Everyday
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Galatians 3 flow of argument
3:1-5: We must live with the same power which gave us life in this first place. If we have received the Spirit of God through faith in Christ and not through works of the law to begin our renewed lives, then the only way to continue to go on living empowered by the Spirit is by faith in Christ and not through works of the law. The problem was there was teaching in the Galatian church and there were members of the Galatian church who were bewitched into thinking that while Christians begin their lives by faith, but can complete themselves by works (effort). If you remember last week, we suggested what is made clear in this chapter is that Christians’ effort is not for attaining but for revealing. The Spirit is not a defibrillator to jump-start our spiritual lives and then we can expect to continue on our own power. This would nullify the grace God extended to us in Christ, and dishonors Christ.
3:6-9: Paul continues this argument by using the example of Abraham and making clear that the only way to be a child of Abraham was through the same faith as Abraham had. The blessing of Abraham does not come to people by means of their works of the law, but through faith in the promises of God.
3:10-14: Paul makes the same point, and last week we suggested that our effort is not for attaining favor from God, but for revealing that we are favored by God. If we strive for God’s favor and expect to maintain our favored status by striving we are under a curse. Only through what Christ has done through death and resurrection can anyone enjoy the blessings of God’s covenant with His people.
Bottom line to the chapter so far is that we cannot become or remain a child of God, that is, part of God’s covenant community in which everyone is forgiven of their sins, and given the Spirit of God in order to live sanctified, God-honoring lives by works of the law instead of faith in the Son of God. The Judaizers were teaching that works of the law were necessary fr Christians to do in order to remain part of the covenant community, and Paul is urging the Galatian Christians to reject this blatant legalism.
But, Paul anticipates an objection from the Judaizers, and what we see in verses 15-18 is a response to this potential objection. It’s not that we see this objection anywhere, but Paul seems to either have heard it somewhere, or he anticipating it here. Here is the objection in a nutshell:
Even if we (the Judaizers) were willing, for the sake of argument, that Abraham was justified by faith and not through works of the law, but what about what God determined to do 430 years later? God brought the law to His people through Moses. And why did He bring the law to His people? Because no one can remain in God’s good graces by faith in Christ alone. The 600+ commands of the law teach that the inheritance of God’s people comes on the basis of woks. If anyone wants the inheritance God offers, then they must obey the law. They must put in their effort. People begin with faith, but their sanctification is completed through works of the law. This is how it works, so say the Judaizers. Why else would God have added the law 430 years later?
And I’m suggesting that Paul is countering this objection in our text today. So let’s go there now.
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. Now 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. This 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. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Introduction
The shopping cart & Sylvan Goldman
Banks & ancient temples
Clothes & disobedience
The everyday items listed are paired with what is not everyday. Shopping carts are everyday. Banks are everyday. Clothes are everyday. But who is Sylvan Goldman, what do ancient places of worship have to do with banks and what does disobedience have to do with the clothes we wear?
This is often the way we think. We are concerned with the everyday and not concerned with what does not appear to be everyday. If something or some bit of information does not appear to be relevant to the here and now, at least in our lives, we’re not interested. But sometimes, what appears to not be everyday is often connected to everyday. But sometimes, this hasty approach to how we approach to what we often call everyday, can lead to us not really understanding the everyday. We may not fully appreciate the everyday. Some pieces might be missing in our everyday.
When it comes to the Christian life, there is an everyday. The Westminster Larger Catechism helps us know what the Christian’s everyday is. The first question is this:
What is the chief and highest end of man?
And the answer
Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully enjoy Him forever.
To simply this a bit: What is most important in life is to glorify God. How do we glorify God. Obey Him. This is the Christian’s everyday. Obedience. But we all know that obeying God is not always easy, sometimes if we’re honest, it’s burdensome and not appealing. We don’t like that we feel that way about obeying God, but never-the-less, we do from time to time. The reasons we feel this way are many, but one of the significant reasons is because we fail to see the connection between what we see as our everyday (obedience) and what I will suggest is the foundation of our obedience. And because we fail to connect the foundation of our obedience to our obedience:
FCF: We often misunderstand obedience to God.
We obey God without understanding why we obey God. We obey God without understanding God. And when we live this way, when we do our everyday without knowing why we obey or who we are obeying, we struggle with obedience.
