Month: June 2013

Galatians 5:1-15

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Free to Love.

Galatians 5:1-15

Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Galatians 5:13-14 NLT

When we become obsessed with earning favor with God or attempting to keep His righteous standards in our own strength, we end up self-obsessed. That kind of life can be totally self-centered, restricting us from loving others and pouring out our lives to them. Instead, we can end up seeing them as competition, causing us to find fault in them so that we can feel better about ourselves. We can heap them with guilt, demanding that they keep the same exactly standards that we have set for ourselves, causing them to be just as miserable with life as we are. Slavery to the law is debilitating. It robs us of joy. It is dead-end road that leads nowhere. But as Paul reminds us, Christ has truly set us free, but if we try to make ourselves right with God by keeping the law, we end up being cut off from Christ. In other words, we negate His saving work on our behalf and replace it with our own powerless attempt to save ourselves by some form of rule-keeping. Our righteousness comes through faith, not works. Once again, Paul states plainly, “For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness” (Galatians 5:5 NLT). We already have what is called “positional” righteousness. Because of Christ’s death, we have been covered in His blood and are seen as righteous in God’s eyes. He views us through the righteousness of Christ. But we are also in the process of being transformed into the likeness of Christ, through the presence of the indwelling Spirit and the power of the Word of God. We are becoming righteous in practice. But it is a process that takes place over time, and it is still the work of God. Paul puts it this way: “we wait expectantly for the hope of righteousness.” One day we will be like Christ. It won’t happen in this lifetime. But it will be when Christ calls us home or returns for His Church. That is our hope. And it is based on the work of the Spirit and available only through faith.

This does not mean that we have nothing to do or that we can live our lives as we see fit. Paul is not against effort, but he stands completely opposed to earning. Paul tells us elsewhere to “work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (Philippians 2:12 NLT). In writing to the believers in Corinth Paul stated, “I don’t meant to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me” (Philippians 3:12 NLT). Then he makes his famous statement: “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:14 NLT). Paul pursued practical righteousness in his life, but he knew that full righteousness would only come about when his time on earth was done. Like his salvation, his righteousness was ultimately the work of God, made possible through the death of Christ.

So what’s the point of all this? For Paul, it was that we would understand our freedom in Christ. But not only are we free from having to earn God’s favor through the law, we are free to love one another. The greatest expression of our new-found freedom in Christ is found in our love for those around us. No more competition or comparison. No more measuring ourselves against one another or attempting to outdo one another for God’s love and attention. This is not a contest. We are not siblings vying for the favor and attention of our parent. Rather than serve ourselves in an effort to elevate our standing, we are free to serve one another. Remember how the disciples seemed to be constantly obsessed with who was the greatest? They were vying for positions of prominence in Jesus’ coming kingdom. They wanted places of prominence and power. So they jockeyed for position. The same thing can happen with us as believers today. But Paul tells us “use your freedom to serve on another in love” (Galatians 5:13b NLT). We are free to love, not compete. We are free to serve, not be served. We are free to put others first and ourselves last. Because our place in God’s Kingdom has been secured by Christ. We don’t have to do anything to fight for or earn our rights or secure our place. We are free to spend our time loving others. If someone else gets the credit, no problem. If no one notices our efforts, it doesn’t matter. We aren’t trying to earn favor with God anyway. We’re free!

Father, this is such a hard concept to get our heads around. We live in a society that is steeped in the idea of earning and effort. We have grown up with phrases like, “No pain, no gain.” We have been told “there’s no free lunch,” “the early bird gets the worm,” and “to the victor go the spoils.” We struggle with the idea that our salvation and even our sanctification are totally the work of Christ and have nothing to do with us. But help us to fully understand and appreciate the joy that comes with knowing that we are free from having to earn favor with You. No more performance-based motivation. No more competing with one another. No more jockeying for position. We are loved by You because of Christ. And we are free to love others. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 4:21-31

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Two Covenants.

Galatians 4:21-31

These two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. – Galatians 4:24 NLT

The Old Testament and the New Testament. Two covenants made by God with His people. Paul uses the two wives of Abraham and their two sons to serve as illustrations of the differences between these two covenants. Hagar was actually the handmaiden to Sarah, Abraham’s wife. When years passed and Sarah still found herself barren and unable to bear a son for Abraham, she came up with the bright idea of giving her handmaiden to Abraham so that he might have a son through her. This was her attempt to help God out. And Abraham willingly and eagerly agreed to the plan. The result? Ishmael. Paul makes it clear that “the son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise” (Galatians 4:23 NLT). God had made a promise to make Abraham fruitful and give him more descendants than the sand on the seashore. But when God’s promise appeared to be bogged down, Abraham and Sarah decided to step in and fulfill the promise of God on their time frame. Ishmael was the child born by human effort.

