New Clothes

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

NEW CLOTHES

Gal 3:26-29

26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

NIV

What does it mean to be a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus? What does it mean to clothe ourselves with Christ? It would seem that all of humankind are in some sense children of God as we all are descendants of Adam. Yet we all have sinned, or run away from God, and we who accepted Jesus are somewhat like the prodigal son. Nevertheless, we are now children of God, or sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. We are no longer spending all our inheritance on self-indulgences as that prodigal son did. We have come home and we have been baptized, or immersed in Christ. The Greek word baptizoo carries the meaning of to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge and it can also mean to cleanse by dipping or submerging to wash, to make clean with water. In a metaphorical sense to overwhelm. Of course, as it was instituted by John the Baptist, it became a religious rite or sacred ablution as a sign of removal of sin. However, pondering on the context in which this word is used in conjunction with clothing ourselves with Christ, it seems right to consider we are to fully immerse ourselves in Jesus. That would be in some sense like putting on a costume that would completely hide our identity. Except in this case we are washing away that old identity and taking on the new identity of Jesus. We are getting rid of the old filthy clothes, not just washing them and putting them back on, because no matter what we wash those with the stain of sin will not come out. So we take them off, becoming, as it were naked before God and he clothes us with Jesus Christ, who is even purer than the white driven snow. This is the only way we can become the sons of God, is to immerse ourselves in Jesus, being clothed with Jesus. Of course, we do this by faith, as we cannot actually see any difference in ourselves when we look into the mirror. But by faith, we have to know that what we see is not who we are anymore. We are the seed of Abraham and we are heirs according to the promise. We have a new identity, we have been transformed from being a slave to sin to a son of God. We live in new clothes.

Free, Slave, Free

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

FREE, SLAVE, FREE

Gal 3:21-25

21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 23 Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

NIV

There are not two equals that stand opposite of each other. This truth is just the same as looking at God and Satan as two diametrically opposed equals, Good and evil. But there is only God, and Satan has no power other then what God allows him to have and then whatever power that has been given to Satan is for the express purpose of God. This is how the law and faith are. The Law does not oppose faith, but the law was given power over people for the express purpose of God to lead them to faith in Jesus. We have to remember the law was given by God for man to see how sinful he is and in need of redemption through the power of God. Everything comes from God. Of course God did not create sin that came from the heart of man, in fact, it even started before man, when sin prompted Lucifer to rebel against God. We also have to know that when God created man, he did so with the foreknowledge man would also rebel because of the prompting of Satan, the first who had rebelled. Paul makes it clear that sin holds us as prisoners, as does the law. There is no freedom from the penalty of sin nor from the law, as it reveals our sin which we are in bondage to and thus condemned, for there is no life in sin or in the law, but only death. We cannot find any righteousness, and justification in either sin or the law. So then why should we give any attention to either except to recognize our sinful nature and repent and live by the promise of God? Both law and the sin it reveals are not equal to the promise of God, in fact, they are extremely inferior, and yet they do serve the purpose of God. Our only good course of action is to believe in Jesus. However, we have to be careful to not add anything to this promise of justification through faith. Now that faith as come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. That is as plain as it can be said. The law has no more of a hold on us. If then we are not under the supervision of the law, why do we try to create our own law? Why do we establish this self-imposed bondage?  It would seem the right timeline of man would be free, sinful, promised, placed in bondage to the law, and promised fulfilled, free again. Oh, will we ever learn?

A Great Escape

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

A GREAT ESCAPE

Gal 3:19-20

19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20 A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

NIV

Paul continues with his discourse about the law and Faith. He now gives the reason for the law which was given hundreds of years after the promise. The law was given to show the transgressions of the people until Jesus would come into the world. Here we have to come to a discussion about this law. We know we are not under the law, as we are children of the promise. We also have considered how the law has to be kept in full in order to attain justification which we also know is impossible to do. No one can be justified through the law, but only through the promised seed, Jesus. But Jesus said he did not come to cancel the law, but to fulfill the law. How does that work? The law is still in the Old Testament. What the law does for us is the same it did for the children of Israel. It shows us just what sin is. The law defines sin, it enumerates the transgressions which are against God. The law gives what God requires, and what is the duty. It is a straight rule of what is right, and to depart from that is a measure of wrong. It gives us the nature of sin, and how far we have departed from the law, or what is right. The law shows us the just penalty for sin. All that still exists, and ultimately the law shows us our need for Jesus, our redeemer, our mediator, or intercessor. Which brings us to the great debate among the scholars as to who this mediator is who Paul mentions. Many are of the opinion, and we should take note it is only an opinion, this mediator refers to Moses, as he was the one through God gave the Law. What we need to consider is the word mediator as in the Hebrew it does mean just that, an arbitrator between two parties. Was Moses an arbitrator between the people and God? Did Moses represent the interests of God and the interests of the people? Was he a go-between? How could a finite man represent the interests of an infinite God? How a sinful man could represent the interests of a sinless God? It is possible Moses could have acted as a representative of the people, to intercede for them, but he too was but a man, who was not without sin. So then our opinion, which agrees with a few of our scholars, would have to be that the mediator Paul speaks about would be Jesus. God is one, the three in one. Jesus is God. He is the only one who can represent God and the people. To be a true representative of man, as he is the son of man, and of God for he is the Son of God. He is the seed of the promise given before the law. So then, although we know the law and reveals the nature of sin and how we have departed from what is right and have sinned, we have Jesus as our mediator and thus we have escaped the just penalty of our transgressions. Jesus has provided us with a great escape.

