26 May 2013
[Audio]I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Galatians 3:1-5
Galatians 3:1-5 (NIV)
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your
very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
-- this
morning we are going to talk about "the law" -- one of the things
that confuses Christians more than anything else is what to do with "the
law," specifically, the Old Testament law of Moses
-- are we
required to follow the Torah, the law of Moses, or are we exempt from the law?-- this question comes up time and time again in my discussions with other people -- what do we do with the law? -- do we just ignore it? -- do we follow it? -- both?
-- so this morning, since a part of our daily Bible readings were from the section of Galatians where Paul addresses the law to the church of Galatia, I thought it might be a good idea to take a moment and talk about this very issue
-- now know
this is going to be more of a Bible study message -- more theology -- than
practical application -- but I think it's important for you to know what the
law was and why God gave us the law so we can understand what we are to do with
the law in our day and our time
-- so to
get us into today's discussion, let me start by sharing with you a short clip
of a commercial from the 2010 Superbowl by Audi-- "In this ad, the problem with the green police is that they are pursuing a good thing—a healthy environment—in an extreme way. They are well meaning, but overzealous."1
-- the exact same thing was going on in Galatia and several of the other churches Paul had established or visited during his missionary journey -- you see, the major issue going on in the church at this time was what do with the Gentiles
-- remember that Jesus and Paul and all of Jesus' disciples were Jewish -- Jesus was the long-awaited for Jewish Messiah -- and the majority of the believers in Jesus at this time were Jewish -- for them to be a Christian was to be a Jew -- and so when the Gentiles began to come into the church, the question arose, "What do we do with the Gentiles?"
-- the Jewish believers still followed the law -- they were Jewish -- it was what they knew -- it was what they had believed -- and while they understood the ritualistic part of the Torah -- of the law -- with all of its sacrifices and offerings -- pointed to Jesus, their Messiah, they still followed the law
-- we read of Paul celebrating the Passover and going to the Temple at Pentecost to fulfill a vow he had made to God -- even Paul, who traveled in Gentile areas and preached the gospel to Gentiles, remained a Jew
-- so the question came up, "What do we do with the Gentiles? -- Do they have to become Jews to follow Jesus? -- Do they have to follow the law to follow Jesus?"
-- some people, like Paul and Peter, had seen the Holy Spirit come upon Gentile believers and believed strongly in grace through faith alone -- that people are justified and saved apart from the law of Moses -- in other words, they believed the Gentiles did not have to become Jews and be circumcised to be saved
-- however, another group of Jewish believers known as the Judaizers, believed the Gentiles had to become Jews to be part of the church -- they were insistent the Gentiles had to be circumcised and must follow all the laws of Moses if they were going to be Christians
-- these Judaizers were kind of like the Green Police in that commercial I showed you -- they were well-meaning -- they were motivated by what they thought was right and were taking it to extremes -- they started visiting the Gentile churches and teaching them that they had to become Jews and follow all the laws of Moses if they wanted to be saved
-- you can imagine how confusing this was to the Gentile converts -- they didn't know who to believe -- Paul or the Judaizers -- Paul would go back and visit a church he had established and find the Gentiles all living like Jews, following the same Jewish law and all its precepts that had failed to save the Jewish people for two thousand years
-- this question of what to do with the Gentiles -- what to do with the law -- resulted in the first major conflict in the church and the first church council, which you can read about in Acts 15 if you are so inclined
-- but for our purposes, just suffice it to say that this letter to the church of Galatia was written because of this very same situation -- Paul had started this church and gotten it off on a good foot, but now he is getting word that the Judaizers had come and corrupted his teachings and the Galatian Christians were now trying to follow the law instead of living on the grace Paul had taught them
-- so here in this passage, Paul addresses the law and the purpose of the law and lays out very clearly for us what the law does and does not do for Christians
-- look
back at verse 1 and let's read this together again
Galatians 3:1-5 (NIV)
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your
very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
4 Have you suffered so much for nothing--if it really was for nothing?
5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?
