Free in Christ
Free Indeed • Sermon • Submitted
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· 1 viewThe Bible shows that God is a promise keeping God and his promises are fulfilled in Christ.
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Introduction
Introduction
Chapters 1-2: We looked at what the gospel is:
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.
When people trust Jesus, what’s true of him becomes true of us.
But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
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.
So now, it’s not based on what you do that makes you part of the family of God, but who you believe in, who you have faith in.
THat’s what Paul begins to break down in chapter 4 and 5.
So, what did this mean for me and you?
What Jesus did has massive shockwave as to who can become part of God’s family.
But what does that mean for me?
Promises - I don’t tend to promise people things. Even if people ask if I can do a favour for them, I generally say: “Depends”
Paul takes us through a history lesson through the Old Testament
God’s Promise with Abraham
God’s Promise with Abraham
God’s promises shows us the necessity of faith. Vs. 1-5
God’s promises shows us the necessity of faith. Vs. 1-5
How can God accept me/you? Only if I trust in Jesus Christ. I cannot be saved by anything I do; I can be saved only by what Jesus did when he died on the cross and rose from the dead.
The Galatians needed to see that they received the Spirit by faith, not by the worlds of the Law.
Paul gives 6 rapid-fire questions, but verse 2 sums it up:
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Galatians need to see that they received the Spirit by faith, not by the works of the law.
Paul introduces Abraham to get his point across.
If you’re going to bring up the Law, I’m bringing in the big guns.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 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.”
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Think about who Abraham was?
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 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.”
God promises to bless Abraham.
God promises to bless Abraham.
Gen
God promises to bless Abraham. Keep in mind he didn’t deserve it.
By Grace Alone, God Blesses His People
Pagan man -> God comes to him
Paul quotes Genesis 15:6:
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
You need to see that at this point in the story, Abraham didn’t have an heir. Sarah unable to have kids.
Abraham doesn’t make a promise with God —> God makes a promise with Abrham
Abraham’s story reminds us that by grace alone, God blesses his people.
God Extends His grace to Abraham, this grace is expressed in radical promises. Abraham’s offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
This promise wasn’t about Abraham and Sarah: It was about God, his grace and his promises.
How did Abraham receive this blessing?
Grace is not earned. Abraham simply believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. He didn’t do anything; he believed something. Or better, someone.
Imagine that a wealthy man offered you and your family a house in Barbados - no payment, no strings attached, and you can use it whenever you want. It’s not only that you don’t have to do anything to receive this promises; you can’t do anything to help this wealthy man fulfill it. The only thing you can do is trust the promise, namely, That when you go to Barbados, there will be a house, and it will have your name on it. Through believing, you will receive. This is what Abraham was doing. He was trusting in God, knowing that he will keep his promises.
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Verse 6: Abraham received this blessing not by what he did, but by who he had his faith in. His actions followed his faith and were an outpouring of it.
Abraham received this blessing not by what he did, but by who he had his faith in. His actions followed his faith and were an outpouring of it.
Verse 6: Abraham received this blessing not by what he did, but by who he had his faith in. His actions followed his faith and were an outpouring of it.
Faith - faith alone! Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Believe God, and it will be credited to you as righteousness.
God’s Promise with Moses Verses
God’s Promise with Moses Verses
That’s all? you ask. That’s all! “But doesn’t that lead to loose living?” The Bible talks about that too.
What happened after Abraham’s faith was credited as righteousness in Genesis 15:6?
As Paul points to that Abraham’s faith is expressed in radical obedience.
Application: We often don’t live radical lives because we don’t have faith. People who are saved by grace alone through faith alone don’t sit back and indulge in sin and the ways of everyone around them. Why? Because they believe God. They’re not only saved by grace through faith, but they also live by grace through faith. And they risk everything because they know that God is good, that he is sufficient, and that He satisfies. Abraham new that he was just a “foreigners and temporary resident on the earth. He was seeking a homeland and God was not ashamed to be called their God. , ,
Righteousness only comes by faith in Christ, and that frees us. And Faith is given by God. It’s the kind of faith that comes through His grace, and it leads to radical obedience. The next section of Galatians in chapters 5 and 6 tell us this. WE need God to show us how to put grace, faith , and obedience together so that we don’t waste our lives on the things of this world, all the while thinking and claiming to believe in grace.
Look, Paul is saying to the Galatians. These False Teachers have it all wrong. Abraham was saved because of his faith in the promises of God, not in what he did. His faith was counted to him as righteousness. And that faith moved him to obedience.
Transition: God’s promise with Abraham shows us the need to have faith and God is a promise keeping God. Paul moves into how God’s promise to Abraham doesn’t contradict the promise with Moses, it’s complements it.
God’s Promise with Moses
God’s Promise with Moses
When we look at the the promises God made with Moses, we need to understand the purpose of the law:
God’s law shows us the futility of the flesh.
Paul is talking about the Law of Moses: Moral, ceremonial, and civil laws. Not the whole Bible.
In verse 10 Paul begins to take about the law:
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
What can the law do? Can’t bring life. Can’t bring Salvation
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Oh foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?
So if the Law can save you. If it can’t give you life. What is it for you ask?
Paul gets to that in verse 19:
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
The Law was given to show us our futility, weakness, and our limitations. Apart from Christ, I am nothing. That is what the law show us. It shows the weakness of my flesh.
