christ lives in me. Okay, but Christ lives as me. And I was like, well, what does that mean? And that's what we're answering. The question that we're answering is, what does it mean that I no longer live? Does that mean I don't exist anymore? And it's just. And it's that. That's not it. And I love.
Frank Friedman set me up with a place that I taught at last October. And when I was going there that very.
I think he actually commented on something that I post. I posted a little prayer post of a video. I got that. I learned that from our friend Scott. He does that all the time. So I thought, I'm going to do this. I want to let people know, hey, pray for me this weekend. And Frank, I think, commented on that. If I remember right, he might have just wrote me whatever. But he said, go and be the Zach Rasmussen expression of Jesus Christ to those people. And it was like that was a light bulb moment for me to understand Christ as me. Like, I am still me, but I'm. I am me as an expression of me. I'm expressing Christ, but I'm me. So it's like, so I'm not lost. I'm not kicked to the curb. I'm still valued and loved. And I think it's oftentimes taken to mean otherwise. And that can be very confused, I guess. So I don't know. I don't know how you've taken that in your journey or how this.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: Well, think about it. Christ lives in me. We're still created with our uniqueness. Right. So Christ in me is going to look different than Christ in you. Christ, the list.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: You know, and so leaning into your. Your uniqueness as a child of God, you know, and how you've been created in his image. And I think that fits exactly with First Corinthians 12 about just that we're one body made up of many members.
[00:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: And this is really hard for us because we want uniformity. I mean, we've both been in circles where it's all about looking the same and thinking the same. When I say looking the same, sometimes it's literally suit and tie, you know. Right, sure. Everyone, every guy's got wear shirt and tie because that's holy. So I can, so I can like go to church, carry my Bible shirt and tie. And I mean that's around here in this, you know, central Virginia in some churches. And it's like, what are we doing? But it's unity, which means we can think a little different and we can, you know, look a little different. Our lives look a little different. But what unites us is Christ in you, Christ in me. That's, that's the unity there. And I don't need to try and change you, and you don't need to try and change me. We can love each other, right? We can love each other.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: We can absolutely.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: All those one another's in the New Testament.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's so good, so incredibly good. So our personalities can still shine. We can still be us, our giftedness. They're all going to be unique to who we are and match our personality. And God is going to reach like you have a reach to people that I don't have a reach to. And I have a reach to people that you don't have a reach to. And that is. It's exactly like what you're saying. That's the body.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: And it's just so beautiful.
Trying to process through that time wise. And what haven't we covered here? The life I live. The verse goes on Galatians 2:20. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God. There's a million different directions I could have gone with this.
I love this about this journey. It can be frustrating sometimes because I was really encouraged Sunday morning with. I didn't teach the Bible class thing that we have, but I sat in there and the guy teaching it was like, okay, so I put some notes together. But man, my mind went to a million different things that I wanted to study. And I went this way and that way and that. And I was like, okay, well I'm not alone. So there's other people that do that too. And I just. He's like, so I don't even know what to talk about this morning. And it was just so beautiful because I think that's the best aspect to just that journey is like, let's just, let's just have a dialogue about it. That's what's so beautiful about that. Going off of what you were just sharing about being the body, about this connection of us. Just talking like you're going to come from your angle, I'm going to come from my angle. What does it mean? How have we experienced these things in our life? Because our lives looked similar but different. Because we're different people. Same thing on Sunday morning. What's so beautiful about having this collaboration of conversation and talking? It's going to come from a lot of different angles. We're not, it's not just one guy, one guy's position, one guy's place, one guy's experience and everybody else needs to fall in line with that one guy. It's no, it's, you're unique and rest in that. Trust in that. And so I just, I love this, the life I live in the body.
It's like, what does that mean? It's, it's just continuing in your normal day to day life. It's.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And so other versions say flesh and again it's.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: I think that in the context of this he's referring to just the physical body.
Right. As opposed to flesh is being that immaterial part of us that's never going to be redeemed.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: You know, so, so just understand the context.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: In our body, Christ is living his life in me.
Which is why, you know, First Corinthians 6, honor God with your body. Because there was this idea that, well, if we're just spiritual beings and who cares what we do in our body? No, no, no, no. It's Christ in me. Right. It's Christ in me. So how can I honor him?
[00:20:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And it is just a day to day life.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: I'm trusting Christ in me rather than my own effort, rather than trusting in myself or having a law based approval mentality.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Which is trusting.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: Keep frustrating me because again, law based living is still me as point of reference. Think about that. Law based living, still me trying to, trying to fix, achieve or.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: Yeah, because we're still very sin conscious and it's so, and it's so incredible when we can actually, instead of being sin conscious and trying to clean up our act, we can be Christ conscious and recognize, well, the sins been dealt with. Let me just put my eyes on the one that I can trust to help me overcome and, and, and to rest in the fact that I am an overcomer and just believe that and, and walk that out. It's really just so beautiful. So I think we're out of time. We didn't even get to the last point. And maybe we'll talk about it next time, because I think it is so good. There's something just there about believing, about receiving, for me, that, that I'm just chewing on. So whether it's on camera or off, it's good stuff to talk about. So I've been crucified with Christ. That is our power statement, our identity statement. And so that's what we're resting in and discussing today on let's Talk Life.
