Show Notes
Good Friday
Galatians 3:6-14
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] And wow, beautiful.
[00:00:02] Thank you, worship team. You know, I was just saying to someone who's going to be part of our staff here this summer, I was just sharing that when you become a part of the staff, you see things that other people don't see. And all the behind scenes work and the effort and the practicing and all the things that go on to make a service like that. And I just want to express my gratitude to all of our musicians in our church, not just for tonight, but for every single Sunday they practice and prepare their hearts to help us, to lead us in worship. So thank you. Thank you so much.
[00:00:39] You know, when we sing about the blood, you know, it almost sounds gruesome, but I think you need to understand literature a little bit. The blood actually represents something more than just Jesus shedding his blood. It represents the fact that he died. It's a bigger picture when you read that word, it's really expressing all that Christ came to do by dying for our sins. So when we sing about the blood, we're actually expressing his sacrificial death. And not only his sacrificial death, but his substitutionary death. And that's so powerful. And so tonight we're going to participate in a very meaningful moment here. It's a moment of remembrance. And I've discovered something in life we have great forgetters. Anybody notice that as you get older, I don't know if it's because you got more information in your head, but you keep forgetting things, but that begins to happen. And I notice even young people have that problem. And the Scriptures keep teaching us. I'm writing these things to you so you'll remember. It's a reminder. And it's not only the word remember. There isn't just so we can have cognitive recall or recognition. It's actually to remember in order to respond in obedience. So it's a far more profound meaning than we recognize. And the Apostle Paul, when he was talking to the church and they were working through some of the challenging issues in that congregation, he brings up the communion service because they were actually not discerning the body of Christ. And so the body of Christ isn't just Christ's physical body on earth, but when Christ rose again, his spirit came and starts dwelling within believers. And now we become the body of Christ. We're now making Christ's presence real in our world. And so there's such a profound element when we walk together in love and in unity. And the Bible does say something. It talks about how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters are walking together in unity. It's the place where God commands his blessings, even life forevermore. And we all recognize that it's beautiful when people love each other and there's harmony and there's, you know, people are supporting each other. And how many recognize that when you're going through a difficult time and you can feel it in relationships, you can sense conflict and frustration and difficulty in relationships, how terrible that really is. And so Paul's writing to this church in Corinth, and he says, I want to remind you what Jesus really did for us. And he says, on the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, do this in remembrance of me, for this is my body. He's reminding us of what Christ did for us, and that's what we're going to do right now. So, Father, we thank you for this emblem, this little piece of bread that represents tonight your body that was broken for us in all the benefits that your great sacrifice brought, particularly forgiveness from our sins and restoration with you, Father, that we have a repaired relationship so we can experience no longer alienation, but reconciliation in life. And we thank you for this emblem now as we receive it, Lord, we're renewing our covenant with you. We thank you for that. In Jesus name, Amen. Let's eat the bread together.
[00:04:03] Says in the same way after supper he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. So tonight we've been proclaiming in song. Now we're proclaiming in communion, not only his death, but also until he comes. So we're in a sense where it's implied. We're proclaiming his resurrection. We're proclaiming his eternal life. We're proclaiming that Christ is going to come back to our planet. And that actually is the greatest hope that we have. You know, when I look at our world today, and we've gone through at least 6,000 years of human history that we know of recorded history, it's amazing that we have an amazing promise that Christ is going to come back and bring restoration in all of this fragmentation, war, conflict and brokenness. Isn't that great? I'm so grateful for that. And so, Lord, we thank you for this amazing hope that we have. And it helps us in times of darkness, it helps us in time of trial and difficulty. It reminds us when there's conflicts around us, that you're coming back to bring healing and restoration to a broken world. And we thank you for that amazing hope. This is not just pie in the sky. This is something that we read throughout the Scriptures. We saw the promise realized in your first coming, what you came to do. And now we know that that's just part one. We're going to get part two. Part two is you're coming back again. And so we celebrate that tonight and we thank youk for all of youf provisions for us in Jesus name. Amen. Let's drink this cup together.
[00:05:47] If you could just hang on to these little cups. And when you're leaving tonight, if you could just throw them out, there's garbage dispensers on your way out, that would be just great.