So now I will link what will be familiar to most of us and something that may not be so familiar, but I am suggesting today that it is essential we understand both to live our everyday.
Understanding our obedience to God requires we understand redemptive history.
Understanding our obedience to God requires we understand redemptive history.
Obedience to God. We basically get that. We struggle with it, but we get it. Redemptive history? Some of us have heard of it. Some of us have not. Even if we have heard of it, we may not be quite sure what it is, and we’re even less sure of its value and relevance to our everyday. But what I’m suggesting is that obeying God must be built upon an understanding of redemptive history. In other words, for the person who has a concern to live for the glory of God, he or she must understand how God has worked to bring salvation (redemption) to His people throughout history. Redemptive history (how God saves His people throughout history) is as everyday to us as obeying God.
What do we need to know about redemptive history?
What do we need to know about redemptive history?
The covenants of God (15, 17)
The covenants of God (15, 17)
What must we understand about the covenants of God?
They are unchangeable and permanent (15)
They are unchangeable and permanent (15)
Paul is referring to last wills and testaments of people in this day.
We are accustomed to wills being changed in our culture, but under Roman law, Greek law and Jewish law, which made some of these kinds of agreements/contracts iron clad. Unchangeable and unable to be cancelled.
Paul is putting this forth to make clear that the Mosaic Law does not annul or alter the terms of the covenant with Abraham.
And that brings us to the next point. Covenants:
They do not contradict one another (17)
They do not contradict one another (17)
Paul explains himself in v. 17: this is what I mean.
the Mosaic law, which came 430 years after God established His covenant with Abraham, does not annul or cancel a covenant previously ratified by God. This would make the promise null and void.
It’s important to know that both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants offer blessing to God’s people. I don’t want us to get the impression that somehow the Abrahamic covenant is appealing and the Mosaic covenant is burdensome.
We are familiar enough with the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
But let’s make sure to note the promised blessings noted in the Mosaic Covenant:
An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.
Deuteronomy 7:12–13 (ESV)
“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you....
The issue here is not seeing that both covenants shows God’s blessing His people. The issue at hand here the way God provides blessing to His people.
We are suggesting that the covenants of God do not contradict one another. So I want u to zero in on this question:
Do the ways God offered His people blessings in the Abrahamic Covenant and in the Mosaic Covenant differ?
Do the ways God offered His people blessings in the Abrahamic Covenant and in the Mosaic Covenant differ?
The short answer, I suggest, is “no”.
If we can or need to supplement our faith with our own effort in order to have and retain the blessing of God’s covenant with His people (forgiveness of sin and the Holy Spirit), then we nullify God’s covenant.
So let’ think through the relationship between the Mosaic and Abrahamic Covenants
I suggest that in both covenants the only way to receive the blessing of God is t truth (have faith in) God’s grace. To put it in more familiar terms, both covenants make clear that the blessing of God comes by grace through faith.
What else is clear in both covenants is that the faith which saves us connects us with the transforming power of God, so that obedience results. And for obedience to be absent from someone would suggest that there was no faith to begin with.
We see this connection between faith and obedience in the life of Abraham. Particularly familiar to us is when Abraham displayed a willingness to offer his son Isaac:
Genesis 22:16–18 (ESV)
and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Because you have done this.... I will bless you
It may be misleading to say that the covenant God made with Abraham is without conditions. There were conditions, but the ultimate blessing from God to Abraham and all who have the same faith as Abraham after him does not ultimately depend works of the law that aim to earn God’s blessing. Obedience is the way people have saving faith act or behave. So obedience is not the means by which anyone acquires salvation, but obedience demonstrates or reveals salvation. This is what Abraham demonstrated in his obedience to God with regard to his son Isaac.
And I suggest that it is wrong to conclude that any fundamental change had been made 430 years later in the Mosaic Covenant. Yes, an elaborate sacrificial system was established, and many commands and feasts and ceremonies. But all of this, I suggest, outlined what a life of faith looked like in a day when God ruled His people though the priests (in a theocracy), as opposed to when Kings were put in power over Israel. These were significant additions, but no fundamental change took place.
Deuteronomy 7:12–13 (ESV)
“And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
The Mosaic Covenant was a reaffirmation and further spelling out of the covenant made with Abraham.
So the relationship between the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants is that the basis of the blessing in both is by grace through faith. The Mosaic provides more detail to what a life transformed by the grace of God looks like.
