Galatians: God Upholds the Relationship

Well, good morning.

It's our last week, our last sermon going to the book of Galatians.

The last three weeks have been how we should live because of the sermons before that.

And then this week we get this uh closing remarks by Paul, sort of his last chance to say something in this letter to these people.

So last week, Christy and I were and the girls were driving uh through South Georgia, we're driving up I-75.

I was on the phone with Matt Donald, and so we're cruising along, and sure enough, I'm I'm talking to Matt on the phone, and and I did what you do.

I lost track, right?

Just lost track of how fast I was going and looked up to the right, up on the shoulder ahead, and I see the cop car.

Quickly looked down, and I had lost track, and it was it was more than what I wanted to be going.

And uh, you know, so immediately I hang up on Matt uh and blue lights, I look back up, blue lights are going.

So I know it's it's either me or the truck in front of me.

I was just traveling right behind this big gray truck, and so I know it's either it's either me or him, and I'm praying the wrath of God down on the gray truck, you know.

Pretty sure it's a nice truck, pretty sure he had some extra money.

So I'm thinking, you know, please, Lord, please, Lord, let it be him.

We both move over to the middle lane uh like we weren't doing anything, you know, like we're hiding, you know.

And sure enough, you know, five minutes later, I'm on the shoulder of the road.

And Officer Steve, that was his name, Officer Steve comes up to the window.

Very nice, succinct man.

And he says, uh, are you aware of how fast you were going?

And I said, honestly, I I lost track.

I was just going the speed of the traffic and the lane until I saw you, I had, I I had no idea.

I and then just with every bit of emotion, I could go.

I said, I am I am so sorry.

And he he was there any reason I shouldn't give you this ticket?

And I, as a pastor, am ready for this answer.

I know that I know this answer.

And I said, I looked him right in the eyes.

I really wanted right into his eye, into his soul, and I said, I said, perhaps you're gracious.

Now I didn't say perhaps you're feeling gracious, because I wanted him on his walk back to his car, because I knew he'd walk back to his car first to consider all this.

I wanted him to question in the core of his being, not if he was feeling gracious, but was he as a human being gracious or not?

But he responded right when I said that, I said, Perhaps you're gracious.

And he did not miss a beat, Officer Steve.

And Officer Steve looked at me and he said, I am always gracious.

And with that, he walked back to his car.

And I'm like, hallelujah, what are the chances?

What are the chances?

I get pulled over in South Georgia, where they make all their money off of speeding tickets.

I get pulled over by a police officer who is always gracious.

I look at Christie, can you believe our chances?

This is unb I'm not gonna get a I was going, I was going 85 and a 70.

I mean, that's an automatic ticket, right?

Like, I know, like, but he's gracious, which means he's gonna handle it.

I don't have to handle it because he's always gracious.

This must be what he always does.

And he comes back up to the car, hands me my ticket.

No smile.

Apparently, not a lot of graciousness.

He says, sign here, here's your ticket, you can pay online this week.

Well, what happened?

I you said, I didn't say this to him, he left.

I didn't want to get another ticket, but you said, I am always gracious.

That's what he said.

And by definition, this is not by definition, this is justice.

This is what this is.

It's still right.

I'm not saying it's not right.

It is right.

I deserve the ticket, but he's the one who said, I am always gracious.

And that's not what this is.

And this is where we begin this morning because I think we hear words like, God is gracious, or grace, or unconditional love, which means not conditioned upon anything you do.

And we hear words like that, and we think it's sort of like this moment with Officer Steve, where it's like, I'm always gracious, but be careful, I might show back up and give you a ticket, and you might owe something.

Right?

Like, I you might need to perform something in order to keep and right standing, or or or or you're gonna be like in God's like little jail of people who aren't quite as good as the other people who are doing a better job.

In this book of Galatians, Paul is breaking down that kind of mentality, that kind of thinking that religious performance has anything to do with your forgiveness, absolution, acceptance, worth, righteousness.

He's just he's just breaking that down, those first four chapters, just systematically saying God is gracious.

Period.

By definition and in character, and in the person of Jesus, and that's why we're always saying our sin is taken by God, put on Jesus on the cross, and his righteousness is given to us, so we are fully always forgiven, not by anything we do, but by God, and we're fully always righteous, not by anything we do, but by God.