The Promise

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

THE PROMISE

Gal 3:15-18

15 Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ.   17 What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18 For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise.

NIV

Paul is still laying out in a very carefully crafted destruction of the theology of the Jews who were insisting the Gentiles be circumcised in order to become like Jews to become a believer. Those Jews wanted the Gentiles to follow the law in order to receive salvation. It is clear God made the promise to Abraham before the law. The promise was that all nations would be blessed through his seed and here Paul makes it clear the seed is Jesus, not the seeds as in many people. So then we should consider ourselves children of the promise. If then the promise was given so many years before the law, why then do we have so much of our lives wrapped up in trying to live by a form of the law? It seems we get more concerned about what we are not supposed to do, as least as far as certain activities, but we do not spend much thought as to what we are supposed to do, both in our attitudes and activities. Even then we ignore many of the negative attitudes we should not engage in and forget or ignore many of the positive attitudes. But we should also be careful not to make the beatitudes into a form of law as we live by the promise. Our salvation, our lives are based on the promise, Jesus. Because we know that if we try to live by some form of law, then if we break just one little jot or tittle of that form of law, we are guilty of the whole ball of wax. We have failed to live up to our form of law. What do we do then, if we look to that form of law as a means of being holy and righteous, or at least appear holy and righteous, such as the Pharisees did? Let’s face it, we cannot do anything to be holy and righteous. As much as we try to live up to all the standards we think God established for us or for those we established for ourselves, we cannot. We will always fail. We talk about justification as a one-time act of God, but this sanctification is a process. It is defined, in short, as the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or become holy. If we think any of our efforts count, we might well be sadly mistaken. God is the one who started this good work in us and he is the one who will bring it to completion. How can one who is living in a corruptible body make itself holy? Only God who is holy can produce in us that which he is, holy. He makes us holy, we cannot. What we can do is allow, or submit to that which God desires to do in us, but it is still God who does it.   All we can do is live according to the promise.

Living Alive

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

LIVING ALIVE

Gal 3:10-14

10 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law."   11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith."   12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."   13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."   14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

NIV

How many times do we have to hear that we are cursed if we attempt to live by the law? Clearly, we are not justified by the law. Of course, we are New Testament Christians and we do not incorporate any of the Mosaic Law into our lives, or do we? Do we abide by the Ten Commandments? Are they part of the Old Testament Law? Do we abide by the laws concerning incest? If we take the time to examine all the Law we might find we try to live by those things. Now that is not to say we should go about doing all that the law forbids Israel to do. However, we also have made up our lists of things not to do and of things, we are supposed to do. Then there is the matter of the righteous living by faith. Was Paul only talking about living by faith concerning salvation, then all the rest of our living could be by the flesh? In order words, did Paul say that all we needed to exercise faith for was to be saved? Then after that, we do not have to have any faith for the rest of our living time. That would mean we would trust in our own ways in order to gain whatsoever we want to gain. We wonder if living under the law was a onetime thing also. We know that is not the case. They were required to live every day, all day, under the law, considering everything the Lord commanded them to do and what they should not do. Every time they failed they needed to bring a sin offering. The Priests were busy twenty-four-seven burning offerings. That also applies to us as we are supposed to live by faith every day, all day. It is not just a one-time occurrence for our salvation. It is interesting how Paul quotes that line, that the righteous will live by faith from the prophet Habakkuk. If we read the rest of the writings of that prophet we would see this living by faith is intended to be an everyday living. It is also interesting the first definition of the Greek word translated as live means to be among the living, be alive, not lifeless, not dead, which again would imply our whole lives. So then what does living by faith look like? It would seem that it means to rely on Jesus and the promised Spirit to live within us and thus direct our daily living. It also means we do not look to ourselves for any part of salvation or for our daily living. If we want to make a list of do’s and don’ts then we should see the don’ts with respect to living by the ways of the world. That implies so many ways, yet it seems many believers only apply that principle to just a few areas of life and ignore the ones they do not want to apply. Where does scripture, not the law, but the words of Jesus, the New Testament living, say we should not drink, smoke, or dance? Yet some believers think those things are a sin. The New Testament says we should not gossip, but how many believers do just that? How about being jealous or envious, does not the New Testament say we should not do that, but how many do? What about bitterness, or unforgiving those who offend us? How about storing up wealth for ourselves? See how we can prove we cannot even live by our own beliefs from New Testament teaching. We fail all the time, so then this living by faith has to apply to every day of our lives, and that faith is in Jesus who redeemed us, who became a course for us. We have to live by faith, or we will never make it through this life, alive.

