The Vineyard Church of North Grand Rapids, MI

Ray Befus    Galatians 3:15-22     Freedom to Live—Really Live          15 November 2009

Ed Dobson has spent most of his life sailing on the good ship “Fundamentalism.” In fact, he’s been a highly-regarded, generously-decorated ship’s captain.  He graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Bob Jones University (before BJU admitted African Americans as students), he served as Jerry Fallwell’s top lieutenant in America’s Moral Majority, and he pastored W MI largest fundamentalist church for almost 20 years.  He’s been known among his peers as a peerless man of God and sound doctrine . . . . Until recently. In his new book, The Year of Living Like Jesus, Ed reveals that he’s been cut adrift. He says he now realizes that some of the pastoral stands he took with ‘sinful people’ over the years were just plain hard-hearted. He admits that he’s much less sure about his premillennial dispensationalism than his church wanted him to be.  In fact, he no longer believes that any one church or denomination has a corner on the whole truth.  He’s begun giving himself permission to enjoy drinking alcohol and building friendships in bars and at cocktail parties with men and women who are not yet Christians. He’s sought to learn from Jewish rabbi’s, Catholic and Orthodox priests. He believes that he met Jesus in a supernatural manner while looking at a crucifix in a Roman Catholic chapel where he was praying the rosary with a small group of Catholic friends. He says that he appreciates the Jewish value of asking questions and admitting doubts, something his former shipmates had little room for.  And, he says that while these changes have been a long time in the making, it was deciding to take an entire year to get more serious about Jesus that cut him loose from his fundamentalist moorings.  I commend Ed Dobson’s story to you. It’s filled with grace and graciousness.

In our study of Galatians, the Apostle Paul is doing everything in his power to help the new Gentile Christians in central Turkey to understand and take to take Jesus more seriously (like Ed Dobson)—to get clear about the amazing grace provided by Jesus and through his death on a cross. The churches in Galatia are being confused and agitated by Jewish believers who are teaching them that faith in Jesus is a good way to get started on your spiritual journey, but simple faith is not enough.  You must also do your best to keep God’s OT laws if you want to be assured of God’s love, forgiveness, and blessing.  Galatians is not primarily about salvation or justification by faith (contra Martin Luther and John Calvin); it’s about spiritual growth or sanctification by faith.  Legalists usually don’t have a big problem with salvation by faith; it’s spiritual growth by faith alone that sets them off.  But this is exactly Paul’s burden in his letter to the Galatians. “After beginning by the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort?” (3:3). Faith alone will save you, Paul writes, and faith alone will see you home. As you decide to trust Jesus for each step in your journey, the Holy Spirit will do things within you to change you and guide you in ways that law never could.

Paul is fighting for the Galatians’ freedom from the enslaving bonds of legalism, something Ed Dobson writes that he has recognized in his own life and has left behind.  Paul’s strategy is not simply to call legalists to be more flexible or positive in their spiritual journey; Paul’s strategy is to surgically remove the heart of legalism. Paul painstakingly argues that God’s OT law is now irrelevant to being forgiven or accepted by God, being saved, adopted and transformed by the Holy Spirit. The law is history. God now provides all his blessings to anyone who will decide to trust his Son Jesus and open his or her heart to the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the cross, flowing into us through the presence of the Holy Spirit will transform everyone who trusts Jesus enough to follow him as a guide through life.  We’ll talk more about this in the weeks to come, but this may help you: Paul’s view of faith is quite a bit more substantial than what is true of most legalists.  Real faith—saving faith—is faith that trusts and follows Jesus as a guide through all of life.  Faith is much more than believing some truths about Jesus. You can do a personal faith-check right now.  Do you trust that your Creator is wise and good, trustworthy and loving, and extravagantly gracious, in spite of what you’re feeling or experiencing right now? Do you trust that God has provided for your unconditional love, forgiveness, and acceptance through Jesus’ death on a cross, in spite of your poor performance this week?  Do you trust that forgiving and blessing your enemies is a truly life-giving way to live?  You know . . . forgiving and blessing your family members, fellow church members, the people at work, the Governor and President?  Do you trust that sexual intimacy outside of marriage is destructive to your soul, your dreams, and dishonors the one you say you love? Do you trust that God will supply all your needs so that you can be generous with your money, even in hard times? Do you trust that Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit can supply you with all the peace and power you need to change and grow in every step of your spiritual journey?  Real faith is faith that trusts Jesus as a personal guide through life.

