Galatians 3:15-29 (4:1-7)

WHO NEEDS THE LAW?

 

If I say “don’t,” does that make you want to do it? When the waitress comes by with your food and says, “Be careful, the plate is hot,” don’t you want to touch it more? I usually do.

            The prohibition makes you want to test the limits. Laws tend to incite desires you wouldn’t otherwise have. As some have said, if there were no laws…no crime. Smart, eh?

            I found this on the web: “Despite decades of prohibition and the use of criminal sanctions to deter cannabis use, prohibition failed to prevent a number of negative public health and safety outcomes.” Cannabis is one of the most popular controlled substances in Canada. Crime involving cannabis was on the rise. The article states several negative outcomes of its effects; one being that criminals have trouble finding jobs and housing after their release.  (https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada)

            What do you do when the law doesn’t solve the problem of drug addiction and crime? On October 17, 2018, the Government of Canada decided to legalize cannabis, aka marijuana. If the law lacks effect, change the law.  

            If the law does not create good citizens, there must be something wrong with the law. So, who needs the law?

            Paul’s position on the law was that it was impossible to try to live by the law. If you break one, you break them all. And there are 613 commands of law in the OT. The Galatian believers must have thought, if we are saved by grace, why do we need the law at all? Let’s just live by grace. 

            Some Christians choose not to read the OT with its laws, violence, and gross sins. (example of strange laws: residents are commanded to build a parapet around the roof of the house; do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk). If we have the grace of the NT, what do we need the “Old” Testament for anyways? The old covenant has been replaced by the new, right? Not exactly!

            In Galatians 3:15-29, Paul wrote that the law and the promise are partners in the grand story of God’s grace in the Bible. From the OT to the NT, God speaks grace to his people. What does Paul say is the purpose of the law?

 

The Law does not Cancel the Promise (3:15-18)

 

Before we study the purpose of the law, we need to remember that the Promise God made to Abraham predates the Law given to Moses. Why does this matter?

            The Judaizers, the people pushing for observance of the law, appealed to Moses as their authority. Paul reminded them that the Lord spoke a promise to Abraham long before the law was given to Moses. That promise was received by faith, not by works. We can see the difference this way: In the promise to Abraham, God said, “I will…I will…I will…”But in the law of Moses, God said, “You must…you must…you must…” The promise presents the religion of God based on grace. But the law presents the religion of man – man’s duty, man’s works, man’s responsibility. The promise only had to be believed; the law had to be obeyed. 

            And if the promise to Abraham predates the law, then the promise cannot be invalidated by the law. Paul gives us a good example of how this works. He compares the covenant God made with Abraham to what we call a “last will and testament,” (man-made covenant ESV; irrevocable agreement NLT). A will is unalterable by any person other than the one making the will. If it is your will, you can add to it – no one else can. According to ancient Greek law, once a will is executed and ratified, it cannot be revoked. If I write a will and die, in other words, the law says the will must be honored. Paul compares God’s promise to Abraham to this kind of will. Of course, God doesn’t need to die for the will to have effect. The point is: God’s covenant with Abraham cannot be changed. The inheritance cannot be obtained by anything you do (law), but only by the promise (faith). 

            Paul’s logic flows like this:

1) The promises of grace made to Abraham came before the requirements of the law and can’t be changed (16a).

2) The promises of grace have always been about the gospel of Jesus right from the start (3:1b; 16b).

3) The law takes second place to God’s promise to bless the world through Abraham. It was given first and cannot be annulled (17). 

            The law does not cancel the promise.

 

The Peculiar Purpose of the Law (3:19-22)

 

If it is only by faith that a person can be right with God, why introduce the law at all? What does it do? Paul anticipates the question, “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions…” (19a). That’s a curious expression. 

            There are four ways to interpret Paul’s meaning: the law functioned as a guardian before Jesus came to us. Until Jesus came, the law was either meant a) to restrain sin, teaching Israel how to live; b) to define sin, a measuring stick or plumb line to compare by; c) to deal with sin (which is why sacrifices are ordered); or d) to increase sin. That’s the weird one! But that’s the one Paul seems to intend. The law was meant to multiply sin so that it would be clear to everyone that the law itself was not an answer for the sin problem. The law reveals sin, but it doesn’t fix it.

            The second purpose of the law was to reveal the depth and depravity of human sin. The NLT puts it this way, “It was given alongside the promise to show people their sin.” Paul really hammers this home in his letter to the Romans; at least four times he says… (Romans 3:20; 4:15; 5:20; 7:7). 

Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Romans 4:15 “For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.”

Romans 5:20 “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…”

Romans 7:7 “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin…” 

Martin Luther said that the main purpose of the law was to convict human beings of sin so that they would be drawn to Christ. The law reveals what we are really like underneath the exterior – sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God, helpless to save ourselves. 