My flesh tells me, “I’m the authority in my life. I call the shorts, I know what’s best, I do what I want to do, and don’t tell me any different.” This is what Adam and Eve did. The Law was given to show us how desperately we needed to be saved, that my very nature was sinful.
We need grace because we all disobey the Law of God
In our flesh, we all disobey the law of God. That’s what Paul is saying back in verse 10:
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Paul is quoting all the way back in the Old Testament, saying that the law demands obedience, perfect obedience. The Law is a bright shinning light on us that points out it the most amazing way that we aren’t perfect.
The purpose of the Law is to expose our sin.
The law doesn’t make us sinners, it exposes what is already there.
Illustration about asking Kids to do something and they say no. The command brings the disobedient heart to the surface. The Law of God exposes the sinful heart in each of us.
Not only does the law of God expose the sin, but it intensifies our sin. Verse 19 again say the law was added, “because of our transgressions”
The law is not sinful; it’s good. It’s holy and just and good ()
And that’s what Paul points out to us, that the two promises complement each other. One shows us that it’s only by faith that we are saved. The other shows us of our desperate need.
GOSPEL MOVE: What is the result of our sin and our disobedience? We deserve the wrath of God. It’s not good to be confronted by sin in the presence of a holy God, a God who has no sin and is wholly dead set again. It’s why the gospel is so offensive. It tells us we are wrong, and compares us to the holiness of God. The law causes us to tremble before the wrath of God.
A pastor said it this way: The main point of the law is to make men not better but worse; that is to say, it sheweth unto them their sin, that by the knowledge thereof they may be humbled, terrified, bruised and broken, and by this means may be driven to seek grace. (Luther)
When Sharing the Gospel: A great way, start with the Ten Commandments.
Read them off: How are you doing with that? If you’re a Christian or not? How are you doing with that?
We need grace because we stand cursed beneath the law - The magnitude of this statement should come across to us as if an announcement had just been made that 100 nuclear warheads were headed right for this country. Each of us stands under the curse of the law, the law given by the sovereign judge of the universe.
The Law was given to remind us that we are cursed under the judgement of God because we fail to do everything written in the book of the law.
The Law shows we stand condemned before God. What does ever sin deserve? Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.”
So, if you are going to stand before God based on how you are doing, you are furthering your condemnation. The more you try to obey it - the more you go to church, the more you try to pray, the more you try to be good, the more you try to lead your family the right way - The more the law says, “Guilty”
So how are you feeling? Helpless? That’s the point. Don’t you see that. That why God gave the law: to show us we can’t get it right. And that’s why we need the law.
We are in desperate need of a Saviour to deliver us from the curse and condemnation and wrath that is due our disobedience and the futility and rebellion of our flesh.
Verse 22 says we have no hope, no way of breaking free on our own.
Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
So lets pause a bit here: We’ve taken a look at God’s promise with Abraham, where God’s promise shows us the necessity of faith. THen we looked at the promise with Moses, were the law shows us that our flesh, sinful nature, is futile.
But here is the final promise. This is the grand “But” statement that Paul breaks out for us.
Application:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
God’s Promise through Christ.
God’s Promise through Christ.
By Jesus death on the cross, God’s son shows us the price of freedom. Everything in the Old Testament was building to this reality.
Did you catch that statement in verse 19: “because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made...”
So who is the offspring?
Look at verse 16:
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.
The Law was temporary. It was given until something else or Someone else would come. The Mosaic law, with all it’s ceremonies and rituals and its priests, and sacrifices, was given until Christ Came. Everything that the Law was shouting, “Look to Christ!”
Jesus Obeyed the law of God for us. Jesus shows us that the law is good, for he fulfilled it completely. Only Jesus’ righteousness is sufficient before God.
Jesus
Jesus endured the wrath of God instead of us:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Galatians
He redeemed us.
Gospel Move: There we sit, chained by sin, curse beneath the law, condemned before God forever. There’s nothing we can do. But then we look at Jesus. Perfectly righteous. No condemnation. Al lamb without blemish or defect. And he says, “I’ll take the curse for you.” That’s the beautiful of those words, “for us in verse 13. Such beautiful words. Literally, Christ become a curse instead of us. He was hung on a tree, cursed by God, for us. He shed his blood and endured God’s wrath and condemnation for us.
Explain G.O.S.P.E.L.
How in the world do I respond to this?
Rock of Ages
The law drives us to our faces to say with Paul:
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 7:
Jesus takes the curse of the law upon himself. If we believe in his promise.
Through believing and trusting in Jesus, we become children of Abraham, the people of God. Abraham was justified by faith in the promise of God, and that promise, ever since the beginning pointed to Christ. So Christ’s complete faithfulness and obedience is counted to us and we receive the blessings of Abraham as Children of God.
So What? Who Cares?
So What? Who Cares?
Here’s the main point I want you to get: The Bible shows that God is a promise keeping God and his promises are fulfilled in Christ.
First thing, you can’t unhitch the Old Testament. THe Old Testament and the New Testament show the same God and tell the same gospel.
It’s better to be confronted with the holiness of God on this side of the grave than the other. Repent and believe.
The God of the BIble is a promise keeping God. When I read the promises, I know he will keep them.
This should form our worship, our serving, our interactions, and sends us out, because this is good news.
Who Cares?
Reflection Questions:
Reflection Questions:
Why is it important for Christians to study the Old Testament? What are some of the dangers of ignoring the Old Testament?
How did God’s promise to Abraham highlight the need for faith?
What is the relationship between faith and obedience?