Transformation not Separation

Big Idea: saved by transformation not separation - the end of the Law, which separated Jews for their holiness, is ultimately only death. Transformation only comes through resurrection in Christ.

Intro me

We’re working our way though a small letter in the Bible written to a group of churches in Galatia which is modern day Turkey. It’s a letter written by the guy who started those churches, the apostle Paul, one of Jesus’ first followers. He’s writing because there’s “trouble at mill,” as Monty Python would say: not the Spanish inquisition, but a serious problem none the less: those churches are in danger of swapping the truth of the gospel for another message - one which is really no gospel at all. They’re in danger of swapping the good news of God’s grace for bad news of ticking boxes and trying harder.

Today’s passage is the transition between Paul’s re-telling of his own story - which we’ve been looking at for the past few weeks - and his big beef with these Galatian Christians he’s writing to - which is up next. He’s told them how he went from persecutor to preacher, how he got his message from Jesus himself, how he was accepted by the Jerusalem church leaders who “added nothing” to his message — and last week we talked through his run-in with Peter. Peter’s actions were undermining what Paul called “the truth of the gospel”: that the only way to be justified (that is, declared in the right by God), the only way to be justified is through faith in Jesus Christ. Peter’s actions were making it look like there were other boxes you had to tick, other things required to earn that thumbs up.

Now it’s not precisely clear where Paul stops recounting his sharp words to Peter, and where he starts talking directly to these Galatian Christians. In our Bible translation we have in front of us, this whole section is in quotation marks but the ancient Greek manuscripts we’re translating from don’t have any quotes in them anywhere at all - they didn’t write them down so we have to figure it out. And different scholars have different opinions on quite where Paul stops talking to Peter and starts talking to these Galatians - so if you can see that tiny footnote ‘e’ at the end of verse 21, that’s what the footnote will tell you. Of course, it doesn’t massively matter whether it’s Peter or the Galatians Paul is talking to because we believe the Bible, rightly understood, is God talking to us. That’s why we sometimes call it “God’s Word”.

Listen with me to this short next section and let’s see what God has to say to us today. It’s a bit of a tricky section to get our heads around so we’re going to read it twice to help us with that, reading two different English translations from the same original ancient Greek. First we’ll read the NIV translation which we think does a great job overall - that’s the one in our blue bibles here - then we’ll read the same passage the New Living Translation - which tries to explain things a bit more, so it’s less word-for-word from the Greek and more thought-for-thought is the theory. I think it’s helpful here.

Ruth’s our reader this morning - come with me to Galatians 2 and we’ll start at v17. Page 1169. Galatians 2, beginning at verse 17 if you want to follow along.

Galatians 2:17–21 NIV

“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Galatians 2:17–21 NLT

But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

Thanks Ruth.

Separation’s no Solution

The Law, the Jewish Law, the Torah as it’s called, separated Jew from Gentile - that’s non-Jews - and that separation was the big issue leading to this bust-up: In what was the first seriously multicultural church, in a place called Antioch, Paul is fighting for what he calls in v14 “the truth of the Gospel” - he’s fighting for a church united by, and living out the truth that every Christian, Jew or Gentile, is justified through faith in Christ, not by keeping that Jewish Law - last week we saw we can’t even allow our conduct to suggest anything else is required (like Peter was doing by separating himself from those who didn’t keep this Law).

To get our heads around today’s passage we’re going to have to think some more about this Jewish Law. Their Law, which told them how to live in great detail - how to plough their fields, how to cut their hair - it finds its roots in God’s declaration to ancient Israel “be holy as I am holy”.

