Series

Series: “Traveling Light”, GALATIANS

Reality Check

Galatians 3:1-5

September 22, 2002

Introduction

· Joyless Galatians

· Illustration 1: Boring Christians—Nicky Gumble, Jesus at wedding, picnic, funeral

Illustration 2: Hoosiers—coach appeals to their experience, through logic

· Paul appeals to the Galatians’ experience, through logic

· The five questions Paul asks the Galatians, he asks of us…

1. Proportion— The Cross— “Christ clearly portrayed as crucified…”(v. 1)

·        Paul restores a right proportion, perspective. He brings the cross of Christ back from the fringe, where it had become an accent, a decoration, and places it at the center of the Christian experience.

   ·        The Galatians were treating the cross like a piece of religious trivia. They wee using it as a decoration, of sorts. The Judaizers told them that it was a good thing, but not enough! Rather being the symbol of the event that brought them to a place of rightness before God, it was just another religious symbol, like circumcision.

·        We do the same today. I think that the sacred things of our faith have in many ways become decorative, or trivial. In certain circles, the Bible is merely a tool to unearth facts, or answer trivia questions (SWORD DRILLS, or BIBLE TRIVIA GAMES). There are certain things that the Bible should never be used for. The cross has become a fashion accessory.

    ·        Like the Galatians, we will never orient our existence, our very living and breathing, to something that is mere trivia, or decorative. That’s why Paul so passionately defends the cross.

·        The cross of Christ is the very act where God showed his love for us, solved the problem of sin in our lives. It is not incidental; it is essential. It is not background music, or trivia, or a fashion accessory. It reminds us what God did for us, and thus, is the center of our existence![i]

2.     Experience—The Spirit—“Did you receive the Spirit by works or by hearing with faith?”(v. 2)

·        Faith is what links us to reality. Like the string attached to a kite, faith allows us to soar. Cut the string, and the kite is gone, battered and blown by the wind.

· The Galatians were out of touch with reality. They were looking for something else to verify their existence. They had bought the crazy idea that circumcision and Jewish ritual made them who they were.

    ·        Paul appeals here to their recollection of experience. What had they experienced when they accepted the Gospel message? They had experienced God’s indwelling Spirit. How did they experience God’s Spirit? By taking a step of faith.

·      Did you know that the Holy Spirit is God sharing his life in ours?     Put that way, it becomes very difficult to support the common understanding that God is “somewhere out there”. Some distant, cosmic entity aloof from his creation.

   ·        The primary experience in the life of a believer is faith, “the basic trust that God is for us and shares his life with us. This basic trust works itself through all our relationships and perceptions. If we forget that, we lose touch with what is basic to reality. The Gospel keeps us in touch with our personal experience by bringing us back to the act of faith.

3.     Common Sense—“After starting with the Spirit, are you now ending with flesh?”(v. 3)

    ·   A brilliant mind does not guarantee the use of common sense. As Eugene Peterson points out, common sense is knowledge tested against everyday situations. Can we apply our knowledge to help navigate us through the every day?

   ·        In Paul’s third question, he’s appealing to the Galatians’ common sense. You see they were full of the knowledge that the gospel brings about a life of God’s grace. They knew that he sent his son to die for their sins. They knew of his mercy and forgiveness. They knew that life in the gospel was a life that was free! But that was only the beginning.

Where do they go from here? After accepting the love of Christ, what comes next? Mistrust? What happens after a step of faith? Anxious attempts to please God, or avoid anything that might make him angry? That’s silly! What happens after the experience of God’s mercy and grace? Bargaining with God to get what they want? That’s foolish!   That is lacking in common sense!

   ·        Paul’s saying, you started with the Spirit, why do you now go back to the flesh? You know how to read the greatest works of literature, why do you insist on reading, “learn -t-read” books? You know the gospel truth, why don’t you try applying it to your everyday living? That’s just common sense!