            It sounds then like the law contradicts the promise of salvation. “Is there a conflict between God’s law and God’s promises?” Paul asks. To which he responds, “Absolutely not.” He explained that if keeping the law made you right with God, then the law was all you needed to be good. But who keeps the law that well? Who here keeps the speed limit at 100? Who slows down going through Osborne? No one keeps the law perfectly. How is it possible to find harmony between the law and the promise? Only by seeing that we inherit the promise because we do not perfectly obey the law. Our inability to keep the law makes the promise that much more desirable and indispensable. 

            The peculiar purpose of the law is to show us how sinful we are. If there were no law, we would not know how much we need salvation. 

 

What We Were Under the Law (3:23-25)

 

John Stott said, “Everybody is either held captive by the law because he is still awaiting the fulfilment of the promise or delivered from the law because he has inherited the promise. More simply, everybody is either living in the OT, or in the NT, and derives his religion either from Moses or from Jesus…he is either ‘under the law’ or ‘in Christ.’” 

            If we live under the law, we are prisoners. Paul said, “…the scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin…”(22a). The Greek word here means “to be under military guard.” If the purpose of the law is to reveal sin in us, it shows us not only that we sin, but that we are imprisoned by sin. In other words, everyone is a prisoner of sin (imagine orange prison garb). Every breathing person has sinned and can’t help sinning. 

            The law also functions like a guardian, Paul illustrates. In the Greek world there was a household servant known as a “paidagogos,” (pedagogue). This slave was a “guardian of boys.” He was not a schoolteacher but more like a “babysitter.” But you wouldn’t want this guy as a babysitter; he was a strict disciplinarian. He was often harsh to the point of cruelty and used a cane to beat the boys if they broke the rules, came home late from school, etc. It sounds rough, but the purpose of this fellow was to make sure the boys learned the right stuff to become men. That’s what living under the law was like, somebody holding a stick ready to smack you when you do something wrong. 

            Galatians 4:1-7 speaks further of this relationship. For a time, the child is under the slave, even though he is an heir to his father’s estate. He is treated like a slave and is disciplined as such. But when he matures and inherits his father’s property, the slave is no longer there with a cane to thrash him. Paul uses this picture to show us how we are no longer under the law’s harsh discipline, but under the freedom of grace in Jesus. He said, “But when the fulness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons,” (4:4-5). We have grown up; we’ve taken our place as adult children (heirs) of the promise. 

            The law was always meant to be temporary. Now that Jesus has come, we are no longer under the law, but under grace.

 

What We Are Now in Christ (3:26-29)

 

The last four verses of this chapter are full of Jesus Christ. Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were under the guardianship of the law. But now in Christ we are no longer living in fear of the rod. 

If you have seen the depictions of residential schools in print or in cinema (like 1923 with Harrison Ford), you sit in bewilderment that humans could treat other humans with such gross abuse. It saddens and angers you. The harshness of the law is like that. 

In Christ, we find freedom from that abusive existence. Paul says, “For you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ” and if you have been baptized, you “have put on the character of Christ” and “you are all one in Christ Jesus” and “you belong to Christ.”

I want to emphasize two pictures in this new existence we enjoy. The first is of baptism. The way Paul describes it, the person who believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, has taken off the clothes of sin (the prison clothes) and put on the new clothes of Jesus himself. In the Early Church, baptism candidates would put on pure white robes representing the new life they were entering in Christ. The reality is that we are “wearing Jesus;” like putting on his jersey, joining his team, identifying with his life. Like wearing the jacket of our beloved, everyone can see who we belong to, and we act in a way that tells people we are “taken.” 

The second picture demonstrates that there is no race, class, or gender distinction between those who are in Christ. Paul said, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus,”(28). That doesn’t mean that gender is blurred or unimportant. It does mean that being from one ethnicity or another, rich or poor, or a man or woman does not keep you from enjoying the status of a child of Abraham. 

Grace is liberating. Life in Jesus is freedom. You are children of freedom!

 

Many Christians evaluate the condition of the world with its wars and troubles and crimes and say, “The world is getting worse and worse.” Quietly, I respond, “No it isn’t. The world is as bad as it ever has been since the beginning of sin.” The world is not getting worse, you are just seeing the worst of it. Television and media flood your senses with the sins of the world. You may have had blinders on. It’s always been bad. That’s sin. And the law reveals how bad sin is. 

            We may read the OT and conclude, “Yeah, you’re right, the world is pretty bad.” The OT reveals how wicked humankind can be. Wait a minute, I’d say, when I read the OT, I see grace. I see that whenever the actors in that drama sinned, God showed them incredible grace. Even when they should have been punished severely, God kept loving them and holding to his promise. 

            The law is not contrary to the gospel. The law anticipates the gospel. Through the law we realize how much we need the gospel. It leads us to grace. 

