The following are some excerpts from a sermon preached by Charles Spurgeon 11-17-1867.  The text is Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives 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." 

This is instructive, for it is a distinguishing mark of the Christian religion

that it brings out a man’s individuality. It does not make us selfish.

On the contrary it cures us of that evil, but still it does manifest in us a

selfhood by which we become conscious of our personal individuality in

an eminent degree.

Having to go against the general current of the times, the Believer is an

individual upon whom observant eyes are fixed. He is a distinct individual,

both to himself and the rest of his kind. You will very readily see how

the religion of Jesus Christ brings out a man’s individuality in its very

dawn. It reveals to him his own personal sin and consequent danger. You

know nothing about conversion if you merely believe in human depravity

and human ruin but have never felt that you are depraved, and that you

yourself are ruined! Over and above all the general woes of the race there

will be one particular woe of your own. If you have been convicted of sin

by the Holy Spirit, you will cry like that

Certainly,

beloved Hearer, you know nothing about salvation unless you have

personally looked with your own eye to Jesus Christ! There must be a

personal reception of the Lord Jesus into the arms of your faith and into

the bosom of your love. And, if you have not trusted in the Crucified while

standing alone in contemplation at the foot of the Cross you have not believed

unto life eternal.

Then, in consequence of a separate personal faith, the Believer enjoys a

personal peace. He feels that if the earth were all at arms he would still

find rest in Christ, that rest being peculiarly his own, independently of his

fellows. He may talk of that peace to others, but he cannot communicate

it. Others cannot give it to him, nor can they take it from him.

The renewed man feels that the work of others does not exonerate him

from service, and the general lukewarmness of the Christian Church cannot

be an excuse for his own indifference. He stands out against error, if

need be, as a lone protestor, like Athanasius, crying, “I, Athanasius,

against the whole world.”

From its dawn up to its

noonday glory the personality of true godliness is most observable. All the

teaching of our holy faith bears in this direction. We preach personal election,

personal calling, personal regeneration, personal perseverance, personal holiness and we know nothing of any work of Divine Grace which is

not personal to the professor of it.

There is no doctrine in Scripture which teaches that one man can be

saved by the godliness of another. I cannot discover anything like salvation

by sponsorship, except in the one case of the sponsorship of the Lord

Jesus Christ. I find no human being placed in the place of another so as

to be able to take another’s burden of sin or perform another’s duty. I do

find that we are to bear one another’s burdens in respect of sympathy, but

not in the sense of substitution. Every man must bear his own burden and

give an account for himself before God.

Crucified with Christ

Observe the points of contact. First Paul says, I am “crucified with

Christ.” What does he mean? He means a great many more things than I

can tell you this morning. But briefly, he means this—he believed in the

representation of Christ on the Cross—he held that when Jesus Christ

hung upon the tree He did not hang there as a private Person, but as the

Representative of all His chosen people. As the burgess in the House of

Commons votes not for himself, alone, but in the name of the township

which has sent him to Parliament, so the Lord Jesus Christ acted in what

He did as a great public representative Person. And the dying of Jesus

Christ upon the tree was the virtual dying of all His people.

Thus did Paul view himself as a criminal upon whom the sentence of

the Law had been fulfilled. When he saw the pleasures of sin, he said, “I

cannot enjoy these. I am dead to them. I once had a life in which these

were very sweet to me, but I have been crucified with Christ. Consequently,

as a dead man can have no delight in the joys which once were delights to him, so neither can I.” When Paul looked upon the carnal

things of the world, he said, “I once allowed these things to reign over me.

What shall I eat? What shall I drink? And with what shall I be clothed?

These were a trinity of questions of the utmost importance—they are of no

importance now because I am dead to these things—I cast my care upon

God with regard to them. They are not my life. I am crucified to them.”

If any passion, if any motive, if any design should come into our mind

short of the Cross of Christ, we should exclaim, “God forbid that I should

glory in any of these things! I am a dead man. Come, world, with all your

witchery. Come, pleasure, with all your charms. Come, wealth, with all

your temptations. Come, all you tempters that have seduced so many!

