Galatians 3:18 - And the winner is...

"For if out of law [is] the inheritance, [it is] no longer out of promise.  But to Abraham through a promise God has graciously given [it]."

-Where there are sons - and sons of sons (i.e. descendants), there are heirs.  And as Paul just pointed out (Galatians 3.7), we - those who are of the faith of Abraham - are sons (and daughters) of Abraham.  God’s promise to Abraham was not only one of blessing but also descendants, that Abraham would have innumerable descendants, too many to count (Genesis 13.16, 15.5, 16.10).  Surely the two go hand in hand.  Yes, we do read of physical descendants who would possess the land of Canaan (Genesis 17.8 et al) and who would observe the covenant of circumcision (Genesis 17.10) and who would be named through Isaac (Genesis 17.19).  Yet the spiritual blessing of justification through faith to all nations would be conveyed by those who circumcise not their bodies but their hearts, carried in the hearts and by the feet and lips of those Gentiles (as well as Jews) who become a spiritual son (or daughter) of Abraham when they trust in the Lord just as Abraham did.

-In this instance (and in every other), the law and the promise are antithetical, diametrically opposed.  It's the law versus the promise, and there's not room enough in this town for the both of them.  They are mutually exclusive, entirely incompatible.  Law-based righteousness comes entirely on the basis of works.  Self-effort - it is merit-based.  At least that's the idea - it sounds good in theory but real life applications are fundamentally flawed.  Work hard, work harder - and make yourself perfect.  Perfect enough to be right in God's eyes.  Ain't gonna happen.  Whereas promised-based righteousness comes strictly on the basis of faith.  It is grace-based.  That is the word which Paul uses here - grace.  A grace gift, this, this right-standing with God.  Free, overflowing, underserved favor, straight from the heart and hand of God Himself.   And the winner is... you.  And me.  And anyone who takes their stand not on flawed works but on the steady and sure promise of almighty God.

Galatians 3:17 - Promise vs Law

"But this I am saying: a covenant having been previously ratified by God, the law having come to be four hundred and thirty years after, is not canceling unto the to be nullifying the promise.’

-Now Paul summarizes.  Recall that there were those who were insisting to these Galatian believers that the covenant promise required one to be circumcised and to observe the entirety of the Mosaic law.  Every last jot and tittle.  On this point, they were sadly mistaken.  The law was given after the exodus, more than four hundred years after God made this great promise of blessing and justification by faith to Abraham.  And since - as we have just seen - one does not ever set aside or add conditions to a covenant, especially not one which has been ratified by God Himself, there can be no way on earth (or in heaven for that matter) that what was given to Moses and to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai as they prepared to take possession of the land of Canaan was binding on those who would lay hold of the promise and blessing of Abraham.  There is no universe in which the law would ever supercede or cancel out or otherwise nullify this promise God made to Abraham the believer, the man of faith, the father of the faith-ful.  The promise of being made completely right with God, in His eyes, by faith alone still stands intact.  It came first, and it still does.  It is still fully in force, for anyone who would believe - like Abraham.

Galatians 3:16 - No limits.

"...in order that He should give to you according to the riches of the glory of Him power to be strengthened through the Spirit of Him unto the inner man..."

-Power.  Limitless, life-changing, mind-blowing inexhaustible Power.  The same Power which placed a billion trillion stars throughout the universe and which sustains them still today, each blazing giant giving off power equivalent to a million atom bombs every second of every day since the beginning of time, this same Power is available to me every second of every day.  Power to love.  Power to serve.  Power to give.  Power to forgive.  Just a tiny morsel of this hyper-nuclear stuff is more than enough to set off a miracle - to heal, to move mountains, to tear down walls and rebuild a broken heart, to change a life or the world forever.  These are the greater works which Christ Himself promised (John 14.12).  This is the Power which raised Jesus from the dead. This is the very same Power which is at work in the lives of those who believe in Him.  This is the Power which Paul is entreating the Father to be detonating in the lives of these believers.  No limits.

-The extent of God's ability to answer Paul's prayer and empower these believers (and us!) is tied to the riches of His glory.  Here again, limitless.  Unfathomable, and breathtakingly great.  It will never, ever run out.  But this answer will also conform to God's glorious riches.  When the Power goes off (i.e. is exploding) in and through my life, there will be no other explanation other than that God did it.  The results themselves will take your breath away, and will show off how truly great and indescribably good God really is.  No limits.

-Two keys then to unlock this supernatural display of God's power in my inner being, as Paul puts it, in and through my life.  The first we have seen, and that is prayer.  Like Paul, on our knees, dependent, more than just a little dab'll do ya.  How much more?  Simply more.  Always more, until we are praying without ceasing (!Thessalonians 5.17).  Prayer is the fundamental currency with which we conduct the business of Heaven, energized by faith, deposited in the divine "bank" of Almighty God and His Word, trustworthy beyond measure.  Suffice it to say that you and I and all God's people most likely fall way short in leveraging this first key.  As it turns out, the second key is the Spirit, Who actually helps us with the first key (cf Romans 8.26).  He is the Promised Helper, the One Who Jesus so eagerly wanted to send in His place and into the heart of each and every person who trusts in Him.  He is called the Spirit of Power.  And each and every time He shows up and goes off we see the miraculously inexplicable, things which are humanly impossible but which are entirely possible with God (Mark 10.27).  And to the extent that my life does not fit well into the garb of greater works, it is highly probable that I need to closely consider whether I might not be able to benefit from a bit more knee-bowing and Spirit-empowering, more of the Spirit in my life.  Or rather He gets more of me... No limits.

"The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him..." -Henry Varley to D.L. Moody

Galatians 3:15 - Promises on steroids?

"Brothers, according to man I am saying.  Yet [even] a covenant of man having been ratified, no one is rejecting or adding to."

-A covenant.  A covenant.  I don’t think that means what we think it means.  In fact we have a very dim idea of what it means.  The dictionary defines it simply as 'an agreement’.  And yet moderns have rather little reluctance to modify or otherwise abrogate "an agreement".  Our word is no longer our bond.  Anymore, you can’t take it to the bank, or to the store, or anyplace else, much less to a neighbor.

-Covenants were promises on steroids.  They were solemn oaths, inaugurated and ratified by death, a rather violent sacrifice and shedding of blood, the victim literally being cut into two and the covenanters passing between the two halves (this picture is plausibly where English gets the phrase, to cut a deal).  Nevertheless, a covenant, once ratified, was both irrevocable and unalterable.  Even when made under false pretenses, both parties were under obligation to respect the covenant (cf Joshua 9.22-23, 2Samuel 21.1).  Indeed, there were curses for breaking a covenant, as well as blessings for keeping it (thus we see the covenant between God and His people, the blessing for keeping the law and the curse for breaking it - Deuteronomy 11.26-28).  To Paul’s point tho, even on a strictly human level, modifying or altering a covenant was a no-no, inconceivable.  And so the implication then is that at a much higher level, there is not even the slightest chance of God ever breaking or otherwise altering any one of His promises.  And you can take that to the bank...

Galatians 3:14 - Heavenly Alley Oops

"...in order that unto the nations the blessing of Abraham should come in Christ Jesus, in order that the promise of the Spirit we should receive through the faith."

-The direct fulfillment of Genesis 22.18, this - “All the nations will be blessed IN YOUR SEED”.  THE Seed is Jesus Messiah, the Son of God and the Coming One, prophesied Descendant of Abraham the believer, the man of faith.  And thus ALL those believing with the faith of Abraham become his descendants, his spiritual sons and daughters, and he becomes the father of many nations.  In fact, he will be the spiritual father of all the nations, since there will be believers from every nation under heaven gathered around the throne of heaven.

-What is the blessing of Abraham exactly?  No doubt it is forgiveness, and a forever restored relationship with my heavenly Father, but wait, there’s more!  Paul specifically says here that those who are of the faith of Abraham will receive ‘the promise of the Spirit’.  This is the One to Whom Jesus Himself refered when He told the disciples that it would better for Him to He leave them, because then the Father would send the Helper, the One Who would be more than with them, He would be IN them (John 16.7, 14.26, 14.17), to help them follow Jesus in the same (or similar) faith-steps of Abraham.  Not merely external makeovers, a whitewashed mix of creeds and meetings and insipid orthodoxy, of flagging obedience and flailing self-effort.  May it never be!  No, we’re talking about changed hearts and lives, other-worldly, transformed from the inside out, glimpses of glory in mere jars of clay.  Greater works and miracles and the supernatural (John 14.12).  Limitless power to forgive and forbear and to love until death.  Inexpressible joy and surpassing peace and enduring gratitude even and especially in the midst of brokenness and hardship and persecution.  Talk about an alley oop - far more spectacular than any assist you'll see in the NBA.  This is the indwelling Holy Spirit, the promised blessing poured out upon every person who follows in the steps of Abraham, the man of faith.  Each and every follower does indeed possess the Spirit, at the ready to set any one of us up for a heavenly Sportscenter Top 10 - the question is, am I possessed by Him?  Am I in step with Him?

