The Gospel According to Galatians
Rev.
Are you a
Christian today living as a slave?
Are you enslaved to your
sins, seeking ease and comfort, and life without problems? Are you seeking to
be honored, and respected for your position, or your accomplishments? Do you
want others to like you too much? Are you kidding yourself into thinking that
you’re more righteous than you really are before God and man? If
you said “Yes” even to one of these questions, you are living as a
slave instead of child of the living God.
Don’t kid yourself- -ask yourself honestly
before God:
“Am I living my life as a slave to sin and
flesh?”
“Am I living my life as one who must constantly
strive to be well liked and appreciated by others?”
“Am I living my life so that God might accept
me as his own child?”
In other words, are you living to attain a right
standing before God and man that is in addition to the right standing one has
in Christ alone by faith?
The Apostle Paul writes the
Gospel According to the Galatians because he wants Christians to find their
ultimate right standing before God and man in Christ alone. In Christ, we
are to live as sons, children who are greatly loved by our God and
Father! Yet, we so easily exchange the sweet and glorious gospel of
salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, for “another gospel” that
is Christ plus something we add. When we add these things to the gospel
of Jesus Christ, even if in reality we be truly sons of God in Christ, we end
up living as slaves before God and man.
Are you living today as a
slave? Are you slaving to make yourself look or feel righteous before God
and man (while rotting away on the inside)? Or, as a true son and heir of God
in Christ, are you constantly and soberly turning to the right standing you
have before God and man in Christ alone? By God’s grace, if we
could just continually believe this wonderful truth, we might live freely, not
caring what others might think about us one way or another, not being enslaved
to our sins as if it still has dominion over us, nor seeking a righteous
standing before God that is fixed and focused on what we do, or do not do.
If we were truly to understand and really grasp this
glorious and amazing gospel of grace, we might be freed to grow mature in
Christ, living our lives as beloved children, and serving God with all that is
in us!
In the last few issues of
‘Word of Encouragement’ we have been considering the true and only
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have looked at the gospel that the
Apostle Paul proclaimed that taught that we are saved by believing upon Jesus
Christ alone apart from any works of our own. We have learned that the
gospel is good news because it is all of God’s grace given to us in Jesus
Christ, who gave himself up for our sins, and delivered us from this present
evil age according to the will of God the Father (Gal. 1:3-4).
“Quickly
Deserting God to Become Slaves”
Yet the Churches of Galatia
were quickly turning from the true and only gospel. How easily they had
forgotten the grace of God found in Christ’s righteousness alone received
by faith! The Churches of Galatia were deserting God who had called them
for “another gospel” which was not truly a gospel because there was
not good news about.
The Judaizers were
threatening the Churches of Galatia with a false gospel. A so-called
gospel that was not truly a gospel at all (Gal. 1:6-8) and they were teaching
that a person is saved by Christ plus the works of the Mosaic Law. These
Judaizers were “trouble-makers” who were distorting the gospel of
Christ (Gal. 1:7; cf. 2 Peter 3:15-16). Paul calls them “false
brothers” who secretly slipped in like a serpent into the gospel-focused
congregation to turn their eyes away from the truth to a lie (Gal. 2:4)!
Paul goes on to say under the inspiration of the Spirit of God that the
Judaizers’ slippery, serpentine goal was to bring the congregation into
slavery.
Galatians 2:4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in- who slipped in to spy
out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus,
so that they might bring us into slavery…
The Judaizers wanted to turn
the Churches of Galatia’s attention away from their hope as sons or
children of the living God in Christ to enslave them to a false gospel.
The Apostle Paul wanted the Galatian Churches to know that their only hope is
in Christ’s righteousness alone. They were to be found ‘in
him’ as sons and heirs of God, not as slaves in bondage to sin, flesh,
and the devil.
Let me illustrate what was
at stake here (with a poor analogy that eventually breaks down, as do all
imperfect analogies, but that I hope illustrates this truth). Imagine if I
were to deposit one billion dollars into your Wachovia or
Then someone comes along and
said I was lying to you. They claim that you do not have a billion
dollars at your disposal until you start working hard for that one billion
dollars. You must work as a slave and live perfectly if you are going to
inherit the one billion dollars. Sure says the liar, the one billion
dollars is available to you, but you are not an heir, you are merely a worker
–and that may not guarantee that you get the inheritance.
