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UNLEAVENED BREAD - DAY THREE (Weekly Sabbath)

Fred R. Coulter – April 22, 2000

“Are You Unleavened In Christ”

This is for the regular Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread – 2000. 

How is it that we are unleavened in Christ?  You know, let’s go to 1 Corinthians 5, which we already covered before, but let’s go back there again.   1 Corinthians 5:7, and let’s see what the apostle Paul said, and let’s ask a couple of questions and see how this applies to us being unleavened in Christ.  Because we truly are unleavened in Christ if we understand the whole process of what God has done for us to reconcile us, to justify us, to bring us back to Christ. 

Now here 1 Corinthians 5:7, it says, “Purge out therefore the old leaven…”  And that means we have something we need to do.  Whenever we see what God has done to justify us in the things that we are doing, what we need to understand is this, we still have things that we need to do because those are the good works in which we have been ordained to walk in.  So we have to purge it out.  “…That ye many be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.”  Now there are two meanings to “as ye are unleavened”.  The first one is that you have unleavened your homes and you put leaven out of your houses.  The second one is, spiritually that you are unleavened in Christ, which then is the most important of all.  So what does it mean to be unleavened in Christ?  Now notice again, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 

And I want to just reiterate this again, “Therefore let us…”  Now that’s the apostle Paul, all of the ministers who were with him, all the brethren in Corinth whether they’re Jews or Greeks, and where ever this letter was sent afterwards, “…let us keep the feast…”  And I want to make it absolutely clear for anyone who has any doubt whatsoever that the ones who are called Gentiles should keep the feast.  This should settle the question because he said, “let us keep the feast”.  He didn’t say, “let us eat the Passover”.  Now he talks about that in chapter 11.  But here it is “let us keep the feast”, which is obviously the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  And so during this time it has a spiritual significance to it, that in putting leaven out of our homes we also put sin out of our lives, but we also come to Christ so we are spiritually unleavened in Christ.  Now let’s see how that works.  Let’s see what the Bible tells us how we are unleavened in Christ.

Now let’s go back to John 15, because these are the words of Christ.  Now remember Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.  So here in John 15, here are some of the words that Christ gave.  And let’s notice a very profound statement that He says here when we come to verse 3.  Let’s begin in verse 1.  “I AM the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.”  In other words, God the Father is the One Who is ultimately responsible for doing everything in our personal lives through the power of the Holy Spirit by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  He is the One Who is helping us to grow in grace and knowledge.  He is the One that helps us, if we are the good seed, to increase thirty-fold, sixty-fold, a hundred-fold. 

“Every branch in Me…”  Now there’s the key.  You must be in Christ, and He must be in you.  “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away…”  Now Jesus also said in another place, “Every plant that My Father has not planted is going to be rooted up.”  And that includes the tares, that includes the briars, that includes the thistles that Satan the devil has sown, whether it is in the Church, or in our lives, or whatever it may be.  He takes it away.  So there is a time when people are taken away because they do not understand or realize the great sacrifice that Jesus Christ has done for them, or the whole meaning of it and what it means to be unleavened in Christ.  And sooner or later a little leaven leavens the whole lump and guess what?  Voila, one day they are gone. 

Now I talked to a man just the other day.  And he said he talked to someone who had been in the Church of God, grew up in the Church of God, kept the Sabbath, kept the holy days.  Attended very regularly and was diligent in it and now they’re back to Sunday keeping.  That is a branch that did not remain in Christ and the Father took it away.  Now God may not be entirely done with that individual yet.  There is still a chance for a repentance, just like people can come out of any other religious organization as God calls them.  But nevertheless it is true to the statement, “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it…”  Purging comes from the Greek word katharos, which means the English word is catharsis, which is a deep, penetrating internal cleansing.  So He purges it.  “…That it may bring forth more fruit” (vs. 2). 