Galatians 3:13 - The Unlikeliest Tree Of All

"Christ redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become on our behalf a curse, that it is having been written: 'Cursed [is] every the [one] hanging upon a tree...'"

-The verse Paul quotes here is a somewhat loose form of Deuteronomy 21.23.  In that passage it refers specifically to those who had been executed by hanging (i.e. from a tree) - anyone who had committed capital crimes worthy of death was most certainly under the curse of God, and to allow the dead bodies of those cursed ones to remain hanging in public would defile the land.  Thus the Israelites were being instructed to bury the bodies on the same day they were hanged.  It is a rather obscure text, to be sure, and yet somehow Paul is inspired by the Lord to see a prefiguring of the Messiah in that text.

-Truth is, we were all under a curse, literally in bondage to being bound to evil and brokenness and death, every last one of us, including all those who are now trusting in the death of Christ, trusting in all that He did on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  He paid the ransom and provided the way for us to be set free from the curse - by becoming a curse for us.  He let Himself become bound and tied and nailed to a "tree" (or that which was constructed from a felled tree), hung on a Tree of Death, where His Father laid on Him the sins of the world.  My sins.  He took on our curse.  My curse.  And paid for every last one of them, paid it all.  There, on that blessed, rugged Roman cross, that cruel instrument of torture and execution, the unlikeliest tree of all.  What a fascinating juxtaposition of symbols here, what sublime irony and wondrous love, that eternal life is to be found now not in the fruit of a living tree (the Tree of Life - cf Genesis 3.22) - but rather in the death of the eternal God upon a dead tree.  O, such infinite wisdom, amazing love...

Galatians 3:12 - Two ways of faith...?

"But the law is not out of faith, but rather, 'The [one] doing them will live in them.'"

-Yes, there are essentially two philosophies when it comes to approaching God - one is the law of works, and the other is faith.  And as has already been stated, even the law approach is a form of faith, since faith in its very essence is simply trust, and that which determines its efficacy is the object of faith.  So when Paul is refering here to the law, he is describing those folks who are placing their trust in works of the Mosaic law (including circumcision) to gain right standing with God.  THE Law, that body of some 600+ commands which was given to the Jews through Moses (and this is the way which some people were trying to persuade these Galatians who had begun to follow Christ to go).  And by faith, Paul means that trust which has as its object, Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross.  THE Faith.  And to his point, the very nature of Law-based righteousness is not only antithetical to Faith-in-Christ-based righteousness, but is also such that if you chose to trust in the way of works, you are required to live fully into that - that is the verse which Paul quotes here (Leviticus 18.5).  God says, you WILL do this (like He does in the Ten Commandments and throughout the hundreds of others).  In other words, don’t stop short or bring it in weak.  The expectation is total obedience.  You WILL live in them.  The Law itself states that if you are opting for the way of Law, of trusting in the Law, you are obligated to keep the whole darn thing, all the time.  You WILL never finish - never certain, never perfect, never saved.  Whereas the way of Faith (in Jesus) is entirely different.  I am not trusting in any of my own efforts, not a single one.  I am trusting in Another, in the work of One Who declared, "It is finished"...

Galatians 3:11 - The Faulty Default

"But that in law no one is being justified with God [is] evident; since 'the righteous out of faith will live'."

-Nobody’s perfect.  That is a universally understood truth, but if one would avoid The Curse, one is not allowed to make even one mistake (James 2.10).  And that is definitely the bad news - nobody can make it.  Nobody can keep the entire law.  Nobody can make themselves perfect.  No not one.  The most selfless loving person still falls way short of the holiness of God, comes short of His divine perfections, and that really is the most important point.  Anyone can compare themselves favorably to the poor shmuck next to them, but we are not engaged in a contest with our neighbor, trying to outdo them in good deeds.  It is not as if we are trying to escape from an angry bear and merely need to outrun the person next to us.  No, we are trying to [re]gain right standing with our Maker, to be right in His eyes.

-The truth is that the law came in in order that sin might become utterly sinful (Romans 7.13), and in doing so the curse became truly curse-ful.  And we can observe basically two fundamental approaches whereby people attempt to gain right standing with God - one is the way of works, and the other is the way of faith (which of course is the way of Abraham, and the Way made possible only through Jesus).  The former approach is entirely ineffectual, and thus is the way of the curse.  By works of law no flesh will be justified (made right or perfect) in His sight (Romans 3.20), and yet this is not only the standard approach of every major world religion, sect, cult, and worldview besides Christianity, it is also the faulty default position of humanity in general.  Even those who appear to be irreligious are generally under the assumption that they are good enough in themselves (or can be) to satisfy the minimum requirements of any religious law which might otherwise be binding on them.

-But no - if one truly aspires to gain right standing before God, the only way to do that is not by law but rather by faith.  Faith speaks to the idea of trust, and the critical question is, where (or in what) do I put my trust?  Paul is quoting Habakuk 2.4, where the righteous is contrasted with those proud and haughty people who are putting their trust in themselves, in their own abilities, in their own strength, in their own efforts.   In fact, everybody trusts in something.  Everybody has faith - it is the object of my faith which makes all the difference.  If the object of my faith is the law and in my efforts to keep the entirety of it, I will fall way short...

Galatians 3:10 - THE Curse...

"For as many as are out of works of law, these are under a curse.  For it has been written that, 'Cursed [are] all who are not abiding by all the [things] having been written in the book of the law to do them.'"

-In Hebrew the word most often used for curse contains the idea of something which is snared or bound.  It stands in stark opposition to the blessing, that which is an experience of the goodness of God.  The Lord blessed those He made in His image, He showered His goodness on them, He promised His blessings, and they chose instead to walk away in their hearts, to walk in rebellion and idolatry and spiritual adultery, to try and experience goodness on their own term apart from God.  And as a consequence of the sin of Adam, all the earth is under a curse, ensnared and bound up in an experience of that which is quite contrary to the goodness of God.  It is a promise, in fact, of evil, of that which was never part of the original design.  What tragic irony, that the very freedom we attempt to pursue apart from our Maker instead has us trapped in brokenness.  It is a catch-22, however.  There is a promised curse for those who walk away FROM the law of God and away from living in to He wants, but there is also a curse for those who depend entirely UPON the law and on their best efforts to try and perfect themselves through the law, because that of course is impossible.  The law requires that one keep all of it, dotting every ‘i’ and crossing every last ‘t’, and of that we all fall short even on our best days.  This is the essence of the curse, a double-edged curse, that the world is bound up under a law of works, and the whole world is bound to fail.  That’s precisely the point which Paul is emphasizing in the verse he quotes here (Deuteronomy 27.26).  The standard of the law - if one would escape the curse - is to keep the whole thing, every part.  All things - that is the standard.  In fact, that verse in the Hebrew does not actually contain the word ‘all’, so Paul is taking some inspirational license with the text, adding the ‘all’ for emphasis. 

-Reverse the curse.  Is not this Good News which was pre-good-newsed to Abraham about all the nations of the earth realizing a blessing instead of a curse?  THE Curse of all curses this, with all the attendant brokenness and death, not at all a part of any original design - transformed in the blessing of blessings.  It seems that quite often there is a blessing and a curse, and in fact that was the original message to Abraham, that there would be both a blessing and a curse.  There would be a curse for anyone who would curse Abraham, something not good at all, but rather something thoroughly bad.  Surely this would extend to any who might not walk in faith as did Abraham the faith[ful] one.  To not follow Abraham in his step(s) of faith would indeed be tantamount to cursing him.  And thus we have The Curse.  Not merely a place of physical death, but of eternal spiritual separation from our Creator.  Bad, not good.  Entirely and eternally bad.  This is The Curse.  And quite frankly there’s hell to pay.  Literally.

Galatians 3:9 - How to get THE Good Stuff

"So that the [ones] out of faith are blessed with the faithful [one], Abraham."

-Let us be perfectly clear: while all people here below, believers and unbelievers alike, share in an experience of the goodness of God (His sun rises and rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous - Matthew 5.45), His greatest blessings, the privilege to enter in to an eternal experience of His glorious goodness, being welcomed in to His forever family, is reserved for those who are "out of faith".  The one who would come to God, who would be pleasing enough to be welcomed into His presence, must have faith, must trust, must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who in faith do seek Him.  In fact, without faith it is simply impossible to please Him at all, much less enter in to His presence, this One in Whose presence is fulness of joy and in Whose right hand are pleasures forever.  If you want to experience the good stuff, THE Good stuff, the best that life has to offer, you gotta have faith.  Righteousness, being totally right in the eyes of your Maker, comes only by faith, by trusting in the One Who provided the one and only Way to be made right.  Jesus.