If you think, faith is important, but you’re still convinced that the Law is a good insurance policy to guarantee personal holiness, you need to know that Jesus himself started the work of tearing down the law before he even died on a cross. He broke the oral Sabbath traditions without restraint. While the Law called for strict separation from the wicked, Jesus regularly ate and drank with sinners, and told stories that made it sound like even prodigals and Samaritans might be loved and blessed by God. Jesus purposefully touched lepers (an act the law said defiled a man).  Jesus allowed a woman with a defiling issue of blood to touch him and, he acted like nothing wrong had been done (though the law condemned her behavior). Jesus told a parable about a Good Samaritan in which a priest and a Levite passed by a dead or dying crime victim.  The priest and the Levite were following the law and kept themselves undefiled, but Jesus said the Samaritan expressed the heart of God. Jesus was undermining the Kosher food laws of the Penteteuch when he said things like, “It’s not what you put in your mouth that defiles you; it’s what comes out of your mouth that defiles you”.  And, when coming upon a woman caught in adultery, Jesus refused to condemn her, something the law did clearly do. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called his followers to love their enemies and pray for them.  In the law, God commanded Israel to slaughter its enemies and, in the Psalms, even King David prayed for the destructions of his enemies.   Not without reason, the Pharisees condemned and killed Jesus Jesus as a dangerous law-breaker.  They later killed Stephen, a Jesus-follower, whom they condemned as one who blasphemed Moses.

In Matthew 5, Jesus clarified his perspective toward the law. Jesus deeply valued the law, as Paul did  Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished.  Jesus clearly valued the law.  But this is his way of saying that the law, though immensely valuable for all time, will soon be irrelevant to experiencing God’s forgiveness and acceptance, even salvation and spiritual growth.  Fullfill is the key word in Jesus’ statement. How would Jesus fulfill the law?  Several ways, I think.  (1) he lived without sinning.  He fulfilled the law’s requirements; he lived a perfectly holy, righteous life.  (2) His death on a cross paid the penalty that a just God had to impose on lawbreakers.  Perhaps you’ve noticed how many of the OT laws carried the death penalty.  Jesus paid your penalty and mine. (3) Jesus’ teaching brought out the spirit of the law, something legalists regularly miss.(4) Jesus also brought the season of the law’s relevance to an end.  In other words, when Jesus came, the law had fulfilled its intermediary purpose; the law’s shelf-life had finally run out. The law has accomplished it’s purpose; Jesus had arrived to enact a new covenant.   Jeremiah foresaw this new, life-giving covenant (Jeremiah 31:31, Jesus’ death ratified this new covenant (Luke 22:20), and Paul planted churches with this new covenant as their foundation (II Corinthians 3:6). It’s a new day—the day of the Spirit.  If you spent time with Bill Johnson this weekend and felt your spirit filled again with God’s Spirit, you can thank God that you live in a new day in which God has replaced his old covenant with Moses—the Law—and enacted a new covenant through the cross.

Imagine that you and a friend decide to sail down the entire length of the Mississippi River, from Minnesota to Louisiana.  So, your friend tells you that he’ll take care of the navigation if you will find a boat.  So you both go to work.  Your friend focuses on the river banks—2,300 miles of twisting and turning (sometimes treacherous ) river banks.  The river is sometimes half-mile  wide, at it’s widest, seven miles across. Banks with high cliff, banks that are nothing more than miles of murky swamps and bayous.  Your friend buys books on the River and reads the internet journals of others who have sailed it..  He even buys extensive charts from the army corps of engineers, detailing the river’s twists and turns, banks and shoals, dams and tributaries.  He buys an expensive GPS and takes an online course on river navigation from the US Coast Guard.  And one day he comes to to tell you that he’s all set for the journey. “I’ve done my part, Bro, I know the banks of the Mississippi like the back of my  hand”.  And, he asks, “Have you found a boat for our journey?”  You respond that you’ve done even better.  You’ve found a boat with a captain who has sailed the river for his entire life—by day and by night, in the high waters of the Springtime and the low waters of  the fall.  He’s given his whole life to navigating the river.  You’ve found a boat and it comes with an experienced captain!  And, so you say to your friend, “I appreciate all the work you’ve done in studying the river, it’s depth, its banks, it’s shoals, and it’s currents and it’s dams.  Thank you.!” But your friend gets the picture and, he’s crestfallen.  All his hard work is mostly irrelevant now—at least to your safety and success.  The captain will guarantee both the safety and success of your journey.  Knowing the river banks will add some color to your experience. The charts will provide information that enriches your journey.  The presence of a captain in your boat means that the detailed charts of the riverbanks are pretty much irrelevant to your safety and success.  The captain will guide you and your friend down the middle of the river, sailing in its deepest channels.

