Category: Epistles

Romans 6:1-11

The following exhortation was given to the Korean Agape Church and translated into Korean.

Romans 6:1-11
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

One of the struggles we all have is how to properly understand what it means to be holy in Christ and how we are made holy by Him. We understand that we are saved by putting our faith in Christ but we often begin to think that our holiness depends upon us. Romans 6 reminds us that those who trust Christ are also made holy by the power of Christ. It is Christ in them that saves them and makes them holy.

Chapter 6 follows a teaching by the Apostle that leads some to lie about the Gospel. He reminds us that it is wrong to think that God wants us to sin so He can show how much He forgives us.

Verse 2 emphasizes this: “How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

Before we were saved we lived in slavery to sin but we are no longer in Adam but in Christ. We have died to sin. We were in the house of Adam, we were in bondage to sin. We have now been set free by Christ and are no longer slaves to sin but have been set free.

Verse 3 then reminds us of the significance of our baptism. Our baptism reminds us that if we hav faith, we are baptized into Christ’s death. This connection we have with Christ does not stop with His death because He rose from the dead with an indestructible life. Again, because we are united with Him, we possess His indestructible life. We begin to see where the power over sin comes from.

Verse 5 confirms what Paul has just said: 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Paul doesn’t say this is a process where we prove to God that we’re worthy to be identified with Christ by our obedience. No. Our obedience is because we have life in Christ. We have been raised from the dead with Him when He rose. The apostle doesn’t write that a believer “might be” united with him but makes it most certain by saying “we shall certainly” be united with Christ. We must be made holy by Christ.

Verse 6 shows how wrong it is to think we can sin as we are still slaves. Christ’s death on a cross destroyed the power of sin. The old man was crucified with Christ on the Cross. Union with Christ in the crucifixion delivers us from the prison of Sin. This does not mean that we no longer sin but victory in the battle over sin is assured in the nailing of enslaving authority to the Cross. We are no longer controlled by a sin nature but by our slavery to Christ.

It is common for us to lose focus and to regard our sin as inevitable. Paul wants to lift us from looking inside of ourselves for power to battle sin and to look outward and up to the Cross where we see Sin nailed to the Cross of Christ. Our Savior has conquered that power on the Cross! The old man no longer has authority.

Earlier in Romans, Paul reminded us that we are declared righteous in Christ. We are not actually righteous, in ourselves, but counted righteous due to Christ’s payment on our behalf and the giving of Christ’s life to us. Verse 7 teaches that the power of sin has already been judged for us. By the act of the Judge, we are sure to be made holy because the power of sin was judged at the Cross for us.

Holiness is not achieved by a power we find within. No, the power comes because Christ has judged Sin itself. We know we can progress in holiness because Sin has been put to death and we know that no condemnation comes from the sin that continues in our members.

Verse 8 encourages us to think of ourselves as being an image of Christ ““ not only has the old self of sin been crucified but we now posses spiritual life in Christ. When we sin, we forget our union with Christ and deny what Christ has accomplished. When we remember who we are, we are empowered to give battle to sin and to live unto righteousness.

Verse 9 is our assurance of living with Christ. There can be nothing that can break or interrupt our participation in Christ’s life. There can be no reversal of his death to sin and falling back into complete slavery to its power. If this was possible then Christ’s very resurrection could be reversed or repeated over and over. Christ’s resurrection is final and it represents a complete break from the power of Sin. Christ submitted Himself to the power and judgment of sin. Death even ruled over Christ for a short time yet it was impossible that death could hold Him or swallow Him up. By rising from the dead, He defeated death forever.

Verse 10 is one of the most significant statements regarding the full meaning of Christ’s death ““ Christ died to sin. The Apostle has already noted that Christians are forever freed from the bondage of sin and death and again reminds us we are no longer subjects of its rule. He proves this by reminding why Christ died ““ He died that He would destroy sin. Christ not only dealt with the guilt of sinners on the cross but also with the power of sin. Death ruled but Christ broke its power.

Verse 11 concludes: “Because Christ triumphed over the power of death, those who are united to Him in death died to the power of sin and become dead to sin. Once again, the motivation and power of a Christian’s struggle with Sin is grounded in what Christ has accomplished.

We are to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. We are not commanded to become dead to sin and alive to God. Christ has accomplished this already for us. And it is not by considering the facts carefully that they become true. The Apostle’s command is that we are to think upon our union with Christ and fully appreciate what Christ has obtained for us. This provides the motivation and strength for our battles.

Beloved, we are no longer our own and no longer under Sin’s power. Our Sin is on the Cross and we are now bondslaves to Christ and bondslaves to righteousness. Christ’s death is once-for-all and He ever lives and so must we. When we lift our heavy heads away from the filth of indwelling sin and its alluring, idolatrous power, we look up to Christ and in Him we find that our hearts deceived us to Sin’s remaining power. Instead of sorrow over our pitiful state we praise God with the Apostle:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:3-10)

Tags baptism, Christ, death, free, life, salvation, sin

Epistles Scripture

The Living and Active Word (Hebrews 4:12-13)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date March 9, 2008
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Hebrews 4:6-13

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice,do not harden your hearts.”

8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

11Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

We’re going to be focusing on verses 12-13 of Hebrews Chapter 4 this morning, but I wanted to provide context for the passage of Hebrews that this section falls within because context is extremely important when you handle the Word of God. I believe its importance will become more apparent to you as I continue but I simply want to continue to be faithful in how I teach the Word of God to you because many men are not faithful in its presentation any more.

God inspired specific thoughts and attitudes that rest within a “story” inside each Book of the Bible. We are not at liberty to pull words out of their place and create a message that we think might help people and baptize our advice by pulling God’s Words out of their intended meaning. I could very easily quote the Psalms in part that say: “…there is no God…” but that’s hardly the message of the Scriptures is it? In fact, the portion of Psalm 14 that I left out is that “The fool says in his heart, there is no God.”

That passage about the fool and his disbelief in God is actually very appropriate for today’s passage. You see this kind of foolishness is not merely demonstrated in people that proclaim themselves to be atheists but, in many cases, it is reflected in the unbelief that is often displayed by people who claim to be religious; worse, yet, by people that claim to be Christian.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author warns Hebrew believers to not neglect the salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ. They are losing family, friends, and jobs because they have turned from Judaism to Christianity. There is a strong temptation to escape this persecution by simply returning to the religion of their youth – to return to being practicing Jews and turning their back on Christ.

The author labors to show that there is nothing to go back to because Christ was the aim of the Jewish religion all along. Even as we learned when studying Galatians, Abraham received a promise of inheritance by faith and even the Law was added to be a preparation for the people of God to receive their long awaited Messiah.

In very stern warnings in Hebrews Chapters 3 and Chapters 4, the author reminds everyone of the Israelites in the desert. He tells them that they heard the Gospel for 40 years and for 40 years they rebelled. At the beginning they rebelled, in the middle they rebelled, and at the very end they rebelled. So God swore by Himself that they would not enter the rest: the promised land of Canaan. This was a picture of what Christ would be – a rest for His people. The author, in the most frightening of terms, points out to the Hebrews that they are actually worse than the Israelites in the desert if they rebel now and forsake the Rock – God the Son who has been revealed in Christ Jesus. He is greater than the angels, than Moses, than Aaron for He is the purpose and the end of all of their work. They all pointed to Him. The Israelites in the desert then become a stark picture of unbelief to the Hebrew believers thinking about forsaking Christ for they would be worse than the Israelites in the desert and if they rebelled against the Son then they would be utterly lost for eternity – never to enter into the rest only found in the Son.

Verse 11: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Notice the author uses the term us: Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

It’s not enough for you to be concerned about your salvation in the Church of Christ. Christianity is not about you and your personal relationship with Jesus. Of course you must believe upon and lay hold of Christ’s feet by faith but when you believe on Jesus it’s supposed to transform your heart and renew your mind. You’re engrafted into the family of God, the household of faith and you have brothers and sisters who are joint heirs in Christ. We strive together to enter into that rest. This is not some sort of thing where we are casually on a journey just asleep in the back seat as a few people drive the train for us to Happyville.

There are struggles, there are temptations, there is suffering, and there is need. We have brothers and sisters around us who are struggling with sin and we dare not say: “Well, we’re heading on, make sure you keep up.” If they fall behind, God help you if you don’t care in the least that they’re falling behind and you just leave the weak to be devoured by the wolves because you’re keeping up with the pack. Absolutely not! Christ calls Himself the good Shepherd because He won’t lose a single sheep. He’ll leave the 99 because He notices one has wandered off and He’ll leave the 99 to bring that last one back into the fold.

The fool says in his heart: “There is no God.”

Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe He is the Good Shepherd? Do you believe that He loves all of His sheep? Then why do we not care when there are weak sheep among us? Why don’t we have a concern for others among the sheepfold other than ourselves? Why doesn’t our concern reflect the concern of our great Shepherd?

Let us therefore strive. Let none of us be found to be unbelieving and may we all weep when we beg and plead and pray with someone who is falling behind. We do everything in our power to keep him in the fold and even get mauled by the wolves if we have to get in the way of the world who is trying to take one of our own.

But there’s sort of a question here about what we’re believing. What is it that we’re trusting? None of us have seen God so how do we know that this stuff is true. The simple answer is the Word of God. At least that’s the Biblical answer. These days, however, people have very un-Biblical notions about how they know God. In fact our ideas about God are very much affected not by Biblical ideas but Pagan ideas about God.

You see Romans 1 reveals that we are prone to idols. Throughout human history to the present day, the thing that is true of all idols is that they are dumb. They cannot speak. They don’t have mouths.

For this reason, all pagan religions have mystics, they have people in the know. They somehow tap into the sources of knowledge in the universe and information is beamed into their head. They enter into altered states, sometimes with drugs, and they give mystical prophecies of things that nobody else knows about.

But our God is not like the idols. Our God speaks. Our God knows. Our God creates. He creates by the Word of His power and light comes forward simply because He says: “Let there be light.”

How has He spoken though? Hebrews 1: “1Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things….” Christ is even referred to in John Chapter 1 as the Word made flesh. God speaks to us through His Word.

But to many people today, the Word of God seems so old, so ancient. It was inspired thousands of years ago and the people who last wrote down the Books of the Bible are long since dead. Men and women everywhere, and sadly many Christians, think that the Word isn’t useful for today. It’s not practical. The letters are dead on a page. In fact, many Pentecostals today seek constant new revelations because, like the pagans, they fall back into the idea that God is mute that He doesn’t speak so they go to their mystics – to people who enter into altered states and tap into the power of the universe. Flee from such people.

But this is what the Scriptures say of the Word: “12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Far from being dead, far from lying dormant and being of no use for today, the Word of God is living, it is active. It pulses with life and power.

God’s Word cannot be taken lightly because if anyone doesn’t want to listen to it then that person faces no one less than God Himself. It’s not just a collection of ancient writings but it speaks to people, actively, powerfully today and always. The Bible demands a response because God does not tolerate those who ignore what He says. People who ignore this living and powerful Word do so at their own peril.

Stephen, in Acts 7:38 stated that Moses at Mount Sinai received “living oracles” and Peter in 1 Peter 1:23 states that we are born again through the Word of God that lives and abides forever. What we think of as dead letters on a page has the power to make men alive from their sins because they are the Words of the Everlasting God by whose Powerful Word the heavens and the earth were created.

But the fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Just as God’s Word brought forth His creation, His Word recreates men who are dead in sins and transgressions (Eph 2:1-5). The Word is power but even as it brings life to us it is foolishness to the world. 1 Cor 1:18 states: “The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

And because it is powerful and active, it has the effect that it is sharp and cutting and sees right through us: it is sharper than any two-edged sword – like the blade of a surgeon it uncovers the most delicate nerves not merely of the body but of the soul as well. In Rev 1:16, Christ is pictured as having a “sharp double-edged sword” coming out of his mouth.