And then that's chapters one through four, and then five and six, Paul says, Because you are that free, that unbelievably free, that none of it has to do with you at all, because of that, not to earn anything, but in response to that, here's a few things, here's a few ways to live.

Walk by the spirit, not the world, not the flesh.

Love your neighbor, honor God, have tough conversations, we need to have them.

We talked about that last week.

But none of that is for earning, all of that is inside the freedom.

So, Galatians 6, we're gonna focus on verses 13 through 15.

For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

And then here's the verse we're going to really focus on.

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision but a new creation.

Now, the word circumcision is intimidating, a little strange.

I mean, it sort of makes us cringe, right?

I mean, after all, it is the taking, if I can be clear, it's the removing by surgery of the foreskin of the man's.

You know what?

The removing of the, and this is, there's no anesthesiologist in the room when this is happening back then.

And this shows up in Genesis 17 at the beginning.

This is like the beginning of the Old Testament.

And God's speaking to Abraham, and he says, Hey, you're my people, and because you're my people, here's gonna be the sign of that you're committed to me.

Here's the sign: cut off the foreskin of every male's penis.

I mean, you thought a secret handshake was a big deal to get into a club.

But I mean, this is serious.

Can you imagine this?

And it seems bizarre to us because we're modern people.

We think that's so bizarre.

How weird.

Like, right?

Even think, how what a strange thing.

But they're an ancient society, and it's actually quite interesting.

There was actually a real health benefit to this.

Because disease would always stay in the foreskin, the fold of that foreskin.

And so when men and women had sex, then disease would get passed on to women.

You never knew you needed to thank God for this.

But women, you'd say, thank you, God, thank you for circumcision.

You didn't know it, but that's a big thank you.

This is how disease was being passed on.

So there's an incredibly, incredibly practical thing here of God protecting and helping his people.

But even more than that, it's symbolic.

The more profound thing is it's symbolic.

And the point is that circumcision points us to the fact that cleansing is needed at the very core of who we are.

And this circumcision becomes the symbol of the old covenant.

Right?

We have Old Testament, Old Testament, we read so much about the Old Covenant.

You read about the Old Covenant and the New Testament, but pretty much in the Old Testament, we read about the Old Covenant, the New Testament, Jesus comes, we start to read about the New Covenant.

And covenants are firm commitments between people.

When I was a senior in high school, I only applied to one college.

I applied to Barrie College.

Any Vikings?

Do we have any Vikings?

Viking, that's right.

Viking.

Okay, so I applied to one college, Barrie College.

I didn't graduate there, but one day I walk out in Larchville, Georgia, where I grew up.

I walk out to the mailbox, I get out there, I open the mailbox up, and I read my letter of acceptance.

And what it said was, it said, I was accepted to be a Barry College Viking.

It welcomed me, it accepted me, it declared me to be a Barrie College Viking.

I was this.

I was a Viking.

I get there the first week, right?

Freshman orientation week, you get there and they show you all around, they're welcoming you and all that.

And within that, we get this uh we get this code of conduct.

Hey, what you should do and shouldn't do, the curfew, the curfew on campus, the curfew for girls to be out of the boys' dorms, the boys to be out of the girls' dorms, down to like how many uh how many things could be plugged into to outlets, right?

So you don't like cause a big fire in the dorms.

I mean, it was all of that.

You had to sign, and the RA could come in your room once a month to check everything, right?

And but all of a sudden, like this acceptance started to feel a little bit different just by all these rules and all these laws, right?

It was sort of like uh you're accepted, but Officer Steve's gonna come back with a ticket.

I mean, that's sort of what it was.

You're accepted, but there's a lot for you to maintain to stay here.

And that's how it works.

That's how college works.

You gotta maintain your grades, you gotta maintain your conduct.

That's how it works.

But the point is that that standing as a Viking was not unconditional.

That was very conditional.

It was a very conditional relationship.

It was conditioned upon grades and conduct.

So I was in, but it was not secure.

It was still back on me.

And this is sort of like the old covenant.

The old covenant is like you're God's people, and here are a lot of rules and laws and procedures in the Old Testament.

We read about it, we go, oh, it's so weird.

What's all that about?

To stay in right standing with God.

So maybe you've read enough of the Bible to read that stuff in the Old Testament.

You go, this is so strange.

And then you read the New Testament, you're like, this is more like it.

This is what I like over here.

So what is that?

Like, what is that about?

