THE ONE TRUE GOSPEL
Meditations in the Epistle to the Galatians
Galatians 3:15-18
GETTING TO THE ROOTS

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IT IS one of the failings and characteristics of human nature that it gets locked in a system of religion which it can't allow to be changed. This was the fault of the Jews in New Testament times. They had been given the law of God, the moral law and the ceremonial law governing their worship and approach to God. When it was given through Moses, as a nation they had bound themselves to the keeping of it at the foot of Mount Sinai. Over the years, the various theologians of Israel, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, had placed their interpretations on the law, and had bound the people. They said this was the one and only way to gain the approval of God. By Jesus' day the various rules were all important and the spirit behind the giving of the law was forgotten. Their fault was not in there saying that there was only one way of gaining the favour of God, but in that they felt that the form of religion they had developed in their culture was that true and only one. The development of their law by the Teachers of the Law had moved them away from the Law given at Sinai, both in precept and practice. They had lost their roots. Further they had never enquired into the purpose of God in the Law given at Sinai.

The problem was aggravated because the history of Israel had been so terribly marked by a departure from the Law, and history told of the judgements of God on the nation because of this sin. Further deadness of soul placed all the emphasis on the doing of the rules, and the state of the heart before God was not seen to be important. In fact the heart was ignored and if the outward rules were kept, a person was said to be approved of God. They had stop searching their hearts altogether. The result of this, at its core, was that love had ceased, and self-righteousness and rejection reigned.

It is this fact that was troubling the church in Galatia. Because Jews who had believed in Christ could not give up the rules they had been nurtured in, they sought to add them to the Gospel and to Christ. The problem still exists today as it has existed all down history. Even in the evangelical world of today, there is a culture which is added to the Gospel. It is seen in habits of life which are thought to be essential, without which the life of a believer becomes suspect. Then it is seen in rigid interpretations of Bible truth which can never be questioned even though they are in error, and if they are questioned, the person who questions them is looked on with reproof if not rejection. Then there is interpretations of moral questions which are rigid, which become an umbrella covering everything that seems to transgress this cultural understanding, and there is no attempt to understand the various aspects of life which don't seem to fit the cultural norm. Then there is a rigid holding on to traditions which make it impossible for the Holy Spirit to speak to these people, and the depth of the revelation of God is locked from them.

The net total result of this situation is, that like the situation in Galatia, there is added to the Gospel of grace works and doings which are seen as essential to salvation, and although all believe that we cannot be saved but through repentance and faith in Christ, it is believed, underneath at least, that after conversion, we can lose our salvation by sin, and before salvation is restored some works must be done to prove our sincerity before God's favour is restored.

There is always a reason for every development in religion, and the reason is often good, but once these developments have become entrenched, there is a refusal to ask the question as to why they were introduced, and to ask the questions, firstly whether the reason is still valid, and secondly whether the interpretation of that reason is still the same as the original, which it very rarely is. The Jews never enquired why the law was given, nor did they enquire how their father Abraham, and the other patriarchs were saved, when they never had the law. Paul in the scripture before us causes people to make these enquiries, so that we may come to a correct understanding of the purpose of God in the salvation of sinners. Paul takes them back to the roots of their faith, the roots they had forgotten and now denied.

THE ARGUMENT MADE

No Jew would have questioned the fact that Abraham was the friend of God and in God's favour. So Paul goes back to consider how Abraham gained this favour with God. He points out that it was without the law, and by a promise of a gift in grace found in the 'Seed' who would come. He then argues that this way must be the right one, because it came first. Everything that came afterwards was never meant to change this original purpose and covenant of God for the salvation of sinners. The thing that Paul proves here is that God had always only one way for our salvation. This he revealed to Abraham, and nothing that comes after, like the law of Moses changes this. If there is a view of the law of Moses that cancels this original purpose of God, then that view is wrong and must be corrected. What God established 430 years before Moses, cannot be overthrown by anything that follows. The promise to Abraham still stands.

AN EVERLASTING COVENANT

Now what do we learn from Paul's words here about the true roots of our faith. For a start we learn that God planned the way we sinners could be right with himself from eternity. From Paul's argument in our scripture we are considering, it is plain that Paul is arguing that the covenant God revealed to Abraham was always meant to be permanent. Paul makes it plain that this must be so, because the covenant God was speaking about is the covenant being founded and sealed by the seed of Abraham, which Paul assures us is Christ. As Christ was yet to come in Abraham's day it shows that God had a plan all prepared and finalised from eternity. Paul makes the point that in the covenant made with Abraham, God made plain that when he spoke of the 'seed' of Abraham, he meant a one unique seed to be born from the family line of which Abraham was the father. In other words it was a reference to the Messiah, who was to be born and be the Saviour of his people.

The Jews always looked for the Messiah, but instead of seeking the meaning of the coming of the Messiah in Biblical terms, (i.e. going back to Abraham to understand the way the Messiah would save), instead over a period of time they twisted the coming of the Messiah to fit their wish for an earthly ruler who would make them top nation. In a similar way evangelical culture has done much the same. It has built a culture not from the roots of Scripture, but from its own culture. Like the Jews over their understanding of their Messiah they have lost the ability to get back to the pure roots on which they were founded.

In fact the Covenant God reveals to Abraham, which Paul speaks of, was not new. It had been made even at the beginning at the moment Adam, our first and representative parent, sinned. We have it revealed in Genesis chapter three, where God promises that the seed of the woman, again one unique seed, Christ, would suffer under Satan's cruelty, but in the process would defeat and overthrow the power of Satan, and by his suffering would satisfy all God's justice, and so win the justification of sinners. When we come to the New Testament we find that the coming of the seed was always in the eternal purpose of God. We read this in Ephesians 1:3-14 where he tells us that God had predestined our salvation through Jesus before the foundation of the world. It is essential that we understand that the one way we gain the favour of God has always been in the work of Christ for us, for this is the golden thread of Gospel and grace throughout the Bible. It is the key that unlocks the message of the Bible, and it is the truth that is the interpreter of everything in the Bible. As we shall see as we continue in Galatians, the law was never meant to overthrow this original purpose of salvation in Christ, but was a means of preserving it, and making sure that through all the ups and downs of history, the Christ, the seed, would be born as promised.