The division between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, is all conveying the same idea that it uncovers the very thoughts and intentions of our heart. Human judges cannot see into the heart when they are rendering a judgment on criminals. They can only see the actions. God’s Word, however, judges and sees through the intentions of the heart. Everything is laid out by its cutting and discerning power.

Nothing remains untouched by the Word of God for it addresses every aspect of man’s life. All the recesses of body and soul face the sharp edge of God’s dividing sword. We might smile at our neighbor while we inwardly despise him but God’s Word uncovers them. God addresses man in the completeness of his existence and man is unable to escape the penetrating impact of God’s Word.

But the fool says in his heart: “There is no God.”

Hebrews 4:13: And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

God’s Word uncovers everything so, in the end, everything is laid bare before the almighty God who we owe perfect obedience to. It is impossible for man to hide sin in the dark corners of his heart. God knows. He sees everything; even darkness is as light to him (Psalm 139:12).

The past, the present, and the future are all before God because He is not bound by time or place but He dwells in eternity and is above His Creation. Do you suppose that if His eye is on the sparrow, and He knows the number of hairs on your head, that there is any hidden motive or thought that He does not know about?

The unbeliever seeks to hide from God but has nowhere to go (Jer 23:24). The secret sins of men are literally naked and open before God. Before the Fall, man lived with no shame but, immediately after His sin, he tried to run from God and cover himself with leaves. Man, in his fallen condition, is so foolish to think that leaves can protect him from the wrath of God for sin but leaves are not much protection from a strong wind much less the power of Almighty God.

And because all of our thoughts and deeds and sins are naked and open before God, all men will one day have to give account to their Creator. The books will be audited and all the bills, payments, and receipts will be checked. The consciences of men will literally be put on trial.

On that final day, unbelievers will call to the mountains and rocks in Rev 6:16: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!” Everyone will have to give account of himself.

Yes, the fool has said in his heart: “There is no God” because such a thought can bring no comfort to men apart from God’s grace. This Word simply lays bare the failings of men as God said to him: Obey. Man has failed to obey and so the Word is a frightening thing. It is much easier for the unbeliever to be the fool and say to Himself: “There is no God, this is not His Word, and I will not have to give account to it.”

But, you see, that same Word that lays bare and condemns became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word that condemns for sin, became flesh to bear the sins of all who would believe upon Him. The fool says in his heart that there is no God but the redeemed say in their heart that Christ has died for the sins of men on the Cross and risen from the dead for their eternal life.

Therefore, I urge you that a day has been appointed: Today. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. The Word has searched you out and knows you. It knows all your darkest secrets, hidden sins, and faults. It searches out all those things by which you might be condemned but the Word has also revealed Christ and Him crucified. Do not be the fool that denies the authority of the Word, that acts as if God is dumb, that acts as if God cannot see. Submit to the Word and its authority and hear the Good News announced by it for the salvation of your eternal soul.

Let us pray.

Tags Christ, faith, judgment, life, salvation, sin, word

Epistles Scripture

Bear Each Other’s Burdens (Galatians 6)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date February 17, 2008
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Galatians 6

1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5For each will have to bear his own load.

6 One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

17From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

As Paul concludes his Epistle to the Galatians, I want to remind you of the reason for the Epistle one last time and summarize him that we might understand these closing passages. As I noted last time, many want to always jump to the law and the commands. By nature, we love to be told what to do. We want to be told what to do, that is, unless God is the Person telling us what to do. By nature, we like to ignore the perfect holiness of the Law and the need for Christ that is displayed in it and go to men to ask for their lists of do’s and don’ts. That is, of course, until we’re born from above.

In Galatia this had happened. Jewish converts to Christianity, who had begun by trusting in Christ, fell back into the death and curse of the Law by convincing themselves that we start by God saving us through faith and then finish the race by keeping God’s Holy commands so He will bless us. In this case, they told the Galatian believers, who were Gentiles, that they needed to become circumcised and begin performing the deeds of the Law and then God would accept them. Then not only will God accept them but they’ll be in full fellowship with the really holy in the Church: the Jews.

As I promised when we began this series, Paul jumps into the fray ready for battle. The eternal life of his sheep is on the line and these wolves will not have them. He comes in with the sword of the word and devastates the appeal of the Judaizers. He puts to death any notion that a person can find any acceptance before a perfectly Holy God by the keeping of the Law. He demonstrates over and over again that the Law can only bring a curse to men if we are to be judged by our keeping of it. We are surely condemned to hell if we are measured against the Law.

But God, who is rich in mercy, sent His son to live under the demands of the Law. He kept it perfectly and righteously and then, He who knew no sin, became Sin for us. He who did not deserve the curse of God became a Curse for us by hanging on a tree. God turned the hand of His wrath that was ready to strike us and judge us for our sin and He struck and judged the Son on the Cross for our sins.

We are now freed from the condemnation of the Law if we are in Christ. If you trust in the righteousness of Christ then your sin is paid for and the curse is taken away. In its place is the blessing of obedience that Christ accomplished for you. Even more amazing, more unbelievable is the news that we are God’s adopted children. What manner of love is this that we should be called sons of God?

And so, Christian, Paul has reminded you over and over and over again what Christ accomplished on the Cross for you. Stand firm in the freedom that you were set free for. Do not return again to a yoke of slavery. Do not be deceived by those that tell you that God will not accept you or bless you until you prove to him that you are worthy to be blessed. God sent His Son to die for you because you’ll never be worthy on your own. When you start to understand that God set you on your feet to believe in Him when you had nothing to offer Him then you’ll stop looking within and worrying about whether or not you are measuring up. The answer is that you’ll never measure up to what God has done for you in saving you and making you His child. Stop looking within and always look to Christ.

And then, as Paul notes, something glorious occurs. Something changes about the Law. Hebrews 12 expresses this thought beautifully beginning at verse 18: 18For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

You see in Exodus, as the people came to Mount Sinai, the presence of the Lord descended upon the top of the mountain. What the people saw was terrifying: smoke, fire, judgment, and certain death if one so much as touched the mountain. They saw Moses walk up into it and thought he had surely died when he didn’t return after 40 days.

They were terrified of the Law – more specifically, they were terrified of God’s Holy character and that is what the Law represents. It judges, it divides, it sees right through sinful men and convicts of sin. It is meant to drive us to Christ.

But sinful men want nothing of this fear and so they protect themselves by ignoring the Law and changing it into something they can do. Gone is the fear of the Law and gone is the character of a Holy God in it. Now it is “taste not, touch not”. Now is it as simple as “…those who drink alcohol are going to hell….” Now it is as achievable as “…don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t chew, or date women who do.” This is why Paul believed he was blameless before the Law before he had his eyes opened to who God really is. That’s because Paul was a Pharisee and the Pharisees had cheapened the Law: it was no longer the perfect righteousness of God but a list of 600+ regulations achievable by men and they arrogantly convinced themselves they were keeping the Law just like every other religion that thinks they can approach God apart from Christ.

The man of the flesh reduces God’s perfection to a list of do’s and don’ts because he can’t stand the idea that really what all those do’s and don’ts are for in the Law is to point a man to the perfect holiness of God. This is why Jesus in Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, spends so much time criticizing these low views of the Law and makes the Law holy and perfect and impossible again. A person’s view of the Sermon on the Mount says a lot about what they think the Gospel is. If you think that Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, was giving you a list of do’s and don’ts that you can be saved by then you missed the Gospel because what He does in that Sermon is destroy any notion of keeping the Law which is summed up in love God and love neighbor perfectly or you are going to be separated as a goat and cast aside by Him in the final judgment.

But, you see, again it does not end there with our condemnation by the Sermon on the Mount. As we are confronted by the news of our sin it causes us to look to the Cross of Christ for salvation. Something beautiful happens. We are transported from the fear and trembling of Sinai to the heavenly Jerusalem where acceptance is found because Christ has become our righteousness.

The really mind boggling thing here is that the change that really occurs with the Gospel is us. You see, both at Sinai and at the heavenly Jerusalem is the presence of the same perfect and Holy God who never changes. But the reason why we fear the Holy God at Mount Sinai but rejoice at the heavenly Jerusalem is because we are changed by God in order to no longer be afraid. Where God once stood as a Judge at Sinai because we could not keep the Law in the sinful passions of our flesh, He now stands as our Savior and great Reward in the heavenly Jerusalem.

This is why it’s called the new birth. This is why we’re said to be given eyes to see and ears to hear. This is why we’re said to be given new hearts where we had hearts of stone. We have a completely different view of reality now.

And because we have a new heart and new mind, the Law is no longer a minimum set of standards that we think that we can perform to be saved. Instead, we remember that Christ has saved us because He performed it and, out of joy, we turn back to the Law, where we see God’s Holy character, and we begin to delight in it. We meditate on it, we get inside of it, and it is used by us to reveal the remaining sin within us that we might die to sin and live to Christ.

But that Law then is no longer a list of do’s and don’ts for us. Holy living is not expressed in asking any more “What is the list of things I can’t do and what are the things I must do…” any more. Our motivation toward pleasing God isn’t trying to figure out what our minimum is or folding our arms at our Father and saying: “I’m not going to do anything for you until you prove to me that your Word tells me I have to do that.” If that is your attitude then you have not been born again.

Instead, the new birth is expressed in our attitude toward God to say: “I wish to pursue the things that please you all the days of my life because I have been adopted into your family to be made holy alongside my brothers and sisters in the Church.”

And so Paul states in Galatians 6, beginning in verse 1: “ 1Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5For each will have to bear his own load.”

This really reveals whether or not we understand what God has redeemed us for. You see, it starts out by reminding you and me that we were not redeemed to sit around gazing at our belly button all day long. Many of us approach Church as if it is somewhat useful but that real spirituality is found in personal time and us working on building ourselves up. Yeah, we’ll be at Church if there isn’t something more pressing. “If I’m having a bad Sunday,” some reckon, “I’ll just spend quiet time with God because I need to be strengthened and I’ll get more out of quiet time alone than I will with the Church in corporate worship.”

But the Church isn’t all about me. We have been united to Christ to be in the Church to build each other up. Real growth is found especially in the hearing of the Word as we worship together corporately and enter the presence of God. We are supposed to care not merely about how we’re growing individually but about those around us and especially those who are struggling. When we see someone losing sight of the Gospel or forsaking the assembly of Saints and the Word then we should be gently admonishing them to stay near where God’s people meet and where He feeds His flock.

But be careful here, Paul warns. Some of us are very pretentious and assume we are more spiritual than we really are. We believe ourselves immune to the temptation that our brother or sister is in and so we rush in foolishly and can even be entangled in the same sin. We are supposed to enlist other’s aid and make sure we’re all looking out for each other.

I wish I could say that this Church is a model of this but I know it is not. I’ve often found out about many sad stories and broken hearts not because brethren brought a concern to the Church as a family would but because it was being passed around by sinful gossip. Many unfortunately think: “That’s none of their business how I’m doing. I can handle it myself.”

I’m not angry at this. It makes me sad. It breaks my heart. It makes me weep that we have so far to grow in the Gospel before we can begin to expose ourselves to one another because that’s the kind of risk we’re supposed to be willing to take for one another.

And because this is risky stuff to expose our lives, Paul essentially tells us all: “Don’t you dare for one second become proud!” Don’t think for a moment that just because a brother and sister has stopped coming to Church or is discouraged that you are better than they. Don’t think you stand in any place before God where He looks at you and says: “What a good person you are”. Remember that Pharisee whose only prayer was: “Thank you I’m not like that guy over there….” Don’t you dare ever think you stand and are accepted by God because you are well behaved. As long as we keep in front of our eyes that we are no better or no worse than our other brothers and sisters under the Law and that we’re all saved by Christ and will have to give account to one Judge and not to each other, then we’re set free from the burden of putting on masks. We’re free from having to lie to each other with smiles when our week has been horrible and people ask “…are you OK…” and we tell them we’re fine because we think Church is where only smiles belong. Bear each other’s burdens because our hearts should be transformed by Christ to do so. Rejoice with those who rejoice for sure but take the time to weep with those who weep as well.

