The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:15-29 (day six)

²¹ Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Galatians 3:21

Jesus and the law are not at odds. It doesn’t feel rejected or left behind. It doesn’t seek the spotlight, but it steps off the stage for the star of this passion play. The law is the question that Jesus answers. The law is in agreement with Jesus. The law declares, “Choose him!”

Of course, the conflict isn’t between God’s law and God’s promise; he is never at odds with himself. The conflict is between us and God, of which the law is our tutor and Jesus our resolution.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:15-29 (day five)

“Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions…”  vs. 19  I love it when Paul asks the questions everybody is thinking. He has already answered the “when?” question about the Law.  The Law came after God’s promise. Now Paul turns to “Why?”.  The answer is transgressions or sin. The misconception was that the Law was given to tell of salvation, when in fact, it was given to tell of sin. And not just our perception of sin but our relationship to sin- we are captives and prisoners to sin (vs. 22). The Law tells us that we are all law-breakers and cannot be the solution. The law then also points to the need and provision of Christ (God’s Promise).

“We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel. To do so is to contradict the plan of God in biblical history… No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. – John Stott

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:15-29 (day four)

We often say that you shouldn’t trust something until it’s in writing. Only then can you put any stock in it, and stand on it as truth. That’s because our promises as sinful men are pretty flimsy. We say “I promise, I’ll call you when I get home,” and then forget as soon as we walk through the door. Or we say “I’ll take care of that tomorrow, I promise,” but a week goes by and you still haven’t tended to it. The word ‘promise’ doesn’t mean much when it’s coming from us, because a promise is only as sure as the person giving it. A law sounds much more sure to us than a promise.

But Paul is reminding us that the Kingdom of God, once again, is different. God granted Abraham an inheritance by means of a promise. The law was only meant to point us towards the one in whom that promise would be fulfilled. In our sin, though, we took the law and put all our stock in it, thinking it was surely a firmer foundation than a promise. But all this means is that we have gravely misunderstood the one giving us this promise.

Life with God is a life built on promises. I wonder if that’s why we so quickly run back to our old ways of living – building a life on the promises of God alone takes a huge amount of faith, especially in the world we live in. But here is our assurance – God is infinitely more likely to raise someone from the dead than to go back on his promise. He has already made it so. His promises are sure.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:15-29 (day two) 

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. Vs. 24

As a young music student you are taught the ‘rules’ of music theory and composition. Invariably, when a freshman has a few of these under his belt he feels as though he is now an authority. Soon this student will notice in much of the music he is studying rarely conforms to the ‘rules’ or abandons them all together. This creates quite a crisis in the young musician, as he has been drilled to learn what you can and cannot do in music theory. Exasperated, the young student cries foul to his teachers. Either the rules are bogus, or the music he is studying is. The teacher will then explain that you must first learn the structure, the form, where the boundaries are set in order to know what is possible beyond those boundaries.

The law is like that. It is our guide and structure, but it doesn’t create the masterpiece. My analogy is somewhat flawed in that sin is still sin regardless, and musical composition doesn’t lead to salvation, but I hope you will see the parallel. In order to understand the overwhelming mercy God has shown towards us, we must understand our need for it. We must be confronted with our sin. The law does that. Jesus transcends that through the cross.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:1-14 (day seven) 

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Galatians 3:1

I think this letter could easily have been written to us:

You foolish Americans. You have such a strong foundation on your faith, why would you allow this kind of heresy to infiltrate your churches. It seems like someone has put a spell on you, because there is no reason for you to be acting this way.

We could say this for numerous heresies in our culture today, but what was the issue in Galatia? It was about inclusion. This wouldn’t be an issue for us would it?  We wouldn’t show favoritism to certain people would we?

It is natural for us to be drawn to people who are like us. There are people that we just seem to click more with. The issue is these clicks can easily turn into cliques. What we need to realize is the thing that allows us to “click” more than anything in this world is the Holy Spirit living inside of each of us. Today there will be over a thousand people on our campus. Go outside of your normal rhythm, maybe even sit in a different pew or seat, and see if you can connect and click with someone new.

 

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:1-14 (day six) 

Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God’s promise long before the law came onto the scene. Nor was there ever a moment when Abraham graduated from believing God to working things out on his own (the law). No, he began his journey believing God and all along the way believed God.

Maybe that gets to the heart of sin: unbelief. Sin is not first an immoral behavior or thought, it is unbelief in the promises of God and putting your trust elsewhere.  According to Paul, looking to the law for life condemns us not because the law is bad, but because it requires disbelieving (turning away from) God and embracing self-reliance.

Jesus died for our unbelief so that we would believe God.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:1-14 (day five) 

“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

Paul does does something remarkable in verse 3 of our Re:Verse passage.  He changes tenses. He goes from the past tense to the present tense. Yet, the subject stays the same- the work of Christ on the cross that places the Holy Spirit in the heart of believers- the Gospel (Salvation by grace alone through Christ alone). Did you notice the word NOW?

The gospel is salvation from the penalty of sin (past tense). The same gospel is the salvation from the power of sin (present tense). By faith the Spirit entered our lives (past)and in the very same way (faith) the Spirit advances our lives (present).

“Christians think that we are saved by the gospel, but then we grow by applying biblical principles to every area of life. But we are not just saved by the gospel, we grow by applying the gospel to every area of life”.– Dick Kaufmann.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:1-14 (day four)

Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

I am great at starting things. I get excited about a new project or idea, and I spend time putting in the research, finding the right resources, and making a plan. These efforts normally get me about a third of the way through it, but then things seem to stall or fall apart. I get distracted with other ideas spurred on by the current project, I get discouraged by an unforeseen obstacle, or I lose sight of why I started this project in the first place and the work is no longer joyful.

Again, I am great at starting things. But when left to my own devices, I am terrible at finishing them. This happens in our faith, too. When we have an encounter with Jesus, we become so full of joy in the Spirit that we press forward with energy and hope, looking for how the Spirit is moving. Over time though, we might get distracted. We lose sight of what this gospel work is all about. We take into our own hands what was meant to be carried by Jesus and we pollute the gospel message with our own pride, just like the Galatians. What Christ began through the Spirit, we try to complete in the flesh.

The good news, though, is that this isn’t a lesson in learning to finish what we start, but rather humbly letting the one who started a good work in us bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. All that is required is faith. Faith like Abraham, the one by whom God’s promises were given to us. May we find renewed joy in surrendering to the Spirit.

Re:Verse passage – Galatians 3:1-14 (day two)

This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? vs. 3

Paul asks a simple and direct question to the Galatians that can be asked of any of us. When you think about the time when you received the Holy Spirit, when you knew Jesus to be Lord of your life, how did it happen? Was it a day when you didn’t murder someone that you received the Spirit? Maybe it was a time when you didn’t steal, or lie, or covet. It seems foolish to think in those terms: I didn’t murder someone that day, and I felt the presence of the Lord.

We feel the presence of the Lord when we place our trust in him. We know the spirit when our faith is in Jesus alone. Your own personal testimony will bear this truth out, therefore let us make sure that our witness to others is not complicated with anything other than trust and faith in Jesus.