Galatians 4:12-20 Stand Firm!

Galatians 4:12-20 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you.  You did me no wrong.  As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.  Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.  Where, then, is your blessing of me now?  I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.  Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?  Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good.  What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.  It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.  My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!

Paul fears that the Galatians are binding themselves to the Jewish law because of the divisive teaching of some Jews of how to be right with God.  Paul lives in freedom from the regulations of the Jewish religion as a way to know God.  He now discovers the Galatians are moving towards the Jewish law to be right with God.  I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you.  He is telling them through this writing that there is no efficacy in binding yourself to the law.  Righteousness does not come through a lifestyle but through the grace of God that is freely given to all people through faith in Christ’s work on the cross.  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  (Romans 3:21-22)  He desires them to understand that right standing with God is accomplished through faith in Jesus Christ.  Eternal life and access to the kingdom of Heaven is possible only through Jesus Christ, for He is the Gate.  His resurrection from the grave gave evidence that eternal life does exist for all men and women who trust in him.  Jesus came back from death in the flesh, identifying this reality by eating fish.  This life from the grave is the hope of all men who put their lives in the hands of Jesus Christ, the Grace of God.  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.  This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.  (1 Peter 1:3-5)   But now wolves from Jerusalem have invaded the Christian community of Galatia, leading them away from total reliance on Jesus’ work on the cross.  These wolves are teaching the necessity of being circumcised as an indication of belonging to God.  Paul is gravely concerned about this contamination of the gospel.  He knows if the believers lay down any other way to be right before God, they will lose their means to salvation.  Hear ye him is God’s way to being right with him.  This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  (Matthew 17:5)  Now Paul knows the Galatians are listening to Jews who were instructing them about the Mosaic law and its path to God.  These Jews were supplanting the new covenant with the regulations and lifestyle of the Old Covenant.  However, the law and its regulations could only expose man’s unfitness to be with God--his unrighteousness was a heart issue.  God would not allow sinful men and women to enter into his eternal domain, a new heart had to be created in them.  Physical circumcision could never alter the hearts of men and women, only a divine work through Christ could accomplish that deed.  People must be born again. 

The spirit of antichrist invaded the Galatian's community through this Jewish teaching of circumcision.  The Galatians were once strong adherents of Paul’s teaching of grace through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice.  But now some law-bound Jews were attempting to separate the Galatians from the Good News that Paul taught.  The Jews mixing grace with the law was an anathema to the grace of God and a life IN CHRIST.  Jesus ALONE IS THE TRUTH, THE WAY AND THE LIFE, the only gate to eternal life.  Paul reminds the Galatians of their great love for him when he entered their province of Galatia.  As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.  Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.  The Galatians had taken care of Paul during this time of infirmity and showed him great love.   They thought him so valuable that they treated him as if he were an angel from God or even Jesus Christ himself.  Some say that his illness was his eyes, and maybe that is so, for he reminds them that their love was so intense that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.  This love is evidence that they received his teaching of the Good News wholeheartedly and with great joy; yet they were greatly concerned over Paul’s illness.  Now, however, this past, wonderful relationship they had with Paul was being despoiled by Jews who were zealous for the law and its way of knowing God.  They were challenging the efficacious work of Jesus as the way to God.  Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good.  What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may have zeal for them.  These people might have believed in some of what Paul taught, but they were contaminating the Good News with law.  Paul had made this excursion into the Gentile world.  He taught freedom from the law; he taught trusting in the work of Jesus alone.  However, these at best, quasi-Jewish believers followed him into Galatia, teaching a confusing mix of law and Christ.  They were teaching this hodgepodge message for selfish reasons, to elevate themselves in the eyes of the Galatians, having zeal for them and not Paul.  To Paul, they were hypocrites, not true disciples of Jesus Christ.  Their teaching was Pharisaical, self-aggrandizing.  As Jesus said concerning the Pharisees, They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.  (Matthew 23:4)  Paul does not mind zeal if it is for good purposes.  He himself was a man of strong zeal for teaching the word, but if the zeal is for selfish reasons, it is wrong.  It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.  These Jewish wolves were being good when it suited their purposes, but were not consistently good to the Galatians.  Their goal was to disrupt Paul’s teaching of grace alone as a way to God.

