Galatians 3:1 - O foolish Galatians!

3:1

One of the common sayings in Christian teaching is that we mustn't base theology on experience, and there is a lot of truth in this. And today there is far too much emphasis on feelings at the expense of what God’s word clearly says, and indeed at the expense of common sense. However, we also have to be careful, for the Bible greatly values experience. Note how many theological arguments in the New Testament involve quotes from the Psalms, this is especially true of Hebrews one of the most deeply theological letters in the Bible. And here Paul is going to bring in some deep theology, but he begins by pointing to the experience of the Galatians. Experience viewed in the light of God’s word is one of the most useful theological tools that we have.

We find Paul again pulling no punches. “Oh foolish Galatians”. The decision some of them were making, or thinking of making, was plain stupid. It would do them no good at all, as well as being completely contrary to the gospel. Theologically bad decisions are bad! “Who has bewitched you”, or “who has fascinated you”. Some ideas had been portrayed before their eyes and these ideas had captivated their minds. But when the gospel was presented to them Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. This was the only basis for their justification, and it is the only basis for our justification.

Zechariah 8:18-21 - Peoples shall yet come

8:18,19

Back in 7:1-3 we had the people asking whether or not they should continue to observe the fast in the fifth month, the fast was also a time of mourning. After a long section getting the people to focus on what was really important, on how the people did not really love God, and how God Himself would bring salvation, we get the answer! And the answer goes far beyond what they were asking, and is more wonderful than anything they imagined. It applied to the fasts of the fourth, fifth seventh and tenth months, and these would be transformed into joyful and glad occasions. So the people should love truth and peace. When we turn to God and to His ways it transforms life completely. Questions which seemed so important and intractable before either vanish into thin air, or are changed out of all recognition. Many object to the call to repentance, but it is a call to life.

8:20,21

The transformation would not be limited to Jerusalem, or Bethel, or Israel. It would affect nations far and wide. When God’s people turn to Him in spirit and in truth it releases change that affects all peoples. Oh how foolish we are when we pander to the world, rather than honouring God. When God’s people turn to Him, many others will also want to seek the Lord and to learn from Him.

Galatians 2:20,21 - Christ who lives in me

2:20

So how is Paul now living? He lives by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now as an aside, look at this verse and ask how it could it possibly make any sense unless Christ actually is God.  Paul had been crucified with Christ. He recognised that Christ died on the cross for his sins. Christ’s death on the cross was the death you and I deserved, and Christ died that death in our place. This is called penal substitutionary atonement. Paul now no longer depends purely upon himself, not on his own righteousness, not on living by his own strength. Rather, it is Christ who lives in him. How does this come about? By living by faith in the one who loves us and gave Himself for us. This Christ centeredness is so different from the self-centeredness of all other forms of religion, which are focussed on our efforts. Now this most certainly does not mean that we do not work. Again perhaps paradoxically, when we truly die with Christ and live by faith we will work harder than we have ever worked before.

2:21

Living by the Law is not an option. For if we seek to make our own righteousness then Christ did not need to die for us. He wasted his time, and all the unknowable suffering, when He went to the cross. The righteousness that is by Christ says that there is no way we can earn our own righteousness, and no way we can be righteous by our own strength. Only Christ can make us righteous.

Zechariah 8:16,17 - Speak the truth to one another

8:16

God bringing good to Jerusalem involved the people changing their lifestyle. The notion that the goodness of God can come without our lifestyles changing as a consequence is an idle notion. This verse is similar to 7:9. They are to speak truth to one another, render true judgements, and to seek peace. When a society turns away from God all three of these things go out the window, and we see that all to clearly today. Fake news is a big thing these days, and the Kavenaugh fiasco in Washington showed that truth and justice were of little concern, and certainly that few were seeking peace. Even where a just cause might be involved, peace is not one of the goals. The MeToo movement is a prime example of this. There is a just and right outrage at the exploitation of women by some men, but it so easily results on women against men.

8:17

Conversely to the positive attributes described in the previous verse, we find the “do nots”. We are not to plot evil against one another, just look at our political landscape to see how many people seem to do this. We must not delight in lies, even if the lies seem to serve our purpose! These are things the Lord hates. It is just a matter of them being wrong, there is a passionate hatred of sin on God’s part, because of the destructiveness of sin. And this is why the wrath of God is revealed against all sin.

Galatians 2:18,19 - I died to the Law

2:18

Suppose Paul did rebuild the Law, ie if he did devote himself to keeping the Law, what would that prove? All it would prove is that he was indeed a transgressor. The fundamental error in Judaism, indeed in all religious systems and all non-religious systems is that somehow we are good enough. If we only have the right system, whether that be the Law in the case of Judaism, or some set of values, we can become “good”. But whatever system we adopt we will fail. It will only prove that we cannot reach the set standard.

