Galatians 3:15-20 “Law, Promise, Jesus”

Summary

Law, Promise, Jesus

Danger of extinction or worse

Every year in America, 3500- 4000 churches close their doors.  And each year, Churches lose an estimated 2,765,000 people to nominalism (no universal truth) and secularism.  Over 100 years have passed and this church has not closed its doors yet.  So what will keep that from happening this year and next year and for years to come?  What will keep this church from closing its doors or becoming apathetic and losing its influence in the community?

You will keep this church going

There are essentially two pillars that keep a church strong, healthy and influential. But before I get into these, I need to say that ultimately, you will be the one who keeps this church going, your efforts, your energy, your passion, your vision, your love for God and His word, your desire to see people saved and discipled and God’s glory known in Balsam Lake and beyond. A significant weight rests on your shoulders and my shoulders. We need you and we need each other.  The church does not exist apart from you. So we need your involvement. The body will die if the parts are not all working together.  So join us for those who haven’t and continue to join us for those who have been with us for many years.  You will keep these doors open in the years ahead.

Two things will keep us strong

So with your participation established, there are two things that we need to maintain if we are to keep our doors open and to remain influential in our community: A proper understanding of God (doctrine) and humble submission to his Word (obedience). There are two ways a church can fail: doctrinally and morally.  Bad teaching that is not biblical can destroy the church and sin can erode and destroy the church.   Paul knew this and that’s why he addresses both elements of the church: right thinking and right living. Typically one comes from the other so that if you are thinking right, you will also be living right. And if you are living right, than you are probably thinking right.

But this is not always the case. One can think right and have good doctrine yet fail to live in step with scripture or to walk in the Spirit. In the same way, people can be living really well yet have there doctrine all messed up. My hope is that our church does both really well.

What it means to think rightly.

This means that we are learning and growing in our understanding of God. We want to be a church that promotes scripture reading. We want to be a church that tells their men, “men, set an example for your family and lead them in times of prayer and scripture reading.” We want our people to be shaped by the Word of God and not a book or a person or a movie or anything. We want to be a church that thinks rightly about God and thinks about God often.

What it means to live rightly

We also want to live rightly. So that means that we live in obedience to God and His word and we are not like those who behold themselves in a mirror and then forget what they look like. We want to know what we look like and then seek to change into greater conformity to Jesus Christ.

Paul dealing with doctrine

So Paul in Galatians is mainly dealing with how people think or what is commonly called doctrine. Later in the book, he will become more explicit about living in accordance with the truth but for now he is concerned with thinking correctly.

Paul is sensitive to his audience’s needs

Paul is not the kind of teacher or preacher who says the same thing every Sunday or in every letter. But he is the kind of pastor (apostle) who interprets his own audience to determine what they need. So he does not go into a discourse on how to use spiritual gifts (as he does in I Corinthians). Nor does he deal with the coming of Jesus and whether or not it had happened yet (as he does in Thessalonians).   Instead he is present with the Galatians in what they need. Paul does not waste words. He used words to address a specific problem in the church.

So if someone is dying of starvation, you don’t tell him or her to exercise more. And if someone is bleeding to death you don’t tell him or her to eat more vegetables. Those are meaningless words. It may be good advice but it isn’t relevant or meaningful to the audience. Instead, we prescribe things that pertain to what a person needs. You don’t tell the person with a flat tire, “hey you need to check your air pressure.” That is not what they need to hear. They need to know how to fix it and then talk about air pressure later.

So Paul writes “occasional letters” or letters that deal with specific issues in the church.

Galatian problem is doctrinal

As you probably know, the problem with the Galatian Church is mainly doctrinal. There was gospel competition. They were being told that the gospel was not sufficient to save but that the gospel needed to be added to. Gospel plus.  We know from earlier chapters that “the gospel plus anything ruins everything” (quoting a well known pastor). The gospel plus anything ruins everything. You cannot add anything to a pure gospel, to add anything would be to taint it

Joyless gospel churches

So if you have been to a church where the gospel does not appear beautiful, true and joyfilled, then that church may have been adding something to the gospel, or adding something to their message. That is what is happening here. The beautiful face of Christ is being tarnished. Instead of gazing on the beauty of Christ and being saved by his work, the Galatians are being told that they must perform another act to be fully saved. As you know, that act is circumcision.

So Paul is hammering home the purity of the gospel. “You don’t need anything other than Jesus to be saved and to stay saved.”  And in this text Paul continues to unravel improper doctrine, inaccurate beliefs and heretical teaching. What is it now?

Let’s find out.

Verse 15

From bewitched to brothers.

Paul begins by calling them brothers. In verse 1 of chapter 3 they were called “bewitched” so Paul demonstrates that he loves and cares for the church. His purpose is not to crush or destroy their spirits but to restore them to right thinking.

The purpose of the entire letter is to lead them back to the fold, to bring them back to their salvation as it began, by the grace of Jesus and nothing else. Yes, they are bewitched brothers and sisters, but nonetheless they are brothers and sisters.

Human covenant

He then moves into a human example of a covenant to prove his point.  Now the big picture here is that the Abrahamic Covenant (in you all the nations will be blessed), did not come as the result of works. It came as a gift of God through faith. So he is essentially saying, “even man-made covenants are not to be broken, added to or subtracted from.” The point is this: if man-made covenants are not be tampered with, destroyed, added to or subtracted from, then how much more is God’s covenant permanent?

And what covenant is he referring to? The covenant made to Abraham. (I will make of you a great nation and in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed).  The covenant made by God cannot be added to. It is permanent. Nothing can or will ever change it.

Why is he saying this? What does he mean? What do you mean Paul? I’m glad you asked. Jump down to verse 17.