So we must pursue righteousness and good for one another because that’s the nature of children that are in the one family of God. Paul continues in verse 9: “ 9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Don’t grow weary of your brothers and sisters. Don’t grow weary of pursuing the Cross of Christ and His righteousness. Yes, often sowing back into our flesh is easier. It’s the way of the world and those around us. But we have to be diligent to live lives as if the Gospel has had some sort of effect upon us. We have to live lives that reflect our acceptance and salvation by our Savior. Do not grow weary of serving those in the household of faith for God will supply all the strength you need for the task.

Paul concludes this glorious Epistle with these thoughts: “ 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

17From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. ”

I just want to urge you personally, one last time, not to think for a minute that you are immune from the temptation to go back into dead works. The Christian Church is surrounded on every side by people who call themselves Christian teachers who would put you into the same slavery that the Judaizers were. Get the message of the true Gospel into your bloodstream. Learn to know what it is. Never be allured by the temptation to think that your works add the least bit to your acceptance before God. The only thing that counts is that God sent His Son to become a Curse for everyone who believes. It begins and ends with faith in His work and that begins in you by the new creation that God has wrought in your lives by the preaching of the Word.

You’ll hear it in altar calls that tell you to consider whether or not you’re really dedicating your life as you ought, you’ll hear it from Pentecostals that will tell you that you’re not really blessed until you’ve been baptized in the Holy Spirit, you’ll hear it in people that tell you that you must add a purpose-driven life to it, and you’re going to hear some new twist a year or two from now – yet another version of the Law dressed up to seem like innocent advice on how to live better lives so God will accept you.

But the story is as old as Scripture: you can’t add to the Gospel. It’s all Christ. It’s all His work and we contribute nothing to His work to save us. Even our being made holy by Him is sealed and assured by His finished work. Stand in it and don’t be enslaved to other principles.

And so, with Paul, it is my heart’s desire that you all know and never forget the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you have never experienced peace with God because you’ve never really heard the Gospel then believe upon Christ and stop trusting in yourselves. But, if you have heard it and believed it, then may His grace continue to overflow into your hearts so that you trust in Him, find your joy in Him, and find your strength in Him both now and forevermore. Amen.

Let us pray.

Tags Christ, circumcision, faith, Galatians, Israel, Lord Jesus Christ, love, word

Epistles Scripture

Free to Obey (Galatians 5)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date February 10, 2008
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Galatians 5

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

2Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. 11But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

As we come to the fifth chapter of the book of Galatians, Paul is concluding a defense of the Gospel by faith alone in Jesus Christ. He has poured his heart into this letter to the Churches of Galatia because he is firmly convinced that Christ’s death either purchased salvation for those who have faith or Christ died in vain. The Judaizers are teaching a false Gospel.

If someone were to look in and not understand the Gospel then it would seem that Paul is awfully upset over what seems to be a very small addition to the Gospel. It’s not as if the Judaizers were telling men and women to abandon Christ. In fact, they were telling them that they were the believers who were most serious about following the Christ because they were demonstrating their seriousness by the keeping of the Law and that no man could be saved unless he performed the works that God had laid out in the very law that He gave on stone tablets to Moses.

I know it seems like I’ve been a broken record lately, covering ground and then walking over the same ground again but I have simply been teaching you the Book of Galatians as Paul presented it. Why did he keep repeating himself? Get to the point Paul. Our attitude about things reveals sometimes that we don’t know the deceitfulness of our own hearts. We are too proud to think that we stand and that what happened to the Galatians can’t happen to us. We need to read and re-read and re-read what the Gospel is because the man of flesh that still abides in us, that we should be putting to death, has this strange longing to go back into the Law. In the Law are the basic principles of the world. I can save myself. We don’t want to admit that we’re thinking it but it is a constant pull of our flesh in that direction.

But when the Gospel gets into our bloodstream we can’t get enough of it so I hope some of you have not grown weary of hearing the things that God has done for you in Christ.

You see, what Paul is really telling us is sort of summed up in verse 1 of Chapter 5: 1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

It’s sort of odd to state that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. It’s sort of like saying: “You’ve been set free to be free.”

Well, yeah. That’s what being free means. If I’m set free then I’m free. Duh.

But the dumb one here is not Paul. The foolish one is not Paul for stating the obvious. The foolish people are the Galatians. It’s all of us who have to be reminded to stand firm in the Gospel. We have not been set free so that we can go back to some elementary principles where we become enslaved again to the notion that we can do things that will earn salvation from God. Our eyes need to remain fixed on Christ as the ground of our salvation. The forces of the world, the philosophies of men, will pull our attention away if we let it but we need to fix our eyes on Him.

Paul asks in verse 7: 7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? The idea here is that we’re in the middle of a race. We’re running straight. We have our eyes on the prize and some other guy comes and cuts in on us. He breaks our stride and we lose our focus. Worse, in some cases, we somehow completely forget where the finish line is because somebody cut in on us. Seems crazy but that’s us.

Paul has completely destroyed any notion that man can contribute, even in the least bit, to his salvation. Christ has either become a Curse for us and redeemed us from the threatening and judgment of the Law or the curse still rests upon us if we’re trusting in ourselves. Everything we add to Christ and His sufficiency is worthless. Worse than that, if we aren’t trusting in Christ and Him alone then adding even the least amount of leaven of works, spoils the whole lump and it is another Gospel. It’s not Christ and circumcision, it’s not Christ and a second blessing, it’s not Christ and re-dedicating our lives to Jesus. It’s all Christ – and the benefits of His death and resurrection are laid hold of by faith. Our works add nothing to the perfection of His work.

Paul concludes this section in verse 12: 12I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

Paul is basically saying that, if you’re going to add a little bit to the Gospel and destroy it then you might as well be serious about it. Why just remove the foreskin of the flesh? If you’re going to destroy the Gospel by going back to Moses then be serious like the pagan priests and castrate yourself. Don’t just remove the tip. Go all the way!

Is that shocking enough for you? Does it make the point? I am quite certain that if Paul was preaching today then there would be people telling him that he needed to learn how to be nice. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar Paul. Telling your opponents to castrate themselves is not nice. Telling people that they’re going to hell if they listen to them is mean. Be nice, be tolerant.

It might shock you but, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul uses this language and other expressions that would be like a preacher using a cuss word in the pulpit. He just sort of said one if I said out loud, in a crude way, what Paul just said about his opponents. Telling a man that he might as well castrate himself hits below the belt.

Beloved, this Gospel thing is serious business. I know that this world is not accustomed to taking things seriously like this. I remember a couple of years ago some people who said that the most important thing is Jesus and that arguing about whether or not people were teaching a true Gospel takes the focus off of Jesus. Remember, though, when you hear people saying this that the Judaizers talked about Jesus. They said they were serious about Jesus. But not everybody who claims Christ is of Him. Not every man who claims to teach the Gospel is teaching the true Gospel. There are Churches on this island that teach a false Gospel. Be on your guard and don’t think, for a moment, that this stuff is something you can take for granted. You’ve been set free for freedom. Don’t ever let yourself be enslaved to another Gospel. Get the correct Gospel inside of you. Let it be your meat and drink. Let it pulse through your bloodstream so you can see when men are corrupting the Gospel and you can tell them that you’ve been set free from such principles.

The end of Chapter 5 beginning with verse 13 now transitions to what the response to the Gospel is in our lives. It points to the fruit that the Gospel produces.

Before we get started on this, I want you to notice something very obvious. Paul just spent four and a half Chapters talking about how God saves us in the Gospel and then spends a mere one and a half talking about how we are to live in light of it. Ask yourself this: “Is this the amount of time I’m usually taught about the Gospel?” In other words, how many men today spend a majority of their time talking about the Gospel or are you usually being told, over and over and over again what it is that you must do if you want to be blessed.

Don’t get me wrong: Paul is going to be teaching us about how Christians ought to behave but he does so first by establishing us in the Gospel. The problem today is that men simply receive sermons on the list of do’s and don’ts. They receive Law. Some of you were probably itching for me to just “get on with it” and move off this “boring” stuff about what God has done for us in the Gospel. I sure hope not because you will never, ever understand the motivation for obedience if you have not first heard and believed the Gospel.

If the Gospel is boring news for you and what excites you are “practical” matters then Christianity is not the religion for you. Christianity is, first, last, and foremost about the Gospel – both how it saves men from sin and how that salvation transforms men to live in newness of life. If the Gospel never transforms you then you cannot live a transformed life. Belief in the Gospel comes before any activity. The Prodigal Son had to be accepted into his Father’s house as a son first and then he was able to live as a son does who loves his Father.

Paul states in verse 13: 13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

I read an interesting observation the other day and it’s this: Christianity is like a narrow bridge that crosses two dangerous rivers that converge. On the one side of the bridge is legalism. Men who fall into legalism leave the Gospel and deceive themselves, as the Judaizers did, that they can earn salvation from God’s hand by being serious about His law. They deceive themselves about how serious the law is and also about how righteous they are.

The other river is the river of license. Men who fall off the truth fall often in the opposite direction in thinking that it doesn’t matter what we do. As long as we sign a decision card and say we believe in Jesus then nothing we do matters. Such men have no concern at all for the things of God and see Christ as some sort of fire insurance.

But the freedom that the Gospel provides is freedom to obey. Again, the fleshly ideas of the man who wants a license to sin asks: “What kind of freedom is that? Real freedom is the ability to do anything I want.”

But that’s not what Gospel freedom is. Gospel freedom is freedom from the curse of sin and death. It’s freedom from the wrath of God. We are made alive for a purpose. We are made alive that we might live unto Christ.

Make no mistake yet again. Don’t fall off the bridge back into legalism and think I just gave you a “save yourself by obeying” program. Remember, first, that you are made alive in Christ out of sheer grace. You cling to His feet in faith. As you feel the touch of a Savior where the Judge once stood, and as you hear the loving words of a Father where slavery once reigned, your heart is transformed to desire the things that please your heavenly Father. Your life, your affections, your wants, and your desires ought to be fixed on pleasing God. You are not pleasing God in order to be accepted by Him. NO. That’s the Law. You strive to please God only after you have been accepted by Him. That’s the Gospel: God’s acceptance comes first and then our gratitude and lives of love come second.

This is why Paul states: 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Do you see what changed? The law earlier was said to bring a curse to us because its perfect righteousness condemned us. After we place our trust in Christ we die to the Law and are raised in newness of life. We die on the one side of the Law that condemns us and rise again with Christ on the other side of the law where we see the things that please our heavenly Father. The law, in our immaturity, could only be viewed as “Thou shall or thou shall not” but the law in our maturity, in our newness of life, is “I love the things that my heavenly Father delights in.”

I love working with computers. It’s my hobby. I can sit for hours at a computer screen. But that’s work for some people. It’s slavery to them. It’s law to them. The Ten Commandments are the words of a slavemaster to those in the flesh but to those of us who have been born again, we don’t just stop at not killing men but we uphold and love life. We don’t stop at not coveting a man’s property, we rejoice in what God has blessed our neighbor with. We don’t stop at not lying or gossiping about men but we go out of our way to uphold our neighbor’s good name.

Verse 15: 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Paul is describing what is happening in the Galatian Church. Isn’t it interesting that a Church that is trying to be serious about the Law is marked by people caring only about themselves. It is marked by people gossiping, talking behind people’s backs, taking sides, and literally trying to destroy one another? When you abandon the Gospel for “moral reform” according to good deeds you always get selfishness and destruction because you’re in the way of the flesh and not in the way of the Spirit.

Paul states: 16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

You have not been redeemed to live according to the flesh. You have been redeemed to put to death those things. This is one of the reasons Paul commands us to stand fast in our freedom because moral programs will provide no power to overcome the immorality, idolatry, backbiting, jealousy, division, and other fruits that flow from our sinful human hearts. Religions of self-improvement put a band-aid over the solution by the appearance of righteousness but the inside are dead man’s bones and the stench of the rotten corpse inside the pretty exterior is smelled by all.