So the truth is all the trial and difficulties that you go through, which you’re guaranteed you’re going to go through them because the apostle Paul said that through much tribulation must we enter the Kingdom of God.  And so we’re going to have a lot of difficulties and trials and things to try us and test us.  But all of these things prepare us for the next phase of growing, because when we are purged through these trials, and we are purged through these things we take stalk of ourselves.  And that’s why we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread so we can really take stalk of ourselves, as I mentioned in the sermon before the Feast of Unleavened Bread to examine yourself whether you are in the faith or no. 

Now notice the reason that He does it, “that it may bring forth more fruit.”  And so don’t be dismayed or discouraged because of any of the trials that you are going through.  Ask God to help you give you understanding.  Ask God to give you faith and hope in it.  Claim His promise that He will deliver you out of it, because God will not give us a trial more than we can bare but will always make a way of escape.  So that is a great promise.  That’s why, you see, when we are unleavened in Christ we can go before God the Father and claim all of these promises.  They are there.  God loves you.  Christ loves you.  God is there to help you.  Christ is there to intercede for you.  Always remember that. 

Now let’s continue on here in John 15.  “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (vs. 3).  Now the word was what?  The Passover words, correct?  And the words that He spoke in chapter 14, as well as in the 15 and on into 16, and then finally the Lord’s prayer there in chapter 17.  “Ye are clean…”, that means you are clean from your sins.  You are clean from your past.  “…Through the words which I have spoken…”  Now remember He said when He broke the bread, He said, “Take eat, this is My body which is broken for you.”  And that is to cover your sicknesses and your sins.  And He said of the wine, “Take drink, this is My blood (namely the blood of the New Covenant), which is shed for the remission of sins of many.”  And also in another place He said, “For the remission of sins for you.”  So there is a general application of it to the Church and there’s an individual application to each individual.  So when He says, “You are clean through the words which I have spoken unto you”, brethren that is a tremendous thing.  That means you stand before God completely unleavened having all of your sins removed in a continuous way.  A continuous means through grace to get rid of any sins that come along.  And we’ll talk about that a little bit later, how you’re unleavened with Christ. 

Now verse 4 He says, “Abide in Me [and that means, to dwell in Me], and I in you.  And that’s the whole relationship that we have between us and Jesus Christ, individually.  That’s why a hierarchy that sets itself over the brethren, and in between the brethren and God is completely wrong because it’s cutting off this personal relationship. 

“Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it [live] abide in the vine…”  And that’s true.  You can cut off a branch.  You can cut off a twig.  You can even cut the whole tree down if you like, or cut the whole vine down, whatever.  Where the roots are, going down into the ground is going to maintain life, because the sap will come up in there and generate new branches, and generate a new tree from the old roots.  You’ve seen that time and time again.  And also there’s the analogy that the apostle Paul used concerning the Gentiles, of the wild olive tree that’s grafted into the good olive tree, which is Israel.  And the Church then is spiritual Israel.  And everyone who is in the vine of Christ and in Him is in spiritual Israel.  That’s something to really grasp and understand brethren. 

God is doing a marvelous work, and you individually each one of you are part of it.  So you don’t need to get down and discouraged.  You don’t need to be melancholy and just depressed because of your circumstances.  Regardless of your circumstances God loves you.  Regardless of your circumstances God is going to help you.  Regardless of your circumstances God is going to deliver you.  He has promised it.  So you see this is great, this is marvelous.  And sometimes we get so bogged down in just the day to day things that we forget it.  That’s why we have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so that we can be renewed, we can be regenerated, we can be uplifted, we can be inspired.  We can desire to grow in God.  We can desire to grow in love and truth.  That’s what it’s all about.  This is a tremendous feast brethren.

Now let’s continue on here. “…[You] the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except [you] abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that [lives]  abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing” (vs. 4-5).  So you need to understand that.  It always has to be Christ in you the hope of glory. 

