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Good morning friends, today is Thursday May 23 and we’re reading Galatians 3 today.
May I invite you to actually begin today’s reading with the last verse of Galatians 2 which says “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” (Gal. 2:21).
That is powerful. . . over these next weeks, we’re going to revisit those four words… “Christ died for nothing” several times as we read the Scriptures together. Why? Because that was a major debate among the first generations of Christians, as it is today: WHY did Jesus die? What does His death & resurrection actually accomplish for ME, today? What could be attitudes or actions that we humans could take that would nullify the value of Jesus’s death on the cross for us?
Paul, the author of Galatians, you may recall was a proud Jewish man. We first meet him in Acts 8:1 with the name Saul. Several times he described his ‘pedigree’ as having been born a Jew into the select tribe of Benjamin and well educated by the Rabbi’s all his life. He claims he excelled in his Rabbinical training and having been put in charge of the execution of Stephen and the eradication the Jesus movement in Jerusalem and even in Damascus, Syria, it is clear Saul had driven himself all his life, to be the best example of what Judaism was all about . . .
First, a clear birth line directly to Abraham through one of Jacob’s 12 sons; second, studying & actually memorizing the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, and the Psalms as well; and third keeping every law and tradition of the Scriptures and the Rabbi’s teachings, perfectly, without any error.
Paul writes in Philippians 3 “If anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in himself, I have more: I was circumcised on the 8th day, born into the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. In regard to the law, I was a Pharisee. As for zeal, I persecuted the church. As for legalistic righteousness, I was faultless.” wow… that is quite a statement of human effort and religious achievement isn’t it? And it was true. . .but the question is, what was it worth? What did it achieve or earn for this man Saul or anyone else who would follow in his ridged, self-disciplined, legalistic footsteps?
Of course what Saul and all his Rabbinical teachers were seeking to achieve was approval from God. The ultimate approval would be God declaring them righteous, sinless, perfect and thus eligible for eternal life in God’s presence because they perfectly met all the standards God set for human life.
In Galatians chapter 3, Paul continues his great defense of the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That no person, including Paul, will ever be declared perfect, sinless, righteous by God because of our good works, our great efforts in keeping every aspect of every law and tradition, for that is humanly impossible.
Also, as Paul explains in vs 3-5, God does NOT send His Holy Spirit to live in people because they have achieved sinless perfection, but rather because they have trusted the Gospel to be true, have acknowledged their need for a Savior and trusted fully in Jesus Christ to save from their sin. THEN and only then can Almighty God send His Holy Spirit to live within a repentant, forgiven, cleansed sinner!
Consider one more powerful statement in Galatians 3 “if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by that law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin…” (vs. 21) Paul will repeat this point many times in his writings, because every person needs to understand it and own it as truth for themselves.
The laws of God show us our sin, they are NOT a path to perfection.
It’s like this friends,… the speed limit sign on the side of the road causes us to look at our speedometer and immediately we react… almost always we are driving faster than what the law says is permitted in that place, and we do two things, don’t we? We take our foot off the gas pedal and our eyes quickly dart around, even into the rear view mirror to see if there is police around. Right? What is that? That is the speed limit law doing what it’s supposed to do… keep our natural desire to drive faster in check, for the safety of everyone. The speed limit law does not change our character and make us perfect, holy people. It helps us see the truth… we want to drive at whatever speed we feel like driving, at all times, in all places. In fact we don’t want anyone telling us how to drive! The speed limit law helps us see the truth in ourselves, right? You see how the law is designed to work?
As you may know in a few parts of the US, there are NO speed limit signs… any speed is permissible, but even there every driver is responsible for the consequences of their driving, right? So while no law limits your speed there, many laws explain the penalties for the damage one might do driving out of control and causing property or personal damage to others. Why? Watch this: because we all have a deeply rooted sinful nature that DOES NOT want to be held responsible or accountable for our thoughts, our words, our attitudes, our choices or our behavior. Am I right? We didn’t like it when we were children, we especially didn’t like it when we were teens, and things haven’t changed much deep down inside us, have they?
God’s laws are not a path to perfection… they are a mirror to help us see deeply inside ourselves, so I can see me the way God sees me! And when I see me the way God sees me… I need to do something about what I see! God desires that I turn to HIM seeking His help to deal with stuff I see in me that shames me, and also seeking His help to change! Of course just like with the speed limit sign, I resist, I don’t want to see me the way God sees me. But… I will be a much better man, husband, dad, citizen, neighbor, friend, employee, employer, even retiree if I learn well the lesson that each time I sense God holding up the mirror to me, I turn to HIM in humility. Now let’s Ponder that today friends!
In fact…let’s live in that truth all day today my friends…
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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