Vs. 17

 Law comes after the covenant

So here he is saying that the law came 430 years after the covenant was made to Abraham.  So the covenant existed for several generations apart from the law. People were being faithful to God, walking with God by faith for 430 years before the law came into existence. So then, Paul is establishing that the covenant made to Abraham is distinct and exists apart from the law. Essentially salvation exists apart from the law and existed for hundreds of years before the law was introduced.

Two categories

So, the law and the covenant exist in different categories. Covenant is in the category of salvation, calling, election, justification, permanent, unchangeable realities of salvation redemption wrought by God alone.  That is the covenant.  The law then exists in the category of post salvation, post calling, post election, post redemption. They are two distinct categories and Paul forbids them to join them.

Getting saved again and again and again

Some of you can relate to being a child and praying for salvation over and over again. You might sin, tell a lie, hurt someone, steal something from you brother or sister and wonder, “did I lose my salvation?” The answer of course is, “no.” You cannot lose your salvation through something you do. They exist in different categories. In one category you have been saved, justified and redeemed. You have peace with God. In another category, you ought to live correctly and obediently to God. But you cannot join the two together as though what you do can somehow influence what you already did in being saved?  They do not compete with each other.  And we should not mix them together.

An example from Exodus

A clear example of this is Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” When did this happen? Were the Israelites delivered out of Egypt before the giving of the law or after? They were delivered out of slavery before they were given the law. So there deliverance or their salvation had nothing to do with them keeping the law. They were already saved. God had already brought them to Himself.  And this is the example for us. The Israelites are an illustration of our own salvation. We are saved out of our bondage and slavery to sin before we doing anything good or anything right. He bore us on eagle’s wings not because we obeyed the law but because He set His love on us.

A possible objection

Some of you might be thinking, “yeah but what about the covenant made with Abraham? Didn’t Abraham have something to do with that?” Let’s take a look at it

Vs. 18

A strange and one-sided covenant

The covenant to Abraham was not based on the law. God did not tell Abraham, “If you hold to your end of the bargain, I will hold to my end of the bargain.” It was not two parties agreeing to make a covenant. It was one party making a covenant with a person.  Genesis 15:18 says that Abraham was basically sleeping when the covenant was made (he was in a deep sleep).  Genesis 15:12-16.

So indeed the covenant came as a promise. God called Abraham to Himself, made a covenant with him and made Him into a “great nation” by a promise, not the law. It was not the result of law keeping. Abraham never really received the law. He walked in a covenant with God, not a law of God.

Your conversion

Think for a minute about your conversion. Did it come as the result of your work or God’s work? Did God give you faith to believe or did you muster up the faith within yourself?  Did you think to yourself, “today, I am very good.  Today I will be saved. I feel at the top of my spiritual game. I will get myself saved today?” No, if you did then that is not salvation. You embraced a religion. Religion is about what we do. Gospel is about what God does?

You are saved by a promise, not a law. God gives you a promise. And then he puts you to sleep.

Vs. 16

Jesus, the conduit and Giver of the blessing.

And who is the implementer of the promise: Jesus is.  Where does the blessing come from and who does it go through? Jesus. We cannot bypass Jesus to get to the blessing and the blessing does not bypass Jesus to get to us. It goes through Him.

Paul is not saying that the Israelites were not blessed through Abraham but rather that ultimate blessing or salvation came through one Person: Jesus. The Israelite nation was born through Abraham and people were blessed through Abraham. But it was and is Jesus who ultimately holds the blessing for all people. So, when the scriptures say “through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed,” he is saying ultimately through Christ all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

Vs. 19

Why the law?

So then, why was the law added? If the covenant was established with Abraham, the promise was made to Abraham, then why was the law added?

Maybe you have asked the question, “why did God put the tree in the garden if he knew they would eat of it?”

Reasons for the law

I think the law has several purposes: One is to demonstrate people’s need for a Savior. So Paul in Romans says, “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. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” So Paul states that it was the law that told him, “you are a sinner.”

The law also provides a guide for life. David says that “the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” And  “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

Not bad but not able to make you good

 So the law isn’t bad. It is not evil. But it must be put in its proper place. The law is not meant to save. It is meant to show you that you need to be saved. The law is not meant to make you perfect. The law is meant to show you that you cannot be perfect. The law is not meant to point to your greatness but to the greatness of Christ.   The law is not meant to make you right with God. The law is meant to show you that you can’t be right with God apart from Jesus.   The coming of Christ proves that that law can’t save.

Some practical applications

1)   Your sin, either pre-conversion or post conversion, cannot destroy your salvation. Some of you may be carrying guilt with you for something you did after you were saved or before you were saved.  You need to know this: The covenant God made with you in saving you, calling you to Himself, redeeming you forever cannot be changed, altered, added to or subtracted from.  So what is that rot then? It is shame. And shame has no place in the life of the believers. Confess your sin and your shame. Find someone you trust and open your heart to that person.

2)   We do not live by a law but by a Person. The law will often times make us self-centered and self-absorbed. The law or doing the right things will often times distract us from loving Christ and worshipping God.  It is not the external that pleases God. It is the internal. God is pleased with a pure heart.  The Lord says, “…..this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.” And He also says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”

3)   Our ultimate goal is not perfection according to the law, but conformity to Christ.  This means that our litmus test to determine how well we are doing is not how well are obeying rules but rather how much do we look like Jesus.

Please pray with me.

 

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One Response to Galatians 3:15-20 “Law, Promise, Jesus”

1. PJ and Sue Brennan says:

   January 16, 2012 at 4:22 am

   Dad and I sure enjoyed your message Gabe! I know Granny and Sandy and Terri will be blessed to hear this Good Word next Wednesday when we get together. Jesus Paid it All – Amen. Love, Mom

   Reply