So you slave away day by day
with hopes that you might inherit that one billion dollars. Now, all you
would have to do is believe that the one billion dollars that I deposited in
your account was there, and you could access it, but if you did not access it
as you needed it, it would be as if it was not there for you, although it would
be there in reality.
You live like a poor slave, while in reality you are
rich beyond your dreams!
The Apostle Paul is saying
something similar to the Galatian Churches then, as well as to us today.
He is saying your right standing before God and man, your adoption as children,
and your inheritance of the world as heirs of God in Christ as sons is yours by
faith alone (and it is as hard to believe this sometimes as the one billion
dollars that I supposedly deposited in your account)! Yet you are being
told that you must work for this right standing before God, and you must work
hard as a slave to become sons of God in Christ and heirs. You do not
believe what has already been done for you in Jesus Christ, and thus you are
not accessing what is already yours in Christ alone.
You live as if you are a poor slave, while in reality
you are rich beyond your dreams!
This is how many Christians live out their entire
Christian lives.
Jesus “Plus
Something Else…” Equals Right Standing before God and Man
We must remember that our
right standing before God and man is in Christ alone apart from any works of
our own. What is this right standing before God and man? It is that
we have been united to Jesus Christ by faith alone, and that all of his
righteousness is ours. We are righteous before God and man, or in right
standing, because we stand clothed in the righteousness and works-righteousness
of Jesus Christ, not our own. Hear how the great Martin Luther put this
so eloquently (and this shows that all Christians throughout history have been
constantly struggling to keep their eyes on the works-righteousness of Jesus
Christ alone, rather than their own):
“[The righteousness of
Christ] is heavenly and passive (it is not of our own doing), which we have not
of ourselves, but receive it from heaven; which we do not work or labor for,
but apprehend it by faith….Do we not work at all for the obtaining of
this righteousness? I answer: nothing at all! For the nature of this
righteousness is, to do nothing, to hear nothing, to know nothing whatsoever of
the law or of works, but to know and to believe this only, that Christ is gone
to the Father and is not now seen; that he sits in heaven at the right hand of
his Father, not as a judge, but has been made for us wisdom, righteousness,
holiness, and redemption by God. He is our High-Priest interceding,
mediating, praying for us, and reigning over us, and in us by his grace.”
–Commentary on Galatians, pg. 105.
Even though these are
wonderful and glorious truths, we in the modern church still are tempted to
substitute this grace of God in Christ with a gospel of our own making, which
is no gospel at all! How do we so easily slip into a “gospel” that
proclaims Jesus plus something else, that is a “gospel” of Jesus
plus works?
JESUS + ________ = Righteousness before God and Man
We have considered in
previous studies the fact that we do not cooperate with God in our
salvation. We are dead in trespasses and sins and must be made alive by
God and given faith because it is all of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ
(Ephesians 2:1-10). Our faith is a gift of God, it is in no way a work
that is added to what Christ has already done, but faith is empty hands
outstretched because of God’s grace to us, receiving all that Christ is,
and all that he has done for us- -apart from nothing we have added. John
Calvin in his ‘Institutes of the Christian’ religion wrote on the
importance of faith as a gift of God that constantly depends on God’s
objective revelation in Scripture no matter what comes into our lives:
“Faith rests upon
God’s word…this then, is the true knowledge of Christ, if we
receive him as he is offered by the Father: namely, clothed with his
gospel…the Apostle Paul yokes faith to teaching, as an
inseparable companion, with these words: ‘You did not so learn Christ if
indeed you were taught what is the truth in Christ’ (Eph.
4:20-21)…We must remember that there is a permanent relationship between
faith and the Word. He could not separate one from the other any more
than we could separate the rays of the sun from which they come…the same
word is the basis whereby faith is supported and sustained; if it turns away
from the word, it falls.”
Yet we do easily turn our
faith to our own works rather than God’s Word, and often daily fall into
the trap of believing our right standing before God and man is found in other
places, and thus we become as if we were slaves, although we are in reality
sons. We are daily tempted to put our faith in Christ plus something
else. Have you ever made statements like the following (in your thinking
or to others)?
“You have not
surrendered yourself enough to God!”
JESUS + Your Surrender = Righteousness before God and Man
“Your devotion to
Jesus is lacking and therefore you need to try harder.”
JESUS + Your Devotion = Righteousness before God and Man
“Jesus loves you, now
in order to be saved, love him back- - and keep loving him to ‘stay
saved’.”
JESUS + Your Love = Righteousness before God and Man
“Just be a good person
and love God to the best of your ability.”