Paul’s advocation of grace alone and in trusting the mercy of God through the works of Jesus Christ was his sole message to the Gentiles.  For him, the true message of Jesus on the cross would save all mankind from the consequences of sin: death.  Jesus finished the task of suffering and dying on the cross, the penalty God required for the sins of mankind.  The final work of redemption was completed on the cross.  Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:28-30)  Jesus drank the full cup of suffering for mankind.  He alone experienced the full wrath of God on sin.  No one else paid that price.  Not one disciple died with him on that day, only Jesus died on the cross, no other could pay the ransom for the freedom of man from the consequence of sin and death.  To say there must be another card to play for the freedom of men from the captivity of sin belittles the cross and the price God paid for man’s freedom.  Paul is hugely concerned that the Galatians are moving in that direction, negating the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!  Perplexed because they were not given the Holy Spirit inside of them through any act that they performed.  The Holy Spirit who was now present in them was a gift from God, not abiding with them because of some work of their own.  Their atonement was God’s work not their own work.  The atonement through Christ reveals God’s love for those He made in his image from the very beginning.  He had this plan of redemption for mankind before the world was formed.  His love as the Old Testament said so often is an everlasting, enduring love.  His implementation of this rescue plan for all people from their waywardness came through his Son Jesus Christ.  Jesus is his enduring love toward all He made from the beginning.  Even nature will be released from the bondage of violence and sin.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  (1 John 4:9-10).  The Galatians were now being led into confusion about God’s love.  They were being taught by these wolves that God demands something else from people to be right with him: the act of circumcision.  This teaching of works is an affront to God and his holiness, mercy, and grace.  God’s eternal plan of redemption preexisted Adam and Eve.  He desired children in the likeness of his Son, those who would be present with him forever.  These children need not the sign of circumcision on their flesh, but they did need the circumcision of the heart.  They needed a place of abode for the Spirit of God, a place of cutting away the flesh.  All of this came through the holy work of Jesus on the cross.  He made a righteous place for the Holy Spirit to abide in the lives of men and women, a place of communion with God.  Paul states to the Galatians this place of holiness where God abides is not the work of human beings.  It is God’s work; therefore, He has set you free from your efforts to please Him.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words!  I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.  (Galatians 5:1-2).  Breakfast companions, as God is, we are: free indeed!  Walk in your freedom today.      

 

Galatians 4:1-11 Keep In Step!

Galatians 4:1-11  What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.  The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.  So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.  But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?  You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!  I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Paul in the above verses gives an analogy of how the law was a guardian to keep the Israelites from failing to bring forth Jesus Christ to the world.  The people of the law came from Abraham’s loins.  They were sent into slavery for 400 years.  Then through God’s miraculous power they were delivered into the wilderness, where they existed for 40 years.  During this time in the wilderness, they received the law from God’s own hands.  The written law revealed the God of the Israelites as righteous and holy.  God provided the Israelites his presence in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.  He provided food and drink in the wilderness, even though they were a rebellious people.  All of his care for them was to protect the Seed that they carried within them.  God was the guardian of this Seed.  In the fulness of time, this Seed would be manifested by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb.  God provided them with the law to set them apart from all other people.  They were not free to be as other people.  Violation of God’s law given to them would cause great judgment upon them. They were imprisoned by the law. They would face God’s punishment if they departed from his law and regulations.  They faced God’s judgment many times in the wilderness and in Canaan.  But God’s judgment on their sins never changed their hearts.  Even though the law set them apart from other people, their hearts were always in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.  However they carried the redemption of mankind in their loins according to God’s plan.  When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  For the Jews first and then all of mankind, God sent his Son to the world to bring salvation to every living soul that would trust in Christ.  The law was merely a guardian over the Israelites to insure that Jesus would be brought into the world.  The Jewish people through the loins of Abraham because of his faith in God’s words carried this Seed to fruition.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for ALL the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  (Luke 2:8-12)  Now all people could know God in an intimate relationship.  No longer would people learn of God through the law and regulations, but through faith in the Christ who died for them and cleansed them with his blood.  He would be the intermediator between God and his creation, not the law.  Jesus himself would be the high priest before God, presenting men and women who are found IN HIM as holy, for they are IN HIM through faith alone in HIS WORK on the cross.