Galatians 3:8 - News of Breathtaking Goodness

"But the Scripture, having forseen that out of faith God is justifying the nations, pre-evangelized to Abraham that, 'All the nations will be blessed in you.'"

-The Scripture.  The Scripture.  The Writing (or graphé), literally.  It typically refers to a single particular verse, one which is contained within the larger collection of the Scriptures.  But when this term is invoked, there is the implicit understanding that God almighty has spoken.  He has spoken, and it will come to pass.  It is incontrovertible.  It is inerrant, and is the final word on truth, this Word of Truth (2Samuel 7.28, 1Kings 17.24, Psalm 119.43, Psalm 119.160, John 17.17, 2Timothy 2.15).  It more than contains truth - it IS truth, and is 100% totally entirely true, unchanging, timeless, forever relevant and trustworthy.  You and I and all peoples can take it to the bank.  We can guide our lives by it, and commit our lives to it.  And we should.

-Here in this letter to these Galatian believers, Paul appears to be quoting Genesis 12.3.  In the original Hebrew, the word translated as ‘nation’ here is mishpachah, which is more often rendered as ‘family’, and that is how the word is in fact rendered there.  All families will be blessed in you.  There are three Greek words which are variously translated as family - oikos, genos, and patria, but Paul here instead uses the word ethné, which of course is the Greek word for nations.  However, in the Hebrew there is a different word which is overwhelmingly used for nation(s), and that is goy.  After the covenant of circumcision is put in and the Mosaic law is laid down, the term in fact becomes rather pejorative, refering to the category of all non-jews, the morally filthy and to-be-avoided-at-all-costs Gentiles.  Clearly that is not what the Lord has in mind back in Genesis, but it is interesting to consider why Paul would substitute the word ‘nations’ here.  In Genesis 12, Abraham is still called Abram, in fact (cf Genesis 17.5).  Is it possible that Paul is thinking of Genesis 22.18?  At that point, he is now Abraham, and the verbage is similar, except that there the Lord does indeed say that all the goy will be blessed.  However, by then the Lord is saying that all the nations will be blessed "in your seed" (or descendant[s]).  Either way there is a bit of a discrepancy between what Paul is quoting and the original verses in Genesis.  It is quite possible that Paul has simply combined the essence of the two passages in Genesis in order to better reinforce the three things he is emphasizing here: the Good News of justification by faith, for all the Gentiles, and pre-evangelized to Abraham many centuries before it was formally put in thru the sacrifice of the One Who was indeed the Seed of Abraham.

-But let us be perfectly clear as to what - or rather, Whom - is forseeing and pre-evangelizing.  Paul says that the Scripture foresaw and evangelized, but is it not God Himself Who in fact is declaring Good News to Abraham?  Is it not the Word Who was in the beginning, and that, long before any line of Scripture had even been written down?  Thus we have both an affirmation here of the inspiration of Scripture, that the words contained therein are in fact the very words of God, as well as a glimpse into His heart, into the eternal plan of God.  All.  The.  Nations.  Panta ta ethne - the theme resounds throughout the pages of Scripture, this God Who blesses, that in His manifold wisdom He would gradually unfold His plan to create and then gather together men and women out of every nation-tribe-and-tongue under Heaven into an eternal experience of His glorious goodness.  That is the Good News, straight from the heart of blessing God Himself, Who is forever blessed, amen.

-Yes indeed, God is bringing into His eternally glorious presence those who are separated from Him (because of their sin) and making them totally right with Him, morally perfect, solely out of faith, the ones trusting in Him to make it so.  That is definitely Good News, more than enough to put you on shouting ground!  And who knew?  We find that the first declaration of the Good News occurred not in the Gospels themselves, not in John 3.16 or some other New Testament verse, nor even in one of the prophets.  Nope, we find it in the verse Paul quotes here, way back in the beginning, in Genesis 12.3. (altho one could - and some surely do - make a fine case that there is even good news to be found back in Genesis 3.15, but I digress...)  Yes, the great unrivaled Good News is that all nations AND families on this broken planet will be blessed.  Every tribe and tongue will be brought into the family of God, to know Him and experience His breathtaking goodness.  This is the same breathtakingly good God Who has been blessing and manifesting and bestowing His goodness on His creatures since the beginning of creation (Genesis 1.22, 1.28, 2.3, 5.2, 9.1 - it is what He does, Who He is).  Breathtaking!  Can I get an amen?

Galatians 3:7 - The Primary Object-ive

"Therefore, be knowing that the [ones] out of faith, these are sons of Abraham."

-Notwithstanding all his relapses and attendant warts, ol' Abe did believe, he trusted in God, in His promise, in His Word, began to relate to Him on the basis of this faith, and he became the father - the predecessor, the archetype - not of those who have their foreskin cut off in a religious ritual but rather of those who likewise put their trust in his God Who would thru the Seed of Abraham bless all nations (Genesis 12.3, 22.18; cf Romans 4.11, 4.16).  The Scripture which Paul just quoted in v. 6 makes it abundantly clear that God gave Abraham right standing with Him by this act of faith - BEFORE he was circumcised.  In other words, APART from the work of law which the Judaizers were attempting to foist onto the Galatians’ shoulders.  Thus we along with them can know-know-know for certain that we become his descendants, his spiritual sons and daughters, those innumerable children of promise (Genesis 15.5), when like him we put our trust in the God Who makes us right with Him.  Solely on the basis of faith.  Faith which has as its object not any work of law or ritual or any code of compliance but simply the One Whom God sent.  This promise is to all who believe, simply believe the Good News about God’s Son (John 1.12, 3.16, 6.29, 14.1, 17.20-21, 20.31; Acts 16.31; Romans 4.11, 4.16).  We choose to believe, trust, place our faith IN the promise, and IN the One Who made it.

-And ultimately this is the most important aspect of faith - the object.  The thing IN WHICH we put our trust.  Anyone can have faith.  In fact, all people have faith.  Everyone trusts in something (or someone).  Many are quite sincere, in fact, about the object of their faith, of their devotion.  They sincerely devote themselves to trusting in that person, or that thing, that teaching - or that work.  These troubling Judaizers actually had quite a bit of faith - in circumcision.  In the law.  In works and self-effort.  They had the wrong object.  And so Paul objects to their object - and rightly so.  They, like so many others even still today, were trusting in themselves, such that we could fairly say they had no faith, that they were not of faith at all.  Technically they still had faith, but in truth their faith was sorely misplaced.  The ONLY object of faith which will actually prove to be effective - worthwhile, worthy - is Jesus.  There is no other object, no other name given under heaven by which we may be saved (Acts 4.12).  He alone is worthy of our faith, our trust, our devotion. The Primary Object-ive.  Only through (faith in) Jesus can we become true sons and daughters of Abraham, heirs of the marvelous promise.  Is ol' Abe your daddy?  Who's your daddy?

Galatians 3:6 - The Genesis of Faith = the End of Abram?

"Just as Abraham trusted in God, and it was credited to him unto righteousness."

-What must I do to be saved, to be made right in the eyes of my Creator, good enough to be morally acceptable to Him?  I must be(come) perfect, which is impossible, unattainable humanly-speaking.  But there is good news!  This most fundamental of life’s great questions and the root of the controversy in Galatia has a very simple answer, as old as Genesis, revealed in Scripture before God says even one thing about circumcision or the Mosaic law or any other religious act - Genesis 15.6.  Trust.  Faith.  Believe IN God, believe what He says and commit yourself to it.  This is the entirety of what God expects of Abra(ha)m, who is clearly the poster child for justification by faith, as Paul holds him up particularly in this chapter as well in Romans chapter 4 (Romans 4.3).

-The verse Paul quotes for us here is when the Lord renews His promise to make a nation out of Abram.  It is not the first time the Lord makes this promise (Genesis 12.2, 12.7, 13.16).  And it is interesting to note on these other occasions what we see in response to God’s Word: obedience (going - Genesis 12.4) and worship (altar-building - Genesis 12.7-8, 13.18).  But we see no mention of faith.  It is certainly possible to go through the motions and rituals of worship and obedience but to do so not out of faith but merely out of self-effort.  Good works, trying to earn right standing with God.  But here we have the first mention of faith in all of Scripture.  Is it possible that in Genesis 15 Abram finally comes to the beginning of the end of himself, the end of self-effort and self-righteousness, the end of his perceived ability to obey and conform to God’s standards in his own strength?

