The New Life
Galatians • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsWe are dead in the law but are made alive in Christ.
Notes
Transcript
Dead to the Law yet Alive in Christ
Dead to the Law yet Alive in Christ
Intro: When I was little I had a friend Josiah. Josiah had what I would call a strict mom. She was very much someone who made sure he didn’t have much of any outside influence in his life. I can remember coming over after school to play video games one day and when I got there didn’t recognize any of them. The reason is they were all Christian based video games . Nothing wrong with that. His mom wouldn’t allow him to have any other kind though. We went to watch some movies…all of them were only Christian based or made movies. We went to read some comics… you guessed it.
I’m not knocking her choice here as a parent that was completely up to her. This mentality comes to us in all kinds of ways in life. We set up such strict rules and guidelines to follow that we miss the point of the Gospel. As a teen i remember these rules being drilled into us by school and some churches:
No cussing, No Drinking, No premarital sex, no watching r rated movies, no missing church, no disrespect toward your elders, and no drugs. If you did these things you were a good Christian boy or girl.
Now in and of itself these things were not bad. They were an attempt to help guide and build morals but, the problems do come with this teaching. People begin to believe that by doing these things you are just that....a good Christian. By avoiding outside influence you were clean or less likely to sin. You can do all these things and have no belief in Jesus. You become tied to a moralistic humanism which isn’t what Jesus taught.
Yes Laws were provided to God’s people to help guid and direct them but not simply to what was right or wrong but to point to their inability to fulfill all of them. To point to their need for someone greater than themselves to be a sacrifice.
We fall into this trap in our lives. We attach requirements to being a follower of Christ that just aren’t there but we think they are.
For instance:
If you aren’t ________ Politically you aren’t a follower
If you don’t believe only _________ Denominational theology you aren’t a follower.
If you marry/date someone of ______ color you aren’t a follower.
If you wear ______ style of clothing you aren’t a follower.
If you don’t attend _______ amounts of church services a year you aren’t a follower.
If you aren’t perfect you aren’t a follower of Jesus.
These rules that we place on us and others are not from God. They are from us.
Jesus upon his death, burial, and resurrection completed and fulfilled the Law of the Old Testament and ushered in the New Covenant of God with Humanity. He, by fulfilling the Law, completed what was required for our forgiveness to be possible. To continue to try and fulfill them ourselves is foolish and completely use less and unnecessary. Does that mean we ignore them? No! What it does mean is look to what Jesus taught and how his teachings fulfilled them and completed them.
Paul understood this. He called people out for following both the law and Jesus making them both equal.
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