Paul is addressing the Galatians with this truth of Christ’s redemptive power through faith in him alone and not through observing any law or ritual such as circumcision.  The law was meant only to preserve the Seed, for no man can enter the Holy of Holies, where God abides, by obeying commandments and rules.  The people's obedience to law will never satisfy God’s demands on people’s lives.  Laws represent man’s effort to please God as did the rituals in the Holy Place in the Tabernacle.   But without the curtain torn between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, man can never enter into the very presence of God.  Jesus the First Born from death to resurrection tore this curtain of separation between God and man by his sacrifice on the cross.  We who believe in him will follow this journey, from the flesh to being with God in his intimate presence.  We by faith in Christ’s work are God's sons and daughters.  He is our Abba Father.  Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.  The law could not deliver us into this close relationship; only Jesus and his death could accomplish that miraculous act.  Paul is now telling the Greeks in Galatia that circumcision never changed the hearts of the Israelites.  They never became obedient to God’s will through fleshly circumcision.  They needed the spiritual circumcision that Christ performed on the cross.  We who are IN CHRIST have that circumcision in our hearts, for Christ abides in us through the works of the Holy Spirit.  This work of redemption is what God has predestined for us from the beginning of time.  ”For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  (Ephesians 1:4-6)  The life we live, we live IN and THROUGH Jesus Christ.  Paul is zeroing in on the fact that salvation is an act of grace: God’s grace, not man’s effort.  No man or woman can boast about finding salvation through his or her effort.  If such a spirit is found in us, it is the antiChrist spirit.  For Christ alone is God’s work, not man’s work, his work of grace, not man’s effort to know God.  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  (Ephesians 2:1-3)  Dead people cannot produce life.  The Bible says we were clearly dead, away from any life, destined to be discarded into hell.  The Truth, the Way and the Life is not part of us when we are dead.  Trespasses and sins caused our deaths.  Therefore, dead men and women cannot boast of redeeming themselves.  The law could not restore the dead.  The law could only identify death.  The law in itself never produced life, only God can do that as demonstrated in the resurrection.  

Paul is extremely concerned that the Galatians are being misled by some Jewish Christians, claiming circumcision has merit.  He knows if this door is allowed to be opened, then all the law will follow.  And as Peter said when Paul met with him in Jerusalem, which one of us has been able to keep the whole law?  Lacking obedience to the whole law brings death, for no man will enter God’s presence without being absolutely perfect.  Paul knows man’s inability to please God through the law.  He considers the law and it regulations to be excessively weak in leading men to God, to be in right relationship with an eternal, sinless God.  But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?  Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?  The law is but a jail, restricting you from knowing God, from being free as God is free.  You have no sonship if you are not free.  Only slaves are not free, but the Son sets us FREE INDEED!  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  (Ephesians 1:18-19)  We who know Jesus Christ by faith have the power within us of redemption.  To know God in any other way is a futile attempt to please him.  Paul expresses his concern for the Galatians’ salvation by saying, You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!   I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.  He is afraid that the only way of salvation is escaping their understanding, leading them back into darkness, away from God and his redemptive plan in Jesus Christ, his Son.  Jesus so clearly laid out the path to redemption.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.  Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven.  Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”  (John 6:56-59)  The manna in the wilderness did not sustain life. They eventually died.  The law and its regulations will not sustain life.  They only point to imperfections, even though they represent the perfect will of God.  God needed someone to fulfill every jot and tittle of the law, to be perfect in everything he did on earth.  Jesus Christ was that person, kept in the loins of the Israelites who were governed by the law, but the law was but a guardian until Jesus would be manifested in the world.  We are no longer IN THE WRITTEN LAW, but we are IN THE PERFECTER OF THE LAW.  We are only obedient to the law through and in him.  He has written the law on our hearts because He is in our hearts.  Therefore, let us live with that knowledge and with that freedom.  Let us reflect to the world the God that is in us.  Paul goes on and tells us that reflection is evident if we are free IN Jesus Christ.   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  (Galatians 5:22-25)  As you go about your day, breakfast friends, picture yourselves in Christ and in step with the Holy Spirit.  