SALVATION ESTABLISHED IN CHRIST

Further we can learn from the argument in this passage that salvation was always established in the purpose and covenant of God to be found only in the Seed, who is Christ. Abraham was told that in his Seed, Christ, all nations would be blessed. We have here another truth the Jews had totally forgotten, and that was that the promise to Abraham encompassed more than their nation, and by God's promise encompassed all nations. They may be the nation whom God had chosen so that the Seed would come, but the Seed was not meant just for them but for the world.

Thus salvation was never purposed to come through the Law of Moses, nor any other works which human kind were to do, but was to come through the Seed, who is Jesus Christ. Thus we have pressed upon us that only in Jesus must we look for salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Only in Jesus can we find favour with God and be accounted just before God. The doings which save us, that is the righteousness which God demands for our justification, was always purposed by God to be provided by our Lord Jesus Christ. He would work this perfect righteousness which God's law demands, and make it available to those who receive him by faith.

The Jews were quite right in their assessment that righteousness was essential for someone to be in God's favour. Where they failed was in two directions. They had no real conception as to the standard and perfection of righteousness God demanded, on the one hand, and so never understood the total inability of humanity in their own strength to achieve that righteousness, on the other. This problem remains today. It is because of these two failures, people are content to continue to trust in their own works for righteousness. When we see clearly the standard of righteousness God requires of us, our righteousness becomes filthy rags, and we cry like Isaiah, when he came into this realisation before the vision of God in the temple (Isaiah 6), Woe is me, for I am undone. Like us, before this revelation, Isaiah had been quite content with his life and the level of righteousness he had achieved.

When we see the holiness of God, then we truly see we are lost without any hope of righteousness in ourselves to meet his holy demands. In the light of this, how blessed to know that salvation was never meant to be through our own efforts of holiness, but through the promised Seed, who would be named "The Lord our Righteousness" who would be the worker of this righteousness for us in his life and death.

SALVATION ESTABLISHED BY PROMISE AND GRACE

The last thing that Paul establishes in this passage before us is found in the last verse - "but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through promise". What God gave Abraham was "the inheritance". For Abraham this inheritance was described as a people as great as the stars in number. This was the inheritance of a redeemed and saved people taken out of all the nations upon earth. It was a spiritual people, that is people who would have the same faith as Abraham in the promised Seed. It was not a reference simply to the temporal nation of Israel.

The inheritance is nothing short of heaven and glory and to be the people of God for ever. Firstly the great thing about it is that it is given. It is not something we earn or work for. It is a gift from God that we receive gratefully, or we do not receive it at all. This humbles us, because we do not like to be under an obligation, nor do we like to feel that we are not our own masters to win our own salvation. This pride is simply the fruit of Adam's sin. Satan told Adam that if he disobeyed God he would be as God, and thus his own master. We were originally created for God and to be wholly dependent on him, and so the gift of salvation which we receive in dependence totally on God is simply returning to our roots. Of course receiving the gift requires humble trust in God's word of promise, and also a trust that God will never cease to give, and sustain us as his people through the Seed, Jesus Christ.

Secondly the inheritance is by promise. God pledged his word that the Seed would come, who would bring in everlasting righteousness for his people, and so gain them a place in the kingdom of God. So again there is an exclusion of all contribution on our part, and we must accept this, and trust in the promise of God without reservation. Further it requires faith, faith that rests our souls on the Seed, trusting in no one and nothing else.

Thirdly the inheritance is of grace. The great point all human beings have to realise and admit is that such is our sinfulness and sin, that we deserve nothing from God, no favour or blessing whatsoever. People talk about justice, and ask only that they may receive justice from God, failing to realise that if God visited strict justice on any of us, he must condemn us to Hell for our sins. People can only trust in justice because they fail to understand the just demands of God upon them. Thus the inheritance of favour with God is a gift of pure grace, something totally undeserved. God has no obligation to give salvation, but because of his grace, his unmerited favour, he does give it in Christ. It is because of his grace he provided the Seed who would bring in a righteousness for those who believe, which would allow God to be both Just (sin condemned and punished in Jesus) and at the same time justify (account as being without sin) us who have by our many sins fallen short of his glory.

CONCLUSION

How much superior is the Gospel to all man-made religions. The root of all man-made religions is human effort meriting favour from God. Because of this there is no salvation in man-made religion, no hope and no security. In man-made religion you have no assurance of the goodness and grace of God towards you, and you can never know if you have done enough. In the Gospel there is complete and full salvation which is totally and eternally sure, because the promise of grace in Christ is the provision of an eternal of righteousness which completely meets all God's demands. Thus it is a sure salvation, because, being imputed with this righteousness, we are assured that we are justified before the justice of God for ever.

Further in the Gospel we have a revelation of God that is totally assuring. In the Gospel God is revealed as a merciful, gracious and loving God, whose grace and love has been proved by the complete provision for life that he has provided in Christ, and at such infinite cost. The Gospel is further sure, because God has so provided that there is nothing left in our failing hands for us to do, and thus we cannot mess things up in our sin and weakness. Much more in the Gospel, salvation is not just a new start, but a translation to glory, and eternity in the love of Christ.

Let us hold fast this faith and never let it be spoiled by the additions and subtractions of man-made religion.