This week we continue our series called Chronos. A term which means time. We have decided to study the scriptures this year in the order they were published. It gives us a very unique insight into the early church and the struggles of a growing movement. This review of history is important because The Center’s leadership believes we are on the cuspid of a great awakening in America. An awakening that will challenge the status quo of the current Christian industrial complex. An institution more concerned with Attendance, Buildings and Cash than the Gospel, Grace and Growth of the kingdom.
This week we begin the book of Galatians. It’s another book written by Paul around 25 years after Jesus' earthly ministry. It’s written to a group of Jews and Gentiles in the central part of present day Turkey. Paul is writing to this church plant because false teachers had come to question not only what he had taught but his place among the leaders of the new movement.
There are a lot of similarities in the struggles of Paul's new church plant and The Center. They were dealing with religious leaders who were opposed to Paul’s focus on grace over the law. We talked a good deal about grace last week and the meaning therein. We learned that we are not only saved by grace.
We are to live by grace.
We are to stand in grace.
Grace is the foundation of the Christian life. Grace gives us strength.
Grace allows us to suffer without complaint. Grace allows us to use suffering for God’s glory.
Grace is a dependence on God.
This week we continue with the letter to Galatians in chapter 2.
Paul begins with a little history lesson about his connection to the trio of leaders in Jerusalem - James, Peter and John. He also outlines what has come to be known as the Jerusalem Council. An event you can read about in Acts 15. In short, Paul went to the leaders of the movement and pleaded to not restrict the new movement of God to those outside Judaism with all the rituals and requirements. After a “discussion,” the council would agree with Paul with one caveat: the new branch would continue to take care of the poor. The leaders all agreed however it didn’t mean they wouldn’t stumble backwards into the comfort of religion from time to time.
This is where we pick up the scriptures this week. Paul is reiterating a moment where Peter (caphas) would stumble and fall into a need for approval from the more influential men.
Let’s never forget that the disciples were not the sharpest tools in the shed. They were young blue collar men for the most part. Good men who had been chosen by God because of their willingness and availability over ability. With Christ risen and the Holy Spirit as their guide, they had to deal with educated men who would join the movement. These men would speak more eloquently with scriptural knowledge to support their religious ideas. The boys were going to have to rely on their time with Jesus to keep the movement true to its creator. Beginning in verse 14, Paul, the former Jewish Pharisee, validates his role among the leaders by recalling a time he corrected Peter in front of others.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas (PETER) in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Paul then goes on to tell us the rationel the jewish leaders in the new Christian sect are using to keep new non-jewish believers as second class citizens. Remember, the Jews were taught from a very young age that they were the only chosen ones and everyone else was less than. If you wanted to be part of the chosen ones, then you had to do what they had to do. Take a listen.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
Paul is turning the objection on its head by reminding them and us, Christ’s coming, dying and rising eliminates the old rules because you can never legislate adherence to a heart change. It comes by faith alone. Paul continues:
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Paul’s writing brings up five questions:
Do we believe we have been saved by the grace of God alone?. “Do we believe that our ability to be with God for eternity is a gift of our belief?” (eph 2:8-9)
Are we trying to add something to this idea of faith alone in our lives? Are we adding Jesus plus bible reading, disciplines (prayer, fasting, etc), good works, tithing or any other ritual to claim the gift from God? (Romans 11:6) I love how Martin Luther puts this..”I used to think that growing as a Christian meant I had to somehow go out and obtain the qualities and attitudes I was lacking. What the Bible teaches is that we mature as we come closer to a greater realization of what we already have in Christ Jesus. The hard work of Christian growth is to think less of ourselves and our performance and more of Jesus and His performance for us. “To progress is always to begin again.” (pg 94 Jesus + Nothing = Everything: Tchividjian, Tullian)
Do we rejoice because of Christ's actions that “make us as if we'd never sinned?” Or do we walk around holding on to the lies of the evil one? (Romans 8:1) Lies like: we are not good enough, we are too far gone, we are not worthy or even smart enough.
Are we enjoying the freedom we have been given by God’s grace? Are we enjoying the freedom from the bondage to sin? Before we knew Christ, we were but animals rationalizing our behaviors by what gave us momentary comfort. In Christ, we have the ability to forgo today for the greater rewards of living with God in our hearts. It doesn’t mean easing circumstances, relief from difficulty, and distance from pain. Rather, it’s freedom from bitterness, anger, fear, resentment, self-pity, offense, and suffering; it is freedom from my burdensome sense of “I deserve better,” while realizing that only the gospel can free us from the enslaving pressure to defend ourselves to culture at odds with us. That’s real freedom - God-sized freedom.
Are we willing to defend the truth that we are saved by faith and NOT Jesus and something else? Jesus + Something = Nothing … or… Jesus + Nothing = Everything.
I don’t think I will ever forget being asked one day by a friend “what happened that I would come to believe in Jesus and God’s grace?” All I could utter was there was a new sense of peace or serenity that had come over me the first time I really came to Him. St. Augustine is often referenced as coining the phrase, “Hole in the Soul.”
When I first came to Christ, I felt a filling like never before. It was then I realized Augustine’s observation was true. “God made us for himself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.”
Reference: Warren Wiersbe Commentary p 693-697
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