[00:05:56] I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles tonight. And if you don't have one, there's one in front of you. And hopefully I've got all my PowerPoints in order here. You can kind of follow along.
[00:06:06] I want to look at the book of Galatians tonight and maybe look at the death of Jesus, maybe in a different way than I ever have before. And I'll tell you why I came up with this idea. I was reading in the book of Deuteronomy, and maybe some of you are following along. We kind of have this Bible reading plan. Some of you are a part of it, and we're reading through there and you're reading through Deuteronomy. And I was thinking to myself, wow, is this ever a lengthy list? You know, it's just kind of detailing all of the problems and the reason, you know, there's a covenant that God's making with his people. And he says, if you do what I'm asking you to do, you're going to see all these amazing blessings in your life. But if you disregard my covenant, you're going to see all these curses happen in your life. And then he goes on and says, curse it if you do these things. Curse you if you do these things. These are the things. And they're all lists of terrible things that humanity does to each other. And it's, you know, there's all these curses. And I thought, wow, is this ever detailed? I was reading chapter, verse after verse after verse, and it hit me with such impact that sin, that when we sin, when we miss the plan of God for our lives, when we miss the glory of God, what we're really doing is bringing ourselves under a curse and how terrible that really is.
[00:07:25] And that's why Jesus came to this planet. That's why he died on a cross. We're going to hear that through the book of Galatians. Sin brings us under a curse, and the end result of this curse is death.
[00:07:38] It's literally alienation from God. It's separation from God. And I think we see it in our own personal lives. When we sin against each other, it brings alienation and brokenness in our relationship with one another. When we look at the story of the crucifixion, we rarely see it as a moment of God's curse on Jesus. But I think we need to look at it that way because it's stated so clearly in Scripture. Look at the book of Deuteronomy here. It says, if someone is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death and their body is exposed on a pole, Some translations say tree.
[00:08:14] You must not leave the body hanging on the pole or tree overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day. Because anyone who's hung on a pole is under God's curse. Interesting statement. One of the reasons why the Jewish people in the first century had a hard time embracing Christ as a messiah, because they knew he had been hung on a pole and they thought he was cursed of God. How many can see that creates a problem in your mind? They know scripture, they know what this says, and they're thinking, well, Jesus was cursed. And they're right, he was cursed. But Paul is going to explain for us in the book of Galatians why Jesus received the curse and why he did it was actually to take it so that you and I would not have to experience that curse for our lives. In the book of Galatians, a major issue now begins to face the church. There's two groups of people. How many know? When you got different people with different ideas, you have sometimes conflict and tension. And here was the problem. You had people that were from a Jewish background, an ethnic background Jewish, and you had people who were non Jewish, who were Gentiles, and they were coming to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. And then a group came along who were Jewish in nature, and they were saying that unless you become Jewish, you can't really become a Christian. You have to identify first as a Jew.
[00:09:36] That's basically the question. So the question now becomes, how does one attain a right standing or become righteous in God's sight? In other words, the issue is, how do we belong to God and become a part of his beautiful family? It's a great question and challenged by some of the Jewish Believers, these, they, I would say they are the gentiles that were coming into God's kingdom, felt inferior because of their racial standing, and they were being asked to embrace what we would call Jewish identity markers. In other words, we know people are Jewish for a lot of reasons. They have physical outward identity markers, they're circumcised, males are, they eat certain dietary foods. It really makes them a separate and distinct group of people. Those were physical identity markers that they were part of God's family.
[00:10:26] So Paul's response to them is to point out that you and I, most of us probably don't have a Jewish background. Our identity is not found in our race but in our relationship to Christ. And that's what we needed to understand. I like what Walter Hanson says. They were adrift in no man's land between the pagan temples and the Jewish synagogues they belonged to neither. They had abandoned the gods and religious practices of the temples because people in the first century were primarily religious, it says, but they did not attend the Jewish synagogues, nor were they welcomed there, even though they read Jewish scriptures and believed in the Jewish Messiah.
