Freedom!

Paul has been clear in chapters 1-4 of Galatians: those teaching a gospel of tradition and law are liars about God and pretend Christians.  They lead people astray: Jesus referred to these teachers as “sons of hell” and aid that the people converted under these lies were “twice the sons of hell” as the teachers.  This burden, this yoke of law is unbearable, cannot be met.  It is here that Paul brings us to the climax of his letter: Freedom in Christ.

Verse 1: Paul tells that Jesus died so that the believer would be set from from adherence to law and tradition.  They no longer “had” to do anything; they can approach God freely, confidently, openly and unencumbered by anything.  Paul now speaks directly to the Gentiles that are under pressure to accept physical circumcision.

Verses 2-6: He tells them that the moment that they give in to this practice, Christ’s death becomes ineffective.  They return to the prison of law and must follow ALL of it.  They return to the bondage of tradition.  First it is tradition, then law, and then feasts, festivals, sacrifices- all of which are empty shadows now that Christ has come and died.  He tells them that while they were not setting out to do this, the consequence of living out personal righteousness sets them against the righteousness of Christ, basically, it it faith expressed in works opposed to faith expressed in love.

Verses 7-10:  Paul tells them that they were doing well until someone came along and deceived them in their pursuit of Christ’s righteousness.  He begs them to not be tricked further.  On the surface, it may not seem like a big deal.  What’s the harm in observing tradition?  Paul expresses confidence that the people will remain true now that they’ve heard the truth while warning the deceivers that they will bear God’s wrath.

Verses 11-12:  Apparently, Paul is rumored to still be preaching circumcision, so he addresses it head-on.  If he were, why would he face persecution?  No one would be offended.  These liars about God are so obsessed with circumcision, that they may as well chop the whole things off!  If a little skin off the end has merit…the whole thing must really impress God!

Verses 13-15:  Paul now gives warning, the path of freedom means that the believer must be aware that their freedom from law and tradition does not lead to a no-holds-barred form of religion.  If this is the case, they will find themselves enslaved in a different way.  The way to live in freedom is to serve one another in love, or as Paul put it earlier: faith expressed in love.  That is real freedom.

Verses 16-18:  Here’s the way to do it: be open, honest and motivated by the Spirit within.  This cannot be done in a religion based on outer appearance.  Why?  Self-interest and love are not the same.  Freedom in Christ is not fickle; you are either enslaved or free.

Verses 19-21:  How does freedom that is taken advantage of lead to slavery?  “repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.”  That sounds just like a pursuit of the American Dream!

Verses 22-23: Freedom in Christ brings a different set of fruit: “affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”  This is faith acted out in love.

Verses 23-24:  Addiction to law and tradition only gets in the way.  If you are focused on “getting your way” and doing whatever others tell you to do to achieve holiness without thought, these things need to be killed in your life.  This is how we are crucified with Christ, this is how we put to the death our sinful nature.

Verses 25-26:  Paul writes that we have freely chosen this lifestyle.  We were not coerced into it.  Because of that, we must move beyond an intellectual assent; we must implicate it into our daily lives.  It must be worked out.  It is not about a comparison to others, but a comparison with Christ.  Going back to what he wrote in chapter 1, working out our faith through love means that we are unconcerned with how we appear.

• What might “faith expressed in love” look like for you?
• Are you living in freedom or wavering into slavery?

 

On Slaves and Sons

In Galatians 4, Paul builds on the closing imagery from the previous chapter, namely, “What does it mean to be in the family of God?”

Verses 1-3: Paul says that as long as the person is a minor (child from chapter 3), he/she is bound by the rule of law.  Essentially, it is the spiritually immature that are addicted to the law, that must follow up.  Here, God is loving, yet stern.  Minors, writes Paul, are slaves to the Father.  He writes it down, they follow.  Yet…

Verses 4-7:  Here we find that something has changed.  The Son, the True Heir, has come down, and his message is (you guessed it!!) Grace and Peace.  The Law, which captured us, has been overturned.  We are free!  How do we know this?  Because the Spirit testifies to the freedom, yes, we shout “Father” but it is “Papa.”  It is because we can approach him in this way that we know that we truly are in relationship with Him.  It is this Spirit, this inner testifying that is the proof of inheritance.

Verses 8-11:  Before their participation in this inheritance, their slave-master was false gods.  So, why return?  Why, having been enslaved and now freed…why would you want to return?  And, by observing tradition and law, that’s all you do: return to slavery.  Paul fears that the Gospel preached to them “has gone up in a puff of smoke.”

Verses 12-16:  Back to the matter at hand: the divide between Jew and Gentile.  The key to love, the love of one that has inherited it all, is humility, is sacrifice.  Sensitivity, kindness.  It’s how Paul was treated when he arrived in Galatia, sick.  They loved him and welcomed him.  And now, he is their enemy for no reason beyond expecting them to love!

Verse 17:  They are falling into this trap because of the false teachers, the liars about God from chapter 1, those stuck in tradition in chapter 2, and those enslaved by law from chapter 3.  They want to bind you back up because then, and only then, do we again need to depend on people for freedom.  If you’ll remember from chapter 1, Paul was bound by no man, he did not care what they thought of him.  He lived for the approval of God, rather than the applause of man!  Living by the rules of man only makes sinful man feel important.

Verses 18-20:  Paul says that “doing good” is excellent, but they should be pursuing the righteousness of Christ always, not just when Paul is rumored to be heading their way.  He tells them that he is not only burdened by them, but that he wishes he were there in person, so that he could really communicate his anger.