            John Stott said, “Not until the law has bruised and smitten us will we admit the need of the gospel to bind up our wounds. Not until the law has arrested and imprisoned us will we pine for Christ to set us free. Not until the law has condemned and killed us will we call upon Christ for justification and life. Not until the law has driven us to despair ourselves will we ever believe in Jesus. Not until the law has humbled us even to hell will we ever turn to the gospel to raise us to heaven.

            What are you struggling with in terms of the “have to” and “should” of life? What standard are you trying to live up to but is unrealistic? Do you feel the pressure to be perfect?

            That’s the spirit of the law. And that’s okay if you receive it the right way. By that I mean, admit you won’t and can’t measure up to that perfection. Let it remind you that you fall short (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). Let your mistakes, your sins, your faux pas, lead you to grace – let them be a celebration of what Jesus has done – he met all the requirements for you. He is perfect so you don’t have to be. 

            Christ Jesus has set us free from the fear of the law. Why live in it any longer? 

 

                                                            AMEN

Galatians 3:1-14

WHAT IT TAKES TO BELONG

 

As a young person, I struggled with feeling like I belonged in Christian groups. I felt like I stood apart from the other youth in my youth group because I was too committed. But I really felt awkward among my fellow counselors at Red Rock Bible Camp. I just didn’t feel like I belonged among them. They were tanned. They wore name-brand summer clothes. They were confident in themselves. They played volleyball like it was a religion and heaven help you if you screwed up. Do you know where these young men and women were from? (Rosenort). 

            What did it take to belong? What did I need to do? Exchange my long pants for shorts? Practice more volleyball drills? Would this kid from Winnipeg fit in then? 

            What does it take to belong to the people of God? What did you need to do to belong in the fellowship of believers? 

            Lyle Schaller writes that every congregation can be described in terms of two concentric circles. The outer circle is the membership circle. Everyone who signs our covenant, let’s say, is in that circle. But the smaller inner circle includes those who feel a sense of belonging into the fellowship of this called-out community. Most of our workers come from the inner circle. Terminology will distinguish those who feel like they belong and those that don’t: The former use terms like we, us, and ours when referring to the congregation, while the latter tend to use, they, them, and theirs. 

            Schaller suggests that at least one-third, or as much as half, of all protestant church members do not feel a sense of belonging to their congregations. They may be members on paper, but they don’t feel accepted in the fellowship circle. 

            Do you feel like you belong here at RFC? What do you need to do to belong to God’s people? If Paul were speaking to us as he did to the Galatians, he would say only one thing is required: Believe! Are you on the outside looking in? I want to assure you that by your faith in Jesus Christ, you belong here!

Through Believing You Belong to God’s People (3:1-5)

 

As JB Philips puts it in his translation, verse 1 says, “O you dear idiots of Galatia…surely you can’t be so idiotic?” Nice, eh? Paul can’t afford to be nice while the people are turning away from the gospel. They are abandoning God by submitting to this “Jesus-plus” gospel. 

            Let me remind you of their error. The Galatians were falling for the teaching that you begin the Christian life by faith, and then you grow in the Christian life by works. Jesus dying on the cross was a good start, but if you are going to follow a Jewish carpenter nailed to a cross, you must add the Jewish Law to complete your faith and thus belong to the people of God. A modern form of this heresy is “God helps those who help themselves…” 

            Faith is the only response to Jesus that is needed. Believing in Jesus Christ – that’s it! Paul said, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified,” (1b). When Paul preached Jesus, it was as if he put Jesus crucified on a billboard so that they could clearly see how God saved them. That’s the message. But they turned to works of the law as if it could ever produce the life-changing salvation that faith in Christ does. 

            Paul then uses their own experience to prove his point in four rhetorical questions. He asks:

“Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (2b). They know the answer. Did they do anything? No! They weren’t saved by anything they did, but by what they heard. The message of Christ crucified changed their hearts. “Doing” doesn’t save; “Believing” does.

“…why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (3b NLT). Their mistake, and I believe ours as well, is that they believed “Christ died for my sins, but I still have to fix myself.” The unchurched have believed the fallacy that we have taught them: You must be perfect to belong. So, we resurrected the law, the rules that improve us. 

“Did you suffer so many things in vain?” (4a). Paul was talking about how when they believed in Jesus, other people abused them for their new faith. As much as we detest suffering and pain, Paul’s understanding of Christ is that to follow him is to suffer for him. Was this a waste? Did they suffer for an incomplete gospel? No, the suffering itself was a validation of the sincerity of their faith.

“…does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? (5 NLT). This one got me. What do I have to do to get God to heal someone? See the flaw? I fall for this quite a bit. If God doesn’t heal, it’s because I didn’t pray hard enough, fast long enough, or give a big cheque to a charity. Because if I did, then God would surely do what I ask. Does God give the Holy Spirit to work in you and do miracles among us because of what we do? 

