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God Loves and Likes You
Galatians 2:20
Why Good Friday is Good
There’s a comic that has two cave men discussing Good Friday. One says, “I hate the term ‘Good Friday.’” The other asks, “Why?” “Because my Lord was hanged on a tree that day.” Then the other guy says, “If you were going to be hanged on that day, and he volunteered to take your place, how would you feel?” “Good,” he said. Then the other guy turns and walks away and says, “Have a nice day.”
Good Friday is “Good” because on it we remember the glorious and comforting truth that Jesus died on the cross, in our place, as our substitute, absorbing the wrath of God we deserve, so that all who turn away from their sins and trust in him will be forgiven and accepted by God. This is really good news for people who’ve broken God’s rules and stand under the curse of the law.
Galatians 2:20
The New Testament says so much about the cross. It’s depth and riches are inexhaustible. But tonight I want us to spend a few moments thinking about a familiar passage that you maybe haven’t considered recently, Galatians 2:20.
This verse is often misunderstood and misapplied. It’s led many to think that, when we become a Christian, we lose our individuality and are only tolerated by God for Jesus’ sake. But we need to understand that God loves us and not just Christ instead of us.
Union with Christ
Let’s look at three things from this verse that I hope will draw this out. First, notice our union with Christ. Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” What does being executed with someone else even mean? Or being buried and raised with him (Col. 2:11-12), especially when the events happened 2,000 years before we were born?
Language like this is all over the New Testament and it’s meant to show us our union with Christ. This kind of talk can sound strange to those outside the church. We don’t just claim that Jesus died and rose again, but that we somehow continue to have fellowship with him and benefit from his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and ongoing intercession in heaven.
How can this be so? Paul says he was crucified with Christ and that Christ lives in him. But Paul wasn’t crucified and Jesus is now in heaven. Because those who’ve trusted in Christ are united to him by the Spirit.
The phrase “union with Christ” isn’t found in the New Testament, but the idea is everywhere. Believers are “in Christ” and Christ is “in us.” We’re members of Jesus’ body, the bride of Christ married to the groom, clothed with Christ and will be “found in him” on the last day.
Like branches on a vine, we’re connected to Jesus and draw our life from him (Jn. 15:4-20). How does this happen? John tells us, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his Spirit” (1 Jn. 4:13). The Spirit of God unites us to the Son of God, bringing together what was once apart.
Those who remain outside of Christ do not benefit from his life, death, or resurrection. So the question is not, “Did you pray a prayer, get baptized, go to church, and claim to be a Christian?” The question for each of us is, “Are we in Christ and is he in us?” If the answer is “Yes,” his Spirit will testify with our spirits that we’re children of God. In other words, if you’re united with Christ, his Spirit will make that clear to you. There are challenges and doubts and conflict along the way, but married people know that they’re married. Those married to Christ will know that he’s their husband, by the power of his Spirit.
What does union with Christ have to do with God loving me and not just Jesus instead of me? It means that your value and dignity and future are secure in Christ and not based on your performance or perceived acceptability before others and God. Paul says, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). For those who believe, our life is secure in Christ no matter how we feel, what we look like, what we’ve done, or what we will do.
God doesn’t just love Christ instead of us. He loves us and married us to his Son by his Spirit.
Union Does Not Remove Individuality
Second, notice that our union with Christ doesn’t remove our individuality. It’s easy to read this verse and think that we’ve been removed and that only Christ is left. After all, Paul says, “It is no longer I who live.” But does Paul mean that those married to Jesus lose their existence and meaning and value?
Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon on this text, noting that first-person singular pronouns are “swarming” everywhere in this passage, while the plural is absent. Elsewhere, Paul stresses the communal nature of the church, but here he zeroes in on the individual. God’s love in Christ by his Spirit moves all the way down to the individual.
Spurgeon notes that this is a distinguishing mark of the Christian religion. God doesn’t treat us as cookie-cutter creatures, but rather creates and redeems our individuality. Spurgeon provides a helpful analogy on this point: “In the nocturnal heavens there had long been observed bright masses of light – the astronomers called them ‘nebulae’ – they supposed them to be stores of shapeless chaotic matter until the telescope of Herschell resolved them into distinct stars. What the telescope did for stars the religion of Christ, when received into the heart, does for men!”[1]
Sameness is Not the Goal
Why is this important? Because we often think of the Christian life in ways that reflect our personalities, and we often seek to shape our Christian lives around our favorite Bible teachers or heroes in the faith. This way of thinking undermines the goodness and uniqueness of every individual Christian.