Man of Faith

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

MAN OF FAITH

Gal 3:6-9

6 Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."   7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you."   9 So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

NIV

Paul continues to argue against being justified through some form of works, as in the case needed to be circumcised in order to become a believer in Jesus. He uses Abraham as the prime example of being righteous through faith in God. All Abraham did was believe God. The situation over which Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God was regarding having a son from his own loins. He was already old and his wife was old beyond childbearing age. But although in the physical this could not happen, Abraham believed God. We know that it got a little messy because Abraham and Sarah tried to take in into their own hands with Hagar, but ultimately Abraham and Sarah had a son through a miraculous way. Because he believed God, it was accounted to him as righteousness. So then why would we think we need to do anything other than believing God? Paul makes it clear that we who would be considered Gentiles are children of Abraham simply because we believe God. We think it would be good to remember that God or as he is referred to by the Jews JHWH, changed Abram’s name Abraham and Sari’s name to Sarah. From our research, we have found one of the steps in making a covenant between people of the Old Testament times was taking on the name of the other person. This would have significance as a blood covenant so that anyone would know a person has a covenant brother who would avenge any harm to his blood covenant brother. With this covenant-making, each would cut his hand and hold the wounds together with bound hands. The wound would remain in the palm of the hand. So in meeting a stranger along the road a holding up of the hand or what we would now call a wave, or hail, revealed the wound in the palm and thus letting the stranger know they have a blood covenant brother. In addition, the name also was a part of each. This is one of the ways in which God added to Abram the Ha from the Middle H of God’s name, and the aH to Sari, again from the H from the middle of God's name, thus Both Abraham and Sarah now had a part of God’s name. Of course, the Hebrew letters have no vowels but we add them in the English translations. How interesting is that Jesus referred to himself as the Son of man and we have been given the right to be called children of God, or sons of God. This is again a blood covenant as we are rightfully sons of God by the blood of Jesus. All this is an act of the one true God and he has done it all. He did what he said to Abraham, and he has done what he said to us. We are saved by faith in Jesus, period, end of the story. The final result of what Paul is clearly making is because Abraham was blessed because he believed God, we too will be blessed because we have faith in Jesus. We will be known as a man of faith.

We Believe

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

WE BELIEVE

Gal 3:1-5

3:1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing? 5 Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

NIV

This whole thing is about those who came after Paul wanting to teach these Gentiles they needed to follow the law of circumcision, in essence, become a Jew first, before becoming a believer. This also speaks to the issue of being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. We are either saved by grace or we could say saved through faith in Jesus Christ or we are not. If we have to do something in order to be saved other than belief in Jesus then his life, death, burial, and resurrection are meaningless. If we think there is any human effort at all in our salvation other than believing, we have been deceived. How can we obtain the Spirit by doing something? How can we conjure up a miracle by compliance to some human standard, or for that matter by complying with the standard of God? That is what Paul is arguing that the Galatians need not have to comply with the standard of circumcision God established as a covenant with the Jewish people in order to be saved. If our salvation is not based on Jesus crucified then our faith is not faith at all. However, that does not mean we should live in any manner we desire just because we are saved by grace, or saved because we believe. Because we believe in Jesus, we desire to live a life that brings honor and glory to God. But this is not a life filled with our feeble attempts to follow the law or a set of rules and regulations. Of course we make every effort to abstain from sin, while maybe not every effort, maybe we just try to abstain as much as we can, with the knowledge when we want to do some sin we go ahead and do it, or that there are times we simply make the mistake of sinning, without purposing in our heart to do so. The point is that no matter how many laws or rules or standards there are, we cannot fulfill them all, all of the time. But because we believe, because we love the Lord, we do not want to sin, it is just we cannot help ourselves at times, we just sin, because we are not divine, we are human. Our failure to live up to every standard of God does not cause us to lose our salvation because that is solely dependent on faith in what Jesus Christ did. Our goal is not to live a perfect life, as we will surely fail, but our goal is to be with Christ, and that is only attained because we believe.