You can ask your Lord to take it
and use it and give us not just
knowledge but understanding, Lord, that sinks down to
the very depths of us and fixes foundations
in our character upon which other things can
be built.
We do look to you today, Lord, for
your special help to speak and to hear.
Amen.
There are so few that I won't ask
about coffee at this stage.
Just a word of explanation then about today's
notes.
You'll find there are just two sheets, a
sheet four and a sheet five.
Sheet four is a replacement for last week's
sheet four.
No major change of doctrine since last week,
just one or two additions.
And then page five.
The reason I've done no more than that
is that we only actually got halfway down
page two of last week's session.
So, if we get to the end of
this one we shall be doing well and
that will take us about halfway through chapter
four.
So, we'll have a third of the book
to do next week.
So, we'll see how we get on.
We're coming really into the real meat of
this letter now.
The part where we shall need to apply
ourselves and consider it maybe even in greater
detail than we have up to this point.
If you've got a revised one of these
things, this was actually called justification by faith,
this study.
I suggest you call it justification by faith
and more, because we shall find that although
justification by faith is the great foundation from
which other things are built, that isn't the
end of the story.
Justification by faith really is very much the
beginning of the story and we shall find
out how we go on from that into
the greater fuller things that God wants to
speak to us of.
We shall see that a little bit this
morning as we're working our way on.
Page two then and we'll try and work
our way through the verses verse by verse
as we did last time.
Let's see if we're more successful this time.
Galatians chapter three.
This is the part of the letter that
if we are using Graham Scroggie's little outline,
is the part that begins from chapter three
and verse one and goes on to the
end of that chapter and then into the
next section.
So it's what he called the doctrine argued
and applied and the doctrine illustrated and applied.
Okay those are the parts of it.
Now page two then and this is chapter
three and verse one.
This is what we've called an appeal to
their own experience.
What Paul does in the spirit of God
now is having said some of these things
about his encounter with Peter and having begun
to say some basic things about justification by
faith.
Let's just remind ourselves of that definition.
The justification by faith.
Justification really is a legal declaration of righteousness
and justification by faith is what happens in
that God is able to legally declare us
to be righteous on the basis of our
faith union with Jesus Christ.
Now he's begun to talk about that in
chapter two and then when he comes into
chapter three he illustrates it and he illustrates
it in two ways.
First of all he goes to their own
experience and secondly he goes to Abraham's experience.
So you've got a kind of a practical
application of it first of all as an
illustration and then he goes back to its
biblical roots and shows that their experience is
founded on the truth of the scripture.
So this is what he says in chapter
three in verse one.
Oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you that
you should not obey the truth before whose
eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently or graphically
set forth crucified among you.
Then he goes on to say this in
verse two this only would I learn of
you received you the spirit by the works
of the law or by the hearing of
faith.
This is his basic question reminding them of
their experience reminding of their their own encounter
with God and he asks this question from
your own experience he says did you receive
the spirit as a result of you keeping
the deeds of the law and so gaining
your own do it yourself righteousness did you
receive the spirit as a result of your
contribution or was it as a result of
faith receiving that that God had provided for
us.
Let me just say this at this point
that sometimes and particularly in the days in
which we are we are living faith is
made much of and in some ways too
much of and you might almost say well
it's impossible to make too much of faith
but it is if we don't understand this
that faith is not the source of salvation.
Grace is the source of salvation by grace
are ye saved through faith.
Faith is the root that grace takes to
bring salvation to us.