            These rhetorical questions drive home the point. What do you need to do to belong to the people of God? Nothing! Except believe in the crucified Lord Jesus Christ. 

            Do you belong in this fellowship of believers we call RFC? Yes. Do you feel like you belong? Maybe not. But you do not need to have a Germanic name, or come from a certain family, or be of a certain skin color, or have a lot of money, or fit a mould of behavior that is uniquely Rosenort, to belong here. What Jesus asks is that you believe in him!

 

Through Believing You are a Child of Abraham (3:6-9)

 

The Judaizers were teaching that a person who wants to belong to the people of God must follow the law of Moses. So, Paul does one better. You want to appeal to Scripture? Fine! Let’s go back to Abraham.          

            Paul quotes from Genesis 15:6 but let me set the stage. The LORD brings Abraham out from his tent to see if he can number the stars. The LORD then says, “So shall your offspring be,” (Gen. 15:5). Abraham is an old man (90) and beyond childbearing years. Sarah is about 80. Abraham considered this and then the promise of God. And he said, “Ok!” That’s faith. Faith is seeing beyond the outward circumstances and believing that God can do what he says he will do. That’s how we’re saved. 

            The official record says, “(he) believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,” (6). The word “counted” or “reckoned” means that Abraham didn’t do anything to earn perfection, but God declared that he was perfect, simply because he believed. 

            That’s how we’re saved. We can’t erase the sins of our past by therapy or good works. Only Christ can deal with our sins and wipe them out by his blood. We can’t reconcile ourselves to God. We must believe that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ. We can’t change our hearts. We must believe that the Holy Spirit is transforming us from one degree of glory to another. Abraham believed it.

            I like the next verse. “And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all nations be blessed,’” (8). See that? The Scripture “preached the gospel” to Abraham telling him that he would be the first in a family line built on faith. In a sense, Abraham believed the gospel, that faith in Jesus would make him the father of many people. 

            You are a son of Abraham if you believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. You are a daughter of Abraham through your faith. Abraham was considered the father of the Jewish faith, and the false teachers were saying that you had to obey Moses and get circumcised. But if Abraham is the template, then faith is all that is required to belong to God’s people. You belong to God’s people!

 

Through Believing You Receive the Holy Spirit (3:10-14)

 

The reality is that we can’t help thinking that we must do something to belong to God’s people. If we live by that principle however, we will fail. Works will not get us any closer to God and they will not make us feel more “Christian” or help us to belong. 

            Paul contrasts the two ways of getting God’s approval. In verses 10-14, we see these two ways explained. In the ESV it reads like this: “The righteous will live by faith” (11b; Hab. 2:4) and “The one who does them shall live by them,”(12; Lev. 18:5). The phrase that stands out is “live by.” One lives by faith; the other lives by keeping the law (slide of 10-14 in NLT). 

            If you are going to live by rules, you had better be prepared to keep them all. Otherwise, as Paul quotes the OT, there is a curse on those who fail at just one point to keep the law. The logic of Paul’s argument can be explained like this: 

Those who don’t do everything required by the law are cursed (10b).

No one does everything required by the law.

(Implied Proposition)

Therefore, those who live by the works of the law are cursed (10b).

            Living a legalistic lifestyle is shallow because it is attempted by people who cannot keep God’s commands, and yet somehow still think they can put God in their debt. What the Judaizers were trying to do in making non-Jews follow the law was bringing a curse down on them instead.

            God knew that humans could never keep the law. We were cursed if we tried and cursed if we didn’t. We were under a curse because of sin. The only way for that curse to be removed is through the cross of Jesus Christ. He became the curse so that we could receive the blessing of Abraham. 

            “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ – so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith,” (13-14). 

            This is an ancient saying. Hanging on a tree was not a method of execution, but something that was done after the death of a criminal on the same day the man died. He would be hanged on a tree or a wooden post so that the gruesome sight would serve as a warning to the people that breaking the law was death and humiliation. Jesus was crucified on a tree, so both were applicable. He took that on for us so that we could receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit. 

            By believing you receive the Spirit. It is not a two-stage process. If you believe in Jesus, he gives you the Holy Spirit right then and there in that moment of initial faith. Paul explained to the Ephesians, “The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people…” (Eph. 1:14 NLT). He is the seal placed on you showing that you belong to God.

 

What does it take to belong to the community of God’s people? Just one thing: Faith!

            You belong here. 

            I know the feeling of not belonging. Maybe you feel like you don’t belong at RFC. If we have not welcomed you or included you, we need to do better. Maybe that feeling is a faulty narrative. You are telling yourself you don’t belong. Change the narrative: You belong here because of Jesus. He took the curse of rejection away from you and made you his own.           

