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Freedom Through Christ Choose Wisely Galatians 3:1-14

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  1. Freedom Through Christ

  2. Choose Wisely

  3. Galatians 3:1-14

    Galatians 3:1–14

  4. Intro: The Choice

  5. Life is filled with choices. Trust me, as a father of four, I feel like I’m inundated with questions and requests all day long! “Dad can I…” When I get home at the end of the day, often my wife will tell me she’s done - she has what she calls “decision fatigue.” She just can’t make any more decisions. What’s for dinner? It’s up to me. What show are we going to watch? My call. Can the kids stay up late? My decision. I totally get it. Making decisions - even small ones - can be stressful. The small, unimportant decisions we make all day long have a cumulative effect on us.

  6. There’s a couple of reasons for this. One reason is that it’s absolutely possible to make the wrong choice. Another reason is that often, insignificant decisions can have unforeseen consequences. If I let the kids stay up late, what will their morning be like tomorrow? If I drink this coffee after dinner, will I be able to go to sleep tonight? And some decisions are bigger and scarier - like buying or selling a home, moving to a new place, leaving an old job and taking a new one.

  7. It reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

  8. [Title Slide] The biblical motif of the Choice runs from beginning to end:

  9. ● Eden - Tree of Life or Tree of Knowledge

  10. ● Cain - Sin crouching at the door

  11. ● Moses - Life or Death, Blessing or Curse

  12. ● Jesus - The wide road or the narrow road, God or Money, Wisdom or Foolishness

  13. ● The Church in Laodicea - Hot or Cold

  14. All of these different choices are actually the same choice - to choose wisdom, is to choose life, is to choose blessing. All of these choices are different ways of framing the fundamental, basic choice that we all have to make - all while dealing honestly with the difficulty we have in choosing wisely. While on the surface, these choices seem basic, black and white, and maybe even a little over-simplified, the Biblical authors recognize that it’s not always easy to recognize and understand in any given situation - what is the right decision to make? What decision will yield the best result for me? What decision will honor God the most? We must choose wisely, and what makes that really complicated is the fact that often, in our minds, the answers to those two questions are not always the same!

  15. The Question (Galatians 2:21b)

  16. In our text today, the Apostle Paul is framing this same choice for us once again. In your text last week, Paul set up this choice, leaving us with this bold, contingent statement: “if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:21b)” Do you get what Paul is saying here? This if/then statement forces us to answer an important question - a question that is the key to facing the most foundational decision of our lives. CAN righteousness be gained through the law? DID Christ die for nothing?

  17. How do we answer that question?

  18. 1. What does personal experience tell me? (Galatians 3:1-5)

    Galatians 3:1–5

  19. Paul is writing to people who are already Christians! You can just hear his frustration. They have heard the Gospel, they have believed in the crucified Christ, they have begun to walk in the Spirit. Paul is appealing to their own personal experience of God in their lives. The Galatian Christians would do well to read the words of Hebrews: 6:4-8. [Title Slide] What Hebrews is NOT saying is that people who repent and turn back to God won’t be forgiven. Hebrews is telling us that those who understand and experience the gift of grace, and then decide that they don’t need what God is offering - those people are in danger of getting exactly what they want!

  20. So, what does your personal experience tell you? I grew up in a pretty legalistic church. There’s a lot that I have learned to appreciate about the church I was raised in, but I’ll tell you one thing - when I was sent home as a kid to put a tie on, I was not experiencing God’s love. When I was yelled at as a kid for wearing a hat in church - I don’t believe that was the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. If you have ever been in a legalistic environment - whether it was a church or even your own family - what does your personal experience tell you? Is God at work through legalism? Or is God working through grace and love? Don’t get me wrong - I don’t think that adherence to God’s word is legalism. Neither did Jesus. The problem is not obedience to God, but enforcement of man-made rules, without the grace that accompanies God’s commands. What does your personal experience tell you? Does God work through legalism or through the gracious gift of his Spirit?

