Who Lives in You

Who Lives in You?
Dr. D. William McIvor
June 27, 2004
Presbyterian Church in Sudbury

In last week’s sermon we began to see what’s at stake in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Was Paul a true apostle and did he teach the true gospel of Jesus Christ? Paul insisted that he truly was sent from God — “sent one” is literally what the word apostle means. He also insisted that his proclamation of the gospel was true because he received the message, not from any human source, but directly from Jesus Christ. Last week we talked at some length about the dilemma of credentials and Paul’s credential was Christ himself. So Paul was both flabbergasted and angry that the Christians in Galatia had so quickly abandoned what he had taught them.

To help us better understand today’s text from Galatians 2, I’m taking the somewhat unusual approach of a lengthy introduction to the scripture lesson. So we’ll come to the text in the middle of the sermon rather than at the beginning.

If you have been reading Galatians, you will have noticed that between today’s text and the opening verses of the book that we looked at last Sunday, we find a detailed chronology of Paul’s life following his conversion to Jesus Christ. You can read these verses on your own and I don’t want to bore you with too much detail. But understanding the chronology of what happened to Paul helps us understand why he was so upset with the Galatians.

New Testament scholars have spent years of effort and used up oceans of ink to figure out the dates of Jesus’ life and what happened after the crucifixion and resurrection. No dating of that ancient time can be known with absolute precision. So while some scholars date the crucifixion in the year 30, it appears a more likely date, in terms of our calendar, was Friday, April 3, 33.[1]

That would imply that Paul’s dramatic encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus occurred some time in 35 or 36.[2] Then, according to what Paul wrote in Galatians, here’s what happened next.

• He did not consult other Christian leaders (1.16b) or go to Jerusalem, the implicit headquarters of the growing Christian movement (1.17a). Instead he went into the desert of Arabia, presumably to read the scriptures and reflect on his encounter with Christ. Then Paul returned to Damascus (1.17b).

• Three years later he did go to Jerusalem. But after a couple of weeks, talking only to Peter and James, the brother of Jesus, he went to Syria (north of Palestine) and Cilicia which is in the southern part of modern-day Turkey and the region of Paul’s hometown of Tarsus (1.18, 21).

• Fourteen years went by before Paul journeyed once more to Jerusalem. He says he learned nothing more about the gospel from the “pillar” apostles — Peter, Jesus’ brother James, or John. But they all agreed that Paul would take the gospel to the gentiles — he called them the “uncircumcised” — and the others would take the gospel to the “circumcised,” that is, the Jews (2.1-9). (Here we need to remember that while circumcision has no religious significance for us, for the Jews — and all the first Christians were Jews — circumcision was the distinctive sign of belonging to God, of belong to the covenant community. Circumcision was for Jews even more important and necessary than baptism has become for Christians.)

So the gospel would be proclaimed to gentiles, led by Paul, and to Jews, led by the other apostles. So far so good.

But then Paul saw hypocrisy. Peter visited Paul in Antioch. Remember that Peter already had had a dramatic vision — you can read about it in Acts 10 — that God showed no partiality between Jews and gentiles. Peter had begun to live that way, living in full fellowship with gentile Christians including sitting at table with them, a behavior strictly forbidden for faithful Jews. But then some people came along who felt that maintaining Jewish distinctives was of primary importance and they got in Peter’s face. These appear to be the same people or at least the same kind of people who were troubling the Galatians. In Antioch Peter caved in to that pressure and no longer associated with gentile believers. Paul said to Peter’s face, “You dumb doofus![3] (That’s the McIvor unauthorized translation!) You’re just a big hypocrite!”

Paul condemned Peter’s hypocrisy because Paul had come to see in the depths of his soul what the gospel of Jesus Christ really is. The gospel of Jesus Christ is pure grace — nothing more and nothing less. That’s where we ended last week’s sermon. Pure grace. Paul knew that and he knew that Peter knew it. And Paul insisted that the very meaning of the gospel was at stake. If gentile believers needed to become Jews before they could become Christians, then the gospel was no longer pure grace. If Jewish believers needed to follow Jewish rules — things like circumcision, kosher dietary rules, or even the Ten Commandments — in order to be faithful to Christ, then the gospel is no longer pure grace. In his very bones Paul knew the gospel was pure grace and he stood against any who would teach or live otherwise. Now we’re ready for the text in Galatians 2.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is 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. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

If we knew where the apostle Paul’s body was buried and wanted to erect a new tombstone over it, we could not find a better epitaph than words from verses 19-20 of the text: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” That was all Paul cared about — the cross of Christ and Christ living in him.