[00:11:06] As new Christians without a clear sense of identity, they were easily persuaded that if they acquired acquired a Jewish identity, they would belong to the people of God. And they were probably reminded that the mother church in Jerusalem was a law. Observant Jewish church goes on to say, so if they really wanted to belong to the true church, they would have to be Jewish. And they were in the process of receiving circumcision and the law so that they could belong to the people who claimed to be the true recipients of God's blessings. Now we're going to call them the agitators, but these are the legalists. These are the people that had a certain understanding of how people entered into God's kingdom. So these agitators had probably told the Galatians that if they wanted to be like the father of the faith, Abraham, they too needed to be circumcised, just as Abraham was circumcised after he believed. It all sounded very convincing and so much so that they were ready to embrace. I would call it a deceptive and false messaging, you know, because now they had to do something in order to be in a right relationship with God. And Paul is going to explain to them that this is a wrong understanding. He's arguing both from his own experience because he was Jewish and he was very meticulous and scrupulous about observing law, and yet he knew he did not have a personal relationship with God and that he was actually persecuting the church until Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus and said, why are you persecuting me, Saul? That was his Hebrew name, you know. So he's now telling them he makes this amazing appeal from Scripture to explain that that understanding is wrong. There's probably nothing more confusing to people who are relatively new to the Bible than to know what the truth is. When you have two conflicting opinions and they're both being argued and seemingly supported by the Bible, how many know? It's a little confusing. And a lot of times you'll see theological conflict and arguments, and they're making arguments from Scripture. And which one do you believe? It's a great question. How do you know the truth? And this is what Paul was faced with in order to address this problem that he himself had been set free from and experienced this amazing freedom knowing Christ as his Lord and his Savior. So here's what an earlier proverbial writer from the Proverbs, he said this. There's a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.
[00:13:43] That's so true. You know, how many know that? Sometimes we think we're going the right way, but it ends up being the wrong way. You know, I think I'm doing the right thing, but later on I find out, nope, that was not the right thing and it produced the wrong result. But you don't always notice that until after a little bit of time. Which then is the right way, which was the way that led to blessing rather than to curses. That's really the question. Which is the right path? Which was the one that would lead to the blessings? There is a road to blessing and a road to curse or to death. So often when we read this text from Proverbs, we make the assumption that the writer's warning the unrighteous about their sinful lifestyles. But I think this is probably more a warning to people who are people of the Bible, people of faith, people who are trying to know God. It's a warning to us that there are challenges in the Christian life, a counterfeit life. I think this is so important that eventually leads to separation from God rather than union to God. And in the third chapter of Galatians, Paul explains the two directions, the two paths, one leading to life, the other leading to death. And so I'm going to just briefly touch on these two paths, the one that leads to blessing. Okay, the key element in this road is the idea of faith in opposition to law.
[00:15:01] So the road to life is determined by our demonstrating faith or trusting or acting in belief upon God's promises. Because God's going to make some amazing promises. One thing you need to know about God, when he makes a promise, he never lies and he's able to fulfill them. How many think it's amazing? I want you to know how powerful a promise is. If you are a person that is a person that's going to keep your promise. Let's say you're like God and you're not going to break that promise. That promise is so sure. That's what we do when we get married. We're making a promise that we're going to love and support and be with this person until the end of our day. Isn't that true? That's a promise. We're making a promise. It's very powerful. But when God makes a promise, he follows it through human beings. We fail on our promises. How many know that's true? We mess up lots of times and that's the reason why we get into trouble because we don't fulfill what we say we're about to do. Here we see that God is going to keep his promise. Again. Walter Hanson says since Abraham is the father of God's people, his experience with God establishes a guide to what is God's will. If the experience of the Galatians can be shown to correspond to the experience of Abraham, this patriarch, then their experience then is conforming to what God wants, his will. Okay, so Abraham, Paul points out, believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That word, righteousness means being in a right relationship with God. Verse nine goes on. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. So what Paul is arguing is simply this. If we're like Abraham, we'll be people who, who just believe God and who will trust in what he says and will, you know, true belief acts on what he says. So if I really believe what God is saying, I'm going to do what God says. I'm going to act on what I believe. And that's what he's talking about. Paul then compares those who trust in God to be like Abraham, who are looking to be declared righteous because their faith in God's promise made to Abraham regarding having an offspring and when Abraham believed God. This is a statement I'm going to make you in right relationship to us. And this is really found in Genesis chapter 15 where God told Abraham he was going to have an offspring. It's a long story. You can read it both he and his wife were old, elderly, they didn't have any children. God made an outstanding claim. He says, you're going to have children. They're going to be like the stars of the sea. Your descendants are going to be like the sands on the seashore and the stars in the sky. It's really an amazing promise. So shall your offspring be or your seed. And he makes that promise. And what is significant about this is that the Jewish people felt that righteousness came to them as part of being of the right ethnicity or the right race. They were the descendants, the physical descendants of Abraham. They were Abraham's offspring. We can say it that way. And that's what they were saying in John chapter 8 When Jesus was now explaining to them, listen, guys, it's more than just having the right ethnicity. It's not just being a part of the right family. You have to be a person like Abraham, who was a man of faith. And so Jesus says this to them in response, Abraham is our father. They answered, but Jesus says, if you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did. In other words, if you're truly a child of Abraham, you, you will behave like Abraham, you will act like Abraham, you will have the faith of Abraham. And Paul argues in Romans 4, that's exactly what you and I are when we start believing in Jesus because we're actually acting on the faith just like Abraham did.