What can you do with a crucified man? How can you tempt one who is

dead to you?” Now it is a blessed state of mind when a man can feel that

through having received Christ, he is, to this world, as one who is utterly

dead! Neither does he yield his strength to its purposes, nor his soul to its

customs, nor his judgment to its maxims, nor his heart to its affections,

for he is a crucified man through Jesus Christ! The world is crucified unto

him, and he unto the world. This is what the Apostle meant.

I have painted a poor picture, but still one, which, if you can understand

it, it will be grand to look upon. To walk straight on—believing in

Christ every moment, believing your sins to be forgiven even when you see

their vileness—believing that you are safe in Christ even when you seem

in the utmost danger—believing that you are glorified when you feel as if

you were cast out from God’s Presence—this is the life of faith.

So is it with you. Upon your old life, Believer, sentence of death has

been pronounced. The carnal mind, which is enmity against God, is

doomed to die. You can say, “I die daily.” Would to God the old nature

were completely dead! But whatever you have of life was not given you till you came into union with Christ. It is a new thing, as new as though you

had been actually dead and rotted in the tomb and then had started up at

the sound of the trumpet to live again. You have received a life from

above, a life which the Holy Spirit worked in you in regeneration. That

which is born of the flesh is flesh, but your Grace-life did not come from

yourself—you have been born again from above.

When a soul is startled by the thunderclaps of conviction and afterwards

receives pardon in Christ, it begins to live! The worldling says he

wants to see life and therefore plunges into sin! Fool that he is, he peers

into the sepulcher to discover immortality! The man who truly lives is the

Believer.

Clear is it, also, that the new life which Christ brings to us is a life of

self-abnegation, for Paul adds, “I live, yet not I.” Lowliness of mind is part

and parcel of godliness. He who can take any credit to himself knows not

the spirit of our holy faith. The Believer, when he prays best, says, “Yet

not I, but the Spirit of God interceded in me.” If he has won any souls to

Christ, he says, “Yet not I. It was the Gospel—the Lord Jesus worked in

me mightily.” “Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Your name be all the

praise.” Self-humiliation is the native spirit of the true-born child of God.

Christ must be the one thought, the one idea, the one master-thought

in the Believer’s soul! When he wakes in the morning the healthy Believer

enquires, “What can I do for Christ?” When he goes about his business he

asks, “How shall I serve my Lord in all my actions?” When he makes

money he questions himself, “How can I use my talents for Christ?” If he

acquires education, the enquiry is, “How can I spend my knowledge for

Christ?” To sum up much in little, the child of God has within him the

Christ-life. But how shall I describe that? Christ’s life on earth was the

Divine mingled with the human—such is the life of the Christian. There is

something Divine about it—it is a living, incorruptible seed which abides

forever.

“The life I live in the flesh,” says the Apostle.

We must not think

of keeping ourselves aloof from our fellow men as though we should be

degraded by mingling with them. The salt of the earth should be well

rubbed into the meat, and so the Christian should mingle with his fellow

men, seeking their good for edification. We are men, and whatever men

may lawfully do, we do. Wherever they may go, we may go. Our religion

makes us neither more nor less than human, though it brings us into the

family of God.

Yet the Christian life is a life of faith. “The life which I live in the flesh, I

live by the faith of the Son of God.” Faith is not a piece of confectionery to

be put upon drawing room tables, or a garment to be worn on Sundays. It

is a working principle to be used in the barn and in the field, in the shop

and on the exchange. It is a Grace for the housewife and the servant. It is

for the House of Commons and for the poorest workshop. “The life which I

live in the flesh, I live by faith.” I would have the believing cobbler mend

shoes religiously, and the tailor make garments by faith! And I would have

every Christian buy and sell by faith. Whatever your trades may be, faith

is to be taken into your daily callings, and that is, alone, the truly living

faith which will bear the practical test. You are not to stop at the shop

door and take off your coat and say, “Farewell to Christianity till I put up

the shutters again.” That is hypocrisy! The genuine life of the Christian is

the life which we live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God.