How is it that Jesus Christ came to live in Paul? Answering that question tells us why he condemned Peter’s hypocrisy and why he was angry at the Galatians for abandoning the true gospel.

• Did Jesus Christ live in Paul because Paul believed in God? Well, Paul did believe in God but he never suggests that was why the grace of Christ came to him.

• Did Jesus Christ live in Paul because he was a faithful Jew? Quite the opposite. Paul told the Philippians (see Philippians 3.4b-9) that if anyone could boast about being a faithful Jew, he could. But he counted all of that as garbage compared with knowing Christ.[4]

• Did Jesus Christ live in Paul because he had faith? That’s a trickier question because many times including today’s text Paul does say that we live by faith or through faith.[5] And this can be a stumbling block because all too often through twenty centuries, Christian theologians and Christian believers have made of faith something that Paul never intended. We make faith a good work that is the cause of grace.[6] So it comes out: If you believe, if you have faith, then God will save you. And this is precisely wrong because it puts the faith cart before the grace horse.

Paul never thought that way. For Paul, grace was the blazing light that knocked him to the ground on the road to Damascus and blinded him.[7] Then out of the light the voice of Christ came to Paul and told him to stop persecuting Christians — really, stop persecuting Christ — and start preaching the gospel. It was pure grace that saved Paul. Christ came to live in Paul by grace, not faith, and he knew because of his own experience that the same had to also be true for everyone else.

Admittedly, everything so far has been rather tedious spadework to uncover the treasure of pure grace as Paul expresses it. So let me now try to pile up some images that hopefully will bring all of this home for us.

You may have heard of the poem “Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson (1859-1907).[8] Thompson was a failure in much of his life, a one-time opium addict, who died of tuberculosis almost a century ago at the age of 48. But his poems, mainly religious, were rich in imagery and poetic vision. The character in this poem is being pursued through life by a great and fearsome hound. Here’s how it begins:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I hid from Him, and under running laughter;
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat — and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet —

Of course, by now we know that the Hound pursing him is Christ himself. The poem runs on for 183 lines of archaic and complicated language. The character tries to escape the Hound with all manner of earthly pursuits. He seeks solace and meaning and safety in every possible way, both good ways and bad ways. But still the Hound of Heaven comes after him. And near the end the poet writes:

So finally, expecting to be torn apart, he turns to meet his pursuer. But instead of destruction, there is a caressing hand outstretched to him and the Voice says:

“Hound of Heaven” is but a religious poet’s vision of the Light that knocked Paul to the ground and showed him the face of Christ’s pure grace. The One whom our hearts truly seek is Jesus Christ even though we often do everything in the world to run away from him. But by pure grace he will hound us to the end.

Or here’s another image for those of you who are, like me, Harry Potter fans. I know there are folks who don’t think much of the Harry Potter stories because they are about wizards and witches. But we should remember that these stories are not meant to be taken literally. They are fairy tales and like all true fairy tales these stories are about good and evil, light and dark, things that scare us, and things that save us. I think the author, J. K. Rowling, spins a great tale that is not only fun to read but worth reading.

In any case, five Harry Potter books have been written of a projected seven, and the third movie was just released. Friday afternoon Merrie and I went to see the movie called “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” In the movie and in the book, Professor Lupin is teaching the young wizards how to deal with nasty little monsters called boggarts.

“Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces,” [explained] Professor Lupin. “Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks — I’ve even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock.”[9] Then the professor asks if anyone knows what a boggart is. As always, the precocious Hermione has the answer. “It’s a shape-shifter,” she said. “It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most.”

In other words, behind the fairy tale boggart is a deeper reality, a reality that comes to light in our fears. And because I was thinking about this sermon, that image of the boggart seemed in an opposite way to be an image of the Christ who is always with us even when we don’t see him. When we are children, lots of things scare us: the shadows outside the window, the noises in the hallway, the closet door that just slipped open, and — always — whatever might be lurking under the bed. When we grow up, the fearsome things change but they seem just as real to us: cancer, losing our job, a loved one dying, our own aging and lurking death. But because of grace, there is a deeper reality behind our fears, a reality that is Christ himself. Jesus Christ is a reverse-boggart, if you will. Instead of becoming what we fear, Christ is the deeper reality that calms our fears. Christ lives in us and says, “Fear not! I am with you always.”

And here’s the key. Faith does not make this true. The little wizards learn a spell to save them from the boggart. Faith is not a spell or incantation that results in grace. Faith is but the eyes to see what is already true. God’s pure grace is always with us.

That’s why the great Canadian theologian, Douglas John Hall, writes that for Paul, faith “is no end in itself but only a means. [Faith] is that gift of God which enables us to see — to glimpse, rather, “as through a mirror dimly (1 Cor. 13:12).” And this seeing “opens us to a whole new world. It is a window onto all of reality.”[10] That reality is the pure grace of Jesus Christ.

