GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
This week, we look at a short passage contained within the 5th chapter of Galatians that is often considered by covenant clashers as a not so veiled threat by the Apostle Paul regarding their eternity and their works. Considering the new covenant context about everything he said in his letter up to this point over several chapters, Paul is attempting to reassure people, not to suddenly shift gears and scare them into going from grace back to trusting in their works.
Individual verses can be used as “topics” for sermons, while the pastor may have little or no understanding about the gospel from a New Covenant perspective. We’re working toward a short passage containing a few verses in Galatians chapter 5 which is often used to bring people back into a works mentality … and leaving them in a state of confusion when it comes to God’s grace.
The question we need to ask is … exactly what work or works can people do to ensure they are in an acceptable position with God? What act can we possibly perform to ensure we’re saved, forgiven, accepted, blessed and perfectly loved? Our honest answer should be that we can add nothing to the finished work and shed blood of Jesus. He “did” for us what we can never “do” for ourselves.
They’ll come up with all kinds of different ways to convince you (from the Bible!) that you’ll need to repeatedly keep seeking more forgiveness from God. They somehow think there are methods and formulas which are more effective than the blood of Jesus—which was shed one time. It’s time to stop and ask ourselves a question … why do you think Jesus’ blood only needed to be shed once, and not over and over again?
If you can identify with any of this, our program this week is dedicated to you. We’ll provide some encouragement to help you accept that you’ve already been accepted by God … and this will never change.
Telling believers they need to change will not be nearly as effective as helping them to understand they have already been changed. Trying to become somebody that you think you are not will become a frustrating, lifelong endeavor which never seems to find the end of the rainbow. On the other hand, once we grow in the understanding of our identity, we can begin to live from who God says we already are as believers “in Christ.”
In this race, we get to start at the finish line, which is a place of rest. Under the Old Covenant, the Jewish people were working at pursuing what they could never attain. Unfortunately, many believers who abide in a new and better covenant are chasing after what has already been given to them.
Paul spoke to the Galatian churches in frustration because after receiving the Spirit of God freely by faith, they had been persuaded to begin trusting in the works of the old law in addition to faith in Christ. Paul called this a work of the flesh. Its roots go back to the same tree Adam ate from when everything collapsed. It was called The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was an unbelief problem as Adam decided to turn from trusting in the sufficiency of the life of God … and chose to begin trusting in the knowledge of both good and evil. He was told it would make him more like God, but it had the opposite result.
Many believers today are struggling with the same thing. They are working at trying to become more like God, and it becomes more about doing—or not doing—instead of being or resting in who God has already made them to be.
Anyone can separate and pluck-out Bible verses, miss the context, and then wonder what in the world they mean. One of many examples is found in the first three chapters of the book of Romans. Paul was taking chapters to explain how the entire world had fallen short of God’s glory because of sin—whether Jew or Gentile. But in these passages, he also reveals the good news of God’s righteousness and acceptance being made available as a gift by a source known as faith, which occurs apart from the works of the law of commandments which came through Moses.
So whether one was a Jew under law or a Gentile without the law, all fell short, and all now have the same access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. But right-standing with God has never been attained or based upon what one does.
While lifestyle and changes in behavior can be a positive thing in this life, it has nothing to do with who God has declared you to already be as His child—having inherited His very nature and now gaining access to all things pertaining to life and godliness. The idea that we are trying to climb a spiritual ladder of self-improvement is a fairy tale which leaves people in the same hopeless position as those who were under the law in the faulty first covenant. It leads to one of two dead end streets: self-righteous hypocrisy or guilt and condemnation. Jesus did the work so we could live in a place of peace and rest.
The common mindset in the world of Christianity is that Paul and James had to be in agreement in order for the Bible to be considered completely valid. Whether coming from a legalistic perspective or one that is more based upon grace, both camps will arrive at that same assumption while trying to explain conflicting statements from the apostles in a way that fits into their narrative or doctrinal perspective. But both will also need to bend, twist and reshape Bible verses to fit the theology—whatever that happens to be. And although the explanations may vary, the purpose remains the same … convince ourselves that Paul and James could not have possibly been opposed on such an important issue as justification. Is it based upon grace? Works? A combination of both?
However, maybe there is a bigger picture to see. We quickly offer a number of things to consider on this topic—which may once again cause some of us to not only arrive at a different point of view, but to shift our thinking to an entirely different paradigm—which involves backing away from the verses for a view of the bigger picture.
Since this episode is essentially a summary of our original series, you may wish to take some time to go through the original series itself, which took place during Podcasts 778-799 (except episode 786, which was a Christmas episode). Click here for the first episode, and then click "Newer Post" at the end of each post for each subsequent episode. Or you can listen to the entire series via our YouTube playlist.
We examine Paul’s revelation of the good news from Romans chapter 1, where we discover that right-standing with God isn’t something people work for as the Jewish people attempted to do under the law. Righteousness pursued us, and came as a gift in the Person of Jesus for those who believe. Another reason why the New Covenant is better than the first one.
The gospel isn’t about attaining right-standing with God through what we do … or what the Jewish people were attempting to do by the works of the law. Repentance involves a change of mind by realizing the more excellent ministry of the New Covenant—which ended a religious merit system—and to begin trusting in what Jesus did to bring us to a place of righteousness and perfection.