But God had not needed any help when it came to fulfilling His promise. He simply had a different time line. He refused to accept Ishmael as the substitute, in spite of the pleadings of Abraham. Instead, in the course of time, God gave Abraham a son through Sarah, even though she was quite old and barren. God fulfilled His promise in His time and on His terms. Isaac would become the child of the promise. Again, Paul uses these two women to illustrate the differences between the two covenants. Hagar would come to represent the law. She illustrated life lived by human effort. Her son was the result of human effort and planning. But he was not the fulfillment of God’s promise. His birth could not substitute for God’s promise. And as Ishmael and Isaac grew older, Ishmael would persecute Isaac out of jealousy. Ishmael knew that he was not the heir, even though he was the first born. And those who lived according to the law were persecuting the rightful heirs of God even in Paul’s day. The believers to whom Paul was writing were “children of the promise just like Isaac.” They were children of God born by the power of the Spirit of God. But those trapped under the law were persecuting them, attempting to force them to earn their rightful place in God’s family through human effort. But Paul reminds them, “dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman” (Galatians 4:31 NLT). We are free. We are heirs. We are beneficiaries of the promise of God completely as a result of the efforts of God alone. Like Isaac who was born by the miracle and power of God, we have been born again by the grace and mercy of God made possible by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. None of it is due to our effort. We have not earned it and we do not deserve it. God alone saves. We can’t save ourselves. And we can’t sanctify ourselves. Human effort plays no part in God’s redemptive plan for man. It is His promise and it will be fulfilled according to His terms and through His power alone.

Father, thank You for this reminder that my effort is unnecessary. I don’t have to try to earn Your favor through my own energy. But so often I try to come up with ways to help You out. I try to step in and do what I seem to think You are incapable of doing. But Your promise doesn’t need my help. It is all based on You and You alone. My position as Your child has nothing to do with my worth or my works. It is all Your doing. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 4:1-20

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Re-enslaved.

Galatians 4:1-20

Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (of should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? – Galatians 4:8-9 NET

Why would anyone who had been set free from slavery ever voluntarily subject themselves to it again? That is Paul’s question in this section of his letter. He reminds the believers in Galatia that they were at one time slaves to the basic principles of this world. In other words, they had been subject to the sad state of affairs made possible by the fall. They had been under the constant influence and control of Satan, their own sinful flesh and the world. At one time they had been slaves to their so-called gods – gods that didn’t even really exist. Theirs had been a pointless and hopeless existence attempting to search for release by turning to false gods that offered false hope. But Paul reminds them that “in the fulness of time” – at just the right time – God sent his Son to buy them freedom. Jesus Christ had bought them out of slavery and set them free. As a result, they were no longer slaves, but God’s own children, adopted into His family. They knew the one true God and He knew them. But now, as a result of the influence of the Judaizers, these so-called Jewish believers who were attempting to convince the new converts in Galatia that they must keep the law and adhere to the rituals and requirements of Judaism, the Galatian Christians were becoming enslaved again. Paul accused them of “trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years” (Galatians 4:10 NLT).

Paul plead with them to live in freedom, not slavery. He begged them to not return to the same kind of slavery from which Christ had set them free. Paul’s greatest desire was that Christ would be fully developed in their lives. But he knew that a return to those basic principles of this world would hinder their spiritual growth. Even as believers, we are all still under the influence of Satan, our sinful flesh, and the world. We can still fall prey to the temptation to earn favor with God through our own self-effort. The enemy would love nothing more than to enslave us again to a life of works and pride-based effort. He wants us to see God as a task-master who demands what we can’t deliver. He wants us to live in fear of God, not as children, but as slaves. Satan doesn’t want us to see ourselves as God’s children, but as His powerless pawns, condemned to try to keep Him pleased in order to escape His punishment and earn His favor. But Paul won’t stand for it. And while he can’t personally visit them, he does the next best thing – he writes them and pleads with them. He speaks truth to them. He exposes those who would do harm to them. Because unless they learned to embrace their freedom in Christ, they would never truly grow in Christ. Those who see themselves as slaves will tend to live and act as slaves. But those who truly understand that they have been freed from the basic principles of this world will enjoy all that freedom brings. They will relish their status as children of God. They will take advantage of His indwelling Spirit and allow Him to do in them what they could never have done on their own.