Faith is the hand that reaches out to
receive what God has provided but faith on
its own can't provide anything it can only
receive what God has provided but he's basically
saying here how was it that you received
the Holy Spirit was it by your energies
and keeping the law or was it as
a result of your faith and then he
goes on and he says are you so
foolish having begun in the spirit are ye
now made perfect by the flesh have ye
suffered so many things in vain if it
be yet in vain he therefore that ministers
to you the spirit and works miracles among
you doeth he it by the works of
the law or by the hearing of faith
these few verses are a fascinating little insight
into what paul understood as the beginnings of
a christian experience you see he talks about
receiving the spirit he talks about beginning in
the spirit he talks about having the spirit
ministered to us and he also talks about
someone who is ministering the spirit to us
literally someone who is continuing to add the
spirit to us that's really where it all
starts that's what salvation is really all about
it's all about a personal relationship with the
one who gives the spirit and who continues
to give the spirit unless we have had
a beginning which is in the spirit not
just one that is a result of our
own mental appreciation of things because we've come
to understand the basics upon which god is
working but unless we've had a real beginning
that's in the spirit you can't really build
anything on that and without becoming too introspective
we do need to know that for sure
paul is able to refer to the experience
of these people he's able to because he
was there when they had their beginnings he's
able to put his finger on it and
it says you remember when you began in
the spirit you remember when you receive the
spirit you remember as you constantly have the
spirit ministered to you you remember as miracles
are wrought or worked amongst you how does
it happen as a result of your keeping
of the law or as a result of
your faith receiving that that god is providing
okay do you notice how paul says in
chapter three in verse one before whose eyes
jesus christ has been evidently set forth crucified
among you i find this verse very moving
very challenging um more than challenging really very
sobering because obviously as the result of his
preaching and his living jesus christ had been
set forth among the galatians evidently graphically obviously
crucified they'd seen it they'd heard it but
most of all they'd seen it before your
eyes he says it's been done there's a
little verse in titus that i was looking
for the other day and couldn't find but
i found it there um in titus chapter
one titus
chapter one and verse three well we'll read
verse two because we'll need to notice this
verse a little bit later on he's speaking
well we better read from the beginning paul
a servant of god and an apostle of
jesus christ according to the faith of god's
elect and the acknowledging of the truth which
is according to godliness in hope of eternal
life which god that cannot lie promised before
the world began but has in due times
manifested his word through preaching which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of god
our savior this is what provokes and challenges
and sobers me this little phrase here he
manifested his word through preaching the word there
is the logos preaching really is intended to
be the manifestation of the eternal word through
the spoken word the bible is the manifestation
of the eternal word that's jesus christ himself
through the written word so i suppose if
you've got a good biblical preacher it's the
manifestation of the eternal word through the written
word by means of the spoken word that
there's the definition of preaching for you not
just standing up and talking if it's not
actively manifesting manifest really means to make a
thing very plain and obvious it means to
it really has built in it the idea
of something shining and something which has appeared
something which is increasing in its appearance you
see it with increasing clarity that's what preaching
supposed to do supposed to set forth jesus
christ you are to be witnesses he said
unto me there are many doctrines that spring
from him but doctrines are just truths from
the truth about the truth um he is
the truth and it's the preaching which manifests
him which is the preaching which sets forth
christ crucified among us evidently in some of
wesley's hymns quite a few wesley's hymns you've
got this um little the little phrase where
he talks about our eyes now seeing christ
crucified lots of them this kind of an
eternal present tense in lots of wesley's hymns
and it's almost as though the hymn itself
is setting forth this present tense fact of
jesus christ now the galatians had seen this
they'd seen it they had the lord was
speaking to us about this the other week
they had looked and lived they had fixed
their eyes upon the crucified son of god
upon the snake on the pole going back
to the numbers experience and the illustration of
it that we have in john chapter three
they'd fixed their eyes upon him and they
had lived as a result of it now
that's that's the enormity that's the tragedy of
what they'd done they had once had their
eyes on him now they have put their
eyes on it and on me what do
i have to do how do i have
to maintain what god has given to me
that kind of pattern of things um just
to make this point because we'll need to
see this um i need to establish this
for later on that there's no doubt at
all that these galatian christians to whom this
letter was written are genuine born again believers
they have received the spirits that's really what
christianity is all about it's not about us
making the right decisions it's not about us
having the right understandings it's not about us
doing the right things ultimately at its very
foundation it's all about who have we received
that's why the great question of the new
testament is is not actually have you been
born again it's not have you been converted
it's not are you saved it's not any
of those things the great question the fundamental
question of the new testament is that that
paul spoke asked of the people in ephesus
when he said having believed did you receive
the holy spirit in other words you can
believe and not receive the holy spirit having
believed did you receive the holy spirit paul
can point back to a point in their
experience when they did he knows that they
did receive the holy spirit and he knows
and they know that they didn't receive the
holy spirit as a result of their keeping
the law they were probably ignorant of most
of it at that time then he kind
of works his way on here coming down
to verse six where we come to um
just a little phrase which we'll go back
