Freedom’s Blessing (Galatians 3:6-14)
Tim Wilson, a pastor in Colorado, talks about his days at Fort Benning, attending the United States Army Airborne School. He and his buddies were sitting on hard wooden bleachers as they prepared for their first parachute jump. Soon they would soar hundreds of feet above the red Georgia clay and hear the jump-master bark out the orders, “Stand up! Hook up! Check equipment! Stand in the door! Go! Go! Go!” Understandably, the instructors had their undivided attention.
The Airborne sergeant’s voice rang out confidently as he explained what to do in case of a parachute malfunction. “If your main parachute should fail to deploy, don’t panic – pull the handle of your auxiliary parachute. Should your auxiliary parachute fail to fill with air, don’t panic – pull it in toward your body and then vigorously throw it away from yourself. Should your auxiliary chute again fail to deploy, don’t panic – vigorously repeat this process.”
He paused dramatically. Then with a slight mischievous grin he slowly stated, “Should this also fail, don’t panic. You’ll have the rest of your life to get your parachute to deploy.” (Tim Wilson, pastor of Indian Hills Christian Fellowship, Indian Hills, Colorado, from a sermon titled, Urgency; www.Preaching Today.com)
There are a lot of people who spend their entire lives trying to get it right, but they never succeed? They try one program after another. They attempt many different schemes. & Some even try religion, but life is a constant struggle for them. When they are not fighting the panic of failure, they are crashing on the rocks of guilt and shame.
That describes so many people in our churches. Maybe it describes some of you.
Well, I’ve got good news for you. There IS a better way to live our lives. There IS a better way than trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and failing, time and time again. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, where the Bible shows us that better way.
Galatians 3:6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (NIV)
That better way is the way of faith. God says, “Stop trying and start trusting.” TRUST THE LORD AND BE BLESSED. LIKE ABRAHAM, BELIEVE GOD. PUT YOUR FAITH IN GOD’S PROMISES AND FIND TRUE VIRTUE.
God promised Abraham, an old man, that he would have many descendants, as many descendants as the stars in the sky.
Did Abraham doubt that promise? No! The Bible says, quoting Genesis 15, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Literally, in the Hebrew, Abraham said “Amen” – it is true for me. And as a result, God declared him righteous. All it took was faith, simple faith in God’s promise, and Abraham found full and complete acceptance with God.
Do you want God to treat you as righteous and holy in His sight? Then, like Abraham, simply believe God’s promises to you. Say “Amen” to those promises. Consider them true for you, and trust the Lord to do what He said He would do.
God promised us His Holy Spirit. God promised us an inheritance in Heaven. God promised to make us like Christ. All we need to do is believe those promises in order to make it with God. All it takes is simple faith.
Nearly 20 years ago, the Promise Keepers movement swept the country, calling men to keep seven promises regarding their relationships with God, their families, their churches and the world. In an early message, Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, announced to these men, “Realize that you can’t keep your promises. That may seem like a strange first step toward the goal of keeping promises, but it’s true.
“Consider this question: If we could keep our promises, wouldn’t we have done it by now? How many times have we made the same promises? Let’s face it; rededication to keep promises won’t work. If it did, we wouldn’t find it necessary to keep rededicating ourselves. Many of us have struggled with promise-keeping for one reason: We have focused on our performance more than on Jesus Christ. We have tried to keep our promises, but the Bible teaches that effective Christian living doesn’t come by trying. It comes by trusting Christ to express his life through us. He is the only One who can successfully keep promises.
“Before we can be effective promise keepers, we must become promise receivers. The Bible is clear about God’s promise: the One who has given us his life will be the One who lives it for us. Only Jesus Christ can effectively live the perfect life. He lives inside believers today and wants to reveal His perfect life through us. (Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2)
Did you hear him? In order to be effective promise keepers, we must become promise receivers. Like Abraham, we must simply believe in God’s promise, trusting Christ to live His life through us. Like I said, all it takes is simple faith.
Stuck in a dead-end job and strapped for money, Kyle MacDonald came up with an improbable plan: starting with one red paperclip, he would trade on the Internet until he exchanged it for a house.