Father, we live in a fallen world and we are surrounded by the basic principles of this world. Ever since the fall, mankind has been in a hopeless quest to rectify their relationship with You. They have been searching for You. They have been trying to figure out to fix all that is wrong with them and with the world in which they live. But You have provided the solution through Your own Son’s death. You have set us free from having to search for a solution or from having to earn back Your favor. But it is so easy to fall back into that old mindset. It is so easy to think that nothing is free and we must do something to get You to love us. But it’s all a lie. Keep us focused on the truth. Keep us aware of the fact that we are free in Christ. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 3:23-29

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Faith.

Galatians 3:23-29

Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law. being kept as prisoners until the coming faith could be revealed. – Galatians 3:23 NET

There is an interesting thing happening in what Paul is saying in these verses. We know that he is talking about faith and juxtaposing it against any kind of merit-based salvation. Paul is contrasting the faith required to believe in Jesus and accept Him as your Savior and the false gospel of works being taught by the Judaizers. But if we’re not careful we could easily turn faith itself into a kind of works that is based on our own human effort. We can make it all about OUR faith and wrongfully conclude that it is still about us having to DO something to merit salvation. Then we can end up in scary places, comparing the amount or degree of our faith as compared to other Christians. We can wrestle with the size of our faith and wonder if our faith is large enough, strong enough or sincere enough. But in verse 23 Paul states, “Now before faith came…” I think it strange that he would be talking about the faith of the Galatian Christians. He tells them that they were being held prisoner under the law “until the coming faith would be revealed.” Is Paul saying that they were prisoners until they could muster enough faith to believe? Has the ball been in their court all along and they just didn’t have enough faith? More and more New Testament scholars are making the determination that the faith Paul is talking about is the faith of Christ, not faith in Christ. When Paul says, “Now before faith came,” he is speaking of the faith of Christ, or better yet the faithfulness of Christ. It was Christ’s faithfulness to God and His faith in God that qualified Him to be our sinless substitute on the cross. He was completely faithful to the law. He never wavered in faith or doubted the plan of God for His life. He was obedient to the point of death. His faith in God was so great that He willingly gave His life, knowing that God would raise Him up three days later. It is the faith and faithfulness of Christ that set us free, not our own limited faith.

Take a look at verse 24: “Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ…” Our subjection to the law was in place until Christ came. He is the one who set us free. It is belief or faith in His faithfulness that is the point here. In verse 25 Paul says, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” Now that Jesus has come and lived a perfect life of faith, faithfully keeping the law of God and obediently following the will of God, He has satisfied the just penalty that God had imposed on mankind. He has provided a way for us to be made right with God. We can be declared righteous, not based on anything we have done on our own, but simply by having faith in the faithfulness of Christ. We must believe that what He has done has been effective and requires nothing more from us. In verse 26 Paul says, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.” While our faith certainly plays a role, it is the object of our faith that must be the focus. It is the faithfulness of Christ that gives our faith its power. Paul seems to be saying that if the Galatian believers put their faith in the wrong thing – like circumcision – it will be ineffective. What gives our faith its saving power is the faith of Christ, exhibited in His death on the cross. It is not the size, but the object of my faith that matters. Prior to Christ’s coming, a Jew could put as much faith as he wanted in the hope that obedience to the law could save him, but it would never happen. The Pharisees had faith in the law. They had faith in their own ability to keep the law. But their faith was misplaced. It was all about them, when Jesus told them that it had to be all about Him. Our faith must be in the faith and faithfulness of Christ. It is what He has done that saves. It was He has accomplished that sets us free from the law. In verse 27, Paul tells us that we have been clothed in Christ. We now wear His righteousness, not our own. It is that fact in which we place our faith. I stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and do not have to depend on my feeble attempts to manufacture righteousness. Apart from Christ, all my best efforts are as filthy rags in God’s eyes. But thankfully, I don’t have to place faith in my efforts, but in the faithfulness of Christ alone.