2:19

The big mistake the Jews made was to think that the Law was it. Now, as Paul makes clear elsewhere, the Law is good, and it is still good for teaching. But the Law cannot make us righteous. Indeed a proper understanding of the Law led Paul to die to the Law, to give up on observing the Law as a means of being righteous with God. Indeed, as a means of living for God. Now that he had died to the Law he could, somewhat paradoxically, truly live for God. Giving up on the Law does not mean getting away with stuff, it means living for God.

John 3:16 and following - Thoughts for the New Year

John 3:16 is perhaps the most well known verse in the Bible, certainly the most beloved of evangelical Christians:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NIV)

But I guess that far fewer people know the following verses, and certainly far fewer sermons are preached on them. So let’s look at the whole passage of John 3:16-21 so that we get a fuller meaning of what God is actually saying:

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (John 3:16-21, NIV)

John 3:17, God did not send His Son to condemn the world, is also beloved of many, particularly be those who object to anyone, especially Christians, telling them that something they are doing is wrong, or are of the sin-affirming tendency found in many churches. However, let us look at the whole passage. Immediately after saying that He did not come to condemn the world, it starts to speak of those who are already condemned.  Then in verse 19 it explains the verdict, or the motivations in men’s hearts, saying that people refused to come into the light because their deeds were evil, and the light of Christ would expose those evil deeds for what they were. All this puts a very different complexion on things, and exposes the shallowness with which John 3:16 is often treated,

So where does this leave us in understanding what is actually going on? And what does it mean when it says that Jesus did not come to condemn the world? First, let us look at how “not condemning” is so often interpreted. It is usually taken to mean that it is wrong to say that any lifestyle is wrong, but this is manifestly not the case, and one only needs to look at what Jesus did and said in the gospels to see the error in this way of thinking. Moreover, the whole of the Bible is forever pointing out the difference between good ways of living and bad ways of living, and declaring judgement on people who are choosing the bad ways.

Now let’s look at the positive way of looking at this. Jesus did come to highlight what is wrong with the way we live, and what is wrong with us. Indeed, this is the consistent message of the whole Bible from beginning to end. There is something seriously wrong with you, and something seriously wrong with me. If we deny this then we the gospel has nothing to say to us, and Jesus is of no value to us. Given this situation, of our being seriously flawed, there are two things God could do. God could justifiably pronounce judgment upon us and that would be the end of the matter. We would all perish, we would all go to hell. But God does not want us to perish, but to have eternal life. So instead of pronouncing judgement at this point He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to us so that if we believe in Him then we instead of perishing we would receive eternal life. In order for that to happen we need to acknowledge our need of Him, we need to admit to the wrongness of our lives, the wrongness of us. In short, we need to repent.

So the choice is this. We can continue to hide in the darkness, pretending that we are not evil, pretending that our hearts and deeds are not evil. If we do that, then there is a day of judgement for all of us, and that day will not go well for us.

Or, we can come into the light of Christ. This will indeed expose the darkness that is within us, but it will be exposed by the glorious light of Christ, and that will bring forgiveness, new birth and healing into our lives.

So as this New Year begins, let us stop avoiding the truth, let us get to grips with the real truth of Jesus Christ. And may God grant us the grace to present the real truth to the world, for the world desperately needs it.

Galatians 2:15-17 - Justified through faith in Jesus Christ

2:15,16

We now start to move into the theological argument, and Paul first draws attention to himself, the other apostles, and indeed the Judaisers. While the Galatians were largely Gentiles, Paul, Peter etc were all Jews. So what had they found? They had found that they could not be justified by the Law. They were not made right with God by observing the Law. So if the Law “did not work” for Peter and Paul, and the Judaisers, why on earth should it be expected to work for the “Gentile sinners”? No, the Jewish Christians were justified by faith in Christ. So there was a fundamental illogicality in the Judaisers argument.

2:17

One of the charges against Paul's gospel was that it promotes sin. Paul answers a similar charge in Romans 6. Here the argument is a little different. “We are found to be sinners”. Now, how should we take this? We automatically think it means “people who sin”, and it could mean this. However, the term “Gentile sinners” had a broader meaning of those who were outside the Law, and taking into account what follows that would seem to be at least part of the meaning here. So in coming to Christ Paul and other Jewish believers no longer relied on the Law for any righteousness. Now prior to Christ the whole Jewish way, the whole of Jewish thought relied entirely upon the Law. Living by the Law was what it was all about. Now those Jews who believe in Christ no longer rely on the Law. So taking “sinners” in the sense of “those outside the Law”, they have indeed become “sinners”. So is Christ promoting sin? Absolutely not! And Paul will go on to explain why this is so.