Remember, our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all fruits of the Spirit that God has given us. We don’t make the fruit. He does. It begins with the Gospel that transforms our lives and, as we abide in Christ and His work, the fruit flourishes.

And so, Christian, what fruit are you bearing in your life? Is your life marked by deeds of the flesh? Do you care about the things of God? Does the idea of pleasing and worshipping God bring you delight or do you desire other things first?

Yes, I know you and I are falling short but please, after all this, don’t turn this into a program of “…maybe if I start to obey the law then God will bless me….”

No. Stand firm. The work on the Cross is completed. Believe the Gospel and stand free from the curse of sin and death. Be converted by the Gospel that you might desire the things of God so that His law becomes sweet to you because it reflects the character of the One who accepts you and adopts you into His kingdom.

Let us pray.

Tags Christ, Christ Jesus, free, Galatians, liberty, love, works

Epistles Scripture

Sons of the Free Woman (Galatians 4)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date February 2, 2008
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Galatians 4

1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

12 Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, 14and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 15What then has become of the blessing you felt? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. 16Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? 17They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! 20I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

As he continues in the letter to the Churches of Galatia, Paul is defending the purity of the Gospel against Judaizing infiltrators who have convinced many Gentile believers that it is not enough to lay hold of the Cross of Christ and His perfect righteousness but that the deeds of the Law must be added to Christ’s work in order to be found acceptable before God.

He reminded them in Chapter 3 that they began in the Spirit as the Gospel was announced to their hearts and it is foolish of them to think that they will now be perfected in the flesh. He demonstrated to them that the Law announces a curse to all who do not obey it perfectly and that Christ came to become a Curse for us by hanging on a tree for all who have faith. He concluded by reminding that Abraham himself believed the Gospel beforehand and that all of Abraham’s true children and true heirs are those that have faith just like Abraham did.

Paul continues in Galatians 4 by reminding of a human analogy that we all understand. Children, while in a household, are much like slaves. They are under the guardianship and direction of the household and have to obey rules. While they are yet children, they are not in a position to inherit the estate of their parents until their time of maturity comes. This is to remind them of what Paul said the purpose of the Law was in Galatians 3. He builds upon that point in verse 3: 3In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

We all understand that slavery is not a good thing but what many men and women don’t want to acknowledge is that they are enslaved to anything. Especially modern men take pride in the fact that they are their own person and make their own decisions. Especially the religious, those who are convinced they are living lives worthy of God’s favor, recoil at the idea that they are enslaved to any principle. The Pharisees were ready to stone Jesus because He implied they were enslaved. They pointed out that their father was Abraham. Christ rebuked them in John 8 beginning in verse 39: 39They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.

Ephesians 2 states the same truth about man’s bondage to sin: “1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Paul points out to the Galatians that, just like the Pharisees, they were in bondage to these “basic principles” and would certainly have perished if God had not taking the initiative in Christ. Even though both Jew and Gentile were zealous, they were zealous for false righteousness for they pursued it in the strength of their flesh, which is precisely what the principles of this world want to keep us in bondage to.

I have to say that probably the most beautiful words in the Scripture are when Paul finishes pointing out our predicament of condemnation before the throne of God’s judgment but then says the word “but”. We read in verse 4: 4But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

But God…But God. Such a beautiful conjunction the word “but” is when it is attached to what God has done. God interferes with our plan to destroy ourselves. Do you see how it is God’s initiating love? We were lost and enslaved but God sent His Son to be born under the Law, to sacrifice for us, to bear the curse that we deserved, to be perfect righteousness for us by fulfilling the righteousness of the law that we could not perform. What is more remarkable is that we receive adoption as sons. Not merely that God’s wrath is put away by Christ but that, through His work, we place our faith in Him and He gives us the right to be called Sons of God.

Furthermore, Paul adds this: “ 6And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Romans 8 expresses this same idea but the setting of Romans 8 unpacks how profound it is that God sends His Spirit into us with this cry. It is noteworthy that Paul here returns to his native language of Aramaic to literally groan with utter amazement at the ability to call God Father. The Apostle John is simply beside himself in 1 John 5 when he asks: “…what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God?”

It really saddens me that this love expressed by God’s decision to adopt us is often greeted with a yawn by many people today when it should be a source of profound joy and adoration. The reason we don’t marvel at it is that modern theology in the 20 th Century taught men, women, boys, and girls that we’re all God’s children. We consider it our divine right because from the time we were in grade school the world has been preaching the message that everybody is a child of God.

But we just read Scriptures where Christ called some of God’s own chosen people, the Jews, sons of the devil and Paul reminded us that we all once walked according to the principles of this world.

Thus, we are incredibly privileged to receive the right by God to call Him Father. The marvel of this is that we don’t deserve it but that, in Christ Jesus, it has been purchased for all who place their faith in Him.

But it is also incredibly important that we understand why the Spirit cries out with our Spirit that we are sons. We need to understand why it is that our heart must redound with the Gospel and cry out “Abba! Father!” in the midst of this lost and dying world.

You see the reason why we are attracted to performance according to the deeds of the flesh is that, even though we begin in the Gospel very simply, we often become guilt-ridden and feel accused by the enemy for our failings in the flesh after we first believed. After all, did God really save a wretch like me? How can that be when sin is still abiding in me? I do the things I don’t want to do and the things I want to do I don’t do. Who will deliver me from this body of death?!

Christ Jesus. That’s who. Just as at the beginning when we believed and were, by nature, enemies of God, the Cross is ever before us and will ever be the only ground on which we can stand before a Holy God. When we look within to give us assurance of our salvation on the basis of the perfection of our obedience to the Law we will always come up short if we’re honest with ourselves. But when we look to the Cross with tears in our eyes and cry out to God “Who will deliver me from this body of death?! God, I am so unworthy of the grace you’ve shown me! I believe Lord, help my unbelief!” Suddenly, the most beautiful thing happens. Suddenly the most unexpected thing happens. His Spirit comes into our hearts and consolation and strength come to us and we cry out “Abba! Father! Yes Father you have redeemed me to be your son and you don’t cast out those you have placed your favor upon.

I must remind you again of the beauty of the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 because it is very appropriate here and illustrates the picture of our redemption beautifully. Every time I recount this story to myself I am overwhelmed by the profound love that we should be called sons of God.

The younger of two sons walks up to his father one day and asks for his share of the estate. In the economy of the ancient Near East, a family would inherit the sweat and toil of generations and centuries of labor as father passed down property to son and each built a bit more on it. Inheritance was so important to the Jew and Jesus uses this illustration to get their attention. The shocking part of the tale is that this young man, in asking for his inheritance now is telling his father that he wishes him dead!

The father, amazingly, divides his estate early and gives centuries of labor and puts it in the hand of this ungrateful young man. You know the story. The boy squanders this money in a short time by partying with drunkards and prostitutes. He squanders his whole inheritance, centuries of the ancestors’ work, in just a few short weeks. He’s left destitute and so poor that he can only get a job feeding pigs, so hungry that he envies the pigs for the slop they eat. Indeed, the boy is walking according to the principles of the world.

But then he comes to his senses and realizes that his father’s slaves are treated really well. He decides that he had better go home and repent to his father. He understands he doesn’t deserve to be a son anymore so he’ll just ask to be a slave in the house. This was the way of the Jews at the time. The son would be expected to earn back everything he had squandered. It was appropriate to the mind of the listening Pharisees that the young man prove his seriousness by working off his reproach for the rest of his life.

Further, when he returned, he would be expected to wait for days at the edge of town so the townspeople could heap contempt on the boy for dishonoring his father. This was the manner of men when an offense was given in families of the Near East where honor is everything.

But then the most unexpected and embarrassing thing happens. The most graphic and disturbing thing happens in the minds of religious men. The father has long since been looking for the boy and sees the walk of his ragged boy from afar off. Moved by compassion, the father does the most undignified thing you could do in that culture, he RUNS to the boy. He tackles him. He begins to bathe him in his tears of joy and kisses his neck.

But the boy is still convinced that he must complete his plan. He is going to repent to the father and then ask his father if he can be a slave. So he begins: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But the plan ends there. He can’t even finish the thought. He’s about to ask to be made a slave in the Father’s house but the Father squeezes the breath out of the boy and shouts “Bring my best robe! Bring the ring! Bring sandals for his feet! This is MY SON who was dead and is now alive!”

You see the son had squandered his inheritance and brought nothing to his father worthy of acceptance. His plan to please his father with slavery, with showing his father that he was serious about obedience so he could earn acceptance was not the way of salvation. You see, beloved, in God’s Kingdom, there are no slaves, there are only sons!

Can you imagine the son’s reaction to all of this? What? Grace?! What manner of love is this that I should be called your son?! “Abba! Father!” That is what John marveled at. That is what Paul calls the Galatians to remember. He wants believers to remember that they have received the inheritance of sonship from God by earning nothing from His hand. This is what impels a believer to rejoice and then to redound back with love to his Savior for all the wonderful things He has done.

And so Paul asks with renewed wonder in Galatians 4:9 as he asks them: “ 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world” Do you see why Paul keeps expressing amazement that men would forget the life and the inheritance they have in Christ by wanting to go back to the principles that enslaved them? This is what righteousness by the deeds of the law represents – an abandonment of the inheritance given freely in the Gospel.

Paul concludes Galatians 4 with the most insulting thing of all for the Judaizers. He reminds everyone that Abraham had two sons and not one. One was born by natural means. Abraham took Sarah’s maid, Hagar, at her bidding to take matters into his own hands and produce offspring by the strength of the flesh. His name was Ishmael. But God wanted the Promised Seed to come by His power. So He caused a 100 year old man and 99 year old woman to be raised from death into life and gave Sarah the ability to conceive a child – Isaac through whom the promised Seed would come.

Ishmael, remember, was circumcised. But when Isaac was 3 years old, they had a big party to celebrate his weaning and Ishmael mocked the boy. Ishmael was the oldest. Ishmael was the first just like the Judaizers were “older” than the Galatians. Ishmael gloried in being Abraham’s seed just like the Judaizers did.

But the greatest shock is that the child of natural descent has no part in Abraham and is sent away because he has no faith. Those still looking to the Law delivered on Mount Sinai are living again in the Desert of Sin in Arabia outside the land of promised rest. The Judaizers trust in the Law and will not enter the rest. But all of us who trust in Christ are in the New Jerusalem, and have received the promise of rest in Christ. We are Isaac – sons and true heirs by faith.

Friends, God knows your weakness. He knows that men will try to approach Him on their own strength and men with great moral character will become proud in their own status and convince others that trusting in Christ’s righteousness isn’t enough. If you listen to them long enough and look at them long enough, you begin to be convinced of how morally upright they are. You begin to become convinced that they are the free ones – they are the good people – they are the blessed people.

But God reminds you again that those who trust in the deeds done in the flesh for their salvation will come up short on the perfect measure of His righteousness for cursed is every man that does not continue to perform everything written in it. He reminds us that even those that are set apart, like Ishmael, have lost their inheritance when they turn away from the promise inherited by faith and begin looking to performance in the strength of the flesh.

Come to your senses. Remember Christ. He did not die in vain for He knew that only He could accomplish righteousness for His people. You are a child of God saved from the principles of this world. Don’t look back but continue to ever look to the Cross of Christ – the only place where God’s righteousness on our behalf is found – the only place were freedom and the perfect rest in Christ is found.

Let us pray.

Tags Abraham, Christ, free, Galatians, Isaac, love, Sarah, word, works

Epistles Scripture

Abraham Believed the Gospel (Galatians 3)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date January 27, 2008
2 Comments on Abraham Believed the Gospel (Galatians 3)

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Galatians 3

1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” 13Christ 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”— 14so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

21Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

23Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

As we continue in our series through the Book of Galatians we come to Chapter 3. Paul is defending the Gospel of God’s Grace against Jews who have infiltrated the Church and are teaching the Gentiles in Galatia that one must not only believe in Jesus Christ to be saved but must also become circumcised and obey the Law of Moses.