JESUS + Your Goodness and Efforts = Righteousness before God
and Man
These are comments we can
very easily make if we have not fully grasped the gospel in the Person and Work
of Jesus Christ alone! We can seek our righteous standing before God
based on what we have done for him, rather than what he has done for us in
Christ. Now don’t get me wrong or misunderstand me, if one is truly
a believer in Christ, they are positionally “in Christ” never to
lose that position. In fact, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:31-39:
“NOTHING” can separate us from the love of God in Christ because of
Christ as Mediator who ever intercedes for his own!
Yet even though our position
in Christ is a reality, Christians can still live as if they were slaves,
enslaved to working hard for a right standing before God and man that is
additional, or in addition to what Christ has already done in his perfect work
for them.
We can think to ourselves, or say to others:
“You have not surrendered yourself enough to God” and what you are
judging at that moment is how righteous (or unrighteous) you are before God and
man based on Jesus Christ plus what you have done, or are doing for him.
You’re basing your right standing before God and man on your weak and
imperfect judgment of your own pitiful surrender and you have looked away from
Christ.
“Mirror, Mirror
on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
The last time you looked in
the mirror, what or who did you see? How we see ourselves ultimately, that is
how we judge our ultimate significance, and how we think of our own identity,
is a way of getting at how we add to the righteousness of God in Christ.
In the way we label
ourselves, in the way we judge ourselves and what we do, or do not do, can tell
us how we are particularly exchanging the glory of God and his righteousness
given to us by faith, with the righteous standing before God and man based on
our own puny and feeble efforts.
Paul confronts the Galatian
Christians because they have so quickly turned away from the truth of the
gospel and deserted Him who called them in his grace (Gal. 1:6-10). This
causes the Apostle Paul to marvel, to be astonished by how quickly they had
turned from the gospel or “good news”. But what about
Christians today, particularly those who call themselves
‘Reformed’? We are not perhaps adding to the work of Jesus Christ
by demanding that others keep the Mosaic Law (I hope not anyway, but perhaps
you are!).
But how do we “quickly turn away” from
Him who called us in the grace of Christ as Reformed Christians?
Not necessarily obvious, but in more subtle ways.
The question to ask yourself is: “How am I
tempted daily to exchange the right standing or righteousness of God in Christ
positionally before God and man for a “righteousness” or “works”
of my own making?”
If we could just learn this, by God’s grace, we
might truly mean it when we say “Amazing grace!” Because we will
realize how amazing it truly is!!
“Another
Gospel”: Peace, Position, and Pride
Let’s try to remember
the three ways in which we are tempted daily to add to our right standing
before God in Christ with three ‘P’s’: “Peace,
Position, and Pride” (Peace instead of suffering at all costs,
position before men rather than before God, pride in thinking of ourselves
higher than we ought). These three ‘P’s’ overlap in our
daily struggles against sin, so it is not as if we will have one without the
other. Identifying them however, helps us to be sober and watchful as
they threaten our growing in grace.
- Peacefulness/Ease – By that I mean when you are pursuing
ease and comfort as an ultimate goal.
In other words this is when you find yourself trying to create a
life without suffering which is a set-up. It sets you up for
worldliness (eating anything you like, watching or reading anything you want,
spending your time anyway you like, and avoiding things like conflict) and
basically this deadens you to reality, and it lulls you to sleep.
We have peace with God through the gospel and we know that we are called to share in
the sufferings of Christ and to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. We
experience peace by praying and by doing what is right in God’s sight
even when it hurts. The gospel offers us the strength and grace to
do so. Jesus died so that we would be holy, he did not die
so that we would necessarily be happy (although I would argue that true
happiness **JOY** is found in holiness).
The Apostle Paul’s gospel was to be found in Christ with a
righteousness that is given to us apart from the Law, and to fellowship in his
sufferings, so the “gospel of peace and ease” is a false gospel
that is Jesus plus something else, that may cause us to be
“surprised” when God allows conflict into our lives to conform us
to the likeness of his Son, as we learn by faith to trust in him alone for
help! Paul wrote this, and we should be reminded of the false gospel of
Jesus plus ease or comfort:
ESV Philippians 3:7-12: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the
sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the
surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have
suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may
gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through
faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- 10 that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means
possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I
have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my
own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
If
we don’t understand that carrying our cross IS the gospel, then our faith
and growth in Jesus may be seriously challenged when God brings conflict into
our lives to change our hearts and to make us utterly dependent upon him.