Author Keith Miller tells of an outgoing 40-year-old woman who was part of a sharing group he led. She said:

"When I was a tiny little girl, my parents died, and I was put in an orphanage. I was not pretty at all, and no one seemed to want me. But I longed to be adopted and loved by a family as far back as I can remember. I thought about it day and night, but everything I did seemed to go wrong. I must have tried too hard to please the people who came to look me over, and what I did was to drive them away. But then one day, the head of the orphanage told me that a family was coming to take me home with them.

I was so excited that I jumped up and down and cried like a little baby. The matron reminded me that I was on trial, and this might not be a permanent arrangement, but I just knew that somehow it would work out. So, I went with this family and started to school. I was the happiest little girl you can imagine, and life began to open up for me just a little. But then one day a few months later, I skipped home from school and ran into the front door of the big old house we lived in. No one was at home, but in the middle of the front hall was my battered suitcase with my little coat thrown across it. As I stood there it suddenly dawned on me what it meant--I didn’t belong there anymore."

Miller reports that when the woman stopped speaking, there was hardly a dry eye in the group. But then she cleared her throat and said almost matter-of-factly, "This happened to me seven times before I was 13 years old. But wait, don’t feel too badly. It was experiences like these that ultimately brought me to God--and there I found what I had always longed for--a place, a sense of belonging, a forever family."

When you feel like you don’t belong, remember that you do. There is nothing you must do to belong in the company of believers except believe.

 

                                                            AMEN

 

 

            

Galatians 1:11-2:10

“THIS IS MY STORY”

 

What’s your story?

            If I told you my story, how I came to follow Christ, it would not be very dramatic. A lot of people struggle to tell their stories because they feel it’s not much of a story. They grew up in Christian homes, went to church all their lives, and at some point, accepted the faith of their parents as their own. Not much to tell. I fall into that box except for a few personally impactful moments that mean something to me. 

            Sharon and I know a fellow from the other side of the river that has one of those dramatic stories. Donald’s life was one of darkness. He was classically wicked. Don had been a drug dealer, a pimp, and the muscle for a loan shark. He told of beating guys up for late payments on those high interest loans. Donald was from Quebec, a Francophone, but he looks Italian, like a Guido or a Tony. Talks like one too. His bosses (mafia types) sent him all across Canada (to hear the stories strains belief at times), and on one of those trips he met a man who shared Jesus with him. Eventually, Donald’s life was turned upside-down and now he loves the Lord. 

            That’s a dramatic conversion story. Have you ever envied people with those stories? Don’t. It’s not necessary. I have come to grasp that the lack of drama in our stories is more than compensated for by the drama of Christ’s story. I tell people to focus on Jesus when sharing their stories and not to give a biography. 

            Paul relates his story to the Galatians. But there is a reason for it. Remember, there were people in those churches that cast doubts on his authority and credibility to preach Jesus. They were saying his gospel was missing something, that Jesus crucified was not enough. We call these people “Judaizers.” That means that they wanted to combine Jewish practices with Christian faith, they wanted to force non-Jews to follow the Law, like they did. These people questioned Paul’s gospel: From where did Paul’s gospel come? 

            So, this is why he tells his story. It’s a dramatic story. But he begins at the right place, with Jesus. He wrote, “For I would have you know, (brothers and sisters), that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man (see 1:18 & 2:1-10), nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ,”(1:11-12). The source of Paul’s gospel was a revelation of Jesus Christ. 

            Paul does not go into great detail about his background for he says, “…you have heard of my former life in Judaism…” (13a). Clearly, he shared his story when he first met these people (as he did in most locales; see Philippians 3:5-6). The contrast was stark. Paul had once hunted Christians and worked hard to destroy the church. Everyone knew that dark history. If they didn’t, he told them. 

            In the book of Acts, the story of Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus is told three times. The original narrative is told in Acts 9:1-19. From this point onwards, the narrative of Acts mostly follows Paul’s mission. Later, when he is arrested in Jerusalem on a trumped-up charge, he tells his story of meeting Jesus on that road to a crowd. Finally, while standing trial before King Agrippa and Festus. That’s the version I want to read to you now since it matches Galatians 1 so closely (Read Acts 26:9-18). 

            Now in Galatians he covers this remarkable story in just two verses. He does not want to go on and on about himself. He wants to emphasize the grace of God that covers the story. 

            I love how he unpacks the grace shown to him in verses 15-16. Grace is introduced with a “but.” “But when he who had set me apart before I was born…” (15a). By the grace of God, Paul had been chosen to preach to the Gentiles long before an infant was named Saul or Paul. I find that bewildering. I know that God chooses people for special tasks, and they stand out in history. People like Martin Luther, John Wesley, Menno Simons, and others come to mind. Even while Paul was breathing out murderous threats upon Christians, God had set him apart for this special ministry. 