I wonder, these days, if many have become so unconcerned about the Gospel that they don’t really understand why Paul is so upset about this. He’s beside himself wondering why someone would ever be attracted to the teaching of these false brothers when they started out being taught the true Gospel. He asks, in verse 1, “…who bewitched you…?” He doesn’t literally think that there is magic that is compelling the Galatians to believe this but it’s meant to shock them to realize that their turning away from the true Gospel is completely out of character for a Christian.

It struck me yesterday at men’s Bible Study that many of us take for granted that sin and hard-heartedness is always happening to the other guy. We let our guard down to false teaching because we never really think that we’re in danger. It’s really important that we hear what Paul tells the Galatians here: “ 2Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

It seems so obvious, doesn’t it? How could they possibly do this? What would attract them into thinking that their salvation would depend upon and be perfected by works of the Law? Paul points out, clearly, that their salvation (and our salvation) began with the Spirit of God announcing the Good News to our hearts. We heard in the Gospel a message that said to us that we deserve nothing out of the hand of God but condemnation but that the benefits of Christ are held out to us if we simply believe upon what Christ has done for sinners. So, very simply, with nothing to offer God, we fell at the feet of Christ and called out for Him to save us.

But we began this way. The Galatians did too. But then they started hearing these Jewish Christians who were really serious about their Christian walk (or so it seemed to them). These Jewish Christians had it together. They were blessed. They had a purpose. They not only believed in Jesus but they were committed to the Law of Moses to show God that they were really serious about honoring Christ.

It’s not as if the Galatians woke up one day and forgot where they began but, over time they lost sight of where they began. We’re just like them. Our hearts are prone to forget the Gospel. We are prone to forget that God offered salvation freely on the basis of our clinging to Christ and His righteousness. How often, after you’ve sinned, do you return to the Cross of Christ and remind yourself that, in the beginning, God justified you because you trusted in the Cross of Christ? Or, instead, do you tell yourself that God is angry with you right now and that you’ll do better next time and show God that you are really serious about obeying Him? Stop it! God didn’t save you because you’re serious about obeying Him. You are not capable of being serious enough. Only Christ is. Remember where you started. Stay there. Don’t leave the hope you had in Christ then. Yes, Christ matures you. Yes, He is conforming you to His image. But this is all because, just like at the beginning, you are clinging to the Cross. You will never be perfected by any deeds and, when we forget that, we are forgetting the Gospel we heard in the first place. We are forgetting our first love.

We might be tempted to tell ourselves this though: “Well, I guess that must be true for me because I’m so weak. But there were people like Abraham who were strong enough to obey God. I’ll have to just be happy that God saved poor old sinful me but I wish I could have been more like Abraham.” In fact, the Galatians not only wanted to be just like Abraham but they were envious of the Judaizers because they were physical descendants and heirs of Abraham. “Poor old me, I’m just a Gentile Christian. Boo hoo!”

Are you ready for a shock. I’m going to read something that some of you might notice for the first time in your Christian lives. Make sure you have your Bibles ready so you don’t think that I’m making this stuff up. Verse 6 completes a thought that began before about the fact that we are perfected by the Spirit just as at the first. Guess what verse 6 says? Abraham was saved the exact same way as we are! “— 6just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? 7Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”

Why was Abraham accounted as righteous? Because of his faith and not his works. Who are the real sons of Abraham? Those who have faith just like Abraham did. Hold on to your seats for this next bit. What did Abraham believe in? The Gospel! That’s right the Scripture foresaw that God would justify us by faith and preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham. Abraham believed the Gospel! Christ stated that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced and the Pharisees wanted to stone Him. I wonder, though, if some of you are still doubting that Abraham was saved by Christ. How can that be? Christ hadn’t even been born yet. True, but God had promised Christ and God’s promises are yes and amen. Abraham believed the Gospel because God had promised the work of Christ to Him. Abraham believed afar off but we have the blessing of living on the other side of the Cross and the revelation of the Christ. And, to make it even sweeter, Paul proclaims to the Galatians: “YOU are Abraham’s heir because you believe just like he did. Take THAT you Judaizers! You’re not even an heir. Real heirs believe in Jesus and it doesn’t matter whose father is on their birth certificate!”

Furthermore, Paul adds: “ 10For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Do you remember this? Why do the Galatians and why do we keep going to the Law and telling God that we’re going to perform for Him so that He’ll accept us? The Law tells us that a person is cursed if a man does not keep it completely and perfectly. There is no hope there. There is no good news. This is the good news found in Christ: “ 13Christ 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” He who knew know sin actually became Sin for us. He took the curse for all of our lawbreaking and sacrificed Himself to take away the curse that separated us from God. The curse was taken away in verse 14: “ 14so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

This idea of promise is very important here. It keeps being said over and over that we receive the promise or that we inherit the promise or to believe the promise. This is so important because the promise that was made to Abraham was made by God to Him and it was not made by God with any conditions of obedience on Abraham’s part. In other words, God told Abraham He would bless Him and Abraham believed it but no additional conditions were added to that promise. It was a gracious promise of blessing. Paul points out an important truth. Please try to listen very carefully because Paul is going to basically say that God cannot break His word to Abraham: “ 15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.”

What Paul is saying is that if you and I make an agreement together and sign a piece of paper, we’re bound to that agreement. I can’t take that paper later on and add something to it and hold you to that promise. You didn’t sign for that promise. I also can’t take away something I don’t like. You didn’t sign that promise. Paul is saying that God promised to bless Abraham and his seed and the seed was Christ. He was giving Abraham a promise of salvation by Christ and His righteousness. The Law came hundreds of years after this promise was made to Abraham’s descendants. The Law could not be added to the promise or God would be breaking His word. In other words, the Law could not possibly be for salvation the way the Judaizers are teaching the Galatians because that would mean that God broke His word and, beloved, you might break your word and I might break my word but God never, ever, ever breaks His word. He sword to Abraham that He would be torn asunder before He ever broke the promise to bless Abraham and the world with salvation by faith in Christ.

It’s sort of an obvious question then: why would God add all these rules and regulations if they are not meant to save us? It seems to me like God is saying to keep them in order to be saved. If He never intended to save men and women by them then why did He punish them for not obeying them? It almost seems like the Law is against the Gospel itself. Paul anticipates this: “ 21Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”

The Law was actually added for a gracious purpose. It was given to hold forth and demonstrate the perfect righteousness of God. By doing this it was meant to show how Holy God is and how sinful we are. We were supposed to come to the Law and see in it our very real need for Christ. It was a guardian to conduct us to Christ, a sign to point us to Christ, a schoolmaster to teach us of our need for Christ. We were meant to feel imprisoned by it, caught up by it, bogged down by it so that we would cry out: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?!” Paul even notes that if a law could be given that would lead to righteousness then righteousness would be by the Law but the Law itself proves that righteousness by the Law is impossible – except through Christ.

Right before you believed the Gospel, did you not feel the prison of the Law? Did you not sense its judgment? Did you not feel the need to escape the wrath that you knew you needed to escape? Praise God! Do you remember as the Gospel burst forth and said to you that Christ took that curse away, that Christ had fulfilled its righteous demand? Were not our hearts burning within us as we said: “Thank you Jesus! I believe. What Good News! I believe because I have no other hope. You alone have words of eternal life.”

Verse 25: “ 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The time of immaturity is over. The time for our guardian is past. The time of the judgment of the Law is over for those of us in Christ. Why would anyone ever want to go back into the prison of the Law? Why would anyone go back into the curse of the Law? Do you understand why Paul is asking if they’ve been bewitched? What utter foolishness to turn away from Christ and back into the deeds of the Law.

What could ever possess someone to think this is a good idea? So he can be a Jew? So he can be a better Christian because he’s a Jew? There’s no distinction. Jews are saved by Christ just like Gentiles. So are all men. So are all women. So are all slaves and so are all free men. All are saved by the same Lord. All are saved by the same perfect work. All are united to Christ in the same way: by faith, by laying hold of His feet and trusting in His righteousness and not our own.

As Paul stated, so he reminds them again: “ 29And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Christian, you have everything you could possibly ever ask for from God’s hand and it has been given to you freely. You’ve been given an inheritance you didn’t deserve. You lay hold of it simply by trusting in Christ and what He has done. You begin that way and you will finish to the end that way. You don’t begin by trusting in Christ and then change to a new stage where you begin to trust in the works and actions that you’re doing to please God so that He’ll bless you.

Stop believing the illusion that your dedication to God is what saves you. You are not saved by the purity of your works or even the perfection of your faith but your salvation rests on your trust in Christ’s work alone. Whoever bewitched you into looking within and convincing yourself that God is saving you on the basis of your behavior lied to you. The Gospel tells you to stop looking within for your salvation and to look to the Cross. That’s where your righteousness is, that’s where the curse of the Law was nailed. That is what will transform your thoughts and renew your minds. That is what will provide the fruit of love toward your neighbor. That, beloved, is the only hope you must have now and forevermore.

Let us pray.

Tags Abraham, Christ, Christ Jesus, faith, Galatians, gospel, hearing, works

Epistles Scripture

Justified by Faith (Galatians 2)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date January 20, 2008
No Comments on Justified by Faith (Galatians 2)

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Galatians 2

2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. 3 But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

We’re continuing in our study through the Book of Galatians and come to Chapter 2. As a reminder, Paul is defending the Gospel of Grace against what he calls false brothers or troublemakers who have come to the Churches of Galatia to convince them that, in order to be saved, the Gentiles must not only believe in Jesus Christ but also must become circumcised and keep the Law of Moses. We learned last week that Paul not only calls this another Gospel but he condemns it as no Gospel at all and that he eternally condemned any man or angel that taught a Gospel contrary to the Gospel taught by Paul and the Apostles.

As we learned, this was not merely Paul’s Gospel but it was the Gospel that was taught by all of the Apostles. The Judaizers had been spreading rumors that Paul’s apostleship was not only inferior to the “pillars of the Church” – Peter, James, and John – but that he was teaching a Gospel contrary to theirs. The false teachers were dropping the names of these “pillars” to lend authority to their false doctrines.

As Paul continues in Galatians 2, he picks up where he left off in telling the “real story” of his Apostleship. He had taught as an Apostle for many years and then after seeing Peter only once before, he journeys to Jerusalem again after fourteen years and even brings a Gentile named Titus with him. When Paul and the other Apostles spoke to one another, they shared the exact same Gospel in common – salvation in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone. It became immediately apparent to all the Apostles that Paul had received a commission directly from Jesus Christ to be the Apostle to the Gentiles even as Peter was the Apostle to the Jews. By this it means that Paul was the prime worker or the one whose teaching would establish the Gospel among the Gentiles even though other Apostles would also work among the Gentiles (and Peter had been the first to preach among them in Cornelius’ house). Paul brought Titus into the presence and fellowship of the Apostles and didn’t suggest, for a moment, that Titus be circumcised. It was only the Judaizers in the Jerusalem Church that ever suggested this thing.

You need to note Paul’s firm resolve in this: “ 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. ” What fellowship does light have with darkness? None. You see, Paul could not permit, even for a moment, the idea that Titus was even just a little less united to Christ in His death and resurrection because of his uncircumcision. He had the same Spirit, the same Baptism, the same Lord and Savior. To add works to the Gospel is to destroy the grace of the Gospel. It is to destroy the necessity of the Cross and the necessity of Christ.

But notice, also, how Paul also criticizes the attitude that the Judaizers had about his apostleship and that he is less important than the others. Christ is the one who had given Paul his apostleship. It was good that Peter and James and John recognized Christ’s commission of Paul but they added no authority to his work by agreeing with it. Paul’s authority had come from God and God is no respecter of persons. Paul’s words have authority for us because He is the spokesperson for Christ through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

In order to shock the Galatians out of their respect for the Judaizers he has to take a drastic step here and show that even someone as respectable as Peter was not perfect and that Paul himself had to rebuke him for a huge sin in front of the whole Church. I’m not sure many of you realize how ugly this episode really was and why Paul had to embarrass Peter in front of the whole Church. The fact of the matter was, though, that it was a very public sin and public sin has to be rebuked publicly or it can cause massive destruction.

