01-08-12 New Year New Hope

We are going to return to our study of Galatians this morning.

We are just moving into a New Year, 2012,

and I am certain that what we will look at this morning

will be of tremendous value to us

as we move into this new year.

Our study of Galatians

has brought us to the last half of the second chapter.

And in the structure of the book

it’s also brought us

to the 3^rd of nine proofs

that Paul offers his readers

for why they should trust and return to their faith

in the message of the grace of God that Paul had preached to them.

But what we’re going to see in this section of the letter

goes way beyond just that.

What we’re going to find

is what I believe to be the most powerful single statement of the Christian life ever written.

And it is all the more powerful

because it isn’t just something Paul is trying to teach us,

it’s something that simply pours out of his own life

with a simplicity and clarity

that intensifies its power.

I’ve been aware of this statement in Scripture for many, many years,

but it wasn’t until I studied the book of Galatians in context

that I discovered what motivated Paul to say what he said,

and discovered how that context intensifies the encouragement this passage gives us.

So let me read the passage for us

and then we’ll jump into it and discover what our Lord has for us.

And let me first remind us what’s going on here.

Paul and his traveling companions

had traveled throughout the Galatian region,

working mostly with non-Jewish people,

telling them the remarkably good news about Jesus.

The God who created us,

the God the human race rejected and rebelled against,

the God who had every right to pour out His wrath on us

chose, rather, to confine himself to a human body on this earth,

offering Himself willingly through His own death

as a sacrifice for our sins against Him.

And through that sacrifice

He paid our moral debt against our Creator in full forever.

And all He asks of us in return

is our willingness to return to Him as our God

and trust Him, believe Him, when He tells us the debt is paid.

It was a message of hope and redemption

unlike anything any of them had ever heard,

a message that brought many of those who heard it

into a living relationship with their God.

But then, after Paul left the area,

there were a number of Jewish teachers

who infiltrated the ranks of the new Gentile converts

and, with what appeared to be reasonable, logical words,

convinced the Galatian Christians

that Paul’s amazing message of salvation through faith alone

simply could not be true.

There was more that God required from them,

not the least of which was their submission to

and faithful fulfillment of the Jewish system of moral and religious rules.

And we have seen in the opening chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians

the intensity with which he reacted to this lie when he learned what was happening.

He knew the power of the call of religion

to pull the people of God

away from their discovery of the love of their God

and back into a bondage of legalism

that would cover them with a facade of piety

will stripping them of the freedom Christ died to give them

and of the ability to break the power of the sins that still tormented them.

And so, after strongly condemning both the message and the messengers

who were blinding the Galatians to the truth,

Paul then offers his readers a series of reasons why

they both can and should return to their simple faith in the love of God

and trust in their own absolute and perfect union with Him

simply on the basis of faith alone.

We’ve seen two of those reasons so far.

The first was Paul’s assurance

that the message he had preached to them

was a message that came directly from God Himself

through special revelation of God to Paul.

And the second was Paul’s assurance

that this message had been examined and approved

by the Apostles appointed by Christ Himself when He was on the earth.

And then, in Galatians 2:11-21

Paul offers his third proof of the validity of his message.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, 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; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

Now, here again Paul’s message

grows out of an historical event

that took place in the church at Antioch

when Peter and some other men visited from the church in Jerusalem.

Peter visited the church at Antioch,

and at first everything was just as it should be.

The church was made up of both Jewish and Gentile converts,

all growing together under the leadership of Paul and Barnabas.

And when Peter first arrived

he correctly made no distinction between the Jewish and non-Jewish believers.

When they gathered for their meals together

there wasn’t a “Jewish Table” and a “Gentile Table”,

and Peter certainly made no distinction between any of his fellow Christians.

But then another group of Christians arrived from Jerusalem,

Christians who had spent their entire Christian life

within the Jewish community,

Christians whose belief system had never been tested

because there was no reason to test it,

Christians who had no Gentile friends,

no Gentile brothers or sisters,

no one whose presence in their life

challenged them to honestly examine whether or not they truly believed

that this Messiah they proclaimed

truly, absolutely accepted every person just as they are, right where they are

solely on the basis of their faith in Jesus’ payment for their sins.

What they did have, however,

was a lifetime...

in fact not just a lifetime but a heritage of several thousand years

that told them they were a special people, a unique people, God’s chosen people,

and that it was essential that they keep themselves pure

and separate from all others.

For the first Century Jew

just being in the presence of a Gentile

had the ability to corrupt them

and required a cleansing process following their separation from the non-Jew.

Well, once these Jewish Jerusalem Christians arrived

they kept themselves separate from the Gentile converts

and began putting pressure on Peter to do the same.

And Peter gave in

and pulled away from the non-Jewish converts.

