Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20

I. We may see in the principles involved in the text the chief characteristic note of sanctity. What forms the spirit is the ready compliance of the soul with the influences of the indwelling presence of God. He moves the springs of life, gives them their bent, endues them with power, and directs them to their appointed end. Saintliness always exhibits a likeness to Christ. As the streams of water that gush upward are identified with the spring from which they issue, even so there is a likeness in the saint to Christ, because it is Himself reproducing Himself in the individual forms of character of the separate persons in whom He dwells.

II. We may also here learn how there exists a perpetual power of revival in the Church's life, and by what means it may be quickened. The indwelling of Christ is the source of faith. Now there is a twofold presence on which the Church's life hangs. There is a presence common to the whole body, external to every individual member, which centres in the blessed Eucharist; and there is a presence which is personal, confined to each individual soul, and centred in its own hidden life, for it is not the presence of God simply as God which constitutes the life of the Church this is the creed of nature but the presence of God incarnate, of God in Christ, revealing Himself according to express covenant. As faith in this twofold presence rises or falls, so may we expect that the life of the Church and its members will rise or fall also. (1) It is manifestly so with regard to the Church. Is not each revival in the Church the very awakening of the Lord in the ship on the sea of Galilee, where He had slept for awhile, but where He had never ceased to be? And is it not reasonable to believe that as faith in that presence revives, and we cry unto Him in the prayer of such a faith, we have the surest hope of the revival of the Church's life? (2) Is it not the same in each individual's life? Must it not be the looking off from all secondary motives, all intervening objects, and looking direct on the Divine will that impels us forward, and by faith in Him who commands it going forth to fulfil it?

T. T. Carter, Sermons, p. 222.

References: Galatians 2:20 . C. Vince, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 56; G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons to English Congregations in India, p. 44; Preacher's Monthly, vol. ix., p. 306; Homilist, 2nd series, vol. iv., p. 380; R. Tuck, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 261; H. W. Beecher, Ibid., vol. xxv., p. 276; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 24,7; vol. ii., p. 249; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 781; vol. xxvii., No. 1599; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 351; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. i., p. 28; vol. iii., p. 113; vol. iv., p. 87. Galatians 2:21 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1534; Tyng, American Pulpit of the Day, p. 364; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit Sermons, 4th series, p. 526; Ibid., 5th series, p. 57; Parker, City Temple, vol. III., p. 373; A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 183; S. Macnaughton, Real Religion and Real Life, p. 50; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 13th series, p. 13.Galatians 3:1 . A. Barry, Sermons for Passiontide and Easter, p. 21; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 177; T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 254; Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 248; Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 182; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1546; Homilist, 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 287; Ibid., vol. ix., p. 61.Galatians 3:2 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1705.Galatians 3:2-24 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. iii., p. 87. Galatians 3:3 . Ibid., vol. iv., No. 178.