The Cry of Salvation

Scripture passage: Galatians 2:16-21

Galatians 2:16–21 ESV

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Introduction

The fifth book in the History of Redemption series has six parts, and in the first part we have three chapters. The first chapter talks about the creation of man. The second talks about the fall. And this morning we look at the third, which is entitled ‘Salvation and Covenant.’ Adam has sinned and is now hiding from the presence of the Lord somewhere in the garden with his wife, loincloths made of fig leaves. This is what sin does. Sin causes us to have guilt and shame.

Guilt is the remorse I feel from having violated the moral standard; shame is feeling that I don’t belong or that I won’t be accepted because of who I am as a person.

Guilt tells us that we need to hide from the Lord, lest we be punished for our sins. Shame tells us that we need to cover up from God and from each other, lest we be exposed for who we are and are kicked out from the group.

But all of that changes when God calls out, ‘el ha-adam?’ (Where are you?).

Genesis 3:9 ESV

But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

And this word for God calling out is ‘qara’, meaning to call out with a loud voice.

When Jonah was sleeping in the ship, the captain comes, shakes him awake, and says ‘cry out to your God!’

The Lord cried out like this for His beloved son. This cry from the Lord kickstarted the entire history of redemption.

Adam and Eve came to God, and God gave them two things. God gave a covenant, and as a guarantee of this covenant, God clothed them in garments of skin. And from that moment on, there would be two kinds of people. You were either in Adam, or you were in Christ. And in the end, we will all stand before God one day in the final judgement. The question is, would we be clothed appropriately before the Lord God Almighty? Would we be wearing fig leaves, or the garments that are acceptable? Jesus warns us that he who is dressed inappropriately for the wedding banquet will be cast out.

Matthew 22:11–13 ESV

“But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Garments of Skin

Genesis 3:21 ESV

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

The word for garment here is ketonet, which refers to a long garment that covers the body from the top down to the knees, much like a robe. The priests serving in the Tabernacle and Temple wore a ketonet. And the length of the ketonet stands in stark contrast to the loincloths of fig leaves, which covered only the essentials. This shows us that those who believe in the covenant are fully covered from their guilt and shame. They are absolutely protected from the thorns and thistles of the ground, even though now because of their sin the ground is cursed to bear thorns and thistles.

The garments were made of skin. The Hebrew word for skin is or, and means skin or leather. And so this tells us that an animal had to die in order to clothe them. Jacob wore Esau’s garments in order for Isaac to recognize him as his favorite son, and to receive the covenantal blessing. And likewise, we must be covered with Jesus Christ Himself. That is the only way for us to come to the Father, to receive the blessing of the covenant, the blessing of salvation.

Romans 13:14 ESV

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

How can we put on Jesus Christ? We must trust in the blood of Jesus that He shed for us.

Revelation 7:13–14 ESV

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 22:14 ESV

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.

So what about those who do not receive Jesus Christ? If they are not in Christ, they are in Adam. And the Apostle Paul describes them as being under the law.

Being “under the law”

Galatians 3:23 ESV

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

What is the law? In the Old Testament, the law comprises of the 613 rules given by God to the people from Exodus to Deuteronomy. To be under the law is thus to relate to God by way of the law, to come before God only on account of your obedience to God’s law. And this is what it means to be in Adam and not in Christ. Why? Because God gave Adam the command in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and keep the garden (Gen. 2:16-17). It was a covenant of works, and accordingly a salvation by works.

To be under the law is to be under sin

The Galatian church had been led astray by false teachers who taught that you needed to be circumcised in order to be saved. What does he say? He calls them fools.

Galatians 3:1 ESV

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

If we think we can obey God’s law by sheer willpower, then we too are fools.

Galatians 3:22 ESV

But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

And this how the Apostle Paul describes it. To be held captive under the law is to be held captive under sin. The Greek word here means to be completely bound and confined, and describes our helplessness in light of God’s glory. We can’t live up to it. Our sinful selves cannot stand before a holy God.

The law is such a law that Adam failed to keep it, though innocent; how, then, shall you keep it while imperfect?

Charles Spurgeon

To be under the law is to be under the elementary things of the world

Galatians 4:3 ESV

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

Why does he call the law the ‘elementary principles’? If he calls it the elementary principles, then that means there is a higher understanding of the law, and without that higher understanding we are under the law. In his words, we are enslaved. What does this mean? What does it mean to be enslaved to the law? We are enslaved to something when that thing tells them who they are at their core.

A person might be enslaved to their business because they identify with economic success rather than the One who blessed his business. A pastor or evangelist might be enslaved to his ministry because he identifies with the size of his congregation rather than the God of the church.

Now what if we focus only on obeying the law? It means that we will either be really proud people or really guilty people. Either we’ll be so big headed because we’ve done better than everyone else, or we’ll be filled with despair because we can’t live up to expectations. We’ll either be the prodigal son who runs and hides, or we’ll be the stuck-up elder brother. In both cases, none can stand before the holy God.

To be under the law is to be under a tutor

Galatians 3:24 (ESV)

So then, the law was our tutor until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

The Apostle Paul calls the law our tutor, our paidagogos. Back then, the young heirs of a wealthy family would have a tutor to educate them until they were mature. And if the law is our tutor, then the lessons are twofold. First, as we’ve seen, the law teaches us that we are sinners in need of a Savior. If we are in Adam, if we relate to God through our works, then the law exposes our good works as nothing but fig leaves.

The false teachers in Galatia were like the swindlers in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. And the law is like the child who points at the Emperor as he parades down the city and says, ‘Isn’t he naked?’

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Second, as our tutor, the law teaches us about the identity of our Savior. How? The law of God flows from God’s very own character. And so to study the law of God is to study the very heart of God, to know who He is and what He does. He is the God who cares for the marginalized, who cares about the widow and the orphan. And so through the law, we can recognize He who fulfills the law.

Galatians 4:4 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

Jesus came, born of a woman, born under the law, and Jesus fulfilled the law in two ways. First, He lived according to the law without sin. After all, He is the lawgiver Himself. The great irony, then, is that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time knew the law so well, but didn’t recognize Jesus.

So in that sense, we can say that Jesus Christ, Charlie Chaplin, and Dolly Parton have something in common. All of them entered their own lookalike contests, and none of them won.

Next, Jesus fulfilled the law by paying the debt of sin on our behalf. Those who are in Adam have to pay their own debt to God in the eternal fire of hell. But those who are in Christ have had their sins nailed to the cross and paid for with the priceless blood of Jesus the very Son of God.

Any view of the death of Christ which does not put it specifically and primarily in terms of the Law of God is a misinterpretation of His death.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones

And so the law teaches us that Jesus lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died.

Conclusion: The Covenant Cry of God

When Adam sinned in the garden, God began the History of Redemption with a cry, ‘Where are you?’ That cry echoed throughout the generations, and found it’s response in Jesus Christ, who took our place on the cross and cried out to God in Mark 15:34, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In other words, “Where are you?”

Jesus died on that cross bearing our sins, bearing our guilt and shame, and because of His death we can stand before God, clothed in righteousness by faith alone. It must be faith alone, and faith in Jesus alone. No one else.

So this morning as we pray, let us pray for the people we know who are still under the law, who have yet to find faith in Jesus. Let us pray that they realize the truth of their spiritual condition, come out of hiding, and come back to the God who’s crying out for them.