Verses 21-31: Here, Paul essentially asks, “How is that adherence to the Law working out for you?”  Going back to the Old Testament (which drives the liberal textual critics mad, no doubt), Paul points to two sons of Abram: Ishmael and Isaac.  Ishmael was of man’s “connivance”, and is now imaged by those bound by tradition and law.  These are coming from people enslaved, but think they are free.  They are merely creating more slaves.  Isaac, however, was of God; a child of God from a barren woman.  Why?  Because God PROMISED it to Abram and Sarai…sort of like an inheritance!  This is the kind of things giving to sons and daughters, those that are borne of freedom.  The believers in Galatia were free.  And freedom has a life of its own.

For your consideration:

• Are there times in your walk with God that feel more like a slave than a son or daughter?  What do those times look like?
• Are you aware of the false gospels that people are trying to enslave you under?
• What might living in the promise of freedom look like?

Grace, Tradition and now…Law.

The book of Galatians was written to a church that was steeped in conflict.  The conflict was between the Jewish Christians and the new(-er) Gentile believers.  The Gentiles had come to Christ and the old school believers marginalized these new believers by talking about their traditions, and by trying to get the Gentiles to not only adhere to the outdated rituals, but also, by attempting to live in separation from them.  The former was addressed in chapter 1 and the latter in chapter 2.  In chapter 3, we learn about the real issue in the Galatian church…a trust in one’s own righteousness that comes from being obedient to the law.

Verses 1: Paul attacks the Galatians head on by calling them crazy for ignoring the crucified Christ.  They cannot claim ignorance as, “His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before (them) clearly enough.”  How?  As strict Jews, it was their legalism that killed Him, plain and simple.

Verses 2-6: Paul asks two questions: HOW and  WHY did your new life begin?  The HOW is answered when Paul tells them because of God’s message (Grace and Peace!!) coming to them, and the WHY is because they could not save themselves.

Verses 7-12: Essentially, if the Jews were caught off guard by the Gentile acceptance into the Kingdom of God, it’s because they’ve ignore God’s Word.  They are in, but by faith in Christ, not adherence to the Law.  It’s not that the Law is not important; it is.  “Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the Law.”  This catches every single person that has ever existed…Jew and Gentile alike.  It’s not just the Gentiles that need Grace and Peace because of their flagrant violation of God’s Word; it’s also the Jew that needs Grace and Peace.  They are not only violators of the Law, but they are also guilty of attempting to earn salvation apart from the God of Grace and Peace and Paul is intent on calling them on it.  Once you start walking down the paht of rules and tradition and use them as your baseline…you can never get away from it apart from Grace and Peace.

Verses 13-14: Because the Law leads to death, because we could never pay for the violation, because the law ends on despair…how could we be saved?  Christ!  Jesus took on every bit of that curse.  He took on that whole life, which was really death and in the depths and pit of despair caused by it, dissolved it by perfecting the Law.  By adhering to it perfectly because of who he was in God- His Son, more than just a symbol of perfection, but Perfect Obedience Himself.

Will finish out chapter 3 tomorrow.

Grace vs.Tradition, part 1

Paul begins the book of Galatians by establishing his credentials as an apostle appointed by Christ himself.  He was neither voted in, nor was he appointed by a human higher-up on the Great Chain of Being.  He greats the church with “the great words, grace and peace.”  “Grace”, because it is how God has freed the people, and  “peace” because the people have been rescued and now find peace in God.  With this introduction, he loads both barrels, and takes aim…

He accuses the Galatian church of being traitors.  Their crime?  It seems that the traditionalism of Judaism is not a minor offense when compared to God’s grace; “it is completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God.”  It is God’s message turned upside down and could not be further from the truth of how God operates.  And those that preach a message of anything other than grace and peace?  They are false teachers, to be cursed.

Paul knows that this is not a popular message and is completely ok with it.  He states that if popularity were his goal, that he “wouldn’t bother being Christ’s slave.”  His message, grace and love, is from God and he is going to share it.  And by share it, he includes boldly preaching against a false gospel.  As if to demonstrate his passion, he reminds the readers of his past: a man so bent on the protection of tradition, that he went to the extremes of imprisonment, persecution and even the killing of those who promoted grace.  But…he was wrong.

So God, because of the grace and peace offered, pulled him out, and revealed Jesus to him!  Why?  So that the gentiles could receive the message.  This began with the Christians in Syria and Cilicia, the one who persecuted out of tradition and against grace and peace is now preaching grace and peace…because he found it in Christ alone.

Summary:

• Paul has been called by God to preach the message of grace and peace.
• The Galatian church is being caught up, consumed, and in bondage to the gospel of tradition.
• Paul is going to call them on it.

For your consideration:

• Of what benefit is tradition?
• Of what benefit is “grace and peace”?
• Paul accuses the Galatian church’s gospel of being “a lie about God.” Do you agree with Paul’s claim that human tradition is a counter gospel?  Why?
• How might the defense of tradition lead to persecution?

Checklist Christianity

Ahhh, the checklist.  We just love them.  Christians, I mean.  We have so much fun creating a set of rules for people to follow.

This past weekend at our All-Church Retreat, spent a few days talking about what God was doing at our church and how we might be part of it, how we might join Him.  And of course, some wanted to reduce our joining of God to a checklist, we wanted to reduce a relationship to a measurement.  And, those measurements?

• How often we read our Bibles
• How often we pray
• How many small group we participate in
• How often we attend Sunday services
• Who sits/stands during worship
• Who did/did not attend the retreat

This morning, I was reading Romans 14.  Hear what Paul has to say about checklists.

“None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters.  It’s God we are answerable to – all the way from life to death and everything in between – not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and lived again: so that He could be our Master across the range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other. (emphasis mine).

No doubt, people should count their lucky stars that I am not God, because my checklist would be an unbearable burden for you.  Just as your list for me would be unbearable.

Thanks be to God for grace, mercy and Jesus.