If we seek our right standing before God and man, then we might even think that
God doesn’t love us as much as the other Christian who is not presently
going through any conflict or suffering. We must remember that God gives
us what we truly need, according to his great wisdom and knowledge, rather than
merely giving us what we want.
JESUS + Peace/Ease/Comfort
= Righteousness before God and Man
- Position /Reputation – You want to be liked by others
and approved by others which is a serious bondage because
people will not always like you or approve of you if you are seeking to be
holy and faithful to God.
Also, if you are seeking to impress others you may find
that the outside of you looks good but the inside is rotting away.
Seeking to make a name for yourself you look to your works, what
you are able to accomplish, and to whether people notice you or not and reward
you or not and you can be quite up and down with it all. But we are not to rejoice in
these things but rather that our names are written in heaven! The gospel
brings this home to our hearts. Think about the last time you were angry
when you were disrespected or not recognized as you thought you should
be. This is when we are seeking a right standing before God and man in
our position or reputation.
How do you label or identify yourself ultimately when you think of
yourself autobiographically, or tell others about yourself? “I am a
father of two children;” “I am a mother of seven children;”
“I am an elder or pastor;” “I am a successful
businessman;” “I am a professor;” “I am smart;”
“I am stupid and dumb;” “I am single;” “I am
childless;” “I am rich/I am poor;” “I am
healthy;” “I have a good body/I am attractive;” “I am
an A student/I am a C student.”
Note carefully that all of these identities can be good things in
and of themselves, but when they become idolatrous and we want them too much,
and they begin to be the ultimate way we define ourselves, identify ourselves,
or seek our significance, they have become “another gospel” which
is not good news at all!
The list of our ultimate identities could go on and on, but we
must remember that our ultimate righteousness, or right standing before God is
united to Jesus Christ by faith and seated with him in the heavenly
places. We are “in Christ” as the Apostle Paul wants us to
know, and nothing in heaven and on the earth, nor under the earth can separate
us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (including our best or worst righteous
efforts!). Our hope is in Christ alone, that is why Paul can say
confidently if God is for us, who can be against us! (Romans 8:31-39).
You see when you place your ultimate identity or significance in
something other than Christ it is in an attempt at making yourself righteous
before God and man, and when you fail, you think you have lost your righteous
standing. For example if your hope is in having a large family (if this
is how you are going to be perceived as righteous before God and man), if God
grants that you have trouble having a family, you will become downcast,
discourage, even angry with God. You need Jesus plus a large family to
have right standing or righteousness before God and man.
If you think of yourself as person of good reputation, deserving
of honor and respect, when you do not get these things, you will work hard to
attain a righteous standing before God and man with Jesus plus something
else. It is really subtle how this can happen to us all!
When we seek our right standing before God and man or our
righteousness ultimately in something temporal rather than Christ, we have a
shifty, unstable “other gospel” which is no good news at all.
For every one of the labels above outside of Christ, there are negative as well
as positive aspects that change and cause us to be hindered in our faith
because our hope is in Jesus plus something else.
For instance, say your ultimate identity is a “successful
businessman”. There is nothing wrong with that, but what if, God in
his sovereignty were to cause you to be unsuccessful and you failed in your
business? Would you still be in right standing before God and man? What if you
have a good figure and are attractive? That is a gift of God, but if your
ultimate significance and identity is in this you could be devastated in your
faith if (God forbid!) you lost the ability to exercise, lost a limb, or were
terribly disfigured. We would have to believe it was God’s will and
sovereignty to bring this conflict into your life, but would you shift
incessantly in your faith, or would your ultimate identity and significance be
in Christ?
What if you say you are a “good kid” or “good
girl” or “good person”? What if you truly were to
understand the depth of God’s Law, it’s perfect requirements before
him, and were humbled to the dust over a sin that you couldn’t believe
you had committed in word, thought and deed? Would it devastate you to know
that you weren’t so righteous and good after all? Or, would your ultimate
identity and significance be in Christ? What have you believed in for
your right standing before God and man plus Jesus Christ?
Be honest with yourself- -the Apostle Paul was honest with himself:
The Apostle Paul also had placed his hope in God’s grace
plus his righteous position and reputation before God and man. In
Philippians 3, he wrote:
Philippians 3:4b-8: If
anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of
The Apostle Paul wants us to understand that our right standing
before God and man is not found in our position or reputation, but in Christ
alone- -we want to be found “in him” daily! The temptation of
position, reputation, identity and status has to do with what we boast in apart
from Christ. We must strive to fight against the false gospels that try
to challenge our right and firm standing before God in man in Christ alone.