“If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch [that is a cut off branch], and is withered…”  And we’ve seen that too brethren.  Haven’t we seen those that wither up.  Haven’t we seen those that have gone back into the world and just given up?  Now occasionally it’s possible to take a branch that has been cut off and stick it back in water and the water will help nourish it, and then it will begin to sprout new roots.  But you see, that can’t happen all the time.  When they are withered, “…and men cast them into the fire, and they are burned” (vs. 6).  In other words Christ is telling you this, you are either in Him or you’re going to the lake of fire.  No two ways about it.  And God gives us these absolutes to look at.  Not to put fear into us, but to inspire us to want to respond to His calling and His love.

Now notice what Jesus said, “If ye abide in Me [which you do], and My words abide in you [which they should], ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (vs. 7).  What ever you ask, according to the will of God, you will receive.  Now that’s profound to understand.  Now sometimes we have to do like the man who’s boy the disciples couldn’t cast the demon out of.  And Christ said, “Well, do you believe?”  And the father looked at him, crying and said, “I believe but help my unbelief.”  Showing that we as human beings have a mixture of belief and unbelief all together.  And so what we need to do is come to the point of having that belief and that trust, which only we can  give to God.  And then He says, “Whatsoever you will God will give it to you.” 

Now notice verse 8, “Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit…”  And all of this fruit bearing is part of being unleavened in Christ too, isn’t it not?  Yes it is.  “…So shall ye be My disciples.”

Now notice verse 9, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love.”  And brethren that’s the most important thing that there is.  The love of God is so important that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema”, that is cut off.  And we will see on the last day of Unleavened Bread that the love of God is the true and most powerful way to overcome and to be the victor and to conquer sin. 

Now let’s continue on here.  “If ye keep My commandments [so it’s all dependent on the commandments of God], ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you…”  That’s what God wants.  He wants you to overcome being miserable and naked and blind, to come to the point of having the joy of Christ in you.  Because Christ has done everything to make it possible for you to have eternal life.  And that ought to bring us great joy.  “…And that your joy might be full” (vs. 10-11).  Not just a little bit but abounding, to be full.  Pleroma is the Greek, which means to really be full, super full.      

Now verse 12.  “This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”  And brethren we have a whole lot of work to do concerning that.  And I think with all the doctrinal difficulties we have had, and all of the self appointed teachers running around here and there, coupled with the scattering of the Church and the separating of the tares and the separating of false brethren and things like that, it has been very, very difficult but never the less we are to love one another, as Christ has loved us.  And of course as we know that is the new commandment that God gave through Christ in John 13:34.  That is the new commandment.

Now let me just mention something here.  That new commandment does not do away with any of the other commandments.  That is an additional commandment because no one could learn how to love each other as God loves them unless Christ had first come in the flesh to set us the example, and to show His love unto death.

Now let’s continue here.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (vs. 13).  Now you see Abraham was called a friend of God.  We are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.  So therefore we are friends of Christ.  And if we are friends why should we then not do the things that He says, because He says that you’re only friends if you do whatsoever I say unto you.  After that if you don’t do that then you may very well make yourself an enemy of God.  You know the Church of Pergamos, the one that instituted the hierarchy after the doctrine of Baalim, and the doctrine of the Nicolatins.  He said they better repent or He would come and fight against them.  So you see we need to also understand that.  God desires love, not confrontation.  God desires faith, not disbelief.  God desires for you to have hope and not discouragement.  And all of those things are part of being unleavened in Christ. 

Now let’s go to the epistle of 1 John and let’s see how we do this on a day to day basis, because it’s something that we do beyond the time of just the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  But this is what we do on a continuous basis.  Now let’s pick it up here in 1 John 1:3.  “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”  That is the whole purpose of all that we go through brethren.  That through prayer, through study, through the exercise of the Holy Spirit, through growing in grace and knowledge, through developing the fruits of the Holy Spirit that we have fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.  Now that is profound.  So when God says He loves you, He sent Christ because He loves you.  He has forgiven your sins because He loves you.  He has called you because He loves you.  That is the highest point of the fellowship that we need to have. 

