Getting The Jewish Thing Right Series

GETTING THE JEWISH THING RIGHT

Galatians 3:6-14

S: Faith and Law (Legalism)

Th: Grace-Full Living

Pr: WE ARE TO LIVE IN GRACE BY FAITH.

?: How? How is it observed?

KW: Testimony

TS: We will find in our study of Galatians 3:6-14 three testimonies that tell us we are to live in grace by faith.

The _____ testimony that tells us we are to live in grace by faith is…

I. ABRAHAM’S EXAMPLE (6-9)

II. BIBLICAL APPLICATION (10-13)

III. CHRIST’S PROMISE (14)

RMBC 6/11/00 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Notebook: Urgent (tales with a twist)

While in Korea, Gov. Mile Leavitt of Utah was relaxing in the VIP lounge of Seoul airport, awaiting his flight to Japan. At the same moment, his press secretary, Vicki Varela, was being told at the ticket counter that she had no ticket. After insisting she had to make the flight because she was with a U.S. governor, an American embassy aide intervened. Varela got a standby ticket and boarded just before takeoff. Regaining her composure, Varela went to the front of the plane to tell Leavitt of her adventure. He was not there. She later found out that the governor was told that he had been bumped by an urgent standby passenger. It was Varela.

1. Have you ever made matters worse?

Sometimes we are so anxious about matters that we do make things worse.

2. Often, we need to step back and get the bigger picture.

We need to get a better perspective.

TRANSITION:

This is the very thing that Paul is attempting to do with the Judaizers.

He wants them to have a historical and biblical perspective that is absolutely right.

As we have been studying Galatians, we can see that…

1. The Judaizers thought that the works of the law were an urgent matter.

They had made a point to contradict Paul’s teaching by saying that circumcision and keeping the dietary laws were essential to do in order to be a Christian that is growing in the faith.

In last week’s section, Paul spoke of the personal experience of the Galatians.

His argument was that their own personal testimony stood against the new doctrine they had become so willing to embrace and promote.

Neither they nor anyone else had experienced justification by works of the law.

So why would they turn to something that is so utterly worthless and away from that which is so perfectly priceless?

After talking with some folks after last week’s message, I want to make sure that I am being as clear as possible when I speak of the differences of living by grace and living by law.

Paul, in actuality, is not saying that law, and more specifically, the moral law is wrong.

But what he is speaking of is our approach to them.

We have been using the word legalism to describe it, but Paul had no such word to use since there is no Greek word for legalism.

Instead, what we find Paul saying to make the point is the phrases “observation of the law” or “works of law” to get across this negative, legalistic meaning.

And he does not want us to miss this point, that…

2. We can make matters worse by adding requirements to salvation and sanctification (spiritual growth).

John Piper describes to us why the message of Galatians is so essential for us today…

“The reason the book of Galatians has such a radical, life-changing message is that it pronounces a curse from God not on atheistic or agnostic outsiders but on professing Christians who try to serve God in a way that diminishes his grace and cultivates their own pride.”

That is powerful, isn’t it?

We are not to be caught diminishing grace!

A distinction I began to make last week and I would like to better explain is between the “law-oriented” person and the “grace-oriented” person.

I think this will help us understand this essential difference.

3. The “law-oriented” person is motivated into action because they have to.

The person who lives by law keeps the rules because they feel they must.

And whether it is because of fear or pride or something else, they do it because they have to.

On the other hand…

4. The “grace-oriented” person is motivated into action because they want to.

The person who lives by grace, follows the rules because they desire to do so.

They love God.

They worship God.

And they want to keep His standards because they have the confidence that it is the best way to live for all involved.

This is why we come to the same proposition as last week.

5. WE ARE TO LIVE IN GRACE BY FAITH.

Now, I am not offering the same proposition because I am lazy, or because I lack creativity, but because this is still the argument that Paul is making in this chapter.