First, he traded the red paperclip for a fish-shaped pen. Next, he traded the pen for a doorknob. He traded the doorknob for a Coleman stove. He traded the Coleman stove for an electric generator. He traded the electric generator for a Budweiser sign and a keg of beer, which he then traded for a snowmobile. Exactly one year and 14 trades later, MacDonald finally reached his goal: he exchanged a part in a Hollywood movie for a home in Saskatchewan, Canada.
The true story of Kyle MacDonald is told in his book One Red Paperclip, which was made into a movie last year. Think of it! Fame, fortune, a book, a movie deal, and a home—it all began with one red paperclip. (Peter Larson, Lebanon, Ohio; source: The Chronicle: Lebanon Presbyterian Church, November 2007, www.PreachingToday.com)
Sounds incredible, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly the nature of faith. It’s a small thing, but it leads to tremendous blessings.
So my friends, believe and be blessed. Like Abraham, say “amen” with your heart to God’s promises, and be made right in His eyes.
Galatians 3:7 Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. (NIV)
Not just those who are the physical descendants, but all who believe are children of Abraham – that includes us Gentiles!
Galatians 3:8-9 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.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (NIV)
When we believe like Abraham, we are blessed like Abraham. Specifically, when we believe we are “justified” (vs.8 says). That means that God declares us righteous and treats us as His own holy people, no matter how bad we’ve messed up in the past.
In her book Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit, author and speaker Beth Moore recalls a particularly insightful moment in her life. She writes…
“I will never forget watching an evening talk show featuring the story of the parents and killer of a young college student. The killer was his best friend. The weapon was high alcohol content inside a speeding automobile…
“What made this particular feature prime-time viewing? The parents had forgiven the young driver… And if that was not enough, they had taken him in as their own. This young man sat at the table in the chair which was once occupied by their only son. He slept in the son’s bed. He worked with the victim’s father, teaching seminars on safety. He shared their fortune and supported their causes. He spoke about the one he had slain in ways only someone who knew him intimately could have…
“Why did these parents do such a thing? Because it gave them peace. The interviewer was amazed.” Beth Moore says, “I was amazed. I kept trying to put myself in the parents’ position—but I could not. Then, as the tears streamed down my cheeks,” Beth Moore wrote, “I heard the Spirit of God whisper to my heart and say: ‘No wonder you cannot relate. You have put yourself in the wrong position. You, my child, are the driver.’ God was the parent who not only forgave, but also invited me to sit at His table in the space my Savior left for me. As a result, I have peace. (Beth Moore, Living Beyond Yourself, LifeWay Press, 1998)
Do you want that kind of peace in your own life? Do you want God to declare you righteous and treat you as His own special child? Then simply believe in His promises to you. Have faith that He will do what He said He would do. Trust and be blessed.
Otherwise, the only alternative is to TRY AND BE CURSED. TRY TO FOLLOW ALL THE RULES. TRY TO OBEY THE LAW, BUT IT WILL ONLY CONDEMN YOU IN THE END.
Galatians 3:10 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.” (NIV)
That’s what the Law itself says in Deuteronomy 27:26. We must do everything in the Law if we want to avoid being cursed.
It’s like dangling from a helicopter on a chain with 613 links in it. That’s the number of rules in the Mosaic Law. Tell me, how many links in that chain need to break before you fall to your death? Only one, right? In the same way, if you break just one command in the Book of the Law, you are dead.
We haven’t done very well with the first 10 commandments (have we?), much less with the 603 commands that follow. So we’re doomed if we try to keep the law, because we cannot fail to break even one little command.
Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.” (NIV)
Literally, “The righteous by faith will live.” It’s a quote right out of the book of Habakkuk (2:4). We are righteous by faith, and we live by faith as well. But if we try to live by the law, then we are condemned by the Law, because none of us can keep all 613 rules.
Galatians 3:12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” (NIV)
Again, that’s what the Law itself says in Leviticus 18:5. God said to His people, “Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them.” Obey and live; disobey and die. That’s what the law itself says.
And since we have all disobeyed the Law, then we are all going to die. When we try to live by the law we are cursed, condemned and dead, because there is no room in the law for even the slightest infraction.
