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
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