Father, never let me mistakenly make all this about my faith. It is not the degree of my faith that counts, but the object. Don’t let me try and take credit for anything I do. It is all because of what Christ has done for me. It is because He was faithful that I can even have faith. He has provided me an object in which to place my faith that can actually deliver. Thank You. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 3:15-22

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The Promise & The Law.

Galatians 3:15-22

Why then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. – Galatians 3:19 NLT

From the very beginning, God had intended for man to be made right with Him through single individual who would somehow satisfy His just and holy demands. God had made a promise to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. He had promised Abraham that his “seed” – singular – referring to a single individual, would be the source of this blessing. From the family tree of Abraham would come the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would bless the nations with His provision of salvation through faith in His sacrificial death on the cross. Paul makes it clear that this promise of the coming Messiah was given 430 years before the law was given at Mount Sinai. And the law did not replace the promise. “The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise” (Galatians 3:17 NLT). In other words, God would be changing the rules in mid-stream. Rather than God making a promise or covenant that was unilateral and unconditional, He would be placing impossible conditions on our ultimate salvation. But the covenant God made with Abraham did not include conditions. It was not dependent on Abraham’s actions or behavior. It was purely based on the faithfulness of God. So then why did God bother to give Moses and the people of Israel the law? Paul has made it clear that the law was never intended to save mankind, so what was its purpose? Again, Paul tells us, “It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins” (Galatians 3:19 NLT). He clarifies this thought in his letter to the Romans. “…it as the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, ‘You must not covet.’ But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of coveting desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power” (Romans 7:7-8 NLT). The law was given to make it clear what God’s holy and righteous requirements were. The law put in writing what God’s expectations of man were. And by revealing His expectations, it also revealed man’s limitations. It showed man just how impossible it was to live up to God’s standard. When men tried to obey the law, it actually resulted in more sin, rather than less. Knowledge of God’s demands revealed an inherent desire to break those demands. Our own sin natures rebelled against God’s law.

Basically, the law was intended to show us our desperate need for a Savior. Trying to obey the law showed men that they were incapable of saving themselves. The couldn’t live up to God’s standard, so God provided another way. He sent His own Son to live as a man and do what no other man had ever done: keep the law to perfection. Jesus became the fulfillment of the law. He was completely obedient to the law, resulting in a sinless, spotless life. He kept the law. He met the standard. He fulfilled the requirement. And therefore, satisfied the just and righteous demands of God. So Paul asks, “Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:21-22 NLT). For Paul, it always goes back to this one thought, this one truth. Man can’t save himself. Man can’t live the kind of life God requires on his own. He needs a Savior. The law shows us our desperate need for a Savior. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood” (Romans 3:23-25 NLT). God gave the promise before He gave the law. And God will fulfill the promise because His son fulfilled the law. We have nothing to add except our faith.

Father, I have no problem admitting or acknowledging my sinfulness. It is painfully clear to me. You have shown me my sin, but You have also revealed to me the solution. And it has nothing to do with my effort to stop sinning. It is solely based on the sacrificial death of Your Son in my place. You promised to bless all mankind and You have. You have provided a way to be made right with You and it has nothing to do with my ability to earn or deserve Your favor. It is all because of what Jesus Christ has done on my behalf. Thank You! Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 3:1-14

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Faith, Not Works.

Galatians 3:1-14

What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. – Galatians 3:8-9 NLT

This is obviously a huge issue to Paul, because he is still talking about it well into the body of his letter. He is going out of his way to let the Gentiles know that there is nothing more that they need other than their faith in Christ. These men who had showed up declaring that the salvation of the Galatian believers was incomplete because they had failed to convert to Judaism, were in Paul’s eyes, false brothers. If what they taught is what they really believed, they weren’t truly believers at all, because they had believed a false or other gospel. They somehow believed that their “Jewishness” put them ahead of the curve, After all, they thought, Jesus had been a Jew. He had kept the law and obeyed all the ceremonial requirements, and so did His disciples. So if someone wanted to be one of His followers, they concluded, he had to become a Jew. But Paul puts that logic to rest. First and foremost, because that is NOT what Jesus taught. But secondly, because the good news had always been based on faith, not works. Long before the law had been given, God declared Abraham righteous because of his faith, not because of his obedience or adherence to any laws or requirements. In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells them, “Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about begin made right with God? If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. For the Scriptures tell us, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith’ (Romans 4:1-3 NLT).