            That’s where grace emerges in this story. Paul, the terror of Christ-followers everywhere, says that the One who set him apart “called me by his grace,” (15b). At the right time – trust me, I don’t understand what the right time is, God knows – God called Paul, that is, he revealed Christ to him. We all have loved ones who do not yet believe in Jesus, and we may wonder when or if God will call them. Or have they been called but said “no”? God is still calling them. He calls them by his grace. Not that Paul deserved to be called – that’s not the point. Grace, to state it redundantly, is undeserved. 

            What Paul received was a special revelation of Jesus. And this is the source of his gospel, the gospel that was being questioned by the Judaizers. I realized something a few weeks ago and it really made sense of the book of Acts. When the Eleven apostles were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come upon them and empower them, they did some busy-work. You know “busy-work” that fills the time when you should just be waiting on God. The eleven remaining apostles decided to replace Judas who had killed himself in grief over what he had done to Jesus. They cast lots and the lot fell to Matthias to replace Judas. And Matthias went on to become one of the greatest apostles you ever heard of, right? Wrong. Eight chapters later, Jesus chose Saul/Paul to be that missing apostle. His missionary work for Jesus began on a dusty road leading to Damascus. Paul describes this encounter succinctly to the Galatians saying that God, “was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…” (16a).

            The language of this revelation is also filled with grace and love. It is not that the death and sacrifice of Jesus compelled God to do something that he would not otherwise have done. No, God the Father was pleased to reveal his Son, Jesus Christ, to Paul. Doesn’t this show us that at the very ground level, the gospel is a story of God’s love? It’s like a father who has been away on a business trip and his children welcome him with smiles and saying, “What did you bring us?” And anticipating their hopes and wishes, he smiles broadly as he reveals the gift that he carefully carried from some far-off place. Here it is! God reveals his Son to Paul on that lonely road and shines his glorious light through Jesus so that now he can see that the heart of the Law of Moses has always been Jesus. In Jesus the Law is satisfied. Just like in the Acts narrative, Paul says, “Who are you sir?” and the response, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.” 

            This is Paul’s story.

            You need a story to tell. Why do you need a story? All of us tell stories about ourselves. They define us. To know someone well is to know her story or his story – the experiences that shaped them, the trials and victories that have tested them. We want to be known, so we share stories from our childhood, our families, school years, first loves, and sufferings. Sometimes we think our surgeries define us. 

            When we tell the story that really matters, we want to focus the story on such a way that Christ is preeminent, that puts the spotlight on Jesus. The story is still about us, but it’s more so about God calling us by his grace to know Jesus his Son. We want our listeners to see our lives as God sees them, as lives that have been transformed by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This teaches us to shape our lives according to what Christ has done. 

            Sharon shared an important element in storytelling after one of her work conferences. She said that we need to change the narrative in our storytelling. I could say that (and I do) that my college class fell flat because no one said anything, no one asked questions, no one responded, so I felt defeated. Or I could change the narrative and say that no one responded to my lecture because they were so impacted and overwhelmed that they didn’t know what to say. (Maybe).

            The point is how we share the narrative. Paul used his story to demonstrate that the gospel he preached was not about him, it didn’t come from his imagination, it wasn’t made up. NO, it was a revelation from God of his Son, Jesus Christ! And that’s what gave his story and his preaching credibility. 

            Jesus’ story becomes our story. God has shown us his Son – in the Word, in a sermon, in an experience.

            In his book “A Faith to Proclaim,” James S. Stewart made reference to Paul’s declaration to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me…” Stewart said, “To be thus taken command of, so that our testimony, when we go out to speak of Christ, is not ours at all, but Christ’s self-testimony – this is our vocation and the hope of our ministry.” 

            Jesus’ story is our story. 

            You do have a story to tell, a dramatic story…the story of Jesus. 

            The Christian music group Big Daddy Weave sings a song that punctuates this point called “My Story.” We are going to sing this song in closing, but I want to highlight the words:

If I told you my story

You would hear Hope that wouldn’t let go.

And if I told you my story

You would hear Love that never gave up.

And if I told you my story

You would Life, but it wasn’t mine

 

If I should speak then let it be

Of the grace that is greater than all my sin

Of when justice was served and where mercy wins

Of the kindness of Jesus that draws me in

Oh, to tell you my story is to tell of Him.

 

That’s our story!

 

I want to impress this story in our hearts and minds again this morning by sharing in reading these words together:

 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (2:20)

 

That’s our story, folks! 

 

                                                AMEN

Galatians 1:1-10

NO OTHER GOSPEL

 

Good news!

            As an expression, “good news” has been overused. It is applied so broadly that “good news” can mean anything. 

            Recently, I was searching online for nightstands to match our bedframe. The virtual salesperson popped up and asked if “she” could help. Sure. I told “her” what I was looking for and she did her thing. “She” came back and texted, “Good news! It’s in stock right now! Earliest delivery date is looking at next Tuesday if ordered now.” 