Peter visited the Church at Antioch where Paul and Barnabas ministered and led the Church. Peter was eating with and having fellowship with the Gentile believers there until, one day, Judaizers from the Church at Jerusalem arrived. These love feasts were fellowship times in the early Church and it seems that the Lord’s Supper might even have been celebrated during these times. To participate in a love feast together was like saying: “We’re all part of one another – you and I have the same savior in Christ and are all adopted by the same Father.” Members would greet each other with a holy kiss of the affection that we’re supposed to share in Christ Jesus.

But then the Judaizers came along and Peter was afraid of their disapproval and so he withdrew from the Gentile believers. His hypocrisy was so great that he even tempted the great encourager, Barnabas, to withdraw from the Gentiles that he had labored among and loved.

Now, imagine for a moment that some men have come along that were saying that you have to believe in Jesus and be circumcised in order to be saved. You’re a Gentile that has been hanging out with the mighty Peter – he walked with Jesus and was a pillar in the Church. You see him withdraw from you and you see the great encourager, Barnabas, recoil from you as well. Don’t you think you’d begin to say to yourself: “Maybe if I was circumcised too then I could be like them. Maybe I’m not really serious enough about Jesus. I believe in him but, if I become circumcised like them, then I’ll really have fellowship with all of God’s saints. I have fellowship with the Gentile believers now but I want fellowship with Peter and Barnabas too….”

No! No! No! A thousand time No! This breaks my heart to think of what Peter did and I know, for a fact, that he appreciated Paul for rebuking him here. He had promised Christ three times that he would feed His lambs and care for His sheep and here he was, by his very actions, tearing down their faith!

Paul did the only thing that a man who loves Christ and loves the brethren would do. He openly rebuked Peter for his sin. Had he not done so then he might have caused some of the Gentiles to forsake Christ for they would have been forsaking the surety of their salvation that is built on nothing more than faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul uses this episode to remind Peter, all the brethren there, and us of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: “, I said to Cephas before them all, 14’If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’ 15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Peter knew this all too well. He knew that Christ had not come to round out the Law or to simply show us how to obey so that we could obey the Law like Him. This truth is expanded upon and repeated in Romans 3. Paul demonstrates, conclusively, that the keeping of the Law for salvation is impossible. Nobody, no one, not a person, not a soul has ever, is now, or will be justified by the Law. What does this mean? This means that, before God, we can never earn a reward from His hand by doing good, by obeying His word. If we stand on our own strength, before the Law, the only thing we can earn from Him is condemnation because the Law brings a curse to transgressors of the Law. You don’t get graded on a curve before God. You’re either perfect in keeping the Law or you are condemned as a lawbreaker. Peter, like James, like John, and like Paul were all saved by somebody else’s righteousness. They were saved by Christ’s righteousness. They were saved by His blood on the Cross and they were saved by His obedience to the Law. They were saved by faith in His work.

Hear me again though. They were not saved by faith but they were saved by faith in Christ’s work. Their faith was directed at something that had been accomplished by Christ. You see the truth is that we are saved by works but they are not our works but Christ’s perfect work accomplished for us by His life, death, and resurrection. Our faith is as a beggar coming with nothing in our hand and saying to Christ that we know we deserve nothing but are simply relying on the promise that Christ will save all who put their trust in His finished work.

Inevitably, when somebody starts preaching the Gospel clearly, without the addition of human works, a charge always arises from people that want to object and say that God does His part but we have to add our part to be saved: “17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?” Do you understand what the objector to Paul is saying in verse 17 that he’s about to answer? People always want to say that God cannot call a person righteous unless they are really righteous. Some call this a “legal fiction” when we preach the true Gospel that Christ justifies the un-Godly.

You see the Gospel is not that God is saving you because you are righteous and good. No. Christ justifies the un-Godly. He justifies not because all sin has left you but because that sin has been paid for in Christ. Some say the difference between Christians and non-Christians is that Christians are transformed so that sin no longer abides in them but the Gospel says that we are both justified by God and still sinners. We cling to the Cross in faith and are saved by the Cross but we are saved while sin still remains in us. We are not saved, in the end, by God looking at how much good we’ve filled up in our heart or how much we’ve done for God’s Kingdom but are saved by falling at the feet of Christ to save us.

How can God do this? Because Christ has taken away the reproach of our sin. Because we are covered by Christ. Yes, we are being transformed by Christ. Yes He is putting to death the body of sin that remains but God is pleased to save you even though He knows what a wretched sinner you are. He is pleased to save you even though He knows you don’t deserve it. That’s right – you don’t deserve to be saved. That’s the Gospel – that God saves those who don’t deserve it! Stop trying to earn your salvation because in trying to earn it you’re not trusting in Christ’s righteousness that is alone the ground for your salvation.

Paul makes it very clear, though, that we aren’t just saved so that we can be covered by Christ and then sin all we want because we’ve got a “Get out of Hell Free” card. Absolutely not! As Paul says: “19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

This is the profound truth that those who do not pursue the Gospel of Christ by faith will never understand. The truth of the matter is that if you don’t cling to Christ by faith because you cannot keep the Law then you are not pursuing righteousness at all.

What are you saying Paul? Don’t you see the Jews trying really hard to be good people? Don’t you see them with the phylacteries on their foreheads with the list of all the commands of God? Don’t you see them attempting to obey every jot and tittle of God’s Law line by line?

Of course he knew that! He used to be one of them. But he concludes they aren’t pursuing righteousness at all because they’re trying to obey a sham. They’re obeying a fake. They’re obeying what they think the Law says. They’re obeying a list that is doable by man. But the Law of God is perfect and it condemns a man, it curses a man the very moment he breaks even the smallest part of it. Man isn’t content to believe this though so he lowers the bar to something he can do and then tells himself that God is pleased with this lower standard. After all, he’s a better person than his neighbor who doesn’t tithe his mint and cumin.

But the man who has been awakened by the Gospel sees the Law for what it is. He sees in it the perfect righteousness of God and it brings about the terror of judgment: “I can’t possibly be perfect. I can’t possibly obey with all my heart, soul, and mind.” The Law condemns us and makes us cry out: “Jesus, save me! Jesus, I know I’m condemned. Jesus, I know only you fulfilled the perfect righteousness of the Law!”

By laying hold of Christ’s feet in faith, the Christian is the only one on this earth that pursues righteousness because He is laying hold of the only One that could ever obey perfectly. The legalists of this world with all their “taste not and touch not” have all the appearance of righteousness but they are stone cold dead and are rotting flesh on the inside.

But the man who lays hold of Christ dies to the Law in Christ and is raised up in newness of life with Him. It is only after we have been freed from the burden and condemnation of the Law that we turn to our Savior and have new eyes to see Him no longer as the Judge but as our Righteousness and our very great Reward. We are now freed to obey out of love and out of gratitude for inheriting all righteousness. It is only with renewed hearts and minds that we begin to actually pursue the end of the Law which is love for each other that is an answer to the love that Christ has lavished upon us.

Indeed, as Paul notes very clearly, if we could have pursued righteousness at all apart from Christ then Christ died in vain. If all it took was for you and me to try harder at obeying the rules then Christ didn’t need to come. In fact, if God saves those who obey the best, if God justifies those who have earned it by their works, then Christ didn’t need to come for that. We didn’t need Christ to show us that God was serious about obedience. We needed Christ because we couldn’t be obedient. We needed Christ because by the deeds of the Law no flesh would ever be justified.

Are you convinced of this? Do you trust in the righteousness of Christ to save you? Do you seriously believe that God saves you not for anything He sees in you but only because you have fallen at the feet of Christ as a beggar?

Or are you holding on to the illusion that really the reason God saved you is because you’re better than the person across the street? Are you holding on to the illusion that God is weighing your good deeds against your bad deeds and sees that you’re doing your best? Are you holding on to the illusion that you dedicated yourself to God and that He’s only going to bless you as long as you continue to show Him how serious you are?

Rest Christian, rest. Take off the yoke of the Law and run to the Cross. Christ has accomplished all righteousness. Stop listening to the Judaizers of this world telling you that you aren’t going to be blessed until you sweat for God. Stop listening to their lies about grades of Christians. Look only to the Cross of Christ and what He accomplished perfectly in His life, death, and resurrection. Christ is present before you. Cry out to Him and say: “I am a lawbreaker and I deserve nothing from your Hand but I believe that You have accomplished all righteousness.”

Pursue Christ. Don’t let go of His feet until He blesses you. Believe the Gospel. Believe it and be saved!

Let us pray.

Tags Christ, faith, Galatians, gospel, Jesus Christ, Peter, salvation, sin, works

Epistles Scripture

Anathema…Anathema! (Galatians 1)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date January 13, 2008
No Comments on Anathema…Anathema! (Galatians 1)

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Galatians 1

1Paul, an apostle— not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 10For 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[b] of Christ. 11For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.

For the next several weeks, we will be covering the Book of Galatians. Martin Luther, the man who started the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th Century, called this his favorite book of the Bible. In it, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so clearly portrayed and explained that it is one of my favorite Books as well.

We live in a society today that considers truth claims about religion to be a personal matter. A pastor was once telling a woman about Christ and the need to repent of her sins and she replied: “Well, that’s good that you believe in God and Jesus. If He helps you then that’s good that it’s true for you but I don’t really need God to make me happy and He’s not true for me.”

Imagine, for a moment, that I ran into someone who didn’t believe in the State of California. What if I told him that I actually owned a house there and worked and lived there for several years? What if he replied: “Well, it’s good that you believe in a State of California but I don’t need to believe in California. California is true for you but not for me….”

A true thing is true whether or not I believe it. The Gospel, which testifies of the work of Christ, is either true or it is not. In Galatians, it is the very Gospel of Christ at stake and the Apostle Paul really cares about whether or not his readers believe the Gospel or not. If it’s not true, then who cares?

The funny thing is that most of us, when we think of a Church with problems will immediately think of all the bad behavior we find in First Corinthians: men living in adultery, disorder in the Church, and selfishness running rampant. But it is the Book of Galatians that Paul comes down with the hardest hammer. He expresses confusion, anger and wonder about what people believe. You see, to the Scriptures, what is primary, what comes first, is that we believe the Gospel and then our actions follow. It’s not that how we behave is not important but behavior is a fruit of what God has done. Paul is about to teach, in fact, that attempts at good behavior will utterly fail if we do not believe what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

What was going on in the Churches of Galatia that caused this letter to be written?

The problem is commonly called the Judaizing heresy and is quickly summarized by quoting Acts 15:1.

1 some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

You need to remember that the first Christians were Jews that had embraced the Messiah. The Church first spread around Jerusalem and Judea before it spread to Samaria and to the Gentiles. Many former Pharisees had believed in Jesus because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead and knew the Scriptures well. Many of them, however, were never really converted and did not properly understand what the Gospel was all about.

Remember, when Peter went to Cornelius’ house in Acts, he had to be prodded repeatedly by God to enter a Gentile home. When he finally did and preached the Gospel, the Spirit came upon Cornelius and his household and they believed. When Peter returned from this visit, many of the Jews were challenging Peter and asking him why he had gone to the home of a Gentile. Peter defends himself in front of the Church at Jerusalem and ends his explanation beginning in Acts 11:15

15As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

It is very telling in this episode that Peter and the Church understand that the Gentiles are truly of the Church and just like them. They have not been circumcised but, instead, they have received the same gift: the Holy Spirit. They believed in Jesus Christ, just like the Jews, and God shows there is no unclean people group by placing His Holy Spirit within uncircumcised men.

But some of the Jewish believers were not content to let God decide who He had really accepted. They taught, as we already noted, that a person could not be saved unless he believed in Jesus Christ and he became circumcised. It is that small word AND that causes the problem because now what is happening is that something is being added to the Gospel of Grace. It is Christ AND something else.