-I say ‘beginning’, because there are relapses, places where we see faith-not-yet-fully-formed.  And to this we can all relate - ours is the way of progressive sanctification, learning and relearning to more fully follow and trust (in) the God Who saves and forgives and transforms.  Faith grows, not in its size, but in its understanding of the immense greatness and faithfulness of God Who is always true to His Word and for Whom nothing is impossible.  In the very next chapter (cf Genesis 16.3) we see in Abram a fairly significant relapse, the epitome of self-effort, as he literally fathers a child of the flesh, if you will.  He and Sarai - who had been barren prior to this whole leave-your-home-new-nation thing - had now lived in this new land, trying for 10 years to have a child, to crank up the new nation for God.  Ten long years (!) of trying and failing, and so they decide to help God out.  Abram fathers a son with Sarai’s Egyptian maid, Hagar.  It appears to be Sarai’s idea - surely she is sick and tired and weary of the disaapointment and heartache and shame of barrenness, and, to be fair, the Lord had not yet (as far as we know) specifically said anything about Sarai becoming a mother, only that Abram was to be a father.  Lo and behold, Hagar quickly conceives and gives birth to Ishmael.  Finally, success!  And as far as we can tell, nothing more is said for 13 years.  For 13 years the entire family proceeds on the assumption that it was all good, that they had done their best to comply with God’s instructions.  As far as they know, Ishmael is the heir of the promise (Genesis 17.8), both Abram and Sarai have given up hope of ever having even one child together - he’s 99, she’s 90 (Genesis 17.17, 18.11-12), AND Ishmael is now a teenager.  He is actually coming of age in that ancient near-eastern culture.  He is the man.  Literally.  Yet at just that time, the Lord comes and makes it clear that their fleshy effort was not at all His idea and in fact He was going to do something more miraculous still (Genesis 17.15-16).  Faith lays hold of wonderful impossibles.  And it is literally the end of Abram ("exalted father"), as the Lord changes his name to Abraham ("father of a multitude").

-We do see yet another relapse in Genesis 20.1-2, where Abraham lies (again) about Sarah only being his sister (she is his half-sister), not yet fully at the end of himself, not yet fully trusting in the Lord and in His promises to still one day (soon!) give them a child from whom would come kings and nations.  How comforting to know that being right in God’s eyes does not depend on our ability to be able to perfectly trust and follow, but rather in His limitless ability to take the tiniest mustard seed of faith and do the impossible, create something entirely brand new, a new creation wherein the Kingdom of God is planted and takes root and grows and multiplies and blossoms into a wondrous reflection of the breathtaking goodness of God.  Such that God gets the credit, He gets the glory.

-I wonder, what wonderful impossible might He desire to do in and through me if only I would come to the end of me?

Galatians 3:5 - Of things not seen...

"Therefore, the [One] fully-supplying to you the Spirit and working powers in you, [is it] out of works of law or out of hearing of faith?

-Paul summarizes here, and clarifies - they had seen miracles, these Galatians.  Supernatural.  Scientifically impossible.  God had shown up in Galatia after these put their trust in Christ and as this assembly was launched and began to grow.  The Lord had shown up and worked some wonderful impossibles, wondrous wonders which no eye had seen and no ear had heard (1Corinthians 2.9), which no man can do apart from the Spirit and power of God showing up and doing what He do.  Inexplicable - defying explanation.

-And to Paul’s point, there was not one thing these Galatians DID to unleash or otherwise facilitate these miracles, not one work of law, not one good deed, no not one.  There was not one eency weency good deed they did in order to receive the Holy Spirit.  All they did was believe.  THAT is the point which Paul is making.  And that, my friends, is the key to miracles, the key to unlocking the greater works which Christ Himself promised (John 14.12), that which unleashes the supernatural in your life and in mine.  Belief.  Faith.  Trusting in the truth that God is, that He is the great I AM, and that He is able.  Scripture tells us that it was actually unbelief - lack of faith and trust - which hindered Christ from doing miracles in one place (Matthew 13.58).  Faith requires that one relax their reliance on limited human reason and their absolute insistence on being able to fully explain every phenomenon in strictly scientific terms.  It’s not inconceivable, rather it’s that which is simply beyond the known laws of physics and beyond the capacity of finite man to be able to explain, much less produce.  And that’s ok.  You and I need to be ok with there being some things which we cannot explain, with the existence of that unseen Greater Power, something/someOne greater than ourselves.  That's what faith is, by definition, the conviction of things NOT seen... (Hebrews 11.1).

-Note that the Spirit and wonderful impossibles go hand in hand in the NT.  Everywhere He shows up, there are supernatural signs and wonders, visions and boldness and powerful speaking, there is fruit - genuine life-changing love and inexpressible inexplicable joy and peace and hope, sharing and serving and patience and kindness.  There is life - new life, and there is death, death to self and to the deeds of the flesh.  Make no mistake, the supernatural is part of the package Paul has in mind when he thinks about God pouring out His Spirit on the Galatians.  And ultimately, when Christ’s Spirit shows up and fills His people there is glory (2Corinthians 3.8) - and that’s precisely the point.  He comes - into hearts and lives - to show off how breathtakingly great is our Savior (John 16.14).  Glorious greater works - can that be said of my life?  Is there any aspect of my life which cannot be explained by reason and strictly human terms?  Is there any whiff of the supernatural about me?  Anything which, humanly speaking, no eye has seen?

Galatians 3:4 - Wasted Persecution?

"So much did you suffer in vain?  If indeed [it was] even in vain?"

-It is possible that the word here is neutral, that it simply means ‘experience’ and refers to the positive experience of the signs and miracles of God’s Spirit among these Galatian believers.  They had experienced so many things, things of wonder and power, simply having heard and believed, and this is consistent with both the preceding and following verse.

-The other way to translate the word is ‘suffer’, that not only did these Galatians see some pretty amazing things after that they believed (and that apart from any compliance with the Mosaic law), but they then were on the receiving end of some persecution.  While there is no explicit record anywhere else of a persecution directed at Christians arising in the region of Galatia at the time, it would not be difficult to imagine such a thing taking place, since persecution and suffering are pretty much the heritage of all believers, guaranteed by none other than Jesus Himself (John 15.20, Luke 21.12, Matthew 10.22, cf 2Timothy 3.12).  These Galatians would not have been the first nor the last to experience some form of mistreatment or loss for believing in and following after Jesus.  The way of the Cross is disruptive to both families and entire societies, not only flying in the face of long established and deeply ingrained religious and cultural identities, but also heaping condemnation on those around who are brought face-to-face with real spiritual accountability, with a message of absolute truth, of sin and righteousness and of judgment to come.  Unless one has some humility and also proceeds to understand and embrace the forgiveness which accompanies the accountability, it can be a message rather ill-suited to sit well in the heart of fallen man.  Often, those who are guilty do not enjoy being told as much, and rather than repent will reject or lash out at their accuser (or message-bearer).  These can be aided and abetted by local authorities who may be actively hostile as well or could be merely passively indifferent, simply tolerant of any injustice or mistreatment or violence directed at Christians.  This reality is played out all over the world, increasingly so today, and has been since they first mistreated and murdered Jesus (and the prophets before Him - haters gonna hate the Message and the messenger).  This could very well have happened to these new Galatian believers, and the mere fact of their suffering would have been proof positive that they were on the right track, a validation of their faith (Matthew 5.10-12, John 15.20).  Which then leads to Paul’s point: they had experienced and quite possibly had suffered so many things after having put their trust in Christ for salvation, after indicating a decision to begin following Christ.  If the path to perfection was in fact not thru faith alone in Christ alone (or if they were going to abandon said path), then whatever suffering they had endured after their profession had been a waste of time.  In vain.  Why name the name of Jesus if that’s only going to get you persecuted but not really get you any closer to heaven?  C’mon, man!

-Thankfully, tho, it is never in vain, never a waste of time to suffer or endure anything in the name of Jesus, on His behalf and for the sake of His body, just as Paul tips his hand a bit by adding the phrase, ‘if indeed’.  No indeed, it was not at all in vain, not ever!  Suffering for Christ produces endurance, and helps to actually strengthen our faith and make us more like the One Who endured the Cross and experienced the ultimate suffering on our behalf - for us (1Peter 4.12-13, Acts 14.22, 1Peter 5.9-10, Revelation 2.10, 1Peter 1.6-7, James 1.2-3)!

Galatians 3:3 - Faith, Perfection, and the un-American Way

"So mindless, are you, having begun by Spirit now by flesh are you being completed?"

-Mindless.  Foolish.  They have lost their minds, these.  They started out so well, by faith, trust, leaning not on their own understanding or on their own self-effort, not trusting in their flesh, in their own innate (in)ability to somehow make themselves better, perfect, more acceptable and pleasing to God.  They were trusting in Him, in His indwelling Spirit for that, for acceptance, for guidance, for power, for the understanding of and enabling to do all that God wanted, for an increase and harvest of fruit and righteousness.  It is folly indeed to ever try and do this thru good deeds done in my own strength, but all the moreso to go back to doing so after having been enlightened by God’s Spirit and introduced to the way of faith.  The best my flesh can do is filthy rags (Isaiah 64.4), dirty deeds done dirt cheap.