Now in fairness to Peter

I don’t think he did what he did

because he was consciously rejecting his Gentile brothers and sisters

or because he was consciously denying the truth of salvation on the basis of faith alone.

I think he was doing what he was doing

simply because it seemed easier, less stressful,

and because it made him feel more secure with the Christians who were most important to him.

But when Paul saw what was happening

because of the supreme position of prominence

that Peter held in the young Christian community,

Paul knew that if this was not addressed

Peter’s actions would proclaim a powerful message to the entire church community.

It would tell the Christian community

that Peter believed submission to the Jewish law

was still an essential part of truly faithful Christian living.

And if Peter believed it

others would to.

In fact, it would quickly become the unquestioned doctrinal belief system of the Body of Christ.

And so Paul,

in typical Paul fashion,

publicly confronted Peter about what he was doing.

He acknowledged that they were both Jews,

and not sinners from among the Gentiles.

But he then went on to point out that just because they had not been immersed in the sin patterns of the Gentiles

it didn’t mean they weren’t sinners themselves.

No one could ever hope to stand before God on the basis of their performance,

and when it came right down to it

the Jews with all of their legalism

were no more qualified to stand before God

than any other human being.

And then Paul says what needs to be said

with power and clarity.

...knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

You can’t get to God on the basis of your performance.

You can’t stay with God on the basis of your performance.

Our only hope

from the day we come to Christ

until the day we see Him face-to-face

is that we are forever justified by faith in Christ alone.

And then Paul went on to give

what I believe to be the most powerful one sentence description of the Christian life ever spoken.

But before we look at it

I would just like to say

that I hope you have some Gentiles in your life.

I hope you have some Christians

who at certain times

or in certain ways

violate and offend the life system your God has constructed for you personally.

I hope you have some people

whose beliefs,

or life-styles force you to decide

whether or not you really believe righteousness before God comes through faith alone.

I hope they stretch you

and cause you to frequently rethink and reaffirm the truth

about the Good News we proclaim.

I have some Gentiles in my life.

Now it may be a little easier for me

because I find it very easy to love my Gentiles,

and by this time in my life

because I am as old as I am,

virtually all of my Gentiles

are a part of the next generation.

Nothing in my experience

has the power to force a person to reexamine the truth about Grace

and to reexamine what things really matter and what things don’t

like getting involved with Christians in the next generation,

Christians who have no memory

and no awareness

of all of those things that were deeply important

to the Christian sub-culture in which you yourself were raised.

Having a few Gentiles in your life

is one of God’s greatest gifts

when we discover how powerfully they can cleanse us of our own personal legalism.

That doesn’t mean, of course,

that we ever compromise the convictions that our Lord has given us personally.

But it does mean that we, just like our God,

never walk into a relationship with our moral yardstick in our hand,

using it to determine whether or not this person qualifies for our friendship or our love.

It means that the first question was ask ourselves is always,

“What does it mean for me to love this person,

and how can I most effectively communicate that love?”

Now look it this!

There is something incredibly powerful

in what our Lord is asking of us

and in what He’s seeking to do through us.

The two most common,

and tragically often times most justified criticisms

that the society around us

flings at those within the Christian community

is that we are judgmental and condemning of those who do not meet our moral standard,

or that we are hypocritical - preaching one thing while living something very different.

But when we understand the calling our Lord has given us

it silences those two attacks forever.

You see, when it comes to our own personal lives

the first thing the Spirit of God seeks to do within us

is to build into our lives a rock-solid foundation of moral excellence,

equipping us to live with a level of moral integrity

that our society rarely sees in our world today.

We don’t gossip,

we don’t lie,

we don’t use people for our own advantage,

we truly are in action what we appear to be,

and we care deeply for the people our God brings into our lives.

Such a life utterly obliterates the accusations of hypocrisy.

And yet, at the same time,

when we relate to the people around us

we enter each relationship with just one goal - seeking to understand how to love them

right where they are, just as they are.

Not only are we not the moral judges of the universe,

pointing out to those around us

where they’re falling short of the standard,

but rather we, of all people,

are the ones who truly love,

the ones who reach out to help and heal.

There is simply nothing more powerful in this world

than a person with tremendous personal moral integrity

and deep compassion and love for those they meet.

Well, let me get us back to this remarkable passage in Galatians.

Paul reminds Peter

that in the sight of God

there really is no difference between a Jew and a Gentile.

The Jews may have believed that all of their diligent observation

of countless rules and regulations

made them in some way more acceptable to God,

but it was all smoke and mirrors.

It was not their interacting with a Gentile that made them unclean,

it was their own heart of pride, and arrogance, and rebellion against God.

And if they were honest

they would have to admit

that on the basis of their performance

they stood every bit as guilty

and deserving of the wrath of God as did the Gentiles around them.