But it wasn’t merely that men had to have surgery performed on them to become physically circumcised. We will learn that what the Judaizers were saying is that: “You need to believe in Jesus Christ and then live a life of obedience to the Law of Moses in order to be saved.” Another way of saying this is: “Believe in Jesus and then show Him that you’re serious about believing in Him or you won’t be saved.” It’s a message of believing and then behaving in order to be saved.

Now, because Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles and the Gentiles were outside of Jerusalem and Judea, Paul had to deal with most of these troublemakers.

You’ll also notice some things that characterize Paul’s defense of the Gospel in Galatians – some of them we already read and you might have wondered why he’s dropping names and emphasizing that he’s an Apostle. These are responses to charges that are coming from the false teachers – the Judaizers. If you want to tear down another’s work then one way of attacking it is by attacking the person – it’s called mudslinging in politics. There were apparently charges that Paul wasn’t really an Apostle. There were charges that he was teaching differently than Peter, James, and John. There were charges that his teaching was not only different but less authoritative than theirs. There were charges that Paul had once taught the true Gospel but had changed it in order to be a “man pleaser” because circumcision and the Law would be too hard for Gentiles. Paul clearly demonstrates that all of these charges are absolutely false.

This letter from the Galatians opens with storm clouds on the horizon. Normally, these ancient letters would take a long form of introduction with greetings and introductions. Paul has a very short greeting before the clouds fully form and the storm is upon the Galatian Church. Paul is all business. But before he gets to business, he does take a moment to introduce what believers are supposed to be about: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

This is what Paul will be defending and reinforcing. He is going to take the enemies of this idea, examine their arguments, and then kill their idea. He’s going take that dead idea, and in case we still thought adding to the Gospel was a good one, he’s going to beat the idea to a pulp. He’s then going to take that idea that’s been beaten to a pulp and is going to grind it into tiny bits. At the end of Galatians, it is my prayer that you will have no desire left within you to ever question what the true Gospel is. It is my prayer that you will have no desire to add to the Gospel. At the end of Galatians, I hope you are left in wonder at how glorious the true Gospel is and how wicked false gospels are.

Notice, though, in verses 3-5 how it is God our Father and Jesus Christ that is praised for saving us. Christ gave Himself for our sins to save us. It is God working. It is God doing. It is God saving. That’s the Gospel. But man always wants to interrupt God and say: “But let me show you why you should save me!” He’s not content to let God save Him, he wants to contribute.

So Paul continues: 6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

The storm is upon us. Paul is literally shocked that the Church is so quickly deserting God. How is the Church deserting God? By not giving to the poor? By not being nice? By not acting properly? No, they are deserting God because they are leaving the grace that God has given them by turning to a different gospel. They are literally turning to different “news”, different “truth”.

Chill out Paul! As long as they’re sincere, can’t we just say that it’s a gospel for them? Can’t you just hear the world telling Paul to quit being so close-minded?

No! Paul says there is no other gospel! This false gospel is no gospel at all! These men are are distorting the only gospel that there really is and that is the gospel of Christ.

Now, I want to warn you that Paul is about to commit the only sin that you can possibly commit in a world that doesn’t believe in sin. He is about to be close-minded. He is about to be intolerant. If you ate a large breakfast today then I don’t want you to become sick as we listen to Paul use the most shocking words: 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

The word here is literally anathema. Let the angel or any man that teaches you a false Gospel be eternally condemned to hell. I do hope you’re beginning to sense how serious it is that the true Gospel be taught. But Paul is not satisfied with saying it once. I’ve taught you guys this before. If I want to emphasize something in the English I might underline it or put it in bold print. The Jews, when they wanted to make sure you knew they were serious, would repeat something. Paul is dead serious and so he says: “9As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”

Is it any wonder that James warns men that not all should be teachers because they will be held in stricter judgment? Beloved, I hope you realize how seriously I take the Word of God and that that very same curse rests upon me today if I preach to you a false Gospel. We live by sight so much that we don’t take stock of the power and holiness of God that exists beyond our sight. I believe in God and so I’m trying to convey to you how serious this is. It is good that we live in societies that permit us to worship without the government interfering but please never believe, even for a moment, that God is pleased with all worship and with every gospel. The state doesn’t judge what is right and we don’t judge what is right but all things will be brought under the judgment of God and the very worst judgment, throughout the Scriptures, is upon those that corrupt the gospel.

Why? Because in your presence today I am supposed to be giving you words of life. We have all been created in Adam and, apart from God saving us, we are all running to hell as fast as our legs can carry us. Apart from God, we would be content to worship Him falsely and be condemned in our sins for doing so. But God sent His Son, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins. He was despised and rejected of men and lived a life of sorrow. We didn’t deserve a single day of the life that He lived among men. He came to save us from our sins and mankind spit in His face and put Him to death as a blasphemer. The night before He died, He prayed to God to learn if there was any way other than the Cross to save men from their sins.

Now, I’m sorry but I just can’t please men at this point. Today, men would say: “Sure there’s another way Jesus! As long as someone is sincere then it doesn’t matter what they believe.” Such men spit in my Savior’s face because on that night He prayed with such distress at the thought of facing God’s wrath for His people’s sins that drops of blood poured out of Him like sweat. The Father answered and said: “There is no other way! Your death is the only thing that will take away the sin of men!”

And so He went to the punishment that I deserve and that you deserve and He took all of God’s hot, holy wrath upon Himself so we don’t have to be eternally condemned.

Do you believe this? Do you really? Are you willing to stand with Paul against those who teach a false Gospel? Are you willing to stand against a false Gospel and receive the disapproval of men who look at you strangely in this world because believing in absolutes is so close-minded?

Is Christ the only hope, the only chance you have or do you have other options as long as you’re sincere?

Tags Christ, Galatians, glory, gospel, Holy Spirit, life, Lord Jesus Christ

Epistles Scripture

Contend for the Faith! (Jude)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date December 17, 2007
No Comments on Contend for the Faith! (Jude)

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Jude 1-25

1 Jude, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James,To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 4For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5 Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. 6And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, 7just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. 8. Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties.

9 But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. 11Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. 12These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.

14 It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, 15to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” 16These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.

17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, 18that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 19These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

As we come near the end of the year, we arrive at the second to the last book of the Bible, the Epistle of Jude. Jude identifies himself as the brother of James at the beginning of the Epistle. Like his brother James, Jude is not proud in the flesh. He identifies himself as a bondservant of Jesus Christ when, in fact, he could have identified himself as the earthly brother of Jesus.

Jude greets us and reminds us that God has called us out of a world of sin and will keep us until the day that all creation longs for: the revelation of the sons of God when Christ returns in glory. In the meantime, however, he writes a very ominous warning: “ 3Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

Notice that he starts out saying that he planned on writing a letter to encourage everyone about the common salvation that they all share but then something has alarmed him. Something has him greatly concerned. He is so concerned that he has to warn the readers that they need to “…contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.”

I’m not sure you really can feel the sense of what he means when he’s telling us to contend earnestly for the faith. In boxing, the person trying to capture the belt from the champion is called the contender. The idea is that we literally have to fight for the faith. That we are supposed to be humble and tender-hearted toward one another is very clear from the Scriptures but just as clear is how we are supposed to fight for the faith and, especially, to protect the flock of God. Paul, when talking about the Christian life, uses regular military and sports analogies. He compares the Christian life to training for battle, putting on armor, fighting the good fight, running the race, and disciplining the body. Why? Because what we’re about here is extremely dangerous stuff. We, who are in the military, train to steel our bodies and minds because warfare is very dangerous to the body. Christian, you need to be aware that you are in the middle of a spiritual battle and, everywhere around you, are people whose eternal souls are in peril. It’s one thing to have your body destroyed but, worse yet, to have your soul destroyed. This is serious, serious stuff.

Now, there are some people that believe I’m wound too tight about certain things. There is some truth to that. Sometimes I’m not as gentle and humble in heart as I should be. Yet, I fear, that I take Christianity so seriously only seems strange in light of a culture that does not take spiritual things seriously at all. When you read Jude or Peter or James or John or Paul or Jesus, you can’t help take things seriously if you take them seriously. Do you know who preached about Hell more than anyone in the entire Scriptures? It’s not an Old Testament prophet. It’s not even an Apostle. It is Jesus, the Son of God, Himself. He obviously knew better than all how serious God is and how much spiritual battle has to be given; for He had come to do battle to the death.

Jude, however, doesn’t tell us to just contend for faith in general. He didn’t tell us to contend for the faith of the Mormon or the Jehovah’s Witness or the Muslim. He commanded us to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints. Paul identifies the Gospel as “…the righteousness of God is revealed faith to faith….” The New Testament reveals, over and over, that men have only ever been justified before God by faith and men will only ever be justified before God by faith. Once for all literally means that faith in Christ has been, is, and always will be the way in which wicked men can be cleansed from their sins and be able to stand before a Holy God.

Why would we have to fight for such a truth? Because even though there should be nothing shameful to us about the fact that God has sent His Son into the world to die for the sins of everyone who believes in Him, the world does not love that news and is ashamed of it. As we discussed last week, the world does not know Him. It does not know the Love of God. That also means that when we are contending for the faith, we are contending for the Love of God. We are contending for the truth that only Christ saves from sin.

The world hates that idea. It says it is unloving. It says it is intolerant. We start to hear the world’s song and we begin to waiver. Maybe claiming Jesus as the only way isn’t loving, maybe tolerance is the key…. No. Jude tells us to contend, to fight for the faith.

What makes matters worse, as Jude continues, is that there are deceivers who have crept into the Church. He reminds us all that we have been warned that such men have always existed and will always exist among us. He reminds us of the stories of Cain, Balaam, Korah, Sodom & Gomorrah. He reminds us of the people who were delivered out of Egypt with great power; who had seen a lamb slain and put blood over the doorposts so the wrath of God passed over them. In spite of seeing God’s power and hearing His promise to save all who trusted in the blood of the lamb, many died in the desert in unbelief. Throughout the history of God’s people, all saw the same wonders and tasted the same heavenly gift but then men like Korah would lead many astray.

As we mentioned previously, men like Korah don’t seem evil. To their followers, it appears that God is on their side. “We’re all following the same God anyway,” I’m sure they thought to themselves, “why can’t Korah lead? Why does Moses get to hog the power?” So Moses stepped away humbly and warned everyone else to move away as well. All who listened to Moses were saved but those who left the Truth and stood next to Korah were swallowed up by the ground.

This happens so often in the Scriptures that we read it and we think: “Oh, I’d never side with Korah” or “I’d never have sided with all of Israel against Joshua and Caleb” or “I’d never have rejected Jeremiah’s prophecy” but many of us don’t realize that it wasn’t so obvious to the people who died in sin. It was just common sense after all.

Jude calls such false teachers: “…clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever….” They look like just like regular clouds but they don’t bring any rain to relieve the dry and parched ground of men’s souls. Christ asked: “Is anyone thirsty” for He satisfies the thirst of men’s hearts but these men are simply empty clouds. Men chase after these false teachers, these moving clouds, waiting to be satisfied but they die of thirst. Have you ever noticed that every 3 years a new “Christian” bestseller comes out with the latest prayer formula or purpose formula or best life formula? These books are clouds without rain and they blow with the winds of the world’s culture.

These men also look like regular Christians – they look like every other tree except they are not rooted in Christ and they bear no fruit. They also seem to be stars bringing light into the darkness. They seem to be bearing truth. The truth is that they are not fixed in the heavens like stars useful to find your way. The traveler navigating by such a star will follow it foolishly not knowing it is leading him nowhere. They are unreliable guides for life.

But I hope for better things for you, things that accompany the salvation that was purchased for you by Christ: “ 20But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22And have mercy on some, who are doubting; 23save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

Build yourselves up in the holy faith that has been revealed in the Word. Remember that the Word is fixed and the faith has been delivered once and for all. Learn it. Take comfort from it. Build yourselves up by it. Build each other up by it. Keep yourselves in the love of God.