to see in genesis but it is an
amazing phrase and if you we read it
as we will do in genesis in a
moment you'll see it's even more amazing where
it crops up there but he says this
verse six even as abraham believed god and
it was accounted to him for righteousness we're
going to be talking about accounts accounted to
him if you're using different translations you may
have reckoned or computed or calculated all kinds
of different things this the word actually comes
from the word logic it really means to
calculate but on a sure foundation on a
sure fact a sure basis you know that
this thing is absolutely definite and what it
says here is that abraham believed god and
it was let's change a little bit it
was put to his account as righteousness that's
to say abraham believed god and god took
abraham's faith and he put it to abraham's
account as righteousness this is the whole basis
of justification by faith if we just look
at it in genesis chapter 15 and we'll
spend a little time trying to work systematically
through this so that we don't miss any
parts of it in genesis chapter 15 very
significant where this comes it comes in promises
concerning the seed not seeds many but seed
singular it's when abraham is um bemoaning the
fact to god that he doesn't have any
seed of his own no natural children verse
three then and abraham said behold to me
thou hast given no seed and lo one
born in my house is mine heir can
you see seed and air notice these two
words seed and air because we shall be
coming back to them in galatians and behold
the word of the lord came unto him
saying this shall not be thine heir but
he that shall come forth out of thine
own bowels shall be thine heir and he
brought him forth abroad and said look now
toward heaven and tell the stars if thou
be able to number them and he said
unto him so shall thy seed be and
he believed in the lord and he counted
it to him for righteousness god speaks this
promise about the seed and the air to
abraham and i don't know to this day
how much abraham really understood of it at
this time but he believed it in fact
more than that i like it the way
it's expressed in the new testament abraham believed
god he put his trust entirely in god
he relied entirely in god to work this
thing out and make it so it tells
us in very great detail in romans chapter
4 the whole process of abraham's faith and
the process of abraham's faith or to use
the bible's phrase the steps of the faith
of our father abraham is very very instructive
for us to look at to kind of
just see how faith develops but abraham to
begin with just believe god and as a
result of his faith his belief that god
would do this thing god credited abraham's account
with righteousness last week it was algebra this
week it's accountancy um he credited abraham's account
with righteousness and we'll see why god was
able to do that in a little while
um let's just have a look at romans
chapter 4 and verse 12 and romans 4
and verse 12 this is the chapter where
he's talking much about abraham's faith and uh
he says this um let's read from verse
11 where it calls abraham the father of
all believers verse 11 and he received the
sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness
of the faith which he had being yet
uncircumcised that he might be the father of
all them that believe though they be not
circumcised that righteousness might be reckoned unto them
or accounted to them or imputed to them
and the father of circumcision to them who
are not of the circumcision only but who
also walk in the steps of that faith
of our father abraham which he had being
yet uncircumcised you'll see this is one of
these very long involved sentences just by way
of experiment this isn't really very um i
don't know what the word is um recently
i i put the letter to the galatians
through a style checker on a computer um
to see what they made of it and
they liked it and they thought there was
a lot of action in it and a
lot of personal pronouns which makes it very
easy to read but they didn't like the
length of the sentences and that's one of
the things you always get when you come
into paul's letters the length of the sentences
so if we just kind of break this
up a little bit in verse 11 what
paul is saying this is this that they
that abraham is the father of all them
that believe literally of all the believers abraham
is the father the characteristics of abraham concerning
faith have to be reproduced in every believer
you follow that that's why he's the father
his family likeness is reproduced in them concerning
faith he's the father of all that believe
but then he goes on to say this
he's talking about them that were not circumcised
because abraham wasn't when he first believed and
then in verse 12 he says that also
abraham is the father of circumcision to them
who are not of the circumcision only but
who also walk in the steps of that
faith of our father abraham which he had
being yet uncircumcised what paul is saying is
this that for gentiles non-circumcised non-jews
abraham is the father of the believers for
the jews the circumcised he is their father
in as much as in as much as
they are both circumcised and believing in other
words the gentile the non-circumcised has to
believe the jew has to have circumcision and
faith that's what he's saying if we were
going back to our algebra and we were
to say all right well if faith is
the thing that's necessary to salvation and that
is sufficient and then faith plus circumcision leads
to salvation we could ask ourselves the question
again if that is true what is the
value of circumcision in that equation and now
you know why paul said it's nothing circumcision
is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing it has
no value in terms of its merit it
only had value in terms of something else
some other effect that god was using it
to display at that time so the jew
a true jew was not just someone who
was circumcised he was not just a physical
descendant of abraham he was a physical descendant
of abraham he was circumcised and he was
walking present tense in the steps of the
faith of our father abraham in other words
he was a man who was living in
faith i don't know how many jews that
leaves us with but that's god's definition of
it in fact um earlier on in chapter
two of romans paul makes this statements concerning
jews verse 28
for he is not a jew which is
one outwardly now there's an interesting statement for
you it goes counter to most of what
evangelicals teach these days but he says he
is not a jew which is one outwardly
neither is that circumcision which is outward in
the flesh but he is a jew which
is one inwardly and circumcision is that of
the heart in the spirit and not in
the letter whose praise is not of men
