ABRAHAM’S CHILDREN (GAL 3:6-14)

SERIES: FREE AT LAST, PART 9

GCEFC: DECEMBER 13, 2009

INTRODUCTION

1. ‘Thank you very much for the harmonica you gave me for Christmas,’ Jimmy said to his grandfather the first time he saw him after the holidays.

2. ‘It’s by far the best Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten—I just love it.’ ‘That’s great,’ said the boy’s grandfather.

3. And though he was glad the gift was so liked by his young grandson, he was puzzled by a level of appreciation that seemed out of proportion to the gift itself.

4. ‘Have you learned to play it well?’ the grandfather asked the boy. ‘Oh, no, I don’t actually play it at all,’ said Jimmy.

5. ‘My mom gives me a dollar for not playing it during the day. And my dad gives me five dollars a week for not playing it at night.

6. Sometimes we can misunderstand the nature of a gift. Why the gift is liked. Why the gift has value. And the reason the gift was given in the first place.

7. As we near Christmas, a time known for gift giving. And as we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, we’re going to explore some particulars of the greatest gift the human race has ever received—redemption through faith in Jesus Christ.

A. BRIEF REVIEW

1. We’ve seen a number of important things in this letter so far.

2. We’ve seen that there is only one true gospel. That any gospel that’s presented other than the one the Bible presents, is simply a false gospel.

3. We’ve seen that Paul speaks with apostolic authority. That the gospel he proclaims is neither made up, his own idea, nor a hybrid of other gospels.

4. We’ve heard Paul’s account of the Jerusalem Council, where it was determined Gentiles are saved the same way Jews are saved—through faith in the finished work of Christ.

5. Paul learned that the Galatians who heard the true gospel and responded to it, are now abandoning it for a false gospel.

6. Paul is so astonished that the Galatian Christians have abandoned the truth, it’s as if a sorcerer has cast a spell on them.

B. THE CONTEXT

1. In V6-14, Paul takes the Galatians and us on a short journey through a critical moment in biblical history.

2. As you know, the Jews had 2 big heroes of the faith. Men who were so highly regarded that just invoking their names commanded respect. These men were Moses and Abraham.

3. The confusion regarding the gospel and how a person is saved revolved around the law of Moses—those commandments of God Moses received on Mount Sinai.

4. Most Jews believed that a person could only be set right with God by conforming to the law of Moses. By living one’s life according to the Old Testament Law and Covenant.

5. Which begins with circumcision for males as a sign of the covenant. And continues by living your entire life in conformity to the written code as revealed through Moses.

6. To the Jew, this was the only way a person could possibly commend himself or herself to a holy and righteous God.

7. So when the Church was born at Pentecost, it seemed clear to many Jews that their salvation is based upon belief in Christ as Messiah AND adherence to the law of Moses.

8. Then later, through the ministry of the Apostle Peter, it became clear that God was willing and ready to save GENTILES TOO!

9. But it was the firm conviction of many Jews that God would only save those who were part of his covenant people—in other words they HAD TO BE JEWS!

10. So it seemed obvious to them that a Gentile would need to become a Jew in order to become a Christian.

11. Paul is writing to the Galatian churches to explain that Gentiles do not need to become Jews to become Christians.

12. That Jews and Gentiles are both saved through faith in Christ apart from any requirement to become Jewish, be circumcised, or keep the law of Moses.

13. Starting in V6, Paul presents an irrefutable argument that involved one of their heroes of the faith—Abraham—the father of the Jewish people.

C. THE EXAMPLE OF ABRAHAM

1. So Paul begins: Consider Abraham. Let’s look back at the life of the father of our people and see how he was saved!

2. V6: Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’

3. The context for this takes us back to GEN 15. God had promised Abraham that he would build a great nation through his offspring.

4. The problem was that Abraham was already an old man and there was no offspring. Abraham and his wife Sarah had been childless for decades.

5. It made little sense to Abraham that God was going to build a nation and people through his descendants when there was not even one descendent!

6. So Abraham came up with an idea. He suggested to God that the promise of the blessing come through one of his household servants.

7. God didn’t like this idea. So he took Abraham outside and said to him: ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

8. What we see is that God credited Abraham with righteousness not because he kept the law. Not because he was circumcised. Not because he was a good man.

9. But because he believed the promise of God. Abraham trusted God. And because of his trust, God declared him righteous.

10. Which is exactly why salvation occurs. It’s the declaration of our righteousness as a result of our believing the promise of God.

11. In fact, it was some 14 years after this night that the rite of circumcision was introduced. And it was some 500 years after this night that the law of Moses was introduced.

12. So Abraham was declared righteous (he was saved) before circumcision was required. And Abraham was declared righteous before the law was even given.

13. Therefore, salvation cannot be based on these things. It must be based on something else. It is. It’s based on faith, on belief, on trust. Just like it was for Abraham 4000 years ago.

14. He continues in V7: Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. And in V9: So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

15. So even though Abraham was a good man. And would go on to do great things for God. And he would be a man of obedience and godly action.

16. His salvation was not based on any of these things. His salvation was based on his belief in what God said he would do. This is faith. This is what saves us too.