   

Galatians 3:23-29 Light Shines in the Darkness!

Galatians 3:23-29  Before the coming of this faith, we were held in.  So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.  So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

In the above focus we see that God protected the Seed, Jesus Christ, by giving Israelites the law.  When the Seed was birthed, Jesus would identify himself as the Son of Man or the perfect man born out of flesh.  His mission revealed a loving God to a sinful and rebellious world.  Abraham believed in this God of love, a Creator whose words were more real than Abraham's perceptions of reality.  He believed that the Creator made everything out of nothing.  He knew God’s power was so great that He could even raise the dead.  God tested Abraham’s understanding of God’s omnipotence by asking him to sacrifice his own son, Isaac.  This request from God would put in jeopardy the promise from God that through Abraham's seed all nations would be blessed and that he would be the father of many nations.  Now God was asking him to give up his only hope of that promise to be fulfilled by sacrificing Isaac on an altar to please God.  By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.  He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."  (Hebrews 11:17-18)  Abraham’s faith in God’s words above his own sense of reality stood fast.  Abraham's trust in God’s words above his own understanding of reality caused God to count him as righteous or one under the absolute authority of God.  Abraham believed two things about God.  He believed God made everything out of nothing, and he made life; therefore, He could resurrect life.  His faith in God’s words made him righteous before God and through his seed would come a people called The Chosen.  As with Abraham they were a nomadic people.  Eventually God drove them into Egypt by adverse weather.  In Egypt they became a numerous people.  They learn from Egypt how to function as a nation.  No longer would they be just a nomadic people, wandering from pasture land to pasture land.  They would leave Egypt with a concept of nationhood.  In the wilderness they learned of God’s holiness by the laws given through Moses.  The law validated that they were a special people, a people chosen by God.  The laws and regulations they received were to be followed exactly.  If they were faithful in carrying out God's commandments, they would be blessed greatly, but if they were not faithful, they would be judged harshly.  God’s intention for the law was to reveal his righteousness, his perfection.  And through the law, He protected his Seed, for He demanded righteousness from his chosen.  The law was a guardian of the Seed.  This law was as a guardian.  So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  However, the law was an impossibility for flesh to satisfy its demands.  Even though they were God’s chosen and had seen his marvelous acts of deliverance, their hearts were the same as all people: rebellious to God’s authority.  Often they would be reminded of God's goodness to them, of God delivering them out of Egypt and providing for them in miraculous ways through the wilderness.  He also allowed them to occupy the bountiful land of Canaan through his power.  But their hearts were as all humans, deceitful, wicked.  They had no compunction to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.  But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; but their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.  (Psalm 78:35-37)  But God’s law was always a part of their society and circumcision was demanded of them.  All of this was a continuous reminder to them that they were a chosen people, set apart for God’s purposes.  However, their hearts were not pure.  In the wilderness and in Canaan, they served other gods.  While in the wilderness God’s goodness flowed upon them even though they carried other gods in their possession.  In Canaan they performed the same dastardly acts of the wicked nations around them.  They even sacrificed their own children to these strange gods of other nations.  Because of the Seed, regardless of the wilderness or Canaan, the Holy Spirit was always dealing with their lack of contriteness, calling them back to God, judging their waywardness.  Christ was always there with them.  In the wilderness, He was the rock that satisfied their thirst.  He was the manna who brought daily the bread of life to them.  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.  They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.  They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.  (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). God was in the business of protecting his Seed wherever they journeyed, even when they were scattered throughout the nations because of his judgment upon them. 