-Yet at some point, as a result of the teaching and influence of some Judaizers, these believers in Galatia have begun to believe that the way forward to progress in their faith is to exercise not their faith but their flesh.  There are certain works which they must do in order to please God, in order to follow and become more like Jesus.  Self-effort, self-help, pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.  It sets nicely in the heart of fallen man, loathe as we are to ask for help and to have to depend on another in any way.  That’s humbling.  It’s "inefficient".  It’s outright embarrassing.  Frankly, it’s un-American.  Rugged individualism - that’s what made this country great, right?  Apparently that set just fine with the Galatians too.

-In no uncertain terms are we talking about the abandonment of a sound work ethic, about embracing and enabling laziness and sloth.  No, no, faith and hard work must always be held in tension, with the awareness that in the way of holiness, work which is truly good in the eyes of the God with Whom we have to do always issues forth from faith.  Absolute trust in and dependence on (someone else, on) God to save us, to make us clean and right in His eyes (thru Jesus our Savior).  Yes, I am always to work hard when it is time to work, and earn my pay (2Thessalonians 3.10-12; Ephesians 4.28; Proverbs 10.4, 18.9; Nehemiah 4.6), but faith always precedes truly good and perfect deeds, and there is nothing meritorious, no progress towards spiritual perfection apart from faith, from absolute trust in God’s grace and power and provision thru Christ.  Perfection - that which is necessary in order to gain entrance into heaven - is arrived at not by any fleshy self-effort, and to come to know this truth but then abandon it would be the height of folly.

Galatians 3:2 - The Proverbial Proof of the Tasty Pudding

"This only I am wanting to learn from you: out of works of law the Spirit you received or out of hearing of faith?’

-The proverbial proof of the pudding, this.  God’s Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.  He comes into the life, into the heart of each and every person who puts their trust in Jesus, baptizing them into the body of Christ, regenerating them, sealing them - sent from above by the heavenly Father.  And He comes bearing gifts, distributing to each one individually, just as He desires (1Corinthians 12.11).  Gifts of teaching and healing and mercy and faith and miracles and service and languages and interpretation and administration and prophecy, some of which are quite inexplicable in any human terms (by design).  These gifts can manifest right from very beginning, the moment of conversion - we see this happen quite clearly in the book of Acts (i.e. the acts of the Spirit!) as God confirms His work of salvation for those who first believed (cf Acts 10.45, 11.17).  In fact, it was this visible, tangible manifestation of the Spirit which was definitely needed at that time in order to convince the Jewish leaders of the early church that God was actually accepting Gentiles into His faith family without the need for them to be circumcised and observe the rest of the law of Moses (cf Act 11.17-18, 15.5-9ff).

-No doubt this is what did happen in Galatia, when Paul preached the Gospel and God was pleased to save some and plant an assembly of believers in that place, no doubt God’s Spirit manifested in some demonstrable, visible way - some kind of sign gift(s), supernatural gifting and working, proof positive that He had saved and accepted those ones who merely believed, saved by faith alone and not by any work of the law or religious pedigree.  And this is what Paul is asking them to recall here.  There was no thing, no good deed, not one command of the Jewish Law (or any other religious creed) which anyone did in order to obtain the gift of God’s Spirit.  They heard, they believed what they heard, God accepted them through faith, and they simultaneously received His Spirit (with the tangible manifestation thereof) entirely by faith.

-Which somewhat begs a question for each of us today - I say I have faith, but is there any corroborating evidence of the Spirit in my life?  Is there any sign of Him, any giftedness, any fruit whatsoever, any whiff of stuff of heaven, any of that surpassing peace or unspeakable joy or selfless love which lays itself down for my brother?  When the unbelieving world levels the charge at the church that it is full of hypocrites, what they are fundamentally saying is that they see so many folks who claim to have a direct personal connection to the God of heaven, but there is not really much of that stuff of heaven in their lives.  All these religious people don't really look or live much differently than me.  They do get up early on Sundays to go to a meeting, and they don't swear as much, but as far as I can tell they marry and divorce and shop and eat and vacation and struggle and live their lives pretty much the same as I do.  And so the claim rings hollow.  Disingenuous.

-Here we find what Jesus stated was a primary reason that He returned to the Father, so that He could send the Holy Spirit (John 16.7), that Helper Who would not only be with us but would live IN us and give us the power to do greater works than Jesus Himself did, deeds and exploits of glory which earn not salvation but which indeed do show off the breathtaking goodness of almighty God.  It matters not one little bit what I claim to be if there is no substance, no confirming tasty fruit to back it up.  Truly the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Galatians 3:1 - Is it finished...?

"Oh mindless Galatians, who bewitched you, who according to eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth as having been crucified?"

-Seeing is believing, right?  Jesus Christ was crucified and somehow, these Galatians saw it.  Well, not the actual event itself, but the crucifixion of the son of God - which was fairly recent history - was re-created for them visually, in some way or fashion, the portrayal was clearly combined with an explanation of the meaning and the significance of that blessed event, along with an invitation to respond, and they believed.  They saw with the eyes of their heart, and that seeing was believing.  They trusted in Jesus, in His death on the Cross for the forgiveness of their sins.  They made what skeptics and cynics and moderns and educateds would call a foolish decision, but it was the wisest, most sensible decision they could have made.

-Fast forward a bit, and now they are fools.  Mindless - literally, Paul says they have lost their minds.  They are apparently deserting the Gospel (Galatians 1.6), the very truth which Paul himself preached to them (Galatians 1.11), and are embracing a contrary message.  They have been bewitched.  Someone has somehow cast an evil spell on them to get them to begin thinking that there is something they must now do (circumcision?) in order to gain or keep God’s favor and right standing with Him.  Baptism?  Attendance?  Quiet times?  Tithing?  A specified dress code, or church membership?  Well-meaning (and not-so-well-meaning) leaders and followers have throughout the centuries added and layered all kinds of works-based merit to the by-grace-through-faith simplicity of the pure Gospel message.  When Jesus bled out on that cruel Roman cross, He declared, ‘It is finished’ (John 19.30).  Once-and-for-all.  But is it?  Is it really?  'Cuz if it is, then there is nothing to add, nothing more we must ever do in order to satisfy our heavenly Father, for us to be able to rest in that place where in His eyes we have done everything right (again, solely because of what Jesus did on the cross).  So many things which even believers are foolishly tempted to think we must do in order to maintain right standing with God.  And even though they had as much as seen it, these Galatian believers were listening to someone was trying to lead them away from that, down a primrose path of enslavement to the law.  They had lost their minds!  Next verse...

Galatians 2:21 - Monumental foolishness

"I am not rejecting the grace of God.  For if through law [is] righteousness, then Christ died for nothing."

-The grace of God...  The grace of God.  Grace is God’s undeserved favor.  Grace is God loving unlovely me.  Grace is God accomplishing for me what I could never do, and that is salvation, rescuing me from the death penalty which I justly deserved.  Grace is God giving Himself up and dying on the Cross for me.  Grace is God saving me - calling me, drawing me, granting me repentance, baptizing and sealing me with His Spirit when I believe.  And so the last thing a thinking person would want to do would be to somehow reject God’s grace or make it of no effect in my life.

-One way to reject God’s grace would be to proceed with works-based righteousness, the notion that I could somehow do something, anything, perform some kind of ritual or obey some set of commands which would somehow cleanse my soul and atone for my many many misdeeds.  But as Paul points out, if there were any good deed I COULD do which would earn me right standing, then there would have been no need for Christ to do what HE did, for Him endure the Cross to begin with.  No need for God to in essence kill His beloved Son, to allow the Romans and the Jews to do what THEY did to Jesus.  If I can get there on my own and save myself by obeying the law, any law in fact, then Christ (Who DID die) died for no reason whatsoever.  A waste beyond compare.

-But really, who in their right mind would do such a thing, what thinking person would reject a free gift, particularly a gift of this magnitude, of such eternal import, especially considering the Source?  Exactly.  Rejecting the grace, the favor of God so underserved yet so rich and free can only be the act of a fool (Romans 1.22).  And such monumental foolishness...!   

Galatians 2:20 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

"With Christ I have been crucified, but living no longer am I, but living in me is Christ.  But the [life] now I am living in flesh, I am living in the trust of the Son of God, the One having loved me and having given over Himself  for me."

-Few verses capture the essence of the Gospel message better than this.  What the law and my best filthy-rag efforts could not ever do, God did in Christ.  He loved me and died for me, and when I trust in Him, His death and His life all get transmitted to me.  They all get deposited into my spiritual bank account - and talk about a hitting the lottery!  The motherlode of all jackpots, this.  But it's not blind luck, and it is more than a just transaction in the heavenlies - we’re talking about the deliberate imparting of divine glorious essence, a transposition of life itself.  Me-myself-and-I, we are having been crucified - a true, completed act in the past with ongoing results in the present.  I died - in Christ, both freeing me from the law AND satisfying the righteous requirement of that death penalty.  Because in truth without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.  But this, Christ did for me.  What great love, none greater, so rich and free, and I love how Paul personalizes that here (twice!).  The Son of God loved ME.  He gave Himself over - for ME.  He is the One Who did it, He wasn’t simply some hapless victim of cruel circumstances, some helpless ignorant lamb led to slaughter (altho He was indeed the perfect Lamb of God).  No, He knew exactly where His life was headed, He knew precisely what was going down, was in control of the entire process, and allowed it all to transpire - for ME.