Even the Obama administration understands this. At his Inauguration last month, Supreme Court Chief justice, John Roberts, messed up a few words in administering the oath of office to Obama. According to the constitution, he was supposed to say, “I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.” Instead Roberts said, “I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully.” He had moved the word faithfully to the end of the sentence, and Obama, after pausing for a moment, repeated the oath as Roberts had stated it, with the word faithfully out of place.
Most of us probably overlooked the slight mistake, but some of Obama’s lawyers were very uncomfortable. After all, the U.S. Constitution stipulates the exact words to be used in the oath, and if those exact words were not used, it might leave the door open for someone to legally challenge the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency.
White House counsel, Greg Craig, decided to take no chances. The very next day he advised President Obama and Justice Roberts to redo the oath-taking ceremony. And so, on the evening of January 21, 2009, in the Map Room of the White House, Justice Roberts once again put on his black robe, and he and President Obama restated the oath—without a hitch. (“Obama takes presidential oath again after stumble,” Associated Press, 1-22-09; www.PreachingToday.com)
But why redo the ceremony in order to get the oath exactly right? Because in Constitutional and legal matters, words matter, correctness matters.
And that’s the way it is with God’s holy law. We must get it exactly right. Otherwise, we end up on the wrong side of the law – cursed, condemned and dead. It’s a terrible way to live, because we try and try and try and never get it exactly right.
There is only one way out. And that’s to TRUST CHRIST WHO REDEEMED US FROM THE LAW’S CURSE. DEPEND ON THE LORD WHO SET US FREE. PUT YOUR FAITH IN JESUS WHO WAS CURSED instead of us, so we could be blessed forever.
Galatians 3:13 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.” (NIV)
Again, for the 6th time, here us another quote from the Law. According to the Old Testament Law, criminals were executed, usually by stoning. Then their bodies were displayed on a stake or post for everyone to see. It was a clear demonstration of divine rejection.
So it is that Christ hung on another stake – the cross – to show that God had rejected Him. God cursed His Son, Jesus, not for His own sins, but for yours and mine. Jesus hung there instead of us, cursed in our place, so we could be blessed forever!
In the movie The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a life of luxury with 1,000 servants at his command. “What happens when you do wrong?” his brother asks.
“When I do wrong, someone else is punished,” the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of the servants is beaten.
In Christianity, Jesus reversed that ancient pattern: when the servants erred, the King was punished. (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? Zondervan, 1997) Christ was cursed in our place, so we could be blessed forever!
Galatians 3:14 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)
We can stop trying to keep the law! Now, by faith, we can receive the promise of the Spirit, the promise of life, and the promise of righteousness in Christ. All we need to do is believe like Abraham in order to be blessed like Abraham.
We have a clear choice this morning. We can trust the Lord and be blessed. –or– We can try to keep the law and be cursed. Which will it be for you? I hope you choose to stop trying and start trusting Jesus today.
One night, Wynton Marsalis, one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, was playing in a New York basement club with a small, unknown band. A few songs into their set, Marsalis walked to the front of the bandstand and began an unaccompanied solo of the 1930s ballad, “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You.” David Hajdu, a journalist who was there, reported that “the audience became rapt as Marsalis’s trumpet virtually wept in despair, almost gasping at times with the pain in the music.”
He was playing the last phrase of the song when all of a sudden someone’s cell phone went off. It chirped an absurd little tune and the audience snickered. The man with the phone jumped up and fled into the hallway to take his call. The spell was broken. The journalist scratched into his notepad: “MAGIC—RUINED.”
But then Marsalis played the cell phone melody note for note. He played it again, in a different style. Then he began to play with it, spinning out variations of the silly little tune and changing keys several times. The audience settled down, slowly realizing that they were hearing something absolutely amazing. For several minutes, Marsalis played, weaving a melodious rhapsody out of a ruined moment.
Finally, in a masterstroke, he ended seamlessly with the last two notes of his previous song, and the audience exploded with applause. (John G. Stackhouse, Jr., Faith Today, May/June, 2003, p. 54; www.PreachingToday.com)
Do you know: God can do the same thing with your broken life. Stop trying to fix it up yourself. Instead, trust the Lord with your life, and let Him make beautiful music out of it all.