Why does God seem so different in that Old Testament, Old Covenant, to God being all of a sudden you go, oh, now He's loving, like over here in this New Testament, New Covenant.

And here's point number one: the Old Covenant was a conditional covenant, showing us our need of an unconditional God.

So the Old Covenant helps us see that we need God to be gracious to us.

And Paul's saying in this verse, circumcision, that big symbol for us to understand that religious performance counts for nothing.

Now reread that, we kind of cruise through it.

But these people, this was this is what they gave their life to was living enough by the rules.

But then Paul also says, irreligion, doing whatever you want, rebelling from God, do your own thing, be your own God.

He says, that counts for nothing.

That's not gonna help you either.

He says, only the cross, only God's gracious movement toward you and redemption of you by his work, his love toward you.

Only that, only that can go to the core of who you are as a human being.

Into your soul.

That's what creates new life.

Religion won't create a new life, and irreligion won't create a new life.

Because the law can never declare and create what it demands.

Now, one of my little girls got in trouble this week.

I asked her twice to not run off and go to the playground.

We're picking up another little girl at the soccer practice, and I said, please, please don't run up there and play.

We're just grabbing the other one.

We're just, we gotta go somewhere else.

Please don't.

I tell her two times, don't go, of course, turn my head, she goes, right?

Like that's how it works.

And so she's up there playing.

I'm sort of watching her a little bit, like, let her enjoy this moment because she's gonna get it later.

And so she finally I call her, I call her to come back, doesn't come.

I know she hears it, I can tell.

And she mosey's across the monkey bars, she's having a great time.

Call her again, doesn't come back.

Third time, she finally comes back.

And I just calmly said, Hey, by the way, I asked you twice not to go up there, called you back three times.

Apparently, you're doing your own thing, just want to let you know it'll have a consequence.

Sound good?

All right, let's go.

And you know, my gosh, I didn't hear you.

You know, yeah, you did, I know.

So I'm tucking her into bed that night, and we talked about last week, she's been telling me I have bad breath at night, and so you know, I brush the teeth before I go tuck her in, I go to tuck her in, and I say what so many parents say, it's what my mom said to me growing up.

Hey, I I can't, I can't love you anymore, and I can't love you any less.

Right?

That's what I said, babe, when you were disobedient today and you ran off, did what you wanted to do, I didn't love you any less.

Like the love doesn't change, like you're secure in the love because it's not based on your word.

I just love you all the time.

And this is where I'm learning a lot about new covenant, is like in this parenting relationship, because love just simply is not based in the performance of the child.

And the new covenant is love toward us from God is not based on our performance toward the Heavenly Father.

It's his His love, the Heavenly Father's love toward us.

And God is using this old covenant where we read it and you go, What?

What is this?

What's going on?

What is all this?

These rules and laws and procedures, and everybody's having to do this to maintain this.

What is this?

Well, he's using the old covenant of law to help us see we need a new covenant of grace.

That's what it's about.

This is how the Bible is set up, the structure of the Bible.

Now, before we get that Genesis 17, where uh God goes to Abraham and says, Hey, you need to do the circumcision thing with all the males, before we get that, we get Genesis 15, two chapters before.

We've talked about this before, maybe you remember it.

God goes to Abraham and he says, Hey, you're my people, I will bless you.

Abraham says, How do I know?

Like, I don't know for sure.

Like it's a big statement, right?

Like, how am I really gonna know that?

And God says, Well, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to kill some animals, I want you to cut them in half.

I want you to put them in two rows of the aisle down the middle.

Seems odd to us.

Again, another like ancient thing that for us, or like, what is it?

For him, he gets it.

He does it all.

Because this is how commitments are made.

It's how covenants were made.

Is the lowly person in the agreement would cut up the animals, set them in rows.

The lowly person in the covenant would walk through and vow and promise to the higher person in order for the covenant and the commitment to be made.

So Abraham cuts them all up, two rows out on the middle.

By this time, night has fallen.

And we get this unbelievable happening where in the darkness a fiery pillar comes and God passes through the pieces, but Abraham never has to.

And here's what the story is telling us God is saying, I will bless them when they obey, and I will bless them when they don't obey.

Because this commitment is not based on their promise to me, it's my promise to them.

I, God upholds the relationship.

So before even the old covenant, before that, before the circumcision, before the ceremonial law, before all of that, before the Ten Commandments, before all of that, we get this promise that God will uphold the relationship.