but of god let's see if we can
work our way on a little bit if
we had followed the pattern of abraham we
would have seen that the order really was
this is the top of page three in
most versions i think um top of page
three this was abraham's order first came the
promise we didn't read that but it's in
genesis chapter 12 verse 3 secondly comes the
faith third comes this state where god reckons
righteousness to abraham's account because of his faith
and it tells us in romans 4 and
verse 23 where it says this now it
was not written for abraham's sake alone that
it was reckoned to him but for us
also to whom it shall be reckoned if
we believe on him that raised up jesus
our lord from the dead who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised up for
our justification when it talks about believing here
again it's really talking about believers not just
someone who has had a crisis of belief
not someone who has just come to a
point of active faith but someone who is
continuing to believe someone who is a believer
it's a great title for christians in the
new testament it doesn't refer to christians very
often at all the main title for such
people as we would call them is believers
that was their characteristic they were believers people
who were believing constantly that god had done
this thing the law in galatians it tells
us that all that the law did was
that it brought a curse or that it
pronounced the curse i'll just read these um
notes as we go because i want to
come a little bit farther down the law
then pronounces the sentence of the curse that's
galatians chapter 3 and verse 10 and the
law of course demands total obedience this is
galatians 5 verse 3 for i to every
man that's circumcised that he is a debtor
to do the whole law and james in
his letter says this for whosoever shall keep
the whole law and yet offend in one
point he is guilty of all the law
then can never justify anybody it can never
bring a person to the place where it
can say this person has perfectly kept all
my righteous requirements therefore i declare him to
be righteous that was never the purpose of
the law the purpose of the law was
always to convince men utterly to make it
plain to them just that that was not
true of them um this is that the
law can't justify if we go to galatians
now uh chapter three just
to link it in with where we're supposed
to be we'll read from verse six and
you'll see that those things that we have
been reading in romans are stated here in
galatians verse six even as abraham believed god
and it was reckoned to him for righteousness
know ye therefore that they which are of
faith the same are the sons of abraham
and the scripture foreseeing that god would legally
declare the gentiles to be righteous through faith
preached before the gospel unto abraham saying in
thee shall all nations be blessed so then
they which be of faith are blessed with
believing abraham for as many as are of
the works of the law are under the
curse for it is written cursed as everyone
that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the lord to
do them but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of god
is evident obvious for the just as the
righteous man shall live by faith and the
law is not of faith but the man
that doeth them shall live in them and
then he says this in verse 13 christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law having been made a curse for us
for it is written cursed is everyone that
hangs on a train i don't know whether
you can follow the pattern of what he's
saying here it really is very wonderful jesus
christ of course was without sin he was
perfect as regards the law even he had
fully fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the
law the testimonies to his character come from
all kinds of unexpected places in the scripture
and you get even his enemies and the
people who didn't really want to admit it
at all who have to admit that they
find no fault in him but there's in
him nothing worthy of death jesus himself threw
out a challenge on one occasion and said
which of you convicts me of sin there
was not a single thing that anyone could
put their finger on and say this is
sin i remember years and years ago hearing
someone preach and um they they took three
different characters i can sometimes remember sermons like
this and they took three different characters they
took peter first of all and they said
peter was a man of action that's true
and they came to this verse in peter's
letter where it says of jesus christ who
did no sin he as a man of
action committed no offense against the law of
god that was peter's way of expressing it
paul they said was a man of the
intellect and in second corinthians paul says this
of jesus christ who knew no sin and
then this person went on to say that
john was the one who got closest to
the lord and knew what was in him
and john and his letter simply says in
him there is no sin these are categoric
testimonies to the sinlessness of the lord jesus
christ and yet he hung on a cross
and anyone who hangs on a cross it
says in the old testament anyone who hangs
on a tree that person was cursed it
was because it was the execution of a
sentence against some sin so how can it
be that someone who is not cursed suffers
the consequence of the curse and what is
the consequence of all that well this is
what paul says he says reading that verse
again verse 13 christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law if we have
time and if i find out what is
in the notes and we'll find that constantly
through the galatian letter paul uses these personal
pronouns we us and our when he does
that he's nearly always referring to we jews
the great problem for the jews was that
they had this written sentence of death against
them which was the law the gentiles didn't
have that the law was not given to
gentiles now that doesn't mean that the gentiles
were without law they had the work of
the law written in their hearts but the
specific details of the law were not given
to the gentiles they were given to the
jews prior to them going into their own
land and were part of the conditions of
the covenant between god and his people that
were going to exist that he was bringing
them into christ for the jew has redeemed
him from the curse of the law he
has redeemed him from the curse he has
suffered the curse which the law could only
bring that's all the law could do it
could only bring in the sentence of death
against the sinner christ who was not a
sinner has suffered received the sentence of death
himself so now the law's power to enforce
its penalty is exhausted it's finished charles spurgeon
used to say this i can remember it
he used to say that it was as
though god had taken the sword of his