[00:18:45] We are people of identical faith. We receive the same blessings of Abraham did, namely because we are now trusting in what God promised. And that makes us right with God. It's not because we're keeping the law, but because we're trusting in Christ. And what happens when you trust in Christ? God's spirit comes inside of us and empowers us as we're about to see to live at a standard higher than the law. We'll look at that in a moment.
[00:19:15] He says this.
[00:19:17] Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham.
[00:19:23] Goes on to say, the Scriptures foresaw that God would justify gentiles, that's non Jewish people by faith. And announced the good news in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. That word nation is ethnic ethnos. It's, you know, it's the idea of all peoples will be blessed because they will emulate Abraham. Your faith in my promises.
[00:19:49] So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. And what is exciting about the Genesis passage is that the word, as I said, nations is the word ethnos. In other words, right from the very Beginning, God's plan was to bring the good news, the gospel, to all peoples. God's not going to discriminate based on ethnicity.
[00:20:14] We don't have to adopt the culture and the customs of the people. We simply embrace the person of Christ. Christ is the Savior of all people. The message is found right from the very beginning in God's promise to Abraham. So I know we read the Bible and you read about the children of Israel and you read about the nation of Israel, and those are all powerful things, you know. And I believe they're God's people. But I also believe that the people of God ultimately are not driven by ethnicity. The people of God are people who are people that are trusting in God's promises. So it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are. Actually, when we get to heaven, I love this because there's a text in the book of Revelation says there's going to be people from every language and tongue, every ethnicity is going to be in heaven. Isn't that beautiful? So God is, you know, has no. He's not a discriminatory person. He's bringing everybody in who will put their faith and trust in Him. I love that about him, you know.
[00:21:13] So what was really happening in Galatia was that the agitators were probably pointing out Genesis 17 a couple chapters later that Abraham as a believer was circumcised. Therefore, circumcision was an evidence of true faith. So that was their argument, and it sounded quite logical to them. But then Paul brings them to that earlier verse of scripture in chapter 15, and he said, listen simply, he says this.
[00:21:41] Let me go back and say this. He said, Abraham believed the Lord and accredited to him as righteousness. In other words, as far as Paul was concerned, Abraham's faith was the reason why he was declared in right relationship with God, not because he was circumcised. Abraham had already belonged to God before he was circumcised. Then why did God establish circumcision as an identity marker in Genesis 17? It's a great question.
[00:22:10] I think it was an outward visible identification marker. Paul will argue throughout Galatians that the real identity marker now for the true follower of Christ is not outward things. I'm going to explain to you what the true identity marker is. It's the manifestation of God's Spirit in our lives. It's the work of the Spirit in our lives. And you see it throughout the book of Galatians. Some of us may wonder, why are we making all this fuss? Or how does this apply to us? Why have you spent so much time trying to explain this distinction between law and just believing God and trusting in Him? Because the answer is very profound. I'll tell you why. Many people struggle with how the gospel and their national identity can work together. Others feel inferior and others act like the gospel. And maybe it's for Western culture, because I've worked in other cultures and sometimes they say, well, that's just your culture's religion. See, that's what they're thinking. I go, no, it's for everybody. You know, for others, the issue is how does faith and law tie together? Where's this relationship between the two? Is God against the law? I don't think so, but let's take a look at how it fits together. John Piper basically says this Galatians has such a radical life change changing message in that it pronounces a curse from God not on atheistic or agnostic outsiders, but on professing Christians who are trying to serve God in a way that diminishes the grace and cultivates their own pride. What is he saying? He's saying sometimes that what we're trying to do is we're trying to perform before God. We're trying to save ourselves, we're trying to do the things necessary. And the gospel is really opposite to that. What God is asking us to do is trust him implicitly, follow him and do what he's asking us to do. Not out of performance, but out of a response, in obedience to what he's sharing with us. Let me just move to the second point. I only got two is the path that leads to a curse. To live under law means that you're under a curse because what happens then is you have to live by the law. And the problem, as Gordon Fee points out, is that you cannot live by faith because the law is not based on faith.