-But let us not miss this - Paul says, no longer living am I.  That’s the word order in the Greek.  Sounds like Yoda.  :)  But i am no longer living.  I am not calling the shots, nor am I the one making them - at least in theory.  Living in me is Christ.  I am in fact dead (supposed to be anyways), and Christ is living in me!  This is the true-to-life version of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’, starring Jesus Christ as the consummate Body-snatcher Himself.  Sure, it still looks like me and sounds like me - for the most part at least, altho words, facial expressions, responses, habits, spending patterns, pastimes, values and priorities - these all begin to morph, perhaps even dramatically.  Metamorphosis, creepy-crawly-earthbound caterpillar to glorious butterfly - that’s the kind of change we’re talking about (altho it’s not really a body snatching as much as a transaction of soul and spirit).  It is not just a matter of a slightly different vocabulary and someplace I gotta be on Sunday morning.  Surely most professing Christians have next to no idea what they are saying when they claim to be a Christian.  Christ - the holy Creator God of the Universe - lives. In. Me.  That’s what Paul says.  Such a bold audacous statement, this.  It crosses right over the line of presumption, and sets me up for a charge of blasphemy.  Or hypocrisy.  In fact, is it not possible that unbelievers see this hypocrisy more clearly than do believers?  Don’t they often know to expect something extraordinary when say I am a Christian, something heavenly even?  For way too many, isn’t the church full of hypocrites, isn’t this what they say?  Surely this is the crux of the Christian faith, the litmus test of my personal faith - can someone look at me and say, living in me is Christ?  Can they look at my life and get even a whiff of the divine, even a fleeting glimpse of Emmanuel, God with us, the King of Glory?  It requires that oh-so-difficult and elusive death, a daily dying-to-self, hefting that same blood-stained cross onto my shoulders and like the One Who did that for ME, I deny myself and I live for HIM and for my fellow man.  Sadly, when I, like Peter before me, make it more about do’s-and-dont’s, rules and rituals, when I douse my faith with worries and worldliness and that which is sombre and joyless and self-righteous and all about me, when I refuse to die then truly it is Christianity which dies a thousand deaths and the life of Christ cannot be revealed thru me.  Lord help us!

Galatians 2:19 - the end of Me

"For through law I myself to law did die, in order that to God I should live."

-Paul emphasizes that for him, the law was actually the catalyst which brought about his dying to it.  He tells us further down that the law was his tutor (Gal 3.24) - it didn’t make him more acceptable to God, but rather effectively taught him that there was no way he could ever keep it all, no way he could measure up to God’s standard of perfection as embodied in those hundreds of commands.  His flesh knew he was guilty, that he was a transgessor and separated from his Creator, and the law simply confirmed that fact, pointed out in stark relief that he was in fact hopelessy guilty and separated. 

-Guilty people do one of two things - they run and try to hide, or they try to make it right and work it off.  The law in fact energizes both of these responses.  Some people run from it, they might even go off and rebel against it, perhaps thinking to go out in a blaze of glory (it’ll be a blaze of something, according to Jesus - cf Mt 13.41-42, 18.8-9, 25.41).  But others, they are inclined to work it off.  Our flesh naturally gravitates towards deeds we can do in order to assuage our guilt, to somehow pay off our guilt and make things right, make us right with God.  Yet in the end, if we would live with our Creator, if we would experience the blessedness, the surpassing peace and unspeakable joy of being rightly related to Him and in His eyes having done everything right, we must die.  Well, Jesus is the One who did die physically, but we must die to the law - to that entire system and fundamental(ly flawed) philosophy of works-based righteousness - and furthermore we must die to self.  We must come to the end of ourselves, to the end of our self-effort AND of our self-centeredness.  It must be the end of Me, the death of the threefold-self: Me-Myself-and-I.  If we would be alive TO God we must be alive FOR God.  It’s all about Him...

Galatians 2:18 - Mending the unmendable...?

"For if what I destroyed this I am building, I am proving myself a transgressor."

-The truth is, I died to the law, and in doing so, destroyed it, destroyed its power to hold me captive.  In Christ I entered in to the reality that the veil of the temple - that which barred sinful man (including Jews) from the presence of God - was torn in two, never to be mended.  The law (and the curse contained therein) was both fulfilled and forever removed, never again to hold any jurisdiction over me whatsover.  And yet, if for some reason I am beginning again to obligate myself in any way to observe the commands of the law in order to earn or maintain right standing with God, I am simultaneously abrogating what Christ did on the cross and embracing a standard of performance which no one has ever been able to keep.  I will be vainly mending the unmendable.  The intent of the law to begin with was not to ultimately enslave us to an impossible set of do’s and don’ts - rather the whole point was to point us to our need for a Savior, because on our own even on our best days we fall short.

-Yet Peter was supressing this salient truth and essentially rebuilding the law when he succumbed to the pressure to disassociate himself from uncircumcised Gentile believers in that assembly in Antioch, when he gave credence to the defunct notion that circumcision was necessary in order to be acceptable in God’s eyes (and Peter’s).  Not only was he wrong to do this, but in doing so Peter was essentially placing himself back under that from which he had been freed in Christ.  It’s like he was re-igniting the fire of the law in his life, and in so doing, immediately rekindled the searing heat of condemnation brought on by the law.  The law shows us that we are transgressors, law-breakers, guilty as charged.  Even Peter - under the law - was guilty.  What we all desperately need (for which we need to be constantly reminded) is not the law but mercy, forgiveness - which totally levels the playing field.  We need to die - to sin, to the law, to self.  Which is where Jesus comes in...

Galatians 2:17 - On sin and the stuff of heaven...

"But if seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves also were found sinners, then [is] Christ a servant of sin?  May it never be!"

-Is Jesus Christ a servant, a minister of sin?  He did call Himself a servant, but when He shows up in a person’s life, when they trust in Him, does sin tend to increase?  Paul gives us his emphatic, may it never be!  That would never happen, not in a million gazillion years.  No way, not here, not now, not ever!  In this case, the question is at least somewhat legitimate, in that Paul is contemplating how on God’s green earth a God-fearing Jew could trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and end up falling into sin, 'cuz that's what it looked like was indeed happening in Galatia.  But it flies in the face of reason and of Scripture that anyone - especially those who are no strangers to the ways of the God of Abraham - would, after giving their heart to Christ, be found doing things which break His heart.

-Which begs one of the questions of the ages: how is it that we can account for the missteps and the massive tragic screwups of those who name the name of Christ?  Sheldon Vanauken wrote about Christianity dying a thousand deaths when those who claim to follow Christ "are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive".  But surely the power of the Gospel is siphoned off completely when God’s people fall into sin.  Abuse, infidelity, greed, worldliness - one does not need to look very hard to see the stain of sin in the lives of so many who say they are Christians, leaders in the church even!  Yet even the darkest fallen heart knows instinctively that sin and the stuff of heaven are incompatible.  Some insist that the very reason they choose not to believe in Christ is because those who (allegedly) are following Him are hypocrites, and that the church is full of them.  Our job then, those who follow Christ, is to walk in the grace of God such that we are free to unmask ourselves and be honest about the fact that we are not yet perfect - simply forgiven - even as we make every effort to cooperate with His Spirit in living a life which increasingly reflects what He is like.  Give 'em heaven as much as possible and own it when we don’t.  Authentic, honest, aspiring, transforming, life-giving - a minister of life.  When we - those who are truly following Christ - show up, LIFE (not sin) happens. Life abounds in fact, life as it was always meant to be...

Galatians 2:16 - Perfection now.

"[But] having come to know that man not being justified out of works of law if not through trust of Jesus Christ, even we unto Christ Jesus did trust, in order that we should be justified out of trust of Christ and not out of works of law, since out of works of law all flesh will not be justified."

-Three times Paul says these words here - justified, not works, trust of Christ.  The Good News in a nutshell, this, the very simple formula of how to be right with God.  And that is precisely what we mean when we talk about being justified.  Declared right with God.  In His eyes, I am having done everything right.  Justified - just as if I had never sinned.  Perfection.  This is the bar-set-high, the gold standard for gaining entrance into the eternal dwellings of heaven, into that perfect paradise where no filth or moral stain can intrude.  I must be perfect, and the only way for fallen me to get that way is to be justified.  Justification.  I must be declared perfect, innocent, right with God - BY God Himself.  And to be sure, this perfection cannot ever come through works.  The word in the Greek is ergon, which gives us our English word ‘erg’, a scientific term for a unit of work or energy.  There is no unit or any amount of energy I can expend which can ever remove the guilt and stain of my transgressions or in any way make me right in the eyes of almighty God.  Not any unit of work or formula thereof.  Work happens to be the default posture of fallen man, however.  I instinctively try to work my way back into God’s good graces.  In fact, every other religion in the world besides Christianity is based on work, or works, founded on the principle of self-effort, that I must exert myself and perform a prescribed set of works and rituals in order to achieve whatever religious goal is set before me.  Every single one.  Nirvana, Enlightenment, Paradise - you name it.  It’s all works, and it’s all false, a fools paradise, leading the masses down the primrose path.  And it’s all about me, what I do, what I must do - the focus is on self.