JESUS + Position, Reputation,
Identity, Significance = Righteousness before God and Man
- Pride: Lies/Dishonesty – The truth of the third ‘P’ is
that Sinners saved by grace still have trouble being honest with
themselves and with God about their sin, the depths of it, their
weakness, their constant need of grace.
We are all very needy, and do not like to
admit it to God, or each other.
Do you say: “Lord, have mercy on me
a sinner…”
Or Do you say: “Thank you God I am
not like that sinner…”
In lying to ourselves, we see less of the sin problem that is
really in us, and this makes us more prone to sin, and for Christ to seem like
such a small Savior, one we rarely need, or cry out to. We lie because
people in general are afraid of God – of being naked and ashamed before
Him – not realizing that it is the humble and contrite one with whom He
dwells!
Pastor Vincent Tauriello said powerfully concerning why we
lie to ourselves and God: “Many people have a hard time with certain
parts of God’s word but they don’t like to admit it. Rather
they deny their innate resistance and natural aversion to God and His law and
thereby live in rebellion to God without really acknowledging it. The
fact is that the truth about God and us hurts but it is equally true that the
gospel alone heals!”
This is not to say that we don’t want to be
“good” and obedient. It is just to say that as we mature, we
become more aware of our sins, and the depth of our sin problem through the
Law. Our only hope is to cry out: “Lord, have mercy on me a
sinner!” and depend on God’s righteousness given to us in Jesus
Christ alone. The Law of God is our friendly guide in Christ (Richard
Gaffin) to instruct us in God’s will, but it constantly shows how far
short we fall of the glory of God. Even though we keep the Law by
God’s grace in Christ, the more we understand the Law of God and how we
break it in word, thought, and deed, the more we should grow dependent upon
God’s righteousness in Christ alone and not in how we are doing, whether
good or bad.
JESUS + Righteousness of our
own that is unrealistic before God’s Law = Righteousness before
God and Man
Martin Luther in his Commentary on the Galatians summarized the
humility that is wrought by the Law of God in the Christian life: “How
then can these two contradictory assertions stand together: “I am a
sinner, and most worthy of God’s wrath and indignation; and yet the
Father loves me?” Here my only hope before God is Christ the Mediator.
The Father, says Christ the Mediator, does not therefore love you because you
are worthy of love, but because you have loved me, and have believed that I
came from him. Thus a Christian abides in pure humility, feeling sin in
him effectually, and confessing himself to be worthy of wrath, the judgment of
God, and everlasting death for the same, that he may be humbled in this life,
and yet notwithstanding he continues still in a pure and holy pride, in which
he turns unto Christ, and through Christ he is lifted up against this feeling
of God’s wrath and judgment, and believes that not only the remnants of
his sin are not imputed unto him, but that also he is loved of the Father, not
for his own sake, but for Christ’s sake, whom the Father loves.”
–Commentary, pg. 133.
In other words, as maturing Christians, we do not want to seek
false confidence before God’s Law, nor hypocrisy (or mask-wearing) before
the world, but we want to have an accurate perception of ourselves through
humility. The Apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Romans:
Romans
12:3 For by the grace given to me I
say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to
think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith
that God has assigned.
You can tell whether you lie to yourself by asking yourself
honestly: “Do I think more highly of myself than I ought?”
“Do I think that I am a mature Christian who is no longer needy?”
“Do I think that my sin problem is not as great as the next guy?”
“Do I think that I am better than others?” Do you make
statements like: “Well, I could never do such a thing!” or “I
cannot believe they sinned in that way!” If you ask yourself these
questions in certain ways or make these kind of comments, you may have more in
common with the Pharisee in Jesus’ story: “Lord, I thank you I am
not a sinner like…” (Luke 18:10ff).
If you are thinking of yourself in the realistic and blinding
light of God’s word, then you will think of yourself soberly before God
and man, and find your righteousness only in Christ. If you are truly a mature
Christian, you will be realizing that your only hope is in Christ’s
righteousness.
If you think of yourself better than others,
you are not a mature Christian, but one in need of repentance and turning again
to Christ and his righteousness alone.
