Don’t Forget!

2 Samuel 23; Psalm 78:40–72; Ezekiel 30; Galatians 3

 

Rules and boundaries have an attractiveness to many people. On the road, most of us want speed limits, lane lines, passing rules and other laws intended to keep us safe. In school, teachers have rules to keep order in the classroom and help students learn. There are laws and rules in most societies to prevent harm to the defenseless and keep order for public safety. Even most quilters like patterns rather than tackle the process known as impromptu quilting where the design is made up as the pieces are sewn.

Christian living is not about rules yet the church at Galatia began thinking it was. Instead of believing they could live and grow as God’s people through the life and power of the Holy Spirit, they turned to observing or trying to observe the Laws of God. Paul told them they were “foolish” to listen to those who had “bewitched” them with false notions of spirituality that tore them away from Jesus:

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1–3)

He later explains to them how to tell the difference by listing the results; the fruit of the Spirit is so entirely different than the results of living in the flesh. They were on a slippery slope by thinking their own efforts apart from relying on the Spirit would get them there.

Like making an impromptu quilt, God does not follow a predictable pattern. While He never departs from the truth in His Word, His spiritual guidance is not a list of rules. Instead, it comes through a moment by moment listening and by obedience in faith.

Not only that, this has always been true. Salvation has never been through rule-keeping but by believing what God says. Growing in grace is just like salvation; it comes through believing what God says as we daily, even moment by moment commune with Him.

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:5–9)

This is not easy yet it is easy. Up front, having a list of rules seems safer, more predictable, the way to live, but this is a sinful idea based on the idea that “I can do it.” It is so strong in the human heart that God gave the Law that we might realize we cannot construct our lives that way and please Him. We need the guidance and power of Jesus Christ.

The Law of Moses was given not to overturn the principles already established at the time of Abraham, nor to offer an alternative path to salvation. Rather, it made human sin clear and undeniable, pointing them toward a Savior who would redeem them. Faith in that promise was their justification yet they struggled against sin by striving and failing rather than believing God. In Galatians, Paul’s understanding of their history and how the Bible fits together is different from those who pressured people to keep the Law. He realized that it was temporary, not intended to save but to show the need for salvation.

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. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:23–29)

APPLY: Faith isn’t about race, status, gender or anything else but trusting Christ alone for my justification. This trust makes me a “child of Abraham” and is “counted to me as righteousness” — I am saved because of Jesus Christ and I live for God because He lives in me. Rules push Him aside to make things tidy, predictable, safe — or so it seems — but all they do is reveal my inability to create the glory of God by myself; I need Jesus. Without Jesus, the relative security of Law becomes drudgery yet with Him, as unpredictable and impromptu as Spirit-filled living life is, life becomes a great adventure.

 

Covenant, grace, and works

“I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth . . . . I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” (Genesis 9:13,15)

A covenant is a solemn agreement between God and man. The covenant made after the flood is unconditional and unilateral. God unconditionally obligated Himself to bring to pass definite blessings and conditions for His people. This covenant is characterized by the formula: I will which declares God’s determination to do as He promises. There may be conditions in the covenant by which God requests the covenanted one to fulfill out of gratitude, but they are not themselves the basis of God’s fulfilling His promises. He does it by grace, and the people involved believe Him by faith.

God also made a covenant with Abraham. This happened long before God’s Law was given to Moses.

“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. This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.” (Galatians 3:15–18)

This is the difference between salvation by grace and so-called salvation by works. Believing in the promise of God results in salvation; keeping the law does not. The law was given because of sin and defines sin, but no one can keep it 100%.

"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. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise." (Galatians 3:23–29)

This description was given to those early Christians in Galatia who mistakenly thought that once they were saved by faith they had to keep the law or they would lose their salvation. This error is believed by people today and is written in the doctrinal or faith statements of several denominations. It confuses those who attend their churches and confuses those who are interested in Christianity.

The Bible says we are not saved by doing works of righteousness, yet says we are supposed to do this and that as we live as Christians. Is keeping those commands equivalent to doing good works to be saved? Not at all. Instead, they are the result of being saved, or at least they should be.

I find it difficult to discern if someone is doing good things out of a heart filled with love for God, or out of a fearful heart that assumes they will lose any ground gained if they don’t measure up. The only way that I can figure this out is by examining my own motives for what I do, and by carefully listening to those who talk more about their good works than they do about the saving power of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament also needs to be read carefully and with the understanding that genuine Christians do good things because the Holy Spirit lives in them and Christ is directing their lives. Without Jesus, I cannot do anything without it being selfishly motivated. With Jesus, my increasing desire is to glorify God.

The book of Galatians is a strong warning to avoid slipping into the mindset that “I must do . . .  or I cannot please God.” Grace does not work like that. Grace puts me in good stead with God because of what Jesus Christ has done. As humbling as that is, grace is all I have. Everything I do apart from the Lord Jesus motivating and empowering me is useless. Any mere human goodness falls short of the glory of God. 

As Chambers says, “When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.”