And we can continue in it, and He tells us how we do that, continuing on here verse 4.  “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”  Isn’t that interesting.  Here we’re talking about the fellowship and joy.  Christ is talking about living in Me, and I in you, which is the true fellowship, and the joy which would come from that.

Now verse 5, “This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”  Now we already covered that on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  But I want to reiterate it here again so that we understand we have to continuously be the children of light, and walk in the light as He is in the light as it says here. 

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him [that is fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ], and walk in darkness [meaning walking contrary to the commandments of God], we lie, and do not the truth…”  Now the word “do” here in the Greek means “to practice”.  So it is a way of life that you practice, that you live by, that you do, you see.  this is tremendous brethren.  “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light…”  And how is that?  By loving each other as He has loved us.  And, “if you love Me”, Jesus said, “keep My commandments.”  And then you are walking in the light.  You’re walking in the way of the Lord.  “…We have fellowship one with another…”, and that’s how to improve the fellowship and love between one another, see.  Walking in the light as He is in the light.  “…And the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (vs. 6-7). 

So we have this, two things.  The words which Christ spoke at the Passover, which we read through every year.  Those words cleans us.  Jesus said, “You are clean through the words which I have spoken.”  That’s on the annual basis.  Now on a daily basis the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin continuously.  And of course that is if we repent of it. 

Now notice, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins…”  Now that’s who we confess our sins to, to Christ.  Come boldly before the throne of grace so that we may have help in time of need.  Now you see there it is right there.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins…”  So He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.  He will never fail you.  If you come to God and weeping and repentance as we talked about on how to examine yourself, and ask God to clean you on the inward part, and ask God to give you a right heart and restore Him to you, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and you can count that as a tremendous and absolute blessing.  Now notice what else He says here.  “…And cleans us from all unrighteousness” (vs. 8-9).  Now we’re going to see how God does that.  To cleans us from unrighteousness.  So you see when you are unleavened in Christ the truth is this:  you have no sin.  If you confess your sins as they occur you are constantly cleansed.  Constantly having your sins forgiven, always.  That’s something to keep in mind constantly. 

Now let’s come to 1 Corinthians 15, and let’s talk about something concerning what the Bible calls “justification”.  Because you see when you have your sins forgiven you have been justified.  When you are standing in grace, as we will see, you are in a state of constant justification.  But this hinges on something very important so let’s read it here in 1 Corinthians 15:12.  This church in Corinth was really a wild church.  It’s kind of like today when people ask me what church age are we in. Lots of times I’ll say, “Well we’re in the 1 Corinthians church age”, you know.  Because we have so many doctrines, you have so many people going here and there and opinions and things like this.  Well here’s one of the things that they were preaching. 

Here come down here to 1 Corinthians 15:34, let’s read this one first.  “Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”  So here there were people in the Church who didn’t have the knowledge of God, didn’t understand God’s plan.  Now notice what they were preaching, verse 12, “Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”, when the whole very purpose of what God is doing through Christ is based on the resurrection.  His death and His resurrection.  Now let’s see that and how important that is. 

“But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (vs. 13-17).  You have not had your sins forgiven or justified.  That’s why it’s so powerfully important that Christ was resurrected, you see.  Because He paid the penalty and He alone was worthy.

Now notice verse 18, “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”  There’s no hope of a resurrection.  “If in this life only we have hope in Christ…”  If we were just a selfish little group and only we had hope in Christ, and God didn’t have a plan for the whole world and all humanity, “…we are of all men most miserable.  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”  And this day the very Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread is when Christ was resurrected.  Just right at the close of the Sabbath as it was ending He was resurrected from the dead after being in the tomb three days and three nights.  Now last year during the Feast of Unleavened Bread we covered all those aspects of it so if you want to go back and review that you can do that.  “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall be made alive.  …Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (vs. 18-23).  And so then that’s when we’ll be resurrected.  That’s what we are looking to.