Paul is using the patriarch of the Hebrew people as an example of faith. He wasn’t chosen by God because he was Jewish. He wasn’t seen as righteous by God because he kept the law, because the law didn’t even exist yet. He wasn’t even deemed righteous by God because he had been circumcised. Again, Paul writes to the Roman Christians, “Was he counted righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised! Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous – even before he was circumcised” (Romans 4:10-11 NLT).

Law keeping has a certain attraction to us as human beings. It appeals to our pride and sense of self-accomplishment. From the time we are children, we are trained to aspire to get the gold star on our homework or the A+ on our paper. We are driven to make it on to the winning team. We become obsessed with achievement and recognition for our efforts. This attitude infiltrates and permeates our entire lives, even our spiritual lives. We look for ways to measure up and can actually end up competing with others to see who is the most spiritual. We use criteria like quiet time, prayer, service, giving, Bible study attendance, and biblical knowledge to achieve some degree of righteousness and prove our spiritual depth. But Paul warns us just like he did the Galatian believers, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life” (Galatians 3:11 NLT). Studying the Bible, prayer, service, and giving are all evidence of a life of faith, not the means to get there. These things don’t make us right in God’s eyes. We can’t earn His favor or acceptance through effort. We do these things because we believe in His Son and have accepted His gift of salvation made possible through His death on the cross. Then we read the Bible to get to know God and His Son better. We pray so that we might share with and hear from Him. We serve because His Son served us and left us an example to follow. We give because we have been given by God so abundantly and have been called to share out of that abundance with others.

It is so easy to let an attitude of earning based on effort creep into our spiritual lives. And Paul is warning us to watch out. Faith leads to righteousness, not hard work. Belief in Jesus Christ as your Savior is the only requirement God has placed on us. Any obedience to His laws or commands that comes based on a life of faith, will be based on an attitude of gratitude, not earning or merit. I have nothing to prove to God. I have nothing I need to do to make God love me any more than He already does. I don’t have anything I need to do to keep God pleased with me. He loved me even when I was still trapped in my own sinfulness and sent His Son to die for me. God didn’t save me because I deserved it. And it takes real faith to believe that.

Father, salvation by faith alone is so counter-intuitive. It goes against our human reasoning. It makes no sense. Nobody gets something for nothing. Everything in life has to be earned. But You have made salvation a gift. You gave us Your Son in spite of us, not because of us. You gave us what we could never have earned or ever deserved. And it takes faith to believe that. Help us to continue to replace faith in ourselves with faith in Your Son. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 2:11-21

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A Point of Contention and Contrast.

Galatians 2:11-21

Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. – Galatians 2:16 NLT

To some, this whole confrontation between Paul and the Judaizers may appear overblown. Paul may come across as petty and too harsh in his opinions. After all, how can he be so sure that he’s right and everyone else is wrong? Aren’t they welcome to their own opinions? Can’t there be more than one way for people to be made right with God? According to Paul, no. And he has already made it perfectly clear why he could be so adamant in his opinion – because it’s NOT his opinion. It is the word of God given to him by Jesus Christ Himself. For Paul, this was serious stuff. It wasn’t just a matter of a difference of opinion, it was a case of truth versus falsehood, the word of God and the lies of the enemy. Paul was so firm on this point that he was willing to confront one of the recognized leaders of the early church, the former disciple of Jesus, Peter.

On a visit to the region of Galatia, Peter had sat down and eaten a meal with Paul and some of the Gentile Christians – even though the men in this group were uncircumcised and not converts to Judaism. But later, when some Jewish friends of James, another former disciple of Jesus, came to Antioch, Peter snubbed the Gentile Christians, refusing to associate with them. It seems that Peter did not want to offend his Jewish comrades. Evidently, these men were not willing to associate with the Gentile believers because they were uncircumcised and, therefore, unclean. Peter’s actions appalled Paul. And in spite of Peter’s rock star status in the early church, Paul confronted him. As far as Peter was concerned, his actions were giving credence to the message of the Judaizers and leading others to believe that faith in Christ was not enough. But Paul made it clear: “Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law” (Galatians 2:17 NLT). Case closed. Because otherwise, if these Gentile believers had come to salvation through faith in Christ alone, and then discovered that they were actually sinners because they had refused to keep the law, then the message Jesus had given Paul would have been the impetus or cause of their sin. As far as Paul was concerned, that was ridiculous and impossible. Jesus never taught that salvation was some combination of faith in Him PLUS adherence to the Jewish law. The law was never meant to save anyone. It simply revealed the full extend of man’s sinfulness. The law was intended to stand as a standard of God’s righteous expectations. It was His measuring stick, by which He judged the righteousness of men. And no one measured up. No one kept the law in its entirety. The law exposed man’s sinfulness and revealed just how far he fell short of God’s righteous standard. Paul says, “For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me” (Galatians 2:19 NLT).