If you’re introverted, you don’t have to become extroverted to be a good Christian. Some are more introverted, some more extroverted. Some seek adventure, some prefer quiet. Some prefer action, others prefer reflection. Some deal with stress by running, some by reading. The point is that we can express a faithful identity in Christ no matter how we’re wired.
Jesus didn’t die to make us all the same. He died to set us free from sin so that we’d become more fully who God made us individually to be. Every tree in God’s garden will bear fruit by his Spirit, but this is far from saying that every tree must look the same. Godliness, not sameness, is the goal.
Living by Faith
Third, notice that union with Christ isn’t a universal phenomenon. Paul says that the life he lives he lives “by faith in the Son of God.” What is faith? Faith is the Bible’s term to describe a renewed relationship with God, it’s the “relational dynamic in which we see God and our neighbor as who they really are, and then respond accordingly.”[2]
Living by faith means believing the last two things Paul says in Galatians 2:20, that Jesus “loved me and gave himself up for me.” Many believe that God loves the world generally, but even mature Christians can get uncomfortable when they’re told, “Jesus came for you. He gave himself up for you.” We struggle to just look one another in the eye, no wonder we struggle feeling secure in God’s presence. Faith is a battle because we question whether God could actually be kindly disposed toward us.
Does God Like You?
If I asked you, “Does God love you?” you’d probably answer “yes.” But sometimes we’re just repeating an automatic “right” answer. Underneath our quick response lurks deep insecurities about God’s attitude toward us. Another question can help us see more clearly how we view God’s posture toward us.
What if asked you, “Does God like you?” Telling someone that God loves them is like throwing a marshmallow at them. When it hits them, it feels so light they’re not actually sure if it touched them or not. We know we’re supposed to believe that God loves us, but when we probe deeper, we have legitimate doubts about how God sees us.
The word “like” carries with it the connotation of delight, preference, and inclination. I like coffee, books, and being outside. These things bring me great delight. We hear our parents, spouse, or God say, “I love you,” but wonder if they actually delight in us. The word “love” comes so loaded with obligation and duty that it can lose all sense of pleasure and satisfaction.
Professor Kelly Kapic says, “Like can remind us of an aspect of God’s love that we far too easily forget…Unless we understand the gospel in terms of God’s fierce delight in us and not merely a wiping away of prior offenses, unless we understand God’s battle for us as a dramatic personal rescue and not merely a cold forensic process, we have ignored most of the Scriptures as well as the needs of the human condition.”[3]
Christian, God Delights in You!
Three times the Bible says that God’s people are the “apple of his eye” (Deut. 32:10, Ps. 17:8, Zech. 2:8). Isaiah says that God calls his people, “My Delight Is in Her” (62:3-5). Zephaniah says that the Lord rejoices over us with gladness and loud singing (3:16-17).
Christian, do you believe that God delights in you? Do you hear God’s sweet voice singing over your life? Does your heart feel God’s joy in you as his child?
God delights in his children just as we delight in our children. And nothing we did explains why. He, like a good parent, delights in his children simply because he made us and we are his. No one else may feel this way about you, but the only Person in the universe who matters does.
Let God quiet you with his love tonight. Let his delight in you free you from needing to out-perform everyone else and free you from trying to be like someone else.
God doesn’t tolerate us for Jesus’ sake. He loves us and not just Christ instead of us. He doesn’t just love a generic world – he loves you, and he even likes you.
Pray (ushers and musicians come forward)
We’re going to sing “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy” before we take the Supper together. Use this time to reflect on the Father’s heart for you, as demonstrated in Jesus’ death. Think about your union with Christ. Confess your sins to him. If you need to forgive someone in the church, do so before you take the Supper.
The Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper is for repenting sinners, for those who have union with Christ and his church. Practically this means that the Supper is those who’ve trusted in Christ, been baptized, and who belong to a local church.
If you’re not yet a baptized follower of Jesus who’s part of a local church, we’re glad you’re here, but we’d encourage you to refrain from taking the Supper. If you’re a visitor and you’ve been baptized as a believer and you’re a member in good standing at another gospel-preaching church, you’re welcome to observe the Supper with us.
- Ushers pass out elements
- 1 Corinthians 11:23-24, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’”
- 1 Corinthians 11:25, “In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’”
- 1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
- Let’s stand and sing “Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me”
[1]Quoted in Kelly M. Kapic, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2022), 31.
[2]Ibid., 34.
[3]Ibid., 19.