STUDY THEME: ADOPTING A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW. 8-06-00 UNIT 2: CONTOURS OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: "THE WAY TO SPIRITUAL FREEDOM." GALATIANS 3:15-25; 4: 4-7. PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO GALATIANS 3. The message of Paul's letter to the church in Galatia is summarized in today's lesson. We are in spiritual bondage because of our sin; we can be set free through Christ. In this lesson we find a ninth universal fundamental life need is to answer questions related to the hope of renewal and restoration. This universal need expresses itself in such fundamental life questions as, "Is there any way I can start over again?" "Is there any way I can make up for or undo past mistakes?" "Can I be delivered from the bondage I experience?" "How can I overcome feelings of alienation and estrangement?" "How can I be forgiven?" and "How can I be saved?" Hence the Life Question for this lesson is, "How can I be delivered from my spiritual bondage?" In this biblical worldview, God has provided an answer to this fundamental life need and its related culturally conditioned life questions in His Word's teaching concerning covenant and redemption. The Lesson Bible Truth is that God sent Jesus to free from spiritual bondage people who put their faith in Him. I pray the Life Outcome of this lesson will be to help us each live in the freedom from spiritual bondage that Jesus Christ provides. Today many people feel trapped by or enslaved to their passions and their feelings of guilt, remorse and failure. They long to be set free from this bondage. Others have tried to find satisfaction in their own goodness, but many of these eventually come to see that their goodness does not measure up to God's standards, and so they too feel trapped. The harder they try, the more helpless they feel. Christians have found deliverance in Christ from the slavery of sin, death, and the law. 1. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 3: 15-18. The apostle Paul addressed his readers as brothers. The term designated a family relationship and meant that they were believers. The term created an atmosphere of endearment in which a discussion concerning the law and salvation took place. Paul's words to the Galatian believers will help us understand how a person experiences salvation and restoration in a relationship with God. In last week's lesson in Psalm 19 David saw the law as a gift of God for showing people how to live. He realized, however, that people sinned and needed forgiveness. Now, in Gal. 3 Paul was dealing with a different attitude toward the law--one that was considered false and enslaving. He was opposing the view that keeping the law is essential to being saved. A group of Jews who professed faith in Jesus as the Messiah were preaching that the Gentiles could not be saved until they became Jews--by being circumcised and by observing the Jewish law. Acts 15:1 says "And certain men came down from Judea to Antioch and taught the brethren "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." Paul had taught in Eph 1:8-9 "By grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." The Judaizers' teaching undercut the good news of salvation by grace for all who believe. Paul, therefore, was opposing a perversion of the law ,which tried to make it the way of salvation. The Judaizers preached their false gospel in the Galatian churches after Paul left that area..So Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians to remind them that only by faith in Christ can anyone be saved.. The false teachers among the Galatian Christians may have claimed that the law, because it came 430 years later, held a higher degree of prominence and validity than God's promise to Abraham. This was not the case, however, and Paul called the Galatian believers "foolish" for believing such false teachings. Paul emphasized the unending nature of God's promise to Abraham. Paul argued that for anyone to alter that promise made centuries before the law was given was similar to adding to or nullifying another person's will. Both Paul and the Judaizers quoted O.T. Scriptures to support their positions. The Judaizers focused on the covenant of law at Mount Sinai, which God made with Israel. Paul focused on the faith of Abraham and the promise of God to bless all nations through him and his seed. In making his case in Vs. 15-18, Paul drew a comparison between a human covenant and a covenant from God. The word Covenant in common Greek usage meant a "will" or an "agreement." In the Bible it often refers to one of God's covenants with people. The word occurs in Vs. 15 and in Vs. 17. In Vs. 17 it clearly refers to a covenant from God. In Vs. 15 Paul spoke of a "man's covenant" or "a human covenant" Of a human covenant Paul stated that if it be confirmed or "ratified" it could not be canceled or changed. Some interpreters think Paul had in mind a will in Vs. 15. If so, he probably was thinking of the practice "by which a person could make an irrevocable testament to another prior to death." Some Bible students, however, think that Paul was referring to an agreement or contract that one party could not alter. "What ever the precise background of the human analogy, Paul's point is plain: even a human legal settlement is irrevocable in nature." Vs. 16 is a kind of parenthesis in Paul's argument in which he referred to the promises of God made to Abraham and his seed or descendant. Based on Vs. 8, the promise that seems to have been uppermost in Paul's mind in this passage is the one about Abraham being a blessing to all nations as presented in Genesis 12:3. Paul emphasized that the word seed is singular not plural, seeds. Although the innumerable multitude of Abraham's seed at times is referred to in Genesis, this promise would be fulfilled through one seed. Ultimately the seed who fulfilled