   ·        Illustration: Habit changes, priorities

   ·        For when we apply the Gospel to our day-to-day life, we are able to see how the great truths of love, forgiveness and grace apply to everyday affairs! The way we interact with our families, our neighbors are guided by the gospel. The way we work, the way we spend our money.   (This is why it is bad thinking to suggest that decisions about how to spend money are somehow separate from the spiritual. How we spend our money reflects what we believe about the gospel. Indeed, how we live each moment of each day reflects what we believe about the gospel—common sense!)

4. Values—“Did you suffer (experience) many things in vain?”(v. 4)

    ·        Paul’s fourth question is very similar to the previous one. He asks the Galatians if their suffering was in vain, and in doing so, puts the Galatians in touch with their values.

    ·        You see, it’s likely that the Galatians faced ridicule and persecution for their belief in the gospel. But when the going got tough, they bolted! When push came to shove, they abandoned what they knew to be true of the gospel. This is what happens when values are compromised.

    ·        When we put our faith in Christ, our value system changes. What sort of values do we hold if we believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? People are more important than property. Worshipping God is more important than impressing you r neighbors. Forgiveness and reconciliation is more important than revenge disunity. (By the way, if you are living in a place where you are harboring bitterness towards another, or if you reject invitations to talk about difference you have, you are compromising your values—if they are indeed instructed by the gospel.)

·        Paul’s question to the Galatians is a good one for us to ask of ourselves. When people and situations arise that challenge our caules, do we abandon our values?

· If we abandon our values, we have suffered in vain. If we abandon our values, we are blown and tossed by everything.

5.     God—“Does God work, give you his Spirit because you worked for it, or believed?”(v. 5), “does God Supply you with his Spirit…?”

      ·        Finally, Paul’s fifth question. (Read question)

·        This question brings the Galatians face to face with God.

·        You remember earlier I said that the Gospel must instruct our reality. Peterson says that the more in touch with reality we are, the saner we are. What Paul is doing here in the last of his questions is emphasizing that the gospel puts us in touch with the reality of God who richly gives.

·        In one translation of the Bible, the question reads, “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?” The key word here is “supply”.

·        In the original language, the word for “supply” is linked to the word, “filled”, which is linked to the word “gaiety”. The root of that is “dance” (choros). This is linked to the verb “lead” to arrive at “lead a dance”. In this verse, the word, “supply”, is intensified, and spoken metaphorically to mean “to furnish abundantly”—throw a lavish, celebrative dance.

·        In other words, it reads, “Does God throw a lavish celebrative dance because you behave right, or because you believe by faith?”

·        In other words, “supply” is far too tame! What this is saying is that there is abundance with God! The Judaizers were promoting a method of pleasing God with trite rules, and how-to’s. God cannot be put in that box! The God of the gospel is the God who leads us in an extravagant dance with his people! This is the God of grace, of mercy, of awesome wonder! How can he be pleased, as the Judaizers were suggesting, by good behavior, by doing more? The Galatians were in danger of losing touch with that God. I think we are too.

·        “A wrong idea of reality (of God), leads to a wrong response to life. If we believe that God is stern and angry, we will live frightened. If we think God is miserly and stingy, we will live feeling gypped, and be miserly and stingy ourselves. If we think that God is impersonal, then we will live aimlessly. Do we know anyone who lives this way—frightened, deprived, feeling insignificant?

·        Brothers and sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that God supplies—he overflows with blessing and salvation. In touch with that reality we live with a sense of abandonment and walk confidently, freely trusting, freely hoping, freely loving. Paul, and more importantly, Jesus himself, wants us to stay in touch with that reality.

Application

·        Are you living with skewed proportions, wrong perspective? What does the cross of Christ mean to you? Is it merely a well-known symbol, a piece of Jewelry, or does it remind you of the greatest moment in the history of the world? Does it remind you of what God did to secure your salvation?

· Does what you believe about God instruct your day-to-day life?

· Have you suffered in vain? Have you abandoned the gospel values when they are challenged by the values of this world?

· Have you lost touch with the God who longs to lead you in a lavish, celebrative dance, to fill and bless you abundantly, to our out his grace upon your life?

[i] Eugene Peterson, Traveling Light (Colorado, USA: Helmers and Howard, 1988), 87.