But Jesus came to fulfill the law. He took on human flesh, lived as a man, and kept the law of God to perfection. He did what no other man could have ever done. He satisfied the righteous standard of God. Which is what made Him the perfect sinless sacrifice, worthy to offer His life in place of ours, as a payment for our sins. And when He died, we were crucified with Him. Our old selves, our sinful selves, were put to death. And by dying with Christ, we were freed from having to keep the law. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, “You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ” (Romans 7:4 NLT). As a result, we no longer have to try to keep all the requirements of the law in order to be made right with God. This is not about self-effort anymore. It is about faith in Christ – alone. To try to add to this message or require anything more for salvation to be available, is to treat the grace of God as meaningless. It is to treat the death of Christ as insufficient. “For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die” (Galatians 2:21 NLT). But He did die because He had to. It was a necessity. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NLT).

Father, man is always trying to figure out a way to play a more significant role in his own salvation. We so desperately want to earn or deserve Your grace. We want a set of rules to keep or standards to live up to. But we can’t even keep the rules we make, let alone the righteous standard You demand. And yet, You offer us a restored relationship with You through Jesus Christ – completely apart from our own self-effort, and then we try to add things to it. Help us grasp the unbelievable nature of what Christ has made possible through His death. He is the key to our salvation, nothing more, nothing less. There’s nothing more that needs to be done. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 2:1-10

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Preserving the Truth.

Galatians 2:1-10

But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. – Galatians 2:5 NLT

Paul had a message, given to him from Jesus Christ Himself. And he was to share that message with Gentiles, introducing them to the availability of forgiveness of sins and a restored relationship with God Himself through Jesus Christ. No longer would they have to worship their countless idols made of wood and stone, in the hopes of appeasing them somehow with acts of service or gifts of grain, wine, animal or even human sacrifice. Gone were the fears of never knowing if you were worshiping the right god in the right way or doing enough to earn his favor. Paul had come to Galatia with a message about Jesus Christ, the God-man, the God who had taken on human flesh and lived a completely sinless life in order that the judgment of God against the sins of man might be satisfied. He had taken man’s place as a substitute or stand-in, bearing the penalty due for our rebellion against God: death. And then He rose again, showing God’s power and victory over death. Paul came preaching a message that offered men a way to be made right with God by simply believing in Jesus as their Savior and accepting His gift of salvation by an act of simple faith. No works necessary. No sacrifices needed. What Jesus had done was all that had to be done. Later in his letter to the Romans, Paul would clearly state the requirement for salvation: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9 NLT). That was it. No more. No less.

But from the early days of his ministry to the Gentiles, Paul had been hounded by the Judaizers, a zealous group of Jews who were demanding that all Gentiles who wanted to become Christ-followers, must become converts to Judaism first. Paul refers to these individuals as “false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaved” (Galatians 1:4 NET). In chapter one, Paul assures his readers that he had received his message directly from Jesus Himself. In chapter two, he says that his message is backed by the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, including James, Peter and John. He makes it clear that he hadn’t received his message from them, but was fully supported by them. The recognized that God had given Paul the responsibility of preaching to the Gentiles, and his message was not to include circumcision, law-keeping or any form of conversion to Judaism. Paul says the Judaizers or false brothers “wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations” (Galatians 2:4b NLT). But Paul refused. He would not compromise on the message Jesus had given him. Instead, he fought to preserve and protect the truth of the gospel as given to him by the risen Lord. In these early days of the Church, there were going to be countless attacks from without, but also very subtle attacks from within. The problem was that the message of faith alone in Christ alone was almost too good to be true. It eliminated all need for self-effort and any form of earning. Rule keeping was no longer the measuring rod for determining righteousness. Compliance to a set of arbitrary demands or laws not necessary. And while comparing your good deeds  to someone else’s might make you feel better, it was not going to make you right with God. Jesus had ushered in a new standard, a new way. Jesus Himself had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NLT). Paul was going to guard that message with a vengeance. And we need to do the same today. Because the gospel is still under attack, in subtle and yet sinister ways. We are still prone to want to add self-effort to the mix. We want to include man-made rules and requirements. We want some kind of measuring device that allows us to compare righteousness with others. But any attempts to add anything to the gospel message should be rejected. Any requirement other than faith should be exposed for what it is: a lie and a false gospel. Jesus + nothing = everything.