Listen to Hebrews 8, verse 6.

Hebrews 8:6

Listen to this.

The Hebrews is a great book.

It helps us understand these covenants and how Jesus plays into this and how all this Bible fits together.

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

Then down in verse 13, in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

And what is becoming obsolete is growing old, is ready to vanish away.

Here's the second point.

The new covenant is an unconditional commitment from the unconditional God to you.

There's this story in John 4 where Jesus shows up at a well and there's a Samaritan woman there, and he says to the woman, Jews would normally not say this because Jews hated Samaritans.

But he says, Hey, will you give me a drink?

And she says, What you're a Jew, why would you be asking me for a drink?

Jews don't ask to talk to Samaritans.

Why are you asking me for a drink?

And he says, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.

Right?

So he switches over into some figurative language here.

She doesn't pick up on that, kind of like we don't pick up on a lot of figurative language.

So she doesn't pick up it.

She says, Sir, you have nothing to draw with.

How can you drink?

And he says, Everyone who drinks, he's sticking with the figurative here, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

Sir, give me that water.

If I have that water, I won't have to come back here anymore.

And then Jesus says, Go and call your husband.

And this is the point in the conversation where her heart would have dropped.

And she says, I don't have to have a husband.

And Jesus says, Yeah, I know.

You've had five.

And now you live with a man that's not your husband.

And see, here's the law right here.

It is right and it is holy and it exposes her.

It exposes us as sinners in need of God's grace.

And Jesus doesn't condone her and say, you know what?

You be you, five husbands, you are you feeling good in this new relationship?

You be you.

Do what you need to do, like whatever.

Hey, you're good to go.

So he doesn't condone your religion.

But Jesus also doesn't say, hey, you filthy lady, get your act together.

And if you get your act together and you show up the temple and you start getting everything down just right, I'm gonna show back up in a month or two months, I'll check things out with you.

See, if you're doing well enough, then we can have the right relationship.

Jesus calls her to a third way.

The gospel's always the third way.

Right?

He says, I'm all the water you will ever need.

And your soul won't be thirsty anymore.

And this lady takes off.

She doesn't seem to have any shame about being called out by the law.

And the reason why she doesn't is because the law exposed her as a sinner, but the grace of Jesus rescued her.

And she finds all these other people and she says, Hey, hey, come, there's this man, come, and you gotta you gotta see this man.

He has told me everything.

He's told me everything I ever did.

Can you imagine that?

Can you imagine like bragging about somebody telling you everything you ever did?

Usually that'd be like, somebody knows everything I ever did.

Like that's something I'm gonna get away from as much as possible.

But because the law exposes, but the grace of Jesus fully heals.

She's like, this guy told me everything.

Do you think he could be the Christ?

And this brings us to our last point, point number three.

New life in you, new life in you is created by the grace given to you in Jesus.

The reason why we say things like I can't love you anymore, and I can't love you any less is because we we know if we get the heart, we get the relationship, and if we get the relationship, we'll eventually get behavior.

And this is how the gospel operates it goes to the heart, not just to get behavior modification in religion, not just to get some uh commitment to being more moralistic, but to get a heart that is healed and rescued by the grace of Jesus.

So, what does this mean to you?

Well, it means you're free, is what it means.

It means you are free in the grace of Christ.

It means you're a sinner, like me, I'm a sinner, but it means we're fully forgiven and fully righteous and fully secure.

And so we are free to walk in the spirit in our imperfection and mess ups, but free to walk in the spirit means we're free to love our neighbors, love our families.

And we're free to do all of that without any fear, without any fear that the relationship, our relationship with God, is at risk.

So we can stop all, every bit of religious performance and the exhaustion and the condemnation it produces.

My brothers and sisters, may you hear Paul's words.

I'll close with Paul's words, verse 16.

And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and your mercy.

We even thank you for the law.

We thank you for the law that is pure and holy and righteous and exposes us as sinners that are in need of your grace.

We thank you for the old covenant that takes us to the new covenant, that you are a mediator of what is better and deeper and more profound.

You are the fulfillment of the law.

That we owe no payment toward you because you paid it all.

God, would you give us deeper trust and faith?

Greater astonishment of Jesus.

And would we know greater and greater wholeness and healing in our hearts as we work out this salvation that's been given to us?

And would our lives honor you in great ways.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.