-- you can
clearly see Paul's concern with the effects of the Judaizers on the Galatian
church -- he asks them who had bewitched them? -- who had come in and fooled
them and led them away from the truth?
-- he had
preached to them Christ crucified -- he had preached to them justification by
faith through grace, with nothing else required -- no law -- no works -- no
man-made religion-- but now the Galatians were trying to put themselves back under the yoke of the law -- by listening to the Judaizers, they are subjecting themselves back into bondage once again -- so Paul goes into a lengthy discussion of the original promise of God to Abraham, the purpose of the law, and the freedom we enjoy through grace in Christ
-- obviously, we don't have time to go into all of this today, but I want to encourage you to go back and read all of Chapter 3 this week to look at what God is telling us about grace and the Promise and the law through Paul's writings
-- so let's skip down to verse 23 and we'll just look at verses 23 through 29 to synopsize what Paul is teaching in this passage
III. What it was like under the Law
-- verse 23-24a
Galatians 3:23-29 (NIV)
23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the
law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ
-- in these verses we are reminded of what we were under the law -- in other words this is how the Jews lived before the coming of Jesus as their Messiah
-- Paul gives us two examples of what it was like under the law:
-- first, he likens the law to a prison -- he tells us that before faith came, we were held prisoner by the law, locked up until faith and freedom should be revealed -- in other words we were put in prison so we might know we were not free
-- a lot of people who are not Christians go through this life thinking they are free -- they tell me they don't want to be in a religion where they have to be told what they can and can't do -- "We're free," they say, "We can do whatever we want."
-- but that's not really true -- they live under a facade of freedom -- in reality, they are bound up with heavy chains
-- it is this type of freedom that leads to the moral declines we've seen in our country over the last several decades -- it is this type of freedom that results in promiscuity and sexual immorality -- it is this type of freedom that results in addictions to drugs and alcohol and material things -- it is this type of freedom that results in slavery to the desires and impulses that control them
-- so Paul tells us the law was put in place to make us aware of the prison we were in -- the law was given to show us the chains that held us and to make us long for the freedom that comes through faith -- to make us hope for the promise God gave to Abraham of a new and better life with Him
-- it's like C.S. Lewis said -- people have to be taught they are sinners before they can repent of their sins and turn to Christ -- the law was put in place to show Israel their need for a Savior
-- the
second example of what it was like under the law is found in verse 24 -- Paul
tells us the "law was put in charge to lead us to Christ" -- the term
Paul uses here to describe the law being put in charge is the Greek word paidagogos -- this is the word we get
our English word pedagogue -- another
name for school teacher -- from
-- in
Paul's day a paidagogos was an old
and trusted slave who was given responsibility for the guardianship and moral
and social development of a minor -- one
of the primary tasks of the paidagogos
was to take the child to a teacher for daily instruction and then to usher him
back home again at the end of the day -- guarding him and protecting him and
putting bounds on his behavior until he could lead him safely back home again
-- the paidagogos was like a
chaperone who made sure the child followed the rules until he was old enough
and mature enough to step into the freedom of adulthood-- in both cases the purpose of the law was to protect the Israelites -- to guard them with velvet chains and to point them to the future redemption and freedom promised by God to Abraham
-- but still, Paul argued, the law was bondage -- the law was not the point -- following the law was not the point -- the ultimate purpose of God was for man to become mature in his knowledge of God and to step into the grace of justification and redemption through faith in Jesus' atoning death and resurrection
-- and if this is the case, why would you willingly put yourself back into chains? -- if you have tasted freedom, why would you return to the cage?
IV. Who we are in Grace
-- look
back at the second part of verse 24b-29
24b. That we might be justified by faith.