[00:24:22] Not only that, here's what I've discovered. If you and I try to follow every single rule in the Old Testament, we're going to mess up.
[00:24:33] You know, I've discovered one thing about all of us, including myself. None of us are righteous. We all sin. And the moment you do that, the whole weight of the law comes against you. Now you're in trouble, you're a law breaker, and now you're going to have to answer to the law. That's problematic. Okay, here's what he says. All who rely on observing the law are under curse, for it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. I Actually read this verse. This is actually a quote from Deuteronomy. It was the very last verse in that whole list of curse. And I got to that one, I went, whoa. It basically said, if I don't obey everything the law says, I'm in trouble. And I went, I'm in trouble.
[00:25:17] Not only am I in trouble, I'm going, we're in trouble because you know what? We mess up. And the moment you do that, you're in trouble. Keep reading. It says here, clearly no one is justified before God by the law. Because now, as Paul quotes the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, the righteous will live by faith, verse 12. The law is not based on faith. On the contrary, the man who does these things will live by them.
[00:25:46] That's why we need deliverance from the law. And that's what Jesus came to do. This is what Good Friday is about. Let me just now summarize to those under law that we might receive adoption to sonship. Christ came to redeem us or to set us free from the curse of the law and the law's consequence, which is death.
[00:26:09] How does he do that? He becomes the curse. This is amazing to me. So here's the first man in the garden. He sins against God. He can't keep the law. Then you go into Deuteronomy and Numbers, where the Israelites as a nation are wandering through the wilderness. They're given the law, they break the law. And all along in the Bible, you have one story of transgression after another until you get to our lives. And every one of us has to discover somewhere down the journey that we are in need of a Savior because we're transgressors of the law.
[00:26:45] That's what happens. And we feel the guilt and shame and the alienation. We don't feel we're worthy. All these things happen to us. Then he goes on here, he says, Christ redeemed us or, you know, purchased us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hung on a pole. I read that at the beginning. I was just quoting Deuteronomy. That's what Paul's doing. He's quoting Deuteronomy. He's showing you if you are, you know, crucified, you're cursed by God.
[00:27:15] He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive what?
[00:27:25] The promise of the Spirit. So what does God say? Okay, here's what I'm going to tell you, we've already did the experiment. We've made a covenant. Here's the law. Try keeping it. We've all failed. God goes, you know what? I know you can't do it. So I'm going to do something else. I'm going to bring a new covenant. I'm going to write my laws in your heart, and I'm going to empower you by my spirit. I'm going to give you the ability to do the right thing. I'm going to do more than that. God says, I'm going to change your heart so that you're going to want to do the right thing. And I'm going to give you the power to do the right thing. That's impressive. Only God could do that. That's how powerful the gospel really is. It changes us. Notice what Paul's saying. It is the receiving of the Spirit, that is the fulfillment of promise made to Abraham. And this is Paul's understanding of how the promise has been fulfilled. Jews and Gentiles are now brought together through Jesus Christ. So he says, in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There's neither Jew nor Gentile. He's eliminating all distinctions now. I love this. The moment you become a Christian, the distinctions are removed, you know, because I think as society, we have all these distinctions. He says, no, no, we're all the same in the sight of God. Gender is no longer an issue. You know, our whole culture's caught up in gender. I'm going to tell you what's the good news. You just got to come to Jesus, and then gender's not an issue. How's that? Neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. In other words, you're going to inherit everything God promises.