The guardian, the law, demanded certain behavior from the Israelites, and if they disobeyed the commandments of God, severe judgement would fall upon them.  Because of being adverse to God’s control over their lives, the law could never be completely obeyed, for the law reflected the complete righteousness of God.  As Paul said in Romans 7, he finds another law of the flesh in him that is innately disobedient to God's righteous law.  Otherwise, the law of sin and disobedience permeates the souls of men, even The Chosen, who were birthed from Abraham’s loins.  They too possessed this rebellious nature of mankind.  But even though they were also rebellious as is all mankind, the presence of the precious gift of the law in their midst made them closer to God than the rest of the world.  As Paul talks to the Ephesians, he reminds them that the law of God and subsequent circumcision sealed God’s closeness to the Israelites.  Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  (Ephesians 2:11-12).  Even though the Israelites never succeeded in obeying the law completely or willingly, God’s presence was with them.  But the Gentiles were without any hope of knowing God; they were steeped in ignorance and sin as were the people in Noah’s time; therefore, they remained objects of destruction at God’s hand.  But chosen or not chosen, all people are under the custody of sin, even those under the law.  No people would be free from sin and death until the Seed would be revealed completely with the manifestation of Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus walked this world in the presence of the chosen people, the Jews.  He ministered in Israel, doing only good work in the presence of those who should have had circumcised hearts, but did not.  Even though He did the works of God in their midst, they eventually chose to murder him on a Roman cross.  But the Seed came to redeem all of humanity.  The cross was necessary but so was the resurrection, for the faith of Abraham was to be realized through those two acts: death and resurrection.  God’s work through Jesus Christ would bless all nations, and circumcision, the setting apart of humans to God, would be accomplished.  Men and women would be made right with God though the cutting away of the fleshly heart.  In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands.  Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.  (Colossians 2:11-12).  Christ's work on the cross did away with man’s sins, for we were cleansed from our sins through that sacrifice.  We no longer have to pay with our own blood for the sins we have committed.   IN CHRIST, there is no separation between us, for we are all made right with God through his sacrifice on the cross.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  Every human being is covered by his blood.

From the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-5).  We see the faith of Abraham in these words.  He believed God was and will always be.  He believed life comes from God, and he believed that light would shine through his loins to bless all nations.  God's intention for men and women was not to destroy them because of their wickedness and waywardness to his goodness.  His plan was to make humans into his image inside and outside, innately to be like him and not like the flesh.  He designates such a transformation as children of God, not of man.  Jesus came as the perfect man, the man innately like God.  As God in the flesh in the form of man, He gave his perfection away to God in death.  He shed his blood as a man so that men and women would not have to face the judgment of shedding their blood for their sins  His substitutionary work for us satisfies the judgment of God on sin, placing us in right relationship with him forever.  We no longer have to work to find God.  We no longer have to please a holy, righteous God through our own effort, our own works.  Abraham was not right with God because of his works.  He was right with God because he believed God’s words would be fulfilled in and through his life.  He knew God created all things; he knew new life can come from God’s hands.  Jesus said, we must be born again.  We must have God’s intervention in our lives.  As Christians who possess Abraham’s faith, we know we do not have to beseech God to be near us; we do not have to beg for God’s favor towards us.  We know God’s favor is for us as his children forever.  Therefore, we stand on faith in his work and not our own works to know God.  the Bible says emphatically how to be saved, how to have eternal life.  Whosoever believes in God’s work through Jesus Christ shall not perish but have eternal life.  Paul expresses this message of eternal life in his letter to the Romans.  The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, ”that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  (Romans 10:8-13).  How wonderful!  The message of redemption is for ALL WHO CALL ON HIM.  Not just a select few, not just one ethnic, religious, or racial group--no, the salvation message is for all.  All are being called to be children of God.  We do not call God down from heaven to meet us, or from underneath the earth.  We have God present in us and with us if we use our mouths with an earnest heart to call on him to save us.  Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness or that he was in right standing with God.  We are to believe God, trust in his work and who He is, and we too will receive right standing with God.  We too will bless the people around us, and we too will hear the words, “Come into my kingdom my good and faithful servant."   Let us as Paul says in Ephesians 3:18 understand fully how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Walk in faith, stand in faith, love in faith dear friends around this breakfast table.  The Holy Spirit will fill you to overflowing with the inexpressible joy of the Lord

 

Galatians 3:15-22 Promises are Spoken!

Galatians 3:15-22  Brothers and sisters, let me take an example from everyday life.  Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case.  The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.  Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.  What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on the promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.  The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.  A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.  Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!  For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.  