righteous indignation against sin out of its scabbard
and had sheathed it once and forever in
the body of his own son upon the
cross it's finished it really is finished all
god's righteous indignation all the penalty of the
law was all focused in on jesus christ
all our sins met together in him and
all the penalty for them met together in
him he became a curse not just the
sin but the curse he became receiving it
all and then he goes on to say
this remember when he says we he's talking
primarily about the jews um verse 13 christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the
law having been made a curse for us
for it is written cursed as everyone that
hangs on a tree that the blessing of
abraham might come upon the gentiles through christ
jesus that we might receive the promise of
the spirit through faith if we go from
the beginning of verse 13 to the end
of verse 14 you can kind of follow
the line that he's on perhaps a little
bit more clearly he's simply saying this christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law
that we might receive the promise of the
spirit by faith there could be no receiving
of the spirit until christ had fully received
in himself the full penalty of the law
until the law was exhausted in its righteous
indignation against sin until the penalty was executed
it would have been unrighteous for god to
have given the spirit the spirit is the
spirit of life whereas the law brings the
sentence of death how could he give the
spirit of life to those who had incurred
the spirit of death you remember that's what
he refused to do in the garden of
eden he refused to let those who had
incurred death receive the spirit of life because
of their sin do you remember that they
were driven out from the tree of life
so that they couldn't touch it because if
they had touched it they would have lived
forever it it could not be god is
a righteous god and all that he does
is utterly just if we come down to
this part now we need to talk about
propitiation i'm page three in the middle of
it where it says christ brings a blessing
and then a he has taken the full
penalty of the law of us for us
and then b the law's full force was
received by christ and then we come to
this passage romans 3 verse 23 and 20
to 26 these
are among the most wonderful verses in the
bible if there are any most wonderful verses
in the bible these are foundation truths that
if the spirit of god will quicken them
to us and they can really settle down
into our understanding they will alter everything i'm
quite convinced that many people good christian folk
people who really have received the spirit come
under all kinds of accusations and find themselves
in all kinds of backwaters not able to
flow in meetings and things because they have
not fully appreciated deep down the real consequences
of what christ has done upon the cross
because they haven't fully understood the implications of
justification by faith so let's have a look
at this and see what it says verse
23 he's just been talking about jews and
gentiles and then he says for there's no
difference for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of god then he says
this being justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in christ jesus whom
god has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his
righteousness for the remission the passing over of
sins that are passed through the forbearance of
god to declare i say at this time
his righteousness that he might be just and
the justifier of him which believes in jesus
paul in this part of the letter to
the romans is really justifying god he's really
acting as god's advocate god's lawyer he is
bringing his reasons as to why god is
just why what god has done is not
just how is it that god can refuse
to visit the sentence of death upon a
sinner how can it be possible that god
should declare someone who has sinned to be
righteous how is it that god justifies the
ungodly that's the phrase how can it be
true how can it be honest how can
it be righteous how can these things be
and this is what paul says here he
speaks of jesus christ in the very last
two words of verse 24 jesus christ whom
god has set forth to be a propitiation
this word propitiation is a long one and
is just used three or four times in
the scriptures but it's a word which is
one of the great bible words and for
us to really understand this well it'll just
lay a foundation in our hearts to understand
what god has done to propitiate someone is
basically to appease them there is an instinct
in men and women that if you offend
somebody somehow every man and woman knows that
they ought to do something to get back
into the good favor of the person they've
offended a child of two or three knows
this he's naughty and then he goes out
of the garden and picks some buttercups or
something and brings them back to mum and
although mum has said she's forgiven him and
it's all over there's something in him which
says i something ought to be paid to
get me back into my mother's good books
that's an instinct it's right through the human
race it's the basis of all blood sacrifice
throughout all heathen religion that a price has
to be paid to get back into the
good favor of someone that we have offended
by some action of ours it's a true
instinct but without the revelation of god's word
it becomes a cruel power that works in
all kinds of vicious ways it works in
so-called christian people too who think that
unless they repent enough or are sorry enough
or believe enough or any of these things
unless they do them enough the cause of
the offense still remains and that is some
separation between them and god well paul says
this a propitiation is this is a definition
for if you want a propitiation is it
is the price paid to remove the cause
of the offense so that there may be
reconciliation that's what a propitiation is when people
try to propitiate the gods or try to
whatever it is what they're trying to do
is that they are trying to pay the
necessary prize price to remove the course of
the offense so that there can be reconciliation
you see people know they do know instinctively
that you can't just ignore sin you can't
just pretend it never happened you can't just
say oh well forget it it's okay somehow
there has to be more than that there's
an instinct there has to be more than
that they would not they would not have
a clear conscience what paul says is this
that god set forth jesus christ to be
a propitiation in other words god paid the
price to remove the cause of the offense
so that man might be reconciled to god
in other words god has been entirely just
what he has done is he has enabled
his son to receive the full penalty of
the law in himself one of the old