If on Thursday you’re a good person because of all of the good
things you have done for God, you are adding to the work of Christ alone. If on
Friday you’re a bad person because of all the sins you committed in word,
thought and deed, you are adding to the work of Christ alone. You see,
whether you’re judging yourself as righteous or unrighteous and
condemned, you are looking to yourself and not Christ alone for your
righteousness. You will experience “highs and lows” in your
growth in grace because your right standing fluctuates based on what you do, or
do not do!
“In Christ” Our Only Comfort both in Life and
Death
Our fixed position and place is in Christ, seated with him by
faith in the heavenly places. Our life is hidden with Christ in God, and
we walk by faith and not by sight (Eph. 2:6-8; Col. 3:1-4; 2 Cor.
4:16-18). Even the best works we produce because we are united to Jesus
Christ by faith are because God is working in us, and we have been created in
Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in
(Phil. 2:13; Eph. 2:10; cf. Phil. 1:6). Remember the first question from
the classic Heidelberg Catechism:
"What is thy only comfort in life and death?" Then it answers for all Christians
to remember: "That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not
my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who, with his precious
blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the
power of the devil; and so preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly
Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be
subservient to my salvation; and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures
me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live
unto him."
If your right standing before God and man seems to fluctuate on a
daily basis, it is simply because you are believing in Christ plus something
else- -and we need to be daily reminded of this reality. Even though our
right standing seems to fluctuate, it in no way changes our righteous standing
before God and man in Christ alone, but it can cause our lives to be less than
filled with God’s joy, and our adding to Christ’s gospel can hinder
our spiritual growth and maturity. More seriously, if we are in Christ,
we want to live as children of the living God and not as slaves! (Gal.
4:1-6). As Dr. Sinclair Ferguson wrote in his excellent book on Christian
spirituality:
“This, then, is the foundation of
sanctification [becoming Christ-like] in Reformed theology. It is rooted,
not in humanity and their achievement of holiness or sanctification, but in
what God has done in Christ, and for us in union with him.
Rather than view Christians first
and foremost in the microcosmic context of their own progress, the Reformed
doctrine first of all sets them in the macrocosm of God's activity in
redemptive history. It is seeing oneself in this context that enables the
individual Christian to grow in true holiness." - Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, 'Christian
Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification', Ed. Donald Alexander,
Is your ultimate identity and position in union with Jesus Christ
by faith? Is your ultimate significance and worth found in your union
with Christ? Are you reflecting daily, moment by moment, on your right standing
before God and man because you are in union with Jesus Christ?
Think about how you might exchange the truth of the gospel of
Jesus Christ alone with Jesus Christ plus something of your own on a daily
basis. Prayerfully recognize your daily dependence upon God’s grace
alone and the righteousness that is found in Christ alone that is outside of
you no matter how you feel or do not feel, no matter the circumstance that
comes into your life, no matter how low God might humble you, and no matter how
much you see you sins revealed in the light of the Law, look to Christ alone
who is your righteousness, redemption, and sanctification- -and do not boast in
yourself or in a righteousness of your own making- - rather boast in the LORD!!
(1 Cor. 1:30-31).
Meditate
on the words of Robert Robinson (1758) in his classic hymn ‘Come, Thou
Fount of Every Blessing’. Through the Gospel According to Galatians
may you be daily in debt to grace, grace, and grace alone:
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
Sermon Audio:
www.sermonaudio.com/kcpc
CRB
©
Note: A great deal of the
content of this study I owe to the Christian influences of Martin Luther,
Robert Lucas, D. Clair Davis, David Rowe, Vincent Tauriello, and Tim Keller
(and many more that I will never be able to remember).
Bibliography for Further
Bruce, F. F. Paul:
Apostle of the Heart Set Free.
_________. The Epistle to
the Galatians (New International Greek Testament Commentary)
Calvin, John. The
Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and
Colossians, trans. T. H. L. Parker.
Fung, Ronald Y. K. The
Epistle to the Galatians (New International Commentary on the New
Testament-New Edition).
Gaffin, Richard B., Jr. By
Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation.
Hendriksen, William. Galatians
and Ephesians (Baker New Testament Commentary).
Lenski, R. C. H. The
Interpretation of
Lightfoot, J. B. The
Epistle of
Luther, Martin. A
Commentary on
Machen, J. Gresham. Notes
on Galatians (Edited by John Skilton).
Ridderbos, H. N. The
Epistle of Paul to the Churches of
________. Paul: An
Outline of His Theology.
Stott, John R. W. The
Message of Galatians (The Bible Speaks Today)
Ancient Christian
Commentary on Scripture, Volume
VIII: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (edited by Mark J. Edwards).
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