Leviticus 11:45 NIV

I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

Leviticus 20:26 NIV

You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

“Holy” is not an easy word to define. It has a root meaning of set apart, separated - there’s this line between holy and ordinary, between special and not. The Jews were to be set apart, separated from other nations. To achieve that, the Law kept them away from the unholy things around them in the world; it kept them away from the unholy peoples around them in the world. It forced their conduct, their lives, to be different. It was like a wall around them. If you kept the Law, you’d be separated, set apart. You’d be “holy”

But if there’s one thing we learn from the long story of the Jewish people laid out for us in the first part of the Bible, in the Old Testament, it is that this Law didn’t work. By that, I mean it didn’t result in a holy people, a people like God. The Jews were separated - mostly, at least - but you couldn’t watch how they behaved and call them holy. Our family have been reading recently about King David, in some ways the highpoint of the Jewish people. We’ve been reading about how he killed a man and stole his wife - and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It turns out the Jews separating themselves from the unholy outside of them didn’t solve their biggest problem: what to do with the unholiness inside.

Solzhenitsyn, who suffered terribly through the Russian gulag, reflects on this problem:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

And he’s right - that’s the problem here - not just unholiness outside, but unholiness inside too. Separating themselves from others wasn’t enough.

So what should we make of all this “be holy” stuff, of the Jewish Law? Was it just something God tried out which turned out not to work? Did our deep brokenness, the fact that we have unholiness inside, catch him by surprise? No! Our creator knows us - we don’t surprise him. The Law did exactly what God meant it to do. And one of the things it was meant to do was to set a standard, a target, a bullseye - and show us just how wide we are of the mark; show us there are any number of things that we should be - but cannot be. The Law demonstrates our problem: we’re only fit to be separated from God, not holy like God. The Law demonstrates our problem - but it’s not our solution.

But if that’s the case, once the Law’s done it’s work of showing us our problem, are we done with it? Without the Law, or some law, how are God’s people going to holy because their God is holy? That’s where today’s passage picks up - that’s the concern it seems Paul is responding to as his argument continues: if you look to Jesus, and let go of the Jewish Law as the way to be holy, won’t you let go of all holiness along with it?

Here’s how the New Living Translation puts it again, spelling it out a little more for us:

Galatians 2:17 NLT

But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!

No! No-one’s saying nothing really matters any more; we can’t be holy so whatever. So how do you live right? The answer, at least to this intimidating circumcision group that we met last week, seems obvious “only by taking up that Law again” - and that seems to be the problematic impulse that this whole letter we’re working through is written to address: the concern of how to be holy as the people of God, and the response of taking on the Jewish Law again - or any other law, any other set of rules. ‘Cause rules don’t work - they didn’t work for the Jews, and they don’t work for us. Paul says picking up the Law again is just going to make us law breakers like before. That only leads to failure and condemnation. The Law shows us the problem, it’s not the solution:

Galatians 2:18–19 (NLT)

Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me.

So what is the solution, then? Knowing what’s wrong doesn’t make doing what’s right any easier. Knowing what’s right doesn’t stop us wanting what’s wrong. The Law - and our own rules we make up - are great at showing us we don’t measure up, that we miss the mark - but no good at changing that. What’s the solution? We don’t just need a new Law, we need a new life. it’s Jesus’ death and resurrection - and our participation in that, our sharing in that, which transforms us on the inside.

Resurrection not Rules

That’s what Paul tells us in this next verse:

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul says his old life - our old life - is done away with; that when we begin to follow Jesus, it’s like we actually died when he died for us, in our place, on the cross. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”. The Law’s like a judge declaring the sentence: “death” - that’s our due for all the wrong things we do, say and think. Jesus actually dies that death for us and then that life is actually finished. Game over. The role of the Law is completed: through the law we died to the law.