Father, don’t let us buy into the lie that faith alone is not enough. Don’t allow us to unwittingly add to the gospel by requiring any kind of man-made standard that requires men to measure up to our demands. Help us keep the message simple and pure. Give us the same kind of zeal Paul had to protect the integrity of the gospel from the lies of the enemy. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 1:11-24

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Chosen By God.

Galatians 1:11-24

But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. – Galatians 1:15 NLT

In the eyes of the new believers living in the region of Galatia, Paul is just another man with another message. They can think of no reason to give his message any more credence than any other man’s. Yes, Paul had been to the Roman province of Galatia on his first missionary journey, and had visited Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. He had brought them the Good News of Jesus Christ, but there were others who had slightly different opinions regarding what it meant to be a Christ-follower. They were promoting the idea that it wasn’t enough to simply believe in Jesus as your Savior, you also had to be converted to Judaism and adhere to its laws and ceremonial requirements. These Judaizers, as they were called, were so zealous in their beliefs, that they had actually followed Paul on his first missionary journey, spreading their pseudo-gospel among the new converts. Now these new Gentile converts were faced with a decision regarding who to believe – Paul of the Judaizers. Both claimed to have the message of good news. Both claimed to be speaking truth. But who were the Galatian Christians to believe.

Paul presents his case clearly and concisely. He tells them that his gospel message is not some man-made invention or the product of his fertile imagination. He didn’t get it out of a text book or from a classroom. Instead, he had “received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:12 NLT). The message he had preached on his first missionary journey to Galatia was exactly what Jesus had given him personally. Paul’s story was not an ordinary one. Prior to his conversion, he had been a hired bounty hunter, working for the Jewish religious leadership, pursuing and persecuting these new sect called Christian that had risen up after the death of Jesus. Paul was a well-educated Pharisee, trained under Gamaliel, a revered Jewish rabbi. Paul described his prior life by saying, “I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did” (Acts 22:3 NLT). He persecuted the followers of the Way, the term used to describe those who had become Christians or Christ-followers. It was his obsession to find them, arrest them, and make sure that they were punished for their heresy. Paul knew what it meant to be a fervent follower of the traditions of the Jews. He had been a law-keeper of the first order.

But something happened. He had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ while he was on his way to Damascus. Paul says, “Then it pleased him [God] to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles” (Galatians 1:15-16 NLT). For the next three years, Paul lived in Arabia. While there, he was isolated from the other apostles, receiving his instruction directly from God, not men. Paul’s message was from God, not men. Paul had been chosen by God to deliver a very specific message to the Gentiles, and it did not include conversion to Judaism and adherence to the Jewish laws and sacrificial system. The Good News Paul delivered was based on faith in Christ alone. Nothing more, nothing less. He had no problem declaring his message superior to that of the Judaizers, because he knew that his message was divinely given and not to be tampered with. Paul was not out to win friends and influence enemies. He was out to proclaim the Good News of faith alone in Christ alone. The era of works-based righteousness was over. Jesus had died to deliver men from the dead-end pursuit of earning favor with God through self-effort. It was His works that saved, not man’s. And Paul was chosen by God, even before he was born, to be the conduit of that message to the Gentiles.

Father, it is amazing to think that You had Paul in mind before he was even born. You had a job for him to do long before he even existed. Your plan of salvation is comprehensive and complete. There are no diversions or detours. You are never caught off guard or surprised. You know Paul was going to persecute the Church. But You also knew that he was going to accomplish for Your Kingdom, because that had been Your plan from eternity past. Your choosing of men is never without reason and our salvation is never without purpose. You have a job for each of us to do. We have been called and commissioned to serve You. Help us see our divine job description and take it seriously, just as Paul did. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Galatians 1:1-10

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Pseudo Good News.