classic illustrations of this and it's a it's
a lovely one i think it's an effective
one is of a man who um he
was a judge and one day there came
in front of him a young man who
had committed some crime and the fine for
this particular crime was going to be 50
pounds or a period of imprisonment the young
man had no money at all but there's
another little bit of this story i haven't
told you and that's the fact that the
young man was actually the son of the
judge so what the judge did acting justly
is he sentenced this young man to the
fine of 50 pounds or a period of
imprisonment and then having declared the sentence he
took off his robes of legal authority and
he went to the clerk of the court
and he paid the 50 pounds the price
is now paid the young man is now
free as regard the law can't touch him
the law can't say to him but you
didn't pay it the law doesn't care all
that matters is that the price is paid
this is exactly what god did he stripped
off all the robes of his of his
legal nature as the judge and he came
down into our world to pay the full
price to satisfy the righteous demands of the
law and to be a propitiation that is
to say to pay the price which would
remove the cause of the offense and so
make it possible for man to be reconciled
to god do you understand that god has
done that it isn't something that he has
to do it's something that he has already
done one of the other times that this
word propitiation is used is in john's letter
john's first letter and smaller units they created
the ultimate demolition system called democracy which kind
of breaks down into smaller and smaller units
becoming more and more unmanageable until every street
has its own little democratic council or every
family and if if you know anything about
greek history you'll know that democracy destroyed them
just an interesting political point if you've got
any confidence in democracy it destroyed them because
they could never work together every little city
state had its own way of doing things
and it was always different to what any
other city state had to do so when
there was trouble when there was war that
came from outside everyone was making their own
individual decisions about whether to go and do
anything about it or not it just it
breaks down like that now this excessive individualism
is right the way through our our world
system in the west it's right the way
through our educational system our kids are taught
it stand on your own feet do your
own thinking ask the right questions it doesn't
matter about the answers you've got to ask
the right questions you've got to be yourself
you've got to be individual now there is
a kind of truth in that that it's
important for us to have because we are
all to hold fast to christ our head
as individuals that's true but there's another truth
that it obscures and that's this that the
bible makes it plain that we are not
just individuals but that we all are in
this together there is a corporateness we are
involved in something together this is a spiritual
truth and this spiritual truth is seen in
places like hebrews where um the right of
the hebrews is showing that the priesthood which
christ has is and melchizedek had is greater
than the priesthood that aaron had and the
way that the right of the hebrew shows
it is by saying this well he says
abraham paid tithes to melchizedek that's to say
abraham gave tithes to someone who was more
important than him because without any contradiction the
lesser is blessed by the greater so melchizedek
was the greater and abraham paid tithes to
him and you say well where is this
going now this reasoning probably sounds very strange
to our western minds but the writer goes
on to say because abraham paid tithes to
melchizedek levi paid tithes to melchizedek because levi
is the tribe that the aaronic priesthood came
out of because levi was in abraham when
abraham paid tithes to melchizedek now if you're
honest the first time you come across that
idea with our western understanding it sits very
uncomfortably on your mind well it did for
me i remember whether it did for you
you think this is a peculiar way of
reasoning i mean surely the soul that sins
he shall die is isn't it a personal
thing how can you say that what how
can you kind of apply that thing to
true and say well it's they're all joined
together that levi was in abraham because you
know that you've got abraham isaac jacob then
levi so abraham was dead before levi was
born but the scripture says that levi was
in abraham when abraham paid tithes to melchizedek
you see this sense of being in something
together this collective thing is something that in
the we lose in in simpler cultures they
feel it much more um in tribal cultures
and village cultures in in in the simpler
parts of the world i wouldn't have to
spend all this time explaining this because there
is a kind of a sense of being
in something together it's our excessive individualism in
the west that says i'm all right jack
i can stand on my own feet that's
all there is to it what i do
has no repercussion to anybody else that's not
true it's not true in the church of
god everything that you do affects me everything
that i do affects you you might not
know it but the truth is that it
affects you if one member is honored all
are honored doesn't matter whether they feel it
or not they're all honored it's a it's
an absolute spiritual fact of life all right
so you and i were in adam when
adam sinned so we share his uh his
history we added our own personal contribution anyway
so you can't blame anybody verse 13 for
until the law sin was in the world
but sin is not reckoned when there is
no law let me just pause at that
point because this this is confirming really what
we've been saying so far sin is not
reckoned when there is no law you've if
there's no law sin can't be quantified you
can't measure sin if there's no law you
know if and maybe children feel it like
this sometimes there are kind of all kinds
of hidden laws that they activate without knowing
it and they suddenly find you mustn't eat
your soup with the spoon that way and
you mustn't dip this and you mustn't do
that and they suddenly discover all these kind
of little laws that they never knew about
but they are not culpable that's to say
they are not blameworthy unless they have broken
the law themselves consciously i hope you work
like this with your children at home i
hope you don't kind of work on the
principle that the children ought to know all
these things by some kind of peculiar instinct
um but that if they haven't known about
it they can't be held responsible for it
now when there was no standard given in
law men were still sinners paul's going on
to show that because he says they kept