-Becoming right and perfect is not a work, it is an undeserved gift.  And God’s good grace is not about me, and it is not ever warranted or earned in any way.  It comes simply and solely through trust.  Trust Christ, trust in Him today... And discover that true soul rest and peace which comes from being able to really and finally rest from work, from forever trying to earn God's favor because I am not right with Him.  Come to that place where you can exhale a huge sigh of relief knowing that finally and forever in His eyes you have done everything right.  Perfection now.  Not because of any work you did, but solely because of what Christ did...

Galatians 2:15 - Chosen bigots...?

"...'We by nature [are] Jews and not sinners out of Gentiles.'"

-Paul still speaking to Peter here, even though we have a new paragraph.  He states something to which Peter and every other Jew would readily assent.  

-God’s chosen people, these - and nobody else.  This was the prevailing sentiment among the Jewish people.  They were special, they were better, they were cleaner than any of the other peoples of the world, simply because God chose them.  They flew in God's first class.  God had chosen them out of all other nations to be His people, and nobody else.  These were the true sons and daughters of Abraham, a covenant ratified in perpetuity by observing the ritual of male circumcision on the 8th day and maintained by an endless series of blood sacrifices.  (Of course we know now that these sacrifices were meant to prepare the Jews to embrace and trust in the One Who would be the True once-and-for-all sacrifice to fully and finally and forever remove the guilt of their sins).  But God had chosen them, He had repeatedly blessed them and delivered them and spoken to them - even if their hearts were not fully given or surrendered to Him, they enjoyed special status as being clean in the eyes of the God of Abraham because they were descendants of Abraham.  They were pretty much born into a state of ‘spiritual purity’ (which of course bred a strong sense of spiritual hubris), and everybody else, all other nations, were... sinners.  Say it with disdain and disgust.  Filthy.  Dirty, rotten, morally bankrupt by virtue of their birth.  Strangers to the covenants and promises of God - their only hope of gaining some kind of acceptance with God was the Jewish way.  They needed to be circumcised and then begin to observe the Mosaic law as best they could, pilgrimage to Jerusalem, pray facing that holy city, alms in the temple (sounds a bit like the formula which Muhammed passed on to his followers).  Jewish spiritual bigotry and blindness ran so deep that the Jews had long since concluded that rather than bless the nations they needed instead to avoid any contact with non-Jews whatsoever, lest they become contaminated simply by being in their presence.  So contemptible were these that the Hebrew word for 'nation' (goy, plural goyim) became a pejorative for any Gentile.  Peter and all other good Jews had been steeped in this thinking from birth, it was part of the very core of their cultural identity.  Jews were the spiritual elite, and the Jewish way was simply better, way better.  This was the social current against which the Gospel was swimming from the get go, and this was what reared its ugly head in the assembly in Antioch.  Recall that almost all the opposition which Paul and the early church (and Jesus!) faced was from Jews, increasingly so as Gentiles were brought into the fold in increasing numbers.  It was going to take time and effort to get this massive ship turned in a different direction, even after repeated direct revelation from God Himself - in Whom there is no partiality whatsoever.

-Are there any attitudes of superiority or even any social/cultural preferences in my heart which keep me from embracing the least of these among my brethren?  Who do I tend to avoid when the church gathers?

Galatians 2:14 - Nobody flies in coach

"But rather when I saw that they are not straight-feeting toward the truth of the Good News, I said to Cephas in front of all, 'If you, being a Jew, Gentile-like and not Jew-like are living, how are you compelling the Gentiles to be judaizing?'"

-Peter (and all the other Jewish believers in Antioch) erred by literally not being straight-footed towards the truth of the Gospel.  They were not walking in a straight course towards what was true.  They - Peter - were saying one thing (you don’t need to be circumcised to be an acceptable follower of Christ), and yet were doing another (only those who are circumcised are acceptable - to us, and by extension, to the Lord).  And they should have known better.  Peter knew better.  He knew full well that the Gospel completely levels the playing field.  All have sinned, Jew and Gentile alike, and all are equally separated from their Creator, an insurmountable distance apart from the grace of God and the blood of Christ, in which trusting all are brought near.  Jews get no closer, get not one ounce more of God’s infinite grace or everlasting love than do uncircumcised Gentiles.  In Christ there is no residual stain or moral filth which might somehow rub off one person and contaminate another.  There is no spiritual second class.  Nobody flies in coach.  It matters not who you are, into what race or religion you were born, where you’ve been, what you’ve done - by trusting in Christ (and by that alone), all are welcome, all is forgiven and washed whiter than snow.  All in Christ become family, sons and daughters of their heavenly Father, brothers and sisters forever.

-So Paul did speak to Peter face-to-face, but did so in public, in the presence of the entire assembly.  They could have been gathered for worship, to break some bread or perhaps more likely for some corporate meal, when Peter would have blatantly disassociated himself from the Gentile believers in an otherwise informal setting.  All the rest of the Jewish believers there had followed his example - even Barnabas(!), and the entire assembly was fractured.  Thus it became an object lesson for all, and a desperately needed one at that.  Imagine how Peter must’ve felt - exposed, embarrassed, humiliated.  No doubt by giving in to his spiritual prejudice and pride he had made many in Antioch feel the same way.  They had been led to believe that he was their friend, this one of ‘the three’, this de facto leader of the twelve.  He had embraced them as brothers... And then he did not.  How disillusioned they must have felt because of Peter, this alleged spiritual leader, questioning his character, perhaps even questioning their very salvation.

-In Christ, all are family, beloved, accepted, acceptable - everyone, all one.  All.  Everyone gets upgraded to spiritual first class - and should be treated as such.  Are there any areas where you and I are not living into this truth?

Galatians 2:11-13 - Paul (and Jesus) vs. Peter

"But when Cephas came unto Antioch, according to his face I stood against, because he was having been condemned... For before the to come of certain ones from Jacob, he was eating with the nations.  But when they came, he was drawing back and he was separating himself, fearing the [ones] out of circumcision... And the rest of the Jews hypocrited with him, so that even Barnabas was led away by their hypocrisy."

-Caught in the act, he was, that Peter - that’s the rough meaning of the word here.  You know how someone screwed up, cuz you saw them doing it.  Peter/Cephas was caught in the act, seen doing that which was wrong.  And Paul called him on it - to his face.  He didn’t post it on social media or send it in an email or a text.  All too easy it is in our day and age to simply mail in our critical conversations - literally or digitally, to approach them indirectly.  Or not at all.  When someone is in the wrong, we have a divine opportunity to show that we care about them by pointing that out - in love - face to face.  Now it is certainly possibly to call them out to their face in ways that fall short of caring - we may care more about how that person’s misstep affected our own bottom line or perhaps that of our organization, or we do not actually care about the person much in the first place.  But it can be just as uncaring to say nothing at all.

-Sadly, Peter was ensnared in a kind of hypocrisy which, given his position as a leader, influenced a whole bunch of others to follow.  He had gone on record as saying that God does not receive anyone ‘according to face’, He shows no partiality whatsoever towards anyone, most certainly not to Gentiles (Acts 10.34), that He does not see or treat or receive the uncircumcised any differently than Jews.  Peter specifically gave his blessing to the affirmation of the Jerusalem council (to which Paul just referred), that the trappings of Judaism were not necessary, not salvific in any way.  And giving every appearance of having learned the lesson that he should not regard as morally filthy what God had clearly declared to be clean (Acts 10.28), Peter was actually hanging out with Gentile believers in Antioch, eating with them, treating them like family.  Until...

-When some of his Jewish fraternity brothers showed up from the home office in Jerusalem, personal representatives of the lead dog James himself, Peter made the choice to no longer hang out with the ones his old friends saw as uncool, beneath them, dirty.  He gave into some peer pressure, some old cultural biases, and disrespected his new friends.  So influential was he that even Barnabas, that faithful friend and gifted encourager and one who helped plant the church in Antioch to begin with, followed his example.  No doubt some of the ones Barnabas began to snub were those he himself had led to and nurtured in the faith.  If you've ever been snubbed by someone you thought was your friend, you know how painful that can feel.