Our time is gone for today and we’ll pick it up here next week. I’ll end with just one more image of grace, this one perhaps a little easier to grasp. In the book of Revelation, Jesus says, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” (Revelation 3.20)

I believe that Jesus Christ knocks at the door of every human heart. Because of culture or personality or religion or many other things, we may be afraid to open the door. Even if we open the door to those persistent knocks we may not at first recognize the One standing there as Jesus Christ. But it is he. He wants to live in us. He offers pure grace. And faith is, as one writer said, “keeping our eyes open”[11] for grace. May God help us so to do.

[1] This is the detailed argument of two British scientists, Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington. The Gospel of John suggests the crucifixion took place on the day before the Passover, that is, the 14th of the Jewish month of Nisan. Matthew, Mark, and Luke suggest it took place on Passover, that is, Nisan 15. But during the reign of Pontius Pilate (26–36), Nisan 15 occurred on a Friday only in 27 and 34. The year 27 is probably too early and 34 is too late for the crucifixion. However, Nisan 14 happened on a Friday in 30 and 33. Also on Nisan 14, 33 there was a partial eclipse of the moon over Jerusalem. So the moon rising in the later afternoon of that day would have had a reddish appearance and perhaps explain the tradition that the moon “turned to blood” on the day of crucifixion. Nisan 14, 33 = April 3, 33. Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington, Chronos, Kairos, Christas: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan, ed. Jerry Vardaman and Edwin M. Yamauchi, (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1989) 165-181.

[2] The great New Testament scholar, F. F. Bruce, dates events somewhat earlier, arguing that Paul’s conversion was in 33 or 34. But Bruce did not consider the Humphreys/Waddington thesis. Precise dating remains elusive. See F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977) 475.

[3] I knew that doofus was slang but was surprised to find it in online dictionaries: doo·fus, pl. doo·fus·es. An incompetent, foolish, or stupid person. Perhaps a blend of doof, fool (from Scots), goofus, fool (from goof). See http://dictionary.reference.com.

[4] Philippians 3:4b-9: “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.”

[5] In addition to today’s text, the most relevant references to living by faith are: Rom. 1.17: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” Rom. 3.28: For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. Rom. 5.1-2: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 2 Cor. 5.7: For we walk by faith, not by sight. Gal. 3.8: And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” Gal. 3.11: Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” Gal. 3.24: Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. Gal. 5.5: For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

[6] Tom Gillespie writes: “God justifies dia (through) and ek (on the basis of) pistis tou Christou (v. 16). Traditionally, the genitive construction of this phrase has been read in an objective sense, meaning the Christian’s faith in Jesus Christ. That this is important to Paul is clear from the immediately following statement that ‘even we believed in (eis) Christ Jesus’ (v. 16b), but acknowledging the importance of the human faith factor is not the same as making it the ground and means of God’s justifying action. For then it is difficult to explain how the human act of faith is not an alternative form of ‘the works of the Law.’ Accordingly, there is a growing agreement among exegetes, based on studies of Greek idiom in both the Old Testament (LXX) and the New Testament, that the subjective reading of the genitive in pistis tou Iesou Christou is to be preferred …” This accords well with Paul’s revelational understanding of Jesus as the messianic claimant whom God ‘vindicated’ by raising him from the dead.” Roger E. Van Harn, ed., The Lectionary Commentary: Theological Exegesis for Sunday’s Texts, The Second Readings (Acts and the Epistles) (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2001) 285-286.

[7] The story of Paul’s conversion is told three times in Acts: 9.1-22, 22.4-16, and 26.9-18.

[8] I found the poem at http://jloughnan.tripod.com/hound.htm.

[9] J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1999) 133.

[10] Douglas John Hall, Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1989) 253-254. With words I find deeply profound, Hall continues: “Precisely this end of faith, namely, its reorientation of the human spirit towards the other, is why a faith which finds itself interesting is a contradiction in terms. The intention of that grace which makes faith possible is exactly to free the self from preoccupation with itself and to turn it towards the other — God, the neighbor, the world. Theology, which faith enables and which can only, at depth, be enabled by faith, is the attempt of the mind that is being liberated from the prison house of self to give expression to the great universe of meaning that through the grace of belief in God it has begun to intuit. Subjectivistic theology has mistaken the means for the end, the window for that upon which the window allows us to fix our gaze.” (emphasis his)

[11] Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998) 169-170. “[Faith] corresponds with what a fourth-century monk, Abba Bessarion, said about the attentiveness required in a life of faith: ‘The monk should be all eye.’”