on dying um so that was his proof
sin has touched everybody we all die that's
the proof um even those who haven't sinned
after the similitude of adam's transgression he's going
to say but the point he's making is
this that when the law came in it
gave a standard against which things could be
measured let me illustrate it um like this
as far as i know i don't think
it ever accuses abraham in the bible of
lying or sin of any kind now if
you and i read the story we'll see
lots of things in abraham's life which are
not very pleasant and certainly things that you
wouldn't want to justify you wouldn't want to
say yes that's all right because abraham did
it but you'll find the bible doesn't do
it because abraham was before the law and
although there was no standard there was still
sin but until the standard comes in until
the score system comes in you don't know
how badly you're doing sin was not reckoned
it was not counted when there was no
law can you see the logic of that
um some nods and i think those are
the folks who are going to sleep and
um you can't how can i illustrate that
um um it's it's i'll tell you how
you can illustrate it i remember some years
ago talking to some teenagers at uh at
the school and um we were going to
talk about law and thing and i was
just chatting to them in a kind of
a common room and we've got this chess
set out no it was drafts that's right
with drafts and um i said oh i'll
have you again so this lad started to
play and i think we started off on
the white on the black squares and um
i kind of moved some of mine onto
the white squares and he said you can't
do that and i said why he said
well because the laws as well don't take
any notice of the laws do we i
mean it's why not just kind of do
it in our own way he said he
said you can't do it like that you're
going to have laws we shan't know where
the fouls are we shan't know you're going
to have laws now if there were no
laws there'd be no fouls and you wouldn't
be able to you know it's like this
score system they have with is it kind
of a kind of car driving and things
i've i haven't got any on mine so
i don't know how it works but when
you get to a certain number the chop
comes down they say that's it no more
driving um but unless there was a unless
there was a score system those those things
it would not be counting up so sin
is not counted it's not reckoned no record
is kept of it there's no accumulation of
it you don't know how much debt you're
getting to into if there's no law all
right and that's why the law was given
so we could we could know exactly how
much debt we are in verse 13 for
until the law sin was in the world
but sin is not reckoned where there's no
law nevertheless death reigned from adam to moses
even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of adam's transgression who is a
figure of him that was to come that
was the word the little phrase i wanted
to get to that adam is according to
romans there a figure that's to say a
picture a type of him that was to
come now why was adam a type or
a picture of the one that was to
come well because adam did something and the
consequences of his act were passed down to
the generations his his progeny his children received
what adam had become if we go to
the first part of the book the first
part of the bible in genesis in
genesis chapter 1 of verse 26 this is
how it all started off and god said
let us make man in our image after
our likeness that's how man was created he
was created in the image and the likeness
of god if we go now to genesis
chapter 5 we find this statement repeated genesis
chapter 5 and verse 1 this is the
book of the generations of adam in the
day that god created man in the likeness
of god made he him male and female
created he them and blessed them and called
their name adam in the day when they
were created and adam lived in 130 years
and begat a son in his own likeness
after his image and called his name seth
the only tragedy is that in between verse
2 and verse 3 you actually have genesis
chapter 3 you see if if adam was
a perfect image let's suppose we are we're
taking copies of something we're taking copies of
the cassette here let's say the first cassette
is a perfect image of what i have
been saying complete with splutters and all the
rest of it now the next copy of
that with you know given the the weakness
of whatever machine we're using can be a
very very close copy of what i've been
saying and that if that that then is
the master tape and you can have all
kinds of copies from that one but if
something happens to this master tape if some
if someone puts it against an electric motor
or something like that and it it affects
the magnetic record that's on the tape and
that's happened to the master tape every single
copy from this master tape and every copy
of a copy from the master tape is
going to have the error in it that's
now in the master tape there's no way
that you can get back to the original
once the master tape has been corrupted there's
no way you can't do it you might
be able to you can't put anything back
that was there you might take out some
things that um weren't there to begin with
you might take out some noise or crackles
or hiss or something but you can't put
back what has been lost now what happened
to adam was that he was in the
image and likeness of god perfect but he
sinned and his likeness of god was distorted
he was no longer in the image and
likeness of god he was a hideous distortion
instead of being what god wanted him to
be i don't just mean physically i don't
mean physically at all particularly i mean in
his character but that distortion he passed on
through his spiritual genes to the next generation
even seth who was a good man as
good went in those days but he passed
those spiritual genes onto seth and onto the
next and onto the next and right it
down ultimately to you and to me we
have received spiritual genes that have come right
the way down from adam i was in
adam when he sinned there was a part
of adam that's that was in me and
those i was in adam in that kind
of sense that's why we need you and
they said it before some of it that's
why we need to be regenerated spiritually nothing
else will do it no kind of modifying
will do it no kind of education will
do it we need we need a new
spiritual history we need an exact reproduction of
ancestral characteristics but with a new ancestor that's
our only hope where our only hope is
that we can have a new ancestor and
this is why it says that adam is
a figure or a type of the one
that he should come why because adam passed
on his moral likeness to his sons and
the one who is coming would pass on
his moral likeness to his sons that's why
you have to become born again that's that's
why it has to happen there's no other