-The word is hypocrisy.  Pretense.  It is what actors do - they pretend.  Two-faced.  They are not quite who they appear to be.  Liars, in essence.  They say one thing, but then do another.  There are few things more reprehensible and disappointing than seeing hypocrisy rear its ugly head in a person’s life, especially if they are a leader.  It betrays that they don’t believe a word of what they’re saying, so why should I?  Most people want less than nothing to do with a hypocrite.  And most assuredly Heaven feels the same way.  Jesus had the most forceful words of condemnation for those who say one thing and do another (cf Matthew 22.13ff).  Sometime after this, Peter will pen a letter where he talks about obeying the truth and sincere love for fellow believers and putting aside hypocrisy (1Peter 1.22-2.1), so, clearly the Lord uses this occasion to help Peter learn an important lesson, and to his credit, Peter apparently had a teachable heart.  He received Paul’s correction with humility.  May we each find a similar grace...

Galatians 2:10 - A Heart for the Have-nots

"Only the poor in order that we may be remembering, which also I was eager this same to do.’

-By virtue of their relative lack of resources and relationships, those who have-not (aka the materially poor but not necessarily confined to that group - could be children, immigrants/refugees, minorities, women, handicapped, uneducated) find themselves particularly susceptible to injustice and oppression at the hands of those who have, whether it be wealth or power or influence with others who do.  They don't have access to any of these things.  And so these so-called Have-nots can be much more vulnerable to the vagaries of life in a broken world - illness and injury, disaster and tragedy - living on the margins means you don’t have the same margin to withstand the onslaught of brokenness, which is no respecter of persons regardless of socio-economic status.  For far too many, it doesn’t take much for life (or bullies) to push them past the point of being able to weather the storm, over the edge, out of hearth and home (and even onto the streets), smack dab in harm’s way.  The Least of these need a voice, need to be heard - they need someone to visit, to take the time to show up and see how they’re doing (cf Matthew 25.36, Acts 7.23, James 1.27).  And to care.  Not only to slow down long enough to be able to glimpse a need but to care enough to have mercy on them, to actually stop and do something about about helping to meet the need (cf Luke 10.29-37).  To seek their welfare, doing something good for them (and in so doing showing them the goodness of the God Who really does see and care about them).  What’s more, in remembering and giving voice to these on the margins the church finds its own voice, rising above the level of mere rhetoric and into substance (faith without works is dead says the brother of Jesus - James 2.14 - right after he chastises believers for disrespecting the poor - James 2.6-10), a substantial empowering to make a real difference in the world, to increase the manifestation of true shalom and well-being in the lives of those in its community (Jeremiah 29.7), and yes, to give a glimpse into the heart of God Who truly is breathtakingly good and really does care.  Safe to say many of us in the west today have grown up spiritually in a version of evangelicalism which almost seems to prioritize knowledge and attendance over obedience and compassion.  We gather to hear good sermons and good Bible lessons and good Bible studies and yet what difference does it make in our lives, in our marriages and families, in our communities and schools and in our city?

-To be sure, remembering the poor, not only thinking about them but finding ways to help them, is really nothing more than pursuing the heart and living into the desires of almighty God Himself.  Scripture is replete with enjoinders for God's people to help meet the needs of those less fortunate, those whose socio-economic circumstances have rendered them more vulnerable not only to hunger and illness and death but also to things like injustice and exploitation and discrimination, neglected, forgotten, eking out an existence on the edges of society.  In this regard, Homie don’t play.  We see this theme particularly stressed in the Old Testament  (Exodus 22.22-24; Leviticus 25.35-36; Deuteronomy 10.17-18, 14.28-29, 15.4, 15.7-11, 27.19; Proverbs 14.31, 19.17; Isaiah 1.16-17, 58.6-8; Jeremiah 5.27-29, 7.5-7; Ezekiel 16.49-50; Daniel 4.27).  It is still a thing for Jesus (Matthew 6.2-4, Luke 18.21), and for the early church (Acts 4.34, 6.1; Romans 15.26, and as we see here), altho the language is perhaps not as strong.  Nevertheless, since God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we can be certain that His heart of compassion for those who are vulnerable and less fortunate has not waned in the least.

-And let us not miss this - Acts says there was not a single needy person among them, in the assembly of that early church.  Not. One.  The Haves would sell what they had and bring the proceeds to the leaders who would redistribute to the Have-nots according to need.  That’s right - redistribution of wealth (aka socialism), and while it is a nasty stench in the nostrils of any modern-day capitalist, apparently it set just fine with the 1st century church.  Note that Scripture does in no way seek to subsidize or otherwise endorse laziness (2Thessalonians 3.10-12, 1Thessalonians 4.11, Matthew 25.26, Proverbs 12.27), and in fact makes provision for even those on the margins to actually earn a living of sorts (Leviticus 19.10, 23.22; Ruth 2.2), but thus we see the bar set particularly high for God’s people in taking care of the least of these who are in their midst - their own brethren, as well as the alien among them who is likewise vulnerable due to his lack of resources and local knowledge/relationships.  We as God’s people in the 21st centrury would do well to examine our own efforts and commitment towards remembering the poor AND for having not one needy person among us... 

Galatians 2:6-9 - Family ties

"But from the [ones] being reputed to being someone - of what sort formerly they were is not differing to me, God is not receiving face of man - Indeed, to me the [ones] being reputed imparted nothing... But rather instead having seen that I had been entrusted with the Good News of the uncircumcised just as Peter of the circumcised... For the [One] having worked in Peter unto apostleship of the circumcised worked also in me unto the nations... And having known the grace having been given to me, Jacob and Cephas and John, the [ones] being reputed to being pillars, gave to me and Barnabas right hands of koinonia, in order that we [should go] unto the nations, but they unto the circumcised."

-Paul refers in this section to those who were of high reputation, and specifically to Jacob (aka James, Jesus’ brother) and Peter (aka Cephas) and John (the two remaining members of the ‘three’) as having the reputation of being pillars, i.e. the primary key supporting pieces in the structure of the church.  We must remember that Paul didn’t know these guys very well.  He had very little relationship with them whatsoever.  In the time since his conversion he had spent almost all of it in Damascus or Tarsus or Antioch.  But their reputation meant very little to Paul.  Man does tend to idolize, to put people on a pedestal.  It is the cult of celebrity, the tendency to confer honor and special status on others for reasons of achievement or position.  And while it is not entirely inappropriate to honor our fellow man under certain circumstances, the impartial eyes of God do in fact ultimately level the playing field.  For his part, Paul in now way allows himself to be unduly influenced by the status of these reputed pillars.

-Paul reiterates that nobody in Jerusalem, not even Peter or James or John, gave him anything with regard to the content of the good news he was preaching, no requirement vis a vis circumcision, gave him nothing at all except what he refers to as ‘right hands of fellowship’.  They never at any time asked or instructed him to modify or change his message in any way.  Paul does mention here that those in Jerusalem did ask them to remember the poor - something very close to the heart of God and which Paul was quite glad to do.  In Acts we read as well that those in Jerusalem (at James’ suggestion) did ask the believers in Antioch to abstain from four things (Acts 15.20, 28-29) - from things sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled (which would still retain their blood), and from fornication.  These were not held up in any way as being salvific (necessary works for earning salvation), yet all four would have been readily associated with rituals found in the worship of pagan idols at that time.  And while freedom in Christ would have perhaps still allowed for the first three, with only that last one being straight up sin (cf Matthew 15.19; 1Corinthians 6.13, 6.18; 1Thessalonians 4.3), abstaining from all four would undoubtedly help the Gentile converts to not offend the religious sensibilities of their Jewish brethren (Paul takes up this theme in some of his later letters - cf Romans 14.21; 1Corinthians 8.13, 10.25-28) - which does bring up a crucial point.  In Christ they were all brethren.  As in family.  Note that there was never any allowance or consideration that the families of those who followed Christ in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia (or any other place) would ever assemble for worship separately according to race or ethnicity or even cultural preference.  They were all together, all to be of one heart and soul, one mind, intent on one purpose, striving together for the progress of the Gospel, fully aware that their oneness and demonstrated love for one another was powerful confimration of the truth of their message to the ones outside looking askance at Christ.

-And in that spirit, these leaders of the Jerusalem church gave both Paul and Barnabas the so-called right hands of fellowship.  This was a special gesture of affirmation - shaking hands may not have been as commonplace in that culture as it is in the present-day united states.  James and Peter and John recognized these two essentially as partners and as missionaries, specifically for carrying the Gospel to the uncircumcised, meaning to non-Jews, just as they had clearly been marked out as missionaries to the Jewish community.

-But in the end we see not a building or a meeting nor any cult of celebrity or sibling rivalry but a family of brothers and sisters in Christ who have each and all been rescued by grace and not by any work or religious ritual, a spiritual family who comes together to worship and serve in order to further the progress of the Good News, a family that loves one another beautifully, and one which remembers the poor in that place, that community where they assemble.  More on that in verse 10...