Now let’s come and see something here very important.  Let’s come to the book of Romans.  Now the book of Romans we have quite a few things that we need to cover so I’m going to read to you out of my translation of the book of Romans beginning Romans 4:16.  Now here the apostles Paul is writing about Abraham and the faith of Abraham and how our faith is tied to the faith of Abraham. 

Let’s pick it up here in verse 16.  “For this reason it is of faith, in order that it might be by grace…”  And it is the grace of God which keeps you constantly in a state of unleavenedness in Christ.  Now continuing, “…to the end that the promise might be certain to all the seed [circumcised and uncircumcised]: not to the one who is of the law only, but also to the one who is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all; (Exactly as it has been written, “I have made you a father of many nations.”)  before God in Whom he believed, Who gives life to the dead, and calls the things which are not as though they are; Who against hope believed in hope…” (Rom. 4:16-18, AT).  And sometimes brethren, that’s all you have to believe in when there is such a trial upon you.

Now I remember reading about a man who was imprisoned in Russia, the Soviet Union before it became Russia, because he believed in Christ and kept the Sabbath.  And he was entombed in a cell 30 feet below the surface of the earth with no light, and just a little ventilation.  And once a day they would shove, through a little slot in the door, a little slop for him to eat.  And he was in complete darkness and the only thing he had to hope in was hope.  He said at that point it’s between you and God.  And at that point doctrine doesn’t make one bit of difference.  Well you see that is true.  Doctrine makes all the difference up until that point and then doctrine doesn’t make any difference.  It is do you love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being?  Are you going to hope in hope and ask God to give you endurance to come to the end of this?  Well he did.  He came out of it.  He’s alive today.  See, so sometimes you just have to come to the point that you can only hope in hope.  So don’t look at your circumstances as a hopeless situation.  That is not so.  God is there, always there.  And with God there is always hope.  Even gives life to the things that are dead.

Now notice, “Who against hope believed in hope, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your seed be.”  And he, not being weak in the faith, considered not his own body as already having become dead, being about one hundred years old, nor yet did he consider the deadness of Sarah’s womb”  (vs. 18-19).  See if God would have taken young people to do this, why there would be no miracle.  But you take someone a hundred years old and a wife ninety years old, now that’s a miracle.  Now that is a spiritual birth, or a birth by spiritual power.  No question about it.

“But because of the promise of God, he did not doubt through unbelief; but after giving glory to God, he was strengthened in the faith…” (vs. 20).  And sometimes you need to do just like Abraham.  You just need to go to God and say, “God, I know that you are God, that you love me, that you care for me, that you gave Christ to be the sacrifice for me.  I know that you are always there and fulfill your promise and fulfill your word and there is no shadow or variable of turning in you.  Please help me oh God.  Please reach down, give me understanding.  Please reach down, lift me up according to your goodness.  There will be times when you have to pray like that, you see.  I’m sure that Abraham did. 

Now notice verse 21.  “And he was fully persuaded…”  Now let’s understand something here.  If you are fully persuaded of what God has said and the word of Jesus Christ, “You are clean through the words which I have spoken to you”, then you are in a state of unleavenedness.   “… He was fully persuaded that what He had promised, He is also able [or has the power] to do.  “Able” there comes from the Greek dunamis, which means “the power”. 

“As a result, it was also imputed to him for rightreousness.”  Now as a result, what we’re covering here, that if you apply in your life the way that God shows, will be imputed to you for righteousness because of faith in Christ.  Now let’s go on, verse 23.  “But it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; Rather , it was also written for our sake, to whom it shall be imputed; to those who are believing on Him Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead…” (vs. 22-24).  Now then contrast with that how it was over there in the church of Corinth, that some of them didn’t have the knowledge of God and some of them were saying that there’s no resurrection of the dead, therefore Christ didn’t rise from the dead.  But if you are “…believing on Him [that is God the Father] Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead…”  Now notice verse 25 is the key verse here.  Who was delivered for our offenses…”, all of our sins.  He bore the sins of the world upon Himself, He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  “…And was raised for our justification” (vs. 24-25, AT).  Now justification means “to be put in right standing with God”.  And that right standing must include the imputation of righteousness. 