25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the
supervision of the law. 26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
-- having established what we used to be under the law, Paul now reminds the Galatians of who we are in Christ by listing out six aspects of our freedom from the law
1. We are justified by faith
--
justification through faith and not by works is a central tenet of Paul and the
foundation of Christianity -- the law could not save -- it could only point to
the need for salvation -- it could only keep us within the bounds of God's
grace until the cross-- but now that the cross has come -- now that Jesus has died for our sins and risen on the third day, we are saved by grace through faith in Him
-- to be justified means the law has been fulfilled -- this is a legal term implying a complete acquittal from charges in a court of law -- through faith we are declared righteous and stand acquitted of every charge that might be brought against us
-- it's like the old saying, to be justified is to be just as if I never sinned
2. No longer under the supervision of the law
-- no
longer bound by the law -- either as a prisoner or as a student protected by
our paidagogos -- instead we are
freed by grace and led by Christ-- we no longer look to the law to tell us what to do and what not to do -- instead we are led by our relationship with Jesus -- as we grow in grace and become more like Jesus -- as we listen to the Holy Spirit as He speaks through the Bible and through prayer, circumstances, and the church, we learn to follow His guidance and His direction apart from any written law
-- where formerly the Jews had the Torah -- the written law of God given to Moses -- we now have the law of God written on our hearts
-- we are directed by Christ and not the law
3. Sons of God or, if you like, the sons and
daughters of God
-- some
translations of the Bible render verse 26 as "the children of God"
instead of the "sons of God" -- but there's a reason Paul used the
word "sons" in this passage-- the word son refers to the relationship we have with the Father -- it refers to the protection and guidance of a member of the family until the child matures and accepts their responsibilities as members of that family
-- there's a difference between chaperoning a child and chaperoning a son -- with a son, there is a vested interest in the eventual outcome -- with a child or with many children, your goals are different -- you just want to get them home safely
-- yesterday my mother was talking about chaperoning children on school trips and how she would stay up all night and roam the hallways of the motel to make sure the kids were following rules and staying in their rooms and not straying from the written law
-- but I can tell you, I have been on trips with her as the chaperone, and the way she chaperoned me was different from the way she chaperoned the others -- while she was responsible for the safety of all the children, she had a vested interest in the way I acted because it reflected on the family and on who I would become as an adult
-- Paul is trying to point out here that God put the law in place as our paidagogos -- not just to keep us safe -- but to ensure we were raised right -- to point us to freedom and to the promised redemption through Jesus
4. Clothed with Christ through baptism
-- the term
baptism in verse 27 refers to our union with Christ -- when we come to Christ
in faith it results in the death of our old self and our birth as a new
creation -- when Paul talks about baptism here, he is referring to the internal
renewal of our spirits through grace rather than the outward act of water
baptism-- think about what Paul is arguing in this passage in Galatians -- he is arguing against works -- against the law -- and for the grace and freedom that comes through a relationship with Jesus
-- to promote the external act of baptism as the means of grace would have made Paul guilty of the same thing he was condemning the Judaizers for, namely adding works and the law to salvation
-- Paul is trying to make the point that we are saved inwardly when we receive the baptism of our hearts through faith rather than following man-made rituals
5. One with Christ and with each other
-- the
Judaizers were making a big deal about being Jewish, to the point where they
were telling Gentiles they had to become Jews in order to be saved-- Paul says, "not true" -- when you are a Christian, there is no race -- there is no Jew or Greek -- in fact all distinctions fade -- there are no distinctions between race or rank or gender -- we are all one in Christ and one with each other
-- the Jew is no better than the Gentile -- the owner is no better than his slave -- a man is no better than a woman -- we are all the same, redeemed by grace and members of God's family
6. Heirs of
the promise
-- here
Paul goes back to his original point -- it's not about the law -- it's about
the promise -- the promise God made to Abraham 430 years before Moses was given
the law at Mount Sinai-- God made a promise to Abraham and to his descendants that was based on faith and not law
-- we couldn't come into this promise -- we couldn't receive our inheritance or our righteousness -- through the law
-- we only receive the promise through faith as Abraham's descendants in the faith