D. UNDER THE CURSE

1. So if it’s faith that saves us—then what does the law do for us? What the law does is put us under a curse!

2. V10: 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.’

3. So how is the law a curse? This takes us back to the Old Testament where it says: Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.

4. You can opt to place yourself under the law if you choose. But you will be required to keep the law if you place yourself under it. So we have a predicament.

5. If you fail to keep the law at any point, you place yourself under its curse. The requirement is not to keep all of the law some of the time. Or some of the law all of the time. The requirement is to keep all of the law all of the time—period.

a. When my daughter, Christina graduated from college and moved to Brooklyn, she took her car with her.

b. But it didn’t take her long to discover that having a car in Brooklyn was not such a great idea.

c. There was the problem of where to park. And whether it was the day of the week when they came at the crack of dawn to clean the street. And if parked on the wrong side of the street—they move your car to another location and charge you a hefty fee to get it back!

d. Then there was getting in the city from point A to point B. And if fortunate enough to get to Point B, you have to figure out where to park the car at Point B. Sometimes you’re farther away from Point B after you drive there from Point A!

e. So she decided to let her brother have the car. Here’s the point. She was free to have a car or not have a car. But if she chose to have a car—she was obligated to take on everything that having the car required.

f. And if she failed to comply with those requirements, there was a price to pay. Having a car in NYC is almost like a curse.

g. Likewise, if someone chose to place himself under the law in order to commend himself to God, then he was obligated to keep the law in its entirety.

h. Only keeping the law perfectly would prove that you were righteous.

6. The reason the law was a curse is simple and you’ve probably figured it out—it’s because you can’t keep the law perfectly. It’s impossible.

7. Everybody fails at some point in their attempt to keep the law. There are no exceptions.

a. This is a can of soup. It weighs 21 ounces. I can hold this can out to the side for some length of time.

b. You might be able to hold it out longer than I can. Or less than I can. But one thing is certain—eventually my arm will drop. And so will yours.

c. No one can hold this can out forever. Even the strongest person in the world will eventually succumb to exhaustion.

d. This is why trying to keep the law is a curse. Trying to keep the law guarantees only one thing—failure! Inevitable failure for all who try.

8. So in V11 we read: Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ That is, a person doesn’t become righteous by keeping the law, a person becomes righteous by faith. Just like Abraham.

9. V12: The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘The man who does these things will live by them.’

10. A person is not declared righteous by faith when they are under the law. When you’re under the law, righteousness is determined by keeping the law.

11. So it says: The man who does these things will live by them. If righteousness came through holding a can of soup and never letting it drop, then righteousness would not come through faith—but by holding the can of soup and not letting it drop!

12. If we expected God to declare us righteous as a result of our perfectly keeping the law, then all we would have to do is perfectly keep the law—and we’d be righteous.

13. Paul says this kind of righteousness is not based on faith. It’s based on what I’m able to do. Not on believing what God said.

E. THE GOOD NEWS

1. Now comes the good news. V13: 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.’

2. Jesus took our curse in 2 ways. First, by keeping the law perfectly that you and I could never do. He satisfied the perfect demands of the law and he’s the only one who ever did or ever could.

3. Keep in mind that even though we cannot actually keep the law of God—we are still judged by that law for not keeping it.

4. Jesus also took our curse by paying the penalty for our failure to live up to God’s standard. The Bible calls our failure to meet God’s standard…sin.

5. So Jesus was cursed in our place. And his death satisfied the righteousness of God because he took the curse for all sinners.

6. But what about this strange statement: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

a. In the ancient world, the Jews executed a convicted criminal usually by stoning them to death. The more torturous crucifixion was invented by the Romans.

b. But after a person had been executed, the Jews would hang their body on a tree until sunset as an acknowledgement of their being cursed by God.

c. Hanging them on the tree did not bring the curse. They hung them on the tree because they believed they had been cursed, and this was a way of demonstrating it.

d. Jesus being crucified did not bring the curse. It’s saying Jesus hung on a cross was verification that he was under God’s curse. There was no other way they would have seen it.

e. In fact, one of the major stumbling blocks to Jewish people accepting that Jesus was the Messiah was because his crucifixion proved that he had been cursed by God.

f. But how could the Messiah be cursed by God? It was inconceivable to them.

7. Now, if you want an extraordinary Christmas present, here it is in V14: 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.

8. God made a promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his offspring. That blessing would come individually by believing God’s promise that it would come.

9. This was the case with Abraham. God credited him with righteousness when he believed him—not as a result of anything else.

10. All of the human race is under a curse because all have failed to meet Gods’ righteous standard. But God’s righteous standard is met by believing what God said about Christ.

11. Through faith the curse is lifted. Through faith we are declared righteous. Through faith we are forgiven. Through faith we are redeemed.

12. And through faith, we receive the promise given to Abraham. So we become Abraham’s children. Not by physical birth and human descent.

13. But by spiritual birth and God’s declaration. This is what Christmas is all about.

14. God knew that you and I could never be righteous enough to meet his standard. So he became a man and met the standard himself—for us.

15. Christmas is about God coming to do for us what we could never have done for ourselves. Which is why we sing: Joy to the world, the Lord is come.