Now let’s come to Galatians 2, and let’s see how this is, and how it is with, and we’ll see how all of this ties together.  Let’s come to Galatians 2:16.  “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of (the) law…”  Now if you’ve got a King James with the word “the” there, it is not in the Greek.  And it is “works of law” meaning “any work of any law.”  See law was not designed to justify under the New Covenant.  Law was designed to justify under the Old Covenant through the sacrifices and the rituals.  But there still had to be repentance.  Now that does not carry over into the New Covenant.  And this is what was the problem there in this meeting where Peter separated himself from the Gentiles because of the circumcision party from James from Jerusalem. 

You are “…not justified by works of law but by the faith of Jesus Christ…”  And that means Christ’s own faith.  That’s why faith is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as we have covered.  And that must come from God.  “…Even as we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by…works of law: for by…works of law shall no flesh be justified.”  Now we know for sure this doesn’t mean that we don’t have works to do, but those works do not justify.  Christ alone.  His sacrifice, His death, His resurrection all combine together bring forgiveness, and cleansing, and justification.  Nothing else can do that.  No animal sacrifice, not even commandment keeping can do that.  If you keep the Sabbath, that’s required.  That doesn’t justify you.  But Sabbath keeping and holy day keeping is required so that you might learn of God, that you might come to repentance, and you might come to truth, that you might come to understanding, to walk in the light as He is in the light.

Now notice, “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin?  God forbid” (vs. 17).  Now what happens if you have been cleansed, you have been justified, you’re standing in grace, and you sin?  Did Christ make you sin?  No, that’s the old self in you that is doing it.  It is not Christ Who’s the minister of sin. 

Notice verse 18, “For if I build again the things which I destroyed [if you go back and build again your old life, which you destroyed in the watery grave of baptism], I make myself a transgressor.  For I through…law am dead to…law…”,  which means this: the wages of sin is death.  And sin is the transgression of the law.  So I through law [transgressing it, God’s condemnation for sin], have died to sin that I might live unto God” (vs. 19, paraphrased).  And that’s the whole purpose, as we will see when we come to Romans 6.  The whole purpose of baptism is if you are co-joined into the death of Christ. 

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 20.  The key is that you live unto God.  “I am crucified with Christ [through the operation of baptism]: nevertheless I live [that is I live in the flesh]; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”  Now that means Christ’s very own faith.  Now notice verse 21, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [which then is the imputed righteousness through justification] come by…law, then Christ is dead in vain.” 

Now, justification.  What is justification?  Let’s make it very clear what justification is. 

1)     Justification means that you are in right standing with God through the forgiveness of your sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. 

2)     No amount of law keeping can justify past sins. 

For example, if someone kills someone and then flees and hides and lives an exemplary life after that.  Does that exemplary life mean that they are justified from killing the person?  No, they are not justified from it.  Same way with you.  Unless you repent your sins are not justified. 

3)     This rights all the past wrongs by repentance and accepting the blood of Christ.

4)     Justification removes the penalty of sin when you are forgiven. 

And what is the ultimate penalty of sin?  The wages of sin is death, and in this case the second death, or the lake of fire.  And the death of Christ is imputed to you, and God accepts it as satisfaction for the payment of your sins.

5)     Christ death brought justification by the sacrifice of His life. 

If obedience justified past transgression then no sacrifice would be necessary, only obedience.  Yet obedience, the true spiritual righteousness, comes not by law or knowledge of law, but by the Holy Spirit, because that truly justifies you to God. Now you have part of God in you through the power of the Holy Spirit and the impregnation of the seed of God the Father that now you are a child of God. 

6)     Justified by faith and the sacrifice of Christ and the claiming of Christ’s promise of forgiveness. 

This puts you in right standing with God.

7)     The righteousness of Christ is imputed to you that you stand before God totally blameless, or completely unleavened in Christ.