Galatians 3:6-14 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
God gave us the story of Abraham recorded in the Old and New Testaments so we might understand God's plan for humans to live by faith and to gain eternal life with him through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in us. We receive this gift of the Spirit by faith, not by works. This faith rests in the works of Jesus Christ, not in our works. His works alone make us holy: Christ's death on the cross satisfied God's wrath towards our sinful state. With his death, not our death, Jesus cleansed our temples completely and constantly cleanses us with his blood. John wrote, But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7) The verb tense in this sentence literally means his blood cleansed me yesterday, it is cleansing me today, and it will cleanse me tomorrow. With the efficacious blood of Jesus continuously making our temples clean, we are holy for the presence of God to abide in us. We are free to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16 NKJV) Under no other name than Jesus can we receive this holiness and freedom; subsequently, under no other name can we receive eternal life and an eternal home in the presence of God. Only through Jesus and his work can we be filled with the eternal Spirit of God and know the security of adoption into the family of God. Jesus is truly the gate into this reality. Therefore we shout out with Paul: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6)
Abraham stands as a prototype of every person who lives by faith according to the promises of God and not by sight, looking at the limitations of the natural world. Abraham believed God would bless him even before he received any confirmation or evidence of God's promise being fulfilled to him. By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8) He believed in God's words, not in his reality, his present condition. Christians who name the name of Jesus as their salvation believe the same thing. We believe God's promises to us rather than the facts of this reality that we now experience on Earth, a reality that is contrary to our faith. We believe there is a promised land; we believe there is eternal life with God. Abraham, as we are also, was looking for an eternal home: he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:10) We have no confidence in our flesh to gain this paradise. Our confidence rests entirely in the promises of God and in his implementation of his Word. Therefore, we Christians obey the commands of scripture when it says, Rejoice in the Lord always. (Philippians 4:4) Through faith and trusting in God, we have gained an understanding that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) As Paul did, we can add, Again I will say, rejoice! Paul could say this regardless of the circumstances in his life because he was fully aware of the blessings he possessed in Christ by faith. We know that as people of faith, we are a blessed people. We are no longer held to a law that we cannot keep. We have a Savior who presents us to the Father fully cleansed and made holy by his shed blood.
Faith is the protagonist in this story, but there is an antagonist, one who would destroy our hope of eternal life with God. This one who works against our delivering Faith is Works. The latter fits so well with our sinful nature, which we can call Hero. Hero desires to be in the center of everything we do. He is the self-willed character of our lives. As far as he is concerned, he not only knows what is right for himself, but for others too. He will try to control, everything in his environment, for he is Hero, the knower of all things. Of course, Works understands Hero better than Hero understands himself. Hero believes he is functioning mostly under the umbrella of goodness and orderliness. His ways are right ways. Works agrees with him, and places his sensible plan of reaching the heavenly gates in front of Hero's eyes. Of course, Hero notices that attainment to this wonderful place has put him in the middle of implementing this plan. With lots of ambition and effort he works out this plan to the heavenly gates, but sadly he finds a huge gulf between him and his final destination. Works has deceived him, for his road to the gate of heaven is a dead end. The road looks great at the beginning but ends in a place called Nowhere. Faith, waits on the sidelines for the fleshly Hero to fail, then steps in and calls Hero to repent and to accept God's plan. As Hero looks at it, he notices that He is not in the middle of this implementation of victory. There is a man called Jesus that seems to be the center of everything written down. He notices that in every avenue that he needs to travel, Mercy and Grace carry him along. Hero steps back and views the scene; all his selfish ambition falls away. He bows his head, and says, "This is the plan for me: there is no dead end to the way of Jesus. I have faith in his works. Thank you Faith for showing me the true way. Forgive me, Lord. I am yours." May this little allegory speak to our hearts today.
No comments:
Post a Comment