possibility there is no way that your let's
go to the natural there is no way
that your father's natural characteristics can get into
me the only way that your father's characteristics
can get into me is if i was
born again and your father became my father
at that point i would have some common
characteristics with you is that right is that
this logical it is the bible is devastatingly
logical it really is that you have to
be born again it isn't just a question
of alterations and modification adaptations improvements you have
to be born again there's no way that's
why so i don't know it was here
the other i don't know whether it was
but and we sing this little chorus which
is a nice little chorus but it talks
about um changing me from earthly things to
the heavenly can't do it you can't change
earthly things to the heavenly you can't change
flesh to spirit not as a process that
has to be a crisis there has to
be a passing away of the first and
the coming in of the second then you
can go not from earthly to heaven but
you can go from glory to glory to
glory to glory you can go from heaven
to heaven to heaven to heaven to heaven
you can go but you've got to start
somewhere new it's like you know the irishman's
definition of heaven or you know you know
the story that someone asked an irishman they
said how do you get to dublin and
he said if i were you i wouldn't
start from here and and if if you
if you want to know the answer is
how do you get to heaven if i
were you i wouldn't start to hear from
here you've actually got to start from heaven
to get to heaven you know that this
is what the bible says the bible says
the only thing that will go into heaven
is that that came out of heaven categoric
statements so unless you have got a life
in you that came out of heaven it's
not going to go back this all right
okay um what would have topic that we're
discussing today oh yes galatians i remember now
um this this um galatians verse well it
says how and when galatians 2 and verse
20 and here's a literal translation i have
been and still am co-crucified together with
christ nevertheless i live yet not i not
the same i but christ lives in me
but that which i now live in flesh
in faith i live if there are some
folks here who for whom english is not
their first language and this sounds strange it
is strange because this is literally from the
greek this is strange for english people as
well um i have been and still am
co-crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet
not i emphasize but christ lives in me
but that which now i live in flesh
in faith i live that of the son
of god who loved me and gave himself
for me he's stressing the fact that he
is still co-crucified with christ and because
of that the law has no power over
him if he if he is if he
is alive he's in trouble because the law
will come looking for him but as long
as he stays co-crucified with christ the
law has no power over him the old
me is still undergoing crucifixion that's hands pinned
down feet pinned down helpless and i've talked
here and i wanted to put it in
these kind of provoking terms because paul does
in galatians 2 verse 20 coming to the
end of the chapter and we were supposed
to have got to the end of the
next chapter this morning but we've got five
minutes so who knows what might happen um
he says in verse 21 this is a
solemn thing here really i do not frustrate
the grace of god for if christ but
if righteousness come by the law then christ
is dead in vain that's to say uselessly
if righteousness comes by the law christ's death
was unnecessary and therefore a total waste can
you imagine peter still listening to this maybe
we've forgotten but this is paul talking to
peter he's saying to peter paul if righteousness
comes by the law the death of christ
peter that you witnessed with your eyes that
was an irrelevance it was an utter waste
of time it was just some kind of
spectacle some kind of demonstration some completely irrelevant
non-thing you can see how strong this
thing is in fact it's like this that
if we can kind of see it in
this line um i think it was last
week that we we had a we'd had
a little bit of kind of spiritual algebra
and here's another little bit of spiritual algebra
i ought to written it down because you'd
need to be able to see it but
if you can imagine a blackboard and um
i write on the blackboard if you've forgotten
your algebra i forgot most of mine but
if if we have an equation that says
christ equals salvation if that equation is true
and i put underneath it a second equation
christ plus law keeping equals salvation if the
first statement is true what is the value
of law keeping in the second equation we've
got some math teachers here zero if the
first equation is true that christ can bring
a sufficient salvation then in the second equation
christ's death plus law keeping equals salvation law
keeping is zero now let me put another
algebra equation on my imaginary blackboard um here's
the first one law keeping equals salvation if
that statement is true and i put another
statement underneath it which says first statement says
law keeping equals salvation second statement reads law
keeping plus christ's death equals salvation what is
the value of christ's death in that equation
zero you see this there's there's no there's
no possible compromise that you can make on
this thing and that's why paul is making
these things so strongly as he's saying them
to peter and for us there cannot be
a compromise if you give any value at
all to law keeping in terms of effecting
our salvation the only way you can give
value to law keeping is by taking value
from christ the only way you can put
any value at all on law keeping for
salvation is by taking that value from christ
because christ is the end of the law
he's the goal of the law he's the
purpose of the law that's what the law
was all about he is what the law
was funneling us into it's just coming up
to so we'll stop at that point and
then we can get into chapter three which
is really most of this these notes next
week let's just pray shall we let's
sing it's done yes it's done it's done
yes it's done it's done yes it's done
through the precious blood of jesus the battle
is won it's done yes it's done it's
done yes it's done by the precious blood
of jesus the battle is won thank you
lord and do write it on our hearts
and ever increasingly into our understanding lord do
help us to begin to understand at least
lord just how thoroughly and finally you have
satisfied all the righteous requirements of a righteous
god so that even the faith which you
give to us enables us to come into
you and thus be perfectly accepted with nothing
to add lest we should take from that
that you've done thank you lord amen