the promises to Abraham was Christ. Vs. 17 completes the point begun in Vs. 15. This covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ or "previously ratified by God," was God's covenant of promise with Abraham. If a human agreement cannot be changed later, how much more true is this of God's covenant? The covenant of Abraham was ratified before the covenant of law at Mount Sinai (430 years before);. Thus the Abrahamic covenant was God's primary covenant, and the later covenant of law could not disannul or set aside the earlier covenant. If it could, this would make the promise of none effect or would do away with the promise. The covenant with Abraham was not just different in time from the covenant of the law, it was also different in character. God's covenant with Abraham was based on promise, while the later covenant was based on law. The earlier one was based on what the grace of God could do. The word "gave" contains the word "charis", which means "grace." Herschel H. Hobbs said, "So actually, God graced Abraham by promise." In these verses 15-18 Paul was looking at the sweep of God's saving work. He made clear that God's covenant with Abraham is the primary and enduring covenant. It is based on a response of faith and it includes all people. These next verses answer the question "What then is the purpose of the law?" If God did not give the law to accomplish salvation, why then did he give it at all? Paul's answer seems to have anticipated this question. 2. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 3: 19-25. In Vs. 19 the words "because of" can be interpreted in three ways: (1) As a means of restraining, (2) to foster awareness, and (3) to provoke and increase transgressions to reveal sin's depth and people's deserving God's wrath. In Rom. 7:7-11 Paul taught that sin actually used the law to provoke people to sin. If understood as a means of restraining, the law was given to limit sin, which was growing and needed to be controlled. More likely, the law was given to make us conscious of sin. While a law cannot keep us from sinning, it gives a standard for right and wrong. Even so, the law had disadvantages when compared with the promise. One disadvantage of the law was that God designed it to be valid only until the coming of Christ. It was temporary and preparatory for the coming of the Seed which fulfilled the promise and the law. When God's complete revelation came in Christ, people had a flesh-and-blood example of what is right--a standard that could be seen and heard, not merely read. As people compare themselves with Christ, their sinfulness becomes far more obvious than it is when they compare themselves with a written document. The law was and is useful for comparing ourselves with God's standards, but it never can help us reach those standards and thus be right with God. Another disadvantage of the law is in its method of transmission. God spoke the promise to Abraham in a direct conversation, but He communicated the law indirectly through angels and through Moses,(the "mediator"). A word directly spoken carries much more weight and value than a message communicated by a letter or a third party. A mediator's purpose is to be a middleperson between two parties. In the law's case, the two parties were God and the Israelites. God did not talk directly to the people but communicated through Moses. The law required both parties' actions to guarantee that it would be carried out. When the promise was made to Abraham it required no mediator. God alone, as "one" spoke the terms and guaranteed their fulfillment directly to Abraham. Paul anticipated the likely question, "Well, then, are the law and the promises in conflict?" Paul never intended such a thought, and he quickly answered with a strong negative. The law was the bad news side of the good news of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. In Vs. 22 Paul noted that the law had no life-giving ability. It could not make anyone right with God. The O.T. reveals that sin enslaves all people. Paul used the word "prisoner" for people who have no way of escape and who face the penalty of death. The law did not create righteousness, instead it showed people their helpless plight in sin. The whole world is a prisoner of sin. The reason for people's imprisonment by sin was that "what was promised to Abraham might be given to those who believe." This fulfillment comes through faith as people believe in Christ. Paul's repetition of faith's activity magnifies its significance. In Vs,.23 "this faith" is the same faith Abraham exercised, yet Abraham's faith was in One who was yet to come. The Galatian believers trusted on One who already had come. In Vs. 23 Paul returned to God's intention for the law. He used two word pictures to describe the laws function. First is the picture of a prison guard. As a guard, the law was responsible for keeping sinful people locked up. Prisoners have only one way of release: through faith. Until Christ was revealed, however, people looked forward in faith to the time of their freedom, which would come through Christ's atoning sacrifice. A second word picture Paul used to describe the law, was that of a guardian. The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. The charge given the law over people was only for a limited time. The laws function as a guard-disciplinarian ended when Christ came and verified God's intention to justify people by faith alone. We have been set free from the law's bondage. In Vs. 25 Paul wrapped up his argument about the law's inferior nature. With Christ's coming, people who believe are freed from following the law in their attempt to become right with God. God gave the law as the standard by which His covenant people were to live. Because of their sinfulness, they could-not meet those guidelines. People need to realize that while the law reveals God's standards for