Corruption comes from the inside,

not from the outside.

And then Paul goes on to say this:

For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.

He’s talking about that remarkable process

in which God uses His moral law

to create within us a clear recognition of our helplessness,

our hopelessness as we stand before an absolutely righteous God.

Most of us begin our relationship with the moral law of God

by trying to run from it,

trying to free ourselves from its oppressive demands,

demands we know we will never fulfill.

But if the Law is allowed to accomplish its perfect work within us

it will drive us to the place where we stop justifying and rationalizing

and see ourselves honestly,

and in that honesty cry out to our God for some other way.

And at that point

our God steps in and shows us

that there is another way for us to stand before Him,

without fear,

without condemnation.

It is the way that involves our accepting His invitation

to take all of our sin,

all of our failure,

all of our rebellion against Him

and then His transferring it to the account of Christ,

allowing Him to die in our place for our sin.

And from that point

we are forever freed from the Law of God

and joined to God Himself in an eternal love relationship.

And then, just to make perfectly certain

that we understand what God is offering

and what takes place when we turn to Christ,

Paul offers this glorious one sentence description

of the true Christian life.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

In that one statement,

that one sentence

Paul forever separates true Christianity

from every religious system that’s ever existed.

This is not Paul calling the human race

to faithful submission to the Christian belief system.

This is certainly not some plea

that we try harder to be better and do better.

This is Paul describing for us

a deeply personal interaction between himself and God.

He begins first by telling us that we... have been crucified with Christ...

He doesn’t say we SHOULD be crucified with Christ,

he doesn’t say we WILL be crucified with Christ.

He says we have been crucified with Christ.

He’s talking about that death that takes place within each person at the spirit level

when we reach out to Jesus Christ as our Savior.

It is the death of that spirit within us

that rejected God as our God.

It is a sovereign work of God within us at the spirit level,

a work in which, for the first time in our life,

and for the rest of our lives on this planet

the Spirit of God Himself

joins Himself to our spirit

bringing about a whole knew central core within us.

There are places in Scripture

in which God describes this as His placing a new heart within us.

But the result, as Paul then goes on to explain,

is that it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...

And this, of course,

is where true Christianity is forever separated from all religions.

Paul is telling us

that the arrangement God makes with us

when we reach out to Him for our redemption

is that He literally begins to remake us from the inside out.

His Spirit gives us a heart longing to live a life that honors our Lord.

And then, step by step,

He begins to rebuilt our lives,

giving us eyes to see ourselves and our world through His eyes,

leading us through the sometimes painful process

of breaking the power of our sin addictions,

and then teaching us how to truly love those He brings into our lives.

It’s a lifetime process, of course,

and certainly one that is never completed

as long as we remain in these physical bodies

that continue to war against the life of Christ within us.

But the point Paul was trying to make to Peter

and the point he’s making to us

is that the true Christian life is nothing like the Jewish religious system of diligent obedience to the law of God.

The true Christian life

is a living, active, intensely real daily interaction between one created being at a time and their God,

and interaction

in which that God forever removes their sin debt

and then takes up residence within the person

and rebuilds their life from the within.

But that isn’t where Paul stops,

and I praise God that it isn’t.

Because, as good as that all sounds,

the reality of this whole thing

is that at the very best we all fumble our way through

in our discovery of what this whole thing really means.

At first we’re not even sure what the voice of the Spirit within us sounds like,

and then, as we begin to hear Him,

we find no end of forces within us

that resist His leadership.

And every single day of our lives

there are places where our old flesh reclaims leadership

and subverts the life of Christ within us.

And so Paul completes the picture of this new life we have entered into by saying,

...and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

That is the GRACE in which we stand.

That is Paul saying that,

when we once again live in the flesh,

when we hear Him wrong,

or fail to follow His lead,

or retreat to old hiding places from our past,

or just get weary in the battle,

we never have to fear He’ll turn away from us,

or abandon us,

or reject us

because the debt is paid forever,

and His love for us has no limits, and no end.

And then he concludes with one additional comment to Peter,

and one that we need to hear as well.

He says,

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

Of course, in context,

that was his way of saying to Peter,

“When you go back to your law-based religious performance

in an attempt to please God,

trying to keep yourself “clean”

but avoiding contact with the Gentiles around you,

you are really offering Christ the ultimate insult.

You are telling Him

that His death on your behalf was a failure,

or at best only a partial success,

and you must make up what is lacking in His offering

through your own tiny pile of “good deeds”.

There are lots and lots of very good reasons

for making right choices in life.

But doing it to earn a more secure standing with God is not one of them.

There is no more secure standing with God

than the one He’s already given us -

the standing of absolute and total righteousness

because all of our sin has already been forever transferred to the account of Christ.