And what is the love of God? Remember John. Not that we loved Him but that He loved us and sent His one and only Son to live for us and to die for us and to pay the penalty for sin that we deserved. Be established in the truth that God will only accept those that are found in His Son. Remember that you bring nothing in your hands to God but sin and, in the acknowledgment of sin and shame, you have the Cross of Christ to lay hold of by faith and say: “Christ, you are my only hope in this life.” Fight for it. Fight for it. Fight for it! You have no hope if you give that up even when men around you are trying to tell you that to hold on to Christ alone is to be close-minded. Hold on to the perfect Love of Christ even when men around you are tempting you to turn aside to the love of the world.

And remember your brothers and sister around you. Have mercy on those who are weak among us. Have mercy on those who are doubting. Are they weak in the faith and listening to the wrong people? Are they tempted to turn aside from the truth? Gently bring them to the Word and show them the perfect and only Way. Save them from the fire for that is all the false teachers have to offer and that is the sure reward for those that lead Christ’s sheep away. Protect the weak from such wolves. Put on your armor and, even as you are gentle toward the sheep, you stand up to false teachers and say: “You can’t have this one. This one is of us! This one is Christ’s! You may not have him!” This is the burden of love that we in leadership have for all of you.

But my confidence is not in men, in the end, but it is in the power of God to save and in the power of God to finish the good work He began in you all: “ 24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy…”

Indeed, God has loved you with an everlasting love. God has brought you from death to life and has put you on your feet. He is powerful enough to make you stand and powerful enough to keep you from stumbling. He has clothed you with Christ and intends to present you blameless with great joy on that great Day.

25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Tags Christ, faith, James, Jesus Christ, love, sin

Epistles Scripture

Not That We Loved Him… (1 John 4)

Post author By Rich Leino
Post date December 9, 2007
No Comments on Not That We Loved Him… (1 John 4)

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1 John 4:1-21

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

As I was preparing for this message, I realized that I was going to be teaching on probably the most famous portion of the Bible that says “…God is love…” in 1 John 4:8. Of course, the reason it is famous is not because people actually understand what love means. It’s famous with many men and women who actually hate Christianity because they have their own ideas about what love is. Love seems like an idea that anyone can define personally and, so, the idea that God is love makes them very happy because it fits exactly with their idea of who He should be. What they don’t want from God, however, is the love that He has offered. They also only want love if it’s how they’ve defined it and not necessarily how God has defined it. They want love on their own terms and they want God on their own terms.

I’ve told a number of you a story about something that happened on the Oprah Winfrey show a number of years ago. There was a discussion about God. Of course nobody in the room, including Oprah, seemed to know much about who God is. One woman said this: “I don’t think I believe in God.” Oprah responded by asking: “Do you believe in love?” The woman stated that she did. Oprah replied, with all the wisdom of the world: “Then you believe in God.” Is this true? By saying God is love are the Scriptures really saying that love is God? Is anything that we decide is love is what God is?

Well to answer this, we should listen to John at the beginning of this chapter again: 1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

John is warning Christians of something we need to be careful to listen to. The plain fact is that there are many false prophets and teachers in the world that are claiming to represent the truth. We are commanded by the word of God to test every spirit. We are commanded to take captive every thought to the Word of God and measure it against the Word to determine if it is true.

Life would be much easier if false teachers had red horns, sharp teeth, tails, and looked really mean and evil. In classic American films, the bad guys always wear black and have evil eyebrows. But in the real world, false teachers often sound very convincing, look really nice, and smell really good. They might even have a huge following and be on TV claiming to teach the Gospel. They tug at our heart strings. They seem to be saying things that must be true because so many people follow them, listen to them, and even proclaim how their lives have been changed.

Now, I love the Internet and e-mail as much as anyone but one thing that I really do not like are those e-mails you get with stories created to make you cry or feel good. A few years ago, I received an e-mail from a close female friend of the family. The story was designed to make everyone feel really warm by telling a tale that Jesus one time found Satan with a world full of sinners and asked Satan how much he wanted from Jesus so that Jesus could “buy” them from him. It seemed like such a beautiful tale of how much Jesus loved these wretched creatures that Satan owned and that Jesus would be willing, in fact, to give His life to Satan for them.

The problem with the story is that it was a lie. Jesus didn’t save men from Satan ultimately but He redeemed them from the wrath of God. Jesus didn’t give His life to Satan, He offered Himself to His Father. I lovingly responded to the friend instructing her that this was not the Gospel and that central to the Gospel was that we know what Christ has actually done. She responded in a way I’ll never forget because it is the spirit of our age: “I know, Rich, but it’s just a good reminder of how much God loves us.”

What? It’s not a reminder at all if it’s not what happened. Love rejoices with the truth. Right?! But, you have to understand that many of us are not really testing the spirits that are making us feel good against the Truth. Many of us are led astray by many false ideas because we’re not testing the things we hear or read. Just because it feels good doesn’t mean it is.

John gives us a very basic test in verse 2 by declaring: “ 2…every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God….” At first, it might seem like everyone you meet could be trusted because, after all, who denies that Christ has come in the flesh? This is the season, after all, when the whole world is celebrating the birth of Jesus. All over are trees and Christmas lights and people are giving each other “seasons greetings”. The reality is much different though.

When John wrote this, there was a heretical group called the Gnostics. They were named after the Greek word for knowledge, which is gnosis. The difficult thing for Greeks to believe, due to their philosophers, was that Christ could have come in the flesh. Death was, to them, an escape from physical things. Flesh was evil. God could not take on human flesh because that would corrupt Him. Many believed Jesus was God but they taught that Christ only seemed to come in the flesh. This is why John, in his Gospel and his epistles, makes such constant reference to Jesus’ real humanity. You see, to John and to all Christians, we must testify to the truth that Christ was fully God and fully man in one person. Those who deny his humanity are false teachers and we know they are false because they deny this.

But the sense of what John is saying is not merely that we believe that God once took on human flesh in a manger two thousand years ago. The verse literally says that Christ has come in the flesh meaning that He still is in the flesh. The divine nature and the human nature of Christ are still united in the one person of Christ as He reigns on high. False teachers always deny one or both of these very central truths.

Modern liberal scholarship about Jesus can best be summed up in a single word: unbelief. It is so common that it pervades the Churches and many of us today are infected in very subtle ways. There is a tendency in the Church today to think of God and our relationship to Him as completely spiritual and something that the mind or flesh does not participate in. But God redeems us in the whole person when we are born again and is redeeming our flesh as well as our mind. Our flesh was created good in the Garden but it was our hearts from within that defiled from the inside out.

An Anglican bishop was recently asked what would happen to his faith if conclusive proof was found that Christ was not raised from the dead. He responded, foolishly, that his faith did not depend upon the physical resurrection of Christ. Now, I’m not suggesting we should expect evidence to be coming out that disproves the resurrection but, beloved, the physical resurrection means everything to our faith. That Christ’s physical body was raised from the grave means the difference between being alive with Him or still dead in your sins! Christ’s humanity is central to our salvation.

John continues by exhorting us with great affection: 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Paul notes in Ephesians that we all used to walk according to the pattern of this world. John is saying the same thing here. We are those who, at one time, thought just like the world thinks but, when God saves us from the world, He saves our minds too. Our minds are not instantly transformed, however, which is what Paul notes in Romans 12 as we are commanded to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. God transforms our thinking as we grow. We were once fools but He gives us wisdom as we grow.

I described it to the Wednesday night class this way. Our minds are like a tuning fork. If you’ve ever picked up a tuning fork, you can actually hum at the correct note and the tuning fork will start to vibrate in your hand. The fallen mind is like a tuning fork that resonates with the spirit of the world. We still have sin that abides within us and God is working in us to make us more like Him. In the meantime, however, we need to recognize that this sin nature is within us and clouds our thinking. Sometimes the world will send us really nice e-mails that make us cry and respond or make us say: “Why, that’s just common sense.” We need to be on our guard, however. Christ told us that out of our hearts proceed all manner of things including blasphemy. Hollywood tells you to listen to your heart while God tells you that’s the last place you ought to rely upon for truth.

We’ve been redeemed to overcome the world and its upside-down thinking about reality. We have been redeemed and the other tuning fork resonates with the things of God. We recognize that they are the things of God not by first testing with our heart but by going to His Word. Those that belong to God listen to His Word because their hearts respond as His Word resonates within them.

John says very simply: “ 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Do you want to tell truth from error? Read God’s Word. Do you want to know who belongs to God? They are those that listen to His Word. If you get a story from someone and they say “…this means so much to me…” but you point out that God’s Word says this is wrong but they don’t care about what God has to say then they do not know God and you should not be deceived. Now, you should certainly pray for them but don’t let your emotions carry you away in agreeing with those who disagree with the Word of God. Trust God’s Word first and last in all things. Don’t change the Word because your heart is commanding it but let your hearts be changed by the Word.

We are all prepared now, I hope, to learn anew from God on what He means by love rather than what we think it is. We are prepared to hear: “ 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

I hope you have been really paying attention the last few weeks because this theme keeps coming forward like the refrain to a song. We love one another because we are born of God. We love because love is from God and we are from God. If we do not love then we do not know God. Notice that it doesn’t say this: “If you love then you will learn to know God.” No, we love because we know God, because we are born of Him. We love because we have life. If we do not love, we have no life and we do not know Him.

But what is love? What does it mean that God is love? John answers that question very directly: “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”

Oh! Do not miss the profound love found in this statement. What love is this! What love is it that God sent His one and only Son. His Son whom He loved from eternity and had perfect, unbroken fellowship along with the Holy Spirit. You see the profound truth is that if God had never created man He would have been perfectly content in Himself. He did not need us to express love. Love has existed forever within the community of the Godhead as Father, Son, and Spirit love each other with a perfect love.

But God sent His one and only Son, whom He loved, to a world that hated Him – to a world of men who were dead in their sins and trespasses. There was nothing that God gained by sending His Son to die for us other than a love that He decided to lavish upon us. This is a love that we cannot comprehend. A love that we will never grow tired of praising when we are in glory with Him as we contemplate the great grace of our God toward us.

He continues “ 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Do you see this? God did not love us because we loved Him but it says that God loved us even though we did not love Him. His Son came to pay for the sins of a people who only had incurred wrath and judgment. He came because God cannot look upon sin. Every single one of our sins was added to Christ on the Cross and, before we even knew Him, before we loved Him, our sins were put on Christ and He who knew no sin became Sin for us. He who had never displeased His father took on the wrath for sin that we deserved. You see, that when God commands us to love our enemies it is because God loved us while we were His enemies and, by His love, we were redeemed to Him!

How can the following ever be read as a burden once we have really fallen at the foot of the Cross in gratitude: “ 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”

This isn’t Law, it’s the response of the Gospel. Of course I love those who you love God. How could I not love them for you have shown much more love and much more forbearance toward me.

It is very telling to me that the world right now is very content to proclaim “Peace on Earth and good will to men” because they think they know what it means. But, like most things, this is a spirit that needs to be brought captive to the Word of God where Christ states in John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.”

That same Apostle who recorded those words of Christ tells us even more in 1 John 4:18-19: “ 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19 We love, because He first loved us.”

There is no fear now. There is no condemnation. There is no judgment. There is peace. The world seems to constantly be seeking peace and to offer peace but the most important kind of peace is the kind that only Christ can give. That peace is peace with God Himself. The world believes in every kind of love except the love that God gives. That’s because the world thinks that what love is begins with us, but perfect love begins with God.

Because God first loved us, He sent His one and only Son to die for us. Because God first loved us, our dead hearts heard the Gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection heralded to the world and our dead hearts of stone began beating with life. Because God first loved us, our feet ran to the Cross and answered: “Yes Lord! I believe that you are the sacrifice for my sins and have satisfied the judgment of God that I deserved. I have peace with God through You, Lord!” Because God first loved us, we behold the wondrous salvation we have received and our hearts burst forth in joy. Because God first loved us our hearts answer back in love as God’s love resonates within us. We love God and we love others because God first loved us. Beloved, we know what love is because God first loved us.

Let us pray.

Tags Christ, election, faith, His Son, His Word, life, love, sin