Galatians 3:15-29 - Talkin’ Torah

Listen along as Anthony teaches Galatians 3:15-29.

Notes//Quotes:

Galatians 3:15-29 - Mike G. reading 
Title: Talkin’ Torah

“Paul may well have been responding here to the popular Jewish claim that they alone, along with a few proselytes, were the “true sons of Abraham.” Paul wanted to show that the greater fulfillment of the promise is not biological but Christological.”
- Timothy George

“After God gave the promise to Abraham, He gave the law to Moses. Why? He had to make things worse before He could make them better. The law exposed sin, provoked sin, condemned sin. The purpose of the law was to lift the lid off man’s respectability and disclose what he is really underneath—sinful, rebellious, guilty, under the judgment of God and helpless to save himself. And the law must still be allowed to do its God-given duty today. One of the great faults of the contemporary church is the tendency to soft-pedal sin and judgment … We must never bypass the law and come straight to the gospel. To do so is to contradict the plan of God in biblical history … No man has ever appreciated the gospel until the law has first revealed him to himself. It is only against the inky blackness of the night sky that the stars begin to appear, and it is only against the dark background of sin and judgment that the gospel shines forth.”
- John Stott

 “the trap and the tutor remove freedom. In both cases, the relationship with the “law” is not intimate or personal; it is based on rewards and punishments. And in both cases, we are treated as children or worse.” 
- Timothy Keller

All non-gospel-based religion can be being characterized by: 
(a) a sense of bondage 
(b) an impersonal relationship with the divine, motivated by a desire for rewards and a fear of punishments 
(c) anxiety about one’s standing with God 

But in a gospel centric relationship…
The law points to: 
(a) a life not of confinement, but of actual freedom 
(b) not an impersonal, but a personal relationship with God 
(c) not immaturity, but maturity of character

Questions:
1. As I currently understand christianity today do I feel free or trapped?
2. When I am tempted to rely my law keeping for security which efforts do I tend to trust in?
3. To help you diagnose your own heart, ask yourself: What causes me to feel despair in life? What makes me feel proud about myself?

Who Are You Married To?
By Ray Ortlund
“A married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. . . . and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.  Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another.”  Romans 7:2-4

We were married to Mr. Law.  He was a good man, in his way, but he did not understand our weakness.  He came home every evening and asked, “So, how was your day?  Did you do what I told you to?  Did you make the kids behave?  Did you waste any time?  Did you complete everything I put on your To Do list?”  So many demands and expectations.  And hard as we tried, we couldn’t be perfect.  We could never satisfy him.  We forgot things that were important to him.  We let the children misbehave.  We failed in other ways.  It was a miserable marriage, because Mr. Law always pointed out our failings.  And the worst of it was, he was always right!  But his remedy was always the same: Do better tomorrow.  We didn’t, because we couldn’t.

Then Mr. Law died.  And we remarried, this time to Mr. Grace.  Our new husband, Jesus, comes home every evening and the house is a mess, the children are being naughty, dinner is burning on the stove, and we have even had other men in the house during the day.  Still, he sweeps us into his arms and says, “I love you, I chose you, I died for you, I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  And our hearts melt.  We don’t understand such love.  We expect him to despise us and reject us and humiliate us, but he treats us so well.  We are so glad to belong to him now and forever, and we long to be “fully pleasing to him” (Colossians 1:10)!

Being married to Mr. Law never changed us. But being married to Mr. Grace is changing us deep within, and it shows.