            Good news, my materialistic desire to spend can be satisfied. Good news, I can have what I want. Good news, shopping is made easy online. 

            Is this good news? I was struck by the absurdity of this announcement in contrast to my study in Galatians. I was also convicted: What is good news? There are many variations of “good news” in our world; “good news” that offers relief from suffering; “good news” that promises an easier life, a prosperous life; “good news” that frees the self to enjoy life without the hang-ups of rules and the “shoulds” of religion.

Freedom is key. People want to be free. Free from what? Free from obligations. Free from rules. Free to live life as they choose. Is that real freedom? 

Galatians is a letter that Paul wrote to a group of churches in the region of Galatia (South-central Turkey). It’s a letter about freedom. It answers the question, “How can I truly be free?” Free from guilt, free from fear, free from doubt, free from sin, free from always trying and never quite making it. The answer for these folks is to do good, try harder, go to church, get baptized, give your money, …The list is endless because the human mind is always trying to please a God we cannot see or understand. But rule-keeping fails in the end because you can never do enough. 

Then there are those who believe that freedom comes from throwing the rules aside and living as they please. Follow your dreams, chase your passions, you only live once. It’s called “hedonism.” But for these folks seeking the next pleasure becomes another form of slavery. 

Legalism doesn’t do enough, and hedonism enslaves. Where is true freedom? Paul writes to the churches saying true freedom is found in the good news of Jesus Christ. It’s simple; it’s compelling: it is the freedom that you are looking for.

 

The “Good News” is God’s Idea (1:1-2)

 

A man was working in his garage one day. He was the kind of person who did not like to be interrupted while engaged in a project. Knowing this, his wife walked into the garage and stood quietly at his side for several minutes, waiting for the proper time to speak. At last, her husband looked up, the signal that she was free to speak. Very calmly, without panic, she said, “The house is on fire.” 

            There is a time to set aside the pleasantries and social graces and just blurt out the problem. The churches in Galatia were abandoning the “good news” of Jesus. Paul needed to sound the alarm. He dropped the introductions and went for it.

            You may not see it. “Paul, an apostle – not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead…” (1), sounds like a formal introduction to us. It’s not. He goes right after the issue. “You don’t think I am qualified to tell you this, but I am,” he says. I didn’t get this gospel from JK Rowling or Dan Brown. I didn’t make it up. This gospel comes from the person of Jesus. 

            Some among the Galatians were saying that Paul was not a real apostle. He wasn’t Peter, James, or John, or any of the Twelve. Where did he get his authority? God! He’ll tell the whole story later, but suffice to say, God in Christ called him. 

            In his very first statement, Paul touches on the gospel that is good news for everyone: God raised Jesus from the dead. That little phrase validates everything that we know about Jesus. It is the exclamation point on the life, teaching, death, and work of Christ on behalf of sinners. That’s the only reason we are here today. God raised Jesus from the dead. That alone gives credibility to this gathering of people we call church.

 

A Reminder of what makes “Good News” Good (1:3-5)

 

For Paul, this was no small issue. We cannot afford to take it lightly either. This is a “Jesus only” gospel. 

            We don’t see it immediately, but there was a problem in Galatia. Some dynamic teachers were trying to convince the churches that what Jesus did on the cross was good, but only a beginning. You see, Jesus was a Jew and a product of Jewish customs. So, they deduced, that to be a real Christ-follower, you had to adopt Jewish practices. You had to do works of the law to complete your faith. We would call this “Jesus plus.”

            Again, it is not a courtesy for Paul to say, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…” (3). Ancient letters did have these niceties in them, like when we write “Dear John, how are you?” Paul isn’t doing that. He is directly pointing to the twin pillars of Christian faith: Grace and peace. 

            Grace is counter intuitive. It goes against our natural inclinations. Sharon and I made cinnamon buns years ago and decided to share them with neighbors in our new community. The next day we received a plate of cookies from one lady. We can’t seem to receive free gifts; we think we must pay people back. The grace of God in Christ is a gift that cannot be repaid. We can do nothing to earn God’s favor. The harder we try to do so, the more we realize our efforts are not enough. You have to just stop, give up the “try harder” attitude, and cry out for God’s mercy. That’s how the 12-Step program of AA works: you must admit that you are powerless to change and are in the grip of something that will destroy you. Now apply that to sin; sin has us in its grip and we are powerless to save ourselves and need Christ to rescue us. 

            That’s hard for many people to accept (even Christians). Grace is offensive because it reminds you of your sin and weakness. Grace is scandalous because it is free, and you cannot pay it back to God. 