[00:29:07] Pretty good. Well, then, Walter Hansen says Paul interprets the promise of all Gentiles and Abraham as a prophecy of what actually happened in his mission to the Gentiles. Gordon Feast says, we struggle with Paul's argument that law counts for nothing.
[00:29:25] It had its day. There was a time God gave us a law, but it was really to teach us, number one, who God was, what he required of us, what the right kind of behavior was, how we should live together in harmony. But we couldn't do it. And that basically God's going to judge based on Law.
[00:29:46] But it had its day because it couldn't save us from our guilt and shame and sin. As a matter of fact, Paul says, is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? No. If a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.
[00:30:04] If God's law could give you and I the power to do what's right, we would have life. But it says it's powerless to do that. All it can do is point out what's wrong with us. It can't help us to do what's right. And let me tell you so Christ himself brings an end to the day of the law. How do we understand Christ's teaching then on the Sermon of the Mount? Because Jesus sets up very profound in Matthew chapter 17. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
[00:30:38] So what does that mean? What is Jesus saying? He's saying he came to fulfill the law and the prophets so that the law is no longer needed as a guide or a school teacher. And the law's purpose was to lead us to Christ. So we don't need that teaching, the law for that purpose any longer.
[00:30:58] It is in Christ that the law is fulfilled. The prophets promised a time when the Messiah would come, and he's come. The law promised a time when a new covenant would come and fulfill the old one. And it has in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, so for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. I love this verse. And what's that?
[00:31:24] Love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know, I keep saying this to people. The end of our faith should be producing love.
[00:31:33] And if you love God and you love people, that's the true level of maturity in the Christian life, love. See, Christianity is about loving. It's a very powerful thing. I love that about it. And you know, when I, when I see, you know, Christians running around, they're angry and they're frustrated and they're hating. I go, whoa, stop it.
[00:31:55] Because you don't understand. What the Gospel is all about is to produce a faith that makes you a more loving person.
[00:32:04] That's the question I have to ask of myself. Am I becoming a more loving person?
[00:32:09] Look at what Paul says to the Galatians. He said, but the result of the Spirit or the fruit, the result of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against there is what? There's no law. What do you mean is no law? What he's saying is you are now living above the law. It means if you live like this, you won't be breaking laws. You'll be doing even more than what the law requires. You see, the law is a lower standard. Jesus is calling us to a higher standard.
[00:32:42] Wow, let's keep going here.
[00:32:47] The law has a limited understanding of righteousness. It teaches us not to steal. But the Spirit says, it's more than a matter of not stealing. It's learning how to give to those in need. That's why the law is so easy. You see, a lot of people think, well, I'll just follow the law. Well, it's really easy to do. Just don't do this. But the Spirit says, no, not only don't you do that, you're actually doing this. It's a higher level. That's what he's saying.
[00:33:14] Do those limiting things and you're in. In other words, the law is saying, the Spirit says, no, no, you got to walk by the Spirit. Let your life express the fruit of the Spirit. Who wants to express long suffering? In other words, how many know that's a lot harder to do than just, you know, not doing something bad? Actually living at this high level is far harder, isn't it? The law brings rigidity and legalism. The Church keeps redefining law, thereby rejecting the Spirit, according to Gordon Fee. And I think that's true. So what is the purpose of the law? Why then was the law given? Paul says it was added because of sin transgression. Until the seed, that's Christ, to whom the promise referred, had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. A mediator, however, implies more than one party. But God is one. Is the law, therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not. For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin. So what was the promises being given through faith in Christ Jesus might be given to those who believe. Therefore, the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.
[00:34:29] Before the coming of this faith, we were held, okay, under a guardian. So the law was given because by nature human beings are sinners. And we needed to understand the nature and the character of God. And we needed to understand what healthy moral boundaries were.
[00:34:50] You know, ultimately we needed to understand our own sinfulness.
[00:34:55] And we needed to know we needed a Savior. You know, that's probably the biggest struggle people have today right there. And I'm going to tell you why. You see, I think the law is to bring us to the end of ourselves and teach us that God's promise of a messiah, a savior would come. And I think the problem in our culture is that we don't see ourselves as sinners.
[00:35:14] It's true.
[00:35:15] We have redefined ourselves in cultural terms today that speak of personal issues as either illness or dysfunction.