This illustration is limited, but perhaps it will help. The OT law is not unlike carefully drawn maps and charts of the Mississippi River’s banks and levees. God’s OT laws were, for the most part, boundary markers identifying the outside edges of his moral requirements, his holiness.  This map of moral behavior served a very valuable purpose early on in the history of God’s people.  But when Jesus came and offered himself as our guide through life, our counselor, our Savior, our Lord and our atoning substitute, trusting and following Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit made all the law irrelevant to our spiritual safety and success.  The key to our justification and sanctification isn’t avoiding the river banks; it’s trusting and following Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Trust and follow Jesus and, you won’t have to give the river banks a second thought. As Dallas Willard observes in his book The Divine Conspiracy, the law’s continuing value is that it helps describe the course of righteousness in a rudimentary, or childish sort of way.  But God himself has now entered our world to guide us through life to our eternal home.   While the OT has value in showing us the COURSE of righteousness; trusting and following Jesus is now the SOURCE of righteousness, for both our salvation and our spiritual growth.

With all this as introduction, this morning were focusing in on Galatians 3:15-22.  Paul, like a black smith, is doing his best to forge links between  (1) righteousness (pardon, the right to sit at God’s table, true inner goodness), (2) the blessing of being a child of Abraham, (3) the the promise of the Holy Spirit with (4) faith in Jesus.  If you want to be righteousness, the blessings God’s promised Abraham, and the promise of the Holy Spirit, you must decide to trust and follow Jesus. That’s all.  And in linking these three OT blessings with faith in Jesus, Paul has been hammering away to break the perceived link with law, suggested by the agitators.  Keeping law will not produce true righteousness in your life (or give you the right to sit at God’s table).  Keeping the law will not open the door to the blessings God promised Abraham.  And keeping law will not result in God imparting his Holy Spirit to you.  Since the cross, all these come by faith in Jesus. Let’s read verses 15-22, and the consider the flow of Paul’s argument.

So, law-keeping will not get you righteousness, the blessings of Abraham, or the Spirit. Specific laws aren’t the problem. Paul isn’t against laws; laws can be gifts. There are a variety of laws in the NT. Jesus himself gave a new commandment. Paul is against law-keeping as a way of life, a source of identity or self- respect, a way to connect with God, a way to earn forgiveness, a way to become a truly righteous person, a path of spiritual growth. Law-keeping (doing law) even if you’re talking about God’s OT laws, leads to death, not life. If you choose to live by law, then you’ll live with the curse of having to keep the entire law your entire life.  And, even if you keep the law perfectly ‘till the day you die, you still will not have earned a right to sit at God’s table, because righteousness comes by faith, not law.  Thankfully, Jesus freed us from the law—redeemed us from the law—so that we could experience the life of the Spirit simply by faith in Jesus.  That was last week.  You can listen online.

In verses 15-18, Paul illustrates why he believes the promise God made to Abraham (righteousness in exchange for faith) is superior to law.  First, Paul gives an ancient illustration: a ratified covenant cannot be added to or annulled except by the agreement of the original parties.  God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendents and even the Gentiles: the blessing of righteousness for simple faith.  Abraham then died.  430 years later, God gave the law to Moses and his people Israel. But in giving this new covenant to Moses, God did not amend or annul the covenant he made with Abraham. God and Abraham never met again to renegotiate.  So the Promise of the Abraham Covenant stands: righteousness comes by faith alone, not faith and law-keeping.

Paul extends his point by writing that this promise (God made to Abraham) is still valid today, because God made this promise to Abraham and his seed.  Paul, arguing as a Rabbi; the Greek text is difficult. Paul is referring to the commonly held Jewish understanding that the word seed (which can be singular or plural) referred to descendents of Abraham who carried the blessing .  And, in Jewish understanding in Paul’s day, the Seed was Israel’s king, the nation’s representative.  The blessing which is for all Abraham’s descendents and even the Gentiles . . . this promise of blessing finds it’s focus in Israel’s king.  You’ll see this conviction illustrated in Psalm 89:27 where God says of King David that he has appointed David as his first-born son, the carrier of blessing to the entire nation.  Now, Paul’s point is that Jesus, Israel’s true king—the true seed—has come.  So the promise God made to Abraham (righteousness for faith) is given to all who put their faith in King Jesus—the true and ultimate Seed of Abraham..  

Well then, Paul anticipates a logical question in verse 19: If the promise still stands (righteousness and blessing for faith), why did God even give the law, 430 years later?  Paul’s answer is that the law had a temporary purpose. It was given to deal with the problem of transgression until the Seed—Jesus—came to earth.  Remember the context: God was forming a new nation at the foot of Mount Sinai.  By Moses’ description, they were a nation of murmuring barbarians, quick to doubt and disobey, stiff-necked and rebellious.  God chose them in order to transform them into a people who would reflect his glory in the world.  But this transforming process would take  a 100 generations . . . several thousand years.  God provided the law, through Moses, as a temporary measure (like a snow fence) to keep the Israelites from destroying each other, throwing away their inheritance, and forgetting the character and ways of the God who brought them out of slavery.  So, the promise is permanent; the law was a temporary measure. And then Paul adds this: the promise God gave Abraham is superior to the law because God gave the promise to Abraham directly, face to face.  The law God gave to Israel was handed off through several levels of mediation—first to angels (which we know nothing about from the rest of Scripture) and then to Moses, and finally to the people themselves.  Clearly the promise (righteousness for faith) is more important since God himself hand-delivered it.