We see in today's verses Paul’s explanation of why the law cannot be considered a path of deliverance from sin or our way to an intimate relationship with God.  The promise from God to bless all nations of the world was given to Abraham 430 years before the law was given to the Israelites.  Through Abraham’s loins, all the world would be blessed.  From his Seed, all people who trusted in him would receive redemption from the nature of sin and the corruption of sin.  Man’s inability to control his behavior, his willingness to exploit others for his own purposes, brought  corruption to all mankind.  This self-willed behavior is called sin and was first evident in Eve’s desire to do her own thing above God’s purpose for her life.  This sin became so pronounced in mankind that God destroyed all people except for Noah and his family by a worldwide flood.  Now we see Abraham called out of a society of idol worshippers to carry the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, through his loins.  A special people, called the Chosen, would carry this Seed until Christ would be materialized in Mary’s womb, conceptualized through Mary’s fleshly womb and the Holy Spirit’s interaction with her.  The Promise given to Abraham was now realized through the person Jesus Christ, the Lord.  The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.  Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring (SEED) all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”  (Genesis 22:15-18)  This blessing from God to all people came to Abraham because he was willing to give up Isaac upon an altar of sacrifice.  Some time later God tested Abraham.  He said to him, “Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied.  Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah.  Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”  (Genesis 22:1-2)  Abraham’s act of obediences foreshadows what God is going to do for the redemption of humans whom He made in his image.  Abraham willingly offers Isaac up to show his love for the God who is intimately involved with him.  He believed God who made all things before anything had been made could take care of him and fulfill his promises to him that he would become a great nation and inherit the land of Canaan, all of which seems impossible with Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice.  But Abraham believed God, trusted his words; therefore, he placed his faith in God’s works and not his own.  Isaac was his and Sarah’s work through copulation, but Abraham knew God could do something supernatural without human involvement, and this would have to be accomplished after Isaac’s death.  But Isaac did not die: he was not sacrificed because God gave Abraham a ram to sacrifice to him as a replacement for Abraham’s act of love.  Abraham! Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said.  “Do not do anything to him.  Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”  (Genesis 22:11-12)  Abraham’s faith in God’s word rather than what he understood in the flesh was counted to him by God as righteousness, or his dependence more on God’s words than on his own conceptions of reality.  Abraham placed his trust in God completely, now more hidden in God’s truthfulness than in his own understanding.  All of that counted as righteousness to him, or a position of being pleasing to God, in right standing with a perfect, sinless God.  In Christ, the Son of God, we too who have placed our faith in the living WORD, manifested to us from God, are considered totally righteous before an eternal God.  Abraham believed God more than his own understanding.  We who believe in Jesus Christ's work of righteousness more than our own work have received the perfection of Jesus Christ as our inheritance, all based on the same faith Abraham placed in God.

If righteousness could come from the promise then why the Law?  The law was added because of the transgressions of humans.  The law was to insure that the Seed would survive until the time God wanted to reveal him to the world. The law was given in the wilderness to enlighten the Israelites on how to serve God and also to establish norms of how people should function in harmony and unity.  The nations in Canaan were very  wicked.  They served other gods and even sacrificed their own children to these gods.  They were steeped in sin, unruly, and violent.  God was giving this land of Canaan to the Israelites, a land where people of great wickedness dwelled.  But He was giving this land to the Israelites not because of their goodness, but out of his grace and mercy to Abraham, for He promised Abraham this land before he owned one foot of it.  Now the fulfillment of this promise to Abraham would be completed by the invasion of the Jews.  These wilderness Jews would inherit the land of promise.  Since the law already had been given to them in the wilderness, they were to possess the land under God’s authority and rule, a hierarchy, governed by judges.  Supposedly, the law would separate them from the evil behavior of the people who occupied the land previously.  However, the Jews still carried the idols of the Egyptian gods with them, and they were innately rebellious to God’s authority, manifested by the many times they wanted to kill Moses for leading them into the wilderness.  God knew the nature of his chosen, and He knew they would not maintain allegiance to him even though they had the righteous law written on tablets.  But his promises to Abraham were to be fulfilled by this people, and the Seed was to be preserved, and the law would be a means of preserving the Seed in the land of Israel.  Therefore, Canaan was given to this rebellious people, depicting the nature of all humans.  The Lord your God will drive them out to make room for you.  When he does, don’t say to yourself, “The Lord has done it because I am godly.  That’s why he brought me here to take over this land.”  That isn’t true.  The Lord is going to drive out those nations to make room for you because they are very evil.  (Deuteronomy 9:4)  Christians do not inherit eternal life because of our goodness, but because of God’s grace--his love endures forever.  His promises to us through his Seed endure forever, and we will inherit the Promised Land because of his goodness and not ours.  We will be separated from the wicked of the world and be made into his likeness through the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ on the cross. 

Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer under God’s judgment.  Because of what Christ Jesus has done, you are free.  You are now controlled by the law of the Holy Spirit who gives you life.  The law of the Spirit frees you from the law of sin that brings death.  The written law was made weak by the power of sin.  But God did what the written law could not do.  He made his Son to be like those who live under the power of sin.  God sent him to be an offering for sin.  Jesus suffered God’s judgment against our sin.  Jesus does for us everything the holy law requires.  The power of sin should no longer control the way we live.  The Holy Spirit should control the way we live.  (Romans 8:1-4).  God’s holy word makes his plan clear to us.  God allowed even creation itself to be under the power of sin.  Creation groans under this power and will not be released until the sons and daughters are revealed in full glory on the last day.  The land of Canaan without God’s blessing was not a land of peace and love; neither is creation without God’s complete deliverance.  The world is not a land of peace and tranquility.  Instead it is violent and sinful, a product of the Prince and Power of the Air, the devil. The law was given to ameliorate this condition, not to eradicate it, for the law could only reveal sin, not do away with it, due to man’s basic nature of rebellion to God’s authority.  The law could not change The Chosen's basic nature, so the land was taken away from them and given to others.  Sadly, no matter how many times the Israelites promised to obey the law by saying, “We will do it,” they failed to keep their word.  Sin was so prevalent in their land of Canaan that God complained that they were worse than the former inhabitants of Canaan.  Foreign idols and shrines were everywhere in Israel.  The twelve tribes warred with each other, splitting Israel into two nations: Israel and Judah.  Finally God expelled most of the Jews into the surrounding nations as captives to foreign people.  But even under these circumstances of judgment from God, a remnant was saved of the Israelites to carry the Seed to the time when He would be manifested to the world.  The promise to Abraham would be fulfilled, for God is steadfast: that which is said by him, is said, and it will stand forever.  The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.  His promise to bless all people through his Seed, Jesus Christ, has come to pass.  And the faith of Abraham who believed God can do all things, even make something out of nothing, will deliver the people of God to the Promised Land forever.  Amen!  We have the great joy of the fulfillment of God’s promise when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior and enjoy the freedom that He brings into our lives.    

 

Galatians 3:10-14 Live By Faith!

Galatians 3:10-14  For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”  Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”  The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person 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 pole.”  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 made a covenant with Abraham 400 years prior to the law that was given to Moses in the Sinai wilderness.  Abraham’s covenant entails God's blessing to all people on the earth through Abraham’s loins.  Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.  No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.  (Genesis 17:3-5).  God MADE him a fountain of blessing to all nations, not genetically but through his acceptance of God’s word to him.  This faith in God’s promise to him would be the lode stone to the salvation of mankind.  All nations through his Seed, Jesus Christ, would be drawn to God in righteousness.  God made an everlasting covenant with Abraham.  I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.  I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.  (Genesis 17:6-7)  So out of the covenant of Abraham would come the blessing to all people: the Seed, Jesus Christ.  But this Seed would be carried through the loins of Isaac's seed, the Jewish people.  Through the Jewish lineage would come the divine, everlasting WORD, Jesus Christ.  To insure that this precious Word would emerge through the Israelites, the law was given.  The law was a way for a people to live righteously, pleasing to God.  But being humans, even though especially blessed by marvelous acts from God, they failed to be obedient to God’s commands and regulations. The Israelites failed to please God by obeying the requirements of the law in their daily lives.  They indulged in sinful behavior, worse than the heathen nations around them.  They even sacrificed their own children, who were made in God’s image, to their idols made out of their own imaginations.  From the very beginning, the Jews gave obeisance to other gods, making idols and shrines to them.  And as the law says, Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.  They received the full cup of judgment from God when they were dispersed throughout the nations around them.  Daniel talks about this waywardness of the Israelites and the assurity of God fulfilling the curses written in the law because of their transgressions. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.  “Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.  (Daniel 9:11).  God’s word clearly documents God’s desire to bless his people and shows their persistent disobedience and rebellion to his will.   