Galatians 1:1-10

Obviously, I am not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. – Galatians 1:10 NLT

After a brief, yet heartfelt greeting, Paul cuts to the chase. He is writing to new believers living throughout the region called Galatia (now modern Turkey), and he wants to warn them about a problem he sees going on among them. He pulls no punches, but is extremely blunt with his assessment of the situation. “I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ” (Galatians 1:6 NLT). Paul is completely baffled by the reports he has heard coming out of Galatia. Of the 13 letters that Paul wrote that became part of the canon of Scripture, this is believed to be the first one. It was likely written some time around 49 A.D. Since the time of Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Gospel has spread throughout the known world. It had made its way to Galatia and Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ. But as the Gospel spread, so did a lot of false teaching. There was no New Testament Scriptures at this time. There were few, if any, elders or leaders for these new congregations of believers springing up all over the place. There was little in the way of an established doctrine for the Church. Much of what Paul and others wrote in these letters became what we now have as the New Testament. Their writings, penned under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became the foundation of the doctrine to which we still adhere today. They were addressing issues and problems that were creeping up as the Gospel spread and the Church grew in numbers. Immediately after Pentecost, most of the early converts to Christianity were Jews, but that had begun to change as the Good News was carried around the world. Increasingly more and more Gentiles, or non-Jews, were coming to faith. And because Jesus and His disciples had been Jews, there was a strong tie to Judaism in those early days. Many of the Jewish converts were of the opinion that belief in Christ was simply an extension or add-on to their Jewish faith or heritage. In other words, becoming a Christ-follower also required that you become a Jew, submitting to all the Jewish laws and traditions. In time, a group who held an extreme form of this view rose up. They came to be known as the Judaizers. It seems that they were having a strong influence in places like Galatia, telling Gentile converts that their faith in Christ was incomplete or inadequate. They were teaching that faith in Christ alone was not enough. More was required of them. They must also become converts to Judaism, all males must go through the ritual of circumcision, and they must keep the Law and adhere to all Jewish traditions and customs. As you can imagine, this caused a great deal of confusion for these new believers.

And it caused a great deal of anger in Paul. This became one of the major themes in his letters. He warned his readers, “You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News, but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7 NLT). Paul makes it clear that what these believers are hearing is NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is some kind of an aberration. It is a “different way,” but not the one true way. It is a false gospel, but not the true Gospel concerning faith in Christ alone. And Paul gives his feelings about this pseudo gospel and those who are promoting it: “Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who practices a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you” (Galatians 1:8 NLT). Paul was anything but tolerant and inclusive. He was not a proponent of the heresy that all religions lead to God. He was not politically correct or willing to accommodate all views. As far as he was concerned, there was one Gospel and it did not include conversion to Judaism or adherence to the Law. The Gospel Paul preached required faith in Christ alone and nothing more. It was faith-based, not works-based. It had no place for earning or merit. What made the Good News good news was that it was a free gift, unhampered by human effort or achievement. Gone were the days when sacrifice and law-keeping were the required means of pursuing a right relationship with God. No amount of either one had ever truly made anyone right with God. But with His death on the cross, Jesus had satisfied the just demands of God once and for all. He had paid the price for our sins with His own life. No more lambs needed to be sacrificed. No more hopeless attempts at trying to keep the Law to perfection were necessary. Salvation had been provided by Christ and was not dependent on the efforts of man anymore.

So Paul boldly and aggressively deals with this issue right up front. He is anything but subtle. And he makes it clear, “I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God” (Galatians 1:10 NLT). Paul is a servant of Jesus Christ. He answers to Him and Him alone. He cared more about what God thought about him, than what men did. This was not a popularity contest for Paul. He had been commissioned by Jesus Himself to take the Good News of salvation in Christ alone through faith alone to the world. He would not tolerate the teaching or preaching of any other gospel. He would not put up with those who attempted to redefine the Gospel as Jesus plus anything.

Father, it is so easy to try to add to the Gospel. We so want to put our twist on it. We want to add rules and requirements that are unnecessary and only muddy the water. We crave achievement and recognition for our efforts. We have been brainwashed to believe that we have to DO something to earn Your forgiveness and favor. But salvation is a gift. It was made possible by what Your Son did on the cross. It has nothing to do with human effort or earning. As we read through the letter of Galatians, help us see where we may be trying to add to the Gospel even today. Open our eyes and help us give up all attempts at self-righteousness and once again place our faith in the righteousness of Christ alone. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org