Paul anticipates another question in verses 21 and 22.  Is God himself opposed to the law?  If the law was just a temporary measure, Is the law bad . . . worthless?  Absolutely not!  The OT Scriptures have real value; they have locked everyone up in the jail house of sin.  In other words, the law has exposed humanity’s sinfulness and holds each of us accountable for our sin.  The law has shown us all to be guilty criminals.  Psalm 14:2-3 declares, “The LORD looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.  All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one”.  The law reveals that we’re all in serious need of forgiveness and transformation.  This is a continuing value of the OT law. Even in western civilization and the establishment of European and American jurisprudence, OT law is a continuing moral/legal foundation.  The law set’s boundaries on behavior and defines evil.  The law can’t change a man or woman’s heart, but it can define evil, identify evil, and specify punishment for evil.  Thank God for law, especially the OT laws that still serve as foundation stones for America’s laws and courts.  God isn’t opposed to the the law.  He gave it to Israel.  OT law is anything but worthless.  It’s a timeless gift, a valuable reference point for defining and identifying evil.

The problem, as Paul sees it, is that law can’t produce life (v. 21).  The law is not life-giving, and God lives to share his life and give life.  Jesus said that he came into the world to give life—life that is full of peace and hope, love and joy.  The law can’t impart righteousness (true inner goodness), and it can’t produce the life of God within us.  Paul writes that If law could impart life, then maybe God would have chosen to use law as a channel of righteousness and blessing.  But, law is not life-giving.  Law can set boundaries for human behavior, but, truth is, law suffocates spiritual life. So the promise of life comes through faith. If you want life, then turn to Jesus and decide to trust him and follow him.  All God’s good and gracious promises, OT promises and NT promises, come to those who trust Jesus like a little child.  Trusting Jesus (and being filled with his Spirit) is the only path of freedom and life, peace and joy, love and generosity. 

Christianity is a life-giving spirituality.  When you get God’s grace you feel it.  When you live God’s grace, you wake up grateful, with hope, and even joy.  You no longer carry the weight of the world on your shoulders.  Your Father is guiding the world according to his sovereign plan.  Jesus is living within you changing the way you look at life, and even how you feel while you’re going through difficult circumstances.  The Spirit is meeting you in the baby steps you’re taking to forgive and love and serve other people.  And you’re free to be transparent about your fears and struggles and failures.  Because God unconditionally  forgives, and accepts you.  He loves you, just as you are, not as you should be.  So, you can be yourself.  You can enjoy being yourself.  You can love God with all your heart, mind, soul. and strength . . . love your neighbor as yourself . . . and do whatever else you want.

I think my faith in Jesus probably ought to make me happier than I usually am.  I think that if I trusted Jesus more, I’d probably be more fun.  I’d be a better friend.  I’d show up more with fewer judgments and concerns. I wouldn’t hang back as much or be as fearful of making mistakes. I’d be more generous.  I think I’d have more non-Christian friends.  Jokes about sex wouldn’t make me so uptight.  Mike and Matt have a young Vineyard pastor friend in Denver who was talking with another guy around a water cooler about sex.  The guy at the water cooler was not a Christian and he was saying “I could never become a Christian because I like sex too much.  So many women, so little time! Each woman is a fresh discovery a conquest a satisfying victory”. I could never give up that kind of excitement”.  That’s water-cooler talk.  And, often, this kind of talk make me nervous. But, this Vineyard pastor wasn’t nervous, so he said, “Yeah, great sex is a heck of a lot better than bad sex.  Everyone seems to want to know how to have great sex.  When my wife and I decided to start trusting and following Jesus, we discovered that he taught that really great sex starts with a life-long commitment between one man and one woman, where without any fear of rejection for performing badly, two people can stretch out, take risks, give their all, and go for it . . . sort of like olympic team mates, championship skaters . . . practicing for years,building a world-class repetoire, smoothing out their moves, and creating something so beautiful together that they win gold medals”.  And the guy at the water cooler said, “The Bible teaches that?  What’s the name of your church?”  That my friends, was a life-giving response.  Legalist avoid premarital sex because its wrong.  The law says so. Those who get grace avoid premarital sex because they trust Jesus and believe that he is the way, the truth, and the life. And the difference in their motivation is life-giving.

Tomorrow were going to return to the world, stand with other people around a water cooler or a coffee pot, overhear jokes about sex, fears about the economy, complaints about health, and people are probably going to talk about getting together for a drink after work.  I think that, getting grace, as we’re starting to get it, we probably should step into the circle and try to add some life.

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