A Life for a Life

S-The Meaning of Death

S-"So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law." Galatians 5:1

A-God's grace and freedom in Christ

L-The Significance of Death

    "So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:19-20

-How does one "die" to the law?

    - In order to understand the significance of this type of death we need to understand,

1. The meaning of death physically and spiritually

2. What Christ's death did

3. Why death is important

4. How death takes place in our lives

5. What happens when Christ takes up residency within us


1. The meaning of death physically and spiritually.

         -When death occurs, one becomes unresponsive, there is a stop, an end to life. This happens both physically and spiritually.

         -Death entered the world, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit.

                  "The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. But the Lord God gave him this warning: "You may freely eat any fruit in the garden except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely die." Genesis 2:15-17

               -This death signifies both spiritual and physical. It translates, "A death you shall die" or  "Dying you shall die."    

                           **Basically this can mean you will lose your protective covering of Paradise and begin to age (dying), and then ultimately die physically.  However, it also speaks on spiritual death, because up until that point they walked and talked with God, but now the relationship would die as a result of the separation that sin brought into their lives.
                   

              -Fast forward to the Book of Leviticus. Here, God gives us an outline in detail (Beginning in Chapter 1) on the rules and purpose of all five offerings. The two required were the Sin Offering and Guilt Offering. Both of which require death of an animal of God's choice.

  **Why is death so important to God?

             -It served two purposes.

                      1. Worship
                      2. Forgiveness of sins                     
                  
        -In the Old Testament-an animal took the place of man. It was man's way of giving him/herself to God by means of the life of an animal.

         -In the New Testament-Christ came and gave His life for us.

         -God's system says a life must be given for a life.

    So when Paul says, "So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ." Galatians 2:19

He is saying, when I became a follower of Christ, my old way of living died with Christ. It came to an end. It stopped. "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ's cross." Colossians 2:13-14

S-Tell someone what Christ did for them, and why His death was so important.