            Peace is a perfect companion to grace. Through the grace of God in Christ, we have peace with God. Remember in Romans 5: While we were weak…while we were sinners…while we were enemies of God, Christ died for us? And through that death we are reconciled to God. We have peace with God and with each other because of the grace of Christ. 

            That’s how Paul begins this letter, pointing to Jesus “…who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,” (4). This is the main point of the letter. He has delivered us from the present evil age. Some translations say “world,” but Jesus did not die to take us out of the world, but to equip us with his grace to escape the “evil age.” 

            In response to this brief greeting, Paul breaks out in worship. He can’t help himself: “…to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen,” (5). Yep, he’s praising God for this bit of truth. These few words express Paul’s great joy – Jesus!!

 

It Only Sounds Like Good News… (6-10)

 

In Paul’s other letters to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Paul tells the churches each time “I thank God for you…” Not the Galatians!

            He bursts out with, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…” (6). How did this happen? Paul’s astonishment comes from the speed with which these churches decided that Jesus was not enough. Later he will ask, “Who bewitched you?” (3:1), as if someone had put a spell on them. They seemed to be in a trance. Someone offered them a more palatable gospel, something more comfortable, a gospel that gave them more control (law and tradition does that). That grabbed them.

            If someone today would tell you that you needed to add Jewish rituals to your faith, you would guffaw. If we decided at RFC that all males should be circumcised, there’d be a lynching. Galatia’s problem is not ours. 

            “Good news” in the Canadian context comes in a strange form. There is a gospel being preached, not from pulpits, but from social platforms, that claims to offer society salvation, equality, freedom. This “good news” declares freedom from gender labels and freedom from social norms. It promises acceptance for those who don’t fit into the traditional stereotypes of maleness and femaleness. It saves them from being something they feel is not them. But freedom for some results in enslavement for others. If the price of freedom is the cost of someone else’s freedom, is it truly freedom? To ask for understanding while they sort out this confusion is reasonable. To demand conformity to a way of thinking is tyranny. 

            What would Jesus think? You will hear that Jesus loved people and didn’t judge. He ate with fringe people and outcasts. Jesus would not bruise the non-binary or shame the queer. True. But he still died for them. 

            There are many forms of good news being declared in our world. Paul says there is only one gospel, “…but there are some who trouble you and distort the gospel of Christ,” (7). Galatians were deserting the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Other Galatians were distorting the good news by adding to it that which God never intended. We see that where churches bend over backwards to appear non-judgmental, accommodating, tolerant. Grace welcomes the LGBTQ to worship Jesus. But grace does not change the work of Jesus on the cross to remove its offense or scandal. 

            Paul repeats himself to emphasize that changing the gospel to suit your culture or context is disastrous. (Read 8-9). 

The word “accursed” is from the Greek “anathema.” It means devoted to destruction. Think of Achan (Joshua 7). His sin led to the defeat of Israel at Ai. He had taken some forbidden items and buried them under his tent. He, his family, and all the treasure he had taken were destroyed to remove sin from the camp. Changing the gospel to make it sound better is anathema, cursed. 

            Unapologetically, Paul stands his ground on the gospel. “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ,” (10). I confess that my peacemaking nature tends to quiet my voice. It is too easy to sound angry and judgmental about the sins of our nation. I am slow to speak, then. I choose my words carefully that I will speak with grace. Yet the conviction of these words of Paul ring in my ears…who am I trying to please? 

 

Paul’s introduction to the letter to the Galatians highlights the truth that is central to the epistle, the true gospel. Every one of us is challenged by this letter to guard the gospel from distortion. There are many “gospels” floating around for our ears to hear. How can we know what is really good news? 

1.     Consider the source. Does the message and the messenger line up with what the Word of God tells you about Jesus? It is easy for me to point out that Walt Disney was an outspoken humanist. All his movies, even the ones we see today, have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus. They proclaim the triumph of the human spirit in the face of impossible odds. They never point to Christ as the solution of life’s problems. That’s easy. On the other hand, there are Christian preachers who are very encouraging, but either provide steps to success (works), or soften the demands of the gospel. 

2.     Consider the Scriptures. We are beginning a year of “becoming a people of the Word.” There is a fallacy among Christians who profess to know the Bible so well that they don’t need to read it. They have heard its stories since Sunday School and there is nothing new. Love God, love your neighbor, maybe love your enemy. But I tell you the truth, the Spirit works with the Word to reveal the mystery of God – that’s why it’s called the Living Word. You don’t know it as well as you think you do. I don’t either. Let’s read it and let the Spirit work in us.

3.     Consider the community of faith. When you don’t know if what you are hearing is the gospel, talk about it with other believers. Does the message you have heard jive with the Spirit of your faith circle? 

 

I would like us to close with a verse from Galatians that is worth reciting together. We will read this verse for every message from Galatians over the next 8 Sundays.

 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” (Gal. 2:20).

 

                                                            AMEN