- Live unto God
Galatians 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
The promise is two-fold: I am dead to the law, and I live unto God. If we could live according to the law and obey it perfectly we would be living unto God; but the law always condemns us and it can only kill. The Law cannot give life with God because we cannot keep it. But the Law kills and Moses is a minister of death. And there is no escaping the sentence of death: there is no appeal, no parole, no probation, and no pardon. The Law itself kills and the sentence is just and incontrovertible. I am dead to the law, destroyed by he very Law that was designed to birth, produce and grow life with God. But I failed, not the Law. The Law is good, if I could keep it, but it kills and I am dead to the Law.
But God Himself came into my world and kept the Law for me, paid the penalty of death for breaking the Law, and freely grants me the righteousness of God. Jesus died for me the lawbreaker; and as the penalty-bearer He makes me dead to the Law so that it has no authority over me. The Law of God did not break; the law does not bend; it holds its authority and power of death forever. But because of Christ it has no power over me. If I should die eternally then God is not true to His promise and God is a liar.
I am dead to the law so that I may live unto God; and in Christ I do live unto God: this means I shall live and not die. Life is freely mine, granted to me for free by grace because of Jesus Christ. And not only later, but also right now while I am living in the midst of death I am living: I live by faith in the Son of God every minute of every day. Because of this awesome promise of living unto God, He energizes and empowers me to enjoy His Creation, His gifts of marriage and family, the vocation to which He calls me, life in relationship with people in society and fellowship with the Church. Life with God, God’s Life, is the only life, and it is the only way to live. Unbelievers do not know it, until it should be revealed, that they are walking around as living dead people, Zombies, without Christ and the Gospel. Believers know that they were once dead in trespasses and sins, and their new life in Christ knows the difference.