-- in other words Paul finishes up this passage by saying the law can't deliver on the promise of God -- all it can do is point to the promise and to the need of a Savior
-- faith -- the same faith Abraham had when he trusted and believed in God -- is what makes us one with Christ and heirs of the promise
V. Closing
-- I have
recently become a fan of Duck Dynasty and I've been watching a lot of old shows
trying to catch up on the series -- the last episode I watched focused on
teaching Willie's daughter Sadie how to drive-- and as I watched the show, I realized it was an excellent example of what Paul was trying to show us in this passage about the law
-- think for a minute about driving -- when it comes to driving, there are rules in place -- there are laws that we have to follow -- these laws, for example speed limits, were put in place, not to punish us, but to keep us safe from others and to modify our behavior behind the wheel so we might not be a danger to others
-- well, Willie wanted to teach his daughter Sadie how to drive and, of course, because this is a TV show, everyone had to get involved and each of them had a different idea how to reach the goal of Sadie learning how to drive
-- it started off with Willie -- Willie put Sadie in his truck in the parking lot and had her try to parallel park and drive through an obstacle course -- but rather than just teach her to drive, he was also telling her she had to follow all the laws -- she had to use blinkers and put on her seatbelt and every little thing that goes along with driving -- rather than show her how to drive, Willie focused on the rules represented the law
-- Willie represented the Torah -- the Law -- he was just like the judaizers -- he was trying to get Sadie to follow the letter of the law -- he even added laws to the laws -- at one point, while they were driving around the parking lot, he told Sadie she was doing good and to text her mother to let her know how good she was doing -- when she reached for her phone, he yelled, "No, that was a trap -- never text while you are driving"
-- Uncle Si took over and immediately left the parking lot with Sadie to show her what driving was really like -- while he was showing her, he was driving really fast and not paying attention -- when Sadie pointed out the speed limit was 35 and he was driving 55, he told her that the speed limit was just a suggestion -- as Paul points out in this passage in Galatians, one of the purposes of the law was to make us aware of our transgressions -- to show us when we were straying from God's word -- by driving haphazardly -- by not being careful and by showing Sadie the danger of now following the rules, Si actually made her aware of the law but couldn't give her the solution
-- Finally, Willie's brother Jase took Sadie out to the woods and put her in a Polaris off-road vehicle -- he told her to not worry about the rules -- to just trust her instincts -- she asked him about putting her hands at 10 and 2 and he said out here in the woods, there are no written rules -- only freedom
-- but even though they weren't following the written driving rules, as Sadie was driving he would caution her to slow down or watch out for trees and to stay out of the ditch -- Jase represented grace
-- grace does not do away with the law, but fulfills the law through Christ which is exactly the point Paul was making in this passage
-- it comes
down to this -- as a Christian we are not bound by the written laws of the Old
Testament -- we don't have to follow all the ritualistic and moral laws -- we
don't have to get home each night and pull out our law book and check to make
sure that we've not crossed the line and broken any of the laws of Moses
-- however,
just because we are a Christian does not mean we have the ability to flaunt our
nose at God's commands -- this doesn't mean we aren't supposed to do what is
right and stay away from what is wrong-- the difference is that instead of following a written law, we follow the law of grace that is written on our hearts
-- instead of worrying about whether we tithe 10% of our gross or 10% of our net, we instead look to our hearts and give an offering with thankfulness because of what Jesus has done for us
-- instead of checking the written law to see what it says in a given situation, we ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" and we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and trust in grace without the fear of condemnation because our sins have been forgiven
-- as Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them"
-- the law was fulfilled on the cross -- the chains were broken -- and we are no longer bound by the written Torah
-- so what do we do with the Law? -- if you would, turn over to Matthew 22:37 and we'll answer that question there as we close
Matthew 22:37-40 (NIV)
37 Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
-- what do
we do with the law? -- this is what we do -- as Christians, redeemed by grace
and justified through faith, we follow the law of our heart and the two
commandments Christ gave us in this passage and nothing more
-- let us
pray
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1Craig Brian Larson, editor, PreachingToday.com
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