[00:35:24] That's how we define culture today. Therefore, we remove any moral responsibility for our present condition and we make ourselves all victims and we give ourselves permission to continue on in this behavior that's self destructive and it affects other people in a negative way. And we then quickly begin to blame the past for our current struggles. Is anybody noticing all of these things? That's exactly what's happening. What we're struggling with is in fact that we're overwhelmed by our world and we're wondering as to the meaning and purpose of our lives. And we often struggle in futility and we say, what's the purpose of it all? A lot of people feel there's, you know, there's no purpose.
[00:36:07] Purpose is what gives people, you and I included, enabling grace to handle life's darkest and most difficult moments. And that purpose is found in knowing and serving God. And we still need to be set free from sin and its devastating impacts in all of our lives.
[00:36:28] So do you and I know who we are?
[00:36:32] Do you understand your identity?
[00:36:35] Do you know that you belong to God?
[00:36:38] It's not about performance, it's about trust.
[00:36:42] When someone asks me about good works and I've been asked this question just recently, it's real simple good works. Going to church, being religious doesn't save you.
[00:36:54] It's simply what saves a person. What brings us freedom in our lives is simply putting our trust in Christ.
[00:37:03] And when we fully trust Christ, good works flow from our lives.
[00:37:08] I think the issue is one of motivation. Am I trying to please God out of obligation or in response to his love? Big difference. See, I don't feel like I'm performing for God.
[00:37:21] I feel like, you know what? I have the privilege of loving him and loving people. To me, it's a privilege, it's a joy. I'm doing it because I'm responding to God's love in my life.
[00:37:36] See, I think the greatest need in every human being is to be loved unconditionally. That's what we're all looking for. And I want to just say to you tonight, God loves You unconditionally is that beautiful. And when you experience it, it changes you. I believe love changes people.
[00:37:54] And to me, God is love.
[00:37:59] God is love. And when you meet God, you're going to know what unconditional love is. So let's stand as we close.
[00:38:11] I know this was an unusual message, but I thought, you know, I want to look at this a little differently. I want you to see that Jesus was actually cursed by his Father. That's why the heavens got dark. And, you know, that's why Jesus wrestled in Gethsemane and said, it's got to be another way. And so he drank a cup, and it was really the cup of God's judgment. He took the sin of our entire world. And at that moment in the cross, he of all people, made a statement. Others may have felt it, but Jesus experienced it. And what was that?
[00:38:46] God forsook him. Because at that moment on the cross, he became sin. And all of God's directed anger against all sin came against Christ.
[00:38:59] I think it's an amazing thing. God created humanity. God is saving humanity.
[00:39:04] Isn't that beautiful? God said, if you do these things, this is what will happen to you. But I know you can't save yourself, so I'll come and save you.
[00:39:15] What an amazing Savior.
[00:39:18] That's why we love him. That's why we serve Him.
[00:39:22] That's why this isn't a hardship. This is a joy and a delight to serve him.
[00:39:28] So, Father, as we close tonight, may our hearts open up to you and say, lord, I want to know this love. It's a love that changes me. It's a transforming love.
[00:39:39] It's the greatest need in my life to be loved unconditionally. And only one person that can love me like that, not even my mother can love me like that. Not even my dad.
[00:39:50] Not even my spouse, my children, my parents. The one who loves me unconditionally is you. And you alone.
[00:39:59] And you died for me. And I pray today as we hear these words that something inside of our soul will respond and say, I long to be loved like that. And when I experience that love, it brings transformation in my heart. It changes me. And I begin to believe in you and trust you. And I know that you're good and that you're loving. And when you say something and you promise something, you always follow through on it because you're faithful and true. There's one thing I've discovered in all of these years walking with you. You've never lied.
[00:40:34] And your word is more important to me. Than all these other things. I see. Because you know what? Your word is true.
[00:40:41] Your word is eternal. And your word will never let us down. We thank you for that.
[00:40:47] So I pray tonight that we'll respond to your love. We'll just say, lord, I want that love. And if that's the cry of our heart, we just say, lord, I really want to know your love. I want to know you, the lover of my soul. I pray today that we will cry out to you and experience that divine love that brings about change in our lives. And we thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave tonight.
