Chapter Twenty: Our Law-ish Hearts, His Lavish Heart

I love how Ortlund begins this chapter, “There are two ways to live the Christian life. You can lie it either for the heart of Christ or from the heart of Christ. you can live for the smile of God or from it. You can live for the smile of God or from it. For a new identity as a son or daughter of God or from it. From your union with Christ or from it.” (181)

I grew up in a law-ish church where the focus on what you did, what you wore, and what you listened to. When you failed to live up to those standards, God was disappointed in you. It was almost like a Baptist version of penance, to be honest. It was very burdensome, similar to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”

We can live the Christian life with this mindset, that God has saved us but now we have to work to keep ourselves saved, or that we have to work to make God happy with us. I think the story Ortlund uses in the beginning of the chapter is helpful because it frames the lunacy of us trying to life for God rather than from God. Or, to put it like Ortlund,

“Through reflecting on the book of Galatians, is to bring the heart of Christ to bear on our chronic tendency to function out of a subtle belief that our obedience strengthens the love of God.” (182)

I. The Galatians (and our’s) Problem- 3:3

The problem, as the title of this chapter suggests, is our reliance on law-living, what Ortlund calls “our law-ish hearts.” This is that mindset that I mentioned at the beginning of our time. We tend to think that once God has saved us we are free to live for God. We focus on the doing, thinking, and living in a way that is obedience-based joy.

That is what Paul is saying: You were saved by grace, how in the world can you live by works? The Galatians, influenced by the Judaizers, forgot what Ortlund reminds us, “The central message of Galatians is that the freeness of God’s grace and love is not only the gateway but also the pathway of the Christian life.” (182)

This is a dire problem that all believers face. Ortlund discusses it in more detail on pages 185-188. To help us square our thinking on the deepness of this problem, let’s read a rather lengthy excerpt.

“Living out of a law-fueled subconscious resistance to Christ’s heart, which we all tend to think we’re successfully avoiding (those silly Galatians!), is deep and subtle and pervasive. It is more pervasive than the occasional moments of self-conscious works-righteousness would indicated. Those moments of self-knowledge are indeed gifts of grace and not to be ignored. But they are only the visible tip of an indivisible iceberg. They are surface symptoms. Law-ish-ness, of-works-ness, is by its very nature undetectable because it’s natural, not unnatural, to us. It feels normal. ‘Of-works’ to fallen people is what water is to a fish.” (186)

This is a major problem, and one that the Gospel helps to destroy. But this problem develops out of an imbalance.

II. The Galatians (and our’s) Imbalance- 3:10

This is an imbalance that we are all fighting against on this path of sanctification. We are saved by grace, but our temptation is to live by the law. Our imbalance is, to borrow Ortlund’s illustration, to open the heating vent of Christ’s love for salvation but to close the heating vent of Christ’s love for sanctification.

We hold to Christ’s crucifixion for salvation but quickly store it away and live for the law through our sanctification. Our constant imbalance will be between these two poles. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith states it like this under the chapter, “Sanctification,”

“This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life; there abides still some remnants of corruption in every part, wherefrom arises a continual and irreconcilable war; the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” We need to be reminded of something incredibly important.

III. The Galatians (and our’s) Reminder- 2:20

Ortlund says this, “Our sins darken our feelings of his gracious heart but his heart cannot be diminished for his own people due to their sins any more than the sun’s existence can be threatened due to the passing of a few wispy clouds or even an extended thunderstorm. The sun is shining. It cannot stop. Clouds, no clouds—sin, no sin—the tender heart of the Son of God is shining on me.” (186-187)

This is why we need to breathe Paul’s words in 2:20. Paul states, “I have been crucified with Christ,” which provides the sacrifice for our salvation (cf. 3:13-14). But notice how Paul lives in the present based on an action in the past that he is mysteriously “with Christ” in. Paul died when Christ was crucified. This is biblical truth, mysterious truth yes, but biblical truth nonetheless.

This is a wonderful and absolutely necessary reminder to the Galatians and every believer that has had the privilege of reading Galatians 2:20. When you realize that you died with Christ and Christ lives through you, you will no longer be tempted to live. It is the death of a law-ish heart. There is no temptation to live according to rules and regulations if we died with Christ. You see, Christ died for us because he “loved” us.

Ortlund’s application of this thought is that since (not if) Christ loved you and died for you when you are dead and willfully sinful to the LORD, how much more does Christ love you when He has given you His life? Ortlund writes, “We who are in Christ no longer look to the future for judgment, but to the past; at the cross, we see our punishment happening, all our sins being punished in Jesus.” (187)

I love how the apostle Paul ends his letter to the Galatians in 6:14-16.