What comes next is a new life - but even though we’re dead to the law, it’s not a life where it doesn’t matter how we live, where we’re to be no different from before. What comes next is the new life where we begin to live for God - because Jesus begins to live within us. This isn’t a separation from the wrong things outside of us, this is about being separated from the wrong inside of us. We’re transformed as we begin to live a life of faith in thankful response to what Jesus has done, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

See there, by the way, that Jesus loved us and gave himself for us - past tense - that’s while we were still covered in the shame and guilt of all our wrongs, while the Law still had the sentence of death rightly hanging over us. Even there, even then, Jesus loved us. He doesn’t love us because we do so well, or try so hard, or have so much potential, or even we nearly made the grade - he loves us because he chooses to love us, to call us precious, to pour out his grace on us, giving us what we don’t deserve. I think that’s pretty hard to believe - because we know ourselves, we know what we’re capable of, what we’ve done. And no matter how many times L’Oreal tells us “you’re worth it”, we feel we’re not. But the Son of God loved me - and he loved you - and so he gave himself for us.

In the same way as we are somehow mysteriously united with him in his death on the cross - “I have been crucified with Christ” - we’re also united with him in his new resurrection life “Christ lives in me”. And although that might sound like I can just let go and let Jesus take the wheel, we also have this active sense right next to it: “I live” .. “I live by faith in the Son of God” - that is, I dare to act like this is true. That’s what living by faith is: daring to take step after step forward into life like this is all true. It’s resurrection we need not rules. The Law shows us the problem. Resurrection is the solution.

Now, I know it can sound quite mysterious to talk about being united with Christ - how does that work? What does that really mean? One of the ways it’s powerfully pictured for us is in baptism: Rom 6:3 tells us

Romans 6:3 NIV

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

we are united with him in his death - we go down into the water as he went down into the grave. The Law tells us we should die for who we are and what we’ve done. And, in Christ, we have. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”.

But that’s not the end of the story. Romans 6 continues: Rom 6:4-5

Romans 6:4–5 NIV

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We come up out of the water as Jesus came up out of the grave, emerging into new life “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”. That’s pretty cool, right? That’s why we’re excited as a church to baptise people who come believe the wonderful truth that it symbolises. So I should ask you right now: do you believe this truth? And if you do, have you been baptised? It’s a wonderful picture of the reality you’re experiencing - and it’s something Jesus commands us to do. So if you haven’t done it, why not? We love to baptise people and we haven’t had the chance for a while. Come speak to me or any of the leaders here, or click the button on the livestream, if that’s the right next step for you and we can get on and get it done!

And if you have been baptised, remember your baptism. The bible uses “remember” in a bit of an unusual fashion when speaking about God - not that he forgot so he needs to be reminded - but when God “remembers” something, that’s speaking about him bringing the reality of the past into the present. We can do the same thing with our baptism when we’re feeling the weight of our failures (because believe you me, followers of Jesus fail): remember we went down into the water, into the grave - I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. That sin, that guilt - we don’t have to carry it. Jesus paid it all - if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. How? Through Christ’s death and resurrection.

And we can do the same thing with our baptism when we don’t know the right way to go, or when we struggle to go the right way: I no longer live but Jesus Christ lives in me. Remember - bring into the present the truth that God himself is alive inside you by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you don’t feel the burning flame, perhaps it just seems an academic abstract truth. But it is truth none the less. When Paul says “the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God” he’s talking about the act of choosing to believe the truth his baptism pictures: that Christ died for him, that Christ lives in him. So remember your baptism.

But what about if you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian today? What would I say to you? You know there are things you ought to be, things you ought to do. I doubt it’s the Jewish Law that makes you feel that way - more likely the law you’ve set for yourself, your own expectations... You know in your heart you don’t measure up - law is doing its work, showing you the problem. Can I challenge you not to close your eyes to that? Instead, hunt for a solution. We believe Jesus is that solution and we’d love to help you explore that. Perhaps you know someone who takes Jesus seriously? Watch them, watch them closely. Does it look like a solution? Why not ask them more about how it really works in their life?

My time’s up so let me recap: The Law shows us the problem: we all miss the mark. Law shows us the problem, but it’s no solution because the problem’s inside of us. Transformation is the only solution. And followers of Jesus, we are in the process of being transformed, being resurrected, changed into what we were meant to be - holy and righteous, loving and kind, gracious and gentle, humble and true.

Let me pray that we will live this out by faith.

response song: Clean