Now remember, understanding obedience to God (our everyday) requires we understand redemptive history. And a big part of understanding redemptive history is understanding the covenants. And what the covenants make clear is that God’s way of salvation does not change, it is permanent and He never contradicts Himself.
The coming of Jesus fulfilled these covenants. The blessings that were promised Abraham, and the blessings that are outlined in the Mosaic Covenant are ultimately accomplished and realized in Jesus. We don’t have a sacrificial system anymore, nor do we practice the feasts, ceremonies etc., because Jesus has fulfilled the law. But now, at this point in redemptive history our obedience obedience must be driven by the same truths as for Abraham and Moses and everyone in between and after. By grace through faith.
But there is something else.
What else do we need to know about redemptive history?
The inheritance of God’s people (16, 18)
The inheritance of God’s people (16, 18)
What must we understand about the inheritance of God’s people?
The two verses that we have left are verse 16 & 18. I think that verse 16 is the key to understanding verse 18, so let’s focus on v. 16 first.
It is only for God’s people (16)
It is only for God’s people (16)
Now, really what verse 16 makes clear is that Jesus Christ is the seed or offspring of Abraham.
A little later in this chapter, Paul will make clear that if one belongs to Christ, one is a descendant of Abraham:
And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
So then it makes sense that Paul talks about Christ being the final offspring to whom all the promises were made.
Bottom line, the promise of the inheritance made to Abraham and his offspring is fulfilled only in Christ through His redemptive work.
But Paul makes a big deal about offspring being singular and not plural. Why? This again is why redemptive history is so important. It is crucial we understsnd what Paul is getting at by using the word offspring.
The word is used in:
But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
Here, the word offspring is used to refer to a particular line of Abrahams children. Not Ismael’s line but Isaac’s line. So note, offspring is used to refer to a particular group and not to other groups.
Paul quotes this verse in
and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
Paul goes on to make clear that not all children of the flesh are children of God, but the children of promise are the offspring of Abraham.
And I think what Paul is getting at here in Galatians 3 is that since Isaac was considered the offspring and not Ishmael, we can conclude that God’s sovereignty is in play to bring about a line of people that would culminate in the Messiah.
Paul is saying that when the term offspring is properly understood, seeing that it refers to some but not all of Abraham’s descendants, and the Messiah will be the offspring of Abraham, that offspring (singular) is referring to the fact that Christ is the offspring. And therefore, the promised inheritance (forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit) comes only by Christ.
Only those who belong to Christ through faith are recipients of the inheritance.
All of this is what is meant to inform our everyday obedience. We should be saying (preaching to ourselves), I am what I am by the grace of Christ. I do what I do for the glory of Christ. Why do we say this to ourselves? Because of what redemptive history makes clear about our obedience. Our every day.
It is not achieved (18)
It is not achieved (18)
So in light of what v. 16 teaches, that Christ is the offspring of Abraham, and only those who place their faith in Christ can be descendants of Abraham, then we can make sense of what means by promise in v. 18. The promise is the redemptive work of Christ. The means of the inheritance.
So look at v. 18:
For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
if the inheritance (forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit) had been achieved by mean of keeping the law, then they way of salvation would not be by the promised Christ and His work on the cross and resurrection.
Christ would not be needed if we could attain the inheritance by effort.
Conclusion
Understanding our obedience to God requires we understand redemptive history.
Understanding our obedience to God requires we understand redemptive history.
Understanding the covenants and the inheritance of God’s people.
A big thing today is to learn more about our ancestry. There are businesses that provide people with ways to understand who we are and where we came from through data research and even DNA science. It seems very popular, and I think that’s the case because people want to understand their past so they can better understand their present lives.
I realize this sermon may have felt mentally demanding to some of us. But a concern that we should have, when it comes to our everyday, that is, our obedience is one of substance. Some people do what they do, but they don’t know why they do or why it matters. Obeying God is not casual. In other words, glorifying God and enjoying Him forever is the biggest, most important purpose we will ever pursue. Taking time to understand redemptive history helps us to do our everyday with purpose and meaning.
What we can know very quickly is that through all of human history, God has been faithful to His people. We have our everyday, that what is familiar to us, but behind our everyday is an inexhaustible fountain of God’s gracious treasures that are ours in Christ. Let’s commit to knowing this treasure, this inheritance better by knowing our Savior better. He is faithful always.