living, humans' efforts to keep the law cannot free them from spiritual bondage. Only their accepting God's grace in Christ can do so. The law will keep knocking us down in our efforts to become righteous on our own. Only God's grace can give God's righteousness. PLEASE TURN TO GALATIANS 4 where we will be challenged to accept the Son who sets us free so we may be adopted as God's sons. 3. PLEASE READ GALATIANS 4: 4-7. In Ch. 3 Paul highlighted the distinction between the law and the promise. In Gal. 4:1-3 he again used an illustration to emphasize people's bondage before Christ's coming. Bondage or slavery, however, was not God's intention for people. Galatians 4:4-7 is a concise statement of the basics of the Christian good news. The fullness of time reminds us that God sent forth his Son according to His own plan and predetermined time table. After preparing for His coming by showing people their sins through the law, He ended the period of the law. In Vs. 4 Paul affirmed God's eternal plan and Christ's divine nature. Christ's incarnation was not God's alternate plan that became necessary because the initial plan failed. Rather, Christ's coming was God's intention prior to creation; and God's prophets foretold it throughout history. Paul also emphasized Jesus' deity. Jesus did not become God's Son at birth, His baptism, or His resurrection. He is eternally God. John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God, and the word was God" . . Paul stressed Jesus' humanity by noting that He was "born of a woman." Thus he is both God and man--The perfect God-man. Jesus experienced all trials and the temptations of human existence, yet Heb. 4:15 says "He was without sin." That Jesus also was "born under law" stresses His Jewish upbringing, complete with the law's requirements. Having come under the Law is a way of showing that Jesus came into a sinful world but He was never under sin. Jesus' divinity did not give Him special privileges. He would grow up and live His life under the same legal requirements as every other Jew. He was obliged to obey every mandate of the law. He alone could do so without a single violation. His divine nature enabled Him to do so even though He was fully human. In light of the conditions of His existence, Jesus could fulfill the mission for which God had sent Him: to provide redemption. He came "to redeem those under the law", that is people who were subject to the Mosaic law (Jews) and Gentiles who were under the natural law written on their hearts. Christ came to redeem people who were subject to any legal code. The word "redeem" means "liberation at a price". The word comes from the slave market, where by paying the right price, a slave could purchase his freedom. Christ paid the price for setting people free from sin, death, and the law. Jesus also spoke of sin as slavery and of His mission as setting people free. The positive side of salvation describes what we were delivered for----that we might receive the adoption of sons. This is one way of describing our new relationship with God. We are no longer slaves, but, sons. In Roman adoption practices an adopted son received the full privileges of sonship. Thus each believer becomes an heir of God. God's salvation delivers people from the servitude of sin into His family. Saved sinners are entitled to all the rights due God's children. People whom Christ redeems are not second class citizens in God's kingdom; they are not distant kin. They enjoy membership in God's family in its fullest sense. God has made each redeemed sinner an heir in all that belongs to Him. How do we know that we are Sons? We know because God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Through His death Jesus bough us out of slavery to the law and to sin; He set us free at great cost to Himself. In the spiritual realm, people who trust Christ for salvation become members of God's family. As God's children we have been given the rights and the privileges that come with having God as our Father. This action highlights God's amazing grace. He takes the initiative to bring us into His family All believers receive God's gift of the Holy Spirit as a result of their adoption into God's family and as proof of their adoption. "The Spirit of His Son" refers to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of Christ" This title reflects the oneness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity has the essential nature of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer is the presence of God in that person. The Spirit's residence in the hearts of believers gives Him the opportunity to control their lives. The Spirit leads believers to call God Abba, Father. Abba was the Aramaic word for "father" that expressed a warm, intimate relationship. Elsewhere in Rom. 8:2 Paul also wrote of the Spirit's role in setting sinners "free from the law of sin and death." . . Today, as you know, many people suffer from guilt and spiritual emptiness. Their lives are dominated by a sense that something in them is not right. Some seek to ease the burden by indulging in pleasure. Others attempt to suppress any sense of guilt. Drugs, materialism, passion, religion, and many other substitutes are used. Every effort falls short of satisfaction. People feel trapped. Jesus is the only one who can free them from spiritual bondage. They can receive the freedom He gives by placing their faith in Him. They need only acknowledge their need to God and place their faith in Jesus. He will give them the spiritual freedom they desire. People need to know. Jesus left the task to us to go and tell. NEXT SUNDAY FROM EPHESIANS 4 OUR LESSON BIBLE TRUTH IS THAT GOD DESIGNED THE CHURCH TO BE A UNIFIED COMMUNITY IN WHICH MEMBERS LOVE AND ACCEPT ONE ANOTHER AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE CHURCH'S GROWTH IN LOVE. A.V. DAUGHERTY AUGUST 6, 2000. Ron, I got your message. Thanks.