Humans are incapable of justification by the law, for none are righteous.  The Bible makes this clear.  There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  (Romans 3:10-11)  Because of this nature of rebellion innate in humans and because God is a just God who carries out his word to the fullest, a judgement must be wrought on sin.  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 pole.”  Jesus’ death paid the ransom price for the sins of humanity.  His sacrifice covered the full price of the judgment of God on the sinful nature of mankind.  How often do we contemplate what a tremendous sacrifice it was for the son of God to become accursed for our sins?  Yet by his actions, He knit man and God together in peace by paying the debt for man’s estrangement from God.  Jesus is the Prince of Peace; He is the Good News that has come to this earth.  As the angels stated, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”  (Luke 2:14)  The bondage of pleasing God through law and regulations was broken, for it only revealed man’s waywardness.  The law never could cure this lethal condition of man’s lostness and separation from God.  Paul laments this condition of alienation when writing to the church in Rome.  So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans. 7:21-25)  He recognizes his hopeless situation; he knows that his actions and life are not pleasing to a righteous God.  He understands that he was created to be like God for he was made in God’s image, but he is hopeless in achieving this perfection of being like God.  Instead of being free as God is from sin, he is a hopeless prisoner of the law of sin, for it is thriving inside of him, separating him from the relationship he wants with God.  He knows in the flesh he is a WRETCHED Man, unable to please his loving Creator.  How can he escape this captivity to his own flesh, his wayward, sinful nature?  Who among us cannot identify with Paul in his description of the battle between the flesh and the Spirit of God?  And who would not agree with his conclusion: not by his efforts will he live unto God for he understands, Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.

We often speak of the faith of Abraham and that we are his children, inheritors of God’s promise to him.  But what does the faith of Abraham bring to us?  What are the blessings that we receive if we rely by faith on God’s revealed Word, Jesus Christ, and not on the law given to us on Mount Sinai through Moses the intermediator between God and the Israelites?  First of all, eternal life: (John 3:16).  We know God loved the world so much that He sent his only Son to sacrifice himself for our sins.  Eternal life is given to all who put their trust in the Eternal One, Jesus Christ.  IN HIM we garner life: IN HIM we are one with the eternal God forever.  However, immediately we will receive what Abraham had: he talked with God; he interacted with God; he bargained with God about saving Sodom and Gomorrah.  He wanted those cities to be spared so he asked God not to destroy them if there were 10 people that were righteous in those cities, but there were not, so they were destroyed.  Abraham interacted with God--this is a promise given to us.  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.  Through and in Jesus’ work on the cross, we have the privilege to interact with God, for He has sent us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.  He promised his disciples He would send the Comforter to teach them all things, and He kept his promises.  When Christ comes into our hearts, He makes us alive to his voice as Abraham was alive to his voice.  We no longer have to wait for the Lord to walk with us in the Garden, as it was in the beginning; we can have immediate fellowship with God.  Jesus said He would not abandon us, and when he went away, he told the disciples to wait for this inner voice to come to them.  And that is exactly what they did, and the inner voice came to them with the evidence of tongues and prophesy.  The Spirit came to them fulfilling completely the promise of God to Abraham, that He would bless all people through the covenant given to Abraham.  All nations would be blessed with his intimate presence.  Now all humans have access to the voice of God; all can be known by the heavens as children of the living God.  We who are IN CHRIST have entered into a new realm where only new creatures can abide.  You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.  (Romans 8:9-11)  Praise God for the precious promise that the Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies.  We know the Spirit gives life.  We have received the promise of the Spirit.  We have NOW the presence of the Holy Spirit within us, so let us not live by the laws and the regulations of Mount Sinai, which will only bring condemnation and death; instead, let us live IN CHRIST and by every word that comes to us from the Holy Spirit within us.  Let us go about doing good, manifesting the name of Jesus Christ and our Father the Creator of all things.  Amen!  Walk in FAITH today!