  21. This text is not for everyone - maybe you have yet to experience God’s grace in your life. In that case, let’s ask instead…

  22. 2. What does scripture tell me? (Galatians 3:6-9)

    Galatians 3:6–9

  23. [Title Slide] Certainly, the Bible is filled with commands - rules about what to do and what not to do. These serve as guidelines - guardrails to protect the followers of God from the most dangerous spiritual pitfalls of this life. If we receive God’s commands as wise instructions for life, Proverbs tells us that they will become a tree of life for us! When looking for wisdom for life’s most difficult and important decisions, the Bible should absolutely be our first stop - not because it has the answers to every question. It actually doesn’t. We look to scripture because it will shape our minds into the shape of the mind of God - not omniscient, because we are not infinite like God, but full of godly wisdom and discernment. Yes, there are rules in the Bible - but the Bible is more than just rules.

  24. The Bible is first and foremost a story! It’s a story where the murderous adulterer King David - by God’s grace alone - can also be known as a man after God's own heart. It’s a story where the religious terrorist Saul - by God’s grace alone - can become the Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary in the history of the church and the author of 13 letters in the New Testament, including our text for today. It’s a story where the very flawed Abraham can - by his faith in the gracious promises of God - be counted as righteous.

  25. The narrative of the Bible tells a story that is more than mere legalism. It’s not a clean story about all the righteous people who perfectly followed all of God’s laws. Instead, it’s a very messy story about a God who would never fail to keep his promises of blessing on those who would only put their trust in him. These are the children of Abraham, and not just children by descent, but children by faith, from every nation. This is because God’s blessing is the same blessing that it has always been since the beginning of creation - the multiplication of life! God’s blessing is a seed that, when it’s full grown, multiplies the fruit of his blessing to many more.

  26. If righteousness could be gained through the works of the law, then Christ died for nothing. So, CAN righteousness be gained through the works of the Law? Both personal experience and the testimony of scripture answer a resounding NO! DID Jesus die for nothing? Certainly not, in fact Colossians 2:13-15 tells us what Jesus accomplished on the cross. So no, righteousness can not be gained through the works of the law. No, Jesus did not die for nothing. Before we choose, though, we need to know…

    Colossians 2:13–15

  27. What are the stakes? (Galatians 3:10-14)

    Galatians 3:10–14

  28. [Title Slide] Where are you going for lunch today? How many times have you been in church and been texting your husband or wife, trying to figure out where to go for lunch? Honestly - the stakes are pretty low. It’s just not a major decision. The choice that Paul sets before the Galatians is a foundational life choice. If you choose the law, you are cursed - by your OWN CHOICES! The stakes could not be higher. You need to understand this - being legalistic AND relying on the gracious sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is NOT an option. Those two paths are mutually exclusive and they run in opposite directions. It’s logically impossible to be both free and captive at the same time. We must choose because indecision is a choice in itself. We must choose wisely because the stakes are life and death!

  29. Conclusion: Will you choose wisely?

  30. To choose the law, to choose legalism, often SEEMS like the righteous thing to do; it’s the complete opposite. Choosing legalism is choosing to be enslaved, not just to the Law but to the curse that they place on us by exposing our inadequacy. We are unable to live by the law - we can only die by the law.

  31. Anyone who would try to take away the freedom that we have in Christ - freedom from sin, and freedom to the law that leads only to death - is seeking to rob you of the free gift of God’s grace. Don’t be deceived by righteous seeming people who would lead you astray into legalism.

  32. This does NOT mean that righteousness doesn’t matter - (Romans 6:1-4). [Title Slide] Legalism and righteousness are not the same thing! Legalism is slavery to the law, but we are set free in Christ:

    Romans 6:1–4

  33. Yes, freedom from the impossible standard that holds us captive to our own failures, shortcomings, and flaws - but not just freedom FROM, Jesus calls us into freedom FOR. Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us…

    Ephesians 2:8–10

  34. [Title Slide] Jesus doesn’t just give us freedom FROM the past, but he calls us into freedom FOR new life in Christ, freedom FOR the good works he has prepared for us to do. Not just freedom FROM the past, but freedom FOR the future.

  35. We don’t do good works in order to gain new life, but we are most certainly given new life in order to do good works! We’re saved to do good works, but let’s put our works where they belong - in service to the ultimate saving work of Christ. Choosing legalism is choosing to be cursed. It’s choosing to be responsible for your own salvation - something you could never hope to achieve. It is putting your faith, your trust, your hope in your own works! In your own abilities! In your own power!

  36. On the other hand, choosing faith means trusting in the work of God, in the ability of God to save, in the power of God to fully transform us from those who were once dead in our sins to those who are now alive in Christ. To receive the blessing, we have to make the right choice - we have to choose to put our faith in Christ. You must choose wisely.